Situational Update

• According to FDD, the IDF confirmed on March 19 that it had regained military control over parts of the Netzarim Corridor, which runs from Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to the territory’s eastern border, bisecting the Palestinian enclave. Israeli ground forces had previously withdrawn from the key corridor on February 8 as part of January’s ceasefire agreement with Hamas that expired on March 1. The move followed Israel’s resumption of military operations in the Gaza Strip after talks to release additional hostages and extend the ceasefire stalled.
• Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on March 21 that the IDF would “seize additional areas of Gaza” if Hamas continues to hold Israeli hostages. “The more Hamas persists in its refusal to release the hostages, the more territory it will lose,” Katz added. His remarks came on the fourth day of “Operation Strength and Sword,” Israel’s latest ground operation in Gaza.
• The Times of Israel reports: Six rockets were fired from southern Lebanon at the northern Israeli border community Metula on Saturday morning, in the first rocket attack on the northern border since December. There were no reports of injuries or damage in the rocket attack. The Israel Defense Forces later responded with two waves of airstrikes on dozens of Hezbollah sites, including rocket launchers, across Lebanon. Hours after the attack, the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah issued a statement denying responsibility for the rocket fire. The group reiterated “its commitment to the ceasefire agreement and stands behind the Lebanese state in addressing this dangerous Zionist escalation against Lebanon.”

Watch

Recently released hostage Gadi Mozes (80 years old) shares the terror of his release, and the unbearable cruelty of not being told what was happening. He shared his experiences on Israel’s Channel 12 program Uvda, which Dan Senor describes as Israel’s version of 60 Minutes.

Released hostage Eli Sharabi, who was kidnapped to Gaza, starved, and tortured—physically and mentally—for 491 days, spoke at the United Nations a few days ago. His wife and 2 daughters were murdered by Hamas on October 7th. Listen to the words of this hero:

(Aid) paid by your gov’t, feeding terrorists who tortured me & murdered my family. They would eat many meals a day from the UN aid in front of us & we never received any of it. Where was the UN & Red Cross? Where was the world?

Antisemitism

[MUST READ REPORT] 7 October Parliamentary Commission Report Chaired by British Historian, Lord Andrew Roberts of Belgravia

• Amid rising misinformation and efforts to distort the facts, this report provides a clear, factual, and chronological account to preserve historical accuracy. By drawing on survivor testimonies, eyewitness statements, and expert analysis, it ensures the full scale and impact of the attack are properly documented. In an era of denialism, it serves as an impartial, evidence-based record to support informed discussion and prevent the erasure of truth.
• Holocaust denial took a few years to take root in pockets of society, but on 7 October 2023 it took only hours for people to claim that the massacres in southern Israel had not taken place. Hamas and its allies, both in the Middle East and equally shamefully in the West, have sought to deny the atrocities, despite the ironic fact that much of the evidence for the massacres derives from film footage from cameras carried by the terrorists themselves – though of course there is also much more from many other sources, as this Report delineates.
• As a Gentile, I believe that it is vital to prevent the emergence of another, more modern version of Holocaust denial, namely 7 October denial. After the Holocaust, non-Jews like me owe the Jewish people nothing less. This can only be done by the kind of facts-based, evidential work in this Report, which is dedicated to Emily Damari, the British hostage who was held in Gaza for 471 days, and daughter of the superbly brave Mandy Damari who our investigation teams have met in Israel and London.
• Our Report will hopefully permit people to see such denials and justifications for what they really are: a perversion of reason and rejection of human decency. We owe it to the victims and their grieving families to set down the ghastly, unvarnished truth about the sheer barbarism that Hamas and its terrorist allies unleashed on 7 October 2023.
• Report Overview
  • Hamas orchestrated and led the attack, with 3,800 of its elite Nukhba forces and members of Izz al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades invading Southern Israel. They were supported by 2,200 individuals from other armed groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and civilians from Gaza. A further 1,000 individuals stayed in Gaza to operate rocket launchers and provide tactical support

  

  • The perpetrators documented their actions on the day, through GoPro body cameras and mobile phones. They live-streamed and recorded their actions, uploading them to social media sites like Telegram.
  • The Hamas-led attack began with an unprecedented barrage of rockets, aimed at southern Israel and the larger metropolises across the country. This was followed by 119 breaches in the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel over the course of the attack, and simultaneous incursions by air and sea.

  

  • Hamas-led forces attacked 32 civilian communities – Kibbutzim and Moshavim – in Israel’s Gaza Envelope, killing 416 in a matter of hours. Of the 251 total hostages taken during the attack, 183 were from these villages.

  

  • Hamas-led forces also launched coordinated attacks on three cities in the western Negev: Sderot, Ofakim, and Netivot, which resulted in 88 fatalities.
  • The Nova Music Festival, held near Kibbutz Re’im, became the deadliest site of the attacks, with over 370 people killed, most of them young attendees under 30 years old.
  • Hamas operatives strategically seized key junctions along Route 232, the main highway in the Gaza Envelope. The highway killings took place at more than 30 separate locations, primarily at 3 major road junctions and in roadside rocket shelters along Route 232.
  • Hamas gunmen and other armed groups also launched a series of coordinated attacks on Israeli military bases and outposts in the Gaza Envelope. More than 150 soldiers were killed, and dozens were taken hostage. The attack on Nahal Oz Base accounted for a third of these casualties with 50 soldiers killed, including 15 unarmed female field observers, and 10 more taken hostage
  • Civilians were targeted with calculated and unreserved precision. Victims, spanning all ages from infants to the elderly, were often shot at point-blank range, burned alive, or killed by grenades. The systematic destruction included the deliberate annihilation of entire families in Kibbutzim. Elsewhere, children were orphaned as their parents were killed in front of them as they hid.
  • Women and girls were particularly vulnerable during the attacks. Reports detailed gang rapes, sexual mutilation, and assaults on both living and deceased victims. There was a pattern across various locations attacked on 7 October of “fully naked or partially naked bodies from the waist down [that] were recovered – mostly women – with hands tied and shot multiple times, often in the head.” This was particularly prevalent at the Nova Festival.
• Link to the Full Report: APPG UK-Israel

Who Are the Shadowy Figures Defending Mahmoud Khalil? by Liel Leibovitz and Asaf Romirowsky with City Journal

• As it unfurls, the saga of Mahmoud Khalil—the Columbia agitator picked up by immigration enforcement last week—looks less like a complicated immigration-law dispute and more like something out of a John le Carré novel. . . . The Guardian claims he worked for various international NGOs, then landed a job with Britain’s Foreign Office … Then it was on to the UN, where Khalil interned for UNRWA—the organization’s agency for Arab Palestinian refugees … How did a Syrian refugee end up in these positions?
• Heading Khalil’s legal defense team is Ramzi Kassem, professor of law at the City University of New York . . . Kassem’s previous clients include a few members of al Qaida, including Ahmed al-Darbi … The Biden administration nevertheless tapped Kassem to serve as a senior policy advisor. How did Khalil’s predicament come to Kassem’s attention? It’s worth noting that while still a student at Columbia, Kassem was himself a leader of anti-Israeli agitation.
• Kassem is a fellow of the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans … CLEAR has received major gifts from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and Jeff Bezos’s former wife, MacKenzie Scott. . . . It is troubling that those who argue Khalil is a martyr on the altar of free speech enjoy near-universal access to and support from our finest academic institutions, our best-endowed philanthropies, and our best-placed legal or political elites.
• So was another of Khalil’s lawyers, CLEAR’s Shezza Abboushi Dallal. In a recently surfaced video of an online training of anti-Israel activists, Dallal acknowledges that statements in support of Hamas may implicate a non-citizen’s legal status—the very assertion that she and Khalil’s other lawyers are now denying—and advises her charges to remain silent rather than frame themselves.
• Similarly, it is troubling that those who argue, against all available evidence, that Mahmoud Khalil is a martyr on the altar of free speech—rather than someone who violated the terms of his residency by advocating for a terror group—enjoy near-universal access to . . . best-placed legal or political elites. Telling foreign nationals to refrain from espousing support for a terror group to evade legal trouble . . . approximates aiding and abetting people in skirting our immigration laws.
• There’s nothing inherently nefarious about hardworking and talented people … but the Khalil case points at a concerted, long-term effort to capture American institutions, change them from within, and push policies and ideas that lie far outside . . . the boundaries permissible by law.”
• Shadowy activists subverting the will of the American people and then seeking protection from a bubble of big-money NGOs and ideologically aligned government officials isn’t a safeguard protecting our democracy; it’s a clear and direct threat to our national security and interests.
• Link: Who Are the Shadowy Figures Defending Mahmoud Khalil?

The Columbia protest case is about immigration law, not free speech by Tal Fortgang with the Washington Post

• Many people are up in arms over the Trump administration’s attempt to deport Mahmoud Khalil
• The hair-on-fire reactions to Khalil’s detainment, which his defenders have characterized as a reprisal for his pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University in New York, are not just overblown. They are completely misplaced.
• First, consider the facts.
  • No one disputes that Khalil was the face of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, an umbrella group for pro-Palestinian campus organizations opposed to “the Zionist project” during CUAD’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at Columbia in April last year. Although he recently told The Post he is not affiliated with CUAD, when CUAD protesters occupied a building at Barnard College, Khalil spoke for them to the administration. His attempt to disassociate himself from CUAD now warrants skepticism.
  • CUAD does not just have an implied affinity for terrorists; it celebrates them: When Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed … CUAD published a ‘tribute’ … extolling him for organizing Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack.
• Now, consider the law:
  • The Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes the deportation of noncitizens for various reasons. As the Trump administration might argue, at least three could apply to Khalil’s case. The government may deport a noncitizen who serves as “a representative … an officer, official, or spokesman” of “a political, social, or other group that endorses or espouses terrorist activity.” Khalil has in the past unequivocally held himself out as a representative of CUAD, which explicitly endorses terrorism. Doing so is not a matter of speech, but action.
  • The U.S. government may also deport anyone for whom there is “reasonable ground to believe, seeks to enter the United States to engage solely, principally, or incidentally in … any activity a purpose of which is the opposition to, or the control or overthrow of, the Government of the United States by force, violence, or other unlawful means.” Last summer, CUAD called for the “total eradication of Western civilization,” providing reasonable ground for government officials to believe that Khalil entered the country to at least oppose the government.
• Finally, the clause of the Immigration and Nationality Act that most worries First Amendment defenders:
  • A noncitizen who “endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization” is liable to deportation.
  • “Espouses terrorism” can mean supporting terrorism through action — which is precisely CUAD’s stance and strategy. None of its actions are protected by the First Amendment or merit protection on principled free-speech grounds.
• If Khalil’s procedural rights … were violated, we will soon know. But it is premature at this point to make those arguments. … That is why Khalil’s defenders have fallen back on conflating speech and action … That defense … is hollow on the facts and the law.
• Link: The Columbia protest case is about immigration law, not free speech

Wikipedia Editors Place Moratorium on Controversial Sentence in Zionism Article with Aaron Bandler in Jewish Journal

• Wikipedia editors decided to place a one-year moratorium barring anyone from editing or discussing the controversial sentence in the lead of the Zionism Wikipedia page: ‘Zionists wanted to create a Jewish state in Palestine with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible.’
• My previous reporting highlighted how the sentence resulted from anti-Israel editors primarily citing anti-Zionist historians and appearing to take a passage from one of renowned Israeli historian Benny Morris’ books out of context.
• The moratorium was implemented on Feb. 21; a recent report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) cited the moratorium as an example of Wikipedia’s anti-Israel bias. The moratorium came about after the editor “Bob drobbs” started a discussion on the Zionism talk page on Jan. 27 suggesting alternative phrasings to the sentence to make it more neutral. Bob drobbs was immediately met with opposition from anti-Israel editors who noted that a Request for Comment (RfC) — a formal discussion in which a closer (an uninvolved Wikipedian in good standing) renders a verdict on the discussion based on numbers and strength of the arguments as they pertain to site policy — had been closed on Jan. 4 finding that the sentence, as written, adhered to Wikipedia’s neutral point of view (NPOV) policy and should remain in the article.
• On Feb. 21, ‘Chetsford,’ an administrator, concluded there was consensus in favor of a 12-month moratorium, as 19 editors supported ‘a moratorium of some length’ while only four were opposed. … ‘All discussion about editing, removing, or replacing (the sentence) should end immediately and not be resurfaced until February 21, 2026,’ Chetsford wrote. ‘The existence of a moratorium should be clearly recorded on the Talk page … so that innocent transgressors can be notified on such occasions when the topic is accidentally reopened.’
• One editor who grew disillusioned with Wikipedia … told me that they had never heard of a moratorium being implemented before, and that doing so goes against Wikipedia policy stating that consensus can change. … Another editor told me that ‘moratoria are not unheard of, but are slightly drastic/unusual and undoubtedly … they are a justifiably drastic measure to deal with ‘extreme’ disruption … But I think … repeated relitigations are not inherently disruptive.’
• Given how skewed the numbers were in favor of the moratorium, don’t expect the ‘as few Palestinian Arabs as possible’ sentence to change anytime soon.
• Link: Wikipedia Editors Place Moratorium on Controversial Sentence in Zionism Article

Columbia Did This To Itself by Seth Mandel in Commentary

• Columbia University is close to reaching a deal with the Trump administration to once again be eligible for federal funds, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• In fact, while the prevailing narrative is that Trump is seeking to “make an example” out of Columbia, singling out the university for a sort of political hazing, the opposite is probably true: Columbia, as an institution, genuinely is in worse shape than anyone would have believed prior to the tentifada protests that broke out in support of Hamas after the latter’s Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
• A good example—and one that probably has something to do with Columbia’s sudden cooperative tone—is the story that came out this week in the New York Post about the abuse faced by school janitors. As I wrote last week, one janitor on duty during last spring’s infamous Hamilton Hall occupation by pro-Hamas forces filed a report outlining how he was “assaulted and battered, and wrongfully imprisoned” by anti-Zionist activists.
• According to the complaint, soon after the Hamas attacks in 2023, students started drawing swastikas on the walls of buildings that Lester Wilson and Mario Torres worked in. They were ordered to simply scrub the swastikas and otherwise do nothing.
• One of the janitors started removing chalk from the rooms after-hours so the swastikas would stop appearing, but was reprimanded by the school for doing so. When protesters ran through the building drawing anti-Semitic symbols, the janitors were told that “the trespassers and vandals were exercising their First Amendment rights.”
• When the tentifada encampments began springing up around campus, the janitors were offered overtime to clean up around the camps. When another janitor did so, he was taunted as a “Jew-lover” by the students he was cleaning up after.
• It turns out, then, that Columbia had something of a Nazi problem on campus. They were privileged kids in masks, but functionally Nazis nonetheless, obsessed with Nazi symbolism and Nazi language.
• This is what makes Columbia so unsympathetic. If Trump were merely trying to make an example of them, it could be easily demonstrated by showing that Columbia’s disorder was representative of the situation at universities across the country.
• And thus we have the real reason for the administration’s treatment of Columbia: The “elite” institution deserved it.
• Columbia doesn’t want to comply with the government’s conditions, but according to the Journal there’s an emerging consensus that “the school has limited options because it relies on federal money.”
• No one is forcing these schools to gorge themselves on public money. But with that reliance comes certain obligations.
• The current crisis, then, provides an opportunity for schools to reconsider this model of higher education. They really can gain the kind of independence they crave, but that comes at a steep cost.
• Link: Columbia Did This To Itself

Israel/Middle East Related Articles

Israel’s ‘forever war’ stretches IDF to the limit by Neri Zilber in Financial Times

• With Hamas gunmen still rampaging … on October 7, 2023, Ittai Marinberg packed a bag, kissed his wife and two young girls goodbye, and headed out to fight. He became one of some 300,000 Israeli reservists mobilised early in the war, serving for 200 days across three combat tours in Gaza — with more expected … This war, some of them have served twice as long. Now, as Israel readies another offensive if Hamas refuses more hostage releases, the question looms: can the IDF keep calling up the same people indefinitely?
• For much of its history, Israel chose to fight short and decisive wars … to minimise the burden on reservists. With no end in sight, defence analysts and reservists warn of growing attrition on the fighting force, with jobs, families and lives put on hold. They also point to signs of disillusionment with … the war’s aims, especially if the hostages remain in captivity and the campaign’s scope widens.
• Israeli military officials argue that 10,000 more soldiers are needed … but it is unclear how. Plans to expand the army run up against … whether to conscript young ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men. Ultra-Orthodox have been exempt … which most Israelis resent. Netanyahu’s coalition depends on Haredi allies, making forced conscription unlikely.
• Before the war, ‘the deal’ was 30 days of reserve duty a year, some of them say. Now, some have served 200 days. Weary from repeated deployments, many can’t keep leaving their families. ‘For the first time, there may be a chance some reservists won’t report for duty,’ warns Amos Harel … Freed hostages, or a change in the war’s goals, might factor into morale and attendance.
• More than 60 percent of Israelis want Netanyahu to strike a deal to return the remaining hostages, even if it means ending the war, polling shows. Yet the prime minister … has vowed not to stop fighting until Hamas is destroyed. Opposition figures and families of hostages worry that continuing operations could imperil the captives’ lives, stoking dissent. Some worry about a ‘forever war’ scenario that primarily serves Netanyahu’s political survival.
• Link: Israel’s ‘forever war’ stretches IDF to the limit

Israel had no choice: Military escalation is a necessary reset for hostage talks by former Israeli national security advisor Meir Ben Shabbat with Israel Hayom

• The Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip are primarily intended to break the stalemate that has developed following the deadlock in hostage release negotiations, a stalemate in which Hamas has been enjoying a de facto extension of the ceasefire, reorganizing its forces and strengthening its governance, without returning additional hostages or paying any other price.
• The timing of the attack, its intensity, and the extent of casualties surprised Hamas. Its senior leaders are likely still wondering whether this is a limited action meant to shock and send a message or the beginning of a sustained operation.
• The attack on the Gaza Strip last night signaled the failure of Israel’s current negotiation efforts to bring Hamas to agree to additional hostage releases under the terms and prices of Phase I. Hamas, whose self-confidence and capabilities have strengthened considerably since the beginning of the ceasefire, rejected Israel’s demand.
• Ostensibly, Israel’s interest in receiving the hostages and continuing the fighting stands in complete contradiction to that of Hamas, but in practice Hamas has flexibility that has not yet been exhausted. This stems from the large number of hostages in its possession, which allows it to realize additional deals for some of them, and this is what Israel has been aiming its efforts toward.
• The organization’s leadership is investing efforts to restrain Israel through international diplomatic pressure, against the backdrop of the large number of casualties and while stressing its desire to continue on the ceasefire path toward ending the war.
• The conditions under which it is required to operate to achieve its goals today are incomparably better than those at the beginning of the war: the backing from the Trump administration and the umbrella it provides against the diplomatic system and international institutions, the change in the Middle East balance of power, the situation in other combat zones, the state of Hamas and, distinctly, the experience and confidence gained by IDF forces.
• Tightening and significantly hardening the blockade along with increasing pressure through airstrikes, evacuating areas and capturing them, may force Hamas to make its stance more flexible.
• In view of the danger to the hostages’ wellbeing and alongside the steps presumably being taken in Israel’s proactive operations, it would be appropriate for Israel’s leadership to consider immediately approving a series of Draconian measures (such as the permanent deportation of Hamas leaders from the West Bank and imposing the death penalty on terrorists) and to declare that they will be implemented if harm comes to the hostages.
• Link: Israel had no choice: Military escalation is a necessary reset for hostage talks

Hostage Update (no change)

There are now currently 58 hostages taken on 10/7 currently in captivity in Gaza (there are 59 hostages remaining in total)

• 38 hostages were released in the first phase of the 2025 cease fire agreement (including 5 Thai nationals)
• 24 hostages will remain in captivity after Phase I and have not been declared dead.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 193 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 59 hostages still theoretically in Gaza
  • 31 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)

1,852 Israelis have been killed including 846 IDF soldiers since October 7th (no change since Wednesday)

• The South: 407 IDF soldiers during the ground operation in Gaza have been killed
• The North: 132 Israelis (84 IDF soldiers) have been killed during the war in Northern Israel
• The West Bank: 63 Israelis (27 IDF and Israeli security forces)
• Additional Information (according to the IDF):
  • 2,583 (no change since Wednesday) IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 498 (no change since Wednesday) who have been severely injured.
  • 5,737 (+1 since Wednesday) IDF soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, including at least 854 (+1 since Wednesday) 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.

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