Hamas list shows eight hostages to be freed during ceasefire are dead By Samy Magdy January 28, 2025 https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle...uring-ceasefire-are-dead-20250128-p5l7m3.html Jerusalem: Israel says a Hamas list shows that eight of the 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire are dead. Government spokesman David Mencer has told journalists that Hamas said the other 25 were alive. Israel said it had received a list of information on the status of the hostages from Hamas. Israel has said the next release of hostages would take place on Thursday, followed by another on Saturday. Thousands of displaced Palestinians walk towards their homes in northern Gaza, via the Netzarim Corridor, during the ceasefire in central Gaza, on Monday.Credit: Bloomberg Whether hostages are alive or dead inside Gaza has been a heartbreaking question for waiting families who have pushed the Israeli government to reach a deal to free them, fearing that time was running out. Approximately 90 hostages are still in captivity. Before this latest list, Israel believed at least 35 of them were dead. The news came as Israel began allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to the heavily destroyed northern Gaza Strip for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas. An unending stream of people marched up the coast of Gaza on January 27, carrying their belongings in plastic bags and repurposed flour sacks through the central city of Nuseirat after Israel reopened access to the territory’s north.Credit: AFP The United Nations said more than 200,000 people were observed moving north in Gaza on Monday morning alone, in accordance with a fragile ceasefire. “It’s the joy of return,” said Ismail Abu Matter, a father of four. He said people were singing, praying and crying as they reunited with relatives. An Egyptian official said Egyptian contractors, along with a US company, were running checkpoints in Gaza, inspecting vehicles heading north via Salahuddin Road. The contractors are part of an Egyptian-Qatari committee implementing the ceasefire, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. Thousands of Palestinians are traveling back to the devastated neighborhoods of northern Gaza after being displaced during the Israel-Hamas war, as a fragile 42-day ceasefire moves into its second week. Credit: Bloomberg The three-phase ceasefire is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas, and securing the release of dozens of hostages captured in the militants’ October 7, 2023, attack, which triggered the fighting. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are also set to be freed in the exchange. Meanwhile, Egypt’s parliament speaker, Hanfy al-Gebaly, strongly rejected the “clean out” idea, promoted by US President Donald Trump, of moving Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank and into Egypt or Jordan, saying this could spread conflict to other parts of the Middle East. Thousands of Palestinians are returning to find their homes destroyed by the Israeli bombardment.Credit: Bloomberg Gebaly, who didn’t address Trump’s comments directly, told parliament that such proposals “are not only a threat to the Palestinians but they also represent a severe threat to regional security and stability.” “The Egyptian House of Representatives completely rejects any arrangements or attempts to change the geographical and political reality for the Palestinian cause,” he said. On Sunday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a carefully crafted statement rejecting any “temporary or long-term” transfer of Palestinians out of their territories. The ministry warned that such a move “threatens stability, risks expanding the conflict in the region and undermines prospects of peace and coexistence among its people.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right governing partners have long advocated what they describe as the “voluntary emigration” of large numbers of Palestinians and the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza. On a hill overlooking Gaza, Israelis have mixed emotions about the ceasefire. “I am not ready to put my children to sleep near the lion’s cage anymore,” said Hananel Gabay, a guide at a hillside lookout point and a resident of Sderot, near the border with Gaza. He said the Palestinians in Gaza had made their intentions towards Israel clear, and the country now needed “real security, and to hurt our enemies where it hurts them – to take territory.” Others disagreed. “Let them come back home safely and conduct a normal life,” one woman watching, Rachel Osher, said of the Palestinians. “We also want it. We want the same on both sides of the border.” And Avi Shukrun said that above all, the remaining hostages must be brought home. AP
‘Branded’: Satellite images show Star of David carved into Gaza The symbol, apparently created by Israeli tanks, can be seen from space in the Palestinian enclave. A satellite image shows a Star of David etched into the ground in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza[Google Maps] By Simon Speakman Cordall and Justin Salhani Published On 27 Jan 2025 Zooming in on newly released satellite images of what used to be farmland in northern Gaza, the outline of what clearly appears to be a Star of David is carved into the ground. The symbol of both the Jewish faith and the state of Israel can be seen in images of Beit Hanoon, an area of northern Gaza that has seen extensive fighting and losses for the Israeli military. Track record of violations The Netzah Yehuda Battalion, an all-male ultra-Orthodox unit, was reported to have deployed from the occupied West Bank to Gaza in January last year and has operated in Beit Hanoon. Before its deployment, the battalion had been accused of numerous violent crimes, including what some United States officials said could amount to gross violations of human rights, including the killing of unarmed Palestinians and the torture and sexual abuse of prisoners in its custody. Among the battalion’s alleged victims was a Palestinian American man in his 80s, Omar Abdulmajeed Asaad, who died during his arrest by the Netzah Yehuda Battalion in January 2022. After pressure from the US government, Israel agreed to pay compensation to Asaad’s family later that year. However, as part of the payout, the Israeli government insisted that no one in Netzah Yehuda be held accountable for Asaad’s death. Bad intent The Netzah Yehuda Battalion made the Star of David “for Google Maps, to be seen that they were here”, Hamze Attar, a Palestinian defence analyst, told Al Jazeera. Attar said the act could have been a response to plans by the administration of former US President Joe Biden to sanction the battalion. In August, however, the US Department of State ended its investigation into breaches of its own Leahy Laws, which prohibit the transfer of weapons to overseas military units involved in gross human rights violations, following objections by the Israeli government. The investigation had been focused on Netzah Yehuda. “We’re seeing what absolute impunity looks like in an army that is given everything it needs to destroy Palestinian life,” said Elia Ayoub, researcher and author of the Hauntologies newsletter. “As in any genocide, those committing them often take pleasure in displaying their superiority by forcing their symbols on their victims. The Israeli army also utilises religious figures who speak of this genocide of Palestinians and the colonisation of Gaza as a religious duty.” Al Jazeera has contacted the Israeli Ministry of Defence regarding the Star of David etched into northern Gaza but did not receive a response by the time of publication. An extensive pattern The Star of David is not the first symbol left by Israeli forces. In Gaza, images uploaded to social media have shown soldiers putting up giant menorah candles or drawing Jewish symbols in the wreckage of buildings. Soldiers have done the same in southern Lebanon since Israel invaded in October. “The [Israeli military] has rabbis on the ground, and soldiers have brought the menorah and shofar to the battlefield,” Ayoub said. “This is not new. It’s just much more widespread now. The Israeli religious philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz described these attitudes as that of Judeo-Nazis in the 1990s, warning that it could become the norm if not stopped. Sadly he was right.” A ceasefire on January 19 brought an end, at least temporarily, to Israel’s attacks on Gaza carried out since the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel of October 7, 2023. Those killed 1,139 people and took about 250 people captive. Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza has killed at least 47,306 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded another 111,483 while displacing about 1.9 million of its 2.3 million people. According to research by Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University and Corey Scher of the City University of New York, 60 percent of all buildings in Gaza have been destroyed by Israeli forces since the war began. In Beit Hanoon, the figure is 70 percent. The issue of Gaza’s future beyond the war received added relevance last week after US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the Palestinian inhabitants of the enclave be “cleaned out”. The forced displacement of Gaza’s entire population has been a cornerstone of the Israeli far right for decades. Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has often spoken of his desire to re-establish Israeli settlements within Gaza, welcomed Trump’s suggestion, pledging: “I will, with God’s help, work with the prime minister and the cabinet to ensure there is an operational plan to implement this as soon as possible.” ‘Ownership’ “Branding is about ownership. It’s about marking your territory,” said Chris Arning, the founder and director of Creative Semiotics, a consultancy specialising in the meaning of brand symbols. “Branding originally came from tradespeople marking their products or farmers branding their cattle to signify ownership. Over time, that also included the branding of convicts and slaves.” The carving of the Star of David into the soil of Beit Hanoon can be seen as an act of symbolic violence, Arning said, referring to the violence that symbol represents in the local context. “In many ways,” Arning continued, “it’s branding the land.” Source: Al Jazeera
Israeli president calls UN morally bankrupt on Holocaust anniversary Isaac Herzog has slammed the UN General Assembly, marking the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust, accusing the body of exhibiting “moral bankruptcy” and failing to confront anti-Semitism. Addressing the forum during worldwide commemorations, he said: “Today, we find ourselves yet again at a dangerous crossroads in the history of this institution.” “Rather than fulfilling its purpose and fighting courageously against a global epidemic of jihadists, murderers, and abhorrent terror, time and again this assembly has exhibited moral bankruptcy,” Herzog claimed. Israel has repeatedly criticised the UN for its condemnation of Israel’s relentless 15-month offensive on Gaza following Hamas’s October 2023 attacks on Israel.
The Hamas terrorists are sadists who are strung out on drugs and stealing the food supplies. This should not surprise anyone. Most Hamas terrorists were drugged, completely inhumane, rescued hostage says Har, who was abducted on October 7 from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, was later freed in a daring military operation in Rafah in February 2024. https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-839576
It is obvious that Hamas' rule in Gaza has been a complete disaster. It is overdue for Hamas to be eliminated as the governing and militant entity in Gaza if there is any expectation of a path to peace and a two-state solution. Hamas’ rule in Gaza has been disastrous for both Arabs and Israelis https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jan/28/hamas-rule-gaza-disastrous-arabs-israelis/