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Anti-Israel Celebrities Remain Silent After New Hamas Video Shows Kidnapping of Female Israeli Hostages
Hamas terrorists kidnapping Israeli women at the Nahal Oz base near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: Screenshot
Celebrities who have regularly expressed anti-Israel sentiments since the start of the Israel-Hamas war stayed quiet on Wednesday in response to a heart-wrenching new video that shows the moments when five female Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.
Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, John Cusack, and Bella Hadid were among the celebrities who stayed tight-lipped as the world saw the newly released, firsthand footage in which Hamas terrorists force the female Israeli soldiers, who are covered in blood, against a wall and threaten to kill them. The women, some of whom are teenagers, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists at the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip. The video was taken by body cameras on the Hamas terrorists and the hostages were identified as Naama Levy, Agam Berger, Daniela Gilboa, Liri Albag, and Karina Ariev. They have been held hostage by Hamas terrorists for more than seven months.
In the clip, Hamas terrorists are heard telling the hostages in Arabic, “you dogs, we will step on you,” and “our brothers died because of you. We will shoot you all.” They also call the women “so beautiful,” and one terrorist points to the hostages while saying in Arabic, “here are the girls” who can get pregnant and “these are the Zionists.”
Instead of addressing the new Hamas video, Ruffalo — who supports a Israel-Hamas ceasefire and has condemned Israel’s war against terrorists responsible for the Oct. 7 attacks — instead expressed support on Wednesday for the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and his demand for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s defense minister, and three Hamas leaders.
Meanwhile, Cusack called Israel “war criminals” and shared a tweet that described the Jewish state as “genocidal,” but made no mention of the Hamas video.
Among the pro-Israel supporters who have used their social media platforms to draw attention to the video, actresses Amy Schumer and Emmanuelle Chriqui shared on their Instagram stories a post that lists the names of the five female hostages in the clip and the message “bring them home now.”
An Instagram story uploaded by Emmanuelle Chriqui. Photo: Screenshot
Fellow actress Debra Messing said in an Instagram video that after watching the Hamas body camera footage, she could not stop thinking of the mothers of those five hostages “who have been brave enough and generous enough” to share the video with the world.
“To see their girls bloodied, surrounded by terrorists with machine guns, being told that they will be able to get pregnant, ‘these Zionists’ … God bless these five girls,” added the former “Will & Grace” star while holding back tears. “I pray for their safety. I pray for their strength, their family, and their friends. I pray for their release, and I pray that we can put to bed any question that these monsters intended to violently sexually assault as many women and girls as possible on Oct. 7. And it’s happening right now because they are still hostages.”
“Please find your humanity and just see five girls,” she concluded. “It doesn’t matter where they’re from, what they believe, what their government does. Please.”
Actor Michael Rapaport and Oscar-nominated screenwriter and comedian Lee Kern also took to social media to comment on the new video of the Hamas hostages. Kern, who co-wrote Sacha Baron Cohen’s film “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” described the hostages as “the bravest people I’ve ever seen.”
“You tried to manage that situation with the tiny amounts of ‘power’ you had,” he added. “With your hands bound and men with machine guns barking in your faces, with physical injuries from assault, you used your words with calmness and exercised bravery and emotional control to somehow work the situation to your favor. I hope that some kind of grace has kept you safe since.”
Music mogul Scooter Braun, who helped bring an exhibition to New York City about the Oct. 7 massacre at the Supernova music festival, shared the full Hamas video on his Instagram story. In the caption, he urged his followers to watch the video and called on more people to be outraged by the clip.
“Do not turn away,” he wrote. “Where is your outrage? Your empathy should not stop at your popularity. Call out for them over 200 days later. Bring them home.”
The post Anti-Israel Celebrities Remain Silent After New Hamas Video Shows Kidnapping of Female Israeli Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
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
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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