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Israel Today: Ongoing War Report - Update from 2026-01-31 at 14:02
Published 1 month ago
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Hamas Plans Decade-Long Hostage Leverage
Ran Gvili Remains Recovered as Strikes Escalate
US Says Trump Drives Gaza Peace Plan
The time is now 2:02 PM in New York, I'm Noa Levi and this is the latest Israel Today: Ongoing War Report.
In the Disputed Territories (Gaza, Judea and Samaria, East Jerusalem), Brigadier-General (ret.) Gal Hirsch said Hamas planned to hold Israeli hostages for as long as a decade, describing the terror group’s long game of using captives, living and dead, as strategic leverage meant to grind Israel down over years. He noted that his internal assessment early on pointed to a timeline shorter than Hamas’s, yet still measured in years, estimating at least four years. In an in-depth interview with The Jerusalem Post, Hirsch, whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed on October 8, 2023, as coordinator for captives and missing, said Israel repeatedly prepared covert hostage rescue missions that were canceled because planners doubted they could succeed or because rescuing one captive could endanger others held nearby; when there was doubt about success, the option was to pursue negotiations, even if it took time. The interview came days after Israeli forces recovered the remains of police officer Ran Gvili from Gaza, a development Israeli officials and multiple reports described as closing a chapter. In Gaza, Israeli forces and Shin Bet conducted strikes on senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in response to the breach of the ceasefire, with eight militants identified leaving the underground terror network in eastern Rafah; the operations struck a weapons warehouse, a weapons production site, and two Hamas launch sites across central Gaza, and the toll in Gaza rose to about 30. Separately, senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk said the group never agreed to disarmament as part of the US-brokered ceasefire framework.
In US Policy Concerning Israel, US officials say Israeli concerns about Gaza Board of Peace are unfounded, stressing that President Trump will make the calls and Washington will ensure full implementation of all objectives of the plan.
In Antisemitism and Anti-Jewish Hate, The Times of Israel reports that Gregory Bovino, the US Border Patrol officer leading the violent immigration crackdown in Minnesota, made derogatory remarks about a Jewish prosecutor’s faith, using the term “chosen people” and noting that Daniel Rosen, the Orthodox Jewish US Attorney for Minnesota, was not on a call because he was observing Shabbat, asking sarcastically whether Rosen understood that Orthodox Jewish criminals do not take weekends off. The report notes Rosen delegated the meeting to a deputy due to Shabbat, and that Bovino sought a meeting to push for harsher charges against those he claimed impeded agents. The Times adds that six federal prosecutors resigned in protest over the Justice Department’s handling of a high-profile Minnesota case, and a Homeland Security Department spokesperson did not comment.
In Israeli Domestic Politics, a profile of Sari Kroizer, born into a prominent haredi family in Jerusalem, illustrates a new type of ultra-Orthodox Israeli who is devout yet engaged with Israeli society, blending ties to Hebron Yeshiva with involvement in modern work and public life as the country debates service and responsibility in a shifting landscape. Meanwhile, the Likud issued a highly unusual statement accusing a so-called deep state and its operatives in the prosecutorial system, the attorney general’s office, and the police of orchestrating a covert campaign to topple the right-wing government, arguing that false accusations are being leveled at ministers and lawmakers; the party contrasted this with what it described as the absence of such actions during previous left-wing administrations.
In Other News, Iran’s top security establishment is publicly signaling progress, with Ali Larijani say
Hamas Plans Decade-Long Hostage Leverage
Ran Gvili Remains Recovered as Strikes Escalate
US Says Trump Drives Gaza Peace Plan
The time is now 2:02 PM in New York, I'm Noa Levi and this is the latest Israel Today: Ongoing War Report.
In the Disputed Territories (Gaza, Judea and Samaria, East Jerusalem), Brigadier-General (ret.) Gal Hirsch said Hamas planned to hold Israeli hostages for as long as a decade, describing the terror group’s long game of using captives, living and dead, as strategic leverage meant to grind Israel down over years. He noted that his internal assessment early on pointed to a timeline shorter than Hamas’s, yet still measured in years, estimating at least four years. In an in-depth interview with The Jerusalem Post, Hirsch, whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed on October 8, 2023, as coordinator for captives and missing, said Israel repeatedly prepared covert hostage rescue missions that were canceled because planners doubted they could succeed or because rescuing one captive could endanger others held nearby; when there was doubt about success, the option was to pursue negotiations, even if it took time. The interview came days after Israeli forces recovered the remains of police officer Ran Gvili from Gaza, a development Israeli officials and multiple reports described as closing a chapter. In Gaza, Israeli forces and Shin Bet conducted strikes on senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in response to the breach of the ceasefire, with eight militants identified leaving the underground terror network in eastern Rafah; the operations struck a weapons warehouse, a weapons production site, and two Hamas launch sites across central Gaza, and the toll in Gaza rose to about 30. Separately, senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk said the group never agreed to disarmament as part of the US-brokered ceasefire framework.
In US Policy Concerning Israel, US officials say Israeli concerns about Gaza Board of Peace are unfounded, stressing that President Trump will make the calls and Washington will ensure full implementation of all objectives of the plan.
In Antisemitism and Anti-Jewish Hate, The Times of Israel reports that Gregory Bovino, the US Border Patrol officer leading the violent immigration crackdown in Minnesota, made derogatory remarks about a Jewish prosecutor’s faith, using the term “chosen people” and noting that Daniel Rosen, the Orthodox Jewish US Attorney for Minnesota, was not on a call because he was observing Shabbat, asking sarcastically whether Rosen understood that Orthodox Jewish criminals do not take weekends off. The report notes Rosen delegated the meeting to a deputy due to Shabbat, and that Bovino sought a meeting to push for harsher charges against those he claimed impeded agents. The Times adds that six federal prosecutors resigned in protest over the Justice Department’s handling of a high-profile Minnesota case, and a Homeland Security Department spokesperson did not comment.
In Israeli Domestic Politics, a profile of Sari Kroizer, born into a prominent haredi family in Jerusalem, illustrates a new type of ultra-Orthodox Israeli who is devout yet engaged with Israeli society, blending ties to Hebron Yeshiva with involvement in modern work and public life as the country debates service and responsibility in a shifting landscape. Meanwhile, the Likud issued a highly unusual statement accusing a so-called deep state and its operatives in the prosecutorial system, the attorney general’s office, and the police of orchestrating a covert campaign to topple the right-wing government, arguing that false accusations are being leveled at ministers and lawmakers; the party contrasted this with what it described as the absence of such actions during previous left-wing administrations.
In Other News, Iran’s top security establishment is publicly signaling progress, with Ali Larijani say