🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 468, 2023 - January 16, 2025 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 468 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

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

*8:45am - south -Gaza envelope - Rockets Nir Am - false alarm

Hostage Updates 

"Get them out of Gaza and get out of Gaza"

• Israeli official confirms ceasefire-hostage deal reached
  An Israeli official confirms to The Times of Israel that a ceasefire and hostage deal has been reached.Despite all the hype and news coverage, the deal is still not complete. Netanyahu's office claims that Hamas is creating last minute crisis and backing out of some agreement. Hamas says htey are not and have committed to the agreements announced by the mediators. How absurd has it gotten that I believe the savage terrorists Hamas more than I trust our prime minister and I am not alone. The following article tells the whole story. It is totally political and based on Netanyahu's discussions with Smotrich and whether or not Smotrich will leave the government. If Netanyahu strongly believes that Smotrich will leave, he will make sure that the cabinet doesn't approve the deal for which there is a strong majority supporting it currently.
  Cabinet meeting on hostage deal delayed for final details from Qatar, and as PM waits to hear if Smotrich will resign — report
  

  A security cabinet meeting on approving the hostage-ceasefire deal has been delayed until later today, Hebrew media reports, as negotiators in Qatar are said to be working on ironing out the final details of the agreement.

  According to the Kan public broadcaster, the cabinet meeting, which was expected to take place at 11 a.m., has also been delayed by the Religious Zionism party’s ongoing deliberations about its future in the governing coalition.

  The report adds that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not convene the cabinet until Religious Zionism chair Bezalel Smotrich gives him an answer as to whether or not his party will resign in protest.

• Netanyahu holding off on hostage deal announcement over ‘coalition politics,’ says official not from PM’s office
  

  An Israeli official not from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office suggests that the premier is making announcements about breakdowns in negotiations and holding off on announcing the agreement his negotiating team signed off on yesterday while he works to keep his coalition intact.

  Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partner National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has threatened to bolt the government if the deal announced yesterday is approved, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is said to be weighing a similar move.

  The Israeli official acknowledges to The Times of Israel that details are still being finalized in negotiations but insists that the disagreements are relatively minor and will be solved in the coming hours.

  Asked to explain Netanyahu’s conduct since the deal was announced, the Israeli official chalks it up to “coalition politics.”

  
  

• A bad deal is better than no deal. But….

  1. The deal agreed to tonight has been on the table since the end of May. We the people (of Israel and Palestine) need to hold accountable those who are directly responsible for delaying the deal until Donald Trump came along and said “make it happen”. How cynical can our leaders be? Utterly disgraceful.

  2. It is a bad deal because if doesn’t bring home all of the hostages immediately.  It is a bad deal because it will take at least 12 weeks and probably more to implement it.  It is a bad deal because it lacks the entire political side of determining who is going to rule Gaza when the war is over. It is a bad deal because it does not explicitly determine that the war will end and that Israel will withdraw from Gaza. 

  3. It is a bad deal because there was an alternative which was much better.  In September 2024, I received in writing from Hamas that they agreed to the “Three Weeks Deal” – to release all of the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, to end the war including a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and Hamas would turn over the governance of Gaza to a civilian professional non-Hamas Palestinian government. 

  4. I blame Hamas for not publishing the “Three Weeks Deal” that they agreed to. I blame Netanyahu and the Israeli negotiators for not verifying with Qatar and Egypt that Hamas agreed to the “Three Weeks Deal”. I blame President Biden and his emissary Bret McGurk for not budging from the bad “three months deal” that has been agreed to tonight. 

  5. I congratulate President Trump for making this happen and his emissary Steve Witkoff for knowing how to make a deal and staying at it until it gets done. 

  6. This deal done tonight; I believe will lead to the end of the war. I don’t believe that Hamas would have agreed to it without receiving promises from Qatar and Egypt that the war would in fact end. I believe that Egypt and Qatar received promises from Trump that he would ensure that the war would end with this deal. All of the hostages should eventually come home, but we must be ready for the possibility that some hostages may be buried underneath the rubble of buildings that Israel bombed, along with thousands of missing Gazans. Many Palestinian prisoners will be released, not all of them to their homes. I hope that they never return to violence. I hope that Israel never arrests them again. 

  7. When the deal is done and fully implemented, we Israelis must force Israel to go to new elections. We must insist on a National Commission of Inquiry and we must hold Netanyahu and his government responsible. The Palestinian people should hold Hamas responsible for the disaster that Hamas brought on the Palestinian people and on Gaza. War crimes have been committed on both sides of this conflict and we the people of Israel and Palestine are living the hell of trauma as a result of the longest war in our history. From this trauma we must all come to the conclusion that there is no military solution to this conflict and there never has been one.  There is no viable armed struggle to liberate Palestine and there never has been one. There are seven million Israeli Jews and seven million Palestinian Arabs living on the land between the River and the Sea, both peoples are here and both peoples are staying. Both peoples must have the right to self-determination, to security, to freedom, to security and to dignity. This really has to be the last Israeli-Palestinian war.  We cannot continue to do this to each other. 

  (Gershon Baskin, January 15, 2025)

  
  

• Press Release from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters

  
  

  We, the families of 98 hostages, welcome with overwhelming joy and relief the agreement to bring our loved ones home. We wish to express our profound gratitude to President-elect Trump, President Biden, both administrations, and the international mediators for making this possible. Since November 2023, we have been anxiously awaiting this moment, and now, after over 460 days of our family members being held in Hamas tunnels, we are closer than ever to reuniting with our loved ones.

  
  

  This is a significant step forward that brings us closer to seeing all hostages return - the living to rehabilitation, and the deceased for proper burial. However, deep anxiety and concerns accompany us regarding the possibility that the agreement might not be fully implemented, leaving hostages behind. We urgently call for swift arrangements to ensure all phases of the deal are carried out. 

  
  

  We will not rest until we see the last hostage back home.

  ___________

  The Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters
  
  
  
• Health minister welcomes hostage deal, says healthcare system ready to receive them
  
  

  Health Minister Uriel Busso (Shas) posts a photo montage of the hostages on X with the message, “The healthcare system is ready and waiting for you.”

• Armed Hamas gunmen parade through streets of Gaza after news of imminent ceasefire

Members of Hamas's Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades arrive in a vehicle at a street in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on January 15, 2025, following news of an imminent ceasefire-hostage release deal. Bashar Taleb/AFP)

Armed Hamas gunmen are seen parading in the Gaza Strip following the news of an imminent ceasefire between Israel and the terror group.

The ceasefire has not yet taken effect.  Video

•  Report says living hostages will be first to released in deal’s first phase

A Red Cross convoy carrying Israeli hostages heads to Egypt from the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Nov. 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)

Detailing unconfirmed elements of the deal, Channel 12 reports that of the 33 hostages to be freed in the first, 42-day phase of the deal, those to be released will be female civilians, then female soldiers, then men who are over 50, and men who are infirm. adds that those among the 33 who are alive will be freed first, and says this was a demand that Israel insisted upon. Israel is to believe that most of the 33 are alive.

Channel 12 notes that the list of the 33 hostages to be freed comprises four female civilians, five female soldiers, as well as Shiri Bibas and her two small sons Ariel and baby Kfir, 10 men aged 50 and over, and 11 infirm men. The report says Hamas is to provide a list of the hostages and their status by the seventh day of the deal.

It adds that Ethiopian-born Israeli Avera Mengistu and Bedouin Israeli Hisham al-Sayad, held since 2014 and 2015 respectively, are among the living hostages set to be freed in this phase.

The first three hostages are set to be released on the first day of the deal’s implementation, with four more to go free on the seventh day. After that, three hostages are to be released every seven days, with the final 14 to be released in the final week of the phase.

The TV report adds that well over 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners will be freed in return for the 33 hostages, and says that, according to unconfirmed Arab sources, these will include at least 250 terrorists serving life terms and another 400 serving terms up to 20 years.

Some of those to be freed will be prisoners captured in Gaza after October 7, 2023, but nobody who took part in the invasion and slaughter will be freed, it says. All women and children aged under 19, arrested from October 8, 2023, in Gaza will be among the prisoners released.

The TV report says 47 rearrested prisoners from the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal will be freed. It also says released prisoners will not be required to sign a declaration pledging not to return to terrorism.

The report says that Gazans displaced from northern Gaza — an estimated million people — will be able to return under the terms of an agreed mechanism until the 22nd day of the deal.

It quotes an unconfirmed Egyptian report saying the IDF will withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor on the final day of phase one — a claim denied by Israeli officials — and says the IDF will gradually withdraw from Gaza’s cities and major population centers.

Humanitarian aid into the strip will be boosted considerably, it adds.

The TV report says negotiations on the deal’s second phase will begin on the 16th day of the first phase. It says all living hostages will be freed in return for a permanent ceasefire.

Demonstrators raise placards during a protest calling for action to secure the release of Israelis held hostage in Gaza since October 7, 2023, in front of the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv on January 15, 2025, as news spread that a hostage-ceasefire deal had been agreed. (Jack Guez / AFP)

The report says that the security cabinet and then the full cabinet are set to vote — and expected to approve — the deal tomorrow morning, provided the final deal is signed by then. After that, lists of Palestinian security prisoners to be freed will be published, to enable petitions against their release to the High Court. The court is widely expected not to intervene in the deal.

• Islamic Jihad calls ceasefire deal ‘an honorable agreement to stop the aggression’
  

  

  Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists are seen on their way to cross the Israel-Gaza border fence from Khan Younis during the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023. (Said Khatib/ AFP/ File)

  Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s second-largest terror group after Hamas, hails the ceasefire deal as “honorable.”

  Hamas had needed Islamic Jihad’s support for the deal in order to avoid a potential disruption in the process.

  “Today, our people and their resistance imposed an honorable agreement to stop the aggression,” Islamic Jihad says in a statement.

  The Iran-backed terror group says the deal between Israel and Hamas includes the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza as well as an “honorable” prisoner exchange. It says that terror groups in Gaza “will remain vigilant to ensure the full implementation of this agreement.”

  Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s fighters seized captives while taking part in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and have since been battling Israeli forces in Gaza.

• US official says 2 American-Israeli hostages to be freed in first phase of deal
  

  American-Israelis Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen will be among the 33 hostages released in the first phase of the hostage deal announced today, a senior Biden administration official tells reporters.

  Siegel is part of the category of elderly hostages, while Dekel-Chen was shot on October 7 and is therefore considered among the wounded. The third American hostage believed to still be alive, Edan Alexander, is a soldier, and therefore won’t be released until the second 42-day phase, but the US is committed to securing his release, the senior official says during a briefing.

  The bodies of four other Americans still held in Gaza will be released in the third phase, the official says.

  While the senior US official says five female IDF soldiers captured on October 7 will be released on the first day of the deal, Israeli officials later tell reporters that is not the case.

• US official says talks temporarily broke down over Hamas refusal to provide list of hostages
  
  
• Mossad chief and Israeli team still in Doha, finalizing details of hostage deal
  

  Mossad chief David Barnea and the Israeli negotiating team are still in Doha finalizing the details of the ceasefire-hostage release deal, The Times of Israel has learned.

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dispatched Barnea along with IDF hostage point man Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, and his political adviser Ophir Falk, to Doha on Saturday night when efforts to reach a deal appeared to be coming to fruition.

  While Qatar and the US, who brokered the deal, announced last night that it had been reached, Israel has insisted that small gaps remain, including a dispute over which Palestinian security prisoners will be freed. Netanyahu has yet to formally announce a deal or address the nation, saying he will only do so when it is finalized.

  The cabinet was slated to meet this morning to discuss and vote on the deal, though the meeting has been delayed, with the Prime Minister’s Office saying the delay is due to unresolved details, while other reports attribute it to last-minute efforts to convince far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich not to pull out of the government over the vote.

• Hamas warns IDF ‘aggression’ in Gaza could endanger hostages slated to be released under emerging deal
  

  Hamas’s military wing, the Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, warns that Israel’s continuing airstrikes and shelling in Gaza, despite the announcement of a ceasefire deal, endanger hostages who are slated to be freed under the nascent agreement.

  “Any aggression and shelling at this stage by the enemy could turn the freedom of a prisoner into a tragedy,” the terror group says in a post on Telegram.

  Israel is still holding off from officially declaring that a ceasefire-hostage release deal announced yesterday by mediators has been reached with Hamas, insisting that details remained to be finalized and that the terror group is throwing last-minute wrenches into the negotiations.

• Hostages’ families call Tel Aviv rally as nation awaits official hostage-ceasefire deal confirmation
  
  

  Relatives and friends of people killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, react to the ceasefire announcement as they take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv, January 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

  The Hostages and Missing Families Forum calls on the public to gather at Tel Aviv’s so-called Hostages Square, as the nation waits for confirmation from Israel on a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas that was announced yesterday.

  “These are critical and moving hours for us and for the entire nation of Israel,” the forum says in a statement.

  “We are happy and congratulate every hostage who will return. And at the same time, we are anxious about the fate of our loved ones who may be left behind,” the families add, calling on the public to join the Tel Aviv demonstration this evening from 6 p.m.

  “Now, more than ever, we need you to be with us. With your hand on the pulse and your eyes on the last hostage, so that we leave no one behind.”





• In a Western Negev gas station, customers are in agreement that a hostage deal is needed, but that it took too long
  

  At a gas station close to Ofakim in the western Negev, customers are unanimous that the government must accept the hostage deal with Hamas, saying they only wish it had happened earlier.

  “If the prime minister had taken responsibility and understood that we could have done this a long time ago, the lives of many soldiers [killed fighting Hamas] could have been saved, ” says Dora Azuelos from Moshav Gilat. “For us, every soldier is as important as a hostage.”

  Shlomo Zechut, also from Moshav Gilat, expresses similar thoughts, adding, “I would have preferred if the hostages had been released much sooner. We should have given (Hamas) all the terrorists they wanted in May,” when negotiations on a virtually identical hostage deal proposal collapsed.

  Hamas cannot be destroyed, he posits, because you can’t destroy an idea. He says that instead, Israel has to ensure the terror group remains as weak as possible and keep a close eye on everything it does.

  While he declares that the war has been managed “terribly” by Israel, with the IDF clearing an area of terror operatives only for them to return and regroup later, he says he opposes any kind of Israeli occupation of the Strip.

  Nimrod, 25, who prefers not to give his surname or location other than saying he is from the Western Negev, doesn’t like the fact that the deal will be implemented in stages rather than all at once.

  “We have no choice,” he allows. “We have to bring them back. After that, we can deal with Hamas.”

  He criticizes the government for lacking any plan for the day after the war, saying Israel should have replaced Hamas with the Palestinian Authority or even Egypt.

  “It is good that we destroyed the Hamas leadership,” he says, “but we failed to capitalize on it.”

• I have one request: let us receive them quietly.
  The government only wants bodies—it does not want the hostages to return and tell their stories. It is inconvenient for them to hear what happened to the people they left behind for so long.
  —Yocheved Lifshitz, a captivity survivor

  First, I must state that I support the deal; every hostage brought back is a blessing, and all of them—living and dead—must be returned. I am deeply moved by the fact that certain agreements have been reached, but I am not sure the agreement will pass in the government—there is so much opposition there.

  

  I am suspicious because Israel did not want to take me in; I have a deep wound over this. First, we were abandoned on October 7th. The army didn’t come to us at all. Only after the looters and murderers left with the hostages to Gaza did the army remember that Nir Oz existed.

  The 17th day of my captivity arrived. I was sick—suffering from diarrhea and vomiting. I had neither eaten nor drunk anything. There was a doctor there who gave me medication, but it didn’t help. Hamas wanted to release me and Nurit Cooper from Nir Oz, who was with me. Her shoulder was broken. Israel didn’t want to take us in—the government feared it would have to give too much in return. Then Hamas said, “If you don’t want to take them, we will leave them at the border fence. Take them if you want; if not, don’t.” Israel took us in for free—without any exchange.

  In the year and a quarter that has passed, my suspicions have only grown stronger. I believe the government only wants bodies—it does not want the hostages to return and recount what they went through. It is inconvenient for them to hear what happened to the people they left behind for so long. When I told them what had happened to me, they didn’t like it, and that was after just 17 days when the captors were still somewhat humane. We know that living hostages are being tortured, that women are abused, and so are young people. Hostages who returned after fifty days said that Itzik Elgarat was tortured because they mistakenly thought he was his brother Dani, who was an army officer.

  Life has brought me to a state of mistrust

  I am very suspicious, but at the same time, I sincerely hope I am wrong. Life has brought me to this state of mistrust. Apart from Oded, I think about so many others. Among the 98 hostages on the current list, there are 29 from Nir Oz. Arbel Yehud is listed with Oded among the first 33. Arbel is the sister of Dolev, who grew up with me and was murdered. Her partner, Ariel Cuneo, is also a hostage, as is his brother David. His wife and two daughters were also abducted but have been released. He is still there.

  If the deal goes through, I think we need to receive them quietly. Only their closest family members should come—there should not be a mass rush. They will need care—psychological and medical support must be provided, and their families must also be supported. There needs to be a shared framework for them. We do not know what we are getting.

  The protests for the release of the hostages must continue until the last hostage returns, including the bodies of fallen soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, and captives Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed.

  
  Yocheved and Oded Lifshitz

  I hope Oded returns. I do not know what condition he will return in, what kind of person he will be. His entire world was turned upside down on October 7th and by everything he has gone through since. If he is alive, I do not know how he will react. A man who fought his entire life for peace and human rights received the hardest blow from them—from our neighbors in Gaza. He used to take them every week to hospitals in Israel.

  I do not know if he is alive or dead—just one thing, that he is on the list. How will I receive him? What will I receive? I do not know. I am sure that if he is alive and well, he is saying, “I am last in line. First, release the young people—their whole lives are ahead of them. After them, release me.”

  Yocheved Lifshitz was released on the 17th day of captivity. Her husband, Oded, is still held in Gaza. link

  
  
  
  
  

Gaza and the South

•  Hamas leader touts ceasefire as a defeat for Israel while hailing Oct. 7 atrocities
  

  

  Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya gives a televised speech about the hostage-ceasefire deal between the Palestinian terror group and Israel, in the Qatari capital of Doha on January 15, 2025. (YouTube screenshot used in accordance with article 27a of the Copyright Law)

  Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya says in a televised address that Israel failed to achieve its goals in Gaza, as he declares the ceasefire-hostage deal that was announced as a “historic moment” and describes it as a defeat for the Jewish state.

  “Our people have thwarted the declared and hidden goals of the occupation. Today we prove that the occupation will never defeat our people and their resistance,” al-Hayya is quoted as saying by Germany’s dpa news agency.

  He vows the Gaza-ruling terror group will neither forgive or forget, while praising the Hamas-led massacres of Israelis in October 2023 that started the war in Gaza as a “military accomplishment” and “a source of pride for our people,” according to a New York Times translation of his remarks.

  Al-Hayya additionally hails other Iran-backed organizations such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen for launching solidarity attacks on Israel.

  He also indicates Hamas will continue to pursue Israel’s destruction, saying the Palestinian terrorist organization will continue to look toward Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a guide.

  “Our enemy will never see a moment of weakness from us,” he adds.  link I have no doubt that his and other Hamas leaders breathing days on earth will be numbered and that is a good thing
  
  

• Hamas: Israel struck target where female hostage was being held - report
  Shortly after the ceasefire was announced, Israel reportedly struck a target in Gaza where one of the female hostages - who is expected to be released in the first phase of the deal - was located, Hamas spokesperson Abu Obeida announced on Telegram on Thursday.  Link there is no confirmation about this. It is entirely possible that this happened and is not the first time that our military pressure has killed or wounded our hostages. On the other hand, Hamas is a horrible, deceitful and savage terror organization which has adopted psychological terrorism to their normal operations, so it is hard to know what is true and what is psychological terror lies without IDF confirmation
• Gazans celebrate as news of ceasefire deal spreads across war-torn enclave 

  Thousands of Gazans celebrate as news spread that a ceasefire and hostage release deal had been reached between Israel and Hamas, aimed at releasing the 94 hostages abducted by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel, and ending more than 15 months of war in the Palestinian enclave, sparked by the same attack.

  AFP journalists in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah and other areas witnessed people gathering in groups, hugging and taking photos with their mobile phones to mark the announcement

  
  

• Seven said killed in Gaza strikes overnight, hours before cabinet votes on hostage deal
  

  The Hamas-run civil defense agency in Gaza says that at least seven people were killed in fresh strikes overnight, hours before Israel’s cabinet is set to vote on a hostage-ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group.

  “Our crew retrieved 5 dead and more than 10 injured from under the rubble of a house… that was bombed by the Israeli army in the Al-Rimal area west of Gaza City,” the agency says in a statement.

  It adds it had retrieved the bodies of two more people killed in a strike at “the Al-Sha’biya intersection in the center of Gaza City.”

  The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 46,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting that broke out following the October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

• IDF: Hamas terrorist who participated in Nova festival massacre on Oct. 7 killed in overnight airstrike in Gaza
  

  A Hamas terrorist who participated in the massacre at the Nova music festival near Re’im during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, was killed in an overnight airstrike in the Gaza Strip, the military says.

  The IDF says the strike killing Hamas Nukhba force terrorist Muhammad Hashem Zahdi Abu al-Rous was among over 50 launched in the past day in Gaza.

  The strikes over the past day eliminated several more members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and hit buildings used by the terror groups, weapon depots, rocket launchers, weapon manufacturing sites, and observation posts, according to the IDF.

  
  
  

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• IDF confirms strike in southern Syria, said it targeted weapons convoy near buffer zone 

  The IDF confirms carrying out an airstrike in southern Syria earlier today, after saying it identified a convoy of vehicles with weapons on them near a buffer zone where Israeli troops are deployed.

  According to the military, the drone strike was launched near the vehicles as a warning shot, and they dispersed shortly after.

  According to Syrian media, the strike killed the mayor of Ghadir al-Bustan, the village where the strike took place, along with several military officers from the new Syrian government.

  The military officers had been in the area to remove weapons from positions belonging to the former Assad regime’s army, according to the Syrian media reports.

  
  

• In Damascus, Qatari PM calls on Israel to ‘immediately withdraw’ from Syria buffer zone
  

  

  This handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency SANA, shows Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) welcoming Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani in Damascus on January 16, 2025. (SANA/AFP)

  DAMASCUS – Doha demands Israel “immediately withdraw” from its buffer zone with Syria, the Qatari prime minister says during a visit to Damascus.

  “The Israeli occupation’s seizure of the buffer zone is a reckless… act and it must immediately withdraw,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani says at a press conference with new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

  The IDF has said that its deployment to a buffer zone on the Syrian side of the border and strategic positions beyond the zone is a defensive and temporary measure amid the unstable situation in Syria since last month’s fall of Bashar al-Assad.

  
  

West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel

• IDF says it carried out strike in West Bank city of Jenin, says details to follow later

The IDF says it carried out an airstrike in the West Bank city of Jenin a short while ago.

It says further details will be provided later.

Last night, an IDF drone strike in Jenin killed six Palestinians, including four who were claimed by Hamas as members of the terror group.

 

• Palestinians report overnight settler attacks in Huwara, in the West Bank
  

  Israeli settlers broke into the Palestinian West Bank town of Huwara overnight and attacked its residents, according to Palestinian reports.

  Video footage purportedly captured during the incident shows the settlers roaming the streets of the Nablus-area town, before fleeing down the road as residents fling stones at them.

  According to reports, the settlers attempted to attack the town’s homes, and a Palestinian child was said to have been injured in the violence.  video

  
  

Politics and the War (general news)

• Tibi criticizes government for taking months to approve deal similar to May 2024 proposal 

  Responding to reports that the hostage deal with Hamas is largely the same as the one that was proposed by Israel last May, Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi criticizes the government for the lengthy delays, writing on X in English and Hebrew that “the May 2024 agreement was ratified on January 2025.”’

• Ultra-Orthodox party leader welcomes hostage deal: ‘Saving a life comes before the entire Torah
  
  

  Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf speaks at the International Bay Conference for Regionality, in Haifa, December 18, 2024. (Flash90)

  Housing Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf, the chairman of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, welcomes the hostage deal with Hamas, declaring that “saving a life comes before the entire Torah.”

  “Our sons and daughters who are dying in the Hamas tunnels are crying out to us and begging for their lives,” he tweets. “With God’s help, I will be able to once again fulfill the incomparable commandment of ransoming captives and to support the deal tomorrow…while safeguarding Israel’s security interests. We are waiting for you!”  Link  such disgusting hypocrisy. This is the same minister who said “what does the war have to do with us?” (meaning the Haredim) and he has never come out in favor of reaching any deal to bring home the hostages. He has also stated that they (the Haredim) owe nothing to the state but are owed everything because of their joining the coalition. Hypocrisy of a parasite 

  
  

The Region and the World

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Personal Stories

  

Doron Boldas, 34: Chef dreamed of opening a smoked meat food truck

Murdered on October 7 after being kidnapped from the Supernova music festival by Hamas terrorists

Doron Boldas (Courtesy)

Doron Boldas, 34, from Gan Hashomron, was murdered on October 7 after being kidnapped from the Supernova music festival by Hamas terrorists.

Doron was working at the rave that morning at a food stand. When the rocket fire began, he began to close down the stand and pack up the equipment since the festival was shut down. Piecing together his final moments from video, evidence and testimony, his family believes that Doron — after helping treat wounded at the site of the rave — left via car and headed in the direction of Be’eri.

Near the kibbutz, he was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and placed in the back of a pickup truck with others being kidnapped from Be’eri. But days later, Doron’s body was found near the border with Gaza, and his family believes he got in a fight with a Hamas terrorist and was shot dead and his body dumped.

Doron was buried in Gan Hashomron on October 11. He is survived by his parents, Yehudit and Moshe, and his sisters Shay and Liran.

Born and raised in Gan Hashomron, a small town near Hadera in central Israel, Doron was the oldest in his family. As a kid he was an active ping pong player, even winning a national youth championship, according to a state eulogy.

Doron was a chef with a specialty in meats, and he would regularly run food stands at festivals and events around Israel, including the 2019 Eurovision in Tel Aviv. He opened his own smokeshop station at a horse farm in Kibbutz Ramot Menashe in the north and also worked at a restaurant in Holon. His longtime dream was to open his own food truck of smoked meats.

Izik Biton, who worked with Doron that day at the festival, wrote in testimony about realizing they were under attack from more than just rockets. He said, “I tell Doron that I’m getting out of here now and plead that he does the same, but because of his big heart, he insists on hitching the food truck, since he  borrowed it from a close friend.”

“Doron Boldas, friend, chef, you who looked like a Viking but would never hurt the tip of a fly’s wing, with the purest heart and laugh and willingness to give, and our conversations,” he wrote. “Dear God, we had just slept outside together for three days, we worked together, laughed, had fun, I can’t breathe.”

To commemorate his memory, his sister, Shay, opened up a smoked meat food truck at the entrance to their hometown, called Meshek Boldas, which tells his life story and his dreams.

“My brother was a champion when it comes to meat and he dreamed of a smoked meat food truck for a long time,” Shay told the Haaretz newspaper. “He had even submitted an application for a license to the municipality, but it was rejected. Already during the shiva [mourning period] I said that there was no way I wasn’t going to open the food truck that he dreamed of. That there was no way I wasn’t passing along his love.”

Shay said Doron “was really worth of admiration, he loved to help people and was always full of optimism. I never encountered him crying or annoyed, he was always satisfied by life and everything he encountered. He had a sort of calm that you could never disrupt, a calm that I hope stayed with him until the end.”

Read more Those We Have Lost stories here.

Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages

Bibi: The Abandonment of the Hostages is Etched in Letters of Blood on your Forehead

Ilan Kafir

Former senior journalist, biographer, and researcher of Israel's wars.

We are in the midst of the worst disaster that the State of Israel has ever experienced, and the responsibility for this disaster is spelled out in bold letters made of blood on the forehead of one man: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the man responsible for abandoning the hostages.

Bibi, you are personally responsible for the fate of the hostages and for each and every one of the murdered and fallen in the Gaza Envelope, at the Nova music festival, and the hundreds of fallen Israel Defense Forces fighters. Every single time a proposal for the release of hostages is on the agenda, you reject it for fear that your messianic partners will bring down your government. On one occasion, when a deal was possible, you said you supported the release of some of them. And what about the others? Are you sentencing them to death in Hamas’ Yahya Sinwar's tunnels?

In your support of the interests of Sinwar, the Hamas chief murderer, you brought this disaster upon us. In 2018 Yahya Sinwar sent you a personal letter in both Hebrew and Arabic that read, "Bibi, take a calculated risk"—thus expressing your shared interest in toppling the Palestinian Authority. It was an important goal for him, but as a Jihadist, he had a more important, satanic objective - to topple the State of Israel by committing a murderous massacre.

For five days, you prevented the formation of the War Cabinet for fear that the glory of victory would shift from you to Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot and Yoav Gallant.

Your slogan about toppling Hamas and eliminating its leaders is nothing more than a hollow statement. With no goals for the war and its end, we were forced to return to Shuja'iyya for the third time and pay a heavy price in the lives of our finest soldiers. You created the false impression that the city of Rafah was Stalingrad. And all this—for your political survival.

In your inner circle, the operation to free four hostages was called "Entebbe 2." In the Entebbe operation, which took place on July 4, 1976, your brother Yoni fell in battle. You pale in comparison: Yoni died in a battle to free hostages. Today he would be ashamed of you. You never had any interest in the fate of the hostages. Your partners contaminated you with the delusional thought that the demonstrations of the families on behalf of the hostages were and are an expression of defeat, and it is the families who are preventing victory in the war. On December 1st, 2023, there was a possibility to release adult hostages. We saw documentation of four of them alive, but you left them to die. Their blood is on your hands.

The entire nation realizes that you are detached from reality. We watched you as you smiled gleefully in a Pyrrhic victory on the first reading of the Evasion Act, which exempts the Ultra-Orthodox from serving in the IDF. You already knew that very morning that four IDF soldiers had fallen in battle in Gaza. We did not hear one word of condolence from you.  You are like the captain of the Titanic - you saw the iceberg and the danger, but you did not stop. The orchestra continued to play on board, and you led us into oblivion.

Bibi, we are the majority of the people who are not willing to have you burn the country down, as your wife threatened. We suspect that you want to see the country go up in flames like Emperor Nero.

Air Force pilots saved the country on the night of the Iranian missiles. Isn't it time for you to apologize to those your partners called traitors?

You surrounded your home in Caesarea with a fortified wall, concrete blocks, barbed wire, and Border Police recruits.

Bibi, it won't help you. The wall will fall.

Member of Knesset Yair Lapid said of you: "There will be nothing left of you. Not a museum, not a square, not a fountain, just one thing - the Seventh of October."

In May 1999, after Ehud Barak defeated you in the elections, you called out to your wife: "Off we go, Sarah dear.”

Oh, how we yearn to hear you repeat those words and melody: "Off we go, Sarah dear...". And this time, you will be gone for good!

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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