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Top Advisor to Mahmoud Abbas: ‘Oct. 7 Can Repeat Itself 100 Times … Perhaps Even More Seriously’
PA President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank August 18, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman/Pool
In an interview three days ago, a top Palestinian Authority (PA) official and advisor to PA leader Mahmoud Abbas — Mahmoud Al-Habbash — threatened Israel that “Oct. 7 can repeat itself 100 times, and perhaps even more seriously.”
Al-Habbash envisions the murder of 1,000 innocent Israeli civilians — babies, children, youth, women, men, and the elderly — more than 100 times. He vows that hundreds/thousands more Israeli women will be brutally raped, and Israeli men will be sadistically killed. He said that 100 more times, 240 innocent Israeli civilians will be taken captive and held hostage for months.
This will happen “if the Palestinian cause will not be justly, comprehensively, and permanently resolved … on the basis of the UN resolutions”:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “If the Palestinian cause will not be justly, comprehensively, and permanently resolved, at least on the basis of international legitimacy, at least on the basis of the UN resolutions, then Oct. 7 can repeat itself 100 times, and perhaps even more seriously.”
[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, May 18, 2024]
PA leaders have repeated that they “only” want a two-state solution on the 1967 borders, with eastern Jerusalem as its capital — but Palestinian Media Watch has documented numerous times that they tell their own people that they really want all of the State of Israel — from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
In addition, the “UN resolutions” that the PA demands fulfilled include UN Resolution 194.
UN Resolution 194 includes the words “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so.”
While this was not totally impossible in December 1948 — when the resolution passed — today, it would mean the destruction of Israel. With 5.9 million people that UNRWA recognizes as “refugees,” UN 194 is the PA’s recipe for the end of Israel.
In fact, the PA’s insistence that all 5.9 million UNRWA “refugees” immigrate to Israel is their way of seeking Israel’s destruction under the umbrella of a UN resolution.
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
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Trump Administration to Release Over $5 Billion School Funding That It Withheld
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and President Donald Trump, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump’s administration will release more than $5 billion in previously approved funding for K-12 school programs that it froze over three weeks ago under a review, which had led to bipartisan condemnation.
“(The White House Office of Management and Budget) has completed its review … and has directed the Department to release all formula funds,” Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the U.S. Education Department, said in a statement, adding funds will be dispersed to states next week.
Further details on the review and what it found were not shared.
A senior administration official said “guardrails” would be in place for the amount being released, without giving details.
Early in July, the Trump administration said it would not release funding previously appropriated by Congress for schools and that an initial review found signs the money was misused to subsidize what it alleged was “a radical leftwing agenda.”
States say $6.8 billion in total was affected by the freeze. Last week, $1.3 billion was released.
After the freeze, a coalition of mostly Democratic-led states sued to challenge the move, and 10 Republican US senators wrote to the Republican Trump administration to reverse its decision.
The frozen money covered funding for education of migrant farm workers and their children; recruitment and training of teachers; English proficiency learning; academic enrichment and after-school and summer programs.
The Trump administration has threatened schools and colleges with withholding federal funds over issues like climate initiatives, transgender policies, pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel’s war in Gaza and diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
Republican US lawmakers welcomed the move on Friday, while Democratic lawmakers said there was no need to disrupt funding in the first place.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon separately said she was satisfied with what was found in the review and released the money, adding she did not think there would be future freezes.
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Israel to Resume Airdrop Aid to Gaza on Saturday, Military Says
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Israel will resume airdrop aid to Gaza on Saturday night, the Israeli military said, a few days after more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave.
“The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food to be provided by international organizations,” the military added in a statement.
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Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – US President Donald Trump on Friday said the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas did not want to make a deal on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.
“Now we’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal,” Trump said.
The comments followed statements by Middle East peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the effect that Israel was now considering “alternative” options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending the terror rule of Hamas in the coastal enclave.
Trump added he believed Hamas leaders would now be “hunted down.”
On Thursday, Witkoff said the Trump administration had decided to bring its negotiating team home for consultations following Hamas’s latest proposal. Witkoff said overnight that Hamas was to blame for the impasse, with Netanyahu concurring.
Trump also dismissed the significance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Macron’s comments, “didn’t carry any weight,” the US leader said.
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