The Israeli military said that over the past day its Air Force struck around 100 targets in the Gaza Strip, including tunnels, weapons depots, operative cells, and other infrastructure used by terror groups.
The mayor of Khan Younis, a senior Hamas official, called on the terrorist organization he is part of to halt the war. Alaa El-Din Al-Batta published a post calling “to “remove Israel’s arguments for continuing the war in Gaza,” citing the heavy daily toll on the Strip. Al-Batta wrote, “Today is better than tomorrow, and tomorrow is better than the day after. Israel’s arguments for the war on Gaza are the hostages and Hamas’s weapons.” Popular Israeli blogger Abu Ali Express noted that “his words are striking and surprising given his status as a senior Hamas official and in light of the fact that for months he has remained silent on the matter. Khan Younis has long been considered a Hamas stronghold, and the mayor is certainly part of Hamas’s senior leadership in the Gaza Strip.” “His remarks are resonating among Hamas’s opponents both in Gaza and abroad.” Last week, Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), revealed the hypocritical attempts of senior Hamas officials who submitted requests to Israel to transfer their family members to a third country. One of them was Alaa El-Din Al-Batta. (YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)
The Olam HaTorah suffered a painful loss with the petirah of HaGaon HaRav Yaakov Zechariah, z’tl, the Rosh Yeshivah of Lev Eliyahu yeshivah in Jerusalem, who was niftar on Shabbos at the age of 70. The Rosh Yeshivah suffered a severe stroke last month. In recent days, his condition deterioated and he was niftar on Friday night at Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem. The Rosh Yeshivah was born in Jerusalem. As a bochur he learned in the famed Porat Yosef yeshivah, where he developed a close relationship with the Rosh Yeshivah, Chacham Ben-Tzion Abba Shaul, z’tl. In 2002, HaRav Zechariah established the Lev Eliyahu yeshivah for younger bochurim, and in 2010, he established the Lev Eliyahu yeshivah gedola in the Ramot Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem. Right before his stroke, HaRav Zechariah established another yeshivah, Derech HaTorah, for young bochurim who struggled to cope with a rigorous yeshivah schedule, with the goal of keeping them off the streets. HaRav Zechariah, z’tl, was marbitz Torah and Yiras Shamyaim to hundreds of talmidim, who are shocked and devastated by his petirah. The levaya took place on Motzei Shabbos at Yeshivas Lev Eliyahu in Ramat Shlomo. The kevurah took place at the beis kevaros in Sanhedria, where the niftar was buried next to his Rabbanim, HaChacham Ben Tzion Abba Shaul, z’tl, and HaChacham Yehudah Tzadka, z’tl. וכל בית ישראל יבכו את השריפה אשר שרף ה. (YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)
Qatar, which suspended its mediation in hostage deal negotiations after Israel’s failed strike on Hamas leaders in Doha, is willing to resume its role on one condition: a public Israeli apology for the attack, Channel 12 News reported on Motzei Shabbos. A source quoted by the report said that Qatar recognizes Israel’s political complexities and is open to flexibility regarding the wording of the apology. Two sources added that the demand comes directly from Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim al-Thani and was raised in meetings held by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Doha and Jerusalem last week. Another source noted that Doha may agree to an Israeli apology focusing on the death of the Qatari security officer killed in the strike, coupled with compensation for his family and an assurance that Israel will refrain from violating Qatar’s sovereignty in the future. (YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)
US President Donald Trump asserted that it was Hamas that tried to commit genocide in Israel on October 7, 2023, when asked by a reporter about a UN report published last week claiming Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. “I haven’t seen it,” Trump replied. “But did anybody commit genocide on October 7? What do you think about that?” “That was genocide at the highest level. That was murder, genocide; you can call it whatever you want. But little babies were chopped in half. Arms were cut off, people; heads were cut off people. That’s genocide also, I guess.” It should be noted that the UN Commission that published the report about Israel’s so-called “genocide” was chaired by Navi Pillay, a vicious antisemite with a decades-long background of rabid anti-Israel rhetoric. The report made no mention of the October 7 massacre or the Israeli hostages, nor of Hamas’s decades of belligerence against Israel, its buildup of military infrastructure in Gaza, and its brutal reign of terror over Gazan citizens. UN Watch described the report as “nothing more than pro-Hamas propaganda cloaked in legal language.” The report also relied on Hamas data and, most importantly, failed to provide evidence of Israel’s “so-called” war crimes and “genocide” in Gaza. The full UN Watch rebuttal of the report can be read here. (YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)
