Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(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...
(JNS) — Israelis who were uprooted from the community of Sa-Nur in northern Samaria during the 2005 Gaza disengagement returned on Thursday morning to prepare the area for resettlement, Channel 14 reported. The group of evacuees cleaned up trash and repaired damage caused following the Arab takeover of the village, which is one of the two in Samaria that the Israeli government decided in May to reconstruct. The visit was led by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — who initiated the Cabinet decision three months ago and whose brother use...
Cairo intends to train 5,000 Palestinian police officers to help restore order in Gaza after the current Hamas-Israel war ends, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said on Wednesday. In an interview with Egyptian media, Abdelatty noted that the training has already begun and that, at this stage, hundreds of officers are participating. According to the minister, Cairo has received vetted lists of names of those currently training at military camps in Egypt, in coordination with Jordan. The aim, he said, is to ensure the officers have no...
(JNS) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered Israeli assistance with Iran’s water woes once its people shake off the tyrannical regime in Tehran. “The thirst for water in Iran is only matched by the thirst for freedom,” the premier said in a nearly 5-minute video address to the Iranian people published on Tuesday. Speaking from Jerusalem, he detailed what the Jewish state could bring the “moment” that the regime is toppled and freedom is achieved: “Israel’s top water experts will flood into every Iranian city bringing cutting-edge te...
(JNS) — Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday announced the approval of 3,401 new housing units in the so-called E1 area near Ma’ale Adumim in Judea and Samaria. The E1 project has been delayed for decades due to international opposition, led by previous United States administrations. “Approval of construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state and continues the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan that we began implementing with the establishment of the gover...
(JNS) — Israel is preparing the delivery of humanitarian supplies to vulnerable populations in South Sudan, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced on Monday. The move is led by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who instructed the foreign ministry agency MASHAV, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, to deliver urgent assistance to the crisis-hit country. The African nation is currently struggling with a cholera outbreak while also facing a severe shortage of resources, the ministry explained. The aid will include essen...
(JNS) — Dramatic evidence was produced this week to illustrate the hijacking of the Western media by Hamas in its attempt to turn Israel into the pariah of the world and accelerate the destruction of the Jewish state. The German publications Bild and Süddeutsche Zeitung revealed that Western media outlets had been publishing images purporting to be of starving Gazans but which were in fact staged and manipulated by Hamas as part of its propaganda offensive to blacken Israel’s name. Bild show...
(JNS) — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) urged Israel to achieve decisive victory over Hamas, saying the Jewish state should “annihilate” the terrorist group and rebuild Gaza like the United States did in the aftermath of World War II with Germany and Japan. “I can’t believe we’re having a discussion about how to fight a war against people who want to destroy you as a people, the Israeli people,” Graham told CBS News’ “Meet the Press” when asked who should run the Gaza Strip if Israel gains complete military control there. “So [Israel] will t...
The 22-nation Arab League has signed onto a declaration that condemns Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and calls on Hamas to disarm. The league includes Qatar and Egypt, which have served as mediators in talks between Israel and Hamas during the subsequent war in Gaza. It also includes Turkey, which has adopted a stance of overt hostility toward Israel during the war. The league joined the entire European Union and 17 other countries in backing the declaration at a United Nations meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia and France. The m...
(JNS) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday evening accused Palestinian terrorists of starving the hostages they have held in the Gaza Strip for 668 days "like the Nazis starved the Jews. "I too was horrified yesterday," Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office. "I saw the horrific videos of Rom and Evyatar, our dear sons. I called their families and embraced them on behalf of me and my wife, but also on your behalf. You see them languishing in a dungeon." Lat week, Hamas...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared on Tuesday evening that Israel is “at the closest point to achieving the war’s objectives,” emphasizing the need for victory in both Gaza and Yemen. Katz made the statement during a high-level security assessment with top defense officials, including IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and intelligence representatives. The meeting addressed evolving threats across the Middle East, with Katz stressing the importance of continuing operations to return all hostages and defeat Hamas. He also...
