๐️Lonny's War Update- October 697, 2023 - September 2, 2025 ๐️
๐️Day 697 that 48 of our hostages are still in Hamas captivity๐️
‘Taken at his peak’: Slain hostage Idan Shtivi laid to rest in central Israel
Family members and friends attend the funeral of slain Israeli hostage Idan Shtivi, in Kfar Ma’as, central Israel, September 1, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)Slain hostage Idan Shtivi is laid torest in central Israel after his body was retrieved from the Gaza Strip last week, almost 23 months after he was killed.
“Idan had a pure heart, he always saw others and cared for the weaker elements of society,” says his mother, Danit, at his funeral. “He was full of generosity, so sensitive and loving. He was taken from the world at his peak. Idani, you are a child of God… I’m sorry I couldn’t watch over you and protect you.”
He is buried in Kfar Ma’as after a funeral procession through central Israel that was lined by Israelis waving flags and signs reading “Sorry.”
Idan was murdered at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, and his body kidnapped to Gaza. It was retrieved by IDF troops last week along with the body of Ilan Weiss, who is also slated to be buried today, in Kibbutz Be’eri.
People line the route as funeral procession begins for slain hostage Idan Shtivi
A woman holds a sign saying 'Sorry, Idan' at the funeral procession for slain hostage Idan Shtivi in Rishon Lezion on September 1, 2025 (Dafna Yosha/pro-democracy protest groups)The funeral procession begins for slain hostage Idan Shtivi, whose body was brought back from Gaza in a military operation on Friday.
People line the streets of the route with Israeli flags and signs apologizing to Shtivi and calling for all of the hostages to be brought home.
Shivti will be buried in Kfar Ma’as at 4 p.m.
Ilan Weiss, whose body was also brought back on Friday, will be buried at 5 p.m. in Kibbutz Be’eri.
Shtivi, 28, was murdered at the Nova music festival during the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel.
Ilan Weiss (L) and Idan Shtivi (R) in undated photographs (Hostages and Missing Families Forum)Weiss, 56, was killed on the morning of October 7, 2023, while defending Kibbutz Be’eri from Hamas-led terrorists as a member of his community’s emergency response team. His wife Shiri and daughter Noga were also taken hostage and later freed during a weeklong truce and hostage release deal in November 2023.
- Suspended in hellish limbo, families of hostages declared dead fight to not be forsaken
Stuck between seeking closure and clinging to scant hope, relatives describe being overlooked or shunted aside, leaving their kin to rot in Gaza and them unable to properly mournRuby Chen speaks about his son, Itay Chen, in the present tense, though the Israeli government has officially declared the soldier dead.
Itay, who was 19 when he was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, has always been in a rush to experience everything life has to offer — family, friends, singing, dancing, basketball, judo, Boy Scouts, and travel, Chen said. He described the family’s beloved “sandwich,” or middle child, as curious and energetic, living as if “he had no time.”
Itay has “a beautiful life” with dreams of the future, he said.
“He should have been out of the army by now. He should be planning for university or traveling with his girlfriend,” Chen added.
Instead, Itay is one of the 48 hostages still being held in Gaza, and one of the 26 who have been declared dead by Israeli authorities. In March 2024, the Israel Defense Forces announced that it had determined that Itay, an American-Israeli soldier serving in a tank, was no longer alive. According to the IDF, he was killed on October 7, 2023, and abducted from the Gaza border following a battle with terrorists during the Hamas onslaught that saw some 1,200 people in southern Israel slaughtered and 251 abducted to the Strip.
“We were in limbo for five days,” Chen recalled. When the army did eventually contact the family, it was initially to say that Itay was missing. During that period of uncertainty, Itay’s family entered a “living hell,” one they have never left.
Ruby Chen, center left, and New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, center right, at Israel Day on 5th, May 18, 2025. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)The Chens are tragically far from alone in the unique purgatory that they have been forced to endure for the last nearly two years — families that have been informed of the death of their loved ones whose remains are held in Gaza.
Other families have also continued to treat their loved ones as alive. Unlike those stuck in Kubler-Ross’s first stage of grief, the relatives’ disbelief is underpinned by a lack of physical evidence, allowing them to cling to hope, however scant, even as they long for closure.
At the same time, the uncertainty may not keep their son or daughter from being downgraded in the eyes of the government or the public, making families’ already impossible straits that much harder.
“I understand that the army wants to give some kind of certainty to families, but it’s not enough to say that [he’s dead] when there isn’t any additional ability to process that statement,” Chen said, noting that determinations were based on intelligence alone. “We feel like we’re in a suspended dimension. We’re not able to move forward.”
Itay Chen, 19, from Netanya, declared killed in action and his body seized by Hamas on October 7, 2023, while on duty near the Gaza border. (Courtesy)The Chen family has said that they will not hold a funeral for Itay or sit shiva, the traditional seven-day Jewish mourning period, until his body is returned from the Strip.
“When [my father-in-law] passed away last year, we saw him in the hospital, we said goodbye, and we had a funeral. You have those components that help you understand what it means to say goodbye,” Chen explained. “Here, there’s nothing. It’s suspended.”
The absence of physical evidence means that the family is left with uncertainty about his fate.
“You always have doubts,” said Chen. “Even though we were told how [the army] reached their conclusion, there’s always the thought that maybe a doctor showed up [to assist Itay], or somebody did something.”
Ruby Chen, the father of slain hostage Itay Chen, speaks in New York before the United Nations Security Council, May 15, 2025 (UN webtv screenshot)The parents of Inbar Haiman — the last female hostage in Gaza — also don’t believe their daughter was murdered, according to Inbar’s aunt Hana Cohen.
“They think that she is alive somewhere,” Cohen said. “They can’t accept it. And as long as there’s no burial, there’s no coming full circle, no healing. They live in uncertainty.”
Cohen has taken up the banner for her family, advocating for the return of her niece almost daily in the Knesset, because Inbar’s parents and surviving brother are “broken” over her loss.
“It felt like the sky had fallen,” she said, describing the blow to the family after Inbar’s abduction on October 7. “We stopped living.”
Haiman, 27, was a visual communications student from Haifa and a well-known graffiti artist who went by the alias “Pink.” She was abducted from the Nova music festival, where she was volunteering.
Inbar Haiman, taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, from the Supernova desert rave. It was announced on December 16, 2023, that she had been killed by Hamas in Gaza. (Courtesy)Her family initially believed that she was taken hostage and alive but injured. They were later informed of her death in December 2023, but still don’t know how or when she was killed. Her body is believed to remain held by terrorists in the Strip.
“Inbar is buried there in Gaza, and her parents are buried here in Israel. They’re alive, but they’re no longer among the living,” Cohen said.
Collateral damage
Of the 48 hostages in Gaza, Israel says 20 are thought to be alive, though there are grave concerns for the fates of two more. Of the 26 the army has said are dead, 25 were taken on October 7, and one, soldier Hadar Goldin, has been held since August 2014, when he was killed in a surprise Hamas attack during Operation Protective Edge.
Many families say that once the state declared their relatives dead, they were treated as less important — both by the government and by the public.
“When our prime minister speaks, he says that he is obligated to return the 20 hostages,” said Cohen. “But what about the 30 fallen?”
Families describe themselves as feeling the need to “fight even harder to make sure that we’re not forgotten,” in Chen’s words.
“We’re collateral damage,” said Chen, articulating a sense shared by families of deceased hostages that they are no longer a priority for the state. “We’re not that significant. Itay is not the son of a prime minister or a minister. And therefore, the urgency is not at the same level that it would be.”
A paramount fear is that the murdered captives will be left beneath the rubble of Gaza — one that has been exacerbated amid the government’s plans to expand the fighting, putting negotiations for the hostages at risk.
“We have 30 dead there,” Cohen said. “If we don’t bring them back, they will disappear, and Gaza will be rebuilt on top of them.”
Hanna Cohen, whose niece Inbar Haiman was murdered in Hamas captivity in 2023, yells at lawmakers during a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, January 14, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)There is “complete indifference” toward the families of murdered captives, Cohen charged. “The government doesn’t understand what it means to be the family of a dead hostage. They don’t grasp the complexity of the suffering.”
When closure does come for families of slain hostages, the pain of losing a loved one is still there, and the hurt can be exacerbated by a feeling of no longer mattering, said Hoshea Haggai, whose brother Gadi Haggai and sister-in-law Judih Weinstein — both American citizens — were murdered and taken captive by Hamas on October 7 from their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz.
When the IDF recovered their bodies in June, the family felt a measure of relief in finally being able to bury them. But Haggai said that almost immediately, the painful reality set in: Families like his were no longer at the center of national concern.
“Nobody talks about what is going on with the families of hostages who came back in a coffin,” he said. “Suddenly it’s over and you feel abandoned.”
He said that once a captive is declared dead, the government is less concerned. The families of the murdered remain in the shadows, their grief acknowledged only briefly before being set aside.
Judih Weinstein Haggai and Gadi Haggai (Courtesy)Negotiations with Hamas to free hostages in batches have largely concentrated on those still alive, who advocates say continue to face torturous conditions and are under increasingly mortal danger the longer they remain. Most of the slain hostages who have been returned to their families have been recovered by troops rather than released in swap deals, such as Idan Shtivi and Ilan Weiss, two captives whose remains were repatriated by the IDF in recent days.
Families say the lack of talks on a comprehensive deal bringing everyone back has added unnecessary friction between the families of living and dead hostages, as though they have different statuses.
“It was a big mistake to build the framework in such a way. They should come out together. And the government needs to do a better job in making that happen,” said Chen.
While much of the public supports making painful concessions to bring back living hostages, including releasing terror convicts responsible for mass murder, many don’t necessarily support paying a similar price for those no longer alive.
“People don’t understand it. They think that if she is dead, then that’s it,” Cohen said. “I don’t understand what people think, what the government thinks. This is our girl; she’s a part of us, a part of her parents. They want her back, no matter what.”
For Cohen, the cruelty lies not only in Inbar’s murder but in the denial of the most basic dignity of a proper burial and closure for her parents.
“We got two blows in one: we lost our girl, and we can’t bury her. They threw her like a dog into some pit, and now we’re bartering over her body,” she said.
For Haggai, who suffered a heart attack last year, recovering from the trauma of the last two years remains impossible.
“I thought that after Gadi’s and Judih’s funerals we could start to recover a little, start to come back to life,” he said. “But I knew so many people from Nir Oz. And I know the other hostage families, and each death is a punch to the stomach. I don’t sleep.”
Even after getting his loved ones back, Haggai said he can’t heal until Itay, Inbar, and the other hostages are returned. “I’m sure I’ll be able to start to recover when they’re all here,” he said.
Until then, he finds solace only among other hostage families, where no one needs to explain their pain.
“I feel more complete when we’re with them, because everyone knows exactly what we’re going through,” Haggai said. “But I can’t recover, seeing what they’re still going through.” link
- Mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen: 'Nearly 700 days and they're still there, the cabinet isn't discussing the issue at all'Vicki Cohen, mother of captive soldier Nimrod Cohen, described her frustration with the stalemate in negotiations for the release of hostages. In an interview with ynet studio, she said that "the only victory possible is for all hostages to return home, and this will only happen if the Israeli government decides to end the war and signs an agreement that will bring everyone home." Cohen added: "It's unbelievable that we're approaching day 700, almost two years - and they're still there in hell. It's simply incomprehensible. In the cabinet's last meeting, they didn't even talk about the deal - it's not even on the agenda." link
- Avigail Idan's grandfather: 'Mixed feelings, she's starting first grade without her parents'Carmel Idan, grandfather of Avigail whose parents were murdered in the October 7 massacre, described his mixed feelings about her starting first grade. In an interview with ynet studio, he said: "There are mixed feelings, she's starting first grade but without the accompaniment of her parents, Roy and Smadar, and that's what makes the joy at home difficult." When asked if Avigail remembers the time of her captivity in Gaza, he replied that "she knows everything about the captivity, about what happened to mom and dad. She knows where she was, I don't want to take her back there." Her father, Roy Idan, was a photographer for ynet and "Yedioth Ahronoth" in the southern region. Avigail was kidnapped and released in a deal after 51 days.
‘There is never a vacuum’: How Hamas keeps functioning even as Israel kills its leaders
The terror group has adapted amid targeted assassinations and a prolonged war, enabling it to keep making strategic decisions; crucially, no viable alternative has emerged
A group of former senior Hamas officials, including (seated from left) Muhammad Sinwar, Muhammad Deif, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, all of whom have since been killed by Israel, are seen in a propaganda video released by Hamas on August 30, 2025. (Screenshot: X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)In April, the IDF eliminated the same Hamas official three times.
That month, Israeli troops announced that they had killed the terror group’s battalion commander in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City. A new Hamas operative replaced that fallen officer, only for the military to then assassinate him. When a third fighter took the position, Israel killed that man as well before the end of the month.
In total, since October 7, 2023, seven Hamas operatives have held the title of Shejaiya battalion commander. Six have been eliminated. The latest gunman leading the unit is presumably living on borrowed time, with Israel ramping up its offensive in the city.
The repeated operations in Shejaiya, historically a fierce urban battlefield for Israeli troops, exemplify how, over the past almost two years of fighting in Gaza, the IDF has repeatedly taken out Hamas functionaries — key leaders and numerous brigade and battalion commanders within the group’s military wing — only to see new ones take their place.
The steady drumbeat of high-profile killings, a core element of Israel’s declared war goal of destroying Hamas and ensuring it cannot revive, has put unprecedented strain on the terror group. In addition to lower-level officers, Israel has eliminated Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh; Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s political head in Gaza and the architect of the October 7 massacre; Sinwar’s brother and replacement, Mohammed Sinwar; Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing; and, this week, spokesman Abu Obeida.
But the aftermath of those strikes also demonstrates how Hamas’s basic structure has enabled it to continue replenishing its ranks and making strategic decisions despite the heavy losses. Ideologically committed to the declared strategic aim of destroying Israel, dispersed across several countries, and with many of its top officials located far from the fighting, the terror group has managed to continue functioning even as it buries its leaders.
“There is never a vacuum,” said Michael Milstein, head of the Forum for Palestinian Studies at Tel Aviv University’s Dayan Center. “Even at the level of battalion and company commanders in Hamas’s military wing… there’s always someone motivated to step in, despite knowing that their death is almost certain. It’s quite remarkable.”Head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh (left) and Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar (right) at a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the terror group, in Gaza City, December 14, 2017. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)
A remote and compartmentalized leadership
One explanation for Hamas’s organizational stamina is that since 1990, a few years after its founding in 1987, the group’s leadership has been divided officially between a military wing focused on operations and a political wing responsible for long-term strategy.
Within the military wing, based in Gaza, promotions and structure resemble those of a conventional army led by commanding officers, or at least they did until the IDF set about dismantling Hamas’s 24 battalions after October 7.
By contrast, the political wing is based in Qatar and operates a bit more democratically: It holds organized internal elections every four years, with each leadership tier electing the one directly above it, from junior members up to the political bureau at the top. The last elections took place in 2021; none have been held during the war. Elections are also geographically segmented: Hamas members abroad, in Gaza, in the West Bank, and in Israeli prisons all vote for their own local leadership.
In practice, the lines between these two halves of the organization can blur: Yahya Sinwar, for example, was a political officer in Gaza before October 7, but orchestrated the terror group’s deadly attack that day. And Deif, the military chief, was one of the key figures influencing negotiations before he was killed last year.
Still, the bifurcation means that two years into Israel’s war in Gaza, Hamas’s most significant centers of decision-making lie thousands of kilometers away, in Qatar and Turkey. It is these groups of leaders who direct Hamas’s strategic decisions — above all, negotiations for a ceasefire. The process today is more complex than in the past, as no single figure is at the top, and about eight leaders must reach decisions together from two different countries.Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya gives a televised speech about the hostage-ceasefire deal between the Palestinian terror group and Israel, in the Qatari capital of Doha on January 15, 2025. (YouTube screenshot used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Even so, Hamas has proven able to operate — for example, issuing a formal statement in August accepting the latest ceasefire proposal.
“In general, Hamas is a network-based organization, one with multiple centers of power,” explained Harel Horev, another researcher at the Dayan Center. “This was the case even before October 7, and even before Yahya Sinwar.”
He added, “Once the war began, Israel started striking all the surrounding centers of power, and that demonstrates Hamas’s resilience. A hierarchical structure is very vulnerable – you kill the head, and it collapses. But when you hit a network, there are always people ready to take their place.”
‘No splits, no expulsions’
Hamas’s remote leadership hasn’t escaped Israeli fire. Until his July 2024 assassination in Iran, Ismail Haniyeh, officially head of Hamas’s political bureau in Gaza, was based in Doha, far outside the Strip. He was briefly succeeded by Yahya Sinwar, who remained inside Gaza until his killing in October 2024.
After Sinwar’s death, Hamas officials told media outlets that a five-member council outside Gaza would collectively run the movement. Milstein cites the slightly larger number of eight senior officials who now jointly manage the organization from abroad.
The most prominent of these figures, and the one who has spoken publicly on behalf of Hamas since Haniyeh’s assassination, is Khalil al-Hayya. Once Sinwar’s deputy, al-Hayya has in recent months been described by Hamas’s own media as the movement’s leader in Gaza — despite the fact that he too lives in Qatar, and that no internal elections have been held since the war began.
Another key decision-maker abroad is Nizar Awadallah, an early Hamas activist from the late 1980s who nearly defeated Sinwar in the 2021 political bureau leadership vote. Also central is Mohammed Darwish, head of Hamas’s Shura Council, the body formally tasked with advising the movement’s political leadership.A composite image of the five members of Hamas’s temporary joint leadership. Top row from left: Zaher Jabarin, Khaled Mashaal, Khalil al-Hayya. Bottom row from left: Muhammad Ismail Darwish, Nizar Awadallah. (Credits: Mahmud Hams/AFP, Louai Beshara/AFP, Hamas, Ashraf Amra/APA/ZUMA Press via Alamy)
Beyond Qatar, Turkey has also become a critical base for Hamas. There, Zaher Jabarin serves as Hamas’s leader for the West Bank after his predecessor, Saleh al-Arouri, who was also based in Turkey, was assassinated in January 2024. Like other wartime appointments, his is remote, and was made without elections. Being in Turkey allows Jabarin to avoid arrest or assassination, which would be likely were he operating on the ground in the West Bank.
“Twenty-two months after October 7, there are no splits within the movement, and no figures have been expelled from Hamas,” Milstein said. “The organization remains largely united, which demonstrates that its internal dynamics are still functioning.”
Milstein points to two principles that underpin Hamas’s continued ability to make decisions despite its leadership losses: shura (consultation) and ijma (consensus). Both are rooted in Islamic tradition and associated with the governance style of the Prophet Muhammad. They mean that decisions must be reached through consultation and by majority agreement, not imposed by a single individual.
This system has allowed Hamas to continue decision-making even without a single leader at its head today, and even as some officials have been hiding for months in Gaza’s underground tunnel network. While their influence may be diminished, Hamas operatives inside Gaza still take part in shaping the group’s choices via consultation.
“Everything, including the wording of the ceasefire agreement that Hamas recently announced it had accepted, is the product of consultation,” Milstein explained. “It’s not as if Khalil al-Hayya simply woke up one morning and said, ‘Let’s move this forward. I don’t care what [Gaza-based leader] Izz al-Din Haddad thinks.'”
One set of Hamas officials who have been unable to evade Israeli dismantlement, however, are those who previously comprised Hamas’s prison hierarchy. Before October 7, the group’s prison leadership represented Palestinian detainees — including Hamas — in dealings with the Israel Prison Service. Elected in secret during the group’s four-year cycles, these figures were not named publicly, but were well known behind bars and to Israel’s security services.
Since the war began, however, Israeli authorities have broken up that leadership structure. The last Hamas prison leader, Salameh Qatawi, elected in 2021, was released to the West Bank during the most recent ceasefire, in February 2025. According to Milstein, Hamas’s prison leadership has ceased to function.
Hamas’s command inside Gaza
Hamas’s leaders within Gaza, of course, are easier for Israel to eliminate than those in faraway countries. After the assassinations of the Sinwars and Deif — all of whom led Hamas from inside the Strip — only a handful of senior figures remain in Gaza today.
The two most prominent are Haddad, who, before the war, commanded Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade, and Raed Saad, described in Arabic media during the war as the head of Hamas’s military production apparatus.
According to Israeli security officials, Haddad was appointed commander of Hamas’s military wing following Deif’s death. However, Milstein argues that his role is narrower than that of his predecessor, due to his limited experience, and that his focus is confined mainly to Hamas’s military activity inside Gaza and enforcing law and order.Izz al-Din Haddad, commander of Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade, in a video released by Hamas’s military wing, May 2022. (Screenshot used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Horev also said Haddad represents a step down from Deif for the terror group.
“After Israel killed Mohammed Sinwar, it brought Hamas to the bottom of the barrel,” he said. “Izz al-Din Haddad didn’t immediately take control. It took him several weeks to get a grip on Hamas’s military wing. He and Raed Saad are the last of the Mohicans in Hamas in Gaza today.”
He added that killing Haddad could degrade Hamas’s power in the Strip even further.
“The moment you take out Izz al-Din Haddad, you’re talking about a network that will operate at a much lower profile,” Horev said. “If a junior figure ends up running the military wing inside Gaza, it’s likely he won’t be listened to, neither from within the Strip nor from abroad.”
In his new role, Haddad may be overseeing a shift in the way Hamas governs the parts of the enclave it still controls, adopting more secretive methods and cracking down on local opposition as the fighting goes on.
Throughout the war, including in recent weeks, videos from Gaza have shown men in civilian clothes — identified or self-identifying as Hamas operatives — shooting individuals accused of stealing humanitarian aid. On August 23, Hamas also claimed it had executed four alleged collaborators with Israel.
‘Just pushing Hamas into other places’
Hamas has controlled Gaza since it ousted the Palestinian Authority from the enclave in a deadly, brief civil war in 2007, and in the nearly two decades since, the group’s military wing has remained focused on fighting Israel.
Civilian affairs in the Strip, meanwhile, were run via government ministries Hamas inherited from the PA — education, health, economy, and others — alongside security bodies such as the police that were tasked with maintaining internal order. Those systems were overseen by a shadow government composed of senior Hamas officials, which the terror group only occasionally acknowledged publicly.
Since the start of the war, Israel has taken over much of Gaza’s territory and destroyed swaths of its infrastructure. Gaza’s schools and government ministries are now mostly closed. Some hospitals continue to operate, as do Hamas’s internal security mechanisms and its health ministry, which serves as the source for casualty numbers in the Strip.
Israel has also targeted leaders of Hamas’s civilian government. It announced several times since October 2023 that it had killed men it claimed were acting as Hamas’s prime minister in Gaza — including Ismail Daalis and Ismail Barhoum, the latter killed in March 2025. It is unclear who, if anyone, currently fills that role.Munir al-Bursh, Hamas’s director-general of the Health Ministry in Gaza, pictured in August 2025. (Screenshot/X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
At the same time, a number of lower-level functionaries remain in place within various ministries. One such known figure is Munir al-Bursh, Hamas’s director-general of the health ministry, who has served in his role for at least five years.
Several of these officials have been killed by Israel during the war, and new appointees are likely still operating under Hamas’s authority. For example, the current mayor of Deir al-Balah, Nizar Ayash, was appointed without elections, unlike previous mayors. His predecessor, Diab al-Jaru, was killed by Israel in December 2024. The IDF said he had maintained close ties with Hamas operatives and aided them in the city.
Crucially, Milstein said no viable alternative to the terror group has emerged in the areas where most of the population still lives. The Abu Shabab militia, backed by Israel, operates only in depopulated zones in eastern Rafah in Gaza’s south, not in densely populated areas.
“Nothing magical is sprouting up in its place. People don’t want to trade the horror of Hamas for something unknown. They fear chaos, and they’re exhausted,” Milstein said.
He assessed that even if Israel follows through on its plan to capture Gaza City, it still won’t mean the end of Hamas as a functioning organization.
“If the conquest of Gaza is accompanied by the evacuation of the population, then it’s more of the same. Clearly, the international damage to Israel would be massive, but even from a purely military perspective, it means you’re just pushing Hamas into other places,” he said.
“We’re trying to have it both ways: Either you conquer the entire Strip, control it, and remain there for the long term, or you’re just bluffing,” he continued. “And right now, we’re just bluffing. linkReport details Hamas’s propaganda network deployed throughout Gaza
Army Radio has reported on Hamas’s propaganda and psychological warfare arm, which was led by the group’s military spokesperson, Abu Obeida, until his elimination in a weekend strike.
The report says Hamas’s influence network currently includes over 1,000 operatives (with around 200 more killed in the war). It says Abu Obeida built it up over the past decade, with operatives embedded in Hamas combat units throughout the Strip, filming, editing and distributing propaganda material on combat operations.
It says the network adapts constantly, relocating command centers to schools and hospitals when targeted by Israeli strikes.
It includes “intelligence listeners” who monitor Israeli media and public discourse to suggest psychological warfare operations.
Army Radio says the network has played a central role in the propaganda campaign surrounding the hostages in Gaza and the distribution of videos featuring captives.
It says Abu Obeida recently drafted plans for efforts to prevent Israeli forces’ advance into Gaza City, through manipulation of Israeli public perception.
IDF details terror operatives killed in recent Gaza operations
The IDF says forces in the Gaza Strip killed dozens of terror operatives in the past month who had been planning attacks against IDF forces in the northern and central Gaza Strip.
These included Ahmad Abu Daf, who was serving as a deputy company commander in the Zeitoun Battalion, and who in this role planned, directed, and carried out dozens of attacks and ambushes against IDF forces, in addition to recruiting new operatives into the Hamas terror organization.
Another key operative killed was Taleb Sidqi Taleb Abu Atiwi, a team commander in Hamas’s Nukhba force who infiltrated Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, the army said.
The military also says the Air Force struck and destroyed buildings in Shejaiya and Zeitoun in northern Gaza that were used as meeting places for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunmen to plan attacks.
**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!!!”
Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements
*4:50pm yesterday -Houthi drone intercepted before it reached Israel, says IDF
Israel successfully intercepted a drone fired by the Houthis in Yemen before it reached Israeli territory, the IDF says in a statement.
No sirens were sounded in Israel, notes the military.
*5:30am - 2 ballistic missiles were launched from Yemen and fell in Saudi Arabia - no alerts in Israel- This is the 3rd incident of Houthi missiles launched against Israeli but falling long before reaching our airspace in the last 2 weeks.
Gaza and the South
UN nuclear watchdog finds uranium traces at Syrian reactor that Israel bombed in 2007
The UN nuclear watchdog has found traces of uranium in Syria in its investigation into a building Israel destroyed in 2007 that the agency has long believed was probably an undeclared nuclear reactor, it says in a report to member states.
The government of now-deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad said the Deir Ezzor site that included the building was a conventional military base.
The International Atomic Energy Agency concluded in 2011 the building was “very likely” to have been a reactor built in secret that Damascus should have declared to it.
The agency has been trying since then to come to a definitive conclusion, and under a renewed push last year it was able to take environmental samples at three unnamed locations “that were allegedly functionally related” to Deir Ezzor, it says in the confidential report seen by Reuters.
The agency found “a significant number of natural uranium particles in samples taken at one of the three locations. The analysis of these particles indicated that the uranium is of anthropogenic origin, ie that it was produced as a result of chemical processing,” the report says.
The term “natural” indicates the uranium was not enriched. The report doesn’t come to a conclusion as to what the traces found mean.
“The current Syrian authorities indicated that they had no information that might explain the presence of such uranium particles,” the report says, adding that the Islamist-led government had granted the IAEA access to the site concerned again in June this year to take more environmental samples.
The report says the IAEA is still planning to visit Deir Ezzor and will evaluate the results of the environmental samples taken at the other site.
“Once this process has been completed and the results evaluated, there will be an opportunity to clarify and resolve the outstanding safeguards issues related to Syria’s past nuclear activities and to bring the matter to a close,” it says.
IDF chief said to warn plan to conquer Gaza will lead to ‘military government’
In the heated cabinet meeting last night over the next steps in war in Gaza, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned that the plan to conquer Gaza City will drag Israel into a full-fledged occupation of the Strip, the Ynet news site reports.
“You are heading to a military government,” said Zamir. “Your plan is leading us there. Understand the implications.”
“Your decision to conquer Gaza City — and afterwards this will lead to the conquest of the refugee camps in central Gaza — and then it will be a military government, because there will be no other body that could take responsibility for the population,” continued Zamir.
According to the report, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs pushed back, saying that a decision had been made already that there would be no military government in Gaza.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said, “Instead of a military government, encourage voluntary emigration.”
“Understand the implications,” Zamir repeated, to which Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich responded, “We made a decision.”
At that point, according to the report, Ben Gvir called for a vote on a partial hostage deal, in order to prove that the majority of the cabinet opposed it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused, saying that there was no deal on the table and effectively dismissing the phased hostage deal set out by mediators that Hamas said it had agreed to earlier this month.
Israel has said it will only consider a comprehensive deal that would see Hamas lay down its arms and release all of the hostages.
IDF chief said to blast Netanyahu, ministers: ‘Where were you on October 7?
L-R: Defense Minister Israel Katz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, and IAF chief of staff Brig. Gen. Omer Tischler at the IAF's command center, August 24, 2025. (Elad Malka/ Defense Ministry)
During the contentious cabinet meeting last night on the next stage in the war in Gaza, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir blasted the assembled ministers for insisting on the military defeat of Hamas now after not doing so for the previous 22 months of war, Channel 13 reports.“Good morning,” he reportedly said sarcastically. “You are the cabinet of October 7. Now you remember to talk about the defeat of Hamas. Where were you on the 7th? The 8th? The 9th? Now you remember, after two years.”
“When I moved into this position, Gaza was not defeated,” Zamir continued, according to the report. “Today, 70 percent of Gaza is defeated.”
Zamir and other security chiefs oppose plans to conquer Gaza City militarily, arguing instead for a staged hostage release deal and ceasefire Link
Abbas says Netanyahu is only obstacle to PA returning to govern Gaza
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says in an interview with the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya channel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the only obstacle to the PA’s returning to rule Gaza.
“The Palestinian Authority governed Gaza before 2007, and it was completely calm. There is no obstacle to the PA returning to Gaza — except for Netanyahu’s refusal,” Abbas says.
Netanyahu has insisted that the PA not be allowed to return to govern a post-war Gaza, despite the idea’s popularity among many Western nations. He has asserted that an as-yet determined body, that is not Israel, will rule the Strip in the future.
Addressing growing international recognition of a Palestinian state, Abbas says that “many heads of state have told me that they intend to recognize a Palestinian state. We recognized Israel in 1988, and in the Oslo Accords we signed on it. If many countries recognize [Palestine], we will go to the UN to request full membership.” link Abbas or as he is known on the streets, Abu Mazen is 100% correct. Netanyahu is the sole individual preventing the PA from coming back and governing Gaza. From day one, Netanyahu stated that neither Hamas nor the PA will rule in Gaza. Netanyahu has spent his political career preventing the possibility of a Palestinian State. He did this on the ground by weakening the Palestinian Authority in every way possible including, but not limited to withholding taxes collected by Israel on behalf of the PA. Holding the major purse strings of the PA meant that Israel has more control over the PA than it should have according to all agreements signed between the 2 sides. But that didn't matter to Netanyahu. Breaching internationally monitored agreements were fine by him. The holding back on these monies meant the PA was unable to pay salaries particularly to their security forces. What is very important to know is that the PA and the Israeli security organizations still work in collaberation to prevent Palestinian terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank as part of the Oslo agreements. Most of those agreements fell by the wayside under Netanyahu, yet the security collaberation withstands. The PA security forces have prevented literally thousands of these attacks.
One of the main impacts of the PA not being able to pay salaries was that they could afford less security people and had to manage with only a bare bones level of security in many areas, in particular the West Bank refugee camps. There was a vacuum created in those refugee camps and Hamas quickly filled that vacuum. True, many have been killed in the battles with the IDF, but they had years of building infrastucture to fight off IDF troops when/if they decide to come back into the camps to being non Hamas order. As a result, the refugee camps have become a hotbed of Hamas terrorism.
Instead of sending in IDF troops, Netanyahu could have made an important strategic decision. Let the PA come in an put down the fighting in the camps. In order to do that, the PA would need to receive their monies every month. But Netanyahu had no intention of letting the PA show that they were capable of putting down Hamas terrorists, which would pave the way for the world to demand that the PA be put in as the government of Gaza.
In addition, Netanyahu made another horrifically poor decision, to strengthen Hamas. He saw that, if Hamas was strong enough to show them as a terror organization constantly threatened Israel, together with the ineffectiveness of the PA, Netanyahu could always say there is no Palestinian partner for peace. Let us never forget that Netanyahu's Finance Minister who also is a minister in the defense ministry said on many occasions "Hamas is an Asset to Israel". (From Wikipedia - “Netanyahu 's strategy is to prevent the option of two states, so he is turning Hamas into his closest partner. Openly Hamas is an enemy. Covertly, it's an ally.” Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right lawmaker and finance minister under Netanyahu Government, called thePalestinian Authority a "burden" and Hamas an "asset".)
Netanyahu's overpowering efforts to prevent a Palestinian State blind him to the reality of the situation. The only legitimate solution for Gaza is for Abu Mazen to appoint an independent governor to Gaza who is peripherally connected to the PA, is a technocratic government, corruption free and that democratic elections will be held in 2 years or less. This is the only solution that the Arab countries will also agree upon, especially the richer countries that will be paying for the rebuilding of Gaza. They won't invest a dollar until Hamas is completely out and a local Palestinian- Netanyahu clings to his line while the hostages fade
Opinion: Even if no hostages were alive in Gaza, the city’s conquest might not be worth the cost; but hostages remain, and Israel’s government has no right to condemn them to death while refusing a deal that could bring them homeEven if no hostages were alive in Gaza, one could argue that conquering the city would not justify the cost in soldiers’ lives, harm to civilians and international isolation. But there are hostages alive in Gaza. Israel’s government has no right to condemn them to death.There is nothing amusing about the plight of the hostages—or their families. Like many others, I return from protests at Hostages Square angry, frustrated and in tears. Yet some close to the prime minister’s office twist the cries of despair into smug humor. A few days ago, one such figure mocked protesters as ungrateful: when Netanyahu pursued a partial deal, they demanded a full one; now that he pursues a full deal, they want partial. His thin smile said it all: “See how clever I am.” In truth, there is no contradiction—neither in the hostages’ campaign nor in Netanyahu’s maneuvers. As numerous investigations have shown, from the first months of the war, Netanyahu has done everything possible to avoid a deal. The few who returned—alive or dead—came back through military operations. Those with dual citizenship were freed thanks to the personal intervention of Joe Biden, Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin. The others returned despite Netanyahu’s maneuvers, not because of them. Yesterday, at the start of the Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu claimed credit for the return of 207 hostages, alive and dead. Not for the first time, he sold achievements that were not his. Why the same man who once released 1,027 prisoners for one soldier in good condition has since hardened against deals is open to interpretation. Some attribute it to threats from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir; others to pressure from his family; still others to his complicated relationship with Hamas. He believed he had deterred them, even co-opted them into his vision of a weakened, divided Palestine. They betrayed him. From the first debate over a deal, I believed Israel should pursue every option. “Whoever saves one life, it is as though he has saved an entire world.” Elderly or young, soldier or civilian, partial deal or full, cease-fire or temporary pause—the priority is their release. With Hamas, delay means abandonment. And so we arrive here: Netanyahu, steadfast; the hostages, wasting away. IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir understands this. He and his colleagues are doing everything within their limited space to persuade the Cabinet to accept a deal. But Netanyahu refuses. The offer is on the table, yet he will not discuss it. Like the Turkish admiral who declared “No Malta” after failing to capture the island, Netanyahu declares: “No deal.” One might expect at least one minister, perhaps a member of the Knesset, to stand up and say: perhaps you are wrong, Mr. Prime Minister. Perhaps there is merit in what the chief of staff and all the security chiefs are saying. That is how democracy should work—even under strong leaders like David Ben Gurion or Menachem Begin, someone eventually spoke up. But not now. All that emerges are anonymous whispers to journalists, paired with public shows of loyalty to Netanyahu’s every whim. Fear of his political machine paralyzes them—along with dreams of succession. Einav Zangauker, one of the most outspoken voices among hostage families, said last weekend that if her son Matan dies in Gaza, she will accuse Netanyahu of murder. The words are harsh, but the responsibility is justified. Netanyahu is not alone. He is surrounded by enablers. One is National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi. Recently, he has been portrayed as siding with security chiefs in urging a deal. In theory, this makes him a rare dissenting voice—a longtime Netanyahu ally and appointee willing to take a stand. But Hanegbi is no chief of staff. The responsibility for war is not on his shoulders, nor the fate of hostages. He heads a neutered body with little influence. If he truly believes rejecting a deal in favor of conquering Gaza is a historic mistake, he must act: resign, and explain directly to the Israeli public what transpired in government over the months before Oct. 7 and in the 23 months since. Who abandoned, who deceived, who misled. If ever there was a time for Tzachi to act, it is now. link
- The Region and the World
Yemen’s Houthis hold funeral for PM, 11 other officials killed in Israeli strike
Yemen’s Houthi rebels hold a funeral for their prime minister and 11 other senior officials killed in an Israeli air strike that decimated its political cabinet.
Twelve coffins draped in flags are displayed at Sanaa’s Al-Shaab mosque, as masked gunmen patrol the area and thousands of mourners flooded in.
Houthi prime minister Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi, nine ministers, and two cabinet officials were killed as they attended a government meeting in the Sanaa area on Thursday.
The Houthis, part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” of anti-Israeli groups, vowed to step up their attacks on Israel following Thursday’s killings.
Internationale Association of Genocide Scholars declares Israel committing genocide in Gaza
The world’s leading genocide scholars’ association passed a resolution saying that the legal criteria have been met to establish that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, its president says.
Eighty-six percent of those who voted among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars backed the resolution declaring: “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948).”
The three-page resolution adopted by the scholars calls on Israel to “immediately cease all acts that constitute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza, including deliberate attacks against and killing of civilians including children; starvation; deprivation of humanitarian aid, water, fuel, and other items essential to the survival of the population; sexual and reproductive violence; and forced displacement of the population.”
There was no immediate response from the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israel has in the past strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as self defense.
In Gaza, Hamas welcomed the resolution. “This prestigious scholarly stance reinforces the documented evidence and facts presented before international courts,” says Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office.
The resolution “places a legal and moral obligation on the international community to take urgent action to stop the crime, protect civilians, and hold the leaders of the occupation accountable,” he adds.
The resolution also states that Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which sparked the ongoing war, constituted international crimes.
250 international media outlets join protest over Gaza journalist deaths, Reporters Without Borders says
More than 250 media outlets in over 70 countries staged a front page protest highlighting the deaths of scores of journalists in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, the Reporters Without Borders media freedom group says.
“At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no-one left to keep you informed,” the group’s general director Thibaut Bruttin says in a statement.
The protest made its way to the website front pages of publications including Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera, British news site The Independent, French newspapers La Croix and L’Humanite and Germany’s TAZ and Frankfurter Rundschau, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Israel says that many of those it targets who are said to be journalists are in fact members of terror groups.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry slams the Reporters Without Borders initiative as an example of anti-Israel bias.
“When 150 media outlets choose in a synchronized manner to stop reporting news, to throw values of the press and plurality of opinions into the trash, and instead publish a uniform, pre-scripted political manifesto against Israel – that tells you how great the bias against Israel,” the ministry says.
While Israel has repeatedly chastised international media for relying on information coming out of Hamas-controlled Gaza, it has barred journalists from entering the Strip since the start of the war, except on occasional, tightly controlled trips with the military.
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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