Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday slammed the Hamas terror organization for providing Israel with an “excuse” to destroy Gaza by holding on to the hostages. Speaking at a meeting of the PLO Central Council, Abbas called Hamas “sons of female dogs.” “The war must end,” he said. “There are hundreds killed every day. Why? They don’t want to release the American hostages. Sons of dogs, give the hostages back and end this story. Eliminate its [Israel’s] excuses.” It was unclear whether Abbas was referring to all the hostages or just the American hostages, of whom only one, Eden Alexander, is believed to be still alive.

An intense heatwave and strong winds in Israel on Wednesday led to multiple wildfires breaking out, with two major fires erupting near Highway 6 and near the moshav of Tarum, near Beit Shemesh. Af firefighting teams battled the flames, police stopped traffic on parts of Highway 6 after a large fire broke out between the yishuvim of Petachya and Pedaya. Train services in the area were also halted as the fire approached the train tracks. Some drivers were forced to flee their vehicles to escape the fire. A police vehicle caught fire, but Baruch Hashem, there were no casualties. The police evacuated residents of Pedaya and are preparing to evacuate additional yishuvim.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee published a video message on Monday in response to a WHO official who asked him to pressure Israel to bring in more humanitarian aid to Israel. In a refreshing change from Biden administration officials, who constantly blamed and pressured Israel into providing aid to its enemies in Gaza, ignoring the fact that the aid was commandeered by Hamas, Huckabee said that Hamas must be pressured instead of Israel. “This past weekend, Dr. Hanan Balkhy, who is the regional coordinator for the WHO, called upon me to put more pressure on Israel to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” Huckabee said. “I appreciate the message.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pulled the airstrike information he posted into Signal chats with his wife, brother and dozens of others from a secure communications channel used by U.S. Central Command, raising new questions as to whether the embattled Pentagon head leaked classified information over an open, unsecured network. NBC News first reported that the launch times and bomb drop times of U.S. warplanes that were about to strike Houthi targets in Yemen — details that multiple officials have said is highly classified — were taken from secure U.S. Central Command communications. A person familiar with the second chat confirmed that to The Associated Press.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar implicated himself in the affidavit he submitted to the Supreme Court on Monday, in which he accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the government of various misdeeds, such as telling Bar he must heed the democratically elected government over the Supreme Court Speaking in an interview with Arutz Sheva, Karhi said: “I think that Ronen Bar filed an indictment against himself today in court. He writes there that for the first time, at 1:33 AM (the night before the Oct. 7 massacre), he sent a team of operatives to the Gaza border area. He understood that something terrible was happening, sent a team of operatives five hours before the massacre, but did not wake up the soldiers or call the Prime Minister.

Antisemitic hate in the United States has reached a new peak, with 2024 marking the highest number of reported incidents ever recorded, according to a disturbing new report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The watchdog documented 9,354 cases of harassment, vandalism, and assault — a 5% rise from the previous year’s record, and the most since the organization began tracking in 1979. That staggering figure translates to more than one antisemitic incident every hour, every day. New York and California led in reported cases, but all 50 states saw incidents. Most troubling is the surge in physical assaults, up 21% to 196 incidents targeting at least 250 individuals — nearly a third of them Orthodox Jews. Vandalism spiked 39%, and bomb threats against Jewish institutions numbered 647.

Coast District police from the Hadera station arrived at the beach early Tuesday monring and renewed the search for the victim who was attacked by sharks on Monday. The victim is a resident of Petach Tikvah in his 40s, married and a father of four, who stopped to fish on his way home from work in northern Israel on Monday. His identity was confirmed after his possessions were found on the beach and his truck was located nearby. Along with the police officers, who are deployed along the beach, additional forces are participating in the search – the IDF, volunteers, municipal patrol inspectors, ZAKA, MDA, firefighters, the Nature and Parks Authority, and others.

The Conservative movement in Israel led a fake campaign on Israeli streets in the name of Gedolei Yisrael to convince Chareidim not to vote in the elections for the World Zionist Organization, spending tens of thousands of shekels to print and distribute pashkevilim against participating in the elections, a Kikar Shabbat investigation revealed. As many YWN readers know, a machlokes broke out last month in the Chareidi sector about whether to participate in the WZO elections. Members of the Eretz HaKodesh party presented the support of HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky zt’l, along with other Rabbanim in Israel and the United States who supported voting in the previous election.

A kosher pizzeria and two other Jewish-owned businesses were broken into on Shabbos, Shevi’i Shel Pesach. While law enforcement says the crimes appear financially motivated, local leaders are sounding the alarm on growing threats facing Jews in Toronto and across Canada. My Zaidy’s Pizza, a beloved Thornhill establishment founded by the grandfather of Deputy Conservative Leader Melissa Lantsman, was among the businesses targeted. Lantsman, whose riding includes a large Jewish population, called the break-in “a blatant attempt to intimidate and target our community,” noting that the crimes took place on Pesach. “Today, this country is unrecognizable,” she wrote on social media.

Israel is facing one of the most critical security decisions in its modern history: whether to act alone in striking Iran’s nuclear infrastructure as the United States edges closer to a renewed nuclear agreement with Tehran. As American diplomats continue what they describe as “positive” negotiations, Israeli defense officials warn the clock may be running out. The dilemma has escalated behind closed doors, as the Biden-era failure to secure a long-term agreement gave way to the Trump administration’s hardened stance. Still, Israeli officials fear the forthcoming deal may fail to fully dismantle Iran’s military nuclear capabilities—leaving Israel exposed and increasingly isolated. “We are watching the Americans go down the same path again,” said one senior Israeli official.