Israeli officials on Wednesday dismissed Hamas’s announcement that it was ready to release all hostages in exchange for ending the conflict in Gaza, insisting that the military offensive on Gaza City would proceed unless the terror group agrees to Jerusalem’s demand for a complete and lasting ceasefire.
Hamas’s message, which claimed the organization was still awaiting Israel’s response to a ceasefire arrangement it had already approved two weeks earlier, was issued shortly after US President Donald Trump pressed for the liberation of the surviving captives.
In its statement, Hamas declared its readiness “to enter into a comprehensive deal in which all enemy prisoners held by the resistance will be freed in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners held by the occupation.” The terror group consistently labels the hostages it is holding as prisoners.
“This agreement will end the war on the Gaza Strip, result in the withdrawal of all occupation forces from the entire Gaza Strip, open the border crossings to allow the entry of all the Gaza Strip’s necessities and start the process of rebuilding,” Hamas added.
The group further said it was prepared to establish “an independent national administration of technocrats” to govern the territory.
Israeli leaders, however, made clear that only a total surrender and disarmament by Hamas would be acceptable, with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu repeating this point in his reply to the terror group’s statement.
“This is more spin by Hamas, containing nothing new,” read the response from Netanyahu’s office.
The Prime Minister’s Office laid out five specific terms under which the conflict could be halted: freeing every hostage, dismantling Hamas’s arsenal, demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, ensuring Israeli security oversight in Gaza, and “the establishment of an alternative civilian administration that does not indoctrinate for terror, does not dispatch terror, and does not threaten Israel.”
“Only these conditions will prevent Hamas from rearming and repeating the October 7 massacre again and again, as it openly vows to do,” Netanyahu’s office warned.
Defense Minister Israel Katz delivered a similar ultimatum, saying Hamas must agree to Israel’s conditions — including disarmament and releasing the captives — or see Gaza City “become like Rafah and Beit Hanoun.” He accused Hamas of continuing to “deceive and utter empty words.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, responding to Netanyahu and Katz, maintained that while the government “does not have to accept Hamas’s conditions, it must immediately return to negotiations and try to close a deal.”
“You can’t not even try to return our hostages home,” Lapid said.
Yair Golan, head of The Democrats opposition faction, issued sharper criticism, accusing Netanyahu of once again prioritizing his own survival over the welfare of soldiers and hostages, saying the prime minister “is again choosing to forsake the lives of the hostages and soldiers for his own sake.”
At the same time, Israeli media reported that IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir is preparing to caution the government that taking Gaza City would force Israel to directly administer Gaza under military authority.
“There will be no choice but to impose military rule on all of Gaza from November,” Channel 12 quoted Zamir as planning to tell ministers.
According to the report, Zamir objects to the proposal of capturing Gaza City, preferring instead that Israel accept the ceasefire agreement that would free the hostages.
The network said Zamir intends to follow through with the military orders if instructed but is warning the government to brace for both international and security repercussions.
Despite these warnings, the government has continued to push forward with the Gaza City operation. This comes even though Hamas said it already signed on to a staged truce-and-hostage arrangement nearly identical to one Israel had earlier endorsed. In the meantime, Israeli leadership has rejected partial agreements, demanding instead a sweeping deal for the release of all captives together, coupled with Hamas’s capitulation.
The phased plan — which Hamas stated it accepted on August 18 — outlined the release of 10 living captives and the transfer of the remains of 18 dead hostages. In exchange, Israel would release hundreds of Palestinian security detainees and roughly 1,000 Gazan prisoners, with a 60-day pause in fighting. During that lull, discussions would continue for the release of the last 20 captives, of whom an estimated 10 to 12 are believed to still be alive, along with a final agreement to end the war.
{Matzav.com Israel}
Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza and one of the central figures behind the October 7 atrocities, spent much of his time hiding in the tunnel system constructed by the terror group beneath the Gaza Strip.
On Wednesday night, Channel 12 News reported that after Sinwar was killed in Rafah, security forces recovered a blood-soaked note from his pocket. The paper contained a hand-drawn diagram of the tunnel maze under the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, the same area where he was eventually tracked down and eliminated.
The report stated that Sinwar personally sketched the map. The document, stained with blood after he was shot, highlighted possible escape routes he planned to use if Israeli forces closed in on his location.
In addition to escape paths, the map included special code names that Sinwar had designated for various sections of the underground network, marking the places he had likely hidden during the Israeli army’s maneuvers above ground.
As the IDF pressed forward, systematically dismantling the Hamas tunnels in Rafah—especially those beneath Tel al-Sultan—Sinwar was forced out of his underground shelter and attempted to remain in hiding. His efforts failed, and nearly a year after the war began, he was killed.
Months after his death, Al Jazeera aired footage from Gaza that showed Sinwar in Rafah before his elimination, directing Hamas fighters and moving through the city.
The broadcasts showed him in disguise around the Tel al-Sultan camp, covering himself with a blanket while slipping between ruined buildings to supervise the fighting. Another clip revealed him examining maps inside a Rafah residence, where Hebrew words on the wall suggested Israeli troops had previously occupied the house.
{Matzav.com}
A federal judge on Wednesday dealt a major blow to the Trump administration’s plan to cut off $2.2 billion in research funding to Harvard University, according to a Fox News report. The ruling effectively blocks the administration’s attempt to halt the grants.
The judgment represents a decisive win for Harvard, which has been in a prolonged legal dispute with Washington over whether the government could use funding to exert influence on academic institutions and undermine constitutional safeguards.
Judge Allison D. Burroughs, who authored an 84-page opinion, strongly rebuked the administration’s reasoning for freezing the funds, asserting that it “used antisemitism as a smokescreen” to illegitimately disrupt federal support. She stressed the importance of fighting antisemitism while also safeguarding basic rights.
“We must fight against antisemitism, but we equally need to protect our rights, including our right to free speech, and neither goal should nor needs to be sacrificed on the altar of the other,” Burroughs wrote, according to Fox News.
She went on to underscore that the courts have a duty to preserve core liberties and prevent political agendas from interfering with higher education research.
“Now it is the job of the courts to similarly step up, to act to safeguard academic freedom and freedom of speech as required by the Constitution, and to ensure that important research is not improperly subjected to arbitrary and procedurally infirm grant terminations, even if doing so risks the wrath of a government committed to its agenda no matter the cost,” she wrote.
The administration had escalated its actions against Harvard following criticism of the university’s handling of antisemitism on campus, implementing a freeze on billions of dollars in federal research grants.
Along with the funding freeze, President Trump had also floated the idea of stripping Harvard of its tax-exempt status.
The decision comes in response to a lawsuit Harvard filed in April, contesting the freeze as unconstitutional. Both Harvard and the administration had asked for a summary judgment to avoid dragging the case into a lengthy trial as the new school year approached. Harvard’s attorneys claimed the funding block was an unlawful attempt by the federal government to exert dominance over prestigious universities.
Reports last month suggested Harvard was nearing a $500 million settlement with the administration that would restore its federal funding and conclude ongoing probes.
The university has declined to publicly address those settlement reports.
President Donald Trump himself commented on the matter, suggesting a deal could be possible.
“Well it’s a lot of money,” Trump told reporters. “We’re negotiating with Harvard now. They would like to settle, so we’ll see what happens.”
{Matzav.com}
By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
In our world, much of our lives revolve around our children. Our schedules conform to the school schedules and we do whatever we can to ensure and enhance our children’s growth and education. The mountains and vacation destinations emptied out as the summer people packed up and returned to the city life they had escaped from, because school was about to begin. The summer came to a quick conclusion because our children’s chinuch takes precedence over all else.
It’s been a long time since I began my schooling career at age four at Yeshiva of Spring Valley’s Pre-1A. I don’t remember what the first day was like and how long it took to get adjusted to my new life, so personal experience is not what prompted me to write about “the first day of school.”
It was something else. It was a letter from my grandson’s morah last year. The letter portrayed, for me at least, the greatness of those among us who dedicate their lives to the chinuch of our children — and grandchildren.
My grandson, who is now five years old, attended Yeshiva Nachalei Torah last year for kindergarten. The Lakewood school is run by Rav Meir and Rebbetzin Leah Pincovics. Mrs. Pincovics is the morah of the kindergarten class. The amount of information that she imparts to her young charges — and the geshmak they have in learning — is phenomenal. My grandson had a great year there, but his parents decided to send him to a different school for Pre-1A/Primary.
When he came home from the first day of yeshiva, there was an envelope waiting for him on the kitchen table. It was a letter addressed to him, handwritten by Morah Leah in various magic marker colors, wishing him hatzlocha in Primary and expressing confidence that he will shteig and become a big talmid chochom. She also wished him a kesivah vachasimah tovah, and to top it off, she included a candy in the envelope.
I was very impressed. Here she was setting up her school for opening day, writing a letter filled with love to a little boy who had left her school, giving him chizuk on a day she knew would be hard for him. Such dedication to the craft of chinuch deserves to be appreciated and applauded, as it reminds us why mechanchim are heroes of Jewish life. I decided to write about mechanchim and children and the first day of school.
As the school year begins, a familiar scene unfolds across our communities: freshly pressed uniforms, crisp notebooks, name tags on knapsacks, and the hum of school buses pulling up to yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs. Behind this back-to-school energy lies something far more delicate: the quiet, inner world of our children’s emotions.
For many children, especially the younger ones, these first weeks of school are filled with uncertainty. Everything is new. A new rebbi, a new morah, new kids, and new expectations. A classroom filled with pressure and unknowns. Even the most confident child can feel overwhelmed. The comfort of last year — the familiar routines, the teacher who they came to love and who loved them back, the classmates they trusted and made friends with — vanished overnight. Even the most confident child can suddenly feel small again.
And some, especially those who struggle socially or academically, walk into that classroom carrying invisible worries heavier than their backpacks.
The children sit on the edge of their seats, unsure of what is expected of them. Some look around the room at all the strange faces and wonder if they’ll be able to make friends this year. Some are already quietly comparing themselves, asking: Will my rebbi like me? Will I understand what he teaches? How will I ever adjust to this?
Children are people just as grownups are. They have feelings and emotions, fear and trepidations. Every year is a new beginning and each grade is a new world. They finally got comfortable in last year’s environment and made it work for themselves, and here they have to start all over again.
They dare not express their fears, as they don’t want to be perceived as babies. They want their parents to be proud of them and they want to be proud of themselves, but those first days and weeks of school can be crushing.
This is a time when our children need us — and their teachers — more than ever.
As parents, we have a sacred task: to provide emotional support, encouragement, and a sense of security. A calm conversation at the breakfast table, a validating conversation at bedtime, a reassuring word when they come home after school. These small gestures build emotional resilience and security, and can shape how a child experiences the school year. Our children don’t need us to fix everything. They need us to see them, to believe in them, and to give them the strength and support they need to move forward.
We need to let them know that everyone makes mistakes and that’s okay, because it is part of the learning process. We need to make sure that they know that growth takes time and effort, and that they shouldn’t become disheartened along the way.
But this journey doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
Standing quietly but powerfully at the front lines of this transition are the rabbeim and moros who devote their lives to chinuch. In our world, a teacher is never “just” a teacher. For their students, great teachers are a living embodiment of Torah, yiras Shomayim, and middos tovos. Every lesson they teach is not just about knowledge. It’s about identity. It’s about building bnei and bnos Torah who carry the spark of mesorah within them.
What makes a teacher great?
Great teachers see the potential in every student, even when those children can’t see it in themselves. They make students believe they can. They listen when no one else does. They notice when something is wrong. They find ways to reach the quiet ones, the struggling ones, and the ones who act out because they’re hurting.
Great teachers don’t just teach. They care.
This kind of dedication often goes unnoticed. It happens in early mornings and late nights filled with grading, planning, and worrying. It happens in classrooms. It happens in the moments when a teacher chooses kindness over frustration, encouragement over criticism, and hope over resignation. It happens when teachers bring out the greatness that lies inside every child and perfects the diamond they have been entrusted with, enhancing it, polishing it, and causing it to shine.
Being a rebbi or morah, or generally being involved in chinuch, is not just a job. It’s a calling. And those who answer that call do so not for fame or fortune — there is little of either — but because they believe in the power of chinuch and the importance of every child.
It’s not just their ability to explain a Rashi clearly or organize a creative project for parshas hashovua, which is of course of primary importance. It’s their sensitivity to the children sitting in the corner with fear in their eyes. Great teachers sense the nervous child who’s unsure of himself. They notice the teary eyes, the clenched jaw, the child who’s desperately hoping to be seen and appreciated.
They ensure that the better students excel and don’t become bored, and at the same time gently guide those who are falling behind. They speak words that build and encourage and don’t break.
Being a good mechaneich goes far beyond the lesson plan. It’s about connection. It’s about patience. It’s about showing up physically, emotionally and mentally every day.
Mechanchim and mechanchos give not only their time and energy. They give their hearts. They teach with love, with devotion, and with the unshakable belief that every child has greatness inside.
This mesirus nefesh is real. It is the rebbi who davens at the kever of the parent of a yasom who isn’t doing well in yeshiva. It’s the morah who checks in with a shy girl at recess because she noticed she hadn’t spoken all morning. It’s the teacher who davens with her names of her students on her lips, asking Hashem to give her clarity, confidence, and connection.
A remarkable rebbi — and there are many — has a student who is awkward socially and academically, who is dismissed by others as a “lost cause.” But the rebbi doesn’t see a loser in front of him. He sees a neshomah. Each day, he finds different ways to encourage that neshomah and help it grow, study and fit in, enabling it to blossom. Rabbeim and moros don’t only teach Torah. They make children. They fashion them into vessels capable of learning and understanding and growing in Torah and life.
That’s chinuch. That’s greatness.
Behind every report card, every kriah breakthrough, every improved middah, and every step forward is a rebbi or morah who gave of themselves, quietly, consistently, and wholeheartedly. So many go far beyond the call of duty. They give up their own time and family hours to prepare lessons or reach out to parents. They buy supplies with their own money and have a steady supply of treats to entice children to learn and behave and mature to the point where they no longer need enticements.
Teachers don’t ask for kavod and too often don’t get what they deserve.
As parents and as a community, we must recognize what they are doing. We must express our hakoras hatov, not just with thank-you cards at the end of the year, but by displaying respect, giving them chizuk throughout the year, and letting them know in tangible ways that they are appreciated. Now, too, as school begins again, it’s the perfect time to stop and appreciate those who step into the sacred role of melamdei Torah l’amo Yisroel day in and day out.
They are also people, and everyone, no matter what they do, can use chizuk, especially when they are taken for granted.
As this new school year unfolds, let us remember what matters most.
To every rebbi and morah entering this year with a full heart, thank you. Your job is sacred. Your impact is immeasurable and eternal.
And to all the parents sending children off to school — sometimes teary-eyed and sometimes with a broad smile — know that your love, encouragement, and calm presence are the most powerful tools you can give them.
Let us remember that every child walks into school carrying hopes and fears. That what they need most is a warm smile, a safe environment, and someone who believes in them, at home and in the classroom.
Let us remember the greatness of our teachers — their patience, their passion, their mesirus nefesh, and the quiet heroism they display every single day.
May this school year be filled with hatzlocha and growth in yedias haTorah, emunah, middos and everything else.
And let us daven that rabbeim and moros be blessed with health, strength, siyata diShmaya, and nachas from their students. May their efforts bear fruit in ways they may never even see, and may we, as parents and a community, merit to have our efforts repaid with much nachas and joy.
{Matzav.com}
French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly sought to make an unplanned visit to Israel, but the proposal was declined, according to a report broadcast Wednesday night by Kan 11 News. The rejection was said to have come with a stipulation attached.
The report explained that Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu relayed to Macron that a visit would only be possible if Macron backed away from his plan to formally recognize a Palestinian state. Macron, however, did not agree to that condition.
An Israeli official cited in the piece stated, “We won’t let Macron play both sides.”
Former French parliament member Meyer Habib also confirmed to Kan 11 that Macron attempted to arrange a visit but was rebuffed by Netanyahu.
“Macron sent a message to Netanyahu expressing his desire to come, but Netanyahu responded that under the current circumstances, it’s not the right time for a visit,” Habib explained.
Strained ties between Paris and Jerusalem had already been evident before Macron declared, on September 22 at the UN General Assembly, that he intended to recognize a Palestinian state. His stance has been accompanied by ongoing criticism of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
Macron has gone so far as to push twice for halting weapons sales to Israel, arguing that “stopping the export of weapons” used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon is the only way to bring the fighting to an end.
He later asserted that Israel’s continued strikes in Gaza could amount to breaches of international humanitarian law.
In August, Netanyahu addressed Macron in writing, saying antisemitism had “surged” in France after the French leader’s announcement that Paris would recognize a Palestinian state.
In his letter, Netanyahu charged, “Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on this antisemitic fire. It is not diplomacy, it is appeasement. It rewards Hamas terror, hardens Hamas’s refusal to free the hostages, emboldens those who menace French Jews and encourages the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets.”
The French Presidency denounced Netanyahu’s criticism, labeling it “abject” and “erroneous,” and responded that France “protects and will always protect its Jewish citizens.”
{Matzav.com}
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U.S. authorities have intercepted a massive shipment of precursor chemicals used in drug production, halting what officials say was a supply headed from China to the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. The seizure, which took place on the high seas, involved hundreds of thousands of pounds of chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine.
Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, revealed the details at a press conference in Pasadena, Texas, calling it the largest seizure ever of precursor chemicals bound for a foreign terrorist group.
“Tons of chemicals that are used to create synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl are shipped from China to Mexico in China’s undeclared war against America,” Pirro said.
According to Pirro, agents confiscated 1,300 barrels holding 363,000 pounds of benzyl alcohol and another 334,000 pounds of N-Methylformamide from two separate vessels. Both substances are precursors that could have been used to make 420,000 pounds of methamphetamine.
Pirro explained that if the chemicals had reached their destination, the methamphetamine derived from them would have been worth at least $569 million on the street.
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said investigators are now focused on disrupting supply lines by targeting precursor shipments instead of waiting for the finished product to appear.
“Had these precursors made it to the destination, they would have made hundreds of thousands of pounds of methamphetamine, with profits of over half a billion dollars, which would lead to more American deaths here, not only in Houston, but all across the country,” Lyons said.
These types of substances are strictly regulated, since they can be used to make not only powerful narcotics but also explosives.
Pirro did not give specifics about where on the open sea the chemicals were seized, though she confirmed the 1,300 barrels were found packed inside shipping containers.
She said the barrels had been shipped out of Shanghai, China, and were intended to arrive in Mexico for use by the Sinaloa Cartel. Once converted to methamphetamine, the drugs would have likely been smuggled into the United States.
Pirro noted that such a loss will significantly set back the cartel, though criminal networks will eventually try to recover.
The Trump administration has continued to press China over its role in supplying chemicals that fuel the fentanyl crisis in the U.S., which has claimed tens of thousands of lives annually.
Separately, the U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it had imposed sanctions on Guangzhou Tengyue Chemical Co., Ltd., a Chinese chemical company, along with two of its executives, Huang Xiaojun and Huang Zhanpeng. They were accused of producing and arranging shipments of illicit opioids and other chemical agents to the United States.
{Matzav.com}
