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Israeli Man Pleads for His Release in Latest Gaza Hostage Video
A dinner table is set with empty chairs that symbolically represent hostages and missing people with families that are waiting for them to come home, following a deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 20, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Janis Laizans
Elad Katzir, an Israeli farmer held hostage in Gaza for over three months, was seen pleading for his freedom in a video posted online by Palestinian terror group Islamic Jihad on Monday.
Hamas, which rules Gaza, and its smaller ally Islamic Jihad have periodically released videos of hostages taken during Hamas’ Oct. 7 cross-border rampage into southern Israel.
“I was close to dying more than once, it’s a miracle I’m still alive,” Katzir said, a black and yellow Islamic Jihad flag hung from a wall behind him. “I want to tell my family that I love them very much and I miss them very much,” he said, before pausing to choke back tears.
Typically, hostage videos have been filmed in front of a wall in poor lighting, with captives reciting calls for their release. The men, like Katzir in the latest video, often have full beards. The Israeli military has said the videos amount to “psychological terror.”
More than 130 hostages remain in Gaza, most believed to be in Hamas hands, after more than 100 were released during a short-lived truce in late November.
Israel says it will press on with its devastating military offensive in Gaza until Hamas is wiped out, all captives are freed, and the Palestinian enclave poses no more security threat. Hamas has said it will free no more hostages at least until Israel halts the war.
Katzir, 47, was snatched by terrorists from the agricultural kibbutz of Nir Oz. His father was killed in his home there during Hamas’ incursion and his mother was also taken hostage. She was among those later freed during the truce. Katzir appeared in a similar video from captivity last month.
Katzir was interviewed by Reuters in 2018 while working in the fields and spoke about the threat he and his neighbors felt from Hamas across the nearby border in Gaza.
“There is a chance that a sniper from the other side is watching me and I’m already in his sights,” Katzir said at the time. “Instead of caring for the welfare of people in Gaza they deal with terror and in how to harm us.”
The post Israeli Man Pleads for His Release in Latest Gaza Hostage Video first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Kicks Out South Africa’s Hamas-Linked Ambassador
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
i24 News – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday designated the South African ambassador to Washington Ebrahim Rasool as a Persona Non Grata, branding Rasool a “race-bating politician.”
The decision comes after Rasool made the inflammatory allegation that Trump was “leading global white supremacist” movement.
A known supporter of the genocidal Palestinian group Hamas, Rasool even boasted that he owned a keffiyeh signed by late Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
South Africa filed a claim with the International Court of Justice, alleging that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza during its ongoing war against Hamas, a charge both Israel and the US regard as slanderous and antisemitic.
The post US Kicks Out South Africa’s Hamas-Linked Ambassador first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Palestinians Report 9 Dead as IDF Strikes Drone-Operating Terror Squad in Northern Gaza
Illustrative. A drone that Israeli troops recovered in southern Israel that the military said entered Israeli airspace from the Gaza Strip two days earlier, on August 13, 2021. Photo: Israel Defense Forces.
i24 News – An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson confirmed on Saturday a strike targeting a Gazan terror squad in Beit Lahiya; Palestinian sources claimed that at least nine people were killed.
The IDF’s statement says the incident started with the identification of “two terrorists operating a drone that posed a threat to IDF troops in the area.”
Following the elimination of the two jihadists in a targeted strike, “several other terrorists gathered up the drone operating equipment and entered a vehicle,” according to the IDF.
The remainder of the terror squad was then targeted by an additional strike.
The post Palestinians Report 9 Dead as IDF Strikes Drone-Operating Terror Squad in Northern Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria: At Least 3 Dead in Blast, Cause Unclear
Illustrative. A man inspects a damaged car in Latakia, after hundreds were reportedly killed in some of the deadliest violence in 13 years of civil war, pitting loyalists of deposed President Bashar al-Assad against the country’s new Islamist rulers, Syria, March 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Haidar Mustafa
i24 News – A blast occurred in Syria’s coastal city of Latakia on Saturday, killing at least three people and leaving 12 others wounded, local media reported. The cause was unclear.
“The blast in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Latakia city has so far resulted in three deaths and 12 injured,” state news agency SANA cited provincial authorities as saying, adding that “civil defense teams and residents are still searching for others injured and missing.”
While Latakia has been the target of Israeli strikes against Hezbollah and Iranian terrorists, there were no early indications that Saturday’s incident represented an IDF attack.
The post Syria: At Least 3 Dead in Blast, Cause Unclear first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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