LIVE DEVELOPMENTS — updated Saturday, December 20, 2025    

‘Operation Hawkeye Strike’: US Hits Over 70 ISIS Terror Targets In Syria

TRUSTED ANALYSIS

Day 806 — Saturday, December 20

JNS

Day 805 — Friday, December 19

It takes Wikipedia nearly 7,500 words into its main entry on China to mention the word “genocide,” tucked in a section on “sociopolitical issues and human rights,” and even then, the crowdsourced online encyclopedia hedges.

“Since 2017, the Chinese government has been engaged in a harsh crackdown in Xinjiang, with around one million Uyghurs and other ethnic and religion minorities being detained in internment camps aimed at changing the political thinking of detainees, their identities and their religious beliefs, in what some described as a genocide or crimes against humanity,” Wikipedia states.

As of Dec. 11, Wikipedia states as a matter of fact, just some 425 words into its main page on Israel, that “following the Oct. 7 attacks in 2023, Israel began committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”

Prior to Dec. 11, the Wikipedia entry had stated that there were “accusations that it has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.”

The crowdsourced encyclopedia is reportedly one of the main sources upon which artificial intelligence “feeds.”

Deborah Lipstadt, former U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism and professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University, recently told JNS that she had “pretty much lost faith in Wikipedia as anything resembling a neutral source” and that it was “pretty close to, but not yet identical with, the BBC.”

JNS asked her about the new change to the main “Israel” page.

Lipstadt said her views on Wikipedia may have changed “a little” since she last discussed it with JNS. “I said Wikipedia was almost as bad as the BBC,” she said. “Maybe I’d leave out the ‘almost’ this time.”

Rafael Medoff, founding director of the David Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, told JNS that Wikipedia “sometimes includes blatantly false information, such as the lie that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.”

“By publishing such malicious Holocaust-inversion, Wikipedia is earning for itself a reputation as an untrustworthy source,” he said.

There are other “falsehoods and distortions” on the main Wikipedia entry for Israel, according to Medoff.

Those include “whitewashing the Palestinian Arab atrocities against Jews in 1920 and 1921 as simply ‘the Palestine riots,’ and omitting any mention of the Palestinian Arab pogroms against Jews in Hebron and elsewhere in 1929,” he told JNS.

“Nor is there any mention of the substantial illegal Arab immigration into British Mandatory Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s,” he said. “This pattern of bias suggests that some of the authors of the entry had a partisan agenda.”

‘Tirade’

Archives of discussions on the “talk” pages for the Wikipedia main entries on Israel and China suggest that editors on the site, who are often anonymous and unpaid volunteers, approached the two countries very differently.

On the China page, editors rejected the view that the article should state high up that the country is committing genocide against the Uyghurs. One editor said that such an insertion would be “recentism” and “contentious.” Another editor said that “describing a country usually doesn’t include the crimes it’s committed. The lead is for the straight basics about the country, not going on a tirade about its controversial policies.”

Wikipedia also renamed its page that used to be on “Uyghur genocide” to “Persecution of Uyghurs in China” in February 2024, after editors said there weren’t enough sources describing it as a genocide. Wikipedia lists both that page on the Uyghurs and a page on the “Gaza genocide” in its “list of genocides.”

When it came to stating high up in the Israel page that the Jewish state was guilty of “genocide,” Wikipedia editors appeared to be evenly split on whether to make that statement, so a “closer” was brought in to render a verdict.

The person, who is supposed to be uninvolved in the matter, decided that the yeas rather than the nays had it, so it was added. That ruling is being challenged, as of publication time.

JNS

Day 805 — Friday, December 19

The International Criminal Court, or ICC, is in the fight of its life. Its top prosecutor, Karim Khan, faces serious allegations of criminal misconduct, including claims of repeated sexual assault. Khan has strongly rejected the accusations, instead blaming Israel for his problems.

The ICC is scrambling for an off-ramp, one that cuts Khan loose while salvaging its long-criticized posture toward Israel and the United States. The question is: Will it work?

Khan is accused of sexually assaulting a junior ICC employee for more than a year, including on ICC premises, and then engaging in reprisals against the whistleblower and those who supported the alleged victim. A second alleged victim from a previous professional relationship with Khan has also come forward.

The ICC apparatus has slow-walked its response for more than 18 months, with Khan on paid leave since May. On Dec. 12, 2025, officials announced that the fact-finding stage of a confidential U.N. investigation was complete and that a legal analysis phase by unnamed “judicial experts” would take another 30 days.

Both Khan and his alleged ICC victim support the strategy of analogizing democratic Israel to genocidal Hamas and using the ICC to pursue criminal charges against Israeli officials. Hence, Khan’s reported suggestion that his accuser — who is also Muslim — was influenced by Israeli intelligence has drawn skepticism. Reports of a Qatar-backed covert operation aimed at uncovering an Israeli link apparently found nothing.

The problem for the ICC is not only that its top international criminal lawyer is now engulfed in damaging criminal allegations, but that the institution itself has been undeniably stained.

On May 2, 2024, Khan learned that word of the allegations had circulated within the ICC. At the time, he and his staff were preparing for a trip to Israel at the end of May, following an extraordinary offer of cooperation from Jerusalem. The plan was to obtain key information for his ongoing investigation. Instead, on May 20, Khan abruptly canceled the trip and very publicly announced on CNN that he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Americans, Israelis and even ICC staff speculated about the timing, especially after the allegations became public in fall 2024.  Many observers argue that Khan has sought to cast his response to the scandal in political terms, hoping framing  Israel would circle the wagons around him.  And for a time, it appeared to work.

The alleged victim told investigators a primary reason  she did not speak up sooner. She is quoted as saying: “I held on for as long as I could because I didn’t want to f— up the Palestinian arrest warrants.” It is a sickening testament to how political pressures can erode even basic human dignity.

On Nov. 17, 2025, Israel asked the ICC Appeals Chamber to disqualify Khan and void the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant. By contrast, on Dec. 10, 2025, the ICC’s own Office of Public Counsel for Victims — widely seen as preparing to distance the Court from Khan — argued that his removal should have no effect on the Israeli warrants.

The quandary the ICC faces is this: Before the Appeals Chamber sits a prosecutor running an investigation against the state of Israel that culminated in arrest warrants based on material compiled under his supervision. And, at the same time, he has been using Israel as a foil to defend himself against personal allegations.

Will anyone of sane mind believe that the explosive accusations against Khan and his public responses did not taint the investigation, the arrest requests or the Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision that relied upon Khan to confirm the warrants in November 2024? Not likely.

The Appeals Chamber’s problem goes deeper. The ICC was created in 1998 by a sharply contested vote that saw the United States, Israel and several others vote against it. The central issue: The ICC would upend the fundamental building block of international law — consent. Under the Rome Statute, the Court can assert criminal jurisdiction over nationals of states that never signed the treaty and consented to be bound.

Israel and the United States knew exactly where that would lead. And it did — Americans in Afghanistan (for starters), and Israelis from day one.

As a result, on a bipartisan basis, the United States has implemented measures to shield Americans (and allies, including Israelis) from ICC overreach. The truth is, those protections have proved inadequate, as political targeting and fallout have grown under the ICC’s expansive criminalization enterprise.

The Trump administration promised to do more. On Feb. 6, 2025, the president signed an executive order authorizing sanctions against individuals involved in ICC efforts to target Americans and allies. To date, the order has been applied to only 12 people.

New U.S. demands reportedly call for amending the Rome Statute to limit ICC authority. It’s common knowledge that the process — and the international politics — make such an amendment a nonstarter.

So the ball is only partially in the Appeals Chamber’s court. Of course, the allegations against Khan and the ICC’s halting and opaque oversight mechanisms have battered the institution’s credibility. But the real question remains: What is the United States prepared to do about it?

Fox News

Day 804 — Thursday, December 18

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Western countries immediately take action to battle antisemitism and ensure the safety of Jews around the globe.

“I demand that Western governments do what is necessary to fight antisemitism and provide the required safety and security for Jewish communities worldwide,” he said, according to the prime minister’s office, which issued the English translation of the remarks that Netanyahu delivered in Hebrew in a video posted on Tuesday.

“They would be well-advised to heed our warnings. I demand action from them — now,” he added.

Netanyahu’s demand came in the wake of the heinous Sunday terror attack in Australia.

That attack was “deliberately targeted at the Jewish community on the first day of Hanukkah,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has noted.

During remarks Tuesday at a White House Hanukkah reception, President Donald Trump claimed that Congress “is becoming antisemitic.”

“You have AOC plus three. You have those people,” he said, referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and the progressive “Squad.”

“Ilhan Omar: She hates Jewish people,” he added, referring to the Minnesota congresswoman.

Fox News 

Day 803 — Wednesday, December 17

US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned that American churches are “asleep” as antisemitism spreads in an address last Thursday to the Israel Allies Foundation in Washington, D.C., the Jewish News Syndicate reported.

“We find ourselves facing echoes of the same hatred which fueled the Holocaust,” Cruz said. “The world’s response to the October 7 attacks made clear that the hatred of the Jewish people did not end in 1945. The hatred that fueled the Holocaust is still alive today and is not confined to geography.”

“The poison is yielding results, especially among young people. The poison pouring into their ears is twisting their view of the world,” he added. “The Church is asleep, fueled by a heresy called replacement theology. If we lose this battle, we lose our nation.”

Cruz, a consistent supporter of Israel, has criticized fellow Republicans for failing to criticize podcaster Tucker Carlson. Addressing the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention in Washington last month, Cruz said that Carlson has “spread a poison that is profoundly dangerous.”

“My colleagues, almost to a person, think what is happening is horrible, but a great many of them are frightened because he has one hell of a big megaphone,” he stated, adding that he had “seen more antisemitism on the right” this year “than I have in my entire life.”

Cruz criticized Carlson’s softball interview with far-right extremist Nick Fuentes. “If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool, and that their mission is to combat and defeat global Jewry, and you say nothing, then you are [a] coward and you are complicit in that evil.”

“Fuentes and Tucker and the rest of that ilk have a right to say what they are saying. Every one of us has an obligation to stand up and say it is wrong. It’s easy right now to denounce Fuentes. Are you willing to say Tucker’s name?” Cruz asked.

Arutz Sheva

Day 803 — Wednesday, December 17

Senior Israeli intelligence officials say warnings delivered to Australia ahead of a deadly attack at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach were part of a much broader alert: an accelerating global rise in attempts to execute terror attacks across Western countries, increasingly aimed not only at Jewish targets, but also at Christians and large gatherings especially during religious holidays.

According to a senior Israeli intelligence official, Israel’s foreign intelligence service has been tracking a sharp increase in attempted attacks worldwide, many of them low-tech, quickly mobilized and designed to exploit open societies and crowded public events.

“We stopped a few ticking bombs, the target was on people’s heads,” the senior official told Fox News Digital.

Israeli intelligence officials say Australia is not an outlier. From their perspective, recent months have revealed a pattern of attempted and disrupted plots across Europe, North America and beyond, pointing to a sustained global threat rather than sporadic violence.

“If you knew how many terror attacks we exposed and prevented,” the senior official said, “your jaw would drop.”

Israeli intelligence officials say the rise in attempted attacks is driven in part by how extremist and state-linked networks build terror infrastructure globally while deliberately masking their origins.

Officials say the networks frequently rely on non-Iranian nationals to carry out different roles along the operational chain, including logistics, intelligence gathering, financing and execution, in order to blur any connection to Tehran. In some cases, operatives are recruited from migrant or refugee backgrounds, while in others criminal elements or hired proxies are used to carry out acts of violence.

To avoid detection, officials say the networks rely on encrypted communications and clandestine in-person meetings, sometimes conducted outside the country where an attack is planned. In other cases, instructions are delivered remotely through secure channels that bypass standard telecommunications monitoring.

According to Israeli assessments, extremist networks are increasingly overlapping: jihadist ideology, lone-actor violence and state-linked activity now exist in the same ecosystem, fueled by online radicalization and geopolitical instability. Many plots, officials say, are unsophisticated, making them harder to detect early while still capable of causing mass casualties.

Fox News

Day 803 — Wednesday, December 17

The attack, in which gunmen thought to be a father and son shot and killed 15 people at a Chanukah celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney on Sunday, is widely described as a terror attack. But editors on Wikipedia are debating whether that phrase is appropriate or it should just be called a “shooting.”

The site’s current page about the incident refers to a “shooting” in the headline and, in the body of the article, to a “terrorist mass shooting.”

Editors on the site, who are volunteer and often unnamed, are also reportedly trying to keep the names of the shooters out of the article. Law enforcement have said that the shooters were inspired by ISIS.

On the “talk” section of the page, editors on Wikipedia are debating whether a sufficient number of sources has called the attack “terror” and if the suspected gunmen, one of whom is dead, are public figures who ought to be named.

Deborah Lipstadt, former U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism and professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University, stated that if editors are actually trying to characterize the attack merely as a “shooting” on Wikipedia, then that’s “hardly a surprise.

“Just Wikipedia being true to itself when it concerns Israel, Jews, antisemitism,” she stated.

“Chanukah should be celebrated with oil lighting, not gaslighting,” added David May, research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

JNS

Day 802 — Tuesday, December 16

Newly released video footage appears to show a bystander attempting to disarm one of the alleged attackers moments before the deadly shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, during a Hanukkah event.

Dashcam footage from the scene shows a man wearing a purple top struggling with Sajid Akram near a vehicle close to a footbridge shortly before gunfire erupted. The footage captures the two men grappling on the ground, with the bystander appearing to reach for and gain control of the firearm during the struggle.

As the confrontation continues, the man in the purple top is seen rising to his feet while holding the weapon and backing away, gesturing toward Akram in what appears to be an effort to keep him at a distance. A woman is visible standing nearby during the incident.

The man and woman were later identified as Boris and Sofia Gurman, a Russian-Jewish couple living in Bondi. They were the first two victims of the attack.

Naveed Akram, 24, and his father, Sajid Akram, 50, opened fire on people gathered for the Chanukah by the Sea event at Bondi at approximately 6:40 p.m. on Sunday, marking the first night of Hanukkah.

The dashcam footage also appears to show what resembles an Islamic State flag displayed across the front windscreen of a silver car at the scene.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the following day that the attackers were motivated by Islamic State ideology.

The incident left at least 15 people dead, with more than 40 others injured.

Arutz Sheva

Day 801 — Monday, December 15

Top Israeli officials accused the leftist government in Australia of failing to meaningfully confront antisemitism before the deadly terror attack against the Sydney Jewish community in Bondi on Sunday.

Multiple gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing at least 11 and injuring 29, including a Rabbi, a police officer, and an Israeli citizen, in what is being described as a terrorist attack. One of the suspected attackers was reportedly killed during the incident, while the other is said to remain in custody.

One of the shooters has been identified by ABC News as Naveed Akram. Only described as having lived in the multicultural Bonnyrigg suburb of Sydney, police have yet to confirm his nationality, ethnicity, or motive. Police have also not revealed at the time of this reporting whether Akram was the shooter who was killed or if he was taken into custody.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon implied that one of the gunmen was known to police before the attack, but said that “the person that we know has very, very little knowledge to the police… So he’s not someone that we would have automatically been looking at, at this time.”

Following the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  said per the Times of Israel, that he had sent a letter to Australian PM Anthony Albanese in August, accusing the leftist leader of pouring fuel “on this antisemitic fire” by recognising Palestine as a state.

“It encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets. Antisemitism is a cancer. It spreads when leaders stay silent; it retreats when leaders act. I call upon you to replace weakness with action, appeasement with resolve,” Netanyahu said that he wrote.

Similar criticism of Albanese’s statement was also made by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who said: “The disgraceful statement from Australia PM never mentioned it was jihadist attack on Jews on first day of Hanukkah. Hope he’s ashamed of antisemitic statements past year.”

Breitbart

Day 801 — Monday, December 15

The father of a slain IDF soldier taken captive by Hamas on Oct. 7 was sent a horrific video of his daughter’s final moments as she “begged for her life” while doctors in Gaza injected air into her veins.

Avi Marciano, the father of 19-year-old Cpl. Noa Marciano, said that his daughter was wounded in the leg during an Israeli airstrike while she was in captivity — but her injuries were not life-threatening.

She was taken to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where “a medical professional decided to murder her,” Marciano said through journalist Shai DeLuca, who translated for him.

“He injects her veins with air and that’s how he murdered her,” he said.

Marciano said he received video of his daughter “begging for her life” over the social media website Telegram. By the end of the video, she’s drenched in sweat but “there is no life in her body,” he said.

The IDF learned through videos and their own intelligence that the Israeli soldier was in the hospital and launched an attack on the facility. Her body was recovered and returned to her grieving family within a week.

“Our dear Noni, in a normal, sane world, we shouldn’t be standing here now, but we aren’t in a normal world,” the teen’s shattered mom said at the teen’s funeral in a video posted to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s Facebook.

“At 19, you were taken from us prematurely. The mind struggles to let go, and the heart refuses to accept.”

Hamas terrorists blamed Marciano’s death on an Israeli airstrike.

Marciano’s death was confirmed just over a month after Hamas launched its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

New York Post

Day 800 — Sunday, December 14

Israel on Friday rejected a resolution adopted by the U.N. General Assembly earlier in the day calling on the Jewish state to cooperate with the U.N.’s relief agency for Palestinians, on the grounds that the organization has become a “subsidiary” of Hamas.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is a “hotbed of terrorism,” Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon tweeted.

Israel “will not forget the crimes against humanity committed by UNRWA workers on October 7th. We will not forget that an UNRWA ‘social worker’ kidnapped Yonatan Samerano’s lifeless body to Gaza. For the sake of peace in the world, UNRWA must go,” the ambassador wrote.

Samerano was murdered during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. His body was taken by an UNRWA employee to Gaza. He was buried in Israel in July after Israeli security forces retrieved his remains.

The General Assembly resolution on Friday welcomed the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice from Oct. 22 that laid out Israel’s supposed obligations toward the Palestinians, including the facilitation of humanitarian assistance through UNRWA.

The foreign ministries of Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates in a joint statement lauded the assembly’s vote, which passed 139 to 12, with 19 abstentions, affirming the “indispensable role” of the U.N. agency in treating Palestinian affairs.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the U.N. vote was a pushback against Israeli and American arguments that UNRWA is infiltrated by Hamas.

“UNRWA is the key humanitarian actor in the occupied Palestinian territory, and everything must be done to facilitate our work, not hinder or prevent it,” Lazzarini tweeted.

The U.S. Mission to the United Nations released a statement ahead of the vote, calling the resolution “flawed” and “one-sided.”

“It bears noting that advisory opinions are exactly that: they are not binding. They are not a basis for legislature. Notwithstanding the fact that the ICJ’s ruling was factually baseless and devoid of judicial restraint, the General Assembly’s abuse of advisory opinions as a political tool makes a mockery of international law,” the U.S. Mission said.

The resolution is irrelevant in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan that was accepted by Arab and Muslim partner, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the U.S. Mission continued.

UNWRA “is completely penetrated because [it] operates under frameworks that treat Hamas like any other actor, and rejects any reasonable standards for accountability or vetting for its staff or partners,” the American delegation said.

“That this resolution would imply that Israel is in any way compelled to work with such an organization is simply wrong. The idea that any nation could be compelled by the General Assembly to work with any organization is a gross infringement on sovereignty. UNRWA is unaccountable, corrupt and irredeemably compromised. It will play absolutely no role going forward in Gaza.”

Tommy Piggot, the State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, said that the U.S. “refutes every effort to empower UNRWA and we stand with Israel in rejecting biased and false allegations at the U.N. We will continue to implement Resolution 2803 and pursue President Trump’s vision for a peaceful and prosperous Gaza.”

Speaking before the U.N. General Assembly, Danon said that the new resolution “does not advance peace [and] it does not reflect the reality we see on the ground.”

“We are done with UNRWA,” the Israeli ambassador vowed.

JNS

Day 799 — Saturday, December 13

A group of soldiers of the Syrian army was documented chanting a jihadi declaration of war on Israel during a military parade in Damascus on Tuesday, prompting a minister for the Jewish state to issue a chilling prediction.

Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister of Diaspora Affairs, posted on X, “War is inevitable.” Chikli embedded a video from Visegrád 24 that showed Syria’s new army marching through Damascus. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa attended the military parade.

The footage, according to Fox News Digital’s independent verification of the Arabic, showed them chanting “Gaza, Gaza, our rallying cry, Victory and steadfastness, night & day. We rise against you, enemy, we rise. From mountains of fire we make our way. From my blood I forge my ammunition. From your blood, rivers will flow.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital about his posts on X, Chikli said, “The harrowing testimonies coming from our Druze brothers about what is happening in Sweida leave no doubt. A regime that kills like ISIS, rapes like ISIS, and destroys like ISIS everything that is not itself — it is ISIS, even if it wears a suit and plays basketball.”

The Trump administration is pushing for a security deal between Syria and Israel that would stabilize the heartland of the Middle East. Al-Sharaa met with Trump in the White House last month.

Israel says it seized the 400-square-kilometer (155-square-mile) demilitarized buffer zone in southern Syria in a preemptive move to prevent militants from moving into the area after Islamist insurgents toppled Assad.

Israeli troops have regularly carried out operations in villages and towns inside and outside the zone, including raids snatching people it says are suspected militants. At least 13 people were killed in an Israeli operation against suspected terrorists last month.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently visited reserve soldiers who were wounded in clashes with Syrian terrorists in Bet Jinn, where he said, “After Oct. 7, we are determined to defend our communities on our borders, including the northern border, and to prevent the entrenchment of terrorists and hostile actions against us, to protect our Druze allies, and to ensure that the State of Israel is safe from ground attack and other attacks from the border areas.”

He added, “What we expect Syria to do, of course, is to establish a demilitarized buffer zone from Damascus to the buffer zone area, including the approaches to Mount Hermon and the summit of Mount Hermon. We hold these territories to ensure the security of the citizens of Israel, and that is what obligates us. In a good spirit and understanding of these principles, it is also possible to reach an agreement with the Syrians, but we will stand by our principles in any case.”

Fox News

Day 798 — Friday, December 12

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), speaker of the House of Representatives, told visiting Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan in Washington this week that “Judea and Samaria are the Land of Israel,” Dagan’s office stated on Thursday.

“I visited Samaria—both as a member of Congress before becoming speaker, and again last summer as speaker with a small group of colleagues,” Johnson told Dagan, according to a Hebrew readout the Samaria Regional Council provided to JNS on Thursday.

“The Bible is clear: Judea and Samaria are the Land of Israel. I do not understand why we debate this anew every single day,” Johnson said, adding, “The people of Israel know who stands with them in this moment of crisis. They recognize it, and they value it.”

During their meeting, Dagan presented Johnson with copper artwork depicting biblical sites in northern Samaria, including Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus (Shechem), Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, and ancient pillars of Samaria (Sebastia), the capital of the Kingdom of Israel.

“We are fighting together for justice. Judea and Samaria are justice, and they are security. No nation on earth has a connection to its homeland as deep as the Jewish people have to the Land of Israel—especially to Judea and Samaria, the land of the Bible,” Dagan told the speaker.

“Two thousand years ago, the prophets Jeremiah, Amos and Ezekiel foretold that the people of Israel would return to their land, rebuild the hills of Samaria, plant vineyards and produce wine,” Dagan continued.

“That is exactly what we are doing today,” he said. “There is no greater justice than fulfilling the words of the prophets in the Land of Israel, particularly in the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria.

“Before, and certainly after Oct. 7, it is clear to all of us that this is not only a matter of justice, but also the protective shield of the State of Israel,” Dagan said, in reference to the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks targeting villages on the southern border.

“Therefore, it is also what brings security to the Western world and to the United States,” he said.

Dagan traveled to the U.S. capital for three days of marathon meetings aimed at promoting Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, his office announced. He met with lawmakers, top Trump administration officials and leading evangelical figures.

On Wednesday, Dagan spoke at a “historic” hearing of the Middle East Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The hearing, titled, “Understanding Judea and Samaria: Historical, Strategic and Political Dynamics in U.S.–Israel Relations,” marked the first use of the region’s “accurate and historic name,” according to Dagan’s statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has led an unprecedented drive to expand control of Judea and Samaria, approving some 50,000 housing units and more than 50 new Jewish communities since late 2022.

As of Jan. 1, 529,704 Jews lived in Judea and Samaria, amounting to approximately 5.28% of the Jewish state’s population.

Nearly 70% of Israelis want Jerusalem to extend full legal sovereignty over the disputed territory, according to a poll conducted on Jan. 29.

On Aug. 4, Johnson declared that Judea and Samaria belong to the Jewish people “by right,” as he became the highest-ranking American official to cross the Jewish state’s pre-1967 lines with Samaria.

According to the Israel Hayom daily, Johnson visited the Samaria city of Ariel with the express consent of U.S. President Donald Trump and the State Department.

JNS

Day 798 — Friday, December 12

Harrowing footage of the six Israeli hostages murdered by Hamas terrorists in August 2024 was released Thursday night by their families after being aired on Israeli television, providing a uniquely extensive glimpse into what the hostages went through during their first months in Hamas captivity.

The videos included footage of the captives marking Hanukkah in December 2023, with the release of the clips coming days before the Jewish holiday begins this year. While the footage was filmed by Hamas terrorists for propaganda purposes, the material is unlike other clips published during the war that showed hostages reading statements evidently dictated by their captors.

In the clips, recovered by the Israel Defense Forces during military operations in the Gaza Strip, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino, and Alex Lobanov are seen together in a tunnel. The material, hours of which were recovered, had been shown only to their families until it was partly broadcast by Channel’s “Uvda” investigative program.

The captives are seen lighting Hanukkah candles fashioned out of paper cups and singing the Hanukkah song “Ma’oz Tzur.” The hostages were also filmed marking New Year’s Eve 2024 and eating a piece of fruit, as their captors attempted to show a different reality of captivity.

At one point, Goldberg-Polin likened the hostages’ plight to that of the Jews living in Nazi Germany.

“There’s that picture of the Hanukkiah with a [Nazi flag] above it,” Goldberg-Polin is heard reflecting in one of the clips.

Later on in the clip, one of the hostages is heard joking, “Where are the sufganiyot?”

Hersh responded, “We’re waiting for Roladin in Israel,” referring to the bakery known for making fanciful donuts during the Hanukkah season.
The hostages’ voices can be heard as they sing Hanukkah songs and discuss religious differences in their upbringings and lives.

The Hanukkah footage was taken after 80 days of captivity, eight months before all six were murdered by their captors.

The clips were ultimately not released by the terror group. Hamas did issue clips of some of the six hostages reading statements, both before and after their deaths.

The footage also shows the hostages playing cards and backgammon while lying on thin mattresses in their tunnel cell. Goldberg-Polin perches his left arm on a pillow; the lower part was blown off by a grenade thrown by a terrorist during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, at a field shelter near the Nova rave in southern Israel.

At one point in a clip, Lobanov is filmed opening a packaged cake and eating it, and saying, “Advertising.”

In another segment, earlier in their captivity, he shaves Goldberg-Polin and Sarusi’s hair, remarking to them about a similar scene in the 2002 Holocaust film “The Pianist.”

The staged nature of the videos is evident in the hostages’ awkward smiles and the camera’s focus on details, such as the packaged cakes left on their mattresses or the pillows propped behind them, meant to show the care their captors were ostensibly providing.

The six are thinning but not yet skeletal. Yerushalmi, a petite woman, already looks malnourished; when her body was found eight months later, she weighed just 36 kilos (79 pounds). During his time in captivity, Lobanov’s weight dropped from 86 kilograms (190 pounds) to 60 (132 pounds).

Functional but clearly weakened, they sit together, playing card games and even kibbitzing with one another.

When a Hamas captor would enter the room, his face covered with a green Hamas bandanna, they would interact with him when necessary, the clips show, with Gat seen asking for medical care for Sarusi, who had unattended wounds.

When the bodies of the six hostages were discovered in late August 2024, they were found in a narrow tunnel, having been shot multiple times at close range, surrounded by bottles filled with dark urine and a plastic bucket used as a rudimentary toilet.

The six, Goldberg-Polin, 23, Yerushalmi, 24, Danino, 25, Lobanov, 32, Gat, 40, and Sarusi, 27, were killed by their captors in that tunnel in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood on August 29, 2024, and were discovered by troops two days later.

The military recovered unpublished footage of other hostages during the ground offensive in Gaza, some of which has been released to the public by their families, though none has been as extensive as the material made public on Thursday.

Times Of Israel

Day 797 — Thursday, December 11

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 312-112 on Wednesday night to pass the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, with 18 Republicans and 94 Democrats voting against it.

The bill, which is now bound for the Senate and which authorizes more than $900 billion, includes “critical pro-Israel provisions,” according to AIPAC.

“The bill critically prioritizes U.S.-Israeli defense cooperation to further enable both nations to counter missile, drone and emerging high-tech threats,” the pro-Israel group said. “Importantly, the bipartisan defense measure authorizes $500 million in fiscal year 2026 for U.S.-Israel missile defense cooperation.”

“This includes funds for Israeli procurement of Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow and for bilateral research, development testing and evaluation,” AIPAC said.

The bill includes $80 million for a joint American and Israeli anti-tunneling program, $35 million for the two nations to work together on areas like artificial intelligence and cybersecurity and increases authorization on funding to counter drones by $15 million—to $70 million—AIPAC said.

It also raises the prospect of Israel entering the National Technology and Industrial Base, states that the Pentagon should skip global defense events that boycott Israel and directs the defense secretary, secretary of state and national intelligence director to “continually assess the impact of international arms embargoes on Israel,” AIPAC added.

“Funding our military, ensuring our warfighters are ready to win against any adversary and taking care of our service members are some of Congress’s core duties,” stated Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas). “This year’s NDAA accomplishes those goals and delivers on the president’s peace through strength agenda.”

JNS

Day 797 — Thursday, December 11

Columbia University’s antisemitism task force has released its final report on instances of Jewish and Israeli students being harassed in classrooms. The nearly 70-page document outlines repeated incidents involving both students and professors and recommends changes the university should make.

The task force was created in Nov. 2023 after protests broke out on the Ivy League campus following the Oct. 7 terror attacks and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war. Dozens of students were arrested during anti-Israel demonstrations and a weeks-long encampment protesting the war.

This is the fourth report in a series looking into their policies and allegations of antisemitism. Columbia says it compiled the findings after “listening sessions” with students who came forward to describe what they’ve experienced on campus.

The report also follows scrutiny from President Donald Trump, who has been critical of Columbia and other universities due to alleged antisemitism.

According to the task force, Israeli students were singled out or harassed in class, including one student who was allegedly told she should be considered “one of the murderers” because she had served in the Israel Defense Forces.

In another case, the report says a teacher told students that three major Jewish donors had given money with the aim of “laundering blood money” and referred to Israel as “so-called Israel.”

The report also describes protesters entering an in-progress class in January of this year, taught by a visiting Israeli professor. The task force alleges the group targeted the course specifically because of the professor’s background and because the class focused on Zionism.

One Jewish student, who was not Israeli, reported being told, “It’s such a shame that your people survived in order to commit mass genocide.” Other students said condemnations of Israel were injected into coursework that had no connection to the class subject.

The task force concluded that Columbia “lacks full-time tenure-line faculty expertise in Middle East history, politics, political economy and policy that is not explicitly anti-Zionist.”

In its recommendations, the task force urged the school to adopt clearer policies, expand faculty diversity within Middle East studies and consistently enforce anti-discrimination rules.

When reached for additional comment, Columbia referred to a posted statement by the acting president of the university, Claire Shipman, thanking the task force. It can be read in full here.

“The work of this task force has been an essential part of the University’s efforts to address the challenges faced by our Jewish students, faculty, and staff. I have been heartened by the thoughtful and effective changes we have made over the course of the last two years and by the determination to forge a better future for our University displayed by so many members of our community,” she wrote.

Fox News

Day 796 — Wednesday, December 10

Israeli forces should remain in Syria as a buffer between “jihadist enemies and the residents of the Galilee and the Golan,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a visit to the north on Tuesday.

“Our role is to defend the citizens of Israel against every threat—and that is what we will do,” Katz declared after he received an intelligence and operational briefing at the Israel Defense Forces Northern Command base in Safed.

Katz “praised the offensive activity of the command’s personnel across the various arenas ” during the meeting, which also included IDF Deputy Chief Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, OC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo and other commanders.

After the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, the IDF seized control of parts of southern Syria, expanding a buffer zone and maintaining a presence amid ongoing clashes and strikes.

Jerusalem remains ready to negotiate a new security agreement with the Syrian regime but will “stand by its principles” to prevent a repeat of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week.

“After Oct. 7, we are determined to defend our communities along our borders, including the northern border,” the prime minister declared.

Israel’s policies are aimed at “preventing the entrenchment of terrorists and hostile activities against us, protecting Druze allies and ensuring that the State of Israel is safe from ground or other attacks,” he added.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office denounced as “fake news” a Saudi news report on Tuesday that Netanyahu in September refused a U.S.-mediated proposal due to Damascus’s opposition to a humanitarian corridor into the Sweida region, where regime-backed militias have slaughtered members of the Druze minority group during clashes.

Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Netanyahu and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa were preparing to sign the agreement on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, but the Jewish state pulled out.

According to the PMO, “there were contacts and meetings organized by the U.S., but no agreements and understandings with Syria were ever reached.”

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda terrorist who also goes by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, has demanded a full return to the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement that ended the 1973 Yom Kippur War and an Israeli withdrawal from his territory.

Accordingly, Katz told lawmakers last month that the Jewish state is not expected to make peace with Damascus, as hostile forces, among them Iranian-backed Houthis, were planning attacks on the Golan Heights.

Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, tweeted on Tuesday that a new war with Damascus was “inevitable,” responding to anti-Israel chants at a Syrian Army parade.

In the footage, Syrian soldiers could be heard chanting, “Gaza, Gaza our rallying cry, victory and steadfastness, night and day. We rise against you, enemy, we rise, from mountains of fire we make our way. From my blood I forge my ammunition, from your blood, rivers will flow.”

Meanwhile, Syrian media on Tuesday published footage that apparently showed armed Syrian regime forces passing through an Israeli military checkpoint to break up clashes in the Quneitra area near the border.

Three Syrians were reportedly wounded by IDF fire on Tuesday during clashes that developed near the border with Israel when troops tried to arrest a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror operative in the Quneitra area.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit did not immediately respond to a JNS request for comment on the video footage on Wednesday morning.

The riot took place just a few hundred feet from Israeli territory, as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz was touring the border with his Israeli counterpart, Ambassador Danny Danon, Ynet reported.

The two envoys did not witness the exchange directly, but Danon was reportedly briefed by the local IDF commander and informed Waltz.

The threat posed by Iran and its allies on the borders of the Jewish state is “clear and immediate,” Danon stated following the northern tour. “In contrast to the propaganda and falsehoods presented at the U.N., today we saw the reality on the ground—Hezbollah’s efforts to build up its capabilities and the challenges unfolding in Syria,” the envoy said.

JNS

Day 795 — Tuesday, December 9

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday issued a sharply worded condemnation of statements by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state, alongside the announcement of an Israeli government plan to expand and build new communities in Judea and Samaria.

In its statement, the ministry described the settlement plans as a blatant violation of international law and international humanitarian law, saying the moves undermine what it called the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent, sovereign state on the lines of June 4, 1967, with eastern Jerusalem as its capital. The ministry asserted that Israel holds no sovereignty over the territories captured in 1967.

Ministry spokesman Ambassador Fouad al-Majali said Jordan rejects and strongly condemns the Israeli government’s continued settlement policies in Judea and Samaria, as well as remarks by Israeli officials that Amman views as entrenching what it called “occupation and settlement expansion.” He referenced UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which criticizes Israeli measures that alter the demographic or territorial character of land captured in 1967, including eastern Jerusalem, and cited an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice regarding the legality of Israeli control and settlement building.

Majali called on the international community to assume what he termed its legal and moral responsibilities by pressing Israel to halt what he described as dangerous unilateral actions in the area. He said international efforts must ensure Palestinian rights, including the establishment of an independent state, which he argued is essential for achieving what Jordan considers a just and comprehensive peace and regional stability.

Arutz Sheva 

Day 795 — Tuesday, December 9

French prosecutors have indicted a 42-year-old Algerian woman for allegedly trying to poison the Jewish family that had employed her, the Le Parisien newspaper reported on Monday.

The defendant is scheduled to appear before a judge in Nanterre near Paris on Tuesday for actions attributed to her in January 2024, and which were allegedly motivated by Jew-hatred, according to the report.

The defendant, identified only as “Leila Y.” in the French media, had worked for the family in Paris for two months under a false Belgian identity. In fact, she was under orders to leave France, a measure often employed against those found to have overstayed their visa permit. The family had three children, then aged 2, 5 and 7.

The defendant has been charged with “administering a harmful substance resulting in incapacity exceeding eight days, committed on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality or religion,” Le Parisien reported.

The woman who employed her had sensed abnormalities in various products, including wine, juice, bread and even a makeup kit that caused her skin irritations, the report said.

The woman’s 5-year-old daughter told her that she’d seen the nanny deposit a soap-like liquid into a wine bottle, prompting the mother to confront Leila Y., the newspaper reported, based on court papers. The nanny allegedly responded by saying, “I knew I never should have been working for a Jew,” and brought up financial grievances.

Police analyzed the products that the nanny had allegedly tampered with and found that they had indeed been poisoned, although the foreign agents introduced to the products were not lethal, the analysis showed.

The nanny was placed under arrest in February 2024.

Gilles-William Goldnadel, a former member of the CRIF executive board of French Jewry and a prominent lawyer who’s represented many victims of antisemitic hate crimes, told the Radio J station on Monday: “Unfortunately, I can’t say I’m astonished. Hate had been worked up to a fever pitch, notably by the France Unbowed [far-left] party, tied to the Islamist movement, until it has been infused, and this is the infusion.”

Goldnadel recalled the murder of four Jews in 2012 in Toulouse and the murder of four hostages in a kosher market in Paris in 2015 by Islamists. “We live in a country where Jews, Jewish children, have been murdered, butchered. And this is a reminder of this reality, perpetrated by foreigners or Islamists,” he said.

JNS

Day 794 — Monday, December 8

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet revealed on Sunday that Hamas, under the direction of Iran, is operating a clandestine network of money exchangers in the heart of Turkey, using the country’s financial infrastructure to fund terrorist activities against Israel.

According to documents obtained by Israeli authorities, the network is composed primarily of Gazans who manage the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars directly to Hamas and its leadership.

These funds are received from Iranian sources, stored, and then forwarded to the terrorist organization to support its operations.

The documents released by the IDF detail a portion of these financial activities, including transactions totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Three individuals of Gazan origin have been identified as key operatives within the network. Tamer Hassan, a senior official in Hamas’ Ministry of Finance, resides in Turkey and operates under the leadership of Khalil al-Hayya. Khalil Farawneh and Fareed Abu Dayer also act as money changers within the network, facilitating the movement of funds under Iranian guidance.

Israeli authorities stressed that despite the devastation in Gaza, Hamas continues to pursue terrorist plots against Israel and is actively attempting to rebuild its capabilities, including through operations outside the Strip.

i24 News

Day 794 — Monday, December 8

Canadian-Slovakian model Miriam Mattova was kicked out of an Uber in Toronto because the driver refused to drive a Jewish person, Mattova, and her lawyer, Howard Levitt, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

The incident occurred on November 30, when Mattova got into an Uber on Dundas Street (called by her friend) to travel to her home. Once in the car, she facetimed another friend and casually recounted details of her recent trip to Israel.

In the middle of the intersection, the driver suddenly hit the brakes and told Mattova to get out of the car. Mattova asked the driver what was happening, to which the driver (a Muslim woman) responded that she did not feel comfortable with Mattova in the car.

“I asked why, because I still didn’t understand the situation, and then the driver responded by saying they do not drive Jewish people,” Mattova told the Post.

“At that moment, I chose to step out of the car, not out of fear but out of clarity. When someone reveals open discrimination, there is no reason to remain in that space.”

Mattova called another Uber, returned home, and the next day filed a detailed complaint in the Uber app. The friend who ordered the Uber also filed the complaint.

However, she only received a response after the story was published in The National Post.

“Uber responded with a phone call, saying that they are going to give me a refund. I wanted to be clear that this situation is about more than the cost of a ride and that the incident I experienced was a blatant act of antisemitism.“

Mattova inquired as to whether the driver would be removed from the company, to which Uber responded that it could not provide her with an answer. In a subsequent email correspondence, Uber said it would speak to the driver, but no more information was provided.

“When they called her, they wanted to ask whether she had an injury from it, like an insurance company does,” added Levitt. “That is all they were interested in, not about the racism of the driver.”

Levitt sent Uber a letter demanding that it stipulate in every driver contract that there can be no discrimination based on human rights grounds, which, of course, includes religion and race.

Levitt confirmed that if Uber does not respond, he will file a human rights application before the Human Rights Tribunal in Ontario.

Mattova told the Post that since she posted about the incident on Instagram, scores of people have been reaching out to her to say similar antisemitic incidents have happened to them. They also said they had reported the incidents to Uber but received no answer.

“This is not a one-person problem,” said Mattova. “I think this is a bigger issue, and Uber has not been taking accountability for what’s been actually going on.”

“When a company as large as Uber fails to respond, it sends a completely wrong message. Like a serious incident involving hate should trigger immediate action within 24 hours.”

Mattova wanted to make it clear that she isn’t seeking money from this incident, and if Uber wants to give money, she would want the money to be donated to a charity based in Israel named Israel Friends. Additionally, she is seeking the dismissal of the driver and a formal apology to her and, in general, to the Jewish community.

The Post also asked Mattova how she connects such incidents to her grandmother’s experience as a Holocaust survivor. 

“I personally think my family’s history significantly shapes my views,” she said. “My grandmother survived the concentration camp,  which reminds me of the necessity to remember these events, like ensuring such hatred never reoccurs. We must remain vigilant against antisemitism and all forms of hatred. That’s exactly why I’m doing this. That’s my main reason.”

Nevertheless, this is not the first such incident Mattova has experienced in Canada. Does she see a future in the country?

“At this moment, I question if I do have a future in Canada,” she responded.

“Much of the Jewish community is fearful in Canada and is considering leaving to go to the US or Israel. The problem is if you show fear, you make your enemies more ebullient. The mainstream organizations are not being sufficiently aggressive, preferring condemnation to concrete action,” added Levitt. 

Jerusalem POst

Day 793 — Sunday, December 7

“The fountains of America, of American life, are based on biblical values, just like ours [in the Jewish state],” Israeli President Isaac Herzog told Politico in a long-format interview published on Saturday.

The president was asked whether he was concerned about a growing skepticism regarding Israel in the U.S., especially among the younger generation.

“I believe that the underlying fountain that we all drink from is the same,” Herzog answered, adding that he was following the anti-Israel trends permeating American youth “very closely.”

He pointed an accusing finger at social media platforms such as TikTok that present “a very shallow discourse of the current situation.”

The big picture is not conveyed, he stressed. “Is Israel a strategic ally? Yes. Is Israel contributing to American national interests, security interests? Absolutely yes. Is Israel a beacon of democracy in the Middle East? Absolutely yes,” he added.

Herzog said that he “in no way [is] writing off millions of American citizens. I respect every American citizen, and I respect American democracy, and I respect the debate. All I’m asking is for fair reporting, not fake reporting, and not something superficial. You cannot just [accept] a TikTok message, which you know immediately blames Israel, without understanding what’s behind it. We are operating in self-defense according to international law and we are trying to defend our citizens.”

The Israeli president said that the Jewish state can improve in how it explains its actions. “However, we are also trying to explain to everybody that sometimes it’s kind of a lost battle, because there are billions and tens of billions of dollars poured into this brainwashing machine which doesn’t want to tell the real truth.”

But Israel will keep telling the truth, he continued. “We did not seek this war. We did not want this war,” he said, referring to the two-year campaign against Hamas in Gaza after the latter led the deadliest single-day attack on the country in the state’s history on Oct. 7, 2023, slaughtering some 1,200 people in the northwestern Negev and kidnapping 251 others into the Strip.

Asked whether Israel could survive without U.S. support, Herzog said: “I utterly believe in the alliance between Israel and the United States. I think every president who sits in the chair in the Oval Office sees it for himself and knows the real truth. The issue is that we have to bring the region to understand that war is futile and the future is peace.”

‘Israel minted in New York DNA’

Herzog is set to depart for New York City on Sunday for a two-day trip, focusing on the challenges facing American Jews amid rising antisemitism, his office said.

He was asked by Politico about the electoral victory of anti-Israel Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and whether reactions from Israel were overblown.

“I lived in New York in my formative years,” replied the president. “I love the Big Apple. I love New York. I’m extremely bothered by the statements of Mayor-elect Mamdani. The rights of Jews, of the Jewish people, for self-determination and for independence, do not depend on Zohran Mamdani.”

Herzog’s father, Chaim Herzog, who served as ambassador to the U.N. and later as Israel’s sixth president, defended Israel together with then- U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, as both objected to the General Assembly resolution in 1975 equating Zionism with racism, the current Israeli president said.

“My father stood up in front of the U.N. General Assembly and tore up the resolution, saying that for us, the Jewish people, this is no more than a piece of paper, and we will treat it as such. He also spoke about people throughout the ages, leaders who negated the Jewish people’s rights, and they’ve all disappeared, and their views disappeared,” Herzog said.

Deflecting a call from the interviewer to invite the incoming New York mayor to Israel, Herzog stressed that “Mamdani should understand that in his own city, there are so many people who have Israel minted in their DNA, in their love of both America and Israel. He should study better and understand better their viewpoints and not show such disgust and hate.”

JNS

Day 792 — Saturday, December 6

New York Governor Kathy Hochul drew a clear line between herself and incoming New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on issues relating to Israel.

Speaking at a press conference in her Manhattan office and quoted by Politico, Hochul rejected Mamdani’s pledge to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“No, I do not, and the New York City mayor does not have the power to do that,” she said.

Mamdani, who has repeatedly accused Israel of war crimes in its battle against Hamas in Gaza, has vowed to arrest Netanyahu if he visits New York City, citing the arrest warrant that was issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The governor also voiced support for outgoing Mayor Eric Adams’ executive order, issued Wednesday, which blocks city investments or pension funds from discriminating against Israel.

“I’ve taken action to protect investments in Israel in the past and will continue to do so,” Hochul affirmed.

Arutz Sheva

Day 792 — Saturday, December 6

More than 1,000 demonstrators gathered at a Thursday night “solidarity rally” in support of a New York City synagogue that was targeted in a vitriolic protest late last month.

The protest late last month, at the entrance to the Park East Synagogue school, targeted an event that was providing information to Jews about immigrating to Israel. The demonstration has alarmed Jewish New Yorkers due to the location and the protesters’ violent chants and threats.

The Modern Orthodox institution is one of the city’s more prominent synagogues.

“What Park East synagogue has experienced, I’m so shaken,” the synagogue’s rabbi, Arthur Schneier, told the crowd, connecting the demonstration to his experience seeing attacks on synagogues during the Holocaust.

“It was not just an attack on Park East Synagogue; this was an attack against the Jewish community, to intimidate us, but we’re not afraid. United we prevail, divided we fail,” he said. “Be strong and let us strengthen one another.”

Schneier asked attendees to urge city and state legislators to support passing laws that would bar protests at houses of worship. Two city legislators proposed such legislation earlier this week and Mayor Eric Adams has instructed the police to evaluate proposals to limit protests at houses of worship.

Signs called out anti-Zionism specifically, part of a growing movement to focus on tackling anti-Zionism as a distinct form of hatred, not a political position that can veer into antisemitism.

“Anti-Zionists spread libels to mark Jews for violence,” a sign bearing the logo of the recently launched Movement Against Antizionism said. Another demonstrator held a sign that said, “If you don’t teach your kids about anti-zionism, someone else will.”

Ranks of police officers protected the perimeter of the rally, and Jewish community security personnel checked entrants. Some Jewish community members had criticized the police for allowing last month’s protest so near the synagogue door, but the crowd at the rally was overwhelmingly supportive of the NYPD, cheering at the mention of the force and thanking the officers present.

Alison Widawsky traveled to the rally from Long Island to “support the Jewish people of New York City,” she said, joining her sister, Jolie, a resident of Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

“Our grandparents were Holocaust survivors, so we know what happens when people don’t stand up,” said Jolie Widawsky, a recent graduate of the city’s Touro College. “For young people in our age group, it’s easy to feel alone supporting Israel, even on college campuses, there’s become a shame to it, but I feel proud to know I’m not alone.”

The rally took place amid trepidation in the mainstream Jewish community over Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a far-left, anti-Israel activist who will take office on January 1, although none of the event speakers mentioned Mamdani by name.

After the protest last month, Mamdani spoke out against the demonstration but also against the synagogue, saying, “These sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”

Times Of Israel

Day 791 — Friday, December 5

A powerful anti-Hamas clan leader protecting civilians in Gaza and allegedly backed by Israel has been murdered in Rafah, according to multiple reports.

Yasser Abu Shabab, head of the Abu Shabab militia, known locally as the “Popular Forces” of the Gaza Strip, had risen to prominence for his cooperation with Israel against Hamas’ influence in the region, according to analysts.

“Abu Shabab militia helped Israel to protect the locals and prevent Hamas from harming them,” Professor Kobi Michael, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and the Misgav Institute told Fox News Digital.

“Hamas has become deeply troubled because of these militias and makes its utmost efforts to dismantle them. It perceives them as a real threat, but the fact that Abu Shabab was murdered by a rival, Hamula, indicates that it will not be enough just to disarm Hamas.

“Still, without an effective alternative governance to Hamas, the Strip will deteriorate into chaos.”

As reported by Fox News Digital in July, Abu Shabab’s group began forming in early 2024 after the IDF entered Rafah and Hamas started to lose control of the area.

Allegedly operating under Israeli protection, his men were escorting aid trucks, distributing supplies and asserting control over parts of eastern Rafah.

On Thursday, The Jerusalem Post reported sources claiming Abu Shabab was initially wounded in a clan-related confrontation. He was subsequently evacuated to a hospital in southern Israel, where he later died from his injuries.

The Popular Forces later released a statement, also cited by The Jerusalem Post, confirming Abu Shabab’s death and insisting he had been killed while attempting to resolve a local dispute.

The group vowed to continue its operations until “the last terrorist was eliminated in Gaza,” adding that it would keep pursuing “a bright and secure future for our people who believe in peace,” the outlet said.

In a past interview with Ynet, Abu Shabab said, “We will not leave the Gaza Strip and will continue to fight Hamas until the last one is dead.”

Fox News

Day 790 — Thursday, December 4

Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed two executive orders Wednesday aimed at countering antisemitism and preventing city funds from supporting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The New York Post reported that Adams barred city business or pension investment decisions that discriminate against Israel, a move that could be viewed as a challenge to Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who supports the BDS movement.

While speaking at a conference in New Orleans sponsored by the North American Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism, Adams said his administration “recognizes the benefit of maintaining a strong relationship between the city of New York and the state of Israel,” according to The Post.

The second order issued by the mayor would call for tighter enforcement from the New York City Police Department to help protect synagogues and other religious worshipers from harassment.

The new orders heighten an ideological clash between Adams and Mamdani, who can decide whether to scrap the orders after taking office on Jan. 1.

In an interview on Nov. 4 with MSNBC, Mamdani’s defended his support for the (BDS) movement, saying it was a way to pressure Israel to comply with international law.

“And I’ve said, I support BDS because this is a movement that is looking for that kind of compliance. We haven’t seen it,” he said.

“Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist asked Mamdani, “Would BDS be the policy of your administration as mayor?”

“I’ve said that I would support and have supported non-violent movements to bring about compliance with international law,” Mamdani replied. “And where this mayor [Eric Adams] has violated and looked to violate that kind of law, I would bring us back into compliance.”

Mamdani added during the interview that he would be the mayor for all Jewish New Yorkers.

According to The Post, New York City registered over $32 billion in procurement contracts with outside vendors in the 2024 fiscal year, and maintains five pension systems that support over 750,000 employees, retirees and beneficiaries. They also invest nearly $300 billion in securities in the global marketplace, including over $300 million in Israeli assets. 

The pair of executive orders came a week after protesters chanted “globalize the intifada” and “death to the IDF” outside a New York City synagogue, according to The Post.

Adams said his administration was “ensuring our city government doesn’t participate in that type of behavior and are putting in safeguards that protect New Yorkers’ tax dollars and protect their right to practice their religion without harassment.”

Following Wednesday’s conference, the mayor posted on X that he “discussed and shared how we’re governing through the rising tide of hate, fear, and misinformation in our cities so we can better protect ALL communities.”

Adams asserted that “we cannot stand by as antisemitism or any other form of hate spreads.”

“We must loudly defend the Jewish people,” he added.

Adams has previously warned Jewish New Yorkers about their safety after Mamdani won the election, stating during a fireside chat at a Combat Antisemitism Movement event in Tel Aviv last month that “everything is not fine.”

Fox News 

Day 790 — Thursday, December 4

The Prime Minister’s Office announced on Thursday morning that the body of deceased hostage Sudthisak Rinthalak had been returned to Israel.

“After the identification process was completed by the National Center of Forensic Medicine, in cooperation with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Coordinator for Prisoners and Missing Persons, representatives of the IDF, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the family of deceased hostage Sudthisak Rinthalak, that their loved one has been returned to Israel and his identification finalized,” the PMO said.

“The Coordinator for Prisoners and Missing Persons, Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, informed Sudthisak’s family that arrangements for his return for burial in his homeland will be carried out in coordination with the Embassy of Thailand in Israel, and that the Government of Israel shares in the deep grief of the Rinthalak family, of the Thai people, and of all the families of the deceased hostages,” it added.

Sudthisak Rinthalak, a Thai national, was murdered on October 7, 2023, and his body was taken to the Gaza Strip, where it was held by Islamic Jihad terrorists. He was 42 years old at the time of his death.

Rinthalak worked in agriculture and was kidnapped from the orchards of Kibbutz Be’eri. He is survived by his parents and a brother.

Gaza terror groups are still holding the body of Yassam officer Ran Gvili.
The IDF and Shin Bet announced on Wednesday evening that, according to information provided by the Red Cross, a coffin of a deceased hostage has been transferred into its custody and was then transferred to IDF troops in the Gaza Strip.

After arriving in Israel, the deceased was transferred for examination at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine.

Earlier in the day, the military arm of the Islamic Jihad terror organization in the Gaza Strip issued an official statement claiming that its members had located the body of a slain hostage in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

According to the announcement, the body was found by the terrorists while operating in the area.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, “Sudthisak Rinthalak was an agricultural worker who came from Thailand to Israel to support his family. On October 7th, 2023, Sudthisak was brutally murdered and abducted by terrorists into Gaza. A total of 39 Thai nationals were murdered and 31 Thai nationals were taken captive on that horrific day.”

“For 789 painful days, Sudthisak was held hostage in Gaza. His family back in Thailand have waited in agony for his return. Now, Sudthisak can finally be laid to rest with dignity.

“On behalf of the people of Israel, I send my deepest condolences to King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand, Sudthisak Rinthalak’s family, and the entire Thai people. I also express my appreciation for the Thai community in Israel, who continue to contribute so much to our country.

“Hamas’s cruelty continues. Ran Gvili, a police officer who fought and fell heroically on October 7th, is still being held hostage in Gaza. When we say we wont stop until every last hostage is home, we mean it.”

Arutz Sheva

Day 789 — Wednesday, December 3

Some 17% of GOP supporters are “anti-Jewish Republicans” with beliefs including Holocaust denial or the view that Israel is a “settler-colonial state” that drags the United States “into wars we have no business in,” according to a poll which the conservative Manhattan Institute released on Monday.

The survey defined current GOP supporters as either registered Republicans or voters who backed U.S. President Donald Trump in 2024, regardless of formal party affiliation.

It found that 37% of these Republicans believe the Holocaust “was greatly exaggerated or did not happen as historians describe,” with 77% of Hispanic GOP voters, 66% of black GOP voters and 54% of male GOP voters under 50-years-old holding that view.

The institute defined an “anti-Jewish Republican” as any respondent who either self-identified as racist and antisemitic or believed that both the Holocaust was exaggerated and that Israel is a “settler-colonial state.” Some 12% of GOP voters described themselves as having “hostility to, or prejudice against, Jewish people.”

In line with recent national surveys of voters, the poll found a sharp age divide in attitudes towards Israel and Jews.

“Anti-Jewish Republicans are typically younger, disproportionately male, more likely to be college-educated and significantly more likely to be new entrant Republicans,” or voters who cast their first ballot for Trump in 2024, the survey authors wrote.

“They are also more racially diverse. Consistent church attendance is one of the strongest predictors of rejecting these attitudes,” they wrote. “Infrequent church attendance is, all else equal, one of the strongest predictors of falling into this segment.”

Conducted from Oct. 15-26, the poll combines surveys of four separate voting blocs: “1,493 Republicans and/or 2024 Trump voters, 301 black Republicans and/or 2024 Trump voters, 501 Hispanic Republicans and/or 2024 Trump voters and 500 additional registered voters.”

As a proportion of the electorate, Republicans are similar to Democrats in the rates at which they hold anti-Jewish views.

“The survey finds slightly higher levels of anti-Jewish sentiment among Democrats: 20%, compared to 17% among Republicans,” the authors wrote.

The poll found that GOP voters are more concerned about dual loyalty to a foreign country among Arab-Americans than Jewish-Americans.

“Four in 10 members of the current GOP believe that most or all Arab or Muslim Americans have greater loyalty to a foreign country than to the United States,” the Manhattan Institute wrote.

“For every other group, no more than three in 10 believe that most or all members are more loyal elsewhere. The same is true of views on Jewish Americans,” it wrote. “Despite online discourse, only 11% of GOP voters say that nearly all Jewish Americans owe loyalty to a foreign country—essentially identical to perceptions of Italian Americans and evangelical Christian Americans.”

JNS

Day 789 — Wednesday, December 3

The Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday morning announced that the remains transferred Tuesday to Israel are not of any deceased hostages.

“Following the completion of the identification process at the National Center of Forensic Medicine, it was determined that the findings brought yesterday for examination from the Gaza Strip are not linked to any of the fallen hostages,” a statement read.

“An update has been delivered to the families of the two fallen hostages. The effort to return them will not cease until the mission is complete – to bring them to proper burial in their homeland.”

Gaza terror groups are still holding the bodies of two deceased hostages: Yassam officer Ran Gvili and Sudthisak Rinthalak, a Thai agricultural worker.

Last week, the body of Dror Or, who was murdered on October 7th and taken into Gaza from Be’eri, was returned.

Arutz Sheva

Day 788 — Tuesday, December 2

The House unanimously passed a bill on Monday barring anyone linked to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel from moving to the United States.

It’s a rare moment of bipartisanship on the topic of Israel, an issue that’s otherwise exacerbated deep fractures within both parties in the House of Representatives — particularly for Democrats.

The Republican-led legislation is called the “No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act of 2025” and was introduced by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif.

It passed the House by voice vote on Monday afternoon, meaning it advanced with unanimous approval without lawmakers taking individual votes on the bill.

“There are still some things we can come together on in this body, and one of them is opposition to Hamas and the terrorism they unleashed on civilians in Israel more than two years ago,” McClintock told Fox News Digital.

“What this does is place them in the same category as Nazi collaborators in the Holocaust, which are also referenced in the Immigration Nationality Act.”

McClintock told Fox News Digital he was hopeful the Senate would take up the bill — while noting it passed the House last term as well without the upper chamber taking action.

“The repeated actions of the House in passing this bill, I think, will hopefully inspire the Senate to take it up this year and send it to the president,” he said. “It’s important for two reasons. Number one, to prevent a future Joe Biden from admitting such people, and to empower a future Donald Trump presidency to keep them out.”

The legislation would amend existing U.S. immigration law to deem “any alien who carried out, participated in, planned, financed, afforded material support to, or otherwise facilitated any of the attacks against Israel initiated by Hamas beginning on October 7, 2023” inadmissible to the country.

It would also add Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to the list of terror groups whose members and supporters are barred from the U.S. under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

It comes after a Gazan native, Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, who was residing in Louisiana, was arrested earlier this year over his alleged involvement in the Oct. 7 attack.

Fox News 

Day 788 — Tuesday, December 2

A report published by IMPACT-se presents a grim picture of the Palestinian Authority’s school curriculum for 2025-2026.

According to the report, this is a direct continuation of inciting content that contradicts UNESCO standards for education for peace and tolerance.

The report examined 290 textbooks and teaching booklets used in grades 1-12 in schools in the Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem, including UNRWA educational institutions.

The findings show that the materials continue to encourage hatred, extreme nationalism, antisemitism, and political violence.

The books contain explicit antisemitic descriptions. Jews are portrayed as liars, corrupt, “devil’s helpers” or “bloodthirsty monsters”, and the texts even promote the complete dehumanization of Israelis.

For example, Israeli soldiers are described as snipers shooting children “for no reason”, or as carrying out massacres while “laughing loudly.”

Descriptions of jihad and martyrs appear in dozens of places, even at elementary school ages. First-grade students are exposed to the word “Shahid” when learning the Arabic letter هـ. Concepts such as “the peak of faith” and “reward in paradise” are linked to jihad, and sometimes to descriptions of 72 virgins.

In addition, the science and mathematics books themselves are political: algebra equations include variables like “number of shahids”, and physics exercises include descriptions of a girl firing a slingshot.

Israel is not mentioned at all. Its names disappear from maps, its borders are not marked, and cities such as Tel Aviv and Haifa are removed. Instead, “Greater Palestine” from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is taught.

The report notes that even after years of pressure from the European Union, no substantive reform of the content was implemented. New books for 2025-2026 continue to replicate the same inciting patterns, including in books produced after the October 7th massacre.

Arutz Sheva

Day 787 — Monday, December 1

Cornell Graduate Student Workers United, the union affiliate of  United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America on the Cornell University campus, said on Wednesday that its members voted to endorse a boycott of Israel.

“Standing with the strength of Palestinians resisting a genocide, and their unequivocal human right to resist oppression by any means necessary, workers around the world are building power through the belief that we free Palestine, and Palestine frees us,” the union stated.

Some 72.2% of the union members who cast a vote were in favor of the measure, and 27.8% were opposed, according to an email to union members that JNS viewed.

The union told its members in an email, obtained by JNS, that 72.22% of its members voted for the referendum and 27.77% voted against it. (JNS sought comment from the union.)

The measure both accuses Cornell of being “implicated in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians through research, recruitment and financial ties with the weapons industry and endowment investments.

The resolution “explicitly echoes Hamas’s rhetoric used to justify the atrocities of Oct. 7” and “fosters a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students,” David Rubinstein, a doctoral student at Cornell who testified on the subject before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions in September, told JNS.

It is “beyond time” for the university to hold the union “accountable and stop ignoring its calls for violence,” he told JNS. “If the university abdicates responsibility for its civil rights obligations, it must face consequences.”

A Cornell spokesman told JNS that the resolution from the union, which is a separate entity, doesn’t reflect the views of the private Ithaca, N.Y., school.

“Cornell’s leadership firmly denounces antisemitism and has repeatedly affirmed the university’s dedication to ensuring the safety and well-being of all students,” the spokesman said.

JNS

Day 787 — Monday, December 1

Dublin City Council will withdraw the plan to rename the Irish capital’s Herzog Park due to “insufficient information contained in the report to allow councillors to make an ‘informed decision,’“ and other administrative issues, local media reported on Sunday.

The prime minister and the deputy prime minister of Ireland came out strongly against Dublin City Council’s plans to rename Herzog Park earlier on Sunday.

“The proposal should be withdrawn in its entirety and not proceeded with,” said Prime Minister Micheal Martin. He added that going ahead with it would erase the distinctive and rich contribution to Irish life of the Jewish community, and that such denial of history would “without any doubt, be seen as antisemitic.”

“It is overly divisive and wrong,” Martin added.

Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Simon Harris also said he “strongly opposes” the move. “It is wrong. We are an inclusive Republic. This proposal is offensive to that principle. I urge all Party Leaders to join me in opposition to this.

Herzog Park in Dublin is named for Chaim Herzog, who was born in Belfast and grew up in Dublin. He later emigrated to Israel and went on to be president. His son, Isaac Herzog, is the current president. Chaim’s father – Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog – was chief rabbi of Ireland for many years.

The Dublin City Council will convene on Monday to discuss the proposal to rename the park. Two pro-Palestine groups are petitioning to either rename the park “Hind Rajab Park” or “Free Palestine Park.”

Jerusalem Post

Day 786 — Sunday, November 30

The IDF released body-camera footage Friday from a rare face-to-face gun battle in southern Syria, where troops from the 55th Brigade were fired on while arresting members of al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya, a Sunni terrorist group Israel identifies as part of the wider Muslim Brotherhood network. 

The cross-border gun battle comes as the Trump administration moves to target Brotherhood affiliates and tensions spike between Netanyahu and Syria’s interim president.

The overnight operation took place in the Beit Jann area, roughly 10 kilometers inside Syria, under the 210th Division. According to the IDF, troops entered the area to detain suspects involved in planting IEDs and planning future attacks against Israel, including potential rocket fire. Two suspects were arrested before an exchange of fire erupted.

Six IDF soldiers were wounded, including three in serious condition. Several terrorists were killed, the IDF said, and the suspects were transferred to Israel for interrogation.

Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya, founded as the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, has cooperated with Hamas and Hezbollah, maintaining infrastructure in southern Lebanon and along the Syria-Lebanon border. The IDF says it has struck the organization’s sites in Syria and Lebanon repeatedly during the current war.

Channel 12 political correspondent Amit Segal noted Friday that the incident marks the first time since December 2024 — when Israeli forces took control of the Syrian side of Mount Hermon — that Israeli troops were wounded in a Syrian firefight.

Segal wrote: “Could Syria become the IDF’s new Lebanon? … With six soldiers wounded overnight, the big question is whether this is a one-off event, or if it signals the beginning of a long, uncomfortable Israeli presence in Syria.”

Tensions between Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have intensified since Sharaa’s unprecedented visit to Washington earlier this month. Sharaa met President Donald Trump at the White House for discussions on sanctions relief and counterterrorism coordination, making him the first Syrian leader to visit Washington since the Syrian war began.

Netanyahu publicly criticized the visit the same day, saying Sharaa “returned inflated with a sense of international legitimacy,” and warning that any U.S.-Syria discussions must “not come at Israel’s expense.”

Additional reporting in the Jerusalem Post and Channel 12 noted that security arrangements affecting Israel’s northern front were discussed in broad terms between U.S. and Syrian officials, though no agreements were reached, and Washington stressed that consultations with Israel were ongoing.

Friday’s clash came the same week the Trump administration launched a sweeping effort to designate Muslim Brotherhood affiliates as terrorist organizations. The White House directive instructs federal agencies to evaluate and sanction Brotherhood entities in countries including Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, citing global financial, political and operational ties among affiliates.

As Washington intensifies pressure on Brotherhood-linked movements, Israel is increasingly confronting Brotherhood-affiliated armed groups across the northern arena — from Hamas in Gaza to al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya in Syria and Lebanon.

With Beit Jann emerging as a focal point for cross-border operations, and American policy tightening, analysts say the regional confrontations involving Brotherhood-connected groups may be entering a new phase.

Fox News 

Day 785 — Saturday, November 29

Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem declared on Friday that the terror group has the right to respond to Israel’s elimination of its top military chief, Haytham Ali Tabtabai, in a strike in Beirut this week.

In a televised speech, Qassem called the killing “a blatant aggression and a heinous crime,” stressing, “We have the right to respond, and we will determine the timing for that.”

Qassem urged Lebanon’s government to prepare for war with Israel, describing the elimination of Tabtabai as a grave provocation. Tabtabai had been appointed Hezbollah’s chief of staff following the group’s war with Israel.

The Hezbollah leader accused the United States and Arab states of organizing infiltrations against the group, claiming, “The enemy did everything in its power to end the resistance, but it failed. It faced a humble group that was able to confront the tyrannical Israeli-American aggression.”

Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem declared on Friday that the terror group has the right to respond to Israel’s elimination of its top military chief, Haytham Ali Tabtabai, in a strike in Beirut this week.

In a televised speech, Qassem called the killing “a blatant aggression and a heinous crime,” stressing, “We have the right to respond, and we will determine the timing for that.”

Qassem urged Lebanon’s government to prepare for war with Israel, describing the elimination of Tabtabai as a grave provocation. Tabtabai had been appointed Hezbollah’s chief of staff following the group’s war with Israel.

The Hezbollah leader accused the United States and Arab states of organizing infiltrations against the group, claiming, “The enemy did everything in its power to end the resistance, but it failed. It faced a humble group that was able to confront the tyrannical Israeli-American aggression.”

Qassem also addressed the upcoming visit of the Pope to Lebanon, saying, “We welcome the Pope’s visit to Lebanon, and we have tasked members of the Political Council with visiting the Papal Embassy and fulfilling our duty. We hope that his visit will contribute to establishing peace and ending the aggression.”

Arutz Sheva

Day 785 — Saturday, November 29

Strikes and protests in Italy on Friday against the government’s support for Israel and increased military spending caused the cancellation of dozens of flights and disrupted train services around the country.

Hundreds of protesters marched in Turin, many waving Palestinian flags, and another march in Genoa was attended by UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian rights Francesca Albanese and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who joined two anti-Israel flotillas that attempted to reach Gaza earlier this year, also participated in the protests.

Demonstrators held signs calling for “Free Mohammed Shahin,” referring to an imam who is slated to be deported from Italy after calling Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack an “act of resistance” at a rally on the massacre’s anniversary.

In a video published earlier this month, Albanese, who has a history of antisemitic and anti-Israel comments, declared that the “genocide” in Gaza is ongoing and urged Italians to take part in the strike.

Due to the strikes, Milan’s Malpensa canceled at least 27 flights, while Bologna scrapped at least 17. Other affected airports include Milan’s Linate, Naples and Venice. Italy’s flagship carrier ITA Airways said it had canceled 26 domestic flights due to the strikes.

Train cancellations were announced in the main stations of Rome, Turin, Milan and Genoa and protests prevented trains from stopping at the smaller Milan station of Lambrate.

Urban public transport services were disrupted in Rome and several other cities.

Times Of Israel 

Day 784 — Friday, November 28

Israeli troops carried out a targeted overnight operation in southern Syria to apprehend operatives from the Jaama Islamiya terrorist organization, encountering heavy gunfire that left six IDF soldiers wounded, three of them seriously, the military said on Friday.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the raid in the Beit Jinn area targeted terrorists planning attacks against Israelis.

“Overnight [Friday], following intelligence information gathered in the past several weeks, IDF troops of the 55th Reserve Brigade under the command of the 210th Division went on an operation to apprehend suspects from the Jaama Islamiya terrorist organization,” the IDF said. “During the activity, several armed terrorists opened fire at the troops, who responded with fire toward the terrorists, along with aerial assistance to the troops.

“As a result of the incident, several reservists were injured and were evacuated to the hospital for medical treatment,” the IDF added, noting that the operation ended with “all suspects apprehended and several terrorists eliminated.”

Syrian television reported that nine Syrians were killed in Israeli airstrikes that struck Beit Jinn during the IDF operation. It said residents were seen fleeing Beit Jinn for nearby villages following the strikes and ensuing firefight between Israeli troops and local gunmen.

Of the six IDF reservists evacuated to hospitals in Israel, three were said to have sustained serious wounds, one was moderately wounded and two others were lightly wounded.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to the IDF-controlled security zone in southern Syria on Wednesday that Israel may need to defend itself or strike “at any moment.”

JNS

Day 783 — Thursday, November 27

The Australian government announced on Thursday that it has listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a state sponsor of terrorism.

In a statement, the government said it had committed to taking this step following the assessment that the IRGC had orchestrated attacks against Australia’s Jewish Community, on the Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney in October 2024 and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December 2024.

“These cowardly attacks on Australian soil were designed to undermine and sow division in our multicultural society, by targeting Jewish Australians to inflict harm and stoke fear,” said the Australian government, adding it had responded to the Iranian plot by passing the Criminal Code Amendment (State Sponsors of Terrorism) Act 2025, which creates a new framework allowing the Government to respond to state-sponsored terrorism.

The IRGC is the first listing of a state sponsor of terrorism under this new framework, the announcement noted.

“Listing the IRGC is an important deterrent and disruption to terrorist activity, and puts members of the public on notice that the IRGC is a state sponsor of terrorism under Australian law, and certain dealings with them are now criminal offenses,” it continued.

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong said, “Iran’s attacks were unprecedented and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil, which is why we are listing the IRCG as a state sponsor of terrorism. It has no place in Australia.”

“The Albanese Government has taken stronger action on Iran than any previous Australian government and will continue to work to keep Australians safe,” she added.

Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke stated, “Listing of the IRGC is in direct response to the despicable actions of the Iranian Government, and further empowers our police, security, and intelligence agencies to stamp out hatred and violence.”

“The Australian Government is committed to keeping Australians safe and restricting the operation of extremists in our country, no matter their place of origin,” he said.

Iran has categorically denied the accusations that it plotted antisemitic attacks in Australia. In September, Iran announced it had downgraded ties with Australia, following Canberra’s expulsion of the Iranian ambassador over allegations that Tehran orchestrated the two antisemitic attacks.

Arutz Sheva

Day 783 — Thursday, November 27

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told the Argentina-based outlet Infobae the South American nation will finish moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem by May, 2026.

Sa’ar is presently in Argentina at the tail-end of a whirlwind tour that began on Monday with a visit to Paraguay, where he met with conservative President Santiago Peña and denounced before the nation’s Parliament the links between Venezuela’s socialist Maduro regime with Iran and the terrorist groups Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.

The Israeli Minister arrived in Argentina on Tuesday for a two-day visit that included a meeting with President Javier Milei and a participation in different events.

Speaking at the Argentine-Israeli Economic Forum in Buenos Aires on Tuesday evening, Sa’ar and his Argentine counterpart Pablo Quirno confirmed that Argentina will finish moving its embassy to Jerusalem next year, with President Javier Milei leading Argentina’s delegation at the ceremony. Sa’ar told Infobae, “Let’s hope it will be in April or May, with God’s help.”

“We are going to work, following an invitation I received from the foreign minister this morning, to visit Israel in February 2026. We are also working on a new official visit by the president, during which we will complete the move of the Argentine embassy to Jerusalem,” Foreign Minister Quirno said.

“Minister, we look forward to your visit to Israel in February. I hope that we can make progress in these three months and then contribute to making it a successful visit. In addition, President Milei will inaugurate the new embassy in Jerusalem, the capital of David,” Sa’ar responded. 

Upon taking office in December 2023, President Milei immediately spearheaded a “realignment” of Argentina’s foreign policy with the United States and Israel as its top allies — ending nearly two decades of socialist foreign policies that pushed the country towards China, Russia, Iran, and the authoritarian regimes of Cuba and Venezuela.

Milei first formally announced Argentina would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during his June address to the Knesset, following a trend set by President Trump who, during his first term, recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 and moved the U.S. embassy there in 2018.

Breitbart

Day 782 — Wednesday, November 26

The Palestinian Authority isn’t capable of disarming the Hamas terror organization and governing Gaza, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan prescribes, according to Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.

“Let’s be honest,” Danon told the U.N. Security Council on Monday. “The truth is that the PA has no willingness and no ability to confront Hamas.”

“Some colleagues have suggested that the Palestinian Authority could be the one to disarm Hamas and rebuild Gaza,” the envoy added, during the council’s monthly briefing on the Israel-Palestinian file. “This assumes the PA will suddenly do something it has never done and has never been able to do.”

A U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution, which passed unanimously last week with two abstentions, calls for a “pathway” to a Palestinian state. That would happen, per the resolution, once the Palestinian Authority undergoes reforms, which aren’t specified, to ready to govern Gaza.

The past 18 years, since Hamas seized Gaza violently from the Authority, “have given us the answer: Hamas rules Gaza, because the PA could not and would not stop them,” Danon told the council.

The Israeli envoy noted that Trump’s plan calls for an international force to stabilize and secure Gaza during a transitional governance period.
But the Authority’s “weakness” is clear in Judea and Samaria, its home base, where terror groups, including Hamas, operate freely and where Israel is the only one to intercept weapons shipments from Iran, according to Danon.

“This is the consequence of PA inaction,” he told the council. “Israel is left to dismantle the terror networks they refuse to confront.”

JNS

Day 782 — Wednesday, November 26

After completing the identification process by the National Center for Forensic Medicine, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced that the hostage body returned Tuesday night belongs to Dror Or from Beeri, whose family has been notified.

The return of Or from Hamas captivity marks the first time, since October 7, that there are no hostages from Kibbutz Be’eri in Gaza.

“The Hamas terrorist organization is required to fulfill its obligations to the mediators and return them within the framework of the implementation of the agreement. We will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all the abductees, down to the last one,” the statement read.

On October 7, the terrorists who raided the kibbutz arrived at the Or family’s home in the Hakerem neighborhood and set it on fire. Dror and Yonath pulled their children out of the window of the shelter, thus saving their lives. The couple split up and tried to escape, but both were murdered, and Dror was kidnapped to Gaza. Noam and Alma, who were then 16 and 13 years old, were kidnapped to Gaza and released after 50 days, exactly two years from Tuesday.

“The Government and the entire Israeli Defense Forces are determined, committed and working tirelessly to return the remaining two deceased hostages for a proper burial in their country,” the Prime Minister’s Office statement added.

i24 News

Day 781 — Tuesday, November 25

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Sunday that he praised U.S. President Donald Trump for “his decision to outlaw and designate the Muslim Brotherhood organization as a terrorist organization.”

“This is an organization that endangers stability throughout the Middle East and beyond the Middle East as well,” Netanyahu said. “Therefore, the State of Israel has already outlawed part of the organization, and we are working to complete this action soon.”

Trump has not mentioned a decision to designate the Muslim Brotherhood on social media. Just the News reported that Trump told the publication “on Sunday morning that he will designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, striking a blow against a group long blamed for destabilizing the Middle East and radicalizing young Muslims.”

“It will be done in the strongest and most powerful terms,” Trump reportedly told the publication. “Final documents are being drawn.”

“Thank you, President Trump, for designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. This move is vital—the Brotherhood is not just a political group, but a transnational ideological network that radicalizes youth, spreads extremist doctrine through mosques and media, particularly Al Jazeera, and undermines democratic values,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told JNS on Monday.

“Several other nation states like the UAE and Jordan have already recognized the threat and banned the Muslim Brotherhood,” she continued.

“It’s time for many other nations to follow because if we don’t stop this ideology now, it will only grow stronger and more dangerous in the years ahead,” she added.

Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, stated that Trump had made “the right call regarding terror groups.”

Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) stated that Trump’s decision is “tremendous news.”

“We will use this to destroy Muslim terror affiliates like the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Students for Justice in Palestine,” he said. “So grateful to the president.”

When he designated the Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stated that both “have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world.‘”

“The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation and harassment are unacceptable,” the Texas governor added. “These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.”

JNS

Day 781 — Tuesday, November 25

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stressed on Monday that President Donald Trump supports Israel’s right to defend itself, in the wake of Israel’s elimination of Hezbollah’s Chief of Staff in a strike in Beirut on Sunday.

During a conversation with reporters, Leavitt was asked by Walla News’ US correspondent Idan Kweller whether Trump supports Israel’s elimination of the Hezbollah Chief of Staff and whether he is in favor of Israel blocking Hezbollah from growing again.

“I haven’t spoken to the President about that strike specifically, but of course the President supports Israel’s right to defend itself and to take out any terrorist threats,” she replied.

The IDF confirmed on Sunday that, guided by the Intelligence Directorate, it struck in the area of Beirut and eliminated the terrorist Haytham Ali Tabataba’i, Hezbollah’s Chief of General Staff.

Tabataba’i was a veteran in the Hezbollah terrorist organization. He joined its ranks in the 1980s and has since held a series of senior positions, including commanding the “Radwan Force” Unit and serving as the head of Hezbollah’s operations in Syria. During his role in Syria, he further entrenched Hezbollah’s capabilities in Syria.

During the war, he was appointed commander of the organization’s operations array and was responsible for consolidating the operational picture and force build-up. During Operation “Northern Arrows,” after most of the military leadership was neutralized, he was effectively responsible for managing the combat against Israel.

The elimination came as tensions remain high a year into a US– and French-backed ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel accuses Beirut of failing to uphold its obligation to disarm Hezbollah, which is designated a terrorist organization by the US.

Israel has struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon as the terrorist organization continues to rebuild its military infrastructure and maintain an armed presence near Israel’s northern border.

Arutz Sheva 

Day 780 — Monday, November 24

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday urged Beirut to disarm Hezbollah, speaking after an Israel Defense Forces strike in the Lebanese capital killed the Iran-backed terror group’s “chief of staff.”

“I expect the government of Lebanon to fulfill its commitment to disarm Hezbollah,” said Netanyahu as he confirmed the death of Haytham Ali Tabatabai, the group’s No. 2 after Secretary-General Naim Qassem.

Only through Beirut fulfilling its commitments under the Nov. 26, 2024, ceasefire understandings with Jerusalem, Netanyahu said, “can a better future be made possible for every citizen in Lebanon—and only in this way can good and secure neighborly relations be established,” he said.

The premier in his remarks congratulated the IDF on the “professional, accurate and successful” strike and vowed that, “under my leadership, the State of Israel will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its power and we will not allow it to pose a threat to the State of Israel again.”

Netanyahu noted that Tabatabai was a “mass murderer” whose hands were “soaked in the blood of many Israelis and Americans, and it is not for nothing that the U.S. put a bounty of five million dollars on his head.”

The slain Hezbollah commander led the terror group’s Radwan Force, which has been preparing “to conquer the Galilee and slaughter many of our citizens,” said Netanyahu.

In recent months, he was in charge of Hezbollah’s efforts to rearm, after the “heavy blows” it suffered during a year of fighting with the IDF.

Tabatabai, who reportedly survived two previous IDF assassination attempts, was killed on Sunday when Israeli Air Force fighter jets dropped precision munitions on his hideout apartment on the fourth floor of a building in Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh district, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported.

Hezbollah confirmed the assassination of its chief of staff in a statement, describing Tabatabai with the epithet “commander of the great jihad,” a title reserved for the Shi’ite terrorist organization’s most senior leaders.

The organization confirmed that four terrorists were slain alongside Tabatabai, identifying them as Ibrahim Ali Hussein, Rifaat Ahmed Hussein, Mustafa Asaad Barrou and Qassem Hussein Barjawi.

Hezbollah said Tabatabai had become “a martyr for Lebanon following the treacherous Israeli attack” in Beirut.” However, Sunday’s statement stopped short of issuing or hinting at any threat of retaliation.

Although there is currently no change in the instructions for civilians on the Israeli home front, residents of the north are concerned about possible retaliation by the terror group, and Jerusalem already has battle plans in place in case there is a response from Hezbollah, according to Channel 12.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated on Sunday night that, “The State of Israel will continue to act as required to eliminate the threat on the northern border and strengthen the security of the residents of the area and all citizens of the State of Israel.”

The Israeli head of state commended “the prime minister, the defense minister, the IDF chief of staff, the Cabinet, the security forces and all those involved in the elimination of Hezbollah’s chief of staff.”

On Nov. 26, 2024, Jerusalem and Beirut signed a ceasefire deal aimed at ending more than a year of cross-border fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed terrorists began attacking the Jewish state in support of Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

Since the truce, the IDF has conducted frequent raids to stop Hezbollah from rebuilding terror infrastructure in Lebanon, in violation of the deal.

A senior Israeli official told Israel Hayom on Thursday that Jerusalem has not seen the Lebanese army dismantling Hezbollah, as required under the truce, and that only the IDF could disarm the terrorists.

Israeli ground forces over the past year carried out some 1,200 incursions into Southern Lebanon, Ynet reported on Monday.

The IDF’s moves included overt and covert patrols, ambushes targeting terrorists and the destruction of structures or tunnel shafts that were not uncovered during “Operation Northern Arrows” in late 2024, it said.

The military operations spanned Israel’s entire 87-mile border with the Land of the Cedars, and included three to five raids daily within 1.9 to 3.1 miles of the frontier, according to Monday morning’s Ynet report.

JNS

Day 780 — Monday, November 24

An anti-Israel group’s website is offering bounties of up to $100,000 for the murder of Israeli academics, according to reports.

The Punishment for Justice Movement not only named specific targets and prices on their heads, but also published personal information like home addresses, emails and phone numbers, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The academics who were targeted work at universities like Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, the Technion public research university in Haifa and even Harvard and Oxford universities and the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Along with offering $100,000 for the killing of “special targets,” $50,000 was being offered for the murder of other targets, as well as $20,000 to set fire to their homes or car, $5,000 for information about a target and $1,000 to put protest signs outside their homes.

The website, created last summer and apparently originating in the Netherlands, briefly went down Friday night but was back up Saturday, the outlet reported.

The website is written in English, according to The Times of Israel, and accuses its targets of being “criminals and collaborators with the occupation army,” referring to the war in Gaza.

It also accuses the targets of being “distributors of weapons of mass destruction to the Israeli army” who are “involved in the murder of Palestinian children,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

The organization claimed to have warned the targets to “abandon criminal activity” and stop working with the Israel Defense Forces but claimed they ignored the warnings. So, they are now “legitimate targets for the movement,” according to the Times.

Two targeted academics told the Post they received no warning, and several of those targeted at the European Organization for Nuclear Research said they hadn’t worked on military projects, but the website creators seemed to be mixed up by the word “nuclear.”

One targeted academic told the Post, “The competent government agencies should suggest more comprehensive solutions” than just taking down the website “because walking around with targets on our heads puts at risk not only us, but also our families.”

Fox News

Day 779 — Sunday, November 23

Anti-Israel activists staged a graphic demonstration at Union Station in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, reviving classic antisemitic blood libel imagery. Participants dressed as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. leaders, including President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden, sat beside a mock “menu” labeled “Gaza’s spilled blood,” drinking red liquid meant to resemble wine. They were also filmed biting into fake blood-soaked organs, with the red fluid dripping from their faces.

The activists, Hazami Barmada and Atefeh Rokhvand, later claimed responsibility for the stunt on social media. According to Barmada’s LinkedIn profile, he is a former UN staffer and a Harvard graduate, while Rokhvand identifies online as a member of Teachers Against Genocide.

The display was framed by its organizers as a political protest against what they describe as an American-funded Israeli “genocide” in Gaza. A video of the demonstration was circulated online with the caption “Israeli Friendsgiving.”

Jewish organizations criticized the display, noting its resemblance to historic blood libel imagery that falsely depicted Jews as harming non-Jewish children for ritual purposes. That accusation has been used for centuries to justify hostility and violence against Jewish communities, contributing to pogroms in Eastern Europe, later appearing in Nazi propaganda, and eventually gaining traction in parts of the Arab and Islamic worlds.

“The Jews lie under the guilt of blood and murder. Some have laid a most hideous fact to the charge of the Jews, that they have been wont once a year to steal Christian children, and to put them to death by crucifying out of scorn and hatred against Christians,” Mather falsely claimed in a 1669 tract.

“Blood libel was on full display today,” the American Jewish Committee stated in response to the anti-Jewish display at the U.S. Capitol.

“Dressed up as ‘activism’ and ‘performance art,’ this was nothing less than the revival of one of the oldest and most dangerous antisemitic tropes in history,” the Jewish organization assessed. “Blood libel has fueled violence, persecution and massacres of Jews for centuries. Seeing it resurface in our nation’s capital is both horrifying and unacceptable,” the AJC warned.

The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Greater Washington echoed similar sentiments.

“Just steps away from the symbols and heart of American democracy, a scene that would have been right at home in Nazi Germany played out in the United States. Seldom have we seen such a sickening display of full-throated antisemitism,” the JCRC said.

The demonstration also invoked an antisemitic trope alleging that Jews control the United States and its foreign policy. The participant dressed as Netanyahu shouted at the actors portraying U.S. leaders, calling them “loyal lap dogs.”

Anti-Israel activists typically assert that their criticism is directed at Israeli policy rather than the Jewish people. However, analysts have observed that some anti-Zionist expressions that portray Israel as uniquely malicious or illegitimate closely resemble longstanding antisemitic themes, including the historical blood libel.

Earlier this week, some 200 pro-Hamas activists chanted “Death to the IDF” and “We don’t want no Zionists here” outside Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue. Many of the anti-Israel activists, who were masked and wearing keffiyehs, threatened violence against Israelis and Jews with slogans, including, “Resistance you make us proud, take another settler out,” and “From New York to Gaza, globalize the Intifada.”

All Israel News 

Day 778 — Saturday, November 22

The Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah is rebuilding its military arsenal on Israel’s northern border, as experts warn that another war between the two sides could be on the horizon. The latest developments come a year after the U.S. helped broker a ceasefire between the parties.

On Wednesday, IDF spokesman Nadav Shoshani, said Hezbollah had engaged “in a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.” Shoshani also released a video showing the rearming, claiming the terror group was “operating to reestablish its assets in the village of Beit Lif.” 

Critics argue that the U.N. peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, is not fulfilling its mandate to disarm the terror group and the Lebanese Armed Forces are moving too slowly, which has led to continued Israeli actions against the terrorists. The IDF has been launching near-daily strikes against the group’s infrastructure and operatives inside Lebanon. 

Sarit Zehavi, a leading Israeli security expert on Hezbollah from the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, told Fox News Digital that Hezbollah does not currently “have the capability to carry out an October invasion. They had it prior to Oct. 7, 2023. They can send in a few terrorists. I want to believe it will take a few years to get those capabilities back.”

Fox News Digital exclusively reported last year on Hezbollah’s war plan to invade northern Israel and carry out a scorched-earth campaign against the Jewish state.

A day after the Iran-backed Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and massacred over 1,200 people, Hezbollah launched missile attacks against Israel.

Fox News 

Day 777 — Friday, November 21

US President Donald Trump hosted a delegation at the White House on Thursday of nearly all the hostages freed through as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal he brokered last month.

“You’re not a hostage anymore… today you’re heroes,” Trump told the former hostages and their families in a brief portion of his prepared remarks that were filmed and released by the White House.

The Israeli delegation was made up of 26 former hostages, including 17 of the 20 living captives who were released in the deal that took force in October.

Among those 17 was Matan Angrest, who Trump singled out for praise.

“Because of his service in the IDF, Matan was subjected to severe beatings, even at times losing consciousness. Alone and under special guard, he went through hell,” Trump said in another short video posted by the Hostages Families Forum.

“Matan never broke, and today he’s a living testimony to the toughness, heart, and faith of the Jewish people. I’m telling you, you’re a great inspiration to everybody,” Trump added.

Addressing all of the hostages, Trump said, “It’s an honor to get to know all of you. I know some of you already. I know some of the previous hostages that we got out very well. We love you all, and our country loves you all… you’re amazing people.”

Trump also handed each member of the delegation a special presidential coin.

A number of the former hostages brought gifts for the US president to express their gratitude. Twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman brought a mezuzah that had survived the fire that Hamas-led terrorists had set in their Kfar Aza home during the October 7, 2023, attack that started the Gaza war.

The twins recovered the mezuzah last week during their first visit back to Kfar Aza since they were freed on October 13.

In interviews ahead of the White House visit, the former hostages said they were planning to use the opportunity to thank Trump for securing their release, while urging him to continue pressuring Hamas to free the remaining three bodies of deceased hostages still held in Gaza.

Thursday’s reception marked the third time that Trump has hosted delegations of hostages whose release he helped secure in two separate deals this year, the first of which was sealed in January when he was president-elect.

Trump campaigned on securing the release of the hostages and ending the war in Gaza. The January 2025 deal fell apart after its six-week first phase, leading to another eight months of war before the October ceasefire.

The Israeli delegation arrived in the US on Tuesday and was hosted on Wednesday by a bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Times Of Israel

Day 777 — Friday, November 21

The Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday it had uncovered one of the largest and most complex Hamas tunnel networks found so far in Gaza, a route stretching more than 4.3 miles and descending roughly 82 feet.

The underground route, which the military said ran under “a densely populated Rafah neighborhood and through an UNRWA compound, mosques, clinics, kindergartens and schools,” included 80 hideouts.

In addition to being employed by senior Hamas terrorists to store weapons and plan attacks during extended stays, the network was used to hide the remains of slain IDF Lt. Hadar Goldin for 4,000-plus days.

Hamas terrorists killed Goldin in Shejaiya, Gaza City, on Aug. 1, 2014, hours after a ceasefire took effect in that year’s war (“Operation Protective Edge”) between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group. His body was returned on Nov. 9, 2025, as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal.

Defense Minister Israel Katz tweeted on Thursday, “This is the tunnel where Lt. Hadar Goldin was held. More than 8 kilometers and 80 (!) bedrooms.

“We must destroy the underground terror city that Hamas built in Gaza. The IDF is working non-stop to carry out the mission,” continued Katz, who added, “Until the last tunnel.”

JNS

Day 776 — Thursday, November 20

Texas Governor Greg Abbott formally declared the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist groups and transnational criminal organizations on Tuesday. 

“The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,’“ Abbott stated in a press release, announcing the move.

“The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable.”

The move follows revelations of substantial land purchases by Brotherhood-affiliated groups and individuals in Texas.

The project to build the community was initially called “EPIC City,” before being renamed to “The Meadows.” Abbott’s declaration will prevent either group from making property purchases in Texas. 

Following Governor Abbott’s announcement, CAIR said it would pursue legal action, alleging the designation amounted to defamation.

Ghassan Elashi, a founding member of CAIR Texas, was convicted of illegally shipping computer technology to Syria and Libya in violation of sanctions against the countries. In 2009, Elashi was sentenced to 65 years in prison for helping funnel $12 million to the Hamas terrorist organization. 

Abbott responded to CAIR’s threat on social media, writing that he is not afraid of the lawsuit, as it will force CAIR Texas to expose its financial records for legal review. 

On Tuesday, a report from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) and the Intelligent Advocacy Network (IAN) showed that CAIR California, the largest chapter, paid each anti-Israel campus protester $1,000. 

According to the report, CAIR California has received more than $26.9 million in taxpayer funding since 2022, despite allegedly failing to deliver many of the services it was contracted to provide.

The state of California paid CAIR California $7.2 million to provide legal services to roughly 1,800 Afghan refugees who fled Taliban rule. The report found that the organization ultimately served only 177 refugees.

The report also found that some of CAIR’s funds were used to provide services to individuals from countries such as Iran and China, despite prohibitions on using the money for that purpose. In addition, CAIR California illegally diverted $3.6 million out of $5 million – designated for paying independent service providers as part of the Afghan refugee program – into its CAIR Los Angeles office. 

The report also found that CAIR California submitted federal tax forms that omitted required disclosures, allegedly obscuring how the taxpayer funds were used.

CAIR California allegedly created a student resistance program disguised as an “Education Fund,” which it labeled the “Champions of Justice Fund,” and was used to pay student activists who participated in anti-Israel protests on college campuses. 

In response, NCRI Founder Joel Finkelstein said, “These programs support students after acts of criminality and violence, creating a reward structure for building the most militant face of the movement.” 

CAIR, which claims to be the largest Muslim charity in the United States, previously settled lawsuits with disgruntled former employees rather than expose its financial records for legal review. 

All Israel News

Day 776 — Thursday, November 20

Anti-Zionist protesters chanted for an intifada and heckled Jews at a demonstration outside a prominent New York City synagogue on Wednesday night.

The demonstrators gathered outside the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan to protest against an event held by Nefesh B’nefesh, an organization that helps Jews immigrate to Israel.

Around 200 demonstrators chanted “Death to the IDF,” “We don’t want no Zionists here,” and, “Resistance you make us proud, take another settler out.”

“From New York to Gaza, globalize the intifada,” they chanted, to the beat of a drum.

A protest leader told the crowd, “It is our duty to make them think twice before holding these events. We need to make them scared. We need to make them scared. We need to make them scared.”

Times Of Israel

Day 775 — Wednesday, November 19

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel will press ahead to “complete the war on all fronts, including disarming Hamas and demilitarizing the Gaza Strip” after acknowledging the deadly Palestinian terrorist attack earlier in the day at the Gush Etzion Junction.

The premier made the remarks at a Torah scroll dedication ceremony in memory of Maj. (res.) Dr. Moshe Yedidya Leiter, a Shaldag Reconnaissance Unit commander who was killed in battle in the Gaza Strip in November 2023. The event honored Leiter, 39, the son of Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, who served as a reservist paramedic and was a father of six.

Netanyahu linked his pledge to continue the war with the combined vehicle ramming and stabbing at the Gush Etzion Junction in Judea on Tuesday afternoon that killed Kiryat Arba resident Aharon Cohen and wounded several others. The Israel Defense Forces killed two terrorists at the scene. Several explosive materials were discovered in the vehicle used by the terrorists, according to the military. Police bomb disposal specialists worked to neutralize the explosives.

Netanyahu praised the “victory of the spirit” shown by Israeli soldiers and bereaved families, calling Moshe Leiter a symbol of sacrifice “for our existence” and Israel’s future. He also lauded Ambassador Leiter’s work in Washington, saying he presents “the justice of our path” and Israel’s right to its land “in the most important arena among the nations.”

At the ceremony, Netanyahu said it was “a tremendous privilege” to dedicate a Torah scroll in Leiter’s memory and blessed those involved in commemorating the fallen officer.

JNS

Day 775 — Wednesday, November 19

ew York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani reiterated this week that he would honor the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should the leader visit the city, a stance he first announced before winning office.

Mamdani’s made his remarks as outgoing Mayor Eric Adams met with Netanyahu and encouraged him to attend Mamdani’s upcoming inauguration, according to local reports.

During a live appearance on ABC7, Mamdani described NYC as a “city of international law” that would uphold the ICC’s 2024 arrest warrants, which accused Netanyahu of intentionally attacking civilians and using starvation as a method of warfare.

“I’ve said time and again that I believe this is a city of international law, and being a city of international law means looking to uphold international law,” he said. “And that means upholding the warrants from the International Criminal Court, whether they’re for Benjamin Netanyahu or Vladimir Putin.

“We are a global city, but what New Yorkers are looking for is consistency in the way we talk about our values and follow through with them,” he said. “That’s why these warrants from the International Criminal Court are worth fully exploring — every legal possibility to actually follow through on.”

Prior to his election victory, Mamdani also told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on “The Story” in October that he would arrest Netanyahu if legally permitted, saying New York “wants to uplift and uphold” such principles.

Mamdani said he would not pursue a new law to ensure Netanyahu could be arrested, while also criticizing President Donald Trump.

“Unlike Donald Trump, I’m someone who looks to exist within the confines of the laws that we have,” he said. “So, I will look to exhaust every legal possibility, not create my own laws, to do so.”

He has previously acknowledged that the United States is not a signatory to the ICC treaty but maintains that the city should still aim to uphold ICC arrest warrants while “abiding with all of the laws in front of us.”

Fox News

Day 774 — Tuesday, November 18

The U.N. Security Council voted 13-0 on Monday to adopt a U.S.-drafted resolution on the future of Gaza, as Russia and China forewent their veto power and abstained on the vote.

“We stand at a crossroads. Today, we have the power to douse the flames and light a path to peace,” said Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, before the vote.

The resolution codifies a mandate for Washington and partners to create and implement an international stabilization force in Gaza and what U.S. President Donald Trump has called a Board of Peace, which he will lead and which will serve as a transitional government authority.

The resolution also sets parameters for Israeli troops to withdraw from Gaza, leaving some in place to guard against resurgent terror threats.

“This will go down as one of the biggest approvals in the history of the United Nations, will lead to further peace all over the world and is a moment of true historic proportion,” Trump stated.

“The demilitarization of Hamas is a basic condition of the peace agreement,” stated Danny Danon, the Israeli envoy to the United Nations, after the vote. “There will be no future in Gaza as long as Hamas possesses weapons.”

Speaking during the council session, Waltz said that “for two years, Gaza has been a crucible of conflict, a hell on earth where Hamas’s brutality and terror met Israel’s fierce response.”

“We have a ceasefire that is holding. This plan has already silenced the guns and freed the hostages in this fragile first step,” he said. “The remaining hostages must come home.”

The resolution also states that “conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood” after the Palestinian Authority undergoes reforms and Gaza’s reconstruction is “advanced.”

Waltz said that more than a dozen European heads of state, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Arab allies of Trump’s supported the plan. 

“With this kind of support, I ask you if the region most affected—the Arab nations, the Muslim majority nations, the Palestinians and the Israelis—can accept this resolution, how could anyone be against it?” Waltz told the council. 

“I ask everyone today, are you more righteous in this cause than those who must live with it and will ultimately benefit from this plan for peace?” he said.

Moscow had voiced concern that Washington would be given the power to dictate the future of the coastal enclave and drafted its own stripped-down resolution, which would have put the issue in the hands of U.N. leadership.

Israeli officials have pushed back forcefully on the language regarding a Palestinian state, which was negotiated only into the final U.S. draft of the resolution.

There is little clarity as to whether the international stabilization force, or another, will be charged with demilitarizing Hamas should the terror group fail to willingly disarm.

JNS

Day 774 — Tuesday, November 18

Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams used his visit to Israel to deliver one of his bluntest warnings yet about incoming socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, declaring, “If I were a Jewish New Yorker I would be concerned about my children,” and insisting, “Everything is not fine” for the city’s Jews as antisemitism surges and a new administration prepares to take power.

Adams arrived in Israel on Friday for his final trip as mayor, meeting with business and political leaders and visiting sites tied to the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre. On Sunday, the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) hosted an event in Tel Aviv honoring him for his support of Israel and his efforts to confront rising antisemitism — an event that quickly shifted into a stark warning about New York’s future under Mamdani. 

Asked about Jewish safety once Mamdani takes office January 1, Adams did not hedge. “We need to be honest about the moment and cannot sugarcoat it,” he said. “The New York Jewish community must prepare themselves. This is a period where you need to be conscious about the level of global hostility towards the Jewish community. If I were a Jewish New Yorker, I would be concerned about my children.”

Pressed again, Adams was even more direct: “Everything is not fine. If you say everything is fine, you are setting yourself up for failure.”

The outgoing mayor described an alarming cultural shift in which antisemitism is now socially rewarded. “It is now cool and hip to be antisemitic,” Adams said, recounting an encounter with a teenager in Brownsville who called him a Zionist and demanded Israel’s destruction despite being unable to locate the country on a map — a worldview absorbed entirely through social media.

“They hijacked our young people,” Adams warned. “Their plan was well executed. Now we need a professional plan to fight back.”

Adams also argued that the core of the anti-Israel campaign has never been about land or sovereignty. “The ‘Free Palestine Movement’ was never about land,” he said. “It was, and is, about the destruction and eradication of Jewish people.”

He said that figures he described as “the Zohrans of the world” helped drive that narrative, turning the imagery into a rallying point for anger against Israel.

Adams has previously called Mamdani’s victory “abnormal” and evidence that “people are comfortable with being antisemitic.” During the campaign, Mamdani repeatedly refused to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” as antisemitic, only reversing himself after sustained backlash — even as he continued to deny Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and framed himself as a champion of the “Free Palestine” movement.

Mamdani has faced criticism for years over his affiliations and positions. He co-founded a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter in college, has backed the BDS campaign since 2014, pledged not to visit Israel as mayor, and said he would “exhaust every legal option” to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York City — citing International Criminal Court warrants the U.S. does not recognize.

Breitbart

Day 773 — Monday, November 17

Jerusalem will not allow a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, rejecting a U.S.-backed statement calling for a “pathway” for creating “Palestine.”

“Our opposition to a Palestinian state on any territory west of the Jordan River exists, is firm, and has not changed in the slightest,” Netanyahu stated, speaking ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

“I have been pushing back against these attempts for decades, doing so against external pressure as well as internal pressure. So I don’t need encouragement, tweets, or lectures from anyone,” Netanyahu added.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar had declared earlier on Sunday that the Jewish state would “not agree to the establishment of a Palestinian terror state in the heart of the Land of Israel, at point-blank distance from all of its population centers and with topographical control over them.”

Jerusalem’s top diplomat noted that Israel Defense Forces troops were working to destroy three Iran-backed terrorist states: Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

Earlier on Sunday morning, Defense Minister Israel Katz tweeted, “Israel’s policy is clear: A Palestinian state will not be established.

“Gaza will be demilitarized down to the last tunnel, and Hamas will be disarmed—in the ‘yellow area’ by the IDF, and in ‘old Gaza’ by the international force, or by the IDF,” the defense minister added.

The “yellow area” refers to the area inside the so-called yellow line, slightly over 50% of Gaza’s territory, to which Israeli forces withdrew as part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Katz also said Israel Defense Forces soldiers would remain on Mount Hermon and in the security zone in Syria to protect the Jewish state’s northern border following the fall of the Assad regime in late 2024.

In a joint statement arranged by the United States on Friday, eight nations working toward ending the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip expressed their support for Washington’s proposed International Stabilization Force.

According to the statement, signed by Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan and Turkey, the process “offers a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”

The joint statement appeared to go further than U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, which Jerusalem has approved, by not leaving Palestinian statehood up for debate.

Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the statement on Friday, saying that it affirmed “the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and to establish their independent State of Palestine.”

On Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s most senior right-wing coalition partners called on the premier to make it clear that Jerusalem would not agree to establish a Palestinian state.

“Mr. Prime Minister … Formulate an appropriate and resolute response immediately that will make clear to the whole world that a Palestinian state will never be established,” stated Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the country’s Religious Zionist Party.

Smotrich noted that on Sept. 21, after several countries led by France announced their unilateral recognition of “Palestine,” Netanyahu had “pledged to respond firmly” when he returned to Israel from the United States.

“Since then, two months have passed in which you have chosen silence and diplomatic disgrace,” he tweeted. “The deterioration we are now seeing on this issue is dangerous, and it is your responsibility and the result of your silence.”

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the Otzma Yehudit Party, said that he would not be part of any Israeli government that gives tacit approval to Palestinian statehood.

“I call on the prime minister to make clear that the State of Israel will not permit the establishment of a Palestinian state in any form,” he tweeted.

Ben-Gvir’s post noted “there is no such thing as a ‘Palestinian people’—it is an invention with no historical, archaeological, or factual basis. A collection of migrants from Arab countries to the Land of Israel does not constitute a people, and they certainly do not deserve a prize for the terror, murder and atrocities they have sown everywhere, especially from Gaza, the place where they were granted self-rule.”

The only real solution in Gaza, the tweet continued, “is encouraging voluntary emigration, and certainly not a reward state for terror that would serve as a base for continued terrorism.”

Early last year, Israeli Knesset lawmakers voted 99-11 to reject unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood. All coalition lawmakers and most members of Zionist opposition parties voted against “international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians.”

In July, a majority of 71 out of 120 Knesset members from the coalition and opposition passed a non-binding resolution in favor of applying Jerusalem’s sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.

In addition, the parliament last month approved in preliminary reading two bills to formally annex parts of Judea and Samaria. The proposed legislation has been sent to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for consideration ahead of three additional votes.

JNS

Day 773 — Monday, November 17

A Jewish Montreal woman says she was told by a Canadian passport office employee that she could not indicate Israel as her country of birth because it is “a conflict zone.”

Anastasia Zorchinsky is a Canadian citizen but she was born in Kfar Saba, in central Israel. However, she says in a Nov. 13 video posted on X that the official told her because of the “political conflict we cannot put Israel in your passport.”

Alternatively, she was told she could have indicated her birth country as Palestine, and that Kfar Saba was one of several cities that was allegedly caught by this policy shift, including Jerusalem.

Moreover, Zorchinsky was told this was a country-specific restriction – only affecting Israel.

Doubting what she was told, Zorchinsky told National Post in an interview, she asked to see the policy supporting the official’s assertion. Then, she says, the employee went away and came back with a few colleagues who told her this change came about because Canada has recognized a state of Palestine.

She was also told there was an online list of the cities caught by the policy change.

Zorchinsky asked for a policy document that laid out the officials’ assertion. They provided nothing.

“She (the passport employee) just said this without any support, no policy document. It was clear something was off.”

Ultimately, the passport officials backed down and told her it was okay to designate Israel as her birth country.

“If I had just submitted my application, who knows what would have happened?” she asserts. “It’s clear discrimination.”

“Why should people have to suffer the indignity of having to beg?” says Zorchinsky’s lawyer, Neil Oberman. While his client pushed back, he suggests many people would be reluctant to do so.

Jewish Canadians, he says, “shouldn’t have to deal with this. Issues of politics shouldn’t bleed into dealing with a government agency when it comes to a document for identification.”

Contrary to Zorchinsky’s experience, a communications advisor for of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Jeffrey MacDonald, wrote in an email to NP that “(n)o changes have been made regarding the issuing of passports for individuals born in Israel.”

MacDonald went on to say that while the department “cannot comment on specific cases due to privacy considerations, we can confirm that the city of Kfar Saba can be printed in Canadian travel documents with Israel as the country of birth.”

Meanwhile, Oberman has written the passport office, its Service Canada headquarters and Lena Diab, the federal minister for IRCC.

The Nov. 12 letter, posted on social media, recounts his client’s experience and demands the policy documents which are the basis for the comments made by Montreal passport officials.

He also points to a training concern among the passport office employees that his client encountered. He writes that clearly the staff “did not understand the governing policy were unable to articulate or apply a legally grounded standard.”

The letter also requests training materials related to the country of birth designation, as well as written assurance that “political considerations” do not drive passport identity details.

Oberman requested a response by Nov. 18. Failing that, he states a complaint may be filed to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the federal ombudsperson and possibly to the Federal Court.

“If there is some sort of injustice,” Zorchinsky said, “you have to stand up, speak up.” She says she doesn’t want this to happen to anyone else, no matter where they were born.

On X, the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs said it had contacted the federal government to address the “unacceptable” thing that happened to Zorchinsky.

“Not only for this individual, but for all Canadians accessing government services.”

National post

Day 772 — Sunday, November 16

Warning: This story describes deeply disturbing events and testimonies in graphic detail.

“No independent investigation found that rape took place on October 7,” United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, falsely claimed on Friday, despite a UN report that detailed Hamas’s use of sexual violence during the October 7 massacre.

“No Palestinian applauded rape in Gaza,” Alsalem further wrote during a social media exchange on the ongoing legal case against soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian prisoner in the Sde Teiman detention center.

Last year in March, Alsalem also denied knowing Israel had been a victim of repeated missile attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah as the terrorist groups launched air barrages on civilian communities across Israel.

She also co-authored a February 2024 report with Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, accusing the IDF of sexually abusing Palestinian females.

Asked at the time in an interview with Channel 13’s Hazinor, where she received her information for this report from, Alsalem said the “reasonably credible information” had come from sources she could not cite and the nonprofit Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

Notably, anti-Israel conspiracist Richard Falk is the chair of Euro-Med’s board. He has previously claimed that Israel was responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing.

A United Nations delegation of experts, including Pramila Patten, the UN special rep. of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, visited Israel in February 2024, where they said they had found substantial evidence that Hamas had raped and sexually abused hostages and victims during and after the massacre.

These findings were established following an extensive review of over 50 hours of footage, 5,000 photographs, and 34 independent interviews.

“Nine experts drawn from the UN, including… specialists trained in safe and ethical interviewing of survivors/victims and witnesses of sexual violence crimes, a forensic pathologist, and a digital and open-source information analyst,” confirmed Hamas had raped and committed other acts of sexual violence.

The team also found “that there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred in multiple locations during the October 7 attacks, including rape and gang-rape in at least three locations, namely: The Nova music festival site and its surroundings, route 232, and Kibbutz Re’im.”

An investigation launched by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel also found significant evidence that Hamas had used sexual abuse as a weapon of war on October 7.

After analyzing confidential and public testimonies, eye-witness accounts, and interviews with victims, first responders, and witnesses, the organization published a report highlighting how Hamas raped, and, in some cases, gang raped, victims. In some instances, Hamas’s victims were raped in front of their families to maximize the trauma and humiliation inflicted.

Most of the people who were sexually assaulted by Hamas terrorists were killed afterward, and some even during the act of rape. Others still were found dead later, their genitals mutilated beyond recognition or penetrated with weapons.

Jerusalem POst

Day 771 — Saturday, November 15

Lebanon’s central bank announced Friday a series of new restrictions on money changers and transfer companies, in a move widely seen as a response to mounting US pressure to dismantle Hezbollah’s financial lifelines, AFP reported.

The decision comes days after a visiting American official declared Washington’s intent to sever Tehran’s funding to Hezbollah. According to the US Treasury, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have funneled over $1 billion to the terror group this year, primarily through Lebanese money exchange firms.

Lebanese authorities, under growing international scrutiny, are seeking to disarm Hezbollah, which suffered significant losses in its recent war with Israel. The US is urging Beirut to accelerate the process amid concerns of further Israeli military escalation.

In its statement, the central bank said the measures are part of efforts “to remove Lebanon from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list,” and described them as “the first step in a series of precautionary measures aiming to strengthen the compliance environment within the financial sector.”

Lebanon was added to the FATF’s grey list in October last year, placing it under increased monitoring for financial irregularities.

The new regulations apply to “all non-bank financial institutions licensed by the central bank of Lebanon, including money transfer companies, exchange bureaus,” and other entities handling foreign currency transactions. Starting December 1, these institutions must “collect information and data linked to their customers and operations” for any transaction of $1,000 or more and report it to the central bank. Transactions may not proceed until the required data is confirmed.

Hezbollah has responded with defiance. On Thursday, its parliamentary bloc condemned “US efforts to tighten the financial siege on Lebanon” and accused Washington of seeking to impose “financial guardianship” over the country.

Hezbollah was also to disarm as part of the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel, which went into effect last November.

Lebanon’s cabinet recently tasked the army with formulating a plan for disarming Hezbollah by the end of 2025.

The terrorist group’s leader, Naim Qassem, condemned the Lebanese government’s plan to disarm the terror organization. He has repeatedly vowed that Hezbollah would keep its arms.

Arutz Sheva

Day 770 — Friday, November 14

The International Court of Justice in The Hague, the principal judicial arm of the United Nations, elected Phoebe Okowa, a Kenyan professor who has accused Israel of “apartheid,” as a judge on Nov. 12.

Okowa secured the required majority votes of the U.N. General Assembly and Security Council on Wednesday after multiple rounds of voting. When she is sworn in in two months, she will replace Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, who resigned. The latter’s term was slated to expire in February 2027.

Namibia hired Okawa to prosecute its 2024 case against Israel before the U.N. high court, in which it alleged that the Jewish state was guilty of illegal practices in areas that the United Nations considers Palestinian territory.

The Oxford-educated jurist accused Israel of carrying out racist policies, amounting to “apartheid.”

“Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territory grossly violate its obligations under international law,” she said. She asked the court to “make it clear that the prohibition of apartheid is not limited to southern Africa in the last century. It extends to Israel’s policies in the occupied Palestinian territory today.”

She also claimed that Israel’s entry to the United Nations was based on the creation of a Palestinian state.

Okowa was among the signatories on a 2020 open letter to Israeli officials condemning plans to apply Israeli sovereignty to areas of Judea and Samaria.

JNS

Day 770 — Friday, November 14

Israel Police and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) arrested four individuals in the Beit Safafa neighborhood in east Jerusalem on suspicion of purchasing weapons and planning a large-scale terror attack on behalf of ISIS, the agencies said on Friday morning. 

The four claimed the attack to be part of “the great war at the end of times.”

During the investigation, it was revealed that the four had consumed a large amount of ISIS content, including graphic footage of killings committed by the group.

The police discovered a handgun hidden in a chicken coop at one of the suspects homes during the arrest.

“What was seized from me is for the great war,” the suspect said during the investigation. “The handgun I will use against the Jews or anyone who is not a Muslim.”

Israeli authorities arresting a young Israeli citizen in the Sharon area who studied how to produce explosives, the Shin Bet announced on Wednesday. 

The suspect, 18 years old, was arrested about a month ago on suspicion of planning to carry out a terror attack inspired by ISIS.

Jerusalem Post

Day 769 — Thursday, November 13

Military representatives have notified the family of Meny Godard that his body was returned to Israel by Hamas tonight, after forensic experts completed their identification.

Godard, 73, was murdered by Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023, alongside his wife Ayelet, 63, and his body was abducted to Gaza by the Hamas-allied terror group.

The couple is survived by their children, Mor, Gal, Bar, and Goni, a number of grandchildren, and several siblings.

In March, troops recovered findings belonging to Godard at an Islamic Jihad post in southern Gaza’s Rafah. The findings found at the post were taken to Israel and identified as belonging to Godard, but his body remained held in Gaza.

Hamas, in a joint statement with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said that the body had been located in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza earlier today.

The bodies of three slain hostages now remain held in the Strip — two Israelis and one Thai national: Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, Dror Or and Sudthisak Rinthalak.

“The Israeli government shares in the deep sorrow of the Godard family and of all the families of the fallen hostages,” the Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement.

The PMO says that Israel is “determined, committed, and working tirelessly” to bring back the remaining three slain hostages for burial, adding that Hamas is “required to fulfill its commitments to the mediators and return them as part of the implementation of the agreement.”

Times Of Israel 

Day 769 — Thursday, November 13

President Donald Trump on Wednesday morning made a formal request to Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption and fraud charges.

Trump asked Herzog to consider fully pardoning Netanyahu in a letter that Herzog’s office shared. Trump wrote that Netanyahu has been a “formidable and decisive” leader for Israel in a time of war and has led Israel “into a time of peace.”

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has stood tall for Israel in the face of strong adversaries and long odds, and his attention cannot be unnecessarily diverted,” reads the letter.

Trump wrote that while he “absolutely” respects the independence of the Israeli judicial system, he believes the case against Netanyahu is a “political, unjustified prosecution.”

Netanyahu is currently standing trial on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases. The trial, which began in 2020, marked the first time a sitting Israeli prime minister testified as a criminal defendant.

Trump wrote that “it is time to let Bibi unite Israel by pardoning him, and ending that lawfare once and for all.”

Herzog declined to take a position on the matter, with his office issuing its own statement that a presidential pardon request must go through the proper channels, which includes the person who wants a pardon making a formal request. 

The statement said that Herzog holds Trump in the “highest regard” and “continues to express his deep appreciation” for Trump’s support of Israel and his “tremendous” role in the return of hostages from Gaza.

Trump previously urged Herzog to pardon Netanyahu during a speech in the Israeli Knesset last month.

Fox News 

Day 769 — Thursday, November 13

The recently-inaugurated administration of Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz restored the country’s diplomatic ties with Israel, the Israeli government announced on Tuesday.

The announcement ends a two-year long diplomatic rupture unilaterally decided by the preceding, pro-Iran socialist administration of former President Luis Arce amid the initial wave of “genocide” in Gaza accusations against Israel less than a month after Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack on Israel.

Paz took office over the weekend, marking the end of the nearly two decades-long rule of the Movement Towards Socialism Party. In his inauguration speech, Paz proclaimed that “Never again an isolated Bolivia, subject to failed ideologies, much less a Bolivia with its back to the world.”

The Bolivian president vowed to “open Bolivia to the world,” ending two decades’ worth of MAS’ isolationism from the free world, which pushed the country towards the world’s most notorious anti-U.S. regimes — particularly Iran, who, under the preceding socialist administration, had virtually free reign to spread its malign influence in the country. 

In the first hours of his administration, Paz met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and restored diplomatic ties with the United States after failed socialist dictator — and fugitive of the law on pedophilia allegations — Evo Morales unilaterally strained ties with America under dubious and unproven “espionage” accusations. Landau said on Monday that the United States is willing to cooperate with the new Bolivian government to dismantle Iran’s influence in the country.

The Israeli government, via its official Spanish language account on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), said that Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke with President Paz after the election and both officials agreed to work towards restoring diplomatic ties between the two nations. 

Foreign Ministry Director General Eden Bar-Tal attended Paz’s inauguration and met with the Bolivian president over the weekend. Bar Tal said it is “an exciting new era for Bolivia, for relations between Israel and Bolivia, and for the free world.”

Breitbart

Day 768 — Wednesday, November 12

Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, told ABC News on Monday that once the remaining hostages’ bodies are returned, the second phase of the ceasefire deal could begin, which requires the “disarming of Hamas and demilitarization of Gaza.”

“We can’t live with jihadis on our border anymore. That’s the lesson of Oct. 7,” said Leiter, referring to the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The return of Lt. Hadar Goldin for burial, an Israel Defense Forces soldier whose body had been held by Hamas for 11 years, was a positive development, he said. However, he noted that the terror group still holds the bodies of four hostages, including a Thai worker murdered on Oct. 7.

Once those bodies are returned, Israel can start phase two of the ceasefire, in which Hamas puts down its weapons, he said.

The ambassador defended Israel’s post-ceasefire strikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying they don’t jeopardize the agreements because “ceasefire and ultimate peace depends on groups like Hamas and Hezbollah disarming.”

He explained that the Hezbollah ceasefire is performance-based, requiring the Lebanese army to disarm the terrorist group. If its fails to do so, and Hezbollah rearms, Israel must act, he said. “That’s part of the agreement that we have,” he added. The same principle applies in Gaza, he said, where Hamas is supposed to disarm.

Although Hamas agreed to disarm as part of the Trump-brokered ceasefire, officials speaking on behalf of the organization say it has no intention of actually doing so.

Hamas also has attempted to carry out attacks on Israeli forces. On Tuesday, a terrorist was identified crossing the ceasefire line in the Gaza Strip and approaching IDF forces “in a manner that posed an immediate threat,” according to the military.

IDF forces in the area eliminated the terrorist.

Leiter said that the issue of removing terrorist armies on Israel’s borders was a personal one for all Israelis, including himself.

“Nov. 10 [2023] is when my oldest son was killed, when he led forces into Gaza at the outset of the war,” said Leiter. “So this has been a national trauma for all of us. We want this war to end, but Iran has proxies surrounding our country that are intent on destroying us. We’ve degraded them, but we have to defeat them.”

Asked about the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdami, who has trafficked in vicious anti-Israel libels, Leiter said, “Israel has been accused of the most horrific things over the past two years, and anybody who’s played into that is going to owe Israel an apology, because all the facts are coming in now. There was no genocide. There was no starvation. There was a big blood libel against the State of Israel.”

Leiter noted that Nov. 10 marked 50 years since the infamous “Zionism is racism” resolution at the United Nations. Quoting then-U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who said “an evil has been let loose on the world,” Leiter said that evil is again “being let loose. And he called it for what it is. It was a new version of antisemitism.”

It’s important to stop leveling blood libels at Israel, as the unfounded attacks endanger Jews everywhere, he said.

JNS

Day 768 — Wednesday, November 12

Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Tuesday that he has accepted recommendations to shut down the military radio station Galei Tzahal (Army Radio), ending decades of public broadcasting by the IDF.

Katz said the station will cease operations no later than March 1, 2026, calling the move necessary to preserve the IDF’s nonpartisan character. The decision follows months of review by an advisory committee he appointed in June to examine the station’s future.

“What was, will be no more,” Katz said in a statement. “Galei Tzahal was established as a military station to serve soldiers and their families—not as a platform for opinions, many of which attack the IDF and its soldiers. Operating a civilian radio station by the military is an anomaly unheard of in any democratic country.”

The defense minister said continuing the station’s broadcasts “forces the IDF into political discourse” and undermines its standing as a unifying national institution.

Under the decision, Katz will bring a proposal to the government for formal approval. An implementation team will handle all aspects of the closure, including arrangements for the station’s civilian employees to ensure their rights are protected.

At the same time, the team will work to preserve the Galgalatz station—Galei Tzahal’s popular music and traffic channel—while maintaining its format and public character.

Katz said that over the past two years, during the ongoing war, soldiers and civilians, including bereaved families, complained that the station no longer represented them and sometimes harmed the war effort and morale. “Our enemies interpret these broadcasts as messages coming from the IDF itself,” he said. “Closing the station is essential to protecting the IDF’s national character and strengthening public trust.”

The advisory committee, formed in June 2025, submitted its report last month with two main options: closing Galei Tzahal or ending its current-affairs programming. Katz thanked the committee for its “thorough and professional work” and said the current situation could not continue.

According to the Defense Ministry, the committee held 19 days of deliberations between August and October, hearing from dozens of representatives of the defense establishment, the media, academia, culture, civil society, and bereaved families. Members also toured the Galei Tzahal and Galgalatz studios.

The committee was the first to issue an open call for public input, receiving more than 5,000 responses. Its 47-page report found that Galei Tzahal’s annual budget stands at 52 million shekels, with 87 percent funded by advertising and sponsorships.

The report reviewed several alternatives, including privatization, transferring the station to another government body, or limiting its news coverage. It also noted that this was the 13th committee to review the station’s future—an issue first raised in 1953.

ynet

Day 767 — Tuesday, November 11

The Death Penalty for Terrorists Bill, proposed by Knesset Member Limor Son Har-Melech, was approved in its first reading in the Knesset plenum Monday evening. 

During the debate, a heated and almost violent confrontation broke out between the chairman of the Hadash-Ta’al Party, MK Ayman Odeh, and the Minister of National Security, MK Itamar Ben Gvir, after Odeh said in his speech, “You will be gone, and the Palestinian people will remain.”

Thirty-nine Knesset members voted in favor of the proposed law, while sixteen voted against it. The bill will be returned to the National Security Committee for further discussion. 

A proposal by MK Nissim Vaturi and a proposal by MK Oded Forer and a group of Knesset members were attached to the bill. The proposal stipulates that a terrorist who murdered an Israeli citizen out of motives of racism or hostility toward the public, with the intention of harming the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish people in their land, shall be sentenced to death, and to this punishment alone.

In addition, the proposal amends the law so that a death sentence can be imposed in a military court by a regular majority of the judges, rather than unanimously, and it will not be possible to reduce the sentence of someone who has been sentenced to death in a final judgment.

The explanatory notes to the proposal state, “The Penal Code, 1977, prescribes a sentence of life imprisonment for the offense of murder. Experience shows that this punishment does not deter terrorists, as many of them assume that their prison term will be significantly reduced in deals involving the release of prisoners. Many terrorists have even reverted to their ways and continued terrorist activities after their release.”

“Since imprisonment is not a sufficient deterrent, it is proposed to stipulate that the sentence for terrorists who have committed acts of murder will be the death penalty,” it further stated. “This punishment is expected to serve as a deterrent and thus prevent the commission of further acts of terror.”

Ben Gvir, who as mentioned handed out baklavas in the plenum after the bill was approved, said, “Those who murdered, raped and kidnapped our children and daughters do not deserve to see the light of day and should be sentenced to death.” 

“The death penalty law is not only a moral and just step, but also critical for the security of the state,” he added.

The chairman of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Member of Knesset Avigdor Lieberman, said, “A terrorist should die — on the battlefield or in court. The Yisrael Beiteinu death penalty for terrorists law has passed its first reading. Israel’s security is a consensus. We are moving on to the next stage.”

i24 News

Day 767 — Tuesday, November 11

A top Ivy League college is offering a class where students will study the intersection of gender studies and what the course calls the “genocide” in Gaza.

The 200-level course, called Gender, Reproduction, and Genocide, will be offered to students at Princeton University next spring.

“This seminar explores genocide through the analytic of gender, with a central focus on the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” says the course description on Princeton’s website. “Drawing on decolonial, Indigenous, and feminist thought, we examine how genocidal projects target reproductive life, sexual and familial structures, and community survival.”

The course is part of the school’s anthropology curriculum, as well as its gender studies and sexuality curriculum.

“Students will engage reproductive justice frameworks, survivor testimony, and Palestinian feminist critiques of colonial violence, while situating Gaza within comparative histories of the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and genocide against Black and Indigenous populations,” according to the description.

The class also promises that students will interface with “leading feminist scholars.”

Visiting scholar Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, an Israeli-born feminist scholar who abruptly retired from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem amid scandal last year, will instruct the class.

Princeton described Shalhoub-Kevorkian as a “feminist whose scholarship on the settler colonial state’s brutality, unchilding, securitized and sacralized politics, state crime, law and society, and global feminist politics, challenges epistemic violence.”

In Israel, she was an outspoken critic of the war in Gaza and reportedly cast doubt on [well-documented] reports of sexual violence by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israeli concertgoers. Over the past several years, she faced significant backlash from state leaders.

Fox News

Day 766 — Monday, November 10

The Iranian regime has managed to smuggle at least $1 billion to its terrorist proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon despite heavy sanctions this year, top officials at the U.S. Treasury Department say.

John Hurley, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, says Iran remains committed to its proxy groups throughout the Middle East. Nevertheless, he says there is an opportunity to cut off the funding streams while Iran is in its current weakened state.

“There’s a moment in Lebanon now. If we could get Hezbollah to disarm, the Lebanese people could get their country back,” Hurley said.

“Even with everything Iran has been through, even with the economy not in great shape, they’re still pumping a lot of money to their terrorist proxies,” he continued.

“The key to that is to drive out the Iranian influence and control; that starts with all the money that they are pumping into Hezbollah,” he argued.

Hurley pushed for the increased pressure campaign during a tour of Turkey, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Israel this weekend.

Western nations have already laid down heavy sanctions on Tehran over its unwillingness to negotiate a nuclear deal.

President Donald Trump ordered bombings on Iran’s key nuclear sites earlier this year in Operation Midnight Hammer, which U.S. officials say succeeded in crippling Tehran’s progress toward a bomb.

Iran has nevertheless continued its efforts to spread chaos across the globe. U.S. officials say they, along with Israel and Mexico, thwarted an Iran-backed attempt to assassinate Israel’s ambassador to Mexico earlier this year.

“We thank the security and law enforcement services in Mexico for thwarting a terrorist network directed by Iran that sought to attack Israel’s ambassador in Mexico,” Israel’s foreign ministry told Fox News on Friday.

“The Israeli security and intelligence community will continue to work tirelessly, in full cooperation with security and intelligence agencies around the world, to thwart terrorist threats from Iran and its proxies against Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide.”

Fox News

Day 766 — Monday, November 10

Israel on Sunday received the remains of fallen soldier Lt. Hadar Goldin, whose body was held by Hamas in Gaza for more than 11 years, the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem announced.

The evening news riveted a nation and brought to an end the family’s long struggle to see their loved one returned home for burial. Goldin, then 23, was killed and abducted by the terrorist group in Rafah, the Gaza Strip, during a ceasefire during the 2014 war (“Operation Protective Edge”).

Four more bodies are still being held in Gaza, those of three Israelis—Meny Godard, Sgt. Ran Gvili and Dror Or—and a Thai national, Sudthisak Rinthalak, who was working in agriculture in Israel at the time of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.

“The Israeli government shares in the deep sorrow of the Goldin family and of all the families of the fallen hostages,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

The PMO says that Israel is “determined, committed and working tirelessly” to bring back the remaining four slain hostages for burial, adding that Hamas is “required to fulfill its commitments to the mediators and return them as part of the implementation of the agreement.”

“After 11 long and painful years, too long, Lt. Hadar Goldin, a hero of Israel, has today been returned to his homeland,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote on X. “The people of Israel embrace Hadar’s family today with deep love and boundless admiration for their unwavering strength and relentless, tireless struggle to bring Hadar home. For the hope that never dimmed, for their dignity, Zionism and unshakable faith that guided their every step.”

Herzog thanked U.S. President Donald Trump and his team for their work that brought a painful chapter in Israeli history to an end after 4,118 days.

Hamas said that it “found” Goldin’s remains in a tunnel in the southernmost city of Rafah on Saturday. Goldin was killed on Aug. 1, 2014, two hours after a ceasefire took effect in that year’s war between Israel and Hamas.

“Israel has received, via the Red Cross, the coffin of a fallen hostage, which was handed over to an IDF and ISA [Shin Bet] force inside the Gaza Strip,” the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem announced earlier in the afternoon.

After being handed over to Israeli troops inside the Strip, the coffin was brought to Israel, where it was received in a military ceremony with the participation of IDF Chief Rabbi Brig. Gen. Eyal Moshe Krim.

The body was then transferred to the Health Ministry’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir in Tel Aviv, where it was identified by the evening.

Hundreds of people had gathered along intersections where the police convoy carried the remains, holding Israeli flags and paying their last respects.

“All of the hostages’ families have been updated accordingly, and our hearts are with them in this difficult hour,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated, adding, “The effort to return our hostages is ongoing and will not cease until the last hostage is returned.”

The Red Cross team was dispatched shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Hamas was slated to return Goldin.

“Yesterday, Hamas announced that it is holding the body of Lt. Hadar Goldin, of blessed memory. We are supposed to receive the body later this afternoon,” Netanyahu told reporters at the weekly Cabinet meeting.

“Throughout these years, we made great efforts in Israel’s governments to bring him back,” he stated, noting the “deep anguish of his family, who will now have the privilege of bringing him to burial in Israel.

“We said at the beginning of this war that we would bring back all the hostages, without exception,” the premier said. “So far, we have brought back 250. We will bring everyone home.”

JNS

Day 765 — Sunday, November 9

The body of an Israeli hostage who advocates say “fought heroically” to defend his community during a “fierce battle” Oct. 7, 2023, has been returned by terrorists for burial, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The Israeli military announced that Lior Rudaeff, 61, was given back after he “fell during battle while defending his community during the Oct. 7 Massacre” and “was taken captive by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.”

“Lior is brought home after 763 days,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said on Saturday. “On the morning of October 7th, Lior, with the emergency response team of Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, fought heroically near the kibbutz gate and stopped many terrorists.

“After a fierce battle, Lior was killed, and his body was kidnapped to Gaza along with Tal Haimi of blessed memory, whose body was later returned for burial.”

The IDF said Rudaeff’s death was confirmed May 7, 2024. He leaves behind his wife and four children.

“The IDF expresses deep condolences to the family, continues to make every effort to return all the deceased hostages, and is prepared for the continued implementation of the agreement,” it said in reference to an ongoing ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

“Hamas is required to fulfill its part of the agreement and make the necessary efforts to return all the hostages to their families and to a dignified burial.”

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Rudaeff was born in Argentina and immigrated to Israel at the age of 7.

“Those close to him say he had a generous spirit and volunteered for 40 years as an ambulance driver in the Eshkol Regional Council and as a member of the Nir Yitzhak emergency response team. He always volunteered first and extended a helping hand to everyone,” it added.

As of Saturday, the organization said, the bodies of five deceased hostages remain held in the Gaza Strip.

Fox News

Day 764 — Saturday, November 8

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched heavy airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Thursday, accusing Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire agreement by rebuilding its military presence in the region.

The Lebanese Army insisted it has been working hard to disarm Hezbollah and complained the Israeli strikes were making its job more difficult.

The Israeli military issued civilian evacuation warnings for five different locations before the attacks, instructing local residents to stay at least 500 meters away from the targeted buildings. Lebanese civil defense officials cooperated with the evacuations. The airstrikes began about an hour after the warnings were issued.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said an unidentified man was killed and eight others wounded during Israel’s strikes on the town of Toura on Thursday. Another man was reportedly injured in a strike on the town of Tayr Debba.

Israel has been conducting periodic strikes against Hezbollah positions over the past year, as the IDF accused the Iran-backed terrorist organization of moving fighters and weapons back into areas it was supposed to vacate under the November 2024 ceasefire agreement. Thursday’s strikes were much more intense than usual and were the first airstrikes in a year to be preceded by evacuation orders.

“Israel will continue to defend all of its borders, and we continue also to insist on the full enforcement of the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel,” said Israeli government spokesman Shosh Bedrosian.

Hezbollah claims it is committed to honoring the ceasefire agreement but will not disarm as long as Israel continues launching strikes on Lebanese territory.

“The resistance will not surrender its weapons while aggression continues, occupation persists, and we will fight if necessary to confront this American-Israeli project no matter the cost,” Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in August after meeting with his patrons in Iran.

“The government is implementing an American-Israeli order to end the resistance, even if it leads to civil war and internal strife,” Qassem said.

Hezbollah issued an “open letter” to the Lebanese government and people on Thursday, claiming that the group was devoted to Lebanon’s unity but would continue “resisting foreign pressure and safeguarding national dignity.”

In the letter, Hezbollah claimed it was abiding by the ceasefire, but because Israel continued launching strikes in an effort to “impose submission on Lebanon and extract concessions from it,” the group would keep its weapons and continue exercising its “legitimate right” to “resist” Israel.

The Lebanese government expressed some exasperation with Hezbollah’s belligerent statements and claimed it was making progress toward disarming the group. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun was much more angry with Israel for conducting its airstrikes on Thursday than he was with Hezbollah for refusing to disarm.

“What Israel committed today in southern Lebanon constitutes a full-fledged crime under international humanitarian law, which criminalizes the targeting, terrorizing, and forced displacement of civilians,” Aoun said in a statement on Thursday.

“Nearly a year has passed since the ceasefire took effect, and during that period Israel has spared no effort in showing its rejection of any negotiated settlement between the two countries,” he said.

The Lebanese cabinet held a meeting on Thursday in which army leaders once again claimed they were confiscating Hezbollah’s weapons at a steadily increasing pace.

The IDF strongly disagreed, stating that its strikes on Thursday were aimed at massive Hezbollah weapons depots, owned by a Hezbollah unit called the “Radwan Force,” that were “located in the heart of a civilian population.”

The IDF said these illegal weapons caches were “another example of the Hezbollah terror organization’s cynical use of Lebanese civilians as human shields.”

“The Hezbollah terror organization continues attempts to restore terror infrastructure in southern Lebanon and is focusing on rebuilding the unit’s capabilities with the aim of harming the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said.

A senior IDF official said Thursday’s strikes were “just a preview” of the action to come, if Hezbollah does not surrender its weapons.

“If the Lebanese army does not disarm Hezbollah and fails to meet the demands of the ceasefire, Israel, with U.S. backing, will attack Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including in Beirut,” the officer said. 

The IDF reportedly presented evidence of Hezbollah’s progress toward rearmament, and the Lebanese Army’s failure to disarm the terrorists, to the U.S. and French governments.

Breitbart

Day 764 — Saturday, November 8

A plot by Iran to assassinate Israel’s ambassador to Mexico has been thwarted, officials revealed Friday.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was allegedly trying to kill the ambassador starting late last year, but that effort was neutralized, Reuters reported, citing a U.S. official.

“We thank the security and law enforcement services in Mexico for thwarting a terrorist network directed by Iran that sought to attack Israel’s ambassador in Mexico,” Israel’s foreign ministry told Fox News on Friday.

“The Israeli security and intelligence community will continue to work tirelessly, in full cooperation with security and intelligence agencies around the world, to thwart terrorist threats from Iran and its proxies against Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide.”

The U.S. official told Reuters the plot targeting ambassador Einat Kranz Neiger “was contained and does not pose a current threat.”

“This is just the latest in a long history of Iran’s global lethal targeting of diplomats, journalists, dissidents and anyone who disagrees with them, something that should deeply worry every country where there is an Iranian presence,” the official reportedly added.

Further details about the plot were not immediately clear.

Security services in Britain and Sweden warned last year that Iran was leaning on criminal proxies to carry out attacks, with Britain claiming to have disrupted 20 Iranian-linked plots since 2022, Reuters also reported.

Fox News

Day 763 — Friday, November 7

Nearly half of Israelis plan to avoid travel to New York in the wake of the election as mayor of Zohran Mamdani, whom they overwhelmingly perceive as antisemitic, a poll released on Thursday shows.

The findings highlight a significant level of concern among Israelis over Mamdani’s election and global antisemitism and its implications for international travel.

Forty-six percent of respondents said they would avoid traveling to the city, 34% said they would continue visiting as usual, and 20% were unsure when asked whether Mamdani’s election would affect their decision to visit New York City, the i24NEWS poll found.

New York City—home to the largest Jewish community in the world outside of Israel—has long been the top travel destination for Israeli tourists.

The survey also found that a whopping 83% of respondents said they believe Mamdani is antisemitic, while 8% disagreed, and 9% said they did not know.

The results highlight anew the huge gap in worldview between Israelis and the predominantly left-wing American Jewish community, with one-third of New York Jews voting for the far-left socialist, according to exit polling.

JNS

Day 763 — Friday, November 7

Pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to firebomb a concert by the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris on Thursday night.

During the performance, which was held at the prestigious Philharmonic Hall in Paris, dozens of protesters broke into the hall, chanted anti-Israel slogans and lit flares. The music was stopped and the musicians began to leave the stage.

A post published by the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University read: “Pro-Palestinian protesters firebombed a concert and the musicians were removed from the stage. After the matter was resolved, the they were brought back on stage to the sound of applause and cheers from the audience. Times are not easy. A big hug from us here.”

In footage posted on social media, dozens of rioters were seen waving Palestinian flags in the hall, as security personnel tried to keep them away.

After several minutes of chaos, the musicians returned to the stage and continued their performance, accompanied by enthusiastic cheers from the French audience.

Arutz Sheva

Day 762 — Thursday, November 6

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday he was “declaring war” on weapon smuggling via drones over the Egyptian border, instructing the military to declare a closed military zone in the area and the Shin Bet to define such attempts as terrorism.

In the past year, there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons and drugs over the Egyptian border using drones, the latest on Tuesday.

Katz on Wednesday night held an “emergency meeting” on the drone threat with IDF, police, Shin Bet, and Defense Ministry officials, his office said.

During the meeting, Katz “instructed the IDF to turn the area adjacent to the border into a closed military zone and to adjust the rules of engagement in order to strike any unauthorized party that penetrates into the prohibited area, in order to hit the operators and smugglers of the drones,” according to his office.

Katz’s office also said that the Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Defense Research & Development and the Israeli Air Force would develop new “technological solutions” to counter the drone threat, and the National Security Council would assist with changing licensing requirements and legislative amendments regarding the use, purchase, and possession of drones.

The defense minister also spoke with Shin Bet chief David Zini on the matter, and it was agreed that the security agency would “define the issue of weapon smuggling threats via drones on the Israel–Egypt border as a terrorist threat,” which would enable security bodies to use “appropriate tools to combat the threat,” Katz’s office said.

“I have convened you here to declare war on drone smuggling on the Israel–Egypt border… the current situation is dangerous to the country’s security and cannot continue,” Katz was quoted as saying by his office.

He said that “deterrence must be created and it must be made clear to those engaged in smuggling that the rules of the game are changing, and they will pay a very heavy price if they do not cease.”

Times Of Israel

Day 762 — Thursday, November 6

The deceased hostage whose body was returned to Israel Wednesday night has been identified as Joshua Loitu Mollel.

The IDF confirmed: “Following the completion of the identification process by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, in cooperation with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, IDF representatives informed the family of Joshua Lolitu Mollel that his body has been returned for burial.”

“Joshua Lolitu Mollel, a Tanzanian citizen, was an agronomy student who arrived in Israel for agricultural training at the Ibim Agricultural Campus as part of his studies. According to the information and intelligence available to the IDF, he was murdered by the Hamas terrorist organization on October 7th, 2023, and his body was abducted to the Gaza Strip.

“Joshua was 21 years old at the time of his death. He was kidnapped from the cowshed at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where he worked, and his death was officially determined on December 13th, 2023. He leaves behind his parents, three sisters, and a brother.

“The IDF expresses deep condolences to the family, and continues to make every effort to return all the deceased hostages, and is prepared for the continued implementation of the agreement.

“Hamas is required to fulfill its part of the agreement and make the necessary efforts to return all the hostages to their families and to a dignified burial.”

The Hostages’ Families Forum stated: Joshua Loitu Mollel, of blessed memory, was an agricultural student from Tanzania who came to Kibbutz Nahal Oz just 19 days before the attack on October 7th.”

“After studying agronomy at university, he came to Israel to gain hands-on farming experience before returning home with practical skills. On the morning of October 7th, he was working at the kibbutz dairy farm when he was murdered and his body was taken.

“His family remembers him as polite, kind, and incredibly hardworking, someone whose bright smile was always present. He is survived by his parents and four siblings in Tanzania.”

Arutz Sheva

Day 761 — Wednesday, November 5

The body of the last U.S. citizen held by Hamas, Staff Sergeant Itay Chen, a 19-year-old dual U.S.–Israeli citizen, has been returned from Gaza for burial, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed Monday. Seven more hostages’ bodies remain in Gaza.

“Following the completion of the identification process by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, in cooperation with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, IDF representatives informed the family that Itay had been returned for burial,” the military said.

Chen served as a combat soldier in the 77th Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade. He was killed on the morning of October 7, 2023, while fighting near Kibbutz Nahal Oz—one of the hardest-hit communities in Hamas’s brutal attack. Chen’s tank was struck during the battle, and his body was taken into Gaza. His death was officially confirmed on March 10, 2024.

Over the past year, his parents led an unrelenting campaign to bring their son home. They met with senior officials in Israel and Washington, including President Trump, advocating for the return of all hostages and the remains of the fallen.

“The Government of Israel shares in the deep sorrow of the Chen family and all the families of the fallen hostages,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. “We will not compromise and will spare no effort until every hostage is brought home. May his memory be blessed.”

Fox News 

Day 761 — Wednesday, November 5

The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial announced this Monday that it has identified the names of five million Holocaust victims. According to the museum’s statement, this milestone marks the culmination of 70 years of dedicated work.

Experts explain that although the generally accepted number of victims is six million, an additional 250,000 names may still be identified in the future through artificial intelligence and new technological tools. However, it is believed that hundreds of thousands of names will never be documented, as no trace of them remains.

The five million identified names are now recorded in Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, which is publicly accessible online. The database is the result of decades of collection work carried out by Yad Vashem since its establishment—through Pages of Testimony, the discovery of names in various documents, and cooperation with archives and memorial sites.

The database also contains hundreds of thousands of “personal files” compiled from archival sources, presenting details about the victims’ lives and fates. Over the years, it has helped thousands of families worldwide commemorate loved ones, discover relatives who were murdered in the Holocaust, or find out that someone once thought to have perished had in fact survived.

One of the main sources of information is the collection of Pages of Testimony, through which about 2.8 million names have been gathered to date. 

“In many cases, a Page of Testimony bearing a victim’s name is all that remains of a person,” said Dr. Alexander Avraham, Director of Yad Vashem’s Hall of Names, who led the project for more than 37 years and is now retiring.

“Most Holocaust victims were murdered, leaving no trace and no grave. The Pages of Testimony serve as symbolic tombstones. The Nazi Germans sought not only to kill them but also to erase their very memory—and the database prevents that,” he added.

Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan stated that identifying five million names is “both an achievement and a reminder of an unfinished obligation.” According to him, “Behind every name lies an entire life: a child who never grew up, a parent who never came home, a voice silenced forever. Our moral duty is to ensure that every victim is remembered and that no one remains anonymous.”

All Israel News

Day 760 — Tuesday, November 4

In a move signaling a new phase in international involvement in Gaza, the Trump administration has circulated a draft of a UN Security Council resolution proposing the establishment of a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) in the Gaza Strip, according to a document obtained by The Jerusalem Post.

The proposal outlines the creation of a multinational stabilization force that would operate under a unified command, in close consultation and cooperation with Israel and Egypt. The ISF would work alongside a newly trained and vetted Palestinian police force to help secure border areas and stabilize Gaza’s security environment.

The force’s mandate would include overseeing the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip—a key Israeli demand—through the destruction of terrorist and military infrastructure, preventing its reconstruction, and ensuring the permanent disarmament of non-state armed groups.

Additionally, the ISF would be tasked with protecting civilians, supporting humanitarian operations, providing training and assistance to the Palestinian police, and coordinating with relevant countries to secure humanitarian corridors. The draft also allows for the ISF to undertake “additional tasks as may be necessary” to support a broader Comprehensive Plan for Gaza’s recovery.

The proposed mission is intended to operate until the end of 2027, with any renewal or modification of its mandate requiring consultation with Israel, Egypt, and the Security Council.

Notably, the resolution does not invoke Chapter VII of the UN Charter, meaning the force would not have the same legal status as UNIFIL in Lebanon. It would therefore operate with a different mandate.

Israel did not want such a precedent of allowing a UN “Blue Helmet force” to enter an area related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The ISF would, however, have a clear mandate to enforce Gaza’s demilitarization, marking a departure from Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan, which had advocated for a “peacekeeping” rather than “peace-enforcing” mission.

While diplomatic negotiations continue, the US-backed proposal marks the most significant international initiative yet aimed at stabilizing Gaza and shaping its post-war security landscape.

Jerusalem Post 

Day 760 — Tuesday, November 4

Donovan Hall, 35, of Mesa, Arizona, was sentenced Thursday to 49 months in prison for stalking Jews in New York City and sending over 1,000 violent threats, including threats to murder and rape, the US Department of Justice announced, as quoted by JNS.

According to the DOJ, Hall “targeted Jewish victims with a sustained campaign of intimidation, terror and harassment.”

Jay Clayton, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, stated: “The approximately 1,000 threats he sent to these New Yorkers were alarming and brazen. The prosecution of this case and the sentence imposed make clear that this office will aggressively bring to justice those who perpetrate senseless crimes of hate.”

Over a period of three months, Hall contacted “several” Jewish New Yorkers about 1,000 times, issuing antisemitic and violent threats to “torture, mutilate, rape and murder them and their families.” Beginning in August 2024, he made dozens of threatening phone calls to the Jewish owner of a Manhattan hotel, as well as to the owner’s family and hotel staff.

The threats escalated when Hall sent photographs of two firearms and a machete to the hotel owner, accompanied by explicit threats to use them against the victims. Law enforcement later recovered the weapons and ammunition from Hall’s residence. The firearms were unregistered, and one was loaded.

In addition to his prison sentence, Hall was ordered to serve three years of supervised release following his incarceration.

Arutz Sheva

Day 759 — Monday, November 3

The Trump administration is ramping up pressure on the Lebanese government to disarm the Iran-backed terrorist movement, with one senior U.S. official terming Lebanon a “failed state” for its inaction.

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Thomas Barrack, who also serves as envoy to Syria, said Saturday in Bahrain that Lebanon is a “failed state” because of its “paralyzed government,” The Associated Press reported. He also noted that Hezbollah retains 40,000 fighters and between 15,000 and 20,000 rockets and missiles, noting the terror group pays its militia $2,200 per month, whereas the Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers earn $275 a month and have inferior equipment as well.

The U.S. brokered a ceasefire in November 2024 between the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah and Israel. In August, Lebanon’s government accepted an American plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of 2025.

However, Lebanon’s fragile government and its army have not been able to dismantle Hezbollah operations across the country, according to Israeli officials and leading experts on the group.

Sarit Zehavi, a leading Israeli security expert from the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, told Fox News Digital, “Israel is the only one disarming Hezbollah with its airstrikes. The Lebanese army is far from enough. We don’t see proof of disarmament of Hezbollah by the Lebanese army. The Lebanese army is not entering villages in south Lebanon to search for the weapons of Hezbollah inside of the houses.”

Zehavi, who lives in northern Israel, said the Lebanese army needs to go house-to-house and neighborhood-to-neighborhood and put the weapons on trucks and publish what was seized.

She added that names of the villages that have been cleared of Hezbollah weapons need to be disclosed. “All of that is not happening,” said Zehavi.

“Disarming Hezbollah and other non-state actors, as well as ending Iran’s proxy activities, is crucial to ensuring peace and stability in Lebanon and across the region,” a U.S. State Department official told Fox News Digital, adding that “an armed Hezbollah is a threat to Lebanon and its neighbors. The region and the world are watching carefully.”

U.S. envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus said Wednesday in Lebanon that the Lebanese military “must now fully implement its plan.”

Fox News

Day 759 — Monday, November 3

The bodies of the hostages Asaf Hamami, Omer Neutra, and Oz Daniel have been returned to Israel, the Prime Minister’s Office officially announced this morning (Monday). The bodies were transferred to Israel last night by the Red Cross and were identified overnight. Eight bodies of hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip.

A Beloved Commander and Family Man: The Heroism of Asaf Hamami

Colonel Asaf Hamami was the commander of the Southern Brigade in the Gaza Division. He was killed on the first day of the war, Oct. 7, 2023, and his body was taken into Gaza.

That Saturday, his five-year-old son was spending the weekend with him at the Gaza Division base. When Hamami went out to fight the terrorists, he handed his son over to soldiers at the base and told them to take him to a safe place. Hamami fell during the first hour of Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, in the battle at Kibbutz Nirim.

Hamami began his military career in the Givati Reconnaissance Battalion. Before being appointed commander of the Southern Brigade in the Gaza Division, he served as deputy commander of the Northern Brigade, commander of the Tzabar Battalion in Givati, and commander of the Negev Brigade. In April 2010, Hamami received the Chief of Staff’s Citation for Excellence, awarded by then-Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi.

Omer Immigrated from Long Island – and Joined the IDF

The father of the fallen hostage Captain Omer Neutra, Ronen, wrote last night (Sunday–Monday) that his son had been brought back to Israeli soil. “At last. So much pain, and yet such relief,” he wrote. He added the bible verse: “There is hope for your future, says the Lord, and your children shall return to their own border.”

Shortly before that, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters aboard his plane that Hamas had returned Neutra’s body to Israel. “We brought back three fallen hostages,” the President said to reporters. “I spoke with Omer Neutra’s parents from New York. Of course, they are very happy in one sense, but in another, it’s not a good day. Three bodies came home today, and we’re still looking for the others.”

Captain Omer Neutra immigrated to Israel from Long Island. On the morning of Oct. 7, he was with his tank crew—Nimrod Cohen, Oz Daniel (whose body was also returned last night), and Shaked Dahan—at the White House outpost near Nir Oz. Under heavy rocket and missile fire from Gaza, Omer and his crew drove toward the border in an attempt to repel the attack. During the battle, the tank was hit, and Omer and his crew were taken into Gaza.

For 421 days, Omer’s fate remained unknown. In December 2024, the IDF Chief Rabbi ruled that Omer had been fatally wounded in battle and died in Hamas tunnels on the day of the abduction. Alongside Omer, two members of his crew—Sergeant Shaked Dahan and Sergeant Oz Daniel—were also killed. The fourth crew member, Nimrod Cohen, who was kidnapped to Gaza, was returned to Israel last month. As noted, Oz Daniel’s body was also returned last night. Omer fell just one week before his 22nd birthday.

Oz Was a Fighter Who Dreamed of Conquering Stages

Sergeant Oz Daniel, a fighter in the 77th Battalion of the Storm from the Golan formation, went out to battle the terrorists with his tank crew on Oct. 7 and was kidnapped to Gaza during the fight. For 141 days, he was listed as missing until the IDF Chief Rabbi determined his death based on evidence that made it possible to do so.

Amir Daniel, Oz’s father, told Kan Reshet Bet radio:

“It was very important to him to do meaningful military service. He loved the tank and the camaraderie. They were amazing kids. That day, they went into battle with zero intelligence. The entire crew were heroes. The tank was damaged. They took RPG hits and were targeted with two explosives.”

“Oz resisted; he didn’t give up. In conversations with his mother, Meirav, before the war, he told her that if they ever tried to capture him, ‘I won’t sit in captivity. I’ll resist and do everything I can not to be taken prisoner.’ And that’s exactly what Oz did in the end—he didn’t give up; he fought back and resisted. My relationship with Oz was much more than that of a father and son—he was my soulmate.”

All Israel News 

Day 758 — Sunday, November 2

Iran said on Saturday that although it is prepared to engage in talks about its nuclear ambitions, its missile program is not up for discussion.

“We are ready to talk to address concerns about our nuclear program. We emphasize the peaceful nature of our nuclear program. It is possible to reach a fair agreement, but Washington has set impossible and unacceptable preconditions,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera.

He added, “There will be no negotiations on our missile program. It would be foolish if one hands over his weapons.”

The top diplomat moreover stated that his country is “prepared for any scenario” in the wake of its 12-day war with Israel in June. Tehran expects “hostile behavior from the Zionist regime. We are at the apex of preparedness at all levels. Israel will suffer another defeat in any future war,” he said.

“We have gained a lot of experience from the recent war and tested our missiles in a real battle,” Araghchi continued. “If the Zionist regime launches an attack, it will come with dire consequences for it.”

The 10-year nuclear deal between Iran and world powers expired on Oct. 18, with Tehran announcing it is no longer bound by the 2015 agreement.

Under the deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), financial sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for promised limitations on its nuclear program.

Since the war’s conclusion, which also saw the involvement of the U.S. in bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan on June 21, Tehran has refused to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog.

This prompted the United Nations, led by Britain, France and Germany, to on Sept. 27 reimpose international sanctions on Iran under the “snapback” mechanism built into the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal. The mechanism restored restrictions on arms transfers, missile technology and sensitive financial dealings.

The minister also talked about Iran’s stock of enriched uranium, whose fate was the object of much speculation in the wake of the war.

“Nuclear materials remain buried under the rubble of bombed nuclear facilities and have not been moved elsewhere,” Araghchi said. “Our nuclear buildings and equipment are damaged, but our technology remains intact,” he added.

JNS

Day 757 — Saturday, November 1

A Hezbollah operative was killed in a second Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon yesterday, the IDF announces.

The military says the strike in the Nabatieh area killed a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force who was involved in “advancing many terror attacks against the State of Israel and operated to restore Hezbollah military infrastructure.”

“The terrorist’s activities constituted a threat to the State of Israel and its civilians, and a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the IDF adds.

Yesterday, the IDF said it killed a “Hezbollah maintenance officer” in a strike in the southern Lebanon town of Kounine.

Times Of Israel

Day 757 — Saturday, November 1