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IDF Recovers Six Hostages’ Bodies From Southern Gaza
Rachel Goldberg, US-Israeli mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists into Gaza while attending a music festival in southern Israel, holds photos of her son in their home, in Jerusalem, Oct. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
JNS.org – Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six hostages from an underground tunnel in Rafah in southern Gaza overnight Saturday.
The hostages were identified as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarusi, 25, Alexander Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino, 25.
“A few hours ago, we informed the families that the bodies of their loved ones had been located by Israel Defense Forces troops in a tunnel in Rafah. According to our initial assessment, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” said IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.
All six were kidnapped alive during the Hamas-led assault on the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7.
Daniel Hagari’s eyes say it all.
Our hearts are broken, but our spirit—our spirit will never be broken.
pic.twitter.com/9TyVYFkblK
— daniel hanukha (@israelifihther) September 1, 2024
On Oct. 7, Yerushalmi was working as a bartender at the Supernova music festival. She initially hid in a car, motionless alongside the bodies of friends who had been shot and killed. She then went into the bushes where she remained hidden for hours while on the phone with her family, and was taken by Hamas terrorists from there.
Gat was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri while visiting her parents for the Simchat Torah holiday. Hamas terrorists murdered her mother, Kinneret. Her brother Alon, sister-in-law Yarden Roman-Gat and niece Geffen were also captured. Her brother and niece were able to escape while her sister-in-law was released as part of weeklong ceasefire that freed 105 hostages in November.
Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped by Hamas from the Supernova festival. He tried to escape by car but realized that terrorists were setting up roadblocks and shooting at approaching vehicles. He instead ran to a nearby bomb shelter. Soon, Hamas terrorists converged on the tiny space, murdering most inside and kidnapping those who survived. Before he was taken, Goldberg-Polin’s dominant right arm was blown off at the elbow by a grenade. His parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, recently called for his release at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Lobanov was kidnapped from the music festival where he worked as head barman. His wife, Michal, was pregnant when he was taken and has since gave birth to the couple’s second child.
Danino was also kidnapped from the site of the festival. He had escaped but went back to help rescue Omer Shem Tov and siblings Itay and Maya Regev. The Regev siblings were released during November’s ceasefire while Omer and Ori remained in captivity.
Sarusi was kidnapped from the festival while his partner, Shahar Gindi, was murdered.
‘The blood of our brothers’
“Together with the entire nation, my wife and I share in the families’ deep mourning,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. “I would like to express deep appreciation for our forces, for the brave IDF soldiers and ISA [Shin Bet] fighters, who risked their lives in order to return our sons and daughters.
“I say to the Hamas terrorists who murdered our hostages and I say to their leaders: You will pay the price,” continued the premier. “We will not rest, nor will be silent. We will pursue you, we will find you and we will settle accounts with you.”
President Isaac Herzog said that “the heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces with the news. … On behalf of the State of Israel, I embrace their families with all my heart, and apologize for failing to bring them home safely.
“The blood of our brothers cries out to us. Our sisters and brothers are still there enduring hell. The supreme covenant between the state and its citizens is to ensure their safety. We have the sacred and urgent mission to bring them home,” added Herzog.
President Joe Biden stated that he was “devastated and outraged” after the body of U.S. dual citizen Goldberg-Polin was identified.
“Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes,” Biden vowed, adding that the United States “will keep working around the clock” to secure a ceasefire deal to release the rest of the hostages.
Netanyahu spoke with Lobanov’s parents, expressing deep sorrow and apologizing for not being able to save their son and the five other abductees alive, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
“I would like to tell you how much I regret and request forgiveness for not succeeding in bringing Sasha back alive,” he told Oxana and Grigory.
During the conversation, it was revealed that the prime minister’s military secretary Brig. Gen. Roman Gofman returned from Moscow on Sunday, where he discussed advancing a hostage deal and talked about Lobanov and other captives.
The PMO added that Netanyahu will talk with other relatives of the hostages killed during the day.
65-foot-deep
The hostages were found in a 65-foot-deep tunnel with gunshot wounds to the head and other parts of their bodies.
According to the autopsies performed overnight, they were murdered in the past 48 hours. One of the hostages showed signs of being tied up and they all showed evidence of neglect and having not bathed for a long time.
In addition, there was evidence that they sustained injuries during their kidnapping that were treated over time.
The hostages are believed to have been transported from the northern Gaza Strip to the south, where they were murdered.
Last month, the IDF and Shin Bet recovered the bodies of six other hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7, from a tunnel in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The bodies of Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, Yagev Buchshtav, Chaim Peri and Alex Dancyg were located more than 10 months after the Hamas massacre.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces rescued a hostage alive from Hamas captivity in Gaza. Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, a father of 11 from the Bedouin city of Rahat in the Negev, was rescued from a tunnel in southern Gaza, less than a mile from where the six bodies were recovered.
A day later, the IDF recovered the body of a soldier who was killed fighting Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 invasion.
At the request of the soldier’s family, his name has not yet been made public.
Increasing concern for remaining hostages
“I heard rumors yesterday, then a close uncle of Carmel got a message confirming it,” Ronen Kohler, the cousin of Carmel Gat, told JNS on Sunday.
The last time that the family had received news of Carmel’s condition was through former captives who were released as part of a November weeklong ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. They said that Carmel had been teaching them yoga in a bid to keep their spirits up.
“Today, I am standing at the Namir/Yehuda Hamaccabi Junction with Carmel’s picture. The redemption of the captives is a Jewish, Israeli, international and humanitarian value. It is forbidden to ignore it and abandon them,” said Kohler.
“While it will not bring back those who are gone, it might help save others,” he added.
“I hope thousands of people will come out today to scream that human lives come first. We are not violent and we are not aggressive. We call on people to mobilize for the values that we raise our children on,” Kohler continued.
Hadas Zubary, the aunt of Hamas captive Naama Levy, expressed sympathy for the families who lost their loved ones.
“I can assure you we didn’t sleep much last night,” Zubary said. “We know these people’s families. I feel like they are my nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters, and it was devastating to see their names.
“We were sure that they would be here soon. Carmel, Eden and Hersh were supposed to be released early on in the prospective deal and there is no more hope for them. It’s devastating,” she added.
Zubary said that her concern for Naama grows with every passing day.
“We understand that we don’t know where the next tunnel that the army will approach is, and who else Hamas will shoot as they run away. The fear is even harder for us to absorb,” she said.
Daniel Lifshitz, whose grandfather Oded is being held by Hamas in Gaza, told JNS on Sunday, “It’s a very hard and difficult mood, it makes us fear that all the captives are in huge danger.
“Personally, I was in high school with Carmel Gat and I am close to her brother. The pain is unbearable,” he said.
“It means we can lose everyone really fast, and that is something pushing us to urge our government to make an agreement with Hamas-ISIS,” he continued.
“We should all see it as the worst war crime after kidnapping a kid [Hersh] who lost his arm from a grenade and succeeded somehow to survive for 328 days only to be executed,” he added.
Lifshitz called on Biden to act, “because bringing up a proposal at the end of May and having no developments since is unacceptable. They should have come to an agreement no matter the cost.
“I also call on Egyptian President [Abdel Fattah] el-Sisi to find a solution for the Philadelphi Corridor [on Gaza’s border with Sinai] so that there is no debate about choosing between saving lives and being present there,” Lifshitz said.
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Iran Rejects US Nuclear Proposal, Says ‘Counteroffer’ Coming as Talks Stall Over Uranium Enrichment, Sanctions
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iran has denounced the latest nuclear proposal from the United States as “unprofessional and untechnical,” reaffirming the country’s right to enrich uranium and announcing plans to present a counteroffer in the coming days.
“After receiving the American proposal regarding the Iranian nuclear program, we are now preparing a counteroffer,” Ali Shamkhnai, political adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in an interview on Wednesday.
Shamkhani criticized the White House draft proposal as “not well thought out,” emphasizing its alleged failure to address sanction relief — a key demand for Tehran under any deal with Washington.
“There is no mention whatsoever of lifting sanctions in the latest American proposal, even though the issue of sanctions is a fundamental matter for Iran,” Shamkhnai said.
The Iranian official also warned that Tehran will not allow the US to dismantle its “peaceful nuclear program” or force uranium enrichment down to zero.
“Iran will never relinquish its natural rights,” Shamkhani said.
Washington’s draft proposal for a new nuclear deal was delivered by Omani officials — who have been mediating negotiations between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff — during last month’s talks in Rome.
On Wednesday, Khamenei dismissed such an offer, saying it “contradicts our nation’s belief in self-reliance” and runs counter to Iran’s key objectives.
“The proposal that the Americans have presented is 100 percent against our interests,” the Iranian leader said during a televised speech.
“The rude and arrogant leaders of America repeatedly demand that we should not have a nuclear program. Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment?” Khamenei continued.
After five rounds of talks, diplomatic efforts have yet to yield results as both adversaries clash over Iran’s demand to maintain its domestic uranium enrichment program — a condition the White House has firmly rejected.
In April, Tehran and Washington held their first official nuclear negotiation since the US withdrew from a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal that had imposed temporary limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief.
Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has sought to curtail Tehran’s potential to develop a nuclear weapon that could spark a regional arms race and pose a threat to Israel.
Meanwhile, Iran seeks to have Western sanctions on its oil-dependent economy lifted, while maintaining its nuclear enrichment program — which the country insists is solely for civilian purposes.
As part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran — which aims to cut the country’s crude exports to zero and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon — Washington has been targeting Tehran’s oil industry with mounting sanctions.
Amid the ongoing diplomatic deadlock, Israel has declared it will never allow the Islamist regime to acquire nuclear weapons, as the country views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to uphold any agreement that prevents Tehran from enriching uranium.
“But in any case, Israel maintains the right to defend itself from a regime that is threatening to annihilate it,” Netanyahu said in a press conference last month, following reports that Jerusalem could strike Iranian nuclear sites if ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran fail.
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Day After Colorado Attack, Founder of Anti-Israel Group Chides Activists Who Are Insufficiently ‘Pro-Resistance’
Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of WithinOurLifetime (WOL), leading a pro-Hamas demonstration in New York City on Aug. 14, 2024. Photo: Michael Nigro via Reuters Connect
Nerdeen Kiswani, the founder of the radical anti-Israel organization Within Our Lifetime, chastised those within the pro-Palestinian movement who only support “resistance” in the abstract but not in practice following Sunday’s antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado.
“A lot of people who call themselves anti-Zionist or pro-resistance don’t actually understand what resistance is,” Kiswani posted on X/Twitter on Monday. “They support it in theory, but when it shows up in practice, they hesitate, distance themselves, or shift the conversation entirely.”
She continued, “And it makes it even harder for those of us who are principled to take public stances. We’re already marginalized, already painted as extreme or dangerous and that isolation only deepens when others in the movement won’t stand firm when it counts.”
Kiswani’s comments came the day after a man threw Molotov cocktails at a Boulder gathering where participants were rallying in support of the Israeli hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza — which resulted in 15 injuries, including some critically, in what US authorities called a targeted terrorist attack. Her tweets also came less than two weeks after a gunman murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, while they were leaving an at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by the American Jewish Committee. In both attacks, the perpetrator yelled “Free Palestine” as they targeted innocent civilians, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
After Kiswani’s social media posts sparked some backlash among pro-Israel users on X, she provided limited pushback on the idea that it was an expression of support for the prior day’s attack in Colorado.
“Zionists are freaking out in the QTs about this, insisting it’s about Colorado,” she wrote. “Newsflash: the world doesn’t revolve around you. Resistance hasn’t stopped in Gaza, look at what just happened in Jabalia [where three IDF soldiers were killed] for instance. The perpetual victimhood is getting old.”
However, Kiswani did not say her comment had no connection to the attack in Colorado, and she did not say that she opposed the firebombing.
Kiswani and her group, Within Our Lifetime (WOL), have been at the forefront of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas activism since Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists killed 1,200 people and abducted 251 hostages during their invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, a massacre that started the war in Gaza.
On Oct. 8, 2023, one day after the biggest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, WOL organized a protest to celebrate the prior day’s attack, which it described as an effort to “defend the heroic Palestinian resistance.” Kiswani notably refused to condemn Hamas and the Oct. 7 massacre following the atrocities.
Then, in Apil 2024, Kiswani refused to condemn the chant “Death to America” and organized a mass demonstration to block the “arteries of capitalism” by staging a blockade of commercial shipping ports across the world in protest of Western support for the Jewish state. That same month, she was banned from Columbia University’s campus in New York City after leading chants calling for an “intifada,” or violent uprising.
The following month, Kiswani led a demonstration in Brooklyn, New York in which she lambasted the local police department, claimed then-US President Joe Biden will soon die, and called for the destruction of Israel.
That proceeded the activist saying she does not want Zionists “anywhere” in the world while speaking in defense of a person who called for “Zionists” to leave a crowded subway car in New York City.
WOL, which planned a protest last year to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, was also behind demonstrations at the Nova Music Festival exhibit, which commemorated the more than 300 civilians slaughtered by Hamas while at a music festival.
The latter protest prompted widespread condemnation, including from Biden and even progressive members of the US Congress who are outspoken against Israel.
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), for example, posted on social media that the “callousness, dehumanization, and targeting of Jews on display at last night’s protest outside the Nova Festival exhibit was atrocious antisemitism – plain and simple.”
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Israel’s Defense Exports Hit Record $15 Billion in 2024 Despite European Pressure, Calls for Arms Embargo
Israeli troops on the ground in Gaza. Photo: IDF via Reuters
Israel reached a new all-time high in defense exports in 2024, nearing $15 billion — the fourth consecutive year of record-breaking sales — despite mounting international criticism over the war in Gaza and growing pressure from European countries to suspend arms deals.
In a press release on Wednesday, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced that defense exports reached over $14.7 billion last year — a 13 percent increase from 2023 — with more than half of the deals valued at over $100 million.
According to the ministry, Israel’s military exports have more than doubled over the past five years, highlighting the industry’s rapid expansion and growing global demand.
“This tremendous achievement is a direct result of the successes of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and defense industries against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, the Ayatollah regime in Iran, and in additional arenas where we operate against Israel’s enemies,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
“The world sees Israeli strength and seeks to be a partner in it. We will continue strengthening the IDF and the Israeli economy through security innovation to ensure clear superiority against any threat – anywhere and anytime,” Katz continued.
In 2024, over half of the Jewish state’s defense contracts were with European countries — up from 35 percent the previous year — as many in the region have increased their defense spending following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Despite increasing pressure and widespread anti-Israel sentiment among European governments amid the current conflict in Gaza, this latest data seems to contradict recent calls by European leaders to impose an arms embargo on the Jewish state over its defensive campaign in Gaza against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
On Wednesday, Germany reversed its earlier threat to halt arms deliveries to Israel, reaffirming its commitment to continue cooperation and maintain defense contracts with Jerusalem.
“Germany will continue to support the State of Israel, including with arms deliveries,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told lawmakers in parliament.
Last week, Berlin warned it would take unspecified measures against Israel if it continued its military campaign in Gaza, citing concerns that exported weapons were being used in violation of humanitarian law.
“Our full support for the right to exist and the security of the State of Israel must not be instrumentalized for the conflict and the warfare currently being waged in the Gaza Strip,” Wadephul said in a statement.
Germany would be “examining whether what is happening in the Gaza Strip is compatible with international humanitarian law,” he continued. “Further arms deliveries will be authorized based on the outcome of that review.”
Spain and Ireland are among the countries in Europe that have threatened or taken steps to limit arms deals with Israel, while others such as France have threatened unspecified harsh measures against the Jewish state.
According to the Israeli defense ministry’s report, since the outbreak of war on Oct. 7, 2023, after the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, the operational successes and proven battlefield performance of Israeli systems have fueled strong international demand for Israel’s defense technology.
Last year, the export of missiles, rockets, and air defense systems reached a new high, making up 48 percent of the total deal volume — up from 36 percent in 2023.
Similarly, satellite and space systems exports surged, accounting for 8 percent of total deals in 2024 — quadrupling their share from 2 percent in 2023.
While Europe dominated Israel’s defense export market in 2024, significant portions also went to other regions. Asia and the Pacific made up 23 percent of total sales — slightly lower than in previous years, when the region approached 30 percent.
Exports to Abraham Accords countries fell to 12 percent, down from 23 percent in 2022, while North America remained stable at around 9 percent.
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