A newly released medical assessment from the Health Team of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum paints a devastating picture of the health crisis facing the 24 Israeli hostages who remain in Hamas captivity in Gaza, a year and a half after their abduction. The findings indicate a steep decline in both physical well-being and mental stability.
Compiled using accounts from recently freed hostages, publicly released Hamas footage, and input from family members, the report details severe hunger, lack of medical treatment for injuries, and ongoing psychological torment suffered by the captives.

GRANT TOWNSHIP, Mich.

There a stink rising over the United Kingdom’s second-largest city. Garbage has piled up for a month in Birmingham during a dispute between the city and its trash collectors. It is a sore sight for eyes and offensive to the nose. Mountains of garbage are said to be visible from space and people have complained of seeing rats as big as cats in the refuse. “You can see the juice flowing out of the bags onto the road. It stinks,” Naeem Yousef said. “It’s bringing down the areas. People are saying, ‘Look at these areas, how dirty these people are.’” Talks on Monday failed to reach an agreement, but they were scheduled to resume Tuesday as the strike enters its fifth week.

Israel officially acknowledged that it had received a proposal from Egypt aimed at brokering a compromise for a potential hostage release agreement. However, an Israeli official clarified that the country would not accept the terms, citing Egypt’s condition that Israel agree to a permanent ceasefire and withdraw all IDF troops from the Gaza Strip.
According to a report in the Saudi outlet Asharq Al-Awsat, an Egyptian official said the proposal had been shown to Hamas leaders. It outlined a plan under which roughly eight Israeli hostages would be freed in return for a ceasefire that would span anywhere from 40 to 70 days.

In a poignant tribute to one of the youngest victims of the October 7 Hamas-led massacre, the Academy of the Hebrew Language has officially renamed a species of butterfly in honor of four-year-old Ariel Bibas. The butterfly, previously known in Hebrew as Kitmit Yerushalayim (Orange Yerushalayim), will now be called Kitmit Ariel (Orange Ariel), commemorating the child who, along with his mother and baby brother, was murdered after being taken hostage. The Academy announced the name change on Friday, noting that the new designation carries deep symbolic meaning. The name “Ariel” is one of the 70 poetic names for Yerushalayim, thus maintaining a connection to the original name while creating a lasting memorial.

In a high-stakes Oval Office meeting on Monday that spanned diplomacy, defense, and economic reform, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump announced a sweeping commitment to deepen U.S.-Israel ties—starting with trade and extending into negotiations with Iran, the Gaza war, and the broader Middle East. Netanyahu began with a bold pledge: Israel will eliminate all trade barriers with the United States, a move he said would also “eliminate the trade deficit.” “Israel can serve as a model for other countries that strive to do the same,” Netanyahu said, expressing support for Trump’s broader tariff policies.

Bochurim, young couples, and families across the U.S. are scrambling to find flights back to Eretz Yisroel following Pesach—and many are finding themselves stuck. With El Al flights virtually booked solid on all the prime travel dates, travelers are facing mounting difficulty in securing affordable and direct options to return to yeshiva and their homes. YWN has received multiple reports of travelers resorting to creative—and often complicated—workarounds, including multi-stop itineraries through various European and Middle Eastern countries. Alarmingly, some of these itineraries pass through destinations known to be less than friendly to Jewish passengers, posing potential concerns for safety and comfort, particularly for visibly frum travelers.