Wednesday, March 20, 2024

03/20 Links Pt1: Lifting Hamas Off the Mat; US Congress deal bars funds to UNRWA until 2025; IDF arrests terrorist involved in 2014 kidnappings

From Ian:

John Podhoretz: Israel Better Get a Move On
My time of marveling is almost at an end. Today, Netanyahu informed his fellow Israelis that Biden had told him Israel should not enter Rafah, and that the Israeli PM told the American president there was no alternative. “We have a disagreement with the Americans about the need to enter Rafah,” Netanyahu reported to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset. “I made it clear to the president in our conversation, in the clearest way, that we are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah. There is no way to do it except by going in on the ground.”

Stuff is going to happen now, over the next week. Negotiations over hostages are going to heat up. American officials (Secretary of State Blinken primary among them) are traveling to talk ceasefire. An Israeli delegation headed by Bibi intimate Ron Dermer will go to DC to be briefed on some magical American plan to win with war without having to, you know, actually win the war.

This cannot hold. Israel has to go into Rafah. America is now saying flatly Israel should not go into Rafah. What this says to me is this:

Israel is going to go into Rafah, at which point Biden will cease being Balaam and he will go flat-out negative. He will say America had a plan and Israel refused to take it up. He will say Israel has chosen to endanger Palestinian lives. He will say he was more patient and more supportive than any American president has ever been (which is true), but that enough is enough and he’s had it and Israel is doing wrong.

I do not believe that I’m in any position to give military guidance to the Israelis, and they would be stupid to take it if I did. But if Israel has the means and the ability and the plan at hand to do what it needs to do in Rafah to win this war, it should do so as soon as it is possible to do it. This dynamic with the Biden administration cannot get better, and Israel would be better off establishing facts on the ground and showing progress in the destruction of the final pieces of Hamas’s terror infrastructure than it would be if its continuing inaction simply accelerates speculation that it can maybe be talked out of finishing what it was forced to start after October 7.
Seth Mandel: Lifting Hamas Off the Mat
The times I feel most sympathetic to the Palestinians are when their “allies” in the West try to help them. Whatever the crimes and mistakes of the Palestinians over the years, I can’t think of anything they’ve done to deserve, say, Canada or Tom Friedman.

Several days ago, something unsettling but important happened. Hamas executed the leader of the powerful Doghmush clan of Gaza. The clan’s offense appeared to be its alleged collaboration with the Israeli military to distribute humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

Essentially Hamas’s argument is the same as Vizzini’s in the Princess Bride when he tells the man who has come to rescue the princess from him: “You’re trying to kidnap what I’ve rightfully stolen!”

Now I don’t know if things have gotten a bit wilder in Canada since I was last there a few years ago, but the NDP, a center-left minority party in parliament, saw in that bloody chaos the finished product of state formation. The NDP introduced a measure to recognize the State of Palestine. Eventually the resolution that passed was watered down to merely say Canada is working toward Palestinian statehood.

To declare or recognize an existing Palestinian state right at this moment would be, in a word, insane. It would save Hamas, enable Iranian proxies to take the West Bank too, and destroy the Palestinian national movement root and branch by permanently establishing formerly Palestinian-ruled territories as Iranian colonies.

And these are the Palestinians’ friends.

Considering Hamas that is maintaining its controversial policy of murdering anyone who eats, I have a hard time understanding the broad popularity of the Save Hamas movement in the West.

Yet what happened to the Doghmush clan is just a risk Tom Friedman of the New York Times is willing to take. Friedman, an absurd figure who nonetheless at times acts as a conduit between Democratic White Houses and Times readers, has a plan for peace. Days after Hamas executed the Doghmush clan leader for supposedly working with Israel to get around Hamas and deliver goods and services to the people of Gaza, Friedman proposed that more Palestinians work with Israel to get around Hamas and deliver goods and services to the people of Gaza.
A More Accurate Accounting of the War in Gaza
War is cruel; that is the definition of war. It is an unpleasant fact of combat, that civilians are always caught in the crossfire. But unlike Israel's enemies, the Israel Defense Forces, have a code of conduct that works to ensure the fewest civilian casualties possible.

However it may sound to civilian ears, the fact is that even if you take the Hamas numbers at face value, Israel is fighting this threat with far more care than is the norm. When looking at the Hamas numbers and the IDF numbers, the combatant to civilian death ratio in Gaza is less than 1:2. In other words, for every combatant killed, fewer than two civilians are killed. While every loss of civilian life is tragic, with this ratio, Israel is achieving something remarkable on the Gaza battlefield.

As a point of reference, according to the United Nations, civilians usually make up around 90 percent of casualties in war.

The IDF's actions in Gaza are unparalleled. Israeli soldiers are confronting an unprecedented form of urban warfare, where civilian infrastructure is weaponized, and tunnels snake beneath otherwise unremarkable neighborhoods. Despite these challenges, Israel maintains a remarkably low collateral damage rate.

These facts are met with deafening silence from the world's leaders. They condemn Israel, accuse it of genocide and clamor for a ceasefire—actions that bolster Hamas's grip on power and ensure that it will continue to rule the Gaza Strip. They are asking of Israel something that they would never ask of themselves.

It's a double standard uniquely reserved for Israel. Allowing Hamas to endure is tantamount to conceding victory to terror. Advocating for a ceasefire while falsely branding Israel as genocidal serves only to embolden Hamas. Refusing to acknowledge Israel's data while embracing the fabrications of a terrorist regime is nothing short of surrendering to Hamas' narrative.

We must ask ourselves why it is that so many around the world prefer the fabrications of Hamas to the facts to be found on the ground. There is no answer that is satisfactory.


US Congress deal bars funds to UNRWA until 2025
An agreement reached by US congressional leaders and the White House on a bill funding military, State Department and a range of other government programs will continue a ban on US funding for UNRWA until March 2025, two sources said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

The US and a host of other countries announced they would temporarily pause funding to UNRWA, the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees” in January, after Israel said that 12 UNRWA staff had taken part in Hamas’ October 7 attack.

Among other things, Israel said those workers kidnapped a woman, handed out ammunition and took an active part in the massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri, where 97 people were murdered.

The US Senate passed legislation last month cutting off funding for the agency, part of a $95 billion bill providing aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan that has stalled in the House of Representatives.

Backers of the aid have been trying to get it restored, calling on Washington to support the relief body as aid groups work to ward off famine in Gaza.
Hugh Hewitt: The People Who Start Wars Bear the Blame, Not the People Who Finish Them
In World War II, the people of the United States did not worry about the devastation of civilian neighborhoods in Berlin brought about by Allied bombers or hardships visited upon "innocent Germans." Millions of Germans were killed or injured because of the war begun by Hitler, and the same is true of Japanese civilians killed by the Allied bombings of the Japanese home islands: the rulers of Imperial Japan brought that upon themselves.

Now intense pressure is being brought to bear on the Israel Defense Forces to limit their offensive as a result of "reports" of casualties in Gaza put out by Hamas. We cannot believe the Hamas numbers. What we do know is that Israel has no choice but to prosecute the war in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed, it's senior leadership dead or fled, and a semblance of security returned to the people of Israel.

For 17 years, Israel pursued a policy of co-existence with the terror organization that controlled Gaza, with Israeli government after government counting on the evolution of Hamas into a governing authoritarian regime but not one devoted to massacring Jews. Now we know that Hamas is a death cult. If allowed to remain in Gaza in any significant size and with its underground fortress intact, it will be a matter of time until Hamas unleashes another wave of horrific barbarism.

Israel must absolutely enter and subdue all of Rafah, must absolutely destroy the underground fortress, and must re-take the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt to prevent smuggling the mind-boggling amount of weaponry that Hamas amassed in Gaza since Israel withdrew from the Strip in 2005.

The war in Gaza must be won by Israel and the only reason there is a war at all is because of Hamas. Only the end of Hamas in Gaza - which means a ground operation in Rafah - will bring peace to that devastated region.
Stephen Daisley: Israel's "Allies" Should Reckon with Reality
Everyone wants an end to the fighting in Gaza. The urgency is understandable. Yet, Israel intends to continue fighting until it has a) freed its hostages or their bodies and b) sufficiently incapacitated Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad to delay a repeat of Oct. 7 in the near future.

Hamas understands that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was its greatest ever success, killing 1,200 Jews, turning the West against Israel and derailing progress towards Israeli-Saudi normalization. Support for Hamas is surging in the West Bank.

If the international community wants Israel to stop bombing Gaza, the international community should take over Gaza and stop Hamas attacking Israel. But the global community, with its cherished norms and spottily applied international law, much prefers to chastise Israel from afar. Get any closer and it would have to confront some unpleasant truths about those it caricatures as villains and those it fetishizes as victims.

It would find itself in Israel's shoes, learning on the job that messy as Jerusalem's military strategy sometimes is, it is based on bitter experience of the enemy and a necessary ruthlessness that matches the nature of the threat.
The West is still swallowing Hamas’s propaganda
Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel. Its leaders have pledged to repeat the murderous 7 October terror attack on Israel again and again. Although Israel is regularly accused of carrying out a ‘genocide’ in Gaza, Hamas is the only party in this war that is officially committed to the genocide of the other. Israel’s official position, on the other hand, is that its soldiers should avoid civilian casualties where possible. And it has taken measures to do so, such as warning of impending attacks, even when this puts its own forces at greater risk.

Hamas’s capacity has been degraded in several months of fighting. At least 18 battalions out of 24 have been destroyed. But that still leaves several battalions in the fight. These are mainly concentrated in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza strip, where Hamas has tunnels extending into Egypt. This means Hamas still has the capacity to supply ammunition and weapons into Gaza for its genocidal war against Israel. This explains why the Israelis have continued to fight and why they see taking control of Rafah as such a priority.

Hamas has also been all too happy to use Palestinian civilians as a human shield against Israeli attacks. Where its battalions have been defeated, surviving gunmen have ditched their uniforms and melted into the civilian population to engage in guerrilla warfare. They have no hesitation in attacking Israeli troops from within a crowd. If and when Israeli soldiers counter-attack, they are then accused of attacking Palestinian civilians.

Perhaps the most astounding element of the war is Hamas’s use of its extensive tunnel network. As Haviv Rettig Gur, senior analyst at the Times of Israel, has argued, Hamas has spent its 17 years in control of Gaza building a labyrinth of tunnels. With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that its goal was to create an underground military complex, shielded by Gaza’s civilian population above. It has taken up the concept of a human shield to a grotesque degree. At the same time, no infrastructure has been built above ground during Hamas’s rule over the strip. Much of the aid donated to desperately poor Gazans was diverted to Hamas to be used in its war against Israel.

The scale of Gaza’s tunnel complex is monumental. London has a population of about nine million people, who are served by a Tube network of about 250 miles, of which about half is in tunnels, with the rest above ground. In contrast, Gaza has a population of just over two million people. But it is estimated to have about 300 miles of tunnels. So Gaza has about a quarter of London’s population, but about two and a half times the length of its tunnels.

The existence of this tunnel network places the 7 October attack in an even more horrifying light. Hamas and its allies slaughtered 1,200 civilians on that day – mainly Jews but also some non-Jewish Israelis and foreign nationals – and kidnapped another 253. But it also set up the Gazan population for an Israeli counter-attack. Hamas knew that Israel would have to defend itself against a terror group that had pledged to destroy it. However, Hamas leaders knew that they could hide from any Israeli retaliation behind the human shield of Gazan civilians. Worse still, from Hamas’s cynical perspective, the deaths of Palestinian civilians are actually an advantage, as they can be exploited in the propaganda war against Israel.

This is what Israel is fighting against – an Islamist death cult that wants Israel’s destruction and is more than willing to sacrifice the lives of the civilians under its rule. The civilian casualties in Gaza are indeed a terrible tragedy. Like those Israelis killed on 7 October, they too are victims of Hamas’s terror.
Netanyahu: I told Biden Israel will enter Rafah
Israel Defense Forces troops will enter the Hamas stronghold of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip with or without support from the United States, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed on Wednesday.

“There were times we agreed with our friends, and there were times we did not agree with them,” the premier said in a pre-recorded video address to Israeli citizens. “Ultimately, we always did what was necessary for our safety, and we will do so this time as well.”

During a phone call with Netanyahu on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden stated that he could not support a major military offensive against Hamas in Rafah. Instead, the White House favors a limited operation aimed at high-value targets and securing the Gaza-Egypt border.

Netanyahu on Wednesday confirmed that “President Biden, whose support I appreciate, asked to present us with proposals by his people, both regarding the humanitarian field and on other issues.

“In the beginning [of the current war], I told the president: Hamas cannot be defeated without the IDF entering Gaza. In our latest conversation, I told him that it is impossible to complete the victory without the IDF entering Rafah and eliminating the remaining Hamas battalions,” he continued.

Netanyahu stressed that “from the very beginning, we agreed that Hamas should be eliminated. However, it’s no secret that during the war, we had differences of opinion about the best way to achieve this goal.”

The Israeli leader also emphasized that he had already approved the IDF’s operational plans for Rafah and would “soon” green-light an outline for the evacuation of noncombatants from the city.


Biden Shifts the Goalposts: ‘Degrading,’ Not ‘Defeating,’ Hamas
State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters in a briefing on Tuesday that the U.S. shares the goal of “degrading” Hamas — avoiding the use of the word “defeating,” in an apparent shift of U.S. policy on the Gaza war.

On Monday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that President Joe Biden shared Israel’s goal of “defeating” Hamas, but believed it was not necessary for Israel to attack Hamas in the last stronghold of Rafah to do so:


The President told the Prime Minister again today that we share the goal of defeating Hamas, but we just believe you need a coherent and sustainable strategy to make that happen.

Now, the President has rejected — and did again today — the strawman that raising questions about Rafah is the same as raising questions about defeating Hamas. That’s just nonsense.

And from the U.S. perspective, this is not a question of defeating Hamas. And anytime I hear an argument that says, “If you don’t smash into Rafah, you can’t defeat Hamas,” I say, “That is a strawman.”

[T]he President is not focused on what’s popular, what’s not popular, how do you shape public opinion. He’s interested in how do we get to the right result, and the right result is the enduring defeat of Hamas, a two-state solution that has a secure Israel and a Palestinian state that vindicates the aspirations of the Palestinian people, and a broader normalization of relations so that Israel also has peace with all of its Arab neighbors.
Israel Betrayed?
It seems clear that the Biden administration would like to see the rapid creation of a Palestinian state or at least a "Palestinian unity government" -- unfortunately composed of the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist group Hamas -- and, abracadabra, recognize it.

The Palestinian leaders have, in fact, been admirably clear: They do not want a state alongside Israel, they want a state instead of Israel.

"[W]hile Qatar is helping assemble a new 'technocratic' front for the terrorists, the Moscow summit made it clear that the real agenda of the new government would be terror against Israel and the U.S." — Daniel Greenfield, journalist, March 12, 2024.

"They [families of the hostages] can raise hell for the release of their loved ones – in media, in Congress, and by demonstrating in front of the Embassy of Qatar on M Street in Washington, D.C. Qatar is extremely and incredibly sensitive to being exposed in any way as a terror-sponsoring state... A single statement by a U.S. Department of Defense official, about relocating – or even considering relocating – this base from Qatar to another country that is not a state sponsor of terrorism is all it would take to get the American hostages released. Even indicating that the U.S. has other options besides Qatar would do it." — Yigal Carmon, Founder and President of the Middle East Media Research Institute, November 6, 2023.

Qatar is not an honest broker.... Qatar has been Hamas's main funder... Hamas is Qatar's pet; Qatar most likely does not want Hamas to lose the war and is sure to do all it can to secure that result.

It appears that the Biden administration would like to trade Netanyahu in for a doormat who would agree to a terrorist Palestinian state next door, a Hamas victory in Gaza and Iran having nuclear weapons.
Caroline Glick: Israel's Strategic Game of Survival
Three things Israel must do to win
Israel's mini-war against Hamas in 2014 ended with a tactical victory and strategic stalemate. Ten years ago, Netanyahu was able to withstand the Obama-Biden administration's demand that Israel capitulate and enable Hamas to win a strategic victory by mobilizing the support of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which opposed Hamas.

Fearing Hamas's mastermind Iran — and in light of the U.S.'s determination to enable a Hamas victory to empower Iran — today the moderate Arab states are unwilling to stick their necks out. In the absence of Sunni support, Israel is compelled to stand alone against the United States.

To win, Israel must do three things. It must remain politically stable. Schumer's broadside from the Senate floor was just the latest salvo in an all-out effort by the administration to destabilize Israel politically and replace Netanyahu with his chief rival Benny Gantz, whom they believe will agree to capitulate and accept the formation of a Palestinian state. Minister-without-Portfolio Gideon Sa'ar's decision on Tuesday to ditch Gantz's party and take his faction's four Knesset seats into the coalition speaks to the near consensus view in Israel that Netanyahu is the only leader that will fight to victory despite U.S. opposition. Last Wednesday, a new Direct Polls survey showed that U.S. hostility has strengthened Netanyahu and the right. Netanyahu leads Gantz 47 % to 37% in public support. His right-religious bloc of parties, (including Sa'ar) is polling a 62 seat-majority to Gantz's leftist bloc of parties' 48 seats.

The second thing Israel must do is mobilize U.S. public opinion on behalf of its goal of achieving strategic victory by eradicating Hamas and maintaining its security control over Gaza for the foreseeable future. According to last month's Harvard-Harris poll. Americans support Israel against Hamas 82% to 18%. Netanyahu opened a campaign this week to secure public support with a slew of interviews to the American media and his speech to AIPAC's annual convention.

Schumer's hysterical attempts to walk his remarks back amid a furious storm of criticism from all quarters revealed that pro-Israel public opinion remains a factor in American politics.

Finally, Israel must conquer Rafah in defiance of the Biden's redline and do so as quickly as possible.

As the weeks and months pass, and election day in America draws nearer, if Israel remains politically stable, if the IDF continues its brilliant fight in Gaza, and if U.S. opinion remains supportive, just as Israel has turned Hamas's tactical advantages into its own, it will turn the Palestinian U.S.-centered strategy on its head. For once, time will work in Israel's favor, and Israel will win the strategic victory it needs to secure its survival.
Caroline Glick: Biden, Schumer and the Plot to Overthrow Netanyahu
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer declares Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace and must be replaced. Is he alone among the US government in his efforts to oust the Prime Minister? And is there cooperation from forces from within Israel to topple the elected government of Israel?


Amb. David Friedman: “We Are Heading for Crisis Between Israel and the United States”
“The Quad” debates whether or not Biden has been supportive of Israel and where this is leading in the current war. And, of course, scumbags and heroes of the week! They interview former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman about U.S./Israel relations in light of the Hamas/Israel war.

Recent weeks have seen Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer call to replace the current Israeli government, U.S. President Biden being caught on a hot mic criticizing Netanyahu and saying he is hurting more than he is helping Israel; Vice President Kamala Harris distinguishing between the Israeli government and the Israeli people, and U.S. Secretary of State Blinken repeatedly tell Israel that it must do more to give humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Are the two allies heading for a crisis? What does this mean for Israel’s security? Is public criticism of Israel helping bring peace between the two sides?


Senator Schumer: You are no guardian of Israel
During the 1988 US vice-presidential debate, pitting Democratic nominee Senator Lloyd Bentsen against Dan Quayle, Republican senator and later vice-president, Quayle attempted to paint himself in the image of former senator and then-US president John Kennedy. At one point, Bentsen, who knew Kennedy well from the time they were both members of the 80th-82nd Congresses, looked Quayle in the eye and uttered the famous words, ”Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” This, in order to deflate Quayle’s thinking too highly of himself.

Hearing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer brag about the fact that his name, Schumer, comes from the Hebrew “shomer” or guardian and that as such, he has always seen himself as a “shomer Yisrael” or “guardian of Israel” brought Bentsen’s statement to mind. Based on the speech Schumer delivered last Thursday, I would say to him, “Senator, you’re no shomer Israel.”

Truth be told, the surname Schumer does not come from Shomer but was actually an occupational name for a cobbler. The name is derived from the Old German word for shoe, “schuoch,” and the suffix “mann.” In the Jewish communities of Europe, it was the custom to give people surnames that represented their vocation. Given Schumer’s remarks last week, perhaps he should consider returning to the cobbler’s bench of his ancestors.

But it was not, of course, just that. The Senate of the United States is not the Senate of Rome. In Rome, the senate was, indeed, a place of debate about the times and their challenges rather than a legislative body per se. In the case of the US Senate, that body operates by rules where the debate revolves around legislation and whether it should be passed or not.

Last week there was no legislation on the Senate floor that demanded the majority leader opine as he did on what and who were the obstacles to peace in the Middle East.


Ruthie Blum: The gall of Benny Gantz
No Israeli disputes the failures of the military and political echelons that enabled Hamas barbarians to commit the worst atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust. Nor does any citizen doubt that ransoming the hostages will put the rest of the populace at risk.

But such breast-beating serves only to raise the cost and decrease the chance of a deal. For Gantz to engage in this kind of self-serving piety—with a team of his peers in Qatar trying to counter Hamas’s delusional demands—was beyond feckless. Apparently, it didn’t occur to him that the “responsibility” he kept mentioning applied here.

Still, this was nothing compared to the real clincher.

“Yes, we have broad considerations and, yes, there can be differences of approach,” he stated, vowing: “My friends and I will make sure that any decisions made [in relation to the hostages] are motivated solely by practical considerations for the good of the country.”

This, he added, “is not only a commitment to the hostages and their families; it is our responsibility to the State of Israel and Israeli society.”

The implication was as clear as Gantz’s gall: that he will be the gatekeeper, at the ready to make sure Netanyahu prioritizes national interests over personal ones.

Shame on him for the very suggestion, let alone in the form of a reassurance to the desperate families of the hostages that he, not Netanyahu, has their back. No wonder his input at this delicate juncture is unwelcome.
Israeli Considerations for Postwar Gaza
Prime Minister Netanyahu's strategic objectives for postwar Gaza include:

1) There will not be an independent Palestinian state made up of the West Bank and Gaza and connected by a land corridor above- or below-ground, which explains the broad rejection of the U.S. call for a role for the revamped Palestinian Authority in the Strip after the war.

2) Gaza would no longer pose a threat to Israel's sovereignty and security and would remain demilitarized and under the security control of Israel, with a secure zone along the border. The civilian administration would no longer educate young Palestinians to seek Israel's destruction.

3) Completely severing any connection with Israel in all civilian spheres so that any hardship in Gaza could not be blamed on Israel.

4) UNRWA must be dismantled, not only in Gaza, but in the West Bank and in neighboring Arab states as well, due to an understanding that preserving the Palestinians' refugee status and their economic dependence on the UN organization encourages resistance to Israel.

UNRWA would be replaced first by international and regional humanitarian organizations, until a local civilian administration can be established to meet the needs of the local residents while under the supervision of regional or international partners.


Robert F. Kennedy: 'Hamas to blame for Gaza war, any country would act like Israel'
Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr offered staunch support for Israel in a Reuters interview, calling it a "moral nation" that was justly responding to Hamas provocations with its attacks on Gaza and questioning the need for a six-week ceasefire backed by President Joe Biden.

Biden has also been a vocal defender of Israel since the October 7 attack by Hamas, but he has recently pressured it to stem the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and accelerate a six-week ceasefire for hostage releases and aid delivery.

Asked if he supported a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, Kennedy told Reuters: "I don't even know what that means right now." Kenndy support for Israel's self-defense

Kennedy said that each previous ceasefire "has been used by Hamas to rearm, to rebuild and then launch another surprise attack. So what would be different this time?"

Kennedy, 70, spoke to Reuters in a wide-ranging interview on Monday from his office at his Spanish-style home in Los Angeles, hidden by tropical plants and hedges.

Support for Israel has become a political wedge issue inside the Democratic Party, as the death toll in Gaza tops 30,000 and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to push an assault into Rafah.


Canada to stop arms exports to Israel; FM Katz: History will judge you harshly
Ottawa will stop future arms exports to Israel, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly tells the Toronto Star, a day after Canada’s parliament passed a non-binding motion on the issue.

“It is a real thing,” says Joly, indicating that the move will not just be symbolic.

The motion was part of a larger vote calling on the international community to work toward a two-state solution to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, in line with Canadian government policy.

The original motion was drawn up by the minority left-leaning New Democrats (NDP), who are helping keep Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party in power and are unhappy with what they see as his failure to do enough to protect civilians in Gaza.

Last week, Canada said it had paused non-lethal military exports to Israel since January. Trudeau, while asserting Israel’s right to defend itself, has taken an increasingly critical stance over the Israeli military campaign in Gaza after the terror group’s attack on Israel on October 7.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz slammed Canada for the decision.

“I am sorry that the government of Canada is taking this step that undermines Israel’s right to self-defense in the face of Hamas murderers who carried out terrible crimes against humanity and against innocent Israelis, including the elderly, women and children,” he says in a statement.

“History will judge the current acts of Canada harshly,” he says.
Amid Canada's 'arms embargo': Here are the Israeli weapons still in use in Ottawa
Canada's foreign minister's announcement on Tuesday of an arms embargo on Israel comes at a time when Israeli weapons systems are now protecting Canadian pilots, fighters, and naval combatants around the world.

They are deployed to protect Canada's borders and NATO countries bordering Russia, similar to when Canadian troops were stationed in Afghanistan in the war against the Taliban.

For some reason, the minister's announcement forgot that in the last decade, the Canadian Defense Ministry purchased Israeli weapon systems worth more than a billion dollars after examining their performance, prices, and delivery times compared to those of other Western companies.

In those years, Israel purchased components and subsystems worth only tens of millions of dollars from the Canadians, numbers that indicate the Israeli defense industries' central position in the global arms market and their dependence on exports to customers abroad.

Only in December 2023, two months after the outbreak of Operation Swords of Iron, Canada announced the purchase of LR 2 Spike missiles from Rafael, worth $32 million, with delivery the following summer. Canada needs the advanced anti-tank missiles in case of a Russian invasion of Latvia, where a division of the Canadian army is stationed. This was not the first time that the Canadians purchased an Israeli missile: in 2018, they purchased Spike missiles of an older model for their special forces.

Canada used Rafael to achieve one of its largest defense export deals: the sale of dozens of armored personnel carriers made by General Dynamics Canada to the Colombian military for $418 million last year. Their choice was helped because they are equipped with remote-controlled 30 mm cannon turrets manufactured by Rafael, which can be operated from the weapon's interior without exposing the operator to enemy fire.

The Canadians' largest deal with the Israeli defense industry was signed in 2015 when they purchased 10 Iron Dome radars—these are MMR radars produced by the Elta Systems of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The Canadians purchased radars to detect air threats to their forces, including planes, helicopters, submarines, and rockets. The value of the deal was estimated to be $190 million.

Since then, the Canadians have purchased from Elta naval radars for patrol planes, long-range radars for their naval ships, and mobile radars to protect their infantry soldiers. These transactions have an additional and cumulative value of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Not the first Canadian embargo
The Canadian embargo is not the first of its kind. In 1956, when Israel was struggling to find sources for the purchase of a jet fighter following Egypt's growing strength, it agreed with the Canadian government to purchase 24 American F-86 Cyber fighter jets, which were then manufactured in the country under license for the local air force.

The Canadians agreed, and the first planes had already come off the production line, with Israel's Air Force's Star of David affixed to them. But the Canadians caved into British pressure and canceled the deal.


MP Anthony Housefather ‘reflecting’ on future with the Liberals after Middle East motion vote
Quebec Liberal MP Anthony Housefather says he is “reflecting” on his future in the Liberal party after a heavily amended NDP motion on Palestinian statehood passed in the House of Commons on Monday.

Housefather was among three Liberals who voted against the final motion, which called only for progress towards a two-state solution instead of the recognition of a Palestinian state.

The other two, former public-safety minister Marco Mendicino and Manitoba MP Ben Carr, both say they are disappointed in how the 11th-hour amendment process went. Neither of them is considering a change in their political alliance.

But Housefather says when his fellow Liberals gave a standing ovation to the NDP over the motion, for the first time in his life he isn’t certain he wants to stay in the caucus.

Housefather says while the final version was better, Liberals should simply have voted down the original motion, which he says failed to reflect the existential threat facing Israel and Jews around the world.


90 terrorists killed, 300-plus interrogated at Shifa battlefield
Israeli special forces are continuing an operation launched early Monday to root out a resurgent Hamas presence at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, so far killing 90 terrorists and interrogating more than 300 in the compound.

More than 160 of the suspects have been transferred to Israel for further questioning, according to the Israel Defense Forces, which is conducting the joint operation along with the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet).

The Shin Bet announced that soldiers operating at Shifa captured Mahmoud Qawasmeh, a senior Hamas operative responsible for planning the 2014 kidnapping and murder near Hebron of Israeli teenagers Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel.

The murders led to the IDF’s “Operation Protective Edge” against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“Over the past day, the troops have eliminated terrorists and located weapons in the hospital area, while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams and medical equipment,” the IDF said.

Qawasmeh had been exiled to Gaza as part of the 2011 Shalit prisoner exchange deal but continued to work on attacks in Judea and Samaria, including shooting attacks carried out by Hamas cells in recent years.

According to Palestinian reports, Israeli forces operating in the area of the medical complex on Wednesday also arrested Khaled al-Batash, a senior member of Islamic Jihad‘s political wing.


IDF arrests terrorist involved in 2014 kidnappings in Shifa hospital return.
The IDF and the Shin Bet on Wednesday announced that they had captured Mahmoud Kawasme - the last remaining conspirator at large from the Hamas murder of three Israeli teenagers in 2014 - as part of their operations to retake Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza.

In 2014, the IDF Judea military court convicted Hussam Hassan Kawasme of being the mastermind behind the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens.

Hussam was convicted based on his own confession of planning and financing the attack, including receiving NIS 200,000 from Hamas in Gaza, purchasing and providing weapons for the other terrorists, hiding the bodies, and destroying evidence.

The IDF Prosecution filed an indictment against Hussam with the Judea Military Court in September 2014.

The Shin Bet arrested him on July 11, 2014, on suspicion of assisting the killers and of hiding the victims’ bodies in land he owned in Hebron, security forces said.

On June 12, 2014, Hamas members kidnapped Gil-Ad Sha’er, 16, Naftali Fraenkel, 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19, as they waited for a ride outside the Alon Shvut settlement in Judea. The Shin Bet named the killers Marwan Kawasme and Amar Abu Aisha.

The two were killed in a shootout with the IDF near Hebron in September 2014.




Israel kills five senior Hamas officials in Rafah operation, IDF announces
IDF fighter jets eliminated five senior Hamas officials in Rafah on Monday, the IDF announced on Wednesday.

The jets operated in accordance with intelligence provided by the IDF and Shin Bet.

The operatives killed were Sayid Katab Alkhashash, Osama Hamd Zaher, Muhamed, and Aud Almelalakhi, who were heads of Hamas's Emergency Bureau in northern and eastern Rafah. Hadi Abu Alrus Kasin, an operations officer, was also killed.

As part of their operations, they managed Hamas activity in humanitarian zones and were responsible for coordination with Hamas operatives in the field.


Hostages likely murdered by Hamas, not Israeli airstrikes, researchers say
An Israeli team of researchers calculated that during the first two months of the war in Gaza the risk to Israeli hostages of being killed in Israeli airstrikes, as claimed by Hamas, was an unlikely 10 to 28 times greater than the risk of death to Gazans from airstrikes, according to lower Israeli and higher Hamas figures of hostage deaths. The team therefore reached a conclusion that Hamas terrorists probably murdered most or all of those killed.

The researchers examined whether the estimated death rate of Israeli hostages was similar to the estimated death rate of Gazans and the Hamas claim that many Israeli hostages held in underground tunnels were killed by indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes together with a large number of Gaza residents.

Shaare Zedek Medical Center’s Prof. Francis Mimouni, Dr. Sefi Mendlovic, and Dr. Yuval Dadon of the Health Ministry in Jerusalem published the study in the March edition of the Israel Medical Association Journal Imaj under the title “A statistical approach to the high mortality rate of Israeli citizens held hostage in Gaza.”

The team used two estimates of hostage death rates, one from Israeli intelligence sources and the other published by a Hamas spokesman. They found that by the end of December 2023, the rate of Israeli hostage deaths according to Israeli sources was 23 per 238, and 60 per 238 according to Hamas. ie. 1 in 10 or 1 in 4. Both figures, they wrote, were “strikingly and significantly higher” than the death rate among Gazans, which was estimated to be 19,667 per 2.2 million, or one in 111 Gazans.

On October 9, two days after the deadly Hamas incursion of the south, its al-Qassam Brigades (the terrorist group’s military arm) officially threatened to execute the Israeli hostages if the Israeli government continued to bomb Gaza, and demanded that over 5,000 Palestinians held then in Israeli prisons, mostly after conviction for security offenses, be released. Hamas, the authors wrote, didn’t publish such executions, and “to this date, it is not completely clear how many of them died after their abduction.”
IDF Announces Death of Soldier in North Gaza, Bringing Israeli Ground Offensive Death Toll to 251
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday announced the death of a soldier killed during an operation targeting Hamas at Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, bringing the Israeli death toll of the ongoing ground offensive against the Palestinian terror group to 251.

Warrant Officer Sebastian Haion, a 51-year-old commander in the 401st Armored Brigade from Rosh HaAyin, was killed during battle, the army said.

The announcement came hours after the IDF announced the death of Staff Sgt. Matan Vinogradov, 20, of the Nahal Brigade’s 932nd Battalion, from Jerusalem. He also died fighting Hamas in the area by Shifa Hospital, which according to the US and Israel has been used by the terror group to run military operations and even hold hostages.

Israeli forces killed Hamas’ head of internal security in Gaza during its counter-terrorism operation in the hospital and, according to a statement on Monday, found a large cache of weapons in a room next to where the terrorist was found.

With the announcement of Haion’s death, a post from his Facebook page went viral in which he said, “We have no other home and we cannot afford to lose. We must win.”

Israel launched its ground offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, in which the Palestinian terrorists killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 253 others as hostages.
IAF strikes Jenin terror cell, thwarting ‘imminent attack’
An Israeli Air Force drone attack killed two senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in the northern Samaria city of Jenin on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet said in a joint statement.

The slain terrorists were identified by Israel as Ahmed Barakat and Muhammad Hawashin.

Barakat was said to have carried out the May 30, 2023 Samaria terror shooting in which Israeli civilian Meir Tamari, 31, was murdered.

According to the statement, the two men recently plotted a thwarted attack that had targeted “the heart of Israel.” The statement also said they were behind the March 8 terror bombing that wounded seven Israeli soldiers at a military outpost near Homesh in Samaria.


Israeli High Court OKs house demolition for terrorist who failed to kill
Israel’s Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, on Wednesday sanctioned the demolition of a Jerusalem home belonging to a terrorist who shot and wounded two policemen on Oct. 12.

Khaled Abdel-Fattah, from the northern neighborhood of Beit Hanina, carried out his attack at a police station outside the Old City. One officer suffered severe wounds while another was moderately wounded.

The officers returned fire at the assailant, who attempted to flee the scene before being killed.

Wednesday’s ruling represented the first time that the High Court approved a home demolition for a terrorist who failed to kill anyone.

Abdel-Fattah’s relatives petitioned against the demolition order issued by the Israel Defense Forces. However, the court decided with a 2-3 majority against intervening in the matter.
Two IDF Soldiers Wounded by Hizbullah Rocket Fire
An IDF soldier was moderately wounded and another soldier was lightly wounded by rocket fire near Manara in northern Israel on Tuesday, according to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.

Additionally on Tuesday afternoon, the IDF struck Hezbollah targets in Ayta Ash Sha'ab, Mays al-Jabal, Odeissah, Naqoura, and Kafr Kila in southern Lebanon. Several rockets were fired from Lebanon toward Israel throughout the day and a suspicious aerial object was intercepted near the border as well.

The IDF also struck a Hezbollah observation post near Marwahin in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, shortly after an IDF observer from Unit 869 spotted a terrorist in the structure, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said.

Earlier in the day, the IDF struck a Hezbollah building near Odaisseh in southern Lebanon.

Later on Tuesday, Israeli strikes targeted sites in Mays al-Jabal and Ayta ash Shab in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese reports.
Hezbollah arms depot hit ‘in heart of civilian neighborhood’
The Israel Defense Forces provided visual proof on Wednesday that Hezbollah operates from within residential areas, showing footage of an airstrike on a weapons depot “in the heart of a civilian neighborhood deep in Lebanon.”

As can be seen in the video, the recent Israeli Air Force attack set off lengthy secondary explosions that constitute “further proof of Hezbollah’s method of operation in which it stores explosives and dangerous chemical substances in civilian villages.”

The IDF accused the Iranian terrorist proxy of deliberately placing its weapons production infrastructure in the middle of civilian areas in Southern Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley and Beirut.

Using human shields is a war crime and is a tactic used by the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza and by other jihadist organizations.

According to the IDF, “under the law of armed conflict, the presence of the civilian population cannot be used to render certain points immune from military operations, or to shield one’s own military operations.”
In first, IDF confirms Houthi cruise missile hit open area near Eilat on Monday
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Tuesday evening that a “suspicious aerial target” that struck an open area near Eilat early Monday morning was a cruise missile.

Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for the missile, which crossed into Israeli airspace from the direction of the Red Sea.

No damage or injuries were caused, and according to the IDF, the missile was tracked by the Air Force throughout the incident.

It marks the first time a Houthi projectile hit Israeli territory. In previous attacks, missiles and drones launched from Yemen struck neighboring countries or were intercepted by air defenses.

The IDF said it is further investigating the incident.

Yemen’s Houthis also targeted a fuel tanker in the Red Sea with naval missiles, the group’s military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a prerecorded statement on Tuesday.

MADO is a Marshall Islands-flagged liquefied petroleum gas tanker heading to Singapore from Saudi Arabia, maritime shipping trackers showed.

The vessel was twice targeted by Houthi fire on March 15 and March 17. Both attacks missed the vessel, causing neither damage nor injuries.


Eilat Port to lay off half its staff due to Houthi attacks stymieing shipping trade
Half the workers at Eilat Port are at risk of losing their jobs after the southern seaport took a major financial hit due to the crisis in Red Sea shipping lanes, Israel’s main labor federation said on Wednesday.

Eilat sits on the northern tip of the Red Sea and was one of the first ports to be affected as shipping firms rerouted vessels to avoid attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi terror group in Yemen.

The Histadrut Labor Federation, the umbrella organization for hundreds of thousands of public sector workers, said port management had announced it intends to fire half of the 120 Eilat Port employees. The dock workers will hold a protest on Wednesday, it said.

Officials at the port did not immediately respond for comment.

Eilat, which primarily handles car imports and potash exports coming from the Dead Sea, pales in size compared to Israel’s Mediterranean ports in Haifa and Ashdod, which handle nearly all the country’s trade.

But Eilat, which sits adjacent to Jordan’s only coastal access point at Aqaba, offers Israel a gateway to the east without the need to navigate the Suez Canal.


The U.S. Plan for Aid Relief in Gaza
In his 2024 State of the Union address, President Biden said, "I'm directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters."

Washington has taken ownership of the Gaza humanitarian emergency by committing significant U.S. resources to mitigate the crisis.

In the early 1990s, the U.S. initiated a humanitarian aid operation in Mogadishu, Somalia, to alleviate the severe famine and restore order amidst the country's civil war.

What was meant to be an aid distribution operation escalated into a military engagement when local warlords appropriated all the aid and monopolized its distribution. Intense urban warfare resulted in 18 US soldiers killed and 73 wounded, with as many as 1,000 Somalis killed.

Some in Gaza have adopted a strong Islamist worldview and may see the U.S. effort not as international aid relief but as the U.S. attempting to gain a foothold in Dar al-Islam (the territory of Islam). For Islamists, the use of force against Americans would be part of their jihad.

Some Palestinians are already calling the U.S. port another form of occupation.

President Biden assured Americans that there would be no U.S. military personnel with "boots on the ground." This likely means U.S. and foreign contractors to do the job.
Gaza's Understanding of U.S. Humanitarian Aid: A "Free Lunch"
Gazans interpret U.S. humanitarian aid without a quid pro quo as unqualified American support for Hamas and Gaza and a rejection of Israel. Therefore, Gazans interpret U.S. aid as an implicit justification for their actions on Oct. 7, 2023. Gaza views American air drops, seaport plans, and aid convoys as concrete illustrations of American solidarity with Palestinian "liberation," which aims to eradicate Israel. Moreover, U.S. aid does not come with a "price tag" of thanks or loyalty to American aid providers.

The U.S. humanitarian aid approach has been a strategic mistake. In the more "forgiving" Western culture, it may seem cruel to demand something in return for aid. Yet, in Middle Eastern culture, giving without getting in return is considered submission. This approach weakens Israel and the West, bolsters Hamas, and renders these programs political and perceptual failures for Israel and the West.


Seth Frantzman: Looking into Kfar Aza, five months after the October 7 massacre
This was a growing community before October 7. There were forty homes for younger people and other new homes that had been built in recent years. Sixty-three members of the kibbutz were killed, including Alon Shamriz and Yotam Haim, two young men who were taken hostage and freed themselves in Gaza, only to be killed by the IDF on December 15. On March 20, President Isaac Herzog “announced his decision to honor the heroism of the hostages Yotam Haim, Samer Talalka, and Alon Shamriz, who were tragically killed by IDF forces while escaping Hamas captivity. The awards will be presented to their families in a moving and unique ceremony at the President's Residence in Jerusalem,” Herzog’s office said.

Walking along the deserted paths of Kfar Aza, I feel the unsettling feeling of seeing these scenes before. Hamas recorded its attack using videos, and also some CCTV video captured the Hamas attack on these communities. In my memory, I’ve been here before, because I feel like I’ve seen these pathways. It’s easy to imagine the terrorists here walking along. It would have been a clear, warm day like March 20, except in the fall. They would have broken through the fence and then broken into the kibbutz, and they would have felt initial surprise at the lack of opposition they faced along the border. The initial terrorist wave of attacks not only focused on massacring the young people who lived near the fence but also the terrorists focused on killing members of the security team.

Each community here had a security team made up of IDF veterans who volunteered. There is a small stout building in the middle of Kfar Aza with a red roof which was the armory. These communities had locked armories for the long guns and rifles that could be distributed in an emergency. However, in some cases, there was no time to give out the weapons. Because people were sheltering in their safe rooms and expected rescue to come, there wasn’t a possibility of dividing the weapons in many communities. This is because an attack of this nature, with 300 terrorists breaking into the community, was never imagined.

“This is where the heroic members of the civil guard were killed,” a sign says on the stout building. Seven of them fell in this area. Some were killed quickly, and others were wounded. After the armory, we walk along a path next to several homes, each with a story. In one a family survived, in another a person was killed. Each has a story of horror, except for a few families who were not present on that dark day. Where heroic members of the civil guard was killed on October 7 in Kibbutz Kfar Aza (credit Seth J. Frantzman)

We come to a small rise, and there is a memorial for a man killed in a rocket attack many years ago. It is a reminder that this kibbutz has been on the frontline in other wars. However, nothing like October 7 ever happened before. I had never been to Kfar Aza before today, but I had been near it many times in every war going back more than a decade.

This place was always one that Hamas mortars and rockets targeted. Iron Dome intercepted many of the projectiles after the system became operational. On October 7, after Hamas massacred sixty people here, it also kidnapped seventeen.

Today, five are still held in Gaza. Photos of the hostages festoon the kibbutz today. They hang near a tree that is decorated with small signs, recalling that the kibbutz was founded 67 years ago. This community and others were founded on the border with Gaza in those days to secure the border. In those days in the 1950s, there were infiltrators from Gaza, and later, terrorist groups in Gaza, at the time backed by Egypt, carried out attacks.

Israel had to confront the terrorists in 1956, conquer Gaza in 1967, and then put down an insurgency in the 1970s and then again in the 1980s and 2000s. Now, the IDF is back in Gaza. From Kfar Aza looking into Gaza, it’s not clear how this war will play out or whether this community will return to what it was in the past.
Grieving father reveals haunting last moments of daughter murdered by Hamas terrorists at Supernova festival whose body was identified by flower tattoo
The moment Eran Litman last communicated with his daughter Oriya – 8.36am – will forever be etched in his brain.

The 59-year-old software engineer had been woken up a few hours earlier by his older daughter, Yahali. When she hadn't been able to get through to her father, who was asleep, Oriya had frantically called her sister, telling her that she was in danger.

Yahali immediately phoned their father and broke the news that her sister was caught up in a terrorist attack.

Oriya, 26, was one of 3,500 revellers at the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re'im in southern Israel when thousands of Hamas terrorists launched a surprise attack on the country in the early hours of October 7, murdering 1,200 people.

The rampage at the festival left 360 innocent people dead.

Eran, who is in London for work when we speak, is softly spoken with a kind face. His face lights up when he tells me about Oriya's childhood: their fond memories skiing, camping by the sea every summer and going on safari in Tanzania.

'She was a terrible teenager,' he laughs. 'All the white hairs on my head are because of her. She loved parties.'

Father and daughter enjoyed a close relationship and would regularly meet for Friday night dinners. 'My cooking improved because of her,' he smiles.

But look into his eyes and it's clear that he's a broken man.
Mother of Gaza hostage calls on world Jewry to act
Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza, on Wednesday pleaded for Jews in the Diaspora to advocate for the release of all the abductees

“Now is the time for the Diaspora community to speak resolutely and with conviction to the men who are in power who will be deciding the destiny and identity of the Jewish people going forward forever more,” Goldberg-Polin said in a speech at a World Zionist Organization conference in Jerusalem.

“We stand here at a crossroads from which we can never undo this next choice. Now is the time for the Diaspora to tell the leaders of this country who are not thinking straight because they are still speaking from a place of continual, unending, throbbing, sharp, ongoing guilt-ridden trauma: This is the time to act the most holy we the Jewish people have ever acted in our history.

“This is the time to do something out of the ordinary, the likes of which have never been seen in any people’s history. Now is the time to save 134 innocent souls for no other reason except that it is holy, and it is the most Jewish response to October 7 that can possibly be done,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin said.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, was one of 253 people taken hostage by Hamas during its onslaught in the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and thousands more wounded. Goldberg-Polin’s left arm was blown off from the elbow down when the bomb shelter he was hiding in was attacked.

His cell phone was last tracked at 10:25 a.m. on Oct. 7, inside the Gaza Strip.

She spoke at the second Heschel Conference on Jewish Peoplehood and Israel-Diaspora Relations, held at the National Library in Jerusalem. More than 500 people participated in this year’s conference. The theme was Jewish peoplehood in times of war.


Underbelly star's sister-in-law who was taken hostage by Hamas for 54 days breaks her silence to reveal what it was like being held by terrorists in Gaza
The sister-in-law of Underbelly star Dan Mor has broken her silence after being held hostage by Hamas terrorists for 54 days, where she feared she'd be 'raped and murdered'.

Moran Stella Yanai was snatched by the terror group as part of the horror October 7 attacks that saw 1,200 Israelis killed and a further 250 abducted and taken back to Gaza.

The Israeli jewellery designer was among the helpless revellers who attended the doomed Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re'im where Palestinian gunmen - some on paragliders - murdered 364 civilians.

Ms Yanai had set up a retail stand just days before the rave and spent the time assembling and designing the jewellery.

When the attack unfolded, she frantically tried to escape through the desert where the festival was being held near Mount Negev, but broke her leg in the chaos.

Her brother-in-law, Dan Mor, who starred in the award winning Australian crime drama series, Underbelly: The Golden Mile, previously revealed the family had spoken to her on the phone as she was trying to flee the carnage.

They later discovered a clip posted to an anonymous TikTok account, showing Ms Yanai begging for her life as Hamas terrorists shouted in the background.

Eventually her worst fears were realised when about 10 terrorists pulled her out from under a tree where she had been hiding.

Ms Yanai was then piled into a Jeep and taken to Gaza where she feared she would be 'lynched'.

'You keep thinking every minute that now they're going to kill you, now you are going to be raped,' Ms Yanai told the Herald Sun.

The brave woman, who is the first October 7 hostage to travel to Australia, said she's still processing the ordeal and that she feels like 'she's still there'.


‘A nightmare’: Former Hamas hostage opens up on October 7 attacks
Former Hamas hostage Moran Yanai opens up on the “complete chaos” which erupted on the morning of the October 7 attacks in Israel.

Ms Yanai said she was attending the Nova festival to fulfill her “dream”.

“At 6:29 this dream literally turned into a nightmare,” she told Sky News host Sharri Markson.

“It was completely chaos everywhere.

“It took us five hours to escape and to hide until we got caught.”




The Israel Guys: Why This is a DISASTER For Gaza AND Israel
During the state of the union address so eloquently given this year, president Joe Biden announced that the US would be building a temporary pier for Gaza to help with the “humanitarian crisis” Sounds great, right? Well, there are many problems with this idea that we are going to get into on the show today.


They Are Lying To You About Gaza

The Gaza You Don't See [Part 2]

Jared Kushner highlights real estate potential of ‘Gaza waterfront’ and suggests moving Palestinians to Negev
Comments from Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner about about the "valuable" real estate potential of “Gaza’s waterfront” has surfaced after a talk he gave at Harvard University in February.

Kushner, Trump’s former Middle East adviser, also suggested Israel should remove Gazans to the Negev desert or Egypt while it “clears up” the area.

He also said: “Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable … if people would focus on building up livelihoods.”

In a conversation with Harvard’s Middle East Initiation faculty chair, Professor Tarek Masoud, Kushner called the situation in Gaza “unfortunate” and said: “From Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up.

“But I don’t think that Israel has stated that they don’t want the people to move back there afterward,” he added.

Masoud said there was “a lot to talk about there”.

Kushner said if he were in charge of Israel, his priority would be getting civilians out of Rafah and they could be moved to Egypt “with diplomacy”.

“I would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there, I know that won’t be the popular thing to do but I think that’s the better option to do so you can go in and finish the job.

“I think Israel’s gone way more out of their way than other countries would to try to protect civilians from casualties, but I do think right now opening up the Negev, creating a secure area there, moving the civilians out, and then going in and finishing the job would be the right move.”




English-language spokesman Eylon Levy said suspended after angering the UK
Prominent English-language government spokesman Eylon Levy has been suspended from his post after complaints from the UK government, Channel 12 reports.

London reportedly raised concerns with the Foreign Ministry after Levy responded to a March 8 post on X by UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron saying, “We continue to urge Israel to allow more trucks into Gaza as the fastest way to get aid to those who need it.”

Levy reportedly responded to the post saying there were no problems with the capacity of aid trucks entering Gaza.

Following his tweet, the British Foreign Office asked if the tweet, seen as attacking Cameron, was Israel’s official position, Channel 12 reports.

Levy was since suspended and has been at home for more than a week, the report says, noting that he was unlikely to return.

News of his suspension comes on the same day that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bemoaned the fact that Israel had a dearth of spokespeople who could “string two words together” in English.
Ireland's Leo Varadkar, who called Gaza hostage 'lost,' quits as prime minister
Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday he would step down as Ireland's prime minister and the leader of the governing Fine Gael party in a surprise move for "personal and political" reasons.

Varadkar's departure as head of the three-party coalition does not automatically trigger a general election.

He said he had asked for a new leader of the party to be elected ahead of Fine Gael's annual conference on April 6, following which parliament would vote on that person becoming prime minister after the Easter break.

Varadkar gives his reasons for stepping down
"My reasons for stepping down are both personal and political," Varadkar, 45, told a hastily arranged news conference outside government buildings in Dublin.

"But after careful consideration, and some soul searching, I believe that a new taoiseach (prime minister) and a new leader will be better placed than me to achieve that (the coalition government's re-election)."

Sounding emotional as he made the announcement, he said was quitting as leader of Fine Gael and would resign as prime minister as soon as his successor took up the post.


Women 'take a stand for Palestine in front of Parliament by shaving their hair off in demonstration over Gaza water shortage
A group of women shaved their hair off outside the Houses of Parliament to 'take a stand for Palestine'.

The collective action links to the shortages in Gaza, with some women there shaving their hair to preserve water for drinking.

Shocking images show the eleven protesters use an electric razor to remove their locks yesterday.

They shouted, 'Free free Palestine' before taking it in turns to sit in the middle of the group shave their heads.




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