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Israelis Rally on World Children’s Day, Slam UN Silence on Kids Held Hostage in Gaza
Hadas Calderon, mother of two hostages in Gaza, speaking outside UNICEF in Tel Aviv, Israel, Nov. 20, 2023. Photo: Debbie Weiss
The families of the hostages kidnapped from Israel last month and their supporters expressed outrage in various rallies and campaigns on World Children’s Day on Monday over the silence from international bodies like the UN regarding the 40 children and babies being held by terrorists in Gaza.
Hundreds of people held simultaneous protests in Tel Aviv and New York outside the offices of UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. Protesters noted that the UN agency ignored the children abducted by the Hamas terror group but did mark World Children’s Day by posting a video on X/Twitter highlighting the suffering of Palestinian children in Gaza.
UNICEF chief Catherine Russell also published a special World Children’s Day message which likewise made no mention of either the Israeli children murdered during Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel or those still in captivity after being abducted that day.
Hadas Calderon, the mother of two abducted children, Erez and Sahar, opened her remarks at the Tel Aviv rally by ringing a bell and calling out, “UNICEF, wake up!”
“If today is about children’s rights, where are my children’s rights?” she asked. “How is it possible that in the face of this horror, the world is silent? Organizations like UNICEF are silent. Have you forgotten your role?”
In the background, images of Calderon’s children and the others being held hostage were projected onto the UNICEF building.
Yoni Asher, whose wife Doron and daughters Raz, 5, and Aviv, 3, are hostages in Gaza, said, “If I can feel sorrow and concern for every child in the world, how can an international organization like UNICEF not say the same. You cannot define yourself as an organization that protects children’s rights if you cannot care for children on both sides of the fence.”
The protest was disrupted by red alert sirens triggered by rockets fired from Gaza, prompting demonstrators to take cover on the ground.
Several prominent Israelis presented at the rally, including actors and performers; Vered Windman, CEO of Israel’s National Council for the Child; and Shai Gross, the youngest hostage in the 1976 Entebbe hijacking. “I remember the fear, the all-consuming anxiety, and helplessness,” recalled Gross, who was six when the Air France flight he was on was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. “I came back a different child.”
Windman addressed UNICEF officials, noting that children were taken from their beds on Oct. 7, some after having been forced to watch the murder of their parents.
“The return of the kidnapped children should not only be a matter for their families, nor only for the citizens of Israel — it should be an international matter,” he said. “This is your professional, legal, and above all, your moral duty.”
Speaking at the rally in New York, Omer Lubaton-Granot — the head of the hostages forum in New York who has four family members in captivity, including three children aged 9, 12, and 17 — said, “A search on the UNICEF website led to zero messages on the subject of the Israeli abductees in Gaza. There are updates on difficult stories in Kyrgyzstan, in Haiti, and in Africa — but there is not a single update on the largest abductee crisis in history.”
Meanwhile, not far from the UNICEF building in Tel Aviv, a different demonstration took place at a Toys “R” Us storefront in the Dizengoff Center mall.
Conceptualized by Israeli photographer Ziv Koren, the toy store’s window was turned into a somber space of remembrance to mark World Children’s Day with an exhibit displaying toys collected from the ruins of Kibbutz Be’eri.
Photo: Courtesy of Toys “R” Us
Of the 29 residents of Kibbutz Be’eri who are being held hostage in Gaza, 11 are children. Members of the kibbutz, including children, attended the Toys “R” Us exhibit.
A sinister video clip that was also released on Monday features the Be’eri toys as they once were and as they appear now, charred, broken, and falling apart.
Also on Monday, the Israeli Association for Early Childhood launched a video campaign leveraging World Children’s Day to raise awareness about the plight of the young abductees.
The video features superhero toys, each wrapped in flags from the United States, Germany, Argentina, and Japan, urging those countries to “bring my hero home.” Below the superheroes is a child in a terrorist tunnel, covered in an Israeli flag.
The text that overlays the images reads: “Wake up world! When your children dream of superheroes, our children were kidnapped to Gaza by Hamas-ISIS and dream of freedom and their basic rights!”
The association said that World Children’s Day was a “day (of no) rights (and no) children” for Israeli children.
“The terrible events of 7.10.23, murder, burning, rape, killing, kidnapping, and especially crimes done to children, babies, and toddlers, constitutes a blunt and intolerable violation” of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog met with families of the children at another event on Monday at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.
“Today is the UN’s International Children’s Day. A day designed to protect our children. Kidnapping children from their beds, kidnapping children in general [is] a barbaric act, a terrible act that violates all international codes. The enemy who kidnapped these children is trying to use them and the other abductees as a psychological tool, as a tool for extortion,” Herzog said in a statement.
The World Children’s Day events came amid news of a possible hostage deal, with the White House on Monday saying it was “closer than ever before” to reaching a deal to release those in captivity. The US and Qatar have been working through diplomatic channels to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas terrorists to release at least some of the hostages in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
The post Israelis Rally on World Children’s Day, Slam UN Silence on Kids Held Hostage in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Palestinian Activist Ahed Tamimi Says ‘We Are Fighting the Jews, Not Zionism’
Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi attends the annual festival of Greek Communist Youth in Athens, Greece, Sept. 22, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Costas Baltas
Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi said on a podcast earlier this month that she is fighting Jews, not Zionism, and that she wishes for World War III.
“I was raised [to believe] that Judaism means occupation, and today, tomorrow, and a million years from now, I will continue to say that Judaism [should] be presented to the children of Palestine – children of my age and younger – as occupation, and that we are fighting the Jews, not Zionism,” Tamimi, now 24, said on “The Enlightenment Podcast” on YouTube on Aug. 8.
Tamimi’s comments were flagged by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which reported on and translated her remarks.
Palestinian Activist Ahed Tamimi: We Are Fighting the Jews, Not Just Zionism; Westerners Patronize Us with Their Aid, They should Shut Up When We Talk; They Will Give Us Aid, Whether They Like It Or Not, and We Will Not Thank Them; I Wish for a Nuclear WWIII, So the Whole World… pic.twitter.com/NNn5Jf7TD6
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 15, 2025
“The whole world needs to shut up, when a Palestinian is talking,” she said. “We are superior to the entire world, because we are the only ones in the world fighting injustice, at the expense of our lives, and the expense of our humanity.”
Tamimi continued, “Every night when I go to sleep, I put my head on the pillow, and I pray to God to protect the humanity left inside me, because I don’t want to become a killer. In this West of yours, if a mother screams at her child, he grows up to become a serial killer.”
“I have reached a point where I wish for a World War III. Whoever dies, dies, and whoever lives, lives. The important thing is that we will be over with this. I have reached this point,” she said. “Let the whole world be destroyed, I don’t care. Let them drop nuclear bombs, and destroy the whole world, so it won’t be just the Palestinians.”
These recent comments are the most recent in a long string of radical remarks by Tamimi. In November 2023, she wrote, in an Instagram post, “Come on settlers, we are waiting for you in all the West Bank cities from Hebron to Jenin – we will slaughter you and you will say that what Hitler did to you was a joke.”
Speaking about Israelis who live in the West Bank, she said, “We will drink your blood and eat your skull. Come on, we are waiting for you.”
Tamimi became famous internationally in 2017 when a video of her, then just 16 years old, slapping, kicking, and yelling at Israeli soldiers went viral as a symbol of both Palestinian resistance to Israel, and the asymmetric nature of the conflict. The soldiers did not retaliate but did later arrest her.
Tamimi was convicted on four counts of assaulting an IDF officer and soldier, incitement, and interference with IDF forces in March 2018, and was sentenced to eight months in prison and eight months of probation.
She was released a few months later, in July 2018. Since then, Tamimi has been hailed as a Palestinian human rights activist, received a book deal from Penguin Random House, and consistently received sympathetic coverage from Western news outlets.
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Trump Administration Reaffirms Opposition to Turkey Rejoining F-35 Program
A Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft is seen at the ILA Air Show in Berlin, Germany, April 25, 2018. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt
The Trump administration has reaffirmed its opposition to Turkey’s rejoining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, citing Ankara’s possession of Russian S-400 missile defense systems.
In a letter sent on Wednesday to US Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), a senior State Department official reiterated that Washington remains committed to enforcing the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which penalizes countries with financial ties to Russia’s defense sector.
“The Trump administration is fully committed to protecting US defense and intelligence assets and complying with US law, including CAATSA,” the letter read
The message, signed by Paul Guaglianone of the Bureau of Legislative Affairs, stated that Washington’s position “has not changed” and that Turkey’s continued possession of the Russian-supplied S-400 remains incompatible with US law and defense requirements. The official stressed that the Trump administration was fully committed to protecting American defense and intelligence assets while maintaining its obligations under the National Defense Authorization Act.
Despite the strained relationship, the letter emphasized that Turkey remains a longstanding NATO ally. US officials framed the relationship as critical to the security interests of both countries and signaled a willingness to maintain dialogue with Ankara.
In 2017, despite several US warnings, Ankara purchased the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system, leading to Turkey’s expulsion from the multibillion-dollar fighter jet program in 2019.
“The United States seeks to cooperate with Turkey on common priorities and to engage in dialogue to resolve disagreements,” Guaglianone wrote, while maintaining that Washington has “expressed our disapproval of Ankara’s acquisition of the S-400 and clearly conveyed steps that would need to be taken” in the sanctions review process.
The letter came after a bipartisan coalition of more than 40 US lawmakers pressed Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this month to prevent Turkey from rejoining the F-35 program, citing ongoing national security concerns and violations of US law. Members of Congress warned that lifting existing sanctions or readmitting Turkey to the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter program would “jeopardize the integrity of F-35 systems” and risk exposing sensitive US military technology to Russia.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed during a NATO summit in June that Ankara and Washington had begun discussing Turkey’s readmission into the program.
Under Section 1245 of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, the Pentagon is prohibited from transferring F-35 jets or related technology to Turkey unless Ankara no longer possesses the Russian-made S-400 system and provides assurances it will not acquire such equipment in the future. Because Turkey continues to retain the S-400, US officials are legally barred from approving its participation in the F-35 program.
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Israel Responds to Norway Donating Profits From World Cup Qualifying Matchup to Aid Gaza
Alexander Sørloth of Norway scores the 1-2 goal during the FIFA World Cup Qualifier football match between Israel and Norway on March 25, 2025, in Debrecen. Photo: VEGARD GRØTT/Bildbyran/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
The Israel Football Association has issued a statement in response to a decision by its Norwegian counterpart to give profits from their mutual World Cup qualifiying match to support humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip.
Norway will host Israel on Oct. 11 at the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo, in the next round of the European qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. On Tuesday, the Norwegian Football Association said it “cannot remain indifferent” to humanitarian suffering in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war, and announced that it will donate profits from the Oct. 11 game to aid humanitarian causes supporting Gaza.
“Neither we nor other organizations can remain indifferent to the humanitarian suffering and disproportionate attacks that the civilian population in Gaza has been exposed to for a long time,” said Norwegian Football Federation President Lise Klaveness. “Israel is part of FIFA’s and UEFA’s competitions and we have to deal with that. But we want to give the profit to a humanitarian organization that saves lives in Gaza every day and that contributes with active emergency aid on the ground.”
The Norwegian Football Association said it will reveal at a later date which humanitarian organization it will donate to. The association added that it is working with local police and UEFA to ensure the safety of players and fans at the Oct. 11 match in Oslo and will be taking “some extra security measures,” such as limiting capacity at the game. Tickets go on sale next week.
The Israeli Football Association responded on Wednesday in a statement to Telegraph Sport. It urged the Norwegian association to “make sure the money is not transferred to terrorist organizations or to whale hunting,” for which Norway has been criticized internationally. Israel also said it “would be nice” if the Norwegian Football Association would condemn the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
“We do not usually advise associations regarding the use of match revenue, even if it is obtained thanks to a match against our proud national team, but we will deviate from our custom this time: it would be nice if some of the amount were directed to try to finding a condemnation by the Norwegian FA of the Oct. 7 massacre that claimed the lives of hundreds of Israeli citizens and children, or action in favor of the release of 50 hostages – and please, make sure that the money is not transferred to terrorist organizations or to whale hunting,” the Israeli Football Association said in a statement. It also said it aims to gain 3 points at the October match.
Israel has been unable to host matches on its home soil for international competitions because of security concerns related to the Israel-Hamas war. It competed in a qualifying match against Norway in Hungary in March, which Norway won 4-2.
The Italian Soccer Coaches’ Association (AIAC) is demanding that Israel be suspended from international competitions ahead of Italy’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers against the Jewish state that are set for September and October. Italy is set to play Israel in Debrecen, Hungary, on Sept. 8, before hosting Israel in Udine on Oct. 14.