1️⃣0️⃣1️⃣ HOSTAGES 🎗️
- Biden and Trump Join Forces to Bring Hostages in Gaza Back Home. In a recent two-hour meeting, they discussed strategies to secure the release of hostages before the January transition of power. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that both administrations are working together to resolve the situation.
- rodinní príslušníci ešte stále zadržiavaných rukojemníkov sa stretli vo Vatikáne s pápežom a apelovali na návrat svojich milovaných
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IRAN 🇮🇷
- Israeli officials report that Iran has stepped back from its plan to launch a military response against Israel. While Trump’s election win played a major role in this decision, sources say Iran’s leaders were already weighing the timing, strategy, and need for retaliation even before the U.S. election outcome.
- Elon Musk, the tech billionaire closely allied with US President-elect Donald Trump, met Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in a bid to defuse tensions between Tehran and Washington, The New York Times reported Thursday. https://lnk.sk/pro6
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HEZBOLLAH IN LEBANON 🇱🇧
- Hezbollah summarizes the previous day with 32 terror launches against Israel, 20 of them against civilian towns and cities. (How many US, French, EU or UN statements have you heard against those 20 launches at civilian towns that Hezbollah clearly states they did (war crime)?) he IDF says five rockets were launched from Lebanon at the Haifa Bay area Friday morning.
- Israeli fighter jets last night struck several buildings and command centers belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh.https://lnk.sk/ladw
- US president-elect Donald Trump signed off on a proposal for a ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon during a meeting with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer at Mar-a-Lago last Sunday. https://lnk.sk/bvdl
- Draft agreement: the US and France will arm the Lebanese army, which will destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure south of the Litani river and prevent attacks on Israel, with direct American intervention…, France and Great Britain have agreed to participate in maintaining the ceasefire. The IDF will withdraw after 60 days.
- COMMENTARY: In this formulation of the ceasefire proposal, the only chance is a new approach by the new administration in the US. Everyone else has been here before and allowed Hezbollah to arm itself to enormous proportions. This has allowed the terrorists to threaten Israel. It has driven more than 60,000 Israelis from their homes. It has forced Israel to launch a ground operation in southern Lebanon. A ceasefire and an end to the fighting in southern Lebanon is a good motivation, but first the problem must be resolved – a disarmed Hezbollah as the only source of tension in the north. If Israel does not do it, with US support, then no one will. The UN is more protective of Hezbollah’s terrorism than it is of Israel’s.
- More than a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel have cost Lebanon more than $5 billion in economic losses and damaged nearly 100,000 homes, the World Bank said on Thursday. https://lnk.sk/hvnr
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ISRAEL 🇮🇱
- Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara told Prime Minister Netanyahu on Thursday that he must reevaluate National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s tenure, in light of the latter’s repeated and ongoing intervention into operational police matters and his politicization of police promotions. https://lnk.sk/ph28
- Opposition Leader Yair Lapid welcomes Defense Minister Israel Katz’s decision to approve sending 7,000 new draft orders to eligible ultra-Orthodox men. https://lnk.sk/ybkl
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GAZA, JUDEA & SAMARIA (so-called West Bank)
- Several Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror operatives were killed, including a senior commander, in a recent Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, the IDF says. https://lnk.sk/ozyq
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AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺 AUSTRIA🇦🇹
- Australia takes anti-Israel stand, approves a Palestinian sovereignty text. The resolution was voted on at the UN committee, with the US, Israel, Canada, and four other countries voting against the resolution. https://lnk.sk/nsrt
- Plans to build a business park on the site of a former Nazi concentration camp have drawn outrage in Austria, with the Mauthausen Memorial calling for the site’s preservation.https://lnk.sk/ocd6
Sources: Times of Israel, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Israel Realtime, Jewish Breaking News and the sources cited directly in some reports
©️ ICEJ Slovakia; peter.svec@icej.sk