Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accused Hamas-affiliated gangs of looting humanitarian aid in Gaza, calling the theft a national disgrace during a time of immense suffering. “The looting and theft carried out by criminal gangs targeting warehouses and storage facilities of humanitarian aid is unacceptable,” Abbas said in remarks published Friday by the P.A.’s official Wafa news agency. Abbas pointed the finger squarely at “Hamas-affiliated gangs,” accusing them of being “primarily responsible” for pillaging the aid meant for Gaza’s war-ravaged civilians.

A baby girl was born on Friday—just before Shabbos—to the almanah of R’ Raphael Mordechai ben R’ Moshe Fishoff Hy”d, who was brutally murdered in a terror attack in Hadera this past Erev Yom Kippur. The newborn is the seventh child in the Fishoff family and will, heartbreakingly, never meet her father—an exceptional talmid chacham who gave his life al kiddush Hashem. R’ Raphael Mordechai, just 35 years old at the time of his murder, was stabbed in a horrific multi-location terror attack on October 10, 2024. He was critically wounded and later succumbed to his injuries at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, leaving behind a grieving wife and six yesomim. Now, just months later, his widow gave birth to a baby girl.

The ballistic missile launched on Sunday morning by the Houthis from Yemen towards Israel evaded two layers of advanced aerial defense systems and fell in a field near Terminal 3 near Ben Gurion Airport. The first interception was carried out using an interceptor from the Israeli Arrow 3 long-range air defense, but it failed to hit the target. Another interceptor was launched from the American THAAD system. According to senior officials in Israel, the missile that hit Ben Gurion was not a new or particularly advanced missile, but a known model that has been intercepted in the past. The IDF is conducting an investigation to examine the incident, including an assessment of whether the interception failure was due to a technical malfunction or human error.

Tens of thousands of cyclists will bike through New York City tomorrow for the 47th Annual TD Five Boro Bike Tour. The first wave of riders will start at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 4, with subsequent waves departing at 8:30 a.m., 9:15 a.m., 9:50 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. The tour takes participants on a 40-mile ride from Lower Manhattan, through the Bronx, over to Queens and down through Brooklyn to Staten Island. Five Boro Bike Tour street closures The route closes to vehicular traffic at 7:15 a.m. Sixth Avenue will reopen to cars at noon. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge will be open with significant road closures to accommodate the bike tour. Motorists should expect delays. The Staten Island-bound lower level of the bridge will be closed to vehicles from 12:01 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Missile alert sirens blared in several locations in Israel at about 6:30 a.m. on Shabbos morning, including Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, Modi’in, the Negev, and the Dead Sea area. The missile, launched by the Houthis in Yemen, was successfully intercepted by Israel’s missile defense forces. A 26-year-old man was lightly injured while rushing to a protected area. The Houthis launched two missiles at northern Israel on Friday. (YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)

A 70-year-old Jewish man was viciously assaulted on Wednesday night in the quiet French town of Anduze, near Alès. According to a report by Entrevue, the victim—wearing a kippah and tzitzis—was feeding stray cats in the street when a drunken man approached him and demanded money. When the elderly man refused, he attacked. Eyewitnesses say the attacker, a 45-year-old man known to local police for previous theft-related offenses, launched into a brutal assault—punching and kicking the defenseless victim while shouting antisemitic slurs, including “dirty Jew.” Local authorities arrested the suspect on Thursday morning.

The IDF announced that approximately 400 chareidim have been drafted into the military this week. The new recruits include 196 combat soldiers and 167 soldiers assigned to combat support roles. Another 23 are still awaiting placement. Among the combat troops, 105 have joined the Netzach Yehuda Battalion of the Kfir Brigade—an IDF unit composed of religious soldiers. Others have been assigned to the Chashmonean Brigade (48), the Tomer Company in Givati’s Rotem Battalion (19), the Hetz Company in the Paratroopers’ 202nd Battalion (20), and four to the ground defense unit at Nevatim Airbase. In addition to the newly drafted soldiers, 26 older charedi men joined the reserves after completing the Shlav Bet (“Stage B”) track—an expedited training process for older recruits.

Organizers of the Gaza “freedom flotilla”, who intended to “break the Israeli siege” on the Gaza Strip, claimed that it was attacked by drones off the coast of Malta in international waters, CNN reported on Friday. “There is a hole in the vessel right now and the ship is sinking,” Yasemin Acar, the spokesperson for the terror flotilla, told CNN. Vidoes posted on the X by the “coalition” show a fire burning on a ship, which, according to marine websites, is the Palau-flagged “Conscience” ship that departed from Tunisia. The organizers of the flotilla, who accuse Israel of “genocide” on their social media pages, wrote about the incident on social media: “At 00:23 Maltese time, the Freedom Flotilla vessel was subjected to a drone attack.

An Israeli soldier was accidentally left behind in the Gaza Strip earlier this week, wandering alone through hostile territory for 40 harrowing minutes before finding safety. The incident occurred on Tuesday following an IDF operation by the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit in the volatile Morag Corridor, nestled between Rafah and Khan Younis — a region known for fierce fighting and terrorist infrastructure. As the unit concluded its mission and withdrew back into Israeli territory, one soldier was inexplicably left behind. According to a statement by the IDF, the soldier—realizing he had been abandoned—began making his way through the danger zone on foot, calling out “IDF! IDF!” repeatedly in an effort to avoid being mistaken for a terrorist and shot by his own forces.

Israeli President Yitzchak Herzog called the 2005 disengagement from Gaza a “mistake” during a speech on Monday, marking the 20th anniversary of the controversial withdrawal. Speaking at an event hosted by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), Herzog reflected on the decision to evacuate all Israeli settlements and military forces from the Gaza Strip, a move that has shaped Israel’s security landscape for two decades. The disengagement saw Israel unilaterally withdraw from Gaza, dismantling 21 settlements and evacuating approximately 8,500 residents, many forcibly removed by Israeli security forces. The move aimed to reduce friction with Palestinians and advance peace prospects, but Herzog argued it failed to achieve those goals.