Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — The first-ever Israeli baby born to a woman who had undergone uterine transposition surgery was delivered at Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah, the hospital announced on Wednesday. The newborn is only the sixth baby in the world born to a woman who has undergone the groundbreaking transposition procedure, it noted. Professor Ram Eitan, director of Beilinson’s Gynecologic Oncology Unit, who performed the uterine surgery in 2022, recently delivered the baby via Caesarean section, in what the medical center descr...
(JNS) — Israel has called on the United Nations Security Council to act against the Damascus regime for its role in atrocities being committed against Druze civilians in Syria’s Suweida province. In a letter dated July 17, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar expressed “deep concern” over reports of brutal violence targeting the Druze community in southern Syria. Sa’ar described acts of “killings and executions, defacement of bodies, public humiliation of captured civilians,” alongside widespread looting and desecration of religious sites....
(JNS) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified Israel’s two-pronged strategic goal in Syria on Thursday — ensuring southern Syria is demilitarized and protecting the Druze of that region. Netanyahu defined southern Syria as an area running from the Golan Heights to Jabal al-Druze, a region encompassing nearly all of the as-Sweida Governorate, recently the site of massacres perpetrated by regime-linked Syrian forces against the Druze community. The Syrian regime violated both red lines, Netanyahu said. “It sent troops south of Damascu...
(JNS) - Redeemed Hamas hostage Liri Albag will return to her Israel Defense Forces service this week, in a "significant" capacity, her father said on Monday. Albag was abducted by Hamas from the military's Nahal Oz outpost during the terrorist group's Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack, and was kept in captivity in Gaza for 477 days. She was released as part of a ceasefire deal in January. "She's not scared of anything," her father, Eli Albag, told Israel's Reshet Bet radio station, according to...
(JNS) — Four rare, 1,900-year-old rare bronze discs decorated with lion heads that were uncovered in southern Israel in the last decade offer evidence of Roman-period burial culture and belief in the afterlife, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Thursday. The ornate discs, which were found in a grave during a 2018 excavation at Khirbat Ibreika in the Sharon region, were probably intended to be used to help carry a coffin, the state-run archaeological body said. “Tracing the lion as...
(JNS) — A majority of Israelis want the Gaza Strip to remain under Israeli military rule after the current war ends, according to a survey published by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs last week. The poll, conducted by Menachem Lazar of Lazar Research at the beginning of July, found that 52 percent support an Israeli takeover of Gaza with a temporary military administration — if all hostages are first released. Only 4 percent believe Hamas should remain in power, whether politically or militarily. The survey sampled mor...
(JNS) — Or Levy, who spent 491 days as a Hamas hostage, spoke out this week about his ordeal and the pain of knowing others remain captive in Gaza. Levy, 34, was freed in February, his pale, frail frame shocking the world. Nearly all his captivity was spent underground, shackled and starving. “It’s hard to understand how difficult it is to live on one pita a day for 491 days …, no human should live like that,” he told CNN this week. Levy was kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. His wife, Einav, was killed in the attack, t...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces failed to protect Ofakim, a city of some 40,000 residents located 12.5 miles west of Beersheva, during the Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border massacre led by Hamas, an internal investigation report released by the military on Monday concludes. The investigation further found that the bravery and quick battle engagements of police officers, civilians and soldiers on the scene were the primary reasons the killing spree was halted at a relatively early stage. Fifteen Palestinian terrorists from Gaza invaded Ofakim a l...
(JNS) - Israeli player Guy Sasson and his Dutch partner, Niels Vink, delivered a commanding performance to capture the quad doubles wheelchair tennis crown at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships in London on Saturday. The duo overpowered South African Donald Ramphadi and Briton Gregory Slade in the final, securing a decisive 6–0, 6–2 victory. Sasson, 45, declared "Am Yisrael Chai" live on the BBC following his win. Born and raised in Ramat Gan, Sasson was an avid tennis player in his youth and ser...
(JNS) - Former Hamas hostage Eli Sharabi's memoir about his experiences in captivity in Gaza is scheduled for release in the United States on Oct. 7, 2025 - the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on the Jewish state, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. The book, titled "Hostage," the first published memoir of a freed Hamas captive, has become a best seller in Hebrew. The English edition will be published by Harper Influence, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. "It was...
In his first media interview since his return to Israel, former captive Ofer Kalderon gave a harrowing account of being held hostage in Gaza, the trauma of being separated from his children and his meeting with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, whom the Israel Defense Forces later killed. "You're alive physically, but you feel dead," he told journalist Yael Odem on Israeli Channel 12's "Ulpan Shishi" program aired on Friday night. "Everything you were before - erased." Kalderon, 54, was freed,...
(JNS) - Israeli landmarks honored the United States on Sunday with gestures of gratitude following the American military's aerial operation against Iran's nuclear facilities early that morning. The front of the Knesset building was illuminated in red, white and blue, while the ceremonial plaza was adorned with American flags. An honor guard was stationed at the site, with the participation of Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana. "On behalf of the Knesset, which represents all the citizens of Israel, I...
(JNS) — A pro-Israel Christian student organization on Wednesday donated $100,000 to honor the victims of last year’s deadly Hezbollah rocket attack on a soccer field in the Golan Heights village of Majdal Shams, which claimed the lives of 12 Druze children. The donation by Passages, which has been dubbed the “Christian Birthright” for its student tours to Israel, will go to a local foundation that supports community youth pursuing higher education and leadership roles, a memorial soccer tournament and other infrastructure projects. “In bri...
(JNS) — Dozens of Israeli jets attacked dozens of targets, including military and nuclear sites, in Tehran in a “preemptive, precise, combined offensive” strike against Iran’s nuclear program early in the morning on Friday, June 13, the Israel Defense Forces stated. The IDF said that the attack was based on “high-quality intelligence” and came “in response to the Iranian regime’s ongoing aggression against Israel.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the operation, dubbed “Rising Lion,” would “continue for as many days as it...
By JNS Staff (JNS) — A Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria probably won’t happen “in our lifetime” and is no longer Washington’s goal, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Tuesday. “Unless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture, there’s no room for it,” Huckabee told Bloomberg, adding that a culture shift is unlikely to take place “in our lifetime.” When asked by Bloomberg if an independent Palestinian state is the goal of the Trump administration, the diplomat responded: “I don’t think so.” A Pa...
The White House was informed of Israel’s strikes against the Iranian regime ahead of time but was not involved militarily, U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News‘ Bret Baier on Friday. Washington still hopes that Tehran will clinch a nuclear agreement with the United States, Trump told Baier. “Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and we are hoping to get back to the negotiating table. We will see,” Fox News cited the commander-in-chief as saying. “There are several people in leadership that will not be coming back,” he added. U.S. officials w...
Following a directive from Israel’s political echelon, the Israel Defense Forces launched what it described as a preemptive, precise and combined offensive codenamed “Operation Rising Lion” in the early hours of Friday, targeting Iran’s nuclear program and other military targets across the Islamic Republic, as well as, reportedly, senior Iranian military and Islamic Republican Guards Corps commanders. The decision was, according to a defense official, signed off on by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, i...
(JNS) — The lower house of France’s Parliament on Monday voted to posthumously promote Alfred Dreyfus, amid a surge in antisemitic incidents in the country in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. All 197 lawmakers present at the National Assembly supported the legislation, which was introduced by former prime minister Gabriel Attal of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance Party, AFP reported. The Senate still needs to pass the bill to promote the Jewish army captain, whose wrongful conviction for treason in 1894 was widely seen as a sy...
(JNS) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee issued a scathing rebuke of several major American news outlets on Monday, accusing them of spreading false, Hamas-sourced narratives. In a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, Huckabee directly blamed “reckless and irresponsible reporting” by the New York Times, CNN and the Associated Press for fueling antisemitic violence in the United States — specifically referencing last month’s deadly shooting of two Israelis in Washington, D.C., and Sunday’s firebombing of a pro-Israel demonstrati...
(JNS) — Starting just after midnight on June 9, citizens of 12 countries are to be barred from entering the United States, and those of seven others are partly blocked, per a presidential proclamation on June 4. “This approach was designed to encourage cooperation with the subject countries in recognition of each country’s unique circumstances,” U.S. President Donald Trump said. “The restrictions and limitations imposed by this proclamation are, in my judgment, necessary to prevent the entry or admission of foreign nationals about whom the...
The White House was informed of Israel’s strikes against the Iranian regime ahead of time but was not involved militarily, U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News‘ Bret Baier on Friday. Washington still hopes that Tehran will clinch a nuclear agreement with the United States, Trump told Baier. “Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and we are hoping to get back to the negotiating table. We will see,” Fox News cited the commander-in-chief as saying. “There are several people in leadership that will not be coming back,” he added. U.S. officials w...
(JNS) — The infant son of Tzeela Gez, who was critically injured in the same terror attack that claimed his mother’s life, died at Schneider Children’s Medical Center on Thursday morning after two weeks of intensive medical efforts to save him. The tragedy began two weeks ago when Tzeela and her husband, Hananel Gez, were driving from their home in the Samarian community of Bruchin to the hospital for the birth of their child. En route, a terrorist opened fire on their vehicle. Tzeela was fatally shot, and medics attempted extensive resus...
(JNS) — Paramount+ and MTV Documentary Films told JNS exclusively on Tuesday that they plan to expand access to Montana Tucker’s documentary “The Children of October 7” on a global basis starting on June 2, the first day of Shavuot. The 36-minute film will be available in all of the areas where Paramount+ is accessible: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latin America, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. “In this documentary, Montana Tucker shined a light on the stories of devastation children experienced on Oct....
(JNS) — In the nearly 20 months since some 6,000 Hamas-led Gazan terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Jewish state has facilitated the delivery of close to 1.8 million tons of aid to the Strip, including 1.3 million tons of food, Israel said this weekend. The figures were released amid warnings of “imminent famine” in the Strip by international aid agencies led by the U.N., alongside criticism of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that was launched a week ago to distribute aid in Gaza that circumvents Hamas. The 1.8 milli...
(JNS) - During her 471 days in Hamas captivity, then-hostage Emily Damari lost two fingers, raised a hand to a terrorist, organized a "lice competition," was genuinely "excited" to be brought down a Hamas tunnel, and was the unquestionable morale-lifter for her captive friends. In an extensive interview with Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 aired on Saturday, Damari, 28, opened up about her captivity in the Gaza Strip. "I was nicknamed 'Shejaiya,'" Damari said in reference to her captors. "Which means heroes [in Arabic]. ..., then they called me...
