November 26 | First release of American hostages arrives Sunday as Israel-Hamas cease-fire holds: Report

President Biden says he hopes that Israel and Hamas will hold to the current ceasefire so long as Hamas continues to release hostages.

Biden made the remarks on Sunday following the release of 4-year-old Avigail Idan. Israel and Hamas had agreed to a four-day cease-fire and the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian criminals held in Israeli prisons.

Biden said the deal allowed for a cease-fire extension of one day for every 10 hostages released by Hamas.

“I would like to see the pause go on as long as prisoners keep coming out,” Biden told reporters after his remarks.

Israel believes there were nearly 240 hostages in Gaza prior to the exchange deal, which is expected to result in the release of 50 women and children. The U.S. believes 10 of its citizens were in Hamas custody, though one was confirmed to be released on Sunday.

The Israeli government revealed the identities of more than a dozen hostages realesed by Hamas on Sunday.

Sunday’s release included 9 children: Avigail Idan, 4; Ella Elyakim, 8; Dafna Elyakim, 14; Ofry Brodutch, 10; Yuval Brodutch, 8; Oria Brodutch, 4; Agam Almog Goldstein 17; Gal Almog Goldstein 11; and Tal Almog Goldstein, 9.

Other hostages released included: Hagar Brodutch, 40; Chen Almog Goldstein, 49; Elma Avraham, 84; Adrienne (Aviva) Siegel, 62; and 25-year-old Roni Krivoi, a dual Russian-Israeli citizen.

It was the third group of hostages that Hamas released as part of a fragile cease-fire with Israel after Hamas militants seized around 240 people in their Oct. 7 rampage across southern Israel that ignited the war.

Fox News’ Stephen Sorace contributed to this report

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said the Biden administration needs to be tougher on Iran, and that a “massive retaliation” is needed to end attacks on U.S. assets. 

“Since Joe Biden took office, Iran has attacked American positions in the Middle East I think now over 150 times,” Cotton told “Fox News Sunday.”

The Republican senator added that the United States has only hit back a few times, and not at targets he would order were he commander in chief. The Senate Armed Services and Senate Intelligence Committee member said he would suggest targeting Iranians operating in Iraq and in Syria. 

“I would also send a clear message to Iran if these attacks don’t stop immediately, then we will begin to threaten their assets,” Cotton said, referencing when President Ronald Reagan sank half of Iran’s navy for attacking a U.S. Navy ship.  

The senator believes President Biden wants to go “out of his way to avoid Iranian casualties” and does not have “escalation dominance over a terrorist-supporting regime like Iran.”

Fox News’ Pilar Elias contributed to this report

Many of the newly released convicted Palestinian terrorists who are part of a swap that secured the freedom of some Israeli and foreign hostages held by the terrorist movement Hamas could receive U.S. funds via the Palestinian Authority, an expert on the matter claimed. 

Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), an Israeli-based organization researching Palestinian society,
told Fox News Digital, “The American and European funding boosts the Palestinian Authority budget by $600 million. The Palestinian Authority pays the salaries of imprisoned terrorists and the family members of the martyrs and the amount comes to $300 million a year.”

Marcus continued, “There is no doubt that the Palestinian Authority could not pay this funding without the boost of funding from the Americans and Europeans. The Americans and Europeans are absolutely facilitating the payment. It is willful blindness.”

He noted, “Every single terrorist gets a salary from the Palestinian Authority once they are imprisoned.” According to Palestinian law, Marcus said, a prisoner who serves more than five years in prison receives a monthly salary for life.

The release of the Palestinian terrorists comes after Fox News Digital reported on a  lawsuit in January by victims of terrorism and Rep. Ronny Jackson., R-Texas, alleging the Biden administration pumped more than a half billion U.S. taxpayer dollars into the Palestinian Authority without verifying that the organization isn’t funding terrorism, according to a federal lawsuit. 

Fox News’ Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report

President Biden confirmed the release of the first American hostage from Hamas captivity in Gaza on Sunday.

Biden celebrated the release
of four-year-old Avigail Idan, but said much work remains to be done to secure the safety of the rest of the Americans being held hostage.

During his remarks, Biden told of how Hamas terrorists had murdered Edan’s mother in front of her during the Oct. 7 massacre. The young girl then fled to her father, who himself was gunned down as he tried to shield Edan with his body. She then fled to a neighbor’s house, where she and the family there were taken hostage.

“Thank God she’s home,” Biden said. “I wish I was there to hold her.”

Hamas terrorists released 4-year-old Avigail idan to Red Cross custody on Sunday, marking the first release of a U.S. hostage since the October 7 massacre in Israel.

Idan, whose fourth birthday passed while she was uin captivity, is among 14 Israelis and 2 other foriegn nationals released on Sunday. Idan was taken captive on Oct. 7 after Hamas terrorists murdered her parents. She is a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says Idan was one of two Americans released on Sunday, according to Axios. The identity of the second American has not been made public.

Her release marks the third successful exchange of hostages for Palestinian criminals held in Israeli prisons. Israel agreed to a four-day ceasefare.

Shai Wenkert, whose son is being held hostage by Hamas, joined ‘FOX & Friends Weekend’ to discuss hostage releases and the political climate in Israel as unrest rages in the Middle East.

Wenkert says his son, 22, has a chronic stomach disease that requires treatment, and he expressed hope that he is receiving everything he needs while in captivity.

So far, Hamas has released three groups of Israeli hostages as part of a four-day cease-fire agreement with Israel. In exchange, Israel has released dozens of Palestinian criminals held in Israeli prisons.

The Red Cross has informed the Israeli Defense Forces that they have taken custody of 14 Israeli hostages
and three foriegn hostages released by Hamas on Sunday, according to the IDF.

“Based on information that was received from the Red Cross, 14 Israeli hostages and three foreign hostages have been transferred to the Red Cross,” an IDF spokesman said in a statement.

Neither the IDF nor the Red Cross confirmed the nationalities of the three foreign hostages, though it has been widely reported that an American was expected to be released on Sunday.

Multiple sources have also named four-year-old Avigail Idan, an American, as a likely candidate for release. Edan was taken hostage on Oct. 7 after Hamas terrorists murdered her parents.

Opinion article by Tim Graham

The House of Representatives (212 Republicans and 22 Democrats) recently voted to censure radical Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) because she has “levied unbelievable falsehoods about our greatest ally, Israel, and the attack on October 7.”

One of those outrageous falsehoods was clinging to the false claim that Israel bombed the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. But guess what? Our professional “fact-checkers” haven’t located that lie … or any other nutty utterance, like her laughable claim that “from the river to the sea” isn’t a Hamas slogan about the eradication of Israel, it’s an “aspirational call for freedom” and “peaceful coexistence.”

With Democrats, the so-called independent fact-checkers rush to correct Tlaib critics, and not Tlaib — just as they rush to correct Biden critics, and not Biden. Maybe those critics deserve correction — but so do Democrats, especially when they lie about alleged “war crimes.” The facts don’t always lean to the left.

PolitiFact takes the cake, since Tlaib has only one “fact check” in her four-plus years in Congress, and it’s a “Mostly True” in 2020 for asserting, “Detroit spent $294 million on police last year, and $9 million on health.” This is ludicrous, since policing is an essential city government function, and government-funded health care is more of a state and federal function…

President Biden’s administration says it has “reason to believe” an American citizen will be among the next group of hostages Hamas releases on Sunday.

Hamas is set to release a third group of hostages in exchange for Palestinian criminals held in Israeli prisons on Sunday. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed to NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the U.S. expected at least one American to be released.

“We “have reason to believe that one of those Americans will be released today,” Sullivan told the outlet. He declined to identify the hostage, however.

The U.S. says there are up to 10 Americans currently being held by Hamas, including nine U.S. citizens and one greencard holder, or permanent resident.

Unidentified gunmen boarded an seized an Israeli-linked tanker
off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday after Houthi rebels warned the vessel to divert its course toward a nearby port.

U.S. Naval assets in the region instructed the M/V Central Park to disregard the warnings. Vessels nearby then reported that the Central Park was approached by “eight persons on two skiffs wearing military uniforms,” according to the Agence France-Presse.

“There are indications that an unknown number of unidentified armed individuals seized the M/V Central Park in the Gulf of Aden Nov. 26. US and coalition forces are in the vicinity and we are closely monitoring the situation,” a U.S. military official told AFP.

While the affiliation of the apparent hijackers remains unverified, the Central Park is the second Israel-affiliated vessel to be targeted in recent days. Iran-backed Houthi rebels hijacked the Galaxy Leader, a vessel linked to an Israeli billionaire, last week.

Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Peter Lerner joined Fox News on Sunday and said both Israel and the International Red Cross expect the third exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners to move forward.

Lerner made the statement following reports that a Red Cross official had cast doubt on whether Hamas would release any hostages on Sunday. Lerner said that statement had been taken out of context, and that his conversations with the Red Cross had been more fruitful.

“We are planning to continue to operational pause to bring home hostages,” Lerner said. “[The Red Cross] hasn’t seen any indication that [an exchange] won’t happen today–neither have we.”

Hamas is reportedly expected to release 13 hostages on Sunday, and as many as three of those hostages could be American citizens.

Hamas had delayed the release of hostages on Saturday, claiming that Israel had not allowed the proper number of aid trucks into Gaza, a claim Israel denies.

Hamas’ strategy of staggered hostage releases is designed to “maximize anguish” for families of the captives and pressure Israel to extend a cease-fire, Gen. Rob Spalding told Fox News on Sunday.

Spalding, a retired Air Force brigadier general, appeared on Fox News to discuss the Israel-Hamas ceasefire,
which has entered its third day. At least one American is expected to be among the group released by Hamas on Sunday, if the exchange moves forward.

Martial arts legend Conor McGregor
blasted Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar over his reponse to Hamas terrorists releasing a young girl after roughly 50 days in captivity on Sunday.

Varadkar drew outrage this weekend after he celebrated the Hamas release, stating that Emily Hand “was lost” and had now “been found.” McGregor spat on Varadkar’s statement in his won tweet on Sunday.

“She was abducted by an evil terrorist organization. What is with you and your government and your paid for media affiliates constantly down playing / attempting to repress horrific acts that happen to children. You are a disgrace,” McGregor wrote. “The day after a stabbing of children in Ireland, NOT ONE PAPER HAD IT ON THEIR FRONT COVER. We will not forget.”

Ireland has been thrown into turmoil in recent days following the stabbing of three children and an adult by a migrant suspect. Anti-immigration protests have flared up across the country.

The Israeli military says it killed the senior Hamas commander responsible for the terrorist organization’s operations in northern Gaza just before the Israel-Hamas cease-fire went into effect on Friday.

Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari says Israeli airstrikes killed Ahmed Ghandour and four other senior Hamas commanders.

“He was responsible for coordinating and managing all the terrorist activities of the terrorist organization Hamas in the northern area of ​​the Gaza Strip, initiating, promoting and approving terrorist activities and features including shooting attacks, explosives, rocket fire against the residents of the State of Israel as well as directing attacks throughout Judea and Samaria,” Hagari wrote of Ahandor, adding that he was “one of the leaders in the planning and execution of the murderous raid and massacre carried out by the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Saturday 10/7.”

The IDF also identified Aiman Siam, who they say served as head of weapons inventory for Hamas for roughly 15 years. The three other senior commanders include Wael Rajeb, Deputy Commander of Hamas’ Northern Gaza Brigade; Farsan Halifa, a senior operative in Hamas’ Judea and Samaria Headquarters, and Rafet Salman, commander of the Combat Assistance Unit.

The U.S. played a direct role in helping set up the Hamas office in Qatar during the Obama administration, seeking appeasement and soft diplomacy but ultimately failing to control the terrorist group as it festered in Gaza.

“For many years now, both the United States and Israel have been living in a policy fantasy world where we have tolerated Hamas’ existence in Doha and believed that Doha would be a moderating influence,” Richard Goldberg, the coordinator for the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran, told Fox News Digital. 

“That thesis was disproven on Oct. 7, so whatever has happened in the last few years, it doesn’t matter because Oct. 7 now stands as the new reality,” Goldberg, also senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. “It disproves anybody’s hypotheses that Hamas would somehow become a governing entity, not a terrorist group.”

Qatar’s Ambassador to Washington Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that his government set up the Hamas political office in Doha “after a request from Washington to establish indirect lines of communication” in 2012. He claimed the office “frequently” served in mediation efforts and helped de-escalate conflicts between Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Fox News’ Peter Aitken contributed to this report

NYC Mayor Eric Adams had strong words for teenagers who rampaged through Hillcrest High Scool in Brooklyn protesting against a pro-Israel teacher on Saturday.

Footage from the incident showed mobs of students racing through the halls as the school locked down. The violence came after a teacher at the school posted a photo of her attending a pro-Israel rally while holding a sign that read, “I stand with Israel.”

That teacher was reportedly forced to lock herself inside a classroom as students allegedly tried to barge in, according to the New York Post.

“The vile show of antisemitism at Hillcrest High School was motivated by ignorance-fueled hatred, plain and simple, and it will not be tolerated in any of our schools, let alone anywhere else in our city,” Adams wrote Saturday night. “We are better than this.”

Adams said the city is “already conducting a full investigation into how this incident took place, and, this week, Project Pivot teams will begin outreach with students at Hillcrest to ensure they understand why this behavior was unacceptable.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/sjDz8czAugI

The Israeli military says its operators killed five terrorists and arrested 21 “wanted persons” in an overnight operation in the West Bank city of Jenin on Sunday.

The IDF says its forces identified explosive devices laid under and to the sides of a road before exchanging gunfire with militants. Israeli forces killed five of the combatants and proceeded with arrests.

 “Forces located an explosives laboratory and destroyed it,” the IDF wrote in a statement.

Israeli also says its forces arrested one Osama Issa Muhammad Bani Fade, a suspected Hamas terrorists Israeli accused of carrying out a shooting attack in Hawara on August 19, 2023.

The Israeli operation comes as Israel and Hamas enter the third day of their cease-fire agreement, which only applies to Gaza. Hamas is expected to release a third group of hostages later Sunday in exchange for more Palestinian criminals held in Israeli prisons.

The University of Southern California recently moved a Jewish economic professor to remote work after he called Hamas terrorists “murderers” who “should be killed” in front of a group of pro-Palestinian students on campus.

Professor John Strauss was shifted to teach the rest of his classes for the semester remotely after the confrontation between him and the students earlier this month.

USC confirmed the move to Fox News Digital this weekend in a statement saying Strauss “is teaching his classes remotely through the end of the semester.”

Strauss became the center of controversy after his on-campus interaction with pro-Palestinian demonstrators organized by USC Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation, USC Graduates for Palestine, and Trojans for Palestine.

Video of the confrontation depicted Strauss walking past the student protesters and calling them “ignorant. Really ignorant.”

Once the students engaged him, the professor added, “Hamas are murderers. That’s all they are. Every one should be killed, and I hope they all are.”

However, shorter edits of that footage – which left out the portion naming Hamas – spread online, giving many viewers the impression that Strauss wanted Palestinians killed.

Fox News’ Gabriel Hays and Landon Mion contributed to this report.

Hamas is expected to release its first American hostage as part of its release deal with Israel on Sunday.

Hamas is set to release 13 hostages taken during the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, and at least one is said to be American, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing Egyptian officials. Hamas is currently holding as many as 10 Americans hostage, including nine U.S. citizens and one permanent resident, or greencard holder.

The exchange could include as many as three Americans, according to CNN. Only one potential release has been identified: 4-year-old Abigail Edan, whose parents were murdered by Hamas,

Israel’s cease-fire with Hamas entered its third day on Sunday, having two successful exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian criminals held in Israeli prisons.

President Biden’s administration expressed frustration that no Americans were among the first two groups of hostages to be released on Friday and Saturday. The White House has not responded to reports that Americans will be released Sunday.

“We are disappointed that we haven’t seen the Americans on a list yet, but we are hopeful for the next couple of days,” A Biden official told NBC News on Saturday. “The U.S. is hopeful that we can keep the pause in place and the exchange in place, because we want all of the hostages out.”

Two senior Biden administration officials told NBC News that they were “disappointed” that no kidnapped Americans have been released so far during the 4-day Israel-Hamas cease-fire.

“We are disappointed that we haven’t seen the Americans on a list yet, but we are hopeful for the next couple of days,” one of the officials said. “The U.S. is hopeful that we can keep the pause in place and the exchange in place, because we want all of the hostages out.”

The officials said that they hoped three Americans with dual Israeli citizenship will be part of the first 50 hostages to be freed. It is believed that 10 of the captives are American citizens, and around 240 people were kidnapped in total.