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Israeli soccer player detained in Turkey over message marking 100th day since Oct. 7
(JTA) — An Israeli who plays for a Turkish soccer team was detained by police and suspended from his squad after displaying a message marking the passage of 100 days since Oct. 7.
Sagiv Jehezkel, 28, who plays for the top-tier Antalyaspor club, wrote “100 days” and “7.10” on a bandage on his left wrist at a game on Sunday, accompanied by a Star of David, referring to the day when Hamas invaded Israel, killing and wounding thousands and taking hundreds of hostages. He showed the message to the camera after he scored a goal.
Pro-Palestinian sentiment is widespread in Turkey, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan referred to Hamas as a “liberation group” following Oct. 7. After the game, Jehezkel was detained by Turkish authorities for “instigating hatred and enmity among the public,” the country’s justice minister said.
Antalyaspor’s president said Jehezkel “insulted the values of Turkey,” and the team has said it will release him from his contract.
Jehezkel was held for 10 hours and released after questioning from police and court officials. According to the Associated Press, he told police that he was “not pro-war” and said, “I want this 100-day process to come to an end. I want the war to end.” He added, “I have never engaged in anything related to politics since my arrival. I have never disrespected anyone since the day I arrived.”
After his release, Jehezkel returned to Israel, where he was met by fans who cheered and waved Israeli flags to greet him. In Israel, his gesture is being widely interpreted as a call for the release of the hostages taken captive by Hamas on Oct. 7, more than 100 of whom remain held in Gaza.
Jehezkel, who was wrapped in an Israeli flag upon descending from the airplane, reinforced that sentiment after coming home.
“This was the hardest day of my life, but we will be strong,” he said, according to the Israeli publication Ynet. “It is most important that our hostages return and that our heroic soldiers stay healthy, and that the wounded heal. It is most important that the nation of Israel lives.”
Israeli officials slammed Turkey over its detention of Jehezkel. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called Turkey “the executive arm of Hamas” in a tweet, while Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Turkey a “dark dictatorship, which works against humanitarian values and the values of sports.”
“Whoever arrests a football player for a show of solidarity with 136 captives who are more than 100 days with the terrorists of a murderous terrorist organization, represents a culture of murder and hate,” Katz said.
Jehezkel is the latest in a string of athletes who have been caught in the storm of the Israel-Hamas war and its ripples around the world. Last week, Jewish South African cricket player David Teeger was removed as the captain of his country’s Under-19 national team, which cited the potential for anti-Israel protests against him.
Earlier this month, Algerian soccer player Youcef Atal, who plays for the French club Nice, received an eight-month suspended prison sentence and a fine after he was convicted of inciting religious hatred for sharing an Instagram post calling for “a black day over the Jews.” Atal, who was also suspended by his club, has since apologized for the post.
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The post Israeli soccer player detained in Turkey over message marking 100th day since Oct. 7 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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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.
The post Trump Administration to Release Over $5 Billion School Funding That It Withheld first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.
The post Israel to Resume Airdrop Aid to Gaza on Saturday, Military Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.
The post Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.