Sunday, June 9, 2024
Hostages were forced to read the Quran
The hostages who were freed from captivity during Saturday’s rescue operation in Nuseirat told the medical teams that they were emotionally abused while in captivity and that the terrorists forced them to read the Quran and learn Islamic rulings.
Channel 13 News reported that Noa Argamani told her family members that she was in captivity together with Yossi Sharabi and Itay Svirsky, who were killed while in Hamas captivity.
Later, the IDF acknowledged that Sharabi was likely killed during an attack on a building near the place where he was held, and that Svirsky was murdered a few days later. Noa told her family, "I saw the missile enter the house, I was sure I was going to die. I thought that was it - but I remained alive."
Noa also said that throughout the period of her captivity, she was moved between several apartments, and was not kept in the underground tunnels. From time to time she went out to breathe fresh air, and did so while disguised as an Arab woman.
Noa was rescued on Saturday morning in the heroic operation of the IDF, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Yamam in the heart of Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip. She was held in an apartment on the first floor of a building in Nuseirat - hundreds of meters away from the building where the three other hostages who were rescued were held: Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan and Andrey Kozlov.
She told her family members that she heard loud knocks on the door on Saturday morning. "She told me that, out of nowhere, all of a sudden she was told that it was the IDF, 'we have come to rescue you,'" said her relative, Assaf Shahibi, who met her at Sheba Hospital, where the four rescued hostages were taken.
Sharon Sharabi, the brother of the late Yossi Sharabi who was with Noa in captivity and whose other brother Eli remains in captivity, told Ynet on Saturday night, "I feel enormous joy, I am so excited. This heroic operation lifted the nation, we were all grounded, we went through psychological ups and downs in the last few months.”
Saturday, June 8, 2024
How Israel's daring hostage rescue mission unfolded: 'A surgical operation' Like Entebbe!
New details about Israel’s bold rescue of four hostages are coming to light with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) describing the daytime operation as a "high-risk, complex mission" that was "surgical" in its precision.
The mission was planned for weeks using "precise intelligence" and took place at around 11 a.m. local time in the heart of Nuseirat in central Gaza, according to Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari of the IDF.
Officers of the National Police special anti-terror unit of Yamam along with Shin Bet agents simultaneously raided two Hamas buildings to pluck the three male hostages and one female hostage to safety. The soldiers had been undergoing intense training for weeks in preparation for the rescue mission, Hagari said.
Noa Argamani, 26, was rescued at one site, while Almog Meir Jan, 22, Shlomi Ziv, 41, and Andrey Kozlov, 27, were taken from the second location. Argamani has been one of the most widely recognized hostages since video of her abduction was among the first to surface. She can be seen in the video between two men on a motorcycle with one arm outstretched and the other held down as she screams "Don’t kill me!"
Dramatic aerial footage from this morning's rescue shows Meir Jan, Kozlov and Ziv running with Israeli forces to a waiting helicopter before the chopper takes off to bring them to safety.
Chassidim in Bed Stuy say Lefists trying to force them out of neighborhood with landmarking designation
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| Rabbi Shaya Saks said the Orthodox Jews are “extremely hurt” by the landmarking effort. |
I guess the Satmar argument of "Hisgaaris Be'Umois" (instigating the goyim) only applies to Israel, it doesn't apply when it affects Satmar itself. Bunch of hypocrites!
A religious war is erupting in Brownstone Brooklyn.
An historic enclave in Bedford-Stuyvesant is being considered for landmarking — and some Orthodox Jews living there say it’s part of a hateful scheme led by antisemites and Councilman Chi Osse to push them out.
On May 21, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to add two blocks, Willoughby Avenue and Hart Street between Nostrand and Marcy avenues, to the calendar for consideration as a new historic district.
Landmark status severely limits owners’ abilities to renovate or expand their homes.
Large Orthodox families often need to expand their houses, Jewish homeowners explained, so limiting their ability to alter them will essentially force them to move or be unable to sell to other Orthodox families
“We need big houses,” Rabbi Shaya Saks, who owns a house on Hart Street, said recently while surrounded by a group of observant Jews on Willoughby Avenue. “We don’t have one or two children.”
“We feel that this is antisemitism because they are trying to stop us from moving in here,” said Hart Street homeowner Herman Bodek, an Orthodox Jew. “This will have us moving out.”
The roughly 50 Jewish owners on the leafy brownstone-lined blocks are speaking out after the commission’s decision to potentially create the so-called Willoughby-Hart Historic District.
The 100-plus homes in the enclave were built around 150 years ago and the area is unique for “the quality of its architecture, strong historic character and sense of place of its streetscapes,” as well as “its community history,” the commission said.
The commission said it received a letter of support for the designation from Osse, a far-left politician whose district includes Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, as well as pro-Israel Democrat state Assemblywoman Stefani Zinerman (D-Brooklyn) and state Sen. Jabari Brisport, a member of Democratic Socialists of America. Osse is a former member of DSA.
Osse and Brisport are perceived as anti-Israel. Brisport was one of the hosts of a rally last month for an Assembly bill cutting off funding to pro-Israel charities, according to Politico.
“Of course they won’t say, ‘No we don’t want Jews here,” Saks said. “They won’t say that, but they will use government agencies like LPC against us and that’s why we are extremely hurt.”
The Orthodox group’s attorney, Adam Leitman Bailey, said: “This is de facto discrimination against Jews. By landmarking this district these Orthodox Jews with extremely large families requiring multiple and extensive alterations will be forced to move.
“By introducing this and being a leader of this, Chi Osse is committing the worst antisemitic act since Oct. 7,” Bailey added.
Osse, who declined to comment, has posted pro-Palestine messages on his X account, like this one two days after Hamas’ horrific attack on innocent Israelis:
“Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and its dominion over the Gaza Strip, now 56 years old, are the primary root of the violence . . . The Palestinian movement for national liberation is legitimate. It is a movement I support and endorse.” He has also denounced acts of antisemitism on X.
Orthodox resident Peter Kohn, who lives on Hart Street, said some non-Jewish neighbors have been harassing them for the last few years by calling the Department of Buildings about legal construction, tearing down their meeting signs, dumping garbage on doorsteps, and shouting antisemitic remarks.
“They became good friends with the councilman who helped them push the LPC to expedite the process,” Kohn said.
Michael Williams, 67, is a lifetime resident of Willoughby Street who favors landmark status for “one of the best blocks” in Bed-Stuy. He added, “If you look at all the tree lines and all the brownstones, it’s beautiful.”
Williams said if his neighbors need to expand their homes they should just “buy a bigger house.”
A few years ago landmark advocates lost a battle to preserve historic 441 Willoughby Ave., a 19th-century mansion that ended up being razed in 2022. The advocates seek to prevent further demolition in the area.
In a petition to the commission, which garnered 1,129 signatures, the Willoughby Nostrand Marcy Block Association said the two blocks are the only “remaining blocks of exclusively brownstones” and deserve protection.
The Orthodox group amassed 1,755 signatures in a rival petition, arguing “the landmarking of these blocks would significantly impede the community’s growth and compromise the integrity of the buildings.”
The commission will hold a public hearing on the matter June 11. If it goes through, Bailey said, “we will be in court the next day.”
DARING RESCUE! Inside one of the ‘most complicated hostage rescue missions in history’ that saved four captured Israelis
The four Israeli hostages saved from Hamas gained their freedom in one of the “most complicated hostage rescue missions in history,” officials said.
Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andri Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, were saved during the “Summer Seeds” operation in Nuseirat, central Gaza, at 11 a.m. local time Saturday, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari announced.
In the days leading up to the raid, the elite Yaman unit drilled various means of extraction, which military officials compared to the 1976 Entebbe raid in Uganda, the Times of Israel reported.
The military also launched an operation to the east of Nuseirat in an apparent effort to reduce Hamas’ manpower in the city, the outlet explained.
When the order was given Saturday morning, Yamam officers simultaneously entered the two structures in the city, where the four hostages were being held above ground in three- to four-story buildings, the Times of Israel reported.
The decision was made to enter the buildings – which were about 650 feet apart – at the same time in the hopes of avoiding the possibility of the Hamas guards murdering the hostages after catching wind of a rescue operation nearby.
The soldiers were reportedly armed with weapons specifically designed for the operation, Israeli writer Hen Mazzig said on X.
Argamani was found on the first floor of one structure, while the three men were discovered on the third floor of another building, he added.
Hamas supposedly pays Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip to keep the hostages in their homes, the Times of Israel said, citing the IDF.
The rescue of Jan, Kozlov, and Ziv resulted in a “major gun battle,” during which Yamam officer Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora was critically wounded.
Zamora later died of his wounds, and the operation was formally renamed “Operation Arnon” in his honor.
The Hamas guards at the second scene were also killed in the exchange, the Times of Israel reported.
The vehicle carrying the three male hostages came under fire a short time later.
Footage shared by the IDF showed the heart-stopping moment a helicopter swooped down and extracted the men from a temporary helipad.
All four hostages were transferred to the Tel Hashomer Hospital in central Israel, where they reunited with their loved ones.
Over 200 Palestinian civilians were killed and over 400 others wounded in the operation, according to the Hamas-linked officials in Gaza, CNN said.
Aside from Zamora, several other Israeli officers were also wounded, mostly light injuries from shrapnel.
“The difference between success and failure in such an operation is a hair’s breadth, and we relied on exceptional technology from the Intelligence and Shin Bet. Without ground activity and maneuvering in the Gazan area, it would not have been possible to succeed in such operations,” the IDF statement read.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the public later on Saturday, saying that the operation was “very complex and dangerous.”
“But I approved it without hesitation because I trust the IDF, the Shin Bet, the Israel Police, the fighting heroes of the Shin Bet and the National Counter-Terrorism Unit,” he insisted, according to Haaretz.
The White House also commended the Israel Defense Force’s “daring” rescue in a formal statement issued Saturday morning.
“The hostage release and ceasefire deal that is now on the table would secure the release of all the remaining hostages together with security assurances for Israel and relief for the innocent civilians in Gaza,” the write-up added.
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