Israeli army says bodies of three hostages recovered in Gaza
The Israeli military said that it had recovered the bodies of three hostages in Gaza more than 20 months after they were abducted by Hamas militants.
"In a special operation... the bodies of the hostages Ofra Keidar, Yonatan Samerano and Staff Sergeant Shay Levinson were recovered from the Gaza Strip yesterday," the military said in a statement.
Mr Samerano's father had announced earlier Sunday that his son's body, which was taken into Gaza after he was murdered in a kibbutz by the territory on 7 October 2023 had been recovered by the Israeli army.
He paid tribute to "the brave soldiers of the IDF (Israeli military) and the Shin Bet" security service in a message posted on Instagram.
Ms Keidar, a 71-year-old mother of three, was also killed in a kibbutz and abducted, while 19-year-old tank commander Levinson "engaged and fought terrorists on the morning of October 7 and fell in combat," a statement from the military said.
The attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel in October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 hostages seized during the assault, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 55,908 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The UN considers these figures reliable.
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The Irish Sun
2 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
How apocalyptic Iran could terrorise West after US blitz from horror bombings to kidnappings and crippling cyber attacks
THE world is waiting with baited breath for Tehran's response to Donald Trump's strikes on three key nuclear facilities. Iran and Israel's conflict expanded to a global scale when the 11 Firefighters, rescue workers and military tasked with civil defense and recovery operations gather at the site of a direct missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv Credit: AP 11 Missiles fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps towards Israel Credit: Reuters 11 Houthi supporters at a ceremony marking the Shiite religious Day of Eid al-Ghadir, in Sana'a, Yemen Credit: EPA 11 US President Donald Trump holds a meeting in the Situation Room at the White House in Washington Credit: Reuters 11 After declaring the But Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has warned that Fears loom of US sites decimated A simple response from Iran would be the decimation of US sites in the Middle East using its arsenal of ballistic missiles. read more news At least 50 Iranian missiles are thought to have struck down in Israel during the ten days of conflict. But more than 450 have been intercepted by Israel's sophisticated air defences, along with around 1,000 drones, according to the latest figures from the Israeli military. Iranian preparations for missile strikes on US military bases in the Middle East have been exposed by American intelligence officers, anonymous officials told the New York Times. There are over 20 bases across the region - the majority of which are within 2,000km range of Iran's Sejil-2 ballistic missile. Most read in The US Sun US bases in Iraq and Syria would potentially be targeted first, according to American officials said that F-22, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets had been positioned in the Middle East - prime targets for Tehran missiles. Major general Chip Chapman told The Sun how the bases represent key targets for Iran. He said: "It could be that they do some sort of minimal strike on one or two bases, not a theatre-wide strike, which would involve Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, all the American bases throughout the region. "And we know from the UK perspective that the 20 plots, Iranian inspired plots against, Iranian dissidents. "So you could see that against Israeli targets, a wide geographic region that's that prolonged, sporadic, conflict. "It is if you had that, that people would more overtly, I think, talk about regime change in general." Fears loom that Iran could even strike US embassies and consulates. Several sources revealed to Sky News that the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, is likely to be attacked. Sponsored terror attacks Iran has not hid the fact it uses its network of regional proxies as defence. 11 Smoke rises following an Israeli attack in Tehran, Iran Credit: Reuters 11 Missiles fired from Iran in retaliation for Israeli attacks are seen in the sky over the Hebron, West Bank Credit: Getty 11 Houthi supporters attend a ceremony marking the Shiite religious Day Credit: EPA Infamous Hezbollah and Hamas have been effectively keeping the Israeli military occupied - steering attention away from Iran. And Yemen's Houthis have also provided distraction to the West by relentlessly targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The group already vowed to target US ships if Washington launched an attack on Iran just hours before Trump's nuke blitz - with the threat now potentially becoming a reality. The Houthis had halted its attacks on US shipping containers after Trump boosted strikes on the group. Crippling cyber attack Iran and its regional proxies have claimed responsibility for various crippling cyber attacks on Israel. Data has been destroyed and phishing campaigns launched in the past - meaning another cyber attack in response to the nuclear sites blitz could be on the cards. The US government has desperately worked to gather information on Iranian hackers responsible for previous attacks due to the grave threats to defence. An eye-watering $10 million reward was uploaded for details on a group known as CyberAv3ngers who US officials have tracked down to having links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. But experts have warned that Iran could struggle to actually launched large-scale cyber attacks when its regime is under extreme threat - like now. Choking shipping lanes Arguably Tehran's most powerful weapon against the West is the Strait of Hormuz. The narrow path of water between Oman and Iran is vital in the global supply of oil. Major general Chapman told The Sun that the Islamic Republic could just shut down access to the Strait and cripple shipping through the area. He said: "The worst case from the allies perspective, America and everyone else, is that the Iranians go towards a posture of closing the Strait of Hormuz. "20 per cent of the world's oil runs through that. And as of today, the price of a barrel of oil, Brant crude was $77. "Now that is where the Brits may get involved, because one of the things about the British posture in the region and the opposition, it's been a longstanding British, operation in the Persian Gulf and the wider Middle East is that we have mine countermeasure vessels, co-located with the American Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. "If the Iranians were to try and close the Strait of Hormuz, that those would be a definite ask by the Americans to the Brits. "The Iranian oil goes to China, it goes to India, places like that. They're the ones who would suffer." Oil field blitzed Iran has the potential to pull what's been dubbed the "last big card" and launch an attack on vital energy infrastructure in the Gulf that powers the globe. In 2019, two major Saudi Arabian oil plants, one in Abqaiq, Bugayg, and its second largest oilfield in Khurais, where engulfed in flames after a drone attack. The Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack - but the US and Saudi governments accused Iran of orchestrating it behind closed doors. 11 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's grandson, Hassan Khomeini stands next to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Credit: Reuters 11 Missiles fired from Iran in retaliation for Israeli attacks are seen in the sky over the Hebron Credit: Getty 11 Smoke rises from the building of Iran's state-run television after an Israeli strike in Tehran Credit: AP The Khurais oilfield was producing around one per cent of the world's oil and Abqaiq is the largest facility and could produce seven per cent of the global supply. This caused global energy prices to spike, and temporarily binned half of Saudi Arabia's oil production. Chaos unfolding After declaring the He said in a nationally televised speech at the White House: " "There will be 'Remember there are many targets left. Tonight's was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal. 'But if 'Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes. There's no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight." And shortly after speaking on-camera, he posted to Truth Social: "This cannot continue. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Staggering vid shows US carpet bombing Houthis in 'Operation Rough Rider' as Trump blitzed 800 targets in 44 days "Remember, "But if peace does not come quickly we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill." Meanwhile Iran's foreign minister Abbas Arghchi dubbed the strikes "outrageous and will have everlasting consequences". He also called the military action "a grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT by attacking Iran's peaceful nuclear installations". Arghchi added: "Each and every member of the UN must be alarmed over this extremely dangerous, lawless and criminal behavior. "In accordance with the UN Charter and its provisions allowing a legitimate response in self-defense, Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people." A response from Iran, or from the Ayatollah in hiding, has not yet come. Ali Khamenei is believed to be Two informed sources inside the country told Iran International the country's ageing dictator is Posting on Truth Social, President Analysis of the global implications PHILIP Ingram, expert on international security 'Iranian ballistic missiles will not reach the United States and therefore to try and respond to the United States attack Iran's going to have to do something different. "It'll bring its coalition of the willing that it has together or as we call them the axis of evil. So we've got Iran, Russia, North Korea and China. 'China will likely sit back and wait to see what's happening, to begin with. But North Korea may provide Iran with some missile technology. 'Russia is sitting there laughing all the way to the bank effectively. 'The escalating conflict helps Russia by moving Russia-Ukraine further down the agenda so that people aren't focusing on it. 'Iran and Russia will join forces to try and cause as much disruption in different countries as possible through protest and through disinformation. 'There will be two reactions directly out of Iran. One, the stimulation of their proxy organisations that they have operating across the world. Hamas and Hezbollah have been largely destroyed by Israel. 'But they've still got the Houthis in Yemen. I think we will see a massive uptake in Houthi activity in disrupting international shipping in the Red Sea. 'The other reaction could be trying to close the Straits of Hormuz. 30 percent of the world's oil and gas goes through there. "Even a threat to close it will put energy prices spiking to a level that will make the spike we saw when Russia invaded Ukraine seem like small change."
The Journal
2 hours ago
- The Journal
'There are many targets left': How Trump announced to the world that the US had bombed Iran
JUST BEFORE 1AM Irish-time, President Donald Trump took to his TruthSocial platform and made a stunning announcement. 'We have completed our very successful attack on three nuclear sites in Iran,' his post said. 'Congratulations to our great American warriors. There is not another military in the world that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!'. The move was widely unexpected. On Thursday, he had given Iran a two-week deadline – which, as a number of US newspapers noted, is his favourite unit of time which can mean 'something or nothing at all'. In this case, it meant two days. Just over an hour after that first post, Trump made a televised address from the White House, flanked by vice president JD Vance, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth and US secretary of state Marco Rubio. The address was brief by Trump standards, at just under 4 minutes, and he stuck almost entirely to the script. After describing how the US had 'totally obliterated' Iran's main nuclear sites, Trump warned that the United States would go after more targets if Iran did not make peace quickly. Advertisement The reaction was immediate: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump on the strikes, saying that 'the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history'. Iran's foreign minister condemned the US attacks as 'lawless and criminal', saying his country has a right to defend its sovereignty. 'The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences,' Abbas Araghchi wrote on X. The intervention by the US president, who had vowed to avoid another 'forever war' in the region and who had faced pushback from one wing of the Republican party which had asked him to avoid getting involved in the Middle East, is significant. It threatens to dramatically worsen the conflict between Iran and Israel. Trump's full televised address on the bombing Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo 'Thank you very, very much. A short time ago, the US military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. 'Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. 'Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. 'Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier. 'For 40 years, Iran has been saying, Death to America, Death to Israel. They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs, with roadside bombs. That was their specialty. 'We lost over a thousand people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died have a direct result of their hate. In particular, so many were killed by their general Qasem Soleimani. Related Reads Ireland's reaction to the US bombing Iran: 'There is an urgent need for de-escalation' US bombs three nuclear sites in Iran, a major escalation in the war between Israel and Iran 'I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen, it will not continue. I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we've gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel. 'I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they've done, and most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades. 'Hopefully we will no longer need their services at this capacity. I hope that so. 'I also want to congratulate the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan 'Razin' Caine, spectacular general, and all of the brilliant military minds involved in this attack. 'With all of that being said, this cannot continue, there will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. 'Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight's was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal, but if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes. 'There's no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight, not even close. There has never been a military that could do what took place just a little while ago. 'Tomorrow, General Cain [and] Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth, will have a press conference at 8am [1pm Irish-time] at the Pentagon. 'And I want to just thank everybody, and in particular, God. I want to just say we love you, God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East, God bless Israel and God bless America. Thank you very much.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Remains of three Israeli hostages recovered from Gaza
The Israeli military has said it has recovered the remains of three hostages held in the Gaza Strip. The military identified the remains as those of Yonatan Samerano, 21; Ofra Keidar, 70; and Shay Levinson, 19. All three were killed during Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack into Israel that ignited the ongoing war. The militant group is still holding 50 hostages, with less than half of them believed to be alive. The military did not provide any details about the recovery operation, and it is unclear if an air strike which killed four Palestinians was related to it. 'The campaign to return the hostages continues consistently and is happening alongside the campaign against Iran,' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. Kobi Samerano said in a Facebook post that his son's remains were returned on what would have been Yonatan's 23rd birthday. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the October 7 attack. More than half the hostages have been returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals, eight have been rescued alive and Israeli forces have recovered dozens of bodies. Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas displayed photos of the captives during a protest demanding their release in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP) Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Four people were killed on Sunday in an air strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were brought. It said another 22 people were injured while waiting for aid trucks. Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds seeking desperately needed food, killing hundreds of people in recent weeks. The military says it has fired warning shots at people it said approached its forces in a suspicious manner. The Hostages Families Forum, the main organization representing families of the hostages, has repeatedly called for a deal to release the remaining captives. 'Particularly against the backdrop of current military developments and the significant achievements in Iran, we want to emphasise that bringing back the remaining 50 hostages is the key to achieving any sort of victory,' it said in a statement on Sunday. Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Mr Netanyahu has rejected those terms, saying Israel will continue the war until all the hostages are returned and Hamas is defeated or disarmed and sent into exile. Even then, he has said Israel will maintain lasting control over Gaza and facilitate what he refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of its population, plans the Palestinians and others view as forcible expulsion. Separately, World Central Kitchen, the charity run by celebrity chef Jose Andres, said it had resumed the distribution of hot meals in Gaza for the first time in six weeks after shutting down because of Israel's blockade, which was loosened last month amid fears of famine.
