The IDF is preparing to issue another 14,000 draft orders to bnei yeshivos in the coming weeks, Kan News reported on Wednesday evening. This represents a significant increase in the number of orders compared to the last recruitment cycle. In the first four months of the current recruitment year, which began in July 2024, the IDF sent 3,000 initial draft orders, and in November, it issued another 7,000 orders. The results so far, from the IDF’s perspective, have been embarrassing. The vast majority of bnei yeshiovs who received the orders ignored them. The IDF recently began implementing criminal sanctions against bnei yeshivos who failed to respond to their draft orders. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

A journalist for Qatar’s Al Jazeera media outlet was responsible for the production of the two Hamas ceremonies in Gaza held for the release of the female IDF hostages, during which the soldiers were paraded on stages in front of hundreds of terrorists and “innocent” Gazan civilians, an investigative report by 124News in Hebrew revealed. Tamer Almisshal, one of Al Jazeera’s top journalists, was hired by Hamas to remotely arrange the ceremonies.

In her short flight over the skies of Israel from the Gaza Strip to Beilinson Hospital, Agam Berger conveyed a message of strength and deep emunah to Am Yisrael. “In the way of faith I chose, in the way of faith I returned,” her sign from the helicopter stated. “Thank you to all of Am Yisrael and the heroic soldiers of the IDF. There is none like you in the world!” Agam Berger and her family have been models of emunah. Her mother asked the general public before last Shabbos, when there was an expectation that she would be released in the previous wave with her friends, not to to be mechallel Shabbos by watching or photographing her release. According to reports, Agam was Shomer Shabbos during her captivity and also refrained from eating meat.

  HY’D: An IDF soldier lost his life, and five others were wounded in a firefight with Palestinian terrorists in the Jenin refugee camp, the IDF says. The fallen soldier has been identified as Staff Sgt. Liam Hazi (20) of the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit, hailing from Rosh Haayin. Five soldiers were wounded, with one in serious condition, three sustaining moderate injuries, and one in good condition. An initial IDF investigation found that troops from the Haruv unit entered a building in Jenin during a large-scale operation, leading to a firefight with armed terrorists. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

An American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided with an Army helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, prompting a large search-and-rescue operation in the nearby Potomac River. There were multiple fatalities, according to a person familiar with the matter, but the precise number of victims was unclear as rescue crews hunted for any survivors. Three soldiers were onboard the helicopter, an Army official said. There was no immediate word on the cause of the Wednesday collision, but all takeoffs and landings from the airport were halted as dive teams scoured the site and helicopters from law enforcement agencies across the region flew over the scene in a methodical search for bodies.

Senior officials in the Justice Department under President Donald Trump have engaged in discussions with federal prosecutors in Manhattan regarding the potential dismissal of the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, multiple sources told the New York Times. The officials have also been in communication with Adams’s defense team since Trump took office, sources said. Leading Adams’s legal team is Alex Spiro, a prominent attorney who also represents billionaire Elon Musk, a close adviser to the president. Adams, a Democrat, was indicted in September on charges of bribery, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign contributions following an investigation that began in 2021.

Agudath Israel of America is applauding Senators Bill Cassidy (R- LA) and Tim Scott (R-SC) and Representatives Adrian Smith (R-NE) and Burgess Owens (R-UT), for once again leading the effort to enact a federal scholarship tax credit program. The Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) unveiled today as part of National School Choice Week will provide ten billion dollars’ worth of tax credits each year to individual and corporate taxpayers to support K-12 educational expenses including private school tuition.

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison Wednesday for accepting bribes of cash and gold bars and serving as an agent of Egypt as he sold influence to businessmen eager to exploit his political power. The sentence caps a remarkable downfall for Menendez, who was convicted last July of enriching himself through a variety of corrupt acts. Prosecutors said that in exchange for the gold, thousands of dollars in cash and a luxury car, the Democrat tried to protect associates from criminal investigations, met with Egyptian intelligence officials and took steps to help that country access to millions of dollars in U.S. military aid. Earlier Wednesday, Judge Sidney H. Stein also sentenced two New Jersey businessmen convicted of paying bribes.

Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz visited the Jenin refugee camp on Wednesday and held a situational assessment on the ground with senior IDF officials. Katz spoke with commanders and soldiers who told him details about the enormous amounts of weaponry seized in the camp’s houses “just like in Gaza.” Following the assessment, Katz stated that Operation Iron Wall will expand to additional terror hotspots in Yehuda and Shomron and that IDF forces will remain in Jenin even after the end of the current operation. “We have declared war on Palestinian terrorism in Yehuda and Shomron,” Katz said. “Operation Iron Wall is aimed at destroying the terror infrastructure built in Palestinian refugee camps, funded and armed by Iran.

Al Jazeera documentary on Hamas military commanders during the war includes exclusive footage provided by Al-Qassam Brigades of Muhammad Deif and Yahya Sinwar, along with an interview with military leader Izz al-Din al-Haddad. Qatari-owned Al Jazeera had exclusive access to Hamas’s top leadership—which should surprise nobody—because it serves as the terror group’s propaganda arm. This past Moztei Shabbos, YWN published footage of Sinwar during the war. This is additional footage not seen before. (YWN Worle Headquarters – NYC)