Important Takeaways:
- No final answer was given from Hamas regarding a hostage deal, an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
- Earlier, the Associated Press reported, citing two officials involved in the negotiations, that Hamas has agreed to the proposed ceasefire deal in Gaza and the release of numerous hostages.
- According to the report, an Israeli official noted that while progress had been made, the final details were still under discussion.
- “We have handed over drafts of the ceasefire agreement to both sides, and talks are now ongoing on the final detail,” the Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced on Tuesday.
- “We have overcome the major differences. This is the closest point we have been to a deal over the past months,” the statement added.
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Important Takeaways:
- Both the outgoing Biden administration and President-elect Trump’s people are pushing hard for a hostage deal and ceasefire agreement in Gaza. Many in Israel see reports about this possible deal as excruciating.
- The ceasefire-hostage deal is still up in the air, but the U.S. is talking optimistically.
- Media reports indicate 33 hostages would be released at the start of the deal, but Israel’s government is not sure how many of those will be live hostages.
- The release of more would be negotiated in later stages. Israel appears ready to sign the deal, but whether Hamas will is unknown.
- Some hostage families and their allies have marched in Jerusalem to protest any deal that doesn’t free all the hostages at once and in which Israel gives up hope of crushing Hamas in Gaza.
- Protester Tamar Gesundheit appealed, “Please President Trump, do not pressure us to give into Hamas. Pressure them to give into us.”
- Meanwhile, the fighting continues in Gaza, and the Houthis fired missiles at Israel again overnight.
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Important Takeaways:
- After all the talk about hostage talks over the past year, it appears that a deal may really happen before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated.
- Trump is repeating for emphasis what he’s said will happen if Hamas doesn’t free all the hostages.
- “If they’re not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East and it will not be good for Hamas and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out,” the president-elect said on a podcast Tuesday with conservative Hugh Hewitt.
- Steve Witkoff, Middle East envoy in the next administration, remarked about Trump, “What he said, he expects. The red lines he’s put out there – that’s driving this negotiation.”
- Trump expressed anger about how Hamas has treated the hostages.
- “That beautiful girl where they (Hamas) threw her in the car, pulled her by her ponytail, and threw her in the car like she was a sack of potatoes,” he recalled. I said, what happened to her? So, she’s dead. Like a 19, 20-year-old beautiful girl.”
- Trump added, “They should have never taken them. There should have never been the attack of October 7th.”
- Witkoff’s taking part indirectly in the hostage talks in Doha, Qatar.
- “I think that we’ve had some really great progress,” Witkoff stated. “And I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural we’ll have some good things to announce.”
- Israel is taking part in the task force, and the only hold-up seems to be the unreasonable demands by Hamas.
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Important Takeaways:
- Some remarkable celestial signs will be on display in the coming months that may hold prophetic significance for our world. This series of four heavenly phenomena includes two lunar events over the next 14 months that appear to represent a possible message about Israel.
- It all kicks off with a total lunar eclipse known as a “blood moon” that will appear over the U.S. on March 14, 2025. This particular one will fall directly on the Jewish holiday of Purim. That’s when the Jewish people celebrate the biblical account of Esther when they were delivered from annihilation at the hands of an enemy named Haman in the Persian empire, which is modern-day Iran.
- And that’s not the end. There will actually be two more blood moons, with one coming this fall before Rosh Hashanah, and then the third one also falling directly on Purim on March 3, 2026.
- Bible prophecy experts say lunar eclipses known as “blood moons” are tied to events that affect Israel.
- Historically, blood moon tetrads have occurred during some truly world-changing events directly related to Israel.
- Three tetrads stand out over the last millennium, coinciding with major events for the Jewish people. They occurred from 1493-1494, 1949-1950, and 1967-1968.
- In 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain after severe persecution, and Christopher Columbus also discovered America, which would eventually become a safe haven for the Jewish people.
- In 1948, the modern state of Israel was reborn as a nation in its original homeland, fulfilling a biblical prophecy from Jeremiah 16:15 – “For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.”
- Finally, in 1967, Israel recaptured their capital of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War which many see as an essential precursor to the eventual construction of the Jewish Third Temple. (The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.)
- The next tetrad of blood moons will occur in 2032–2033, exactly 2,000 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The last two in that tetrad will fall on Jewish holidays – Passover on April 14, 2033, and Sukkot on Oct 8, 2033. A total solar eclipse will occur in the middle of that rare tetrad on March 30, 2033.
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Important Takeaways:
- IDF is continuing to find weapons depots, Hamas terrorists, and tunnels. Hamas’ military abilities cannot be defeated as quickly as critics of the IDF strategy would like to believe.
- The Israeli military announced it had carried out airstrikes against over 100 targets, including Hamas terrorists and rocket launching sites.
- For over a year, Israel has staged a massive military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Its stated goals are to remove Hamas as a governing power in the territory and release all the hostages.
- Thousands of Israelis rallied on Saturday evening to protest the government and pressure it to reach a deal with Hamas.
- …The IDF also continued to operate in the north of the territory.
- “The area consists of structures overlooking Israeli territory and serves as a central terror hub containing anti-tank firing positions, booby traps, shafts, numerous explosives, and launch sites for targeting Israeli territory,” read a statement by the army.
- In addition, the army continues to control the Philadephi and Netzarim corridors in southern and central Gaza, respectively, aimed at blocking Hamas from being able to re-arm and re-position itself.
- …according to Shamir, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University
- “Hamas had over twenty years to accumulate a massive amount of firepower, dispersing it in many areas, including in its widespread underground tunnel network,” Shamir told The Media Line. “Combined with other terrorist organizations, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), it had approximately 30,000 fighters. This could take two to three years to get rid of.”
- “There is an estimated 40% of the tunnels still remaining, hundreds of kilometers of tunnels the Israeli intelligence was not aware of,” said Yoni Ben Menachem, an expert of Middle Eastern affairs from Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told The Media Line. “There are still very long tunnels that Israel has yet to have located, some of them with hostages inside. This requires a very big operation and a massive amount of explosives that Israel currently does not possess.”
- Hamas stunned Israel on October 7th, 2023, when it attacked the south of the country in a rampage that killed approximately 1200 Israelis and wounded thousands more. It also took approximately 250 people hostage, 100 still in captivity.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel conducted a commando raid on an underground Iranian missile production facility near the city of Maysaf in Syria in early September, the Jerusalem Post learned in later September, but was only allowed to confirm now after KAN News was permitted to publicize the IDF officially taking credit late Sunday.
- That a raid took place, but without Israeli confirmation, was first reported by Axios on September 12, with the Post receiving secret confirmation shortly after, but not permission to publicize the information.
- It appears that Israeli censor and secrecy rules regarding operations in Syria have become more flexible given the huge increase in IDF operations in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime.
- With the fall of the regime, information security officials likely view any threat of retaliation from Syria as being at a much lower risk level.
- The raid targeted two significant sites, which were the Syrian defense industry’s Scientific Studies and Research Center and the underground missile production facility run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
- The decision to carry out the strike was believed to be influenced by concerns over the ongoing war, along with the potential risk that the Iranian missile factory would begin mass-producing missiles.
- …weapons were reportedly intended to be used as a supply for Hezbollah.
- The operation occurred approximately 200 kilometers from Israeli territory and was deemed urgent to prevent the facility from reaching full production capacity.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Israeli strikes followed several days of Houthi launches setting off sirens in Israel.
- The strikes, carried out over 1,000 miles from Jerusalem, came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad’s regime and others learned” as his military has battled those more powerful proxies of Iran
- The Israeli military in a statement said it attacked infrastructure used by the Iran-backed Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, along with power stations, asserting they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials.
- Israel’s military added it had “capabilities to strike very far from Israel’s territory — precisely, powerfully, and repetitively.”
- Israeli airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday targeted the Houthi rebel-held capital and multiple ports, while the World Health Organization’s director-general said the bombardment occurred nearby as he prepared to board a flight in Sanaa, with a crew member injured.
- “The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said
- Israel’s army later told The Associated Press it wasn’t aware that the WHO chief was at the location in Yemen.
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Important Takeaways:
- Mike Huckabee, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominated US ambassador to Israel, reaffirmed America’s commitment to Israel, stating that the Jewish state would never stand-alone during a speech at the One Israel Fund’s 30th anniversary gala.
- “I want to say you will never be alone again in your fight for freedom and to preserve the country and the land and the heritage that God gave you,” Huckabee said.
- During the event, Huckabee also met the head of the Binyamin Council and the chairman of the Yesha Council, Israel Gantz. The two discussed what is expected in the new era under President Trump.
- Gantz also met senior US officials to promote the future of the West Bank.
- “The meetings with the senior US officials are very important, and he heard that they exude a spirit that has not been present in the White House for years,” Gantz told The Jerusalem Post.
- The Binyamin Council head added that “they are true partners of the State of Israel and the settlement, and a large number of them have visited us in Binyamin in recent years. They are capable of promoting a policy based on truth in which the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel and the axis of evil must be completely eradicated wherever it is.”
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Important Takeaways:
- With Hezbollah in Lebanon disabled and Hamas’ strength waning, Houthi rebels in Yemen have been launching missiles at Israel, and Israel is striking back.
- Israeli airstrikes pounded the rebel regime in Yemen early Thursday after the Houthis launched another missile at Israel – one of several fired at the Jewish state in recent days.
- Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to huddle with top officials to discuss a hostage deal that may be fast approaching.
- A Palestinian negotiator told the BBC the talks are in the final stage. Though issues remain, it may include a six-week ceasefire, during which Hamas would free 30 of the remaining 100 hostages.
- IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said from Gaza that Israeli troops continue to do their part there.
- “We are exerting pressure on Hamas daily, driving it into greater distress, to ensure the return of the 100 hostages,” Halevi said.
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Important Takeaways:
- ‘Colossal’ explosions have filled the skies in Syria as Israeli strikes are said to have targeted military sites in the ‘the heaviest strikes’ in the area for more than a decade – with blasts which registered on earthquake sensors.
- A war monitor group said that Israeli strikes had targeted military sites in Syria’s coastal Tartus region.
- ‘Israeli warplanes launched strikes’ targeting a series of sites including air defense units and ‘surface-to-surface missile depots’, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in what it said were ‘the heaviest strikes in Syria’s coastal region since the start of strikes in 2012’.
- It has been claimed that the explosion was so large, it measured as a magnitude 3.0 on seismic sensors.
- Tartus has been the location of one of Russia’s two military bases in Syria and was used as a naval base, as well as an ammunition depot.
- The huge explosion, as well as secondary explosions, may indicate the presence of a large volume of stored armaments.
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