Tuesday, April 01, 2025

04/01 Links Pt1: Hamas ‘quietly drops’ thousands of deaths from casualty figures; Gaza Rises up Against Hamas - with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib; Iran, ISIS plan to target Jewish tourists over Passover

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: In the modern age, 'civilised' people can no longer hate Jews for their religion or race - so they now resort to hating them for having a state and daring to defend it
In the final part of the Mail’s exclusive serialisation of On Democracies And Death Cults, renowned author Douglas Murray explains why Israel is seen as the ‘bad guy’ the world over and details how pervasive anti-Semitism still is.

It always puzzles me why the citizens of Israel seem so unique among victims. Why they seem to be the only people on Earth who, when savagely attacked, either don’t gain the world’s sympathy or gain it only for a matter of hours, if that.

Almost a year went by after the vicious terrorist raid from Gaza and the cold-blooded slaughter of more than a thousand innocent civilians on October 7, 2023 before a point was made that was so searing nobody else had dared raise it.

The massacres, said Ruth Wisse, a professor at Harvard University, had been the worst atrocity carried out against Jews since the Holocaust – yet almost nobody had the courage to address who the people who had carried it out were.

Why did no one want to dwell on just who the anti-Semites and Nazis were this time? Why was there so little concentration on the ideology that drives Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic government in Iran, and on the fanaticism and the willingness to die and kill mercilessly in its pursuit? Were people not interested?

Or was there some sort of collective anti-Semitism going on – overt or underlying – that meant Israel had to be the bad guy whatever?

You have to see casual anti-Semitism in action to understand how entrenched it can be and how deep it can go, especially in the Middle East. Whenever I travel in the Arab and Muslim worlds I am struck by this obsession with Israel and the Jews. I remember being in Egypt and searching the bookshops to see what the locals were offered for reading material.

The book selections were always the same – Mein Kampf, The Protocols Of The Learned Elders Of Zion and a range of other conspiracy tracts focusing on Israel and the Jews.
Hamas ‘quietly drops’ thousands of deaths from casualty figures
New research shows that Hamas has quietly dropped thousands of deaths from its Gaza war casualty figures.

Salo Aizenberg, from the US-based non-profit organisation Honest Reporting, said that Hamas’s March 2025 casualty update had removed thousands of people it previously listed as having been killed last year.

“Hamas’s new March 2025 fatality list quietly drops 3,400 fully “identified” deaths listed in its August and October 2024 reports – including 1,080 children. These “deaths” never happened. The numbers were falsified – again,” Mr Aizenberg wrote.

The casualty lists are released as PDFs by the Hamas-run Gaza ministry of health, which has been cited by international media as a source for fatality figures in the enclave since the start of the war.

A report by the Henry Jackson Society in December said that the number of civilians killed in the Gaza conflict had probably been inflated by Hamas in order to portray Israel as deliberately targeting innocent people.

Andrew Fox, the author of the report, said the latest deletions are likely to have been an attempt by Hamas to retain credibility.

“We knew there were rafts of errors in their reporting,” Mr Fox said. “There’s a reasonable explanation in that their computer systems went down in November 2023, so it’s been challenging for them to report accurately, but the lists are so unreliable that the world’s media shouldn’t be quoting them as reliable.”

He added: “The UN also just takes Hamas’s figures and publishes them with a note stating the figures are unconfirmed.”

The Hamas lists contain information such as names and ID numbers, and can be filled in by anyone with a link to the Google form for the document.

Hamas will “have gone through the list, trying to make it as convincing as possible. They’ve been accepting names onto that list with no evidence whatsoever”, explained Mr Fox. “So what I’m guessing they’re trying to do is thin out the names they cannot substantiate at all.”

Mr Fox, a former British paratrooper who has worked with Mr Aizenberg on previous research, said the teams use the publicly available Hamas data and cross-check it name by name.

“Salo’s research would be looking for names that were on previous lists but have now disappeared,” Mr Fox explained. “Hamas releases lists as PDFs, so it’s harder to do comparisons but we transfer names to an Excel sheet to do a mass comparison this way.”
Iran, ISIS plan to target Jewish tourists over Passover, Israel says
Iran and global terrorist organizations, including ISIS, plan to target Jews and Israelis traveling during Passover, Israel’s National Security Council warned on Tuesday.

“Iran is the central generator of global terror, directly or through its proxies, against Israeli and Jewish sites around the world,” the National Security Council said in a statement released before Israeli schools go on Passover break on Sunday.

The Islamic Republic uses terror attacks as a policy and seeks to avenge the deaths of senior Hezbollah and Hamas officials, according to the travel warning.

In the last year, Iran has backed attempted terrorist attacks against the Israeli embassies in Sweden and Belgium, which were thwarted, as well as attempts to attack or abduct Israeli citizens around the world under the guise of making business contacts. Those attempts mostly began through e-mails and messages on social media.

Hamas has also attempted to attack Jews and Israelis outside of Israel, in light of the terror group’s weakened state in Gaza and the continuation of the war, the NSC stated. Hamas terror infrastructure was found in Denmark, Germany, Bulgaria and Sweden that aimed to attack Israelis.

In addition, in recent months, terrorist groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaida have increased their activities, especially in Europe. ISIS specifically has called on its supporters to strike Israeli and Jewish sites around the world.

The NSC said that “with the collapse of the ceasefire [last month] and the return to fighting in Gaza, an increase is expected in efforts to attack Jewish and Israeli sites abroad, including through local or individual initiatives.”


JCFA: Unveiling October 7th: UK Report Details Brutality and Fight Against Denial
In this powerful episode of East to West, host Sarah Martinez Amir speaks with historian Lord Andrew Roberts about The Roberts Report—the most comprehensive investigation to date into Hamas’ October 7 terror attack on Israel. Commissioned by the UK-Israel All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), the 318-page report meticulously documents the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, exposing the premeditated and systematic nature of the assault.

Lord Roberts discusses the unprecedented brutality—families executed, burned alive, or slaughtered in safe rooms; sexual violence and mutilation on a horrific scale; and Hamas’ use of social media to spread terror, live-streaming atrocities and sending footage to victims’ families. He also addresses the disturbing wave of denial and misinformation that followed, drawing parallels to Holocaust denial and warning of the dangers of historical revisionism.

This episode is a must-listen for those seeking the unvarnished truth about October 7 and its far-reaching consequences.


JPost Editorial: Don't let Israel's power struggles distract from hostage crisis
Last month, Eli Sharabi, who was released in February, said in a harrowing interview that 24-year-old hostage Alon Ohel became like a son to him. He wasn’t sure how Ohel would manage alone in captivity, both physically and mentally. One of the main reasons he did the interview in the first place was to cry out for Alon.

Alon’s parents, Kobi and Idit, spoke with Netanyahu this week, after sending him a letter detailing his conditions as relayed by freed hostage Or Levy. Kobi said after the phone call that he felt somewhat encouraged, and that health experts say Alon’s condition has significantly worsened in captivity due to an untreated eye injury from October 7, as well as continuous inadequate living and sanitary conditions.

Twenty families came together on Sunday to pen a letter to Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer to emphasize their deep worry for their loved ones. Dermer has supposedly been the frontal figure leading the negotiations since Trump won the American elections.

“We write to you with worry, dread, and growing fury—it appears that the hostage negotiations stalled and have not continued, as their time is running out,” they wrote.

They added, “It feels as though this issue of returning our loved ones has fallen to the bottom of the national priority list, in a glaring and audacious disregard of the basic obligations and responsibilities that a state has towards its citizens.”

They noted that a month has passed since Dermer joined the team, but there have been no advancements. They implored the minister to take the initiative and push for the release of the remaining hostages.

As the news tumbles with another scandal each day, we must not lose sight of the core values that bind us together: brotherhood. They must come home.


Ex-hostage Amit Soussana receives US’s International Woman of Courage Award
Accepting the US State Department’s 2025 International Woman of Courage Award, former Hamas hostage and sexual assault survivor Amit Soussana called Tuesday for global action to secure the immediate release of the remaining captives in Gaza.

“It is an incredible honor to stand before you today, but it is also a deeply painful moment,” said Soussana, who was one of eight women from around the world presented with the award at a State Department ceremony in Washington, but the only one given a personal shout-out by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the only one asked to give keynote remarks to those in attendance.

Soussana was presented with the award by Rubio and First Lady Melania Trump.

“While I am here, my friends remain in the darkness. Five hundred and forty-three long days and nights. They are still suffering, still waiting, still hoping. Their voices remain unheard. So I will speak for them. We cannot move forward until they are free,” she said in her remarks.

Soussana was abducted on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led thousands of attackers in an invasion of southern Israel. The assault killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, with terrorists also abducting 251 people as hostages to the Gaza Strip, triggering the ongoing war.

Footage showed the moments when a mob of gunmen dragged Soussana across a field to captivity in Gaza. The Israeli woman could be seen kicking and fighting against her abductors, causing one of them to fall to the ground, at which point the terrorists beat her. Soussana agreed to have the footage publicized following her release, and it was first aired on Channel 12 news.


‘You find yourself begging, and they enjoy it’: Ex-hostage Eliya Cohen says captors intentionally starved him
Former hostage Eliya Cohen, who was snatched by Hamas terrorists from the Nova music festival and held captive for 505 days, tells Channel 12 that his captors drastically increased the amount of food he was given during his last weeks in captivity after the gaunt appearance of hostages released before him sparked international outrage.

Cohen was held captive with Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, who were returned to Israel on February 8, dangerously emaciated. The three were also held together with Alon Ohel, who has yet to be released.

He tells Channel 12 that for the majority of his time in captivity, he received very little food.

“You can deal with being humiliated, you can deal with being cursed at, you can deal with your legs being in chains,” he says. “Hunger is a daily struggle because, beyond being hungry, you are also fighting for your life. Every night, you go to sleep thinking, ‘what am I going to do tomorrow to get that piece of pita bread?'”

He says that most days, their captors would give each of the four men a piece of pita, and one or two spoonfuls of beans or peas, but on other days, “I would beg God for that to be the case. For it to be a dry pita with two spoons of beans.”

He says sometimes the terrorists would bring them three pitas instead of four, and ordered the men to share, claiming they would give them another one later in the day.

“You find yourself begging — and they enjoy it,” he says. “They know they are starving you.”


Treatment of hostages shows human life ‘means nothing’ to Hamas
Journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon says human life “means nothing” to Hamas after a 60 Minutes interview asked former Israeli hostages about their treatment by the terrorist group.

“It says a lot about Hamas, which is that human life means nothing to them,” Ms Ungar-Sargon told Sky News host Rita Panahi.

“They cannot imagine being attached enough to a wife or children that you would actually grieve them.”


These Are The Top Contenders For Trump’s Next UN Ambassador Pick
The White House is narrowing its search for its next nominee for ambassador to the United Nations after withdrawing Congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s nomination to keep the New York Republican in the House.

According to a source involved in the process, the two top contenders under consideration are both first-term Trump administration officials: former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and former Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat anti-Semitism Ellie Cohanim.

While Friedman likely did not need to undergo vetting due to his former high-profile role, Cohanim has undergone formal vetting, sources say.

President Donald Trump said more than 30 people are interested in the role he described as a“star-making” position while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. Trump said that Friedman and Richard Grenell, the envoy for special missions and acting director of the Kennedy Center, are possibilities.

Grenell said he was a “hard no” on taking the role during an interview with Newsmax last week.

“This is not something that I want to do. I’ve got plenty to do,” said Grenell. “I care very deeply, actually, about the U.N. But, you know, Elise Stefanik, let’s just say, she would have been amazing. She is smart and passionate about world affairs. I think she would have been amazing.”

Friedman is a longtime friend of Trump who was instrumental in helping to craft the Abraham Accords, moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and pushing for the United States to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
Israel Scraps All Tariffs On U.S. Goods Ahead Of Trump’s Tariff ‘Liberation Day’
Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday signed a directive to immediately remove all tariffs on U.S. imports. The move comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned announcement on implementing reciprocal tariffs.

Trump’s tariffs are set to go into place on Wednesday, April 2, which his administration is calling “Liberation Day.” Trump reporters told reporters on Sunday that the tariffs would be on “all countries,” though advisors in his administration said they would focus on select countries with the largest trade imbalances.

Smotrich said his goal is to have a “zero-tarrif policy” and “maintain positive trade relations” with the United States. The United States is currently Israel’s largest trading partner, with total goods trade estimated to be valued at $37 billion in 2024. In 2024, the US imports from Israel stood at $22.2 billion, while exports were estimated at $14.8 billion, according to the US trade representative.

“Fully eliminating tariffs on imports from the US is an important step to safeguard the Israeli economy during a sensitive period and to strengthen the economic relationship with our most important ally – the US,” Smotrich said Tuesday.

“We will continue to act decisively to protect Israeli exports and preserve the competitive advantages of Israel in the international arena.”


Trump admin quietly reinstated some $80m in USAID funds for Gazan aid, official says
The State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development told Congress on Friday that they intend to “reorganize” the U.S. Agency for International Development, incorporating certain parts into the department by July 1 and discontinuing the other parts of USAID, which “do not align with administration priorities.”

Critics have long said that USAID helps fund enemies of the Jewish state, including having “spent millions on a non-profit that pushed anti-Israel and antisemitic rap songs,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) wrote last month. The Trump administration has also said that many of USAID’s funded programs are out of sync with U.S. priorities and values.

But a USAID official, who declined to be named, told JNS that Washington has already restored most of the aid intended for Gaza, which the Trump administration slashed in its broader cuts to foreign aid. That restoration occurred, per the official, before the collapse of the Israel-Hamas hostage release and ceasefire deal some two weeks ago.

The Trump administration did not realize at first that some aid funding for Gaza was tied directly to conditions of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal, according to the USAID official.

“Initially, everything was paused for a few days, but the administration has worked back to a place where most of the humanitarian assistance for Gaza is still continuing from the United States,” the official said.

The official estimates that about $80 million of funding for the World Food Programme, UNICEF and some large nonprofits was in the pipeline and ready to go out when the White House froze it. Some six of 12 USAID programs in Gaza, which were eliminated, have been or will be resumed, per the official. Another $200 million in longer-term development projects in Palestinian-controlled territories appears to be paused.


Risch, Mast threaten to sanction U.N. Human Rights Council over possible Israel probe
The chairs of Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees are threatening to sanction the United Nations Human Rights Council and its members if the council moves forward on plans to create a new special body to investigate Israel.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) and Brian Mast (R-FL) wrote to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday regarding an upcoming resolution vote to establish a new International Investigative Mechanism (IIM) targeting Israel, the result of a Palestinian Authority push to create an alternative to the International Criminal Court probe of Israel through the UNHRC.

“Make no mistake, any HRC member state or UN entity that supports an Israel-specific IIM in any form will face the same consequences as the ICC faced for its blatant overreach and disregard for sovereign prerogatives,” the letter reads.

“We urge you to take all action and to unequivocally reject the establishment of this open-ended mechanism at the HRC. It is imperative that the Council act judiciously given its credibility in the eyes of the American people is quickly declining,” the letter continues.

The PA’s push for a new investigative authority comes after the Trump administration sanctioned the ICC through executive order. Congress attempted, but failed, to pass similar sanctions.

The letter also highlights the UNHRC’s long-standing history of bias against Israel, including its permanent agenda item on Israel and the Commission of Inquiry investigating the Jewish state.


The Family of a Murdered Gaza Protester Speaks Out.
On March 29, in a neighborhood called Tel al-Hawa in southern Gaza City, Hamas brutally murdered 22-year-old Uday Nasser Saadi al-Rabbay, his family said. After Uday had been tortured and mutilated, his body was thrown off a tall building.

His crime? He had spoken out—loudly and publicly—against the terrorists who rule Gaza with an iron grip.

For three straight days last week, thousands of courageous Palestinians took to the streets all across the Gaza Strip in the largest anti-Hamas demonstrations since October 7, 2023. Uday was part of those protests. But on Saturday, he took a step beyond. He stood up inside a coffee shop in Gaza City, and in a loud voice, denounced Hamas.

According to his family, a few hours later, around 30 armed men from the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, stormed his home and dragged him away. His family says they tortured him for hours, until he was dead. When they were done—after they had broken his fingers, stabbed him repeatedly, and smashed his head with a rifle butt—they dropped his body off a rooftop. A note was pinned to his clothes: “This is the price for all who criticize Hamas.”

His mother, along with his siblings, found the body.

Until now, the family has been afraid to talk to reporters, worried that their words would be twisted—as many local journalists in Gaza serve as de facto Hamas mouthpieces—or that the remaining al-Rabbay sons would be targeted next.

But through our partnership with The Center for Peace Communications, The Free Press was able to obtain exclusive interviews with Uday’s mother and father and one of his cousins. This is the first time they’ve spoken publicly about what happened.


Media’s Darling Doctor Ghassan Abu-Sittah: Anti-Hamas Palestinians ‘Stabbed Resistance in the Back’
In the largest anti-Hamas demonstrations Gaza has seen in years, thousands of Palestinians have taken to the streets over the past week. Protesters in the north of the Strip — particularly in Gaza City — have chanted “Hamas out” and “Hamas are terrorists,” while holding banners that read, “Hamas does not represent us.”

Hamas has responded with predictable brutality. According to reports from local activists, at least six protest organizers have been executed. Others were tortured and dumped in public areas as a warning. The family of 22-year-old Oday Nasser Al Rabay says Hamas kidnapped him and later left his body on their doorstep, with witnesses reportedly describing how he was beaten with metal rods and dragged by a rope tied around his neck.

This is the cost of dissent in Gaza. And yet Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah — the British-Palestinian surgeon celebrated by Western media and recently elected Rector of the University of Glasgow — has made it clear he stands with the torturers, not the tortured.

In an Arabic-language interview with Russian state-controlled media RT, Abu-Sittah dismissed the protests as “a type of psychological warfare against the resistance in Gaza.” He claimed they were orchestrated by the Palestinian Authority and denounced them as “a betrayal and treachery.” According to Abu-Sittah, those risking their lives to speak out against Hamas have “stabbed the resistance in the back.”

Apparently, opposing a UK-designated terror group in Gaza is now “treachery” in the eyes of Glasgow’s rector.

He even mocked the scale of the protests, insisting they were smaller than the crowds who “used to come out every time there was a prisoner exchange” — a disturbing comment, since such exchanges involved Hamas trading brutalized Israeli hostages for convicted terrorists. One can reasonably infer Abu-Sittah was among the celebrants.

When pressed by the interviewer about possible alternatives to Hamas rule, Abu-Sittah snapped that the Palestinian Authority should focus its attention on the West Bank, pointedly rejecting the idea of any political solution in Gaza that doesn’t include Hamas. In other words, better to let Gazans suffer under Hamas tyranny than consider a future without it.

The mask is off.

Abu-Sittah clearly sympathizes with a terrorist group known not just for massacring Israeli civilians, but for torturing, executing, and silencing Palestinians who dare speak out.
Call Me Back: Gaza Rises up Against Hamas - with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib
It was a historic week in Gaza, as tens of thousands of Palestinians protested against Hamas in the largest demonstrations against Hamas in Gaza’s history. While the protests seem to have dissipated amidst a violent crackdown by Hamas and the killing of several protest leaders, these demonstrations could have a meaningful impact on Gaza’s future. To discuss the context behind these protests and where they might lead, we sat down with a native of Gaza who has been one of the most outspoken voices against Hamas in the Palestinian diaspora.

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib is a Gazan-American writer and analyst whose work has been published in The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. Ahmed grew up in Gaza and left in 2005 as an exchange student in the United States, where he later received asylum and citizenship. Ahmed is a Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, where he directs the Realign for

00:00 Introduction
04:45 Life in Gaza
17:00 First impressions of October 7
22:42 When Hamas took control of Gaza
35:26 Did Palestinians know?
39:46 Characterizations of Palestinian society
52:55 The protests in Gaza




Gaza clan executes Hamas policeman as part of blood feud
A member of Hamas’s policing forces was executed earlier today in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, after a local clan accused him of murdering one of their kin, reports from Gaza say.

Social media was flooded with viral videos depicting the execution of a person claimed to be Ibrahim Shaldan, a member of Hamas’s police force, from a zero range.

The execution was geolocated to have taken place near a known monument at the entrance to the city of Deir Al-Balah, and Shaldan’s ID was photographed and made public. In the graphic video, three different executioners can be seen shooting from a short range while the victim is seen holding a poster.

The affair began earlier today as the local Abusamra clan alleged that members of Hamas’s police forces killed Abdulrahman Abusamra, a young man who was, according to the clan’s account, standing in line to buy flour. The news of his killing spread quickly, and soon, members of his clan claimed to have gotten hold of the perpetrator, executing him from short range and claiming to avenge Abusamra’s blood.

However, it appears that the accounts were more complex than those told by the family. According to other Gazan channels, armed clashes between local clans began earlier today at a shelter in Deir Al-Balah, which apparently led to several deaths during the clashes themselves.

Nevertheless, Hamas has implicitly taken responsibility for the death of Abusamra. Following the execution, Hamas’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the policing forces, issued a public statement claiming that “the police is investigating the crime of the killing of a policeman while he was carrying out a mission to break up a fight, which led to the death of a civilian form his injuries in Deir Al-Balah this noon.

The police will be following up with the event to arrest the perpetrators, stressing that it will take all strong legal measures against the perpetrators of the heinous crime of killing a policeman while on duty.”

Split reactions in Gaza to the murder
Some commenters online expressed their satisfaction with the execution. “After the Abu Samra family's retribution against the killer, every Hamas member will think a million times before shooting someone from his own people, especially from the large families,” one wrote.

However, Hamas loyalists quickly turned to political tensions. One commenter named Abu Khaled wrote: “We must do away with the entire Abusamra clan,” while another one named Hameed took a screenshot from the video of the execution, adding: “Anyone who has names of those who appeared in the video of the murder of the Shaheed today, please publish them so that they can be punished.” He also claimed that one of those who appeared in the video was a Fatah member and a former employee of “the traitorous Ramallah Authority.”

Finally, there were those who feared an escalation that would lead to an all-out civil war. One blogger named Muhammad wrote: “Hamas killed a young man from the Abu Samra family without a trial or law, just as it killed dozens before him. The family is big and takes revenge for their son immediately, so they kill the killer. Who is responsible for bringing Gaza to this state?”
Gazans RIOT against HAMAS (but are they for real?!) | The Quad
Is Gaza finally turning on Hamas? In this episode of “The Quad”, Israeli innovation envoy Fleur Hassan-Nahoum is joined by her co-host Shoshanna Keats-Jaskel, founder of Chochmat Nashim, along with special guests comedian and activist Daniel-Ryan Spaulding and comedian and advocate Ami Kozak for an unfiltered, funny and fearless conversation from Jerusalem. Covering some of the most urgent issues facing Israel and the world, this episode dives into:
The growing civilian protests inside Gaza against Hamas
Speculation over the future of Hamas and possible Gaza relocation plans
Donald Trump’s Middle East strategy and its disruptive influence
Media bias, influencer culture and Qatari funding
The woke-left, woke-right, and the rise of antisemitism disguised as “activism”
The role of satire in fighting hate
UN accuses Israel of killing 15 medics, aid workers in Gaza and burying them in ‘mass grave’
Israeli troops are being accused of killing 15 medics and aid workers from the Red Crescent and other relief groups and then burying them in a “mass grave” in Gaza, according to the United Nations.

The aid workers and their ambulances were found Monday in a hastily dug grave, which was apparently plowed over by bulldozers, the UN said.

The Israeli military said troops fired on the emergency vehicles after they began “advancing suspiciously” towards them.

Israeli officials initially said Israel Defense Forces soldiers had killed Hamas operatives in the attack, but none of the bodies recovered from the site appeared to be armed terrorists, according to the UN and Red Crescent.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society — which has previously been responsible for collecting freed hostages from Hamas and delivering them to Israel — accused the IDF of killing the medics “in cold blood.”

“They were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives. We demand answers and justice,” UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said.

The dead include eight Red Crescent workers, six members of the Gaza Civil Defense emergency unit, and a staffer from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), according to officials from all three groups.


Israeli forces bust bomb-making lab in Tulkarem
Israeli security forces found a bomb-making laboratory during counter-terrorism raids in the western Samaria city of Tulkarem, the Israel Defense Forces stated on Tuesday.

The lab, which was discovered by the IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) forces, was being used to build improvised roadside explosive devices and pipe bombs, per the military.

In separate operations, IDF and Shin Bet officers arrested 12 terrorist suspects in two northern Samaria towns: Qabatiya, located near the terror hotbed of Jenin, and Tammun, near Nablus (Shechem).

The IDF said that it detained 15 terror suspects and seized two weapons in raids throughout Judea and Samaria.

“Security forces will continue to operate to thwart terrorism throughout Judea and Samaria in order to maintain the security of Israeli citizens,” the military stated.


Israel kills top Hezbollah terrorist in Lebanon’s Dahieh district
Israel’s security forces announced on Tuesday that Hassan Ali Mahmoud Bdeir, a senior operative in Hezbollah’s Unit 3900 and the Iranian Quds Force, was eliminated in a precision airstrike overnight Monday in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh, south of Beirut.

The Israel Defense Forces, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Mossad said Bdeir had recently worked with Hamas to coordinate a significant and imminent terrorist attack targeting Israeli civilians, prompting the strike.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that four people were killed and seven wounded in the strike.
‘Wrong': Albanese continues funding of UNRWA as $20 million pledged
Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister David Coleman says the federal budget’s plan to continue UNRWA funding is “wrong” and “should not be happening". “This is the organization where nine employees were sacked on suspicion of being involved in the October 7 massacres,” Mr Coleman said. “There is no way that Australia should be giving money to UNRWA.”
Greens Leader slammed for ‘sick and disgusting’ comments on Palestine protesters
Former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger has slammed Greens Leader Adam Bandt for his bizarre comments on Hamas killing protesters of the regime. Mr Bandt had suggested that Israel was to blame for the executions. “This is sick, and this is disgusting,” Mr Kroger told Sky News Digital Presenter Gabriella Power.
Rashida Tlaib To Speak at 'Palestinian Diaspora' Conference Alongside Avowed Terrorist Operative
On Thursday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) will speak at a conference on the "Power of the Palestinian Diaspora" with her son, Adam. Three days later, the conference is set to feature an avowed member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated terror group, according to since-deleted online promotional materials reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

Tlaib's talk, titled, "Palestine Storytime," will "introduce young children to Palestinian culture, history, and resistance through storytelling" and also feature her teenaged son, according to the Palestinian American Community Center (PACC), the organization behind the conference. On the conference's closing day, attendees will hear from Wissam Rafeedie, who operated a "clandestine publishing house for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine" before Israeli forces arrested him in 1991, according to anti-Israel organization Amnesty International. More recently, in the wake of Oct. 7, Rafeedie lauded Hamas as "part of the resistance of the Palestinian people."

Rafeedie's session—which is "fully virtual," likely because Rafeedie could not secure a visa to enter the United States—is "dedicated to shedding light on the lives of Palestinian political prisoners and their ongoing resistance within Israeli prisons," according to PACC's promotional materials. While those materials first included the names and photos of all speakers, including Rafeedie, PACC quietly amended its website in the last week to swap in graphics that mention Tlaib but not Rafeedie.

The news comes as Tlaib barrels forward with her signature brand of anti-Israel advocacy. On Sunday, she introduced a measure that would block $4 billion in weapons sales to Israel, citing the Jewish state's "genocidal bombing campaign."

It is not the first time that Tlaib has spoken at a conference that also featured Rafeedie. Last year, she spoke at the People's Conference for Palestine alongside Rafeedie and Salah Salah, a founding member of the PFLP. Rafeedie has, in recent years, defended Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror spree in Israel, claimed the "Zionists lie like they breathe," and deemed Hamas "part of the resistance of the Palestinian people."
Anti-Israel ‘Squad’ member Tlaib rallies ‘comrades’ to back socialist NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani
Radical anti-Israel “Squad” member Rashida Tlaib has rallied “comrades” to back Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani to become New York City’s next mayor.

The far-left congresswoman (D-Mich.) issued the call to arms to hundreds of Democratic Socialists of America members as she drummed up support for Mamdani during a virtual “organizing call” late Monday.

Tlaib, who is known for her extreme rhetoric, claimed Mamdani, a state Assembly member from Queens, needed far-left allies to help prevent the Trump administration’s “fascist regime” from filtering down into City Hall.

“To all my comrades on the phone, I mean, online right now, I want you to know … we have to be united against what’s happening here in Washington, DC — the fascist regime,” the 48-year-old rattled off as she introduced Mamdani on the call.

“A lot of it is trickling down at the local government right now,” she said.

“I know Zohran, myself, and so many others are not, you know, we’re not signing up for that. We know what is at stake. Our freedom and liberation is at stake, our freedom of speech is at stake, and so much more,” Tlaib added.

Roughly 270 people joined the Zoom call, though it wasn’t immediately clear how many of them were Big Apple voters.

Many of the DSA members flooded the comments section of the Zoom call with expressions of Palestinian solidarity, including watermelon and rose emojis.


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