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Israeli and US parents are urged to delete social apps before their children see hostage videos
(JTA) — A number of Israeli and Jewish schools are urging parents to limit their children’s access to social media apps such as TikTok and Instagram due to concerns of increasingly graphic content that may be shared from Israel and Gaza.
David Lange, who lives in Israel and runs the Israeli advocacy group Israellycool, posted a screenshot of a message from his daughter’s school on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter. The message, written in Hebrew and shared through a WhatsApp group, warned that Hamas may soon begin sharing hostage videos of the Israelis and Americans they have captured and urged parents to delete TikTok from their children’s phones.
I. Just. Can’t.
Received from my daughter’s school:
Dear Parents,
We have been informed that videos will be sent soon
of our abductees begging for their lives.
Please remove the Tiktok app from the children’s mobile phones.
We cannot afford our children to watch this!”
— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) October 10, 2023
It was not clear where the information about forthcoming hostage videos was coming from. But videos showing pleas, violence and even killings are a common tactic by terrorist groups that take hostages. Israel says about 150 of its citizens are being held hostage, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas has warned that it would execute hostages in response to strikes in Gaza, the Palestinian territory it controls.
Jewish schools across the United States soon began echoing the warnings. The Frisch School, a Modern Orthodox school in Paramus, New Jersey, sent a similar message to its community, also warning of possible hostage videos.
“Local psychologists have reached out to us and informed us that the Israeli government is urging parents to tell their children to delete Instagram and Tik Tok immediately,” read an email sent to the school Tuesday morning from its principal, Rabbi Eli Ciner. “We strongly advise our students to do the same as soon as possible.”
RELATED: How Jewish day schools are talking about the horrors in Israel with their students
The Hannah Senesh Community Day School in Brooklyn also urged parents to consider limiting their children’s access to social media.
“While we understand that we cannot fully prevent our students from viewing images that might appear on their phones, we strongly encourage parents to cultivate honest and open communication with your children about this possibility, monitor their social media usage, and discuss how to avoid opening these videos and what to do should they encounter such media,” read an email Tuesday afternoon from head of school Nicole Nash. “We also ask that parents strongly consider asking their children to delete these apps, at least for the time being.”
Even without hostage videos appearing on TikTok, social media has been flooded with graphic and disturbing images and videos since shortly after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, killing more than 1,000 people, including many Americans, and wounding thousands more.
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The post Israeli and US parents are urged to delete social apps before their children see hostage videos appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.