JERUSALEM, Israel – As Israel buries the bodies of hostages recovered this week in Gaza, the battles continue on the ground and in the international arena.
Israeli media sources report Hamas has decided to target Israelis abroad in its bid to avenge the killing of its top leader Ismail Haniyeh. That's because it apparently has little ability left to strike Israel directly from Gaza after the pounding the terror group has taken over the last ten months from the Israel Defense Forces.
In the past, Hamas has largely failed in its attempts at such terror attacks overseas since the group was founded in 1987.
Burying the Remains of 6 Murdered Jewish Hostages
In Israel, mourners are burying the bodies of the six hostages rescued this week in Gaza.
Yoram Metzger from Kibbutz Nir Oz and Yagev Buchstab from Kibbutz Nirim were laid to rest in their communities that are still evacuated.
Forensic experts say evidence shows all six were shot and suggest their captors in Gaza murdered them.
At his funeral, Metzger's daughter-in-law Aila declared, "We apologize for not being able to bring you back in time, sorry for the difficult months you experienced alone in the tunnels. We have no idea what you went through there. You do not deserve to end your life this way."
Buchshtab's mother, Esther, asked, "In what world is a mother supposed to think that the nightmare will end when her son is returned for burial? In what world does a mother have to thank for the return of her son who was abandoned and murdered?"
Israel Strikes New Terror Targets in Gaza and Southern Lebanon
Meanwhile, Israel is keeping up its attacks on both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in the north as it fights to defeat the Iranian-backed terror groups.
The military launched extensive strikes against Hezbollah at different locations in southern Lebanon overnight.
In Gaza, the IDF says its troops killed some 50 terrorists in one day in Rafah this week. It also lost a 19-year-old sergeant, the 336th Israeli soldier to die during the Gaza war.
UN Exhibit Refuses to Acknowledge Jewish Victims of Oct. 7
Remarkably, at the United Nations in New York this week, an exhibit remembering victims of terror excluded any mention of Israelis and October 7th.
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon, who recently returned to his post replacing Gilad Erdan, asked, “How morally bankrupt can this organization be to ignore Israeli victims just 10 months after one of the largest and most horrific terror attacks in history to pretend they never existed?
Danon continued, "It has been 320 days since the slaughter, and what have we heard from the UN so far? Silence, silence. No condemnation of Hamas, no recognition of the atrocities committed."
Danon indicated the bloodshed can end as soon as Hamas is defeated or surrenders. "The future for Gaza will begin when Hamas will be eradicated. It's on the way. It's happening," he said. "Once Hamas will be eradicated, we can start to speak about reconstruction and building a future for the people of Gaza.”
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