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Hostages’ Return Remains Top Goal for IDF in Gaza, Katz Says
Then-Israeli transportation minister Israel Katz attends the cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Feb. 17, 2019. Katz currently serves as the foreign minister. Photo: Sebastian Scheiner/Pool via REUTERS
JNS.org – The return of the 101 hostages still held by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip is Jerusalem’s “most important value goal” in the ongoing war, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterated on Sunday.
“As I defined from my first day in the role, returning the hostages home is our most important value goal,” Katz declared after his first meeting with army officials at the Israel Defense Forces Intelligence Directorate’s Headquarters of the Hostages and Missing Persons. “There have never been, and never will be, political considerations on the matter,” he added.
“Every meeting with the families of the hostages and those involved in the mission to return them fills me with more motivation, and I pledge to work together with the defense establishment in every possible way to return them home,” said Katz, who took over the portfolio on Nov. 8.
During his visit, Katz received a briefing from IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, head of the IDF’s Missing and Captive Soldiers Division, and Maj. Gen. (res.) Yoav Mordechai, who alongside Alon leads the intelligence efforts to return the remaining hostages.
Shortly before his Nov. 7 dismissal, then-defense minister Yoav Gallant declared that the return of the captives had become the “most important mission” for Israel Defense Forces troops in the Palestinian enclave.
The IDF will continue to put “as much pressure on Hamas as possible in order to create the conditions necessary to ensure the return of the hostages,” Gallant told troops on Oct. 30, according to a readout.
“The political echelon must do what is necessary to bring about a deal. You must apply military pressure and do what is necessary to create the conditions required for us to carry out an agreement. This is our most important mission in Gaza at this time,” said the defense minister.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Gallant’s firing on Nov. 5, citing “substantial disagreements on the management of the military campaign, disagreements which were accompanied by public statements and actions that contravened government decisions.”
Roughly 1,200 Israelis were murdered on Oct. 7, 2023, thousands more were wounded and 251 others were taken into the Gaza Strip.
On-and-off indirect talks between Israel and Hamas have dragged on for months, with the United States, Egypt and Qatar acting as intermediaries.
The Qatari-owned Al-Araby Al-Jadeed outlet cited a Hamas source as saying on Sunday that the Islamist organization’s leadership has cut all contact with those actually holding the hostages due to “strict security measures to protect the important negotiation card.”
The source added that Hamas has refused to provide information on the whereabouts and status of the hostages, in particular those with US citizenship, as it has not been offered “compensation” by mediators.
According to Hamas, the Biden administration put “intense pressure” on Qatar and Egypt in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 5 US presidential elections in an attempt to receive proofs of life.
However, Hamas said it refused the request because the Americans failed to provide “any serious indications about stopping the aggression or reaching an agreement to stop the war of extermination in the Strip.”
On Thursday, President Joe Biden met with families of American Israelis held hostage in Gaza and “reaffirmed the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to getting the hostages home to their loved ones and families,” according to Washington’s readout of the meeting.
“The administration has worked tirelessly to get a deal done as soon as possible to bring the hostages home, and the president also assured the families those efforts will continue,” the White House statement added.
Biden had raised the hostage crisis during a discussion with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Following Thursday’s meeting, Ruby Chen, the father of hostage Itay Chen, whose body is being held in Gaza, told JNS that “the fact that there is a new administration that will put new thoughts on the table, new thinking, and I think that, by itself, is welcome progress.”
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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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