As Israelis Celebrate Freed Female Soldier, Ground Forces Advance Toward Gaza City
JERUSALEM, Israel – The fifth hostage and the first Israeli soldier is free following her rescue inside Gaza. It’s one of the few reasons Israelis have had to celebrate since the massacre of October 7th.
The joyous reunion between Private Ori Megidish and her grandmother was shown to the world on an X post.
Her neighbors came to celebrate and many even took to the streets.
Israeli Defense Forces Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari noted that while there is joy over the soldier’s return, many other families are still waiting. “Private Ori Megidish is reunited with her family. She is now home with her family, but 238 hostages are not,” he said.
Hagari added, “The Israel Defense Forces has a moral obligation to do anything and everything to bring every hostage home. We are operating on the ground in Gaza and doing everything necessary to free the hostages from Hamas and free Gaza from Hamas.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed foreign media by saying Israel’s war with Hamas is a battle of civilizations.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war,” Netanyahu stated. “This is a time for war – a war for our common future. Today we draw a line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism. It is a time for everyone to decide where they stand. Israel will stand against the forces of barbarism until victory.”
The prime minister views October 7th as a global line in the sand.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a turning point – a turning point for leaders and for nations,” he declared. “It is time for all of us to decide if we are willing to fight for a future of hope and promise or surrender to tyranny and terror. Now rest assured, Israel will fight.”
And that fight is spreading far beyond Israel and the Gaza Strip: from an anti-Semitic mob hunting jews at a Russian airport, to a group of Jewish students at New York’s Cooper Union who barricaded themselves from angry pro-Palestinian student groups, to Cornell University, where officials sent police to guard a Jewish center and kosher dining hall, to tens of thousands of protesters in a pro-Hamas march in London,
Laura Adkins, opinion editor of the Jewish publication, The Forward, told us, “I mean it’s worse than I’ve ever seen it, Chris, of just the temperature of the anger and how it’s spilling over to real world hate.”
Adkins spent three weeks chronicling the stories of Israelis who went through the horrors of October 7th.
She said, “It feels good to give back by telling people’s stories and sit with people in sometimes the worst days of their lives, but I won’t pretend that I’m not afraid with all the anti-Semitism that we’re seeing – all of the hate and vitriol and misinformation. It’s a really frightening time to be Jewish, which is something I don’t usually say.”
We asked Adkins, “How has this affected American Jews?
She replied, “Just astronomically. Before I came here to cover the war, the first day before Israel had even done any retaliation after the October 7th terror attacks, there were mass protests in Times Square calling for Intifada, which means ‘Kill Jews.’ Calling for resistance by any means necessary.”
On the battlefield, I.D.F. Spokesman Hagari confirmed that the Israeli expanded its armored and infantry forces to advance their goals of collapsing Hamas and bringing back the hostages.
“We are assessing the situation continuously, progressing gradually in accordance with our operational plans,” Hagari explained. “The offensive activity will expand and intensify in accordance with the phases of the war and its objectives.”
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