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Photo Essay: In Israel, Two Exhibitions Honor Victims, Heroes of Oct. 7
Haim Jelin, the former head of the Eshkol Regional Council and resident of Kibbutz Be’eri, got the date of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel tattooed on his arm. Photo: Erez Kaganovitz
Two exhibitions commemorating survivors and victims of the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas opened ahead of Israel’s Memorial Day on Sunday evening.
The first opened at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem on Thursday with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon in attendance. The exhibition, called “06:29- From Darkness to Light” — in reference to the exact moment that Hamas terrorists invaded Israel’s border with Gaza — features personal testimonies from 25 women who went through the horrors of the day that became known as Black Shabbat.
The exhibition’s producer, Malki Shem Tov, is the father of Omer Shem Tov, who is being held hostage in Gaza.
Visitors can walk through mockups of mobile shelters, where recordings of sirens and communication devices used on Oct. 7 can be heard.
Among the featured women are Yasmin Porat, who escaped the Nova music festival to Kibbutz Be’eri, where she was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists; Noam Ben David, who played dead for hours in a dumpster at the Nova festival; 15-year-old Ela Shani, who founded a public diplomacy project in memory of her father Yitzhak, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists, that caught the attention of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone; Ricarda Louk, mother of the late Shani Louk, who was murdered at the Nova festival; Miriam Beit Talmi, a Holocaust survivor from Kibbutz Zikim who was rescued under fire; Chen Almog Goldstein from Kfar Gaza, who was taken captive into Gaza with her children after her daughter and husband were murdered in their home; Mali Shoshana, the commander of the Sderot Police Station on that Saturday; and Lt. Col. Or Ben Yehuda, commander of the Karakal battalion on the Egyptian border who fought against dozens of terrorists in the Gaza Envelope, the areas of southern Israel near the Gaza border.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, May 9, 2024. Photo: Guy Sidi
“For far too many months, weeks, and days, the light has been blocked by the dark shadows of a cloudy sky,” Herzog said at the exhibition’s opening. “And even though the sun seems to keep shining, we wake up to this cruel darkness each morning, which stays with us throughout the day. In this harsh reality, this important exhibition — here, in the Museum of Tolerance — brings such a precious and important voice that must be heard loud and clear.”
Museum of Tolerance CEO Yoni Riss said the testimonies presented in the exhibition are “proof of the strength that the citizens demonstrated” on Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel from Gaza, murdered 1,200 people, and abducted over 250 others amid other mass atrocities against the Israeli people.
“Alongside the great darkness, the shock, and the sorrow, the great light of Israeli society has been revealed. The volunteers, the fighters, the rescue teams, and defense forces — everyone rallied and demonstrated solidarity that gives us hope for the future,” he added.
“06:29- From Darkness to Light” exhibit at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. The picture on the wall shows the burnt cars of festival-goers following the attack on the Nova Music Festival. Photo: Guy Sidi
A second exhibition, “Humans of October 7,” opened a day later at the German embassy in Tel Aviv
The ongoing project by photojournalist Erez Kaganovitz is part of a traveling exhibit that will be shown all over the world, including on college campuses such as Harvard, MIT, and Penn State.
It will mark Kaganovitz’s fourth photographic venture in the “Humans” series, after Humans of Israel, Humans of Tel Aviv, and Humans of the Holocaust, all of which received widespread praise in exhibitions globally.
Kaganovitz said he launched the project to “fight back” against rising antisemitism and misconceptions about the Jewish state “by showing the human side of Israel” and to serve as a “reminder of what Israeli society is all about and what we are actually fighting for.”
Haim Jelin, the former head of the Eshkol Regional Council and resident of Kibbutz Be’eri, got the date of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel tattooed on his arm. Photo: Erez Kaganovitz
Among the 30 Israelis featured in the series are survivors of Oct. 7 as well as people who have turned into national heroes, such as Rami Davidian, a farmer who rescued hundreds of people from the Nova festival. “I got into places where the army wouldn’t go — under fire and without weapons or bulletproof vests for protection. I had a goal to save as many people as I could,” he said.
Ruth Haran, Holocaust survivor who also survived Kibbutz Beeri massacre on Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: Erez Kaganovitz
Another portrait is of Hamid Abu Arar, a Bedouin from Gaza who saved the life of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers after his wife and another passenger in his car were murdered by Hamas terrorists. “I told myself: Hamid, you have to make a snap decision. I grabbed my baby, opened the electric cabinet doors, and ran toward the soldiers. I warned the soldiers that they were walking straight into an ambush,” he said. “If they had advanced five more meters, they would all have been shot dead on the spot. No question about it. It was a miracle that me and my baby survived and that the soldiers were saved.”
In late February, Abu Arar was granted permanent residency status by Israel in light of his heroism.
Hamid Abu Arar. Photo: Erez Kaganovitz
Kaganovitz said he hopes the exhibition will highlight “the unique Israelis who stood up against terrorism.”
“It shows Israeli DNA at its best and the incredible spirit and resilience of the Israeli people,” he told The Algemeiner.
Steffen Seibert, Germany’s ambassador to Israel, praised Kaganovitz for his ability to tell “the human stories behind this tragic day.”
“The 7th of October has left deep wounds in the Israeli psyche. But the courage and solidarity many Israelis have demonstrated during or after this horrific attack also convey a strong message of community and hope,” he said.
The post Photo Essay: In Israel, Two Exhibitions Honor Victims, Heroes 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.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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