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On Tuesday, families of hostages, bereaved relatives, reservists, and residents from communities near the Gaza border shut down the water pipeline supplying Gaza. The action was taken as a protest against what they described as Israel’s failed approach in dealing with Hamas and as a direct demand for the prime minister to take stronger, decisive measures to end the ongoing conflict.

The shutdown was part of a wider campaign aimed at pushing the government to change its strategy and ensure Hamas’ complete defeat. Organizers of the protest stressed that Israel must enforce a real blockade on Gaza — cutting off water and all humanitarian aid — while also requiring the evacuation of civilians from Gaza City before initiating any significant ground operation.

Families of hostages and soldiers who fell in battle explained that shutting the pipeline was a necessary act meant to demonstrate their determination. They emphasized that only the full destruction of Hamas would create the conditions needed to secure the hostages’ release.

One of the protest leaders, Tzvika Mor — whose son, Eitan Mor, is being held hostage — stated: “To bring all the hostages home, Israel must deliver a decisive blow. No more partial deals, no more temporary rounds. Only a true defeat of Hamas will free them.”

Col. (res.) Hezi Nechama, a founding member of the “Forum of Reserve Commanders and Fighters,” echoed the same sentiment, saying: “It’s time to stop this war of attrition and shut off Hamas’s water supply. Only then will Hamas be defeated and the hostages returned.”

Yitzhak Fitusi, whose son Yishay was killed in battle, expressed deep frustration over the ongoing situation: “Since the war began, our loved ones fought and sacrificed their lives for the goal of defeating Hamas. For 23 months their comrades have kept fighting, yet Hamas still rules Gaza and our hostages rot in captivity.”

Reut Ben Chaim, a resident of the Gaza border area and a leader of the “Tzav 9” movement, concluded: “Our demand is simple: the flow of food, electricity, and water into Gaza strengthens Hamas, giving it breathing space, power, and capability. Closing the water pipeline to northern Gaza is a necessary step to subdue Hamas and bring our hostages home.”

{Matzav.com Israel}

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker: We have reason to believe that the Trump administration has already begun staging the Texas National Guard for deployment in Illinois.

On Tuesday evening, the IDF announced that on August 28, 2025, its forces, working alongside the ISA, successfully eliminated senior terrorist Hazem Awni Naeem in the Gaza City region.

According to the military, Naeem had served in several positions within Hamas’ Gaza City brigade. During the ongoing conflict, he operated as a high-ranking figure in the brigade’s military intelligence division and maintained close ties with Ezz al-Din Haddad, the commander overseeing the Gaza City brigade.

Naeem was directly involved in holding hostages in Gaza, including Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Naama Levy, during their period of captivity.

“The IDF and the ISA will continue to operate against the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and to remove any threat posed to the State of Israel,” the military stated following the announcement.

Roughly two months earlier, the IDF confirmed the elimination of Muhammad Nasr Ali Quneita, another Hamas operative who was also responsible for holding Damari captive in Gaza.

After Quneita’s death was reported, Damari reacted on Instagram, writing: “One of many. Yes, there should be many more good news like this and we will hold them accountable for it all, God willing. But the real victory will be when Gali, Ziv and the other 48 hostages return.”

In an emotional reflection, Damari shared her memory of Quneita: “I remember his face that day when he transferred me to the tunnels deep beneath the ground. Where there’s no air, no light, and no will to live. Above us, we could hear planes, bombs, and an entire war unfolding. Then he looked at me with the smile of a deceiver and told me ‘That’s it, tomorrow you’re going home.'”

She explained the cruelty behind his words: “And no, he didn’t say that because it was true. He said it so I would start to have hope. So I would wait and wait, and nothing would happen. I looked at him and told him he was a liar (and if you knew what it’s like to tell a terrorist the word liar…). He looked at me angrily and asked, ‘Me? A liar? Why do you think that?’ And I said to him, ‘Because I hear the planes. There’s no ceasefire and no deal close.’ And sadly, between the two of us, I was right,” Damari wrote.

{Matzav.com}

BREAKING: A massive blaze has broken out in a commercial structure in downtown Baltimore. Multiple agencies are responding to the incident.

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that U.S. Space Command will be located in Alabama, reversing a Biden-era decision to keep it at its temporary headquarters in Colorado. The long-expected decision from Trump caps a four-year tug of war between two states and opposing administrations about where to locate U.S. Space Command, an intense fight because the headquarters would be a significant boon to the local economy. Alabama and Colorado have long battled to claim Space Command, with elected officials from both states asserting their state is the better location. “The U.S. Space Command headquarters will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama, forever to be known from this point forward as Rocket City,” said Trump, flanked by Republican members of Alabama’s congressional delegation, from the Oval Office on Tuesday. “We had a lot of competition for this and Alabama’s getting it.” Trump said Huntsville won the race for the Space Command headquarters, in part, because “they fought harder for it than anybody else.” The Associated Press reported earlier Tuesday that the president would announce the move at the White House. A Pentagon website set up to livestream the remarks described the event hours in advance as a “U.S. Space Command HQ Announcement.” Space Command’s functions include conducting operations like enabling satellite-based navigation and troop communication and providing warning of missile launches. Huntsville, Alabama, nicknamed Rocket City, has long been home to the Army’s Redstone Arsenal and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command is also located in Huntsville, which drew its nickname because of its role in building the first rockets for the U.S. space program. The saga stretches back to 2021, when the Air Force identified Army Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville as the preferred location for the new U.S. Space Command. The city was picked after site visits to six states that compared factors such as infrastructure capacity, community support and costs to the Defense Department. Then-President Joe Biden in 2023 announced Space Command would be permanently located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which had been serving as its temporary headquarters. Biden’s Democratic administration said that keeping the command in Colorado Springs would avoid a disruption in readiness. Trump on Tuesday said his initial plans to locate the headquarters in Huntsville were “wrongfully obstructed by the Biden administration.” But he also said the fact that Colorado uses mail-in voting “played a big factor also” in moving the headquarters away from Colorado Springs. A review by the Defense Department inspector general was inconclusive and could not determine why Colorado was chosen over Alabama. Trump, a Republican who enjoys deep support in Alabama, had long been expected to move Space Command back to Alabama. (AP)

President Trump is headed to the US Supreme Court TOMORROW to immediately overturn the activist ruling that will stop his broad, sweeping tariffs. “If you took away tariffs, we could end up being a third world country.”

REPORTER: ‘There’s a video circulating online now of White House where a window is open to the residence upstairs and somebody is throwing a big bag out the window’ TRUMP: ‘No, that’s probably AI Generated. You can’t open the windows, they’re all heavily armored and bulletproof’

Lomdei Daf Hayomi worldwide will conclude Maseches Avodah Zarah today and begin Maseches Horiyos tomorrow.

The learners of Daf Yomi are now making their way through the 36 masechtos in Talmud Bavli in the fourteenth cycle of Daf Yomi.

With 2,711 pages in the Gemara, one cycle of Daf Yomi takes about 7 years, 5 months.

The next Siyum Hashas will be held iy”H on Sunday, June 6, 2027, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

{Matzav.com}

REPORTER: Have you spoken to Putin? PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, I don’t want to-I have learned things that will be very interesting. I think in the next few days you’ll find out.

Israeli security forces confirmed Tuesday that they killed Hamas operative Hazem Awni Naeem, the terrorist who held Israeli hostages Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Naama Levy captive during the war. The IDF and Shin Bet said Naeem was eliminated on August 28 in a joint strike in Gaza City. Officials described him as a senior figure in Hamas’s Gaza City brigade, where he played a leading role in the group’s military intelligence wing and maintained close ties to brigade commander Ezz al-Din Haddad. Damari, freed in a hostage deal earlier this year, reacted to the announcement in an Instagram post thanking Israel’s security forces who “never rest for a moment on behalf of all of us.” She added her hope that news of the return of the remaining 48 hostages would come “sooner than expected.” Naeem’s death follows the July killing of another Hamas operative, Mohammed Nasser Ali Qanita, who also held Damari and others captive. Qanita, a member of Hamas’s al-Furqan Battalion, infiltrated Israel on October 7 and imprisoned Damari in his home before being targeted and eliminated in June. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Rep. Ilhan Omar, known for her outspoken anti-Israel stance, has disclosed a net worth ranging from $6 million to $30 million, despite previously claiming she was “barely worth thousands.”

On February 10, Omar posted on social media, stating that her “salary is $174,000 before taxes.” She added: “I don’t have stock or own a home and am still paying off my student debt. So if you are going to lie on something that is public, maybe try checking my public financial statements and you will see I barely have thousands let alone millions.”

Her most recent financial disclosure, however, paints a very different picture, revealing that Omar’s assets total several million dollars.

A significant portion of this wealth is tied to her husband Tim Mynett’s business ventures, including a winery and a venture capital firm called Rose Lake Capital. The VC firm is valued between $5 million and $25 million, while the winery is estimated at $1 million to $5 million. Together, these ventures contributed to a staggering 3,500% increase in the couple’s net worth from 2023 to 2024.

Despite the dramatic financial gains, Omar’s filing still lists $15,001 to $50,000 in student loan debt dating back to 2005, as well as $15,001 to $50,000 in credit card balances.

Media outlets across the country highlighted the drastic rise in her personal wealth, particularly considering that Omar’s previous disclosure showed her net worth at just $65,000. At the close of 2023, Rose Lake Capital and the winery were valued at no more than $51,000 combined. According to court records cited by the Minnesota Reformer, the winery had roughly $650 in its account as recently as February 2024.

Omar has repeatedly dismissed these reports in the past, telling Business Insider that there was a “coordinated right-wing disinformation campaign” targeting her finances.

“I am a working mom with student loan debt. Unlike some of my colleagues — and similar to most Americans — I am not a millionaire and am raising a family while maintaining a residence in both Minneapolis and DC, which are among the most expensive housing markets in the country,” she told BI.

{Matzav.com}

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is reportedly weighing the option of creating his own hand-selected panel to lead a commission investigating the failures tied to the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack. This would serve as an alternative to a fully independent state commission of inquiry, which he has repeatedly declined to authorize.

According to a Channel 12 report released this evening, Netanyahu is leaning toward establishing a “government” inquiry — a five-member panel of individuals he would personally choose — to examine the decisions and failures connected to the October 7 assault.

The report explains that Netanyahu has come to believe that Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, who would oversee the appointment of a retired Supreme Court justice to lead an independent state commission, would likely refuse to collaborate with him on selecting its members. Netanyahu reportedly fears that Amit would appoint former Supreme Court president Esther Hayut, a longtime critic of his government’s efforts to significantly reduce the power and independence of the judiciary, to head such a commission.

Among the candidates Netanyahu is said to be considering for the proposed panel are a specific retired district judge and a former IDF general, both viewed as figures aligned with the political right.

While Netanyahu’s envisioned panel would have the same investigative powers as a formal state commission — including the ability to subpoena witnesses — the main difference lies in who appoints it. In this case, the prime minister, who bore ultimate responsibility leading up to and on October 7, would select its members.

An independent state commission, on the other hand, could pose greater personal risks for Netanyahu, as it would likely examine his role in the events and could issue findings or recommendations directly implicating him and others in positions of authority. Netanyahu has maintained that many Israelis would question the credibility of a state commission’s findings, given what he describes as widespread public distrust of the judiciary.

Nearly two years after the October 7 massacre, the government has still not taken any concrete steps toward officially establishing any form of commission of inquiry.

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump’s administration is piling new restrictions on Palestinian visa applicants, making it nearly impossible for anyone holding a Palestinian Authority passport from receiving travel documents to visit the U.S. for business, work, pleasure or educational purposes. Palestinian applicants who hold non-Palestinian Authority passports may also face difficulties should they need a U.S. visa. Since early August, the State Department has tightened what it says are temporary policies to boost its vetting procedures for Palestinians seeking to travel to the United States, meaning that virtually all applications will either be denied or not accepted for processing. The moves targeting the Palestinians are part of the administration’s global effort to reform how U.S. visas are issued and crack down on illegal immigration — it has already resulted in several thousand student visas revoked, many of them for pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli activity. As part of that effort, the State Department said last week that it is reviewing all of the more than 55 million current U.S. visa holders to ensure they are properly vetted. However, the steps taken against the Palestinians appear more far-reaching than those directed at other nationalities, many of which include exemptions for official travel to the U.S. On Aug. 1, the department instructed consular officers to deny visa applications from anyone suspected of having past or present employment or ties to the Palestine Liberation Organization or the Palestinian Authority regardless of their position or purpose of travel. On Aug. 16, the department suspended a program that had allowed war-wounded Palestinian children from Gaza to come to the U.S. for medical treatment, following an outcry from conservative pundits. Two days later, on Aug. 18, the department sent a worldwide cable to all U.S. diplomatic posts instructing them to reject all non-immigrant visa request from Palestinian Authority passport holders. “This action is to ensure that such applications have undergone necessary, vetting, and screening protocols to ensure the applicants’ identity and eligibility for a visa under US law,” according to the cable, obtained by The Associated Press and reported earlier by The New York Times. The suspension does not apply to Palestinians who hold non-Palestinian Authority passports, but they could still be refused if they are suspected of having PA or PLO ties, according to the Aug. 1 instructions. Although the suspension does not apply to Palestinians seeking immigrant visas, the cable said that Palestinian officials applying to visit the United States for official purposes are not exempt from the restrictions. Then, on Friday, in keeping with the guidance issued a week earlier, the department announced that it had denied visa applications from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and about 80 other Palestinian officials who were planning to participate in the high-level meeting at U.N. General Assembly in New York later this month. “It is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” the department said in a statement. It said that to be considered partners for peace, the groups “must consistently repudiate terrorism, and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by U.S. law and as promised by the PLO.” The Palestinian Authority denounced the visa withdrawals as a violation of U.S. commitments as the host country of the United Nations […]

BREAKING: The IDF says it has killed Hazem Aouni Na’im, a senior Hamas terrorist who held Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Naama Levy hostage until their release in January.

POTUS: “This will result in more than 30,000 Alabama jobs… and billions of dollars of investment… Most importantly, this decision will help America defend and dominate the High Frontier.”

Macron condemned the U.S. decision to deny visas to Palestinian officials as “unacceptable” while announcing plans to host a summit on a two-state solution.

President Trump announced that the Space Force Command headquarters will be relocated to Alabama, which he said will now be referred to as “Rocket City.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz: “The remaining Houthi leaders are fleeing Sana’a. They are looking after themselves and abandoning the civilians, just like Hamas leaders in Gaza and in luxury hotels in Qatar, the same with the Houthis in Yemen. We knew how to hunt them this time, and we will know how to do it in the future.”

The Pentagon has authorized up to 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges.

Eyal Ofer, a specialist on Hamas’s economy, told Maariv that President Donald Trump’s proposal for rebuilding Gaza would not burden him the way it would affect Israelis.

“The biggest problem, as with any real estate contract, is that Israelis are dazzled by the presentation, but do not read the fine print,” Ofer said.

He explained that “the Israeli media rushed to sell the public a new-old dream, that two million Gazans will leave the Strip. This idea appeals to many. The truth must be said, if it were practical, and without accusations against Israel of ethnic cleansing, many would welcome it.”

Ofer added that Israelis have long imagined breaking away entirely from Gaza, joking that if it were possible to physically detach the Strip and let it drift into the sea, “we would have done so.”

“Reading the fine print of Trump’s plan shows that only 25% of Gazans would leave, and even they would be allowed to return once Trump’s evacuation and reconstruction is completed,” Ofer explained.

“And what about the other 75%? Where will they go? According to the presentation of the plan published by The Washington Post, they remain in Gaza in ‘secured areas’ where food will be distributed and health and education infrastructure set up for them, meaning temporary rehabilitation for the 10 years during which permanent buildings will be constructed for them, castles in the air.”

According to Ofer, Jared Kushner — Trump’s son-in-law and the architect behind the plan — suggested that Israel establish special camps for Gazans in the Negev.

“On one hand, Gazans would see this as realizing a ‘right of return’ to Israel, and on the other hand, it’s not hard to imagine how they would use this for propaganda, since the camps would certainly be surrounded by barbed wire, walls, and armed guards to prevent Gazans from spilling into the rest of Israel,” Ofer said.

“After ten years of evacuation and reconstruction, any Gazan family that wishes could return. Kushner explicitly states that Israel did not object to their return. Each Gazan family would receive an apartment in luxury towers valued by real estate estimates at half a million to one million dollars for large families.”

Under those circumstances, Ofer asked rhetorically, why anyone would choose to leave in the first place.

“And at the end of construction, the plan speaks of transferring responsibility to a renewed Palestinian Authority. Sounds familiar.”

Ofer also raised concerns about what would happen before any evacuation even begins, pointing out that the IDF would face the challenge of a million Gazans refusing to move. He said the army would end up providing security for demolition teams operating inside the area.

“Practically, this is a mission for tens of thousands of soldiers for many years, during which every week we will wake up to another ‘cleared for publication’ announcement as Hamas guerrilla operations and explosives wait in every alley.”

“There is no doubt this is a wonderful plan for real estate developers from Miami, but someone forgot what Gaza’s population really is, what the Palestinian ethos is, and how deeply Gazan society is religious and inseparable from Hamas’s ideology,” Ofer warned, stressing that Gazans are bound by religious directives instructing them to “cling to the land and continue jihad until the total destruction of Israel.”

“Anyone who thinks a real estate project, comfortable life, and economic welfare are the solution to Gaza’s hatred of Israel, I have a suitcase full of Qatari humanitarian dollars to sell him. The suitcase is used but in good condition. Model 2018. First hand, wrapped in a shiny cellophane conception.”

{Matzav.com Israel}