Freed After 471 Days of Captivity, Sunday

 Nadene Goldfoot                                 

    From Friday, January 17, 2025; IsraelAM

The government is meeting at this time to approve the ceasefire and hostage release agreement. The Security Cabinet has advised the government to approve the deal. 

Prime Minister Netanyahu informed the Security Cabinet that both the Biden and Trump administrations have provided unequivocal assurances of full support for intensified military action in Gaza if Hamas violates the ceasefire. 

"These guarantees include backing should negotiations over Phase 2 fail and Hamas refuse Israel's security demands. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir voted against the deal."  It's really not a good deal at all, but the best they felt they would ever get.  Hamas is now celebrating and bragging about how they have won, plotting aloud as to their next steps in ridding themselves of Jews.  It makes us all sick.  Never again can a people have to ever make such decisions;  who to save at what number of soldiers who will be sacrificed.    One remembers that Gaza was in Israel's HANDS and they gave it to the Arab Palestinians in the name of PEACE, and got nothing back but rockets, missiles, and mortars within minutes exploding on their Israeli land.  

The following 33 individuals are included in the first phase of the emerging hostage deal framework. This group includes both civilians and soldiers, as well as two individuals held in Gaza since before October 7 - Avraham (Avera) Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed Shaaban. Sources indicate 25 of these 33 hostages are confirmed alive, though specific status of which individuals remains undisclosed.

                                     Romi Goren, 24 and grandmother

                                                               

                                      Doron, a 31-year-old veterinary nurse, was abducted from her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza - near Gaza's north-western border - when Hamas attacked.                                                     

                                 Emily, a 28-year-old British-Israeli national, was also taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on 7 October 2023.

1. Albag, Liri
2. Arayev, Karina
3. Ben-Ami, Ohad
4. Berger, Agam
5. Bibas, Ariel
6. Bibas, Kfir
7. Bibas, Yarden
8. Bibas-Silverman, Shiri
9. Calderon, Ofer
10. Cohen, Elia
11. Damari, Emily, 28 years old: holds dual British-Israel nationality;   She has been freed alongside Doron Steinbrecher, 31, a veterinary nurse, 
12. Dekel-Chen, Sagi
13. Elgarat, Yitzhak (Itzik)
14. Gonen, Romi, 24 years old:  Romi Gonen, 24, was captured as she tried to escape the Nova music festival when it was targeted by the militant group as part of the 7 October 2023 attack.
15. Gilboa, Daniela
16. Horn, Yair
17. Idan, Tzachi
18. Levi, Naama
19. Levi, Or
20. Lifshitz, Oded
21. Mansour, Shlomo
22. Mengistu, Avraham (Avera)
23. Moses, Gad Moshe
24. Shaaban, Hisham al-Sayed
25. Shem-Tov, Omer
26. Sherrabi, Eliyahu
27. Shoham, Tal
28. Siegel, Keith Samuel
29. Steinbrecher, Doron
30. Troponov, Alexander
31. Vankert, Omer
32. Yahalomi, Ohad
33. Yehud, Arbel

Instead; 3 female hostages were released and returned:  Romi Gonen, 24; Doron Steinbrecher, 31; and Emily Damari, 28, were the first three Israel hostages, all women, released by the militant group Hamas on Sunday as part of a long-awaited Gaza ceasefire deal.

Hamas plans to release the hostages over 42 days (six weeks), with at least three hostages freed weekly. Living hostages will be released before the deceased. Under the terms of the deal, women will be released first in two stages: three women on the first day and four on the seventh day. Israel aims to begin implementing the agreement on Sunday at 4:00 p.m.

Let us pray that the deal results in the release of all hostages and that it does not cause more Jewish deaths and suffering. 

Resource:

IsraelAM

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg5ydgeqrvqo