Israel Update 3.4.25

A HOSTAGE’S STORY

Eight months into Omer Wenkert’s captivity in Gaza, one of his guards turned violent. He opened the door to the underground concrete dungeon where Wenkert, 22, was being held – less than 6 feet tall and around 3 feet wide – and kicked Wenkert three times in his head and twice in his back. He told Wenkert it was punishment for looking at him. The next day, his captor demanded he do push-ups, sit-ups and squats – what felt like hundreds, he said. At some point, Wenkert collapsed from exhaustion. His captor spat on him and began screaming insults. “Say you are a son of a bitch, say you are a dog.”
After Wenkert thought he was finally alone, he lifted his head, only to realize the guard was still there. “Why are you looking at me?” his captor screamed, as he brought a crowbar down on Wenkert’s head, shoulders and legs.
The recently released hostages have just begun telling their stories – about being held underground with no light or fresh air; being held in chains with no medical treatment for the wounds they suffered on Oct. 7; being subject to starvation, beatings and humiliation. Many of the male hostages in particular emerged looking like a shell of their former selves. When Wenkert returned to Israel in February, he had lost more than 80 pounds. In Gaza, he was taken underground into Hamas tunnels. He wouldn’t come out for 505 days. Article here (paywall)

HOUTHI ATTACKS CONTINUED

The Houthis in Yemen fired a missile targeting central Israel on Sunday morning. The missile was intercepted prior to crossing into Israeli territory.Report here

GAZA PROTESTS

Hamas took action against Gazans who participated in recent protests against its rule, executing six people and publicly beating others.
Among them was Odai al-Rubai, 22, who had spoken out against Hamas on social media. He was abducted by Hamas operatives, tortured for four hours, and then returned to his family as he lay dying. “He was dragged by a rope around his neck, beaten with clubs and metal rods in front of passersby,” witnesses said. Hussam al-Majdalawi, who had also spoken against Hamas, was shot in the legs and left wounded in a public square…Demonstrations subsided last Friday, and no new calls for protests have emerged.Report here

AMBULANCES INCIDENT 23 MARCH

IDF International Spokesperson Lt.-Col. Nadav Shoshani said Monday: “The IDF did not randomly attack an ambulance [in Gaza] on March 23….Several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. IDF troops then opened fire at the suspected vehicles. Earlier that day, cars that did not belong to terrorists were coordinated and passed safely on the same route.”
“It was determined that the forces had eliminated a Hamas military operative, Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, who took part in the Oct. 7 massacre, along with 8 other terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad….Terrorists are once again exploiting medical facilities and equipment for their activities.” X post here IDF Press Release here

And see Camera UK report & analysis in Comment & Opinion section below*

GAZA WAR

Israel’s Security Cabinet convened on Saturday night to discuss negotiations for a hostage deal and decided to intensify the already significant military pressure to further weaken Hamas.Report here

Israel gave Hamas a last chance to free the hostages and gain a truce before the IDF retakes Gaza. On Monday, the IDF issued evacuation orders for the entire Rafah area in southern Gaza, including a large swathe of land between Rafah and Khan Yunis where the IDF has so far not operated with ground forces. The army is initiating a multi-week operation that will see massive airstrikes on evacuated areas before IDF forces push further into Gaza, expanding the areas it currently holds and reducing the territory held by Hamas.Report here

Israel’s military operations in Gaza expanded Wednesday following heavy airstrikes and ground troop movement under intense artillery cover. Defence Minister Katz called on Gaza residents to “act now to expel Hamas and return all hostages. This is the only way to end the war.” Report here

HAMAS CASUALTY NUMBERS – UPDATE

Hamas’s March 2025 Gaza war casualty update “quietly drops 3,400 fully ‘identified’ deaths listed in its August and October 2024 reports including 1,080 children. These ‘deaths’ never happened. The numbers were falsified,” said Salo Aizenberg, from U.S.-based NGO Honest Reporting.
Maj. (ret.) Andrew Fox, a former British paratrooper who authored a report on Gaza casualty figures for the Henry Jackson Society in December, said the data on Hamas’s lists undermines its claim that most casualties have been civilians. “We’ve heard the claims that about 70% of the deaths are women and children, and these lists, especially the most recent, show that’s complete nonsense.”
About 72% of fatalities aged 13-55 are men, which is the rough age range of Hamas combatants, Fox said. “We know that Hamas uses child soldiers, and these statistics show clearly that Israel is targeting fighting-aged men.” Report here (paywall)

LEBANON

Two rockets were fired at northern Israel from Lebanon on Friday morning, and in response the IDF carried out airstrikes first in southern Lebanon and later in the capital, Beirut, a first since the November ceasefire went into effect. Report here

The IDF said Tuesday it had targeted a Hizbullah terrorist in Beirut “who had recently directed Hamas operatives and assisted them in planning a significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians.” Report here

In some parts of southern Lebanon, 20-30% of Lebanese civilians have returned to their homes four months after the ceasefire with Israel. Reportedly the Lebanese Army has significantly improved its anti-Hizbullah enforcement activities in the area. Sources said the Lebanese response to IDF reports of lower-grade Hizbullah violations of the ceasefire in southern Lebanon has led to around 500 enforcement actions by the Lebanese.
At the same time, the IDF has killed over 120 Hizbullah fighters since the ceasefire, showing that Israeli military enforcement in parallel to the Lebanese military will be necessary for some time. Report here

TURKEY

Turkish President Erdogan, visiting a mosque to mark the holiday of Eid al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan, said Sunday: “May Allah destroy Zionist Israel.” Erdogan is currently facing mass opposition protests in Turkey. Report here

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu – President Erdogan’s most formidable political rival – was arrested at his home and imprisoned on March 19. On April 28, 2024, Imamoglu unequivocally condemned Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, explicitly characterizing the group as a terrorist organization. This statement provoked a vehement response from Erdogan, who portrayed Hamas as freedom fighters. Report here

Israeli military leaders are concerned about Turkey potentially building up a presence at air bases in Syria and gaining the ability to operate from bases in Syria which would place Turkish warplanes closer to Israel. If the Turks also bring in air defences, the combination could create challenges for the Israel Air Force operating over Syria. Report here

EGYPT

Israel has approached Egypt and the U.S. with a request to begin dismantling military infrastructure constructed by the Egyptian army in Sinai that violates the peace agreement between the countries. A senior security official characterized the Egyptian actions as a “major violation” of the security annex. Report here

87% of opinion articles about Israel in Egypt’s two leading state-controlled news outlets are anti-Israel speak negatively according to a new study and 29% of articles mentioning Jews contained antisemitic content. The report sought to examine how Egyptian media shapes public perceptions of Israel during the ongoing war in Gaza.Report here

THE UN

The U.S. Mission to the UN sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday “opposing Francesca Albanese’s renewal as UN Special Rapporteur [on human rights in the Palestinian territories]. We condemn her virulent antisemitism, which demonizes Israel and supports Hamas. She has clearly violated the UN’s code of conduct and is unfit for her role. Her reappointment would show the UN tolerates antisemitic hatred and support for terrorism.” X post here

After obtaining official notice that the UN Human Right Council president is refusing to carry out his legal duty under 8/PRST/2 to convey to the plenary objections filed by the US Congress and others against Francesca Albanese’s reappointment on Friday, the NGO UN Watch has submitted a notice of illegality to the U.N. Secretary-General. Report here

42 French MPs publicly called on their government to reject Albanese’s reappointment, stating that it “would send a regrettable signal to victims, human rights defenders, and states committed to credible multilateralism.”Report here

JORDANIAN BORDER

Israel will begin building a new security fence along the border with Jordan in June, from the southern edge of the Golan Heights to the Ramon International Airport north of Eilat. A 30-km. portion of the border with Jordan from Eilat to Ramon Airport has already been upgraded. The border’s porousness has made it a site of frequent gun- and drug-running.Report here

THAILAND

A 22-strong Israeli delegation consisting of engineers, doctors and rescue professionals landed in Thailand Sunday morning to assist in search and rescue efforts following a major earthquake in the region. Report here

GREECE

Visiting Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday that the Israel and Greece share “many security challenges” and that their defence cooperation is of great importance. Report here

THE UK

For the first time, a delegation of 35 Arab Israeli citizens – Muslims, Christians, and Druze –led by Yoseph Haddad an Arab-Israeli IDF veteran, travelled from Israel to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Jewish students and their allies in a powerful, unified stand against the escalating radicalisation and antisemitism infecting British universities.Report here

( A meeting at SOAS was scheduled for April 2^nd – as yet no report available)

BUSINESS

Israeli startups raised over $1 billion in 22 deals during March.Report here

TLV ART MUSEUM

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art ranked 78^th on the list of the world’s 100 most visited museums in 2024, according to The Art Newspaper, with over a million visitors (1,057,362), up 17% from 2023. The museum was only open for 260 days in 2024 because of security concerns surrounding the Israel-Hamas war. Report here

HARVARD

Harvard University’s School of Public Health has announced that it has suspended its research partnership with Birzeit University, a West Bank school that has hosted military parades in honour of Hamas.Report here

COMMENT & OPINION

*MARCH 23 INCIDENT

Camera UK: The BBC promoted unverified claims by the head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza. BBC reporters did not bother to inform their readers that when “healthcare workers” double as terror operatives, they lose their protection – as noted by the International Committee of the Red Cross itself…. Particularly remarkable, however, is the lack of interest of these four BBC journalists in the fact that nine out of the fifteen people killed while travelling in that uncoordinated convoy of ambulances, a fire truck and a UN vehicle were operatives for terrorist organisations. Notably too, neither of these reports provides BBC audiences with context concerning past cases in which the Palestinian Red Crescent has used ambulances for the purpose of terrorism. Article here

Gaza War

JC Editorial: With a genocidal enemy, diplomacy is not an option. Western leaders think Israel must be dragged back from the brink of victory and condemned to the purgatory of endless talks and conflict. For 17 months, the media breathlessly parroted Hamas casualty figures. Few news outlets ever questioned Hamas’s miraculous ability to tally hundreds of deaths within minutes or to instantly determine which were civilians and which were “militants.” Even when these reports do acknowledge the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, they usually omit the standard disclaimer that the numbers “could not be independently verified” – a caveat reserved almost exclusively for Israeli statements. Trust the terrorists and doubt the Middle East’s only democracy… Editorial here

Douglas Murray: I went into Gaza myself, taken there by the IDF, and saw up close its campaign to defeat Hamas and return the hostages to their homes. Of all the Israeli soldiers I met, none took delight in their task.

They could feel victorious on occasion, proud to have completed a mission and got their unit out alive. But none took a joy or pleasure in the task they had to do. They did it not because they loved death but exactly the opposite – because they love life.

They fought for life. For the survival of their families, their nation, and their people. Article here

Eyal Tsir Cohen and Jesse R. Weinberg:

A critical failure of U.S. strategy: at several pivotal moments, American mediators – through their public rhetoric and diplomatic approach – inadvertently strengthened Hamas’s position and hindered a speedier resolution to the hostage crisis.

Hamas sought to minimize Israeli military incursions into Gaza by leveraging global calls for de-escalation. The Biden administration’s strategy unknowingly aligned with Hamas’s goals. On Feb. 8, 2024, President Biden publicly criticized Israel’s offensive as “over the top.” White House officials also repeatedly warned Israel to halt its planned military operation in Rafah, saying that such an escalation would be unacceptable.

For Hamas, these statements confirmed that time was on its side. Rather than make concessions, Hamas interpreted U.S. pressure on Israel as a sign that it could hold firm, delay negotiations, and wait for Washington to force Israeli withdrawals. A Hamas official reportedly told an Arab media outlet at the time: “If the Americans push Israel hard enough, we won’t need to concede anything.” Threats from Washington to withhold military aid reinforced Hamas’s belief that Israel would ultimately be forced to back down.

The turning point in hostage negotiations was not diplomatic pressure but military action. Only after suffering significant territorial and operational losses did Hamas shift its position, paving the way for an eventual deal. The lesson from this episode is that any diplomatic effort that pressures Israel without demanding immediate concessions from Hamas will only prolong crises – not resolve them.

Effective negotiations with terror organizations are not built on goodwill. They require the consistent application of leverage – primarily through sustained military pressure and credible threats of escalation. Without such pressure, diplomacy risks becoming an empty gesture, allowing adversaries like Hamas to dictate the terms. Article here

Gaza Protests

Jonathan Sacerdoti: But what exactly do these demonstrations represent? We must resist the temptation to project our own liberal fantasies onto these images. The idea that Palestinians in Gaza are suddenly casting off the yoke of Hamas in pursuit of democracy and pluralism is dangerously naive. In truth, many of those now seen chanting against Hamas were, until recently, its most ardent supporters. Their opposition today is not to Hamas’s goals, but to the consequences of its failed rule and its genocidal attack on Israel…The latest protests in Gaza do not mark a moral revolution. At best, they are a flicker of pragmatism. The brutality continues, the ideology remains, and the West’s willingness to believe in fairy tales prevents it from confronting the hard truth: that not every culture, not every movement, not every identity is morally equal. Article here (paywall)

Bassam Tawil: The protesters, like many residents of Gaza, are, in all probability, just trying to avoid more death and destruction now that they see Israel, fully backed by the Trump administration, resuming its counter-terrorism operations. This is certainly not a change of heart: there has yet to be a single Palestinian criticism of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis. It is highly likely that many of the “anti-Hamas” protesters now are the same people who celebrated the Oct. 7 carnage.
Moreover, we did not hear or see one “anti-Hamas” protester hold a banner calling for peace and coexistence with Israel or recognizing Israel’s right to exist. The talk about local clans possibly revolting against Hamas is an old fantasy that unfortunately never materialized.
The current protests are taking place for one reason only: Hamas is conspicuously losing the war. Israel’s military force is working. The protesters are just angry that Israel retaliated so hard. These Palestinian demonstrations are not going to bring down Hamas. It is time to stop projecting Western values and aspirations onto Islamist societies. Article here

Moumen Al-Natour: Thousands of Gazans have joined the protests so far, and I believe we represent the sentiment of a large majority of people who have long been too afraid to stand openly against Hamas. Some in the West will doubtless be confused to see Palestinians openly calling Hamas terrorists, after many protesters in Western cities openly supported Hamas. Take it from someone who has lived under Hamas since age 11: To support Hamas is to be for Palestinian death, not Palestinian freedom. Hamas is killing us – through war, poverty and extortion – not liberating us.
On top of its oft-employed strategy of using civilians to shield its fighters and launching rockets next to our shelters, Hamas has, throughout this war, systematically stolen and resold humanitarian aid, profiting from our hunger. There is no freedom of thought in Gaza, let alone freedom of speech or belief. Torture and murder are credible threats, and there is literally nowhere to run if you are on a Hamas list. I have the scars to prove it, having been arrested and tortured multiple times.
When this war is over, some Palestinians will want to stay in Gaza and rebuild, while others will want the chance to leave. Some will want to continue the struggle against Israel, but many others like myself hope to find a new way forward for us and our families. None of these choices are possible as long as Hamas remains in power. If our movement succeeds, not only will it end this war – it will also prevent the next one. Article here (paywall)

Bret Stephens: Did the “Free Palestine” protesters at Columbia pause for a moment of silence for Odai Al-Rubai, 22, who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by Hamas after he joined protests in Gaza last week to demand an end to 18 years of Hamas’s violent misrule? For too many who call themselves “pro-Palestinian,” Palestinian misery seems to matter only when the blame can be pinned on Israel…
It isn’t enough for Gazans to revolt against Hamas for being the prime instigator and perpetuator of the last 18 months of war and misery. What matters even more is overcoming the mentality of the so-called Resistance. If the core Palestinian demand is not the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel but rather of one in place of Israel, then the conflict is bound to continue. Article here (paywall)

Turkey

Oded Ailam: Turkey’s maritime expansion is central to Erdogan’s vision. It is no longer about defence, but projection – of force, prestige, and deterrence…These advancements have serious implications for Israel. Submarines could loiter undetected near Israeli offshore gas rigs or communication cables, while surface vessels could disrupt shipping lanes, intimidate energy exploration efforts, or impede undersea infrastructure development. Turkey’s naval assertiveness opens a new front for Israel. The Eastern Mediterranean has long been treated as a secure flank. That assumption no longer holds. Israel faces increased risks to energy security, trade flows, and maritime sovereignty. Article here