Day: October 13, 2023

PETAH TIKVA, ISRAEL — It was 7 a.m. on Shabbat morning when Ifat Haiman’s sister-in-law called and woke them with urgent news: Israel was at war.

“What war, what is she talking about?,” Ifat recalled thinking. She and her husband Haim went back to bed.

An hour or so later, they turned on the news. They couldn’t comprehend what was happening before their eyes. A terror attack was unfolding at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, an annual dance party that attracted hundreds of young people from across the country. Their daughter, Inbar Haiman, was likely running for her life.

Ifat called her son Ido. She told him that his 28-year-old sister had attended the very party where a massive terror attack was now taking place. Ido forwarded his mother messages from Inbar, who was attempting to flee the chaos.

“We tried to tell her to be careful,” said Ifat, “to take care of herself.” 

Inbar Heiman, 28, holds a chalice of beer at a bar in Israel Courtesy of Eli Cohen

Inbar Haiman grew up in Petah Tikva, a diverse middle-class city just east of Tel Aviv. For the past three years, she has lived in Haifa, where she studies visual communication at the WIZO Academy of Design and Education. She shares an apartment with her boyfriend, Noam Alon.

“She has so many friends,” Ifrat, 53, tells me. “They love her so much. And that’s solely a tribute to her personality, her charisma, and her desire to give.” Before serving in the army, she spent her national service year teaching, in mixed Jewish-Arab schools in Israel’s south.

“She’s the most amazing girl that I’ve ever met,” Alon told Sky News on Thursday. “She’s everything for me and everything for her family.”

Nova, as the festival is known, is an all night psytrance rave in Re’im, a tiny secular kibbutz just three miles east of the Gaza border. Colorful sun shades cover the area in front of the stage, near a statue of the Buddha. Stretched tents dot the surrounding desert, flanked by an orchard. “You go to be happy,” as one friend of mine who has attended in past years put it, “with other people who are happy.”

Now, water bottles, shawls, sleeping bags and blankets litter the cracked earth. Half-finished bottles of booze stock a makeshift bar, and half-painted canvases lie among ransacked suitcases. Attendees danced into the night; the music was so loud that many people saw, not heard, the first rockets fall at dawn.

Shortly after the rockets, terrorists arrived. They came on motorcycles, pickup trucks, jeeps and cars. They arrived on foot and even by paraglider. They shot and lobbed grenades at the festival attendees. At least 260 people were killed, and several others have been kidnapped — including Inbar.

‘We failed on Saturday’

Members of the security forces continue to search for identification and personal effects at the Supernova Music Festival site, where hundreds were killed and dozens taken by Hamas militants near the border with Gaza. Oct. 12, 2023 in Kibbutz Re’im, Israel Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images

For hours, the army was nowhere to be found. In one firsthand account, an Israeli journalist writes that he coordinated the rescue of his own son without any official help.

“We failed on Saturday. This is our responsibility,” IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari told NBC News on Friday.

You can see for miles from Reim on a clear day, which is a problem when you’re trying to run for your life. Many come to the festival especially for the isolation, and many packed into shared rides with strangers in order to reach it — and in order to flee.

Drone footage taken after the event reveals a long line of charred cars clustered near the exit, the only road out of the festival. Some of the vehicles’ windows had been shattered, and many doors were flung open, as if their passengers sought a quick escape. Many people managed to flee, only to be killed by Hamas while trying to drive back to safety. There is video of terrorists shooting people who had been playing dead. Others were killed in or on the run to neighboring kibbutzim. And several were captured and paraded through the streets of Gaza.

‘We know that Inbar is alive’

Left to right: Inbar Haiman’s aunt Hana Cohen, parents Ifat and Haim Haiman, and uncle Eli Cohen sit in the Haiman’s family apartment in Petah Tikva, Israel. On Oct. 7, Inbar was captured by Hamas terrorists at the Nova music festival near kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel Photo by Laura Ben-David

The Cohen family shared an audio file with me on Thursday, containing the testimony of two Re’im survivors who had last seen their daughter. It was recorded by Alon’s mother.

At around 8:40 a.m., the two men said, they hid with a group of about 30 other people underneath the festival stage. Someone said the terrorists were “closing in,” and that they should run. They inadvertently headed west toward Gaza — dazed amid the chaos and perhaps in an altered state of consciousness. This is a psychedelic music festival, after all.

The two men didn’t know Inbar. But the three of them ran — and hid, and ran — for hours.

“She was strong,” one recalled. “She was able to keep up with our pace.”

The trio thought they had made it to the shrubs, and then the orchards, of kibbutz Be’eri — about six miles northeast, not west, of Re’im. But instead, they had run west, closer to Gaza. The Israeli men recall that two armed terrorists were “chasing the whole insane time.” One had a long metal rod, “20 meters long.” At some point, they were able to grab Inbar, and pin a knife to her throat.

Two additional terrorists emerged from the orchards on a motorcycle. The Israeli men said they tried to fight the terrorists off, but that the kidnappers were able to leave with Inbar on a motorcycle. They said Inbar was crying.

Two other terrorists, one young and one old, chased after the Israeli men. “Look, we’re unarmed!” one of the Israelis yelled over his shoulder. He kept looking back. One of the terrorists was “rather chubby” and couldn’t keep pace — the Israeli men were able to escape.

Inbar’s parents confirmed their daughter’s identity from a video publicized by Hamas, now held by the IDF as evidence. Though Inbar does not appear clearly in it, her parents recognized their daughter by her distinctive patterned tights.

“We know from witnesses that Inbar is alive, and we hold Hamas responsible for returning her alive,” Inbar’s 53-year-old mother told me on Thursday. ”She is being held there against every convention that exists,” her father added.

“Communication folks from the army speak with us,” Haim, 54, told me. “Now things are starting to move, which hadn’t happened in the first days. It was very frustrating.”

But there are few signs of progress. “We’re on our own as a family,” he adds. “We do have friends who are helping us,” some of whom have opened their own makeshift “situation rooms,” working together to find more information on and spread awareness of Inbar’s plight.

“We’re constantly busy, not thinking, working to free Inbar,” said Haim.

“Like robots,” Idit adds.

“Is she in Gaza? Is she eating? Is somebody caring for her if she was wounded? We don’t know. It’s really hard to feel that,” said Haim. “The lack of information, that we don’t know.”

But the family remains optimistic, and insists that others must hold onto hope.

“It’s not encouraging that she’s imprisoned. But at least we know that she’s alive.”

The Forward’s Chana Pollack assisted with Hebrew translations.

The post ‘At least we know that she’s alive’: The family of a young woman captured by Hamas insists on hope appeared first on The Forward.

This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.

Three observation balloons that are used by the Israel Defense Forces to monitor the Gaza border broke down in the past few weeks but were not replaced with alternative measures.

The IDF initially said this was the result of technical failure, but it is now examining the possibility that Hamas felled the balloons as part of its preparations for its lethal attack on Israel.

Observation balloons are a significant tool in the early warning systems protecting the Gaza border, and carry advanced technological tools and cameras. The three balloons operated in the northern, central and southern sections of the border.

Some of the balloons fell inside Israeli territory, but the IDF failed to fix them last week. It did not beef up its early warning systems with alternative measures, or with additional forces. IDF spotters and commanders in the border units asked for the observation balloons to be returned to action, but a technician who was dispatched last week was unable to fix them, and the repair was postponed until this week.

It is not the first time that observation balloons along the Gaza border have stopped working. In June 2022, a balloon fell inside Gaza near the Erez Crossing. The IDF was unable to retrieve the technological means installed on the observation balloon.

An IDF spokesperson said: “The State of Israel and the IDF are at war with a murderous terrorist organization and we are unable to investigate the reporter’s questions in depth at this time. The IDF is responsible for the security of the state and its citizens – and in the events of Saturday morning we failed in this mission. At the end of the campaign, we will clarify the details in depth and conduct a thorough investigation into this matter.”

The post IDF balloons monitoring Israel-Gaza border broke down weeks before Hamas attack appeared first on The Forward.

How do I eulogize the one person in this world who gave me life and whose last words in hospice were “Marilyn, I love you. Are you eating enough?”

My mother was the sole survivor of her family, all of whom were murdered in the Holocaust. I always marveled at how she and my father built the life they did without support from family and with very little money. Their work ethic and strong family values propelled them forward and in time, they achieved the American dream.

As a young child, before I knew of the Holocaust, I sensed that some terrible things had happened to my parents. I always wanted to do things that would bring joy into my mother’s life, whether it meant getting good grades or complimenting her on something she did.

As I got older, I began to realize that her pain was something I could not really reach, nor did she expect me to. But it was something I always tried to lessen for her in whatever way I could.

Although my mother’s real name was Sara, her friends and family always called her Steffi. She explained to me that Hitler, by decree, had eliminated the surnames of Jewish men and women who did not have typical Jewish first names and substituted them with the names ‘Sara’ for the women and ‘Israel’ for the men.

So, it was offensive to her and her friends to continue calling her Sara, and she was called Steffi instead.

This name stayed with her for the rest of her life, although her legal name remained Sara.

My parents became orphans as a result of the war. They met and fell in love in a displaced persons camp after they were liberated by the United States Army. My father was set up on a date with my mother’s best friend at the camp but when he came to meet her, he saw my mother and fell in love with her instead.

They promised to marry each other in the United States.

They both arrived on the same boat, the USS Marine Flasher, my father three months before my mother. I still have the original Western Union telegrams he sent her, telling her how much he was looking forward to her arrival. He was waiting for her on the Hudson Piers when she arrived on July 15, 1946.

Although my parents tried to keep a positive attitude while in concentration camp, I am sure there were times they thought they would never live to see another day. And for that, I am very grateful they lived to see two granddaughters, Stephanie and Ilana, and their husbands, Matthew and Zachary.

Stephanie and Ilana have beautiful memories of staying over at their grandparents’ house in Queens, celebrating holidays and going on trips with them all over New York City — museums, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and so many other places.

Grandma Steffi and Papa Max were married 73 years. Their marriage was an epic love story. My father was so in love with my mother that the last time he saw her, the day before his stroke — which was also the day of his 99th birthday —  he still called her “my beautiful bride.”

So, what would my mother want you to know about her?

She would want you to know that she loved her family with all her heart, especially her two granddaughters, Stephanie and Ilana.

She would want you to know that she never stopped thinking of and loving the family taken away from her by the brutal Nazis when she was a young girl  — her mother, Miriam; her father, Raphael; her younger sister, Itka; both sets of grandparents, and many aunts, uncles and cousins.

She would want you to know that despite six years of slave labor and starvation, she never lost hope that one day she would meet the love of her life and start a family.

She would want you to know — and was proud of the fact — that she and other women assigned to work in a German munitions factory, sabotaged as many bullets as they could, rendering them virtually ineffective, and possibly saving the lives of many American and allied soldiers.

She would want you to know she loved the color blue, she loved dogs — especially her beloved German Shepherd, Cookie.

She loved watching the news and figure skating on TV, and she loved using her gifted hands to knit countless sweaters and scarves for the entire family.

There is something I would like you to know about my mother. She had a wonderful sense of humor, despite all the hardships she experienced. It always gave me great pleasure to hear from people she interacted with, including hospital and nursing home staff, that she made them laugh.

She was always giving advice but she let everyone do as they pleased in the end.

My favorite personal piece of advice she would repeatedly give me was this:

Whenever I am given the choice between staying home and doing housework or going out and having a good time, never choose housework!

It was an honor and privilege to be her doctor for the past five years. Just as she always took care of me, the ability to be her physician-of-record in the nursing home, gave me the biggest opportunity to now take care of her. I only wish I could lay my stethoscope on her chest or assist her with a meal just one more time.

I am grateful beyond words to my immediate family for their unfailing support. This was especially helpful during the times being a daughter got in the way of being a doctor, making even straightforward medical decisions difficult.

Mom breathed her last breath at Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson, New York.

By sheer coincidence, she was placed in the same room as my father had been in two years prior. So, she spent her last days and died in the same bed as her husband.

If there was any doubt that there could have been any other outcome, this alone comforts and assures me that all the events leading up to her final days were meant to be.

I will miss you, Mom.

The post For my mother — who survived the Holocaust, married the love of her life and kept her sense of humor appeared first on The Forward.

Экоактивисты облили краской картину всемирно известного художника Пабло Пикассо в Музее современного искусства – Культурном центре Белена в столице Португалии, сообщила газета Di rio de Not cias.

Tens of thousands of civilians have died as a result of Putin’s wars in Ukraine and Chechnya.

Israel’s call for more than 1 million civilians in northern Gaza to move within 24 hours is going to be a “tall order,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Friday.

“That is a lot of people to move in a very short period of time,” Kirby said in an interview on MSNBC. “We understand what they’re trying to do and why they’re trying to do this — to try to isolate the civilian population from Hamas, which is their real target.”

Jordanian riot police on Friday forcibly dispersed hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters trying to reach a border zone with the Israeli-occupied West Bank as thousands held anti-Israel demonstrations across the country, witnesses said.

Jordan is worried that a regional widening of violence arising from the war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza could have repercussions for itself given that a large percentage of its population are Palestinians.

Jordan lost the West Bank including East Jerusalem to Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and the Palestinian territory was seeing a rise in violence between Palestinians and the Israeli military and settlers even before the Gaza conflict erupted.

Witnesses said police fired tear gas to halt about 500 demonstrators who had reached a security checkpoint outside the capital Amman on a highway leading to a main border crossing.

The interior ministry had issued a ban against holding anti-Israel marches in the sensitive border area, where it said the Jordan river valley was closed to protesters but that licensed protests elsewhere would be allowed.

The outpouring of Arab anger against Israel over its siege and bombardment of Gaza retaliating for a devastating cross-border Hamas attack also fuelled a large rally on Friday in downtown Amman and in many of the kingdom’s main cities.

Several thousand protesters near downtown Amman chanted slogans in support of Hamas and demanded the government close the Israeli embassy and scrap the 1994 peace treaty with Israel.

In the cities of Irbid and Zarqa, thousands took to the streets carrying Hamas flags, vowing revenge against Israel and calling on the militant movement, which rules Gaza, to escalate strikes.

The peace treaty remains widely unpopular among Jordanians who see normalisation with Israel as a sellout of the rights of their Palestinian brethren seeking to establish a state in Israeli-occupied territories.

The Israeli embassy, where protesters gather daily, has long been a flashpoint of anti-Israel protests at times of turmoil in the Palestinian territories.

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A teacher was killed in a knife attack in a school in the northern France city of Arras on Friday and the investigation was handed to the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office.

The regional Pas-de-Calais authority said the suspected assailant, who also wounded a second teacher and a school security guard in the attack, was arrested.

The suspect was a Russian-born Chechen and former student of the Lycee Gambetta high school where the attack happened, a police source said. He was on a watchlist of people known as a potential security risk in connection to radical Islamism, the police source added.

Police could not confirm local media reports that he shouted “Allahu Akbar”. BFM TV reported he was about 20 years old.

“We’re all in a state of shock,” said philosophy teacher Martin Doussaut, who was chased down by the attacker but managed to escape unharmed after locking himself down in a room.

BFM TV also said the person killed was a French language teacher, while a sports teacher was stabbed and injured.

Pupils were confined to their classrooms, it added.

President Emmanuel Macron was heading to Arras, his office said. In a televised address to the nation on Thursday, Macron urged the French to remain united and refrain from bringing the Israel-Hamas conflict home.

Nothing so far pointed to a link with events in Israel and the Gaza Strip, a second police source told Reuters.

The suspected assailant’s brother was also arrested.

La Voix du Nord newspaper said that pupils in all schools in Arras – a town in the desindustrialised, ethnically diverse northern corner of France – were being held in their classrooms for their own safety.

France has been targeted by series of Islamist attacks over the years, the worst being a simultaneous assault by gunmen and suicide bombers on entertainment venues and cafes in Paris in November 2015.

In 2020, a teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded by a Chechen teenager who wanted to avenge his use of cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad during a class on freedom of expression.

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FBI and CISA published a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) to disseminate IOCs, TTPs, and detection methods associated with AvosLocker ransomware.

The joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) provides known IOCs, TTPs, and detection methods associated with the AvosLocker ransomware variant employed in recent attacks.

The joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) is part of an ongoing #StopRansomware effort aimed at sharing technical details associated with various ransomware operations.

The AvosLocker ransomware-as-a-service emerged in the threat landscape in September 2021, since January the group expanded its targets by implementing support for encrypting Linux systems, specifically VMware ESXi servers.

AvosLocker operators already advertised in the past a Linux variant, dubbed AvosLinux, of their malware claiming it was able to support Linux and ESXi servers.

This joint CSA updates the advisory published by the US Government on March 17, 2022.

AvosLocker affiliates use legitimate software and open-source remote system administration tools to compromise the victims’ networks.

Some of the open-source tools used by the affiliates include:

• Remote system administration tools—Splashtop Streamer, Tactical RMM, PuTTy, AnyDesk, PDQ Deploy, and Atera Agent—as backdoor access vectors [T1133].
• Scripts to execute legitimate native Windows tools [T1047], such as PsExec and Nltest.
• Open-source networking tunneling tools [T1572] Ligolo and Chisel.
• Cobalt Strike and Sliver for command and control (C2).
• Lazagne and Mimikatz for harvesting credentials [T1555].
• FileZilla and Rclone for data exfiltration.
• Notepad++, RDP Scanner, and 7zip.

AvosLocker affiliates were observed using custom PowerShell [T1059.001] and batch (.bat) scripts [T1059.003] for lateral movement, privilege escalation, and disabling antivirus software. Threat actors were also observed uploading and use custom webshells to enable network access [T1505.003].

The joint cybersecurity advisory also includes YARA rule for network defenders to detect the activity of the malware.

CISA and the FBI recommend to secure remote access tools by:

• Implementing application controls;
• Strictly limit the use of RDP and other remote desktop services;
• Disable command-line and scripting activities and permissions;
• Restrict the use of PowerShell;
• Update Windows PowerShell or PowerShell Core;
• Configure the Windows Registry to require User Account Control (UAC) approval for any PsExec operations.

The advisory also recommends organizations exercise, test, and validate their security program against the threat behaviors mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK for Enterprise framework in this advisory.

FBI and CISA recommend testing existing security controls inventory to assess how they perform against the ATT&CK techniques described in this advisory.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, AvosLocker ransomware)

The post FBI and CISA published a new advisory on AvosLocker ransomware appeared first on Security Affairs.