🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 413, 2023 - November 22, 2024 🎗️

 

🎗️Day 413 that 101 of our hostages in Hamas captivity
**There is nothing more important than getting them home! NOTHING!**

“I’ve never met them,

But I miss them. 

I’ve never met them,

but I think of them every second. 

I’ve never met them,

but they are my family. 

BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!”

We’re waiting for you, all of you.
A deal is the only way to bring
all the hostages home- the murdered for burial and the living for rehabilitation.

#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope

There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!

‎אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית

 The two sections at the end, personal stories and Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages are very important to read, as important or more than the news of the day.

Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements

*9:30pm yesterday - The IDF says a ballistic missile launched from Yemen was successfully intercepted by its air defenses.

According to the military, the missile was shot down outside of Israel’s borders. Sirens had sounded in the Dead Sea area as a precaution and amid fears of falling shrapnel.

*11:00pm yesterday - Dead Sea area and west to West Bank -hostile aircraft  - Ein Gedi, Har Hanegev, Tekoa, Metzukei Dragot, Mitzpeh Shalem, Sde Bar - The IDF says sirens were activated in the Mitzpe Ramon area after a suspected drone entered Israeli airspace.

The IDF says the incident is over, and there are no reports of injuries. The drone possibly crashed in an open area, although this is still under investigation by the military. The Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq, meanwhile, claimed to have launched a drone at southern Israel this evening.

*12:10pm yesterday - Haifa and all areas around
*10:00am - north - rockets/missiles
*12:40pm - north- rockets/missiles
*12:40pm - north - hostile aircraft - Margaliot
*12:45pm - north - rockets/missiles
*1:35pm - north - rockets/missiles
*1:55pm - north - rockets/missiles
*2:05pm - north - rockets/missiles
*2:25pm - north - hostile aircraft - Snir
*2:30pm - north - rockets/missiles
*2:55pm - north - rockets/missiles
*3:25pm - north - rockets/missiles
*3:35pm - north -rockets/missiles
*3:45pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:30pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:35pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:45pm - north - rockets/missiles

An IDF soldier was killed during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today, the military announces.

The slain soldier is named as Staff Sgt. Ron Epshtein, 19, of the Givati Brigade’s Tzabar Battalion, from Nesher.

MAY HIS MEMORY BE A REVOLUTION

According to a military source, Epshtein was killed by shrapnel from an artillery shell that was fired at the Jabalia area amid an ongoing operation there. Another two soldiers were lightly wounded in the incident.

Everyday, we are seeing more soldiers killed needlessly because Netanyahu refuses to make a deal to bring the hostages home that will end the war. Ending the war in Gaza is against his self interests and therefore he is willing to sacrifice the lives of every living hostage and innumerable lives of soldiers. He is a clear and present danger to the State of Israel

Brigadier General (Res.) Assaf Agmon delivered a eulogy a short while ago at the grave of his grandson, Sergeant First Class Gur Kehati, of blessed memory, who was killed yesterday in Lebanon.  

In his eulogy, Agmon harshly criticized the senior leadership of the IDF and the political echelon.  

Here is an excerpt from his eulogy:  

*"We have a wonderful army of brave soldiers...  

But when you reach the rank of brigade commander and above, you find them influenced by politicians, false rabbis, and delusional messianists, pulling them in directions that have nothing to do with defending the state. In the logistics department, they stopped issuing courage to lieutenant colonels and above a long time ago. Courage—especially civic courage—has ceased to exist in their vocabulary.  

When you look higher up, you see a cowardly Chief of Staff who is afraid to stand his ground and defend his soldiers against a corrupt political echelon. A Chief of Staff who doesn't tell them: 'Enough! I’m not moving forward until you bring back the 101 hostages who have been rotting in tunnels for 412 days. I won’t wage a war until there’s a clear and complete victory, and I won’t sacrifice my soldiers!'  

The blood of Gur and 800 other soldiers is on our hands because we don’t rise up, don’t put a stop to it, and don’t shout ‘Enough.’ The vengeful cries of ‘God of vengeance’ that you, the messianists and false rabbis, shout only send our soldiers like lambs to the slaughter.  

I renew my vow: I will not stop fighting until this ends.  

And may the God of vengeance punish all the corrupt—from the tyrant oppressor and his family to all those who support him. You will never have forgiveness, you will never have pardon."*

Hostage Updates 

• A senior security official: *"The conditions have changed; we are close to a deal with Hamas"*  

  
  

  The official stated that the deal will go through even if there is opposition within the government. According to him, *"Hamas did not want a deal, but now it is in their interest."* link I am not posting or translating the entire article or others that are from the same source. I vetted this anonymous statement and a senior member of the Israeli negotiating team called this "nonsense". Unfortunately, there is nothing going on from the Israeli side to get the hostages home because Netanyahu has time and time over succeeded in diverting the attention of the press and the public with other matters. Right now, the big diversion is the ICC warrants against him and Galant, but there is always another diversion so he doesn't have to answer for his refusals to make a deal and end the war. How can it be that we are now at day 413 of the hostages in Hamas captivity, in hell and it is not even a blip on the agenda of this failed government? And I also blame the media. It needs to be on the front page of every Israeli media outlet every day and if the government is doing nothing, then the media should state that every single day!

Gaza and the South

• The Kan public broadcaster reports that earlier this month, several IDF soldiers sent a jeep to pick up far-right settler activist Daniella Weiss and several of her colleagues to ferry them into Gaza’s Netzarim corridor.

  The move wasn’t authorized by IDF higher-ups

  Weiss is leading efforts to re-establish settlements in northern Gaza.

  She tells Kan that next time she’s allowed in, she doesn’t plan on leaving, adding that if she is joined by hundreds at once, it will be harder for the army to evacuate them. link Weiss is one of the most extreme settler leader in the push to settle Gaza and has the official backing of the extremist messianic ministers Smotrich and Ben Gvir, who also are chewing at the bit to force all Palestinians to leave and for Jews to settle en masse in Gaza and the West Bank. None of them have any qualms about illegal and lawless activities to accomplish their goals and with Ben Gvir controlling the police (his militia), they certainly don't have any worries about arrests and trials for any of these illegal actions.

• At Gaza funeral for three children, lost dreams and condemnation of US and Arab states
  

  As Areej al-Qadi tearfully kisses the bodies of her three young children killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, another mourner lashed out at the United States and Arab leaders for not ending the war.

  
  Illustrative - A Palestinian woman prays by a relative's tomb as others bury their dead following overnight Israeli airstrikes, at a cemetery in east Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 26, 2024. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP)

  Gazans attending one funeral after another after more than a year of devastating conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas feel abandoned and angry that their pleas for help have gone largely unanswered.

  The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251. Ninety-seven of those remain in captivity in Gaza.

  Qadi says her son Abdul Aziz, 7, killed along with his brother Hamza, 5, and sister Laila, 3, while they played outside in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, had wanted to be an astronaut.

  “He said to me ‘I hope a rocket comes and I can go to the moon.’ He didn’t realize that the rocket would come and tear him up into pieces,” she says.

  Israel says it goes to great lengths to protect civilians and accuses Hamas of using them as human shields.

  “What right does America have, talking about democracy, justice and equality? says displaced mourner Ra’fat al-Shaer. “Also a message to the Arab world, to the heads of the Arab nations. How long will this continue?”

  People like Mahmoud Bin Hassan al-Thalatha, the father of the three children he said were killed along with other innocent people on a bustling street, say their only recourse is prayer.

  “My children were martyred, the people walking were martyred, and the stall vendor was martyred while he was sitting down, they were all martyred. May God have mercy on them.”

• The Hamas government’s health ministry warns that all hospitals in Gaza will have to stop or reduce services “within 48 hours” for lack of fuel, blaming Israel for blocking its entry.

  “We raise an urgent warning as all hospitals in Gaza Strip will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation’s (Israel’s) obstruction of fuel entry,” Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza’s field hospitals, says during a press conference.

  “We call on international institutions to exploit the decision of the International Criminal Court to stop the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip,” he adds.

  WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said on Tuesday that the organization was “particularly concerned about Kamal Adwan Hospital” in Beit Lahia, where Israeli forces launched an offensive against Hamas last month.  link It is absurd that, after more than a year of war, the Gaza Health Ministry is still the Hamas Health Ministry. That is entire on Netanyahu for his refusal to allow an alternative Palestinian governing body, specifically a reformed PA of technocrats to come in and take over all of the municipal management of Gaza. So we are left with Hamas and soon to be complete Military rule and Military government as we have had for 57 years in the West Bank, which will cost us having to have thousands of soldiers at risk daily and tens of billions of shekels to maintain this military rule - just another of a long line of Netanyahu blunders.

• A humanitarian disaster in Gaza is being deepened by a total breakdown in law and order and the conflict between Israel and Hamas is rendering the enclave uninhabitable, a senior official of the main UN aid agency there, UNRWA, says.

  UNRWA official Natalie Boucly also says arrest warrants issued against senior Israeli politicians as well as a leader of Hamas by an international tribunal meant there would be a reckoning for the suffering inflicted on millions.

  “Basically, the entire population of Gaza is in desperate need of assistance amid a looming famine,” says Boucly, UNRWA’s deputy commissioner-general.

  Israel has rejected global food security experts’ warning of famine, saying it has allowed sufficient aid into Gaza to prevent it.

  Israel’s parliament passed a law last month that will ban UNRWA from operating in the country when it takes effect in late January. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has said its implementation “will have catastrophic consequences.”

  Speaking at a conference in Cyprus, Boucly says 500 trucks of pre-war aid entering the Palestinian enclave daily had now fallen to 37, with those supplies now at risk of looting by criminal gangs.

  Nearly 100 trucks carrying food for Palestinians were violently looted on November 16 after entering Gaza in one of the worst aid losses during 13 months of war in the enclave.

  “Gaza has become uninhabitable,” she says, calling the situation a failure of humanity.

  “There has to be accountability for all the grave violations of international law that are occurring. The issuance of the ICC arrest warrants yesterday against three individuals is the start of that accountability,” she says.

  
  

• Five Hamas terrorists who participated in the October 7 onslaught were killed in a recent airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF announces.

  The military says the strike overnight between Wednesday and Thursday in Beit Lahiya targeted a site where several Hamas operatives were gathered, including members of the terror group’s elite Nukhba Force who were involved in the massacre on October 7, 2023.

  Among those killed in the strike are Jihad Mahmoud Yahya Kahlout, a Nukhba Force company commander, and Muhammad Riad Ali Oukal, a Hamas company commander.

  The IDF says the pair were commanders in the invasion of southern Israel on October 7 and led the massacre and kidnapping of civilians from the Mefalsim area during the attack.

  The military says the two terrorists had also been leading figures in fighting against troops in northern Gaza amid the ongoing operation there.

  Additional terrorists killed in the strike are named by the IDF as Anas Jalal Muhammad Abu Shakian, a Hamas commander who also participated in the attack on the Mefalsim area on October 7; Nur al-Din Muhammad Yahya Abu Jadian, a Nukhba member; and Sihab Hassan Ali Matar Adaim, a Hamas operative.

• The IDF releases footage showing a group of Hamas operatives being targeted in an airstrike while trying to plant explosive devices in northern Gaza's Jabalia, amid an ongoing military operation there. According to the IDF, more than 300 booby-trapped buildings have been discovered and neutralized by combat engineers during the operation in Jabalia. Infantry and armored forces have meanwhile killed numerous gunmen in close-quarters combat and by directing strikes. The IDF says troops found a camera and an explosive device in a backpack on the body of a Hamas operative who was killed. video

• A senior commander in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group was killed in a recent airstrike, the IDF and Shin Bet announce.

  According to the military, Khaled Abu Deqa, who commanded Islamic Jihad’s rocket unit, was killed in a strike on Wednesday in the Deir al-Balah area of central Gaza.

  The IDF says Abu Deqa operated from within the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in Deir al-Balah.

  Abu Deqa was responsible for rocket fire on Israel amid the October 7 onslaught and during the war, and was involved in numerous other attacks on Israel and IDF troops, the military says.

  To mitigate civilian harm in the strike, the IDF says it used a precision munition and aerial surveillance.

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• Troops of the 7th Armored Brigade operating in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon located a Hezbollah anti-tank missile launching post, where an operative had been killed in a recent airstrike.

  The IDF says the troops found several Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles at the site, along with a drone that was primed for launch at Israel.

  
  An image released by the IDF on November 22, 2024, shows a dead Hezbollah operative and several anti-tank missiles at a position used by the terror group in southern Lebanon. (Israel Defense Forces)

  The brigade, operating under the 98th Division, has been raiding what the army calls “an area that serves as a significant terror stronghold for Hezbollah.”

  The military says troops have located several Hezbollah fighting positions, weapon depots, bunkers and other infrastructure amid the ongoing operation.

• IDF says it hit some 45 Hezbollah rocket launchers in Lebanon this week

  By Emanuel Fabian

  The IDF says it destroyed some 45 Hezbollah rocket launchers in airstrikes in southern Lebanon this week.

  
  

  Some of the launchers were used in previous rocket attacks on Israel, and others were primed for future attacks, the military says.

West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel

• Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says he will inform the security cabinet this evening that he is considering not transferring this month’s batch of Palestinian tax revenues that belong to Ramallah following today’s ICC decision to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

  Israel is required under the Oslo Agreements to transfer the tax revenues that it collects on the PA’s behalf. The US has gone as far as to accuse Smotrich of theft when he has refused to do in the past.

  Smotrich is also considering not extending the corresponding banking agreement between Israel and the PA, which expires at the end of this month.

  “These steps would deal a severe blow to the PA’s economy, which could lead to its collapse,” his office says in a statement.

  Smotrich will also demand in tonight’s meeting that the government implement a series of other sanctions against the PA — including the stripping of “VIP” permits allowing senior Palestinian officials to transit through West Bank crossings — which the cabinet authorized in June, his office says.    link there is absolutely no connection between the 2 things but this extremist messianic failed Minister of Finance will take anything as an excuse to hurt the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority. He not only hopes to force Palestinians to leave, he takes whatever actions he can. He is under the illusion that he will force millions of Palestinians to leave the West Bank and Gaza and give him and his messianics carte blanche to unilaterally take over the West Bank and Gaza, annex them to Israel and turn them completely into Jewish settlements. He, in every one of his actions to reach his goals makes him a war criminal because all of these actions are against International Law when dealing with occupied territories, and that is what the West Bank and Gaza are: occupied territories.
  
  

• New Defense Minister Israel Katz announced an end to administrative detention orders for West Bank settlers on Friday, meaning Israel will now be using the controversial policy of holding suspects without charge only against Palestinian terror suspects.

  While the practice is primarily deployed against Palestinians, it is also used against some extremist Jewish Israelis, which has drawn increasing criticism of the ruling Likud party by far-right coalition members. The measure sees individuals held without charge for up to six months at a time. The detentions can be renewed indefinitely while allowing military prosecutors to keep suspects from being able to see the evidence against them.

  “In a reality where the Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is subject to serious Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions are taken against the settlers, it is not appropriate for the State of Israel to take such a severe measure against the people of the settlements,” Katz said in a statement, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.
  

  Katz met with Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar this week and told him that he had decided “to stop the use of administrative detention orders against Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria, and asked him to put alternative tools in place,” Katz’s office said.

  The Shin Bet has reportedly warned against the move, with Bar saying in June that banning the measure against Israelis “will result in an immediate, severe and serious harm to the security of the state” in cases where there is clear information that a suspect may carry out a terror attack.

  Administrative detention policies allow the Defense Ministry to hold suspects without charge, while administrative restraining orders bar them from visiting certain areas or communicating with certain people. The tool is typically used when authorities have intelligence tying a suspect to a crime but do not have enough evidence for charges to stand up in a court of law.

  Currently, more than 3,400 people, the vast majority of them Palestinians, are being held in administrative detention, according to figures from the Israel Prison Service.

  A total of 16 administrative detention orders were issued for Jewish Israelis under former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and seven of them are still being held.
  

  Katz said that “if there is suspicion of criminal acts, the perpetrators can be prosecuted, and if not, there are other preventive measures that can be taken other than administrative detention orders.”

  “I condemn any phenomenon of violence against Palestinians and taking the law into one’s own hands, and I also appeal to the settlement leadership to take a similar public position and express an unequivocal position on the issue,” the minister added.

  Settler violence spiked after the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught in the south. Israeli authorities rarely arrest Jewish perpetrators in such attacks. Some rights groups lament that convictions are even more unusual and that the vast majority of charges in these types of attacks are dropped.

  As recently as this past weekend, dozens of masked settlers set fire to several buildings and a car in the West Bank village of Beit Furik near Nablus, according to the IDF. There has been no news of arrests.  link. It is crystal clear that our new defense minister is a yes man to Netanyahu who is completely under the thumb of his extremist messianic ministers, Smotrich and Ben Gvir. This action removes the tiny fig leaf that we had to show that something, albeit miniscule was done to some of the violent settlers who attack Palestinians. This is another reason that our allies deem fit to sanction settlers and racist settler organizations because our security forces do next to nothing to curb this settler violence. With the removal of this order, Katz has given the OK in huge terms to settlers to increase the violence against Palestinians because they can perform their illegal crimes without compunction and without penalty. SHAME on you Katz!

  MK Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff, criticizes the defense minister’s decision to cease the use of administrative detention orders against Jewish settlers, calling it “a grave and dangerous mistake.”

  “This is another step toward a severe escalation in Judea and Samaria, for which we will all pay the price,” Eizenkot warns.

  “The goal of such orders is not law-abiding Jewish citizens but extremist terror elements who tarnish and endanger us as a society,” he says. “This step joins other deliberate measures that harm the IDF’s ability to fulfill its role as the sovereign authority responsible for the safety and security of residents.”

  Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi responds to the decision to end administrative detention for settlers:

  “This is effectively the defense minister’s certification of approval for Jewish terror — a government of terror supporters. Administrative detention applies only to Palestinians. This is yet more proof of the regime of Jewish supremacy. Later, they’ll cry about ‘antisemitism’ in The Hague.

  “In short, administrative detention does not apply to those whose veins flow with blue-and-white blood, members of the ‘supreme Jewish race.'”

Politics and the War (general news)

• ‘The boss is happy’: Indictment reveals Netanyahu knew about aide’s illegal leak of classified intel
  

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was made aware by members of his staff that they had leaked a classified document to the foreign press in what has become known as the security documents scandal, details from the indictment of one of those aides reveals.

  The indictment filed against Eli Feldstein, an aide to Netanyahu, details how an IDF reservist non-commissioned officer (NCO) working in the IDF’s military directorate leaked a highly classified document detailing Hamas’s hostage negotiations strategy to Feldstein, for him to show to the prime minister.

  But Feldstein leaked the document to a reporter at Channel 12 News on September 2, just days after six hostages were murdered by Hamas, to influence media coverage and the public discourse which had turned sharply against Netanyahu as a result of the slaying of the captives, the indictment says.

  After leaking the document, Feldstein told Netanyahu’s spokesperson Yonatan Urich what he had done in a WhatsApp message, adding “And [we] need the prime minister for this.”

  The Channel 12 reporter was unable to publish the article since the military censor blocked its publication, so Feldstein then had the document sent to the Bild German newspaper through an associate of Urich’s on September 4 in order to circumvent the military censor.

  Bild published its article on September 6 with direct quotes from the classified document. After publication, Urich wrote to Feldstein “The boss is happy,” in an apparent reference to Netanyahu who he ostensibly updated about the leak.

  Feldstein also received two other classified documents from the NCO in early September, and when he had all three documents together he told another Netanyahu spokesperson, Ofer Golan, on September 9 that he had them and that “[We] need to bring them to the boss.”

  Those documents were ultimately not sent to the media since Feldstein and the others decided they weren’t relevant to the media discourse at the time.
  Feldstein was indicted on charges of transferring classified information designed to harm state security. Urich has been questioned by the police under caution, and may be the subject of an indictment, while other suspects are also likely to be indicted.  link There are so many things going on around Netanyahu and his cronies illegal actions and conspiracies, it could look like a house of cards that is finally coming down. That is what should happen but none of us should believe that this group of conspirators (yes conspirators) act alone and are going to take the fall so easily. There are entire networks that have been built up to support these criminals and those they are acting for (Netanyahu, in particular) as well as his coalition partners who will not let him fall so easily because their personal and political fates are tied to his wagon, especially the extremists and messianics. He has a cabal of lackies, such as the Justice minister and the chair of the legal affairs/constitution (which we don't have) who are doing their utmost to push forward the judicial overthrow that had to be frozen because of the war, but they are quickly thawing it out. And this judicial overthrow would give the government all the power to overturn any and every decision of the courts that affect politics, politicians and especially the prime minister. This overthrow's first goal is to cancel all charges and criminal cases against Netanyahu and destroy any remnants of democracy in Israel.

  
  
  

• Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp will not be coming to Israel next week, after saying that The Netherlands would arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he set foot in the country in the wake of the ICC issuing arrests warrants against the premier.

  Gideon Sa’ar speaks with Velkamp, and the two agree that the visit will not take place, according to Sa’ar’s office.

  Sa’ar also expresses his disappointment at Velkamp’s comments, and presents Israel’s position on the warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. link Many countries including Canada and Italy have already announced that they would abide by the ICC arrest warrants and many more will follow. In Israel, politicians are already talking about the possibility that the arrest warrants will expand to senior and junior IDF officers. Thank you Netanyahu for bringing us to the abyss.

• Haaretz reveals that two of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s close advisers were behind a PR campaign to boost the global image of Qatar ahead of Doha’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup.

  Jonathan Urich and Yisrael Einhorn were working at their Perception PR company at the time. They partnered with another Israeli firm to create a campaign on behalf of Qatar that marketed the Gulf country as a bedrock of peace and stability.

  At the time, Netanyahu was head of the opposition, but the government was maintaining his policy of courting Qatar to send tens of millions of dollars each month to Gaza in order to prevent the enclave’s economic collapse.

  Urich and Perception deny the Haaretz report.

  Haaretz obtained documents from the PR campaign that included the Perception logo on them. A video promoting Qatar on Einhorn’s YouTube channel was taken down after Haaretz asked Perception for comment.

  Both Urich and Einhorn have been implicated in an ongoing criminal investigation into the leak of stolen classified intelligence to the Bild German daily in order to skew the public debate regarding the hostage negotiations in the public’s favor.  link Another in what will be a very long list of Netanyahu's intrigues and conspiracies to favor Qatar and keep them as the bankers to Hamas' terror network which ended up bringing us the horrors of October 7 and Netanyahu's Abandonment War that is still going on.
  

The Region and the World

• The Decision of the International Criminal Court in The Hague Is a Disgrace. And a Few Thoughts About Arrest Warrants

**Ron Gerlitz**

There is antisemitism in the world. Plenty of it. But the issuance of arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant is not because of antisemitism.  

Anyone who has looked into what’s happening in Gaza, anyone who has read serious press coverage globally and in Israel about what the IDF is doing in Gaza, anyone who has spoken to soldiers who served there, and anyone who has watched even a fraction of the dozens or hundreds of videos in which IDF soldiers openly describe what they are doing in Gaza (and, by the way, the IDF hasn’t punished any of them, implicitly signaling that harming innocents and boasting about it is entirely acceptable), anyone who has read reports from reputable organizations worldwide and in Israel about IDF actions in Gaza—all of these people know that *the Israeli government has systematically and comprehensively sent the IDF on missions that violate the laws of warfare.*  

It’s horrifying to write this, but this is the reality, even today. Including starving the population, preventing medical supplies from entering, killing innocent people at an entirely disproportionate rate, and, in recent months, engaging in ethnic cleansing in the northern Gaza Strip—this is unequivocally a war crime. It’s unbearable to acknowledge this, but it’s what the government has instructed the IDF to do. And that’s why arrest warrants were issued.  

This information has been reported in Israeli media (especially in *Haaretz* and *Local Call*, but also occasionally in *Yedioth Ahronoth*), albeit sparsely. On television news studios, it’s been nearly nonexistent. As a result, the Israeli public remains unaware of what its army is doing in Gaza. What the rest of the world sees on TV daily has been hidden from Israeli viewers.  

If you are angry about the court’s decision and identify with the opposition leaders’ condemnations of the court, take an hour to read about what the IDF is doing in Gaza. You can start with the link in the first comment about how the IDF is violating the laws of warfare in Gaza.  

Of course, Hamas has also committed horrific crimes. I’ve written here before, and I’ll say it again: *We will never forgive Hamas for the brutal massacre on October 7.* But, as stated in a brave *Haaretz* editorial this morning, *"The fact that Hamas itself committed horrific war crimes against Israelis and refuses to surrender and release the hostages does not justify the mass killing, expulsion, and destruction that Israel has inflicted on the Gaza Strip."* That’s why the arrest warrants were issued.  

There are Israelis who don’t care about what the IDF is doing in Gaza. Some ministers in the government openly call for murder and genocide, such as Smotrich, who publicly declared a few months ago, *"There’s no half-measures. Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat—complete destruction."* What the Nazis did to us, Smotrich calls for us to do to the Palestinians. The prime minister remained silent. But senior army officers heard him—loyal to his monstrous ideology, some have already begun the mission.  

But I’m sure most readers of this post do not take joy in what the IDF is doing in Gaza. Perhaps you think the reports are inaccurate, or that these are isolated incidents that occur in any war, or that there is no choice but to do this to win. But no, no, and no. I sincerely invite you to read in greater depth about what the IDF is doing in Gaza. You might think differently afterward, and perhaps even agree that the court in The Hague was justified.  

This decision is a disgrace. A great shame for us—for failing to stop the Israeli government from sending the IDF to commit these acts. But it’s not too late to stop them. We must stop them now. As a first step, we must halt the ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza and deliver massive humanitarian aid to the Strip. This will save Palestinian lives, possibly the lives of hostages, and prevent more and more IDF officers from being subjected to arrest warrants. And we must stop the war in Gaza. A government whose senior ministers call for genocide in Gaza, while the prime minister depends on them and remains silent, has lost the ability and legitimacy to manage the war in Gaza.  

I conclude with lines by Michael Sfard. As someone profoundly conscious of the Jewish fate in World War II, I quote with great pain:  

*"Israel claims to represent the Jewish people. Today, its actions stain the history of one of the peoples who were the greatest victims of heinous crimes, with the mark of Cain carried by their persecutors."*

   

Survivors

Personal Stories

  Taken captive: Tsahi Idan, terrorists promised daughter his safe return

The 49-year-old husband and father of three held the safe room door against the terrorists in their Nahal Oz home as Hamas attacked on October 7, killing his oldest daughter

Tsahi Idan, 49, was taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7 from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, after his oldest daughter, Maayan, 18, was shot and killed through the safe room door.

The family of five had run into their safe room early in the morning of October 7, as sirens sounded and an “endless round of rockets” kept falling, said Gali Idan, Tsahi’s wife, in a Channel 13 interview.

The family began hearing terrorists in their house, and Tsahi held the safe room door shut, with help from Maayan.

The terrorists shouted, “Open the door” in English, and then a shot rang out, and Gali realized that Maayan had been shot and killed, falling into Tsahi’s arms.

In an emotional interview with newscaster Lucy Aharish on Channel 13, Gali and her younger daughter, Yael, recounted the traumatic events of that day.

At the time, Gali didn’t realize that the terrorists were filming the entire attack on their family.

When Maayan was shot, Tsahi let the door fall open, and he was broken, unable to function, described Gali.

Her two younger children were screaming and crying and somehow, she held it together.

“I was on automatic,” Gali told Aharish. “I had to protect my other two children and Tsahi was broken.”

In the Hamas video, the two younger children ask if the terrorists are killing them, and throughout, said Gali, “Tsahi doesn’t say a word.”

“He’s very cool, he’s our support column, but this wasn’t him, it was a shadow of his usual self,” she said.

The terrorists told the family to leave the room. At a later point, they took Tsahi. His younger daughter, Yael, asked the terrorists not to take him and kill him.

“They turned around and said, ‘He’ll be back, he’ll be back,'” said Gali. “They promised Yael that he would return.”

**Her Daughter Was Murdered, She Was Evacuated, and Her Husband Was Kidnapped: "Danger Hovers Over Him Every Day"**  

The Idan family has been living through the three harshest realities of Israeli society since the war began: evacuated from their home, mourning the loss of their eldest daughter Ma’ayan, and waiting for their father, Tzachi, to return home from captivity. Gali, the mother of the family, says: "I need certainty with Tzachi so we can move forward with our personal heartbreak."

"Yesterday, Sharon, our 16-year-old, came to me crying hysterically in the middle of the night," recounts Gali Idan, the wife of abducted Tzachi Idan and mother of Ma’ayan, who was murdered on October 7th. "She said she misses her father, that she wants him to come back. She misses Ma’ayan, saying it doesn't make sense that she was taken. Our longing is constant, like a roller coaster."

Gali, Maayan who was murdered and Tzachi who is still in captivity, in a photo from Nahal Oz (photo: courtesy of the family)

Gali has been waiting for nearly ten months for the opportunity to start rebuilding her family. Her eldest daughter can never return, but they are always waiting for Tzachi. "Tzachi wasn’t the type to get excited about kids on the street, but when he became a father, when Ma’ayan was born, it was as if he was born for it—it was the role of his life."  

"Within the dynamic of parenting, we have an unwritten division," she shares. "I clean inside the house, and he handles things outside. He does the laundry, and I fold it. I keep telling him in my head, 'Alright, I’ve done plenty of laundry for you—when you come back, it’s your turn.’"

"I try to imagine how he would manage with the kids," she wonders with longing. "Would he approve of the new pergola we built outside the caravan? I’m trying to fill his role for now, but I’m not ready to do it forever. I miss my partner. I miss him in everything. Things that were trivial for us, like listening to music in the evening or having a drink, are gone. In their place is a gaping void—a chasm that’s opened before us."

In Kibbutz Nahal Oz, two captives remain in captivity: Tzachi Idan and Omri Miran. The kibbutz is now split among various communities across the country, with many members in Mishmar Ha’emek and others in the Karmim area. Despite the geographic dispersal, Gali notes, "Nahal Oz has remained such a united community. I have an amazing support system, whether it’s the neighbor who makes me Yemenite soup because he remembers I like it, or the fact that our neighbors from Nahal Oz are still our neighbors. It provides a thread of sanity. The kids go in and out of the houses—it’s a community."

Tsachi and Gali Idan. "I miss him in everything" (photo: courtesy of the family)

"I can’t even begin to think about returning to Nahal Oz. I don’t know what tomorrow holds for me. I’m unsettled and can’t find stability. I need certainty with Tzachi so we can move forward with our personal heartbreak. The uncertainty is very hard. The last sign of life we had was from a freed hostage who saw him before her release, 250 days ago. Honestly, even if we got a sign of life this week, it wouldn’t be relevant—the danger hovers over them every day."

Amidst the pain and uncertainty, Gali and the other families of the captives oscillate between hope and disappointment over a possible hostage deal. Against the backdrop of military investigations starting to be published, Gali says she’s focused solely on the desire for a deal: "I’m not looking for blame. That doesn’t occupy me. I’m in a different kind of battle right now. If you ask whether we were abandoned? We were. That happened. Learn from it and do what you can. I’m sure there are other voices that may say otherwise. Personally, I just want the right actions taken to bring Tzachi, Omri, and all the captives home."

She adds, "I’m not preoccupied with ‘what ifs.’ Ma’ayan won’t return—period. I’ve been in this limbo for 300 days. I’m not a politician or a military strategist. I’m just Gali—a mother of four who lost one and a family member of a hostage. I never thought I’d express an opinion about this or that targeted killing—I don’t have an opinion. We have leaders and commanders, and I trust them to know what they’re doing so they don’t lead us into the abyss. No one likes wars."  link

Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages

“Dad, Go On!”

Eyal Eshel

Father of Lookout Sergeant Roni Eshel, who fell at the Nahal Oz outpost.

Sometimes, I wonder what my Roni would have thought about everything that has happened here since that black Sabbath.

How would she react? I was so close to Roni that I am sure that she would have said “Dad, go ahead, full steam ahead! We have to get the truth out,” or she would say, “Dad, I'm so glad you're fighting for us, and for the country and for those who continue to believe that there can still be good here,” or she would simply look at me with her amazing big eyes and that beautiful smile (which I miss so much) and just say “thank you.”

But what Roni wouldn't say is, “Dad, that's enough” or, “Dad, it's better to shut up.”

No. She wouldn't have said that!

Because my Roni knew, better than anyone else, better than the top echelons of our failed government, what really happens and what can happen.   Yet my Roni, just like me, did not believe that at the moment of truth there would be no one to protect her, to protect us, all of us.

During our journey of bereavement since the 7th of October, we have discovered more and more facts about the incapacity of our beloved state. Incapacity and incredible failures that cost us human lives. That turned us into a bereaved family. That caused us to lose what was most precious to us.

During the difficult period in which we faced a significant national challenge, there was one factor that always seemed to be present: Fear. This fear paralyzed the families of the kidnapped and the murdered, preventing them from speaking and expressing their pain and their concerns. There was a constant feeling that the expression of this voice might lead to incapacity on the part of the state, that this would lead to Israel doing nothing to save their loved ones.

This fear was not unfounded. Over time we realized that, unfortunately, there was also a kernel of truth in it. The State of Israel was not always alert and did not always do what was necessary to bring about a quick and correct solution.

However, this fear also strengthened the fighting spirit and determination of the families and of society as a whole. The struggle to release the hostages never stopped and the families learned that it is precisely out of fear that one can find the strength to speak, to fight, and to influence. The voice of the families was, and still is, an extremely important voice in our national struggle.

In the end, we must remember that fear can be paralyzing, but also a trigger for action. Out of pain and fear, a new hope was born and a spirit of determination, which continues to guide us and ensure that we will never give up on our loved ones.

I stand here in front of you and I promise: I will not be silent until the whole truth comes out and until the last of those responsible (including the one who is primarily responsible) pay the price.

My Roni. I know you're listening to me up there.

I know you are looking at me with your big eyes, smiling that great smile of yours and silently telling me, “Thank you.”

Acronyms and Glossary

COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories

ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague

IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague

MDA - Magen David Adom - Israel Ambulance Corp

PA - Palestinian Authority - President Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen

PMO- Prime Minister's Office

UAV - Unmanned Aerial vehicle, Drone. Could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance, or be weaponized with missiles or contain explosives for 'suicide' explosion mission

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