Free Republic

The Defense Ministry has recognized Israel Air Force navigator Maj. (res.) Asaf Dagan as a fallen soldier, his family announced on Monday. Dagan committed suicide on October 23, 2024, while not serving in active duty, after suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-related symptoms. Initially, he was not recognized as a fallen soldier or permitted a military funeral. However, a court ruling permitted him a military funeral, but in a civilian cemetery, reports at the time said. The Dagan family continued to fight for his recognition due to evidence linking his PTSD to his military service, particularly after he continued his...

Israel announced that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Majid Khademi was killed in a precision strike, with an Israeli official noting that Quds Force’s special operations commander Asghar Bagheri was eliminated at the same time. In a statement posted on X, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed Khademi's killing, accusing him of helping advance terrorist attacks abroad and overseeing surveillance of Iranian civilians as part of the regime’s crackdown on domestic protests. "Khademi wasn’t just any figure, he was effectively No. 2 within the IRGC, one of the few senior commanders who managed to survive multiple...

The war has brought intense uncertainty to the south, a predominantly Shiite Muslim area dominated by Hezbollah for decades. This week, Israeli officials offered their most explicit plan to date to occupy a swath of southern Lebanon from the border up to the Litani River after the ground invasion ends. That would amount to about 10 percent of the entire country. Israeli officials have said they aim to establish a “security zone” to prevent the territory from being used to attack Israel. In March, the Israeli military demolished most of the key bridges across the Litani River, in what...

Hours before the Passover holiday on Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir issued an unusual letter to government officials, warning of a growing manpower crisis and calling on lawmakers to “fulfill your responsibility” by advancing urgent legislation to support both regular and reserve soldiers. “The central challenge we face in the current campaign is the expansion of IDF missions,” Zamir wrote, pointing to the need to defend border communities while proactively eliminating threats. He stressed that the military must be able to operate with “initiative and offensiveness” across multiple fronts. Zamir warned that a decision to shorten mandatory...

The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces said that it is giving more than $430,000 to families of 118 fallen Israeli soldiers through its After the Shiva program ahead of the Passover holiday. The funds will support “ongoing financial needs, along with holiday shopping gift cards, personalized gifts and herb plants to help families prepare for and observe Passover,” the group said. Maj. Gen. (Res.) Nadav Padan, CEO of the group, stated that “supporting bereaved families is a sacred responsibility that reflects the deep bond between Israel’s supporters around the world and those who have made the greatest sacrifice on...

Four IDF soldiers were killed while fighting in Southern Lebanon, the IDF confirmed on Tuesday. The military shared the names of the fallen soldiers: Captain Noam Madmoni, Staff Sergeant Ben Cohen, Staff Sergeant Maxsim Entis, and Staff Sergeant Gilad Harel. During the incident, two additional soldiers were wounded, one in serious condition and the other with moderate wounds.

An Israel Defense Forces soldier was killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on troops in southern Lebanon overnight between Friday and Saturday, the military announced early Sunday morning. Sgt. Moshe Yitzchak Katz, 22, of the Paratroopers Brigade’s 890th Battalion, was a member of the Chabad community in New Haven, Connecticut. “My oldest son, with a zest for life and jokes,” wrote Katz’s father Mendy on Facebook. “My heart is shattered and the wound is real.” ...Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also offered condolences in a post, noting that Katz had moved to Israel to join the IDF, and saying he “fought...

The IDF could soon collapse if there is no solution to the shortage of manpower, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir warned in remarks during a security cabinet meeting held on Wednesday. “I am raising 10 red flags before the IDF collapses into itself,” Zamir said during the cabinet meeting, The Jerusalem Post confirmed. IDF sources also told the Post that there is tremendous concern due to the severe manpower shortage, especially amid the ongoing war. Even in peacetime, Israel would still need more soldiers – not fewer – on the border in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and the West...

An Israeli Air Force reservist is suspected of having used classified information to place bets on the Polymarket prediction site relating to Israel’s war with Iran last year, a Tel Aviv court revealed on Thursday. The defendant, who served as a major in the Air Force, was indicted alongside his alleged accomplice last month on severe security offenses, as well as bribery and obstruction of justice, on suspicion of having bet on the timing of Israel’s opening strikes that kicked off the 12-day war in June 2025. Authorities have not provided further information on the suspects’ identities or the nature...

The IDF uncovered a Hezbollah tunnel stocked with weapons near a church in southern Lebanon, the military announced on Friday, emphasizing the threat the terrorist organization poses to Lebanon's Christian population. The tunnel was discovered by the IDF's Givati Brigade in the Lebanese village of El-Khiam. The area had previously been cleared by the IDF in December 2024. Therein, three shafts were discovered, as well as mattresses and food used by Hezbollah terrorists. "Since the establishment of the terrorist organization Hezbollah, it has systematically worked to exploit the Christian population in Lebanon and turn their areas into battle arenas against...

Ari Kalker joins the show under heartbreaking circumstances to tell the story of Josh Boone, a lone soldier from Boise, Idaho, who became a decorated IDF sniper and a relentless “guardian of Israel,” logging an almost unbelievable 748 days of reserve duty before PTSD took his life. This episode pulls you past the headlines and into the hidden cost of a long war: how trauma shows up, why the “strongest guy in the room” is often the last to ask for help and what real intervention looks like when bureaucracy moves too slowly. You’ll also learn the crucial distinction between...

ISRAEL: Government approves call-up of up to 400,000 reservists amid ongoing war with Iran and Hezbollah •⁠ ⁠IDF says this is a maximum ceiling, not the actual number to be called •⁠ ⁠Previous cap stood at 280,000 •⁠ ⁠Move aimed at expanding flexibility for Operation Roaring Lion •⁠ ⁠Designed to meet growing needs across multiple fronts

Friends of the Israel Defense Forces distributed more than $132 million in 2025, the largest annual allocation in the organization’s 44-year history, with what it said was “significant” funding for mental health care and post-traumatic stress treatment for IDF soldiers, reservists and veterans... “We started seeing these reservists getting out of Gaza or from Lebanon, and nobody took care of them,” said Nadav Padan, CEO and national director of FIDF. Padan told JNS that he witnessed the psychological toll of combat in the days following the Oct. 7 attacks. “I flew to Israel the night of Oct. 7, reached Israel...

The United States struck Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility on Saturday, several media reports claimed, as the American and Israeli air forces continued their bombing campaign against regime targets. Iranian media said US-Israeli forces attacked the Shahid Ahmadi-Roshan Natanz enrichment complex on Saturday morning. Technical experts found that no radioactive leaks had occurred, and nearby residents were not at risk. In response to a query by The Times of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said that it did not conduct any strikes in the area and that it could not comment on American activities. Israel’s Kan news reported that the...

US President Donald Trump says he will not allow another Israeli attack on Iran’s South Pars natural gas field, after the IDF struck the key energy site on Wednesday. Trump writes on Truth Social that Israel “violently lashed out” at South Pars “out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East,” while insisting that only “a relatively small section” of the oil field has been hit. The US president claims that the US “knew nothing about this particular attack.” ...

Like most people in the western hemisphere, I woke on February 28 to an overwhelming rush of footage, reports, and rumors from the Middle East. The United States and Israel had launched a surprise attack on Iran overnight (after the markets closed for the weekend), and were pummeling the Iranians with massed air strikes. Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Hosseini Khamenei - a longtime fixture in regional politics - was dead, according to soon to be confirmed Israeli reports. A few hours later, Iran began retaliating with missile strikes on targets all around the region, including Israel, American bases, and the...

The Israel Defense Forces’ campaign in the joint war with the United States against Iran is proceeding according to plan, and at a faster pace than initially expected, military officials said on Sunday, with strikes on Iran’s defense industries expected to further ramp up alongside ongoing efforts to reduce missile fire on Israel. Despite being apparently ahead of schedule, the military has said it is preparing for at least three more weeks of operations in Iran, as it still has thousands more targets to hit, both in Tehran and in other parts of the country. “We have thousands of targets...

BREAKING 5: IDF has also confirmed assassinations of Basij national leader and his deputy who wer hiding in a tent to avoid attacks on their HQs. The Basij are possibly the worst. Literally hooligans hired for 1 purpose: to beat and kill their own people.

The IDF has finally begun a new ground incursion into Lebanon, in response to Hezbollah's coordinate missile attacks with Iran. Tehran and its proxy has engaged in a campaign to exhaust Israel's anti-ballistic missile defenses. The big question at the moment is whether this is ... A: The beginning of a full-blown invasion and occupation of the sub-Litani regionB: The beginning of a full-blown war with Beirut as a strategic goalC: A limited incursion to force Hezbollah out of missile range while Israel focuses on TehranD: A threat of A or B as a means to force Lebanon to deal...

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Efi Defrin was asked if striking the Basij would lead to calls for Iranian citizens to take to the streets. He responded: 'As a military, we have no goal to topple a regime. We are creating the conditions for the people to take their country. We struck the Basij forces that impose terror on the citizens. What the Iranian people will do – that depends on them.'