🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 591, 2023 - May 19, 2025 🎗️
END IT NOW! by Gershon Baskin
Since December 2023, I have warned that the military pressure doesn’t rescue hostages, it kills them. Israel has officially said that about 41 hostages have been killed in captivity probably as a result of military pressure. The hostages that have come home have said that Israeli bombing almost killed them and that when the IDF was closing into where they were, their conditions worsened and they feared for their lives. Since October 7, 2023 it is clear that rescuing the hostages has not been the primary goal of Netanyahu. Saving Netanyahu’s coalition has been Netanyahu’s number one priority. We don’t know how many of the 58 hostages remaining are still alive. Netanyahu said at least 21 are alive. The number keeps dropping. I believe that Hamas knows where all 58 hostages are – those who are alive and those who are not. I know that the Israeli security officials have reviewed the files of every single Palestinian prisoner and has lists prepared for every contingency for the release of prisoners. There is a deal on the table that has been there for many months already and all that is needed is for Netanyahu to say three words to Dermer and the negotiating team: BRING THEM HOME. It better be done soon because the military pressure is likely to kill everyone in Hamas in Gaza who is capable of delivering the release of the hostages. Soon it may not be possible to implement a deal negotiated by Hamas outside of Gaza because no one in Gaza will listen to them and/or there won’t be anyone left in a command position in Gaza who is capable of carrying out the agreement once it is made.
The following is what I believe is possible in a deal.
1. All of the hostages released at once - this can be done within a week’s time.
2. Israel will release the agreed number and names of Palestinian prisoners – this can be done within a week’s time.
3. Israel ends the fighting in Gaza completely – this can be done in one day.
4. Israel withdraws entirely to the international border - this can be done within a week’s time.
5. Mahmoud Abbas appoints a Governor for Gaza – this can be done in one day.
6. The appointed Palestinian governor creates a government for Gaza - this can be done within a two weeks’ time – the names have already been proposed and multiple lists of names have been shared around the region. It will be a government without Hamas participation and will be accepted by Hamas.
7. The new Palestinian Government and the Palestinian Authority will establish a mechanism for the provision of immediate humanitarian aid and will begin the process of planning and implementing the reconstruction of Gaza. The aid will enter via Rafah, Kerem Shalom, Erez and other possible crossing points. International inspections will ensure that no weapons are being smuggled into Gaza.
8. Hamas will turn over its arms to the new Palestinian government in Gaza.
9. Hamas fighters and commanders who wish to leave Gaza with their families will be allowed to do so (via Egypt) and Israel will not harm them.
A couple of notes on all of this:
1. Any prisoner released that endangers Israel can easily be re-arrested, especially if they are released to the West Bank.
2. Any breach in the ceasefire can be answered by Israel militarily, even if there are international, Arab, or American guarantees – no one will stop Israel from defending itself.
3. If Hamas does not turn over its weapons to the new Palestinian government, Israel can deal with this militarily, but it is best to enable the new Palestinian government to do this job with the assistance of a temporary Arab security presence that they will invite to Gaza for a limited period of time.
4. Once the war is over, the Israeli government must create a national commission of inquiry and as soon as possible, and Israel must go to new elections as soon as possible.
5. The Palestinians should go to new elections to elect a Palestinian unified government by the people, for the people – as soon as possible.
6. Israel must stop the killing in Gaza. Too much killing has been done. Too much destruction in Gaza has been done. Israel will pay for this in many ways for years to come.
Gershon Baskin (May 18, 2025)
Hamas official tells CNN that group will agree to release 7-9 hostages in exchange for two-month truce
A senior Hamas official tells CNN that the terror group has agreed to release between seven to nine Israeli hostages in exchange for a two-month ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and the release of 300 Palestinian security prisoners.
The unnamed Hamas official says that this deal would also be contingent on the IDF agreeing to withdraw “east of the Salah al-Din Corridor,” meaning, to the outskirts of the Gaza Strip.
The report does not indicate whether this has been put forward as a formal proposal during the ongoing negotiations in Qatar. link Once again, Netanyahu is leading us into a horrible deal that will leave most of the hostages in captivity in Gaza for an undetermined amount of time. The only deal that should be on the table is one that brings all hostages home at once and ends this horrible war. Instead, Netanyahu who created these drips and drabs hostage release deals continues to not give a damn about the lives of the hostages and the suffering of their families. Witkoff goes along with these lousy deals because he knows that without the necessary hard pressure by Trump, Netanyahu will never agree to a deal that releases all the hostages with agreeing to end the war. Witkoff, from his end wants all the hostages home but is willing to go along with these partial deals to try to get as many home as possible. Of course, it is important to get any hostages home that we can, but it is entirely possible to get all of them home in a very short time, if not for Netanyahu's self interests getting priority over the lives of the hostages.
Senior Hamas official denies CNN report that group will release 7-9 hostages for 60-day truce
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri tells the Qatari Al Jazeera channel that a CNN report claiming Hamas is willing to release nine hostages in exchange for a two-month ceasefire is false.
The report had cited an unnamed Hamas official.
Abu Zuhri further claims that Hamas is prepared to release all the hostages in one phase, on the condition that Israel agrees to end the war with international guarantees.
He accuses Israel of trying to “confuse the public” with false reports in order to pressure Hamas.
Israel said to present new deal in Doha to free half of the living hostages in exchange for extended truce, prisoner release
Israel has presented a new proposal to Hamas during the hostage negotiations in Doha, offering an extended ceasefire under which half of the remaining living hostages would be released in exchange for more than 100 terrorists serving life sentences, Channel 12 reports.
Under the deal, Hamas would also return half of the deceased hostages, in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian detainees arrested following the October 7, 2023, massacre.
The proposal has been delivered to US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and the Qatari mediators, says the network.
Meanwhile, Axios reports that Witkoff, who has been in Doha for several days to participate in the negotiations, has also given Hamas and Israel a new proposal and is pressuring the two sides to accept it.
The updated framework includes a 40-60 day ceasefire and the release of an unspecified number Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 10 living hostages, and a mutual understanding that the deal would be the start of a wider agreement to end the war entirely, says Axios, citing an Israeli official and a source with direct knowledge.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded positively to the proposal, while Hamas is still seeking guarantees that a temporary ceasefire could lead to the war’s end, the report says.
Earlier today, Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s hostage negotiation team in Doha is exhausting “every possibility” for a deal, including a potential agreement that would see the end of fighting, in an apparent shift in approach.
There has been further frustration on Hamas’s part about its negotiations with Washington, Axios says, following Israel’s targeted strike against the head of Hamas’ military wing, Muhammed Sinwar, whose death has yet to be confirmed by the IDF.
On this issue, Witkoff told families of the hostages over the last day that he will not allow the results of the strike on Sinwar to harm progress in negotiations, according to Channel 12.
“We know how to get an answer from Hamas in Gaza at any given moment, including after the elimination of Muhammed Sinwar. We have our ways. Nothing has been stalled because of the assassination. I don’t intend to give up, until we achieve the desired result. If needed – I’m a lawyer, and I will draft the agreement,” the network quotes Witkoff as saying, reporting in Hebrew on the English conversation. link It's a shame that a relative of Netanyahyu's isn't in captivity. We would have seen all of the back home already in November 2023. But he doesn't care how many he leaves behind to suffer and die as long as he doesn't have to end his war to preserve his position and coalition. He is a disgrace to the country and to his own brother who gave his life to save hostages in Entebbe.
Report claims Doha ceasefire talks at impasse
Negotiations in Doha over a potential ceasefire and hostage release have reached a standstill, an Israeli official tells Channel 12 news.
According to the report, the official says the talks have “reached a dead end,” emphasizing that Israel will not provide Hamas any guarantees for an end to the war as part of the current mediation efforts.
The statement comes amid ongoing international pressure to broker a deal, as well as growing concerns over the humanitarian situation in Gaza. link. Unfortunately, there is very little surprise here. The surprise was the earlier news spins that significant progress had been made towards this interim agreement. I have been saying exactly what everyone on the negotiating team knows, that without a guarantee for the end of the war, Hamas will not agree to anything. Yes, through my brother, I have greater knowledge of Hamas' negotiating methods than most Israelis, but Netanyahu and all of his negotiating team members (high and low levels) know the same as me but Netanyahu constantly deflects and throws all the blame on Hamas. I'm not withholding that blame of Hamas for everything that has been done to the hostages since October 7 but my concern, the concern of the majority of the public, and what should be the number one concern of Netanyahu and his failed government is to get the hostages home right now and pay the price of ending the war to do so. But that goes against all of Netanyahu's self interests so he will keep the war going, keep the hostages in captivity even until all the living are killed, keep sending soldiers to fight and die, and continuing to bomb and killed many more thousands of non combatant Gazans, women, children and elderly. Most Gazans killed are not Hamas members. Right now, this is purely Netanyahu's war and doesn't serve the good of anyone else.
🎗️Day 591 that 58 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
*5:15pm yesterday - Gaza Envelope - Kissufim - rockets from Gaza
Two rockets were launched from the central Gaza Strip at the Kissufim area a short while ago, the military says. The IDF says one of the rockets was intercepted while the second struck an open area, causing no injuries.
'Your hands will be stained with their blood,' freed hostage Arbel Yehoud tells Knesset
Former hostage Arbel Yehud attends a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting at the Knesset, in the Israeli parliament on May 19, 2025.. (photo credit:YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)'I'm crying out for those still there' - Hostage survivor Arbel Yehoud pleads for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations to release the remaining 58 hostages.Former hostage Arbel Yehoud on Monday addressed the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee at the Knesset and called for a halt to the war in Gaza and the release of all hostages through a deal.“I am Arbel Yehoud, a proud Jew who survived alone the horrific captivity by terrorist organizations in Gaza for 482 days until I returned to my family and people. I have come to shout their cries for the release of my brothers and sisters still held captive,” Yehoud said.“Do you think it is reasonable or right that I should be the one here shouting for the freedom of my beloved Ariel, his brother David, and the other hostages? They are held as pawns for the terrorists’ lives and the survival of the Netanyahu government,” Yehoud added.She shared, “When I was there, I thought my family and the Israeli government would act to release me as their one and only priority. I was right about my family, but wrong about the government, which even today — 591 days since the war began — chooses to continue the military path that endangers the lives of the hostages.”“I felt the roar of rockets, the pounding of shells, and their shockwaves on my body. On the night Luis and Fernando were rescued in Rafah while I was held nearby, I chose to say goodbye to my family because I felt it was my last day,” she recalled.Former hostage Arbel Yehud attends a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting at the Knesset, in the Israeli parliament on May 19, 2025. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
Conditions in captivity felt like a concentration camp
Yehoud also said, “Know that when Gazans close to some of the families who held me were hurt by IDF activity, I was severely beaten and even thrown into isolation for many days without proper food or hygiene — conditions like those in concentration camps during the Holocaust.”She explained, “I survived because I held on to hope and the commitment to return to my family, especially to my brother Dolev’s children, after I learned of his death. That commitment carried me minute by minute for 482 days, even in moments of despair when I was humiliated and subjected to psychological terror and attempts to break my spirit. I did not break. Our loved ones there endure similar and worse conditions day and night.”Yehoud demanded an end to the war: “I demand that you, ministers and Knesset members, act to stop the fighting and bring them back to us. Having been there, I know that only through negotiations is this possible. The terrorists do not value their own lives or the lives of Gaza civilians, and their deaths in the war do not deter them.”“We are not like them in how we value life. Therefore, you must release our loved ones and prevent their deaths, as well as the bloodshed of the soldiers, sons, fathers, and brothers of us all, and bring Israel’s fallen home for burial. My recovery journey and that of other survivors cannot begin until everyone returns. Physically, we are here, but mentally, we are still captive with them,” she said.Yehoud said, “Government ministers and Knesset members, look at me and see whom you have abandoned and chosen to sacrifice as a solution to the Gaza problem. Like me, 58 other Israeli citizens are held captive, who are not only suffering but dying. Your hands will be stained with their blood and the blood of soldiers if you do not stop this war. As parents and grandparents, I ask you to see the hostages as your own children and grandchildren and bring them back to the family of the people of Israel.”In closing, Yehoud called on the public “to take to the streets and halt the country’s daily life until all the hostages return. Without their return, we cannot begin rebuilding, and the dead cannot be buried. We will not return to be the people we once were, the country we chose to live in and to which our ancestors returned after 2,000 years of exile.” LinkIDF spokesman says military doing ‘everything’ to ensure hostages aren’t harmed in new Gaza op
IDF spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, in his press conference, says the IDF is doing “everything” to prevent harm to the hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza during the new offensive against the terror group.
“The fighting is being conducted in full coordination with the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters. We are doing everything to prevent harm to the hostages. They are before our eyes at all times,” he says.
“We are moving forward, and the only thing that can stop us is the return of our hostages home,” Defrin says.
He also justifies the IDF’s vague statements on its operations in Gaza, saying, “Ambiguity is a tool. We won’t share our plans with Hamas. They will see actions on the ground.” link This statement does absolutely nothing to allay the desperate and real fears of the hostage families and the entire nation. Throughout the war, the army has been doing 'everything' to ensure the hostages aren't harmed but that hasn't helped. Many hostages were killed or injured in our bombing, our own troops mistakenly killed 3 fleeing hostages who escaped their captors, and many others were executed by the terrorists when the army got close to them. The Chief of General Staff stated clearly and without hesitation that the expanded Gaza operation can end up killing hostages, yet the political echelon didn't give it a second's thought when the unanimously approved the operation.
"I lay on the floor with bent legs and the terrorist spat on me and kicked me"
Three months after his release, Keith Siegel reveals what he endured during 484 days of hell in Gaza: physical violence against him and those with him, humiliating sexual remarks – and the separation from his wife Aviva. Even though he returned home, his soul is still there, and he cannot stop thinking about the hostages left behind. The chilling meeting with Omri Miran, what the abducted soldier Matan Angerst went through, and the moment he could not stop the abuse of the female hostage who was with him.
"This is the certificate they gave me before the event at the Gaza port," Keith Siegel presents the "gift" that Hamas asked him to deliver to his wife Aviva. "We arrived at the beach, we sat down, they seated me next to a table and he pulled out the certificate," he recalls.
How did you feel when they gave you this?
"The truth is that it amused me, as strange as that may sound. And that's it, from there we drove to the event on the stage. They told me I should wave to the crowd and that I should say thank you. I waved, I skipped the ‘thank you’.""They told me to say thank you." Keith Siegel at the "release" ceremony from Hamas captivity | Photo: Reuters"He just looked like a walking skeleton," Aviva recalls the day Keith was released. "His eyes were sunken. He looked unhappy, sad, he looked completely in shock. I met a very withdrawn person, it was not easy for me... I felt like they brought me back a different person."
"They moved me 33 times, and I can tell you from October 7 until February 1 – the day I was released – where I was," he shares. "It was very important for me to remember those dates, I thought maybe it would have intelligence value. It gave me some kind of security."
"Looked like a skeleton." Keith meets his family | Photo: Reuters"He is still in a kind of Gaza"
How do you even begin to sum up 484 days in captivity? How can the soul even begin to digest? Although Keith has been home for three months, he still struggles to adjust to life after, where he is once again master of himself. "It is very hard for Keith to get up in the morning, really," Aviva admits. "I think that if I didn’t say to him, ‘Come on, Keith...’, he would just keep sleeping – a kind of Gaza."It used to be different.
Aviva: "Yes, this is a dynamic that is sometimes, personally, not simple – as much as I’m happy and joyful that Keith is here, and really it’s indescribable in words, there are the difficulties."Aviva and Keith have been together 44 years. They built a home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, brought four children into the world, and on October 7 experienced a trauma that turned their lives upside down. At ten-thirty in the morning, they were abducted from their home in the kibbutz – to Gaza.
"They broke into the safe room, pulled us into the living room – a house full of terrorists, shouting at each other, looked like they were arguing about what to do," he recalls. "They pulled us out through the back window of the house, shot at us on the way, pushed me from behind, knocked me to the floor. I was in shock, but I acted even more shocked than I really was. I kept thinking that the more I could delay the arrival at the car or anything else, the army would arrive to rescue us."
But that didn’t happen:
"They put us into the car. Three terrorists, Aviva and me, we crossed the border, entered Gaza. One of the terrorists held a knife like this in front of our faces. I thought we would open the door and jump, Aviva easily convinced me to give up on that idea."For the first 50 days, Keith and Aviva were held together and moved between tunnels and apartments. Part of the time they were held with Liri Elbag and Agam Berger, the observation soldiers kidnapped from Nahal Oz base, and with Amit Susana, who was also kidnapped from Kfar Aza, from the Dor Tzair neighborhood.
"Locked in a room all the time, had to ask for permission to go to the bathroom," he shares. "Their moods changed, angry, violent, especially when the fighting intensified. The terrorists also allowed themselves to demand from some of the female hostages to cook, clean, housework. They never asked me to do that. They never demanded that from me.""There are difficulties since the return from captivity." Keith and Aviva Siegel | Photo: Channel 12 News"I experienced very, very harsh violence"
"I saw a terrorist hold a gun to the head of a female hostage and threaten her," he testifies. "I saw that same hostage lying on her back, her mouth sealed, legs tied, and they beat her with a stick." That hostage, Amit Susana, recounted in an interview with Ben Shani on "Uvda":
"It turns out in retrospect that they suspected I was an officer. They hit me during it, and they humiliated me, and then suddenly they called the hostages one by one to come and try to convince me to tell the truth, and I saw the fear in their eyes – they were shocked."
In our conversation, Keith admits: "To this day I feel terrible that I didn’t make it stop, that thing. That I didn’t do more.""They held a gun to her head and threatened her." Amit SusanaAfter 51 days, the terrorists told Keith that Aviva, his wife, was being released.
"I was very, very happy that Aviva was being released. They said I would be released the next day. I have a tendency to believe people, so, ‘Fine, we’ll meet soon, the next day’. And then every day I asked, ‘When is it my turn?’ ‘Inshallah, tomorrow’ – that was the answer."But the ceasefire ended suddenly. Keith was separated from the girls, and he immediately felt the worsening of conditions and the deteriorating treatment by the terrorists. Some of the time he was completely alone, other times he stayed in homes with additional hostages.
"I experienced very, very harsh violence myself: I lay on the floor, on my back, with bent legs. A terrorist came at me, started screaming at me and cursing me, spat on me and kicked me in the leg, and the next day in the ribs. It really hurt me for over a month," he says, demonstrating on his body.
"We experienced sexual and verbal abuse: remarks about the size of our genitals and comparisons between us, about my daughters, about my wife’s sexual preference – very hard for me to talk about it.""Matan told me difficult things he went through"
With Matan Angerst, the armored corps soldier kidnapped from the tank in Nahal Oz, he was held for 67 days in a small apartment.
"He told very difficult things he went through, I saw violence toward Matan," he shared in the past."I saw violence toward him." Kidnapped soldier Matan Angerst"Many times people stop me and want to take a picture with me. So I made a rule that I agree to take a picture with people just like that, on the condition that I hold a picture of one of my friends. One of them is Omri (Miran)," Keith says. "In February (2024) they separated me from Matan, moved me to a house. I enter the house, and there I meet Omri. He was very happy, told me about the difficulty of being alone."
"Omri said they marched him from Nahal Oz, from the house, to Gaza – he wasn’t driven. He said they separated him from Lishi and the girls. He spoke about longing for Lishi and the girls, he didn’t know if they were alive. He said he experienced very, very harsh treatment, hands shackled, and they severely denied him water and food."
With the family’s permission: This is what Omri Miran looked like in captivity (AVI video: News)
"Didn’t know if Lishi and the girls were alive." Omri Miran in Hamas video | AVI video: NewsHow did those months pass for you? How were the treatment and conditions?
"Hard – a small crowded room, and we lived together with them. It was very, very hot, so Omri was without a shirt and the captors told him that it was not acceptable with them to walk around without a shirt. Omri was punished, and they told him that he would not leave that room anymore. I felt very uncomfortable with this situation, that there was a difference in the treatment toward us.""At the end of April they filmed us, a video that aired a day or two later, we saw it: we go downstairs to watch TV, and suddenly we see our families on TV, on the stage. He saw Lishi, he still didn’t know about the girls – what about them? He tried to imagine what they were like. The hardship is that he is actually missing their growth, their development, all that beauty of a child beginning to walk, beginning to talk."
"On July 4, in the evening hours, they came and told Omri that he was being moved to another place," Keith recalls. "We hugged very, very tightly. We wished each other to meet soon in Israel, and then they took him. Did you see the last video Hamas released with Omri? He is very, very different from the Omri I knew, less lively. It seems his condition is worse than when we were together. And to think that I got to return and he stayed there – a very, very hard feeling."
I see this is hard for you.
"Yes, I put a lot of effort into holding back. Very hard for me."
And Aviva joins in and says:
"I think there is something about captivity that takes you – especially after so much time – you don’t allow yourself to feel, because you can’t feel. That ‘feeling’ is something very threatening, because you might feel and want to cry, and you’re not allowed to cry, you might look depressed and you’re not allowed to look depressed. You have to look like you’re happy, otherwise you get it on the head."
Do you think he still cannot feel his own emotions?
"Completely. I think that’s one of the things about captivity, about the 484 days – some kind of disconnection that doesn’t one hundred percent characterize Keith."Sign of life from the hostages Keith Siegel and Omri Miran
"I got to return and Omri stayed there – a very, very hard feeling." Keith Siegel and Omri Miran in captivity"In Gaza I managed without"
Despite the difficulties and the not-simple coping, from the moment Keith returned to Israel, he has been constantly between Israel and the United States: speaking with everyone necessary in the American administration, applying pressure to return the remaining hostages. As they pack for another trip, he goes to get a toothbrush, but jokes: "In Gaza I managed without."The release of Idan Alexander, a Golani soldier with American citizenship, caught Keith while he was again flying on a delegation to the U.S.
"In the beginning and in every new place they moved me, one of the questions was if I had another citizenship. I have American citizenship, and I was very afraid that if I said it, there was a chance they’d release me."
Before Aviva?
"Yes. So in the beginning I said I don’t have.""It is very important for me to express thanks and appreciation to the IDF soldiers, who fought and are fighting and helped bring us home," Keith says to the camera. "I want to hug the bereaved families."
And Aviva says to him before the trip:
"This time we will shout louder, you are a bit too gentle. We must bring him back – you cannot do it politely and quietly and gently, it doesn’t work."Feels guilty for returning. Keith Siegel | Photo: Channel 12 NewsAnd despite all the efforts and attempts, Keith feels guilty. Like the other hostages who returned, he still does not feel that he can live a full and complete life as long as his friends remain behind in captivity. A deep solidarity forged in an inhuman, unimaginable situation that drives him to continue the fight until everyone returns.
"Very, very hard every day to think about everyone who’s still there – why did I get this, why was I the one who returned? I don’t deserve special treatment, everyone does." link
IDF issues evacuation warning for Khan Younis suburb, south Deir al-Balah after rocket fire at Kissufim
Following rocket fire from the central Gaza Strip at the Kissufim area near the border, the IDF issues an evacuation warning for Palestinians in the Khan Younis suburb of Al-Qarara and the south Deir al-Balah area.
In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, publishes a map of the area that is to be evacuated, saying that it is a “final warning” before the IDF carries out strikes there.
Two rockets were fired at Kissufim, one of which was intercepted, and the second struck an open area, according to the military.
IDF declares all of Khan Younis a combat zone, warns Gazans to evacuate
Displaced Palestinians fleeing Beit Lahia amid ongoing Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip arrive in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi)
The IDF says Palestinians living in and around the large southern Gaza city of Khan Younis must leave their homes as it prepares to launch an “unprecedented attack” on the area.
The evacuation order, covering all of Khan Younis as well as the suburbs of Bani Suheila and Abasan, marks the first major evacuation order since the IDF launched an expanded offensive in the Strip, with Israeli leaders warning they intend to conquer the whole territory to smash the Hamas terror group.
“The IDF will launch an unprecedented attack to destroy the capabilities of terror organizations in this area,” says the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee.
The entire Khan Younis area is now considered “a dangerous combat zone,” he says.
Civilians, who likely number in the tens of thousands, are advised to move west toward the Mawasi area on the coast.Senior terrorist said killed in Israeli special forces op in south Gaza
Palestinian media says undercover troops apprehended wife and children of Popular Resistance Committees commander in Khan Younis; IDF rebuffs report of hostage rescue operation
A wagon reportedly used by Israeli troops in a special forces operation in southern Gaza's Khan Younis (left) and Ahmad Sarhan, a top member of the Popular Resistance Committees who was killed in the operation, May 19, 2025. (Social media: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)A senior Palestinian terror operative was killed in an Israeli operation in the southern Gaza Strip early Monday morning, Palestinian media reported, as the Israel Defense Forces denied that the effort was an attempt to rescue Israeli hostages.
Media outlets in Gaza reported that Israeli special forces entered Khan Younis and killed Ahmad Sarhan, a senior member of the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees.
According to the reports, the force entered the heart of the Palestinian city in disguise, including some troops dressed as women. During the operation, Sarhan’s wife and children were apprehended, the reports claimed.
The Popular Resistance Committees is considered the third-largest terror organization operating in the Gaza Strip, after Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In recent years, the group has operated under Hamas’s directives.
Amid the incident at dawn, a wave of heavy airstrikes was reported around the Khan Younis area, including Nasser Hospital.
Videos from the Strip showed large strikes in quick succession in the area, followed by the sounds of helicopter gunships, shelling, small arms fire, and other explosions. There were unconfirmed Palestinian media reports of casualties. Video
Hamas leader Muhammad Sinwar’s body said found in Gaza tunnel hit by IDF last week
Defense minister says ‘there’s no official confirmation, but according to all the indications’ he died; report says third Sinwar brother Zakaria killed Saturday
A series of Israeli airstrikes last week killed Muhammad Sinwar, the de facto commander of Hamas in Gaza, according to reports on Sunday that said his body was found in a Khan Younis tunnel.
Muhammad Sinwar was the younger brother of the former Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by the IDF in southern Gaza last October.
According to a separate report, Zakaria Sinwar, another brother, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday night.
The strikes that reportedly killed Muhammad Sinwar on Tuesday targeted an underground command compound below the European Hospital where he was believed to have been sheltering.
The Hamas-run health ministry reported 16 dead and over 70 wounded in the strike, though there was no immediate word if Sinwar was among the casualties.
The IDF later bombed the area several more times, in an apparent attempt to prevent anyone from approaching the tunnel.
A man walks past a bus inside a crater in the aftermath of an Israeli strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on May 14, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)According to the Saudi channel Al-Hadath, his body was recently recovered along with the remains of 10 of his aides.
The report said that there was evidence that the commander of the Rafah Brigade in Hamas’s military wing, Mohammad Shabana, was also killed in the strike.
Israel has not confirmed the deaths of either Muhammad Sinwar or Shabana, but Defense Minister Israel Katz told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Sunday that he believes the younger Sinwar was killed in last week’s strike on the tunnel complex.
“There’s no official confirmation, but according to all the indications Muhammad Sinwar was eliminated,” Katz said, according to leaks to Hebrew media.
FILE: Yemenis brandish rifles and hold a picture of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during a rally in solidarity with Gaza in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on November 29, 2024. (Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP)Following the killing of Hamas’s top military commander, Muhammad Deif, last July, Muhammad Sinwar took charge of the terror group’s military wing. Later, after Sinwar’s older brother Yahya was killed by IDF troops, he became the de facto leader of the terror group in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials have described Muhammad Sinwar as obstinate with regard to negotiations with Hamas for the release of hostages, and an obstacle to reaching a ceasefire deal.
The younger Sinwar is also wanted for terrorist actions against Israel and has been active in Hamas for decades.
He was jailed by Israel in the 1990s for nine months and spent an additional three years in a Palestinian Authority prison in Ramallah, from which he escaped in 2000. In 2006, Sinwar was part of the Hamas cell that abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. He also previously commanded Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade.
Most of Hamas’s leadership has been eliminated by Israel during the ongoing war, which was sparked when the terror group stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Hamas leaders Muhammad Deif (L) and Yahya Sinwar (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)Also on Sunday, media outlets in Gaza reported that Zakaria Sinwar, the brother of Yahya and Muhammad Sinwar, was killed Saturday night in an airstrike in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip.
According to the reports, he was killed along with three of his children in a strike on the tent where they were residing.
Zakaria Sinwar had worked as a lecturer at the Islamic University in Gaza.
With Israel ramping up its military pressure in the Strip in the last several days, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says that more than 400 Gazans have been killed in Israeli strikes since Thursday.
A Palestinian boy looks at a house destroyed in Israeli strikes in al-Saftawi area west of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 18, 2025. (Bashar TALEB / AFP)According to the ministry, over 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the war so far. The tolls cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January, and another 1,600 terrorists inside the country during the October 7 onslaught
Witkoff: Israel ‘indicated’ that it will start allowing aid into Gaza
US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff says Israel has “indicated” that it will begin allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza after blocking its entry for over two and a half months.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which was established in close coordination with Israel to manage aid distribution in a manner that prevents its diversion by Hamas, said last week that it would plan to begin operating in Gaza by the end of the month, but Israel has still yet to confirm this.
Witkoff tells ABC’s “This Week” that “everyone is concerned about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza” and insists that “there is no daylight” between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the issue.
The Trump envoy argues that getting aid into Gaza is “logistically complicated.”
“The issue now is how do we logistically get all of those trucks into Gaza? How do we set up the aid stations?” Witkoff says. There are many initiatives that we’re working on to address this.”
“There are going to be mobile kitchens that are going to be sent in. We have trucks with flour waiting at the border,” he continues.
“We do not want to see a humanitarian crisis, and we will not allow it to occur on President Trump’s watch,” Witkoff asserts.
Humanitarian organizations have said for weeks that the crisis is already underway.
Gazans report 17 killed across Strip in last hours
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, seen from southern Israel, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Gazan media sources linked to the Strip’s Hamas rulers claim 17 people have been killed across the Strip since early Monday morning, citing health authorities in the enclave.Six of the fatalities are in Khan Younis, where heavy fighting has been reported, the reports say. video
Gazan health authorities do not generally differentiate between civilians and combatants. Their figures cannot be verified.
Dozens of IDF strikes across Gaza Strip reported overnight
Palestinian media outlets report dozens of aerial bombardments across the Gaza Strip overnight.
Strikes are reported in and near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, in Gaza City in the north, and in the area of Deir al-Balah in the central Strip, where at least three are reportedly killed.
There is no immediate confirmation or comment from the IDF, which yesterday launched an expanded offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
IDF says over 160 targets in Gaza hit over past 24 hours
Israeli warplanes struck over 160 targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day, the military says.
According to the IDF, the targets included cells of operatives, anti-tank missile launch sites, tunnels, a weapons depot, buildings used by terror groups, booby-trapped structures and a command center.
Dozens of Palestinians were reportedly killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza on Sunday and this morning.
UN says it is in talks on aid deliveries in Gaza as WHO warns millions ‘starving’
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says it is in talks with Israeli authorities about how to resume aid deliveries into Gaza, following the announcement that Israel would permit the entry of assistance into Gaza by humanitarian organizations, most of which operate under the UN.
“We have been approached by Israeli authorities to resume limited aid delivery, and we are in discussions with them now on how this would take place given the conditions on the ground,” a statement reads.
The head of the World Health Organization, meanwhile, says his group and other UN agencies are ready to deliver aid into the Strip, warning that millions are “starving.”
“Two months into the latest blockade, two million people are starving,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says, while 160,000 metric tons of food “is blocked at the border just minutes away.”
“The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid, including food, in the ongoing blockade,” he adds. link This failed and corrupt government can't get anything right even if they tried. Once again, they are failing in organizing a proper way for Gazans to get humanitarian aid supplies without them begin commandeered by the Hamas terrorists. They couldn't find their way out of shoe if the laces were handed to them. More disgrace on this totally dysfunctional government. The only things they are good at is stealing our tax money and promiting their partisan interests in every possible way.
Army says it blew up Rafah tunnel used by Hamas in deadly May 3 attack
The military says it demolished a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip used by Hamas operatives in an attack that killed two soldiers earlier this month.
In the attack on May 3, Hamas operatives set off a bomb in a tunnel shaft in Rafah, killing Cpt. Noam Ravid and and Staff Sgt. Yaly Seror, who served in the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit.
After setting off the explosion, the operatives fled through the tunnel, which was some 200 meters long, the army says. Troops mapped out the tunnel in recent days and demolished it.
The IDF says that during the demolition of the tunnel, troops killed another cell of Hamas operatives which was hiding inside the underground passage.
Israeli teen arrested on suspicion of gathering intel for Iran on former PM Bennett during recent hospitalization
Police and Shin Bet agents have arrested yet another Israeli citizen suspected of spying for Iran, after he allegedly gathered intelligence on former prime minister Naftali Bennett when he was hospitalized last month.
Eighteen-year-old Yavne resident Moshe Attias, who was arrested in April, is one of many Israelis who have been arrested in recent months on charges of espionage on Iran’s behalf, in return for small sums of money.
The detainee is suspected of “gathering intelligence in the cardiology department of a hospital in central Israel,” where Bennett was being treated. He allegedly filmed in Kfar Saba’s Meir Medical Center, documenting the floor and room where the ex-premier was located.
Police say that Attias carried out other missions for his Iranian handlers, but do not elaborate on the additional suspicions.
In a statement regarding the espionage, Bennett’s office says that Iranian attempts on world leaders’ lives “have failed and will fail here too, and will certainly not deter Bennett from continuing to work for the sake of Israeli security.”
He calls on Israel to take a more aggressive position towards Iran, insisting that “Tehran, not Tel Aviv, should be on the defensive.”
Gaza and the South
Bild report seriously distorted Hamas document, left out information showing Hamas wanted truce — German TV
The German current affairs show Panorama says it acquired the full, highly classified document reported by German tabloid Bild in September, claiming that the publication seriously distorted the file.
While Bild presented the document as evidence that Hamas was not interested in reaching a serious ceasefire-hostage deal with Israel, Panorama says the full document shows Hamas was ready to be flexible in arrangements and sought a truce for 84 days with a pathway to ending the war.
The Bild report excluded this information and presents Hamas as indifferent to whether the ongoing war ends quickly. It reported that it instead prioritized maintaining the terror group’s military capabilities, “exhausting” Israel’s military and political apparatuses, and increasing international pressure on Israel.
Bild reported that the document was found on a computer in Gaza that belonged to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. It later became apparent that the document was written by lower-level officials in the terror group and did not necessarily reflect the leadership’s position.
The document was allegedly unlawfully removed from the IDF’s military intelligence database by the reservist — a non-commissioned officer (NCO) — who gave it to Eli Feldstein, an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who saw to it that it was transferred to Bild, though he was aware that it was obtained illicitly and that the military censorship had barred the information from publication. Link
IDF spokesman says 5 divisions now operating in Gaza as Israel moves to ‘new stage’ of war
IDF spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, in a press statement from the Gaza border, says five divisions are now operating inside the Strip in the new offensive aimed at defeating Hamas.
“We are moving to a new stage in the fighting. During the operation, we will increase and expand our operational control in the Gaza Strip, while bisecting the Strip and moving the population for its safety, in all the areas where we will operate,” he says.
Defrin says the IDF has implemented lessons learned from the fighting in Gaza thus far.
“Unlike previously, we are now concentrating on offensive effort in the Gaza Strip, and carrying out an offensive until the defeat [of Hamas] in the areas we will operate,” he says.
Coalition backs bill to label Qatar ‘terror-supporting state,’ possibly affecting its role in hostage talks
Amid the ongoing “Qatargate” scandal in the Prime Minister’s Office and the hostage negotiations in Doha, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation approves a bill seeking to designate Qatar a “terror-supporting state.”
The bill, proposed by Likud MKs Moshe Saada and Dan Illouz, Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer, and Religious Zionism MK Michal Woldiger, would for the first time establish a legal category for such states, with the legislation’s preamble explicitly naming Qatar as the world’s leading financier of terrorism, citing its support for Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, and the Taliban.
The bill would subject any nation given this status to restrictions similar to those imposed on enemy states, including bans on donations, trade, and diplomatic processes with Israel.
The bill would also prevent Israel from allowing a terror-supporting state to be involved in any negotiations between Israel and a third party — though this would not necessarily prevent Qatar from mediating on the issue of the Gaza hostages, as a subsection of the bill determines that “the Ministerial Committee for National Security Affairs may determine that a specific terror-supporting state shall be exempt from this restriction.”
Qatar is one of the states mediating the talks, though Israeli officials have publicly blamed Doha for Hamas not accepting recent compromise proposals.
The bill has reached the Ministerial Committee for Legislation two separate times — once at the end of 2024, and once in January — but according to a Channel 12 report citing minutes from the meetings, the National Security Council blocked it at the request of Prime Minister’s Office officials, while citing opposition from the security establishment.
The National Security Council said at the time that it did not oppose the legislation, and that, on the contrary, it supported it. The PMO called the Channel 12 report “fake news,” and said the bill was being “seriously considered.” link After so many years that Netanyahu protected Qatar in order to keep them sending money to Hamas, even sending the head of the Mossad to talk to the US administration that was getting ready to declare Qatar a terror supporting state and he got the US to call it off. The only reason that Netanyahu and his band of cronies is doing this move is to deflect from Qatargate which implicates Netanyahu's advisors in the Prime Minister's office. In addition, everyone who has experience working with Netanyahu and the PMO all say that Netanyahu is very aware of everything that happens in the PMO, either by approving or being the one to make sure things happen, so there is little chance that he was not aware and/or approved of people working closely with him were paid by Qatar. Blaming Qatar for not acting properly in the negotiations only came about after Qatargate investigations began. It's very easy math to see the connections.
The Shin Bet in the crosshairs: "This is the part that scared Netanyahu more than anything"
From Qatargate to the unprecedented affidavits submitted to the High Court of Justice — the guts of the Shin Bet, and the sensitive relationship between the head of the agency and the Prime Minister, are exposed before the entire nation. The man who knows those gatekeepers up close is director Dror Moreh, who heard in minute detail from six former Shin Bet chiefs what was said behind closed doors — and he is worried: "We are reaching depths we never imagined, not sure there will even be any more elections"
"We are in a place where all borders and all red lines have been crossed. Each time you wake up thinking nothing worse can happen than what you've already seen. And yet, you're still surprised every time." Few know the Shin Bet as well as Dror Moreh, even though he has never worked there a single day.
Moreh, a director and creator, was exposed to the innards of one of Israel's most secret systems through the people who made the critical decisions. In his film "The Gatekeepers", in which he interviewed six former heads of the agency, he not only exposed the internal mechanisms of the Israel Security Agency — but also gave them a name that seemed as if it had always been there. But when he chose that name, he did not have in mind Israeli democracy, but rather the agency's role in protecting against terror. "It was not connected to Israeli democracy," he says. "For me, they are the ones who are supposed to protect me and Israeli public life and every Israeli from terror. That was the point, that’s why that name was chosen."
The name received renewed meaning. Poster of the film "The Gatekeepers" | Photo: IMDB"The emphasis in 'The Gatekeepers' was more on their role in managing the conflict with the Palestinians," Moreh clarifies, now 63, about the film he made over a decade ago. "That was the focus I concentrated on, and none of them — the six service chiefs I interviewed, including, by the way, Avi Dichter the coward — were forced to face a Prime Minister’s Office trying in every way to crush the democratic essence of the State of Israel."
"What interests me most are the stories from the room"
In that film, considered the most expensive documentary ever made in Israel, six heads of the Shin Bet sat in front of the camera: Avraham Shalom (who has since passed away), Yaakov Peri, Carmi Gillon, Ami Ayalon, Avi Dichter, and Yuval Diskin — who had concluded his term shortly before. "Take, for example, the Kav 300 affair, which dealt with the question of whether the Prime Minister authorized the head of the Shin Bet (Avraham Shalom z”l — Y.K.) to give an order to kill a live terrorist who had been captured or not," Moreh recalls. "At the end of that affair, there was a clear legal definition of what a Prime Minister may instruct the head of the Shin Bet to do and what not, and beyond that, it was clarified to the agency what constitutes a blatantly illegal order. After Kav 300, the Shin Bet understood it is subject to the legal system and cannot do whatever it wants."
"They say the Shin Bet guards the foundations of the democratic regime in the State of Israel and that this is part of its job description. I never delved into the essence of what the preservation of democratic essence means. Simply because I didn’t need to deal with it. So yes, I will definitely be engaging much more in understanding the essence of safeguarding democracy. And I’ve been thinking a lot lately about doing 'The Gatekeepers 2', a sequel."
And in filming “The Gatekeepers 2”, you sit down for an interview with Ronen Bar. Where do you begin?
"What interests me are the stories from the room. That’s the thing that interests me most — to really convey the essence of what happened in those conversations with the Prime Minister, those conversations that are mentioned in his affidavit. And also about October 7th, which is a colossal failure of the Shin Bet in terms of terror prevention. I would very, very much like to understand, not only from him but also from all those who came before him, how this thing was built: because it’s clear it’s not like the Prime Minister tries to portray it — as if it fell upon us like thunder on a clear day without any kind of path laid from above that led to the terrible result of October 7."
"Fascinating to understand what drives Netanyahu"
Dror Moreh began his path as an editor and cinematographer, but made his mark as an independent creator with a consistent interest in the state's power centers. Over the past decade, he has focused on films that try to decipher the inner language of security systems, leadership, and diplomacy — without voiceovers or dramatic music and without coddling. Among the films he created are also "Sharon", a portrait of the former Prime Minister; "The Human Factor", which focused on the American mediators behind the Oslo process; "Corridors of Power", revealing the backstage of American foreign policy in recent decades; and "Dagan – The Last War" about the final years of former Mossad head Meir Dagan. Moreh’s expertise is in encounters with figures who know the system from within, and he lets them speak — not out of naivety but from an understanding that unimpeded direct testimony can cut deep.
Deep into the conversation, it becomes clear that with all due respect to Bar, what currently interests Moreh is a different interviewee — the one who turned Bar into his ultimate nemesis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "What truly amazes me is Bibi’s psychological makeup. It’s simply fascinating to study and understand the roots of his mental structure. I have no doubt Bibi believes he is the Messiah, son of David. It’s fascinating to try to understand what drives him. In my view, it lies in the realms of psychiatry and the psyche, not elsewhere."
The new security affair
"For me, the Shin Bet are the ones who are supposed to protect me and every Israeli from terror, that’s why I chose the name.""In the context of October 7th, it is interesting how again — not for the first time in Israel’s history — a person with a kind of supposed security conception manages to impose it by force on the entire security establishment — not only the Shin Bet, but also the Mossad, the IDF, and the Intelligence Directorate. All the branches of the system aligned with Bibi’s conception. I’m interested in the process of how a conception begins to become a kind of method you work with, even in a secret organization that is supposed to know everything, like the service."
How do you see the conflict that has emerged in the past year and a half between Netanyahu and the security establishment regarding responsibility?
"The conflict is very clear: Netanyahu refuses to admit any responsibility for what happened. After all, his claim is that no one tugged at his coat. It’s absolutely clear to me that he is convinced he is right and does not question even slightly his conduct that led to October 7th — including the suitcases of cash and ‘Hamas is an asset.’
"But you call it ‘the conflict that emerged in the past year and a half’ — let’s look at just the last three months: the major rift between him and the head of the service began the moment Bar began investigating Qatargate. I don’t want to repeat the words of others, but the horrifying meaning is that inside the Prime Minister’s Office sit two or three agents of influence of an enemy state, Qatar, and try to run campaigns in favor of that enemy state and even harm Israel’s most strategic peace — the peace with Egypt. It’s inconceivable. It’s clear that for this alone Bibi should go home. But we’ve gotten used to everything. The similarities Yair Golan spoke about in his 2016 speech — there are clear signs that what happened in the early days of the Third Reich resembles what is happening here, also as a people."
“The silence of Dichter is disgraceful and shameful”
What is so attractive about the role of Shin Bet head?
“This is an organization with so much power, which is entrusted with the task that the citizens of Israel can continue to live their lives in a semi-normal way, let us call it, in the face of the dangers – mainly of Palestinian terror, but not only. Take for example what is happening right now with Ronen Bar and ‘the Jewish Department’ – that same story with the man who serves in the Shin Bet and leaked what he leaked about the fact that signs of Kahanism are being examined inside the police.
“Avi Dichter, who is today a minister in the government and is silent with disgraceful and shameful silence in the face of what he sees is happening to the organization that he headed, told me that in 2005, when he was head of the Shin Bet in the period before the disengagement, the extreme right tried in two ways to prevent the disengagement: one way was to buy drones and fly them towards the Dome of the Rock as explosive drones, the meaning of which is entirely clear to anyone who has eyes in his head and is not messianic; and the second way was to harm the prime minister. Then, Dichter says, they invested in the service long hours in preventing these scenarios, also in preventing the drone affair and also in planning the route of Sharon's convoy.
“Do you remember Smotrich and the jerrycans of gasoline that he was arrested with? So today that same Avi Dichter, who understands very well what is happening, what is the meaning of the Shin Bet fighting the extreme right and what danger they pose to the State of Israel, nevertheless fills his mouth with water. They heap abuse on the organization that he headed, crush it and its credibility, slander that they knew about October 7, and again I cannot understand as a human being how this man stands in front of the mirror in the morning, looks at himself and is able to continue to serve the government in which he sits. It is hard for me to understand.”Do you understand this role differently today?
“Yes, I understand it completely differently, mainly about what I spoke – the preservation of the essence of democracy. I think that the legislator – if one can refer to the legislature as something to be taken seriously these days – did not give thought to the fact that a situation can arise in which a prime minister and the government he heads will be committed to erasing all the democratic foundations of the state. In the Shin Bet law there is a very vague definition and it needs to be defined much better regarding how the Shin Bet is responsible for the preservation of democracy, and it is necessary to give to this responsibility and what derives from it much more weight and practical weight also in the law.”
“If there will be elections in November 2026 – and I emphasize the ‘if there will be elections’, because I am not sure that there will even be more elections,” he warns. “The next government that will be, and I hope it will not be headed by Netanyahu – must give attention to this matter and fix this lacuna in the law. So yes, I understand the essence of the role completely differently from how I understood it in 2012.”“Bar held back, remained faithful to the essence of the role”
As one who dedicates his films to the gap between what is said in closed rooms and what is reported to the public, Morah knows how to identify moments in which a security system exposes its nerve center. That happened again, recently, with the publication of the affidavit of the outgoing Shin Bet head Bar – an unusual document, which for a moment peeled off the layers over the toxic relationship between the Shin Bet and the Prime Minister's Office. Bar eventually resigned and the legal discussion may become unnecessary, but in the eyes of Morah, the very existence of the affidavit – and what is implied between its lines – tells a much deeper story.
“The affidavit of Bar in my eyes is amazing in its restraint. The Shin Bet is exposed to everything the prime minister does, almost, simply by virtue of the matter of protection of the persons. That, in my opinion, is the part that frightened Netanyahu more than anything. The Shin Bet bodyguards are with the PM all the time. I remember that I made the film about Sharon when he was prime minister and I spent much time in his company. Then I saw and experienced it, the ones who drive him and are with him most of the time are the Shin Bet bodyguards, and when he speaks on the phone they are with him and hear everything, they protect him in all the meetings and are in almost every place. I suppose that Ronen Bar could have revealed much more, if he had wanted. But he remained faithful, you know, to the State of Israel and to its laws and to the essence of his role.Shin Bet emblem
“This is an organization with so much power, which is entrusted with the task that the citizens of Israel can continue to live their lives”“And that is what is amazing in this whole story – we are reaching bottoms that we did not imagine that it is possible to reach. There was a famous quote on social networks from a Shin Bet bodyguard who describes that he protected ‘a senior political source.’ He returned with him to the hotel, the wife of that ‘senior political source’ was drunk, and that same ‘senior political source’ spent hours that night with another woman, until he returned in the early morning hours to his suite and asked the bodyguard not to tell this. Indeed the Shin Bet people could tell the things anonymously and cause much embarrassment. They do not do it because they are truly committed to the essence of their role.
“Now let us take Yoram Cohen (former Shin Bet head), who came out and told that Netanyahu wanted at the time that he would submit some kind of legal opinion about Naftali Bennett in order to disqualify Bennett from participation in the cabinet. If Cohen had acceded to this request, and to our joy he did not, that is what is called improper use of the power of the Shin Bet – what will the next head do in a similar case, the next one that Bibi will appoint? The picture that Ronen Bar describes in an affidavit given under oath to the Supreme Court is a picture that describes a dictator in the making, one who does not understand this does not understand what he is talking about and does not understand where he is living. When a prime minister comes and asks the head of the Security Service that in the case of a ruling of the High Court he will remain loyal to him and not to the law – what more is needed than that? What more is needed than that?”And did Ronen Bar behave correctly?
“Absolutely. I say this with total certainty. I know the man and I also think that his letter to the public after October 7 was correct. Perhaps it was written a little bit too quickly and emotionally – I understand the emotional place from which it came – but it was not written to make people like him or to evade responsibility. It was written from a deep place of pain and identification with what happened. And when you compare his behavior to the behavior of the other heads of the organizations – then you see what character is. I have heard people say that he behaved like a leftist and behaved like a man of the legal system, and I say: What nonsense. He behaved like a human being, like a moral and responsible public servant.”Is he your choice to head the organization in the future as well?
“If it were up to me, yes. But it is not up to me. And if I were him, I would not want to serve another term under this government. In my view, there is a contradiction between the values of the man and the values of this government. And I, by the way, would not be surprised if the next head will not come from within the organization but will be a political appointment. We are not far from that. The smell of Hungary is already here.”Would you have acted differently if you were still heading the organization?
“I do not know. It is very difficult to answer that question, because it is one thing to see things from the outside and a totally different thing to experience them from the inside. I think that what was done was correct and responsible and respectful, and that Bar did not drag the organization into a political war, even though that was perhaps the expectation in certain places. If I had been in his place, I hope I would have acted the same way.”
You have said more than once that you do not know if you would recommend to your children to continue living in Israel. Do you still feel that way?
“Yes, and maybe even more strongly than before. And that is a very, very painful thing for me to say. I am here, I live here. I love this country. I fought for it, I endangered my life for it many times. But when I see the direction – the deep direction – and what the leadership is doing here, I am very worried. I feel that it is my responsibility to say these things, especially as someone who was part of the defense establishment and who understands what the dangers are.”
If you were to meet Netanyahu today in a closed room, just the two of you – what would you say to him?
“I have nothing to say to him. Truly. I think that he knows exactly what he is doing. This is not a case of blindness, or of someone who does not understand. He understands exactly. I am not sure that he understands the full depth of the consequences, but he understands the direction. And the direction is bad. Very bad. He is dividing the people, he is destroying the democratic foundations, he is endangering our security. And all this in order to survive politically. I have nothing to say to him.” link
The Region and the World
2,500 items belonging to executed spy Eli Cohen recovered from Syria in covert Mossad operation
Some 2,500 documents and personal items belonging to legendary Israeli spy Eli Cohen have been returned to Israel from Syria in a covert operation carried out by the Mossad, the Prime Minister’s Office announces.
The announcement comes on the 60th anniversary of Cohen’s execution in Damascus, on May 18, 1965.
The thousands of items collectively make up the entirety of the Syrian archive on Eli Cohen, the Prime Minister’s Office says.
Among the items recovered are handwritten letters from Cohen to his family, proof of communications between the Israeli spy and senior Syrian officials, and photos taken during his years spent undercover in Syria.
The collection also features a host of Cohen’s personal belongings, including the keys to his Damascus apartment, which were confiscated by Syrian intelligence upon his arrest.
Cohen’s original will, drafted just hours before he was hanged, was also recovered, the Prime Minister’s Office says.
It says that the success of the operation is attributed to the decades-long efforts by the Mossad “to locate every piece of information about Eli Cohen in an attempt to shed light on his fate and burial place.”
Mossad chief David Barnea says that the recovery of the archive is “another step in advancing the investigation to locate the burial place of our man in Damscus.”
“We will continue to work to locate and return all the missing, the fallen, and the kidnapped,” he adds.
Netanyahu, in a statement of his own, says that the recovered archive “will educate generations, and expresses our tireless commitment to returning all of our missing persons, prisoners of war, and hostages.”
Cohen infiltrated the top levels of Syria’s political leadership in the years before the 1967 Six Day War, and the information he obtained is credited with playing a key role in Israel’s stunning success in that war.
He was put on trial and executed by the Syrian government for espionage on May 18, 1965, after he successfully breached the Syrian government under the alias Kamel Amin Thaabet for four years.
His body has never been recovered. 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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