Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 226 - 250 of 1108
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Liora Argamani, whose daughter Noa was held captive in Gaza for 246 days following Hamas's Oct. 7 attacks, died Tuesday after a prolonged battle with brain cancer. Argamani's final wish-to see her daughter one last time-was granted just three weeks before her passing, after Israeli forces rescued Noa in a daring raid last month to free her and three other Israeli hostages, marking a poignant end to a story that captivated Israel and the world. The 61-year-old nurse, who...
(JNS) — The Israeli government is advancing the approval of 6,016 housing units in dozens of towns throughout Judea and Samaria, the Supreme Planning Council of the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration said on Tuesday. The body was set to meet on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the advancement of the building plans, some 2,400 of which were expected to receive final approval, Israel’s Channel 12 News broadcaster reported. Among the projects on the agenda of the Supreme Planning Counc...
The Israeli military denied a New York Times report that its leadership is pressing for a ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza. (JNS) — Israeli forces have killed over 900 terrorists during the ongoing offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said on Tuesday. “What we saw with our eyes … over 900 dead terrorists, including commanders, at least one battalion commander, many company commanders and many operatives,” Halevi said during a visit to a forward logistics base in southern...
Shin Bet made the highly controversial decision to release 50 Palestinian prisoners, including the director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza where terrorists were embedded. Although Shin Bet claimed there was no concrete evidence to justify holding the prisoners, they added that there was “not enough room in current incarceration facilities.” Politicians and families of hostages reacted with outrage at the decision to release Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the Shifa hospital director who had been held since November 28. An IDF source told The Jerusalem Post in...
(JTA) — Israel’s Labor and Meretz parties announced on Sunday that they would unite ahead of the next election in a bid to revive the country’s left and maximize its share of parliament. The new party, called the Democrats, is the latest attempt to stem the more than 20-year decline of the Israeli left. Labor, which governed Israel for its first three decades, is now the smallest party in Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Meretz, to Labor’s left, did not receive enough votes in the most recent election to enter Knesset at all — effectively...
(JTA) - Almost nine months after Hamas terrorists stormed the Nova music festival, killing more than 360 revelers and abducting 40 others to Gaza, tens of thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv's HaYarkon Park on Thursday evening for what organizers dubbed a "healing concert." The concert was the first official event held by the Tribe of Nova since Oct. 7, when the trance music community became synonymous with Israel's catastrophe. Many survivors of the Oct. 7 massacre attended as part of an...
(JNS) - More than 2,000 participants on Birthright Israel programs gathered on Monday for a gala evening in central Israel that marks the highlight of the organization's summer trips to Israel. The Birthright Israel Mega Event at Mini Israel Park in Latrun took place in solidarity with the Israel Defense Forces as soldiers continue to fight Hamas in the Gaza Strip, keeping in mind the hostages taken captive on Oct. 7 from Jewish communities in southern Israel who are still being held there. It...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces is pursuing a phased approach in its ongoing offensive against Hamas’s last stronghold in Rafah, Gaza. By dividing Rafah into sub-areas and deploying a single division—the 162nd—rather than two, the IDF and the Israeli Cabinet have taken a slower path, but one that has avoided another crisis with the United States. According to Israeli military assessments, Hamas’s final functioning brigade will be dismantled in Rafah within weeks. Its defeat will mark a major milestone in the war that began on Oct. 7 with Ha...
(JNS) — With intense fighting in the Gaza Strip winding down, Jerusalem will deploy more troops to the northern border to defend against increasing Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Channel 14 on Sunday night. “The intense phase of the fighting against Hamas is about to end,” he told “Patriots” host Yinon Magal, adding: “It doesn’t mean that the war is about to end, but the war in its intense phase is about to end in Rafah.” He added that the Israeli military will continue to “mow the grass” in Gaz...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — The Israeli healthcare system is preparing to deal with pregnancies resulting from sexual assaults during captivity. An article was published in the June issue of the Israel Medical Association’s journal “HaRefuah” to instruct medical teams on addressing this “sensitive, difficult-to-comprehend, yet unavoidable matter.” The piece, written by Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Leah Shelef, former head of the Air Force’s psychology department and current dean of Sapir College’s School of Social Work, and Professor Gil Zalsman, direct...
(JTA) - The musician Jonny Greenwood is pushing back on critics who say he should abandon a plan to tour with an Israeli collaborator because of the Israel-Hamas war. Greenwood and Dudu Tassa, an Israeli rock star from a prominent Mizrahi musical family, are scheduled to perform together on the European festival circuit this summer, a year after they released a joint record that featured singers from across the Middle East. Some of the dates were rescheduled after the pair canceled shows in the...
(JNS) - The most ancient ship ever found in the deep sea has been discovered off Israel's northern coast, shedding light on trade more than three millennia ago and revealing the existence of advanced navigation skills in that era, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Thursday. The 3,300-year-old ship's cargo, including hundreds of intact amphorae, was located 55 miles from shore at a depth of just over 1 mile, the state-run archaeological body said. The dramatic find was uncovered...
(JNS) - Many of the 120 hostages who remain in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip are believed to be alive, a senior Israeli official involved in ongoing negotiations with the terrorist organization said on Tuesday. "Dozens are alive with certainty," the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to speak to the press, told AFP. He claimed the vast majority of the captives are being held by Hamas, and not by other terror groups in the coastal enclave. The...
(JNS) — Israel’s government and military remain fully committed to eliminating Hamas terrorist rule in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office clarified on Wednesday evening. The statement came after Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told Channel 13 News that the government’s war goal of ending Hamas rule in Gaza can only truly be accomplished by putting in place a viable alternative. “The Security Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has defined the destruction of Hamas’s m...
(JNS) — Intelligence documents compiled by the Israel Defense Forces’ Gaza Division only three weeks before Oct. 7 warned that Hamas was preparing for a massive cross-border attack during which at least 200 hostages would be taken, according to Israeli media reports. The memo, which was internally circulated on Sept. 19, was brought to the attention of at least some top intelligence officials in the military’s Southern Command, Israel’s Kan News reported on Monday night. The document detailed drills by the Gaza terrorist group’s Nukhba fo...
By (JTA) — Ten Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza on Saturday in one of the bloodiest days for the Israeli military since the beginning of its war with Hamas. An additional soldier died of wounds sustained in battle earlier in the week. The casualties came as Israel is negotiating with Hamas over a potential ceasefire that would see the release of hostages held by the terror group. Israel reportedly expects Hamas to reject the ceasefire offer, made with U.S. support. The incidents also came on the first day of a pause Israel announced that w...
(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has informed members of his government of his intent to dissolve the War Cabinet set up after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack. The premier told ministers on Sunday that the powerful forum, which was established when National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz joined the wartime government in October, had become obsolete following the latter's June 9 decision to return to the opposition. Discussions on the war will continue to take place in a small forum with...
(JNS) — Jerusalem will not commit to ending the war in Gaza until Hamas releases all of the hostages held by the terrorist group, according to a senior Israeli official. The official told the Ynet website that the captives must be freed in the first and second phases of the proposed ceasefire agreement approved by the United Nations Security Council on June 10. The U.S.-drafted resolution is aimed at reaching a three-phase ceasefire deal to end the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Noting that Israel has accepted the ceasefire proposal, t...
(JNS) — Israeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar said on Tuesday that should military operations on the country’s northern front be expanded, the IAF will “enable a change in the security reality in the north.” Speaking at a ceremony for the re-establishment of Battalion 139 of the Air Defense Array, Bar said: “Alongside the iron defense, we are acting offensively and denying Hezbollah’s capabilities, shoulder to shoulder with the Northern Command. Together, we will also know how to expand and intensify the attack if required....
David Isaac (JNS) - While Israeli security officials have requested that the four hostages rescued by the Israel Defense Forces on Saturday keep their experiences secret, some details have nevertheless emerged. The four - Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40 - appeared to be in good health when first seen on camera on June 8, the day of the raid. But two days later, Dr. Itay Pessach of the Sheba Medical Center revealed they were in a "state of severe...
(JNS) — Hamas has rejected the Israeli hostage-ceasefire deal, claiming that it is fundamentally different than the one presented by U.S. President Joe Biden on May 31, the Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday. The Gaza-based terror group sent a clarification memorandum to the Palestinian terror factions on Wednesday, the text of which was seen by the news outlet. It claims that the current proposal “does not promise a permanent ceasefire, the occupation’s forces will remain in Gaza, and when they receive the hostages, they will...
(JNS) — Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Tuesday slammed a reported decision to release 30 Palestinian terrorists who were captured by Israel Defense Forces troops in the Gaza Strip. “The decision by the IDF and the National Security Council to release terrorists back into the Gaza Strip without conditions is unfathomably delusional,” the Otzma Yehudit Party leader told Channel 14 News. “The IDF is expected to withstand the shortage of prison space during a war when there are tens of thousands of detained terrori...
(JNS) — The Jewish state should task a committee with probing the state’s defense budget amid a war that appears poised to cost $67 billion between 2023 and 2025, Amir Yaron, the governor of the Bank of Israel, said on Thursday. Speaking at the College of Management Academic Studies in Rishon Letzion, Yaron said that “a prosperous economy requires security, and security requires a prosperous economy,” Reuters reported. “The war should not bring with it a blank check for permanent defense expenditures, and proper balances have to be found,” h...
(JNS) — “I am very cheerful and full of joy. For the first time since October 7, I feel that I can breathe again,” Aviram Meir, the uncle of Almog Meir Jan, told JNS on Thursday. Meir Jan was rescued during “Operation Arnon” last Saturday along with Noa Argamani, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv from two separate locations in Nuseirat Camp in the central Gaza Strip. Hamas terrorists abducted all four from the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im during the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre. “We thank all the decision-makers, the planners and the soldi...
(JNS) - Thousands of Israelis converged on "Hostage Square" in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, many euphoric over the daring operation to rescue four captives from Gaza even while demanding a deal with Hamas to secure the freedom of the remaining 120 Israelis held by the terrorists. During a complex daytime operation in the heart of a crowded residential neighborhood, Israeli forces recovered from Hamas captivity Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40. "I was so...
