IDF, Shin Bet retrieve hostage body in special operation

The Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday it had purchased advanced drones and autonomous systems from Elbit Systems Ltd. 

The IDF and the Shin Bet continue to press Defense Minister Israel Katz to restore administrative detention of violent Jewish extremists after dozens of such extremists on Wednesday undertook attacks on a mix of IDF soldiers and Palestinians in three separate incidents on Wednesday.

The IDF returned the bodies of Amer Qawas and Hosam Abu Ghazaleh, the two terrorists who carried out the shooting attack near the Dead Sea on October 18, to Jordan on Tuesday, the military said on Wednesday. 

The first priority for the Trump administration will be the release of the hostages immediately, with no further delay, President-elect Donald Trump's newly-appointed Middle East Advisor, Massad Boulos, told French paper Le Point in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

IDF Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee disputed reports that the IDF uses drones to play sounds of women and children screaming to force Gazans out of their homes.

The IDF conducted a series of overnight raids late Monday night and into early Tuesday morning in areas around Bethlehem. During the operation, troops detained wanted individuals, interrogated dozens of suspects, and searched and found weapons and incitement materials, the IDF said.

The Jerusalem Post accompanied the soldiers during raids on several multistory residential buildings.
Troops combed several neighborhoods, searching for suspects. Female combat soldiers took up positions in alleyways and went door-to-door in the precision operation.

It was biting cold as the forces looked for and successfully detained the suspects in the dead of night. The streets of Bethlehem were quiet, with only the barking of a few dogs audible as the troops moved quietly from place to place.
The IDF conducts this type of operation often to keep terrorists in check and make it clear that Israel’s security forces are one step ahead of its enemies.

The raids were aimed at sites in Aida and Azza, neighborhoods north of Bethlehem that emerged from refugee camps established in the 1950s.

Refugee camps in Bethlehem and other areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip have often been recruiting grounds for terrorist groups, including Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

IDF soldiers of the Tavor Battalion of the Search and Rescue Brigade and 8208 Reserve Battalion take part in an operation of Etzion Brigade to detain suspects in Aida and Azza camps in Bethlehem on December 3. (credit: SETH J. FRANTZMAN)

Challenging areas 

These areas present a challenge because the buildings often have multiple entrances and numerous small apartments with what seems like endless locked iron doors to a warren of courtyards. Soldiers have to navigate all this while keeping watch down alleyways and overhead for threats.

The soldiers, part of the Etzion Brigade, prepared for the operation prior to 12 a.m. at a base in Gush Etzion. They included members of the Tavor Battalion of the Search and Rescue Brigade, which includes numerous female combat soldiers.

I accompanied them. Most of the soldiers were women, carrying their M-16 rifles and moving quickly to reach their objectives and search for suspects. The operation was accompanied by reservists from the 8208th Infantry Battalion.

During the operation, we saw how soldiers work as part of a small team to search for suspects. All of this was conducted prior to sunrise, with the goal being to detain the suspects as quickly and quietly as possible during the night.

This reduces friction and contact with the civilian population in the area. It also means that those affected by the raid are mostly residents of the buildings where the suspects live.

In our case, the soldiers often had to knock on several doors to find the suspects they wanted. When the young men were found, they were escorted to a waiting military vehicle before being taken to a central collection point, where other detainees from various raids in the area were also taken.

These kinds of routine operations are designed to keep terrorist groups and threats in check by remaining one step ahead of them. The area of the Etzion Brigade’s operations, which includes Bethlehem and other Palestinian towns, has not seen the kind of increase in terrorist threats that have occurred in the northern West Bank.

It wasn’t always like this, though. In decades past, there were numerous terrorists who took up positions in Beit Jala in the Second Intifada and operated from camps such as Dehaishe, Aida, and Azza in Bethlehem.

These days, things appear relatively quiet due to the operations that the soldiers are conducting.

The full story will appear in this weekend’s Magazine supplement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday for issuing a toughly worded statement demanding that hostages held in the Gaza Strip be released ahead of his January 20 inauguration.

"Hamas is required to release the hostages. President Trump put the emphasis in the right place, on Hamas, and not on the Israeli government, as is customary (elsewhere)," Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting.

I want to thank President Trump for his strong statement yesterday about the need for Hamas to release the hostages, the responsibility of Hamas, and this adds another force to our continued effort to release all the hostages.

Thank you, President Trump. pic.twitter.com/sm4gvEDnwi

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) December 3, 2024

Other Israeli leaders also hailed the pledge that there would be "hell to pay" in the Middle East unless hostages held in the Gaza Strip were released ahead of Trump's inauguration.

Israeli ministers lined up to thank Trump for his hard-hitting words.

"How refreshing it is to hear clear and morally sound statements that do not create a false equivalence or call for addressing 'both sides,' but rather clarify who are good and who are bad," said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends Israel Hayom's security conference in Jerusalem, December 1, 2024 (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

"This is the way to bring back the hostages: by increasing the pressure and the costs for Hamas and its supporters, and defeating them, rather than giving in to their absurd demands."

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said simply on X/Twitter, "Thank you, President Trump."

Likewise, the families of the missing hostages expressed their gratitude. "It is now evident to all: the time has come. We must bring them home NOW," the families forum said.

Reactions in Gaza

The reaction in Gaza was less enthusiastic.

Responding to Trump's post, senior Hamas official Basem Naim said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sabotaged all efforts to secure a deal that involved exchanging the hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.

"Therefore, we understand (Trump's) message is directed first at Netanyahu and his government to end this evil game," he told Reuters.

Gaza political analyst Ramiz Moghani said Trump's threat was directed at both Hamas and its backer Iran and warned that it would embolden Israel to not only expel Palestinians from swathes of Gaza but also annex the nearby, "Israeli-occupied" West Bank.

"These statements have serious implications for the Israeli war in Gaza and the West Bank," he told Reuters.

Mohammed Dahlan, like hundreds of thousands of Gazans, has had to flee his house because of the fighting and is desperate for the war to end. But he said he was shocked by Trump.

"We were hoping that the new administration would bring with it a breakthrough... but it seems (Trump) is in complete agreement with the Israeli administration and that there are apparently more punitive measures ahead," he said.

Trump's vow

On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel's south, massacring some 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages into the Gaza Strip. Of the hostages, 100 are still held captive by Hamas terrorists and their associates in the Gaza Strip.

Writing on Truth Social on Monday, and without naming any group, Trump said the hostages had to be freed by the time he was sworn in.

If his demand was not met, he said: "Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America."

Gaming company Valve Corporation has removed a video game that includes a mission where the player emulates the October 7 attack from its digital gaming marketplace platform "Steam" for users from the United Kingdom at the behest of the UK's Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU).

The game, originally titled "Fursan Al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque," was released on the Steam marketplace in 2022. The video game allowed users to play as Palestinian terrorists and go on sprees to kill Israeli soldiers through suicide bombings, beheadings, and more.

According to the game's store page on Steam, on November 11, the creator, Nidal Nijm, released a patch (what gamers would call a "patch") that allows the player to "relive the iconic day on which the brave Palestinian Resistance humiliated Israeli Military Forces," referring to the October 7 Massacre in 2023.

The newly added mission, titled "Operation Toufan Al-Aqsa," is a homage to Hamas's name for the deadliest terror attack in Israeli history. The trailer features terrorists paragliding into Israeli posts, female soldiers being captured, countdowns of "Zionists left," gory headshots, and widespread usage of red inverted triangles as a target marker.

Creator Nijm is a Palestinian Brazilian who is reportedly the son of a Fatah terrorist who escaped Lebanon during the 1980s and encouraged his son to learn computer game programming to spread the Palestinian cause.

Scene from trailer showing Hamas terrorists paragliding into an Israeli post. (credit: screenshot)

While the game's Steam page does not explicitly mention Hamas - the aforementioned characteristics, the framing and the name of the remake, as well as multiple usage of the name "Al-Qassam" in the trailer, leave no doubt as for the game's aims and pro-terror alignment.

Valve removes controversial game

According to emails posted by Nijm himself to the game's Steam page, US-based videogame developer and distributor Valve Corporation, which operates the Steam gaming marketplace, contacted Nijm last October to inform him of the game's removal from sale in the UK. In the emails, a Valve representative explained that they received a request from UK authorities and subsequently applied country-specific restrictions, citing their obligation to comply with regional content regulations.

Speaking to the tech and cyber investigative blog 404 Media, Nijm expressed disappointment with the removal of his game, fearing that other countries would follow suit. He drew comparisons to other popular shooter games, arguing that the game is not substantially different from other shooting video games such as Call of Duty and claiming that the removal is politically motivated. Nijm also expressed his appreciation of Valve for what he deemed "truly respecting freedom of creativity," placing the blame on UK authorities rather than the online platforms.

This isn't the first time Fursan Al-Aqsa has faced regional restrictions. The game is already blocked in Germany and Australia due to age rating complications, which Nijm claimed are financially prohibitive for him to resolve. Likewise, Nijm wrote back in November that YouTube had deleted the video game's account.

Reviews of the game on Steam appear to be positive in large part, though they tend to focus more on the political aspects and less on the gameplay itself.

Despite this, Emanuel Mailberg, a veteran videogame reviewer who writes for the 404 Media blog, had a different opinion. "I've played Fursan al-Aqsa, and, just as a game, it sucks. It feels like Nijm bought some assets from a 3D model marketplace, sprinkled in some Israeli flags, and constructed a few plain, uninteresting levels for players to shoot their way through.

"It's a functional shooter at the most basic level, but removed from its subject matter, it does nothing new or interesting and feels like the lowest form of shovelware, which Steam is filled with… my professional opinion as someone who reviewed video games for many years is that Fursan al-Aqsa sucks, and also in bad taste if you choose to judge it in that way," Mailberg said.

Valve did not respond to the Jerusalem Post's comment requests.

The UN General Assembly has approved a decision to hold a "peace conference" on the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in June 2025, with the aim of "promoting irreversible steps to end the conflict and establish a Palestinian state."

157 countries supported the decision, seven abstained and eight opposed, including Israel, the US, Hungary, and Argentina.

The United States on Tuesday urged Israel to investigate allegations its airstrikes have killed aid workers in Gaza, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said, expressing outrage over the recent killing of a Save the Children staffer.

Asked about the killing of 39-year-old Ahmad Faisal Isleem Al-Qadi in an airstrike on Saturday in Khan Younis, Patel said Washington was seeking more information about the death.

"We are outraged, and we are wanting more information about this incident," Patel said.

"The IDF needs to provide additional information about this incident," he added, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. "We urge Israel to thoroughly and transparently investigate actions like these and take appropriate action in their system."