Israel update 13.2.25

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Danny Danon at the UN “But the images tell the truth: Hamas terrorists and the Gaza crowd gathered there to humiliate them appear in a very well condition, while the Israeli hostages alone bear the unmistakable signs of starvation.” Report here

HOSTAGE RELEASE

On Saturday, Hamas released three gaunt, frail-looking Israeli hostages and Israel freed 183 Palestinian prisoners in the latest exchange of a ceasefire agreement. that has paused the war in Gaza. The hostages’ condition and scenes of Hamas forcing them to speak in a handover ceremony sparked outrage in Israel.
Eli Sharabi, 52; Ohad Ben Ami, 56; and Or Levy, 34, all appeared extremely thin and frail, and were unsteady on their feet. Sharabi and Levy were coming home to a tragic new reality. Eli Sharabi was unaware that his wife Lianne and their daughters Noiya 16 and Yahel 13, all dual British-Israeli citizens, were murdered on Oct 7. His mother and sister, who reunited with him on his arrival back in Israel, told him the terrible news His brother Yossi was abducted and died in captivity. Hamas is holding his body. Or Levy’s wife Eynav was also murdered on Oct 7. Since then, the couple’s now three-year-old son Almog has been raised by his grandparents.Reports here here & here

The three Israeli hostages freed Saturday after 491 days in Hamas captivity are suffering from severe physical and mental deterioration, including malnutrition, decreased muscle mass, heart disorders, and prolonged infection. They were in critical condition and only “weeks away from cardiac arrest”. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar (and others) said, “The Israeli hostages look like Holocaust survivors”Report here here here (paywall)& here

The three hostages endured severe torture under Hamas captivity. Their captors interrogated them using brutal physical abuse. They were choked, bound, gagged with cloth to the point of suffocation, hung upside down, and burned with a hot object. They were deliberately starved, receiving only a rotten pita every few days, which they had to share with other hostages.
One of the freed hostages revealed he had been chained for 15 months. “I was shackled inside a dark tunnel, with no air or light. I couldn’t walk or stand, and only before my release did my captors remove the chains, forcing me to learn to walk again,” At times the captors ate in front of the hostages and denied them food, and sometimes forced the hostages to choose who would eat and who wouldn’t. The hostages were only able to bathe once every few months and remained barefoot throughout their captivity. Report here (paywall)

As Gillian Brisley and her husband, Pete, watched their son-in-law’s Eli Sharabi’s release from Hamas captivity on Saturday morning, she clutched a teddy bear to her chest. It was a reminder of everything the family has suffered since the Hamas terror group attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, murdering their daughter, Lianne and teenage granddaughters Noiya and Yahel. The teddy, which once belonged to Lianne, was a tangible link between the UK-based Brisleys and events in the Middle East as they watched the hostage handover unfold on TV at their home in South Wales. Report here

OTHER HOSTAGE NEWS

Released hostage accounts raise alarm about how long those remaining in Gaza can survive. Alon Ohel 24 isn’t expected to be released until the second phase of the hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas. Two Israeli recently released hostages held alongside him said Alon was kept shackled in an underground tunnel, shrapnel stuck in his eye and shoulder, and subsisting on one piece of pita bread a day.
Report here (paywall)

Shlomo Mantzur the oldest hostage still in Gaza, was declared dead by Israeli authorities on Tuesday, who said that he had been murdered on Oct 7 Hamas and his body taken captive. Shlomo survived the 1941 Farhud pogrom in Baghdad, and moved to Israel at age 13. He was among the founders of Kibbutz Kissufim, where he worked for years in the chicken coop as well as at an eyewear factory, and learned carpentry as a hobby. He is survived by his wife, Mazal, 5 children, 12 grandchildren and 5 siblings. He was 85 when he was killed and his body abducted; he would have turned 87 next month. Report here

Recently released Romi Gonen, 23, who was shot in the hand at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, will undergo a lengthy and intricate operation in an attempt to restore the function of her hand which was paralyzed and untreated for 471 days.Report here

Hamas forced former hostage Danielle Gilboa to stage her own death. She was covered in powder and debris to make it appear that she had been hit in an IDF strike and filmed in a propaganda video. Daniella and the other girls had to drink contaminated groundwater. It made her gravely ill, and for weeks, she was at death’s door. She said that had the girls been freed two weeks earlier, they would have looked as emaciated as the three hostages who were freed last week. Their captors gave them more food in the days leading up to their release. They were only told they would be freed three days before it happened.”Report here Report here

A former Thai hostage’s teeth were broken by Hamas terrorists and he has since received rehabilitation treatment in an Israeli hospital. Israel will continue to finance his dental treatment in Thailand. The 5 Thai nationals released last month who have since returned to Thailand are to receive a monthly stipend of NIS 9,000.Report here

Hospitals have been treating severe starvation, dehydration and deteriorated muscle mass. The 16 recently released hostages also have injuries related to lack of exposure to sunlight or prolonged periods of isolation, and some need care for wounds suffered on Oct. 7 or in captivity. Medical teams are also carefully reintroducing nutrients to the hostages to prevent conditions like refeeding, a dangerous syndrome in which undernourished bodies cannot digest normal-size portions. Report here (paywall)

TERRORISTS RELEASED

The Palestinian prisoners released include 18 serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, 54 serving long-term sentences and 111 Palestinians from Gaza detained after the Oct. 7 attack. Among them was Iyad Abu Shakhdam, imprisoned for his involvement in Hamas attacks in crowded civilian areas that killed dozens of Israelis including a 2004 suicide bus bombing in Beersheba that killed 16 people.Report here

The BBC was forced to make an on-air correction after referring to Palestinian convicts as “hostages”. BBC News had broadcast the report on the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners with an erroneous strap-line across the bottom of the screen. This stated that there were “concerns about the condition of hostages on both sides”. Report here (paywall)

HAMAS PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE CONTINUES

Hamas announced on Monday that it is cancelling the release of hostages on Feb. 15 until further notice, claiming that Israel is violating the ceasefire agreement. An Israeli official told the Jerusalem Post that Hamas’s allegations of Israeli violations are “fake.” Report here

Footnote:

According to the Jerusalem Post, Israel is optimistic that the hostage deal can be continued and that the next release of hostages can be achieved on Saturday. The Post learned on Thursday (today) that Israeli ministers were insistent on “upholding the agreements as they are.”

Later today, Hamas confirmed its commitment to the continuation of the hostage-ceasefire deal in a statement on Telegram.Report here

But the situation remains uncertain as at Thursday afternoon.

GAZA REDEVELOPMENT

George Washington University economics professor Joseph Pelzman produced a study for the redevelopment of Gaza and submitted it to the Trump team last July. His paper “An Economic Plan for Rebuilding Gaza: A BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) Approach,” has since been published in the Global World Journal.Article here Plan here

Footnote: A poll taken by the top Palestinian polling agency just prior to the war, the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, found that a full 44% of Gazan youth between the ages of 18-29 were considering emigrating. Nearly a third (31%) of the entire population considered emigrating. Gazans’ “most preferred destination for immigration was Turkey, followed by Germany, Canada, the United States, and Qatar” Report here

EGYPT

Egypt said on Tuesday it plans to offer a “comprehensive proposal” to rebuild Gaza while ensuring Palestinians remain there, adding that it is looking forward to cooperating with U.S. President Trump to reach a comprehensive and just peace in the region..Report here

JORDAN

President Trump met with Jordan’s King Abdullah at the White House on Tuesday. He said that with his plan, “you’ll have stability in the Middle East for the very first time and the Palestinians and people in Gaza will be living beautifully in another location…”
King Abdullah committed to absorbing 2,000 sick and wounded children from Gaza. He told Trump, “I see someone that can finally bring us across the finish line to bring stability, peace and prosperity – to all of us in the region. It’s our collective responsibility in the Middle East to work with you and support you and achieve these lofty goals.” Report here (paywall)

GAZA ENVELOPE VOLUNTEERING PROJECT

A pilot project, Service Year 50, is running in two regional councils near the Gaza border and matches local needs with the experience and skills of people around retirement age. Volunteers, including some from overseas, move south for a year. Article here

COUNTER TERRORISM

Two Israeli Arab suspects were charged with planning ramming and shooting terror attacks. They had expressed support for Hamas.Report here

LEBANON/SYRIA

The Israel Air Force struck an underground tunnel between Syria and Lebanon that was used by Hizbullah to smuggle weapons, and also struck several Hizbullah sites containing munitions and rocket launchers in Lebanese territory. The IDF said it “will operate to prevent any attempt of rearmament” by Hizbullah. Report here

The new Syrian authorities said Monday that Lebanon’s Hizbullah has launched attacks on Syrian security forces and is sponsoring cross-border smuggling gangs. Report here

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC)

President Trump last Thursday issued an Executive Order imposing sanctions on the ICC. Details here

British ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan is the first person to be hit with economic and travel sanctions.Report here

MEDICAL

An innovative fertility technology developed at Tel Aviv University is transforming the in vitro fertilization process. Success rates, increase the likelihood of pregnancy from 34% to 65%. Early clinical data revealed 20 successful pregnancies from just 31 embryo transfers. At the core of the innovation is a precise and advanced method for selecting the highest-quality sperm cells, based on World Health Organization criteria. By significantly improving the quality of fertilization, this technology enhances the chances of a healthy pregnancy and birth. Report here

COMMENT & OPINION

False Equivalence

Brendan O’Neill: The BBC couldn’t resist implying a moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel. Following the release of the three Israelis, it said there are “concerns about the condition of hostages on both sides” Hostages? It is a scandal that our public broadcaster is referring to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, some of whom are guilty of acts of extreme violence, as ‘hostages’. It later walked back its comments, issuing an on-air correction. Article here

Stephen Pollard: This supposed equivalence of concern of their respective appearance is the very definition of fake news. Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and yet not a single one of them, other than one who is reported to have cancer, looks emaciated. If Israel treated them so badly – starving them as Hamas does its hostages – why are we not seeing them also paraded by Hamas? You know the answer: because it isn’t true. Article here

Gaza

Rabbi Steven Burg: When a society teaches that its highest value is the destruction of another society, without placing the betterment of its own people as a top priority, there is no incentive in the world that can be offered which will cause that society to work toward peace or build a proper system of government for its own people…
Hostages who have returned confirm that Hamas’s actions are supported by significant portions of the Gazan populace, across generations, shattering any illusions that Hamas operates independently of Gaza’s civilian population. This complicity makes it clear that peace cannot be achieved by simply addressing the leadership.
The Gaza experiment of offering Palestinians a land of their own, with self-governance, in the hopes that they would make a prosperous state and avoid conflict, has failed. The vision of two states living side-by-side in peace has been rendered impossible by Hamas’s reign of terror and widespread Gazan civilian complicity. Article here

Danielle Pletka: When you teach people hatred for decades, give them the tools of destruction, and radicalize them, they are beyond reach. Gaza is destined to be a terrorist beachhead. To believe that next time will be different – that they won’t try to kill Jews, that they’ll focus on a decent future for the people of Gaza – is nothing other than ideological laziness. Article here

David Horowitz: The way forward for Gaza’s Palestinians, and for everybody who interacts with them, can only be changed for the better by a very different international and local leadership, support system and, most essentially, educational system and ethos, that advocate tolerance and coexistence and a respect for the sanctity of life. And this applies wherever the people are living. Article here

Catherine Perez-Shakdam: Gaza, under Hamas, is an experiment in perpetual war, bankrolled by the patrons of global jihad and sustained by an ideological infrastructure that extends far beyond its borders. It survives not because it is invincible, but because it is indulged, protected, and funded. If the world is serious about peace, it must stop financing war. Some enemies cannot be accommodated. They must be defeated. Peace begins where Hamas ends. Article here

Clifford D. May: More than 6 million Syrians fled their homeland during the 14-year-long civil war. Other nations took them in. It was the humanitarian thing to do, fulfilling their obligation under international law. Since Hamas initiated a full-blown war against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, hardly any residents of Gaza have managed to flee because no countries – not even Egypt, which borders Gaza – were willing to take them in. Article here

Bret Stephens: What governments can’t do is accept a status quo in which Gaza remains indefinitely under Hamas’s thumb and Israel remains perpetually at risk. What hasn’t worked is expecting Hamas to behave as anything other than the barbaric terror group that it is. Article here (paywall)

Melanie Phillips: The world has now seen graphic evidence of what Israel is really up against. Article here

Trump Plan

Stephen Pollard: He (Trump) has addressed the fundamental point that the cycle of violence and radicalization in Gaza has to end, instead of breeding another generation of militants – funded by the mullahs of Iran – who hate America and the West. Article here

Jonathan S. Tobin: He (Trump) has made it clear that a different solution has to be found for the Palestinians. The people who cheered the orgy of mass murder, rape, torture, kidnapping and wanton destruction on Oct. 7 will not be rewarded for this with more pressure on Jerusalem to do something the overwhelming majority of Israelis oppose as suicidal. Article here

Natan Sharansky: Many people see “out of the box thinking” of Trump about changing the future of Gaza by resettling the Gazans, improving their living conditions, and rebuilding Gaza as something absolutely unrealistic and out of touch with reality of the Middle East.
I think this “crazy” idea is much less crazy than the idea of the Oslo Accords – if we bring ruthless dictator Arafat from Tunis to Ramallah and give him enough land, money, and weapons, he will defeat Hamas and live with us in peace and security (in the words of our prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres).
Or the idea of the disengagement – we will leave Gaza, build a fence between us, and with one shot from their side, we will destroy them, and the world will be fully on our side (I quote Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from our conversations).FaceBook post here

Yardena Schwartz: Since Oct. 7, and the revelation that most Palestinians supported the massacre, many Israelis who once believed in the two-state solution no longer can. Now, amidst a ceasefire in which Hamas leaders and supporters are declaring victory and praising the attacks of Oct. 7, Trump’s plan could serve as a wake-up call: the violent rejection of peace over the last century has created enough misery and destruction. This deadly charade must end. Article here

Joseph Epstein: Over the past 15 years, conflicts in Syria and Ukraine alone created around 14 million refugees living mainly in Europe. Millions more came from Afghanistan and Sudan.
Yet while these millions were accepted by the international community and resettled, Gazans have been expected to build new lives amid the rubble. Article here

Prof. Efraim Inbar and Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser: Even if Trump ultimately fails to secure the conditions for implementation of the plan, the very fact that it has been put on the table will force the Palestinians and Arab countries to propose practical alternatives to deal with the difficult reality in Gaza, and to do so in a way that is acceptable to both Israel and the U.S. Article here

Palestinian State

Dan Perry: I categorically favour Israel not controlling millions of Palestinians by force, and I wish for my Palestinian friends to be happy and fulfilled. But the idea of an inalienable Palestinian right to nation-state status is wobbly at best, and may be damaging to all sides…
Plenty of groups have strong national identities, long histories, and often overwhelming cases for self-rule, yet remain stateless: the Kurds are a distinct ethnic group of 35-40 million. The Tibetans were annexed by China in 1951. There are many indigenous groups in Latin America. In Spain there are the Basques and Catalans.
The Palestinians have repeatedly undermined their own case. They have refused multiple offers that would have given them a foothold for sovereignty, and clung to implausible goals such as a full return to land that has been Israel for more than 75 years.Article here

Qatar

Khaled Abu Toameh: Qatar is Hamas’s most important financial backer and foreign ally. It has reportedly transferred $1.8 billion to Hamas over the past two decades. After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, Qatar’s foreign ministry released a statement holding “Israel alone responsible” for the massacre.
The Trump administration needs to understand what Arabs have known for years: that Qatar’s support for Hamas and other extremist Islamist groups is the main reason thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have died over the past few years. Article here