Important Takeaways:
- 11 Israeli hostages returned to Israel on Monday, bringing the total released to 76.
- Hamas terrorists attacked Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday as efforts continued to extend the ongoing ceasefire, according to initial reports.
- Shortly after the reported incident the spokesperson for Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades Abu Obeidah claimed that Israeli forces had committed a “clear violation” of the ceasefire in the northern Gaza Strip and that Hamas had “dealt with this violation.”
- “We are committed to the truce as long as the enemy has committed to it, and we call on the mediators to pressure the occupation to adhere to all the terms of the truce on the ground and in the air,” said Abu Obeidah.
- Palestinian media claimed that shortly after the reported incident, Israeli fighter jets were scrambled over the Gaza Strip.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is refusing to release an infant Israeli hostage, Kfir Bibas, who was nine months old at the time of his abduction, among the 50-70 hostages it is letting go as part of a four-to-six-day “pause” in the fighting.
- The Times of Israel reported:
- The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee indicates to Sky News that the Bibas family — father Yarden, mother Shiri, 10-month-old baby Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel — will not be released today from Hamas captivity.
- Adraee explains that the family was taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 massacre, and was then transferred to another Palestinian terror faction in Gaza. They are currently being held in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
- The Bibas family confirms that their loved ones will not be released today.
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Important Takeaways:
- The horrors endured by Hamas’s hostages: Barely any food, forced to sleep on plastic chairs, waiting to be executed… Israelis reveal the Hell they went through while held captive for seven weeks
- As of Monday morning, of the roughly 240 people dragged into Gaza by Hamas in its brutal October 7 attack, 62 hostages have been released (made up of Israelis and foreigners), one was freed by Israeli forces, and two were found dead inside Gaza.
- Their relatives have spoken of plastic chairs as beds, irregular meals of bread and rice, and hours spent waiting for the bathroom.
- In one 84-year-old woman’s case, it is reported that she was not given vital medication while in Gaza, and that she is currently in an ‘unstable’ condition.
- Another elderly woman said she feared she was on her way to be executed in the build up to her release, only to find that she was being freed.
- Of those released, 58 were freed under a cease-fire deal over the past three days. Four others were freed earlier in the conflict.
- A total of 14 hostages with Israel citizenship were returned to Israel on Sunday, the third day of a four-day truce deal with Hamas that will see a total of 50 Israeli captives freed in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners.
- Under the terms of the agreement, one more group of captives is set to be handed over to Israel in exchange for Palestinian prisoners before the end of the truce.
- Those freed in recent days have largely stayed out of the public eye.
- Most are still in hospitals being treated as they start to process a seven-week ordeal that may have left many of them deeply traumatized.
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Important Takeaways:
- On Day 4 of Hostage Release, Families Await Word as Israel Mulls Ceasefire Extension
- Monday marks the fourth day of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, and the ongoing release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th. Israeli sources now report the ceasefire may be extended much longer to release more hostages.
- For the past three days, heartwarming scenes have played out in Israel as families are being reunited for the first time after weeks of captivity, having been kidnapped by Hamas. Fourteen Israelis were released on Sunday, including four-year-old Avigail Edan, an Israeli-American. Hamas killed her parents in front of her during the massacre on October 7th.
- So far, 40 Israelis have been freed, with more expected on Monday for a total of fifty Israelis. In Jerusalem and the West Bank, Palestinians celebrated the return of dozens of prisoners. Many of them have committed attempted murder, stabbings, shootings, and have thrown Molotov cocktails. One woman called for more kidnappings so more prisoners could be freed.
- It’s likely more Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages will be released. Israel’s war cabinet is deciding whether or not to extend the ceasefire for ten days with ten hostages released for each day. This may prolong Israel’s military campaign for up to two weeks.
- “I think every day that goes on with the ceasefire, it’s going to be harder for them to restart the war machine, and that is exactly what Hamas intends,” CBN News Correspondent Chuck Holton explained. “They understand that the longer this ceasefire goes on, the more pressure will build on Israel to continue that ceasefire indefinitely, and if they continue it indefinitely, Hamas does not get wiped out, and Hamas survives. That’s their strategy here, I believe.”
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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:
- Biden Administration’s $10 Billion Prize to Iran: Just A Small Thank You for Engineering a War, Wounding 56 US Troops and Trying to Drive the US Out of The Middle East
- From the Iranian regime’s perspective, annihilating Israel and the Jews would presumably be a major breakthrough, giving them a dominance over the Muslim world, even greater than Saudi Arabia’s.
- The dedicated funds that this new $10 billion will release can now be used to put the finishing touches on the mullahs’ nuclear bomb – to threaten their Sunni neighbors in the Gulf, Europe, and above all, “The Great Satan, the United States. Iran’s plans for cutting “The Great Satan” (and others) down to size are already underway in Cuba and throughout South America. Earlier this month, Israel helped Brazil thwart an attack by the Iran-backed terrorist group Hizballah on Brazil’s Jews.
- Sadly, the $10 billion looks suspiciously like a “pretty please” bribe not to try to drive the US out of the region this year [before the 2024 US election]; instead, wait for next year.
- The solution is not to give Iran $10 billion as a prize for practicing extensive regional aggression and engineering mass-murder. Real solutions would include cutting the flow of funds by re-imposing — and enforcing — primary and secondary sanctions; incapacitating the port from which Iran sends oil to China; sending Ayatollah Khamenei and the leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) pictures of their homes; making the ruling mullahs seriously aware of military options, such as taking out the training bases and leadership of the IRGC, and employing significant military force when required — for instance now.
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Important Takeaways:
- Erdogan blasts Israel as a ‘terrorist state’ intent on ‘total destruction’ of Gaza
- Erdogan told the Turkish parliament that “the Israeli government has been continuously committing war crimes for the last 40 days, they are bombing hospitals, streets and mosques, and are aiming for all these places intentionally, implementing a strategy of total destruction of a city and its people.”
- “They [Israel] have been speaking about murdering all those people using nuclear weapons, so let me call on Benjamin Netanyahu — do you have nuclear weapons or not? Explain this, if you have the courage.”
- “You are threatening people with atomic bombs, nuclear bombs. It does not matter what you have, you are a goner,” he said.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back at Erdogan hours later.
- “He calls Israel a terror state, but in his actions he supports the terror state of Hamas,” said Netanyahu, in comments released by his office. “He himself shelled Turkish villages within the borders of Turkey — we will not accept his preaching.” Netanyahu was likely referring to Turkish military action against Kurdish areas of the country in recent years.
- In 2019, Amnesty International found Turkey to have displayed “a shameful disregard for civilian life, carrying out serious violations and war crimes, including summary killings and unlawful attacks that have killed and injured civilians.”
- Hamas has been allowed to flourish inside Turkey for over a decade and has run operations from an office in Istanbul, although Turkey insisted it only hosted the group’s political wing.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel Seizes Control of Hamas Parliament; Israeli Defense Minister: ‘Hamas Has Lost Control of Gaza’
- Day 39
- Over 1,400 Israelis (363 soldiers) have been killed, and over 7,000 have been injured
- 240 Hostages
- 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.
- IDF robot found additional terror tunnels, including electricity being siphoned off from the [Rantisi Hospital] for use by the terrorists underground.
- [Also] contained suicide vests, rocket-propelled grenades, and a variety of weapons but also signs, such as baby bottles, that Hamas had held Israeli hostages there.
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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:
- Hezbollah says it is introducing new weapons in ongoing battles with Israeli troops
- The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said Saturday his fighters have introduced new weapons, including a missile with a heavy warhead in the ongoing fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border, adding that they will keep using the tense frontier to pressure Israel.
- Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also blasted the United States over the Israel-Hamas war, saying it is the only country that can stop Israel’s wide offensive on the Gaza Strip but doesn’t do so. He said attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, that Washington says have reached more than 40 rockets and suicide drone attacks, will continue until the war in Gaza comes to an end.
- Nasrallah’s comments came as the situation along Lebanon’s southern border continues to escalate. Hezbollah on Friday attacked northern Israel with three suicide drones after an Israeli strike in central Syria killed seven Hezbollah fighters.
- Hezbollah officials say that by attacking Israeli posts along the border, the Iran-backed group is keeping three Israeli army divisions busy at a time when Israeli troops are pushing into the Gaza Strip where more than 11,000 people have been killed over the past five weeks, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
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