Free Republic

Before sharing what really happened in Gaza this week – and it is quite tragic – and without minimizing for a moment the very real suffering of the people of Gaza, let me share with you an Instagram post commenting on the event shortly after it took place. (I’m not linking to the comment since I have no desire to draw attention to the individual who posted it for quite a few reasons. It was sent to me by a pro-Israel pastor.)

The difficult testimony that she was kidnapped was given by 18-year-old Agam Goldstein-Almog, who was released from Hamas captivity after 51 days, and is presented in a new film dealing with sexual crimes committed by Hamas since October 7. In an interview about her film to CNN, creator Sheryl Sandberg said: "It is impossible for a girl to be forced to go through such horrors." New evidence about sexual crimes committed by Hamas in kidnappings in Gaza was revealed in an interview yesterday (Monday) with the CNN network, in which the Jewish-American billionaire Sheryl Sandberg was interviewed, who talked about...

Eliminate all the Hamas terrorists...Silwan eats meat underground and we "eat" bullets over our heads...these people are donkeys....F@#$ Hamas...

While the IDF continues to provide safe corridors for civilians fleeing from Khan Yunis, Hamas operatives try to hold them back, for they are the human shields Hamas relies on to discourage IDF attacks. Now Gazans are openly expressing their anger with Hamas, which wants to keep them imperiled, and also has been appropriating much of the humanitarian aid that has been trucked into the Strip. More on this public display of anger directed at Hamas can be found here: “Gazans call for overthrow of Hamas as they flee through IDF humanitarian corridor,” by Gadi Zaig, Jerusalem Post, January 27,...

TEL AVIV, Israel—Israeli women and children have in recent weeks begun speaking publicly about what they experienced during nearly two months in Hamas captivity late last year. In primetime Hebrew TV interviews, the released hostages have confirmed that ordinary Gazans were deeply complicit in every stage of the hostage scheme. Unarmed teens helped to abduct Jews from their homes on Oct. 7, while Gazan women and children held some of the Israelis captive. In other cases, Gazan doctors collaborated with Hamas terrorists to covertly treat kidnapped Israelis and imprison them in hospitals. When the Israelis encountered Gazans on the streets,...

An Israeli soldier weeps at the marker for a loved one kidnapped on Oct. 7 in a cross-border attack by Hamas at the Nova music festival, after a press conference at the site in Re'im, southern Israel, Jan. 5, 2024. Two United Nations rights experts demanded Monday that Hamas be held accountable for a multitude of alleged crimes, including sexual torture, during its terror attack on Israel October 7. Alice Jill Edwards, U.N. special rapporteur on torture, and Morris Tidball-Binz, special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, are independent experts appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council but do not speak on...

The Biden administration is demanding that Israel take even more extraordinary measures to avoid harming “innocent civilians” as it tries to eradicate Hamas. Around the world, politicians and others express dismay at the alleged number of innocent civilians who have been killed by Israeli bombardments, even while admitting that Hamas’s casualty numbers include its own terrorists, people killed by terrorists’ awol missiles, and so on.But my complaint is more fundamental. Watching videos of Israeli captives being paraded through Gaza, and seeing “civilians” spitting on them, hitting them, joyously celebrating their capture, I have asked: where are these innocent civilians we...

Roni Krivoi, 25, managed to escape from terrorists who held him hostage in the Gaza Strip, but ordinary Gazans returned him to his captors, his aunt said on Monday. The revelation, which followed Hamas's release of Krivoi on Sunday along with 13 other Israeli hostages, was the latest evidence that ordinary Palestinians have enabled Hamas's terrorism against Israel during and since the Oct. 7 attack. Krivoi was working as a sound technician at the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7 when Gazan terrorists stormed the event as part of a rampage through southern Israel in which they...

The Israel Defense Forces releases footage of the Navy’s underwater missions unit — known by its Hebrew acronym YALTAM — recovering weapons left behind by Hamas terrorists in the sea from the October 7 onslaught and other attacks since. During the October 7 attacks, members of Hamas’s naval forces tried to infiltrate into Israel via the sea. Navy forces managed to kill dozens of them, largely foiling the seaborne attack. There have been other attempts by the terror group to send divers to infiltrate into Israel in recent weeks. YALTAM scuba forces scanned the seabed in recent days, finding firearms,...

The young German-Israeli tattoo artist who was paraded through the streets of Gaza after being kidnapped by Hamas has been found dead after “sadistic” terrorists “chopped off her head,” Israel’s president revealed Monday. “I am truly sorry to report that we have now received news that Shani Nicole Louk has been confirmed murdered and dead,” President Isaac Herzog told the German newspaper Bild. Shani Louk is believed to have been killed by Hamas terrorists. Instagram/hanukkk

The mother of Shani Louk, an Israeli-German woman thought to have been kidnapped by Hamas fighters at a music festival in Israel, says her daughter is dead. Speaking to German media, Ricarda Louk said she had been told by the Israeli military that a DNA sample taken from part of a skull bone proved to be Shani's. Her body has not yet been found. Shani's sister also confirmed the death on social media. The 22-year-old had been attending the festival near the Kibbutz Re'im when gunmen opened fire and sent terrified partygoers fleeing through the desert. Soon after the attack,...

New details have begun to emerge about the barbaric evils that innocent Israeli citizens were forced to experience at the hands of savage Palestinian Islamic terrorists with Hamas during their unprecedented terror attack two weeks ago. A woman named Shari, who did not want to give her last name because she wanted to protect her family, works in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Rabbinate corps and it is her job to clean the victim’s bodies as best as possible to prepare them for burial. “We wash the bodies and prepare them for burial. We try to bring them dignity in...

Horrifying photos have been released showing pools of blood and teddy bears riddled with bullet holes at an Israeli nursery after scores of innocents were killed in a massacre. The kindergarten was meant to be a safe refuge for children under the age of five, but it would become the scene for one of the most barbaric and vile acts of the Palestinian terrorist group. Harrowing images show blood smeared across the floor amid the kiddies' chairs and barbaric destruction as Hamas terrorists left discarded AK47 magazines strewn among children's toys.

The death toll in Gaza has hit over 1,600 since Israel launched operation Protective Edge on July 8. The international community is pushing the sides to ceasefire as the world opinion rallies against Tel Aviv's operation. And Palestinians living in the West Bank express their solidarity with Gaza. Harry Fear reports.

Do Gaza civilians support Hamas' military operations that use them as human shields and store weapons in their schools and mosques? Ayman Mohyeldin would have you think so. On today's Morning Joe, the NBC reporter claimed that among Gazans, Hamas' military wing is "very highly revered." To which Israeli spokesman Mark Regev had a stunning comeback: "I mean, if you walk down the street in Gaza with an NBC camera and you ask people, well, was Hamas shooting from this building that the Israelis targeted? No, everyone will say, of course, not. Because you have a regime what is highly...

GAZA — A Palestinian human rights group in Gaza took the unusual step this week of condemning the building and storage of anti-Israel rockets in densely populated areas, a practice that has led to injuries and deaths of civilians. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said that it had investigated recent rocket explosions and found that locally produced projectiles had fallen on homes in Gaza or exploded in factories where they were made or stored. Shrapnel severely wounded a number of people, including a 22-year-old woman and her 7-month-old baby. It called on the Hamas government, which controls Gaza, to...

Nuaf Atar spoke about the use of Gazan schools to shoot rockets at Israel. Zabhi Atar revealed that Hamas used food coupons to entice Palestinians to join its ranks and Hamad Zalah said Hamas took control of UNRWA food supplies transferred to Gaza and refused to distribute them to people affiliated with Fatah. More than 100 Palestinians were captured during the three-week operation but most were released and only a few dozen - members of Hamas and other terrorist factions - are still being held by Israel, officials said. Some of them may be used as bargaining chips in negotiations...

Palestinian civilians have accused Hamas of forcing them to stay in homes from which gunmen shot at Israeli soldiers during the recent hostilities in Gaza, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Thursday. More than 1,250 Palestinians were reportedly killed during Israel's offensive against Hamas in the coastal territory. Israel has been harshly criticized for the large number of civilians among the Palestinian dead, of whom they numbered more than half according Gaza officials. But the Italian paper also quoted a doctor at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital as disputing the number of Palestinians said to have been killed in the...

Muslims want Pontiff out Clerics, scholars call for Benedict removal after controversial Islam remarks by AP LAHORE, Pakistan -- About 1,000 Muslim clerics and religious scholars meeting yesterday in eastern Pakistan demanded the removal of Pope Benedict for making what they called "insulting remarks" against Islam.

If you call me a killer one more time, I'm gonna kill ya http://moonagewebdream.blogs.com/moonage_political_webream/2006/09/if_you_call_me_.html September 20, 2006 If you call me a killer one more time, I'm gonna killa ya. `Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." Those are the words Pope Benedict uttered that has caused quite a stir. Those words were originally uttered in the 14th century by the Byzantine Emporor Manuel II. Now, contrary to the replies from Muslim fanatics, Byzantine was...