Hamas Video Clips Show Six Slain Israeli Hostages (Ynet News)
    New photos and video clips filmed by Hamas of the six Israeli hostages murdered in a Rafah tunnel last year were released on Thursday by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
    Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Carmel Gat are seen lighting Hanukkah candles and interacting with one another.

    See also What Hamas Can Never Extinguish - Sarah Tuttle-Singer (Times of Israel)
    Six hostages - later murdered in a tunnel - standing close together underground, lighting a menorah.
    No windows. No sky. No sense of time. Just faces we now know, hands shielding a small flame from whatever draft reaches even hell.
    Because we are Jews, there is this stubborn impulse to mark time. To insist on ritual even when the world has collapsed into one long agonizing night. This is what Hamas could not extinguish.
    Judaism is not only belief; it is practice under pressure. It is community created in impossible places.
    A circle formed in a tunnel. A flame lit not because it will save you, but because it reminds you who you are.
    The menorah is a symbol of defiance, of people refusing to dissolve into captives, refusing to become only bodies waiting to be traded or killed.
    Even knowing the danger, they chose togetherness over despair. They chose memory. They chose each other.
    In a hellscape meant to erase them, they made a small Jewish room, and let light enter.

    See also The Six Hostages Are All of Us - Omer Lachmanovitch (Israel Hayom)
    There is a visceral, deeply Jewish reaction when watching the videos of the six murdered hostages from the Rafah tunnel.
    Even through the cruel staging by the Hamas terrorists, we notice their gestures of kindness toward one another, the generosity and concern that flowed among them.
    Watching these videos, one cannot shake the sense that every Israeli was held captive in the tunnel.
    In that tiny room deep beneath Gaza, all of Israel was represented.
    What took place there was a deeply Jewish sense of shared fate: mutual responsibility, compassion, an instinctive acceptance of the other in their greatest hour of need.

Former Iranian President: Israel Can Easily Enter Our Airspace (Middle East Eye-UK)
    Former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned that Iran's airspace has become dangerously exposed following the recent 12-day war with Israel.
    "The skies over Iran have become completely safe for the enemy. We no longer have real deterrence. Our neighboring countries - Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan - all have airspace controlled by the United States and Israel."

Iran's Real Battle: A Deep Crisis in Public Trust - JCFA Iran-Syria Desk (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
    The Iranian press in recent days paints a picture of a country caught between growing external pressure, nuclear uncertainty, and an internal divide that is widening daily.
    There is a sharpening awareness in Tehran that the real threat to the regime is the collapse of public confidence.
    A persistent economic crisis affects everyday life: the rising prices of fuel, rice, dairy, paper, and building materials are accompanied by an expanding gap between official rhetoric and reality.
    Headlines speak of a "separation between the people and officials" and a "sense of injustice" that gnaws at "social capital." 
    See also A Tehran Woman on Iran's Growing Revolt - Azita (Ynet News)

Local Spies with Lethal Gear: How Israel Reinvented Covert Action - Daniel Michaels (Wall Street Journal)
    When Israel launched its 12-day attack on Iran in June, a network of secret agents on the ground proved critical in crippling Tehran's defenses.
    Some of them weren't professional spies or commandos. They were ordinary locals empowered by Israeli high-tech gadgetry.
    Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, had spent years identifying and cultivating inside Iran a silent force, including victims of Iranian repression, ethnic minorities sidelined by regime policies, and people from Afghanistan and other neighboring countries who can live and work openly in Iran.
    At secret camps outside Iran, Israel trained its recruits to operate sophisticated, automated and remotely-controlled equipment.
    Then Mossad instructed them to go about their daily routines across Iran, as part of what it calls a "drawer operation" - one that sits quietly in reserve until the drawer needs to be opened.
    That day was June 13, when the strategically located agents used rockets, drones and other weapons smuggled into Iran to destroy nearby air-defense systems and missile launchers.
    The transformation of clandestine action has been made possible by increasingly compact electronics, batteries and explosives.
    Spy agencies can equip field agents with capabilities unimaginable a few years ago.
    With the advent of powerful remote or autonomous devices, the people deploying them can be amateurs with minimal training. Being local, they can remain hidden or escape before an attack.

Israel's Growing Partnerships across Central Asia - Alex Winston (Jerusalem Post)
    Israel is looking to expand its diplomatic ties and trade with five Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
    Although they are Muslim-majority nations, the "Stans" have discovered the benefits of working with the Jewish state.
    "Israel established diplomatic relations with all five countries in Central Asia in the early '90s as the Soviet Union fell apart," said Yuval Fuchs, deputy director-general for Eurasia and the Western Balkans at the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
    Israel has quietly become a partner that many of these countries want to work with.
    While even post-independence, the Central Asian nations were dependent upon Russia. But after 35 years of independence, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, many Central Asian states have distanced themselves from Russia politically and economically, seeking to diversify their diplomatic friendships.
    Israel is seen as technologically advanced with much innovation, politically stable, and militarily competent, but geographically distant and non-threatening.

Hyperbaric Pressure Chambers Help Wounded IDF Soldiers Heal - Sarit Rosenblum (Ynet News)
    Every day, dozens of wounded soldiers enter the hyperbaric pressure chambers at the Israeli Navy's Institute for Maritime Medicine in Haifa.
    The institute was originally intended to treat diving injuries. Since Oct. 7, it has become a critical rehabilitation hub for injured soldiers with severe burns, amputations, blast injuries, and hearing damage.
    At the height of the war, up to 50 soldiers a day were treated at the institute.
    At the heart of the institute, located adjacent to Rambam hospital, are advanced hyperbaric chambers that can treat up to 12 patients simultaneously.
    They are used for decompression sickness, embolisms, blast injuries, gas poisoning, and complex tissue damage.
    Patients breathe oxygen at pressures higher than atmospheric levels, increasing oxygen delivery to tissues and supporting processes such as wound healing, blood vessel growth, and bone regeneration.
    One of the most significant breakthroughs during the war has been the treatment of hearing damage. Over the past two years, thousands of soldiers with hearing damage have been treated there.
    A recent study found that 88% of those who began treatment within seven days showed significant improvement. 60% of soldiers who were initially deemed unfit for combat returned to active service.