Free Republic

The “floating pier” built by the U.S. Navy off the coast of Gaza was completed on Thursday, and connected to the shore by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops. President Joe Biden announced the port project in his State of the Union address in March to augment land routes to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. He promised that there would be no American “boots on the ground”; the U.S. is relying on the IDF to provide onshore security for the port. Today at approximately 7:40 a.m. (Gaza time) United States Central Command personnel supporting the humanitarian mission to deliver additional humanitarian...

Rafah isn’t just the last stand for Hamas, but for an entire foreign policy establishment.The desperate effort to keep Israeli soldiers from going into the last Gaza stronghold of the Islamic terrorist organization is about more than the sum of the geopolitical parts.After nation building failed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and everywhere else it’s been tried, the radioactive ‘Palestinian’ nation building experiment from over 30 years ago is its last hope.Long before George W. Bush tackled nation building after 9/11, his father began the era of turning Muslim terrorist groups into countries with the project to give the PLO a...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shared drone footage Tuesday of terrorists in a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound in Rafah, near several United Nations (UN) vehicles, including gunfire by the terrorists.Israel's foreign minister, Israel Katz, said that the UN was working with the terrorists, and called on UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini to resign (as Katz has done in the past).The IDF released a statement:During IDF operational activity in eastern Rafah on Saturday, terrorists were identified in UNRWA's central logistics compound alongside UN vehicles.In the footage, a number of terrorists and gunfire can be seen near UN vehicles...

The Biden administration is urging Arab states to join a "peacekeeping" force which would control Gaza once the war ends, the Financial Times reported. The initiative aims to fill the vacuum which would be created in Gaza once Hamas is toppled and until a "credible Palestinian security apparatus" could be established. Among the countries the US has been discussing its plans with are Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco, all of which are "considering" the initiative. The US has also spoken to Saudi Arabia about the plan, but the Saudis are unwilling to deploy their own forces to the...

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday that President Joe Biden's administration does not view the killings of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza by Israel in its war with Hamas as genocide, Reuters reported. Sullivan said the United States wants to see Hamas defeated, adding that Gazans caught in the middle of the war were in "hell" and that a major military operation by Israel in Rafah would be a mistake. "We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide. We have been firmly on record rejecting that proposition," he said. .....

The Biden administration informally notified congressional committees Tuesday that it planned to move forward with more than $1 billion in weapons deals for Israel, said U.S. officials familiar with the matter, a major transfer of lethal aid that comes a week after the White House paused a single shipment of bombs because of concerns that a planned assault in southern Gaza could cause immense civilian casualties. The arms deals allow for the potential transfer of $700 million in tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of...

A group of Palestinian rioters vandalized Joshua’s Altar in the West Bank, a site revered by millions of Jews and Christians. The altar, which is located at Mount Ebal, was damaged after the rioters burned tires on its remains and spray-painted Palestinian flags and Arabic inscriptions on the stones last week, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post. According to a report from TPS, the site is under joint control with the Palestinian Authority and has been the target of vandalism on numerous occasions, part of a larger problem of attacks on Israeli archaeological sites under Palestinian control. “Unfortunately,...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Tuesday that it had killed 15 terrorists, at least 10 of whom were from Hamas, in a strike on a “war room” that they had set up at a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school. In a joint statement, the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (ISA, or “Shabak,” or “Shin Bet”) said: Based on IDF and ISA intelligence, the IAF carried out a precise strike on a central Hamas war room commanders embedded inside an UNRWA school in the area of Nuseirat. The war room was used by terrorist operatives in...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel began toned down Independence Day celebrations at sundown on Monday, with hopes for an end to the seven-month-old Gaza war dim, anti-government protests growing and internal divisions festering. As the country marks its 76th year, firework displays were cancelled and the traditional torch-lighting ceremony at the Jerusalem national cemetery will be taped for TV audiences instead of livestreamed. Opposition lawmakers blasted the move as an attempt at stifling protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has come under attack at live events from hecklers furious about his failure to bring home the 128 hostages still held by...

New data on Gazan fatalities cited by UN agency also separates ‘identified’ deaths in hospitals from some 10,000 alleged deaths based on Hamas ‘media sources’ In a dramatic development, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has sharply revised downward the number of “identified” female and child fatalities in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The data now differentiates between the total number of deaths reported by Hamas (over 34,000) and the number of “identified” fatalities (over 24,000). The new figures reported by OCHA reduce by more than half the number of women and children that it previously...

Jews, who are 'tyrannical' and the 'brothers of apes and pigs' should be annihilated (...part of first paragraph deleted by my stupid browser) cording to a Florida Islamic cleric, wing “worse than the Nazis.” During a sermon at the North Miami Islamic Center in Florida in late April, Imam Di called for Allah to support “our oppressed brot well as for the total annihilation of Jews, whom he referred to as “apes and pigs” — a phrase that radical Islamists have historically used to describe Jews. “Oh Allah, annihilate the tyrannical Jews… for they are no match for You,” he...

As Townhall reported — and anyone not blinded by rabid anti-Israel and pro-Hamas hatred presumed — the number of women and children killed in the Gaza Strip since Hamas launched its massacre on October 7 is far less than the United Nations or its terrorist sources reported. The UN's Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) quite quietly and without an announcement matching the breathless outrage at and coverage of previously reported (and literally unbelievable) numbers, halved the number of women and children it previously claimed were killed in Gaza amid the war. The more than 14,000 children it said...

The United Nations has significantly adjusted Palestinian casualty figures for the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, halving the number of women and children previously reported killed. While more than 9,500 women and 14,500 children were reported among the fatalities by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on May 6, two days later that number was revised significantly downward. Today, under 5,000 women and 8,000 children are now officially listed by the UN as casualties. David Adesnik, director of research at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told the National Post he suspects the...

Yahya Sinwar the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip, created and oversaw a secret police force that monitored and created files on ordinary Gazan civilians, the New York Times reported. Documents seized from Gaza indicate that this secret force, which is called the General Security Service, targeted journalists, young people, and others who questioned the Hamas government in Gaza. Anyone who attended a protest against a Hamas official or any aspect of Hamas's rule, as well as anyone who publically criticized Hamas, was investigated by the General Security Service. The secret force was used to quash...

A UK ban on selling arms to Israel would only strengthen Hamas, the foreign secretary has told the BBC. Lord Cameron said while he would not support a major ground offensive in the Gazan city of Rafah, the UK would not copy US plans to stop some arms sales.

Dozens of students walked out of Duke University’s commencement ceremony on Sunday to protest guest speaker Jerry Seinfield over his support of Israel during the war in Gaza. Video of the incident shows a group of students walking out of their seats and carrying a Palestinian flag as soon as the comedian and TV star was called to the stage. The attention to the protesters was quickly diverted by the cheering crowd, who chanted, “Jerry! Jerry!” as Seinfeld would go on to give his speech and accept an honorary degree from Duke.

After the head of the United Nation’s atomic watchdog agency warned that Iran has enough uranium to produce "several" nuclear bombs, a firebrand Iranian lawmaker declared on Friday that the Islamic Republic of Iran possesses atomic weapons. "In my opinion, we have achieved nuclear weapons, but we do not announce it. It means our policy is to possess nuclear bombs, but our declared policy is currently within the framework of the JCPOA," Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani told the Iran-based outlet Rouydad 24 on Friday, according to an article published by the independent news organization Iran International in London.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press” that Israel needed to do whatever it takes to survive knowing that U.S. military officials are “full of crap.” Host Kristen Welker said, “I guess the question is, why does Israel need the most massive bombs that can potentially level an entire block in order to wage this war?Why can’t it be more precise?” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press” that Israel needed to do whatever it takes to survive knowing that U.S. military officials are “full of crap.” Host Kristen Welker said, “I...

<p>A small group of anti-Israel protesters from a Florida chapter of Queers for Palestine blocked access to Walt Disney World Saturday — and were promptly arrested.</p><p>Some fed-up drivers were seen using the shoulder of the highway to go around the demonstrators — while one angry motorist got out of his car to confront them, video showed.</p>

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that President Joe Biden was “squarely where the middle of the country is” on the Israel-Hamas war. Anchor Dana Bash said, “Do you think that when the president said what he said to Erin Burnett this week that what ended up happening is he tried to, I don’t want to take away from what he tried to do on policy, but just on the politics that it ended up kind of pleasing no one. Is that a potential problem, or do you think that is what he said...