Following the IDF's warning, residents of northern Gaza began to evacuate from their homes to south of the Wadi Gaza for their own protection.
In footage released by the IDF it can be seen that Hamas has obstructed and prevented the safe passage of residents in Gaza moving along central roads.
Large traffic jams have been caused by Hamas in Gaza.
ity Council Member Inna Vernikov was arrested Friday morning on charges of criminal possession of a firearm after being photographed at a rally with a gun visible on her waist.
She turned herself in to NYPD’s 70th Precinct in Brooklyn, an NYPD spokesperson told POLITICO, and surrendered her gun license.
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California GOP Rep. Michelle Steel is introducing a new bill to cut off all U.S. aid for the Palestinian territory until the Palestinian Authority renounces Hamas and recognizes Israel.
The U.S. currently funnels hundreds of millions in humanitarian aid for Palestinian people. The Biden-era policy is a departure from former President Trump who axed Palestinian aid.
'This is commonsense. Not a single American taxpayer dollar should be sent to the corrupt, murderous Palestinian Authority until we have full confidence that it will never allow an evil like this to happen again,' Steel said in a statement.
In exchange for aid, the Palestinian Authority would have to recognize Israel's right to exist as a sovereign Jewish state, remove and bar Hamas from any government position and condemn terrorism.
Between April 2021 and March 2022 the U.S. provided $417 million for Palestinian refugees through the United Nations, $75 million in economic aid through USAID and $20.5 million in Covid and Gaza recovery assistance.
For 2022 the U.S. planned to offer $45 million to support the 'rule of law' in Gaza.
Meanwhile a federal judge allowed the discovery period to begin on a lawsuit that alleges President Biden is sending taxpayer funds to Palestinian territory in violation of a law that prohibits funding terrorist organizations.
The ruling comes during the outbreak of war after Hamas launched a series of surprise attacks on Israel that have left 1,300 dead. Israel's counter-attacks have killed some 1,500 - and the Israeli government has now ordered 1.1 million locals to evaquate northern Gaza as the conflict drags on.
The U.S. and Qatar have agreed to freeze $6 billion in Iranian assets - a reversal of earlier plans to unfreeze the money as part of a prisoner swap.
Iran has denied any involvement in the attack, but the sophisticated tactics used by Hamas suggest otherwise. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Iranian security officials helped Hamas plan the attack.
News of the planned change came hours after Joe Biden issued his first public warning to Iran since the Hamas attack on Israel.
'We've 'made it clear to the Iranians: Be careful,' Biden said at a meeting with Jewish leaders at the White House on Wednesday.
Speaking in Tel Aviv, on a visit to Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the original prisoner swap arrangement that had seen the Iranian funds transferred from South Korea to Qatar.
He added: 'None of the funds that have now gone to Qatar have actually been spent or accessed by Iran in any way.'
It's noteworthy that not a single Arab country has offered to accept Gaza Palestinians. Not one.
And they are silent about Egypt keeping closed the main passageway for the Gaza Palestinians to leave Gaza, because Egypt doesn't want Gaza Palestinians coming into their country.
Want more?
Hamas Nazi leadership in Qatar has not asked Qatar, or any Arab country, take any Gaza Palestinians. Nor have Qatar or the Hamas Nazi leadership asked Egypt to stop blocking Gaza Palestinians from leaving Gaza. Of course, the Egyptians could house hundreds of thousands of Gaza Palestinians in the Sinai Peninsula. And no doubt the international community would assist with temporary housing, food, etc. But this would mean that the Arab world actually wants to help Gaza Palestinians rather than use their propaganda machine to attempt to turn Israelis into oppressors.
It's also noteworthy that the American and European media don't ask the Biden regime or the other leaders of countries around the world about any of this; they don't even report it. Yet, because the Arabs will not provide refuge to the Gaza Palestinians, and because the Qatar-funded and Iran-funded Hamas wages war against Israel, and Israel must now lose Lord knows how many soldiers in urban warfare in Gaza, the media will report numbers, Israel will be told its response to the Hamas Nazis should be "proportionate," and Blinken will continue to lecture Israel about rules of war when fighting terrorists who -- by the way -- are an exception to rules of war.
The labor union representing approximately 9,000 Starbucks baristas, Starbucks Workers United, expressed “solidarity with Palestine” in the wake of the recent conflict that saw over 1,300 Israelis killed.
This stance triggered calls for a boycott of the popular coffee chain. Starbucks Workers United, based in Buffalo, NY, represents 340 Starbucks locations across the United States and shared this message with its nearly 100,000 followers.
The tweet read, “Solidarity with Palestine!” However, Starbucks Workers United subsequently removed the controversial post, although their account did “like” a tweet from one of its members stating, “Once again, free Palestine.”
US Senator Rick Scott from Florida strongly criticized the union for its tone-deaf tweets and urged a boycott of the Seattle-based coffee chain, which boasts over 16,000 locations throughout the country. Scott tweeted, “This is disgusting. Every American should condemn the atrocities that Iran-backed Hamas terrorists committed in Israel. Boycott Starbucks until its leadership strongly denounces and takes action against this horrific support of terrorism.”
Starbucks was swift in distancing itself from the union, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which has more than 2 million members working across various industries in the US and Canada. The company stated, “We unequivocally condemn acts of terrorism, hate, and violence, and disagree with the statements and views expressed by Workers United and its members. Workers United’s words and actions belong to them, and them alone.”
Starbucks Workers United, along with SEIU, “do not represent the company’s views, positions, or beliefs,” according to Starbucks.
Upon contacting Starbucks Workers United for comment, the union directed attention to a statement by SEIU president Mary Kay Henry. She tweeted, “The violence in Israel and Palestine is unconscionable. @SEIU stands with all who are suffering, while strongly condemning anti-Semitism, Islamophobia & hate in all forms. I pray for a swift resolution and a future where all in the region can be happy, safe & live with dignity.”
One of the founding organizers of Starbucks Workers United, Jaz Brisack, has previously expressed support for Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh, who was involved in bombings in Jerusalem in 1969 and 1970. In a 2017 op-ed for the Daily Mississippian, Brisack referred to Odeh as a “political prisoner” and labeled Odeh and her fellow members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the US in 1997, as “freedom fighters,” as reported by the Washington Free Beacon. Odeh was released by Israel as part of a prisoner exchange in 1980 but was arrested in the US in 2013 for illegally entering the country in the 1990s. She was deported to Jordan in 2017.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett got into a heated clash with a Sky News anchor over the plight of civilians in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
The Sky News reporter made a pointed effort to paint Israel as “the bad guys” by shutting off electricity to Gaza, which he said would kill babies in hospitals.
Bennett fired back: “Are you seriously asking about Palestinian civilians? What’s wrong with you? We’re fighting Nazis! We’re not targeting them … I’m not going to feed electricity or water to our enemies.”
The Palestinian owners of a pizza shop in the West Bank town of Huwara apparently found the recent Hamas attacks and abductions of Israelis into Gaza quite humorous, so much so that they had an ad created featuring one of the hostages.
The ad, shared by the pizza shop on Facebook, shows an elderly Israeli woman being held captive in Gaza next to one of their pizza pies and urging people to come buy them.
The IDF wasn’t amused. On Thursday evening, an armored bulldozer showed up at the pizza shop and promptly leveled it to the ground. The pizza shop owner was also arrested by security forces and is now facing charges.
Not such a funny joke now, right?
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| This image from video posted to social media by Hamas on Sept. 12, 2023 shows a live-fire exercise dubbed operation “Strong Pillar” outside Al-Mawasi, a Palestinian town on the southern coast of the Gaza Strip. (Hamas via AP) |
Less than a month before Hamas fighters blew through Israel’s high-tech “Iron Wall” and launched an attack that would leave more than 1,200 Israelis dead, they practiced in a very public dress rehearsal.
A slickly produced two-minute propaganda video posted to social media by Hamas on Sept. 12 shows fighters using explosives to blast through a replica of the border gate, sweep in on pickup trucks and then move building by building through a full-scale reconstruction of an Israeli town, firing automatic weapons at human-silhouetted paper targets.
The Islamic militant group’s live-fire exercise dubbed operation “Strong Pillar” also had militants in body armor and combat fatigues carrying out operations that included the destruction of mock-ups of the wall’s concrete towers and a communications antenna, just as they would do for real in the deadly attack last Saturday.
While Israel’s highly regarded security and intelligence services were clearly caught flatfooted by Hamas’ ability to breach its Gaza defenses, the group appears to have hidden its extensive preparations for the deadly assault in plain sight.
“There clearly were warnings and indications that should have been picked up,” said Bradley Bowman, a former U.S. Army officer who is now senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington research institute. “Or maybe they were picked up, but they didn’t spark necessary preparations to prevent these horrific terrorist acts from happening.”
Interrogation of a captured Hamas official:
terrorists wanted to kidnap women, children, and babies to rape them.
I’ve been careful to post content that has been confirmed — this video was shared by Israel’s MFA, and given the extent to which graphic videos have circulated I’ve also been careful not to overshare. But this is a necessity, and it reveals the depravity of these people.
Gareth Cliff just wrote this. It’s incredible
A devastated father has said welcomed the news that his eight-year-old daughter had been killed by Hamas terrorists because it was better than being taken hostage during the barbaric attack on the Be'eri Kibbutz.
Thomas Hand faced an unbearable two-day wait for news about his daughter Emily after Palestinian terrorists stormed their kibbutz at around 7am on Saturday, massacring at least 100 people.
Mr Hand said the kibbutz came under gunfire for about 12 hours that day, during which he did not know the whereabouts or fate of his child after she had gone to sleep at a neighbor's house - something she rarely did.
In a heartbreaking interview with CNN, Mr Hand broke down in tears as he recounted the moment he was finally told his daughter's body had been found - and said his reaction was one of relief that she had not been kidnapped instead.
'They said, "We found Emily. She's dead," and I just went "Yes!" I went "yes", and I smiled, because that is the best news of the possibilities that I knew,' Mr Hand said in a shaking voice.
She doesn't do it very often, but unfortunately that night, that particular night - Friday night - she went to sleep at her friend's house,' recounted Hand. The next morning, the kibbutz was under attack.
Mr Hand described how he felt during the siege:
'I'm thinking, the Army are going to be here soon. Just hold on a bit longer, and longer, and longer.' Later, when he was informed of his daughter's murder he said: 'I just went "Yes!"' 'That was the best news of the possibilities that I knew...' as his voice trailed off through tears. 'She was either dead, or in Gaza. And if you know anything about what they do to people in Gaza, that is worse than death,' he said. 'They'd have no food. They'd have no water. She'd be in a dark room filled with Christ knows how many people. And terrified every minute, hour, day, and possible years to come. So death was a blessing. An absolute blessing.'
Beyond the estimated 1,200 Israelis Hamas butchered over the weekend, the Palestinian terrorists kidnapped scores of Israelis, including some 20 Americans whose whereabouts remain unknown. They committed unimaginable acts of violence against innocent Israelis, including raping and dragging through the streets the bodies of women and girls, burning families alive, and reportedly decapitating babies.
On Tuesday, the Israeli Defense Force took reporters including a Fox News crew to Be'eri, which is three miles from the Gaza border. The kibbutz was, until Saturday, known as an artistic and farming community of 1,200 people.
The Israeli Health Minister reportedly issued a directive Wednesday afternoon instructing hospitals in his country to refuse to treat captured terrorists.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Moshe Arbel wrote in his directive that Israeli hospitals must presently prioritize victims of Hamas and IDF soldiers as the country's medical system becomes strained.
'Since the beginning of the fighting, the issue of treating the damned and despicable Hamas terrorists within the public hospitals has piled up a tremendous difficulty on the health system,' he wrote.
'In these difficult times, the health system should focus fully on the treatment of the victims of the criminal massacre, the IDF soldiers and preparedness for the next.
'The task of securing and treating the cursed and despicable terrorists within the public health system significantly harms these efforts and therefore, under my guidance, the public health system will not treat them.
'The handling of the matter should be entrusted to the IDF or the Shin Bet, and of course the Health Ministry is ready and willing to assist these bodies, as needed,' he concluded.
The minister called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has sworn that Israel will kill every member of Hamas, to issue instructions to the relevant entities to begin enforcing his directive.
On Wednesday evening, following the order, Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv announced that a terrorist who had been brought to the hospital was not admitted to the emergency room.
He was instead sent to the prison service's clinic in Ramle for medical treatment.
On Saturday, Iran-backed Palestinian terrorists stormed Israel in a coordinated attack that has so far taken the lives of 1,200 Israelis, some of whom were raped, burned alive, and beheaded mercilessly by agents of Hamas.
Thousands more have been injured and are being treated in packed Israeli hospitals.
Wednesday, residents in Gaza faced growing uncertainty after the territory's only power plant ran out of fuel and shut down. Over the weekend, PM Netanyahu declared war on Hamas and made it clear that Gaza would feel the impact of Israel's retaliation for decades to come.
This week, Israeli airstrikes demolished entire neighborhoods and sent people scrambling to find safety. The war is only expected to escalate from here.
Netanyahu has promised that his military will ensure the deaths of every Hamas agent.
A former Hamas chief has called for protests to take place across the Muslim world on Friday in support of the Palestinians, and for the peoples of neighbouring countries to join the fight against Israel.
'[We must] head to the squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world on Friday,' said Khaled Meshaal, who currently heads Hamas's diaspora office.
Meshaal, who is based in Qatar, said the governments and peoples of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt have a bigger duty to support the Palestinians.
'Tribes of Jordan, sons of Jordan, brothers and sisters of Jordan... This is a moment of truth and the borders are close to you, you all know your responsibility,' Meshaal said in a recorded statement. 'To all scholars who teach jihad... to all who teach and learn, this is a moment for the application (of theories).'
Jordan and Lebanon are home to the largest number of Palestinian refugees.
Meshaal's call for a Friday 13th uprising was reiterated by Hamas itself, according to the Israeli-run, Washington DC-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
MEMRI said that Hamas urged its supporters in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel to rise up in what he called 'the Al-Aqsa Flood' - echoing what the the secretive Palestinian mastermind Mohammed Deif calls the attack he launched on Saturday against Israel.
The phrase Israel's most wanted man used in an audio tape broadcast as Hamas fired thousands of rockets out of the Gaza Strip over the weekend signalled the attack was their payback for Israeli raids at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque.
'We declare next Friday, ''The Friday of the Al-Aqsa Flood,'' as a day of general mobilization in our Arab and Islamic world and among the free people of the world,' Meshaal's statement said, which was sent to Reuters news agency.
'It is a day to rally support, offer aid, and participate actively.
'It is a day to expose the crimes of the occupation, isolate it, and foil all its aggressive schemes. It is a day to demonstrate our love for Palestine, Jerusalem, and Al-Aqsa.
'It is a day for sacrifice, heroism, and dedication, and to earn the honour of defending the first Qibla of Muslims, the third holiest mosque, and the ascension of the trusted Messenger.'
