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| British News |
| Home Office set to block extremist preacher from entering UK for mosque talk |
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| Mohamed Hoblos |
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The Home Office is set to block an extremist preacher who has previously expressed support for Hamas from entering the UK to speak at a mosque in Middlesbrough, Jewish News understands. Lebanese born preacher Mohamed Hoblos was due to appear on February 23 in Middlesbrough to give a talk at a new mosque. Labour MP Luke Myer urged Security Minister Dan Jarvis to look into the preacher’s previous record of inflammatory statements in the Commons on Wednesday. |
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| World News |
| Mother and two-year-old daughter die after car ramming attack in Germany |
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A two-year-old girl and her mother have died after a car was rammed into a group of people in Munich on Thursday. The 37-year-old mother from the city and her daughter are the first deaths from the incident, German police said on Saturday. Police said at least 36 people were injured on Thursday morning when a car ploughed into a crowd taking part in a trade union demonstration. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Germans to “stand together” as he laid flowers at the scene on Saturday. He said: “We all have to stand together now, make sure that our country sticks together and that the very values that united those who peacefully organised a rally here and held a march are united with those who helped here, namely that we are together as human beings.” |
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| Seven Bchurim Injured In Fire in Crown Hights, Three Critical |
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Seven victims were injured – some critically – in a fast moving fire in Crown Heights, Friday morning. The fire broke out around 10:20 AM in a private residence, with some victims trapped inside the burning home – located at 658 Eastern Parkway near Brooklyn Avenue. Due to the severity of the incident, and the number of patients, Hatzolah dispatched additional ambulances from Williamsburg and Flatbush to assist in the emergency response. Victims were transported to Cornell Hospital in Manhattan, Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, and Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn. The cause of the fire is unknown. The names for Tehillim are: Shmuel ben Merav Hillel ben Sarah Yehudah ben Sarah. |
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| Israel News |
| Hours after release, freed hostages talk of Hamas torture, psychological torment |
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| Hostages L to R: Sagui Dekel-Chen, Yair Horn and Sasha Troufanov stand on stage next to Hamas and Islamic Jihad gunmen during their handover over to a Red Cross team in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on February 15, 2025. (Eyad Baba / AFP) |
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The three hostages who were released from Gaza on Saturday after 498 days of captivity endured physical abuse and were left in the dark as to the fate of their loved ones, according to snippets of information shared with Hebrew media outlets by family members. One of the three, Sagui Dekel-Chen, was tortured during interrogations by his captors. The information reported by Channels 12 and 13 and the Kan public broadcaster was conveyed by the freed hostages to their families and then cleared for publication by the military censor. Dekel-Chen, Sasha Troufanov and Iair Horn were all abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault on southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were seized as hostages. Dekel-Chen and Horn were held captive by Hamas, and Troufanov was held by allied terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They were released following days of uncertainty and doubt after Hamas accused Israel earlier in the week of failing to meet aid obligations and said it was pausing the scheduled hostage releases. Israel rejected the charge and threatened to resume the war. The terror group eventually backed down on Thursday, and notified Israel via Qatari and Egyptian mediators of the identities of the three hostages slated for release Saturday. While the three men looked thin and pale, and Horn seemed to be limping, they appeared to be in better physical condition than the three severely emaciated hostages who were released last week in images that shocked Israel and sparked an outpouring of anger. All three of them were held in Khan Younis throughout their captivity, mere hundreds of meters from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz. While they were mostly held in tunnels, they were taken to apartments in the lead-up to their release, Kan reported. All of them learned to speak Arabic during their 498 days in Gaza, and Troufanov also learned to read it, Channel 12 said. Both Dekel-Chen and Horn were held with other hostages at various points in captivity, and at one stage early on, Horn was held with his brother Eitan, who is not slated for release in the first stage of the ceasefire and hostage release deal. They were not held together recently. After he was separated from his brother, Iair was forced by his captors to film a video in which he talked about Eitan, Kan reported. He lost 10 kilograms (22 lbs) in weight and, like the other hostages, received almost no medical treatment. Nevertheless, Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center said his general condition was stable, and that he would be able to focus on reuniting with family and friends before undergoing more extensive testing and treatment. Upon his release, Horn’s captors gave him an hourglass with a picture of Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held hostage and who has emerged as a leading figure in the movement for the hostages’ return. According to Kan, the IDF plans to give her the hourglass. |
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| Freed Russian Hostage Puts on Tefillin for the First Time |
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| Hostages L to R: Sagui Dekel-Chen, Yair Horn and Sasha Troufanov stand on stage next to Hamas and Islamic Jihad gunmen during their handover over to a Red Cross team in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on February 15, 2025. (Eyad Baba / AFP) |
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Freed hostage Sasha Troufanov, who was released from Hamas captivity on Shabbos after 498 days of captivity, put on tefillin for the first time with Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, who gifted him his own paid or tefillin with his own custom tefillin bag. With the release of the captive Alexander Sasha Troufanov, the Jewish community in Russia marks the conclusion of a significant chapter in the extensive efforts made for him and his family, who have roots in Russia. Sasha was abducted on Simchas Torah by Hamas, along with several of his family members, including his grandmother, who was a regular attendee at Chabad synagogue prayers in the city of Rostov and a well-known activist within the local Jewish community. At the very beginning of the crisis, Russia’s Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Berel Lazar, reached out to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who took a deep personal interest in the matter and worked extensively to secure the release of the family members a few months after their abduction. His persistent and direct involvement also played a role in Sasha’s eventual release. This blessed effort reached its climax this morning when the Chief Rabbi visited Sasha. During the visit, Sasha had the opportunity to don tefillin for the first time. As a special gift from the Jewish community, he received an elegant pair of tefillin and a Chitat book for protection. The eyes of all present filled with tears of emotion, especially those of his dear mother, who sanctified G-d’s name with her unwavering faith and trust throughout this difficult period. Along with her family, she took significant steps in strengthening their observance of Torah and mitzvos, and now Sasha has joined this journey with the moving act of putting on tefillin. The Jewish community and the family of Chief Rabbi Lazar will continue to support the Troufanov family and stand by their side every step of the way. |
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| Trump: I told Netanyahu to ‘do whatever you want’ on hostage release-ceasefire deal |
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US President Donald Trump says he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “You do whatever you want,” with regard to the hostage release-ceasefire deal. Trump does not specify when he conveyed this message to Netanyahu. Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Trump is asked about the Saturday deadline he imposed for Hamas to release all of the hostages, which passed without incident. Trump, for the first time, explicitly says that he made the threat because Hamas had said it would not be releasing the three hostages that it was slated to release on Saturday, under the terms of the deal. Over the past several days, US officials have argued that it was Trump’s threat that led Hamas to back down from its own threat not to release any hostages. But the Trump threat would have contradicted the terms of the deal, which only stipulated Hamas release three hostages on Saturday, not all of them. Trump, when he first made the threat of “hell raining down” on Hamas, clarifies that he is leaving it up to Israel to decide what to do. Trump tells reporters that Hamas agreed to deliver the three hostages, including an American citizen — Sagui Dekel-Chen — because of this threat. He also notes that the hostages released this weekend “were in pretty good shape,” unlike the ones released a week ago, whom Trump says looked like “Holocaust survivors.” As for the next steps in the hostage deal, Trump says, “That’ll be up to Israel… in consultation with me.” |
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