Israel's War Against Hamas - Updates

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“After 98 days in Hamas tunnels, all hostages face immediate mortal danger and need life-saving medicines. In addition to medicines, the hostages require also extensive medical treatment,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement. “The war cabinet must demand visual proof that medicines have reached the hostages.”

(full article online)

Vital medications to be transferred to Gaza hostages in coming days, PM’s office says

Red Cross to reportedly facilitate transfer; Hamas said wary delivery may help Israel establish location of hostages; deal will also see medications for Palestinians enter Strip

www.timesofisrael.com

 

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The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum Headquarters representing the families of those abducted to Gaza, releases a video featuring Mayim Bialik, Sheryl Sandberg and Ginnifer Goodwin on the atrocities carried out against women by terrorists during the Hamas-led onslaught on October 7.

The video features the women describing testimony reported by The New York Times and The Telegraph of the widespread sexual violence against women and children during the devastating assault.

The video can be watched here.

“The video, featuring Mayim Bialik, Sheryl Sandberg, Ginnifer Goodwin, Kathy Ireland, and Patricia Heaton, is not just a recount of the atrocities but a call to action,” the organization says in a statement. “It serves as a stark reminder that silence and denial only serve to further violate the victims. It is a plea to the world to acknowledge these heinous crimes and to stand in solidarity with the survivors and those still held captive.”

“We call upon the global community to not just watch but to act. We urge everyone to speak out for the women held hostage, still enduring atrocities at the hands of their captors, and demand their release. We must bring them home,” the forum says.

The video is released as the hostages’ families and their supporters ready to mark 100 days since their loved ones were kidnapped to Gaza, where they are still held captive.

Some 3,000 Hamas terrorists stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking another 240 hostages amid acts of unimaginable brutality.

‘A call to action’: Sheryl Sandberg, Mayim Bialik, Ginnifer Goodwin in video on Oct. 7 sexual violence

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www.timesofisrael.com

 

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Vital medications to be transferred to Gaza hostages in coming days, PM’s office says

Red Cross to reportedly facilitate transfer; Hamas said wary delivery may help Israel establish location of hostages; deal will also see medications for Palestinians enter Strip

www.timesofisrael.com

 

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During her terrible captivity in Gaza six-year-old Emilia Aloni depicted a world of suns, hearts, flowers and smiling families on paper. Drawing pink grass due to a lack of other colors, she created a universe scribbled with optimistic lines, contradicting the cruelty around her, a world perhaps only a child with rose-colored glasses could envision in such darkness.


Three of her drawings, now revealed, offer a glimpse into this world. The first drawing shows four figures, all abducted on the same morning of October 7. These are the Aloni-Cunio family: Sharon, David and their daughters, Emma and Yuli, aged three. Sharon, Emilia's aunt, and the girls were released from captivity. David is still held by Hamas.
5 View gallery

6-year-old Emilia Aloni's drawing from Hamas captivity
(Photo: Shaul Golan)

Captivity through a child's eyes: Emilia's drawings shine hope through despair

In depths of Hamas tunnels, 6-year-old Emilia Aloni created a world on paper Hamas terrorists didn't allow her to take with her; fellow hostage who was released after her managed to smuggle out three of her drawings

www.ynetnews.com

 

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[Israel needs them. Welcome ! ]

Absorption Ministry: 494 Physicians and 83 Nurses Made Aliyah in 2023

The average age of physicians who immigrate to Israel is 41.4, and the median age is 37.

www.jewishpress.com

 

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Visiting Kibbutz Be’eri was a day I will never forget. I saw with my own eyes a modern-day Holocaust of the Jewish people in the State of Israel, a combination of words I could never imagine putting together. I saw remnants of the darkest and most unthinkable acts—acts that were unimaginable in 2023.

I heard firsthand accounts and saw the devastation of what happened on October 7, 2023, in towns and villages throughout the south of Israel. I listened to stories that I had not previously heard publicly, stories that have changed my understanding of the evil that exists in the world.

These stories have changed me.

It’s been a week since my visit, and I can still see the swarms of mosquitos and moths drawn to the remnants of blood across this once beautiful and serene property and community. I can still smell the stench of death, which permeates the ground. Bullet shells sat next to crayons on the table of a nursery school. I heard direct accounts from the families whose homes were lit on fire to smoke them out of their safe rooms, families that were then brutally attacked and slaughtered. I learned the story of a woman who was raped, mutilated and then shot in the head and killed in front of her husband who was forced to watch. He was then castrated and shot to death. Unspeakable atrocities of rape, murder and mutilation of men, women, children and babies. Yes, babies.

I have a good friend who survived that horrific day. He took me from house to house, putting a name and story to each person whose life was ended or forever altered that day. His grandparents were one of the founding families of Kibbutz Be’eri 77 years ago. I’m sure they could not imagine that their son, daughter in-law and grandson with his fiancée would one day be locked in a safe room, with only a door separating them from an invading enemy that was attempting to destroy everything in its path. My friend’s fiancé made him promise that he would take the only weapon they had, a kitchen knife, and kill her before Hamas entered, as he saw his mother hiding under a small bed and his father helping him hold the door.

I learned that this peaceful community, dedicated to communal living, had employed so many Palestinians from Gaza over the years. They had work permits and would come across the border daily to work alongside this thriving community. They were paid well and treated like family, and they repaid this by providing Hamas with detailed intelligence that led to the slaughter. I learned that some of the worst atrocities committed were not by Hamas, but by civilians who poured across the border just to loot, to rape, to murder, to destroy.

But destruction was not all that I saw. I was also given the gift of seeing why Jews have survived for thousands upon thousands of years in the face of bigotry and antisemitism. I saw how love, strength and perseverance can overcome the most evil of forces.

I was inspired by meeting Hadar, a brave 13-year-old girl who was shot three times through her safe room door, who helped her father survive but whose mother and brother tragically did not. I was inspired seeing her father return that day to the kibbutz, only a few weeks removed from losing his leg, to go into the fields to pick mangoes and avocadoes for the harvest. A man who had lost so much was there with a smile on his face to help his community rise to its feet and continue to function. He has chosen not to succumb to fear and hate like the monsters who shattered his life but to allow the love for his surviving child, community and country to push him to do what needs to be done.

I met Yoel, who quietly saved hundreds of lives by battling the terrorists for hours, even after being shot in the back, realizing he was the only barrier between unspeakable torture and the innocent, including his five children who were hiding nearby. He refused to talk about himself or his heroics that day but focused on his community and those heroes who battled but did not survive.

I learned the story of Amit, who helped stem Yoel’s bleeding. This talented young woman was a singer, a medic, a sister and a daughter who was brutally gunned down. Amit had a beautiful voice and a love for life, serving as part of Israel’s Magen David Adom for many of her young years. This young woman spent her final hours tending to the wounded, only to be ruthlessly gunned down at point-blank range for the sin of being born Jewish in Israel.

I went to the hotel where the community is living temporarily in the Dead Sea. I had the honor of meeting the manager who was there to greet the buses at 3:00 a.m. on October 8th when the survivors of Be’eri pulled up. He became emotional as he told me the story of these men, women and children coming off the bus naked, bloodied and empty-handed as their belongings had been incinerated and destroyed—children whose innocence had been shattered and lives forever altered just as they were beginning. These people stepped off the bus and have continued trying to turn this hotel into a home. A few days ago, they turned the tables on the hotel staff and decided to provide them with lunch as a sign of gratitude for their kindness and hospitality: the very best of humanity against the backdrop of the very worst.

I met Michal, who is now living in a hotel at the Dead Sea with the survivors of her community. She is there with her husband and three children. Her parents were shot to death by these barbarians. Her oldest daughter was the first grandchild and was especially close to her grandparents, who were taken from her just a few houses away. Unable to pry the safe room door, the monsters just started firing shots into the room, looking to kill these innocent people without ever laying eyes on them. While mourning her parents, Michal ensures her kids meet with trauma counselors, go to school, and deal with the loss of so many of their loved ones.



(full article online)

Humanity at War

Visiting Kibbutz Be'eri was a day I will never forget.

jewishjournal.com

 

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10 numbers that define the 100 days since Oct. 7

From hostages remaining to dollars raised to college presidents resigned, a by-the-numbers look at the last 100 days.

forward.com

 

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Along and beneath the Gaza Strip’s main north-south highway, the Israel Defense Forces on Monday revealed where the Hamas terror group manufactured its long-range rockets that have been used to attack Israeli cities in recent years.

Troops of the 188th Armored Brigade and Golani Infantry Brigade operating in the Bureij camp of central Gaza in recent weeks discovered what the IDF has described as a “terror stronghold of weapons production.”

According to the IDF, the Hamas sites, along a kilometer and a half (1 mile) of Salah a-Din road in Bureij, represent the largest rocket manufacturing plant found so far in the Strip.

(full article online)

On Gaza civilian evacuation road, IDF uncovers largest Hamas rocket factory to date

Multiple sites along and beneath Strip's Salah a-Din main highway in Bureij used by terror group to manufacture rocket fuel, explosives, projectiles' bodies, and store them

www.timesofisrael.com

 

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I cannot tell you how bad things are in Gaza today. Israel says there's plenty of aid; the UN claims there is a food crisis.

But what I can tell you is that there have been accusations of Gazans "starving" since at least 2006 - and they were all lies. Not one Gazan starved. It was all theater.




Jimmy Carter falsely claimed more than once that Gazans were "literally starving."





The meme reappears every few years, and is always equally false.

News Line (socialist), 2006: "Israel’s brutal occupation of the Palestinian people has created refugees, death squads, and now starvation in Gaza, and hunger throughout the occupied territories."
The UN, 2007: "The forced starvation diet of Palestinians"
Richard Falk, 2007: " Israel ...has brought the people of Gaza to the brink of collective starvation and desolation."
Business Insider, 2011: "The Israeli Campaign To Starve Palestinians Into Submission Is A Crime"
WRMEA, 2019: "The Scenario of a Million Palestinians Going Hungry in Gaza"
Guardian, 2019: "One million face hunger in Gaza after US cut to Palestine aid"

And sometimes that meme is replaced with "Gaza supermarkets have too much Israeli stuff." Not a joke, this was published in Al Monitor in 2013:

Walking into a supermarket in Gaza might come as a great surprise for a person visiting the coastal enclave for the first time. At first glance, the visitor would be amazed by the level to which the shelves are packed with all kinds of products, ranging from basic food supplies to expensive chocolates and Coca-Cola. A father pushing a heaped stroller, or a toddler restlessly pulling her mother's hand and pointing at a lollipop, are scenes one is likely to encounter.

A closer look into the shelves, however, reveals a paradox that finds a manifestation in almost every aspect of life in Gaza. On the surface, everyone seems to be normally going about their daily lives, but even purchasing behaviors are controlled by Israel. The Israeli government brags about the truckloads it allows into the Strip through the Karem Abu Salem commercial crossing point, but it always forgets, deliberately or not, to mention that the products that enter the Strip through this very crossing are mostly marked with 729, the made-in-Israel barcode.

Yes, Israel was not only falsely blamed for starving Gazans, it was also blamed for sending lots of Israeli foods into Gaza, too.

Do you get the idea that perhaps the starvation meme was just an excuse for bashing Israel?

So while I cannot say what is going on now, when the same people who falsely claimed Gaza was starving for 18 years are saying it today, keep in mind how little credibility they have. I would trust COGAT's statistics on how much food is getting into Gaza far more than I trust the UN.

The starvation meme

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

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