Friday-Saturday
Yom Shishee-Yom Shabbat
3-4 Shevat 5785
January 31-February 1 2025
SPECIAL NOTICE
From January 30-February 19 your humble servant will be traveling in some places in the world where internet service is spotty or nonexistent. This OneIsrael blog will be published as possible. Thank you for your understanding.
UPDATE 6:00 PM ISRAEL TIME
PM Netanyahu’s Office announced that Yarden Bibas, Keith Segal, and Ofer Calderon (l-r below) are the hostages who will be released tomorrow in the fourth round of the hostage deal:
Missing of course are Yarden’s wife Shiri and their two young children Kfir and Ariel all three of whom are believed dead.
Their impending release follows celebration over the 8 hostages released yesterday: Agam Berger, Arbel Yahoud, Gadi Moses, and 5 Thais: Pongsak Thenna, Sathian Suwannakham, Watchara Sriaoun, Bannawat Seathao, Surasak Lamnau.
The scene during the transfer of Arbel and Gadi was chaotic and dangerous:
Surrounded by Islamic Jihad terrorists and a jeering blood-thirsty Palestinian mob, Arbel was in fear of her life during the release process in Khan Younis.
On the Ground in Judea and Samaria
May His Memory Be For A Blessing
IDF Staff Sgt. Liam Hazi, 20, of the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit, from Rosh Haayin, was killed during a counterterrorism operation in Jenin.
5 more of his comrades were wounded, one critically–from the IDF Spokesman:
“In Judea and Samaria, we eliminated ten terrorists yesterday in an airstrike. We are fighting terrorism. Today, during an exchange of fire with terrorists in the Jenin Camp, an IDF soldier, Staff Sergeant Liam Hazi from the Haruv Reconnaissance Battalion, fell in battle. Another soldier was seriously wounded, and several others sustained mild to moderate injuries. We extend our condolences to his family and stand by them during these difficult times. We continue to act decisively against terrorism wherever it may be, including in Judea and Samaria.”
On the Ground in the North
The IDF may be acting on the ground in southern Lebanon, but the IAF is hitting targets deep in Lebanon.
The IDF Spokesman:
“Overnight (Thursday), with the direction of IDF intelligence, the IAF struck multiple Hezbollah terrorist targets in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon that posed a threat to the Israeli Home Front and IDF troops. The targets that were struck include a Hezbollah terrorist site containing underground infrastructure, used to develop and manufacture weaponry and additional terrorist infrastructure sites on the Syrian-Lebanese border used by Hezbollah to smuggle weaponry into Lebanon.
The Hezbollah surveillance UAV that approached Israeli territory from Lebanon and was intercepted by the IAF yesterday (Thursday), represents a breach of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon. The IDF continues to remain committed to the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and will not permit any terrorist activity of this kind.”
And so it goes in Israel and environs . . .
In advance, we wish our soldiers and you
Shabbat Shalom!
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.