Liri Albag Celebrates 20th Birthday at Hospital With Other Hostages Released From Gaza

Shiryn Ghermezian

Liri Albag, center, standing from a balcony inside Israel’s Rabin Medical Center and watching an orchestra performance for her birthday alongside Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, and Naama Levy. Photo:
American Friends of Rabin Medical Center

Liri Albag, who was recently released from captivity in Gaza as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, celebrated her 20th birthday on Tuesday with other former hostages at Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah, Israel, where she is recovering after returning home 10 days earlier.

An orchestra came to the hospital to perform a small concert for Albag, who celebrated her previous birthday in Hamas captivity. The songs included Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Happy Birthday.” She watched from a balcony on one of the upper floors of the hospital alongside other freed hostages Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, and Naama Levy. All five women were serving as surveillance soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces when they were kidnapped from an IDF base in Nahal Oz by Hamas-led terrorists during their deadly rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Albag, Gilboa, Ariev, and Levy returned together after 15 months in Hamas captivity as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Five days later, Berger was also released as part of the ceasefire deal.

Albag uploaded a post on Instagram about her birthday and wrote: “Today I get to celebrate my 20th birthday with my loved ones. The only wish I asked for — is for all the hostages to return.”
Her older sister, Roni Albag, shared a photo from the birthday celebrations on Instagram and wrote in the caption: “Our Lirosh, our number 1. I dreamed of this moment countless times and here you are. Today you celebrate your 20th birthday at home!!! Today you celebrate the life that was given to you again. You are our victory, our heart and the light of our home. I love you and am here for you forever and ever.”

Liri posted on social media on Friday for the first time since returning from captivity. In an Instagram post, she thanked the people of Israel for their “support, love, and help.” She said, “Together, we are strength.” She also thanked the IDF and members of Israel’s security forces “who sacrificed their souls and fought for us and our country! There isn’t a morning that I don’t pray for their safety.”

“Finally got to reunite with my family! But our fight isn’t over and I won’t stop fighting until everyone is home!” she added. “I want us to continue to stay united, because together nothing can break us. The unity and hope we have in us scares all our enemies, amazes all our lovers, and comforts the people among us. A sentence that used to accompany me was ‘at the end of every night, darkness disappears.’ And I wish that everyone can see the light.”

Seven surveillance soldiers were abducted from the Nahal Oz base on Oct. 7, 2023, including Noa Marciano, who was killed in Hamas captivity, and Ori Megidish, who was rescued by the IDF in October 2023.

Activist Supreme Court president voted in, sparking coalition fury

David Isaac

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Supreme Court Justice Isaac Amit hearing a petition in Jerusalem, April 23, 2023. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

Israel’s Judicial Selection Committee on Sunday elected Justice Yitzhak Amit as president of the Supreme Court, after the position stood vacant for nearly 16 months.

Amit’s selection went ahead despite Justice Minister Yariv Levin‘s opposition, sparking outrage among right-wing lawmakers. Following the vote, Levin said he wouldn’t recognize the decision.

Economy and Industry Minister Nir Barkat of the Likud Party tweeted: “Shame. This is what a full legal coup looks like. The Supreme Court judges appointed a Supreme Court president on their behalf tonight, overriding the elected officials. A black day for Israeli democracy.”

Finance Minister Smotrich, chairman of the Religious Zionism Party, said: “The appointment was made in an improper and dictatorial procedure that drains the rest of the public trust in the institution of the Supreme Court. I call on Amit to withdraw and leave the position.”

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, also of Likud, said: “Everyone understood what the results of the corrupt, shady plan would be. The people will not put up with its oppression. We will dismantle and rebuild the Supreme Court and the prosecutor’s office from the ground up.”

Otzma Yehudit Party chairman Itamar Ben-Gvir tweeted: “The election of Justice Amit as president of the Supreme Court is an attack on democracy and public trust. A person over whom a cloud of [real estate] construction offenses hangs cannot serve in the highest position in the judicial system.

“This is contempt for the law and for the citizens of the country. The time has come for real reform of the judicial system, which will include replacing the attorney general and eliminating the monopoly on appointing judges,” he said, adding, “Who will judge the judges?”

Levin boycotted Sunday’s Judicial Selection Committee session, as did fellow coalition representatives on the committee, Settlements Minister Orit Strook (Religious Zionism) and MK Yitzhak Kreuzer (Otzma Yehudit).

The move came after the Supreme Court denied Levin’s request to postpone the vote due to alleged conflict of interest issues surrounding Amit.

On Jan. 13, it emerged that Amit had failed to disclose that he was involved in legal proceedings involving Tel Aviv real estate under a different name, which right-wing Israeli lawmakers said amounted to a conflict of interest. They called for an investigation.

In a letter Levin sent to Amit, he said: “I intend to continue doing everything in my power to ensure that the election of the president of the Supreme Court will take place only after the examination of all the above-mentioned outstanding claims are completed.”

Amit replied to Levin that he had no intention of dropping his candidacy for the presidency and viewed the allegations as an “organized defamation campaign … the whole purpose of which is to thwart my appointment as president of the Supreme Court and to damage the public’s trust in the judiciary.”

Amit was buttressed by opposition politicians, who praised his selection.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid, leader of the Yesh Atid Party, tweeted, “The election of Yitzhak Amit as president of the Supreme Court is a victory for democracy and good administration. Unnecessary delay has caused enormous damage to the rule of law in Israel.

“I call on Yariv Levin to stop his destructive games and work with the judge to strengthen and restore the legal system. We should be concerned with healing Israeli society, not unnecessary quarrels.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog also welcomed Amit’s election.

“For decades and in various courts, Justice Amit has contributed greatly to the Israeli legal system, and I am confident that his many skills and rich experience will play a significant part in leading the Supreme Court and the judiciary with responsibility, discretion and dedication for the benefit of the State of Israel, and in the very important task of raising public confidence in the judicial system,” he said.

It took more than a year for Amit to replace Esther Hayut, the previous Supreme Court president, who retired in October 2023.

Levin had resisted convening the Judicial Selection Committee due to his opposition both to the seniority system, whereby the most veteran judge is automatically selected as president, and to Amit, who was the leading candidate under that system.

Israel’s High Court of Justice on Sept. 8 ordered Levin to convene the Judicial Selection Committee.

Levin blasted the ruling at the time, saying, “The order, in contradiction to the express [text of the] law and given in the face of a serious conflict of interest, constitutes a forceful takeover of the Judicial Selection Committee and the usurpation of the minister’s powers contrary to the law.”

Levin added that he wouldn’t work with a judge chosen without his cooperation and in what he considered to be an illegal manner.

“The president of the Supreme Court, who is appointed improperly and by force, brings to new depths the declining trust in the court,” he said. “I cannot work with a president who was appointed illegally by his associates, and who is illegitimate in the eyes of a vast public.”

IDF hits Hezbollah targets after terrorist drone sent into Israeli territory

JNS | update desk

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IAF F-35 stealth fighter aircraft fly in Israeli airspace. Credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked Hezbollah targets in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley overnight on Thursday after the Iranian-backed terrorist organization dispatched a surveillance drone over the Jewish state, the IDF said on Friday morning.

“The Hezbollah reconnaissance drone that made its way into Israeli territory yesterday and was intercepted by the Air Force constitutes a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the military stated, in reference to the Nov. 26 ceasefire agreement.

Thursday’s incident marked the first time since the truce went into effect that Hezbollah sent an unmanned aerial vehicle toward Israel.

“Overnight, under intelligence guidance from the Military Intelligence Directorate, IAF fighter jets attacked several targets of the Hezbollah terror group in the Bekaa region of Lebanon that posed a threat to the Israeli home front and IDF forces,” the IDF statement announced.

Among the targets was a site with tunnels where weapons were produced and developed, as well as terrorist infrastructure on the Lebanon-Syria border through which Hezbollah smuggled arms.

“The IDF continues to be committed to the understandings regarding the ceasefire in Lebanon and will not allow the execution of terrorist plots of this type,” warned the military. “The IDF is deployed in the Southern Lebanon region and will work to eliminate any threat.”

Under the ceasefire’s terms, the Israel Defense Forces is to gradually withdraw from Lebanon’s south as the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) troops take over responsibilities for ensuring that Hezbollah remains disarmed south of the Litani River.

However, concerns are growing in Jerusalem about whether the LAF can fulfill its obligation to clamp down on Hezbollah’s presence in the south, and the IDF remains engaged in frequent operations in the border area.

On Wednesday, an IAF craft hit an “engineering vehicle” in Southern Lebanon after Israeli forces spotted Hezbollah terrorists trying to rebuild infrastructure in the area in violation of the ceasefire.

Earlier this week, Israeli forces struck a vehicle carrying Hezbollah terrorists who posed an imminent threat, the army said on Tuesday.

The IDF stressed that troops were actively working to eliminate threats and dismantle Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in Southern Lebanon, in accordance with the deal between Jerusalem and Beirut that went into effect on Nov. 27 and was extended on Sunday until Feb. 18.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem declared on Monday that the terrorist organization rejects any attempt to justify Jerusalem’s delay.

On Jan. 24, the Israeli government announced that its pullout would take longer than the 60-day deadline set by the ceasefire agreement.

The withdrawal of Jerusalem’s ground forces remains “conditional on the Lebanese Armed Forces deploying in Southern Lebanon and fully and effectively enforcing the agreement, while Hezbollah withdraws beyond the Litani,” declared the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.

“Since the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the State of Lebanon, the phased withdrawal process will continue, in full coordination with the United States,” the statement continued.

Israel “will not endanger its communities and citizens, and will insist on the full implementation of the objective of the fighting in the north, which is the safe return of residents [of the Galilee] to their homes,” it added.

Netanyahu condemns ‘unimaginable cruelty’ of Hamas after hostages mobbed

Canaan Lidor

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Israeli civilian hostage Arbel Yehud surrounded by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists before being handed over to a Red Cross team in southern Gaza, Jan. 30, 2025. Credit: Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday condemned the crowds of Gazans that mobbed three Israeli hostages as they were being released by Hamas.

“I view the shocking scenes during the release of our hostages as very serious,” wrote Netanyahu after the release of Arbel Yehud, Gadi Mozes, Agam Berger and five Thai citizens, all of whom were abducted to Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023.

“This is further proof of the unimaginable cruelty of the Hamas terrorist organization. I demand that the mediators ensure that such horrific scenes do not recur, and guarantee the safety of our hostages. Those who dare harm our hostages do so at their own peril,” Netanyahu wrote.

Footage from the release shows massive crowds, apparently in a state of jubilation, swarming around cars transporting the hostages and around the Hamas terrorists escorting the Israelis from the vehicles.

Otzma Yehudit Party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, a critic of the ceasefire deal who recently took his party out of the government because of it, called the display a “horror” scene demonstrating that “this is not a total victory but a total failure, in a reckless deal like no other.

The government, he continued, “could have withheld humanitarian aid, fuel, electricity and water from the bloodthirsty mob that is now trying to lynch our hostages and crushed them militarily.”

Israel has agreed to release 110 terrorists in exchange for the latest group of hostages, including Zakaria Zubeidi, Mohammad Abu Warda and Sami Jaradat, according to Channel 12.

Zubeidi led Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the Samaria city of Jenin and briefly escaped from Israel’s high-security Gilboa Prison in September 2021. Since Zubeidi was not convicted of murder but of other terror offenses, he will not be deported and is expected to be released back to Samaria.

The deal that Hamas and Israel initiated on Jan. 19 was for the release of more than 90  hostages for close to 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Israel has agreed to redeploy in the Gaza Strip and allow the repopulation of the area’s north.

The first phase of the deal involves the release of 33 hostages in exchange for more than 700 Palestinian prisoners and more than 1,000 detainees over a 42-day period. Of the 33 Israel hostages on the first phase list, 10 have returned so far.

IDF fires on 5 Lebanese who try to cross into Kfar Kila as 60-day withdrawal deadline expires

YONAH JEREMY BOB

Shooting likely wounded some of those who approached
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UN peacekeepers (UNIFIL) stand near their vehicles in Kfar Kila village near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, August 31, 2023. / (photo credit: REUTERS/AZIZ TAHER)

The IDF on Sunday morning fired on five Lebanese persons who tried to cross into Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon, given that the 60-day deadline for the military to withdraw passed earlier Sunday morning.

Sources indicated to the Jerusalem Post and Lebanese media and security sources reported that five Lebanese were wounded by the fire.

Despite the indications and reports, the IDF publicly only said that there had been an incident, that soldiers had opened fire to compel the Lebanese persons to distance themselves from IDF positions, and that whether anyone was wounded was being probed.

Kfar Kila is one of some dozens of locations where the IDF has said it will not fully withdraw from at this time, claiming that the Lebanese army is not fully deploying to all of southern Lebanon and is also frequently not destroying Hezbollah weapons when it takes up certain positions.

Further, the IDF has noted specific instances in which it has asked the Lebanese army to eliminate specific Hezbollah weapons, where the Lebanese army has not done so or only started the process of doing so on such a delayed basis that the IDF had to destroy the Hezbollah weapons lest the terror group succeed in moving them and hiding them at a new location.

The Lebanese government, Hezbollah, and France have all said that Israel is violating the November 27 ceasefire deal with Hezbollah even though the terror group has not launched rockets or mortars into Israel since the end of November.

The IDF already started withdrawing from significant portions of southern Lebanon in late December.

However, Israel has said that following the 2006 Second Lebanon War, it made the mistake of allowing Hezbollah to bully UNIFIL and the Lebanese army and to return to southern Lebanon where it will up a massive rocket firing and potential invasion capability, such that the IDF will act more aggressively this time to prevent a recurrence of such events.

Staying beyond the deadline?

Israel has not said definitively how long it will overstay the deadline in the parts of southern Lebanon from where it has not yet withdrawn, but various officials leaked a potential 30-day extension to the Post and other media.

Alternatively, if the Lebanese army deploys faster to the rest of southern Lebanon, the IDF might feel compelled to complete its withdrawal faster as well.

On Friday, Trump administration officials said that there should be a short additional extension for Israel’s presence in southern Lebanon to address Israeli security concerns but did not endorse a full 30-day extension and appeared concerned about the ceasefire falling apart.

Prior to leaving office, the Biden administration had acknowledged that the Lebanese army’s compliance with ensuring Hezbollah was not in southern Lebanon had only been partial but was still pushing for Israel to withdraw by the 60-day deadline and was clearly emphasizing that a collapse of the ceasefire would be the worst case scenario.

Although Hezbollah threatened to fire on Israel if Israel extended its presence beyond 60 days, as of late Sunday morning, the group seemed to be hoping global diplomatic pressure would get Israel to leave without too long of an extension and without having to return to war.