Daily Digest Online

The family of a young Tanzanian student murdered during the October 7th Hamas attacks has filed a lawsuit against the Israeli government, alleging authorities inflicted additional trauma by publicly releasing graphic video footage of his killing without their consent. The legal claim, filed on behalf of the family of Joshua Loitu Mollel, seeks significant damages. It argues that the Israeli Foreign Ministry caused severe distress by reposting the footage from an attacker's body camera on its official social media account. The clip, which showed Mollel being shot, was shared before the family had been formally notified or had a chance to view the material privately. A Young Farmer's Dream Ends in Terror Joshua Loitu Mollel, 21, was an agricultural student who had traveled to Israel just weeks before the attacks, filled with ambition for his future. "My son wants to make his fortune in agribusiness and become one of Tanzania's most successful farm...

Beneath the war-ravaged city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, a silent and desperate standoff is threatening to unravel a fragile ceasefire. An estimated 100 to 200 Hamas fighters are trapped underground on the Israeli-controlled side of the line, cut off from supplies and facing a grim choice: surrender, attempt a breakout, or perish. This prolonged subterranean siege is now a major obstacle to diplomatic efforts aimed at establishing lasting stability in Gaza. According to Israeli and Arab officials cited by The Wall Street Journal , the militants were caught behind Israeli lines when a U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect in late October 2025. Isolated in a labyrinth of tunnels, their situation is deteriorating as food and water supplies dwindle. In response, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have launched a methodical campaign to dismantle the tunnel network, employing drilling, explosives, and in some areas, flooding sections with seawater to force the fighters out...

GAZA CITY — Search teams from Hamas and the International Committee of the Red Cross have concluded an operation in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, failing to locate the remains of the last Israeli hostage believed to be held in the territory. The operation, which concluded on Monday, December 8, 2025, was focused on finding the body of Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili. Gvili, a 24-year-old officer from Meitar, was among the 251 people abducted by Hamas during its attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Israeli authorities believe he was badly wounded and did not survive long after being taken to Gaza. Video footage from the scene showed armed Hamas militants standing guard beside ICRC vehicles before a convoy drove into the neighborhood to conduct the search. This coordinated effort was part of the broader arrangements tied to the current U.S.-brokered ceasefire and ongoing hostage negotiations. The teams reportedly combed through multiple sites in the des...

A quiet storage facility in Vienna. A rural property in Orbaek, Denmark. A roadside plot outside Plovdiv, Bulgaria. For years, these unassuming locations across Europe held a deadly secret: buried caches of Kalashnikov rifles, pistols, silencers, and ammunition. These were not the weapons of local criminals but part of a long-term, strategic contingency plan laid by Hamas, designed to give the group the capacity to strike far beyond the borders of Gaza and the West Bank. For decades, Hamas's military operations were geographically confined, focusing on Israel and the Palestinian territories. However, a series of high-profile arrests, disrupted plots, and intelligence disclosures over the past two years reveal a decisive and dangerous shift.  European and Israeli security officials now assess that Hamas, with its capabilities in Gaza severely degraded by war, has taken a strategic decision to "go global," actively plotting attacks on European soil. ...

Senior Hamas officials living outside the Gaza Strip are operating under sweeping new security protocols, internal documents reveal, as the group braces for potential Israeli assassination attempts in countries beyond the Middle East. This security crackdown follows a failed Israeli strike in Qatar and signals a new phase of international shadow warfare. Hamas is implementing extreme counter-surveillance measures for its senior leaders operating abroad, driven by a conviction that Israel plans further assassination attempts against its top officials, potentially in countries outside the Arab world.  The new directives, reviewed by Asharq Al-Awsat and reported by The Times of Israel , point to a high-alert state within the militant group's overseas leadership. The heightened fear stems directly from Israel's September 9, 2025, airstrike in Doha, Qatar, which targeted a meeting of the group's political leadership. While Hamas' chief negotiator, Kha...

A CNN investigation has uncovered evidence that the Israeli military used bulldozers to bury the bodies of Palestinians killed while seeking aid near a Gaza crossing into shallow, unmarked graves, a practice legal experts say may violate international law. A new investigation points to the Israeli military bulldozing the bodies of Palestinians killed near an aid crossing into Gaza, leaving them in unmarked graves or exposed to the elements, depriving families of the chance to recover or identify their loved ones. The CNN review, based on satellite imagery, video analysis, and testimony from eyewitnesses, aid truck drivers, and former Israeli soldiers, focuses on the area around the Zikim crossing. The route was used for aid deliveries this summer before it was closed in September. The report details the case of Ammar Wadi, who left a final message on his phone for his family before setting out to get flour in June. He never returned. His story is ech...