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My Israel Scouts leader died defending our country. I won’t let him be a statistic.

EDITOR’S NOTE: On Oct. 7, Hamas gunmen swarmed an Israeli army base in Zikim, on the north side of the Gaza border. First Lt. Yannai Kaminka, 20, was among the officers killed in the defense of the base, which saved the lives of around 90 new recruits.
Kaminka was the son of Eyal and Elana Kaminka of Tzur Hadassah, a village southwest of Jerusalem. His father is a poet; his mother, originally from Davis, California, is active in Tag Meir, a nonprofit that promotes coexistence between Arabs and Jews. “After school, Yanai volunteered with at-risk children for a year,” she remembered in a note to friends announcing his death. “In the army, he was always concerned about his fellow soldiers, asking about their families and if they lacked anything — food, clothing, or were in any difficulty. He once invited a Palestinian neighbor to speak with his friends to help them better understand the challenging reality you live in.”
Kaminka was also a madrich, or leader, in the Israel Scouts movement. One of his former scouts, Benjamin Siegel of Westchester County, New York, remembered Kaminka, posthumously promoted to second lieutenant, in a tribute Oct. 10 at Temple Israel Center in White Plains, New York. His remarks are reprinted below.
(JTA) — I live in Westchester County, New York, but I am also Israeli. A proud Israeli.
My family came to the United States three years ago, when I was 13. But Israel remains my true home.
We are from Tzur Hadassah, a beautiful community in the Jerusalem mountains of about 5,000 people. Everyone knows everyone.
As I was getting ready for bed late on Friday, Oct. 6, my phone erupted with alerts of rocket attacks across Israel, seven time zones away. Nothing could have prepared us for what was to follow.
The scope and brutality of the Hamas invasion early in the morning soon became apparent. Dispatches from Israeli media became more horrible by the hour. Family and friends in Israel kept feeding us more information. And it was all bad.
The day after the invasion started, I woke up to a text from one of my best friends that I should never have received.
Yannai was dead.
Like me, Yannai Kaminka was American and Israeli. He was also my Israel Scouts leader.
In Israel, the Scouts, known as Tzofim, is our everything. There’s no real comparison in the United States. It’s our youth group, our community, our best friends, our leadership training.
We were a band of brothers and sisters, meeting three times a week, from fourth grade through high school. Yannai was our leader — a madrich, to use the Hebrew word.
He was smart, fun, funny, strong. We always tried to tackle him and take him down, but he was too strong for us. We didn’t mind. He was like a big brother to us all.
Soldiers grow up fast in the Israeli Defense Forces and can be given a level of responsibility most people who never served in the military would find daunting.
Yannai became an officer of basic trainees. He loved the work, pouring his heart and soul into making his soldiers better. Israeli officers always lead from the front. Yannai worked himself to the point of exhaustion. When he’d come home on a weekend pass, he would pretty much sleep for two days straight.
That dedication was on full display when the Hamas terrorists invaded from Gaza. His trainees were still too new to press into action, so more senior officers went out to confront the attackers. One of Yannai’s squad commanders was hit in the head and injured. Yannai evacuated her under fire and took her position. He and other IDF soldiers fought off Hamas for two hours, saving an untold number of lives, before they were hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and killed instantly.
Yannai was 20.
I stare at a photo Yannai’s mom sent us of him and four other soldiers. They are smiling, just hanging out and having a good time. It is the smile that gets me. It’s one of the things I will remember most about Yannai. Smiling came so easily for him.
In the photo is a young woman, the one he evacuated under fire. She came to his funeral bandaged. Another is in the hospital with serious injuries. The other two in the photo spoke at his funeral.
I told you how in Tzur Hadassah everyone knows everybody. It was no exaggeration. Everybody there stood outside with Israeli flags to honor Yannai on his final journey.
He had done so much for so many in so short a time.
I will not let Yannai be a statistic. I will not stand by as others attempt to justify the invasion and killing spree that has left at least 1,400 Israelis dead, thousands more wounded and pierced the sense of invincibility in a nation whose spirit was bent but will not be broken.
The ensuing days after the attack brought out some of the worst I’ve seen in people. Some protests glorified Hamas’ systematic slaughter, rape, torture and kidnapping of innocent people, as if that barbarism was somehow a rationale to avenge Palestinian grievances against the Israeli government.
While many of my friends in Westchester have supported and consoled me, some, including at my school, posted on social media about how Israel and Israelis brought this on themselves. How sad. How absurd. Maybe they would like to tell Yannai’s family how they feel.
I suspect they would feel differently if they had met Yannai — the fun-loving kid you wanted to be like, to measure up to. The one who would effortlessly care about you as he set you on the path to finding your best self.
Yet even Yannai had his rough days. Once, his dad wrote him a poem to brighten his mood. The last line was, “Only at night do you see the stars.” It became Yannai’s personal slogan. He and his soldiers painted it on the wall of his army unit’s headquarters.
I wish I could see my friend again. My grief will take a long time to subside. But I will remain strong. Because that is what Yannai would expect of me and of us all. And I never wanted to disappoint him.
Yannai Michael Oded Kaminka. Remember his name. Honor his memory. May it always be a blessing.
—
The post My Israel Scouts leader died defending our country. I won’t let him be a statistic. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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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.