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Jewish Dancer, Activist Montana Tucker Releases Tribute Video for the Remaining Gaza Hostages
Montana Tucker and dancers from the Sol Dance Academy in a still from their dance video released on Dec. 17, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
Jewish American social media influencer, dancer, actress, and singer Montana Tucker published a dance video Monday on social media in tribute to the 100 hostages who remain held captive by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip more than 14 months after being abducted on Oct. 7, 2023.
The video begins with Tucker resembling a hostage who is held captive alone in a room in Gaza. She is then joined by 35 members of the Sol Dance Academy in Israel and together they dance in the same room, as well as in a tunnel, to a rendition of the Destiny’s Child song “Survivor.” Three released hostages — Moran Stella Yanai, Raz Ben Ami, and Hila Rotem Shoshani — make an appearance in the video, as well as family members of current hostages Ohad Ben Ami, Shlomo Manzur, and Yossi and Eli Sharabi. The video also show images of all the remaining hostages.
“It is simply unfathomable to me that more than 400 days after October 7th, 100 Israeli men, women, and children who were taken that day are still not home,” Tucker said in a released statement. “We cannot let the world forget them and their suffering, and this is why I’m dedicated to using my influence to tell their stories and make sure their freedom remains an international priority.”
Tucker shared the dance video on social media on Monday and wrote in the caption: “A SURVIVORS story isn’t complete until EVERYONE is FREE … This tribute is a celebration of SURVIVAL and a plea for FREEDOM. Every hostage deserves to become a SURVIVOR. We will NOT stop until they are ALL home.”
“Imagine peacefully going to bed one evening to then being woken up early the next morning with sirens going off and terrorists brutally attacking your home/communitties,” she additionally wrote in the caption. “Then, no matter how hard you try to resist, you are kidnapped. Next, imagine that 437 days have passed and you are still not home. Three of the women featured in this video survived the horrors of Hamas captivity but 100 other innocent souls — women, babies, young men, and elderly — also deserve to come home and reclaim their lives.”
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), which initiated and produced the video, said Tucker and dancers from the Sol Dance Academy delivered “a resonating message of survival and resilience” in Monday’s video.
In June, Tucker and CAM released the dance video “We Can Dance Again,” which was dedicated to the 364 people murdered at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 last year during the Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel. The video garnered more than 10 million views across various social media platforms.
After the release of the new dance video on Monday, CAM CEO Sacha Roytman applauded on Tucker’s efforts to speak out publicly about the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack last year and publicize the need for the return of the remaining hostages.
“Since October 7th, at great personal sacrifice, Montana Tucker has emerged as one of the leading young voices for the Jewish people globally,” Roytman said. “We are proud to have brought her to Israel twice already in the past year to witness firsthand the aftermath of that horrible day, show solidarity with the victims of the attack, and facilitate her advocacy for the hostages, and we believe this video is an important initiative in the effort to return them to their families.”
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US Moves Patriot Missile Batteries from South Korea to Middle East
A Patriot missile battery. Photo: IDF.
i24 News – American Patriot missile defense batteries will be moved from South Korea to the Middle East, according to reports in Asian media on Friday, amid speculation over a potential military action against Iran’s nuclear program and escalating bombardments of Iran-backed jihadists in Yemen.
US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program, and the United States has moved additional warplanes into the region.
Washington and Seoul have reportedly recently agreed on the “monthslong” partial deployment of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, in what is understood to be the first known case involving the relocation of United States Forces Korea (USFK) assets to the Middle East.
Iran in recent years has largely dropped the pretense of enriching uranium for a civilian atomic energy program, as it’s reportedly teetering on the nuclear precipice. Israel believes that a nuclear Iran represents a grave existential threat, consistent with the exterminationist antisemitism of the Islamic Republic’s anti-Israel rhetoric.
After the election of Trump, a known Iran hawk, the likelihood of an U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities has increased precipitously.
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Report: Iranian Plot to Assassinate Azerbaijani Rabbi Foiled
The Azerbaijani capital of Baku. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – Iran enlisted the services of a Georgian drug trafficker to carry out an assassination of a prominent Azerbaijani rabbi, the Washington Post reported Saturday, citing security officials.
The plot to murder Rabbi Shneor Segal, foiled by the State Security Service of Azerbaijan in early January, also involved a plan to attack a Jewish education center, the officials said.
The plot was set in motion by an officer with Iran’s Quds Force, who met with Georgian criminal Agil Aslanov, handing him a photo of Segal and detailed instructions on how to murder him, the officials cited by WaPo said. Aslanov’s fee for the foiled hit was $200,000.
The State Security Service said the two men “worked to collect information about a member of a religious community, and sent the location of his residence and workplace to a representative of a foreign special service agency via the appropriate mobile phone application.”
Iran is known to be behind multiple plots against Israeli and Jewish targets, many of which have been foiled by Israeli and foreign security services.
However a recent plot saw three citizens of Uzbekistan murder an Israeli rabbi in the United Arab Emirates on Iranian orders. The three were sentenced to death earlier this week for the murder of Zvi Kogan in November.
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Netanyahu to Depart for Washington on Sunday Directly from Hungary to Meet with Trump
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Feb. 16, 2025. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will depart to Washington DC on Sunday directly from Hungary—where he is presently on an official visit—to meet with US President Donald Trump, i24NEWS learned on Saturday from an Israeli source.
The visit comes following a phone conversation between the leaders on Friday, and a call with State Secretary Marco Rubio a short while ago.
As a result, the planned visit to Washington of Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz will be postponed once again.
Topics of discussion between the two leaders are expected to include the possible military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Gaza war and the future of the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave, the US bombing campaign against Iran-backed Houthi jihadists in Yemen, and the recent imposition of tariffs on Israeli products.
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