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What happened: On Tuesday night, nine Israeli women and one teenage girl, and two Thai nationals were freed from Hamas captivity.
- Those released included three members of the Leimberg family, Gabriela Leimberg (59), Mia Leimberg (17), Clara Marman (63).
- In addition, seven Israeli women – Tamar Metzger (78), Ditza Heiman (84), Noralin Babadila (60), Ada Sagi (75), Ofelia Adit Roitman (77), Rimon Kirsht (36), Meirav Tal (53).
- Images showed the Israeli captives escorted by terrorists from both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad before they were handed over to the Red Cross.
- Similar to previous releases, those released were transferred to Israeli hospitals where they were evaluated physically and mentally and reunited with their families.
- Yesterday, Hamas breached the agreed ceasefire, according to the IDF: “three explosive devices were detonated adjacent to IDF troops in two different locations in the northern Gaza Strip, violating the framework of the operational pause. In one of the locations, terrorists also opened fire at the troops, who responded with fire. A number of soldiers were lightly injured during the incidents. In both incidents, the troops were located in positions as per the framework of the operational pause.”
- In parallel, negotiations resumed in Qatar to extend the current arrangement between Israel and Hamas. The director of Mossad David Barnea held talks alongside head of Egyptian intelligence Abbas Kamel, CIA Director William Burns, the Qatari prime minister and their head of intelligence.
Context: So far 61 Israelis and 20 foreign nationals have been released since last Friday. In addition, prior to the pause four were released and one was rescued. The bodies of two hostages were also recovered inside Gaza. There remain an estimated 146 in captivity, with a further ten expected to be released later today.
- According to Yediot Ahronot, and based on Israeli military intelligence, 5,300 Hamas operatives have been killed. This included three Hamas brigade commanders, 14 battalion commanders and dozens of company commanders. Overall, Israel estimate that around 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in total.
- In the latest rounds of negotiations, the Egyptian, Kamal Abbas, joined the US and Israeli officials in Qatar. It is hoped having them all in the room together (not Hamas) will facilitate a smoother, more efficient process.
- Part of the speculation around the talks includes the idea that the Qataris and Egyptians are proposing a deal that might end the war and free all of the remaining Israeli hostages. In exchange the Gaza Strip would be demilitarised and Israel will release thousands of Palestinian terrorists. Israel would also need to agree not to target senior Hamas officials. One option could see them leave Gaza, similar to Arafat leaving Lebanon in 1982.
- While more often it is the mediator that travels in order to facilitate dialogue, in this instance all the parties are prepared to travel to Qatar. This can partly be explained by the fact that Qatar is expected to pay a significant portion of the required funds to rehabilitate Gaza the day after. This also provides a major challenge, as Qatar still supports the continued rule of Hamas, placing them squarely at odds with the Israeli agenda, supported so far by the US.
- The Israel consensus remains that this is a pause and fighting will resume in order to end Hamas’s control of the Strip and their ability to launch attacks in the future.
- Last night, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the US would, “not be able to support further Israeli military operations in the southern Gaza Strip before Israel can guarantee that it would not displace civilians.”
- The IDF is using the pause in fighting to review operational performances and learn lessons ahead of the anticipated resumption of fighting.
- More details have emerged of the conditions in which the hostages were held. Some were treated reasonably, whilst others were subjected to extensive violence; tied up for hours and subjected to humiliation and beaten. They were denied food and water for long periods of time and they were not allowed to use the lavatory. (More details in Israeli media summary below).
Looking ahead: US sources suggest that there are still women and children held captive that could allow for an additional two day extension under the existing framework. AFP claim there is agreement for an additional four days.
- Both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Minister Benny Gantz have again publicly committed to renew the military campaign. Netanyahu said, “we are committed to completing our missions, freeing all the hostages, destroying that terror organisation above ground and below ground and, obviously, that Gaza not revert to what it was and that it not pose a threat to the State of Israel.”
- The security cabinet will convene this evening to discuss prolonging the pause by a number of days.
BICOM Background Briefing: Operation Swords of Iron
BICOM published a comprehensive background briefing on Operation Swords of Iron, including background on Hamas, Israeli policy on Gaza, and Israel’s obligations under international law. Read the full briefing here.
PODCAST
Episode 221 | Iranian Regional Aggression
In this episode, Richard Pater speaks to Behnam Ben Taleblu about Iranian regional aggression. They discuss the structure of Iran’s proxy network, the extent of Iranian knowledge of Hamas’s plans for October 7th, and the effectiveness of the Biden Administration’s Iran policy. Ben Taleblu is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies where he focuses on Iranian security and political issues. A native Farsi speaker, he has testified before the US Congress and Canadian Parliament.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts
Opinion | The Paradigm Shift of 7 October and a Plan for the Jewish Future
Top stories from the UK and Israeli media.
The Sun’s front page leads with: ‘THEY STOLE HER VOICE: Emily’s too afraid to speak after Hamas threats… she was a happy, noisy kid & now she whispers because she’s terrified’. The Telegraph, The Mirror, Sky News, and The Independent all also report on Emily Hand, the nine-year-old Irish Israeli girl taken by Hamas who was traumatised by her experience in captivity.
The BBC, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Sky News and The Telegraph all report that Israel says another group of hostages are now back in Israeli territory, having been released from Gaza yesterday evening. Ten of them are Israeli citizens and two are Thai nationals. A total of 81 hostages held in Gaza have now been released during a truce between Israel and Hamas. 61 of them are Israeli, and nearly all of them are women and children.
Sky News, The Times and The Mirror report that Shiri Bibas and her children, four-year-old Ariel and 10-month-old Kfir are yet to be released and there has been no word of them. Their family has been told they might have been passed on by Hamas to another group in Gaza.
Sky News reports that hostages released by Hamas have been describing their time in captivity, with one saying conditions were “suffocating”, with shortages of food. In some of the first accounts to emerge amid the release of more than 50 hostages over the past few days, people have spoken about what life was like after their kidnap on 7 October. Ruthy Munder, 78, said she spent the entirety of her time with her daughter, Keren, and grandson, Ohad Munder-Zichri, who celebrated his ninth birthday in captivity.
The Guardian reports that US and Israeli spy chiefs have flown to Qatar for talks on how to extend the current truce in Gaza in exchange for the release of more hostages by Hamas. The discussions of the CIA director, William Burns, and the head of the Mossad, David Barnea, with the Qatari leadership, are expected to focus on persuading Hamas to begin releasing the men among the remaining hostages.
The BBC reports that thirty Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel on Tuesday night as part of the truce deal with Hamas. They include “15 minors and 15 women”, a spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry said. The Guardian adds that another 50 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails have been put forward as candidates for release after the hostage swap and ceasefire deal with Hamas in the Gaza Strip was extended for another two days – including the high-profile activist Ahed Tamimi. The Economist publishes a fuller profile of who the Palestinians in Israeli prisons are.
Sky News, The Times and The Independent all report that Hamas and Israel have accused each other of breaking the truce agreement which has led to the release of dozens of Israelis and Palestinians. “As a result of the enemy violating the terms of the truce today, there has been a field clash today and our mujahedeen dealt with the violation. We are committed to the truce as long as the enemy is,” Hamas military spokesperson Abu Obaida said, according to Gazan state TV.
The Times publishes a joint piece by an Israeli and a Palestinian, saying: “we have grown up on opposite sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in the occupied West Bank and the south of Israel. People assume we have no choice but to be enemies, embroiled in a conflict in which there can never be winners, only further division, tragedy and extremism. But, along with most ordinary Israelis and Palestinians, we do not have the luxury of giving up and letting extremists dictate our future.”
The Times also publishes a leading article saying that “the release of more people is welcome. But Hamas is a malign terrorist organisation that deserves no political or moral credit for the present truce”.
The Times also reports that the Israeli government held a stormy meeting on Monday night on the first draft of its war budget amid accusations that billions of shekels were being directed towards West Bank settlements and religious institutions instead of the war effort. Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, proposed adding 30.5 billion shekels (£6.5 billion) to the budget for 2023 to pay for the extra expenditure caused by the war in Gaza and the relief efforts for Israeli communities impacted by the fighting. However, Smotrich, a hard-right MP who lives in a West Bank settlement himself, refused to remove from the budget more than 4.8 billion shekels (£1 billion) which have been earmarked for settlements in the West Bank and for religious institutions that are affiliated with the parties in Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition: Religious Zionism, Jewish Power, United Torah Judaism and Shas. Netanyahu has backed the budget, with the extra money coming from budget cuts, borrowing and Israel’s currency reserves.
The Guardian reports that Israel’s military and intelligence officials were given a highly detailed warning that Hamas was actively training to take over kibbutzim on the Gaza border and overrun military posts with the aim of inflicting substantial fatalities, according to reports in the Israeli media. The claim made by Israel’s Channel 12 on Monday evening was based on leaked emails from the Israeli military’s 8200 cyber-intelligence unit discussing the warnings. Those emails revealed that a senior officer who reviewed the intelligence considered the danger of a massive surprise attack by Hamas across the Gaza border to be “an imaginary scenario”.
The BBC publishes an explainer piece looking at who Hamas are, what the IDF’s military goals are in Gaza and a background profile leading up to the war.
The BBC also publishes drone footage, showing how Gazans ventured out in Khan Younis to find basic necessities like fuel, but faced long waits due to supply shortages. The United Nations is also using a pause in fighting to get desperately needed aid into Gaza, however it’s only a fraction of what’s needed, according to humanitarian agencies. The truce between Israel and Hamas has entered its fifth day, after a 48-hour extension was agreed on Monday.
The Financial Times reports that although a relative minnow in the oil and gas industry, Energean “has been providing at times up to 60 per cent of all of Israel’s gas demand” from Karish since the October 7 massacre of about 1,200 Israelis by Hamas, the company’s founder and chief executive Mathios Rigas said. “We had to produce to keep the lights on in Israel?.?.?.?‘just keep the gas flowing’ was the message, so we went to maximum capacity.” The responsibility was thrust upon Energean after the Israeli government ordered a temporary shutdown of the Chevron-operated Tamar gasfield, which normally meets about 70 per cent of the country’s energy needs.
The BBC, The Daily Mail, The Times and The Guardian report that Israel’s president has told Elon Musk he has “an important role” in preventing antisemitism, which both he and his social media platform X have been accused of promoting. Addressing the entrepreneur, Isaac Herzog said social media “including some you lead – harbour so much of the age-old disease of antisemitism”. On Monday Mr Musk visited a kibbutz Hamas targeted in its deadly attack. He toured the Kfar Aza with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Telegraph reports that British officials rejected a proposal that Roman Abramovich’s £2.3bn Chelsea sale fund ‘should go to Israel’ instead of Ukraine, amid conflicting accounts of whether Abramovich or Israel tabled the sudden change.
The Telegraph also reports that Jewish students at St Andrews have accused a rector of “fostering hate” over a claim that Israel was committing genocide. A message from Stella Maris that also called for a ceasefire was “divisive and harmful”, the student group has said.
The Sun reports that The BBC has been criticised for making Guz Khan host of Have I Got News For You after the comedian accused Israel of “genocide”. The stand-up comic was named as guest presenter of BBC One’s Friday panel show, having been outspoken on the Israel-Hamas war.
The Daily Mail reports that Gigi Hadid has backtracked on claims Israel is “raping and torturing” Palestinians as she admits she failed to “fact check” her inflammatory post – amid mounting pressure on modelling agencies to cut ties with her.
All the Israeli media includes powerful and harrowing stories from released hostages and their families. Kan Radio features apparent discrepancies in their treatment while in captivity. While some have said they were not subject to violence, others have revealed a different experience. Relatives of 12-year-old Eitan Yahalomi, freed on Monday, said he was beaten after he was kidnapped and forced to watch video footage of atrocities Hamas committed on October 7th. His grandmother Esther that since his release Eitan was “very reserved. I believe it’s going to take him time. We have a lot of work to do with him to restore him to a condition in which he can speak.”
Ynet reports Eitan’s aunt saying, “Hamas-ISIS terrorists made him watch the horrors they committed. The entire video from October 7. Every time a child cried, they threatened him with a gun. Civilians there beat him. He’s 12 years old. Maybe it’s naive but I thought he would be treated well there but they’re monsters.”
Ynet also quotes Thomas Hand, the father of 9-year-old Israeli-Irish Emily Hand, recounting the moment they were reunited. “The door opened and she ran to me, it was beautiful, just as I imagined it,” he said. “I hugged her tightly, and only after she took a step back did I look at her face and noticed that it was chiselled, like mine. Before the captivity, Emily’s face was that of a young girl.” Hand continued: “When she spoke to me she only whispered, I didn’t hear what she was saying, so I put my ear very close to her mouth to hear, and she said: ‘I thought you were kidnapped.’ She didn’t know what happened that morning, she thought that everyone was either murdered or kidnapped. She had no idea… I asked her how long she thought she had been in captivity and she answered ‘a year’… We had to tell her about her mother, Narkis, who was murdered. Her eyes welled up and she took a sharp breath. It was very difficult… Last night she cried until her face was red, she couldn’t stop. She didn’t want any comfort, I guess she forgot how to comfort herself. She got under the covers, covered herself and cried quietly. She is a very determined, very strong girl, I knew her spirit would get her through this.”
Ynet further details the case of Noam Or, 16, and his sister Alma, 13, released on Saturday. Neither had known that their mother, Yonat, had been murdered by Hamas on October 7th, and discovered the tragic news only on their release. “When they first crossed the border and reunited with their grandmother and older brother, the first news that they had to confront was the fact that their mum is no longer alive,” their uncle told reporters. “That was a terribly emotional and traumatic moment for them.” Their father, Dror, remains a hostage in the Gaza Strip.
Israel Hayom focuses on the “suffocating” conditions endured by recently released 78-year-old Ruti Munder. Munder was held alongside her daughter Keren, and grandson, Ohad Munder-Zichri. Her husband, Avraham, 78, was taken hostage too and remains in Gaza. Her son was killed in the attack. The paper also quotes Mirit Regev, whose 21-year-old daughter, Maya, was freed Sunday. The family has been encouraged by medical staff to “return the power” to Maya because asking her permission to do things like leave the room. Regev’s son Itai remains in captivity in Gaza. Itai Pessach, director of the Children’s Hospital at Sheba Medical Centre, where many of the released children have been treated, said that staff had heard “very difficult and complex stories from their time in Hamas captivity,” and that “we understand that despite the fact that they might seem physically improving, there’s a very, very long way to go before they are healed.”
In Yediot Ahronot, Nadav Eyal assesses the Israeli attitude to reports that Qatar and Egypt are looking to broker an end to the war. “As of yesterday afternoon,”, he writes, “no clear Hamas proposal had been put on the table for an ‘all for all’ [i.e. all Israeli hostages for all Palestinian prisoners] and to end the war. In any event, not a single member of the war cabinet is prepared to accept a proposal of that kind. The consensus, which spans from Binyamin Netanyahu to Gadi Eisenkot, is that the war mustn’t end with Hamas chalking up the huge achievement of freeing a large number of Palestinian prisoners while the threat to Israel remains intact, deterrence hasn’t been restored and Yahya Sinwar remains in power in Gaza. A retired military official put it this way: ‘Anyone who agrees to pull the [IDF’s] divisions out of Gaza in the current situation will find one of them advancing directly on Jerusalem.’ That isn’t a threat about a putsch, heaven forbid; rather, it is meant to illustrate the reigning sentiment among the reservists and the career officers, as well as among the absolute majority of the Israeli public.”
In Haaretz, Anshel Pfeffer asks “what will happen on Wednesday night, after the sixth tranche of hostages is released, when it starts dangling more names? Even if 20 more are released, some children and mothers will almost certainly remain in captivity in Gaza, as will many fathers. Are they alive? Hamas will continue to toy with the hostages, their families and the entire Israeli public. What if there is only a partial list? Not the 10 per day previously agreed upon, but just one or two? Can Israel deny their release?” “Hamas,” Pfeffer continues, “still retains some military capabilities in the northern Gaza Strip and has used the truce to rehabilitate some of what was destroyed in the seven weeks of war that preceded it. It has been badly damaged, but at this point still has the ability to reassert its control of Gaza and rebuild much of its military capacity. To prevent this, the Israel Defense Forces is poised to resume its ground offensive. But doing so will mean Israel acknowledging that the door for releasing more hostages has closed for now. This is just the first of the dilemmas now facing Israel. The second dilemma is when and how to expand the ground campaign to the southern Gaza Strip. Hamas’ senior leadership – including its leader in Gaza and the man behind the October 7 massacre, Yahya Sinwar – are assumed to have fled south, most likely to Khan Yunis, taking many of the hostages with them.”
Recommended Reading Israel Gears Up to Resume Gaza Fighting as Time Runs Out for IDF, Hamas, Amos Harel, Haaretz
- “The cease-fire may be extended to the weekend, if Hamas can convince Israel that it’ll release another few hostages. While there are Hamas forces in the northern Gaza Strip, they effectively are no longer under the control of the leadership since their commanders and hundreds of fighters were killed.” Read more
Saving hostages and destroying Hamas go together, Yaakov Amidror, Israel Hayom
- “The over-arching goal of the war is the destruction of Hamas and the creation of a completely different security situation in Gaza. The new security situation is crucial for the resettlement in the towns near Gaza and is vital for the overall sense of security in the entire region bordering Gaza. Indeed, it is essential for Israelis’ overall sense of security.” Read more
October 7 massacre marks tragic return to roots of Zionism, Mahmoud Abu Rajab, Ynet
- “Whoever believes that the disaster that befell the State of Israel is the beginning of its end is mistaken. This disaster marks, in my opinion, the start of a new beginning and it further strengthens my confidence that the Jewish state will not cease to prosper. This pogrom returned Israel (and the Jews) to the starting point, to the emergence of Zionism. The reason lies in the fact that it reminded them of the massacres and pogroms that were routine around the world, including in Palestine, before the establishment of the state.” Read more