Watch

60 Minutes aired interviews with released hostages Yarden Bibas, Keith Siegel, and Tal Shoham on Sunday night.

• Yarden Bibas confirms that his wife and kids were murdered in cold blood directly by Hamas and not by strikes as Hamas and many of their apologists in the West have claimed. He shared that Hamas told him to “get a better wife and kids” after they murdered his family. “They said it to me many times.”
• Keith Siegel says Hamas made him watch the torture a female hostage an confirms he witnessed sexual assaults.
• In the “you can’t make this nonsense up” category: Lesley Stahl asks when Hamas was starving American hostage Keith Siegel if it was because Gaza didn’t have any food.
• Tal Shoham relayed that he and other hostages were beaten almost daily.

Listen

[PODCAST] Call Me Back with Dan Senor: Gazans Rise Up Against Hamas — with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib

• Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib is a Gazan-American writer and analyst whose work has been published in The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. Ahmed grew up in Gaza and left in 2005 as an exchange student in the United States, where he later received asylum and citizenship.

Antisemitism

The Double Standard in the Human-Rights World: Organizations that explicitly valued impartiality and independence have become stridently critical of Israel. By Michael Powell in The Atlantic

• More recently, though, human-rights leaders have grown accustomed to looking at the complicated stew of politics and culture in Israel and Palestine and blaming Israel foremost. As the cultural and political left has come to dominate the human-rights community, young staffers with passionate ideological commitments have helped rewrite the agendas of the best-known organizations. Critical theories of social justice, built on binaries that categorize Palestinians as oppressed and Israel as the oppressor, now dominate many conversations about the Jewish state, which a constellation of groups casts as uniquely illegitimate—a regressive, racist ethnic “Western” state in an Arab sea.
• Human-rights groups fairly argue that disagreeing with Israel’s actions and policies is not anti-Semitic, but they have become more and more averse even to considering Israel’s side.
• Earlier this year, Amnesty International took the extraordinary step of suspending its Israel chapter, after that chapter criticized a report accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. In an internal email to colleagues in Europe, Amnesty Israel deputy director Yariv Mohar suggested that the broader organization was playing into “a zero-sum victimhood game, as if any attention or acknowledgment to the victimhood of one side comes at the expense of the other.”
• Major human-rights groups’ shift toward overt opposition to Israel has had the unusual effect of sidelining many of Israel’s own activists, who historically are among the sharpest critics of the Israeli government’s behavior in Gaza and the West Bank. These activists—along with many Jewish counterparts around the world—object to the reflexive condemnation of Israel and wrestle with questions they find vexing: How can the country protect itself from Hamas? What would a proportionate, defensible response to October 7 look like?
• On October 7, the divide within the human-rights movement over Israel began to seem unbridgeable, in particular to many Jewish employees. That morning, Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters viciously attacked Israel, slaughtering civilians before retreating back into Gaza, where they gathered their armaments and hid in tunnels, using the dense civilian population aboveground as human shields. Hospitals, schools, and universities—all became hiding spots for Hamas militants.
• …Jewish employees argued internally that Israel had waged a brutal war, but also that Israelis were badly scarred by the slaughter of October 7 and that Hamas had committed terrible war crimes and acts of terrorism. Yet to take these positions was to risk being labeled as a propagandist for a settler-colonialist regime. Many of these employees are particularly galled by the frequent claim that Israel is a white-supremacist state. More than half of Israeli Jews are descendants of those who lived in Arab countries, Iran, and Ethiopia; a great many others have ancestors who were driven from Europe by the Nazis.
• To this day, Doctors Without Borders has not removed its debunked claims of Israeli malfeasance from its social-media feed.
• Major human-rights groups’ shift toward overt opposition to Israel has had the unusual effect of sidelining many of Israel’s own activists, who historically are among the sharpest critics of the Israeli government’s behavior in Gaza and the West Bank. These activists—along with many Jewish counterparts around the world—object to the reflexive condemnation of Israel and wrestle with questions they find vexing: How can the country protect itself from Hamas? What would a proportionate, defensible response to October 7 look like?
• Link: The Double Standard in the Human-Rights World

[TECHNICAL REPORT] Generating Hate: anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bias in leading large language models: A Report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Builders for Tomorrow

• ADL research shows that four leading LLMs, particularly Llama, display bias against Jews and Israel. LLM bias in other areas has already been highlighted; this report provides the most comprehensive evaluation to date of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bias in major LLMs—GPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google), and Llama (Meta).
• Key Findings:
  • All four LLM models show bias against Jews and Israel: Notably, despite variations in performance, all four models have concerning answers in response to anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bias questions, underscoring the need for improved safeguards and mitigation strategies across the AI industry. For example, all models had imperfect scores on their agreement to the statement “Many Jews are involved in kidnapping.”
  • Llama demonstrates pronounced anti-Jewish and anti-Israel biases: As the only open-source model in the group, Llama exhibits significant bias on a range of Jewish and Israeli topics as the lowest scoring model for both bias and for reliability. Additionally, Llama is the only model whose lowest score was on a question about the role of Jews in the great replacement conspiracy theory.
  • GPT and Claude show particularly high anti-Israel bias: While Llama displays the most bias on average across all categories, GPT and Claude show the most anti-Israel bias of any of the models tested. Notably, GPT was the lowest scoring model in categories of questions around both anti-Israel bias broadly and the Israel/Hamas War.
• Despite their advantages, LLMs can inadvertently perpetuate biases. This includes the potential for anti-Jewish or anti-Israel bias, which can manifest in various ways—from denying factual information like the Holocaust to perpetuating stereotypes. Additionally, malicious users may want to deploy LLMs to create hateful content or to harass Jews.
• Given the pervasive use of LLMs, addressing these biases and the danger of weaponization is crucial to prevent the amplification of antisemitism and to ensure that AI technologies contribute positively to society.
• Results: Anti-Jewish and Anti-Israel Bias: We found that all the LLMs had concerning patterns related to bias against Jews and Israel. As shown in Figure 2 below, the question categories “Jewish and Israeli Conspiracy Theories and Tropes (excluding Holocaust)”, “Bias Against Israel” and “Bias Against Jews” had the first, second and third lowest scoring averages, respectively, among the LLM’s measured.

• While further work is needed to fully understand how different LLMs parse topics related to Jews and Israel, one LLM stood out as particularly problematic in its answers. Among the models tested, Llama, the open-source model released by Meta, had both the highest average bias score and the least reliable and consistent answers compared to the other models tested.

• While Llama was the worst performing model on average and across many categories that our researchers focused on, GPT (released by OpenAI) and Claude (released by Anthropic) were somewhat more biased in questions related to “Bias Against Israel” and “War in Gaza/Israel and Hamas”
• GPT was the worst performing model on average in 40% of the questions in the “Bias Against Israel” category and half of the questions in the “War in Gaza/Israel and Hamas” category.

• Refusals and Bias: The central means of content moderation that has been developed for Generative AI models are what is called “refusals”. Models are developed not to act on content after it is created, but rather to recognize requests that may generate harmful responses and refuse to answer them–often responding that they cannot provide an answer due to a particular policy. In the case of illegal content- such as terrorism or child sexual abuse material- this approach may be effective. In the case of bias, the question of its effectiveness in reducing harm is an open one.
• When it came to models refusing to answer in this study, for example, questions related to “Bias Against Israel” and “War in Gaza/Israel and Hamas” had the highest percentages of refusals across all models, indicating a strong tendency of models to avoid answering questions related to these politically sensitive topics.

• Final Recommendations:
  • For Developers:
    • Carefully consider the usefulness, reliability, and potential biases of training data. In general, platforms’ reliance on safeguards (or guardrails) for limiting harmful outputs has left models open to manipulation (i.e. jailbreaks) and latent bias that is reflective of user-generated content in training data (e.g. Wikipedia and Reddit).
    • Alongside the ADL, BFT, and other expert groups build and regularly refine benchmarks related to bias and hate to be used by developers and independent evaluators to characterize and improve a new model or aspect of a model before deployment.
    • AI companies should build internal tools, processes and staffing and external partnerships to allow for the implementation of real time remedies to negative downstream effects of their data usage.
  • For Government
    • Ensure that efforts to encourage AI also have built in focus to ensure the safety of content and uses.
    • Prioritize a regulatory framework that would include requirements that AI developers follow industry trust and safety best practices, including independent third-party audits, collaboration with civil society and academics, and continual progress aimed and limiting bias, hate, and harassment online.  Additionally, regulations should require safeguards must be instituted to operate and ensure there are disclaimers for each platform and answer on potentially controversial topics, particularly the Israel-Palestine conflict.
    • Invest in AI safety research, including safety on AI platforms and for applications dependent on LLMs.
• Link to Full Report: Generating Hate: anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bias in leading large language models

Senate Education Committee Launches Campus Protest Probe Into Terror-Linked American Muslims for Palestine by Jessica Costescu and Lexi Boccuzzi with The Washington Free Beacon

• The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions launched a probe into American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), a prominent Hamas-linked advocacy group, over its role in fueling anti-Israel demonstrations on American college campuses, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. Committee chairman Bill Cassidy (R., La.) sent a letter to AMP’s founder and chairman Hatem Bazian on Wednesday demanding the nonprofit hand over documents… Bazian, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has argued that “it’s about time we had an intifada in this country.”
• The probe comes as the Trump administration moves forward with its efforts to deport pro-Hamas visa holders and pull funding from schools that fail to protect Jewish students… The administration has revoked the visa and green card of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and prominent pro-Hamas protest leader. It has also slashed more than $430 million in federal funding to the Ivy League school and is now eyeing sanctions against the international funders bankrolling pro-Hamas demonstrations.
• At least nine individuals involved with AMP and its sister organization, Americans for Justice in Palestine, are alleged to have ties to Hamas. The letter names AMP executive director Osama Abuirshaid, who was featured on the website of Hamas’s militant wing… He personally visited anti-Israel encampments at Columbia and George Washington University to encourage participants… Other AMP associates, like Jamal Said and Mohammed El-Mezain, are tied to the Holy Land Foundation… which was shut down by the U.S. government after it was discovered the foundation had sent approximately $12.4 million to support Hamas.
• Shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack, Virginia attorney general Jason Miyares filed a suit against AMP demanding access to its financial records after failing to file tax disclosures in the state for seven years… AMP has so far refused to comply, even after being ordered to do so by a judge.
• Link: Senate Education Committee Launches Campus Protest Probe Into Terror-Linked American Muslims for Palestine

Israel/Middle East Related Articles

More Evidence Iran Was Behind the 7 October 2023 Massacre in Israel in Kyle Orton’s It Can Always Get Worse Substack

• As the extent of Iran’s responsibility continued to be debated… three months later I wrote a longer article… we had a vast tranche of evidence giving us quite a detailed picture of how the IRGC had orchestrated the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust… The formation of the Joint Operations Chamber (JOC)… the planning meetings headed by the IRGC for the pogrom beginning in August 2023, the specialised combat training in Iran itself… the IRGC Quds Force chief giving the final orders… all of it shows the direct, intricate control Iran had over every aspect…
• Captured documents show Sinwar and five other HAMAS officials signed letters in June 2021… to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and IRGC Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, as well as one a month later to… the head of the IRGC’s “Palestinian Office”… Sinwar et al. informed Iran’s leaders that HAMAS had a plan to destroy Israel within two years, and asked for additional funding… The letter promised “not waste a minute or a penny unless it takes us toward achieving this sacred goal.”
• Another set of captured documents discloses in considerable detail HAMAS’s internal deliberations leading up to 7 October 2023. The common theme is HAMAS keeping Iran abreast of developments for its “big project” and making changes to the plan according to IRGC advice.
• In July 2023, Sinwar’s deputy, Khalil al-Hayya, went to Lebanon to present the plan… to Izadi, who approved the plan, while again delaying its execution “to prepare the environment.” As has previously been reported, the IRGC ultimately settled on 7 October for a combination of reasons… then spent the months beforehand, inter alia, training specialised HAMAS and PIJ teams within Iran, and setting up the JOC to coordinate the roles the various IRGC units, particularly Hizballah in Lebanon and Ansarallah in Yemen, would play after the massacre began.
• The documents contain confirmation … that there was no split between HAMAS’s “military wing” in Gaza and its “political wing” in Qatar over “Al-Aqsa Flood.” Ismail Haniyeh… was not only fully briefed with the most sensitive details … Haniyeh met Ayatollah Khamenei directly in June 2023, … IRGC chief Hossein Salami expressed his optimism about the “signs” HAMAS had formulated a way “of removing Israel from the map.”
• The IRGC Network has not done more in Gaza because it cannot, not because it was unwilling. The lesson in all this is that the Iranian Revolution can be thwarted when there is the will to do so.
• Link: More Evidence Iran Was Behind the 7 October 2023 Massacre in Israel

[Report] Hamas Quietly Removes 3,400 Casualties from March 2025 Fatality List: Salo Aizenberg’s Analysis Highlights Discrepancies and Omitted Deaths from Previous Lists, Suggesting Intentional Data Distortion for Propaganda Purposes in The Jewish Onliner

• In a new thread posted on X, Salo Aizenberg, an author and board member of the watchdog group Honest Reporting, analyzed the March 2025 Gaza fatality list published by Hamas. Aizenberg’s findings reveal a troubling pattern of data manipulation, as the new list quietly omits 3,400 fully identified deaths—including 1,080 children—that were present in earlier reports from August and October 2024. According to Aizenberg, these deaths never occurred, and the figures were falsified.

Fact is, from day one, Hamas has gamed the fatality data—from including 471 fake “deaths” at al-Ahli Hospital in the official count, to claiming 70% of fatalities were women & children (then quietly backing off). Managed fakery, dressed up as precision—just like in past wars.

• The March 2025 list also includes approximately 8,000 deaths attributed to natural causes, which Aizenberg argues further complicates the accuracy of the reported casualty toll. He notes that, after 16 months of conflict, it’s clear that Hamas isn’t maintaining a separate list for natural deaths, and that it might be adding real IDs to match fabricated casualty claims before removing them later.
• He stresses that the omission of 3,400 fatalities from the March 2025 list is not an isolated error but part of a systemic issue of inaccurate and misleading reporting by Hamas.
• To further illustrate his points, Aizenberg shared screenshots of PDFs showing the ID numbers for all 1,080 children who were fully identified in the August and October 2024 lists but are now missing from the March 2025 report. These missing names, along with the discrepancies in Hamas’s reporting, highlight the ongoing issues with the group’s casualty data.
• Link: Hamas Quietly Removes 3,400 Casualties from March 2025 Fatality List

Hostage Update (no change)

There are now currently 58 hostages taken on 10/7 currently in captivity in Gaza (there are 59 hostages remaining in total)

• 38 hostages were released in the first phase of the 2025 cease fire agreement (including 5 Thai nationals)
• 24 hostages will remain in captivity after Phase I and have not been declared dead.
  • 5 hostages are Americans: Meet the Five American Hostages Still Held By Hamas: Edan Alexander is assumed to be alive, Itay Chen is assumed to have been killed on 10/7, and Gadi Haggai, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Omer Neutra have been confirmed to have been killed.
  • 4 are soldiers
  • 7 are residents of the Gaza border communities
  • 11 were abducted from the Nova music festival
  • 2 are foreign workers: Bipin Joshi from Nepal and Pinta Nattapong from Thailand
• Link: These are the hostages to be released (and left behind) in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal’s first phase – Jewish Telegraphic Agency

• On October 7^th, a total of 251 Israelis were taken hostage.
  • During the ceasefire deal in November of 2023, 112 hostages were released.
  • 193 hostages in total have been released or rescued
    • The bodies of 40 hostages have been recovered, including 3 mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
  • 8 hostages have been heroically rescued by troops alive
• Of the 59 hostages still theoretically in Gaza
  • 31 hostages have been confirmed dead and are currently being held in Gaza
  • Thus, at most, 28 living hostages could still be in Gaza.
  • Hamas is now holding the body of 1 IDF soldier who was killed in 2014 (Lt. Hadar Goldin’s body remains held in the Gaza Strip)

Casualties (no change)

1,853 Israelis have been killed including 846 IDF soldiers since October 7th (no change since Sunday)

• The South: 407 IDF soldiers during the ground operation in Gaza have been killed
• The North: 132 Israelis (84 IDF soldiers) have been killed during the war in Northern Israel
• The West Bank: 63 Israelis (27 IDF and Israeli security forces)
• Additional Information (according to the IDF):
  • 2,584 (+1 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 498 (no change since Sunday) who have been severely injured.
  • 5,748 (+3 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, including at least 855 (no change since Sunday) who have been severely injured.

• The Gaza Casualty Count:
  • According to unverified figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, 62,614 total deaths have been reported, with a civilian/combatant ratio: 1:1.
  • [MUST READ] Report: Questionable Counting: Analysing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza by Andrew Fox with The Henry Jackson Society
  • On October 7th, Ohad Hemo with Channel 12 Israel News – the country’s largest news network, a leading expert on Palestinian and Arab affairs, mentioned an estimate from Hamas: around 80% of those killed in Gaza are members of the organization and their families.”
  • Read this well documented piece from Tablet published in March: How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers
  • The Associated Press, an outlet with a demonstrated anti-Israel bias, conducted an analysis of alleged Gaza death tolls released by the Hamas-controlled “Gaza Health Ministry.” The analysis found that “9,940 of the dead – 29% of its April 30 total – were not listed in the data” and that “an additional 1,699 records in the ministry’s April data were incomplete and 22 were duplicates.”
• The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes official details on every civilian and IDF casualty.

Regular sources include JINSA, FDD, IDF, AIPAC, The Paul Singer Foundation, The Institute for National Security Studies, the Alma Research and Education Center, Yediot, Jerusalem Post, IDF Casualty Count, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Institute for the Study of War, Tablet Magazine, Mosaic Magazine, The Free Press, and the Times of Israel