Israel At War Tuesday Feb 25

Israel at war day 508

Israel and Hamas have reportedly reached a deal to exchange the bodies of four murdered Israeli hostages, H"yd, for 602 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas will transfer the four Kedoshim to Egypt, which will pass them to the Red Cross for delivery to Israel.

- Israeli senior official: The Egyptian mediation was successful; if there is no last-minute change, the bodies of the hostages will be released tomorrow without ceremony, and the prisoners will be released from prison in Israel gradually.

- IDF strikes in Syria in the Al-Kiswa area, south of Damascus

Israel Defense Minister Katz on the IDF strikes in Syria: "We will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon—any attempt by the Syrian regime forces and the country's terrorist organizations to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria—will be met with fire."

- Mossad head Barnea: The pager Operation marks the turning point in the war in the north; Hezbollah suffered a blow that broke its spirit

Activating both operations (the pagers and the radios) at the beginning of the war would not have resulted in the mighty achievement we achieved at the time of its activation. When Operation Pagers was activated, ten times more pages and twice as many radios were detonated than they would have been at the beginning of the war.  “The amount of explosives in all the radios and pagers combined did not exceed the amount of explosives found in one standard mine."

- Senior Hamas official to Saudi Asharq: Hams will not enter into any talks with the Israeli side without the prisoners being released and without ensuring that there is no delay or disruption in their return.

- Thousands rally in Buenos Aires in memory of Bibas family members and call for the release of the hostages

- Report in the Telegraph: Iran fears an immediate attack on its nuclear facilities and has dramatically increased all its defenses near the nuclear facilities - and the forces are on the highest alert. Source of the article Report that Iran expects an attack every night - even on nuclear facilities that no one knows about. An Iranian official said that Tehran fears that if the US joins Israel in an attack - it will put the regime's existence in danger

- Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar: Intensive talks are taking place between mediators in Egypt, Qatar, and the US to formulate understandings for the release of prisoners who were supposed to be released by Israel last Saturday as part of the seventh wave. It was noted that Egypt is trying to introduce amendments regarding the number of prisoners who are supposed to be released in exchange for the transfer of two or three more bodies of hostages.

-The Trump administration has rescinded a Biden-era order aimed at Israel that required the government to report potential violations of international law involving US-supplied weapons by allies, two US officials and a source familiar with the decision said on Monday.

New testimony from freed Israeli hostage Agam Berger: "What mainly held me captive was faith."

"On January 24, they brought us all sorts of things that the IDF had left behind, including siddurs (prayer book) and a Maariv newspaper that gave us answers to some questions about October 7." 

On the propaganda video that Hams filmed on the day of her release: "They made me do a lot of 'thank you' videos. They tell you to say thank you and asked us to write them a thank you page that morning."

On the things she left behind in Gaza: "Liri and I had notebooks with drawings and letters to the family and the siddur - but they didn't let us take anything." 

On the unity of the people: "I hope that we will maintain unity not only in difficult situations but also after; this is one of the things that will prevent this from happening again when they see us as strong from the sidelines."