Israel at war: What happened on day 26?

Israel's Shin Bet released footage on Wednesday of a Hamas terrorist describing his actions in the south of Israel during the October 7 massacre.

"The mission was simply to kill," said Hamas operative Omar Abu Rusha. "We weren't supposed to kidnap. Just kill."

At least one Palestinian was killed and two others were seriously injured as the IDF struck a target in Jenin early Wednesday morning and clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank city, according to Palestinian reports.

Israeli forces reportedly surrounded the home of Jamal Haweel, a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, during the raid. Haweel has done a number of interviews with regional media in recent days, including the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen TV.

On Thursday evening, the secretary of the Fatah movement in Jenin, Atta Abu Rumaila, was arrested by Israeli forces in Jenin, according to Palestinian reports.

Abu Rumaila’s son, Ahmed, was arrested as well.

(New York Jewish Week) — Police have taken a suspect into custody over threats to kill Jewish students at Cornell University over the weekend, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said Tuesday as her office announced a series of measures to combat antisemitism on campuses and elsewhere in New York.

New York State police detained the Cornell suspect for questioning on Tuesday after identifying the individual earlier in the day, Hochul said, a day after she visited Jewish students at the university in a show of support.

Anonymous antisemitic threats posted to a Greek life website over the weekend threatened to “shoot up” Cornell’s kosher dining hall and included comments such as “jewish people need to be killed” and “eliminate jewish living from cornell campus.”

“If i see a pig male jew i will stab you and slit your throat,” read a post by a user called “hamas.”

Police were called to the dining hall, and the campus Hillel warned students to avoid the building after the threats.

Cornell Jewish students threatened on university forum. (credit: screenshot)

NY governor announces measures to combat hate crimes

“When I met with Cornell students yesterday, I promised them we would do everything possible to find the perpetrator,” Hochul said as she announced the suspect was in custody. “Public safety is my top priority and I’m committed to combating hate and bias wherever it rears its ugly head.”

Hochul also announced a series of measures to combat hate crimes and antisemitism in New York.

The governor ordered a third-party review of antisemitism and discrimination policies at New York City’s massive public university system, the City University of New York. The school system has been an antisemitism battleground in recent years, with some Jewish students and faculty alleging discrimination and harassment and demanding action from the administration. Much of strife across the system’s 25 colleges centers on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Jewish students saying anti-Israel criticism often veers into antisemitism, and pro-Palestinian activists decrying alleged attacks on free speech.

Judge Jonathan Lippman, a former chief judge on the New York Court of Appeals, will lead the review of CUNY antisemitism. The probe will look into the campus environment; policies, procedures and handling of antisemitism complaints; and balancing free speech rights with antisemitism.

Last May, a student speaker at the CUNY School of Law graduation praised the school as a place where students could “speak out against Israeli settler colonialism,” said Israel was “indiscriminately raining bullets and bombs on worshipers,” and blamed “donors” and “investors” for stifling anti-Israel criticism. Two weeks later, CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodríguez and the board of trustees denounced Fatima Mousa Mohammed’s remarks as “hate speech.”  The previous year, radical pro-Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani delivered a similar speech at the law school graduation.

“We will take on the antisemitism we have seen on college campuses,” Hochul said during a press conference Tuesday. “The problem didn’t begin with the weeks following the Oct. 7 attacks. It’s been growing on a number of campuses and seen most acutely in the City University of New York.”

CUNY said in response to the announcement, “We will cooperate with Judge Lippman’s review as we work to build on the progress we’ve made combating antisemitism across our campuses.”

“As an institution of higher learning and one of the country’s most diverse universities, CUNY has taken many steps to combat hate, discrimination and intolerance in all forms, important work which we continue every day,” a CUNY spokesperson told the New York Jewish Week.

The US Department of Education is investigating CUNY’s Brooklyn College over alleged antisemitism in a probe announced last year.

In addition to the CUNY review, the state’s division of criminal justice services will distribute $50 million for law enforcement agencies statewide to acquire new technology and equipment to better solve and prevent hate crimes, and $25 million in grants for securing communities against hate crimes, a program to boost protection as nonprofit organizations and other sites.

The state will also expand its social media analysis unit to better monitor violent threats against schools and campuses.

Antisemitic incidents have spiked in New York City and the United States since the start of the war in Israel, according to data collated by the New York Police Department and Jewish security groups. Jews are targeted in hate crimes in the city more than any other group.

US President Joe Biden and Jordan's King Abdullah on Tuesday discussed their shared commitment to increasing aid to civilians in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas conflict, the White House said.

The two men also reiterated the importance of protecting civilian lives and that it was critical to ensure that Palestinians were not forcibly displaced from Gaza, the White House said.

The IDF intercepted a surface-to-air missile fired from Lebanon at an Israeli drone on Tuesday night, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

The IDF struck the site where the missile was fired from and the cell that fired the missile in response.

Saudi Arabia is still interested in pursuing a normalization agreement with Israel, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.

In response to a question about recent meetings between Saudi Arabian Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Kirby stated that “we came away from those discussions confident that we have a path to get back towards to normalization and that there’s still interest on the Saudis’ side in pursuing that.”

“Obviously what’s going on between Israel and Hamas makes it harder to make practical progress on it right now. I would also remind that even before October 7 we were still months away from some sort of agreed framework. We’re still committed to it. It’s clear to us that the Saudis are still committed to it. But obviously, we’re all focused, including our Saudi friends, on what’s going on in Gaza.”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman receives U.S. President Joe Biden at Al Salman Palace upon his arrival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, July 15, 2022. (credit: BANDAR ALGALOUD/COURTESY OF SAUDI ROYAL COURT/REUTERS)

Saudi defense minister, US national security advisor discuss Israeli-Palestinian peace

In a readout concerning the meeting between the Saudi defense minister and Sullivan, the White House stated that the two “emphasized the importance of working towards a sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians, building on the work that was already underway between Saudi Arabia and the United States over recent months.”

The two also discussed the need to increase humanitarian assistance for Gaza and the importance of deterring any state or non-state actor from seeking to expand the conflict.

Sullivan told a White House briefing earlier this month that the normalization effort was "not on hold" but said the focus was on other immediate challenges.

At the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh earlier this month, JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon encouraged Saudi Arabia not to abandon a United States-led initiative to establish official relations with Israel.

Reuters reported earlier that the efforts to reach a normalization agreement had been put on ice.

Reuters contributed to this report.

The Abraham Accords are not at risk amid the war between Israel and Hamas, said Dr. Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, chairman of the Defense, Interior, and Foreign Affairs Committee of the United Arab Emirates Federal National Council on Tuesday, according to the European Jewish Press.

“This the third war in Gaza. Whenever there is something happening in Gaza, people come to us and ask: ‘What do you think of the Abraham Accords. Are you going to change?’” said Nuaimi in comments to a special online briefing organized by the European Jewish Association (EJA) and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

“The Accords are our future. It is not an agreement between two governments, but a platform that we believe should transform the region where everyone will enjoy security, stability and prosperity.”

“This is a people to people engagement. This is what we need. We want everyone to acknowledge and accept that Israel is there to exist and that the roots of Jews, Christian are not in New York or Paris but here in our region. They are part of our history and they should be part of our future,” added Nuaimi.

The Emirati official explained that the UAE wants to change the educational system and religious narrative.

Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, Chairman of Defense Affairs, Interior & Foreign Affairs Committee of the UAE Federal National Council sits with Ram Ben Barak, chairman of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Foreign Affairs and Defense committee, in Jerusalem. February 7, 2022 (credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)

Emirati officials warns of 'enemies' opposed to Abraham Accords

“It is very important to understand that there are enemies for what we are doing. Those terrorist organizations don’t respect human life. Don’t let them achieve their goals. No person with a human feeling and common sense will agree with the barbarian terrorist attack that Hamas committed on October 7. No one.”

Nuaimi stressed that “enemies” took advantage of the war and that there is a difference between Hamas and the Palestinian people.

“We need those who believe in peace in Europe, the US and everywhere to counter the hate narrative that we see in demonstrations in Paris and London.”

Amid the war between Israel and Hamas, the UAE has issued statements condemning both Hamas’s assault on Israel and Israel’s ground operation in the Gaza Strip.