🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 437, 2023 - December 16, 2024 🎗️
🎗️Day 437 that 100 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
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
Starting today, these updates will be focused mostly on the hostages and personal stories of the hostages, those who we have lost on October 7 and throughout the war, and survivors. I will still be reporting on the news of the war and the politics that are driving the war and changing the country (mostly for the worse) but only the important matters that should be known to all. The news about more bombings of Hamas, Hizbollah and Syrian targets will be fewer and only those that have strong impact. The same goes for all other news around us.
Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements
*7:30am- The Israel Defense Forces says a drone launched from Yemen was successfully shot down over the Mediterranean Sea “a short while ago.”
According to the IDF, the UAV was intercepted by a Navy missile boat before it reached Israeli territory. No sirens were activated.
*3:20pm - Center of the country - rockets/missiles - throughout the center from Tel Aviv and entire Dan Area, to the Sharon areas and all areas around. - It is a ballistic missile from Yemen which means the alerts need to cover a large area of potential landing areas but mostly due to shrapnel from shooting it down and the shrapnel can fall in any of those large areas.
A ballistic missile launched at Israel from Yemen was successfully intercepted by air defenses, the military says.
The IDF says the missile was shot down before crossing the county’s borders.
Sirens sounded across central Israel over fears of falling shrapnel following the interception, the military adds.
Earlier this morning, a drone launched from Yemen was shot down by an Israeli Navy missile boat over the Mediterranean Sea.
Following the military successes in Lebanon and the damage done to Hizbollah, the fall of the Assad Regime in Syria and the situation in Gaza, we should not be surprised if there will be a major air attack on the Houthis in Yemen by Israel, which may or may not be joined by certain allied forces such as the US, UK and/or Germany.
Hostage Updates
- Israeli official says hostage deal could be ready by Hanukkah but reports suggest disagreements over details
A hostage deal with Hamas will likely be completed by Hanukkah, an Israeli official tells Israel Hayom.
Hanukkah starts on the evening of December 25.
For now, however, talks are hung up over the number of hostages to be released in a partial deal, according to Channel 13. Hamas insists on releasing far fewer than Israel demands, and Israel is not willing to budge, says the report.
According to Channel 12, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President-elect Donald Trump last night that the US must pressure Egypt and Qatar to in turn push Hamas to release more hostages.
‘I need you to fight’: Siblings of Hamas hostages address crowd in NY’s Central Park
The siblings of four Hamas hostages address a crowd of several hundred in New York City’s Central Park, expressing hope that a deal to free the captives may be forthcoming.
“It can be a matter of days and we need to push stronger than ever to make it happen and make all the world leaders understand this is the most important thing,” says Amit Levi, the brother of hostage Naama Levi.
Sasha Ariev, the older sister of hostage Karina Ariev, says, “For 14 months [I’ve been] crying out for Karina and the hostages but my voice is fading away.”
“I need you, I need you to fight for Karina with me. We cannot allow this situation to be normalized,” she says. Sasha Ariev, older sister of Hamas hostage Karina Ariev, addresses a crowd at the weekly hostages rally in Central Park
Yaren Gonen, the sister of hostage Romi Gonen, and Roy Chen, brother of the captive Itay Chen, also address the crowd, asking the public to continue to call for a hostage deal.
The families attend the rally after holding meetings in Washington, DC.
The weekly rallies in Central Park have continued to go strong after 14 months of war, despite fatigue and the winter cold.
The crowd gathers each Sunday morning in the park near the Upper West Side holding signs showing the faces and the names of the hostages. Many wear yellow ribbons, a symbol of the hostages’ plight, and carry Israeli flags.
The rallies are organized by a group of Israelis living in New York City.
Ruthie Liebowitz, 82, has been coming to the rallies since the beginning.
“It’s the same people every week. I don’t see numbers going down,” she says. “We’re not drawing many new people and that’s what’s sad.”
The event closes with organizers reading out the first names of each hostage, and the crowd shouting “Now!” after each hostage’s name. The group then sings Israel’s anthem, “Hatikvah,” or “The Hope.”
- At weekly rally, hostage's mom vows to be PM's 'worst nightmare' if son not returned
As optimism rises on possibility of Gaza deal, report says Netanyahu most determined to reach agreement since November 2023 release, but gaps remain between sides
Thousands of protesters rallied in Tel Aviv and other locations Saturday night against the government and for a Gaza hostage release deal, as several news reports cited progress toward a potential deal, and as a television network said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the most determined he had been in over a year to reach an agreement to free remaining captives.
Some 2,000 people rallied outside the Israel Defense Forces headquarters on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road, as the Hostages and Missing Families Families Forum held its more staid weekly rally a block away at so-called Hostages Square. Both were preceded by an anti-government group rally at the Begin-Kaplan Junction, known by activists as Democracy Square.
Channel 12 news reported Saturday that Israel was entering “decisive days” on a potential deal with Hamas that would see hostages freed and a ceasefire declared in Gaza. Both the network and the Ynet news site said many of the details of the latest negotiations were being kept under wraps to avoid tripping up the talks or sparking resistance within Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition.
Sources close to the prime minister told Channel 12 that he was “more determined than ever to reach a deal since the previous agreement,” when Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023. They added that the timing seemed right after the blows dealt to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.
At the rally outside IDF headquarters, Einav Zangauker, the outspoken mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, accused Netanyahu of purposely derailing negotiations, declaring into a megaphone that she would be his “worst nightmare” should he fail to bring her son back alive.
“I know from talks with officials in the negotiations that you have no intent to bring back Matan, that you lied to me,” she said. “That you have no intent to end the war in return for a comprehensive deal.”
“You said you are committed to bringing back everyone, but you are planning to bring only a few home and kill the rest with military pressure,” she charged.
“I’m not threatening, I’m letting you know: you will have no forgiveness, no clemency,” Zangauker continued. “I, personally, will persecute you if my Matan comes home in a body bag. I will be your worst nightmare.”
The first phase of any deal would likely see the release of only some of the hostages — those defined as humanitarian cases including women, children, sick and older people — as Israel agrees to halt its campaign in Gaza for a limited time. Young men like Zangauker would only be up for release at a later stage, if the sides move toward a more permanent ceasefire. But Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected committing to such a permanent accord, and his hardline coalition allies — who hope to rebuild Jewish settlements in Gaza — have threatened to quit the alliance should the war end, leading to accusations by critics that he may abandon some of the hostages to keep his seat.
Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv on December 14, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)“Ben Gvir and Smotrich have made you into a rag, but I know how to handle rags like you,” Einav Zangauker said, referring to far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.
Zangauker decried “political considerations” that she said are impacting the hostage negotiations.
“Because of the political considerations negotiations are being held on a partial deal and not a comprehensive deal,” she said, while bashing Smotrich and Ben Gvir for “pushing for the establishment of settlements in Gaza and not being ready to end the war.”
Saturday’s Channel 12 report said a key dispute between sides in the negotiations was the number of hostages to be freed in a first phase, with Israel determined to release as many as possible.
Although Israel has reportedly agreed to a temporary withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border, Jerusalem did not confirm or deny the change in position to Channel 12. Netanyahu previously asserted troops must remain in the area to prevent Hamas from smuggling in weapons to rearm, while Hamas has demanded a full withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the Strip. Security officials have argued Israel could withdraw and retake the corridor at a later time if necessary.
Channel 12 also said mediators were pressing Israel to agree to an all-encompassing deal that would bring the war to an end, rather than a phased agreement.
Anti-government protesters calling for a deal to release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, December 14, 2024. (Itai Ron/Flash90)Ahead of the Saturday night rallies, the brother of hostage Itzik Elgarat urged US President-elect Donald Trump to press Netanyahu to agree to a deal.
“We believe in your strength to quickly bring about a deal. Don’t let up on Netanyahu, demand a comprehensive deal from him that will return everyone and end the war,” Danny Elgarat said alongside other hostage families during their weekly press appearance outside the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv.
The US President-elect’s special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler is set to visit Israel next week for the first time since he was chosen for the role, an Israeli official told the Axios news site Saturday.
Down the road, hundreds of people attended the Hostage Families Forum’s weekly rally at Hostages Square.
The Forum has said any deal needs to bring back all the hostages at once instead of a phased deal that only releases some, saying that after more than 400 days in captivity, they are all “humanitarian” cases.
Captivity survivor Sharon Alony Cunio, whose husband David Cunio is still in Gaza, said Israel “must not aim for a partial deal — a deal that sentences those left behind to death.”
“A partial deal is a hole in the heart of this country,” she said. “A partial deal says we are willing to abandon David and all the other men there.”
“They are no less important, no less human,” she added.
Hostage families on stage at a rally calling for a deal to free captives held in Gaza, at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, December 14, 2024. (Dana Reany/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)She said the moment she was separated from her husband during last November’s truce-hostage deal was “the hardest moment of my life.”
“David looked me in the eye and said in his most frightened voice: ‘Sharon, don’t give up on me, fight for me,'” she said. “I promised him then, and I promise him now.”
Itzik Horn, the father of hostages Yair and Eitan, railed against ministers who have deemed a hostage deal a “surrender agreement.”
“It’s easy to say that when your children are sitting around the table with you,” he said. “My children have been languishing for 14 months in Gaza’s tunnels.”
“Anything that doesn’t bring them home now is a surrender,” he added.
Noting next week’s celebration of Hanukkah and its miracle, he continued: “I don’t want a miracle. I want the State of Israel, which abandoned its citizens on October 7, and has continued abandoning them for more than 14 months, to regain its senses and fulfill its first and foremost moral duty — to bring its citizens home now.”
Ahead of that protest, some 1,000 anti-government protesters crammed into the Begin-Kaplan Junction, also known as Democracy Square.
Stages were set up there, with speakers perorating against the government in tandem, each with their own take on how it was threatening democracy.
Anti-government protesters rally at the Begin-Kaplan Junction in Tel Aviv, December 14, 2024. (Roi Boshi/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)On one stage, set up by a group registering volunteers to engage in non-violent civil disobedience against the government, a speaker said those signing up would be instructed at a moment’s notice on a location where they were to sit and disrupt traffic, possibly for days on end. He estimated that would come if the government ousts Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara or Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
A growing number of coalition lawmakers and cabinet ministers have called for Baharav-Miara’s ouster due to frustration with her refusal to defend various controversial and unprecedented measures the government seeks to advance, but which she has determined would be against the law.
Netanyahu’s office denied reports last month that he was planning to fire the Shin Bet’s Bar.
Weekly protests also took place in Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba and other cities and intersections around the country.
Outside the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, Maayan Sherman, the mother of fallen IDF soldier Ron Sherman whose remains were recovered in January, called on President Isaac Herzog “to not stand on the side and act for the release of hostages now.”
According to the Ynet news site, former retired IAF Brig. Gen. Amir Haskel and leading protest figure was arrested in Jerusalem. Police said they arrested a total of four people at the rally in Jerusalem, two for disrupting public order, and two others for trying to prevent police from carrying out one of the arrests.
The Ynet news site reported hundreds of anti-government protesters marching in support of the hostages and against government attempts to revive judicial overhaul legislation in Rehovot, while 1,000 protesters blocked the Karkur Junction in northern Israel.
Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi discussed the efforts to reach a deal with visiting US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, his office said Saturday. This comes a day after Sullivan told Channel 12 news that regional developments, including the shock collapse of the Assad regime, the ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel’s killing of Hamas leaders, presented an opportunity for a deal to free the 100 captives held in Gaza. link
Hostage Updates
- Israeli official says hostage deal could be ready by Hanukkah but reports suggest disagreements over details
A hostage deal with Hamas will likely be completed by Hanukkah, an Israeli official tells Israel Hayom.
Hanukkah starts on the evening of December 25.
For now, however, talks are hung up over the number of hostages to be released in a partial deal, according to Channel 13. Hamas insists on releasing far fewer than Israel demands, and Israel is not willing to budge, says the report.
According to Channel 12, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President-elect Donald Trump last night that the US must pressure Egypt and Qatar to in turn push Hamas to release more hostages.
‘I need you to fight’: Siblings of Hamas hostages address crowd in NY’s Central Park
The siblings of four Hamas hostages address a crowd of several hundred in New York City’s Central Park, expressing hope that a deal to free the captives may be forthcoming.
“It can be a matter of days and we need to push stronger than ever to make it happen and make all the world leaders understand this is the most important thing,” says Amit Levi, the brother of hostage Naama Levi.
Sasha Ariev, the older sister of hostage Karina Ariev, says, “For 14 months [I’ve been] crying out for Karina and the hostages but my voice is fading away.”
“I need you, I need you to fight for Karina with me. We cannot allow this situation to be normalized,” she says. Sasha Ariev, older sister of Hamas hostage Karina Ariev, addresses a crowd at the weekly hostages rally in Central Park
Yaren Gonen, the sister of hostage Romi Gonen, and Roy Chen, brother of the captive Itay Chen, also address the crowd, asking the public to continue to call for a hostage deal.
The families attend the rally after holding meetings in Washington, DC.
The weekly rallies in Central Park have continued to go strong after 14 months of war, despite fatigue and the winter cold.
The crowd gathers each Sunday morning in the park near the Upper West Side holding signs showing the faces and the names of the hostages. Many wear yellow ribbons, a symbol of the hostages’ plight, and carry Israeli flags.
The rallies are organized by a group of Israelis living in New York City.
Ruthie Liebowitz, 82, has been coming to the rallies since the beginning.
“It’s the same people every week. I don’t see numbers going down,” she says. “We’re not drawing many new people and that’s what’s sad.”
The event closes with organizers reading out the first names of each hostage, and the crowd shouting “Now!” after each hostage’s name. The group then sings Israel’s anthem, “Hatikvah,” or “The Hope.”
- At weekly rally, hostage's mom vows to be PM's 'worst nightmare' if son not returned
As optimism rises on possibility of Gaza deal, report says Netanyahu most determined to reach agreement since November 2023 release, but gaps remain between sidesThousands of protesters rallied in Tel Aviv and other locations Saturday night against the government and for a Gaza hostage release deal, as several news reports cited progress toward a potential deal, and as a television network said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the most determined he had been in over a year to reach an agreement to free remaining captives.
Some 2,000 people rallied outside the Israel Defense Forces headquarters on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road, as the Hostages and Missing Families Families Forum held its more staid weekly rally a block away at so-called Hostages Square. Both were preceded by an anti-government group rally at the Begin-Kaplan Junction, known by activists as Democracy Square.
Channel 12 news reported Saturday that Israel was entering “decisive days” on a potential deal with Hamas that would see hostages freed and a ceasefire declared in Gaza. Both the network and the Ynet news site said many of the details of the latest negotiations were being kept under wraps to avoid tripping up the talks or sparking resistance within Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition.
Sources close to the prime minister told Channel 12 that he was “more determined than ever to reach a deal since the previous agreement,” when Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023. They added that the timing seemed right after the blows dealt to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.
At the rally outside IDF headquarters, Einav Zangauker, the outspoken mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, accused Netanyahu of purposely derailing negotiations, declaring into a megaphone that she would be his “worst nightmare” should he fail to bring her son back alive.
“I know from talks with officials in the negotiations that you have no intent to bring back Matan, that you lied to me,” she said. “That you have no intent to end the war in return for a comprehensive deal.”
“You said you are committed to bringing back everyone, but you are planning to bring only a few home and kill the rest with military pressure,” she charged.
“I’m not threatening, I’m letting you know: you will have no forgiveness, no clemency,” Zangauker continued. “I, personally, will persecute you if my Matan comes home in a body bag. I will be your worst nightmare.”
The first phase of any deal would likely see the release of only some of the hostages — those defined as humanitarian cases including women, children, sick and older people — as Israel agrees to halt its campaign in Gaza for a limited time. Young men like Zangauker would only be up for release at a later stage, if the sides move toward a more permanent ceasefire. But Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected committing to such a permanent accord, and his hardline coalition allies — who hope to rebuild Jewish settlements in Gaza — have threatened to quit the alliance should the war end, leading to accusations by critics that he may abandon some of the hostages to keep his seat.
Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv on December 14, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)“Ben Gvir and Smotrich have made you into a rag, but I know how to handle rags like you,” Einav Zangauker said, referring to far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.
Zangauker decried “political considerations” that she said are impacting the hostage negotiations.
“Because of the political considerations negotiations are being held on a partial deal and not a comprehensive deal,” she said, while bashing Smotrich and Ben Gvir for “pushing for the establishment of settlements in Gaza and not being ready to end the war.”
Saturday’s Channel 12 report said a key dispute between sides in the negotiations was the number of hostages to be freed in a first phase, with Israel determined to release as many as possible.
Although Israel has reportedly agreed to a temporary withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border, Jerusalem did not confirm or deny the change in position to Channel 12. Netanyahu previously asserted troops must remain in the area to prevent Hamas from smuggling in weapons to rearm, while Hamas has demanded a full withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the Strip. Security officials have argued Israel could withdraw and retake the corridor at a later time if necessary.
Channel 12 also said mediators were pressing Israel to agree to an all-encompassing deal that would bring the war to an end, rather than a phased agreement.
Anti-government protesters calling for a deal to release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, December 14, 2024. (Itai Ron/Flash90)Ahead of the Saturday night rallies, the brother of hostage Itzik Elgarat urged US President-elect Donald Trump to press Netanyahu to agree to a deal.
“We believe in your strength to quickly bring about a deal. Don’t let up on Netanyahu, demand a comprehensive deal from him that will return everyone and end the war,” Danny Elgarat said alongside other hostage families during their weekly press appearance outside the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv.
The US President-elect’s special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler is set to visit Israel next week for the first time since he was chosen for the role, an Israeli official told the Axios news site Saturday.
Down the road, hundreds of people attended the Hostage Families Forum’s weekly rally at Hostages Square.
The Forum has said any deal needs to bring back all the hostages at once instead of a phased deal that only releases some, saying that after more than 400 days in captivity, they are all “humanitarian” cases.
Captivity survivor Sharon Alony Cunio, whose husband David Cunio is still in Gaza, said Israel “must not aim for a partial deal — a deal that sentences those left behind to death.”
“A partial deal is a hole in the heart of this country,” she said. “A partial deal says we are willing to abandon David and all the other men there.”
“They are no less important, no less human,” she added.
Hostage families on stage at a rally calling for a deal to free captives held in Gaza, at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, December 14, 2024. (Dana Reany/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)She said the moment she was separated from her husband during last November’s truce-hostage deal was “the hardest moment of my life.”
“David looked me in the eye and said in his most frightened voice: ‘Sharon, don’t give up on me, fight for me,'” she said. “I promised him then, and I promise him now.”
Itzik Horn, the father of hostages Yair and Eitan, railed against ministers who have deemed a hostage deal a “surrender agreement.”
“It’s easy to say that when your children are sitting around the table with you,” he said. “My children have been languishing for 14 months in Gaza’s tunnels.”
“Anything that doesn’t bring them home now is a surrender,” he added.
Noting next week’s celebration of Hanukkah and its miracle, he continued: “I don’t want a miracle. I want the State of Israel, which abandoned its citizens on October 7, and has continued abandoning them for more than 14 months, to regain its senses and fulfill its first and foremost moral duty — to bring its citizens home now.”
Ahead of that protest, some 1,000 anti-government protesters crammed into the Begin-Kaplan Junction, also known as Democracy Square.
Stages were set up there, with speakers perorating against the government in tandem, each with their own take on how it was threatening democracy.
Anti-government protesters rally at the Begin-Kaplan Junction in Tel Aviv, December 14, 2024. (Roi Boshi/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)On one stage, set up by a group registering volunteers to engage in non-violent civil disobedience against the government, a speaker said those signing up would be instructed at a moment’s notice on a location where they were to sit and disrupt traffic, possibly for days on end. He estimated that would come if the government ousts Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara or Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
A growing number of coalition lawmakers and cabinet ministers have called for Baharav-Miara’s ouster due to frustration with her refusal to defend various controversial and unprecedented measures the government seeks to advance, but which she has determined would be against the law.
Netanyahu’s office denied reports last month that he was planning to fire the Shin Bet’s Bar.
Weekly protests also took place in Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba and other cities and intersections around the country.
Outside the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, Maayan Sherman, the mother of fallen IDF soldier Ron Sherman whose remains were recovered in January, called on President Isaac Herzog “to not stand on the side and act for the release of hostages now.”
According to the Ynet news site, former retired IAF Brig. Gen. Amir Haskel and leading protest figure was arrested in Jerusalem. Police said they arrested a total of four people at the rally in Jerusalem, two for disrupting public order, and two others for trying to prevent police from carrying out one of the arrests.
The Ynet news site reported hundreds of anti-government protesters marching in support of the hostages and against government attempts to revive judicial overhaul legislation in Rehovot, while 1,000 protesters blocked the Karkur Junction in northern Israel.
Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi discussed the efforts to reach a deal with visiting US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, his office said Saturday. This comes a day after Sullivan told Channel 12 news that regional developments, including the shock collapse of the Assad regime, the ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel’s killing of Hamas leaders, presented an opportunity for a deal to free the 100 captives held in Gaza. link
The recordings of the difficult conversation between the survivor of captivity and the Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir
One of the survivors of captivity, who was recently released, courageously told Ben Gvir what she endured in Hamas tunnels:
"They touched every part of my body. Is this what you want them to do to our girls? That they continue raping them?" she said. Ben Gvir replied: "The problem is that the alternative is that ten thousand girls will be raped." The survivor countered: "You failed by letting me be kidnapped, and you failed by allowing them to touch me." The minister responded: "What am I responsible for? I have no authority over the Gaza border."
The recordings of the difficult conversation between the survivor of captivity and the Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir
One of the survivors of captivity, who was recently released, courageously told Ben Gvir what she endured in Hamas tunnels:
"They touched every part of my body. Is this what you want them to do to our girls? That they continue raping them?" she said. Ben Gvir replied: "The problem is that the alternative is that ten thousand girls will be raped." The survivor countered: "You failed by letting me be kidnapped, and you failed by allowing them to touch me." The minister responded: "What am I responsible for? I have no authority over the Gaza border."
The quotes from the conversation
Amid the progression of negotiations for a hostage deal and the approach of decisive moments, and while the details of the negotiations remain under absolute secrecy, we revealed tonight (Sunday) in the "Main Edition" recordings from a meeting between Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir and a survivor of captivity who courageously confessed what she went through in Hamas tunnels in Gaza.
"I suffered sexual abuse. I can't rebuild myself. They are raping them," the survivor said.
In their conversation, the survivor added: "The hostages are dying and perishing in Gaza. You failed with what happened on 7/10; you need to ensure such a failure doesn't happen again."
Minister Ben Gvir, on the other hand, said that there are those responsible for 7/10 but refrained from taking personal responsibility, stating: "I have no authority over the Gaza border."
Quotes from the meeting
Ben Gvir: How are you? How are you feeling? First of all, it’s good to see you here.
Survivor of captivity: I have no life. I can’t even rehabilitate myself. I wake up from nightmares, from memories of being beaten, abused, touched. They are raping them. Our girls are being raped day and night. I was sexually abused, and I know they are being raped because I was sexually abused.
This is one of the rare times the survivor has spoken about the sexual assault she endured at the hands of the terrorists while in the tunnels in Gaza. We are now bringing this painful testimony for the first time, with her permission.
Ben Gvir: What did they do to you?
Survivor of captivity: They touched my entire body, every part of my body. The only thing that saved me was that I had my period. Is this what you want them to do to the girls? To continue raping them?
Ben Gvir: Yes, but the problem, you know what it is, is that the alternative is that ten thousand of our girls will be raped.
Survivor of captivity: They’re being raped right now. Right now, they’re being raped. Right now, they’re being raped. You failed in what happened on 7/10. Now you need to bring them back and ensure there isn’t another failure like this. You failed by letting me be kidnapped. You failed by letting them still be there for 432 days. You failed by letting them touch me. You failed by ruining my life. You failed by forcing me to quit my job and be left with nothing in my life.
Ben Gvir: Do you know what I am responsible for? You didn’t prepare her for this meeting?
Survivor of captivity: The Minister of National Security…
Ben Gvir: What am I responsible for?
This is how Minister Ben Gvir, a cabinet member, responded to a survivor who mustered courage to speak about her sexual abuse. The minister focused mainly on evading responsibility—his own, that of the political echelon, and that of the Prime Minister—while blaming the military leadership.
Ben Gvir: Who made the mistake? One moment… Who has planes? There was a Defense Minister, a Chief of Staff, and the Head of Military Intelligence... The Police Minister has neither planes nor tanks nor a Head of Intelligence. I have no authority over the Gaza border, and let me tell you something else…
Survivor of captivity: You have the authority and obligation to protect citizens within the state, and on 7/10, I was kidnapped from my home within the state.
Ben Gvir: Now, if they had listened to me, to what I had been asking for during those two years—to bomb Hamas, to carry out targeted assassinations—the problem is they called me delusional and said I didn’t understand, that I didn’t know what I wanted, that I was inciting war, and that Hamas was deterred… and all kinds of things like that. Now, leave that aside. I’m not here to analyze history with you, but you need to know this.
The second thing you said, which is terrible—they’re being touched, harmed, abused. My heart goes out to them.
Survivor of captivity: But you’re not doing anything.
Ben Gvir: Just let me, let’s set… I also came here not feeling well. I came sick. We considered postponing today’s meeting, but we said, ‘We won’t do that.’ I don’t want to postpone such an important meeting…
Survivor of captivity: I am sick mentally. I am sick physically. The hostages are dying and perishing there.
Ben Gvir: I’m just telling you one thing—I have responsibility. And I think that if we make a reckless deal…
Survivor of captivity: They are being raped right now! Right now, they are being raped! Right now, girls are pregnant! They are being raped right now!
During these crucial days of negotiations for a deal, Minister Ben Gvir emphasizes that he will not agree to stop the war, even at the cost of canceling the deal and saving the hostages.
Ben Gvir: When I feel that red lines have been crossed, I have already told the Prime Minister what my red lines are, and, broadly speaking, you all know what they are too. I am not willing for us to stop the war. We must not stop this war—ever.
Survivor of captivity: What...
Ben Gvir: Let me just finish. You keep interrupting, and I don’t know why.
Survivor of captivity: Right now, I want you to tell me you’re willing to stop the war.
Ben Gvir: Absolutely not. You’re mistaken. I think there must be a war, and we must fight until complete victory. The one who abandoned you is the one who refused… When I was told in the Cabinet that I’m delusional, and that Hamas is deterred—those were the people who said it was militarily wrong to demand targeted assassinations.
During this meeting, the minister laid out his perspective regarding Gaza.
Ben Gvir: Conquer territory, liberate territory, and encourage voluntary emigration. We must stay there and encourage voluntary emigration.
Survivor of captivity: Oh, so if you need to stay there, you’ll have to build homes. You want to build homes over the corpses of the hostages and roads over the corpses of the hostages?
Ben Gvir: I think we must stay there and encourage voluntary emigration. There are many people there who want to leave—let them leave. By the way, that would be the victory. I don’t want the war to end because we must win the war.
Survivor of captivity: Just threats and threats and threats, but you do nothing. Threats don’t achieve anything. Action does.
Ben Gvir: Do you know how I changed things? Thanks to my threats, he [the Prime Minister] continued the war. Thanks to my threats…
Survivor of captivity: People were murdered because of military pressure. Wait, I’ll tell you—Svirsky was murdered, Sharabi was murdered, Eden Yerushalmi.
Despite the warnings that the survivor voices to him and her heartbreaking cries about what she endured and what her relatives and friends, who are still hostages, have been going through for over a year, she encounters apathy from the minister.
Ben Gvir: Tell me, are you receiving therapy?
Survivor of captivity: Me? No, I don’t have time for that because I have to attend meetings.
Ben Gvir: I suggest that… It’s very, very important. And if there’s anything you need…
Survivor of captivity: How can I go to therapy when I go to sleep and I had to look them in the eyes and leave them trapped in the tunnel, in the dark, without food, without water? How can I recover from that?
Ben Gvir: Because I know…
Survivor of captivity: And you know that every day, they could die. By the time you… you’ll bring them all back in body bags. And now I’ll have to live with the thought of why me and not them. You don’t live with that thought!
Ben Gvir: I’m not willing, I don’t want us to stop the war against these Nazi enemies.
Survivor of captivity: So you prefer that they continue raping and killing citizens who are currently being raped…
Ben Gvir: I prefer that they don’t rape us either, but also that ten thousand girls don’t…
Survivor of captivity: You’re currently raping them. Right now, you’re raping them and killing them. Right now, you’re killing and raping your citizens.
Ben Gvir: We’ll end here.
Response from Minister Ben Gvir:
Minister Ben Gvir has met with dozens of families, listens to their pain, and sheds tears with them. However, he is not willing to endanger the safety of tens of thousands of Israeli citizens or to release 1,000 Sinwars who will rape thousands of girls. The hostages must be freed by cutting off fuel, halting humanitarian aid to the enemy, conquering Gaza, and encouraging voluntary emigration. link Ben Gvir hasn't shed a single tear and has no heart whatsoever. He cares more about settling Gaza that any of the 100 hostages he is willing to let die in captivity. He has been the main stumbling block to any deal because Netanyahu is afraid that he will bring down the government if any deal is made. Ben Gvir is the worst of the worst and it is Netanyahu who has brought this criminal into the mainstream and gave him to be the minister of the police which he has corrupted in order for them to court his favor. My expectations of Ben Gvir are literally none. If Netanyahu was a leader and not a self interested politician, he would have fired Ben Gvir a long time ago and brought the hostages home.
- Air force said checking if its jets were used for sky ribbon stunt
Military investigators are reportedly probing the possibility that ribbons drawn with contrails in the skies over Israel earlier this morning were created by air force planes as part of a rogue initiative.
According to Army Radio, air force officials suspect that their planes were used for the stunt, with the ribbons generally appearing in areas where military aircraft were flying.
However, commanders never signed off on any such project, the station reports.
There have been no claims of responsibility for the sky drawings, and the widely disseminated assumption that the ribbons were meant as a gesture to hostages in Gaza has not been confirmed.
Also under investigation is the possibility that the ribbons were created by normal flight activity, combining with atmospheric conditions to create something that looks like a symbol for the hostages. Link
Report claims both Israel, Hamas ready for hostage-ceasefire deal
Mediators cited by Lebanese outlet al-Akhbar report that there are unprecedented levels of readiness for a hostage deal in Gaza from both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas.
The report by the pro-Hezbollah newspaper is the latest indication that the sides may be moving closer toward a deal aimed at freeing hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023, or earlier and stopping over a year of fighting. An Israeli report Sunday quoted an Israeli official saying an agreement could be inked by December 25.
According to Egyptian security sources speaking to the outlet, inconclusive talks over the past several days were aimed at expanding the deal on the table to include more hostages and a longer cessation of hostilities.
Jerusalem and Cairo also remain at loggerheads over the future management of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the paper reports. Link
Senior Hamas source says ceasefire deal ‘closer than ever’ – report
An unnamed Hamas leader is quoted by the Saudi Asharq News outlet saying that a ceasefire and hostage release deal is unprecedently close at hand.
“We are closer than ever to reaching a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal if [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu does not obstruct the agreement,” the terror group representative says, adding that Washington must now put pressure on the Israeli premier.
The source adds that Hamas has submitted a proposal showing “great flexibility,” which stipulates a “gradual end to the war and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces according to an agreed-upon timetable, and guarantees from international mediators.”
Mediators have been intensifying contacts and talks to bridge the gaps and reach an agreement quickly, the Hamas leader says.
The final objectives of the terror group remain a permanent halt to hostilities, a complete IDF withdrawal, the return of displaced Gazans to their homes, and a fair deal for the release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners, the terror group official adds.
Earlier Monday, the Lebanese al-Akhbar reported similar sentiments about Hamas’s eagerness for an agreement, while saying Netanyahu was also ready to ink a deal.
A source familiar with the negotiations tells Asharq News that Hamas has been informed that US President-elect Donald Trump wants a ceasefire and hostage release deal as soon as possible, before Trump’s inauguration and perhaps before the end of the year, and that “Hamas and the resistance [i.e., other Palestinian terror factions] are ready, but the problem lies with the occupation [i.e., Israel].” link Unfortunately, the Hamas statement “We are closer than ever to reaching a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal if [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu does not obstruct the agreement,” is 100% accurate. A deal could have been reached multiple times if not for Netanyahu's changing of the agreed parameters at the last minute, hence tying the hands of the negotiating team. He has either given the Israeli negotiators new instructions that limit their mandate to make a deal after the War Cabinet had agreed on the instructions and mandate, and Netanyahu did this without informing the War Cabinet, or he has changed his demands right before the negotiating team set out and this was done against the agreements that had been made mostly with the Americans and again, without informing them of the change. They learned about his new demands each time from the press. The key to a deal is in the hands of one person, Netanyahu. He is the judge, jury and in many cases, the executioner.
Hostage’s mother kicked out of Knesset after threatening to take law into own hands if her son comes back dead
Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, is ejected from a Knesset Committee meeting in Jerusalem, on December 16, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, is kicked out of the Knesset after warning Minister Zev Elkin that if her son came back dead from Gaza, she would take the law into her own hands. Speaking at a meeting of the Knesset Committee for Strengthening and Developing the Negev and Galilee, Zangauker got into a heated argument with Elkin, from the New Hope party, accusing the government of lying to the public and not doing all it can to reach a deal to bring home the hostages.
“If my son comes back in a body bag or as body parts, I won’t bring you to trial, I will take the law into my own hands,” she warns.
“My child is alive, and there are only a few like him. Tell the public the truth. There are bodies of of those who were murdered in captivity or kidnapped on October 7 and are no longer among the living, and you will never be able to locate their bodies, so stop using the cynical phrase ‘We will bring everyone back.’ Stop lying, tell the truth – or are you more interested in your your [ministerial] seat?” she says.
She is then ejected by the Knesset guards.
Her outburst comes a week after Hamas released a coerced propaganda video showing the first signs of life from Matan Zangauker, in which he calls on the Israeli public to continue protests in support of a deal with Hamas.
He was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on the morning of October 7, 2023, and has been held captive in Gaza ever since.
Gaza and the South
- The new religious ruling by the Gaza cleric: "Launchingrockets from population centers does not align with the goals of Jihad"
More than a year after the October 7 attack, Dr. Salman Al-Dayya issued a fatwa delivering religious criticism and stating: "Israel attacks the places from which rockets are launched, and this results in death and destruction." • According to him, the more this happens, the greater the displacement and destruction. • Residents in the Strip: "Stop, you’ve destroyed the world." • Just this past weekend, three rockets were fired from the center of the Strip into Israel.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants continue to launch rockets from the heart of civilian population centers, even over a year after the October 7 attack. In recent days, a prominent Gaza cleric, Dr. Salman Al-Dayya, issued a religious ruling (fatwa) that sharply criticizes this practice, claiming that it contradicts the goals of Jihad due to the harm caused to the Gazan public. Just this past weekend, three rockets were fired from central Gaza toward the Ashkelon region and the surrounding areas, prompting the Israeli Air Force to respond by striking weapons depots and militants operating near the launch sites.
Over the past year, Hamas has justified its Jihad against Israel using religious arguments, presenting itself as a religious organization, likely also to secure support from Islamic nations. Al-Dayya challenges this highly sensitive religious point for Hamas. His detailed fatwa, spanning ten pages, was published under the title: "A Religious Ruling on Launching Rockets from Populated Areas."
"As is well known, and as has occurred dozens of times, [the Israelis] attack the places from which rockets are launched with devastating bombardments, sometimes after issuing warnings and evacuation orders and sometimes without prior warning," Dr. Salman Al-Dayya noted. "This leads to the killing of souls and the destruction of the structure and whatever is within it," he continued.
According to him, these attacks cause panic, crying, and pain among the displaced Gazans when strikes occur in population centers from which rockets were fired. "Everyone wonders where to go. Is there a safe place? Some may only have sidewalks or alleys in slightly safer areas," Al-Dayya asserted.
He added, "I tell my son, who goes to launch a missile from the middle of populated neighborhoods: 'The consequences of your action do not align with the goals of your Jihad.' According to him, this is done 'only to preserve the interests of those whose homes the missile was launched from.'"
The Gaza cleric claimed in his fatwa: "You terrified your enemy, and he invaded our homes. The more rockets you fired, the more they displaced us, took our lives, and destroyed the small building that remained for us, yet you continue your approach, which leads all the people of the Strip to a slow death. Many of us envy those who died before experiencing this humiliation and torment because of an incurable disease, an unrelenting hunger, and an unhealing sorrow."
Al-Dayya sought to respond to those who believe that launching rockets from within the population constitutes "defensive Jihad without a goal," emphasizing:
"What is easier, according to rational people: the constant presence of the occupier in our Strip, while he is silent and somewhat distracted from us, or launching a rocket at him that disturbs his tranquility, keeping him occupied with us? He continues to harm us day and night, despite your inability to repel him in any case, given the significant disparity in numbers, equipment, and supplies."
More than a year after the October 7 attack, Dr. Salman Al-Dayya issued a fatwa delivering religious criticism and stating: "Israel attacks the places from which rockets are launched, and this results in death and destruction." • According to him, the more this happens, the greater the displacement and destruction. • Residents in the Strip: "Stop, you’ve destroyed the world." • Just this past weekend, three rockets were fired from the center of the Strip into Israel.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants continue to launch rockets from the heart of civilian population centers, even over a year after the October 7 attack. In recent days, a prominent Gaza cleric, Dr. Salman Al-Dayya, issued a religious ruling (fatwa) that sharply criticizes this practice, claiming that it contradicts the goals of Jihad due to the harm caused to the Gazan public. Just this past weekend, three rockets were fired from central Gaza toward the Ashkelon region and the surrounding areas, prompting the Israeli Air Force to respond by striking weapons depots and militants operating near the launch sites.
Over the past year, Hamas has justified its Jihad against Israel using religious arguments, presenting itself as a religious organization, likely also to secure support from Islamic nations. Al-Dayya challenges this highly sensitive religious point for Hamas. His detailed fatwa, spanning ten pages, was published under the title: "A Religious Ruling on Launching Rockets from Populated Areas."
"As is well known, and as has occurred dozens of times, [the Israelis] attack the places from which rockets are launched with devastating bombardments, sometimes after issuing warnings and evacuation orders and sometimes without prior warning," Dr. Salman Al-Dayya noted. "This leads to the killing of souls and the destruction of the structure and whatever is within it," he continued.
According to him, these attacks cause panic, crying, and pain among the displaced Gazans when strikes occur in population centers from which rockets were fired. "Everyone wonders where to go. Is there a safe place? Some may only have sidewalks or alleys in slightly safer areas," Al-Dayya asserted.
He added, "I tell my son, who goes to launch a missile from the middle of populated neighborhoods: 'The consequences of your action do not align with the goals of your Jihad.' According to him, this is done 'only to preserve the interests of those whose homes the missile was launched from.'"
The Gaza cleric claimed in his fatwa: "You terrified your enemy, and he invaded our homes. The more rockets you fired, the more they displaced us, took our lives, and destroyed the small building that remained for us, yet you continue your approach, which leads all the people of the Strip to a slow death. Many of us envy those who died before experiencing this humiliation and torment because of an incurable disease, an unrelenting hunger, and an unhealing sorrow."
Al-Dayya sought to respond to those who believe that launching rockets from within the population constitutes "defensive Jihad without a goal," emphasizing:
"What is easier, according to rational people: the constant presence of the occupier in our Strip, while he is silent and somewhat distracted from us, or launching a rocket at him that disturbs his tranquility, keeping him occupied with us? He continues to harm us day and night, despite your inability to repel him in any case, given the significant disparity in numbers, equipment, and supplies."
Criticism in Gaza against rocket launches: "May God curse anyone who launches rockets from among the people"
The Islamic Jihad's claim of responsibility on Friday for the rocket fire toward the Ashkelon area sparked criticism from Strip residents on social media:
- "May God curse anyone who launches rockets from among the people. Stop it, world. Keep Hamas away from us."
- "'Sariya Shoes' (a mocking name for the rocket-firing group) have always been known as reckless."
- "People, we need to capture these individuals and execute them in the streets like collaborators. It's impossible, my brother, not normal! Wherever people start to get back on their feet a little, they fire some pieces of metal (rockets) from among them."
- "These are spies, and by God, they are collaborators. Islamic Jihad, may God avenge you! By God, ISIS, they do this to earn $100."
- "The one who launched the rockets is filthier than a collaborator. Have mercy on the people! What more destruction do you want? May God curse you in this world and the next."
- "What have we gained from you, Hamas? You’ve destroyed the world, you dogs."
The religious ruling on the October 7 attack: "A blatant violation that destroys people’s lives"
Last month, Al-Dayya issued a fatwa delivering religious criticism of Hamas's attack on October 7, arguing:
"If the pillars, objectives, or conditions of Jihad are not met, it must be avoided to prevent destroying people’s lives. This is something that leaders in our country can easily assess, and therefore the attack should have been avoided."
Al-Dayya further claimed that Hamas failed to fulfill its obligations to "keep fighters away from the homes of defenseless (Palestinian) civilians and their shelters, and to provide them with assistance and security as much as possible in various aspects of life – security, economic, health, and educational."
He emphasized that the Quran and the Sunnah establish strict conditions for Jihad, stipulating:
"It is necessary to avoid actions that will provoke a disproportionate and excessive response from the enemy, leading to a reaction that outweighs the benefit of the action."
Rocket Fire Over the Weekend
On Friday evening, two rockets were launched toward Ashkelon. The IDF intercepted both and confirmed that the launches originated from central Gaza. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attacks. On Saturday, alarms were triggered in the Ein Hashlosha and Nirim communities near Gaza due to rocket and missile fire. According to an IDF spokesperson, one launch landed in an open area with no casualties.
The death toll among Gazans during more than 14 months of war between Israel and the Hamas terror group has topped 45,000, health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave claim.
Health authorities now say 45,028 people have been killed and 106,962 have been wounded since the start of the war in October 2023, which began with the shock Hamas onslaught in southern Israel in which terrorists killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
The Gaza health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it alleges that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence, accusing Hamas of hiding among civilians in order to drive up the death toll and fuel international criticism of Israel. It says it enacts measures to protect civilians in combat zones in line with international law.
Gazans said overnight that 10 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiyah neighborhood.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria
The Islamic Jihad's claim of responsibility on Friday for the rocket fire toward the Ashkelon area sparked criticism from Strip residents on social media:
- "May God curse anyone who launches rockets from among the people. Stop it, world. Keep Hamas away from us."
- "'Sariya Shoes' (a mocking name for the rocket-firing group) have always been known as reckless."
- "People, we need to capture these individuals and execute them in the streets like collaborators. It's impossible, my brother, not normal! Wherever people start to get back on their feet a little, they fire some pieces of metal (rockets) from among them."
- "These are spies, and by God, they are collaborators. Islamic Jihad, may God avenge you! By God, ISIS, they do this to earn $100."
- "The one who launched the rockets is filthier than a collaborator. Have mercy on the people! What more destruction do you want? May God curse you in this world and the next."
- "What have we gained from you, Hamas? You’ve destroyed the world, you dogs."
The religious ruling on the October 7 attack: "A blatant violation that destroys people’s lives"
Last month, Al-Dayya issued a fatwa delivering religious criticism of Hamas's attack on October 7, arguing:
"If the pillars, objectives, or conditions of Jihad are not met, it must be avoided to prevent destroying people’s lives. This is something that leaders in our country can easily assess, and therefore the attack should have been avoided."
Al-Dayya further claimed that Hamas failed to fulfill its obligations to "keep fighters away from the homes of defenseless (Palestinian) civilians and their shelters, and to provide them with assistance and security as much as possible in various aspects of life – security, economic, health, and educational."
He emphasized that the Quran and the Sunnah establish strict conditions for Jihad, stipulating:
"It is necessary to avoid actions that will provoke a disproportionate and excessive response from the enemy, leading to a reaction that outweighs the benefit of the action."
Rocket Fire Over the Weekend
On Friday evening, two rockets were launched toward Ashkelon. The IDF intercepted both and confirmed that the launches originated from central Gaza. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attacks. On Saturday, alarms were triggered in the Ein Hashlosha and Nirim communities near Gaza due to rocket and missile fire. According to an IDF spokesperson, one launch landed in an open area with no casualties.
The death toll among Gazans during more than 14 months of war between Israel and the Hamas terror group has topped 45,000, health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave claim.
Health authorities now say 45,028 people have been killed and 106,962 have been wounded since the start of the war in October 2023, which began with the shock Hamas onslaught in southern Israel in which terrorists killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
The Gaza health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it alleges that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence, accusing Hamas of hiding among civilians in order to drive up the death toll and fuel international criticism of Israel. It says it enacts measures to protect civilians in combat zones in line with international law.
Gazans said overnight that 10 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiyah neighborhood.
Tartus strikes said picked up by quake monitor
A tremor recorded off the coast of Syria late last night is being attributed in Hebrew language media to heavy Israeli strikes allegedly carried out in in the coastal Tartus region.
A 3.1 magnitude temblor is reported by the Geographic Survey of Israel’s seismology department at 11:49 p.m. last night, with its epicenter about 28 kilometers (17 miles) off the coast of the city of Banias.
The earthquake’s depth is measured at 32 kilometers (20 miles), and there is no confirmation that the reading was in fact caused by explosions.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Israeli planes launched intense strikes in Syria’s coastal region late Sunday targeting air defense units, “surface-to-surface missile depots” and other sites.
Residents of Syria’s coastal Tartus region say alleged Israeli airstrikes overnight, called the heaviest in the area in over a decade, went on until almost 6 a.m., shaking the ground and causing widespread damage.
“It was like an earthquake. All the windows in my house were blown out,” says 28-year-old Ibrahim Ahmed, an employee in a legal office.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of sources inside the country, 18 raids “targeted strategic locations on the Syrian coast,” including missile stockpiles and air defense assets.
In the village of Bmalkah in the hills above Tartus, roads are filled with shattered glass and shreds of roller doors and smoke can still be seen rising from nearby hillsides.
Clean-up crews trying to clear debris off roads have been sweeping up missile and shell parts, even as the valley echoes with fresh blasts from stockpiled munitions catching fire.
“The village did not sleep last night. The kids were crying,” says one middle-aged man in a blue sweatshirt who refused to give his name.
At a nearby military complex, smoke billows from arched concrete bunkers cut into the hillside, and secondary explosions launch shrapnel that then falls among the trees.
Broken parts of mortars, rockets and missile launch tubes litter the hillsides.
- Breaking silence, Assad defends flight from rebels, says he stayed in Syria till night of Dec. 8
A statement attributed to Syria’s deposed leader Bashar al-Assad and posted on a Telegram channel maintained by the Syrian presidency claims he only left Syria on the night of December 8, nearly a full day after he was reported to have fled.
The comment, dated December 16 and marked as from Moscow, is Assad’s first public remark since he was toppled more than a week ago by a rebel offensive.
Assad says in the statement that he only left Damascus on the morning of December 8 as rebels closed in on the capital, fleeing to Russia’s Hmeimim air base. When the base came under drone attack that night, he was put on a flight to Moscow.
Reports of Assad’s flight from Damascus began to emerge before dawn on December 8, but it was not until the next day that Moscow confirmed his arrival in Russia. Before then, various rumors over his fate had swirled, including claims of a fatal plane crash.
In the post, Assad claims that before leaving Syria, he was never offered the option of rescue or asylum, though Moscow has since granted the Assad family just that.
Defending himself against perceived charges of abandoning Syria’s people, Assad boasts of remaining in Syria throughout the decade-long civil war and adds that he never “abandoned support for non-Syrian resistance in Lebanon and Palestine,” references to Hezbollah and likely Hamas.
Tartus strikes said picked up by quake monitor
A tremor recorded off the coast of Syria late last night is being attributed in Hebrew language media to heavy Israeli strikes allegedly carried out in in the coastal Tartus region.
A 3.1 magnitude temblor is reported by the Geographic Survey of Israel’s seismology department at 11:49 p.m. last night, with its epicenter about 28 kilometers (17 miles) off the coast of the city of Banias.
The earthquake’s depth is measured at 32 kilometers (20 miles), and there is no confirmation that the reading was in fact caused by explosions.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Israeli planes launched intense strikes in Syria’s coastal region late Sunday targeting air defense units, “surface-to-surface missile depots” and other sites.
Residents of Syria’s coastal Tartus region say alleged Israeli airstrikes overnight, called the heaviest in the area in over a decade, went on until almost 6 a.m., shaking the ground and causing widespread damage.
“It was like an earthquake. All the windows in my house were blown out,” says 28-year-old Ibrahim Ahmed, an employee in a legal office.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of sources inside the country, 18 raids “targeted strategic locations on the Syrian coast,” including missile stockpiles and air defense assets.
In the village of Bmalkah in the hills above Tartus, roads are filled with shattered glass and shreds of roller doors and smoke can still be seen rising from nearby hillsides.
Clean-up crews trying to clear debris off roads have been sweeping up missile and shell parts, even as the valley echoes with fresh blasts from stockpiled munitions catching fire.
“The village did not sleep last night. The kids were crying,” says one middle-aged man in a blue sweatshirt who refused to give his name.
At a nearby military complex, smoke billows from arched concrete bunkers cut into the hillside, and secondary explosions launch shrapnel that then falls among the trees.
Broken parts of mortars, rockets and missile launch tubes litter the hillsides.
A statement attributed to Syria’s deposed leader Bashar al-Assad and posted on a Telegram channel maintained by the Syrian presidency claims he only left Syria on the night of December 8, nearly a full day after he was reported to have fled.
The comment, dated December 16 and marked as from Moscow, is Assad’s first public remark since he was toppled more than a week ago by a rebel offensive.
Assad says in the statement that he only left Damascus on the morning of December 8 as rebels closed in on the capital, fleeing to Russia’s Hmeimim air base. When the base came under drone attack that night, he was put on a flight to Moscow.
Reports of Assad’s flight from Damascus began to emerge before dawn on December 8, but it was not until the next day that Moscow confirmed his arrival in Russia. Before then, various rumors over his fate had swirled, including claims of a fatal plane crash.
In the post, Assad claims that before leaving Syria, he was never offered the option of rescue or asylum, though Moscow has since granted the Assad family just that.
Defending himself against perceived charges of abandoning Syria’s people, Assad boasts of remaining in Syria throughout the decade-long civil war and adds that he never “abandoned support for non-Syrian resistance in Lebanon and Palestine,” references to Hezbollah and likely Hamas.
West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel
Politics and the War (general news)
The Region and the World
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Personal Stories Agam Goldstein Almog, an 18-year-old who was released from captivity, reveals details she has not yet shared about the hell in Gaza and speaks about the girls who were with her and remained behind. In an interview with Shay Gal, she reads harrowing excerpts from her captivity diary:
"Suddenly, they tell you to get dressed and leave the apartment. I changed out of the bloodied clothes, and we walked for two hours through the streets of Gaza. After 51 days of not moving—sleeping in a mosque—my body wouldn't move."
"In the morning, we all got up, and they made us cups with pasta. In captivity, food is brought to you; you eat, no matter when—hungry, not hungry. Even at three in the morning, you eat because you don’t know when the next meal will come. Just 20 minutes later, we all stood together, hugged, and I went around to everyone, telling them I love them. Some were silent, and some cried, saying, ‘Tell my mom I’m okay, just that.’ That’s an image that stays with me to this day, climbing the stairs to leave the tunnel."
Did they look at you?
"No. They turned around; they went back to sleep. I was released a year ago, and they’re still there."
That moment doesn’t leave her—the moment when Agam Goldstein Almog returned home from captivity while the young women stayed behind. For 51 days, she was held by Hamas with her mother and two younger brothers. The memories of that year she wrote in short chapters, revealing piece by piece what she went through, like puzzle pieces forming a complete picture—the picture of an 18-year-old girl who returned from Gaza to a home without her father and older sister. An 18-year-old girl who returned from captivity, but the captivity lives beside her.
"I haven’t shared most things because they just don’t come out, and that’s what people don’t understand about captivity," she explains. "I haven’t yet found a place where I can say, ‘I’m calm.’"
Tell me, do you remember who you were a year and two months ago?
"I was scared. Not strong. I had dreams about preparatory programs, about the army. I didn’t even get the order I’d placed. Those kinds of problems."
Troubles with AliExpress, you’re saying.
"Yes."
"I didn’t tell my sister I love her."
On October 7th, they were all at home: Agam, her older sister Yam, her two younger brothers Gal and Tal, her mother Chen, and her father Nadav. For five hours, they stayed in the safe room in Kibbutz Gaza. "Those were our last five hours as a family. And if I had known... I don’t know, I would have said something. We would have said goodbye. I remember being so scared that I didn’t speak to anyone during those five hours. I didn’t tell my sister I love her, or my dad that I love him. We just waited."
The terrorists murdered her sister Yam and her father. The rest of the family members were kidnapped together to Gaza. "At first, I said to myself, it's two weeks and I'm getting out of here. The country will reset, a week and another week to bring us back. Every day I woke up and said 'Today is the day'. And when evening comes, the day ends and it didn't happen today, again it falls. And I wake up in the morning and again 'Today is the day'. And every evening I break."
"Mom would wake up after nights of crazy fear and sleeplessness. She was exhausted in the morning. And me, as a child to see my mother at this low point, with white hair and aging and sad, and I caress her - I simply sit for hours and caress her hand."
"Sometimes it's too big for me that we went through this together. And I say this in hindsight, because there they (the family) were what held me, and because of them and thanks to them I survived. But suddenly here we are sitting in the living room, the four of us, and it's a trigger, because we sat there in the room, the four of us, and I go out a lot from the house. Because it's hard."
"I would sit for entire days and my body would tremble"
To understand what she's going through today, we must go back there - to the house in the heart of Gaza, to the place where they were held for long weeks. "This room in Gaza, Gal and Tal are drawing, I sit, looking at them. Mom is crying. As if this is the picture, where each one is alone in their own, in their own pain, in this confusion, but quietly. You always have to be quiet. From the fear that they'll hear. How much can I be quiet? How much can I speak quietly? How much can Gal and Tal be quiet?"
"I would sit for entire days and my body would tremble, tremble, tremble, I can't control it. My body trembles and I'm like catching myself, unable to stop trembling. One of the captors would grab my hand and look at me to stop trembling, and these were the things that broke me."
"There was such a bed in the room that we were in in the apartment that we were in for five weeks. Sometimes the curtain would fly a bit, I would see the sky and I would see the buildings outside, and only thinking how close I am to my house and I see the same skies, and I cry - crying about what is outside and about what is around me. I don't know where I am at all."
"I insisted not to change my pajamas from October 7th, I was with the same pajamas, still with blood stains from October 7th - and then suddenly one day they tell you to get dressed and leave the apartment and now walk two hours in Gaza streets, when the body hasn't moved for 51 days."
Where are we going?
"They transferred us to an apartment with four other captors, and one of them was constantly throwing comments at me, telling me I'm beautiful, winking at me. One day I stood in front of a small mirror and made a ponytail - 'the ponytail looks good on you'. I had an injury from October 7th, shrapnel in my legs, and he was just looking at my injury. He looked too much. And luckily after two days we moved from this apartment. But from the girls I met, some of them arrived at the same captors and I immediately asked 'what about this guy?', and one of them indeed told me that she was hurt by him, and this is something you can't live with when I'm here."
"We were in tunnels, in apartments. We slept in a supermarket, in a mosque. We slept in such an unbuilt building, in schools, and you also don't know where. So every time you also know that in captivity, every change is not for the good. If you're not released, you move places because there's a reason."
"The image of dad is chasing me"
These looks still chase her, even months later - the looks and the feeling of oppression: "The body is always tense. It's always pressured. It has no safe environment. In everything - walking in the street and always looking who's walking behind me."
Did you deal with death? Of your father, of your sister?
"Sometimes it attacks me, the image of dad lying there and breathing his last breaths. And when I'm going to his grave, I see him lying there, like this, with his hands up and with blood stains. Like this I imagine my dad under the stone, and my sister I imagine how my mom described her to me. And then I see pictures of them smiling and beautiful and laughing, and this is how they ended their lives. This is how it ended for them."
The family loss intertwines with the farewell, in the tunnels, during their last week in Gaza. She was there, along with her mother, her younger siblings, and other hostages left behind. And anyone who thinks for a moment that people can be left in captivity should listen to what an eighteen-year-old girl recounts:
"When food arrives, we all look at each other's plates, we all watch who eats more, and those are things that break you in captivity. I don't want to be like that."
But they are all hungry.
"We're all hungry, and you turn into an animal. They bring the food, and we count grains of rice—who has more? We're always looking at the plates."
On Saturday night, Agam arrived with her mother at the Hostages' Square. This square has seen fuller days. How much strength does it take to keep coming, to keep fighting?
"A year has passed. A freaking year. Where are they? What am I supposed to tell them? I was sure that two days after me, they'd be here, they'd come. A year. And I also ask myself, what have I done in this year, and what are they doing in this year? Fifty-one days is a lot. So what is a year?"
"I said goodbye to them with the feeling of 'a day or two, they'll follow me.' And I feel like ever since we left, every day I am saying goodbye to them all over again because I can't believe it's been this long. Every day I apologize to them and tell them that I love them, to myself. I won't be able to live with myself if something happens to them in captivity, with the image I have in my head—the image of them sitting there, with the messages I delivered from them to their families. I'm the one who delivered the messages—I won't be able to live with myself. I waited there in Gaza, and now I'm waiting here for them. How long can one wait? You die. The soul dies from these things. Go explain to people who are dying a thousand times over in captivity."
Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages
A Letter to BibiProf. Uzi BellerHead of the gynecology department at Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
Bibi, It's been a long time since we've had any direct contact. I believe that our last phone conversation took place at noon on a Saturday in November 2019, almost five years ago. Since then, my beloved country, to which I returned from the temptations of New York City 35 years ago, has gone through calamities, blows and vicious abuse, at an intensity that threatens its very existence. However, this letter focuses entirely on the terrible and ongoing physical, human and moral trauma called "the hostages of October 7th, 2023.”Not a day goes by in which my mind doesn’t imagine the hostages’ miserable and dangerous condition, as they languish in the dark tunnels under the Gaza Strip’s boiling ground.As a father of three daughters and grandfather of two granddaughters, I can neither ignore nor repress the unique condition of the young women, who—beyond the abuse shared by all the hostages - are subject to incessant, indescribable physical and mental injury, day and night. My own nights have become sleepless as a result. Sadly, although you too have a daughter, you're obviously not experiencing what many Israeli men and women, like me, are going through. Your behavior throughout this terrible time reveals a complete absence of compassion, thought for others and in particular - real actions meant to save them.You must know that the condition of hostages held underground can be likened to ongoing drowning in murky waters. Lack of oxygen and a hunger for fresh air are one of the most terrible tortures known to humankind, there is no worse agony. Even the ancient Romans understood this when they crucified their enemies, weakening their muscles in a way that led to slow suffocation and inability to breathe.You, Bibi, having almost drowned years ago in the waters of the Suez Canal, are probably well familiar with that horrifying sensation. But your friends on the inflatable boat rescued you from the water in time, thus saving your life.How can you fail to realize the severity of the hostages' condition? How can you avoid any real and determined action and opportunity to save them?Since the State of Israel was established, its very existence is based exclusively on the wonderful reserve army, the people's army, and on the primary, uncompromised value of solidarity.What goes through the hostages' exhausted and humiliated minds as time goes by, day after day, with no difference between night and day, as they come to understand that you and your government have chosen not to save them? They are unaware of the continuous advance of the “legal coup,” the infiltration of Messianism into our lives, the destruction of the economy, the abandonment of large areas of the north of Israel and the plundering of the public funds by despicable sectors of minimal contribution and maximal impertinence. The hostages yearn only to breathe fresh air again, to enjoy sunlight and embrace their dear ones. They know, even better than we do, that their numbers are decreasing and that their horrifying future is slowly eating away at their filthy clothes, as fear of an approaching death brings them closer to losing their humanity.Bibi - you, who has headed our beloved country for the past 17 years, will forever be remembered as the person who failed to save the hostages. That will be the worst of all your failures.
Acronyms and Glossary
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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