The ceasefire with Hezbollah, which was supposed to have ended on January 26, has been extended to February 18, and it might be extended further, as Hezbollah still has not fulfilled the requirements of leaving Southern Lebanon and letting the Lebanese Army be in charge. As long as this requirement is not fulfilled, the IDF will remain in Southern Lebanon in order to keep Hezbollah away from the border.

On January 19, a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza also came into place. Even though all Israel is rejoicing in seeing some of our hostages returning back home again, the agreement is far from a good deal for Israel, as it came with a very heavy price to pay. For every hostage coming home alive, 30-50 Palestinian terrorists must be released from an Israeli prison, including some with blood on their hands being responsible for terror attacks in the past. There is of course a great concern that many of those will return to terror and plan new attacks after their release. Furthermore, according to the agreement much humanitarian aid must be brought into Gaza, which is unfortunately not given to the people of Gaza freely, but sold to them by Hamas to extensive prices. This way Hamas has gained much money, which they are using to rearm and to hire more terrorists as replacement for all those who were eliminated by the IDF during the war.

Since the beginning of the ceasefire on January 19, 16 Israeli hostages as well as five Thai nationals, who were working in agriculture in Israel, were released from captivity and brought back home again. Though we are rejoicing for every hostage returning home, we are also aware that not all of 76 hostages who are still held in Gaza will return back home alive, unfortunately. Within this current ceasefire agreement, we know that only nine of the 17 hostages who are scheduled to be released within the first coming weeks, are still alive. Furthermore, there is a great concern about the health condition of the remaining alive hostages. The three male hostages who were released last Saturday, 8/2/2025, had been severely starved and also tortured in their captivity, and they looked mostly like Holocaust survivors upon their release. Finally, the current deal is very unsecure with several violations by Hamas. Should it collapse, the IDF is ready to return to war in Gaza.