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After Brutal Executions, Will IDF Operations to Rescue Hostages Continue?
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on September 1 that they had recovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, including the body of US citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin. According to reports, the hostages were shot at close range multiple times, just days before they were discovered by the IDF.
Since the Hamas atrocities of October 7, when the terrorist group abducted 250 women, children, and men, the IDF has rescued or recovered the remains of 45 hostages from Gaza through military operations. These missions are morally and strategically imperative: Each hostage that Israel brings home weakens Hamas’ grip on the enclave, and brings us closer to the war’s end.
Since the November 2023 US-brokered ceasefire deal that saw the release of 105 hostages, Hamas has repeatedly refused subsequent ceasefire agreements and hostage proposals. Despite feverish diplomatic efforts by Israel and the United States, Hamas has not freed a single hostage from Gaza since the November deal.
With 97 hostages from the October 7 attacks reportedly remaining in Gaza and Hamas’ intransigence, the only way besides a deal to bring hostages back is through military operations. Since the November deal, the IDF has rescued or returned the remains of over a third of the remaining hostages in Gaza. The continued success of IDF rescue missions in Gaza is critical for several reasons.
First and foremost, Israel must bring the hostages home to begin the healing process from the trauma of October 7. The plight of the hostages is a scar on Israeli psyches, and Hamas uses them as weapons to torment Israeli society. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar spent over a decade in an Israeli prison, and speaks Hebrew fluently; he understands Israelis well and knows how to get under their skin. By releasing hostage videos at strategic moments and spreading misinformation about the hostage negotiations, Sinwar is intentionally antagonizing Israelis.
Second, ending the hostage crisis is a strategic imperative for the IDF. Since October 8, the IDF has been fighting an active kinetic war on at least seven fronts. After failing so terribly to save the 1,200 men, women, and children killed on October 7, the IDF cannot fully focus its attention on other fronts — or a potential wider regional war that might be launched by Hezbollah or Iran — until it completes the mission in Gaza and brings the hostages home.
Third, military rescue operations are tactically important because each hostage who comes home deprives Sinwar of physical protection. For 10 months, Sinwar has been hiding in tunnels and terror hideouts above ground, reportedly surrounded by living hostages. The hostages serve as a life insurance policy for Sinwar, who understands that Israel is unlikely to make an attempt on his life while he uses hostages as a human shield.
Finally, the IDF’s return of hostages deprives Sinwar of precious bargaining leverage in the hostage negotiations. Sinwar has demanded the release of Hamas terrorists from Israeli jails in exchange for the hostages — and that Hamas remain in power in the Gaza Strip after the war (something that most Israelis, and even Vice President Kamala Harris now oppose).
Multiple Palestinian prisoners that were released in the November deal have already returned to terrorism. Sinwar himself was released from prison in a hostage for prisoner deal in 2011 when over 1,000 terrorists were released from Israeli prisons in exchange for one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Without hostages, Sinwar has fewer negotiating chips to make such demands.
There is no denying that a negotiated deal is by far and away the best option for bringing home the hostages. After all, IDF military operations have only returned 8 living hostages in ten months of war. However, in the absence of a deal, the IDF must push forward with intelligence collection and special operations to rescue and recover hostages, as these operations place additional pressure on Sinwar to finally accept a deal that ends the war.
The one complicating factor is that Israel’s past success in hostage rescue operations may give Hamas an incentive to murder Israeli hostages if they feel the IDF is close to freeing them. (Israeli forces were reportedly operating in the area near where the tunnel was found prior to the execution of the six hostages — and just one kilometer away from where a Bedouin Israeli hostage was rescued last week). It’s unclear if those past successes led Hamas to change its strategy, and execute hostages rather than letting them be rescued by Israelis.
But as long as Hamas insists it remain in power — which would put nine million Israelis at risk of kidnapping — and refuses to negotiate a deal with Israel, the US, and the international community, then Israel has no choice but to continue these operations.
To its credit, the Biden administration has reportedly provided Israel with special technology and intelligence for its missions in Gaza. However, the administration has also attempted to significantly limit IDF operations in Gaza, particularly in Rafah, where at least 9 hostages were held.
Any future administration should continue Washington’s support for Israel’s recovery efforts in Gaza and back Israel’s right for full operational freedom in the enclave to return the hostages held by terrorists in Gaza, including several American citizens.
Enia Krivine is the senior director of the Israel Program and the National Security Network at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow her on X @EKrivine.
The post After Brutal Executions, Will IDF Operations to Rescue Hostages Continue? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.