“Oct 7 2023”

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) freed four hostages over the weekend in a daring rescue mission wherein special units ventured deep into the heart of Hamas territory.

The four former hostages were kidnapped from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, when Palestinian terrorists violated an existing ceasefire with Israel to kill more than 1,160 people. The rescue mission carried out in central Gaza was a triumph for the Israeli military, which was forced to enter civilian areas to free the hostages. The Israeli military placed the casualty count from Saturday’s rescue mission at below 100 after it initiated a bombardment to kill off the Hamas terrorists shooting at the rescuers.

The courageous Israeli operation that resulted in the rescue of four Israeli hostages on June 8 has confirmed what many Israelis and Palestinians have known for some months: that Palestinian civilians were, and continue to be, complicit in the crimes carried out by the terrorist organization Hamas prior to October 7, 2023, and onward.

The four hostages, Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv, were abducted, together with more than 250 Israelis, during the Hamas-led attack — backed by Qatar and Iran — on Israel eight months ago.

“This is not a grassroots movement. This is an organized effort.”

That’s the professional opinion of Kelly Sundberg, tenured professor of criminology at Calgary’s Mount Royal University (MRU), when I ask him what’s behind the anti-Israel student encampments at post-secondary campuses across Canada.

If diplomats have groundhog days, when they are condemned to reliving the same 24 hours, perhaps Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, felt a certain weariness as his jet approached the Middle East on his latest trip.

It is his eighth diplomatic tour of the region in the eight months since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October last year.

The politics of trying to negotiate an end to the war in Gaza and an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners were already complicated.

A Palestinian journalist was hiding Israeli hostages in his home for Hamas, Israel said on Sunday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Abdullah al-Jamal, who wrote for the Palestine Chronicle, a US-based non profit news website, was keeping Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomiz Siv captive in his family home.

The IDF stormed the home by ladder and killed Jamal, his father Dr Ahmed, and his wife, Fatima in the raid that freed the trio on Saturday.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says an Israeli raid on a refugee camp – which led to the rescue of four hostages – killed 274 people, including children and other civilians.

On Saturday Israel’s forces, backed by air strikes, fought intense gun battles with Hamas in and around the Nuseirat refugee camp, freeing the captives.

Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrei Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, who were abducted from the Nova music festival on 7 October have been returned to Israel.

Convo Summary:

BBC: I won't congratulate you on the return of the hostages. Why didn't you warn the Palestinian civilians imprisoning hostages of the raid to save them?@jconricus: If you warn t3rrorists you're about to save hostages, hostages won't be alive when you arrive. pic.twitter.com/HzWKroOF0x

— dahlia kurtz ✡︎ דליה קורץ (@DahliaKurtz) June 9, 2024

h/t Mauser

At the end of last week, U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled a ceasefire deal, which he claimed was Israel’s proposal, though it’s unclear whether it was explicitly approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It provides for a three-stage exchange of hostages leading to a complete Israeli withdrawal and appears to be supported by some members of the Israeli government. Netanyahu will come to the United States to address a joint session of Congress next month. Biden is making a strong push for both sides to accept the deal, largely owing to domestic political considerations. The Biden administration is in full panic mode because of its relatively low polling numbers five months before the election and the apparent failure of the spurious perversion of the justice system, reduced to an arm of the dirty tricks division of the Democratic National Committee, to evaporate Donald Trump’s lead. Practically the entire population has a smaller disposable after-tax income today than it did when the Biden took office 3½ years ago, and approximately 10 million illegal migrants have flooded into the country, while the international situation has darkened steadily as the Russians have been emboldened to invade Ukraine and Hamas to conduct a massacre of Israelis.

Israel conducted a fearless raid of two Hamas buildings in Gaza to rescue four hostages kidnapped by terrorists on October 7 – extracting them via helicopter whilst taking fire from militants.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, were rescued following the daring operation, the largest of its kind since the war with Hamas began, earlier today.

Argamani became known across the world when she was taken hostage by Hamas on the back of a motorcycle at the Supernova music festival on October 7.

🚨 Here it is – the DRAMATIC video of the final parts of the Hostage rescue operation. The helicopter evacuation from the beach.

STUNNING work by the IDF. They deserve all the praise right now. pic.twitter.com/AQYWA79426

— Kosher🎗🧡 (@KosherCockney) June 8, 2024

🚨 Noa Argamani is escorted by IDF soldiers to the rescue helicopter after she was rescued from the terrorists' apartment in Nusirat pic.twitter.com/I3ZCwZThrQ

— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) June 8, 2024

“One of the most complicated hostage rescue missions in history.”

The operation to rescue the hostages from Nusayrat was named "Summer Seeds" and is defined by the IDF as one of the most complex ever for hostage rescue.

The hostages were held in a heavily civilian populated… pic.twitter.com/GOVqaN3L1Y

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) June 8, 2024

As the saying goes, a broken clock is right twice a day. The Associated Press beclowned itself for fact-checking Biden’s awkward moment at a D-Day ceremony in France this week. Still, they did well to shatter the rabid antisemite crowd that’s been crowing about genocide in Gaza committed by Israeli forces. There have been non-conservatives who have shredded the genocide myth.

It is astonishing and difficult to comprehend how, after the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, the West has progressively adopted policies that support the terrorist organization Hamas and its influential backers, Qatar and Iran.

This policy is particularly perplexing given the violent nature of the attack and the well-documented connections, especially between Hamas and the Iranian regime, which has been a significant supporter of Hamas both financially and militarily. The West’s stance also raises questions about the strategic and ethical considerations behind such policies, considering the implications for regional stability and the ongoing threat posed by these groups.

It’s late May at the University of British Columbia’s Point Grey campus, and sunbathers dot the unoccupied Astroturf adjacent to the pro-Palestinian encampment that was erected on MacInnes Field a month ago. It’s quiet. There’s not a security guard or police officer in sight. Less than a block away, graduates in cap and gown pose for photos in front of a water fountain.