Israel as a scapegoat - today! Think it threw

In ancient Israel, when the temple was still standing and all rituals connected to it were performed, one of them was sacrificing animal for the Lord (universal practice of all religions at the time, quite many of others sacrificed people as well, which was never the practice in Judaism and was explicitly forbidden). But during the Atonement Day (Yom Kippur) the priest, in accordance with the text in Leviticus 16:1-34, two goats were chosen, one of them as a sacrifice and one of them chosen to take the sins and transgressions of the community upon itself. The very name "scapegoat" is connected to English translation of the Bible from 1520, and English translation of the Hebrew word 'ăzāzêl means "for entire removal" or, later, as a synonym of fallen angel (Satan) although this tradition is rather from the XVI century Christianity. 

This sacrifice and sin bearing was thus referred to by Maimonides: “There is no doubt that sins cannot be carried like a burden, and taken off the shoulder of one being to be laid on that of another being. But these ceremonies are of a symbolic character, and serve to impress men with a certain idea, and to induce them to repent; as if to say, we have freed ourselves of our previous deeds, have cast them behind our backs, and removed them from us as far as possible.”

Still, why two goats? Torah states:  “On this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the L‑rd, you will be clean from all your sins.” This ritual, so specific for Yom Kippur, might mean that on top of atonement for acts, sought after with each and every offering, not only in Judaism, something else was at stake. Purification for persons, for community. Sins leave stains on the character of those who commit them, and these need to be cleansed before we can undergo catharsis and begin anew. A moral stain is not something physical. It exists in the mind, the emotions, the soul. It is hard to rid oneself of the feeling of defilement when you have committed a wrong, even when you know it has been forgiven. Some symbolic action seems necessary.

Why do I write about it? The psychological burden of - even atoned - sins and transgressions is universal for most, if not all, human cultures. It creates cleansing rituals for groups and individuals alike. There is nothing wrong with such rituals, they serve our deep psychological needs. However there are dangers that are or may be attached to some of those rituals. Some of them may be dangerous for people craving cleansing. Others may be hostile or dangerous for others.

Since at least Bar Kochba's uprising in 135 CE Jews were perceived as Others by Roman and subsequently Christian cultures. Christianity, trying to gain its own identity had to severe ties with Judaism. And trying to survive in the Roman world on 2nd century, extremely hostile to Jews, who after two uprisings (in 70 CE and 135 CE) were being murdered, exiled and sold as slaves, Christianity turned to Antisemitism. When Europe started turning into Christian continent in IV and V centuries Jews, keeping their own ancient religion, tradition and culture, were finally the last lasting, non-Christian element of European societies. And soon, due to long standing and constantly fed enmity of Christian authorities, and lack of trust and understanding on the part of majority of Christian Europeans, they were perceived as suspicious group of people. The law barring them from many occupations was additional problem. 

Anti Judaism of Catholic church has many victims: Jews were accused of poisoning wells during Black Death epidemic, they were accused of using Christian babies blood for baking matzot (blood label) and of torturing communion wafers in Catholic church. They were banished from England in 1290 and from Spain and Portugal in 1492. There were places where they were relatively safe for long periods of time but almost always, even after years, the persecution was returning. 

Since many people, even subconsciously, knew that such treatment was not deserved, not Christian-like or humanly and generally problematic, they were looking for reasons which could justify such approach. Not for the benefit of defense against law (persecution was fully lawful) or defense against persecuted Jews (they didn't need any) but for their own benefit. They needed reason to feel righteous even when treating Jews wrongly and sometimes horribly. And this is probably the source of many accusations. Chief among them was the accusation of killing Jesus. After all, killing God is such preposterous crime that any bad treatment of the culprit is deserved. The fact that Jesus (from Christian standpoint) agreed for his fate in order to become the savior, did nothing to prevent maltreatment of his compatriots. The fact that Jesus himself was a Jew didn't registered with people till late XIX century and is questioned even until this day, and the fact that crucifixion was a purely Roman punishment for political transgressions and no Jewish court could sentence anybody to such a penalty has never registered at all with majority of churchgoers.

During Enlightenment and XIX century Jews started to be persecuted for their race or nation, as religion was becoming less and less of the meaningful factor. This time they were accused of not wanting to assimilate (or assimilating and pretending not to be Jewish), of being wealthy (or poor, as majority of them were), of being capitalists (or communists), or of being internationalists not tied emotionally to any country of residence, though it was not a crime, and actually they were no Jews but aristocrats who were guilty of widespread internationalism.

When this approach led to Shoah, probably the worst case of genocide in history, the accusations ceased for some time. Yet it took solely some 20-30 years to start accusing Jews of Zionism. Therefore, internationalism (false accusation in itself as so many Jews were wonderful patriots in the countries where they lived) was bad, but apparently loving their own land (something called patriotism in all other countries and for centuries believed to be a virtue) was even worse. And at the time when Europe started turning towards internationalism herself, and even European patriotism was less welcome, Zionism became a super sin. Without any regards for facts or circumstances.

What have all these accusations in common? Jews were made into kind of scapegoats themselves by European civilization and cultures. Transgressions and  bad characteristics that people saw in themselves and their neighbors were extrapolated to "others" (very human behavior) and one group - Jews - was always perceived as "others" in the worst meaning of this term. After centuries of this situation, probably partially from habit and partially because analysis would have to lead to confrontation with 20 centuries of constant persecution of innocent people by our whole Western civilization (which, no matter lip critic, most people living in it still believe to be superior to any other) it was and is easier to hold to the old bloody myths just changing the accusations. And they don't have to be consistent. After all if Jews can be blood sucking capitalists and communists at the same time they may be Western imperialists, racists and nationalists and anti-Western agents at the same time as well. 

This is why extreme right and far left at this moment speak and write practically the same texts about Jews and Israel. The classic horseshoe theory implementation.

And for both these extremes (taking more and more of the overall political spectrum in today's troubling times) Jews (and Israelis specially) are scapegoat. They believe (or very well pretend to believe) that all Jews are responsible for transgressions of any one of them, that all Israelis (or at least Jewish Israelis) are responsible for any real and invented sins of Israel and her government, that all Jews have views this particular group of activists is condemning the most in any given moment. Obviously any other country or entity may have (sometimes very aggressive) international agenda or interests. EU may accept occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco and Morocco may occupy Western Sahara. Saudi Arabia and Iran may lead per proxi war in Yemen causing thousands of deaths and true famine. Iran may mess in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza (among others) keeping and using private armies and it is still politics. China may occupy Tibet, threaten Taiwan, not keep their promises towards Hong Kong and murder Ujgurs. USA may sink Venezuelan ships and threaten war in this country. France may arrest presumably Russian tanker with Chinese captain on international waters. India and Pakistan may from time to time exchange blows in Kashmir. Business as usual. God forbid if Israel sustains legal blockade, responds to attack, or not treat non-citizens as non-citizens. Suddenly this obvious, everyday actions are sins.

The blockade of Yemen engaging quite few countries is almost unknown, the blockade of Japan in 1945 is understood. The fact that UK lost in II world war some 300,000 citizens, mostly soldiers, of which some were killed by Japanese, and in British air raids over Germany some 2 million civilians perished does not make British defense against Nazi Germany genocide. The fact that non-citizens have not the same rights as citizens does not create apartheid anywhere but - apparently - in Israel. After all ALL  citizens of Israel (Jews, Arab and Druze; Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Bahai, non-believers etc.) have exactly the same rights. Well, non-Jews don't have to serve in IDF, however many of them do and among Bedouins and Druze as many as among Jews). But suddenly different approach to non-citizens residing in West Bank makes Israel an apartheid state. Why?

These are not just double standards, which would have been bad enough. This is putting demands that no other states would ever be expected to apply and putting all realized and unrealized sins, transgressions and unfulfilled dreams of the world on Israel and than abandoning her to Azazel.  

But Israel is not sacrificial goat. She is a wonderful country that tries to do more than the majority if not all other states. And transgressions are left with culpable parties (as always). This is not to say Israel is sinless. But she is a democratic country, trying for the best under extremely hard and hostile circumstances.

And scapegoats, in this and all other situations, do not lead to feeling of relief and cleanliness by individuals, groups, nations or countries trying to pass their sins to somebody else. Scapegoats create more anger, feeling of injustice, resentments and so on. Because in the heart of hearts we all know there is no such a thing as scapegoat and the more we try to believe in one and shout about one the harder the situation gets.

 

 

Victims in Gaza: who are they really

 There are ongoing discussions regarding the number of victims in Gaza during the two years of war. Most probably we will never know the exact number, but of course we may approach the true one closely and in the process debunk different lies about it that may be found in media.

Let's start with the source. The majority of Western media writing about Gaza casualties refers to "Gaza Health Ministry". It means Hamas. Since 2007 Hamas has been ruling Gaza in a totalitarian way. As in Mussolini's definition - "everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State" - in combination with the Stalin's way of executing power. Nothing, including ministries, health care, statistics and press and media releases, could have been done without Hamas's "imprimatur".

This data was repeated by UN (in itself not objective, but this is for another occasion), which openly states so in all its reports, by NGOs, media representatives and health personnel on spot. None of them has any other source of information. And if they would question Hamas's data they would have been excluded from entering Gaza at all.

Now that we know the source, unreliable as it is, let's examine the data (after all even the worst sources occasionally were known to produce correct data for a variety of reasons, still, the source needs to be taken into account). So, according to Hamas during last two years in Gaza app. 69,000 people died as a result of war. Before 2023 the average natural death rate in Gaza was approximately 8,000 people a year. No natural deaths are reported for the wartime, and in fact Hamas official admitted that they were counted as war casualties. 

"The head of the statistics team at Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry, Zaher al-Wahidi, made the admission to Sky News after an analysis by the HonestReporting nonprofit last week found that some 3,400 individuals listed as war casualties in earlier tallies had been dropped from the ministry’s latest update."

Therefore, at least 15,000-16,000 reported casualties are, in fact, deaths caused by natural causes. So let's be conservative, and reduce the given by Hamas number by 14,000 to 55,000 war casualties.

The next problem almost NEVER addressed is that Hamas (also if it's named Health Ministry) does not differentiate between targeted terrorists and civilian casualties. All victims are classified as civilians which is obviously very, very far from truth. So what is the ratio? Obviously nobody (except maybe Hamas to some extent) has exact numbers. Nevertheless both parties try to count them and sometimes admit/ reveal their calculations. In April 2024, 6 months into the war, Hamas made a statement to Reuters: 

"More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, Gazan medical officials say. Hamas has said 6,000 of its fighters are among the fatalities. Israeli officials say the Palestinian combatant death toll is more than twice as high." 

At the time Israelis were estimating terrorists among casualties of the war at 14,000. We may go about the estimation in two ways: 

a) proportionately to the time of the war going on (therefore estimating after 2 years the number of terrorists killed as 24,000 according to Hamas and 56,000 according to IDF) or

b) proportionately to the number of casualties (therefore estimating after 2 years the number of terrorists killed as 10,000 according to Hamas - 18% of 55,000 killed, and 23,000 according to IDF  - 42% of 55,000 killed)

It is noteworthy to say that if we would count this percent from the number of all victims as given by Hamas - 18% (or 42% according to IDF) of 69,000 the number of killed terrorists would have been significantly higher (12,400 according to Hamas or 29,000 according to IDF in relation to former data, so I try to be all the time very conservative to not overestimate in any way the number of killed terrorists. By the way we know that many a time individual victims were counted by Hamas as civilians even when they were known terrorists. Here is one example, and there are more, but I concentrated here on statistics rather than individual cases.

So, continuing our very Hamas-numbers-friendly correction starting by admitting total death number over last two years as 69,000, and correcting it by 14,000 natural deaths (yes, during war people still die because of old age, heart failure, traffic accidents, cancer etc.) to 55,000 we can agree for approximately 42,500 civilian casualties as per Hamas. Yes, these may be civilian casualties (if we will really really fall for Hamas narrative) and of course each and every life is precious, but that means on average less than 58 civilian casualties a day. You think it is a lot? It is definitely too many (the best would be none at all on both sides) but compare it with 1,195 Israeli casualties during ONE DAY (the first day of this war) and figure it out. Moreover, the number of killed terrorists is obviously vastly underestimated in this calculation as we know that 3,800 terrorists from elite Nukba force were sent to Israel on October 7. many of them were killed during first 2 days still on Israeli territory. So it is almost impossible for the same number to be killed over 6 months of regular war as Hamas wants it to be.

If the above calculation would be true we'd have a civilian to terrorist ratio among killed as 3.4:1. That would have been quite an achievement for any army, but in fact this ratio is probably far far better and more humanitarian. But if you for whatever reason will not be convinced by what I will present below keep this overestimation in mind. And please, remember that according to UN the civilian victims of warfare constitute on average 90% meaning 9:1 ratio. 

The next point is the ratio of minors and women among casualties. Here we need some data. While in most societies the ratio of men to women is vastly 1:1 with slight differences; the ratio of minors (per Hamas up till 18 years, which agrees with legal definition in many Western countries, but does not take into consideration factors connected to cultures, including Islamic one) might be very different in different countries. For example: in the USA people under 18 between 2022-2024 constituted approximately 22%; in UK people under 18 between 2022-2024 constituted approximately 19%; in Israel people under 18 between 2022-2024 constituted approximately 33%; in Gaza in 2023 people under 18 constituted approximately 50% of the society. Therefore if in UK among casualties of any calamity 50% would be people under 18 they would have been tremendously over represented. In Gaza they would be just in mathematical proportion. Of course in ideal world no children should be harmed by war, but they always are, and we always have to take into consideration what is the average age of the population in any given country. Are all Gaza minors civilian casualties of the war? Unfortunately not. Hamas was training minors for a long time and continues to do so, from the very early age indeed. Starting from the age 15 they are included in terrorist actions. Therefore many of the "minors" were, sadly, 15, 16 and 17 years old terrorists. Were they victims? Absolutely! But not of Israel or of IDF. They were and remain victims of Hamas. When we hear about child-soldiers in African countries, often forced to join militias after they murdered their parents, and who occasionally are 12 or 13 years old we consider them victims of sadistic cruelty, and rightly so. But they are victims of these militias and not of peoples who they murder. They can be (and usually are) both victims (forced to join the armed forces and kill) and perpetrators (killing others). Such is the history of many Gaza minor casualties of the war. They may be in some instances minor, but they are no more civilian than Wehrmacht (in last stage of II world war conscription in Germany started at 16), Werewolf (Nazi partizans after May 1945, some 14 or 15) or Viet Cong partisans. If somebody carries the gun and shoots others with it during the war they are no civilians. Some of the women were as well members of Hamas, probably not in combat forces but nevertheless no civilian victims.

And that does not even take into account the major discrepancies in reporting the ratio of minor and female casualties. And Hamas did many of those, probably believing (unfortunately for a good reason) that few will bother to check their data. Still, some did check.

 

Above we have two pictures illustrating the claimed number of Palestinian victims from early days of war. One from December 8, and one from December 27, 2023. Both include the Hamas data as stated (Ministry of Health in Gaza). UN OCHA repeated this data without questions, but in fact while the total number of deaths had risen by 3,623, the number of women and children allegedly killed remained constant,  and the percentage of women and children killed also remained steady at 70%. In reality, when combined, the figures of the allegedly dead women and children on December 8 account for 73.6% of the dead, while on December 27, they account for only 61% of the allegedly dead.

 

Having made the decision to blindly adopt and UN-wash the Hamas propaganda statistics, UN OCHA even reported the blatant lies presented by Hamas.

Thus, for example, on March 29, 2024, UN OCHA reported a total of 32,623 Palestinian casualties, of whom at least 9,000 were women and 13,000 were children.

 A week later, on April 5, 2024, UN OCHA reported  that the death toll had risen to a total of 33,091, of whom more than 9,500 were women (a rise of 500 dead women) and approximately 14,500 were children (a rise of roughly 1,500 dead children).

In other words, inexplicably, out of the 468 total additional deaths from March 29 to April 5, at least 2,000 (!) of them were women and children.

You may check it yourselves on UN OCHA webpages.

 Following the pattern of adopting and UN-washing the Hamas terror propaganda, on May 6, 2024, the UN OCHA report  included its usual info-graph showing that since the beginning of the war, there had been 34,735 reported Palestinian casualties, of whom more than 9,500 (27.3%) were women and more than 14,500 (41.7%) were children.

Suddenly, on May 8, 2024, UN OCHA dropped a bombshell. In its new report,  UN OCHA suddenly clarified that of the total alleged casualties, only 24,686 had been identified. The number of women killed suddenly plummeted from over 9,000 on May 6 to 4,959 on May 8. The number of children killed also plummeted from over 14,500 on May 6 to 7,797 on May 8.

UN OCHA still reported the higher, unconfirmed data about death toll and continues to do so, but suddenly, on May 8, 2024, its shown ratio of victims changed as you may see below:

 And what about real ratio for civilian to combatant killed? Well, I have shown that UN regards "normal" ratio (as if there is anything normal about the war, but unfortunately wars happen) as 9:1, according to Hamas statistics shown above it's 3.4:1, but subsequently I have provided some critical analysis of Hamas provided data. What about IDF provided data? I have no way of verifying it but there are no obvious flows and in-consequences.  According to this data the ratio of civilian to militant casualties is less than 2:1, which is really remarkable. For comparison, while in earlier wars (II WW, Korean war) the ratio of civilian casualties was really high in recent wars involving Western armies (Afghanistan, Iraq) this ratio was much lower (thankfully) but still constituted approximately 2.4-2.7:1. If you will go with Hamas's data IDF is slightly worse than American forces in Afghanistan, if you go with IDF data it is slightly better, but none of these pictures indicates genocide. On the contrary, considering it is urban warfare with Hamas using civilian infrastructure as launching pads and civilians as human shields, not mentioning that Hamas terrorists are not using any kind of uniforms this ratio - according to any data available you choose - is remarkable, showing IDF's consideration for civilian lives.

Released hostages and released prisoners

Hamas (and all Palestinian sources plus Al Jazeera) routinely write about the "exchange of prisoners". Some Western media (in fact quite a few, unfortunately) repeat this statement.

So what really happened on Monday the 13th of October when the last living hostages returned to Israel after 2 years?

Below you will find some information  about 20 returnees and some of the 250 sentenced Palestinians released in return.

Hostages:

1)  Gali and Ziv Berman, 28-year-old twin brothers, abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. In Kfar Aza 64 residents were murdered on October 7, 2023. Gali and Ziv were kidnapped and held hostage for over 2 years. They were separated from each other and only during their release they could confirm that their twin brother was alive. And the twin brothers lived, worked and traveled together. They also supported the same soccer team and played together. and than they were separated for two years on October 7 not knowing if the other is alive and if they will ever see each other again. Their family for 2 long years did not know if they are injured, alive or together or separated.

2)  Ariel Cunio, 28, was abducted in the attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October. Ariel's brother Eitan, who escaped the Hamas-led gunmen, said the last message from Ariel said: "We are in a horror movie." David Cunio, 35, another of Ariel's brothers, was also kidnapped from Nir Oz. Both brothers were kidnapped with their partner (Ariel) and wife and 3-year-old twin daughters (David). David's wife and children were released in November 2023 after over 50 days in captivity (for 3-year-olds it must have been an eternity), Ariel's partner spent close to year-and-a-half in captivity, only released in January 2025. Both brothers hold Israeli and Argentinian citizenship. David missed 2 years of his daughters life (now - 40% of their time on Earth). 90-year-old Eshter Cunio was not kidnapped solely because she stated she is fan of Argentinian player Messi which seemed to be also supported by Hamasnik. 

3)  Avinatan Or, 32, abducted from Nova festival together with is girlfriend Noa Argamani. They became icons after film with Noa being taken away on a motorcycle and crying for help with her hands towards Avinatan became the picture from Nova. Noa was released by IDF in 2024, just in time to see her dying of cancer mother. Avinatan came back after two years, both years he spent in total isolation not knowing if Noa is alive and what happened to her. He was also cuffed and put in the cage after trying to escape.

4)  Matan Angrest, 22, an IDF soldier, was in a tank that was attacked near the Gaza perimeter fence on 7 October.His friends perished. He was (as may be seen on the film made by terrorists) taken unconscious from the tank, beaten, kicked and later in captivity, tortured. Matan still has unhealed wounds from October 7, never really treated. "Matan has severe burns on the whole of his right hand. He has deformities in his fingers and other injuries, including to his eyesight. He said that he went through very severe torture, at least in the first few months." his mother said.

5)  Matan Zangauker, 25, was taken with his partner Ilana Gritzewsky from Nir Oz. Ilana was released during the November 2023 ceasefire. He suffers from degenerative muscle disease that runs in his family and was suffering badly physically and mentally in the captivity. Zangauker underwent an “emergency medical intervention” in captivity due to persistent abdominal pain. His mother stated: "Since I learned about the torture and the physical and mental suffering my son is enduring, I haven’t been able to eat, and I can barely breathe. How can a mother survive knowing her son, who suffers from a degenerative muscle disease, is being held alone in captivity? Can he even stand on his own? Hold a glass of water? My heart is breaking over what he’s going through.” Here is a video of reunion of mother and son after his release.

6)  Eitan Horn, 38, an Israeli-Argentine dual national, was kidnapped along with his elder brother Yair from Nir Oz. Yair was freed in February 2025 during the last ceasefire."Every day we imagined what we'd do if we were freed," Yair recalled recently. Eitan lost about half his body's weight in captivity.

7)  Omri Miran, 48, was abducted from his home in Nahal Oz. He was abducted after being kept with his wife Lishay and his two small daughters for 3 hours with terrorists aiming their guns at them. Omri and his family were taken by terrorists after he decided to open the door of their safe room to begging of Tomer, 17-year-old neighbour's son whom Hamas terrorists taken with him to knock on neighbours' safe room doors. Omri knew in what danger he puts himself and his family yet he opened his safe room door to Tomer trying to protect the teenager. Sadly Tomer was still murdered by terrorists as was his mother, his brother and his step-father. Omri and his family also heard 18-yer-old neighbour's daughter murdered while they were awaiting their fate. Omri, then 46 years old, was a Shiatsu therapist and owner of a private clinic called Echad HaAdam in Kibbutz Nahal Oz before Hamas terrorists kidnapped him. In the mornings, he took care of the plants and the beauty of the kibbutz, and in the evenings, he cared fot people and tended to the body and soul of everyone around him. 

8)  Nimrod Cohen, only 21, was serving as an IDF soldier when his tank was attacked by Hamas at Nahal Oz. He experienced torture in Hamas tunnels, both physical and psychological being repeatedly told that nobody in Israel was doing anything to bring him home.

9)  Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24, attended the Nova music festival with his brother Gal. Shortly before Guy's release Gal stated: “Time has been passing very weirdly,” Gal said. “In a way I feel that I was with him at Nova yesterday and in a way I feel like I haven’t seen my brother in more than 100 years.” He recalls he was hearing every day his brother screaming to him from Hamas tunnels. Guy experiences physical and psychological torture in captivity. As part of the psychological torture Gilboa-Dalal suffered in Hamas captivity, terrorists forced him and his friend Evyatar David to watch the release of Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen, Avera Mengistu, and Hisham al-Sayed after being promised their freedom. Gal also told Ynet “One of the guards told them there was a deal and that they’d get food the next day. The next day he said he lied—there was no deal and no food.” He was forced to crawl on all four and bark like a dog when terrorists beat him. Released hostage Tal Shoham told Channel 12 in July that Gilboa-Dalal and David were suffering in “horrific” conditions from malnutrition and were subjected to intense physical abuse. The pair had been bound and forced to sit facing a wall with black sacks over their heads for extended periods and denied access to water. Shoham said that Gilboa-Dalal confessed to drinking dirty water from a barrel used to flush the toilet when the guards weren’t looking, just to quench his thirst after he was left so dehydrated he was unable to speak. While in captivity he underwent multiple infections, hearing loss in one ear, stomach pain and vomiting, as well as skin problems and vitamin deficiencies.

 A video released by Hamas shows Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal witnessing the release of fellow hostages in Nuseirat, central Gaza, February 22, 2025. (credit: HAMAS AL-AQSA TV)

10) Alon Ohel, 24, has Israeli, German and Serbian citizenship. He was another one captured from Nova festival. His family didn't know for almost two years if he is alive or not. He is (was?) talented pianist who was giving recitals in jazz and classical music and was planning to continue his musical studies and career. He has been captured by terrorist from so called "Death Shelter" at the Re'im junction. After prolonged fighting by the festival-goers, Hamas gunmen entered the shelter and abducted Ohel along with some others, all of whom were wounded to varying degrees. The first sign he is alive came in February this year after few released in exchange hostages testified they had met him. According to their testimonies Ohel was injured during the attack by shrapnel that struck his eye, causing the loss of vision in one eye and possible severe damage to the other. Or Levi, one of released in February, testified that Ohel was chained by his legs, severely malnourished, and suffering from untreated injuries, including near-blindness. During last weeks in Gaza he was used as a human shield. His shrapnel wound, untreated for two years, caused blindness in one eye.

11) Yosef-Chaim Ohana, 25, had been at the festival with a friend, who said they had remained to help people escape the gunfire before running themselves. He was a combat soldier and commander previously, the past that fortunately was hidden from terrorists during his captivity. He wouldn't have returned alive. Many of former hostages talk how he tried to uplift them and keep their spirits during their ordeal. He spent several days in a pit underground with another six captives, without enough room to sit or lie down and with barely enough air to survive.

12) Elkana Bohbot, 36, was working at the festival when he was abducted. He stayed behind to help others to escape. Earlier this year, Israeli media cited a released hostage as saying Elkana, who has asthma, was being held in inhumane conditions and had developed a severe skin disease. The young father was bound, blindfolded, his hands and feet tied. He went through severe abuse. 

 13) Eitan Mor, 25, was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival. His father Mor said he saved dozens of people before being kidnapped by Hamas gunmen. His family had been told by a previously released hostage who spent time with Eitan in a tunnel that he had acted as a "spokesman to the captors" and "lifted everyone's spirits". However the first year of his captivity Eitan was held in isolation. Over his roughly two years in Gaza, Eitan was transferred between approximately 40 different hiding places—all in Gaza City, some above and some below ground. He suffered periods of extreme hunger, during which he received only a few spoonfuls of rice daily. In one incident, Eitan managed to steal pita bread but was almost beaten to death for it. 

14)  Maxim Herkin, 37, is an Israeli-Russian dual national who was invited to the festival at the last moment. His two friends were killed in the attack.

15)  Bar Kupershtein, 23, was working at the festival and stayed behind during the attack to help treat casualties. He told his grandmother that he would head home as soon as they were finished. It took him two years. The grandchild of Holocaust survivors and the son of father who suffered severe injuries in accident and could neither stand nor talk. Tal Kuperstein, Bar's dad, taught himself with all the effort to stand and talk during the two years to welcome his son. It worked.

16)  Segev Kalfon, 27, was running away from the festival with a friend when he was taken hostage by Hamas gunmen. He described being tied, blindfolded, and beaten by the terrorists after capture, and repeatedly assaulted whenever he said his name. Segev was being punished for refusing to change his name, mocked as a “worthless Jew,” and made to perform exhausting labor.  His captors forced him to dig and live in Hamas’ terror tunnels under constant threat of death, sometimes keeping him alone for long stretches. “Death becomes your best friend,” Kalfon says, describing how a single bottle of water felt like gold and how survival became a miracle.

17)  Evyatar David, 24, was at the festival. He texted his family to say "they are bombarding the party". His family say they later received a text from an unknown number, with a video of Evyatar handcuffed on the floor of a dark room. In August 2025, Hamas published a video of an emaciated and weak Evyatar in a tunnel.Emaciated Evyatar was forced to dig what he believed to be his future grave. Clips from that video were used by Greta Thunberg on her social media as illustration of Palestinian suffering in Israeli prisons!!!!

18) Rom Braslavski, 21, was working on security at the festival. According to an account published by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, he was trying to rescue an injured person when he was caught in a volley of fire. In August 2025, Palestinian Islamic Jihad published a video of Rom, in which he is seen crying as he says he has run out of food and water. He said he is unable to stand or walk, and "is at death's door". Medical experts said he was suffering from "deliberate, prolonged, and systematic starvation". Throughout his time in captivity, Braslavski held onto his faith, often praying, which, according to his uncle, gave him mental strength. "The will to live, the inner strength, seeing us, kept him going" his uncle said. He wrote to himself there, but at one point, the terrorists took away what he had written. He spoke Arabic with his captors, and now he speaks fluent Arabic.

 And now who are some of the nearly 2,000 people exchanged for the above described innocent hostages:

1) Imad Qawasmeh, 52 (Hamas) – convicted for the 2004 Beersheva bus bombing that killed 16 Israelis and wounded over 100. The youngest victim was 3.5 years old boy sitting on his mother's lap. This attack also fastened creation of the barrier between West Bank and Israel as bombers crossed the green line on foot. Imad Qawasmeh, who planned the attacked and was sentenced for 16 cases of murder, was part of a "pay-for-slay" scheme, when sentenced terrorists receive stipends, often from international aid money (your taxes included!).

2)  Muhammad Aref Samhan, 55 (Fatah/Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades) – responsible for 2003 Jerusalem bus bombing killing 24 and wounding over 130. Many of the victims were children, some were infants. The bomb was spiked with ball-bearings designed to increase injuries on the crowded bus.As so many children were victims (they were mostly orthodox Jews returning from the Western Wall prayers) the tragedy was dubbed "the children bus". Aref Samhan dispatched suicide bomber who blew up the bus.Here is a piece from Associated Press report: 

"Strollers were scattered near the stricken bus, medics carried away children with blood-smeared faces and a baby girl died in a hospital before doctors could find her parents. At least five children were among the 18 dead in Tuesday's suicide bombing by a Palestinian militant who blew himself up on a Jerusalem bus. Forty children were among more than 100 people injured. The attack was the 100th Palestinian suicide bombing against Israelis since the latest round of fighting began in September 2000."

3)  Qassem Aref Khalil al-Asafreh, 36 (Hamas) – involved in 2019 stabbing murder of yeshivah student Dvir Sorek. Al-Asafreh was part of a terrorist cell with a cousin and another operative. 

4) Ibrahim Muhammad al-Raai, 46 (Fatah/Tanzim) – responsible for 2006 Nablus bombing and multiple shooting attacks. The attack in the Casbah, aka Old City, in Nablus, that killed St.-Sgt. Osher Damari and wounded six other soldiers on July 17, 2006. Al-Raai was only arrested in 2022. He was recruited remotely by a terrorist from Gaza and worked to recruit additional terrorists. He was also involved in shooting attacks in the area of Joseph’s Tomb, on the outskirts of Nablus. From the Shin Bet investigation, it emerged that he participated in dozens of shooting attacks against Israeli forces and planting of explosives.

5)  Rashid Mahmoud Omar, 48 (Fatah) – convicted of murder of a Palestinian, whom he believed to be Israeli "collaborator". He was convicted of causing death with intent, membership in a Fatah terrorist cell, shooting at people, attempted murder, and involvement in hostile actions.

6)  Firas Sadiq Muhammad Ghanem, 51 (Fatah/Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades) – responsible for attacks causing 9 Israeli deaths. He is a security detainee from Jerusalem who was captured during the Second Intifada. He is accused of offenses including causing death with intent, possession of firearms, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause death with intent. According to the Prisoners Organization, he is accused of participating in attacks when he belonged to Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. It was noted that these attacks led to the murder of nine Israelis.

Can there really be any comparison between  kidnapped hostages who underwent hell on earth for two years in captivity and arrested, accused and - mostly - convicted terrorists with blood on their hands? Can there really be any comparison between calling family to inform them that their near and dear is returning from captivity and calling a bereaved family whose member has been murdered to let them know that perpetrator is walking free so somebody's innocent child, father, husband can return home? Can there really be any comparison between a state supervised legal process in which crime needs to be proved and perpetrator brought to justice and kidnapping hostages, often supportive towards Palestinians kibbutzniks, to steel them from their families and torture them in Gaza?

I leave you with these questions. 

 

Flotilla to Gaza organized by Hamas

 The last few weeks were the time of  yet another one of flotillas sailing to Gaza, creating PR and content, its participants being detained and later deported. Later they shared some stories resembling what they probably thought the world wants and is ready to hear.

Let's have a closer look at the Sumud Flotilla. Sumud in Arabic means "resilience" so the whole enterprise is named in Arabic. The flotilla consisted from over 40 boats with 500 participants from over 44 countries. Definitely a large project. 

The self - declared statements about this enterprise were (in their own words):

•  "We are independent, international, and unaffiliated with any government or political party.",
•  "The Israeli occupation enforces a total siege—by land, sea, and air—deliberately cutting off Gaza from the outside world"
•  "These boats don't just carry aid; they carry a message"
•  "The Israeli occupation's blockade of Gaza constitutes collective punishment, a violation of the Geneva Conventions."

All the above statements are not true which I will try to show below.

They definitely were international, but not independent. Here's the story: 

The PCPA (Palestinian Conference for Palestinians Abroad) was established in 2018 and functions as Hamas’ representative body abroad, operating de facto as Hamas’ embassies. The organization operates under the pretense of civilian cover and is responsible, on behalf of Hamas, for mobilizing actions against Israel, including violent demonstrations, marches against Israel, and demonstration and provocation flotillas. The PCPA's chief in the United Kingdom is Zaher Birawi. Below you will find few of his pretty recent pictures:

 The PCPA was designated by Israel in 2021 as a terrorist organization. there are two documents of utmost interest found by IDF in Gaza. 

The first one (in translation here) is a letter by Ismail Haniyeh publicly endorsing the PCPA. This proves already well established links between Hamas and the PCPA leading to the designation of the latter one as a terrorist organization in the same 2021 year.

The second one (fragment of the translation here) is a list of PCPA operatives in different countries of Europe. The significant names for the story presented here are Zaher Birawi (no 19 on the list) and Saif Abu Kashk (no 25 on the list). The first one may be seen on the pictures above proving his links to the flotilla participants. The second is, in addition to being a Hamas-aligned PCPA operative, the CEO of Cyber Neptune, a front company in Spain that owns dozens of the ships that participated in the “Sumud” flotilla. Thus, these ships are secretly owned by Hamas. Quite possibly financed at least partially by the "humanitarian help" fund being so generously given to Gaza by EU, the USA, UN, Australia, Canada and others. Saif Abu Keshk, based in Barcelona, was an official member of the flotilla Steering Committee. In June 2025, Egyptian authorities arrested Abu Keshk, who was leading the “March to Gaza” campaign in collaboration with Yahia Sarri, a prominent Muslim Brotherhood cleric in Algeria with direct ties to Hamas. In 2024, Sarri met with senior Hamas official Basem Naim. The meeting took place in January 2024 and was conducted in an official and public capacity. Basem Naim is the Head of Hamas’ Department of International Relations. This meeting paved the way for Sarri’s collaboration with campaigns designed to serve Hamas: the March to Gaza and the Global Sumud Flotilla.

 Wael Nawar is another member of the Sumud Flotilla steering committee. He previously served as coordinator and spokesperson of the Soumoud Convoy. He has been documented in meetings with representatives of Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) - all terrorist organizations designated as such by the USA, European Union and other countries.

Above: in the meeting Nawar (center, wearing a blue shirt, fifth from the right) is seen alongside senior Hamas official Youssef Hamdan (third from the right). The meeting took place in June 2025 in Algiers.

 

Above: Nawar, member of the Sumud Flotilla steering committee, attending Nasrallah funeral (Hezbollah's chief killed by Israel) and photographed together with  Ihsan Attaya, a senior official of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Have I shown that the organizing committee of the Sumud Flotilla had nothing to do with (even ill informed and naive) good Samaritans? It was organizationally, financially and in any other way Hamas's enterprise with participation of some useful idiots. 

Let's go to subsequent points.

• There is no Israeli occupation. At least not in Gaza (I deliberately leave out here discussion about West Bank as the Flotilla was about Gaza). Had there been one we would not experience the massacre of October 7 as it would be impossible to prepare such an attack in a country under real occupation (some 30.000 well armed troops, approximately 3-5 thousand sent to Israel with motorcycles, cars, kalashnikovs, RPGs, grenades and so on after previous shelling it with rockets. Since 2005 there are no Israelis in Gaza, at least during peace times, others than kidnapped by Hamas.
• The siege (or rather the blockade, there is no siege and there is a huge difference between the two) is neither absolute - trucks with aid enter Gaza on daily basis for the last 20 years, Gazans have passports - Palestine Authority issues passports recognized by other countries since 1996 under Oslo Treaties -  and are able to travel through Egypt (provided Egypt will grant them visas but this is totally normal). Also provided they will receive passports from PA although it is fighting with Hamas and Hamas with it, but that again has nothing to do with Israel. Moreover this legal blockade was introduced and is sustained by Israel and Egypt jointly (otherwise it wouldn't be possible unless Israel and Egypt were at war which they thankfully are not).
• The boats carried NO humanitarian aid at all, or rather very symbolic quantities. Israeli troops retrieved 2 tons of aid from all the boats in Flotilla taken together. For comparison one truck takes 24 tons of load and on weekly basis between 600 and 1,200 trucks enter Gaza. No wonder activists partaking in Flotilla cruise did not agree to pass the aid by Israeli channels (docking in Ashdod and transporting aid on trucks) or (if they didn't want to deal with Israeli authorities) through Vatican channels and Jerusalem Patriarchy which was proposed by PM Meloni and agreed upon by Israel, Vatican, Jerusalem Patriarchy and even Cyprus if they wished to leave aid there. There was just no aid to be left.
• The blockade is fully legal as described here. And in the case of legal blockades established for security reasons the country imposing such blockade has every right to stop vessels bound to break the blockade or declaring the intention of doing so (both requirements fulfilled in this case). More or less at the same time when the Flotilla was stopped French troops entered one of tankers from shade fleet on international waters and arrested its Chinese captain. Nobody except Russia protested, few even described the incident. 

Therefore ALL claims by activists from Flotilla are lies. Nevertheless the most dangerous and outrageous one is that this Flotilla of Antisemitism and Hate was organized and financed by Hamas and the world, including almost all Western media pretended not to notice. 

Maritime blockade of the Gaza coast - legality and implications

Recently the topic of maritime blockade and its legality has somewhat dominated the media, especially since some of the ships were stopped by Israel on international waters.

The blockade is absolutely legal, but since it has become the subject of controversy let me describe the issue in more detail. The basis of maritime blockade is the 1994 San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea. According to this document the below conditions need to be fulfilled for the blockade to be legal:

• it must be formally declared and publicly notified - Israel has done it on the 3rd of January 2009,
• it must be effectively enforced in practice - it is, and I don't think anybody has doubts,
• it must be applied impartially to all ships - that is why you can't let some ships go through the blockade and some not,
• it must not block access to neutral ports or coastlines - it does not, Israeli, Tunisian, Egyptian ports are open without restrictions,
• it must not stop the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians - it does not. For all the years since 2009 humanitarian aid (on which Gaza relays consequently spending all aid not on development but on weapons) was delivered. Even at present, during the war the aid is still going to Gaza through land (trucks) and air (recent humanitarian aerial deliveries).

 Additionally, Article 51 of the UN Charter affirms the inherent right of self-defense, which justifies blockades in response to armed attacks, including from non-state actors like Hamas.

What's more after 2010 Mavi Marmara incident the United Nations Secretary-General appointed a Panel of Inquiry to examine the events and it stated that the blockade is legal. Here  is a full text of the Palmer Commission's findings. You may check for yourselves. 

Moreover it does not mean that willing to help with humanitarian needs parties can't use the seafaring way which may be the most convenient for them. At present all ships carrying humanitarian cargo are welcome in the Israeli port of Ashdod and many use it, including United Arab Emirates' ship MIRA and others. After inspection for weapons, explosives and illegal materials cargo is put on trucks and taken to Gaza.

As stated above to keep blockade legality Israel may not selectively let through some ships, all need to be kept outside. It is also worth noting, that, although Gaza has its port, it is small and designed mainly for fishing boats. During the Oslo Accords hope period a Palestinian Naval Police station was put there, however in 2002, during the second intifada, Israeli forces attacked their facilities in the port, after Naval Police commanders were implicated in an attempt to secretly bring in 50 tons of weapons by boat into Gaza.It was significant that Palestinian freighter (yes, they had them at the time when things seemed to be moving in right direction) Karine A was found to be carrying 50 tons of weapons, including short-range Katyusha rockets, antitank missiles, and high explosives. The captain of Karine A was Colonel Omar Akawi, former member of the Palestinian Authority. At present Gaza port is not sufficiently deep to allow bigger ships to dock. That is all a matter for future as with raging war, all legal requirements fulfilled and history of attempts to smuggle weapons for Hamas into Gaza on ships the blockade is there to stay.

The Sumud Flotilla, trying to break through the blockade not only was committing a criminal act but also taking substantial risks, as some believe it is not only right but duty to attack ships bound for breaking the blockade. Moreover, flotilla was carrying symbolic amounts of aid (even according to Al Jazeera) - barely 2 tons whereas one truck carries 24 tons. They refused passing the aid through Ashdod, through Vatican channels or Jerusalem patriarchy.

At the moment there are 3 maritime blockades in effect: imposed on Gaza by Israel and Egypt (somehow everybody happens to forget Egypt is just as much a party to the blockade as Israel); imposed on Yemen by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt (making Egypt active in 2 out of three blockades) and imposed on Ukraine by Russia on the Black Sea. 

How many of you heard about any protests against Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates or Bahrain because of the blockade?

How many protests against Russian blockade (which is illegal) have you seen?

 Above Port of Ashdod

 

What is the concern of UN

 Recently we had the General Session of the United Nations, in a way special, as it was 80 years after it was established. I must confess I am not enamored in any way in UN and regard its activities over last 25 years or so as counterproductive to its declared goals in most cases (and at best). It was a very good forum for communication during cold war years and sometimes it was indispensable. Also some of its divisions and agents achieved wonderful things, notably WHO when it led a way to smallpox eradication. However, after the cold war years were over UN had problems with reinventing its mission for the first ten years or so and later acted as political forum of questionable ethics and quality. Still, you may not share my view (but if you'd like to comment please do). What is of interest for this blog is who and how was referring to Israel-Hamas war during the recent session (and earlier).

So, usually the General Session should allow representatives of countries to address what they consider especially important for the countries they represent. All their speeches may be found on the UN site and you may listen to them if you wish. I did to few of them, some with interest, some with incredulity for various reasons, all in preparation for this entry.

Israel was represented by its PM Benjamin Netanyahu. I am, to put it mildly, not a fan of the present PM of Israel and probably we would have disagree on most issues if we'd ever meet in person (we won't, but just if). Still, whoever wrote his speech did a marvelous job and I could not help agreeing with almost each and every statement he made. It was long, but was dealing precisely and informatively with present Israeli situation and the history of conflict. He was delivering this speech to empty chairs (mostly) as many representatives of other countries ostentatiously left the room. I have no slightest doubt that they were at the time or later checking his speech, themselves or through proxies, as taking part in politics require such things (OK, I may be wrong but I assume they still do at least part of their job). The gesture was for the show. But what does such gesture tell us? That the assembly of the nations' representatives which were willing at one time or another to listen to Qaddafi, Khomeini, Taliban, Arafat (at the time when he was nothing else but a terrorist), Fidel Castro, Khrushchev banging his shoe and so on and so on. They stayed and listened. When the PM of the democratic state, even not liked (the PM, not the state, the enmity towards Israel is much bigger issue than lack of sympathy towards one or the other PM), takes stand people who are professional politicians and diplomats behave like children in kindergarten. They don't question, they don't push for clarification, they just leave. Pathetic.

Still, other speeches were of even more interest to me.  

There we had President Recep Erdogan from Turkey. He is known for being president for the last 24 years, massacre of Curds, islamization of Turkey and distancing from Ataturk reforms, dismantling courts, putting political opponents and their supporters to prison, sustaining criminalization of so much as a mention of the genocide of Armenians, diverging from NATO. Has he mentioned Turkey's affairs? Not at all. His whole speech was dedicated to demonization and accusation of Israel.

There we had President Ahmad Al-Sharaa from Syria. Famous for his part in creating and spreading ISIS, crimes against humanity during ISIS rule, who until recently was wanted by the United States with the price of 10 million dollars for his head. He was talking peace, unity and tolerance (none of which he supported, to put it mildly, in his life so far) and at the same time accusing Israel of crimes.

There we had Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, representing the country that attacked Ukraine, the very country they guaranteed the borders of, the country which on average once a week threatens Europe with nuclear weapons and invasion. He was accusing West generally of all type of crimes and Israel specifically about bombing and starvation of Palestinians. Let me just remind you that the same Russia sought and received (together with Syrian President Assad at the time) to engage Hezbollah to murder Palestinians in refugee camp in Syria for their revolt against Assad.

There we had Egyptian representative, Badr Ahmed Mohammed Abdelatty, who was speaking about "Palestinian brethren who are falling victims to heinous action" and accused Israel of "war against defenseless civilians for the sin they did not commit". Let me just remind you that we are talking about the country who holds the same blockade for Gaza since 2007 for the same reasons as Israel. The country who does not allow civilians from Gaza to enter its territory, and never did open itself to Arab refugees from former mandate though it controlled Gaza for 20 years. Some brethren.

Of course for the above mentioned speeches nobody left the room or even asked a single question. 

I could make fun of the representative of Indonesia, who mentioned the "right to life, freedom and pursuit of happiness" as the rights arising from the UN Declaration of Human Rights (well, I do remember the American Declaration of Independence quite well) and his claiming that these rights codified by UN gave inspiration to many revolutions, among them the French one, the Russian one and the Chinese one. Obviously he knows history no better than other representatives in UN (judging by their actions or lack of thereof). Still I can only thank him for being the only one (sic!) I have heard mentioning Sudan, the worst ongoing humanitarian crisis, and declaring Indonesia's willingness to send 20,000 troops as peacekeepers to Gaza or Sudan. Indonesia is not the country known for meticulous administration of human rights, yet judging by the speech it is far better than most.

That would have been funny if not so tremendously sad. 

Arab victims of October 7

 Hamas's attack of October 7, 2023 has been aimed primarily at Jews but by they were not the only victims. Since the narrative about what is happening now is more and more antisemitic, blaming all Jews for the war and portraying all Palestinians as Jewish (or at the very least Israeli) victims I would like to portrait some of the October 7 victims who are NOT Jewish. 

In Sderot on October 7 Amer Odeh Abu Sabila, 25, from the Abu Talul Bedouin village, construction worker and a father of two, died saving two Jewish sisters, 3 Leah and 6 years old Romi Swissa. The family with  two small daughters tried to drive north when the rockets started. On the crossing near Sderot borders they encountered terrorists who started shooting at them. Mother, Odaya, run in one direction with Romi while father run in another direction carrying Leah. Father, Dolev, was shot, but managed to order his 3 years old to go back to mother. After a while she did and met her mother and older sister near the car. Unfortunately Odaya was wounded. That was when Amer heard Romi's shouting for help. He entered the vehicle and tried to drive wounded Odaya and the girls to the hospital. They were both murdered. Romi hided with her little sister on the floor of the backseat and after a while shouted for help. Rescued from the car by the passer-by they were handed, covered in their parents blood, to a random family to take care of. Both girls survived. Their parents and brave Amer did not. Amer's relative, Mussa Abu Sabila, 41, was also murdered on October 7, while working as a security guard in Kibbutz Re’im.

 Amer Odeh Abu Sabila above

 Dr, Tarek Abu Arar, an Arab Israeli doctor, engaged, among others, in volunteering for United Hatzalah, was asked to take emergency shift in Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon on this Saturday morning. He agreed. While driving to Ashkelon early in the morning, he heard first, vague warnings about something unusual, and as a protection put on the protective bullet proof vest provided to all volunteers by United Hatzalah. On his way he spotted a man on the shoulder of the road. He though he might be hurt so he stopped and approached the man. It turned out to be one of the Hamas terrorists, who,  after the doctor approached, shot him in the chest. The vest saved his life, but in shock he started yelling and praying. That was when the other terrorist intervened shouting "stop, stop, he's an Arab" and saved his life, for the moment anyway. There appeared around 10 terrorists with sophisticated weapons, wearing outfits resembling IDF uniforms. They examined him from his knowledge of Quran and wounded his leg. Terrorists believed that keeping him as a hostage provides them protection against fire from Israeli helicopters while they were shooting at passing vehicles killing travelers. They intended to shoot the doctor as well but he was lucky. A group of Israeli soldiers finally appeared and after killing terrorists rescued Dr. Arar,

In the battle for Nahal Oz military base Warrant Officer Ibrahim Kharuba, Bedouin soldier, was one of the 4 fiercest fighters defending female lookout command center. He was fighting till his last bullet and fell there. He has received Medal of Valor (the second highest decoration in the IDF) posthumously. During the battle, Kharuba reportedly stood and told the female lookouts that it was an honor for him to die protecting them and the State of Israel. "It was my greatest honor to defend you," he said, according to details uncovered in the investigation. Officer Kharuba is credited with killing 17 attackers, his body was found the closest to the door of the command room where the female lookouts run.

 

Above Warrant Officer Ibrahim Kharuba, who tried to talk the terrorist in Arabic to leave the women in peace in the name of Islam. They did not. He was killed in the battle, 16 female lookouts were murdered by Hamas with use of chemical substance among others, 7 were kidnapped. Surviving 5 were released in January 2025. His father Hassan stated how proud he is of his son.

In the same base some civilians, escaping from the attacked Nova party, found refuge. They were put into the sleeping quarters of the base, but when the assault on the base started they found themselves in tremendous danger. Terrorists were moving closer and closer to the place of their hiding. One of the Bedouin IDF soldiers, who may not be identified for security reasons, changed clothes to civilian ones and shouted to terrorist in Arabic pretending to be one of them. He managed to drive them away from the place where the escapees from the festival were placed. The civilians survived. Terrorists driven towards the Israeli fire did not.

Another 10 Hamas terrorists barricaded themselves in the Nahal Oz base sport facilities and were snipping through the windows at Israeli soldiers. A Bedouin officer, named Muhammad, managed to get in contact with Israeli officers in the bunker and - through them - with Israeli air force. He directed aerial attack at sport facilities. The attack killed all terrorists inside. He was later described as the first Israeli officer to ever order bombing of his own base.

Why am I writing this? for double purpose of remembering Israeli Arab heroes of the day who deserve never to be forgotten. And also to show how despicable, immoral and outrageous are the cries of support for Hamas as some kind of "resistance" against Jews and Israel in the West. I already wrote about growing antisemitism here but even from purely Arab perspective praising Hamas is praising terror and crime. Hamas not only rules in totalitarian way in Gaza, kills all peace craving Palestinians, kills any Palestinian Autonomy officers but was also engaged inside Israel on October 7 (as before) in a war against ALL Israelis (regardless their political views or ethnicity, Druzes, Bedouins, Arabs alike were murdered and taken hostage as well as non-Israelis (visitors and foreign workers) were slaughtered and taken hostage.

The heroes were the attacked who were defending themselves and others, sometimes at the prize of their lives, Jews and non-Jews alike. Attackers were the worst type of terrorist, who after slaughter, killing, raping and torturing have hidden among people whom they claimed to represent and whom they used and continue using as living shields.