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Amid Escalation in Lebanon, Hamas Is Killing Opponents in Gaza and Stealing Aid
By EADO HECHT (Algemeiner) In terms of Israel-Hamas negotiations, not much has changed since my last article.
The negotiations continue, with rumors abounding about supposed changes in Israel’s or Hamas’s positions. But every time the smoke clears, it becomes evident that with regard to the central issue, nothing has changed: Hamas still demands a total cessation of Israeli operations and total withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, with international guarantees that Israel will not resume its offensive. Israel continues to refuse to accept these conditions.
The following are Hamas’s terms for a ceasefire as posted on the group’s internet site:
We emphasize that any agreement must include:
A total ceasefire of the aggression against the Palestinian nation,
A complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip including the Philadelphi Corridor,
Return of all the displaced people to their homes,
Aid for our people and rebuilding of what the conquerors [Israel] have destroyed,
A serious and true deal for exchange of prisoners.
An interesting point that is not mentioned in the above official Hamas post, but appears in another document apparently found by the IDF in a Hamas underground command post, is that Hamas wants an inter-Arab military force placed on Gaza’s border with Israel as a guarantee that Israel will not renew its offensive later on.
This force would protect Hamas as it reconstitutes its military forces in preparation for a future war.
The fighting in the Gaza Strip continues at the same reduced pace and with the same methods on both sides. The IDF is deliberately setting the pace, slowly combing through the Rafah area against small pinprick ambushes and raids by Hamas and other groups. IDF units are operating both above and below ground.
IDF units in the Netsarim Corridor, which separates Gaza City from the rest of Gaza, are also continuing to conduct raids and defensive operations. The corridor is held almost exclusively by IDF reserve units that are rotated every couple of months.
Most of the Hamas Rafah brigade command hierarchy has been killed or wounded, and about 2,000 of its original 4,500 personnel are estimated to be killed or wounded. Others have fled and are hiding in the safe haven area. Thirteen kilometers of tunnels were exploded by the IDF after having been reconnoitered.
Four Israeli soldiers, including a female paramedic, were killed when a building was exploded on top of them by remote control.
In another incident, a helicopter landing at night to evacuate a seriously wounded soldier crashed, killing two of the casualty rescuer team and wounding seven others, including the pilot. Apparently the combination of dark, a dust cloud, and a complicated landing site (chosen to prevent Hamas from shooting at the helicopter) confused the pilot, causing them to make a mistake and crash into the ground.
Hamas continues to fire a few rockets every once in a while into Israel, mostly at villages near the border, and occasionally at towns farther away, such as Ashkelon. So far, none has caused casualties or damage.
Hamas continues to use schools, hospitals, mosques, and UNRWA sites as command posts and storage facilities. The IDF locates and strikes these locations using small-caliber guided munitions. Every time Israel takes out a Hamas position, Hamas claims that all casualties were civilians, until the IDF publishes the names and functions of those killed.
One example from the past two weeks was the attack on the al-Ja’ooni school in Nusayrat. This time, in addition to claiming the killed were all civilians, Hamas said they included UNRWA personnel.
The IDF then published the names of nine Hamas personnel killed there, including UNRWA employee Yassir Ibrahim Abu Shrar, whose day job at UNRWA — while simultaneously serving on the Hamas Emergency Committee (see below) — was as a member of one of Hamas’ internal security apparatus, which is responsible for population control.
Inside Gaza, in addition to fighting Israel, Hamas is busy asserting its dominance over the other Palestinian factions. One method of doing this is to take control of humanitarian aid convoys and distribute or sell the supplies according to Hamas’ needs (one of the missions carried out by the Hamas Emergency Committee).
In some cases, the IDF intervenes and directs fire at the Hamas teams that are doing this, but that often results in claims that the IDF itself is attacking the convoys.
In addition, there are reports by Gazans on social media of executions, abductions, and beatings of critics or members of other factions that have taken a too-independent stance (another mission usually carried out by the Hamas Emergency Committee).
Hamas of course labels all these victims “collaborators with the Zionists.” For all the talk of “the day after,” there can be no day after so long as Hamas remains the most powerful force in Gaza.
On the left: snapshot from a news video (al-Arabiya) of a Gazan criticizing Hamas. On the right: The same man in the hospital a few days later, after having been beaten up by Hamas personnel. (These photos were downloaded from the individual’s social media account by Israeli blogger Abu Ali Express)
Another critic was less fortunate. According to reports in Palestinian social media, an engineer working for UNRWA since 2021, who criticized Hamas on social media (“After being released from prison, Sinwar should have received ‘treatment’ and not been given control over 2.5 million people“) was shot and killed by Hamas.
In the first week of September, 1.26 million polio vaccines were sent into Gaza via Israel. Since then, 560,000 Gazans have been vaccinated, thus ending the first phase of the vaccination program. A second round of vaccinations is planned to begin within a couple of weeks.
Another health program is the supply of prosthetic arms and legs from Jordan to Gaza, together with a team of specialists to attach them. An interesting facet of this operation is that so far, the photographs that have been published of patients receiving the prosthetics show only men of military age.
Dr. Eado Hecht, a senior research fellow at the BESA Center, is a military analyst focusing mainly on the relationship between military theory, military doctrine, and military practice. He teaches courses on military theory and military history at Bar-Ilan University, Haifa University, and Reichman University and in a variety of courses in the Israel Defense Forces. A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.
The post Amid Escalation in Lebanon, Hamas Is Killing Opponents in Gaza and Stealing Aid first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Teen slashed in Brooklyn synagogue by fellow congregant
(JTA) — A 14-year-old boy was slashed on Monday evening inside a Brooklyn synagogue by a suspect the police called an “emotionally disturbed person.”
The 22-year-old suspect, Krybus Shimon, is a fellow congregant of Yeshiva Gevoah Toldos, an Orthodox synagogue in Borough Park, the New York Police Department said. He was taken into custody and charged on Monday with assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon.
The boy’s hand was slashed with a “cutting instrument” and he was treated by emergency medical services on the scene, police said.
The incident is not currently being investigated as a hate crime, and it’s not yet clear what led to the slashing.
Borough Park is one of the largest Orthodox enclaves in the United States, home to about 96,000 Jews, according to UJA-Federation of New York.
In January, the neighborhood was hit with a spate of antisemitic vandalism. Over 70 swastikas and the words “Adolf Hitler” were sprayed over two days across Gravesend Park, a playground in Borough Park. Two 15-year-old boys were arrested for the vandalism and charged with aggravated harassment and criminal mischief as a hate crime.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul last week announced a record $70 million in security funding for houses of worship, schools, community centers and other nonprofit organizations that are vulnerable to hate crimes and attacks because of their ideology, beliefs or mission.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Teen slashed in Brooklyn synagogue by fellow congregant appeared first on The Forward.
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Staunch Israel supporter Coons expected to win Delaware Democratic Senate primary handily
(JTA) — Delaware incumbent Sen. Chris Coons, a longtime supporter of Israel, is expected to easily win Delaware’s U.S. Senate primary on Tuesday, despite criticism from party progressives.
Coons, a mainstay of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has repeatedly backed measures to bolster Israel’s capacity for self-defense. He also joined a bipartisan delegation to visit Israel immediately after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.
But the senator has faced pushback in recent months for his refusal to back measures that would cut military aid to Israel.
This past spring, he was one of just seven Democrats to join Republicans in voting against a resolution authored by independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, which sought to stop the sale of military bulldozers to Israel. Coons was among just 11 Democrats who opposed a second Sanders resolution that proposed similar sales bans on massive bombs and other defense equipment.
Coons has served nearly three terms in the Senate. He won a special election in 2010, about a year after Joe Biden resigned to become U.S. vice president, and then went on to secure two full terms in 2014 and 2020.
In Tuesday’s primary, he will face off against artificial intelligence systems builder and historian Jeff Appelhans, naval architect and marine engineer Mary Louve and a former business executive who changed his legal name from Eric Hansen to E. No-Trump Hansen.
While Coons has earned endorsements from establishment Democrats, such as Delaware Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester and Gov. Matt Meyer, he has drawn criticism from party progressives for both his support of Israel and the financial backing he gets from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group.
Of Coons’s opponents, the most vocal critic on Israel-related policy has been Appelhans, whose campaign priorities included ending U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Appelhans slammed Coons for voting against the Sanders bills, writing on his campaign site that “the liberal consensus moved to block the sales.”
Appelhans condemned Coons’s voting record on “moving armaments to Israel,” noting in a recent interview that “there’s never been a vote that he’s stopped” on this issue. He was speaking with Delaware Public Media last week as part of a series of candidate interviews.
Regarding the conflict in Iran, Appelhans slammed “Congress’ unwillingness” to challenge the president, noting that “there was very much a sense that Israel would be a staunch ally and they could sort of get this done really easily.”
In the same radio series, another candidate, Louve, expressed uncertainty as to “why we’re still backing Israel,” while acknowledging the country’s history as a U.S. ally.
“Is it worth us continuing to step up for a bully?” she asked. “It’s aggression that is unnecessary that’s continuing to escalate because we’re helping it.”
Hansen did not participate in these conversations, Delaware Public Media stated.
This summer Coons pledged to stop taking donations from the data company Palantir, which has come under scrutiny for its work with the Israel’s Defense Ministry, the U.S. military and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the nonprofit news site Spotlight Delaware.
Despite his more centrist reputation, Coons has had significant criticism for the Trump administration’s strategies in Iran. In his own Delaware Public Media interview, Coons accused the president of selling the conflict “as a cheap, quick war.”
While little polling data was available ahead of Tuesday’s race, the Polymarket predictions site gave Coons a 99.7% chance of winning as of Monday evening. In his last primary in 2020, Coons defeated a progressive opponent, Jessica Scarane, with nearly 73% of voter support.
Regardless of Tuesday’s outcome, the victor is expected to easily defeat the Republican challenger in the November general election, with the Cook Political Report deeming Delaware “solid” Democratic territory.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Staunch Israel supporter Coons expected to win Delaware Democratic Senate primary handily appeared first on The Forward.
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Noah Wyle wins an Emmy for playing one of TV’s most Jewish doctors
(JTA) — Noah Wyle on Monday night won his second consecutive Emmy for playing Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch on “The Pitt.” The win also marked a second victory for one of television’s more fully realized Jewish characters.
The actor won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the HBO Max medical drama, which also won Outstanding Drama Series for the second year in a row. In his acceptance speech, Wyle recalled growing up in Los Angeles and said, “This is all I’ve ever wanted to do, and this is the only club I’ve ever wanted to join.”
For Jewish viewers, the significance of Wyle’s victory goes beyond the actor’s own Jewish ancestry. In the first season, Robby was seen reciting the Shema at one of his lowest moments, turning what might have been a throwaway piece of character background into an intimate expression of fear and faith.
In the second season, Wyle, who is also a writer and executive producer on the show, pushed that dimension further. An episode he wrote dealt with the trauma of the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, while also exploring Robby’s complicated relationship with his Jewish faith.
Wyle has described Robby’s faith as something he is still “grappling” with — including the question of whether he has faith at all. The Shema scene, he said, functioned almost like a child’s primal plea for help.
Wyle was not the only Jewish winner of the night. Saul Metzstein, the Scottish Jewish director whose father was the prominent modernist architect Isi Metzstein, won Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for “Slow Horses.” Metzstein had been competing against Wyle, who was nominated for directing an episode of “The Pitt.”
Those two wins were among the relatively few Jewish victories at this year’s ceremony. Jewish actors including Jason Segel, Lisa Kudrow, Harrison Ford and Hannah Einbinder were among the nominees but did not win in their categories.
“Nobody Wants This,” the Netflix show about a rabbi’s romance with a non-Jewish podcaster, was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series but lost to “Widow’s Bay.”
An Emmy was also awarded to a Jewish actor and director whose death in 2025 stunned the industry and a legion of fans. Rob Reiner, who was killed in December with his wife, Michele, won a posthumous Emmy for his guest role as a kind dispenser of business advice on “The Bear.” Reiner’s award was presented at the Creative Arts Emmys earlier this month, rather than Monday’s televised ceremony.
Reiner, before going on to direct Hollywood classics like “This Is Spinal Tap,” “The Princess Bride” and “When Harry Met Sally” won his first two Emmy awards in 1974 and 1978 for playing Mike Stivic, the liberal son-in-law of Archie Bunker on “All in the Family.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Noah Wyle wins an Emmy for playing one of TV’s most Jewish doctors appeared first on The Forward.
