Israel at war: What happend on day 523?

The IDF identified and arrested several suspects who crossed into Israeli terrority from the Jordanian border and engaged in a gunfire exchange with the troops, the military announced late on Thursday night.

Israel's military added that before their arrest, the suspects approached the IDF troops in a manner that posed a threat.

The troops responded to the threat with gunfire, the IDF said.

The IDF also noted that there were individuals hit from the gunfire exchange. However, there were no casualties among Israeli forces. 

Jerusalem District Police officers have arrested a Palestinian man for breaking into and accessing the medical file of a recently released female hostage, the police announced on Thursday afternoon.

The suspect, a 40-year-old resident of Ramallah, is an employee of a medical facility in east Jerusalem. According to the police, he accessed the hostage’s medical records out of "curiosity."

The Israeli air force struck several terrorists who were attempting to plant explosive devices near IDF troops in Gaza on Thursday, the military announced.

Reports on Thursday alleged that Adam Boehler, Trump's envoy for American hostages and missing persons, has been removed from involvement in the negotiations for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

But the question is: Was he even involved in them to begin with?

Let's start with the negotiations for the hostages' release that are taking place in Cairo, Egypt. These talks are led by one person alone: Steve Witkoff, Trump's envoy to the Middle East.

Following US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff's visit to Qatar, a new outline for an updated hostage-ceasefire proposal is on the table, a source familiar with the details told the Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

As part of the proposed outline, Hamas would release around five living hostages as well as the bodies of dead hostages. In exchange, Israel would allow a 50-day ceasefire, starting from March 1.

The IDF will demolish the Nablus home of terrorist Ja'far Muna, who carried out a bombing attack in Tel Aviv on August 18, 2024, the military announced on Thursday.

Most of the world now knows that Iran gave critical and multifaceted support to Hamas, which enabled the October 7 invasion of Israel, but few know the story of how these two strange bedfellows came together unexpectedly decades before and what their alliance means for the future.

Defense Minister Israel Katz has approved the entry of over a hundred Druze sheikhs from Syria into Israel to visit the Nabi Shu'ayb shrine near Tiberias, Walla learned on Thursday.

The Lebanese army on Thursday received a soldier who had been detained by Israel on Sunday, the army said in a post on X/Twitter.

Israel had said on Tuesday it would release five Lebanese held by its military in a "gesture to the Lebanese president."

The army said the soldier was returned through the International Committee of the Red Cross and was transferred to a hospital for treatment.

While the army did not identify the person released, it said on Sunday it had lost contact with one of its soldiers after he was shot while wearing civilian clothes by Israeli forces near the border in southern Lebanon and then was taken into Israel.

Lebanon received on Tuesday four detainees who had been detained by Israeli forces during the last war, the Lebanese presidency said.

بتاريخ ٢٠٢٥/٣/١٣، تسلم الجيش عبر الصليب الأحمر الدولي العسكري الذي اختطفه العدو الإسرائيلي بتاريخ ٢٠٢٥/٣/٩، ونُقل إلى إحدى المستشفيات للمعالجة.#الجيش_اللبناني #LebaneseArmy pic.twitter.com/76onUuhvXi

— الجيش اللبناني (@LebarmyOfficial) March 13, 2025

Israel-Lebanon truce

Israel and Lebanon struck a truce deal brokered by Washington in November that ended more than a year of conflict between Israel's military and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that was playing out in parallel with the Gaza war.

The four were not identified as soldiers.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

Hamas abused released hostage Hisham al-Sayed while in Gaza captivity, knowing he was mentally ill, his father, Sha'aban, said on Thursday. 

“Hamas abused Hisham, even though they knew he was mentally ill," he said. 

In 2015, Al-Sayed wandered into southern Gaza and was abducted by Hamas. He was released by Hamas in February as part of the hostage-ceasefire deal.

His father said a decade in captivity has left deep scars in his son, with his mental state remaining fragile.

“Since he came back, he doesn’t even know where he is,” his father said. “He doesn’t communicate, he doesn’t speak. He simply doesn’t talk about it. He only talks about things that happened ten years ago and mentions names of people from a decade ago.”

Hisham al-Sayed reunites with his family after returning from a near decade in Gaza captivity, February 22, 2025 (credit: MAAYAN TOAF/GPO)

Al-Sayed is currently hospitalized in a psychiatric facility. “It’s very difficult for me, I have to admit. I just want my child back the way he was before he was taken captive. I’m not giving up and believe it can still happen. They are adjusting his medication doses up and down, hoping it will help him.”

His father believed that Hisham’s condition deteriorated due to the circumstances of his captivity in Gaza. “From what I understand, I assume he was kept in isolation and hardly spoken to at all for ten years. That’s why his condition is so severe. Physically, he is fine, but mentally—the gap is enormous.” 

“We are doing everything we can to help him, but it’s a process. I just want my son to return to being who he was.”

Al-Sayed, 36, who reportedly suffers from schizophrenia, crossed the border into Gaza on April 21, 2015. 

Initially classified as missing, his family had no information on his whereabouts. It was only in July of that year, about three months after his disappearance, that Hamas confirmed he was in their custody.

Crossing the border

His father recounted that his son had a habit of walking for hours, sometimes ending up in dangerous areas. Usually, those who encountered him quickly realized he was ill and helped him return home.

Once, he even made it to Jordan, and the family was able to locate and bring him back after three days. 

His father said in 2016, “In the five years before he entered Gaza, he crossed the border five times: twice he reached Jordan, once he went to Egypt, and twice he entered Gaza."

“In Gaza, they realized who they were dealing with and returned him to the Erez Crossing. That was in 2010 and 2013. After interrogating him, they understood that he suffered from a mental illness, schizophrenia, and then released him.”