Israel Update: Day 616 – Operation Rising Lion is Underway/Bodies of 2 Hostages Recovered

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Hostages Held in Gaza: 53 (-2); IDF Soldiers Lost: 866

Jay Zeidman
Jun 13, 2025

Earlier tonight, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion: a preemptive and precise combined offensive targeting Iran’s nuclear program. In the first phase, dozens of Israeli Air Force jets struck multiple military and nuclear-related sites across Iran as well as senior military leaders and nuclear scientists. As of the writing of this update, there are many unconfirmed reports related to the success of the operation across Iran so I will wait until tomorrow and send a more detailed special update. For now, please pray for the people of Israel and her brave and heroic defenders. Am Israel Chai (the people of Israel live)!!

Please watch the Prime Ministers statement (in English) below.

Moments ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.

Yair Yaakov (Courtesy)

Per the Times of Israel: The IDF has recovered the body of Yair Ya’akov.

  • Yair was kidnapped alive, along with his wife and two sons, from their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7. Horrifying video footage from Hamas during Ya’akov’s capture shows him sitting wounded on the floor of his kitchen, surrounded by terrorists.
  • Five months later, the family was notified that Ya’akov had been killed in captivity, probably on the day of his abduction.
  • His family members were released in November 2023.
  • His sons, Yagil and Or—both of whom were held hostage in Gaza and later released in the first hostage deal—announced the recovery of their father’s remains.

The second hostage, whose name was set to be permitted for publication at a later time, was also abducted from Nir Oz and murdered during the onslaught. His family was notified that the body had been recovered.

Hostage Update (-2)

There are now currently 52 hostages taken on 10/7 currently in captivity in Gaza (there are 53 hostages remaining in total)

  • Of the 53 hostages still theoretically in Gaza
    • 31 hostages have been confirmed dead and are currently being held in Gaza
    • Thus, at most, 22 living hostages could still be in Gaza. It has been reported that only 20 are actually alive.
    • Hamas is now holding the body of 1 IDF soldier who was killed in 2014 (Lt. Hadar Goldin’s body remains held in the Gaza Strip)
  • 20 hostages remain in captivity and have not been declared dead.
    • 2 hostages are Americans: Meet the Two American Hostages Still Held By Hamas:
      • Itay Chen died on October 7 defending civilians living in an agricultural area near the Gaza borde
      • Omer Neutra was killed when his team drove two miles to the border, where Hamas militants ambushed his tank with rocket-propelled grenades.
  • On October 7th, a total of 251 Israelis were taken hostage.
  • During the ceasefire deal in November of 2023, 112 hostages were released.
  • 38 hostages were released in the first phase of the 2025 cease fire agreement (including 5 Thai nationals)
  • 199 hostages in total have been released or rescued
    • The bodies of 44 hostages have been recovered, including 3 mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
    • 8 hostages have been heroically rescued by troops alive

Watch

  • The IDF published drone footage of an underground tunnel route beneath the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza. In a special, targeted operation, IDF soldiers located an underground tunnel route containing numerous findings such as command and control rooms, weapons, and additional intelligence materials.
  • Mohammad Sinwar was responsible for the deaths of countless civilians. He was eliminated in an IDF & ISA strike on May 13. His body was found beneath the European hospital in Khan Yunis

Humanitarian Aid

A horrifying and terrifying statement from The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Hamas attacked a bus with two-dozen workers of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation tonight. There are at least 8 people dead, multiple other injuries, and concerns that others were taken hostage. At this point, it is believed that no Americans were killed.

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  • The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed almost 19 million meals to date across multiple distribution sites.
  • The contents of each box exceed the average UN daily caloric guidelines.
  • Today alone, GHF delivered 2.6 million meals across three distribution sites:
  • Rev. Johnnie Moore, Chairman of GHF writes: Today was GHF’s largest distribution to date…we just have one mission: provide food for Gazans. The UN refused to even issue a statement condemning a direct, violent threat by Hamas against our volunteers and Gazans seeking food at GHF. Yet, Gazans defied the threat and came anyhow and today we distributed more food than on any single day yet (I was on site).

Israel/Middle East Related Articles

Netanyahu Wisely Arms Gaza Clans to Fight Hamas by John Spencer in the WSJ

  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed last week that Israel is arming local clans inside Gaza to fight Hamas. Critics immediately called the move dangerous and reckless.
  • Wartime alliances are rarely clean. They are judged not by ideology but by whether they advance the mission. In Gaza today, the mission is clear: Destroy Hamas as a military force and a governing power.
  • Already, Hamas has lost most of its battalions and command structure. Its ability to control the population is slipping. Hamas has lost its stranglehold over food distribution, once a critical tool of leverage.
  • Against this backdrop, arming rival clans makes strategic sense. It fractures Hamas’s monopoly on force, empowers Gazans to defend themselves, and denies Hamas safe haven in the communities it once ruled through terror.
  • The situation is morally and strategically complex. But it underscores a truth about modern conflict: The character of the postwar actor is a secondary concern to winning the war itself. In Gaza, the overriding priority is to defeat Hamas.
  • Victory over Hamas won’t come from airstrikes alone. It will take local ground knowledge, legitimacy within communities, and the ability to fill power vacuums before Hamas does. Empowering clans that oppose Hamas, regardless of past affiliations, is a tactical necessity.
  • Israel isn’t arming Gaza clans to build a new government. It’s arming them to destroy the government Hamas built through terror.
  • Link: Netanyahu Wisely Arms Gaza Clans to Fight Hamas

According to Ben Tzion Macales, the IDF controls about 50% of the entire territory of the Gaza Strip (up from 41% just a little over a week ago).

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The Palestinian narrative – Part One: Make it make sense by Nachum Kaplan with Moral Clarity: Truths in Politics and Culture – The “pro-Palestinian” narrative is so contradictory and full of lies that it is disorientating. Here is Part One of our two-part look the Top 40 anti-Israel claims that make no sense.

  • At high school, I hated having to write argumentative or persuasive essays.
  • This is how it feels writing about the Israel-Hamas War. The anti-Israeli side has no persuasive points at all.
  • Most anti-Israel criticisms are stupid, ignorant, wrong, and antisemitic. Yet, anti-Israel believers seem unaware that this is how the world sees them.
  • Israel is the only country ever required to provide aid to its enemies during war.
  • Gaza is the only place where the population increased during an alleged genocide.
  • Hamas is the only organization to have abducted a nine-month-old baby and received cheers throughout the world.
  • The Palestinian flag represents the terrorist ideology of wanting to destroy Israel and murder Jews.
  • Gaza was never an “open-air prison” before Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel.
  • The reason Israel and Egypt imposed security checks on Gaza is because Hamas kept importing missiles and other weaponry to fire at Israeli civilians.
  • How is it that Hamas runs out of everything except missiles?
  • The human suffering in Gaza is a direct result of these Hamas policies, yet Israel gets the blame.
  • The international community… almost never condemn Hamas for using Palestinian civilians as human shields.
  • If Israel moves civilians to safety, it is accused of forcibly moving people and ethnically cleansing Gaza.
  • The international media does not have any correspondents or photographers reporting from Gaza, but they pretend they do.
  • Hamas is treated as a serious negotiating party despite it having started the war.
  • Allegedly serious observers want a ceasefire that would leave Hamas in power.
  • Greta Thunberg is on an attention-seeking flotilla to Gaza.
  • Antonio Guterres remains UN Secretary General despite being a disgusting antisemite who is evil at a cellular level.
  • UNRWA is indistinguishable from Hamas.
  • The UN’s Human Rights Body is a laughable group of authoritarian regimes…
  • Bizarrely, Israel remains a member of the UN despite getting no benefit for doing so.
  • Some people see the glass as half full, while others see it as half empty. I see the glass as a weapon and I will not retreat from these Islamist Nazis under any circumstances.
  • Link: The Palestinian narrative – Part One: Make it make sense

The Twilight of Palestinian “Armed Struggle”? by Ehud Yaari in The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

  • “Armed Struggle” was the main pillar, the tallest banner, the essence of the ethos of the Palestinian national movement since the last years of the 19th century.
  • Yasser Arafat, who captured the leadership of the PLO, summarized this approach saying that “freedom and justice come from the barrel of the gun.”
  • Many analysts expected the Oslo Accords of 1993 to represent a turning point by the PLO away from “Armed Struggle” towards a search for gradual peaceful reconciliation with Israel.
  • Those hopes were dashed in less than two years when Arafat secretly sanctioned the Hamas suicide bombers campaign.
  • In 2000, Arafat unleashed the murderous Second Intifada.
  • To his credit, Mahmoud Abbas was the first high-ranking Palestinian leader who had the courage to question, during the Second Intifada of 2000-2005, the wisdom of adhering to “Armed Struggle,” calling to replace it with diplomatic and legal warfare against Israel.
  • The absolute primacy of “Armed Struggle” in Palestinian discourse has discouraged any serious attempt to discuss or plan for a future Palestinian state.
  • One significant exception was a seminar held by Hamas in Gaza—under the auspices of the late Yahya Sinwar—prior to October 7, 2023.
  • A broad consensus between the participants was reached that most Israeli Jews should be eradicated or expelled while those contributing to Israel’s success in high tech and other critical domains would be forced to serve the new Palestinian authorities.
  • So far this trend is reflected mainly in stormy exchanges on social media platforms and internal controversies within Hamas.
  • We may be reaching a point where the Palestinians will feel compelled to make a choice between the road which led to past failures and an attempt to chart a new route.
  • The main criticism of Hamas is over timing and planning.
  • Even more important is the fact that this line of thinking subordinates Palestinian “Armed Struggle” to the strategy imposed by non-Palestinian partners.
  • At present, adherence to the primacy of “Armed Struggle” faces a long list of impediments brought about by the war that Hamas launched on October 7, 2023.
  • About 20,000 of its fighters were killed, including almost all of the first and second echelon commanders, most of its tunnel network demolished or cemented, most of its large arsenal of rockets and anti-tank weapons destroyed.
  • Hamas negotiators have conveyed to US envoys that they are ready for a five-to-ten-year armistice with Israel.
  • Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt have made it clear that Hamas has to be disarmed before reconstruction funds can flow into Gaza.
  • In the West Bank, the IDF has conducted a less publicized series of operations against the Kataib (battalions), which Hamas and Islamic Jihad established in the northern refugee camps and some neighboring villages with Iranian funding and weapons smuggling across the Jordan River.
  • The fortified strongholds established in refugee camps in Jenin and Nablus have been demolished.
  • As for the 35,000-strong Palestinian Authority security organs in the West Bank, they have undergone in recent weeks what amounts to a purge of most senior officers.
  • In Lebanon, President Joseph Aoun and the new government have successfully applied pressure on Hamas to stop lobbing rockets into Israel and have arrested some of its operatives.
  • Above all, Hamas as well as other Palestinian armed factions are facing the demand of the Lebanese authorities for disarmament in the twelve Palestinian refugee camps.
  • President Abbas has accepted this demand on behalf of Fatah and the PLO.
  • In Syria, the post-Asad regime under President al-Shara’a has been taking actions to put an end to Palestinian military activity.
  • The Gulf states, Egypt, and Jordan do not allow a Palestinian military presence.
  • Turkey and Qatar allow Hamas to keep headquarters, directing operations from afar, but so far do not allow the stationing of military units.
  • In Iraq, the Popular Mobilization Forces, part of the Iranian proxy network, express great sympathy for Hamas and “Armed Struggle” in general, but so far no Hamas military presence has been detected there.
  • The bottom line is that Palestinian armed groups are under growing pressure both inside and outside the territories.
  • The big question is whether or not Palestinians will be prepared to bid farewell to their old battle cry.
  • Link: The Twilight of Palestinian “Armed Struggle”?

Antisemitism

Greta’s blind eye to murder: Thunberg’s refusal to watch footage of October 7 pogrom is all you need to know by Jake Wallis Simons

  • Good riddance, I say. My only regret is that Thunberg refused to watch the footage of October 7 at a screening provided by the Israeli authorities before she was sent back where she came from.
  • …the voyage itself, which, as the Telegraph reveals, was organised by Zaher Birawi, who has been described in Parliament as having links with Hamas.
  • When the so-called “selfie yacht” was picked up by the Israeli navy – which might have had more important things to do, you’d have thought – in what has been dubbed the “softest military operation in history” – they have range, the Israelis, I’ll give them that – it was found to contain less than one truckful of aid.
  • …the activists were found to have consumed quite a lot of the aid on their voyage
  • Hence that famous picture of Thunberg in her froggy sunhat gratefully receiving a kosher sandwich from a soldier, several years younger than her, who was doing something honourable with his life.
  • In a further layer of the good stuff, her call for followers to pressure the Swedish government to free her from Israeli “captivity” provoked so many calls to the emergency hotlines to help Swedes abroad that those truly in need of assistance were unable to get it.
  • It was typical of the global effort to erase the casus belli of this conflict and rewrite history to make the victims the aggressors, the victims of attempted genocide the perpetrators of the same crime, the people who had their babies murdered the true baby killers. To be fair to Thunberg, she’s hardly the only person at it.
  • Let’s stop beating around the selfie yacht. It was never truly about the climate, any more than it was truly about the conflict in the Middle East. Closing her eyes to the October 7 footage crystallised the sustaining principle of Greta Thunberg: she is absorbed in a world of her own. It is a world that began with hating her teachers; went on to hating the establishment; and has ended with hating the Jews and the West, powered by endless selfies.
  • Link: Good riddance Greta Thunberg

Greta: only funny on the surface by Andrew Fox – Moral narcissism on the High Seas

  • Greta Thunberg is neither brave nor wise. She is not a climate scientist, strategist, or a serious adult voice. What she is above all is a global symbol, a living meme engineered for virality, outrage, and applause.
  • This raises a deeper question: why does this theatre compel so many people?
  • Her adolescence was not dedicated to forming a grounded identity but to performing one on the global stage.
  • This is not activism but influencer theatre dressed in the aesthetics of sacrifice.
  • More troubling is her silence and her selectivity.
  • How can a climate activist overlook the thousands of missiles launched from Gaza into Israeli cities, often from schools and hospitals, whilst expending her political capital blaming the only liberal democracy in the Middle East?
  • The answer: she is not an activist; she is a brand.
  • Brands do not seek truth; they chase attention.
  • We have dismantled the scaffolding that once supported individual and collective identity.
  • Amongst others, into that vacuum steps Greta, offering emotionally satisfying moral theatre in place of actual solutions.
  • This is not just a Greta problem; it is a Western crisis.
  • Malign actors from Iran to Russia to radical Islamist movements understand our psychology.
  • They know that if they can capture the emotions of Western youth, they can undermine our moral clarity from within.
  • They recognise that performative outrage is more potent than truth in a world addicted to dopamine and display.
  • What better delivery system exists than a sanctified young woman who tosses phones into the sea to support Hamas while disregarding a panoply of far worse humanitarian disasters?
  • Greta’s Gaza stunt was not courageous; it was cheap theatre and cost her nothing.
  • We are no longer a civilisation of citizens.
  • We are a civilisation of consumers of morality, outsourcing our virtue to influencers and calling it justice.
  • Greta Thunberg is not the problem; she is a symptom of a civilisation in moral freefall.
  • Her contradictions, her theatrics, and her selective outrage are not failures but instead features of a system that rewards symbolism over substance.
  • If we do not start to defend reality, protecting our young from manipulation and restoring meaning beyond performance, we will lose this civilisational war.
  • Not to Greta, but to the void she fills.
  • Link: Greta: only funny on the surface

Casualties (no change)

1,886 Israelis have been killed including 866 IDF soldiers and police since October 7th

  • The South: 424 IDF soldiers during the ground operation in Gaza have been killed. The toll includes three police officers (two of which were killed in a hostage rescue mission) and two Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
  • The North: 133 Israelis (85 IDF soldiers) have been killed during the war in Northern Israel
  • The West Bank: 66 Israelis (27 IDF and Israeli security forces)
  • Additional Information (according to the IDF):
    • 5,951 (+14 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, including at least 885 (no change since Sunday) who have been severely injured.
    • 2,710 (+10 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 520 (no change since Sunday) who have been severely injured.

Regular sources include JINSA, FDD, IDF, AIPAC, The Paul Singer Foundation, The Institute for National Security Studies, the Alma Research and Education Center, Yediot, Jerusalem Post, IDF Casualty Count, algemeimer, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Institute for the Study of War, Tablet Magazine, Mosaic Magazine, Commentary, The Free Press, The Jewish Institute for Strategy and Security, and the Times of Israel