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Gal Gadot Says She’s Optimistic Jewish People ‘Will Prevail’ Against Antisemitism in Aftermath of Oct. 7
Israeli President Isaac Herzog in conversation with Gal Gadot during the “Voice of the People” virtual event. Photo: Screenshot
Israeli actress Gal Gadot discussed antisemitism, the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, and the importance of Jewish unity during a live virtual event with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday to mark the launch of Herzog’s new initiative “Voice of the People.”
In conversation with Herzog during the online event, Gadot began by talking about the emotional impact the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks had on her life.
“I feel like there’s the life until Oct. 7 and the life after Oct. 7,” Gadot told Herzog while wearing on her shirt a pin of a yellow ribbon, which calls for the return of the remaining 101 hostages held captive by Hamas. “I am an Israeli, Jewish mother of four girls, all Jewish, who will have Jewish children. And I’ve always and forever will be proud of my heritage, [and] my Israeli and Jewish identity.”
“Oct. 7 was a turning point for the entire Jewish community around the world,” she added. “No one has ever expected or thought that such a horrific thing could happen to our people — could happen in general in the world in 2024. There’s not a day that goes by without me thinking about the hostages and the fact that we’re even here now talking [while] they’re there in Gaza in the tunnels surviving for almost a year in this hellish reality. That breaks my heart.”
The “Wonder Woman” star added that she can manage facing anti-Israel sentiments, and all she wants now is the return of the hostages held captive by Hamas since Oct. 7.
“Me being a Jewish and Israeli, a famous figure around the world, I can handle it. It’s fine. I want them to come home,” she said, referring to the remaining hostages.
Of the 101 hostages still in Gaza, 97 were kidnapped on Oct. 7. Over 250 people were abducted in total during the Hamas onslaught.
Herzog described the Oct. 7 attacks, in which 1,200 people were murdered and thousands more wounded, as an “earth-shattering event,” and encouraged listeners to remember that as Jews, “we always overcame when we are together.” He added, “We can argue and debate and we will be different. We are 12 tribes. But we must overcome together and this is one of the most — if not the most — challenging moments of the Jewish people and their nation state since the Holocaust.”
“We’ve been through these type of times before — challenging times,” added Gadot, who is the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. “And this is a very dark time — we must find a way to come together to be proud Jews.”
“Israel is the insurance policy of Jewish people around the world,” she noted. “Israel was born after the Holocaust, and we must make sure Israel will be strong and stable and hopefully one day, I hope soon enough, have peaceful times with all of its neighbors.”
“Voice of the People” is an initiative spearheaded by Herzog that is aimed at promoting Jewish unity. The initiative will convene a global Jewish council with rotating members who will work together on addressing challenges affecting Jews around the world. The initiative has 150 members — 50 from Israel, 50 from the United States and Canada, and 50 from around the world. The members are selected for a two-year term.
When Herzog asked if Gadot has experienced antisemitism in her personal life as a public figure in Hollywood, she said she has seen how sentiments have changed regarding Israel since the start of her career as an actress.
“Fifteen years ago, being Israeli was something people were impressed by and excited about — the strong women of Israel. Now, it’s charged. Now the discussion is different. It changed,” she explained. “And I find myself numerous times, over and over again, having very complicated and ‘uncomfortable’ conversations with people who have some idea about what’s happening, trying to give them the full picture of what’s going on.”
“Antisemitism has always been a part of the Jewish people, unfortunately,” she added. “I’m a big believer that we have the power of coming together and spreading light, and doing it even when it’s uncomfortable. It is what it is. We have to advocate for the hostages to come back home because this is just impossible to think that they are still there. And we will prevail. There is no other way. We will prevail. But the only way to do it, is by being united.”
Herzog concluded by telling viewers that it is the “highest priority” in Israel to secure the return of the hostages. “We must fight back, we must not give up, we must show our strengths and we must be together as much as we can,” he said.
The post Gal Gadot Says She’s Optimistic Jewish People ‘Will Prevail’ Against Antisemitism in Aftermath of Oct. 7 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.
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