The Israel Defense Forces is conducting extensive airstrikes across the Gaza Strip and mobilizing ground troops to gain operational control in key areas of the Palestinian enclave, the military announced overnight Friday.

The move marks the opening stage of an expanded phase of military operations—codenamed Gideon’s Chariots—aimed at achieving the central objectives of the war: securing the release of hostages and dismantling the Hamas terrorist organization.

On Friday afternoon, the IDF reported that it had attacked more than 150 terrorist targets across Gaza in the past 24 hours as part of ongoing operations against Hamas.

The airstrikes targeted anti-tank positions, terrorist cells, and structures used to launch attacks on Israeli troops. Ground forces from the 252nd, 143rd, and 36th Divisions operated in both northern and southern Gaza, destroying tunnel shafts and other infrastructure while killing terrorists engaged in active combat and plotting further attacks.

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to intensify the war in Gaza, asserting that IDF soldiers would remain in every area they capture.

“We decided on intensified action in Gaza,” Netanyahu said. “That was the IDF chief of staff’s recommendation—to move, as he said, toward the defeat of Hamas. He believes this will also help us rescue the hostages. I agree with him.”

“We are not letting up on this effort and will not give up on anyone,” he continued.

Defense Minister Israel Katz echoed these sentiments, stating that Israeli troops were prepared to intensify their activities until all war objectives are achieved.

“The operation is intended to defeat Hamas and secure the release of all hostages. We will act with great force to destroy all of Hamas’s military and governmental capabilities,” Katz said.

He added that the entire population of the Gaza Strip would be evacuated to the southern part of the enclave during the fighting, and that the IDF would remain in “every area that is taken.”

The Israel Defense Forces launched a large-scale aerial operation on Friday night targeting terrorist infrastructure belonging to the Iranian-backed Houthi regime at the Hudaydah and Salif ports in Yemen.

Fifteen Israeli Air Force fighter jets carried out the attack, dropping more than 30 munitions in what marks the eighth IDF strike on Houthi targets since the terror group joined the war in support of Hamas and Hezbollah following the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

According to the IDF, the targeted ports serve as hubs for weapons transfers and exemplify "the Houthi terrorist regime's systematic and cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure to advance terrorist activities."

The military stated that the strikes were preceded by multiple advance warnings urging civilians in the area to evacuate, in an effort to minimize harm to non-combatants.

“Over the past year and a half, the Houthi terrorist regime has been operating under Iranian direction and funding in order to harm the State of Israel and its allies, undermining regional stability and disrupting global freedom of navigation,” the IDF said in a statement.

The military added that “any hostile activity in these ports will continue to be prevented.”

In response, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a stern warning: “If the Houthis continue to fire missiles at the State of Israel, they will suffer painful blows—and the heads of the terrorist group will also be hit.

"We will defend ourselves with strength against any enemy," he said.

On Thursday evening, air-raid sirens were activated across Israel’s central region, including in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, warning of an incoming Houthi ballistic missile.

“Following alerts that were activated a short time ago in several areas of the country, one missile launched from Yemen was intercepted,” the military stated.

Early Saturday morning, the IDF intercepted a drone launched “from the east”—a term used by the military to refer to Yemen. Sirens were activated in accordance with protocol. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Since Tuesday night, the Jewish state’s air defenses have intercepted five projectiles fired at the country by the Houthis.

Last week, the IDF launched a series of strikes on Sanaa International Airport in Yemen. Dozens of Air Force fighter jets made the more than 1,000-mile journey and dropped 50 bombs over the course of about 15 minutes, disabling the main airport controlled by Houthi terrorists.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets also struck multiple major power stations in the Houthi capital, as well as a cement factory located north of Sanaa, which it said was used for building tunnels and terror infrastructure.

Those strikes come two days after the Houthis launched a ballistic missile at Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, injuring six civilians and disrupting air traffic.

A terrorist stabbed and wounded a police officer on Friday night at the Chain Gate entrance to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City.

According to police, an officer on duty noticed the suspect and began a routine inspection. During the check, the attacker drew a knife and stabbed the officer.

Additional forces at the scene responded immediately, shooting and neutralizing the assailant, identified as a 17-year-old resident of Beit Hanina.

The injured officer was evacuated to hospital for medical treatment and is reported to be in mild to moderate condition.

Jerusalem District Police Commander Major General Amir Arzani arrived at the scene and praised the swift response of the officers.

“The officers on duty demonstrated determination and courage when facing a bloodthirsty terrorist who attempted to take their lives in an instant,” he said. “This attack is another reminder of the wide range of threats our forces face daily in the Old City and across Jerusalem. We will continue to act decisively against anyone who threatens the safety of our officers or civilians.”

The investigation has been transferred to the Jerusalem District’s central unit.

The lead prosecutor in the International Criminal Court’s investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza has temporarily stepped aside over a sexual misconduct investigation, multiple outlets reported on Friday.

Karim Khan, prosecutor of the ICC, has taken indefinite leave pending the outcome of a probe from the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services about allegations that he repeatedly assaulted a Malaysian colleague in several countries and had urged her not to pursue charges as they might hinder his investigation of Israel.

“Think about the Palestinian arrest warrants,” he was quoted as saying, according to his accuser.

Khan has denied the allegations. JNS sought comment from the ICC.

The ICC’s two deputy prosecutors will take over the investigation while Khan is on leave, Reuters reported.

In May 2024, Khan announced that he would request arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity over Israeli conduct in the war against Hamas.

The Hague-based tribunal, which is independent and not part of the United Nations, issued the warrants in November.

Some have raised questions about whether Khan requested the warrants against Israel in May 2024 to deliberately overshadow the sexual misconduct allegations against him, which came to light just weeks earlier. Khan’s decision that month to cancel a longstanding trip to Israel and Gaza also raised further questions about his impartiality.

Israel has denied that the court has jurisdiction to arrest or try its citizens because Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute that created the ICC in 2002.

The Associated Press reported on Thursday that the ICC probe has ground to a halt following U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order in February to impose sanctions on Khan and the court. Khan, who is British, has reportedly been frozen out of his U.K. bank accounts and lost access to his work email account. 

New York University decried a student’s decision to attack Israel during a commencement speech and is withholding the student’s diploma, the school announced on Wednesday.

“NYU strongly denounces the choice by a student at the Gallatin School’s graduation” to “misuse his role as student speaker to express his personal and one-sided political views,” John Beckman, an NYU spokesman, stated.

“He lied about the speech he was going to deliver and violated the commitment he made to comply with our rules. The university is withholding his diploma while we pursue disciplinary actions,” Beckman stated. “NYU is deeply sorry that the audience was subjected to these remarks and that this moment was stolen by someone who abused a privilege that was conferred upon him.”

In an almost three-minute speech at the commencement ceremonies for NYU’s school of individualized study, Logan Rozos accused the Jewish state repeatedly of committing “genocide.”

“My moral and political commitments guide me to say that the only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine,” Rozos said.

The student’s remarks were met with loud applause from many in the crowd.

NYU has yet to release a recording of the speech. (JNS sought comment from NYU.)

The Anti-Defamation League’s New York and New Jersey office stated that it is “appalled to hear that during NYU graduation, a student speaker altered their approved speech to make divisive and false comments about the current Israel-Hamas war.”

The ADL thanked the school administration for its “strong condemnation” and “pursuit of disciplinary action.”

“Send him off to visit Gaza,” David Friedman, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, wrote. “I’m sure he will receive a warm welcome from Hamas.”

New York City is increasing security ahead of Sunday’s Israel Day Parade, with street closures, screening checkpoints and specialized police teams set to monitor activity along the parade route, according to a security briefing at police headquarters in Manhattan.

Jessica Tisch, commissioner of the New York City Police Department, said at the Friday morning security briefing that, in preparation for Sunday’s parade, the section of Fifth Avenue from 52nd to 78th Streets will be closed starting at 7:30 a.m. Designated screening entry points will be located on the East Side at 61st, 63rd, 66th, 70th and 73rd Streets, accessible from Madison Avenue.

“Everyone has a right to express their views peacefully, but no one has a right to engage in criminal activity, and we will not tolerate any attempts to disrupt this event or endanger those who come to celebrate,” she said. “The NYPD has been preparing for this event for months.”

A comprehensive security plan includes specialized emergency units, counterterrorism teams, a bomb squad and NYPD helicopters and drones providing aerial coverage, according to Tisch.

“This year’s parade comes at a time of heightened tension around the world and here at home,” she said. “Since the Oct. 7 attacks, there has been a notable increase in demonstrations and deeply personal emotions on all sides of the conflict, and we’ve also seen an unacceptable uptick in antisemitic threats and rhetoric.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at the briefing that this will be the second major parade since Oct. 7. He told reporters that this is also the second time that there have been calls to scrap the parade over security concerns.

“We refuse to ever succumb to those who want to have this city live in fear,” he said. “We want to ensure we have a safe acknowledgement of Israel’s Independence Day on Sunday.”

Adams told JNS that while the NYPD is not currently expecting counter-protesters on Sunday, the department is prepared to handle anything that may arise.

Rebecca Weiner, the deputy NYPD commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, and her team “are always looking for any intel that would disrupt any event in the city,” he told JNS. “So it is not our prediction. It is our preparation.”

“If we practice, we’re always ready,” he told JNS.

Even when sporadic protests emerge, the city is able to carry on with its activities, and Sunday should be no different, according to the mayor.

“We will be prepared, and that’s why we are creating an environment where we can inspect who’s coming into the parade site, how we’re gonna control the flow of people and ensure that we have proper deployment of personnel if there’s any form of disruption,” Adams told JNS.

StopAntisemitism’s X account shared a disturbing video on May 4 from the Barstool Sansom Street bar in Philadelphia. The footage, seemingly a screen recording of an Instagram story, showed a sign “F*** the Jews” before the camera unsteadily turned to a crowd of onlookers. Some reacted with visible shock. Others laughed. One person remarked, “crazy.” At least one voice chillingly echoed the sentiment: “F*** ’em.”

This vile incident and the troubling response that followed offer critical insight into the current state of antisemitism in America.

StopAntisemitism tagged Barstool CEO Dave Portnoy in its post. Within two hours, Portnoy responded with a video on X expressing anger and disbelief. He proposed what appeared to be a constructive solution: Offering the alleged perpetrators an educational trip to Auschwitz to confront the historical reality and horrors of antisemitism.

That, however, was not the end of the story.

The fallout was immediate. Two Barstool employees connected to the incident were fired, and Temple University suspended student Mo Khan, who had posted the original video.

Portnoy later stated on X that Khan had recanted an earlier admission of involvement, instead claiming to be merely a “citizen journalist.” As a result, Portnoy rescinded his Auschwitz offer. While we can’t know what was said in private, Khan made his perspective public on X and a fundraising platform.

On his fundraising page, Khan cast himself as “the real victim.” He dismissed the phrase “F*** the Jews” as three words on a bar sign, and cited a series of defensive claims: “I’m a 21-year-old college kid. I’m not a public figure,” adding that it was merely an “edgy joke.” He also lamented being a casualty of “cancel culture.”

More troubling, however, was Khan’s attempt to rationalize the antisemitic slur itself. He argued that the sign was “provocative because it reminds people of the acts of injustice israel [sic] is perpetrating around the world.”

He accused Portnoy and the wider Jewish community of misplaced outrage, writing: “Frankly, they’re more concerned about destroying my life than they are with stopping a genocide that is blowing up children. That sign didn’t kill any Jews—nor did my reporting of it—but their support of Israel kills 1000s of people every single day.”

In facing public backlash, Khan invoked what sociologist David Hirsh has termed the “Livingstone Formulation,” a rhetorical tactic in which accusations of antisemitism are dismissed as efforts to silence criticism of Israel. Casting himself as a victim of censorship, Khan claimed that the outrage over his actions was an attempt to suppress his political views.

Predictably, Khan found supporters among far-right antisemites such as Nick Fuentes, Lucas Gage and Stew Peters, the latter of whom hosted an “emergency press conference” with Khan, railing against so-called “Jewish supremacy.”

The hatred extended to Khan’s fundraising page. While many of the posts have since been deleted, either by Khan or the platform, comments—ranging from Holocaust denial to conspiracy theories and religious slurs—revealed how the far-right, far-left, Islamist and Christian fundamentalist antisemites have all found common cause with Khan, uniting around a shared hatred of the Jewish people.

This was not a murky or ambiguous episode. It was blatant hatred. Yet even in the face of that sign, we saw denial, deflection and disturbing attempts at justification. It’s all part of a broader trend. As antisemitism becomes more normalized, particularly among younger generations, as poll after poll has shown, those who promote it increasingly shield themselves by claiming they are merely criticizing Israel.

If someone can excuse “F*** the Jews” as a political message about Israel, then anything Jewish—people, institutions, symbols—becomes fair game. This is not criticism. This is hate. If we allow such rhetoric to go unchallenged, and if society is slowly desensitized to the language of antisemitism, the consequences will be dire.

There must be no confusion here. No equivocation. No shielding bigotry in freedom of speech. This hate must be named, confronted and eradicated—not only to protect Jews, but to safeguard any society that refuses to let hatred define its future.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations announced on May 15 that the umbrella group’s membership committee and its members voted unanimously to admit the Iranian American Jewish Federation as its 50th member.

The federation “has long stood at the heart of Iranian Jewish life in America, and we look forward to the energy and outlook they will bring to our shared mission,” said Harriet Schleifer, the conference’s chair.

“The Iranian American Jewish community transformed exile and adversity into a remarkable chapter of American Jewish life,” stated William Daroff, CEO of the conference.

“Through IAJF, they proudly preserve their heritage and champion a steadfast commitment to Israel,” he said. “By joining the Conference of Presidents, they bring valuable perspective and strengthen our shared pursuit of Jewish unity and purpose in these challenging times.”

Shahram Yaghoubzadeh, chair of the federation’s board in New York, said the “milestone is a testament to the strength, commitment and enduring contributions of the Iranian-American Jewish community to Jewish life in the United States, Israel and beyond.”

The conference stated that its newest member has raised more than $100 million in the past two decades to support more than 230 groups in Israel and the United States, including in the areas of healthcare, education, supporting Israeli soldiers, social services and aid for terror victims.

The Qatar-based Al Jazeera Media Institute recently hosted a webinar for journalists about detecting media bias to coincide with “Press Freedom Day.” One big problem: Muhammad Khamaiseh, the Al Jazeera instructor who specializes in “journalism ethics,” has a record of not only media bias but of hatred and discrimination. That’s quite an ethical dilemma, an area in which he claims to be an expert. It’s also a dilemma for Al Jazeera, the organization for which he frequently acts as a public standard bearer.

Khamaiseh holds a master’s degree in media and cultural studies, is an editor at the Department of Media Initiatives at the Al Jazeera Media Institute, is a member of the Al Jazeera Journalism Review’s editorial team, and oversees its research fellowship program. But despite his impressive resume, Khamaiseh has used social media to spread hate against Jews instead of using it to gather information for stories.

“Jews have been known for centuries to be cunning thinkers, and currently, the entire global economic system is under their control,” he posted, in Arabic, on his X account in August 2018, six months after he started working at Al Jazeera, amplifying a hateful canard against an entire faith population.

Back in July 2014, at the height of an expanded military confrontation between Israel and Hamas, Khamaiseh expressed disturbing support for Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades when he cruelly mocked the suffering of Jews, laughing—actually typing out the sound of laughter—at the idea of them being left orphaned. As he wrote in Arabic, “The summer schedule of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades … by God, they are not slacking off on going after the Jews, not even allowing them to sleep in the morning as they would like. Hahahaha.”

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam was a Muslim cleric who formed an early Islamist group that terrorized and murdered Jews in Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s. The brigades that led the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023—in which some 1,200 people from more than 40 nationalities were killed and 251 people were taken hostage—are named after him.

Khamaiseh is the author of the Al Jazeera Media Institute’s “A Guide to Avoiding Discrimination and Hate Speech in the Media.” The guide includes chapters such as “How do discrimination and hate speech happen in the media?” “Anti-discrimination and hate speech laws as a means of suppressing freedom of expression,” “Objective and ethical coverage to avoid discrimination and hate speech,” and the ironically titled chapter “Important questions to ask yourself.”

Khamaiseh advises journalists on legal ramifications of discrimination to avoid singling out people based on race, color, ancestry or ethnicity “in a way that prejudices their enjoyment of or recognition of their human rights.” Apparently seeing himself as immune from his own purported standards, he writes, “In a media context, discrimination can occur through negative framing of individuals or groups based on their identity and with the aim of inciting hatred or negative feeling against them.”

In the guidebook, parts of which appear in other sections of the Al Jazeera Media Institute’s website, Khamaiseh writes that the resource “can be thought of as a roadmap that will help journalists to isolate their pieces from their own personal beliefs and biases,” “provide them with tools to deal with the moral dilemmas that confront them,” and “familiarize them with the boundaries between legally acceptable journalism and hate speech and discrimination as prohibited by international law.”

Khamaiseh, who counsels his students to “treat our audiences with due respect,” has celebrated Hamas’s military arm when it killed Jews, whom he refers to as Zionists. Lauding murder, in an Arabic post on X (then Twitter), he said, “God is great and glory belongs to God. Al Qassam Brigades announces the killing of six Zionists, as one martyr from the Brigades was killed during a landing operation.”

These were not isolated posts but part of a pattern of praising Hamas. In another instance, referring to those who engage in violent jihad, he cheered in an Arabic post, “A salute of reverence to the steadfast fighters standing against the brutal Zionist enemy in Hebron … #Hamas_Will_Not_Kneel.” Elsewhere, he posted in Arabic, “This is why we love Hamas,” ending his comment with a smiley face.

There is strong evidence that at least six Gaza-based Al Jazeera journalists reportedly joined Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in carrying out the Oct. 7 atrocities in southern Israel, allegations the network denies. Some of the evidence includes the reporter-operatives’ own footage of participating in the attack.

Al Jazeera and its affiliates’ royal Qatari funders have invested heavily in positioning the Al Jazeera web of platforms as a tech-savvy ecosystem, seeking to appeal to Western audiences. Tech-savvy as it may be, Al Jazeera is the Qatari government’s soft-power tool to amplify and promote the ideologies of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood’s goal is to create an Islamic state where Islamic law, or Sharia, governs society.

Qatar’s strict media laws prohibit “any criticism” of the emir of Qatar, and media outlets in the wealthy emirate require government approval before reporting on Qatar’s armed forces, its banks and certain judicial proceedings.

Tempting as it may be to accept the emirate’s financial largesse, global media entities that take funds from Qatari government patrons, including, but not limited to, through the Al Jazeera Media Institute and other Al Jazeera platforms, should be held accountable for their ethically and journalistically problematic deals.

It is noteworthy that after additional public revelations about Al Jazeera’s relationship with Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks, Northwestern University cut ties to Al Jazeera, which had joint programs in the Illinois university’s Doha campus. Northwestern has received more than $500 million in contracts from Qatar since 2007, according to U.S. Department of Education data.

In recent weeks, thousands of Gazans protested against not only Hamas’s brutal rule of Gaza but also against Al Jazeera itself as Hamas’s mouthpiece, chanting “barra, barra, barra, Al Jazeera.” An Arabic word barra means “out.” The channel’s own coverage did not reflect the tagline on the bottom of the institute’s page that claims, “You can count on Al Jazeera for truth and transparency.” Instead, it reportedly hoisted anti-Israel signs among the crowd, filmed it and disingenuously portrayed the protesters’ actual anger at the network as anger at Israel.

In another booklet called “Do Muslims scare you: A guide for journalists,” for which he served as editor, Khamaiseh advises reporters to “connect Islamophobia with antisemitism and other forms of racism.” The guide concludes with a “checklist” of “red flags” that reporters should use to check against their own biases. One of the questions they need to ask, his guide says, is, “Am I repeating a libel or a slander against [people] if my source is making vicious claims or remarks?”

Khamaiseh would do well to check his own words for these red flags. And those journalists and media outlets that collaborate with Al Jazeera Media Institute should check the myriad red flags associated with their collaboration.