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Hamas defends executions of Palestinians after Trump issues stern warning to terror group

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Hamas defends executions of Palestinians after Trump issues stern warning to terror group

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FIRST ON FOX: As a senior Hamas official defended the group’s crackdown on Palestinians in Gaza on Friday in an interview with Reuters, a Gazan lawyer in hiding from the terrorists warned that the killings of the group’s critics are continuing. 

In an exclusive interview from Gaza, Moumen Al-Natour, a lawyer, former Hamas political prisoner and president of Palestinian Youth for Development, said Hamas resurfaced from underground tunnels after the ceasefire. “After the fire stopped, Hamas fighters came out of the tunnels and massacred families that opposed them,” he said. “They are sending a signal that they are back — by terrorizing people.”

In defending the executions, the Hamas terrorist official, Mohammed Nazzal, told Reuters on Friday that there were always “exceptional measures” during the war and those executed were criminals guilty of killing.

HAMAS ACCEPTS TRUMP PEACE PLAN ENDING 2 YEARS OF WAR IN GAZA, RETURNING HOSTAGES

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A group of Hamas gunmen in Deir-el Balah in central Gaza as 20 living Israeli hostages were freed on Oct. 13, 2025. (Photos by TPS-IL)

On Thursday, President Donald Trump issued a warning on Truth Social after footage circulated online showing Hamas fighters executing Palestinians in Gaza City’s main square. “If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them,” he wrote.

According to Reuters, at least 33 people were executed by Hamas in recent days in what officials described as a campaign to “show strength” after the ceasefire. Israeli sources say most of those killed belonged to families accused of collaborating with Israel or supporting rival militias.

Al-Natour, the co-founder of the “We Want To Live Movement,” said several local militias are still resisting the group across Gaza. In Rafah, the Abu Shabab clan has drawn attention for recruiting fighters and resisting Hamas’s control. In Gaza City, the Doghmush clan has clashed repeatedly with Hamas terrorists. In Khan Younis, the Mujaida clan has also been involved in armed confrontations. 

Some members tied to the Hellis network in Gaza City are operating in neighborhoods under tension with Hamas. These factions do not hold stable territory, but their sporadic resistance — from raids to armed standoffs — signals the first cracks in Hamas’s grip.

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In this still from a verified social media video confirmed to Reuters by a Hamas source, seven men are forced to their knees and shot from behind by Hamas terrorists during public executions in Gaza on Oct. 14, 2025. (Reuters)

“These militias come from the population,” Al-Natour said. “They need recognition and coordination to form a political umbrella — a transitional body that governs these areas and organizes their security.”

BBC REPORT FINDS GAZA DOCUMENTARY NARRATED BY HAMAS TERRORIST’S SON BREACHED EDITORIAL STANDARDS

He said he and others are trying to operate under what he called Trump’s peace framework, forming safe zones inside Gaza where civilians unaffiliated with Hamas can access food, aid, and protection. “We can build a governing body in these zones,” he said. “But those of us who speak out are hunted. The people Hamas is killing now are just like me — Palestinians who dared to speak.”

Joseph Braude, president of the Center for Peace Communications, said Hamas is using the post-war lull to settle old scores. “It’s a dark time for Hamas’s many opponents in Gaza,” he told Fox News Digital. “They’re exploiting this moment to reassert dominance through brute force. They killed a pregnant woman about 18 hours ago. It is indiscriminate killing designed simply to sow fear in ordinary people”

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His organization released a video on X featuring an interview with a Gazan who described how Hamas killed a 5-year-old child as part of its campaign against opponents.

TRUMP UNVEILS 20-POINT PLAN TO SECURE PEACE IN GAZA, INCLUDING GRANTING SOME HAMAS MEMBERS ‘AMNESTY

Braude described Gaza’s reality as bifurcated. Reconstruction, he explained, could begin in the areas behind the yellow line — territory now under Israeli supervision — while fighting continues elsewhere. “This is the scenario envisioned in the 20-point plan,” he said. “Gazans opposed to Hamas, including those who have taken up arms in that struggle, can help form enclaves of self-rule that evolve into a transitional authority with international support.”

He predicted that a coalition of anti-Hamas militias, supported by air cover from Israel and possibly private contractors, will carry out the remaining ground battles. “There is no conceptual return to the pre-Oct. 7 approach,” he added.

A military parade of the Hamas terrorist organization before the transfer of four Israeli female hostages to the Red Cross on January 25th, 2025. (TPS-IL)

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Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at Tel Aviv University and a former IDF intelligence officer, said Hamas has seized the clans’ weapons and money, much of it originating from Israel, drawing parallels to Hezbollah’s takeover of southern Lebanon in 2000. “This leaves Israel in a dilemma,” he warned. “If the Israeli military ends up protecting these clans, we risk starting another war with Hamas. If we abandon them, we may have to absorb them later, like the allies we evacuated from Lebanon.”

He called the initiative “a tragic example of acting without understanding Gaza’s reality.”

Gazans who spoke anonymously to Fox News Digital described chaos and fear. One man said “gangs are in the streets” and warned that another internal war could erupt. Another said, “No one knows who will rule or what will happen next. We just want to live without bloodshed.”

Trump’s team has framed the Gaza ceasefire as the foundation for lasting peace. But with executions, clan wars, and new militias emerging, officials and residents alike say the post-war phase may test whether that peace can hold — or whether Gaza is entering yet another cycle of terror and revenge.

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 Reuters contributed to this report.

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‘Criminal Minds’ Star Paget Brewster Tells TV Journalist to ‘Work at a Shelter’ After Mixed Review, Sparking Outrage From Other Critics

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‘Criminal Minds’ Star Paget Brewster Tells TV Journalist to ‘Work at a Shelter’ After Mixed Review, Sparking Outrage From Other Critics

“Criminal Minds” star Paget Brewster lashed out at ScreenRant staffer Shealyn Scott over X on Saturday afternoon for her story lamenting the changes Paramount+ has brought to the long-running procedural drama.

“Hello critic Shealynn Scott,” Brewster wrote in the since-deleted post. “You’re young. You don’t know that bad pics and bad reviews can lead to 350 people losing their jobs. Sell vintage. Work at a shelter. Do something better than what you do now. Because right now you suck.”

Film and TV critics were quick to hit back in the replies. David Rooney, chief film critic at The Hollywood Reporter, wrote in his response to Brewster, “This is a very bad look. An actor on a long-running show attacking a young reviewer who contextualizes her respectful criticisms with obvious knowledge of the material — says way more about u being thin-skinned than it does about her professionalism. ‘Work at a shelter,’ really?!”

Senior ScreenRant writer Andy Behbakht also came to the defense of Scott, writing, “This is disgusting behavior on your part, and really tragic to see you tearing down a young female journalist whom you are literally telling that she ‘sucks’ and that she shouldn’t be in the field that she is in. I stand by my colleague, and you owe her an apology.”

Brewster released an apology for the post on Sunday. She wrote on X, “Hi guys, I was mean to Shealyn Scott last night and I profoundly regret it. Shame on me for insulting a human being for doing their job. I’m very sorry, Shealyn. And I’m sorry to those who follow me that you saw me behave like that. Turns out, last night, I sucked.”

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“Criminal Minds” premiered its 15th and final season on CBS in 2020, and then was revived for Paramount+ in 2022 under the title “Criminal Minds: Evolution.” Scott’s piece discussed the changes “Criminal Minds” underwent when it went from linear to streaming.

“From details as small as a ratings change to TV-MA— which allows David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) and Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) the occasional heated expletive— to new main cast members like Tyler Green (Ryan-James Hatanaka), there’s no doubt that ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ has its own unique identity,” Scott wrote in her story. “Plenty of the continuation’s changes have been received warmly, and ‘Criminal Minds’ unquestionably still works as a gripping crime drama, but there are just as many tweaks that feel more like downgrades— including the new 10-episode season structure. Though logical in theory, the shortened seasons are unfortunately working against ‘Criminal Minds’’ greatest strengths.”

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Meloni’s spat with Trump is calculated strategy to boost her approval ratings: expert

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Meloni’s spat with Trump is calculated strategy to boost her approval ratings: expert

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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s escalating feud with President Donald Trump is nothing but a calculated political strategy aimed at boosting her standing at home, a leading Italian political analyst told Fox News Digital on Sunday.

After the row between Trump and Meloni escalated on June 20, analysts also said the Italian leader may see little downside in confronting Trump, particularly as she faces declining approval ratings ahead of Italy’s 2027 general election.

The diplomatic dispute had reached a boiling point after Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced June 19 that he was scrapping a trip to Washington, where he had been scheduled to meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Giorgia Meloni must have calculated that a public row with Trump yields no tangible consequences, other than an increase in her domestic and international standing,” Mattia Diletti, a political science lecturer at Sapienza University of Rome, said.

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TRUMP SAYS MELONI ‘WANTS TO BE FRIENDS AGAIN’ AFTER ITALY REFUSED TO HELP US AMID IRAN WAR

Giorgia Meloni said President Trump’s statements were “completely made up” and that “neither I nor Italy ever beg.” (Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP via Getty Images; Bastien Ohier / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images))

Giovanni Orsina, a political scientist at Rome’s Luiss University, also told the Financial Times that the row would offer a “positive image” for Meloni and a “silver lining” to a confrontation she had “desperately tried to avoid.”

The friction between Trump and Meloni intensified after an interview broadcast by Italy’s La7 television network, where the president claimed she had asked for a photograph with him at the G7 summit and that he agreed only out of pity.

“She begged me to take a picture with her,” Trump said. “She wanted a picture with me so badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her.”

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RUBIO MEETS MELONI AS TRUMP–POPE CLASH CLASH ESCALATES US STRAINS WITH KEY EUROPEAN ALLY

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attends her annual press conference in Rome on Jan. 9, 2026, addressing government priorities and policy challenges for the year ahead. (Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)

Meloni fired back, releasing a video statement on X rejecting the president’s narrative.

“I am frankly stunned,” Meloni said in the video message. “I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his own allies. But there’s one thing he must remember: Neither I nor Italy ever beg.”

Trump doubled down on Truth Social and tied the row directly to Meloni’s political fortunes.

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“Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni asked, over and over, for a picture with me during the G7 meeting in France,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America… when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a nuclear weapon … She wouldn’t even let us use Italy’s landing strips or runways, a great logistical inconvenience … Now, after the United States defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to get her ‘numbers up.’ No thanks!!!”

Within hours, Meloni responded on social media: “As for my popularity, being your friend certainly has not helped it … My popularity depends on my ability to defend Italy’s national interest… In any case, my popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours.”

TRUMP ‘RIGHT TO BE OUTRAGED’ BY EUROPE’S BETRAYAL ON IRAN, SAYS FORMER THATCHER ADVISOR

Rubio will travel to Italy on Wednesday for meetings with Pope Leo and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. (Maria Grazia Picciarella/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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The back-and-forth marks a reversal for two leaders who once enjoyed a close political alignment.

When Meloni first came to power, she positioned herself as a bridge between Washington and Brussels while pushing ties with Trump based on shared nationalism and stances on immigration.

“Politically, Trump has favored Meloni,” Diletti noted, pointing out that she had previously visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in 2025. She was the only European Union leader to attend his second inauguration.

The cracks also appeared in April when Trump criticized Meloni for siding with Pope Leo XIV’s condemnation of the U.S. conflict with Iran.

On Sunday, Trump also criticized Italy and Giorgia Meloni over their approach to Iran, accusing the NATO ally of failing to help confront Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

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“As the 2027 Italian general election approaches, Meloni is facing a decline in approval ratings for the first time,” Diletti explained.

“The opportunity to counter a President so unpopular in Europe and Italy helps bolster her approval ratings and allows her to build European solidarity,” he claimed.

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Mourners gather to remember Lebanese conservationist killed by Israel

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Mourners gather to remember Lebanese conservationist killed by Israel

Renowned turtle conservationist Mona Khalil had been wounded in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon.

Mourners have gathered in Beirut to pay their respects to a much-loved Lebanese conservationist who died from wounds caused by an Israeli strike on her home on the country’s southern coast.

Mona Khalil, 77, who spent more than two decades protecting sea turtles along Lebanon’s coastline, was critically injured in the attack in the village of al-Mansouri in Tyre province on June 4 and succumbed to her wounds more than two weeks later, on Friday.

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News of her death triggered an outpouring of grief among environmentalists and those who volunteered and worked with her over the years, many of whom gathered in Beirut on Sunday.

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The Orange House Project, which Khalil helped build into a small conservation hub and ecotourism site in al-Mansouri, became a refuge for endangered loggerhead and green sea turtles and a training ground for volunteers documenting nesting activity along the coast.

Khalil was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1949. She held Dutch as well as Lebanese citizenship, having lived in the Netherlands before returning to Lebanon and settling in what had once been her grandmother’s home – the building that would later become known as the Orange House.

At the heart of Khalil’s work was a narrow stretch of coastline, al-Mansouri beach, where a fleeting encounter with a turtle that had emerged from the ocean to lay its eggs in 1999 propelled her on a lifelong journey devoted to animals.

Each nesting season, Khalil and volunteers would patrol the beach at night, marking fresh tracks in the sand and carefully relocating vulnerable nests away from human activity and coastal light pollution.

Journalist and environmental activist Fadia Jomaa first met Khalil in 2016 while researching sea turtles in Lebanon and then decided to volunteer with her project.

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During the previous war between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in 2024, Khalil initially refused to leave al-Mansouri beach, Jomaa said. The Lebanese army ultimately persuaded her to evacuate for her safety.

“She was the last one to leave the area,” Jomaa noted.

“She had an awful time in Beirut,” the journalist said, adding that Khalil longed to return to the south, to the Orange House and the beach she had spent years protecting.

“She used to say, ‘My soul will stay here,’” Jomaa said, recalling conversations in which Khalil would point to an olive tree or a small hill overlooking al-Mansouri beach. “She used to say, ‘This is where you will bury me.’”

Where Khalil will ultimately be buried remains uncertain and is tied to the security situation in the area, Jomaa said.

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