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‘The Israeli People are The Strongest People in The World’: Fauda Star Released from Hospital
Israeli actor Idan Amedi at a press conference Wednesday, Jan. 24, after being released from the hospital. Source: Twitter/X
Idan Amedi, an actor on the hit Israeli T.V. show “Fauda,” was released from the hospital on Thursday, more than two weeks after he was seriously injured in the Gaza Strip during battle against Hamas terrorists.
“I have a long recovery ahead of me, I was seriously injured. The very fact that I’m standing in front of you is a miracle,” the actor and acclaimed singer said at a press conference at the Sheba Hospital in central Israel. “A shrapnel that entered my body in the throat miraculously didn’t damage the spinal cord. My body and soul are indeed damaged, but my spirit is stronger than ever. I will return to create, to sing, I will return to play,” he said.
Amedi, who plays an elite soldier named Sagi in the critically acclaimed Israeli television series, was among the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who jumped to service on October 7, after Hamas terrorists stormed southern Israel, massacring 1,200 and taking hostage over 240. A reservist in the combat engineering corps, he was reported in serious condition on January 9 in fighting in the southern Gaza Strip.
At the time, his father said Amedi was stable but urged the public to pray from his son’s recovery. Well wishes for Amedi came from all sectors of Israeli society, including his co-star’s on the series.
Amedi had posted videos of his time in Gaza, telling his fans in a social media post “I am ready not to perform or sing a song for a year. We must not abandon the citizens of the south and the north. We will not stop fighting [until] the elimination of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.”
“The Israeli people are the strongest people in the world.” Israeli singer-songwriter and actor Idan Amedi, who was injured in #Gaza 17 days ago while heroically defending the people of #Israel, sends a powerful message as he is set to be released from the hospital. Am Yisrael… pic.twitter.com/wVwlYGjqjT
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) January 25, 2024
At the press conference on Thursday, the well-spirited Amedi added “My spirit is strong thanks to the people of Israel who wrapped me in love, this thing is not taken for granted. It will also take me time to contain the amount of love I received, thank you all.”
He also sent condolences to those who lost soldiers, “Sending a hug to the bereaved families, I know there are no words that will comfort the heart, it is important to me that you know that the sons and daughters are my heroes until the end of my days. In certain moments we allowed ourselves to cry together, they meant a lot.”
Amedi described the moment when he was injured, saying “It’s the kind of moment where you just think you want to live, there’s not much more. At the moment of the explosion, after I landed on the ground, the only thing was to signal that I was alive and that they would come and take care of me. You think about your home, your family… We were already at the end of the mission, and a few hours before we entered, another ammunition depot exploded there. I made sure where all the fighters were, and then quite by surprise the explosion happened.”
The cause of the explosion is not currently known, but two of his fellow soldiers died during the blast. In tears, he honored his fallen comrades “The late Major General Gabriel Blum and the late Major General Akiva Yasinski. Gavri was a professional fighter, inquisitive and strong person. I had the privilege of knowing him in the war and fighting alongside him. He was a beloved person. Akiva and I have known each other since the age of 19, we were accepted together into the patrol team, we were trained together, we fought together in many operations and in the various wars.”
Remorseful, he sought to take blame for their deaths, directing to their families and the fallen, saying “I’m sorry I didn’t live up to my mission as a commander to return them home safely, this pain will accompany me like a sign of Cain until my last day.”
Amedi gave remarks for the future, saying “We have a mission as a nation to remain united, not to fall apart. To prove to those who sacrificed their lives for us that their sacrifice was not in vain… Although I was seriously injured, my spirit is strong. I will return to sing and act, and with God’s help, I will return to fight for my country. The Israelis are the strongest in the world, when we are united we are invincible. It will take time but we will win this war, we have no other choice. Thank you all for coming, the nation of Israel lives.”
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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