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Mother of Israeli hostage begs Trump, Netanyahu to bring son home before ceasefire collapses: 'No more time'

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Mother of Israeli hostage begs Trump, Netanyahu to bring son home before ceasefire collapses: 'No more time'

Idit Ohel, the mother of Israeli hostage Alon Ohel, urgently pleaded for President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure the release of the remaining Oct. 7 captives held by Hamas amid fears the current ceasefire deal is disintegrating.

“They have no more time. And please don’t go back to war. Please. Because if that happens, if we go back to war, the hostages could die. The hostages that are alive could die,” she told Fox News Digital. “That’s what happened last time. Last time we saw that after the hostages came out and war started, so many hostages died and were murdered by Hamas. So we cannot let this happen. Please do everything in your power and do something for my son. He’s in the tunnels. He’s crying for help.” 

Idit Ohel said she received confirmation that her son is still alive from released hostages Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, two of the three gaunt, frail-looking Israelis forced to speak Saturday during a Hamas hand-over ceremony in Gaza. 

The mother said the released hostages, who were held with her son for part of their nearly 500 days in captivity, told her that Alon Ohel is unable to see out of an eye after being struck by shrapnel when Hamas was closing in on Oct. 7, 2023. Alon Ohel, a civilian, was attending the Nova music festival when terrorists attacked, and he took cover in a bomb shelter. Hamas pounded the shelter with grenades and gunfire, and he “was taken, wounded, with blood all over him,” Idit Ohel said. 

ISRAEL SLAMS PALESTINIAN ‘DECEPTION SCHEME’ OVER CLAIM IT HALTED TERROR REWARDS PROGRAM

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A placard of Alon Ohel seen during a rally marking his 24th birthday in Tel Aviv. (Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Alon Ohel’s ancestors survived the Holocaust, including his great-grandfather who weighed just 30 kilos [about 66 pounds] when he was released from the Auschwitz concentration camp, Idit Ohel said. “So if he was alive today, he would probably die instantly just knowing that his great-grandson in the year of 2025 is starving,” she said. “Alon has these genes. So he’s fighting. He’s fighting for his life every day.” 

Under the deal, another three hostages were due to be released by next Saturday, but Hamas said Monday that the group would not let them go, accusing Israel of violating terms of the ceasefire agreement. 

Concerns that fighting will resume are rising. Trump has since said that Hamas must release all remaining 76 hostages by noon Saturday, or he would demand the ceasefire deal be canceled and “let all hell break out.” Netanyahu backed the demand. 

Israeli media is reporting that Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is being dispatched to Israel and Qatar this week to prevent the ceasefire deal from unraveling. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected in Israel on Saturday. 

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To Trump and Netayanhu directly, Idit Ohel said, “Do something and bring them home. Please. Please.” 

Idit Ohel speaks to the crowd during a Tel Aviv rally marking the 24th Birthday of her son Alon Ohel who is held hostage by Hamas. (Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“Give him a chance. It’s unbearable. Something has to change. You have to do everything in your power to bring him home to me, to his family,” she said. “There’s still hostages alive. There’s still hostages alive. Please. Please, do something.” 

Idit Ohel said she learned her son is being held in tunnels without medical attention and little food and has been “tortured, chained and starved.” 

“It’s not humane. There’s so much food getting into Gaza, and he’s not getting any of it,” she said.

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HAMAS SAYS IT’S DELAYING NEXT HOSTAGE RELEASE, CLAIMING CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS

“Alon, right now as we speak, is still being not fed, sleeping on the floor, being chained, constrained. So he cannot move for 494 days,” Idit Ohel said. “My son is important. My son is only an innocent civilian. He went to the Nova festival to have fun. He’s a pianist. He loves music. He did nothing wrong to nobody. We need to get him out now. He cannot continue. This is humanitarian.” 

Days before Trump took office, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement. Former President Joe Biden said at the time that the first phase involved a “surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza” – something Idit Ohel stressed her son is not getting. 

She said the International Committee of the Red Cross “have never seen Alon and have never seen any of the hostages – [he] didn’t get any treatment.” 

Israelis stand under placards with photos of hostages during a rally in Tel Aviv marking the 24th Birthday of Alon Ohel, who is held by Hamas in Gaza.  (Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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“Where is he? Why is he not coming?” Idit Ohel added. “I do not understand it. I will never understand it. This is wrong. This is not moral.” 

Ohel rallied thousands in Tel Aviv over the weekend on her son’s 24th birthday – the second birthday he has spent in captivity since the Oct. 7 attacks. 

“I wanted to say happy birthday to my son. I couldn’t even talk [to him] and see and hear his voice,” she said. “When I heard about his condition, I fainted … I haven’t been sleeping for days … I cannot control what Hamas is doing to my son.” 

“Every mother in this world. Think just for a second. If there’s one night that your son or daughter doesn’t eat, you can’t even live with yourself,” Ohel added. “My son has not been getting food for 494 days.”

The mother also delivered a message directly to her son. 

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“If you’re listening to me, you know I love you and your father loves you. And we’re doing everything in our power to make sure that you’re home alive. You’re coming home. And there’s so many people all over the world and in Israel that are with you and are praying for you,” Ohel said, asking fellow musicians to play songs in her son’s honor in the coming days. “And you are not alone, Alon. You are not alone.” 

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Stocks fall and oil prices gain after Trump warns the Iran ‘clock is ticking’

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Stocks fall and oil prices gain after Trump warns the Iran ‘clock is ticking’

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks mostly retreated and oil prices jumped on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Tehran that the “clock is ticking” as U.S.-Iran negotiations over a permanent end to the war stall.

U.S. futures fell and markets in Japan and South Korea pulled further back from their records. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1% to 60,815.95, a decline led by technology-related stocks. It reached all-time intraday high levels last week above 63,000.

The yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond surged to as high as 2.8%, its highest level since the late 1990s, part of a shift toward higher yields as the Bank of Japan gradually raises interest rates and higher energy costs raise expectations of rising inflation. That’s up from around 2.55% just one week ago.

Seoul’s Kospi climbed 0.3% to 7,516.04 after trading lower earlier in the day. It crossed the 8,000 mark for the first time on Friday, supported by buying of technology shares driven by the boom in artificial intelligence, but later declined partly on profit-taking by investors.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.4% to 25,596.68. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% lower to 4,131.53, after China reported weaker-than-expected retail data for April.

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Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.5% to 8,505.30.

Taiwan’s Taiex dropped 0.7%, while India’s Sensex fell 0.1%.

Oil prices rose after Trump warned Iran in a social media post that “the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them” following a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump has set deadlines for Iran and then backed off, so investors have remained cautious about the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and how it is impacting global energy flows, including oil and gas. The strait is still mostly closed, and the U.S. has also imposed its own sea blockade on Iranian ports since last month.

A drone strike over the weekend on a United Arab Emirates’ nuclear power plant added to worries over a potential escalation in the conflict.

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Brent crude, the international standard, gained 0.7% to $110.02 per barrel. It was trading at roughly $70 a barrel in late February before the start of the Iran war. Benchmark U.S. crude was trading 0.8% higher to $106.31 per barrel.

“Re-escalation risks are increasing,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a research note. While there has also been a pick up on shipping activities over the past week around the strait, they said, “this can change quickly.”

The pair also noted that the oil market was reacting to the lack of tangible results on the Iran war after last week’s widely-watched summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, even as the White House said both the U.S. and China had agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open.

U.S. officials had hoped that Beijing could use its influence, given its economic ties with Iran, to help broker a peace agreement and reopen the strait. Trump said last week in an interview that Xi told him China “would like to be of help” in negotiating an end to the war. So far it’s been unclear how Beijing might do that.

The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury was at around 4.60%, up from 4.47% last Thursday and sharply higher than the nearly 4% level it was holding at before the Iran war.

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On Friday, the benchmark S&P 500 dropped 1.2% from the record it set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite lost 1.5%.

In other dealings early Monday, the U.S. dollar rose to 158.86 Japanese yen from 158.62 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1635, up from $1.1622.

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Canada confirms hantavirus case linked to cruise ship outbreak that has killed three passengers

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Canada confirms hantavirus case linked to cruise ship outbreak that has killed three passengers

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Canadian health officials on Sunday confirmed that one of four Canadians who returned from the MV Hondius cruise ship, the subject of an international Andes hantavirus outbreak, tested positive for hantavirus. Three people connected to the outbreak have died.

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The Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed the positive test after British Columbia’s top public health officer previously described the case as a “presumptive positive.”

“One individual’s sample was confirmed positive for hantavirus,” the agency said in a statement.

Officials said additional testing will be conducted at a national laboratory. It was not immediately clear whether that testing was for confirmation, strain characterization or another purpose.

CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER DESCRIBES UNCERTAINTY AFTER 3 DEATHS AMID HANTAVIRUS PROBE

Experts say cruise outbreaks get more attention due to public reporting rules, but many travelers still plan to sail as booked. (Myloupe/Universal Images Group)

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The development comes as global health officials continue monitoring the rare hantavirus outbreak tied to the MV Hondius, which has sickened multiple passengers.

As of May 13, the World Health Organization said 11 cases had been identified in connection with the cruise outbreak, including eight confirmed cases, two probable cases and one inconclusive case. Those figures included three deaths. The Associated Press later reported that the Canadian confirmation brought the number of people from the ship who had tested positive to 10.

Canadian health officials said four Canadians returned home from the MV Hondius, though only one has tested positive for the virus.

RARE HANTAVIRUS HUMAN-TO-HUMAN TRANSMISSION SUSPECTED ON LUXURY CRUISE SHIP WHERE 3 HAVE DIED

The rare Andes virus, which was linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, is the only known hantavirus strain that has the capability to spread from person to person, usually through prolonged close contact. (Andres Gutierrez/Anadolu)

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The confirmed patient and a traveling companion — identified as a Yukon couple in their 70s — returned from the cruise together. The companion later tested negative, officials said.

A third person in their 70s from Vancouver Island remains in isolation, along with a British Columbia resident in their 50s.

So far, no confirmed U.S. cases tied to the cruise ship have been reported, though WHO said as of May 13 that one U.S.-repatriated passenger had inconclusive laboratory results and was undergoing retesting.

HANTAVIRUS DEATHS ON CRUISE SHIP HIGHLIGHT DANGERS OF RODENT-BORNE DISEASE

Pictured is the MV Hondius, the cruise ship tied to a hantavirus outbreak after a stop in Argentina that left three passengers dead. (Europa Press Canarias via Getty Images)

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Last week, however, health officials in Ontario County, New York, announced they were investigating a suspected locally acquired hantavirus case unrelated to the cruise ship.

The Ontario County Public Health Department said there was no risk to the general public. Officials also said the strain typically seen in the United States is not known to spread from person to person.

The outbreak linked to the MV Hondius began after the Dutch cruise ship, carrying 147 passengers and crew members, departed Argentina on April 1 for a South Atlantic voyage.

TRAPPED CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER SHARES UPDATE ON CLEANLINESS OF SHIP AMID DEADLY HANTAVIRUS OUTBREAK

The outbreak has prompted heightened precautions internationally, including in the Netherlands, where Radboud University Medical Center quarantined 12 staff members after officials said a hantavirus patient’s blood and urine were not handled under the strictest protocols recommended for the virus strain.

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The outbreak has also sparked comparisons to the coronavirus pandemic. However, Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel previously told Fox News Digital there is “no comparison.”

He noted hantavirus is difficult to spread.

Passengers evacuated from the hantavirus-stricken Hondius cruise ship walk with their belongings after disembarking at Eindhoven Air Base, Netherlands, on May 12. (Piroschka van de Wouw)

“It’s not airborne … in terms of respiratory droplets hanging in the air,” he said. “It’s very difficult to transmit.”

While coronavirus “moved in the direction of humans in a significant way,” hantavirus has not, except for “very rare” cases of human-to-human transmission, he added.

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The World Health Organization has assessed the risk to the global population as low, while noting that current evidence suggests subsequent human-to-human transmission may have occurred on board. Andes virus is the only hantavirus known to have documented person-to-person transmission, though such spread is considered rare.

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Siegel also noted hantavirus cases have been reported in the United States for decades, though they remain “very rare.”

Fox News Digital’s Brittany Miller and Angelica Stabile, along with The Associated Press, contributed to this report.

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Moment of collision between two Navy jets at Idaho air show

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Moment of collision between two Navy jets at Idaho air show
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Two US Navy jets collided during an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, sending both aircraft crashing to the ground in front of spectators. All four crew members ejected safely before impact.

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