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Vandals defaced France’s national Holocaust memorial, two shuls, and a kosher restaurant in central Paris with green paint overnight Friday. Among the sites targeted was a shul in the historic Marais district. Israeli President Yitzchok Herzog, whose great-grandfather Rav Yoel Herzog zt”l built the shul, said he was “appalled” by the incident and spoke with French Jewish leaders to offer chizuk and solidarity. “These heinous acts of hatred cannot go unanswered,” President Herzog said.

Syria’s new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, has expressed a willingness to engage in dialogue with Israel, while urging an immediate halt to Israeli airstrikes in Syrian territory. In a rare interview published Wednesday by the Jewish Journal, al-Sharaa struck a markedly different tone from his predecessors, suggesting the two nations share common enemies and hinting at the potential for future cooperation. “The era of endless tit-for-tat bombings must end,” al-Sharaa said. “No nation prospers when its skies are filled with fear.” While stopping short of endorsing normalization with Israel, al-Sharaa acknowledged the possibility of regional alignment.

A harrowing incident in South Williamsburg earlier this week has ignited a firestorm of concern within New York City’s Orthodox Jewish communities – and has become a major talking point in a New York City Council race. On Sunday evening, a 3-year-old Chasidic girl was struck by an e-bike while crossing the protected bike lane on Bedford Avenue, sustaining minor injuries. The event, captured on video and widely circulated on social media, has intensified condemnation of the city’s bike lane policies. The child had just exited a double-parked car near Park Avenue when she darted into the bike lane and was hit by a 22-year-old cyclist, who remained at the scene. She was treated at Bellevue Hospital for minor abdominal injuries.

In a damning new report, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed that Iran conducted secret nuclear activities using undeclared material at three long-suspected sites — confirming fears that Tehran was operating a clandestine nuclear weapons program. The confidential report, obtained by Reuters, was requested by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors and outlines decades of nuclear violations. It concludes that Iran operated a covert and structured nuclear weapons initiative until the early 2000s, and stored nuclear material and contaminated equipment at a fourth site, Turquzabad, between 2009 and 2018 — the same facility publicly exposed by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the United Nations in 2018.

United Airlines announced on Saturday that it will resume its flight route between Newark Airport and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport starting June 5. The airline becomes the second U.S. carrier to reinstate service after a Houthi ballistic missile struck near the airport earlier this month. The May 4 missile attack, launched from Yemen, hit a wooded area adjacent to an access road near Terminal 3, several hundred meters from the airport’s control tower. In response, United and most foreign carriers suspended service to Israel. Since the strike, numerous international airlines have continued to postpone their return to Israel, leaving many Israelis abroad scrambling for alternate routes or facing cancelled plans.

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff slammed Hamas for its response to the latest ceasefire proposal, calling it “totally unacceptable” and a move that “only takes us backward.” According to an Israeli official familiar with the details, Hamas’s response to the proposal included demands for a seven-year ceasefire, a complete IDF withdrawal from all areas of Gaza captured since March, the cancellation of the new US-supported aid distribution system in Gaza, and a return to the previous system supported by the United Nations. “This isn’t a response — it’s a slammed door,” the official stated. Earlier on Shabbos, Hamas announced that it submitted a response to the proposal to Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

The IDF and Shin Bet on Motzei Shabbos officially confirmed that Mohamed Sinwar, the head of Hamas’s military wing and one of the architects of the October 7 massacre, was killed earlier this month in an airstrike on the entrance to a tunnel system located under the European hospital in Khan Younis. In the same attack, Muhammad Shabana, the commander of Hamas’s Rafah Brigade, and Mahdi Khawara, commander of Hamas’ Southern Khan Yunis Battalion, were also eliminated. The Shin Bet and IDF also released a video showing an illustration of the tunnel network that was attacked: (YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)

YWN is please to share the news that the Rosh HaYeshiva of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, Harav Shmuel Kamenetsky shlit”a, has been discharged from the hospital and is now on his way home. According to an official statement released by the yeshiva, the doctors are very pleased with the Rosh Yeshiva’s progress, noting significant improvement in his condition. This follows his recent hospitalization due to weakness, which prompted a global outpouring of tefillos from Yidden across the world. The yeshiva has requested that Klal Yisroel continue to daven for a complete refuah sheleimah for Shmuel ben Itta Ettil, b’soch sha’ar cholei Yisroel. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)