Matzav2 hours agoPresident Donald Trump pushed forward with the October 2025 hostage agreement between Israel and Hamas despite Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s belief that the terrorist organization had effectively rejected the American proposal, according to new details revealed Tuesday evening by Kan News, marking one year since the agreement that secured the return of the remaining hostages from Gaza.
The report describes how Trump repeatedly treated disputed developments in the negotiations as breakthroughs, including publicly announcing that an agreement had been reached before Israeli negotiators believed the final outstanding issues had been resolved.
According to an individual familiar with the negotiations, the first major disagreement emerged after Hamas submitted its response to Trump’s 20-point peace proposal.
Netanyahu reportedly examined the terrorist organization’s response and concluded that it amounted to a rejection of the American initiative. During private discussions, the prime minister declared that “there is nothing to talk about,” indicating that he believed Hamas had failed to accept the conditions necessary for an agreement.
Trump, however, adopted a dramatically different interpretation. Rather than treating the Hamas response as a refusal, the president publicly characterized it as an acceptance of his plan, effectively keeping the diplomatic process moving despite Netanyahu’s reservations.
That decision proved significant because it prevented the negotiations from collapsing over the initial response and placed additional pressure on the Israeli government to continue pursuing an agreement.
A second revealing incident reportedly occurred during the negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in October 2025, when senior representatives of the parties were still working through unresolved details.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, arrived at the talks and arranged for the president to address the participants by telephone.
According to a source who attended the meeting, Trump congratulated those involved, telling them “well done” for reaching an agreement.
The problem, according to the account, was that the negotiations had not yet concluded and the agreement had not been formally signed.
A senior Israeli official attempted to correct the president’s impression, explaining that significant work remained before the parties could finalize the arrangement.
“Wait, we still have work to do,” the official reportedly told Trump.
Nevertheless, Trump proceeded to issue a public announcement declaring that an agreement had been secured, even as negotiators continued working on the remaining details.
The agreement took effect in October 2025, culminating in the return of the remaining 20 living hostages on October 13. The arrangement also provided for the return of the remains of 28 deceased hostages, bringing the total number covered by the agreement to 48, alongside an Israeli military withdrawal to an agreed line in Gaza.
In his announcement on Truth Social, Trump declared that Israel and Hamas had accepted the first phase of his peace initiative, including the release of the hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli forces to designated positions.
The agreement brought an end to the major fighting that had followed the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023, and paved the way for Trump’s visit to Israel and the international peace summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025.
A year later, however, significant portions of the broader American peace initiative remain unresolved. Disagreements persist over the disarmament of Hamas, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from additional areas of Gaza, and the establishment of a postwar governing authority.
Israel has insisted that Hamas must surrender its weapons before further Israeli withdrawals can take place, while Hamas has demanded that Israel fulfill additional ceasefire commitments before it agrees to relinquish its military capabilities.
The anniversary was also marked Tuesday by the US State Department, which credited Trump’s diplomatic intervention with securing the return of all the hostages and establishing the foundations for a longer-term arrangement in Gaza.
In its anniversary statement, the department pointed to the establishment of the Board of Peace, the creation of a Palestinian technocratic administration, and plans for Gaza’s reconstruction, while acknowledging that implementation of the broader peace initiative remains a difficult, multiyear undertaking.
{Matzav.com}
Matzav1 hour agoA 42-year-old Georgia father and schoolteacher plunged to his death from a 200-foot roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia on Monday, with the horrifying incident reportedly captured by the ride’s souvenir cameras as stunned passengers watched him fall from his seat.
The victim, identified as Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, was riding the Goliath roller coaster alongside his son when he was apparently thrown from the ride during its final descent. His wife and daughter were watching from the ground when the tragedy unfolded at the amusement park in Austell, outside Atlanta.
Witnesses described scenes of panic as Kariem reportedly struck other passengers and parts of the coaster before falling to the ground near a haunted house attraction. Several riders said they were splattered with blood, while others described seeing images of the fatal incident displayed among the photographs ordinarily offered to guests as souvenirs.
“He’s in our Goliath pictures,” one shaken witness told Atlanta television station WXIA. “The picture that they take and that you keep.”
The coaster’s automated cameras apparently photographed the precise moment Kariem was thrown from his seat. Images circulating online appeared to show a passenger outside the ride’s seating area, although the authenticity of those pictures has not been independently established.
One woman who was aboard the coaster described how Kariem allegedly struck another passenger before falling.
“He hit a girl two rows in front of us on the Goliath ride right where the pictures are taken,” she told WXIA.
“His blood splattered over everybody, and his body fell behind one of the haunted attractions.”
Investigators have not yet established exactly how Kariem became separated from his seat or whether a malfunction involving the restraint system contributed to the fatal incident.
Fellow passenger Fred Sowemimo told NBC that Kariem’s safety restraint appeared to have come loose moments before he was ejected.
According to Sowemimo, the safety belt “dislodged” and “he flew out.”
He said the photographs taken by the ride’s cameras showed the victim outside his seat and coming into contact with another passenger.
“You can see images of the person out of the seat,” Sowemimo said. “You can see him on the girl on her row.”
The incident was so unexpected that some passengers initially struggled to understand what they were witnessing.
“We initially thought it was a prank,” said Sowemimo’s wife, Vanessa.
Another witness, Logan Conner, said he and his fiancée were close enough to see Kariem as he began to rise out of his seat.
The couple “made direct eye contact with him,” Conner recalled, describing how the passenger “started levitating in the air sideways.”
Other guests described the sudden transformation of an ordinary amusement park outing into a scene of terror.
“It went from having a great time to just screaming, ‘Oh my God, what is happening,’” one passenger recalled.
“You don’t see things like this happen. It should never happen,” said another woman who had been riding alongside her husband.
Cobb County police confirmed that the incident occurred at approximately 3:58 p.m. Monday. Officers assigned to the amusement park responded and discovered Kariem beneath the roller coaster, unconscious and not breathing.
The department’s Major Crimes Unit was summoned to investigate. Preliminary interviews with witnesses and park employees confirmed that Kariem had been ejected from the ride and struck other passengers before falling beneath the attraction.
Four additional people were reported injured in the incident. Authorities have not disclosed the severity of their injuries or whether they required hospitalization.
The Goliath roller coaster, which rises 200 feet above the ground and reaches speeds of approximately 70 miles per hour, is the tallest roller coaster in Georgia. The ride has operated at Six Flags Over Georgia since 2006.
Following the fatal accident, the attraction was immediately shut down, leaving passengers stranded on an elevated section of the track while emergency personnel worked to evacuate them.
Rescuers used an emergency stairway alongside the coaster to bring riders down in groups of four, a process captured by television news helicopters flying over the park.
Investigators from the Georgia Office of the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner have joined local police in examining the incident, including whether a mechanical defect, restraint-system failure, operator error or another factor contributed to Kariem’s death.
Some passengers have reported concerns about the ride’s restraints, including accounts of unusual clicking sounds before the accident. Authorities have not determined whether those observations were connected to the fatality.
The tragedy has prompted Six Flags Entertainment to temporarily suspend operations on nine similar roller coasters at six parks in the United States and Canada while safety reviews are conducted.
The closures include other attractions that share characteristics with Goliath, as the company and safety investigators assess whether the circumstances of the accident could present risks elsewhere.
The Swiss ride manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard, which designed Goliath, is also examining the incident.
Kariem worked at Wesley International Academy, an Atlanta charter school, where he served as an information technology manager. School officials remembered him as a valued member of their community whose death has deeply affected colleagues and students.
The fatal accident has also shaken the amusement park industry. Shares of Six Flags Entertainment fell sharply Tuesday, dropping to levels not seen since 2009 as investors reacted to the tragedy and the widespread ride closures.
Six Flags said it was cooperating with investigators and providing assistance to guests and employees affected by the incident.
“Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with the guest’s family, friends, and loved ones,” a company spokesperson said.
Authorities have not announced a definitive cause of the accident. The Cobb County Police Department is asking anyone with information about the incident to contact its Major Crimes Unit as the investigation continues.
