UTJ chairman Moshe Gafni excoriated Attorney-General Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara for her decision to cut daycare funding for the babies and toddlers of Chareidi families whose fathers are eligible for the draft only three weeks before the new school year begins. “They talk all the time and preach to us morals about women’s employment and equality, until it comes to Chareidim!” Gafni said. “Then they throw everything away and fight against us. Unparalleled rishus!” “If we would do something like that, they would say we are primitive. They really are evil primitive people.” Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur (Shas) is holding emergency meetings with professional officials and legal counsel at the Ministry of Labor to examine the decision.

Two Israelis were injured, one critically, in a shooting attack in the Jordan Valley on Sunday afternoon. The critically injured victim was pronounced dead shortly later. The terrorist opened fire at an Israeli car from a passing car on Route 90 near the Mechola Junction. The second victim, a man in his early 30s, is in moderate condition. He was evacuated to the hospital in an MDA helicopter. An initial investigation shows that the attack took place in two areas – one on Route 90 and the second near the yishuv of Rotem. The terrorist fled the scene. A large number of IDF forces arrived at the scene and launched a manhunt. This is a developing story. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Sunday ordered the government to halt funding for the babies and toddlers of Chareidi families whose fathers are eligible for the draft. The cruel decision comes only three weeks before the school year begins, leaving about 6,700 families and about 10,000 children without daycare. The fees for daycare without the subsidies are not affordable for almost all kollel families. The decision is especially outrageous considering that Arab-Israeli mothers whose husbands are criminals in prison receive daycare subsidies. The law requires that only the woman’s income be calculated without regard to her husband’s income.

A chilling hate crime occurred in Crown Heights at around 2 AM Shabbos morning, when a Lubavitch bochur was stabbed near Eastern Parkway and Kingston Avenue, close to Chabad Headquarters, by a man shouting “Free Palestine!” The perpetrator, a black male in his early 20s, also asked the victim if he wanted to die before the attack. Locals quickly responded to the stabbing, detaining the attacker until police arrived to make an arrest a few blocks away. The victim was transported to the hospital and is expected to recover thanks to the swift response of paramedics. The incident is being investigated by the NYPD’s Hate Crimes unit.

On Saturday morning, the IDF and Shin Bet security agency carried out an airstrike on a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad command center located within the Taba’een school complex in Gaza City. The IDF later announced that the strike successfully eliminated 19 operatives from the two terror groups. The Hamas-run civil defense in Gaza reported over 90 fatalities in the strike, describing it as a “horrific massacre.” The incident has drawn widespread condemnation from Western diplomats, Egyptian and Qatari mediators involved in ceasefire talks, and numerous Muslim nations. The White House expressed deep concern over the high civilian death toll in the ongoing conflict and called for more details about the strike.

A senior member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team issued a stark warning on Wednesday, vowing to “wipe out” every American military base in the Middle East if the United States joins Israel in an attack on Iran. The threat comes as tensions in the region continue to escalate, prompting the Biden-Harris administration to urge calm and restraint. Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized the need for diplomacy, saying, “It’s urgent that everyone in the region take stock of the situation, understand the risk of miscalculation, and make decisions that will calm tensions, not exacerbate them.” Blinken revealed that the US has been engaged in intense diplomatic efforts, communicating directly with Iran and Israel to convey the message. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Western officials believe that Iran and Hezbollah will attack Israel in the coming days but are hoping that US warnings of “devastating consequences” along with military deployment to the area will mitigate the attacks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. “Iran and Hezbollah will launch attacks against Israel in the coming days but doesn’t believe Iran could conduct a much larger military campaign on Israel than it did in April,” two US officials said. Iran can ill afford a war with Israel now, which would pull in the US, as a new presidential administration prepares to deal with the reeling economy. Hezbollah, which is officially part of the Lebanese government, has similar domestic concerns.

The United States has issued a stern warning to Iran, cautioning that a major attack on Israel would have severe consequences for its newly elected government and economy. A US official revealed to the Wall Street Journal that the warning was communicated directly and through intermediaries, emphasizing the risks of provoking a robust military response from Israel. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that the US has conveyed this message to Iran, without providing details. The warning, officials said, is not intended as a threat of US military action but rather a caution about the potential consequences of Iranian aggression. The US has taken steps to bolster its military presence in the region, deploying F-22 fighters, destroyers, and an aircraft carrier.

In a shocking incident, Channel 12 News published a tampered video of footage from security cameras at Sde Teiman and claimed that the video was evidence of the reservists’ alleged crime in the now infamous “Sde Teiman case” in which 10 reservists were arrested by masked police officers. Five of the reservists have since been released for lack of any evidence tying them to the alleged crime. Additionally, Kan News reported on Thursday morning that medical reports and examinations and tests carried out by the head of the surgical department of Hadassah Hospital prove that the allegations against the reservists are false.

Moshe Dovid Weiss, the reprehensible, terrorist-kissing leader of Neturei Karta, released a video expressing his shock and sorrow over the “tragic passing” of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated under murky circumstances in Tehran, during a visit marking the swearing-in of new Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian. “We are here to show the Palestinian people that all the actions of the Zionist state has nothing to do with Judaism or the Jewish people,” Weiss said, speaking from Doha, Qatar.