[IMPORTANT] Hamas launches foot assault against settlements.

Post Reply New Topic

Does Hamas think that anyone is stupid enough to believe that a bomb reached out and killed the kids with its bare hands? Here's news for Hamas -- bombs don't have hands. Everyone responsible needs to be brought to Justice. Unfortunately, with all the leftists out there making excuse after excuse for terrorism, it will probably never happen.

Israel carried out a series of airstrikes in Lebanon on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said, as the country prepared for the mass funeral of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

According to Lebanese reports, the strikes occurred near the towns of Qlaileh and Zebqine, close to the coastal city of Tyre; near the village of Brissa in the Hermel District of northern Lebanon; near the town of Bodai in the Baalbek District; and near al-Ahmadiya in southern Lebanon.

The IDF later confirmed the strikes, saying they targeted Hezbollah sites containing rocket launchers and other weapons, and additional rocket launchers threatening Israeli civilians

The strikes were carried out after the military said it identified Hezbollah activity at the sites, which it said was a “violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and is a threat to the State of Israel and its citizens.”

The strikes came ahead of the joint funeral for Nasrallah, who was eliminated by Israel in September, and his intended successor Hashem Safieddine, whom Israel killed in October.

Israeli tanks deployed to the West Bank on Sunday morning for the first time in over 20 years, as the Israel Defense Forces said it was expanding an ongoing counter-terrorism operation in the north of the territory.

Defense Minister Israel Katz, meanwhile, said he had instructed the IDF to stay for at least the next year in West Bank refugee camps that have been cleared of terror operatives and civilians, and not allow some 40,000 displaced Palestinians to return.

Palestinian media outlets published images showing three Merkava tanks near the West Bank city of Jenin.

The IDF confirmed the reports a short while later, saying that a platoon from the 188th Armored Brigade was preparing to operate in Jenin “as part of the offensive effort.” An Armored Corps platoon normally consists of two or three tanks.

As part of the expanded activity, troops of the Nahal Infantry Brigade and the Duvdevan Commando Unit began operations in several villages near Jenin, the military said.

The deployment of tanks and expanded operations come after three empty buses exploded in quick succession in parking lots in the Tel Aviv suburbs of Bat Yam and Holon on Thursday night and the discovery of two more unexploded devices on additional buses in Holon. No casualties were reported as a result of the explosions. According to officials, the botched attack originated from the West Bank.

In a written statement Sunday, Katz said: “40,000 Palestinians have so far evacuated from the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps, and are now empty of residents. UNRWA activity in the camps has also been stopped.”

He said the IDF was clearing “nests of terror” and destroying infrastructure and weapons “on an extensive scale.”

More than 40,100 Palestinians have left their homes since the launch of Operation Iron Wall, according to UNRWA.

Humanitarian officials say they haven’t seen such displacement in the West Bank since the Six Day War, when Israel — under threat from Jordan, Egypt, Syria and other Arab countries — captured the West Bank, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, displacing 300,000 Palestinians.

Troops have killed more than 70 Palestinian terror operatives and detained some 300 amid the major ongoing counter-terrorism operation, according to the IDF.

The IDF has acknowledged mistakenly killing several civilians during the operation, including a toddler and a pregnant woman.

Four Israelis — Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert and Eliya Cohen — who were freed from Hamas captivity on Saturday after more than 500 days in the Hamas terror group’s captivity were chained in the dark, starved and psychologically abused in Gaza, they and their family members said upon their return.

Two further hostages — Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed — who, suffering from mental illness, each entered the Gaza Strip of their own accord some 10 years ago — came home Saturday bearing evident psychological scars from their captivity, and were described by relatives as largely unresponsive upon their return.

Forced to watch friends go free
In a new sign of Hamas’s depravity, the terror group brought two hostages who are still in captivity to watch one of Saturday’s release ceremonies.

In a video published by Hamas, Eviatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal were seen inside a vehicle in the stage area set up by the terror group for the release of three of the captives in central Gaza’s Nuseirat.

They were seen in the video calling on Israeli officials to secure their release, as they watched Omer Shem Tov, Eliya Cohen and Omer Wenkert be freed from captivity after 505 days.

This was the first sign of life from David that has been made public since he was abducted on October 7, 2023, and the first sign of life from Gilboa-Dalal since June 2024. Their families authorized Israeli media to publish Hamas’s propaganda video.

Hostage made to kiss Hamas gunmen at ceremony
Omer Shem Tov, who was abducted from the Nova music festival during the cross-border onslaught, was held alone in a tunnel for all but the first 50 days of his more-than-16-month-long captivity, his father told the Kan public broadcaster.

For the first 50 days he was with Itay Regev, and all the rest, on his own,” Malki Shem Tov, Omer’s father, said.

Itay Regev — Omer’s friend, who was abducted from the festival alongside him — was released in November 2023 during a previous hostage-ceasefire deal.

Malki Shem Tov said his son “didn’t see daylight at all.”

Nevertheless, he said, his son returned the same person who was kidnapped: he is still “Omer the funny, Omer the optimist — just 16-17 kilos (35-37 pounds) less.”

The returnee’s father also addressed the images of his son kissing a Hamas gunman on the forehead during the propaganda ceremony for his release on Saturday morning — footage that has reportedly gone viral on Arabic-language social media, purporting to show gratitude from the hostage to the terror group.

Omer “told us that they compelled him to wave and to kiss that guard who was standing next to him. He said they told him what to do. You can see in the footage that someone came up to him and told him what to do,” his father said.

Shem Tov, who was held in part of Hamas’s underground tunnel network, had very little exposure to media, Kan reported, but said he was aware of protests being held for the release of the hostages, and said, “It strengthened me, and gave me hope that in the end I’d be freed.”

Channel 12, meanwhile, said Shem Tov was initially held in apartments and later in tunnels, and that he was required to dress as a Muslim woman when moved around by his captors. He was once lowered into a tunnel in a small bucket, the network reported. At first, his hands were bound. He was cursed and spat at, it said.

The hostage saw Al Jazeera broadcasts during his captivity, and the reports of the struggle being waged for the hostages strengthened him, Channel 12 said. However, he once saw Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on television talking about the need to destroy Hamas without mentioning the hostages, and this made him very concerned, the report added.

Upon his release, Shem Tov was airlifted from a military facility near the Gaza border to a hospital in central Israel, and wrote on a whiteboard, “Now everything is OK! Thank you to the dear people of Israel, and to all the soldiers!”

“I want a hamburger,” he added.

Held in pitch-black tunnels, chained by hands and feet
Eliya Cohen was held alone for some of his captivity, but spent much of it alongside Or Levy and Eli Sharabi, both of whom were recently released, and Alon Ohel, who is still being held, he told his family, according to Channel 12.

They were chained not only by their feet but also by their hands, which caused open cuts, and they were physically abused by their captors.

Most of the time they were held in a pitch-black tunnel; for a few hours now and again, the terrorists lowered a torch into the tunnel. For months on end, they were not allowed to walk and couldn’t stand. Their captors starved them, and ate their meals in front of them, the report said.

Cohen, who was also abducted from the Nova music festival, was shot in the leg on October 7 and did not receive appropriate medical treatment.

He reported that in recent days, leading up to his release, his captors allowed him to step outside, and get some exposure to sunlight, according to Kan.

Cohen only learned on his release Saturday that his fiancee, Ziv Abud, survived the October 7 massacre; he also learned, however, that his best friend was killed that day.

Omer Wenkert lost 30 kilograms (66 pounds) in captivity since his abduction from the rave, according to Kan.

He suffers from Colitis and did not receive the medicines he needs. He has left some friends behind, he has said, and has brought back some signs of life.

Wenkert has told his family he was very badly beaten when abducted from the Nova festival.

He was not exposed to any media during his captivity, he said, and only learned on Saturday that his good friend Kim Demati, who was with him at the festival, was murdered that day by terrorists.

He also had no awareness of the demonstrations calling for the release of the hostages, Channel 12 reported — though his first request upon his return was to join the campaign, the network said.

Captors fattened up Shoham and Wenkert ahead of release – report
Wenkert was held alongside Tal Shoham — also released on Saturday — for about eight months, the two returnees have told family. They were also held with other hostages, Channel 12 reported.

Shoham, who was hardly exposed to media during his captivity, was not aware until his release that his wife Adi and their children Yahel, 3, and Naveh, 8 — were also taken hostage, but released on November 25, 2023, during the previous weeklong truce.

Shoham’s mother-in-law Shoshan Haran, his wife’s aunt Sharon Avigdori, and her daughter Noam, 12, were also taken hostage and released the same day.

Wenkert and Shoham were held in extremely humid tunnels, Channel 12 reported. “All the seasons felt the same,” they said, with no difference between winter and summer.

After starving them throughout their captivity, the men’s captors fattened them ahead of their release so they wouldn’t look so bad, the network reported.

Wenkert’s first request was for a cigarette, saying: “I’ve waited 500 days for this cigarette.”

Both have said they have come to feel like brothers, and that this connection will continue for good, the report said.

Sign of life for Guy Gilboa-Dalal
One of the hostages released on Saturday testified that he’d been held in captivity alongside Guy Gilboa-Dalal, about whose status nothing had been known since he was abducted from the Nova festival on October 7.

Gilboa-Dalal was later seen in the Hamas video at the release ceremony.

“Now we know that Guy is alive, [he and other hostages] are being held in very difficult conditions, and we have to get him out of there, as soon as possible,” his father Ilan told Channel 12.

The family has not learned any details about Guy’s condition, or with whom he’s held, but expects to hear more in the coming days, he said. “We don’t know anything at the moment.”

Decade-long hostages return unresponsive, families say
Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed were also released on Saturday. They had been held hostage by Hamas for almost a decade by the time of the group’s October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel.

Both men suffer from mental illness and entered the Strip of their own accord, at which point Hamas refused to return them.

Mengistu, then 28, entered Gaza from the Zikim beach in September 2014. His family had not heard from him since his abduction until a Hamas video purported to show him alive in early 2023. He spent 3,821 days in captivity.

The civilian captive appeared generally able-bodied at the propaganda ceremony on Saturday, but his condition was described as “not good” upon his return, and his family reported that he was almost unresponsive.

Netanyahu spoke to Mengistu on the phone after his release, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

Hisham al-Sayed ’emotionally and cognitively destroyed’
The family of Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin Israeli, who entered the Strip near the Erez Crossing in April 2015 when he was 28 years old, described him as “destroyed, emotionally and cognitively,” upon his return.

Sayed’s physical condition was better than expected, following a Hamas video from 2022 showing him looking sick and depleted in a bed, hooked up to an oxygen tank. The video constituted the first and last sign of life for the hostage throughout his near-decade of captivity.

Hamas did not stage a propaganda ceremony for al-Sayed’s release. It claimed the move was “out of respect for the Arabs of Israel,” despite having held him for nearly a decade, as well as murdering and abducting several Arab Israelis during the October 7, 2023, onslaught.

“His mental condition is very difficult, he isn’t responsive,” the returnee’s father told Kan radio on Saturday. “He looks like he was in a torture camp for 10 years. We didn’t imagine that Hamas could be so cruel, they did something disgusting. He is emotionally and cognitively destroyed.”

According to Human Rights Watch, in the years prior to his entering Gaza, al-Sayed was “diagnosed with schizophrenia and a personality disorder, among other conditions” and was repeatedly institutionalized.

Netanyahu spoke with Sha’ban al-Sayed, the father of Hisham al-Sayed, hours after his son’s release.

Hundreds of thousands of people bid farewell to Hezbollah’s slain leader, Hassan Nasrallah, at a mass funeral in Beirut on Sunday, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli air strike in a stunning blow to the Iranian-backed group.

Carrying pictures of Nasrallah and Hezbollah flags, supporters from Lebanon and other countries in the region filled the 55,000-seat Camille Chamoun Sports City stadium in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut.

After a ceremony, they joined a funerary procession outside the stadium before burying Nasrallah nearby. A Lebanese security source estimated the crowd at about a million people.

The killing of Nasrallah, who led the Shiite Muslim group through decades of conflict with Israel and oversaw its transformation into a military force with regional sway, was one of the opening salvos in an Israeli escalation that badly weakened Hezbollah.

But the group’s current leader, Naim Qassem, whose address to mourners was broadcast on screens from an undisclosed location, said Hezbollah remained “strong”.

“We will not submit and we will not accept the continuation of our killing and occupation while we watch,” Qassem said.

Though Israel’s military has largely withdrawn from southern Lebanon, its air force is still striking what it says are Hezbollah positions across Lebanon and troops still hold five hilltop positions along the border.

Israeli troops also detained Lebanese civilians and Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon, and have the bodies of slain Hezbollah fighters in their custody.

Qassem said Hezbollah would exert pressure to get them returned home. He said Hezbollah considered Israel’s five positions an occupation and was relying on the Lebanese government to secure a full withdrawal through diplomacy.

“We choose to fire when we see fit and are patient when we see fit,” he said.

Israeli warplanes struck in Lebanon’s south and east on Sunday and flew low over Beirut twice during the funeral, prompting shouts of “Death to Israel”.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said on X that the planes “above Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral are conveying a clear message: whoever threatens to destroy Israel and attacks Israel — that will be the end of him. You will specialise in funerals — and we will specialise in victories.”

Israel’s military published a video of what it described as footage of Nasrallah’s killing “in several simultaneous raids”.

Black-and-white footage, which appeared to be shot from a military plane, showed buildings hit by about a dozen blasts in quick succession.

Among those at the funeral were Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi, an Iraqi delegation including Shiite politicians and militia commanders, and a delegation from Yemen’s Houthis.

The mass funeral is aimed at showing strength after Hezbollah emerged battered from last year’s war with Israel, which killed most of its leadership and thousands of fighters, and wreaked destruction on south Lebanon.

Its weakened stature has been reflected in Lebanon’s post-war politics, with the group unable to impose its will in the formation of a new government and language legitimising its arsenal omitted from the new cabinet’s policy statement.

The impact on Hezbollah was compounded by the ousting of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria, severing a key supply route.

“We may have lost a great deal as a man, but we have not lost the value of the resistance because the resistance is clinging on,” said Hassan Nasreddine, a Lebanese man headed to the ceremony.

Earlier, Araqchi and other Iranian officials met Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, who was invited but did not attend the funeral.

According to Aoun’s office, he told the Iranian delegation that Lebanon was “tired of the war of others” and it had “paid a heavy price for the Palestinian cause”.