Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag were freed on Saturday after 477 days in captivity in Gaza.

• The Times of Israel writes: the four released hostages were among seven female soldiers abducted from the IDF surveillance unit at the Nahal Oz army base during the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023. A fifth, Megidish, was rescued by the IDF later that month, while the body of Noa Marciano was recovered after she was murdered in captivity. The seventh, Agam Berger, is expected to be freed next Saturday.
• According to YNet, they were held throughout the period in civilian apartments and tunnels, in poor sanitary conditions, and often did not shower for long periods. They were forced to cook and clean for their captors, sometimes even while receiving little food for themselves.
• At times, the four were held together, and at times they were forced to babysit the children of some of their captors. During their captivity, as could be seen in the psychological terror video released by Hamas after their release, they learned to speak Arabic.
• They were moved from place to place within Gaza City disguised as Palestinian women
• The public broadcaster reported that that the main media outlet to which they were exposed while in captivity was Al-Jazeera, and Hamas terrorists told them about the IDF’s fighting in the Gaza Strip.
• The public broadcaster’s report also noted that Liri Abag was the one who took care of the group, spoke to the terrorists, and was the “leader.”
• According to a report on the Keshet network, some of the kidnapped women met “very senior Hamas officials” during their captivity.
• Link from YNet: New footage: Hostages’ return by helicopter, reunion at the hospital and the celebrations

[WATCH] The four brave hostages were paraded around Gaza and forced to participate in a Hamas organized “ceremony” prior to being handed over to the Red Cross. Notice how the Red Cross is present throughout the entire process. Disgusting.

[WATCH] The moment the four hostages are transferred from the Red Cross to the IDF in Israel.

[WATCH] IDF footage shows released hostage soldiers meeting their parents at an IDF facility

[WATCH] As expected, Hamas released its own propaganda video to promote its “victory” and peaceful transfer of the hostages.

Hostages (4 hostages are home)

As of late Saturday evening, according to Israel, Hamas has violated the deal in two ways:

• Civilians were supposed to be released first, which is why it is of concern that Arbel Yehud was not freed. While mediators have assured the Israelis that she is alive and in good health, apparently Arbel is being held by an Islamist extremist group operating independently in Gaza. She is not with Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Hamas has said that she will now be released sometime before next Saturday.
  • According to the Jerusalem Post, Israel is intensifying efforts to secure the release of Arbel Yehoud and significant diplomatic efforts are underway to ensure her release “as quickly as possible.”
  • IDF Spokesman R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari: “Hamas failed to meet its obligations to release Israeli female civilian hostages first as part of the agreement. We remain steadfast in our determination to bring home Arbel Yehoud, as well as Shiri Bibas and her two young children, Kfir and Ariel, whose well-being is of utmost concern”.
  • Until she is returned, the IDF would not withdraw from part of the Netzarim Corridor as scheduled on Sunday. The corridor bisects Gaza from east to west and divides its south from its north.
• By midnight on Saturday, Hamas was supposed to deliver to the mediators the list of the hostages, both alive and deceased, included in the deal. Hamas did not deliver this list.

• There are now currently 87 hostages taken on 10/7 currently in captivity in Gaza (there are 90 hostages in total)
  • There are three female hostages remaining from the original list of 33 to be released in the first phase of the hostage ceasefire deal.
    • Two Civilians: Arbel Yehud, 29, and Shiri Silberman Bibas, 33 (Bibas’s two young sons Ariel and Kfir, now aged 5 and 2, are also held and are on the list, as is her husband, Yarden Bibas. It is assumed that the children are not alive, but this has not been confirmed)
    • One Female Solider: Agam Berger
  • For each of the female soldiers, Israel will release 50 Palestinian prisoners, 30 of them convicted terrorists who are serving life sentences.

In total, there are now 26 remaining hostages on the list for release during the first stage of the ceasefire. The women and children will be released first, followed by men over the age of 50. The release of those kidnapped by Hamas will be spread out over 42 days, six weeks, with at least three hostages being released each week.

• Two civilian woman: Shiri Silberman Bibas and Arbel Yehud
  • Shiri’s children, Ariel (4 years old when taken hostage) and Kfir (9 months old) are also on the list and are the only remaining children in Gaza. It is assumed that they are not alive, but this has not been confirmed.
• One female IDF soldiers: Agam Berger
• Men over 50: Ohad Ben-Ami, Itzhak Elgarat, Yair Horn, Tsahi Idan, Ofer Kalderon, Oded Lifshitz, Shlomo Mansur, Gadi Moses, Eli Sharabi, Keith Siegel, Ohad Yahalomi.
• Link: These are the hostages to be released (and left behind) in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal’s first phase – Jewish Telegraphic Agency

• 7 hostages are Americans: Meet the Seven American Hostages Still Held By Hamas
• On October 7^th, a total of 261 Israelis were taken hostage.
• During the ceasefire deal in November, 112 hostages were released.
• 165 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 rescued by troops alive
• Of the 91 hostages still theoretically in Gaza
  • At least 35 confirmed bodies are currently being held in Gaza
  • 28-46 hostages are assumed to be dead and held in captivity.
  • Thus, at most, 41-59 living hostages could still be in Gaza.
  • Hamas is also holding 2 Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015 (civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who have been held in Gaza for a decade), as well as the body of 1 IDF soldiers who was killed in 2014 (Lt. Hadar Goldin’s body remains held in the Gaza Strip)

Situational Update

• Maya Aidan, with Israel’s Channel 13, reported that former hostages Romi, Emily, and Doron were held in United Nations shelters in Gaza, which were meant for civilians.
• Barak Ravid reports: The Trump White House instructed the Pentagon to release the hold imposed by the Biden administration on the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. The officials said that 1,800 MK-84 bombs, which were held in storage in the U.S., will be put on a ship and delivered to Israel in the coming days. “A lot of things that were ordered and paid for by Israel, but have not been sent by Biden, are now on their way!” President Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday.
• President Trump has officially reinstated the Houthi rebels on the list of terrorist organizations, reversing President Biden’s previous decision to remove them.

Casualties (no change)

• 1,844 Israelis have been killed including 841 IDF soldiers since October 7th (no change since Wednesday)
• The South: 405 IDF soldiers during the ground operation in Gaza have been killed (no change since Wednesday)
• The North: 131 Israelis (84 IDF soldiers) have been killed during the war in Northern Israel (no change since Wednesday)
• Additional Information (according to the IDF):
  • 2,570 (no change since Wednesday) IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 495 (no change since Wednesday) who have been severely injured.
  • 5,662 (+10 since Wednesday) IDF soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, including at least 839 (+1 since Wednesday) who have been severely injured.
    • The increase in injuries is attributed to ongoing operations in the West Bank

• The Gaza Casualty Count:
  • According to unverified figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, 47,283 (+182 since Wednesday) people have been killed in Gaza, and 111,472 (+325 since last Sunday) have been injured during the war.
  • [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.

Watch

The Hostage Deal, a New Administration, and the Future of the Fight Against Hamas. Hosted by The Tikvah Fund

• Jonathan Silver hosted a special briefing about the deal with former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and White House veteran and Tikvah Chairman Elliott Abrams.

Antisemitism

Global Antisemitism Surged 340%: The World Zionist Organization and The Jewish Agency for Israel reported a staggering 340% increase in global antisemitic incidents in 2024 compared to 2022 and nearly a 100% rise compared to 2023. This alarming trend was detailed in their annual report on global antisemitism, presented to President Itzhak Herzog. Summary by David Israel with the Jewish Press

Key Findings include:

• North America: The situation is particularly alarming. In the United States, there was a 288% increase in antisemitic incidents, peaking in April 2024
• Europe: The trends are equally concerning. In France, there was an increase of over 350% in antisemitic incidents, with 28% involving violence. A comprehensive public opinion survey showed that 64% of French people believe that Jews have reason to fear for their lives in the country. In the United Kingdom, there was a 450% increase in antisemitic incidents, with almost 2,000 incidents in the first half of 2024 alone.
• Far East: There has been a troubling emergence of “new” antisemitism. In China, social media platforms were flooded with antisemitic content and conspiracy theories, including Holocaust denial and comparisons to Hitler. The Israeli embassy in China described the situation as a “tsunami” of hostility
• South Africa: There was a 185% increase in antisemitic incidents, with clear antisemitic expressions accompanied by calls for boycotts of Israel and anti-Israel propaganda. It is noted that there may be underreporting in South Africa due to a lack of registration and reporting of incidents
• Australia: There was a sharp 387% increase in antisemitic incidents, with a combination of antisemitic demonstrations and anti-Israel propaganda.
• Global Event Analysis: Antisemitic propaganda leads with more than 41% of all incidents, while violent events account for about 15.5% of documented cases. About a quarter of the incidents are directly related to Israeli policy and the Middle East conflict.
• Digital Antisemitism: The year 2024 marks a severe turning point in the spread of antisemitism in the digital space, with a more than 300% increase in antisemitic content compared to the previous year.
• Link: Jewish Agency Report: Bet. 2022 and 2024 Global Antisemitism Surged 340%

In Australia, Jew-Hate Is Out of Control: A day care center, a synagogue, and my former home—all firebombed this week for one reason. By Alex Ryvchin in The Free Press

• As co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, I spend my days advocating for my country’s Jewish community—which numbers around 120,000 people.
• Staff, journalists, and politicians have all called in the small hours to inform me that a synagogue is burning, or that cars, daubed with antisemitic slogans, are on fire, or that yet another Jewish business has been vandalized.
• But the most recent target of antisemitism in Australia is a building that was, until two years ago, my home—a whitewashed semi in Dover Heights, a comfortable Sydney suburb. This wonderfully ordinary place, which sheltered me, my wife, and our three small daughters from a global pandemic, was set on fire and vandalized. One of the arsonists also scrawled “Fuck Jews” on the side of a nearby car.
• For 15 months, Australia’s Jewish community has been continuously reeling from attacks like this. On October 9, 2023, two days after Hamas murdered hundreds of Israelis, around 1,000 pro-Palestine activists gathered on the steps of Australia’s most iconic landmark, the Sydney Opera House—which had been lit up with the colors of the Israeli flag to show solidarity—and yelled “fuck the Jews” and “fuck Israel.” Even the organizer of the protest acknowledged that there were “vile antisemitic attendees.” There were also reportedly shouts of “gas the Jews.”
• Since then, Australia has seen a huge uptick in antisemitic attacks. For instance, in February 2024, activists and journalists shared the contact details of hundreds of Jewish academics and creatives on social media—details taken from a WhatsApp group set up by and for Jewish professionals in the wake of October 7—in the interest of exposing “Zionists.”
• A few months later, in June 2024, a Jewish member of parliament—the grandson of a refugee from Nazi Germany—was targeted. Activists smashed the windows of his office in Melbourne, and tried to light it on fire. The perpetrators wrote in red paint on the door, “Zionism is fascism.”
• Then, just over a month ago—before dawn on December 6, 2024—the Orthodox Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne was doused with flammable liquid and set on fire. No one has been arrested for this horrible act of arson. And just over a week ago, another synagogue—this one in Sydney—was defaced with red swastikas.
• Finally, at 1 a.m. local time on Tuesday, a day care center in Sydney was set on fire, the fence spray-painted with that slogan, again: “Fuck the Jews.”
• But too often, instead of unequivocal condemnation of antisemitic attacks, the reaction in Australia has been to quibble. For instance, after the October 9, 2023, rally in Sydney, a national debate raged over whether anyone had actually shouted, “Gas the Jews.” Pro-Palestine activists argued—and a police investigation eventually concluded—that people had actually been shouting, “Where’s the Jews,” as if this alternative is acceptable.
• But the Jews I speak to today don’t recognize our country anymore. The children of Holocaust survivors have told me they’re glad their parents aren’t alive to see what Australia has become.
• Link: In Australia, Jew-Hate Is Out of Control
• Update: Per the Jerusalem Post: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese convened a National Cabinet meeting Tuesday and announced an antisemitic incident database to address the rise in antisemitism in the country following the Monday arson and vandalization of a Sydney suburb kindergarten.

Wikipedia’s Supreme Court Topic Bans 8 Editors from Israel-Palestine Area by Aaron Bandler with Jewish Journal

• ArbCom is Wikipedia’s highest dispute resolution board consisting of 15 members (one of whom is currently inactive) elected by the community, serving two-year terms; ArbCom only deals with editor conduct, not article content and is the option of last resort when all other means of dispute resolution have failed. As of the publication time, the committee has votes in favor of indefinitely topic banning “Selfstudier,” “Nableezy,” “Nishidani,” “Levivich,” “Iskandar323,” “Makeandtoss,” “BilledMammal” and “AndreJustAndre” and providing a warning to “Zero0000,” an administrator. ArbCom’s proposed decision states that all these editors engaged in “disruptive behavior,” a catch-all term referring to anything that makes it more difficult to edit articles and violates Wikipedia norms and policies. The disruptive behavior that these editors engaged in included non-neutral editing, edit warring and incivility, per the proposed decision.
• Selfstudier, Nableezy, Nishidani, Levivich, Iskandar, Zero and Makeandtoss were all listed in a viral Pirate Wires piece as being part of the anti-Israel cabal that hijacked Wikipedia. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) noted in a Jan. 17 press release that Selfstudier, Nableezy, Iskandar, Levivich and Nishidani were all “part of a bad-faith campaign in an attempt to undermine the credibility of ADL”; the ADL was downgraded on Wikipedia to being generally unreliable on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in June. BilledMammal and AndreJustAndre are on the pro-Israel side.
• ArbCom is also on the verge of passing a new measure called a balanced editing restriction. Kelly who played a role crafting the restriction, explained it to me as follows: “Someone under this restriction would not be allowed to spend more than a third of their content-related edits on PIA [Palestine-Israel Article] pages. In a bit more detail, if an editor is subject to it, and 1/3 of their edits in the previous 30 days have been about PIA, then they are treated as if they are topic-banned from PIA, until such time as they fall back below that 1/3-in-30-days threshold. This is all in addition to a topic ban from PIA edits outside of the article, talk, draft, and draft talk namespaces, which is in force regardless of the 1/3-in-30-days question.” Kelly further explained to me that the restriction is based on “a rolling 30-day window, counting backward from the moment that the edit is made” and that “it can be imposed based on a simple finding that doing so would be net-positive, without having to get into the person’s motives.” The restriction’s likely implementation will be reviewed by ArbCom after six months.
• A measure that would have barred article titles from using contentious words like “massacre” and “genocide” in articles describing violent engagements in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (unless editors came to a consensus on them) and given admins discretion to replace such words with terms like “killing” or “attack” failed.
• ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement, “We’re pleased that the Wikipedia arbitration board has taken disciplinary action against some editors who, in our view, have spread malicious, false and biased information about Zionism and Israel across the platform … It’s worth noting that several of the chief instigators of the campaign against ADL are among those now facing topic bans or outright bans for their behavior. In light of this, it is now imperative for Wikipedia to begin work immediately to undo the harm caused by these rogue but prolific editors who literally have wreaked havoc across the platform, causing untold harm to potentially hundreds of entries about Israel, the Oct. 7 massacre, Zionism and topics relating to antisemitism.
• But the longtime editor who runs “The Wikipedia Flood” blog did not share the ADL’s reaction, telling me that the likely actions from ArbCom are “flabby and insufficient” that only “deals with a small number of editors” and that the likely topic banning of BilledMammal and Andre is “purely out of ‘balance’ in a ‘split the baby’ fashion.”
• The Wikipedia Flood editor added that they “don’t get the ADL’s joy here. Their complaint was rejected. The arbs made no mention of the ADL one way or the other. They are, in effect, claiming a ‘victory’ of sorts that does not exist. It is a very odd reaction that shows a lack of understanding of Wikipedia and is congratulating Wikipedia for absolutely no reason.” The Wikipedia Flood editor also noted that the likely topic banned anti-Israel editors are not about to be sanctioned because they “introduced bad information, but because they engaged in bad behavior. That is a crucial difference. I am appalled that the ADL so totally misread what ArbCom did.”
• A former Wikipedia editor who goes by the alias “Ron Merkle” on X told me that while it’s great that “some pro-Hamas distortionists” are likely going to be topic banned, “there are a few other distortionists who escaped consequences simply because they aren’t included as parties in the arbitration case, or because they were simply admonished rather than let’s say, a fixed-duration topic ban. In some ways this isn’t quite different than the Holocaust in Poland arbitration case, where those responsible for distorting historical facts were let off with minimal consequences.” Merkle touted an alternative to Wikipedia called Justapedia, where Merkle currently edits.
• UPDATE: Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) closed the case on Jan. 23; the topic bans and the balanced editing restriction are official. As part of the close, the committee also gave pro-Israel editor “AndreJustAndre” a suspended site ban, which according to ArbCom’s announcement means that if the committee receives a complaint about Andre in the next 12 months, he may be site-banned.
• Link: Wikipedia’s Supreme Court Topic Bans 8 Editors from Israel-Palestine Area [UPDATED]

Israel/Middle East Related Articles

After the Gaza Ceasefire, Watch the West Bank by Seth J. Frantzman in The Jerusalem Strategic Tribune

• Hamas has plans for the West Bank. Now that there is a ceasefire in Gaza, Hamas wants to use the war it launched against Israel to bring itself more power and influence in the West Bank. It seeks to gain popularity through the prisoner releases secured in exchange for Israeli hostages
• The turn to the West Bank is an old Hamas game plan. For instance, after every round of conflict in Gaza in the past 20 years, Hamas would try to mobilize activists in the West Bank, including on college campuses. I remember seeing how Hamas put up posters at Al-Quds University, in Abu Dis overlooking Jerusalem from the West Bank, and campaigned for student government.
• Over the past months, terrorist groups in the West Bank city of Jenin, primarily Palestinian Islamic Jihad, have already been clashing with the Palestinian Authority (PA) Security Forces. The PA wants to crack down on Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other armed groups because it knows they are exploiting the war in Gaza to gain influence. The terrorists have also benefited from a flow of weapons, primarily M-16 style rifles, to the West Bank. It gets worse than rifles though. They are also working on improvised explosive devices and other threats. They are growing in the power and complexity of operations.
• The picture is clear in the West Bank. Hamas and other groups are making a play for the northern West Bank, and they will likely then try to target Ramallah.
• Hamas doesn’t need to take over the West Bank in one large operation. It can do so slowly via the kinds of demonstrations of January 19 that gradually corrode the PA’s authority. Alternatively, Hamas could seek to precipitate the kind of collapse that happened in Syria in December when the Asad regime suddenly fell.
• PA President Mahmoud Abbas was born in 1935 and is 89 years old. The fact that the PA has not replaced him with someone younger makes the PA appear to be going the way of the Soviet Politburo of the late 1970s and early 1980s, with aging men out of touch with changes in society. Abbas has Western-backed security forces but they are not very well armed.
• There are many avenues open to Hamas. If Hamas begins to rise up in the West Bank, Israel has no way of keeping that in check, other than killing individual gunmen and known terrorists. Some of the terrorists released in the Gaza ceasefire deal will return to the West Bank, potentially creating a powder keg waiting to go off.
• Link: After the Gaza Ceasefire, Watch the West Bank

This Israel-Hamas Deal Sets a Dangerous Precedent: For the first time in history, a state is paying a strategic battlefield price for its citizens’ return. By Amit Segal in the WSJ

• Can G-d create a stone he can’t lift? Israel recently faced a similar question: Can politicians tie their hands behind their backs to render themselves incapable of action?
• In recent years, Israel has begun to pay increasingly exorbitant prices for its hostages. The 1968 hijacking—an El Al flight diverted to Algiers—resulted in passengers freed in exchange for 16 terrorists with no blood on their hands. The price of at least 19 female terrorists was paid 41 years later in return for video footage of an abducted soldier. Talk about inflation.
• Over the years, Israel has abandoned its principles. Once it refused to negotiate with terrorists; today it does. Once it agreed to exchange only bodies for bodies; today it releases live terrorists. Once it insisted on a proportional ratio of those released from both sides; today it sometimes releases 1,000 terrorists in exchange for a single hostage. Once it refused to release anyone convicted of murder; now it’s a given that no security prisoner serving a life sentence will remain in prison forever.
• The 2012 report to Mr. Netanyahu recommended legislation forbidding disproportionate concessions for the release of hostages. Only a single-digit number of terrorists would be exchanged for one Israeli, only bodies for bodies.
• The recommendations weren’t enacted into law, which is how we arrived at the hostage deal of January 2025. For the first time in history, a state is paying a strategic price on the battlefield for the return of its citizens. Not only are murderers who killed hundreds of men, women and children about to be released, but now the IDF is also withdrawing (even if only temporarily) from areas in Gaza captured at a high price.
• Worse, Israel will be approaching the next phase of the negotiations stripped of assets, save an agreement to end the war. That was exactly what Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the Oct. 7 massacre, envisioned. While he hoped to cause Israel’s destruction, he was convinced that he could at least negotiate an end to the war in return for hostages.
• Seeing the hostages at home fills the heart with joy. No words can capture the profound relief at seeing men, women, children and the elderly brought home from Hamas’s terror tunnels. Yet we must not forget the devastating price extracted. Now is the moment to halt this surrender to terrorism and send an unequivocal message to Hamas and every terror organization worldwide: The era of extortionate price gouging is over.
• Link: This Israel-Hamas Deal Sets a Dangerous Precedent

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