Situational Update
According to Israel’s most widely read news outlet, Yediot (YNet): Israel killed more than 150 Hamas terrorists who were under surveillance of security forces since the renewed fighting in Gaza began, including Ismail Barhoum, whom Defense Minister Katz says was the new “Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza” who replaced Issam Da’alis, the previous prime minister who was eliminated a few days ago.
The IDF struck over 420 targets in the Strip. According to the officials, the military is working according to a structured plan and in stages, approved by the government, taking into consideration the need to avoid harm to the hostages.
Out of the 20 members of Hamas’s political bureau elected in 2021, 11 have been assassinated during the war in Gaza. Seven are either certain or highly likely to be outside the Gaza Strip.
Watch
Hamas published a propaganda video Monday evening showing Israeli hostages Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana, who were both kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7 and are still being held in Gaza by the terror group. Both families have now authorized publication of the video.
Absolute moral clarity from Mike Huckabee as he speaks about Hamas's actions on October 7 during his confirmation hearing to become U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
[WARNING: GRAPHIC TESTIMONY] Ilana Gritzewsky was captured from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7th and relased in November of 2023. Her partner, Matan Zangauker, is still in captivity. She shares her story with the New York Times and Sky News
She said she was trapped between two gunmen on a motorcycle, her head and face covered with a large piece of nylon or tarpaulin. A home security camera belonging to a Nir Oz resident, Eyal Barad, captured the moment, showing her with a white fabric wrapped around her head on the motorcycle with the gunmen. Ms. Gritzewsky said that the men pressed her leg onto the exhaust pipe, burning it, and that one of the kidnappers sitting behind her groped her, touching her breast under her shirt, and her legs. She passed out before they crossed the border.
When she came to, she said, she found herself on the floor in a dilapidated building, clearly in Gaza, her shirt up baring her breasts and pants pulled down, with seven gunmen standing over her.
Link: An Israeli Hostage Released From Gaza Campaigns for the Release of Others
EXPOSED: 6 Al Jazeera journalists have been exposed as Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists
The IDF has disclosed intelligence information and numerous documents found in Gaza confirming military affiliation of six Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations, including personnel tables, lists of terrorist training courses, phone directories, and salary documents for terrorists.
These documents serve as proof of the integration of Hamas terrorists within the Qatari Al Jazeera media network.
Most of the journalists that the IDF has exposed as operatives in Hamas' military wing spearhead the propaganda for Hamas at Al Jazeera, especially in northern Gaza.
Over 6 months ago, Hossam Basel Abdul Karim Shabat’s role within the Hamas terrorist organization was exposed. He carried out all of his actions under the cover of an Al Jazeera journalist. Yesterday, he was eliminated by the IDF.
Here is a document published in October 2024 proving Hossam’s affiliation with Hamas
[GO DEEPER] Journalist Eitan Fischberger provides supporting evidence on X: “As is usually the case with things like this, the IDF's assertion are backed up by publicly available data.”
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Honestly with Bari Weiss from the Free Press: Will Mahmoud Khalil Be Deported?
Mahmoud was also the spokesman and negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a group that says it is “fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization,” and which played an active role in the rioting that took over Columbia buildings last spring.
Many of us believe that Khalil’s ideology is abhorrent. He enjoyed the United States’ educational system—attending one of our most prestigious universities—while advocating for America’s destruction and for a group that seeks the genocide of the Jewish people.
At the same time, the case for his deportation is not clear-cut. Here’s the divide: Some say this is an immigration case. As Free Press contributing editor Abigail Shrier has put it: “This is an immigration, not a free speech case. It’s about whether the U.S. can set reasonable conditions on aliens for entry and residence.” But others say this is, in fact, a free speech case that cuts to the heart of our most cherished values.
Antisemitism
Jews and Christians Must Fight Anti-Semitic Conspiracies by Joe Lonsdale with City Journal
Last month, for the first time in my life, many of my successful Jewish friends—names you likely know—called me, worried. They asked what they need to do to protect their families, and who will have our back if attacks on Jews keep spreading. Ancient libels, banished from polite society after the horrors of World War II, are reentering the mainstream, shared to millions on social media and podcasts.
Some have criticized Elon Musk’s free-speech absolutism on X for enabling “hate” and coarsening discourse with “conspiracy theories.” … We should be glad that people have the freedom to voice their conspiracy theories. They challenge institutional narratives and can expose genuine abuses of power. … There’s a crucial distinction, however, between a healthy skepticism of power and anti-Semitic libels, which are calculated narratives designed to mark Jews as dangerous outsiders.
There are many familiar examples. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion … falsely claimed that Jews had a secret plan to weaken Christianity for global domination. It fueled pogroms and later Nazi ideology. … During the fourteenth-century Black Death, Jews were accused of poisoning wells to spread the plague … leading to the slaughter of thousands of Jews across Germany and Switzerland.
Anti-Semites on social media often argue that, because Jews were expelled from many countries, they must have been the problem. … Jews were expelled because, as successful minorities, they became convenient scapegoats during times of social or economic upheaval. Lacking a nation or army, Jews survived through adaptation to their host countries—partially integrated, yet distinct—and so made an easy target when rulers sought to deflect blame.
In the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks, many Christian communities in the U.S. and Israel rallied to support Jewish neighbors. … Pastors and lay leaders alike have been some of the staunchest defenders of Jews and Israel. … Jews and Christians share a belief in human dignity that anchors the West. Now is the time to stand together, defend one another, and uphold our shared values—refusing to let destructive ideologies prevail.
Link: Jews and Christians Must Fight Anti-Semitic Conspiracies
[REPORT] Foreign Money Flowing into U.S. Colleges and Universities: How Foreign Gifts and Contracts Flood the U.S. Higher Education System to Buy Influence, Spread Propaganda, and Threaten American Excellence by Americans for Public Trust
$60 billion in foreign gifts and contracts has been funneled into American colleges and universities over decades
Ten schools – some of the most elite and prestigious in the country – have alone raked in $20 billion
Federal protections meant to provide transparency on foreign cash into American higher education are lax and lightly enforced. As a result, an overwhelming number of schools do not fully comply with federal reporting requirements.
A 2020 report by the DOE’s Office of the General Counsel discovered that while many prestigious and well-known colleges in the U.S. have “aggressively pursued and accepted foreign money,” less than 300 of the 6,000 schools required to self-report foreign funds biannually have actually done so.
A further review of this noncompliance revealed $6.5 billion in previously unreported foreign money
A U.S. Senate subcommittee report in 2019 found that nearly “70% of all U.S. colleges and universities fail to comply with the law,” those that did “substantially underreported,” and that these huge inadequacies essentially made foreign cash sources pumping money into the American higher education system a “black hole.
For decades, countries like China, Russia, Iran, Qatar, Venezuela, and Yemen have collectively syphoned billions into American schools; in just 2024 alone, China and Qatar together gifted or contracted over $500 million to U.S. colleges and universities
Lax enforcement enables bad actors from around the world to by-pass safeguards and pour vast sums into U.S. schools, sometimes without any public reporting.
Many of the countries that top the list of foreign gifts and contracts to colleges and universities are nations that are long-standing adversaries and enemies of the U.S.
Foreign actors may use their funding of U.S. schools to buy influence, sow discord and anti-American propaganda, and to steal invaluable intellectual property and research.
Funds channeled into American schools from the Gulf state of Qatar pose a different, but gravely problematic, threat. In 2024, some of the schools that received the most Qatari money included Ivy League members Harvard and Cornell Universities. Sadly, both schools have seen a sharp uptick in antisemitic violence and rhetoric since the horrific invasion of Israel by the terrorist organization Hamas in October 2023.
While stopping the flood of incorrectly or unreported foreign gifts and contracts into U.S. colleges and universities may appear daunting due to the colossal amounts of the funds involved, in recent years, some progress in restoring full transparency and compliance with the law has been made.
In 2020, for essentially the first time in history since the passage of HEA, the Department of Education made moves to enforce the law and compel proper reporting. The department opened extensive investigations into multiple schools that were in non-compliance and revamped the agency’s reporting portal to streamline the reporting process. As a result, 60 institutions that have never submitted reports filed disclosures, listing over $350 million in foreign gifts and contracts for the compliance period ending in July 2020. In order to capitalize on these efforts, new legislation has been proposed to create additional safeguards while promoting transparency and compliance. 1
The DETERRENT Act (H.R. 1048, the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions) – which first passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2023 – includes new safeguards that would allow American schools to continue to collaborate with foreign allies. At the same time, the DETERRENT Act would deter bad actors from attempting to buy influence, conduct espionage, and sow propaganda and discord across the United States via our higher education system. The bill would lower the reporting threshold for gifts from $250,000 to $50,000, prohibit contracts with governments openly hostile to the U.S. – such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea – and impose stiff fines and the loss of Title IV federal education funding for schools that do not maintain compliance. Such measures would significantly stifle and limit the ability of foreign nations harboring bad intentions from attempting to grow their influence in the U.S. through our college campuses. In February 2025, the DETERRENT Act was passed by the Committee on Education and Workforce and is now awaiting a vote on the House floor.
Link: New Report Exposes $60 Billion in Foreign Cash Flowing into American Colleges and Universities
The World Health Organization Is Covering for Hamas by Avraham Russell Shalev in National Review
The evidence of Hamas’s commandeering of Gaza’s medical infrastructure is overwhelming and beyond dispute. 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, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, have churned out hundreds of public statements and social-media posts decrying Israel’s supposed “assault” on Gaza’s health-care system… without ever acknowledging the well-documented allegations of Hamas’s infiltration.
Hamas’s exploitation of hospitals isn’t new — it’s a long-standing, grim reality. During the 2009 Israel–Hamas war, the Israel Defense Forces discovered that Hamas had shuttered entire sections of Al-Shifa Hospital… A Dutch journalist went further, claiming to have personally observed Hamas fighters inside the hospital, adding that “everyone in Gaza, including UN staff,” was fully aware of its dual purpose. The accounts of released Israeli hostages paint an even bleaker picture…
Maya Regev described how Hamas terrorists dragged her to a Gaza hospital, where they tortured her and performed surgery on her leg without anesthetics.
Yarden Roman-Gat and Mia Shem both recounted being hidden in and beneath medical facilities during their captivity.
British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari reported that her surgeon at Al-Shifa — who introduced himself as “Dr. Hamas” — operated on her without pain relief, a chilling testament to the hospital’s true masters.
Between March and April 2024, the IDF executed a meticulously targeted operation at the hospital, apprehending approximately 500 terrorists and 400 suspects while killing 200 others… Yet, as Israeli forces dismantled this terror stronghold, Ghebreyesus took to X with a sanctimonious rebuke: “Hospitals should never be battlegrounds…” On April 6, 2024, the WHO spearheaded a multiagency U.N. mission to survey Al-Shifa’s devastation, producing a report that described it as “an empty shell.” Strikingly, the word “Hamas” is absent from the document.
The WHO has relentlessly demanded the release of the hospital’s director, Hussan Abu Safiya, without mentioning that he’s a Hamas colonel arrested on suspicion of terrorism. Far from a neutral civilian facility, Kamal Adwan was classified as a military hospital by Hamas’s own Military Medical Services Directorate, with social-media posts from its opening touting its readiness to serve “military personnel in the Ministry of Interior and National Security.”
Hamas’s transformation of hospitals into terrorist bastions and dungeons for Israeli captives is a flagrant violation of international law… When Hamas launched its genocidal October 7 attack on Israeli towns and villages, it counted on the ensuing destruction in Gaza to trigger global condemnation of Israel… 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.
Lawsuit Targets Anti-Israel Campus Leaders for ‘Aiding and Abetting’ Hamas by Maya Sulkin in The Free Press
Three minutes before Hamas began its attack on October 7, Columbia SJP [Students for ‘Justice’ in ‘Palestine’] posted on Instagram ‘We are back!!’”
A lawsuit filed Monday in the Southern District of New York alleges a coordinated campaign of support between several American nonprofit groups and organizations and prominent anti-Israel activists, and Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Defendants named in the lawsuit include Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) … Other defendants include Nerdeen Kiswani… Maryam Alwan… and Cameron Jones… The plaintiffs include Columbia students as well as parents of hostages who were abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
This case is not about individuals and organizations independently exercising their free speech rights to support whatever cause they wish—no matter how abhorrent,” the complaint argues. “Rather, it is about organizations and their leaders knowingly providing substantial assistance—in the form of propaganda and recruiting services—to, and in coordination with, a designated foreign terrorist organization, Hamas.
The lawsuit notes one plaintiff, Shlomi Ziv, was taken hostage on October 7 and that his captors “bragged about having Hamas operatives on American university campuses” and “showed him Al-Jazeera stories and photographs of protests at Columbia University,” organized by the various defendants.
Filed by attorneys at the National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC), Schoen Law Firm, Greenberg Traurig, and Holtzman Vogel, the lawsuit seeks “compensatory and punitive damages” against defendants for “violating the Antiterrorism Act and the law of nations,” according to the suit filed Monday.
According to the lawsuit, “as soon as October 8th, the national chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine—a group that was suspended from Columbia’s campus and has since acted under the guise of CUAD—handed out toolkits to its chapters, including those at Columbia University, urging ‘real’ support to Hamas (not just rhetoric), in response to Hamas’ ‘call for mass mobilization.’
…there “are elements” in the United States that “have ties to the original Hamas front organizations,” and that cases like the one filed today could help hold individuals like Khalil responsible…
Link: Lawsuit Targets Anti-Israel Campus Leaders for ‘Aiding and Abetting’ Hamas
Israel/Middle East Related Articles
How American Aid Has Subsidized Terror with Gregg Roman in Commentary
The world should shudder to discover that America’s foreign aid—long intended to uplift those in need overseas—has instead nourished extremists who despise the United States. On February 26, I appeared before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) to expose evidence of these betrayals… the misuse of U.S. assistance I documented underscores the magnitude of the negligence and, in certain instances, possible criminal collusion within our humanitarian apparatus.
…The hearing and subsequent revelations confirm what the Middle East Forum’s research has shown for years: Entrenched bureaucrats within USAID… have created a labyrinth of sub-grants and sub-sub-grants through which money flows nearly unchecked. Billions of dollars have been lumped under a category called “miscellaneous foreign awardees,” thwarting public scrutiny… Whistleblowers have identified repeated “expedited approvals” that circumvent standard checks if an official or NGO manager believes that it serves an urgent political or social end.
A Senate Finance Committee report… facilitated a sub-grant to the Islamic Relief Agency, an al-Qaeda group designated for terrorist financing. A whistleblower tried halting the payment, but higher-ups rammed it through… Another striking case involves Bayader, a Gaza-based charity… openly collaborates with Hamas officials, including holding joint events with Hamas leaders.
The scrutiny of foreign-aid misuse must be balanced with strategic realities. While eliminating corrupt and improper spending remains essential, America cannot simultaneously afford to cede global influence to Iran, Russia, and China—adversaries actively working to undermine U.S. interests worldwide… Properly directed international assistance serves as a crucial component of a comprehensive “peace through strength” strategy…
Several subcommittee members demanded that the State Department and USAID begin to itemize every last grant, sub-grant, and sub-sub-grant of the past decade. If that demand is met, the public might be shocked by the individuals or organizations that have lined their pockets… The reform agenda must be comprehensive. Officials should create an organized “Do Not Fund” list merging data from the State Department, Treasury designations, intelligence agencies, and the Department of Justice.
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)
Casualties (+1)
1,853 Israelis have been killed including 846 IDF soldiers since October 7th (+1 since Sunday)
Moshe Horan, 85 was shot dead and a soldier was seriously injured in a terror attack in norther Israel. According to Hebrew media reports, his son, 51, was sitting next to him in the car when the terrorist fired a volley of shots at them, killing Horan. The terrorist was killed by Border Police officers who happened to be passing by as the attack took place.
The South: 407 IDF soldiers during the ground operation in Gaza have been killed
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):
2,583 (no change since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 498 (no change since Sunday) who have been severely injured.
5,741 (+4 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, including at least 854 (no change since Sunday) who have been severely injured.
The Gaza Casualty Count:
According to unverified figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, 62,614 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.
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