Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be joined by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Ursula von der Leyen on his trip to Washington to meet President Trump tomorrow along with Emmanuel Macron, Giorgia Meloni, Friedrich Merz, Kier Starmer and Alexander Stubb.
DEVELOPING: Police have arrested 38 protesters across the country amid demonstrations demanding the release of Israeli hostages and an end to the war in Gaza. The bulk of detained demonstrators had been protesting on Begin Road and Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv. Seven others were arrested in Jerusalem for blocking roads during a march throughout the city.
An Israeli defense official said the Israeli Navy struck a power plant south of Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa, this morning, with local media reporting large explosions that knocked several generators out of service.
Channel 14 media personality Yinon Magal on Sunday slammed the conduct of the police and the police commissioner towards the left-wing protests across Israel and called it a “disgrace.” “The conduct of the police is, of course, a disgrace,” Magal wrote on his X account. “Because when Chareidi people block a road, the police step on them as if they were cockroaches and break their bones.” He added in a direct accusation against the police commissioner: “Except that with Police Commissioner Danny Levy, there are those who are allowed to block a road and those who are not allowed to. Shameful.” Despite the police announcement on Sunday morning that thousands of police officers would be deployed across the country beginning at 6:00 a.m., in practice a handful of demonstrators at each junction managed to block central traffic arteries with relative ease. The police refrained from clearing the protesters in the first hours of the protest and only began to arrest rioters toward noon, allowing highways to be blocked for several hours. (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
Three people were killed and eight others wounded when multiple gunmen opened fire inside a Brooklyn restaurant early Sunday morning. The incident occurred just before 3:30AM at Taste of the City Lounge, located at 903 Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said officers rushed to the scene after receiving reports of shots fired inside the establishment. The victims who were killed were identified as men ages 27, 35, and another whose age has not yet been confirmed. Eight additional victims were transported to nearby hospitals; their conditions have not yet been released. No arrests have been made, and police say the suspects remain at large. An investigation is ongoing.
Hundreds of chassidim from various kehillos, including Vizhnitz, Boyan, Gerrer, and others, held a protest outside the Beit Lid military prison on Motzei Shabbos to protest the continued detention of bnei yeshivos, including three avreichim and four bochurim. At the height of the protest, in a surprising move, Meir Yonah, the yeshivah bochur who was arrested on Erev Shabbos by the traffic police and transferred to military prison, was released. He was received with wild dancing by the crowd. The Chassidim dressed him in a shtreimel, and the Zidichover Rebbe danced with Yonah in the center of the circle. Afterward, Yonah described his arrest and the conditions in the military prison: “After I showed the officer my identification, he told me, ‘You’re a draft dodger from the army; you’re going to prison.'” “I responded, ‘Why prison?’ I’m a yeshivah bochur.’ The military police arrived, handcuffed me, and put me in prison without air conditioning, without water. You can’t breathe there; it was very difficult. I suffered, but I’ll stay strong.” (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group on Friday vowed not to disarm, saying last week’s decision by the national government to remove the Iran-backed group’s weapons by the end of the year serves Israel’s interests. Naim Kassem said the government’s decision to remove “the defensive weapons of the resistance, its people and Lebanon during an aggression” facilitates the killing of “resistance fighters and their families and evict them from their land and homes.” He said the government should have instead “spread its authority and evicted Israel from Lebanon.” Speaking in a televised speech to mark a Shiite religious event, he added “the government is serving the Israeli project.” Kassem added if the ongoing crisis leads to an internal conflict, the government is to blame. He noted that Hezbollah and its Shiite ally, the Amal movement, did not ask their supporters to protest in the streets to give way for more discussions. The Amal movement was one of the main armed groups in Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war and is now a powerful political party led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. But, he said if a decision is taken to protest in the streets, protesters “will be all over Lebanon and head to the U.S. embassy.” He did not elaborate. Hezbollah’s weapons have been a major dividing point in Lebanon with some groups that are opposed to Hezbollah saying only the state should be allowed to have arms. The Lebanese government voted last week for a U.S.-backed plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year and implement a ceasefire with Israel. The small Mediterranean country has been under international pressure to get Hezbollah to lay down its arms since the 14-month war with Israel that ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November. However, the Hezbollah leader said his group will only discuss a national defense strategy over its weapons once Israel withdraws from Lebanon and stops its almost daily airstrikes that have killed scores of Hezbollah terrorists since the war’s end. “The resistance will not hand over its weapons as the aggression continues and occupation remains,” Kassem said, adding that the group will fight a long battle if needed. The Israel-Hezbollah war weakened the Iran-backed group and left much of its military and political leadership dead. The war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, displaced over 1 million and caused destruction that the World Bank said will cost $11 billion in reconstruction. After the war ended, Israeli forces stayed in five locations in Lebanon that provide vantage points or are located across from communities in northern Israel, where about 60,000 Israelis were displaced during the war. (AP)
Israeli leftists launched a general strike across the country early Sunday morning against the government’s plan to continue to fight Hamas in Gaza and not capitulate to the terror group’s demands to continue ruling Gaza and its plan to carry out another October 7-style massacre in Israel. In moves very similar to the pre-October 7 protests against the Netanyahu government and the judicial reform plan, protesters gathered in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv and later blocked major roads, including the Ayalon, Highway 1, Highway 6, and Highway 4. A number of relatives of hostages and bereaved families have spoken out against the protest, which was organized by left-wing groups, including the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum. Many politicians also slammed the protest as playing into enemy hands. Finance Bezalel Smotrich published a post on X in which he wrote, “The people of Israel are waking up this morning to a harmful campaign that plays into the hands of Hamas, buries the hostages in the tunnels, and tries to get the State of Israel to surrender to its enemies.” Finance Committee chairman Chanoch Milvitzky (Likud) wrote, “Pro-Hamas riots have begun. Jews, Israelis who are burning the country in an attempt to prevent the destruction of Hamas. There have already been such people in our nation throughout history—we overcame them, and so it will be this time as well.” Like the pre-October 7 protests, many groups, institutions, and businesses joined the strike, including the Medical Association, local authorities, universities, the high-tech headquarters, and the Manufacturers Association. Protests are scheduled to take place at junctions throughout the country. During the day, the main protest is taking place at Hostages Square until 8 p.m., when a mass protest is scheduled outside the Kirya IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv. (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
The Israeli Navy carried out an attack on a power station in Sanaa early Sunday morning, causing power outages in several areas of the Houthi-controlled capital. Yemeni media reported that there was “an attack in the area of the Haziz power station in the south of the city.” Shortly after reports of the attack, Israeli security officials confirmed that Israel was behind the attack. The Israeli Navy carried out an attack on the Houthi-controlled Hodeida port in Yemen in June. (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
According to Politico, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and/or NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte may accompany Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Washington on Monday for his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, amid European concerns that Trump might not extend Zelensky the same “hospitality” he showed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
Thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators flooded Midtown Manhattan today, calling to “globalize the intifada” – an open incitement to violence against Jews worldwide.
Three states are sending National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. under JTF-DC and President Trump’s D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force: West Virginia 300–400, South Carolina 200, and Ohio 150, joining 800 already deployed by the D.C. National Guard at the Department of Defense’s request.
A family of 12—parents and 10 children—has left the Lev Tahor cult in Guatemala and arrived in Israel, Ynet reported Thursday. They received support from social services and government agencies, were first housed in Guatemalan welfare facilities, and, upon arriving in Israel, were transferred to an absorption center.
The Hirschman family is facing a moment of both great joy and overwhelming challenge. Their daughter’s wedding is fast approaching, yet the weight of years of severe medical hardship has left them emotionally and financially drained.
Thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators surged through midtown Manhattan on Saturday, banging cowbells and waving placards that demanded an end to U.S. aid to Israel while chanting “Free, free Palestine” and “Palestine will live forever.” Organizers branded the rally “Stand with Gaza.” What echoed loudest—and sparked the fiercest backlash—was the call for a “global intifada,” a slogan that is nothing less than a call to violence against Jews worldwide. Since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel, the phrase “globalize the intifada” has drawn sharp condemnation from security experts and community advocates who link it to the suicide bombings, shootings, and stabbings that marked previous intifadas. “The intifada refers to a horrific wave of terror attacks that killed thousands of Jews. Globalizing it is a direct call for violence against Jews,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who demanded unequivocal denunciations. “It must be condemned. I’m against hate speech targeting anyone—and everyone should be. It’s insane and unacceptable that this antisemitic rhetoric is spreading across our country.” The political crossfire widened to New York City’s mayoral race after candidate Zohran Mamdani, a self-described Democratic socialist, faced criticism for not explicitly rejecting the chant. Pressed on his position, Mamdani responded that it’s not “language” he uses, adding: “I understand there are concerns about it, and what I will do is showcase my vision for the city through my words and my actions.” His careful phrasing did little to calm opponents who argue that prominent figures must draw clear red lines when crowds traffic in rallying cries associated with bloodshed. Lawmakers are now seeking a formal rebuke. A resolution moving in the House would label the “global intifada” mantra as a call for violence against Israelis and Jews, warning that its normalization endangers Jewish communities at home and abroad. The measure cites a string of violent incidents targeting Jews in the United States—including a fatal attack on pro-Israel demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, and a shooting in Washington, DC, that killed two Israeli diplomatic staff—and urges public officials to reject the rhetoric. Saturday’s march unfolded against that backdrop of rising anxiety. New York remains home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel, and local shuls and schools have tightened security amid a documented spike in antisemitic incidents. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
WATCH: Cockpit footage shows the U.S. Air Force flying through the eye of Hurricane Erin—seven miles of calm weather before reentering the violent storm.
