Friday, October 30, 2026

10/30 Links Pt1: Herzog can secure his presidential legacy by bringing Netanyahu and Eisenkot together; Canadian author warns Bondi lessons being forgotten

From Ian:

Herzog can secure his presidential legacy by bringing Netanyahu and Eisenkot together
The politics of delegitimization and defamation, particularly the demonization of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the Left, make the establishment of a broad Israeli government of repair an unlikely scenario.

Yet this is exactly what Israel needs now – the partnership in government of Netanyahu and one of his major rivals, say, the political parties led by Yashar head Gadi Eisenkot and/or Naftali Bennett – to together tackle Israel’s major challenges.

The question is: Who is going to disabuse both the Left and the Right of their belligerent, separatist, extremist dreams of establishing a one-sided government that relies on haredi (ultra-Orthodox) or Arab parties? Who is going to cajole Likud and Yashar and/or B’Yachad into a pseudo “unity” coalition government?

The answer, of course, should be the Israeli president. But I wonder whether President Isaac Herzog is up to the task.

Herzog comes from the Left (a former leader of the Labor Party), and he is already under pressure from his political home base to mandate and approve a narrow Eisenkot government based on an alliance with anti-Israel Islamists or anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews; a government that defiantly excludes Netanyahu.

The camp’s overriding priority is to dethrone Netanyahu under any circumstances and at any cost. This camp expects Herzog to play along; nay, they demand that he brandish his bully pulpit to legitimize a government that embraces Mansour Abbas and Prof. Yousef Jabareen, or alternatively Yakov Asher and Yitzhak Goldknopf.

Such a government would handcuff the IDF in fighting Palestinian enemies and kill the hope of recapturing the Negev from Bedouin mafia gangs, and it would quash any plan for drafting haredim into the IDF. But so what? In the view of the hard Left, terminating Netanyahu is the higher goal that makes anything and everything kosher.

Herzog needs to repel the pressures and demands of the hard Left and wedge the mainstream parties, the two or three largest in Knesset, into a governing coalition, uneasy and fractious as it may be.

It is not enough for Herzog to say that he “will do everything in his power to avoid a repeat election scenario.” He must actively agitate for a broad Zionist government. He should aggressively intervene in the political process beyond the usual presidential consultative role following elections.

Herzog should declare that he will give the mandate to form a government first and foremost only to a political party leader that is up-front committed to seeking unity as his priority plan of action. And then he should reject any proto-government coalition brought to him that is not broad-based; that is, contingent on fractional Arab or haredi parties.

Herzog can and should go further in making a broad-based government possible by getting into the nitty-gritty of the issues that stand in the way, from Netanyahu’s future (rotation in the prime minister’s post, a timetable for retirement from politics, and a pardon) to good governance (formation of a national commission of investigation into the October 7 disaster, judicial reform, settlement policy, and haredi draft).

Don’t tell me that this isn’t the role of the Israeli president and that he has no powers for such interposition. Indeed, it is not the president’s classic role, and legally he has no such powers.
Jonathan Tobin: Netanyahu is a realist about Israel’s foes, not a fear-monger
Moreover, Netanyahu is on firm ground in reminding Israeli voters that leaders and parties that campaign on pledges never to allow a Palestinian state or to accede to demands for concessions, including territorial withdrawals, often break their word.

That’s exactly what happened with Yitzhak Rabin when he was elected prime minister in 1992 and reassured voters that he would not negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization and its terrorist leader Yasser Arafat, let alone empower them in the territories. But then, he did exactly that.

In 2003, Ariel Sharon was re-elected as prime minister by ridiculing his Labor Party opponent for proposing to withdraw from Gaza. Then Sharon, too, carried out the same policy himself in the summer of 2005 by pulling every Israeli soldier, settler and settlement out of Gaza, thus setting in motion the train of events that led to the creation of a Hamas terror state there and the tragedy of Oct. 7.

Moreover, as Haaretz consoled its left-wing readership over the summer, Eisenkot may have declared that he won’t accept a Palestinian state largely in order to curry favor with the voters. But in doing so, he was, the newspaper said, “running away from what everyone knows he believes.” That is probably true. The former general’s statements while he was chief of staff and those made by his advisers all point to acceptance of the Oslo mindset about the imperative of Israeli territorial withdrawals and the creation of a Palestinian state.

Under the circumstances, it’s far from unreasonable for Netanyahu to point this out and to speculate about whether a government led by Eisenkot would resist the inevitable pressure from foreign governments—possibly including the United States once President Donald Trump leaves office in January 2029—for a Palestinian state.

Nor is it fear-mongering to point out that a repetition of Sharon’s catastrophic blunder of withdrawing from Gaza in the far larger and more strategic Judea and Samaria would raise the likelihood of more Oct. 7-style attacks on Israel. Hamas, which would be certain to seize control of a state from its corrupt and feeble Fatah Party rivals who currently control the Palestinian Authority, has promised as much.

Nor is Netanyahu conjuring up imaginary threats when he speaks of the need to finish the process of eliminating Hamas in Gaza and defeating the Islamist regime in Tehran. Israelis know all too well that their enemies are not figments of their imagination on which an unscrupulous prime minister is preying.

And he isn’t making things up when he describes the radicalism of both the Arab parties that did so well in this week’s vote.

Halbfinger is correct that Ra’am has worked hard to sell itself to Jewish voters as a reasonable partner that can be trusted to be loyal to the state while standing up for the interests of Arab voters. Israelis may be proud to live in a country where the Arab minority enjoys equal rights under the law. But even if he served in the government led by Naftali Bennet and Yair Lapid in 2021 and 2022, many, if not most Israelis know that its leader Mansour Abbas’s Islamists beliefs make it impossible to truly accept the legitimacy and permanence of a Jewish state. What’s more, they also know the larger Joint List won’t even pretend to give up their dreams of Israel’s eradication. That’s true even if they are willing, for the moment, to prop up a minority government that would end Netanyahu’s career, due to the fact that he is the greatest foe of those who wish for Israel’s destruction.

Should Eisenkot rely on them to keep a minority government in power outside of the cabinet or ask them to join it outright, he would be giving them an effective veto over future military action to defend Israel against Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Some on the left may think that’s a good idea. But in rejecting such a scenario, Netanyahu would not be exploiting fears as much as pointing out to Israelis that Eisenkot would be doing what the overwhelming majority of Israelis, regardless of who they voted for on Oct. 27, oppose.

The specter of the genocidal intent of Hamas and Iran, for which the atrocities of Oct. 7 were just the trailer for what they want to do to all of Israel, is no boogeyman that Netanyahu pulls out of his bag of tricks to scare Israelis. It is a clear and present danger that must be addressed by any government of Israel, no matter who is at its head, if it is not to betray the trust of its people.

A still dangerous neighborhood
If Israelis understand—their victories in the post-Oct. 7 war and the survival of the Abraham Accords, notwithstanding the global surge of antisemitism—that they still live in a dangerous neighborhood, it’s not because they are fearful. It’s because they have been paying attention to events and are able to judge what happens when their leaders succumb to the temptation of earning the respect of the Times and liberal pundits, and seek to trade “land for peace.” In each case, such policies were not only a betrayal of campaign promises but also wound up doing nothing more than trading territory for terror that led to the loss of thousands of Israeli lives.

If Netanyahu retains a large amount of support, despite the understandable fatigue with a prime minister who has held power for so long and the impulse to make him the sole scapegoat for Oct. 7, it is because Israelis respect and value his realism. For all of his faults and mistakes, he is still the only major Israeli leader of his era who did not fall prey to the magical thinking that led to Oslo and the Gaza withdrawal, and its betrayed promises of gaining peace in exchange for a Palestinian state that the Palestinians don’t want. Pointing this out isn’t scare tactics. It’s realism.

The prime minister’s critics should consider whether their desire to ignore or downplay the real threats to Israel is something worse than speaking to the fears of Israelis: a deliberate attempt to disarm and weaken them in the face of very real genocidal threats.
Canadian author warns Bondi lessons being forgotten
Kinsella said governments and social media companies were the two entities most important in fighting the problem, and both had “dropped the ball”.

Of social media owners including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, he said: “You’ve got billionaires, in one case a trillionaire, who operate in this lawless, wild west environment where anything goes.

“We’re not asking them to donate a kidney. We’re asking them just to observe certain basic restraints, such as to promote truth and discourage hate and lies.”

He said governments should tell the companies: “You will do this, or there will be consequences … so far, there’s not really a government in the world that has done that.”

Kinsella was also critical of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney for recognising a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September 2025. He said recognition had been predicated on elections, governance reform, changes to the school curriculum and an end to the Palestinian Authority’s “pay-for-slay” program.

“None of those things have happened, not one,” he said. “[The] Palestinian state, at least in the case of Gaza, is governed by a designated terrorist entity in this country and in my country.

“We have leadership that is weak and is either recklessly or wilfully blind to this virus of antisemitism and hatred that is spreading in our countries, and that in some cases has cost people their lives.”

Referring to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, Kinsella said the Australian government had questions to answer over Bondi.

“Here, feet from where we are at the moment, you got 15 people [who] were slaughtered as a consequence of an ideology that was allowed to be taught without restraint in this country, and the people involved in that have to answer that. But so too does the government,” he said. “I’m hopeful that the commission of inquiry deals seriously with what it’s got, which is a serious problem.”

Kinsella also addressed a lunch for AIJAC supporters in Sydney on Monday. “The beast of antisemitism is out of its cage, and it is everywhere to be seen,” he told attendees.

Kinsella said he had fought antisemitism for decades as a lawyer, journalist and political adviser, facing threats against his life and at times requiring police protection. “I have never seen it as bad as it is now. Never,” he said.

He argued that antisemites across the political and ideological spectrum were driven by envy and resentment. “[They] envy your success in every endeavour. They envy the resilience and the strength of the Jewish people,” he said.

Kinsella said Israel was always going to prevail militarily, but a second war – “the information war, the propaganda war” – was under way. He said social media profiles began appearing across North America, Europe and the Middle East 18 months before October 7. He said they sat dormant until the day of the attack, then were used to spread denial of the atrocities.

Kinsella said most people in the West supported Israel and the Jewish community. But he warned that millions of young people on the right and the left “have fallen under the spell of Hamas and Iran and the Jew haters”.

“We cannot lose a generation. We cannot lose the future,” he said.

He said the campaign’s blueprint was devised 40 years ago, and traced its origins to the Soviet Union. “I believe we will win that war,” he said. “Because we must win that war.”


Commentary Podcast: Sub Parliament
We are joined by Dan Senor and Matt Continetti to discuss the final vote totals in Israel's elections and the prospects of forming a new government, and how will potential new coalitions deal with Israel's geopolitical challenges? Plus, the issue of rising antisemitism in the leadup to the midterms, the problem with polling rural conservatives, Haley Stevens' message to Abdul El-Sayed, and Matt honors the late Patrick Stewart by recommending the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Inner Light and his general body of work.




Mossad joins Shin Bet probe into alleged Qatar election interference
The Mossad is reportedly joining the investigation into suspected foreign interference in the elections and will assist the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) in areas falling under its remit, namely, the possibility that Qatar was behind payments to the Joint List’s apparatus, according to reports from Israeli media on Friday.

The referral follows the Shin Bet's initial investigation into suspicions that foreign entities, potentially including Qatar and Turkey, funneled money into Israel to influence voting in Arab communities, following a directive from Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg to investigate suspected foreign funding and election bribery.

Investigators are examining, among other possibilities, whether Qatar was behind payments to the Joint List’s party apparatus. However, according to the information provided, the suspicions have no bearing on the election results and are not expected to affect them later.

Elections Committee: “The reports that were published are unfounded”
Acting Central Elections Committee director-general Dean Livne said overnight that reports of suspected attempts to sway the election for the 26th Knesset were unfounded.

“Further details cannot be disclosed, but reports published during the day are entirely unfounded,” he said in a recorded statement issued with the approval of committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg.

Livne said the Shin Bet opened the investigation after classified intelligence was presented to Sohlberg.

“Yesterday, the head of the Shin Bet presented classified intelligence to the committee chairman, which led to the opening of the investigation,” he said.

He added that, with Sohlberg’s approval, the main points of the intelligence were also presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, opposition leader Yair Lapid and Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot.
ABC facing criticism after poor coverage of Israel-Palestine conflict
News24 Media Watch Dog Columnist Gerard Henderson discusses the ABC’s recent coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict.


The shadow of Bondi
At the Melbourne launch this week of the book Bondi Terror, written by Alex Ryvchin and Sharri Markson, Markson posed two questions weighing heavily on Jewish Australians: “Is there something worse still to come? Have the lessons of Bondi truly been learned, especially by our political leaders and law enforcement?”

Those questions capture the fear, anger and uncertainty gripping the Jewish community in Australia.

Since the terrorist massacre at Bondi Beach last December, when 15 people were murdered celebrating the holiday of Chanukah, Jewish Australians have confronted an unimaginable reality: Are we safe in our homes, schools and synagogues? Can we trust those responsible for protecting us?

A government’s most fundamental responsibility is the safety and security of its citizens. Yet Bondi has left many Jewish Australians questioning whether political considerations have taken precedence over that duty.

Could something worse still happen? Tragically, we cannot dismiss that possibility. Bondi demonstrated what follows when hatred is allowed to escalate into violence. Until Jewish Australians see evidence that the threats identified before the massacre are being confronted decisively, the fear of another attack will remain.

For more than two years, our community warned about escalating antisemitism and attacks on Jewish institutions. What matters now is whether Australia has learned anything.

Since Bondi, our community has experienced profound grief, exhaustion, anger and betrayal. Jewish organizations have supported victims and strengthened security. Thousands gathered in solidarity, determined not to allow terrorism to extinguish Jewish life.

But behind that resilience is a devastating question: Are we safe in our own nation?

Why must we enter synagogues through security fences, past armed guards and surveillance cameras, simply to practice our faith? Why do our children require such measures to enter the same schools we attended without them? When did being visibly Jewish become a security risk in Australia?

Antisemitic threats should never be accepted as normal.

Jewish Australians have not merely enjoyed Australia’s freedoms. They have helped defend and build the nation.

Gen. Sir John Monash, the Australian-born son of Jewish immigrants, commanded the Australian Corps during decisive Allied victories in World War I, becoming one of Australia’s greatest military leaders.

For generations, Jews have contributed to virtually every facet of Australian life: business, medicine, scientific research, law, education, the arts, journalism, philanthropy and countless other professions. They have created businesses, supported hospitals, enriched our culture and strengthened Australian institutions.
‘Music to my ears’: Antisemitism envoy proposes external ABC and SBS ombudsman
News 24 host Rowan Dean praises Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal for proposing to instil an external ABC and SBS ombudsman, calling the recommendation "music to my ears”.




Jewish candidate again wins straw poll, but no indication it’s enough to secure nomination as UN secretary-general
Rebeca Grynspan, of Costa Rica, a Jewish economist, won Friday’s United Nations Security Council straw poll to decide the next secretary-general of the global body, according to identical tallies that multiple diplomatic sources released to the press.

That makes six wins in seven tries for Grynspan, a U.N. executive and former Costa Rican vice president.

But despite securing 11 “encourage” votes from the 15-member Security Council, Grynspan got four “discourage” votes, which again casts doubt on her ability to secure the nomination even though she has been the race’s frontrunner almost exclusively.

Candidates require approval from at least nine council members but must also avoid a veto from any of the five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Rafael Grossi, of Argentina, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, finished second on Friday with nine “encourage,” four “discourage” and two “no opinion” votes.

Guyana diplomat Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett got eight “encourage” and six “discourage” votes and one “no opinion.”

The wild card on Friday was Lana Nusseibeh, former United Arab Emirates ambassador to the global body, who entered the race belatedly upon viewing the council’s lack of consensus.

Nusseibeh served as the Emirati ambassador to the global body from 2013 to 2024, which included the period when Israel and the United Arab Emirates normalized relations.

Her family, considered Jerusalem’s oldest Muslim dynasty, arrived in the seventh century of the Common Era and remains the keyholders to Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of Christianity’s holiest sites.

On the first try, Nusseibeh secured seven “encourage,” six “discourage” and two “no opinion” votes, suggesting that she has her work cut out for her at this last stage.

Nusseibeh has come under criticism in some circles for her role in defending the UAE’s involvement in the Sudanese civil war.

All of the other three candidates were deep underwater in Friday’s result, which did not use color-coded ballots that reveal which, if any, of the permanent five members say “discourage” in the secret vote.


Macklemore cashes in on 'Free Palestine' tour while funding October 7 apologists
THE BILL for this lands on people who will never buy a ticket. On October 20, Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer patrol in north London, posted footage of brutal assaults on two Jewish women in Stamford Hill. Macklemore plays London 10 days later.

When rioting swept France this month, the Combat Antisemitism Movement tracked a wave of posts blaming Jews for the chaos, some calling for their expulsion or extermination. Twelve days after the riots began, Macklemore brings the antisemitic genocide-libel to a sold-out Paris arena.

None of this requires Macklemore to hate Jews, and he claims he does not. It requires only that he never ask what this money buys. Tickets are sold through Ticketmaster, which Live Nation owns.

The Israeli-American Council has demanded that Live Nation explain its vetting. Neither has explained how PYM made the list. Romanticizing a massacre as a jailbreak is how the next one gets excused before it happens.

PYM chose the prison metaphor for a reason. An escaping prisoner can be sympathetic. The facts are not. Israel pulled every soldier and every Jew out of Gaza in 2005. Two years later Hamas seized the territory in a coup, throwing rival Fatah men off rooftops.

The “prison” has a border with Egypt. Its rulers poured untold tons of aid materials into tunnels dug to attack Jewish homes. Righteous escaping prisoners do not stop to massacre, rape, and mutilate.

The deeper lie is that Palestinians were locked out of statehood. They were offered it and said no. Their leaders rejected the Peel Commission’s partition plan in 1937 and the UN’s in 1947 and answered the second offer with war.

Yasser Arafat walked away from Camp David in 2000 without a counteroffer. Mahmoud Abbas never answered Ehud Olmert’s 2008 offer of a state on territory equivalent to nearly all the “West Bank” and Gaza. A leadership that has refused a state for nine decades is not a prisoner. It keeps throwing away the key.

Macklemore said he has been “silenced.” He is about to be heard in Dublin, Paris, and London. The murdered 1,200 have no such stage, and part of his receipts will go to people who call their murderers heroes. The fans filling those arenas are not standing up to power. They are paying for the myth that excused the massacre, and that myth always sends its bill to the Jews. In blood.


How An Islamic Government Exploits A Loophole To Lobby American Leadership
QatarEnergy, Qatar’s state-owned energy company, is actively lobbying U.S. trade groups on the Qatari government’s behalf, a Daily Wire investigation has found.

The company, which exports tens of billions of dollars’ worth of liquefied natural gas and petrochemicals each year, including urea and ammonia, sent letters to major U.S. agricultural and chemical trade groups to lobby the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), a federal agency that sets tariff policy, for tariff exemptions on Qatar’s behalf. The USTR did ultimately exempt ammonia just as Qatar requested.

Typically, any person or group lobbying on behalf of a foreign entity must register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and disclose when, who, and how it is lobbying. However, by lobbying U.S.-based non-governmental entities, and asking those groups to make the asks on their behalf, Qatar can muddy that process.

The groups QatarEnergy reached out to made their requests to the U.S. government before QatarEnergy ultimately disclosed its lobbying efforts, creating the possibility that the USTR did not know it was indirectly being subjected to a foreign lobbying effort. It is likely those American organizations would have made the requests to USTR regardless of the Qatari lobbying, but USTR did not clarify whether it knew Qatar had reached out to the groups, or whether that knowledge would’ve affected its decisions.

QatarEnergy’s own Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing notes, “[t]he Board of Directors, appointed by H.H. the Emir of the State of Qatar, is accountable to the Supreme Council for Economic Affairs and Investment, which stewards the nation’s petroleum resources and oversees the energy sector. The Board is also accountable to the Council of Ministers, which may exercise general oversight authorities. Currently, the Chief Executive Officer of QatarEnergy, H.E. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, serves as Minister of State for Energy Affairs. Other Board members also hold senior government positions.”

When the FARA-registered Texas branch of QatarEnergy contacted these trade groups to lobby the federal government on Doha’s behalf, it did not identify itself as a registered agent. Normally, under FARA rules, agents must identify themselves as a foreign agent when contacting members of the government and distributing materials on behalf of a foreign principal.


US military conducting nightly missions to enforce Hormuz blockade, straining aircraft, crew
The US military is conducting nightly missions over the Strait of Hormuz as American forces work to enforce a blockade on Iranian ports along the waterway and protect commercial vessels at risk of being struck by Iranian projectiles, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Thursday.

Pilots and aircrew aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, deployed in the region since August, spoke to the WSJ about the warship’s daily operations and around-the-clock defense of the strait.

The airspace over the waterway is only about 20 miles wide but is full of aerial objects, US service members told WSJ, giving fighter jet pilots a small window to react to any projectiles launched from Iran’s coast.

US naval blockade support 'reliably' defending commercial shipping
Rear Adm. Jeffrey Heames, who commands the USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group, told WSJ that US forces have been reliably striking down threats to commercial shipping in the region.

“If there’s a threat that’s launched against those vessels, whether it’s an anti-ship cruise missile or a drone, those aircraft will go in and intercept it and shoot it down in a very short amount of time,” Heames stated.

According to US Central Command (CENTCOM), the protection provided by the US Navy has allowed Gulf partners to export over 1.5 billion barrels of crude oil since the summer. Over the past six months, more than 3,000 commercial vessels have successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz without incident.

In a video statement released on X/Twitter on Friday, CENTCOM head Adm. Brad Cooper detailed that since the blockade was imposed, Iran has not been able to export any oil.

Nightly operations strain crew members, cost US billions of dollars

Despite the success of the nightly operations, US officials familiar with the missions told WSJ that the frequency of flight operations has put a strain on aircraft, crew members, and the mechanics responsible for maintaining fighter jets.


Al Jazeera airs rare footage of Muhammad Deif, documents detailing October 7 attack plans
Rare archival footage of Muhammad Deif and other senior commanders of Hamas's military wing was broadcast Friday evening on Al Jazeera's "What Is Hidden Is Greater" program.

The footage allegedly shows senior Hamas military officials meeting in tunnels, holding discussions ahead of the October 7 massacre, and Deif walking through a tunnel during the war. The network also presented documents it claims shed light on the planning behind the attack.

In one video, Deif is seen walking through a tunnel wearing a hat and speaking with those accompanying him. Additional footage shows senior Hamas military commanders greeting one another before gathering for a meeting and later praying together underground.

Among those identified in the footage were Deif's deputy, Marwan Issa, Mohammed Sinwar, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, Ra'ad Sa'ad, Ahmed Randour, and Rafa'a Salameh.

The program also featured footage of Deif alongside former Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh inside a rocket manufacturing workshop.

Al Jazeera also aired a recording of a conversation between Deif and Sinwar that, according to the network, took place following the IDF's Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021.

Another segment shows Deif in Hamas's operations room, examining models of Israeli tanks and discussing a battle plan with brigade commanders.

Documents detail operational order issued two days before October 7 massacre

Alongside the footage, Al Jazeera released documents it claims detail Hamas's preparations for the October 7 attack.

One document, dated October 5, 2023, was presented as the operational order signed by Deif following a six-hour staff meeting. According to the program, the document specified that the attack would begin at 6:30 a.m.

Another document, reportedly from a February 2023 meeting of Hamas's inner military command, allegedly records the decision to begin preparing for the attack, months before it was carried out.


Report: Shin Bet letting Hamas operatives choose whether they’re killed alone or alongside their families
Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reports that in recent months, the Shin Bet has begun calling Hamas operatives in Gaza ahead of strikes targeting them, offering them a choice: leave their homes and be killed alone, or remain inside and be killed along with their family members.

According to the newspaper, this has happened at least five times recently.

The newspaper reports that last Wednesday, Mohammad al-Bayouk was killed in an IDF airstrike in Khan Younis while standing on the roof of his home, after receiving a phone call from Shin Bet officers who allegedly told him to choose between being targeted alone on the roof or inside next to his family.

According to the report, al-Bayouk chose to go up to the roof, where he was killed.

Al-Bayouk’s aunt was seriously injured when she chased after him in an attempt to stop him from going outside following the phone call, according to a relative who spoke to the newspaper.
IDF kills Hamas commander involved in holding Noa Argamani, 11 other hostages
The IDF killed a Hamas squad commander who was involved in holding multiple hostages during their captivity in Gaza, including former hostages Noa Argamani, Emily Hand and Ohad Ben Ami, the military and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said in a joint statement on Friday.

Ihab Jamil Abu Taqiya, a squad commander in Hamas's military wing, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Nuseirat area on Thursday. The IDF said Abu Taqiya had been involved in holding numerous hostages at the beginning of the war, naming 12 individuals who were subsequently released or whose bodies were returned to Israel.

Another Hamas terrorist, Ibrahim Gihad Muhammad Abu Oshaiba, a platoon commander in the group's military wing, was also killed in the strike, according to the military.

The IDF said the two terrorists had advanced attacks against Israeli troops and civilians throughout the war, particularly in recent weeks, and worked to restore Hamas's military capabilities in what it described as systematic violations of the ceasefire.

The military said the strike was carried out to remove the threat they posed, and emphasized that measures were taken to reduce harm to civilians before the strike.

IDF strikes Hamas weapons storage facilities in Gaza
In a separate joint announcement, the IDF and Shin Bet said they had dismantled two weapons storage facilities used by Hamas's military wing in strikes carried out Thursday night in the Al-Bureij area and Gaza City.

The facilities contained dozens of weapons and other military equipment, including RPG launchers, explosive devices, rockets, Kalashnikov rifles, grenades and ammunition magazines, according to the military.

The IDF said advance warnings had been issued to civilians ahead of the strikes and that precision munitions and aerial surveillance had been used to reduce the risk of civilian casualties.

Four Hamas terrorists killed in strikes in southern Gaza
The military and Shin Bet also announced that four Hamas terrorists had been killed in two separate strikes in the southern Gaza Strip earlier this week.

In a strike in the Khan Yunis area on Wednesday, the IDF killed Muhammad Alian Biyuk, whom it identified as a Nukhba operative in Hamas's military wing.

In a separate strike in the Rafah area on the same day, the military killed three additional Hamas terrorists: commander Al-Hamam Jaber Al-Sayed Abu Labda, Mahmoud Abu Naama and Muhammad Hamad Shreiki Sultan.

The IDF said the terrorists had advanced attacks against Israeli forces and civilians and had worked to restore Hamas's capabilities, in violation of the ceasefire. It said measures had been taken to reduce the risk to civilians during the strikes, including the use of precision munitions and aerial surveillance.



 



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