A production crew member who worked on the Netflix drama series “Fauda” was killed fighting Hamas in northern Gaza over the weekend, the show announced.
Matan Meir, a reservist in Israel’s elite 551st Brigade’s 697th Battalion and longtime crew member on the award-winning show, was killed in action in Gaza on Saturday, the show’s official X account wrote.
“We are devastated to share that one of our Fauda family members, Matan Meir, was killed in action in Gaza,” the account posted.
A 3-year-old American whose parents were murdered on Oct. 7 is among those still being held hostage by Hamas terrorists, President Biden has revealed.
Biden referred to the child -- who was not identified -- in a Sunday call to Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani to offer thanks for help releasing earlier hostages as well as "the urgent ongoing efforts to secure additional releases," the White House said.
The president "condemned unequivocally the holding of hostages by Hamas, including many young children, one of whom is a 3-year old American citizen toddler, whose parents were killed by Hamas on October 7th," the White House said of the call.
"The two leaders agreed that all hostages must be released without further delay," the statement added.
“I stand with the Jewish community during these difficult times: an attack on any New Yorker is an attack on every New Yorker,” said Cuomo.
Cuomo said in prior years, New York leaders assigned more police and other law enforcement personnel to synagogues and Jewish neighborhoods following attacks or threats.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has urged Gov. Kathy Hochul to deploy the National Guard to fight the surge in antisemitism in New York. Gregory P. Mango
“New Yorkers of all faiths need to stand together with the Jewish community not just with words but actions.”
Hochul spokesman Avi Small said the governor has done her part to ensure Jewish houses of worship are safe.
“On October 7, Governor Hochul immediately deployed the New York State Police to protect Jewish New Yorkers at synagogues and other community sites, and those efforts are ongoing. The Governor has no tolerance for hate, violence or antisemitism,” Small said.
The teacher, who has not been publicly named, was fired and accused of spreading propaganda on WhatsApp as he asserted Hamas was free to do everything in its power to fight back against Israel, The Times of Israel reported.
“An occupied nation is allowed to do anything that is needed in order to succeed in its struggle,” he allegedly wrote in a group message last month with other teachers.
A history and civics teacher at a school in Israel's Petah Tikva was arrested for allegedly supporting Hamas and the justifying the Oct. 7 massacre. Israel Police
The instructor also appeared to defend the rapes Hamas is said to have perpetrated by claiming that IDF members also sexually assaulted people during the decades of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
“Israeli soldiers didn’t rape Palestinians? They have since 1948, and this doesn’t make it into the textbooks,” he allegedly wrote.
Police said a complaint was filed against the teacher, who was subsequently fired by the Petah Tikva municipality and Education Ministry.
The European Union expressed its concerns about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza in a statement released Sunday.
“The EU joins calls for immediate pauses in hostilities and the establishment of humanitarian corridors, including through increased capacity at border crossings and through a dedicated maritime route, so that humanitarian aid can safely reach the population of Gaza,” the statement read.
The statement also affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself and for Palestinian citizens to have access to aid and humanitarian access through corridors in the region.
The statement also condemned the actions of Hamas.
“The EU condemns the use of hospitals and civilians as human shields by Hamas. Civilians must be allowed to leave the combat zone,” it read.
Palestinian Communications Minister Yitzhak Sidr said that all internet service will stop working by Thursday due to low fuel.
“This means the loss of many lives,” Sidr said, adding that humanitarian organizations will be affected, as well.
Sidr urged “all international institutions, the International Telecommunication Union in particular, UNRWA, the Arab Red Crescent, the Red Cross, human rights bodies, and civil society organizations to intervene immediately in order to bring fuel to the Gaza Strip.”
However, Abdel Majeed Melhem, the CEO of the Palestinian Telecommunications Group, claimed that communication exchanges and cell towers in Gaza utilize multiple energy sources.
A gas station attendant stands at empty pumps at a closed station in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. AFP via Getty Images
“The primary energy source, a direct electrical power line from the Gaza Electricity Company, which has been inactive for a month due to fuel depletion, is supplemented by solar energy in case of its interruption,” Melhem said.
“In case solar power services fail, an automatic switch to a fuel tank-connected electric generator will occur. If these options deplete, an automatic switch to energy storage batteries (UPS) will take place,” he added.
“By next Wednesday, we expect the automatic activation of energy storage batteries in the communication stations and exchanges in Gaza, which have sufficient energy for 24 hours, following the exhaustion of other energy options,” he concluded.
Israeli ground forces were battling Hamas near Gaza City’s largest hospital on Sunday – as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the all-out assault was bearing fruit for the possible release of the nearly 240 people taken hostage by the terrorist group.
The Israel Defense Forces began exchanging gunfire with Hamas fighters over the weekend around the Al-Shifa Hospital, where Israel has accused the terror organization of harboring a command post through its massive underground tunnel system.
The Al Shifa Hospital is caught in the middle of the war between Israel and Hamas. via REUTERS
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said the fighting had left the hospital without of fuel, resulting in the deaths of three premature babies and four other patients. The lack of power has also left 36 other infants at risk of dying, it said.
“We heard that there was an impending deal of this kind or of that kind and then we learned that it was all hokum. But the minute we started the ground operation that began to change,” Netanyahu said of the negotiations.
“That’s the one thing that might create a deal and if a deal is available, well, we will talk about it when it’s there,” he added, noting that “a great deal” was currently on the table.
Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie on Sunday visited Israel, expressing solidarity in Israel's war against Hamas and saying the U.S. must stand “shoulder to shoulder” with its close ally.
Christie toured a kibbutz that was ravaged in the Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas militants that triggered the war and was meeting Israeli leaders during his one-day visit. The former New Jersey governor is the first candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination to visit Israel.
“I came here because I wanted to see this for myself," Christie said during a tour of Kfar Azza, one of more than 20 towns and villages attacked by Hamas militants on Oct. 7. Israel says over 1,200 people were killed and 239 others are being held hostage in Gaza.
Chris Christie said the US must stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Israel. AP
Christie is the first GOP hopeful to visit Israel since the start of the war. AP
“To be able to walk through a neighborhood like this and see what was done to the people, to still be able to walk into one of these homes and smell the death still, a month later, is something that I think the American people need to know.”
The Republican candidates have all lined up behind Israel, even as the country comes under growing international pressure to halt or scale back an offensive in the Gaza Strip in which over 11,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed.
“I want the people of Israel to know that there are hundreds and millions of Americans who stand with them,” said Christie, “who understand the atrocities that were committed, and why in the future we need to stand absolutely shoulder to shoulder with Israel.”
The Israeli army said it would help evacuate babies from Gaza’s largest hospital Sunday after three newborns died during a power outage caused by fierce fighting outside, which Palestinian officials say has been “terrorizing” the hospital staff and civilians trapped inside.
The Israel Defense Forces said they will allow passage from three hospitals total in northern Gaza and have also opened an additional route for civilians to evacuate south.
A child injured in Israeli raids on the central Gaza Strip is treated at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in Deir Al-Balah. ZUMAPRESS.com
“Following repeated calls by the IDF to Gazan residents to evacuate from northern Gaza for their own safety, the IDF is enabling a passage from the Shifa, Rantisi and Nasser hospitals, both on foot and in ambulances,” the IDF said in a statement.
Israel’s intense bombardment just outside of Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, has run rampant in recent days as its more than one-month war in the disputed territory intensified, opposition leaders said.
Rejecting calls for a ceasefire, Netanyahu argued that Israel has been taking aggressive steps to minimize civilian casualties and drew parallels to the fight against Nazi Germany.
Benjamin Netanyahu is defending Israel’s efforts to minimize civilian casualties in the war against Hamas. AP
“We want all the civilians to be moved out of harm’s way and Hamas is doing everything in their power to keep them in harm’s way,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Netanyahu finds himself under heightened international pressure as the Palestinian death toll continues to rise.
Attacks by Lebanon's Hezbollah group Sunday wounded seven Israeli troops and 10 other people, Israel's military and rescue services said.
The clashes came as skirmishes between the Iran-backed group and Israeli military continue to intensify along the Lebanon-Israel border, threatening to escalate into another front in the Mideast’s latest war.
The Israeli military said in a statement that "seven IDF soldiers were lightly injured as a result of the mortar shell launches in the area of Manara in northern Israel earlier today.” Israeli rescue services did not identify the location or provide information about the 10 others wounded by rocket blasts and shrapnel, but said two of them were in critical condition.
A picture taken from the Lebanese side of the border shows smoke rising on hills near the Israeli town of Metula as a result of a strike reportedly coming from Lebanon, on November 11, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
The Israeli military said they identified 15 launches from Lebanon over the past hour and their defense systems intercepted four of them. The rest fell into open areas.
Hamas’ military wing, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for shelling the northern Haifa and the Israeli border towns of Na’ura and Shlomi from southern Lebanon without giving any further details.
Hezbollah first fired antitank missiles at an Israeli community just over the border on Sunday, Israeli officials said, badly wounding utility workers. The Israeli military said it was striking the origin of the launch with artillery fire. The Israel Electric Corp. said workers in the rural community of Dovev were wounded while repairing lines damaged in a previous attack. Israeli media reported that six people were wounded, including one critically.
Smoke billows from hills in Ramim Ridge in the Upper Galilee after an exchange of fire between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement near Moshav Margaliot on Israel's border with Lebanon on November 11, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
Israel struck several southern Lebanese towns, including Yaroun, Mays el-Jabal, and Alma al-Shaab. Hezbollah said it launched guided missiles against a “logistical force belonging to the occupation army that was about to install transmission poles and eavesdropping and spying devices near the Dovev barracks.” It said it hit an Israeli military bulldozer in a separate strike. Shortly after the attack, air raid sirens were heard in northern Israel. Army Radio reported that another antitank missile had been fired from Lebanon.
Hezbollah later announced attacks on Israeli military gatherings and barracks in border areas Birket Riche and Zareit, as clashes continue to intensify along the tense Lebanon-Israel border.
Also Sunday, the United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, UNIFIL, said one of its peacekeepers had been wounded by gunfire overnight near the Lebanese town of al-Qawza. It was not immediately clear where the shooting had come from or whether the peacekeepers were targeted or caught in crossfire. UNIFIL said it was investigating.
Brett McGurk, the Biden administration's senior Middle East adviser, will travel to Israel and other countries in the region this week to discuss the war in the Gaza Strip and the release of the hostages held by Hamas, Axios reported on Saturday.
McGurk is the latest senior Biden administration official to travel to the Middle East in efforts to procure a hostage deal and stem fighting across the region, as both CIA director Bill Burns and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have taken similar trips in the last two weeks.
Brett McGurk is the administration's senior Middle East adviser. AP
The top adviser will stop in Brussels to convene with NATO and the US's European allies about the war.
McGurk will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday and is also expected to visit Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Qatar.
