Forming human chain, families of hostages look to confront MKs ahead of budget vote
Death toll from ground operation rises to 115 * Rockets launched at communities near Gaza border * Missiles fired from Yemen miss tanker in Red Sea strait
The Defense Ministry is interested in the possibility of raising the age for retirement from Israel Defense Forces reserve duty by a year, to keep soldiers and officers from leaving in the middle of a war.
The move is presented in a proposal to the Knesset, which must approve any such extension.
Currently, soldiers can bow out at 40, officers at 45 and special roles, including positions like drivers, at 49.
In Jerusalem, hundreds of supporters and family members of hostages held in Gaza are lining up in a human chain stretching from the Prime Minister’s Office to the Knesset, with the aim of speaking to Knesset members as they arrive for budget votes.
Some family members of hostages slept in tents set up along Eliezer Kaplan Street, after marching with torches to the Knesset last night.
“This helps,” says Tomer Aloni, pointing to the human chain. Aloni’s cousin, Tsahi Idan, was abducted by Hamas terrorists from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, after his eldest daughter, Maayan, was killed in the family’s safe room.
He says the chain also gives a morale boost to Idan’s wife and two surviving children.
“Everything helps, every sign, every picture you see in Israel and abroad, and the connections to anyone who can help,” he says.
The human chain is organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which plans on remaining outside the Knesset on Wednesday until midday, “even in the rain,” says an organizer.
“We want answers from the government,” says Aloni.
Lawmakers are set to approve an update to the 2023 budget allocating extra billions to the war and recovery effort. The measure will also free up hundreds of millions of shekels for special interests unconnected to the national emergency, such as settlements and Haredi education, critics say.
Two missiles fired from territory held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels missed a commercial tanker near the key Bab el-Mandeb Strait today, a US official says.
An American warship also shot down a suspected Houthi drone flying in its direction during the incident, says the official. No one was hurt in the attack, the official says.
The ship that was targeted, the Marshall Islands-flagged Ardmore Encounter oil and chemical tanker, was traveling north toward the Suez Canal in the Red Sea, satellite tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed.
The vessel had been coming from India and had an armed security crew aboard it, according to data transmitted by the ship.
Ardmore Shipping Corp., which owns and operates the ship, does not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company trades on the New York Stock Exchange and shares were slightly up in aftermarket trading to $13.64 a share.
The Houthis do not immediately acknowledge the attack. The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which provides warnings to sailors in the Middle East, earlier reported an incident in the same area of the Ardmore Encounter. It also reported an incident occurring off the coast of Oman.
Israel’s airwaves are awash in praise for Tomer Grinberg, the commander of the vaunted 13th Battalion of the Golani Brigades, who was killed in battle along with several soldiers in Shejaiya.
A video making the rounds shows Grinberg rallying his troops days after the October 7 Hamas onslaught, in which the battalion lost some 40 fighters.
“In 10 years, there will be [another] hero commander of the 13th, with hero troops. Some of you will be parents, some of you will be who knows where. He’ll dispatch the force on Yom Kippur. And they will tell about you and see pictures of our dead,” he says in the video, comparing his soldiers to those who fought in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, whom they presumably had heard stories about.
“You are no less heroic than them,” he continues. “You’re not spoiled. You don’t seem to be the iPhone generation.”
Grinberg took over the battalion over the summer. At the time, the army distributed a picture of him hugging his overjoyed 4-year-old daughter at the handover ceremony.
A video of his daughter pointing to a picture of “daddy” on the front page of Israel Hayom also makes the rounds.