Important Takeaways:
- Quick Facts
- Over 1,400 Israelis (392 soldiers) have been killed, and over 7,000 have been injured.
- The IDF has notified families of 240 being held hostage in Gaza.
- The IDF has struck over 15,000 Hamas targets.
- Over 9,500 Rockets have been fired by Hamas toward Southern and Central Israel from Gaza (over 500 failed launches have fallen inside Gaza), with Lebanon and Syria also firing from the north.
- His visit came during the four-day fire pause in the fighting, part of a deal with Hamas to release Israeli hostages.
- “We are here in the Gaza Strip with our heroic soldiers,” Netanyahu said.
- “We are making every effort to return our hostages, and in the end, we will return them all. We have three goals in this war: Eliminate Hamas, return all of our hostages, and ensure that Gaza will not go back to being a threat to the State of Israel.”
- These comments came just hours before seventeen more hostages were released by the terror organization Hamas on Sunday evening and transported by the International Red Cross to the Israeli border.
- One of the hostages, 84-year-old Alma Abraham, was evacuated by a helicopter to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba directly from the border, reportedly in serious condition.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel Approves Deal To Get 50 Hostages Back From Hamas: ‘We Will Continue The War Until We Achieve The Goals’
- Israeli officials voted on Wednesday morning local time to approve deal in which dozens of hostages kidnapped by Hamas will be let go in exchange for Israel releasing some Palestinian women and minors convicted of crimes from prisons inside Israel.
- Hamas will release 12-13 hostages a day for four days in exchange for a ceasefire during that period of time, The Times of Israel reported. Israel will release about three times that number to return to their homes in Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem.
- Israel also reportedly agreed to allow fuel to go into Gaza, as well as a “significant amount of humanitarian aid,” the report said. Israel’s military and security agencies all reportedly supported the deal. It’s not clear when the ceasefire will go into effect.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly demanded that some of the conditions include the possibility for further hostages to be released after the four day pause, a commitment by Hamas to locate and find hostages held by other terror groups inside Gaza, and a refusal to release Palestinians from Israeli prisons who have been convicted of murder, the report noted, adding that Israel believes Hamas can help locate 30 additional women and children who were taken hostage by other terrorist groups.
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Important Takeaways:
- FBI Director Warns House Panel Threat of Terror Attack Now at Whole ‘Nother Level’
- The directors of the FBI and Homeland Security were in front of Congress Wednesday warning Americans to stay vigilant given the situation in the Middle East.
- Those most responsible for protecting the country fear lone wolf attacks could happen here based on antisemitism, islamophobia, or just hate for America.
- “In a year where the terrorism threat was already elevated, the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole ‘nother level,'” FBI Director Christopher Wray told a House panel.
- Wray confirmed multiple investigations were underway nationwide into people who may have connections to Hamas.
- “Our most immediate concern is that individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home,” he said
- Concern quickly shifted the conversation to the southern border after nearly 200 people on the terror watch list were encountered there.
- “200 is alarming to me, does that give you concern?” asked Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX).
- “Certainly, the numbers give us concern. I think it’s important in some ways to say that numbers alone don’t really tell the problem. We’ve all seen how much damage just a small number of foreign terrorists could cause. As crazy as it sounds people tend to forget it was 19 who killed 3,000,” Wray replied.
- “That’s the point I was going to make. It only took 19 to create 9/11,” McCaul said.
- One point Wray stressed to the American people is, that while continuing to live their lives, there should be a heightened awareness.
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Important Takeaways:
- Forty days after the savage Hamas atrocities of October 7, the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday passed a resolution demanding a ceasefire and calling for “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups, especially children.” The resolution did not condemn the Hamas atrocities that started the war
- The resolution passed the 15-member UNSC by a vote of 12-0 on Wednesday. The United States, United Kingdom, and Russia abstained from the vote.
- S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the United States abstained because it could not vote for a resolution that failed to condemn the Hamas atrocities or restate the right of U.N. member states to protect their citizens against terrorist attacks. She expressed approval of the call for Hamas to release its hostages, however.
- “What are they afraid of?” she asked of UNSC members who refused to condemn the October 7 attacks. “Let’s be crystal clear: Hamas set this conflict in motion.”
- UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward supported the call for a humanitarian pause, but also regretted that UNSC still could not bring itself to condemn the Hamas atrocities.
- Tuoro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust director Anne Bayefsky immediately criticized the Biden administration for failing to block a resolution
- “The Council resolution said the hostages were ‘held by Hamas and other groups’ – not that they were raped, mutilated and kidnapped by Hamas. It never mentioned Israel’s U.N. Charter right of self-defense. It refers only to civilians ‘in Gaza’ and never in Israel. It never mentions ongoing rocket attacks against Israelis. And yet the Biden administration refused to veto it,” Bayefsky told Fox News.
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Important Takeaways:
- Turkey cozies up to Iran after praising Hamas ‘mujahideen,’ seeks reconciliation on key issues
- Turkey has found itself at odds with its NATO allies, most of whom have backed Israel’s right to defend itself following the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, while Turkey has echoed the stances of other Middle Eastern nations in questioning Israel and defending the Palestinians.
- Erdogan took things a step further and defended the Hamas terrorists who carried out the attack, calling the group a “mujahideen,” or freedom fighters, “defending their lands.” He has also continued to push for a ceasefire, accusing the West of being “too weak” to call for one — a stance that seems common among the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) members.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel kills Hamas commander who held 1,000 Gazans ‘hostage’ in hospital
- Israeli forces on Saturday night claimed to have killed a Hamas commander who held 1,000 Gazans “hostage” in a hospital as human shields.
- The Israel Defense Forces said that Ahmed Siam, a leader in Hamas’s al-Furqan Brigade, had blocked civilians from evacuating the Al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City earlier this week.
- The IDF said that Siam and several other terrorists were killed while hiding out at a school building in Gaza, following a joint operation with Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency.
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Important Takeaways:
- Iranian Christian Leader’s ‘Absolute Armageddon’ Question: ‘What Happens if Hamas, Taliban, Hezbollah, and ISIS Join Forces?’
- Lazarus Yeghnazar, founder and president of Transform Iran, an organization that spreads the Gospel in Iran, told CBN Digital such collaborations are already unfolding
- “What happens if Hamas, Taliban, Hezbollah, and ISIS join forces? What will it force the Western countries, and the democracies, and Israel to do?” Yeghnazar asked in the clip. “A conflict, which is catastrophic, will engulf the whole region.”
- He also warned the murderous chaos will eventually come for everyone, not just Israel.
- “This is … a plague that is not only destined to obliterate Israel [but one] that will not stop until they subjugate all of us,” Yeghnazar said.
- With Iran at the center, the faith leader said “only God knows” where the chaos will end, citing a “deep root of bitterness” at the heart of such horrific actions. He also noted that Iranian officials harm, harass, and kill their own people.
- “I think this destruction is going to carry on,” he said. “You cannot get the deep root of bitterness away. You can destroy buildings.”
- And that bitterness and chaos, he said, is “deeply spiritual,” calling it a manifestation of “darkness over light.” Despite terrorists’ diabolical claims and goals, Yeghnazar said Israel won’t be wiped from the map.
- “In this type of Islamic theology, there is no peaceful coexistence, and I think the West has to understand it.”
- “I think this will end in an absolute Armageddon’” he said. “But, believe me, my sadness is not what Satan is doing, because this is already prophesied in the scripture that this will happen. My sadness is what will happen to wake up the church — what will happen to prevent the church into forgetting its own pity … introvert attitude.”
- Yeghnazar encouraged humanity to “wake up and pray together” as God performs “His own will” in the Middle East.
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Important Takeaways:
- Turkey’s Gaza fury deepens splits with EU
- After a bloody October 7 raid by Hamas… Erdogan initially sought to position Turkey as a mediator.
- But this apparent ambition evaporated last month after the Turkish leader portrayed Hamas not as a terrorist group but as “liberators” or “mujahideen” fighting for their land.
- Turkey is technically a candidate for eventual EU membership and, even if this seems a distant prospect, Brussels would prefer Ankara to support rather than compete with its positions.
- “What the president says reflects badly here in Brussels. We always expect Turkey to align with us in foreign policy,” said an EU official who wished to remain anonymous.
- Erdogan, a devout Muslim and fervent advocate of Palestinian rights, toughened his criticism as civilian deaths in Gaza mounted, accusing Israel of committing war crimes and recalling Turkey’s ambassador to Tel Aviv.
- “Erdogan’s stance on Israel-Gaza adds to growing tensions between Turkey and the West over longer-standing issues, including EU accession,” said Hamish Kinnear, senior Middle East and North Africa analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.
- Turkish-EU relations have been at standstill since the launch of membership talks in 2005.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hamas Official: We Will Repeat October 7 Terror Attack Until Israel is Annihilated
- The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translated the interview. In it, Hamas political official Ghazi Hamad says that attacks on Israeli civilians are justified; that the cost in terms of Palestinian “martyrs” is worth the ultimate goal of ending Israel; and that Hamas will continue to mount such attacks.
- We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight. Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.
- “The existence of Israel is illogical. The existence of Israel is what causes all that pain, blood, and tears. It is Israel, not us. We are the victims of the occupation. Period. Therefore, nobody should blame us for the things we do. On October 7, October 10, October 1,000,000 – everything we do is justified.”
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Important Takeaways:
- This Is the Final Confrontation Between Israel And Hamas
- Israel is attempting to slowly but surely strangle the terror group out of existence. In fact, it is being reported that the IDF has now “completed the encirclement of Gaza City”
- IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari has said ground and tank forces have at this point surrounded Gaza City. “Our troops have completed the encirclement of Gaza City, the center of Hamas activity,” he said in a late Thursday (local) press conference. The IDF has further announced the deaths of “130 terrorists” in the latest battles.
- Their goal from this point forward is to stay alive in the tunnels for as long as possible as they hope for Hezbollah and Iran to join the war and save the day.
- Sadly, those tunnels will end becoming tombs for many of them.
- Instead of sending Israeli troops into the tunnels, the IDF is using robots and explosive devices to deal with them…
- A senior officer in the Southern Command told the outlet: “Maybe at first they were able to harass us, sting us by firing from tunnel exits, but after we established control of the areas, the engineering operation started.”
- He added: “We are going to collapse the entrances and the tunnels on them. It will become a death zone. They made a mistake, they chose to be in a place they could not escape from. They will die in the tunnels.
- One Hamas terrorist has admitted on camera that he shot innocent young children…
- And one Israeli first responder is telling the world that he personally saw an Israeli baby that had been “baked to death in an oven”
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