On the morning of September 8, 2025, six innocent souls were brutally murdered by Palestinian terrorists in a shooting attack in Jerusalem. This thread remembers who they were and what they meant to those around them.
Sarah Mendelson, 60.
Remembered as “the smiling heart of Bnei Akiva”. A loving mother and grandmother, deeply missed by four children and many grandchildren.
Rabbi Mordechai Steintzag, 79.
Immigrant from Pennsylvania (1993), beloved bakery owner, they called him “Dr. Mark, the baker whose breads filled every supermarket”. A man who brought warmth and nourishment to Jerusalem.
Rabbi Yossef David, 43.
Murdered with his books in hand, on his way to Torah study, a testament to his unwavering devotion.
Rabbi Yisrael Metzner, 28. A young father and husband, survived by his parents, wife, and three children.
Yaakov Pinto, 25.
An immigrant from Spain, newly married, full of promise.
Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Pash.
Described as “a man of boundless kindness” and “a dedicated yeshiva worker”, always helping everyone in the neighborhood .
Six lives, six families shattered, six communities grieving. Each one unique, each one irreplaceable.
May their memories forever be a blessing.🕯️
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20 Years ago, Israel Withdrew from Gaza. What happened in 2005, and why does it matter today?
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On August 15, 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip, in a bold move for peace. The IDF evacuated 8,000+ Israelis who had been living in 21 communities/settlements across Gaza.
Israel decided to remove every soldier and civilian — even exhuming dead bodies — from the territory unilaterally, meaning without Palestinian leadership agreeing to peace in return.
At the time this was deeply controversial in Israel, and remains so to this day because of what happened after.
Israel left behind agricultural infrastructure, including greenhouses and irrigation systems, that produced almost 15% of Israel’s agricultural exports.
This could have helped bolster Gaza’s economy and trade with the world. Instead, many of these greenhouses were destroyed by Gazans soon after the Israelis left.
IDF report: Hamas orchestrated a timed hunger campaign to discredit Israel and achieve political gains.
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Since the beginning of July 2025, and in proximity to the ongoing negotiations, there has been a consistent rise in the number of alleged malnutrition-related deaths reported by Hamas’ Ministry of Health.
By June 2025, a total of 66 cases of residents who died from malnutrition had been reported for the entire duration of the war, whereas in July alone, more than 133 residents were reported to have died from malnutrition.
Former hostage Arbel Yehoud, who survived 482 days in Hamas captivity, shared her story in a moving interview with @N12News.
Her words are a powerful reminder of the trauma hostages endure — and the urgency to bring everyone home.
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Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
@N12News “You wake up and realize you're still alive. All that's left is to hold on to hope and pray that one day you'll get out.”
Arbel Yehoud described surviving captivity as a daily struggle against isolation, starvation, and despair.
@N12News “There are very, very, very hard moments when you just want to put an end to it yourself — and those are terrifying moments."
The psychological torture was constant. Yet even in her darkest hours, she clung to every last bit of hope.
⚠️WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT⚠️
Tal Shoham, his wife, and two young children were kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. Recently, Tal — who survived 505 days in Hamas’ brutal and inhumane captivity in Gaza — shared his testimony on Israeli Channel 12 News (@n12news) in conversation with Yuna Leibzon (@YunaLeibzon)
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Credit: IDF
Tal, his wife, Adi, and two children, Yahel (3) and Naveh (8), were visiting family on Kibbutz Be’eri that weekend, when the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre unfolded. Tal described the initial moments that horrific morning, “At 6:30 in the morning, we wake up because my father-in-law, Avshal of blessed memory [Avshalom Haran – who was murdered later that day], came to our room where we were sleeping on the second floor, knocking intensely on the door. We realized that a "red alert" siren [indicating incoming rockets] is about to sound. Instinctively, after so many years of experience, each of us grabs one of the children, and we run to the safe room on the lower floor.”
“At some point, we hear gunfire and grenade explosions outside…My son Naveh is behind me, pressed against the wall. He heard the explosion and asked me if we were going to die — I told him I didn’t know, as honestly as I could. Looking back, I realized I didn’t want to lie to him if this was really going to be our last moment.”
⚠️ WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT ⚠️
Ofer Kalderon and two of his four children were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. Recently, Ofer — who survived 484 days in Hamas’ brutal and inhumane captivity in Gaza — shared his testimony on Israeli Channel 12 News (@n12news) in conversation with Yael Odem (@yael_odem).
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Photo: GPO
During the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in southern Israel, the Kalderon family was not all together in one place. Ofer and Hadas, have four children. At the time, two of their children — Sahar, who was 16, and Erez, who was 12 — were with Ofer. Hadas and their son Rotem, then 19, were in two separate apartments, while their eldest daughter, Gaya, was in Tel Aviv. On that horrific day, Ofer, Sahar, and Erez were kidnapped, while the others survived and were not kidnapped.
Ofer recalled the terrifying morning of October 7: “I hear shouting in Arabic from many directions, I realized that this was something much more serious. And then I cried the hardest cry of my life, because I understood there was nothing I could do. I'm holding a loaded gun, but how can I protect my children in this situation?”
🚨Statement from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation following the murder of five aid workers by Hamas, the injury of several others, and the possible kidnapping of additional team members.
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Tonight, at approximately 10 p.m. Gaza time, a bus carrying more than two-dozen members of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation team, local Palestinians working side-by-side with the U.S. GHF team to deliver critical aid, were brutally attacked by Hamas. At the time of the attack, our team was en route to one of our distribution centers in the area west of Khan Younis.
We are still gathering facts, but what we know is devastating: there are at least five fatalities, multiple injuries, and fear that some of our team members may have been taken hostage. We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms.