World
Families of US citizens held by Hamas pin hopes on Netanyahu’s address to Congress
JERUSALEM – With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set to address both houses of Congress on Wednesday, families of U.S. citizens held hostage by the Hamas terror group in Gaza for some 292 days expressed hope that he will use the high-profile platform to finally announce a cease-fire deal that will release them.
Ahead of his flight to Washington, D.C., Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying that Israel would return to the negotiating table this week in the hopes of securing a deal with the U.S.-designated terror group to release hostages in exchange for a cease-fire of the nine-month-old war that has killed thousands on both sides.
Eight U.S. citizens have been held by Hamas since Oct. 7, when hundreds of its elite Nukhba terrorists infiltrated southern Israel, brutally attacking army bases, civilian communities and a massive music festival taking place near the border. Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were murdered in the attack, with an estimated 250 individuals taken captive by the Palestinian terror group.
NETANYAHU’S 4 PRINCIPLES ISRAEL AGREES TO FOR HOSTAGE DEAL AS NEGOTIATIONS PICK UP
American hostages being held in Gaza include, from left to right, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Itay Chen, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Judy Weinstein and her husband, Gad Haggai and Keith Siegel. Judy Weinstein, her husband, Gad Haggai, and 19-year-old Itay Chen – are believed to have been murdered by Hamas, who are still holding onto their bodies. (Photos: Courtesy of the families)
While a weeklong cease-fire last November secured the release of more than 100 of the hostages, around 120 people remain in captivity, including eight U.S. citizens: California-born Hersch Goldberg-Polin, 23, who moved to Israel with his family, was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival. Sagui Dekel Chen, 35, who grew up in New Jersey, and Keith Siegel, 64, from North Carolina, were both taken from their homes in kibbutz communities near the Gaza border. While Eden Alexander, 19, from Tenafly, New Jersey, and Omer Neutra from Long Island, New York – both serving in the Israel Defense Forces – were taken from their military bases.
In April, Hamas released video recordings of both Goldberg-Polin, who is known to have had his arm blown off during the Oct. 7 attack, and from Keith Siegel, giving hope to their families that they are still alive despite the longevity of their captivity.
Three other U.S. citizens – Judy Weinstein and her husband, Gad Haggai, and 19-year-old Itay Chen – are believed to have been murdered in captivity by Hamas, who are still holding onto their bodies. An additional 44 hostages have also been declared dead by the Israeli military.
Last week, Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of Omer Neutra, spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, calling on U.S. and Israeli leaders to strike a deal to release all the hostages.
“This was not merely an attack on Israel; this was and remains an attack on Americans,” Ronen Neutra said, highlighting that 45 of the 1,200 people murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7 were Americans.
‘I WILL BE HAUNTED FOREVER’: ISRAEL’S HORRIFIC VIDEO OF HAMAS ATROCITIES LEAVES VIEWERS SHOCKED AND SICKENED
On Monday, not long after he touched down in Washington, Netanyahu agreed to meet with representatives of the eight families, according to a readout. The families told the prime minister that their loved ones cannot wait any longer and that he must close the deal now.
They also called on him to address the plight of the eight American hostages when he speaks to Congress on Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with families of Israeli hostages during his visit to Washington D.C. (Israel Government Press Office via Reuters)
“The families told Netanyahu in no uncertain terms that they expect him to announce this week that he has finalized the deal to bring their family members home,” a statement from the meeting read. “Anything less, they said, would constitute an abject failure of his trip to Washington.”
Also on Monday, the families of U.S. hostages met with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk, who said there is a solid deal on the table and that it would just take “political determination and cooperation from both sides” to secure it.
Netanyahu – who will also meet with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump during his trip – also expressed hope that a deal could be achieved during a meeting with 13 additional hostage relatives, who traveled with him from Israel.
A bloodied handprint stains a wall in a Nir Oz house after Hamas terrorists attacked this kibbutz days earlier near the border of Gaza. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
In that meeting, he said that he was “determined to return them all” and that “the conditions for returning them are becoming ripe, for the simple reason that we are putting very strong pressure on Hamas.”
Netanyahu also said that his visit to the U.S. and the chance to address lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and in both houses would afford him “the opportunity to bring before the representatives of the American people, and the American people themselves the importance of their support for our efforts, with them, to bring about the release of all of the hostages, the living and the deceased.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Virginia’s bid to restore a congressional map that would have given Democrats a chance to pick up four seats in the closely divided House of Representatives.
The court’s order, issued without any noted dissent, is the latest twist in the nation’s mid-decade redistricting competition. It was kicked off last year by President Donald Trump urging Republican-controlled states to redraw their lines and was supercharged by a recent Supreme Court ruling severely weakening the Voting Rights Act that opened up even more winnable seats for the GOP.
In recent days, the justices have sided with Republicans in Alabama and Louisiana who hope to redo their congressional maps to produce more GOP-leaning seats following the court’s voting rights decision.
But the Virginia situation was different, stemming from a 4-3 ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court that struck down a constitutional amendment that voters narrowly passed just last month.
The state court found that the Democratic-controlled legislature improperly began the process of placing the amendment on the ballot after early voting had begun in Virginia’s general election last fall.
The Supreme Court typically doesn’t intervene in state court proceedings unless they present an issue of federal law. Virginia Democrats had hoped to persuade the justices that the Virginia court misread federal law and Supreme Court precedent that hold that, even if early voting is underway, an election does not happen until Election Day itself.
Virginia’s amendment had been intended as a response to Republican gains in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and to blunt a new map in Florida that just became law. Once the Virginia amendment passed, it briefly turned the nationwide redistricting scramble into a draw between the two parties.
That was unraveled by the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision.
The state’s attorney general, Democrat Jay Jones, slammed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, saying it was another example of what he described as a national attack on voting rights and the rule of law.
“Let’s be clear about what is happening. Donald Trump, Republican state legislatures, and conservative courts are systematically and unabashedly tilting power away from the people for Trump’s political gain,” Jones said in a statement issued late Friday night.
The state’s top Democrats had disagreed about whether it was even too late for help from the Supreme Court. “Time grows short, but it is not yet too late,” lawyers for the Democratic leaders of the legislature as well as the state told the justices in a brief filed Friday.
A day earlier, the office of Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger already had confirmed that the state will hold this year’s elections under the current districts established in 2021. Last month, Virginia Commissioner of Elections Steve Koski said a court order was needed by this past Tuesday to set the district lines for primary elections on Aug. 4.
Spanberger reacted to Friday’s decision by saying both courts had nullified the votes of the more than 3 million Virginians who cast ballots in the April 21 special election.
“These Virginians made their voices heard — casting their ballots in good faith to push back against a President who said he’s ‘entitled’ to more seats in Congress before voters go to the polls,” she posted on her X account.
The leader of the state Republican Party said the justices made the right call.
“Wisely, the Supreme Court of the United States has confirmed the judgment of the Supreme Court of Virginia,” state party chairman Jeff Ryer said. “This should once and for all put to rest the Democrats’ effort to disenfranchise half of Virginia.
___
Associated Press writer Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.
World
Trump says Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, killed in US-Nigerian operation
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President Donald Trump announced late Friday that U.S. and Nigerian forces carried out an operation that killed a global ISIS leader.
Trump identified the terrorist as Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom he described as ISIS’s second-in-command globally.
“Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing,” Trump continued. “He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans.”
100 US TROOPS LAND IN NIGERIA AS ISLAMIC MILITANTS THREATEN WEST AFRICA REGIONAL SECURITY
President Donald Trump sits at a table monitoring military operations during Operation Epic Fury against Iran at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 2. (The White House via X Account/Anadolu/Getty Images)
Trump also thanked the Nigerian government for its cooperation in the mission.
“With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished,” he added.
Additional details surrounding the mission were not immediately available.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
US MILITARY IN SYRIA CARRIES OUT 10 STRIKES ON MORE THAN 30 ISIS TARGETS: PHOTOS
The announcement comes after U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said it carried out multiple strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria in February as part of a joint military effort to “sustain relentless military pressure on remnants from the terrorist network.”
CENTCOM said U.S. forces struck ISIS infrastructure and weapons-storage targets using fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned aircraft.
DEADLY STRIKE ON US TROOPS TESTS TRUMP’S COUNTER-ISIS PLAN — AND HIS TRUST IN SYRIA’S NEW LEADER
The U.S. military carried out ten strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria following a December ambush that killed U.S. troops. (CENTCOM)
Trump told reporters on Jan. 27 that he had a “great conversation” with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“All of the things having to do with Syria in that area are working out very, very well,” he said at the time. “So, we are very happy about it.”
CENTCOM announced in February that more than 50 ISIS terrorists had been killed or captured and more than 100 ISIS infrastructure targets struck during two months of targeted operations in Syria.
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The U.S. launched Operation Hawkeye Strike in response to an ISIS ambush that killed two U.S. service members and an American interpreter Dec. 13, 2025, in Palmyra, Syria.
Fox News Digital’s Ashley J. DiMella contributed to this report.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said Israeli attacks have killed 2,951 people since March 2 with at least 8,988 wounded.
Published On 16 May 2026
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