News Digest — 1/29/25
Ex-hostage says Liri Albag saved her life as Hamas captors tortured, threatened her
Freed hostage Amit Soussana, who was released in the first hostage-truce deal with Hamas in November 2023, shared Tuesday that Liri Albag, who was among four hostages released on Saturday, saved her life in captivity.
Her comments came as freed hostage Naama Levy made her first public statements since her own release on Saturday, and Romi Gonen, released 10 days ago, dedicated a song on the radio to her family, and as more details began to emerge about returning captives’ recovery process.
The current hostage-ceasefire deal went into effect a week and a half ago.
In an interview aired Tuesday evening, Soussana said she owes Albag her life, after Albag convinced their terrorist captors in Gaza that Soussana was not an IDF officer.
Speaking with Channel 12’s “Uvda” investigative program, Soussana, 40, said her captors bound her arms and legs together, beat her with a stick and threatened her with a sharp metal object, and demanded that she admit to being in the military, claiming they had learned from TV that she was.
She said the captors brought other hostages, including Albag, to ask her to come clean.
A guard pointed a gun and her head and told her, “You have 40 minutes to tell us the truth, or else I kill you,” she said.
She said Albag talked to the guard and managed to persuade the captors that Soussana wasn’t in the military.
“I told her when she came back: ‘I don’t know if they would have killed me or not; as far as I’m concerned, you saved my life,” Soussana recalled.
Soussana also said that in the first three weeks of her captivity, she was kept alone in an apartment with two guards who bound her legs with a metal chain and with two locks to a window, “like an animal.”
She also recounted the sexual assault she endured by one of the captors, a story she first revealed in an interview with The New York Times last year.
Meanwhile, in a post to Instagram Tuesday, Levy — a surveillance soldier abducted from the Nahal Oz military base during the Hamas-led invasion on October 7, 2023, that started the ongoing war — wrote, “I’m home. After 477 days I’m finally home. I am safe and protected surrounded by family, and I’m feeling better every day.”
In her post, Levy also shared some details about her captivity: “For the first 50 days after October 7, I was alone most of the time, and after that I was in captivity with my friends” — fellow surveillance soldiers and civilians — “who gave me strength and hope. We strengthened each other until we were released, and after that, too.”
The freed hostage issued a call for the return of those still held captive: “We are waiting for Agamy,” she said, using an affectionate name for Agam Berger, the last of the five female surveillance soldiers abducted that day who remains in captivity, “and the rest of the hostages to be able to complete the process of recovery.”
Katz: IDF to remain in Jenin even after operation
Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday potentially signaled a decades-long change in policy saying that the IDF would remain in Jenin even after the current 8-day long operation ends, giving no withdrawal date.
Generally, since the Second Intifada of 2000-2005, the IDF has not stationed troops for any extended period within major Palestinian cities like Jenin.
Rather, the IDF has carried out several multi-day operations in Jenin since mid-2023, but has always completely withdrawn its forces afterwards.
If IDF troops were to stay in Jenin indefinitely, there could be wider diplomatic consequences, both with the Palestinian Authority, Western allies, and moderate Sunni Middle Eastern allies.
It is also unclear if such a longer stay would mean the IDF taking on additional responsibilities for managing Jenin, given that the PA might refuse to carry out certain services while IDF troops remain there.
Regarding the PA, Katz seemed to indirectly threaten its continued existence due to the PA’s ongoing program of providing financial benefits to certain terrorists and their families, which Israel defines as “pay for slay.”
Katz suggested that the PA also is failing completely to fight terror in the West Bank.
Despite Katz’s comments, top IDF officials in the West Bank, in other parts of the military, and the Shin bet have given the PA credit for improving in its crackdown in recent months on terror in the West Bank generally, and in Jenin specifically.
In fact, prior to the IDF operation on January 21, the PA spent around six weeks cracking down on terror in Jenin, including in its refugee camp.
This followed some Jenin terrorists stealing a PA car and bombing a PA police station. And when the IDF went into Jenin, videos on social media seemed to show clear and direct coordination between PA forces leaving and IDF forces entering.
None of the Israeli defense establishment would say that the PA has done enough to fight terror in the West Bank, but all of those whom The Jerusalem Post has heard from would give the PA significant partial credit, as opposed to Katz’s critique.
Until he was fired in early November, former defense minister Yoav Gallant, who generally did not like the PA, still gave it partial credit for working with Israel against terror in the West Bank.
Israel arrests 12 Arabs for celebrating release of terrorists in hostage deal
Twelve Arabs from eastern Jerusalem and a neighboring village were arrested Tuesday night by Israeli authorities after they were involved in a demonstration showing support for a terrorist who was released as part of the exchange for four hostages Saturday.
The police and Shabak tracked them down using video footage that was circulated online of the event and conducting several intelligence operations.
On the clip, the mix of residents of eastern Jerusalem and the village of Aqab on the northern edge of the capital could be seen celebrating the freedom of Zayeed Ashraf by waving Hamas flags, chanting in support for the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, and expressing joy by shooting into the air in the village.
When the police, Shabak, Border Police undercover unit and IDF forces raided their homes, they found Hamas flags, posters, fireworks, a large sum of money, and other incriminatory items.
One of those arrested was Ashraf’s brother, who played a central role in the celebratory demonstration.
The forces also seized the vehicles the suspects used in their party.
In 2002, Ashraf sent a suicide bomber to blow himself up on a bus on Allenby Street in Tel Aviv, killing six people, and he was sentenced to six life terms as a result.
Immediately upon his release, he gave an interview to the Qatari TV channel Al-Araby to claim that Israel “starves” its prisoners “on a daily basis,” although he did not look particularly thin in the video clips showing him being carried on the shoulders of his fellow villagers.
Nine other suspects from Kafr Aqab and the village of Kafr A-Ram near Ramallah were also arrested for similarly expressing solidarity with released terrorists.
“The Israel Police and the Shabak will not allow any displays of joy or expressions of identification with and support for the Hamas terrorist organization and terrorists,” the authorities said in a statement. “The security forces will use all means at their disposal to maintain security and order.”
Defense Minister Yisrael Katz had ordered that a joint force be established specifically to prevent such demonstrations, considering them incitement and encouragement of terrorism.
The twelve were taken to the Jerusalem District Police Department’s Serious Crimes Unit for further questioning. They will be brought Wednesday to court for the police to ask to extend their detention in custody.
Antisemitic attack foiled after Sydney explosives-laden van found
Australian law enforcement discovered a caravan containing explosives and materials indicating plans for an antisemitic attack in Dural, New South Wales, The Guardian reported.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns described the situation as a “very serious threat” to the community, highlighting the deployment of substantial police and counter-terrorism resources to address the situation, The Guardian reported.
“Police were contacted and subsequently recovered a caravan on a residential property, rural property. That caravan contained an amount of explosives, and some indication that those explosives might be used in some form of antisemitic attack,” Deputy Police Commissioner David Hudson said, according to The Guardian.
The joint counter-terrorism team, comprising New South Wales police, Australian Federal Police, Australian Security Intelligence Organization, and NSW Crime Commission, has deployed over 100 officers for the investigation, Hudson revealed in a press conference.
While authorities have made some arrests on the investigation’s periphery, they continue seeking information about the caravan, which was parked along a road in Dural from December 7 to January 19, The Guardian noted.
“Anyone attempting terrorism, violence, hatred in our community will be met with the full force of the law,” Minns said during the press conference, according to The Guardian. He emphasized that substantial police and government resources are being directed toward the investigation.
“There will be absolutely no tolerance under any circumstances for these acts of criminal violence in our community,” Minns added, stressing that anyone attempting such violence would face the full extent of available law enforcement resources.
Colorado basketball coach hangs Palestinian flag at game against Jewish students
A Colorado high school basketball coach hung up a Palestinian flag during a game against a Jewish school and then refused to shake hands with the opposing coaches and is now facing backlash, the American media outlets reported on Tuesday.
Brandon Rattiner of the Jewish Community Relations Council said in an interview that the basketball game between Lotus School For Excellence in Aurora and Denver Academy of Torah last week Wednesday had multiple antisemitism issues, mainly when the coach, only identified as Coach O., refused the handshake after the game.
On behalf of the Denver Academy of Torah, Rattiner said the actions were disappointing and quite shocking.
“I think everybody in the Jewish community is very aware that there’s been a rising tide of antisemitism since October 7,” he said during the interview. “And we’ve seen it in schools here and all throughout the country on many different occasions.”
Those who attended the game said that the Palestinian flag was hanging over the rafters. Some parents who were at the game said that some members of the basketball team followed their coach’s lead and also didn’t shake hands with the Jewish basketball students, nor did they engage with them.
“The key issue here is when the coach refuses to engage with a Jewish coach and Jewish students simply because they are Jewish or holding them personally accountable for a conflict started, not by Israel by the way, halfway across the world thousands and thousands away,” he said to the New York Post.
“Holding Jewish people accountable for the state actions of Israel is a textbook form of antisemitism.”
The Secondary Principal at Lotus, Ermek Bakyt, told CBS News that the school took immediate action and suspended the coach.
“That coach’s single act doesn’t represent what we stand for,” Bakyt said. “We haven’t seen any flags being hung in previous games. This was an isolated incident, and we took action immediately.”
The Denver Jewish school requested a meeting with Lotus the following day.
Rattiner said: “There was a really, really good conversation, a healthy conversation, and they got to a resolution that worked for both schools. There were open lines of communication and mutual understanding. This was a teaching moment, and instead of just fanning the flames of vitriol and division online, these administrations came together, worked to find the solution that added everybody’s experience there.”
