A potentially deadly coordinated double terror attack in two areas of Gush Etzion on Friday night miraculously ended with only three people injured. The first incident occurred close to midnight when a car exploded at a gas station at the Gush Etzion Junction. A car had pulled up to the station against the flow of traffic and as it pulled up, the hood caught on fire. The terrorist then emerged from the car, completely burned. A gas station employee told Ynet that at first, an employee tried to douse the terrorist with a water hose, thinking it was an accidental car fire. But then the terrorist began running and trying to attack the security forces who had arrived at the scene. IDF soldiers opened fire, killing him.

American enthusiasm for the upcoming November elections has notably increased, with a significant boost coming from Democratic voters. According to a newly released Gallup poll, nearly 8 in 10 Democrats reported being “more enthusiastic than usual” about voting. Gallup’s memo highlights that overall enthusiasm for the election has surged, with 69% of U.S. adults now expressing increased eagerness to vote, up from 54% in March. This increase is particularly pronounced among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, whose enthusiasm jumped from 55% in March to 78% in August. In contrast, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents saw a smaller rise, from 59% in March to 64% in the August poll.

In a statement released on Friday, the IDF announced the completion of a three-week operation in the southern Gaza Strip. The operation, which began in early August, focused on demolishing tunnels, targeting Hamas infrastructure, and recovering the bodies of hostages. According to the IDF, the operation resulted in the demolition of six tunnels belonging to terror groups, totaling approximately six kilometers of underground passages. Additionally, troops killed over 250 gunmen, recovered the bodies of six hostages, and demolished Hamas infrastructure above ground. The operation was carried out by the 98th Division, which was withdrawn from Gaza on Friday to prepare for future operations.

For those who find themselves catching up on sleep during the weekend after a busy week, there may be good news for your heart. According to new research set to be presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress on Sunday, sleeping in on the weekends could reduce the risk of heart disease by approximately 20%. The study, which analyzed data from 90,903 participants, examined the impact of “catch-up” sleep on heart health. Participants self-reported their sleep patterns, with sleep deprivation defined as getting less than seven hours of sleep per night. Among the participants, 19,816 were identified as sleep-deprived and were monitored for heart health over the course of a decade.

Former President Donald Trump says that, if he wins a second term, he wants to make IVF treatment free for women, but did not detail how he would fund his plan or how it would work. “I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he said at an event in Michigan. “Because we want more babies, to put it nicely.” IVF treatments are notoriously expensive, and can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a single round. Many women require multiple rounds and there is no guarantee of success. In his speech, Trump also said that, if he wins, families will be able to deduct expenses for caring for newborns from their taxes.

As Labor Day approaches and the 2024 presidential campaign enters its final stretch, FiveThirtyEight founder and elections analyst Nate Silver says that former President Donald Trump holds a slight edge over Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming election. According to Silver’s updated model, Trump has a 52.4% chance of winning the Electoral College, while Harris has a 47.3% chance, marking Trump as the favored candidate for the first time since August 3. Silver attributed Trump’s advantage largely to the state of Pennsylvania, which he described as “the tipping-point state more than one-third of the time” in his model. He noted that recent polls have not shown Harris leading in Pennsylvania, including two new polls released Thursday.

More details were revealed on Thursday evening from the testimony of three of the hostages rescued in Operation Arnon in June. Andrey Kozlov, Shlomi Ziv, and Almog Meir Jan were interviewed as part of “Voices from Captivity,” a project launched by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Government Press Office (GPO.) Almog said about their main guard Mohammed: “He would take this kind of pen and tie our mouths around it. We would have cuts in our mouths for days. Sometimes we were bound in chains. After a while, rust would wash off of us when we washed our hands or showered. We had wounds on our hands and the lock on the chains cut us to the bone.” Andrey said that the last month that they were held captive was the hardest. “Our guard was losing it.

The Operation Summer Camps counterterrorism operation was launched in northern Shomron due to serious intelligence warning of an October 7 infiltration attack or raid on an Israeli yishuv from Tulkarm, Kan News reported on Thursday evening. According to the report, a terrorist squad planned to infiltrate an Israeli yishuv in the Shomron and carry out a large-scale attack. Security officials said that some of the terrorists planning the attack were eliminated in the operation but the ongoing terror threat from the area remains and is rapidly increasing.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday defended shifting away from her some of her more liberal positions in her first major television interview of her presidential campaign, but insisted her “values have not changed” even as she is “seeking consensus.” Sitting with her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris was asked about changes in her policies over the years, specifically her reversals on fracking and decriminalizing illegal border crossings. “I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris replied.

Israeli military sources have confirmed that Hamas’s Rafah Brigade has effectively “collapsed” under the intense pressure of the IDF’s ongoing offensive in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. This new assessment comes a week after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared the brigade defeated. Moreover, the IDF has made significant gains in the area, neutralizing around 80% of Hamas’s tunnels along the Philadelphi Corridor, a strategic area bordering Egypt. As the military tightens its grip, Hamas operatives are increasingly attempting to flee north to the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone. However, the IDF has successfully ambushed and targeted these fleeing gunmen, further weakening Hamas’s grip on the area. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)