There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!
אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית
Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements
*9:10pm yesterday- 2 rockets launched from central Gaza to Ashkelon shot down
Hostage Updates
I hope I'm wrong, but I find it hard to accept the Israeli media's assessments that Hamas is giving up on its fundamental positions and is ready to accept the IDF remaining in Gaza without a commitment and guarantees that Israel will withdraw completely and end the war in the second phase. I think it's a serious Israeli mistake to advance a deal that doesn't return all the hostages in one phase. It's good that they bring those who are still alive as soon as possible. But we don't know and Hamas doesn't knowhow many of the hostages are still alive. The only way to return all of the hostages now in one phase is with Israeli agreement to end the war now. Israeli pressure on the US, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia can lead to the appointment of a responsible and acceptable Palestinian person who will take on the task of establishing a new Palestinian Gazan government that opposes violence and is in favor of Israeli-Palestinian peace, and Hamas will give in to him. A good future for us and the Palestinians is linked first and foremost to a reality without Netanyahu, without Hamas and without Abbas. I say this with a heavy heart because Abbas was once a man of peace, but today he is illegitimate and unacceptable and an obstacle to the Palestinian people. Hamas must give up power in Gaza and its military control. Hamas is already dismantled. Hamas is responsible for the greatest disaster that has ever happened to the Palestinian people, and Netanyahu is destroying the State of Israel. Both of them must go. Netanyahu, hamas and Abass must go home, and preferably one hour earlier. (Gershon Baskin, 12-13-2024)
Following are a number of articles about hostage deal negotiations and deliberations. There is a lot of information that is worth knowing about, but I'm going to repeat something that I have been saying since the beginning of the war. Almost all, if not all of the below is pure speculation and spins. There have been no official announcements by any of the sides and real information of what's going on behind closed doors is not being leaked. With that being said, it does appear that the discussions may very well be based on a 2 or 3 phase deal, which makes it a bad deal to begin with. The Egyptians have a purpose in suggesting a 2 phase deal. Since the killing of Yihya Sinwar, no one knows how aligned Hamas leadership inside Gaza and in the diaspora are at this point and if the outsiders have any influence on the inside. So the Egyptians want to test that with a small hostage release and limited terms for Hamas in order to make the big deal. They have attempted that a few times since Sinwar's killing but nothing has come of it. The 2 or 3 phase deal that was on the table from Biden based on Netanyahu's supposed proposal was a bad deal to start. We are looking at a deal that will release 30 or less living hostages who fit the ridiculously termed 'humanitarian' description: elderly, women, injured and sick. There have been rumors that Hamas will include 4 American citizens who don't fit this description as a way to temper Trump's threat against them. No one knows if the 'humanitarian' release will include any or all of the young women soldiers. The term 'humanitarian' is utterly superfluous now because they all fit that category. Every single one of the still living hostages is in daily risk of dying due to the 14 months of starvation and malnutrition, total lack of medical care, unhygienic conditions, dirty water, their total loss of body fat and muscular atrophy and what doctors have said, the beginning of osteoporosis- bone density deterioration; all of which amount to not being able to survive the winter and the continuous horrendous conditions below the ground in the dampness and oxygen deprived tunnels. Add to the above, the words from Netanyahu's mouth to the two groups of hostage families. To the Forum which is against him and his disasterous uncaring policies, he said that a deal is in the works. To his supporters, the Tikva Family organization which is hostage families that support his 'total victory' BS (they are a minority and their start of their organization was done under direct guidance of Netanyahu's office and his Likud party cronies), he told that no deal is on the table whatsoever. With all I have said in the past and all of the above, we cannot base anything on the articles below about whether or not a hostage deal is close or not. My heart goes out to the families, as always because there is no one in this failed and corrupt government who meets with them regularly or gives them any truthful information. Instead, this government has made it their mission to discredit the families and make them the enemy. What kind of world do we live in? They are the ones responsible for the disaster of October 7. They are directly responsible for the hostages being in captivity in Gaza, yet they choose to wash their hands of any responsibility and choose to target the families as being the people causing damage to the State. Horrendously disgraceful!!!!
Egyptian sources say both sides showing flexibility to achieve Gaza ceasefire - report The deal's approval ultimately is reportedly dependent on Israel. Both Israel and Gaza-based terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have indicated willingness to cooperate and be flexible in order to reach a ceasefire agreement, Egyptian sources told the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.
However, the deal's approval ultimately is reportedly dependent on Israel. According to the Lebanese outlet, Israel requested to shorten the initial 60-day ceasefire's duration. The deal would include exchanging 30 living Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, along with other aid-related and operational demands.
The report stated that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi held an emergency meeting on Thursday with Egypt's intelligence chief, Hassan Rashad, to discuss the latest proposal. They are currently awaiting input from US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who is currently in Israel.
Sullivan traveled to Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. He met with President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv on Friday morning.
On his visit, Sullivan discussed efforts to bring the remaining 100 abductees in Gaza home, according to a statement from the President's Office after the meeting.
Closer to a deal?
Sources connected to the negotiations told Israeli state broadcaster KAN News on Thursday evening that the likelihood of reaching a deal is higher because negotiators for Hamas are officials abroad, not those in the Gaza Strip.
KAN News also reported that Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya wants to advance the deal along with most of the leadership abroad. They noted that this is a more powerful factor in the talks than Hamas leadership in Gaza, currently run by Yahya Sinwar's brother, Muhammad. link
Eisenkot at His Son's Memorial: "To Be Worthy Is to Fulfill the War's Objectives, Not the Fantasies of a Minority"
Member of Knesset Gadi Eisenkot spoke at the memorial for his son, Gal:
"One year and two months later, 100 hostages are still in Gaza, and this remains an unfulfilled war objective, with their lives in immediate danger. I believe such a statistic would have driven Gal crazy because I know how much it weighed on him two months into the war. In every conversation, the first thing he would bring up was the children, the women, the hostages."
"One year after Eyal and Gal fell, in the last five weeks, thirty soldiers have fallen in that same Jabaliya, which has already been captured four times. This should provoke reflection on what was done well, as well as on what went wrong," he said.
He added:
"At the funeral, I spoke about the duty to be worthy of the sacrifice. To be worthy, in my view, is to win and to achieve the war's objectives—not to pursue the dreams and fantasies of a minority in Israeli society. To be worthy, in my view, is to make a brave and extremely difficult decision and bring the hostages home. It means not giving in to a political minority that threatens every step, risking the collapse of the government."
**Israel Estimates a Hostage Deal Could Be Reached by Month’s End: This Is the Proposed Release Order** The weakening of Hamas and pressure from mediators, particularly Turkey, are fostering cautious optimism. A senior Israeli official confirmed progress toward a potential hostage deal with Hamas by the end of the month, aligning with timelines proposed by the U.S. "Progress is being made almost daily," the official said. "It’s slow, but it’s happening. A breakthrough is anticipated." The increased involvement of Turkey, exerting significant pressure on Hamas, is a key factor in the negotiations. While few details of the deal have been disclosed, foreign reports suggest that women would be released first. The deal is expected to unfold in phases, ultimately ensuring all hostages return home. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reportedly assured the Americans, "We will not leave until the last hostage is home." However, caution remains. Past negotiations have felt close to success only to fall apart, as Hamas remains a ruthless organization. Despite its weakening, Hamas operatives continue to act in Gaza, and rocket fire toward Israel persists sporadically. link
Majority Supports a Deal to End the War, Even Among Coalition Voters | "Ulpan Shishi" Poll
According to a poll by News 12, presented Friday evening on Ulpan Shishi, 72% of the Israeli public supports a deal to return hostages in exchange for ending the war in Gaza, while 15% oppose such a deal. Among Netanyahu voters, 56% support a deal to end the war, with only 24% opposing it.
Regarding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal case, 36% of the public believes he should agree to a plea deal and retire from political life. Meanwhile, 21% think he should continue the trial until the judges reach a verdict, 20% support canceling the trial altogether, and 9% favor a plea deal that would allow him to remain in office.
When asked if the court should have accepted Netanyahu’s requests to postpone his testimony, the public was divided: 42% said the court should not have agreed to the delays, while 41% believe the court should have granted his requests.
A majority of 56% does not believe Netanyahu was unaware of the gifts received by his wife, Sara, or her relationships with Shaul Elovitch and Arnon Milchan, nor that he refrained from acting in their favor. In contrast, 27% believe his testimony, while 17% are undecided.
On the government’s opposition to establishing a state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7, 60% of respondents believe the reasons are political, while 25% think the reasons are substantive. link
Netanyahu ‘ready’ to reach hostage deal and sides are ‘close,’ says top Biden aide
In Tel Aviv, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says he will now head to Doha, Cairo aiming ‘to close this deal this month,’ backs Israeli military activity in Syria
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is ready to do a deal,” said US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday during his seventh trip to Israel in his current role, adding that talks to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release are at “a point where it could get done.”
Speaking to reporters at a Tel Aviv press conference after meeting with Netanyahu earlier in the day, Sullivan rejected the premise that the prime minister was stalling to secure a deal when US President-elect Donald Trump enters office next month: “No, I do not get that sense.”
The US national security adviser — who will also visit Egypt and Qatar, key mediators, during this trip — said that talks to secure a deal are at “a point where it could get done.”
The sides are “close,” he said, and now it is a matter of “bridging that final distance.” He attributed recent progress to the ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the fall of the Syrian regime, and Israel’s “military progress against Hamas’s infrastructure, formation and senior leadership.”
“The surround sound of these negotiations is different today than it has been,” he said, with Hamas’s posture changed and the group more isolated with the weakening of the Iranian axis.
“I got the sense today from the prime minister [that] he’s ready to do a deal. And when I go to Doha and Cairo, my goal will be to put us in a position to be able to close this deal this month, not later,” he said.
“There is more optimism in the air, shall we say,” added Sullivan. “I wouldn’t be here today if I thought this thing was just waiting until after January 20.”
Shas leader Aryeh Deri, a key Netanyahu ally, called in an interview on Thursday evening for Israel to make a hostage deal “at any price… we have to do anything we can to bring them home.” Later in the interview with the ultra-Orthodox Kol Hai radio station, Deri said that Israel “can make an immediate deal because Hamas is very pressured,” adding that when he called to “make a deal at any price,” what he meant was to “make a deal quickly.”
Meanwhile hundreds of Likud central committee activists — headed by Dimona Mayor Benny Biton — signed onto a letter on Thursday offering full support for Netanyahu to reach “any deal you decide to lead” to bring the hostages back. According to Channel 12 news, which first publicized the letter, it comes as far-right cabinet members National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich continue to staunchly oppose efforts to reach a deal with Hamas.
Speaking Thursday, Sullivan averred that what “we need to do is get into the initial phase” of a deal, and “begin to produce the actual releases, the images of hostages being welcomed home to their families, as we saw during the [November 2023] release,” a weeklong truce during which 105 hostages taken captive by Hamas on October 7, 2023, were freed and 150 Palestinian prisoners were freed from Israeli jails.
“And then the terms of the deal are built on the idea that there will be ongoing discussions, diplomacy, negotiations to move from phase one to phase two,” said Sullivan, adding that “the basic elements of and the basic framework of [US President Joe Biden’s May proposal] are still alive and part of the discussions that are happening today.”
Sullivan asserted that both sides and the Biden and Trump administrations want “to see this ceasefire and hostage deal and see it now, that is all part of the American contribution to an effort to ultimately produce an outcome here.”
He said the US still believes that three of the seven American hostages in Gaza are alive, though, it does not have definitive proof.
Sullivan also said that Israeli military achievements in recent months have contributed to a potential deal: “Hezbollah can never again rebuild its terror infrastructure to threaten Israel, he said. “Hamas’s leaders are gone, including the terror masterminds of October 7. “Now the Assad regime in Syria is gone.” link
Hamas has agreed to temporary IDF presence in Gaza in potential hostage deal
WSJ says terror group has submitted list of hostages it will release, and Israel has agreed to gradual withdrawal from Philadelphi; Mossad chief meets Qatari PM in Doha
After more than a year of objections, Hamas has given in to an Israeli demand that the IDF remain in Gaza temporarily under a potential ceasefire-hostage deal, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing Arab mediators.
Hamas had for long months insisted that it would not agree to a deal unless it included a permanent end to the war in Gaza and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Strip. However, the report said the terror organization is seemingly easing its demands, and has also provided mediators with a list of hostages that it would release in the first phase of a new deal.
The mediators told The Journal that the list consisted of US nationals, women, older hostages and those with medical conditions, and also included the names of five hostages who have been confirmed to be dead.
The report added that Israeli negotiators were pushing for more hostages to be released in the initial phase of the ceasefire. At the same time, it said they had agreed to a gradual withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border. Hamas has also reportedly agreed that it would not have any involvement in running the Palestinian side of the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long vowed that Israeli troops would remain on the route.
Mossad chief David Barnea met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani in Doha on Wednesday to discuss a potential hostage release and Gaza ceasefire deal, a source familiar tells The Times of Israel, confirming an Axios report.
Mossad chief David Barnea visited Doha and met with the prime minister of Qatar on Wednesday to discuss the latest ceasefire and hostage release proposal, a source familiar with the meeting told The Times of Israel, confirming a report in the Axios news outlet.
The meeting is part of efforts to reach a deal before the inauguration of Donald Trump in January after months of deadlocked talks.
According to the WSJ, the proposal being negotiated would see up to 30 hostages released in a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for which Israel would release Palestinian prisoners from its prisons and up the amount of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip.
This is significantly fewer hostages than last year’s deal in which 10 or so hostages were released every day during a week-long truce.
A Western diplomat in the region told Reuters a deal was taking shape but was likely to be limited in scope, involving the release of only a handful of hostages and a short pause in hostilities.
Netanyahu’s office declined the WSJ’s request for comment on the report, but Dani Miran, whose son Omri Miran is being held hostage in Gaza, told Channel 12 News on Thursday that the prime minister was giving two different groups of hostages’ relatives different information.
Netanyahu met separately on Sunday evening with two hostage family groups in Jerusalem — the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the majority of families, and the Tikva Forum, which represents a hawkish minority who have been significantly more supportive of the government’s handling of the war than the main forum.
However, Miran told Channel 12 that his wife, Lishay, had been in the meeting with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum to whom Netanyahu had said a deal was brewing while his sons attended the Tikva Forum meeting where the prime minister said that “at this stage, there is no deal.”
Netanyahu did, however, meet with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and other top Israeli officials on Thursday as the Biden administration makes a final push to get a deal signed before Trump takes office next month.
Earlier this month, Trump threatened that there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East if the hostages were not released by the time he starts his second term on January 20.
Other than Netanyahu and Sullivan, the meeting included Barnea, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and the government’s point man on the hostages, Gal Hirsch.
After meetings in Israel, Sullivan was set to travel to Qatar and Egypt — the two Arab countries mediating between Israel and Hamas along with the US — to further discuss ongoing negotiations.
Numerous attempts to reach a new hostage deal have repeatedly failed over the last year or so as Israel and Hamas have accused each other of sabotaging efforts and have refused to budge on key issues.
However, negotiators have hoped to use the momentum of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah last month to reach an agreement in Gaza too and end the war that broke out on October 7 last year with Hamas’s unprecedented attack in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.
It is believed that 96 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Other than the 105 hostages released in last year’s deal, Hamas set free four hostages. Eight hostages have also been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 38 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014. link
**Palestinian Sources: Hamas Willing to Reach a Deal**
According to the sources, Turkey has joined the mediation efforts and is pressing Hamas, alongside Qatar and Egypt, to agree to a deal. About 20 representatives of the families of Israeli hostages plan to escalate their protest next week for the first time since the current round of negotiations began. Palestinian sources involved in the talks expressed cautious optimism in a conversation with *Kan News* regarding the chances of reaching an agreement that could lead to a deal. This was reported on Friday evening (*Friday News* on Kan 11).
According to these sources, there is significant and effective pressure from both Qatar and Egypt to finalize a deal, with the United States intensively pushing the mediators from above. The Palestinian sources noted that Turkey, which recently deepened its involvement, is encouraging and pressuring Hamas to reach an agreement with Israel.
The sources stated that Hamas is "tired," but they also observe fatigue on the Israeli side. These conditions, according to the sources, suggest that the pressure, encouragement, and mutual weariness could pave the way for a breakthrough in the talks.
An Israeli source confirmed progress in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas, focusing on the gradual release of hostages as part of the humanitarian phase of the deal. The current proposal reportedly involves the release of certain hostages, with the intention—similar to the previously discussed framework—to prioritize the release of women hostages first.
### Mediators Aim for a Full Agreement
Mediators believe that if a limited deal, involving hostage releases, materializes, it could create momentum that might eventually lead to a comprehensive agreement. This would include the release of all hostages, an end to the war, and the withdrawal of forces, including from the Philadelphi Route.
### Hostage Families to Intensify Their Protest
Around 20 representatives of the families of Israeli hostages plan to escalate their campaign next week, emphasizing an end to the war as the central message. The families intend to resume radical protest actions, similar to those undertaken several months ago. link
Top Biden adviser: Hamas has refused to provide names of hostages it’s holding
Sullivan says in Israeli TV interview that regional developments — not Trump’s election — are reason for fresh optimism about the chances of a Gaza deal: ‘The moment is ripe’
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that “for many months, Hamas has not been prepared to even do the basic things of coming to the table with the names of hostages,” amid the latest diplomatic push to broker a hostage release deal that ends the war in Gaza.
The comments in an interview with Channel 13 news that was broadcast Friday followed reports this week that Hamas gave mediators a list of hostages it is prepared to release in the first stage of a proposed agreement, though an Arab diplomat denied a Wall Street Journal report claiming as much.
Sullivan spoke in the present tense, saying “has” and not “had,” but it was not entirely clear whether he was revealing that Hamas has still yet to provide names of the hostages to date or whether he was referring to previous months before talks were again revived last week. full article
Israel said to reject release of Marwan Barghouti in hostage deal as Egyptian, US officials meet in Cairo
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi discusses efforts to reach a hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, Sissi’s office says.
The officials who met Sissi in Cairo include US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, it says.
The statement comes as Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar quotes an unnamed Egyptian official as saying that Israel has objected to some of the names of Palestinian security prisoners requests for release in exchange for hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023, including popular Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti.
Barghouti is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for his part in planning three terror attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada.
Fatah terror chief Marwan Barghouti, serving five life terms for murder during the Second Intifada, is escorted by Israeli police into Jerusalem’s Magistrate Court to testify as part of a US civil lawsuit against the Palestinian leadership, in January 2012. (Flash90)
“Israel has a vision of alternative lists of Palestinian prisoners, including people who were recently arrested, which could delay the drafting of the agreement,” the Egyptian source is quoted as saying.
The source adds that Israel has requested that some of the Palestinian security prisoners be sent abroad instead of to the West Bank or Gaza, “which may be accepted by the mediators as a compromise to end this new obstacle.”
Gaza and the South
### IDF Operations in Northern Gaza For the past 70 days, the IDF’s 162nd Division has been operating in northern Gaza, eliminating approximately 50% of Hamas commanders at the battalion commander level and below, and capturing 1,600 militants. According to estimates, the division’s operations in the north will likely continue for several more weeks. ### Humanitarian Aid and Changes on the Ground There have also been changes in the humanitarian landscape. Hamas no longer exerts the same level of control over the civilian population in northern Gaza. In the south, intelligence efforts have identified Hamas militants attempting to ambush aid convoys, and they are being neutralized. Despite the challenges, these developments highlight both military and diplomatic efforts to weaken Hamas and secure the release of hostages.link
The military releases an overnight statement saying an Israeli aircraft struck a cell of operatives in Gaza while “on their way to carry out terror [attack] plans against our forces in the Strip and toward Israeli territory in the immediate future.”
An IDF statement says the targeted operatives were at a school in Gaza City when struck, adding that “many measures were taken to reduce the chance of harm” to non-combatants.
The statement also accuses Palestinian terror groups of violating international law by operating in civilian facilities and using civilian shields, without specifying which factions the targeted operatives belonged to.
Last night’s rocket fire from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel was carried out from close to humanitarian aid warehouses, the military says.
According to the IDF, the rocket launchers used to fire the two projectiles toward Ashkelon were positioned some 50 meters from warehouses used by international aid organizations operating in Gaza.
Overnight, Israeli fighter jets launched airstrikes in the area, targeting weapons depots and terror operatives, the military says.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria
New Israeli strikes said to target Syrian military sites, underground missile bunkers
No immediate confirmation from Israel, which is trying to stop Assad’s strategic weapons from falling into hostile hands; Syria protests to UN against IDF presence in buffer zone
Israel launched a series of strikes early Saturday targeting military sites in Damascus and its countryside, including rocket depots buried deep under a mountain, a Syrian war monitor said, in the latest such raids since rebels brought down Bashar al-Assad almost a week ago.
Earlier in the week Israel launched a major operation to destroy the Syrian military’s strategic military capabilities, including chemical weapons, missiles, air defenses, air force and navy, in a bid to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile elements.
The early Saturday strikes appeared to be aimed at completing the effort.
“Israeli strikes destroyed a scientific institute” and other related military facilities in Barzeh, in northern Damascus, and targeted a “military airport” in the capital’s countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.
Strikes also targeted “Scud ballistic missile warehouses” and launchers in the Qalamun area, as well as “rockets, depots and tunnels under the mountain,” according to the Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
The Observatory said several rounds of strikes targeted “military sites of the former regime forces, as part of destroying what is left of the future Syrian army’s capabilities.”
SOHR, run by a single person, has regularly been accused by Syrian war analysts of false reporting and inflating casualty numbers as well as inventing them wholesale.
Israeli airstrikes on Friday targeted “a missile base at the top of Damascus’s Mount Qasioun,” the group said, as well as an airport in southern Sweida province and “defense and research labs in Masyaf,” in Hama province.
The Assad regime, which fell on Sunday after a lightning offensive by rebel forces, was an ally of the Iranian regime, and a part of its so-called Axis of Resistance against Israel.
For many years, Syria was used as a throughway for Iranian weapons, en route to terror groups including Hezbollah in Lebanon, with which Israel entered a shaky ceasefire last month.
Israel feared that following the collapse of the Assad regime, the former Syrian army’s weapons could fall into the hands of hostile forces in the country, as well as the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Israeli Air Force carried out drone strikes against several primed rocket launchers in southern Lebanon this morning, the military says.
The IDF says that the launchers were aimed at Israel, and were a violation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon.
A Russian cargo plane departed from Russia’s air base in the Syrian port city of Latakia for Libya today, a Syrian security official stationed outside the facility says, following rebels’ overthrow of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last weekend.
The official tells Reuters that additional Russian departures from the Hmeimim air base in Syria’s coastal Latakia province are expected in the coming days.
Increased activity has been observed at the air base throughout the day. In addition to the departing cargo plane, an Ilyushin II-76 cargo plane and an Alligator helicopter have been seen landing at the base.
Helicopters have also been seen flying within the base, and a SU-34 jet landed for refueling. A Zeppelin hovered overhead, and two trucks carrying Russian flags were seen traveling within the base.
Yesterday, satellite images showed Russia moving military equipment at Hmeimim air base, with two Antonov AN-124 cargo planes visible.
Russia, a longstanding ally of Assad, granted the ousted Syrian leader asylum last weekend after helping him to flee his country as the rebels approached Damascus.
Moscow has said it hopes to maintain its two bases in Syria – the Hmeimim air base at Latakia and a naval base in Tartous – in order to keep up efforts against what it called international terrorism.
Israel reportedly carried out more strikes on missile warehouses and airports in Syria near the capital Damascus overnight, according to Arab media reports.
Earlier this week, military sources said the Israeli Air Force had carried out over 300 airstrikes on Syrian military targets since the collapse of the Assad regime, amid a wave of operations to take out advanced weapons and other capabilities lest they fall into hostile hands.
The latest series of 17 strikes targeted Iranian-made strategic tunnel complexes believed to be designed for storing and launching ballistic missiles, according to Jordan-based al-Ghad TV.
West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel
PA security forces reportedly kill Islamic Jihad commander in Jenin, sparking clashes with terror operatives
Palestinian media reports that PA security forces killed a commander of the Islamic Jihad terror group’s Jenin Brigade early this morning, sparking clashes in the West Bank city.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander is named in the reports as Yazid Jaysa, who is said to have been wanted by both the PA and Israel.
The PA says it has been operating against terror groups in Jenin for the past week to restore security and stability to the area.
The raids come amid high tensions in the West Bank after the PA arrested several terror operatives earlier this month, adding to already soaring violence in the area since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre triggered the ongoing war.
Palestinian Authority’s security forces have begun an operation in Jenin refugee camp against armed factions to “restore order”, in a rare action against rival groups video
Israel trying to gather intel on burial places in Syria of famous spy Eli Cohen, missing IDF soldiers
This undated photo shows Israeli spy Eli Cohen, in Syria, wearing a wristwatch recovered by the Mossad in 2018. (Prime Minister's Office)
Israeli authorities are taking advantage of the downfall of the Assad regime in Syria to attempt to find the burial place in Syria of legendary spy Eli Cohen, according to a Lebanese media report citing diplomatic sources.
Cohen was caught by Syria in 1965 and hanged in Damascus.
The Hezbollah-aligned paper says Israel has initiated contacts both inside Syria and abroad to try to find information on where the agent is buried.
Renewed Israeli efforts to locate the bodies of IDF soldiers Tzvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz, who were both declared missing after the Battle of Sultan Yacoub with Syrian forces in Lebanon in 1982, have also been launched, according to the report.
In February 2021, it was reported that Russia, in cooperation with Syrian authorities and under Israeli pressure, was searching the area of the Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus for Cohen’s body in order to transfer it to Israel.
The following month, an object believed to have belonged to Cohen was reportedly transferred to Israel. Quoting an unnamed Syrian government source, Israeli reports said at the time that the item could be a document or an article of Cohen’s clothing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office denied the reports at the time, and it remains unknown whether such an object actually existed.
Politics and the War (general news)
Former state attorney Moshe Lador says IAF pilots should stop volunteering for reserve duty if the government resumes its controversial judicial overhaul plan, according to Channel 13 news.
Speaking at an event in Beersheba, Lador believes refusing volunteer reserves duty is “a legitimate tool” to prevent the country from “turning from a democracy into a dictatorship.”
Lador was a vocal opponent of the radical reform agenda amid mass protests against it in 2023 before war erupted in Gaza with Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
At the time, hundreds of reservists signed a declaration announcing that they would no longer show up for volunteer reserve duty in protest of the government advancing its plans to overhaul the judiciary
From deals with third-world countries to dubious middlemen: Inside the IDF's covert arms race With US supplies limited, embargoes imposed and competition from Ukraine, IDF turns to third-world deals, shady brokers and billions in spending to maintain its firepower as Israel races to replenish depleted weapons stockpiles after over a year of war In the dead of night on September 12, 1990, the wheels of an El Al Boeing 747 hit the airport runway in Israel with history in the hold: Two Apache attack helicopters, folded up and dismantled, ready for assembly. By the following morning, they were ready for their maiden flight.
It's been 34 years. Apache helicopters have taken part in all wars and operations ever since but eventually became worn out. Although the Apaches were fixed up and upgraded over the years, the more advanced Saraf was introduced and the Apache’s days seemed numbered.
When the Cobra squadron bases closed down, the IDF was left with only two active combat helicopter squadrons—the 190th and 113th Apache squadrons. Last year, the IAF was preparing to close them too. The army preferred long-range stealth bombers, like the F-13 that can get as far as Iran, and continue bolstering the attack UAV array. A “flying tank” like the Apache sounds a bit outdated, more suitable for the wars of yesteryear. Then came October 7.
That morning, there were four Apache helicopters on standby at the Ramat David Air Base. They took off to the Gaza border region at around 7:00 a.m. Half an hour later, more and more helicopters were sent off. The Apaches were called from one place to the next. “Every five or six minutes, I was getting another call-out,” says 113th squadron commander, Lt. Col. A.
They participated in the battles at kibbutzim, the defense of bases that had been attacked, and in efforts to repel the waves of looters and terrorists from Gaza. At some battle sites, their roles were decisive. These critical hours proved that there really is no substitute for these “flying tanks” and the pilots who can see what’s happening to the infantry and armored corps on the ground, and communicate with them directly. Nukhba terrorists’ videos show they were afraid of almost nothing. The noise of the combat helicopters, however, permeated them with fear.
Apaches have been in the skies almost continuously since then. The use of attack helicopters, including in the ground operation in Lebanon, has been so intensive that the IAF has taken the extraordinary measure of returning even retired Apaches for their sixth decade of active duty. Closing down squadrons? Outdated helicopters? If this war has proven anything, it’s that we need more Apache helicopters.
But this is where the problems start. The Defense Ministry asked the Americans to urgently purchase more Apaches, even used ones. They just need to get here. The Americans agreed, but told Israel to wait in line at Boeing which manufactures them. It’ll be a few years.
The IDF looked into whether, nonetheless, anything might be done to speed things up and free up a few Apache “slots” (production line orders dedicated to specific countries). In other words, arrange it so that some other country waits a little and, in its place, considering its urgency, the IDF receives whatever that country ordered.
It turned out that Boeing had 300 Apache helicopters in various stages of production earmarked for the U.S. Army. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Brown, however, turned down the IDF’s request to transfer the helicopters. Poland, for example, that had put in its order before October 7, would be receiving 90 new Apaches. The IDF, on the other hand, wouldn’t be getting such helicopters anytime soon.
This chase for Apaches is just one of many examples. A year and a month into this intensive war, Israel needs almost everything—shells, tanks, F-15 one-ton bombs. To this end, a transglobal race has kicked off in efforts to procure as many armaments as possible, as quickly as possible, for as little money as possible.
It’s just that all of this is very complicated indeed. Some countries have imposed arms embargos on Israel, and some manufacturers are demanding exorbitant prices. And there’s always the stiff competition with other world conflicts, chiefly the war in Ukraine.
Take, for example, the IDF’s desperate need for tanks and artillery shells: When the ground operation kicked off, the guys in the tanks and the Artillery Corps fired almost with abandon. If a target looked suspicious, they’d shoot.
But very quickly, around December, the ground forces started keeping an eye on their arsenals, also reserved for a full ground operation in Lebanon. Israel then asked the U.S. for American shells. They agreed and the shipment showed up within weeks.
At the same time, to build up an arsenal, the defense establishment also asked a Balkan state to immediately purchase thousands of shells. “The price they quoted us was high. When we got back to them, hoping to negotiate a better price, they upped the price by 50% to the vicinity of $4,500 for an individual shell, and $6,000 for a cannon shell. These are very high prices” says a senior ranking defense establishment official familiar with these efforts. “They also demanded a downpayment. We came back home to think about it and assess the option. We then got a call from them, telling us we’d missed our chance and that Ukraine had paid and bought the lot before us.”
So, from the start of last year through to right now, IDF officers and Defense Ministry officials have been galivanting around the world on procurement trips. According to various reports, some of these countries, such as Serbia, which has become Israel’s main arms supplier over the past year, have good relations with Russia, and would, it seems, rather supply to Israel than to Ukraine.
Others, like India, which has relations with Iran and hundreds of millions of Muslims in its country, sell arms to Israel despite internal difficulties. According to foreign reports, India has become Israel’s main provider of explosive materials, selling thousands of tons to the IDF Engineering Corps. Oh, and these reports were published in Spain, which doesn’t shy away from harming Israel in any way it can.
This is yet one more example illustrating how this race is driven by two things: Politics and money, and not necessarily in that order. “We go to countries you wouldn’t believe an Israeli has ever set foot in,” says a defense establishment official. “Countries with whom we have no diplomatic relations, including Muslim states on all continents. You’d never believe who’s agreed to sell to us, but with one key condition.”
What condition is that?
“That we don’t reveal their identities.”
Some countries not only insist on complete secrecy, or demand outrageous prices. They also take advantage of Israel’s predicament, demanding a return they were very unlikely to have gotten in the past, including the reciprocal sale of Israeli-manufactured advanced boutique technology.
A third-world country, never mind from which continent, or whether it uses the Cyrillic or Arabic script, demanded, and received, military technology that may include advanced UAVs, computerized warfare systems, etc. in exchange for the most basic needs such as gunpowder, shells, explosive devices and other low-tech military equipment.
According to the sources who spoke to Ynet's sister publication Yedioth Aharonoth, some of these deals weren’t entirely formal, almost under the table. With Defense Ministry approval, but at lightning speed.
This is what it’s like in Israel’s new race for arms, which has itself become a battle. The arms justify the means, even via dubious sources, even with far-flung countries. We just need something to shoot.
The problem: The prolongation of the war
During the week following October 7, IDF officers opened up the emergency arsenal storerooms of two Northen and Southern Command reserves divisions (146th and 252nd respectively) and their faces dropped.
Alongside the shortage of equipment, such as walkie-talkies, ceramic vests, weapons and hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles not fit for use, they realized that over 50% of commanders didn’t have the night-vision devices (NVDs), needed for the upcoming ground operation. These instruments are critical for any modern ground warfare, and Hamas and Hezbollah already had them.
There are only a few companies in the world that know how to manufacture NVDs meeting military standards. “Elbit is one such company, and we knew that it already had a deal finalized at the time to supply the American Army with 10,000 bino and monocular NVDs,” says an officer who was involved.
“So, we swiftly asked the American Army if they would turn this deal over to us. They explained, however, that only a presidential decree could release the equipment that was already in U.S. Army warehouses. We paid $127 million for these NVDs, got the presidential decree and flew them straight to officers in Gaza as, even on those first days, we knew we were going for a long war. That was one of many complex measures we’ve taken along the line to equip the army.”
And the root cause of the problem is the long war: Over the years, the IDF had readied for short wars of a few weeks. “Short wars were a national necessity,” a senior ranking officer tells us. “The Israeli economy can’t take, and may consequently collapse from, a long war. The Israeli public, on whose civil-Zionist sentiment the IDF’s strength as a reservist army rests, will erode accordingly. The political echelon instructed the IDF to prepare for a short, deadly war with powerful opening strikes. Bang-and-we’re-done, if you like—like in the Second Lebanon War in 2006, and Operation Protective Edge in 2014.”
A soldier stands in front of a D9 bulldozer
(Photo: Nir Ben Zaken)
With this as a working assumption, one might rely on importing weapons and armaments from other countries. “With hindsight, for our military buildup, we had developed an existential defense dependence on the United States and countries such as Germany. This relies on an extremely dangerous amalgam of foreign products,” says a senior defense official. “It has to change, even if the costs are high.”
But the war dragged on and the arsenals were depleting. Left with no choice, the IDF was forced to economize its arms use. And this comes at a price. Forces operating now for weeks in Jabaliya are getting less UAV time. Tanks are going out on operations with limited shells. They also have fewer D9 bulldozers. Some of the equipment has been transferred to Lebanon, some has been hit or worn out in Gaza. There are also fewer using precision weapons, such as suicide drones or precision steel-penetrating laser-guided mortars. On the ground, there’s no real difference for now.
“Personally, I believe that statistically, artillery and direct tank fire are more effective than expensive precision weapons,” says an officer fighting in northern Gaza. “Killing a terrorist using a tank shell or sniper, rather than a missile fired from a UAV, is regarded as more ‘professional’.”
The various configurations of explosive materials are also being carefully managed by the IDF. “Only last month, IDF forces used 100 tons of gunpowder to blow up a network of Hezbollah tunnels in the north. We’ve collapsed hundreds of miles of tunnels in Gaza and have still only reached half,” says a senior officer. “Where do you think we have so much gunpowder from?”
There’s only one answer to this question: From wherever possible, and as quickly as we can. The defense establishment has been forced into “barter” deals with foreign armies, and speeding up weapons inspection that used to take months. In one case, a huge shipment of explosives arrived for the ground forces in the dead of night from a country whose military equipment isn’t known for its world standards.
Instead of a lengthy, ordered, inspection, the material was transferred directly to Testing Ground 24, by the Rishon Lezion coastline. Technological and Logistics Directorate (ATAL) officers test-fired a few hundred of these weapons in the field, tested to see if they met regulations, took X-ray photographs of them, and immediately sent them to soldiers waiting for them avidly on the battlefield.
In these ways, thousands of weapons from overseas have been assimilated into the IDF over the past year. “Yes,” the IDF will admit, “the haste meant that even when some weapons failed preliminary testing and weren’t sent to the soldiers, most of the weapons we bought, including advanced aerial weapons that we received from countries you wouldn’t believe would agree to sell to us—were in working order. To arm the IDF, we found ourselves in places you’d never imagine.”
In these desperate times, the defense establishment turned to “jobbers”—international arms dealers specializing in brokering indirect deals. “With the international arms race, everyone’s doing it,” says the defense establishment. “Not all jobbers are reliable, but sometimes, we have no choice.”
A senior defense official familiar with the matter explains how it works: “The Ukrainians don’t pay for many of their arms purchases. Someone else—various third parties—will buy for them, and this affects our arms race.”
The official also recalls an unusual situation this past year illustrating the dangers of working with wheeler-dealer arms traders: The IDF requested to quickly purchase artillery fuzes for a critical weapon. This fuze didn’t exist in Israel’s weapons industry and defense establishment procurement officials checked with these “jobbers.” One jobber told the Israelis that there was a manufacturing facility in a certain country (naming a third-world country) that has this fuze. The condition, however, was a 25-year Israeli investment in this facility.”
So, what did you do?
“We quickly sent a representative of ours. After spending a whole day looking for this weapons factory—in a very exotic country—he met the local broker, and then went looking for the plant.”
What did he find?
“Mostly ruins. When he got back to Israel, he told us that there were no fuzes there, no warehouses and no factory—but at least the food was great. It’s important to understand that we’re leaving no stone unturned to find weapons and weapons substitutes for the IDF, and we need to investigate any rumor in this crazy market. States buy from wherever they can. We had cases where we purchased weapons that we learned were faulty when they got to Israel, and we had to send them back.”
The defense establishment stresses that most arms deals are between governments, but that the arms race and relentless pressure to arm the IDF, means there are individual cases purchasing arms from “a selling, but state, source.” This essentially refers to an arms dealer on the government’s behalf. Third-world African countries, for example, with arms they had once bought sitting in warehouses, are now offering to sell them. Within weeks, these “goods” will reach a Givati battalion in Jabaliya in Gaza or an Engineering Corps soldier in Maroun El Ras in Lebanon.
“Every ‘hand’ along the way, obviously makes the product more expensive. We had cases where they asked for a 150% downpayment as they’d heard on the news that the IDF now needed more weapons,” says a defense official.
“The market’s gone so crazy that arms dealers approached us at the start of the war telling us that they knew about warehouses of shell fuzes in Switzerland—despite there being no such thing in Switzerland. There are arms dealers, primarily Israelis, who won’t bluff us. They’re mainly ex-Israeli defense, and their reputation is important to them. Some dealers will sell their own grandmother for the chance of another deal selling 5 tons of TNT.”
So, what do you do?
“In efforts to overcome this and speed up deals, we’ve learned how to work with several sources and dealers simultaneously.”
Defense officials sent to these countries to procure weapons for the IDF say that some of these countries are not officially on our side. “These might be Muslim countries that, on one hand, will firmly condemn Israel and provide safe haven to terrorist organizations,” says one official, “and on the other, sell us weapons without batting an eyelid, so long as we maintain full discretion.”
Why do we have to buy from these countries?
“The Americans have arms, good for decades, scattered across the globe. CENTCOM (United States Central Command) has a great deal of weapons, and they’ve been opening up these arsenals to give us military equipment over the past year. There were times they found they’d miscalculated and didn’t have enough for themselves, claiming ‘they too are at war.' Generally speaking, however, they go out of their way to help us with supplies. We don’t get everything from the U.S. though.”
American homies
And still, Israel’s main weapons provider is the United States. The diplomatic fall-out and lack of trust between the Israeli government and the Democratic U.S. administration hardly improves—to say the least—Israel’s armament in the throes of war.
So, to secure Israeli armaments, senior officials are sometimes forced into using personal relationships they’ve developed with their U.S. Army colleagues. Some of this aid borders on begging. That American aircraft carrier remained in the Middle East in recent months, only thanks to a personal request by a senior IDF officer to CENTCOM officers and Gen. Michael Kurilla, widely viewed as very sympathetic to Israel’s needs.
Senior ranking officers tell us of friendly WhatsApp conversations with their American counterparts culminating in whole containers of explosive materials earmarked for U.S. forces being shipped to the IDF from explosive materials superpower Taiwan, or from Guam in the Pacific Ocean that’s under U.S. military control.
“CENTCOM officers release armaments wherever they can,” says a senior ranking IDF official. "They also help with the transportation by land or sea, and speed up maritime and aerial procedures to Israel. This is global in many senses. Some people in the U.S. Army are in love with Israel, and support us in ways it’s hard to describe. Like homies.”
One of these homies is CENTCOM deputy commander, three-star general Brad Cooper. “Almost each week, Cooper will receive a request for aid from the IDF. He’ll contact his friends in the U.S. Army and send messages to senior ranking U.S. officers across the globe to see who can, in a matter of days, transfer to the IDF certain weapons from arsenals scattered across the globe.”
At the same time, however, IDF is also feeling the reverberations from the Washington-Jerusalem political fallout and President Joe Biden’s veto of some of the shipments. At the beginning of this year, a routine shipment of 3,000 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) bombs for the Air Force was supposed to arrive. This is a kit of sorts that transforms a “dumb” bomb designated to be simply thrown into the air on a ballistic flightpath, into a “smart” bomb, self-guiding itself to its predetermined target. Approximately half the shipment consisted of half-ton bombs, the rest weighing one ton.
The payment to Boeing, the manufacturer, was made in shekels, rather than dollars from the aid monies. The IDF swiftly leased a ship to carry this shipment from a port near New York to Ashdod. At the last minute, however, the White House ordered halting the shipment. IDF top brass were left astounded, and only after weeks of persuasion, chiefly by former defense minister Yoav Gallant opposite his Pentagon counterpart, was the shipment approved—in part. Only the half-ton bombs were sent to Israel.
The Americans officially claimed that the one-ton bombs might cause extraordinary peripheral damage, killing uninvolved civilians mainly in Gaza. These containers of bombs, for which the Israeli tax-payer had paid millions of shekels, are meanwhile at an East Coast port. The army is now looking for storage space for them to stop them from rusting.
Another, no less critical, shipment stuck in the U.S. is that of 130 D9 diggers for the Engineering Corps, still awaiting transportation from the Caterpillar plant to Israel. This vast shipment is pending approval from State Department officials. Engineering Corps heavy-duty equipment personnel desperately need these vehicles that have proven decisive in this war.
'We have to change our way of thinking'
The U.S. administration has more problems than its political fallout with Israel: It has committed to supplying Ukraine with arms too, and the needs of Ukraine’s army and those of the IDF invariably clash. Everyone needs artillery shells. Right now.
This was Gallant’s first conversation with his American counterpart, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, in the first hours of October 7. Understanding that Israel was going to war, Gallant asked Austin for a few urgent things. One amazed the secretary of defense.
“Fifty thousand artillery shells?” he asked. “Is that what you’re short of right now? You have far more than that. The shells are already in Germany on their way to Ukraine.” These were the 50,000 American artillery shells stored in emergency U.S. Army warehouses in Israel for any emergency that may arise. Like the war in Gaza.
Truth be told, far more shells—around 250,000—were stored mainly in secret warehouses in southern Israel. Back in 2022, however, Israel received an urgent request to approve transferring these shells to Ukraine. Israel didn’t foresee a major military conflict at the time. The Russians were pounding the Ukrainians and Jerusalem agreed the shells would leave from here. Two hundred thousand shells had already reached Ukraine. Another 50,000 were already in Germany, also about to be shipped out to Ukraine. With American approval, Gallant managed to halt that shipment and bring it back to Israel.
What will happen down the line with the shells?
Defense Ministry envoys are running around the world to find more. In February, Elbit was asked to increase its local artillery shell production lines. Elbit is in the planning stages of setting up a plant in the Negev to add to its factories in the Sharon and northern Israel. And then? Artillery personnel will have to be careful about firing any 155 mm projectile.
The U.S. is, obviously, not the world’s only arms producer, but buying from other countries is an extremely politically charged affair. We have the Western countries who’ve declared arms embargos on Israel. In some cases, it’s for show: Canada declared an embargo, while in practice only ever supplied a tiny quantity of arms to Israel.
Artillery shell production line in Israel
The French embargo, on the other hand, does damage Israeli armament efforts. “We never depended on the French anyway,” says a defense establishment official. “Their leadership harbors a burning hatred toward Israel.”
Italy, which Israel believed would support Israel following the election of right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, halted its supply of cannon shells for Israeli Navy vessels and spare parts for them at the start of the war. Israel purchased these weapons—no surprise—from the U.S. The Defense Ministry is making efforts to increase Israeli production as an alternative to this dependency.
Germany, as mentioned, is one major arms supplier to the IDF that continues to support Israel, as do Hungary and the Czech Republic. Despite Britain officially publishing a black list of weapons export licenses to Israel that have been frozen, in practice, some weapons are still being sold and are reaching Israel. This mainly includes components for avionics systems and parts for weapons production lines for Israeli ground forces. And what about all the rest? Like we said, Israel will have to get them on its own.
Here’s another story illustrating the problems of Israeli arms producers’ dependency on foreign sources, in a country such as Israel. At the beginning of this year, an Israeli arms manufacturer noticed signs suggesting that a company supplying it with explosive raw materials was caving into pressure and was about to cut off supply.
“We’re talking about tens of tons of various kinds of explosive raw materials, without which we can’t produce thousands of missiles, bombs, interceptors and a wide range of other weapons for the IDF. And this was in the middle of a year of war,” says an official familiar with the incident.
So, what did you do?
“Even before this boycott was official, we managed to quickly turn to another supplier and seal a new deal so as not to find ourselves stuck with an acute shortage of weapons for the soldiers. These are things that have to be spotted early on. You need to act quickly. If you don’t, you’re in a huge mess.”
Army and arms manufacturers sources say that one lesson learned from this new arms race is that Israel will need to set up a huge national stockpile of explosives for manufacturing various IDF weapons to last years ahead.
The IDF’s 23 attachés across the globe have also been recruited to the procurement campaign. By the first month of the war, the Defense Ministry headquarters gave them a list, instructing them to turn to their respective local defense ministries and activate the connections they’d cultivated. It was now money time.
Iron Dome air defense system battery in action
(Photo: Defense Ministry)
“This is how I found myself dropping ‘multi-national’ bombs,” says a senior pilot. The fuze is from Asia, the GPS kit from some a German warehouse, and the weapon’s central component is from an American warehouse in Japan.”
The Planning Directorate’s foreign relations department made efforts to free up supply lines that had never been open to Israel, including countries officially condemning Israel. “There’s a country that agreed to sell us certain weaponry, only on certain transportation conditions,” says an IDF officer.
So, what did you do?
“We were forced to transport the shipment with connections between cargo planes and trucks and ships jaunting from one place to the next. Some of the equipment arrived after ‘14 working days,' but some of it sailed between far-off continents for months before reaching the guy in the tank in Jabaliya.”
The two men running this complex round-the-world effort are Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Amir Baram and head of the Planning and Force Build-up Directorate Maj. Gen. Eyal Harel. They have a clear division of responsibilities: Baram deals with the army internally—who needs what and when; Harel tries to get hold of it from foreign armies and governments.
Defense Ministry procurement personnel are also trying to untangle bureaucratic obstacles and pacify treasury personnel. The game is mainly about speed. With all the conflicts across the globe, lots of people will be jumping at the chance to buy a single ton of explosive materials.
“We need to wake up. We’re not alone in the world,” says a senior IDF official. “Arms manufacturers’ production lines open up and are snatched up in the blink of an eye. You must understand: even if Resolution 1701 is implemented tomorrow, Hezbollah retreats north of the Litani, there’s a full hostage deal in Gaza and cease-fire prevails over the Middle East, we’ll still only be at the start of the IDF’s military buildup for years, decades to come. It’s also clear that it won’t be the same IDF as we had before October 7.”
The IDF is wary of the delay in the procurement of new “Reshef” Sa’ar ships manufactured for the Navy by Israel Shipyards Ltd., replacing the outdated Nirit 4.5. The acquisition deal for JLVT (known in the IDF as “Para”) tank parts, designed mainly to replace the old M113 APC, is moving forward. The concern, however, as mentioned, is for urgent armament. This includes purchasing hundreds of Tamir interceptors for Iron Dome, Arrow and David’s Sling batteries.
“The Iranians aren’t stupid,” says an IDF official about the need for interceptors. “Between rounds, they are tweaking their methods and trying to manipulate our aerial defense systems—be against fire from Iran, Lebanon, Yemen or Iraq.”
So, what do you do?
“We have to ease up regulations, change our way of thinking. We have years of fighting ahead, and on more than one front.” link
The Region and the World
Personal Stories
Evgeny Galsky, 34: Firefighter was training for a mountain bike race
Killed by Hamas terrorists on his way home from Netivot to Kibbutz Erez on October 7
Evgeny Galsky, 34, a firefighter from Kibbutz Erez, was killed on October 7 by Hamas terrorists on his way home from Netivot.
Evgeny had just finished a shift as a firefighter that Saturday morning when the Hamas attack began. Worried about his girlfriend home alone in Kibbutz Erez, Evgeny headed to their home from his shift in Netivot and was slain by Hamas terrorists along the way, near the Sha’ar Hanegev Junction.
He was buried in Beersheba on October 8. He is survived by his mother, Ludmilla, sister Evelin (Eva) and his girlfriend, Rotem. Evgeny was posthumously promoted to the rank of sergeant in the Israel Fire and Rescue Services.
Evgeny joined the Fire and Rescue Services in July 2020 and underwent a number of training courses and certifications, including training as a paramedic. He was studying nutrition at the Ashkelon Academic College and was also a personal trainer, with a love of heavy metal music.
He lived in Sderot until he moved with his girlfriend and his beloved dog, Martin, together to Kibbutz Erez, near the Gaza border, only a few months before he was killed.
His top hobby was bike riding, and he was set to train that Saturday for an upcoming mountain biking competition. Evgeny was one of a number of active bikers killed during the Hamas attack, including Tomer Shpirer, who he was slated to train with later that day.
His girlfriend, Rotem Rada, asked the Strauss company to create a special memorial line of Evgeny’s favorite drink, their Yotvata vanilla protein shake, describing him as “a brave firefighter, a man of mountains and bike riding, adventurous, humble and full of endless generosity. Thank you for teaching us to always stay in motion.”
Evgeny’s friend and fellow bike rider, Haim Medina, wrote on Facebook about their “shared bike rides, and what a strong and special rider Evgeny was, and what a big heart he had.”
His friend Yulia Polishuk wrote on Facebook that she “longs to speak with you, to hear you, to see you laugh and to know with a heart bursting with pride that I had some role in it.”
Yulia recalled once visiting him when he lived in Ashkelon, “going out on the balcony, you showed me the sea with a smile. Martin was running in between our legs, you breathed deeply and said that you felt whole… that you found your niche in life as a firefighter, how full of motivation you were to advance and to take charge.”
Over the years, Yulia wrote, “My heart and my head stored every memory of you, even the most minor… I will always remember you, talk about you with a smile and be thankful for every moment I knew a man like this… a good friend, sensitive to those around you, moral, unique and special.”
Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages
By His Own Doing, the Prime Minister has Removed Himself from Israeli Society
Prof. Yuli Yael Tamir
President of Beit Berl College, Former Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and former Minister of Education and Immigration Absorption.
There are women held in Hamas captivity. There are people held in Hamas captivity. There are people in captivity. It is inconceivable. It hurts when you breathe, it hurts when you sleep, and above all - when you wake up and realize that they are still there, in the dark.
The hostages are there because the Prime Minister has relegated them to the periphery of his mind. The Prime Minister is interested in his own personal survival, his legal status, his political prospects, and speeches addressing the world’s dignitaries. The death of hostages does not move him, the suffering of the women who are being raped and degraded is alien to him, and the heart-rending weeping of mothers does not open the gates to his heart. By his own doing, the Prime Minister has placed himself outside the bounds of Israeli society.
In the study of ethics, standing idly by, failing to assist a person who is in mortal danger, is akin to murder. It is possibly even worse: you look at someone who is in grave distress, and simply ignore them.
Indifference to the fate of the hostages undermines not only the fundamentals of personal morality - between one person and another - but also the fundamentals of our community and cultural morality. We were raised on mottos like “all of Israel is responsible for one another” and “no man left behind.” We took pride in Israeli solidarity, in the blood-sealed pact between us. The long months during which our government and its leader have demonstrated indifference to the hostages have uncovered the underlying hollowness of these platitudes, leaving us without worthy compassionate values to substitute for the unraveled pact.
Israeli society was stripped of its values and beliefs at the very moment when it needed them most. In our personal and collective moments of vulnerability and dread, we were deprived of the ability to believe in our collective strength. It is no wonder that the civil society has become Israel’s sole reprieve: People believe in other people, working with other people, to protect them and act in their interest. People - individuals, groups—good people, jointly sealing voluntary pacts with other good people, for the sake of those that have had everything taken from them. A multitude of people and no state in sight.
A government that breaks down its people into fragments is a dangerous one not only in the here and now but also for generations to come. It sends a distressing message to anyone who believes in the power of being together. It tells us that we are alone, that we have no one to rely on (not even our heavenly father, who—not for the first time– saw his people being massacred and did nothing to save them). That is the source of the present Israeli sense of helplessness, in the realization that our governmental system is rotten and hollow.
When citizens delegate powers to the government, they aim to confer powers on the persons who will protect them and act on their behalf. When the government and the prime minister fail to provide citizens with protection and shelter (as well as food and medicine), they lose their legitimacy. When the prime minister is concerned with himself and does not see the citizens he is supposed to serve, he disqualifies himself and denies himself the right to govern. Netanyahu’s government is illegitimate, and it must be replaced by a government that places the safety, well-being and life of its citizens as its top priority. Hence, the demand to replace this government is a natural and just demand that will allow us all to rise and try, together, to rebuild the home that has been destroyed.
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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🎗️Day 260 that 120 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!!!” There is no victory until all of the hostages are home! אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית
🎗️Day 361 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
🎗️Day 239 that 125 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!!!” There is no victory until all of the hostages are home! אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית
Fatah terror chief Marwan Barghouti, serving five life terms for murder during the Second Intifada, is escorted by Israeli police into Jerusalem’s Magistrate Court to testify as part of a US civil lawsuit against the Palestinian leadership, in January 2012. (Flash90)
Artillery shell production line in Israel 
Iron Dome air defense system battery in action (Photo: Defense Ministry)
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