As preparations move forward for Phase B of President Donald Trump’s Gaza reconstruction initiative, Hamas has introduced a new condition: it wants to preserve its control over the Gaza Strip while continuing to function as a political body.
Israeli officials have conveyed an unequivocal position to Washington, stating that they will not tolerate any arrangement in which Hamas plays a part in administering Gaza. Jerusalem has also clarified that it will not enter into political or financial agreements if the terror group remains embedded within Gaza’s governing framework.
According to a report by Kan News, Hamas is unwilling to hand over authority to the technocratic body formed to oversee Gaza’s civilian management. Instead, the organization prefers to stay in charge of the territory, even if that means agreeing to only a limited disarmament.
The report further indicated that Hamas has been in contact with several Arab governments, signaling its interest in a model similar to Hezbollah’s role in Lebanon — maintaining political influence while simultaneously retaining military power on the ground.
Speaking Sunday evening at the opening gala of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined Israel’s objectives in the ongoing war. He said the country’s three primary aims were to “return the hostages, disarm and dismantle Hamas military capabilities, and third dismantle Hamas governing capabilities. The first has been achieved.”
Netanyahu emphasized the urgency of removing Hamas’s weapons, stating, “Hamas must give up its weapons. The weapon that does the most damage is the AK-47. Assault weapons. There are 60,000 such weapons, they must go.”
He continued by detailing Israel’s broader security goals: “First disarm Hamas. Second, demilitarize Gaza. We dismantled about 150 km of 500 km of tunnels. We’re giving the President’s plan a chance. It can be done the easy or hard way. We hope the easy way. Because we know the human cost of war. But that goal must be achieved. And one way or another it will be.
“Gaza will not pose a threat ever again to the State of Israel,” Netanyahu declared.
{Matzav.com}Iran is prepared to explore concessions in its nuclear negotiations with the United States, but only if Washington is willing to put sanctions relief on the table, according to Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi.
In remarks aired Sunday in an interview with the BBC, Takht-Ravanchi stressed that meaningful progress depends on the United States demonstrating genuine intent to reach an agreement.
“The ball is in America’s court to prove that they want to do a deal,” Takht-Ravanchi told the British broadcaster. “If they are sincere, I’m sure we will be on the road to an agreement.”
His comments come as the two countries prepare for another round of talks and against a backdrop of heightened tensions. The United States has expanded its military footprint in the Middle East, and officials have warned that military action remains an option if diplomacy fails to rein in Iran’s nuclear program.
President Donald Trump has previously cautioned that Iran could face strikes and ordered an increased American military presence in the region following Tehran’s deadly suppression of anti-government demonstrations that reportedly left thousands dead.
Another session of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear activities is scheduled to take place Tuesday in Geneva. Takht-Ravanchi characterized the initial discussions as “more or less in a positive direction,” while emphasizing that it is “too early to judge.”
A central dispute in the talks involves Iran’s accumulation of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity — a level approaching weapons-grade material and one that has intensified international concern about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Takht-Ravanchi indicated that Iran is open to addressing its enriched uranium reserves, but only within a broader framework that includes lifting sanctions.
“We are ready to discuss this and other issues related to our program if they are ready to talk about sanctions,” he told the BBC.
When asked whether Iran might again transfer enriched uranium abroad — as it did under the 2015 nuclear agreement that Trump exited in 2018 — Takht-Ravanchi declined to make any commitments, saying, “It is too early to say what will happen in the course of negotiations.”
Tehran has consistently insisted that discussions remain limited to nuclear matters. Takht-Ravanchi explained that Iran believes Washington now recognizes that narrowing the focus is essential to reaching a deal. “Our understanding is that they have come to the conclusion that if you want to have a deal you have to focus on the nuclear issue.” He suggested this marks a departure from earlier U.S. demands that Iran halt all enrichment — a position Tehran argues violates its rights under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Takht-Ravanchi also reaffirmed that Iran will not negotiate over its ballistic missile arsenal. The United States has pressed for missile restrictions, citing concerns shared by Israel, which views Iran’s missile program as a significant security threat. Defending Iran’s stance, he said, “When we were attacked by Israelis and Americans, our missiles came to our rescue so how can we accept depriving ourselves of our defensive capabilities?”
Although he voiced guarded hope that diplomacy could succeed, Takht-Ravanchi acknowledged lingering mistrust, pointing to what he described as inconsistent messaging from Washington, especially comments from Trump about regime change. “We are hearing that they are interested in negotiations… but we are not hearing that in the private messages,” he said.
He warned that a new armed conflict would have severe repercussions across the region. “If we feel this is an existential threat, we will respond accordingly.”
Even with tensions running high, Takht-Ravanchi maintained that Iran remains committed to pursuing a negotiated outcome. “We will do our best but the other side also has to prove that they are also sincere,” he concluded.
The IDF now believes that Hamas’s military wing used a string of emojis as the coded order to initiate the October 7 massacre. The conclusion was reached after Israeli forces examined mobile phones taken from Nukhba terrorists during the assault.
Security officials said the same emoji combination discovered on those devices had appeared in two earlier episodes — in September 2022 and again in April 2023 — when Hamas had been preparing major attacks that were ultimately called off.
Investigators determined that in the hours leading up to the invasion of Israeli communities near the Gaza border, a prearranged message was distributed to operatives through WhatsApp. Only after reviewing the intelligence did it become evident that this message was the cue for militants to head to mosques and ready themselves for the operation.
According to the assessment, once the message was received, the terrorists gathered either at mosques or at other predetermined meeting locations, where commanders issued final instructions.
From there, some made their way to underground compounds to collect combat equipment, while others went to weapons depots, put on uniforms and tactical vests, and armed themselves with firearms and additional supplies.
The IDF stated that during the two prior instances in which the identical emoji sequence was detected, Hamas did not follow through with its plans, partly because of disagreements within the organization.
Senior military officials conceded that, before October 7, they would not have recognized preparations for a sweeping cross-border assault or the activation of Hamas’s so-called “Jericho Wall” strategy.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., ignited controversy at the Munich Security Conference on Friday by asserting that American assistance to Israel had facilitated what she described as a genocide in Gaza. Her remarks were delivered in Munich, the city historically associated with the rise of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi movement, which carried out the Holocaust.
Her comments criticizing Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza prompted swift condemnation from military analysts, scholars, and Middle East specialists. Israel’s ongoing war effort began after Hamas — designated as a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union — launched its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israeli communities, killing more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and kidnapping 251 people who were taken into Gaza.
Speaking during a town hall discussion, Ocasio-Cortez said, “To me, this isn’t just about a presidential election. Personally, I think that the United States has an obligation to uphold its own laws, particularly the Leahy laws. And I think that personally, that the idea of completely unconditional aid, no matter what one does, does not make sense. I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza. And I think that we have thousands of women and children dead that don’t, that was completely avoidable.”
She added, “And, so I believe that enforcement of our own laws through the Leahy laws, which requires conditioning aid in any circumstance, when you see gross human rights violations, is appropriate.”
The Leahy Laws, first introduced in 1997 by former Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., bar the Department of Defense and the State Department from providing funding to foreign security force units when credible evidence exists that those units have committed “gross violations of human rights.”
Tom Gross, an international affairs analyst, sharply criticized Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks in comments to Fox News Digital. “AOC has flown all the way to Munich — infamous as the city in which Hitler staged his Nazi Beer Hall Putsch that marked the beginning of the road to the Holocaust — in order to smear the Jewish people further with a phony genocide allegation.”
Gross continued, “Such preposterous allegations of ‘genocide’ form the bedrock of modern antisemitic incitement against Jews in the U.S. and globally. This shocking ignorance and insensitivity by Ocasio-Cortez should rule her out of any potential presidential bid or other high office.”
Specialists in military history and genocide studies have also challenged the claim that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide. They argue that the legal definition under international law requires specific intent to eliminate a protected group, a threshold they contend has not been met.
Danny Orbach, a military historian at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and co-author of “Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7 2023, to June 1, 2025,” told Fox News Digital that Ocasio-Cortez’s allegation is an “accusation that is incorrect both factually and legally. Under the Genocide Convention, genocide requires proof of a special intent to destroy a protected group, in whole or in part, and as a baseline condition, an active effort to maximize civilian destruction.
“The evidence shows the opposite: as demonstrated in our multi-author study Debunking the Genocide Allegations, Israel undertook unprecedented measures to mitigate civilian harm, including establishing humanitarian safe zones that independently verified data show were approximately six times safer than other areas of Gaza.”
Orbach further stated, “Israel also issued detailed advance warnings before strikes and facilitated the entry of over two million tons of humanitarian aid, often at significant cost to its own military advantage, including the loss of surprise and the sustainment of an enemy during wartime.”
He concluded, “These measures were taken despite Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, its systematic use of human shields and hospitals for military purposes, and a tunnel network exceeding 1,000 kilometers — an operational challenge without historical precedent. Finally, no credible evidence demonstrates the kind of unambiguous, exclusive genocidal intent toward Palestinians that international law requires and that cannot be reasonably interpreted otherwise.”
Conservative commentator Derek Hunter also weighed in, writing on X, “Imagine going to Germany to complain about a fake genocide by Jews…in Munich, of all places. @AOC is about as smart as clogged toilet.”
In December 2024, Germany aligned with the United States in formally rejecting claims that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide.
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Bnei Brak City Council Director-General Yisroel Ehrenstein has sharply criticized police conduct surrounding the unrest in the city, suggesting that the escalation may not have been accidental. In an interview outlining the sequence of events, Ehrenstein argued that the initial confrontation could have been avoided and questioned the manner in which both the military police soldiers and later police reinforcements handled the situation.
According to Ehrenstein, the episode began when two female military police soldiers entered Hagai Street in Bnei Brak. He said the municipality has yet to receive a clear, official explanation regarding the purpose of their visit. “It all starts when two soldiers enter Bnei Brak. We still have not received an orderly briefing explaining why they came and what the objective was,” he said.
He described the initial interaction as verbal provocation involving a small group of youths. “Apparently they encountered a small group of young people — a fringe, as we know there are extremists in Bnei Brak,” he stated. Ehrenstein claimed that local residents attempted to defuse the situation and advised the soldiers to leave the area in order to prevent tensions from rising. “People approached them and said it might be better to leave so there would not be a disturbance,” he said. “They chose to remain and effectively escalate the event. Based on how it later developed, either it was intentional, or there was some process aimed at reaching a certain outcome.”
Ehrenstein maintained that at the outset, the situation was still manageable and had not yet spiraled into violence. Even a motorcyclist who approached the area was reportedly told to leave, and tensions had not yet boiled over. However, he said that within a short time, large numbers of police forces began arriving, which in his view intensified the situation. While emphasizing that the city generally works in close coordination with local policing authorities, he argued that this time outside forces unfamiliar with the city were deployed.
He leveled particularly strong criticism at what he described as the conduct of some of those units. “They brought in forces not connected to the area who behaved in a disgraceful manner,” he asserted. Referring to municipal security camera footage, he claimed to have seen instances in which residents who were not involved in any disturbances were treated harshly. “They take a woman who is simply standing on the side, trembling in fear, and throw her to the ground. It’s horrifying,” he said.
At the same time, Ehrenstein made clear that the municipality condemns any violence by residents. “Of course we condemn any form of violence. It is not our way to set motorcycles on fire or overturn police vehicles,” he stressed, adding that those involved represent only a small minority and not the overwhelming majority of Bnei Brak’s residents.
He also pushed back against public descriptions of the incident as a “lynching,” calling that characterization a gross distortion. “To call this a lynching by the residents of Bnei Brak — that word is so far removed,” he said. He added that he reviewed footage showing what he described as harm to uninvolved individuals, including children and women. “I saw how they acted toward an eight-year-old child when a stun grenade exploded near him, a woman being humiliated, and a young boy wearing tefillin returning from cheder being taken even though he did nothing,” he said.
Ehrenstein emphasized that Bnei Brak is a densely populated city, particularly in the afternoon hours when thousands of children and kollel members fill the streets. “During those hours the streets are packed,” he noted, arguing that forceful policing tactics in such an environment heighten the risk of unnecessary escalation and harm to innocent bystanders.
He concluded by saying that city leadership is working to restore calm and renew coordination with law enforcement. The mayor, he said, has spoken with the district commander to ensure that future sensitive incidents are handled in a manner suited to the city’s unique character. The primary goal, Ehrenstein said, is to prevent further violence, restore residents’ sense of security, and return to responsible, coordinated management of public order.
{Matzav.com}
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s upcoming “rental ripoff” hearings are facing backlash after it was revealed that residents of public housing will not be permitted to testify — despite long-standing complaints that the agency overseeing those units is among the city’s most troubled landlords.
The administration is set to hold its first public session on Feb. 26. While promoted as an opportunity for tenants to raise concerns, the hearings will be limited to disputes involving renters and landlords in privately owned buildings. The roughly 500,000 residents living in properties managed by the New York City Housing Authority will not be included in the formal testimony process.
Landlords and housing advocates criticized the city for excluding NYCHA residents while encouraging tenants in private buildings to appear and speak about alleged abuses, including so-called “rental junk fees” tied to amenities such as pet ownership.
“The city’s own tenants—those living in public housing—are demanding a real plan to improve their living conditions,” said Humberto Lopes, CEO of Gotham Housing Alliance. “It appears the Mamdani administration woke up to their own hypocrisy.
“If these hearings were truly about holding bad landlords accountable, the over 500,000 residents in NYCHA would be able to meaningfully participate,” Lopes added. “This is clearly the city trying to distract from its own failures while putting on a show, instead of having a real conversation with property owners, renters, NYCHA residents, and everyone else about how to improve housing for all.”
Following criticism, the mayor’s office revised language on its website, adding a question-and-answer section responding to: “Are these hearings for NYCHA residents too?”
“While these hearings focus on price gouging and living conditions for private-market renters, senior leadership and staff from NYCHA will be on-site to ensure that residents can submit in-apartment repair requests, file heat/hot water complaints, or discuss development-wide issues,” the updated note said.
“In the coming months, our administration will release a housing plan focused on improving housing quality for all New Yorkers, including those in public housing.”
NYCHA has repeatedly been labeled the city’s poorest-performing landlord in annual reports issued by the public advocate’s office.
In 2019, the agency was placed under federal oversight due to dangerous living conditions and controversies that included falsely certifying inspections.
Mamdani pushed back against claims that the hearings should cover public housing, arguing that his administration is pursuing multiple strategies to address housing problems citywide.
“So we are going to be approaching the housing crisis in a wide variety of ways. One of those are these rental rip off hearings,” Mamdani told reporters Sunday at an unrelated event on Coney Island.
The mayor also pointed to what he described as years of inadequate federal funding for NYCHA, noting the authority’s massive capital needs.
“We will also continue to work with NYCHA residents to ensure that they are being delivered the quality of service they’ve long been denied,” Mamdani said. “And while we know that so much of the reason that NYCHA residents are living through a system that requires around $80 billion of capital improvements. By last count, is a lack of commitment from the federal government.”
Still, Lopes and other opponents argue that limiting the hearings to private housing reflects what they see as a flawed housing agenda. Among the policies they criticize is Mamdani’s support for freezing rents on nearly one million regulated apartments through the city’s Rent Guidelines Board.
Attention has also turned to Cea Weaver, director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, who has faced scrutiny over previous remarks criticizing homeownership and advocating aggressive government intervention in the housing market.
“Impoverish the white middle class. Homeownership is racist/failed public policy,” she once said.
“Elect more communists,” Weaver also said.
According to the mayor’s website, the hearings will involve the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the Department of Buildings, and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Other agencies, including NYCHA, will be present solely “to provide resources.”
