Day 210 — Friday, May 3

Turkey announced Thursday that it stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel, in a highly impactful move against Jerusalem over the war against Hamas.

Citing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, a Turkish Trade Ministry statement said “export and import transactions in relation to Israel have been stopped, covering all products.”

Turkish officials would coordinate with Palestinian authorities to ensure that Palestinians are not affected by the suspension of imports and exports, the ministry said.

The ministry described the step as the “second phase” of measures against Israel, adding that the steps would remain in force until Israel “allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

Earlier, sources familiar with the matter told the Globes financial daily that Turkish ports were already preventing the export of goods to Haifa and Ashdod ports, while Israeli goods arriving in Turkey were not being unloaded.

The two countries had a trade volume of $6.8 billion in 2023.

After initial reports on Turkey’s decision to halt trade, Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of “breaking agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports.”

“This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements,” Katz wrote on X.

He said he instructed Foreign Ministry Director General Yaakov Blitshtein to “immediately engage with all relevant parties in the government to create alternatives for trade with Turkey, focusing on local production and imports from other countries.”

“Israel will emerge with a strong and daring economy,” Katz pledged. “We Win, and They Lose.”

Turkey has been one of the harshest critics of Israel during the war against Hamas, with Erdogan branding Israel a “terrorist state.”

Erdogan’s salvos against Israel include allegations it is committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza. He has defended Hamas — considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union — as “a liberation group.”

Citing a diplomatic source, the Al-Monitor news site said the Foreign Minister was investigating the economic consequences of Turkey’s measure.

Israel and Turkey have free trade agreements from the mid-1990s that are now being violated.

Times Of Israel

Day 210 — Friday, May 3

(Toronto, Canada) — Last week, the Jerusalem Post reported that the spokesperson for Hamas’ armed al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, called for an escalation across all fronts.

“In a video aired by Al Jazeera TV, Abu Ubaida praised Iran’s attack on Israel on April 13…” JPost explained. “He also called for an escalation in the West Bank and Jordan calling it ‘one of the most important Arab fronts.’”

The Hamas spokesman further stated: “We call on the Jordanian people to step up their actions and raise their voices. The government of the occupation is stalling in reaching a hostages swap deal and is trying to obstruct efforts by the mediators to reach a ceasefire agreement.”

I can assure you that it’s not Israel that’s stalling or obstructing efforts to reach a ceasefire. There already was a ceasefire on October 6th of last year, and Hamas broke it. Stop with the lies!

Qatar also expressed its concern that all part parties should “show seriousness” to allow such efforts to succeed. Again, it’s not Israel that is to blame. It’s those who hate Israel are to blame. Hamas is a terrorist organization whose goal in its Charter is to “obliterate” the Jewish State.

The same is true with Iran. They openly call for Israel to be wiped off the face of the map, and they are determined to develop a nuclear weapon to carry that out.

As for Qatar, they, too, show what they think of Israel.

“The Al-Aqsa flood operation [October 7th massacre] that began is only a prelude to the elimination of the Jews,” he continued. “The second is in the land and the beginning, Allah willing, of the end of their state after their gathering in the land of Palestine.”

Seriously? The Al-Aqsa flood, that is, the October 7th Massacre, was only the prelude to the elimination of the Jews and Israel?

That’s demonic, and in their warped, sick minds, they try to convince the world that Israel is the one obstructing efforts to reach a ceasefire. This evil that is being perpetrated in the media has fueled antisemitism worldwide.

Day 210 — Friday, May 3

(Galilee, Israel) — Shalom from Israel! This Sunday night will begin Yom HaShoah, and the remembrance will run through Monday afternoon. Translated literally as “Day of the Catastrophe”, this is Israel’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the 1930s and 1940s, more than six million Jews lost their lives under the Nazi regime. Of those victims, greater than 1.5 million were children.

At 10:00 on Monday morning, sirens will sound throughout the nation of Israel. At that moment, all people will stop what they are doing and stand in silence for two minutes to honor and remember those who were slaughtered during that horrific time. Places of business will halt their activities. Cars will pull over and their passengers will get out. School classes will pause their instruction. As a nation and as a people, we are determined that we will never forget what took place during those dark times.

Why is it so important to intentionally remember tragedy? To answer that, all you need to do is look at what is currently happening in national and international government buildings and on university campuses around the world. On October 7, a slaughter took place that was so vile, so vicious, so demonic that it seemed the world had to pause to catch its breath. Torture, systematic rape, kidnapping, murder, and mutilation were perpetrated by gleeful terrorists against an unsuspecting and wholly innocent civilian population. Israel was forever changed, and a huge majority of nations around the world commiserated with us. But that was then, and this is now.

Before we get to what is different today, let’s talk about what led to this change of attitude. It’s really very simple – Israel fought back, and it did so with a vengeance. That’s not what is supposed to happen. The world likes it much better when its Jews are victims. During the Holocaust, apart from some amazing acts of bravery, like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, most all of the Jews went quietly to their deaths. During the pogroms in Russia, the Jews fled from the violence. Over the centuries, when Jews were forced to leave their homes and their countries, they went. What else could they do? They were part of a diaspora. They were strangers in a strange land.

But now the Jews have a home, and that home has allowed us to become strong. No longer are we forced to take the shots. When the chanters cry out, “From the River to the Sea”, we respond, “Yeah, just try to take our land.” And when the terrorists invade, Israel will make sure that they can never, ever do it again. How do we do that? We kill all of Hamas’s leadership, and, if there are any of their rank-and-file members that survive the onslaught, we will bring them to justice. It’s harsh, it’s violent, and it’s bloody. But it is what it will take for Israel to once again be safe within its own borders.

Day 209 — Thursday, May 2

Left-wing dark money networks are funding the outbreak of anti-Israel protests spreading at college campuses across the country.

Last week, Fox News reported the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), “a national organization affiliated with around 200 independent chapters” including Columbia University, raked in “a six-figure donation from a nonprofit bankrolled by the George Soros network.”

According to Influence Watch, the group orchestrates student activism on university campuses, accuses Israel of committing genocide, and compares Palestinians to black Americans under the Jim Crow era.

“In addition to Columbia, NSJP has been protesting and setting up encampments at other universities across the country, including UCLA and USC in California and at the University of Texas in Austin, where over 50 people were arrested this week,” Fox News reported.

The University of Texas said in a statement Tuesday that 45 of the 79 people arrested on the school’s Austin campus Monday “had no affiliation with UT Austin.”

“These numbers validate our concern that much of the disruption on campus over the past week has been orchestrated by people from outside the University, including groups with ties to escalating protests at other universities around the country,” the university said.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that police have arrested more than 1,000 demonstrators across more than 25 U.S. campuses. At Columbia University in Manhattan, which became the epicenter of anti-Israeli encampments when school leadership testified about antisemitism to Congress, police arrested nearly 300 protestors Tuesday night.

According to Fox News, “Another group active at Columbia, Jewish Voice for Peace, has brought in at least $650,000 from Soros-linked groups since 2016. JVP has also taken in hundreds of thousands from the billionaire-fueled Rockefeller Fund, which is boosted by millions of dollars from a dark money funding network.”

“Another Soros-backed group, U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, has paid what it calls ‘fellows’ to organize and attend anti-Israel protests across the country,” Fox also said, citing New York Post reporting.

On Wednesday, the Washington Free Beacon reported that the People’s Forum, another non-profit in New York that “received more than $12 million from Goldman Sachs’ charitable arm[,] encouraged anti-Israel activists to re-create the violent protests of ‘the summer of 2020.‘”

The sustained demonstrations breaking out across American campuses have led some schools to cancel in-person classes and have jeopardized graduation ceremonies. Columbia University has shifted to a hybrid model for the remainder of the semester and announced final exams will be held remotely.

At the University of Southern California (USC), officials announced the school’s primary graduation ceremony will be canceled. The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) also canceled classes Wednesday after fighting erupted on campus.

The Federalist

Day 209 — Thursday, May 2

A video was posted on X earlier this week that showed footage of a Palestinian man visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he called on Jews to return to the site of the extermination camp, a place he claimed where they belonged.

Footage of the man can be seen walking through the Auschwitz memorial, calling to free Palestine.

“From these ghettos from which the Zionists came, I say Allah have mercy on all the Palestinians and our martyrs. Free Palestine,” he exclaimed.

As the man spanned the camera along the site of the camp, zooming in on the tombstones and monuments in memory of the lives lost, he continued, “[allah]-willing, we will be free from you [Jews], and you will all return to the concentration camps. Or to your countries. Any other place, as long as you leave our place because this is our land.

“You belong here [Auschwitz]. This is your place of origin. You left these camps and ghettos. Long live Palestine,” he concluded.

As pro-Palestinian protests and antisemetic incidents surge around the world in the background of the Israel-Hamas war, holocaust memorial sites have become easy targets for vandalization.

Jerusalem POst

Day 208 — Wednesday, May 1

“You have to hear this to believe this. The International Criminal Court in The Hague is contemplating issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli government and military officials as war criminals.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a strongly-worded video statement on Tuesday, blasting reported plans by the ICC to issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including himself, as part of an ongoing investigation of Israel’s conduct during the Gaza War.

“This would be an outrage of historic proportions,” Netanyahu charged.

International bodies like the ICC were created after World War Two to prevent the reoccurrence of horrors and future genocides after the Holocaust, the Prime Minister said.

“Yet now the International Court is trying to put Israel in the dock. It’s trying to put us in the dock as we defend ourselves against genocidal terrorists and regimes, Iran of course, that openly works to destroy the one and only Jewish state,” he said.

Pointing to the partly violent, anti-Israel and antisemitic protests across university campuses in the U.S., Netanyahu said ICC arrest warrants would effectively brand Israeli leaders as war criminals.

This, he added, “will pour jet fuel on the fires of antisemitism, those fires that are already raging on the campuses of America and across capitals around the world.”

Israel is currently undertaking a concerted effort on multiple fronts to combat the ICC’s plans, including action by the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Security Council, and the Foreign Ministry.

Netanyahu also asked U.S. President Joe Biden for assistance during a phone call on Sunday, the Axios news outlet reported.

“Rather than commend Israel for abiding by the rules of war while fighting an enemy that violates every rule of war, including holding 133 Israeli men, women and children hostage, who’s the ICC targeting? The democracy called Israel,” Netanyahu continued.

This threatens the inherent right of all democracies to defend themselves against terrorism and aggression, the prime minister noted, especially since the ICC doesn’t have jurisdiction over Israel.

All Israel News

Day 208 — Wednesday, May 1

Police cleared 30 to 40 people from inside Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall on Tuesday night after protesters against Israel occupied the administration building in New York earlier in the day.

Hundreds of New York Police Department officers acted after the school’s president said there was no other way to ensure safety and restore order on campus and sought help from the police. The occupied building had expanded the demonstrators’ reach from an encampment elsewhere on the Ivy League school’s grounds.

The scene unfolded shortly after 9 p.m. as police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields, massed at the college’s entrance. Scores of officers climbed through a window to enter the occupied building, streaming in over a ramp raised from the top of a police vehicle to get inside. Multiple protesters were taken into custody and taken away from campus on buses.

The confrontation occurred more than 12 hours after the demonstrators took over Hamilton Hall shortly after midnight Tuesday, spreading their reach from an anti-Israel tent encampment elsewhere on the grounds that’s been there for nearly two weeks.

Students had vowed to fight any eviction from Hamilton Hall.

“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the school said of the police action, adding that school public safety personnel were forced out of the building and one facilities worker was “threatened.”

Prior to the arrests, the campus in the heart of New York City, usually accessible to passersby, was sealed off, with police erecting barricades, an AFP journalist saw.

Times Of Israel

Day 207 — Tuesday, April 30

Israeli has allegedly carried out an operation in Tehran targeting and eliminating an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) operative involved in plotting attacks against Jews in Germany, anti-regime media outlet Iran International reported Monday, citing its sources. According to the report, the elimination was carried out with a gun. At the end of 2023, a court in Düsseldorf convicted an Iranian citizen named Babak J. for involvement in planning an attempt to set fire to a synagogue in the city of Bochum, which was supposed to be carried out in November 2022, and sentenced him to two years and nine months in prison.

The reported strike in the heart of Iran’s capital marks yet another escalation in the long-simmering shadow war between the two archenemies. Neither Israel nor Iran has officially confirmed the incident.

The decades-long covert conflict between Israel and Iran has seen the two nations engage in proxy battles, cyberattacks, and other forms of confrontations. Tensions spiked earlier this month when Iran launched a massive drone and missile barrage at Israeli territory, prompting reported Israeli airstrikes inside Iran.

At the core of the enmity is Iran’s hostility toward Israel since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and its support for anti-Israel terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel has repeatedly struck Iranian-linked targets in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere to disrupt weapons transfers.

Neither government has claimed responsibility, maintaining their long-standing ambiguity over covert operations. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to prevent Iranian terrorist plots and oppose Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The incident comes amid stalled efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and growing fears over how close Iran may be to developing a nuclear weapon capability, which it has denied seeking.

With the shadow war appearing to enter a new, more overt phase, the risk of all-out conflict in the tinderbox region remains high. World powers have long feared a full-blown Iranian-Israeli war could engulf the entire Middle East.

Israel hayom

Day 207 — Tuesday, April 30

It began with 100 students at Columbia University in New York City and has spread from Massachusetts to California and Tennessee to Texas, but increasingly it is clear these efforts are coordinated.

The ongoing anti-Israel demonstrations at elite US colleges and universities are exactly what happened in Germany in the 1920s, just years before Nazis took over the country, according to the head of the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel, Dani Dayan.

While many of these students have no idea what they are even supporting when they hold signs that say, “We are Hamas,” “Gas the Jews,” and “Final Solution,” many of them do.

Even more alarming, professors, who certainly know what they are doing, are joining these protests.

These protesters fail to understand that the modern state of Israel was formed on the heels of the holocaust where 6 million Jewish men, women, and children were murdered by the Nazis. They realized that they needed a homeland where they could live in peace and prosperity and raise their families. But also the Jewish community has had a continual presence in their land since the first kingdom of Israel, since King David. How could they be colonizers? They are indigenous people.

God gave this land to Israel.

It was my distinct honor to speak at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles the day after October 7 of last year when over 1200 Jewish people in Israel were tortured, butchered and some even beheaded. In addition, 240 people were taken hostage.

Where are the protests for them? Where are the protests for citizens of 17 countries still held hostage? What about the hundreds of thousands killed this year in Sudan?

I told the Jewish people that were gathered that day that as evangelicals we stand with them, we are praying for them, and will do everything we can to help them. This is more important now than ever.

As a pastor, I will not stand by idly as this horror unfolds before our very eyes. We are living in a moment where history will judge us.

Day 206 — Monday, April 29

Two IDF soldiers fell in a battle in the Gaza Strip today (Monday), it was cleared for publication this evening.

Master Sergeant (res.) Ido Aviv, 28, a resident of Carmiel and a soldier in Battalion 9232, fell in battle in central Gaza. He was posthumously promoted. He left behind a wife, Dasha, age 28, parents, and two younger brothers.

In addition, Master Sergeant (res.) Kalkidan Meharim, 37, a resident of Petach Tikva and a soldier in Battalion 223 of the Carmeli Brigade, fell in battle in central Gaza today.

Kalkidan’s nine siblings gathered this evening in Ramat Gan, at his eldest brother’s house, to be together at this time. Their mother, who still lives in Ethiopia, received the devastating news at her home.

He immigrated to Israel nearly 20 years ago and immediately enlisted in the IDF.

The families of the soldiers have been notified.

Another soldier was seriously wounded in the battle in which Sergeants Aviv and Mehar were killed. The wounded soldier was evacuated to the hospital.

Arutz Sheva

Day 206 — Monday, April 29

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe Israel should go ahead with an offensive in Rafah in order to end the war against Hamas, according to a new Harvard CAPS Harris poll.

The question posed to respondents is “should Israel move forward with an operation in Rafah to finish the war with Hamas, doing its best to avoid civilian casualties even though there will be casualties, or should it back off now and allow Hamas to continue running Gaza?”

In response, 72% say Israel should move forward with the operation while 28% say it should back off and allow Hamas to keep ruling Gaza.

Overall, 78% of poll participants say Hamas show be removed from power but are divide don what should come after, with 30% saying Israel should administer Gaza, 35% the Palestinian Authority and the other 35% a new authority established with Arab countries.

Times Of Israel

Day 206 — Monday, April 29

Anti-Israel protesters praised the October 7 Massacre and several terrorist organizations at a Vancouver rally on Friday according to a video published by Free Palestine Tri-cities British Columbia, demanding that the groups be removed from Canada’s list of terrorist entities.

Charlotte Kates, the international coordinator for the allegedly Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-affiliated (PFLP) Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, led demonstrators in a chant proclaiming “Long live October 7.”

“We stand with the Palestinian resistance and their heroic brave action on October 7,” Kates said in her speech on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

The events of October 7, according to Kates, indicated that Palestinians had almost achieved victory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Kates criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and opposition leader Pierre Poilievre for denouncing the Hamas-led pogrom, but for not uttering similar denunciations for the subsequent Israeli operations in Gaza.

Kates glorified the “Beautiful, brave and heroic resistance of the Palestinian people, which did not begin on October 7, which has continued for over 75 years, which has continued over 120 years.”

“It is long past time to delist Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations from Canada’s so-called list of terrorist entities,” said Kates. “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, [Palestinian} Islamic Jihad is not a terrorist organization, PFLP is not a terrorist organization, Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization. These are resistance fighters. These are our heroes.”

In the terrorist organizations’ stead, Kates demanded that Israel and those with financial relationships with the state be added to the Canadian list of terrorist entities.

Kates urged the Canadian protesters not to be silent about “resistance fighters,” or to be ashamed of the names of Hamas, PFLP, PIJ, and Hezbollah. She said that they were defending humanity and the freedom of peoples around the world.

Jerusalem Post 

HD Editor’s Note:

Robert Gottselig, Executive Director of Friends of Israel Canada, addressed the antisemitic and terrorist-supporting rallies taking place across Canada.

“Did you know that since October 7th, there have been approximately 500 Pro-Palestinian rallies in Toronto against Israel and the Jewish people?” he highlighted. “According to the CBC, policing these rallies has cost the taxpayers a whopping $12 million in police wages—and a lot of it in overtime wages. Think about that: Taxpayers funding policing to allow anti-Israel hatefests to continue on our streets.”

“That’s not the Canada I grew up in, and that’s not the Canada I want for my children and grandchildren,” Gottselig stressed.

“Friends, antisemitism is growing by leaps and bounds,” he further noted. “It’s up over 250% here in Canada and around the world, and our leaders are allowing this to continue and endorsing hate against the Jewish people.”

“We have a real hatred in our country and around the world for Israel and the Jewish people, and I’m going to simply ask you: On what side do you want to be found?” Gottselig asked. “God is crystal clear in Genesis 12:3 that He will ‘bless those that bless‘ the Jewish people and ‘curse those that curse‘ them. Very simply, I hope you will be found on the side of blessing because if a country and its people are found on the side of God’s cursing, ‘woe unto them.‘”

Day 205 — Sunday, April 28

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is currently probing the Hamas Oct. 7 attack against Israel, along with Israel’s military operations against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed, however, on Friday that no ruling by the ICC would impact Israel’s right to self-defense against Hamas and other terrorist militias.

“Under my leadership, Israel will never accept any attempt by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to undermine its basic right to defend itself,” Netanyahu stated.

The prime minister and other top Israeli leaders have repeatedly vowed to dismantle Hamas as a military and political power in Gaza to prevent the terror group from ever repeating a similar Oct. 7-type attack against Israel. Hamas’ invasion and massacre led to the deaths of at least 1,200 Israeli men, women and children.

Netanyahu further warned that politicized decisions by the ICC could potentially threaten soldiers and political leaders of other Western democracies that fight terrorism, such as the United States and the United Kingdom.

“While decisions made by the court in The Hague will not affect Israel’s actions, they will set a dangerous precedent that threatens soldiers and public figures,” Netanyahu said.

All Israel News

Day 205 — Sunday, April 28

Israel warned Hamas it will carry out a major military operation unless the terror group accepts a deal on the table for the release of some, but not all, of the remaining 133 hostages.

“If there is a deal, we will suspend the operation,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Channel 12 as the IDF continued its preparations for the operation and Egypt renewed its push to secure a hostage deal after weeks in which it seemed that such efforts had hit a dead end.

“The release of the hostages is a deep priority for us,” Katz stressed. He spoke after an Egyptian delegation was in Israel on Friday for talks with Israel on the possibility of a new deal.

“If there is an option to make a deal, we will do it,” he said, although he stressed that this would not impact the overall goal of the war, which was to destroy Hamas.

Hamas said it had received on Saturday Israel’s official response to its latest ceasefire proposal and will study it before submitting its reply, the group’s deputy Gaza chief said in a statement.

“Hamas has received today the official response of the Zionist occupation to the proposal presented to the Egyptian and the Qatari mediators on April 13,” Khalil Al-Hayya, who is currently based in Qatar, said in a statement published by the group.

At issue has been the potential release of some 20 to 40 of the hostage — women, the elderly, and the informed — in exchange for a pause to the war, which in the past has been described as lasting six weeks. Israel would also be expected to release Palestinian security prisoners and terrorists held in its jails.

Israeli officials told their Egyptian counterparts on Friday that Israel is ready to give hostage negotiations “one last chance” to reach a deal with Hamas before moving forward with an invasion of Rafah, Axios cited two Israeli officials as saying.

“Israel told Egypt that it is serious about preparations for the operation in Rafah and that it will not let Hamas drag its feet,” it quoted one of the officials as saying.

Jerusalem Post

Day 204 — Saturday, April 27

The Columbia University student who was one of the most vocal students in the anti-Semitic protests at Columbia University in recent days has been thrown out of school after The Daily Wire unearthed video of him stating that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

Haaretz journalist Judy Maltz posted on X that Khymani James, the leader of the anti-Israel encampment on the school’s campus, “has been thrown out of school.” The Boston Globe also reported that James had also been banned from the school’s campus.

James claimed in a statement posted to social media on Friday that he was the victim of “far right agitators” who posted his remarks on social media, which he claimed they did “without context.”

In the stream, he made the case for Zionists to die several times and stated “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

Meet Khymani James, a student leader of Columbia University’s anti-Israel Gaza Solidarity Encampment who openly states that “Zionists don’t deserve to live”

He made the comments during a meeting with the school that he live-streamed.

We put together the highlights: pic.twitter.com/JFlxnRkNC2

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) April 25, 2024

James said he made the comment because he was feeling “unusually upset after an online mob targeted me because I am visibly queer and Black.”

The full meeting with Columbia University and his comments afterward on the livestream are below.

James, who goes by “he/she/they” pronouns, is the spokesperson of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) group and has been the visible face of the protests that have garnered national attention, including holding a press conference on Wednesday.

Daily Wire

Day 204 — Saturday, April 27

Following a world premiere in New York on Thursday, “Screams Before Silence,” former Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg’s new documentary on the systematic sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas against Israelis on October 7, is now available for open-access online viewing.

The hour-long film, created in cooperation with Israel’s Kastina Productions, provides first-hand accounts from survivors, freed hostages, first responders, and legal, medical, and forensic experts. Sandberg is present throughout the film either interviewing individuals in a studio or accompanying them to October 7-related sites.

What emerges is not only an understanding of the mass scale and barbarism of Hamas’s sexual attacks against women but also their deliberate, pre-meditated, and systematic nature.

“When the body of the woman is violated, it symbolizes [the violation] of the body of the whole nation,” Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, former vice-president of the United Nations Commission on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, says in the documentary.

The film’s testimonies detail a horrific truth that was largely brushed aside by a report released earlier this week by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in which he declined to include Hamas among organizations suspected by the UN of committing acts of sexual violence during conflict. That report noted there is evidence that sex crimes were committed during the Palestinian terror group’s devastating October 7 attack on Israel, but did not specifically attribute responsibility to Hamas.

The film also comes at a critical moment as mass anti-Israel demonstrations overtake a growing number of American university campuses, with many participants refuting the facts of October 7. Some flat-out deny that Hamas breached the border with Gaza and ruthlessly tortured, murdered, and wounded thousands of Israelis that day.

“Screams Before Silence” is clearly aimed at American and international audiences, as nearly everything in it has already been shared or reported in one form or another in the Israeli media. In addition, most of the October 7 footage — mainly shot by Hamas terrorists’ own GoPro cameras — has already appeared on television or social media.

However, even for those who have seen the footage or heard survivor or witness testimonies, it will be hard to watch the documentary.

[Warning: The following documentary contains disturbing and graphic testimony from former hostages and survivors of the October 7 massacre]

Times Of Israel

Day 210 — Friday, May 3

Turkey announced Thursday that it stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel, in a highly impactful move against Jerusalem over the war against Hamas.

Citing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, a Turkish Trade Ministry statement said “export and import transactions in relation to Israel have been stopped, covering all products.”

Turkish officials would coordinate with Palestinian authorities to ensure that Palestinians are not affected by the suspension of imports and exports, the ministry said.

The ministry described the step as the “second phase” of measures against Israel, adding that the steps would remain in force until Israel “allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

Earlier, sources familiar with the matter told the Globes financial daily that Turkish ports were already preventing the export of goods to Haifa and Ashdod ports, while Israeli goods arriving in Turkey were not being unloaded.

The two countries had a trade volume of $6.8 billion in 2023.

After initial reports on Turkey’s decision to halt trade, Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of “breaking agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports.”

“This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements,” Katz wrote on X.

He said he instructed Foreign Ministry Director General Yaakov Blitshtein to “immediately engage with all relevant parties in the government to create alternatives for trade with Turkey, focusing on local production and imports from other countries.”

“Israel will emerge with a strong and daring economy,” Katz pledged. “We Win, and They Lose.”

Turkey has been one of the harshest critics of Israel during the war against Hamas, with Erdogan branding Israel a “terrorist state.”

Erdogan’s salvos against Israel include allegations it is committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza. He has defended Hamas — considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union — as “a liberation group.”

Citing a diplomatic source, the Al-Monitor news site said the Foreign Minister was investigating the economic consequences of Turkey’s measure.

Israel and Turkey have free trade agreements from the mid-1990s that are now being violated.

Times Of Israel

Day 210 — Friday, May 3

(Toronto, Canada) — Last week, the Jerusalem Post reported that the spokesperson for Hamas’ armed al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, called for an escalation across all fronts.

“In a video aired by Al Jazeera TV, Abu Ubaida praised Iran’s attack on Israel on April 13…” JPost explained. “He also called for an escalation in the West Bank and Jordan calling it ‘one of the most important Arab fronts.’”

The Hamas spokesman further stated: “We call on the Jordanian people to step up their actions and raise their voices. The government of the occupation is stalling in reaching a hostages swap deal and is trying to obstruct efforts by the mediators to reach a ceasefire agreement.”

I can assure you that it’s not Israel that’s stalling or obstructing efforts to reach a ceasefire. There already was a ceasefire on October 6th of last year, and Hamas broke it. Stop with the lies!

Qatar also expressed its concern that all part parties should “show seriousness” to allow such efforts to succeed. Again, it’s not Israel that is to blame. It’s those who hate Israel are to blame. Hamas is a terrorist organization whose goal in its Charter is to “obliterate” the Jewish State.

The same is true with Iran. They openly call for Israel to be wiped off the face of the map, and they are determined to develop a nuclear weapon to carry that out.

As for Qatar, they, too, show what they think of Israel.

“The Al-Aqsa flood operation [October 7th massacre] that began is only a prelude to the elimination of the Jews,” he continued. “The second is in the land and the beginning, Allah willing, of the end of their state after their gathering in the land of Palestine.”

Seriously? The Al-Aqsa flood, that is, the October 7th Massacre, was only the prelude to the elimination of the Jews and Israel?

That’s demonic, and in their warped, sick minds, they try to convince the world that Israel is the one obstructing efforts to reach a ceasefire. This evil that is being perpetrated in the media has fueled antisemitism worldwide.

Day 210 — Friday, May 3

(Galilee, Israel) — Shalom from Israel! This Sunday night will begin Yom HaShoah, and the remembrance will run through Monday afternoon. Translated literally as “Day of the Catastrophe”, this is Israel’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the 1930s and 1940s, more than six million Jews lost their lives under the Nazi regime. Of those victims, greater than 1.5 million were children.

At 10:00 on Monday morning, sirens will sound throughout the nation of Israel. At that moment, all people will stop what they are doing and stand in silence for two minutes to honor and remember those who were slaughtered during that horrific time. Places of business will halt their activities. Cars will pull over and their passengers will get out. School classes will pause their instruction. As a nation and as a people, we are determined that we will never forget what took place during those dark times.

Why is it so important to intentionally remember tragedy? To answer that, all you need to do is look at what is currently happening in national and international government buildings and on university campuses around the world. On October 7, a slaughter took place that was so vile, so vicious, so demonic that it seemed the world had to pause to catch its breath. Torture, systematic rape, kidnapping, murder, and mutilation were perpetrated by gleeful terrorists against an unsuspecting and wholly innocent civilian population. Israel was forever changed, and a huge majority of nations around the world commiserated with us. But that was then, and this is now.

Before we get to what is different today, let’s talk about what led to this change of attitude. It’s really very simple – Israel fought back, and it did so with a vengeance. That’s not what is supposed to happen. The world likes it much better when its Jews are victims. During the Holocaust, apart from some amazing acts of bravery, like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, most all of the Jews went quietly to their deaths. During the pogroms in Russia, the Jews fled from the violence. Over the centuries, when Jews were forced to leave their homes and their countries, they went. What else could they do? They were part of a diaspora. They were strangers in a strange land.

But now the Jews have a home, and that home has allowed us to become strong. No longer are we forced to take the shots. When the chanters cry out, “From the River to the Sea”, we respond, “Yeah, just try to take our land.” And when the terrorists invade, Israel will make sure that they can never, ever do it again. How do we do that? We kill all of Hamas’s leadership, and, if there are any of their rank-and-file members that survive the onslaught, we will bring them to justice. It’s harsh, it’s violent, and it’s bloody. But it is what it will take for Israel to once again be safe within its own borders.

Day 209 — Thursday, May 2

Left-wing dark money networks are funding the outbreak of anti-Israel protests spreading at college campuses across the country.

Last week, Fox News reported the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), “a national organization affiliated with around 200 independent chapters” including Columbia University, raked in “a six-figure donation from a nonprofit bankrolled by the George Soros network.”

According to Influence Watch, the group orchestrates student activism on university campuses, accuses Israel of committing genocide, and compares Palestinians to black Americans under the Jim Crow era.

“In addition to Columbia, NSJP has been protesting and setting up encampments at other universities across the country, including UCLA and USC in California and at the University of Texas in Austin, where over 50 people were arrested this week,” Fox News reported.

The University of Texas said in a statement Tuesday that 45 of the 79 people arrested on the school’s Austin campus Monday “had no affiliation with UT Austin.”

“These numbers validate our concern that much of the disruption on campus over the past week has been orchestrated by people from outside the University, including groups with ties to escalating protests at other universities around the country,” the university said.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that police have arrested more than 1,000 demonstrators across more than 25 U.S. campuses. At Columbia University in Manhattan, which became the epicenter of anti-Israeli encampments when school leadership testified about antisemitism to Congress, police arrested nearly 300 protestors Tuesday night.

According to Fox News, “Another group active at Columbia, Jewish Voice for Peace, has brought in at least $650,000 from Soros-linked groups since 2016. JVP has also taken in hundreds of thousands from the billionaire-fueled Rockefeller Fund, which is boosted by millions of dollars from a dark money funding network.”

“Another Soros-backed group, U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, has paid what it calls ‘fellows’ to organize and attend anti-Israel protests across the country,” Fox also said, citing New York Post reporting.

On Wednesday, the Washington Free Beacon reported that the People’s Forum, another non-profit in New York that “received more than $12 million from Goldman Sachs’ charitable arm[,] encouraged anti-Israel activists to re-create the violent protests of ‘the summer of 2020.‘”

The sustained demonstrations breaking out across American campuses have led some schools to cancel in-person classes and have jeopardized graduation ceremonies. Columbia University has shifted to a hybrid model for the remainder of the semester and announced final exams will be held remotely.

At the University of Southern California (USC), officials announced the school’s primary graduation ceremony will be canceled. The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) also canceled classes Wednesday after fighting erupted on campus.

The Federalist

Day 209 — Thursday, May 2

A video was posted on X earlier this week that showed footage of a Palestinian man visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he called on Jews to return to the site of the extermination camp, a place he claimed where they belonged.

Footage of the man can be seen walking through the Auschwitz memorial, calling to free Palestine.

“From these ghettos from which the Zionists came, I say Allah have mercy on all the Palestinians and our martyrs. Free Palestine,” he exclaimed.

As the man spanned the camera along the site of the camp, zooming in on the tombstones and monuments in memory of the lives lost, he continued, “[allah]-willing, we will be free from you [Jews], and you will all return to the concentration camps. Or to your countries. Any other place, as long as you leave our place because this is our land.

“You belong here [Auschwitz]. This is your place of origin. You left these camps and ghettos. Long live Palestine,” he concluded.

As pro-Palestinian protests and antisemetic incidents surge around the world in the background of the Israel-Hamas war, holocaust memorial sites have become easy targets for vandalization.

Jerusalem POst

Day 208 — Wednesday, May 1

“You have to hear this to believe this. The International Criminal Court in The Hague is contemplating issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli government and military officials as war criminals.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a strongly-worded video statement on Tuesday, blasting reported plans by the ICC to issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including himself, as part of an ongoing investigation of Israel’s conduct during the Gaza War.

“This would be an outrage of historic proportions,” Netanyahu charged.

International bodies like the ICC were created after World War Two to prevent the reoccurrence of horrors and future genocides after the Holocaust, the Prime Minister said.

“Yet now the International Court is trying to put Israel in the dock. It’s trying to put us in the dock as we defend ourselves against genocidal terrorists and regimes, Iran of course, that openly works to destroy the one and only Jewish state,” he said.

Pointing to the partly violent, anti-Israel and antisemitic protests across university campuses in the U.S., Netanyahu said ICC arrest warrants would effectively brand Israeli leaders as war criminals.

This, he added, “will pour jet fuel on the fires of antisemitism, those fires that are already raging on the campuses of America and across capitals around the world.”

Israel is currently undertaking a concerted effort on multiple fronts to combat the ICC’s plans, including action by the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Security Council, and the Foreign Ministry.

Netanyahu also asked U.S. President Joe Biden for assistance during a phone call on Sunday, the Axios news outlet reported.

“Rather than commend Israel for abiding by the rules of war while fighting an enemy that violates every rule of war, including holding 133 Israeli men, women and children hostage, who’s the ICC targeting? The democracy called Israel,” Netanyahu continued.

This threatens the inherent right of all democracies to defend themselves against terrorism and aggression, the prime minister noted, especially since the ICC doesn’t have jurisdiction over Israel.

All Israel News

Day 208 — Wednesday, May 1

Police cleared 30 to 40 people from inside Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall on Tuesday night after protesters against Israel occupied the administration building in New York earlier in the day.

Hundreds of New York Police Department officers acted after the school’s president said there was no other way to ensure safety and restore order on campus and sought help from the police. The occupied building had expanded the demonstrators’ reach from an encampment elsewhere on the Ivy League school’s grounds.

The scene unfolded shortly after 9 p.m. as police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields, massed at the college’s entrance. Scores of officers climbed through a window to enter the occupied building, streaming in over a ramp raised from the top of a police vehicle to get inside. Multiple protesters were taken into custody and taken away from campus on buses.

The confrontation occurred more than 12 hours after the demonstrators took over Hamilton Hall shortly after midnight Tuesday, spreading their reach from an anti-Israel tent encampment elsewhere on the grounds that’s been there for nearly two weeks.

Students had vowed to fight any eviction from Hamilton Hall.

“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the school said of the police action, adding that school public safety personnel were forced out of the building and one facilities worker was “threatened.”

Prior to the arrests, the campus in the heart of New York City, usually accessible to passersby, was sealed off, with police erecting barricades, an AFP journalist saw.

Times Of Israel

Day 207 — Tuesday, April 30

Israeli has allegedly carried out an operation in Tehran targeting and eliminating an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) operative involved in plotting attacks against Jews in Germany, anti-regime media outlet Iran International reported Monday, citing its sources. According to the report, the elimination was carried out with a gun. At the end of 2023, a court in Düsseldorf convicted an Iranian citizen named Babak J. for involvement in planning an attempt to set fire to a synagogue in the city of Bochum, which was supposed to be carried out in November 2022, and sentenced him to two years and nine months in prison.

The reported strike in the heart of Iran’s capital marks yet another escalation in the long-simmering shadow war between the two archenemies. Neither Israel nor Iran has officially confirmed the incident.

The decades-long covert conflict between Israel and Iran has seen the two nations engage in proxy battles, cyberattacks, and other forms of confrontations. Tensions spiked earlier this month when Iran launched a massive drone and missile barrage at Israeli territory, prompting reported Israeli airstrikes inside Iran.

At the core of the enmity is Iran’s hostility toward Israel since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and its support for anti-Israel terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel has repeatedly struck Iranian-linked targets in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere to disrupt weapons transfers.

Neither government has claimed responsibility, maintaining their long-standing ambiguity over covert operations. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to prevent Iranian terrorist plots and oppose Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The incident comes amid stalled efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and growing fears over how close Iran may be to developing a nuclear weapon capability, which it has denied seeking.

With the shadow war appearing to enter a new, more overt phase, the risk of all-out conflict in the tinderbox region remains high. World powers have long feared a full-blown Iranian-Israeli war could engulf the entire Middle East.

Israel hayom

Day 207 — Tuesday, April 30

It began with 100 students at Columbia University in New York City and has spread from Massachusetts to California and Tennessee to Texas, but increasingly it is clear these efforts are coordinated.

The ongoing anti-Israel demonstrations at elite US colleges and universities are exactly what happened in Germany in the 1920s, just years before Nazis took over the country, according to the head of the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel, Dani Dayan.

While many of these students have no idea what they are even supporting when they hold signs that say, “We are Hamas,” “Gas the Jews,” and “Final Solution,” many of them do.

Even more alarming, professors, who certainly know what they are doing, are joining these protests.

These protesters fail to understand that the modern state of Israel was formed on the heels of the holocaust where 6 million Jewish men, women, and children were murdered by the Nazis. They realized that they needed a homeland where they could live in peace and prosperity and raise their families. But also the Jewish community has had a continual presence in their land since the first kingdom of Israel, since King David. How could they be colonizers? They are indigenous people.

God gave this land to Israel.

It was my distinct honor to speak at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles the day after October 7 of last year when over 1200 Jewish people in Israel were tortured, butchered and some even beheaded. In addition, 240 people were taken hostage.

Where are the protests for them? Where are the protests for citizens of 17 countries still held hostage? What about the hundreds of thousands killed this year in Sudan?

I told the Jewish people that were gathered that day that as evangelicals we stand with them, we are praying for them, and will do everything we can to help them. This is more important now than ever.

As a pastor, I will not stand by idly as this horror unfolds before our very eyes. We are living in a moment where history will judge us.

Day 206 — Monday, April 29

Two IDF soldiers fell in a battle in the Gaza Strip today (Monday), it was cleared for publication this evening.

Master Sergeant (res.) Ido Aviv, 28, a resident of Carmiel and a soldier in Battalion 9232, fell in battle in central Gaza. He was posthumously promoted. He left behind a wife, Dasha, age 28, parents, and two younger brothers.

In addition, Master Sergeant (res.) Kalkidan Meharim, 37, a resident of Petach Tikva and a soldier in Battalion 223 of the Carmeli Brigade, fell in battle in central Gaza today.

Kalkidan’s nine siblings gathered this evening in Ramat Gan, at his eldest brother’s house, to be together at this time. Their mother, who still lives in Ethiopia, received the devastating news at her home.

He immigrated to Israel nearly 20 years ago and immediately enlisted in the IDF.

The families of the soldiers have been notified.

Another soldier was seriously wounded in the battle in which Sergeants Aviv and Mehar were killed. The wounded soldier was evacuated to the hospital.

Arutz Sheva

Day 206 — Monday, April 29

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe Israel should go ahead with an offensive in Rafah in order to end the war against Hamas, according to a new Harvard CAPS Harris poll.

The question posed to respondents is “should Israel move forward with an operation in Rafah to finish the war with Hamas, doing its best to avoid civilian casualties even though there will be casualties, or should it back off now and allow Hamas to continue running Gaza?”

In response, 72% say Israel should move forward with the operation while 28% say it should back off and allow Hamas to keep ruling Gaza.

Overall, 78% of poll participants say Hamas show be removed from power but are divide don what should come after, with 30% saying Israel should administer Gaza, 35% the Palestinian Authority and the other 35% a new authority established with Arab countries.

Times Of Israel

Day 206 — Monday, April 29

Anti-Israel protesters praised the October 7 Massacre and several terrorist organizations at a Vancouver rally on Friday according to a video published by Free Palestine Tri-cities British Columbia, demanding that the groups be removed from Canada’s list of terrorist entities.

Charlotte Kates, the international coordinator for the allegedly Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-affiliated (PFLP) Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, led demonstrators in a chant proclaiming “Long live October 7.”

“We stand with the Palestinian resistance and their heroic brave action on October 7,” Kates said in her speech on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

The events of October 7, according to Kates, indicated that Palestinians had almost achieved victory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Kates criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and opposition leader Pierre Poilievre for denouncing the Hamas-led pogrom, but for not uttering similar denunciations for the subsequent Israeli operations in Gaza.

Kates glorified the “Beautiful, brave and heroic resistance of the Palestinian people, which did not begin on October 7, which has continued for over 75 years, which has continued over 120 years.”

“It is long past time to delist Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations from Canada’s so-called list of terrorist entities,” said Kates. “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, [Palestinian} Islamic Jihad is not a terrorist organization, PFLP is not a terrorist organization, Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization. These are resistance fighters. These are our heroes.”

In the terrorist organizations’ stead, Kates demanded that Israel and those with financial relationships with the state be added to the Canadian list of terrorist entities.

Kates urged the Canadian protesters not to be silent about “resistance fighters,” or to be ashamed of the names of Hamas, PFLP, PIJ, and Hezbollah. She said that they were defending humanity and the freedom of peoples around the world.

Jerusalem Post 

HD Editor’s Note:

Robert Gottselig, Executive Director of Friends of Israel Canada, addressed the antisemitic and terrorist-supporting rallies taking place across Canada.

“Did you know that since October 7th, there have been approximately 500 Pro-Palestinian rallies in Toronto against Israel and the Jewish people?” he highlighted. “According to the CBC, policing these rallies has cost the taxpayers a whopping $12 million in police wages—and a lot of it in overtime wages. Think about that: Taxpayers funding policing to allow anti-Israel hatefests to continue on our streets.”

“That’s not the Canada I grew up in, and that’s not the Canada I want for my children and grandchildren,” Gottselig stressed.

“Friends, antisemitism is growing by leaps and bounds,” he further noted. “It’s up over 250% here in Canada and around the world, and our leaders are allowing this to continue and endorsing hate against the Jewish people.”

“We have a real hatred in our country and around the world for Israel and the Jewish people, and I’m going to simply ask you: On what side do you want to be found?” Gottselig asked. “God is crystal clear in Genesis 12:3 that He will ‘bless those that bless‘ the Jewish people and ‘curse those that curse‘ them. Very simply, I hope you will be found on the side of blessing because if a country and its people are found on the side of God’s cursing, ‘woe unto them.‘”

Day 205 — Sunday, April 28

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is currently probing the Hamas Oct. 7 attack against Israel, along with Israel’s military operations against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed, however, on Friday that no ruling by the ICC would impact Israel’s right to self-defense against Hamas and other terrorist militias.

“Under my leadership, Israel will never accept any attempt by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to undermine its basic right to defend itself,” Netanyahu stated.

The prime minister and other top Israeli leaders have repeatedly vowed to dismantle Hamas as a military and political power in Gaza to prevent the terror group from ever repeating a similar Oct. 7-type attack against Israel. Hamas’ invasion and massacre led to the deaths of at least 1,200 Israeli men, women and children.

Netanyahu further warned that politicized decisions by the ICC could potentially threaten soldiers and political leaders of other Western democracies that fight terrorism, such as the United States and the United Kingdom.

“While decisions made by the court in The Hague will not affect Israel’s actions, they will set a dangerous precedent that threatens soldiers and public figures,” Netanyahu said.

All Israel News

Day 205 — Sunday, April 28

Israel warned Hamas it will carry out a major military operation unless the terror group accepts a deal on the table for the release of some, but not all, of the remaining 133 hostages.

“If there is a deal, we will suspend the operation,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Channel 12 as the IDF continued its preparations for the operation and Egypt renewed its push to secure a hostage deal after weeks in which it seemed that such efforts had hit a dead end.

“The release of the hostages is a deep priority for us,” Katz stressed. He spoke after an Egyptian delegation was in Israel on Friday for talks with Israel on the possibility of a new deal.

“If there is an option to make a deal, we will do it,” he said, although he stressed that this would not impact the overall goal of the war, which was to destroy Hamas.

Hamas said it had received on Saturday Israel’s official response to its latest ceasefire proposal and will study it before submitting its reply, the group’s deputy Gaza chief said in a statement.

“Hamas has received today the official response of the Zionist occupation to the proposal presented to the Egyptian and the Qatari mediators on April 13,” Khalil Al-Hayya, who is currently based in Qatar, said in a statement published by the group.

At issue has been the potential release of some 20 to 40 of the hostage — women, the elderly, and the informed — in exchange for a pause to the war, which in the past has been described as lasting six weeks. Israel would also be expected to release Palestinian security prisoners and terrorists held in its jails.

Israeli officials told their Egyptian counterparts on Friday that Israel is ready to give hostage negotiations “one last chance” to reach a deal with Hamas before moving forward with an invasion of Rafah, Axios cited two Israeli officials as saying.

“Israel told Egypt that it is serious about preparations for the operation in Rafah and that it will not let Hamas drag its feet,” it quoted one of the officials as saying.

Jerusalem Post

Day 204 — Saturday, April 27

The Columbia University student who was one of the most vocal students in the anti-Semitic protests at Columbia University in recent days has been thrown out of school after The Daily Wire unearthed video of him stating that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

Haaretz journalist Judy Maltz posted on X that Khymani James, the leader of the anti-Israel encampment on the school’s campus, “has been thrown out of school.” The Boston Globe also reported that James had also been banned from the school’s campus.

James claimed in a statement posted to social media on Friday that he was the victim of “far right agitators” who posted his remarks on social media, which he claimed they did “without context.”

In the stream, he made the case for Zionists to die several times and stated “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

Meet Khymani James, a student leader of Columbia University’s anti-Israel Gaza Solidarity Encampment who openly states that “Zionists don’t deserve to live”

He made the comments during a meeting with the school that he live-streamed.

We put together the highlights: pic.twitter.com/JFlxnRkNC2

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) April 25, 2024

James said he made the comment because he was feeling “unusually upset after an online mob targeted me because I am visibly queer and Black.”

The full meeting with Columbia University and his comments afterward on the livestream are below.

James, who goes by “he/she/they” pronouns, is the spokesperson of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) group and has been the visible face of the protests that have garnered national attention, including holding a press conference on Wednesday.

Daily Wire

Day 204 — Saturday, April 27

Following a world premiere in New York on Thursday, “Screams Before Silence,” former Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg’s new documentary on the systematic sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas against Israelis on October 7, is now available for open-access online viewing.

The hour-long film, created in cooperation with Israel’s Kastina Productions, provides first-hand accounts from survivors, freed hostages, first responders, and legal, medical, and forensic experts. Sandberg is present throughout the film either interviewing individuals in a studio or accompanying them to October 7-related sites.

What emerges is not only an understanding of the mass scale and barbarism of Hamas’s sexual attacks against women but also their deliberate, pre-meditated, and systematic nature.

“When the body of the woman is violated, it symbolizes [the violation] of the body of the whole nation,” Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, former vice-president of the United Nations Commission on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, says in the documentary.

The film’s testimonies detail a horrific truth that was largely brushed aside by a report released earlier this week by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in which he declined to include Hamas among organizations suspected by the UN of committing acts of sexual violence during conflict. That report noted there is evidence that sex crimes were committed during the Palestinian terror group’s devastating October 7 attack on Israel, but did not specifically attribute responsibility to Hamas.

The film also comes at a critical moment as mass anti-Israel demonstrations overtake a growing number of American university campuses, with many participants refuting the facts of October 7. Some flat-out deny that Hamas breached the border with Gaza and ruthlessly tortured, murdered, and wounded thousands of Israelis that day.

“Screams Before Silence” is clearly aimed at American and international audiences, as nearly everything in it has already been shared or reported in one form or another in the Israeli media. In addition, most of the October 7 footage — mainly shot by Hamas terrorists’ own GoPro cameras — has already appeared on television or social media.

However, even for those who have seen the footage or heard survivor or witness testimonies, it will be hard to watch the documentary.

[Warning: The following documentary contains disturbing and graphic testimony from former hostages and survivors of the October 7 massacre]

Times Of Israel