HAMAS WON'T DISARM, HOLDS BACK DEAD HOSTAGES.GREAT START TO A CEASEFIRE

HAMAS WON'T DISARM, HOLDS BACK DEAD HOSTAGES.GREAT START TO A CEASEFIRE.

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE.

Joel 3:2-King James Version (YOU DIVIDE JERUSALEM IN HALF - YOUR POKING GOD IN THE EYE - GOD SAYS AN EYE FOR AN EYE AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH- YOU WANNA DIVIDE JERUSALEM IN HALF -  HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION 4 BILLION DIE ON EARTH.
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4 billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.

MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

Now the scriptures that a week in Israel history is 7YEARS.

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

Isn"t this interesting it comes from the same Person whos name was changed to Israel,(JACOB) and Israel and Jerusalem is the places dealt with in Daniel 9:24-27.

GENESIS 32:27-28
27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE ANIMAL SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

 1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

ISAIAH 33:8
8  The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)

ALREADY THE HAMAS DEATH CULT IS RENEGING ON THE DEAL.HOLDING BACK ON GIVING DEAD BODIES TO ISRAEL.

Red Cross: Retrieval of bodies could take 'much more time'-Israel won’t reopen Rafah crossing, will limit aid, to press Hamas for release of 24 slain hostages-As IDs confirmed of the 4 returned hostages’ remains, families of hostages still in Gaza demand deal be put on hold until their loved ones returned, accuse gov’t of shirking ‘immediate duty’ to bring them back-By Emanuel Fabian,ToI Staff and Agencies Today, 6:00 pm-OCT 14,25

Israel on Tuesday decided not to reopen the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt the next day, as required by the ceasefire deal, accusing Hamas of failing to stand by its commitment to return the bodies of all dead hostages still held by Palestinian terrorists in the Strip.Israel said it would also reduce the amount of aid flowing into Gaza as part of the sanctions against the terror group.The moves followed assessments by Israeli defense officials that Hamas has not made significant efforts to return the remaining bodies of the hostages and amid rising anger among their families, with the main group representing them demanding that the ceasefire agreement’s implementation be halted until their loved ones are returned.The Red Cross, meanwhile, said that it could take “much more time” to retrieve the 24 remaining captives due to conditions in Gaza, as the Israel Defense Forces announced that forensic experts identified the four slain hostages returned by Hamas on Monday night.According to the Israel Defense Forces, military representatives notified the families of Guy Illouz, 26, who died of untreated wounds in captivity, Nepal national Bipin Joshi, 23, who was murdered in captivity, and two other hostages whose names will be published later, that their bodies were returned.Hamas said Monday that it returned the remains of Yossi Sharabi, 53, and IDF officer Cpt. Daniel Perez, 22, in addition to Illouz and Joshi.The bodies were returned hours after Hamas released the last 20 living hostages abducted when the terror group invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the Gaza war.Citing intelligence information, the military said Illouz was wounded and kidnapped alive by Hamas terrorists near the Gaza border’s Tel Gama area, where he fled from the massacre at the Re’im-area Nova party on the morning of the October 7 onslaught.Guy Illouz-Illouz, who was confirmed dead in December 2023, died in captivity of untreated wounds sustained in the onslaught, the IDF said. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents most of the hostage families, cited freed captive Maya Regev as saying Illouz was abducted unconscious and died of his wounds at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, where he was bound to a bed for a week.Regev was brought into Illouz’s room 36 hours before he died, according to the Forum, which said Illouz told her that “his mother is the strongest woman in the world, and the moment he’ll come back home he’ll hug her and never let go.”A native of Ra’anana in central Israel, Illouz was “well-known in the music industry as the sound technician for many artists,” including the band HaYehudim and iconic Israeli singers Mati Caspi and Shalom Hanoch, the Forum said. He is survived by his parents Michel and Doris and his siblings Uri and Maya.“Relatives described him as a person with a huge heart, who only ever wanted what was good for people and that they enjoy themselves,” it added. “Guy’s energy broadcast love and respect.”Bipin Joshi-Joshi, a Nepali agriculture student whose death had not been confirmed by Israel until now, was abducted from a Kibbutz Alumim bomb shelter where he took cover with other foreign agricultural workers. The IDF said it assessed that he was murdered in captivity during the first months of the war.Joshi’s Nepalese friend Himanchal Kattel, the group’s only survivor, who was not abducted, told AFP that the attackers had thrown a grenade into the shelter, which Joshi caught and threw away before it exploded, saving Kattel’s life. Joshi and others, mainly Thai agricultural workers, were abducted after a second grenade knocked them unconscious, according to the Ynet news site.A native of a village at the foot of the Himalaya mountains, Joshi came to Israel weeks before the October 7 onslaught to study agriculture in Kibbutz Alumim, the Forum said, adding that he “immediately fell in love with Israel and sent his family daily videos of his new life on the kibbutz.”“He dreamed of developing the agriculture in his country, to keep making songs as an amateur rapper and to play soccer,” said the Forum. He is survived by his parents Mahananda and Padma and his sister Pushpa.“The return of Guy and Bipin… brings some measure of comfort to families who have lived with agonizing uncertainty and doubt for over two years,” the Forum said. “We will not rest until all 24 hostages are brought home.”Joshi is one of two hostages whose deaths had not been confirmed by Israel, but for whose fate Israeli officials had expressed grave concern. When the Gaza ceasefire was sealed last week, terror groups in Gaza were holding the remains of 25 hostages confirmed dead by the IDF after their abduction in the October 7 onslaught, and a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war.Final conclusions on how the four returned hostages died will be determined once the Abu Kabir forensic institute completes examinations into the circumstances of their deaths, the IDF said Tuesday, adding that “Hamas is required to abide by the agreement and make the necessary efforts to return all the bodies.”The remaining 24-The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that it could take days or weeks to return all the slain hostages’ bodies, and that there was a possibility they would never be found.“That’s an even bigger challenge than having the people alive being released. That’s a massive challenge,” ICRC spokesperson Christian Cardon said Tuesday. “I think that there is clearly a risk that that will take much more time. What are we telling the parties is that that should be their top priority.”He declined to provide further details about the possible whereabouts of the deceased hostages, citing the sensitivity of the ongoing operation.‘The mission is incomplete’As calls in Israel grew for action, the government’s hostages pointman vowed to the families of hostages on Tuesday that “pressure will persist and increase on Hamas to continue to complete the return of the fallen,” according to the Walla news site.“I’m in continuous contact with our representatives and have been briefed on the details. The issue is at the top of the agenda,” Gal Hirsch reportedly wrote. “The mission is incomplete. We’re completely determined and committed not to stop until all the fallen hostages are located and returned home.”Hirsch reportedly added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought up the issue of the slain hostages while meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on Monday with US President Donald Trump, who was on a whirlwind visit to the region after brokering the Gaza ceasefire.Hirsch also noted that the issue was mentioned by Trump and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi during the Sharm el-Sheikh peace summit, which Trump attended after his visit to Israel.At a meeting of the two leaders, who co-chaired the summit, Trump said Hamas knows which areas the slain hostages are located in, was searching for them “in conjunction with Israel” and was “going to be finding quite a few of them.” The Egyptian leader also said he was working to ensure that the Gaza deal is fully implemented, including by securing the release of all deceased hostages and surging aid into Gaza.On Tuesday, the Qatari Al Araby news outlet reported that Egyptian teams were inside Gaza assisting efforts to locate and extract the bodies of deceased hostages. The report added that Israeli teams are consulting with Egyptian officials to resolve the matter.As part of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas was required to release all living hostages and dead hostages “in its possession,” or the possession of other Palestinian terror groups, within 72 hours of the IDF’s initial withdrawal in Gaza, which was completed on Friday. Hamas had said it would be unfeasible to return all the slain hostages in that time.However, the document also left open the possibility that, if Hamas has information about the whereabouts of deceased hostages whose bodies it cannot retrieve within 72 hours, those details will be transferred to mediators within the deadline for follow-up at a later stage.Yael Adar, mother of slain hostage Tamir Adar, on Monday accused the government of “betraying” the families of slain hostages by failing to set a definite deadline on the return of all the bodies. She also criticized Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana for removing his hostage pin ahead of Trump’s speech at the parliament on Monday, saying it symbolized an attitude that the hostage issue “is over.”The Hostages and Missing Families Forum echoed that criticism in its statement Tuesday, saying the families of the remaining captives were planning an “emergency meeting” that night “in light of the violation of the agreement.”The Forum called on Israel and mediators to “halt the further implementation of the agreement” with Hamas after the terror group did not return all the remaining hostages.Ducking its duty-It also slammed “the Israeli government’s attempt to erase its immediate duty to return the hostages after the return of the 20 hostages yesterday.”“Whoever takes down flags and the [hostage] pin, whoever denies their responsibility… is betraying Jewish morality and degrading the agreement that was signed,” the Forum said. “Unfortunately, we are witness to an attempt to take the issue of the hostages off the agenda.”The group separately appealed to US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who helped broker the ceasefire and hostage release deal, sending a letter from the families urging him to intervene.“What we feared is now happening before our eyes,” they wrote. “Only four deceased hostages are coming home today. Only four families will be able to bring their loved ones to the dignified burial they so deserve and begin to find closure. How is this possible? How can we accept that the others remain behind?”“We must ensure that all remaining hostages come home. We cannot rest, and we know you will not rest, until every last hostage is returned,” the letter continued.“We ask you to pull out every stop and leave no stone unturned in demanding that Hamas fulfill their end of the agreement and bring all the remaining hostages home,” the families implored Witkoff.“Your assurance that you will not leave anyone behind echoes in our hearts and gives us strength to continue. Your words — that you would dig with your own fingers to find our loved ones left behind — are forever etched in our memory and sustain us through the darkest moments.”

'Implementation steps' for Trump proposal to end Gaza war-Full text of Oct. 9 Israel-Hamas deal on Trump’s plan for ‘comprehensive end’ to Gaza war-Agreement says Hamas must release all living hostages, and all dead hostages it can, and ‘share all the information it obtained’ on remaining dead hostages, within 72 hours of Israeli withdrawal-By ToI Staff Today, 5:35 pm-OCT 14,25

The following is the text of the Gaza ceasefire-hostage agreement that Israel and Hamas signed in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on October 9, 2025, based on a proposal set forth by US President Donald Trump.The one-page document, a copy of which was first obtained by Kan News, is signed on Israel’s behalf by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.According to the signed document, appended to the agreement is a map of Israel’s gradual withdrawal from Gaza, a list of “humanitarian aid and relief implementation steps” and a list of 48 living and dead hostages to be released by Hamas.Israel staged its initial withdrawal in Gaza on October 10. On October 13, Hamas released the remaining 20 living hostages per the agreement, but only four of the 28 deceased hostages. In exchange, Israel released 250 Palestinian security prisoners, over 1,700 Gazans detained amid the war in Gaza who were uninvolved in the October 7 onslaught, and a first batch of bodies.
Implementation steps for President Trump’s proposal for a “Comprehensive End of Gaza War”

Implementation steps:
1. President Trump announces the end to the war in the Gaza Strip, and that the parties have agreed to implement the necessary steps to that end.
2. The war will immediately end upon the approval of the Israeli government. All military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment and targeting operations, will be suspended. During the 72-hour period, aerial surveillance will be suspended over the areas from which IDF forces have withdrawn.
3. Immediate commencement of full entry of humanitarian aid and relief as determined in the Proposal, and at a minimum in consistence with the 19 January 2025 agreement regarding humanitarian aid. Humanitarian aid and relief implementation steps are attached herewith.
4. The IDF will withdraw to lines agreed upon as per map X attached herewith, and this will be completed after President Trump’s announcement and within 24 hours of Israeli government approval. The IDF will not return to areas that have been withdrawn from, as long as Hamas fully implements the agreement.
A document entitled “Implementation Steps for President Trump’s Proposal for a ‘Comprehensive End of Gaza War,'” signed by representatives of Israel (Ron Dermer), Hamas and mediating nations in Egypt on October 9, 2025. (Kan News)
5. Within 72 hours of the withdrawal of Israeli forces, all Israeli hostages, living and deceased, held in Gaza will be released (list attached).
a. As soon as the IDF completes the withdrawal, Hamas will commence investigating the status of the hostages and collect all information pertaining to them. Hamas will provide feedback and on its findings through the information-sharing mechanism under 5.e below. Israel will provide information on the Palestinian prisoners and detainees from the Gaza Strip held in Israel.
b. Within the 72 hours, Hamas will release all living hostages including those held by Palestinian factions in Gaza.
c. Within the 72 hours, Hamas will release the remains of the deceased hostages in its possession and those in the possession of the Palestinian factions in Gaza.
d. Hamas will share, within the 72 hours, all the information it obtained relating to any remaining deceased hostages through the information-sharing mechanism in paragraph (e) below. Israel will provide information on the remains of the deceased Gazans held by Israel.
e. Establishment of an information-sharing mechanism between the two sides through the mediators and the ICRC, to exchange information and intelligence on any remaining deceased hostages that were not retrieved within the 72 hours or remains of Gazans held by Israel. The mechanism shall ensure that the remains of all the hostages are fully and safely exhumed and released. Hamas shall exert maximum effort to ensure the fulfilment of these commitments as soon as possible.
f. As Hamas releases all the hostages, Israeli will release in parallel the corresponding number of Palestinian prisoners as per the attached lists.
g. The exchange of hostages and prisoners will be done according to the mechanism agreed upon through the mediators and through the ICRC without any public ceremonies or media coverage.
6. A task force will be formed of representatives from the United States, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey and other countries to be agreed upon by the parties, to follow-up on the implementation with the two sides and coordinate with them.

Transcript'The end of an age of terror; the dawn of a new Middle East'Full text of Trump’s Knesset speech: You’ve won. You can’t beat the world. It’s time for peace-US president tells Netanyahu, regarding Gaza war and new deal: ‘It was getting bad, heated… You’re gonna be remembered for this far more than if you kept this thing going, going, going; kill, kill, kill’By ToI Staff Today, 2:01 pm-OCT 14,25

The following is a full transcript of US President Donald Trump’s speech to the Knesset in Jerusalem, October 13, 2025, checked against delivery. It began with a standing ovation, followed by several ovations, long bouts of applause, several pauses for appreciative laughter, and a brief interruption when two MKs from the mainly Arab Hadash-Ta’al party were removed from the chamber, one of whom was holding a sign urging ‘Recognize Palestine’.US President Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. It’s a great honor.Nice place. Very nice place.Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Speaker, esteemed members of the Knesset and cherished citizens of Israel, we gather on a day of profound joy, of soaring hope, of renewed faith, and above all, a day to give our deepest thanks to the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.After two harrowing years in darkness and captivity, 20 courageous hostages are returning to the glorious embrace of their families, and it is glorious. 28 more precious loved ones are coming home at last to rest in this sacred soil for all of time. And after so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a holy land that is finally at peace, a land and a region that will live, God willing, in peace for all eternity.This is not only the end of a war, this is the end of an age of terror and death, and the beginning of the age of faith and hope and of God. It’s the start of a grand concord and lasting harmony for Israel and all the nations of what will soon be a truly magnificent region. I believe that so strongly. This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East.I want to express my gratitude to a man of exceptional courage and patriotism, whose partnership did so much to make this momentous day possible. You know who I’m talking about. There’s only one, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bibi, please stand up.And he is not easy, I want to tell you. He’s not the easiest guy to deal with, but that’s what makes him great. That’s what makes him great. Thank you very much, Bibi. Great job.And let me also convey my tremendous appreciation for all of the nations of the Arab and Muslim world that came together to press Hamas to set the hostages free and to send them home. We had a lot of help. We had a lot of help from a lot of people that you wouldn’t suspect, and I want to thank them very much for that.It’s an incredible triumph for Israel and the world to have all of these nations working together as partners in peace. And it’s pretty unusual for you to see that. But it happened in this case. This was a very unusual point in time, a brilliant point in time. Generations from now, this will be remembered as the moment that everything began to change, and change very much for the better.Like the USA right now, it will be the golden age of Israel, and the golden age of the Middle East. It’s gonna work together.I’d like to thank several great American patriots for their invaluable help in getting something done that almost everyone thought was absolutely impossible. We were wasting our time, so many people said. “You’re just wasting your time.” But we weren’t, because we had talented people working with us. And we had people that love your country and frankly, people that love the region, they love the Middle East.I want to thank my friend Steve Witkoff. You know, Steve was chosen by me. He never did this before, but I knew him as a few things. He was a great businessman, but I know a lot of great businessmen, to be honest with you. He had tremendous negotiating skills. But I know a lot of people that negotiate pretty well, although it is an art. But most importantly, with Steve, he’s just a great guy. Everybody loved him. Everybody. I mean, I know some negotiators that are so good, but you wouldn’t have had peace in the Middle East. You would be in World War III right now with some of these guys. Everybody loves Steve and they respect him, and they somehow can relate to him. I’ve known him for many years and I’ve seen it over, over and over again.(Trump waits while two MKs are removed from the chamber.)That was very efficient.So back to Steve. He’s… But I tell one story because he was so involved. And then we called in Jared. We call it, we need that brain on occasion. We gotta get Jared in here. We gotta get a certain group of people. But Steve started this all by himself. I call him Henry Kissinger, who doesn’t leak. Okay. Henry is a big leaker. He leaked. Steve doesn’t leak. Steve just wants to get the job done. He wants to do what’s right.But I’ll give you just a quick story, because as you know, he’s working on the war with Russia and Ukraine. A war that would’ve never happened if I were president, a shame. 7,000 young soldiers a week are being killed. More than that, this last week. It’s a shame. Should have never happened, but it did happen. And we won the race, and I took over this horrible war that’s been raging and I thought it would be easily settled. I thought it was a hell of a lot easier than doing what we just did very successfully with Israel and a lot of other people. But this came first and we’ll get that one.But I set up a meeting for him to meet with President Putin, thinking it would be a 15- or a 20-minute meeting. Steve had no idea about Russia, had no idea about Putin, too much. Didn’t know too much about politics, wasn’t that interested. He was really good at real estate, but he had that quality that I was looking for, and I didn’t see it around in too many ways.And I set up the meeting with Putin and I called. I said, “Is Steve finished yet?” That was about a half an hour into the meeting. “No sir, he is not. He’s still inside.” This is in Moscow. I said, “Well, how’s he doing?” “I don’t know, sir. He’s still inside.” I called up an hour later> “Let me speak to Steve.” “Sir, he’s still with Putin. He’s with President Putin.” I said, “Wow, that’s a long meeting, one hour.” I called up an hour later he was still with Putin. Three hours later he was still with Putin. Four hours later we started to get the word that he was gonna be coming out soon. And in five hours he came out.I said, “What the hell were you talking about for five hours?” And he says, “Just a lot of interesting things. We just were talking about a lot of interesting things,” including what he went in there for. But you can’t talk about it for five… You can talk about it for a certain period of time and you know what you’re getting. But that’s a talent. That’s a talent where you can do that.Most people I’d send in, number one, they wouldn’t be accepted. Number two, if they were, were, the meeting would last five minutes.And that’s what happens with Steve. Everybody loves him. They love him on this side. They love him on the other side. And he really is, he’s a great negotiator because he’s a great guy. So thank you very much, Steve, very much.And let me also give a very special thanks to someone who truly loves Israel. In fact, loves it so much that my daughter converted. My daughter converted. I didn’t know this was going to happen. And Ivanka’s here. And, Bibi, you do know this was not in the cards for me. You understand that? And she is so happy, and they are so happy. At least I think they’re happy. If they’re not, we have a big story, right? No, they have a great marriage, and they get along great. They’re best friends. They have a very special relationship.But Jared has been so helpful. He really did something very special. He established the Abraham Accords with a group of very wonderful people. I like calling it the Avraham Accords because people that — What?Avraham, it’s so cool. It’s so much sort of nicer. You know, the Abraham versus the Avraham. I just don’t want to sound too sanctimonious when I do it. So, you know, I sort of split it up. This way, we keep everybody happy.But we have some very great talent, and they have no excuses for anything that’s taken place, because we had some unbelievably good people working on this.And then you’re gonna add a man named Marco Rubio, who is also here. That’s right. And I have a prediction that Marco will go down, I mean this, as the greatest Secretary of State in the history of the United States. You\ remember. He was tough. He was nasty. Who the hell thought this was gonna happen, Marco? Right? And now I’m saying he’s gonna go down as the greatest. He will. He was always, he was always smart and sharp, and people respect him.And then we have somebody who’s young, but an unbelievable leader. I saw it a long time ago, and he’s turned out to be even better, even better than we thought, right, Susie? I think even better. And that’s Pete Hegseth, who is our Secretary of War, formerly Secretary of Defense.And, as you know, we decisively won World War I. We decisively won World War II, decisively, and everything in between and everything before it. We won everything. And then they had the brilliant idea of changing the name from war, you know, it was war, to defense. And with that went a certain thinking. And we fought in a very politically correct way after that. We always had the strongest military.And now we have a stronger military than we’ve ever had before because in my first term I totally rebuilt the military, every aspect of it. But we have, if you think, we settled eight wars in eight months. I’m now including this one, by the way, if that’s okay.The hostages are back. The hostages are back. It is a good feeling. Isn’t that nice to say? They may say, “Well, that was quick.” Because yesterday, I was saying seven, but now I can say eight. The hostages are back. The hostages are back.It is a good feeling. Isn’t that nice to say? You know, I just said the hostages, first time, I said the hostages are back. It sounds, it feels, so good to say it.But when you settle eight wars in eight months, that means you don’t like war. Everyone thought I was gonna be brutal. In fact, I remember Hillary Clinton during a debate, she said, “Look at him. Look at him, he’s gonna go to war with everybody.” And actually, she said, “He’s got a personality, it’s all about war.” No, and my personality actually is all about stopping wars, and it seems to work. It seems to work.But it also means this name change, and our attitude, that we’re not gonna go into a war, but if we do, we’re going to win that war like nobody has ever won a war before. We will not be politically correct, but we’re not gonna be there. And I think, you know, as you mentioned, Bibi, before, “Peace through strength.” And that’s what it’s all about.The United States has the greatest and most powerful military in the, right now, history of the world. I can tell you, we have weapons that nobody’s ever dreamt of. I only hope we never have to use them. I rebuilt the military. I was proud to do it. But some of the things, I hated to do. I hated certain of the weapons because the level of power is so enormous. It’s so dangerous, so bad. But we have to do what we have to do. We make the best weapons in the world, and we’ve got a lot of them. And we’ve given a lot to Israel, frankly.I mean, Bibi would call me so many times, “Can you get me this weapon, that weapon, that weapon?” Some of them I never heard of, Bibi, and I made them. But we’d get them here, wouldn’t we, huh? And they are the best. They are the best.

But you used them well. It also takes people that know how to use them, and you obviously used them very well. But so many, that Israel became strong and powerful, which, ultimately, led to peace. That’s what led to peace.So, as we celebrate today, let us remember how this nightmare of depravity and death all began. Two years ago, on the eve of the Simchat Torah holiday, thousands of innocent Israeli civilians were attacked by terrorists in one of the most evil and heinous desecrations of innocent life the world has ever seen; the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.To all the families whose lives were forever changed by the atrocities of that day, and all of the people of Israel, please know that America joins you in those two everlasting vows, “Never Forget, and Never Again.”The cruelty of October 7th struck to the core of humanity itself. Nobody could believe what they were witnessing. The United States of America grieved alongside you, and we mourn for our own citizens who were so viciously taken that day. And to all the families whose lives were forever changed by the atrocities of that day, and all of the people of Israel, please know that America joins you in those two everlasting vows, “Never Forget, and Never Again.”From October 7th until this week, Israel has been a nation at war, enduring burdens that only a proud and faithful people could withstand. It was a very tough period of time for so many families across this land, it has been years since you’ve known a single day of true peace.But now, at last, not only for Israelis, but also for Palestinians, and for many others, the long and painful nightmare is finally over. And as the dust settles, the smoke fades, the debris is removed, and the ashes cleaned from the air, the day that breaks on a region transformed and a beautiful and much brighter future, appears suddenly within your reach.This is now a very exciting time for Israel, and for the entire Middle East, because all across the Middle East, the forces of chaos, terror, and ruin that have plagued the region for decades, now stand weakened, isolated and totally defeated.All across the Middle East, the forces of chaos, terror, and ruin that have plagued the region for decades, now stand weakened, isolated and totally defeated. A new coalition of proud and responsible nations is emerging. And because of us, the enemies of all civilization are in retreatA new coalition of proud and responsible nations is emerging. And because of us, the enemies of all civilization are in retreat. Thanks to the bravery and incredible skill of the Israeli Defense Forces and Operation Rising Lion. You know, [points to IDF Chief Eyal Zamir] the guy’s central casting. Let’s put him in a movie. Look at him. Great job. And my people loved working with you. Loved it. They worked so well together.But many of Iran’s top terrorists, including nuclear scientists and commanders, have been extinguished from this earth. And with Operation Midnight Hammer — boy, that’s a great name for that, what we did — last June, the United States military flew seven of those beautiful B-2 bombers. They looked so beautiful all of a sudden. They were always — I thought they were pretty planes. I had no idea they could do what they did. In fact, we just ordered 28 more of them. A little updated version. We ordered a whole pile of them.And almost 100 other planes went with them, including fighter jets, and we had 52 tankers — big, beautiful brand-new tankers — that were loading them up four or five times. They’ve traveled 37 hours back and forth. Think of that. But we had tankers all over the sky for all the other planes. We had the F-22’s, the F-35’s, F-16’s. We had a hell of a lot of planes. So we had 52 ‘as stations in the sky. That’s what they call them. I’ll tell you, I wouldn’t wanna be flying one of them.We have our great General ‘Raizin’ Caine, right here. General, stand up. This guy, what a general. Thank you. You know, I asked General Caine, I said, you know, “We’re having problems with ISIS,” and I was in Washington and I asked, “How long would it take to defeat ISIS?” And my Washington generals told me, “Three, four, maybe five years, sir.”I said, “I don’t get it. We got the best equipment in the world. Why?”So I flew to Iraq and I met with a man named Caine. I said, “What’s your first name?” He said, “They call me ‘Raizin’, sir.” I say, “Wait a minute. Your name is ‘Raizin’ Caine? I’ve been looking for you for a long time. You gotta be kidding.”So they told me 3, 4, 5 years to defeat ISIS. And I sit down with him and I say, “Why is it.” I flew there in the dark of night. I landed, I’ll never forget it. It was quite a trip. I’m glad I made it because I met him. I said, “Could I ask you, General?” I come down, he’s standing with another general and a sergeant. Everybody was like central casting. They could go into a movie, right now. Between him and you guys over here, we could get rich making movies, okay?And they got along so great. That’s the beautiful thing — that your military and our military, Bibi, got along so great. But I was told by the television generals in Washington, “We have the best equipment in the world. Why is it taking so long?” and they said, “Four years.”I said, “So let me ask you, ‘Raizin’, how long would it take you to defeat ISIS?” “Sir, we can do it in three weeks, but you’ll probably have some time left over.”I said, “You gotta be kidding. What the hell are you talking about? They said four years.”He said, “Well, sir, look, it’s not my place to say, but you’re asking me the question. What you have to do is you hit ’em from the west, you hit ’em from the north, you hit ’em from the south, you hit ’em above, you hit ’em below.”I said, “So why didn’t they do it?” and he didn’t want to speak badly of his superiors — which is hard to believe they were his superiors. It should have been the other way around a long time ago, because he’s the one that did Operation Hammer… it was flawless. It was flawless. It was absolutely flawless.And I said, “So you really think you can do it in four weeks?”“Yes, sir. 100%. You have to do it differently than they were doing it. They were using one base, and it was hundreds of miles away.” And he says, “We have all these portable bases all over the Middle East. And they didn’t want to use them because they didn’t want to offend the country where the portable…”They wouldn’t have even known what the hell the planes were going up, right? They wouldn’t have known, but he said, “No, they didn’t want to defend anybody, offend anybody, but we can do it in four weeks.”And I said, “You sure about that? I’m gonna call you back. I’ll call you back on Monday. I’m going back to Washington. But you think four weeks?”“Yes, sir. I think we can do it in four weeks. We’ll have time left over.”So, I call him on Monday. I said, “You think you can do it?”“Four weeks.”I said, “Go ahead and do it.”He did it. I’ll tell you, he did it in four weeks, less than four weeks.So, General, stand up, please. Again, this is a real general. This is not a television general. He doesn’t wanna go on television. He doesn’t wanna go on television. I said, “The other guys love being on television.”So we dropped 14 bombs on Iran’s key nuclear facilities — totally, as I said originally, obliterating them. And that’s been confirmed, and everybody understands it. Together, we stopped the number one state sponsor of terror from obtaining the world’s most dangerous weapons. And if you think about it, if we didn’t do that, and assuming we made the same deal that we have today, there’d be a dark cloud over this deal.And number one, it wouldn’t happen because the other Arab and Muslim nations really wouldn’t feel comfortable making the deal that we have now, right, if Iran had that nuclear weapon that they were about two months away from having. They would’ve had it in two months, or maybe less than that. They were right at… This was our last shot. They looked at it for 22 years. This was our last shot.The pilots told me that. They said, “22 years, sir, they looked at it, our predecessors looked. They studied it. Three times a year, we’d do drills on that exact attack.” And boy, did they get it right.But let’s assume they didn’t, and let’s assume there was large-scale nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran. We couldn’t be here today, even if we signed the deal, which we couldn’t do because a lotta people would not wanna have anything to do with it. We took a big cloud off of the Middle East and off of Israel.[Iran] took a big hit, didn’t they? Didn’t they take a big hit? Boy, oh, boy. They got hit from one side, from the other. And you know what would be great? If we could make a peace deal with them, and I think that’s big. Would you be happy with that? Wouldn’t it be nice?And it was my honor to help. But isn’t it true, though, that… Can you imagine the same, let’s assume maybe the same documents, we had everything the same, but you had somebody out there that was, in the opinion of everybody, all-powerful in the Middle East?They took a big hit, didn’t they? Didn’t they take a big hit? Boy, oh, boy. They got hit from one side, from the other. And you know what would be great? If we could make a peace deal with them, and I think that’s big. Would you be happy with that? Wouldn’t it be nice? You think? Because I think they want to. I think they’re tired.Somebody said, “Sir, they’re starting their nuclear program again.” I said, “Let me tell you something. They’re not starting anything. They wanna survive. The last thing they wanna do is start digging holes again in mountains that just got blown up and start. They’re not doing… They wanna survive, okay.”But I think we have a chance. Steve, you and I think Jared, come on. I’ll call you back for another one. We always bring Jared when we wanna get that deal closed. We bring Jared, but Steve, you and Jared and the general, and Pete, and Marco, you’ll get that deal done easy. I think that’ll be easy.But first we have to get Russia done. We gotta get that one done. If you don’t mind, Steve, let’s focus on Russia first. All right? We’ll get it, though.In Lebanon, the dagger of Hezbollah, long aimed at Israel’s throat, has been totally shattered. My administration is actively supporting the new president of Lebanon and his mission to permanently disarm Hezbollah’s terror brigades. He’s doing very well. And build a thriving state at peace with its neighbors, and you’re very much in favor of that, I know. Good things are happening there, really good things.And with this week’s ceasefire, we’ve achieved the most challenging breakthrough of them all, the most challenging breakthrough maybe ever. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like… I’ve been involved in a lot of success. I have never seen anything like what’s going on today all over the world. People are dancing in the streets, not just in Israel. They’re dancing in the streets of countries that would’ve never danced in the street about what’s happening today. They’re dancing in those streets.In an unprecedented achievement, virtually the entire region has endorsed the plan that Gaza will be immediately demilitarized, that Hamas will be disarmed, and Israel’s security will no longer be threatened in any way, shape, or form-So, this long and difficult war has now ended. You know, some people say 3,000 years. Some people say 500 years. Whatever it is, it’s the granddaddy of ’em all. And in an unprecedented achievement, virtually the entire region has endorsed the plan that Gaza will be immediately demilitarized, that Hamas will be disarmed, and Israel’s security will no longer be threatened in any way, shape, or form.Israel, with our help, has won all that they can by force of arms. You’ve won. I mean, you’ve won. Now it’s time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East. It’s about time you were able to enjoy the fruits of your laborSo Israel, with our help, has won all that they can by force of arms. You’ve won. I mean, you’ve won. Now it’s time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East. It’s about time you were able to enjoy the fruits of your labor.Mr. opposition leader [Yair Lapid]. He’s, I say, he’s a very nice opposition leader, I think. No, he’s a nice man. Bibi, he’s a nice man. Good. He knows what he’s doing, right? Nah, a very nice guy.Now you can be a little bit nicer, Bibi, because you’re not at war anymore, BibiWell, see, now you can be a little bit nicer, Bibi, because you’re not at war anymore, Bibi.But only by embracing the opportunities of this moment can we achieve our goal of ensuring that the horrors of recent years will never happen again. You don’t want to have to go through this again.Eight years ago, I came to this region on a very special first trip abroad as the president of the United States. I came here very early, at your request. I addressed the leaders of the Arab and Muslim world, gathered in Saudi Arabia, and said that it was time to build a future free of the grip of extremism and terror.And I’m interestingly, right now, I’m, as soon as I’m finished, I’m quite late. You’ve kept me quite late between the opposition leader’s and Bibi’s brilliant, but very long speech. I thought I was gonna run up here, make a speech, and then head to Egypt. It didn’t work out though. And you [Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana] made a pretty long one too, sir.But I liked what you all said. It could be worse. Supposing on top of it, I didn’t like what you said. That would be no good, Ron [Dermer], wouldn’t it? Ron, you did a great job, by the way, Ron. Yeah.So I’m gonna be meeting, actually in a little while, I’m gonna be meeting with the most powerful, the richest nations, really, in the world. Although, now, with the tariffs, the United States is by far the richest nation in the world, as you probably have been reading. But the richest nations, most powerful nations, you know, tremendous, tremendous… Headed by some tremendous people, in many cases. Some cases, I wouldn’t say necessarily I would endorse. But I will tell you, some incredible people that really helped us make this all possible.So I’ll be going there. I’ll be quite late. They might not be there by the time I get there, but we’re gonna give it a shot.But the journey we started back then led to the crushing defeat of the ISIS caliphate, to the monumental Abraham Accords, and ultimately, to the historic ceasefire this week, in which many of those same nations really played a very pivotal role, I have to tell you. Steve will tell you that. Jared will tell you that.Together we’ve shown that peace is not just a hope that we can dream about, it’s a reality we can build upon day by day, person by person, and nation by nation. And because of that, the Middle East is finally ready to embrace its extraordinary potential. You have extraordinary potential in this region.It should now be clear to everyone throughout the region that decades of fomenting terrorism and extremism, Jihadism and anti-Semitism have not workedIt should now be clear to everyone throughout the region that decades of fomenting terrorism and extremism, Jihadism and anti-Semitism have not worked. They haven’t worked. They’ve been a disaster. They’ve just killed. They’ve killed. They’ve backfired completely and totally. They’ve just totally backfired. Everything that you thought, take it worst case, it’s turned out to be worse than that. They have not worked.From Gaza to Iran, those bitter hatreds have delivered nothing but misery, suffering, failure and death. They’ve served not to weaken Israel, but to annihilate the very forces that did the most to foment this hatred. And it’s really, I mean, everybody that’s tried it has become irrelevant.Those nations that set aside their differences, reached across ancient divides and pursued engagement, are now among the most successful in the region. They’re getting along with Israel, and they’re doing great-Meanwhile, we’ve seen those nations that set aside their differences, reached across ancient divides and pursued engagement, are now among the most successful in the region. They’re getting along with Israel, and they’re doing great.And I can tell you the four nations that joined the Abraham Accords early on, and you’d all be doing me a favor, and I’m gonna be saying this in a little while to some other friends, we’d love you all to, is this right, Jared? Join up in the Abraham Accords. We have to join up and get together. You can have that whole thing filled out.

We had a very weak administration, worst president in the history of our country by far. And Barack Obama was not far behind, by the way. And they did nothing with this incredible document, the Abraham Accords. But now you can fill ’em up. Now you have peace. You have people that really like Israel. I’ll tell you what, and they like Israel a lot more today than they did even five weeks ago.It was getting to be a little nasty out there in the world. And ultimately the world wins. You can’t beat the world, or, I would say to Bibi, “Bibi, it’s now time”Like, you’ve made a lot of, you’ve come back, you’ve come back strong, because it was getting to be a little nasty out there in the world. And ultimately the world wins. You can’t beat the world, or, I would say to Bibi, “Bibi, it’s now time.” And he understood it better than anybody.Because ultimately, you know, the world’s a very big place. And I’ve said a lot. I said, “This piece of land is very small. It’s unbelievable what you do with that tiny…” You look at a map, even, of just not the world, the Middle East, and you have this little dot. And think of what you’ve done, it’s incredible. It’s incredible. But the world is loving Israel again.And I said to Bibi, “You know, the world is big, and it’s strong, and, Ron, ultimately the world wins. And we don’t have to worry about that now.”But there was getting to be a period of time over the last few months, you know, the world wanted peace, and Israel wanted peace. Everybody did. Everybody did.If you would’ve gone on for three, four more years, keep fighting, fighting, fighting, it was, it was getting bad. It was getting heated-And what a victory it’s been, right? What a victory it’s been. If you would’ve gone on for three, four more years, keep fighting, fighting, fighting, it was, it was getting bad. It was getting heated.Bibi, you’re gonna be remembered for this far more than if you kept this thing going, going, going; kill, kill, killThe timing of this is brilliant. And I said, “Bibi, you’re gonna be remembered for this far more than if you kept this thing going, going, going; kill, kill, kill. It would not be the same.”And I just want to congratulate you for having the courage to say, “That’s it. We’ve won and now let’s enjoy our lives, and let’s rebuild Israel, and make it stronger, and bigger and better than it’s ever been before. We’re gonna do that.” Took a lot of guts.And the choice for Palestinians could not be more clear. This is their chance to turn forever from the path of terror and violence — it’s been extreme — to exile the wicked forces of hate that are in their midst. And I think that’s gonna happen. I’ve met some people over the last couple of months that wanna see it happen very much. And after tremendous pain, and death, and hardship, now is the time to concentrate on building their people up instead of trying to tear Israel down. We don’t want that to happen again.The total focus of Gazans must be on restoring the fundamentals of stability, safety, dignity, and economic development so they can finally have the better life that their children really do deserve after all these decades of horror-And the total focus of Gazans must be on restoring the fundamentals of stability, safety, dignity, and economic development so they can finally have the better life that their children really do deserve after all these decades of horror.I intend to be a partner in this effort in the sense that we’re going to help, and we’re going to do something that became unbelievably popular. Everybody wants to be on it. It’s called the Board of Peace. Okay? How about that? Is that a beautiful name — like a board, of peace? The only bad thing from my standpoint, every single nation involved has asked me to be the chair. And I’ll tell you, I’m very busy. I didn’t count on that. But you know what, if we do it, we’ll do it right.And we have unbelievable power and wealth, because you’re gonna need wealth. You’re gonna need wealth to rebuild things. And they have wealth like few people have wealth.I want to thank the Arab and Muslim nations for their commitment that they’ve made to support a safe rebuilding of Gaza. And beyond that, many Arab countries, very wealthy countries, that came up and said, “We’ll put up tremendous amounts of money to rebuild Gaza.” And I think that’s going to happen. The power, they want dignity. They want to come forward, and they want to say, and I wanna say, who they are because what they’re doing is going to be, I think, something that you’re gonna be very impressed with, Bibi.And you need that. You need the kind of economic power that they have, and they wanna see it work, and they want to see it be safe. And they wanna see it be good for Israel too.And as much money as it will be — and it’s a lot, as you can see, it’s a lot — for these countries, it’s relatively little relative to their worth. It’s really a lot of money, like money like most people could never even conceive. But for these countries, it’s not that much, especially because it ensures success and stability in the Middle East, which is what they want to see.So many of them will be with us in Egypt in a little while, I think. I’m not sure. They may be gone. They may have taken their Boeing 747s and left.I said, “What kind of a plane do you fly?” “Uh, 747.” I said, “That’s a large plane.”No, they may have, uh — Steve, do you think they’ve left on their brand new Boeing 747s or? I don’t know. We’re gonna find out soon. It’s gonna be a big story. There’ll be two people left, and they’ll be the two poorest ones.But it will be the wealthiest and most powerful group of nations.So the group that we have assembled, that’s waiting for us, is the wealthiest and most powerful group ever assembled at one time. There has never been a group like this. And they’re only looking for good. They want good. They’re gonna do good. And as those commitments are made, I’m going to let the world know who’s doing it because they really deserve to get the credit. And some of them probably won’t want the credit, but they deserve it.It’s more obvious than ever that the productive and responsible nations of this region should not be enemies or adversaries. You should be partners and eventually even friends, and that’s what’s going to happen. I know it.Together, you can stand against the forces of chaos. [Applause] Yeah, you go ahead. That’s an important point. Because you can stand against the forces of chaos that threatened all of your interests. And it’s always a big threat, always a big threat. And unleash incredible prosperity and opportunity for all the people of these lands, and that’s what’s going to happen. You’re gonna unleash numbers and success the likes of which Israel has never been able to think of because you’re so firm, and you should be, and you’ve done the right thing in defending yourself.You’re not gonna have to worry so much about it. You’ve won, and now you can build, and you can do things that you never even thought possible. When you put that genius into doing something else, it’s gonna be something that’s… it’s gonna be a miracle. The miracle in the desert. It’s gonna be amazing.  And it already is, in a true sense, but it’ll be wonderful when you can spend time thinking about other than war and defense and offense also.To that end, it’s my firm hope and dream, frankly, that together the Abraham Accords will turn out to be everything that we thought they would. Those four countries were very, very brave in doing it. They did it at a very early point, and every single one of them benefits unbelievably financially. And have you noticed? Even in this bad period that we just went through, they all remained a member of the Abraham Accords. They’ve done unbelievably well. And you know who you are, and I want to thank you. And they’ve stayed because of loyalty, but they’ve also stayed because it was really good business. They’ve made a lot of money being members.And you’re gonna all — I think, I hope that every one of the countries that we’re seeking, Jared, I hope they join quickly. No games, no nothing, just join, get it. It’s gonna be a great peacemaker. It’s really gonna bring it together beyond anybody’s wildest dreams.Instead of making weapons and missiles, the wealth of this region should flow to schools and medicine, industry, and, frankly, the new hot thing, artificial intelligence-So instead of building fortresses to keep enemies at bay, the nations of this region should be building infrastructure to weave your commerce closer together because you’ve gotta compete with a big world out there in commerce now. It’s a different kind of competition. Instead of making weapons and missiles, the wealth of this region should flow to schools and medicine, industry, and, frankly, the new hot thing, artificial intelligence.Boy, it’s a lot of intelligence you’re gonna have to be throwing off to make, to pay back these sums of money that they’re doing. But that’s, that’s really the hot one.And I might say that the United States a year ago was a dead country. I say it to people, I heard it first from the King of Saudi Arabia, I then heard it from UAE, I heard it from Qatar, I heard it from many other countries. A year ago, the United States of America was a dead country. Now it’s the hottest country anywhere in the world. It is the hottest. There’s no question about it. In fact, if you go back a year ago, before the election… Although once we had November 5th, we became hot because people got it. I would say November 5th was a time that we became really hot.But once you go back a couple of years, if I were in charge and the country was doing what they… Nobody was gonna ask me to speak. Nobody asked Joe Biden to come up and speak, I guarantee you that, and if they did, he would’ve turned him down, I promise you. He didn’t speak. He didn’t speak and he didn’t speak well.But all of the countries in the Middle East… what we’re doing now, it could have happened a long time ago, but it was strangled and set back almost irretrievably by the administrations of Barack Obama and then Joe Biden. There was a hatred toward Israel. There was an absolute hatred.The setbacks really started when President Obama signed the Iran nuclear deal. This was a disaster for Israel, and it was a disaster for everyone-The setbacks really started when President Obama signed the Iran nuclear deal. This was a disaster for Israel, and it was a disaster for everyone. And I remember that Bibi Netanyahu came to the United States and worked so hard to try and get Obama not to do that deal. He worked so hard. But it was like talking to a wall. I remember him telling me it was like talking to a wall. They wanted to go with Iran.They chose Iran, frankly, over a lot of other good nations, but, specifically, Israel. And that was the beginning of a very bad period of time. You had Obama go out and the Iran nuclear deal turned out to be a disaster. And by the way, I terminated the Iran nuclear deal, and I was very proud to do it.Yet, even to Iran, whose regime has inflicted so much death on the Middle East, the hand of friendship and cooperation is open. I’m telling you, they wanna make a deal. That’s all I do in my life. I make deals. I’m good at it. I’ve always been good at it. And I know when they want. Even if they said, “We don’t wanna make a deal,” I can tell you they wanna make a deal. All right? They do. They wanna make a deal. And we’re gonna see if we can do something, because this is crazy what’s happening. And we’re not gonna have this anymore.There’s nothing that would do more good for this part of the world than for Iran’s leaders to renounce terror, stop threatening their neighbors, quit funding their militant proxies, and finally recognize Israel’s right to existence-Neither the United States nor Israel bear the people of Iran any hostility. We merely want to live in peace. We don’t want any looming threats over our heads. And we don’t want to even think in terms of nuclear destruction. It’s not gonna happen. Never will happen. There’s nothing that would do more good for this part of the world than for Iran’s leaders to renounce terror, stop threatening their neighbors, quit funding their militant proxies, and finally recognize Israel’s right to existence.They have to do that. They have to do that. And to Iran… And as you know, this is not said out of weakness. There’s no weakness. But I’m gonna say this, that we are ready when you are. And it will be the best decision that Iran has ever made. And it’s gonna happen. It’s gonna happen. And the good people — I know a lot of Iranians in the United States, they’re good people, smart, hardworking people. They don’t want to see what’s happened to their country.The State of Israel is strong and it will live and thrive forever-The story of fierce Israeli resolve and triumph since October 7th should be proof to the entire world that those who seek to destroy this nation are doomed to bitter failure. The State of Israel is strong and it will live and thrive forever. And that is why Israel will always remain a vital ally of the United States of America. Israelis share our values, field one of the world’s most powerful militaries. You really do. You have an amazing… What a job. What a job you’ve done. And have one of the most innovative economies on earth.Those are just a few of the reasons why I am proud to be the best friend that Israel has ever had. And they all say it in the White House. They all say it. I guess it’s true because everybody says it. Bibi, you said it today. Thank you.But as president, I terminated the disastrous Iran nuclear deal. And ultimately, I terminated Iran’s nuclear program with things called B-2 bombers. It was swift and it was accurate, and it was a military beauty.I authorized the spending of billions of dollars which went to Israel’s defense, as you know. And after years of broken promises from many other American presidents, you know that they kept promising… I never understood it until I got there. There was a lot of pressure put on these presidents. It was put on me too, but I didn’t yield to the pressure. But every president for decades said, “We’re gonna do it.” The difference is I kept my promise and officially recognized the capital of Israel and moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem.Isn’t that right, Miriam? Look at Miriam [Adelson]. She’s back there. Stand up now. Stand up. Miriam and Sheldon would come into the office. They’d call me, he’d call me. I think they had more trips to the White House than anybody else I can think of. Look at her, sitting there so innocently. She’s got 60 billion in the bank. 60 billion. And she loves, and she… I think she’s saying, “No more.”And she loves Israel. But she loves it. And they would come in, and her husband was a very aggressive man, but I loved him. He was very aggressive, very supportive of me. And, he’d call up, “Can I come over and see you?” I’d say, “Sheldon, I’m the President of the United States, it doesn’t work that way.” He’d come in…But they were very responsible for so much, including getting me thinking about Golan Heights, which is probably one of the greatest things to ever happen to Israel.Miriam, stand up, please. She really is… I mean, she loves this country. She loves this country. Her and her husband were so incredible. We miss him so dearly.But I actually asked her, I’m gonna get her in trouble with this, but I actually asked her once, I said, “So, Miriam, I know you love Israel. What do you love more, the United States or Israel?” She refused to answer. That means, that might mean, Israel, I must say. We love you. Thank you, darling, for being here. That’s a great honor. Great honor. She’s a wonderful woman. She is a great woman.I’ve always stood for the people of this community, and I always will. I’ll always be with you. I’m always gonna be with you. I guess maybe something could happen that changed my mind, somebody that’s really stupid gets into office and wants to do really bad things. But that’s about it. We don’t think we’re gonna have that happen. I hope we’re not gonna have that happen.And this man is a good man right here. These two men [Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog] are good men right here. Hey, I have an idea. Mr. President, why don’t you give him a pardon? Give him a pardon. Come on.By the way, that was not in the speeches, you probably know. But I happen to like this gentleman right over here, and it just seems to make so much sense. You know, whether we like it or not, this has been one of the greatest wartime presidents [referring to Netanyahu]… one of the greatest wartime presidents. And cigars and champagne, who the hell cares about that? Hey, I have an idea. Mr. President, why don’t you give him a pardon? Give him a pardon. Come on.Alright. Enough controversy for the day, right? It’s, actually, I don’t think it’s very controversial, so, you know, I mean, I see he’s so popular. You are a very popular man. You know why? Because you know how to win.Over the past two years, I’ve met many of the families of the Israelis taken hostage, and those that were taken hostage, unbelievable. I’ve looked into their eyes. I’ve seen the worst nightmares of their suffering.But I’ve also seen something else. The beautiful love of people, frankly, that hold things together. The love that gives you the courage to carry on through thousands of years of persecution and repression, and to emerge with the heart of David. It’s the heart of David. It’s that love that’s defeated the enemies of civilization, built this incredible country, and this unbelievable economy, and forged one of the great democracies of the world.That is why it’s a true honor to stand here today and address this assembly in your ancient and eternal, now capital, Jerusalem. I’m proud to have helped in that regard. This city and this nation stand as living proof that a much brighter future for this entire region is truly within our grasp.Here, between the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, and the hill called Calvary, people of every faith and background live, work, pray, serve, and raise their family side by side, and they do it with loveFor thousands of years, Jerusalem has been a home to Christians, Jews, Muslims, and people of all ethnicities and creeds. This is the holy center of the world’s three great Abrahamic faiths. I like that too. It’s the first time I’ve seen that word in a while. Adorned with their sacred sites, and alive with their pilgrims and visitors from every corner of the globe. But here, between the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, and the hill called Calvary, people of every faith and background live, work, pray, serve, and raise their family side by side, and they do it with love. This example is just one of the modern miracles that Israel has given to the world.And just in closing, the leaders in this chamber know better than anyone else the challenges of this harmony. And it’s been easily won? No, it hasn’t. It has not been. It’s been so tough, but it has been, some say, a miracle. What you’ve done is a miracle. Look at your size, look at your chances when it all started. And you know, if you think about it, you are safer today, stronger today, and more respected today than at any time in the history of Israel. Think of it. People used to say it wouldn’t exist. They don’t say that anymore, do they? Yet if safety, security, and coexistence can thrive here in the winding alleys and ancient paths of Jerusalem, then surely peace and respect can flourish among the nations of the broader Middle East. The God who once dwelled among his people in this city still calls us, in the words of Scripture, “The turn from evil, and do good to seek peace and pursue it.” So He still whispers truth into the hills and knolls and valleys of his magnificent creation. And he still writes hope into the hearts of his children all over the world.And that is why even after 3,000 years of pain and conflict, the people of Israel have never given up from the threats of Zionism, from all sorts of threats. You want, you want the promise of Zion, you want the promise of success and hope and love and God. And the people of America have never lost faith in the promise of a great and blessed future for all of us.We have built industries together, we have made discoveries together, we have confronted evil together, and we have waged war together. And perhaps most beautifully of all, we have made peace together. And this week, against all odds, we have done the impossible and brought our hostages home-From the very first day that modern Israel was founded, we have stood together through thick and thin, setbacks, and through victory and defeat, through glory and heartache. We have built industries together, we have made discoveries together, we have confronted evil together, and we have waged war together. And perhaps most beautifully of all, we have made peace together.And this week, against all odds, we have done the impossible and brought our hostages home.New bonds of friendship, cooperation, and commerce will join Tel Aviv to Dubai, Haifa, to Beirut, Jerusalem to Damascus, and from Israel to Egypt, from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, from India to Pakistan, from Indonesia to Iraq, from Syria to Bahrain, Turkey, to Jordan, the United Arab Emirates to Oman and Armenia to Azerbaijan, another war that I just settled-So now we’re going to forge a future that is worthy of our heritage. We’re going to build a legacy that all the people of this region can be proud of. New bonds of friendship, cooperation, and commerce will join Tel Aviv to Dubai, Haifa, to Beirut, Jerusalem to Damascus, and from Israel to Egypt, from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, from India to Pakistan, from Indonesia to Iraq, from Syria to Bahrain, Turkey, to Jordan, the United Arab Emirates to Oman and Armenia to Azerbaijan, another war that I just settled.Israel, America, and all of the nations of the Middle East will soon be safer, stronger, greater and more prosperous than ever before.We are going to have hope, harmony, opportunity, and happiness here in the spiritual and geographic center of the entire world. That’s what you are. Israel, America, and all of the nations of the Middle East will soon be safer, stronger, greater and more prosperous than ever before. I love Israel. I’m with you all the way-And I want to thank you all once again for this exceptional honor. This has been truly an honor. It’s seldom that a president is invited to do this. And I love Israel. I’m with you all the way. You’ll be bigger, better, stronger, and more loving than ever before.Thank you very much. God bless you. God bless the United States of America, and God bless the Middle East. Thank you everybody. Good luck. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Trump justifies Hamas execution of 'very bad gangs'Trump: If Hamas doesn’t uphold vow to disarm, ‘we will disarm them, perhaps violently’US president notes ‘job is not done’ on ceasefire deal, as ‘the dead have not been returned, as promised,’ says terror group misrepresented the number of bodies it would hand over-By Jacob Magid-15 October 2025, 12:14 am

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Hamas has told his top aides that it will disarm, and that the terror group could be dealt with “violently” if it refuses to do so. He also pressed the Palestinian terror group to follow through with its release of all the dead hostages still being held in the Strip.“I spoke to Hamas, and I said, ‘You’re going to disarm, right?’ ‘Yes, sir. We’re going to disarm.’ — That’s what they told me. They will disarm or we will disarm them,” Trump told reporters at the White House.He later clarified that this message, rather than in a direct conversation between the president and Hamas officials, was passed along via his “people,” apparently referring to US special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.Witkoff and Kushner, with Trump’s approval, met last week in Sharm el-Sheikh with Hamas’s top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya to assure him that Washington would hold Israel accountable to the terms of the US plan for ending the war in Gaza.The US-brokered ceasefire went into effect on Friday, and Hamas released the remaining 20 hostages believed to be alive on Monday, as per the terms of the deal. The terror group was also responsible for turning over the remains of all deceased hostages, but only handed over four on Monday.Trump made the comments on Tuesday in response to a question on whether he can guarantee that Hamas will disarm.“We have told them we want them to disarm, and they will disarm. And if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently, but they will disarm,” he said. “Do you understand me?… They will disarm.”Pressed on how he planned to go about doing that, Trump said, “I don’t have to explain that to you… They know I’m not playing games.” As for a timeline, Trump said this will happen within “a reasonable period of time.”Asked whether Hamas is holding up its end of the ceasefire-hostage deal with Israel, the US president told reporters, “We’ll find out.”He made that comment shortly after posting on his Truth Social account that the “job is not done” when it comes to the deal, as the remaining deceased hostages have not been returned as promised.“ALL TWENTY HOSTAGES ARE BACK AND FEELING AS GOOD AS CAN BE EXPECTED. A big burden has been lifted, but the job IS NOT DONE. THE DEAD HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED, AS PROMISED!” Trump wrote online.Hamas released the bodies of four hostages on Monday and another four bodies on Tuesday evening, which it said were captives, but whose identities were not yet determined.The deal’s Monday deadline applies to the bodies as well, but the text of the agreement appears to recognize that Hamas may need more time to locate all of them, setting up a joint task force of the various stakeholders to assist in finding all bodies not returned within 72 hours, while requiring Hamas to “exert maximum effort to ensure the fulfillment of these conditions as soon as possible.”“Phase two begins right NOW!!!” Trump added in his Truth Social post.He was ostensibly referring to the parts of his 20-point plan that focus on the post-war management and reconstruction of Gaza led by a transitional government of Palestinian technocrats and overseen by a Board of Peace that will be chaired by Trump and include former UK prime minister Tony Blair and other prominent international figures.However, the document signed by the sides last week only included the points of the Trump plan regarding Israel’s initial pull-back from Gaza and the hostage-prisoner swap, which the US has referred to as phase one.Hamas has yet to get on board with phase two, which would require it to disarm, and has said it wants to hold subsequent negotiations on the matter.Trump also revealed to reporters in the White House on Tuesday that Hamas misrepresented the number of bodies it told mediators it would be able to produce of the 28 that remained in Gaza before the deal was signed.“We were told they had 26, 24 dead hostages… and it seems as though they don’t have that because we’re talking about a much lesser number,” Trump said.“I want them back,” Trump reiterated to reporters in the White House during a meeting with visiting Argentine President Javier Milei.Commenting on Hamas’s killings, including public executions, of dozens of “collaborators” since the ceasefire took place, Trump appeared to justify the effort.“They did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad… and they killed a number of gang members,” Trump said.“That didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s okay. It’s a couple of very bad gangs. It’s no different than other countries like Venezuela [that] sent their gangs into us,” he added.Hamas has killed at least 33 people since a ceasefire took effect on Friday in a crackdown on groups that have tested its grip, sources in the strip said Monday, having apparently got a US nod to temporarily police the shattered enclave.In a stark assertion of the group’s return, fighters executed several men they accused of collaborating with Israeli forces. In one video circulated late on Monday, Hamas fighters dragged seven men into a circle of people in Gaza City, forced them to their knees, and shot them from behind. A Hamas source confirmed the authenticity of the video.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Guy Gilboa-Dalal was force-fed in final months, his dad says-Freed hostages tell families of torture, starvation and long periods of isolation-Avinatan Or was held alone for all 738 days; mom of Matan Angrest says he was severely tortured in initial months because he served in IDF, was buried under rubble amid Israeli bombardment-By Stav Levaton-and ToI Staff Today, 1:33 am-OCT 14,25

Hostages who were freed Monday began sharing details from their time in Hamas captivity with family members, describing how they were isolated from the outside world, endured long periods of starvation and were severely tortured while in Gaza.The last 20 living hostages released as part of a ceasefire deal were soldiers or civilians considered soldiers by the Palestinian terror groups holding them, and therefore likely experienced much harsher conditions than some of the captives released in previous rounds.In one of the most severe cases of isolation, Channel 12 news reported that Avinatan Or was held alone for more than two years and did not encounter any other captives until he was freed on Monday.According to the report, Or was held in the central Gaza Strip for most of the war under severe conditions, including prolonged starvation. An initial medical examination found that he had lost between 30% and 40% of his body weight.Upon his release, Or reportedly asked to spend time alone with his girlfriend, former hostage Noa Argamani, as the two shared what they described as their “first cigarette together after two years.”On October 7, 2023, Hamas released a video of the pair’s kidnapping from the Nova music festival, which has become one of the most well-known videos from that day.Channel 12 added that Or knew very little about developments in Israel and only learned of the IDF rescue operation that in June 2024 freed Argamani, Andrey Kozlov, Almog Meir and Shlomi Ziv during his reunion with Argamani earlier Monday.According to the Kan public broadcaster, most of the hostages were taken to tunnels after the June 2024 rescue operation, and had limited exposure to media.Channel 12 also reported that freed hostage Elkana Bohbot spent most of his time chained in a tunnel, where he lost all sense of time and space.However, the report said Bohbot remembered his wedding day and insisted on being able to shower in honor of the anniversary. His terrorist captor initially refused Bohbot’s requests, but eventually relented, removed his chains and showered him, the report said.Additionally, Bohbot saw news of his family members appealing for his release and attending rallies at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, Channel 12 reported.Kidnapped brothers Gali and Ziv Berman were held separately and completely cut off from the outside world during their captivity, according to the network. While they were held in the same area, they were unaware that they would be reunited upon their release on Monday.They said there were periods in which there was a lack of food, and other times when they received more, Channel 12 reported. Some of their captors reportedly spoke to them in Hebrew.The report said the brothers heard the IDF operate near them while in captivity.“Severe psychological warfare”A relative of an unnamed hostage told the Israel Hayom daily that the terrorists placed guns to the heads of captives and threatened them if they were not satisfied with their conduct while being filmed for a propaganda video, or if they refused to cooperate at all.There were moments of “coexistence” with the captors, the family member said. For example, when terrorists needed an extra player in a game of cards, they would bring the hostages to join them.Anat Angrest told Channel 12 on Monday evening that her son, Matan Angrest, experienced especially “very severe torture” during his initial months in captivity, since he was a soldier.Since returning, he shared some small details of his captivity, she said.“He was alone for a long period, under special guard,” she said, adding that Matan told her he refused to break for the “monsters” who held him captive.While kept in tunnels, Matan was shown very little news from his captors, “and for the rest of the time, suffered severe psychological warfare — that [Israelis] gave up on them, that [Hamas] was going to conquer the country, that they are planning the next October 7,” Angrest said.“He recalled the heavy IDF bombardments, planes flying above their heads… walls falling next to them, many times finding himself amid dust under the rubble, trying to get above ground and survive. Very complicated situations,” she said.“In the last four months, most of the time, he was in a small dark tunnel. Now suddenly, [in the final days before his release] he’s being offered lots to eat,” Angrest said.She also explained that her son did not remember most of the details of his abduction, but remembered the battle before, and that his friends were killed.“He has flashbacks of a fire; he remembered his hands were burned, he remembers he lost consciousness,” she said, adding that her son also remembers being abused during his abduction.She also said that his captors lied to him, claiming his maternal grandparents — who are Holocaust survivors — were dead, and that learning they are still alive after returning from Gaza has “motivated” him.She said that despite everything, he is in a “reasonable state, at least, mentally.”Ilan Gilboa-Dalal, whose son Guy was released Monday, told the Kan public broadcaster that he was held with Evyatar David in a tunnel until a month ago.“Then they took him for a ride in a vehicle around Gaza, and did not bring him back to the tunnel with Evyatar, but put him in a tunnel in Gaza City with Alon Ohel,” until their release, Gilboa-Dalal said.Over the past month, Guy was “force-fed,” Gilboa-Dalal said, adding that he believed that the captors were motivated to feed him after a video of an emaciated David being forced to dig his own grave in a tunnel sparked international outcry.Additionally, Guy’s captors lied to him on Friday, Saturday and Sunday that he would be released, until he was finally freed on Monday.Omri Miran, who was also released on Monday, was held in 23 different places in Gaza, both above ground and in tunnels, his brother Nadav told the Ynet news site.“Sometimes he would cook food for his captors, and they loved his cooking,” Nadav said. “He knew exactly what the date was and roughly what day it was. He knew exactly how many days he was in captivity. They spent most of their days playing cards with their captors.”According to Kan, freed hostage Matan Zangauker was held together with some hostages until the release of US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander in May. From then on, he was kept alone and reportedly met senior Hamas figures while held captive.

'My whole thing is, well, what do we do now?' Too soon? Amid hostage releases, some US Jews retire solidarity rituals with gratitude and grief-With the freeing of the living captives and continued demands for the return of 24 bodies still held in Gaza, worshipers grapple with closure on Simhat Torah, two years into an ordeal begun on Oct. 7, 2023-By Andrew Silow-Carroll Today, 5:36 pm-OCT 14,25

JTA — Like most synagogues, Congregation Beth El in South Orange, New Jersey, added new rituals after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught that killed some 1,200 in Israel, saw another 251 taken hostage and launched a grinding war between Israel and Hamas.The Conservative congregation hung a “bring them home now” sign out front on behalf of the hostages. Rabbi Jesse Olitzky added the “Acheinu” prayer for redeeming captives to the weekly Shabbat service, and each week read the biography of a hostage. As the war raged on, the congregation sang songs of peace.There and elsewhere, congregants wore yellow hostage ribbons and pins on their lapels, and dog tags with the names of the missing. Some families lit extra candles on Shabbat. Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh would eventually be listed among the dead in Gaza, popularized the wearing of a piece of masking tape on which she wrote the number of days since the hostages were taken.This week, as the last 20 living hostages were returned to Israel as part of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, many Jews are relieved to be ending these rituals — even as they question whether it is right to do so and wonder how to channel their prayers and practices toward whatever comes next. Twenty-four deceased hostages are believed to be in Gaza, and even as soldiers return home and Gazans reclaim what’s left of their former lives, an enduring peace seems far away.At Beth El, the Acheinu and lawn sign will stay in place until the bodies are returned. In the meantime, outside of Israel, Tuesday night’s celebration of Simhat Torah (the holiday was celebrated on Monday night and Tuesday inside Israel) is a chance to experience a sense of relief that members haven’t felt in two years.“Like so many, we haven’t been able as a people to move forward and get to October 8 until the hostages came home,” Olitzky said Monday, hours after Hamas released the living hostages. “And now there is a sense of being able to exhale and breathe and, God willing, to move forward, to rebuild, and for all Israeli citizens and for Palestinians to have opportunities to build peace.”This week, rabbis and Jews in the pews are asking if it is time to move forward.Rabbi Yael Ridberg, the recently retired spiritual leader of Congregation Dor Hadash in San Diego, said she would remove the ribbon and dog tag she wears when the bodies of the deceased hostages are returned.“I look forward to tucking them away, but not disposing of them,” she wrote in response to a JTA query. “I will stop wearing them when all the deceased hostages are returned. These are keepsakes of a time worth remembering, as hard as it has been for the last two years.”Ronit Wolff Hanan, the former music director at Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck, New Jersey, said she is not sure what to do with the ribbon pin and dog tags she’s worn for most of the past two years. She’s torn between “this unbelievable release and relief and joy,” and sadness that there are still 24 bodies yet to be returned.“My whole thing is, well, what do we do now?” said Wolff Hanan, a dual US-Israeli citizen whose son served over 300 days in the Israeli reserves during the war. “I keep thinking about the long, difficult road all of these hostages and families have ahead of them, and it’s just unimaginable. But also, I’m thinking about, when is it really over? We don’t know if this is the dawn of a new era or if we are going to go back to the same old, same old.”JTS alums Rabbi Eli Havivi, Rabbi Jonathan Maltzman, and Cantor Ronit Wolff Hanan, along with Julie Maltzman, experienced the Rare Book Room with Dr. Mordy Schwartz.Posted by The Jewish Theological Seminary – JTS on Tuesday, January 21, 2025-Her partner, Rabbi Eli Havivi, offered his own solution to a similar dilemma: In synagogue on Monday morning, he wore his hostage dog tags, but covered with blue painter’s tape, in order to suggest that “it’s over, but it is not over.”On a Facebook page for Jewish women, a number of members spoke of their reluctance to stop lighting extra candles. Some felt that if they did, it would break a kind of spiritual commitment, or might suggest that they’ve given up on the freed hostages who will continue to have mental and physical challenges. Some referred to a passage from Talmud (Shabbat 21b) that extends the metaphor of the Hanukkah candles to suggest that someone should always add light, not subtract.By contrast, the comic Periel Aschenbrand wrote that she was eager to take off the button that she’d been wearing in solidarity with Omri Miran, a hostage abducted in front of his wife and two children on October 7. “I can’t wait to be able to take it off tomorrow, and for Omri to be reunited with his daughters and family,” she wrote Sunday on Instagram.Alyssa Goldwater, an Orthodox influencer, wrote that she too is “really looking forward” to taking off the yellow ribbon pin she’s worn over the past two years, but that removing doesn’t mean forgetting.“When you remove a pin, the tiny holes never fully go away,” she wrote on Instagram. “They will remain and serve as a reminder that we will never forget what has happened to us over the last two years. We will never forget who stood by us and who stood soundly against us. The holes will be tiny because we pray that the hostages will be able to eventually heal and live their regular lives again, where the unimaginable travesties they’ve been through won’t even be noticeable in the human eye, but the holes will remain, because this is a part of us now.”Long before October 7 led to a torrent of new practices, Jews altered their prayers and rituals in tune with current events, with some changes handed down from rabbis and others bubbling up from the “folk.”Some changes stick — like the Av HaRachamim memorial prayer, composed in the Middle Ages for those who perished in the Crusades — and others fall away. In the 1970s and ’80s boys and girls celebrating their b’nai mitzvah “twinned” with Soviet Jews unable to emigrate. Adults wore silver bracelets with the names of these refuseniks, and put them away when the emigration restrictions fell.The additions and changes that persist usually speak to other events, the way Av HaRachamim has become a weekly reminder of various Jewish tragedies. In general, however, a prayer or ritual that responds to current events “should have a theoretical timestamp for when it exits stage left, even if we cannot always know when that time will come,” Rabbi Ethan Tucker, president and rosh yeshiva of Hadar, explained in a Facebook post discussing the transition away from October 7 practices. “Without that foresight and planning, the addition either straggles on, eventually becoming a kind of exhibit in the gallery of prayer, or it simply fades away when monotony and detachment have gotten the better of it.”The Jewish calendar itself seemed to conspire in the spiritual turbulence of many Jews: The hostage release came on the eve of Israelis’ celebration of Simhat Torah — and the second anniversary, on the Hebrew calendar, of the Hamas attacks.The holiday is meant to be a day of unbridled joy. A centerpiece of Simhat Torah is the hakafah, when congregants dance with and around the Torah scrolls.Last year, congregations struggled with how to match the happy themes of the holiday with the one-year anniversary of the worst attack in Israel’s history. Olitzky said his congregation began last year’s Simhat Torah festivities with a “solemn” hakafah, where congregants sang Israel’s national anthem and a somber Hebrew song while standing still. Olitzky said he took solace at the time in the words of Goldberg-Polin, who said, “’There is a time to sob and a time to dance,’ and we have to do both right now.”And while the release of the hostages is also tinged with sadness — for the lost years, the captives who didn’t make it, the suffering still to come — many will use the holiday as a celebration of deliverance and gratitude.The release of the hostages, Olitzky said, will “allow Simhat Torah to be that — the holiday when we are supposed to have so much joy. Last year, it was difficult to find that joy on Simhat Torah. I truly believe that we will have a greater opportunity in the days ahead to sing and dance.”Adat Shalom, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Bethesda, Maryland, will use Simhat Torah to celebrate the hostages’ return by ending another common practice since October 7: a chair left empty on the synagogue’s bima, or dais, featuring the image of a missing hostage.During the dancing on Simhat Torah, the congregation will bring the chair and use it to lift up members wedding-style.“We have a lot of people in the community who are really close with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Washington,” said Rabbi Scott Perlo. “We’re going to take that very chair, and take it from its depths and lift it up, and make it the centerpiece of our joy.”Adat Shalom rotated in a number of special prayers and readings over the past two years, acknowledging, Perlo said ruefully, that “there’s so much to pray for,” including “the hostages, the safety of our family in Israel, the safety of people in Gaza,” and the state of American democracy.He understands that some congregants may be wary of letting go of the new rites and prayers — perhaps afraid that if they don’t keep up the tradition, the horrors that prompted their prayers will only return.“So what I would say to them is some version of, ‘Yes, don’t let it go completely, but let it transform into something new,’” said Perlo.Rabbi Felipe Goodman of Temple Beth Sholom in Las Vegas, Nevada, also plans to incorporate a ritual of release and transformation during Simhat Torah celebrations on Tuesday night. He’s asking congregants to bring their yellow pins and dog tags and place them on an heirloom Torah cover.  “This cover will be dedicated as a memorial and displayed at the entrance of our Temple, so that every time we walk through our Temple’s doors, we will remember what happened on October 7, 2023,” he wrote in a message to members.On Sunday, Hanna Yerushalmi, a rabbi based in Annapolis, Maryland, shared a poem on Instagram, called “Yellow Chairs” that imagined a near future in which hope will transform the fraught symbols of October 7 grief and remembrance. It reads in part:Empty chairs will be saved for friends arriving late,and tape will be tape again,and hostage necklaces will be put away, forgotten in drawers.and Saturday night will be date night once again.

ExclusiveGHF says no change in longterm plan, denies director leaving-Gaza deal’s secret humanitarian annex omits GHF, which isn’t poised for postwar role-Document says ‘other organizations’ to assist in aid distribution but the US- and Israel-backed group not slated to be among them, as it runs out of funds and its leader departs-By Jacob Magid-Today, 11:56 pm-OCT 14,25

A yet-to-be-publicized humanitarian annex in the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal that Israel and Hamas signed last week does not stipulate a role for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as officials familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel that the cash-strapped American organization is not slated to take part in the Strip’s postwar humanitarian operations.“UN agencies, other organizations, the Red Crescent and countries operating in the Strip will receive and distribute aid,” reads an excerpt from the humanitarian annex obtained by The Times of Israel and verified by two sources involved in the negotiations.While “other organizations” leaves an opening for GHF’s continued involvement, an Arab diplomat said the two words were largely included to placate Israel, which pushed back on language that explicitly ruled out a role for GHF.An Israeli official acknowledged that while GHF came to play an important role following its rocky establishment in May, Jerusalem does not expect it to continue operating in the Gaza Strip.GHF has only been able to distribute less than two dozen trucks of aid on average for the past month, as its funding has dried up.Only the US earmarked funds for GHF, announcing in June that it would allocate $30 million to the organization. But two months later, the State Department acknowledged that only half of the funds had been transferred, and it has yet to confirm that the other $15 million was sent.GHF sources have claimed to have received funding from at least one other country in Eastern Europe, but have yet to disclose further details, claiming that the country wants to remain anonymous.While technically an American organization, Israeli officials and business leaders with links to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government were closely involved in the GHF’s establishment, according to sources familiar with the matter.Israel has long accused Hamas of coopting humanitarian assistance and argued that the goal of GHF was to exclude the terror group from aid distribution by setting up sites in areas cleared and controlled by the Israel Defense Forces. Netanyahu said Israel’s goal was for GHF to eventually become the sole provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza, replacing the UN and other international agencies that Jerusalem says Hamas exploits.But GHF’s rollout was marred by near-daily reports of shootings by IDF troops at Palestinians seeking to reach the aid distribution sites, with the UN saying that over 1,000 people were killed in those incidents. The IDF has stated that the death tolls have been inflated, that its troops only fired warning shots at those who posed a threat to troops, and that Hamas operatives and other gunmen were also opening fire at crowds of aid seekers.The deadly incidents outside GHF sites began to decrease toward the end of the summer, and the aid group has managed to distribute what it says were over 185 million meals to Gazans.But by last month, it was only distributing a small fraction of the aid entering Gaza, and pledges by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee that GHF would scale up its operations from three to 16 sites never materialized.‘Tactical changes in operations’The ceasefire signed last week in Sharm el-Sheikh appears to be accelerating GHF’s exit from Gaza, with one of its sites near central Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor already abandoned, as part of the IDF’s withdrawal from the area. GHF has only operated in parts of the Strip controlled by the IDF. Its other two distribution sites in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis and Rafah have also halted operations since Friday.The document signed by Israel and Hamas stipulates that during the ceasefire, aid will enter Gaza at “a minimum in consistence with the 19 January 2025 agreement regarding humanitarian aid,” which set a benchmark of at least 600 trucks entering Gaza.The language of the clause in the document was similar to that of Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war, which he unveiled last week.Israel has begun surging aid into Gaza in the days since the deal was ratified by Netanyahu’s cabinet on October 10.The daily number of trucks has passed 500 at least twice, with a transitional period expected before the figure rises to 600 trucks per day. Moreover, Israel announced on Tuesday that it would be limiting the amount of aid it would allow in response to Hamas’s failure to return the remaining bodies of deceased hostages held in Gaza — an apparent violation of the agreement.On Sunday, a spokesperson for GHF told The Times of Israel, “Over the next few days, during the transfer of the hostages to Israel, there will be tactical changes in GHF operations and temporary closures of some distribution sites may occur.”“There is no change to our long-term plan,” the GHF spokesperson added, without elaborating on what the “long-term plan” is. GHF sources in the past have acknowledged that the organization was not meant to be permanent.Even if GHF resumes operations, its impact will likely be marginal, given that it has recently brought less than two dozen trucks per day into Gaza. Per the terms of the deal, over 600 trucks are set to enter daily.It’s unclear whether Palestinians will feel the need to risk entering IDF-controlled areas to pick up aid when so much of it will be reaching other parts of the Strip, if the terms of the ceasefire are upheld.The Israeli official lamented that Hamas may have an easier time co-opting aid with the ceasefire in place, given that an alternative governing and security body that can be attached to the humanitarian effort has yet to be stood up and will likely take time to develop.In addition to GHF’s financial woes, its leadership is also poised for a shakeup, as its director, Johnnie Moore, informed interlocutors last month that he will step down from his position, two sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.A GHF spokesperson denied that Moore has left GHF but did not respond to a request for comment regarding the organization’s financial status.

Egypt says Israel and Hamas approved Palestinian team tapped to oversee post-war Gaza-15 Palestinian technocrats will ‘take care of daily life’ in Gaza, declares Egyptian FM, as UN official says a number of countries have pledged billions needed for reconstruction-By Agencies Today, 11:33 pm-OCT 14,25

As efforts ramp up to plan for the reconstruction of war-torn Gaza at the end of a grueling two-year war, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told The Associated Press that 15 Palestinian technocrats have been selected to administer postwar Gaza.He said their names were already vetted by Israel, without disclosing them.“We need to deploy them to take care of the daily life of the people in Gaza, and the Board of Peace should support and supervise the flow of finance and money, which will come for the reconstruction of Gaza,” he said, referring to a board that would govern Gaza and be chaired by US President Donald Trump.Abdelatty said on Monday, ahead of a global summit on Gaza’s future held in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, that the 15-member committee had already been approved by all Palestinian factions, including Hamas.He said Hamas members welcomed Trump’s plan. They “have no role in the transitional period. They are committed to that. That is why they are working on an administrative Palestinian committee to be deployed in order to take care of the daily life of the people of Gaza,” Abdelatty claimed.For its part, Israel has to comply with a withdrawal from Gaza, allowing a flow of aid and the deployment of the administrative committee on the ground to ensure security for civilians, Abdelatty said. Hamas also must honor its commitments, he said.Meanwhile, a UN official said Tuesday that European and Arab nations, Canada, and the US appear willing to contribute to the estimated $70 billion needed to rebuild Gaza.Jaco Cilliers, an official at the United Nations Development Program, said the war started by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror onslaught against Israel had generated at least 55 million tons of rubble and that it could take decades for Gaza to fully recover.“We’ve heard very positive news from a number of our partners, including European partners [and]… Canada,” regarding their willingness to help, he told a press conference, adding that there were also discussions with the United States.Since a ceasefire deal came into effect in Gaza, large numbers of Palestinians have returned to the ruins of their homes in the coastal territory.Huge swaths of Gaza have been reduced to a wasteland by Israeli bombardment over two years, with UNDP saying it had already cleared some 81,000 tons of rubble from the Gaza Strip and was continuing to do so.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday he will seek Gulf, US and European support for the reconstruction of Gaza under the new ceasefire deal, and he believed project financing will be provided swiftly.Speaking to reporters on a return flight from Sharm el-Sheikh, Erdogan claimed that Israel’s “poor” track record of abiding by ceasefires means the US and others must vigilantly enforce it.“I believe the significant financial support will be swiftly provided” for rebuilding projects developed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League, Erdogan said, according to a transcript shared by his office on Tuesday.“We are seeking support from Gulf countries, the US, and European nations,” he added. “The initial impressions are promising.”FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who also attended the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, pledged the governing body’s support to rebuild soccer infrastructure in Gaza as part of wider postwar reconstruction efforts.“It’s something that is really important for FIFA to be here to support, to help, to assist, to make sure that this peace process comes to fruition,” Infantino said Tuesday after the signing of a document outlining plans for regional stability and reconstruction.The FIFA president said his organization would help restore soccer in Gaza and the wider Palestinian territories, including rebuilding facilities destroyed during the war in Gaza, and launching a fund to support new pitches and youth programs.“Football’s role has to be to support, to unite, to give hope,” he said. “We will help to rebuild all the football facilities in Gaza, bring football back together with the Palestinian Football Association (PFA), and create opportunities for children through the game.”Infantino added that FIFA would contribute with mini-pitches and “FIFA Arenas” and invite other partners to join the effort, saying “soccer brings hope to children, and it’s very, very important.”

Red Cross, UN call to keep all Gaza border crossings open-IDF: Troops fired at Gazan suspects who approached them after crossing ceasefire line-Israel launches pair of drone strikes ‘to remove threats,’ which Hamas charges breached the truce; Israel to restrict aid to Strip after terror group returned only four of the slain hostages-By Emanuel Fabian,ToI Staff and Agencies Today, 8:03 pm-OCT 14,25

The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that it opened fire on Gazans who approached troops in Gaza City and near Khan Younis after crossing the so-called Yellow Line, to which the military withdrew as part of the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal.The Hamas-controlled civil defense agency reported five people killed in an Israeli drone strike while trying to return to their homes in Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiya neighborhood, and another person was killed in a separate drone strike on a gathering in the al-Fukhari area east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.In both cases, the IDF said, troops “opened fire to remove the threat,” in accordance with the ceasefire deal.In al-Fukhari, the IDF said, suspects approached the troops in a manner that posed an immediate threat and attempted to reach a Hamas weapon depot that had been destroyed by the military. In Gaza City, according to the military, troops opened fire on suspects who refused a call to disperse. The military also denied reports that an army encampment in the area was infiltrated by the suspects or other gunmen.“The IDF calls on Gaza residents to follow its instructions and not to approach the troops deployed in the area,” said the military.Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the Israeli fire represented “a violation of the ceasefire agreement,” and, referring to Israel, called on “the various parties to monitor the occupation’s behavior and prevent it from shirking its commitments to mediators on ending the war.”Meanwhile, Israel said Tuesday that it would not reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Wednesday, despite being required to do so under the agreement, after Hamas on Monday only returned several of the slain captives.Israel will also reduce the amount of aid flowing into Gaza as part of the sanctions against the terror group.The moves followed Israeli defense officials’ assessments that Hamas has not made significant efforts to return the remaining 24 bodies of hostages.The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross called for all crossings into Gaza to be opened to allow desperately needed aid into the war-torn territory.“That’s what humanitarians, including ICRC, have been calling for in the last hours, is making sure that, because of the huge needs, all entry points can be open,” Red Cross spokesman Christian Cardon told reporters in Geneva. The UN humanitarian agency’s spokesman Jens Laerke added: “We need all of them open.”Also Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he would seek the support of Gulf states, the United States and Europe for the reconstruction of Gaza under the ceasefire deal, and he believes project financing will be provided swiftly.Speaking to reporters on a return flight from a global summit on Gaza’s future held in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, Erdogan also said Western countries’ decisions to recognize Palestinian statehood should be seen as building blocks of a two-state solution, according to a transcript shared by his office. Israel has slammed the recent wave of Palestinian statehood recognition as rewarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre that started the war.Hamas on Monday released the last 20 living hostages, as it was required to do within 72 hours of Israel’s Friday withdrawal to the Yellow Line. The terror group also returned the remains of four slain hostages, with 24 bodies of slain hostages still in Gaza.Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas was required to return all the bodies in its or other terror groups’ possession, and share any information it has on other slain hostages, within the same 72-hour timeframe. The terror group has said it would be difficult to return all the dead hostages at that time due to the field conditions in Gaza.The 24 slain hostages include a soldier killed in the 2014 Gaza war, and 23 civilians and soldiers abducted during the Hamas onslaught of October 7.

Trump: 'We gave them approval for a period of time'-Hamas said to kill over 30 Gazans, publicly execute 7, as it reasserts its grip on Strip-Footage appears to show Hamas executing ‘collaborators’ in city square; armed Hamas fighters return to streets as Trump says he gave group temporary green light to police Strip-By Agencies and ToI Staff Today, 9:09 am-OCT 14,25

Hamas gunmen tightened their grip in Gaza on Monday and Tuesday, sources in the Strip said, including carrying out public executions.Hamas has killed at least 33 people since a ceasefire took effect on Friday in a crackdown on groups that have tested its grip, sources in the strip said, having apparently got a US nod to temporarily police the shattered enclave.In a stark assertion of the group’s return, fighters executed several men they accused of collaborating with Israeli forces. In one video circulated late on Monday, Hamas fighters dragged seven men into a circle of people in Gaza City, forced them to their knees and shot them from behind. A Hamas source confirmed the authenticity of the video.Gaza residents said fighters were increasingly visible on Tuesday, deploying along routes needed for aid deliveries. Palestinian security sources say dozens of people have been killed in clashes between Hamas gunmen and rivals in recent days.Although Israeli troops have withdrawn from urban areas in Gaza under the ceasefire that began last week, drone fire killed five people as they went to check on houses in a suburb east of Gaza City and an air strike killed one person and injured another near Khan Younis, Hamas-run Gaza health authorities said.Pummeled by Israel during the war ignited by the October 7, 2023, massacre that it led, Hamas has gradually sent its operatives back into the streets of Gaza since the ceasefire began, according to two security sources in the territory.On Monday, Hamas deployed members of its Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades military wing as it freed the last living hostages seized from Israel two years ago. It was a reminder of one of the major challenges facing US President Donald Trump’s effort to secure a lasting deal for Gaza, as the US, Israel and many other nations demand Hamas disarm.Reuters footage shows dozens of Hamas fighters lined up at a hospital in southern Gaza, one wearing a shoulder patch identifying him as a member of the elite “Shadow Unit” that Hamas sources say was tasked with holding hostages.One of the Gaza sources, a security official, said that since the ceasefire, Hamas forces have killed 32 members of “a gang affiliated with a family in Gaza City,” while six of its personnel had also been killed.Later on Monday, an execution video circulating on social media appeared to show several masked gunmen, some of them wearing green headbands resembling ones worn by Hamas, shooting with machine guns at least seven men after forcing them to kneel in the street. Posts identified the video as filmed in Gaza on Monday. Civilian spectators cheered “Allah Akbar,” or God is Great, and called those killed “collaborators.”Reuters could not immediately verify the events of the video, its date or location. There was no immediate response from Hamas.Last month, Hamas-led authorities said they executed three men accused of collaborating with Israel. The video of the public killing was shared on social media.Temporary police?Trump’s plan foresees Hamas out of power in a demilitarized Gaza run by a Palestinian committee under international supervision. It calls for the deployment of an international stabilization mission that will train and support a Palestinian police force.But Trump, speaking on his way to the Middle East on Sunday, suggested Hamas had been given a temporary green light to police Gaza.“They do want to stop the problems, and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time,” he said, responding to a journalist’s question about reports that Hamas was shooting rivals and instituting itself as a police force.“You have close to 2 million people going back to buildings that have been demolished, and a lot of bad things can happen. So we want it to be, we want it to be safe. I think it’s going to be fine. Who knows for sure,” Trump said.After the ceasefire took effect, Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of Hamas’s Gaza government media office, told Reuters the group would not allow a security vacuum and that it would maintain public safety and property.Hamas has ruled out any discussion of its arsenal, saying it would be ready to surrender its arms to a future Palestinian state. The group has said it seeks no role in Gaza’s future governing body, but that this should be agreed upon by Palestinians with no foreign control.Clan wars-As the war dragged on, a diminished Hamas faced growing internal challenges to its control of Gaza from groups with which it has long been at odds, often affiliated with clans.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this year that Israel had been arming clans that oppose Hamas, without identifying them.In Gaza City, Hamas has mostly battled the Doghmosh clan, residents and Hamas sources said.The security official did not identify the “gang” who had been targeted in Gaza City, nor say whether it had been suspected of receiving support from Israel.The most prominent anti-Hamas clan leader is Yasser Abu Shabab, who is based in the Rafah area, an area from which Israel has yet to withdraw.Offering attractive salaries, his group has recruited hundreds of fighters, a source close to Abu Shabab told Reuters earlier this year. Hamas calls him a collaborator with Israel, which he denies.The Gaza security official said that separate from the clashes in Gaza City, Hamas security forces had killed Abu Shabab’s “right-hand man” and efforts were underway to kill Abu Shabab himself.Abu Shabab did not immediately respond to questions on the official’s comments. Reuters could not immediately verify the claim that his aide had been killed.Hussam al-Astal, another anti-Hamas figure based in Khan Younis in areas controlled by Israel, taunted the group in a video message on Sunday, saying that once it hands over the hostages, its role and rule in Gaza would be over.Palestinian analyst Reham Owda said Hamas’s actions aimed to deter groups that had collaborated with Israel and contributed to insecurity during the war. Hamas also aimed to show that its security officers should be part of a new government, though this would be rejected by Israel, she said.

Trump earns fresh comparisons to Cyrus the Great as last living hostages return home-Knesset speaker hails the US president ‘as a giant of Jewish history’; he was first compared to the ancient Persian ruler in 2018 for moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem-By Andrew Lapin Today, 5:58 am-OCT 14,25

JTA — As their last living hostages returned home from Gaza after two years of war, Israelis gave visiting US President Donald Trump a hero’s welcome — and threw out some lofty comparisons.“Mr. President, you stand before the people of Israel not as another American president, but as a giant of Jewish history — one for whom we must look back, two-and-a-half millennia into the mists of time, to find a parallel, in Cyrus the Great,” Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, told Trump on Monday as he welcomed the president for a victory speech to the Israeli parliament.To be compared to Cyrus is no small thing. Living around 600 BCE and shrouded in myth, the Persian ruler is traditionally credited with granting Jews permission to return from exile in Babylon to the land of Israel and for helping them to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Because Cyrus was a pagan who by force seized and ruled over a vast empire, he tends to be treated as an imperfect yet essential vessel for God’s divine plan for the Jews, and is widely celebrated in Jewish history.It’s a comparison that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also made. Visiting the White House in 2018 during Trump’s first term, shortly after the president moved the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Netanyahu situated Trump in a long line of friendly world leaders, including Cyrus, Lord Balfour and President Harry Truman — all of whom he said helped return the Jews to their rightful homes in Israel. At the time a Jewish Israeli group, the Mikdash Educational Center, started selling commemorative coins imposing Trump’s face over Cyrus’s.The Cyrus framing has also helped Christian Zionists embrace Trump since his first term, despite the community’s initial misgivings about Trump’s personal behavior and often crude demeanor.In 2018 the Evangelical leader Mike Evans, who founded the Jerusalem-based Friends of Zion Museum, declared that Cyrus “was used as an instrument of God for deliverance in the Bible, and God has used this imperfect vessel, this flawed human being like you or I, this imperfect vessel, and he’s using him in an incredible, amazing way to fulfill his plans and purposes.”As the return of the living hostages seemed imminent, Evans’ group placed “Cyrus the Great is Alive!” billboards in Jerusalem. The billboards feature images of Trump and the American and Israeli flags intertwined.

Hamas looking for bodies of remaining dead captives -- Trump-At Sharm summit, Trump and world leaders sign up for peace in Gaza, with Netanyahu absent-In speech, US president urges world leaders to join Abraham Accords; leaders sign document said to lay out groundwork for Strip’s future-By Jacob Magid,ToI Staff and Agencies 13 October 2025, 11:51 pm

US President Donald Trump called for a new era of harmony in the Middle East on Monday during a global summit on Gaza’s future held in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, urging countries to sign up for the Abraham Accords and trying to advance broader peace in the region after visiting Israel to celebrate a US-brokered ceasefire with Hamas.“We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put the old feuds and bitter hatreds behind us,” Trump said, and he urged leaders “to declare that our future will not be ruled by the fights of generations past.”Trump’s whirlwind trip to the Middle East, which included the summit in Egypt and a speech at the Knesset in Jerusalem earlier in the day, came at a fragile moment of hope for ending two years of war between Israel and Hamas.“Everybody said it’s not possible to do. And it’s going to happen. And it is happening before your very eyes,” Trump said alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.Nearly three dozen countries, including some from Europe and the Middle East, were represented at the summit. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was invited at the last moment but declined, with his office saying it was too close to the start of Monday night’s Simchat Torah festival.Trump, Sissi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani signed a document that Trump said would lay the groundwork for Gaza’s future.The document was “going to spell out rules and regulations and lots of other things,” Trump said as he signed it, repeating twice that “it’s going to hold up.”Trump’s visit to the region came as Hamas released the 20 remaining living hostages abducted during the terror group’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza, and Israel released some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, in accordance with the first phase of Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan.Sissi’s office said the Sharm el-Sheikh summit aimed to “end the war” in Gaza and “usher in a new page of peace and regional stability” in line with Trump’s vision. Trump has said repeatedly that the war is over, and, in the Knesset, praised Netanyahu for ending it, but the Israeli government has not formally voted to do so.Trump told reporters that Hamas was looking for the bodies of the remaining deceased hostages that it has yet to return. Hamas only returned four of the 28 bodies of killed hostages on Monday — far fewer than anticipated.“It’s a pretty gruesome task… They know the areas [where they’re located] and… they’re doing it in conjunction with Israel, and they’ll going to be finding quite a few of them,” Trump said.Sissi said he was working to ensure that the Gaza deal is fully implemented, including by securing the release of all deceased hostages and surging aid into Gaza.Asked when the talks on phase two of the Gaza deal will begin, Trump said those talks have already started.“The phases are all a little bit mixed in with each other. You start cleaning up [Gaza],” he said.Speaking later at the summit, Trump said the Gaza ceasefire was the start of a “beautiful Middle East” and urged world leaders to join the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab nations in 2020, during Trump’s first term.“This is the day that people across the region and around the world have been working, striving, hoping and praying for,” Trump said. “Nobody thought this could happen with the historic agreement we have just signed.”“Those prayers of millions have finally been answered. The hostages have been returned, and further work goes on… to save bodies,” he said. (Hamas is still holding the remains of 24 fallen hostages.) “Together, we’ve achieved what everybody said was impossible. At long last, we have peace in the Middle East.”“After years of suffering and bloodshed, the war in Gaza is over. Humanitarian aid is now pouring in, including hundreds of truckloads of food and medical equipment and other supplies,” he said. “Now the rebuilding begins.”Trump thanked the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.Egypt and Qatar have been key mediators throughout the war. Turkey, which has hosted Hamas leaders, has recently stepped in to pressure the terror group.“He’s always there when I need him,” Trump said of Erdogan, a fierce critic of Israel and supporter of Hamas. He also thanked the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Pakistan.Trump also noted the presence of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who was reportedly supposed to make a historic visit to Israel on Tuesday but later denied the reports. Israel has rejected a PA role in post-war Gaza, the US barred Abbas last month from entering the US for the UN General Assembly, and he was a belated invitee to the summit.“From this moment forward, we can build a region that’s strong, stable, prosperous and united in rejecting the path of terror once and for all,” said Trump.He said the “final sprint” to the deal that ended the Gaza war began on the sidelines of the General Assembly when he met with the leaders of eight Arab and Muslim countries, some of whom “I don’t like in particular.”“We listened and we exchanged ideas, and we kept pushing forward until the job was done,” Trump said. “The first steps to peace are always the hardest, and today, we’ve taken them together.“I’ve just come from Israel, it was an amazing day to watch the hostages come in,” he continued. “The Israeli people are overjoyed that the war has ended. Many of you have had dancing in the streets.”“I hope everybody is going to join the Abraham Accords… Now, a lot of people, even today, are talking about all joining up. So many people have talked to me about that, and it’s going to be a great tribute to the United States,” Trump said.The countries that have already joined are “wealthy,” he said, apparently referring to the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, which have varying levels of wealth.“I hope everybody is now joining up. Now we have no excuses. We don’t have a Gaza and we don’t have an Iran as an excuse,” Trump said, apparently alluding to June’s 12-day Israel-Iran war, during which the US struck Iran’s nuclear sites and, per Trump, obliterated them.“All the momentum now is toward a great, glorious and lasting peace,” Trump continued. “Our commitment to fulfilling the 20-point plan we developed together will be the crucial foundation for achieving that bright future.During the summit, the US president met for the first time in eight years with Abbas, whose unpopular Palestinian Authority is supposed to take the reins of Gaza from a transitional international administration after undergoing a program of reforms, under Trump’s proposal.French President Emmanuel Macron escorted Abbas to the podium to meet Trump, who spoke with the PA president for a few seconds before holding his hand and giving a thumbs-up to the cameras.Israel has accused the PA of encouraging terrorism in its school system and through payments to terrorists, and rejected any role for the PA in Gaza’s transitional administration, whose Palestinian security force is slated to be trained by Jordan and Egypt.Other leaders who came to Sharm el-Sheikh included UN chief António Guterres and the heads of state of Azerbaijan, Iraq, Britain, Germany,  Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Hungary.World leaders lined up to have their photos taken with Trump ahead of the meeting. Trump smiled and gave a thumbs-up to photographers.Netanyahu had accepted a last-minute invitation but reneged an hour later, citing the summit’s proximity to Simchat Torah. However, diplomatic sources said Netanyahu canceled the trip due to Iraqi and Turkish opposition, while a Hebrew media report said he canceled due to fear of blowback from his right-wing base.Meanwhile, reports emerged that Subianto, the Indonesian president, was slated to visit Israel, even though his country, the world’s largest Muslim nation, has no formal ties with Israel. Indonesia’s foreign ministry later denied the reports.A source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel that Subianto, who indicated at the UN last month a desire for warmer ties with Israel, told interlocutors he would be willing to visit Israel, but then backed down due to fear of domestic backlash, and tried to save face by denying that such a trip was ever in the works.

Hostage families demand halt to deal's implementation-Israel receives 4 hostages’ bodies from Red Cross; demands Hamas hand over the other 24-Hamas silent on fate of 24 other slain hostages; Katz: Any deliberate violation of deal to be ‘met accordingly’; IDF spokesperson says efforts underway to secure more bodies-By Emanuel Fabian,Nurit Yohanan,Amy Spiro and ToI Staff 13 October 2025, 7:49 pm

Israel on Monday received caskets holding what Hamas said were the bodies of four slain hostages from Gaza, as it accused Hamas of failing to stand by the commitments it agreed to under the ceasefire by not releasing all the bodies it was holding.It remained silent on the fate of the 24 other dead hostages it was holding.Hamas said Monday the bodies of Guy Illouz, Yossi Sharabi, Bipin Joshi and Daniel Perez would be handed over. The IDF said troops in the Gaza Strip received four caskets, with the apparent bodies of slain hostages, from the Red Cross on Monday evening.Israeli police officers were escorting the caskets containing the apparent remains of the four hostages to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv, where they will undergo identification.Hamas has in the past sent back unrelated bodies instead of hostages.Joshi had not previously been confirmed by Israel to be dead, but authorities had expressed “grave concerns” for his well-being.According to Channel 12, the family of Tamir Nimrodi, a second hostage about whom Israel had expressed grave concern, was told on Monday that he was now confirmed as dead. But this was not confirmed, and the Hostages Families Forum said it had received no word of a change in his status. Nimrodi had been widely assumed to be dead, especially in the past few days, when Israeli officials had indicated that they were expecting the return of 20 living and 28 dead hostages.Earlier on Monday, the terror group returned the last 20 living hostages it was holding, following the partial withdrawal by the Israeli military in the Strip, and ahead of planned talks on the enclave’s future.The fate of Joshi, a Nepali agricultural student, had not been confirmed by Israel, but it expressed “grave concern” about him. Illouz was taken from the Nova festival and succumbed to his wounds in a Gaza hospital, apparently due to a lack of medical treatment. His death was confirmed in December 2023.Perez, 22, a platoon commander in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion, from Yad Binyamin, was killed battling Hamas on October 7, 2023. Sharabi, 53, the brother of freed hostage Eli Sharabi, from Kibbutz Be’eri, was kidnapped from his home on October 7 and slain in captivity.Officials have said the identification process may take up to two days.Before being taken out of Gaza, the IDF said it was set to hold a small ceremony, led by a military rabbi, to honor the dead. The caskets were to be draped in Israeli flags, with troops saluting and reciting psalms.The terror group had told mediators days ago that it did not know where some of the bodies of the 28 slain hostages were located. Israel was aware of this when it signed the agreement, which demanded Hamas release all the captives, living and dead, within 72 hours of the IDF’s initial withdrawal from Gaza.The IDF completed its withdrawal by noon on Friday, commencing the 72-hour period. Israel released some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages.According to the Kan public broadcaster, Israeli mediators were intensively working to try to increase the number of bodies released on Monday. Israel was not buying the claim that Hamas had returned the bodies it had and was still looking for others, and believes the terror group is stalling, Channel 12 reported.Kan said that Hamas had conveyed the following message to the mediators: “We have limitations beyond our control and constraints in the field that caused us to hand over a lower number than expected of dead hostages.”The terror group does not claim that it doesn’t know where all 24 of them are, just that it needs more time to retrieve them. Some may also be located in areas currently held by the IDF, Kan said.In response to the limited release of bodies, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that if Hamas were intentionally delaying the return of the dead hostages, it would be a violation of the agreement.“The urgent mission we are all committed to now is to ensure the return of all the fallen hostages home,” he wrote on X.“Hamas’s announcement of the expected return of four bodies today constitutes a failure to meet its commitments,” Katz said, adding that “any delay or deliberate avoidance will be considered a blatant violation of the agreement and will be met accordingly.”IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Israel is demanding that Hamas uphold its end of the deal.“We have been informed that later today, approximately four fallen hostages will be returned. Even at this hour, efforts are being made at all levels to exert pressure for the continuation of the process to return the bodies of the fallen,” Defrin said in a video statement.“We demand that Hamas uphold its part of the agreement. We do not forget them (the hostages) for a moment and will not rest until all return to their families and to burial in Israel,” he said.The Hostage and Missing Families Forum demanded a “severe response,” calling for an “immediate halt to the implementation of the agreement until the full and complete release of all the fallen.”“The violation of the agreement by Hamas must be met with a very severe response from the government and the mediators,” the forum said.“An agreement must be respected by both sides, if Hamas does not fulfill its part, Israel should not fulfill its part either,” the forum said.“We demand all 28 hostages. We will not give up on anyone, down to the last hostage,” the forum stated.Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the communities devastated by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, also urged an “immediate” government response to the “disgrace.”“Hamas’s failure to abide by the agreement cannot be ignored. A strong response is required from the government and the mediators. We demand the return of all the fallen hostages and express our horror, deep pain, and utter fear that the dead will disappear,” the community said in a statement.

Israel frees nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds of terror convicts-Prisoners released after Hamas frees the last 20 living hostages; among those released are dozens of high-profile terrorists sentenced to life in jail; 154 of the worst offenders deported to Egypt-By Charlie Summers,Nurit Yohanan and Agencies 13 October 2025, 7:14 pm

Israel on Monday freed nearly 2,000 Palestinians — including hundreds of terror convicts serving life terms — from its prisons as part of a deal to reach a ceasefire and release the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.Shortly after 20 living hostages were freed, Israel put 1,968 Palestinian prisoners on buses that departed for the West Bank and Gaza.Among those freed were 250 security prisoners, most of them serving one or more life terms for deadly attacks on Israelis. They include a Palestinian police officer who joined in the notorious lynching of two reservists at the start of the Second Intifada in 2000, a Gaza resident who raped and murdered a 13-year-old boy and dozens of other terrorists responsible for a series of suicide bombings and other attacks.Hamas said 154 of the prisoners were deported to Egypt.At the same time in southern Israel’s Ketziot Prison, 1,718 Gazan detainees uninvolved in the October 7, 2023, massacre, who were arrested as unlawful combatants during the war, went free. Among the detainees were a handful of women and children.Families of the terrorists’ victims, who were notified by the government ahead of their release, expressed intense pain and grief coupled with joy for the returning hostages and their loved ones.Early in the morning, police and prison forces arrived at Ofer Prison near Ramallah in the West Bank to prepare the release of the security prisoners. Some 88 of the prisoners were sent back to the West Bank and East Jerusalem.Posters hung up on the outer walls of the Ofer detention facility read: “He who threatens a flood is drowned and wiped out,” referring to “the Al Aqsa Flood,” Hamas’s name for the October 7, 2023, massacre.IDF forces could be heard using tear gas and stun grenades to disperse crowds on the other side of the nearby West Bank security barrier, gathered to celebrate the release of the prisoners.In the hours leading up to the release, police and IDF troops in the West Bank and East Jerusalem kept a close eye on freed security prisoners and their families to ensure their release wasn’t praised publicly in Israeli-controlled territory.Once reaching Ramallah, however, those returning to the West Bank were met with raucous celebration after the two buses arrived at a community center in the city. Palestinian Authority security forces had to move people away from the area to allow buses to pass.Dressed in the gray tracksuits of Israeli prisons, some of the prisoners struggled to walk without assistance as they got off the bus and were met by a crowd cheering their return.“It’s an indescribable feeling, a new birth,” 43-year-old Mahdi Ramadan, newly released, told AFP, flanked by his parents with whom he said he would spend his first evening out of jail.Nearby, relatives exchanged hugs, young men in tears pressed their foreheads against each other — some fainting from the emotion of seeing loved ones again after years  in jail. The crowd chanted in celebration “Allahu akbar,” meaning “God is the greatest.”As the security prisoners returned home, high-ranking terrorists were deported. Those sent abroad included Iyad Abu al-Rub, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander responsible for orchestrating three deadly suicide bombings in Shadmot Mechola, Tel Aviv and Hadera over the years 2003-2005. In total, 13 people were killed across the three attacks.Also deported was Muhammad Zakarneh, a Fatah operative who planned a 2009 attack in which taxi driver Grigory Raginovich was murdered, and Muhammad Abu al-Rub, who in 2017 carried out a stabbing attack that killed Reuven Shmerling.As Gazan detainees were transported back to the Strip on 38 buses, guards stormed one of the vehicles mid-journey after several Palestinians pulled the vehicle’s window curtains aside in a “celebratory display.”Members of the Israel Prison Service’s Masada unit “stormed the bus, employed measures against those disturbing the order and immediately restored prison governance” without causing injuries, prison officials said. The bus later continued on to Gaza.The detainees crossed into the enclave via the Kerem Shalom checkpoint and arrived at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. About a dozen masked gunmen dressed in black, apparently members of Hamas’s armed wing, gathered at the medical center along with a growing crowd of Gazans, Reuters footage showed.Some in the massive crowd waved Palestinian flags while others held pictures of their relatives. Fighting back tears, one woman who asked to be identified as Um Ahmed said she said that despite her joy at the release, she still had “mixed feelings” about the day.“I am happy for our sons who are being freed, but we are still in pain for all those who had been killed by the occupation, and all the destruction that happened to our Gaza,” she told Reuters by voice note.The final list of prisoners was disputed by Hamas negotiators up until the last minute and was altered several times as the group fought to free several key terror chiefs, including popular Fatah figure Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences.Hamas and Israeli negotiators also agreed upon the transfer of “360 Gazan terrorists’ bodies” in the final decision ratifying the ceasefire deal.  It was likely the bodies would only be returned once Hamas had sent back the bodies of 28 slain hostages.By Monday evening Hamas had started preparations to return only four of the 28 bodies.

Father of hostage who didn't come back holds on to hope-All 20 remaining living hostages return to Israel, after over 2 years in Hamas captivity-Hostages and Missing Families Forum accuses Hamas of ‘blatant violation’ of Gaza ceasefire after terror group says it will release just 4 of 28 slain hostages on Monday-By Emanuel Fabian,Naomi Lanzkron,Nurit Yohanan,Jessica Steinberg and ToI Staff 13 October 2025, 5:44 pm

Israel joined the families in celebration on Monday as Hamas released the 20 remaining living hostages under the Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, who came to Israel to mark the event.Hamas is yet to release the remains of 28 dead hostages, despite being required to do so under the deal that would bring some closure to the national trauma that began when the terror group took 251 hostages back to Gaza after massacring some 1,200 people on October 7, 2023.The first seven living hostages — Matan Angrest, Alon Ohel, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Guy Gilboa-Dallal and twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman — were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza City, in the Strip’s north, at about 8 a.m. and transferred to Israeli forces inside Gaza about an hour later.The next 13 — Elkana Bohbot, Avinatan Or, Yosef-Haim Ohana, Evyatar David, Rom Braslavski, Segev Kalfon, Nimrod Cohen, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Matan Zangauker, Bar Kupershtein and brothers David and Ariel Cunio — were handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, in the Strip’s south, shortly before 11 a.m. and transferred to Israeli forces inside Gaza about an hour later.All 20 returned pale and frail, but smiling and standing on their legs, with most of them held in horrific conditions in tunnels deep under Gaza, where many faced abuse, starvation and received limited medical treatment.Each released hostage was taken to the Re’im border facility, where they were reunited with their families in emotional scenes.They underwent initial medical checks at Re’im to determine if any of them needed immediate, urgent treatment.They were then flown on a military chopper to hospitals in central Israel, where they will undergo treatment and rehabilitation. Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar personally flew the helicopter transporting Cohen and his family to Sourasky Medical Center, the military said.Footage released by the IDF showed hostages’ families to be elated and tearful as they reunited with their loved ones, as large crowds gathered in Jerusalem and on Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square cheered from afar.Tens of thousands of people gathered in Hostages Square to celebrate the release, waving Israeli flags and singing and dancing. Thousands more lined the streets as the hostages were transported to the Re’im base, while others gathered at the three hospitals where the freed hostages were brought.Marking the release, Ohad Ben Ami, who was released emaciated from Hamas captivity in February as part of the last Gaza ceasefire, sent a message to his former cellmates: Bohbot, Ohana, Kuperstein, Kalfon and Herkin.“Elkana, Yosef, Bar, Segev, Maxim, my souls, I love you,” said Ben Ami. “Listen well, all of the nation of Israel waited for you, is waiting for you, you can’t imagine what was going on here. I will finally see you and hold you, we will do all the things we planned after you reunite with your families. You’ll recover, you’ll see, I regained all of my weight,” he added.“I love you, you’re so strong, you held on, I’m so proud of you, I love you, love you!” said Ben Ami.Before their release, Hamas orchestrated video calls between the hostages and their families. The hostages could be seen in the videos accompanied by Hamas gunmen, and wearing fake military uniforms that Hamas had forced released hostages to wear in propaganda handover ceremonies during the previous Gaza ceasefire earlier this year. Israel demanded this time around that Hamas not hold such ceremonies.In exchange for the 20 hostages, Israel on Monday released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 terror convicts serving life sentences, as stipulated by Trump’s ceasefire proposal, an IDF spokesperson told The Times of Israel.Israel had initially said it would wait until all hostages, the living and the dead, had been released, but instead decided to free the prisoners after only the 20 living hostages were freed.The Hostage and Missing Families Forum said it had received notice that Hamas would release only four of the 28 dead hostages on Monday, calling it a “blatant breach” of the ceasefire agreement, which had required Hamas to release the hostages within 72 hours of the IDF’s Friday withdrawal.The four slain hostages slated for release were later identified by Hamas as Guy Illouz, Yossi Sharabi, Bipin Joshi and Daniel Perez. The statement did not specify when the transfer would take place.“This represents a blatant breach of the agreement by Hamas. We expect Israel’s government and the mediators to take immediate action to rectify this grave injustice,” the Forum said, noting it is “shocked and dismayed.”“The families of the deceased hostages are enduring especially difficult days filled with deep sorrow,” said the group. “We will not abandon any hostage. The mediators must enforce the agreement’s terms and ensure Hamas pays a price for this violation.”Hamas has said it would have difficulties locating some of the bodies of the deceased hostages.Israel has confirmed the deaths of 26 hostages, including a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war. Joshi, a Nepali agricultural student whose body Hamas said it would release on Monday, was one of two hostages for whose fate Israel had expressed grave concern without confirming them dead.The second of those two hostages, soldier Tamir Nimrodi, was not released on Monday, but his father Alon held out hope.“I want to clarify to all that Tamir, from the first day, was listed as a living hostage, and also today, despite the heavy cloud, it hasn’t been proven otherwise,” he wrote on social media.“Bibi normalized the number 20 instead of 22,” says Nimrodi, referring to the list of 20 living hostages mentioned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent weeks.Nimrodi added that he and his ex-wife, Herut Nimrodi, did not receive any updates regarding Tamir and were not asked to come to “prepare a bag” of their son’s belongings and bring it to the IDF base at Re’im, where the living hostages were brought.Charlie Summers contributed to this report.

Iran accuses US of ‘criminal behavior,’ says Trump’s call for dialogue inconsistent-Washington is ‘leading producer of terrorism, has no moral authority to accuse others,’ Tehran says after Trump’s offered ‘friendship’ and urged Iran-Israel peace in Knesset speech-By AFP and ToI Staff Today, 12:13 pm-OCT 14,25

Iran said on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump’s call for a peace deal with Tehran was inconsistent with Washington’s actions, referring to its strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June.“The desire for peace and dialogue expressed by the US president is at odds with the hostile and criminal behavior of the United States towards the Iranian people,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.During a Monday speech at the Israeli Knesset, Trump said he wanted a peace deal with Iran and that the ball was in Tehran’s court for any agreement to come to pass.In its statement, Iran dismissed the call.“How can one attack the residential areas and nuclear facilities of a country in the midst of political negotiations, kill more than 1,000 people including innocent women and children, and then demand peace and friendship?” the foreign ministry asked.Trump also said “nothing would do more good” for the region than for Iran’s leaders “to renounce terrorists, stop threatening their neighbors, quit funding their militant proxies, and finally recognize Israel’s right to exist.”Tehran struck back, calling the remarks “irresponsible and shameful” and accusing the United States of being “a leading producer of terrorism and a supporter of the terrorist and genocidal Zionist regime.”“The United States… has no moral authority to accuse others,” Iran’s foreign ministry said.In June, the US joined Israel in striking Iranian nuclear facilities after five rounds of indirect nuclear talks with Tehran that stalled over issues including nuclear enrichment.Trump told the Knesset Monday that Iran “took a big hit” in the 12-day war, but offered “friendship and cooperation” and said it would be nice if a peace deal could be hammered out between Iran and Israel.Israel said its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites and ballistic missile program was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy Israel.Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.Iran retaliated to Israel’s strikes by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel.The attacks killed 32 people in Israel — the most recent death was Monday when 76-year-old Aharon Mizrahi succumbed to his wounds sustained in a missile strike in Ramat Gan — and injured over 3,000.

Mamdani-linked DSA condemns Gaza ceasefire, backs Palestinian ‘resistance’Far-left party says agreement ‘will not end Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people’; NYC mayoral candidate accuses Israel of ‘genocide’By Luke Tress-Today, 11:53 am-OCT 14,25

The Democratic Socialists of America, the far-left party tied to New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, on Monday criticized the Gaza ceasefire agreement.The party’s national branch, stating that the “Palestinian resistance” had announced a ceasefire, said, “This will not end Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people or the theft and occupation of Palestinian lands.”“A conditional ceasefire agreement does not wash the hands of the ruling class,” the party said in a statement titled, “Until Palestinian liberation.”The party said it “welcomes the relief” for Palestinians and expressed its “strongest solidarity to our comrades in Palestine,” but the statement was mostly critical.“DSA harbors no illusions that Israel will honor any negotiated agreement that preserves Palestinian life or self-determination. Past ceasefires only slowed the carnage, and Israel continued military action with impunity,” the statement said.“DSA stands for the full freedoms and self-determination of the Palestinian people, including the end of Israel’s colonization and occupation of all Arab lands, equality, and the right of all refugees to return to their homes and properties,” the party said.The DSA added that it backs the Thawabit, the Palestinian principles that it said upholds “Palestinians’ rights to resist occupation.”The statement accused Israel of “genocide,” “apartheid,” “terrorizing” the Middle East region, fascism and “imperial aggression.”The group vowed to continue protests and closed with, “the struggle for liberation continues.”The statement did not mention the hostages, Hamas, or the terrorist group’s October 2023 attack that killed some 1,200 people and started the war.The far-left party says it has more than 80,000 members.Mamdani is the Democratic party nominee for New York City mayor, identifies as a democratic socialist, has long ties to the New York City chapter of the DSA and was a member of the DSA’s delegation to the state government. He has also sought to distinguish himself from the DSA’s national chapter, saying his “platform is not the same as the national DSA.”The city’s chapter of the party has endorsed Mamdani’s run for mayor and his campaign is closely tied to the New York City DSA, which has not commented on the ceasefire.Mamdani, the national DSA and the New York City chapter have all made anti-Israel advocacy central to their politics.Mamdani’s own statement on the ceasefire was also critical of Israel.“Today’s scenes of Israelis and Palestinians are profoundly moving: Israeli hostages being freed and families reunited after years of fear, uncertainty, and torture; the first days in Gaza without relentless Israeli bombardment of Palestinians as families return to rubble and loved ones freed from detention,” he said.“We have watched as our tax dollars have funded a genocide. The moral and human cost will be a lasting stain and requires accountability and real examination of our collective conscience and our government’s policies,” Mamdani said.Mamdani began accusing Israel of genocide in the weeks after the October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, before the IDF had started ground operations in Gaza. His statement the day after the Hamas attack focused on criticism of Israel.Mamdani is the heavy favorite to win the New York City mayoral election next month.On Sunday, Mamdani said he ran a race for Gaza to raise money for UNRWA USA, a nonprofit that supports the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.Last week, on the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Mamdani called the Hamas attack a “horrific war crime” and accused Israel of launching a “genocidal war” against the Palestinians.Other New York leaders applauded the ceasefire agreement.New York City Mayor Eric Adams said: “Our hearts are filled with joy as an end to the war in Gaza appears to be on the horizon and families have finally been united.”“We pray that this news will bring lasting peace, justice and prosperity to Israelis and Palestinians alike,” Adams said.New York Governor Kathy Hochul said, “After two years of immense suffering and loss, the Israeli hostages have finally returned home. I join their families in celebrating this long-awaited homecoming and pray they find peace and comfort in the days ahead.”“I’m grateful to the administration for its role in securing the hostages’ release,” Hochul said.Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who is polling second to become the next New York City mayor, said, “For two long years, families have lived through unimaginable pain, sleepless nights, and endless heartache.”“Today, their prayers have been answered, as the remaining hostages are finally home in the arms of their loved ones, where they belong,” Cuomo said. “We must never forget the terrorist act that brought us here, and we must stand together to say, with one voice: never forget and never again. Terrorism has no place in Gaza, in the Middle East, or anywhere in the world.”

Explainer-Why the story of Abraham is being invoked in the push for Mideast peace-As the central forefather of the Jewish and Muslim faiths, the biblical figure has become the template for integrating the Jewish state into the war-scarred region-By Peter Smith Today, 11:39 am-OCT 14,25

AP — US President Donald Trump repeatedly touted the “Abraham Accords” in his Middle East trip on Monday, seeking to build on 2020 agreements that expanded the number of Arab states with diplomatic ties with Israel.The term is filled with religious and cultural meaning, citing a biblical patriarch revered as a founding figure in three major religions whose adherents encompass more than half the world’s population — Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Anyone trying to build a bridge between faiths is liable to invoke Abraham — known to Muslims as Ibrahim — as someone they hold in common.But this legacy can also be a source of division because some faith groups portray themselves as his true heirs.“Everybody has tried to claim Abraham as their own, but in fact Abraham belongs to everybody,” said Bruce Feiler, author of “Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths.”“Even in the last two years, we have seen this battle play out in a way that has played out for 4,000 years,” he said. “Everyone is trying to say, ‘This is my story, my point of view is the only point of view that matters.'”But, he said, “the story belongs to all of us, the land will need to be shared, and the legacy will need to be a shared legacy for all of us.”From the Bible to the headlines-Abraham first appears in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, described as a childless elderly man who God promised would be the father of a great nation. God sends Abraham on a journey that leads to the area of present-day Israel and the Palestinian territories.Abraham first has a son, Ishmael, with an enslaved woman, Hagar. Then Abraham’s wife, Sarah, who is beyond childbearing years, miraculously conceives and bears Isaac. Hagar and Ishmael are banished, although Ishmael returns after Abraham’s death to help Isaac bury their father.In a pivotal biblical story — retold each Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year — God orders Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham agrees, binds Isaac to an altar and is stopped before killing his son by an angel who says Abraham has passed a test of faith.Isaac and his son Jacob become ancestors of the Jews, according to Genesis.Christianity embraces Abraham as an exemplar of faith — willing to believe and obey God.Islamic and Jewish traditions depict a young Abraham as smashing his father’s idols as he embraced the worship of one, almighty God.Muslims, however, place Ismail (Arabic for Ishmael) rather than Isaac at the center of the binding story. They honor Ismail as a righteous prophet who, according to tradition, is an ancestor of the prophet Muhammad. Muslims believe the rock upon which Abraham offered his son is within the Dome of the Rock, the gold-domed shrine in Jerusalem that stands on the Temple Mount.Abraham is a dividing figure — and a unifying one-Each of the three monotheistic religions — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — has claimed to be the true heirs of Abraham at different points in a history that included crusades, terror attacks and other violence.At the same time, because all three faiths revere Abraham, he is invoked for efforts such as the diplomatic accords brokered by the majority-Christian United States between the Jewish state of Israel and majority-Muslim Arab states.“We see in Islam a religion that traces its origins back to God’s call on Abraham,” then-president George W. Bush said at an iftar (fast-breaking) dinner with Muslims soon after the 9/11 attacks, seeking to differentiate mainstream Muslims from terrorists claiming to act in the name of Islam. “We share your belief in God’s justice, and your insistence on man’s moral responsibility.”The term “Abrahamic faiths” is also used to promote dialogue between religions.The United Arab Emirates, the most high-profile country that normalized ties with Israel during the 2020 accords, is home to an Abrahamic Family House, which includes a church, mosque and synagogue.In the United States, many involved in inter-religious dialogue see the term as more inclusive than “Judeo-Christian,” which was often used in the 20th century. While “Abrahamic” doesn’t encompass all faiths, it reflects an effort to broaden the tent.Such efforts come amid sharpening religious divisions on other fronts. A surge in antisemitism has accompanied the current Middle East war. Anti-Muslim sentiment has risen as New York appears poised to elect its first Muslim mayor.Context is keyDuring his speech to the Israeli Knesset on Monday, Trump emphasized the specifically Jewish tradition around the patriarch. He offered thanks to the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” — a central Jewish formulation. He was applauded when he said he preferred calling the diplomatic agreements the “Avraham Accords,” using the Hebrew pronunciation.At the same time, he has praised Arab and Muslim leaders whose countries engaged in the agreements, some of whom gathered at a summit in Egypt Monday.It may seem head-spinning that this is the same Trump who was first elected after responding to a 2015 terror attack by calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” His current administration has launched a crackdown on foreign students and others who have advocated for Palestinians.But it’s less perplexing if one pays attention “to the last 4,000 years, when everyone has lived within the tension of the story” of Abraham, Feiler said.The story of Abraham, his two sons and their two mothers is one of “tensions, of inviting people in and pushing people out,” Feiler said.It’s a timeless story of relations and rivalries between family members, neighbors and others, he said.“We want it all for ourselves, but we keep being reminded that we can only live alongside the other.”

Soldiers may have used a 30-day month, divided into 5 weeks-How did biblical Judeans track time? Trove of 6th-century BCE inscriptions offers clues-New analysis of 2,600-year-old Tel Arad ostraca suggests Iron Age soldiers tracked months, days, and supplies with sophisticated numerical systems-By Rossella Tercatin-Today, 7:53 am-OCT 14,25

Some 2,600 years ago, soldiers stationed at a modest military outpost on the southern border of the Kingdom of Judah relied on a sophisticated calendar system to track and manage their supplies, according to a new study of about 100 inscribed pottery sherds (ostraca) unearthed at Tel Arad in the 1960s.Israeli archaeologists Dr. Amir Gorzalczany of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and independent researcher Dr. Baruch Rosen reanalyzed the trove of ancient correspondence, focusing on the numerical data — an element they argue had been largely overlooked in previous research.Their findings were recently published in the 2025 volume of the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology, a peer-reviewed publication launched in 2021 by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology.“While Biblical Hebrew literacy has been widely studied, numeracy — the cognitive ability to understand and manipulate numbers — remains a largely overlooked, underexplored domain,” Gorzalczany and Rosen write in the paper. “This article addresses this gap by examining the Arad Ostraca.”“These texts were produced in the early 6th century BCE and concern routine administrative operations, including issuing, receiving, and recording goods such as wine, bread, and grain,” they add. “We pay close attention to timekeeping systems, including references to days, months, and a single regnal year.”Analyzing the dates recorded in the inscriptions — which contain six or seven references to the word month (hodesh) and nine to day (y[o]m in the ancient Hebrew script) — Gorzalczany and Rosen propose that the soldiers followed a 30-day calendar divided into six-day intervals to regulate their supply cycle.The people of the shard-The Arad ostraca served as everyday correspondence among military supply officers and were largely addressed to a man named Elyashiv, believed to have been the fortress quartermaster around the time of the Babylonian conquest — the early 6th century BCE, the close of the period known as the Iron Age or First Temple Period (1200-586 BCE).In the past decade, scholars have revisited these artifacts using advanced imaging technologies, uncovering previously invisible texts and analyzing handwriting to determine the number of scribes involved. Their findings reveal that, despite the outpost’s small garrison of just 20 to 30 soldiers, multiple scribes were at work, indicating a far higher level of literacy in biblical Judah than previously assumed.“We’re looking at a working outpost where goods were received and distributed, and one of the key ways they kept time — like many ancient cultures — was by following the moon,” Rosen told The Times of Israel in a phone interview. “When the moon appears, a new month begins; when it disappears, the month ends. Counting months by the moon is straightforward, and we see the word ‘month’ appear seven times in the ostraca.”“The day, too, is relatively easy to track, from dawn to sundown or dawn to dawn,” he added. “At Arad, food rations were distributed according to specific days, and the quartermaster seems to have followed a set schedule for these allocations.”According to Rosen, the ability to manipulate numbers at that point in history was quite remarkable.“On the twenty-fourth of the month, Nahum gave oil,” reads Ostracon 17.“…for the tenth of the month… until the sixth of the month… and write on the second…” reads Ostracon 7.Drawing on the days recorded in the inscriptions, Gorzalczany and Rosen suggest that the month was further subdivided into distinct time intervals.“If a seven-day week existed in Arad, it was possibly replaced by a six-day cycle, which divided the 30-day month into five segments, facilitating foodstuffs calculations,” the researchers write in the paper. “Such a calendrical system would have enabled both storekeepers (e.g., Eliashib) and recipients (e.g., the Kittiyim) to plan and manage provisions more effectively by distinguishing, for example, between perishable.”An administrative year of 360 days divided into 12 (30-day) months was employed in ancient Mesopotamia for governmental and organizational purposes.Time is relative-According to Tel Aviv University’s Prof. Jonathan Ben-Dov, an expert on ancient calendars who was not involved in the study, a comparable schematic calendar was likewise used in First Temple Period Judah, coexisting with the traditional luni-solar calendar for other functions.“It’s a bit like how banks today calculate interest using 30-day months, even when a month actually has 31 days,” he explained in a phone interview with The Times of Israel.In a 2021 study, Ben-Dov proposed that Iron Age Judeans adopted a 360-day year made up of 12 (30-day) months, further divided into 10-day “weeks.”His theory draws on biblical references — particularly the frequent use of the term “asor” (a block of 10 days) — as well as archaeological evidence, including nine perforated plaques discovered at several Judean sites dating to the middle part of the Iron Age. Most of these plaques feature three rows of 10 holes each, which Ben-Dov argued served as calendar tools for tracking the passage of time.“I was not aware of the idea of six-day units. It sounds interesting,” Ben-Dov said. “However, evidence for that remains tentative. The time references on the ostraca are often fragmentary, and as I understand it, the authors themselves present it only as a possibility rather than a firm conclusion.”At the same time, Ben-Dov noted that while the schematic calendar may have been used for administrative needs during the Iron Age, Israelites and Judeans followed the a luni-solar calendar to mark their spiritual and civil year — a practice that did not set them apart from their neighbors.“During the Iron Age, Israelites and Judeans were using a luni-solar calendar based on moon observation,” he said. “But this was nothing revolutionary. If the Babylonians were already using such a system in 3000 BCE, then the Judeans could certainly have done so by 700 BCE.”Today, Jews continue to follow a luni-solar calendar, but no longer rely on direct observation of the moon, thanks to a calculation system developed as early as the 4th century CE, according to some scholars, or later during the Middle Ages, according to others.Ben-Dov explained that during the Iron Age, the calendar had not yet become a defining feature of Jewish identity — a role it would assume later, beginning in the Roman period from the 1st century BCE onward.“When you look at later Judaism, in the time of the Mishnah [compiled in the first centuries CE], the calendar and how it functioned is a major focus,” he said. “Back then, Jews emphasized that they used a lunar calendar, in contrast to the Romans’ solar calendar. During the Iron Age, it simply wasn’t a big deal; Israelites and Judeans were doing much the same as their neighbors.”“Biblical sources don’t specify what type of calendar was used,” he added. “To me, that indicates it was purely a technical matter, not a basis for identity. Later [as seen in the discussions on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year], the Mishnah elevates the calendar to a core principle of faith.”

 Reporter's notebook-On Sukkot, eroding Temple Mount status quo lays bare rifts in the Orthodox world-As thousands of Jewish worshipers visit over the holiday, Haredim and religious Zionists spar over religious prohibition on touring the flashpoint holy site-By Charlie Summers-Today, 3:06 am-OCT 14,25

Among the thousands of Jewish worshipers bustling throughout Jerusalem’s Old City last Wednesday morning to celebrate the holiday of Sukkot, many could be seen carrying large blue flags emblazoned with an illustration of the biblical Temple.These flags have come to dot the crowds during many Jewish holidays in the Old City, and represent a once-fringe aspiration held by a section of Israel’s national religious camp inching its way into the movement’s mainstream: rebuilding the Jewish Temple of antiquity to usher in the messianic era.On the second day of Sukkot, groups of religious Zionist revelers paraded throughout the Old City selling these flags, encouraging coreligionists not just to mark the week-long festival by praying at the Western Wall, but also to visit the Temple Mount.Venerated by both Jews and Muslims, the site today houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock shrine, administered by a Jordanian-run Islamic trust called the waqf. Jewish ascent to the Temple Mount is an incendiary issue among Muslims, who view it as a major encroachment on one of their holiest sites.“Sukkot is one of the shalosh regalim [three major festivals], in which we are commanded in the Torah to go up to the Temple and make sacrificial offerings,” said Avraham Yedidya Ben-Shlomo, a young man with a thick beard and long sidelocks selling flags to passersby headed to the Western Wall.Ben-Shlomo, a religious Zionist from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, was one of thousands of Jews who visited the Temple Mount over the course of the holiday, though he has been plenty of times in the past, he told The Times of Israel.But the Temple Mount’s hallowed status in Judaism presents a problem for many Orthodox Jews, particularly Haredim, who believe it is a grave sin for Jews to set foot where the Temple’s inner sanctuary once stood while in a state of ritual impurity — a status that can’t be changed until after the Temple is rebuilt and certain sacrifices can be brought to complete the purification process.The exact location of the inner sanctuary is disputed, which led many rabbis to issue a blanket ban on visits to the Temple Mount.After Israel conquered the Old City from Jordan in the Six Day War, the two countries came to an informal agreement that reentrusted daily operations of the Temple Mount to Jordan, which allows Jews and other non-Muslims to visit, but not pray at the site.Israel’s Chief Rabbinate swiftly deemed Jewish visits to the site forbidden.The so-called “status quo” agreement between Israel and Jordan has eroded over the past two decades as religious Zionist rabbis came to view visiting the Temple Mount as acceptable in the realm of Jewish law. What was accepted soon became even desirable, as more rabbis spoke of the need to cement Jewish control over the Holy Land.“It started very quietly, then gradually increased. I think more and more people are aware of the Temple Mount, more and more people are coming,” said Yaffa Kenzin, who was passing out slips of paper to passersby at the Western Wall’s southern entrance, asking them if they intended to go up to the Temple Mount for the holiday.Without the means to rebuild the Temple immediately, many attempt to defy authorities at the site by praying openly there. Some even try to bring offerings of bread and sacrificial goats up to the site.‘Provokes the gentiles’This Sukkot, over 4,000 Jewish visitors went up to the Temple Mount, including at least two who attempted to wave the four species at the site. They were both stopped and detained by police.On the first of Sukkot’s intermediate days, 1,696 Jewish visitors ascended, compared to 747 visitors in 2021.Haredi opposition to the phenomenon hasn’t disappeared, though. As eager visitors lined up that morning outside a gate leading to the Temple Mount, a young man in a black hat shouted down a youth with a knitted kippah and sidelocks, warning him that he would incur karet for setting foot in the holy site — a form of divine punishment that entails spiritual excision from God and the Jewish people.A crowd quickly gathered around the two, before the ultra-Orthodox man stormed off with his family. After the row fizzled out, a group of Haredim kept arguing with the religious Zionist youth, who had just come down from the Temple Mount.“We’re talking about karet, nobody should purposefully place themselves in this situation of taking a gamble on karet,” insisted Haim Toledano, a Haredi yeshiva student, between puffs of an e-cigarette.“And aside from that, even more importantly, it provokes the gentiles,” Toledano said, invoking the classic injunction against rebelling against a host nation — a precept Haredim interpret as a de facto ban on Zionism. “It causes needless provocations, the Arabs will get ticked off, we’re entering their territory, it’s obvious that it just worsens tensions.”Plus, he added, “We are in exile, it’s forbidden for us.”Toledano’s religious Zionist sparring mate pushed back, maintaining it is permissible for Jews to ascend the mount as long as they stay away from the Dome of the Rock, which many believe to be the location of the sacred inner sanctuary.“A few meters here, a few meters there and there, there are disagreements, but there is no one who disputes its location,” claimed Ariel Cohen. “Haredi rabbis only began to dispute the location in order to invent prohibitions against going up to the Temple Mount.”Speaking to The Times of Israel, Cohen noted with pride that he had been one of the religious hardliners to partake in a sacrificial “two breads” offering on the Shavuot holiday this year, in which two loaves of leavened bread are waved by a kohen, or priest, before the altar and then consumed. He was detained, but not arrested, for the act.Prohibition on Jewish prayer quickly falling away-Kenzin is no stranger to the changes that have taken place on the ground as of late. In the early 2000s, she recalled being able to “stand in more places, walk slowly, quickly, however we wished,” on the Temple Mount.“But there was also a waqf guard standing right there, watching my mouth from a few centimeters from my face,” to ensure she was not praying, she said.Nowadays, the Jordanian-employed guards are rarely seen near Jewish groups and tend to keep to themselves unless they see someone attempting to perform offerings at the site, in which case they take action.Although the idea has been gaining traction within the religious Zionist world for the past two decades, the Temple Mount’s status quo deteriorated quickly under far-right religious Zionist minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose policies as national security minister spurred a steep increase in the number of Jewish visitors to the site.The years under Ben Gvir have seen a major shift in how police treat Jewish prayer atop the mount, with police permitting visitors to pray and even prostrate themselves in certain areas further from the Dome of the Rock. Ben Gvir has repeatedly stated that his policy is to allow Jewish prayer in the area.The minister himself led Sukkot prayers near the eastern wall of the Temple Mount complex last week, marking the second time that he has done so.“We are now two years since the terrible massacre… Every house in Gaza has a picture of the Temple Mount and now, two years later, we are victorious on the Temple Mount,” said the ultranationalist leader from the site.Although such statements have in the past prompted alarmed responses from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, usually quick to insist that the status quo has not changed, the premier chose not to disavow his coalition partner’s remarks from the Temple Mount on Sukkot.Earlier this year, on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B’Av, Ben Gvir became the first government minister to pray at the site — sparking furious responses from Arab countries, as well as Haredi politicians.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

OZONE DEPLETION JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH DUE TO SIN

ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold,(7X OR 7-DEGREES HOTTER) as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people,(ISRAEL) and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened,(DAY LIGHT HOURS SHORTENED) there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake (ISRAELS SAKE) those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)(THE ASTEROID HITS EARTH HERE)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

EZEKIEL 32:6-9
6  I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee.
7  And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.
8  All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.
9  I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known.

REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they(False World Church and Dictator and baby murderers by abortion) have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold,(7X OR 7-DEGREES HOTTER) as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people,(ISRAEL) and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places,(DIFFERNT PLACES AT THE SAME TIME) and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

2 Peter 3:6-7 Amplified Bible (AMP) (HOT SUN, NUKES ETC)
6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 
7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON THE MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS-PROPHECY SIGNS) and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)

Heavy rains flood Mexico towns, leave nearly 130 dead or missing-By Reuters-October 14, 20252:21 AM EDTU

Hot-cold air fronts brought unexpectedly strong rainfall
Emergency response was focused on tropical storms in Pacific
Many terrains, rivers already soaked by months of rainy season
Over 100,00 homes affected, power knocked out across 5 states

MEXICO CITY, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Torrential rains that lashed Mexico last week killed at least 64 people and 65 more are missing, the government said on Monday, after a tropical depression triggered landslides and flooding in parts of the Gulf Coast and central states.The unnamed depression came toward the end of the rainy season, battering land and bursting rivers that had already been soaked by months of rains, while forecasters were focused on tropical storms and two hurricanes on the Pacific coast."This intense rain was not expected to be of such magnitude," President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters.Admiral Raymundo Morales, Mexico's Navy secretary, said the flooding was the result of the coming together of warm and cold air fronts over rivers that were already filled to the brink and mountains weakened by months of rain.Around 100,000 homes were affected, Sheinbaum said. She is set to meet with the finance ministry later in the day to discuss rebuilding efforts, and visit some hard-hit states.Laura Velazquez, national coordinator of civil protection, said Hidalgo and Veracruz were the states worst affected, with 29 deaths and 18 missing reported in Veracruz, and 21 deaths and 43 missing in Hidalgo.The rain also destroyed infrastructure such as bridges and left streets filled with mud. Videos and images from last week showed emergency responders wading through deep waters to find stranded residents and get supplies to affected communities.Authorities have deployed thousands of personnel to help evacuate, clean up and monitor the places that were hardest hit.Electricity, which had been knocked out in towns across five states, has largely been restored. Authorities said they will also focus on containing the spread of viruses such as dengue, carried by mosquitoes that breed in stagnant water.Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez and Stefanie Eschenbacher; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Alistair Bell

Iraq reports bird flu among poultry in north, animal health agency says-By Reuters-October 14, 20251:32 PM EDT.

PARIS, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Iraq has reported an outbreak of severe bird flu among poultry in the north of the country, the World Organisation for Animal Health said on Tuesday.The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, was detected among flocks in the town of Bashiqa and had killed 12,000 birds, Paris-based WOAH said, citing a report from Iraqi authorities. Neighbouring Iran also declared an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu this month.

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.(IN 1 HR THE STOCK MARKETS WORLDWIDE WILL CRASH)
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed:(CONFISCATED) their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

MARK OF THE BEAST (engraved microchip in your hand or forehead)

NEW YORK CITY.

JEREMIAH 51:29-32
29  And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,(AMERICA-NEW YORK) to make the land of Babylon (NEW YORK) a desolation without an inhabitant.
30  The mighty men of Babylon (AMERICA) have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
31  One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon (NEW YORK) that his city is taken at one end,
32  And that the passages are stopped,(THE WAR COMPUTERS HACKED OR EMP'D) and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.(DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO)

JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(NEW YORK) and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK ATTACK ON NEW YORK)

REVELATION 18:9-11,15-21
9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,(NUKE ATTACK I BELIEVE FROM RUSSIA)
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
16 And saying, Alas, alas that great city,  (NEW YORK) that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! (NEW YORK)
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.(1 HOUR NEW YORK IS GONE)
20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon (NEW YORK) be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

MICROCHIP DATA 2024
https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/aemDocuments/documents/MCU08/ProductDocuments/DataSheets/AVR32DA28-32-48-Data-Sheet-DS40002228.pdf

Safe-haven gold hits record high above $4,100 on Fed rate cut bets, trade jitters-Published Tue, Oct 14 20251:10 AM EDT

Gold notched a fresh record high above the $4,100 level on Tuesday, lifted by expectations of a rate cut this month by the U.S. Federal Reserve and a flight to safety after a flare-up in trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.Spot gold rose 0.4% to $4,126.47 per ounce, after hitting a record high of $4,179.48 earlier in the session.U.S. gold futures for December delivery gained 0.2% to $4,142,60.The metal has surged 57% this year, breaking the $4,100 barrier for the first time on Monday.Its rally has been driven by multiple factors, including geopolitical uncertainties, expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts, strong central bank buying and robust ETF inflows.Analysts at Bank of America and Societe Generale now see gold reaching $5,000/oz in 2026.“The uptick in U.S.-China trade tensions, the ongoing government shutdown, and expectations of further Fed easing are all supporting gold,” said Peter Grant, vice president and senior metals strategist at Zaner Metals.U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese goods, a rollout of tit-for-tat port fees by the two biggest economies and a broader macro trend of de-dollarization could push gold to $5,000/oz by mid-next year, Grant added.Trump is set to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday, after China’s rare earth export crackdown and Trump’s triple-digit tariff threat roiled markets.Investors now await Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the NABE annual meeting at 12:20 p.m. ET for further clues on monetary policy. Markets expect a 25-basis-point rate cut at the Fed meeting this month, followed by a similar reduction in December.Non-yielding gold tends to do well in low-interest-rate environments.Spot silver, buoyed by the same factors driving gold and tightness in the spot market, hit a record of $53.60/oz before retreating 2.9% to $50.81.The pullback reflects an overheated market, but silver should remain well-supported if gold’s rally continues, Commerzbank analysts wrote in a note.Platinum fell 1.5% to $1,621.50 and palladium was down 0.7% to $1,464.42.

US Treasury chief accuses China of wanting to hurt world economy.

Washington, Oct 14 (AFP) Oct 14, 2025-US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent slammed Beijing in an interview this week, accusing it of seeking to harm the global economy after China slapped sweeping new export controls in the strategic field of rare earths."This is a sign of how weak their economy is, and they want to pull everybody else down with them," Bessent told the Financial Times in an interview on Monday.His comments came days after Beijing imposed fresh controls on the export of rare earth technologies and items. China is the world's leading producer of the minerals used to make magnets crucial to the auto, electronic and defense industries.Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing have reignited in US President Donald Trump's second presidency, with tit-for-tat duties reaching triple-digit levels at one point.For now, both countries have de-escalated tensions but the truce remains shaky.The US Treasury chief claimed China's new controls signaled problems in its own economy: "They are in the middle of a recession/depression, and they are trying to export their way out of it."China has in recent years battled slowing economic growth and high youth unemployment, with growth hitting 5.2 percent in the second quarter.Beijing's new measures sparked a fiery response from Trump, who on Friday said he would roll out an additional 100-percent tariff on the country's goods from November 1.On Tuesday, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC that timeline could be accelerated."A lot depends on what the Chinese do," Greer said in the interview, adding that Beijing had "chosen to make this major escalation."Last week, Trump also threatened to scrap a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit starting later this month.China over the weekend accused the United States of "double standards" after Trump's threat of further tariffs.The US leader later insisted that he wanted to "help China, not hurt it."On Tuesday, China said it was ready to "fight to the end" in a trade war with the United States, shortly before a new wave of US tariffs on wood products took effect.A senior US official told the FT that China International Trade Representative Li Chenggang had previewed many of China's current lines of attack that recently played out.The official said Li was aggressive in stating that the United States would face "hellfire" if things did not go his way.

Chipmaker Nexperia says banned from exporting from China.

The Hague, Oct 14 (AFP) Oct 14, 2025-Chipmaker Nexperia said Tuesday the Chinese government had banned it from exporting goods from China, after Dutch authorities seized control of the Netherlands-based firm citing management concerns.Nexperia has found itself at the centre of a tug-of-war between China and the Netherlands over semiconductors, an increasing source of global geopolitical tension.In its first statement since the Dutch move took effect on September 30, Nexperia said it was "actively engaging" with authorities in Beijing to gain an exemption from China's counter-measures.Late Sunday, the Dutch government said it had invoked a Cold War-era law to effectively take control of the company, citing concerns about mismanagement.Under the 1952 Goods Availability Law, the Dutch government can block key decisions about hiring staff or relocating company parts for one year.The Dutch government said its use was "highly exceptional" and was invoked to ensure Nexperia's chips that are used in a wide variety of electronic equipment would remain available in an emergency.The firm said that China's response came on October 4."The Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued an export control notice prohibiting Nexperia China and its subcontractors from exporting specific finished components and sub-assemblies manufactured in China," the firm said.Nexperia said the Companies Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal had ordered the suspension of Chief Executive Zhang Xuezheng after concluding there were "valid reasons to doubt sound management."- 'Recklessness' -The court published its judgement later Tuesday, which detailed a series of alleged impropriety by an executive not named in the statement, but identified as the CEO.The chamber found this executive guilty of a conflict of interest via his controlling stake in a Shanghai-based firm WSS, which manufactures wafers, the key components in semiconductors.According to the court, the CEO forced Nexperia to order as much as $200 million of wafers from WSS in 2025, when it only needed around $70-80 million."This would mean that the wafers to be supplied by WSS would not be processed but be held in stock until obsolete... so that Nexperia was effectively ordering scrap," the court said.In addition, the CEO cut off key finance officials from banking authorisation, granting power of attorney to individuals with no financial experience."For a company the size of Nexperia, such conduct borders on recklessness," said the court.The CEO fired executives who protested against this move, while the Global Head of Finance resigned after 39 years at the firm or its predecessors.Finally, the court said the CEO refused to implement key management changes agreed with Dutch authorities to ease concerns about Nexperia's Chinese links.The chamber therefore decided to suspend the CEO and transfer all shares, except one, to an independent court-appointed administrator.Also revealed in the court document was an ultimatum from the US administration that was drawing up its "entity list" of firms viewed as acting contrary to Washington's national security.The court cited minutes of meetings between Dutch officials and the US Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation.The key point that was "problematic" for the American officials was "the fact that the company's CEO is still the same Chinese owner.""It is almost certain that the CEO will have to be replaced to qualify for an exemption from the entity list," the court cited the minutes as saying.Based in the Dutch city of Nijmegen, Nexperia says its chips power "virtually every electronic design worldwide."Once part of Dutch electronics giant Philips, it was acquired in 2018 by Wingtech.

IMF urges China 'rebalance' consumption, forecasts slowing growth.

Beijing, Oct 14 (AFP) Oct 14, 2025-The IMF said Tuesday that a "rebalancing" of China's economy through fiscal measures targeting social spending and property would help battle deflationary pressure, as growth in the country is forecast to slow.Beijing has in recent years been seeking to reverse a stubborn slump in household spending as a protracted debt crisis in the real estate market and overseas tumult in the trade sector spook consumers.The International Monetary Fund's latest World Economic Outlook report noted "weakness in domestic demand" in the world's second-largest economy -- echoing a broader Asian outlook dimmed by Washington's trade war.Consumer prices fell in August at their fastest rate in six months, according to official figures. Data expected Wednesday will show how they fared in September.Given those hurdles, the IMF said China's "fiscal policy stance remains appropriately expansionary".But it also warned current policies mark "a continued departure from the stance that is needed to avoid rising debt to GDP over the medium term"."For China, rebalancing toward household consumption -- including through fiscal measures with a greater focus on social spending and the property sector -- and scaling back industrial policies would reduce external surpluses and alleviate domestic deflationary pressures," the IMF said.The Fund forecast China's annual growth to hit 4.8 percent year-on-year in 2025 before slowing to 4.2 percent next year.Both figures were unchanged from last update in July.In a sign of coming pressure, growth is expected to slow to 3.7 percent in the fourth quarter of this year, a slight downward revision.The IMF's latest advice comes ahead of a key political gathering of China's ruling Communist Party next week in Beijing, where leaders will chart the country's economic direction for the next five years.The report was compiled before a bombshell announcement Friday by US President Donald Trump of 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods from November 1 -- retaliation for Beijing's new sweeping export controls on rare earths.Trump's announcement rattled markets and cast doubt on a potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.Beijing's commerce ministry vowed Tuesday to "fight to the end" in its trade war with Washington, if necessary.Globally, "trade policy uncertainty is assumed to remain elevated through 2025 and 2026", the IMF said.- Tariffs bite -Growth in emerging and developing Asia is forecast to slow from 5.3 percent in 2024 to 5.2 percent in 2025, and further to 4.7 percent in 2026.The IMF said the trend "largely mimicked that of effective tariff rates", with ASEAN countries among the most affected.Japan is expected to rebound from near-stagnation, with growth rising from 0.1 percent in 2024 to 1.1 percent in 2025, supported by stronger real wages and consumer spending. Growth is seen easing to 0.6 percent in 2026.India's economy is projected to expand 6.6 percent in 2025, revised upward due to a strong first quarter, before slowing to 6.2 percent the following year.The China-US trade standoff was encouraging countries to relocate production out of China to Southeast Asia and India, and the IMF reported a shift in trade flows towards Asia in the automotive sector.The IMF however warned that trade diversion and rerouting -- while offering short-term resilience -- are costly and risk fragmenting global supply chains.Prolonged uncertainty over trade policy is, in the Fund's view, likely to weigh on business investment decisions and cloud growth prospects, while fragmenting supply chains over the medium term.It also cautioned that ad hoc trade deals "would not meaningfully reduce trade policy uncertainty" and could trigger "tit-for-tat dynamics" if they discriminate against third countries.

EU working with G7 partners on response to China rare earth controls.

Brussels, Belgium, Oct 14 (AFP) Oct 14, 2025-The EU is coordinating with G7 partners on a response to China's "unjustified" export controls on rare earths, the bloc's trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said Tuesday.China last week announced new controls on the export of rare-earth technologies. It is the world's leading producer of the minerals used to make magnets crucial to the auto, electronics and defence industries."Such restrictions have already forced some EU companies to halt production, causing real economic harm. This is not about security or non-proliferation. These controls are targeting civilian industries directly," Sefcovic said."Therefore we cannot stand by, and we need a coordinated response," the trade chief told reporters in Denmark after meeting EU ministers."I am in close contact with my G7 counterparts, also engaging with China to find solutions."He added that he planned to speak to top Chinese officials next week.US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would slap additional 100 percent tariffs on goods from the country after China's move on rare earths."It is bad news that the trade conflict between the US and China has accelerated. Once again, it's undermining world trade, and the effect could be felt in Europe as well," Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen warned during the press conference with Sefcovic.

FINALLY THE EUROPEAN UNION IS TALKING ABOUT HAVING THEIR OWN ARMY.AND IT MUST HAPPEN.
REVELATION 19:16-21
16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords.(JESUS RETURNG TO EARTH LITERALLY ON A WHITE HORSE WITH THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS 7 YEARS EARLIER)
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.(2ND TIME GOD-JESUS TELLS THE 500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS TO GET READY TO EAT HUMAN FLESH.THE FIRST TIME WAS WHEN GOD TOLD THE 500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS-TO EAT RUSSIA,GERMAN,ARAB, MUSLIM BODIES FOR 7 MONTHS IN EZEK 38 @ 39.
19 And I saw the beast,(E.U WORLD LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies,(HERE IT SAYS THE E.U WILL HAVE ITS OWN ARMY) gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, (JESUS) and against his army.(RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)
20 And the beast (E.U WORLD LEADER) was taken, and with him the false prophet (POPE FRANCIS) that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

Zephaniah 2:1-15
1 Gather together, yes, gather,O shameless nation,
2 before the decree takes effect[a] -before the day passes away like chaff—before there comes upon you the burning anger of the Lord, before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the Lord.
3 Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands;[b] seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.
4 For Gaza shall be deserted, and Ashkelon shall become a desolation; Ashdod's people shall be driven out at noon, and Ekron shall be uprooted.
5 Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast, you nation of the Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left.
6 And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures, with meadows[c] for shepherds and folds for flocks.
7 The seacoast shall become the possession of the remnant of the house of Judah, on which they shall graze, and in the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down at evening. For the Lord their God will be mindful of them and restore their fortunes.
8 “I have heard the taunts of Moab (JORDAN) and the revilings of the Ammonites, how they have taunted my people and made boasts against their territory.
9 Therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Moab shall become like Sodom, and the Ammonites like Gomorrah, a land possessed by nettles and salt pits, and a waste forever.The remnant of my people shall plunder them, and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.”
10 This shall be their lot in return for their pride, because they taunted and boasted against the people of the Lord of hosts.
11 The Lord will be awesome against them; for he will famish all the gods of the earth, and to him shall bow down, each in its place, all the lands of the nations.
12 You also, O Cushites, shall be slain by my sword.
13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria,(SYRIA) and he will make Nineveh a desolation, a dry waste like the desert.
14 Herds shall lie down in her midst, all kinds of beasts;[d] even the owl and the hedgehog[e]  shall lodge in her capitals; a voice shall hoot in the window; devastation will be on the threshold; for her cedar work will be laid bare.
15 This is the exultant city that lived securely, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one else.” What a desolation she has become, a lair for wild beasts! Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.Sa'ar: No free meals; talks possible if more hostages freed Israel halts aid into Gaza, citing Hamas refusal to extend first phase of truce
Footnotes-a -Zephaniah 2:2 Hebrew gives birth, b-Zephaniah 2:3 Or who carry out his judgment, c-Zephaniah 2:6 Or caves, d-Zephaniah 2:14 Hebrew beasts of every nation, e-Zephaniah 2:14 The identity of the animals rendered owl and hedgehog is uncertain

DANIEL 2:37-45
37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

DANIEL 7:17-26
17 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.
18 But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.
19 Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet;
20 And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.
21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;
22 Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.

THE WORLD IN 10 WORLD TRADE BLOCS LEAD BY THE EUROPEAN UNION THE WORLD LEADER, NOT AMERICA.I PREDICT.

THE EUROPEAN UNION AND REVIVED ROMAN WORLD GOVERNMENT
DANIEL 2:31-33,36-43, DAN 7:3-8,17

First From Daniel Chapter 2

1 EGYPT
2 ASSYRIA
3 BABYLON (HEAD OF GOLD) DAN 2:31-32,36-38, DAN 1:1
4 MEDO-PERSIANS (CHEST & ARMS OF SILVER) DAN 2:32,39, DAN 9:1
5 GREECE (WAIST & HIPS OF BRONZE) DAN 2:32,39, DAN 11:2
6 ROME (2 LEGS OF IRON) DAN 2:33,40, ROM 1:6
7 REVIVED ROME (EU) (FEET IRON & CLAY) DAN 2:33,41-43,10 TOES

Now From Daniel Chapter 7

1 EGYPT
2 ASSYRIA
3 BABYLON (LION WITH EAGLES WINGS) DAN 7:4, DAN 1:1
4 MEDO-PERSIANS (BEAR ON HIND LEGS) DAN 7:5, DAN 9:1
5 GREECE (LEOPARD 4 WINGS, 4 HEADS) DAN 7:6, DAN 11:2
6 ROME (HUGE IRON TEETH) DAN 7:7 (10 HORNS), ROM 1:6
7 REVIVED ROME (EU) DAN 7:8,19-20,23-25 10 HORNS, 10 KINGS
REV 17:9,12, 10 HORNS, 10 KINGS, 7 HILLS ROME. REV 13:1 BEAST WITH 7 HEADS. THE E.U LEADER OF WORLD GOVERNMENT DAN 2:40-45, 7:7-8,23-25,27, 8:23, REV 13:3,7,8,12,14,16

REVELATION 17:10-12
10 And there are seven kings (7TH WORLD EMPIRE IN HISTORY) five are fallen, (EGYPT, ASSYRIA, BABYLON,:MEDO-PERSIAN,GREECE and one is,(IN POWER IN JOHNS DAY-ROME) and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh,(FUTURE-REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE-EUROPEAN UNION TODAY) he must continue a short space.(7 YEARS OF WORLD DOMINATION-BUT 3 1/2 YEARS OF NEW WORLD ORDER OR ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT)
12 And the ten horns (10 WORLD TRADE BLOCS OR REGIONS) which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

REVELATION 17:12-13
12 And the ten horns (10 WORLD TRADE BLOCS-NATIONS) which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind,(WORLD SOCIALISM) and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.James Paul Warburg appearing before the Senate on 7th February 1950

Like a famous WWII Belgian General,Paul Henry Spock said in 1957:We need no commission, we have already too many. What we need is a man who is great enough to be able to keep all the people in subjection to himself and to lift us out of the economic bog into which we threaten to sink. Send us such a man. Be he a god or a devil, we will accept him.And today, sadly, the world is indeed ready for such a man. 

DICK MORRIS-This truly creates a global economic system. From now on, don’t look to Washington for the rule making, look to Brussels.

THE CLUB OF ROME FOUNDER AURELIO PECCEI WANTS THE WORLD IN 10 REGIONAL TRADING BLOCKS.

REVELATION 16:1-2
1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, (SLAVE) to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

I KNOW THIS MARK WILL BE A MICROCHIP IMPLANT UNDER THE SKIN. LETS LOOK UP WHAT THE WORD MARK SAYS IN REVELATION 13:16-18, 14:9,11, 15:2, 16:2, 19:20, 20:4-ALL THESE VERSES FROM THE BOOK OF REVELATION SPEAK OF THIS DICTATORS MARK. NOW LETS SEE WHAT IT MEANS FROM STRONGS EXAUSTIVE CONCORDANCE OF THE BIBLE. UNDER MARK PAGE 684.MARK UNDER MARK. THE OLD TESTAMENT IS UNDER HEBREW AND THE NEW TESTAMENT IS UNDER GREEK. SO WHEN WE LOOK UNDER REVELATION 13:16-17 WE SEE IT IS UNDER GREEK, SO WE GO TO GREEK IN THE BACK SECTION AND GO TO 5480 TO SEE WHAT IT SAYS THIS MARK WOULD BE. SO LETS GET TO IT.MARK IN STRONGS GREEK 5480 XAPAYUA CHARAGMA, KHAR-AG-MAH: FROM THE SAME AS 5482: A SCRATCH OR ETCHING, I.E STAMP (AS A BADGE OF SERVITUDE), OR SCULPTURED FIGURE-(STATUE):-GRAVEN, MARK FROM 5482 XAPAE CHARAX, KHAR-AX; FROM XAPAOOW CHARASSO (TO SHARPEN TO A POINT; AKIN TO 1125 THROUGH THE IDEA OF SCRATCHING); A STAKE, I.E (BYIMPL.) A PALISADE OR RAMPART (MILITARY MOUND FOR CIRCUMVALLATION IN A SIEGE): - TRENCH FROM 1125 YPAPOE GRAPHO, GRAF-0; A PRIM. VERB; TO "GRAVE", ESPEC. TO WRITE; FIG. TO DESCRIBE:-DESCRIBE, WRITE (-ING, -TEN).G5516-GO TO G4742-666 - STRONGS NT 4742: στίγμα - στίγμα, στιγματος, τό (from στίζω to prick; (cf. Latinstimulus, etc.; German stechen, English stick, sting, etc.; Curtius, § 226)), a mark pricked in or branded upon the body. According to ancient oriental usage, slaves and soldiers bore the name or stamp of their master or commander branded or pricked (cut) into their bodies to indicate what master or general they belonged to, and there were even some devotees who stamped themselves in this way with the token of their gods (cf. Deyling, Observations, iii., p. 423ff); hence, τά στίγματα τοῦ (κυρίου so Rec.) Ἰησοῦ, the marks of (the Lord) Jesus, which Paul in Galatians 6:17 says he bears branded on his body, are the traces left there by the perils, hardships, imprisonments, scourgings, endured by him for the cause of Christ, and which mark him as Christ's faithful and approved votary, servant, soldier (see Lightfoots Commentary on Galatians, the passage cited). (Herodotus 7, 233; Aristotle, Aelian, Plutarch, Lcian, others.) 

THE INVENTOR OF THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT-CARL SANDERS MICROCHIP ENGINEER LEADER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgH9D6n4ZWo

THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT IN YOUR RIGHT HAND OR FOREHEAD.

LEVETICUS 19.28
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.

HERES WHAT THE WORLD WOULD LOOK LIKE (SINCE THERE WILL BE WORLD GOVERNMENT IN THE FUTURE)-UPDATED VERSION (10 WORLD TRADE BLOCS)

01 CANADA, U.S.A, MEXICO
02 EUROPEAN UNION,WESTERN EUROPE
03 JAPAN
04 AUSTRALIA,NEW ZEALAND, S AFRICA, ISRAEL AND PACIFIC ISLANDS
05 EASTERN EUROPE
06 SOUTHERN, CENTRAL AND LATIN AMERICAS
07 NORTH AFRICA, AND MIDEAST (MOSLEMS)
08 CENTRAL AFRICA
09 SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA
10 CENTRAL ASIA

THE CLUB OF ROME WANTS A WORLD CHARISMATIC DICTATOR (EITHER RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL OR SCIENTIFICAL) TO HEAD THIS WORLD GOVERNMENT. REV 13:3,7-8, DAN 7:23-24

WORLD POWERS IN THE END TIME

NORTH - RUSSIA EZEK 38:1-2, 39:1-2
SOUTH - EGYPT DAN 11:42
EAST - CHINA DAN 11:44,REV 16:12
WEST - EUROPEAN UNION DAN 7:23-24 (NOT THE U.S.A)
http://israel7777777.blogspot.ca/2012/03/10-world-trade-blocs-one-world.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2006/09/how-eu-takes-world-control.html 
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/05/one-world-religion-crislam.html 

FINALLY THE EUROPEAN UNION IS TALKING ABOUT HAVING THEIR OWN ARMY.AND IT MUST HAPPEN.
REVELATION 19:16-21
16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords.(JESUS RETURNG TO EARTH LITERALLY ON A WHITE HORSE WITH THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS 7 YEARS EARLIER)
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.(2ND TIME GOD-JESUS TELLS THE 500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS TO GET READY TO EAT HUMAN FLESH.THE FIRST TIME WAS WHEN GOD TOLD THE 500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS-TO EAT RUSSIA,GERMAN,ARAB, MUSLIM BODIES FOR 7 MONTHS IN EZEK 38 @ 39.
19 And I saw the beast,(E.U WORLD LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies,(HERE IT SAYS THE E.U WILL HAVE ITS OWN ARMY) gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, (JESUS) and against his army.(RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)
20 And the beast (E.U WORLD LEADER) was taken, and with him the false prophet (POPE FRANCIS) that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

COUNCIL FOR EUROPE ON DEFENCE
https://defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu/document/download/6d6f889c-e58d-4caa-8f3b-8b93154fe206_en?filename=SAFE%20Regulation.pdf

EU leaders to demand more industry support to meet new climate goal, draft shows-By Kate Abnett-October 14, 202511:53 AM EDTU

BRUSSELS, Oct 14 - European Union leaders plan to agree for the bloc to set a new climate change target for 2040, but demand the EU does more to support industries like steel and carmaking to meet it, draft conclusions for an EU summit next week showed.The EU had planned to approve its new climate target by a U.N. deadline last month. But talks fell apart when France, Poland and others demanded that government leaders first debate the 2040 goal, reflecting concerns over how to fund the low-carbon transition alongside priorities like defence and revitalising local industries.Draft conclusions for an EU leaders' summit on 23 October, seen by Reuters, said leaders would agree EU countries and lawmakers could proceed in setting the 2040 climate goal. However, they would also demand the European Commission develop a stronger "enabling framework" to support industries and citizens through the green transition, it said."Particular attention should be paid to traditional industries, notably the automotive, shipping, aviation and energy-intensive industries, such as steel and metals and chemicals, so that they remain resilient and competitive in a global market," said the draft conclusions, dated 13 October.The draft conclusions did not demand specific funding or changes to EU policies envisaged in exchange for leaders' backing of the emissions-cutting goal.However, EU diplomats said some countries are seeking changes to the bloc's carbon border tariff, while others want the EU's 2035 phase-out of new combustion engine cars weakened.The draft conclusions said the EU must meet its climate aims "in a technologically neutral manner" - a phrase often used by governments to oppose EU policies that restrict certain technologies, such as the combustion engine car phase-out.German chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed last week to try to ensure there is no hard cut-off in 2035 for CO2-emitting cars.If EU leaders give their green light to the conclusions, their climate ministers plan to meet on November 4 to approve the climate target, just in time for the U.N.'s COP30 climate summit.Reporting by Kate Abnett Editing by Frances Kerry

World leaders hail hostage release as step toward peace in the Middle East-Merz, Macron and others call on Hamas to release bodies of remaining hostages, laud Trump for his efforts in securing Gaza ceasefire as they arrive at summit in Sharm el-Sheikh-By ToI Staff 13 October 2025, 8:58 pm

Ahead of a summit in Egypt on Monday, world leaders hailed the release of the 20 remaining living hostages after over two years of Hamas captivity as part of a Gaza ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump.German Chancellor Friedrich Merz congratulated the families of the hostages, and called on Hamas to return the 28 other hostages, 26 of whom have been confirmed dead by the IDF and for two of whose fates Israel has expressed grave concern.“Finally,” posted Merz on X in English, Hebrew and German after the release of the living hostages, four of whom — Alon Ohel, Rom Braslavski and twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman — also hold German citizenship. “After 738 days, the hostages are returning home – with Germans among them. Behind them lie two years of fear, pain and hope. Today, families can finally once again embrace their loved ones.”“The hostages who were murdered must also return home, so that their families can give them a dignified farewell,” said Merz.Hamas said it would release only four of the remaining 28 hostages on Monday, despite being required to release all hostages, living and dead, by Monday. The 28 remaining hostages include a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war and 27 abducted in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the current Gaza war.“This day is a start: when healing can begin and a step taken on the path to peace in the Middle East,” said Merz.French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who have angered Israel’s government by recognizing Palestinian statehood in September, also expressed relief at the hostage release, and pledged to work for peace in Gaza during the Sharm el-Sheikh summit.Writing on X in English, Hebrew and French following the release of the first seven hostages, Macron said: “I share the joy of the families and of the Israeli people as seven hostages have just been handed over to the Red Cross.”“With their release — and that of the thirteen other hostages expected this morning — peace becomes possible for Israel, for Gaza and for the region,” he said, adding that “France will be involved in every stage of President Trump’s plan, alongside the Arab partners it helped mobilize.”“But for now, let there be joy,” Macron concluded.Starmer, in a statement on the hostages’ release, paid tribute to newly released hostage Avinatan Or, whose mother is British, and slain hostage Yossi Sharabi, whose murdered sister-in-law Lianne Sharabi — the wife of released hostage Eli Sharabi — was British.“I share the deep feeling of relief as Avinatan Or and other hostages are released today. But this is also a stark reminder of the treatment that he has been subject to at the hands of Hamas, and the atrocities that shook the world two years ago,” he said.“Having met his family, I know that no one can truly understand the torture and agony they suffered for two drawn-out years and my thoughts are with them. My thoughts are also with the family of Yossi Sharabi, who are still waiting for news,” he said.Starmer hailed “the tireless diplomatic efforts” of the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey in securing the Gaza deal and said it was “now crucial that we work together to implement President Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, and that will be my focus in Egypt today.”Carney said the release of hostages in Gaza on Monday must be a turning point for lasting peace, urging all sides to uphold the terms of a ceasefire agreement.“We call on all parties to continue implementing the terms of the ceasefire agreement, including maintaining the withdrawal of Israeli troops and allowing sustained humanitarian assistance at scale into and throughout Gaza without delay,” he said in a statement.“The release of hostages must be a turning point toward lasting peace,” he added, saying Hamas must disarm and play no role in the future governance of a demilitarized Palestinian state.UN chief Antonio Guterres, who was also expected to take part in the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, welcomed the hostage release on Monday, called for the return of the slain hostages and urged all sides to build on the momentum and “end the nightmare” in the Palestinian territory.“I am profoundly relieved that they have regained their freedom and will be soon reunited with their loved ones after the immense suffering they have endured, and I reiterate my call for the release of the remains of the deceased hostages,” said Guterres, whom Israel last year declared persona non grata for his criticism of the Gaza war.Leaders who were not taking part in the Sharm el-Sheikh summit also welcomed the hostage release.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal brought hope for peace in Ukraine amid its war with Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022.“When peace is achieved for one part of the world, it brings more hope for peace in other regions where life is still under threat,” he said.“This is truly an extraordinary event,” he added, hailing “the leadership and determination of President Trump,” who has also sought to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.Argentina’s staunchly pro-Israel President Javier Milei also hailed Trump’s “extraordinary leadership and courage in ending the war and freeing the hostages,” including three Argentinian nationals: brothers Ariel and David Cunio, and Eitan Horn — whose brother Iair was released in February as part of the previous Gaza ceasefire.“We also await with hope the prompt restitution of the remains of Lior Rudaeff,” another Argentinian national, whose body was captured when he was killed fending off terrorists from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak during the October 7 massacre.Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Đurić also expressed “joy, excitement and pure happiness on this incredible morning” at the return of Ohel, who holds Serbian citizenship in addition to his German citizenship. Đurić added that Trump received a “well-deserved hero’s welcome” in Israel.Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris, who has been harshly critical of Israel and as premier last year recognized Palestinian statehood, said in a statement that “today, after more than two years of horror, pain and unimaginable loss of life, there is a ray of hope.”“Today is a major step forward for peace and a day no doubt many families who had loved ones taken hostage feared would never come,” he said.Without mentioning Trump, Israel or Hamas, he added: “No peace plan is perfect. Such a thing does not exist. We know that from our own complex history but we also know how even the most complex conflicts and wars can end if everyone commits to peace and political pathways.“For our part, we in Ireland remain ready to assist in any way we can,” he said. “We are already assisting through the provision of humanitarian aid to a starving people in Gaza.”Agencies contributed to this report.

Ready or informed or not, here comes UK’s national digital ID debate-Parliamentary debate, media campaigns begin with calls for clear information-Oct 14, 2025, 3:09 pm EDT    | Chris Burt

The UK’s mandatory digital ID scheme is facing criticism from nearly all observers, but for reasons that range from the pragmatic to the fanciful. A more informed debate is needed, and whether it will be held or not, some kind of public dialogue appears to be underway.Liz Kendall told Parliament during the first debates on the system that some pushing back on the proposal have been engaging in “scaremongering” and spreading “misinformation,” PoliticsHome reports.She handled questions from the floor abut the system’s cost, whether it is a step towards mass surveillance and how to assure people that the scheme is not being forced on them.The report notes that a poll from More in Common suggests that support fell to a net negative 14 percent in a poll following Starmer’s announcement.Times Literary Supplement Editor Martin Ives, in an opinion piece for Bloomberg, addresses the irony of so many people in the world’s second-most surveilled country, by camera count, believing it must avoid excessive state control by rejecting measures in place in many democratic countries.“Putting aside the chaotic presentation, Starmer needs to answer a few simple questions as cogently and honestly as possible. First, how much will a digital ID system cost? (The UK government has a poor record on digital innovation, so it might also be reassuring to know that Whitehall proposes to buy off-the-peg rather than building from scratch.) Second, precisely which functions will be voluntary versus compulsory? Finally, how secure will the system be?”Media campaigns begin in earnestThe Tony Blair Institute’s Ryan Wain told Times Radio Politics that the policy is good, but the communication, or lack of it, has fostered opposition.“I do think we have to think a little bit differently about how we communicate and discuss policy.”Wain attributes the opposition largely to “cranks and conspiracy theorists” who have stepped into an informational “vacuum.”He referred to the increased transparency the Estonia system gives people over who has looked up data about them, and suggested the notion of digital identity will win out in an environment in which its benefits and risks are honestly and thoroughly discussed.A series of audio clips collected by Times Radio from people described as wavering Labour voters shows objections stemming from associations between digital ID and China’s authoritarian government, belief that people already have enough ID credentials, and that digital identities will be forged and faked just like any other credentials.One point that Wain makes which has made little headway in the UK’s public debate is that if someone is able to pass or avoid a Right to Work check, they could still be prevented by digital ID from carrying out other kinds of interactions common to illegal migrants, such as remittances.Iain Corby of the Age Verification Provider’s Association (AVPA) suggested in an interview with GB News that The Data (Use and Access) Bill already provides a way to meet the government’s goals without “a multi-billion-pound program.” He also noted that government IT programs tend to overshoot their cost and time targets.“The key thing here is that you get the choice as to which provider you go to. And you can choose one that you trust. And I think the biggest people are going to have with this, certainly the people I’ve talked to in the digital identity community are worried about, it’s surveillance.”Corby referred to Apple taking the government to court to block its back-door access to encrypted data, and the risk that if the government builds surveillance capabilities into its digital ID system, there will be no equivalent third party to take it to court.Dan Johnson of AVPA member Luciditi also centered trust while telling GB News in an interview that he doesn’t think the proposal will even be implemented.A better idea would be to follow through the on the DAU and deliver the option for people to use self-sovereign identity (SSI), Johnson says.The discussion turned to the lack of information about the policy in the runup to its introduction, and by extension the weak (or absent) democratic mandate for such a change. The idea that the digital ID will be mandatory for 13 year-olds (at least those who have jobs) continues to draw attention as evidence of possible mission creep.Implementing the digital identity plan will require addressing specific details, which is where a simple-sounding policy ideas meet complex reality, Orchestrating Identity Chief Trust Officer David Rennie writes for TechUK.The piece is one in a series of perspectives from the industry gathered by TechUK on the topic.Select ID Marketing Development Director Gareth Narinesingh sets out a long-term vision for greater trust and economic growth through digital identity. That will take a trustworthy framework backed by legislation, orchestration that deals with complexity, data minimization to protect privacy, interoperability through OpenID Connect, and a clear articulation of the social benefits of digital ID, he writes.CFIT Director of Coalitions and Research Ieon Ifayemi notes the potential for the economy from innovations like digital identity-backed open banking and digital company ID.Yoti CEO Robin Tombs makes the case that not only are digital IDs already in use and working well, but the DIATF, which enables their use, sets a path for trust very different from whatever the UK government is currently doing.

UK digital ID bedeviled by details still unknown or unresolved-Seen as a license, duplicative, a tax grab or requiring a centralized database-Oct 8, 2025, 5:29 pm EDT    | Chris Burt

Arguments for, against and about the introduction of a mandatory digital ID in the UK are becoming more pointed as details trickle into public view. How the system will work in the Kingdom’s different countries is unclear. Its projected savings look like a tax grab from a certain vantage point, and any impact on illegal employment could come at the cost of creating a new class of law-breakers. Whatever the real-world results, the exercise holds lessons for governments around the world.‘Two digital identities and confusion’First Minister of Scotland John Swinney’s opposition to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s plan may have legitimate liberal and nationalist grounds, an opinion piece in The Times argues, but it is impractical. This is because it risks setting up two parallel digital identities for each Scot, Kenny Farquharson writes, and confusion about which is used for each government service.“Far better to engage right from the start, and set clear guidelines,” he advises. “Ensure that at all times there is sufficient attention paid to devolved sensibilities. One core app with distinct modules in areas such as health and justice must be within the technical capabilities of our brightest minds.”The duplication of roles is also a chief worry for DIATF-certified service providers.‘License to Work’The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has a post “Fact-checking the UK Digital ID.”The ID is not mandatory, except “if you with to work in the UK,” DIST says.  Police will not be able to demand to see it. It will support private-sector interactions like age checks and opening a bank account, as will other forms of identification. It will be secured with “state-of the-art encryption and authentication technology,” and stored on the user’s own device “to help keep data safe.” The digital ID will not exclude people, because millions of people don’t have physical IDs, but 93 percent have a smartphone, and the government is “working on alternatives for those without access to technology.”The first point makes the credential sound more like a “License to Work” rather than proof of “Right to Work,” CDD and ADVP Chair David Crack writes in response.This would “turn law-abiding subjects into law breakers,” he says, and refers to the case of the last person prosecuted for refusing to produce the UK’s WWII-era identity card.‘Tax grab’GB News pointed on Tuesday to a report published by the Tony Blair Institute two weeks ago that says digital ID could enable UK tax authority HMRC could collect an additional 600 million pounds (approximately US$806 million) per year.The estimated decrease in currently-uncollected taxes is part of an overall forecast of €2 billion in savings through the introduction of digital ID.The report characterizes the increased tax revenue as a “grab.”‘Architecture as Values’An open letter by Joni Brennan, President of Canada’s DIACC, on the organization’s website seeks lessons from the evolving “BritCard” debacle.Brennan acknowledges that “The UK faces genuine challenges that digital trust and identity could address,” but takes issue with the implementation.The post quotes the oft-repeated phrase that the digital ID plan rests on “a central database of people entitled to live and work in the UK.” This phrase shows up in numerous media reports with nearly identical wording beginning on September 25, but its origin is unclear.The UK government specified in its September 26 explainer that the “digital ID will be stored securely on your phone.”The DIACC post explores the idea of “Architecture as Values Made Concrete.” Brennan notes that decentralized credentials that are cryptographically signed and held on user’s devices can be privacy-preserving, and thereby protect public trust. In such a system, Brennan notes, verification is performed through cryptographic proofs instead of database lookups.Why can’t the UK use the data it already holds to issue cryptographically signed credentials? For that matter, why can’t it simply make that information available to DIATF-certified digital identity providers to worry about the proofs and signatures? Perhaps the upcoming consultation or the next round of fact-checking will yield more answers.

EU publishes new grants for EUDI Wallets and mDL development-Oct 13, 2025, 1:08 pm EDT    | Masha Borak

The European Commission has published two new calls for grants aimed at producing certified, production-ready EU Digital Identity Wallets and supporting the rollout of the EU Mobile Driving Licenses.The first grant targets consortia selected to participate in Large-Scale Pilots (LPS) for digital IDs during the Digital Europe Work Program 2023-2024. The Digital Europe Work Program 2025-2027 will provide additional funding for the consortia to expand their scope of work, including the development, certification, conformance testing and issuance of EUDI by member states.The second grant, on the other hand, targets issuers and verifiers of mobile driving licenses.Both grants run from October 9th to December 9th, 2025.Funding will support the work achieved during the first round of Large-Scale Pilots and will build on existing technical specifications and reference implementation. The aim is to boost the success of digital public administration solutions such as eDelivery, eSignature and eID Building as well as the private sector.Last week, the Commission updated its plans to roll out digital identities and wallets by publishing amendments to the Digital Europe (DIGITAL) Work Program 2025-2027.The document specifies funding of 129.6 million euros (roughly US$151.2 million) for the EUDI Wallet, the European Trust Infrastructure and other services related to public service delivery. An additional 77 million euros ($89.8 million) will be spent for interoperability and digital government.

One, two, Ofcom’s coming for you; three four, EU’s enforcing more-Regulators look to put the fear in platforms with progress on enforcement actions-Oct 14, 2025, 3:08 pm EDT    | Joel R. McConvey

It’s almost Halloween, which means the boogeyman is coming to get you – this year, particularly, if you are an online platform, and your monster is global online safety regulation. Regulators from the EU and UK are on the prowl this season, seeking out those who violate freshly staked laws and hexing them with disciplinary fines.EC deploys teams for macro, micro enforcement-A release from the European Commission (EC) says it has taken further steps to shield children and teenagers from online risk under the Digital Services Act (DSA).“First, the Commission has sent information requests to Snapchat, YouTube, Apple App Store and Google Play to understand the measures these companies have in place to protect minors on their services,” it says – its first investigatory step following the adoption of the Guidelines on the Protection of Minors in July 2025.While the Commission grills the big names, the European Board for Digital Services’ Working Group for the protection of minors has “agreed to take action to ensure compliance with the DSA by smaller online platforms, in coordination with the competent authorities.”The two-pronged approach sees the Commission mustering special units for enforcement, which will enable them to develop and share common tools to ensure consistency across the EU.In tandem with its enforcement activity, the Commission is publishing the second blueprint for an EU age verification solution, which “introduces the use of passports and identity cards as onboarding methods, as well as support for the Digital Credentials API.” It also intends to set up an advisory panel to explore “the best approach for the European Union regarding safe online experience for minors on social media services.”Ofcom sinks its fangs into 4chan with £20K fine-An update from Ofcom outlines the moves the UK regulator has made since March 2025, when the first of its online safety codes became enforceable. In that time, Ofcom has launched five enforcement programmes and opened 21 investigations into the providers of 69 sites and apps.Of those investigations, 11 are addressed in the October update. They include tackling the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), monitoring services which take steps to stop UK users from accessing them and “clamping down on providers that ignore legally-binding information requests.”The latter could well stir up more transatlantic discord, since it targets notorious online forum 4chan, which has already sent one inflammatory legal notice to Ofcom, accusing it of violating U.S. First Amendment rights.4chan is apparently uninterested in engaging Ofcom at all: the platform has reportedly refused information requests seeking a copy of its illegal harms risk assessment and its qualifying worldwide revenue. For the cold shoulder, Ofcom has fined 4chan 20,000 pounds (about 26,645 dollars), and beginning October 14 “will also impose a daily penalty of 100 pounds per day (about 130 dollars), for either 60 days or until 4chan provides us with this information, whichever is sooner.”Joining 4chan in “similar failures” are file-sharing service Im.ge and pornography service provider AVS Group Ltd. AVS is also in the crosshairs for “failing to comply with its duty to put highly effective age checks in place to protect children from encountering pornography.”Youngtek Solutions Ltd. could be next; Ofcom is expanding the scope of its investigation into the pornography service provider on the same grounds.On the CSAM file, the targets are file sharing services through which illegal content is distributed, such as Krakenfiles, Nippydrive, Nippyshare and Nippyspace. Ofcom notes that some services have chosen to avoid the risk of noncompliance by geoblocking UK IP addresses outright. “This has significantly reduced the likelihood that people in the UK will be exposed to any illegal or harmful content,” says Ofcom – and, as such, it’s enough for them to take the pressure off.Investigations into Nippybox and Yolobit continue. And, while a forum promoting suicide has also geoblocked UK IP addresses in response to Ofcom’s actions, it “remains on Ofcom’s watchlist” and the investigation remains open “while we check that the block is maintained and that the forum does not encourage or direct UK users to get around it.”Meanwhile, having identified “serious compliance concerns” with two file sharing services – 1Fichier.com and Gofile.io – Ofcom reports that enforcement activity prompted them to deploy perceptual hash-matching technology, “a powerful automated tool that can detect and swiftly remove CSAM before it spreads further.”“This is one of the core safety measures set out in our illegal harms Codes, and its adoption marks a significant step forward in reducing the availability of this egregious material online.”Instagram teen accounts not protecting kids, says Meta whistleblower-Tussling with file sharing sites and fringe death cults is one thing; holding Silicon Valley to account is a task of a different magnitude. But some are trying. A new study conducted by Meta whistleblower Arturo Béjar, the Molly Rose Foundation, Fairplay, ParentsSOS and Cybersecurity for Democracy calls out Meta for lying about what Instagram’s automated Teen Accounts settings actually do, claiming that the feature is “abjectly failing to keep young people safe despite Meta’s PR claims.”A release from the Molly Rose Foundation, a UK nonprofit that campaigns for internet safety, says systematic review of Instagram’s list of teen safety features found that “less than 1 in 5 are fully functional and two-thirds (64 percent) are either substantially ineffective or no longer exist.”The findings suggest that users of Teen Accounts are able to view content that promotes suicide, self-harm and eating disorders – and are even getting autocomplete suggestions on where to find it. Messaging fails to filter out “grossly offensive and misogynistic” content. And, perhaps worst of all, “Instagram’s algorithm incentivises children under-13 to perform risky sexualised behaviours for likes and views and encourages them to post content that received highly sexualised comments from adults.”The report does not directly mention biometric facial age estimation, which Yoti provides to Instagram as part of the Teen Accounts program. Instead, it analyzed 47 safety tools listed in Meta’s policy, and assigned 30 of them a rating of red (non-existent or ineffective), nine a yellow (reduced harm but came with limitations) and eight green (fully functional).Its sole rating for age verification as a safety measure gives a yellow to “new ways to verify people’s age on Instagram, including privacy preserving selfie videos.”“Age assurance kicks in if you try to amend the age on a Teen Account,” the assessment says. But “it is extremely difficult to report someone who you suspect to be aged under 13, with a complicated and extended reporting flow, friction by design.”Meta could fix age verification problem if it wanted to: report-Ultimately, “Teen Accounts, Broken Promises: How Instagram is Failing to Protect Minors” is less about Meta’s tech than its intentions. The research found that “Instagram’s own design features undermine the effectiveness of their own safety tools.” Which means its PR campaigns are mostly just style, with very little substance.Arturo Béjar, says “Meta consistently makes promises about Teen Accounts, consciously offering peace of mind for parents by seemingly addressing their top concerns including that Instagram protects teens from sensitive or harmful content, inappropriate contact, harmful interactions, and gives control over teen’s use.“Parents should know, the Teen Accounts charade is made from broken promises. Kids, including many under 13, are not safe on Instagram. This is not about bad content on the internet, it’s about careless product design.”The report’s call to action is for U.S. Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). “Time and time again, Meta has proven they simply cannot be trusted,” says an introduction by Ian Russell, chair of Molly Rose Foundation, whose daughter Molly’s suicide prompted the charity’s creation. “To prevent future tragedies, we need real regulation. In the U.S., that means passing new legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act, which would require social media companies to prevent and mitigate the harms to young people caused by platform design. In the UK, that means strengthening the existing Online Safety Act to compel companies to systematically reduce the harm their platforms cause by compelling their services to be safe by design.”Fairplay Executive Director Josh Golin echoes the sentiment. “Enough is enough. Congress must pass the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act now, and the Federal Trade Commission should hold Meta accountable for deceiving parents and teens.”

Tale of two platforms sees Sora flood web with deepfakes, World save the day-OpenAI plays both sides of the table in cries to ‘find the cure’ for AI slop-Oct 14, 2025, 4:51 pm EDT    | Joel R. McConvey

For those leading the charge on large language models and generative AI, it is truly the best of times and the worst of times: the age of abundance, and the age of slop. Having unleashed the dubious wisdom of ChatGPT 5.0 into the world, it has now seen the latest version of its AI video engine Sora hit a million downloads within five days, even faster than Chat got there.According to an article from NPR, “videos made with OpenAI’s Sora app are flooding TikTok, Instagram Reels and other platforms, making people increasingly familiar – and fed up – with nearly unavoidable synthetic footage being pumped out by what amounts to an artificial intelligence slop machine.”OpenAI, it seems, “has essentially rebranded deepfakes as a light-hearted plaything” – and the proverbial algorithm loves it. The piece suggests it’s “as if deepfakes got a publicist and a distribution deal.”Such is the season of optimism – to be followed, inevitably, by the season of alarm.Here they come to save the day: World to solve AI problem-A post from World, which shares an owner with OpenAI in Sam Altman, notes in stark terms that “90 percent of the content on the internet will be AI generated by 2026.” Voice cloning scams rob unwitting Newfoundland grandmas of their savings. In California, bots flood the application process for student financial aid. “Even public sentiment can’t be trusted: When Cracker Barrel changed its logo in August 2025, 44.5 percent of initial social media outrage was bot-generated.”“When one person with a bot farm can simulate thousands of voices, democratic institutions built on one-person-one-vote crumble,” World says. “With deepfake fraud attempts up 3,000 percent in 2023, every call and video now carries doubt: is this really who I think it is?”In other words, AI is inundating the internet, crippling our political structures, and undermining reality.Cue the familiar meme: a man in a hot dog costume addresses a roomful of people asking who crashed a hot-dog-shaped car. “We’re all trying to find the guy who did this,” the caption goes. In Silicon Valley parlance, “create the problem, sell the solution.”That would be World ID, World’s biometric decentralized digital identity-and-everything-else project. “As AI capabilities accelerate, the window for establishing robust human verification narrows,” says its post. “By verifying unique humanness once, individuals can interact across services knowing every other participant is genuinely human.”AI’s great expectations being transferred to digital ID, PoP-In screenwriting, it is known as the “find the cure” trope. A character is blackmailed or coerced into doing something through the administration of slow-acting poison or illness; a cure is dangled if the victim follows orders. In this case, the poison is AI slop, and the antidote is to be found in deepfake detection and proof of personhood.It’s not just OpenAI, either; Elon Musk recently posted on X that its chatbot, grok – most famous for having had a bitterly racist meltdown over the treatment of white people in South Africa and declaring itself MechaHitler – “will be able to analyze the video for AI signatures in the bitstream and then further research the Internet to assess origin.”Grok agrees, posting in reply to its creator that advancing its capabilities to detect subtle AI artifacts, inconsistencies in compression or invisible generation patterns, “arms truth-seekers against fabrication floods, restoring trust in visuals.”To once again paraphrase Dickens, “we’re all going direct to AI heaven – and we’re all going direct the other way.”

World to appeal Philippine order to stop collecting biometric data-Oct 13, 2025, 10:26 am EDT    | Masha Borak

Digital identity project World will appeal a cease and desist order against its developer, Tools for Humanity (TFH), issued by the Philippine privacy watchdog last week over alleged data privacy law violations.In its response to National Privacy Commission’s (NPC) decision, World also states that misconceptions about the project persist because World ID is a misnomer – it does not store specific proof about a user, such as name, address, age, but only proof that the user is human. The company said last Friday to file a motion for reconsideration of the NPC’s order to stop collecting and processing biometric data of FilipinosThe regulator’s decision is “alarming” considering the year-long compliance process that the firm has conducted with local government agencies and privacy experts, says Ryuji Wolf, World’s local operator.“This sudden change in interpretation undermines the certainty that legitimate investors rely on when working with Philippine regulators,” says Wolf.Despite this, World has promised to continue working with Philippine regulators to clarify the system’s design, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports.Biometrics for crypto-The country’s privacy watchdog says that the company’s undue influence, lack of transparency over data use, excessive data collection, and risks to users amount to violations of the 2012 Data Privacy Act. The regulator’s biggest thorn in the side, however, seems to be Tools for Humanity’s decision to offer monetary incentives in exchange for iris biometrics.“When consent is compromised by the lure of compensation, it ceases to be a genuine expression of choice,” says Deputy Privacy Commissioner Jose Amelito S. Belarmino II.World’s tactic to offer cryptocurrency tokens in exchange for registration has been a major draw for users in developing countries with lower incomes.Soon after the platform’s launch in the Philippines in February, media reported that Filipinos had been lining up to have their irises scanned by the company’s Orb devices and register their World IDs. Registered users were airdropped WLD tokens worth 5,400 Philippine Pesos (US$93 at the time).World says that it offers a referral program to help grow its network, which gives Filipinos who refer others the chance to claim WLD tokens. The National Privacy Commission, however, sees it as a practice that exploits “socioeconomic vulnerabilities.”World ID a ‘bit of a misnomer’The NPC also says that World’s collection of biometric data is unnecessary for its stated purpose of verifying that users are human. The company’s representative Wolf, on the other hand, emphasizes that the system processes all biometric images locally and deletes them within seconds.“Our system does not identify individuals. It simply verifies that they are unique humans, not bots or AI accounts,” he says. “We don’t store, sell, or purchase biometric data.”Instead, the eye and facial images taken by the Orb devices are sent only to the user’s smartphone, while the network uses cryptography to analyze the images and prove that the user is human and has not signed up for the network previously.The process creates an anonymized user, which makes World ID a “bit of a misnomer,” according to the firm.“It’s actually a digital proof that you’re a human, not proof that you’re a specific human or anything about you,” World says. A physical ID typically contains your name, address, birthdate and a photo. But the purpose of World ID is only to prove that you are a) human and b) unique.”

Malaysia targets 15M MyDigital ID users, 2026 funds allocated-Oct 13, 2025, 9:57 am EDT    | Lu-Hai Liang

Through tooth and nail will Malaysia see its national digital ID popularized. While Malaysia is among several others in Southeast Asia to pursue digital identity and digital transformation, the country is showing serious intent with the cash to back it up.The strategic pivot can be seen in NextG’s six-year contract to modernize Malaysia’s national ID card infrastructure, which includes biometric ID card production, and how it is targeting expansion into ASEAN and Africa to bring “homegrown Malaysian innovation” to the world.Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has set out a target of 15 million users for MyDigital ID by the end of this year. The leader’s aim was announced during Malaysia’s Budget 2026 brief, during which it was also detailed that the national digital ID project will encompass sectors such as finance, communications, healthcare and e-trading.Malaysia’s ambitions for a technologically-powered economy and society was further backed in its Budget 2026. “Among the highlights is the RM53 million [US$12.5 million] allocation for the Malaysia Digital Acceleration Grant, which will catalyse the growth and adoption of emerging technologies such as blockchain, AI, and quantum computing,” said Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo. “These technologies are central to building an ecosystem that is future-ready and globally competitive.”Malaysia’s government has also allocated RM18.1 million ($4.3 million) for the National AI Office (NAIO). NAIO shapes the country’s AI strategies and policies and fosters collaboration across ministries and the private sector. “NAIO’s efforts are vital in ensuring Malaysia remains at the forefront of AI adoption and governance in the region,” Gobind said.Cybersecurity is vital to digital transformation and the Digital Ministry said RM30 million ($7.1 million) had been allocated to strengthen this. “This measure is both timely and strategic as it focuses on enhancing digital trust — a cornerstone of our nation’s digital transformation. Strengthening digital trust involves not only bolstering cybersecurity resilience but also ensuring the protection of data, the confidentiality of information, and the integrity of systems that Malaysians rely on every day,” Gobind explained.He added the allocation will expand cybersecurity programs including developing advanced cryptographic security services. The budget includes RM20 million ($4.7 million) to further develop the MyGOV mobile app, the e-gov portal, to enhance accessibility and expand the digitalization of government services.Budget 2026 includes an allocation of RM5.9 billion ($1.39 billion) for research, development, commercialization and innovation across ministries. “A particularly forward-looking initiative is the proposal to establish a Sovereign AI Cloud, with a RM2 billion [$473 million] investment through the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission,” said Gobind. “This will lay the foundation for Malaysia’s secure, sovereign AI infrastructure — ensuring national data is protected while enabling innovation and large-scale AI applications.”In addition, the government announced an additional 50 percent tax deduction for micro and SMEs involved in AI and cybersecurity training courses accredited by the MyMahir National AI Council for Industry (NAICI), TalentCorp and MyDigital.The 2026 Budget is the first under the 13th Malaysia Plan (2026–2030), which includes many measures to realize the country’s aim of becoming an “AI Nation” by 2030.MyDigital ID, developed by MIMOS since 2016, is underpinned by 32 registered patents that includes secure authentication, access control, transaction signing, key management and physical cryptographic verification. Among these are patents for “User Authentication for Online and Offline Applicability” and “Crypto-Physical Lock Control and Authorisation.”The system has earned Common Criteria EAL3+ certification, an internationally recognized  security benchmark which tests resilience against cyber threats. Additionally, MyDigital ID adheres to ISO/IEC 29115:2012.

Ethiopia hopes to take digital ID issuance to 63M by year-end-Oct 14, 2025, 2:58 pm EDT    | Ayang Macdonald

As part of a plan to expand the issuance of digital ID in Ethiopia and reach the 90 million target by 2027, the National ID Program (NIDP) says its objective is to have at last 63 million IDs issued before this year runs out.This will place the ID authority in a better position to attain its ambitions, Ethio Negari quotes its Executive Director, Yodahe Zemichael, as saying. He said already, the Fayda has been issued to 23 million people, and their hope is to get it to an additional 40 million by the close of the year.Yodahe spoke elaborately about their plans of expanding the Fayda digital ID with Biometric Update in an interview in May.Many citizens in rural Ethiopia say they are expecting the digital ID to come to their communities especially as it is increasingly being required for access to a number of government services including social protection benefits.One resident interviewed in the town of Dima in Gambella region, said the Fayda ID registration was yet to begin there.The NIDP Executive Director is quoted as assuring that measures have been taken to ensure that digital ID registration is effective in all the regions and city administrations of the country.“In the past, we were limited to cities. Now, we’ve expanded to rural kebeles—even those without electricity or roads. This wider outreach allows us to reach our 40-million target,” Yodahe says. He added that among other things, more registration centers and enrollment equipment have been deployed to many more locations in the country.Yodahe also explained that strategies are being put in place by NIDP to facilitate inclusive enrollment of Ethiopians, including those who are outside formal systems like banking, telecoms, taxation and employment.To strengthen its digital inclusion push, the Ethiopian government was also recently advised to reform the telecoms sector in order to expand access to connectivity services.Although NIDP’s digital transformation efforts may be facing challenges, it has modelled the Fayda digital ID in a way that’s attracting attention from across the continent. Recently, the ID authority signed a partnership deal with SMART Zambia to share ideas on digital ID implementation.Zambia, which considers the Fayda as exemplary, is in the process of building the core components of its own digital public infrastructure with funding support from the World Bank to the tune of over $120 million.

Russia says no Putin-Trump call planned after Tomahawks warning-by AFP Staff Writers.

Moscow (AFP) Oct 13, 2025-Russia said Monday that there were currently no plans for a call between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, after the US leader warned he might send Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.Trump has been mulling potential supplies of the long-range missiles to Kyiv via European allies since his meeting with Putin in Alaska in August failed to produce a peace deal.He said Sunday that he might warn Putin about the possible deliveries if Russia does not halt its offensive.But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "There are no clear agreements on a phone conversation yet."There are many opportunities for promptly organising such a conversation," if it was needed, he added.Russia has repeatedly said it would see supplying the weapon as a significant escalation.The missiles have a range of 2,500 kilometres (1,500 miles), putting much of western Russia, including the capital Moscow, within striking distance.They are also technically capable of carrying nuclear warheads and Moscow said it would treat any launches of the missile as if they were loaded with a nuclear weapon.Former president Dmitry Medvedev, now a deputy chair of Russia's security council, said Monday that if the United States opted to supply the weapons, it could backfire on Trump directly."The delivery of these missiles could end badly for everyone. And above all, for Trump himself," he said on Telegram.In August, Trump and Medvedev, known for his hawkish and provocative anti-Western comments, clashed after the US leader upped his pressure on Moscow to halt its offensive on Ukraine.Trump responded by redeploying military submarines and warning that Medvedev's statements could "lead to unintended consequences."

Spain says 'committed to NATO' after Trump expulsion threat-by AFP Staff Writers.

Madrid (AFP) Oct 10, 2025-Spain hit back at Donald Trump on Friday after the US President suggested expelling the country from NATO for failing to meet his ramped-up defence spending target.In June, the 32-nation military alliance agreed to massively boost defence spending to five percent of annual economic output over the next decade under pressure from Trump.But Spain, which was NATO's lowest defence spender in relative terms last year, insisted it would not need to hit the headline figure."We had one laggard, it was Spain," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday."They have no excuse not to do this, but that's all right. Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly."Government sources said on Friday that "Spain is a committed and full member of NATO. And it meets its capacity targets as much as the United States."Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has argued that Spain should meet its capacity objectives rather than fixed spending targets, including cybersecurity and the environment in his calculations.The Spanish opposition pounced on the stir caused by Trump's remarks to criticise Sanchez late on Thursday.The main conservative opposition's leader, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, wrote on X that "Spain is a credible, proud member and committed to NATO. And we will remain so. The problem is Sanchez.""He can't be trusted, but that should not hold the country back. Our nation should not have to pay for his frivolity and irresponsibility," the Popular Party leader said.Far-right leader Santiago Abascal, who heads Spain's third-largest political force Vox, said on X that Sanchez "further destroys national interests and seriously harms our security"."Sanchez is the greatest calamity Spain has had in a long time."mdm-mig/imm/gv

Trump says Spain should be 'punished' over NATO funding, considering tariffs.

Washington, Oct 14 (AFP) Oct 14, 2025-President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was considering tariffs on Spain as a punishment for failing to meet the five percent of GDP defense spending goal he engineered within NATO."I think it's very disrespectful to NATO. In fact, I was thinking about giving them trade punishment through tariffs because of what they did, and I may do that," Trump told reporters at the White House.Trump suggested last week that Spain be expelled from NATO over its failure to match the higher defense spending requirement.In June, the military alliance of 32 member states agreed to boost defense spending to five percent of annual economic output over the next decade under pressure from Trump.But Spain, which was NATO's lowest defense spender in relative terms last year, insisted it would not need to hit the headline figure.Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has argued that Spain should meet its capacity objectives rather than fixed spending targets, including cybersecurity and the environment in his calculations.After Trump's expulsion threat, government sources in Madrid said on Friday that "Spain is a committed and full member of NATO. And it meets its capacity targets as much as the United States."

Guyana strengthens territorial defense with French military support by Macarena Hermosilla.

Washington DC (UPI) Oct 8, 2025-During the opening ceremony of the French Embassy in Guyana, President Irfaan Ali said his country was ready to accept the France's offer of technological assistance -- including land and maritime radar systems -- to monitor Venezuela's movements amid pressure over the Essequibo region.At the event Saturday, Ali confirmed that Guyana and France are cooperating on defense and security at both the bilateral and regional levels. He said the partnership was developed in response to existing security challenges."Guyana and France are united by respect for democracy, human rights and each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Together, through our working group, we are advancing cooperation in defense, security, infrastructure, agriculture and tourism," Ali said.He added that in 2026, "we will launch a very important national asset, and of course, our dialogue is moving toward a package of essential elements to maintain stability in our region."Guyana will acquire a French-made offshore patrol vessel for about $42 million to protect its exclusive economic zone and offshore oil infrastructure.The vessel will join the coastal patrol ship GDFS Shahoud to strengthen the Guyana Defense Force's capacity to monitor the area and prevent incursions, illegal fishing and transnational crime.France maintains a permanent military presence in the region through its Armed Forces in Guiana, based in French Guiana. That allows it to carry out "proximity cooperation" in surveillance, training exercises and border control across the Guiana Shield -- the region shared by Guyana and French Guiana.In July 2024, Guyana Defense Force Chief of Staff Omar Khan signed a security and military cooperation agreement with his French counterpart to deepen military collaboration between the two countries.In April, Guyanese troops trained with French forces in French Guiana during the Fer de Lance 2025 exercise, practicing joint operations and rapid responses to emergencies in the area.Cooperation between Guyana and France has deepened as Venezuela's claim over the Essequibo region has reemerged.The regime of Nicolás Maduro claims 61,700 square miles of that territory and the adjoining oil-rich Atlantic waters, whose sovereignty was granted to Guyana under an 1899 arbitration award.The dispute over the validity of that award is currently before the International Court of Justice. Maduro, however, has said Venezuela will not recognize the ruling and considers it void.In his address to the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 24, Ali said the dispute with Venezuela is before the International Court of Justice, which has twice confirmed its jurisdiction and in 2023 issued provisional measures ordering Caracas not to alter the status quo.He said Venezuela continues to pass unilateral laws and issue threats of annexation, and he called for the defense of international law and Guyana's territorial integrity.

US advisor on India accused of taking documents, meeting Chinese.

Washington, Oct 14 (AFP) Oct 14, 2025-A well-known US scholar on India who advised the US government was charged with retaining classified information and allegedly met Chinese officials, prosecutors said Tuesday.Ashley Tellis, 64, who has worked in or advised the US government for more than two decades, was found to have kept more than 1,000 pages of top-secret or secret documents in his home, a criminal affidavit said.Late in the evening of September 25, Tellis entered the State Department, where he served as an unpaid advisor, and appeared to print from a secret document on US Air Force techniques, the affidavit said.It said Tellis met multiple times with Chinese government officials at a restaurant in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia.At one dinner, Tellis entered with a manila envelope but did not appear to leave with it, and on two occasions the Chinese officials presented him a gift bag, the affidavit said.Tellis faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted on the charges of unlawfully holding documents, the Justice Department said."The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens," said Lindsey Halligan, the US attorney for Virginia's eastern district who has become known for pursuing charges against critics of President Donald Trump.The State Department confirmed that Tellis was arrested Saturday -- the same day the affidavit said he was due to fly to Rome -- but declined further comment due to the ongoing investigation.Tellis, a naturalized US citizen originally from India, is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and served in senior positions under former president George W. Bush.He helped negotiate the Bush administration's civil nuclear deal with India that was seen as a landmark in building ties between the world's two largest democracies.But in recent years, Tellis has become known as one of the most outspoken contrarians in Washington on the US courtship of India.In a recent essay in Foreign Affairs, Tellis said India was often pursuing policies at odds with the United States, pointing to its relations with Russia and Iran, and doubted that India would match China's strength anytime soon.Trump in August slapped major tariffs on India over its purchases of oil from Russia.Lawyers for Tellis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.