“Rest in peace, Hadar. The path of righteousness you left behind will continue to guide us, with your image engraved on the nation’s heart.”

By World Isael News Staff

Thousands gathered in Kfar Saba on Tuesday to accompany Lt. Hadar Goldin on his final journey, 4,120 days after his body was dragged into a Gaza tunnel during Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

Eleven years later, Israel finally laid to rest one of its most beloved sons — a symbol of courage, faith, and the unbreakable spirit of the Jewish nation.

At the funeral, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir eulogized Goldin.

Speaking before a sea of mourners, Zamir said, “An entire nation stands today as one great formation of Hadar. We accompany him on his final path — a path he was worthy of long ago. The IDF never gave up for a moment. Hadar’s return was made possible through the operational might of our forces. I pledge that we will continue to uphold this sacred duty.”

Zamir continued, “The circle is closed. Operation Protective Edge has ended. Rest in peace, Hadar. The path of righteousness you left behind will continue to guide us, with your image engraved on the nation’s heart.”

Hadar’s father, Prof. Simcha Goldin, spoke with quiet pride and deep pain. “Hadar was unique in his way — he touched people. This great crowd is proof of that. A person like him deserves to be remembered, and each of you should take something of Hadar with you from this day forward. If we live by his example, we will lift the people of Israel to a higher level.”

He urged the nation to follow his son’s legacy of moral strength and unity. “Walk in the way of righteousness,” he said. “Do not hate one another. Hadar asked his mother to teach him to sew, and he embroidered by hand the words ‘Strength and Humility.’ He was a Jewish warrior.”

His mother, Leah Goldin, recalled finding a note her son had written at age 16 to his Bnei Akiva youth group. “You wrote, ‘We strive for greatness, but in reality we see darkness. We see a tribe that is broken and divided. What should we do? We must begin to work, to gather rays of light, and slowly reach our goal.’” Fighting back tears, she concluded simply, “You know that I love you. Rest in peace, my son.”

Hadar’s siblings — who for over a decade carried the family’s mission to bring him home — spoke with passion and defiance. His brother Hemi turned toward Gaza in his eulogy: “To the vile creatures there, who call themselves Hamas — you are made of mud and filth. Look closely at this people and this family standing here today. The family of Israel is not to be messed with. We bring everyone home.”

His sister Ayelet addressed the soldiers who took part in the mission to recover her brother’s remains. “I don’t know you, but I wish I could shake your hands and hug each one of you. You brought my brother back. Not Hamas — you. ‘Thank you’ feels too small; we need a new language for gratitude.”

His brother Tzur spoke of Hamas’s strategy of psychological warfare. “Hamas’s kidnapping terror is aimed not only at soldiers but at our families, to break Israeli society from within — to force us to choose who is worth more. Our victory in this war will be when the title of Israeli society is clear: we never abandon one another.”

As the ceremony drew to a close, the mourners joined in singing Hatikva, the Israeli national anthem. The familiar melody echoed across the cemetery, mingling sorrow with pride — a reminder of the hope that has sustained the Jewish people through generations, and of the sacrifice of those like Hadar Goldin who gave their lives so that Israel could live.

After 11 long years, Lt. Hadar Goldin was finally laid to rest in his homeland. His courage, faith, and love for his people will forever remain a beacon for Israel — a testament to the nation that never forgets its sons.

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In a powerful mission of remembrance and resilience, IDF fighters destroyed a key Gaza terror tunnel used in the 2014 ‘Operation Protective Edge’ that claimed four IDF heroes, ensuring it can never threaten again.

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Israel’s secular prime minister dons tefillin to mark Israeli Memorial Day, sharing a photograph of himself with the ritual Jewish items on social media.

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu donned phylacteries (tefillin) Sunday, honoring Israel’s fallen soldiers.

A secular Jew, Netanyahu has in the past drawn attention for patronizing non-kosher restaurants and eating shellfish, which is prohibited under Jewish law.

On Sunday, however, the prime minister carried out the Jewish tradition of donning tefillin – leather boxes containing sections of the Torah written on parchment – in honor of Israel’s fallen soldiers and at the behest of a bereaved mother who lost her son during the fighting against Hamas terrorists in Operation Protective Edge during the summer of 2014.

In a tweet Sunday afternoon, Netanyahu released a photograph of himself wearing the tefillin, which had belonged to the bereaved mother’s son.

“And all the peoples of the earth shall see that God’s name is proclaimed over you, and they shall stand in fear of you,” Netanyahu tweeted, quoting the Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 28, Verse 10.

“Ruchama, the mother of Moshiko Davino, who was killed during Operation ‘Protective Edge’, brought me his tefillin,” Netanyahu continued.

“These tefillin, which were with him the entire time during combat, are the only thing which survived the explosion which killed Moshiko. There is still a lingering odor of the fire on the tefillin bag.”

“I promised Ruchama that I would wear the tefillin in honor of the memory of Moshiko and in honor of the memories of all our fallen.”

“That’s what I’m doing today out of holy reverence.

“May the memory of our martyrs be blessed and enshrined in our hearts forever.”

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Wissam Farhat was behind several of the October 7 attacks as well as one of the deadliest attacks on soldiers in 2014’s Protective Edge operation.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The IDF announced Saturday the elimination of a senior Hamas terrorist in the Gaza Strip.

Using precise information supplied by Military Intelligence and the Shabak, the air force struck the house Wissam Farhat was in with missiles, killing him.

Farhat was the commander of Hamas’ Shujayya Battalion, said IDF chief spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

Wissam Farhat, senior Hamas terrorist eliminated by an IDF airstrike in the Gaza Strip Saturday, December 2, 2023 (IDF Spokesperson’s Office)

He “planned and sent terrorists on October 7 to the Nachal Oz kibbutz and army post,” said Hagari, where a “cruel massacre” took place of dozens of kibbutz members and soldiers, and dozens more were abducted back into the Gaza Strip by the terror organization’s elite Nukhba troops.

In total, Hamas took over 240 hostages. After last week’s series of hostages-for-Palestinian prisoner exchanges, the IDF estimates that 137 are still in the hands of Hamas and other terror organizations in Gaza.

Farhat had led the battalion since 2010. During the IDF’s 2014 Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, he commanded the terrorists who blew up an armored personnel carrier, killing six Israeli soldiers in one of the deadliest attacks of that round of fighting between the IDF and Hamas.

His men also managed to spirit away the body of one of them, St. Sgt. Oron Shaul, which Hamas has never returned.

Further back in his terror past, he had directed the terror attack on the pre-military academy in Atzmona in 2002 in which a lone gunman infiltrated the facility and murdered five students using grenades and a rifle. Another 23 people were injured, some seriously.

Farhat had seemingly begun his “career” as a wannabe suicide terrorist. He was caught by Israel’s security forces in 1995 on his way to commit an attack, and spent the next several years in prison. When he was released, he helped produce Hamas’ rocket arsenal before rising in the ranks.

The IDF has successfully concentrated many resources in trying to find and liquidate all those who took part in the surprise attack on over 20 Gaza envelope communities, in which a total of 1,200 people were slaughtered, including the elderly and infants.

“We will continue to chase every single one of the October 7 terrorists,” said Hagari, “and we will eliminate them.”

Special attention has been paid to the Nukhba force, as its men took the lead in many of the massacres, and the IDF has killed many of its senior echelon since it invaded the Gaza Strip in late October.

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Combat veteran hospitalized in life-threatening condition; his mother says she and her son were repeatedly ignored by the Defense Ministry.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A former combat soldier who fought in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge set himself on fire on Tuesday, after the Defense Ministry denied him disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Bar Kelif, 33, was left seriously wounded with severe burns after he self-immolated at a friend’s house in the coastal city of Netanya, following a Defense Ministry decision to reject his application to be recognized as a disabled veteran due to PTSD.

In life-threatening condition, Kelif is currently being treated at Tel HaShomer Hospital in central Israel.

The Defense Ministry claimed that Kelif suffers from schizophrenia and therefore his mental issues are not due to his army service.

Notably, combat soldiers like Kelif undergo intense psychological screening during the draft process, raising questions around the likelihood that he had undiagnosed schizophrenia before his service.

Last week, Kelif was briefly hospitalized due to an acute psychiatric episode, but he was released after a few hours.

Speaking to Hebrew-language media, Kelif’s mother, Kochava Araba, vehemently denied that her son had any preexisting psychological issues. She said that his deteriorating mental health was solely due to his time in the military and his combat experiences.

“He was desperate and couldn’t get help,” Araba told Walla.

“I am very angry that they didn’t listen to me, that they didn’t understand the real struggles my son experienced,” Araba continued.

“We asked the Defense Ministry for recognition [of his PTSD-related disability.] My son told me that he couldn’t bear the doors being closed in his face. This matter needs to be investigated further, because, after all, he is not in good condition.”

Araba said she was “in shock” and that she felt “abandoned” by the military and Defense Ministry, saying that “not one person” had reached out to her following her son’s self-immolation.

Addressing those institutions, Araba called upon bureaucrats not to be “indifferent to the cry of a mother who begs for help and fails to receive it. I felt that my son was neglected, and I couldn’t succeed in helping him.”

In a similar incident in 2021, combat veteran Itzik Saidian self-immolated outside of the Defense Ministry’s offices in Petah Tikva, after they denied his request to be recognized as a disabled veteran due to PTSD.

As in Kelif’s case, the Defense Ministry claimed that Saidian’s mental health struggles predated his army service. They said his PTSD stemmed from his parents’ divorce when he was 12 years old rather than from his time actively fighting in the Gaza Strip.

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Hamas has been holding the bodies of two Israeli soldiers and two Israeli civilian hostages for years.

By JNS.org

The Hamas terror organization stated on Sunday that one of its members, who was guarding an “Israeli prisoner,” was killed in an Israeli bombing during Hamas’s May 2021 conflict with Israel. Hamas said it would identify the member who was killed at a later date.

According to the terror faction that rules Gaza, Israel hit a building where an unnamed Israel Defense Forces soldier was held, killing one Hamas member and injuring three others, according to a report by i24News.

The attack occurred during “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” which saw widespread Gazan rocket attacks on Israeli cities. In response, the Israeli Air Force struck a range of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets.

IDF personnel Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul were killed, and their bodies were seized by Hamas during “Operation Protective Edge” in 2014.

Hisham al-Said and Averu Mangistu, two Israeli civilians who crossed the Gaza border and suffer from mental-health conditions, are being held captive by Hamas.

Later on Sunday, the brother of Goldin, Tzur, tweeted in Arabic: “The doctrine of Hamas is a lie! Hamas will pay a heavy price for every minute my brother is with them.”

On July 27, Sha’aban al-Said, Hisham’s father, called on the UN Security Council to rescue his son after Hamas released a video of him wearing an oxygen mask and claiming that his health has deteriorated.

“I am pleading with you to get involved and exert effort and place pressure on Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to free my son as soon as possible and not to use him as a card against Israel,” al-Said said in a video message played by Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan.

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The defense minister was speaking at a memorial ceremony for those who fell in Operation Protective Edge.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Sunday that no overall arrangement would be made with Hamas until they return two IDF bodies and two live citizens to Israel.

Speaking at the state ceremony at Mount Herzl military cemetery on the eighth anniversary of the IDF’s Operation Protective Edge against the terrorist organization, he said, “We are continuing to work on behalf of those who remain there in Gaza.”

“Without their [return], there cannot be a full arrangement in the Gaza Strip beyond humanitarian assistance,” he stated. “The return of our sons is a condition for an arrangement and development.”

Hamas has consistently refused to release the remains of Lt. Hadar Goldin and St. Sgt. Oron Shaul, which the terrorists spirited away after the IDF soldiers fell in action during the 50-day conflict.

Hamas has also been holding two mentally ill citizens, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who had entered the coastal enclave on their own in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Last month, for the first time, Hamas showed that at least one of them was alive when the group cynically publicized a video of al-Sayed lying down with an oxygen mask over his face, and said that his condition was weakening.

Israel reportedly refused an offer from Hamas, made through Egyptian negotiators, to exchange al-Sayed for sick Palestinian prisoners.

The terror organization has previously demanded, among other things, that in exchange for the bodies and captives, Israel should release over a thousand imprisoned Palestinian terrorists and permit massive amounts of construction material into the Strip.

Gantz said that Israel is “constantly continuing to strengthen the moderate elements” among the Palestinians while weakening Hamas “politically, economically and militarily, some ways which are out in the open and some which are hidden.”

He also called for Gazans to realize that their leadership is failing them.

“We have nothing against the people of Gaza, on the contrary,” he said. “We want their well-being and prosperity. It is Hamas that works against them, against their interests. It is Hamas that in blood-freezing cynicism trades in blood, and holds innocent civilians captive, among them those dealing with mental disabilities.”

Hadar Goldin’s sister, Ayelet, who attended the ceremony, was not happy with Gantz’s words.

“Be brave, almost all of you have turned your backs,” she shouted afterwards towards Gantz and Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who also spoke at the event. “Be the leadership we are praying for. My parents are standing outside because their son is not here. I swear to you – return Hadar and Oron before it is too late. There is an opportunity today, do not turn your back on them.”

“I had to stand up to our leaders so that they would have the courage to bring the soldiers home,” she told Ynet.

“We are here eight years after Benny Gantz, the chief of staff during Protective Edge, left Oron and Hadar on the battlefield – and he does nothing to bring them back except to speak at ceremonies and say that by next year it will be done,” her father, Simcha, said.

“Gantz allows 11,000 workers from Gaza to enter every day and doesn’t demand the release of the boys,” he added.

In his own speech, Lapid had said that “causing the civilian population in Gaza to understand that it’s possible to have a different kind of life” was one of two principles that would prevent the necessity for yet another military operation over the border.

“To that end, we have we have expanded the Israeli work permits for Gaza residents, and we continue to promote the ‘Economy for Security’ plan,” he said.

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“The video published by the Hamas terrorist organization, whose credibility is in question, is intended for extortion,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz stated.

By World Israel News Staff

The Gaza-based Hamas terror organization has released a video purportedly showing Israeli hostage Hisham al-Sayed receiving oxygen at a local hospital.

In 2015, Sayed, who struggles with mental health issues, crossed the border into Gaza, where he was taken hostage.

Earlier, the terror group informed Israel that one of the medical condition of one of the hostages had deteriorated and that it would provide evidence confirming the fact.

In the background of the video, the Qatar Economic Forum, which took place last week, is showing on a TV screen – indicating  that the video is recent.

Hamas’ military wing just shared a video of Israeli Hisham A-Sayed, one of the two Israeli civilians, held by the terror group in Gaza for the past 7 years. A TV screen in the background is airing scenes from last week’s Qatar Economic Forum – an attempt to prove this is recent. pic.twitter.com/XL2UvOIWeF

— Ariel Oseran (@ariel_oseran) June 28, 2022

“The video published by the Hamas terrorist organization, whose credibility is in question, is intended for extortion,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz stated in response to the footage.

“In addition to holding the bodies of two fallen soldiers,” referring to Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, believed to have been killed in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 –” Hamas is also holding hostage two innocent civilians,” Gantz said.

Avera Mengistu, who also has mental health challenges, wandered into the Strip in 2014.

“Distributing a video of a sick person is a heinous and desperate act,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office said in a statement. “The State of Israel considers Hamas responsible for the health of the captive citizens.”

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said that holding two mentally ill men captive for years “is an act of inconceivable cruelty.” He called on the international community, including the World Health Organization, the Red Cross, and organizations advocating for the disabled, to demand the release of the captives.

“Hamas is paying and will continue to pay a price for its terrorist activities. The State of Israel will continue taking a variety of measures, until all our boys return home,” Gantz declared.

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Israel can no longer be satisfied with the “appearance of victory in the eyes of its enemies,” says Deputy Knesset Speaker Zvi Hauser.

By David Isaac, JNS.org

The Knesset Israel Victory Caucus, an Israeli parliamentary group that seeks to change the public discourse on the Arab-Israeli conflict, hosted a Knesset conference on Monday in coordination with the U.S.-based Middle East Forum. Its title: “One year since ‘Operation Guardian of the Walls’—What have we achieved?”

Their assessment was bleak.

Arguing that only through clear-cut victory could Israel end the conflict, they described a deteriorating security situation in which Israel, not only in last year’s operation, but for the last 30 years, has abandoned its determination to achieve decisive victory and replaced it with the goals of short-term gains and brief periods of calm.

During last May’s “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” the conflict between Israel and Hamas in which the terror group launched almost 4,400 rockets at Israeli civilian centers, public broadcaster Kan news asked IDF Head of Operations Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva what Israel would consider a desirable outcome. He replied: “A minimal quiet period of five years after the operation would be considered a success.”

“From 1948 to 1989, Israel adopted the Western way of war, which meant the destruction of their enemies. It then abandoned it for a concept in which Israel aspires only to the ‘appearance of victory,’ ” Likud Knesset member Yuval Steinitz told the conference.

Steinitz, who most recently served as Israel’s energy minister, and has previously held the strategic affairs and intelligence portfolios, referred to the book “Carnage and Culture” by military historian Victor Davis Hanson. In it, the author argues that Western superiority can be traced to a uniquely lethal way of war that originated in ancient Greece, in which armies sought to annihilate their enemies.

Steinitz said the Western approach to war is the reason Western civilization has beaten non-Western countries for the last 2,500 years. Israel followed this approach in all its wars through the 1982 Lebanon War, he said. In those contests, Israel strove for “decisive victory, the encirclement of their enemies on the field of battle.”

Deputy Knesset Speaker Zvi Hauser of the New Hope Party agreed that Israel can no longer be satisfied with the “appearance of victory in the eyes of its enemies. … In the Middle East, in this difficult neighborhood, we need actual victory in order to ensure our survival here.”

To illustrate where Israel’s current strategic approach has led, Hauser summarized the various Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip. At the end of each, Israel would declare that its operational goals had been met. Toward the end of “Guardian of the Walls,” too, success was declared, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling Israel’s public on May 18 that the goals of the operation had been achieved—“to inflict a severe blow on terrorist organizations, to undermine their capabilities and to restore calm while establishing deterrence. This is exactly what we did.”

However, looking at the situation over the course of more than a decade, a different picture emerges, Hauser noted, pointing out how the capabilities of Hamas have increased with the years. In 2009, during “Operation Cast Lead,” Israel’s first campaign against Hamas since the terror group took over the Gaza Strip, some 600 rockets and 200 mortar shells landed in Israeli territory. The farthest limits of those rockets were the southern Israeli cities of Ashdod and Beersheba.

During Israel’s “Operation Pillar of Defense” in 2012, Hamas launched 1,500 rockets into Israel in seven days. Rockets reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time.

In 2014, during “Operation Protective Edge,” a 50-day conflict, Hamas hit Israel with 4,600 rockets, “a rate of 90 rockets a day,” Hauser said. In 2021’s “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” Hamas fired “nearly 4,400 rockets at Israel in 12 days, a rate of 360 or more rockets every day” and its “direct fire on Jerusalem led to a halt in a Knesset debate, sending people down to shelters,” he said.

‘We’re recommending a paradigmatic shift’

That Israel hasn’t succeeded in defeating a far weaker foe proves that settling for the appearance of victory doesn’t stand the test of time, Hauser said.

“Wars end not when one side declares victory, but when one side acknowledges defeat,” said Gregg Roman, director of the Middle East Forum (MEF), quoting historian Daniel Pipes, the group’s founder and president. Roman runs the Israel Victory Project. Started in 2017 by the MEF, its mission is to steer “U.S. and Israeli policy toward backing an Israel victory over the Palestinians.”

He told JNS: “Until the other side recognizes that their ideology and their strategies aren’t going anywhere, until they give up, there won’t be any solution to the conflict. So that’s the message we hope to bring. … We’re recommending a paradigmatic shift in the way Israelis, and more specifically the Israeli government, lawmakers like those here in the Knesset today, and the Israeli army, address the conflict.”

Roman said the Israeli Victory Project runs programs to reach every section of Israeli society, from youth to retirees. “We don’t go in there with this or that policy but with the message that the objective should be to win. They basically forgot how to win.”

Uzi Dayan, a former deputy chief of staff and former head of Israel’s National Security Council, suggested that one hopeful sign is that “there has ripened in the Israeli public the idea that things can’t continue this way. There’s great potential in this if we can build on it.”

Lack of truthfulness

IDF Gen. (ret.) Yitzhak Brick gave a damning indictment of the IDF’s actions during “Operation Guardian of the Walls.” Noting the IDF’s failed plan to drive Hamas terrorists into their tunnels and then to bomb them, he said the IDF should have sent its ground forces 100 meters into the Gaza Strip, a feint which had been part of the original plan, to convince the terrorists to take to the tunnels.

“They [the IDF] didn’t do that. Why didn’t they do that? If we had behaved like this in earlier wars we would not be living here,” Brick said.

“Today, the multiple branches, air, land and sea, have lost their force. We’ve turned into a one-dimensional army in which the air force provides all the answers,” he said, noting that during last year’s operation, Israel’s aerial bombardment couldn’t stop Hamas’ rocket fire.

Brick told JNS following the conference that there are deep, systemic problems within the IDF, including a lack of truthfulness.

“The senior leadership is aware of it but hasn’t dealt with it. There are many reasons for this. One is when you’re dealing with problems that are so deep, when you try to address them, you’re asked, ‘Why are you only dealing with it now?’ So the leadership, rather than be blamed for having put off the problem, prefer to say everything’s OK.”

At the end of the conference, Steinitz addressed the internal problems that developed during “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” where Arab Israelis rioted in several cities and attacked Jews. During times of crisis, there can’t be a situation where a pogrom-like atmosphere is permitted, he said.

“Anything that doesn’t rise to the level of killing Jews, whether stealing from homes or smashing Jewish storefronts, Israel currently has no tools to deal with it,” Steinitz told JNS.

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The 100-strong delegation accompanying President Guillermo Lasso aims to strengthen bilateral ties, especially in the fields of security and technology.

By David Isaac, JNS.org

Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso kicked off an official state visit to Israel last week, the first-ever by an Ecuadorian president.

Accompanying Lasso is a 100-person delegation with the mission of strengthening bilateral ties, specifically in the fields of security and technology.

During the trip, Ecuador will inaugurate an Innovation and Commercial Representative Office in Jerusalem to bolster commerce between the two countries.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog and first lady Michal Herzog greeted Lasso and his wife, first lady María de Lourdes Alcívar, at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. Both national anthems were played, Herzog and Lasso reviewed an IDF honor guard and then sat down for the first diplomatic working meeting of the trip.

“For me, my wife and my delegation, it is a great honor to be here in Israel, a country that I have always particularly admired,” Lasso told the press on Wednesday.

“I admire the Israeli fighting spirit, Israel’s great dignity and its development. In 74 years, with half of Ecuador’s population, you have reached an economy four times the size of Ecuador’s,” he added.

Ecuador’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $98 billion in 2020, compared to $402 billion for Israel. Ecuador’s per capita GDP was $5,600 to Israel’s $43,600 that year.

Lasso, a center-right politician who took office in May 2021, has signaled keen interest in developing Ecuador’s tech sector, which was neglected by past governments. He views Israel, the startup nation, as a natural partner.

Last year, in a speech before Ecuador’s Alliance for Entrepreneurship (AEI), Lasso announced his intention to visit Israel to gain insight into its innovation prowess and to bring that know-how back to Ecuador.

AEI Director Andres Zurita, in Israel as part of the delegation, said Ecuador has a high propensity for entrepreneurship, but “a very low rate of innovation.” With the right models, Ecuador could make the necessary leap, he said.

Reversing the policy toward Israel

On Tuesday, the day of Lasso’s arrival, Ecuador held a one-of-a-kind “Ecuador Open for Business” conference, in this case, a private executive lunch with 10 top Israeli businessmen.

Normally, “Ecuador Open for Business,” a kind of traveling conference to encourage investment in the country, involves much larger groups. The more intimate setting was an indication of a more targeted approach where Israel is concerned.

Israel has opened its doors to Ecuador’s delegation, arranging visits to tech hubs, academic institutions like the Weizmann Institute of Science, as well as meetings with key government ministers. Herzog said on Wednesday, “We are world leaders in technology, agriculture, science, R&D and healthcare, and we will be happy to collaborate with Ecuador in all these important fields.”

Elias Levy, a journalist who lives in Ecuador and has followed Ecuadorian-Israeli relations for 30 years, told JNS that “for the first time in several decades bilateral relations have a huge opportunity to develop into something completely new for both countries with a new horizon founded in commerce, economic issues and innovation.”

Levy noted that Lasso is reviving a relationship that went into a tailspin under Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa (2010-2017). A leftist, Correa aligned himself with such countries as Venezuela and Cuba.

Although Correa personally admired Israel and even intended to visit in 2014, he canceled the trip in protest against that year’s Gaza war. Known in Israel as “Operation Protective Edge,” it was ignited by the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas terrorists.

Correa’s successor, Lenin Moreno, although a former ally of Correa, began to reverse the latter’s policy towards Israel. That effort has now taken a leap forward with Lasso’s visit.

Return of an old friendship

Nonetheless, Ecuador’s president has many obstacles to overcome, given that he also hopes to attract Israeli investors to his country. Correa fostered an anti-business environment that drove foreign companies away, and while Lasso is working to overturn those policies in the legislature, he has so far enjoyed only partial success.

Ecuador also faces a major illicit drug crisis. In October, Lasso declared a state of emergency as drug violence spiraled out of control.

Sandwiched between Colombia and Peru, the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 cocaine producers, Ecuador has become a conduit for transporting drugs to U.S. and European markets.

This has come about partly due to Ecuador dollarizing its economy, making it ideal for money laundering, and also to successful pressure on Colombian and Peruvian drug operators, making it difficult for them to ship drugs from their own countries.

Lasso hopes Israel, with its vast security experience, will help here as well. Noteworthy is that he put security matters first when announcing the three main objectives of his trip.

For Israel’s part, it’s happy to see the return of an old friendship, especially on a continent that is undergoing a populist resurgence.

Ecuador was one of 33 countries that voted in favor of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1947. Israel will likely expect that once-friendly face at the UN to again shine on its behalf at that world body.

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Statistics show that the IDF’s civilian-to-terrorist death ratio is the lowest in the world.

By TPS

The Israeli High Court of Justice rejected on Sunday a petition filed by the Bakr family from the Gaza Strip, the parents of four boys who were killed during an Israeli attack on a Gaza City beach in July 2014 during the IDF’s counterterrorism Operation Protective Edge.

The petition was filed in 2020 by three organizations, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR).

The petitioners demanded that the Court overturn the Attorney General’s (AG) decision to reject an appeal against the closure of the investigation and to order the opening of a criminal investigation that could have led to the prosecution of those responsible for the deaths. The AG’s decision in September 2019 was to fully adopt the Military Advocate General’s decision to close the investigation.

The petitioners alleged that the investigative materials show that the IDF “intentionally opened deadly fire at the children in serious violation of the laws of war and criminal law, since they aimed at the children directly without identification and without taking the necessary precautions.”

The petitioners further claimed that the IDF’s probe was flawed

However, the three-panel court ruled that it sees no reason to intervene in the AG’s decision. The 11-page judgment written by Chief Justice Esther Hayut was endorsed by Justices Alex Stein and Isaac Amit.

The Court’s decision stated that the decision to close the case was made after “the incident was comprehensively and thoroughly investigated,” taking into account intelligence information held by the military prior to, and during the attack, meaning that the IDF was targeting terrorists and not the children.

The ruling also relied on intelligence reviewed only by the judges, which substantiates the Israeli military’s claim that the area attacked was used by Hamas forces.

The human shield tactic

The ruling repeated the AG’s determination that the missile attacks were carried out in compliance with the principles of distinction and proportionality and in accordance with military procedures.

It further stated that “this court has repeatedly emphasized the uniqueness of the combat operation, which is characterized by high intensity, which requires the military forces to make quick decisions on the ground and to take risks under conditions of uncertainty.”

In response, the petitioners contended that this ruling “essentially gives full license to the Israeli military to kill civilians with the widest impunity.”

However, statistics show that the IDF’s civilian-to-terrorist death ratio is the lowest in the world.

The former Commander of the British Armed Forces in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp, went on record as saying that “the UN estimates that there has been an average three-to-one ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in such conflicts worldwide. Three civilians for every combatant killed. That is the estimated ratio in Afghanistan: three to one. In Iraq, and in Kosovo, it was worse: the ratio is believed to be four-to-one. Anecdotal evidence suggests the ratios were very much higher in Chechnya and Serbia. In Gaza, it was less than one-to-one.”

The IDF maintained a 1:1 ratio between killed terrorists and civilians in 2003, and lowered it to a 1:28 ratio in late 2005. Several IAF mishaps in 2006 lowered the ratio to 1:10, but the current ratio is at its lowest ever–more than 1:30, and so for every dead civilian, 30 terrorists are killed, or about 3% of the total casualties are civilian.

The IDF has noted that “the sad fact is, Israeli Air Force strikes sometimes result in civilian casualties. This is a result of the human shield tactic, a method adopted by Hamas and other terror organizations in the Gaza Strip. Basically, terrorists hide within houses, schools, mosques and other ‘harmless’ environments, and use them as a cover from which to shoot rockets.”

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Three Palestinians set an Israeli construction vehicle ablaze on Wednesday.

By Associated Press and World Israel News

Three Palestinian terrorists sneaked up to an Israeli construction vehicle near the Gaza security fence and set it ablaze on Wednesday, the Israeli military said. No one was hurt in the incident.

The men crossed a barbed wire fence inside the Gaza Strip but did not advance past the main security barrier along the frontier, the IDF said, adding that the three “returned to the Gaza Strip” after starting the fire.

The heavily-guarded frontier has been mostly quiet since the 11-day war last May between Israel and the Hamas militant group that controls the coastal territory.

In December, Israel announced the completion of a 65-kilometer high-tech barrier running both above and below ground on the border with Gaza. The upgrade took three and a half years to complete at a cost NIS 3.5 billion ($1.1 billion).

“There is no place in the world that has built an underground barrier,” Fence Administration Director Brig.-Gen. Eran Ofir said at the opening ceremony Tuesday. “It was a very complex project, both operationally and engineering-wise.”

The upgrade came in the wake of 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, in which Hamas made extensive use of cross-border tunnels with the aim of infiltrating southern Israel. Some 70,000 Israelis currently live in over 50 communities within the Gaza area.

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Dutch appeals court affirms lower court’s ruling that lawsuit targeting Gantz and other senior military official can’t be heard in the Netherlands.

By World Israel News Staff

An appeals court in the Netherlands affirmed a lower court’s ruling on Tuesday that current Defense Minister Benny Gantz cannot be held legally responsible for the deaths of six Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge.

At the time, Gantz served as the IDF’s Chief of Staff. As Israel’s highest military official, he became the subject of a lawsuit seeking to hold him responsible for alleged war crimes.

Ismail Ziada, a resident of the Netherlands originally from Gaza, sued Gantz and former Air Force commander Amir Eshel in a Dutch court for ordering an air strike that resulted in the deaths of six of his family members during the conflict.

Citing universal jurisdiction, which holds that charges of war crimes and torture can be heard by any court, even one that’s not located in the area where the alleged crime took place, Ziada filed his case in the Netherlands.

But in January 2020, the Hague district court ruled that it could not hear the matter, as Ziada was seeking financial compensation and that Gantz and Eshel possess “functional immunity from jurisdiction.”

Ziada had argued that the suggestion he file his lawsuit in Israel was “farcical as well as vicious.”

The Hague Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday that the lower court’s decision to reject the lawsuit was correct.

The court could not rule on Gantz and Eshel’s decisions made in the context of a military conflict because “a judgment on their actions will necessarily include a judgment on the actions of the State of Israel,” the judges wrote.

Israel’s Deputy Attorney General Roy Schondorf praised the ruling, writing on Twitter that the decision sets an “important legal precedent that safeguards Israel’s military commanders as a whole against similar [legal] attempts.”

According to AP reports, Hamas acknowledged that the air strike that killed Ziada’s family members also killed four members of the terror group, who were hiding in the same building.

Reuters and AP contributed to this report.

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Kibbutz Nirim issued a statement saying, “Moshe stood heroically not only in bereavement, but also in the circumstances of his life as a Holocaust survivor. … Moshe inspired pride and faith that anything is possible in all of us.”

By Benjamin Kerstein, The Algemeiner

An 88-year-old Holocaust survivor died by suicide on Sunday at the grave of his son, on the anniversary of his death on the last day of Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

The Eshkol Regional Council said that Moshe Etzion left his home in Kibbutz Nirim early Sunday, and that a search began for him several hours later, Israeli news site Walla reported.

Searchers eventually found him dead at the grave of his son Ze’ev “Zevik” Etzion.

Zevik was a security guard and paramedic at the kibbutz who was killed by a Hamas mortar strike during the 2014 conflict between Israel and the terrorist group.

Moshe’s daughter Samar Halperin said, “My father was an optimistic person who loved life. With everything he had been through in his life, a smile never left his face. He loved Israel and the kibbutz very much.”

“He did what he did out of love,” she said. “He didn’t want to be a burden on the family. … He decided when, how, and where to do it.”

She added that Moshe had driven Palestinian children in need of medical care from checkpoints to hospitals in Israel, and lectured frequently to students and soldiers about his Holocaust experience.

Kibbutz Nirim issued a statement saying, “Moshe stood heroically not only in bereavement, but also in the circumstances of his life as a Holocaust survivor. … Moshe inspired pride and faith that anything is possible in all of us.”

Etzion leaves behind a wife, his daughter, and several grandchildren.

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The last time that Israel deployed ground forces in Gaza was during Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

In an apparent warning to Hamas, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that Israel would not hesitate to invade “enemy territory” during its next war.

Speaking at a memorial ceremony for soldiers killed in the Second Lebanon War, Gantz appeared to be addressing the Gaza-based terror group.

“In the next operations or, God forbid, wars, when we have to reach the depths of the enemy again, our [military] forces, which are comprised of both regular [soldiers] and reservists – will enter swiftly and powerfully, and will be a central part of the fighting,” said Gantz.

“We will activate [ground forces] if required. Not lightly, but with the knowledge and understanding that the full force of the army is required, powerful…and ready for the challenges before us.”

It’s believed that in general, Israel prefers to mitigate the potential for IDF casualties by focusing on aerial strikes, rather than boots on the ground.

The last time that Israel deployed ground forces in Gaza was during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, during which some 40 IDF soldiers were killed during in ground battles in the Strip.

Gantz said that while Israel prefers peace to conflict, the Jewish State will not hesitate to use its “full capabilities,” even in neighboring countries, such as Lebanon.

“Attempts to quietly infiltrate our borders do not go unnoticed, and we keep our eyes open, act routinely and are prepared for extensive operations, even in emergencies,” he added.

During Operation Guardian of the Walls in May, Hezbollah encouraged Lebanese protesters to approach the border fence with Israel.

At least four rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel during the May conflict. The Iron Dome missile defense system successfully intercepted the rockets.

Gantz’s remarks come on the heels of statements by Hamas, insinuating that if Israel does not release some $30 million in Qatari aid money, the terror group will respond with a violent escalation.

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Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano said, “The first stage of Operation Guardian of the Walls is over. We are ready for the next stage, because what we did isn’t enough.”

By Ben Kerstein, The Algemeiner

The head of IDF Southern Command told Israel’s Channel 13 on Thursday that the IDF is preparing for “the next stage” of Israel’s latest conflict with Hamas, which ended in a ceasefire on May 21.

Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano said, “The first stage of Operation Guardian of the Walls is over. We are ready for the next stage, because what we did isn’t enough.”

“The operation will end definitively when the security reality changes for real,” he asserted. “We have to fully exploit the operation we have already begun.”

Toledano also addressed the difference between Guardian of the Walls and 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, which lasted longer and involved the use of ground forces.

“In contrast to Hamas, which thought that we would continue from where we ended in Protective Edge, we came with a new kind of operation,” he said.

In particular, he noted, Israel relied on strong intelligence information, which allowed the IDF to use “tools that we brought quickly into the field, tools that we built over recent years that bring victory.”

Regarding Hamas itself, Toledano asserted, “They fire from built-up areas into the center of our cities. They are war criminals twice over.”

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