In Their Own Words

[On 28 May 2024, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and failed 2024 U.S. presidential candidate, Nikki Haley, visited sites in Israel that had been affected by the violence that occurred on 10/7/2023. While there, holding a purple marker, Haley crouched to write a short, personal message on one of a group of olive green artillery shells destined to be fired by the Israeli military on Gazans.] "FINISH THEM! "AMERICA [LOVES] ISRAEL "ALWAYS "Nikki Haley"

"The United Arab Emirates [UAE] denounces the statements of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about calling on the state [i.e. UAE] to participate in civil administration of the Gaza Strip, which is under Israeli occupation. [Netanyahu made the aforementioned statement during a televised interview with U.S. television personality Dr. Phil McGraw 5/9/2024.] "The UAE stresses that the Israeli Prime Minister does not have any legal capacity to take this step, and the state refuses to be drawn into any plan aimed at providing cover for the Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip. "The UAE affirms that when a Palestinian government is formed that meets the hopes and aspirations of the brotherly Palestinian people and enjoys integrity, competence and independence, the state will be fully prepared to provide all forms of support to that government."

[Benjamin Netanyahu was interviewed by United States television personality Dr. Phil McGraw and asked what his response was to those who characterize Hamas' 10/7/2023 attacks on Israel as "resistance."] "Hamas openly declares its goal to wipe out everything you see around here, to kill every man, woman, and child in Israel, to destroy the state. That's not resistance. That's naked, brutal aggression. That's their doctrine." "Iran is saying the same thing: 'Our goal is to destroy Israel,' We're the 'small Satan.' By the way, their goal is to destroy you [i.e. the United States of America.]. You are the 'big Satan.' We're just standing in their way and they're right. We're not merely protecting ourselves, we are, but in so doing we're protecting all of free civilization, all of Western culture. They want to erase it."

[Netanyahu was interviewed by United States television personality Dr. Phil McGraw and spoke about what his vision for "the day after" the armed conflict in Gaza was.] "I think we'll have to assure continuous demilitarization because, even if you destroy the terrorist army, you can have individual terrorists left. We have to uh root them out constantly." "We'll probably have to have some kind of civilian government, civilian administration, by Gazans who are not committed to our destruction, possibly, I think, with the aid of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and other countries that I think want to see stability and peace. "But we're going to have Israel continually root out terrorists because I don't see anyone coming in to do that right now...I'd love to see that but I don't see it, so we'll continue to take action against the remnants of the terrorist army."

"It's frustrating. We [the Israeli military] are trying our hardest to accurately hit terrorists [in Gaza], and utilizing every thread of intelligence, and in the end the units in the field decide to launch attacks without any preparation, in cases that have nothing to do with protecting our forces." [The Israel Defense source quoted was referring to an Israeli military attack (4/1/2024) on a three-vehicle convoy - of World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers - with three separate missile strikes, several kilometres apart, from a drone that was following them. The WCK vehicles were clearly marked on sides and rooftops with identification (one missile was aimed directly at the organization's logo on the vehicle's roof) and WCK's movements in Gaza were coordinated with the Israeli military. Before the convoy was targeted it had accompanied an aid truck to a warehouse, where tonnes of humanitarian aid were unloaded. The Israel war room of the unit responsible for security of the route that the convoy travelled claimed to have identified an armed man on the aid truck and suspected he was a terrorist. But, according to Israeli Defense sources, the man under suspicion remained with the truck at the warehouse and was not with the convoy when it was blown up. Instead, seven civilians following the Israeli military's rules to the letter were targeted for death. They included one Palestinian, one dual-national (Canadian-American), one Australian, one Polish citizen, and three British citizens.]

[On 25 March 2024, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the "Israel-Gaza war" for the month of Ramadan, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages being held by Hamas and other groups, and "the urgent need to expand the flow" of aid into Gaza. Fourteen of fifteen states voted in favour of the resolution. The United States abstained. This was the first time since October 2023 that the U.S. did not use its permanent member veto power to cause a favorable outcome for Israel on a Security Council resolution vote. Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu, and other Israeli leaders, reacted negatively to the U.S. abstention on the Security Council vote. When questioned in a White House press briefing about Israel's reaction, John Kirby offered the following statement.] "A couple of points that need to be stated and, in fact, restated. Number one, it's a non-binding resolution. So, there's no impact at all on Israel and Israel's ability to continue to go after Hamas. Number two, as I said in my opening statement, it does not represent a change at all in our [U.S.] policy. It's very consistent with everything that we've been saying we want to get done here. And we get to decide what our policy is. The prime minister's [Netanyahu's] office seems to be indicating through public statements that we somehow changed here. We haven't. And we get to decide what - what our policy is. [...] So, again, no change in our policy." [Kirby's claim that the UN Security Council resolution was "non-binding" was met with considerable criticism internationally, as the Security Council is the only UN organ with the power to pass binding resolutions, and it is generally accepted that all Security Council resolutions are legally binding.]

[The following quote is from a person interviewed by journalist Jeremy Loffredo at a Jewish-Israeli nationalist direct action blockade to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza. Many transport trucks carrying aid were lined up along the side of the road, near the Kerem Shalom border crossing, waiting to enter Gaza. (In the second source, quote begins at approximately 2:20 in the video clip.)] "I think we need...I don't know. We need to be united and kill all of them [Gazans]. We all need to go back into Gaza and control all of it. Make it part of our country."

[In the following quote, the person was being Interviewed by journalist Jeremy Loffredo at a Jewish-Israeli nationalist direct action blockade to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza. Many transport trucks carrying aid were lined up along the side of the road, near the Kerem Shalom border crossing, waiting to enter Gaza.] "Of course, we have to listen to our 'Sugar Daddy.' We have to listen to the biggest superpower in the world because they are standing on our side – the 'democratic Western side' – but the Israel public doesn't want it. And we're here to make sure until 4:00, 4:30, when they [i.e. the border crossing guards] close, make sure no single truck will feed our enemies [i.e. Gazans facing famine] while they molest, while they rape, and while they kill the hostages they took four or five months ago. "From 2002 until recently, we've been through a kind of intifada [in contemporary Arabic usage, the word refers to an uprising against oppression]. A journey of murder in which they use knives to kill Israelis. In many cases, they use guns. They use pistols. They use cocktail Molotov. They killed a lot of Jews. But we have airplanes, you see. We have airplanes. [Man turns around to show journalist the back of his Star of David F-16 shirt.] We can erase them [i.e. Palestinians] in one second. Once we use what we have. Once we know how to use our assets. When we are not afraid to use what we have. "We destroyed Gaza. We annihilated a huge part of Gaza. We can do it also to Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, and the West Bank. We have weapons we can use in the right circumstances, with the right leaders. We have g*d-d*mned sexy F-16 airplanes, so we will annihilate all of our enemies until the last of them – when we decide to do so, when we get over this kind of conception and kind of state of mind that we are subject to the community of the world and nations of the world, and [the idea that] we are somehow limited. But it's only temporarily. We will unleash our strengths very much soon."

[Person quoted here was being Interviewed by journalist Jeremy Loffredo at a Jewish-Israeli nationalist direct action blockade to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza. Many transport trucks carrying aid were lined up along the side of the road near the Kerem Shalom border crossing, waiting to enter Gaza. (In the second source, quote begins about 57 seconds into the video clip.)] Aid Blockader C: "My [Israeli military] unit was in charge of explosions. We blew up houses of terrorists, mosques, U.N. offices. I remember we got in some U.N. office that was in charge of helping families in Gaza that was affected by the war, and we destroyed it."

[In the following quote, person was being Interviewed by journalist Jeremy Loffredo at a Jewish-Israeli nationalist direct action blockade to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza. Many transport trucks carrying aid were lined up along the side of the road, near the Kerem Shalom border crossing, waiting to enter Gaza. (In the second source, quote begins at approximately 2:42 in the video clip.)] "Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu] is a puppet of Biden. Because we 'cleaned' all Gaza, except for Rafah. So why aren't we going in there? Because Biden asked us not to. That's the only reason. There's no reason not to."

[Person quoted here was being interviewed by journalist Jeremy Loffredo at a Jewish-Israeli nationalist direct action blockade (at the Kerem Shalom border) to prevent aid from reaching Gaza.] Aid Blockader A: "The policeman, the head commander, came to us [i.e. blockaders] and said, 'Okay, you guys came and blocked [the border]. We don't want to fight.' And he said to us, 'I'll just lock the gate. You guys don't need to stand in the sun.' We got lollipops. We got watermelon, from the police. Interviewer: "The police gave you lollipops and watermelon?" Aid Blockader A: "Yeah, watermelons, and it was great. It was great with them." [This quote about receiving lollipops and watermelon is significant because Israel's border areas are closed military zones and any civilians who infiltrate these areas are supposed to be immediately apprehended and arrested. According to journalist Jeremy Loffredo, who embedded himself for one week with Jewish-Israeli nationalists blockading Israel's border (and produced the video that is the source of this quote), when the Jewish-Israeli civilians he was with arrived in the border's militarized zone, the military stood down and directed the civilians to the border gate. Then, the military used the presence of civilians at the border – civilians the military invited and led there – to justify closing the gates, for hours or days, through which humanitarian aid was supposed to cross.]

[...] this march here in Sderot [an Israeli city located less than one mile from Gaza] is to show one thing: We will all return and settle in Gaza. We are demanding that because so many Israeli people died on October 7th, we are not willing to return the situation as it was. This is the greatest revenge that can be – for us to return to the Gaza Strip, control it, and settle there.

[Person quoted here was being Interviewed by journalist Jeremy Loffredo at a Jewish-Israeli nationalist direct action blockade to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza. Many transport trucks carrying aid were lined up along the side of the road, near the Kerem Shalom border crossing, waiting to enter Gaza. (In the second source, quote begins at approximately 2:05 in the video clip.)] Aid Blockader A: "And as the Bible says, this place is for us. It's promised for us. So, they [i.e. Gazans] can starve to death to pay on the things they have done to us on the 7th of October."

Unnamed Settler: "We love the Gaza Strip! They can't just take a whole strip of land and say Israelis can't live there. This Is our sovereign state." Interviewer: "Would you live there?" Settler: "Of course!" Interviewer: "By the beach?" Settler: "Oh, for sure. Yes, my husband's also talking about a building, he has a yeshiva - Talmudic Institute - here, so building a branch, yes, in Gaza. We have lists already of about 500 families that are willing, on the drop of a hat, to move into - we have North, central, and south Gaza, and people are going to start building towns. We have names of the towns; we have where we're building them - it's already being planned. And we have people signed up." Settler: "You can't keep it without Jews in the Gaza Strip. It's too big a piece of land, it's too important for us to let It become 'Hamas Town,' as we call it, filled with terrorists."

[In the following quote, person was being Interviewed by journalist Jeremy Loffredo at a Jewish-Israeli nationalist direct action blockade to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza. Many transport trucks carrying aid were lined up along the side of the road, near the Kerem Shalom border crossing, waiting to enter Gaza.] Aid Blocker A: "The best way [to end the war] is to transfer them [Gazans] to Europe. Europe already accepted, in the past ten years, already accepted more than 100 million refugees. I don't think that another million and a half refugees will make any difference to the Europeans. [...]" Interviewer: "Would you live in Gaza, once all is said and done?" Aid Blocker A (with a smile): "Totally. Totally. If my wife would agree for that. Totally, I would go live over there."

[Person quoted here was being Interviewed by journalist Jeremy Loffredo at a Jewish-Israeli nationalist direct action blockade to prevent aid from reaching Gaza. Many transport trucks carrying humanitarian aid were lined up along the side of the road at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, waiting to enter Gaza. (In the second source, quote begins at approximately 32 seconds into the video clip.)] Interviewer: "So, no food, no nothing [for the people of Gaza]." Aid Blockader B: "No, they don't deserve it. What [do] I care? Kill them. I don't care." Interviewer: "Do you trust Palestinians?" Aid Blockader B: "No. I know all about them. I don't trust them, and I want them out of here. Interviewer: "What do you think should happen to Gaza?" Aid Blockader B: "I want It to be civilized with Jews from Israel."

[Person quoted here was being Interviewed by journalist Jeremy Loffredo at a Jewish-Israeli nationalist direct action blockade to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza. Many transport trucks carrying aid were lined up along the side of the road, near the Kerem Shalom border crossing, waiting to enter Gaza. (In the second source, quote begins at approximately 1:38 in the video clip.)] Aid Blockader D: "We give pastries for the people [i.e. blockaders], for the soldiers, for the cops, for everybody. This is what we give to our people. This is real humanitarian aid, okay? They [the Israeli government], they need to block the aid to Gaza. They need to block the gas to Gaza. Everything to block. And this is what we do every week – two, three, four times a week."

"As far as the State of Israel is concerned, there is no obstacle for the Gazans to leave, maybe even the port they [the U.S. military] are building could be used for this, but there are no countries in the world that are ready to receive them [Gazans]." [Quote is from a statement Netanyahu made in a meeting of the Israeli Foreign Affairs Committee, posted to Twitter/X by Yaara Shapira, parliamentary correspondent for KAN News, and translated from Hebrew by Google.]

[Donald Trump made the following statement in an interview with Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump aide.] Gorka: "[...] Why do Democrats [in the United States] hate Bibi Netanyahu [Israel's prime minister]? Trump: "I actually think they hate Israel. And the Democrat Party hates Israel. [...] Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed."

"Gaza and Hurawa. Burning their trucks. (Hurawa!) Their roads and cars. (Hurawa!) Their ambulances and fire engines, with faces covered and sidelocks. You won't recognize Hurawa anymore. Gaza! Everything in Gaza!" [While demonstrating with Israeli flags and posters of Israeli President Netanyahu's face, supporters loudly played, and sang along with, the song "Hurawa is Burning" (with "Gaza is Burning" added. Hurawa is a Palestinian city in the Occupied West Bank that has experienced much violence from Israeli settlers.]

"[Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu] has the right to defend Israel and pursue Hamas. But he must, he must, he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost and the consequences of the actions taken. He's hurting – in my view – he's hurting Israel more than helping Israel by making the rest of the war as contrary [to what] Israel stands for. Now, I think it's a big mistake, so I want to see a ceasefire. And I'm starting with a major, major exchange of prisoners, for a six-week period. We're going into Ramadan and [there] should be nothing happening. And we should build off that ceasefire [...]. I'm never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical, so there's no red line that I'm going to cut off all weapons, so they don't have the Iron Dome to protect them. But there's red lines that if he [Netanyahu] crosses – you can't have 30,000 more Palestinians dead as a consequence of going after [Hamas]. There's other ways to deal, to get to, to deal with, with the trauma caused by Hamas."

"The basic principle we have is that when we live through the "holy war of the mitzvah," in this case Gaza, according to the choice of the judge [doctrine], you will not let every soul live. The meaning is very clear: If you don't kill them first, they will kill you. The terrorists today are the children of the past, who have remained in their lives [remained alive]. And, in reality, it's the women who create these terrorists. What this means is, that the definition of 'not every soul shall live,' is very clear in the scriptures: It is either you or them [...]. In the broader sense, in the scriptures, it's not only the man between 18, 16, 20, 30 who shoots at [you] with a weapon, but also their generation of the future. And also, those who create the generation of the future. Because there is no difference. There are no innocent people. It is the same with an elderly person [...]. It is the same thing. The Torah does not allow you to let every soul live [including children]. Today, he is a child. Today, he is a boy. Tomorrow, he is not. The fighters, the terrorists, who are eighteen today, were eight-year-olds in the previous war." [Eliyahu Mali was speaking to his yeshiva students, who would serve in the Israeli army after graduating from the yeshiva (a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature). This yeshiva receives funding from the Israeli government.]

[A New York Times (NYT) exposé – "Screams Without Words" - published on 28 December 2023, alleged that Hamas members systematically weaponized sexual violence during the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel, and sexually assaulted two females at Kibbitz Be'eri. With information presented in the article, the victims were identified as sisters Yahel and Noyia Sharabi, ages 13 and 16. Michal Paikin, a spokesperson for the kibbutz, denied the veracity of the claims made in the article.] "You're talking about the Sharabi girls? No, they just - they were shot. I'm saying 'just,' but they were shot and were not subjected to sexual abuse." [Paikin also disputed graphic, detailed descriptions of the condition an Israeli special forces paramedic (a source for the NYT story and quoted by numerous other media outlets) claimed to have found the Sharabi sisters in.] "It's not true. They were not sexually abused."

[Chen Goldstein-Almog said there were times when her captors displayed "sensitivity and care" and one of the gunmen apologized for the killing of her husband.] "We saw [our captors] cry, we saw them miss their wives. We saw them writing letters to their wives and putting them in their pockets. We were worried about this, thinking why are you writing a letter now?" [After about five weeks in captivity, Chen and her children were moved to another location – a supermarket a 40-minute walk away. They had the opportunity to witness, for the first time, the damage caused by the Israeli military offensive.] "I saw a lot of devastation and destruction. It made me feel terrible seeing such poverty. It was very difficult to see that. It was not a great feeling of: 'Oh great, we Israelis showed them.'" [Later, Chen said, the three guards apologized for making the family sleep in the storage room at a supermarket.] [Note: The news source this quote was taken from, gave Chen the surname "Almog-Goldstein," as do some outer sources. Many, however, including the list of released hostages, refer to her as "Goldstein-Almog."]

"Whenever I'm talking about a shock wave from a bombing, what it actually means is that doorframes get blown out, windows shatter and the Palestinians just put some blankets up, fix it up to the best of their ability, and carry on. But the bodily toll it took on us [while captives in Gaza] was unimaginable." [Note: The news source this quote was taken from, gave Chen the surname "Almog-Goldstein," as do some outer sources. Many, however, including the list of released hostages, refer to her as "Goldstein-Almog."]

[Lillian Sharabi, 48, and her daughters - Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13 – were killed in Kibbutz Be'eri 10/7/2023. Unsubstantiated claims made by alleged eyewitnesses and the media (particularly a New York Times exposé – "Screams Without Words" – and an Israeli special forces paramedic who was one of the sources for the exposé) portrayed the teenaged girls dying separated from their mother and as victims of sexual violence that day. Gillian Brisley denied that her family members had been sexually violated. She told Israel's Channel 12 News that her daughter and granddaughters were found together, between the living room and dining room. (Channel 12 article was translated to English by ChatGPT.)] "It's a terrible thing to say, but they were 'only' shot. A soldier said he saw our daughter embracing her two daughters - while they were being shot [Pete Brisley said]. October 7th was the saddest day of my life.'" [A New York Times (NYT) 25 March 2024 update to its 28 December 2023 exposé stated the NYT had viewed a recently released video filmed at Kibbutz Be'eri on 7 October 2023, which undermined the testimony of the NYT source – the Israeli military paramedic. The two teenaged girls in the video – the Sharabi sisters – were fully clothed, the NYT update stated.]

"Total support must be given to our heroic fighters operating in Gaza, who acted excellently against a Gazan mob that tried to harm them. Today it was proven that the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza is not only madness while our abductees are being held in the [Gaza] Strip under substandard conditions, but also endangers the IDF soldiers. This is another clear reason why we must stop transferring this aid, which is in fact aid to harm the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] soldiers and [is like] oxygen to Hamas." [Translated from Hebrew by Google. In the event to which Ben-Gvir referred, dubbed the "Flour Massacre," approximately 1,000 Palestinians were reportedly killed or wounded after Israeli forces opened fire, and Israel was widely condemned by aid groups, the UN, and several countries for its actions.]

"Not apologizing and not hesitating. Anyone who approaches the [Israeli border] fence and endangers the citizens of the State of Israel and our heroic soldiers must be shot. That's how it's done in every normal country! We must not return to the 6.10 [6 October 2023] concept!" [The above comment was posted to Twitter/X to justify a violent statement Ben-Gvir made in a cabinet meeting, which was leaked to the media. Translation by ChatGPT.]

"You will die, your children will die, your grandchildren will die - there won't be a Palestinian state, there won't be!" [During a debate in Israel's Knesset (parliament) about the Knesset's rejection of a proposal to recognize a Palestinian state, Hanoch Milwidsky (a Jewish Israeli), shouted the statement quoted above at Knesset member Ayman Odeh (a Palestinian Israeli).]

"I am personally proud of the ruins of Gaza, and that every baby, even 80 years from now, will tell their grandchildren what the Jews did..."

[The following quote is from a letter Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi sent to Israel military commanders on 2/21/2024, warning against illegal acts committed by soldiers in the Gaza Strip.] "[During the current war in Gaza, we] have encountered unacceptable cases of conduct that deviate from IDF values and protocols. [They include] inappropriate statements which encourage unacceptable phenomena; unjustified use of force, including against detainees; looting, which include the use or removal of private property for non-operational purposes; and destruction of civilian property contrary to protocols. Some incidents go beyond the disciplinary domain, and cross the criminal threshold. "These acts and statements, on the part of individuals who do not represent the whole, are contrary to the IDF being a professional, moral, and dignified army, and they have no place in the IDF. [These acts] cause the State of Israel and the IDF strategic damage in the international arena, the seriousness of which is difficult to overstate."

"There is no such thing as a Palestinian people. There will never be a Palestinian state in the land of Israel. Every cultured person in the world knows that this land is ours, for the Israeli people and only for us. [A Palestinian state would be an] existential threat [to Israel and the] peace and order of the whole world."

[At a weekly rally calling for a deal to return the hostages captured on 10/7/2023 to Israel, the mother of hostage Tsachi Idan directed her comments to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. She believed one obstacle to achieving the return of the hostages was the steep price of negotiations.] "You set the price when you abandoned [the defense of] the Gaza border. You set the price when you sent suitcases full of cash to Hamas and funded their buildup of military might ... If the hostages are abandoned again, it will be a trauma for us as a nation."

"What's going on [in Gaza] right now is absolutely outrageous. We've got to do everything that we can to end the slaughter of innocent men, women, and children. What I have supported, and I will work as hard as I can to get the Biden administration to support, is a UN- trying to bring about a ceasefire and a humanitarian pause or ceasefire, in order to provide the desperately needed aid that the Gazan people need. When you get to the word [genocide], I get a little bit queasy and I, you know, I don't know, what's genocide? You use the word, gotta be careful about that word, too..." [interrupted by hecklers in the audience].

"Noa, your boyfriend brought you a necklace from Gaza. Made in Gaza. It has a love heart on it. Luxury. It has 'forever' written on it. Let's check if it's original. [The soldier bites the silver necklace.] It's original." [This video is one of many IDF soldiers have filmed and posted online of them looting houses in Gaza. According to International Humanitarian Law, pillage, reprisals against protected persons and their property, and pillage of a town or place, even when taken by assault, are war crimes: 1949 Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Article 33; 1907 Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land, Article 28; and Customary International Humanitarian Law, Rule 52. According to Israel's Military Justice Law 5715–1955, Article 74, "A soldier who loots or who breaks into a house or another place in order to loot is liable to imprisonment for a term of ten years."]

[Member of the French National Assembly, Meyer Habib, responding to France's adoption of sanctions against violent Israeli settlers.] "As a member of the French parliament who was elected four times with an overwhelming majority, among other things by French citizens living in Israel, and as their representative - I regret the decision. The timing is not good. Israel is at war following the most brutal terrorist attack in the country's history with an atrocity we have not seen since the Holocaust. I am of course against all violence. But there are very few cases of violence on the part of the settlers and certainly not acts of murder. In any case, if and when this happens, I trust the Israeli authorities to bring those responsible to justice. On the other hand, it is impossible to ignore the very serious incitement and terrorism on the part of the Palestinians against the Jews, with dozens of terrorist attacks that have claimed the lives of dozens of Israelis in just the last year in Judea and Samaria. They are trying to create an immoral equation between terrorists and settlers."

[Yehuda Lopez, a 20-year-old Jewish Israeli soldier of Latin origin, is interviewed about his experience fighting with the IDF in Gaza after 10/7/2023.] Narrator: "We also asked him about the civilian victims, about the tens of thousands of Palestinian dead, women, children." Lopez: "There are no innocents there. We have to get that into our heads." Interviewer: "How is this going to end?" Lopez: "Hopefully with a crushing defeat. That no one remains there."

[The following exchange from which the quotes from Rami Igra ("Igra") are taken is a television interview Kan media reporter Ayala Hasson ("Hasson") conducted with Igra in February 2024.] Igra: "In Gaza, everyone is involved. Everyone voted Hamas. Anyone over the age of four is a Hamas supporter. And our goal at the moment [...] is to turn them from Hamas supporters to Hamas dislikers. And the way is supplying the humanitarian aid, through us [i.e. Israel]." Hasson: "OK, so look, regarding the uninvolved, every house in Gaza is a Hamas HQ, weapons, Al Aqsa, everything, all the signs are there. And still, how did you say, children from the age of zero to four? They are uninvolved – maybe when they grow up, they will be [involved]. In the meantime, you cannot starve them – they are children, there's nothing to do." Igra: "I agree with you." Hasson: "This is in the interest of us all." Igra: "It's also against our interest." Hasson: "Yes, exactly."

[Ben-Gvir's following statement was made during a cabinet debate with Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi on the Israeli army's "open fire" rules.] "We cannot have [Palestinian] women and children getting close to the [Israeli] border... anyone who gets near must get a bullet [in the head]. You know how our enemies operate... they will try us. They will send women and children as undercover terrorists. If we continue like this, we will reach another October 7."

"The Israeli army believes that Yossi Sharabi – a resident of Kibbutz Be'eri who was kidnapped by Hamas to Gaza on October 7th and who was pronounced dead last month – was most likely killed in an IDF strike, according to an investigation by the Israeli military. "According to the investigation, Sharabi was held in an apartment in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip, along with the hostages Itai Svirsky and Noa Argamani. Sharabi was killed after the Israeli Air Force bombed a nearby building. "[...] A fighter jet attacked the building with a heavy bomb, knowing that the explosion would also affect the adjacent building. The destruction of the building led to a partial collapse of several nearby structures, including the one where it is now known the hostages were being held. "Following the bombing of the area, Hamas terrorists who held the hostages emerged from the rubble of the building together with hostages Argamani and Svirsky, according to information the army has received."

[Sharon Aloni Cunio addressed the following statement to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.] "We've reached the awful moment when you must decide who lives and who dies ... 136 hostages now wait in tunnels, without oxygen, without food, without water and without hope, waiting for you to save them. The price is heavy, unbearable, but the price of negligence will become a stain for generations."

"I am alive and breathing, but my soul has been murdered. I am grateful to the government for bringing me back, but what about my father who is abandoned anew every day, uncertain if he will live or die? I just want his warm embrace. Bring him back, do not make me lose faith in our country a second time."

"If the hostages do not return to their homes, every mother and father will know that they are next in line and that they live in a country that is not committed to their safety."

"Do you know what it's like to be there [in Gaza] for even a day? Not even a day, one hour is hell. I was there for 52 days. Why did I, a 16-year-old girl, need to go through all of that? Why did I need to be in that place for 2 months? "Correct, I am alive and breathing but my soul was murdered. And everyone who is still there [in Gaza] is murdered anew each day."

"[An Israeli soldier is filmed holding a flag in Gaza - next to the bodies of executed civilians - advertising a barber shop in Yehud, Israel the flag says:] THE EXCITING BARBER SHOP: WE ARE THE EXCITING ONES."

"I would have expected the liberation of the hostages to be the top priority [for Israel's government] and for the government to say: 'First of all, we have to get them out of there.' And not: 'First we have to destroy Hamas.' The conditions there are really, really tough. We were often hungry, there was hardly any fresh air, there was intense fighting all around us. We were constantly afraid. We must free [the hostages] at all costs. It is our moral obligation as a country towards the hostages, they are women, children, elderly people, soldiers. Yes, children! We have no right to exist as a country if we don't free them. The women there are doing everything they can to survive, to function, with their wounds and with their disabilities, even though one of the women has lost her fingers. So, are we doing everything for them too? That's what I'm asking. [...] I feel anger that we were abandoned on October 7 and that seven weeks had to pass before we were released. How could our political leadership abandon us like that, why are they still abandoning the hostages who have already been in captivity for a quarter of a year?"

Interviewer: "You probably tried to keep the terrorists in a good mood?" Goldstein-Almog: "Yes. We tried to talk to them. Those were difficult conversations. Sometimes, it was about the roots of the conflict. They said that we had started in 1948, that we had killed their grandparents, we expelled them. Agam [Chen's teenaged daughter] and I usually stopped the discussion at this point because we didn't want to get to bad places with them. It always created a tense atmosphere." [...] Interviewer: "And at the same time, the war was raging around you. Were you afraid that a bomb might fall on the house?" Goldstein-Almog: "Yes, it was very frightening. During the day, it was relatively quiet, but at night there was a lot of shelling from [Israeli] fighter jets and artillery. We heard other apartments around us being hit. And we were also afraid all the time that our guards would turn against us. We understood that they were just cogs in the system and that they would kill us if they were ordered to do so. We sometimes asked them about it. But they replied: 'No, we're looking after you. We will die, you will not die.' At one point they said: 'We're going to die together.'"

[Noam Dan's relative, Ofer Calderon, remained in captivity when this interview about hostages being held in Gaza aired 2/3/2024 on Channel 12 News in Israel.] Interviewer: "Do you think this is a frustrating situation where we are faced with someone devoid of emotions and humanity, making it difficult to reach [hostage] agreements with them?" Dan: "Are you referring to [Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya] Sinwar or Bibi [Netanyahu]?" Interviewer: "I was referring to Sinwar." Dan: "Oh, I didn't understand, because Bibi Netanyahu [Israel's prime minister] also meets all these definitions."

"The occupation soldiers bombed the Tamim Al-Dari Mosque in the Al-Amiriya area, west of Beit Lahia. The mosque was empty and destroyed from the inside after it was searched, but the soldiers blew it up completely for fun. The documentation was published by a soldier of Ukrainian origin." [This quote is Younis Tirawi's text accompanying a video he discovered on social media, originally posted by an Israeli military soldier, who overlaid it with high energy music. Israeli military soldiers have been tremendously active in documenting their actions in Gaza on social media since 10/7/2023 – many of them violations of international humanitarian law.]

[The article quoted from, by Yuval Abraham, was partly written about Maayan Sherman, who accused the Israeli military of pre-meditatively murdering her son, Ron, with poison gas in 2023, while he was held hostage in a tunnel under Gaza. (See quotes attributed to Maayan Sherman catalogued under her name.) Sherman believed her son was being used as a human shield for Ahmed Al-Ghandour, a member of the Al-Qassam Brigades Military Council and commander of the Northern Brigade. Ghandour was reportedly killed in Northern Gaza sometime before 11/26/2023. Ron Sherman and fellow soldier Nik Beizer were kidnapped from their IDF military base near Israel's Erez Crossing on 10/7/2023 and taken to Gaza, where they (and an Israeli civilian) were later found dead. When this article was published, no cause of death for either of the three hostages had been revealed to their families.] "Maayan said that three weeks after her son was abducted, intelligence officials informed the family that 'there are indications that he is alive and that they know where he is.' During the shiva (the seven-day Jewish mourning ritual) held after Sherman's body was recovered in December, Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian - the head of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) - told her that he and Nitzan Alon, who is in charge of prisoners of war and missing persons, 'knew at any given moment where Ron and Nik were,' and so was surprised to hear about their deaths. That's why Maayan accuses the military of killing her son for the sake of killing Ghandour. 'Somebody is lying here,' she said. 'It is clear to me that my son was sacrificed. I ask myself how they would act if it was Bibi [Netanyahu]'s son there, and not Ron. We underwent months of torture.'"