π️Lonny's War Update- October 709, 2023 - September 14, 2025 π️
π️Day 709 that 48 of our hostages are still in Hamas captivityπ️
Hostage Families Forum: Netanyahu is the ‘one obstacle’ to deal to free the captives
In response to a social media post by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinting that Israel’s strike in Qatar failed to kill Hamas’s leadership, and asserting that the Hamas terror chiefs in Qatar are the “main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum calls him the “one obstacle” to a ceasefire and hostage-release deal.
“The targeted operation in Qatar proved beyond any doubt that there is one obstacle to returning the 48 hostages and ending the war: Prime Minister Netanyahu. Every time a deal approaches, Netanyahu sabotages it,” the statement says.
“The time has come to end the excuses designed to buy time so he can cling to power,” it adds. “This stalling has already cost us the lives of 42 hostages and threatens the lives of additional hostages who are barely surviving after nearly two years in captivity, as well as the recovery of those who have died.”
The statement by the organization, which represents relatives of most of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, follows a post on X by Netanyahu on Saturday night in which the premier wrote, “The Hamas terrorists chiefs living in Qatar don’t care about the people in Gaza. They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war. Getting rid of them would rid the main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war.”
The reaction by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum came as thousands rallied across the country for a ceasefire and hostage-release deal. Hamas is holding 48 Israeli hostages in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are thought to be alive. link.No matter how many times Netanyahu will say that Hamas is the only obstacle to a deal, it doesn't make it true. Knowledgeable officials from the Biden Administration made it very clear that they found Netanyahu responsible for preventing a deal 90% of the time and Hamas 10%.
Last week, Trump and top aides have come to question whether Netanyahu, who authorized the strike and has threatened more, was trying to sabotage the talks, according to the person close to Trump’s team. “Every time they’re making progress, it seems like he bombs someone,” the person said. “That’s why the president and his aides are so frustrated with Netanyahu.” (a Trump Aid)
I'm not making out Hamas to be angels or even reasonable negotiation partners. They are neither. They are the devil incarnate and are extremely unreasonable negotiators. However, their negotation methods are consistent. They make their bottom line known from the very beginning and are immovable from that bottom line. During any interim deals, they show some limited flexibility but when the final agreement needs to be made, their initial bottom line demands are identical to the ending bottom line demands.
Regarding Netanyahu, he has proven to be the one who makes sure that every negotiation fails to make it to the point of a deal and we see hostages coming home. Before every negotiation, Netanyahu pulls his rabbit from the hat and tells the negotiating team he new demand(s) that he and they know Hamas will never accept and will prevent them from making a deal. Every single person in the Israeli negotiating team, past and present, knows for a fact that Netanyahu never wanted and never wants to make any deal that will mean he has to end his war of political survival. They have come out publicly and privately to multiple sources that fact that Netanyahu doesn't want the war to end. It is due to this fact that Netanyahu made the monumental changes to the leadership of the negotiation team from the chiefs of the Mossad and Shin Bet who were pushing him to make a deal even if it meant the war had to end, and they put in his closest yes man, Dermer to lead the team. This is the same Dermer who spent the first months of the war telling everyone in Washington that all the hostages were dead. This is the same Dermer who told the father of one of the soldier hostages who was killed on or after October 7 and Hamas is holding his body, (and I paraphrase) that 20 hostages (only referring to the living hostages) don't mean a thing to him. If it was 6 million, that would be a different story. He then told this hostage father that he should turn to the Americans. Maybe they will do something to get his son brought home (his son is an american citizen). The shock here is that the person in charge of getting his son home doesn't give a shit about him and he will not go out of his way to bring any of the hostages home. It's just not important. And this minister, who together with his boss, Netanyahu are the government who were in place on October 7 and are absolutely responsible for every single hostage taken under their watch, shirk all responsibility for the worst attack in the history of our country, for the 1200 people killed on that day or for the 251 hostages taken that day with 48 of them still in captivity 709 days and counting. Dermer is a do nothing and has no problem being that do nothing. Let's not forget the words of his boss to one of his close advisors that Netanyahu can deal with another 200 bereaved families. That means that all 20 living hostages can die and he still have room for another 180 soldiers' families to be bereaved in his war of political survival. For the 2 of these worthless creatures, this is a small price to pay for Netanyahu to continue to be prime minister and to rebuild his legacy as the savior of the Jewish People. They are both in for a rude awakening. When elections come finally, Netanyahu will not be prime minister ever again and his legacy will be forever the most dangerous prime minister in Israel's history who was responsible for the worst attack on the state in its history and for the death of more jews in a single day since the holocaust. He will also be remembered for causing more international damage to Israel than anyone in history and that he, personally turned Israel into a pariah state.Hostage’s mother: In Qatar, Netanyahu tried to bomb our chance to get our loved ones back
Several relatives of hostages who are intensely critical of the government give their weekly statement outside IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv, ahead of planned rallies across the country.
“This week we witnessed the prime minister’s grand failure, when he gambled with the hostages’ lives and tried to eliminate Hamas’s negotiating team while talks were underway on a deal for our sons’ release,” says Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker.
“President Trump said yesterday that every time there is progress in the negotiations, Netanyahu bombs someone,” she says, in reference to comments made anonymouslyby an official close to the administration when describing Trump’s frustration.
“But it wasn’t Hamas leaders he tried to bomb — it was our chance, the families’ [chance] to get our loved ones back. It was our hope, as citizens, to live normal lives, our Zionism, and the future of the state.”
Itzik Horn, father of Hamas hostage Eitan Horn, says, “One madman, together with a bunch of lunatics called the cabinet, decided to do everything in their power to bring about the death of my son Eitan.
“I call on you — let’s sit down face to face, father to father. No media, no spin, no leaks. Just answer me one question: if your children were among the hostages, would they also be rotting in the tunnels for 700 days? So why should our children?” link We all know that Netanyahu has no heart and no soul. He is incapable of feeling sympathy or empathy for any of the hostages or their families. He simply doesn't care and any airs that he puts on publicly about caring about them is no more than crocodile tears. Three months ago, at the site of an Iranian missile explosion at Soroka Hospital, made comments about the collective of the Israeli population having personal costs and sacrifices in this war.
“It really reminds me of the British people during the blitz. We are going through a blitz,” Netanyahu said, referring to the wartime Nazi bombing of Britain in which 43,000 civilians died.“There are people who were killed, families who grieved loved ones, I really appreciate that,” he went on.
The Israeli authorities say 24 Israeli civilians have so far been killed. Washington-based human rights activists have estimated the Iranian civilian death toll to be 263.
“Each of us bears a personal cost, and my family has not been exempt,” Netanyahu said at the Soroka hospital, which was struck on Thursday morning by an Iranian missile, causing light injuries.
“This is the second time that my son Avner has cancelled a wedding due to missile threats. It is a personal cost for his fiancee as well, and I must say that my dear wife is a hero, and she bears a personal cost.”
Netanyahu has no connection to what the Israeli public is feeling and certainly not to the unending suffering of the hostages and their families, and he just doesn't care.
**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
*IDF: Drone launched by Yemen’s Houthis intercepted near Ramon Airport in southern Israel
A drone launched by the Houthis in Yemen was intercepted by Israeli air defenses near Ramon Airport in southern Israel, the military says.
Sirens had sounded in the adjacent town of Be’er Ora as a result of the drone and due to fears of falling fragments after Iron Dome interceptor missiles shot down the drone.
Last week, a drone launched by Yemen’s Houthis evaded air defenses and smashed into the Ramon Airport terminal.
Aunt of hostages slams Qatar strike: ‘Where the hell is the shame?’
Maccabit Meyer, aunt of twin captives Gali and Ziv Berman, assails Israel’s decision to target Hamas’s top brass in a strike in Doha on Tuesday, which appears to have set back talks for a Gaza hostage-release and ceasefire deal.
She speaks before a crowd of thousands at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.
“Now of all times it’s necessary to eliminate the political arm [of Hamas] because there’s an opportunity,” she says sarcastically, as the crowd jeers. “There are opportunities for everything except for Gali and Ziv and the rest of the 48 hostages.”
“Where the hell is the shame,” she asks. “How can it be that nobody [in the government] shouts, ‘Enough’?”
Addressing the government, she asks: “Where are your heart and conscience? How are you not afraid we’ll get back 48 coffins — maybe fewer because some will disappear?”
“This will be your shame forever,” she says. “The people want them back and the people will remember… you’ve messed with the wrong people.”
Wife of hostage: ‘I am not prepared to be a widow because of hesitancy or torpedoing’ of a deal
Former hostage Sharon Alony Cunio, whose husband David remains in Hamas captivity in Gaza and is thought to be alive, accuses the government of life-threatening procrastination in the release of the remaining 48 captives. Her remarks come days after an IDF strike targeting Hamas’s leadership in Qatar.
“Netanyahu opposes the approach that he himself initiated,” she says in a speech at a rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, presumably referring to the prime minister rejecting a temporary hostage deal, which he had once said he preferred. “The negotiations have been cut off again, and this time with fire and pillars of smoke. Every delay is a mortal danger.”
“I am not prepared to become a widow because of hesitancy or torpedoing” of a ceasefire and hostage-release deal, she continues. “I am not prepared to become another name in the list of victims of government obtuseness. I am demanding to save David’s life and those of all the living hostages, and to bring back all the fallen hostages now.”
Her husband, she says, remained in captivity “when Israel decided to thwart the second deal” earlier this year, “and also when Israel went on an assassination mission in Qatar” this Tuesday, a reference to the strike, which Netanyahu hinted earlier today had failed.
“I’m dying of fear. What is he going through now?” she asks.
“We won’t let our country enter a ‘hostage routine,'” she says. “There will be no routine here until they come back — in a deal.”
Keith and Aviva Siegel at a rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on September 13, 2025. (Uriel Even Sapir/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)Former captives Keith and Aviva Siegel also call for a deal.
“This is not just an emotional duty, not just a moral duty,” says Keith. “It’s a Jewish, national and human duty.”
Fourteen-year-old former hostage Alma Or, whose parents were murdered in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, that began the war, and the remains of whose father, Dror, remain in captivity, says slain captive Carmel Gat, with whom she was abducted, “could have been with us, alive, had the deal happened in time.”
“Some things can no longer be changed, but bringing my father back for the burial he so deserves — that’s possible,” she says. “A girl should not have to beg for her father’s remains.”
“October 7 has to end,” she says. “Everyone must come back, in a deal, now.”
Netanyahu blames Hamas leaders in Qatar for blocking hostage deal and Gaza ceasefire
Prime minister says removing exiled Hamas chiefs key to ending war; Energy Minister Eli Cohen warns Hamas officials unsafe anywhere, including Istanbul
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that senior Hamas leaders based in Qatar, whom Israel tried to eliminate in a targeted strike this week, are the main obstacle to a hostage release deal and to ending the war.“The Hamas terrorists chiefs living in Qatar don't care about the people in Gaza,” Netanyahu wrote in English on X. “They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war. Getting rid of them would rid the main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war.”His comments came as questions arose in Washington over whether the Israeli strike in Doha had undercut negotiations. On Friday, Politico reported that U.S. President Donald Trump and his advisers privately asked whether Netanyahu himself was trying to derail the talks. A source close to Trump’s national security team and another U.S. official said frustration with Netanyahu has deepened since the attack. “Every time they’re making progress, it seems like he bombs someone,” the source said. “That’s why the president and his aides are so frustrated with Netanyahu.”Meanwhile, Energy Minister and Security Cabinet member Eli Cohen suggested in an interview with the Saudi outlet Elaph that Hamas officials could also be targeted in Istanbul. “Anyone connected to Hamas cannot sleep safely anywhere in the world,” Cohen said.Asked whether the United States had been informed in advance of the Doha strike, Cohen replied: “Israel and the United States are certainly coordinated. The U.S. is our greatest ally, especially President Trump, who promotes stability in the Middle East. During his presidencies, the scope of wars has been smaller, and I have no doubt new peace agreements will be signed during his current term.”Pressed again on advance notice, Cohen said: “Some things cannot be discussed in detail. They received a general notice. We did not say, ‘We are going to do this now.’”Cohen accused Qatar of undermining regional stability. “There is a common base between the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel and others who want stability and prosperity. Qatar is tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. It is not only Israel’s enemy but the enemy of the moderate Islamic axis. It finances Iran and is one of only four countries that give terrorists safe haven — Iran, Qatar, Turkey and Lebanon.”He also addressed Israel’s military activity in Lebanon and Syria, saying it would continue as long as extremist Islamist groups are present. “Ultimately, our goal is to reach an arrangement. The day Lebanon and Syria abandon these groups, we can sell them energy, water and water technology,” he said.Regarding Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s government, Cohen said Israel’s priorities include ensuring a broad demilitarized buffer zone beyond the 1974 disengagement line, maintaining ties with the Druze community through a humanitarian corridor, preventing deployment of strategic weapons near Israel and stopping Turkey from establishing military bases there. “If Turkey wants to set up bases in Syria, Israel will do the same,” he warned.Cohen concluded: “The moment the hostages are released and Hamas lays down its arms, the war will end. It could end tomorrow.” LinkHundreds protest Likud event, minister files police complaint, photographer shoved to ground
Scuffles with police erupt as hundreds of demonstrators mass outside a pre-Rosh Hashanah event for the ruling Likud Party, protesting a series of government ministers as they enter the venue in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikvah.
The event, a “toast” held a little over a week before the Jewish New Year, takes place as weekly rallies across the country call for a ceasefire agreement to release the 48 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Protesters at the Likud event at first attempt to block the entrance, according to Hebrew media, and are then moved behind a barricade by police. Footage on social media shows them chanting “Shame” at those entering the event.
A video circulating on social media shows veteran photographer Reuven Castro being shoved to the ground as Transportation Minister Miri Regev enters the venue under heavy security. The Kan public broadcaster reports that a police officer shoved Castro, who received treatment on site. link The police have very clear instructions from the criminally convicted minister in charge of them regarding protesters. He wants the police to treat them brutally both to demonstrate how this minister treats people who are against him and the government and to scare protesters not to protests. Ben Gvir talks about democracy when it suits him, but he either had no idea what real democracy is about and/or he doesn't care. He has no desire for Israel to be a democracy. His ideal is for Israel to be a Jewish Iran where the people in power, like him, determine everything about what goes on in the country and one of the things that is not permitted is protesting against the government. At some point in the not too distant past, Ben Gvir and his racist messianic buddies were recognized as the undesirable fringes of our society and it was just a matter of time until his reincarnation of the outlawed Kach party would also be outlawed and anyone belonging to it be classified as a supporter of terrorism. That is one of Ben Gvir's convictions when he was an ardent follower of one of Israel's worst public racists, Kahane and the killer of Arabs, Baruch Goldstein. Netanyahu tool Ben Gvir out of the fringes and normalized him, his racism and messianism and his anti-democratic intentions. They are criminals in all the senses of the word and their crimes will be recognized as such and justice will eventually catch up with them.
IDF says tens of thousands more have evacuated Gaza City
Tens of thousands of Palestinians evacuated Gaza City over the past day, bringing the total number of those who left the area in recent weeks to around 280,000, according to IDF estimates.
Around one million Palestinians were estimated to be residing in Gaza City before the IDF began to prepare for a major offensive against Hamas there.
On Tuesday, the IDF ordered all of Gaza City to evacuate immediately ahead of the planned offensive.
Civilians have been instructed to head for an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Strip’s south. link The IDF claim that about 280,000 people have evacuated from Gaza city out of a million. The IDF intentions was for most of the million people to evacuate so the conquest and occupation of Gaza City could go ahead without having to worry about a lot of non-combatants. This cannot happen with the majority of the million still there and refusing to evacuate. The IDF has made it known that the 280,000 evacuees is getting close to the critical mass numbers they need to go full force into Gaza City. This seems outrageous to me and everyone else that they will still be more than half a million people in an urban war zone and the IDF will go in full force? The IDF, with each incident of large numbers of civilians killed, always claims that every effort is taken to reduce the number of non combatant casualties. When so many have been killed and continue to be killed daily, this statement doesn't hold water. And when there will be more than half a million non combatants in Gaza City and the army is forced to continue with the government's orders to occupy the City, against the advice of the heads of all the security forces, we will be killing and maiming thousands as well as risking the lives of all the living hostages, the locations of all of the dead hostages, and the lives of every soldier in Gaza. All this for Netanyahu to continue his war of political survival. When is the price too high, Netanyahu? Is there even a price that is too high for your political survival? You have stated that you can deal with another 200 bereaved families about the 900 families of soldiers killed in this war. When the number gets to 1100 families, will that be your sign to end the war or will you just add to the number and feel comfortable with another 200 bereaved families after that. Is 200 the real number or is it a moving target depending on your political time line? When is it enough?
IDF says it struck Gaza City high-rise tower used by Hamas
The IDF says it struck a high-rise tower that was being used by Hamas in Gaza City a short while ago, shortly after issuing an evacuation warning for Palestinians in the area.
According to the military, Hamas placed military infrastructure in the building to advance attacks on IDF troops in the area. Video
Palestinian reports: 32 killed in Gaza City airstrikes yesterday
Medical staff in Gaza say a barrage of airstrikes killed at least 32 people across Gaza City yesterday, as Israel ramps up its offensive there and urges Palestinians to evacuate.
The dead reportedly included 12 children, according to the morgue in Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were brought. The figures could not be verified.
The IDF in recent days has intensified strikes across Gaza City, destroying multiple high-rise buildings it says were used by Hamas.
On Saturday, the army said it struck another high-rise used by Hamas in the area of Gaza City. It has ordered residents to leave ahead of its offensive aimed at taking over Gaza’s largest city, which it says is Hamas’s last stronghold. Hundreds of thousands of people remain there, though the IDF says some 280,000 have left.
Hamas-affiliated health officials say one of the strikes overnight and into early morning Saturday hit a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, killing a family of 10, including a mother and her three children. The Palestinian Football Association says a player for the Al-Helal Sporting Club, Mohammed Ramez Sultan, was killed in the strikes with 14 members of his family. Images show the strikes hitting, followed by plumes of smoke.
The IDF does not immediately respond to questions about the strikes.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry also says Saturday that seven people, including children, died from malnutrition-related causes over the previous 24 hours, raising the toll to 420, including 145 children, since the war began.
IDF: Hamas terrorists, including October 7 attackers, killed in recent strikes
More than 20 Hamas terrorists, including several who participated in the October 7 onslaught, were killed in strikes carried out by the 282nd Artillery Regiment in the past month, the military says.
Among the terrorists who invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, was Yousef Jumaa, the commander of a terror cell that raided Kibbutz Alumim, the IDF says.
Jumaa also carried out attacks against Israel and IDF troops in Gaza during the war.
Other operatives killed in the recent strikes are named by the IDF as Samir Laqta, the commander of a Nukhba force cell; Issa Abbas, a company commander in Hamas’s Zeitoun Battalion; and Ismail Adwan, Ahmed Adwan, and Mohammed Adwan, all members of Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion.
Palestinian factions hand over weapons from largest Lebanon refugee camp
Palestinian factions began handing over weapons from Lebanon’s largest refugee camp today, a Palestinian official says, as part of a push by the government to disarm non-state groups.
Abdel Hadi al-Asadi, of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), says the umbrella group conducted “the operation of delivering new batches of weapons.”
Five truckloads of weapons were handed over in the southern Ain al-Hilweh camp, the largest in the country, and three more from the northern Beddawi camp, he says.
An AFP journalist in the area reported Lebanese army vehicles posted around the camp, preventing anyone from approaching.
The densely-populated Beddawi camp, near the northern city of Tripoli, was hit last year by Israeli strikes that killed a Hamas commander, his wife and two daughters, according to the Palestinian group.
Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad, both not part of the PLO, which has begun handing over weapons, have not announced plans to disarm in Lebanon.
Lebanon hosts about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations agency UNRWA, with many living in overcrowded camps outside of the state’s control.
During a visit to Beirut in May, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreed with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that weapons in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps would be handed over to the Lebanese authorities. The process began last month, when the army received weapons from camps around Beirut and southern Lebanon.
West Bank home of Basel Adra, activist and Oscar-winning director, raided by IDF
Military says it carried out raid on his village, at-Tuwani, after two Israelis were injured when ‘a number of terrorists hurled stones’ at them
Palestinian Oscar-winning director Basel Adra said that Israeli soldiers conducted a raid at his West Bank home on Saturday, searching for him and going through his wife’s phone.
The Israel Defense Forces said the raid occurred after two Israelis were injured by stone-throwing in the area.
Israeli settlers attacked his village, injuring two of his brothers and one cousin, Adra told The Associated Press. He accompanied them to the hospital. While there, he said that he heard from family in the village that nine Israeli soldiers had stormed his home.
The soldiers asked his wife, Suha, for his whereabouts and went through her phone, he said, while his 9-month-old daughter was home. They also briefly detained one of his uncles, he said.
As of Saturday night, Adra said he had no way of returning home to check on his family, because soldiers were blocking the entrance to the village and he was scared of being detained.
The military said in response to an inquiry that it had received reports that “a number of terrorists hurled stones at Israeli civilians near at-Tuwani.” As a result of the stone throwing, two Israelis were injured, it said.
Following the reports, the IDF said it dispatched troops to the scene, “and they are currently scanning the area and questioning suspects.”
Among those questioned was Adra, a military source confirmed to The Times of Israel.
Basel Adra, one of the directors of the Oscar winner documentary “No Other Land”, speaks on the phone as he sits in an area near the house of Palestinian co-director Hamdan Ballal, in Susiya in Masafer Yatta, south Hebron hills, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)Adra has spent his career as a journalist and filmmaker chronicling settler violence in Masafer Yatta, the southern reaches of the West Bank where he was born. After settlers attacked his co-director, Hamdan Ballal, in March, he told the AP that he felt they were being targeted more intensely since winning the Oscar.
He described Saturday’s events as “horrific.”
“Even if you are just filming the settlers, the army comes and chases you, searches your house,” he said. “The whole system is built to attack us, to terrify us, to make us very scared.”
Another co-director, Yuval Abraham, said he was “terrified for Basel.”
“What happened today in his village, we’ve seen this dynamic again and again, where the Israeli settlers brutally attack a Palestinian village and later on the army comes, and attacks the Palestinians.”
“No Other Land,” which won an Oscar this year for best documentary, depicts the struggle by residents of the Masafer Yatta area to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages, located in a designated IDF live-fire training zone.
Ballal and Adra made the joint Palestinian-Israeli production with Israeli directors Abraham and Rachel Szor.
The film has won a string of international awards, starting at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024. It has also drawn ire in Israel and abroad, as when Miami Beach proposed ending the lease of a movie theater that screened the documentary.
The Israeli military designated Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered residents, mostly Arab Bedouin, to be expelled. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time. Link The army’s actions are clearly the manifestation of government intimidation for documenting settler terrorists violences against Palestinians and even more so, because his movie is famous and makes the Israeli government looks bad due to the impunity and immunity it gives to the settler terrorists. Every single day, we have new reports of settler terrorist violence against Palestinians and everyday, we see that no settlers are arrested or even questioned. No settler terrorists is charged with any crime even when they have murdered Palestinians. The Wild West had more law and order than the West Bank and the Settler Terrorists. It doesn't even phase this government that more and ore governments are imposing sanctions against the settlers and the entire country, and lately a number of countries have announced that our most extreme ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich, the biggest supporters of Settler Terrorism are not going to be allowed to enter some countries. This doesn't matter to this extremist government that has a prime minister who enables these extremists to be the tail that wags the prime minister's dog. He is an enabler which makes him complicit in every single one of these crimes.
Netanyahu’s gamble on striking Qatar may have failed, but he’s not backing down
With growing signs Hamas leadership survived attack, PM faces another hit to his international reputation, and strains ties with his most important ally, the US
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered this week’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar, he took a major gamble in his campaign to pound the terror group into submission.
With signs growing that the mission failed, that gamble appears to have backfired.
Netanyahu had hoped to kill Hamas’ senior exiled leaders to get closer to his vision of “total victory” against the terror group that carried out the brutal massacre of 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, 2023, and pressure it into surrendering after nearly two years of war in the Gaza Strip.
Instead, Hamas claims its leaders survived, and Netanyahu’s global standing — already badly damaged by the scenes of destruction and humanitarian disaster in Gaza, as Israel tries to destroy Hamas and get back 48 hostages held there — took another hit.
The airstrike on Tuesday has enraged Qatar, an influential US ally that has been a key mediator throughout the war, and drawn heavy criticism across the Arab world. It also has strained relations with the White House and thrown hopes of reaching a ceasefire into disarray, potentially endangering the 20 hostages still believed to be alive.
But while the strike marks a setback for Netanyahu, he shows no sign of backing down or halting the war. And with his hard-line coalition still firmly behind him, Netanyahu faces no immediate threat to his rule.
Damage is seen after an Israeli strike targeted a compound that hosted Hamas’ political leadership in Doha, Qatar on September 10, 2025 (AFP)Netanyahu’s hope for an ‘image of victory’ for his government
Five low-level Hamas members and a Qatari security guard were killed in the strike.
But Hamas has said the intended target, senior exiled leaders meeting to discuss a new US ceasefire proposal, all survived. The terror group, however, has not released any photos of the leaders, and Qatar has not commented on their conditions.
A composite image of five members of Hamas’s leadership targeted by Israel in Qatar on September 9, 2025, L-R: Zaher Jabarin, Khaled Mashaal, Khalil al-Hayya, Muhammad Ismail Darwish, Nizar Awadallah. (Mahmud Hams/Louai Beshara/KHAMENEI.IR/AFP)If the airstrike had killed the top leadership, the attack could have provided Netanyahu an opportunity to declare Hamas’ destruction, said Harel Chorev, an expert on Arab affairs at Tel Aviv University.
“It’s all very symbolic and it’s definitely part of the thing which allows Netanyahu at a certain point to say ‘We won, we killed them all,'” he said.
Israel’s fierce 23-month offensive in Gaza has wiped out all of Hamas’ top leadership inside the territory. But Netanyahu has set out to eradicate the terror group as part of his goal of “total victory.”
That is now looking increasingly unlikely, making it even harder for Netanyahu to push a ceasefire through his hard-line coalition.
Far-right members of Israel’s governing coalition have cornered Netanyahu, threatening to topple his government unless Israel pushes ahead with an expanded operation in Gaza City, despite serious misgivings by many in the military leadership and widespread opposition among Israel’s public.
A successful operation in Qatar could have allowed Netanyahu to placate the hard-liners, even though it would have eliminated the very officials responsible for negotiating a possible ceasefire.
Smoke and flames rise after an Israeli military strike on a building in Gaza City, Sept. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Yousef Al Zanoun)Burning the channel with Qatar
Israel could target Hamas leaders in Doha from the start of the war, but did not want to antagonize the Qataris while negotiations took place, Chorev said.
Qatar has helped negotiate two previous ceasefires that have released 148 hostages, including eight bodies, in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Israel’s military has rescued just eight hostages alive and retrieved the bodies of 51 hostages.
While Israel has complained that Qatar was not putting pressure on Hamas, it had continued to leave that channel open — until Tuesday.
“Israel, by the attack, notified the whole world that it gave up on the negotiations,” Chorev said. “They’ve decided to burn the channel with Qatar.”
A massive banner calling for the US president to push a hostage deal in Gaza, unfurled at Hostage’s Square in Tel Aviv on September 6, 2025. (OM/Hostages Families Forum)Asked if ceasefire talks would continue, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that after the strike, “I don’t think there’s anything valid” in the current talks. But he did not elaborate and stopped short of saying Qatar would end its mediation efforts.
How Netanyahu hopes to win the release of the remaining hostages remains unclear.
On Thursday, Thani accused Israel of abandoning the hostages.
“Extremists that rule Israel today do not care about the hostages — otherwise, how do we justify the timing of this attack?” he told the UN Security Council.
Nonetheless, he said his country was ready to resume its mediation without giving any indication of next steps. On Friday, he met in Washington with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was scheduled to visit Israel this weekend in a sign of how the Trump administration is trying to balance relations between key Middle East allies.
Straining ties with the US
Netanyahu, who has received ironclad support from the US since President Donald Trump returned to office, appears to have strained ties with his most important ally.
Trump said he was “very unhappy” about the airstrike and assured the Qataris such an attack would not happen again.
Trump, however, has not said whether he would take any punitive action against Israel or indicated that he will pressure Netanyahu to halt the war.
Netanyahu, in the meantime, remains undeterred and has threatened additional action if Qatar continues to host the Hamas leadership.
The message to Hamas is clear, he said Thursday: “There is no place where we cannot reach you.”
Little impact on the war in Gaza
Israel is pressing ahead with its expanded offensive aimed at conquering Gaza City. The military has urged a full evacuation of the area holding around 1 million people ahead of an expected invasion.
“Netanyahu’s government is adamant to go on with the military operation in Gaza,” said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
IDF troops in the 36th Division operate in the Gaza Strip, in an image published on September 11, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)Israel has brushed off calls to halt the war from the United Nations, the European Union, and a growing number of major Western countries that plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN Security Council later this month, she said.
The only one who might be able to change this trajectory is Trump, she added, by telling Israel “enough is enough.”
Netanyahu’s political future unthreatened
If Hamas’ leaders survive, and the negotiations collapse, Netanyahu will further alienate the over two-thirds of the Israeli public who want an end to the war and a deal to bring home the hostages.
But that opposition has been in place for months, with little influence on Netanyahu.
“Netanyahu’s future in the near term doesn’t depend on the Israeli public,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.
Instead, his political survival depends on his governing coalition, many of whom have expressed wholehearted support for the assassination attempt.This has sparked panic and more suffering for the families of the hostages still held in Gaza.
Einav Zangauker, whose son, Matan, is among the captives, said this week she was “shaking with fear” after hearing about Israel’s attack in Doha.
“Why does the prime minister insist on blowing up every chance for a deal?” she asked, on the verge of tears. “Why?” Link
- The Region and the World
Towards the emergency summit in Doha: the goal behind it – and the responses that are being examined
The Arab states and the Muslim states will gather tomorrow in Qatar following the Israeli strike in the heart of the city • Arab diplomatic sources: “Aiming to coordinate positions and to convey a message of solidarity” • Egypt raged: “Decisions must be taken that suit the scope of the aggression” • Report: these are the options that are on the tableThe eyes of the Arab world are turned to Doha, where behind closed doors today will be formulated the draft resolution of the response to the Israeli strike in Qatar that will be placed tomorrow (Monday) on the table of the emergency summit. At the summit will participate leaders of the Arab states and the Muslim world. N12 makes order in the message behind the move and in the response options that are being examined.
Report in the Qatari newspaper Al-Arabi Al-Jadid: the responses that are being weighed
• A clear condemnation of the Israeli strike against Qatar – due to its being “a dangerous precedent that harms the sovereignty of Arab and Islamic states.”• A diplomatic move – taking coordinated action in the Security Council, the UN, and Islamic and international organizations in order to apply pressure on Israel and place upon it the responsibility for the escalation.
• Taking economic and media steps against Israel – they could reach even to boycott, in order to exact a price for its strikes.
• A uniting message – the leaders will emphasize the unity and the need to overcome Arab and Islamic disagreements, in the face of common threats.
• The summit may lead to a combination of symbolic and practical steps, such as the publication of a collective and clear condemnation of the strike in Doha, the launching of a coordinated diplomatic path in the UN and in other international organizations, and perhaps a threat of taking economic sanctions or a re-examination of trade relations with Israel, which will depend on the agreement of the participating states.
The call of Iran towards the summit
• Secretary General of the National Security Council of Iran Ali Larijani called yesterday to the states of Islam, towards the summit in which will participate the President of Iran Pezeshkian: “The holding of a conference full of speeches without practical results, as happens in the meetings of the Security Council, is equivalent in practice to the issuing of a new order to attack the Zionist entity.”President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian
Will represent Iran at the summit. President Pezeshkian | Photo: Reuters• He urged: “It is necessary to establish a joint operations room against the madness of this entity, a decision that will frighten the masters of this entity and will cause them to change quickly their orders.”
The message behind the convening of the summit
• Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit said to the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat: “The very convening of the summit is a message that Qatar is not alone, that the Arab and Muslim states stand by its side.”• Aboul Gheit claimed: “The Israeli strikes are the result of the silence of the international community regarding the crime of extermination in Gaza for two years and the feeling of the Israeli leaders that they can carry out any action and escape from it. It is necessary to bring to an end this regrettable situation, because all of us will pay for the collapse of international law.”
• Arab diplomatic sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: “The summit aims to coordinate positions regarding the Israeli violations, to affirm solidarity with Qatar following the recent strikes and to convey a message of Arab and Islamic solidarity with Qatar, while sending a message to the world emphasizing the rejection of the Israeli actions.”
The goal of Qatar: practical steps – and not only condemnations
• Doha wants that the summit will not include only empty declarations that condemn the Israeli strike, but also will lead to actions on the ground.• The editor of the Qatari newspaper Al-Sharq, Jaber Al-Harami, said: “If the summit will not produce practical steps, it will be meaningless. The summit needs to continue the world line, especially after the broad condemnations of the actions of Israel by its allies in the Security Council of the UN.”
• Al-Harami emphasized the need of Arab and Muslim leaders to take advantage of what he called “the historic moment,” otherwise, according to his words, the summit will miss its goal.
An Egyptian source explains: why Al-Sisi participates in the summit
• An Egyptian source to Al-Arabi Al-Jadid: “The president Al-Sisi will participate in the summit, a step that expresses the scope of the interest of Egypt in the need to unite the Arab and Islamic positions regarding the Israeli strikes and to search for joint mechanisms to deal with it.”• According to the source, Cairo believes that this summit must issue decisions that “suit the scope of the aggression and restore the prestige of joint Arab action that faded in recent years.”
• “Cairo sees in this summit an opportunity to restore the balance to the Arab arena and to affirm that the security of Qatar is part of the Arab and Islamic national security system.” link
Israeli official: Israel’s standing in Gulf lower than after 2010 killing of Hamas official in Dubai
An anonymous Israeli official tells the Kan public broadcaster that Israel’s standing in the Gulf is now at a lower point than it was after the 2010 killing of a Hamas official in the United Arab Emirates, an operation widely blamed on the Mossad.
“Israel’s regional situation is worse than after the elimination of Mabhouh,” the unnamed official says in the wake of the Doha strike last week.
Israel attempted to kill the leaders of Hamas with an attack in Qatar last week, a strike that risked derailing efforts to broker a truce in Gaza to end the nearly two-year-old conflict and secure the release of the hostages. The attack was widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond.
In 2010, Hamas’s Mahmoud Mabhouh — a co-founder of Hamas’s military wing and a procurer of arms for use by the terror group against Israel — was found dead in a Dubai hotel room. The killing led to a crisis in the then-secret, but growing, ties between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi.
Personal Stories
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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