Israel update 24.4.25

YOM HASHOAH (ISRAEL’S HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY)

 

Today at 10.00 am Israel came to a standstill when Israelis nationwide stood in silence as a two-minute siren commemorated the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

Eight Holocaust survivors, including six torchlighters, participated in Yad Vashem’s Yom HaShoah ceremony.                                                 Report here

 

Read their inspiring stories of survival and resilience here.

 

Freed hostage and violinist Agam Berger  performed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during the 37th March of the Living ceremony on April 24 as part of an Israeli delegation of former captives, relatives of victims of the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, Gaza border community residents, and Holocaust survivors.Report here

 

Footnote

The new documentary “Among Neighbours,”is being broadcast on several platforms in Israel and shows that there are still stories to be unveiled even 80 years after World War II. Director Yoav Potash’s film, 10 years in the making, tells several of those interlaced stories, all connected to Gniewoszów, a small town in Poland where Jews were murdered by their neighbours months after the war had ended.     Article here

 

 

RESILIENCE: UPDATE ON OTHER FORMER HOSTAGES

 

Former hostage Eliya Cohen joined other Cohanim in the Birkat Cohanim ceremony at the Kotel (Western Wall) attended by tens of thousands of worshippers during Pesach (Passover). Report here

 

 

 

Two wounded hostages Romi Gonen, 24, and Emily Damari, 28, forged a bond of survival when they were held together in Gaza for 431 days. Romi: “Imagine sitting for a year and five months with an arm injury that renders you completely unable to function and in constant, severe pain.” Emily lost two fingers. She said: “When we did the laundry, it was one of her hands and one of mine. When we washed the dishes, it was one of her hands and one of mine. When we let off steam by kickboxing each other, it was one of her hands and one of mine.”Both young women underwent surgery after their return to Israel.Report here

 

 

GAZA WAR

 

 

On Saturday, terrorists emerged from a tunnel that had recently been located and marked for demolition and fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a vehicle carrying two female soldiers in a combat reconnaissance unit in what had been considered a safer administrative corridor. When a rescue team arrived at the scene, an IED exploded, killing Warrant Officer G’haleb Sliman Alnasasra, 35, a Bedouin tracker – the first IDF combat fatality in Gaza in three months. Report here

 

 

The IDF struck Hamas positions in Gaza after a rocket was launched toward Israeli communities on Saturday night 12/4 – Passover Seder night The rocket was intercepted and was the fourth launched into Israel that day. Israel targeted a Hamas command and control centre located within the Al-Ahli Hospital, after advance warnings led to the evacuation of patients and medical staff. A later strike on Sunday 13/4  targeted a Hamas command compound in central Gaza.Report here

 

 

Mohammed Sakar, head of the nursing department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, posted on FaceBook last week that he had been threatened by Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to his refusal to let the terror group’s operatives enter and use the hospital. The post was subsequently deleted. Sakar’s public disclosure was a rare instance of a medical professional in Gaza addressing attempts by terror groups to infiltrate hospitals. By numerous accounts, these efforts are commonplace in most hospitals in the Strip. Throughout the war, Israel has repeatedly sent troops into hospitals to root out terror infrastructure and gunmen. It has also offered evidence of the facilities’ regular use by terror groups as bases of operations due to their protected status. But little testimony has come voluntarily from Gazans themselves. Report here

 

During combat operations, IDF troops face a gauntlet of underground tunnels, explosive devices, and hidden ambushes. To counter these threats, the IDF has developed and deployed a range of remote-operated tools aimed at neutralizing threats.
Among the latest innovations is a remotely operated bulldozer, engineered to detect and detonate hidden explosives without placing its human operator at risk.
The IDF has also begun using small, joystick-operated robots capable of cutting wires and disarming traps from a safe distance. Report here

 

 

CALLS TO HAMAS TO DISARM

 

Egypt has reportedly joined the demand for Hamas to fully disarm, placing demilitarization at the top of the agenda. Egyptian officials have made it clear to Hamas that any further refusal to disarm will lead to an escalation in Israel’s military campaign.Report here

 

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday demanded the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas. He said the hostages present an excuse for Israel to continue attacking Gaza. Report here

 

but see article re PA’s plan to flood Israel with Gazan “refugees”in Comment & Opinion section below

 

 

 

HOUTHI ATTACKS

 

Sirens were activated across central Israel and the Jerusalem area early last Friday after the Houthis in Yemen fired a ballistic missile at Israel. The IDF intercepted the missile outside Israeli airspace.Report here

 

 

 

A Houthi ballistic missile set off sirens at 4 am Wednesday morning in Israel’s north (Haifa and surrounding areas plus Western Galilee region) for the first time, sending over a million people rushing for the safety of bomb shelters. The attack was the first time that sirens had sounded in the Haifa region since a ceasefire with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah took effect in November.                                                                       The missile was successfully intercepted. There were no direct injuries from the missile attack or impacts from debris, but paramedics treated several people who were injured while rushing for shelter.  Report here

 

HIZBULLAH

 

Since a ceasefire was reached on the northern front in November, Hizbullah has been attempting to rebuild its command and control structure, including reorganizing its headquarters, regional commands, brigade commanders, and field officers. This is a preliminary step toward rebuilding its military capabilities, including the Radwan Unit, a force intended to capture Israeli communities, which emerged from the war battered and weakened.
The IDF is not only monitoring these developments but is actively working to prevent them from becoming renewed threats…The atmosphere in Lebanon is no longer the same. Recent Israeli strikes have sparked angry reactions in Lebanon – against Hizbullah.
Local bloggers and journalists have accused Hizbullah of dragging the country into unnecessary conflicts.  Report here

 

 

Col. (res.) Dr. Moshe Elad, an expert on Lebanon and lecturer at Western Galilee College, said that “despite the severe blow Hizbullah suffered from Israel, the organization is still stronger than several Lebanese armies.”… “If Hizbullah wants, it could stage a government coup and reclaim control. If it desires, millions of Shiites will obey it.”Report here

 

 

Some 400 Hizbullah field commanders are scheduled to leave Lebanon for South American countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, according to a Latin American diplomatic source, the Saudi news outlet Al Hadath reported Wednesday. 200 commanders have already reached South America, with the rest expected in due course. Hizbullah already has an established terrorist network in South America.Report here

 

RAMALLAH MALL

 

The largest shopping mall in the West Bank opened on Saturday in Ramallah with live music, dance performances, and a large public turnout.
The six-floor mall has 165 stores, including Ramallah’s fifth KFC branch, as well as a cinema, a rooftop pool, an escape room, an ice skating rink, and multiple playgrounds for children.

Report here

Report here (paywall)

 

 

REUNION

 

 

Billy, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel that terrorists abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, was returned to her family last week, after Israeli ground forces discovered her in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.Report here

 

 

MEDICAL AID FOR GHANA

 

 

An Israeli team from Neonatologists for Africa is training Ghanaian healthcare workers in modern neonatal resuscitation amid harsh conditions, aiming to reduce the region’s high infant mortality rate and to improve newborn survival.Report here

 

 

 

TECHNOLOGY

 

 

Rental car giant Hertz will deploy Israeli automated vehicle inspection technology to help speed up detailed damage and maintenance assessments of its fleets stationed across major US airports. Israeli tech startup UVeye, which develops automated AI-powered drive-through inspection systems for vehicles to detect external and mechanical flaws, has signed a partnership with Hertz which will lead to the installation of over 100 of the startup’s vehicle scanners.Report here

 

 

UKRAINE

 

 

About two weeks after a Russian drone struck the cover built to contain radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Israeli biotech firm Pluri, a developer of placenta-based cell technology, entered into an agreement to help Ukraine develop an emergency response to life-threatening radiation sickness in case of a radiological event.

Haifa-based Pluri has begun an exclusive collaboration with Ukrainian umbilical cord blood bank Hemafund to stockpile and distribute its placental expanded cell therapy, PLX-R18, as a potential treatment for life-threatening radiation sickness.Report here

 

THE UK

 

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said (inter alia) during a recent visit to Britain, “The UK is a good friend of Israel..In my conversations with the Foreign Secretary, I bring a very accurate and frank approach when I think that the British position should be, let’s say, more friendly to Israel, or take into greater consideration our reality, the neighbourhood we are living in.”
“When terrorists from Hamas or Islamic Jihad are acting from a hospital, and we take all the measures, including warning and evacuating people from there to avoid any unnecessary collateral damage, eventually, the question that should be asked is not why we attack, but why Hamas are using hospitals or schools or UNRWA installations to attack Israel and its citizens. We don’t always feel that we are getting the right context.”
“We not only have a traditional friendship, but also very important connections that help UK national security through intelligence and security cooperation. Both countries benefit from a good relationship.”  Report here (paywall)

 

 

MEDICAL RESEARCH

 

 

Israeli scientists have developed the first-ever blood test for early detection of Parkinson’s disease. The Hebrew University researchers say that their innovative test can find tRNA fragments unique to the neurodegenerative disease before patients have symptoms.Report here

 

 

BUSINESS

 

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange  (TASE) aims to attract more global investment by making all company reports available in English. AI-based tech, developed in Israel, will enable TASE to provide immediate translations of all corporate disclosures, filings and statements from Hebrew in what it describes as a groundbreaking initiative.Report here

 

 

SPORT

 

 

Hapoel Tel Aviv on Friday defeated Gran Canaria to win the EuroCup, marking the first time the Israeli squad has won Europe’s second-tier men’s professional basketball club tournament, and giving it entry into next year’s top-tier EuroLeague.Report here

 

 

Israel’s marathon runners won an historic four medals in the European Athletics Championships in Brussels on Sunday, including a gold medal for the men’s team and a silver medal for the women’s team.Report here

 

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

J.Post Editorial: While the scales are incomparable, the parallel with our darkest history cannot be ignored. Both the Holocaust and October 7 share the same deadly logic: that Jews may be killed with impunity simply for being Jews. This ancient hatred persists despite the decades separating these atrocities, leaving us to wonder if the world has truly learned anything from our suffering… Our national day of mourning (Yom HaShoah) reminds us why Israel must remain strong, not just for ourselves, but as guardians of a promise made to past generations and kept for future ones. “Never Again” means securing our homeland against those who still pursue the unthinkable.Editorial here

 

 

Douglas Murray: A poll carried out last year found that only one in four British Muslims believe  Hamas carried out rapes and murders on Oct. 7 2023. It is a figure that should have caused significant soul-searching in this country. Why do so many people in our society believe lies?… When a death cult attacks a democracy, why do so many people in our midst side with the death cult? Article here

 

 

Nan Jacques Zilberdik: While the future of the Gaza Strip is yet unknown, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is busy suggesting a solution that would destroy Israel as a Jewish state. Reacting to US President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate the Gazan Arabs from the Gaza Strip, PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and other top PA leaders are calling for a “return” of 1.5 million Gazan “refugees” to places in Israel that they claim are “their homes and villages” in “Palestine”. Article here