Israel-Hamas war: Israel Defense Forces report heavy fighting in northern Gaza

Several Democrat members of Congress have a long history of public support
for an organization whose leader recently ignited a firestorm over controversial comments regarding Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israeli citizens.

Nihad Awad, the executive director and co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), recently said that he was “happy to see” the October 7 Hamas invasion of Israel and that the Jewish state did not have a right to self-defense because it is an “occupying power.”

“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on Oct. 7,” Awad said at the 16th Annual Convention for Palestine in the U.S. on Nov. 24. “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their land that they were not free to walk in.”

He continued, “And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense — have the right to defend themselves. And yes, Israel as an occupying power does not have that right to self-defense.”

Awad’s comments forced the White House to scramble and scrub CAIR as a committed partner to fight antisemitism on its website. A White House spokesperson also strongly reprimanded his comments in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“We condemn these shocking, Antisemitic statements in the strongest terms,” the White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “The horrific, brutal terrorist attacks committed by Hamas on October 7th were, as President Biden said, ‘abhorrent’ and represent ‘unadulterated evil.'”

Meanwhile, dozens of federal lawmakers across the U.S. have previously expressed support for CAIR, as featured on the organization’s website, and some remained silent when asked by Fox News Digital about the co-founder’s stance on the horrific attacks that left 1,200 dead and others captured.

Sen. Krysten Sinema, I-Ariz., who is facing re-election in the 2024 cycle, previously applauded CAIR’s work as “advocating for a more just society” and also accepted thousands of dollars in campaign donations from former directors and chairs of the group’s Arizona chapter.

“This organization’s inspiring service is a testimony to your success in creating a nurturing and supportive, responsive organization,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who is currently facing criminal bribery charges.

In 2019, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, praised the group “for empowering American Muslims nationwide in political and social activism through our country,” as written on CAIR’s website.

U.S. military sources tell Fox News Digital that American forces have been attacked 87 times in the Middle East since October 17.

The latest attacks against the U.S. by Yemeni Houthis are being viewed as a major escalation in the Middle East as the Israel-Hamas war continues.

American forces shot down 3 drones in Eastern Syria.

The French warship Languedoc shot down two incoming Houthi drones while patrolling the Red Sea on Saturday.

This comes on the same day that the Iranian-backed Houthi leaders announced that its forces would target any ships heading to or from Israel, effectively a virtual blockade of Israel’s ports that threatens Israeli commerce.

Fox News Digital’s Jennifer Griffin and Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report.

Hundreds of protesters assembled in Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon to show support for Palestinians amid the Israeli military’s war against Hamas.

According to FOX 5 New York, the march began at the Brooklyn Museum shortly after 1 p.m. and headed towards New York City Hall.

Fox News Digital video shows a massive number of protestors flooding roadways, waving Palestinian flags and chanting. Dozens of NYPD officers were observed at the scene.

Protestors held up signs reading “Cease-Fire Now” and “Long Live the Resistance.” Hundreds of protestors were also heard chanting “From the River to the Sea.”

A growing body of Jewish students at the University of Pennsylvania have voiced their concerns about campus life in the wake of now-former university president Liz Magill’s controversial testimony earlier in the week. 

UPenn student Kevin Bina told FOX 29 that his fellow fraternity members “don’t even feel comfortable walking outside our house wearing their kippahs just because they don’t know if they’re going to be harassed.” 

Another student, Leah Weinberger, said many Jewish students are reconsidering their application to UPenn after Magill’s testimony. 

Read the full article on the University of Pennsylvania by Bradford Betz

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in Brooklyn to protest the Israeli government on Saturday afternoon, with at least one protester burning an Israeli flag.

Hundreds of demonstrators met outside the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday before moving onto the Brooklyn Bridge, according to FOX 5 New York.

One male protester was seen lighting an Israeli flag on fire on the pathway of the Brooklyn Bridge. Behind him, hundreds of demonstrators were chanting.

Another demonstrator climbed up the Brooklyn Bridge to wave a Palestinian flag. Protesters also released green smoke and help up anti-Israel signs during the event.

Fox News Digital reached out to the New York Police Department for more information, but has not heard back.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., applauded the resignation of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill on Saturday.

Magill resigned Saturday after days of criticism following her appearance at a Congressional hearing Tuesday, where she failed to give a clear answer to Stefanik’s question asking if calls for the genocide of Jews would violate university conduct.

“One down. Two to go,” Stefanik posted to X Saturday. “This is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions in America. This forced resignation of the president of @Penn is the bare minimum of what is required. These universities can anticipate a robust and comprehensive Congressional investigation of all facets of their institutions negligent perpetration of antisemitism including administrative, faculty, funding, and overall leadership and governance.”

Read the full article on Elise Stefanik by Adam Sabes

A New York City Jewish man was repeatedly punched and robbed on the first day of Hanukkah outside his home in Brooklyn. 

The suspect approached the victim in front of 906 Eastern Parkway just after 7:30 p.m., police said. The victim, a 40-year-old male, was wearing “traditional Jewish attire,” per the NYPD. 

The suspect repeatedly punched the victim in the head and stole his cellphone while making an antisemitic statement, police said. 

Read the full article on antisemitism in NYC by Bradford Betz

A Russian diplomat has warned that Israel’s plan to flood Hamas tunnels in order to flush out the terrorists may constitute a war crime. 

“War crimes are snowballing — shocking reports have been circulated in recent days that Israel plans to flood underground facilities in the Gaza Strip with seawater,” Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said during a United Nations Security Council meeting this week. 

“According to open sources, the IDF has already built a system of pumps and pipes to pump seawater and is currently discussing with the United States practical aspects of such flooding: whether there will be enough water or if the tunnels’ ‘topography’ is fit for that and so on. Such a step, if made, will constitute a blatant war crime,” Polyansky argued. 

Read the full article about Russia by Peter Aitken

Secretary of State Antony Blinken came under fire this week for what one combat-veteran lawmaker characterized as “lecturing” Israel’s war cabinet, as the Biden administration faces pressure from its left flank to facilitate an end to fighting against Hamas in Gaza.

Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a decorated retired Green Beret, told FOX News that Israel will end up in a surrender if it continues to follow “President Biden’s edicts.”

“I think that will be a green light for Hezbollah, for the militias in Syria and their masters in Iran to realize their dream before they even get a nuke, of genocide in Israel and wiping Israel off the face of the Earth.”

Read the article about Antony Blinken by Charles Creitz

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released video on Saturday that allegedly shows Hamas terrorists beating up civilians.

The IDF said on X that the aerial footage also depicts Hamas members stealing humanitarian aid.

“Hamas members beat civilians and steal the humanitarian aid they received from international organizations—facilitated by Israel,” the IDF wrote.

“Hamas puts its terrorist goals over Gazans’ needs,” the post added.

University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill has resigned after widespread public outrage over her testimony to Congress on antisemitism. 

“I write to share that President Liz Magill has voluntarily tendered her resignation as President of the University of Pennsylvania. She will remain a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law,” Board of Trustees Chairman Scott L. Bok wrote in a statement.

Magill resigned days after major donor Ross Stevens rescinded a $100 million gift to the school in protest of the college’s handling of antisemitism on campus and her leadership. The board of Penn’s Wharton business school also asked Magill to resign and the university’s board of trustees held an emergency meeting Thursday as the school faced backlash over her comments.

Read the full article about Liz Magill by Adam Sabes and Chris Pandolfo

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday slammed the UN Security Council after the United States vetoed a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. 

Erdogan, who does not recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization, described UN leadership as the “Israel protection council,” following a Friday vote in which the U.S. was the only member nation to oppose the measure. Erdogan also accused the West of “barbarism” and Islamophobia for the war in Gaza.

The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining. The U.S. is one of five permanent members to have veto power, and its no vote canned the measure. 

Read the article about Tayyip Erdogan by Michael Dorgan

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allegedly told President Biden that his country will act militarily against Yemen’s Houthi movement if the United States fails to do so, according to a report by Israeli publication N12News. 

The Iran-aligned group has been harassing Israeli and U.S. forces in the Middle East since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas. 

N12News posted on X Saturday that Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security chief of staff, told journalists Amit Segal and Ben Caspit about its intention to respond to the group that has attacked and seized several Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab strait, a sea lane through which much of the world’s oil is shipped.

Read the full article about Benjamin Netanyahu by Michael Dorgan

University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill’s job is increasingly at risk as university donors, lawmakers in both parties, alumni and Jewish groups have piled on criticism after her disastrous congressional testimony on antisemitism this week.

The Penn Board of Trustees will hold a meeting on Sunday at 5 p.m., the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, where Magill’s future with the school may be decided. 

The question facing the board is whether Magill can continue to effectively fundraise and lead the university after the backlash against her handling of antisemitism at the school since the October 7 attack on Israel. Pressure is building on Magill to resign after she declined to outright state that calls for the genocide of Jewish people constitute bullying or harassment under UPenn’s code of conduct during a congressional hearing on Tuesday. 

Read the full article about Liz Magill by Chris Pandolfo

Ofelia Roitman, a 77-year-old woman from Kibbutz Nir Oz who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, said that her time in captivity reminded her of the Holocaust.

“I lived in Kibbutz Nir Oz where they took me from after laying me on the floor of the tractor,” Roitman said in video released by the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum on Saturday. “Because I was alone, I was almost without any light and almost without any food.”

“The food reminded me of the Holocaust,” the 77-year-old woman explained. “I ate pieces of pita and kept it so that I would have something to eat the next day.”

Roitman emphasized that all of the Israeli hostages should be released as soon as possible.

“I ask that you do more so that everyone can be released quickly,” she added. “The days are very difficult, one day is like a whole week there. I ask that you do everything to free everyone.”

Fox News Digital’s Dana Karni contributed to this report.

The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum released video on Saturday of an interview with Margalit Moses, a 77-year-old woman who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.

“My name is Margalit Moses, 77 years old from Kibbutz Nir Oz,” Moses said in the interview. “On October 7th, I was kidnapped and taken down to the tunnels in Gaza.”

The Israeli woman explained that she had difficulty sleeping, and that Hamas terrorists denied her use of her oxygen machine.

“At night I have to be attached to an oxygen machine, and I took it with me to Gaza so that I could sleep. One of the terrorists who got mad at me, took the device from me even though I told him it was my oxygen,” she explained. “I spoke to him in Arabic and he understood the meaning but he didn’t care.”

“[For] 49 days I did not sleep, it was very difficult,” she added. “There were mental difficulties, there were physical difficulties and every day that passes it becomes more and more difficult.”

Fox News Digital’s Dana Karni contributed to this report.

The State Department announced on Saturday that the U.S. government has approved a military sale to Israel worth around $106.5 million, as the Israeli military continues fighting Hamas terrorists.

In a press release, the State Department said that on Friday, officials “determined and provided detailed justification to Congress that an emergency exists,” thereby bypassing a Congressional vote on the matter.

“The Secretary of State has approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Israel of 120mm M830A1 High Explosive Anti-Tank Multi-Purpose with Tracer (MPAT) tank cartridges and related equipment for an estimated cost of $106.5 million,” the press release read. “The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on December 8, 2023.”

The State Department explained that the Israeli government requested to buy exactly 13,981 tank cartridges.

“Also included are publications and technical documentation; U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistics support services; studies and surveys; and other related elements of logistics and program support,” the State Department explained.

“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability. This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives,” the statement added. “Israel will use the enhanced capability as a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defense. Israel will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.”

Fox News Digital’s Nicholas Kalman contributed to this report.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video saying that he appreciated the United States’ “correct stance” on the UN Security Council’s alleged inability to properly condemn Hamas.

Netanyahu made the remarks in Hebrew, which were posted to X on Saturday.

“I very much appreciate the correct position that the United States has taken in the UN Security Council,” the prime minister explained. “Other countries should also understand that it is impossible on the one hand to support the elimination of Hamas, and on the other hand to call for an end to the war that will prevent the elimination of Hamas.

“Therefore, Israel will continue our just war to eliminate Hamas and to achieve the other war goals we have set,” he added.

The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday that a soldier was struck by a vehicle near a guard checkpoint in central Israel.

The incident took place near Tzrifin and the soldier involved was “seriously injured,” the IDF said. 

Israeli police arrested a resident of Rahat and a resident of Qalqilya  on suspicion of involvement in the car accident. 

“The police are investigating the circumstances of the car accident near Tzerifin, in which a vehicle hit a pedestrian, after allegedly failing to respond to a police car,” the police said in a statement.

Police said the victim is a young woman in her 20s.

“As mentioned, the police officers arrested the 2 occupants of the vehicle — a resident of Qalqilya and a resident of Rahat in their 20s, and according to the needs of the investigation, police will examine the need to bring them to a hearing in court or to request to extend their detention,” police said.

The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday announced the deaths of five more soldiers in the ongoing Gaza war.

Four were killed in fighting in the southern Gaza Strip over the weekend and one died of injuries suffered during the Oct. 7 attack, the military said.

The Israeli military death toll has climbed to 97 since the start of ground operations in the Gaza Strip. Among those killed is the nephew of former IDF chief of staff and current war cabinet observer minister Gadi Eisenkot, whose son perished in the war several days ago, the Times of Israel reported. 

The fallen soldiers are: 

Master Sgt. (res.) Liav Atiya, 25, of the 55th Brigade’s 6623rd Battalion, from Beersheba.

Master Sgt. (res.) Omri Ben Shachar, 25, of the 55th Brigade’s 6623rd Battalion, from Givatayim.

Staff Sgt. Jonathan Dean Jr Haim, 25, of the Combat Engineering Corps’ 603rd Battalion, from Ramat Gan.

Sgt. Maor Cohen Eisenkot, 19, of the Golani Brigade’s 12th Battalion, from Eilat.

Staff Sgt. Haim Meir Edan, 20, of the Golani Brigade’s 12th Battalion, from Rehovot. Edan was wounded on October 7 and succumbed to his wound on Saturday, the Times of Israel reported. 

The IDF earlier said another 12 soldiers were seriously wounded in fighting on Friday and Saturday. 

“Real Time” host Bill Maher railed against universities like Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania as being “Team Hamas” and having students who are “useful idiots.” Maher also defended the anti-Israel rhetoric on the principle of free speech, saying it “works both ways.”

The presidents of Harvard and UPenn have sparked intense backlash this week for their testimony on Capitol Hill after failing to say that calls for genocide against Jews violate their university’s code of conduct. 

Maher kicked off the interview with pro-free speech group FIRE CEO Greg Lukianoff by pointing to its ranking of colleges regarding free speech and how Harvard and UPenn ranked at the very bottom of nearly 250 universities. 

“So these are two of the colleges who are now on Team Hamas,” Maher said. “Is that a coincidence? Or what is the connection?”

Maher began listing slogans heard at pro-Palestinian rallies on college campuses and started by defending the use of the word “intifada,” which he described as “one of those vague terms like jihad,” admitting it “probably means violence.” But then he considered the pro-Palestinian slogan “From the river to the sea” as “a little more genocide-y.” 

“But, you know, let’s give the benefit of the doubt- that could be ‘Well, we just want the Jews to move and not die,'” Maher quipped. “And then there’s the phrase ‘by any means necessary.’ Ok, now I’m kinda peeing my pants.”

Lukianoff responded by saying the term intifada is “absolutely protected” speech but quickly stressed that “of course” it can also fall under threats or harassment.

“It was kind of embarrassing to watch these university presidents of the top institutions in the country not being able to answer that clearly,” Lukianoff said. 

“What irks me is that look, I’m always going to be on the side ‘as far as you can push free speech,'” Maher said. “What bothers me is the double standard… Say they don’t want to say ‘Kill the Jews,’ but I certainly have heard chanted ‘F— the Jews, f— the Jews.’”

“I cannot think of any other group that you can say ‘f— the blank’ and have it be acceptable,” Maher added.

Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this update.

Hamas’ “brutality” and “sexual violence” on October 7 does not justify the continued assault on the Gaza region by the Israeli military, the United Nations’ top administrator says.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the international organization’s security council on Friday, continuing his demands for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza region.

“We are all aware that Israel began its military operation in response to the brutal terror attacks unleashed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups on 7 October,” Guterres told the security council. “I unreservedly condemn those attacks. I am appalled by the reports of sexual violence.”

He continued, “There is no possible justification for deliberately killing some 1,200 people, including 33 children, injuring thousands more, and taking hundreds of hostages.”

However, Gueterres went on to say that the carnage and sexual violence did not justify the continued assault on Gaza’s infrastructure and civilian areas.

“At the same time, the brutality perpetrated by Hamas can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” the secretary-general said.

He continued, “And while indiscriminate rocket fire by Hamas into Israel, and the use of civilians as human shields, are in contravention of the laws of war, such conduct does not absolve Israel of its own violations.”

Fox News Digital’s Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this update.

An Israeli man held hostage by Hamas terrorists has died in captivity, his community and the Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Saturday.

Sahar Baruch, 25 years old, was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th. He was held by Hamas in Gaza. On Saturday morning, IDF and Kibbutz Be’eri announced his death. 

Hamas released a grotesque video Friday night, claiming Baruch was killed in a failed hostage attempt by IDF.

An IDF spokesperson said last night there was an IDF operation to rescue hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza, and that “no hostages were rescued”. They did not refer specifically to Baruch or mentioned if any hostages died at the operation.

Fox News reached out to IDF to ask if Baruch died during the IDF operation and was told: “We will get back to you on that.” 

On Friday, 53-year-old Eitan Levi, who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, was confirmed to have been murdered by Hamas, the Bat Yam municipality announced. 

“Eitan, a taxi driver, was driving his client from the center of the country to Kibbutz Be’eri just as the terrorists were taking over the area,” the city said. “His body is still held by Hamas in Gaza. We hug the family and will continue to accompany them all the way.”

Out of 137 remaining hostages, 17 are now confirmed dead.

Fox News’ Dana Karni contributed to this update.

The Israel Defense Forces released video Saturday showing soldiers fighting with Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip.

Soldiers with the 931st Battalion conducted an operation targeting terrorists and weaponry in structures near the Jabalia area, the IDF said. 

“The terrorists had set up an ambush in the same area, preparing to attack our forces as they passed through the central traffic route. The forces flanked the enemy through one of the alleys, surprising them and firing at the terrorists. The terrorists fired back at our forces and threw grenades. The firefight continued until the terrorists were eliminated,” the military said.

Video shows Israeli soldiers taking cover and exchanging fire with the enemy. At one point, an IDF Troop launches a rocket at a building in the direction of incoming fire.

The 931st Battalion encountered and killed multiple Hamas terrorists during battles in Jabalia over the past day, the IDF said. More terrorists were killed by Israeli tank fire and airstrikes, according to the military.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday slammed the UN Security Council after the United States blocked a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. 

Erdogan, who does not recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization, described UN leadership as the “Israel protection council,” AFP reported.  

“Since October 7, the security council has become an Israel protection and defence council,” Erdogan said.

The UN Security Council vote on the resolution was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining. UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Arab nations had led the calls for a cease-fire, with the United States wielding its veto power in opposition. 

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood called the resolution “imbalanced” and criticized the council after the vote for its failure to condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which the terrorist group killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, or to acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself. He declared that halting military action would allow Hamas to continue to rule Gaza and “only plant the seeds for the next war.”

“Is this justice?” Erdogan questioned after the vote, adding “the world is bigger than five,” a reference to the five nations that hold veto power in the UN Security Council. 

“Another world is possible, but without America,” the Turkish leader said.

“The United States stands by Israel with its money and military equipment. Hey, America! How much are you going to pay for that?” he added.

“Every day the Declaration of Human Rights is violated in Gaza,” he said, according to AFP. 

The Associated Press contributed to this update.

The mother of 19-year-old Naama Levy, an Israeli seen being taken captive by Hamas terrorists in a viral video, made a desperate plea for her daughter’s release in an op-ed for the Free Press.

Levy, an Israeli soldier, was seen in a video from Gaza on Oct. 7 with her hands tied behind her back and thick blood stains between her legs, while Palestinian men jeered at her. 

“You have seen the video of my daughter Naama Levy. Everyone has. You have seen her dragged by her long brown hair from the back of a Jeep at gunpoint, somewhere in Gaza, her gray sweatpants covered in blood. You may have perhaps noticed that her ankles are cut, that she’s barefoot and limping. She is seriously injured. She is frightened. And I, her mother, am helpless in these moments of horror,” Ayelet Levy Shachar wrote.

Levy Shachar said that Hamas terrorists, who raped and tortured many women and children during the Oct. 7 attacks, are holding her daughter captive in Gaza.

“There are seventeen young women still in captivity. They range in age from 18 to 26. I think of what they, and my Naama, could be subjected to at every moment of the day. Each minute is an eternity in hell,” she wrote.

“On Monday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that one of the reasons Hamas doesn’t want to release the young female hostages ‘is they don’t want these women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody,'” Levy Shachar wrote. “Everyone knows exactly what he means.” 

Levy was captured by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 at the Nahal Oz army base. According to the Times of Israel, she had just completed her course to become an observation soldier the previous Wednesday. She arrived at the base on Thursday and was taken hostage Saturday morning. 

The surge in antisemitic and violent content on social media after Hamas’ attack on Israel has renewed debate over what role, if any, the government should have in policing online speech.

“You’re seeing the intersection of antisemitism and radical ideology, radical Islamic ideology and pro-terror content online that absolutely poses a risk to any Western democracy, including the United States of America,” said Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor, the founder of CyberWell, an Israeli tech nonprofit that tracks antisemitic online speech.

Montemayor calls Oct. 7 the “largest hijacking of social media platforms by a terrorist organization.” Internet users across the world are going to sleep next to their phones and waking up to an onslaught of misinformation, she said.

CyberWell uses AI to analyze thousands of posts in real time and flag content that is “highly likely” to be antisemitic. The nonprofit saw an 86% spike in such content after Oct. 7, according to a recent report.

“The biggest kind of loophole in the legislative space that has kept us in this very toxic relationship with social media over the years” is Section 230, she said.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 states that “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

Those 26 words keep online speech free, according to Adrian Moore, vice president of policy at Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank. In effect, it means that social media platforms and other websites can’t be held liable for things their users post. 

“We see discussions about Section 230 come up pretty much whenever some group of people gets offensive — essentially — online,” Moore told Fox News. “People who are offended by that speech start talking about, ‘Shouldn’t there be a way for us to stop bad things from being posted on the internet?'”

Former Miss Israel and Miss World Linor Abargil expressed outrage over international women’s groups refusing to outright condemn Hamas’ brutal sexual violence against Israeli women.

Abargil, a rape survivor, told “America’s Newsroom” Thursday she feels “so ashamed” to have been involved with organizations like the United Nations.

“25 years ago when I promoted my film ‘Brave Miss World,’ which was on Netflix for like 10 years, it was an Emmy nomination, it has, you know, people watching it from all over the world –  and I felt the U.N. were supporting me and believed me. They didn’t ask for any investigation then.”

“But today I feel so ashamed that I was a part of this organization and any other women organization that are so silent and didn’t condemn Hamas even once except one time on Friday evening when they say in the same sentence that they were alarmed by what happened to the Israeli woman by the sexual assault. And then in the same sentence, they say that they are very worried about Palestinian woman and that we have to have a cease-fire,” she continued.

Abargil took the podium at U.N. headquarters in New York City Monday to slam women’s organizations for putting politics over the inhumane actions of Hamas.

“The truth will be revealed, we will not forget them, and we will ensure that the world will not forget them. We will be the voice taken from them,” she said at the event.

“It’s not about political. It’s not about free Palestine. It’s not about which side you are on the map,” she added on Thursday. “To use rape as an act of war is unbearable. I mean, what happened to humanity? You know, there is a lot of my friends. So it’s very hard for me to speak about it.”

“I’m telling you, I’m speechless,” said Abargil.

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Heckman contributed to this update.

The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday accused Hamas of firing rockets continuously from a designated “humanitarian zone” established in southern Gaza.

The military said that on Friday at 6 p.m., “Hamas terrorists launched numerous rockets into Israel from the designated humanitarian zone.”

Four more rockets were launched at Israel from the humanitarian zone at 1:56 p.m. and 2:16 p.m., but “landed in the Gaza Strip and endangered many citizens in Gaza,” according to the IDF said. 

“This is further proof that Hamas exploits the IDF’s humanitarian zone for terrorist activity,” it said. 

The IDF released an illustration of where it claims the rocket launches came from in the humanitarian zone in the area of Muwasi. 

Muwasi is a makeshift tent camp where thousands of dazed Palestinians live in squalid conditions in scattered farm fields and waterlogged dirt roads. Their numbers have swelled in recent days as people flee an Israeli military offensive in nearby areas of the southern Gaza Strip. 

Israel has offered Muwasi as a solution for protecting people uprooted from their homes and seeking safety from the heavy fighting between its troops and Hamas terrorists. The United Nations and relief groups say Muwasi is a poorly planned attempt to impose a solution for people who have been displaced, and they are dubious of the safety guarantee, since Israeli airstrikes have targeted other areas where the army ordered people to go.

The Associated Press contributed to this update.

The Israel Defense Forces announced that soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip found weaponry and ammunition hidden inside school classrooms. 

The military released video showing troops with the 551st Division on Friday discover a sniper rifle and ammunition hidden inside a teddy bear at one of the schools.

At another nearby school, the IDF said soldiers found weaponry hidden in classrooms, some concealed in UNRWA bags. UNRWA is the United Nations organization for Palestinian refugees. 

“The Hamas terrorist organization is using children’s games to conceal weapons, while deliberately putting the children of Gaza at risk. Throughout the war, weapons were found hidden in children’s items and play areas including in a girl’s backpack, under children’s beds, in schools, and in playgrounds,” the IDF said in a statement.

Earlier, the IDF said troops engaged with a terrorist cell in the area of a school in Shuja’iyya. The military said all the terrorists were killed. After the firefight, soldiers searched the school and found a number of AK-47 rifles, grenades and ammunition inside the classrooms, according to the Israeli military. 

Ever since Hamas terrorists carried out a brutal massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, President Biden and his White House team have been pushing for a post-war configuration that involves the Palestinian Authority (PA) – the body that governs Palestinians in parts of the West Bank – extending its authority into the now war-ravaged enclave. 

In responses as recently as last week, however, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed back against such an idea, pointing out that the PA – headed by Mahmoud Abbas and dominated by his political party Fatah – is no different from Hamas, a rival Palestinian faction with an extreme Jihadist ideology whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. 

The differing opinions of the Palestinian body, considered to be the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people, are stark and could ultimately put Jerusalem and Washington on a collision course when the time comes for implementing future options for Gaza, the West Bank and ultimately Israeli-Palestinian peace.   

“The endgame of both the PA and Hamas is to destroy the State of Israel, and the only real difference between them is how to do this,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, told Fox News Digital. 

While Hamas believes in armed resistance, the PA instead “manipulates the international community with the ideas and the slogans of a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians,” said Michael. “When you look closer at the PA’s terminology, however, it refuses to accept that Israel will be a nation-state for the Jews, yet it demands that Palestine will be a state only for Palestinians.” 

Fox News Digital’s Ruth Marks Eglash contributed to this update.

Mahmoud Abbas,
the Palestinian Authority president, cast blame on the United States for the “bloodshed” of children in the Gaza Strip after the U.S. vetoed a United Nations resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. 

“The president has described the American position as aggressive and immoral, a flagrant violation of all humanitarian principles and values, and holds the United States responsible for the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women and elderly people in the Gaza Strip,” said a statement from Abbas’s office released Saturday, AFP reported. 

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood had criticized the resolution and the UN Security Council for failing to condemn the Oct. 7 attack on Israel nor acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself. 

The failed cease-fire resolution was led by United Arab Emirates and had nearly 100 co-sponsors, according to UAE deputy ambassador Mohamed Abushaha. 

“What is the message we are sending Palestinians if we cannot unite behind a call to halt the relentless bombardment of Gaza?” Abushaha said after the vote. “Indeed, what is the message we are sending civilians across the world who may find themselves in similar situations?”

The Associated Press contributed to this update.

Seventy-four House members sent a bipartisan letter to the governing boards of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania, calling on all three to take immediate action to remove the president of each respective institution.

The letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, was signed by 74 House of Representatives members from both parties, and specifically calls out MIT President Sally Kornbluth, UPenn President Liz Magill, and Harvard President Claudine Gay, for failing to say if calls for the genocide of Jewish people would violate university policies during a congressional hearing Tuesday.

The letter was signed by Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.; Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La.; Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J.; Rep. Mike Ezell, R-Miss., and many more.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., among those who signed the letter, asked Gay, Magill and Kornbluth if calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their university’s policies.

“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment. Yes,” Magill responded, later adding, “It is a context-dependent decision.”

“It can be, depending on the context,” Gay responded.

Kornbluth responded to the question, saying it would be considered harassment only if it’s “targeted at individuals, not making public statements” and if it was “pervasive and severe.”

“There is no context in which calls for the genocide of Jews are acceptable rhetoric. Their failure to unequivocally condemn calls for the systematic murder of Jews is deeply alarming. It stands in stark contrast to the principles we expect leaders of top academic institutions to uphold,” the bipartisan letter states. “It is hard to imagine any Jewish or Israeli student, faculty, or staff feeling safe when presidents of your member institutions could not say that calls for the genocide of Jews would have clear consequences on your campus.

“If calls for genocide of the Jewish people are not in violation of your universities’ policies, then your universities are operating under a clear double standard.”

Also in the letter, House members called on the governing boards of each institution to immediately remove Gay, Magill, and Kornbluth.

Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes contributed to this update.

The United States stood up to dozens of nations and almost every other member of the United Nations Security Council and vetoed a resolution Friday that called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining. The Biden administration has supported Israel’s war to eradicate Hamas amid intensifying international pressure to condemn Israel for civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip. 

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood called the resolution “imbalanced” and criticized the council after the vote for its failure to condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which the terrorist group killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, or to acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself. He declared that halting military action would allow Hamas to continue to rule Gaza and “only plant the seeds for the next war.”

“Hamas has no desire to see a durable peace, to see a two-state solution,” Wood said before the vote. “For that reason, while the United States strongly supports a durable peace, in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate cease-fire.”

The Associated Press contributed to this update.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., criticized Harvard University President Claudine Gay after she apologized for remarks made on antisemitism during a congressional hearing Tuesday.

In an interview with The Harvard Crimson published Thursday, Gay apologized for her remarks before Congress earlier in the week, saying “I am sorry…Words matter.”

“When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret,” Gay said. “I got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures.

“What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged,” added Gay. “Substantively, I failed to convey what is my truth.”

Stefanik, however, isn’t taking her apology seriously.

“No, Dr. Gay. You were given an opportunity to speak your truth. And you did. Not once. Not twice Not 5x. Not 10x I asked you 17x(!!!) in the hearing about whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates @Harvard code of conduct. You spoke your truth under oath 17x. And the world heard it,” Stefanik posted on X.

Fox News’ Adam Sabes contributed to this report.