π️Lonny's War Update- October 513, 2023 - March 2, 2025 π️
π️Day 513 that 59 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!ΧΧΧ Χ Χ¦ΧΧΧ Χ’Χ Χ©ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧΧ€ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧͺ
****The NY Times article at the bottom is a must read article
"How an Anguished Mother Became Netanyahu’s Fiercest Foe
Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements
*
Hostage Updates
Netanyahu is threatening that Israel will renew the war to exert military pressure on Hamas. From the beginning, I said that military pressure kills hostages and does not free them. I reiterate and emphasize: military pressure now will lead to the death of the hostages who are still alive. Netanyahu abandoned them on October 7th, then sacrificed them, and now he is willing to continue sacrificing them—all on the altar of his political survival in the State of Israel. Netanyahu, the only thing you must do now is secure an agreement that brings all 59 hostages home in one stroke—now!
(Gershon Baskin, March 1, 2025)
Horn family approves publication of Hamas propaganda video showing Iair in painful goodbye to Eitan
Brothers Iair (L) and Eitan Horn in a Hamas propaganda video ahead of Iair's release from captivity in Feburary 2025. (Screen capture)The family of Iair and Eitan Horn has approved the publication of the Hamas propaganda video showing the two brothers embracing before Iair’s release last month.
The video begins with five hostages sitting on the floor, appearing to eat.
They then embrace each other ahead of the release of Iair and Sagu Dekel-Chen, which Eitan says in the video will be taking place the next day. Iair Horn, Dekel-Chen and Sasha Troufanov were released on February 15, as part of the first phase of the hostage deal.
The camera then pans to the face of a distraught Eitan, seemingly overwhelmed about being left behind.
“I am very happy that my brother will be released tomorrow, but it is not logical in any way that families are being separated,” Eitan says, his voice cracking.
“Get everyone out and stop [separating] families, and do not destroy our lives anymore,” he adds, before crying into the shoulder of his older brother Iair.
“Tell mom, dad and everyone to continue with the demonstrations [for a hostages deal], that they shouldn’t stop and that the government should sign already onto the second and third phases of the deal to return all of us home,” Eitan tells his brother Iair. “Do everything you can,”
“You are now forcing me to leave my little brother here to die,” Iair says into the camera, with his arm still around Eitan’s shoulder.
Eitan expresses his disbelief and disgust that Israel’s government is not interested in moving forward with the deal’s second phase. “Have you gone crazy?” he asks. “My brother is leaving, and I’m staying here.”
Eitan says that sometimes he receives food and sometimes he doesn’t; sometimes he’s okay and sometimes he’s not. “But here, I’m not okay,” he says, pointing to his head, apparently referring to the psychological effects of captivity.
Eitan then addresses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly and pleads with him to sign onto the second phase of the hostage deal
In a statement approving the publication of the video, the Horn family says, “Our hearts break seeing Eitan in this difficult situation being separated from his brother to continue being held in Hamas’s hell for [what now is] 512 days.”
“You can see in Eitan’s eyes the despair and fear he is in.”
“Since Iair returned to us, he has not stopped thinking and acting for Eitan and all hostages he met in captivity who remain in Gaza.
We demand that the decision-makers look Eitan in the eye and continue the deal that has already returned dozens of hostages. They are running out of time! Bring everyone home — now — and in one fell swoop,” the family says. Video
Hostage’s mom says freed son didn’t tell them about Hamas video of him saying goodbye to brother in Gaza: ‘He wanted to protect us’
Ruth Strom says her son, freed hostage Iair Horn, did not tell the family about the video Hamas made of him saying goodbye to his younger brother Eitan who is still being held in the Gaza Strip.
“Iair didn’t say they were filmed. He wanted to protect us, but I knew something like this would happen. From day one, I knew they were both together. I imagined the separation,” Strom tells the Ynet news site.
The terror group released the video yesterday.
After approving the publication of the video, Horn’s family demanded the government continue the hostage-ceasefire deal. Hamas has rejected an Israeli proposal to extend the first phase, insisting that the deal proceed to stage two, which Israel has largely refused to negotiate for the past month.
- Crowds line streets as convoy carrying coffin of slain hostage Shlomo Mantzur makes its way to Kibbutz Kissufim
Crowds are lining the streets as the funeral procession for murdered hostage hostage Shlomo Mantzur makes its way to Kibbutz Kissufim.
People hold Israeli national flags and yellow ribbons, the symbol of the fight to free the hostages.
Some wear sweatshirts with mustache symbols in tribute to Mantzur’s distinctive facial hair.
The family had asked the public to line the route from Rishon Lezion to the Gaza border community.
Authorities said last month that Mantzur was killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught and his body taken captive. His body was released on Thursday.
People pay their respects to murdered hostage Shlomo Mantzur in Rishon Lezion on March 2, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
- Thousands line route of slain hostage Shlomo Mantzur’s funeral convoy; soldiers salute as coffin passes
As the funeral convoy for murdered hostage hostage Shlomo Mantzur nears Kibbutz Kissufim, dozens of soldiers stationed at the side of the road salute.
Thousands of people from across the country and all sectors of society have lined the streets between Rishon Lezion and the kibbutz for the procession, holding Israeli flags and yellow flags. Many wear sweatshirts with mustache symbols in tribute to Mantzur’s distinctive facial hair.
Authorities said last month that Mantzur, 85, was murdered during his abduction from Kibbutz Kissufim on October 7, 2023.
Born in Baghdad in 1938, he survived the Farhud pogrom in Iraq and immigrated to Israel in 1951 at age 13, becoming one of the founders of Kibbutz Kissufim, where he worked for years in the chicken coop, as well as at an eyewear factory, and learned carpentry as a hobby.
He is survived by his wife, Mazal, five children, 12 grandchildren, and five siblings.
Hostage Updates
Netanyahu is threatening that Israel will renew the war to exert military pressure on Hamas. From the beginning, I said that military pressure kills hostages and does not free them. I reiterate and emphasize: military pressure now will lead to the death of the hostages who are still alive. Netanyahu abandoned them on October 7th, then sacrificed them, and now he is willing to continue sacrificing them—all on the altar of his political survival in the State of Israel. Netanyahu, the only thing you must do now is secure an agreement that brings all 59 hostages home in one stroke—now!
(Gershon Baskin, March 1, 2025)
Horn family approves publication of Hamas propaganda video showing Iair in painful goodbye to Eitan
Brothers Iair (L) and Eitan Horn in a Hamas propaganda video ahead of Iair's release from captivity in Feburary 2025. (Screen capture)The family of Iair and Eitan Horn has approved the publication of the Hamas propaganda video showing the two brothers embracing before Iair’s release last month.
The video begins with five hostages sitting on the floor, appearing to eat.
They then embrace each other ahead of the release of Iair and Sagu Dekel-Chen, which Eitan says in the video will be taking place the next day. Iair Horn, Dekel-Chen and Sasha Troufanov were released on February 15, as part of the first phase of the hostage deal.
The camera then pans to the face of a distraught Eitan, seemingly overwhelmed about being left behind.
“I am very happy that my brother will be released tomorrow, but it is not logical in any way that families are being separated,” Eitan says, his voice cracking.
“Get everyone out and stop [separating] families, and do not destroy our lives anymore,” he adds, before crying into the shoulder of his older brother Iair.
“Tell mom, dad and everyone to continue with the demonstrations [for a hostages deal], that they shouldn’t stop and that the government should sign already onto the second and third phases of the deal to return all of us home,” Eitan tells his brother Iair. “Do everything you can,”
“You are now forcing me to leave my little brother here to die,” Iair says into the camera, with his arm still around Eitan’s shoulder.
Eitan expresses his disbelief and disgust that Israel’s government is not interested in moving forward with the deal’s second phase. “Have you gone crazy?” he asks. “My brother is leaving, and I’m staying here.”
Eitan says that sometimes he receives food and sometimes he doesn’t; sometimes he’s okay and sometimes he’s not. “But here, I’m not okay,” he says, pointing to his head, apparently referring to the psychological effects of captivity.
Eitan then addresses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly and pleads with him to sign onto the second phase of the hostage deal
In a statement approving the publication of the video, the Horn family says, “Our hearts break seeing Eitan in this difficult situation being separated from his brother to continue being held in Hamas’s hell for [what now is] 512 days.”
“You can see in Eitan’s eyes the despair and fear he is in.”
“Since Iair returned to us, he has not stopped thinking and acting for Eitan and all hostages he met in captivity who remain in Gaza.
We demand that the decision-makers look Eitan in the eye and continue the deal that has already returned dozens of hostages. They are running out of time! Bring everyone home — now — and in one fell swoop,” the family says. Video
Hostage’s mom says freed son didn’t tell them about Hamas video of him saying goodbye to brother in Gaza: ‘He wanted to protect us’
Ruth Strom says her son, freed hostage Iair Horn, did not tell the family about the video Hamas made of him saying goodbye to his younger brother Eitan who is still being held in the Gaza Strip.
“Iair didn’t say they were filmed. He wanted to protect us, but I knew something like this would happen. From day one, I knew they were both together. I imagined the separation,” Strom tells the Ynet news site.
The terror group released the video yesterday.
After approving the publication of the video, Horn’s family demanded the government continue the hostage-ceasefire deal. Hamas has rejected an Israeli proposal to extend the first phase, insisting that the deal proceed to stage two, which Israel has largely refused to negotiate for the past month.
- Crowds line streets as convoy carrying coffin of slain hostage Shlomo Mantzur makes its way to Kibbutz Kissufim
Crowds are lining the streets as the funeral procession for murdered hostage hostage Shlomo Mantzur makes its way to Kibbutz Kissufim.
People hold Israeli national flags and yellow ribbons, the symbol of the fight to free the hostages.
Some wear sweatshirts with mustache symbols in tribute to Mantzur’s distinctive facial hair.
The family had asked the public to line the route from Rishon Lezion to the Gaza border community.
Authorities said last month that Mantzur was killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught and his body taken captive. His body was released on Thursday.
People pay their respects to murdered hostage Shlomo Mantzur in Rishon Lezion on March 2, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) - Thousands line route of slain hostage Shlomo Mantzur’s funeral convoy; soldiers salute as coffin passes
As the funeral convoy for murdered hostage hostage Shlomo Mantzur nears Kibbutz Kissufim, dozens of soldiers stationed at the side of the road salute.
Thousands of people from across the country and all sectors of society have lined the streets between Rishon Lezion and the kibbutz for the procession, holding Israeli flags and yellow flags. Many wear sweatshirts with mustache symbols in tribute to Mantzur’s distinctive facial hair.
Authorities said last month that Mantzur, 85, was murdered during his abduction from Kibbutz Kissufim on October 7, 2023.
Born in Baghdad in 1938, he survived the Farhud pogrom in Iraq and immigrated to Israel in 1951 at age 13, becoming one of the founders of Kibbutz Kissufim, where he worked for years in the chicken coop, as well as at an eyewear factory, and learned carpentry as a hobby.
He is survived by his wife, Mazal, five children, 12 grandchildren, and five siblings.
Hamas says ready to complete ‘remaining stages’ of Gaza truce deal
Hamas says it is ready to go ahead with the “remaining stages” of the ceasefire and hostage release deal with Israel, as the first phase draws to a close with uncertainty regarding the following stages.
“We affirm our keenness to complete the remaining stages of the ceasefire agreement, leading to a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire, full withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, reconstruction and lifting the siege,” the Palestinian terror group says in a letter to the Arab League, as the forum gears to hold a summit on Tuesday regarding the post-war management of Gaza.
“We categorically reject the attempt to impose any non-Palestinian projects or forms of administration or the presence of any foreign forces on the territory of the Gaza Strip,” it adds.
Arab countries are putting together a plan that will do just that, sidelining Hamas, while aiming to gradually re-install the Palestinian Authority — both groups that Israel rejects.
Protests being held against gov’t across the country, calling for completion of hostage deal
Protesters gather across Israel on Saturday to protest for the completion of the deal, with demonstrations held in Ness Ziona, Haifa, Hadera and other cities. Protesters also gather at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square.
“We will not lend a hand to abandonment,” the pro-democracy Hofshi B’Artzenu protest group says in a Twitter thread sharing photos from protests it has organized. “Citizens across the country, at intersections, on bridges, and in the streets, came out to fight for the completion of the deal.”
As freed hostage Omer Shem Tov discharged from hospital, welcoming crowd gathers outside his home
Israelis gather outside of freed hostage Omer Shem Tov’s family home in Herzliya to await his return home after he’s discharged from Beilinson Hospital.
Shem Tov was released from Hamas captivity last Saturday. Last week, his mother, Shelly Shem Tov, said that he had been kept for 450 days alone in a tunnel, where he suffered.
Video footage posted on X by national broadcaster Kan shows a flag-waving crowd singing and dancing next to a balloon arch outside his home. They carry signs saying “how good that you’ve come home.” Video- **The Egyptian Proposal for an Interim Deal and Details from the Negotiations**
The Qatari newspaper *Al-Araby Al-Jadeed* reports that Egypt has proposed a two-week extension of the ceasefire in exchange for the release of three living hostages and three bodies. The goal: to bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas and allow negotiations to continue without a return to fighting. Egyptian sources told the newspaper: "The proposal could ensure the continuation of the ceasefire."
Following the halt of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and Hamas's rejection of the Witkoff plan to extend Phase A, Egypt is reporting a new proposal that could bring the sides closer. Egyptian sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: "There is an Egyptian proposal to bring the perspectives of Israel and Hamas closer, to ensure the continuation of the ceasefire."
**Egyptian Foreign Minister:** "The plan for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip has been completed and will be presented at the Arab emergency summit." He added, "The use of humanitarian aid as a weapon of collective punishment and starvation in Gaza must not be accepted or allowed."
Egypt is proposing to extend the first phase by only two weeks instead of six weeks, during which three living hostages and three bodies would be released. In Gaza, it is claimed that four killed and five wounded have resulted from IDF fire since this morning—in Beit Hanoun, Khan Younis, and Rafah.
According to sources, the Israeli delegation is expected to arrive in Cairo in the coming hours to discuss Egypt's proposal. Cairo emphasizes its commitment to a full Israeli withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor—in exchange for a U.S.-backed security project on the border. It is claimed that Israel intends to avoid resuming military operations in the coming days, at least.
**Al Jazeera** published details about the negotiations that allegedly took place over the past 48 hours between the Israeli negotiating delegation and the mediators:
- Israel demanded that Hamas release living hostages and bodies—in exchange for extending the first phase by a week, as preparation for Phase B.
- Israel demanded that Hamas release five living hostages and ten bodies—in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and increased aid.
- Israel requested, through the mediators, Hamas's response to this proposal by midnight on Friday.
Hamas informed the mediators of its rejection of the Israeli proposals—which it claims violate the agreement. Hamas expressed its commitment to implementing what was agreed upon and signed through the mediators.
**Behind Israel's Decision: Timing and What the Witkoff Plan Revealed**
Israel's decision comes after two discussions held yesterday. At the end of the second discussion, the decision was made to halt humanitarian aid to Gaza and close the crossings. In addition to the fact that Phase A of the deal officially ended yesterday, another significant timing factor is that Ramadan begins today, and it is possible that Israel's intention is to use this as leverage for pressure.
However, security officials clarify that halting aid at this time does not hinder Hamas, and the terror organization will not feel a shortage in the coming months. Over the past 42 days, Hamas has filled its warehouses and has ample supplies.
The Witkoff plan, revealed last night (between Saturday and Sunday) by the Prime Minister's Office, shows that both Israel and the U.S. are distancing themselves from the Biden framework. This aligns with Trump's statements about the phased release of hostages. Witkoff is not expected to arrive in the region before Thursday, as he wants to attend Trump's State of the Union address. Israel has clarified to the mediators that if it concludes the negotiations are ineffective, it will return to fighting.
**Halting Humanitarian Aid**
The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement this morning explaining why aid was halted: "With the end of Phase A of the hostage deal, and due to Hamas's refusal to accept the Witkoff plan for continuing the talks—which Israel agreed to—Prime Minister Netanyahu decided that, as of this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will cease. Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages. If Hamas continues its refusal, there will be further consequences." link This is outrageous. Netanyahu thinks he has all the time in the world while the hostages are starving, being tortured and dying. THERE IS NO TIME!!!!!!
- Released hostage Sasha Troufanov: Don’t let revenge, anger and rage get the upper hand
A video statement from released hostage Sasha Troufanov on March 1, 2025. (Screen capture/X)
Sasha Troufanov, who was released from Hamas captivity on February 15, says in a video message to the crowd at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square that he “can’t process the fact that I’m here and there are still people who haven’t returned.”
“Captivity is an insane mind game — you’re always faced with the thought that ‘if I don’t get out in this deal, there probably won’t be another deal I’ll get out in,'” says Troufanov.
Referring to ubiquitous posters featuring photographs of hostages, Troufanov says, “The fact that they’re here next to me, but they’re not — they’re just picture — is something that is difficult for me, and I’m sure it’s more difficult for their families.”
Now that he’s on the side of those yearning for their loved ones’ release, “Suddenly, I understand what it’s like, and it’s overwhelming for me,” he says.
“Isn’t it time to release the people there?” he asks. “The people who pray so hard to come home?”
“When I talk about returning the hostages, I mean all of them — living and dead,” he says. “Every family wants closure.”
He asks the the public, “don’t let feelings of revenge, anger and rage get the upper hand over values of unity, fraternity and sanctity of human life.
Troufanov thanks “each and every one of the people who have supported, helped and wised for my return home — I’m here thanks to you.” Video in hebrew
- Ben Gvir refuses to apologize to hostages who said his rhetoric prompted Hamas to abuse them. link I try not to post the horrendous rhetoric of this soulless racist creature. He has publicly stated how proud he is for personally preventing hostage deals and for his statements and actions that directly hurt all of the hostages by their monstrous Hamas captors, even after he was warned by the security heads of the dangers to the hostages of his statements and actions against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. It is an embarrassment to the entire country that he is an elected member of the Knesset and a moral, ethical crime that Netanyahu normalized him and his racist party and made him and others of his disgusting party government ministers. This convicted criminal should never ever hold a public office, not as a Knesset member and not even as a school janitor, which is ironic. To the best of my knowledge, as a convicted criminal, he cannot even be hired to be a school janitor but there is nothing preventing him from being a minister and worst of all, minister responsible for the police. His party should be made illegal, just as its predecessor, the Kach party was deemed illegal as a rasict party. There is no difference in their ideology, statements, actions, by laws, etc. The only difference is that Netanyahu will do anything to be and stay prime minister, even have convicted criminals as ministers and partners in his government.
Hamas says ready to complete ‘remaining stages’ of Gaza truce deal
Hamas says it is ready to go ahead with the “remaining stages” of the ceasefire and hostage release deal with Israel, as the first phase draws to a close with uncertainty regarding the following stages.
“We affirm our keenness to complete the remaining stages of the ceasefire agreement, leading to a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire, full withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, reconstruction and lifting the siege,” the Palestinian terror group says in a letter to the Arab League, as the forum gears to hold a summit on Tuesday regarding the post-war management of Gaza.
“We categorically reject the attempt to impose any non-Palestinian projects or forms of administration or the presence of any foreign forces on the territory of the Gaza Strip,” it adds.
Arab countries are putting together a plan that will do just that, sidelining Hamas, while aiming to gradually re-install the Palestinian Authority — both groups that Israel rejects.
Protests being held against gov’t across the country, calling for completion of hostage deal
Protesters gather across Israel on Saturday to protest for the completion of the deal, with demonstrations held in Ness Ziona, Haifa, Hadera and other cities. Protesters also gather at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square.
“We will not lend a hand to abandonment,” the pro-democracy Hofshi B’Artzenu protest group says in a Twitter thread sharing photos from protests it has organized. “Citizens across the country, at intersections, on bridges, and in the streets, came out to fight for the completion of the deal.”
As freed hostage Omer Shem Tov discharged from hospital, welcoming crowd gathers outside his home
Shem Tov was released from Hamas captivity last Saturday. Last week, his mother, Shelly Shem Tov, said that he had been kept for 450 days alone in a tunnel, where he suffered.
Video footage posted on X by national broadcaster Kan shows a flag-waving crowd singing and dancing next to a balloon arch outside his home. They carry signs saying “how good that you’ve come home.” Video
The Qatari newspaper *Al-Araby Al-Jadeed* reports that Egypt has proposed a two-week extension of the ceasefire in exchange for the release of three living hostages and three bodies. The goal: to bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas and allow negotiations to continue without a return to fighting. Egyptian sources told the newspaper: "The proposal could ensure the continuation of the ceasefire."
Following the halt of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and Hamas's rejection of the Witkoff plan to extend Phase A, Egypt is reporting a new proposal that could bring the sides closer. Egyptian sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: "There is an Egyptian proposal to bring the perspectives of Israel and Hamas closer, to ensure the continuation of the ceasefire."
**Egyptian Foreign Minister:** "The plan for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip has been completed and will be presented at the Arab emergency summit." He added, "The use of humanitarian aid as a weapon of collective punishment and starvation in Gaza must not be accepted or allowed."
Egypt is proposing to extend the first phase by only two weeks instead of six weeks, during which three living hostages and three bodies would be released. In Gaza, it is claimed that four killed and five wounded have resulted from IDF fire since this morning—in Beit Hanoun, Khan Younis, and Rafah.
According to sources, the Israeli delegation is expected to arrive in Cairo in the coming hours to discuss Egypt's proposal. Cairo emphasizes its commitment to a full Israeli withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor—in exchange for a U.S.-backed security project on the border. It is claimed that Israel intends to avoid resuming military operations in the coming days, at least.
**Al Jazeera** published details about the negotiations that allegedly took place over the past 48 hours between the Israeli negotiating delegation and the mediators:
- Israel demanded that Hamas release living hostages and bodies—in exchange for extending the first phase by a week, as preparation for Phase B.
- Israel demanded that Hamas release five living hostages and ten bodies—in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and increased aid.
- Israel requested, through the mediators, Hamas's response to this proposal by midnight on Friday.
Hamas informed the mediators of its rejection of the Israeli proposals—which it claims violate the agreement. Hamas expressed its commitment to implementing what was agreed upon and signed through the mediators.
**Behind Israel's Decision: Timing and What the Witkoff Plan Revealed**
Israel's decision comes after two discussions held yesterday. At the end of the second discussion, the decision was made to halt humanitarian aid to Gaza and close the crossings. In addition to the fact that Phase A of the deal officially ended yesterday, another significant timing factor is that Ramadan begins today, and it is possible that Israel's intention is to use this as leverage for pressure.
However, security officials clarify that halting aid at this time does not hinder Hamas, and the terror organization will not feel a shortage in the coming months. Over the past 42 days, Hamas has filled its warehouses and has ample supplies.
The Witkoff plan, revealed last night (between Saturday and Sunday) by the Prime Minister's Office, shows that both Israel and the U.S. are distancing themselves from the Biden framework. This aligns with Trump's statements about the phased release of hostages. Witkoff is not expected to arrive in the region before Thursday, as he wants to attend Trump's State of the Union address. Israel has clarified to the mediators that if it concludes the negotiations are ineffective, it will return to fighting.
**Halting Humanitarian Aid**
The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement this morning explaining why aid was halted: "With the end of Phase A of the hostage deal, and due to Hamas's refusal to accept the Witkoff plan for continuing the talks—which Israel agreed to—Prime Minister Netanyahu decided that, as of this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will cease. Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages. If Hamas continues its refusal, there will be further consequences." link This is outrageous. Netanyahu thinks he has all the time in the world while the hostages are starving, being tortured and dying. THERE IS NO TIME!!!!!!
A video statement from released hostage Sasha Troufanov on March 1, 2025. (Screen capture/X)
Sasha Troufanov, who was released from Hamas captivity on February 15, says in a video message to the crowd at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square that he “can’t process the fact that I’m here and there are still people who haven’t returned.”
“Captivity is an insane mind game — you’re always faced with the thought that ‘if I don’t get out in this deal, there probably won’t be another deal I’ll get out in,'” says Troufanov.
Referring to ubiquitous posters featuring photographs of hostages, Troufanov says, “The fact that they’re here next to me, but they’re not — they’re just picture — is something that is difficult for me, and I’m sure it’s more difficult for their families.”
Now that he’s on the side of those yearning for their loved ones’ release, “Suddenly, I understand what it’s like, and it’s overwhelming for me,” he says.
“Isn’t it time to release the people there?” he asks. “The people who pray so hard to come home?”
“When I talk about returning the hostages, I mean all of them — living and dead,” he says. “Every family wants closure.”
He asks the the public, “don’t let feelings of revenge, anger and rage get the upper hand over values of unity, fraternity and sanctity of human life.
Troufanov thanks “each and every one of the people who have supported, helped and wised for my return home — I’m here thanks to you.” Video in hebrew
Gaza and the South
- Hamas reports no progress in talks with Israel on ceasefire’s second phase
The latest round of talks on the second phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has made no progress, and it’s unclear whether they will resume on Saturday, a senior Hamas official said.
Phase one expires today, but under the deal’s terms, fighting should not resume while negotiations are underway for phase two, which could end the war in Gaza, see Israeli troops withdraw and see the remaining living hostages returned home. According to the IDF, at least 35 of the 59 hostages still in Gaza are confirmed dead.
Officials from Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been involved in negotiations on the second phase in Cairo on Thursday. Hamas did not attend, but its position has been represented through Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, tells The Associated Press there had been “no progress” before Israeli negotiators returned home on Friday.
Naim says he had “no idea” when negotiations might resume.
Until Thursday, Israel had been largely refusing to even hold negotiations regarding the terms of phase two, which were supposed to have started nearly one month ago.
- **Gaza Village Recordings | The Conversation Between Senior Officers and Bereaved Families: "The Air Force Did Not Halt the Attack"**
Residents of the kibbutz, which suffered a severe blow on October 7, spoke with senior IDF representatives. Col. Ziman, who investigated the events in Gaza Village, recounted the Air Force's actions that day and the late entry into the Dor Tza'ir (Young Generation) neighborhood, which only occurred at 11:00 AM the following day. One resident responded, "It's a miracle that we exist." The Home Front Commander was also present at the conversation and revealed, "We failed in protecting the settlements and residents. The Gaza Division was overwhelmed within the first hour."
Last night on "Friday Studio," we revealed recordings from the difficult meeting between Gaza Village residents and senior IDF officers. The officers disclosed details about the Air Force's actions on that black Saturday, the late entry of forces into the Dor Tza'ir neighborhood, and the collapse of the Gaza Division. The residents, for their part, were stunned by what they heard and expressed sharp criticism. The officers could only agree with them.
Col. Oded Ziman, commander of the 55th Brigade, who investigated the events in Gaza Village, revisited the morning of October 7 and said, "The Air Force understood the issue of abductions but did not know what they could and could not shoot at, who our forces were and who they weren't. In some places, they also ran out of ammunition. Our big mistake in the Air Force was that the fighter jets mainly attacked underground command centers within the Strip, from early morning until the afternoon—they were primarily focused on that."
One resident present at the conversation asked Col. Ziman in light of these remarks, "So, zero percent in stopping the enemy from infiltrating our territory?" Ziman replied, "Absolutely—the Air Force did not halt the attack." The resident shared his thoughts: "A bit embarrassing, no? It's a miracle that we exist as a sovereign entity, really."
Col. Ziman continued and spoke about the Dor Tza'ir neighborhood, noting that forces arrived there for the first time only on Sunday (October 8) at 11:00 AM. It is worth recalling that this was a neighborhood where 37 residents lived—11 of them were murdered in the massacre, and 7 were abducted. "At 11:00 AM, a Sayeret Matkal unit received a mission from Duvdevan to enter and sweep the last part of the Dor Tza'ir neighborhood, which, in fact, no one had reached until that point," Ziman said.
One resident at the meeting responded, "There were a thousand soldiers in the kibbutz, and no one entered until 11:00 AM on Sunday—that's insane." Ziman replied, "They couldn't reach that neighborhood until 11:00 AM." The resident continued, "No, they didn't even try—it's not true that they couldn't, there's no way."
Ziman added, "You're right. When we talk about the failure, part of it is the center of the kibbutz and the Dor Tza'ir neighborhood. We got there too late, unequivocally. It doesn't matter what the reason was. We should have gotten here earlier and sealed the passage from the Strip."
Regarding the Gaza Division, Brig. Gen. Rafi Milo, Commander of the Home Front Command, said, "We failed in protecting the settlements and residents. That is our entire essence in defense. The Gaza Division, whose role it is, was overwhelmed within the first hour of the war. Over a thousand terrorists within minutes from a hundred points where the fence was breached. It took the division hours, if not days, to recover and start functioning again."link Ziman's comments that "It doesn't matter what the reason was" is the total opposite of what needs to be investigated and responded to. It absolutely does matter the reason so it will never be repeated and the survivors need to be told the reason and begged for forgiveness which may never come.
- **Time is Running Out: The Ultimatum That Must Be Presented to Hamas Now**
With the conclusion of Phase A of the deal, Israel stands at a critical crossroads, and we have no time to waste as Hamas grows stronger, the hostages suffer, and we lose momentum. The halt of humanitarian aid opens three possible paths for Israel in the current state of uncertainty. Former Head of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman, shares his initial insights.
Starting this morning (Sunday), Israel enters a new phase where there is, in effect, no framework for the release of hostages, no fighting, and no negotiations. This is a stage of uncertainty and transition between states.
The negotiations that are supposed to take place between the parties concern three main areas: the release ratio (how many terrorists are released for each Israeli hostage), the rehabilitation framework (how many trucks, caravans, and other supplies enter the Gaza Strip), and the decision to end the war. Negotiations on these three areas were supposed to begin on day 16 of the framework, but they have not started. According to the framework, as long as negotiations continue, Israel was supposed to keep bringing in 600 aid trucks per day and complete the withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor by day 50. This is not happening. It should be noted that Hamas has violated the agreement on its part, for example, by not transferring Shiri Bibas on time as per the agreed framework, and through grotesque humiliation ceremonies.
**Where do we go from here? There are three main options:**
1. **Gradually Increasing Pressure, Leading to a Return to Fighting** Halting humanitarian aid, as Israel did this morning, resuming targeted strikes and assassinations, and eventually a significant move to evacuate the Palestinian population, along with a gradual and extensive occupation of territory—all to increase pressure on Hamas and improve conditions for future negotiations on the release of the hostages.
2. **Continuing the Ceasefire While Negotiating a New Deal ("Phase B")** Possibly under the "Witkoff Framework," which reportedly proposes the gradual release of all hostages in two phases without a commitment to end the war. Such a framework likely includes different ratios for prisoner releases and the continuation of rehabilitation measures (trucks, caravans, etc.).
3. **The Ultimatum Option** Israel, backed by the United States, sets a deadline by which all hostages must be released in exchange for a permanent ceasefire (a loose commitment to end the war), humanitarian frameworks, and a broad release of Palestinian prisoners. If Hamas does not respond positively to the ultimatum—Israel will return to fighting with full intensity.
**What is Israel's interest now?** First and foremost, not to waste time. Time is working against us. Hamas is growing stronger in a way that will make it harder to return to war, the hostages are suffering in the tunnels, and we are losing the attention and momentum of American pressure. From this perspective, the time-bound ultimatum option better serves Israel's interests, despite the risks involved.
>>> Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman is the former Head of Military Intelligence and former Commander of the Northern Corps. He currently heads the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).
- Footage shows preparations for massive Iftar meal amid Rafah rubble
Footage posted on social media shows Palestinians preparing to hold a massive Ramadan Iftar meal amid the rubble of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. (*note: Iftar is the break the fast meal every evening during the month of Ramadan)
- Israel says it’s stopping entry of aid into Gaza over Hamas’s refusal to extend phase 1 of ceasefire
Israel is not allowing any more goods to enter Gaza, says the Prime Minister’s Office, citing Hamas’s refusal to accept what it says is an American proposal to extend phase one of the ceasefire through Passover and Ramadan alongside more hostage releases.
“With the end of Phase 1 of the hostage deal,” says the PMO, “and in light of Hamas’s refusal to accept the [US special envoy Steve] Witkoff outline for continuing talks – to which Israel agreed – Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided that, as of this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will cease.”
“Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu’s office continues, threatening “further consequences” if Hamas continues to say no to the proposal.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, Israel believes enough aid has entered the enclave in recent weeks to last Gaza for several months.
Israel announced last night it was adopting the “Witkoff” plan, when it was revealed for the first time by the PMO.
According to Israel’s account of Witkoff’s proposal, half of the remaining hostages — living and dead — would be released on the first day of the extended ceasefire, and the remaining captives would be released at the end of the period if a permanent ceasefire is reached.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces. link Netanyahu and his corrupt and failed government are playing with the lives of the hostages. They have all the time in the world while the remaining living hostages are starving, being tortured and dying in the Hamas tunnels, but they have time. Bringing the hostages home has to be the first and only goal now, everything must be done to bring them home and at any price. It is not only the moral imperative, it is what the state that abandoned them owes them and every single citizen and it must be done NOW!!!
- Palestinian media reports several dead, injured in Israeli drone strike in north Gaza
Palestinian media reports several dead and injured in an Israeli drone strike in the Beit Hanoun area of northern Gaza.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
Israeli forces are still deployed to a buffer zone along the Gaza border amid the ceasefire, and the IDF has repeatedly warned Palestinians against approaching the area.
IDF says drone strike targeted suspects operating near troops in north Gaza, planting explosive device
The Israel Defense Forces says a drone strike targeted a number of suspects who were operating near troops in the northern Gaza Strip and planting an explosive device nearby.
“The IDF will continue to act to eliminate any threat to the citizens of the State of Israel and IDF forces,” the military says.
Earlier today, Palestinian media reported several dead and injured in an Israeli drone strike in the Beit Hanoun area.
Israeli forces are still deployed to a buffer zone along the Gaza border amid the ceasefire, and the IDF has repeatedly warned Palestinians against approaching the area.
Egypt says Gaza reconstruction plan completed, will be presented at Arab summit this week
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty says the Egyptian Gaza reconstruction plan, which ensures Palestinians remain in the enclave, is ready and will be presented to the emergency Arab summit on Tuesday.
According to reports, the proposal calls for establishing “secure areas” within Gaza where Palestinians can live initially while Egyptian and international construction firms remove and rehabilitate the Strip’s infrastructure.
The plan comes after an international uproar over US President Donald Trump’s call for the removal of Gaza’s population of some two million Palestinians. Trump suggested the United States would take over the Gaza Strip and rebuild it into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” though Palestinians would not be allowed back.
Palestinians have widely said they will not leave, while Egypt, and Jordan, backed by Saudi Arabia, have refused Trump’s calls for them to take in Gaza’s population.
Rights groups have widely said the plan amounts to forced expulsion, a potential war crime. European countries have also largely denounced Trump’s plan. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the idea and says Israel is preparing to implement it.
As the hostage-ceasefire deal hangs in the balance, any reconstruction plan will be impossible to implement without a truce, including an agreement on who will govern Gaza in the long term. Israel demands the elimination of Hamas as a political or military force in the territory, and international donors are unlikely to contribute to any rebuilding if Hamas is in charge.
The latest round of talks on the second phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has made no progress, and it’s unclear whether they will resume on Saturday, a senior Hamas official said.
Phase one expires today, but under the deal’s terms, fighting should not resume while negotiations are underway for phase two, which could end the war in Gaza, see Israeli troops withdraw and see the remaining living hostages returned home. According to the IDF, at least 35 of the 59 hostages still in Gaza are confirmed dead.
Officials from Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been involved in negotiations on the second phase in Cairo on Thursday. Hamas did not attend, but its position has been represented through Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, tells The Associated Press there had been “no progress” before Israeli negotiators returned home on Friday.
Naim says he had “no idea” when negotiations might resume.
Until Thursday, Israel had been largely refusing to even hold negotiations regarding the terms of phase two, which were supposed to have started nearly one month ago.
Israel is not allowing any more goods to enter Gaza, says the Prime Minister’s Office, citing Hamas’s refusal to accept what it says is an American proposal to extend phase one of the ceasefire through Passover and Ramadan alongside more hostage releases.
“With the end of Phase 1 of the hostage deal,” says the PMO, “and in light of Hamas’s refusal to accept the [US special envoy Steve] Witkoff outline for continuing talks – to which Israel agreed – Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided that, as of this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will cease.”
“Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu’s office continues, threatening “further consequences” if Hamas continues to say no to the proposal.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, Israel believes enough aid has entered the enclave in recent weeks to last Gaza for several months.
Israel announced last night it was adopting the “Witkoff” plan, when it was revealed for the first time by the PMO.
According to Israel’s account of Witkoff’s proposal, half of the remaining hostages — living and dead — would be released on the first day of the extended ceasefire, and the remaining captives would be released at the end of the period if a permanent ceasefire is reached.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces. link Netanyahu and his corrupt and failed government are playing with the lives of the hostages. They have all the time in the world while the remaining living hostages are starving, being tortured and dying in the Hamas tunnels, but they have time. Bringing the hostages home has to be the first and only goal now, everything must be done to bring them home and at any price. It is not only the moral imperative, it is what the state that abandoned them owes them and every single citizen and it must be done NOW!!!
Palestinian media reports several dead and injured in an Israeli drone strike in the Beit Hanoun area of northern Gaza.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
Israeli forces are still deployed to a buffer zone along the Gaza border amid the ceasefire, and the IDF has repeatedly warned Palestinians against approaching the area.
IDF says drone strike targeted suspects operating near troops in north Gaza, planting explosive device
The Israel Defense Forces says a drone strike targeted a number of suspects who were operating near troops in the northern Gaza Strip and planting an explosive device nearby.
“The IDF will continue to act to eliminate any threat to the citizens of the State of Israel and IDF forces,” the military says.
Earlier today, Palestinian media reported several dead and injured in an Israeli drone strike in the Beit Hanoun area.
Israeli forces are still deployed to a buffer zone along the Gaza border amid the ceasefire, and the IDF has repeatedly warned Palestinians against approaching the area.
Egypt says Gaza reconstruction plan completed, will be presented at Arab summit this week
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty says the Egyptian Gaza reconstruction plan, which ensures Palestinians remain in the enclave, is ready and will be presented to the emergency Arab summit on Tuesday.
According to reports, the proposal calls for establishing “secure areas” within Gaza where Palestinians can live initially while Egyptian and international construction firms remove and rehabilitate the Strip’s infrastructure.
The plan comes after an international uproar over US President Donald Trump’s call for the removal of Gaza’s population of some two million Palestinians. Trump suggested the United States would take over the Gaza Strip and rebuild it into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” though Palestinians would not be allowed back.
Palestinians have widely said they will not leave, while Egypt, and Jordan, backed by Saudi Arabia, have refused Trump’s calls for them to take in Gaza’s population.
Rights groups have widely said the plan amounts to forced expulsion, a potential war crime. European countries have also largely denounced Trump’s plan. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the idea and says Israel is preparing to implement it.
As the hostage-ceasefire deal hangs in the balance, any reconstruction plan will be impossible to implement without a truce, including an agreement on who will govern Gaza in the long term. Israel demands the elimination of Hamas as a political or military force in the territory, and international donors are unlikely to contribute to any rebuilding if Hamas is in charge.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria
- Netanyahu directs IDF to ‘prepare to defend’ Syrian Druze village ‘under attack by regime’.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have instructed the IDF to “prepare to defend” the Druze-majority city of Jaramana on the outskirts of Damascus in Syria.A statement issued by Katz’s office says the city is “currently under attack by the forces of the Syrian regime.”
“We will not allow the extreme Islamic regime in Syria to harm the Druze. If the regime harms the Druze, it will be struck by us,” Katz says.
“We are committed to our Druze brothers in Israel to do everything to prevent harm to their Druze brothers in Syria, and we will take all the steps required to maintain their safety,” he adds.
According to reports from Syria, authorities have been clashing with local gunmen during a security campaign in Jaramana. Link Netanyahu and Sa’ar continue to prove Hiw dangerous they are to the future of Israel. Instead of making ultimate efforts to open channels if communication with the new government in Syria, they make threats of attack against this new government that, not only has not threatened Israel but have consistently stated they want want Syria to be at peace with its neighbors and will not allow outsiders like Hizbollah and Iran to make war from within its borders
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have instructed the IDF to “prepare to defend” the Druze-majority city of Jaramana on the outskirts of Damascus in Syria.
A statement issued by Katz’s office says the city is “currently under attack by the forces of the Syrian regime.”
“We will not allow the extreme Islamic regime in Syria to harm the Druze. If the regime harms the Druze, it will be struck by us,” Katz says.
“We are committed to our Druze brothers in Israel to do everything to prevent harm to their Druze brothers in Syria, and we will take all the steps required to maintain their safety,” he adds.
According to reports from Syria, authorities have been clashing with local gunmen during a security campaign in Jaramana. Link Netanyahu and Sa’ar continue to prove Hiw dangerous they are to the future of Israel. Instead of making ultimate efforts to open channels if communication with the new government in Syria, they make threats of attack against this new government that, not only has not threatened Israel but have consistently stated they want want Syria to be at peace with its neighbors and will not allow outsiders like Hizbollah and Iran to make war from within its borders
West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel
- Settlers reportedly torch Palestinian vehicle in latest unchecked Shabbat attack.
Israeli settlers have torched a vehicle belonging to a Palestinian outside the village of Silwad north of Ramallah, Palestinian media reports.Settler violence has long gone largely unchecked, particularly since October 7, with attacks regularly taking place during Shabbat, even though many of the alleged perpetrators are religious.
Politics and the War (general news)
- **Netanyahu Unites the Ranks – But Loses the Most Important Card**
As the continuation of the deal remains uncertain, the U.S. is pressuring against resuming hostilities and seeking creative solutions. The AI video Trump posted about a "future Gaza" is as imaginary as his plan, drawing ridicule in the Arab world. Meanwhile, Israel has become a secondary player in shaping decisions about the Strip's fate: Mohammad Majadala explains who will really make the crucial decision.
The first phase of the hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza has come to an end. Both Israel and Hamas stand at a significant crossroads, with both sides threatening to return to fighting if the deal does not move to the next stage—on their own terms.
In Israel, there is no willingness to move to Phase B at the prices set before President Donald Trump entered the White House—namely, a full withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor and a declaration of the end of the war—especially after Hamas's displays of strength aimed at proving not only to the Israeli public but also to the Arab world that Hamas is still standing and not defeated, as Israel's war objectives had claimed.
At the same time, Hamas cannot afford to return to war at this sensitive timing—the beginning of Ramadan—and after a large portion of Gaza's residents have begun to adjust to a situation without intense fighting. This is compounded by the criticism many residents are starting to voice against the organization after witnessing the destruction and devastation that has returned, particularly in the northern Strip.
The U.S. is pressuring against resuming hostilities now, to allow for agreements between the two sides in the coming days on the continuation of the deal—whether to Phase B, as Hamas wants, or to expand Phase A, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aims. Steve Witkoff, President Trump's envoy to the Middle East, will arrive in the region next week to advance negotiations toward agreements on the next stages of hostage releases. In the background are Trump's statements, in which he said, "Phase A is over, and now Phase B begins," but he also emphasized that the decision on this matter lies solely with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
An AI-generated video shared this week by President Trump on his social media platform, Truth Social, presented his vision for Gaza after implementing his plan for transfer and reconstruction of the Strip. The video, which opens with Gaza's current state of ruin and then transitions to the rebuilt and beautiful Gaza that Trump envisions, was met with widespread ridicule among Arab and particularly Palestinian followers. More than anything else Trump intended, the video highlighted to Arabs how much his plan resembles his video—fantastical.
Meanwhile, this week, a high-level Egyptian delegation flew to Washington, headed by Amr Moussa, the former Secretary-General of the Arab League. Moussa, accompanied by Egyptian politicians and diplomats, arrived to promote the plan that the Arab League, led by Egypt, will present as an alternative to Trump's plan, and tried to convince that the solution proposed by the Arab world's leadership would be acceptable to the Palestinians and implementable on the ground.
Egypt is expected to present the plan after its approval by the Arab League, which will convene next week, in the early days of Ramadan. Egyptian sources familiar with the details confirm that the Arab plan for Gaza's future will include five main components:
1. Ending the war in Gaza with international commitments and guarantees
2. Withdrawal of all Israeli military or civilian forces from the Strip
3. Ending Hamas's rule in Gaza the day after the war
4. Rehabilitating the Strip and introducing large-scale humanitarian aid
5. Initiating a political process leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state
Even if the Egyptian initiative for Gaza's future does not satisfy the Israeli government, it represents an unprecedented initiative in the sense that it ends Hamas's rule in Gaza and marks the end of the organization as a political entity for the first time since 2007—all with the endorsement of Arab world leaders. Equally important is that the same plan, according to reports in Egypt, does not hand over control of the Strip to the Palestinian Authority in full but proposes establishing a joint administrative mechanism to oversee funds and the reconstruction process, ensuring full control over the resources of the "new state" to be established in Gaza.
With or without the Arab plan, Israeli coalition leaders continue to entertain various ideas such as "voluntary emigration," "evacuation and reconstruction of Gaza," "population thinning," or any other idea that aligns with Trump's vision, and the Israeli government fully backs the U.S. president's vision while abandoning any Israeli plan shaping the "day after" in Gaza. In the short term, this unites Netanyahu's coalition, encouraging it to survive for the sake of reaching the coveted goal Trump promised. But in the long term, Israel has lost the most important card it held until Trump entered the White House—the exclusive ability to determine the future of the Gaza Strip.
From the moment Trump declared he would take control of Gaza and asked Arab world leaders to present him with an alternative plan if they didn't like his, Israel became a secondary player in shaping the Strip's security and political fate. Or, in simpler terms, Trump may let Netanyahu decide what happens now, but the big decisions he will make himself. link
- IDF alerted PM’s intel officer of worrying Hamas activity 3 hours before Oct. 7 invasion; Officer didn’t pass material up chain.
The IDF drafted a document setting out the numerous worrying signs of Hamas activity in Gaza at 3:30 on the morning of October 7, three hours before Hamas-led terrorists invaded, and sent the document to the intelligence officers of seven key Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then defense minister Yoav Gallant, Channel 12 reports.
The IDF drafted a document setting out the numerous worrying signs of Hamas activity in Gaza at 3:30 on the morning of October 7, three hours before Hamas-led terrorists invaded, and sent the document to the intelligence officers of seven key Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then defense minister Yoav Gallant, Channel 12 reports.
Gallant’s office was unable to reach his intelligence officer, who, therefore, did not receive the document at that time.
Netanyahu’s intelligence officer and the other five all received the document. But Netanyahu’s officer did not pass the information up the chain, the report says.
The IDF did not investigate why the material was not passed on, the report says, because its investigations of the October 7 failures, published this week, did not touch on the political echelon.
The report quotes the IDF officer who oversaw the IDF’s intelligence investigation, Moshe Schneid, saying, “I didn’t check what went on there [in the chain of command in the Prime Minister’s Office] because I was very wary of probing the political echelon. I met the prime minister’s intelligence officer several times in the street and I was careful not even to ask him about it.”
The report also quotes outgoing IDF chief Herzi Halevi saying that the IDF did not publicize the fact that the Prime Minister’s Office was alerted to Hamas’s suspicious activity three hours ahead of the invasion “even though this could have helped us in the face of the bad things that are being said about us. We are very responsible and discreet. It’s a shame this is not reciprocated.”
It quotes Halevi adding: “If the prime minister’s intelligence officer was a person of integrity, he should already have told [Netanyahu] that he knew about [Hamas preparations just before the attack] and did not update [Netanyahu]. [The officer] did not do this.”
Netanyahu has repeatedly made clear that he received no specific advance warning ahead of the Hamas attack.
Gallant’s office was unable to reach his intelligence officer, who, therefore, did not receive the document at that time.
Netanyahu’s intelligence officer and the other five all received the document. But Netanyahu’s officer did not pass the information up the chain, the report says.
The IDF did not investigate why the material was not passed on, the report says, because its investigations of the October 7 failures, published this week, did not touch on the political echelon.
The report quotes the IDF officer who oversaw the IDF’s intelligence investigation, Moshe Schneid, saying, “I didn’t check what went on there [in the chain of command in the Prime Minister’s Office] because I was very wary of probing the political echelon. I met the prime minister’s intelligence officer several times in the street and I was careful not even to ask him about it.”
The report also quotes outgoing IDF chief Herzi Halevi saying that the IDF did not publicize the fact that the Prime Minister’s Office was alerted to Hamas’s suspicious activity three hours ahead of the invasion “even though this could have helped us in the face of the bad things that are being said about us. We are very responsible and discreet. It’s a shame this is not reciprocated.”
It quotes Halevi adding: “If the prime minister’s intelligence officer was a person of integrity, he should already have told [Netanyahu] that he knew about [Hamas preparations just before the attack] and did not update [Netanyahu]. [The officer] did not do this.”
Netanyahu has repeatedly made clear that he received no specific advance warning ahead of the Hamas attack.
- Netanyahu’s office hits back at IDF chief after report claimed PM’s aide was warned about Hamas.
The Prime Minister’s Office accuses IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi of trying to shirk responsibility for the October 7 attacks, after the top commander is quoted in a news report blasting the premier’s intelligence officer for not passing on information hours before terrorists poured across the border.
“It is very unfortunate that the Chief of Staff chooses to publicly attack a moral and trustworthy officer in the IDF,” says the PMO in a statement, “while attempting to shift the responsibility for the October 7 lapse onto his subordinates.”
According to Channel 12, the IDF drafted a document setting out the numerous worrying signs of Hamas activity in Gaza at 3:30 on the morning of October 7 and sent the document to the intelligence officers of seven key Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His intelligence officer received the document but did not pass the information up the chain, the report says.
The report quotes Halevi as saying: “If the prime minister’s intelligence officer was a person of integrity, he should already have told [Netanyahu] that he knew about [Hamas preparations just before the attack] and did not update [Netanyahu]. [The officer] did not do this.”
The PMO, in its statement, says the intelligence officer received the message along with a report that Hamas was operating as usual and that the IDF Southern Command would hold a discussion in the morning. The officer forwarded the message to Netanyahu’s military secretary, but given that the message did not indicate any urgency, decided not to wake him up.
Netanyahu’s office adds that the intelligence officer was not interviewed as part of the IDF investigations and was not allowed to attend the presentation of the findings.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has full confidence in the military secretariat of his office,” his office says. link As always, when given the choice to believe the Prime Minister or his office and almost anyone else, I and most of the public choose almost anyone else. Netanyahu is a pathological liar and his office does the same for him and his image. They state that the Chief of Staff is trying to shirk his responsibility. That statement is a joke. Almost immediately after the start of the war, Halevy stated that he and the IDF failed and he took direct responsibility. It is the exact opposite of what Netanyahu has done from day 1. He, not only has shirked any responsibility but he has done all he can to place all responsibility and blame on the IDF and security forces. His role as Prime Minister is only to reap the praise when things go his way and there are successes, but failures fall on everyone and anyone else, never on him. He never heard the phrase "the buck stops here." DISGRACEFUL!!!!
**Prime Minister's Office Admits: Update Was Transferred to Military Secretary on the Night of October 7 | Accusation Against the Chief of Staff – and Netanyahu's Response**
**First Publication:** The Chief of Staff accused the Prime Minister's Intelligence Officer of knowing about the developments on the night before the attack—but not updating Netanyahu. In response, the Intelligence Officer admitted that he had transferred an update to Netanyahu's Military Secretary during the night. This prompted a statement from Netanyahu's office, acknowledging that the update was indeed transferred to the Military Secretary, and claiming: "The Intelligence Officer chose not to wake him because it was determined that this was not an urgent event."
Following the publication on *Channel 12 News*, the Prime Minister's Office admitted last night (Saturday) that the message about the developments on the night of October 7 was transferred to Netanyahu's Military Secretary in the middle of the night, and not after 6:00 AM. The office's admission came after the revelation on *Weekend News* about the critical hours leading up to the surprise attack on Simchat Torah 2023 and the morning of October 7. The details were included in IDF investigations but were not made public until now, and they include quotes from Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi against the Prime Minister's Intelligence Officer.
**The Chief of Staff on the Morning of October 7**
On the night of October 7 at 3:30 AM, a confrontation occurred around a dramatic event in which a document with all the unusual signs was sent to the "Forum of Seven," the seven intelligence officers of the "important people in the country." The document was sent to six of them, but not to one. In the Defense Minister's office, they were unable to wake up the Defense Minister's Intelligence Officer, Yoav Gallant, and he did not receive an update.
In contrast, the Prime Minister's Intelligence Officer, a colonel, received information about the events in the Gaza Strip. Regarding this, the editor of the IDF investigation, Brig. Gen. Moshe Schneider, said in recent days: "I did not check what happened there because we were very careful not to investigate the political echelon. I met the Prime Minister's Intelligence Officer on the street a few times and was even careful not to ask him."
**Chief of Staff Halevi said:** "We did not release this to the media, even though it could have served us against the bad things being said about us. We are very responsible and discreet, and it's a shame we don't receive reciprocity. If the Prime Minister's Intelligence Officer had been an honest person, he should have already told him that he knew about this (Hamas's preparations on the eve of the attack) and did not update him. He did not do so."
In response to the military's accusations, the Intelligence Officer in the Prime Minister's Office claims that he reported transferring the information to the Prime Minister's Military Secretary, even though the document stated that the next discussion on Gaza would only take place in the morning, not immediately.
**The Prime Minister's Office Admits:** The message about the developments on the night of October 7 was transferred to Netanyahu's Military Secretary in the middle of the night.
After the Intelligence Officer's response, the Prime Minister's Office issued a statement, effectively admitting that the update was transferred to Military Secretary Avi Gil during the night: "It is very unfortunate that the Chief of Staff chooses to publicly attack an ethical and trustworthy officer in the IDF, as part of an attempt to shift the responsibility for the October 7 failure onto his subordinates."
"Contrary to the Chief of Staff's claim, the Intelligence Officer in the Prime Minister's Military Secretariat received a message on the night of October 7 presenting several indicative signs, alongside a statement that Hamas was operating routinely and that the Southern Command Commander would hold a discussion on the matter only the next morning," they added. "He immediately transferred the message verbatim to the Military Secretary—but given the determination in the message that this was not an urgent event, he chose not to wake him from his sleep."
They further added: "Only after the war began, at 6:29 AM on Saturday, did the Military Secretary update the Prime Minister on the night's events. It should be emphasized that the Intelligence Officer in the Prime Minister's Military Secretariat was not investigated, was not invited to present the IDF's investigations, and was even denied the opportunity to attend after requesting it. Only on the day of the presentation itself, after the intelligence investigations were presented, was approval given for the officer to attend. Prime Minister Netanyahu has full confidence in the Military Secretariat of his office."
**Fear of Radwan Invasion:** "If Hezbollah Had Attacked, It Would Have Reached Haifa"
We also revealed last night that Chief of Staff Halevi referred to what he experienced then, until 12:30 PM on October 7, when it was already clear that Nasrallah was not joining, and was heard saying: "If Nasrallah had attacked now—we could have had Radwan trucks in Haifa." In effect, this sums up the dire strategic situation of the State of Israel that morning and, to some extent, explains the delays in deploying forces to the Gaza border area.
In Israel, there was terror regarding the northern front. They did not know what was happening there, and at all times, there was a thought about a conversation that had taken place between the leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah months earlier. The understanding was that an attack might have been coordinated between Hamas and Hezbollah, and only in the afternoon did it become clear that this was not the case. link
The Prime Minister’s Office accuses IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi of trying to shirk responsibility for the October 7 attacks, after the top commander is quoted in a news report blasting the premier’s intelligence officer for not passing on information hours before terrorists poured across the border.
“It is very unfortunate that the Chief of Staff chooses to publicly attack a moral and trustworthy officer in the IDF,” says the PMO in a statement, “while attempting to shift the responsibility for the October 7 lapse onto his subordinates.”
According to Channel 12, the IDF drafted a document setting out the numerous worrying signs of Hamas activity in Gaza at 3:30 on the morning of October 7 and sent the document to the intelligence officers of seven key Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His intelligence officer received the document but did not pass the information up the chain, the report says.
The report quotes Halevi as saying: “If the prime minister’s intelligence officer was a person of integrity, he should already have told [Netanyahu] that he knew about [Hamas preparations just before the attack] and did not update [Netanyahu]. [The officer] did not do this.”
The PMO, in its statement, says the intelligence officer received the message along with a report that Hamas was operating as usual and that the IDF Southern Command would hold a discussion in the morning. The officer forwarded the message to Netanyahu’s military secretary, but given that the message did not indicate any urgency, decided not to wake him up.
Netanyahu’s office adds that the intelligence officer was not interviewed as part of the IDF investigations and was not allowed to attend the presentation of the findings.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has full confidence in the military secretariat of his office,” his office says. link As always, when given the choice to believe the Prime Minister or his office and almost anyone else, I and most of the public choose almost anyone else. Netanyahu is a pathological liar and his office does the same for him and his image. They state that the Chief of Staff is trying to shirk his responsibility. That statement is a joke. Almost immediately after the start of the war, Halevy stated that he and the IDF failed and he took direct responsibility. It is the exact opposite of what Netanyahu has done from day 1. He, not only has shirked any responsibility but he has done all he can to place all responsibility and blame on the IDF and security forces. His role as Prime Minister is only to reap the praise when things go his way and there are successes, but failures fall on everyone and anyone else, never on him. He never heard the phrase "the buck stops here." DISGRACEFUL!!!!
**Prime Minister's Office Admits: Update Was Transferred to Military Secretary on the Night of October 7 | Accusation Against the Chief of Staff – and Netanyahu's Response**
**First Publication:** The Chief of Staff accused the Prime Minister's Intelligence Officer of knowing about the developments on the night before the attack—but not updating Netanyahu. In response, the Intelligence Officer admitted that he had transferred an update to Netanyahu's Military Secretary during the night. This prompted a statement from Netanyahu's office, acknowledging that the update was indeed transferred to the Military Secretary, and claiming: "The Intelligence Officer chose not to wake him because it was determined that this was not an urgent event."
Following the publication on *Channel 12 News*, the Prime Minister's Office admitted last night (Saturday) that the message about the developments on the night of October 7 was transferred to Netanyahu's Military Secretary in the middle of the night, and not after 6:00 AM. The office's admission came after the revelation on *Weekend News* about the critical hours leading up to the surprise attack on Simchat Torah 2023 and the morning of October 7. The details were included in IDF investigations but were not made public until now, and they include quotes from Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi against the Prime Minister's Intelligence Officer.
**The Chief of Staff on the Morning of October 7**
On the night of October 7 at 3:30 AM, a confrontation occurred around a dramatic event in which a document with all the unusual signs was sent to the "Forum of Seven," the seven intelligence officers of the "important people in the country." The document was sent to six of them, but not to one. In the Defense Minister's office, they were unable to wake up the Defense Minister's Intelligence Officer, Yoav Gallant, and he did not receive an update.
In contrast, the Prime Minister's Intelligence Officer, a colonel, received information about the events in the Gaza Strip. Regarding this, the editor of the IDF investigation, Brig. Gen. Moshe Schneider, said in recent days: "I did not check what happened there because we were very careful not to investigate the political echelon. I met the Prime Minister's Intelligence Officer on the street a few times and was even careful not to ask him."
**Chief of Staff Halevi said:** "We did not release this to the media, even though it could have served us against the bad things being said about us. We are very responsible and discreet, and it's a shame we don't receive reciprocity. If the Prime Minister's Intelligence Officer had been an honest person, he should have already told him that he knew about this (Hamas's preparations on the eve of the attack) and did not update him. He did not do so."
In response to the military's accusations, the Intelligence Officer in the Prime Minister's Office claims that he reported transferring the information to the Prime Minister's Military Secretary, even though the document stated that the next discussion on Gaza would only take place in the morning, not immediately.
**The Prime Minister's Office Admits:** The message about the developments on the night of October 7 was transferred to Netanyahu's Military Secretary in the middle of the night.
After the Intelligence Officer's response, the Prime Minister's Office issued a statement, effectively admitting that the update was transferred to Military Secretary Avi Gil during the night: "It is very unfortunate that the Chief of Staff chooses to publicly attack an ethical and trustworthy officer in the IDF, as part of an attempt to shift the responsibility for the October 7 failure onto his subordinates."
"Contrary to the Chief of Staff's claim, the Intelligence Officer in the Prime Minister's Military Secretariat received a message on the night of October 7 presenting several indicative signs, alongside a statement that Hamas was operating routinely and that the Southern Command Commander would hold a discussion on the matter only the next morning," they added. "He immediately transferred the message verbatim to the Military Secretary—but given the determination in the message that this was not an urgent event, he chose not to wake him from his sleep."
They further added: "Only after the war began, at 6:29 AM on Saturday, did the Military Secretary update the Prime Minister on the night's events. It should be emphasized that the Intelligence Officer in the Prime Minister's Military Secretariat was not investigated, was not invited to present the IDF's investigations, and was even denied the opportunity to attend after requesting it. Only on the day of the presentation itself, after the intelligence investigations were presented, was approval given for the officer to attend. Prime Minister Netanyahu has full confidence in the Military Secretariat of his office."
**Fear of Radwan Invasion:** "If Hezbollah Had Attacked, It Would Have Reached Haifa"
We also revealed last night that Chief of Staff Halevi referred to what he experienced then, until 12:30 PM on October 7, when it was already clear that Nasrallah was not joining, and was heard saying: "If Nasrallah had attacked now—we could have had Radwan trucks in Haifa." In effect, this sums up the dire strategic situation of the State of Israel that morning and, to some extent, explains the delays in deploying forces to the Gaza border area.
In Israel, there was terror regarding the northern front. They did not know what was happening there, and at all times, there was a thought about a conversation that had taken place between the leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah months earlier. The understanding was that an attack might have been coordinated between Hamas and Hezbollah, and only in the afternoon did it become clear that this was not the case. link
The Region and the World
- US military says it killed senior Al-Qaeda leader in Syria.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) says it had carried out a precision airstrike in Syria, targeting and killing a senior leader in an Al-Qaeda affiliate.
CENTCOM says it killed Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, the senior military leader of Hurras al-Din (HaD), an Al-Qaeda affiliate.
“As we have said in the past, we will continue to relentlessly pursue these terrorists in order to defend our homeland, and US, allied, and partner personnel in the region,” says Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, CENTCOM commander.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) says it had carried out a precision airstrike in Syria, targeting and killing a senior leader in an Al-Qaeda affiliate.
CENTCOM says it killed Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, the senior military leader of Hurras al-Din (HaD), an Al-Qaeda affiliate.
“As we have said in the past, we will continue to relentlessly pursue these terrorists in order to defend our homeland, and US, allied, and partner personnel in the region,” says Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, CENTCOM commander.
Personal Stories
59 Hostages Remain in Gaza - Their Stories (5 a day)
Rom Breslavsky Age 21, Jerusalem 
Rom was providing security at the nature party in Re'im when he was abducted. He was initially declared missing, and later his family received confirmation that he had been taken hostage. He was last seen in the Re'im area on Saturday at 2:00 PM. Mark Mizrahi, who was with him at the party, recounted that Rom bravely protected the group. "When a group of unarmed Arabs approached us, Rom told us all to gather stones, sticks, and whatever we could find to drive them away. And it worked—they actually left us alone," Mark said, adding, "He tried to move the bodies of two girls to prevent them from being taken to Gaza, until an RPG was fired at us, and everyone scattered in all directions. Since then, there has been no trace of him." Maxim KharkinAge 36, Tirat HaCarmel 
Maxim was abducted from the party in Re'im. His family shared that this was his first trance festival. He lived in Tirat HaCarmel with his single mother and an 11-year-old brother, serving as the family's father figure. He is also a father to a 3-year-old daughter. He attended the party spontaneously after accepting an invitation from friends. He planned to stay for a few hours and return home. When the first barrage of rockets began, he texted his mother, "Mom, everything is fine, I'm coming home slowly." A few minutes later, he wrote, "Mom, I love you." She has not heard from him since.
Sagev Kalphon Age 27, Dimona 
Sagev was abducted from the party in Re'im. He had recently embarked on a new career in the stock market after years of working in his family's bakery.
Yosef Chaim Ohana Age 24, Kiryat Malakhi 
Yosef was abducted from the party in Re'im. His relatives shared that he and his friends at the party began helping the wounded, moving them to medics and ambulances. "They tried to run toward the main road, but then they saw RPGs being fired at him and his friend. Yosef Chaim ran to the left, and his friend ran to the right and hid under a car. The friend was hit by the RPG and managed to see Yosef Chaim peeking out from behind the car he was hiding behind. After that, he never saw him again." Yosef worked as a bartender at the Aryeh restaurant in Tel Aviv. He dreamed of starting to study something in the field of coaching. Over the past year, he had been living with his grandmother because she lived in the center, which was convenient for his work. His mother said, "I'm a single mother, and he always helps me—he even paid my rent once."
Pinta Natapong Age 35, Thailand 
Pinta, a married man, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he worked in the avocado orchard.NY Times article about Einav Tsengauker
How an Anguished Mother Became Netanyahu’s Fiercest FoeEinav Zangauker, whose son is captive in Gaza, has made herself an unlikely enemy of the Israeli government.
The Israeli poet Aharon Shabtai published a poem last fall that begins with the words “Instead of Moses.” Instead of Abraham, it continues, instead of Buddha, Jesus, Socrates and Tolstoy,
Instead, instead of everything,
I see by day,
And see at night,
I see in a dream, and on waking,
In bed, in the shower, and on the road,
In shops
In Tel Aviv and in Jerusalem,
Only the face
Only the face
Of Einav Zangauker.
The face of Einav Zangauker. How to describe it? The drooping eyes. The dark pits in which they rest. The toothy mouth that tugs downward. And the gaze. The gaze of Einav Zangauker — whose son, Matan, was captured by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and remains a hostage in Gaza — is one that has seen the other side. It’s a gaze of anguish. Of torture, rage, sleeplessness and steel. It’s a gaze that the entire Israeli public has come to recognize, because Einav — she is now known by her first name only — is the country’s most visible representative of the hostage crisis and its fiercest opponent of the war.
On a recent Saturday evening, Einav dragged deeply on a cigarette. She was standing in the plaza outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which Israelis have renamed Hostages Square, shivering in a thin black cardigan and skinny jeans — her legs like two twigs wrapped in bark. She has lost 25 pounds since the attacks, and her frame was that of a girl, though her face looked older than her 46 years.
“He will come home!” a woman called out to her.
“Thank you,” Einav replied softly.
Behind her, a giant screen projected the words “Get Them Out of Hell.” A clock showed 490 days, 12 hours, 43 minutes and counting. That morning, Israelis all over the country gathered for watch parties to celebrate the fifth scheduled release of hostages in five weeks. The releases until then were joyful — the hostages seeming relatively healthy — but this time the sight was ominous. The three men paraded onto a stage in central Gaza by their masked captors appeared skeletal and frail. Health professionals advised the families not to press them for information, but details began trickling out. One of the men was shackled for the entirety of his time in captivity; he did not walk or stand for 16 months, according to the Israeli media. All three men were starved, occasionally going days without any food whatsoever. They were subjected to interrogations during which they were tied upside down, beaten and burned with scalding objects. To see the state the men were in, Einav said, was “a catastrophe.”
Einav speaking in February at one of the weekly Saturday protests near the I.D.F. headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Michal Chelbin for The New York Times
The families of the 251 hostages taken on Oct. 7 represent all sectors of Israeli society. Many hailed from the kibbutzim, the collective farming communities that are traditionally left-wing strongholds. Some came from the peripheria, impoverished towns in economic development zones, which lean heavily right. There were Bedouins, settlers and children of immigrants. Together they have become a forceful bloc influencing Israeli politics, though they hold differing views on the war. A handful of the families have opposed any agreement with Hamas, even one that would free their loved ones, if it meant the retreat of Israeli forces from strategic corridors in Gaza. But an overwhelming majority of families have been unified in calling for a deal that would bring the hostages home in exchange for a cease-fire and prisoner release.
In January, Israel signed just such a deal with Hamas, but to the dismay of many families, it was divided into two phases: The first phase, which ends on Saturday, consisted of a six-week cease-fire and the exchange of roughly 1,500 Palestinian prisoners for 33 Israeli hostages, starting with women, men over 50 and the sick and wounded. The second phase would include a full Israeli retreat from Gaza and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the remaining 59 hostages, about 25 of whom Israeli authorities believe to be alive.
Many of the hostage families have found solace at the square, where they gather with their supporters to hold vigils, sing songs and mark birthdays as they await news of their loved ones. Recently, a tunnel, which you can walk through, was erected in the middle of the square, simulating Hamas’s underground network. Nearby, a booth with V.R. technology bears a sign: “Experience through the Hostages’ Eyes.” But that Saturday, when Einav heard the violin music that signaled the start of a vigil, she got ready to leave.For Einav and some other hostage relatives, the displays at the square, which are organized by the Hostage Families Forum, an apolitical advocacy group, are too sentimental, too toothless. When I talked to Ifat Kalderon, whose cousin, Ofer, was released from captivity in early February, she called it not “Kikar Hahatufim” (Hostages Square), but “Kikar Halitufim” (Caressing Square). She said that when members of her family gave a speech there last year, “They were told, ‘No matter what, you can’t go onstage and make accusations against members of the government or Netanyahu.’” (The forum’s media department said the group’s messaging is determined by the families themselves and “changes according to ongoing situations.”)
Einav, a former house cleaner from the hardscrabble southern town Ofakim, voted for Netanyahu and his Likud party in every election in which he ran. But she is convinced that he has torpedoed past deals to free the hostages and may blow up the current cease-fire before all the captives are released. Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that rooting out Hamas was his top priority in Gaza; by withdrawing now, as required by the agreement’s second phase, he would be forced to concede that Hamas remains the ruling force there.
His political future may also be at stake: Though Netanyahu agreed to the terms of the deal, two of his far-right ministers refused to support it, warning against the release of Palestinian prisoners and calling for Jewish settlements in Gaza. One of them, Itamar Ben-Gvir, resigned from the government in protest. The other, Israel’s ultranationalist finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, threatened that if the agreement entered its second phase, he, too, would resign — an outcome that could dissolve the government and trigger a new election.
Matan, who turned 25 in captivity, was not included in the list of hostages that Hamas agreed to free in the first phase of the truce deal; he will be released only if Israel and Hamas see the next phase of the deal through. And so Einav has been relentless in her activism: She has camped out in a tent across from Israel’s legislature, the Knesset; chained herself to bridges; lit a bonfire in the middle of a Tel Aviv highway; and marched on Netanyahu’s house. “I will personally haunt you if my Matan comes home in a body bag,” she said later, addressing him. “I will be your biggest nightmare.” Naama Lazimi, a member of the Knesset from the opposition, said that, for Netanyahu’s base, “Einav is the hardest thing for them to encounter, because she is them: She is the Mizrahi” — a Jew of North African descent — “Likud voter from Ofakim.”
Einav during a protest in Tel Aviv on Aug. 17, 2024.
Credit...Tsafrir Abayov/Associated Press
That evening in Tel Aviv, Einav said her goodbyes at the vigil, then walked briskly toward the Israel Defense Forces headquarters on Begin Road, where some hostage families started gravitating a year ago, seeking an alternative to the atmosphere at Hostages Square. At Begin Road, the protests are more explicitly political and combative. There are no media advisers to rein in the speakers, no talk about replacing the phrase “end the war” with the more diplomatic-sounding “long-term cease-fire.”
Einav has become the voice of the Begin protest movement. Her speeches, delivered nearly every Saturday night, are direct and assertive. Through her uncompromising perseverance, she has managed to coalesce a good portion of the public that yearns for political change. Seventy percent of Israelis support continuing with the cease-fire agreement and withdrawing from Gaza in exchange for all the hostages, according to a recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute.
By the time Einav arrived at Begin Road that evening, hundreds of protesters had already assembled. “All of them! Now!” people chanted. Many wore baseball caps in MAGA red, a direct appeal to President Trump, that read, in English, “END THIS FUC*!NG WAR.” Einav climbed onto a pedestrian overpass overlooking the sea of protesters below. Upon seeing her, a deafening chant rose: “We are with you! You are not alone!”
“I love you all, but I am raging!” Einav cried out into the microphone. “The prime minister is vacationing in Washington while we are watching a reality show of the Holocaust!” The crowd booed and hissed; a rolling drumbeat began.
“My Matan,” she went on. “The government betrayed you, but the people of Israel are all with you.” She urged him, “Hold on just a little longer!”
Every night, before she drifts off, Einav sees the same image: Matan, sitting cross-legged on the floor of a small, windowless cell, iron bars slammed closed in front of him. Released hostages have testified that Hamas held some of the men in cages in underground tunnels. With that picture in her mind, Einav finds it “impossible to sleep,” she told me over instant coffee last month (her 20th cup that morning). “My eyes burn. I’m like a baby that cries itself to sleep. At some point, I collapse.”
Einav last saw Matan the night before he was captured. It was a Friday, and he came for Shabbat dinner with his girlfriend, Ilana Gritzewsky. Ilana, who was then 30, had just returned from visiting her parents in Mexico, where she was raised. Matan and Ilana shared a modest house in Kibbutz Nir Oz, which abuts Israel’s fence with Gaza. They met and fell in love while managing a cannabis greenhouse. Matan, like Einav’s father, had a passion for working the land. They were a handsome, dreamy-looking couple: Matan with long, untamed curls; Ilana with a deep tan and a delicate nose ring.
Posters of Ilana and Matan in Nir Oz. Ilana was released from captivity after 55 days. Michal Chelbin for The New York Times
Matan had been an introverted and plaintive boy. His friends nicknamed him Akavish — “Spider” — because he had arachnophobia. While they liked going out to movies and parties, he preferred to stay home and build model airplanes. This suited Einav, who describes herself as an extremely anxious parent. She also has two daughters; the younger one, who is 13, has a disabling genetic disorder and at times uses a wheelchair. Einav called her children dozens of times a day to check on their whereabouts. She divorced her husband when they were little, and Matan took on the role of a substitute father. He used to brush his youngest sister’s hair at night.
When the family gathered for dinner that Friday, Einav served her son’s favorite: slow-cooked veal. Ilana brought over challah and a chocolate cake that she baked that morning.They were supposed to reconvene at Einav’s place for cholent the next day, but at 6:32 a.m., as air-raid sirens blared across the country, Matan texted his mother to check on the family. He later tried to reassure her: “Ima” — Mom — “I’m fine. Everything is OK.”
An hour later, as Hamas militants moved from house to house in a murderous spree, he asked her, “Is the I.D.F. in the kibbutzim?”
Einav responded: “There are not enough forces.” Using a term of endearment, she added, “Don’t leave the safe room, kapara, OK???”
Shortly before 10, Matan sent a flurry of texts:
“Anything new?”
“Are we attacking?”
“There are still gunshots here.”
Einav told him that there were shots in Ofakim too. “Stay quiet. Turn off the lights.”
“Ima I love you,” he wrote back. Then: “Someone is here.”
As Matan and Ilana heard the terrorists break into their house, they made the decision to flee. Matan held the door of the safe room closed while Ilana jumped out the window. Then he jumped, too. With nowhere to hide outside, Matan told Ilana to run. But she felt too paralyzed to move and was captured by Hamas when she tried to seek help at a neighbor’s house. Her last glimpse of Matan was of him running in his pajamas and socks. His long hair was matted. “He had a look of fear on his face,” she told me.
For weeks after Matan and Ilana vanished, Einav thought she was losing her mind. She knew Matan was a hostage in Gaza, but it wasn’t until May that she learned the circumstances of his capture.
Israeli media made public an I.D.F. interrogation video, in which an 18-year-old arrested in Gaza in March recounted how he rampaged through Nir Oz with a small group including his father, who he said was a member of the Hamas security services. When they saw Matan cowering in some bushes, the man said, they struck him in the back, then ordered him to take them to his home, where “he gave us Coke, Nutella and water.” A passing Toyota van full of people stopped them as they led Matan outside. “They took him from me by force, put him in the jeep and took him to Gaza,” the man said in the interrogation video. (The Times was not able to independently verify the claims in the video or determine the circumstances under which they were made. International law experts and human rights groups caution that interrogation videos are, by definition, made under duress.)
In the days after Matan’s disappearance, Einav believed that it wouldn’t be long before Netanyahu negotiated the release of the hostages, who ranged in age from a 9-month-old baby to men and women in their 80s. “Everyone told me to stay quiet, so I did,” she said. She trusted Netanyahu to act. “I used to watch him on the big stages and see his international legitimacy,” she told me. “People eagerly listened to him, and so did I. I used to drink in his words.” Instead, Netanyahu, intent on eradicating Hamas, began a bombardment of Gaza that became one of the most ferocious military campaigns of the 21st century. According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed, a majority of them women and children.
In the fall of 2023, Israel and Hamas negotiated a deal that brought home Ilana and 104 other hostages. Einav was so eager to see her that she camped out in secret at the hospital where Ilana was being treated just so she could catch a glimpse of her. She feared that Ilana would choose to return to her parents in Mexico after her release. But Ilana has barely left her side since. “I didn’t know what I was coming home to,” Ilana said. “But as soon as I realized that Matan was in the tunnels, I knew that my whole life was in those tunnels.”
Ilana at her and Matan’s home in Nir Oz, where she writes messages to Matan on the walls.Michal Chelbin for The New York Times
More hostage releases were set to unfold over the following days, but the 2023 deal soon collapsed: Israel blamed Hamas for reneging on the terms of the agreement by attempting to release three corpses instead of three living female hostages. Members of Israel’s war cabinet argued in closed meetings that Israel should overlook the infraction and maintain the cease-fire, to save as many hostages as it could. “I thought that it was right to continue implementing the deal in any way possible,” Gadi Eisenkot, a retired general and member of the war cabinet, told the investigative news show “Uvda” last year. But Netanyahu and his broader security cabinet overruled them. That night, Israel resumed its bombing campaign in Gaza. “That was my first breaking point,” Einav told me. “I remember thinking, How do I peel myself off the floor?”
That winter, Einav met with Netanyahu for a second time since the attacks, along with relatives of other hostages. “We will do everything in our power to bring your loved ones home,” he told them again. When the families pressed him on what he meant by “everything,” Netanyahu waffled, according to Einav. “That’s when the thought started to nag at me that something bad was happening,” she told me. Einav disagreed with the few families at that meeting who called for preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. Einav knew from Ilana that what little food the hostages received came from the aid packages, and a blockade would also hurt everyday Palestinians, which she found morally wrong. But Netanyahu “seemed to back those families, after telling us something completely different,” she told me. “I realized that his war goals” — to eliminate Hamas and bring back the hostages — “were on a collision course.”
Gil Dickmann, whose cousin was among those captured from Kibbutz Be’eri, recalled paying attention to Einav at that meeting. “She had a no-bullshit attitude,” he said. She told me that she was the last to speak, and she informed Netanyahu that just as her vote gave him a mandate to lead, she would “take that mandate away.” In the months before that meeting, “We had a sense that we were being played, but we didn’t know by whom,” Dickmann said. “Then, as time passed, it became clear who the biggest player of all was. It became clear that the person responsible was Netanyahu.”
By then, several hostage families had begun to protest outside the I.D.F. headquarters near Begin Road. They hoped to intercept politicians and security chiefs as they drove into the compound. The first to do so was Avichai Brodutch, a pineapple grower from Kibbutz Kfar Aza whose wife and children were captured from their home. Days after the attacks, he set up a chair and a hand-drawn sign: “My family is in Gaza.” He was soon joined by Hadas Kalderon, whose two children and ex-husband, Ofer, were also held hostage by Hamas. Kalderon and a handful of other women formed a group called the Mothers’ Guard. Einav occasionally drove by with her daughters and offered her support, but she initially shied away from public action. As she put it, “I was still under the influence of the Bibi-ist cult.”
The Brodutch and Kalderon children were returned as part of the 2023 truce deal. Hadas and Avichai now devoted themselves to their children’s rehabilitation. So Ifat Kalderon, Ofer’s cousin, took over the Begin Road guard with a handful of other relatives and supporters. In February 2024, Einav, still anguished after the meeting with Netanyahu, decided to sleep outside the defense headquarters until Matan returned. Kalderon and the other women arranged a tent and blankets for her and offered their sympathies. Once the police ordered her to remove the tent, she joined the rest of the group at Begin.
The truce deal had by then collapsed, and the women believed that more urgent action was needed. The Begin families decided to schedule weekly protests on Saturday evenings, coinciding with the vigils at Hostages Square held by the Families Forum. In March 2024, they delivered their first joint statement, arguing that Netanyahu’s conduct regarding the hostages amounted to “a crime.” Their goal was twofold, Kalderon told me: to pressure him not to foil future deals, and to call for an end to the war in Gaza. Some of them spoke out explicitly against the killing of innocent Palestinians.
A rebellious streak runs through the Begin families; they are tough-minded and unsentimental. They are not careful. Gilad Kariv, a politician from the left-wing Democrats Party who has followed closely the protest of the hostage families, said that “Einav and her group came in at just the right time.” Without the work of the official hostages group, he said, there would not be such overwhelming support among Israelis for the cease-fire deal. But without the work of the Begin families, he added, “there would be no political impact” — no successful campaign to tie the failures of Oct. 7 to Netanyahu and his government.
The Begin families were helped along by a well-organized, countrywide protest movement that galvanized Israelis in the months preceding the October attacks, when a Netanyahu-backed series of bills aimed at weakening the courts touched off public furor. Many figures who had become prominent in the anti-government movement now took up the hostage issue. They joined forces with relatives of the captives. They arranged sit-ins and strikes, mobilized supporters to camp out in Jerusalem outside the Knesset and held “disruptions,” which included blocking major highways. Together they represented a new kind of opposition, with Einav as its most recognizable leader.
“It breaks my heart to say it, but there’s no opposition,” Einav recently told a sympathetic lawmaker, in an exchange caught on camera by Channel 12. “We are the opposition: the hostage families, the public that is out there with us every day and every night.” Last summer, activists dangled a large cage from the Begin overpass, with Einav hoisted inside it. Thousands of protesters joined her in chanting, “We will not abandon them!” Holding a megaphone, she cried out: “A hostage deal is the cure to everything that is going on in this country. It will unite us! It will connect us!”
Einav protesting in Tel Aviv last July during a demonstration to mark nine months since the Oct. 7 attacks. ("The government abandoned, the people will return them")Eloisa Lopez/Reuters
Her public campaign has overtaken her private life. The meal she prepared for Matan that Shabbat evening was the last time she cooked. She can’t face being in the kitchen, she told me. “To me it represents family, and my family isn’t complete.” She recently pulled her youngest daughter out of school and moved with her daughters to Tel Aviv, away from their extended family, in order to be close to the center of the protest movement. Once a week, she drives her daughter back home to a specialized center for her treatment. She worried that, in her total devotion to saving her son, she has lost sight of her daughters. “It’s a scar that they will carry forever,” she said.
The headline of an admiring article about Einav recently declared: “Not an operative, not a politician, not nice.” Not-niceness has become part of her public persona, but in recent weeks, as I spent time with her in protests and alone, I was struck by her almost radical acceptance of others. She respects anyone who challenges her way of thinking — welcomes it, even. She has remained close with those hostage families who prefer a more muted, reverential approach toward those in power. “I don’t think I have a right to criticize any family,” she told me. “Just as my Matan was kidnapped, so was their loved one.” Occasionally, though, that facade will crack, and she will lose her composure. When one hostage mother told her recently that the Israeli military “hasn’t finished the job in Gaza,” Einav shot back: “And your son is the subcontractor?”
The government’s supporters have watched her growing influence with alarm. For more than a year, Netanyahu-friendly media outlets, particularly Israel’s Channel 14, have adamantly opposed any deal with Hamas: Their official line was that only sustained military pressure would bring the hostages home and reinstate a sense of security in Israel. But in August, the bodies of six hostages were recovered by Israeli soldiers operating in a Gaza tunnel — an autopsy revealed that they were shot by their captors at close range and were starving before they were killed. Einav and other hostage relatives pointed out that the terms of the current truce agreement were essentially the same as ones supported by former President Joe Biden back in May. Had Netanyahu been willing to take the deal then, they argued, those six hostages would still be alive.
Pundits on Channel 14 began to lash out against several of the hostage relatives — particularly Einav. “She’s very vocal, very belligerent, very aggressive,” Irit Linur, one of the channel’s regular talking heads, said. Likud activists went even further, suggesting that she was being paid by the anti-Netanyahu movement. “You sold your son for money!” Avi Saban, a party operative, said in a video that went viral. Amnon Abramovich, a political analyst for Israel’s Channel 12, told me that Netanyahu and his supporters in the media, “turned Einav Zangauker and the families of the hostages into domestic enemies. They created a malicious and false equation: either total victory or the return of the hostages.” At protests, Einav was spat on and cursed at. In September, the police arrested a man who had released a video in which he brandished a knife and threatened her.
Einav watching as her older daughter, Natalie, was lowered from a bridge on a Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway after painting the message “First of all, the hostages!” during a protest.Michal Chelbin for The New York Times
Einav first received proof that Matan was alive from Yocheved Lifshitz, a hostage in her 80s who was one of the first released after the attacks. Lifshitz, who was shown a photograph of Matan, confirmed that she saw him in a tunnel in Gaza. Further proof came last summer, when a bottle of urine retrieved by soldiers from a tunnel was found to contain Matan’s DNA. For months after that, however, Einav had no news of him.
Then, in December, Hamas released a three-minute video. Einav was in her car when she received it. She pulled over and pressed play on her phone, covering her mouth.
Matan, his hair shorn and his face wan, could be seen sitting against a concrete wall.
“I am prisoner Matan Zangauker, and I’ve been in Hamas captivity for more than 420 days,” he said. “Isolation kills, and darkness is scary. … Every day I die a little more.” He spoke of the hardships of captivity, of living with rats and spiders.
Einav watched, sobbing. “Haim sheli” — my life — she kept repeating.
At one point, Matan addressed her. “Ima, I watch you, and I hear a lot about you, I am aware of the things you’re doing,” he said. “I hope to sit with you again at the same table, eat with you, talk to you.”
The experience of hearing his voice was so overpowering, Einav later said, that she could feel her “uterus contract” — as if she were in labor once again.
Around that time, Einav drove to Jerusalem to attend a national-security meeting at the Knesset. Since the attacks, hostage families have been allowed to speak briefly at the start of parliamentary committees, though members of the coalition increasingly cut them off, order them removed or sit out the hearings altogether. Einav found herself sitting at a table across from Ben-Gvir, the ultranationalist minister, who would later boast of having personally scuttled deals to release the hostages. “Over the last year, using our political power, we managed to prevent the deal from going ahead, time after time,” he wrote on social media. His admission contradicted Netanyahu’s oft-repeated claims that only Hamas was at fault for foiling a deal until now.
Einav turned to Ben-Gvir and told him that she had tried to meet with him before. “But you chose to run away,” she said. “There are hostages who are now dozens of meters underground. The fact that you want to pave roads, build outposts and settle the Gaza Strip on their blood, without bringing them back home, is not a Jewish value.” She asked him how he could call himself religious if he didn’t abide by the Jewish mitzvah to redeem captives.
Referring to the Hamas leader at the time, Yahya Sinwar, Ben-Gvir told her: “In this deal, we’re going to release a thousand Sinwars. Sorry, I’m not willing to have thousands of our daughters raped —”
Einav shot up from her chair. “They’re being raped now!” she screamed. The moderator interjected and called for a break.
By January, as the list of hostages to be released in the first phase of the agreement was being determined, Einav was no longer allowed into the Knesset building. Standing on the pavement outside, she told the guard who refused her entry: “The prime minister of Israel is carrying out a selektzia” — a charged reference to the selection process used by the Nazis to determine who would go to a forced labor camp and who would die. She knew that Matan’s name would not be on the list, because he was a young, healthy man and was not considered a priority. But as she and the other hostage families saw it, by that point, all the hostages were a priority.She said she was exhilarated to see the first releases of hostages but worried that the truce would not last long enough for them to continue. In February, when the Hebrew media began reporting that Netanyahu was about to overhaul his negotiating team, installing confidants instead of seasoned negotiators, Einav decided to follow him to Washington.
I met her in Tel Aviv two days before her trip. She said that she did not trust Netanyahu to carry out the will of the Israeli public and honor the cease-fire. She had witnessed how politics in Israel gets done, she told me: “In the dark, by pulling strings.” There had been growing calls for her to enter the political fray. But, she said, “if this is the face of politics, why should I enter?”
She anxiously waited outside the White House for news of the meeting between Netanyahu and Trump. Shortly before 7, the two leaders stepped out, and Trump spoke. What he proposed next — that the United States would “own” Gaza and displace its two million people — caught even his own advisers by surprise, The Times has reported. Trump was advocating what amounted to a population transfer from the Gaza Strip — a form of ethnic cleansing in violation of international law. In an interview with Fox News from Washington, Netanyahu seized on Trump’s mass-displacement plan, calling it “the first fresh idea in years.”
The hostage relatives responded with disbelief. “Stunned,” one characterized his reaction in Haaretz. “Totally crazy,” Ifat Kalderon told me. Einav did not want to be seen criticizing the plan. “I won’t go into discussions of the ‘day after’ in Gaza,” she said in a video. “I’m not a politician.” But when I saw her after her return, she looked crestfallen. Trump’s comments meant that the cease-fire deal, already fragile, had grown even more strained.
“Surviving?” an acquaintance asked her.
“More than Matan,” she responded.
A week later, on Feb. 15, Hamas staged yet another armed ceremony for the handover of three male hostages to the Red Cross. As in previous ceremonies, they gave the captives “release diplomas” and displayed an array of firearms stolen from the Israeli military. But onstage this time was something else: a large hourglass with pictures of Einav and Matan, and a message in Hebrew, Arabic and English — “Time is running out.”
Before his release, the Israeli hostage Yair Horn was forced to hold an hourglass on a pedestal with pictures of Einav and Matan and the words “time is running out” in Hebrew, Arabic and English.Eyad Baba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The display set off public uproar in Israel. It also appeared to bolster the argument that Einav’s campaign may be proving counterproductive. Tzvika Mor, whose son was captured from the Nova music festival, argues that Einav’s actions have made Matan too precious an asset for Hamas. In a radio interview last year, Mor said: “I think that Matan Zangauker is the most valuable hostage because of these actions. I have a hard time understanding the steps she is taking.” He went on: “The enemy wants to hurt you. The more you cry ‘ow,’ the more he gets the feedback that he is on the right path.” But the way Einav sees it, “It’s a mistake to sit quietly.” She did not want to end up like the wife of Ron Arad, an Israeli taken captive after he went missing in Lebanon in 1986, who, Einav said, “was told to sit at home, not go out and protest.” Nearly 40 years after his disappearance, his fate is still unknown, though he is presumed to be long dead.
Last week, outrage in Israel grew, as the euphoric celebrations over the first releases of hostages gave way to scenes of mourning. Israelis were informed that the next release would be not of living hostages but of four bodies: a young mother, Shiri Bibas, who was abducted at 32; her two flame-haired little boys — 9-month-old Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel — and 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz, a veteran peace activist. But they weren’t prepared for the macabre exhibiting of coffins that took place in central Gaza, where music blared and onlookers cheered. Nor were they prepared for the findings of Israel’s autopsy. According to the military, it concluded that the Bibas children were murdered by their captors with “their bare hands” and that the remains that were supposedly Shiri Bibas’s were not hers. (Hamas returned her body soon afterward.)
Two days later, on Feb. 22, a Hamas propaganda video showed two Israeli hostages being taken in a vehicle to watch the release ceremony of other hostages who were about to be freed. That day, Israel postponed the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners, in what was supposed to be the largest single-day release of the agreement. Netanyahu pointed to Hamas’s “humiliating ceremonies” as reason for delaying the prisoner release. Einav opposed the move. She cited an Israeli news report indicating that it was a political decision that Israel’s security chiefs had cautioned against.
That evening, the mood at the Begin Road protest was somber. Some people turned out in orange, in tribute to the Bibas boys. Einav wore a cactus pin that she was given by the family of Oded Lifshitz, who grew the plant in his desert garden. As she stood on the Tel Aviv overpass and gazed down at the protesters below, a light drizzle began. Einav spoke of Oded and the Bibas family. “We could have and we should have saved them,” she cried out. Then she addressed Netanyahu. “We are in the most fateful days that the country has ever known,” she said. “The lives of Matan and the other hostages depend on your decision: Carry on to the second phase and bring them all home, or blow up the agreement and hand them a death verdict.” She urged him: “Implement the deal fully, and let us breathe again.”On Thursday, Israel authorized the release of prisoners, as Hamas handed over the bodies of another four Israeli hostages. But the future of the truce agreement — and the fate of the hostages still in captivity — was thrown into further doubt that morning when an Israeli official was quoted in Hebrew media saying that the military would not retreat from a strategic corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, contrary to the stipulations of the deal.
Liberal Israelis are split over the extent of Einav’s influence. On one side are those who believe, as the reporter Meron Rapoport put it, that “with all respect to Trump, equally important — if not more so — is what Einav Zangauker will do.” In other words, they argue, the hostage families have substantial influence, and Netanyahu has been moved by their public pleas — instrumentally if not personally, because a hostage deal has become popular with his base.
Others believe that the timing of the truce agreement had nothing to do with the hostage families’ campaign. Impressive as it has been, they argue, it would be naΓ―ve to think that the families helped sway politics. What worked, in the end, was the framework devised by the Biden Administration and the arrival of Trump, who pressured both sides to reach a deal before he entered office. Rogel Alpher, a columnist for Haaretz, wrote shortly after: “The ‘lionesses narrative,’ according to which the hostages who have been freed so far were saved because of their families — especially their mothers — is a blatant lie. They survived because it was Hamas’s interest, and they were released because it was Hamas’s interest — and Donald Trump’s.”
Whether or not the families’ tireless protests freed the hostages, they may well have kept them alive. Many of the 25 living Israeli hostages who returned home in the first phase of the recent deal have said that they watched the news during their captivity and knew about their families’ public efforts to free them. Ofer Kalderon had not seen daylight since November 2023. But upon his release in February, he told Ifat, his cousin, that he had seen her protesting on Al Jazeera and that the knowledge was crucial in keeping up his hope that he would one day return home.
Back in Nir Oz, where one in four residents was either killed or captured in the October attack, Matan and Ilana’s house remains intact. The terrorists ransacked their closets, shattered every glass and sprayed bullets into their appliances and walls. But the mixing bowl for Ilana’s cake still sits by the sink, the ganache long hardened; the contents of the suitcase from her trip to Mexico are strewed on the floor of their bedroom. Ilana has since moved with the other surviving kibbutz members to Kiryat Gat, a town in southern Israel.
Matan and Ilana’s home has been kept as it was on Oct. 7.Michal Chelbin for The New York Times
When I spoke to her in recent days, she said that she was faring better. Soon, though, she began to cry. “Am I supposed to get used to a reality in which my partner will come home in a body bag?” she asked. “Am I supposed to just keep on living? What did I come out of captivity for?” Almost every week, she goes back to visit the kibbutz and writes messages to Matan on the walls of their house. (“I’m not giving up. You’re home soon. We’re all waiting for you.”) The walls are now covered with her jottings, resembling a diary of sorts. For Matan’s 25th birthday, she added another entry: “Life may have stopped, but I will not stop.”
Einav has not stopped, either. Despite her growing despair, she continues to conjure the moment she will see her son again. What she yearns for most, she told the Israeli journalist Roni Kuban, is to hold him “skin to skin” — “like a birth.” Perhaps then she will start cooking again.
I told her that I had seen many hostage families rotating their attendance at public events, taking shifts. One member attends one protest; a second member attends another. But you attend them all, I said. Why?
“Because no one can wage this battle on my behalf,” she said. “I’m like a phoenix, rising from the ruins. I shake off the dust and keep fighting.”
Ruth Margalit is a contributing writer for the magazine based in Tel Aviv. Her articles have appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, among other publications. Michal Chelbin is a photographer based in Israel known for her intimate portraiture. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Center, among many others. link
The Israeli poet Aharon Shabtai published a poem last fall that begins with the words “Instead of Moses.” Instead of Abraham, it continues, instead of Buddha, Jesus, Socrates and Tolstoy,
Michal Chelbin for The New York Times
Einav during a protest in Tel Aviv on Aug. 17, 2024.
Credit...Tsafrir Abayov/Associated Press
That evening in Tel Aviv, Einav said her goodbyes at the vigil, then walked briskly toward the Israel Defense Forces headquarters on Begin Road, where some hostage families started gravitating a year ago, seeking an alternative to the atmosphere at Hostages Square. At Begin Road, the protests are more explicitly political and combative. There are no media advisers to rein in the speakers, no talk about replacing the phrase “end the war” with the more diplomatic-sounding “long-term cease-fire.”
Posters of Ilana and Matan in Nir Oz. Ilana was released from captivity after 55 days.
Ilana at her and Matan’s home in Nir Oz, where she writes messages to Matan on the walls.
Einav protesting in Tel Aviv last July during a demonstration to mark nine months since the Oct. 7 attacks. ("The government abandoned, the people will return them")
Einav watching as her older daughter, Natalie, was lowered from a bridge on a Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway after painting the message “First of all, the hostages!” during a protest.
Before his release, the Israeli hostage Yair Horn was forced to hold an hourglass on a pedestal with pictures of Einav and Matan and the words “time is running out” in Hebrew, Arabic and English.
Matan and Ilana’s home has been kept as it was on Oct. 7.
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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