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Tuesday, June 23, 2026

06/22 Links Pt1: Jewish man and Cop killed in Montreal shooting; UN Watch chief seeks indictment of UNRWA head; Gazan terror groups admit some slain journalists were fighters

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Escalation must cost: Current Switzerland talks leave Iran stronger, Israel exposed
The United States and Iran concluded talks in Switzerland on Monday. Mediators Qatar and Pakistan described “encouraging progress” and announced a 60-day road map toward a final agreement.

The talks had created a “good foundation,” US Vice President JD Vance said, adding that Iran agreed to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors back into the country. Washington also issued a temporary 60-day license that allows Iranian oil and petrochemical sales through August 21.

The talks included discussion of a Lebanon “deconfliction cell” aimed at preventing renewed escalation between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel was absent. Iran was present.

That fact should trouble every Israeli. Diplomacy with Iran can be useful when it weakens the regime, freezes a threat, or buys time under conditions that favor the West. The Switzerland talks risk giving Tehran time, money, legitimacy, and a role in managing the fires it helped set.

Over the past 24 hours, criticism has focused on one concern: Tehran appears to have gained a road map without publicly accepting the hard conditions that would make it meaningful. It appears to have secured breathing room on sanctions while its proxies remain armed. It appears to have turned the Strait of Hormuz into a bargaining chip and Lebanon into part of a broader US-Iran understanding.

Iran should not be rewarded for threatening global shipping. It should not receive economic relief after using regional chaos to force the world back to the table. It should not gain influence over arrangements involving Lebanon while Hezbollah remains its most important Arab proxy and the direct threat facing Israel’s border communities.

A Lebanon deconfliction mechanism may sound technical. In reality, it could become a diplomatic trap. Israel cannot allow its freedom of action against Hezbollah to be filtered through a process shaped by Iran. The residents of Metula, Kiryat Shmona, Moshav Margaliot, Kibbutz Manara, and other northern communities do not need another committee. They need Hezbollah pushed back, disarmed, and deterred.
Mark Dubowitz: Why Squander The Greatest Leverage Ever Built Against Iran?
Most importantly, how much damage will be done to the sanctions architecture that took years to build?

Tehran could also gain access to tens of billions of dollars in additional oil revenue and portions of the roughly $100 billion in Iranian funds frozen abroad. That would be a massive windfall.

If the MOU includes broad waivers covering banking and transportation transactions, that would represent far more than a narrow licensing arrangement. It would fracture the core architecture of American oil and financial sanctions.

Once the United States normalizes Iranian oil exports to major buyers such as China, India, and the United Arab Emirates, alongside the repatriation of oil revenues back to Tehran, the damage becomes difficult to reverse.

If companies, traders, insurers, shipping firms, banks, and governments become accustomed to doing business with Iran again, restoring today’s pressure campaign would take years, not weeks — precisely why sanctions relief should come at the end of successful negotiations, not at the beginning.

And prematurely weakening this leverage will make it even more difficult to secure the final nuclear agreement with Iran that the MOU is supposedly designed to deliver.

The regime has played this game successfully against multiple American presidents. Indeed, the only arena in which the Islamic Republic has consistently defeated the United States is at the negotiating table.

President Trump argued he still retains the military option. But leverage erodes. Deployments end, Washington’s attention shifts, and Tehran may simply pocket economic concessions while waiting for pressure to dissipate or for a next president not willing to stop Iran.

If negotiations fail — as they likely will — the administration should be prepared immediately to restore maximum economic pressure, return to military operations including in Hormuz, and suffocate the regime’s remaining sources of power.

There is one final instrument that every administration has neglected.

The Iranian people.

Economic pressure and military power can weaken the regime. Only the Iranian people can ultimately end it.

Nothing can match the power of tens of millions of Iranians who despise the regime that rules them. No one has sacrificed more to challenge the Islamic Republic.

Despite enduring killings, incarceration, torture, corruption, and economic ruin, they continue to resist.

The truly decisive question is not how long the United States can pressure this regime.

It is whether America is finally prepared to help Iranians finish the job themselves.

President Trump should immediately instruct his intelligence services to build a plan. Call it Operation People’s Fury. And have it ready for when Iranians courageously return to the streets, as they have done repeatedly for decades.
Hamas held 'top secret' meeting with French officials, discussed return to '1967 borders'
Senior leaders of Hamas' political bureau held a highly confidential meeting with a French delegation, according to a Monday report from Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.

It reported that the meeting took place "recently" in an unspecified country in the Middle East.

Two Palestinian sources spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat, one from Palestinian civil society elements who maintain working relations with France and other European countries, and the other from a Palestinian organization close to Hamas. They described the meeting as "top secret," adding that some Palestinian factions were only informed shortly before or after it was held.

This marks the first reported meeting of Hamas leaders with European officials since the October 7 massacre.

According to the report, the French delegation included current and former diplomats, as well as members of parliament from the ruling coalition and opposition parties.

Focus on Palestinian Internal affairs
A source from Palestinian civil society said the talks were largely focused on Palestinian internal affairs, improving national reconciliation, and advancing a political process aimed at ending the conflict with Israel.

The source also told Asharq Al-Awsat that discussions also touched on supporting establishing a Palestinian state within "the 1967 borders," meaning the pre-Six-Day War armistice lines.

Since October 7, France has been a leading advocate for a two-state solution that would allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.


'Everybody loved him': Michael Mizrahi identified as civilian victim in Côte-des-Neiges shootings
The civilian victim of a shooting in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood on Monday was Michael Mizrahi, 68.

Rabbi Mendel Raskin, who confirmed the news to The Gazette, said he had been Mizrahi’s rabbi for more than 30 years at Beth Chabad in Côte-St-Luc.

“Everybody loved him,” Raskin said, describing Mizrahi as a generous Jewish man who sold suits for a living.

Mizrahi was killed during a sequence of events that also resulted in the death of an officer, Const. Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, as well as the suspected shooter. A second officer was also injured.

Police have so far declined to comment on the exact circumstances surrounding the deaths.

Raskin said Mizrahi had originally come from Lebanon before moving to Israel and later settling in Montreal.

Confusion over Mizrahi’s whereabouts

In the aftermath of the shootings, there was some confusion over what had happened to Mizrahi, according to Rabbi Barak Hetsroni of the Jewish General Hospital, who knows the Mizrahi family.

It was rumoured he had been taken to a hospital and was still alive, but this turned out to be untrue.

Amid this chaos, Hetsroni said he was contacted by Mizrahi’s son in an effort to find his father. The hope was that Hetsroni’s connections to the Jewish General Hospital could lead to answers.

He accompanied Mizrahi’s son to the scene, where they ultimately confirmed Mizrahi’s identity.

Hetsroni described him as a “gentleman” and a “good man.”
Jewish man killed in Montreal shooting that also left a police officer dead
A shooting on Monday in a heavily Jewish neighborhood of Montreal left three people dead, including a civilian member of the Jewish community, a police officer and the alleged assailant, police in the Canadian city said.

But police indicated that the shooter had not been intentionally targeting the Jewish community, and some initial reports suggested that the civilian may have been killed by errant gunfire.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), a prominent Canadian civil society group, named the slain civilian as Michael Moshe Mizrahi, describing him as “a beloved member of Montreal’s Jewish community.”

According to the Chabad movement, Mizrahi was a regular at the organization’s MADA community center in Montreal.

“He loves to celebrate together with everyone,” MADA community member David Kakon said, according to Chabad. “Someone who is always smiling, always has a kind word for someone else. Loves his family, loves Israel, and loves being a Jew.”

While the bloodshed occurred in a partly Jewish neighborhood that includes kosher markets and restaurants, police declined comment on the shooter’s motive. Michael Mizrahi, a Jewish Canadian man killed during a shooting in Montreal on June 22, 2026. (X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

French language public broadcaster Radio Canada said the gunman was connected to “incel” ideology — a misogynistic worldview that fueled the man responsible for one of Canada’s most deadly mass killings, a 2018 vehicle-ramming in Toronto that killed 10.

Local Canadian news outlets published portions of the shooter’s manifesto which suggested he may have been targeting the offices of Aylo, the parent company of PornHub — the world’s largest pornography website — and its subsidiaries.

Montreal Police identified the deceased officer as Constable Mohamed Lamine Benredouan, 34. He had been with the force since 2021.

“It is with immense sadness that we confirm the death of one of our police officers in the line of duty,” Montreal police said in a statement posted on X.

Montreal police chief Fady Dagher said the incident was “more than terrible,” adding: “It’s a tragedy, a nightmare.”


Canadian human rights museum’s lone Jewish trustee resigns over ‘one-sided’ exhibit on ‘nakba’
Mark Berlin, the only Jewish trustee of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, a federal institution in Winnipeg, resigned on Monday over what he called a “one-sided” exhibit scheduled to address the “nakba,” the term some use for the “catastrophe” of the founding of the modern Israeli state.

“The controversy surrounding this exhibit, and my unsuccessful efforts to fight against what I believe to be institutional anti-Zionism and to bring a more balanced perspective to the exhibit’s development, has undermined my confidence in the museum as a place the Canadian public can trust to present an accurate historical exhibit, replacing trust with ideology,” the board member of more than eight years wrote in his resignation letter.

A legal scholar and human rights expert, Berlin submitted the letter to Marc Miller, Canadian minister of identity and culture.

He wrote that he stayed on the board after Oct. 7 due to his “false hope” that he “could assist management and some of my board trustees in developing their wider understanding of the complexities of the Middle East and this particular historical episode.”

That hope is now lost, he wrote in the resignation letter.

“Presenting the Palestinian displacement of 1948 without its proper historical and political context offers a narrow, one-sided argument of history that can only deepen the distrust and animosity that currently exists between Jews and Muslims in this country,” he stated.

“The museum loses its legitimacy when it presents as historical truth a narrative that erases a crucial part of the history,” Berlin added. “A museum that purports to tell stories about history does not get to change history.”

The exhibit, slated to open on June 27, “explores the human rights violations related to the ongoing forced displacement and dispossession of Palestinians,” per the museum website.

It features personal testimonies from Palestinian Canadians “reflecting on their ongoing struggle for justice and human rights” and revealing “enduring patterns of loss and resistance,” the museum states.

Berlin wrote that in the two years since the museum began developing the exhibit, it repeatedly rebuffed requests from the Jewish community to be consulted in a meaningful way, despite consultations occurring ahead of prior exhibits.
UN Watch chief seeks indictment of UNRWA head
The executive director of U.N. Watch on Monday called for the indictment of Philippe Lazzarini, the outgoing commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East ( UNRWA), accusing him of crimes against humanity over the agency’s alleged role in enabling and perpetuating Hamas terrorism.

Speaking at the second JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem, Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based watchdog organization, argued that UNRWA had become deeply intertwined with Hamas and should be held accountable for its actions and failures.

“For years, UNRWA has been funded by Western governments—the European Union, Canada, Australia and others—with millions of dollars,” he said. “Yet it has not resettled a single Palestinian refugee. Its structure perpetuates the conflict rather than resolves it.”

He challenged UNRWA’s repeated claims that it teaches U.N. values and human rights, citing senior figures in the agency’s teachers’ unions who he said had ties to Hamas.

Among them is Suhail al-Hindi, the longtime head of UNRWA’s teachers’ union in Gaza, whom Neuer described as a member of Hamas’s political bureau who was photographed with the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who Israeli troops killed in 2024.

He also cited Fathi al-Sharif, head of UNRWA’s teachers’ union in Lebanon, who was killed in an Israeli strike. Hamas later identified al-Sharif as one of its leaders.

“I’m not telling you he was Hamas,” said Neuer. “Hamas told you he was Hamas.”

He dismissed repeated claims by U.N. officials that Hamas’s clandestine nature made such affiliations difficult to detect. “It wasn’t underground,” he said. “It was public. It was on social media. Hamas announced it openly.”

With Lazzarini preparing to leave office some six years after his appointment to head UNRWA, Neuer said the time had come for legal accountability.

“We are demanding the indictment of Philippe Lazzarini for crimes against humanity,” he said.
Hillel Neuer: UN’s Albanese Thought She’d Get Away W/saying this, She’s Gravely Mistaken!

UN counterterrorism chief exposed over China funding links
United Nations Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism has been accused of ideological bias and conflicts of interest in a new report from the Geneva-based group UN Watch.

The Report pointed out that the Chinese government was one of his biggest funders.

UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer said, “he’s not supposed to be an activist; he’s supposed to be an academic. We’re supposed to see scholarship.”


UN Watch: UN Women’s Rights Rapporteur Defends Taking $70,000 From Saudi Regime
A United Nations expert on violence against women has defended her acceptance of $170,000 in funding from Saudi Arabia and a Gulf Arab bloc after a watchdog group questioned whether the donations undermine the independence of her mandate.

The controversy arose after UN Watch published a report showing that the office of UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Reem Alsalem received $70,000 from Saudi Arabia in 2024, and the next year $100,000 from the Gulf Cooperation Council, which comprises Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.

Under mounting pressure for taking funding from regimes like Saudi Arabia that violate women’s rights, Alsalem responded to the UN Watch report today by releasing her first-ever statement about her sources of funding, arguing that the contributions were disclosed under UN transparency rules, administered by the UN human rights office, and did not influence her work.


Khaled Abu Toameh: 'MIGA: Making Iran's Regime Great Again': Why Many Arabs Vehemently Oppose Trump's MOU
[The Arabs'] objections are... the agreement strengthens Iran, weakens America's credibility, ignores Tehran's regional proxies, and leaves America's allies vulnerable.

"Trump and JD Vance are the OnlyFans of the Islamic regime in Iran. Trump promised America First but delivered MIGA: Make Iran's Regime Great Again. In this MOU, America's credibility was seated at the kids' table while the mullahs got the VIP lounge.... It looks like date night with a regime that has spent decades spreading war and misery across the Middle East." — Amjad Taha, Emirati journalist, X, June 20, 2026.

"America is free to pursue its own interests with Iran in Geneva. But it has no right to impose its decisions, laws, or interests on behalf of or upon any state or people in the Middle East, including Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and others.... We understand the demons of the Middle East just as well as Trump understands the hotels of New York." — Amjad Taha, X, June 20, 2026.

"To Trump: In the Middle East, loyalty is currency. If you abandon your closest friend halfway through a fight and cut deals behind their back while leaving them exposed, don't expect anyone to trust your guarantees again. You told the world, 'The U.S. and Israel carried out an operation against Iran,' then walked away and left your ally standing alone. In the Middle East... [a] person who abandons an ally halfway and cuts deals behind their back is not someone you call in a crisis.... You can call it 'America's interests.' We call it something else: leaving your friends in the storm. Before asking, 'Why don't they defend themselves?' remember that countries like Israel did and are still doing so alone. And also remember that the UAE defended itself, struck back forcefully, and banned the Muslim Brotherhood. Many of your countries in the West did neither. The lesson is simple. If you can leave your closest friend exposed today, why should anyone trust your promises tomorrow?... [W]hen Iran strikes again, don't assume the Middle East will dial Washington. People don't call someone who might leak information to Turkey or cut a deal with Tehran while their friends are still under fire." — Amjad Taha, X, June 18, 2026.

[M]any Arabs [fear] that the agreement does not restrain Iran, but instead rescues it.

Officials from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait reportedly resent being sidelined during the negotiations and complain that they were largely excluded from discussions that directly affect their security.

"[A]ccording to multiple officials in the region who spoke with MS NOW: The issue that posed the most immediate threat to Gulf security has largely been left untouched. Iran's ballistic missile and drone programs — the very capabilities used to strike airports, energy infrastructure, ports and U.S. military bases across the region during the war — are absent from the agreement." — MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) June 18, 2026.

"Vance's theory is that the Iranian regime will discover, through the Marshall Plan-style economic bailout, that peace is its best option. Unfortunately, this echoes what former President Obama said after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). In April 2015, he stated that the agreement would 'strengthen the more moderate forces within Iran.' Obama's theory was quickly proven wrong as the Iranian regime tightened its grip on its citizens, taking advantage of its political victory and new money..." — Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, prominent Saudi former editor-in-chief of the newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, June 19, 2026.
JD Vance Is Wrong: Israel Is Not Just Another Ally
[US Vice President JD Vance] is wrong to treat the fears of America's most reliable Middle Eastern partner as a political inconvenience. And he is wrong if he believes that America First requires public impatience with Israel and the Gulf while granting diplomatic patience to Iran.

This is not how a great power reassures its friends. This is not how America preserves deterrence. And this is not how the Vice President of the United States should speak when the security of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait is at stake.

America First cannot mean allies last.

America must lead without losing the trust of its allies.

Israel, for generations, has stood as a democratic ally in a region where democracy is rare, danger is permanent, and the cost of miscalculation can be existential. To speak of Israel as merely "an ally like any other" may please a certain political audience, but it does not reflect the depth of history, sacrifice, intelligence cooperation, shared values, and strategic interdependence that define this relationship.

Nor is Israel alone in facing the consequences of Iranian power.... Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait do not experience Iran as an abstraction. They experience it through missiles, drones, proxy networks, air-defense alerts, threats to shipping lanes, and the permanent pressure of a regime that has made destabilization a method of statecraft.

These countries have the right to be heard. They have the right to ask questions. They have the right to demand clarity before being asked to live with the consequences of an agreement negotiated above their heads.

The Abraham Accords were....were an act of strategic courage. Countries chose peace, modernization, coexistence, and openness because they believed that American leadership could help build a new regional order. They trusted President Trump's vision and the promise that peace would bring security and prosperity, not uncertainty and abandonment.

If the United States wants regional partners to choose moderation over extremism, normalization over rejection, and modernization over ideological darkness, then Washington must show that such choices are rewarded with respect, consultation, and protection. No country will take risks for peace if it believes that, when danger arrives, America will speak more harshly to its friends than to its enemies.
First round of US-Iran talks concludes, with an agreement on ‘de-confliction cell’ for Lebanon
The first round of talks in Switzerland between Washington and Tehran concluded early on Monday morning, with mediators Qatar and Pakistan saying that “encouraging progress has been made.”

In a joint statement, the mediating parties said that it was agreed to establish a High Level Committee to lead focused discussions on nuclear, sanctions and a monitoring and dispute resolution group to ensure the execution of the Memorandum of Understanding signed last week.

“The High Level Committee has agreed upon a road map toward reaching a final deal within 60 days, laying the foundation for the immediate commencement of further technical talks,” said Qatar and Pakistan.

In addition, negotiations yielded the creation of a “de-confliction cell,” which will include delegations from the United States, Iran and the Lebanese government, but not Israel, aimed at ending the conflict in Lebanon, the statement continued.

Technical talks are scheduled to continue throughout the week at the Bürgenstock Resort near Lucerne in Switzerland.

Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, announced on Monday that Tehran’s delegation was “en route to the homeland” following “intensive discussions on the implementation of the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding to end the war.”

The talks “began on the morning of Sunday ... in Switzerland (Lake Lucerne), and continued until the early hours of Monday morning,” Baghaei wrote on X.

He stressed that Tehran’s implementation of the MoU was contingent on Israel ending military operations against Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and Washington lifting sanctions, including on oil exports.

“The guiding principle is ‘commitment for commitment.’ The Islamic Republic of Iran, while closely monitoring the fulfillment of the other side’s’ obligations, will employ all available means at its disposal to ensure that those obligations are fulfilled,” he said.


Iran’s lead negotiator insists Strait of Hormuz will be managed by Iran
The lead negotiator of the Iranian delegation, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, insists the Strait of Hormuz will be managed by Iran and will follow international laws.

Ghalibaf, who is also the speaker of the parliament, speaks with Iran state media on a plane on his way back from Switzerland.

“Hopefully we can activate the strait again, in terms of passage, and bring prosperity back to regional and global economy,” he says.

Ghalibaf confirms that the issue of releasing the frozen assets as well as the sale of Iranian oil were discussed in the talks with the US today.


Shin Bet chief said to fear Oct 7-style attack on Eilat, despite no intel on threat
Shin Bet chief David Zini warned in closed forums recently about a potential mass attack on the southern city of Eilat resembling the Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023, the Haaretz daily reported on Monday, citing several unnamed security sources.

According to the report, Zini ordered several senior officials in the security agency to give top priority to preparations for a scenario of a large-scale attack on the city, either from Jordanian territory or by sea, deeming the area a security weak spot due to its relative geographic remoteness.

Citing unnamed security sources, the report said Zini is anticipating a coordinated land invasion and attack by several terror groups, with the participation of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who are located more than 2,000 kilometers from Israel but have fired missiles and drones at Eilat in the past.

The security sources cast doubt on the likelihood of such an attack, with one telling the outlet that “no one in the security establishment knows what intelligence [Zini] is relying on” to assert that Israel’s southernmost city is so vulnerable.

Still, several weeks ago, there was an attempted infiltration into Eilat from Jordan via the sea.

According to the IDF, Navy sailors of the 916th Squadron aboard a Dvora-class patrol boat spotted a suspect on a jet ski who crossed into Israeli waters in the Eilat Bay area on May 29.

“The forces fired warning shots into the air to drive the suspect away, and after he did not stop, the forces fired at the vessel in accordance with the rules of engagement,” the military said at the time.

The IDF said the suspect turned back to Jordan. A military source added that the suspect was injured, possibly by the gunfire, and was being interrogated by Jordanian security officials.
Netanyahu: Israel won’t leave Lebanon security zone
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Monday that Israel will “insist” on remaining in the security zone in Southern Lebanon “for as long as necessary.”

“I firmly insist that we remain in the security zone in Southern Lebanon for as long as necessary in order to protect the residents of the north and every citizen of the state,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew remarks shared by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“My directive, together with that of the defense minister, to the IDF is clear and has not changed: Our fighters in Southern Lebanon have complete freedom of action to thwart any direct or emerging threat against them or against the residents of the north,” he said.

“The IDF has no restrictions in this regard,” Netanyahu added. “I stand behind them, and the entire nation stands behind them.”

Earlier on Monday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Jewish state will not withdraw from its positions in the security zone, including the Beaufort Ridge, which he said is vital to defending northern communities and Israeli forces.

“Israel has no intention of withdrawing from the Beaufort, which is an integral part of the security zone in Lebanon and essential for the defense of the Galilee communities and IDF forces,” Katz wrote on X. “As Prime Minister Netanyahu and I have made clear—Israel will not withdraw from the security zone in Lebanon,” the post continued.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told his New Zealand counterpart, Winston Peters, over the phone on Monday that Jerusalem will respect the ceasefire in Lebanon as long as Hezbollah does not breach it.

“We don’t have territorial ambitions in Lebanon, but we will not withdraw from the security zone and expose our citizens to Hezbollah’s attacks and possible invasion,” Sa’ar wrote on X.


Hamas Sniper Who Worked for Al Jazeera Dies in Israeli Airstrike, Joins Long List of Terrorists Disguised As Journalists: AJ Praises ‘Kind, Principled’ Worker
A Hamas military operative masquerading as an Al Jazeera photojournalist died in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza this weekend, according to the Israel Defense Forces. It’s the latest example of a jihadist militant operating under the guise of a journalist in Gaza.

The IDF announced the death of Ahmed Samir Muhammad Washah on Saturday, saying he was "a Hamas terrorist who posed a threat and served as an Al Jazeera Photojournalist."

Washah, a 25-year old Gaza resident, was killed during a "precise strike in the central Gaza Strip" that also killed two other Hamas operatives. Washah, the IDF revealed, "advanced sniper attack plans and additional terrorist activities against IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip." Ahmed Samir Muhammad Washah (Al Jazeera Arabic)

Washah’s brother, fellow Al Jazeera journalist Muhammad Samir Muhammad Washah, was killed several weeks ago in a similar IDF attack targeting Hamas operatives inside Gaza. Washah’s late brother acted as "a key terrorist in Hamas' rocket and weapons production headquarters," the IDF said. The Washah brothers join around a dozen or so Al Jazeera reporters and photojournalists who have been killed by the IDF for working alongside terror groups like Hamas and its Palestinian Islamic Jihad counterpart. Israel has provided extensive evidence since Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack that scores of supposed journalists in Gaza are actually terrorist operatives, including at least half a dozen Al Jazeera employees and more than 150 others.

Al Jazeera, which is controlled by the rulers of Qatar, has long been cozy with terrorists, serving as a repository for al Qaeda hostage and beheading videos during the second Gulf war and using its unrivaled platform to fan anti-Israel sentiment across the Arab world for 30 years. Despite Israel repeatedly offering documentary proof that Al Jazeera employees are moonlighting as militants, or vice versa, Al Jazeera has persistently denied harboring terrorists and condemned Israel for targeting journalists whose reporting disagrees with it.

The Washington Free Beacon first reported in late May that the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based advocacy group that accuses Israel of intentionally targeting reporters, quietly removed multiple terrorists’ names from its widely cited list of journalists killed in Gaza. At least six names that the CPJ deleted without mention include a member of "Hamas’ Jabalia Battalion," "a terror combatant for Islamic Jihad," "a commander in the Nasser Salah Al-Din Brigades," and three other known jihadist militants.


Finally naming their war dead, Gazan terror groups admit some slain journalists were fighters
On July 10, 2025, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a home in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, killing a man identified as Ahmed Abu Eisha. According to reports, Abu Eisha had been a journalist for Palestine Today, a television channel affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, citing a colleague, Abu Eisha was killed shortly after returning home from “covering events” at a hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Abu Eisha was “polite, calm, and kind; someone who avoided conflict,” wrote CPJ, quoting the colleague. It noted his hard work pursuing stories and his recent completion of a PhD in Arabic, including him in its tally of hundreds of journalists it alleges Israel has killed since October 7, 2023.

But there was more to the Gazan as well.

On June 1, the PIJ’s military wing announced that Abu Eisha had been a unit commander and operative in the organization’s “Central Information Unit” within its Central Brigade when he was killed. While no official description of the unit’s role was provided, it appears to have been involved in intelligence gathering and analysis.

The disclosure was one of dozens made by PIJ and Hamas in recent weeks announcing the deaths of its fighters during the war, after years in which the groups declined to identify nearly any of its combatants killed in the fighting.

A review by The Times of Israel of many of the hundreds of names of operatives published on official Hamas and PIJ military-wing Telegram channels and affiliated accounts found several people who had previously been identified as journalists, or other civilians.

The releases, which continue to be published at a rate of seven or eight a day, seemingly cast new light on persistent accusations that the Israel Defense Forces targeted journalists during the war, lending credence, in at least some cases, to Israeli assertions that they were actually legitimate military targets contributing to the fighting.


Call me Back Podcast: Trump’s Iran Deal - with Walter Russell Mead
Israel and the United States achieved what many would consider a remarkable military success against Iran. But the agreement that followed has left many Israelis wondering whether battlefield gains translated into strategic victory. Dan Senor is joined by Wall Street Journal columnist and Hudson Institute senior fellow Walter Russell Mead to discuss the paradox at the heart of the new U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding, what it reveals about President Trump's approach to power, and how leaders across the Middle East are recalculating their assumptions about America, Israel, and the future of the region.

In this episode:
03:42 - The paradox: military success vs. political disappointment
05:03 - Why so many Israelis think Israel lost
07:27 - What was President Trump actually betting on?
21:30 - Does the 60-day deal mean anything?
22:30 - Why sanctions rarely deliver regime change
27:24 - What this war reveals about the future of warfare
35:27 - How Riyadh, Ankara, and Beijing are reading the moment
45:33 - Israel's growing dependence on President Trump


Commentary Podcast: Talk Tough, Act Soft
Washington commentary columnist Jamie Kirchick joins us to discuss the unfurling disaster at the Iran talks in Switzerland and the establishment of a "deconfliction cell" that doesn't include Israel, and the looming specter of Israel's scapegoating for the inevitable failure of the agreement. Plus, Keir Starmer's resignation, the ongoing reflecting pool controversy, the DSA ascendancy in democratic politics, the passing of Alan Greenspan, and John recommends Voicemails for Isabelle.




White House defends Vance by citing Al Jazeera coverage
The White House’s rapid response social media account on Monday criticized media coverage of Vice President JD Vance’s participation in U.S. peace talks with Iran in Switzerland — and pointed to Al Jazeera’s reporting as evidence.

The rapid response team, a part of the White House’s communications office that defends the Trump administration’s record through social media, criticized media outlets on X that reported on Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declining to participate in a photo op with Vance, and Qatari officials not shaking Vance’s hand when photos were taken, as intentional digs at the United States.

“A lot of biased media outlets and Democrats were pushing a fake narrative yesterday about the talks in Switzerland,” the rapid response team wrote. “Here’s the real story from people actually in the room,” it said, referring to a tweet from Al Jazeera that included video of Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani rejecting such reports. Al Thani told Al Jazeera, according to the outlet’s social media post that the White House team shared, “that reports of him snubbing the US vice president were unfounded, saying they had spent hours together during negotiations and maintained a strong partnership throughout the process.”

Al Jazeera is a Qatari state-controlled news organization long criticized for its sympathetic coverage of Hamas and hostility to Israel. The outlet, which is financed by the Qatari government and ruling Al Thani family, has faced accusations that it spreads misinformation to promote Qatar’s preferred narrative on a range of sensitive topics, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the rapid response team’s post complimenting Al Jazeera’s coverage.





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