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Recent Appearances...

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

9 arrested at hundreds-strong anti-war protest along the Gaza border

2025-05-19

[IsraelTimes] Police and border cops arrested nine protesters this evening during a hundreds-strong march along the Gaza border calling for an end to the war, as Israel ramps up its offensive in the Strip.

The protest, a march from the Sderot train station to the border with Gaza, was planned and approved in advance with police and the army on short notice, in light of yesterday’s announcement of a major new offensive dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots.”

Officers declared the anti-war demonstration illegal when protesters tried to burst onto Route 34 near the border. Organizers call the move a “non-violent act of civil disobedience, confronting police brutality, to block the roads leading the army into Gaza.”

Every word a lie.

Footage from the march shows several protesters attempting to disrupt traffic on the road while calling for an end to the war in Hebrew and Arabic, as police rush to shove demonstrators away from the highway guardrail. They later carry away several protesters to police vehicles, detaining them for questioning.

Among those arrested is prominent left-wing activist Alon Lee Green, who co-founded the Standing Together movement.

[X]

As a column of tanks rolls down the road towards the Gaza border, Standing Together @omdimbeyachad activists, along with many more anti-war protesters, confront the border police, try to block the road, and distrupt the new offensive against the Palestinian civilians in Gaza. 🟣 pic.twitter.com/WgAuy5pXFW
— 🟣Uri Weltmann אורי וולטמן أوري فلطمان (@uriweltmann) May 18, 2025

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas' Muhammad Sinwar reported zapped in Gaza, eliminated

2025-05-14

[NYPOST] The leader of Hamas has been targeted in fresh Israeli missile strikes on Gaza on Tuesday, the IDF has announced.

It is not clear whether he is dead or alive.
Schrödinger: "Why not both?"
Muhammad Sinwar, the brother of Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, was reportedly the target of an Israeli airstrike on the European Hospital in the city of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media.

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

🚨 Breaking: Head of H×mas Muhammad Sinwar, who replaced his brother Yahya Sinwar after his elimination, was eliminated pic.twitter.com/R8333JcRND
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) May 13, 2025

🚨 Breaking: 10 bunker-buster bombs were dropped on Muhammad Sinwar, head of H×mas 👇

He joins his brother, Yahya Sinwar, in hell. pic.twitter.com/noDWt3TfQN
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) May 13, 2025

Before it was confirmed that dear Muhammad was sliding down the water slide to Hell, Hot Air pointed out that if so: Israel Just [Got] the Last Hamas Leader from October 7 — The IDF…made a clean sweep of "Al-Aqsa Flood" senior commanders in Gaza.

Katz on IDF strike targeting Sinwar: ‘We’ll keep pursuing Hamas’s leaders, won’t let them use hospitals as terror HQs’
[IsraelTimes] Defense Minister Israel Katz comments on yesterday’s strike in Gaza that targeted Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in the enclave, vowing to “keep pursuing Hamas and its leaders.”

“We will not allow the Hamas terrorist organization to use hospitals and humanitarian facilities in Gaza as shelters and terrorist headquarters,” Katz says, referencing the fact that the IDF massive airstrike which targeted Sinwar was on an underground command center below the European Hospital in Khan Younis.

The Hamas-run health ministry reported 16 dead and over 70 wounded in the strike, though there was no confirmation that Sinwar was among the casualties. Those numbers cannot be independently verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

“We will pursue Hamas and its leaders and strike it with force everywhere,” adds Katz.

“We will continue to act with force until all the goals of the war are achieved: the release of all the hostages and the surrender of Hamas,” he says.

More from the Times of Israel on yesterday’s events in Gaza:

Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
’s leader in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, Muhammad Sinwar, was targeted in a massive Israeli ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
at a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday afternoon, security sources said.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it had targeted Hamas operatives at an underground command center belonging to the terror group, below the European Hospital in Khan Younis. The military also released footage from the aftermath of the strike. The video purported to show that the IDF strike had uncovered the tunnel under the hospital, though the footage showed an adjacent school and not the medical center.

Footage posted online showed several large plumes of smoke rising from the ground around the hospital, as Israeli Air Force fighter jets dropped dozens of heavy bombs. Other clips showed that the ground had collapsed in the area of the strike.

Hours after the strike, three rockets were launched from northern Gaza to the area of Ashkelon and Sderot in southern Israel, the military said, adding that it had intercepted two rockets and the third fell in an open area. There were no injuries in the attack, which was claimed by the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
terror group.

Following the attack, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for Paleostinians in northern Gaza’s Jabalia. Writing on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language front man, Col. Avichay Adraee, published a map of the area to be evacuated, saying it was a "final warning" before the IDF carries out strikes there.

Security sources said that there was a small window of opportunity for the strike.

The IDF said it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike, including by using precision munitions, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence.

"The Hamas terror organization continues to use hospitals in the Gaza Strip for terror purposes, cynically and cruelly exploiting the civilian population in and around the hospital," the military said.

Several hours after the initial attack, Paleostinian media reported additional strikes in the area of the hospital, in what appeared to be an attempt by the IDF to prevent anyone from approaching the tunnel where Sinwar was targeted.

Sinwar, a senior Hamas military commander, is the younger brother of the former Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by the IDF in southern Gaza last October.

Following the killing of Hamas’s top military commander, Muhammad Deif, last July, Muhammad Sinwar took charge of the terror group’s military wing. Later, after Sinwar’s older brother was killed by IDF troops, he became the de facto leader of the terror group in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials have described Muhammad Sinwar as obstinate with regard to negotiations with Hamas for the release of hostages, and an obstacle to reaching a ceasefire deal.

The younger Sinwar is also wanted for terrorist actions against Israel and has been active in Hamas for decades.

He was tossed in the slammer
You have the right to remain silent...
by Israel in the 1990s for nine months and spent an additional three years in a Paleostinian Authority prison in Ramallah, from which he escaped in 2000. In 2006, Sinwar was part of a Hamas cell that kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. He also previously commanded Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade.

Most of Hamas’s leadership has been eliminated by Israel during the ongoing war, which was sparked when the terror group stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.

On Tuesday, the IDF and Shin Bet confirmed that an overnight strike killed Hassan Eslaiah, who had joined and recorded the shock assault. The security forces said he was a Hamas operative "operating under the guise of a journalist." The statement followed Paleostinian reports that Eslaiah had been killed in the strike on Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital, a month after he had survived a previous Israeli targeting.

Eslaiah, whose freelance photography was distributed around the world for the News Agency that Dare Not be Named, had photographed Gazooks, some of them armed, as they stormed Kibbutz Nir Oz, where a quarter of the population was slaughtered or kidnapped, including the elderly and children as young as nine months old. He also took a picture of Gazooks atop a burning tank next to the destroyed Gaza border fence. A video from the scene posted to social media and since deleted showed him next to the tank; no press credentials could be seen on him.

The IDF said last month that he was a member of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade.

Last month, the IDF announced that it had targeted Eslaiah in an airstrike, but he managed to survive. Paleostinian media reported that he was receiving medical care at Nasser Hospital from injuries sustained in the previous strike when he was killed.

Both the AP and CNN
...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for...
said in November 2023 that they had severed their relationship with Eslaiah after a pro-Israel watchdog raised questions about their work with the photographer and other journalists who entered Israel during the massacre.

Israel has repeatedly alleged that journalists killed in strikes were actually terror operatives who posed as news hounds; it maintains that Hamas uses hospitals, schools, shelters, and aid infrastructure as cover for terror activities.

Islamic Jihad claims rocket attack from Gaza, says it’s a response to ‘Zionist massacres’
[IsraelTimes] The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group claims responsibility for the rockets fired from Gaza toward Ashkelon and Sderot. A statement from the organization says it launched rockets in response to “Zionist massacres.” The attack came shortly after a series of IDF airstrikes that sources say targeted Hamas leader Muhammad Sinwar.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF joins forces with NGO to turn community security teams into lean fighting machines

2025-05-11

[IsraelTimes] After Oct. 7 failures led to the killing of 48 civilian first responders, a grassroots org launches Magen 48 to professionally train security volunteers from 66 Gaza border communities

It looked like something from the hit Israeli television show "Fauda."

In the blinding sun, a line of men wearing army fatigues, bulletproof vests, and ear protection were firing at targets in quick succession, two at a time.

"Most Israeli men are hard of hearing thanks to this kind of noise," said instructors Georgi and Rada, handing this news hound a set of earplugs.

They stood with stopwatches next to each man due to shoot. "Five seconds to shoot five bullets," they barked.

The range they were practicing on is located in the Israel Defense Forces’ Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Division headquarters near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel, but the 14 trainees were not professional sharpshooters. Rather, they were members of a civilian kibbutz security team on the first day of a new intensive tactical training course.

The course is aimed at ensuring that Gaza border communities can defend themselves against a repeat of the October 7, 2023, Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
-led massacre in southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were slaughtered during the full-scale invasion, and 251 were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.

Kibbutz Gvulot, just over 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the Gaza Strip, was not invaded on October 7. Lacking rifles, security team members who had pistols went to help fight forces of Evil in Kibbutz Holit, about a 15-minute drive away.

It is nevertheless one of 66 localities within the Gaza border area — including the city of Sderot — whose security teams are undergoing one day of training per month over the course of a year, for a total of 12 days. Eight of those sessions will count toward the participants’ military reserve duty and are being funded by the IDF, while the remaining four days are paid for by a private NGO, Magen Yehuda, and its program, Magen 48.

First-response security teams on Israel’s borders are the responsibility of the army, with each community required to have at least 24 members who are trained and armed by the IDF. These members, however, are volunteers, often fathers in their 30s and 40s who have completed compulsory military service and are willing to be on call to defend their villages and towns. One of them is appointed commander and may also serve as the civilian security coordinator, whose salary is paid by the army and the local authority.

The group from Kibbutz Gvulot, which hopes to double in size, represented the spectrum of Israeli society. Members included a farmer and a history teacher, and served in a range of combat units such as the Golani and Paratrooper infantry brigades as well as the elite Navy Seals. Many had chalked up hundreds of days of reserve duty in Gaza during the ongoing war against Hamas there.

LOCKED OUT, UNDER-EQUIPPED, AND POORLY COORDINATED
Until the October 7 massacre, the IDF provided men like these with two yearly sessions of limited training, usually at a shooting range.

When Hamas invaded and the army was initially overwhelmed, defense fell largely on the shoulders of these first response teams, 46 of whose members were murdered in the line of duty.

Along the Gaza border, none of the teams had been trained in pistol use. Some lacked assault rifles or were unable to access locked armories. According to a series of IDF post-October 7 probes, training of these teams was not standardized and coordination between them, the army, and other organizations was often poor.

In August 2022, following a series of break-ins and gun thefts, the army instructed all Gaza border security teams to return their assault rifles. It conditioned their return on the installation of safe storage places, either at home or in local armories. The decision left many unable to defend themselves against the massive waves of well-armed invading terrorists.

Because these were not installed in Sderot by October 7, for example, the security team there was not prepared to help defend the city. In all, 53 people were killed in Sderot that day, including 37 civilians, 11 coppers, two firefighters, and three IDF soldiers.

In Be’eri, the two security members with keys to the armory were killed before they could open it, and in Nahal Oz, the armory remained locked when power went out and the only man with a key for manual use was killed.

THE SECRET OF KIBBUTZ EREZ
Immediately after October 7, Ra’anana-based Australian immigrant Ari Briggs teamed up with his long-time friend Elan Isaacson to understand what had happened so that he could brief Jewish communities overseas.

Briggs is a business consultant and former director of the international department at the right-wing Regavim organization. Isaacson, who moved with his family from South Africa to Israel as a child, spent decades growing flowers on an agricultural cooperative near the Gaza border. After the last major flare-up with Hamas in 2014, Isaacson traded chrysanthemum cultivation for the job of security chief at the Eshkol Regional Council.

Traveling between farming communities with Isaacson, Briggs discovered that the security team at Kibbutz Erez had fared better than elsewhere, managing to prevent the forces of Evil from entering the community and avoiding civilian casualties.

One member of the security team, Amir Naim, was killed during the fighting. The team gathered at the highest point in the kibbutz, from which they could see two pickup trucks full of forces of Evil heading their way, Ben Sadan, another member of the squad, told Ynet. They opened fire on them and a ferocious shootout ensued, with "grenades, RPGs, insane gunfire," he said. Naim was critically maimed and died in battle.

During his visit to Kibbutz Erez, Briggs asked the team how they survived, and they said, "’Ehud Dribben’s training.’ So I chased Ehud down," he said.

Dribben, a counterterrorism instructor who has worked with the IDF and police forces and militaries around the world, established the NGO Magen Yehuda (Shield of Judah) in 2004 as a vehicle through which to voluntarily train 64 first-response teams, many of them in the West Bank.

He trained the Kibbutz Erez team before October 7, having been contacted by a mutual friend of one of the team members.

"We had had one to two days of practice each year, mainly at shooting ranges," recalled Danny Epstein, a member of Kibbutz Erez’s security team who helped fight Hamas forces of Evil on the kibbutz fence for three hours on October 7, sustaining a gunshot to his throat.

"We felt the difference as soon as Ehud came in. He told us what the aim was, his security perspective, and what he expected from us as a security team, from working as individuals to members of small cells to a group."

Dribben had them operating under scenarios of live fire, explosions, smoke, and more, and in simulations with maimed people and hostages.

"We carried out exercises that were relatively complex within the kibbutz," Epstein said. "It created a better bond between us. We know how to work better together now."

NO STANDARDIZED TRAINING
Briggs and Dribben conceived of Magen 48 this past August. The name was based on the understanding that 48 security team members had fallen on October 7. Confusingly, the IDF’s Gaza Division, with which Dribben worked on the details of the program, decided to call its project to improve civilian-military relations Magen 46, as two of the fallen were not from the Gaza border area.

An IDF spokeswoman said the army had taken inspiration from the NGO’s name, adding, "These are two separate programs with the same name, with the same aim, and wherever we can, we will help."

Both the IDF and Magen 48 denied that the army has effectively outsourced part of its training to the private sector.

"It’s a trial that the Gaza Division Commander has approved to upgrade the civilian first response teams," said Isaacson. "The army is taking responsibility, and we are supplementing it."

Key to the project are tailored defense plans, 23 of which have been produced so far. These are made after a reserve lieutenant colonel has toured the community with the local security liaison to understand the layout, where attacks are likely to come from, and how it should be defended. Exercises based on the defense plans are conducted twice in conjunction with the IDF. According to Briggs, seeing that the IDF is involved in such a professional initiative is key to rebuilding confidence in the military that was shattered on October 7.

"People said it’s [a job] for the bigger organizations, the government to deal with," Briggs quipped. "But I’m the crazy Australian, and I know that the government comes in once a program is successful."

The standards for the training are the same in all communities, Dribben said, although the trainings are shaped to suit the location that’s being defended.

The course includes tactical skills, communication, various forms of target training, drone reconnaissance, emergency medical strategies, and team leadership training focused on real-time decision-making. Security teams, to which women had also signed up, required the same level of rifle competency as homefront combat soldiers and combat support personnel.

"Every exercise, in every scenario, is timed, measured, and given marks," Dribben said. "The whole system must be rebuilt in a long-term and professional way."

Briggs has been visiting US Jewish communities, urging them to twin with the security teams of different Gaza border settlements to finance four of the 12 training sessions.

It costs $26,000 for one year, 20% less for the second year, and half that sum for the third, as the teams become more experienced. So far, he has raised support for 18 communities.

Isaacson, a keen supporter of the new training scheme, said, "You can have the best schools, the best of everything, but if you don’t have the basics — security — it will be hard to bring the communities back and keep them there."

"It’s 100% the army’s job to defend us," he went on. "But that’s not enough after October 7. Wherever you live in Israel, you need to take responsibility for your family and community."

Briggs added, "You don’t have to be Rambo to defend your community."

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Islamic Jihad terrorist who took part in October 7 assault killed in strike, IDF says

2025-04-22

[IsraelTimes] Army reports airstrikes hit over 200 targets in Gaza over weekend, including terrorist cells and weapons depots

An Israeli strike in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
killed a terrorist who took part in the October 7, 2023, invasion, the military said Monday, announcing hundreds of strikes on targets in the Paleostinian enclave over the past three days.

The Israel Defense Forces did not detail when or where the strike that killed Ahmad Mansour took place, announcing the killing after Gazooks said 43 people were killed in attacks on Friday.

According to the IDF, Mansour was a member of the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
terror group’s rocket unit. The army said he was among the thousands of bully boyz who infiltrated southern Israel from Gaza on October 7.

During the Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
-led attack, which included members of other terror groups, 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage, of whom 59 remain in captivity. Twenty-four are believed to be alive.

There was no immediate confirmation from PIJ, which has fired a number of rockets at Israel over the course of the war, though the Iran-backed group was considered to have a smaller arsenal than Hamas.

In March, PIJ grabbed credit for two rockets that were launched at the city of Sderot in southern Israel.

The IDF also said Monday morning that the Israeli Air Force had struck over 200 targets over the last 72 hours, including terrorist cells, weapons depots, rocket launchpads, sniper outposts, and other structures used for terrorist activity.

The army said troops killed an unspecified number of bully boyz during ground operations near the southern city of Rafah.

Additionally, the IDF said recent ground operations saw the dismantling of an "underground infrastructure site" in the northern Gaza Strip from which it identified terrorist activity, as well as several sniper posts that posed a threat to Israeli troops in the area.

Fighting in the Strip resumed in mid-March following the collapse of a two-month ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which saw the release of 33 hostages.

The army had faced relatively light resistance in the renewed offensive until Saturday, when the IDF announced that an Israeli soldier was killed and five others were maimed, three of them seriously, in a Hamas attack in northern Gaza.

The slain soldier was named as Warrant Officer G’haleb Sliman Alnasasra, 35, a tracker in the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, from Rahat.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, some 1,600 deaths have been reported as a result of IDF actions since the end of the ceasefire, including 43 people reported killed on Friday, according to Rooters.

The ministry claims over 50,000 Gazooks have been killed in the war, though its tolls cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel estimated in January that it had killed some 20,000 combatants in Gaza.

Talks for a new ceasefire have reportedly been deadlocked over Israel’s demand that Hamas free 11 living hostages in exchange for an extended ceasefire, while Hamas has offered to release five.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded statement that Israel would not end the war in Gaza until Hamas had been completely dismantled, dampening hopes for a ceasefire.

He accused the terror group of rejecting a proposal for the return of half of the remaining living hostages and many of the slain hostages it holds in Gaza, and said Israel could not agree to Hamas’s demands to end the war and withdraw militarily from Gaza.

"If we capitulate to the dictates of Hamas now, all the great achievements of the war, which we achieved with the merit of our soldiers and our fallen and our heroic injured, all these achievements will disappear," Netanyahu said.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

10/7 After Action Reports continued

2025-04-13

Civil defense squad, cops battled 100 terrorists in Re’im; some were headed to Nevatim Airbase
[IsraelTimes] During Oct. 7 onslaught, special forces also reached the kibbutz and eliminated remaining terrorists who had barricaded themselves in homes; several senior officers killed

1,000 troops were in Sderot on Oct. 7, when they were urgently needed elsewhere, probe finds
[IsraelTimes] IDF finds local security team was underequipped, was not trained by military in 2 years before onslaught; many religiously observant locals were unaware of terrorist infiltration

Report claims IDF ‘Devil’s Advocate’ intel unit, days before October 7, backed assessment that Hamas wanted continued calm
[IsraelTimes] Two weeks before Hamas’s October 7 invasion, the IDF’s Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman reportedly asked the Military Intelligence Directorate’s research division to question the widespread assumption that the Gaza-ruling terror group was deterred from attacking Israel and that the ongoing disturbances Hamas was organizing at the border fence were merely designed to attain improved terms for ongoing calm.

Channel 12 News reports tonight that a team was indeed set up in the division’s “Devil’s Advocate” (“Ifcha Mistabra”) unit, headed by a Col. S.

“Several days” before October 7, 2023, the team reported back with the conclusion that Hamas was indeed fueling disturbances at the fence solely in order to gain better terms for ongoing calm, an apparent reference to provisions for work permits in Israel, eased import restrictions and so on.

“There is no other scenario,” the check reportedly concluded. “Hamas is very interested in an arrangement,” rather than an escalation.

In short, the report says, the Devil’s Advocate team “accepted the stance” of all the other military and security echelons.

Channel 12 gives no source for the report. The IDF’s published probes surrounding the October 7 failures have made no mention of any such check of the catastrophically false assessment regarding Hamas’s intentions.

Outgoing IDF Gaza brigade chief says he suggested attacking Hamas before Oct. 7, was rejected
[IsraelTimes] In his parting speech as commander of the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, Col. Haim Cohen claims he recommended attacking Hamas before the terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught but was rebuffed by the senior command.

“A month and a half before the surprise war, the area was hot. The entire chain of command came to the brigade for tours, from the chief of the [Southern] Command to the defense minister. I recommended all of them, launch a proactive and aggressive operation. The clear message I received from all was ‘Hamas is deterred. This is its way of gaining civil benefits .. we don’t want another round’,” Cohen says at a handover ceremony.

Cohen announced his resignation last month for his failures on October 7, during which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists captured IDF bases and Israeli border communities under his responsibility.

On the morning of October 7, Cohen remained in his war room at the Gaza Division base near Re’im. His counterpart, Col. Asaf Hamami, the commander of the Southern Brigade, was killed fighting Hamas terrorists near Nirim, and his body was abducted to Gaza.

Cohen was not promoted by former chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi. New IDF chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, on March 5, already appointed a replacement for Cohen, Col. Omri Mashiah, who entered the role today.

For those who prefer to listen to their news, the Israel Times has a podcast:

IDF Oct. 7 probes reveal heroism amid terror
ToI’s military reporter goes deep into the investigations published recently into battles in Kibbutz Nirim, Sderot, Kibbutz Re’im, and the Nova music festival where 380 were killed

In today’s episode, military reporter Emanuel Fabian makes a guest appearance, stepping in for Berman.

We take a deep look into the IDF probes into the failures leading up to and on October 7, by first taking a step back and discussing the goals of the investigations and their overall general findings.

We then dive into a cluster of probes that were released in the past week, including the investigations into Kibbutz Nirim, the city of Sderot, Kibbutz Re’im and the Nova open-air music festival.

At the festival alone, some 380 out of 3,500 people attending the party were slaughtered by Hamas and another 44 were taken hostage to Gaza. On this second Passover since the onslaught, 17 of those taken from the rave party are still in captivity, including 11 living and six declared dead.

In a very tough, at times graphic conversation, Fabian guides us through a handful of the dozens of battles on October 7, 2023.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Netanyahu says IDF carving new corridor across Gaza to cut off Rafah, pressure Hamas

2025-04-03

[IsraelTimes] IDF chief vows that ‘the only thing that can stop us from advancing is the release of our hostages,’ as troops launch new offensive, accompanied by heavy airstrikes

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that advancing IDF forces were carving out a new security corridor across southern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
that would likely cut off the city of Rafah from the rest of the Strip, as Israel seeks to pile pressure on Hamas
Hamas

..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
to free the hostages.

Israel is "shifting gears" in Gaza and creating a "second Philadelphi" route, Netanyahu said in a video message, referring to the corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border.

IDF forces are seizing the "Morag Corridor," said Netanyahu. The route, which separates Rafah from Khan Younis to its north, is located where the Israeli settlement of the same name once stood, before it was evacuated during Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza.

Netanyahu has made continued Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor a top priority in the ongoing ceasefire negotiations, insisting that an IDF withdrawal from the route would allow for the smuggling of weapons into the Strip. Nonetheless, he agreed as part of the January hostage deal to fully withdraw Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor by the 50th day of the deal — a clause Israel has gone on to violate. Israeli troops remain in the corridor and have expanded their presence there as well.

Israel has also reasserted control over the Netzarim Corridor — also named for a former settlement — which cuts off the northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, from the rest of the narrow coastal strip. Both of the existing corridors run from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.

The move is part of an escalating IDF military campaign to press Hamas into accepting Israeli terms for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, Netanyahu said.

Israel is pushing forward from the north and south, evacuating civilians toward central Gaza.

"We are now cutting off the Strip and we are increasing the pressure step by step... so they will give us our hostages. The longer they refuse to give them up, the more the pressure will increase until they do," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu’s comments came as the IDF significantly stepped up its renewed offensive, deploying another division to the southern Gaza Strip early in the day and carrying out heavy ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s ahead of the major ground push into the area.

The reinforcements brought the number of divisions operating in Gaza to three.

The IDF said it hit over 50 sites belonging to Hamas and other terror groups overnight. During the day, dozens more strikes were carried out across Gaza.

Paleostinian reports said more than 40 people had been killed in the strikes, including 19 people in a UN clinic in Jabalia. The figures could not be verified. The IDF said it attacked a Hamas command center set up in the medical facility and had taken measures to limit civilian casualties.

Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch shot Black Bart's gun out of his hand......
two rockets were fired Wednesday evening from northern Gaza, triggering sirens in the Israeli city of Sderot, the IDF said. The projectiles were intercepted by air defenses, with no reports of injuries or damage in the attack.

Following the fire, the IDF issues an evacuation warning for Paleostinians in the Beit Hanoun and Jabalia area.

In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language front man, Col. Avichay Adraee, publishes a map of the area that is to be evacuated, saying that it is a "final warning" before the IDF carries out strikes there.

The area between Rafah and Khan Younis is one of the few locations in Gaza where ground troops have not yet operated. The IDF issued evacuation warnings for Paleostinians in the area ahead of the offensive. Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch shot Black Bart's gun out of his hand......
in the Strip’s north, the IDF said it was also operating to expand its buffer zone along the border.

Later Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar visited troops in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of Rafah.

During the visit, Zamir vowed that "the only thing that can stop us from advancing is the release of our hostages."

Bar, who is in the process of being fired by Netanyahu, repeated the message, saying that "Hamas will continue to pay the price as long as the 59 hostages are not returned."

The military reiterated that the ultimate goal of the new ground offensive in Rafah is to pressure Hamas to release the hostages.

Amid the IDF advances, Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian aid

office, said that more than 60 percent of Gaza is now considered a "no-go" zone because of Israeli evacuation orders.

Earlier Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the offensive was aimed at seizing "extensive territory" in Gaza.

Troops will move to clear areas "of holy warriors and infrastructure, and capture extensive territory that will be added to the State of Israel’s security areas," Katz said in a statement.

The expanded ground operation came a couple of days after the IDF issued an evacuation warning for the entire Rafah area and a large swath of land between Rafah and Khan Younis.

It was the most significant evacuation order issued by the IDF since the offensive against Hamas resumed earlier this month, ending a two-month ceasefire. The orders came during Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive Moslem holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

In his Wednesday statement, Katz also called on Gazooks "to act now to overthrow Hamas and return all the hostages."

Israel restarted intense bombing of Gaza on March 18 and then launched a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire in the war with Hamas.

According to the terms of the January 19 ceasefire deal, the sides were to launch negotiations over the second phase a few weeks into the first, but Netanyahu refused to do so, insisting that the war would not end until Hamas’s governing and military capabilities had been demolished. Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch shot Black Bart's gun out of his hand......
Hamas rejected a series of offers to extend the first phase while continuing to gradually free hostages.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

At least 42 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip

2025-04-02

[X]

💢 At least 42 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip

• The death toll from Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023 rises to 50,399, the Health Ministry said https://t.co/NqYADHFmrh pic.twitter.com/Jkg2axddEE
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) April 1, 2025

IDF issues evacuation order for northern Gaza cities after rocket fired at Sderot

[IsraelTimes] No injuries or damage reported in rocket attack; warning comes a day after military ordered all Palestinians to leave Rafah as fighting intensifies

The Israel Defense Forces issued an evacuation order for areas in northern Gaza on Tuesday morning, shortly after a rocket was fired from the Strip toward the city of Sderot.

The rocket was successfully intercepted by air defenses, the military said, and there were no reports of injuries. Air raid sirens were set off in Sderot, Ibim and Kibbutz Or Haner.

Two hours after the rocket was fired, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for Palestinians in the city of Beit Hanoun and surrounding areas.

In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, published a map of the area that is to be evacuated, saying that it was a “final warning” before the IDF carries out strikes there.

The map also showed the IDF’s expanded buffer zone along the border with the Strip.

Israel restarted fighting in Gaza on March 18 with a series of heavy airstrikes across the Strip, two weeks after the first phase of a ceasefire-hostage release deal ended.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF strikes 100 Hamas pickup trucks used Oct. 7, intercepts 3 PIJ rockets shot from N. Gaza and orders residents to evacuate area, arrests 30 in Rafah

2025-03-25

[IsraelTimes] Air force said to destroy over 100 of the vehicles used by Hamas in massacre and at hostage-release propaganda events; IDF says Hamas finance chief was planning attacks from hospital where he was killed

The Israel Defense Forces carried out dozens of ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s Sunday night and Monday, including on empty white pick-up trucks belonging to the Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
terror group, of the type used in the October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel and in propaganda ceremonies for the release of hostages.

The IDF and Shin Bet security agency also confirmed on Monday that a top Hamas official was targeted and killed the previous night.

Rocket sirens sounded in the Israeli community of Netiv Ha’asara near the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
border on Monday, but were later confirmed to have been a false alarm.

The IDF destroyed over 100 pickup trucks used by Hamas terrorists, in airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Monday, the military said.

Some of the trucks were used by Hamas in its October 7, 2023, terror onslaught in southern Israel, as well as for other operations in Gaza, including to transfer weapons, the army added.

Armed Hamas button men were also seen parading in such vehicles during recent hostage release propaganda ceremonies.

The airstrikes targeting the pickup trucks were carried out in all areas of Gaza. A strike hit a building where several pickup trucks were being stored, the military said.

IDF, SHIN BET CONFIRM TOP HAMAS OFFICIAL KILLED
Also Monday, the IDF and Shin Bet confirmed that top Hamas official Ismail Barhoum was targeted and killed in a strike on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Sunday night.

Not long after the strike, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Barhoum had been eliminated. Hamas also made an announcement.

According to the military and Shin Bet, Barhoum, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, was chief of the terror group’s finances and the successor to Issam Da’alis, the de-facto prime minister of Gaza, who was killed last week.

"Barhoum was a key figure in Hamas’ political bureau and was actively involved in the military decision-making process that directly impacted Hamas’s operations," the joint statement said.

The IDF and Shin Bet said that he oversaw Hamas’s "financial management in the Gaza Strip, channeling funds to Hamas’s military wing, financing and planning the execution of terror attacks against the State of Israel.

"These funds financed the organization’s continued survival in the Gaza Strip and were used to carry out terror attacks and to purchase weapons, which posed a threat to Israeli civilians," the statement said.

IDF: BARHOUM WAS IN THE HOSPITAL FOR TERRORISM, NOT TREATMENT
While Hamas had claimed Barhoum was at Nasser Hospital for medical treatment after being maimed in a previous strike, the IDF said he was operating from within the medical center.

"This is yet another example of the way that the Hamas terrorist organization systematically violates international law while taking over civilian infrastructure in a manner that prevents the rehabilitation and livelihood of the Gazook population, and while brutally exploiting the civilian population as a human shield for its terror attacks against the State of Israel," the statement said.

In a separate statement on X, IDF international media front man Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani reiterated: "The claim that Barhoum was in Nasser Hospital for medical treatment is completely false and was spread to mislead the public and the media."

"Barhoum was in the hospital in order to commit acts of terrorism, cynically using hospital patients and the population in the area as human shields. He remained in the hospital for many weeks, during which he held meetings with other snuffies and senior figures in the terrorist organization," Shoshani said.

He suggested that "the media refrain from echoing the falsehoods of the Hamas terrorist organization and its members and check the facts before publishing such claims."

"The Hamas terrorist organization systematically violates international law and takes over civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, in a way that prevents the rehabilitation and livelihood of the civilians of Gaza," he added.

AL JAZEERA REPORTER, IDENTIFIED AS A HAMAS SNIPER, SAID KILLED
The Hamas-run Gaza civil defense authority, as well as Al Jazeera, said Monday that Hossam Shabat, a news hound in northern Gaza for the Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i news station, was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The agency said Shabat was targeted by a dronezap on his car on Monday afternoon near a gas station in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

The civil defense authority said that Mohamad Mansor, a news hound on the Falstin al-Yom channel of the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
, was also killed in a separate strike on his home in Khan Younis.

Last October, the IDF said it had uncovered documents in the Gaza Strip that showed Shabat was a sniper in Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion.

According to the army at the time, the documents showed personnel spreadsheets, lists of training courses, telephone books and salary documents that "unequivocally prove" Shabat and five other Al Jazeera personalities were members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad’s military wings.

There was no immediate official comment from the IDF on the reports of Shabat’s killing on Monday.

ISRAELI STRIKE SAID TO HIT SCHOOL-TURNED-SHELTER, KILLING 4
Paleostinian medics, meanwhile, said an Israeli strike on Monday hit a school where displaced people were sheltering in the Gaza Strip, killing at least four people, including a child.

Another 18 people were reported maimed in the alleged strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties.

Three other hospitals had earlier reported 25 deaths from Israeli strikes overnight and into Monday.

There was no immediate comment from the IDF.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Monday the bodies of 61 people killed by Israeli strikes had been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours. Hospitals also received 143 maimed, Gaza’s health ministry said in a daily report.

The ministry’s numbers are not independently verified and do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israeli officials regularly note that the military makes efforts to avoid civilian casualties.

In a statement posted to X on Monday, Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterated: "Israel is not fighting the civilians in Gaza and is doing everything that international law requires to mitigate harm to civilians."

Katz said Hamas fights from civilian areas, disguised as civilians, and thus puts civilians in danger, and urged non-combatants to evacuate combat areas when instructed to by the IDF.

THOUSANDS SAID TRAPPED IN RAFAH AS IDF ENCIRCLES PART OF IT
As the fighting raged, thousands of people were still trapped in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, officials in the Hamas-run Strip said Monday, after Israeli forces, having ordered residents to evacuate, encircled its Tel Sultan neighborhood.

Israel told residents by a single route on foot to al-Mawasi, a sprawling cluster of tent camps along the coast.

Thousands fled, but residents said many were trapped by Israeli forces.

The war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led snuffies invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.

Fighting stopped briefly in November 2023 amid a hostage-ceasefire agreement and then stopped again for some two months starting mid-January 2025, when another hostage-truce deal was reached.

The fighting resumed last week, though talks are ongoing to secure the release of more hostages in exchange for another truce.

The IDF has indicated in recent days that it’s preparing to expand ground operations in Gaza, redeploying on Sunday an armored division that had been stationed on the border with Leb
...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration....

Israel intercepts 3 rockets fired from north Gaza; Islamic Jihad takes responsibility
[IsraelTimes] No injuries or damage caused by rockets; in response to attacks, IDF warns Gazans to evacuate areas from where the projectiles were fired

Sirens went off in Sderot and neighboring communities near the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
border twice on Monday evening as Israeli air defenses successfully intercepted three rockets fired by Paleostinian gunnies from the northern part of the enclave, the military said.

Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
grabbed credit for the rocket fire. Neither attack caused any injuries or damage.

The two volleys were the third instance of rockets being launched from the Gaza Strip at Israel since the military resumed its offensive against Hamas
Hamas

..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
last week. Hamas on Thursday launched three long-range rockets at central Israel, and on Friday fired two rockets at the southern coastal city of Ashkelon.

In the first attack Monday at around 7 p.m., two rockets were fired from Gaza, setting off sirens in Sderot, Netiv Haassara, Karmia, Zikim, Nir Am, and Ibim. Both rockets were intercepted by air defenses, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The second attack of one rocket occurred at 9 p.m., setting off sirens in Sderot, Ibim and Nir Am. It was also intercepted, according to the IDF.

Following the first round of rocket fire, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for Paleostinians in the Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun areas, where the two projectiles were fired from.

In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language front man, Col. Avichay Adraee, published a map of the area to be evacuated, while issuing a "final warning" before the military was to carry out strikes there.

The IDF issued an additional evacuation warning for residents of the Jabalia area after Islamic Jihad fired a third rocket from the region two hours later.

Earlier Monday, the IDF said it carried out dozens of ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s, including on empty white pick-up trucks belonging to the Hamas terror group.

IDF arrests around 30 suspects in Rafah, kills approximately 20 terror operatives
[IsraelTimes] IDF troops have detained some 30 suspects during operations in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood in the southern Gaza Strip, including a terrorist who participated in the October 7 onslaught, according to military sources.

Tel Sultan was encircled by the 14th Reserve Armored Brigade yesterday in a four-hour-long offensive. During the operation, the IDF estimates that some 20 terror operatives were killed, including in airstrikes.

The troops also raided a Hamas command center in the neighborhood, the IDF says.

The IDF’s Gaza Division continues to operate in the Rafah area and on the outskirts of Khan Younis. The military says the operation is intended to expand a buffer zone along the border with the Strip.

Link

-Land of the Free

Hebrew U, Sapir College sign research agreement with South Carolina’s Clemson University

2025-03-19

Even as Jew-hatred waxes in the Blue areas and universities of America, the Red regions reach out to Israel and to Jewish students with the hand of friendship. It’s been interesting to watch.

[IsraelTimes] Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, Sapir College in southern Israel, and South Carolina’s Clemson University sign a partnership for joint research in agricultural, nutritional, and environmental issues, particularly those relevant to the Western Negev region.

The collaboration will help Sapir College expand its agricultural technology programs and strengthen its role in the region hit by the deadly Hamas invasion on October 7, 2023.

The partnership will include student exchange programs.

The signing ceremony at Clemson University is attended by, among others, former US ambassador to the United Nations and US presidential contender Nikki Haley, a 1994 Clemson graduate, Clemson Board of Trustees member and former South Carolina governor.

“Today, we celebrate two agriculture giants, two leaders in innovative farming coming together,” Haley says. “Through this partnership, we are sowing seeds that will sprout and bear fruit for generations to come.”

The collaboration follows Haley’s visit to the Negev city of Sderot in May 2024, where she met Amit Kochavi, senior adviser to Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi. Kochavi spoke of his idea to revitalize agricultural communities near Sderot and Sapir College after the Hamas attack, in which 1,200 people from the area were slaughtered and 251 abducted to the Gaza Strip.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

‘Massive failure’: First troops reached Kibbutz Nir Oz 40 minutes after last terrorists left

2025-03-16

[IsraelTimes] IDF probe finds over 500 Palestinians invaded border kibbutz where 386 residents were present during Oct. 7 Hamas onslaught, as understaffed security team tried to fight with no backup

On the morning of October 7, 2023, over 500 Paleostinian snuffies swarmed into the unsuspecting Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
border community of Kibbutz Nir Oz. The army — plunged into complete disarray by the shock attack on dozens of towns and military posts simultaneously — entirely failed to come to the rescue, as the snuffies moved from home to home, brutalizing, massacring, and kidnapping dozens of civilians.

The first soldiers to arrive at Nir Oz on October 7 did so some 40 minutes after the last terrorist left.

On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces presented its probe into the attack on Nir Oz — among its detailed investigations of some 40 battles and massacres that took place during Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
’s October 7 onslaught, when some 5,600 snuffies stormed across the border, killed some 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages to Gaza.

The probe highlighted the heroism of Nir Oz’s local security team, whose few members fought on their own for about two hours before being killed or maimed, and the bravery of residents who did everything they could to protect themselves and their loved ones. It also highlighted the army’s colossal failures that allowed throngs of snuffies to overrun the kibbutz without seeing a single soldier.

The probe concluded that the IDF "failed in its mission to protect" the residents of Nir Oz, largely because the military had never prepared for such an event — an Israeli community being captured by terrorists, as well as a widescale attack on numerous towns and army bases simultaneously by thousands of terrorists.

Unlike other Israeli border communities attacked on October 7, the IDF did not fight any snuffies in Nir Oz, a community of around 420 residents, 386 of whom were there during the onslaught.

In all, 47 people, including 41 residents and six partygoers fleeing a nearby rave, were killed in the kibbutz during the onslaught. Another 76 were kidnapped by the snuffies — 67 alive and nine who were killed that day, either in Nir Oz, en route to Gaza, or in the Strip itself.

Of the 67 living hostages, 13 were killed in the Gaza Strip during the war. Currently, five hostages presumed alive and the bodies of nine captives remain held in Gaza, after 49 were released and the bodies of 13 were returned to Israel.

The total number of dead from Nir Oz, including those killed in captivity, stands at 69.

The hostages and dead included multiple generations of families, some of whom were killed or kidnapped by different terror organizations.

The snuffies entered all but six homes in the community of around 100 houses, causing heavy damage. The surviving members of the community are now living in the Karmei Gat neighborhood of Kiryat Gat, as Nir Oz undergoes a long reconstruction process.

Presenting the results of the probe to members of the kibbutz on Thursday, former IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said he "heard the harshest statement about October 7 from one of your members.

"I say it in every conversation I have with commanders, so that everyone in the IDF will remember it — that the first soldier arrived at Nir Oz after the last terrorist had left," Halevi said, in audio of the meeting broadcast on Channel 12 news. "This is a terrible and damning statement, and we repeat it so that it will be etched into the consciousness of the IDF."

The probe into what happened at Nir Oz, carried out by Maj. Gen. Eran Niv — the former chief of the Computer Service Directorate — covers all aspects of the attack on the kibbutz on October 7.

Niv and his team spent hundreds of hours investigating the onslaught at Nir Oz. The IDF said they reviewed every possible source of information — footage taken by snuffies with body-mounted cameras, residents’ WhatsApp messages, surveillance videos, and interviews with survivors, former hostages, and those who fought to defend the kibbutz — and made visits to the scene.

The Nir Oz probe was aimed at drawing specific operational conclusions for the military. It did not examine the wider picture of the military’s perception of Gaza and Hamas in recent years, which was covered in separate, larger, investigations into the IDF’s intelligence and defenses.

The army is also not looking at policies set by the politicianship. That way, it avoids conflict with government leaders who have insisted such investigations must wait until after the war against Hamas ends.

WHY DID SO MANY PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS REACH NIR OZ?
The investigation found that an unusually large number of snuffies invaded Nir Oz, compared to other communities attacked on October 7. The probe stated that calls by then-Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif at 8 a.m. on Paleostinians to invade Israeli communities led to numerous snuffies joining in the onslaught.

This was exacerbated in the Nir Oz area due to the lack of IDF troops defending the area, giving the snuffies a sense of freedom, and because of footage circulating online of an Israeli tank that was disabled on the border and its crew kidnapped. The tank became a sort of attraction for Paleostinians during the onslaught, with hundreds from the Hamas stronghold of Khuza’a reaching the area, many of whom would continue into Israel and reach Nir Oz.

Of the over 500 snuffies who invaded Nir Oz, the investigation team was only able to find the body of one in the kibbutz. Hamas snuffies likely picked up the bodies of several of their comrades killed by armed civilians during the onslaught.

Outside the kibbutz, on a road leading to Gaza, the bodies of 64 snuffies were found. Those bad boyz were potted by Israeli Air Force helicopters and an IDF tank.

WHY DID THE IDF FAIL TO STOP THE TERRORISTS FROM INVADING NIR OZ?
The investigation team stated that "the forces were not prepared, did not prepare or practice scenarios that occurred on October 7," and that they were not given any alert that morning. "Already at the beginning of the fighting, many of the commanders were maimed in the area, and the chain of command collapsed," the team said.

Niv’s team also stated that the IDF was unable to build an accurate picture of what was happening in the entire area, including in Nir Oz. "The troops fought throughout the area, including along the fence and their posts, and failed to hold an assessment," the probe said, adding that at no point did troops speak with anyone in Nir Oz during the attack to understand what was happening there.

The probe found that the troops "fought fiercely" in the area, without stopping for a moment even when the chain of command collapsed and many of them were maimed, successfully defending other communities, but they did not reach them all, including Nir Oz.

The investigation stated that "if there had been an alert, even if it was very short notice, there is no doubt that the harm could have been reduced."

According to the probe, the IDF could have done more to contact officials in Nir Oz and understand what was happening there.

Additionally, the probe noted that soldiers failed to defend a nearby army base next to Nir Oz, whose troops would have been able to defend the kibbutz if their base was not overrun. The investigation also stated that it was an error for tank forces to head to the Gaza border amid the onslaught, and instead, they should have stayed closer to the communities to defend them.

The understaffed local security team "fought bravely" for some two hours until it was defeated, the probe said, adding that within the context of October 7 and "without the assistance of military forces, even a larger local security team had no chance against such a large enemy force."

WHY DID IDF TROOPS NOT REACH NIR OZ IN TIME?
According to the investigation, Hamas’s simultaneous and widescale attack on dozens of communities and Israeli army bases on October 7 made it difficult for the IDF, on all levels — from the regional brigade to the chief of staff — to build an accurate picture of what was happening, especially with how serious the situation was in each community.

Backup forces who were arriving at the Gaza border area from the north, including those who arrived at their own initiative, mostly got stuck fighting in the city of Sderot. Others who managed to push further south down Route 232 either got caught up fighting in other communities or were ambushed by snuffies at major junctions. Similarly, troops arriving from the south were also attacked and delayed at the junctions, resulting in the first troops reaching Nir Oz only after 1 p.m.

Few troops were explicitly instructed to head for Nir Oz, and those who were got stuck fighting on the way.

By the time a special forces team managed to push through the Ma’on Junction near the community, at around 11:45 a.m., it was far too late. Their commander was maimed, and they were also instructed to reach another community.

The investigation found that there was real-time information that could have been used by IDF commanders to understand the grave situation in Nir Oz, though nothing was done with it. This included an IDF surveillance camera showing dozens of snuffies walking to and from Nir Oz — which was being viewed live at an IDF command center — and information from Israeli Air Force helicopters flying over the area.

The investigation team stated that this live information indicated that there were snuffies in Nir Oz, carrying out massacres and abductions, but "such information was being received from numerous other places, and it was not possible to understand from this information that Nir Oz was in a more grave situation than other communities."

"Residents of Nir Oz called for help time and time again, but their reports and calls were lost, within the chaos of thousands of messages and reports," the probe said.

If the IDF had taken action on the information and prioritized Nir Oz, "it is presumed that troops would have arrived earlier and succeeded in minimizing the harm to the kibbutz and its residents," the team said.

CONCLUSIONS
The investigation team concluded that the IDF "failed to protect Nir Oz" and the failure was "particularly massive, partly because IDF troops were only able to reach the community after the last title='terrorists '>snuffies had already left. In fact, the snuffies carried out their atrocities in the kibbutz almost uninterrupted."

The IDF’s failure to defend Nir Oz was not a tactical or moral failure, the probe stated, but rather a "systemic failure."

"The forces did not fail to navigate to the kibbutz, and did not delay out of fear, nor did they choose not to fight; The failure of this incident was that the [IDF’s] command did not understand that the situation in Nir Oz was particularly grave, and that massacres and abductions were taking place there on a large scale, and therefore, did not prioritize sending forces to Nir Oz over other places," the investigation team said.

The team said that there were other communities where the situation was very grave, and some where troops did not arrive on time, "but there was no other town with such a deadly combination of such a grave situation on the one hand and the absence of a military force in the community on the other."

"That’s what happened to Nir Oz," it added.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The investigation team recommended establishing a new IDF post between Nir Oz and the Gaza Strip, as well as strengthening the local security team.

It also recommended establishing a new mechanism in the IDF for building an intelligence picture when the chain of command has collapsed amid fighting, as well as other tactical changes to the military.

THE TIMELINE OF THE ATTACK
Before the onslaught, the Golani Infantry Brigade’s 51st Battalion was deployed to the Nir Oz area, including at a base near Kissufim, a post near Nirim, and another camp next to an agricultural research and development center south of Nir Oz known as Mopdarom. Additionally, two tanks of the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion and a Namer armored personnel carrier were stationed at another small post near Nir Oz, known as the White House.

In all, there were 182 combat soldiers and 57 combat support troops stationed in the area, protecting the southern Gaza border area, including Nir Oz and several nearby communities.

At 5:33 a.m. on October 7, the troops took their stations along the Gaza border in a shift change. The Hamas onslaught began an hour later.

Amid an initial barrage of around 1,000 rockets — which began at 6:29 a.m. — largely aimed at Israeli military posts, Hamas snuffies broke through 114 locations along Israel’s border barrier.

Six of the breaches were in the Nir Oz area, through which at 6:36 a.m. 100-130 members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force streamed into Israel — on pickup trucks, cycle of violences, and on foot — and headed for the kibbutz. Another 200-400 other terrorists, including members of Hamas, Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
, Mujahideen Brigades, and unaffiliated Paleostinians, arrived later.

As the rockets were flying and Hamas snuffies were spotted approaching the border, the two tanks and APC stationed at the White House post advanced toward the Gaza border, under the assumption that they could stop the invasion.

One tank positioned itself south of Nir Oz, and the second north of the kibbutz. The APC was positioned between the two.

The tank in the south was quickly attacked by Hamas snuffies with RPG fire and bombs. The crew of four — tank commander Cpt. Omer Maxim Neutra, driver Sgt. Shaked Dahan, gunner Sgt. Nimrod Cohen, and loader Sgt. Oz Daniel — was then kidnapped to Gaza.

Infamous footage from the attack showed Paleostinians in civilian clothing standing on and around their tank while it was wreathed in smoke and flames, and the soldiers being dragged out by Hamas terrorists.

Neutra’s death was confirmed in December 2024, Daniel’s death was announced in February 2024, and Dahan’s death was confirmed in November 2023. All three were killed on October 7, 2023, according to the IDF. Cohen is believed to be still alive in captivity.

At 6:38 a.m., the Hamas terrorists, using sniper rifles, took out Israeli military surveillance cameras on the border near Nir Oz. Only one camera, located further away from the border, next to the kibbutz, remained operating.

Col. Asaf Hamami, the commander of the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade, at 6:42 a.m. alerted the civilian local security teams in the communities in his area, and announced over the radio: "We are at war." Minutes later, Hamami and his team exchanged fire with snuffies in the adjacent community of Nirim, where he was killed and his body kidnapped to Gaza.

At 6:49 a.m., a car with two partygoers who had fled from the Psyduck music festival entered Nir Oz through its main gate. They evaded the first two Hamas snuffies who arrived at Nir Oz 10 seconds later and infiltrated the community.

At 6:52 a.m., a member of Nir Oz’s security team exchanged fire with the first terrorists, as other members tried to assist. Meanwhile,
...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea, one that didn't involve kerosene...
at 6:55 a.m., another vehicle with fleeing partygoers from Psyduck came under terrorist fire at the entrance to Nir Oz. Two were killed.

At 6:57 a.m., Hamas snuffies killed Bracha Levinson, 74, in her home, while live streaming the murder on her own Facebook page, which was seen by her family. This was the first killing to take place inside Nir Oz.

At the same time, Hamas snuffies captured the Mopdarom base, located south of Nir Oz, killing five and wounding 17. The other troops were holed up amid the massive rocket fire.

Also at this point, the IDF’s command and control in the southern Gaza area had entirely fallen apart, with the brigade commander killed, several platoon commanders killed or seriously maimed, and one kidnapped.

At 7:06 a.m., Cpt. Omer Wolf, a deputy company commander in the 51st Battalion, called on troops to defend closer to border communities, rather than the border fence, amid the massive invasion. He was killed along with two of his soldiers near the White House post later in the morning, while successfully delaying Hamas’s invasion into Nirim by several hours.
.
Between 7:11 and 7:18 a.m., another two vehicles fleeing from the Psyduck festival arrived at the entrance to Nir Oz. Hamas snuffies waiting at the entrance murdered the partygoers.

Terrorists at 7:27 a.m. entered the kibbutz through a southern entrance, heading for the foreign workers’ residences. Twelve Thai and Tanzanian workers were murdered, and five foreign nationals were kidnapped from there.

The snuffies continued their onslaught through the kibbutz, murdering residents in their homes and setting the buildings on fire. The first kidnappings began at around 8:30 a.m.

Some members of the seven-strong local security team and other armed civilians fought back from their homes, while three — Tamir Adar, Aviv Atzili, and Dolev Yehud — and other armed civilians confronted the snuffies together outside.

All three were killed following a two-hour battle, ending at around 9 a.m. According to the investigation, they managed to delay the snuffies during that time, but the IDF never showed up to provide backup.

Once the local security team was defeated, the kidnappings continued and ramped up.

An IAF helicopter arrived at the kibbutz at 9:22 a.m. and began to carry out strikes on a route leading from the Gaza fence to Nir Oz, after identifying some 60 snuffies there. The chopper came under fire from the snuffies and was forced to make an emergency landing at the Hatzerim Airbase.

At 9:55 a.m., the second tank that headed for the Gaza border in the morning arrived at the entrance to Nir Oz. One of the four crew was seriously maimed and evacuated by the APC, while another member was maimed inside the tank.

At 9:57 a.m. the tank fired two shells at snuffies at the entrance to Nir Oz, though it remains unclear if any were hit, as no bodies were found there. Hamas may have taken the bodies back to Gaza, according to the probe.

At 10 a.m., another IAF helicopter arrived near Nir Oz and began to open fire on snuffies along the route heading to the kibbutz from Gaza. A short while later it received orders to head to the Gaza Division base near Re’im, which was also overrun by terrorists.

At 10:06 a.m., the tank that arrived at the entrance to Nir Oz received an order to leave the area and help prevent a suspected kidnapping of troops elsewhere. The tank did not enter Nir Oz but did end up killing numerous snuffies near the border fence.

At 10:22 a.m., the IAF chopper returned from the Re’im base and continued strikes against snuffies on the road leading from Gaza. The IDF tank also reached this area, attempting to run over the crowd of terrorists.

By 10:30 a.m., the Hamas Nukhba snuffies were returning to the Strip after being instructed by their commanders in Gaza. The other snuffies joined them and also began to leave at this time.

As the tank arrived at the route outside the kibbutz, Batsheva Yahalomi, who was kidnapped from Nir Oz along with her children, managed to escape. Yahalomi, 10-year-old Yael, and almost two-year-old toddler sat on one moped with a terrorist, while 12-year-old Eitan and a foreign worker sat on the other moped with another gunman.

The two mopeds veered away from one another as the snuffies saw the tank, and Yahalomi lost track of Eitan on the other moped. Yahalomi and her two daughters were able to run away, hiding for a short period. Two unarmed snuffies found them and tried to convince them to come into Gaza, but didn’t ~~violent~~ mostly peacefully attack them. Eventually, she returned to the kibbutz.

Eitan Yahalomi was released under a hostage-ceasefire deal in late November 2023. His father Ohad Yahalomi was taken hostage separately from the rest of the family and murdered in captivity. His body was returned under another deal in late February 2025.

In another incident at 11:30 a.m., the IAF helicopter opened fire against a car with several snuffies in it on the road leading to Gaza. It was later revealed, based on eyewitnesses, videos from the helicopter, and surveillance camera footage, that the vehicle also had Israeli hostages in it.

The gunfire killed several of the terrorists, along with Efrat Katz, a resident kidnapped from Nir Oz with her daughter and granddaughters. The others were maimed in the incident.

At 12:20 p.m., the IAF helicopter carried out a strike against six snuffies outside the kibbutz.

The final footage capturing a terrorist in Nir Oz is timestamped at 12:30 p.m.

Members of Border Police’s Yamas covert tactical unit arrived at Nir Oz at 1:10 p.m., and members of the IDF’s Egoz commando unit arrived at 1:47 p.m. Troops of the Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit arrived at 2:50 p.m.

The troops began searches in the community, escorting residents out. There was no fighting, as all the snuffies had already left.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF chief admits: First troops only reached Kibbutz Nir Oz after last terrorists had left, several generals get axe for 10/7 role

2025-03-03

[IsraelTimes] In further remarks by IDF chief Herzi Halevi on the IDF’s October 7 failures, broadcast tonight on Channel 12, he addresses the fact that the first IDF troops did not reach Kibbutz Nir Oz, where a quarter of residents were killed or kidnapped, until the last terrorists had gone.

Speaking to local council chiefs in southern Israel, Halevi says a lot has been said in the media about too many troops going to Sderot, the Gaza border town that was among the many communities attacked. Two sets of forces were dispatched to Nir Oz, he says, but they got caught up in other battles en route and did not reach the kibbutz. “The results were terrible. As someone from Nir Oz told me, the first soldier arrived after the last terrorist had left. That’s the worst thing that we could hear.”

Halevi says that the absent intelligence material “in this war was a big part of the failure. We would have wanted advance warning, we would have wanted to know [what was about to happen]. That could have changed the reality. We didn’t get it…”

He then discusses the indications of Hamas planning something that were received in the hours before the invasion. “The central question here is: could we have understood what was received that night differently, and obviously then to have made different decisions.”

He notes the fact that Hamas terrorists turned on Israeli SIM cards on Friday evening, October 6, and that this was reported by IDF intelligence. But, he says, this had happened “in the previous year… 10-12 times.” It was checked, he says.

He says the movements of senior Hamas figures were also checked.

The checks indicated that what was going on was “routine” and that there were “good alternative explanations” for what was happening in Gaza.

For instance, he says, Hamas, in the weeks ahead of its invasion and massacre, “was mainly discussing directing attacks from Gaza to be carried out in the West Bank.”

This had been raised with the political leadership, he says, and had prompted talk about carrying out “targeted strikes [on key Hamas figures] in Gaza.”

“A lot of what we saw [in the hours before the invasion], we attributed to their knowledge that the cabinet on Sunday might approve a further targeted strike,” Halevi says.

Halevi says the IDF’s top brass were updated on the worrying indications from Gaza at about 3 a.m. on October 7 and that this was unduly late: “The General Staff, me included, entered the picture at about 3 a.m. I think that was too late. The first signs came at 9 to 9:30 on the [previous] evening… But they were insufficient…”

He says it is not the case that officers were wary of waking up the chief of staff. Rather, “everyone who was looking [at the information] believed [what they were seeing in Gaza] was not about to happen now or tomorrow. [They thought]: There is something. It’s not clear. It’s not [something to justify an urgent] alert.”

Summing up the “main failures,” Halevi says: “The level of alert was not raised.” And that, despite the fact that “too many things [that were unfolding in Gaza] were unclear…” The IDF needed to be “sharper, and we erred.”

During the IDF’s subsequent probe of that night, he said, a chart had been drawn up that shows, “This is what we knew that night, and this is what we should have known that night.”

When you look at those two sets of data, says Halevi, “and especially at the differences between them, you say, If [only] there had been a single person who had seen that whole chart on that night.”

Report: Incoming IDF chief plans to axe several top generals for their role in Oct. 7

[IsraelTimes] Incoming IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir is planning a major overhaul of the top command of the military, believing it necessary to restore public trust in the army, after the failures of October 7, 2023, Channel 12 reports.

According to the network, Zamir plans to remove many top generals who were in key posts during the October 7 attacks. The report says among those Zamir is considering removing are Head of the Operations Directorate Maj. Gen. Oded Basyuk, Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, Home Front Command Head Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, and Intelligence Directorate Head Maj. Gen Shlomi Binder (Binder assumed the role in mid-2024, having served as head of the Operations Division on October 7. The head of intelligence during the attack, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, has already stepped down).

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Weekly pro-hostage deal and anti-government rallies drew ‘thousands’ of Israelis Saturday night

2025-03-02

[IsraelTimes] Weekly pro-hostage deal and anti-government rallies drew thousands of Israelis Saturday night, as the 42nd and final day of the Gaza ceasefire deal’s first phase came to a close.

Notice there isn’t even a hint of a crowd estimate. Interestingly, the photos at the link are carefully cropped to give no hint as well.

Meanwhile,
...back at the game, the Babe headed for second base. He almost made it. Then Sheila slapped him....
the families of Shlomo Mantzur and Itzik Elgarat — two of four slain captives returned to Israel early Thursday in the final hostage release of the first phase — announced their loved ones would be buried in closed ceremonies on Sunday and Monday, respectively. According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, Mantzur was murdered on October 7, 2023, while the other three were murdered in captivity.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that "following the return, to eternal rest, of Ohad Yahalomi, Itzik Elgarat, Shlomo Mantzur and Tsahi Idan... we will hold a central rally at Hostages Square to demand the return of all 59 captives until day 50 of the agreement," a week from Sunday on March 9.

"The window of opportunity is now," said the forum. "If a deal does not materialize in the coming days, we’ll be sentencing the hostages to death and lose the ability to locate and retrieve the slain captives."

The rally at Hostages Square included a video message from Sasha Troufanov, who was released from captivity in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
on February 15. Troufanov told that he "can’t process the fact that I’m here and there are still people who haven’t returned."

"Captivity is an insane mind game — you’re always faced with the thought that ’if I don’t get out in this deal, there probably won’t be another deal I’ll get out in,’" said Troufanov.

Referring to ubiquitous posters featuring photographs of hostages, Troufanov said, "The fact that they’re here next to me, but they’re not — they’re just pictures — is something that is difficult for me, and I’m sure it’s more difficult for their families."

Now that he’s on the side of those yearning for their loved ones’ release, "Suddenly, I understand what it’s like, and it’s overwhelming for me," he said.

"Isn’t it time to release the people there?" he asked. "The people who pray so hard to come home?"

"When I talk about returning the hostages, I mean all of them — living and dead," he said. "Every family wants closure."

He asked the the public, "don’t let feelings of Dire Revenge, anger and rage get the upper hand over values of unity, fraternity and sanctity of human life.

Troufanov thanked "each and every one of the people who have supported, helped and wised for my return home — I’m here thanks to you."

The rally also featured speeches from Michel Illouz, father of 26-year-old Guy Illouz, who died in Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
captivity after being kidnapped from the Re’im-area Nova music festival; Liron Oberlander, cousin of hostage Rom Braslavski, who worked as a guard at the rave; Roni Adar, sister of slain captive Tamir Adar, who was killed in battle against invading ~~bandidos~~ gunnies and snatched to Gaza; and Mor Korngold, brother of Tal Shoham, one of six living captives Hamas released last Saturday.

Also speaking was Ilan Dalal, father of Guy Gilboa Dalal, who was kidnapped at the Nova rave. The families of Dalal and fellow hostage Evyatar David received a sign of life last from their loved ones following last Saturday’s hostage release, when Hamas published a video of them watching the other captives be freed.

Ilan Dalal later told Channel 12 the video was "the best sign of life I could ask for, but on the other hand, there’s nothing more cruel."

"It’s not surprising because it’s Hamas, but it’s a new level of torture," he said.

In tandem with the demonstration at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, smaller rallies were held across the country, including in Jerusalem, Ness Ziona, Haifa, Hadera and other locales such as the Sha’ar Hanegev Junction in the south.

In Tel Aviv, a separate, anti-government rally was held on Begin Road, in front of the IDF headquarters, where hundreds of protesters marched to from a demonstration at Habima Square.. The rally usually draws around 1,000 people, including several hostage families and opposition politicians, and regularly features philippics by Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, who on Saturday denounced the "sadistic government."

On Friday, The New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
published a wide-ranging profile piece on Zanguaker, referring to the "anguished mother" from Sderot as "Netanyahu’s fiercest foe" and "an unlikely enemy of Israeli government."

Another harsh critic of Netanyahu who has regularly spoken at the Begin Road rallies at Dani Elgarat, the younger brother of slain hostage Itzik Elgarat. Following the return of Itzik’s body, Dani Elgarat called for a public revolt against the government.

Speaking at Saturday’s demonstration, Dani Elgarat accused Netanyahu of abandoning his older brother.

Affiliated anti-government groups have said they would commence a days-long civil disobedience campaign in Jerusalem on Sunday to demand Israel "rise to phase two" of the hostage deal.

The deal’s first phase saw Hamas release 33 women, children, civilian men over 50, and those deemed "humanitarian cases" in return for some 1,900 Paleostinian prisoners. Twenty-five of the hostages were freed alive, and eight were deceased. Hamas also released five Thai nationals not included in the deal.

Netanyahu’s right-wing flank has threatened to topple the government should Israel proceed to the second phase, which would see Hamas release remaining living hostages and require Israel to withdraw from Gaza.

Talks for the second phase began in Cairo on Thursday, after Netanyahu refused to begin them on February 3 — day 16 of the first phase — as stipulated by the agreement. On Saturday, talks appeared at an impasse, with the Israeli negotiators having gone home and Hamas saying it rejected an Israeli offer to extend the first phase rather than proceed to the second.

Romi Gonen, who returned in the first hostage release of the current phase, wrote on Instagram Saturday that it was the "the first Shabbat since I came back that none of our brothers and sisters returned."

"There’s a tightness in my throat," she wrote. "Fifty-nine hostages are still held captive and waiting to return home."

"I was there, I know — they have no time," said Gonen, adding that the deal and releases "must not stop."

"It’s sad that even after hostages have come out and the entire world saw their state, we still need to fight for the obvious. Continue to fight, continue to pray — in the end, good always wins."

The families forum announced on Saturday that Shlomo Mantzur, 86, would be laid to rest Sunday in his home community of Kibbutz Kissufim.

According to the announcement, the family invited Israelis to stand along the road with flags to accompany Mantzur. The funeral procession will depart from Rishon Lezion at 9:45 a.m. and head south to Kissufim, according to the statement.

The procession is slated to pass at Yad Mordechai Junction around 10:45 a.m., at Sa’ad Junction at 11 a.m., and Gama Junction and Kissufim Junction around 11:15 a.m. The funeral will begin at 12:30 p.m. in Kibbutz Kissufim.

"The public is invited to the eulogy ceremony and the procession to the cemetery," the statement said. "At the family’s request, the funeral will be closed to the media."

The family of Itzik Elgarat, 68 when kidnapped, said his funeral would be held Monday at 2 p.m. outside his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, from which he was kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023..

The service will be open to the public and media, but the burial will be private, according to the announcement.

Elgarat and Mantzur were each snatched from their homes on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led ~~bandidos~~ gunnies stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 kidnapped by Hamas-led ~~bandidos~~ gunnies on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Link

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