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Wednesday, January 29, 2025

01/29 Links Pt1: It isn't a hostage 'deal,' it's extortion of Israeli souls; Sydney police uncover cache of explosives, intended target was a synagogue

From Ian:

Michal Cotler-Wunsh: It isn't a hostage 'deal,' it's extortion of Israeli souls
Anyone with a heart was moved beyond words at the return home of Emily, Romi, and Doron. Every parent, child, sibling, and friend could almost taste their mothers’ embraces.

The script could not have been imagined by anyone when Emily raised her three remaining fingers, signaling life, resiliency, and hope.

The thing is that for the heartless, genocidal Hamas barbarians who stole Emily, Romi, and Doron from their beds on October 7, 2023, human tragedy is the strategy.

For them and for the murderous Islamic regime in Iran, of which they are proxies, every parent, child, sibling, and friend is a human shield or sacrifice on the altar of genocidal intent to destroy civilization and build an alternate reality on its rubble.

The thing is that internationally created and funded institutions and agencies in whose “civilian shelters” Emily, Romi, and Doron and other hostages were held have been hijacked and weaponized to sow fear, despair, and distrust that collapse the foundations of democracies.

"Human rights industry"
The thing is that the “human rights” industry that was entrusted to protect the hostages is inverted to “justify” mutilation, burning people alive, rape, murder, and their abduction – as “resistance.”

Their release was not the result of “negotiations” that enable making “a deal.” It is the result of multitiered extortion, resulting from decades of appeasement and cemented in 16 months of false moral equivalence – by Western countries, international institutions, terror-supporting campus mobs, and legacy media spewing lies provided by genocidal proxies and their supporting regimes; extortion that will be compounded with every passing day and “stage” of “the deal,” feeding the beast and emboldening genocidal proxies of murderous regimes to continue dictating equations and conduct in this and other contexts.

For more than 10 years, we have warned that appeasement and enabling genocidal terrorists to dictate conduct and equations, even as they trample law and morality, out of the false hope that they’ll “play nice,” will only whet the appetite of terror proxies and their supporting regimes.

In an unbelievable turn of events, proving once again that reality far exceeds the imagination, even as we waited to see Romi, Doron, and Emily embraced by their no less heroic mothers, we buried deceased soldier Oron Shaul, held by the same genocidal Hamas barbarians for 10.5 years in standing violation of law and morality – enabled by international silence, indifference, false moral equivalency, and impunity from the very organizations, institutions, and countries mandated and entrusted to hold them accountable and uphold foundational principles equally and consistently.

Standing by Oron’s grave, I understood the meaning of the term “case and cause,” which I have pled for 10.5 years – in the UN, in the State Department, in the Knesset, and every Friday, in Israel’s Gaza border area at the Black Arrow Memorial, desecrated following the October 7 massacre.

His was indeed a case – which, alongside deceased soldier Hadar Goldin, killed and abducted by Hamas shortly after a 2014 internationally brokered “humanitarian ceasefire” took effect; alongside Avera Mengistu and Hisham a-Sayed, who, unwell, wandered into Gaza in 2014, was our 10.5-year cause – that predicted, and should have prevented, the emboldening of genocidal barbarians with silence, false moral equivalence, and impunity. It was an international failure that fueled the confidence of genocidal proxies and their supporting regimes in Iran, Qatar, and Turkey that rockets, missiles, murder, rape, and the abduction of hundreds on October 7 would be met by continued international silence, false moral equivalency, and impunity, enabling the extortion of Israel.

That we are in the midst of an extortion fiasco and not “a deal” is made clear by the tsunami of antisemitism around the world that continues to rage in Australia, Canada, Germany, and the US, after the alleged sought-after “ceasefire.”

The explosion of unhinged antisemitism, the world’s oldest hatred, should sound sirens for all who cherish humanity and freedom.

That this lethal hate, which has mutated by latching on to the organizing idea of each era – religion, science, and the secular “religion” of human rights – was unleashed in response to the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust should have been met with urgency and clarity.

Instead, the inability to unequivocally condemn regressive barbarism in the name of “progress” signaled “legitimacy” for a multifront war openly intent on committing the genocide of Jews and annihilating Israel, the Jew among the nations.
Jonathan Sacerdoti: There is no justice in the Gaza hostage deal
What makes this deal even more grotesque is the context in which it is taking place. These terrorists are not being released for good behaviour or remorse. On the contrary, their release is a ransom payment to Hamas, extracted in exchange for hostages abducted during the 7 October massacre. Many express continued pride in their murderous actions. The message this sends is chilling: terrorism pays.

This week, Salim Hajjeh was released. A senior Hamas member, he was serving 16 life sentences for his involvement in the suicide bombing on Haifa’s bus line 16 in 2011. In that attack, 15 people were murdered, and 40 were injured. Hajjeh was a member of the Hamas cell in Nablus, which was also responsible for the infamous bombings at the Sbarro restaurant and the Dolphinarium.

Bilal Abu Ghanem, set for release in the coming weeks, expressed regret during his trial – not for the lives he took, but for not killing more Jews. Meanwhile, among the women released, four of them attempted murder, one successfully, thereby shattering the illusion that female prisoners are somehow less dangerous. Even the non-murderous women are far from innocent: Ayat Mahfouz, for instance, was imprisoned for carrying and manufacturing knives and daggers, intended for use in terror attacks. The Western media’s romanticised portrayal of these women as victims ignores the severity of their crimes.

How would British citizens react if, tomorrow, the government announced the release of Ahmed Hassan, the Parsons Green bomber, as part of a deal with Isis? How would the families of their victims feel if the murderers were welcomed back as heroes in their communities, feted by political leaders, and given financial rewards for their ‘sacrifices’, all the while filmed for emotional reports on Sky News and the BBC?

This is precisely what is happening in Israel. Many of the released terrorists will return to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or even abroad, where they will resume their roles in terrorist organisations. Others will be celebrated as martyrs and given monthly stipends funded by foreign aid. This deal does not bring justice; it perpetuates a cycle of violence, rewarding those who use kidnapping and murder as tools of political blackmail in a way which we in Britain and the West would never accept for ourselves.

Israel faces an impossible choice: leave the hostages in Gaza to suffer or pay the ransom in the form of releasing these repulsive terrorists. For the hostages and their families, the joy of reunion is accompanied by the bitter knowledge that others will now pay the price for their freedom.

There is no justice here – only the harrowing logic of ruthless terrorism. This is not a deal that brings peace or reconciliation. It is a deal that ensures the cycle of bloodshed will continue, as the released terrorists return to their ranks, emboldened by the success of their comrades. It is a deal born of desperation, paid for in blood with the currency of injustice.
Most Hamas terrorists were drugged, completely inhumane, rescued hostage says
"The hostages today are suffering from prolonged hunger," released hostage Luis Har said in an interview with Maariv.

"Hamas takes all the aid," he continued. "I was there; I know what delaying the deals means. Every day increases fear, danger, and suffering. We must not wait, and we must not delay because every passing day increases the concern that, in the end, there will be no one left to bring back."

Har, who was abducted on October 7 from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, was later freed in a daring military operation in Rafah in February 2024. In his interview, he described the terrifying moments of his abduction, his prolonged captivity in the home of a Hamas operative in southern Gaza, and his eventual rescue and return to Israel. Violent abduction

"The terrorists burst into our safe room; there were five of us there," Har recounted. "We started shouting, 'Don't shoot! Don't shoot!' They yelled in Arabic and dragged us out violently. Those with hair were pulled by their hair; the others, like me, who are bald, were pulled by their clothes and pushed. On the way out, I looked around and saw the entire house filled with terrorists shouting, banging on the furniture with their weapons, shooting, and smashing glass. The living room, kitchen, and rooms were packed with them."

A scene of chaos outside
Har described the devastation he saw outside. "I saw other homes that had also been broken into. All the doors were open, and the yards were empty and silent. It seemed like they had already taken all the residents of the kibbutz captive. Someone had stolen a bicycle and tied a child’s small tractor to it. There were many women and teenagers looting houses, running in all directions, and trying to enter homes along with the terrorists. It looked like a surreal movie."

The captives were led through a breach in the kibbutz’s fence to waiting vehicles. "A white Toyota screeched to a halt and quickly loaded us in amidst shouts and urgency," he said.

Har noted the terror in Mia [Leimberg], a fellow captive: "Mia was in shock, utterly terrified. She was holding the dog and not speaking. But we spoke in Spanish among ourselves. We said, 'Let’s pretend we don’t understand Hebrew or Arabic to minimize contact with the terrorists.'

The car was filled with weapons—mortars, RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)—and we were sitting on top of them. Above us were five terrorists, shooting upwards and shouting 'Allahu Akbar.'

They trampled us as if we were rags."


Gerald M. Steinberg: Hamas and the Red Cross
This grotesque spectacle highlighted the degree to which the ICRC has been willing to serve as a prop for Hamas, before and after the Palestinian jihadists perpetrated the atrocities of 7 October 2023. More than 250 captives were seized from Israel on that terrible day. Most of them were alive, some were already dead, and a still-unknown number have since died in captivity or been murdered by their abductors. Not one of the Israeli abductees received a visit from the organisation ostensibly responsible for implementing the requirements of the Geneva Convention. The Red Cross did not provide a shred of information to the tormented families regarding the condition of the captives because, as its own official statements blandly insist, without the agreement of the Hamas, “the ICRC cannot act.”

Justifications like these are technically correct, but they sidestep the main issues raised by the ICRC’s critics. The anger expressed by Israelis and others is not caused by the ICRC’s failure to somehow force Hamas to allow visits and provide medications. The problem is that the organisation was largely passive and failed to use its vast prestige to demand access to the hostages or campaign for their release. The Red Cross officials who travelled throughout the region, including Qatar, did not hold press conferences where this message would have been amplified. Nor did they publish public letters addressed to, say, the heads of the Qatari government demanding assistance in pressing Hamas to follow basic humanitarian and legal principles on the treatment of its “prisoners.”

When they appeared on major media platforms, the ICRC’s officials did not bang on the tables or make any demands of Hamas at all. As Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy in Washington, DC has pointed out, “Many members of the International Committee of the Red Cross—who visited Gaza, held press conferences and left without bringing holy hell down on Hamas, kicking and screaming and demanding that they see the hostages—have blood on their hands.” Instead, the ICRC officials meekly and repeatedly offered the excuse that kicking, screaming, and banging on tables was simply not possible.

Similarly, on social-media platforms, the references to the hostages were few and far between. In 2024, the ICRC in Israel & OT account on X sent only seven tweets that mentioned the Israelis out of hundreds of posts. The main @ICRC account, which has a massive following of 2.2 million, is able to point to a few more examples, but most of these repeated the organisation’s excuse that its hands were tied by the ostensible limitations of its role as “a neutral intermediary.”

This narrowly legalistic policy recalls the ICRC’s shameful inaction during the Nazi Holocaust, when its officials ignored internal and external evidence of the German death camps and the genocidal “Final Solution.” The Red Cross leaders deliberated and decided to avoid public condemnations that would create friction between the Nazi authorities and Swiss officials.

That policy was not merely passive—the ICRC was also a willing participant in Nazi propaganda exercises. Specifically, the organisation presented the Theresienstadt ghetto as a “model” for the ICRC, which led it to circulate a fake report stipulating that Jews were not being transferred to the gas chambers. It took sixty years, immense pressure, and the emergence of documents revealing the organisation’s moral duplicity before the Red Cross acknowledged that Auschwitz “represents the greatest failure in the history of the ICRC, aggravated by its lack of decisiveness in taking steps to aid the victims of Nazi persecution. This failure will remain part of the ICRC’s memory.” Their statement concluded:
For the ICRC the most appropriate way to honour the victims and survivors … is to fight for a world in which the human dignity of every man, woman and child is respected without any reservations. It may never be possible to fully achieve this aim but the memory of Auschwitz obliges us to do everything in our power to work towards it.

These noble words notwithstanding, the Red Cross response to the hostages and the Gaza war closely parallels the organisation’s inaction and excuses during the Shoah. Like the victims languishing in the Nazis’ concentration camps, the Israeli hostages languishing in Gaza became non-persons—neither seen nor heard in the ICRC’s actions and public campaigns.

Bias and Betrayal
The ICRC’s own double standards are particularly galling. Regarding Israelis, the policy of neutrality is a one-way street. The ICRC has repeatedly and vocally joined the intense political campaigns led by UN agencies and allied NGOs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), which portray Israel’s counterterrorism in Gaza as egregious violations of international law. The organisation’s “Israel and Gaza” posts on Instagram include dozens of condemnations of “the limitless destruction of Gaza” and of the IDF’s “evacuation orders” to safe havens outside the areas of combat, which the ICRC insists “are not compatible” with international humanitarian law (IHL). But IHL, including the numerous “Geneva conventions,” is a flexible and endlessly contested concept that often reflects political and ideological preferences. In some interpretations, the Israeli policies in Gaza are entirely consistent with and perhaps above and beyond the requirements of the law of armed conflict. But these interpretations were entirely absent in the ICRC’s declarations, media interviews, and posts.

During the Gaza conflict, the ICRC repeatedly condemned Israeli military actions involving hospitals and clinics in Gaza, but said nothing about the extensive exploitation of these facilities by Hamas. For years, ICRC personnel on the ground in Gaza have included permanent staff, while top officials have made frequent visits. Like their UN and NGO counterparts and everyone else in Gaza, they were all aware of the vast tunnel network built by Hamas below schools, hospitals, clinics, mosques, residences, and parks. These tunnels were essential to Hamas’s terror strategy, including for the production and storage of thousands of rockets used to strike Israeli population centres. Each of these attacks on Israel was a war crime, but the Red Cross reported nothing, unlike the journalists and doctors who observed and documented the presence of Hamas weapons and fighters and the systematic exploitation of hospitals and other medical facilities for war and terrorism.


Gil Troy: The Hamas prisoner release is a justification for death penalty for terrorists
Even former president Joe Biden, as he went out in a blaze of pardons and clemencies, singled out terrorism as particularly heinous. He commuted the death sentences of 37 cop killers, prison-guard murderers, and deadly bank robbers. But he kept three mass murderers on death row, including two terrorists.

Last fall, the Center for Strategic and International Studies warned that in the US, “the number of domestic terrorist attacks and plots against government targets motivated by partisan political beliefs in the past five years is nearly triple the number of such incidents in the previous 25 years combined.” The New Year’s Day jihadist attack in New Orleans proved that the Islamist threat from abroad – including the threat of outsiders manipulating American citizens – also looms.

Safeguards are essential. Limit this death penalty to mass terrorists who killed three or more, or terrorists who slaughtered minors under 18. But justice must also be swift. Appeals after exceptionally speedy trials should be allowed only within three months and expedited by special tribunals. Within a year of any terrorist attack, punishment should be meted out.

Although Israel needs such legislation most acutely, other Western democracies should pass similar laws. The message to an Israel still reeling from October 7’s mass murders – and thousands of attacks since – would be: “We’ve got your back.”

Terrorists command attention by preying on people of conscience while sowing confusion. Terrorism must be fought resolutely – and with moral clarity.
‘Only Marwan Barghouti, in return for all the Israeli hostages,’ terror victims’ lawyer tells TML
While many Palestinians see Barghouti as a leader who can unite factions and guide them toward political stability, his release remains deeply contentious in Israel. Critics highlight his conviction for attacks during the Intifadas, raising concerns about the precedent his release would set.

“It’s painful. It’s outrageous. Victims are outraged,” said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of Shurat HaDin to The Media Line. “How can it be that someone responsible for so many deaths could walk free? This is not just about Barghouti—it’s about justice for all victims."

Darshan-Leitner, a prominent Israeli attorney and activist, has spent decades leading the legal battle against Palestinian and Islamic terrorist organizations through Shurat HaDin, an independent civil rights group based in Tel Aviv. Under her leadership, the organization has represented hundreds of terror victims in lawsuits against entities including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority, Iran, Syria, and major financial institutions accused of funding terrorism. Shurat HaDin has secured over $1 billion in judgments, frozen more than $600 million in terrorist assets, and collected $120 million in payments for victims and their families.

“Barghouti is not just any prisoner,” the lawyer pointed out. “His release would send a message that acts of terror can be forgiven, which is a dangerous precedent. The pain of the victims' families cannot simply be ignored in political negotiations,” Darshan-Leitner added.
IDF PodCast: Daily Brief: Liri, Karina, Naama and Danielle Are Back Home from Hamas Captivity
After 477 days in Hamas captivity, Liri Albag (19), Daniella Gilboa (20), Karina Ariev (20), and Naama Levy (20) are finally back home in Israel.

All four were kidnapped from Nahal Oz base on October 7, 2023.

This special episode of mission brief discusses their return, and explores the truth behind their release.

Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more episodes.
Arbel Yehoud, Agam Berger, Gadi Moses to be released from Gaza on Thursday
The three hostages due to be released on Thursday are Arbel Yehoud, Agam Berger, and Gadi Moses, according to an announcement on Wednesday.

The releases are expected to occur in the late morning or early afternoon hours, according to sources who spoke to The Jerusalem Post.

This follows earlier reports that Israel has received the list of the three Israeli hostages in Gaza set to be released on Thursday, and that the list met with the expectations of Israeli authorities.

According to information presented to mediators of the deal, five Thai citizens are also expected to be released by Hamas. This number is independent of the agreement between Israel and Hamas.

The release of three hostages in a previously unscheduled hostage transfer on Thursday was announced on Sunday after 48 hours of intense negotiations.

The Hostage Families Forum welcomed the good news "of the expected release of Arbel Yehoud, Agam Berger, and Gadi Moses after 482 days in Hamas captivity," in a statement released on Wednesday.

"An entire people is fighting for them and eagerly awaits their long-awaited return to the arms of their families.We have the sacred duty and moral right to return all our brothers and sisters home. We will not give up and will not stop at any stage until all the abductees return home within the framework of the current agreement - the living for rehabilitation and the dead for a proper burial in their country," Hostage Families Forum continued.


Who is German-Israeli hostage Arbel Yehoud, the 'pure' soul set for release?
German-Israeli hostage Arbel Yehoud was 28 when she was abducted by terrorists from Nir Oz - where three generations of her family called home.

Now, over a year later, she is expected to be released as part of a hostage-ceasefire deal on Thursday, alongside Agam Berger and an additional male hostage.

On Monday, Palestinian Islamic Jihad published a video of Yehoud, 29, on their Telegram channel.

“To my family: I’m fine,” she says. “I miss you so much and hope to be back with you soon, like the other girls who were liberated.”

Arbel was initially scheduled to be released last Saturday as part of the original terms of the hostage and ceasefire deal agreements, which was violated by Hamas.

Taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz
Arbel was taken hostage along with her boyfriend, Ariel Cunio, from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023.

Arbel’s father, Yechti, told DW News he hoped that the terrorists would see how “pure” his daughter’s heart is and would not torture her.

"We have two different kinds of anxieties," Arbel’s father told Ynet before learning of his son’s fate. "We are very anxious for Arbel's fate because she is a woman. We fear that she has experienced mental, physical or sexual abuse. Alongside this, there is anxiety about the fate of Dolev, who has Hashimoto's thyroiditis and does not have his medicine. Without pills, his body is getting weaker and weaker, leading to severe danger to his life. During this time we have received reports showing proof of life for Arbel. We received nothing about Dolev. We are fighting for them to be released together, she as a woman and he as chronically ill."
Who is Agam Berger, the final IDF observer set for release on Saturday?
Agam Berger was named on Friday as one of the four hostages set to be released on Saturday by Hamas as part of the second week of the first phase of a hostage-ceasefire deal.

Last week, Hamas released 28-year-old Emily Damari, 23-year-old Romi Gonen, and 31-year-old Doron Steinbrecher

Berger, now 20, was abducted on October 7 and taken to Gaza while still in her pajamas.

With constant disruptions to reporting and the chaos inflicted during Hamas’s attacks, the family only discovered the Berger had been abducted on October 8. It was Berger’s father who uncovered what had happened to the then-19-year-old as he discovered footage of her abduction on a Hamas Telegram channel.

Berger was abducted alongside Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, and Naama Levy from the Nahal Oz base when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7 2023.

"My daughter is 19. She is a teenager. I cannot imagine what went through her mind when she saw this happening in front of her,” her father told the Media Line, while describing some of the testimonies he was told of Hamas’s brutality against soldiers.

Merav Berger, the mother of Berger, previously told Israeli media that she believed her daughter was behind the braids worn by released hostages.

The Hidabroot channel ran a report last year in which Merav was recorded saying that her daughter "braided the hair of the other women before their release."

"It [the braider] was Agam who was braiding the hair of the girls she knows are being released while she stays behind."
Who is Gadi Moshe Moses, one of the hostages from Kibbutz Nir Oz
Gadi Moses was taken captive from outside his home on October 7 when Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he lived, was invaded by Hamas terrorists. Moses marked his 80th birthday in Hamas captivity in Gaza in March.

Gadi’s ex-wife Margalit Moses was also kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and released on November 24 after 49 days. His partner, Efrat Katz, was killed by Hamas, whilst her daughter and two grandchildren were taken and subsequently released as part of the first hostage deal.

Signs of life
In December 2023, a video was released of two hostages, one of whom was Gadi Moses, who pleaded with the government to negotiate his release. The other hostage was Elad Katzir, who has since been murdered in captivity and his body rescued by IDF soldiers in April of last year.

Last year, Moses’ granddaughter Shani visited New York City for the first time alongside her father, Yair Moses, to help bring awareness about her grandfather’s plight after he marked 100 days in captivity. She tried to share positive memories she had with him.

Shani Moses said, “My hope is he's staying strong. I know my grandfather is a really strong person.”

As an internationally renowned agronomist, Gadi Moses has expertise in wastewater management and field crops. He also worked as a peace activist, helping to advocate for Palestinian rights and peace.


Israel said to demand Hamas clarify status of hostages Shiri Bibas and her two kids
Israel has demanded that Hamas clarify the condition of hostages Shiri Bibas and her two small boys, Ariel and Kfir, whom the Palestinian terror group is holding in the Gaza Strip, Hebrew media reported Wednesday.

The three are set to be returned to Israel in the ongoing first phase of the ceasefire and hostage deal that halted the war started by Hamas in October 2023.

While living women and children were supposed to be freed first under the deal, bodies are to be handed over later in the deal. Fears for the fate of the Bibas trio have grown, as Hamas has not returned them among the first hostages released. Husband and father Yarden Bibas, who was abducted separately to Gaza, is slated to be released later in the deal’s first phase.

Hamas has said that 18 of the 26 hostages yet to be returned under the current phase are alive, without offering specifics on the condition of individuals, and that eight are dead.

The Bibas family members are among the highest-profile hostages still held in Gaza. Ariel, 5, and Kfir, who turned 2 earlier this month, are the only children left there, after a November 2023 deal that saw the release of more than 100 of the 251 people seized in the attack by Hamas terrorists the previous month, in which some 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, on the deadliest day in Israel’s history.

At the time, Hamas said the children had been killed along with their mother. Israel said it was investigating that “cruel” claim, but did not confirm it, and the IDF has since said that it has no intelligence to confirm their status.

There have been no signs of life from the boys since the day of their abduction, when they and their mother, Shiri, became an early face of the violence. A video that emerged of Shiri carrying her children as she was taken away by the terrorists quickly gained attention due to her visible distress, the children’s bright red hair, and Kfir’s young age — at 10 months old, the youngest Israeli abducted by Hamas.
Bibas family fears for lives of hostages Shiri, Yarden, Ariel and baby Kfir
“The information we received is not good. The army is afraid about the state in which they will be returned, but nothing is proven yet,” Jimmy Miller, the cousin of Hamas hostage Shiri Bibas, told JNS on Tuesday.

“They fear the information we had received a year ago is real, but we won’t know the truth until we see it with our own eyes,” he said.

Shiri Bibas, 33, her husband Yarden, 35, and her two young sons, Ariel, 5 and Kfir, 2, are on the list of the 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of Israel and Hamas hostage-for-ceasefire agreement. Hamas, however, claimed in November 2023 that Shiri and the children had been killed. Yarden is presumed to be alive.

Eight of the 33 hostages intended for release during the first phase are dead, according to a list provided by Hamas.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer confirmed that the terrorist group has stated that 25 of the hostages are alive. The list was delivered to Israel overnight on Sunday.

So far, seven hostages have been freed, leaving 87 of the 251 individuals taken by Hamas during the terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, are still in Gaza. This includes the remains of at least 34 hostages confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered Gaza in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier killed in 2014. Another soldier’s remains were recovered earlier this month.

“Maybe they truly did release the living first, or maybe they just want to scare us. They want to make us think they are dead and for us to be surprised when somehow they survive,” Miller told JNS.

“I believe that there’s a chance they will come back alive, but I’m preparing myself for the worst. I’m ready for the news, good or bad. I’ve been preparing myself for a year. The most important thing is for them to come back and not disappear in the sand of Gaza,” he continued.


Parents of Nova survivor meet their son’s savior, a Bedouin Israeli, for first time
When Tamar Biton met Yunis Alkarnawi for the first time, at the Bedouin Israeli’s home in Rahat, in southern Israel, last week, she cried. “I don’t know how to thank this man,” she told Jewish Insider. “He saved my son’s life. It’s a gift.”

Yunis saved the life of Shalev Biton, 25, along with seven other young adults who had escaped from the Nova music festival, as well as 24 Thai workers who were working on the farm he manages when the Hamas massacres began on Oct. 7, 2023.

Yunis’ family hosted a group of some 140 representatives from the Israel Educational Travel Alliance at his family’s home on Wednesday, as part of a leadership summit aimed at discussing how to adapt educational trips to the country in the new post-Oct. 7 reality.

On Oct. 7, the Nova festivalgoers had run the five miles from the party in Reim — where 364 people were murdered and 40 kidnapped — before seeking refuge on the farm, one arriving with bleeding feet from having run without shoes.

When Shalev first ran onto the farm, both he and Yunis were wary of one another, each wondering if the other might be a terrorist. “What are you doing here?” Shalev asked Yunis, who repeated the same question back to him. But when he spotted Shalev’s earrings, he understood from the jewelry that “he was one of ours [Israeli].”

Yunis invited Shalev and his friends into the dining room and gave them food and water and charged their phones. “I felt absolutely safe. I messaged my family that we are in a safe place and they don’t have to worry at all,” Shalev said.

Yunis assured his guests that they were safe with him, far enough away from the Gaza border that the terrorists wouldn’t get to them. But around midday, one of the Thai workers came to tell him that a motorcycle was approaching the farm.

Yunis went out on his own to see who it was. “I saw that the terrorists were coming around the side of the house and that they were definitely terrorists. They stopped at the gate, right next to us.”

“At first I didn’t go out to him, but I saw that he was determined to get through the gate and I realized that if he got through the gate, he was going to kill us all — we were 33 people.”

“It took me a couple of seconds to think of what to do. I walked to him at the gate to talk to him. And I spoke to him in Arabic, and he understood I was an Arab,” Yunis told the audience.
'Liri Albag saved my life' Amit Soussana reveals for first time in Uvda interview
Explaining how freed hostage Liri Albag saved her life when they were both in Hamas captivity was just one of the revelations that released hostage Amit Soussana provided in an exclusive, first-time interview aired on Tuesday on Uvda, N12’s investigative program.

Soussana, a 40-year-old lawyer from Kfar Aza who was taken captive on October 7, has been a prominent campaigner for the release of the remaining hostages from Gaza and was the first freed hostage to give public testimony of the sexual abuse she endured at the hands of Hamas terrorists.

October 7
Soussana was released in the first hostage-prisoner exchange in November 2023. In the N12 interview, she recounted how she was taken captive and detailed what she underwent during her 55 days in Hamas captivity.

The infamous footage of Soussana’s kidnapping shows her battling ten armed men for over 40 minutes, alone, in what she called “the fight of my life.”

Soussana said that she was trying to buy as much time as she could to allow the army to rescue her.

“I just stumbled; I walked as slowly as I could,” she told N12. “At first, the terrorists probably believed me. But then I started gesturing with my hands and feet and going wild to make it clear that I was still alive.”

She did this in the hopes that someone would come to her rescue.

However, despite making things more difficult for her captors, Soussana suffered blows and beatings in return. One terrorist even hit her with the barrel of his gun. Her captors then tied her up with a blanket she managed to grab when she was dragged out of her home.

“They bust my lip open, broke my nose and my eye socket. I didn’t feel any pain; I don’t remember pain. I just remember thinking, ‘They’re going to kill me, so at least I know I didn’t go down without a fight,’” she told N12.

“I gave it everything I had because I thought I was going to die and in the most horrible way possible,” she continued.


Ben-Gvir proposes bill to publish database of released terrorists
Otzma Yehudit chair MK Itamar Ben-Gvir and MK Zvika Fogel submitted a bill in Knesset on Wednesday which would require a database of security prisoners and terrorists released from prison, including their names, photographs, and the list of offenses they are charged with, to be published on the National Security Ministry's website.

This is the first bill proposed by Ben-Gvir as an opposition member of the Knesset since he, along with the other Otzma Yehudit MKs, resigned from the government.

Ben-Gvir stated that "we will continue to fight terrorism from the opposition, as we pledged."

"We submitted an important bill that will allow every citizen to know who the terrorists who are being released are, what their crimes are, and what risk they may pose," he added.

"It is unacceptable that those who harmed Israeli citizens can return to a normal life without the public being informed. The security of Israel’s citizens must come above all else," Ben-Gvir concluded.


Seth Frantzman: Can The Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire Hold?
Iran’s role in backing Hezbollah has suffered a setback in recent months. The fall of the Assad regime on December 8 and its replacement by a government that is more hostile to Tehran means that Iran can no longer easily traffic weapons via Syria to Hezbollah. Hezbollah has lost a key partner now that the Assad regime is no more. Iran will have to find other ways to help Hezbollah replenish its arsenal. Some of this can be accomplished locally, but Iran’s backing is key.

Iran’s Mohammed Javad Zarif, who now serves as Iran’s vice-president for strategic affairs, said at Davos on January 22 that “resistance” to Israel will continue. He denied that Iran controls proxy groups such as Hezbollah. His wider point was that no matter what happens, resistance will continue to oppose Israel in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

Israel now has a ceasefire on two fronts. The Lebanon ceasefire lasted for two months, and the ceasefire with Hamas began on January 19. The new Trump administration appears to want both these to continue. The Israeli government appears also to want to shift focus to fighting terrorist groups in the West Bank. On January 21, the IDF launched a new operation called “Iron Wall,” which Israel’s prime minister and defense minister both spotlighted in comments. Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said that the operation would change the security situation in the West Bank. “We will not allow the arms of the Iranian octopus and radical Sunni Islam to endanger the lives of the settlers and establish a terrorist front in the east against the State of Israel. We will strike the arms of the octopus with force until they are severed,” he said last Wednesday.

It appears to be in Israel’s interests to maintain the ceasefire in Lebanon. In addition, the Trump administration appears to want to see these ceasefires continue, paving the way for more diplomacy and possible normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia or other initiatives. The challenge is getting the new Lebanese government on board to actually deploy the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon and not enable Hezbollah to return to various villages and positions near the border quietly. The fall of the Syrian regime, the new Lebanese government, the Gaza ceasefire, and the new Trump administration all appear to provide the possibility that the Lebanon ceasefire will survive after its first sixty days. For that to happen, Israel will have to decide whether Hezbollah, in its current debilitated form, continues to constitute a threat in southern Lebanon or if the group may be kept in check in the near term.
Seth Frantzman: Trump admin has opportunity in Syria policy
As US President Donald Trump’s administration begins to take its first strides in foreign policy, one of the places that will need focus is Syria.

It is becoming increasingly important because the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad fell on December 8. This hands the United States a major opportunity to remake policy regarding Damascus.

The US has a unique opportunity because Russia and Iran had been close to the Assad regime. Now the Russians and Iranians are gone from Damascus, at least temporarily, and the US and the West can have more potential influence there.

It is important to briefly review the last decades of Syria’s history to understand why it is so important.

Damascus was under the Assad regime for 50 years. This provided some continuity. The regime was backed by the Soviets in the 1970s and 1990s. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the Assad regime considered working more closely with the West.

It played a role in the First Gulf War in 1991. Later, the Assad regime changed hands from Hafez al-Assad to his son, when Hafez died in 2000. After the September 11 attacks, Syria again positioned itself as a key player in the region.

A neighbor of NATO-member Turkey, Syria was affected when America toppled Iraq’s president Saddam Hussein.The Assad regime then cynically exploited the chaos in Iraq to enable extremists to flow down the Euphrates River valley into Iraq to fight Americans after 2003. However, Syria also pretended it was ready to reform.


Saudi-Israel talks nearing breakthrough, says new Israeli ambassador to US
Israel is “closer than ever” to normalization with Saudi Arabia, Israel’s newly appointed ambassador to the US revealed in an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post.

The development will be a “game changer for the region and beyond,” Yechiel Leiter predicted.

Leiter, who officially began his role on Friday, described normalization with Riyadh as part of a broader strategic realignment in the Middle East following the decline of Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Iranian proxies. "We’re closer to Saudi Arabia because we’ve degraded Hamas,” he said. “The fall of [Syrian leader Bashar al-]Assad and the weakening of Iran’s influence have brought us to a moment of opportunity.”

The ambassador linked the potential agreement to Israel’s recent military successes. “There are few countries in the world, aside from Israel, that want to see Hamas degraded more than Saudi Arabia," Leiter explained. “Wherever the Muslim Brotherhood is compromised, moderation can rise. We’ve seen this in Egypt, Sudan, and Turkey. Saudi Arabia recognizes that defeating these elements is crucial to its own modernization.”

Leiter, 65, was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and moved to Israel in 1978 at 18. A combat medic who served during the 1982 Lebanon War, Leiter is a historian, philosopher, and an ordained rabbi with a PhD in political philosophy from the University of Haifa, where he explored the influence of the Hebrew Bible on John Locke’s theory of consensual government.

He previously served as chief of staff to now-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Finance Ministry, was a political aide to Ariel Sharon, and was deputy director-general of the Education Ministry.

Leiter has authored multiple books on Zionism and Israeli politics, has lectured extensively worldwide, and has held leadership roles in government and public policy institutions.

Momentum for normalization
Leiter highlighted the historic significance of the potential deal with the Saudis, emphasizing how far Israel has come since the days of isolation in the region. “Thirty years ago, even discussing such an agreement would have been unthinkable. Now, thanks to the Abraham Accords and changing dynamics, we are on the cusp of a major breakthrough,” he said.

He also tied the Saudi-Israel normalization talks to the broader goal of reshaping the Middle East.

“Normalization is not just about trade agreements or diplomatic niceties,” Leiter explained. “It’s about creating a new framework for regional stability, one that rejects extremism and fosters cooperation.”
‘You Cannot Unsee the Evil’: A Report on the Graphic Hamas Terror Video, From Combat Veteran John Spencer
There are many scenes of burned bodies. Bodies frozen in awkward positions in vehicles, on the highways, in their homes. The bodies burned to ashy skeletons. It gave me memories of visiting concentration camps of Dachau and seeing the photos of the holocaust.

There are also many photos of dead children and babies. Some where they were found, others in body bags. Young children still in their Disney Mickey Mouse or Stitch pajamas. Some burned and mutilated.

From a military lens I did see Hamas fighters with training, leaders giving orders to kill systematically, conserving ammo.

“Shoot them just once in the head, save your ammo.” I heard their communication back to leaders in Gaza.

In one scene a man is instructed to bring an IDF soldier’s body back even though he is dead. I also saw Hamas terrorists with no training, firing wildly into dead bodies or crowds of fleeing civilians.

There is an audio recording of one Hamas terrorist who used an Israeli woman’s cellphone to call his parents. “Father I am in XX, I just killed 10 Jews, their blood is in my hands, thank God, tell mom, tell mom, I am using a Jew woman’s phone.”

Terrorists Fired Wildly Into Bodies

The man (dad) and woman (mom) he is talking to just yell and reply: “Kill, kill, kill.”

I have seen my share of evil firsthand around the world in wars of the Middle East, Ukraine, and other areas. I have seen heinous cruelty, dehumanization, and mutilations. I have looked evil men in the eye. But I have never seen so many evil men (thousands) show such joy in committing their acts.

I hated having to watch the video. You cannot unsee the evil shown in it. The unique way each scene shows all angles of evil massacres, mutilations, murder, over and over creates something different, a traumatic event.

I now understand more why it is only being selectively shown to others. The video has immense potential to traumatize viewers in unknowable ways based on the viewer’s past or who they are.

I personally will never forget the scenes of the children. Photo after photo of dead, burned, mutilated children. Some in the same pajamas my children wear, soaked in their blood. Or the scene of the two young brothers trying to care for each other through their injuries and pain while a terrorist stood by emotionless.

It is not natural. I have seen an entire platoon of soldiers mentally, morally, and emotionally crushed by the accidental injury of a single child in combat.

It is like Hamas released 2,000 Jeffrey Dahmers into Southern Israel. Cold, psychopathic, emotionless, serial killers that get joy in the suffering of others. Pure evil.

No one should want to see this video, but the horrors of that day should never be forgotten. Never rationalized away. The phrase in my head the whole time “Never Again” from the post-Holocaust, post-World War II era, but I was watching it “again.”


Sydney police uncover cache of explosives, with indication target was synagogue
Police in Sydney found a trailer containing explosives, with “some indication” it may have been intended to blow up a synagogue, Australian media reported on Wednesday.

The trailer was discovered on January 19 in Dural, a suburb some 36 kilometers (22 miles) northwest of the center of Sydney, New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner David Hudson said.

“That caravan contained an amount of explosives and some indication that those explosives might be used in some form of antisemitic attack,” he told a news conference.

“Investigations over the last ten days have progressed — however, there is a lot to do,” he said, explaining police have made “made arrests on the periphery of this job.”

Hudson did not disclose how many arrests were made or what the charges were, if any.

He did say, however, that police “believe there is some connection between some of the targets we’ve charged under Strike Force Pearl” — the NSW initiative, launched last month, to address antisemitic hate crimes — “and this particular investigation.”

“We are still looking for assistance in relation to anyone who saw that caravan parked on the road from December 7,” Hudson said, noting it “was parked in a hazardous position prior to it being moved by a local resident.”

Addressing concern in the community about potential attacks, the deputy police commissioner said, “We believe that we have contained, appropriately, this current threat.”

New South Wales police kept the discovery secret for nine days before it was leaked to the media.
‘Something brewing’: Daily Telegraph crime editor divulges breaking terror plot in Sydney
The Daily Telegraph’s Crime Editor Mark Morri discusses how he came across the secretive story surrounding an alleged terror plot against Jewish targets with explosives found in a Sydney caravan.

“I was basically told there was something brewing and it was very, very big,” Mr Morri said.

“We started to piece together exactly how big it was.”


‘Horrific’: NSW counter-terrorism team uncovers caravan laden with explosives
Australian Jewish Association President David Adler has condemned the latest antisemitic incident to affect New South Wales.

His remarks come after a caravan laden with explosives and a note with the address of a Jewish synagogue was found in Sydney’s Hills District on January 19.

“Everyone’s called it out as an escalation, and indeed it is,” Mr Adler told Sky News host Sharri Markson.

“I mean, this is horrific. I used to live in a wonderful country called Australia. Maybe you remember it because what we’re seeing today is not Australia.”


Alleged terror plot discovered in Sydney could send ‘terror’ among Jewish community
The Australian’s Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan discusses the “vicious” antisemitism running rampant throughout Australia as an alleged terror plot is unveiled in Sydney.

“It is a very, very disturbing story, it is a very hard plot to interpret on its face,” Mr Sheridan said.

“It could be a plot that has gone wrong and they have abandoned the explosives, somebody might have left the explosives there with a note in order they be discovered and create terror amongst the Jewish community.”




‘Repugnant and frightening’: Labor and Greens ‘recklessly irresponsible’ on antisemitism
Sky News host Chris Kenny says the antisemitism Australia has seen and is experiencing is “repugnant and frightening”.

“Threatening protests intimidating people in the Jewish areas of Melbourne and Sydney, abusive and racist graffiti, and cars being torched in a number of attacks, a synagogue being firebombed in Melbourne,” Mr Kenny said.

“The weakness we’ve seen is permissive, we have green-lighted this behaviour, which is why it’s gotten worse.

“The Labor and Greens politicians have been recklessly irresponsible on this stuff.”


Jewish school targeted in latest hateful attack
Antisemitic graffiti outside Mount Sinai College in Maroubra.

In yet another overnight antisemitic attack in Sydney, Mount Sinai College in Maroubra has been vandalised with hateful graffiti.

A home next door to the school was also defaced with antisemitic slurs.

The latest incident occurred just metres away from the Only About Children childcare centre that was firebombed last week, and a day after NSW Police announced they are investigating a caravan laden with explosives north of Sydney. The van reportedly contained the address of a Sydney synagogue.

Mount Sinai College informed parents on Thursday morning that the school had been targeted and provided reassurances that immediate additional security measure will be in place. Children are expected to return to school on Friday.

NSW Premier Chris said it is “utterly appalling and shameful” that a school would targeted in such a manner.

“It tells you everything you need to know about how appalling these bastards are that they would rip apart a school, on one of the first days of school, with a racist, antisemitic attack,” he said.

“There are some terrible people in our community, I’m ashamed to say, but that’s the truth. Bad morals, bad ethics, bad people that will commit these acts, but Australians stand united against this appalling racism. Most Australians from every background regard this kind of hate-filled activity as the opposite of what it means to live in our country, in our community, in Australia 2025.”


‘Let’s see what happens,’ UN says of Israeli laws shuttering UNRWA office
With a pair of laws, which the Knesset passed in October, slated to go into effect on Jan. 30 shuttering the U.N. Relief and Works Agency office in Jerusalem, reporters asked at a United Nations press briefing on Wednesday whether the U.N. agency would comply with the Israeli laws.

“Let’s see what happens when the sun rises over Jerusalem tomorrow,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, told reporters.

The global body has “taken measures to ensure” that UNRWA staff members subject to the new legislation are “safe and that premises and records are also safe,” Dujarric said at the press briefing. Asked if Israel has told the United Nations that it will guarantee protection of UNRWA staff, Dujarric said, “I would not say that we’ve gotten any assurances.”

The U.N. spokesman echoed comments from Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA, and said that the agency “will continue to deliver on its mandate until it physically cannot.”

The Palestinian-only aid and social services U.N. agency, UNRWA has long been accused of direct ties to Hamas and other Gazan terror groups. Tensions between the U.N. agency and Israel increased dramatically after the Jewish state discovered and publicized that U.N. staff took part in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

The new laws scheduled to go into effect tomorrow terminate UNRWA operations in Jerusalem and bar contact between Israeli officials and the U.N. agency.

Dujarric’s remarks at the press conference come a day after the U.N. secretary-general’s office provided JNS with a copy of a letter that Guterres sent on Monday evening to Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the global body.

Hours after participating with Israeli officials in a Holocaust remembrance ceremony, Guterres appeared to threaten the Jewish state’s U.N. membership rights in the letter to Danon. (JNS sought comment from the United Nations and from the Israeli mission to the global body.)

“I regret this decision and request that the government of Israel retract it,” Guterres wrote Danon of the Israeli laws, “considering the legal framework applicable to the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and the agency’s irreplaceable nature.”

“Any actions that prevent UNRWA from continuing its activities would severely undermine the provision of an appropriate humanitarian response in the occupied Palestinian territory,” Guterres wrote. (Israel has said that other agencies, both within the United Nations and outside of it, could assume UNRWA’s responsibilities.)
UN Watch: BREAKING: In 48 hours, terrorist-infested UNRWA activities in Israel will come to an end
Neuer: “If 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza are refugees, then why is it wrong for Jordan and Egypt to welcome them? If you object that this would uproot them from their homes and lands in Gaza, then why are they being called refugees?”


UK gives extra £17m to Gaza amid continuing ceasefire
The UK has provided an extra £17 million in humanitarian aid toward Gaza, amid the ongoing ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Development minister Anneliese Dodds announced the aid commitment in the House of Commons, which will go towards food, water, healthcare and sanitation programmes in the war-torn territory.

The fragile ceasefire in the Gaza conflict has lasted more than a week, with thousands of Gazans now returning to where they once lived in the north of the territory.

Foreign Office minister Ms Dodds told MPs: “The UK is investing in the ceasefire. UK support will be distributed to the UN and key medical partners so that tens of thousands of civilians get the healthcare, food and shelter they need.”

Some £2 million of the aid will be given to the World Bank to support the construction and restoration of critical water and energy infrastructure across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the minister said.

In a plea to Israel to allow the UN’s main aid agency in Gaza to continue to operate, she added: “The UN and humanitarian agencies must be able to operate freely.

“This Government has repeatedly stated the need for UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) to continue its life-saving assistance to the people of Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank.”

Israel’s Parliament has voted to block UNRWA from operating in Gaza, following reports that members of its staff colluded with terror group Hamas.


Katz: IDF soldiers will remain in Jenin to defeat Iranian-backed terror
Israeli forces will remain in Jenin after the completion of “Operation Iron Wall” to ensure that the situation in the northern Samaria city “will not return to what it was,” according to a statement released by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz’s office on Wednesday.

The statement, which followed a visit by Katz with Israeli forces operating in Jenin, went on to emphasize that the goal of the operation was to destroy “terror infrastructure built in the Palestinian refugee camps with funding and weapons from Iran.”

IDF commando units have killed terrorists and made dozens of arrests over the last few days in the Jenin area, the IDF spokesperson said earlier on Wednesday.

Israeli forces also located and destroyed explosives and “many kinds” of weapons, as well as a lathe for the production of weapons and two warehouses, the military added.

On Monday, the IDF eliminated the head of the Hamas terrorist organization’s Tulkarem branch.

According to the military, Ihab Abu Atiwa participated in multiple shootings, including an attack on a vehicle at the Ramin Junction on July 16, 2024, which wounded three Israelis.


IDF thwarts weapons smuggling attempt from Egypt to Israel
IDF forces identified and thwarted a smuggling attempt from Egypt into Israel overnight on Tuesday, the IDF said in a statement on Wednesday.

A drone was spotted and shot down by the IDF, which found that the drone was carrying 13 weapons and ammunition.

The confiscated the weapons and transferred them to security forces to handle.

Not the first time
In November 2024, the Israeli military said that it show down a drone that was carrying weapons and crossed from Egypt to Israel.

In two separate incidents in October 2024, Israel also said it downed two drones smuggling weapons from Egyptian territory.

Israel officials then said that the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas used tunnels running under the border into Egypt's Sinai region to smuggle arms.

However, Egypt said it destroyed tunnel networks leading to Gaza years ago and created a buffer zone and border fortifications that prevent smuggling.


Caroline Glick: Amichai Chikli: Uncovering The Not-so-secret War Against The West
In this episode of "The Caroline Glick Show," JNS senior contributing editor Caroline Glick is joined by Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli (Likud Party) for a discussion covering some of the biggest challenges facing Israel and Diaspora Jewry.

Learn how Qatar and seemingly innocuous organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations have infiltrated American society to further their efforts at spreading Islamism.

They also discuss Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's dream of a renewed caliphate and what the West must do today to preserve its values for the next generation.


FDD Morning Brief | feat. Seth Frantzman (Jan. 29)
FDD Senior Fellow David Daoud delivers timely situational updates and analysis, followed by a conversation with Seth Frantzman, Senior Middle East Correspondent and Analyst at The Jerusalem Post and an FDD adjunct fellow.


The Deal and its Political Fallout - with Amit Segal
Over the past couple of weeks, our focus on “Call Me Back” has been on the hostage deal and its implications.

Today Amit Segal returns to the podcast to discuss the perspective of those inside Israel opposed to this deal.

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
1:43 Amit’s View on the Deal
8:46 Differences Between the Current Deal and the Summer Deal
12:23 The Ramifications of This Deal on Israel’s Position and the Risks It May Create
17:34 Reactions to Recent Reports That Estimate 10-15k Hamas Members Have Been Recruited
20:00 The Argument Against a “Day After” Plan – No Alternative Emerges Without Palestinians Believing Hamas Is Gone. Now, With Hamas Messaging Their Return, Does This Premise Hold?
26:07 If Elections Were Held Today in the West Bank, Would Hamas Win? Is the Palestinian Authority a Viable Alternative to Hamas in Gaza?
28:57 What Is the Political Future of Gaza? Has Israel Developed Any Plans in This Regard?
30:57 Changing the Current Humanitarian Aid System in Gaza
33:06 Israeli Perspective on the Later Parts of the Deal, Including Withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor
36:38 Looking Ahead: Should We Declare That We Will No Longer Negotiate for Hostages?
40:56 Should Capital Punishment Be Imposed on Terrorists?
42:26 Thoughts on President Trump’s Proposal to Depopulate Gaza and Relocate Its Population
47:44 Can the Israeli Government Survive If Stage 2 of the Deal Is Implemented?
49:11 Is This Effectively the Beginning of the End of the War?


The Israel Guys: Israeli Hostage EXPOSES GAZA Civilians after 477 Days in Captivity | Crazy Details
After 477 days in Hamas captivity, 4 Israeli hostages are finally freed – but their story isn’t over. In this video, one of the hostages exposes the truth about Gaza civilians and what they witnessed during their harrowing experience.

Watch till the end to hear firsthand accounts of their time in captivity and the shocking truths that have been hidden.


Could Israel Forge ELUSIVE Saudi Peace Deal In 2025? | Stakelbeck Tonight
Former U.S. Ambassador David Friedman discusses the future of the Middle East under President Trump, revealing insights on the Abraham Accords, Saudi-Israeli normalization, and the controversial Hamas hostage deal. Could a lasting peace finally be possible?

00:00 - Intro to Ambassador Friedman
00:24 - Hostage Deal
00:44 - Evaluating the Deal
01:11 - Support and Criticism of Deal
02:23 - Netanyahu and Trump's Influence
03:08 - Phase 1 of Deal
04:03 - Possibility of Iran Deal
05:17 - Saudi Arabia and Accords
06:03 - Saudi-Israel Normalization
08:20 - One Jewish State Explanation


Gazans kept under ‘boot’ of Hamas: Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib
Atlantic Council senior fellow Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib has discussed Hamas’ probable motivation for its terrorist attack against Israel on October 7 after the group “hit a dead end” in terms of its failed governance in Gaza.

“They’ve grown weary in the lead-up to October 7th of all the empty resistance slogans. The people of Gaza said we want a basic, dignified life, and we don’t want to be kept under the boot of an Iranian-sponsored proxy that’s holding us hostage in the name of fighting off Israel,” he told Sky News host Chris Kenny.

“And so the Palestinian people in Gaza protested against Hamas. Mass demonstrations in 2017, in 2019, and in 2023, three months before October 7th and Hamas realised that it is hitting a wall in terms of its inability to provide for its people.”






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