HOSTAGES🎗️
- Relatives of hostages and their supporters block Namir Road in Tel Aviv, demanding a deal to release captives held by Hamas.
- An audio clip of kidnapped soldier Matan Angrest taken from footage of him in Hamas captivity will be released by his family on Saturday. It will reportedly show Angrest making a direct appeal from captivity to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for his aid in rescue.
- Hamas is not ready for Sinwar to be exiled from the Gaza Strip together with the leadership of Hamas, „it will not happen in any way“. Hamas demands the release of „all“ prisoners, including the most dangerous/murderous, and is angry that Israel refuses to release the 65 most dangerous convicted mass murderers.
- It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
———
LEBANON 🇱🇧
- 17 rounds of drone and rocket attacks overnight and today so far by Hezbollah at towns towards the Kinerret.
- Hezbollah asked the residents of villages in the south to evacuate their homes for fear of extensive security operations by Israel.
- Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar vows in a letter to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah to continue fighting “the Zionist project” alongside the Iranian-led axis of resistance, “until the occupation is defeated and swept away from our land, and our independent state with full sovereignty is established with Jerusalem as its capital.”
- Drone fired from Lebanon hits Upper Galilee and sirens sound in the northern communities warning of hostile aircraft infiltration on Friday.
———
ISRAEL 🇮🇱 GAZA
- The IDF has declared victory over Hamas’s Rafah Brigade, citing more than 2000 terrorists eliminated and more than 80% of the brigade’s tunnels demolished.
- Reports from Gaza confirm that an IDF airstrike eliminated Muhammad Abu Aseed, a Hamas operative involved in the abduction of IDF soldier Naama Levy on October 7.
- IDF surveillance detected two Israeli citizens crossing through a gate in the fence into the area of the barrier between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
- Egypt recently received a proposal for the deployment of Arab forces along the Philadelphi border corridor, negotiations are underway with Morocco, Mauritania and Djibouti.
- Israeli troops uniquely raided IRGC weapons facility in Syria, took equipment, documents.
———
USA 🇺🇸
- The Pentagon’s rare move to keep two Navy aircraft carriers in the Middle East over the past several weeks has now ended, as the USS Theodore Roosevelt is heading home, according to US officials.
- Pro-Hamas protesters in NYC, dressed in black and masked, disrupted the city by blocking traffic, harassing pedestrians, and defacing business windows with graffiti.
- US State Department approves potential $165 million sale of tank trailers to Israel.
———
GEORGIA 🇬🇪
- A group of Israeli travelers were subject to surveillance and attempted kidnapping by a group of Arabs and were foiled at the last moment by the intervention of the local police in Georgia.
- Virgin Atlantic to resume flights to Israel starting Sept. 25
Sources: Israel Realtime, The Jerusalem Post and The Times of Israel
©️ ICEJ Slovakia; peter.svec@icej.sk