Hostage Update

• According to the Times of Israel: Israel is expecting the four remaining slain hostages from the first phase of the hostage deal to be released by Hamas on Thursday.
• Hamas has agreed not to hold such ceremonies during the release of the four slain hostages
• Once that final release of hostages envisioned in the first phase happens, says the official, Hamas has three choices.
  • It can agree to Israel’s terms — that it disarm, that its leaders go into exile, and that it give up any civil control over Gaza — and then Israel will move to the second phase of the deal, which would see all hostages released and the war come to an end.
  • Hamas can also continue releasing hostages and extend the ceasefire
  • Or, says the official, Hamas can choose the end of the ceasefire, which would mean a return to all-out war. “The gates of hell will be opened, as they say.”
• After the release of the bodies on Thursday, says the official, Israel will give Hamas some time to decide what it wants to do. But if there isn’t another release of hostages by next Saturday, March 8, Israel will consider the ceasefire over.

• There are now currently 62 hostages taken on 10/7 currently in captivity in Gaza (there are 63 hostages remaining in total)
• 29 hostages have been released so far in the first phase of the agreement
• 4 are now remaining on the list for release during the first stage of the ceasefire (pictures below) and are assumed to be dead. Only Shlomo Mansour has been officially declared deceased.

  

• 5 hostages are Americans: Meet the Five American Hostages Still Held By Hamas: Edan Alexander is assumed to be alive, Itay Chen is assumed to have been killed on 10/7, and Gadi Haggai, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Omer Neutra have been confirmed to have been killed.
• 24 hostages will remain in captivity after Phase I and have not been declared dead.
  • 4 are soldiers
  • 7 are residents of the Gaza border communities
  • 11 were abducted from the Nova music festival
  • 2 are foreign workers: Bipin Joshi from Nepal and Pinta Nattapong from Thailand
• Link: These are the hostages to be released (and left behind) in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal’s first phase – Jewish Telegraphic Agency

• On October 7^th, a total of 251 Israelis were taken hostage.
  • During the ceasefire deal in November of 2023, 112 hostages were released.
  • 189 hostages in total have been released or rescued
    • The bodies of 40 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
• Of the 63 hostages still theoretically in Gaza
  • 35 hostages have been confirmed dead and are currently being held in Gaza
  • Thus, at most, 28 living hostages could still be in Gaza.
  • 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)

Casualties (no change)

1,850 Israelis have been killed including 846 IDF soldiers since October 7th (no change since Sunday)

• The South: 407 IDF soldiers during the ground operation in Gaza have been killed (no change since Sunday)
• The North: 132 Israelis (84 IDF soldiers) have been killed during the war in Northern Israel (no change since Sunday)
• The West Bank: 63 Israelis (27 IDF and Israeli security forces)
• Additional Information (according to the IDF):
  • 2,582 (+1 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 497 (no change since Sunday) who have been severely injured.
  • 5,722 (+1 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, including at least 851 (no change since Sunday) who have been severely injured.

• The Gaza Casualty Count:
  • According to unverified figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, 62,614 total deaths have been reported, with a civilian/combatant ratio: 1:1.
  • [MUST READ] Report: Questionable Counting: Analysing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza by Andrew Fox with The Henry Jackson Society
  • On October 7th, Ohad Hemo with Channel 12 Israel News – the country’s largest news network, a leading expert on Palestinian and Arab affairs, mentioned an estimate from Hamas: around 80% of those killed in Gaza are members of the organization and their families.”
  • Read this well documented piece from Tablet published in March: How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers
  • The Associated Press, an outlet with a demonstrated anti-Israel bias, conducted an analysis of alleged Gaza death tolls released by the Hamas-controlled “Gaza Health Ministry.” The analysis found that “9,940 of the dead – 29% of its April 30 total – were not listed in the data” and that “an additional 1,699 records in the ministry’s April data were incomplete and 22 were duplicates.”
• The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes official details on every civilian and IDF casualty.

Humanitarian Aid

In accordance with the terms of the deal for the return of Israeli hostages from Hamas captivity, an extra surge of humanitarian aid entry has been taking place, as detailed below.

Source: Israel Humanitarian efforts – Swords of Iron

Watch

The IDF released images showing Israeli Air Force fighter jets flying low over the funeral ceremony for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the Lebanese capital Beirut earlier today. Additional footage circulated online by Lebanese media shows the flyby. It was reported that this was the same squadron that participated in the elimination of the Hezbollah terrorist leader last year.

According to the Times of Israel: Defense Minister Israel Katz said the overflight was a “clear message” to anyone who threatens Israel.

• “Israeli Air Force aircraft currently flying over Beirut, over the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, convey a clear message: Whoever threatens to destroy Israel and attack Israel — it will be their end,” he said in a statement.
• “You will specialize in funerals, and we will specialize in victories,” Katz added.

Antisemitism

A BBC Documentary—Brought to You by Hamas by Adam LeBor with The Free Press

• Abdullah Al-Yazouri, a 13-year-old boy living in the Gaza Strip, is a natural in front of the camera. In the BBC documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, which first aired February 17, he and other youngsters guide viewers through wrecked buildings, rubble-strewn streets, and bloody, overflowing hospitals. … Yet now it is the BBC that’s under fire over the documentary’s fishy sources and methods.
• It turns out that Al-Yazouri was anything but a random child-journalist. He is the son of Dr. Ayman Alyazouri, a deputy minister in the Hamas government. It took an investigation by David Collier, a British media researcher and activist who describes himself as ‘100 percent Zionist,’ to bring this fact to light. … The ensuing uproar extended across Britain’s political spectrum and forced the BBC first to issue a correction and then to remove the film from broadcast ‘for further due diligence.’
• Such a review would be overdue. Danny Cohen, a former director of BBC television and a consistent informed critic of the organization, told me the problem is deep-rooted and institutional. ‘The BBC may try and present this as an isolated incident, but it’s really not,’ he said. ‘It forms part of a systemic pattern of bias and misrepresentation that we have seen since the October 7 attacks. There is a lot of groupthink, which presents Israel as a postcolonial state. The degree of focus that they place on Israel is very different to any other country.’
• In 2004, Malcolm Balen, a senior BBC journalist, was commissioned … to compile a lengthy report about its coverage of the Middle East. This was in response to sustained complaints of anti-Israel bias. Balen completed the report but it has never been released. The BBC spent hundreds of thousands of pounds fighting off lawsuits from those who wanted it published. … In February 2012, the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court ruled in the BBC’s favor.
• As for the BBC, when controversy erupted it tried to blame Hoyo Films. On February 19, two days after the program premiered, the BBC added contextual detail … The production team had full editorial control of filming with Abdullah. … If the BBC had followed all of its ‘compliance procedures,’ how did senior executives—and films about such sensitive subjects as the war in Gaza get vetted by multiple editors—not know that the key narrator was the son of a Hamas minister?
• This “dog ate my homework” excuse, of course, raised more questions. If the BBC had followed all of its “compliance procedures,” how did senior executives—and films about such sensitive subjects as the war in Gaza get vetted by multiple editors—not know that the key narrator was the son of a Hamas minister?
• Two days after adding this threadbare “correction,” the network finally decided it could no longer stand behind the documentary and withdrew it from broadcast.
• This still-developing scandal might just be the biggest ever for the BBC involving its coverage of the Middle East, and one that could threaten the flow of funds upon which it depends. … The grotesque scenes in Gaza attending the release of infant Israeli hostages’ remains have caused widespread revulsion even among those who do not usually pay attention to Middle East wars. The news that ‘Auntie,’ as the BBC is still affectionately known, had broadcast Hamas propaganda—using vulnerable children to do so—could prove a tipping point.
• Link: A BBC Documentary—Brought to You by Hamas

How Universities Get Away With Hiring Radicals with John D. Sailer in City Journal

• In the days after the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Jemma Decristo, a UC Davis professor, took to social media to express support for the violent energies that had erupted in the Middle East. … As of this writing, UC Davis has not disciplined Decristo. … Ironically, Decristo’s employment at UC Davis came about precisely because of the University of California’s purported commitment to social justice. Decristo, once described by UC Davis as a ‘scholar-artist-activist,’ was recruited through the President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP), which fast-tracks scholars showing a ‘commitment to diversity’ into permanent faculty roles.
• For years, universities, federal agencies, and private foundations have worked to create well-funded career pathways for scholar-activists in higher education. The network includes undergraduate fellowships, graduate school funding, special hiring initiatives, and even administrator development programs. This constellation of ‘pipeline programs’ is intended to hire more minorities; in practice, it heavily favors academics who view their scholarship as an extension of their political agenda. … The series is based on thousands of pages of documents acquired through public records requests and interviews with more than a dozen scholars. It explores what is perhaps the most popular and effective kind of pipeline program, responsible for Decristo’s professorship at UC Davis: the fellow-to-faculty model.
• At its inception, PPFP awarded postdocs only to women and minorities. In 1996, when California voters banned affirmative action, identity-based criteria became unambiguously illegal, forcing the program to evolve. Now, the UC system seeks demographic diversity by proxy. A grant proposal obtained by a public records request describes how PPFP assesses ‘a candidate’s demonstrated contributions to diversity and equal opportunity,’ rather than using race or sex. This ‘innovative holistic selection process,’ the proposal carefully points out, is ‘compliant with the current legal environment in California.’
• Usually, a postdoctoral fellowship is just a small step in a scholar’s career. … The diversity-focused fellow-to-faculty model modifies this pathway. First, the programs’ administrators select fellows with special attention to how they contribute to diversity. Fellows are then heavily favored for—often guaranteed—tenure-track positions, bypassing a competitive search. It’s a side-door into the faculty lounge.
• Perhaps because it’s so effective, the fellow-to-faculty model exploded throughout American higher education in the early 2010s, as universities around the country began ratcheting up their DEI efforts. … A 2021 article in Frontiers in Psychology identified 38 diversity-focused postdoctoral ‘conversion’ programs nationwide, though I found more in my investigation. … Over the last five years, one in 20 tenure-track hires in the UC System were former president’s or chancellor’s postdoctoral fellows.
• The programs thus provide a steady stream of scholars committed to activist disciplines like ‘critical refugee studies’ and ‘queer of color critique.’ They raise serious questions about academic freedom, government funding and private philanthropy, and the feasibility of higher education reform. … When the dust settles from the battle over DEI, reformers will still have to contend with the way that universities have reshaped their basic mission through the construction of a scholar-activist pipeline.
• Link: How Universities Get Away With Hiring Radicals

Barnard College expels students involved in anti-Israel class disruption by Haley Cohen with the Jewish Insider

• Barnard College has expelled two second-semester seniors who last month disrupted a History of Modern Israel class, banged on drums, chanted ‘free Palestine’ and distributed posters to students that read ‘CRUSH ZIONISM’ with a boot over the Star of David, Jewish Insider has learned, according to a source familiar with the matter. … Columbia University suspended the Columbia participant on Jan. 23, ‘pending a full investigation and disciplinary process,’ according to the university. The investigation remains ongoing.
• In a statement to JI, Barnard President Laura Rosenbury declined to provide details about the expulsions. ‘Under federal law, we cannot comment on the academic and disciplinary records of students,’ Rosenbury said. … ‘When rules are broken, when there is no remorse, no reflection, and no willingness to change, we must act. Expulsion is always an extraordinary measure, but so too is our commitment to respect, inclusion, and the integrity of the academic experience.’
• Upon learning of the crackdown from JI, Lishi Baker, a junior studying Middle East history and a student in the History of Modern Israel course, said he was ‘extremely happy’ about Barnard’s decision and called for Columbia to do the same. … ‘Accountability is the most important way to make sure that these kinds of disruptions that go against the university’s purpose … cannot go unpunished.’
• Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia Hillel, applauded Barnard for ‘taking decisive action.’ Cohen said in a statement that he hopes Columbia follows suit with the other perpetrators who have infringed on student rights in the past year — from the encampments to the takeover of Hamilton Hall. This will send a clear message that the harassment of Jewish students and faculty will not be tolerated at Columbia.’
• On Sunday, Columbia University Apartheid Divest doubled down by calling for more disturbances in Israel-related courses. ‘Students disrupted a zionist class, you should too!,’ the coalition of student organizations … wrote on Instagram. ‘Every academic paper, course, interview, or book that legitimizes the zionist entity … necessitates disruption. They are the grease that keeps the war machine killing.’
• Link: Barnard College expels students involved in anti-Israel class disruption

Israel/Middle East Related Articles

[MUST READ] Ponder How the Bibas Boys Died by Bernard-Henri Lévy with The Wall Street Journal

• I have spent my life witnessing and reporting on the most atrocious crimes, from Bosnia to Somalia, Syria to Algeria and now Ukraine. After Oct. 7—after seeing the burned kibbutzim and gathering the testimonies of survivors—I was often asked if I had ever experienced anything similar. When I think of Kfir and Ariel Bibas and their mother, Shiri, I now answer: No, I’m not sure I have ever encountered such horror.
• Consider those phrases ‘child hostage’ and ‘baby hostage.’ In other wars, the death of a child is the ultimate shame, and some remnant of humanity—or rationality—generally prevents captors from bothering with an infant. They abandon the baby. They leave it behind or on the roadside. … Here, they deliberately took the time to abduct these two terrified little beings clinging to their mother.
• One must imagine the life of Kfir and Ariel as hostages if, as is probable, they were torn from their mother’s arms. Imagine the life of a baby who spends most of his time in dark, damp tunnels. … Did they amuse themselves by firing their Kalashnikovs into the air to frighten them further? Did Ariel become the guardian of his baby brother? Did they live out their brief lives together or separately?
• One day, they died. Whether on the same day or not the family, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, or the government may tell us, but they died. After interminable weeks of waiting, suffering, and the profanation of their purity and sanctity as children, they ended their lives alone. As unbearable as it is, we must imagine that moment, because the ultimate indecency … would be to close our eyes and refuse to see.
• Regardless, Hamas did this. Whatever the Israeli military doctors discover, Hamas erased the world’s most beautiful baby and a schoolboy whose life gave the earth its purpose, as all children’s lives do. … These two breaths cut short, this double death of innocence, is Hamas’s abomination alone—and it is unforgivable.
• Once, children were gassed as they descended from the trains. Hamas waited. Damn those who try to drag us into the false game of moral equivalency. These two breaths cut short, this double death of innocence, is Hamas’s abomination alone—and it is unforgivable.
• Link: Ponder How the Bibas Boys Died

Why There Should Not Be a Palestine by Hussein Aboubakr Mansour in The Abrahamic Critique and Digest Substack

• Today, the world watched in horror as Hamas militants in Gaza paraded in glee the bodies of four Israeli civilians—three of them a mother and her two infants. Rather than universal condemnation, we saw cheering, children encouraged to revel in the spectacle, and an atmosphere of triumph that shattered any last illusions we might have harbored. … For many of us, it should force an overdue conclusion: the Palestinian national cause, as conceived and developed over the last half-century, has become irredeemable.
• The concept of a sovereign Palestinian state was, at its inception, interwoven with big ideas: anti-imperial liberation, the romance of revolution, global anti-capitalism, and the quest for national self-determination. But subsequent decades have shown that the Palestinians never grasped the viable political path. Instead, an identity was cultivated on an endless cycle of grievance, victimhood, and, all too often, terror as a method of expression celebrated and valorized by the most depraved elite Western intellectuals … By now, it should be clear to all that when your primary currency is kidnapping civilians and parading their remains to public cheers, you forfeit whatever moral capital a national struggle might once have enjoyed.
• In principle, that Two-State argument had some merit. Yet, it has failed in practice, and many Palestinians never fully accepted it. … The repeated wars, the refusal to disentangle themselves from regional power struggles or global revolutions, the refusal to accept peace deals that might have led to an orderly autonomy, and the cultural glorification of martyrdom have created a toxic personality structure that has a flag. Any attempt at constructive state-building has been ground into dust by corruption, murderous factionalism, and the unabashed worship of violence.
• By integrating Palestinian populations into established nation-states—be it Jordan, Egypt, or other countries where many already reside—families might finally break from the cage of perpetual grievance. They could obtain stable legal rights, access real economic opportunities, and choose to build a future unshackled from militant dogmas. … Rather than continuing as pawns in a moribund dream, they could become citizens of actual countries, with all the responsibilities and privileges that status entails.
• The idea of ‘Palestine’ has, tragically, turned into an ideological snare that captures each new generation from birth, seeding them with the promise of ‘liberation’ that only ever seems to produce more suffering. … Today’s technology-rich, globally interlinked world offers other paths to personal and communal flourishing. Yet those remain blocked as long as Palestinian leadership and outside advocates keep stoking the fires of ‘resistance’ … forever condemning Palestinian children to a cycle of violence and perennial displacement.
• By integrating Palestinian populations into established nation-states—be it Jordan, Egypt, or other countries where many already reside—families might finally break from the cage of perpetual grievance. They could obtain stable legal rights, access real economic opportunities, and choose to build a future unshackled from militant dogmas.
• Link: Why There Should Not Be a Palestine

Targeted Human Sacrifice: Hamas constructed no shelters for Gazans, instead investing in terror tunnels and weapons stockpiles hidden beneath schools, hospitals, and mosques. By Michael Scott with the Australian Jewish News

• Hamas’ grotesque strategy of cynically sacrificing its own population, termed “targeted human sacrifice,” demands international scrutiny and condemnation.
• Since 2005, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have launched tens of thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians, a blatant violation of international law prohibiting attacks on non-combatants. Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, aptly describes this as a “dual war crime strategy:” attacking civilians while using their own people as human shields.
• Hamas’ use of human shields is not a defensive necessity but a calculated strategy to weaponize international sympathy. Douglas Murray, a noted commentator, explains: “By placing civilians in harm’s way, Hamas creates the illusion of disproportionate harm to generate outrage against Israel.”
• Unlike Israel, which has ensured widespread access to bomb shelters, Hamas has built none for Gaza’s civilians. Andrew Fox, a former British Army officer, underscores this disparity: “It’s not a matter of resources but priorities. Hamas prioritises weapons over the welfare of its people.”
  This deliberate neglect leaves Gazans defenceless during Israeli counter strikes, compounding their suffering. Hamas then exploits these tragedies for propaganda, obscuring its own culpability.
• The IDF employ many strategies to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza. These include issuing advance warnings through leaflets, phone calls, and text messages to alert residents of impending operations, allowing them time to evacuate. The IDF also uses precision-guided munitions to accurately target militant positions while avoiding civilian areas.
• Additionally, tactics like “roof knocking”—firing non-lethal munitions onto roofs as a warning before a strike—are utilized to prompt evacuations. The IDF further establishes humanitarian corridors to facilitate safe civilian movement away from conflict zones.
• For Hamas, civilian casualties are not collateral damage but a deliberate tactic. Richard Kemp observes: “Hamas’ greatest weapon is not its rockets or tunnels but its ability to manipulate world opinion. Civilian casualties are central to their strategy.”
• Under international law, the responsibility for civilian casualties lies with the party that uses civilians as shields.
• Yet global responses often fail to reflect this reality, with media narratives disproportionately criticising Israel while ignoring Hamas’ culpability. This imbalance perpetuates misinformation and emboldens Hamas to continue its cynical strategies.
• The global community must confront Hamas’ egregious strategy of targeted human sacrifice for what it truly is: a heinous and calculated effort to maximise civilian suffering for political gain. This starts with holding Hamas accountable under international law and rejecting the false equivalence between a democracy defending its citizens and a terrorist organisation exploiting its own people.
• Link: Targeted Human Sacrifice

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, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Institute for the Study of War, Tablet Magazine, Mosaic Magazine, The Free Press, and the Times of Israel