A new wave of anger is sweeping through the 9/11 survivor and responder community after New York City acknowledged the existence of dozens of long-absent toxin-related records—files many say should have been available decades ago to protect first responders’ health.
The Uniformed Firefighters Association (UFA), which represents thousands of FDNY firefighters, sounded the alarm after learning that 68 boxes of documents tied to environmental hazards at Ground Zero had been located. Union leaders say the people who dug through the rubble, breathed the toxic dust, and developed illnesses deserve complete transparency, not confusion over missing paperwork.
City officials recently confirmed that these materials—once described as nonexistent—had indeed been found, sparking widespread concern about how such a trove could vanish for so long. The timing adds tension to an already strained system, as the World Trade Center Health Program is confronting a $3 billion budget gap that could begin limiting services by 2027. More than 92,000 responders and survivors rely on the program.
Attorney Michael Barasch, who represents tens of thousands of 9/11 victims, including the family of Detective James Zadroga, placed responsibility squarely on the city. “You do not find 68 boxes by accident,” Barasch said. “You either hid them or ignored them, and families paid for that choice with funerals, chemo, and empty chairs at the table.”
Barasch labeled the discovery “a betrayal” and pressed for federal oversight, arguing that such records could have accelerated diagnoses and benefits for cancer and respiratory-disease patients who were exposed to toxic dust after the towers fell.
Data from the CDC shows the staggering scope of the health crisis: 9/11-linked cancer cases have climbed 143% in just five years, with over 48,000 confirmed cases and at least 8,215 deaths—now outnumbering the victims killed on the day of the attacks itself.
Responding to the uproar, City Hall issued a statement to FOX 5 NY defending its handling of the situation. “As one of the many first responders at Ground Zero on 9/11 and in the weeks that followed, Mayor Adams has been unwavering in his commitment to ensuring victims, their families, first responders, and survivors receive the care and services they deserve. While we cannot comment on the specifics of pending litigation, the city has begun turning over documents to plaintiff’s counsel, and both parties are working out a schedule to continue this process.”
For families still fighting cancers and lung diseases two decades later, the appearance of these documents raises hopes that long-buried details about contamination levels, cleanup decisions, and environmental risks may finally come to light. Advocates like Barasch insist that only full transparency—and reliable federal funding—can ensure that first responders are not, in their words, “sacrificed twice.”
{Matzav.com}
A dramatic confrontation overnight at the Bnei Brak–Ramat Gan border escalated into a major street riot, after military police attempted to arrest a chareidi yeshiva bochur wanted for draft evasion. The arrest operation failed, triggering large-scale clashes, damage to military police vehicles, and multiple arrests.
According to initial reports, military police forces arrived to detain a student from Yeshivas Rav Chaim Ozer at his home. However, the bochur was not at home—he was in yeshiva at the time. News of the attempted arrest immediately spread through the emergency alert lines of the Yerushalmi Faction, drawing hundreds of protesters within minutes.
A massive crowd of avreichim and yeshiva students responded to the call from local assistance groups, flooding the scene and confronting the military police.
Radio journalist Daniel Grobais of Galei Tzahal reported that demonstrators overturned military police patrol vehicles, vandalized additional equipment, and even stole military gear and handcuffs from the vehicles. Border Police officers were eventually dispatched to rescue the military police personnel from the area.
Photos from the scene showed an overturned military police car lying on its side. Witnesses described a chaotic environment as the crowd surged around the security forces.
The Israel Police released a statement early Wednesday morning, saying: “The police operated tonight to disperse an illegal demonstration in Ramat Gan and arrested two rioters. A report was received of a gathering of protesters on Meir Baal Haness Street in Ramat Gan, following military police activity at the scene and attempts to harm the forces.
“Dan District officers arrived immediately and began dispersing the rioters and extracting the military police teams. The rioters continued to gather, damaging military police vehicles and overturning a car. Officers worked to disperse the demonstration and arrested two suspects, who were brought in for questioning at the police station.”
Video footage from the scene showed Border Police officers flipping the damaged military patrol car upright while securing the area.
One of the arrested individuals is a well-known yeshiva student from the chareidi community. Local sources claim that the draft-dodging bochur initially targeted for arrest managed to flee during the chaos, escaping to his yeshiva under the cover of the clashes.
{Matzav.com}The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has announced that it will once again prosecute Pedro Hernandez in the notorious case of Etan Patz, the 6-year-old Jewish child whose disappearance and murder in 1979 shook the nation and transformed how America responds to missing children.
Hernandez, who was convicted in 2017, saw that conviction thrown out earlier this year after an appellate court ruled that the jury had been given flawed legal instructions. That decision wiped out the verdict from his second trial, forcing prosecutors to determine whether they could bring the case forward again.
With a December 1 deadline approaching, prosecutors reviewed the file and informed the court that they intend to proceed. In their formal filing, they wrote, “The District Attorney has determined that the available, admissible evidence supports prosecuting defendant on the charges of Murder in the Second Degree and Kidnapping in the First Degree in this matter, and the People are prepared to proceed.”
Etan Patz vanished in May 1979 on the very first morning his mother allowed him to walk alone to his school bus stop in Manhattan. His disappearance led to one of the most intensive searches in New York City history and marked the beginning of a nationwide transformation in how missing children cases were handled. His photograph was among the first to appear on milk cartons in an effort to enlist the public in the search. Despite decades of investigations, his body was never located.
Years later, another individual was deemed responsible in a civil case, but that man was released in 2012 after Hernandez was criminally charged. Now, more than four decades after Etan’s disappearance, prosecutors plan once again to bring the case before a jury.
{Matzav.com}
Russian officials moved quickly on Wednesday to contradict President Trump’s assertion that Moscow had already signed on to certain compromises toward ending the war, dismissing the idea of imminent agreement even as their military unleashed another devastating drone barrage on Ukrainian civilians.
After Trump said the day before that US envoys had made headway in talks with both Kyiv and Moscow — and that Russia had signed off on unspecified concessions — the Kremlin publicly pushed back, saying no such progress had been reached.
In Moscow, senior officials stressed that the idea of Russia softening its stance was pure fiction. Sergei Ryabkov, a deputy foreign minister, declared that “There can be no talk of any concessions or surrender of our approaches to the key aspects of resolving the problems facing us, including in the context of the special operation [in Ukraine],” a firm rejection of any notion that an agreement is in sight.
Trump did not elaborate on what concessions he believed had been secured, but the Kremlin made clear that none existed.
Pressed on whether a breakthrough might be close, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov brushed off the suggestion, responding: “It’s premature to say that yet.”
As this diplomatic back-and-forth played out, Russian forces launched one of their largest recent drone assaults on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday night, leaving at least 19 people injured and entire residential blocks burning.
Regional governor Ivan Fedorov said the onslaught ignited widespread fires, tore through apartment buildings, and destroyed vehicles across multiple neighborhoods. “A rescue operation is currently underway at 12 locations,” he reported in an online video, adding that “The maximum number of units from the State Emergency Services, national police and our medical teams has been deployed.”
Photos and videos shared on social media captured firefighters struggling to contain towering flames, twisted vehicles, and charred high-rise facades.
Ukraine’s air force later announced it had intercepted 72 of the 90 drones Russia launched overnight, along with two ballistic missiles, in one of the heaviest nationwide barrages in weeks.
{Matzav.com}
An internal military review released today paints a stark picture of what unfolded in Moshav Yated on October 7, 2023: while Hamas terrorists broke through the border and the Israel Defense Forces struggled with paralyzing command failures, the community’s own defenders stepped in and stopped what could have become another large-scale massacre.
The investigation, overseen by Brig. Gen. (res.) Itamar Ben-Haim and signed off by Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, is part of a sweeping series of inquiries into the events of that day, when thousands of terrorists crossed into Israel, murdered roughly 1,200 people, and dragged 251 captives into Gaza. This report focused specifically on how Yated—located just three miles from Gaza—faced its encounter with 11 Hamas attackers.
Drawing on a year of testimonies from residents, security team members, intelligence personnel, video footage, communication records, and reenactments, investigators mapped out a timeline in which the IDF’s absence stood in sharp contrast to the swift actions of local defenders.
The moshav first came under fire at 6:29 a.m., when Hamas launched its massive rocket barrage. The attacks masked the infiltration of terrorists who moved on foot and by vehicle into the surrounding area. Barely ten minutes later, Yated’s security coordinator activated the community’s standby squad, locked the gates, opened shelters, positioned armed civilians around the perimeter, and began sweeping for intruders.
Despite the chaos, Yated’s residents repeatedly managed to locate, capture, or neutralize terrorists before they reached homes. At 9:15 a.m., the security coordinator and his deputy detained one attacker near the fence and held him inside a resident’s home. Minutes later, another resident reported an Arabic-speaking man at her door—leading the defense team to engage two more terrorists, one hiding between houses and another crawling under the gate. By flanking them from multiple angles, residents wounded one, cornered others, and ultimately stopped four additional infiltrators who were lying low in nearby brush.
At the same time, Route 232 became the scene of an intense gunfight. A joint force of Paran Regional Brigade soldiers and the LOTAR Nitzana counter-terror team was ambushed by terrorists disguised in semi-military clothing at 9:40 a.m. The fighters left their armored vehicles under a hail of fire and engaged attackers who were firing from several directions. A request for an attack helicopter was made, but the aircraft did not arrive for 40 minutes.
While attempting to cross between vehicles at 9:51 a.m., Cpt. (res.) Iftach Gorny—part of the LOTAR force—was fatally shot while stopping terrorists from seizing IDF weapons. The brigade commander attempted lifesaving measures, but Gorny died at the scene.
A tank crew from the Caracal Battalion arrived at 10:05 a.m. and began firing northward according to the brigade commander’s orders. By 10:30 a.m., five captured terrorists from inside the moshav were transferred to a secured location. Nasreen Yousef, a Druze resident whose home stands near Yated’s entrance, recalled the improvised methods used to restrain them. “I was in flipflops, running backward and forward with bits of string and cable ties to tie them up, with towels and floor rags for hoods,” she said in a 2024 interview.
Later that morning, the military force on Route 232 located weapons abandoned by fleeing terrorists. An attack helicopter eventually struck retreating attackers near a junction. Through the rest of the afternoon and evening, IDF units together with the local standby squad patrolled the area, cleared homes, and accounted for residents. Reinforcements from the Bahad 1 officers’ school arrived at 8 p.m., though they were redirected to another mission two hours later.
Overnight into October 8, additional military backup reached Yated and took up defensive lines. At 3 a.m., intelligence suggested the possibility of a second infiltration, prompting heightened readiness. At 6:10 a.m., a soldier spotted movement at the fence line, leading to the discovery of another breach and another infiltration alert. Within minutes, Paran Brigade forces, LOTAR fighters, and Shaldag commandos were on site.
After hours of searching with no findings, most forces withdrew. But around 11 a.m., a resident checking the same area where the fence had been breached spotted five terrorists lying on the ground and surrendering. He alerted the coordinator, and the standby squad—together with a Caracal team—handcuffed the men and moved them to a holding point.
By midday, the community began planning the evacuation of residents in armed convoys. Those evacuations started around 1 p.m., with the coordinator and two defenders staying behind until nightfall. Volunteers from a nearby yeshiva joined them to provide extra manpower. The captured terrorists held on October 8 remained in the moshav until Caracal forces transported them to the Netivot police station on October 9.
Investigators concluded that the scale of Hamas’s simultaneous attacks—combined with a total breakdown in operational control on October 7—left the IDF unable to defend Yated in the crucial early hours. In contrast, the report emphasized that the moshav’s defenders mounted a disciplined and coordinated response that saved the community.
Yousef noted in her 2024 account that her ability to speak Arabic allowed her to question the terrorists and gather vital information. “If I hadn’t gone out and asked questions and spoken, probably half our community, or most of them, wouldn’t be around anymore,” she said.
The report also credited the IDF units battling along Route 232—especially Gorny and his teammates—with preventing dozens more terrorists from reaching Yated and neighboring farming communities.
In the final assessment, investigators wrote that the civilians of Yated were the decisive line of defense when the army could not be.
{Matzav.com}
