Israel update 25.9.25

G’Mar Chatima Tovah to all my readers. HRG.

EILAT AGAIN ATTACKED BY HOUTHIS

Forty-eight civilians were wounded, including two men who are in serious condition and seventeen others who were lightly wounded by shrapnel, after a drone launched by the Houthi terrorist organization crashed in Eilat on Wednesday afternoon. The Israeli air force carried out two failed interception attempts. The German ambassador to Israel said “The world mustn’t get used to the Houthis trying to kill Israeli civilians just because they say they act for the people of Gaza, whom, of course, they do not help one bit.” Report here

Last Thursday evening, a Houthi drone crashed near the entrance to a hotel in Eilat, causing a fire.Report here

GAZA WAR AGAINST HAMAS

Four soldiers from the IDF Officers School were killed last Thursday in Gaza after the Humvee they were traveling in struck an explosive device in Rafah. They were Second Lt. Eitan Avner Ben Itzhak 22, Maj. Omri Chai Ben Moshe, 26, Second Lt. Ron Arieli 20 and Second Lt. Eran Shelem 23. Another soldier is in serious condition. Report here

A tank officer company commander Maj. Shahar Netanel Bozaglo, 27, was killed in fighting in Gaza City on Monday. He was the first soldier to be killed in the IDF’s new offensive against Hamas in Gaza City, launched last week. Report here

An IDF soldier, Staff Sgt. Chalachew Shimon Demalash, 21 was killed in a Hamas sniper attack in Gaza City on Wednesday. Report here

The IDF on Wednesday released footage showing Hamas terrorists opening heavy fire against Israeli forces from the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.Report here

A military correspondent described how Israel is decimating Hamas infrastructure using explosive-laden unmanned armored vehicles to obliterate terror strongholds while dramatically reducing danger to troops.
Each robotic strike delivers the force of two Air Force bombs, precisely targeting booby-trapped buildings and neutralizing IEDs. Deployed dozens of times daily, the APCs drop their explosive payloads, retreat to safety, and detonate remotely, making them reusable instead of expendable. X post here

Thursday: Over the past day, IAF struck more than 170 targets throughout Gaza including terrorists, military structures, weapons storage facilities, and terror infrastructure sites.Meanwhile, Israeli troops continued dismantling terrorist infrastructure and eliminating terrorists in Gaza Coty Hamas’s last stronghold.. In the northern Gaza Strip, troops dismantled above-ground and below-ground terrorist infrastructure, including an ambush post.

Soldiers conducted counterterrorism operations in the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip over recent weeks, before moving to operations in Khan Yunis. This included killing “dozens” of terrorists, and dismantling terror infrastructure above and below ground. Report here

Two rockets were launched from north Gaza at Ashdod on Sunday, the first such attack since 6 April. One rocket was intercepted, the other fell in an open area. Report here

In Kizan al-Najjar, a depopulated village near Khan Yunis, Hossam al-Astal, 50, a former Palestinian Authority officer, recently announced the formation of a militia called Strike Force Against Terror and is inviting displaced Gazans to live under his protection. He offers food, water, shelter, and freedom from Hamas. “Dozens of families contact me every day,” he said in an interview. His enclave is the latest iteration of a potentially significant phenomenon taking hold in areas of Gaza under Israeli control: the emergence of clan-based militias filling the vacuum left by Hamas’s retreat Report here

HOW HAMAS MURDERS OPPONENTS

Hamas-led authorities in Gaza have executed three men accused of collaborating with Israel. In a video circulated on social media showing the executions, a masked man is seen issuing a warning to “all collaborators” before the three men, kneeling and blindfolded, are kicked onto their fronts and shot in front of a crowd. Report here

FORMER HOSTAGES – UPDATE

Naama Levy, one of the six IDF field spotters who were abducted to Gaza, told an event at the UN that she was kept in “unbearable sanitary conditions, with the constant fear that each moment could be my last.” She “suffered severe malnutrition, indescribable hunger, and many untreated injuries. Levy described the air in the tunnels as “empty of oxygen,” saying that it “feels impossible to take a deep breath. And each time you try to, you choke from the lack of air.” “You are led to a mattress, soaked with humidity; the smell of mould is everywhere and seeps deep into your lungs.” Report here (paywall)

American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, who was taken hostage and held for 584 days, said that he intends to return to Israel and continue his service in the IDF next month.
“I will once again put on the IDF uniform, and I will proudly serve alongside my brothers. Serving in the IDF is one of the greatest honours of my life.” Report here (paywall)

GAZA PERIPHERY REVITALISED

Over 90% of residents living in Israeli communities bordering Gaza have now returned home while over 2,500 new residents have joined them.

Among the new arrivals were more than 50 families who signed up to live in the 13 communities that were worst affected by the attack.
Residents of the five worst-affected communities are still in temporary accommodation, while their kibbutzim are being rehabilitated. Report here

RECOGNITION OF “PALESTINE” AT THE UN

French President Macron on Monday formally announced France’s recognition of a Palestinian state during a UN conference his country co-hosted with Saudi Arabia. Macron was joined by the leaders of Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, San Marino and Andorra who issued similar announcements. The UK, Australia, Canada and Portugal had made their own announcements a day earlier.

Crucially, Macron revealed that he will hold off on opening a French embassy until after the hostages are released and a ceasefire in Gaza has been reached.

The president of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, which has no formal relations with Israel, said the world must respect Israel’s right to security and ended his speech with the Hebrew benediction “Shalom.” Report here

U.S. UN Ambassador Mike Waltz told the Security Council on Tuesday:” I find it, we find it deeply regrettable that Council Members have opted to convene this high-level UN Security Council briefing on Gaza on Rosh Hashanah – the Jewish New Year – knowing full well that that decision excludes Israel”….”Unilateral recognition statements do not alter the reality on the ground – it does not alter the fact that there is not a Palestinian state to recognize. And at this point there is no credible Palestinian partner for peace. The Palestinian Authority leaders from Ramallah are absent from New York this week because they failed to meet their Oslo commitments.”
“The commitments were basic, including renouncing terrorism, renouncing violence, resolving issues through direct negotiations with Israel. The Palestinian Authority has failed to clear even these low bars. And their attempts to bypass negotiations through what can only be called lawfare, including at the ICC and at the ICJ, and its pushes for unilateral recognition of statehood.” US UN Mission briefing here

Speaking at the UNGA on Tuesday, the US President said the current wave of recognitions of Palestinian statehood represents a submission to Hamas’s “ransom demands,” rewards the terror group, and encourages conflict. Report here

Israel’s ambassador to the UN said (before Rosh Hashanah) “ Instead of demanding the immediate and unconditional release of the 48 hostages still held in Gaza who remain trapped in inhumane conditions, the UN has focused on symbolic gestures that reward instead of sanction terror.” Report here

COLLABORATION & DIALOGUE

Thirty women leaders, from or with roots across the Middle East and North Africa, gathered in Tel Aviv last week to discuss collaboration on social change.

Israeli, Lebanese, Iranian, Tunisian, Saudi, Afghan, Moroccan, Emirati and Iraqi women, several of whom reside in the United States, Canada and UK, were part of the inaugural Women Champions for Change summit. Report here

IRAN

Iran has begun rebuilding missile-production sites targeted by Israel during its 12-day war in June, satellite images show, but a key component is likely still missing – the large planetary mixers needed to produce solid fuel for the weapons. Iran could purchase them from China. Report here

THUNBERG FLOTILLA

The latest Gaza flotilla is nothing more than a Hamas-led provocation, carefully orchestrated to create confrontation at sea under the cover of “aid.” Hamas leadership is pulling the strings. Most passengers have no idea they are sailing under the command of a terror organization. Key organizers are senior Hamas operatives in Europe. One heads a Hamas-affiliated body abroad and runs a shell company in Spain which owns some of the vessels. Another, operating out of London, has been designated by Israel since 2012 as a senior Hamas activist. This is not a grassroots civilian initiative, it is a Hamas operation, pre-planned, coordinated, and unlawful. Report here

The”aid flotilla” on its way to Gaza reportedly had its radio systems jammed with ABBA music, meaning it was unable to contact the coastguard for help as it was allegedly attacked by drones. Previous claims of drone attacks made by the flotilla’s organisers have been disputed, with Tunisian authorities claiming a pair of fires in recent weeks were the result of misfired flares. Reportedly Spain & Italy are sending warships to accompany the boats. Report here

Footnote: Why Israel is legally entitled to enforce the blockade: Article here

ENTREPRENEURS

Two Israeli universities, Tel Aviv University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, are listed among the world’s top 10 academic institutions for producing the most entrepreneurs, according to financial research firm PitchBook’s 2025 rankings. Report here

MEDICAL RESEARCH

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have found an innovative gene therapy method to treat impairments in hearing and balance caused by inner ear dysfunction, providing hope for a cure to inherited deafness. Report here

EUROVISION

Germany’s culture minister on Saturday slammed threats by several European countries to boycott next year’s Eurovision song contest if Israel takes part as a move that politicizes a cultural event. Austria, which is hosting the event, expressed regret on Friday over the threats. A senior Austrian official denounced cultural boycotts as “dumb and pointless.” Report here

COMMENT & OPINION

Recognition of “Palestine”

Telegraph editorial: It is hard to disagree with U.S. President Donald Trump that Palestinian statehood is a misstep while Hamas retains control of Gaza and professes its willingness and intent to destroy Israel.
It is hard to disagree, either, with the moral clarity of the statement that the war cannot end until the hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023, are returned. Editorial here (paywall)

Wall St Journal Editorial: But these recognitions disconnect statehood from any peace agreement, granting recognition even without reconciliation. They give Hamas what it wants. Why not demand that steps toward peace come first? Why not condition recognition on the release of all hostages and exile of Hamas?
…On Oct. 7, 2023, Israelis saw one vision of Palestinian nationalism in action. They also saw Hamas gain support among Palestinians afterward, and Israel condemned for fighting back. Israelis will now need to see something different from Palestinians to be convinced that murdering Jews isn’t their nationalism’s essence.
Why should Israelis believe a West Bank state wouldn’t soon look like Gaza and prepare another Oct. 7-style attack? And that the world wouldn’t blame Israel in the aftermath? The Palestinians have consistently chosen the struggle to destroy Israel rather than the offer of a state alongside it. To say, let them have both is to make Hamas’s day. Editorial here (paywall)

Henry Donovan: German chancellor Merz has done something almost unthinkable for a modern European leader: he has chosen virtue over virtue-signaling. Merz has dared to say what ought to be obvious: Hamas is the obstacle to a real two-state-solution. Until it is stripped of power in Gaza, there can be no peace, no security and no Palestinian state worth the name…
Merz has insisted that Hamas cannot be allowed a role in Gaza’s future and that hostage release and disarmament are non-negotiable… A peace plan that includes Hamas is not a peace plan at all – it is surrender to fanaticism and rewards the wrong side… If Europe truly wants peace, it must pair recognition with coercion: disarmament, governance reform, and guarantees that extremists are driven from power. That is the only humane path for both Israelis and Palestinians. Article here (paywall)

JPost Editorial: However Paris and London try to spin it, the takeaway on the Palestinian street will be clear: 32 years after the signing of the Oslo Accords,which state that Palestinian statehood would come only at the end of a negotiated process, a Palestinian state, even a fictitious one, has been delivered not through compromise, change, or negotiation, but through brutal, mind-numbing terrorism.

…The message this sends to the Palestinians is simple: They need not compromise or negotiate. What works is to unleash barbaric terrorism, cry “genocide” when Israel responds, and then sit back and wait for the French, British, and others to hand them a state.

But this is an illusion. Declarations of statehood will not conjure a state into existence if Israel is opposed. Israel controls the territory, and unless it withdraws its troops, no “Palestine” is going to emerge.

…And Israel is not going to remove its troops – not now nor in the foreseeable future – until there is a fundamental change in Palestinian society.

Until the Palestinians accept that the Jewish state is here to stay, that it cannot be wished or fought away, and that their only option is to live beside it rather than in place of it, no progress will be possible. Full editorial here

Dr. Dan Diker: Another Palestinian terror state in the hills of Judea and Samaria overlooking Israel’s coastal plain would constitute a strategic threat to the State of Israel. Despite the devastating consequences of the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 50% of Palestinians still view Hamas’s decision to launch that attack as “correct” – rising to 59% in the West Bank. 85% in the West Bank and 64% in Gaza oppose the disarmament of Hamas, rendering meaningless the Western precondition of demilitarization of a future Palestinian state.

Western leaders’ recognition rests upon the assumption that the “moderate” Palestinian Authority will govern any future state. Yet for three decades, the PA has spread blood libels against Jews and Israelis, promoted the financial incentivization of terror, and is guilty of massive corruption. Today, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is in the 20th year of his 4-year term, Palestinian polls show that 81% of Palestinians want Abbas to resign, yet Western leaders plan to empower his illegitimate government with statehood.

A Palestinian state supported by scores of Western countries sends a clear message to extremists worldwide: terror pays, and the more heinous the act, the greater the diplomatic reward. The moral obligation currently rests on the Western powers to demand a complete remaking of Palestinian society and its leadership. Otherwise, it will likely not differentiate itself from the majority of Arab dictatorships in terms of human rights abuses, corruption, and a lack of democracy. Full article here

Brendan O’Neill: The idea that it assists peace to give an army of anti-Semites what it wants less than two years after it slaughtered more Jews in one day than anyone else since the Nazis is preposterous. In truth, it emboldens the enemies of humanity, the neo-medieval murderers of Hamas and their allies in the regressive Islamist project, by telling them that butchery works….

Hamas refers to Western leaders’ recognition of a State of Palestine as ‘one of the fruits of Oct 7’. This will be your legacy, Sir Keir: you gifted ‘fruit’ to the mass killers of Jews. You pleased the men who beat Shani Louk to death by assenting to one of their aims. You brought a smile to the faces of fascists…

A new poll has found that nearly 9 in 10 Britons oppose the recognition of Palestine without conditions. They clearly see the risk and the lunacy of giving a state to a terror army before it has released the Jews it kidnapped and laid down the arms with which it dreams of destroying the Jewish nation. No, the ‘domestic political pressure’ Starmer is responding to comes from the Palestine obsessives of his own party and his own class – that keffiyeh-adorned section of society that has convinced itself Israel is a demonic entity. This is the most unforgivable thing about his appeasing antics: he has sacrificed our alliance with the world’s only Jewish nation at the altar of the narrowest political expediency; in the name not of democracy but of placating the irrational Israelophobia of a noisy and bigoted minority. Full article here

Paul McCarthy: By rewarding the butchers of Hamas, European leaders are legitimizing terror as a political strategy. It emboldens radicals, sidelines Israel’s legitimate security concerns, and erases the progress of the Abraham Accords.
These governments intend to confer legitimacy to the P.A. led by president-for-life Mahmoud Abbas, which has not held an election in nearly two decades and which openly funds “pay-for-slay” stipends to terrorists’ families… and incites hatred against Jews…European elites have learned nothing from the failures of the Oslo Accords or the repeated waves of Palestinian violence since the 1990s. They prefer moral preening to confronting the reality on the ground: Israel’s survival is non-negotiable, and peace will never come through legitimizing extremist actors. Instead of encouraging Palestinians to renounce terror and reform and engage, Europe is telling them they can bypass compromise, pocket international recognition, and continue funding terrorism with impunity. Full article here

Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp: The Israeli offensive engulfing Gaza City has hurled Hamas into panic mode. The IDF is conducting the most intensive operations of this two-year campaign, building intensity by the day…In line with their obligations under the laws of war, the IDF have repeatedly dropped leaflets warning Gazan civilians to leave the city and opened up corridors to allow them to move safely to the south. Current estimates suggest around 550,000 have departed so far and more are on the way out…
So, at Hamas’s moment of maximum stress, British Prime Minister Starmer rides to their rescue with his formal recognition of a non-existent Palestinian state, a move that their leaders characterize as “victory.” Hamas are obviously not interested in a two-state solution, any more than their fellow jihadists in the PLO and Palestinian Authority are: they want only the annihilation of the Jewish state.
Israel’s erstwhile allies have now shot their bolt…. By publicly rewarding the butchers of Oct. 7, they have denied themselves even the small amount of influence they might have had over the progress of this war or the future of the Middle East. Full article here (paywall)

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Walter Russell Mead : The lliberal world order is grounded on the Allied victory in World War II. The Allies, like the Israelis, weren’t the aggressors in that war, but in their efforts to extirpate the scourges of Nazi nihilism and Japanese militarism, they killed as many as three million German and another one million Japanese civilians. More than 11 million Germans were forced from their long-term homes in Poland and Czechoslovakia after the guns fell silent, often in winter amid terrible shortages of food, medicine and safe water.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and British Labour leader Clement Attlee scoffed at suggestions that the Allies provide humanitarian aid to enemy civilians while the war continued. Allied demands for unconditional surrender were issued in the full knowledge that they would likely prolong the war and increase civilian suffering.

But in FDR’s view, the Germans had been willing to venture another world war because the first one had ended without any serious fighting inside Germany itself. Real peace could come only if the Germans and the Japanese had the spirit of resistance beaten out of them.

Western leaders who insist that Israel’s actions are historically unprecedented and morally unjustifiable betray an ignorance of history and unseriousness of purpose that raise fundamental questions about their fitness for the offices they hold. Full article here (paywall)