A <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/trump-wanted-20-000-peacekeeping-troops-in-gaza-he-is-starting-with-10-to-20-cf0ab958">new report</a> from The Wall Street Journal reveals the promised International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza is currently struggling to deploy an initial group of just 10 to 20 troops.
The force was originally envisioned as a 20,000-strong multinational peacekeeping presence tasked with securing Gaza and preventing the terrorist group Hamas from rebuilding its military. Instead, regional instability has severely hampered recruitment.
The deployment shortfall comes amid deep skepticism over political developments within Gaza. On Monday, Hamas announced that its governing body would step down and transfer administrative authority to a United Nations-backed Palestinian technocratic council.
Here’s the catch: Hamas conspicuously refused to commit to disarming its military wing.
Critics argue that Hamas is attempting to replicate the &#8220;Hezbollah model&#8221;—allowing a civilian administration to handle municipal duties like garbage collection while the terrorists maintain real power through their arsenal. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar strongly condemned the move, writing:
<blockquote>
Hamas’s trick is simple. Hamas’s apparent willingness to “make room” for a technocratic government is designed to prevent its own disarmament. Hamas seeks to replicate the “Hezbollah model” in Gaza: a technocratic administration would be responsible for garbage collection and other municipal services, while Hamas would remain the dominant military force.
As long as Hamas retains its weapons, any civilian government will of course operate as Hamas dictates. This would allow Hamas to continue oppressing the Palestinian people in Gaza, while pursuing its jihadist war against Israel. Israel insists on the full implementation of the Trump plan, with its core principles being the disarmament of Hamas and all other terrorist organizations, and the complete demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Hamas’s trick is simple.
Hamas’s apparent willingness to “make room” for a technocratic government is designed to prevent its own disarmament.
Hamas seeks to replicate the “Hezbollah model” in Gaza: a technocratic administration would be responsible for garbage collection and…
&mdash; Gideon Sa&#39;ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) <a href="https://x.com/gidonsaar/status/2074154631152742813?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2026</a></blockquote>
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The ISF&#8217;s current troop shortage underscores the massive hurdles facing the broader peace plan. A small contingent of Moroccan soldiers, originally scheduled to arrive in June, is now delayed by several months. Once they arrive, they will not enter Gaza immediately; instead, they will base themselves at a newly constructed logistics hub in Israel near the border to conduct training and limited reconnaissance operations.
Broader recruitment efforts have collapsed due to conflicts involving Iran and Lebanon. Indonesia—which had previously floated a commitment of thousands of peacekeepers—placed its participation on hold after four of its UN peacekeepers were killed during clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.
Until Hamas fully disarms, the civilian power transfer will remain entirely symbolic.

Hamas activists are seen during a military demonstration

Gaza Stabilization Force Hits Major Hurdle As Hamas Won’t Disarm

Board of Peace

Gaza

Hamas

Nearly half of the rapidly growing Muslim population in the United States has a favorable opinion of the terrorist group Hamas, according to a stunning new survey.
According to the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/07/09/americans-views-of-israelis-have-grown-increasingly-negative-but-views-of-palestinians-have-held-fairly-steady/">Pew Research Center poll</a>, a staggering 44% of Muslim Americans expressed a favorable opinion of Hamas. The view is out of step with Americans overall, with an overwhelming 84% of the broader American public viewing the jihadist group negatively.
The poll comes as Muslims have gained political power, with New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani becoming one of the most prominent Democrats in the United States. In Michigan, a state where Muslim populations have become the majority in certain pockets such as Dearborn, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is the favorite to be the party&#8217;s nominee for U.S. Senate.
Both candidates are harsh critics of Israel, where the terrorist group Hamas operates. The poll drops alongside a mountain of sickening evidence exposing the subhuman savagery unleashed by the terror group upon innocent hostages. Since the October 7, 2023 massacre, captives dragged into the dark labyrinth of Gaza had been subjected to a calculated campaign of psychological and physical destruction.
A report released in May, <a href="https://cc4e0711-9401-400e-ae14-65ae0400675b.filesusr.com/ugd/aab121_c40e37b3d22a4ca5af625523ac4fab8f.pdf">“Silenced No More: Sexual Terror Unveiled,”</a> painted a stomach-churning picture of the depravity. Captives were starved in suffocating underground cages, denied medical treatment, and forced to endure systematic, dehumanizing torture designed to break their spirits.
Most horrifying of all was the weaponization of &#8220;kinocidal&#8221; sexual violence — a deliberate, systematic campaign of rape and sexual abuse deployed by Hamas monsters to terrorize and erase families. Family members were forced to perform sexual acts on each other. Other instances occurred where family members were forced to watch as Hamas brutally abused other family members.
The report states:
<blockquote>Hamas and its collaborators inflicted SGBV (sexual and gender-based violence) in multiple locations, employing recurring patterns of abuse. The Civil Commission identified at least thirteen patterns of abuse across multiple sites, including: 1) Rape, gang rape, and other forms of sexual assaults; 2) Sexual torture, including intentional burning and mutilation; 3) Deliberate shootings to the head, face, and genital area; 4) Killings and executions following or committed in conjunction with SGBV; 5) Postmortem sexual abuse, humiliation, and desecration of bodies; 6) Forced nudity and exposure; 7) Handcuffing, binding, and restraint of victims; 8) Public displaying and parading of women and children; 9) Abduction of mothers and children; 10) SGBV inflicted in the presence or near vicinity of family members; 11) Filming and digital dissemination of SGBV, including use of social media to document, glorify, and amplify the atrocities; 12) Threats of forced marriage; 13) Rape and other forms of sexual violence against boys and men.</blockquote>
Firsthand testimonies and forensic evidence confirm that women, men, and children were subjected to brutal, sexualized torture both during the initial cross-border raid and inside the terror tunnels. This systemic degradation wasn&#8217;t just a byproduct of war; it was used as an intentional tool of psychological warfare, aiming to permanently shatter the social and familial fabric of the victims.
As the public grapples with these horrifying accounts of barbarism, the Pew poll serves as a chilling wake-up call about a group that routinely practiced unspeakable, unadulterated cruelty.

Pro-Palestinian protest

SHOCK POLL: Nearly Half Of American Muslims Have Positive View Of Hamas

Muslims

Pew research

Poll

Sexual Violence

Torture

WASHINGTON — A Kuwaiti man who obtained a green card in the U.S. is being sent home after he called America &#8220;the enemy&#8221; and expressed support for terrorists.
Tareq Alkhudari entered the country on a non-immigrant student visa in 2014 to attend San Jose State University, a source familiar with the situation said. He gained lawful permanent resident status in November 2024, but is now in federal custody pending removal from the United States after Secretary of State Marco Rubio terminated his legal status. 
In posts from his Instagram and Bluesky accounts, Alkhudari repeatedly expresses disdain for the United States and white people. In December 2025, he posted a cartoon of a brown-skinned individual preparing to set fire to the American-flag-cape draped over the shoulders of a woman dressed in red, white, and blue.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-trump-admin-sends-middle-eastern-migrant-packing-for-hating-america/screenshot-2026-07-07-at-3-55-24-pm" rel="attachment wp-att-1130001"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1130001 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-3.55.24-PM-772x576.png" alt="" width="772" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-3.55.24-PM-772x576.png 772w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-3.55.24-PM-300x224.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-3.55.24-PM-768x573.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-3.55.24-PM-1536x1146.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-3.55.24-PM.png 1670w" sizes=" (max-width: 772px) 100vw, 772px" /></a>
In another post he speaks positively of the &#8220;Al-Aqsa Flood,&#8221; the code name given by Hamas for their terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
&#8220;Since Al-Aqsa Flood, we&#8217;ve witnessed an unprecedented surge in public support for Palestine,&#8221; reads a graphic that Alkhudari shared. The post questions whether Western supporters of Palestinians are genuine and whether their support is &#8220;consequential and coincidental, or has it been prepared for this inevitable time?&#8221;
He also shared a graphic stating &#8220;the compass remains Palestine&#8221; and &#8220;the enemy remains Isntreal and Amerika.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-trump-admin-sends-middle-eastern-migrant-packing-for-hating-america/unknown-7" rel="attachment wp-att-1129877"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1129877 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/unknown-3-708x576.png" alt="" width="708" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/unknown-3-708x576.png 708w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/unknown-3-300x244.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/unknown-3-768x625.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/unknown-3.png 936w" sizes=" (max-width: 708px) 100vw, 708px" /></a>
In another post, he mocks a woman for defending both Palestinians and Americans, writing: &#8220;Lol I wonder what this cracker would think if she knew I watch documentaries and investigations of white on white crimes to soothe myself to sleep.&#8221;
In an Instagram post about his plans to travel home to Kuwait before President Donald Trump launched Operation Epic Fury, Alkhudari blames &#8220;Isntreal and Amerika&#8221; for the &#8220;instability&#8221; and says those countries are responsible even if an Iranian missile kills him.
&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-trump-admin-sends-middle-eastern-migrant-packing-for-hating-america/screenshot-2026-07-07-at-4-45-59-pm" rel="attachment wp-att-1130059"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1130059 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-4.45.59-PM-705x576.png" alt="" width="705" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-4.45.59-PM-705x576.png 705w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-4.45.59-PM-300x245.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-4.45.59-PM-768x628.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-4.45.59-PM-1536x1256.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-4.45.59-PM.png 1654w" sizes=" (max-width: 705px) 100vw, 705px" /></a>
As he lamented reports of a deal between Iran and the United States, Alkhudari posted a photo of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump, saying: &#8220;Hope whatever the other carries is contagious and they both perish from a comet striking them just before they take their final breaths suffocating on white phosphorous [sic] and their own blood.&#8221;
He also railed against &#8220;incessant Amerikan and zionist expansion proxy warfare, sectarian fragmentation, and the normalization of colonial presences across the region.&#8221;
&#8220;The Trump administration will never allow foreigners who denigrate our great nation to abuse the hospitality of the United States and remain on American soil,&#8221; a State Department official shared. 
“This foreign national wished harm on our president, referred to America as &#8216;the enemy,&#8217; and voiced support for foreign terror organizations,&#8221; the official added. &#8220;Foreign nationals who echo propaganda from foreign adversaries while residing in the United States should expect to find themselves on a deportation flight. They must return home.” 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-trump-admin-sends-middle-eastern-migrant-packing-for-hating-america/screenshot-2026-07-07-at-3-55-35-pm" rel="attachment wp-att-1129997"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1129997 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-3.55.35-PM-316x576.png" alt="" width="316" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-3.55.35-PM-316x576.png 316w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-3.55.35-PM-164x300.png 164w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-3.55.35-PM.png 734w" sizes=" (max-width: 316px) 100vw, 316px" /></a>
Alkhudari also expressed an intense hatred of Americans, even those who agreed with his political causes.
&#8220;You satiate your desperations from theatrical representations with more American consumerism, as the country continues its planned genocides, colonization, and exploitation of Black, Brown, and indigenous bodies,&#8221; he wrote in a post on Bluesky.
Another post slams Westerners who &#8220;identify as pro-Palestine&#8221; but don&#8217;t understand why Iran is targeting American bases in the Middle East, saying that these Westerners are &#8220;exposing the limits of their political literacy and nature of their performativity.&#8221;
&#8220;There is no point walking them through it,&#8221; he writes. &#8220;It&#8217;s fruitless labor. Imagine explaining sectarianism to a white Amerikan who roots for Francesca Albanese and thinks Pierce [sic] Morgan&#8217;s sympathy signifies change&#8230;If one cannot situate the Zionist entity within the broader architecture of regional militarization and normalization, the confusion is self imposed.&#8221;
In a Kuwaiti newspaper article, Alkhudari tears into New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, arguing that Mamdani is not radical enough and &#8220;came from the heart of the American liberal establishment and enjoyed the support of white feminist movements and liberal normalizers whose true loyalty remained with the American colonial system, even if they wore the mask of &#8216;progress and civilization.'&#8221;
And as he reflected on how Americans are beginning to view the Palestinian cause and what freedom means to him, he questions: &#8220;Does it mean a state alongside the occupier? Or does it mean dismantling the existing entity and establishing a single, just state on all of the land? Eyes are beginning to open to the fact that among them are normalization advocates and traitors hiding behind masks of freedom.&#8221;

President Trump Meets With Visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

EXCLUSIVE: Trump Admin Sends Middle Eastern Migrant Packing For Hating America

Immigration

Iran

Kuwait

State Department

Hamas said Monday it <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-palestinians-hamas-war-government-146f9a609580d4c8c42ab35fbe60d5b3">dissolved its de facto government</a> in Gaza and is ready to transfer civilian control of the territory to a U.N.-backed committee of Palestinian technocrats, a move tied to the ceasefire plan brokered by the Trump administration.
The announcement marks a potential shift in who handles Gaza’s government services, but it does not answer the central question hanging over the ceasefire: whether Hamas will give up its weapons.
If implemented, the proposal would be the most significant change to <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict">Gaza&#8217;s governing structure</a> since Hamas violently seized control of the territory in 2007, potentially ending nearly two decades in which the group has served as Gaza&#8217;s de facto governing authority. 
Hamas said its Government Emergency Committee, which has overseen ministries in Gaza, had been dissolved. Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run government media office, said technical and professional staff would remain in place to keep basic services running and would be prepared to work under the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.
Hamas described the decision as a step toward implementing the ceasefire agreement and facilitating an administrative transition. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem called it “a positive step forward” in carrying out the deal.
The National Committee is based in Cairo and led by Ali Shaath, a Gaza-born engineer and former Palestinian Authority official. The committee is expected to oversee civilian affairs and restore essential services under the supervision of the U.N. and the Trump-appointed Board of Peace.
The Board of Peace said it was aware of Hamas’s announcement but would judge the move by “actions, not promises.” The board also stressed that the technocratic committee must control all weapons in Gaza under the ceasefire agreement.
Israel dismissed the announcement, saying Hamas was trying to avoid disarmament while preserving its influence. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Hamas’s willingness to make room for a technocratic government was designed to prevent the group from giving up its weapons.
“As long as Hamas retains its weapons, any civilian government will of course operate as Hamas dictates,” Saar said.
Hamas has not said it will disarm or hand over security to an international force. Reuters reported that Hamas said its ministries and appointed staff would stay in place and that the group would still <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-dissolves-gaza-government-presses-progress-stalled-peace-plan-2026-07-06/">oversee security and policing</a> in parts of Gaza under its control.
The dispute comes nine months after the ceasefire framework was signed, with Israel and Hamas still deadlocked over the second phase of the agreement. That phase includes Hamas’s disarmament and Gaza’s reconstruction.
Hamas has insisted on implementing the first phase of the agreement before moving to discussions over its weapons. Israel, meanwhile, has said all parties must fully implement the Trump-backed plan, which includes Hamas laying down its arms.
Shaath said the committee was ready to assume responsibility in Gaza once the necessary resources and conditions were in place. He also said the committee’s success would require one governing authority, one legal framework, and one security apparatus accountable to that authority.
The announcement came as fighting continued despite the ceasefire. Gaza health officials claimed that Israeli strikes killed at least five people Monday, including two in an apartment in Gaza City and three in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said the Gaza City strike targeted a Hamas operative while a Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant was targeted in Khan Younis.
The war began after Hamas led the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

TOPSHOT-PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-ICRC-CONFLICT-HOSTAGES

Hamas Says It Will Give Up Gaza Government But Keep Its Guns

Israel

At least 28 drones have successfully entered the Gaza Strip in recent months despite dozens of Israeli interception efforts, <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-901044#google_vignette">raising concerns</a> among Israeli security officials that many of them could be used by Hamas terrorists.
Army Radio reported Wednesday that the drones crossed into Gaza through multiple routes, including from Egypt and from within Israel. According to the report, Israeli defense officials believe most of the drones that successfully entered the strip ultimately reached Hamas, though it remains unknown what cargo many of them were carrying.
Israeli officials say the drones themselves could become valuable operational assets even if they were not transporting weapons or other supplies. According to Army Radio, Hamas has increasingly used drones to observe Israeli troop movements and carry out attacks by attaching explosives to the aircraft.
The report said Israeli authorities have thwarted 89 drone smuggling attempts since January. Combined with the 28 drones believed to have entered Gaza, that represents at least 117 known drone smuggling operations during the first half of the year. Israeli officials also cautioned that the figures only include known cases, meaning the real number of attempted or successful smuggling operations could be higher.
&#8220;The IDF claims that all smuggling attempts intercepted so far contained drugs only,&#8221; Army Radio reported. &#8220;However, as noted, dozens were not intercepted, and these figures represent only the cases known to the military.&#8221;
The report added that Israeli officials acknowledge some drones may have entered Gaza without ever being detected. <a href="https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/429465">Security officials also said</a> it is impossible to determine what the drones that reached Gaza were carrying, according to Israel National News.
Israeli authorities have recently stepped up efforts to disrupt the smuggling networks. In June, Israel Police and the Defense Ministry confiscated property linked to drone smuggling into Gaza, while Defense Minister Israel Katz imposed economic sanctions on individuals accused of participating in the operations.
&#8220;Anyone who smuggles weapons, equipment, or funds to terrorist organizations in Gaza is part of the terrorist network itself and will pay a heavy price,&#8221; Katz said in a statement.
<a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-897758">The concerns come as Israeli military leaders</a> continue to warn about the growing role of drones in modern warfare. Hamas is reportedly studying Hezbollah&#8217;s use of explosive drones in Lebanon, where such attacks have killed 16 Israeli soldiers and wounded many more in recent months, according to the Jerusalem Post.
In May, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir described Hezbollah&#8217;s first-person-view drone capabilities as &#8220;a challenge&#8221; but said the military already has &#8220;operational and technological solutions&#8221; in development to counter the threat.
&#8220;The drone threat is a challenge, but we will overcome it,&#8221; Zamir said. &#8220;The battlefield is unpredictable and always will be, but we are dedicating the IDF&#8217;s best resources, minds, and capabilities to this issue.&#8221;
Israeli officials have increasingly pointed to drones as one of the evolving threats facing the military, both from Hezbollah in Lebanon and from Hamas in Gaza, as armed groups continue adapting commercially available technology for military purposes.

Hamas fighters carry a drone as they attend the military

Hamas Gets Hands On Dozens Of Drones That Israel Worries Could Be Used In Future Attacks

Drones

The United Nations has accused the Jewish state of deliberately hunting Palestinian children, and after 94 pages of this “U.N. report,” it cannot prove a single case.
Technically, the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session62/a-hrc-62-crp-2.pdf">accusation</a> comes not from the United Nations as a whole but from the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, a body created by the Council rather than by the Security Council or General Assembly. In practice, however, the distinction disappears. The report is published on U.N. websites under the U.N. emblem, promoted through official U.N. channels, and reported around the world simply as a “U.N. report.” That branding launders the Commission’s allegations through the institutional credibility of the United Nations itself, giving them an authority the evidence does not earn. Most readers will never know the difference, and most headlines never mention it.
The report came this month, and its charges are the gravest of international law: war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Yet the only proof it offers is a body count and a theory. Nowhere does it identify a single Israeli soldier who looked at a child, knew the child was a civilian, faced no threat, and fired anyway because the child was the object of the attack. Not one.
The Commission convicts itself in its own caveats, and it does so repeatedly. Incident after incident, it “could not find any indication of a threat” (paragraph 58), “could not verify any claims of exchange of fire” (paragraph 89), does not know who fired or whether combat was underway nearby, and then somehow, every time, reaches a “clear conclusion” of intentional murder anyway.
Here is what the report says: Israeli forces deliberately targeted children across Gaza.
Here is what it leaves out: Hamas.
No tunnels, no human shields, no command posts under hospitals, no acknowledgment that Hamas spent 17 years building a military state beneath the civilian one, hiding rockets under children’s beds and a sniper’s rifle inside a child’s teddy bear. At paragraph 11, the Commission notes “reports of the use of children by the parties to the conflict,” then admits these “have not yet been investigated.” A report on children in armed conflict announces, on page four, that it never looked at the fact that the armed terrorist group in question uses children.
Take the signature horror: an armed quadcopter that, the Commission says, saw inside a tent in daylight and put a single round through a nursing ten-day-old’s head, and another through a four-year-old’s as she was eating. It calls the weapon, in paragraph 60, “a sniper rifle mounted on a quadcopter.” One glaring problem is that one of us served twenty-five years as a U.S. Army infantry soldier, has spent more than a decade studying modern warfare, and has made multiple trips into Gaza with the IDF. No such weapon exists. A .338 sniper rifle does not ride on a small quadcopter and deliver a precision head shot through a tent flap. The Commission appears to recognize this difficulty because four paragraphs later, the same platform is described as firing “an assault rifle,” and 10 paragraphs after that, it becomes “shotguns.” A drone is not a sniper. The report cannot consistently identify its own alleged murder weapon, yet it builds one of its most serious factual findings on this internally inconsistent account.
The forensics are worse because there are none. A child is shot; surgeons remove what the Commission is told was a three-centimeter bullet; and from that one secondhand line it “assesses” a .338 Lapua cartridge, a rifle, and an Israeli division (paragraph 68). No chain of custody, no laboratory, no proof the round was even Israeli. Its experts on ballistics and battlefield intent are doctors, who may be able to describe a wound but cannot know who fired the gun, from where, or why. The Commission cites them anyway, but only when their guesses point one way.
To be clear, children have died in Gaza in heartbreaking numbers, and every one is a tragedy. The laws of armed conflict recognize that civilian deaths, however tragic, can occur even during lawful attacks on military objectives. The legal question is not whether civilians died but why and under what circumstances. What is disputed is whether a child’s death, standing alone, proves a war crime. The Commission says it does. The law says it does not.
At paragraph 268, the report states its theory outright: because Israel “knew that children were present in the areas it attacked” and struck anyway, the attacks “were intentional” and the children “intentionally targeted collectively.” The Commission converts knowledge that civilians might be nearby into intent to kill them. That is simply not the law. Under the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I, knowing civilians are near a military objective triggers the duties of proportionality and precaution; it does not make the strike murder. The Rome Statute crime of attacking civilians requires that civilians be the object of the attack, not its regrettable cost. Genocide demands dolus specialis, the specific intent to destroy a group as such; the U.N.’s own International Court of Justice held in Bosnia v. Serbia that such intent must be the only reasonable inference from the conduct. The Commission infers a plan to destroy “the future of the Palestinians” from the bare fact that children died.
Its working rule is even simpler: any target Hamas hides among civilians becomes untouchable, and any civilian who dies beside it becomes proof of murder. The deeper Hamas burrows into homes and schools and hospitals, the safer it gets and the guiltier Israel looks, which inverts the very law that forbids using civilians as shields. The West Bank makes the inversion even plainer: the Commission counts 213 dead minors, tells readers that 206 were boys, and from that ratio divines a “policy of targeting boys” as “future terrorists.” A war on children does not kill boys at 97%. That statistic instead raises the obvious question: many of those “boys” were actively participating in hostilities.
Of course, the Commission never asks the question. Under U.N. definitions, every person under 18 is counted as a child, whether a 10-year-old in a classroom or a 17-year-old carrying an assault rifle. Hamas, meanwhile, has long recruited, trained, and used minors, including teenagers and younger children, a practice the Commission acknowledges has been reported but expressly declines to investigate. By collapsing all persons under 18 into a single category while omitting the role of child soldiers, the report invites readers to equate every “child” casualty with a civilian who was not participating in hostilities. That omission is central to its narrative.
This is how a libel becomes a fact. The body counts originate with the Hamas-run health ministry and are relayed to the world under a U.N. logo. Human rights groups, several funded by the anti-Israel governments that demanded the inquiry, refer to it as settled. Reporters cite the groups without reading the report; policymakers cite the resulting “consensus”; and within 48 hours, the media print “deliberately targeted” as if it is an established fact. It is the same machine that once blamed Israel for the Al-Ahli hospital blast that American, British, and Canadian intelligence traced to a misfired Palestinian rocket. Anti-Israel bias does not need evidence, only an audience that has already convicted Israel.
The messenger does matter, and here it is the Human Rights Council’s only open-ended commission of inquiry, aimed permanently at a single country, on a council where roughly half of all country-specific condemnations name Israel. The world still calls it the Pillay Commission, after the previous chair who famously pronounced Israel guilty of war crimes before she was appointed to judge it. When Washington, D.C., sanctioned the council’s Palestinian rapporteur last year, the commissioners themselves resigned and promised to “reconstitute.” They did not, however, reform it, so the remedy is simple.
A bipartisan group in Congress already drafted the Commission of Inquiry Elimination Act, which would cut U.S. dollars from a permanent mandate that runs on $4 million a year and has dropped even the pretense of fairness or due process. The United States already refuses to fund discriminatory U.N. conduct, and this qualifies by any measure. The Commission titled its report “The essence of childhood has been destroyed,” but it chose the wrong noun. What this report destroys is the essence of evidence, the rule that an accusation of murder must be proven and not merely felt. After 94 pages, it still identifies no soldier, no order, no forensic proof, no battlefield investigation establishing intent, and no evidence capable of sustaining the accusation it makes.
The proper response is not to treat this report as a serious finding. You cannot defend against insanity. But we can and should stop funding it.
***
Mark Goldfeder is CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center and a law professor at Touro Law School.
John Spencer is the Executive Director of the Urban Warfare Institute.

U.N. logo

Without Evidence The U.N. Accuses Israel Of Genocide – Another Day That Ends In ‘Y’

DW Opinion

genocide

Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Palestine

United Nations Human Rights Council

The hall of the United Nations Human Rights Council fell into an uneasy silence earlier this week as a small woman walked to the microphone and prepared to do something the world&#8217;s most powerful human rights body had failed to do: bear witness.
Ilana Gritzewsky, a survivor of Hamas&#8217; October 7 massacre, stood before Reem Alsalem — the U.N.&#8217;s own special rapporteur on violence against women, who is Jordanian — and refused to be erased.
What followed was one of the most searing moments in recent U.N. history, not because of what the diplomat said in response.
Because of what she didn&#8217;t say.
Gritzewsky recounted the morning terrorists stormed her kibbutz — the murders, the burning, the kidnapping. She described being touched, beaten, and sexually abused until she lost consciousness, waking half-naked with seven Hamas fighters standing over her. She described the broken hip, the broken jaw, the scarred soul she carried home from captivity. She spoke of how the wail of an air raid siren or the thunder of an Iranian rocket still hurls her back into that darkness.
&#8220;In captivity, Jewish women were raped, abused, and humiliated. And you, special rapporteur, you choose silence and denial. You say there was no evidence of sexual violence on October 7th,&#8221; she told Alsalem directly. &#8220;I&#8217;m standing here today, not as a report, not as a statistic. I am a woman who survived. I am the living proof of sexual violence by Hamas.&#8221;
Then she asked the question that hung over the chamber like smoke: &#8220;When I, another Israeli woman, begged not to be raped — why were you silent? Please look at me. Do you believe us now? Will you apologize?&#8221;
Alsalem sat silent after Gritzewsky&#8217;s testimony. She did not apologize.
She smirked.
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This is the UN. Look at the face of the UN special rapporteur who is meant to stand up for women but has refused, again and again, to speak up for Israeli women. Look at her face when a former hostage challenges her. <a href="https://t.co/whThRNG92u">pic.twitter.com/whThRNG92u</a>
&mdash; Nicole Lampert (@nicolelampert) <a href="https://x.com/nicolelampert/status/2069691978707513797?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2026</a></blockquote>
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The confrontation laid bare a record that is nothing short of a scandal. As U.N. Watch <a href="https://unwatch.org/analysis-of-reem-alsalems-violence-against-mothers-report-omissions-distortions-and-double-standards/">noted</a>, Alsalem publicly declared last November that &#8220;no independent investigation found that rape took place on October 7&#8221; — a claim directly contradicted by a U.N. report issued months earlier that found reasonable grounds to believe Hamas committed sexual violence during the attack, with an even higher evidentiary threshold met for assaults on hostages held in captivity. As recently as April 2026, she was still dismissing survivor testimony as &#8220;misinformation&#8221; deployed to &#8220;justify genocide against Palestinians.&#8221;
Her June 2026 report to the Human Rights Council, titled &#8220;Violence against Mothers,&#8221; completed the picture. It accused Israel of reproductive violence and genocide, cited a single article from an openly anti-Israel outlet, and lamented that U.S. and Israeli action against Iran might undermine Tehran&#8217;s record on women&#8217;s rights — a position that drew immediate ridicule from prominent Iranian women&#8217;s rights activist Masih Alinejad, who had publicly celebrated those same strikes. The report made no mention of Hamas. It said nothing of Israeli mothers murdered in front of their children, nothing of hostage families psychologically tortured for over two years, nothing of the deliberate phenomenon so systematic it has been given its own name: kinocide.
Ilana Gritzewsky offered Reem Alsalem a simple human choice on June 23: look at her, and reckon with what she represents.
The special rapporteur looked away.

Ilana Gritzewsky, former hostage by Hamas speaks during

Watch U.N. Official’s Sickening Reaction To Oct. 7 Survivor

October 7

United Nations

An Al Jazeera cameraman mourned as a journalist killed by Israel was also a Hamas sniper operative, <a href="https://x.com/IDF/status/2068442916977275317">according to the Israel Defense Forces</a>.
Ahmed Washah was killed Saturday in central Gaza after an Israeli drone targeted a home in the Bureij refugee camp. Al Jazeera and multiple media outlets described him as a cameraman for Al Jazeera Mubasher, Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language live channel. Al Jazeera said two other people were also killed and others were wounded.
But the IDF says Washah was not simply a journalist and was targeted in the strike because he was “a terrorist in Hamas’ military wing who served as a sniper operative.” The IDF also said Washah had recently advanced sniper attack plans and worked alongside his brother, Mohammed Washah, whom the military described as a key terrorist in Hamas’ rocket and weapons production headquarters. Ahmed was <a href="https://honestreporting.com/ahmad-washah-hamas-terrorist-who-masqueraded-as-an-al-jazeera-journalist/">reportedly</a> killed alongside Siba’i Abu Hasna, a member of Hamas’ <a href="https://honestreporting.com/ahmad-washah-hamas-terrorist-who-masqueraded-as-an-al-jazeera-journalist/">Shadow Unit</a>, which is responsible for guarding hostages kidnapped into Gaza.
Ahmed was widely presented as an Al Jazeera cameraman killed by Israel. While leaving out his ties to Hamas, NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/world/gaza/israeli-airstrike-kills-al-jazeera-cameraman-rcna350990">reported</a> that Ahmed was an Al Jazeera cameraman killed by Israel and noted that his brother Mohammed, an Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent, was killed in a separate Israeli strike in April. Al Jazeera, meanwhile, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/21/kind-principled-palestinian-journalists-remember-slain-gaza-journalist">said</a> Ahmed became the 12th network employee killed by Israel and said he had covered numerous stories for the outlet, including what Al Jazeera described as “several massacres” committed by Israel in Gaza.
The IDF <a href="https://x.com/IDF/status/2068442916977275317">posted</a> publicly that Ahmed “served as an Al Jazeera photojournalist” while simultaneously operating as a Hamas sniper. The IDF also described Mohammed as “a key terrorist in Hamas’ rocket and weapons production headquarters” and said he also operated “under the guise of an Al Jazeera journalist” before he was killed in April.
After the IDF’s claims about Ahmed were challenged online, it <a href="https://x.com/IDF/status/2069422062117003612">posted</a> a photo of his apparent military ID and a video showing him firing a rifle into the air. 
That context has received less attention from the legacy media than the initial description of Ahmed as a journalist killed by Israel. A Google AI Overview shown for a simple search of “Al Jazeera journalist” described Ahmed as “an Al Jazeera cameraman who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza” and listed him among “recent notable and slain journalists from the region.” The summary does not mention the IDF’s claim that he was a Hamas sniper operative.
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The same pattern appeared in headlines from major outlets. NBC headlined its article, “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/world/gaza/israeli-airstrike-kills-al-jazeera-cameraman-rcna350990">Al Jazeera cameraman killed in Gaza months after his journalist brother died in a separate strike</a>.” The Guardian’s headline read, “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/20/al-jazeera-cameraman-ahmed-wishah-killed-in-israeli-strike-on-gaza">Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Wishah killed in Israeli strike on Gaza</a>.”
An Associated Press report carried by <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/israeli-army-confirms-journalist-killed-in-gaza-calls-him-hamas-terrorist-11665140/amp/1">NDTV</a> also identified Ahmed as an Al Jazeera cameraman killed in an Israeli strike. The report said the Israeli military asserted that Ahmed had been part of Hamas’ military wing and had posed a threat to troops in the area.
Al Jazeera has denied Israel’s claims about Ahmed, according to NBC News, and condemned his killing, calling it an attempt by Israel to silence and intimidate journalists. NBC also reported that a source close to Hamas told the Committee to Protect Journalists that Ahmed had no affiliation with the organization.
 Prominent anti-Israel figures, including New York City <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/06/23/us-news/al-jazeera-journalist-that-mamdani-mourned-was-allegedly-hamas-sniper-idf-claims/">Mayor Zohran Mamdani</a>, portrayed Ahmed as a journalist killed by Israel while criticizing the IDF. 
“More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the so-called ceasefire,” Mamdani said Monday. “Even an Al Jazeera journalist, Ahmed Washah, was killed this past Saturday by an Israeli strike.” Mamdani did not mention the IDF’s claim that Washah was a Hamas operative.
The IDF’s claim does not erase reports that Ahmed worked for Al Jazeera. But those reports also do not erase the IDF’s claim that he served in Hamas’ military wing and had recently advanced sniper attack plans against Israeli troops.
Since the first reports described Ahmed as a journalist without including Israel&#8217;s claim that he was also a Hamas sniper, many readers were left with a narrow version of the story. Israel&#8217;s account presents a very different version of the strike than the one circulating online.

Al Jazeera ‘Cameraman’ Killed In Gaza Was Hamas Sniper Operating Under Press Cover, IDF Says

Al Jazeera

Media Bias

Zohran Mamdani

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee offered a blunt solution Wednesday to one of the Middle East&#8217;s most intractable problems: deport every member of Hezbollah and Hamas to Iran.
&#8220;Iran demands Israel cease defense of border against Hezbollah. Gaza peace plan depends on Hamas disarming,&#8221; Huckabee posted on X. &#8220;Idea: EVERY member of Hezbollah &amp; Hamas DEPORT to &#8216;Mothership&#8217; in Iran. Result? Lebanon &amp; Israel free from Iran terror proxies. Give PEACE a chance!&#8221;
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Iran demands <a href="https://x.com/Israel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Israel</a> cease defense of border against Hezbollah. Gaza peace plan depends on Hamas disarming. Idea: EVERY member of Hezbollah &amp; Hamas DEPORT to &quot;Mothership&quot; in Iran. Result? Lebanon &amp; Israel free from Iran terror proxies. Give PEACE a chance!
&mdash; Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) <a href="https://x.com/GovMikeHuckabee/status/2067154997607845901?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 17, 2026</a></blockquote>
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The proposal, characteristically direct, cuts to the heart of a dynamic that has destabilized the Levant for decades — both Hamas and Hezbollah are, in the most meaningful sense, Iranian instruments. The Congressional Research Service has documented that Iran&#8217;s support for regional armed groups has been &#8220;a pillar of the Iranian government&#8217;s foreign policy since the 1979 founding of the Islamic Republic,&#8221; coordinated through the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The State Department estimates Iran provides up to $100 million annually to Palestinian terrorist groups including Hamas, while Hezbollah — Iran&#8217;s most powerful proxy — receives the bulk of its &#8220;funding, training, weapons, and explosives&#8221; directly from Tehran.
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Huckabee&#8217;s quip lands against a backdrop of renewed diplomatic activity. Reports of a possible Israeli-Lebanese rapprochement have emerged in recent weeks, raising cautious hopes that Lebanon might finally escape the orbit of Iranian influence. But history counsels skepticism. Lebanon&#8217;s sovereignty has been hollowed out twice over — first by the PLO following the 1969 Cairo Accord, which turned southern Lebanon into a launchpad for attacks on Israeli civilians and helped ignite the catastrophic civil war that killed roughly 150,000 people, and then by Hezbollah, which filled the vacuum left after Israel&#8217;s 1982 war forced the PLO terrorist Yasser Arafat into Tunisian exile.
By 2023, Hezbollah&#8217;s arsenal had grown to over 150,000 rockets, dwarfing the Lebanese army it nominally coexists with. Its financial corruption has metastasized through Lebanon&#8217;s banking sector, contributing to what the World Bank describes as one of the most severe economic depressions globally since the mid-19th century. The Lebanese pound, pegged at 1,507 to the dollar for two decades, had lost over 98% of its value.
The human cost of Iran&#8217;s proxy strategy was underscored when 92 retired U.S. generals and admirals published an <a href="https://jinsa.org/open-letter-from-retired-u-s-military-leaders-in-support-of-israel-on-october-7-anniversary/">open letter</a> on the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas massacre of over 1,200 Israelis, warning that &#8220;Iran&#8217;s reign of terror transcends boundaries&#8221; and that &#8220;October 7 is not an isolated incident, but one front in a much larger global civilizational struggle.&#8221;
Huckabee&#8217;s &#8220;Mothership&#8221; proposal won&#8217;t appear in any formal peace framework. But its underlying logic — that sustainable peace in Lebanon and Gaza requires severing, not managing, Iran&#8217;s grip on its proxies — reflects a growing consensus among U.S. and Israeli strategists that half-measures have consistently failed.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Holds Nomination Hearing For Mike Huckabee To Be Ambassador To Israel

Huckabee’s Bold Proposal: Send Iran’s Proxies Back To The ‘Mothership’

Hezbollah

Mike Huckabee

A foreign reporter with a history of praising Palestinian terrorism is roaming the United States for the World Cup, prompting one legal group to push the Trump administration to revoke his visa and deport him.
Ibrahim Khadra, a British national and beIN Sports broadcaster, has posted on social media in recent days indicating that he&#8217;s in the United States. In one post from June 7, Khadra wrote that he was awaiting the arrival of the Algerian soccer team at the airport in Kansas City, indicating that he&#8217;s in the country to cover the World Cup.
In a June 8 letter, the Lawfare Project asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to revoke Khadra&#8217;s visa for his &#8220;glorifying the terrorist activities of Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations.&#8221;
&#8220;Your Department has exercised exactly this authority in comparable cases. The same authority should be applied here to a foreign national who has celebrated the slaughter of civilians and presents, based upon his prior documented conduct, a concrete risk of converting a World Cup credential into a platform for terrorist glorification on American soil,&#8221; the letter read.
&#8220;We urge the Department to act before that platform is furnished,&#8221; it added.
Khadra&#8217;s past statements of terrorist support include an X <a href="https://archive.md/pcrhI#selection-427.0-480.0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> he made the day of Hamas&#8217; attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, saying &#8220;scored goals that pierced the enemy&#8217;s net, crossed its borders and soldiers, and caught it by surprise from where it least expected.&#8221;
&#8220;O God, protect our people in proud Gaza and throughout #Palestine. God is Greatest, and praise be to God,&#8221; he wrote.
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On the first anniversary of the October 7 massacre, Khadra wrote that &#8220;the hypocritical leaders in Europe and the United States repeated the same lies, expressing sympathy for the victims of a single day of resistance, while conveniently ignoring 365 days of far greater brutality and terror, during which countless more lives were lost and affected,&#8221; adding &#8220;They lack the true values of humanity we hold #shame #FreePalestine.&#8221;
Khadra <a href="https://archive.md/PRn6a#selection-619.0-637.2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> a picture of late Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin in May 2021 with the caption &#8220;Good news foretold by the Sheikh of the Mujahideen, Ahmed Yassin, may God have mercy on him, more than 20 years ago.&#8221;
&#8220;I ask God to hasten the end of oppression and occupation from the land of pride and dignity, Palestine,&#8221; he wrote.
He also <a href="https://archive.md/0cXKl#selection-659.0-665.83" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared</a> his &#8220;condolences&#8221; after the assassination of senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh in a July 2024 X post.
The organization also wrote to Homeland Security officials asking them to initiate removal proceedings against Khadra, making him amenable to deportation from the United States.
&#8220;This referral follows a recognized and recently exercised enforcement sequence: the Department of State revokes a nonimmigrant visa on terrorism-related grounds, the visa holder&#8217;s lawful basis for presence is extinguished, and ICE may detain and place the individual in removal proceedings,&#8221; the Lawfare Project wrote.
&#8220;Mr. Khadra&#8217;s documented pattern of glorifying Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists, while exploiting U.S.-hosted international sporting events, poses a direct risk to public safety and to U.S. counterterrorism policy,&#8221; the group added.
Gerard Filitti, Senior Counsel with The Lawfare Project who signed the referrals, told The Daily Wire that the case exposes &#8220;a systemic flaw with our immigration screening process that the Trump administration has very appropriately put additional emphasis on screening visa applicants from a lot of countries, but when it comes to traditionally allied nations or friendly nations like the UK or the European Union, perhaps that&#8217;s a back door that&#8217;s being exploited.&#8221;
A State Department spokesperson said they couldn&#8217;t comment on &#8220;specific cases due to visa record confidentiality,&#8221; but said the country &#8220;is well prepared to welcome legitimate travelers from around the globe for the largest and greatest FIFA World Cup in history.&#8221;
&#8220;At the same time, the Administration will not waver in upholding U.S. law and the highest standards of national security and public safety in the conduct of our visa process,&#8221; the spokesperson said.
In one recent action, federal authorities blocked the entrance of a Somali World Cup referee because he associated with “suspected members of terror organizations.&#8221;
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) denied Omar Artan&#8217;s entry after he landed at Miami International Airport from Istanbul on Saturday after discovering “derogatory information,” including his “association with suspected members of terror organizations,&#8221; a senior administration official recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-somali-referee-denied-entry-into-usa-for-associating-with-terror-organizations?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=EXCLUSIVE%3A+Somali+World+Cup+Ref+Denied+Entry+Into+USA+For+Terror+Ties">told</a> The Daily Wire.
The spokesperson added that the department adjudicates &#8220;each visa application on a case-by-case basis after rigorous review and thorough vetting to determine whether the individual is eligible under U.S. law.&#8221;
&#8220;Vetting is a continuous process, and applicants are vetted before, during, and after consular adjudication. After issuance of a visa, if the Department becomes aware of new, potentially adverse information, a consular officer reviews that information to determine whether the applicant remains eligible for a visa,&#8221; the spokesperson said.
Khadra didn&#8217;t respond to multiple requests for comment.

Untitled design – 2026-06-11T105259.224

Trump Admin Urged To Deport World Cup Reporter Who Glorified Terrorists

terorrism

Visas

World Cup

Hamas relies on two strategies to wage its war of annihilation against Israel: heinous brutality and PR from sympathetic Westerners. It tries to make Israelis’ lives hell in hopes that the Jews will simply give up on living in their ancestral homeland, and then maximizes Palestinians’ suffering — real and imagined — so the West will force Israel to stop fighting the terrorists bent on its destruction. Re-arm and repeat.
On those criteria, the State-designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO) had a good week last week. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof preempted a painstakingly researched report on the unfathomably cruel barbarism Hamas inflicted on Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, by publishing an essay on Israel’s “systematic sexual violence…widely practiced as part of an organized state policy” against Palestinians. If Israel does indeed train dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners, then perhaps it’s fair to conclude, as Kristof did, that “The horrific abuse inflicted on Israeli women on Oct. 7 now happens to Palestinians day after day.”
Such a conclusion does exceptional PR for Hamas. Drawing an explicit moral equivalency between Hamas and Israel, it is designed to cause Americans to abandon their support for the Jewish state, a crucial stratagem for the terrorist group in its long war of attrition.
Perhaps that’s not a coincidence. At least two of Kristof’s sources for the essay appear to be Hamas-affiliated. If so, Kristof has likely committed a serious federal crime.
American anti-terrorism laws are designed to be extremely broad. Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 to prohibit the provision of “material support” to designated FTOs. Material support includes many things, including money, personnel, and in-kind benefits known as “services.”
Our material-support laws can even criminalize some behavior you might expect to be protected by the First Amendment. In the famous 2010 case, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, the Supreme Court ruled that even providing legal advice to a designated FTO could be prosecuted — even if the advice only helped the terrorist group engage in legitimate, non-criminal activity. A 6-3 Court reiterated Congress’s finding that terrorist groups “are so tainted by their criminal conduct that any contribution to such an organization facilitates that conduct.”
The Court took pains to emphasize that “independent advocacy” for a cause is protected freedom of speech, but not all speech necessarily counts as independent: “a person of ordinary intelligence would understand the term ‘service’ to cover advocacy performed in coordination with, or at the direction of, a foreign terrorist organization.” Such advocacy could be criminally prosecuted.
That appears to describe exactly what Kristof did. His advocacy clearly provides an important service to Hamas — a crucial part of its criminal enterprise, even if the service itself would not be a crime if done independently. That much is clear from Kristof’s reliance on a group called Euro-Med, which provided the quote about Israel’s “state policy” of authorizing “sexual violence” and other grotesque details Kristof retells as fact.
Kristof calls Euro-Med “critical of Israel.” That understates it a bit. Euro-Med has been the source of a host of conspiracy theories about Israel, including the accusation that Israel has been <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/investigation-must-be-opened-israels-potential-use-banned-thermal-weapons-which-cause-victims-bodies-melt-or-evaporate-enar">vaporizing</a> Palestinians and digging up graves to <a href="https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/5982/Int%25E2%2580%2599l-committee-must-investigate-Israel%25E2%2580%2599s-holding-of-dead-bodies-in-Gaza%25E2%2580%258B">harvest</a> Palestinian organs. If that seems like the kind of Big Lie straight out of Hamas’s playbook — and the kind that could start a rumor about Israel training dogs to rape prisoners — that’s no coincidence.
Euro-Med’s current and former chairmen have been <a href="https://nbctf.mod.gov.il/he/Announcements/Documents/%25D7%2599%25D7%259C%25D7%25A7%25D7%2595%25D7%2598%2520%25D7%2594%25D7%25A4%25D7%25A8%25D7%25A1%25D7%2595%25D7%259E%25D7%2599%25D7%259D%25206719%2520-%2520%25D7%25A2%25D7%259E%25D7%2595%25D7%2593%25202234.pdf">listed</a> as Hamas operatives for over a decade. Its founder, Ramy Abdu, has been a regular panelist at Hamas events, often appearing alongside senior Hamas leaders, including Osama Hamdan. Abdu’s brother-in-law was a known Hamas operative; his brother was recently arrested in Italy for funneling money to Hamas.
The repeated uncritical quotations of Euro-Med are suspicious enough. But the kicker is the first-named source in Kristof’s piece. Sami al-Sai claims he was sexually assaulted by Israeli prison guards after he was detained in 2024. What Kristof does not mention is that al-Sai was detained <a href="https://cpj.org/data/people/sami-al-sai/">for being a member of Hamas</a>. Al-Sai has <a href="https://x.com/HonestReporting/status/2054300908637557231?s=20">admitted</a> that he has done projects on Hamas’s behalf. Even other Palestinian groups have accused him of serving as a recruiter for the terrorist group. Not giving readers a sense of al-Sai’s background, which is quite relevant to his reliability, reflects poorly on Kristof’s journalism. But more so, meeting with a member of Hamas before advocating on his, and by extension, his organization’s behalf could be prosecuted as a criminal offense.
To be clear, Kristof does not admit to working together with Euro-Med in any way, so it would be difficult to prove material support for terrorism through Euro-Med on the basis of the existing public record. Further investigation could turn up evidence of closer collaboration. But Kristof’s meetings with al-Sai and subsequent advocacy that explicitly and repeatedly draw moral equivalencies between Hamas and Israel in a way that advances Hamas’s interests may be enough to warrant a material support prosecution. Whether Kristof’s essay constitutes a crime may come down to whether al-Sai is a member or representative of Hamas. The public record suggests there may be enough evidence to convince a jury.
To many Americans, this suggestion will seem like a massive First Amendment violation. How can an essay constitute a crime? The answer is that the First Amendment does not do what so many Americans think it does. It does not protect all expressive conduct, or even all journalism. Significant national security concerns, such as starving terrorist groups of all support, can outweigh protections for speech. Indeed, a hypothetical prosecution of Kristof is not far off from what Holder contemplates. And as the Department of Justice under President Donald Trump has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/us/don-lemon-plea-minnesota-church-protest-case.html">made clear</a>, no one gets a free pass to commit illegal activities by claiming journalist immunity.
Aiding the world’s most heinous organizations is illegal, no matter what prestigious institution you work for, or whether your aid came in the form of words. You can engage in independent advocacy, but as soon as you start meeting with apparent members of terrorist groups, you have invited legal trouble. Whether that trouble comes in the form of a criminal indictment remains to be seen — but if it does, no one should be terribly surprised.   
***
Tal Fortgang is a legal policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

The New York Times

Is The New York Times Employing A Terrorist Sympathizer?

Journalism

MI x DW

Nick Kristof

Terrorism

A <a href="https://cc4e0711-9401-400e-ae14-65ae0400675b.filesusr.com/ugd/aab121_882e9391df384e169d29f16c0faefeac.pdf">landmark report</a> by the Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes, released in May 2026, has concluded that Hamas and its collaborators used sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) as a “calculated,” “systematic,” and “integral” strategy during the terror attacks on southern Israel and against hostages in Gaza.
Based on over 1,800 hours of analysis and more than 10,000 photographs and videos, the report identifies &#8220;clear and convincing evidence&#8221; of patterned sexual torture intended to maximize pain and humiliate the Israeli nation.
A central finding of the report is the strategic and &#8220;weaponized&#8221; use of filming. Hamas terrorists did not merely commit atrocities; they documented them in real-time to &#8220;glorify and amplify&#8221; the suffering. The report identifies the &#8220;filming and digital dissemination of SGBV&#8221; as one of thirteen recurring patterns of abuse.
Perpetrators used GoPros, body-worn cameras, and the victims&#8217; own personal devices to livestream or record rapes, mutilations, and abductions. This content was often sent directly to the families of the victims or posted on community social media channels to maximize psychological terror. The report notes that these visuals turned &#8220;visibility itself into a weapon,&#8221; ensuring that the trauma extended far beyond the immediate physical act.
Even months after the initial attack, the report concludes that Hamas continued &#8220;digital abuse&#8221; by releasing staged footage of hostages in captivity. These videos, showing captives being taunted or tormented, were used to exert ongoing harm on the survivors&#8217; families and the Israeli public. By presenting women’s bodies as “trophies of war,” the perpetrators used digital media to cement a collective trauma that the report says is intended to be remembered for generations.
The report, led by human rights expert Cochav Elkayam-Levy, draws from firsthand testimonies of more than 10 survivors and hundreds of interviews with first responders, forensic experts, and medical staff. It outlines a gruesome catalog of 13 specific patterns of SGBV, including:
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Sexual Torture: This includes the intentional burning of genital areas and the forced insertion of objects into genitalia.
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Kinocidal Acts: The report coined this term to describe &#8220;kinocidal sexual acts&#8221; — crimes intended to destroy the family unit. This includes forcing family members to perform sexual acts on one another or raping victims in front of their loved ones.
</li>
<li>
Mutilation and Postmortem Abuse: Forensic evidence and photographs showed dozens of victims shot or burned specifically in their intimate areas, often after they were already dead, as a final act of desecration.
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Targeted Commands: Evidence recovered from the bodies of militants included Arabic-to-Hebrew phrasebooks with commands such as &#8220;take off your pants&#8221; and &#8220;spread your legs,&#8221; indicating that sexual assault was a planned component of the mission.
</li>
</ul>
One of the most harrowing sections of the report details three separate incidents of gang rape at the Nova Music Festival. Witnesses described victims being &#8220;passed around&#8221; and screaming in ways described as &#8220;unheard of.&#8221; In many instances, the sexual violence was followed by immediate execution; witnesses recounted seeing women raped by multiple men before being shot in the head or mutilated.
The abuse continued in Gaza. The report includes previously unknown allegations involving two minors who were forced by their captors to perform sexual acts on each other while in captivity. Former hostages, such as Amit Soussana and Romi Gonen, have provided testimonies that corroborate the report’s findings of ongoing sexualized, cruel, and inhuman treatment in the tunnels of Gaza.
The report acknowledges the difficulties in gathering evidence, noting that the immediate aftermath was a chaotic active combat zone where standard forensic protocols were not always followed. This lack of initial forensic data was later &#8220;weaponized&#8221; by critics and deniers to discredit the survivors. Elkayam-Levy emphasized that the Civil Commission’s goal is to ensure this evidence — now carefully cross-referenced and geolocated — cannot be &#8220;denied, erased, or forgotten.&#8221;
The findings have been <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/12/middleeast/report-sexual-violence-hamas-oct-7-attacks-intl">endorsed</a> by various international figures and align with previous conclusions by UN Special Representative Pramila Patten, who found “reasonable grounds” to believe sexual violence occurred.
The Civil Commission concludes that these acts constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal acts. By documenting these atrocities in a digital archive, the researchers aim to provide a rigorous evidentiary record for future legal proceedings at the International Criminal Court and other bodies, ensuring that the victims are finally heard.

Memorial composed of photos of young Israelis killed during the terrorist attack on the NOVA Festival which took place on October 7, 2023 a few kilometers from Gaza

Weaponized Atrocities: The Landmark Report On Hamas’s Systematic Sexual Violence And Digital Terror

Atrocity

Rape

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