Israeli forces strike Islamic Jihad stronghold in Gaza, kill Hamas terrorists in school

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Ron DeSantis' move to shut down pro-Palestinian campus groups is receiving pushback both from civil libertarian groups and at least one 2024 presidential hopeful.

Earlier this week, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the Florida governor's administration arguing its demand for public universities to "deactivate" local Students for Justice in Palestine chapters is an attempt to "stifle" student speech protected by the First Amendment.

A spokesperson for the governor stood by DeSantis’ decision in light of the lawsuit, saying he was right "to disband a group that provides material support to a terrorist organization."

But a DeSantis’ rival for the Oval Office, Vivek Ramaswamy, slammed the order as "utter hypocrisy," while a libertarian-leaning group that fights for free speech on college campuses is also weighing in critically of the move.

"Free speech doesn’t just protect the ideas we love. It protects the ideas we hate," Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital in a statement.

"The idiotic college ‘pro-Palestine’ student groups are dead wrong to excuse genocidal attacks against Jews and spout disgusting antisemitism, but one of the things that makes us different from Islamic terrorists is we don’t silence dissent," he said.

Fox News'  Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.

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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unleashed a fiery response to Biden administration officials who signed on to a dissent letter over President Biden’s pro-Israel stance in its fight against Hamas terrorists — with the former top diplomat saying their moral compass "is broken."

"People who serve our country in any government institution, whether in the military or the State Department, swear allegiance to the United States and should commit to the mission of the President — elected by the American people — and his Administration," Pompeo said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "If they are unable or refuse to do so, they should resign or face termination."

Hundreds of government officials from 40 departments and agencies within the administration signed an anonymous letter demanding a "cease-fire" and opposing the president’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

"We call on President Biden to urgently demand a cease-fire; and to call for de-escalation of the current conflict by securing the immediate release of the Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians; the restoration of water, fuel, electricity and other basic services; and the passage of adequate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip," the letter reads, in part.

Biden and others have argued that a cease-fire would only benefit Hamas, who launched a brutal terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, in which militants murdered over 1,000 Israeli civilians. The administration has pushed for humanitarian pauses in fighting, which Israel has carried out.

Pompeo said the dissent was a problem that plagued him during his time in office "when hundreds of State Department employees worked to subvert the mission of the Trump administration."

Fox News' Adam Shaw and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released video on Friday showing what it says is a stash of mortar bombs hidden in the vicinity of a kindergarten classroom.

The short video shows a damaged kindergarten classroom and then pans into a small storage area, revealing a pile of mortar shells.

An IDF spokesman said the mortar shells and other weapons were recovered by soldiers in schools inside the Gaza Strip.

Additionally, IDF troops also found numerous Hamas weapons hidden in the Al-Karmel elementary school, the IDF said. Those weapons are understood to consist of rocket-propelled grenades and other military equipment.

U.S. and Israeli officials have said the Hamas terrorist organization uses civilian infrastructure like schools, homes and hospitals as cover for its military activities.

The IDF also released an image of a stockpile of weaponry and ammunition it says were seized from the Al-Quds Hospital, located in the Tel al-Hawa area of Gaza City. The IDF says terrorists are using tunnels beneath hospitals to conduct its operations.

Fox News' Michael Dorgan, Chris Pandolfo and Greg Norman contributed to this report.

Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

City officials in the birthplace of Jesus Christ are tearing down Christmas decorations in solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel's continued invasion of Gaza.

Bethlehem, an ancient city located in the West Bank, declared via social media and official spokespeople that decorations installed in previous years are being removed amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

"Bethlehem Municipality crews announced the dismantling of Christmas decorations installed several years ago in the city's neighborhoods and removing all festive appearances in honor of the martyrs and in solidarity with our people in Gaza," the city wrote on Facebook, according to the Jerusalem Post.

A city spokesperson also acknowledged the campaign to remove Christmas decorations in a statement to the Telegraph.

"The reason is the general situation in Palestine; people are not really into any celebration, they are sad, angry and upset; our people in Gaza are being massacred and killed in cold blood," the spokesman said, according to the outlet.

They added, "Therefore, it is not appropriate at all to have such festivities while there is a massacre happening in Gaza and attacks in the West Bank."

Fox News' Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters on the campus of University of Michigan forced their way into an administrative building as footage emerged on social media depicting the chaotic scene Friday.

"Late this afternoon, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters forcefully gained access to a locked Ruthven Administration Building. An estimated 200 protesters entered the building," a spokesperson for the university confirmed to FOX News Digital on Friday. "U-M Police report building occupants have safely left the building and officers are working to restore order to the building. We will provide further updates as the situation evolves."

The spokesperson confirmed that protesters remained in the Ruthven Administration Building going into the evening as police attempted to control the scene. The building holds the office of University of Michigan's president.

Images shared on social media by independent journalist Brendan Gutenschwager show campus staff and a campus police officer blocking the doors into the building until a protester opened the door from the inside, allowing others to flood in.

The officer is seen struggling to block entry into the building as the protesters force their way past him. The protesters can be heard chanting, "No justice, no peace!"

Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

A large number of pro-Palestinian protesters could be seen outside New York City's Penn Station on Friday night.

At one point, two people could be seen getting on an elevated part of the Penn Station building, waving a Palestinian flag.

According to the New York Post, the Long Island Rail Road warned commuters that the protests could cause delays.

"Israel is a terror state," the crowd could be heard chanting.

Actress Susan Sarandon speaks at a pro-Palestine rally at Union Square. (Stephen Yang for Fox News Digital)

Actress Susan Sarandon spoke at a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on Friday evening.

Sarandon has been outspoken about the Israel-Hamas war, and has attended several protests.

"You don’t have to be Palestinian to care about what’s happening in Gaza. I stand with Palestine. No one is free until everyone is free," Sarandon wrote in a social media post on Nov. 4.

A New York City Jewish bakery was vandalized on Friday afternoon, after someone spray-painted "Free Gaza" on the window, before smashing a window at a nearby bank.

The graffiti on the front window of Breads Bakery near Sixth Avenue and 49th Street appeared in bright-orange lettering.

Additional photos show a man sweeping up broken glass in front of the Simon & Schuster building, where another window, this time belonging to the First Republic Bank, appeared to have been smashed.

The vandals struck before several pro-Palestinian protests were expected to take place in the Big Apple.

The graffiti also reminded those passing by of the rising antisemitism in New York City, as well as around the world.

On Thursday, pro-Palestinian protesters blocked traffic on bridges in Boston and San Francisco during rush hour, calling for a cease-fire in Gaza as Israel continues to target Hamas leadership more than a month after the militant group invaded Israel and slaughtered civilians.

The protest slowed traffic to a trickle on a bridge connecting Boston to Cambridge, and people in the group were seen holding signs that read, "Let Gaza Live," before unfurling a banner across the roadway that read, "Jews say: Ceasefire now."

The night before, a violent protest of pro-Palestinian supporters erupted outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., with demonstrators growing violent as they called for an immediate cease-fire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Fox News' Greg Wehner contributed to this update.

Pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the main entrance to Union Station in Washington, D.C. on Friday night.

Hundreds of people were seen at the protest, chanting "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," and "Ceasefire now."

The group of protesters also chanted "we want '48"--referring to the Middle East's map before the United Nations formed Israel. A protester using the phrase during a previous demonstration in Atlanta, Georgia, told the Atlanta Jewish Times that the chant expresses opposition to a two state agreement.

D.C.'s metro system temporarily bypassed Union Station because of the protest, and Amtrak told customers to allow extra time to inside.

The protest comes at the same time as a massive demonstration is also happening at Penn Station in New York City.

Protesters were seen climbing onto the building and waving the Palestinian flag.

Fox News Digital's Brooke Curto contributed to this update.

Arizona State University canceled an event originally scheduled for Friday afternoon where Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., was set to speak.

The event, "Palestine is an American issue," was scheduled for Friday at 4 p.m. and organized by the Arizona Palestine Network, which isn't a university-affiliated organization.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, an ASU spokesperson said the event didn't follow its policies and procedures.

"Organizers of events using ASU facilities must be properly registered with ASU and must meet all university requirements for crowd management, parking, security, and insurance. In addition, the events must be produced in a way which minimizes disruption to academic and other activities on campus. The event featuring Congresswoman Tlaib was planned and produced by groups not affiliated with ASU and was organized outside of ASU policies and procedures. Accordingly, that event will not take place today on the ASU Tempe campus," the spokesperson said.

In response, the Arizona Palestine Network wrote on Facebook urging its supporters to call and email the school's president to express how the cancellation is "completely unacceptable."

"Rashida Tlaib must be heard on campus as the only Palestinian member of Congress who plans to speak on an American issue at this event. ASU cannot claim to hold free speech as a principle while denying Palestinians their voices on campus. Cancelling this event puts the university in direct contradiction with its charter as a university 'measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed,'" the group wrote.

British actor Sacha Baron Cohen attends a reception for the Kennedy Center Honorees in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on December 4, 2022. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen blasted social media platform TikTok for “creating the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis,” according to The New York Times.

More than a dozen Jewish celebrities and content creators, including Cohen, Debra Messing and Amy Schumer, participated in a 90 minute with TikTok’s head of operations, Adam Presser, and global head of user operations, Seth Melnick.

“What is happening at TikTok is it is creating the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis,” Cohen told the platform’s representatives during the meeting, of which the Times obtained a recording.

“If you think back to Oct. 7, the reason why Hamas were able to behead young people and rape women was they were fed images from when they were small kids that led them to hate,” Cohen said, accusing TikTok of allowing young people access to similarly explosive content.

“Shame on you,” he said, arguing that TikTok could “flip a switch” to fix the issue. Cohen claimed that social media could do more to combat the rising and rampant antisemitism, and the representatives, who are themselves Jewish, agreed.

“Obviously, a lot of what Sascha says, there’s truth to that,” Presser said, noting, however, that there is no “magic button” to deal with all of the concerns raised.

The platform has come under increased scrutiny after several users started urging their peers to read Usama Bin Laden’s “Letter to America,” which he used to justify his attack on Sept. 11, 2001.

TikTok said it has “proactively and aggressively” worked to remove any content promoting the letter and “investigating how it got onto our platform.”

Rep. Dan Goldman's office in Brooklyn, New York (Courtesy: Rep. Dan Goldman's comms team)

Anti-Israel protesters defaced the office Rep. Dan Goldman, D-NY, overnight Thursday, spray-painting “Free Palestine,” “Let Gaza Live” and “Blood on ur hands” on the office and the sidewalk in front of it.

“This is what Rep. Dan Goldman & staff confronted when they showed up to work today,” Brooklyn Democratic District Leader Douglas m. Schneider posted on social media platform X. “It is a direct result of his speaking out against antisemitism & supporting Israel’s right to self-defense.”

“Defacing his office is not a form of protest, it is a deplorable crime,” Schneider added.

Simone Kanter, Goldman’s comms director, told Fox News Digital that the office is accessible 24/7 “by appointment, phone, social media, email or mail” as the constituent services team “works around the clock to respond to outreach.”

“Harassing, intimidating, and outright attacking the staff of a Jewish elected official at a time of rising violence and rampant antisemitism is dangerous and unacceptable,” Kanter stressed.

Watch above: What is the ICC and how does it function?

The International Criminal Court is collecting evidence on alleged crimes committed during the Israel-Hamas war.

Prosecutor Karim Khan says that his office has received "a significant volume of information and evidence" about alleged crimes committed during the Israel-Hamas war, the Associated Press reported.

He made the comment in a written statement Friday confirming that South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros, and Djibouti had made official state referrals to the court about the “Situation in the State of Palestine,” which his office has been investigating since March 2021. South Africa announced the referral on Thursday.

The ICC has been investigating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the last major flare up of violence in 2014.

Khan says his prosecution office “will continue its engagement with all relevant actors, whether national authorities, civil society, survivor groups or international partners, to advance this investigation.”

He adds he will "continue my efforts to visit the State of Palestine and Israel in order to meet with survivors, hear from civil society organisations and engage with relevant national counterparts.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Israel's national security adviser explained the decision to permit fuel deliveries in Gaza at a press conference on Friday.

Tzachi Hanegbi said a "very minimal" amount of fuel would be allowed into Gaza to power the territory's communications system and water and sewage services. He said the decision was made to prevent the spread of disease and would be accomplished without an interruption to the military's offensive.

"We don’t want diseases that could harm the civilians who are there and our forces. If there are diseases, the fighting would be halted. We cannot continue fighting in the event of a humanitarian crisis or an international outcry,” Hanegbi said.

Hanegbi said the fuel amounted to roughly 2% to 4% of the normal quantities of fuel that entered Gaza before the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7.

The office of Israeli lawmaker and former defense minister Benny Gantz, a member of the three-person War Cabinet, said the agreement would allow 60,000 liters (15,850 gallons) of fuel to enter Gaza over the next 48 hours.

Hanegbi revealed the United States made a special request to Israel to permit two fuel tankers into Gaza per day.

The Israeli war cabinet agreed to the request on the recommendations of the military and Shin Bet internal security agency. 

Fox News' Dvora Olinsky and the Associated Press contributed to this update.

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan launched into a heated argument with Israeli official Mark Regev, an advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, live on his show Thursday.

Hasan accused the Israeli government of killing children and of spreading propaganda and false information in the wake of the Israeli-Hamas war. 

"They’re dead, Mark," Hasan said, arguing that he has seen Palestinian children "with my own lying eyes being pulled from the rubble" from bombings. "But they’re also people your government has killed. You accept that, right? You’ve killed children? Or do you deny that?"

"No, I do not," Regev responded. "I do not. I do not. First of all, you don’t know how those people died, those children."

"Oh wow," Hasan said in return.

Hasan also claimed that the Israeli government was peddling "disinformation" in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israeli, American and other citizens. 

"I agree with you. We shouldn't blindly believe anything Hamas says," he said. "But why should we believe what your government says either? Your military spokesman on Monday pointed to an Arabic document in the basement of a Gaza hospital and claimed it was a guardian list on which every terrorist writes his name. But that was false."  

Fox News Digital's Jeffrey Clark contributed to this update.

Watch above: Sen. Ted Cruz addresses antisemitism on college campuses: 'This is the Wuhan lab of the woke virus'

The Biden administration launched an investigation late Thursday into six top U.S. universities and one local school district over alleged antisemitic and anti-Muslim discrimination.

The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights said in an announcement that five of the complaints launched Thursday evening allege antisemitic harassment while the other two allege anti-Muslim harassment. The list of schools include three Ivy League colleges — University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and Cornell University — in addition to Lafayette College, Wellesley College, Cooper Union and the Maize Unified School District in Kansas.

"Hate has no place in our schools, period," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. "When students are targeted because they are — or are perceived to be — Jewish, Muslim, Arab, Sikh, or any other ethnicity or shared ancestry, schools must act to ensure safe and inclusive educational environments where everyone is free to learn." 

"These investigations underscore how seriously the Biden-Harris Administration, including the U.S. Department of Education, takes our responsibility to protect students from hatred and discrimination," Cardona continued.

Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon added that the agency recognizes the "fear students and school communities experience as hate proliferates in schools."

Fox News Digital's Thomas Catenacci contributed to this update.

The Israel Defense Forces released video of its Arrow 3 air defense system launching to intercept a missile fired in the Red Sea region. 

The IDF announced the first Arrow 3's successful operational interception on Nov. 9, when it shot down a ground missile fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen. The historic launch of this exo-atmospheric missile is the first time wartime combat has taken place in space. 

The Arrow-3 Interceptor missile was developed in a joint venture by the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA). It is the most sophisticated of Israel's air defenses, designed to target incoming ballistic missiles. 

In August, Israel announced the sale of its Arrow 3 system to Germany for $3.5 billion in a U.S.-approved deal. Israel sought approval for the deal from the U.S. State Department because the system was jointly developed by the two countries. Israeli defense officials said the system would extend Germany’s defense capability while strengthening the defense relationship between Israel and the United States.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Watch above: The New York Times has a 'serious Jewish problem': Alex Safian

The Los Angeles Times is preventing employees who signed onto a letter highly critical of Israel and western media coverage from reporting on the Israel-Hamas war "for at least three months," per a recent Semafor report. 

More than 1,200 current and former journalists have signed onto a public letter from Nov. 9 condemning "Israel's killing of journalists in Gaza" and calling for "integrity in Western media coverage of Israel's atrocities against Palestinians." 

"As reporters, editors, photographers, producers, and other workers in newsrooms around the world, we are appalled at the slaughter of our colleagues and their families by the Israeli military and government," the letter reads. 

"We also hold Western newsrooms accountable for dehumanizing rhetoric that has served to justify ethnic cleansing of Palestinians," the letter continues. "Yet the call for fair coverage has gone unanswered. Newsrooms have instead undermined Palestinian, Arab and Muslim perspectives, dismissing them as unreliable and have invoked inflammatory language that reinforces Islamophobic and racist tropes."

But some journalists who signed their names to the letter are facing repercussions back in their newsrooms.

"Two people with knowledge of the situation told Semafor that staffers who signed the letter have been told by the paper’s management that they will not be allowed to cover the conflict in any way for at least three months," Semafor reported. 

The Times did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. Fifteen of the signers of the letter list the Los Angeles Times by their names.

Fox News Digital's Jeffrey Clark contributed to this update.

New York Times Magazine poetry editor Anne Boyer resigned in protest of Israel's "US-backed war against the people of Gaza." (Screenshot/UChicago Division of the Humanities)

New York Times Magazine's poetry editor dramatically resigned Thursday in protest of what she calls Israel's "U.S-backed war against the people of Gaza."

"I have resigned as poetry editor of The New York Times Magazine," Anne Boyer announced in a Substack post. "The Israeli state's U.S-backed war against the people of Gaza is not a war for anyone. There is no safety in it or from it, not for Israel, not for the United States or Europe, and especially not for the many Jewish people slandered by those who claim falsely to fight in their names. Its only profit is the deadly profit of oil interests and weapon manufacturers."

While her letter makes no mention of Hamas nor the 1,200 Israelis the terrorist group murdered on Oct. 7, Boyer said Palestinians "have resisted through decades of occupation, forced dislocation, deprivation, surveillance, siege, imprisonment, and torture."

"Because our status quo is self-expression, sometimes the most effective mode of protest for artists is to refuse," Boyer told readers. "I can’t write about poetry amidst the ‘reasonable’ tones of those who aim to acclimatize us to this unreasonable suffering. No more ghoulish euphemisms. No more verbally sanitized hellscapes. No more warmongering lies."

"If this resignation leaves a hole in the news the size of poetry, then that is the true shape of the present," she added. 

The New York Times did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. 

Fox News Digital's Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this update.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said in an interview that his country has been "not successful" in minimizing civilian casualties inside the Gaza Strip. 

Netanyahu, speaking to CBS News, said "any civilian death is a tragedy" and that "we shouldn't have any because we're doing everything we can to get the civilians out of harm's way, while Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm's way. 

"So we send leaflets, we call them on their cell phones, and we say: 'leave'. And many have left," Netanyahu said. "But Hamas tried to stop them at gunpoint and fired at the safe corridors that we provided for the Palestinians. So they don't give a hoot about the Palestinians." 

"The other thing that I can say is that we'll try to finish that job with minimal civilian casualties," Netanyahu added. "That's what we're trying to do, minimal civilian casualties. But unfortunately, we're not successful." 

The Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Health says more than 11,000 civilians have been killed so far in Gaza since the onset of the Oct. 7 war. Hamas also has killed more than 1,200 Israelis and has taken around 240 people captive. 

Fox News Digital's Greg Norman contributed to this update.

A banner reading "Palestinians Should Be Free" is seen as people demonstrate calling for a cease-fire amid war between Israel and Hamas, at Grand Central Station in New York City on Oct. 27, 2023. (KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images)

A pro-Palestinian group posted a picture of multiple locations around New York City it alleges are associated with the "genocide" in Gaza.

The group, Within Our Lifetime, posted the map which was later deleted, with a headline of "From Palestine to NYC. Globalize the Intifada," according to the New York Post. The map stated that the locations were considered zones "of direct action."

"Each of the sites on this map is tied to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the settler-colonization of Palestine. They reflect a network of dispossession, policing, prisons, surveillance, counterinsurgency, war, destruction, imperialism and militarization across the globe, with the mass media complex which manufactures consent for genocide acting as tools of the oppressor. These sites are also multi-purpose assets for some of the system's most powerful perpetrators of violence. May this map serve as a call for every struggle to act in their own interest. As we do so, we uplift one another's struggles and free Palestine from the river to the sea," the map reads.

Among the locations on the map are NBC News Studios, Fox Corp., where Fox News and the New York Post are located, New York Times, Defense Logistics Agency, Meta, and more.

The group describes itself as a "Palestinian-led community organization" with 121,000 followers on Instagram.

Fox News Digital's Adam Sabes contributed to this update.

A truck carrying fuel crosses into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 15, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. Fuel that entered Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing on November 15, was "not at all enough", the United Nations agency for supporting Palestinian refugees said. (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel has reportedly agreed to permit two fuel trucks per day to enter Gaza as requested by U.N. aid agencies, the Times of Israel reports, citing an Israeli official.

The government made the decision based on recommendations from the Israeli military and internal security agency and at the request of U.S. officials, the report said.

Water and sewer systems trucks will also be permitted to enter Israel " “to enable the minimal maintenance necessary for water, sewer and sanitary systems to prevent pandemics that could spread to the entire area, hurting residents of the Strip as well as our own forces and potentially spreading into Israel as well," the official told the Times of Israel. 

The official said the action "will offer Israel the necessary diplomatic maneuvering room to eliminate Hamas.

Israel will monitor the delivery of fuel to Gaza to ensure it does not fall into terrorist hands, according to the report.

Israel has released new photos of what it claims to be a vast tunnel system beneath Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, that Hamas uses for its command center.

The IDF showed photos of weapons recovered from the hospital's radiology department, but the IDF has yet to release evidence of the headquarters they speak of, Fox News' Trey Yingst reported. The White House has confirmed Israeli allegations that Hamas has placed a base beneath Al-Shifa Hospital. 

The military earlier said soldiers found the body of a hostage taken in Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Thursday.

Israeli forces said they found Yehudit Weiss' body in a building adjacent to the Al-Shifa Hospital. The IDF did not offer any details about Weiss beyond her name, but noted that her family has been contacted.

Soldiers searching the building say they also found military equipment including Kalashnikov rifles and RPG's inside.

Weiss was one of roughly 240 people taken hostage by Hamas duirng its Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. She is now among a small number of hostages confirmed to have been killed since Israel's war on Hamas began.

Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom and Fox News' Trey Yingst and Dana Karni contributed to this update.

TOPSHOT - The silhouette of an Israeli soldier is outlined in the sky by a flare fired to search for a rocket that landed near Kibbutz Meitsar in the Israeli annexed Golan Heights, April 9, 2023. (Photo by JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images)

Syria's state news agency said the Israeli military carried out airstrikes that targeted several posts near its capital, Damascus, the Associated Press reported.

The strikes reportedly caused material damage but no casualties. 

Syrian media cited an unnamed military officials who said that Syrian air defenses shot down most of the missiles before they hit their targets early Friday. 

The Israel Defense Forces have not confirmed the report.

In the weeks since the latest war between Israel and Hamas broke out, Syria reported Israeli airstrikes that hit the international airports in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, damaging their runways and putting them out of service.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, including attacks on the Damascus and Aleppo airports, but rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.

U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria have weathered 59 attacks since Oct. 17 from Iran-backed terrorist groups in the region, the Pentagon has said.

The Associated Press contributed to this update.

An image released by the Israel Defense Forces shows weapons it said were found at the Al-Quds Hospital. (Israel Defense Forces)

Underground tunnels and weapons were discovered under three of the largest hospitals in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Tunnels were found at the Al-Shifa and Rantisi hospitals, the IDF said Friday.

Inside the Al-Quds Hospital, Israeli troops found a large amount of weaponry. An image released by the IDF shows rifles, radios, grenades and other military items in what appeared to be a hospital room.

The IDF also released video footage and images of the two unearthed tunnels.

The footage of the tunnel at Al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, shows a deep hole in the ground littered with concrete, wood rubble and sand. Israel says Hamas uses the hospitals for military purposes.

The terror group has accused the IDF of targeting hospitals with airstrikes, resulting in thousands of civilian casualties.

Emily Hand, who turns 9 years old on Friday, Nov. 17, is one of 32 children who were taken hostage by Hamas during its Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel. Her father, Thomas, was told early on that she had been killed. (Tom Hand via CNN)

Emily Hand, a young girl being held hostage by Hamas , will turn 9 years old on Friday "in the tunnels of Gaza," her grief-stricken father, Thomas Hand, told Fox News Digital in an interview this week in New York City.

"No party. No friends. She won’t even know if it’s day or night. There’s no light down there. So she won’t know it’s her birthday," Hand said.

Her birthday will be marked here in America with billboards that go on display in Times Square and Madison Square Garden in Manhattan at 8 a.m. on Friday. 

Emily was only 2½ years old when her own mother died of breast cancer and has been raised by her dad and others in their tightly knit kibbutz since then. She was at a sleepover at a friend’s house in the kibbutz of Be’eri in southern Israel when Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Even at nine, she is older than many of the hostages as he youngest was just 9 months old when snatched away as a trophy of terror. 

Thomas Hand’s suffering over the past 40 days has made international headlines. He was first told in the days after the terror attack that his little girl was dead and said in one interview that he welcomed it because it was better than her being held captive and tortured by Hamas.

Officials told Hand "in all probability she's in Gaza because there was no blood in the bomb shelter and there was no blood in the house that matched Emily's DNA," he said.

Fox News Digital's Kerry J. Byrne contributed to this report.

WATCH ABOVE: Fox News' Trey Yingst reports from southern Israel Friday at noon local time.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck an Islamic Jihad stronghold overnight Thursday during continued ground operations in Gaza.

Prior to the strike, troops raided and took over a stronghold belonging to the commander of the group's northern command area that contained senior terrorists' offices and a strategic weapons manufacturing site, according to IDF intelligence.

Israeli forces said they found heavy-weight rockets, unmanned aerial vehicles and additional weapons inside the post before the Israeli Air Force conducted a strike on it.

IDF troops also killed an undisclosed number of Hamas terrorists after entering a school in Gaza where they were hiding. "A large number of weapons" was also discovered inside the school, the IDF said.

Targeted raids continued in several areas of Gaza, revealing technological equipment, weapons caches, and additional weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles, explosive devices, grenade launchers, vests, RPGs, and anti-tank missile launchers.