Sometimes I think of an alternate timeline in which the international community reacted in any kind of reasonable way to October 7 instead of how it actually reacted, how much of the bloodshed and violence could have been prevented if anything beyond occasional lipservice had been paid to rescuing the hostages as soon as possible, how many lives could have been saved (and yes, I'm very much including Palestinian lives here).
Sometimes, by the way, is a lot. I think about this a lot.
But it didn't happen that way. That timeline doesn't exist. It should, but it doesn't, and there's so much blood on so many hands.
Today, I am so angry and sad that I'm nearly numb. I keep trying to find the words to articulate my multidirectional anger (and many are the targets of my rage). They won't come. Rob Eshman did a much better job of it than I ever could.
The British Museum is proud to participate in Jewish Culture Month, which celebrates 1,000 years of shared British Jewish history.
This is the Jewish History Month lecture that the British Museum had to postpone for security concerns. In-person tickets sold out very quickly, but you can also attend via Zoom at the link. The lecture starts at 3:30 PM British time tomorrow/today, June 11, which may be a more convenient time for some of my readership than it is for me here in California.
The narrative leftists keep pushing keeps getting more insane: now some are saying Israel has been oppressing and genociding Palestinians for multiple CENTURIES. Wait a while and they'll start saying millions of years. It honestly would not surprise me in the slightest if they presented a fossilized animal from the region and started frothing at the mouth that it committed genocide or that the animal was an innocent Palestinian killed by the Zionist asteroid impact. They have been so unhinged and brain dead nothing would shock me at this point.
Yeah, the level of historical illiteracy and unhinged rhetoric is absolutely ludicrous - I literally just saw a post about someone claiming the history of Palestine was 12,500 years old which illustrates your point quite nicely. It is just so bizarre that they feel the need to pull such laughable “facts” out of their arseholes.
Palestinians deserve a movement that will advocate for them and for their rights and well being without resorting to hatred and bigotry and lies and outright distortion of reality, facts, and history, and they absolutely do not have that unfortunately.
You heard it here first, folks; Palestine was founded during the Younger Dryas Period.
I'm sure Graham Hancock will be thrilled.
(Actually, he probably won't be, because his pseudoarchaeology grift hinges on pretending the Younger Dryas Period was almost enough to eradicate humanity, so for him to be right then nobody should have been founding anything at that time.)
I am still bitter about that guy making it so utterly impossible to even make fun of his side's revisionist history.
"Yeah, Palestinians are actually an offshoot of Homo georgicus. You could make a case for us/them actually being a member of genus Australopithicus, and you'd only be moderately wrong, mainly due to anthropological scholarly tradition rather than any definitive dividing line. This is the antiracist argument, fyi! If you think Palestinians are members of Homo sapiens then that makes you the real racist!"
War mongers like AOC are again talking about wanting to defund the Iron Dome
I cannot possibly overemphasize that the IDF is morally, politically, internally, and legally required to take the utmost steps to prevent mass casualties in Israel. In absence of defensive measures like the Iron Dome, and in the context of the truly comical number of rockets Hamas shoots at Israel, the IDF would have no option but to turn to offensive measures to stop the rockets from killing Israeli civilians.
By definition, as AOC and her ilk are proposing a scenario wherein Israel lacks its present defensive measures.
And, again, considering the sheer scale of rockets Hamas fires from so many positions embedded so deeply into civilian infrastructure, Plan - like - E would have to be "Turn Gaza Into A Parking Lot," with everything they tried first representing a gradient of devastation increasingly approaching that. The IDF would have to continue down the list until the rockets stopped.
If the incumbent government refused to stop the rockets, internal riots would overthrow them and replace them with one which will.
If the IDF refused to stop the rockets, an officer's coup would replace the leadership with people who will.
If the entire officer corps were mind controlled to forget about their families being killed by rockets, a soldiers coup would replace them and the higher ups with people who will.
I cannot possibly overstate the political fire that many rockets represent. Something which is only doused by the Iron Dome and similar defensive measures. It is the kind of thing that can completely restructure the priorities of an entire culture in six months.
Ten years ago, the world - including Japan - thought that Japan was never going to build another aircraft carrier. Just the political instability of the first Trump administration was such that Japan has subsequently built two. It doesn't matter that doing so is politically taboo and literally unconstitutional; Japan needed to have aircraft carriers, so aircraft carriers they acquired.
Israel needs to stop those rockets. In absence of the most palatable solution to the problem they have found, they would definitionally need to turn to a less palatable solution.
Anyone who wishes for this scenario has wished nothing but suffering and death upon Gaza.
And they don't care, just so long as one extra Jew dies too.
The purpose of the war with Iran, of course, is to make the Islamic Republic of Iran stop starting wars with them, and is also responsive to the Islamic Republic constantly openly making material efforts to forward the explicit cause of the extermination of Israelis. I don't think this is being done in the most efficient way, but it most certainly has a purpose.
As for why-Israel-doesn't-fund-it-themselves and why-the-US-funds-this-and-not-something-else, these are naturally linked. People talk about aid money Israel receives from the US, but underrecognized is that Israel isn't exactly receiving this money in the form of a briefcase full of unmarked bills. The majority of it, in fact, has to be spent in specific US defense industries.
This is to say, in practice, that this is one of the US government's obtuse ways to get around the fact that a well run economy needs government subsidies, but the US government is ideologically opposed to just subsidizing things. Gotta have hoops to jump through, or it isn't bootstrapie enough.
So in a sense, the US isn't giving Israel that money. It is subsidizing internal industries to stimulate its own economy and to ensure that it retains military production capabilities that may not always be profitable, but are still strategically important to maintain. Plus, you know, the corruption thing with reps voting for bills that mean that the government spends more money in their districts, regardless of actual practical utility. See also; our thing about producing wildly more tanks than we could possibly use, to the point that some of them have to go directly from the manufacturing line into the scrapyard.
Then, not having immediate need for the products of the subsidized industry, the US has some stuff it can freely give to allies and friendly governments. This serves to prop up allies that might otherwise struggle in some way, and also to firm up positive relations with these other countries. After all, America's allies serve as a vehicle for projecting American power, but those other countries are hardly doing that out of their patriotism for America. Nobody needs allies that insist on perfect neutrality, after all.
Which I'll pretend to have written as a segway into the next bit; why isn't Israel doing this domestically. Honestly, they probably can. Or at least, could, given enough time to reorganize their supply lines. Indeed, my understanding is that the ever increasing unreliability of America as an ally has inspired the Israeli parliament to vote to work to dramatically reduce Israel's reliance on American aid over the course of the next decade.
But why are they reliant on that aid now? Well, because obviously nobody wants to pay for something that they could be getting for free. The US is willing to Israel some free stuff as a byproduct of their internal rube-goldberg-subsidization system, the Israelis would be fools to reject that. And because this has been ongoing for long periods of time, Israel's buying habits have gradually shifted its own economy around such that they aren't building as much as they need of the stuff they can also get for free.
I guess I can't claim that "Its not that complicated," considering that it took me six paragraphs to describe it. Instead I'll just say that no part of this process is unusual.
Correction: The idea that Israel has to spend US aid money on US-made weapons/companies is not accurate. Israel is the actually the one exception to this otherwise common practice, and the current MOU allows Israel to spend a significant portion of these funds on developing its own weapons industry, specifically for the purpose that Israel would not be too heavily dependent on the US. This is referred to as "offshore procurement" (OP, or OSP in some documents). Rafael, Elbit, and IAI are the biggest beneficiaries of this.
It's difficult to get exact numbers on this, however, because the Israeli Ministry of Defense isn't required to maintain an audit trail. This is being phased out in recent years, though it was delayed due to the war in Gaza, I think it is starting back on again. And anyway, that doesn't cover direct arms transfers from the US to Israel.
Overall, Israel receives a genuinely exceptional amount of military aid from the US, which will become less and less sustainable as China gets closer and closer to being able to launch an invasion of Taiwan. This is not quite the same argument as what AOC is doing, but it is important to keep in mind, because decreased aid from the US at some point is essentially inevitable.
(Not all these links format nicely on tumblr but they're all government links except the last, which is Brown University.)
https://media.defense.gov/1996/Nov/22/2001713603/-1/-1/1/97-028.pdf (Old! Date is 1996; this is more for the purpose of showing what OP is)
'Jihad is a contemporary religious duty to 'liberate' Palestine from the Zionist Occupation,”
The resolution was adopted with 418 votes in favour, 207 against and 14 abstentions, calling for “the necessity for the Palestinian Authority to remove all educational materials and content that fail to adhere to UNESCO standards, particularly those encouraging antisemitism and inciting violence, to which Palestinian children should not be exposed.”
[...]
In fact, most of the content remained unchanged, a review by Euractiv found, often reproducing earlier editions verbatim. Revisions frequently removed neutral material, while leaving problematic content intact.
[...] Another allegedly revised Grade 12 Arabic textbook urges students to “return” to Israeli cities “with a weapon in your hand", using what Impact-se called “vivid, emotional verse to romanticise armed invasion in a way disturbingly reminiscent of the violence witnessed on 7 October 2023.”
An Islamic Education textbook also marked as revised portrays “the Jews” as liars and associates them with Satan.
Even some cosmetic revisions may not have been implemented. In an internal document issued by the PA ministry of education and seen by Euractiv, school principals were instructed to reinstate previously removed Grade 12 lessons “omitted in error”, including a lesson on jihad.
"It is the seventh consecutive year that the parliament has backed a resolution stating that Palestinian textbooks continue to include antisemitism, incitement to violence and glorification of martyrs and jihad."
this is the third year in a row that i've been seeing the same report, the same time of year, again and again: the european parliament - not israel, not the united states - finds that the palestinian authority's official education system is openly promoting antisemitism and "martyrdom". every year, the reports gets very minimal media attention. every year, the funding continues. SEVEN YEARS.
education is everything. can you imagine how many children have had "jews are evil, and you should aspire to die fighting them" drilled into their heads all this time? all directly funded by the eu? for YEARS? even after 7/10.
the silence on this is maddening.
What are your thoughts on the West Bank settlements?
I think the current situation in Area C (where Israel has full civil and security control) has to change. It is morally wrong that Arabs who are not Israeli citizens in Area C have no part in a government which decides so much about their lives.
Area C, though, has only 5% of Arabs in the West Bank.
About 55% of West Bank Arabs are in Area A (with PA civil and security control) and another ~40% are in Area B (with PA civil control and Israeli security control).
The PA was offered ~94% of the West Bank and ~6% of Israel proper in exchange for peace. The PA walked away from that sort of offer twice.
I think Israel's security forces (controlled by Itamar Ben-Gvir) are failing to treat Jewish violent terrorists in the West Bank the way all terrorists should be treated. Ben-Gvir helps legitimize Palestinian violence in the eyes of the international community, and I'd be grateful if some Israelis would teach me the appropriate Hebrew vocabulary for cursing him.
I think Israel doesn't really have a path available to leave the West Bank.
Think about it.
Imagine Israel decides to pull out of the West Bank unilaterally, like they did in Gaza in 2005. What would happen?
There'd be an immediate security vacuum, which would generate an armed contest for control. The PA wouldn't win all those contests, so there'd be at least a burst of violence between West Bank Arab factions.
Then the land would be used, as Gaza was as a staging ground from which to launch attacks on Israel.
Even if the PA decided for the first time that they'd be willing to offer security guarantees, they would be utterly incapable of delivering on them - because they're corrupt, incompetent, and incapable.
---
A way out would start with leaders who want peace, have a stake in peace, and who want a state more than they want to destroy Israel.
Such leadership would gain enormous amounts of international support (political and material) to build up the infrastructure to faciliate actual governance of the West Bank, making it possible for them to offer meaningful security gaurantees.
For more on what would have to happen for peace to become possible, see this (very long) series of posts
I think Israel doesn't really have a path available to leave the West Bank.
And that's what kills me about this whole mess.
I hate Ben Gvir. Just seeing him mentioned makes me sick. He and others like him are causing so much damage to Israel.
But it would be so much easier to get rid of them if literally anyone on the other side wanted peace. How can you keep convincing people to "be fair to both sides" when the other side murders your people at every opportunity they have?
But on a lighter note,
I'd be grateful if some Israelis would teach me the appropriate Hebrew vocabulary for cursing him.
There's a fantastic Hebrew word for him. Skhle. It's the bottom of the barrel, the last sip of a coke can that is 80% backwash, the juice dripping from a trash bag.
Hamas has wrapped up its latest revision of casualty data in the Gaza war, and it makes clear why Israel’s critics have been flailing since
Hamas has wrapped up its latest revision of casualty data in the Gaza war, and it makes clear why Israel’s critics have been flailing since the end of the war.
The list has enough information to cite 68,800 deaths. Hamas has lost 25,000 fighters, which leaves 44,000 war deaths to account for. Included in that 44,000 are about 10,000 natural deaths. The remaining 34,000 would include civilians killed by Israel and those killed by Hamas and associated militant groups—either by execution, rocket misfires, turf wars, and the like.
The result is that even when using Hamas’s numbers, Israel’s civilian-to-combatant death rate is close to 1:1, an unheard-of accomplishment in an urban war setting, let alone one in which much of the territory has been turned into Hamas human shields. Given that Hamas started the war, refused to surrender, and fired at Israel from civilian homes, the terrible tragedy of Gazan lives lost is laid at Hamas’s feet.
It feels pretty silly at this point to even consider the “genocide” accusation, but this is another opportunity to note that Hamas goaded its defenders out on that limb and then personally cut it off under their feet. While plenty of bad-faith actors have been accusing Israel of genocide since the war started, and are therefore immune to facts, I’m sure there are a number of decent folks who fell into the “genocide” trap because they followed a trend in the name of “human rights.” I do not envy the humiliation they are experiencing now, but neither do I find such people particularly sympathetic. They ought to feel bad about what they’ve said and done, and I hope they do.
People on this website will talk about how they have a "soft heart" and deserve a "soft epilogue" and are easily taken advantage of because they assume the best in people and then you go to their blogs and it's just ten million pages of them talking about how there's no such thing as an Israeli civilian and how antisemitism is a Jewish plot and all the Jews deserve to be torn apart by dogs.
hiding behind the Z word doesn’t actually make this less medieval in its prejudice, it’s just recycling ancient blood libel under the guise of “education”
Thankfully, UCL has now banned this speaker from campus, and UCL SJP is temporarily banned from hosting more events pending an investigation.
Unfortunately, another group will probably step up to continue hosting these types of events. Universities suspend groups, but they’re much more reluctant to impose real consequences on student organizers.
The various international definitions of things like “lecturer” are probably making this woman’s (former) importance at UCL inflated in people’s minds, as I’m sure she would like it to be. As of April 2025 she was a PhD student there (wayback link, since her research page is all of a sudden not there anymore!).
Since she’s now using the title “Dr.” I guess she’s either doing a postdoc now or just still claiming she’s a researcher at UCL after she’s actually finished her degree. Or, of course, she hasn’t actually finished her PhD yet and the SJP just styled her “Dr.” in the promotional materials because they felt like it, which would also be on brand.
It's never been about a "ceasefire" lmao. They want the NYT to retract a report about well-documented, clearly-evidenced sexual violence from Oct 7th because they are disgusting Jew-hating racists.
Simple as that. It's as simple as fucking that, they are hole-brained miserable ghouls who ought to be ashamed of themselves. But they never will be because this is just par for the course.
Our society is rotten with antisemitic gibberish.
One of the signatories here btw is Congresswoman Rashida Talib, who also shared a fake photoshopped poll claiming that 47% of Israelis believe they have the right to rape Palestinians. She left this tweet up for two days despite being immediately informed by about 10 million people that this was a fake photoshopped image. It's worth mentioning she also directly retweeted this image from Noura Erakat, a Palestinian-American activist and Rutgers University Professor, who was the original poster, who of course suffered no professional consequences for posting fake antisemitic misinformation that got shared by a Congresswoman and was seen by millions of people.
It was never about a cease-fire. It was never about helping people in Gaza. In the West this was always a neo Nazi hate movement that supported terrorism, and that was about destroying Israel and globalizing the intifada to kill all the Jews in the world.
If it was actually about Gaza and Palestinians, they wouldn’t repeatedly speak over actual Palestinian activists who actually want peace. They also wouldn’t have refused to work with the opposition parties in Israel that are against Netanyahu, the many Israeli pro-Palestine organizations, and with the 72% of Israelis that want Netanyahu out of power. They wouldn’t be silent over the fact that Hamas is currently marching through the streets of Gaza and torturing and slaughtering anyone they don’t like without even a sham trial. They wouldn’t be indifferent to the fact that aid is coming in. They would’ve started protesting, Hamas’s brutal rule back in 2005 after Israel’s withdrawal (as many Gazans risked their lives to do).
And they wouldn’t be rioting now because instead of being happy, they are enraged by the idea of peace.
Actual activists care about Palestinian rights and safety. These people just appropriated the terminology of a just and peaceful cause to try to make their Jew hatred and anti Israeli xenophobia mainstream and a lot of people fell for it and are complicit in the resulting violence and harm done to the Jews, Palestinians, the Palestinian cause, and Israelis.
We told you that those of us who actually care about Palestine were being undermined by this movement. We told you this movement was about hate. We told you it was not authentic. You didn’t want to listen. Now see the truth before your eyes.
They are so angry. They can’t control themselves anymore because more than anything they hate peace. You guys put “punch Nazis” in your bio, but you became the Nazi because you never bothered to learn about how the Nazis appealed to people or why their propaganda was so effective so you fell for it.
Roni fell and she hasn't been with us since that black day. This morning is happy and painful at the same time.
And at that time I thought to myself, what would have happened if she had surrendered that day before the fire at the military station...? Maybe this morning, Roni would return and we would celebrate with the other families of the kidnapped... A thought. A difficult and sad day with a lot of jealousy.
Daddy is in pain.
remember Roni Eshel, and the tatzpitaniyot. her father, who has advocated constantly for her, posted this yesterday. their families still await answers as to how and why their daughters were failed so tremendously.
Why were these women’s repeated warnings about a potential Hamas infiltration ignored?
Roni Eshel served at the Nahal Oz post and was initially listed as missing following the Oct. 7 attacks. In November 2023, after 34 days of
The family of IDF observer Roni Eshel received her recovered belongings - her beret from the Nahal Oz outpost and rings found in a northern
March 21, 2025
The family of IDF observer Roni Eshel, who was killed at the Nahal Oz outpost on October 7, received her personal items recovered by the military from Gaza, her father, Eyal, stated on Thursday.
Eyal described receiving his daughter’s belongings as a “message of hello” on X/Twitter.
The family had received her military beret and several rings, which had been found in two separate locations, Eyal explained to Israel Hayom.
Her beret was found inside the Nahal Oz observation post, burnt and covered in soot, and after they were able to restore it, it was DNA tested and found to have belonged to Roni.
The rings were found in the Zeytun neighborhood in northern Gaza; they had been stolen.
They were apparently found at the same time that Roni's ID and license were found in Gaza, it just took a while for the results to come in and they realized that it was indeed ours,” Eyal told Yisrael Hayom.
“We went through an identification process, a DNA test - and confirmed that the rings did indeed belong to her. It wasn't difficult to identify them, and they appear to be in excellent condition,"
Eyal said the family had not expected to receive the items – nor did they know they existed.
“I know that many of Roni's items were stolen at the time - but today it was a good surprise, thanks to which Roni is much more present.”
Who was Roni Eshel?
Sgt. Roni Eshel was a 19-year-old observation soldier who loved pop culture and Taylor Swift. She was presumed missing for over a month until the IDF confirmed she had been murdered during the October 7 massacre.
To commemorate her memory, her loved ones created “Chardonnay Roni,” honoring her love for white wine.
The label of the wine depicts the North Star and the Circle of Life – the necklaces that Roni wore around her neck.
“If you do it with a smile, everything will be easier” was Roni Eshel’s motto.
The Eshel family is seeking support for the next stage of the park’s development, ensuring that Roni’s legacy continues to inspire generatio
October 6, 2025
“Roni loved fruit, and she loved children,” says Eyal Eshel, father of Roni Eshel, the IDF surveillance observer who was murdered on October 7, 2023, by Hamas terrorists. In August 2024, Eshel and his family opened Park Roni, a four-dunam public park in the heart of their hometown of Tzur Yitzchak in central Israel. The park includes a trail, children’s treehouses, picnic areas, two community garden beds with herbs, and 100 fruit trees that produce grapefruits, lemons, afghan strawberries, pears, loquats, and carobs.
“The entire park is for children and adults who seek quiet and serenity and is a magical corner in the heart of Tzur Yitzchak,” says Eyal.
In addition to the fruit trees, greenery, and play areas, Park Roni features two observation posts donated by the Defense Ministry, which contain the same type of equipment that Roni operated in her post at the Nahal Oz military base. Tomorrow evening, October 7, at 6 PM at Park Roni, the family will commemorate their daughter’s memory and life.
The family is currently seeking funds to expand and build the second section of the park, which will include seating areas for students, a coffee cart, and additional areas for children. Construction is expected to begin after the holidays, and Eshel anticipates that it will be completed by late January or early February.
“The pain of what took place on October 7 is present every day,” says Eyal, “but is especially felt in the hours before the anniversary, and it will continue to affect us all, not just for ourselves, the bereaved family, but for the entire State of Israel, which experienced a tragedy of biblical proportions on that day. I want everyone to remember Roni’s smile and understand that her entire being was about giving. She also had a sense of responsibility — she felt responsible to stay at her post until the very last minute. That’s the kind of responsibility I expect from our leaders, and that’s the type of responsibility I expect from officers in the army — to truly embody that word. Those who were responsible for what happened on October 7 should take responsibility and step down, because they are not worthy.”
Click here to donate to the expansion of Park Roni.
a summary post with the photos, names, and stories of all the hostages that returned home today:
(all of the photos of the hostages are from after their release)
alon ohel, 24 - a gifted pianist. alon attended the nova festival on 7/10, and when the massacre started he hid with 26 other people in what would become a "death shelter". alon was among the 4 people who were kidnapped from that shelter. 16 were murdered, and 7 survived and were not kidnapped. of the 4 who were kidnapped, hersh goldberg-polin was murdered in captivity; or levy and eli-yah cohen were released in february 2025. or, upon his return, was the first to confirm that alon was alive. his first footage from captivity was released in september 2025.
returning hostages testified that alon was injured without treatment, was constantly starved and derived of sunlight, and held shackled in chains. alon may have lost sight in his right eye due to the untreated injury.
alon returned to his parents, brother, and sister.
yosef-haim ohana, 25 - worked as a bartender in the nova festival. yosef-haim stayed behind and helped transfer the wounded from the festival area to ambulances together with a friend. he was eventually kidnapped by the terrorists who stormed the place. he was considered missing for two weeks.
the first sign of life from him was received in february 2025, and hamas released the first footage of him in march.
yosef-haim returned to his parents and little brothers.
avinatan or, 32 - was kidnapped from the nova festival alongside his girlfriend, noa argamani. the video of them being forcibly separated from each other by hamas terrorists became one of the most infamous videos from 7/10 and the nova massacre.
noa was rescued from the gaza strip in june 2024, and spent her time since advocating for the release of avinatan and the other hostages.
the first sign of life from avinatan was received in march 2025, with information that he was held in terrible conditions.
avinatan returned to noa, his parents, and his 6 siblings.
rom braslavsky, 21 - a soldier serving in logistics, was on vacation when he attended the nova festival. rom risked his life, with no weapons and no car, and stayed in the festival area in order to rescue and help the many victims, as well as help evacuate bodies of victims. rom's mother told of a survivor who met her and told her about rom's bravery: "She and her friends hid in [a large garbage compactor] with 30 other guys, and then the terrorists simply sprayed the entire truck [with bullets]. As soon as she finished a phone call to her mother, she heard a voice. 'Is someone here alive?'" according to the mother, the same young woman raised her head and saw rom smiling: "I'm Rom, I'm from the army, I'll get you out of here. I'll protect you, and you'll get out of this." he kept helping dozens of people even after he got injured in his hands. rom's last phone call to his mother was at 10:30 that morning - he told her, "mom, calm down, why are you crying?" he was hiding under a tank, surrounded by terrorists, when he made that call. he was eventually kidnapped around 15:00, after staying in the nova site for hours instead of saving himself.
rom was held by the islamic jihad organization. the first sign of life from him was received in february 2025. in april, the ij published a video showing rom. another video, released in late july, showed him severely emaciated, pale, and crying. he spoke of how little food and water he was getting. the ij claimed that they've "lost contact" with rom's captors after that video was made - hinting that he died.
rom returned to his parents and two brothers.
matan angrest, 22 - a tank driver, matan and his tank crew went out on the morning of 7/10 to protect the villages in the gaza envelope from hamas' attack. he was the only one to survive that day - he was kidnapped alongside two of his dead tank mates. (matan dedicated his message in the photo above to them)
matan was severely injured - in a video of his kidnapping released in april 2025, matan was shown unconscious as he was lynched by his kidnappers.
returning hostages who were held with matan testified that he was held in a cage and repeatedly tortured, beaten, and electrocuted by his captors. other photos and videos showed him with a severely bruised face.
matan returned to his parents and 3 little siblings.
elkana bohbot, 35: was part of the production team in the nova festival. chose to stay at the site to help rescue people instead of save himself. his last call to his mother and to his wife, rivkah, was at 8 that morning. he said, "it's a little messy here, I'm helping evacuate people. I promise you I'll come back home." an hour later, his phone died. and at 10, hamas published a video showing him tied up, injured, and terrified - held captive inside the strip.
hamas have used elkana several times in videos where he looked pale and thin. returning hostages have testified that he has tried hurting himself.
elkana returned to his mother, his wife (pictured with him above), and his 5 year old son.
gali and ziv berman, 28 - twin brothers, kidnapped from kfar aza, they are the last hostages from kfar aza, which was some of the hardest hit villages on 7/10, to return home. they were considered missing for 11 days before they were declared hostages.
gali and ziv are close friends with returned hostage emily damari. when they realized what was happening that morning, gali insisted to go be with emily, who was alone at her home. they were kidnapped together, and joined with ziv later on before they were separated again once in the strip; emily, since her return, advocated tirelessly for their return.
gali and ziv are both fans of the maccabi tel aviv football team (whose shirts they're wearing in the photo).
they've returned to their parents, two older brothers, and beloved nephews.
guy gilboa dalal, 23 - attended the nova festival with his brother, gal, who has managed to escape and was rescued after a few hours; guy was filmed in the gaza strip that same morning, alongside his childhood friend, evyatar david, who also attended the festival and was kidnapped with him.
guy found out only a couple of weeks ago that gal survived the massacre.
in september 2024, hamas filmed guy and evyatar's reactions when fellow hostages were released and they were left behind. hamas have previously lied to them that they were gonna be released too.
guy is an anime fan, studied japanese, and intended to fly to japan and travel the country for a while.
before he left for the nova festival, guy asked his dad to keep the family sukkah up, so he'd help him disassemble it when he returns. the family has left the sukkah standing for two years, waiting for guy to come back and fulfill his promise.
guy returned to his parents, brother, and sister.
evyatar david, 24 - attended the nova festival with guy, alongside their friends ron tzarfati and idan haramati - who were both murdered in the massacre. at 7:42am he texted his mom that he was on his way to the car, but by 11am he was already filmed captive inside the strip.
evyatar was kidnapped without his glasses, so he could barely see for two years. returning hostages testified that both guy and evyatar were held with chains on their arms and legs, often with sacks over their heads, and underwent constant torture. they were only allowed to wash themselves once a month. they were separated a couple of months ago, and first reunited in the hospital after their release.
a video, released by hamas in august 2025, showed evyatar extremely thin, in a tunnel, made to dig his own grave in the ground he was standing on, as well as marking on a piece of paper the number of days he went through without food. the video raised extreme worry that he will not survive for much longer.
evyatar returned to his parents, brother, and sister.
eitan horn, 38 - a youth guide, eitan was kidnapped from nir oz alongside his brother, yair, whom he came to visit for the holidays. yair was released from captivity in march 2025, and a video released by hamas showed him and eitan being forced to separate. the photo above shows them reunited at last (eitan on the left, wearing the colors of his favorite soccer team), alongside their older brother amos.
when yair returned, he said that eitan suffers from skin infections due to the poor sanitary conditions in the tunnels, and the lack of hygiene. he joined their mother in advocating tirelessly for eitan's release.
eitan returned home to his parents. two brothers, and beloved nephews.
maxim herkin, 36 - was kidnapped from the nova festival. he stayed behind to help the injured; he texted his mom, tala: "mom everything is fine I'm coming back home slowly slowly."
maxim wasn't a big fan of music festivals, but a couple of friends convinced him to join them. the day of the massacre the two were found murdered and burned in their car.
hamas have used maxim for videos, where he was shown injured, and spoke of the harsh conditions in captivity. in a video from april 2025 he cried, "we're dead with a heartbeat here! we don't feel like people!"
maxim returned home to his mother, teenage brother, girlfriend anna, and little daughter monica.
nimrod cohen, 21 - served in a tank at the gaza envelope. the morning of 7/10, him and his tankmate have tried to repeal the oncoming assault. he was the only one from the tank who survived. all of the crew was kidnapped. by october 8, it was already known that nimrod was kidnapped.
in a video of his kidnapping, filmed by hamas, nimrod is seen barely standing, pulled along by his hair.
nimrod appeared in yair horn's release video, in march 2025. his face was edited and blurred, but his visible arm tattoo confirmed that he was alive.
nimrod loved solving rubik's cubes, and would always go around with one. a charred cube was found in the remains of his tank.
nimrod returned home to his parents, big brother, and twin sister.
segev kalfon, 27 - attended the nova festival with his friend, asaf. when the rockets started his mom asked him to leave. segev started driving home and updated his family that he's fine. they were watching the news and when they realized the situation was worsening, his dad called him to warn him. when segev answered the phone, he was running, on foot - he told his dad that there's gunshots and he'll call him back.
asaf managed to hide in a bush. he saw segev's kidnapping by terrorists in a white pickup truck. asaf was the one to tell segev's family of his fate; hamas later released a video showing the kidnapping.
the kalfon family got one sign of life from a released hostage, ohad ben ami, who testified that segev was starved and in a very poor state. segev saw a father figure in ohad, and would hold his hand at night.
segev returned to his parents, big brother, and little sister.
eitan mor, 25 - worked in security at the nova festival. a survivor later testified that eitan and another security man, elyakim liebman, were hiding bodies of murdered young women so they won't be desecrated. elyakim was murdered - his remains were found in the grave of another dead security person, victoria goralov; they were accidentally buried together. he was assumed hostage for months.
eitan was considered missing for days, until he was confirmed to be held hostage. returning hostages have testified that he was "the hostages' spokesperson" in captivity.
eitan returned home to his parents, 7 siblings (the youngest is 4), and girlfriend.
omri miran, 48 - a siatsu therapist. on the morning of 7/10, hamas terrorists broke into the miran family house in nahal oz. they already had a hostage, teenager tomer arava-eliaz, whom they've used to trick residents into letting them into their houses.
the terrorists have led the miran family - omri, his wife lishy, their 2 year old daughter roni, and 6 month old baby alma - into the neighbors' house. there, the terrorists livestreamed their hostages for three hours to millions of viewers on facebook. eventually they've decided to separate the men from the rest and take them to the strip. roni's screams for her dad as he was taken from her became one of the most well remembered clips from that day.
returning hostages were the first to confirm that omri was still alive. he was later seen in videos filmed by hamas.
lishy and omri's dad advocated tirelessly for his release, and were prominent figures in the movement protesting for the hostages.
omri returned to his father, wife, and two little girls.
matan zangauker, 25 - was kidnapped from his house in nir oz alongside his girlfriend, ilana gritzewsky. at first, matan texted his mother, einav, saying "our bedroom is the shelter room, don't worry"; but when the terrorists broke into the house, he told her "they're here, they're in the house"; "i love you, don't cry". matan and ilana attempted to escape through the window, but were captured, and separated.
ilana was released after 55 days, and advocated for matan's release since then. but the most prominent figure in the fight was einav (pictured with matan above), who gradually became a famous, loud, and determined activist for the hostages' return, gaining the nickname "lioness mother". a likud supporter in the past, she became extremely critical of netanyahu and his government, who in return turned her into a deeply hated figure in israeli rightwing politics, claiming that her fight for her son is ensuring that he'll never be released.
in 2025, einav revealed that the family members are carriers of cmt, a degenerative neurological disorder that causes gradual paralysis. matan did not display symptoms before captivity, but the stress caused the disorder to erupt. intelligence and returning hostages' testimonies revealed that matan's cmt manifested. he suffered from weakness and tremors, couldn't stand, and his weakened digestive system caused severe pains and blockages. he was also tortured and held chained in cages. hostages said that his mental state was worsening, and he'd refuse to eat, talk, or move. all of that raised severe concerns that he might not survive for much longer.
matan returned home to his girlfriend, mother*, and two sisters.
*matan's father separated from einav in the 2000s, and was not present in matan's (or his sisters') life for 8 years (per the words of his sister, natalie). yet in 2025 he was interviewed by the press, speaking for the first time, and claimed to love and miss matan. he opposed einav's blunt tactics. it's currently unknown if matan met with his father since he returned - he did not appear in any photos or videos of matan with his loved ones that were released so far.
ariel cunio, 28 - resident of kibbutz nir oz alongside his longtime girlfriend, arbel yehud (pictured above).
shortly before 7/10, the couple has adopted a 4 month old puppy, named murph (after arbel's favorite character from the movie interstellar). on 7/10, the couple was kidnapped from their home. murph was shot to death by the terrorists.
arbel and ariel were separated after their kidnapping, and there was no sign of life from ariel until today. arbel was released in january 2025, and spent her time until now advocating for the hostages' release.
ariel returns to his parents, two brothers, and girlfriend. his third brother, david, who was kidnapped separately, was also released today.
david cunio, 35 - on 7/10, david and his wife, sharon, hosted sharon's sister and her daughter - danielle and emillia - for the holidays. that morning they were woken up by the rocket sirens. david, sharon, their twin daughters yuli and emma, and danielle and emillia - all hid in the shelter room. for the lack of a lock on the room's door, david held the handle for five hours to prevent the terrorists from getting in. eventually, the terrorists decided to set the whole house on fire.
the whole family escaped through the window. they were captured separately. david was separated from the women and children, who were all released in the first hostages releases after 50 days in captivity.
for a time david was held with his close friend, yarden bibas. david was there for yarden when hamas informed yarden of the deaths of his wife and two little boys. after yarden was released, he advocated for the release of the cunio brothers.
david returned to his parents, his big brother, and his twin brother, as well as his wife and twin daughters. he was released alongside his brother, ariel.
bar kupershtein, 23 - a soldier on vacation, bar attended the nova festival. he stayed behind to aid the few emergency teams and provide first aid to the wounded. bar repeatedly helped survivors escape and chose to come back to the site again and again to help save more people. eventually he was kidnapped from the massacre site.
a video was released on telegram the same day, showing bar with his hands and legs tied, a rope around his neck, shouting his name, and asking his captors to treat fellow hostage elkana bohbot, who was injured.
the first sign of life from bar was received in february 2025. a video showing bar with hostage maxim herkin was released by hamas in april.
bar's dad, tal, was severely injured in a car crash back in 2019, and suffered a stroke in one of the surgeries he required. he couldn't walk or talk afterwards. bar lived with his grandparents so his dad would have a spare room for a live-in nurse. after bar's kidnapping, tal worked tirelessly with a physical therapist and a speech therapist, so he could stand up to hug his son when he returns, and speak to him. at the same time, tal attended protests for the hostages whenever he could.
today, when bar returned, tal stood up, and hugged him while standing.
bar returned home to his parents and 4 younger siblings.
details on the returning hostages from media reports so far:
hamas have attempted to fatten the hostages over the last few days, despite israel's request not to do so as to prevent refeeding syndrome (which can be deadly)
none of the hostages require emergency care, but physical recovery might be very long for some of them
avinatan or was held completely alone (without any other hostages) the whole 2 years in captivity. due to his isolation, he knows very little of what happened since 7/10. he was kept in terrible conditions and was starved by his captors. he's very weak and thin, and lost 30-40% of his body weight.
elkana bohbot saw his family fight for him in protests and on the media when he was allowed to watch tv. he was held exclusively in tunnels for the whole two years, and lost his sense of time. most of the time he was in chains. one time, when he realized it's his wedding day, he begged his captors to let him wash himself as celebration, which they eventually relented to. he's suffering from stomach pains due to recent overfeeding, as well as pains in his arms, legs, and lower back
matan angrest underwent horrible torture in the first months of captivity, and was kept alone for a long time, and wasn't allowed to even relieve himself for days on end. he made up his mind to never surrender to his captors and the thought of his family kept him going. he's suffering from damaged sight, partial memory loss, flashbacks, and sometimes consciousness loss. his hand and fingers were injured and severely burnt, and were treated without anesthetics, which only worsened his situation.
evyatar david is very thin and weak. he was starved even after his famous "grave digging" video and underwent physical and psychological abuse, which was harder for him than the lack of food and water. he was overfed near his release, but realized what was happening and tried to ration his portions.
alon ohel suffers from shrapnel wounds in his torso, and headaches. his wounded eye is undergoing tests to see if his sight can be saved. there's a piano in his hospital room, and he's already played it. when it was announced that idf intended to recapture gaza city, hamas deliberately transferred alon into the city.
gali and ziv berman were disconnected from the outer world for long stretches of time. they were held separately, but in the same general area. they were often starved, but there were times when more food was given to them. some of their captors spoke hebrew with them (unlike the other hostages, who learned arabic in captivity).
ariel cunio was kept alone for two years, which resulted in much uncertainty for his wellbeing. david cunio was kept with eitan horn and nimrod cohen, in several tunnels (except for the short time he was allowed to stay with yarden bibas, per yarden's request, after the murders of his wife and kids). for a long time, david didn't know if his twin brother, eitan, survived 7/10 - the last text he got from eitan was "i'm burning" (his house was set aflame).
omri miran counted the days in captivity and the number of places he was held in (23), so he always knew what date it was. he was held both in tunnels and above ground. he would play cards with his captors and cooked for them - they loved his cooking. once when a deal fell through, his captors were pissed at hamas for not taking israel's offer.
maxim herkin lost 30kg off his weight and suffers from injuries and issues with his jaw.
right, sorry for not providing sources! usually i'm better at that, but today's been a whirlwind
i've used mostly n12's reports for this post, but also some bits and pieces from ynet and maariv
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