Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran - What you need to know

Noa Fay is a Jewish student leader at Columbia University, the epicenter of the anti-Israel protest movement that has unfolded on American college campuses in recent weeks. Pro-Hamas, antisemitic, and anti-Israel demonstrators have occupied academic buildings, set up overnight tent encampments, and staged demonstrations, while Jewish students have faced increasing threats, antisemitism, and violence.

Iran's aerial assault on Israel involved some 320 attack drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. It was the act of a regime fully committed to annihilating the Jewish State.

Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, rocket attacks from Hezbollah in Israel’s north, and Iranian drone and missile attacks on Israel, the Palestinian Authority is attempting to circumvent the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and unilaterally gain admission to the United Nations as a member state.

On April 1, an alleged Israeli airstrike near Iran's embassy in Damascus, Syria, reportedly killed seven members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terror organization. Among those killed was a top IRGC commander, Mohammad Reza Zahedi.

In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack and massacre in Israel, American Jews were engulfed in a maelstrom of grief, anger and alienation. Now, five months into the Israel-Hamas war, Jewish New Yorkers stand at the forefront of an escalating societal crisis.

Rape and sexual violence are war crimes and violations of international law. Yet that was overlooked in an Oct. 13 statement by U.N. Women, which equated the Hamas attacks on civilians in Israel with defensive actions taken by Israel and made no mention of Hamas’ barbarism.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza is not a “genocide.” I write this first, because within three sentences of a column published March 6 in the Sun by Alison Slow Loris, “Our role in conflict's generational violence,” that is the accusation made. This allegation relies on two false assumptions. First, that every death Hamas has reported in Gaza is accurate, civilian in nature, and deliberate, and second, the belief that the Jewish state seeks not avenues for peace, but opportunities for conflict.

Sometimes the rest of the world feels far away here in San Diego. We watch the crises across the globe and would like to think “no, not here, we’re not affected.” If only that was the case with antisemitism, which knows no boundaries. And in communities where antisemitism has been left to rage unchecked, all of society suffers.

In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden is expected to highlight key accomplishments during his first term in office and make the case for his re-election. While many domestic issues will take center stage, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war will likely be a topic addressed by the president. In the audience will be the families of Americans held captive or murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.

As has been the case for over a hundred years, women around the world will take to the streets this March 8th to draw attention to their rights and the gender discrimination that still exists. Even if women's demands vary greatly across the globe due to their respective realities, it has so far been assumed that the rejection of misogynistic violence unites everyone.

Last month I returned to Israel for my first visit since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
It felt very different. My heart was as full as ever, but my eyes were filled with tears and my soul with trepidation. The pain and fear provoked by that horrific day still feel so present.

What’s it like being a Jewish student at Harvard today? With us to tell their firsthand accounts are Nitsan Machlis, co-chair of the Harvard Kennedy School Jewish Caucus, and Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard Divinity school student who is part of a group that sued the university–alleging that they failed to address campus antisemitism.

On February 29, dozens of Palestinians were reportedly killed as thousands overran humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip. In a separate incident nearby, there were up to 10 Palestinian casualties when a group of Gazans approached Israeli soldiers, who were securing the aid deliveries at the border crossing between Gaza and Israel. Here is what you need to know about the Gaza stampede for aid, which is also being called the "flour massacre."

An explosion occurred at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, also referred to as the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, in Gaza City, where apparently many Palestinians had taken refuge amid the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel. Here is what we know about the situation, how the media is reporting on it, and past incidents of rocket misfires by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

How many hostages does Hamas have? What hostages are being released today? And have any Israeli hostages been released? Here is what is known about the people taken hostage on October 7, the history of Hamas’ hostage-taking, and how Israel has responded in the past.

The Gaza Strip is a 141-square-mile Palestinian enclave located near Israel’s southwestern tip. After the Israeli withdrawal in 2005, the coastal territory has been under the control of the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group. Hamas has launched several significant attacks against Israel from its base in Gaza, including in 2008, 2009, 2014, 2021, and most recently the Israel-Hamas War on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists murdered over 1,200 Israelis, wounded over 12,000, took 134 hostages, and thousands of rockets.

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is an anti-Zionist student organization in America that has been responsible for numerous recent anti-Israel protests on college campuses across the country.

Ominous headlines about the Israel-Hamas war, antisemitic condemnations from world leaders and South Africa’s outrageous genocide allegations before the International Court of Justice could easily lead one to believe that Israel is isolated on the world stage.

We have a national antisemitism crisis, and it affects Jews every day — on the streets, at school, at work, online and everywhere in between.

Hezbollah’s arsenal of weapons poses a direct threat to Israeli cities, strategic sites, and civilian population centers and could be activated by the Iran-backed terror group at any time.