Israel Defense Forces raid Gaza schools allegedly used as Hamas bases

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A Georgia middle school teacher was arrested after allegedly threatening to cut off the head of a Muslim student who confronted him about an Israeli flag in his classroom.

Benjamin Reese, 51, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Warner Robbins Middle School, was arrested on Dec. 8 on charges of making terroristic threats and cruelty to children, jail records show. He was released on bond two days later, but bond conditions require him to stay away from the school and the student he is accused of threatening.

A girl approached Reese in a hallway and told him she found the Israeli flag in his classroom offensive because Israelis were killing Palestinians, according to an incident report. The student said Reese told her he was Jewish and has relatives in Israel, accused her of being antisemitic and began screaming threats toward her.

Several witnesses reported hearing Reese scream threats, including one where he said he would cut the girl's head off.

"You motherf---ing piece of s---t! I’ll kick your a--! I should cut your motherf---ing head off!" he reportedly screamed.

Some students said they also heard Reese saying he would "slit her goddamn throat and drag her a-- outside and cut her head off."

When a deputy asked Reese if he threatened any students, he denied the allegations, the report said. He said he told a student who was offended by the flag that she was being antisemitic but denied saying anything racist to her.

Harvard Law Professor-Emeritus Alan Dershowitz calls for "total defeat" of Hamas as the war in the Middle East rages on.

Dershowitz made the comments during an appearance on Fox News' "Life, Liberty & Levin."

A large number of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in New York City on Saturday to protest the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

The protest took place in Midtown Manhattan and involved what appeared to be hundreds of participants. Dozens of protestors were seen waving Palestinian flags. A few were observed getting into altercations with other New Yorkers.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu attends the funeral for First Sergeant Major Gal Meir Eisenkot (aged 25) in the Herzliya cemetery on December 8, 2023 in Herzliya, Israel. (Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

During a Saturday night presser, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged the IDF's recent killing of three Israeli hostages, calling it a "tragedy."

"Since the tragedy yesterday, one thought has followed me: 'What would have happened if something had been different?'" Netanyahu said during the presser. "I am certain that we all share this thought. We were so close to embracing them now."

"But I regret that we cannot turn back the clock," he added. "Everyone who has fought on the battlefield knows that the distance between victory and disaster is a hair's breadth."

The Israeli leader also emphasized that the IDF has learned its "lesson" from the incident.

"Out of the immense pain, we will learn and implement the lessons, and we will not relent in the military and diplomatic effort to safely return home all of our hostages," Netanyahu continued.

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

Lighting flares fired by Israeli forces illuminate the sky as Israeli attacks continue in at the Nuseirat refugee camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on December 12, 2023. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a Saturday press conference that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) must continue their offensive in Gaza in order to free the remaining Gaza hostages.

At a press briefing with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz, Netanyahu credited the recent release of 110 hostage to the Israeli military's prowess.

“Without the military pressure, we would not have been able to produce the [former] agreement which resulted in the release of 110 captives,” Netanyahu said, according to the Jerusalem Post. “Only the continuation of the military pressure will lead to the release of all our captives."

“The instructions I give to the negotiating team are based on this military pressure and without it we have nothing,” the Israeli prime minister added.

A Palestinian Christian man seen at the entrance to the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family during the Easter Mass. (Photo by Mahmoud Issa/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The Israeli military has allegedly killed two Christian women at a church in Gaza, according to reports.

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa announced on X that snipers from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed two worshippers in Holy Family Church, the last Catholic church in Gaza. The decedents were identified as a woman named Nahida and her daughter Samar.

Pizzaballa's report was published by the Holy See's official news agency, Vatican News.

"The Israeli military on Saturday entered the compound of the Holy Family Catholic Parish in Gaza, shooting at anyone leaving the church," the Vatican News reported. "The victims are an elderly woman and her daughter who rushed out of the building to rescue her mother. Israel has justified the attack, claiming the presence of a missile launcher in the parish."

"We cannot but express that we are at a loss to comprehend how such an attack could be carried out, even more so as the whole Church prepares for Christmas," Pizzaballa's press statement concluded. "The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem follows this developing situation with great concern and shall provide additional information as needed."

Fox News Digital's Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.

Smoke rising from Israeli air strikes on the city of Khan Yunis on December 16, 2023 in Khan Yunis, Gaza. (Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images)

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a press briefing on Saturday that the IDF is mourning the loss of the Israeli hostages it accidentally killed in Gaza.

The three hostages were identified as Yotam Haim, 28; Samer Talalka, 22; and 26-year-old Alon Shamriz. 

"The whole IDF bows its head and embraces the families at this difficult time," Hagari said. "We will continue to investigate this incident thoroughly."

"We are in the midst of a war that presents us with very difficult and complex situations with unprecedented characteristics that we have not faced until now," the spokesman continued.

Hagari also provided more details about the IDF's operations in Gaza, as Israel's war against Hamas continues.

"Over the weekend, IDF and ISA forces operated in Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalya, which served as a central headquarters for Hamas," Hagari explained. "We apprehended more than 80 terrorists and questioned the hospital staff, who led us to weapons concealed in the maternity ward and other parts of the hospital."

"In addition, we struck terrorist infrastructure in the Rafah area through which weapons were smuggled into the Gaza Strip," he added.

Fox News Digital's Dana Karni and Greg Norman contributed to this report.

"Real Time" host Bill Maher torched the "myth" promoted by pro-Palestinian activists on college campuses chanting "From the river to the sea." (Screenshot/HBO)

"Real Time" host Bill Maher closed his final show of 2023 with a blistering takedown of the pro-Palestinian movement parading the "myth" that the slogan "From the river to the sea" can be achieved. 

Maher began by linking Christmas to the war-torn region, citing how the "little town of Bethlehem was "86% Christian" in 1950 and how today it's "overwhelmingly Muslim."

"And that's my point tonight: Things change," Maher said. "To 2.3 billion Christians, there could be no more sacred site than where their savior was born, but they don't have it anymore. And yet no crusader army has geared up to take it back. Things change- countries, boundaries, empires. Palestine was under the Ottoman Empire for 400 years but today, an ottoman is something you've put under your feet."

After listing several global geographic changes throughout history, Maher told his audience "eventually everybody comes to an accomodation, except for the Palestinians."

"Was it unjust that even a single Arab family was forced to move upon the founding of the Jewish State? Yes, but it's also not rare. Happening all through history all over the world. And mostly what people do is make the best of it," Maher said. "After World War II, 12 million ethnic Germans got shoved out of Russia and Poland and Czechoslovakia because Germany had become kind of unpopular. A million Greeks were shut out of Turkey in 1923, a million Ghanaians out of Nigeria in 1983, almost a million French out of Algeria in 1962, nearly a million Syrian refugees moved to Germany eight years ago. Was that a perfect fit?" 

"And no one knows more about being pushed off land than the Jews, including the almost holy kicked out of every Arab country they once lived in. Yes, TikTok fans, ethnically cleansing happened both ways," Maher continued while showing a chart of the shrinking Jewish population in Arab countries. 

The HBO star stressed that people "coped" throughout history, citing the Jewish family from "Fiddler on the Roof" repeatedly fleeing from the pogroms. 

"History is brutal, and humans are not good people. History's sad and full of wrongs but you can't make them unhappen because a paraglider isn't a time machine. People get moved, and yes, colonized. Nobody was a bigger colonizer than the Muslim army that swept out of the Arabian desert and took over much of the world in a single century. And they didn't do it by asking," Maher said. "There's a reason Saudi Arabia's flag is a sword. Kosovo was the cradle of Christian Serbia, then it became Muslim. They fought a war about it in the 90s but stopped. They didn't keep it going for 75 years." 

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

Israeli officials appeared to have changed their minds on some points that held up previous talks for a renewed cease-fire to free hostages held in Gaza, Egyptian security sources told Reuters.

In calls with mediators, the Israelis seem more willing to strike a new deal and release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the remaining hostages taken captive by Hamas during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, Reuters reported.

The comments came after the Wall Street Journal reported the head of Israel's Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, would meet Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Europe late on Friday in an effort to revive talks.

There was no immediate response from Israel to the Egyptian assessment or to the reports of a meeting 10 weeks after the start of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas in Gaza, Reuters reported. 

The Wall Street Journal said there remain significant obstacles to a renewed truce, including disagreements between Israel and Hamas on the terms for hostage releases. 

Reuters contributed to this update.

U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked from Iranian proxy forces at least 98 times since October 17th, according to a U.S. defense official. 

U.S. forces have been attacked 46 times in Iraq and 52 times in Syria, the official said.

Below is a list of the most recent attacks: 

December 14 (98)

• On the afternoon of Dec. 14, multiple one-way attack drones were launched against US and Coalition forces at Al-Asad Airbase, Iraq. No casualties and no damage to infrastructure.

December 13 (95-97)

• On the afternoon of Dec. 13, a one-way attack drone was launched against US and Coalition forces at Patrol Base Shaddadi, Syria. No casualties and no damage to infrastructure.

• On the afternoon of Dec. 13, a multi-rocket attack was launched against US and Coalition forces at Mission Support Site Euphrates, Syria. No casualties and no damage to infrastructure.

• On the morning of Dec. 13, a one-way attack drone was launched against US and Coalition forces at Al-Tanf Garrison, Syria. No casualties.

December 12 (93-94)

• On the afternoon of Dec. 12, a multi-rocket attack was launched against US and Coalition forces at Mission Support Site Green Village, Syria. No casualties and no damage to infrastructure.

• On the afternoon of Dec. 12, a single rocket attack was launched against US and Coalition forces at Mission Support Site Euphrates, Syria. No casualties and no damage to infrastructure.

Fox News digital's Liz Friden contributed to this update.

Alon Shamriz, 26; Samer Talalka, 22 and 28-year-old Yotam Haim were identified as the three hostages killed Friday. (Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

The brother of an Israeli hostage who was mistakenly killed by the Israel Defense Forces mourned his loss in a heartbreaking post on social media.

"Here there was light at the end, now there’s only darkness," Ido Shamriz posted on X. His brother, Alon Lulu Shamriz, was one of three escaped Israeli hostages who were killed when they encountered IDF soldiers in Gaza.

An Israeli military official told reporters Saturday the three had likely been abandoned by their Hamas captors or escaped. They were shirtless and were waiving a white flag when IDF troops shot them in violation of military rules of engagement, the official said. 

Hundreds of protesters blocked Tel Aviv’s main highway late Friday in a spontaneous demonstration calling for the hostages’ return. The hostages’ plight has dominated public discourse in Israel since the Oct. 7 attack. Their families have led a powerful public campaign calling on the government to do more to bring them home.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The guided missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) patrols the waters of the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch 21 February. (FELIX GARZA/US NAVY/AFP via Getty Images)

A U.S. destroyer stationed in the Red Sea shot down 14 one-way attack drones early this morning, defense officials said. 

The USS Carney shot downs drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, according to the Defense Department. No injuries or damage to the ship or any other ships in the area were reported. 

"In the early morning hours of December 16 (Sanna time) the US Arliegh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS CARNEY (DDG 64), operating in the Red Sea, successfully engaged 14 unmanned aerial systems launched as a drone wave from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen," U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement posted on X.  

"The UAS were assessed to be one-way attack drones and were shot down with no damage to ships in the area or reported injuries. Regional Red Sea partners were alerted to the threat," CENTCOM posted. 

The USS Carney has shot down 37 incoming attack drones in recent weeks, officials said. HMS Diamond, a British warship, shot down one Houthi drone Saturday after the Carney’s hours long battle in Red Sea.

Fox News' Liz Friden and Jennifer Griffin contributed to this update.

An alleged spy with Israel's Mossad Intelligence service was executed Saturday in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, Iranian state media reported. 

"This person communicated with foreign services, specifically Mossad, collecting classified information, and with participation with associates, provided documents to foreign services, including the Mossad," tge IRNA news agency said.

The alleged spy was not identified.

IRNA reported that the accused had handed classified information to a "Mossad officer" with the aim of "propaganda for groups and organizations opposed to the Islamic Republic". It did not say where the alleged handover had taken place.

IRNA did not say when the accused had been arrested, but reported that an appeal had been rejected.

The execution, which took place in a Zahedan jail in Sistan-Baluchestan, came a day after Baluch militants attacked a police station in the province, killing 11 security personnel and wounding several others.

Reuters contributed to this update.

People protest following an announcement by Israel's military that they had mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages being held in Gaza by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, December 15, 2023. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura

Three Israeli hostages who were mistakenly killed in Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces were holding up a white flag, a military official said Saturday.

The Israel Defense Forces has launched a probe after soldiers fighting in Gaza City mistook three escaped Israeli hostages for a threat and killed them. A soldier saw the hostages emerging several yards away from Israeli forces on Friday in Shejaiya, a warzone where Hamas terrorists have been known to ambush soldiers in civilian clothing, the official said.

"They're all without shirts and they have a stick with a white cloth on it. The soldier feels threatened and opens fire. He declares that they're terrorists. They (the Israeli forces) open fire. Two (hostages) are killed immediately," the official told reporters in a phone briefing, per Reuters. 

The third hostage was wounded and retreated into a nearby building where he called for help in Hebrew, the official said.

"Immediately the battalion commander issues a ceasefire order, but again there's another burst of fire towards the third figure and he also dies," the official said. "This was against our rules of engagement," he added.

The Israeli military earlier identified the three hostages killed in Shejaiya, an eastern suburb of Gaza City, as Yotam Haim and Alon Shamriz, abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Samer Al-Talalka, abducted from nearby Kibbutz Nir Am.

Reuters contributed to this update.

Mourners react as they attend the funeral of Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa, who according to the Arabic broadcaster was killed by an Israeli drone strike on Friday while reporting on the earlier bombing of a school sheltering displaced people but Israel's military did not respond to a request for comment, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip December 16, 2023. REUTERS/Bassam Masoud

A cameraman for the Arabic news network Al Jazeera was killed by a drone strike Friday while covering the war in Gaza, Al Jazeera said.  

Cameraman Samer Abudaqa was unable to get to safety or medical treatment after being injured in the strike on the Farhana School in Khan Younis and died of his wounds before ambulances were allowed in the area, Al Jazeera said. He was 45.

The Arabic network said Israel launched the airstrike. Details of the incident could not be independently verified. 

The Israeli military has not commented on the matter.

"Following Samer's injury, he was left to bleed to death for over five hours, as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him, denying the much-needed emergency treatment," Al Jazeera said in a statement.

The journalists were reporting from Khan Younis, which has been the focus of Israel's ground offensive over the past few days. 

Reuters contributed to this update.

Israeli and Qatari officials planned to meet in Norway on Saturday in an effort to strike a new deal to release hostages held in Gaza, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was set to meet with David Barnea, director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, in Oslo, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

"Significant obstacles impede a resumption of negotiations on a new hostage deal, the people said, including disagreements over the possible terms within Hamas, the U.S.-designated terror group whose Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel sparked the Gaza war," the Journal reported.

These talks would be the first meeting between senior Israeli and Qatari officials since a week-long cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas fell apart two weeks ago. The truce ended after Hamas did not free a group of female hostages and two young children who remain captive in Gaza.

The report comes a day after Israel said IDF troops mistakenly killed three hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza City. 

During a week-long truce in late November, Hamas released more than 100 women, children and foreigners it was holding in Gaza in exchange for the release of 240 women and teenagers.

Reuters contributed to this update.

A law firm will cease on-campus recruiting of Harvard Law students due to the university president’s recent congressional testimony, telling Fox News Digital the move will be in place until there is a "sea change" on campus.

Edelson PC law firm founder Jay Edelson penned a letter to Harvard Law’s director of recruitment and operations saying that the firm will not be participating in the university's upcoming Spring Interview Program. The Spring Interview Program, which begins Jan. 29, facilitates opportunities for employers to interview prospective students on campus.

The firm added that it will also skip a larger on-campus interviewing event in August, according to Reuters. Edelson told Reuters in an interview that the event is where major law firms often hire many of their summer associates.

Edelson sent a statement to Fox News Digital about the decision, saying the move came because of how Harvard and its president Claudine Gay handled the aftermath of her disastrous testimony before Congress on antisemitism at the school.

Harvard University’s top brass backed the embattled president following intense backlash towards her comments about antisemitism and accusations of plagiarism.

Fox News Digital's Joshua Q. Nelson contributed to this update.

A Palestinian boy cries for his relatives who were killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)

The United Nations says that internet disruptions caused by the war in Gaza have caused a communications blackout and more suffering for innocent Palestinians.

Internet and telephone lines went down Thursday evening and were still inaccessible Saturday morning, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org, hampering aid deliveries and rescue efforts as Israel's war against Gaza's ruling militant group Hamas stretched into the 11th week.

“The internet blackout is ongoing, and based on our records it is the longest such incident” in the over-two-month war, said Alp Toker, the group’s director. The United Nations’ humanitarian affairs department said communications with Gaza were “severely disrupted” due to damage to telecommunications lines in the south.

Since the war began after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, 85% of the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million Palestinian residents have been driven from their homes southward to a humanitarian safe zone while Israel fights Hamas. 

With limited humanitarian aid able to reach Gaza, the U.N.'s World Food Program reported a surge from 38% to 56% in the number of displaced households suffering severe hunger in the last two weeks. 

The Associated Press contributed to this update.

A rare Palestinian youth leader opposed to Hamas’ totalitarian rule has emerged amid Israel’s efforts to root out the vestiges of the jihadi terrorist movement in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking with Fox News Digital from within the war zone in Gaza, Moumen Al-Natour, 28, said he "advocates peace and for the establishment of a Palestinian state" that coexists with the Jewish state as part of a two-state solution.

The Hamas regime has imprisoned Al-Natour twenty times, including incarceration for "expressing my opinion and trying to organize additional protests."

Al-Natour was part of the 2019 protest against the deteriorating standard of living under Hamas rule. 

"I organized a lot of young people in that 2019 protest movement called We Want to Live," he said. 

Hamas violently crushed the 2019 protest of hundreds of demonstrators. Gaza has a Palestinian population of 2.3 million people.

According to the Meezaan Organization for Human Rights, based in Nazareth, Al-Natour was tortured by Hamas each time he was jailed. 

When asked why the world is not hearing from people in Gaza who oppose Hamas, Al-Natour said, "Hamas is still in power. People, even during peace time, they do not criticize Hamas publicly. Now, specifically during wartime, the consequences would be much, much worse than during peace time.

"For sure, not all the people in Gaza are Hamas. They do not have access to social media and journalistic platforms where they can express what they think about Hamas."

Fox News Digital's Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this update.

Israel Defense Forces troops conduct operations in Gaza. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israel Defense Forces revealed Saturday morning its troops' activity in the last 24 hours regarding the ongoing war against Hamas terrorists.

The IDF wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that troops have apprehended terrorists hiding in the al-Mu'tasim Bi'llah and al-Farabi schools in Gaza City's Rimal neighborhood, who turned themselves in. Troops also eliminated additional terrorists in the area.

Troops also found "weapons and underground terrorist infrastructure in operational compounds in Khan Yunis" and directed an Israeli Air Force strike "on a number of Hamas terrorists who fired at the troops from the roof of a compound in Jabalia."

In a separate incident, IDF said a building in the Jabalia camp was struck after it identified suspicious movement on the roof. 

"IDF troops identified the movement of a number of Hamas terrorists on the roof of a compound from which shots were fired in Jabalia. In response, the forces directed an IDF aircraft that struck the compound," the military said. 

Fox News Digital's Landon Mion contributed to this update.