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Oct. 7 Survivors to Visit Churches Across America for Holocaust Remembrance Day
The personal belongings of festival-goers are seen at the site of an attack on the Nova Festival by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Oct. 12, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Survivors of the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel will be visiting churches across the US this weekend to tell their stories as a way to mark Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, known as Yom HaShoah.
On Sunday, the survivors will travel to churches from New York to California. Eagles’ Wings, a pro-Israel organization, is partnering with the Moral Hearts Alliance and various Jewish communities to make the initiative happen.
“We view this ‘Solidarity Sunday’ as a sacred responsibility,” Bishop Robert Stearns of Eagles’ Wings said in a statement. “Isaiah 63:9 says, ‘In all their affliction, God was afflicted.’ God identifies with the suffering of the Jewish people, and as the Christian community, we must feel their suffering, too.”
On Oct. 7, Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas invaded Israel from neighboring Gaza, murdering 1,200 people and kidnapping 253 others as hostages. It was the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Mounting evidence has documented Hamas’ systematic use of torture and sexual violence, including mass rape, against the Israeli people during the onslaught.
“We are proud to partner with Eagles’ Wings on Solidarity Sunday to shine a light on the atrocities committed on Oct. 7 and to build deep and lasting alliances across religions based on our shared values,” a Moral Hearts Alliance spokesperson said in a statement. “We share a commitment to support Israel and combat antisemitism in all of its forms.”
According to a press release for Sunday’s church visits, the Oct. 7 survivors’ stories include “a grandmother who hid from her Gazan neighbors with her three grandchildren, a Nova Music Festival survivor who barely escaped the scene and then returned the next day to serve in his reserve army unit, an Israeli official whose family member is still being held hostage in Gaza,” and other such incidents.
“Evil must no longer be able to hide in the shadows of silence, in the terrorist tunnels of Gaza, or behind the propaganda of Israel’s enemies,” Stearns said. “These brave Israelis will expose what they have suffered at the hands of Hamas.”
“Hitler’s antisemitism has taken a new form today through Hamas and its supporters,” he added.
Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of Congregation Kehliath Jeshurun in Manhattan called “Solidarity Sunday” a “truly a sacred day” in a statement. “Christians and Jews will join their hearts together in support of Israel, at a time when Israel needs it most,” he continued. “Solidarity Sunday is a true fulfillment of Psalm 133:1: ‘Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!’”
Yom HaShoah begins on Sunday evening and will be observed by much of the Jewish world on Monday.
The post Oct. 7 Survivors to Visit Churches Across America for Holocaust Remembrance Day first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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