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After months of being held hostage, a Gaza hostage has an important message. But there is no end to the violence in sight. An overview of the night’s events.
Tel Aviv – During mass protests in Israel against the government, a hostage freed from the Gaza Strip has addressed the public for the first time with an appeal against hatred. “I wish us all more peaceful days, calmer days in which we are surrounded by family, friends and good people. The most important thing is that we learn to love and not hate,” said Noa Argamani in a video message on Saturday evening. The 26-year-old Israeli was freed three weeks ago with three other hostages in a dramatic operation by the Israeli military in Gaza. “Although I am back home, we must not forget the hostages who are still being held captive by Hamas,” said the student. The Islamist Palestinian organization “and we must do everything possible to bring them home,” she added.
Israel responds to Iran’s threat
Meanwhile, the verbal saber-rattling in the Lebanon conflict between Israel and the Shiite militia Hezbollah, which is allied with Iran, continues. Iran’s UN mission in New York warned on Platform X on Saturday morning that if Israel begins a comprehensive military aggression against Lebanon, “it will lead to a devastating war.” Israel’s foreign minister responded on Saturday evening by saying: “If Hezbollah does not cease its fire and withdraw from southern Lebanon, we will take the toughest possible action against them until security is restored and the residents can return to their homes,” Israel Katz wrote on the same platform, adding: “A regime that threatens destruction deserves to be destroyed.”
Saudi Arabia also calls on its compatriots to leave Lebanon
Saudi Arabia has meanwhile called on its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately. The reason for this is likely fears of a war between Israel and Hezbollah. The state-run Saudi news agency SPA reported on Saturday that the embassy in the Lebanese capital Beirut had appealed to its citizens to leave the country “immediately”. In addition, people from Saudi Arabia should no longer travel to Lebanon. Recently, for example, Canada also called on its citizens to leave. The Foreign Office in Berlin has been warning Germans against traveling to Lebanon for some time. German citizens are urgently urged to leave the country. “A further escalation of the situation and expansion of the conflict cannot be ruled out.
Israel continues bombardment in Gaza
Since the start of the Gaza war almost nine months ago, Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah have been shooting at each other almost daily, especially in the border region. Recently, the intensity of the fighting has increased significantly. The Shiite militia is demanding that Israel stop fighting against its ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But the Israeli army is continuing to advance there. According to Palestinian sources on Saturday, at least twelve people were killed in attacks in parts of the city of Gaza in the north of the sealed-off coastal strip. The Israeli army announced that the air force had bombed targets in the east of the city. Ground troops had found large quantities of weapons and ammunition.
At the beginning of the year, Israel had described the north of the Gaza Strip as largely secure and Hamas as significantly weakened there. In the meantime, however, the terrorist group has apparently regrouped there. The war was triggered by an unprecedented massacre that terrorists from Hamas and other groups carried out in Israel on October 7. They murdered 1,200 people and abducted another 250 as hostages in the Gaza Strip, including the young student Argamani and her boyfriend. The latter is still in the terrorists’ power. “It is a great privilege to be here after 246 days in Hamas captivity,” said Argamani in her video, which was played on Saturday evening at the protest rally against the government in the metropolis of Tel Aviv.
Protests against Israel’s Prime Minister
According to Israeli media reports, there were clashes with police on the sidelines. Participants in the protests, which have recently grown significantly, on Saturday evenings accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not seriously pursuing indirect negotiations with Hamas. They assume that Netanyahu is not taking action because he wants to take his ultra-religious and right-wing extremist coalition partners into consideration. Netanyahu’s political survival, against whom a corruption trial has been ongoing for years, depends on these partners. Her greatest concern during her months of imprisonment was her family, Argamani said in her video.
The fate of the young woman kidnapped from the Nova music festival sparked great sympathy in her home country and around the world. Footage of her being kidnapped by terrorists on a motorcycle, crying desperately and calling for help, has been circulating on social media for months. According to Israeli media, she learned Arabic well during her time as a hostage. This made her a kind of “representative” of other female hostages with whom she was temporarily held, it was said.
According to the Israeli army, the dramatic military operation to free her resulted in heavy fighting with armed Palestinians. According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, 274 Palestinians were killed. Since her liberation, Argamani has been intensively involved in caring for her mother in the hospital, according to recent media reports. The woman, who is from China, has terminal cancer. dpa
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