The body of Meny Godard was returned to Israel today after being held hostage by Hamas for more than 760 days.
Meny, 73, and his wife, Ayelet, 63, were murdered on the morning of October 7 by Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in their home in Kibbutz Be'eri.
Meny and Ayelet are survived by their children, Mor, Gal, Bar and Goni, as well as numerous grandchildren and several siblings.
May their memories forever be a blessing.
Additionally, new reports show that Hamas knows the location of the three remaining murdered hostage bodies that are still being held in Gaza. Hamas was required to return all the hostage bodies within 72 hours under the ceasefire agreement.
The United States must increase the pressure on Hamas and its sponsors in Qatar, Turkey and Iran to fully comply with the agreement and release all the hostages.
While Hamas continues to fail to abide by the ceasefire deal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday that he is "optimistic" about the future of Gaza, as the U.S. advances a U.N. resolution to create an International Stabilization Force (ISF) for the Strip.
"We’re making good progress on the language of the resolution, and hopefully we’ll have action on it very soon. We don’t want to lose momentum on this," Rubio said.
Meanwhile, the Israel Security Agency, Shin Bet, announced today that it had thwarted a series of imminent major terror attacks, arresting 40 terrorists near the West Bank city of Bethlehem (see video above).
One of the terror cells was "ready to carry out an attack imminently when the agency arrested its members... Had the Shin Bet not intervened, the shooting attack could have carried a heavy cost in Israeli lives," Shin Bet said in a statement.
Iran is working to turn the West Bank into another Gaza, a base for terrorism, but even closer to Israel's population centers.
The United States and our allies must continue to increase the pressure on Iran and its proxies, and ensure Israel has the resources and support needed to counter this terror threat.
Israel strikes Hezbollah as Lebanese government drags feet on disarmament
Israel is working to stop Hezbollah from rebuilding, striking a series of terror targets in Lebanon today, including a weapons storage facility and underground terror infrastructure.
According to the IDF, the sites struck were close to the civilian population, "serving as yet another example of Hezbollah’s cynical use of Lebanese civilians as human shields for its operations conducted from within civilian areas," the military said.
As the IDF continues to actively counter threats to Israel, the country is continuing to build a barrier on its northern border with Lebanon. The military confirmed that the wall is being built on the Israeli side of the blue line.
All of this comes as the Lebanese government fails to follow through on its pledge to disarm the terrorist group.
The United States must continue to increase the pressure on Lebanon to compel it to fulfill its stated commitment to fully disarm Hezbollah.
Construction on the concrete barrier between Israel and Lebanon on Israel's northern border.
A confidential report circulated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, is warning that the agency has “lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the previously declared inventories of nuclear material in Iran.”
The IAEA’s “lack of access to this nuclear material in Iran for five months means that its verification — according to standard safeguards practice — is long overdue,” the report added.
Before the American and Israeli strikes in June, Iran was believed to have enough uranium to build 10 nuclear bombs if the uranium was enriched further. This stockpile is believed to still be buried underground at the regime’s destroyed nuclear sites.
Meanwhile, the Iranian regime is attempting to target Israelis abroad. Speaking at the opening of Israel’s new embassy in Estonia, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that Israeli security services are “constantly” working to prevent Iranian plots against Israeli diplomats.
“It was recently reported that Iran attempted to assassinate the Israeli ambassador in Mexico—it’s not the only place they tried to do it,” Sa’ar said.
The United States must increase the pressure on Iran, including by continuing to impose maximum economic sanctions on the regime.
The mission of AIPAC is to encourage and persuade the U.S. government to enact specific policies that create a strong, enduring and mutually beneficial relationship with our ally Israel.
