More than two dozen people were arrested as pro-Israel and Palestinian demonstrators clashed in New York City’s Times Square and police were investigating the gang assault of a Jewish man as a hate crime, police said Friday. The melee on Thursday evening resulted in 26 arrests on charges including obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest, unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct and criminal possession of a weapon, according to city police. Also, the department’s Hate Crime Task Force said it was investigating the assault of a Jewish man in Times Square on Thursday evening. A video posted to social media purporting to show the attack shows a group of people striking and kicking what appears to be a person down on the street.

In a video of an audio recording published on Sky News Arabic and tweeted by Israeli-Arab social activist Yoseph Haddad, a shocking conversation can be heard between an IDF representative (speaking in Arabic) and a Gazan. As is well-known, the IDF does more than any other army in the world to avoid civilian casualties even while under fire, and one of their efforts is calling Gazan residents of buildings they plan to bomb, warning them to evacuate beforehand. After the IDF representative tells the Gazan to evacuate the residents of a building prior to the bombing, the Gazan responds: “I can’t get all of the people out. I need at least two hours to get them out.” “Listen, we are going to bomb the building,” the IDF representative asserts. Gazan: “You want to bomb?

Demonstrations that brought out both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian supporters to midtown Manhattan on Thursday led to some tense confrontations, with police saying multiple arrests had been made. There was no information on the number of arrests or the circumstances, but video clips posted to social media showed some punches being thrown before police stepped in and created space and barriers between the two sides. Other videos showed what appears to be Hamas terrorists – dressed in Palestinian Kafiya’s and driving in the back of a pickup truck – in the nearby Diamond District, where Jewish store owners have had a longstanding presence. In one video, people could be seen scrambling to get some distance after an explosive device was lobbed at Jews.

President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed the cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and Hamas, saying he sees a “genuine opportunity” toward the larger goal of building a lasting peace in the Middle East. Biden credited the Egyptian government with playing a crucial role in brokering the cease-fire and said he and top White House aides were intensely involved in an “hour by hour” effort to stop the bloodletting. “I believe the Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live safely and securely and enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity and democracy,” Biden said. “My administration will continue our quiet, relentless diplomacy toward that.” The president spoke soon after Israel and Hamas announced a cease-fire would go into effect at 2 a.m.

Another video has emerged of Hamas terrorists in Manhattan on Thursday, when a Jewish man was beaten simply for being Jewish. Earlier, YWN reported of a gang of Hamas terrorists that drove through Manhattan’s Diamond District hunting for Jews. The pack of thugs were wearing Kafiya’s, and driving on the back of a pickup truck – reminiscent of a scene out of Gaza. One of the terrorists ignited some type of explosive device. Thankfully, no one was inured in that incident. Meanwhile, not a word from Socialist DeBlasio. In the (so called) safest big city in America, it’s open season on Jews. The silence is deafening. https://t.co/iE649LxfJz — Simcha Eichenstein (@SEichenstein) May 21, 2021   (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Slovakian Foreign Minister Ivan Korčok, and Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek landed on Israel on Thursday in a visit intended as a show of solidarity with Israel against attacks by terror groups in the Gaza Strip. “Germany is unconditionally behind its friendship with Israel that is forced to defend itself against Hamas’ missile terrorism,” Maas said before his trip. Maas arrive on Thursday morning and received a security briefing from the head of the IDF’s Home Front Command Gen. Ori Gordin in Petach Tikvah and also visited the site of a building in the city that was hit by a rocket.

An anti-tank missile launched by Hamas on Thursday morning hit an empty bus near the Gaza border area, lightly injuring a soldier nearby who was hit by shrapnel. He was evacuated to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon for treatment. Later on Thursday, Meir Vaknin, the driver of the bus told Reshet Bet about the great miracle that had occurred – 30 soldiers had gotten off the bus literally seconds before the missile hit. “I let off the soldiers, turned around, and then it hit,” Vaknin said. “The entire vehicle shook, it was a miracle.” “About 30 soldiers got off a few seconds earlier.

Longtime Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera continued to blast Israel and demand a ceasefire in two segments. One of them resulted in a screaming match Wednesday night with conservative pundit Dan Bongino on Sean Hannity’s program. Hours earlier, Rivera went on Martha MacCallum’s show to tell the world that he U.S. is complicit in an “ongoing crime against humanity”. Martha MacCallum kicked off her Fox News segment Wednesday by saying to Rivera, “It sounds like you are sympathetic to [Congresswoman Rashida] Talib’s argument here.” “I am indeed, Martha,” Rivera responded. He directly said it’s “outrageous” that the United States “gave Israel these hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons without insisting on a ceasefire now.” Rivera went on to again criticize U.S.

A female Arab terrorist armed with an M-16 opened fire at a hitchhiking stop at the entrance to Kiryat Arba on Wednesday afternoon. The terrorist was shot and killed by IDF soldiers nearby who returned fire. Fortunately, no Israelis were injured in the attack. Bomb sappers were called to the scene to examine the two bags found lying next to the terrorist’s body. שלפה M-16 – ונורתה: תיעוד ניסיון הפיגוע בקריית ארבע ממצלמות האבטחה@carmeldangor pic.twitter.com/tEQkwreYAe — כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 19, 2021 מדובר בנסיון פיגוע ירי. מחבלת עם נשק ארוך הגיעה וירתה תוך ניסיון לפגוע באזרחים ובחיילים. לוחמי צהל במקום השיבו אש וניטרלו אותה. המחבלת פצועה אנוש pic.twitter.com/Q6HhqDYsSa — שחר גליק (@glick_sh) May 19, 2021 (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

US President Joe Biden landed in Detroit on Tuesday to visit Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in nearby Dearborn and was received on the tarmac by Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Debbie Dingel. Tlaib and Biden spoke for several minutes on the tarmac. According to her aide, Tlaib told Biden: “The U.S. cannot continue to give the right-wing [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu government billions each year to commit crimes against Palestinians. Atrocities like bombing schools cannot be tolerated, much less conducted with U.S.-supplied weapons.” “Congresswoman Tlaib reiterated that the status quo is enabling more killing, that the current U.S.