Weekly roundup of world briefs

Herzog hosts families of IDF spotters kidnapped by Hamas  

(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog and his wife Michal on Tuesday hosted the families of five female Israel Defense Forces soldiers who were kidnapped from the IDF Field Observers base in Nahal Oz by Hamas on Oct. 7. 

Karina Ariev, Liri Albag, Daniela Gilboa, Naama Levy and Agam Berger have been held captive in Gaza ever since. Last month, The Hostages and Missing Families Forum released video footage of their abduction filmed by the terrorists themselves. 

During the meeting, the Herzogs discussed with the families the efforts being taken to secure the release and safe return of the hostages.

“Five young women being dragged away by monstrous Hamas terrorists,” tweeted Herzog following the meeting. “This video shows the harrowing moments on October 7th, when five young female soldiers from a lookout post protecting towns and kibbutzim in southern Israel, were beaten, threatened with rape, and brutally taken hostage by Hamas terrorists from Gaza. The video has been released by the brave families and we continue to offer them all our strength and love,” he wrote. 

“Liri, Karina, Agam, Daniella, and Naama are all still in Hamas captivity and we are fighting to bring them home, as well as all other hostages. The world must look at this cruel atrocity. Those who care about women’s rights must speak out. All those who believe in freedom must speak out, and do everything possible to bring all of the hostages home now,” he added. 

Since the onset of the war, the president has regularly met with hostages’ families. Over the past week, he has stepped up his calls for their release. 

Switzerland rejects Palestinian state recognition

(JNS) — Switzerland’s House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected a motion to recognize Palestinian statehood by a vote of 131 to 61, with two abstentions.

The motion was put forward by National Council member Fabian Molina of the Social Democratic Party, with the support of the Greens.

It called for the recognition of “Palestine” on the condition that the Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7 be released.

According to a report in SWI swissinfo.ch, “the tone was, at times, emotional.”

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has stated that Bern’s position is supportive of an Israeli state and Palestinian state side by side with recognized borders.

“However, the Federal Council does not believe that the time is right to recognise Palestine,” the article stated.

Australia’s Parliament last week voted down by 80-5 a proposal to recognize a “State of Palestine.”

The Swiss rejection comes as a number of other European countries recognize Palestinian statehood in the wake of the Hamas-led attack on Oct.7 and ensuing war in Gaza, with Slovenia becoming the latest to make the move.

IDF launches two counter-terror ops in central Gaza

(JNS) — Israeli forces on Tuesday started targeted operations in two areas of the central Gaza Strip based on intelligence indicating terrorist activity there—Bureij and eastern Deir al-Balah. 

The operations kicked off with an aerial assault hitting “military” compounds, weapons depots and underground infrastructure. Several Hamas terrorists were killed.

At the same time, ground troops began going after terrorists and infrastructure.

“The troops are operating to dismantle terrorist infrastructure located several kilometers away from the border with Israel above and below ground,” the IDF said.

Israeli forces are also operating elsewhere in the central Strip, including an IAF fighter jet that killed an enemy sniper and another aircraft eliminating a terrorist cell identified by ground troops.

In addition, targeted operations in the Rafah area of southernmost Gaza are continuing, with soldiers locating weapons and killing armed terrorists who posed a threat to them.

US Justice Department releases new training program on Jew-hatred

(JNS) — The Community Relations Service, part of the U.S. Justice Department that bills itself as “America’s peacemaker,” announced a new four-hour long, five-part training program titled “Understanding and building relationships with Jewish communities.”

The free program is “designed to educate law enforcement, schools, religious and secular communities and public and private organizations toward a more positive and supportive engagement with Jewish Americans and communities,” according to the Justice Department.

It added that the training is “informed by current data and peer-reviewed historical research,” and that representatives of “major” U.S. Jewish groups helped produce it.

The program provides “historically accurate” lessons on Jewish identity, belief, practice and values and offers a “clear view” of the harm that Jew-hatred causes, per the department. The initiative also addresses preventing hate crimes and antisemitism and creating a “community engagement plan” that “would build inter-community relationships based on mutual trust, communication and respect.”

The Justice Department announced that it is also working with several U.S. Arab organizations to design a course titled “Engaging and building relationships with Arab Americans.”

Hundreds volunteer for new Gaza border counterterror unit

(JNS) — Days after its official inauguration, hundreds of Israel Defense Forces reservists have already volunteered to serve in a new elite counterterror unit created to protect Gaza border towns, the army said on Wednesday.

The unit, known as “LOTAR Otef”—the latter word being the Hebrew term for the Gaza envelope—was incorporated on Monday in the IDF’s 143rd (Gaza) Division as part of “learning the lessons that have emerged from the initial investigations into the events of Oct. 7,” the army announced.

The unit, commanded by a lieutenant colonel in the reserves, will consist of troops who previously served in special forces, live in the Gaza border towns or nearby communities, and will be ready for quick deployment.

Unit members will undergo specific counterterrorism training for “the challenges of the area,” according to the military statement. Hundreds of reservists have already applied and will begin training soon.

After the “blow” Israel received on Oct. 7, the new unit will serve “as a magnet for all those who have the defense of the homeland and the desire to continue their contribution to the country before their eyes,” said the commander, who was only identified by his Hebrew initial.

Efforts underway to launch new seminary for Reform movement in Cincinnati

“It’s not a challenge. It’s a crisis,” Micah Greenstein, senior rabbi at Temple Israel in Memphis, Tenn., said of the struggle to replace retiring rabbis.

Actor Michael Douglas visits Kibbutz Be’eri, hard hit by Hamas on Oct. 7

(JNS) — During a solidarity trip to Israel this week, Jewish actor Michael Douglas, 79, met with the families of hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip and toured areas of the country’s south, including the site of the Nova music festival, where 364 attendees were murdered on Oct. 7 by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists after they infiltrated the southern border.

On Sunday, he visited Kibbutz Be’eri, witnessing the devastation and speaking with survivors. About 100 members of its community were murdered with 30 taken captive by Hamas and brought into Gaza.

Douglas also met in Jerusalem with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who presented him with an Israeli dog-tag necklace, a pin with a yellow ribbon and a disc with the engraved words, “Our heart is a prisoner in Gaza”—all symbols of support for those still held hostage by Hamas.

Herzog told Douglas during their meeting that so many in the world “don’t know the true story of the existence of the Jewish people,” before pointing to how Muslims and Christians live within Israel in peace.

Commenting on the pro-Hamas protesters on North American college campuses since Oct. 7, Douglas called the students “brainwashed,” lamenting: “When you try to talk to many of them, there is no education. There’s no knowledge.”

Gaza pier will cost $90 million less than expected, Pentagon says

(JNS) — The U.S. Department of Defense is projecting that the floating pier, which it used to transport aid to Palestinians until it broke on May 25 and had to be taken offline for repairs, will cost more than 25 percent less than expected.

Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon press secretary, told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. Central Command’s Joint Logistics, Over-the-Shore—the technical name for the pier—is expected to cost $90 million less. It was predicted to cost $320 million.

The new estimate, $230 million, includes costs of repairs, Singh said.

“Costs for contracted trucks, drivers and commercial vessels were lower than expected and the United Kingdom contributed a berthing vessel for soldiers and sailors,” the Pentagon said.

Singh added “a reminder, these are estimates and initial assessments,” and “the cost could fluctuate depending on the length of the mission and future cost—an example of that being additional repairs.”

She added that the repairs could be done, and the pier delivered and reattached to the shore as soon as the end of the week. “As soon as the temporary pier is re-anchored to the beach in Gaza, we expect aid to flow pretty immediately,” she said.

IDF strikes Hamas terrorists hiding in UNRWA school

(JNS) — IAF fighter jets carried out a precision strike on a Hamas terror compound inside an UNRWA school in the Nuseirat area of central Gaza overnight Wednesday, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Several terrorists were killed in the strike, who the IDF said were planning to carry out imminent terrorist attacks against Israeli forces.

The Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives in the compound, including members of Hamas’s Nukhba force who participated in the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre, directed attacks from the school while “exploiting it and using it as a shelter,” the army said.

An estimated 20 to 30 terrorists were gathered at the U.N. school when it was struck, the IDF later clarified, adding that the terrorists were located in three classrooms separate from an area where civilians were sheltering and that the strike was delayed twice to avoid harming civilians.

The facility was surveilled from the air and other intelligence was gathered prior to the strike to minimize the risk to noncombatants, according to the IDF.

Hamas claimed that at least 27 people were killed in the strike, calling it a “massacre.”

Israel released an infographic showing where the terrorists were operating in the school complex.

Rafah operation to end within weeks, IDF projects

By Lilach Shoval

(Israel Hayom via JNS) — The Israeli military estimates that the operation in Gaza’s Rafah city will be completed within a few weeks, in line with initial estimates.

The operation is “progressing and precise,” and its objectives will be fully achieved by the end of the month, with a focus on the underground infrastructure both in Rafah itself and under the Philadelphi Corridor, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Concurrently, IDF operations continue elsewhere in Gaza.

With the conclusion of the intensive operation in Rafah, decisions will need to be made regarding both the Gaza Strip and the situation along Israel’s northern border. 

The military is preparing for campaign in the north against Hezbollah, however it has clarified that a recent call-up of an additional 50,000 reservists is related to the Rafah operation, not the situation in the north.

Florida man facing death sentence allowed to cover swastika face tattoos for trial

(JNS) — A Florida man facing a potential death sentence was granted permission to cover a swastika tattoo under his right eye, after his lawyers argued it could bias the jury against him.

Accused of murdering two women in 2019—one by strangulation and the other with a car—Wade Wilson, 30, allegedly confessed to his father and ex-girlfriend. He spent the last five years behind bars, his trial delayed by his first attorney’s death and his escape attempt. The trial began on Monday in a Cape Floral courthouse.

Despite Judge Nicholas Thompson’s approval of his lawyers’ request to cover up a small swastika under his right eye and other images, most of the defendant’s provocative body art remained visible.

Other intimidating illustrations Wilson chose to apply to his face include lines extending up his checks from his mouth like a cut-out smile, with simulated stitches holding his face together, reminiscent of the Joker antagonist in the Batman film “The Dark Knight.”

Additional charges against Wilson include grand theft auto, battery, burglary and petty theft.

Jewish students, blocked from UCLA campus, file suit against school

(JNS) — The University of California, Los Angeles allegedly allowed pro-Hamas protesters to prevent Jewish students from entering campus this spring, according to a lawsuit.

Three Jewish students—Yitzchok Frankel, Joshua Ghayoum and Eden Shemuelian—filed suit against their school, charging that UCLA had “deteriorated into a hotbed of antisemitism.”

In Frankel v. Regents of the University of California, the students state that “on April 25, 2024, and continuing until May 2, 2024, UCLA allowed a group of activists to set up barricades in the center of campus and establish an encampment that blocked access to critical educational infrastructure on campus.”

The nonprofit Becket Fund for Religious Liberty represents the students.

“If masked agitators had excluded any other marginalized group at UCLA, Governor Newsom rightly would have sent in the National Guard immediately,” said Mark Rienzi, president and CEO of Becket. “But UCLA instead caved to the antisemitic activists and allowed its Jewish students to be segregated from the heart of their own campus. That is a profound and illegal failure of leadership.”

Delta, United airlines resume flights to Israel

(JNS) — At 3:30 p.m. in Newark, N.J., United Airlines flight 84 departed from terminal C, gate 138 at Newark Liberty International Airport on Thursday, June 6. It arrived on Friday, June 7, in Tel Aviv at Ben-Gurion International Airport at 8:55 a.m. local time.

The flight was United’s “second return to Israel since the war broke out in October,” per The Points Guy. “United returned to the market briefly earlier this year, but it stopped flights again after an escalation between Israel and Iran in April.”

The airline aims to relaunch flights to Israel from Chicago, San Fransisco and Washington, D.C., in late October, according to the site.

Following an “extensive security risk assessment,” Delta planned to resume daily, nonstop flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport on June 7.

Arson attacks in Samaria nearly double those in May 2023

(JNS) — Some 40 arson attacks occurred in Samaria last month—a nearly 100 percent increase over the 21 recorded acts of criminal fire setting in May 2023, according to data the Samaria Regional Council published.

The Mount Kabir Nature Reserve northeast of Nablus (Shechem) has been set afire twice, with flames almost reaching a 700-year-old tree on the site.

Fire attacks were also recorded in Nahal Shiloh, Yitzhar and Itamar Heights, according to reports.

On May 27, Israeli firefighters battled some 70 blazes across Judea and Samaria. Some of those fires appeared to be arson.