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Monday, October 19, 2026

10/19 Links Pt1: How ‘Palestine’ conquered France; UN Watch Releases Database Exposing Who Funds UN’s Human Rights Experts; As a UN envoy, I saw my colleagues’ anti-Israel obsession first-hand

From Ian:

Brendan O'Neill: How ‘Palestine’ conquered France
This is why the omnipresence of the Palestine flag matters – it confirms France is being consumed by the flames of anti-Westernism, by a nihilistic disdain for the very virtues of our civilisation. For that is what the so-called Palestine cause now embodies – not concern for the Palestinian people but contempt for ‘the West’. Not a desire for a ceasefire in the Middle East but a longing for fire here at home.

Some of us have argued for a while that the Islamo-left’s hysterical, disproportionate, bigoted and at times demented loathing for the Jewish State is proof that Israel has been made into the whipping boy of modernity, into the scapegoat, the sin-eater, of the West and all its supposed crimes. That the birthplace of the Enlightenment is now being burnt down by mobs draped in the Palestine flag proves this beyond doubt.

As one commentator notes, the ‘Palestinian cause’ seems to have become ‘a symbol of protest against Western institutions, national identities and political establishments’, even in situations that ‘have nothing to do with Israel or the Palestinians’. It’s the great, mad omnicause – a raging engine of grievance that absorbs every local resentment and every anti-Western pathology into a single, holy crusade. The actual geopolitics of the Levant are irrelevant to the Palestinianism that has swept the West, except, of course, that many of these people long for the annihilation of the Jewish State as a proxy for Western sin. What Palestinianism really adds up to is a cult of self-loathing. The keffiyeh is the mask the death of the Enlightenment wears.

This is the intifada coming home. The West’s craven failure to hold the moral line after 7 October, its indulgence of the Islamo-left mobs who hailed Hamas and libelled Israel, has started a fire of anti-civilisational hysteria that it will be incredibly difficult to put out. The nation that erodes its borders, tells newcomers their culture is just as valid as ours, fails to assimilate its foreign-origin youths and coaches its own young to feel shame over their national history is a nation that has signed its own death warrant.

Gavin Mortimer at the Spectator made a striking observation. The far-left agitators in France are mostly white, while the looters and cop-fighters ‘appear to be of immigrant background’. ‘The people seen on television forcing their way into the city halls of Marseille and Lille were mainly white’, he said, where the store invaders of Paris and Bordeaux were non-white. This is the New France. The New Europe, in fact. A place where there are youths who have no real roots in society, and youths whose roots have been violently torn up by institutions that have incited them into national self-loathing. Youths who are unassimilated, and youths who are from here but are constantly taught to hate ‘here’.

Entitled whites, young Muslim irritants, foreign-born louts, Islamist troublemakers, post-Enlightenment leftists and sanctimonious pricks who hide their hatred for the West behind a love of Palestine – that’s France now. Who’s next? Germany? Britain? We have so much work to do.
How “Globalize the Intifada” Came to France’s Streets
Israel has seen the devastation and destruction of intifadas firsthand, with buses and cafes attacked by suicide bombers that left countless people dead, injured, and traumatized. The call to globalize such a catastrophe reveals the dark desire to spread that same violence beyond Israel’s borders.

This is especially true in France, where despite the Jewish population representing less than one percent, antisemitic incidents account for 53 percent of all anti-religious acts. And as the protests spread, Jewish institutions are likely to continue to be a target. It is for that reason that in the midst of the protests in Paris, a synagogue was vandalized. In another incident in Marseille, a journalist noted that only Jewish businesses were attacked and set ablaze.

But the trespassing, vandalism, and destruction of property do not stop at a synagogue. Those protesting in the streets of France have frequently found common ground in hostility toward Israel, the Jewish people, and the systems and framework of Western civilization, including the country they are protesting. As such, the Palestinian flag and slogans have been a primary marker at these initially anti-government protests in France and Europe more broadly. Whereas the Palestinian cause has been turned into a vehicle for the radical left to express deeper anti-Western and anti-Jewish grievances, the same protests provide Islamist movements an opportunity to bring the symbols and rhetoric of a far-away conflict closer to enemies at home.

The supposed interconnectivity of these previously unrelated causes led Greta Thunberg, who previously traded her climate activism for the publicity yacht that attempted to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, to join the protestors in France. With a keffiyeh draped across her shoulders, Thunberg, who was “incredibly proud” of the protestors, insisted that all protest movements “need to be united” because they face the “same enemy,” which is an “extremely destructive system.”

Ultimately, the protests are a telling sign of how the pro-Palestinian movement is no longer confined to demonstrations explicitly concerned with Palestinians, Israel, or the war against Hamas. The Palestinian flag, symbols, and slogans being chanted have become attached to other social or political movements, regardless of relevance, making the cause a prop for broader anti-Israel or anti-Western activism.

The integration of such symbols has become so normalized that “globalizing the intifada” is no longer merely a slogan chanted without understanding its words, but a European reality. The result is the exportation and glorification of a campaign of violence onto the streets of France.
Don’t Tell Me London Wasn’t Warned
In August 1994, The Independent⁠ reported Jewish students’ complaints about intimidation and literature invoking the killing of Jews. Farid Kassim, quoted as a spokesman for the organizers of a Wembley conference, rejected allegations of antisemitism and said the quotations had been taken out of context. Omar Bakri Muhammad was identified as Hizb ut-Tahrir’s national organizer.

The report also recorded Muhammad condemning the London bombings and the authorities saying there was no evidence of terrorist attacks by the group’s followers. That did not dispose of the concerns about what was being preached and circulated.

By the time I photographed Abu Hamza, officials were familiar with him too. A released Home Office document⁠, dated September 11, 2000, described his activities, his Supporters of Sharia organization and his extreme views. A year before the attacks in America, he was already the subject of government paperwork.

In November 2001, answering questions concerning Al-Muhajiroun and Omar Bakri Muhammad, Home Office minister John Denham said enforcement units were “monitoring and evaluating”⁠ information that might support prosecution.

There were investigations, and eventually prosecutions. The government’s later account of the Hamza case⁠ described earlier decisions that the evidence was insufficient, followed by material supporting charges in 2004. Knowing that somebody holds extreme views is not the same as having the evidence to prosecute them. I understand that. But the official record makes it impossible to pretend the concerns had never reached the people responsible for acting on them.

What I witnessed on London’s streets contributed to my decision to move to Israel in 2007. London remained the city where I grew up, learned my profession and spent much of my working life. Leaving did not remove that attachment. It is why the photographs still trouble me, and why there is anger in the pieces I write about the city today.

I look at today’s images with memories of what I photographed decades ago. I remember the people raising concerns, the public arguments and the assurances that the authorities were paying attention. My archive gives those memories faces, places and dates.

Outside the embassy that day, nobody needed an intelligence briefing to establish that an Israeli flag was burning. It was happening in front of us. I was recording it, and the police decided that my taking pictures risked antagonizing the people doing it.

Watching the rioting and looting in Paris over the past few days⁠, I find myself worrying about London again. The immediate causes are different, but the sight of another European capital struggling with violence on its streets brings back uncomfortable memories. I fear London could face scenes like these. That is my judgment, shaped by years of standing behind a camera in crowds that the authorities knew perfectly well were there.

The police were warned repeatedly. So were the security services and successive governments. Jewish communal organizations kept raising concerns, and the public record shows how long those concerns had been reaching officials. There were investigations and prosecutions, but there are still questions about the years in between. I remember being told to stop taking photographs because I was “antagonising them.” Looking at those photographs now, I wonder how much more people were expected to tolerate before their warnings carried sufficient weight.

Should London face the kind of scenes we are watching in Paris, I will have very little patience for anyone in authority who claims they could not have seen trouble coming.


Commentary Podcast: Gallicize the Intifada
Contributing editor Eli Lake is back on this Monday to discuss the upheaval in France and the influence of Palestinianism and the "globalize the intifada" movement and how this will impact the upcoming French elections, as well as the warning signs to America with the rise of radical left-wing candidates. Plus, Eli recommends Merle Haggard's Mama Tried, and John recommends Ken Burns' country music documentary.
French riots being driven by 54 radical groups — including communists, free Palestine activists
Violent riots that are pulling France apart are being coordinated with the help of dozens of far-left radical groups, including self-described communists and socialists, “Yellow Vests,” free Palestine activists and Islamic organizations, a new investigation has found.

Of the 54 organizations and movements identified as part of the nationwide protests that led to 2,500 arrests across France over the weekend, only 16 are student or youth-led groups, according to a Fox News Digital report.

That is despite the origin of the protests being about school conditions, and later about youth unemploymeny and the cost of living.

Fox News found that the most concerning driver of the protests is an international coalition of 28 communist and socialist organizations that it dubbed “Chaos Inc.,” which has been trying to trigger coordinated labor strikes across 12 European countries.

Under the slogan, “Fight for Our Future, Not Their Wars!” the group calls for walkouts, demonstrations, assemblies, blockades, and occupations.

Their message is being amplified by Tricontinental Ltd., a nonprofit funded by US-born Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, who is based in Shanghai, Fox News found.

Other groups within Singham’s network that have also pushed relentless coverage of French unrest include CodePink and BreakThrough News, a New York-based left-wing media outlet that shared a montage of chaotic scenes across France featuring activists waving Palestine flags, police hitting protesters, and left-wing French politicians.

Singham ally Vijay Prashad, a Marxist who is executive director of Tricontinental Ltd., bragged on Saturday that the unrest in France was part of a broader wave of left-wing protests spanning three continents.
The People’s Forum to Host Speaker Convicted of Conspiring to Act as a Russian Agent
The People’s Forum, a New York City-based organization registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is preparing to host an October 24 event featuring Omali Yeshitela, whose conviction for conspiring to act as an agent of the Russian government without notifying U.S. authorities was upheld by a federal appeals court in August.

The event, titled We Will Not Be Silenced: Defending Dissent & Building Resistance to Political Repression, is promoted as a hybrid gathering, with in-person attendance at The People’s Forum’s Manhattan headquarters and online participation. The organizers frame the event around what they describe as “escalating censorship, attacks on protest, political expression, immigrant and labor rights, and Palestine solidarity.” Convened by the Ida B. Wells Media Defense Network, it will also feature Vijay Prashad, executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, and Charisse Burden-Stelly, a historian and political economist.

The network’s own announcement encourages attendees to arrive early for “a special message from Mumia Abu-Jamal.” Abu-Jamal was convicted of first-degree murder in 1982 for the December 1981 killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner and subsequently sentenced to death. His death sentence was later overturned, and he is serving life imprisonment without parole.

The gathering comes as both The People’s Forum and Tricontinental face congressional subpoenas in an investigation into funding associated with Shanghai-based businessman Neville Roy Singham and alleged Chinese Communist Party influence operations. Both organizations face an October 20 compliance deadline set by the House Ways and Means Committee, just four days before the event.

Yeshitela, the founder and chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), was among four defendants convicted in September 2024 of conspiring to act as agents of the Russian government without notifying the U.S. attorney general. On August 5, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the convictions, detailing years of cooperation between APSP members and Aleksandr Ionov, the head of the Russian government-backed Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia.

The court identified Ionov as an asset of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) who regularly communicated with FSB officers Yegor Popov and Aleksei Sukhodolov about the organization’s activities. According to the ruling, Ionov financed trips to Moscow for APSP leadership, sponsored demonstrations in the United States, and directed party members to publish statements supporting Russian government positions.

In July 2022, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Ionov and his Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia for their involvement in Kremlin-backed influence operations targeting the United States and its allies.


The Miliband Thunderclap: Potential Implications of Declaring Israel’s Occupation Unlawful
If a bloc of major countries imposed the full range of sanctions suggested by the UK foreign secretary's statement, the consequences for Israel—and the peace process—could be catastrophic.

On September 8, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced the UK government’s intention to ban imports from West Bank settlements, a move that drew immediate support from ten European countries and Canada. But the most important part of his speech attracted scant attention: that Britain would now view Israel’s occupation as “unlawful.” Turning nearly sixty years of diplomacy on its head, this pronouncement implied that Israeli security concerns regarding terrorism from the West Bank were irrelevant, that negotiations with the Palestinians should cover little more than withdrawal logistics, and that Israel can do nothing to satisfy Britain short of dismantling settlements and leaving the territories. If a bloc of major countries were to impose the full range of sanctions suggested by Miliband, the consequences for Israel—and the peace process—could be catastrophic.

In this Policy Note, Institute Executive Director Robert Satloff makes clear that U.S. interests require limiting the damage from Miliband’s announcement. But he also explains how U.S. efforts will likely fall short unless Israel helps its own cause through a diplomatic offensive centered on renouncing unilateral annexation of West Bank territory and reaffirming its commitment to a “just and lasting peace” with the Palestinians.

DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THIS STUDY.
Miliband issues deadline day warning to UK businesses over West Bank E1 tenders
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has issued an appeal to British businesses, urging them not to accept any tenders in the E1 area of the West Bank, on the day the deadline for bids ends.

He warned of “legal and reputational consequences, including the risk of involving themselves in serious breaches of international law.”

The E1 corridor, located between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim, is among the most hotly contested areas for construction in the West Bank.

Its development is widely seen as a potential death blow to prospects for a two-state solution.

Miliband stated: “The decision by the Israeli Government to open tenders for settlements in E1 is a direct threat to the prospect of a two-state solution and has been widely condemned by the international community.

“Today is the deadline for bids for the E1 settlement tender.

“I want to be very clear with those considering engaging in the tendering process: we have created new powers allowing us to sanction individuals and companies involved in the construction of illegal settlements such as E1.”

He continued, “This UK Government will not accept the continued displacement of Palestinians and the unlawful occupation that persists.

“That is why we are committed to introducing legislation to ban goods imported from illegal settlements, and to take action on services that finance or facilitate them.

“The British people do not want to be supporting the construction of illegal settlements.”

Last month, the Jerusalem District Court allowed a tender for 1,234 homes in the E1 area to move forward, but did not rule on the legality of the underlying construction plans.

Contractors have until the end of Monday to submit bids for the project. Once submitted, proposals must be reviewed, winners selected, and building permits obtained before any work can begin.

The UK announced sanctions against Israel over E1 settlement expansion and other illegal moves in September.


As a UN envoy, I saw my colleagues’ anti-Israel obsession first-hand
Bullet holes splattered in every wall bore grim testimony to the onslaught. But what hit me hardest were the bullets that had smashed everyday appliances, such as the microwave oven or the fridge. I had a knot in my stomach as the desperate mothers of the two young women taken hostage led me through the shattered glass and rubble of their daughters’ modest, small single-floor houses.

I tried to remind myself that I needed to avoid feeling too emotional. After all, I was a neutral observer – the role each United Nations special rapporteur is supposed to fulfil. Yet the suffering of these mothers made me realise that we must consider hostage-taking as a form of torture. Not only were the victims themselves likely to be sexually abused, starved, shackled or confined in dark tunnels, but I could now see that – agonisingly waiting to know the fate of their girls, imagining the worst – the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers of the hostages were also victims of psychological torture.

The whole of Kfar Aza, a kibbutz around two miles from the Gaza strip, was a horrific crime scene. It had been 14 months since 251 men, women and children had been taken hostage from southern Israel. In this kibbutz, more than a quarter of the inhabitants were either dead or had been taken captive.

It had been brave of the mothers, Mandy Damari and Simona Steinbrecher, to agree to let me see the ruined homes of their daughters Emily and Doron. After all, the UN, which I would be seen as representing, had done so little to help them. It had even worsened their anguish by refusing for so long to acknowledge that the attackers on October 7 2023 had conducted not just murders but also sexual molestations, rapes and other horrific violence.

I felt ashamed. I am still outraged that Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, and Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur for violence against women, never formally documented these horrors, despite the growing body of evidence which to most of us is indisputable, but which they dispute (Alsalem has pointed to Israel’s refusal to grant her entry and access as the reason she cannot investigate further). Instead, both have continued to issue a stream of what I regard as one-sided and vitriolic reports, and hard-to-justify excuses for their lack of attention. That, families and returned hostages have told me, only added to their anguish.

My colleagues said nothing, even when the Hamas captors put videos online with Hebrew subtitles showing captives in horrifying scenes. In one, an emaciated hostage was digging what he said in Hebrew was his own grave. It was a form of abusing hostages’ families so that they would put pressure on the Israeli authorities to give in to Hamas demands. That too is a form of torture.

Even after the hostages were brought back, Albanese and Alsalem have failed to give any weight to their first-hand accounts of the tortures and privations they had gone through.

My role as special rapporteur on torture – which I held until earlier this year – was to see both sides and support victims, whoever they are. For many years in my previous work as chief legal counsel for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, I had been, seemingly, on the other side – protecting Palestinians from discrimination, and hearing accounts of Israeli violations. I had drafted the UN’s position on Palestinian refugees, and pursued cases in the highest European court to safeguard it. This year, I issued a second detailed report on abuse of prisoners held inside Israeli jails.
UN Watch: At UK Parliament, UN Watch Releases Database Exposing Who Funds UN’s Human Rights Experts
At the British Parliament today, UN Watch launched the first-ever database tracking outside funding of UN human rights experts, exposing significant disclosure gaps involving politically-engaged foundations and governments including China, Russia and Qatar. UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer presented the findings, along with the organization’s recent study on the UN rapporteurs, From Watchdogs to Ideologues, to members of Parliament, parliamentary staff, journalists and activists at a briefing chaired by MP Priti Patel, the Conservative Party’s international secretary and former British home secretary. The new database cross-references UN mandate-holders’ annual disclosures with U.S. tax filings, public grant records and other documented financial support. It identifies approximately $88 million in grants and support for the UN rapporteurs, including estimated values for in-kind contributions.


Regavim influencers attacked in Turmus Ayya
A group of social media influencers participating in a tour of Palestinian homes in the Binyamin village of Turmus Ayya, organized by the Regavim movement, came under attack on Monday morning.

Turmus Ayya is located in Area B of Judea and Samaria, where the Palestinian Authority exercises civilian control and Israel retains security responsibility. The village is also known for its large population of U.S.-Palestinian dual citizens, estimated to make up 80% to 90% of its residents.

Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, the No. 5 candidate on the Amcha Yisrael Party list in Israel’s upcoming elections and a former host of JNS’s The Quad podcast, was among those on the tour.

She recounted the incident to JNS.

Hassan-Nahoum said the group was divided into three cars, and were peacefully touring the area, when they were approached by around seven young Palestinian men who “aggressively surrounded their vehicles.”

The group demanded that they leave the area.

According to Hassam-Nahoum, when the group saw how angry the locals were, they turned their cars around and headed toward the village’s exit.

She said that another six to 10 Arabs were waiting at the exit with huge rocks, and began pelting the vehicles.

“We all ducked, but one of the thrown rocks smashed into our car, shattering the window,” she said.

One of the passengers in her vehicle was lightly wounded in the attack, and received medical treatment from Israel Defense Forces medics in the area after exiting the village, she said.

The incident, she said, reflected what she described as a deeply entrenched anti-Israel bias.

“The propaganda against us runs so deep that even an incident in which Israelis are attacked will be reported as ‘Jewish settler violence.’ We were simply driving around peacefully. These people can go to Jerusalem and pray on the Temple Mount, while we can’t even enter the village. That’s the warped reality we live in,” she said.


Ten suspects arrested after photographer, diplomats assault incidents in Samaria
Israeli authorities early Monday arrested 10 suspects in connection to the suspected assaults of a journalist and foreign diplomats in separate incidents over the weekend in the Binyamin region of Samaria, the Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit said.

Officers of the Judea and Samaria Police District, the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet), Border Police and Rakia (the drone unit of the Israel Police) carried out “Operation Olive Leaf” as part of the ongoing investigation.

During the operation, items linking the suspects to the alleged offenses were seized, and several vehicles were confiscated, the police said.

The suspects were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the reported acts of violence, violating a military commander’s order declaring a closed military zone, and illegal construction, according to police.

They were transferred for questioning by the Judea and Samaria District Central Investigations Unit and various police stations in the Samaria region. Following questioning, and subject to the findings of the investigation, they will be brought before a court for a hearing, the police continued.

Since the violent incidents over the weekend were reported, “we have been working to collect evidence and witness statements and establish an evidentiary basis that will enable those responsible to be brought to justice,” the police quoted Judea and Samaria District head Deputy Commissioner Moshe Pinchi as saying.

Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levi said in a statement, “The law in Judea and Samaria applies to everyone, regardless of identity or affiliation. The Israel Police is committed to professional, equal and impartial law enforcement, based on evidence and in accordance with the law.”

He stressed, “At the same time, a distinction must be made between responsibility for preventing incidents in the field and responsibility for investigating and enforcing the law after they occur. We will continue to coordinate with all security agencies to strengthen security and the rule of law and ensure that anyone found to have violated the law is brought to justice.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee reacted to the police statement on Monday morning, describing it as a “very positive development.”


Hegseth, Netanyahu meet in unannounced visit days before Israeli elections
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Israel on Monday, two sources confirmed to Walla.

The unannounced meeting comes eight days before Israeli elections and amid US-Israel discussions to resume combat operations against Iran, according to the report.

Other individuals were present at the meeting, including Emirati figures.

Netanyahu, Hegseth meet at Ovda Air Base
The leaders met at the Ovda Air Base in southern Israel, where the US deploys refueling planes and fighter jets, Axios cited two sources as saying.

Hegseth also met with US troops at the base, the report added, citing a source with knowledge.

The Pentagon and the Israeli Embassy declined Walla's request for comment, and the Prime Minister's Office didn't immediately respond.
Amit Segal: Growing signs of an impending strike on Iran
On Jan. 3, the members of the new U.S. House of Representatives will walk into their offices. By all signs, several dozen Democrats will move into offices vacated by Republicans routed in the fall. The nearly certain loss of the House, alongside the fairly likely loss of the Senate, will make U.S. President Donald Trump’s life hell; and not only his, perhaps.

The U.S. Constitution permits the president to launch military action, but after 60 days, approval is required on Capitol Hill. The president, certainly the current one, can continue, but in that case, he is exposed to legal risks and especially budgetary ones. A hostile Congress can block budgets, and America, as is well known, does not fight just with its fingernails.

What can be done in two months that would change the picture? And if the goal is to get ahead of a hostile Congress, is it worth it for Trump, against all odds and analyses, to open a campaign even before then?

A growing buzz has surrounded Washington and Jerusalem in recent days. It is no longer false rumors and speculation. Something is happening. On its face, that runs counter to all logic. The Iranians don’t want to escalate before the elections in Israel, and Trump doesn’t want to escalate before the elections in America. But if you start a campaign at the end of October and then get approval from the still-Republican Congress at the end of December, perhaps that is the way to topple the regime? After all, the Iranians work for the long term, and two months to them is nothing.

Or perhaps the story is a limited, pinpoint event that won’t send fuel prices soaring but will bring a significant achievement that will, hopefully, end the debate over the war’s necessity and results. What could be short and elegant? How do you avoid getting entangled in a third round that ends with no clear decision at a sensitive time for two politicians whom the polls predict will take a hard blow on both sides of the ocean?


2 arrested on highway just outside Jerusalem on suspicion of planning terror attack
Two suspects allegedly planning a terror attack were captured Monday evening by an elite counterterrorism force on the Route 1 highway near Jerusalem.

According to a statement from the police and the Shin Bet security agency, the pair were apprehended at the Latrun Junction by Tequila team, which is made up of commandos from the police’s elite Yamam unit and Shin Bet, while acting on intelligence provided by the security agency.

The force is normally dispatched to foil imminent terror attacks.

The police and Shin Bet did not identify the suspects, but said they were “involved in planning an attack against Israeli civilians.”

No security forces were injured during the arrest operation, and the two suspects were taken for questioning.

Earlier Monday, the IDF announced that two Palestinian terror suspects who were planning an imminent attack were captured by Israeli commandos in the West Bank a day earlier.

It was not clear if there was any connection between the arrests.

Soldiers of the Duvdevan Commando Unit raided Kafr Aqab following intelligence provided by the Shin Bet on “two terrorists who were advancing an imminent terror attack and operating to establish terrorist infrastructure,” the military said Monday.
Hamas planned to detonate bombs at Gaza refugee camps to cover terrorists' escape, IDF reveals
The IDF revealed on Sunday a Hamas document detailing plans to plant explosives in and around camps for displaced civilians in the Gaza Strip, which would then be used as cover in case their leadership needed to evacuate the sites.

The document, written in April 2024, detailed a plan that explicitly exploited the civilian population for the benefit of the terror organization's leadership and showed intent to cause direct harm to Palestinian civilians for the sake of minor tactical advantages, like "creating smoke screens, distracting the enemy, and divert[ing] their focus and efforts away from the primary objective."

Plans involved detonating improvised explosive devices around civilian camps as IDF troops approached in order to create panic, which terrorists would take advantage of in order to flee.

Hamas planned to plant bombs near routes used by Gazan civilians
The document proposed planting bombs along routes used by Gazan civilians in order to delay the advance of IDF troops operating in the area.

Additionally, Hamas planned to fire stun grenades into camps in order to create chaos, which would facilitate the escape of Hamas operatives.

The IDF said, "This is further evidence that the Hamas terrorist organization is willing to endanger the lives of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip in order to advance its terrorist activities."


When it comes to Hamas, ‘AP’ makes mistakes, corrections and more mistakes
“All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes,” Winston Churchill once remarked.

Recent failed news reporting highlights a related truth: All people harbor biases, but only the most remedial journalists allow their stubborn biases to repeatedly override factual accuracy. When bias, as opposed to factual reporting, is the driving force, even previously corrected falsehoods easily worm their unwelcome way back into coverage.

The Associated Press boasts that it is the “most trusted source of independent, nonpartisan and factual news in all formats,” and adds: “For nearly two centuries, The Associated Press has set the standard for independent, nonpartisan and fact-based journalism.”

Starting with news delivery via the Pony Express in 1846 to serving digital audiences, “we are always innovating to fast and factual news and information,” the storied news agency maintains.

In 2026, however, there are worrying indications that the news agency purportedly committed to “advancing the power of facts” is retreating from the factual front month to month.

On Aug. 4, AP wrongly reported that according to the (Hamas-run) Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, “most” of the Gaza fatalities from Hamas’s war against Israel were women and children.

Preparing for a correction request, media watchdog CAMERA fact-checked what the industry giant neglected. The media monitor provided AP with OSINT data indicating that Hamas’s Ministry of Health began reporting in July 2025 that the majority of fatalities are men, not women and children.

In addition, on July 2, 2026 (1,000 days since the war started), the Hamas media office reported that out of 73,066 people killed during the war, 21,500 were children and 12,500 were women. Thus, Hamas’s Ministry of Health and its Government Media Office agreed that the total of children and women (34,000) is less than half of all those killed.

In addition, CAMERA pointed to The Washington Post’s two corrections of the identical error from just days earlier.

AP’s ensuing correction on Aug. 11, republished in more than 60 secondary media outlets, commendably clarified that women and children “constitute roughly half of the dead, according to data from Gaza’s Health Ministry, not most of the dead.”

However, unlike the proverbial wise man, the news outlet didn’t learn from its mistake. Barely two months later, the identical fallacy reappeared on Oct. 14 in English and Spanish, as if the trusted news agency had never corrected this precise point. The (Hamas-run) Health Ministry “doesn’t give a breakdown of civilians and militants, but says women and children make up most of the dead,” AP repeated.

Again, CAMERA intervened, reminding them of their own correction just a handful of weeks earlier.
NPR Should Know Better – CPJ is not a Reliable Source
Last week, NPR’s Kat Lonsdorf published a piece about journalists in Gaza. Among many problematic points in the piece, she said the following:
“Israel’s military has also killed many of the Palestinian journalists in Gaza – 189, according to the CPJ – saying, often without providing evidence, that they are members of Hamas.”

There are two major problems with this assertion. First, as we have shown, again and again and again and again (this is by no means exhaustive of our coverage), the CPJ is not a reliable source for any respectable journalist or outlet. Anyone who continues to cite them, as NPR does here, should not be taken as a serious or reliable source of information.

Second, the evidence is not missing. It is published, and some of it comes from CPJ itself.

CPJ revised its own list of supposed Gazan journalists killed in the war, admitting that some were combatants, which means even the organization cited by NPR admits there was at least some evidence. Embedded below is our ongoing list of terrorists remaining on the CPJ list even after their audit. The best evidence is what terrorist organizations say themselves, and there is plenty of it.

NPR can continue to use unreliable sources, and ignore plain and simple evidence if they choose, but if they do why would anyone rely on NPR’s coverage of Gaza, or really anything else?





 


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