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Is Hamas planning a day of jihad on Friday? Jewish groups respond to widespread concerns.
(JTA) — Some Jewish institutions are closing down for the day Friday amid fears about Hamas-inspired violence abroad, although the FBI and major Jewish security groups say they are not aware of specific threats against Jewish targets in the United States.
Concerns about pro-Hamas demonstrations appear to have stemmed from a speech by Khaled Meshaal, a former Hamas leader, calling for street protests on Friday. Meshaal made the call on Tuesday on Yemeni television, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, which translates Arabic media clips; Reuters reported a version of his comments on Wednesday.
“We should take to the streets and the city squares in Arab and Islamic cities, as well as in cities everywhere where there are communities,” he said, according to MEMRI. “There is a call this Friday – the Al-Aqsa Deluge Friday.”
The comments have ratcheted up fears just days after a Hamas attack on Israel — which came as a surprise — left thousands of Israelis dead, injured and taken captive, in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
Israel has urged its citizens abroad to avoid protests and rallies on Friday. Some Jewish schools in London, Amsterdam and a handful of places in the United States have decided to close for the day. Other Jewish institutions are staying open but shoring up their security practices. Police are being deployed in extra numbers in many places. And some families are considering keeping their children home out of an abundance of caution.
“Right now, your Jewish mom friends are busy texting each other to figure out if sending our kids to school tomorrow, declared a day of global jihad against all Jews, is a good ideal,” a Los Angeles mother said in a widely shared post on Instagram. She later indicated that her child would stay home.
In a sign of how widely fear was spreading, the striking actors union, SAG-AFTRA, announced late Thursday that it would suspend its picketing on Friday because of security concerns.
“There’s a great deal of anxiety about tomorrow,” Michael Masters, CEO of the Secure Community Network, a Jewish security nonprofit, said on a call with Jewish communal leaders on Thursday.
But he emphasized that the organization’s monitoring had not turned up further reasons for concern. “As of this time we are not aware of any direct credible threats against the Jewish community in the U.S.,” he said on the call, encouraging Jewish organizations “to remain open and active, always vigilant.”
The Anti-Defamation League, an antisemitism watchdog, issued a similar statement Thursday night. “ADL has reviewed this information [and] is in close coordination with our partners in law enforcement and Jewish security organizations,” it said. “At this time, [the ADL’s] Center on Extremism is not aware of any credible threats to Jewish communities in the United States.”
The scale of the attack in Israel and the staging of pro-Palestinian protests in various cities in subsequent days have many Jews on edge. In a sign of how seriously authorities are taking the threat, FBI Director Christopher Wray joined the SCN call.
“We are working to confirm whether there is any validity to that information,” he said about the idea that Americans should expect widespread pro-Hamas activity. Local news outlets are variously warning about a “global day of jihad” and a “day of rage,” although the MEMRI translation of Meshaal’s comments did not include either phrase.
Brad Orsini, SCN’s senior national security advisor, said it would be a mistake to retreat out of concern over Meshaal’s comments.
“We don’t want the community to overreact,” Orsini said. “We need to keep our organizations open. We need to continue to do our solidarity events. We need to continue to push our kids to day schools.”
Some Jewish day schools were canceling classes for Friday on the recommendation of security consultants. They included all Jewish schools in Amsterdam, several in London, and a handful in the United States.
The head of a California day school, without citing the Hamas message directly, told parents in an email that school would be closed “out of an abundance of caution” on the advice of “our security consultants.”
A Brooklyn school did cite the Hamas statement in announcing that classes would be canceled on Friday. The school said it understood that many schools would remain open, but that its security consultants recommended closure — and left it to parents to break the news to their children. It also said the school would launch new procedures designed to keep students safe next week, including suspending visits to local parks and barring food deliveries for students.
New York City authorities held their own briefing call for Jewish leaders on Thursday where they emphasized that there was no knowledge of any immediate threats Friday. The heads of multiple schools in the city cited the call in explaining to parents why they would be staying open.
Other groups, after reviewing reports about the Hamas message, told their communities to carry on as usual.
“At this time there are no known credible threats to the Jewish communities in New York and New Jersey,” Mitch Silber, executive director of the Community Security Initiative, a local security group that’s part of a wider coalition called the Jewish Security Alliance, said in a statement. “Accordingly, we are advising institutions to remain open and operational.”
The CEO and security head of Shalom Austin, the Jewish federation in Austin, Texas, said they had consulted with SCN and local and federal law enforcement before deciding not to cancel events, they explained in an email to their community. They said carrying on represented an act of resilience.
“Statements such as these [from Hamas] are a form of emotional terrorism meant to deter us from participating in our daily routines and activities, and to further adversely affect our emotional condition,” they said.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
The post Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.