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Watch: Russian TV Host Compares Israeli Actions to Nazi Atrocities, Gaza War to Holocaust in Wild On-Air Rant
Russian TV host Armen Gasparyan goes on an anti-Israel rant on his eponymous current affairs show “Gasparyan.” Photo: Screenshot
The host of a highly popular Russian TV show recently accused an Israeli guest of “justifying the murder of Palestinian children,” compared Israeli claims of Hamas’ use of human shields to those made by the Nazis during World War II, and even drew a comparison between the war in Gaza and the Holocaust.
Israeli-Russian journalist Nick Kolyohin was interviewed by Armen Gasparyan, host of the eponymous current affairs show “Gasparyan,” about the ongoing war in Gaza. Gasparyan asked Kolyohin why Israel’s military campaign against the Hamas terror group, which rules Gaza, had not ended “despite the fact that 15,000 Palestinian children have been killed,” and requested that Kolyohin “be objective” in his response.
Kolyohin said that while there were certainly “peaceful civilians” in Gaza, not all of them were innocent.
Kolyohin cited former Israeli hostages who he had interviewed as saying that Hamas terrorists cynically use Gazan children to bring them items, including food and weapons, into the Palestinian terror group’s extensive network of underground tunnels.
“Children are sometimes used as a tool for terrorists. Sometimes the [terrorists] threaten their families leaving them with no other option, or it might be the only way for them to earn money,” Kolyohin said. “But sometimes they genuinely believe in what they’re doing because they are brainwashed to think that Jews are evil, and they must be killed.”
Kolyohin went on to say that while some Palestinian civilians are being used by Hamas as human shields, others actively aid the terrorists. He pointed to acts of barbarity committed by Palestinian civilians on Oct. 7 itself. Waves of Palestinians who were not affiliated with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another Iran-backed terrorist group in Gaza, took advantage of the breached border and stormed Israeli communities, many of whom were caught on surveillance cameras stealing, murdering, and even kidnapping Israeli civilians back to Gaza.
“We shouldn’t think about everyone in the same way. Some may be peaceful and some may not,” Kolyohin told Gasparyan.
Gasparyan thanked Kolyohin for his time before launching into a diatribe against him. “Friends, I apologize for the horror of what we just broadcast on the air,” Gasparyan prefaced.
“I never thought that I would hear a justification for the murder of children on my show,” he said.
“It’s one thing to read about such things in various intellectual books about Nazism and understand that this was all condemned at the Nuremberg trials as a grave crime,” he went on. “But quite another thing when sitting in the studio, microphone in front of you, and you are told, ever so calmly, that [children] are being used by Hamas.”
Gasparyan compared the allegations to those made by the Nazis during World War II to justify the murder of children of members of Soviet partisan guerilla groups.
“Listening to someone justifying the murder of children — that’s something new, that’s the very worst,” he said.
He went on to say that Israel is a state “founded by people who survived the Holocaust — the worst ever catastrophe.”
“You would think they would be the last ones who would perpetrate one. Yet here we’ve heard everything that was said now, in a totally calm manner,” Gasparyan continued.
“We have to ask: where will we end up?” he added. “What is the next stage? Justifying the use of nuclear weapons in the Gaza Strip under the pretense of dealing with those tunnels? [They’d say] ‘Hamas left us no other choice, right?’”
Gasparyan’s show is wildly popular on Solovyov Live, a channel run by Russian TV presenter and propagandist Vladimir Solovyov. With tens of millions of viewers on the Telegram channel alone, “Gasparyan” is ranked No. 2 on Solovyov Live, second only to Solvyov’s own TV show. YouTube blocked the channel after Russia invaded Ukraine in Feb. 2022.
Kolyohin described Gasparyan’s takedown of him as “highly offensive” and castigated the Russian host for not speaking his mind while the Israeli journalist was still on air.
“I couldn’t defend myself. It wasn’t only offensive; it was scary,” Kolyohin told The Algemeiner in a phone call from St. Petersburg. “When you are compared to the most evil thing that happened in our history, it’s awful.”
“People watching could believe the anchor. This is scary and dangerous in today’s world,” he said.
Kolyohin accused the Russian press of extreme propaganda. “They see everyone as Nazis. Not just Ukrainians, but Israelis also.”
In the months following the Hamas-led massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, Russian sympathies transferred from Israelis to Palestinians, Kolyohin said, in a shift that was partly driven by the Arab and Muslim world which understood the value in shoring up Russian support. The Israel-Hamas war was leveraged to highlight the “double standards of the West and its hypocrisy” in its dealings with both Russia and the Muslim world, he said.
“It’s a cynical, geopolitical game,” he added.
Kolyohin, who divides his time between Moscow and Tel Aviv, said he was not worried about speaking in defense of Israel on pro-Russian news channels.
“This profession is a scary one everywhere, not just here,” he said. “I think it’s a mistake not to speak, even if I don’t accept their agenda. I believe that if you are speaking the truth and not speaking hate, people will understand what I’m saying and accept it.”
Watch Kolyohin’s comments on Solovyov Live and Gasparyan’s subsequent diatribe below:
The post Watch: Russian TV Host Compares Israeli Actions to Nazi Atrocities, Gaza War to Holocaust in Wild On-Air Rant first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says
A closed Israeli military gate stands near Ramallah in the West Bank, February 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after Arab ministers planning to attend were stopped from coming.
The move, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government announced one of the largest expansions of settlements in the West Bank in years, underlined escalating tensions over the issue of international recognition of a future Palestinian state.
Saturday’s meeting comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, that is due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood, which Israel fiercely opposes.
The delegation of senior Arab officials due to visit Ramallah – including the Jordanian, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Bahraini foreign ministers – postponed the visit after “Israel’s obstruction of it,” Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the block was “a clear breach of Israel’s obligations as an occupying force.”
The ministers required Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud had delayed a planned trip to the West Bank.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries which favour a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity.”
Palestinians want the West Bank territory, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as the core of a future state along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
But the area is now criss-crossed with settlements that have squeezed some 3 million Palestinians into pockets increasingly cut off from each other though a network of military checkpoints.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the announcement this week of 22 new settlements in the West Bank was an “historic moment” for settlements and “a clear message to Macron.” He said recognition of a Palestinian state would be “thrown into the dustbin of history.”
The post Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Armed men hijacked dozens of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip overnight and hundreds of desperate Palestinians joined in to take supplies, local aid groups said on Saturday as officials waited for Hamas to respond to the latest ceasefire proposals.
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close but Hamas has said it is still studying the latest proposals from his special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the proposals.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
On Saturday, the Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war began 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
At the same time, a separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on the social media platform X.
NO BREAD IN WEEKS
The World Food Program said it brought 77 trucks carrying flour into Gaza overnight and early on Saturday and all of them were stopped on the way, with food taken by hungry people.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” it said in a statement.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Overnight on Saturday, he said trucks had been stopped by armed groups near Khan Younis as they were headed towards a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza and hundreds of desperate people had carried off supplies.
“We could understand that some are driven by hunger and starvation, some may not have eaten bread in several weeks, but we can’t understand armed looting, and it is not acceptable at all,” he said.
Israel says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
The post Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a US-backed proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but President Donald Trump’s envoy rejected the group’s response as “totally unacceptable.”
The Palestinian terrorist group said it was willing to release 10 living hostages and hand over the bodies of 18 dead in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. But Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.
A Hamas official described the group’s response to the proposals from Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as “positive” but said it was seeking some amendments. The official did not elaborate on the changes being sought by the group.
“This response aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to our people in the Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that among amendments Hamas is seeking is the release of the hostages in three phases over the 60-day truce and more aid distribution in different areas. Hamas also wants guarantees the deal will lead to a permanent ceasefire, the official said.
There was no immediate response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to the Hamas statement.
Israel has previously rejected Hamas’ conditions, instead demanding the complete disarmament of the group and its dismantling as a military and governing force, along with the return of all 58 remaining hostages.
Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close after the latest proposals, and the White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the terms.
Saying he had received Hamas’ response, Witkoff wrote in a posting on X: “It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.”
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had killed Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’ Gaza chief on May 13, confirming what Netanyahu said earlier this week.
Sinwar, the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza. Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied his death.
The Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said on Saturday it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
On Saturday, aid groups said dozens of World Food Program trucks carrying flour to Gaza bakeries had been hijacked by armed groups and subsequently looted by people desperate for food after weeks of mounting hunger.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” the WFP said in a statement.
‘A MOCKERY’
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on X.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
A separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Israel denies operating a policy of starvation and says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters.
The post Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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