[MUST SEE]: Tunnels of Terror: An Interactive Guide by HonestReporting
Over the past two decades, Hamas has built a massive underground tunnel network beneath Gaza spanning 350–450 miles long. This map displays only a fraction of that.
Over 5,700 entrance shafts embedded in homes, schools, mosques, and hospitals. Refer to the legend to understand how civilian infrastructure was weaponized.
This interactive map offers the first detailed visualization of Hamas' tunnels of terror and key events in the Israel-Hamas war, revealing how Hamas endangers Palestinian civilians while threatening Israeli lives.
Hamas' tunnels serve as military command centers, weapons depots, and routes for smuggling and hostage transport. They can reach up to 230 feet deep, and are outfitted with electricity and rail systems. With a price tag of up to $3 million each, they are funded through stolen aid and resources meant for civilians.
Hamas Exploits Hospitals: Abusing medical facilities for military purposes is a war crime and removes the protection accorded to those facilities under international humanitarian law, endangering Gazan civilians. This has not stopped Hamas from using multiple hospitals, including Al Shifa and the Islamic University’s medical school, as command centers and weapons stores. Shifa’s tunnels alone extend over 700 feet and were used to move hostages and house terrorist infrastructure. The IDF uncovered weapons throughout these facilities and targeted terrorists during raids in 2023 and 2024.
Border Breaches: The map below details roughly fifteen tunnels that approach or cross both Israeli and Egyptian borders, violating sovereign territory. These tunnels are used to smuggle weapons, terrorists, and supplies—undermining regional stability and posing a direct threat to both Israeli and Egyptian sovereignty. Even the tunnels that approach the Israeli border, but do not cross it, indicate the clear intent of infiltrating Israel to carry out deadly attacks, as seen on October 7.
UNRWA Headquarters: The IDF entered the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City based on intelligence indicating its use by Hamas for terrorist activities. Inside UNRWA offices, Israeli forces found equipment and documents showing that the rooms had been used by Hamas. Beneath the headquarters, Hamas built a military complex serving as a central communications and intelligence hub. The facility contained computer servers, industrial batteries, and cables running through the floors, supplying power to Hamas' tunnel network. Other UNRWA buildings throughout Gaza have also been linked to Hamas operations, with hidden weapons and tunnels discovered beneath them.
Link: Tunnels of Terror
Antisemitism
Harvard Is an Islamist Outpost by Ruth R. Wisse in the WSJ
Harvard became directly implicated on Oct. 8, 2023, when the Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee issued a statement endorsed by more than 30 student groups that asserted “the Israeli regime” was “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” Students for Justice in Palestine declared Oct. 12 a “day of resistance” and had a “toolkit” ready for the encampments and demonstrations that spread beyond campus. SJP praised the “unity intifada” and “resistance” and declared that Palestinian students were “PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement.” In 2001 there were no such support groups for Islamists at Harvard.
Harvard was a soft target for foreign penetration, having developed an adversarial relationship to the American government and increasingly to the country itself… This selective anti-government policy was reflected in the curriculum, which took an increasingly critical approach to America and Western civilization.
By the 1990s, black campus groups were hosting Afrocentric and Nation of Islam speakers who agitated against whites and Jews… To this grievance coalition were added Marxists, anticapitalists, anticolonialists, and anti-imperialists. All these demonstrators lacked a common cause until they united around the handiest target in the history of civilization under the guise of liberating the Palestinians.
The most useful of many political functions of anti-Zionism—as with antisemitism before Jews returned to their homeland—is building coalitions of grievance and blame against a small nation with a universally inflated and mostly negative image… Attacking only the Jews—now only Israel—is its key to becoming the world’s most powerful antidemocratic ideology.
Oct. 7, like Kristallnacht in 1938, forced some people to confront what they had tried to ignore… If Harvard shirks its responsibility to shore up the foundations of America and allows itself to be hijacked by an Islamist-inspired grievance coalition, why would it expect any support from the government?
Harvard, do you hear yourself? By Mark Goldfeder in The Hill
Earlier this month, the federal government withheld billions in funding from Harvard. Last week, the IRS considered whether the school should even keep its tax-exempt status. Harvard’s response? They’ve labeled these moves as somehow “unlawful.” But they can’t explain how, because they’re wrong.
First, as it relates to funding, no institution is simply entitled to billions of taxpayer dollars… Contrary to what Harvard’s leadership may believe, this isn’t a First Amendment issue… Harvard is free to keep on discriminating to its own heart’s content—just not on the government’s dime.
Second, the IRS has full authority to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status… Bob Jones University v. United States (1983) ruled that the IRS could (and should) revoke a university’s tax-exempt status because its racially discriminatory practices violated public policy… In some ways, this case is even easier, because… discriminatory antisemitism… is actually unlawful under Title VI.
The real story here… is how hard and how openly the University is willing to fight for its self-given ‘right’ to continue violating civil-rights laws with impunity.
The fight against antisemitism has never been about Jewish exceptionalism, but rather Jewish equality, and while some talking heads might laugh at the idea of taking anti-Jewish hate just as seriously as other forms of discrimination, thankfully, the government is not laughing.
If you are fine with protesters using their free speech to incite anti-Jewish hate, but not with the government using its free speech to stand up for the Jews; if you are okay with the IRS revoking tax breaks for racist institutions, but not for ones who ignore antisemitism; if you romanticize leaders of groups that endorse the murder of Jews, yet call it “unlawful” when the government enforces civil rights; and if you care so much about “illegal” detentions that you simply must get on a plane and act, but only when the person being held is not Jewish, well, there is a word for that, and it isn’t pretty.
The World Health Organization Is Covering for Hamas by Avraham Russell Shalev in National Review
Beyond these high-profile failures lies a quieter, more insidious scandal: the WHO’s systematic effort to obscure Hamas’s exploitation of hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
The terrorist organization has transformed hospitals into command centers, weapons stockpiles, and active combat zones — an abuse so blatant it defies denial. Yet, the WHO and its director-general… have churned out hundreds of public statements… without ever acknowledging the well-documented allegations of Hamas’s infiltration.
During the 2009 Israel–Hamas war, the Israel Defense Forces discovered that Hamas had shuttered entire sections of Al-Shifa Hospital, repurposing them as its operational headquarters… A Dutch journalist… claimed to have personally observed Hamas fighters inside the hospital, adding that ‘everyone in Gaza, including UN staff,’ was fully aware.
Between March and April 2024, the IDF executed a meticulously targeted operation at Al-Shifa… apprehending approximately 500 terrorists… Yet as Israeli forces dismantled this terror stronghold, Ghebreyesus took to X with a sanctimonious rebuke: ‘Hospitals should never be battlegrounds.’
The WHO has relentlessly demanded the release of the hospital’s director, Hussan Abu Safiya, without mentioning that he’s a Hamas colonel… Kamal Adwan was classified as a military hospital by Hamas’s own Medical Services Directorate.
Hamas’s transformation of hospitals into terrorist bastions… is a flagrant violation of international law… The WHO has proven a willing partner in this deception, consistently concealing Hamas’s abuses and misrepresenting Israel’s counterterrorism efforts — a betrayal of professional and medical ethics on an unforgivable scale.
Josh Shapiro Was Targeted for Being Jewish. Will He Do Anything About It? By Jesse Arm and Charles Fain Lehman on City Journal
This attack represents, then, a failure of the systems meant to keep people safe. The question now is whether Governor Shapiro will seize the moment to fix them. He could buck his party’s pro-terrorism wing and back popular, common-sense fixes to bail, commitment, and domestic-terrorism laws. Will the likely 2028 presidential contender step up?
Across the country, public disorder is rising as policymakers retreat from tools like institutionalization and pretrial detention. ‘Why was he free at all?’ is a question asked not just about Balmer but about repeat offenders across the country who are out on bail or seriously mentally ill.
Balmer’s attack, moreover, was an explicit response to Shapiro’s Zionism—and, one suspects, to his Judaism more generally. And it occurred against the backdrop of a broader campaign of civil intimidation targeting Jews and pro-Israel Americans.
Shapiro has talked tough, only to fold when pressured by the activists who rule Democratic politics… He condemned violence but stopped short of talking about motive, saying, ‘I choose not to participate in that.’
If Shapiro fails to confront the problems the Balmer attack embodies, it will be not only a failure but also a missed opportunity. By speaking forthrightly and demanding policy change, the governor could back popular reforms, burnish his moderate credentials, marginalize the radical wing of the party that kept him off the ticket, and consolidate his position as a potential future leader.
What, specifically, should he do? Make it easier to commit the dangerously mentally ill; back the bipartisan cash-bail bill sitting in the legislature; and call for aggressive prosecution of anti-Semitic (and other) civil terrorists.
Those “protesters” who block bridges or thoroughfares, vandalize property, or otherwise engage in publicly disorderly action masquerading as “speech” should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And the governor should seek clarification from the state legislature that committing such offenses to target Jews violates Pennsylvania’s prohibition on ethnic intimidation, yielding an enhanced sentence.
Link: Josh Shapiro Was Targeted for Being Jewish. Will He Do Anything About It?
The Failed Logic in Dave Smith’s Morality of War by John Spencer on X
On Joe Rogan’s podcast, Smith laid out what he called a “simple moral argument”: “Let’s say somebody broke onto your property and killed your family members, and you want to go kill this guy. If he goes back to his apartment building and there’s women and children inside, and your move is to blow up the building—well, what you’d be charged with is murder in the first degree…You dropped a bomb knowing innocent people were going to die. That is by definition intentional.”
…this is a rhetorical sleight of hand. It confuses a linguistic truth—that harm was foreseeable—with a moral falsehood: that the act is inherently wrong, no matter the context.
…as a profound point beyond linguistic tautology, the implied idea—that no matter what the surrounding circumstances, it is always immoral to press that button—is preposterous.
The central issue is the confusion of two entirely separate systems: civilian criminal law on the one hand, and the conduct of war on the other. These exist for different purposes, under different real-world constraints, and, by practical necessity, are governed by different rules. Not accounting for such different conditions is a kind of moral blindness.
Smith seemed to think my referring to laws rather than moral principles was, per se, a way to weasel out of moral thinking, but this is a total inversion. Appealing to the law of armed conflict (LOAC) is not an abandonment of morality but an attempt to preserve it under the worst human conditions, as opposed to pretending away the moral relevance of those conditions. And while it operates through legal language, LOAC is grounded in basic moral truths.
The law of war is not a loophole in morality—it is morality under fire. It rests on three foundational principles: distinction, proportionality, and precaution. You may only target enemy combatants or civilians directly participating in hostilities; civilian harm must not be excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage; and every feasible step must be taken to minimize civilian casualties.
Smith ignores all of this. He frames war as an act of personal vengeance: “you wanted to get one guy, so you blew up the building.” But this bears no resemblance to how modern, law-abiding militaries operate—nor to how morality governs war.
From his account of the IDF’s actions—though these standards apply across all liberal democracies—it’s unclear whether Smith knows such assessments are conducted, let alone that entire units are dedicated to them. But they are.
Even the criminal law Smith appeals to recognizes moral nuance. Killing can be murder, manslaughter, or no crime at all—depending on intent and circumstance. Someone acting in self-defense isn’t charged as a murderer, even if others are harmed. The law of war applies the same logic, but under far more extreme and complex conditions.
These aren’t just bad arguments. They’re dangerously shallow—and they should be rejected outright.
Israel/Middle East Related Articles
Hamas claim that 70pc of Gaza dead are women and children ‘demonstrably false’ by Patrick Sawer in The Telegraph
Claims by Hamas that 70 per cent of casualties in the Gaza conflict are women and children have been dismissed as “demonstrably false” in a new report. The report by the Henry Jackson Society, a think tank, undermines claims that Israel’s armed forces have been responsible for the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians during the conflict.
In the report, Prof Lewi Stone and Prof Gregory Rose said that claims made by the Gaza ministry of health of a 70 per cent casualty rate for women and children among the 51,000 Palestinians it says have been killed since Oct 7 2023 are inconsistent with its own underlying hospital casualty figures.
They found that Gaza hospital records and lists of the deceased showed that, since the start of the conflict, women and children have accounted for 51 per cent of deaths overall, and that in the past year the rate of civilian casualties has fallen to below that figure.
Profs Stone and Rose also found that of 11,224 people killed since October last year, 76.3 per cent (8,565) were male and 23.7 per cent (2,659) were female. Of these, 58 per cent were men of fighting age.
“The Hamas government media office curated the data to spin media-ready versions that inflated women and children’s deaths to levels that gave the deceptive impression of indiscriminate Israeli attacks on women and children.”
They said: “[ministry of health] MoH ‘dashboard’ infographics and public statements were demonstrably false when compared to its own datasets. For example, its repeated publishing of a 70 per cent women and children casualty rate that was inconsistent with its detailed hospital-sourced datasets.”
The IDF claimed to have killed about 20,000 fighters from Hamas and other groups at the start of this year.
The report stated, however, that no Gazan casualties were identified as combatants by the ministry of health. It added that adult male deaths, which it said were strongly indicative of combatant status, had been routinely excluded or under-reported by the Hamas-run government “to suit propaganda ends”.
Israel’s Dangerous Overreach in Syria by Shira Efron and Danny Citrinowicz with Foreign Affairs
In the months since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed, Israel’s military activity in Syria has grown increasingly aggressive… Defense Minister Israel Katz has repeatedly declared that the IDF will remain in Syria ‘indefinitely.’… All of this represents a sharp break with Israel’s longtime cautious approach toward its northeastern neighbor.
Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Shara, bent over backward to signal that he had no interest in conflict with Israel and even floated the possibility of normalizing ties… The new Syrian government needs to be judged by its actions and not only its words. But it presents Israel with a potentially golden opportunity to deepen Iran’s isolation, turn Syria from a foe into a peaceful neighbor, and stabilize its region.
Even though Israel’s fatal campaign against Hezbollah and its deterrence efforts against Iran … had left Assad defenseless, his regime’s collapse took Israel by surprise… Immediately, Israel moved to destroy Syrian air force bases… bolstered its border defenses, and took over the UN’s 145-square-mile buffer zone.
Israel’s mistrust of Shara’s government constitutes another paradox… Although undermining Shara’s power may strengthen Israel’s grip on its buffer zone in the short term, the country’s long-term interest is in a stable Syria.
Israel has foiled Turkish efforts to rebuild the Syrian army… Israeli official discourse has increasingly treated Turkey as an enemy… Yet Turkey is not Israel’s adversary: the two countries, both U.S. allies, share strong economic and security interests, and Israel should not aggravate NATO’s largest military while fighting a multifront war.
Israel’s current approach resembles its efforts to create a security zone in southern Lebanon in the 1980s and 1990s—which resulted in a war of attrition that deepened Lebanese resentment and made it much easier for Hezbollah to take over the country upon the IDF’s withdrawal in 2000… Israel could also relieve Syria’s economic crisis by helping to provide energy, food, and water. That—more than showy military incursions without a complementary diplomatic strategy—will help Israel secure the regional influence it truly wants.
Deradicalization in the Middle East and Lessons for Gaza’s Future by Ksenia Svetlova with The Jerusalem Strategic Tribune
Young Palestinians in Gaza today have had no direct contact with Israelis… and their lives played out in streets dominated by Hamas imagery and messaging. This generation was both heavily radicalized and traumatized before and during the current war, losing homes, relatives, and friends. They stopped attending school nearly two years ago.
Two interconnected factors appear to drive radicalization in Gaza: Hamas’s indoctrination that glorified terror, and the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Any effective deradicalization strategy would need to address both aspects simultaneously.
Following the 2003 Casablanca bombings, Morocco implemented a counter-terrorism strategy combining aggressive security operations with socioeconomic development and religious-education oversight… Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Naif Center claims an 80 percent success rate… Jordan’s Amman Letter and its Sakina online program focus on religious legitimacy.
Israel has yet to adopt a deradicalization strategy for Palestinian terrorists… Palestinians in Gaza are not under Israeli sovereignty, and Israel has neither the legal authority nor the institutional capacity to implement such programs.
Arab countries with deradicalization experience… could share best practices with Gaza’s future governors and work with Israel, the Palestinians, and international partners to advance political solutions. Physical reconstruction must be accompanied by social rehabilitation… One cannot happen without the other.
Link: Deradicalization in the Middle East and Lessons for Gaza’s Future
Casualties (+3)
Master Sgt. (res.) Asaf Cafri (26) was killed by terrorist sniper fire in the Beit Hanoun area, near one of the army’s posts in the IDF-controlled buffer zone. According to Israeli journalist Marc Schulman, Cafri was the great-grandson of Holocaust survivor Magda Baratz (96), who, at the time of his death, was en route to a memorial ceremony at Bergen-Belsen.
Lt. Colonel Ido Voloch (21) and Sgt. Neta Yitzhak Kahane, a member of the Border Police’s elite unit, were killed during fighting in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood on Friday afternoon, the military and police announce.
1,866 Israelis have been killed including 851 IDF soldiers and police since October 7th (+3 since Wednesday)
The South: 411 IDF soldiers (no change from Wednesday) during the ground operation in Gaza have been killed. The toll includes three police officers (two of which were killed in a hostage rescue mission) and two Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
The North: 132 Israelis (84 IDF soldiers) have been killed during the war in Northern Israel
The West Bank: 63 Israelis (27 IDF and Israeli security forces)
Additional Information (according to the IDF):
5,825 (+34 since Wednesday) IDF soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, including at least 865 (+3 since Wednesday) who have been severely injured.
2,635 (+23 since Wednesday) IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 506 (+3 since Wednesday) who have been severely injured.
The Gaza Casualty Count:
According to unverified figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, 52,243 total deaths have been reported, with a civilian/combatant ratio: 1:1.
[MUST READ] Report: Questionable Counting: Analysing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza by Andrew Fox with The Henry Jackson Society
On October 7th, Ohad Hemo with Channel 12 Israel News – the country’s largest news network, a leading expert on Palestinian and Arab affairs, mentioned an estimate from Hamas: around 80% of those killed in Gaza are members of the organization and their families.”
Read this well documented piece from Tablet published in March: How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers
The Associated Press, an outlet with a demonstrated anti-Israel bias, conducted an analysis of alleged Gaza death tolls released by the Hamas-controlled "Gaza Health Ministry." The analysis found that "9,940 of the dead – 29% of its April 30 total – were not listed in the data" and that "an additional 1,699 records in the ministry’s April data were incomplete and 22 were duplicates."
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes official details on every civilian and IDF casualty.
Hostage Update (no change)
There are now currently 58 hostages taken on 10/7 currently in captivity in Gaza (there are 59 hostages remaining in total)
38 hostages were released in the first phase of the 2025 cease fire agreement (including 5 Thai nationals)
24 hostages will remain in captivity after Phase I and have not been declared dead.
5 hostages are Americans: Meet the Five American Hostages Still Held By Hamas: Edan Alexander is assumed to be alive, Itay Chen is assumed to have been killed on 10/7, and Gadi Haggai, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Omer Neutra have been confirmed to have been killed.
4 are soldiers
7 are residents of the Gaza border communities
11 were abducted from the Nova music festival
2 are foreign workers: Bipin Joshi from Nepal and Pinta Nattapong from Thailand
On October 7th, a total of 251 Israelis were taken hostage.
During the ceasefire deal in November of 2023, 112 hostages were released.
193 hostages in total have been released or rescued
The bodies of 40 hostages have been recovered, including 3 mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
8 hostages have been heroically rescued by troops alive
Of the 59 hostages still theoretically in Gaza
31 hostages have been confirmed dead and are currently being held in Gaza
Thus, at most, 28 living hostages could still be in Gaza.
Hamas is now holding the body of 1 IDF soldier who was killed in 2014 (Lt. Hadar Goldin’s body remains held in the Gaza Strip)
Regular sources include JINSA, FDD, IDF, AIPAC, The Paul Singer Foundation, The Institute for National Security Studies, the Alma Research and Education Center, Yediot, Jerusalem Post, IDF Casualty Count, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Institute for the Study of War, Tablet Magazine, Mosaic Magazine, The Free Press, and the Times of Israel