Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Hours after freeing 20 living hostages to a jubilant Israel, Hamas released the remains of four deceased hostages — far fewer than the 28 it is holding and obligated under the terms of the ceasefire to release. The group had already indicated that it was not prepared to release all of the deceased hostages’ remains immediately, following two years of war in Gaza, and Israel and negotiators had accepted that it could take some time. Still, the small number of bodies released on Monday represented a disappointment for many who had hoped that Mon...
(JNS) — One was held in a Gaza tunnel, deep underground, shackled in darkness for nearly two years. Another was kept in total isolation, enduring a process of deliberate starvation at the hands of his captors, losing nearly 40 percent of his body weight. They were tortured and tormented and in constant peril. These were some of the gruesome stories emerging from the 20 living Israeli hostages released two years after Gazan terrorists seized them during the Hezbollah-led invasion of the northwestern Negev. Elkana Bohbot, 36, one of the o...
(JNS) - The Israel Defense Forces released a never-before-seen picture on Thursday showing the slain body of Yahya Sinwar, marking one year since IDF soldiers killed the Hamas terrorist mastermind in the Gaza Strip. The photo shows former IDF Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, former Operations Directorate chief Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk and Gaza Division chief Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram standing near Sinwar's body on Oct. 17, 2024, a day after he had been killed in southern Gaza. The...
(JNS) — A senior Trump administration adviser told reporters on Wednesday that efforts are underway to demilitarize Gaza. “We’re defining a path that makes everyone feel safe,” the adviser, who declined to be named, told reporters. “It’s not realistic to expect people to just drop arms.” “The dynamic is complex, but the sentiment from Arab mediators and from Hamas is to keep working together toward a solution,” the adviser said. The adviser and another senior U.S. adviser, who also spoke to reporters anonymously, told reporters that ph...
(JNS) — In his first interview since announcing earlier in the day the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the war between Israel and Hamas, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the “world has come together around this deal.” Calling it a “great honor” to participate in the deal that will see all of the hostages both living and dead returned from Gaza in the coming days, Trump thanked members of his administration, including Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, senior adviser Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and V...
Hours after freeing 20 living hostages to a jubilant Israel, Hamas released the remains of four deceased hostages — far fewer than the 28 it is holding and obligated under the terms of the ceasefire to release. The group had already indicated that it was not prepared to release all of the deceased hostages’ remains immediately, following two years of war in Gaza, and Israel and negotiators had accepted that it could take some time. Still, the small number of bodies released on Monday represented a disappointment for many who had hoped that Mon...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to join world leaders in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday to finalize the U.S.-brokered deal aimed at ending the war on Hamas. The Sharm el-Sheikh summit “will soon begin with the participation of 30 countries and international and regional organizations, to celebrate the signing of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip,” a spokesman for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s office told Arabic media. In addition to Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald...
(Israel Hayom/JNS via JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump has dispatched envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Egypt for ongoing talks on ending the war in Gaza, as Hamas presses new demands not part of the original agreement Israel accepted. As technical discussions advance on the initial stages of a ceasefire, including the release of hostages and the entry of aid supplies, the terrorist group has thrown a curveball in the negotiations. Among its demands are the release of senior terrorists Jerusalem has said are red lines, i...
(JNS) —A major security breach took place in the Binyamin community of Na’ale late this past Friday night, in the southwestern Samaria Plain, as two masked Arabs managed to infiltrate the hamlet, steal property and escape. Israel’s Channel 12 aired security footage of the intruders wandering freely between homes, apparently looking for soft targets to burglarize. Channel 12 claimed the men went undetected for about three hours. The Binyamin Regional Council could not confirm how long the pair were inside the community, but it told JNS that...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled a comprehensive proposal to end the Israel-Hamas war. Below is the full text of the proposal: • Gaza will be a deradicalized terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors. • Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza, who have suffered more than enough. • If both sides agree to this proposal, the war will immediately end. Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed upon line to prepare for a hostage release. During this time, all military operati...
(JNS) — The Hamas terror group published a propaganda video of Israeli hostage Alon Ohel, just hours before the Jewish people marked Rosh Hashanah. Ohel’s family has requested that no photos or excerpts from the video be published. “Our family is shaken and in pain following the release of Alon’s video by Hamas. It’s evident that Alon is losing vision in his right eye, and he appears thin and distressed,” said the captive’s parents, Idit and Kobi, in a statement issued by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum. “We demand that as a preconditi...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Within six weeks, eight emergency distribution centers will operate in the Gaza Strip to provide food for the population expected to gather in the southern Strip as part of "Operation Gideon's Chariots II," during which Israel intends to evacuate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians currently in Gaza City, Israel Hayom has learned. Currently, three distribution points operate in the Gaza Strip (following the closure of one): in Gaza City's Saudi neighborhood; near the...
(JNS) - The Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters on Wednesday highlighted three birthdays of Israelis still being held captive in Gaza after being abducted during the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, marked their 28th birthday. Their family lamented a "second birthday in hell" in a message shared by the Forum. "Our beloved Gali and Ziv, how we feared this day would come-a second birthday in...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces launched the main phase of its ground operation into Gaza City in recent hours, a military official stated on Tuesday, initiating the final series of battles of the war to dismantle Hamas’s last remaining military and governing stronghold. The start of the offensive was reportedly marked by one of the most intense and widespread aerial and ground bombardments in recent months, with massive “belts of fire” reported across multiple neighborhoods throughout Gaza City, including Sabra, Daraj, Sheikh Radwan,...
(JNS) — An Israeli security source told Hebrew media on Wednesday that up to 80,000 Palestinians have already left Gaza City in anticipation of the Israel Defense Forces operation to capture the Hamas stronghold. The mass evacuation southwards comes despite the fact that the IDF has yet to announce the start of the operation, the source told Ynet, Israel National News, Haaretz and other outlets. Most evacuated over the past 72 hours, according to the reports. Hamas is using “various measures” to limit movement, the source said, adding that...
(JNS) — As the IDF masses troops on the outskirts of Gaza City, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir declared on Tuesday that the military will not stop until it achieves a “decisive victory.” Meanwhile, a fierce debate is raging within Israel over the necessity of a final, large-scale ground assault on Hamas’s last major stronghold. The IDF has been conducting preliminary operations on the ground and calling up reservists. On Tuesday, Zamir visited newly mobilized reservists from the IDF Technological and Logistics Directorate, telling them, ...
(JNS) — Jerusalem’s mass recognition of new Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria “is not the end — it’s the beginning,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised local leaders on Tuesday evening. “I promised 25 years ago that we would deepen our roots, and we did, together,” said Netanyahu, who was speaking at an event organized by the Binyamin Regional Council in Samaria’s south. “I said that we would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and we are doing it, together. I said that we would build and hold on to parts of...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces on Aug. 10 eliminated Hamas terrorist Jihad Kamal Salem Najjar, who took part in the abduction of Yarden Bibas from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, the military announced on Tuesday. Bibas was held in captivity for 484 days before being freed on Feb. 1, having lost 33 pounds. His wife, Shiri, and their two sons — Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months — were kidnapped separately. Their captors later murdered Shiri and the children, afterward claiming they had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. On Fe...
(JNS) — On Aug. 25, Palestinian Authority deputy leader Hussein al-Sheikh issued a striking public rebuke of Hamas, calling on it to undertake a “comprehensive re-evaluation of its policies” and describing the war in Gaza as a catastrophe greater than the “Nakba” of 1948. Such statements are routinely hailed in some Western circles as a sign of moderation and a potential opening for a revitalized Palestinian Authority role in governing Gaza once the war ends. Yet this interpretation is deeply misleading. The rhetoric from Ramallah is disconnec...
(JNS) — Israeli forces have retrieved the bodies of two Israelis, that of Ilan Weiss and another, unnamed, individual, that Hamas terrorists had kept in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said on Friday. Weiss, 56, was murdered on Oct. 7, 2023, while defending Kibbutz Be’eri, and his corpse was taken to Gaza, according to the statement. His daughter and wife, Noga and Shiri, were also abducted. They were released in November 2023 as part of a hostage deal. The name of the other Isr...
(JNS) - Israel's Ministry of Heritage has invested a million shekels (~$296,000) to locate the remains of the Altalena, the Irgun cargo ship that the newly created IDF shelled in a violent confrontation off the Tel Aviv beach in June 1948, public broadcaster Kan's Reshet Bet radio station reported on Monday. About a year after the battle, the Altalena, which had run aground at the foot of David Frischmann Street, was refloated, towed 15 miles out to sea, and sunk. The ministry hired the...
(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs via JNS) As the French, the British, the Canadians and the Australians rush to recognize the “State of Palestine,” the question that must be asked is: What would this entity look like? Based on the experience to date and empty rhetoric aside, the “State of Palestine” would most likely be yet another dictatorship. In the Oslo Accords, the Palestine Liberation Organization committed to establishing a liberal democracy. Elections for the position of the Palestinian Authority chairman and parliam...
(JNS) — White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Aug. 19 that the Trump administration was continuing to discuss a ceasefire proposal for Gaza, and confirmed that Hamas had accepted it. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Hamas accepted this proposal after the president of the United States posted a very strong statement about this conflict on Truth Social,” Leavitt said at a press briefing at the White House. The talks coincide with IDF preparations for the seizure of Gaza City, seemingly with the support of U.S. Presi...
(JNS) — A German government spokesperson declared on Friday that Berlin has no immediate plans to recognize a Palestinian state, calling such a move at this stage “counterproductive” to the pursuit of a negotiated two-state solution with Israel. “A negotiated two-state solution remains our goal, even if it seems a long way off today,” the spokesperson told a press briefing. “Recognition of Palestine is more likely to come at the end of such a process. Right now, it would undermine efforts toward peace.” Berlin’s statement stands in sharp...
(JNS) — Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas on Monday evening issuing a presidential decree establishing a committee to draft an interim constitution, the Ramallah-run Wafa news agency reported. The move comes against the backdrop of France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia declaring their intentions to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations meeting next month. “President Abbas took this step in the context of preparations for holding general elections following the cessation of Israeli genocidal aggression on the...
