#kidnapped medical student by IDF

[mariluphoto]

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Israel claimed that medical student Nasr Al Madhoun is fighter after stripping him naked and handed him a rifle.

Caption: Civilians in Gaza are used by Israel occupation forces in propaganda videos portraying them as Hamas fighters.

(via. alhelou.y)

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

A 47 years old mother and her 15 years old son were seriously injured in a Hezbollah rocket attack today, aimed at the northern city of Kiryat Shmona. I'll just point out that even though the Iran-funded terrorism group always claims their attacks on Israelis are a retaliation for this or for that, they chose to open fire at Israel on Oct 7 (when this country was busy with Hamas terrorists still infiltrating it in the south), and they haven't stopped since.

I just wanted to show you what it looks like when Israel's border is being fired at, but please keep in mind that Iron Dome was only implemented in 2011, but we have been fired at by one hostile entity or another (often more than one) for a very long time. I can't remember a time when we weren't afraid of rockets being fired at us. And Iron Dome, as demonstrated again today, with all due respect to it, is like every other defence system: it's not foolproof. Any person who wouldn't accept being at the receiving end of these rocket barrages, has no right to demand that Israel continues to accept this distorted reality.

(audio: Golda Meir)

So this is a reminder that this is what Israel has been dealing with almost non-stop since Oct 7 from several fronts.

Here in Israel, we continue to follow with alarm the rise of antisemitic incidents around the globe. This time, I have to share with you this horrifying bit of news, about a Jewish student, Lahav Shapira, being beaten so badly, that he had to be hospitalized and undergo surgery for the facial injuries that he endured at the hands of an Arab (so called "pro-Palestinian") student. Police says this was following an argument over the war in Gaza, Lahav's family says he and his gf were stalked, then he was jumped, while the attacker shouted, "Why are you posting pictures of kidnapped people?" To make matters worse, this happened in Berlin, and Lahav is the grandson of an Israeli athelete who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in Germany, while he was participating in the 1972 Olympic Games. Berlin's Free University's response was weak, focused on explaining that the law prevents them from expelling the attacking student.

While ignorant social media users insist that what's happening to the Palestinians is a genocide, the niece of Qatar-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh gave birth in an Israeli hospital. Her baby was born prematurely, and is taken care of in the NICU. Haniyeh has 3 sisters who married Israeli Bedouin Arabs, got Israeli citizenship through that, and live in Israel with full citizen rights. I've worked with so many victims of actual cases of genocide, and NONE went to get medical treatment from the people who were massacring them.

I've now seen Tumblr posts accusing Israel of bombing over one million people in Rafah. These are posts referring to the rescue raid, where Israeli soldiers raided one apartment, SAVED two hostages, and then left. If you're trying to save two hostages from terrorists who would kill their prisoners and themselves first, you wanna sneak in there as discreetly as possible. You wouldn't bomb an entire city. Even Hamas' false spin, blaming Israel of a massacre (and don't forget that Hamas is the organization telling the world how many died during this operation), didn't try to claim that the IDF attacked the whole population of the city. There's something insanely wrong in a reality where people on social media uncritically pass along lies that not even a terrorist organization dares to tell.

The graduating student in the cap is Matan Levi.

He studied law, and was about to have his graduation ceremony when Hamas' massacre took place. He left everything, and went south to fight as a reservist that verey day. On Oct 14, he was hit by a mortar, and when he woke up in the hospital, he discovered that he had lost his eyesight. According to his own account, that was very hard to hear, but his first thought was regarding how this won't break him, how he can move on from this. Since then, he's been accompanied by a former soldier named Amit Barel:

Amit fought and was injured in the Second Lebanon War, back in 2006. He lost his sight, too. He has since developed a career, married, and had kids. He's a part of a program where wounded former soldiers are helping those who have been recently injured to cope with their new challenges. He said that simply seeing that life is possible even with serious injuries is very helpful to a lot of the newly wounded soldiers. I thought it's inspirational, how people can put their misfortune to good use, to help others, how these new bonds and friendships get formed, so I wanted to share the story of this touching project.

But I also wanted to reflect on how Israel is a society of wounded people. Not just physically. We have the collective trauma caused by thousands of years of antisemitic persecution, including the Holocaust and the expulsion of Mizrachi Jews from Arab and Muslim countries, and we have the on going trauma caused by the continued use of violence against us in a war that was started against us in 1947, and has never really ended, whatever form it has taken at different points in time. No one has a right to speak about this conflict, unless they're willing to acknowledge this hurt, too.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[aestariiwilderness]

They didn't even look at the comic. The dates on the gravestones are all 10/7/2023 (or 7/10/23), wherein the majority of deaths were Israeli civilians. "Death to IDF soldiers", they fanatically proclaim -- except these aren't even IDF soldiers. These aren't even Israeli police or firefighters or first responders (who died too). These were elderly women, families, infants, children, teenagers, even tourists, indiscriminately and barbarically murdered by cowardly, weak-kneed, sadist terrorists. TW below for violent infant/children/elderly deaths. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of Erick and Ruth Peretz, a father and his 16-year-old wheelchair-bound daughter who came because Ruth loved music and Erick loved Ruth. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of the Siman Tov family -- Tamar, 35 years old, and her husband Yonatan, their 5 1/2 year old twin daughters Shahar and Arbel, and young son Omer, 2 years old (in addition to Yonatan's mother Carol, killed in her own home).

"Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of Margarita Guzak, twenty-one year old artist who wanted to attend medical school and instead was killed by Hamas terrorists while she fled a music festival. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of high school student and surfer Tal Keren, 17 years old. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of Nurit Berger, mother of four daughters who loved watching birds. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of Mussa Abu Sabila, a 41-year-old Bedouin and father of eight, murdered while driving frantically -- AFTER he'd been shot and wounded, with no thought for his own life -- to rescue his nephew. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of Apichart & Phongthep Kusaram, 29 and 26 year old Thai brothers on kibbutz. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of 51-year-old mother Dikla Arava and 17-year-old son Tomer Eliaz. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of great-grandmother Emma Poliakov, 83 years old, who loved to sing. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of Mark Peretz (51), who rushed to save his daughter Maya. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of fashion stylist Amit Buskila, 27 years old, killed on October 7th while on the phone with her uncle Shimon, her body kidnapped to Gaza until IDF forces recovered her body from Gaza in May 2024. Her last known words were "I love you" to her uncle. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of Itzhak Balti, 53 year old father of three (including his two-year-old son) who put his own life on the line first to defend his neighborhood in Ofakim and died saving many. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of Yona, Ohad, and Mila Cohen, three generations of one family (grandmother, father, and baby daughter) aged 73 years, 43 years, and 9 months old. Mila was shot in her mother's arms. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of Yahav Winner, 36 year old killed protecting his wife and newborn child. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of Adi Vital-Kaploun, hero mother who saved her family's lives and was killed in front of her young sons. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of Ortal Benayun, 24 year old cancer survivor who was there only to dance. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of Addir Mesika, 23 year old who charged with his best friend at the terrorists to save his girlfriend and three others in the shelter. Addir texted his younger brother earlier and told him that he did not think he would make it and that he loved them very much. "Are you happy in hell?" this person, foolishly, asks of Chana Kritzman, 88 years old, who came to Israel from Poland in 1935 as a baby with her parents, desperate to escape the growing tide of antisemitism. She established Be'eri's library. She was shot while fleeing and still hung on for two weeks before dying in the hospital. "Death to IDF soldiers", they cry; "are you happy in hell, civilians we shot and mutilated and slaughtered and kidnapped and burned alive?" they howl, proving the entire need for the Israeli Defense Forces. It doesn't matter what you (foolishly) believe. It doesn't matter if you are, however nobly, concerned about Palestinian civilians (in far more danger from Hamas than from Israel). It doesn't matter what (Hamas-sourced) statistics you show (as if any of them could ever make this justified). It doesn't matter what you think of Israel. That anyone could look at this and say "GOOD! BRING ON THE DEATH! Are you, the victims, happy in hell?" says everything about them and nothing about these people. I'd venture to say it says everything anyone needs to know. God bless the Israeli Defense Forces. God bless Israel.

SOURCES https://www.barrons.com/news/new-tally-puts-oct-7-attack-death-toll-in-israel-at-1-189-3e038de6 https://nypost.com/2023/10/18/bodies-of-erick-ruth-peretz-found-after-hamas-festival-massacre/

The Worst 45 Minute Film You Will Ever See | TIME (graphic)

Video: Horrific footage details Hamas assaults on Israel since October 7th | Daily Mail Online (graphic) https://saturday-october-seven.com/

Why we must all watch Hamas's raw video footage from October 7 - opinion - The Jerusalem Post (graphic) 

https://oct7.treedis.com/ (graphic) https://www.timesofisrael.com/those-we-have-lost/ https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel-at-war/1709472922-israeli-report-38-children-killed-on-october-7-thousands-traumatized

https://www.memri.org/tv/hamas-official-mousa-abu-marzouk-tunnels-gaza-protect-fighters- not-civilians

In battle for Gaza stronghold, 100 women and children pushed forward by Hamas to act as human barrier, IDF claims

https://he.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/שימוש_בילדים_בפיגועי_התאבדות_פלסטיניים (Have to translate, Hebrew wikipedia on Hamas using children as suicide bombers)

**Hamas’ use of human shields in Gaza

  Six Ways Hamas Could Limit Civilian Casualties in Gaza | The Washington Institute The UN Quietly Admits It Exaggerated Civilian Casualties in Gaza https://jinsa.org/casualties-in-gaza-no-war-crimes/ https://www.aipac.org/resources/hamas-using-palestinian-civilians-as-human-shields-to-attack-israel-na87m-z6s6j-c5ba4 https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/10/hamass-strategy-depends-on-maximizing-palestinian-civilian-casualties/ US envoy: Hamas structured Gaza campaign to produce civilian casualties - The Jerusalem Post https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2023/11/01/hamas-officials-admit-its-strategy-is-to-use-palestinian-civilians-as-human-shields/ https://www.ajc.org/news/israel-hamas-and-international-law-what-you-need-to-know https://www.adl.org/resources/news/hamas-killing-its-own-civilians

Death to IDF soldiers.

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

This is Yonatan Shimriz. He's the brother of Alon, one of the 3 Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas, and accidentally killed by the IDF due to mistakenly thinking they're terrorists. Yonatan also survived with his family the massacre of Oct 7. And he just had a baby boy. Life WILL win, despite those who think they have the right to take it away.

It's been announced today that Israel has hired Prof. Malcolm Shaw, a Jewish British law professor, who specializes in the field of human rights and territorial disputes, to represent it at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. He's one of 4 lawyers that will represent Israel.

If I hadn't verified this is true through several news sources, I would not have believed this scenario. Terrorists fired an RPG at an IDF helicopter in Gaza, missed it, and ended up hitting a medical clinic in kibbutz Nirim, inside Israel, though as you might imagine, it's very close to the border. This is what the clinic looks like after the hit:

Lebanon has filed a complaint with the UN Security Council, blaming Israel for killing Saleh al-Arouri on its territory. Because harboring a senior Hamas terrorist, responsible for the murders of countless Israeli civilians, is not an issue, apparently. Lebanon charges that this is the biggest escalation between it and Israel since 2006 (the Second Lebanon War). They have no issue with Lebanon violating UN resolution 1701, which put an end to that war, conditioned on Hezbollah not being present anywhere between the Litani river and Lebanon's border with Israel (of course Hezbollah has been, and has been firing rockets at Israel from this area). Then again, the UN has done nothing to enforce that part of resolution 1701, so I guess if they don't care, why should the terrorists?

After I posted yesterday that the most likely scenario for who caused the blasts in Iran that killed 84 people is ISIS, the terrorist organization did take responsibility for the terrorist attack. Guess who Iran is still blaming for the attack, and swearing revenge against? The Jewish state. This is what antisemitism looks like. Well. It's one of its many looks.

On a different note, I wanted to see what the American media said about Claudine Gay's resignation, and I was horrified to hear that it's all painted in terms of liberals vs conservatives. Here's the thing, that may be completely true, but I just don't care. Antisemitism is a real issue, and the way the resignation is talked about, it's like the safety of Jewish students is nothing. Antisemitism is just a tool, and sometimes one political camp uses it against its rival, while at other times, that happens in the opposite direction. But it's like Jews are not even a part of the conversation. IDK, maybe it's because I'm an outsider, but the way Jews don't seem to matter even when antisemitism is supposedly finally being discussed, is truly startling. I'm in the middle of an active war zone, and I'm honestly sat here, worried for Jews abroad.

After a lot of work to gather information about their fate, the last 3 Israeli men missing since Oct 7 are now defined as hostages, which brings the total number of those kidnapped to 136, including bodies, and Israelis kidnapped before the massacre (2 living men and 2 bodies). There's one more missing Israeli woman, whose fate is still to be determined. We're 3 months into this nightmare, and there are still so many question marks. Even with those defined as murdered or kidnapped at a certain point, we've seen that sometimes there's new info, which changes what we believe happened to them.

And here's an example for the latter. This is 38 years old Tamir Adar.

Until yesterday, he was believed to be held hostage in Gaza. As new information was gathered, it was determined that he had been murdered on Oct 7. Tamir is the grandson of Holocaust survivor Yafa Adar, who was herself kidnapped, and released in the hostage deal. His body is still being held by the terrorists. Yafa herself was filmed as she was being taken to Gaza, holding her head up, and not crying. In an interview she gave after her release, she said that she refused to cry, because she wanted her family to be proud of her if they saw the footage. She also said that she's still not free, because her grandson is still in Gaza. I can't imagine what Yafa and her family feel after the news about Tamir's fate. May his memory be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)