Israel Update 26.2.25

ISRAEL UPDATE 26.2.25

Due to travel plans, the Israel Update is being circulated one day early this week.

 

At the time of writing, Wednesday evening, reportedly, the bodies of four Israeli hostages will be returned from Gaza at 11:00 p.m. without the exchange ceremonies Hamas has regularly held.

Israel clarified that the names of those being released would only be confirmed after Israeli authorities have identified them. Report here

 

LAST THURSDAY 20/2

 

Four bodies were released in a macabre ceremony in Gaza. Those of  Ariel and Kfir Bibas and Oded Lifshitz were identified but the fourth was not that of the boys’ mother Shiri but an unidentified Gazan woman. Following an outcry in Israel, Shiri Bibas’s body was eventually returned to Israel on Friday night.Report here

 

THE VICTIMS

 

Forensic examinations have revealed that Palestinian terrorists murdered children Ariel (4) and Kfir (9 months) Bibas in cold blood “with their bare hands” weeks after their kidnapping on Oct. 7, 2023. They did not die in an airstrike as Hamas claimed.
Thre IDF spokesman said “This assessment is based on both forensic findings from the identification process and intelligence that supports these findings.” adding that the children’s father, recently released hostage Yarden Bibas, “looked me in the eyes and asked that all the world know and be horrified by the manner in which they murdered his children.” Report here

 

The director of the Abu Kabir National Institute of Forensic Medicine confirmed on Saturday that his team had positively identified the remains of hostage Shiri Bibas, two days after Hamas initially handed over the body of an unknown Gazan woman in place of her remains.

He also said there was no evidence that Bibas died in an explosion, refuting Hamas’s claims that she and her sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israeli assessments are that Shiri was “brutally” murdered in captivity along with her sons.    Reports hereand here

 

 

Oded Lifshitz, 83 was a veteran journalist, long-time defender of Palestinian rights, and a founder of Kibbutz Nir Oz (1955) where he lived. In his free time, the father of four, grandfather, and great-grandfather played the piano and tended his garden, where he planted cacti. Lifshitz was among the community’s founders in 1955. His wife Yocheved then 85, was abducted on Oct 7 and released 16 days later. She said her husband had “fought for the Palestinians his whole life — they betrayed him and took him to hell.” Report here

Footnote:

 

A Palestinian terrorist responsible for killing dozens of Israelis who was released from prison earlier this month was seen in media footage at the Hamas handover.

He was serving 48 life sentences in Israel for masterminding multiple terror attacks that killed 45 people, including a 1996 bombing on a Jerusalem bus that left 24 dead. He was seated in the front row alongside other Hamas dignitaries, apparently as a guest of honour.  Report here

FUNERALS

 

 

Oded Lifshitz was laid to rest on Tuesday. He was buried in Nir Oz, a community he helped found, which was completely devastated in the Hamas-led assault with 117 of its 400 residents either killed or kidnapped. Thousands of Israelis lined the route of the funeral procession to the kibbutz. His wife Yochabed said “Our abduction and your death have shaken me to the core…We fought all through the years for social justice, for peace. To my sorrow, we were hit by a terrible blow by those we helped on the other side. I stand here staggered to see the number of graves, and the terrible destruction of our community”. She noted that members of the community are still being held chained underground for more than 500 days.  Report here

 

 

On Wednesday, tens of thousands of people gathered along the 60-kilometre route to the cemetery to pay their respects to the Bibas family. Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and baby Kfir, abducted by terrorists to the Gaza Strip and then murdered there, were buried together in a single casket at their joint funeral. A Jerusalem Post Editorial said “Today will be a dark, wrenching day in Israel. The country will bury three people; despite having never met them, we have become like close family over the last 16 months. The symbols of the atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct 7, which are still being perpetrated today on the remaining hostages in Gaza, the Bibas family, have entered the hearts of all Israelis.” Article here Eulogies here

HOSTAGE RELEASE LAST SATURDAY

 

Oct. 7 captives Tal Shoham, 39; Omer Shem Tov, 22; Omer Wenkert, 23; and Eliya Cohen, 27, were returned to Israel on Saturday after over 500 days in Hamas captivity. Avera Mengistu, 37, and Hisham al-Sayed, 37, returned after a decade in Gaza. The men all looked frail and many had suffered dramatic weight loss. Five were paraded on stages in propaganda-filled ceremonies in two locations in Gaza, while al-Sayed was released separately.
The last four “phase one” hostages are set to be freed on Thursday. All are believed dead Report here

 

The four Oct 7 hostages were chained in the dark, starved and psychologically abused.

The other two who, suffering from mental illness, had separately entered Gaza Strip of their own accord some 10 years ago came home bearing evident psychological scars from their captivity, and were described by relatives as largely unresponsive upon their return. Reports hereand here

 

 

The father of Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin Muslim returned to Israel after nearly a decade in Gaza captivity, on Sunday urged the Arab world to speak out against abuses by Hamas. Sayed, 37, who was is schizophrenic, according to his family. “When we got Hisham back, we were relieved to see him walking, but as I held him in my arms, I realized I was hugging a body…not a human being. He doesn’t talk. He doesn’t have a voice. He can’t remember anything. It’s like he hadn’t been with other human beings.” Report here

 

 

Hamas released a video on Saturday showing hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David, both abducted from the Nova festival, watching the release ceremony for other Israeli hostages from the window of a nearby car. They begged to be freed also but were cruelly returned to captivity. The footage, described by family members as “sickening psychological torture” and the continued use of hostages as pawns for Hamas propaganda, sparked anger and revulsion in Israel.

Israel said early Sunday that it was delaying the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who had been due to go free Saturday until Jerusalem receives assurances regarding the end of “humiliating ceremonies” staged by Hamas when hostages are handed over.Report here Report here (paywall)

 

THE UN

 

Rescued hostage Noa Argamani exposed Hamas brutality at a UN Security Council briefing.

She emphasized the critical time remaining for the hostages still in captivity. “We have no more time! I am here today because it’s a miracle, but there are still 63 hostages living this nightmare. They are in complete darkness, not knowing if they will live or die in the next moment. Every moment that passes is an eternity of suffering. We are talking about innocent people who were kidnapped from their beds, from a dance party, from their simple lives – and taken to a world of torture and humiliation. Hamas treated us like pieces in a cruel game, driven by sheer cruelty.” Report here

 

 

GAZA

 

In the second such incident within 3 days, on Wednesday a rocket launched at Israel fell short falling within Gaza.

On Monday, a rocket fired toward Israeli territory from Gaza also landed inside the Strip.

On 13 Feb a rocket fired towards Israel fell within Gaza killing a 14 year old Gazan boy.

Report hereand here

 

 

TERROR ATTACKS

 

Explosions set three buses ablaze in separate parking lots in Bat Yam and Holon on Thursday evening, prompting a large police response and raising suspicions of a coordinated bombing attack. No injuries were reported. Report here

 

A bus passenger who spotted a suspicious bag alerted the driver and saved everyone on board. Report here

 

Security assessments confirmed that the bombs were timed to detonate the following morning, around 9:00 AM, when buses would be filled with commuters. However, due to a possible mistake or malfunction in the timers, the devices exploded earlier, at around 9:00 PM. Report here

 

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY (PA) CONTINUES PAYMENTS TO TERRORISTS

 

President Mahmoud Abbas told the Fatah Revolutionary Council on Feb. 20: “If we had one penny left, it will go the martyrs and prisoners. They will receive their full payments, as in the past. We are proud of their sacrifices.”X post here

 

Subsequently, the PA instructed Palestinian media to delete the part of Abbas’s speech where he says payments to the “prisoners and martyrs” will continue. X post here

 

AZERBAIJAN

 

A senior Azerbaijani official met with Israel’s PM in Jerusalem this week to discuss bilateral ties and regional developments, underscoring Azerbaijan’s growing role as a strategic player in the evolving Middle East.The high-level meeting took place amid strengthening ties between Israel and the predominantly Shi’ite Muslim country. Report here

 

 

FILM FESTIVAL

 

A powerful film about an Israeli family’s ordeal since the Hamas terror onslaught of7.10.23, has won the top documentary prize at this year’s Berlinale film festival, one year after a film about West Bank Palestinians took home the same award. “Holding Liat,” a US production that held its world premiere here on February 16, follows the family of Liat Beinin Atzili after Hamas terrorists abducted her from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Her husband, Aviv, was murdered. Liat returned home in the first hostage deal in November 2023.

A second film “Letter to David,” from Israeli director Tom Shoval, brings viewers close to the Cunio family, several of whose members — including brothers David and Ariel Cunio — also were abducted from Nir Oz. The film was, by Shoval’s choice, not in competition for an award. Report here

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

Gaza

 

Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Trump must insist on removing Hamas from power.

Hamas has reportedly expressed readiness to cede control of Gaza and hand it over to the Palestinian Authority. This does not mean that Hamas is willing to lay down its weapons. Hamas wants the PA to return to Gaza only to pay salaries and fund reconstruction. That arrangement would allow the terror group to rearm, regroup and rebuild its military capabilities…

No Arab country will agree to play any role in the administration of Gaza as long as Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups continue to maintain an armed presence there.

Ignoring Hamas’s threats means that there will be more Oct. 7-style massacres of Israelis. Any deal that allows Hamas to remain in power would be disastrous for Israel, the Palestinians, and Arab states threatened by the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance.”

There should be no reconstruction of Gaza as long as Iran’s proxies remain in power. The idea of allowing the Palestinian Authority to return to Gaza as a civilian body that pays salaries and funds projects should be rejected by the Trump administration. Article here

 

Yaakov Lappin: The murder of 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, stands as an unbearable reminder of the consequences of allowing a genocidal, jihadist army to entrench itself on Israel’s border. Israel can never again allow Gaza to be a staging ground for an Iranian-backed terrorist army. No one on Israel’s borders can be allowed to build an ability to send death squads and invasion brigades over the border in an organized manner.
Ensuring Israeli security control over Gaza is the only way to achieve this. This work cannot be outsourced to anyone; the idea that a foreign force or paid mercenaries would have the ability to deal with Hamas is absurd. Israeli security control of Gaza is an existential imperative.Article here

 

Liel Leibovitz: Many of the Israeli hostages who return tell of being held captive by ordinary families, abused and tormented not by bearded zealots with guns but by mothers and fathers and daughters and sons. Such gleeful cruelty has no parallel in the civilized world. The assertion that most, or even many, Gazans are innocents hijacked by their tyrannical leaders is a polite fiction. Support for Hamas grew the more adept they proved at slaughtering the Jews…Gazans aren’t long-suffering innocents who had the misfortune of living through decades of Hamas indoctrination. They’re faithful adherents of a stern interpretation of a religion who believe there is glory in putting the enemies of God to the sword. Article here

 

Hamas

 

Seth Mandel: 16 months of lies

Hamas has stage managed the war to an unprecedented degree with lies about the hostages, inflated casualty figures and a non-existent famine. Article here

 

Hostages

 

Jake Wallis Simons: How hard is it to condemn a group that strangles a baby and a toddler, mutilates their corpses with rocks to make it look like they were killed in an airstrike, then returns them amid cheering crowds in locked coffins – no keys provided – with propaganda material stuffed around the bodies?
Britain’s Prime Minister bravely said he was “deeply saddened” by the deaths but avoided naming the perpetrators, let alone condemning their crimes…Article here (paywall)

 

 

Jerusalem Post Editorial (Friday): Forensic reports have now confirmed that the (Bibas) children were brutally murdered in captivity just a month after their abduction. This was intentional, cold-blooded murder. They paraded our children’s remains like trophies.
How do you make peace with those who murder babies and celebrate their deaths?Article here

 

 

Naomi Firsht: Where is the outrage for the Bibas family?Article here

 

 

Brendan O’Neill: The Death of the Bibas Family is a Stain on the Human Conscience. Article here

 

Palestinians

 

 

Matthew Sayed: A Two State Solution is a Lost Cause.

Of the 15 people I spoke to in the West Bank, 13 rejected a two-state solution and 12 were supporters of Hamas…  When I pointed out the venality of the leaders of Hamas – living in hotel suites in Doha, their wives carrying designer handbags – one man replied: “At least they are committed to the eradication of Israel.”… The longer I stayed in the West Bank, the more I shook my head at the shallow pieties of Western politicians who trot out “two-state solution” and “Palestinian aspirations.”
Do they not see that the provision of any additional funds, land or aid will lead to the escalation of bloody jihad, as so often in the past? Article here (paywall)

 

 

Hussein Aboubakr Mansour:

…by now, it should be clear to all that when your primary currency is kidnapping civilians and parading their remains to public cheers, you (Palestinians) forfeit whatever moral capital a national struggle might once have enjoyed.
The Palestinians never grasped a viable political path. Instead, an identity was cultivated on an endless cycle of grievance, victimhood, and terror as a method of expression. The repeated wars, the refusal to disentangle themselves from regional power struggles or global revolutions, the refusal to accept peace deals, and the cultural glorification of martyrdom have created a toxic personality structure that has a flag.
The events we just witnessed – children paraded around corpses – are not an isolated atrocity but reflect a deeper moral and cultural collapse: no meaningful leadership capable of guiding Palestinians toward a humane, tolerant society appears to exist. The formal structure called “Palestine” has, in practice, become a source of destruction for themselves and for the region.
Palestinian leadership and outside advocates keep stoking the fires of “resistance” while funded and cheered by narcissistic Western liberal elites and Qatari conspirators, forever condemning Palestinian children to a cycle of violence and perennial displacement.Article here

 

 

Jonathan S. Tobin:

During the past few decades, the Palestinian education system, media and popular culture have been drenched in intransigent and virulent hatred for Jews and Israel. It has valourized brutal terrorism and a cult of death…

The latest Palestinian celebration of terror and hate should force members of the civilized world to stop giving them a pass for their behaviour.

When it comes to the Palestinians, all of the well-meaning rhetoric about common humanity was defeated by a collective mindset that demonized Jews. This obliges us to be honest about their national culture and demand that it be changed before they are allowed to have any power to inflict further harm on others or themselves.

The Palestinians will never change until the civilized world stops coddling them and making excuses for their culture of death, hate and intransigent dedication to perpetual war on the Jews.Article here

 

The BBC

 

 

The BBC whitewashed” and covered up jihadist and antisemitic expressions from Gazan Hamas supporters in its controversial documentary “Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone,” according to an investigation published Tuesday in the Daily Telegraph.

Alex Hearn from Labour Against Antisemitism said that the mistranslation of the word “Jew” to “Israeli” is a continuation of “the BBC‘s sympathetic coverage of Hamas.” “In doing so, the BBC ‘softened’ opinions expressed about Sinwar, responsible for the massacre, and instead presented a more acceptable version for Western audiences,” he said adding”This whitewashing teaches viewers poorly about the nature of Hamas, and encourages sympathy for their deadly ideology. This film symbolizes the institutional failure behind how the BBC covers the conflict between Israel and Hamas.”Article here

 

 

Nicole Lampert: The BBC is turning into a megaphone for Hamas.Article here