News Digest — 10/22/25
Gaza Hostages Tamir Adar, Arie Zalamanowicz Identified After Remains Returned To Israel
Israel has completed the identification of the remains of hostages returned by Hamas Tuesday night (21st), as Master Sergeant (res.) Tamir Adar and Arie Zalamanowicz, the Prime Minister’s office announced Wednesday morning (22nd).
Master Sergeant Tamir Adar, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz, fought bravely to defend his home against Hamas terrorists during the October 7 massacre in 2023.
Tamit’s mother, Yael, posted, “After 746 days, Tamir has been returned to us. Tamir is home. The pain of our loss is immense, the relief of his return is great. Tamir is free to be buried in his own land.”
Aerie Zalamanowicz, one of the founders of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was taken from his home on the morning of the October 7 massacre in 2023 by Hamas terrorists rampaging through the kibbutz.
According to testimonies by relatives, Arie was hiding in a secure room on Oct. 7 when he was found by the attackers. He was taken into the Gaza Strip without his glasses or hearing aid. He was 85.
The remains of the hostages were escorted out of the Gaza Strip by the IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and transferred to the National Center of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir for identification by Israel Police officers.
Hamas announced that it would release the remains of two hostages shortly after US President Donald Trump stated that he would send forces into Gaza to “straighten out Hamas,” if the terror group did not abide by the ceasefire agreement.
According to the US-brokered Gaza deal, which Israel ratified on Oct. 9, Hamas would have 22 hours to release all the hostages, both living and deceased.
The remaining 15 hostages continue to be held by Hamas in Gaza nearly two weeks later.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said last week: “We know for certain that Hamas can easily release a significant number of hostages in accordance with this agreement. What they are doing is a fundamental violation of that agreement.”
VP Vance In Israel: ‘If Hamas Doesn’t Cooperate, Then It Will Be Obliterated’
US Vice President JD Vance held a press availability in southern Israel Tuesday evening (21st) during his visit to the region to strengthen the ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization.
“We are one week into President Trump’s historic peace plan in the Middle East, and things are going, frankly, better than I expected that they would,” Vice President Vance stated at the start of the event.
During his remarks, Vance was asked about the role Turkey would play in enforcing the ceasefire and restoring order to Gaza, given the Turkish government’s support for Hamas.
“We think everybody has a role to play here,” Vance responded. “Some of that’s going to be financial, some of that is going to be in reconstruction, some of that’s just in communication with the various parties.”
“We are not going to force anything on our Israeli friends when it comes to foreign troops on their soil, but we do think that there’s a constructive role for the Turks to play, and frankly, they’ve already played a very constructive role,” he added.
He acknowledged that Turkey “has supported Hamas in the past,” but stated that “no one who is a party to this conflict can look at the conflict and not point at something that they don’t like and that they disagree with … The way that we’re going to get to peace is to focus on the future, which is what the President of the United States has asked us to do.”
When asked if the administration will implement a deadline for the return of all of the deceased hostages who remain in Gaza, Vance stated that “it is a focus of everybody here to get those bodies back home to their families so that they can have a proper burial.”
However, he said that the process is “difficult” and will not “happen overnight, because “some of those hostages are buried under thousands of pounds of rubble. Some of the hostages – nobody even knows where they are. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work to get them, and that doesn’t mean we don’t have confidence that we will. It’s just a reason to counsel in favor of a little bit of patience.”
“Our warning to Hamas is very straightforward. The terms of the 20-point plan that the President put out there are very clear,” he continued. “It’s that Hamas has to disarm, it’s that Hamas has to actually behave itself, and it’s that Hamas – while all the fighters can be given some sort of clemency, they’re not going to be able to kill each other and they’re not going to be able to kill their fellow Palestinians. Now, again that’s going to take time …but right now, where I stand, I feel confident we’re going to be in a place where this place lasts, where it’s durable.”
In a warning to Hamas, he stated, “if Hamas doesn’t cooperate, then as the President of the United States has said, Hamas is going to be obliterated.” However, he refused to set a timetable for Hamas to cooperate.
IDF Chief Warns Terrorists May Try To Undermine Regional Stabilization, Particularly In Judea And Samaria
Terrorist elements could attempt to disturb the “stabilization processes” in the region, particularly in Judea and Samaria, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff LTG Eyal Zamir warned top army officials Tuesday (21st).
The region is “in a period of significant change, which could bring new developments, and we must be prepared for all scenarios,” Zamir said during a visit to the military’s Central Command base in Jerusalem.
IDF Central Command is headed by MG Avi Bluth and covers Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, the Sharon plain, Gush Dan (the Tel Aviv metropolitan area) and the Jerusalem foothills.
To ease the burden on IDF reservists, the army will reinforce the Judea and Samaria sector with more active-duty battalions, Zamir revealed.
“Israel still faces many challenges on all fronts, particularly in Judea and Samaria,” he told senior commanders.
“We must maintain stability, fight Palestinian terrorism, strengthen the defense of the communities and continue to initiate offensive operations to thwart emerging threats.”
Speaking with regional brigade commanders, the chief of staff urged them to “present the situation as it truly is to your superiors and to remain attentive to your subordinates,” calling this “one of the key lessons” of the Hamas-led surprise attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.
Zamir also spoke with Judea and Samaria Division Commander BG. Kobi Heller and other senior officers from the General Staff, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israel Border Police, the IDF said.
Zamir’s visit to the Central Command headquarters came amid a reported uptick in Palestinian terrorism across Judea and Samaria.
On Saturday (18th), Two Israeli soldiers sustained moderate wounds when a Palestinian terrorist threw an explosive device at them in Tubas, northeastern Samaria, in a third attack of its kind in as many days.
On Friday night (17th), residents of the Mevaser Shalom outpost near Evyatar in northern Samaria reported gunfire directed at them as they patrolled the community’s perimeter, Israeli news reported Saturday (18th). One of the bullets reportedly hit a few meters away from the residents, but they emerged unscathed and were able to alert the security forces.
Overnight Thursday (16th), the “Ramallah Battalion” of the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group claimed that it had targeted an Israeli vehicle with gunfire on the Route 60 Highway in Samaria’s south.
The IDF announced that it was probing the attack which was reported to have been carried out from the Arab village of Ein Yabrud.
In total, Palestinian terrorists targeted Israelis in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times in 2024, according to data published by the Rescuers without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) group on Feb. 12th.
Twenty-seven Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2024, and more than 300 others were wounded, the group said in its annual report..
Hamas Must Be Destroyed And Only Israel Has The Guts To Do It
Mark Levin and American lawyer, author, and radio personality wrote in an article for JNS October 21, 2025:
“If the last days have demonstrated anything, it’s that Hamas must be defeated militarily and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to be unobstructed so he can finish the job.
Netanyahu is being attacked by the left and right in Israel for agreeing to the peace deal brokered by US President Donald Trump. Hamas has violated the terms of Phase 2 of the peace plan repeatedly. It was never intended to be so amorphous as to allow Hamas to do as it pleases, yet Israel is pressured and forced to relent rather than take care of business.
Meanwhile Hamas is slaughtering any and all opposition , which would be needed to change the trajectory of the Gaza Strip.
And what is Qatar, Hamas’ heavily funded terrorist militia group doing? Its Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, just libeled Israel in the worst way with vile accusations, essentially demanding Israel’s elimination. Yet Qatar, Turkey and Egypt are supposed to be disarming and removing Hamas, along with other Arab and Muslim countries. Obviously, they are not.
We have a delegation in Israel now that is pressuring Israel. I base this on the anonymous leaks I am reading in the media, which have been planted there. What exactly is Israel supposed to do? Commit suicide?
We talk about obliterating Hamas, yet we are pressuring Israel. Pressuring Israel will not stop Hamas. Pressuring Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, as well as Hamas, is what should be done. That said, those countries have shown they won’t take real steps to stop Hamas.
Hamas must be wiped out. They don’t get infinite chances to comply. We won’t wipe them out. Only Israel will. It’s time to accept reality, stop pressuring Israel, and let them finish the job, for their sake and the sake of the West, and, yes, the Arab Gulf states that want Hamas eliminated but don’t have the guts to say so.”
The Implications Of Hamas’ Public Executions And The World’s Silence – Khaled Abu Toameh
After the ceasefire went into effect, Hamas terrorists began rounding up dozens of Palestinians as part of a massive crackdown on critics and opponents. At least 32 Palestinians have been publicly executed and many more otherwise killed by Hamas thugs. Hamas’ brutal crackdown shows that Gaza is posing a threat to its own people: Palestinians.
As Hamas drags Palestinians to the streets to face its firing squads, the international community appears to be looking the other way. Hamas is not going after criminals and suspected collaborators, as it claims. Instead, Hamas is targeting Palestinian clans and individuals who dared to publicly challenge atrocities against both Israelis and Palestinians.
Hamas’ actions also demonstrate its determination to exploit the current ceasefire to reassert its control over Gaza. The silence, or apathy, of the international community, including so-called pro-Palestinian groups, only encourages Hamas to proceed with its crackdown on its own people.
In the eyes of Hamas leaders, the Trump peace plan is just another temporary ceasefire that should be used for rearming, regrouping, and preparing for massacring more Israelis. On Oct. 16, the first anniversary of the killing of Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Oct. 7 atrocities, Hamas announced, “The ember of the Al-Aqsa Flood [the name Hamas uses for its Oct. 7 massacre] will remain burning and the banner of resistance will not fall until comprehensive liberation and the establishment of a fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
No transitional government or “Board of Peace” will ever be able to enforce law and order as long as Hamas terrorists feel free to murder any Palestinian who wants peace and coexistence with Israel. Deradicalization will happen only after Palestinians see that Hamas has been totally defeated, disarmed and removed from power.
The writer, a veteran Israeli journalist, is a fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs
Ireland Has Fallen To The Cult Of Israelophobia – Brendan O’Neill
If the polls are to be believed, Ireland is about to get a president who is more extremist on Gaza than the Palestinian Authority. Where the PA at least says Hamas should “have no role to play” in post-war Gaza, Catherine Connolly, who looks set to be Ireland’s next head of state, says Hamas is “part of the fabric of the Palestinian people” and Israel and its Western allies should not have “any say about Hamas.” Hamas should not be ruled out from a government role, she said.
Can we pause to reflect on how flat-out mad it is that this once great republic looks set to get a president who thinks Hamas is a democratic organization. Connolly has become the patron saint of Ireland’s cult of Palestinianism. It is difficult to overstate the extent to which Ireland has been consumed by the religious fervor of Israelophobia. The Palestinian flag flies everywhere. The Dublin elites are fixated on Gaza to a demented degree. They yap about it constantly in the national parliament.
They are hell-benton seeing that dastardly Jewish nation be arraigned for “genocide” – so much so that the Irish government proposed that the International Court of Justice “broaden its interpretation of what constitutes the commission of a genocide” in order that Israel might finally be found guilty of that crime. Truth, decency, even the basic meaning of words, is gleefully flung on the bonfire of convicting the Jewish State of evil. No wonder Israel closed its embassy in Dublin.
Israel has become a Satan substitute for Post-Catholic Ireland, the new devil against which godless moralists measure their decency. And if Connolly wins, Israelophobia will be all but institutionalized as the new state religion. (Spiked-UK)
