New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted controversial anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil and his family for a Ramadan meal at Gracie Mansion, drawing renewed attention to the mayor’s public support for the Syrian-born activist, who has been accused by the Trump administration of sympathizing with Hamas.
The gathering took place as Khalil marked a year since his arrest by federal immigration authorities. Mamdani described the dinner in a message posted Monday on social media.
“Last night, as we marked the one year anniversary of his detention, Rama and I were honored to welcome Mahmoud, Noor, and their son Deen to Gracie Mansion to break our fast together,” Mamdani wrote in a Monday Instagram post.
The mayor shared a photo from the evening showing his wife, Rama Duwaji, holding a plate of food beside Khalil, who was seated at the table and smiling as he ate.
Khalil, who was born in Syria and later studied as a graduate student at Columbia University, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement early last year. The Trump administration has sought to deport him, alleging that he committed fraud on his green card application.
Federal officials have also argued that Khalil supports Hamas and have invoked a little-used provision of immigration law that allows noncitizens to be removed from the country if their views are considered a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests.
Khalil has previously drawn criticism for comments he made about the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre carried out by Hamas against Israeli civilians, describing the attack as an inevitable development connected to the group’s “struggle.”
Despite that controversy, Mamdani praised Khalil in his social media post, portraying the past year of the activist’s life as a period marked by resilience.
For Mamdani, however, Khalil’s year “has been marked by profound hardship—and by profound courage,” he wrote glowingly in his Monday social media post.
“And yet, even in the face of that cruelty, there has also been beauty. New Yorkers raising their voices in solidarity. A city refusing to look away. Mahmoud won his freedom, and a father was finally reunited with his child,” the mayor continued.
Khalil’s son, the couple’s first child, was born while his father remained in ICE detention in another state. The child is expected to celebrate his first birthday on April 21.
“Mahmoud is a New Yorker, and he belongs in New York City,” Hizzoner declared.
Mamdani has repeatedly defended Khalil publicly. The activist spent three months in a federal detention facility in Louisiana before a three-judge appellate panel in New Jersey ruled in June that he should have been allowed to pursue his immigration case while continuing to work.
“I see this attack on him as part of a larger attack on the freedom of speech that is especially pronounced when it comes to the use of that speech to stand up for policy to human rights,” the mayor said at an unrelated press conference in January.
Khalil himself faced backlash late last year after comments he made appeared to justify the Hamas assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. In remarks to The New York Times, he described the attack as a moment of desperation that Palestinians felt compelled to reach in order to be heard.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t avoid such a moment,” he said in an interview with the New York Times when asked about the attack by the terror group.
“To me, it felt frightening that we had to reach this moment in the Palestinian struggle,” Khalil added.
Officials in Washington were among those who sharply criticized those remarks, arguing that they reflected a pattern in which Khalil minimized the brutality of Hamas’ actions.
After being released from custody, Khalil again drew headlines when he attended an anti-Israel demonstration in New York City. At the rally, he cited the words of Anas al-Sharif, described as a Hamas operative and an Al Jazeera correspondent who was killed in an Israeli missile strike last August.
“The time is now, the bridges towards liberation start with us,” Khalil bellowed to the crowd as he recalled al-Sharif’s final words.
{Matzav.com}President Donald Trump has indicated that he would support the killing of Iran’s newly installed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, if the Iranian leader refuses to comply with U.S. demands, including halting Iran’s nuclear program, according to American officials who spoke to The Wall Street Journal.
The White House declined to comment on the report. However, Trump told the New York Post that he is “not happy” that Khamenei was selected to lead Iran after previously calling his potential leadership “unacceptable.” Trump wrote last week on social media that he wants to be involved in choosing a “great and acceptable” leader for Iran following what he described as the country’s “unconditional surrender.”
“I’m not going through this to end up with another Khamenei,” Trump told Time magazine last week.
A current and a former U.S. official said Israel is expected to carry out an operation aimed at eliminating Khamenei, who was appointed supreme leader on Sunday. The officials noted that Israel has taken the lead in targeting Iranian leadership figures. When recently asked on CNN whether Khamenei was a target for Israel, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responded: “You’ll have to wait and see.”
Younger Khamenei is viewed in Washington as a hardline successor to his father, carefully chosen by Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to current and former U.S. officials. American officials said they do not expect Khamenei to abandon Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons or to enter negotiations to end the conflict under terms favorable to the United States.
French President Emmanuel Macron also addressed the war with Iran, saying that airstrikes alone will not be enough to bring down Iran’s political regime and warning that the conflict is likely to continue for some time.
“I don’t think we can achieve profound change in a regime or political system through bombing alone,” Macron said in a television interview aboard France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which arrived in Cyprus on Monday.
The war “will certainly continue in an intense phase for several days, perhaps several weeks,” he added.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel estimates roughly 7,000 members of Iran’s security forces have been killed since the start of the war, according to a senior Israeli security official.
Iran maintains more than one million security personnel across various organizations, including the regular army (Artesh), the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Basij resistance militia.
{Matzav.com}A special simchah was celebrated today in the city of Modiin Illit, where a local family welcomed their 21st child, bli ayin hara. Even more unusual is the fact that all of the children were born as single births, with no twins among them.
According to sources, the oldest child in the family, who lives in Kiryat Sefer, is just 22 years old. This means that nearly every year the family merited to welcome a new baby boy or girl.
At present, all 21 children are still single and living in their parents’ home.
The extraordinary story even surpasses a previously known “record” of a family in Bnei Brak that also had 21 children, though in that case one of the births was a set of twins.
The baby was born today at Maayanei HaYeshua Hospital in Bnei Brak.
News of the home blessed with 21 children quickly spread throughout the neighborhood, and neighbors have already begun enthusiastically organizing assistance for the mother and her husband.
Oif simchos!
{Matzav.com}Israeli and American forces have succeeded in destroying a large portion of Iran’s ballistic missile launch platforms, a development that significantly limits Tehran’s ability to carry out missile attacks, according to former Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus.
Speaking Monday on Newsmax, Conricus said the campaign against Iran has focused heavily on eliminating the launchers used to fire missiles, which he described as the critical weak point in Iran’s missile capabilities.
“So I’m happy to say that Israel and the U.S. have been successful in taking out approximately 70% of Iran’s missile launchers, the ballistic missile launchers,” Conricus said on “Bianca Across the Nation.”
Conricus explained that destroying the launch infrastructure is strategically more important than the number of missiles Iran still has in its arsenal.
“And that’s a very important figure because that is the bottleneck, and that is the most important number,” he said. “If we take out all the launchers, then they can have stockpiles of weapons — of missiles — but they won’t be able to fire them.”
According to Conricus, Israeli and American forces have concentrated on tracking and striking mobile launch systems across western Iran. The effort involves a combination of intelligence gathering, aerial operations, and precision long-range strikes.
“And that’s what we are hunting now over western Iran in Iranian skies and with continuous steady success,” Conricus said.
The current campaign began on Feb. 28, when President Donald Trump authorized Operation Epic Fury, a sweeping military effort targeting Iran’s missile and drone infrastructure, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command systems, military installations, and air defense networks after tensions escalated in the region.
Defense officials say the results of those strikes have already been visible on the battlefield. Iranian missile and drone launches have dropped significantly as launch platforms and support systems have been destroyed.
Military briefings and open-source analysis indicate that Iranian missile barrages have declined by more than 80 percent since the operation began, largely due to the systematic targeting of the transporter-erector-launchers used to deploy ballistic missiles.
Even with those gains, Conricus noted that Israeli civilians still face the threat of incoming attacks.
“Granted, Israelis still rush to shelters,” he said. “I had to go to shelters … three or four times today.”
Missiles launched from Iran and rockets fired from Lebanon continue to target Israeli population centers despite the damage inflicted on Iran’s launch capabilities.
“We have incoming missiles from Iran and rockets from Lebanon,” Conricus said.
The continued attacks have also resulted in civilian casualties inside Israel.
“Sadly, today, two Israeli civilians were killed,” he said, adding that the total number of civilians killed in Israel from Iranian ballistic missile strikes had reached 14.
“That’s, of course, a tragedy for us,” he said.
Still, Conricus said Israeli society remains determined to withstand the current conflict.
“But Israeli society is strong,” he said. “I think we’re resolute here, and we understand that this is a period that we will have to tough through.”
He added that the broader goal of the military campaign is to weaken Iran’s capabilities to such an extent that the regime will no longer be able to threaten Israel or other countries in the region.
“And eventually, I think when you boil it down to the military mechanics of it, Israel and the U.S. will be able to really degrade military capabilities of Iran and bring that regime to a situation where they don’t have the teeth or the muscle to actually do anything,” Conricus said.
{Matzav.com}
Thirteen residents, including five children, were injured early Tuesday morning after a fire broke out in a residential building on Harav Asi Street in Bnei Brak. Emergency call centers received multiple reports of heavy smoke filling the four-story building.
Four firefighting teams, along with a ladder truck and the shift commander, were dispatched to the scene. Upon arrival, firefighters discovered flames coming from an electrical cabinet on the first floor, which caused thick black smoke to quickly spread throughout the building’s stairwell. Authorities believe the fire may have been sparked by a heating device that ignited within the electrical cabinet.
Firefighters immediately began extinguishing the flames and conducted thorough searches of all floors to locate and rescue trapped residents. At the same time, crews worked to ventilate the building and remove the heavy smoke. Medical teams who were called to the scene treated 13 individuals suffering from smoke inhalation and transported them to Sheba Medical Center for further treatment.
Due to concerns that smoke could enter apartments, fire dispatchers instructed residents by phone to remain inside their homes until emergency crews arrived.
United Hatzalah issued a statement saying: “United Hatzalah medical teams were dispatched to Harav Asi Street in Bnei Brak following reports of a fire in a residential building. Medics provided treatment at the scene to thirteen victims in light condition (ages 13–70) who were suffering from breathing difficulties caused by smoke inhalation.”
Hatzalah night-duty coordinator Yoel Shechter said: “When I arrived at the scene, I saw an active fire on the first floor of a residential building and a large number of people trapped inside. After firefighters conducted searches and rescues, we, together with medics and paramedics from MDA, provided initial medical treatment to 13 victims, including five children, who showed signs of smoke inhalation. They were evacuated with the assistance of MDA ambulances staffed by Hatzalah volunteers to receive further medical care at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer.”
{Matzav.com}
issued a warning Monday night in response to remarks by President Donald Trump indicating that the war with Iran could be approaching its end.
In a statement quoted by Reuters, the IRGC said they would “determine the end of the war,” adding that Iran would not allow “one liter of oil” to be exported from the region if US and Israeli attacks continue.
Trump responded to the threat in a message posted on his Truth Social platform. “If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.”
He followed with an additional warning about what could happen if Iran attempts to block the strategic waterway. “Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again – Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them – But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen! This is a gift from the United States of America to China, and all of those Nations that heavily use the Hormuz Strait. Hopefully, it is a gesture that will be greatly appreciated.”
Earlier in the day, Trump told reporters at a press conference that the fighting could be nearing its final phase. “we are close to finishing”. He added that the conflict might end “soon” but suggested that it would not happen this week.
When asked what would constitute a victory, the President said the goal is to ensure Iran loses the ability to develop weapons capable of threatening the United States or its allies. “When, basically, I can see that they will no longer have any capacity whatsoever, for a very long period of time, of developing weaponry that could be used against the United States… or any of our allies.”
Earlier Monday, the IRGC issued another statement saying that any Arab or European nation that expels the ambassadors of Israel and the United States from its territory would be granted complete freedom to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
The fighting has already disrupted shipping and energy exports moving through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global chokepoint that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supply.
{Matzav.com}
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said Monday that a significant portion of Iran’s uranium enriched to nearly weapons-grade levels is believed to remain stored at a tunnel complex in Isfahan, a site that appears to have escaped the severe damage inflicted on other Iranian nuclear facilities during joint Israeli and American strikes last June.
Speaking to reporters, Grossi indicated that close to half of Iran’s uranium enriched to roughly 60% purity—just below the threshold considered weapons-grade—had been stored at the underground facility prior to the attacks and is likely still located there.
The tunnel complex at Isfahan is believed to be the only major location tied to Iran’s nuclear program that did not suffer extensive destruction during the strikes carried out last summer by Israel and the United States.
For years, diplomats have maintained that the Isfahan installation served as a storage location for uranium enriched to the 60% level. The IAEA confirmed in a report distributed to member states last month that such material had indeed been stored at the facility, although the agency did not publicly disclose the total amount kept there.
According to IAEA estimates, when Israel initiated its first wave of strikes in June, Iran had accumulated approximately 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%. Based on the agency’s calculations, if that material were enriched further, it could yield enough fissile material to produce as many as ten nuclear weapons.
Grossi told reporters that a large share of that stockpile had been kept at the Isfahan site. “What we believe is that Isfahan had until our last inspection a bit more than 200 kg, maybe a little bit more than that, of 60% uranium,” Grossi told reporters in Paris.
He explained that most of the material had been stored there, while some uranium located at other facilities may have been destroyed during the strikes. “The widespread assumption is that the material is still there. So we haven’t seen – and not only us, I think in general all those observing the facility through satellite imagery and other means to see what’s going on there – movement indicating that the material could have been transferred,” Grossi said.
Since the June attacks, Iran has not updated the IAEA about the condition or whereabouts of its highly enriched uranium, and it has not permitted agency inspectors to return to the nuclear sites that were targeted.
Before the strikes, Iran had three active enrichment facilities: two located at Natanz and another at Fordow. All three installations were either destroyed or sustained major damage during the June attacks.
Grossi also noted that some enriched uranium could still be present at Natanz. “There is an amount (of 60% uranium) in Natanz also, which we believe is still there,” he said.
In recent days, the IAEA chief reiterated his concern about Iran’s growing reserves of uranium enriched to levels approaching weapons grade and the government’s refusal to allow inspectors full access to its nuclear facilities.
“I have been very clear and consistent in my reports on Iran’s nuclear program: While there has been no evidence of Iran building a nuclear bomb, its large stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium and refusal to grant my inspectors full access are cause for serious concern,” Grossi wrote in a post on social media.
He added that the lack of cooperation from Tehran prevents the agency from offering assurances about the nature of the country’s nuclear program. “For these reasons,” he added my previous reports indicate that unless and until Iran assists the IAEA in resolving the outstanding safeguards issues, the Agency will not be in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful,” he added.
{Matzav.com}
