Situational Update
YNet reports: Hamas intends to release Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander on Monday as a gesture to the United States, without demanding compensation or conditions.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, U.S. officials told Israel the move is expected to open the door to negotiations for a broader hostage release under the original Witkoff framework—a proposal Israel has already accepted. Israel is preparing for the possibility of the initiative moving forward.
Alexander is the last living American hostage. Hamas is holding the bodies of four Americans it has already murdered. Efforts are underway to negotiate the release of the four American bodies as well.
Itay Chen is assumed to have been killed on 10/7, and Gadi Haggai, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Omer Neutra have been confirmed to have been killed.
According to the Witkoff framework, announced after the first phase of negotiations in early March, a 50-day cease-fire would begin with the release of about half the remaining hostages—11 living and 19 deceased. During that period, negotiations for a permanent cease-fire would take place. If an agreement is reached, the remaining hostages will be released.
Per the Times of Israel: The Mossad spy agency and the Israel Defense Forces recovered the remains of Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman, who went missing in the First Lebanon War’s battle of Sultan Yacoub in 1982, officials announced on Sunday. The battle, nearly 43 years ago, was a skirmish between the IDF and the Syrian army in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. It claimed the lives of 21 Israeli servicemen, and more than 30 were injured during it. Defense officials said the operation to recover the remains was carried out by non-Israeli Mossad agents.
The team operated deep inside Syria, dozens of kilometers from the Israeli border, to retrieve the body, while risking their lives. The agents, operating on behalf of Mossad, had a cover story and had been inside Syria for several years. In the past five months, following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, there were breakthroughs in the case and an opportunity to recover Feldman’s remains, the officials said.
Israeli journalist Marc Schulman writes: There is also cautious optimism that the remains of Eli Cohen, Israel’s legendary spy executed in Syria prior to the Six-Day War, may have been located as well.
Watch
[WARNING: EMOTIONAL TESTIMONY] Hamas has released a propaganda video featuring hostages Yosef-Chaim Ohana, 24, and Elkana Bohbot, 35, both abducted during the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023. In the video, Ohana reports that Bohbot is in deteriorating health, refusing food and water, and has engaged in self-harm. Ohana also accuses Israeli authorities of bearing responsibility for their plight, stating, “Your hands are stained with blood.” The video concludes with messages urging a ceasefire to secure the hostages’ release. The families have approved the release of this video.
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[PODCAST] Call Me Back with Dan Senor: The Saudi Deal and the Reoccupation of Gaza – with Lahav Harkov
It’s been a busy week with a lot of moving pieces - there are new war plans in Gaza, the US-Houthi agreement, and of course, the Gulf Summit and a potential new deal between the US and Saudi Arabia.
To unpack what this all means, we are joined by Lahav Harkov, Senior Political Correspondent for Jewish Insider. Senior Fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security.
Israel/Middle East Related Articles
[MUST READ REPORT] Hamas’s Human Shield Strategy in Gaza by Andrew Fox and Salo Aizenberg with the Henry Jackson Society
Since 7 October 2023, the UN has issued 367 reports that are filed under the subject of “Gaza Strip”. A search of these reports reveals that the UN has rarely acknowledged and never asserted the use by Hamas of “human shields”.
The UN has never dedicated a single paragraph, let alone an entire report, to analysing how Hamas has fought the war in Gaza.
In contrast, the UN has issued at least ten reports critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, from accusations of “indiscriminate attacks” to illegal “attacks on hospitals”.
Key Findings
Hamas has deliberately and systematically exploited Gaza’s civilian infrastructure to shield its military assets from attack by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), violating the prohibition of the use of civilian shields under the Law of Armed Conflict. Hamas has employed ten distinct human shield strategies that knowingly place the civilian population at high risk of harm throughout the 7 October Israel–Hamas war
Hamas’s senior leadership has openly admitted to using human shields since gaining control of Gaza nearly 20 years ago, and similarly during the 7 October war.
Leading international political and military leaders have verified and documented Hamas’s use of human shields both in past conflicts and in the current war.
Historical evidence, extensive third-party reporting, Hamas propaganda videos and IDF-sourced evidence confirm Hamas’s illegal exploitation of civilian locations for military purposes. Despite significant independent, non-IDF evidence of Hamas’s human shield strategy, large segments of the mainstream media and numerous NGOs and observers consistently downplay, ignore or express scepticism regarding Hamas’s use of this strategy.
The IDF has provided thousands of high-quality videos and photographs of its activities in Gaza that prove without doubt that Hamas has militarised large portions of the civilian infrastructure of the Gaza Strip.
The UN and many NGOs accusing Israel of war crimes and genocide deliberately disregard Hamas’s human shield strategy.
After the attack on 7 October, Hamas was aware that Israel was going to invade Gaza to recover hostages and attack Hamas assets. The human shield strategy was intended to impede the IDF’s efforts and to generate worldwide condemnation of Israel when civilians were inevitably killed on the urban battlefield.
Ten Elements of Hamas’s Human Shield Strategy
Tunnel network. Hamas’s tunnel network is the centrepiece of the group’s military doctrine and its primary strategy for using human shields.
Tunnel shafts. Although shafts are an integral part of the tunnel network, they are considered a separate human shield strategy because they serve as ground-level access points to the tunnels.
Booby-traps. Hamas has booby-trapped thousands of civilian buildings in Gaza, creating a deadly environment for IDF soldiers.
Civilian structures used for combat and weapons storage. Hamas has exploited civilian buildings, including residential apartments, for both combat operations and weapons storage.
Rockets stored and launched from civilian locations.
Hospitals used for military purposes. Hamas has consistently used hospitals as command centres, locations for hiding operatives, combat positions and sites for hostage-taking.
Schools used for military purposes.
Humanitarian zones used for military purposes.
Hamas’s policy of dressing in civilian clothes. Hamas aims to confuse IDF operations by disguising its operatives as civilians and portraying all casualties in Gaza as non-combatants.
Hamas’s ruses of war and other human shield tactics. Hamas has employed various strategies that deliberately blur the distinction between civilians and combatants. These include booby-trapping toys, using children as combatants and lookouts, commandeering aid and preventing civilians from evacuating expected combat zones.
This report has demonstrated that Hamas’s exploitation of the civilian population is not an incidental by-product of conflict but a calculated operational choice. From tunnels beneath hospitals to arms caches in schools and mosques, Hamas has weaponised Gaza’s infrastructure to achieve both tactical advantages and strategic propaganda gains.
Link to Full Report: HJS 'Hamas's Human Shield Strategy in Gaza' Report
Why Palestine Cannot and Should Not Be Recognized as a State by John Spencer
The question of Palestinian statehood is not just political or moral—it is legal. Under international law, recognition of a state is contingent on specific criteria.
No Agreed-Upon Borders. Unlike other disputed or partially recognized states, Palestine has no defined, mutually agreed-upon borders. Hamas claims all of Israel as part of Palestine, while the Palestinian Authority has repeatedly walked back recognition of Israel’s right to exist. International law does not require perfect borders—but it does require defined ones.
No Single Governing Authority. Today, “Palestine” is divided between two rival regimes: the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Judea and Samaria, and Hamas in Gaza. These factions have fought internal conflicts, have not held elections—let alone a joint national vote—in nearly two decades, and operate under separate, often contradictory legal systems. Without a single, accountable government representing the Palestinian people as a whole, international law provides no basis for legitimate statehood.
The Endorsement of Terrorism and Rejection of Nonviolence. The Palestinian Authority’s “pay to slay” program—which provides monthly salaries and benefits to terrorists and their families—does not just glorify violence; it institutionalizes it. These payments are enshrined in Palestinian law and have consumed hundreds of millions of dollars, including foreign aid, to reward acts of terrorism. No polity that uses terrorism as a political tool, codifies it into law, or glorifies it as national identity can meet the threshold of a legitimate sovereign actor under the UN Charter or the binding principles of jus cogens.
International Precedents and Recognition Criteria. Recognition as a state is not a right—it is a consequence of meeting objective legal thresholds. Recognition without reform would reward intransigence and undermine the integrity of international legal standards. Until Palestinian leadership unifies under a legitimate government, renounces terrorism in both word and deed, and agrees to defined borders through negotiation—not violence—it cannot be granted the legal status of a state.
Link: Why Palestine Cannot and Should Not Be Recognized as a State
A Window of Opportunity to Increase Pressure on Hezbollah by Orna Mizrahi in The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS)
Hezbollah—now a defeated force—is under growing pressure from the IDF’s ongoing military campaign to erode its capabilities and hinder its recovery; the unraveling of the Shiite axis; and, most significantly, the growing internal and external calls for the organization to disarm.
Yet Hezbollah, clinging to its identity as a resistance movement, refuses to give up its status or objectives and declares it will not disarm.
Israel must sustain its military pressure to weaken Hezbollah—in coordination with the United States—and to advance diplomatic, economic, and psychological efforts against the organization in both the regional and international arenas. In parallel, it is recommended that Israel open communication channels with Lebanon’s new leadership to assist and engage with it while taking into account Beirut’s limitations and concerns over a violent conflict with Hezbollah.
The organization’s military capabilities have been significantly degraded: According to IDF data, more than 70% of its firepower at various ranges has been neutralized to date, along with a similar proportion of its infrastructure across Lebanon. This includes approximately 80% of the weapons systems of the elite Radwan Force and much of its tunnel network in southern Lebanon.
The Challenges Facing Hezbollah
Continued Israeli military activity. The IDF is severely disrupting Hezbollah’s efforts to maintain its presence in southern Lebanon and is steadily eroding its remaining capabilities. Since the ceasefire, over 130 Hezbollah operatives have been eliminated, and the organization’s infrastructure has been attacked across Lebanon.
US Pressure in shaping post-war Lebanon. The Trump administration is actively engaging with Lebanon’s new leadership—both to support it and to ensure it fulfills its obligations under the ceasefire agreement and beyond, particularly with regard to disarming Hezbollah. During her recent visit to Beirut, Morgan Ortagus, deputy US special envoy to the Middle East, emphasized that while the United States is committed to Lebanon’s stability and will aid in its reconstruction, this assistance is contingent on economic reforms and the disarmament of Hezbollah and other militias throughout the country—not just in the south
The weakening—and increasing disintegration—of the Shiite axis. The Shiite axis has been significantly weakened and is showing signs of disintegration, primarily due to the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and the efforts of the new leadership in Damascus to expel both Iran and Hezbollah from the country.
Domestic Pressures on Hezbollah
Erosion of Hezbollah’s status in Lebanese politics.
The Lebanese Army’s enforcement of the ceasefire in Southern Lebanon. The Lebanese Army’s enforcement has significantly obstructed Hezbollah’s attempts to preserve its remaining weaponry and redeploy its operatives into the region, as it did after the 2006 war.
Increasing domestic pressure to disarm Hezbollah. Lebanon’s new leadership has openly declared its intention to disarm Hezbollah—a stance rarely expressed so publicly in the past—but still, its steps to implement it are cautious.
Key Recommendations for Israeli Policy
Continue military operations to weaken Hezbollah and prevent its return to southern Lebanon
Create a graded framework of demands and reciprocal measures.
Preserve and develop coordination channels with Lebanon’s new leadership and show sensitivity to its internal constraints.
Ensure close coordination with the United States—including its administration, the US envoy to Lebanon, and representatives on the five-party ceasefire implementation committee—and work jointly to formulate a phased plan for confronting Hezbollah.
Given Hezbollah’s potential expansion abroad, efforts must be made to combat the group politically, economically, and in the information domain on the international stage—targeting its income sources and curbing its activities.
Link: A Window of Opportunity to Increase Pressure on Hezbollah
The U.S. Provides $4 Billion a Year to Israel. Is That a Bad Thing? By Batya Ungar-Sargon in The Free Press
The entire episode—still unfolding—has been a stark reminder that the close relationship between Israel and the United States does not always work in Israel’s favor, despite the billions of dollars in foreign aid that the U.S. gives Israel every year.
The American left, with anti-Israel commitments, is constantly voting against giving Israel military aid in Congress. They’ve recently been joined by a rising isolationist wing of the right that’s less convinced of the benefits the U.S. gets from having Israel as an ally at the cost of over $3 billion.
What’s fascinating and notable is that there is also a growing tide of Israelis who are starting to agree, including at least one Israeli Knesset member who believes it’s time to end aid to Israel—and he’s no leftist.
Amit Halevi is a member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party and a close confidant of the prime minister. And he believes it’s time to fundamentally change the U.S.-Israel relationship from aid to trade, from patronage to partnership.
“First of all, it’s dangerous for Israel; this aid for us is a security problem and we saw it [last] year with the embargo of Biden and the pressure all year…”
“Second, it has a problematic dimension, because it harms Israel’s international standing.
U.S. military aid to Israel has changed how Israel fights wars, forcing it into a defensive posture reliant on expensive missile defense technology rather than an offensive approach in which Israel proactively pursues its national defense.
According to Halevi, Israel can’t fight for more than two weeks without reinforcements from America. The aid enabled the Biden administration to control Israel’s response to October 7 by threatening to take it away and even withholding crucial munitions in order to dictate Israel’s military actions.
Halevi isn’t the first person to point this out. As Ambassador Oren wrote in a 2021 article, “Is U.S. Aid a Threat to Israel?” in Tablet magazine, “The blocking of aid for Iron Dome would not only be a wake-up call but also an opportunity for Israel and the United States to place their relationship on a more equitable and durable foundation.”
Still, it’s not a simple win-win. Israel has sacrificed building up its own military industry.
“The major problem in my eyes is that our relationship with America is not a free relationship,” he said. “We are good friends. We have shared values. We have shared enemies, unfortunately. We need to base our relations on partnership, not on aid.”
“We want to strengthen the relationship between Israel and America,” said Halevi. “We want to be aligned with America First doctrine, the new Monroe Doctrine of Trump. America First means America should take care of Americans, and Trump loves strong allies who he doesn’t have to sponsor on a daily basis.”
The goal would be to redefine the relationship in the U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding, which is due to be updated in two years, to transition from being based on foreign military financing into a cooperative model in which Israel funds its own defense acquisitions and rebuilds its own industrial base.
The idea that Halevi and others are working on would be for the U.S. and Israel to establish joint binational foundations. The foundations would bring together American and Israeli companies who wish to work together and co-invest, especially around things like drones, artificial intelligence (AI), missile defense systems, and space, which are in America’s national security interest.
Link: The U.S. Provides $4 Billion a Year to Israel. Is That a Bad Thing?
Antisemitism
Columbia Students Arrested for Storming Library Include Several Repeat Offenders—Including Grad Student Who Demanded Humanitarian Aid From University by Jessica Costescu and Jon Levine with the Washington Free Beacon
At least six of the Columbia students arrested for storming a Columbia University library on Wednesday are repeat offenders, including one student who demanded humanitarian aid from the university, a Washington Free Beacon review found.
Of the 81 total arrests, at least 44 are Columbia students, while at least 13 attend the university’s sister school, Barnard College. Also arrested was one Barnard employee, Eva-Quenby Johnson, as well as two students at another Columbia affiliate, Union Theological Seminary.
At least four of the students arrested have already faced punishment for previously raiding campus buildings.
At least one student arrested and suspended over that incident, Gabrielle Wimer, resumed class beginning in mid-April, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Two other Columbia students, Johannah King-Slutzky and Anjali Vishwanath, were also detained and suspended over their participation in last year’s encampment. King-Slutzky, a Columbia doctoral student, gained notoriety last spring for demanding "humanitarian aid" and "a glass of water" for the violent radicals occupying Hamilton.
Link: Columbia Students Arrested for Storming Library Include Several Repeat Offenders
Probe the foreign influence behind these terror-loving, anti-Jew college agitators by Douglas Murray in The New York Post
The Butler library is a beautiful building, intended as a sacrosanct place of study and education. Which was what places like Columbia were once for.
But on Wednesday those students who did want to study had to put up with a mob of fascists descending on their place of learning. Scores of students and others came in dressed in their terrorist chic. Their heads were wrapped in Palestinian terrorist scarves and some of them — as ever — decided to mix this up with COVID-19 protective masks.
There is nothing ground-up about any of this. All of the rhetoric and materials that these terrorist-supporters engage in is a pure import.
The second thing that is becoming increasingly clear is that the US government should order a swift and deep inquiry into the way in which foreign funding is being used to subvert American institutions, especially institutions of higher learning.
If they carry out such an investigation they will find, among much else, the billions of dollars of Qatari money that have been pumped into American universities in recent years. As well as having one of the largest lobbying organizations in the US, the Qataris have in recent years also used their vast oil wealth to try to subvert American institutions and buy off American politicians.
It is one of the greatest scandals of our age, that a oil-rich slave-state like Qatar, which not just funds but hosts Hamas, is able to have its talons into the heart of some of America’s most venerable institutions.
If this had been a lone black student having to face down a mob of people celebrating the lynching of black Americans I would imagine there would be a swift and harsh response from across every part of this country — and rightly so.
I would expect every person of good will to ask how this had happened here, who was pushing this filth and how every arm of the state could go about stopping it.
Link: Probe foreign influence behind terror-loving, anti-Jew college agitators
The Gaza Famine Myth by Michael Ames with The Free Press – How lazy journalism, bad data, and skewed statistics fueled accusations of war crimes against Israel.
In April 2024, Samantha Power... became the first senior U.S. official to declare that famine in Gaza had begun. She cited a report published by an independent, United Nations–affiliated monitoring system.
Today, a famine is declared only when the IPC’s data about a region shows that at least 20 percent of households have run out of food, at least 30 percent of children are acutely malnourished, and two people out of every 10,000 are dying each day from starvation.
But there were serious problems with Power’s sensational testimony. Foremost among them: The IPC never declared a famine in Gaza. The report she cited was a projection of possible outcomes, not a conclusive finding.
The FRC, which functions as the IPC’s final authority... rebuked the USAID analysis, calling its conclusions insupportable. The failures were stunning.
Private sector food deliveries... were left out... as much as 82 percent of the “daily kilocalorie requirement”... wasn’t counted. In the same month, USAID’s famine monitor also left out 940 metric tons... donated by the UN to bakeries…
When asked about erasing the bakery donations, USAID’s internal famine-monitoring network justified the decision on the grounds that bread from those bakeries had been sold rather than given away for free.
It was never in doubt that the Israel-Hamas war brought immense human suffering to Gaza... But USAID depicted a world that had little in common with reality.
These findings should have been big news. As aid shipments increased, a famine had been averted. But a troubling thing happened to the FRC report: Its conclusions were ignored or went unnoticed by news organizations.
Famine—like genocide, fascist, and dictator—is a word susceptible to rhetorical abuse that can dilute and even invert its meaning.
There were many hints that the headlines about famine in Gaza last year weren’t quite right... A chef in Rafah advertised his plates of chicken and rice... a restaurant showed off its racks of stuffed rotisserie chickens…
“My goal was to take famine from being a rhetorical word and make it a technical term,” Haan told me... “The most important, powerful, and necessary tool... is truth. When you give up truth, you’ve given up all moral standing to end suffering.”
In August 2024, the FRC confirmed that an actual famine was killing people in Sudan... It barely made the news.
The New Yorker has published roughly 20 interviews that referred to famine or starvation in Gaza—and three that addressed the IPC system... In all that reporting, The New Yorker never mentioned the FRC’s rejection of USAID’s analysis or its no-famine verdict.
Link: The Gaza Famine Myth
Casualties (+2)
Sgt. Yishai Elyakim Urbach, 20 (left) was killed when Hamas operatives fired an RPG at a building in Rafah’s Jenina neighborhood, where troops were stationed. The building partially collapsed on the soldiers, killing Urbach and wounding two others. Urbach was married just a month ago.
Staff Sgt. Yam Frid, 21 (right) was killed when an armored personnel carrier was hit by an explosive device, killing Frid and wounding four others, including three soldiers — among them two officers — listed in serious condition.
1,870 Israelis have been killed including 856 IDF soldiers and police since October 7th
The South: 418 IDF soldiers (+2 since Wednesday) during the ground operation in Gaza have been killed. The toll includes three police officers (two of which were killed in a hostage rescue mission) and two Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
The North: 132 Israelis (84 IDF soldiers) have been killed during the war in Northern Israel
The West Bank: 63 Israelis (27 IDF and Israeli security forces)
Additional Information (according to the IDF):
5,858 (+12 since Wednesday) IDF soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, including at least 872 (+12 since Wednesday) who have been severely injured.
2,647 (+6 since Wednesday) IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 510 (+2 since Wednesday) who have been severely injured.
The Gaza Casualty Count: According to unverified figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, 52,495 total deaths have been reported, with a civilian/combatant ratio: 1:1.
[MUST READ] Report: Questionable Counting: Analysing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza by Andrew Fox with The Henry Jackson Society
On October 7th, Ohad Hemo with Channel 12 Israel News – the country’s largest news network, a leading expert on Palestinian and Arab affairs, mentioned an estimate from Hamas: around 80% of those killed in Gaza are members of the organization and their families.”
Read this well documented piece from Tablet published in March of 2024: How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers
The Associated Press, an outlet with a demonstrated anti-Israel bias, conducted an analysis of alleged Gaza death tolls released by the Hamas-controlled "Gaza Health Ministry." The analysis found that "9,940 of the dead – 29% of its April 30 total – were not listed in the data" and that "an additional 1,699 records in the ministry’s April data were incomplete and 22 were duplicates."
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes official details on every civilian and IDF casualty.
Hostage Update (no change)
There are now currently 58 hostages taken on 10/7 currently in captivity in Gaza (there are 59 hostages remaining in total)
38 hostages were released in the first phase of the 2025 cease fire agreement (including 5 Thai nationals)
24 hostages will remain in captivity after Phase I and have not been declared dead.
5 hostages are Americans: Meet the Five American Hostages Still Held By Hamas: Edan Alexander is assumed to be alive, Itay Chen is assumed to have been killed on 10/7, and Gadi Haggai, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Omer Neutra have been confirmed to have been killed.
4 are soldiers
7 are residents of the Gaza border communities
11 were abducted from the Nova music festival
2 are foreign workers: Bipin Joshi from Nepal and Pinta Nattapong from Thailand
On October 7th, a total of 251 Israelis were taken hostage.
During the ceasefire deal in November of 2023, 112 hostages were released.
193 hostages in total have been released or rescued
The bodies of 40 hostages have been recovered, including 3 mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
8 hostages have been heroically rescued by troops alive
Of the 59 hostages still theoretically in Gaza
35 hostages have been confirmed dead and are currently being held in Gaza
Thus, at most, 24 living hostages could still be in Gaza.
Hamas is now holding the body of 1 IDF soldier who was killed in 2014 (Lt. Hadar Goldin’s body remains held in the Gaza Strip)
Regular sources include JINSA, FDD, IDF, AIPAC, The Paul Singer Foundation, The Institute for National Security Studies, the Alma Research and Education Center, Yediot, Jerusalem Post, IDF Casualty Count, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Institute for the Study of War, Tablet Magazine, Mosaic Magazine, The Free Press, and the Times of Israel