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By Michael Blum

By Michael Blum

Al Monitor

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'They're coming in coffins': Israeli hostage families mourn dead

The sister of an Israeli hostage whose body was recovered from Gaza last week struck a solemn tone Sunday as she laid him to rest after thousands...

26.05.2024 20

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

Israel marks especially sombre Memorial Day after Oct 7

Israelis stood still and flags flew at half-mast on Sunday as the country marked an especially painful Memorial Day following the carnage of the...

12.05.2024 30

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

Former Oct 7 hostages make freedom call from Auschwitz

Freed Gaza hostages Gabriela Leimberg and her brother Fernando Marman visited Auschwitz for the first time this week and said they want just one...

09.05.2024 20

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

Son of Gaza hostage on emotional visit to father's homeland Poland

Yuval Dancyg could not hold back his tears. On Sunday, the Israeli flew to Poland, the homeland of his father Alex, taken hostage by Hamas...

05.05.2024 30

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

Anger among Israeli Bedouins after girl wounded in Iranian attack

In his spartan home in Israel's Negev desert, Mohamed Hassouna points to the spot where his seven-year-old daughter Amina was seriously wounded by a...

15.04.2024 7

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

Surviving 'hell': the ordeal of former Hamas hostages in Gaza

Nearly six months into the Gaza war, with the families of hostages still held captive by Hamas desperate for their release, many former hostages are...

04.04.2024 20

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

Mother recounts 'horror' of son's Gaza captivity

Four months after he was freed from captivity in Gaza, Eitan Yahalomi celebrated his bar mitzvah -- but his coming-of-age last week was far from a...

28.03.2024 70

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

Thousands pay respects at Israel's Supernova festival memorial

Thousands of visitors in Israel have been flocking weekly to the site of the Supernova music festival, to pay their respects to the 364 people killed...

28.02.2024 5

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

'Hostages Square' in Tel Aviv a site for solidarity

Mandy Hoyland doesn't know any of the 130 hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas. But she was still emotional as she wandered through Tel Aviv's...

15.02.2024 5

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

Israeli desert town heals its wounds after Hamas attack

Passers-by call Tali Haddad a heroine when she shows them the place in the Israeli town of Ofakim where she saved 12 people from Hamas fighters on...

13.02.2024 4

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

October 7 survivor recalls 'trauma' of attack that killed husband, son

On October 7, Sabine Taasa watched her husband die to save two of their children as Hamas militants attacked their village in southern Israel, before...

05.02.2024 3

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

Israeli mother feels no anger at troops who killed hostage son

Yotam Haim was gunned down in Gaza by Israeli soldiers who failed to realise he had escaped from his Hamas captors -- yet his mother refuses to...

16.01.2024 10

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

Israeli hostage families keep faith as trauma nears 100th day

Silvia Cunio sighed deeply as she reviewed the messages in her family chat group from October 7, the last time she heard from her two sons before...

10.01.2024 10

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

Former Israeli settlers yearn to return to Gaza after war

"A house on the beach is not a dream!" The advertising slogan by an Israeli settlement developer is music to the ears of former Gaza settlers yearning...

27.12.2023 9

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

Jewish seminary hopes to revive Israeli town deserted in Gaza war

Most residents have left Sderot, an Israeli town near Gaza, since war erupted with the Hamas attacks on October 7, but a reopened Jewish seminary...

25.12.2023 10

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

Israel social security data reveals true picture of Oct 7 deaths

A more precise picture of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel has emerged from social security data, confirming the unprecedented scale of the violence...

15.12.2023 3

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

'Remedy against fear': Israel satirists tackle war

For Israeli comedians, the collective trauma of Hamas's deadly attacks on October 7 and the ensuing war has tested the limits of what it is possible...

09.12.2023 10

Al Monitor

By Michael Blum

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