🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 583, 2023 - May 11, 2025 🎗️
Hamas publishes hostage video of Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana
Hamas’s military wing releases a propaganda video featuring hostages Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana.
Hamas has previously issued similar videos of hostages it is holding, in what Israel says is deplorable psychological warfare.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum has asked that Israeli media not publish the video or stills from the clip until the family approves them. (the families approved the release of the video
“And I truly know that President Trump has a vision for the Middle East, that he’s not interested in wars, that he’s doing everything to reach agreements — whether it’s with Iran, or Russia and Ukraine — and here too, it matters to him to bring this to an end. But he doesn’t have a partner on our side,” said Zangauker, who has been a fierce critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government.
Her comments come as Trump is set to depart for Saudi Arabia on Monday before making stops in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He is slated to return on Friday, May 16. He has said Israel will not be on the itinerary.
“And if I could make just one distilled request: Don’t give up on us. Those who came back did so thanks to President Trump. And we need him to stay involved until the last hostage is brought home,” Zangauker said.
However, recent signs have indicated that Trump is losing patience with Israel and is increasingly at odds with Netanyahu.
Trump expressed his frustration at his lack of impact recently in brokering a deal between Israel and Hamas, telling a group of top donors last week that finding a solution to the war in Gaza has been hard because “they’d been fighting for a thousand years,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
On the campaign trail, the US president boasted that he could bring the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine to a quick end, but has yet to do so after over 100 days in office.
On Ukraine, Trump told the donors that the war kept him up at night, and that dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin was a challenge because he “wanted the whole thing,” referring to all of Ukraine.
Thousands of demonstrators are expected to congregate across Israel on Saturday night to protest against the government and call for a deal to release hostages held by the terror group Hamas, as uncertainty grows about the fate of the remaining captives.
In Tel Aviv, the weekly anti-government rally will start at 7:00 p.m. at Habima Square.
The demonstration will feature Rafi Ben Shitrit, the former Beit She’an mayor, whose son Alroy was killed on October 7, 2023. Ben Shitrit’s participation is notable because of his past affiliation with Netanyahu’s Likud and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope.
Protest organizers said that after the rally ends, demonstrators will join demonstrations with hostage families at Hostages Square and Begin Road.
In Jerusalem, a demonstration will begin at 8:30 p.m. with a march from Zion Square to Paris Square, near the prime minister’s official residence.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces.
It is currently believed that 21 of the 59 hostages are alive. The status of three hostages — IDF soldier Tamir Nimordi, Bipin Joshi of Nepal, and Pinta Nattpong of Thailand —is considered highly questionable by Israeli officials because no signs of life have been received from them since the war broke out. No sign of life has been received either from Ariel Cunio, an Israeli civilian.
Demonstrators lift placards during an anti-government protest calling for action to secure the release of the remaining Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip, in front of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, April 26, 2025. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)Amid the resurgent worry over the hostages’ status, Haaretz revealed Wednesday that in a military document outlining plans for a new Gaza offensive, the IDF had ranked the return of the hostages as its least important objective.
The document, presented to commanders on Tuesday, placed the Hamas-held captives in sixth and last place, a fact incongruent with army officials’ previous assertions to the Israeli public that the return of the hostages was the IDF’s most important war goal.
Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas and is counted among the 59 hostages.
‘Don’t give up on us’: Hostage’s mother appeals to Trump before Saturday night rallies
The mother of a hostage held by Hamas in Gaza issued an emotional appeal to US President Donald Trump, who is due in the region this week, not to “give up” on pushing Israel and the terror group toward a ceasefire.
Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker and one of the leaders of the movement calling for a hostage deal, made the comments ahead of the weekly mass protests calling for the hostages to be freed, to be held Saturday evening.
And I truly know that President Trump has a vision for the Middle East, that he’s not interested in wars, that he’s doing everything to reach agreements — whether it’s with Iran, or Russia and Ukraine — and here too, it matters to him to bring this to an end. But he doesn’t have a partner on our side,” said Zangauker, who has been a fierce critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government.
Her comments come as Trump is set to depart for Saudi Arabia on Monday before making stops in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He is slated to return on Friday, May 16. He has said Israel will not be on the itinerary.
“And if I could make just one distilled request: Don’t give up on us. Those who came back did so thanks to President Trump. And we need him to stay involved until the last hostage is brought home,” Zangauker said.“You can’t sweep this under the rug or sugarcoat it. The recent deals, the latest hostages who returned to us — it all happened solely thanks to [Trump],” Zangauker said in an interview with the Walla news site.
- Hostages’ families warn of ‘lost opportunity of the century’ as Hamas airs new clip of captives
Amid rallies, Hostages Forum decries ruinous insistence on continuing war; in latest video, hostage Yosef-Haim Ohana says Elkana Bohbot tried to harm himself, refuses to eat or drinkThousands of people protested in Tel Aviv and around the country Saturday night, demanding a deal to free remaining hostages held in Gaza, as the Hostages and Missing Families Forum warned that “Israel faces the ‘lost opportunity of the century'” in failing to secure a wide-ranging regional deal to end the war.
The protests were held hours after Hamas’s military wing released a propaganda video featuring hostages Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana, as it has often done in a bid to increase public pressure on the Israeli government.
The families of the two granted media outlets permission to air the clip, almost certainly dictated by the pair’s captors.
In the video, Ohana sits on the ground next to Bohbot, who lies under a blanket. Ohana says Bohbot’s “medical and psychological conditions are very difficult” and says he has attempted to harm himself.
Hamas hostages Yosef-Haim Ohana and Elkana Bohbot appear in a Hamas propaganda video published by the terror group on May 10, 2025. (Screenshot)“We have lost our world and our hope,” he says. “How did things get to this point? Our lives are in imminent danger. Every minute here is critical!”
He says that Bohbot is refusing to eat or drink and that he too has decided to stop eating, “because my friend’s fate is my fate, and our fate is in your hands.”
“An entire country wants this nightmare to end. From now on, every drop of blood spilled, every additional deterioration that you see with your own eyes — is on you. It is only in the hands of the decision-makers.”
‘How do you sleep at night?’
In a statement ahead of Saturday’s rallies, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said “the government must adopt a broad regional deal that will bring change to the Middle East, end the war, and return all 59 hostages.
“The historic opportunity will go down the drain due to the insistence [by the government] to continue the war and abandon the hostages,” the Forum said. “The government is acting against [US President Donald] Trump’s policies and in complete opposition to the wishes of the vast majority of the Israeli public.”
Recent days have seen reports that Israel may be left out of a major defense deal between Washington and Saudi Arabia, as it has apparently refused to make concessions the Saudis have demanded for normalization, including tangible progress toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Sources told Reuters on Thursday that the US was no longer demanding Saudi Arabia normalize ties with Israel as a condition for progress on civil nuclear cooperation talks.
This week, it was revealed that Israel fears for the life of Israeli hostage Tamir Nimrodi and two foreign hostages, with there being no signs of life since the Oct. 7 attack.
Herut Nimrodi, the mother of captive IDF soldier Tamir Nimrodi, speaks at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, on May 10, 2025. (Paulina Patimer/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)Speaking at the rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, Tamir’s mother Herut Nimrodi said that “this week has been particularly turbulent and harsh for our family,” which was thrown into “a discourse of numbers tossed into the air with insufferable abandon.” She censured the “incomprehensible casualness” with which comments were made about her son (Netanyahu’s wife Sara was the first to let slip that Israel now fears that less than 24 of the 59 hostages in Gaza are still alive).
She demanded that “members of Knesset and media figures exercise discretion before talking about our loved ones,” adding: “There is just one status — hostages. There are 59 pure souls who fit that definition, and each and every one of them must come home now. Bring back the hostages, end the war.”
“Since October 7, there has been no certainty regarding Tamir’s condition or fate — and it is from that, and only from that, that the grave concern for his life arises,” she said. “There is no new information about him. Every day is filled with anxiety. Every day is a struggle. Every day is an attempt to cling to a ‘maybe.’
“All of us, all the families, are in such a heightened state of alert that every word, every sentence spoken in the media or in private conversations about our loved ones, jolts us out of our artificial calm. It makes it even harder for us to function in this already insane reality,” she said.
Other speakers at the Hostages Square rally highlighted opinion polls indicating that some 70 percent of the public supports an end to the fighting in Gaza as part of a deal to bring back the hostages.
The comments came after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — who opposes a truce-hostage deal and who has consistently failed to cross the electoral threshold in recent surveys — reportedly told hostage families that he represents the majority of the public.
Ilan Dalal, whose son Guy Gilboa-Dalal is among the living captives, cited the reported 70% support, saying: “According to every poll, the nation has already chosen. It’s chosen the hostages.”
At a separate rally in Habima Square in Tel Aviv, known for drawing more government-critical crowds, Rafi Ben Shitrit, the father of Staff Sgt. Shimon Alroy Ben Shitrit, who was killed during the attack on an IDF base on October 7, lashed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for saying this week that he “sleep[s] with a clear conscience.”
“This week, I heard the most failed of Israel’s leaders say that he sleeps with a clear conscience. A leader under whose tenure the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust occurred. He sleeps with a clear conscience. We are nearly 2,000 families whose tears have run out — and we can’t get a wink of sleep,” said Shitrit.
Rafi Ben Shitrit, whose son was killed on October 7, speaks at the Bereaved Families Memorial Ceremony marking one year since the killings, Oct. 7, 2024 (Bereaved Families Memorial Ceremony)“The man who financed Hamas, and whose office staff are paid by the same state that funneled billions to Hamas — sleeps with a clear conscience,” he said, referring to allegations under investigation that aides to the premier were paid by Qatar to lobby for the Hamas-supporting nation. “What more is there to say that hasn’t already been said? Indeed, we are left mute, without a voice.”
At the same protest, Shai Mozes, whose parents Margalit and Gadi Mozes were kidnapped in the Hamas onslaught and later released in separate hostage deals, was more belligerent, saying that Israel’s “real enemy is not Hamas, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is destroying Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”
The Habima rally was smaller than usual, drawing a few hundred people. The crowd was dotted with Israeli flags, and chants including, “The entire nation knows that Bibi is a crook” — using the premier’s nickname.
The protest started with a moment of silence for five IDF soldiers killed fighting in Gaza this week.
Yael Adar, the mother of slain captive Tamir Adar, addresses protesters on Begin Road, in Tel Aviv, on May 10, 2025. (Vardit Alon-Korpel/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)At another anti-government protest on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road, Yael Adar, whose son Tamir was snatched to Gaza after he was killed defending Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas onslaught, said the government was “sending our children to die in the name of lust for power.”
She slammed Netanyahu for failing to bring back the remains of her son, who was part of Nir Oz’s civilian defense squad, which fought for hours before the IDF arrived.
“How is it that the person who went out first became transparent?” she asked. “How is it that someone who fought for the country is not being fought for by the country?”
Adar urged Netanyahu to follow in the footsteps of Menachem Begin, who also served in the premiership while heading up the Likud party, and to resign immediately. Begin quit in 1983 amid the IDF’s rising death toll in the First Lebanon War, which he had launched the previous year.
“It’s called taking responsibility,” said Adar.
After her speech and as the 1,500-odd crowd melted away, some 100 activists, many of them bearing torches, lit a bonfire on the road in front of the entrance to the IDF headquarters. They chanted: “Enough of the killing and grief, the hostages are above everything.”
At a protest in Kibbutz Nir Oz by the Gaza border, Silvia Cunio, mother of hostages David and Ariel Cunio, said: “There’s enough time to fight Hamas. There will be more operations and more conflicts. But Ariel and David’s lives — we won’t be able to get back if we wait too long. I don’t have the privilege to wait. And they can’t wait anymore.”
Addressing the government, she asked: “Where are you? Where is the state? Where is the humanity? How do you sleep at night when my children and the other hostages, are buried alive underground?”
At the Habima protest, Media personality Linoy Bar Geffen, who often emcees the rallies, said the demonstration called for an end to the fighting in Gaza, the return of the remaining 59 hostages in a single deal, a state commission of inquiry into the disaster of October 7, an end to the governmemt’s judicial overhaul, and new elections.
“What are you afraid of?” she asked members of Netanyahu’s coalition.
‘A country that’s worthy of living for’
Shirel Hogeg, a Sderot resident who survived the Hamas onslaught and rose to prominence after her anti-Netanyahu diatribe went viral, said the demonstration’s purpose was to make Israel “a country that’s worthy of living for, not just dying for.”
Also addressing the crowd, Gal Elkalay, a social activist who has served hundreds of days in the reserves since the start of the war, slammed the government’s decision to call up tens of thousands of reservists for yet another Gaza offensive, in a war she said had become futile.
“Not the hostages, not dismantling Hamas — this war is a war to protect the coalition,” she said. “There is no more Israel Defense Force, only a Coalition Defense Force.”
“This is not leadership, this is a criminal organization that glorifies death,” she said. “Why are we going back to war?”
Responding to calls from the audience for soldiers to refuse to serve, she said, “We will not refuse,” but she urged members of the audience to take sick days from work and effectively shut down the economy until the government gets the message.
Demonstrators protest against the government and for the release of people held hostage in the Gaza Strip outside IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv, May 10, 2025 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)Meanwhile, as they have done every Saturday for several weeks, about 200 left-wing activists stood in silence on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street, outside IDF Headquarters’ southern entrance, holding candles and pictures of children killed by the IDF in Gaza since Israel renewed hostilities there on March 18.
Each picture states the child’s name, as well as the date and place of their death.
The silent protest stands in stark contrast to the noisier, contemporaneous anti-government demonstrations at Habima Square and Begin Road, on either end of Kaplan Street.
Amid an extended deadlock in negotiations with Hamas for a ceasefire and hostage deal, unnamed Israeli officials cited by Channel 12 news on Saturday evening assessed that the coming few days would be key and that talks might advance against the backdrop of Trump’s visit to the Middle East — though not to Israel — which begins Monday, as well as Jerusalem’s threat to escalate the fighting in Gaza. link
- Hostages Forum on return of Zvi Feldman’s body: ‘A grave is not a privilege, but a basic duty of the state to its citizens’
The Hostages Forum, which represents the majority of relatives of those held captive in Gaza, welcomes the return of the body of Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman, which the IDF and Mossad said was recovered from “the heart of Syria.”
“The families of the hostages would like to extend a big hug to the Feldman family and to every family that is privileged to bring their loved one to burial,” the statement reads.
“The return of Zvi Feldman is a moral, ethical and national reminder to the prime minister and members of the government — a grave is not a privilege, but a basic duty of the state to its citizens and fighters. In Israel, no one is left behind,” the forum says.
“As a society, we must not normalize a situation in which families have to wait over 40 years or more to be reunited with their loved ones,” the forum says.
“It is possible, necessary and obligatory to return all 59 hostages today — the living for rehabilitation and the dead for burial, without endangering a single fighter from the security forces for this. The only correct way is via a single deal that will end the war and return them all. Prime minister – the choice and ability are in your hands,” the forum says.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF, one of whom is a soldier killed a decade ago. Israel has said there are grave concerns for the lives of a further three.
Tal Shoham exposes the horrors of captivity in letter to Trump and Netanyahu: "They tortured us for pleasure"
In a painful personal column in Time magazine, the released hostage tells of the suffering in the tunnels in Gaza – and of the sadism of the terrorists: "They lit paper in order to draw the little oxygen we had, so we would choke. They tortured us for pleasure" • He reveals details about the condition of Evyatar and Guy: "Their heads were covered with bags, they still had spirit" • A testimony difficult to read"On certain mornings I wake up and forget, for a fraction of a second, that I am free" – thus opened Tal Shoham, who survived 505 days in Hamas captivity, a personal column in Time magazine, in which he addresses directly the President of the United States Donald Trump and the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Shoham, who was released last February, asks the leaders to act for the release of the remaining hostages, and especially for Evyatar David and Guy Dalal who shared with him the hell in a narrow tunnel in Gaza.
"And then I remember the silence. The darkness. The wet concrete. And the two young men who lay beside me, deep underground, who are still there," wrote Shoham in the emotional column. "Their names are Evyatar David and Guy Dalal."
Shoham describes in detail in his Time column the horrific reality in the tunnel in Gaza: "We were held together with Omer and Nakrat in a Hamas tunnel – only 12 meters long, less than a meter wide. We slept on wet mattresses, shared one pita a day, and whispered stories about home in turns to preserve our sanity. We were strangers when we entered that darkness. But we became brothers."
"Guy and Evyatar were tied, their heads were covered with plastic bags. But somehow, they still had faith"
The harsh descriptions expose the sadism of their captors: "The people who held us did not see us as human beings. They tortured us for pleasure. Sometimes they would light pieces of paper to draw the small amount of oxygen in the tunnel. We would choke and be forced to lie on the floor to avoid suffocating."
Tal Shoham at the hostages handover ceremony in Rafah. | Photo: ReutersShoham reveals that a surveillance camera was installed at the site that constantly watched them, and above them was hidden a bomb intended to explode if IDF forces approached. "We were told we would explode if someone tried to rescue us. We were under threats, humiliations, and at times torture – we were not treated as human beings, but as objects to be controlled and broken."
About Evyatar David and Guy Dalal, who were kidnapped from the Nova festival, Shoham says: "When we met them in captivity, they were in terrible condition – starved, shackled, terrified. For weeks, they received almost no food. Their hands were tied behind their backs, their ankles bound, their heads covered with plastic bags. But somehow, they still had spirit."
Activity of Paratroopers Reconnaissance fighters in Shuja'iyya. "We were told we would explode if someone tried to rescue us" | Photo: IDF SpokespersonDespite the inhuman conditions, Shoham describes the way they tried to preserve their humanity: "We chose daily rituals just to remember who we are. In a place built to break us, we held each other. We became one unit. We became a family."
Tal Shoham on his way to the hospital on the day of his release. "They deserve to walk in the sun again. They deserve a future" | Photo: ReutersAt the end of his column, Shoham addresses Trump and Netanyahu directly: "Evyatar and Guy are not statistics. They are sons. Friends. Music lovers. Gentle, funny, full of life. They deserve to walk in the sun again. They deserve a future."
"President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu, you made it possible for me. Please – bring them home as well. Let them breathe again," he concluded. link
- Father of Guy Gilboa-Dalal: 'I pray he's not exposed to media and hearing how they're giving up on him'
- Bereaved Mother at Begin Gate: 'Government Complicit in Hostages' Death, They Decided to Abandon Them'
- Thousands protest at Habima Square in Tel Aviv for hostages' return and against governmentThousands of people are demonstrating at Habima Square in Tel Aviv for the return of hostages and against the government. The protest began with a minute of silence in memory of five soldiers who fell this week in Gaza fighting, followed by the singing of Hatikva (national anthem). Additionally, protesters demanding the return of hostages are demonstrating at various locations across the country, including Haifa, Karkur Junction, Herzliya and Rehovot.Female Reservist at Tel Aviv Protest: 'This is a War to Preserve the Coalition - Let Us All Die'Gal Alkalay, a reservist and social activist, said at a protest in Habima Square in Tel Aviv that 'this week we received more draft orders and there are no more lies. It's not about hostages or defeating Hamas, this war is about preserving the coalition, a war to protect their seats, a war to conquer territory for Smotrich and Ben Gvir, and let us all dieMother of Tamir Nimrodi: 'Discussion about status is irrelevant. There is only one status - hostages'Herut Nimrodi, mother of hostage Tamir Nimrodi whose life is feared to be in danger, said at the Hostages Square in Tel Aviv that 'our family has gone through an especially turbulent and difficult week. Tamir was brutally kidnapped - frightened, helpless - but alive.' According to her, 'Every day is filled with anxiety and struggle. Each day is an attempt to hold onto 'maybe'.' She added that 'all this discussion about status is irrelevant. There is only one status - hostages! We have 59 pure souls who fit this definition, and each one of them needs to return home now!'Gadi Moses's Nephew: 'Netanyahu, Not Hamas, is the Enemy - He's Dismantling State Foundations'Shay Moses, nephew of hostage survivors Gadi and Margalit Moses, declared at a protest in Tel Aviv's Habima Square that 'in this war, the main enemy is not Hamas, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is dismantling the foundations of the Jewish and democratic State of Israel.' He added, 'The abandonment of the hostages is destroying these foundations.
🎗️Day 583 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!אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית
Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements
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|Zvi Feldman (The International Coalition for Missing Israeli Soldiers)
The Mossad spy agency and the Israel Defense Forces recovered the remains of Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman, who went missing in the First Lebanon War’s battle of Sultan Yacoub in 1982, officials announced on Sunday.
The battle, nearly 43 years ago, was a skirmish between the IDF and the Syrian army in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. It claimed the lives of 21 Israeli servicemen, and more than 30 were injured during it.
Feldman, a tank soldier, went missing during the battle along with Sgt. First Class Yehuda Katz and Sgt. First Class Zachary Baumel. Baumel’s remains were recovered and returned to Israel in 2019.
In a joint statement on Sunday, the Mossad and IDF said the body of Feldman was recovered from “the heart of Syria” in a special operation.
They said the “complex and covert operation” was made possible by “precise intelligence” and other capabilities, including “intelligence research and collection efforts and many activities and operations in enemy territory.”
No further details were provided on the operation itself, but the military said the efforts to locate the body had been ongoing for decades.
The remains were brought to Israel for identification, and Feldman’s family was then notified.
“For decades, Zvika was missing, and the efforts to locate him, along with the other missing soldiers from that same battle, never ceased for a moment,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
The Mossad, IDF, Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Israel Katz all said Israel would not stop its efforts until the remains of Katz are also returned.
“Just as we returned Zachary Baumel, and today Zvi Feldman, we continue to act in every way to also return Sgt. First Class Yehuda Katz and fulfill our duty for him and his family,” the defense minister said.
Baumel’s body was recovered with Russian assistance from the Yarmouk refugee camp, home to one of the largest Palestinian communities in Syria. In 2016, an Israeli tank lost in the battle was returned to Israel by Russia.
The IDF has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries.
Troops have been operating in areas up to around 15 kilometers (9miles) deep into Syria, aiming to capture weapons that Israel says could pose a threat to the country if they fall into the hands of “hostile forces.”
The Hostages Forum, which represents the majority of relatives of those held captive in Gaza, welcomes the return of Feldman’s body, while calling for the return of the remaining hostages, living and dead.
“The families of the hostages would like to extend a big hug to the Feldman family and to every family that is privileged to bring their loved one to burial,” the forum said in a statement.
“The return of Zvi Feldman is a moral, ethical and national reminder to the prime minister and members of the government — a grave is not a privilege, but a basic duty of the state to its citizens and fighters. In Israel, no one is left behind,” it said.
“As a society, we must not normalize a situation in which families have to wait over 40 years or more to be reunited with their loved ones,” it said.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF, one of whom is a soldier killed a decade ago. Israel has said there are grave concerns for the lives of a further three. link
- Gazan media claims 8 killed in overnight Israeli strikes near Khan Younis
Palestinian media reports claim eight have been killed, including children, in Israeli strikes overnight near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, amid escalating fighting between the IDF and the Hamas terror group in the Strip.
A drone strike is also reported hours later in Khan Younis’s Al-Amal neighborhood.
There is no immediate word from the IDF.
Gaza and the South
- Beirut Airport security overhaul thwarting Hezbollah smuggling, satisfying Israeli, US officials
Lebanon has conducted a major overhaul of security at its sole international airport in Beirut to prevent Hezbollah smuggling, satisfying Israeli and US officials and giving them hope that the Lebanese state will take full control over the country’s ports of entry from the terror group, The Wall Street Journal reports.
“You can feel the difference,” Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam tells the WSJ. “We’re doing better on smuggling for the first time in the contemporary history of Lebanon.”
Senior Lebanese security and military officials tell the outlet that no planes are now exempt from security checks, while flights from Iran have been suspended since February. Airport staff linked to Hezbollah have been fired, smugglers detained, and new surveillance mechanisms using AI are being put into place, the report says.
In one of the recent achievements, Lebanese security thwarted an endeavor to smuggle over 50 pounds of gold to Hezbollah through Beirut’s international airport, a senior security official tells the WSJ.
“There is reason for hope here,” says a senior US official working for the ceasefire mechanism overseeing a deal that ended over a year of Hezbollah-instigated fighting in November.
“It has only been six or seven months, and we have stepped to a place that I am not sure I thought was achievable back in November.”
Ibrahim Mousawi, a Hezbollah member of Lebanon’s parliament, tells the WSJ that the terror group sustained heavy losses but claims there are ways for them to rearm: “Where there is a will, there is a way.”
He also says that allegations of the terror group’s control over the airport were exaggerated: “We are part of the system, just like any other Lebanese constituency.”
Lebanon purges Hezbollah staff from Beirut airport in fatal blow to terror group's smuggling
Dozens of staff members at Beirut airport with ties to Hezbollah have been fired as the new government works to crack down on the terror group at one of its main import hubs, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing senior Lebanese security and military officials.While laws have existed for some time, the officials noted that they had finally begun being enforced, resulting in the arrests of numerous smugglers. Full article
- Politics and the War and General News
- Former Beit Shean mayor who lost son on Oct. 7: 'All those responsible for failure must go home'Rafi Ben Shitrit, former mayor of Beit Shean whose son Sgt. Elroy Ben Shitrit was killed in battle at Nahal Oz, said at a protest in Tel Aviv's Habima Square that 'since the government explicitly refuses to establish a state commission of inquiry, we demand tonight that our elected officials take responsibility. All those responsible for the failure and everyone who held key positions - everyone must go home
- IDF joins forces with NGO to turn community security teams into lean fighting machines
After Oct. 7 failures led to the killing of 48 civilian first responders, a grassroots org launches Magen 48 to professionally train security volunteers from 66 Gaza border communitiesIt looked like something from the hit Israeli television show “Fauda.”
Volunteer security team members from the Gaza border hone their shooting skills at at an IDF range. (Magen Yehuda)In the blinding sun, a line of men wearing army fatigues, bulletproof vests, and ear protection were firing at targets in quick succession, two at a time.
“Most Israeli men are hard of hearing thanks to this kind of noise,” said instructors Georgi and Rada, handing this reporter a set of earplugs.
They stood with stopwatches next to each man due to shoot. “Five seconds to shoot five bullets,” they barked.
The range they were practicing on is located in the Israel Defense Forces’ Gaza Division headquarters near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel, but the 14 trainees were not professional sharpshooters. Rather, they were members of a civilian kibbutz security team on the first day of a new intensive tactical training course.
The course is aimed at ensuring that Gaza border communities can defend themselves against a repeat of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were slaughtered during the full-scale invasion, and 251 were abducted to the Gaza Strip.
Members of Kibbutz Gvulot’s security team practising their shots at the shooting range of the IDF’s Gaza Division Headquarters in southern Israel, March 25, 2025. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)Kibbutz Gvulot, just over 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the Gaza Strip, was not invaded on October 7. Lacking rifles, security team members who had pistols went to help fight terrorists in Kibbutz Holit, about a 15-minute drive away.
It is nevertheless one of 66 localities within the Gaza border area — including the city of Sderot — whose security teams are undergoing one day of training per month over the course of a year, for a total of 12 days. Eight of those sessions will count toward the participants’ military reserve duty and are being funded by the IDF, while the remaining four days are paid for by a private NGO, Magen Yehuda, and its program, Magen 48.
First-response security teams on Israel’s borders are the responsibility of the army, with each community required to have at least 24 members who are trained and armed by the IDF. These members, however, are volunteers, often fathers in their 30s and 40s who have completed compulsory military service and are willing to be on call to defend their villages and towns. One of them is appointed commander and may also serve as the civilian security coordinator, whose salary is paid by the army and the local authority.
The group from Kibbutz Gvulot, which hopes to double in size, represented the spectrum of Israeli society. Members included a farmer and a history teacher, and served in a range of combat units such as the Golani and Paratrooper infantry brigades as well as the elite Navy Seals. Many had chalked up hundreds of days of reserve duty in Gaza during the ongoing war against Hamas there.
Locked out, under-equipped, and poorly coordinated
Until the October 7 massacre, the IDF provided men like these with two yearly sessions of limited training, usually at a shooting range.
When Hamas invaded and the army was initially overwhelmed, defense fell largely on the shoulders of these first response teams, 46 of whose members were murdered in the line of duty.
Beryl and Doreen Eckstein (center and right) pose with a kibbutz electrician outside the weaponry store at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, close to the Gaza border, January 3, 2024. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)Along the Gaza border, none of the teams had been trained in pistol use. Some lacked assault rifles or were unable to access locked armories. According to a series of IDF post-October 7 probes, the training of these teams was not standardized and coordination between them, the army, and other organizations was often poor.
In August 2022, following a series of break-ins and gun thefts, the army instructed all Gaza border security teams to return their assault rifles. It conditioned their return on the installation of safe storage places, either at home or in local armories. The decision left many unable to defend themselves against the massive waves of well-armed invading terrorists.
Because these were not installed in Sderot by October 7, for example, the security team there was not prepared to help defend the city. In all, 53 people were killed in Sderot that day, including 37 civilians, 11 police officers, two firefighters, and three IDF soldiers.
In Be’eri, the two security members with keys to the armory were killed before they could open it, and in Nahal Oz, the armory remained locked when power went out and the only man with a key for manual use was killed.
President Isaac Herzog meets the security team of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha near the Gaza border in southern Israel on October 7, 2024. (Koby Gideon)The secret of Kibbutz Erez
Immediately after October 7, Ra’anana-based Australian immigrant Ari Briggs teamed up with his long-time friend Elan Isaacson to understand what had happened so that he could brief Jewish communities overseas.
Briggs is a business consultant and former director of the international department at the right-wing Regavim organization. Isaacson, who moved with his family from South Africa to Israel as a child, spent decades growing flowers on an agricultural cooperative near the Gaza border. After the last major flare-up with Hamas in 2014, Isaacson traded chrysanthemum cultivation for the job of security chief at the Eshkol Regional Council.
Traveling between farming communities with Isaacson, Briggs discovered that the security team at Kibbutz Erez had fared better than elsewhere, managing to prevent the terrorists from entering the community and avoiding civilian casualties.
One member of the security team, Amir Naim, was killed during the fighting. The team gathered at the highest point in the kibbutz, from which they could see two pickup trucks full of terrorists heading their way, Ben Sadan, another member of the squad, told Ynet. They opened fire on them and a ferocious gunfight ensued, with “grenades, RPGs, insane gunfire,” he said. Naim was critically wounded and died in battle.
During his visit to Kibbutz Erez, Briggs asked the team how they survived, and they said, “‘Ehud Dribben’s training.’ So I chased Ehud down,” he said.
Dribben, a counterterrorism instructor who has worked with the IDF and police forces and militaries around the world, established the NGO Magen Yehuda (Shield of Judah) in 2004 as a vehicle through which to voluntarily train 64 first-response teams, many of them in the West Bank.
He trained the Kibbutz Erez team before October 7, having been contacted by a mutual friend of one of the team members.“We had had one to two days of practice each year, mainly at shooting ranges,” recalled Danny Epstein, a member of Kibbutz Erez’s security team who helped fight Hamas terrorists on the kibbutz fence for three hours on October 7, sustaining a gunshot to his throat.
“We felt the difference as soon as Ehud came in. He told us what the aim was, his security perspective, and what he expected from us as a security team, from working as individuals to members of small cells to a group.”
Dribben had them operating under scenarios of live fire, explosions, smoke, and more, and in simulations with wounded people and hostages.
“We carried out exercises that were relatively complex within the kibbutz,” Epstein said. “It created a better bond between us. We know how to work better together now.”
No standardized training
Briggs and Dribben conceived of Magen 48 this past August. The name was based on the understanding that 48 security team members had fallen on October 7. Confusingly, the IDF’s Gaza Division, with which Dribben worked on the details of the program, decided to call its project to improve civilian-military relations Magen 46, as two of the fallen were not from the Gaza border area.
Elan Isaacson, head of security at the Eshkol Regional Authority in southern Israel, photographed at the authority on March 25, 2025. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)An IDF spokeswoman said the army had taken inspiration from the NGO’s name, adding, “These are two separate programs with the same name, with the same aim, and wherever we can, we will help.”
Both the IDF and Magen 48 denied that the army has effectively outsourced part of its training to the private sector.
“It’s a trial that the Gaza Division Commander has approved to upgrade the civilian first response teams,” said Isaacson. “The army is taking responsibility, and we are supplementing it.”
Key to the project are tailored defense plans, 23 of which have been produced so far. These are made after a reserve lieutenant colonel has toured the community with the local security liaison to understand the layout, where attacks are likely to come from, and how it should be defended. Exercises based on the defense plans are conducted twice in conjunction with the IDF. According to Briggs, seeing that the IDF is involved in such a professional initiative is key to rebuilding confidence in the military that was shattered on October 7.
“People said it’s [a job] for the bigger organizations, the government to deal with,” Briggs quipped. “But I’m the crazy Australian, and I know that the government comes in once a program is successful.”
Members of a security team during a Magen 48 training exercise. (Magen Yehuda)The standards for the training are the same in all communities, Dribben said, although the trainings are shaped to suit the location that’s being defended.
The course includes tactical skills, communication, various forms of target training, drone reconnaissance, emergency medical strategies, and team leadership training focused on real-time decision-making. Security teams, to which women had also signed up, required the same level of rifle competency as homefront combat soldiers and combat support personnel.
“Every exercise, in every scenario, is timed, measured, and given marks,” Dribben said. “The whole system must be rebuilt in a long-term and professional way.”
Ehud Dribben (right) stresses a point with a volunteer security team member. (Magen Yehuda)Briggs has been visiting US Jewish communities, urging them to twin with the security teams of different Gaza border settlements to finance four of the 12 training sessions.
It costs $26,000 for one year, 20% less for the second year, and half that sum for the third, as the teams become more experienced. So far, he has raised support for 18 communities.
Isaacson, a keen supporter of the new training scheme, said, “You can have the best schools, the best of everything, but if you don’t have the basics — security — it will be hard to bring the communities back and keep them there.”
“It’s 100% the army’s job to defend us,” he went on. “But that’s not enough after October 7. Wherever you live in Israel, you need to take responsibility for your family and community.”
Briggs added, “You don’t have to be Rambo to defend your community.” link
Force that was exposed did not receive approval to change location, one day later – was ambushed in building and a fighter was killed
The fighters who were in a planned ambush in one of the neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip eliminated terrorists and understood that they were exposed • They turned to the commander – and he passed upward the request to fold the position and move to another location • The fighters claim: "We knew that if we stayed there, a disaster would happen," a security source explains: "There was no intelligence on the exposure of their location"The force was exposed, did not receive permission to change location and encountered | Photo: APThe incident that could have been prevented: In a confrontation that occurred in recent weeks in the Gaza Strip between an IDF force and Hamas terrorists, one of the fighters was killed. Today (Sunday) we publish for the first time on N12 the circumstances in which the confrontation occurred, circumstances that raise question marks regarding the decisions that were made at the high command levels of the IDF concerning that force of fighters – and that indicate that it is possible that the harsh outcome could have been prevented. It should be noted that the fighters in the field acted professionally and that the criticism presented in the article is directed at the senior command echelon and not at the force that was present in the building and its surroundings.
The fighters were in a planned ambush inside a house in one of the neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip. A day before the fatal incident, they eliminated several terrorists. Later, the fighters understood that their hiding place was discovered and that the terrorists knew their location. The fighters raised the claims before the commander in the field, who requested from the elements above to fold the position and move to another location. However, despite the concern, he did not receive approval.
The fighters say it was clear to them that the terrorists knew where they were, and that "if we stay there – a disaster will happen." Therefore, they turned to the force commander. However, despite the explanations, he did not receive approval to move to another location and one day later the confrontation occurred inside the building – during which the fighter fell.
Hamas terrorists | Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib, Flash 90Security sources familiar with the details explained the decision not to move the force by saying that "in a situation assessment that was conducted, and in light of the fact that there was no intelligence on the exposure of their location, it was decided to leave the fighters to continue their mission." After the event, which is still in the midst of an operational investigation, the fighters raised the harsh claims before the unit commander and he conducted a discussion with them about the case.
From the IDF Spokesperson it was stated: "The event is under operational investigation. The IDF shares in the grief of the bereaved families." link
- PA’s Abbas, Syrian and Lebanese presidents to join Trump’s meeting with Saudi Arabia’s bin Salman
Several Arab newspapers report that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will join US President Trump’s meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this Tuesday.
According to the report in the UK-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, the initiative came from the Saudi crown prince and was accepted by Trump.
Riyadh, Doha and Abu Dhabi are expected to pull out all the stops for Trump, who’s making his first major overseas trip after briefly attending the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome. His visit is due to begin on May 13 in Riyadh.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said yesterday that Trump’s decision to skip Israel in his upcoming visit to the Middle East was not an indication of a deteriorating relationship between Washington and Jerusalem.
Israel has set Trump’s trip as the deadline for a ceasefire deal with Hamas before launching a planned major offensive in Gaza.
A sign with the poem "What A Gazan Should Do During An Israeli Air Strike," by Mosab Abu Toha (inset) is seen at the University of California, Berkeley, pro-Palestinian student encampment, May 4, 2024. (Jay L. Clendenin/Getty Images via JTA)
A former hostage held in Gaza for over 500 days said Thursday she was in “shock and pain” after a Gaza-born writer who appeared to justify her abduction and denigrated other captives on social media was awarded the Pulitzer Prize this week.
Mosab Abu Toha, a Palestinian currently living in the United States, won the prestigious journalism honor in the “commentary” category Monday for essays published in The New Yorker magazine.
But in social media posts flagged by pro-Israel watchdog Honest Reporting, Abu Toha had written disparagingly of Emily Damari and another female hostage and cast doubt on the brutal murder of the two young Bibas children after they and their mother were abducted by Gazan terrorists. The revelations sparked criticism of the prize committee from Israel’s Foreign Ministry and a call for the prize to be rescinded.
“These are not word games – they are outright denials of documented atrocities,” Damari wrote in a letter to the prize board posted on X Thursday. “You claim to honor journalism that upholds truth, democracy, and human dignity. And yet you have chosen to elevate a voice that denies truth, erases victims, and desecrates the memory of the murdered.”
Damari, a 28-year-old civilian with Israeli and British citizenship, was shot and taken from her Kfar Aza home on October 7, 2023. She was released on January 19 this year as part of a ceasefire deal, emerging without two fingers, which had been shot off during the attack.
Posting online days later, Abu Toha falsely portrayed her as a soldier and appeared to attempt to legitimize her being “detai[n]ed” by Hamas.
Emily Damari (right) and her mother, Mandy, hold a video call with family members after her return from Hamas captivity, January 19, 2025. (IDF)
“How on earth is this girl called a hostage? (And this is the case of most ‘hostages). This is Emily Damari, a 28 UK-Israeli soldier that Hamas detailed [sic] on 10/7,” he wrote on Facebook on January 25, alongside an old video clip in which she was seen in uniform. “So this girl is called a ‘hostage?’ This soldier who was close to the border with a city that she and her country have been occupying is called a ‘hostage?’”
On May 6, Abu Toha edited the post slightly, changing “most hostages” to “some hostages.”
In a separate post in early February, he posted a picture of Agam Berger, a surveillance soldier taken captive on October 7 and released as part of the same January deal, calling her and others “killers who join the army and have family in the army!” while criticizing international media for “humaniz[ing]” them.
Honest Reporting also noted that Abu Toha aimed fire at the BBC in February for reporting on Israel’s findings that Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were respectively 4 years old and nine months old at the time of their abduction, had been murdered by their captors’ bare hands.
“If you haven’t seen any evidence, why did you publish this. Well, that’s what you are, filthy people,” he wrote.
“Mosab Abu Toha is not a courageous writer,” Damari wrote Thursday. “He is the modern-day equivalent of a Holocaust denier. And by honoring him, you have joined him in the shadows of denial. This is not a question of politics. This is a question of humanity. And today, you have failed it.”
There was no immediate comment from Abu Toha.
A spokesperson for the Pulitzer committee told Fox News online that “the selection process for each award is based on a review of submitted works.”
On Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein posted online that the prize for Abu Toha was “shameful.”
“Apparently, attacking young Israeli women who were brutally kidnapped by Hamas, can get you the @PulitzerPrizes— at least when it comes to @MosabAbuToha,” he wrote.
Israel’s consul general in New York, Ofir Akunis, told Fox News that the posts should sicken decent people.
Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha speaks to online news show ‘Democracy Now!’ about Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, January 22, 2024. (Screen capture: YouTube/Democracy Now! used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
“These posts are an absolute disgrace and this man should be condemned for his comments, not given a Pulitzer Prize,” he said.
In its announcement of the prize Monday, the Pulitzer committee praised Abu Toha, 32, for his “essays on the physical and emotional carnage in Gaza that combine deep reporting with the intimacy of memoir to convey the Palestinian experience of more than a year and a half of war with Israel.”
Honest Reporting, which charged that other posts by Abu Toha criticized Israel in ways that crossed into antisemitism, called for the prize to be rescinded.
“The Pulitzer Prize is the top award in journalism and should not be blemished by bestowing it to a man who repeatedly twisted facts,” Honest Reporting executive director Gil Hoffman said in a statement. “Abu Toha justifies abducting civilians from their homes, spreads fake news, and calls lighting a Menorah on Hanukkah antisemitism.”
According to the watchdog, Abu Toha’s online rhetoric met the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.
It pointed out posts in which Abu Toha referred to Israeli troops as “terror soldiers” and compared Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to the Holocaust.
Critics of the IHRA definition, which has been widely, but not universally, adopted in the West, say it is overly broad and stifles legitimate criticism of Israel.
Abu Toha was also accused of echoing Hamas propaganda after he posted last month about the bombing of the al-Ahli hospital in November 2023, which the terror group blamed on Israel, despite evidence produced by the Israel Defense Forces and backed by the US showing that the Gaza City hospital had been hit by an errant rocket fired by the Islamic Jihad terror group.
A cursory scan of Abu Toha’s recent social media feeds by The Times of Israel also uncovered posts in which he accused Israel of killing hostages held by terror groups in Gaza, disparaged calls for their release, urged the international community to take military action against Israel, and called for activists and others to “escalate” actions against the Jewish state.
On Tuesday, he said online that his account had been suspended from Facebook but swiftly restored, with a Meta spokesperson commenting that the suspension had been a mistake.
Reacting to the Pulitzer win online Monday, Abu Toha posted, “Let it bring hope. Let it be a tale,” quoting the poem of Palestinian author Refaat Alareer, who was killed in December 2023 by an Israeli strike on Gaza.
He went on to list dozens of members of his family who were killed by airstrikes in Gaza, which has been devastated by the war.
The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7 when Hamas led over 5,000 terrorists to invade southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Attackers also abducted 251 people who were taken hostage to Gaza. Of those, 59 remain captive in the Strip, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces.
Abu Toha was detained by the IDF in November 2023 and briefly held. His arrest quickly sparked Western media attention, as he had been contributing pieces to The New Yorker and other major outlets since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, painting a dire image of its toll on civilians through personal experience. link
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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