Holocaust survivor says reliving nightmare with grandson’s Gaza captivity

Holocaust survivor says reliving nightmare with grandson’s Gaza captivity
People, including former Israeli observer soldiers, rally in support of hostages abducted during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, and calling for the release of all hostages, including Matan Angrest, from captivity in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Apr. 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Updated 23 April 2025
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Holocaust survivor says reliving nightmare with grandson’s Gaza captivity

Holocaust survivor says reliving nightmare with grandson’s Gaza captivity
  • “The government says the war must go on, that we have no choice — but that’s not true,” said Kuperstein
  • Kuperstein himself narrowly escaped death in 1941, when his mother fled the Nazi advance in the Soviet Union and hid him in Tashkent

HOLON, Israel: For Holocaust survivor Michael Kuperstein, the harrowing wait for news of his grandson — held hostage by Hamas in Gaza — feels like he is reliving a nightmare.
“It’s a second Holocaust,” said the 84-year-old, describing an anguish that has reopened old wounds he thought had long since healed.
Despite his frail health, the octogenarian is determined to take part on Thursday in the annual March of the Living at the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in southern Poland.
In his heart, he holds tightly to the hope of one day seeing his grandson, Bar Kuperstein, alive again.
“The government says the war must go on, that we have no choice — but that’s not true,” said Kuperstein, his anger clearly visible as talks for the release of hostages remain deadlocked.
During their attack on Israel, Hamas militants abducted 251 people and took them back to Gaza. Of those, 58 are still being held there, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Kuperstein himself narrowly escaped death in 1941, when his mother fled the Nazi advance in the Soviet Union and hid him in Tashkent — then part of the USSR, now Uzbekistan — just months after his birth.
In 1972, he immigrated to Israel with his wife Faina and their two children.
But tragedy has continued to shadow the family.
Their son, Tal Kuperstein, a volunteer paramedic, suffered severe injuries in an accident years ago while rushing to save a four-year-old girl.
The incident left him disabled, unable to speak or move.
At 17, Tal’s eldest son, Bar, moved in with his grandparents to make space at home for Tal’s live-in caregiver.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Bar also became a paramedic and once even saved his grandfather’s life after a heart attack, performing emergency aid and swiftly calling an ambulance.
Just two months later, at the age of 21, he was abducted from the Nova music festival near the Gaza border during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
The massacre at the festival left more than 370 people dead.
Bar was seen in a video taken shortly after his abduction — bound hand and foot, with a rope around his neck.
Since then the family received no updates until February, when freed hostages who had been held with Bar in Gaza tunnels confirmed he was still alive.
Witnesses at the festival told AFP that Bar had been treating the wounded when he was seized by militants.
Then on April 5, Hamas’s armed wing released a video showing Bar alongside another hostage — the first images of him alive.
“Bar looks extremely thin. He has his grandfather’s eyes. He’s the only one who inherited them,” said Faina Kuperstein, his grandmother.
“He looked so much like him when he was younger. But now, his eyes have lost their light. He looks terribly pale.
“I barely recognize his face anymore,” she said, choking back tears.
“He never left the house without kissing me goodbye. I miss him so much.”
All the hostages should have been released by now, said Michael Kuperstein.
“But we’re still waiting. Nothing changes except for more fallen soldiers. Why?” he added.
Bar turned 23 at the start of April.
Despite his speech disability, his father, Tal, longs to talk to him.
With immense effort, Tal recently managed to say a few words — a moment of pride that fills the family with hope he’ll one day be able to speak to his son again.
Faina visits Bar’s room every day. It remains neat and tidy.
At each meal, the family keeps a chair empty for him, with his photo placed on the table.
She yearns to tell him, “Your father is speaking now.”
“He’ll soon walk again. You dreamed of this moment — and look, it’s happening. You must stay strong so that you can return to us.”


UAE mediates deal for release of further 410 Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war

UAE mediates deal for release of further 410 Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war
Updated 10 sec ago
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UAE mediates deal for release of further 410 Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war

UAE mediates deal for release of further 410 Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war
  • It is the 15th in a series of UAE-mediated prisoner-swap agreements that have resulted in the release of 4,181 captives in total

LONDON: The UAE has mediated the 15th in a series of agreements between Russia and Ukraine for the release of prisoners of war, as part of its ongoing diplomatic efforts to help resolve the conflict.

Under the latest prisoner-swap deal, 205 Ukrainians and 205 Russians were freed on Tuesday, the Emirates News Agency reported. The Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs said a total of 4,181 Russian and Ukrainian captives have now been released as a result of its mediation efforts, the continuing success of which reflects the level of trust Kyiv and Moscow have in the UAE.

The UAE remains determined to find a peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022, and to help ease the humanitarian suffering it has caused, the ministry added.


Lebanon says one killed in Israeli strike on south

Lebanon says one killed in Israeli strike on south
Updated 37 min 46 sec ago
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Lebanon says one killed in Israeli strike on south

Lebanon says one killed in Israeli strike on south
  • The ministry said in a statement that the “Israeli enemy” strike on Kfar Rumman killed one person and wounded three others
  • Israel has continued to launch regular strikes in Lebanon despite the November 27 truce

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike Tuesday on a car in the country’s south killed one person, the latest attack despite a fragile ceasefire between Hezbollah militants and Israel.
The ministry said in a statement that the “Israeli enemy” strike on Kfar Rumman killed one person and wounded three others.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the car was hit with a “guided missile” on the road linking the town of Kfar Rumman with the nearby city of Nabatieh.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Israel has continued to launch regular strikes in Lebanon despite the November 27 truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of all-out war, with a heavy Israeli bombing campaign and ground incursion.
Under the deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south.
Israel was to withdraw all its forces from south Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five positions that it deems “strategic.”
A Lebanese security source told AFP that Hezbollah had withdrawn fighters from south of the Litani and dismantled most of its military infrastructure in that area.
Lebanon says it has respected its commitments and has called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its attacks and withdraw from the five border positions.


Huge dust storm sweeps into Iran, affecting millions

Huge dust storm sweeps into Iran, affecting millions
Updated 06 May 2025
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Huge dust storm sweeps into Iran, affecting millions

Huge dust storm sweeps into Iran, affecting millions
  • State television urged people to remain inside and wear face masks if they had to go out

TEHRAN: Iranian authorities ordered schools and offices closed in seven western provinces Tuesday as a dust storm swept in from neighboring Iraq, with around 13 million people told to stay indoors.

Khuzestan, Kermanshah, Ilam and Kurdistan provinces were all affected, and state television cited local officials as blaming the closures on high levels of accumulated dust.

Government and private offices also shut in several provinces including Kermanshah and Ilam, as well as Khuzestan in the southwest.

Zanjan in the northeast and Bushehr in the south were also hit.

Bushehr, nearly 1,100 km south of Tehran, was given an Air Quality Index of 108 on Tuesday, rated “poor for sensitive groups.”

That figure is more than four times higher than the concentration of air microparticles deemed acceptable by the World Health Organization.

Iran’s meteorological authorities said the conditions were caused by “the movement of a large mass of dust from Iraq toward western Iran.”

State television reported low visibility in some areas and urged people to remain inside and wear face masks if they had to go out.

Last month, a similar dust storm in Iraq grounded flights and sent thousands of people to hospital with breathing problems.

On Monday, Iran’s IRNA state news agency said more than 240 people in Khuzestan province had been treated for respiratory issues because of the dust.

A spokesperson for the emergency services also told Tasnim news agency on Tuesday that nine people had died as a result of storms in Iran over the past seven days, ending on Monday.

“Four of the deaths were caused by strong winds and falling objects, and five were caused by lightning strikes,” it added.


Tunisia puts more opposition figures on mass trial

Tunisia puts more opposition figures on mass trial
Updated 06 May 2025
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Tunisia puts more opposition figures on mass trial

Tunisia puts more opposition figures on mass trial
  • The 'conspiracy against state security II' involved 22 defendants, including 83-year-old Ennahdha party leader Rached Ghannouch
  • The majority of the defendants are being tried in absentia, having fled the country

TUNIS: A new trial of nearly two dozen Tunisian opposition figures accused of plotting against the state opened on Tuesday, weeks after a separate mass trial jailed nearly 40 defendants on similar charges.
The latest trial — known as the “conspiracy against state security II” — involved 22 defendants, including 83-year-old Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party leader Rached Ghannouchi, currently jailed in another case.
Youssef Chahed, a former prime minister, and Nadia Akacha, once the head of the presidential office, were also among the defendants, according to court documents.
The defendants were accused of terror-related charges, incitement to murder, and “plotting against state internal security,” among other charges, according to a court document.
The majority of the defendants are being tried in absentia, having fled the country, lawyer Samir Dilou said.
Ghannouchi was already sentenced in early February to 22 years in prison — also for plotting against state security in a different case.
He had been the speaker of parliament when President Kais Saied staged a sweeping power grab in 2021.
In this case, Ghannouchi as well as other Ennahdha officials stand accused of setting up a “secret security apparatus” in service of the party, which had dominated Tunisia’s post-revolution politics.
Tunisia had emerged as the Arab world’s only democracy following the ouster of longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, after it kicked off the Arab Spring uprisings.
Tuesday’s hearing was conducted remotely with only four defendants attending virtually, according to lawyers.
Last month’s similar trial had drawn criticism from the United Nations, which said it was “marred by violations of fair trial and due process rights.”
But Saied dismissed the “comments and statements by foreign parties” as “blatant interference in Tunisia’s internal affairs.”
In a statement on Monday, Tunisia’s main opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front (FSN), called for “an end to sham and unfair trials,” demanding “the release of all political prisoners.”


Oman announces US-Houthi ceasefire deal

A US F/A-18 Super Hornet attack fighter jet takes off from the US Navy’s Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier.
A US F/A-18 Super Hornet attack fighter jet takes off from the US Navy’s Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier.
Updated 06 May 2025
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Oman announces US-Houthi ceasefire deal

A US F/A-18 Super Hornet attack fighter jet takes off from the US Navy’s Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier.
  • “They said please don’t bomb us any more and we’re not going to attack your ships,” Trump said
  • There was no immediate response from the Houthis

WASHINGTON: The United States and Yemen’s Houthis have reached a ceasefire agreement, mediator Oman announced Tuesday, saying the deal would ensure “freedom of navigation” in the Red Sea where the militia has attacked shipping.
“Following recent discussions and contacts... with the aim of de-escalation, efforts have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides,” said Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi in a statement posted online, adding that “neither side will target the other... ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping” in the Red Sea.

Earlier on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said that the US will stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen after the Iran-aligned group agreed to stop interrupting important shipping lanes in the Middle East.
In an Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump announced the Houthis have said that they no longer want to fight but did not elaborate on the message.
“They said please don’t bomb us any more and we’re not going to attack your ships,” Trump said.
The Houthis have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea since Israel began its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza after the Palestinian militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The US president said Washington will take the Houthis’ word that they would not be blowing up ships any longer.
Tensions have been high since the Gaza war began, but have risen further since a Houthi missile landed near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, prompting Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Hodeidah port on Monday.
The Israeli military carried out an airstrike on Yemen’s main airport in Sanaa on Tuesday, its second attack in two days on the Houthis after a surge in tensions between the group and Israel.