Israel Active

Some 5,200 children gathered in 42 communities in the Binyamin region of Samaria to pray for the IDF’s success. They also prayed for soldiers wounded during the military campaign and for the return of hostages being held by Hamas.

Several branches of Israel’s largest hamburger fast-food chains McDonald’s, Burger Ranch and BurgerIM, plus Domino’s Pizza are to enforce higher kosher standards. The aim is to support Israel Defense Force soldiers who only eat mehadrin-certified meat.

Israel’s President and Prime Minister spoke at a special event to mark the 75th anniversary of the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament). The session was also attended by the Leader of the Opposition and the acting President of the Supreme Court. A military cantor led a prayer for the safety of IDF soldiers.

The word of the Lord really has gone out from Jerusalem. IDF Battalion 7421 moved all over the Gaza Strip, fighting Hamas terrorists. Everywhere they went, they were accompanied by the battalion's Torah scroll, establishing seven temporary synagogues. (See Numbers Chapter 10 verses 35 & 36.)

The Argentinian President vowed to move his Embassy to Jerusalem and prayed at the Kotel during his recent visit. And the secular family of the two rescued Israeli-Argentinian hostages revealed that they had been lighting Shabbat candles.  Read about the previous hostage to have been rescued.

Military service for members of the Bedouin tribes is not mandatory, yet more than 1,500 are presently serving in the IDF. Public figures came to the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem as a tribute to 13 civilian Bedouin who saved men, women, and small children while being fired at by Hamas.

The President’s Medal for Civilian Heroism is to be awarded to civilians who showed outstanding heroism on October 7. The announcement said it is to honor ordinary citizens, who risked their lives, “out of a sense of unity of fate and mutual Israeli guarantee, with the aim of saving lives.”

While the IDF was fighting Hamas in the Bani Suheila neighborhood of Khan Yunis, they discovered a desk in one of the houses. On it was an inscription which read: "The table of the late Levi Eshkol." Donation of Dubek Ltd. 1981." How did the desk of Israel’s ex-Prime Minister (1963-69) get there?

In recent months, agricultural workers from Malawi in Africa have been working at Kibbutz Zikim. The issue of the kidnapped Israelis touches their hearts and prompted an acapella band to make a new arrangement of the song; "Home" and a music video filmed in Malawi.

80% of southern moshav Shokeda’s 132 families have returned to their national-religious community, 4 miles from Gaza. The homecoming was the largest single movement of people into the Tekuma Region near Gaza since its evacuation following Oct 7. Some immediately began mowing their lawns.