The story of the Exodus begins with the Israelites in the house of bondage, “strangers in a strange land,” in a land without freedom or dignity. The covenant that Abraham struck with God, “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed” (Genesis 26:4), was but a distant, nearly long-forgotten dream.

Along comes a Prince of Egypt, the adopted son of the living man-God, the morning and evening star: the Egyptian pharaoh. Undoubtedly, the Egyptian gods favor Moses—high status, lavish parties, burgeoning prospects—soon to be second in command behind his brother Ramses, the next leader of the Egyptian empire. Egypt is flourishing—the slave labor has built the limestone city of Pithom—and Moses gets to inherit, along with his brother, the ever-expanding dominion along the banks of the Mediterranean Sea and the River Nile.

In traditional storylines, we would find our main character, Moses, enriching his kingdom, winning great victories and living out the end of his days as a supportive adviser to the Pharaoh. The history books would remember the great Egyptian civilization, led by iconic brothers Moses and Ramses.

Alas, the book of Exodus and the story of Passover take a much different turn. Moses, after learning of his true identity—a Hebrew—in a moment of failing moral idealism, finds an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and kills him. Ashamed, scared and broken, he runs from his inheritance and betrays his loyalty to the Egyptian throne. Escaping to Midian, he marries Zipporah and has a family. Once again, we see another likely storyline: Moses spending the rest of his days as a loving father in the Midian paradise.

Moses meeting God at the burning bush is the first time that choice was presented. Kabbalah, the wisdom of ancient Jewish mysticism outlined in the Zohar, suggests that the burning bush hinted that even though the Israelites were suffering in Egypt, they were not all consumed by Pharaoh’s wrath and the fires of oppression; hope, hidden, still swirled in the flames. “God called to him from within the bush, 'Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am” (Exodus 3:4).

He’nai Ani—“Here I am”—words spoken in preparation to answer a higher calling, no matter the challenge; words confirming the trials, the incoming of adversity, of duty that personify an attempt to embody Divine moral ideals. Despite Moses’s hesitation, asking God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring out the Israelites from Egypt?” he took a leap of faith guided by the outstretched arm of God that would lead his people out of bondage.

We hear the words “Here I am” time and again throughout the grand story of the Bible and of the Jewish people.

As God beckoned Abraham for his final test, “He said to him, ‘Abraham,’ and he answered, He’nai Ani—‘Here I am.’ Take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the heights which I will point out to you” (Genesis 22:1).

Abraham, like Moses, took the leap of faith and trusted God. Asked to bestow death or to make life—to sacrifice a son or to lead a people into freedom—are equally adverse situations. But God had imparted promises, like promises we make to ourselves, and those great leaders decided to uphold them. In turn, they inspire their people and teach them to become leaders.

Isaiah, too, embraced the arduous task of leadership. “And I heard the voice of the Lord, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said, ‘Here I am; send me’” (Isaiah 6:8) as he sets out on his journey to follow God and guide the Jewish people.

Much like the Israelites did thousands of years ago, these days we feel as if we are walking through a desert, craving certainty in a time of uncertainty. From college campuses to battles raging in Gaza and Lebanon, we must remember that our birthright—traded for a bowl of lentils—never stipulated that the House of Jacob, the House of Israel, should expect to receive comfort, security or any lack of difficulty.

Rather, our birthright consists of shining a light unto the world through a higher moral responsibility. As Moses stood upon Mount Sinai, the Jewish people received and accepted the highest ethics of the world: the Ten Commandments. The root for Sinai is found in the Hebrew word sinah, uncovering that antisemitism or “Jewish hate” is intertwined with the Jewish fate.

Through challenges, we discover who we truly are, both as individuals and as a community. “Adversity,” claimed Abraham Lincoln, “introduces a man to himself.”

We are not victims. Just as the strongest steel is strengthened by the hottest fire, we become stronger through adversity. Our historical memory—receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai, the wise kingdoms of David and Solomon, the construction and destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem, the Diaspora, expulsion, pogroms, the Holocaust, the return and realization of the Zionist dream of being a free people in the land of our forefathers, the land of Israel, defending the covenant while surrounded by enemies and emerging resolute after a dark Saturday in October—it is through these struggles that we find our commonality and identity.

Like the story of Moses, the Jewish story could have gone in many different directions. Our journey cultivates our mental and physical faculties, building the foundations of leadership for both the present generation and those to come. Today, we must mirror our ancestors—strong, forthright, ever-present and ready to answer the call at any given moment. We all have the great prophets of history within us: Abraham, Moses and Isaiah, and in this declaration, we must be the ones with responsibility, courage and the hope of redemption to say, He’nai Ani.

Brian K. Williams, 61, of Pasadena, Calif., a former Los Angeles deputy mayor of public safety, pleaded guilty on Thursday to making a bomb threat, a felony that carries up to 10 years in federal prison.

“In an era of heated political rhetoric that has sometimes escalated into violence, we cannot allow public officials to make bomb threats,” stated Bill Essayli, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.

Williams admitted that while serving as deputy mayor on Oct. 3, 2024, he lied and claimed that he had received a call on his work phone from a man who threatened to bomb City Hall in Los Angeles, per the U.S. Justice Department.

“In fact, Williams received no such call and had made the bomb threat himself,” the department stated. “At no time did Williams intend to carry out the threat.”

The former city official also told the Los Angeles mayor and “several” senior officials in the mayor’s office that the man who made the threat said that “he was tired of city support of Israel, and had decided to place a bomb in City Hall. It might be in the rotunda.”

City police officers searched City Hall and didn’t find anything amiss. Williams acknowledged that he showed officers that he had received a blocked call on his phone, but he didn’t reveal that he had made the call to himself via Google Voice.

He also wrote to the mayor and city officials, saying, “at this time, there is no need for us to evacuate the building. I’m meeting with the threat management officers within the next 10 minutes.”

“In light of the Jewish holidays, we are taking this threat a little more seriously,” he added. “I will keep you posted.”

Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, stated that Williams “not only betrayed the residents of Los Angeles but responding officers, and the integrity of the office itself, by fabricating a bomb threat.” 

“Government officials are held to a heightened standard as we rely on them to safeguard the city,” Davis added.

Columbia University violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by “acting with deliberate indifference towards student-on-student harassment of Jewish students from Oct. 7, 2023, through the present,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services stated on Thursday.

Over the course of 19 months, Columbia “continually failed to protect Jewish students,” the U.S. agency said.

“The findings carefully document the hostile environment Jewish students at Columbia University have had to endure for over 19 months, disrupting their education, safety and well-being,” stated Anthony Archeval, acting director of the agency’s civil rights office.

“We encourage Columbia University to work with us to come to an agreement that reflects meaningful changes that will truly protect Jewish students,” Archeval stated.

The ways that the university acted with “deliberate indifference with regard to the hostile environment created by some of its students,” per the department, include failing to create effective processes for reporting Jew-hatred until summer 2024 and failing to follow its policies and procedures in response to complaints from Jewish students and about student misconduct against Jewish students.

Columbia also didn’t investigate or punish vandals, including in examples of “repeated drawing of swastikas and other universally recognized hate images” nor did it enforce “its time, place and manner restrictions for protests held on campus, such as inside and around its academic buildings, residence halls and libraries since Oct. 7, 2023,” per the U.S. agency.

The May 21 terror attack in Washington, D.C., where two Israeli embassy staffers planning to get married were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum is more than a national tragedy. It is a harbinger.

The murder of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, allegedly committed by Elias Rodriguez while shouting “Free, free Palestine,” is not only an act of terrorism; it is a symptom of a far more dangerous climate of normalized antisemitism in the United States.

You would have to be intentionally wearing blinders not to understand that this attack is not an isolated incident. It is the latest in a series of attacks that are growing in frequency, boldness and ideological clarity.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, in 2024 alone, 9,354 antisemitic incidents across the country were documented (those that were reported to officials), representing the highest number since the watchdog group began tracking such data in 1979. These numbers are not mere statistics. They are the lived experiences of American Jews who are now weighing whether it is safe to wear a kippah in public, to attend synagogue, to speak Hebrew in the street or dine at a kosher restaurant.

New York City, home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, has become a disturbing epicenter. In 2021, Joseph Borgen was beaten in broad daylight as his attackers yelled antisemitic slurs. This didn’t happen in some isolated area; it was near Times Square. The next year, Matt Greenman was assaulted while protesting against an anti-Israel protest. The attackers in both incidents have been sentenced to jail time, but the fact remains that these attacks happened in the open and in the presence of many people.

Other parts of the country are not immune. In June 2023, bucolic Toms River, N.J., saw a spate of hate crimes including arson, vandalism and threats, specifically targeting Orthodox Jewish residents. The goal of the perpetrator was to scare Jewish families, many of whom had moved from the heavily Orthodox population of nearby Lakewood, into leaving the area. If you still believe that America is immune to this kind of ideological violence that has plagued Jewish communities throughout history, wake up.

Washington, D.C., the capital of a country that takes pride in liberty and religious freedom, is now the latest site of bloodshed. The symbolism could not be more powerful: a Jewish museum, Israeli diplomats, a gunman invoking anti-Israel, anti-Zionist rhetoric. These elements are part of a broader narrative—that anti-Israel sentiment is increasingly serving as a pretext for antisemitic violence.

Let me be clear about one thing: Criticism of Israeli government policies is legitimate political discourse. Informed people can always hold their own against it. But when that criticism is converted into violence against Jews, whether they are American citizens or Israelis working in the capital, the red line has long been crossed.

This moment demands that we ask some hard questions.

What are American Jews supposed to think about this? What does it say about the health of American democracy when our Jewish institutions, day schools and synagogues need armed guards at the door, and people are cautioned to be discrete about their Jewishness?

Sadly, it portends a future of increasing insecurity unless decisive action is taken. The mainstreaming of antisemitism—whether from the far-right, radical left or conspiracy-fueled online sites—requires a unified societal response.

The Biden administration’s 2023 National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism was a necessary first step. But a strategy emphasizing security funding, education reform and cross-community engagement is only as strong as its implementation. Local law enforcement needs training in recognition of and response to hate crimes. Social-media companies must be held accountable for spreading hate. Political leaders must stop using Jewish lives as rhetorical fodder in ideological battles over the Middle East.

So, what’s next? Is this attack in Washington a clarion call for American Jewry to fortify their identity, to strengthen their communities and to ally with those who understand that antisemitism is not just a Jewish problem, but an American one?

This is not the America that I grew up in during the 1950s and 1960s. Certainly, silence and inaction cannot be the answer. The promise of America, the “Goldene Medina” for millions, is now being tested. And how we respond, collectively and unequivocally, will determine whether that promise holds true for American Jews in the years to come.

Defense Minister Israel Katz has instructed the Israel Defense Forces to discharge opposition politician Maj. Gen. (res.) Yair Golan, leader of The Democrats party, from reserve duty and ban him from military bases.

“In light of the conduct of Golan, who spread a blood libel against IDF soldiers with the reckless and false accusation that they ‘kill Palestinian babies as a hobby,’ I have decided to instruct the IDF not to summon him for reserve duty, to prohibit him from wearing the IDF uniform, and to bar him from entering IDF bases,” Ynet quoted Katz as saying on Friday.

The minister said Golan’s statement will be exploited by Israel’s enemies in their effort to prosecute IDF soldiers around the world, to detain them and “strip them of their freedom.”

Katz stressed that as the defense minister responsible for the safety of IDF soldiers, he cannot let Golan’s remark pass without consequence.

He added that he had decided to support legislation being advanced in the Knesset that would authorize the defense minister to revoke ranks, through a formal process, from reserve officers for statements similar in nature to Golan’s, according to Ynet.

In response to a request for comment, Golan said, “The last time I wore an IDF uniform was on October 7, when I went south to help save civilians following the terrible security failure of your government. I promise to continue doing everything I can for Israel and its security—and I’m sure you’ll continue flattering [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his toxic propaganda machine.”

The controversy was sparked by Golan's comments on Tuesday in an interview with Israel’s Kan radio.

“Israel is on the path to becoming a pariah among nations, like South Africa once was, if it doesn’t return to acting like a sane state,” he said. “A sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself of population expulsion.”

Golan accused the government of having “nothing whatsoever to do with Judaism. Kahanist types, lacking wisdom, lacking morality and lacking the ability to manage a state in times of emergency. This endangers our very existence. Therefore, it is time to replace this government as soon as possible so that this war can also come to an end.”

The former IDF deputy chief of staff said that his statement was aimed at the Israeli government—not IDF soldiers.

“IDF soldiers are heroes; the government ministers are corrupt. The IDF is moral, and the people are upright—the government is crooked,” he said in the wake of the public storm.

On Thursday, Israeli Cabinet members accused Golan of having incited the Washington, D.C., terrorist attack in which two Israeli embassy staffers were murdered.

“The last tweet of Yaron Lischinsky—may God avenge his blood—the embassy employee who was murdered in the Washington terror attack, was fighting against the U.N.’s blood libel about imminent danger of death by starvation for 14,000 babies in Gaza,” Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli said in a social media post.

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said: “Yair Golan’s blood libels are echoing among Nazis and Israel-haters around the world. We are now paying the price for them in the murderous attack in Washington, and history teaches us that we will pay more in the future.”

Blood libels are nothing new to the Jewish people, but the latest smear from a U.N. official claiming that 14,000 Gazan babies would die of starvation within 48 hours is an all-time low.

In this episode of “The Quad,” Israeli innovation envoy Fleur Hassan-Nahoum is joined by Syrian commentator Rawan Osman, JNS political analyst Meira K and JNS senior contributing editor Ruthie Blum to unpack the lies targeting Israel, the hypocrisy of Western democracies and the dangerous propaganda fueling global anti-Israel sentiment.

As the United Kingdom, France, Canada and others intensify their condemnations and even threaten sanctions, the panel lays bare how Israel is being vilified while its enemies are appeased. They examine the myth of starving babies in the Gaza Strip, Hamas’s aid theft, and how misinformation is being weaponized across Arab and Western media. The conversation also explores the rise of internal sabotage from Israel’s radical left and the damaging rhetoric of figures like Yair Golan, a reserve major general in the Israel Defense Forces.

Key topics include:

• Western governments’ growing appeasement of Islamist extremism
• The media's role in amplifying Hamas propaganda
• European electoral politics and the anti-Israel bandwagon
• The humanitarian aid debate and the hostage dilemma
• Trump’s Middle East policy and potential Syrian normalization
• Heroism, resilience and the future of Israeli sovereignty

See more at: @JNS_TV. And don’t forget to hit the subscribe button!

The reports on the intelligence failures that preceded the Swords of Iron war are expected to include a significant section on the Houthis. For nearly a decade, a new military threat to Israel had been building in Yemen. But it received little attention, as greater concern was placed on perceived more immediate threats such as Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Though the Houthis were occasionally mentioned in defense briefings and assessments, it was mostly in passing. Despite Israel's awareness of the Houthis' long-range capabilities, many were caught off guard when the group launched dozens of missiles and drones at Israel, and increased their rate of fire over time.

According to Israeli military data, out of the dozens of missiles fired at Israel, about 45 penetrated Israeli airspace, including more than 25 of since mid-March, when the Israel Defense Forces resumed combat in the Gaza Strip.

Throughout the prolonged fighting, Israeli air defense achieved phenomenal interception rates, over 90%. But as repeatedly proven during the war, no defense system is perfect. The few that get through can cause significant damage.

Two weeks ago, a Yemeni missile that eluded both the U.S. THAAD system and Israel's Arrow platform left a massive crater at Israel's main international airport. It was a significant psychological win for the Houthis and led dozens of foreign airlines to suspend flights to Israel indefinitely.

Contrary to Houthi claims, the missiles they fire at Israel are not hypersonic and lack special maneuvering abilities. But interception systems can still fail for a variety of reasons.

Iran's testbed

To understand how one might counter the Houthi threat, it is useful to revisit the group's roots and how it came to power.

The Houthis are an extremist Shi'ite movement from Yemen's northern Saada Province, formed in part due to neglect by the Yemeni government and growing Shi'ite zealotry inspired by the Iranian revolution. Yemen lacks advanced Western-style communication and IT infrastructure, and the Houthis live simply, relying on far-flung tribal networks.

The group promotes a vehemently anti-Western ideology, with the slogan: "Death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam."

Like Hamas and Hezbollah, the Houthis operate a civilian wing that claims to provide public services, alongside an armed faction that has grown into a de facto army.

They began rising up against the local government in 2004. The subsequent harsh crackdown only strengthened them. The Arab Spring in 2011 gave them further momentum, and by the end of 2014, they had seized Sanaa, Yemen's capital, and become the de facto ruling force in northern Yemen.

From 2015 to April 2022, the Houthis fought a coalition of Sunni Arab states led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which sought to restore Yemen's former Sunni government. Throughout the conflict, Iran provided the Houthis with substantial financial aid and massive quantities of ammunition, personal weapons, missiles and drones, effectively using Yemen as a testing ground for its military hardware.

During those seven years of war, the Houthis launched missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia, targeting both civilian and military infrastructure. Some of those missiles had ranges of up to 1,200 kilometers (750 miles).

‘More urgent threats'

Israel mostly observed the developments from afar. Some red flags did appear, especially after major attacks on Saudi and Emirati targets, such as a March 2021 strike on Aramco oil facilities. The very next day, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps made veiled threats linking the Houthi attack to a possible strike on Eilat. The message was clear: The Houthis could serve as an Iranian proxy against Israel.

After the fighting with the Arab states ended, the Houthis retained a substantial arsenal of drones, cruise missiles and long-range ballistic missiles. Some in Israel warned that once the Houthis finished their war against Saudi Arabia, they would turn their weapons on Israel.

In June 2022, then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the Houthis were amassing dozens of such weapons in violation of international arms embargoes. Less than a month before Oct. 7, 2023, the Houthis unveiled a long-range missile believed by most analysts to be intended for Israel. Still, gathering intelligence on the Houthis remained a low priority, overshadowed by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Some believe that, like Hamas and Hezbollah, the Houthis can only be defeated with "boots on the ground," an option Israel is unlikely to consider.

Local anti-Houthi forces in Yemen cannot succeed without broad external backing.

Another approach under consideration is to strike Iran, which funds and arms the Houthis. But that may not stop the rocket fire on Israel, as the Houthis are not directly subordinate to the Iranian regime.

The bottom line is that no one in Israel is optimistic the Houthi missile threat can be stopped by military force alone. The frequent air raid sirens sending millions of Israelis into bomb shelters may continue as long as the Houthis choose to keep firing missiles.

Originally published by Israel Hayom.

On May 22, the Hugo Lowy Special Collections Reading Room at the National Library of Israel (NLI) in Jerusalem hosted an extraordinary tribute—a moving blend of memory, mystery and manuscripts—in a special pre-Shavuot event.

Honoring the late Rabbi Abraham Hamra, the legendary chief rabbi of Syrian Jewry until his emigration in the 1990s, the NLI unveiled several of the remarkable 12 Damascus Crowns or Ketarim—delicate, handwritten Bibles steeped in centuries of reverence and secrecy.

The event highlighted both the spiritual and historical significance of these ancient texts and the daring, behind-the-scenes efforts that brought them and their community to safety.

Chief Rabbi Hamra, born in Damascus in 1943, was more than a spiritual leader; he was a lifeline. A cantor, educator and the last chief rabbi of Syria, he worked quietly yet relentlessly to protect Syrian Jews during some of their most perilous years.

Members of Hamra's extended family from Israel and the United States gathered to pay tribute to him on the fourth anniversary (yahrzeit) of his passing.

Rabbi Benjamin Hamra honored his father’s memory by opening the program with a traditional prayer, asking the audience to rise in remembrance. "From generation to generation, we stand united. Am Yisrael Chai!" he declared.

With rare access to Syrian government officials and a calm authority that inspired trust, Rabbi Hamra became a quiet conduit of hope. In the 1990s, he played a pivotal role in the covert rescue of Jewish artifacts, including these sacred codices, with the assistance of Canadian Jewish heroine Judy Feld-Carr and the Mossad.

Although forbidden from immigrating to Israel directly, Rabbi Hamra and thousands of Syrian Jews eventually reached freedom, first traveling to the United States, with some then making their way to Israel. Hamra and his family settled in Holon, where he continued to lead and serve the Syrian Jewish community until his passing in May 2021.

Efraim Halevy, a former Mossad director with decades of experience in secret operations, was interviewed during the event by Israeli journalist Dikla Aharon Shafran.

Though the details remain classified, Halevy hinted at the high stakes and complexity of those operations and suggested they might be needed in the future.

The only detail he would reveal: “I first met Rabbi Hamra in New York.” He did, however, elaborate on how Mossad helped Hamra when he made aliyah, because government agencies did not respond, by assisting the family to settle in Israel. 

The Damascus Crowns or Codices (Ketarim) are among the most carefully preserved Hebrew Bibles, requiring exacting conditions for their continued preservation.

While they were not actually written in Damascus, they were safeguarded there for centuries in synagogues such as the Hushbasha Al’anabi, where they were believed to offer divine protection. The manuscripts vary in origin. Some were penned in Tiberias; others in medieval Spain, Italy, or Ashkenazic lands. Each found sanctuary in Damascus.

Now safeguarded in Jerusalem, these manuscripts are more than historical artifacts, but spiritual survivors. Fragile yet enduring parchments feature vocalization and elaborate micrographic Masorah notes—once essential tools for scribes and now cherished hallmarks of Jewish textual tradition. One of the crowns is on display in the NLI's permanent exhibition gallery.

One of the oldest and most complete Pentateuchs, it is believed to have been written more than 1,000 years ago, a silent witness to centuries of Jewish continuity.

As visitors moved reverently past the glass display cases, reading each codex’s journey and provenance, one could sense not only awe but deep gratitude for the scribes who created these masterpieces, the communities who protected them, and the quiet hero who helped carry them and his people to safety.

“These are not just books,” Dr. Haim Neria, curator of the Haim and Hanna Solomon Jewish Collection, told JNS. “Each Codex is a work of art, a vessel of devotion, and a testament to survival. We chose to unveil them now, before Shavuot, in memory of Rabbi Hamra and in time of the holiday of giving of the Torah.”

Doron Katz-Asher, an Israeli woman who was released in November 2023 from Gaza along with her two daughters, raised more than $600,000 in a single day after launching a fundraiser campaign to help her rebuild her life.

The 36-year-old mother announced the fundraiser on Wednesday in an Instagram post.

“Today, I’m putting shame aside. I refuse to let my captivity define me. I choose to heal and to rebuild. But now, at my most vulnerable point, I realize I can’t do this alone,” Katz-Asher wrote in a plea for financial help.

“This will give me a chance to rebuild, to breathe again, and to believe that there can be light even after the worst pain,” she said.

“I was there—in captivity, in the heart of hell. I was kidnapped along with my two little daughters. We were injured and held hostage for weeks, far from home and everything we knew. I didn’t know if we would survive,” Katz-Asher related.

“Eventually, I was freed from the darkness I will never forget. I returned to my family, but my family was no longer whole. My beloved mother and brave brother were murdered [on Oct. 7, 2023],” the post read.

The freed abductee moreover shared about the painful separation from her husband, and having to give birth to a third girl alone.

Katz-Asher said that asking for help is “not who I am. But if I don’t do this for myself and my daughters, I may lose the chance for real healing. So, I’m reaching out with all my heart: Please help. My daughters, including sweet little Yam, deserve a strong, present mother. I can’t do it alone, and I need your support to get there.”

By noon on Friday, the campaign raised more than 2.6 million shekels ($720,000), out of her target of 2.8 million shekels ($780,000).

On Oct. 7, 2023, 251 people were kidnapped from Israel’s western Negev in the wake of the mass-scale terrorist attack led by Hamas, killing 1,200 more civilians and security forces.

Asher-Katz was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz with her daughters, aged 4 and 6, while visiting her mother.

Her mother, Efrat Katz, and brother Ravid were murdered by Gazan terrorists.

Her mother’s partner, Gadi Moses, aged 80, was kidnapped as well and was released alive in the second ceasefire agreement after 482 days on Jan. 30.