![Israel must continue to be able to deter Hezbollah, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar stressed on Wednesday, speaking amid efforts to reach a ceasefire with Iran's Lebanese terrorist proxy. "We need to keep the freedom to act if there will be violations. And we will have to act in time, before the problem will grow," the minister told a gathering of nearly 100 foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem, the Times of Israel reported. A deal to end more than a year of fighting on the northern border must be durable, Sa'ar said, saying Jerusalem “would like to reach an agreement that will stand the test of time." He added that a ceasefire would be an "opportunity" for Lebanon to regain its sovereignty after the Israeli military severely degraded the Iranian-backed group in recent months. He called for the Lebanese Armed Forces to be strengthened and urged the international community to invest more in the economically devastated country, which is drowning in debt following years of mismanagement and corruption. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also emphasized on Wednesday the necessity for Jerusalem to be able to act against any Hezbollah threats that may arise after a ceasefire deal is implemented. “The condition for any political settlement in Lebanon is the preservation of the intelligence capability and the preservation of the [IDF’s] right to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah,” Katz said. Meanwhile, U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein remained in Beirut for a second day on Wednesday to discuss "technical details" of an American ceasefire proposal with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement. President Joe Biden's point man in the Land of the Cedars announced he would travel to Israel on Wednesday night, speaking after he made "additional progress" in a second meeting with Berri. Hochstein was scheduled to meet with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer shortly after his arrival, followed by a tête-à-tête with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the following day. “The meeting today built on the meeting yesterday, and made additional progress,” Hochstein said. “So I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can.” The Biden envoy added that he will work with the incoming Trump administration on ceasefire efforts, saying that he has kept the president-elect's transition team informed of progress. Hochstein described as "very productive" his meetings with Lebanese officials on Tuesday. “We have a real opportunity to end the conflict, and now is the moment to decide. We are committed to doing everything we can to work with Lebanon and Israel to end this conflict,” Hochstein said at a press conference on Tuesday. Hochstein also met on Tuesday with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and he was scheduled to meet with Lebanese Armed Forces commander Gen. Joseph Aoun. Mikati emphasized that Lebanon’s primary objectives are achieving a ceasefire and safeguarding its sovereignty. He highlighted the need to implement international resolutions and bolster the Lebanese Armed Forces in the southern part of the country. Lebanon delivered its written response to the latest U.S. proposal on Monday. According to Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Berri, the response included “comments” that were “presented in a positive atmosphere.” He did not provide details on the nature of the comments, saying only that they “affirm the precise adherence to [U.N. Security Council] Resolution 1701 with all its provisions,” according to Reuters. Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said in a speech on Wednesday that the terrorist group had "read the ceasefire proposal. "We have our comments, and Nabih Berri has comments, and ours and the Lebanese government's comments are, Inshallah ['God willing'], identical," Qassem said. "We have decided not to discuss these ceasefire proposals or our comments in the media. All I will say is that Israeli is trying to obtain through negotiations what it couldn't through war." The terrorist leader vowed to “continue our efforts on the ground, whether the negotiations succeed or not. “We are confronting a savage enemy, and we will remain on the ground, no matter the cost, as we will also increase the cost for the enemy. We are facing Israeli human monsters supported by American human monsters,” threatened Qassem. Disarm and retreat Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, stipulated that Hezbollah must disarm and retreat north of the Litani River, but was never enforced. The Litani lies some 20 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border. Its enforcement, along with Israeli freedom of operation in Lebanon should Hezbollah violate the terms of a ceasefire agreement, are the key sticking points in the current negotiations. Netanyahu emphasized during a speech in the Knesset plenum on Monday that Israel will not allow Hezbollah to “return to the state it was in on Oct. 6, 2023. “We will be required, in order to ensure our security in the north, to systematically carry out operations—not only against Hezbollah’s attacks, which could come. Even if there is a ceasefire, nobody can guarantee it will hold. So it’s not only our reaction, a preventive reaction, a reaction in the wake of attack but also the capacity to prevent Hezbollah from strengthening,” he said. Hezbollah has launched some 16,000 rockets, missiles and drones from Lebanon at Israel since joining the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after the Gaza-based terrorist group’s massacre in southern Israel. More than 60,000 residents of northern Israel remain internally displaced due to the ongoing rocket and drone attacks from Lebanon. Seventy-six people in northern Israel have been killed by Hezbollah cross-border rocket, missile and drone attacks since the start of the war, including 31 soldiers and six foreign citizens, according to the latest data provided by the Prime Minister’s Office, updated on Sunday. In addition, 729 people have been wounded, including 497 civilians and 232 soldiers. Of these, 29 civilians and 37 soldiers were severely injured; 63 civilians and 38 soldiers were moderately injured and 405 civilians and 157 soldiers were lightly injured. Hezbollah’s leadership has been left in tatters following a series of targeted killings by Israel, including that of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Sept. 27. This was preceded by Israeli sabotage of Hezbollah communication devices that killed 39 people and wounded more than 3,400 members of the terrorist group. Israel has been waging a devastating aerial campaign against Hezbollah throughout Lebanon, including its stronghold of Dahieh south of Beirut. According to Israeli estimates, the terrorist group has lost most of its arsenal to the ongoing strikes. Then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in late October that Hezbollah had lost an estimated 80%-plus of its long-range rockets since the start of the war. Israel also continues to battle Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The terrorist group still holds 101 hostages in the Strip, 97 of whom were kidnapped on Oct. 7. Many of the captives are believed to be dead. Brazil summit Meanwhile, G20 leaders gathered in Rio de Janeiro for a summit put out a joint statement on Monday calling for “comprehensive” ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon. The leaders of the world’s biggest economies called for U.S. proposals to end fighting in Gaza and free the hostages, and one for Lebanon “that enables citizens to return safely to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line.” The 13-point U.S. proposal presented to Lebanese officials on Nov. 14 includes a 60-day truce, during which Lebanon would redeploy its troops along the border. The proposal also calls for Moscow to prevent Hezbollah from resupplying itself via Syrian land routes. Hezbollah would retreat north of the Litani River, with the border area then being under control of the Lebanese Armed Forces, overseen by the United States and Britain. Israeli officials are emphasizing, however, that the Israel Defense Forces must retain freedom of operation in Lebanon to thwart attempts by Hezbollah to violate the agreement and rearm and reestablish itself. A senior Israeli diplomatic official told Israel Hayom on Saturday that the IDF will retain operational freedom to respond to any security threats from across the northern border, regardless of any diplomatic arrangements. However, a source close to Hezbollah told The Washington Post that the group’s “condition for progress remains clear: Israel must be prohibited from conducting operations within Lebanese territory.” Berri emphasized at the time that any ceasefire agreement must not include the ability for Israel to attack by land, sea or air, Channel 12 reported. “Otherwise, what’s the purpose of an agreement?” he remarked. Another sticking point is Lebanon’s objection to the United Kingdom and Germany monitoring the implementation of U.N. Resolution 1701. Beirut reportedly favors the United States and France. If the ceasefire efforts fail, there are plans in the works to expand ground operations in Lebanon, an Israeli military official told the Post. Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer discussed the proposal with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during a visit to his Florida estate earlier this month, as well as with senior Biden administration officials in Washington. Dermer also traveled to Russia to discuss the ceasefire proposal. Tehran is telling its Lebanese terrorist proxy Hezbollah that it supports ending the war against Israel, The New York Times reported over the weekend. Ali Larijani, senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, met with senior Lebanese officials in Beirut on Nov. 15 to discuss the matter. Two Iranians affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps told the Times that Larijani conveyed messages to Hezbollah from Khamenei that he supported the end of the war and that the regime would assist with rebuilding the terrorist group’s forces and recovering from the war.](https://jewishwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Gideon-Saar-1320x880-2-218x150.jpg "Sa’ar: Israel must be free to act against Hezbollah truce violations")
“In a fleeting moment, our lives turned into misery,” said Ofir Swisa, the brother of Dolev Swisa, who was murdered along with his wife, Odaya, in front of their daughters, Romi, 7, and Lia, 3, on Oct. 7.
That morning, Dolev and Odaya heard rocket warning sirens in their Sderot home and immediately set off for central Israel. They put their daughters in their car and started driving, unaware that Hamas terrorists were converging on the city.
As their car was being ambushed, Dolev tried to escape with Lia but was shot while protecting her. Odaya was wounded but managed to gather the girls and cry out for help.
A Bedouin worker came to their rescue and started driving them to the local police station, which, unbeknownst to them, had been occupied by Hamas.
Terrorists shot Odaya three times at point blank range. The Bedouin rescuer was also murdered. The girls went unseen in the back seat of the car and were eventually saved by police officers while under fire.
A video of their rescue in which Romi, still inside the car with her mother lying dead, is heard asking the police, “Are you from Israel? Please take us from here, I am here with a baby, save us,” went viral on social media.
“My mother cries all day,” Ofir Swisa, who also lives in Sderot, told JNS. “My nieces are afraid of everything. They yell in their sleep. They scream and cry out for their mom and dad. They can’t hear approaching motorcycles without running away.”
While the state provides the girls with access to psychological treatment, Swisa said it’s never enough.
“Our life is now all about making sure that the girls have everything they need. We have to make sure they have clothes, a proper bat mitzvah, and give them the future they deserve. It’s hard,” he said.
On Sunday, ahead of Memorial Day, Swisa appeared in a briefing titled “Yom Hazikaron After October 7: Bereaved Siblings Special Panel” and organized by Media Central, a Jerusalem-based nonprofit media liaison service center for journalists, where he thanked the Bedouin man who sacrificed his life to save his nieces.
“Amer Abu Sabila, the Bedouin who tried to save my late sister-in-law Odaya and my two nieces, did an amazing thing. He had a pregnant wife and two children who will grow up without a father,” Swisa said in the briefing.
“The place was filled with terrorists so much so that the body of Odaya could not be taken away from there until 4 a.m. the following morning,” Swisa added, noting that it did not deter Abu Sabila from helping.
As Israel marks its first post-Oct. 7 Memorial Day on Monday, Swisa’s family is grieving.
“We always try to keep their memory alive,” he said. “Skazi [Asher Swissa, no relation, a well-known Israeli musician and record producer] is organizing an event in honor of my brother who was a music creator as well. On Yom Hazikaron [Memorial Day], we are planning to go to the cemetery and pay our respects.”
Since last Memorial Day (April 25, 2023), 1,599 Israeli soldiers and civilians have died. This includes 760 Israel Defense Forces soldiers (61 of whom succumbed to their wounds from previous years) and 834 civilians, of which 822 were killed on or after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas in southern Israel, according to numbers released by the Israeli Ministry of Defense on Thursday.
No body, no grave
Amir Alfasa is marking this Memorial Day without his aunt Maya Goren, who was taken hostage on Oct. 7 from Kibbutz Nir Oz. She was declared dead in captivity in December. Her body is still being held in the Strip.
“In the past month, we’ve tried to commemorate Maya in a lot of ways. One of her daughters had the idea of raising money in her name for Israeli families in need,” Alfasa told JNS.
“It’s hard to honor her in the way we do for other October 7 victims. Maya’s husband, Avner, who was also murdered on that day, is buried in Nir Oz. But Maya isn’t,” he explained. “It’s hard to grieve. It’s confusing to get to this day and not have a body to bury or a grave to go to.”
Maya’s family set up a memorial stone for her next to Avner’s grave, engraving with it a wish that she will eventually be properly interred there.
“We are still on this really difficult journey to bring her and all the others back, those who are still alive and those who aren’t. It’s been a very hard year, hard doesn’t even begin to describe it,” Alfasa said.
He said he is inspired by those who care enough to take to the streets and shout for their return, that it gives him hope.
“I know if she was there she’d be the first to join the fight to bring them home. That’s what she would want us to do. We are still there for her and for all the hostages. We want everyone to remember that they still haven’t returned,” said Alfasa.
“We want the deceased to be buried in dignity in Israel and not be thrown in a random place no one knows about in Gaza, near the terrorists that took their lives instead of here with us,” he added.
For Alfasa, honoring Maya and Avner’s lives means staying united as a family.
“My cousins lost both of their parents. We still see each other every day, and my parents have become theirs. I know that’s what Maya and Avner would have wanted us to do, keep being a strong family and be there for one another,” he said.