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Canadian relatives of Israeli hostages share emotional reactions at the start of the ceasefire deal with Hamas
Iris Weinstein Haggai watched the release of three Israeli women hostages from Gaza on Jan. 19 while in Washington, D.C.
In one word, she found the experience “bittersweet.”
Her parents were killed in the Oct.7, 2023 Hamas attacks on their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. The bodies of Gadi Haggai and Judih Weinstein Haggai were taken to Gaza, where they have been kept as bargaining chips for over 15 months.
Gadi had American and Israeli citizenship, while Judih was born in the U.S. but grew up in Canada.
Under a negotiated ceasefire and hostage deal, the first three hostages—Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher—were returned to Israel. The IDF also recovered the body of soldier Oron Shaul, who was killed in Gaza in 2014.
The agreement states that 33 hostages—women, children and the elderly—are to be released over the next few weeks. Not all of them have been confirmed to be alive.
The timing of the release of the remaining 65 hostages, including the bodies of Iris’s parents, are to be negotiated in a second round, which has yet to begin.
“I have to be cautious. My heart is breaking every single day,” she said in a phone interview with The CJN on Jan. 19. “Even today, I was expecting to see my friends on the list and I’m very happy for the ones who are coming out, for their families. Of course, I’m happy for everyone who is free from that hell, but it’s bittersweet because you want your own people to come out.
“There are still 29 people from my community, Kibbutz Nir Oz, who are still held hostage, so this is far from over.”
Iris’s parents were killed Oct. 7, during their regular early morning walk near the kibbutz. While the family knew that Gadi had been killed that morning, it was not until December, 2023, several months after the attacks, that they learned that Judih had also died that day.
“If I’m completely honest, of course I’m happy that whoever gets out of that nightmare, the underground torture dungeons in Gaza. I’ve come to know the families, it’s been 471 days. But it also brings me back to the last (hostage release) deal in November 2023 when I waited every single night for my mom’s name to be on the list and every night I would get a ‘no’. Not only my parents are held hostage, but my friends are currently there.
“So while I’m so, so happy to see Romi and Emily and Doron come out, I’m also heartbroken that my friend Shiri Bibas and her two children are not coming out.”
Bibas and her two sons, Kfir, who celebrated his second birthday this week, and Ariel, now 5, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with Shiri’s husband Yarden. Her parents were killed in the attack.
Weinstein Haggai, who now lives in Singapore with her young family, was in D.C. this weekend for the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump. She has travelled numerous times to Washington, as well as Ottawa, to press for the release of her parents and other hostages since Oct. 7, 2023.
She found American politicians have been willing to listen to the hostage families—and that it was “inspiring” that the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump one worked together to get Hamas to the negotiating table.
Trump had said “all hell will break out” if the hostages were not released before his Jan. 20 inauguration.
“There’s a reason this deal is happening, and hopefully we’ll see its completion, because of what President Trump said. This is not me taking a political stance,” Iris said. “Once he finally said something about these terrorists releasing these hostages, things started happening. It’s very sad to me that this is the first world leader to hold these terrorists accountable.”
Iris has met with Justin Trudeau and Mélanie Joly, pleading with the top Ottawa offices to pressure the International Red Cross to visit the hostages, and confirm who was even alive. However, the Liberal politicians have been less transparent and helpful than their American counterparts—even in the case of her mother, who is the only remaining Canadian hostage.
“Even a few days ago when Trudeau put out a statement about how he accepts the ceasefire, he didn’t even mention my mom. It’s been very, very disappointing.”
The fate of the young Bibas family and Judith Weinstein was also on the mind of Maureen Leshem, the Canadian cousin of hostage Romi Gonen, kidnapped from the Nova music festival.
In a news conference in Toronto on Sunday, she reflected on the family’s gratitude for Romi’s return—after over a year of tireless advocacy—as well as the plight of the remaining hostages.
“We are grateful to at last be liberated from 15 months of agonizing torment and uncertainty—a gruelling path that has pushed us beyond our limits, both physically and emotionally. Hope became our greatest source of power, as well as our heaviest burden. It has been an exhausting and punishing experience that I would not wish on anyone,” Leshem said, reading a prepared statement.
“I am deeply grateful to every single person who embraced Romi and stood by us in our fight for her freedom—everyone who followed her plight closely, shared her story widely, sent heartfelt messages of hope, and prayed tirelessly for her safe return. I am thankful for every person who recognized and validated the undeniabletruth of what she has endured.”
Leshem also recalled some of the other hostages. “And we must remember that there are still 94 hostages trapped in Hamas captivity—among them, Canadian citizen Judih Weinstein, a 2-year-old toddler and a 5-year-old child—in urgent need of rescue. We must speak up and demand their freedom, too. What kind of world do we create if we fail to fight for the innocent?”
The Bibas children were also on the minds of roughly 80 people who came to the Run For their Lives rally in Thornhill, Ont., a weekly walk to keep the hostages’ plight in the public eye. Many in the group carried pictures of the boys, or orange balloons reminiscent of the children’s bright-red hair.
“There are no prerequisites required for supporting this cause, no prerequisite required for being outraged that a baby who was stolen at 9 months old will soon turn two in captivity,” organizer Michelle Factor told the group gathered in the lobby of the Promenade Shopping Centre, preparing to walk a kilometre in the frigid temperatures.
One of the walkers, Avishag Campbell, said she was buoyed by the news the three women had been freed. “It’s exciting news, but I think the price is very high. I’m happy for the family, I’m not really sure of the damage it’s caused. It’s going to be a very, very long rehabilitation, if it can be rehabilitated.”
As part of the hostage release agreement, Israel is set to free up to 1,900 prisoners and detainees, some of who have been convicted of serious crimes against Israelis.
“But we’re a people of life,” Campbell said. “We have to sacrifice a lot for one life.”
The hostage release agreement has been controversial in Israel, as some fear it will let Hamas regain control of the Gaza Strip.
“The deal is horrible,” Iris Weinstein Haggai agrees. “But you cannot have a good deal with terrorists,” she says about the agreement that she hopes will eventually see her parents’ bodies returned to Israel for burial.
“Israel is releasing prisoners who murdered not only Israelis, but also Palestinians. They are horrible terrorists but that’s the price Israel is willing to pay. It’s just crazy to me that we are demanding two babies and my friend Shiri Bibas and the other side is demanding murderers and rapists to come back to them.”
Negotiations for the second and third phase of hostage releases, which would include Israeli men and the bodies of those who were killed, have yet to even begin. Iris says she’s hopeful, but is aware that Israel is negotiating with a terrorist group and the situation can change rapidly.
“We don’t even know if the whole first phase will even happen. Every second you’re waiting for something to go wrong,” she said. “It’s the beginning of the end. I’m very optimistic that the process has begun. It’s more than anything that happened for the last 471 days.”
Weinstein Haggai has returned to Kibbutz Nir Oz several times since the attacks, that saw 117 members killed or taken hostage. Nearly every home on the kibbutz was damaged.
A few weeks ago, she took her family to Israel, the first time they have visited since Oct. 7. Her eldest daughter, who is 8, was heartbroken when she fully grasped that she was not going to be able to visit her grandparents on their kibbutz again.
“Being there really emphasized that she’s not going to see them again, yet she kept asking me, ‘Mommy, if we don’t have a grave how do you know they’re dead?’” said iris.
“I should not have to answer that question and I’m going to have to answer that question until they come back.”
The post Canadian relatives of Israeli hostages share emotional reactions at the start of the ceasefire deal with Hamas appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
The post US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks
IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
The post IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.