Israeli forces operating in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Thursday night rescued the bodies of three Israeli hostages, chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Friday.

Hagari identified the three as Shani Louk, 22; Amit Buskila, 28; and Yitzhak Gelernter, 58, saying they “were murdered by Hamas while escaping the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 and their bodies were taken into Gaza.”

The bodies were recovered in an overnight operation carried out by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet security agency.

Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Yitzhak Gelernter were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7 from the Nova Music Festival.

Overnight, our troops recovered their bodies and brought them back home to Israel.

We will continue operating to bring all of our hostages… pic.twitter.com/ya8IoZ8Dvb

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 17, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday praised the military operation, conveyed his condolences to the victims’ families, and reiterated his pledge to return all the hostages.

“I commend our brave forces whose determined action has returned the sons and daughters to their own border,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “This terrible loss is heart-breaking. My wife Sara and I grieve with the families; all of our hearts are with them in their hour of heavy sorrow.”

“We will return all of our hostages, the living and the deceased alike,” he added.

Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, murdering 1,200 people and kidnapping about 250 others as hostages. Israel responded with an ongoing military operation aimed at freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas, which rules Gaza. Some 130 hostages remain held in Gaza.

The Nova music festival was the site of one of the bloodiest attacks during Hamas’ rampage and included widespread sexual violence against the civilians who were there.

Louk, one of the deceased hostages who was rescued, became an international symbol of Hamas’ brutality after images showed her being paraded around half-naked in the back of a pickup truck during the Oct. 7 onslaught.

Israel has said that Hamas’ last remaining battalions of terrorists are holed up in Rafah, although the Biden administration has been pressuring the Jewish state to refrain from mounting a military offensive in the city, citing humanitarian concerns over the Palestinian civilians there.

The post Bodies of Three Israeli Hostages Retrieved From Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Spain will not allow ships carrying arms for Israel to stop at its ports, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Friday, one day after the country refused to let an Israel-bound vessel dock at the southeastern port of Cartagena.

Albares had said on Thursday that Spain refused permission for the Danish Marianne Danica ship to call at Cartagena on May 21. The vessel was reportedly carrying 27 tons of explosives from India to Haifa.

“This is the first time we have done this because it is the first time we have detected a ship carrying a shipment of arms to Israel that wants to call at a Spanish port,” he told reporters in Brussels.

“This will be a consistent policy with any ship carrying arms to Israel that wants to call at Spanish ports,” Albares declared. “The foreign ministry will systematically reject such stopovers for one obvious reason: The Middle East does not need more weapons; it needs more peace.”

Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente added that the refusal was consistent with the government’s decision not to grant licenses for exporting weapons to Israel because Madrid doesn’t “want to contribute to the war.”

The officials’ announcements came amid an ongoing spat between Spain’s ruling Socialists and their hard-left partners over allowing the transit of vessels carrying arms to Israeli ports. The dispute exploded over the German owned cargo ship Borkum, which is due to dock in Cartagena on Friday.

The leftist partners have asked for Borkum to be turned away, saying it’s shipping weapons to Israel, but Puente and others in the Spanish government have claimed it is transporting military material to the Czech Republic.

Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday teased his plans to recognize a Palestinian state.

Specifically, Sanchez said in an interview with TV channel La Sexta that on Wednesday he would announce the date on which Madrid, along with other countries, will recognize a “State of Palestine.”

Sanchez said he would only recognize a Palestinian state in a joint action with other countries and denied reports that the recognition would occur on May 21.

European Union members including Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, and Malta had planned to officially recognize a Palestinian state next Tuesday, according to the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell. However, Ireland’s foreign minister said in a new interview this week that the exact date is still being discussed.

Some European leaders, especially in Spain and Ireland, have been calling for countries to recognize a Palestinian state, arguing doing so would help foster a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which, they argue, would lead to lasting peace in the region.

Israel has warned European countries that unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would effectively amount to a “reward for terrorism” that would reduce the chances of a negotiated resolution to the conflict — a point echoed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.

“We will not reward the terrible massacre of Oct. 7, which 80 percent of the Palestinians support, both in Gaza and the West Bank,” Netanyahu said in a statement, referencing Palestinian polling that has shown widespread support for Hamas’ atrocities. “We will not allow them to establish a terrorist state from which they will be able to vigorously attack us.”

He added, “Nobody will prevent us, prevent Israel, from realizing our basic right to self-defense — not the UN General Assembly or any other body. We will stand together with our head held high to defend our country.”

Netanyahu’s comments came after the Israeli cabinet unanimously approved a proposal to oppose a UN resolution promoting recognition of a Palestinian state.

Spain has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel since Oct. 7, when the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas invaded the Jewish state from neighboring Gaza. The terrorists murdered 1,200 people and abducted over 250 others as hostages in their rampage, the deadliest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas, which rules Gaza.

In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocities, Spain launched a diplomatic campaign to curb Israel’s military response. At the same time, several Spanish ministers in the country’s left-wing coalition government issued pro-Hamas statements and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with one member of the cabinet from the far left Podemos alliance falsely accusing Israel of “genocide.”

Spain, like many other countries around the world, experienced a surge in antisemitic incidents targeting the Jewish community following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre.

The post Spain Says It Won’t Allow Any Israel-Bound Ships Carrying Weapons to Dock as PM Plans to Recognize ‘Palestine’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Efforts by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) to have Israelis banned from all international matches due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war are on pause after the FIFA Council decided not to address the issue at the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday.

Speaking to the 211 member federations that gathered at the congress, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said the FIFA Council unanimously agreed earlier this week that it will make a decision on the matter following a legal assessment. The congress supported the council’s decision, and a vote regarding Israel’s suspension did not take place at the meeting on Friday.

“Football should not and should never become a hostage for politics and always remain a vector for peace, a source of hope, a force of good, uniting people rather than dividing,” Infantino said. “This legal assessment will have to allow for inputs and claims of both member associations. The results of this analysis and the recommendations which will follow from this analysis will subsequently be forwarded to the FIFA Council.”

PFA submitted a proposal to FIFA in March that called on the governing body to suspend Israel from all international competitions. It called for “appropriate sanctions, with immediate effect, against Israeli teams,” citing alleged “international law violations committed by the Israeli occupation in Palestine, particularly in Gaza.” The motion also accused the Israel Football Association (IFA) of “providing moral, economic, and practical support to the occupation” of Palestinian territories. The proposal was endorsed on Thursday by the Asian Football Confederation at the 34th AFC Congress and PFA wanted the FIFA Congress to vote on the issue on Friday.

Infantino said FIFA’s governing council will instead “mandate independent legal expertise to analyze and assess” PFA’s allegations about Israel, and hold a special council before July 20 “to review the results of the legal assessment and to take the decisions that are appropriate.”

Speaking at the FIFA Congress on Friday, PFA President Jibril Rajoub said, “How much more must the Palestine football family suffer for FIFA to act with the same severity and urgency as it did in other cases? Does FIFA consider some wars to be more important than others and some victims to be more significant?”

“As I speak to you today, the Palestinian people, including the Palestinian football family, are enduring an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” he added. “We are witnessing the live, televised genocide unfolding in Gaza. I ask you to stand on the right side of history. The suffering of millions, including thousands of footballers, deserves as much. If not now, then when?”

IFA President Shino Moshe Zuares also spoke at the FIFA Congress and slammed the anti-Israel proposal, saying it has nothing to do with soccer.

“Once again, we are facing a cynical political and hostile attempt by the Palestinian association to harm Israel,” he added. “I am holding myself back … in the hope things can be better for the game for those who play in Israel, the Palestinian Authority, or those who play all over the world.”

He said soccer has successfully “broken down so many walls” and helped unite people, but there are some “who insist on using it to punish, to split, to taint with political motives and increase hatred.”

“I insist on using this wonderful game as a magic device to bond, unite, and heal wounds — mine, those of my people, and of any other nation, especially my neighbor’s,” Zuares explained in his speech, which also referenced the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel.

“Seven months after the terrible day, when football matches cannot be played in large parts of Israel, north and south, and over 130 Israelis are still being held in Gaza, it is injustice that even in these circumstances we find ourselves fighting for our basic right to be part of the game,” he noted.

The post FIFA Delays Decision About Suspending Israel Until Legal Assessment Is Complete first appeared on Algemeiner.com.