hostages - Page 3

President Joe Biden said late Thursday night that the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran, on Wednesday “has not helped” as he urged all sides to move toward a ceasefire that would end the war in Gaza.

President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed the complex prisoner-swap deal with Russia that freed unjustly imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and two others in exchange for prisoners including Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov as a prodigious “feat of diplomacy.”

Israel marked 300 days on Thursday since the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, noting that over 100 hostages are still in captivity in Gaza, with perhaps half of them still thought to be alive.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Friday with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, exchanging warm handshakes and discussing efforts to free the remaining Israeli hostages still in captivity in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a stern rebuke Wednesday to left-wing critics who have targeted former hostage Noa Argamani and her father for daring to accompany him on his trip to the United States, as if that meant giving him political support.

Two Israeli hostages were declared Monday to have been murdered in Hamas captivity in Gaza: Alex Dancyg, 75, a Holocaust educator from Kibbutz Nir Oz; and musician Yagev Buchshtav, 35, from Kibbutz Nirim.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump threatened countries and terrorist organizations currently holding American hostages in his speech Thursday at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, took on antisemitism and anti-Israel terror in a moving set of speeches on Wednesday night featuring a Harvard student and an American-Israeli hostage family.

Noa Argamani, 25, one of the four Israeli hostages rescued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a daring raid last month, will accompany Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his visit to address Congress next week.

The families of five female Israeli hostages published images taken during their first days in captivity in Gaza after October 7 in an effort to draw attention to their plight. The images of Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniella

The U.S. Treasury accidentally sanctioned an Israeli man who had nothing to do with a protest movement that President Joe Biden’s administration has been targeting at the behest of radical anti-Israel organizations.

The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, kicked off Monday with several invocations. One portion of the invocations included a special prayer for the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Friday that Israel has no intention of withdrawing from the Gaza-Egypt border, known as the Philadelphi corridor, in a hostage deal, despite media reports to the contrary.

The majority of Israelis reject the terms of an emerging deal with the Hamas terrorist organization to release some of the remaining 120 hostages in return for a temporary ceasefire and the release of hundreds of convicted terrorists.

IDF soldiers in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood discovered and demolished six terror tunnels that included weapons and valuable troves of intelligence.

Israel says that a successful Rafah operation and military pressure in general are leading Hamas to show a greater willingness to compromise and to reach a deal to release Israeli hostages in exchange for a pause in the war in Gaza.

The Palestinian terror group Hamas has reportedly dropped a key demand that Israel agree never to fight it again, as a condition for releasing its remaining hostages, according to media reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that Hamas remains the obstacle to a hostage deal because the terrorist group is insisting on an “unacceptable” clause that would force Israel to end the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back Tuesday on a report in the New York Times that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is low on ammunition and prepared to seek a ceasefire in Gaza that allows Hamas to survive.

Liora Argamani, 61, the mother of freed Israeli hostage Noa Argamani, passed away on Tuesday in Israel after a lengthy battle with cancer. It had been her fervent wish to see her daughter again before she passed away.

“Since the massacre on October 7th, multiple decisions by your administration have undercut Israel’s efforts to bring U.S. Hostages home…”

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi told soldiers on Sunday night in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, that they have nearly succeeded in dismantling Hamas’s remaining battalions in the area.

In light of the recent dramatic rescue of four Israeli hostages held by Palestinian civilians, a legal expert and military specialist are urging a reevaluation of use of the term “Palestinian civilian,” arguing that those participating in hostilities, such as hostage-taking and other Hamas crimes, lose their civilian status under international law.

The office of Russia’s Prosecutor General announced on Thursday that American journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been held for over a year without charges, has been formally accused of espionage and will be tried in Yekaterinburg. The date of the trial has not yet been announced.

Israeli agents — including women — infiltrated into the city of Nuseirat in central Gaza and gathered intelligence for weeks before the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a successful raid on Saturday to rescue four Israeli hostages.

The mother of 19-year-old Israeli hostage Liri Albag told the media Friday that freed hostage Noa Argamani said that female Israeli hostages, including Albag, were used as slaves in a “luxury villa” in Gaza, doing forced domestic labor.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reportedly says that there were 104 Palestinians killed in Saturday’s successful hostage rescue in Nusierat, Gaza — all of whom were combatants.

“No one has any idea” how many of the remaining 116 Israeli hostages are still alive, a senior Hamas official told CNN in an interview that aired Thursday.

President Joe Biden told reporters at the G7 summit in Italy that Hamas was responsible for blocking a proposed ceasefire and hostage deal that had the approval of the United Nations Security Council and the Israeli government.

Israeli hostages who were freed in a rescue operation Saturday reportedly confirmed that they had been held by Palestinian journalist Abdallah Aljamal — but a CNN story about the claim continues to say it is “without … evidence.”

Left-wing Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo repeated pro-Hamas propaganda about four rescued Israeli hostages on Saturday, using the phrase “4 for 274” to claim that the cost in Palestinian lives during the operation was too high.

Israeli hostages were forced by their Palestinian captors to recite the Quran and Islamic prayers every day, according to one of the hostages freed in a daring raid on Saturday.

The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Israel may have committed war crimes when it rescued four hostages from Hamas.

Pro-Hamas protesters targeted an exhibition in New York City on Monday about the Supernova (or Nova) music festival, where terrorists murdered roughly 400 people and took dozens of hostages during the October 7 attack.

The BBC is facing significant backlash for suggesting the Israeli military should have warned Palestinians before rescuing four hostages.

NBC News on Monday quoted four current and former senior U.S. officials who said the Biden administration has been working on a “unilateral deal with Hamas to secure the release of five Americans being held hostage in Gaza.”