News Digest — 12/5/25
The Story Of Staff Sergeant Ran Gvili, The Last Hostage In Gaza
Seven hundred ninety days after the deadliest massacre in Israel’s history, which led to the abduction of hundreds of civilians, Staff Sergeant Ran Gvili is now the last hostage still held in the Gaza Strip.
Gvili, a 24-year-old Yasam volunteer from Meitar, fought with extraordinary courage on October 7. When the massacre began, he left the house, put on his uniform and headed out to fight. During the battle near Alumim he rescued about 100 people who had fled the Nova music festival and killed 14 members of the Hamas terrorist organization before he was abducted.
A panel of experts ruled on January 30 that Gvili was no longer alive. Just ten days before the October massacre he had broken his shoulder and was waiting for surgery, yet he still chose to join the battle. On the morning of the attack, as his family entered the shelter, he walked out and returned moments later dressed in uniform.
His father Itzik said: “Ran told us he would not let his friends fight alone, and that even with the fracture, he could still hold a hand gun. I will never forget the look in his eyes. It was as if he was saying’This is what I have waited for my entire life.’” Gvili went to the Beersheba police station, joined the forces headed toward Alumim and was shot in the arm and leg during the fighting.
“First to go out, last to return,” his mother, Talik Gvili, wrote Thursday (4th) on her Facebook page. A few weeks earlier, in an interview with Israel Hayom, his sister Shira described the anguish, uncertainty and determination driving the family. “Each day that passes and Rani doesn’t come back makes us panic more. If he still has not returned, then where is he? Who knows what is happening to him.”
Security officials have told the family that “everything possible is being done to search for him, locate him and not leave him behind,” but the family fears the chances are extremely slim. “It is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
The Hostage and Missing Persons Directorate in the Prime Minister’s Office said: “We pray for the swift return home of Staff Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last hostage still held by Hamas.”
Abu Shahab Militia Chief Shot In Gaza Gunfight, Dies In Israel Hospital
Yasser Abu Shahab, head of the anti-Hamas Abu Shahab militia was killed by assassins in Gaza, Israeli sources confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday (4th).
The self-proclaimed “Popular Forces” of the Gaza Strip, the Abu Shahab militia, had reportedly been collaborating with Israel on anti-Hamas efforts in southern Gaza. Abu Shahab was killed in an internal clan scuffle, rather than by Hamas terrorists, a source confirmed. According to the source, he was initially wounded and was evacuated to a southern Israeli hospital, where he succumbed to his wounds.
The Popular Forces released a statement confirming Abu Shahab ‘s death later on Thursday evening (4th). The militia affirmed that he was killed while trying to solve a local clan dispute, not by members of Hamas. The gang said that it would continue on with its mission until the “last terrorist was eliminated in Gaza,” and will keep working for “a bright and secure future for our people who believe in peace.”
Abu Shahab, a Bedouin man in his 30s, led the Popular Forces, a group in Gaza that is significantly smaller than Hamas.
Senior UN official Georgios Petropoulos called him “the self-styled power broker of east Rafah.” According to reports, Abu Shahab was accused several times of looting aid trucks in Gaza by aid truck drivers and international humanitarian officials.
In an interview with The New York Times, Abu Shahab said that he did not raid the trucks and instead asserted that he was feeding his community. “We are taking trucks so we can eat, not so we can sell,” he said, accusing Hamas of stealing aid.
The Popular Forces also said that it had safeguarded aid trucks entering the enclave.
Israeli public broadcaster KAN News reported that videos on social media allegedly showed separate members of the Abu Shahab militia being killed by people yelling chants in favor of Hamas.
In recent months, Hamas’ military wing, the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, claimed to have deterred the Abu Shahab militia, arresting members and confiscating their weapons.
Israel Launches Strikes On Hezbollah Thursday
The Israeli Defense Forces carried out a wave of airstrikes against what it said were Hezbollah weapons depots in southern Lebanon on Thursday (4th), just one day after Israeli officials held their first direct meeting with counterparts from the Lebanese government in decades.
While Lebanon may have hoped that engaging in the contacts would help dissuade Israel from continuing such strikes in southern Lebanon, Jerusalem has shown no indication that it is prepared to hold back amid its frustration with the pace of Beirut’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah.
The strikes were carried out after the IDF issued evacuation warnings for residents of the southern Lebanon villages of Jbaa, Mahrouna, Mjadel, and Baraachit.
The IDF said the weapons depots were placed “in the heart of the civilian population,” and they constituted a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
“This is yet another example of Hezbollah’s cynical use of Lebanese civilians as human shields and continued operations from within civilian areas,” the military said.
Tensions in Lebanon have ratcheted up in recent weeks. The IDF accuses Hezbollah of violating the November 2024 ceasefire and has intensified its strikes against terror group targets, including killing its chief of staff in a rare strike in Beirut last month.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah was required to vacate southern Lebanon, while Israel was given 60 days to do so. The IDF later withdrew from all but five posts along the border with Lebanon, citing the incomplete dismantling of Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the country’s south.
In addition to hundreds of airstrikes amid the ceasefire, the military said, ground troops have conducted over 1,200 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon, mostly in areas surrounding the five “strategic” border posts, to prevent Hezbollah from restoring its capabilities.
The operations included demolishing terror infrastructure, thwarting Hezbollah intelligence collection efforts, and other activities to damage the terror group’s capabilities, the army said. During the raids, troops located numerous weapons, rocket-launching sites, and other buildings used by Hezbollah, the army added.
Israel invaded Lebanon in September 2024 in a bid to secure the return home of some 60.000 residents displaced by Hezbollah’s near-daily attacks on northern Israel starting October 8, 2023 – a day after fellow Iran-backed group Hamas invaded southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.
Israel’s New Preemptive Doctrine Collides With Trump’s Vision For Syria – Herb Keinon
Where Washington sees Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa as a leader to cultivate, Israel sees a security vacuum in southern Syria. The region today is a tangle of actors, many of them hostile to Israel: remnants of Hamas’ Syrian branch, elements of the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood, scattered jihadis, networks, clan-based militias, and Iranian-aligned groups moving weapons toward Lebanon. Turkey has also expanded its influence in the region, backing Sunni factions.
Israel learned the hard way on Oct.7, 2023, what happens when it does not take immediate action to handle threats building up on its borders. The resulting trauma has hardened Israel’s instincts on every front. Deterrence is no longer considered sufficient. Preemption is the new default mode.
In Syria, this doctrine has led to a set of quiet but consistent operations – similar to those routinely conducted in Judea and Samaria – to capture terrorist suspects and prevent terrorist infrastructure from taking root near Israel’s communities on the Golan Heights. Israel cannot afford to take a hands-off approach to what is happening in southern Syria so close to its border.
The differences regarding the proper policy toward Syria between Israel and the US cannot be wished away. Washington wants Israel to slow down – to give diplomacy a chance and avoid steps that could undermine a leader the White House is courting. Israel wants Washington to understand that a stable Syria is today more aspiration than reality, and that security can not be outsourced to a government still struggling to enforce its authority or to international mechanisms that rarely function.
Israel supports diplomatic engagement with Syria and understands the administration’s goals. But until the new Syrian government can reliably ensure that jihadist factions, Iranian proxies, and Hamas-linked networks cannot operate along the frontier, Israel will continue to act preemptively – to prevent having the border become a launchpad for the next Oct. 7 massacre. (Jerusalem Post)
Video: If You Want To Encourage Normalization And Peace, You Need To Remove The Enemies Of Peace – Dr. Dan Diker and Khaled Abu Toameh
Abu Toameh: Almost every night, Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned TV network which is an official mouthpiece of Hamas, broadcasts programs in Arabic glorifying the Hamas fighters who are trapped in the tunnels of Rafah in southern Gaza, calling them heroes and praising them for not surrendering, praising them for remaining steadfast, inside the tunnels without food, presenting them as a model for sacrifice and for martyrdom to the younger people inside Gaza.
It’s seen among many of them as a sign that Hamas fighters are willing to fight to the last person. They don’t want to give Israel the victory image. This is very important to them. It’s all about perception. The last thing Hamas needs is Hamas terrorists walking out of these tunnels in their underwear and with their hands raised. Hamas knows that once you have images like that, you’ve handed Israel the image of victory that it wants, and you’ve actually destroyed Hamas’ reputation or image, not only among Palestinians, but in the entire Arab and Muslim world.
No one is talking about normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia anymore. What happened to normalization between Israel and Indonesia? There’s no talk about it because Hamas and the Islamic Jihad and other Islamist groups are standing on their feet. If you want to encourage or promote normalization and peace, you need to get rid of or destroy and remove the enemies of peace. It’s a very simple equation. That’s how it works.
Hamas’ slogan is jihad until victory or martyrdom. Victory means I destroy you. And if I don’t destroy you, then I’d rather die than surrender. This is what is driving these Islamist groups, not only Hamas. It’s jihad, jihad, jihad. People don’t understand this ideology, this mindset. People tend to underestimate it or judge it through Western eyes and this is a big mistake. You need to listen very carefully to what these jihadis are saying. They are saying, “I will continue to fight until I destroy you, and if I don’t destroy you, I will become a martyr.” There’s no third option. (JNS TV)
International Support: Thousands Of Christian Leaders Visiting Shiloh Friday
The largest advocacy delegation in Israeli history is arriving Friday (5th) at the ancient Shiloh site, in the main event of a tour held over the past week. This major gathering is taking place in the Binyamin region, making Judea and Samaria a must-visit destination for international delegations coming to Israel.
Over a thousand Christian leaders and influencers, representing tens of millions of Americans, are visiting Israel these days at the initiative of Dr. Mike Evans founder of the Israel Heritage Center and Friends of Zion (ZOF) organization, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The visit of ancient Shiloh is the highlight of an especially powerful week.
The delegation has visited the Nova site, the western Wall, and Mount Herzl, and is now coming to ancient Shiloh for a particularly large gathering. Members will tour the site, learn about its importance, and hold a mass prayer meeting.
This is the first time a delegation of this size has come to Judea and Samaria, especially to ancient Shiloh, which has become a popular destination in recent years for senior officials from Israel and abroad. Recent visitors include US House Speaker Mike Johnson and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
The fact that an official delegation led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is coming to ancient Shiloh sends a clear message that Judea and Samaria is no longer the backyard of Israel but has become a main destination for leaders from around the world.
Governor of the Binyamin Regional Council and Chairman of the Yesha Council, Yisrael Ganz said: “This huge delegation coming to Binyamin is proof that Judea and Samaria is no longer Israel’s backyard, but has become a main destination for leaders from around the world.”
“I commend Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Dr. Mike Evans for their strong support of Binyamin and Judea and Samaria, and for making the visit to ancient Shiloh, a must-see stop for every Israeli delegation. We call on the Israeli government to complete the change we’ve started and apply this policy to other areas as well. Just like every child should visit the Western wall, every student should visit ancient Shiloh.
