RSS
Umbrella for gap-year programs in Israel says all of its 5,700 participants are safe
(JTA) – More than 5,000 young adults on long-term programs in Israel are out of danger, an umbrella group for the programs said.
A spokesperson for Masa Israel Journey — which guides participants to hundreds of gap-year, career training and continuing education programs in Israel — told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that all of its 5,700 participants had been relocated away from areas “under direct danger.”
The organization has evacuated its programs in the south of the country, including gap years and kibbutz volunteering in the coastal city of Ashdod, and is following Israeli security protocol regarding whether other programs will need to be moved.
“At Masa, we are unequivocally committed to being present and available to our 5,700 Fellows in Israel during this emotionally challenging period,” the program’s spokesperson, Tal Bar-on Morali, told JTA.
The message came as Israeli social media networks have been flooded with images of people who are missing or have been taken captive or killed. Hundreds of those victims were young adults who were celebrating at an all-night nature party in the south that was attacked by Hamas fighters. In Saturday’s attack, Hamas fighters killed 700 people, injured more than 2,200 and took some 100 hostages to Gaza.
U.S. citizens are reportedly among those who have been captured or killed, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
“I am so, so grateful—beyond grateful—for this outpouring of love, but I’m having trouble responding to everyone,” author Joanna Rakoff, whose son Coleman is on Year Course, the Young Judaea gap-year program, wrote on Instagram on Saturday.
“So I’m posting here to say: Coleman is fine right now,” she wrote. “He’s sheltering with a friend’s family. Love, love to you all, from this very worried mother.”
A spokesperson for Taglit-Birthright Israel, the organization that runs free 10-day trips in Israel for young adults, in addition to other programs, told JTA it was not currently running any trips to Israel.
Other Israel programs were in close communication with parents abroad to assure them participants were safe. Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh, an Orthodox yeshiva in Jerusalem largely catering to American and British male students, alerted parents Saturday evening to report that all of their students were “safe and accounted for.”
Kivunim, a gap-year program in which Jewish students travel the world using Israel as a base, had been scheduled to fly out its latest class on Monday. The start of its program has now been delayed, its director told parents in a letter over the weekend. Some of Kivunim’s 36 student participants had traveled early to Israel or live there now, and the program has confirmed that they are safe.
“The security and safety of our students and staff are and always will be our first priority,” Kivunim’s leadership wrote in the email. Executive director Elie Lauter told JTA the group was exploring restructuring its schedule so that students could travel to the program’s other destinations while delaying their entries into Israel.
Some of Masa’s fellows have chosen to end their programs and leave the country, but no program has been canceled or closed, Morali said. Masa is also providing mental health services to its fellows.
“Above all else, we are dedicated to their welfare,” Morali said. “We hope and pray for better days ahead in Israel and for the entire Jewish community.”
—
The post Umbrella for gap-year programs in Israel says all of its 5,700 participants are safe appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
Saudi Arabia Rejects Israel PM Netanyahu’s Remarks on Displacing Palestinians
US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talk in the midst of a joint news conference in the White House in Washington, US, Jan. 28, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Saudi Arabia affirmed its categorical rejection of remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about displacing Palestinians from their land, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Israeli officials have suggested the establishment of a Palestinian state on Saudi territory. Netanyahu appeared to be joking on Thursday when he responded to an interviewer on pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 who mistakenly said “Saudi state” instead of “Palestinian state,” before correcting himself.
While the Saudi statement mentioned Netanyahu’s name, it did not directly refer to the comments about establishing a Palestinian state in Saudi territory.
Egypt and Jordan also condemned the Israeli suggestions, with Cairo deeming the idea as a “direct infringement of Saudi sovereignty.”
The kingdom said it valued “brotherly” states’ rejection of Netanyahu’s remarks.
“This occupying extremist mindset does not comprehend what the Palestinian territory means for the brotherly people of Palestine and its conscientious, historical and legal association with that land,” it said.
Discussions of the fate of Palestinians in Gaza has been upended by Tuesday’s shock proposal from President Donald Trump that the U.S. would “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.
Arab states have roundly condemned Trump’s comments, which came during a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza war that Israel has been waging against the terrorist group Hamas, which controls the narrow strip.
Trump has said Saudi Arabia was not demanding a Palestinian state as a condition for normalizing ties with Israel. But Riyadh rebuffed his statements, saying it would not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.
The post Saudi Arabia Rejects Israel PM Netanyahu’s Remarks on Displacing Palestinians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on 27 February to Discuss ‘Serious’ Palestinian Developments
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Feb. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Egypt will host an emergency Arab summit on 27 February to discuss what it described as “serious” developments for Palestinians, according to a statement from the Egyptian foreign ministry on Sunday.
The summit comes amid regional and global condemnation of US President Donald Trump’s suggestion to “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.
The post Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on 27 February to Discuss ‘Serious’ Palestinian Developments first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Thai Nationals Held Captive by Hamas in Gaza Return Home
Relatives hug a released Thai hostage, who was kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and held in Gaza, as the hostages arrive in Thailand following their release, at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, in Samut Prakan, Thailand, February 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
When Surasak Rumnao, 31, left his home in Thailand’s rural Udon Thani province three years ago to go across the world to the southern Israeli town of Yesha for agriculture work, his family never imagined they would lose touch with him for over a year when he was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in October 2023.
He and four others were reunited with their families this weekend after their release from captivity in Gaza.
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists abducted more than 250 people, including Israelis and foreign nationals, in their October 2023 attack on Israel.
During the attack, Hamas terrorists killed more than 40 Thais and kidnapped 31 Thai laborers, some of whom died in captivity, according to the Thai government. Later that year, the first group of Thai hostages was returned.
Surasak’s mother, Khammee Rumnao, was relieved that her son was not mistreated and has returned to his home, about 620 km(385 miles) northeast of the capital, Bangkok.
“He mainly got to eat bread, he was looked after well and was fed all three meals (each day). He got to shower, he was looked after well,” Khammee said, and that he ate whatever his captors had.
Her son does not plan to go back and wants to use the knowledge he gained in his agricultural work in Israel at their home, she said.
His grandparents and other relatives came to their home to welcome him home.
His stepfather, Janda Prachanan, was elated.
“I couldn’t find the words to describe how happy I am, that my son is safe and finally home,” he said.
Earlier on Sunday, the other returnees, dressed in winter jackets, were met with tears of joy from their families who were waiting for their arrival at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
“We are all deeply touched to come back to our birthplace … to be standing here,” said Pongsak Thaenna, one of the returnees said. “I don’t know what else to say, we are all truly thankful.”
Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa, who met the hostages in Israel after their release last week, expressed relief.
“This is emotional … to come back to the embrace of their families,” he said. “We never gave up and this was the fruit of that.”
Before the conflict, approximately 30,000 Thai laborers worked in Israel’s agriculture sector, making them one of the largest migrant worker groups in the country. Nearly 9,000 Thais were repatriated following the October 7 attacks.
The workers primarily come from Thailand’s northeastern region, an area comprising villages and farming communities that is among the poorest in the country.
Thailand’s foreign ministry said a Thai national is still believed to be held captive by Hamas.
“We still have hope and continue to work to bring them back,” Maris said, adding that this includes the bodies of two deceased Thai nationals.
The post Thai Nationals Held Captive by Hamas in Gaza Return Home first appeared on Algemeiner.com.