News Digest — 2/11/25
IDF Postpones Leave For Combat Soldiers, Increases Readiness In South
The IDF has decided to raise the level of readiness in the Southern Command and has postponed leave for combat soldiers and operational units following a situational assessment in the area, the military announced Monday night (10th).
The area has also been significantly reinforced with additional units for defensive purposes, the IDF further noted.
In addition, the military said the planting of the Swords of Iron Forest near the Be’eri Forest scheduled for Tuesday (11th) has been postponed following a situational assessment.
The IDF added that troops were deployed in the area, and no further directives had been issued to the Home Front.
Earlier Monday (10th), Hamas said it would postpone the release of the hostages scheduled for February 15 due to an Israeli violation of the hostage-ceasefire deal.
Hamas Accuses Israel Of Ceasefire Violations And Says It Will Delay Hostage Release
A Hamas spokesman on Monday (10th) accused Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement with the group, including Gaza airstrikes, and said that next Saturday’s (15th) hostage release would be delayed.
Israel and Hamas are in the midst of a six-week ceasefire during which Hamas is releasing dozens of the hostages captured in its October 7, 2023 attack in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
The sides have carried out five swaps since the ceasefire went into effect last month, freeing 21 hostages and over 730 prisoners.
The next exchange was scheduled for Saturday (15th), releasing three Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, accused Israel on Monday (10th) of systematically violating the ceasefire agreement over the past three weeks and said Saturday’s (15th) release would be delayed.
“The Resistance leadership has closely monitored the enemy’s violations and its failure to uphold the terms of the agreement,” Abu Obeida said.
This includes delays in allowing displaced Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, targeting them with airstrikes and gunfire across various areas, and failing to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid as agreed.
Hostage Deal: Israel Responds To Hamas Ultimatum
Hamas has announced that it is suspending the release of hostages planned for Saturday (15th) until further notice due to “Israeli violations.”
Israel has rejected the accusations, stating, “The one who committed the violations is the terrorist organization. Members of the delegation who returned Monday morning (10th) from Qatar claimed that Hamas’ conduct endangers the continuation of the deal.”
Prime MInister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday (10th) convened a situational assessment to review the implications of the announcement, with the participation of Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and incoming Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir. Egyptian sources commented to Reuters that they believe the deal is in danger of collapse.
Defense Minister Israel Katz responded to Hamas’ announcement of the cessation agreement and the deal for their release.
“Hamas’ announcement of the cessation of the release of Israeli hostages is a complete violation of the ceasefire agreement. I have ordered the IDF to prepare at the highest level of readiness for any possible scenario in Gaza and for the defense of the communities near Gaza. We will not allow a return to the reality of the 7th of October.
Chairman of Otzma Yehudit MK Itamar Ben Gvir called for drastic measures. “Hamas’ announcement should be answered with one reality: a massive assault on Gaza, from the air and the ground, alongside a complete stop to humanitarian aid to the Strip, including electricity, fuel and water, and including the bombing of the aid packages that have already been brought in and are in the hands of Hamas in Gaza. We must return to war and destroy them.”
The hostages’ families Headquarters urgently appealed to the mediating countries for assistance in finding a solution that would keep the deal from collapsing. “We call upon the government of Israel to refrain from actions that endanger the implementation of the agreement that was signed and to work for its continuation and the return of our 76 brothers and sisters.” the statement said. “The latest testimonies leave no room for doubt – the hostages have no time, and everyone must get out of ‘hell’ with all haste.”
The Prime Minister’s Office responded to Hamas as well. “All families of the hostages were updated this evening following Hamas’ announcement. It was emphasized to the families that the State of Israel stands by the agreement in its entirety and views any breach of it with severity.”
Current Hamas Officials: October 7th Massacre Was Just A Prelude
Khaled al-Qa’id, one of the Hamas leaders remaining in the Gaza Strip, said that “the October 7 attack was only a prelude to the liberation of all of the Land of Israel from the Jews.”
He claimed that “the victory in the military campaign was achieved thanks to the unity of the Palestinian people with the fighting forces, and the steadfastness of the Palestinians who cling to their land and refuse to leave it.”
Another Hamas leader, Khalil al-Hayya thanked Iran for its support of the Palestinians, and noted that the two Iranian missile attacks against Israel had demonstrated “the passing of the time of Zionist, American, and Western bullying, and the dawning of a new day for the Palestinians on the road to liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem.”
He claims that the Palestinians are no longer afraid of Israel and will continue to fight by violent means that can bring about one or two results, “victory or death.”
Iran Marks Anniversary Of 1979 Islamic Revolution As They Face New Trump Term
Tens of thousands of Iranians marked the anniversary of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the first such rally since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House and restarted his “maximum pressure” campaign targeting Tehran.
The annual commemoration of the end of the rule of the American-backed shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the creation of Iran’s Shiite theocracy comes this year as deep uncertainty lingers across the country.
Iran faces crushing sanctions wrecking its economy and the threat of more coming from Trump, even as the American president suggests he wants to reach a deal with Tehran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday (7th) criticized proposed talks with the United States and described negotiations with America as “not intelligent, wise or honorable.” Khamenei also suggested that “there should be no negotiations with such a government,” though stopped short of issuing a direct order not to engage with Washington.
In Tehran, people carried flags, balloons, and banners as they marched toward Azadi, or Freedom Square in the Iranian capital despite sub-zero temperatures.
Alongside anti-American and anti-Israel banners with slogans like “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” demonstrators also carried images of Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters.
People took selfie photographs in front of a pickup truck carrying men wearing masks of Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu behind bars, and one demonstrator held up a poster reading, “We are going to wipe out Israel.” Israel’s military also displayed replicas of some of its missiles at the Square.
Over the past year, Iran twice fired massive barrages of missiles and drones at Israel in a spillover from the war in the Gaza Strip which started with the invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, led by Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas. The next day, Iran’s Lebanese proxy terror group Hezbollah began attacking across Israel’s northern border in a conflict that spiraled into open war.
Both Iranian assaults were largely thwarted by Israel’s air defenses in cooperation with the US and its regional allies. Israel twice bombed Iran in response, the second time destroying much of its air defense systems as well as some rocket and drone manufacturing sites.
War with Hezbollah ended with a ceasefire in November and the war in Gaza reached a complex, three-phase ceasefire which is still being negotiated but last month stopped the fighting.
The Islamic Revolution celebration is also the first since President Masoud Pezeshkian came to power in July following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last May. Pezeshkian later gave a speech before a crowd at Freedom Square in Tehran.
To celebrate the Islamic revolution, Iranian state television aired commemorations at sites across the country, urging more people to turn out. The celebration-day is an official holiday and takes on a festival feel, with schools and government offices closed, and workers out in the streets.
The Islamic Revolution began with widespread unrest in Iran over the rule of the shah who, terminally and secretly ill with cancer, fled Iran in January 1979. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini then returned from exile and the government fell on Feb. 11, 1979, after days of massive demonstrations and confrontations between protesters and security forces.
Later in April, Iranians voted to become an Islamic republic, a Shiite theocracy with Khomeini as the country’s first supreme leader.
Months later, when the US allowed the shah into the country for cancer treatment in New York, anger boiled over in Tehran leading to the takeover of the US Embassy in November 1979 by militant students. The subsequent 444-day hostage crisis at the embassy in Tehran kindled decades of enmity.
The End Of “Palestine”? – Lee Smith
The Arabs could have gone along with the UN’s partition plan like the Jews did. Instead, they resoundingly chose war. That’s the storied Nakba at the core of the Palestinian legend – the catastrophe that drove the Arabs from their land. The Arabs chose the catastrophe; they chose war, based on the premise that they would inevitably win and exterminate the Jews.
As the Israelis built a first-world powerhouse in their war-torn, third-world neighborhood, the global conscience was always predisposed to rebuilding what the Palestinians destroyed. Accordingly, the Palestinian Arabs became a tribe whose identity was carved out of the relentless vow to eliminate Israel and slaughter the Jews – despite repeated failures, each one more crushing than the last.
Egyptian President al-Sisi has consistently allowed Hamas to smuggle arms through the Philadelphi crossing into Gaza, thereby violating Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel. Now Sisi has a new chance to prove himself as a friend of America by adding a million Gazans – who in the past had been ruled by Egypt and have family names like al-Masri (“the Egyptian”) – to Egypt’s existing population of 112 million, amounting percentagewise to roughly the same number of legal immigrants that the US accepts per year.
Should the Palestinians remain in Gaza, they would invariably return to war no matter how much munificence the Gulf Arab states, the EU, and perhaps even the U.S. might shower on them.
Here is the stark reality: Gazans, not just the enlisted members of the Hamas brigades, waged an exterminationist campaign against Israel, and they lost. Trump’s generous offer to the Gazans signals a chance to raise their families in peace, an existence not premised on total and permanent war with a more powerful adversary destined to rout them entirely, and would have already done so if not for the objections of other powerful global players.
