This handout photo provided by the Israel Prime Minister Office shows Yahel Shoham, 3 years old, … [+]
Dispatches from Israel provided by Forbes Israel.
Israel
Temporary ceasefire. Some seven weeks after Hamas, which the United States and other governments have labeled a terrorist organization, launched an attack on Israel during which it killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took hostage about 240 others, a four-day ceasefire went into effect Friday evening.
During this time, Hamas will free about 50 Israeli women, children, toddlers and babies, 12 or 13 each day, and Israel will release three Palestinian teenagers and women convicted of terrorist and other criminal offenses for each Israeli set free. As part of the deal brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US, Israel has agreed to allow into Gaza up to 200 trucks carrying fuel, food and other humanitarian aid.
“The combination of the military and diplomatic efforts created the conditions for returning our hostages,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a special press conference held last Wednesday, shortly after the deal was approved by the Israeli government. “I believe that this combination will also facilitate the release of additional hostages in the next stages.”
As of Sunday, 39 hostages have arrived in Israel, among them four-year-old American Avigail Idan, whose parents were murdered during the Hamas massacre perpetrated at the village of Kfar Aza.
Tension between Israel and Hezbollah continues. Against the background of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, there has been a lull in recent days in attacks against Israel from Lebanon by Hezbollah, another terrorist organization according to the US and other governments. Although it was not a party to the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah has announced that it too will suspend hostile activities during the term of the truce.
The day before the ceasefire went into effect, Hezbollah launched 22 operations against Israel on the most intense day of fighting since the beginning of the war, following an Israeli retaliatory strike that killed five of the terrorist group’s senior fighters.
Houthis attack from Yemen. Despite the ceasefire in Gaza, the Iranian-backed Houthi fighters are not ceasing fire. On Sunday, a group of armed men tried to take control of a tanker sailing under the Liberian flag in the Gulf of Aden region of the Arabian Sea. The ship, M/V Central Park, belongs to Zodiac Maritime, a large shipping company owned by the Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. Unable to capture the crew barricaded in an armored safe room, the “pirates” then abandoned the ship and headed in a skiff for Yemen. In response to a distress call from the crew, the guided missile destroyer USS Mason overtook the skiff and detained the would-be hijackers Sunday night. The day before, an Iranian drone struck another Israeli-owned cargo ship in the Indian Ocean. The attack caused damage but no injuries to crew members.
World
Statement by Prime Minister of Ireland Provokes Outrage. Upon learning of the release of 9-year-old Emily Hand, an Irish-Israeli hostage, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar tweeted: “An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned,” ignoring the fact that Emily was kidnapped from her friend’s house by Hamas terrorists who murdered her stepmother and held her captive for 49 days. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who summoned the Irish ambassador for a reprimand, attacked Varadkar in response: “Emily was not ‘lost’, she was kidnapped by a terror organization worse than ISIS that murdered her stepmother. Emily and more than 30 other children were kidnapped by Hamas. Shame on you!”
Musk to visit Israel. Elon Musk, purportedly the richest man in the world, will make a solidarity visit to Israel Monday. The visit takes place against the background of the surge in anti-Semitism around the world, especially on “X” (formerly Twitter), the social network owned by Musk, and in light of a number of controversial statements recently made by the multi-billionaire on the subject. During the visit, Musk is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and tour the kibbutzim and villages where the horrific events of the October 7 attack took place.
High tech
Against the backdrop of war, Israeli high-tech recruitment continues. AI start-up AI21, which develops generative AI products along the lines of OpenAI’s GPT-4 and ChatGPT, this week announced the completion of a $53 million fundraising campaign. The fundraising round of the artificial intelligence unicorn, whose founders include the Israeli billionaire Prof. Amnon Shashua, was signed according to a valuation of $1.4 billion. Technology corporations Intel
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Itai Zehorai, Alan Sacks
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinternational/2023/11/27/israel-hamas-war-updates-week-eight/