🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 555, 2023

🎗️Day 555 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

There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!
‎אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית

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

*Gaza Envelope - IDF says it intercepted Gaza rocket fired at southern Israel on Passover eve
The IDF says it successfully intercepted a rocket launched from Gaza, which triggered sirens in several open areas belonging to Israeli southern border towns.

Hostage Updates

Why are they still there?’ asks Rachel Goldberg-Polin, on 2nd Passover with hostages in Gaza
‘This year there is one question and one question only,’ says mother of slain hostage Hersh, as Jews mark festival of freedom with 59 hostages still held, 24 of them believed alive
The Asufa haggadah for 2025 includes multiple images showing yellow chairs at seder tables, symbolizing the Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza. (Philissa Cramer / JTA)
Last Passover, Agam Berger marked the holiday in the small, dim room in Gaza where she was being held hostage. With her fellow soldier Liri Albag, she used a makeshift haggadah to recount the story of the ancient Israelites’ exodus from slavery in Egypt.
Yarden Bibas, meanwhile, reminisced from where he was being held captive about the joyful celebration his family had once enjoyed, clinging to hope that he would be reunited with his wife and children by this year’s holiday.
All three were released during a two-month ceasefire earlier this year and are marking Passover’s arrival by calling for the dozens of hostages who remain in Gaza to be freed.
“While I will celebrate this holiday with my family, it won’t yet be full,” Berger wrote in an essay published in the Wall Street Journal. “There are 59 hostages still held in Gaza, 24 of whom are believed to be alive. This is their second Passover in chains of iron. We can’t allow a third.”
Former hostage Agam Berger (center) and family members visit the Old City of Jerusalem, on February 28, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Bibas returned to the devastating news that his wife and young sons had been murdered in captivity. “I am here and so thankful for this but am struggling to celebrate when I still haven’t processed what I have lost and when I know that David is still in a tunnel,” he wrote Friday on Instagram, referring to his best friend David Cunio, who remains a hostage.
The holiday arrives amid renewed fighting in Gaza and few signs of an impending deal that might result in the release of the remaining hostages. While President Donald Trump said on Thursday that negotiators were “getting closer” to such a deal, CNN reported this week that the pace of talks has slowed since Israeli officials retook the lead from US officials.
Former hostage Yarden Bibas appears in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, March 18, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Now, Jews worldwide are preparing to leave seats empty at their tables to symbolize the hostages’ plight or share the stories of hostages during their Seders for the second straight year.
“Every abductee has a family that sits around the table on the night of the Seder with tears in their eyes and a broken heart,” wrote Shir Siegel, whose father Keith was released in January, on Instagram as she encouraged others to set a place for a hostage.
“There are small things that families and friends do that will make them feel that they are not alone. And this is perhaps the greatest thing we can do for them,” she wrote, noting that her family would be setting a place for Nimrod Cohen, a soldier captured from his tank.
Cohen’s mother Viki is the illustrator behind a new children’s haggadah that incorporates symbols of individual hostages — the released, the living and the dead. It’s one of several projects meant to bring the stories of the hostages to the Seder table, including a new haggadah produced by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main advocacy group for hostages and their families.
The cover of ‘The Haggadah of Freedom’ produced by the Hostages Forum for Passover 2025 with texts by hostage family members (Courtesy Hostages Forum)
A haggadah produced annually by the Israeli artists collaborative Asufa, meanwhile, does not focus on the hostages but alludes quietly to them nonetheless, with two images of Seder tables showing yellow chairs like those used in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square and beyond to symbolize the hostages.
For dozens of families who learned since last Passover that their loved ones had been killed on Oct. 7 or in captivity, this year will be the first to mark the holiday with dashed hopes.
“How can we celebrate such a holiday while 133 people are still without their freedom, still waiting to be liberated?” the grandson of one such hostage, Chaim Peri, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last year. In June, Peri was revealed to have died in February; he was buried in Israel in August after his body was retrieved.
“There’s something perverse about even going through the motions of celebrating a holiday of freedom from captivity when our only son is not free and is in the worst form of captivity that any of us can imagine. It feels completely inappropriate,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin said last year. Her son Hersh was killed in captivity in August.
This year, Goldberg-Polin spoke about Passover on a podcast hosted by Dan Senor. “I think this year there is one question and one question only, which is: Why are they still there?” she said.
She alluded to a tradition practiced by some Jews to flagellate themselves with green onions at the Seder to mimic the whipping endured by the ancient Israelites.
“We have actually an obligation this year to really beat ourselves up at the Seder, because the whole point of Passover is it is supposed to be a commemoration of leaving the worst form of bondage and slavery that we ever experienced,” Goldberg-Polin said.
“And how can we do that this year when we know that there are 59 people who are still there, 24 of whom are alive — alive and in the worst, most horrific bondage that we can picture? How?”
Hamas released a sign of life from kidnapped IDF soldier Idan Alexander.

The terror organization published footage of Idan Alexander, who has been held captive for 554 days. The family of the kidnapped soldier said: "It is not a holiday of freedom as long as Idan and the other 58 hostages are not home." Prime Minister Netanyahu told Idan's parents: "Great efforts are underway at this very hour to bring him back."

Hamas released a video today (Saturday), on the eve of Passover, showing kidnapped soldier Idan Alexander. This is the second footage of the soldier, who immigrated to Israel alone to enlist in the IDF. In the previous video, released by the terror group last November, Alexander pleaded: "Don’t forget us."

At the beginning of the earlier video, Alexander noted that he had been held captive by Hamas for over 420 days. Addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said in words likely scripted in advance: "I heard you speaking to the people of Israel on the news, and I am very disappointed. I heard you are willing to offer $5 million to anyone who turns us in alive to the people of Israel. A prime minister is supposed to protect his citizens and their lives, but you abandoned us."

The Alexander family stated: "As we prepare for the holiday evening in the U.S., the family in Israel is getting ready to sit around the Seder table. Our Idan, a lone soldier who immigrated to Israel and joined the Golani Brigade to defend the country and its citizens, remains in Hamas captivity. So as you sit down to celebrate Passover, remember—it is not a holiday of freedom as long as Idan and the other 58 hostages are not home."

After Hamas released the video of Idan in captivity, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with the kidnapped soldier’s parents, telling them, "At this very hour, tremendous efforts are being made to bring Idan and all our hostages home."

Idan Alexander’s Captivity Conditions

On Thursday, it was reported by The New York Times that the Trump administration and the Hamas terror group were in advanced negotiations for a hostage deal, with a focus on the release of kidnapped soldier Idan Alexander, who holds U.S. citizenship. According to the report, Trump was eager to secure a victory and announce Alexander’s release during his March address to Congress. The talks continued until the last moment but ultimately collapsed—days later, Israel resumed fighting.

Idan Alexander, who chose to immigrate to Israel alone and enlist in the IDF, was kidnapped from the Kissufim outpost near the Gaza border during the October 7th terror attack. Just a week before his abduction, his mother, Yael, had arrived in Israel for a visit, and the two had only a few days together. On the morning of the attack, Idan managed to call his mother to reassure her when he heard the sirens in the area, but contact with him was then completely lost.

Edan Alexander’s family: Passover ‘not a holiday of freedom’ as long as hostages not home
Hostage soldier Edan Alexander is seen in a propaganda video released by the Hamas terror group on April 12, 2025. (Courtesy)
The family of hostage Edan Alexander permits the publication of a screenshot from a propaganda video of the American-Israeli lone soldier that Hamas released.
In an English statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the Alexander family notes the video was released as Jews around the world mark the Passover holiday.
“As we begin the holiday evening in the USA, our family in Israel is preparing to sit around the Seder table,” the family says. “Our Edan, a lone soldier who immigrated to Israel and enlisted in the Golani Brigade to defend the country and its citizens, is still being held captive by Hamas.”
“So when you sit down to mark Passover, remember that this is not a holiday of freedom as long as Edan and the other 58 hostages are not home.”
Hundreds hold Passover Seder at Hostages Square with families of Gaza captives
Israelis hold a Passover seder at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on April 12, 2025. (Dana Reany/Hostages Family Forum)
Hundreds of Israelis are holding a Passover Seder at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, joining a number of hostage families who are marking a second “holiday of freedom” without their loved ones who are still being held in Gaza.
Among those on site is Vicki Cohen, the mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen.
“We can’t go on with life. It’s just not right — it’s not right for Israeli society that there are 59 hostages in captivity,” she says in a statement.
Also present is Ofir Angrest, whose older brother Matan is another Hamas hostage.
“Passover is the most family-friendly holiday, so we don’t take it for granted that so many people left everything and came to mark the holiday with us in Hostages Square. It’s really moving,” he says.
Israelis hold a Passover seder at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on April 12, 2025. (Dana Reany/Hostages Family Forum)
“There is no other place I’d rather be,” Revital tells the Davar news site, adding that she came to Tel Aviv with two of her friends from northern Israel to support the hostage families.
They brought food along with folding chairs and tables to set up in the square.
“We as a people have not been able to breathe [for the past 18 months], so I prefer not being able to breathe at the Passover Seder table here in Hostages Square,” Revital says.
Meanwhile, former hostage Romi Gonen reflects on being able to mark her first Passover since being released from captivity earlier this year.
“My first holiday at home. A holiday that is not really a holiday,” she writes on Instagram.
“My head is here, but my heart is there. I want to be happy, but the difficulty is overshadowing. Please set up an empty chair, A yellow pin, and a piece of masking tape marking the number of days that the hostages have been in captivity. We must not forget them,” she adds.

Gaza and the South

IDF fully surrounds Rafah as Katz warns Gazans of ‘final moment to remove Hamas’
Army says it is in complete control of Morag Corridor, cutting off Strip’s southernmost city from Khan Younis, where some Gazans ordered to leave after 3 rockets fired at border town shot down
The Israel Defense Forces announced at noon Saturday that it had completed the capture of the Morag Corridor in the southern Gaza Strip, cutting off the city of Rafah from Khan Younis.
The military said Rafah was now surrounded by its forces, with the 36th Division holding the Morag Corridor and the Gaza Division operating in the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border area.
Defense Minister Israel Katz called on Palestinians to “remove Hamas and release all the hostages” before the military further expands its operations in the Strip.
“This is the final moment to remove Hamas and release the hostages and bring about an end to the war,” Katz said in a statement. “Intensive IDF activity will soon expand to additional places in most of Gaza, and you will have to evacuate the combat zones.”
Also on Saturday, three rockets launched from Gaza at the border community of Nir Yitzhak were intercepted by air defenses, the military said. The rocket fire set off alerts in open areas but not in any towns. No one was hurt.
In response to the rocket fire, the IDF issued an evacuation order for Palestinians in the Khan Younis area. In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, published a map of the area to be evacuated, saying that it was a “final warning” before the IDF carried out strikes there.
Inside Gaza, the 36th Division’s 188th Armored Brigade pushed into the Morag Corridor from the northwest, while the division’s Golani Infantry Brigade entered from the border in the southeast. Overnight, the two units joined up.
Engineering forces were now constructing a road along the corridor, similar to other Gaza corridors captured by the IDF during the war.
The military said it would now operate inside areas of Rafah that it had not previously entered to defeat the remaining Hamas forces there. The IDF issued evacuation warnings for civilians in Rafah nearly two weeks ago.
Eventually, the IDF’s buffer zone in southern Gaza will stretch from the Egyptian border to the outskirts of Khan Younis — more than 5 kilometers away — and include the entire city of Rafah within it, totaling around 20% of the Strip.
Troops of the 36th Division operate in the Morag Corridor in the southern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued on April 12, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF’s buffer zone elsewhere along the border with Gaza has also been expanded from several hundred meters to around 2 kilometers in most areas.
Katz, in his Saturday statement to Gazans, said, “Hamas is unable to protect the residents or the territory. Hamas leaders are hiding in tunnels with their families and in luxury hotels abroad with billions in their bank accounts and are using you as hostages.
“It is time to stand up and remove Hamas and release all the Israeli hostages. This is the only way to end the war,” he continued, adding that “those interested will also be able to voluntarily move to various countries around the world, in accordance with the vision of the US president, which we are working to carry out.”
Over the past week and a half, during operations in the Morag Corridor area, the IDF says it has eliminated dozens of terror operatives and destroyed Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels.
On Friday, two soldiers were wounded in southern Gaza, one of them seriously, as troops expanded control in the area. An officer was moderately wounded in an exchange of fire with gunmen, with three gunmen killed. Separately, a soldier was seriously injured, apparently from an accidental discharge of a bullet.
Engineering forces work to build a road in the Morag Corridor in the southern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued on April 12, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF also said Friday that a Hamas sniper commander in Rafah was killed in a recent strike. Ahmad Iyad Muhammad Farhat, the commander of the Hamas terror group’s sniper forces in the terror group’s Tel Sultan Battalion in Rafah, was responsible for advancing and carrying out numerous attacks on Israeli troops in Gaza and against Israel, the IDF said.
The military has struck dozens of targets across Gaza in the past few days, including cells of operatives, buildings used by terror groups, weapons, and other infrastructure.
Also, on Friday, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for Palestinians residing in some areas of eastern Gaza City.
In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, published a map of the area to be evacuated, which includes the neighborhoods of Shejaiya, Zeitoun, and Tuffah.
He said that the military would soon operate “with great force” there to “destroy terror infrastructure.” Civilians were called to head for shelters in western Gaza City.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when some 5,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive, and 35 of whom have been confirmed dead — including 58 of those abducted on October 7.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far. The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel assesses it has killed about 20,000 combatants in Gaza as of January, as well as some 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.
Israel’s toll in the Gaza ground offensive and military operations along the border stands at 410.
Troops enter pair of Gaza City neighborhoods as IDF expands offensive against Hamas
Troops of the 401st Armored Brigade operate in the Daraj and Tuffah area of Gaza City, in a handout photo and issued on April 12, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Overnight, the Israel Defense Forces expanded its offensive against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip, with troops pushing into the Gaza City neighborhoods of Daraj and Tuffah.
The military says the operation is intended to expand the buffer zone along the Gaza border. In most areas, the IDF has been expanding the buffer zone up to around 2 kilometers deep into Gaza.
So far, the IDF says troops have killed several terror operatives and destroyed observation posts, tunnels, and other Hamas infrastructure.
The IDF says it is enabling Palestinian civilians to evacuate the area “for their safety.”

IDF says it hit Hamas command center in Deir al-Balah strike
A Hamas command center in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah was targeted in an airstrike a short while ago, the IDF and Shin Bet say.
A man carries a satellite dish near a damaged media van in the aftermath of a strike that Israel says targeted a Hamas command center at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, in the Strip's north, April 13, 2025. (Omar AL-Qattaa / AFP)
Palestinian media report that the strike hit the Deir al-Balah municipality building and that at least three people were killed.
According to the military, numerous Hamas operatives were at the site when it was struck.
The IDF and Shin Bet say Hamas operatives used the compound to carry out attacks against troops and Israel and were planning additional attacks.

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Personal Stories

'We need to rebuild': Former hostage Gadi Mozes returns to Nir Oz after 16 months in captivity

Last Passover, Mozes spent the holiday in a small Gaza apartment, watched by armed terrorists; now, at 81, he is free with his family, but still feels incomplete: 'True freedom isn't here until all hostages return home'
One year after he was abducted from his home during Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, Gadi Mozes is celebrating Passover in freedom — a stark contrast to the solitary confinement he endured in Gaza.

Mozes, 81, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023, and held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad for nearly 16 months. Released during the first phase of a hostage exchange deal, he is now back home with his family and reconnecting with the land and community he helped build over decades.

“This is the holiday of freedom in every sense,” Mozes said in an interview. “After understanding what it means to have no freedom, and suddenly being completely free — it’s a feeling you can’t describe in words.”

During captivity, Mozes said he was held alone with two guards. His captors controlled every aspect of his life, from meals to bathroom breaks. “You have no will of your own,” he said. “You’re chained by the absence of freedom.”

Now back in Nir Oz, Mozes walked through the fields wearing sandals and work pants, inspecting the vegetation and checking irrigation systems. A veteran agronomist, he once managed the kibbutz’s agricultural development and advised on farming projects in Israel and abroad.

Born in Hadera, Mozes moved to Nir Oz at 18 with members of the socialist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair. “We were all young and full of energy,” he said, recalling the early days of the kibbutz. “We built everything from the ground up.” During his time in captivity, Mozes clung to memories of home — the fields, the seasons, even the boutique winery he co-founded two decades ago. He was surprised to find the vineyard still operating when he returned, thanks to the efforts of the next generation. Despite the trauma, Mozes has thrown himself into rebuilding the kibbutz, much of which was destroyed in the Oct. 7 attack. He is helping launch a new project growing rosemary and is advocating for government support to rebuild housing, education and medical services.

(Photo: Ziv Koren)

“We’re a 70-year-old community that was shattered,” he said. “People lost everything — homes, memories, heirlooms. The state needs to show solidarity, not just through therapy, but also with practical help and understanding.” Mozes acknowledged the emotional toll of returning to the site of the attack. On the morning of his abduction, he was at home with his partner, Efrat Katz, her daughter Doron Katz Asher, and granddaughters Raz and Aviv. All four were abducted. Katz was later killed by Israeli helicopter fire, while the others were released in the same deal as Mozes. He said he confronted the gunmen in an attempt to draw attention away from the girls. “That part worked,” he said. “The rest is history.” In Gaza, Mozes said he endured harsh conditions and tense encounters with his captors, including a teenage guard who ordered him to stay silent. He described intervening in domestic disputes among the captors and ultimately being moved to a different location, where he was held with two Thai nationals.

Gadi with Arbel Yehud. The 2 were released the same day and each had been held the entire time by themselves, not seeing or speaking to another Israeli throughout (Photo: Reuters)

Despite everything, Mozes said he harbors no hatred. “Anger isn’t a working tool,” he said. “We need to build a country based on unity and solidarity.”

He remains focused on those who are still missing. Fourteen residents of Nir Oz are among the 59 hostages still believed to be held in Gaza. “We’re not free until they’re back,” Mozes said. “Releasing the hostages has to come before everything. Even if the price is unbearable, we can’t forget them.”

He recalled the moment of his release, when he embraced fellow hostage Arbel Yehoud, a young woman who, he said, could have been his granddaughter. “It was the first time I saw another Israeli, the first time I spoke Hebrew again.”

“There is great joy in being home,” Mozes said. “But it’s not complete — not until everyone comes back.”

Acronyms and Glossary

COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories

ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague

IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague

IPS - Israel Prison System

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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