News Digest — 11/3/25
Hostages Asaf Hamami, Omer Neutra, Oz Daniel’s Remains Identified, PMO Confirms
Col. Asaf Hamami, Capt. Omer Neutra, and St.-Sgt. Oz Daniel’s remains were identified on Monday morning (3rd) as the three hostages were returned to Israel by Hamas terrorists via the Red Cross on Sunday (2nd), the Prime Minister’s office confirmed.
Head of the IDF Southern Command MG. Yaniv Asor, and head of the IDF’s Gaza Division BG.Barak Hiram, both attended the honor guard, saluting their coffins.
Defense Minister Israel Katz, eulogized the three soldiers “who fell in battle while defending the Gaza border communities with supreme heroism.”
“The State Of Israel bows its head in pain and pride over their bravery. Asaf, Omer, and Oz are returning home today to their eternal rest in the soil of the land they defended until their very last. I wish to send condolences and an embrace to their families,” Katz added.
“The entire security establishment is determined to bring all hostages’ remains home as part of the state’s “moral and national duty to their families and to the entire people of Israel,” Katz concluded.
Colonel Asaf Hamami, killed on Oct. 7, is considered the first soldier to declare when Israel went to war. “Guys, we’re at war. We’re at war,” he declared shortly before his death.
Hamami, serving as the commander of the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade rushed to Kibbutz Nirim on the morning of Oct. 7, where he was killed by terrorists and his body taken hostage. He was the highest-ranking officer whose body was taken into Gaza.
According to Kan 7.10.360, a digital memorial project of October 7, when Hamami reached Kibbutz Nirim with fellow soldiers Tomer Ahimas and Kiril Brodsky, he immediately recognized the extent of the situation quickly calling on his radio, “Guys, we’re at war, We’re at war.”
Israeli-American Capt. Omer Neutra, 21, was slain during the Oct. 7 massacre, and his body was taken by Hamas to the Gaza Strip.
Intelligence information came to light, allowing a special military commission of rabbis, scientists, and lawyers to finally confirm his death around 14 months later, despite longstanding suspicions that he was dead.
Neutra was a lone soldier from New York, serving as a tank platoon commander in the 77th Battalion of the 7th Brigade. He had deferred his enrollment at Binghamton University to join the IDF with Garin Tzabar.
He was abducted along with members of his tank crew, including Nimrod Cohen, who was released in October after more than 736 days of captivity.
St. Sgt. Oz Daniel, 19, was killed on duty in Kibbutz Nirim on the morning of Oct. 7 while trying to make one last effort to defend his country.
In Daniel’s final moments he attempted to steal a grenade from his captors, trying to fight against them, before being shot to death in the struggle.
Daniel was in one of the six tanks near the Gaza border the morning of Hamas’ invasion into southern Israel.
When the Hamas terrorists began to cross the border, Daniel and his crew headed towards Gaza to fight. They were met with hundreds of armed terrorists, their tank was immobilized, and the driver was killed.
Footage soon emerged of three crew members, including Daniel, emerging from the tank, surrounded by terrorists.
Netanyahu: Lebanon Must ‘Uphold Its Commitments’ To Disarm Hezbollah
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday (2nd) said Hezbollah was looking to rearm and that Israel would do whatever is necessary to prevent that from happening.
“Hezbollah is constantly taking hits, but it’s also trying to rearm and recuperate,” said Netanyahu at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
“We expect the Lebanese government to uphold its commitments, namely, to disarm Hezbollah. But it’s clear that we’ll exercise our right to self-defense as stipulated in the ceasefire terms,” he said. “We won’t let Lebanon become a renewed front against us, and we’ll do whatever is necessary.”
Under the November 27 ceasefire deal, which followed over a year of hostilities, Hezbollah was required to vacate southern Lebanon and be replaced by the Lebanese military. Israel, which invaded Lebanon late September last year, was also required to withdraw, but regularly strikes what it says are Hezbollah targets breaching the ceasefire, and maintains a troop presence in five strategic locations.
Netanyahu’s comments came after Defense MInister Israel Katz accused Lebanese President Joseph Aoun of “dragging his feet” on the matter.
However, Lebanese army sources told Reuters last week they had blown up so many Hezbollah arms caches that they had run out of explosives and they expect to complete their sweep of the country’s south by the end of the year.
Four of the slain operatives, who were killed by the IDF on Saturday (1st), were members of the elite Radwan unit and the fifth who was killed on Friday (10/31), was a Hezbollah logistics officer working to reestablish Hezbollah’s infrastructure in southern Lebanon, according to the IDF.
The men’s coffins were draped in Hezbollah flags while mourners threw petals and chanted “Death to Israel,” and “Death to America.” Hezbollah members in military garb were present, swearing loyalty to Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader who was killed by Israel in September 2024, and to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The recent conflict between Israel and Hezbollah was sparked when the terror group began near-daily attacks on northern Israel on October 8, 2023 – a day after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas invaded southern Israel, sparking the Gaza War.
Hezbollah’s attacks displaced some 60,000 residents of northern Israel. In a bid to ensure their return home, Israel in September last year escalated operations in Lebanon , decimating Hezbollah’s leadership.
Once the dominant political party in Lebanon, Hezbollah was severely weakened by the war with Israel. While it has publicly committed to the ceasefire, Hezbollah insists that its disarmament as mentioned in the text of the agreement applies only to south Lebanon. The terror group has also hinted conflict is possible if the state moves against it.
Trump To Host Sharaa In First-Ever Visit By A Syrian President To White HOuse – Officials
US President Donald Trump will host Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa for talks, a first-ever visit by a Syrian President to the White House, an administration official said Saturday (1st), as US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack confirmed on the record that Sharaa would visit Washington, DC.
The Trump administration official said that the meeting was expected to take place on November 10. A Syrian source, familiar with the matter, said the visit was expected to take place within two weeks.
During the first visit, Syria will “hopefully”join the US-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State Group, known as ISIS, Barrack told reporters on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, an annual global security and geopolitical conference.
Trump met with Sharaa in Saudi Arabia in May in what was the first encounter between the two nations’ leaders in 25 years – since Hafez Assad met Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000. Syria continues to struggle to emerge from decades of international isolation.
Syria – whose longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad, was deposed last year – is also in the midst of talks with Israel over a possible diplomatic accord, talks Barrack said were making progress.
According to the US State Department’s historical list of foreign leader visits, no previous Syrian president has paid an official visit to Washington. Sharaa did address the UN General Assembly in New York in September.
Israel and Syria have been adversaries for decades. Despite the overthrow of Assad last December, territorial disputes and deep-seated political mistrust between the two countries remain. A flare-up occurred over the summer when Israel conducted airstrikes on Syrian forces with the stated aim of protecting members of the Druze minority in Syria.
Under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, Sharaa led Syria’s offshoot of Al-Qaeda and joined insurgents battling US forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian War. He was even imprisoned by US troops there for several years. But a decade ago, his anti-Assad rebel group broke away from the network founded by Osama bin Laden, and later clashed with ISIS. He has since sought to project a more moderate image.
Among America’s Allies, The U.S. Can Rely The Most On Israel – Hugh Hewitt
Which country is America’s most important ally? Hands down, it is Israel. Israel is the only other genuine democracy on the planet that is a nuclear superpower with the will and ability to project hard power across vast distances and which provides the U.S. with a reliable ally in what has been the most turbulent area of the world since the end of World War II.
Our old allies remain, in theory at least, our partners in protecting freedom around the globe, but increasingly are limited by their growing anti-Israel populations when it comes to joining with the U.S. to protect power anywhere outside of Europe. Did you see any British or French fighter aircraft alongside our B-2s and fighter planes and the Israeli Air Force when it came time to demolish the imminent nuclear threat of Iran?
Both France and the UK will point to their efforts alongside ours in helping Israel protect itself against the missile assaults by Iran in 2024, but both nations were missing during the 12-day war of Israel and the U.S. against Iran in June 2025. All of Europe benefitted from defanging the mullahs, but they were not there when Iran’s nuclear capabilities were obliterated, even as Iran’s ballistic missiles rained down on the Jewish state. Both then engaged in a “two-state theater” when the U.S. and its Gulf allies were imposing a ceasefire on Hamas.
We don’t have to “hope” for anything when it comes to Israel. Israel is spending 8.8% of its GDP on the IDF in these years of war and is closer to 5% even in the most peaceful of years. Israel’s high-tech defense sector also powers much of the innovation the Free World requires to remain free. Even its critics recognize Israel as an “intelligence superpower,” and its democracy as genuine as any Western nation. When it comes to assessing America’s allies, Israel is “first among equals.” (Fox News)
French Mayor Hung Israeli Flags And A Hostage Banner In City Hall – Robert Sarner
• Over the last two years, the Mayor of Nice, France, Christian Estrosi has been among France’s most vocal elected officials calling for the release of those kidnapped by Hamas on Oct.7, 2023. Until recently, at the main entrance to City Hall in the French Riviera city, there was a large, vertical banner with photos of the 48 Israelis still being held at the time by Hamas in Gaza, with text demanding their release.
• Until this summer, on the building’s main balcony outside Estrosi’s third-floor office, eight Israeli flags had pride of place alongside their French and EU counterparts. Estrosi had the Israeli flags installed there following the Oct. 7 atrocities in Israel. When an administrative court ordered them removed four months ago, Estrosi erected the hostage banner at City Hall.
• Estrosi, 70, said in an interview: “My position on this issue…comes from my commitment to justice and the fight against barbarism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionism. I consider it my duty to humanity and civilization to protect the values I share with Israel and what they represent in the history of humanity. Today, that includes defending them in the face of so much hate and adversity.”
• Because of the stand I take, I’m subjected to insults and attempts at intimidation, including death threats against me…. But I’ve always said very clearly that nothing will cause me to be intimidated. You always lose a war when you’re afraid. That’s what I say to my Jewish friends. I tell them, ‘Don’t be afraid in Nice. I’m here to protect and defend you. I refuse that one should be afraid to be Jewish in Nice.’”
• “For me, anti-Semitism is a poison. In the middle of the last century and in other periods of history, it has shown itself the worst insult to humanity…. Today, I have the impression we’re in the process of returning to the 1930s and I fear anti-Semitism will continue to grow in France.”
• With Israel on the frontlines fighting Islamist terrorism, it’s a rampart for our country, protecting us. Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, is being attacked and is defending itself. Our duty is to be by its side and when one is a public official, like me, to affirm that.
• In July 2016, a Tunisian man drove a truck through crowds at a Bastille Day celebration on Nice’s seaside promenade, killing 80 people and injuring hundreds of others.
