#hostages

#hostages

Joyously, we have removed the ribbon of the Israeli flag with the headline Bring the Hostages Home from our front covers. We are happy to celebrate the return of all hostages, although the bodies of some of the deceased have yet to be returned. Ever since the terrorist attack of Oct. 7, we have prayed for the safe return of all the innocent hostages and the cessation of violence in the Middle East.

You are not alone.

Israel said it plans to destroy all remaining underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip used by fighters from the Palestinian militant group Hamas during the conflict. Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the move on the social media platform X. "Israel's great challenge after the phase of returning the hostages will be the destruction of all of Hamas' terror tunnels in Gaza," Katz wrote, adding that the operation would be carried out directly by the Israeli military under US supervision. During the two-year Gaza war, the Israeli military repeatedly reported destroying Hamas tunnels, but the extent and the degree of functionality of the remaining underground network is unclear.

Phillip shared her thoughts on CNN's Table for Five on Saturday morning. Honestly, it's not unfair to say, if President Obama is going to write a whole post about a peace deal, maybe he should acknowledge the president who brokered it, she said. Her comment comes two days after Obama posted on X, saying, we should all be encouraged and relieved that an end to the conflict is within sight.

Dozens of people gathered in Toronto on Tuesday to mark the sombre second anniversary of Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks, sharing stories of loved ones they've lost and those they're still fighting for. The event, held at Earl Bales Park, was organized by Maayan Shavit, whose cousin, Carmel Gat, was one of the more than 250 people taken hostage the day of the attack that killed more than 1,200 people.

Egypt and Qatar are working to convince Hamas to accept Donald Trump's ultimatum to end the war in Gaza, Egypt's foreign minister has said, as Trump gave a Sunday deadline to reply. Badr Abdelatty said the time had come for Hamas to disarm, and that Israel should be given no excuse to continue its offensive in Gaza, where it killed another 28 Palestinians on Friday.

But we want our hostages back, and we don't want them back in, you know, ones and twos, and take the next two years to do it. We were the ones that got the hostages. And I always said, I told Steve, I told Marco, I was always saying the last hostages are going to be the toughest ones. But you can't honor them by doing anything like you suggest.

I have just read a News Report that Hamas has moved the hostages above ground to use them as human shields against Israel's ground offensive, the president posted on Truth Social. I hope the Leaders of Hamas know what they're getting into if they do such a thing. This is a human atrocity, the likes of which few people have ever seen before. Don't let this happen or, ALL BETS' ARE OFF. RELEASE ALL HOSTAGES NOW!

And yet this powerful and complex documentary, directed by Brandon Kramer (a distant relative of some of the people involved) and co-produced by Darren Aronofsky, is a reminder that the situation now can't be understood without remembering the Hamas massacre how it was calculated to provoke a rage-filled reaction that would discredit Israel internationally, what it meant and continues to mean within Israel and how the political and ideological connotations of the hostages have themselves evolved.

Residents of the city of one million Palestinians have been expecting an onslaught for weeks, since the Israeli government devised a plan to deal Hamas a fatal blow in what it says are the militant group's last remaining strongholds. "I say to the residents of Gaza, take this opportunity and listen to me carefully: you have been warned - get out of there!" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.