Israeli hostage killed by Hamas as IDF strikes hundreds of targets in Gaza Strip

Greg Joseph has been raising money to provide aid in Israel since the terrorist attacks there in October, and he'll be furthering his efforts this weekend.

The Minnesota Vikings kicker began his "Kicks for Israel" campaign Oct. 17, 10 days after the Hamas attacks.

Joseph is Jewish and has said his religion has "absolutely" guided him throughout his life. He attended high school at the Donna Klein Jewish Academy in Boca Raton, Florida.

The kicker is donating $54 for every extra point he makes, and $180 for every field goal, with all the funds going directly to "emergency food and essential supplies to those who have been displaced through the humanitarian Non-Profit Organization Leket Israel."

As the NFL continues its Cause for Cleats initiative, Joseph will be representing his faith.

Joseph's cleats will include the Star of David and the phrase "I Stand With Israel."

Fox News' Ryan Morik contributed to this report.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., criticized Harvard University President Claudine Gay after she apologized for remarks made on antisemitism during a congressional hearing Tuesday.

In an interview with The Harvard Crimson published Thursday, Gay apologized for her remarks before Congress earlier in the week, saying "I am sorry…Words matter."

"When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret," Gay said. "I got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures.

"What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged," added Gay. "Substantively, I failed to convey what is my truth."

Stefanik, however, isn't taking her apology seriously.

"No, Dr. Gay. You were given an opportunity to speak your truth. And you did. Not once. Not twice Not 5x. Not 10x I asked you 17x(!!!) in the hearing about whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates @Harvard code of conduct. You spoke your truth under oath 17x. And the world heard it," Stefanik posted on X.

Fox News' Adam Sabes contributed to this report.

Firebrand politician Geert Wilders’ surprising late November election victory in the Netherlands has prompted a political sea-change and could alter the European political landscape.

Wilders, the so-called Dutch Donald Trump, seeks to cobble together a coalition to govern the northern European country of nearly 18 million people.

Fox News Digital spoke to a number of experts who note that the 60-year-old Wilders’ election triumph has catapulted hot-button issues of unfettered mass migration, open borders, crime and terrorism into the larger U.S. and European conversations.

"It is very clear on both sides of the Atlantic, the issue of mass migration is a huge electoral issue. And I would say the political developments in Europe and the overwhelming rejection of open doors approach is a clear warning sign for Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 presidential election," Nile Gardiner, director of the Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, told Fox News Digital.

Gardiner said while "the No. 1 issue for the U.S. election is inflation and the cost of living, immigration is high up there for the voters. The European election will make Biden very nervous."

"As we saw with Geert Wilders’ stunning election victory in the Netherlands, there is taking place right now a political earthquake across Western Europe," Gardiner noted. "Wilders’ win is a real game changer. The election was overwhelmingly about mass migration into one of Europe’s most important countries.

"Wilders stands on a platform of opposing mass migration into the Netherlands, and at the same time he stands against the increasing Islamization of Europe. Voters are increasingly rejecting open borders, mass migration and the rise of Islamist ideology in their societies."

Fox News' Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.

Director Steven Spielberg expressed shock at the atrocities of Hamas terrorists against the Jewish people on Oct. 7 in announcing a project to document its horrors.

The violence that occurred that day in Israel and the wave of antisemitism around the world that followed has reminded many of echoes of the Holocaust.

Spielberg, who directed the Oscar-winning Holocaust film "Schindler’s List," indicated the terrorist attacks left him shaken in a press release from his USC Shoah Foundation announcing the project.

"I never imagined I would see such unspeakable barbarity against Jews in my lifetime," he said.

The USC Shoah Foundation, a Holocaust visual history archive founded by Spielberg in 1994, is working to gather hundreds of interviews in an initiative to collect the harrowing accounts from survivors of Oct. 7.

The Shoah Foundation hosts tens of thousands of testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust, but its work also extends to documenting contemporary antisemitism through the Countering Antisemitism Through Testimony Collection (CATT) initiative.

The Oct. 7 testimonies will be part of CATT, which Spielberg said is "an effort that will ensure that the voices of survivors will act as a powerful tool to counter the dangerous rise of antisemitism and hate."

Fox News' Alexander Hall contributed to this report.

Seventy-four House members sent a bipartisan letter to the governing boards of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania, calling on all three to take immediate action to remove the president of each respective institution. 

The letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, was signed by 74 House of Representatives members from both parties, and specifically calls out MIT President Sally Kornbluth, UPenn President Liz Magill, and Harvard President Claudine Gay, for failing to say if calls for the genocide of Jewish people would violate university policies during a congressional hearing Tuesday.

The letter was signed by Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.; Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La.; Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J.; Rep. Mike Ezell, R-Miss., and many more.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., among those who signed the letter, asked Gay, Magill and Kornbluth if calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their university's policies.

"If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment. Yes," Magill responded, later adding, "It is a context-dependent decision."

"It can be, depending on the context," Gay responded.

Kornbluth responded to the question, saying it would be considered harassment only if it's "targeted at individuals, not making public statements" and if it was "pervasive and severe."

"There is no context in which calls for the genocide of Jews are acceptable rhetoric. Their failure to unequivocally condemn calls for the systematic murder of Jews is deeply alarming. It stands in stark contrast to the principles we expect leaders of top academic institutions to uphold," the bipartisan letter states. "It is hard to imagine any Jewish or Israeli student, faculty, or staff feeling safe when presidents of your member institutions could not say that calls for the genocide of Jews would have clear consequences on your campus.

"If calls for genocide of the Jewish people are not in violation of your universities' policies, then your universities are operating under a clear double standard."

Read the full article from Adam Sabes,

The Department of Education announced this week that an additional six schools across the country are being investigated for discrimination amid the Israel-Hamas war. 

Investigations into Montana State University, Tulane University, Union College, the University of Cincinnati, Santa Monica College, and Cobb County School District in Georgia, were opened over the past week by the DOE's Office for Civil Rights.

The investigations are focusing on cases of alleged discrimination that involve shared ancestry.

A DOE spokesperson declined to comment on the investigations, but pointed Fox News Digital to a November press release after opening investigations into several schools after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.

"Hate has no place in our schools, period. When students are targeted because they are — or are perceived to be — Jewish, Muslim, Arab, Sikh, or any other ethnicity or shared ancestry, schools must act to ensure safe and inclusive educational environments where everyone is free to learn," said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. "These investigations underscore how seriously the Biden-Harris Administration, including the U.S. Department of Education, takes our responsibility to protect students from hatred and discrimination." 

At the time, Cornell University, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania were among those being investigated.

While the DOE didn't say why it opened the investigations, a pro-Palestinian protest near Tulane in November ended with several people being arrested after three individuals were assaulted.  

Read the full article by Adam Sabes.

A World Food Programme official said he wasn’t prepared for the “fear, the chaos, and the despair” he encountered during a Friday visit to the Gaza Strip.  

Carl Skau said he visited WFP staff in the Hamas-controlled territory and described a scene of confusion and despair.  

“Confusion at warehouses, distribution points with thousands of desperate hungry people, supermarkets with bare shelves, and overcrowded shelters with bursting bathrooms,” he said. “The dull thud of bombs was the soundtrack for our day.” 

He said one woman at a food distribution point told him she lived with nine other families in one apartment. They take turns sleeping at night because there isn’t enough room to lay down, Skau said in a statement.  

WFP staff have so far reached one million people so far, but the breakdown of law and order has made humanitarian operations “impossible,” Skau said. 

“With just a fraction of the needed food supplies coming in, a fatal absence of fuel, interruptions to communications systems and no security for our staff or for the people we serve at food distributions, we cannot do our job,” he said.  

He called for the opening of more crossings to allow food to be delivered into Gaza.  

“This will only be possible with a humanitarian ceasefire and ultimately, we need this conflict to end,” he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron is being criticized for attending a Jewish ceremony this week at the presidential palace, breaking a long-standing tradition of secularism for public officials, according to reports.

Macron was invited to the Élysée Palace on Thursday to receive an award for fighting antisemitism and protecting religious freedoms at the Conference of European Rabbis, Politico reported.

France’s chief rabbi, Haïm Korsia, lit a ceremonial candle on a menorah while members of the audience sang traditional Hanukkah songs in Hebrew.

“I think that on this point we need to keep our heads cool,” Macron told reporters on Friday while visiting the Norte-Dame cathedral in Paris. “Secularism isn’t about erasing religions. It’s about the fact that everyone has the right and freedom to believe and not to believe.”

Even some Jewish groups criticized the French president.

“The Élysée is not the place to light a Hanukkah candle because the Republican DNA is to stay away from anything religious,” said Yonathan Arfi, president of the French Jewish federation CRIF who also attended the event.

Manuel Bompard, an opposition lawmaker in France, said Macron had made “an unforgivable political mistake.”

Palestinian President Abbas says US is the 'only power' capable of ordering Israel to end the war Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, on Friday told Reuters that he believes the U.S. "is the only power that is capable of ordering Israel to stop the war [...] but unfortunately it doesn't."

Abbas, speaking in an interview, also said that "the United States, which fully supports Israel, bears the responsibility of what is happening in the enclave."

He called for an international peace conference to find a solution to end the Israel-Hamas war. 

"I am with peaceful resistance. I am for negotiations based on an international peace conference and under international auspices that would lead to a solution that will be protected by world powers to establish a sovereign Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem," Abbas told Reuters.

A temporary cease-fire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect in late November but lasted for only a week before fighting resumed in the Gaza Strip.  

Read the full article by Timothy H.J. Nerozzi.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said Israel’s goal is the  “the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip” and “the dispossession and forcible displacement of the Palestinian people” after the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. 

“If you are against the destruction and displacement of the Palestinian people, you have to be in favor of an immediate cease-fire,” Mansour said. “When you refuse to call for a cease-fire, you are refusing to call for the only thing that can put an end to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.”

The 13-member council voted 13-1 with the United Kingdom abstaining. 

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood criticized the council after the vote over its failure to condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which the militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, or to acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself.  

He declared that halting military action would allow Hamas to continue to rule Gaza and “only plant the seeds for the next war.”

“Hamas has no desire to see a durable peace, to see a two-state solution,” Wood said before the vote. “For that reason, while the United States strongly supports a durable peace, in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate cease-fire.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Israeli forces attacked a manned observation post used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The IDF also identified terrorist fighters who were at the anti-tank launching position.

The position was being used to carry out rocket fire into Israel Thursday night in a border attack, the IDF said.

The operatives were struck, the IDF said.

The Biden administration is urging authorities in Iraq to find and arrest those behind rocket attacks on the U.S. Embassy and facilities hosting American personnel. 

The State Department said many Iran-linked militias that operate freely in Iraq threaten “the security and stability of Iraq, our personnel, and our partners in the region."

“Prime Minister (Mohammed Shia' Al) Sudani rightly called these attacks acts of ‘terrorism,’” the agency said in a statement Friday. 

There have been 10 attacks in the past 24 hours from a combination of rockets, mortars and drones, a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News. The official said it was “definitely an escalation.”

The attack on the U.S. Embassy involved seven 60mm mortars. Other targets were the Al Asad Air Base and the Bashar Air Base in Iraq and the Mission Support Site Euphrates in Syria, among a handful of others. 

“The Iraqi Government has repeatedly committed to protect diplomatic missions as well as U.S. military personnel, who are present in the country at Iraq’s invitation. This is non-negotiable, as is our right to self-defense,” the State Department said. 

The U.S. has carried out six airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17, one for every 14 attacks. The total number of attacks stands at 84. 

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin and Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.

The United States vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution Friday calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. 

The council held an emergency meeting in New York following a Wednesday letter by  Secretary-General António Guterres about the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Hamas-controlled Gaza. 

“The situation is simply becoming untenable,” Guterres said in a Friday speech to the global body. “The conditions for the effective delivery of humanitarian aid no longer exists.”

Israel and Hamas paused fighting for just over a week amid a hostage and prisoner exchange but the conflict has since resumed. Hamas broke a previous cease-fire when it conducted its deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israeli communities. 

After the veto, Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., thanked the Biden administration for “showing their leadership and values.”

He criticized the U.N. for tasking Israel with initiating the cease-fire despite Hamas breaking the previous agreement and starting the ongoing war. 

“It is shocking that while Hamas is firing rockets at Israel from population centers in southern Gaza, the UN is busy debating a distorted resolution that will enable Hamas’ terrorists to stay in power in Gaza and does not condemn Hamas or call for the release of the hostages,” he wrote on X. “A ceasefire will be possible only with the return of all the hostages and the destruction of Hamas.”

In a speech to the council, he accused Hamas of shielding itself among civilians and using its “vicious strategy” of using civilian deaths as a propaganda tool.

The Biden administration is asking for Congress to approve the sale of 45,000 shells for Israel's Merkava tanks for use in its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, according to a Reuters report.

The State Department is pushing congressional committees to quickly approve the transaction, said a U.S. official and Josh Paul, a former State Department spokesperson, amid objections from human rights advocates over the use of U.S.-made weapons in the conflict, the report said.

"This went to committees earlier this week and they are supposed to have 20 days to review Israel cases. State (Department) is pushing them to clear now," Paul told Reuters.

A State Department spokesperson said "we do not confirm or comment on proposed defense transfers or sales until they have been formally notified to Congress."

On Wednesday, the Senate narrowly voted not to advance a bill to aid Ukraine and Israel. The bill would have provided both countries with billions of dollars amid separate conflicts in both regions

Harvard President Claudine Gay has apologized for remarks she made on antisemitism during her testimony before Congress. 

"I am sorry. Words matter." Gay said during an interview with The Harvard Crimson on Thursday. "When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret," she added.

On Tuesday, Gay sat before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to discuss antisemitism and threats against Jewish students on Harvard’s campus.

During an exchange with Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Gay was asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews on campus violates the university’s codes of conduct related to bullying and harassment.

Gay said it would depend on the "context" of the incident.

When asked to give a yes or no answer, Gay said antisemitic speech could warrant action from Harvard if the conduct crosses into bullying, harassment and intimidation.

Stefanik again pressed Gay to provide a simple yes or no response."Again, it depends on the context," Gay said.

Read the full article by Nikolas Lanum.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani both stated the importance on containing the Israeli-Hamas conflict during a Friday meeting. 

Blinken met with Al Thani ahead of a meeting with the broader delegation from the Joint Arab League-Organization of Islamic Cooperation contact group, State Department Matthew Miller said. 

“The Secretary and Prime Minister Al Thani reiterated the importance of preventing the conflict from spreading and committed to continuing close coordination on ongoing efforts to facilitate the safe return of all remaining hostages while sustaining humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza,” Miller said. 

Last week, Blinken urged Israel to comply with international law and spare civilians amid its war with Hamas.

The European Union has added two Hamas militants to its terror list in response to its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the EU Officials Journal said Friday. 

Mohammed Deif, commander of the armed wing of Hamas since 2002, as well as Marwan Issa have been placed on the list.

Issa serves as a deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing, the EU said. 

“Following their listing, the two individuals are subject to the freezing of their funds and other financial assets in EU member states, the announcement said. “It is also prohibited for EU operators to make funds and economic resources available to them."

Both men were listed as leaders in the terror group and helped plan the deadly attack that killed more than 1,200 people and resulted in some 240 people kidnapped.

Israel’s military says two of its soldiers have been "severely injured" during an overnight operation to rescue hostages held by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

The Israel Defense Forces says during the operation “numerous terrorists who took part in the abducting and holding of hostages were killed” but it ultimately did not result in the rescue of any hostages. 

The families of the wounded soldiers have been notified, according to the IDF. 

“The IDF continues to operate in a variety of operational and intelligence methods, together with security organizations, in order to release the hostages, and to collect relevant information,” the IDF also said. “IDF representatives are in contact with the families of the hostages, regularly updating them with all verified information about their loved ones.” 

The Israeli Air Force said Friday that its "aircraft attacked several terrorist targets of the Hezbollah terrorist organization" following yet another round of launches from Lebanon toward Israel.

"The IDF attacked the sources of the fire with artillery," it said in a post on X.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari also said "a short time ago, a shot was fired from Lebanese territory at an IDF post in Matat area" and "IDF forces attacked the firing area with artillery" in response.