VFI News Hostages Were Humiliated and Severely Abused Testimonies Reveal; Hamas Still Hasn’t Given A Hostage List

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Dear readers, as we are getting ready to light the third Hanukkah candle, we would like to wish you all a safe, joyful, and peaceful Feast of Lights. We pray that the Lord blesses you, keeps you, and makes His Glorious Face shine upon you at all times. May you always remain in His light and persevere to the end while overcoming the surrounding darkness.

The Health Ministry has completed a draft report on the abuse that Israeli hostages suffered while held in the Gaza Strip, cataloging the physical and mental suffering they experienced and the lasting effects it has had on them, some of whom are children.

Israel plans to submit the report to the United Nations. Compiled from the testimonies of hostages who were released in a November 2023 deal and those who were later rescued by Israeli forces, it details how they were burned and beaten, starved and humiliated, as well as how the abuse impacted their mental and physical health, even long after they were freed.

Two Israeli media outlets reported details from the brief on Thursday, December 26. It marks the first formal report by the Health Ministry about the hostages’ experiences.

Compiled by the health and welfare ministries, the final report is to be presented to the United Nations committee that deals with cases of torture.

Health Minister Uriel Buso said in a statement it is “a significant report that depicts the atrocities that hostages suffered and reveals to the world the cruelty of the enemies we are dealing with.” (TOI / VFI News)

“Our Heavenly Father, we pray fervently for all the former and current hostages, for the restoration of their physical and mental health in Yeshua’s name. We ask that You comfort them, show them Your Love, and bring the release of all the remaining hostages. Please, get them out of Hamas’ lairs as soon as possible according to Your Will.”

The articles included in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Vision for Israel. We try to provide accurate reporting on news pertinent to Israel, the Middle East, the diaspora, and Jewish issues around the world—and we hope that you find it both informative and useful for intercessory prayer.

The Gaza cease-fire negotiating team, which includes senior officials from the Mossad, Shin Bet, and IDF, “will return to Israel from Qatar after a significant week of talks,” the Prime Minister's Office reported on Tuesday evening, December 24. 

In Israel, officials emphasized that the return of the team after 10 days in Qatar does not indicate a breakdown in talks. Following a prolonged negotiation process, the team now needs to conduct consultations. 

Israeli officials are placing blame on Hamas in Gaza, particularly on the leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Sinwar, for creating difficulties and refusing to provide a full list of hostages, allegedly in an attempt to extract further concessions. 

“There’s no collapse of the talks, but we’ve reached a point where decisions need to be made in Israel whether to continue with a deal without the lists,” said an Israeli official familiar with the details. “Hamas has consistently lied. Even last time, Hamas claimed it had no women among the hostages, which was false.” 

“The question now is whether to play into their hands. We need a solid foundation to proceed with the deal, to determine whether we are releasing prisoners in exchange for bodies or live hostages. The terms are different, and we won’t start an agreement based on lies.” (YNet / VFI News)

“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” - John 8:44

Israeli airstrikes targeted a host of Houthi infrastructure near the airports of Hodeidah and the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, sources confirmed to an Israeli news outlet on Thursday, December 26.  

The strikes targeted Sana’a International Airport’s main runway, control tower, and aircraft, some of which subsequently caught fire. The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said he was at the airport during the strikes. He was in Yemen to negotiate the release of UN staff who had been detained there.      

Three people were killed and 16 injured at the airport in Sana’a following the Israeli attack, according to a Houthi-owned TV channel. 

The IDF confirmed that they had targeted Houthi military infrastructure, the Sana’a International Airport, the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations, and Al-Hudaydah, Salif, and Ras Kanatib ports on the western coast. The targets were used to smuggle weapons from the Iranian regime into Yemen.  

Seven strikes were reported in Sana’a and three in Hodeidah, and dozens of aircraft were spotted in the air. The strikes were carried out as Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi was delivering a 'victory' speech nearby, local sources said. (JPost/VFI News)

“Dear God, we pray that the Houthi terrorist organization will stop posing a threat to our nation and that airstrikes will not be necessary and innocent lives will not be lost in the collateral damage. If the reports are indeed true, we pray for the families of the people who lost their lives during the airstrikes and we ask that You comfort them and help them bear the pain. We also pray for the wounded, to recover quickly. We thank You for everything You are doing in the Middle East, and for Your immense Love and protection. In Yeshua’s name we pray, amen.”

Violence and coercion have resulted in up to a 90% decline in the Christian population in areas under Hamas or PA control, according to a new study by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA).  

In 1922, Christians constituted 11% of the population. Today, in 2024, they are just 1%. The JCFA research, led by Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch and Attorney Tirza Shorr, discovered mass emigration of Christians, particularly from historically significant cities like Bethlehem.  

The Christian population in Gaza shrank from 5,000 before Hamas took over the area to only 1,000 in October 2023, the report found. JCFA explained that religious and legal discrimination, desecration of holy sites, social exclusion, and harassment, including of Christian clergy, by Muslim Palestinians and the Islam-dominated Palestinian Authority were behind the decline in the Christian population.  

The city of Bethlehem is used as an illustration of what JCFA calls “Christian demographic erasure.” In 1950, Bethlehem and the surrounding villages were 86% Christian.  However, this has dwindled since 1994, when the PA took control of the city. The last census in 2017 showed Bethlehem was 10% Christian families.  

Bethlehem also serves as an example of Christians undergoing forced conversion to Islam, a phenomenon that Gaza’s Bishop Alexios, warned of in 2016. “Christians who converted to Islam did so under threats and violence,” Alexios said at the time.  (JPost/VFI News)

“Dear Lord, we come together in prayer to lift our Christian brothers and sisters who have been under Hamas and PA rule. We pray in Yeshua’s name that You strengthen them and give them unwavering faith until the end. We pray that You give them courage and boldness to profess Yeshua’s name and that You protect them from all the enemies so that not even a hair from their head shall be lost. We are grateful for everyone who perseveres amid tribulations for Your name and we pray their troubles will be over soon.”

In this compelling video, Barry talks about the origins of Hanukkah. Is Hanukkah mentioned in the Bible? Watch to learn more.

Christians have been highly skeptical of promises to protect all religious minorities made by the Islamist rebel leaders who overthrew dictator Bashar Assad.  

The protests were sparked by a social media video of hooded men setting fire to a Christmas tree in the Christian town of Suqaylabiyah, located near Hama in central Syria. The Islamist group that led the drive to overthrow dictator Bashar Assad earlier this month, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), told Suquaylabiyah residents the fighters who burned the Christmas tree were “not Syrians.”   

HTS representatives said the vandals would be caught and punished, and the Christmas tree would be restored. British media cited reports that the HTS emissary held up a cross to demonstrate respect for the residents of the Christian town.  

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported the vandals were indeed foreigners, members of a minor Islamist rebel group called Ansar al-Tawhid. The group was formed in 2018 from the remnants of an ISIS-aligned group called Jund al-Aqsa that fought with HTS, itself the rebranded Syrian franchise of the Islamic State’s rivals in al-Qaeda.   

HTS ultimately defeated and absorbed Ansar al-Tawhid into its ranks. During its brief years as an independent entity, the ideology of Ansar al-Tawhid leaned toward al-Qaeda, and the group was often accused of being an al-Qaeda proxy. (BB/VFI News)  

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” - Galatians 5:1

In 2023, the American Jewish community, which accounts for less than 3% of the nation’s total population, was on the receiving end of two-thirds of all religion-based hate crimes in the country (1,832 out of 2,699), the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed in September.  

This month, the USA Today news network contributed to the seething cesspool of anti-Jewish bigotry by peddling classic antisemitic tropes. The nearly 3,000-word article – “‘No one ever asks a Palestinian’: Ohio residents reacting with grief and anger over carnage in the Middle East,” in Ohio’s Canton Repository – appeared December 1 in more than a dozen newspapers across the country.  

Beyond grief and anger, interviewees unleashed unabashed antisemitism, with one invoking the age-old anti-Jewish myth straight out of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion alleging a Jewish cabal controlling the media, economy, government, and other societal institutions.  

“If you have Google behind you, if you have Microsoft behind you, if you have Intel behind you, if you have Lockheed-Martin and Boeing behind you, yeah, of course you’re going to be able to prop yourself up for 76 years,” reporter Charita M. Goshay quoted Hasan Mueheisen without providing further comment. 

The Palestinian-American interviewee was alluding to alleged Jewish – or perhaps Israeli – control of business and tech giants to sustain the Jewish state. If Jews really wielded that much power, then presumably they could do something about the problem of being the insanely disproportionate target of US hate crimes. (JPost /VFI News) 

“Lord, we pray that the truth will shine forth and that the lies about Israel and the Jewish people will be silenced. We ask that you cause the media in the US to turn away from reporting false news and vilifying the Jewish state and people. We thank You for being our shield and stronghold and in You find comfort and peace.”

The Iranian rial fell to an all-time low on Wednesday, December 18, trading at 777,000 rials to the US dollar, a sharp decline from 703,000 in November after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.

Central Bank Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin announced measures to stabilize the currency, including injecting $220 million into the market. Similar interventions have been used in the past with limited success.

Despite Iran’s vast oil and gas reserves, years of underinvestment, sanctions, and infrastructure mismanagement have left the economy ill-prepared for crises, contributing to rolling blackouts, gas shortages, and the current energy crisis, exacerbated by harsh winter weather.

The rial’s stronger value in 2015 during Iran’s nuclear deal, when it traded at 32,000 to the dollar, contrasts sharply with today’s conditions.

The 2018 US withdrawal from the accord under Trump reignited sanctions and economic instability. (JPost/ VFI News)

“Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.” - Psalm 37:1-3

A rare, 4th-century AD ceramic oil lamp recently discovered during Israeli Antiquities Authorities excavations near the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem will be displayed to the public for the first time during the current Hanukkah holiday, the IAA said Thursday, December 26.  

The unusual lamp is decorated with imagery related to the services in the Jewish Second Temple in Jerusalem, including a Temple menorah (which had seven branches, unlike the nine-branched menorahs used during Hanukkah). 

Also depicted on the small lamp are an incense shovel, which Temple priests used when making offerings, and a lulav, the date palm frond used during the Sukkot holiday. The lamp was unearthed a few months ago and was discovered intact, a rarity for objects of the type, an IAA official told Israeli media. 

After examination, the “outstanding” artifact was determined to be 1,700 years old, dating from the late Roman period, making the find “particularly surprising, since we have very little evidence of the existence of a Jewish settlement in and around Jerusalem from this period,” said Michael Chernin, excavation director.  

The Second Temple was destroyed in 70 AD, and the Roman emperor Hadrian suppressed the Bar Kochba Revolt in 135 AD, after which Jews were expelled from Jerusalem, and then renamed Aelia Capitolina. (TOI / VFI News) 

The suggestions, opinions, and scripture references made by VFI News writers and editors are based on the best information received.

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