President Trump issued an ultimatum to Hamas today, giving the terror group until 6 PM ET on Sunday to accept the U.S. peace plan for Gaza that Israel has already accepted and is also backed by Arab countries.
If the terror group fails to accept, then "all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas," Trump said. He also said that Hamas terrorists in Gaza are "surrounded" and waiting "for their lives to be quickly extinguished," while those elsewhere "will be hunted down, and killed."
The president also echoed Israel's calls for civilians to leave combat areas and move to safer humanitarian zones.
The Egyptian foreign minister said his country is trying to convince Hamas to accept the agreement.
While Hamas continues to prolong the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians alike by refusing to take the deal, the terror group is also working to undermine Israel's extensive humanitarian efforts in Gaza.
On Wednesday, terrorists in Khan Yunis launched rockets at a humanitarian aid distribution site in Rafah. Despite this attack, aid distribution continued unabated.
Hamas also launched five rockets from northern Gaza at the Israeli city of Ashdod on Wednesday evening during Yom Kippur, triggering sirens while Israelis were gathered at synagogues.
The IDF said today that it eliminated about 20 armed Hamas terrorists who attacked a humanitarian zone in Khan Yunis.
The terrorists were observed attempting to use children as human shields, but the IDF succesfully "eliminated the terrorists without harming the uninvolved Gazan civilians who were held by them."
The United States must continue to stand with Israel and increase the pressure on Hamas and its sponsors in Qatar, Turkey and Iran to free all the hostages.
Below are more key stories and links to share AIPAC social media content. We'll continue to provide the latest updates on our social media channels.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jake Braunstein
Director of Policy Communications
TAKE 45 SECONDS: Urge your members of Congress to publicly pressure Hamas to accept the deal and release the hostages.
Cori Bush announces challenge to pro-Israel Rep. Wesley Bell
Anti-Israel former Rep. Cori Bush announced a primary challenge to AIPAC-endorsed Rep. Wesley Bell, who defeated Bush in the primary for the St. Louis-area seat last election cycle.
Cori Bush was part of the anti-Israel Squad in Congress alongside Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and former Rep. Jamaal Bowman.
Just weeks after October 7, Bush introduced an anti-Israel ceasefire resolution in the House that effectively called to leave Hamas armed and in power and didn’t mention Israeli hostages. She was also one of only 10 members to vote against a resolution standing with Israel and condemning Hamas following October 7, and one of just nine to vote against supplemental funding for Iron Dome.
AIPAC and the pro-Israel community are strongly supporting Rep. Bell, and together, we will continue to demonstrate that being pro-Israel is both good policy and good politics.
Palestinian terrorists attack IDF soldiers in West Bank
Last night, two Palestinians terrorists in the West Bank attempted to carry out a terror attack targeting IDF soldiers.
One of the terrorists was killed, and the other was arrested. The IDF confirmed that no soldiers were injured in the attack.
This follows a similar incident earlier this week, when two Israeli teenagers were injured in a car ramming and stabbing attack.
The United States must stand with Israel as our ally operates to disrupt Iran-backed terrorism in the West Bank.
IDF continues to target Hezbollah
The IDF announced that it killed three Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon in strikes earlier this week.
One of the strikes, just six miles from Israel, eliminated a Hezbollah operative that worked to seize private homes for terror operations – including weapons storage and surveillance.
Meanwhile, the United States is sending $230 million to support Lebanon’s security forces, including $190 million for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), "as they work to assert Lebanese sovereignty across the country and fully implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701," a State Department spokesperson said.
The United States must continue to stand with Israel and increase the pressure on Lebanon and Hezbollah to fully comply with the terms of the November 2024 ceasefire agreement.
Aid efforts in Gaza continue
Yesterday, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) delivered more than 500,000 meals to Gazans, bringing the total number of meals delivered to over 178 million.
Working with GHF, Samaritan’s Purse, another humanitarian aid group, has now distributed over 1 million sachets of ready-to-use supplementary food packets to women and children in Gaza.
Israel also announced yesterday that 11 water tankers were brought into Gaza. This is in addition to two water pipelines and two desalination plants already in operation.
PICTURE OF THE DAY
Hersh Goldberg-Polin's 25th Birthday
Today would have been Hersh Goldberg-Polin's 25th birthday.
Hersh, an Israeli-American, was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 from the Nova music festival. Hersh was held hostage for nearly 11 months and murdered in captivity before his body was recovered from a terror tunnel in Gaza in August 2024.
The only reason the war in Gaza is continuing today is because Hamas hasn’t accepted the U.S. peace deal.
Urge your members to Congress to unequivocally demand Hamas take the deal: aip.ac/ceasefire
"You are buried. You are in hell." Ohad Ben Ami was held hostage in Gaza for 491 days.
Brother of Evyatar David: "Doctors are saying that it's a matter of time now." Evyatar has been held captive by Hamas, starved and tortured, for 728 days.
The mission of AIPAC is to encourage and persuade the U.S. government to enact specific policies that create a strong, enduring and mutually beneficial relationship with our ally Israel.
