US says time of essence for hostage deal, IDF fights in Gaza and the West Bank

Hamas has published a video of Hersh Goldberg-Polin at 11 p.m., on their official Telegram Thursday evening, as the terrorist organization continues to engage in psychological warfare.

In a series of briefings and interviews over the last 24 hours US officials have details on the record regarding the hostage deal that help separate some facts from fiction and provide a more realistic context to the emotional debate around the hostage deal.

Below is a list of five often misunderstood points regarding the three-phase deal that has been under debate since US President Joe Biden first unveiled the deal on May 31.

Start-ups funded by the Defense Ministry have attracted half a billion dollars in investments during the Gaza war, a senior Defense Ministry official told The Jerusalem Post.

The official, Defense Ministry Head of the Planning, Economics & IT Department Col. (res.) Nir Weingold also told the Post that the Russian invasion of Ukraine and potential conflicts in Asia relating to China have led to unprecedented interest globally in Israeli defense technology, despite criticism relating to the Gaza war.

The Hamas execution of six hostages in Gaza last weekend has complicated efforts to finalize a ceasefire deal but has increased the urgency to do so, US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told reporters on Thursday.

“We've suffered yet another huge setback here.” Kirby said, but that “doesn't mean we're not going to keep trying.” He focused, as other US officials have in the past day, on the complications around the exchange of up to 32 hostages for the release of Palestinian security prisoners and terrorists held in Israeli jails.

A dual Lebanese-Belgian citizen accused by the United States of financing Lebanese terror group Hezbollah is expected to plead guilty in a criminal case charging him with sanctions evasion and money-laundering conspiracies.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said in a court filing on Thursday that lawyers for Mohammad Bazzi told them he wishes to change his plea. Bazzi, 60, pleaded not guilty last year to three felony counts, including attempting to transact with a sanctioned terrorist organization.

Bazzi's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US Treasury Department placed Bazzi on its sanctions list in 2018 over his alleged ties to Hezbollah, which Washington considers a terrorist organization.

Yesterday, the IDF spokesman in Arabic revealed a document featuring meeting minutes from an August 2022 meeting held between officials at Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza. The meeting was held following Operation Breaking Dawn, which targeted the Iran-loyalist Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and brought together a Hamas official named Ahmed and the commander of the Islamic Jihad’s military department, Akram al-Ajouri.

During the meeting, a controversy erupted over the failed rocket launches by the Islamic Jihad that damaged and killed Gazan civilians. In the context of the meeting, al-Ajouri criticized the accusations directed at the organization from Hamas and was quoted as saying: "Even if a thousand are killed by friendly fire, this is the price of war."

Shlomo Aviner has clarified the ethical considerations surrounding whether IDF soldiers are permitted to take spoils during military operations, including in Gaza, emphasizing that individual soldiers should not engage in such actions. 

According to Aviner, while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) may, in principle, decide to take spoils based on its discretion, this must be done within the framework of international agreements and broader moral considerations. 

The United States can’t scrape the existing Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal that has been under debate since May 31, US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew said on Thursday, as negotiations continued without an end date in sight.

“We can't begin working on a plan B because the minute you say that there's going to be focus on a Plan B, Plan A becomes impossible,” Lew said during a public appearance at the International Institute for Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.

“I think this plan A still has a very feasible path towards being accomplished,” he stated.

The IDF intercepted two suspicious aerial targets that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon, the military announced Thursday afternoon.

IAF strikes in Tubas eliminated five terrorists, including Zakaria Zubeidi’s son, known for his past terror activities and ties to Hezbollah.

Zubeidi, involved in multiple attacks, had a history of violent conflict with Israeli forces.