Massive IDF Failures Exposed
It’s not easy to decide where to begin my column this week, but I will start with the investigations into the army’s failures before the October 7 massacre, which are beginning to become public knowledge. The findings of these investigations are simply mind-boggling. It is clear that the security services were blinded during the days leading up to the October 7 massacre. There were massive failures on the part of the people who were charged with standing guard against any hostile action, identifying anomalous activity on the other side of the border, listening in to all necessary communications, using all available technological means to gather information, and ultimately formulating positions that would be relayed to the highest echelons. These people were locked into the preconceived notion that Hamas was not interested in launching a war against Israel and that the murderous Sinwar wanted quiet and prosperity for Gaza. Israeli officials refused to be disabused of this misconception. Even in the face of red flags, warning signs, and then documents, facts, and visual evidence, they remained staunchly mired in their convictions. When we read the army’s internal investigations today, we find ourselves confronting the indisputable fact that October 7 occurred in the wake of a massive, indescribable failure reminiscent of the army’s lapse of exactly 50 years earlier. Before the Yom Kippur War, Israeli military intelligence insisted that the chances of a war breaking out were slim to nonexistent. This time, as well, the heads of intelligence believed that Hamas would not attack. When the army reaches such a conclusion unequivocally, the failure is only to be expected.
Of course, we understand that this was the product of a decree passed in Shomayim. If Hashem does not guard a city, as the posuk states, then the watchman stands guard in vain.
I don’t know if you’d be interested in the finer details of the investigations, which would require an entire article to discuss. However, I will just give you a small idea of what was uncovered. According to the IDF investigations published last weekend, there was a series of conceptual and operational failures that led to one of the most devastating tragedies in Israeli history. These investigative reports, which include thousands of documents and testimonies, reveal how Hamas managed to surprise Israel with a well-planned attack, relying on the false beliefs that had lulled Israel into a sense of security, along with the terror group’s ongoing deception.
According to the investigations, the security services entered October 7 with a mistaken belief that had developed over the course of a decade: Hamas had been painted as a pragmatic organization with an interest in economic stability in the Gaza Strip, while the strategic threat was considered to be concentrated in Iran and Hezbollah. The basic presumption was that Hamas wasn’t interested in a major battle and that they could be contained through conflict management. The army ignored a serious of warning signs that indicated Hamas’s intent to launch a major raid, which were perceived by Israel to be a theoretical idea for the future rather than an immediate threat.
Ignoring Critical Warnings
The investigations revealed a number of basic misconceptions and errors, as well as the fact that the army was constructed in a fashion that does not leave room for dissenting opinions within the chain of command. But perhaps what is most incredible about the reports is that they show how Sinwar quietly and consistently managed to perpetrate a massive fraud that deceived the IDF and the vaunted Israeli intelligence apparatus. The reports emphasize that Hamas, under Sinwar’s leadership, maintained a sophisticated deception over the course of many years. The organization refrained from escalating the conflict with Israel while building up an advanced attack force that included the trained Nukhba battalions, developing detailed plans to penetrate Israeli territory, and coordinating its efforts with the “axis of evil” consisting of Iran and Hezbollah. Since the latter two did not join Hamas in its surprise attack, that plan did not materialize, although Sinwar had originally planned for Hezbollah, supported by Iran, to attack from the north at the same time that Hamas invaded from the south. Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021 marked a turning point: While Israel believed that they had achieved effective deterrence, Hamas emerged with the understanding that they could boost their image and achieve strategic goals with a surprise attack.
The Military Intelligence Directorate admitted to an unprecedented failure: The deterrence model was based on erroneous assumptions that ignored a series of critical warning signs, including intelligence received in the year 2018 about a Hamas plan to defeat the Gaza division of the IDF with an attack by 3000 terrorists. In 2022, Hamas conducted training exercises that simulated invasions from the air and sea, but the IDF believed that they were not preparing for an actual attack. The army also ignored intelligence about discussions between Sinwar and Nasrallah concerning a plan to destroy Israel in a coordinated attack on multiple fronts. The reports noted that the culture in Israel’s military intelligence was plagued by the illusion of certainty and a lack of critical thinking, along with excessive reliance on technology and the failure to personally analyze the enemy’s motives.
All of this brings us to the day of the invasion. The IDF reports paint a picture of a horrific military failure. The border fence protecting the settlements in the Gaza envelope was designed to hold back rioters but was not meant to withstand a massive commando raid. When the attack from Gaza began at 6:29 a.m. that day, about 5600 terrorists swarmed through 30 breaches in the fence, took over IDF outposts, and slaughtered local residents. The Gaza division of the army collapsed in the early hours of the morning due to a lack of available troops, damage to the chain of command and a delay in activating reserve forces. It was only in the evening that the IDF began regaining control. Until that time, hundreds of people were killed or abducted, and the entire country suffered a deep national trauma. “The fault does not lie only with the intelligence services,” the investigators wrote. “It was a systemic failure that must be addressed at its root.”
The Flaw in the Reports
As anyone could have predicted, the publication of these reports led to a bitter outcry. It wasn’t a secret that there had been a massive failure, but when reading the details, the natural reaction is a groundswell of indignation. Incredibly, along with the public outrage, there were those who insisted that the reports did not go far enough. The main critique of the process was that the investigations were carried out by lower-ranking personnel within the army, who were essentially required to investigate their own superiors. What junior officer would have the temerity to point fingers at his own commander, who controls his potential for advancement? Based on this argument, many believe that the IDF’s failure must have been many times greater than the reports suggest, but that the investigators did not feel comfortable pinpointing the individuals who were responsible for the failure.
Yiftach Ron-Tal, a former general in the army, claims that if he had conducted the investigations, he would have singled out the chief of staff as being directly and primarily responsible for the disaster. “The bottom line,” Ron-Tal wrote, “is that in my eyes, the new chief of staff should take those reports and put them away; I do not wish to use stronger language than that. He should appoint new, completely independent teams and have the investigations conducted again on a senior level.” Ron-Tal described the current investigations as “completely contaminated” and explained, “It’s true that the results are incriminating, but they don’t truly reflect what happened. It was a colossal failure; the army collapsed before our eyes, and that affected the way that it continued fighting afterward.”
As an example, he cited the report on the conduct of the operations division of the Operational Directorate. “We all understand that the operations brigade is the most important body in the army in our current situation,” Ron-Tal wrote. “It determines the IDF’s plans and gives the orders both when the army is on alert and during actual combat. And the head of the Operations Directorate assigned his own friend to conduct the investigation into its conduct. His conclusions were that they gave good orders, that their thought processes were correct, and that they functioned well. It made me want to cry.”
Let me quote one more line from Ron-Tal: “This is not logical. The chief of staff, who is supposed to influence the entire general staff, wasn’t investigated at all. He had all the information on his desk that night, and he was sitting at the head of the general staff table when they outlined their projections for 2024 and decided that Hamas had been deterred from fighting the IDF.”
“The Incoming Chief of Staff Has Plenty of Work Ahead of Him”
Since these are matters of life or death, I will continue quoting Yiftach Ron-Tal, who claimed that the IDF’s resounding failure wasn’t limited to the events of October 7th, and that the investigative reports themselves are yet another failure. “The issue isn’t my trust in the IDF or yours; it is the internal trust within the army,” he wrote. “Commanding officers on many operational levels do not believe these reports. The new chief of staff will have to rebuild the internal trust within the IDF, as well as the public’s trust in the army.”
Ron-Tal also discussed the air force’s failures on the morning of October 7. “One can’t write off this business with the simple statement that ‘we failed,’” he insisted. “The air force had the ability to prevent the incident from happening altogether. It is terrible; it took far too much time. What happened on the Palmachim base, which is just a few dozen kilometers from the border of the Gaza Strip? There are two squadrons of aerial drones on the Palmachim base, which can reach Gaza in ten minutes. Where were their operators that morning? They were in protected areas, taking cover from the air raid sirens!” Ron-Tal’s point is that none of this was spelled out in the reports; the investigators simply wrote the words “we failed” and did not bother going into detail. But he wants more specific answers: What was the reason for the failures, and who was at fault? And what was the exact nature of the incident?
His blistering critique continues, “Our army, which used to focus on victory, became concerned with deterrence instead. The army’s motto is ‘We will win together,’ so anyone who thinks differently than the top brass is simply thrown out. If anyone sits at a meeting of the general staff and dares to question their reasoning, he is viewed as unfit to be present at all, just as a person can be disqualified from serving as a judge in a court because he thinks differently from the other judges.”
In light of his list of the army’s failures, Ron-Tal believes that the incoming chief of staff has a significant amount of work ahead of him. “He will have to build a new army, and a new general staff above all,” he asserted.
Terror Attack at Karkur Junction
Unfortunately, this week I must report on a terror attack that succeeded. It has been only ten days since the miraculous incident in Cholon and Bat Yam, when two buses that blew up twelve hours before the intended time alerted the security forces to a major terror attack in the works. In the interim, unfortunately, a terror attack occurred at Karkur Junction, near Chadeira, and the terrorists were unfortunately more successful. Thirteen people were wounded in the terror attack last Thursday, including a girl who is about 17 years old and is in critical condition and two other victims in serious condition. The rest were listed as lightly to moderately wounded.
In this incident, a terrorist rammed his car into a group of pedestrians, then collided with a police car, emerged from his own vehicle, and was eliminated while attacking the police. The terrorist who carried out the attack was a Palestinian from Jenin who lived in Israel illegally in recent years. Based on the details that are known about him at this stage, he is married to an Israeli citizen who resides in Umm al-Fahm, and his children are Israeli citizens as well.
The chief of police visited the site of the attack and revealed that the terrorist’s encounter with the police had averted a much greater tragedy: “This terrorist was on his way to a shopping center. When the police officers spotted him, they approached him to make contact and thus managed to prevent an attack on innocent civilians. The terrorist emerged from his car with a screwdriver in his hand and was eliminated. That is exactly what is expected of the police in the State of Israel, in accordance with their orders and procedures.” In other words, this incident could have been far more disastrous. After striking his initial victims, the terrorist had planned to carry out another attack at a nearby shopping center. The police chief explained, “When a terrorist brutally harms people here, and then continues driving away, our assumption is that he intends to continue his violent rampage.”
The police chief also hinted that the month of Ramadan is a cause for greater concern, as everyone in this country is well aware. “I want to make a statement to all the Muslims in the State of Israel,” he said. “I expect and am certain that this is supposed to be a festive month for you. On the other hand, if anyone tries to cause harm or to ruin the festival with provocations or other such disturbances, we are ready and waiting to deal with that person.” He stressed that the police had already conducted a situation assessment and that extra forces were deployed throughout the country, and he called on the Muslims to limit themselves to observing their holiday and fasting—that is, without committing acts of terror as well. He also clarified that there have been plenty of warnings of impending terror attacks, and the police are prepared to deal with them everywhere.
There was only one thing missing from his public statement: a call for Jews everywhere to daven.
Israelis Spying for Iran
A worrisome trend has recently developed: the phenomenon of Israelis spying for Iran. At first, there were only two bizarre individuals who were caught engaging in espionage, and then a third man joined their ranks. Slowly but surely, it became clear that this is a growing phenomenon. Even native-born, completely normal Israelis have somehow fallen into the Iranian trap and have been lured into spying on their own country. While the Iranians have sometimes asked the Israelis they recruit to murder officials such as Benny Gantz or even Binyomin Netanyahu, in most of the cases they were asked to foment discord and disorder by posting signs or spraying slogans on walls, and sometimes to photograph specific army installations or other facilities, or even private homes.
And now, yet another Israeli was arrested on suspicion of spying from Iran. The suspect, a 26-year-old man from Petach Tikvah, is believed to have maintained contact for months with an Iranian operative who used the aliases Mike and Roni Bar. At his request, the Israeli man spray painted dozens of slogans in Petach Tikvah and Rosh Ha’Ayin in exchange for a payment of about 7000 dollars. The investigators have determined that the young man was aware that he was in contact with an Iranian agent. He was asked to photograph the home of Shin Bet director Ronen Bar and to take pictures of military bases, and he was even asked if he knew any pilots in the air force, but he did not carry out any of those tasks. The investigators have also discovered that he volunteered to photograph the home of MK Benny Gantz, but that task wasn’t carried out. His Iranian handler appears to have taken a page from the playbook of the anti-Netanyahu protests, since he initially wrote to him, “I am looking for someone to stage civilian protests. Payment is in Bitcoin. The job involves things like burning Netanyahu’s picture, hanging posters, and producing graffiti.”
On that note, a resident of Bnei Brak was charged about a month ago with maintaining contact with a foreign agent, providing information to an enemy, and obstruction of justice. He recently submitted an urgent petition to the District Court in Lod to improve the conditions of his imprisonment in the Rimonim Prison. He claims that he being held in difficult conditions, which he claims is a serious violation of basic human rights. He wrote that even though he is not being disciplined, he has been kept in a small solitary cell for a week, with only half an hour a day spent outside its confines. He claims that the warden in the prison is systematically working to persecute him. The problem facing all the prisoners who are held on charges of working for Iran is that no public officials want to assist them, since their offense naturally infuriates every Israeli.
When it Involves Netanyahu, the Attorney General Moves Fast
Here is another interesting story concerning a criminal case, albeit a very different one: The attorney general instructed the police to launch an investigation into the ties between Qatar and certain officials in the government. This investigation will affect Netanyahu directly; according to one report, one or two of his advisors have also worked for the government of Qatar. The opposition seized this as a basis for excoriating Netanyahu, since Qatar has channeled huge sums of money to Hamas. While it’s true that Qatar is currently serving as a mediator and helping Israel retrieve its hostages, it is still quite disturbing that some of Netanyahu’s close associates were advisors to Qatar at the time when it was funding Hamas.
What is astounding about this is that the attorney general, who usually works very slowly, suddenly acted with great alacrity. She behaves like a member of the opposition. As the saying goes, if something walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck. Remember, this is the same attorney general who made a snap decision to investigate Sara Netanyahu based on a news report; she certainly seems to be doing everything in her power to harm the current regime. She has ordered this investigation to be carried out by the Shin Bet and the police.
There are three suspects targeted in this investigation who are part of the prime minister’s orbit: Eli Feldstein, who is already facing criminal charges for leaking classified documents to a foreign newspaper; Jonathan Urich, an advisor and spokesman for Netanyahu who has likewise been accused of involvement in the document leaks; and Yisroel Einhorn, who served as an advisor to the Likud’s election campaign. Einhorn has also fallen under suspicion of involvement in leaking the classified document to the German press, but he hasn’t been in Israel since that case came to light.
According to the news reports, Feldstein was paid by a private international firm to work to improve Qatar’s public image in Israel regarding the country’s involvement in mediating hostage deals. Feldstein reportedly arranged news interviews with senior officials in Qatar, transferred official statements on the country’s behalf, and publicized messages about Qatar’s involvement in various regional proceedings. All of this took place concurrently with the services that he provided in the Prime Minister’s Office while Qatar was serving as a mediator, and Netanyahu even criticized the country and claimed that it was “serving Hamas.” As for Urich and Einhorn, it was reported that the two men were involved in enhancing Qatar’s public image as well. In 2022, they prepared an Israeli campaign for the Qataris, with the goal of depicting Qatar, a country that finances and supports terror, as a legitimate state that supports peace and regional stability.
All the suspects named in the case have publicly denied the allegations against them. Netanyahu has slammed the attorney general’s move as an act of personal persecution against himself and his staff, with the goal of harming him and removing him from power. Feldstein’s attorneys related that they are certain that the investigation’s findings will put an end to the false accusations against their client. “Eli Feldstein never worked for Qatar, never gave information to Qatar, and never took money from Qatar,” they insisted. “Feldstein worked for the prime Minister’s Office, and his involvement in diplomatic and security affairs was solely on behalf of the prime minister.”
The Likud declared, “When the fabricated cases against Prime Minister Netanyahu fall apart in court, they simply trump up new false charges against his staff, based on the personal interests of the people conducting the investigation.”
Tensions Mount Between Chareidim and Netanyahu
Tensions are rising between Netanyahu and some of the chareidi representatives in the government. The chareidi political leadership has come to resent the Treasury’s dismissive attitude toward the chareidi community’s needs. Of course, the true culprit for the budget cuts is the Supreme Court, which ruled that any person who received a draft order and ignored it is a criminal (or, according to an even more far-reaching interpretation, anyone who has reached draft age, even if he did not receive a summons) and that the government is legally barred from providing funding for such criminals. Nevertheless, officials in the Treasury are in the habit of coming up with new ideas of their own to create economic hardships for the country’s Torah learners. Even female teachers in chareidi schools have been targeted by these measures. And the attorney general is constantly writing letters to remind everyone that they are obligated to keep the Torah learners in a financial chokehold. She has even come up with a new demand: to arrest yeshiva bochurim who received draft orders and ignored them. Instead of merely facing arrest if they are caught in the airport, the bochurim must now be concerned about being hauled away from their homes.
Of course, the entire problem could be solved by the passage of a new draft law, which would ensure that the country’s yeshiva bochurim would not be considered lawbreakers. As I have mentioned, Netanyahu claims that he will not be able to pass such a law in the near future, and he has asked the chareidi representatives to support the state budget despite the lack of a draft law. UTJ chairman Yitzchok Goldknopf responded that his party will vote against the budget unless the draft law is passed first. While he made this statement on behalf of the other members of Agudas Yisroel (Yisroel Eichler, Yaakov Tessler, and Moishe Roth), it isn’t clear that he has the authority to speak on their behalf. The entire party is waiting for a decision from gedolei Yisroel on this subject, led by Rav Dov Landau and Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch.
For the time being, along with their threats, the chareidi representatives have come up with a series of budgetary demands for the minister of finance. In this case, at least, Netanyahu appears to be willing to bring the full weight of his influence to bear on ensuring that their demands are met. But from Goldknopf’s perspective, this has no bearing on how he will vote on the budget. Parenthetically, it isn’t even necessary to vote against the budget actively for the purpose of bringing down the government. If the budget isn’t approved by a specific date, then the government will dissolve automatically. Netanyahu is currently deriving confidence from the fact that he will have a majority in favor of the budget even if the three members of Agudas Yisroel vote against it. Let me remind you that Yitzchok Goldknopf isn’t a member of the Knesset at this time; therefore, he is not personally in a position to cast a vote on the budget at all.
Day Care Decree Took Effect on March 1
This week, the cut in day care subsidies for the chareidi community went into effect, as the government implemented the Supreme Court ruling that Torah learners are not entitled to financial aid from the state to pay for day care for their children. The judges do not consider a kollel yungerman to be employed, and they are not troubled by the fact that this subsidy cut will force thousands of working women to quit their jobs. The subsidy cut was originally scheduled to take effect earlier in the year, but Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur sparred with the attorney general, and a compromise was ultimately reached for the budget cut to be delayed. That extension came to an end this week, on March 1, which meant that about 3000 yungeleit would suffer a serious financial blow. It is not clear how they will deal with the economic fallout; paying 3000 shekels a month per child for day care is simply unrealistic, but removing their children from their day care programs is also highly problematic.
This might well be the worst possible economic blow that could be inflicted on a young family with small children and low income, since the day care subsidy amounts to thousands of shekels every month. Some of the parents will probably transfer their children to unofficial babysitting programs, which are run in private homes by women tending to groups of twelve babies every morning. But those programs are a far cry from the service provided by an ordinary day care center.
A yungerman’s wife was asked by a secular newspaper reporter for her reaction to the situation. She replied, “We still don’t know what we are going to do, but there is no question that we can’t pay 2000 shekels more than we are already shelling out for day care.” She complained, “I have an Arab coworker who is in the same position as I am. Her husband does not serve in the army either, and their subsidy was not cut. Many of us feel that this is a battle against the chareidi community. Incidentally, I am used to accepting losses for the sake of my husband’s Torah learning. He learns very seriously and does not work, and that obviously causes financial hardship for us. He also will not serve in the army, since he is still learning Torah today. But even someone who is thinking of joining the army would be put off by this act. Ending the day care subsidy isn’t a measure that creates connection or unity; on the contrary, it has the opposite effect.”
A legislative solution might take one of two forms: The government can pass a law stipulating that the day care subsidy is dependent on the mother’s employment status, regardless of her husband’s occupation, or it can pass a new draft law that will remove the criminal status from chareidi men who do not serve in the army. At this point, we can only daven for Hashem to help us all.
A Commotion Over Tefillin in School
Last week, the country was rocked by outrage over a story that unfolded in Ohel Shem, a secular high school, in Ramat Gan, where a student brought a pair of tefillin to the school and made them available for his peers to use. This was a very nice initiative on the part of a secular youth who cares about Yiddishkeit, but the story took a nasty turn when the principal became angry, confiscated the tefillin, and fiercely rebuked the student. What the principal did not know was that he was facing a young man blessed with determination, intelligence, and initiative. The boy recorded his conversation with the principal, disseminated the recording, and called on the people of Israel to show up for a mass rally at the school. He emphasized that he was not calling for violence or even a standard protest; instead, it would be a huge minyan for Mincha that would include speeches from rabbonim and a communal tefillin-wearing event. He succeeded far beyond his expectations, and huge crowds of people showed up for the event, many of them completely irreligious. Hundreds of young men asked for a turn wearing tefillin, and hundreds of pairs of tzitzis were distributed as well. And the principal was abashed.
In the video of their initial confrontation, the principal can be heard sternly telling his student, “You are not permitted to wear tefillin in school.”
The student shot back, “What do you mean, I am not permitted to wear tefillin here? What is that all about? I have the right to wear tefillin. There is a special stand here for putting on tefillin.”
The principal responded adamantly, “There is no more stand, and you do not have that right. When you receive authority as a principal, then we can talk.”
But the young man did not give in. “I don’t need authority for this,” he insisted.
“You can’t do it, because I said that you can’t,” the principal replied.
“Who are you? G-d? Who are you to tell me not to wear tefillin in school?” the boy demanded.
The principal was growing angry at this point. “I am the principal of this school, and you are one second away from suspension,” he said.
“I am speaking to you respectfully,” the boy replied. “All I want to do is to wear tefillin and to keep them outside my classroom during the day.”
“We are finished playing this game of ‘I said, you said,’” the principal declared flatly at that point. “You are not allowed to do this, and this conversation is over.”
When the student was asked to explain the incident, he related that a different faculty member had caught him wearing tefillin and had interrupted his davening without even waiting for him to finish, ordering him to go to the principal immediately. “He took me to the principal to be berated, and he started making anti-Semitic comments to me that weren’t even said during the time of the Nazis,” the student revealed. “He said to me, ‘Just stop it; there is no place for this in our times.’ I was in the middle of davening, and he yelled at me to put the tefillin down immediately.”
The story made waves in the media, the young man’s tefillah rally was highly successful, and there were calls for the principal to be dismissed. (I can guarantee that this topic will be raised in the Knesset.) The principal was condemned for behaving in this manner in a Jewish state, and tefillin suddenly became a hot topic on the chiloni street—in a positive sense. The boy revealed that the principal called him into his office after the rally and their conflict was settled; one can only imagine that the principal was nervous about the repercussions of his actions. From now on, the student will be permitted to run his tefillin stand while abiding by the rules set by the principal.
Worry for the Remaining Hostages
The story of the tefillin stand in Ramat Gan dovetails nicely with the topic of my other article this week about the spiritual awakening that is sweeping through the community of hostages returning from Gaza and their families. Every day, we have been hearing yet another touching story of emunah. An Israeli newspaper even carried a political cartoon showing the hostages being prodded by Palestinians at gunpoint into a tunnel and then emerging on the other side wearing tefillin. This cartoon neatly captures the reality of the situation today.
Speaking of the hostages, I have to mention the four murdered captives whose bodies were returned last Thursday: Itzik Elgarat, Shlomo Mantzur, Tzachi Idan, and Ohad Yahalomi. Three of them were murdered in Gaza and one was killed in Israel. The four bodies were returned on Thursday night, and Hamas refrained from holding one of their degrading ceremonies this time, after being warned by Israel to put an end to them.
Itzik Elgarat and Ohad Yahalomi were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz and were killed in captivity in Gaza. Both men were survived by wives and children. Shlomo Mantzur was from Kibbutz Kissufim and appears to have been murdered before his body was taken to Gaza. Tzachi Idan was abducted from his home in Nachal Oz; his daughter was murdered before his eyes. There seems to be evidence that he was alive at the time of his abduction.
At this point, 59 hostages, both living and dead, remain in Gaza, but the first phase of the hostage deal has ended and the second stage hasn’t yet begun. The second phase is supposed to include a ceasefire, but Israel is not prepared to accept that provision. For the time being, Trump’s envoy is trying to promote an extension of the first phase, as a middle ground of sorts between the two possibilities. As far as Israel is concerned, the main thing is for all the hostages to be freed immediately. The mediators hope to begin the second round of talks soon, including negotiations over a permanent end to the fighting. Steve Witkoff claims that Israel will send a delegation to Doha or Cairo in the near future to discuss the next phase of the deal. If the talks continue in a positive fashion, he said, then he might arrive for a visit on Sunday. As far as Hamas is concerned, there will be no progress; they refuse to accept an extension of the first phase or the beginning of the second. And the families of the remaining hostages can do nothing but daven.
