As Israel braces for a critical reply from Hamas on a long-negotiated ceasefire and hostage deal, reports emerged Friday that President Donald Trump is prepared to personally guarantee efforts to end the Gaza war, in a dramatic bid to bridge final gaps and lock in an agreement ahead of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s high-stakes White House visit next week.

Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist New York City mayoral candidate, is facing intensifying scrutiny as past statements and resurfaced videos reveal an agenda indistinguishable from old-school communist dogma. While Mamdani has brushed off accusations of being a “communist” as cheap distractions, footage paints a far more radical picture. In a 2021 speech to socialist activists, Mamdani explicitly urged allies not to compromise on “seizing the means of production,” language long synonymous with communist revolutionary movements. In another video, released that same year by The Gravel Institute, Mamdani laid out a sweeping plan to transform housing in New York City from a private commodity into a public asset.

An urgent meeting was held this Tuesday at the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to formulate a solution to the issue of the Jewish kevarim discovered at a construction site in Yehud, Kikar H’Shabbat reported. Various Chareidi groups have been waging a battle against the chillul of the kevarim for over a month, with thousands participating from all circles in protest rallies and daily protests in the field. Various Rabbinical and rabbinical courts have issued rulings and letters of protest against the excavations.

House Republicans propelled President Donald Trump’s $4.5 trillion tax breaks and spending cuts bill to final congressional passage Thursday, overcoming multiple setbacks to approve his signature second-term policy package before a Fourth of July deadline. The tight roll call, 218-214, came at a potentially high political cost, with two Republicans joining all Democrats opposed. GOP leaders worked overnight and the president himself leaned on a handful of skeptics to drop their opposition and send the bill to him to sign into law. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York delayed voting by holding the floor for more than eight hours with a record-breaking speech against the bill. “We have a big job to finish,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

The United States is preparing to authorize the transfer of B-2 stealth bombers and 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs to Israel if Iran renews its nuclear weapons program, under a bipartisan bill introduced this week. The legislation, called the Bunker Buster Act, would give President Trump authority to “take actions to ensure Israel is prepared for all contingencies if Iran seeks to develop a nuclear weapon,” according to sponsors Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Mike Lawler (R-NY). “Iran, the leading state sponsor of terror, and one of America’s top enemies, can never have a nuclear weapon,” Gottheimer said. “They have killed scores of Americans and repeatedly attacked Israel, our key democratic ally.

Hope is rising on Thursday morning in Israel regarding the chances of reaching a hostage release/ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip. If Hamas responds positively to the deal, an Israeli team will leave for negotiations in Qatar as early as the end of next week. According to Israeli media reports on Wednesday evening, Israel is making major efforts to reach a deal ahead of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House next week. Israeli sources say that Hamas is showing “flexibility” to a revised US-brokered proposal. According to the proposal on the table, Israel will halt the war for two months but will agree to extend the ceasefire even after the two months to try and reach an agreement that will end the war.

Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and one of the regime’s most influential security officials, has emerged alive after weeks of reports claiming he had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. The New York Times confirmed Shamkhani’s appearance over the weekend at a funeral procession in Tehran, contradicting Iranian state media accounts that declared him dead last month. Frailer and leaning on a cane, Shamkhani was seen paying tribute to senior Iranian military officers slain in Israel’s recent barrage — a 12-day offensive that targeted Iran’s nuclear and military command structure.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has issued a public apology to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, backing away from comments she made last week warning that Mamdani had referenced “global jihad” in past statements. The senator’s retreat, first reported by Politico, came after a wave of outrage from left-wing activists and progressive allies determined to shield Mamdani from scrutiny, despite the fact that questions about his record and rhetoric had resonated with many New Yorkers worried about extremism.

Israel’s Defense Ministry Directorate of Defense Research and Development (MAFAT) has cleared for publication new data on the country’s war with Iran, revealing unprecedented intelligence-gathering efforts and highly effective air defense results. According to MAFAT, Israeli intelligence captured tens of millions of square kilometers of imagery from space during both the lead-up to and the course of the war. This included more than 12,000 satellite images taken over Iranian territory, day and night, providing critical information to support Israeli strikes inside Iran. During the conflict, Israel’s air defense systems intercepted 86% of the Iranian ballistic missiles launched toward its territory, MAFAT reported.

Two serious traffic accidents occurred on Wednesday evening in Chareidi neighborhoods, one in the Romema neighborhood of Jerusalem, where a child was killed, and the second in the Ramat Beit Shemesh Daled neighborhood of Beit Shemesh, where a girl was critically injured. The accident in Jerusalem occurred at the intersection of Petah Tikva and Zichron Yaakov streets in the Romema neighborhood of the city. The boy was critically injured and was pronounced dead minutes later. MDA emergency medics Mordechai Musai, Baruch Eliyahu Hoffman, and Eli Raymond reported, “When we arrived at the scene of the accident, there was a lot of commotion. We saw the cyclist, a child about 5 years old, lying unconscious after being hit by a car.