Archive for month: January, 2025

News Update

Israeli hostages Keith Siegel, 65, Ofer Calderon, 54, and Yarden Bibas, 35, are set to be released tomorrow, according to a list submitted by Hamas to Qatari and Egyptian mediators and approved by Israel. Siegel is a U.S. citizen and Calderon a French citizen. The fate of Shiri Bibas and her 2 young children is still unknown. Hamas claimed in November 2023 that they were killed in an Israeli bombing. The IDF investigated the claim but did not confirm their deaths.

IAF fighter jets struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley overnight. The targets included an underground weapons factory and smuggling infrastructure on the Syria-Lebanon border.

Israel claims that Iranian diplomats and Turkish citizens are bringing in suitcases stuffed with U.S. dollar on flights to Beirut to fund Hezbollah, which Israel views as a breach of the ceasefire agreement.

IDF Staff Sgt. Liam Hazi, 20, from Rosh HaAyin, was killed yesterday in the ongoing anti-terror operation in the Jenin refugee camp. Four other soldiers were wounded in the same ambush.

IDF soldiers shot and hit two terrorists who threw Molotov cocktails at Route 60 during an ambush in the El-Hader area in Judea.

IDF reservists Yuri Eliasfov, 22, and Georgi Andreyev, 21, were charged today with collaborating with an Iranian foreign agent known as “Boaz” and carrying out actions intended to harm Israel’s national security. According to the indictment filed in Haifa District Court, Eliasfov served as a technician in the Iron Dome air defense system and Andreyev as a technician at the Israeli Air Force’s operations center. The two have been friends for years.

News Update

Tens of thousands of Gazan continue to travel back to their homes in the northern part of the strip. Those walking do not undergo any security checks. Vehicle are stopped and inspected by around 100, armed and highly-skilled, ex-military, ex-CIA U.S. contractors who have previously served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their mission is to prevent the flow of weapons and terrorists north. For more, click here.

Hamas has handed over a list to mediators that shows that 25 out of the 33 hostages scheduled to be released in phase 1 of the agreement are alive. Israeli authorities updated the families. A hostage cannot be officially declared dead while their body remains in captivity unless Israel obtains unequivocal evidence.

President Trump said he spoke to Egypt’s President el-Sisi about his suggestion to move Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries while the Strip was being rebuilt. Trump said, “I’d like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence.” He also said, “When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years…There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.”

[Everything Trump says makes absolute sense. The only catch is that the Arab nations benefit from maintaining the Palestinians in a state of suffering and misery, so that they can keep their own people angry at Israel and distracted from their own misery and living under dictatorial regimes. The Palestinian “refugee” problem could have been solved decades ago had the Arab nations wanted to. But Trump seems confident, and he definitely has a track record of making things happen that you wouldn’t think were possible, so who knows?]

The IDF and security forces continue anti-terror operations in Jenin and Tulkarm. At least 15 terrorists have been killed, over 40 injured and 35 arrested for questioning. According to an IDF statement: “Large forces are currently operating in the camp during the initial stages of the operation, which will continue indefinitely,” the IDF said in a statement. “This comes after dozens of operations in Tulkarm, Nur al-Shams and Jenin since the start of the war, aimed at dismantling terror infrastructures.” Much of the Jenin refugee camp has been destroyed.

News Update

The government is meeting at this time to approve the ceasefire and hostage release agreement. The Security Cabinet has advised the government to approve the deal. Prime Minister Netanyahu informed the Security Cabinet that both the Biden and Trump administrations have provided unequivocal assurances of full support for intensified military action in Gaza if Hamas violates the ceasefire. These guarantees include backing should negotiations over Phase 2 fail and Hamas refuse Israel’s security demands. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir voted against the deal.

The following 33 individuals are included in the first phase of the emerging hostage deal framework. This group includes both civilians and soldiers, as well as two individuals held in Gaza since before October 7 – Avraham (Avera) Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed Shaaban. Sources indicate 25 of these 33 hostages are confirmed alive, though specific status of which individuals remains undisclosed.

1. Albag, Liri
2. Arayev, Karina
3. Ben-Ami, Ohad
4. Berger, Agam
5. Bibas, Ariel
6. Bibas, Kfir
7. Bibas, Yarden
8. Bibas-Silverman, Shiri
9. Calderon, Ofer
10. Cohen, Elia
11. Damari, Emily
12. Dekel-Chen, Sagi
13. Elgarat, Yitzhak (Itzik)
14. Gonen, Romi
15. Gilboa, Daniela
16. Horn, Yair
17. Idan, Tzachi
18. Levi, Naama
19. Levi, Or
20. Lifshitz, Oded
21. Mansour, Shlomo
22. Mengistu, Avraham (Avera)
23. Moses, Gad Moshe
24. Shaaban, Hisham al-Sayed
25. Shem-Tov, Omer
26. Sherrabi, Eliyahu
27. Shoham, Tal
28. Siegel, Keith Samuel
29. Steinbrecher, Doron
30. Troponov, Alexander
31. Vankert, Omer
32. Yahalomi, Ohad
33. Yehud, Arbel

Hamas plans to release the hostages over 42 days (six weeks), with at least three hostages freed weekly. Living hostages will be released before the deceased. Under the terms of the deal, women will be released first in two stages: three women on the first day and four on the seventh day. Israel aims to begin implementing the agreement on Sunday at 4:00 p.m.

 

News Update

Qatar has reportedly handed Israel and Hamas a “final” draft of a cease-fire and hostage release agreement after a breakthrough was reportedly reached in talks in Doha late last night. Officials in Israel denied receiving the draft and said the final agreement is dependent on Hamas. Some of the issues that still could derail an agreement include the status of the Philadelphi quarter and northern Gaza, the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released and veto power over that process, and the number of live hostages to be released in the initial 33 set to be freed in phase one.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he could not support the deal because he believes that it is catastrophic for Israel’s security. He tweeted, “We will not be part of a capitulation deal that would include the release of arch-terrorists, stop the war and dissolve its achievement won in blood while sacrificing the lives of many hostages,” he said in his post. “This is the time to continue in full force, conquer and purify the entire Strip and finally take control of the humanitarian aid from Hamas and open the gates of hell until Hamas is defeated and all the hostages returned.”

Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Committee, who is responsible, among other things, for the issue of terrorists held in Israeli prisons, reportedly went to Qatar to meet with the negotiating team and prepare the list of Palestinian prisoners who will be released as part of a hostage deal. Fares claimed yesterday that more than 3,000 Palestinian prisoners will be released in the first phase of the deal.

President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday by phone. They discussed efforts underway to reach a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and free the remaining hostages. The White House said that Biden “stressed the immediate need for a cease-fire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal.” They also discussed “the fundamentally changed regional circumstances following the cease-fire deal in Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and the weakening of Iran’s power in the region.” Netanyahu also thanked Biden for his lifelong support of Israel and “the extraordinary support from the United States for Israel’s security and national defense.”

The IDF announced that 4 soldiers were killed in battle in Gaza’s Beit Hanoun by an explosive device detonated near their vehicle:

– Sergeant Major (res.) Alexander Fedorenko, 37, from Bat Yam, a truck driver in the 79th Battalion, 14th ‘Machatz’ Brigade.

– Staff Sergeant Danila Diakov, 21, from Ma’ale Adumim, a soldier in the 931st Battalion, Nahal Brigade.

– Sergeant Yahav Maayan, 19, from Modi’in, a soldier in the 931st Battalion, Nahal Brigade.

– Sergeant Eliav Astuker, aged 19, from Ashdod, a soldier in the 931st Battalion, Nahal Brigade.

Five more soldiers were wounded in the incident.

The IDF struck multiple locations across southern and eastern Lebanon, including areas far away from the border, last night. Targets included a rocket launch site, a military installation and transit routes along the Syria-Lebanon border used for smuggling weapons to Hezbollah.

Arkia Israeli Airlines is launching Tel Aviv – New York flights in cooperation with Tech-Air, the initiative of the DemocraTech high-tech protest movement. The new route will be launched from February until May with three weekly flights to the US on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. The flights will use new Airbus NEO 330-900 aircraft, which will be operated by the Spanish-Portuguese company Iberojet. Round trip fares begin at $1,199 including 20 kilograms of baggage.

News Update

The IDF announced that 3 soldiers were killed fighting in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza: Staff Sergeant Ido Samiach, 20 from Ganei Tikva, a member of the Nahal Brigade’s special unit, Major Dvir Zion Revah, 28, and Captain Eitan Israel Shiknazi, 24, from the settlement of Eli, were killed in the same incident.

U.S. Middle East envoy Amos Hochstein visited Beirut yesterday and confirmed that the “IDF will withdraw from all Lebanese territory.” After meeting with Lebanese leaders her said, “IDF has begun withdrawing from Naqoura in southern Lebanon, and will withdraw from all Lebanese territory. Implementing the agreement in southern Lebanon is not easy, but we are committed to supporting the Lebanese Army.” However, Israeli military officials are currently considering the possibility of remaining in Lebanon beyond the cease-fire deadline, doubting that the Lebanese army can fulfill its obligations and assure that the terms of the ceasefire agreement are fully carrying out.

In an interview, incoming President Trump warned Hamas again to release the hostages saying, “If those hostages aren’t released by the time I get to office, there will be hell to pay. I don’t think I have to go into it anymore. It won’t be the word ‘don’t’… There will be hell to pay. Those hostages have to get out. They have to get out now.”

Israel rejected UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ proposal to appoint Finland’s former foreign minister Pekka Haavisto as the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East. Israel reportedly opposes Haavisto’s candidacy due to his close ties with Guterres, his advocacy for a two-state solution, and past criticism of Israeli policies.

The Defense Ministry signed two major deals, totaling $275 million, with Elbit Systems to supply thousands of heavy air munitions used by the Israeli Air Force, which would reduce Israel’s need to rely on the United States for the heavy bombs. Elbit will also establish a “national raw materials plant to produce raw materials that were sourced mainly from abroad before the war.”