Israel News
Daily Alert
Gaza's Food Crisis Is Due to Failed Distribution, Not Lack of Supply
on August 13, 2025
(Quillette-Australia) Maj. (ret.) Andrew Fox -
Gaza's humanitarian crisis has become a focal point of international debate and widespread misinformation. Distinguishing fact from fiction is crucial to understanding Gaza's aid crisis and holding the correct parties accountable.
We do know that Gaza's two million residents have faced severe shortages of food, water, and medicine since the war began. We also know that by early summer, millions of tons of aid had entered Gaza, and that the U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation delivered over 100 million meals within two months. What we do not know with certainty is how much aid has actually reached Gaza's most vulnerable citizens, or how many people have truly died from starvation rather than other causes.
The sheer volume of aid sent into Gaza should have prevented mass starvation. From November 2024 onwards, daily convoys carried enough food to meet the population's basic needs, and warehouses in Gaza filled up during ceasefires.
However, supply is not the same as access, and much of this aid did not reach those who needed it most. The final stage of distribution broke down, particularly for families without ties to powerful factions of influential clans or militant groups. In short, Gaza's crisis was one of distribution failure rather than a lack of food.
Most notably, Hamas authorities in Gaza actively undermined the distribution process. From the war's outset, Hamas openly refused any responsibility for civilian well-being. Hamas built tunnels to protect its fighters but not bomb shelters to protect Gaza's citizens. Moreover, maintaining a degree of civilian deprivation has served Hamas's interests, both financially and as propaganda.
These troubling realities challenge the simple story that Israel's blockade alone caused starvation in Gaza. Sensational claims of imminent famine spread faster than the more straightforward truth that aid is available but not always reaching people.
The writer, who served in the British Army in 2005-21, is a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and a lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
Israel Said in Talks with Indonesia, Libya, Others about Taking Gazans
on August 13, 2025
(Times of Israel) Israel is in talks with Indonesia, Somaliland, Uganda, and Libya about potentially accepting resettled Palestinians from Gaza, Israel's Channel 12 reported Wednesday. "Some of the countries are showing greater openness than before to accepting voluntary immigration from Gaza," a diplomatic source said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told i24News on Tuesday that Israel is in contact with "several countries" about absorbing displaced Gazan civilians. "I think this is the most natural thing. All those who are concerned for the Palestinians and say they want to help the Palestinians should open their doors to them. What are you preaching to us for? We're not pushing them out - we're enabling them to leave...first of all, [leaving] combat zones, and also the Strip itself, if they want to."
Israel Enables Hundreds to Leave Gaza for Medical Care Each Month
on August 13, 2025
(Times of Israel) Nurit Yohanan -
Israel has played a role in facilitating the exit of thousands of ill and injured Gazans to Arab countries, Europe and elsewhere, along with family members accompanying them. Following the closure of the Rafah Border Crossing into Egypt in 2024, Israel started using the Kerem Shalom Crossing to evacuate Palestinians via its own territory. Some 2,500 Gazans were allowed to exit from mid-March to July 2025, representing 500-600 a month.
Israel has allowed thousands of Gazan patients and those accompanying them to exit and travel to the West Bank's Allenby Bridge Crossing into Jordan and receiving treatment there or fly to further destinations that agreed to take them in and treat them. In Feb. 2025, Israel began allowing them to leave via direct charter flights from Ramon Airport in the Negev.
Ben-Gurion University Prof. Dorit Nitzan, who spent 20 years coordinating evacuations from disaster zones worldwide during her work with the World Health Organization (WHO), said, "Since March 2025, Israel's security apparatus...has significantly eased the process for patients to travel for treatment outside Gaza....Every week there's at least one evacuation, ranging from dozens to hundreds of people - depending on the receiving countries' capacity."
Countries that agree to receive patients and their companions must cover hospital costs and, in the case of children, enroll them in the local education system. "A country isn't just taking in the patient - it's also taking in siblings or parents, funding their stay, and integrating them into schools. It's not simple," Nitzan said. Nitzan identified the need to find third countries as a major bottleneck in the process of securing treatment for sick or wounded Gazans.
According to WHO, Egypt has received the most patients to date, followed by the UAE, Qatar, and Turkey. Other countries that have taken patients include the U.S., Jordan, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Romania, UK, Netherlands and Norway.
Video: Hamas Used Fake Humanitarian Vehicle to Target IDF Soldiers in Gaza
on August 13, 2025
(Jerusalem Post) In a targeted airstrike last week, the IDF killed five armed fighters near a vehicle marked with the emblem of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) near Deir al-Balah in Gaza, the military announced Tuesday. It said the fighters "deliberately affixed the emblem [on the vehicle] and wore yellow vests in an attempt to conceal their activity and avoid being targeted, cynically exploiting the status and trust afforded to aid organizations." The IDF Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) confirmed with WCK that it had not been connected to the vehicle.
Israeli Software Provider Sapiens to Be Bought by U.S. Firm for $2.5 Billion
on August 13, 2025
(Times of Israel) Sharon Wrobel -
Israeli financial software company Sapiens said Wednesday that it had signed an agreement to be purchased by U.S. private equity firm Advent International in a cash deal worth $2.5 billion. Founded in 1982, Sapiens is a developer of AI-powered applications and software solutions to help insurance companies cut costs by automating operations. Sapiens employs 5,000 workers, including 800 based in Israel. Its software platform is used by 600 customers across 30 countries.
Israel's Elbit Awarded $1.6 Billion European Defense Contract
on August 13, 2025
(Globes) Eitan Gerstenfeld -
Elbit Systems reported on Wednesday a $1.6 billion contract for the supply of a range of defense solutions to a European country over five years. Products include long-range precision strike artillery-rocket systems, reconnaissance and loitering aerial combat drones, electronic warfare systems, intelligence collection and processing systems, and advanced electro-optical and night-vision systems.
Peace Cannot Coexist with Terrorism
on August 13, 2025
(JNS) Amb. Mike Huckabee, Yehuda Kaploun, and Mark Walker -
As the Hamas terrorist organization teeters on the edge of extinction, its tactics have become even more grotesque and desperate. Hamas's actions are fueled by a radical ideology rooted in hatred and violence. Recent footage showing a starved hostage, forced to dig his own grave, offers a horrifying glimpse into their operations. These images are the truth of what Hamas represents: A ruthless regime that profits from pain.
Any notion that Hamas should have a role in Gaza's future is not only naive, it is dangerously irresponsible. Including Hamas in any form of leadership would be like inviting the Nazis to help rebuild post-war Europe. Peace cannot coexist with terrorism. So long as Hamas holds power, Gaza's people will remain imprisoned by violence.
America's leaders stand firm in rejecting Hamas's legitimacy, demand the immediate release of all hostages, alive and dead, and refuse to soften their stance in the face of terror. The moment demands moral clarity and unwavering resolve.
The hostages are not political pawns; they are human beings whose lives hang in the balance. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent must be empowered to deliver aid, food, medicine and other essentials to those suffering in captivity. This is a human-rights crisis that demands a global response. Neutrality in the face of evil is not virtue; it is surrender.
The Futility of Compassion for Those Who Want to Kill You
on August 13, 2025
(JNS) Jonathan S. Tobin -
The notion that the Gaza conflict is only between Israel and Hamas, and not the Palestinian people, is mistaken. Many of those who crossed the border between Gaza and Israel on Oct. 7 and took part in the orgy of mass murder, rape, torture, kidnapping, and wanton destruction were ordinary Arab civilians. Palestinian civilians not only supported Hamas but cheered on the terrible deeds done in their name.
Almost all of the freed Israeli hostages reported that their captors, who sexually abused, starved and tortured them, were ordinary people and not just armed cadres. Not a single Palestinian civilian helped an Israeli escape, not even to collect the $5 million reward that Israel offered for information as to their whereabouts.
As has long been apparent to those willing to see beyond their idealistic projection of good feelings onto those who hate Israel, the conflict is not just carried on by a few terrorists but by the Palestinian people as a whole. Sadly, their national identity is inextricably tied to the century-old war on the Jewish presence in this tiny country. That is why their leaders have rejected peace offers involving an independent Palestinian state, going back to 1947.
The world now knows that Hamas and the Palestinians cannot be bought off with money or food. Their cause is not the struggle for a better life but to destroy Israel. And, as they've demonstrated in the last 22 months, they are willing to sacrifice as many of their own people on the altar of that cause as necessary.
Compassion, even for one's enemies, may seem high-minded. And, of course, we deplore all the deaths and the suffering that this war has brought to both sides. However, when it is applied to those who wish you dead, it becomes an incentive for hate, not an act of kindness.
Hamas Bears Full Responsibility for the Carnage since Oct. 7
on August 13, 2025
(RealClear World) J.T. Young -
Over almost two years since Oct. 7, Hamas has not slackened its zeal for killing Israelis; only its means for doing so have been diminished. When it releases hostages, it only does so on terms heavily favorable to it; it steadfastly refuses to release all the hostages it holds.
Hamas bears full responsibility for the carnage since Oct. 7, not only in Israel but in Gaza too. Implicitly, the world knows Hamas will never stop killing, because it has no other purpose and no greater aim. The world cannot appeal to Hamas's humanity because the world knows Hamas has none to which it can appeal. So the world instead takes the easier route and presses Israel to stop what Hamas has brought on itself and Gaza but refuses to stop.
Nations - Britain, France, and Canada - who demanded unconditional surrender for WWII's Axis powers - are validating everything Hamas has done, calling for a Palestinian state while Hamas retains the reins of government in Gaza. Never has Gaza shown itself less capable of self-government; never has such a state's justification been less valid; never has Israel had less confidence in such a state's future or its own security.
An Allegedly Civilized World Genuflects to Hamas
on August 13, 2025
(Toronto Sun-Canada) Star Parker -
Suppose we had an incident like what Israel suffered on Oct. 7, 2023. The equivalent of 1,200 murdered in Israel is over 44,000 Americans. Suppose they, like what Israel suffered through, were not just murdered but violently raped and sexually mutilated.
Would we negotiate with these creatures? Would their demands touch sympathetic chords among our population? Could we even imagine granting them sovereignty next to us, knowing their great dream is that we are eliminated?
The Israelis would have to be crazy to concede autonomy to a Palestinian state with a history of terror. There are some 50 majority-Muslim countries in the world. There is one Jewish state. No solution will be reached if those who pretend to represent the civilized world give credibility to depraved murderers.
Will Iran Get the Bomb?
on August 13, 2025
(Royal United Service Institute-UK) Darya Dolzikova and Matthew Savill -
More than a month after the Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities and scientists, the full extent of the damage to the Iranian nuclear program remains unclear. Yet, the exact extent of the material damage is secondary. Iran does not have to reconstitute the whole of its program to be able to produce a nuclear weapon and could, in fact, probably do so relatively quickly, should it decide to.
The more challenging question is over the impact of the "12-day war" on Iran's assessments and decision-making as to the value and feasibility of developing a credible nuclear deterrent. Recent developments have probably reinforced incentives for Iran to pursue a nuclear weapon. The attacks have made painfully clear the ineffectiveness of Iran's other capabilities to deter and defend against attacks on its territory. In light of the Israeli degradation of both Hamas and Hizbullah and following the underwhelming performance of Iranian missiles, the limitations of Iran's "forward defense" strategy have become clear.
However, intent to develop a nuclear deterrent is not sufficient. A single nuclear warhead - or even a small arsenal of nine or ten nuclear weapons - would not be a survivable deterrent. Such a small stockpile would be immediately targeted by Israel and, probably, the U.S. As the war demonstrated, Iran's air and missile defenses are unable to meet the requirements of defending Iran against a concerted Israeli attack.
Darya Dolzikova is a Senior Research Fellow with RUSI's Proliferation and Nuclear Policy program. Matthew Savill is Director of Military Sciences at RUSI after a career at the UK Ministry of Defence.
Toronto Film Festival Cancels Screening of Oct. 7 Documentary because Hamas Didn't Give Permission to Use Its Film Clips of Massacres
on August 13, 2025
(Times of Israel) Zev Stub -
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) announced that it had canceled its screening of a documentary about the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks because the filmmakers did not receive permission from the Hamas terrorists whose clips are featured. The movie features footage taken from the cameras of terrorists, who filmed their atrocities as they marauded through Israeli communities.
Hamas Livestreamed Its Massacre to the World - that's Public Domain
on August 13, 2025
(Times of Israel) Sarah Tuttle-Singer -
When Hamas terrorists stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, murdering more than 1,200 people in a single day, they filmed these atrocities as they committed them and livestreamed their footage to the world. Less than two years later - while hostages are still rotting in terror tunnels - the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) decided this story is too risky to show because the filmmakers did not obtain permission from the perpetrators of the massacre.
Let that sink in. A major international film festival is effectively saying: unless the murderers sign a waiver, the massacre cannot be seen. As comedian Benji Lovitt put it, "Imagine the Nuremberg Trials refusing Nazi footage because they didn't get Goebbels to sign a waiver." The Allied forces at the Nuremberg Trials used the footage as evidence because the world needed to see the truth.
Film festivals have shown films that use footage from Nazis, from ISIS, from warlords and death squads across the globe. No one demanded copyright clearance from Osama bin Laden's estate. So why now? The answer is obvious: Jewish suffering has become politically inconvenient. Jews are the "wrong" kind of victims.
This is not about clearance. This is about fear. Fear of protests, fear of disruption, fear of the headlines that might follow. And fear that folks will also have to reckon with Jewish trauma and suffering. The survivors of Oct. 7 do not need TIFF to validate their truth. But the world does need to see what happened - unvarnished, unblurred, unedited by the sensitivities of the comfortable.
The Media's Shameful Attempt to Humanize Terrorists, Downplay Israeli Victims
on August 13, 2025
(National Post-Canada) Avi Benlolo -
How do you turn terrorists into victims and victims into terrorists? Look at the international media's treatment of Hizbullah and Hamas. Last week, the Associated Press (AP) published a photo essay on the "human toll" of Israel's precision pager attack on Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon and laments the injuries suffered mainly by those who were actively engaged in a terror campaign against the Jewish state.
For nearly a year, Hizbullah rained down rockets on Israeli towns, displacing more than 60,000 civilians from their homes in Israel's north. These Israelis were abandoned by the world and erased by the very journalists who now empathize with Hizbullah.
On Sept. 17, 2024, after almost a year of constant aggression, Israel responded with a targeted strike using "pager bombs" that incapacitated dozens of Hizbullah operatives and ultimately eliminated the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The pager attack, and the brief war that followed, were successful in halting Hizbullah's rockets.
Where is the international media's coverage of the Israeli victims? What of the thousands who were evacuated from their homes, the wounded IDF soldiers now learning to walk with prosthetic limbs after stepping on improvised explosive devices in Gaza or the Israeli hostages who are still being held by Hamas in inhumane conditions?
Recently, a German newspaper revealed that Hamas had staged propaganda photos of Gazans holding empty pots - images that were published by major outlets. Professional photographers, some affiliated with major international news agencies, directed the civilians in these staged photos to simulate starvation.
For AP, Hizbullah Terrorists Are the Sympathetic Victims
on August 13, 2025
(The Hill) Becket Adams -
AP published a report last week titled, "Survivors of Israel's pager attack on Hizbullah struggle to recover." Israel targeted Hizbullah terrorists and their officers - booby-trapping and detonating the pager devices they rely on for secure communications. The devices were designed to wound rather than kill, in order to create maximum disruption among Hizbullah's leadership at a moment when it was already firing rocket barrages into Israel.
By any reasonable measure, the pager operation shows concern for the civilian population where Hizbullah embeds its soldiers. Yet here is the AP with a report, complete with original photos, portraying Israel as having a reckless disregard for civilian life. In a story about terrorists who have waged a decades-long war against Israel, it is the terrorists and their associates who receive sympathetic treatment, almost as if they were heroes.
The writer is program director for the National Journalism Center in Washington.
Radical Activists in the International Community System Set the Anti-Israel Agenda
on August 13, 2025
(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Tirza Shorr -
Anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish rhetoric at the UN and associated bodies is nothing new. Many members of the UN professional corps reflect this bias and embrace the postcolonial indoctrination that has swept academia, the media, and the general social discourse.
Radical activists in key UN positions have utilized international community institutions to promote and advance terrorist entities. Politically active academics who disseminate biased narratives in international institutions have become the norm. Doctrinaire activism has seeped into every crevice of international community institutions.
The writer is a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center.
The Twisted Logic behind Recognition of Palestinian Statehood
on August 13, 2025
(Mosaic) Robert Satloff -
France, Britain, and Canada have announced their intention to extend full diplomatic recognition to the "state of Palestine" at the UN General Assembly next month. Recognition of Palestinian statehood may address some domestic political needs in Europe and Canada but it will do nothing to assuage the concerns of the constituency that matters most - Israel's voting public - which fears the dangers to its safety that might accompany Palestinian statehood, rejects the idea by a large majority, and has elected successive governments that reflect that view.
It is difficult to see the mechanism by which even near-global recognition of Palestinian statehood translates that concept into fact. The unalterable reality that has governed diplomacy since 1967 is that Israel needs to be convinced that its security will be enhanced, not threatened, by territorial withdrawal and the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state.
This requires winning over Israel's increasingly skeptical public, a fact that countries who choose the easy symbolism of recognizing a Palestinian state seem to ignore. The deeper reality is that the second intifada and two decades of diplomatic stalemate followed by the trauma of Oct. 7 have turned the vast Israeli center against the two-state solution.
The writer is executive director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Western Recognition of a Palestinian State Is a Betrayal of Israel
on August 13, 2025
(Israel Hayom) Amnon Lord -
On July 30, Robert Malley and Hussein Agha, known for their pro-Palestinian positions, published an op-ed in the UK's Guardian warning that Britain and France's recognition of a Palestinian state would actually undermine efforts to end the Gaza war. "This step is completely detached from reality and contradicts its own stated goals. It will do nothing to bring the sides closer to a two-state solution."
Israeli officials said the move amounts to giving a gift to terrorism. A terrorist organization that has effectively become an army, attacking Israel with a level of barbarism unseen since the Holocaust, is now being rewarded. Israel views the recognition moves not merely as betrayal but as active support by Western governments for Hamas and its Oct. 7 massacre. These Western governments have lowered Hamas's motivation to agree to a ceasefire or a hostage-release deal.
The fact remains that the Palestinians have no functioning governing or state infrastructure worthy of recognition. When they have been granted territory and the opportunity to govern, the entity created has descended into violent barbarism. Hamas's brutal aggression is directed not only at Israel but also at the civilians of Gaza, a level of exploitation of one's own population that experts say has no precedent in history.
The Palestinian Authority's WAFA News Agency Sets the Stage for Terror
on August 13, 2025
(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch and Margaux Jubin -
The Palestinian News & Information Agency (WAFA), initially established by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), acts as the official Palestinian state-run news service. WAFA has persistently encouraged and legitimized violence and incitement against Israel.
The Jerusalem Center examined every English-language WAFA publication in July 2025 classified as "Latest news." The study found that 99.9% of WAFA's coverage related to Israel was explicitly negative, spreading false and dangerous narratives.
WAFA's incessant campaign of demonization of Israel exposes the sobering reality of how PA media has been weaponized to poison public sentiment regarding Israel, entrenching a baseless narrative rooted in falsehood. The recurring use of inflammatory words such as "genocide," "massacre," and "war crimes" is intentional incitement. The result is a violent culture in which society's grasp of reality is warped by propaganda.
Nowhere on its site is there reporting on Palestinian peace efforts or of any initiative aimed at coexistence with Israel. WAFA never criticizes the PA and never mentions the rampant corruption of the Palestinian leadership. WAFA's goal is to ensure that its readers are only exposed to an uninterrupted flow of injustice, victimhood, and rage.
Maurice Hirsch, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, is director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center, where Margaux Jubin is an intern.
The Palestinians Remain the Greatest Obstacle to Palestinian Statehood
on August 13, 2025
(JNS) Gil Troy -
Today, Palestinian leaders keep sabotaging any serious attempt at Palestinian statehood. Palestinian extremists may be running the world's oldest diplomatic con. They get the world to condemn Israel for opposing a two-state solution, while mainstream Palestinian ideology seeks a one-state solution "from the river to the sea."
Most Westerners solve problems by division - giving each side half a loaf. Jihadists solve problems by annihilation - taking everything when you can, conceding nothing, especially against Jews - or Christians. To Westerners, compromising with enemies reflects strong character. To jihadists, compromising conveys weakness - and is a green light inviting aggressive attacks.
The writer, a Distinguished Scholar of North American History at McGill University, is a Senior Fellow in Zionist Thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute.
Gen Amidror: Israel Has Been Managing the War Very Wisely
on August 13, 2025
(X) Uriel Schachter -
Former Israeli national security advisor Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror was interviewed recently on Ha'aretz's podcast. These were his main points:
Let's start with the big picture: The war we are in was forced upon us on Oct. 7. Since then, the State of Israel has been managing it very wisely. First and foremost, by not being tempted by all sorts of proposals to expand the war simultaneously on several fronts.
In the first stage, we dismantled Hamas as a military organization. It no longer exists as an organization, but it does exist as a bunch of cells that still operate in Gaza. Then, a little earlier than planned, we embarked on a war against Hizbullah. The Pager Operation turned out to be a great success, and almost all of Hizbullah's ability to fire at us was neutralized, and its leadership was destroyed.
Following the fall of Hizbullah - and the weakness of Iran which was revealed in our attack in Iran in October - the Syrian regime fell. This happened because the forces around Syria realized that Assad was weak and sent the rebels to finish the job there. Finally, Iran gave us the opportunity to attack it, because it directly attacked us twice. As a result, we went on a very, very successful 12-day war in Iran.
Today there is no central force in Hamas that is capable of managing the forces, gathering intelligence on the State of Israel, producing weapons, or managing smuggling into the Strip in an orderly manner.
But Hamas is still the dominant force in Gaza, it still has many cells that are capable of operating against the IDF, and it still holds Israeli hostages. It is also still able to prevent any external body that wants to manage and rehabilitate the Strip from doing so unless that body allows Hamas to de facto control the Strip.
If Hamas remains in power in any deal to end the war in exchange for hostages, that is a surrender to Hamas. This would be Hamas's narrative: that it won the war. This will affect not only Gaza but the whole way Israel is perceived in the region.
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