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Hamas is reportedly losing control over smaller terrorist factions within Gaza, according to a report by The Jewish Chronicle, citing Israeli military sources. The splintering of command signals growing discontent among Gaza’s smaller terror organizations, which include the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Mujahideen Brigades, the al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. These groups have increasingly distanced themselves from Hamas leadership, particularly Yahya Sinwar, the de facto ruler of Gaza. According to the report, these smaller factions are no longer adhering to Sinwar’s directives and are operating independently, further complicating an already volatile situation in Gaza. These groups are believed to be holding an unknown number of hostages, adding to the complexity of negotiations. While Hamas is said to be holding around 20 hostages alive, other terrorist factions hold the rest. Among the hostages, 22 living hostages are believed to still be alive in Gaza and are reportedly being used as human shields by Hamas leadership to prevent direct military strikes on Sinwar. Israel has had several chances to eliminate Sinwar but has refrained from doing so due to the risk posed to the hostages surrounding him. Recent reports say that Sinwar has demanded guarantees for his safety as part of any potential ceasefire and hostage-swap agreement. Meanwhile, deepening internal disagreements among Gaza’s terror factions have further destabilized the situation. The smaller groups are reportedly dissatisfied with Hamas’ negotiation tactics, particularly regarding the prioritization of Hamas-affiliated prisoners in any prisoner-swap deal with Israel. These smaller factions have been planning a coup for months, according to the Jewish Chronicle, due to their opposition to Hamas’ willingness to consider a ceasefire and prisoner exchange. They are demanding that any agreement must include the release of all convicted terrorists held in Israeli prisons and are rejecting Israel’s stipulation that released prisoners be deported. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The 16th Brigade, under the command of the 252nd Division, has been conducting counter-terrorism efforts in the Central Gaza Strip Corridor in recent weeks. During that time, the troops have successfully eliminated dozens of terrorists and dismantled hundreds of terrorist infrastructure. A notable achievement was the discovery and destruction of an attack tunnel, approximately 3 kilometers long, by the Engineering Unit of the Southern Command, the Yahalom Unit, and brigade troops. Although part of the tunnel was previously destroyed in the 2014 Operation “Protective Edge,” Hamas had attempted to restore and reactivate it. The recently destroyed tunnel did not cross the border, but its dismantling marks a significant blow to Hamas’ underground infrastructure. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

For the first time ever, ArtScroll is offering significant discounts focused primarily on their all-Hebrew seforim—a rare opportunity that anyone who stocks their shul, school, or home library can’t afford to miss! For a limited time only, ArtScroll is now offering a large selection of their all-Hebrew siddurim, chumashim and Mikraos Gedolos at prices that haven’t been seen in years! From now until September 16th only, these timeless classics—essential for every library—will be on sale, with free shipping in the USA on orders over $49! So whether you’re looking to replenish your shul’s collection of well-used maroon Tefilas Shlomo and Yitzchok Yair siddurim, replace its worn blue Jaffa chumashim, or stock up on other shul classics, now is the time to act. Most notably, this sale includes entire sets or single volumes of Mikra’os Gedolos, as well as all-Hebrew Women’s or Sephardic siddurim for use in shul or at home. Also, with many of the siddurim now available in magnificent hand-tooled leather, and the ability to easily customize every book on sale with gold-stamping, the time to gift your organization or loved ones couldn’t be better. And for those seeking an over-the-top gift that will provide the recipient with an invaluable set of seforim to learn from and cherish, the now discounted ALL-NEW deluxe large size and exquisite leather hand-tooled sets of Mikra’os Gedolos, make for the ultimate in next-level gifting. This sale is available at your local Hebrew bookseller, at artscroll.com/Categories/HSSC.html or by calling 1-800 MESORAH (637-6724). Don’t miss it…this sale ends September 16th!  BROWSE HERE TO EXPLORE.

British police have still not identified a man who was pictured in May wearing a Manchester United soccer jersey with ‘Hamas 7’ printed on the back.

The Telegraph reported in May that authorities were searching for the man, who was photographed by a Jewish passerby near the Oxford Circus tube station in central London.

“Police received a call from a member of the public reporting that a man was walking in Oxford Street, W1 wearing a football shirt with an offensive message on it,” said a Metropolitan Police spokesperson at the time. “Enquiries are underway to try and identify the man.”

The “Hamas 7” tag is a reference to the Palestinian terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis and the abduction to Gaza of more than 250 people, 108 of whom remain in captivity.

“Threatening or carrying out acts of violence against any minority is despicable. And it’s absolutely right that anyone engaged in that sort of behavior should feel the full force of the law,” said Stephen Silverman, director of Investigations and Enforcement at the non-profit Campaign Against Antisemitism.

“The problem is for the last 10 months, and especially in London, we have been watching a double standard being applied, whereby one form of extremism is clamped down on with an iron fist while another is treated with an unacceptable level of leniency.

“The result is that through any lack of real deterrence through policing, a climate has been allowed to develop that is permissive with regard to expressions of hatred directed not just at Jewish people, but at Britain as well and at the liberal-democratic value we all rely on to keep us safe,” added Silverman.

Expressing support for a proscribed organization is a criminal offense in Britain under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act.

The United Kingdom banned Hamas’s military wing in 2001 and extended the designation to its political wing in 2021.

According to a poll in April, only a quarter of British Muslims believe that Hamas committed murder and rape during its Oct. 7 invasion of Israel. Thirty-nine percent of British Muslims said Hamas did not commit atrocities on Oct. 7, while 37% said they didn’t know.

Younger, well-educated Muslims were most likely to say Hamas did not commit atrocities (47% of 18- to 24-year-olds and 40% among the university-educated).

Nearly half of British Muslims polled (46%) sympathized with Hamas.

(JNS)

People who volunteer to donate a kidney face an even lower risk of death from the operation than doctors have long thought, researchers reported Wednesday. The study tracked 30 years of living kidney donation and found that by 2022, fewer than 1 of every 10,000 donors died within three months of the surgery. Transplant centers have been using older data – citing a risk of 3 deaths per 10,000 living donors – in counseling donors about potentially deadly surgical complications. “The last decade has become a lot more safe in the operating room for living donors,” said Dr. Dorry Segev, a transplant surgeon at NYU Langone Health. He co-authored the study published in the journal JAMA. Newer surgical techniques are the key reason, said Segev, calling for guideline updates to reflect those safety improvements – and maybe increase interest in living donation. He often finds transplant recipients more worried about potential risks to their donors than the would-be donors themselves. “For them, this is even more reassuring to allow their friends or family to donate on their behalf,” Segev said. Thousands of people die each year waiting for an organ transplant. It’s possible for living donors to give a one of their two kidneys or part of a liver, the only organ that regenerates. With nearly 90,000 people on the U.S. list for a kidney transplant, finding a living donor not only shortens the yearslong wait — those organs also tend to survive longer than ones from deceased donors. Yet last year, just 6,290 of the nation’s more than 27,000 kidney transplants came from living donors, the most since before the pandemic. Safety isn’t the only barrier to living donation. So is awareness, as many patients are reluctant to ask. And while the recipient’s insurance covers medical bills, some donors face expenses such as travel or lost wages as they recover. The NYU team analyzed U.S. records of more than 164,000 living kidney donations from 1993 through 2022 and found 36 post-surgical deaths. Most at risk were male donors and those with a history of high blood pressure. Only five of those deaths occurred since 2013. That period coincided with U.S. transplant centers switching to minimally invasive kidney removal as well as adopting a better way to stop renal artery bleeding, Segev said. “Over time, it’s a safe operation that’s become even safer,” important for would-be donors to know, said Dr. Amit Tevar of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who wasn’t involved in the study. But there are long-term risks to consider, too, he stressed — including whether a donor’s remaining kidney is expected to last the rest of their life. The risk of a donor later experiencing kidney failure also is small and depends on such factors as obesity, high blood pressure, smoking and family history of kidney disease. Risk calculators help doctors determine a potential donor’s likelihood of later-in-life trouble, and transplant centers may have slightly different eligibility criteria. “There’s no such thing as a moderate- or high-risk donor — either you’re perfect or you’re not,” is how Tevar puts the decision to accept or turn away a potential donor. Doctors once thought young adults were the ideal living donor. But Segev said there’s a shift toward more older living donors because it’s easier to correctly predict […]

In a sign of fraying tensions amid nearly a year of hostilities on Israel’s northern border, most northern regional council leaders did not attend a Monday security briefing Monday by the head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Northern Command.

Out of 89 city, municipal and regional council leaders, only six attended the briefing: Metula Council head David Azulay, and the leaders of Kfar Vradim, Ma’alot, Yesod HaMa’ala, Metula, Katzrin and the Golan Heights. Of these, Azoulay was the sole representative from one of the many northern communities to have been evacuated due to Hezbollah’s ongoing attacks.

At the briefing, which took place in Maj. Gen. Uri Gordin’s office at Northern Command in Tzfas, Gordin updated the municipal leaders on Israel’s preemptive strike against Hezbollah the day before.

“The IDF is engaged in a campaign aimed at changing the security reality on the border, so that northern residents can return to their homes and maintain their routines, with security and a sense of security,” said Gordin, according to Ynet.

However, many of the council heads aren’t convinced.

“I received a warning a little before the [Israeli Air Force] strikes started, and I said to myself, it took 11 months but it’s finally happening—at the end of this event, the security situation will be far better than it is today,” Upper Galil Regional Council Head Giora Zaltz told JNS.

“We activated all the officials on the council, and we told them it would take a few days of fighting but the situation would change,” he continued. “In the end, it was a significant and important military operation, but even if the data provided about the elimination of 6,000 missiles is correct—this is less than 3% of what [Hezbollah] had at the beginning of the war,” he siad. “So it has no real meaning in terms of the long-term impact. We essentially woke up to the same place that we were the day before.”

Asher Regional Council Head Moshe Davidovich announced he would no longer take part in any such meetings with Gordin.

Such meetings, he said, “are essentially intended to praise and glorify the IDF’s activities in Lebanon, and I, as a citizen and as a municipal leader, when I saw what was happening, I decided that I don’t want to participate in this celebration.” Davidovich reportedly left a WhatsApp group for northern municipal leaders and senior IDF officials, saying, “I don’t have time for another @#!% group.”

Other leaders, however, were more reserved in their criticism. Shlomi Council Head Gabi Naaman, who did not attend the meeting, explained that he had apologized in advance that he would not be able to participate. Regarding Davidovich’s comments, Naaman said, “He doesn’t represent us.”

“When the general asks, we drop everything and go,” said Naaman, though he added that he, too, has criticisms of the way the government and military have conducted the war.

Many of the leaders feel overlooked, and have complained that the IDF steps in to respond when rockets are aimed at the center of the country, but has done little to nothing to prevent rockets from being fired daily at the north of Israel.

“My position is that there cannot be any difference between the Golan or Metula and Tel Aviv,” Golan Regional Council head Ori Kalner told JNS. “When Hezbollah is attacking Metula and the Golan, one should act as if a missile had fallen on Tel Aviv. There is no doubt that in recent months Israel has been saying we are ready to absorb some of the [attacks from Lebanon]. And I say—we are not ready to accept it. Israel must attack.”

Monday wasn’t the first time Gordin has clashed with municipal leaders. Ynet reported in June that in a similar meeting, Gordin clashed with Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern, who stormed out. Since then, Stern has not attended any meetings with the general, although the two have seemingly reconciled through the mediation of Interior Minister Moshe Arbel.

“The Northern Command sees great importance in the connection with the heads of the authorities and sees them as an integral part of managing the war,” according to a statement by the IDF Spokesperson following Monday’s meeting. “The Northern Command maintains constant contact and frequent situation assessments together with the local authorities to enable functional continuity according to the updated situation assessment,” the statement continued.

(JNS)

A shocking survey by Alums for Campus Fairness has found that 44% of college students and recent graduates rarely or never feel safe identifying as Jewish on campus, amidst a terrifying surge in antisemitism. The survey of 1,171 students revealed that 81% avoid certain places, events, and situations due to antisemitism, while 60% have witnessed faculty members making offensive antisemitic remarks. “The results expose dangerous trend lines for Jewish and pro-Israel students on college campuses,” said Avi Gordon, executive director of the group. “Antisemitism is getting worse. Students are hiding their Jewish identity… We are increasingly seeing a lack of safety in both digital and physical spaces.” The survey revealed disturbing accounts of antisemitism, including physical assaults, harassment, and professors making antisemitic statements. One student reported being targeted by social media trolls who tried to remove them from a progressive committee due to their Jewish identity. Another student claimed a professor called an Israeli student a “terrorist” after Hamas’ attacks on Israel sparked Israel’s ongoing military offensive. The survey also showed a significant increase in threatening and antisemitic messages, with 81% of respondents reporting receiving such messages, up 10 percentage points from a 2021 survey. More than 50% of respondents said they or someone they knew were physically threatened for being Jewish, up from 44% in 2021. However, the survey found a silver lining: students who were members of Jewish organizations reported feeling safer on campus. “Students and recent graduates who attended organized Jewish community events were significantly less likely to report feeling unsafe on campus,” Gordon said. “This reaffirms that there is safety in community. It should inspire us to redouble our efforts to support Jewish life on campus.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz on Wednesday called for “the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps are required,” after the IDF overnight Tuesday launched a large-scale anti-terror operation in Yehuda and Shomron.

“This is a war in every respect and we must win it,” Katz tweeted.

“The IDF is working intensively starting tonight in the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps to thwart Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructures that have been established there,” he said.

Iran is working “to establish an eastern terrorist front” in Yehuda and Shomron, said Katz, following its proxy model in Lebanon with Hezbollah and the Gaza Strip with Hamas, by “financing and arming terrorists and smuggling advanced weapons from Jordan.”

He continued: “We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza.”

The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported at least 11 deaths so far in the IDF operation—six in Jenin and five in Tubas, a city northeast of Shechem.

The IDF operation was launched following an uptick in terrorist incidents in the region, including the murder of a Jewish guard 10 days ago.

Jewish residents of Yehuda and Shomron have been calling for the army to take action, warning that an Oct. 7-like attack into Israel’s central region is only a matter of time if the problem is allowed to fester.

Yisrael Gantz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, commenting on the IDF operation, said on Wednesday: “If we don’t do to Nur Shams what we did to Nuseirat [in Gaza], then God forbid, they’ll do to Bat Hefer [a village in central Israel] what they did to Be’eri [a kibbutz on the Gaza border decimated on Oct. 7].

“The time has come for us to face reality: Next to the beds of our children in Yehuda and Shomron, in Bat Hefer and Kfar Saba, lives a population that wants to kill Jews.”

(JNS)

A federal appeals court revived Sarah Palin’s libel case against The New York Times on Wednesday, citing errors by a lower court judge, particularly his decision to dismiss the lawsuit while a jury was deliberating. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan wrote that Judge Jed S. Rakoff’s decision in February 2022 to dismiss the lawsuit mid-deliberations improperly intruded on the jury’s work. It also found that the erroneous exclusion of evidence, an inaccurate jury instruction and an erroneous response to a question from the jury tainted the jury’s decision to rule against Palin. It declined, however, to grant Palin’s request to force Rakoff off the case on grounds he was biased against her. The 2nd Circuit said she had offered no proof. The libel lawsuit by Palin, a onetime Republican vice presidential candidate and former governor of Alaska, centered on the newspaper’s 2017 editorial falsely linking her campaign rhetoric to a mass shooting, which Palin asserted damaged her reputation and career. The Times acknowledged its editorial was inaccurate but said it quickly corrected errors it called an “honest mistake” that were never meant to harm Palin. Shane Vogt, a lawyer for Palin, said he was reviewing the opinion. Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the Times, said the decision was disappointing. “We’re confident we will prevail in a retrial,” he said in an email. The 2nd Circuit, in a ruling written by Judge John M. Walker Jr., reversed the jury verdict, along with Rakoff’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit while jurors were deliberating. Despite his ruling, Rakoff let jurors finish deliberating and render their verdict, which went against Palin. The appeals court noted that Rakoff’s ruling made credibility determinations, weighed evidence, and ignored facts or inferences that a reasonable juror could plausibly find supported Palin’s case. It also described how “push notifications” that reached the cellphones of jurors “came as an unfortunate surprise to the district judge.” The 2nd Circuit said it was not enough that the judge’s law clerk was assured by jurors that Rakoff’s ruling had not affected their deliberations. “Given a judge’s special position of influence with a jury, we think a jury’s verdict reached with the knowledge of the judge’s already-announced disposition of the case will rarely be untainted, no matter what the jurors say upon subsequent inquiry,” the appeals court said. In its ruling Wednesday, the 2nd Circuit said it was granting a new trial because of various trial errors and because Rakoff’s mid-deliberations ruling against Palin, which might have reached jurors through alerts delivered to cell phones, “impugn the reliability of that verdict.” “The jury is sacrosanct in our legal system, and we have a duty to protect its constitutional role, both by ensuring that the jury’s role is not usurped by judges and by making certain that juries are provided with relevant proffered evidence and properly instructed on the law,” the appeals court said. (AP)

Dear Matzav Inbox,

As summer draws to a close and the new school year approaches, there is a familiar dread that creeps into the hearts of many parents—the overwhelming burden of purchasing school supplies. What should be a simple task has turned into a financial nightmare, one that seems to grow more burdensome every year.

I recently found myself in the middle of a crowded store, clutching a list that stretched longer than my arm, wondering why on earth my child needed five different colored binders, four sets of markers, three packs of highlighters, and a partridge in a pear tree! The list went on and on: specialty graph paper, obscure workbooks, glue sticks in bulk as if we were opening our own arts and crafts store, and myriad other items that left me shaking my head in disbelief.

And what’s more infuriating? Half of these supplies don’t even end up being used! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve opened my child’s backpack at the end of the year to find pristine, untouched notebooks, or that extra pack of markers that somehow managed to make it through the year without a single cap being removed. I’m left with piles of unused materials that I was pressured into buying because, heaven forbid, my child shows up without them on the first day of school.

Then, there are the books. Every year, we’re handed a list of textbooks to purchase, often brand new editions because the one we bought last year has magically become obsolete. Why? Did math change overnight? Did history rewrite itself? But we comply, forking over hundreds of dollars for books that are often only skimmed through, or worse, barely touched at all. I’ve seen my child struggle through massive textbooks only to find that the teacher relied mostly on photocopied handouts. Those glossy, expensive pages? They might as well be paperweights.

I remember one year, being asked to provide a specific brand of colored pencils because they were supposedly better for “learning outcomes.” I’m no educator, but I fail to see how the brand of colored pencils could possibly influence my child’s ability to succeed in school.

We are already stretched thin by tuition and the other expenses that come with raising children. The additional burden of overpriced, unnecessary school supplies is not just frustrating—it’s outrageous. Schools need to seriously reevaluate their supply lists and consider the financial strain they are putting on parents. We want to support our children’s chinuch, but there is a limit to how much we can be expected to spend on items that will gather dust in a drawer.

It’s time for a change. Let’s cut the unnecessary fluff, focus on what’s truly needed, and maybe, just maybe, let parents breathe a little easier at the start of the school year.

Sincerely,
A Parent in the School Supplies Aisle

 

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The Israel Defense Forces recovered the body of a soldier in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday who was killed fighting Hamas operatives during the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, the military announced.

The soldier’s family has been notified and, at their request, his name is not yet being made public.

“The entire nation mourns the terrible loss … and I send our condolences from the bottom of our hearts to his family,” Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu said on Wednesday night.

“I would like to thank the brave fighters and commanders of the IDF and Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] for their important action. The State of Israel will continue to make every effort to return all our abductees, both alive and dead,” he added.

A total of 107 hostages remain in Hamas captivity in Gaza.

“I commend the IDF and ISA forces who conducted a bold operation to retrieve the body of a fallen soldier from Gaza, and brought him home for burial in Israel,” said Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday night. “This operation reflects our commitment to bringing all the hostages home.”

On Tuesday, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, from the Bedouin city of Rahat in the Negev Desert, was rescued from a tunnel in southern Gaza in a “complex operation.”

Alkadi, the father of 11 children, was released from Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center on Wednesday afternoon. He was held in captivity for 326 days after being abducted by Hamas from Mivtachim on Oct. 7.

Last week, the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 from a tunnel in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

In an operation involving the IDF and ISA, the bodies of Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, Yagev Buchshtav, Chaim Peri and Alex Dancyg were located more than 10 months after the Hamas massacre. JNS

{Matzav.com Israel}

The body of a worker who died Tuesday in a tire explosion at a Delta Air Lines maintenance facility near the Atlanta airport was unrecognizable, and the family relied on tattoos and a lanyard to identify him, his son told a news outlet. Mirko Marweg, 58, was among two workers who died while wheel components were being disassembled for maintenance at a wheel and brake shop. A third worker was seriously injured. Marweg’s son, Andre Coleman, told Atlanta’s 11Alive news station on Tuesday that he wanted to see his father because he didn’t believe he was dead. But a medical examiner told the family the body was unrecognizable. A Mississippi State lanyard around his neck helped confirm his identity, Coleman said. Marweg, who lived in Stone Mountain, Georgia, worked for Delta for more than 20 years and was planning to retire in a few months, according to 11Alive. Coleman said his father was a loving man who just Sunday had helped change the oil in Coleman’s motorcycle. “That’s the kind of dad he was. He was always there,” Coleman said. The Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the second victim as Luis Aldarondo, 37, of Newnan, Georgia. The worker who was seriously injured remained under medical care Wednesday, Delta spokesperson Samantha Moore Facteau said in an email. Delta said previously the wheel parts that were being disassembled when the explosion occurred were not attached to a plane at the time. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it opened an investigation. The cause of the explosion has not been released. The facility where the explosion happened is part of Delta TechOps, which performs maintenance, repair and overhaul work for Delta and more than 150 aviation and airline customers around the world. (AP)

President Joe Biden approved the plan for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza via a floating military pier despite warnings from within the U.S. government that rough waves could pose significant challenges and objections from officials who feared the operation would detract from a diplomatic push to compel Israel to open additional land routes into the war zone, according to an inspector general report published Tuesday.

The watchdog for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which oversees Washington’s humanitarian work abroad, cited various “external factors” that it said impaired the agency’s effort to distribute food and other supplies brought to Gaza over the pier. Among them, according to the report, were the security requirements imposed by the Pentagon to protect U.S. military personnel working aboard the structure just offshore.

“Multiple USAID staff expressed concerns” that the Biden administration’s focus on the pier undercut the agency’s advocacy for opening more land crossings – an approach, the report said, deemed “more efficient and proven.”

“Once the President issued the directive,” the report states, “the Agency’s focus was to use [the pier] as effectively as possible.”

The pier was attached to Gaza’s coastline in May amid rising concerns of famine that prompted the Pentagon to begin airdropping food into Gaza. But from the start, the mission was dogged by logistical and security setbacks, including rough seas that broke apart the structure, looting of aid trucks on land and a persistent logjam moving food from a staging area ashore. The operation was halted for good last month.

The report is likely to embolden Biden’s critics who have questioned why he put U.S. troops in harm’s way for a mission that could have been avoided if he had successfully persuaded Israeli officials to curtail their blockade on Gaza established in October after Hamas led the cross-border massacre that triggered the war.

A National Security Council spokesman, Sean Savett, said in a statement after the report’s publication that the pier was “part of a comprehensive U.S.-led response to the dire humanitarian situation in northern Gaza,” one that also included food deliveries made through border crossings and via airdrop.

“From the beginning, we said this would not be easy,” Savett said. “We were honest and transparent about the challenges. But the bottom line is that … the United States has left no stone unturned in our efforts to get more aid in, and the pier played a key role at a critical time in advancing that goal.”

Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the Pentagon is aware of the new report. The pier, she said, “achieved its goal of providing an additive means of delivering high volumes of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.” USAID, the Defense Department and Israeli officials collaborated closely on the mission, she said, including about where along the Gazan coastline to attach the pier.

A senior administration official said there was “consistent interagency coordination and communication about the pier” as plans took shape and that internal concerns were taken into account. Like some others interviewed for this story, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

A USAID official said planning for the operation was a multiagency effort that included extensive discussions with the United Nations and humanitarian partners about how to reach the areas of greatest need. USAID staff advocated early in the planning process for additional personnel dedicated solely to the pier, to allow the agency to juggle issues about the land crossing and pier simultaneously, the officials said.

Critics have cast the pier project as a national embarrassment. “The only miracle is that this doomed-from-the-start operation did not cost any American lives,” Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said earlier this summer as the mission faced one setback after another.

Within the U.S. government, discussions about employing the floating pier began before Biden announced during his State of the Union address in March that he was establishing a “maritime corridor” to assist starving Palestinians. While USAID officials initially observed that the pier system “was not an option USAID would typically recommend in humanitarian response operations,” they began looking for ways to use it “in a way that would maintain a separation between the military and humanitarian actors” inside Gaza, the report said.

Acting at Biden’s direction, USAID requested Defense Department support for a 90-day operation that cost roughly $230 million, the report said. The pier, ferried to the eastern Mediterranean Sea by U.S. Army vessels, was first attached to the Gaza coast May 16, but within days it broke apart in rough waves, causing about $22 million in damage and knocking it offline. U.S. troops repaired and reattached the pier days later but faced continued unpredictability about when weather would allow for aid deliveries.

“From the start, rough weather posed a major challenge,” the report said.

Defense Department guidelines for the sea-based pier make clear its usage is weather-dependent and that it cannot operate when waves are taller than two feet, but the Mediterranean often has “significant winds and waves” that exceed that, the report said. This factor surfaced during a planning meeting by a Defense Department official with expertise working on the system, the inspector general found.

“Ultimately,” the report said, “the pier operated for about 20 days and was decommissioned on July 17.”

The deployment also generated concerns that U.S. personnel, working from a fixed site in an active war zone, could be targeted by militants. Defense officials, consulting with USAID and Israeli counterparts, decided they could best protect the site if it was attached in central Gaza, but that conflicted with a “prerequisite” from the United Nations’ World Food Program to have it located in northern Gaza, where the need was greatest, the report said.

The World Food Program also sought independent security due to concerns about remaining neutral in the conflict, but no solution was ever found, the report said. Instead, Israeli forces protected the beachhead facility where food was brought ashore.

The watchdog found that despite USAID’s role as the U.S. government lead on humanitarian assistance in Gaza, the agency had “limited control” over the decision to use the pier, where it would be located and who would provide security. The agency, the report said, should look for lessons it can draw from the experience.

– – –

(c) Washington Post

The gunman in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump searched online for events of both Trump and President Joe Biden, repeatedly looked up information about explosives and saw the Pennsylvania campaign rally where he opened fire last month as a “target of opportunity,” a senior FBI official said Wednesday. Investigators who have conducted nearly 1,000 interviews do not have a motive for why 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at Trump during a July 13 campaign rally but they believe that he conducted “extensive attack planning,” including looking up campaign events involving both the current president and former president, particularly in western Pennsylvania. The FBI analysis of his online search history reveals a “sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on some event, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets,” Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, told reporters Wednesday. Once a Trump rally was announced for July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, “He became hyper-focused on that specific event and looked at it as a target of opportunity,” Rojek said. Crooks’ internet searches in the days leading up to the rally included queries about the grounds where the rally was held, “Where will Trump speak from at Butler Farm Show?” “Butler Farm Show podium and ”Butler Farm Show photos.” The new details add to an emerging portrait of Crooks as a man who investigators say had taken an eerie interest in explosives, major events and prominent political figures, but whose internet searches across major parties have frustrated efforts to assign a simple motive. “We have a clear idea of mindset, but we are not ready to make any conclusive statements regarding motive at this time,” Rojek said. The FBI has confirmed that Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet during the attack. Crooks, who was positioned on the roof of a nearby building, fired eight shots before being killed by a Secret Service counter sniper. “We have a clear idea of mindset, but we are not ready to make any conclusive statements regarding motive at this time,” Rojek said. (AP)

The U.S. federal government will allocate nearly $150 million more this year to secure religious organizations, a significant boost aimed at addressing a sharp rise in antisemitism following the October 7 Israel-Hamas conflict. The Department of Homeland Security announced last week that it would provide $454.5 million this fiscal year through the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), which supports security enhancements at houses of worship and religious institutions. This marks the largest sum ever allocated to the program, a notable increase from last year’s $305 million. “The funds announced today will provide communities across the country with vital resources necessary to strengthen their security and guard against terrorism and other threats,” said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who is Jewish. “The impact of these grants will be measured in lives saved and tragedies averted.” Jewish organizations, which have historically championed the program since its inception in 2005 with just $25 million, continue to be major recipients of the funding. This year, the program’s expansion comes amid a spike in antisemitic incidents across the country. “The increased funding is not just financial support; it’s a vital response to the virus of antisemitism spreading across our country,” said Nathan Diament, executive director for public policy at the Orthodox Union. “OU Advocacy spearheaded the creation of the NSGP, and we will continue fighting every day to make sure Jewish synagogues and schools can protect themselves.” Initially, the program was set to receive only $274.5 million as part of a bipartisan budget deal, but Jewish groups lobbied for more support. Their efforts led to an additional $180 million being included in legislation providing aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. “We were very concerned that the original level appropriated for this lifesaving program would fall short amid the unprecedented spike in antisemitism, which is why we worked closely with appropriators and congressional leadership to include additional funds in the security supplemental,” Karen Paikin Barall, vice president of government relations for Jewish Federations of North America told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Those additional $180 million in nonprofit security funds will make an enormous impact on our community’s security.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The IDF announced today that the body of an Israeli soldier who was killed and abducted by Hamas on October 7, has been recovered from the southern Gaza Strip. The soldier’s name has not been released at the request of the family. The recovery operation brings the total number of hostages still held by Hamas to 103, including the bodies of 33 confirmed dead. Since the massacre and abductions on October 7, Hamas has released 105 civilians.  Additionally, four hostages were released prior to a weeklong truce in late November, and eight hostages have been rescued alive by Israeli troops. The military has also recovered the bodies of 31 hostages, including three who were mistakenly killed during an escape attempt. Hamas also continues to hold two Israeli civilians who entered Gaza in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers killed in 2014. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released the following statement: “This evening our forces returned home the remains of a fallen IDF soldier whose name has not been released for publication. The fighter fell in a heroic battle on October 7 while defending the communities of the Western Negev. The heart of the entire nation grieves over the terrible loss. My wife Sara and I convey our heartfelt condolences to his family. I would like to thank the brave fighters and commanders of the ISA and the IDF for their important action. The State of Israel will continue to make every effort to return our hostages home, the living and the deceased.” “I commend the IDF and ISA forces who conducted a bold operation to retrieve the body of a fallen soldier from Gaza, and brought him home for burial in Israel. The soldier fell in combat during the Hamas attack on October 7th,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said. “This operation reflects our commitment to bringing all the hostages home,” Gallant added. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The Supreme Court on Wednesday kept on hold the latest multibillion-dollar student debt relief plan from the Biden administration, while multiple lawsuits make their way through lower courts. The justices rejected an administration request to put most of it back into effect. It was blocked by 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In an unsigned order, the court said it expects the appeals court to issue a fuller decision on the plan “with appropriate dispatch.” The Education Department is seeking to provide a faster path to loan cancellation, and reduce monthly income-based repayments from 10% to 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income. The plan also wouldn’t require borrowers to make payments if they earn less than 225% of the federal poverty line — $32,800 a year for a single person. Last year, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority rejected an earlier plan that would have wiped away more than $400 billion in student loan debt. Cost estimates of the new SAVE plan vary. The Republican-led states challenging the plan peg the cost at $475 billion over 10 years. The administration cites a Congressional Budget Office estimate of $276 billion. (AP)

On Wednesday evening, it was cleared for publication that Master Sergeant (Res.) Yohay Chai Glam fell in battle in the Gaza strip.

Glam, who was 32 years old and lived in the city of Netanya, was a soldier in the 6310th Reconnaissance Battalion, “Yerushalayim” Brigade. He was killed by sniper fire in the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza.

Glam was the 704th IDF killed since October 7th, including the 340th since the start of ground operations inside Gaza on October 29th.

Tefillos: Recently, the IDF announced there are 25 wounded soldiers who are currently hospitalized in serious condition. An additional 167 soldiers are currently hospitalized in moderate condition, and 6 in light condition.

{Matzav.com Israel} 

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday announced 92 additions to its list of Americans banned from entering the country, including some journalists who formerly worked in Russia, and U.S. law-enforcement and business figures. A ministry statement said the bans were imposed “in response to the Russophobic course pursued by the Biden administration with the declared goal of ‘inflicting a strategic defeat on Moscow’.” It said the banned journalists represent “leading liberal-globalist publications involved in the production and dissemination of ‘fakes’ about Russia and the Russian armed forces.” The new list of banned Americans includes 11 current or former staff members of the Wall Street Journal — including its editor Emma Tucker. She had repeatedly criticized Russia for the arrest and conviction on espionage charges of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, who spent 16 months behind bars before being released in August in a wide Russia-West prisoner exchange. The ban has also been imposed on five New York Times journalists, including Kyiv bureau chief Andrew Kramer, and four from The Washington Post. Other Americans on the list include people working for law enforcement agencies, academics, and figures from business and think tanks. Russia has banned more than 2,000 Americans from entry, according to a ministry list. (AP)

On Wednesday evening it was cleared for publication that in a joint IDF and ISA operation overnight, the body of an IDF soldier who fell on 10/7 was recovered.

The family of the fallen soldier has been notified, and at the request of the family, the name of the soldier will not be released.

The operation to recover the fallen soldier was led by the 162nd Division, and included IDF and ISA special forces, Nachal Brigade soldiers and soldiers from the 401st Brigade.

Efforts over several months by the IDF Hostage and Missing Persons Unit, together with the ISA and the Unit of International Crime Investigations of the Lahav 433 of the Israel Police, eventually led to this recovery mission.

Following the mission, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said, “The IDF and ISA are operating using all means to bring home all the hostages as quickly as possible.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated: “I commend the IDF and ISA forces who conducted a bold operation to retrieve the body of a fallen soldier from Gaza and brought him home for burial in Israel. The soldier fell in combat during the Hamas attack on October 7th.”

“This operation reflects our commitment to bringing all the hostages home.”

There are now 107 hostages alive and deceased, still held in Gaza.

The Hostages Families Forum stated: “The recovery of the fallen soldier’s remains provides his family with important closure. In the past couple of days, the number of hostages held in Gaza has decreased from 115 to 107.

“We must not be misled – the remaining hostages don’t have the luxury of waiting for rescue operations. The immediate return of these 107 hostages can only be achieved through a negotiated deal.

“We urgently call on the international community to maintain pressure on Hamas to accept the proposed deal and release all hostages. Each day in captivity is one too many.”

{Matzav.com}