Stanford authorities are investigating an incident in which an ex-IDF soldier, who was visiting the campus last week with Miss Israel, is accused of tackling and restraining a student who took a paper sign from the booth.

Melanie Shiraz, who was crowned Miss Israel last year, was visiting Stanford University last Wednesday with a group of former Israeli Defense Forces soldiers as part of a promotional tour at high-profile universities, as the Palo Alto Daily Post reports. The tour was reportedly in support of a Google VR project covering the October 7 attacks from the Israeli perspective.

According to KGO, Shiraz and the soldiers were stationed on campus with signs that said, "I'm Miss Israel. I'm an IDF Soldier. Ask us anything."

The Stanford Democrats Club wrote on social media that several of its members began a discussion with Shiraz and one of the former soldiers, who were reportedly "agitating and engaging in genocide denialism,” as one witness told KGO.

A different witness told the outlet that the students were verbally harassing Shiraz and the soldier and calling them terrorists when one of the club’s members reportedly took a paper sign off the table and fled on his bike.

The club says it condemns the member’s action as well as the ex-soldier’s subsequent use of excessive force, which included chasing down the student, tackling him to the ground from a moving bike, and placing him in a chokehold.

“Although we maintain that students, including our members, should uphold campus rules when engaging in discourse,” says the club on social media, “we strongly condemn the violent actions of this soldier and support the Stanford Department of Public Safety's investigation into the matter.”

The Daily Post reports that Stanford’s public safety deputies were on the scene following the incident, which is still under investigation, and the results will be reviewed by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

“We believe that representing and meaningfully engaging diverse perspectives is integral to any college campus,” says the club. “That cannot happen when students are violently attacked.”

Image: BANGKOK, THAILAND - NOVEMBER 19: Miss Universe Israel, Melanie Shiraz,  showcases her evening gown during the 74th Miss Universe Preliminary  competition on November 19, 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand. (Photo by Mohan  Raj/Getty Images)

• Sixteen vehicles were seized by CHP Monday and impounded for 30 days in connection with a sideshow that took place on the Bay Bridge around Christmas. During the incident, all westbound lanes were blocked, pedestrians were walking on the road, and drivers were operating vehicles recklessly. [KPIX]
• SF couple Rebecca and Ed Roque were in the middle of a cruise in the Middle East when the US and Israel first launched military strikes against Iran, leaving them stranded on the ship in Qatar for almost a week. The cruise company and US embassy ended up arranging a repatriation flight for the 70 American passengers onboard, amid widespread flight cancellations in the region. [KGO]

• Citibank has taken over Wells Fargo’s old location at One California in downtown SF for its new flagship branch in place of two downtown locations that closed last month. The 12,000-square-foot space includes a second-floor lounge for events, and the location will offer personal banking, small business banking, mortgages, and wealth management. [Chronicle]
• The man who barricaded himself in SF’s Nob Hill after brandishing a gun in a purple Ferrari Monday has been identified as 51-year-old Brian Currier of San Francisco, and he was booked into San Francisco County Jail for assault with a firearm, as well as a related arrest warrant. [KRON4]

National:

• Sixty unionized employees from CBS News' streaming service launched a 24-hour strike and walked off the job at the network's New York headquarters, as well as its SF Bay Area office, after staff and leadership, including "MAGA-curious" Bari Weiss, were unable to come to an agreement. [Daily Beast]
• A federal watchdog investigation uncovered that a now-former US Army general lost classified maps on a train in Europe, while also suffering a concussion after a boozy dinner. [The Huffington Post]
• Witnesses in Pennsylvania and Ohio spotted a suspected meteor accompanied by white streaks Tuesday morning, which the National Weather Service and Nasa confirmed was a fireball that hit the ground near Cleveland, Ohio. [BBC]

Video of the Day:

Crews are working late into the night this week, getting the Bay Bridge ready for the much-awaited relighting of the "Bay Lights" Friday. [KPIX]

• Three bystanders were hit by stray bullets on International Boulevard in Oakland early Sunday during a dispute between other people, and they’re all in stable condition. [Bay Area News Group]
• Several hundred protestors rallied outside the federal building at 7th and Mission streets in SF Saturday expressing outrage over the major US-Israeli military attack that killed at least 201 people and injured more than 700. [Mission Local]
• District 10 supervisor Shamann Walton and other city leaders held a ribbon-cutting for the new 3rd Street Youth Clinic’s Transitional Age Youth (TAY) Housing for all SF residents ages 12–27, which includes a clinic and wellness center, along with resources for finding stable housing and employment. [Shamann Walton/Instagram]

• An Ebony Alert has been issued for 15-year-old Cameron Parker who was last seen near 1st Avenue and 1st Avenue Place in Oakland around 10 pm Saturday wearing a red and black sweatshirt, red and black pants and red New Balance shoes, authorities said. [Bay Area News Group]
• A 51-year-old man was arrested on hate crime charges Saturday morning for allegedly vandalizing a church in SF's Pacific Heights with graffiti depicting swastikas and other antisemitic and homophobic words, causing $20,000 in damage. [KRON4]

Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Image: Weekly Saturday protest at Tesla showroom (noon–2 pm); Matilda P./SFist

Sami Hamdi, a British Muslim journalist and political commentator currently visiting the US on a speaking tour for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was detained by immigration authorities at San Francisco International Airport Sunday morning.

As KRON4 reports, Hamdi spoke at the annual gala for the Sacramento chapter of CAIR Saturday and was on his way to speak at the CAIR Florida gala Sunday when he was detained at SFO and his visa revoked, according to Assistant Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin on X.

CAIR confirmed the arrest in a post on X, stating it was “in response to [Hamdi’s] vocal criticism of the Israeli government.” The post also states that Hamdi is still in custody and has not yet been deported, adding that CAIR’s attorneys and partners are working to free him.  

As the Chronicle reports, far-right activist and “proud Islamophobe,” Laura Loomer, boasted about having Hamdi detained “over his documented support for Islamic terrorism” and “demanded that federal authorities inside the Trump administration treat Hamdi as the major National security threat that he is.”

In a statement, the Washington DC chapter of CAIR called the arrest an injustice, demanding Hamdi’s immediate release. “Abducting a prominent British Muslim journalist and political commentator on a speaking tour in the United States because he dared to criticize the Israeli government’s genocide is a blatant affront to free speech,” said the statement. “Our attorneys and partners are working to address this injustice. We call on ICE to immediately account for and release Mr. Hamdi, whose only ‘crime’ is criticizing a foreign government that committed genocide.”

“Our nation must stop abducting critics of the Israeli government at the behest of unhinged Israel First bigots. This is an Israel First policy, not an America First policy, and it must end,” the statement concluded.

Per KRON4, Hamdi is the editor-in-chief at current affairs magazine, The International Interest, which focuses on the politics of the Middle East, Far East Asia, and the United Kingdom.

Image: Sami Hamdi/X

• US envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Qatar’s prime minister in Spain as Egypt and Qatar advance a ceasefire plan trading all hostages for Israel’s Gaza withdrawal. Over 20 nations have condemned the planned expansion as a “dangerous escalation,” and Germany has halted military exports that could be used in Gaza. [Associated Press]
• According to social media reports, Los Angeles protesters are now referring to ICE rallies as “LA Music Festival” on Tik Tok to avoid censorship. Groups have been steadfastly conducting peaceful actions in front of the Metro Detention Center as well as the Federal Building. [Threads]

• Giants pitcher Kai-Wei Teng led the team 5-0 against the Washington Nationals in the first win of his career at Oracle Park, which he dedicated to his dad on Taiwan’s Father’s Day. [Bay Area News Group]
• One child was killed and another injured Friday evening in Burlingame when a vehicle believed to have been driven by a 19-year-old San Mateo woman struck them on the sidewalk. [KRON4]
• BART temporarily suspended service on its red and green lines Saturday morning, and the yellow line experienced major delays due to power issues that led to single-tracking in the Transbay Tube, which was restored around 7:45 a.m. [KPIX]

• A man and a woman are in stable condition after being shot in North Oakland Friday night around 11:30 p.m. by a group of people who fired over a dozen rounds of bullets at them on the 800 block of 46th Street. [Bay Area News Group]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

North Oakland cafe Jerusalem Coffee House was sued by the Trump administration for allegedly kicking out a customer wearing a Star of David hat. Now two months after that lawsuit was served, the owner made his first public remarks.

A full nine months ago, the outrage du jour on both sides of the Bay Area’s Israel-Palestine debate was a video where an Oakland cafe owner asks a customer with a Star of David ballcap to leave the shop. The video, seen below, went viral. The cafe in question is Telegraph Avenue’s Jerusalem Coffee House, and the patron asked to leave was Jonathan Hirsch, whom the SF Standard found had a curiously long history of smartphone-recorded arguments that were often posted online.

Hirsch filed a lawsuit against the coffee shop in March of this year, alleging anti-semitic discrimination. And just weeks before that, another Jewish customer filed his own lawsuit saying that he was denied service for being Jewish in a separate incident. The Trump-run Justice Department then filed a large federal lawsuit against the cafe last month, calling out the coffee shop’s owner Abdulrahim Harara and saying, “It is illegal, intolerable, and reprehensible for any American business open to the public to refuse to serve Jewish customers.”

We had not heard from Harara publicly since that federal lawsuit was filed. But the Chronicle reports that Harara spoke publicly for the first time on the matter at a Wednesday press conference.

“These lawsuits, these campaigns to silence and destroy us, they are desperate attempts to fracture our community, dismantle our faith, erase our voices, and suppress our will to fight,” Harara said Wednesday, according to Oaklandside. “But they will not succeed.”

The lawsuits against Harara and his shop all reference the cafe serving drinks on the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israelis, drinks that had the names “Iced in Tea Fada” (a play on the word “Intifada”) and “Sweet Sinwar” (an alleged reference to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar). The cafe denies this was the intent.

Harara’s attorney also spoke to the lawsuit from the Trump administration in his Wednesday remarks.“It is a cut-and-paste job of the two bogus private lawsuits,” Glenn Katon said to the crowd, per the Chronicle. “DOJ appears to have done no independent investigation.”

With the three lawsuits, Jerusalem Coffee House is facing significant legal bills. They’ve started a GoFundMe that claims Harara is a target of “smear campaigns and politically-driven lawsuits,” and that the Trump administration lawsuit is “meant to silence his stance against the genocide in Gaza and disrupt the community space that has grown around the cafe.”

Related: Department of Justice Sues Oakland Cafe for Kicking Out Guy Wearing Star of David Hat [SFist]

Image: Jim G via Yelp

The United States has launched a direct military strike on Iran, targeting three major nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. President Trump announced the operation Saturday evening, saying US B-2 stealth bombers “successfully” completed the mission and safely exited Iranian airspace.

“A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” he wrote on Truth Social, calling it a “very successful military operation” and adding, “This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR,” as reported by KRON4.

As Associated Press reports, Trump is expected to address the nation at 10 p.m. ET from the White House. The strikes mark a dramatic escalation of tensions in the region, with the US joining Israel’s military campaign against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. According to CNN, the decision came after more than a week of Israeli air raids that had already degraded Iran’s air defenses and damaged several military and nuclear sites.

The three sites targeted are central to Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Fordow is an underground enrichment facility built into a mountainside near Qom, considered one of the most heavily fortified sites in Iran. Natanz is Iran’s largest uranium enrichment facility, while Isfahan hosts a major nuclear research complex. The US is the only country with the bunker-busting GBU-57 bombs required to strike deeply buried targets like Fordow.

Iranian state media acknowledged explosions near Qom but claimed the facilities had been evacuated “some time ago.” Satellite and other intelligence assessments are now underway to determine the extent of the damage, according to retired Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, who spoke with CNN.

Reactions to the strike were divided. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham called it “the right call,” while Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib warned that it risks dragging the US into another war. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized the attack as “grossly unconstitutional.” Trump’s decision not to consult the full “Gang of Eight” ahead of the strikes also drew criticism; top Republicans were briefed, while Democratic intelligence leaders were not.

While President Trump maintains that the operation is limited to Iran’s nuclear program and not the start of a broader war, Iranian retaliation remains a real risk. “This is not an expanded campaign,” one administration official told CNN. “They still want to get back to the path of a diplomatic arrangement.”

See live updates via CNN and Al Jazeera.

Image: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 21: A man who asked not to be identified holds an Iranian and an upside down American flag while people gather for a "No War with Iran x Israel and Immigrants" on June 7, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. The U.S. President Donald Trump announced air strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran. (Photo by Apu Gomes/Getty Images)

Ironically, a cafe called Jerusalem Coffee House kicked out a patron wearing a Star of David hat last October. Now Trump's Department of Justice has taken note, and is suing that Oakland cafe.

We noted above the irony of a cafe called Jerusalem Coffee House kicking out a Jewish patron, considering the cafe is named after Jerusalem, a majority-Jewish city. But you can see this incident in the seven-month-old video below, where the owner of the cafe in Oakland’s Temescal District, Fathi Abdulrahim Harara, kicks out patron Jonathan Hirsch for wearing a Star of David ball cap. The two argue at length as partisans in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and KRON4 reported in March that Hirsch sued the coffeehouse over the incident, in a lawsuit brought for him by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

That lawsuit is still meandering its way through the courts. But now there is a much bigger lawsuit looming over the same incident, as KTVU has the news that Trump’s Department of Justice is suing the coffeehouse, alleging that the establishment “discriminated against Jewish customers through policies and practices that denied them the full and equal enjoyment of the Jerusalem Coffee House’s services, accommodations, and privileges.”

The suit also dredges up that the coffeehouse served drinks on the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israelis with the names “Iced in Tea Fada” (a play on the word “Intifada”) and “Sweet Sinwar” (an alleged reference to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar). The suit additionally alleges that a second Jewish man in a similar hat was told by an employee, “You’re the guy with the hat. You’re the Jew. You’re the Zionist. We don’t want you in our coffee shop. Get out.”  

“It is illegal, intolerable, and reprehensible for any American business open to the public to refuse to serve Jewish customers,” Justice Department Civil Rights Division assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon (yes, her) said in a Monday press release. “Through our vigorous enforcement of Title II of the Civil Rights Act and other laws prohibiting race and religious discrimination, the Justice Department is committed to combatting anti-Semitism and discrimination and protecting the civil rights of all Americans.”

These incidents have already been pretty well-litigated in the local media. Though the SF Standard did some digging around the time of the coffeehouse incident, and found Hirsh has quite a lengthy record of public shouting matches. Some of these are unrelated to his faith or the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Hirsch was even able to pull up a couple more argument videos on his phone when asked about his frequent disputes. Whether Hirsch seeks out conflict or not, it sure finds him with unusual frequency.

But it also seems that coffeehouse owner Fathi Abdulrahim Harara was the instigator in the cafe video (though the video is edited , and may not tell the full story). At the same time, Hirsch now finds himself a poster boy for the Trump administration, which will not make one a particularly popular person in the Bay Area. It seems Hirsch and Harara both have a penchant for public fights and grandstanding, and both may now find themselves getting more public scrutiny than they mght like.

Related: Doctor Says UCSF Fired Her Due to Pressure From Wiener, Dillers Over Pro-Palestinian Speech [SFist]

Image: Jim G via Yelp

California State Senator Scott Wiener and UCSF’s largest donor, the Diller Foundation, are named in new allegations by Dr. Rupa Marya, prominent physician, activist, and musician, who is suing UCSF over her recent termination stemming from public criticism of Israel.

According to the Chronicle, in two lawsuits filed last week, Marya accused the university of colluding with political allies and donor networks to smear her reputation, destroy her career, and silence her advocacy for Palestinian rights.

In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! last week, Marya said her termination at UCSF is tied to a coordinated network that includes Senator Scott Wiener—who has been outspoken against pro-Palestinian speech—and the billionaire Diller family. The Diller’s foundation has made major donations to UCSF, supported Wiener’s political campaigns, and funded Canary Mission, a controversial website known for doxxing pro-Palestinian activists, as reported by The Intercept. She adds that Canary Mission has reportedly been used by the Trump administration to justify student deportations.

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A post shared by Rupa Marya (@rupa.marya)

“When UCSF, in coordination with Scott Wiener, started publishing defamatory statements about me across multiple social media sites, I received horrific threats—death threats, rape threats,” Marya told Democracy Now!. “Faculty members told me they were being asked to submit false reports of my clinical behavior, which, in 23 years of practice, I’ve had no incidents of patient safety issues.”

While her termination was made official in May, the tension surrounding Marya’s pro-Palestinian stance traces back to last year. As reported by SFist, UCSF had become a flashpoint for controversy over protest and free speech surrounding Gaza—despite being a medical campus with no undergraduate body. A public conflict erupted after Marya called a colleague’s internal UCSF email—one that questioned a ceasefire and suggested it could embolden Hamas—“an expression of anti-Arab hate.” That colleague, Dr. Avromi Kanal, filed a complaint with the university, which was ultimately dismissed on First Amendment grounds. Kanal said he felt unsafe and unsupported by UCSF leadership, while others, like longtime Palestinian American faculty member Dr. Jess Ghannam, defended the right to protest and criticized the conflation of discomfort with harm.

When we say demonizing “Zionists” easily tips into antisemitism, this is what we mean: This UCSF MD is saying “Zionist doctors” harm patients.

“Zionist” means supporting Israel’s existence as Jewish homeland. ~90% of Jews support this.

Criticize Israel but stop attacking Jews🧵 pic.twitter.com/yEkKnQTgMy

— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) January 4, 2024

Marya was suspended and subjected to a months-long faculty conduct process before being officially fired on May 20 of this year, which she says was retaliatory. She alleges that UCSF administrators attacked her medical license and suspended her without cause, while ignoring her earlier reports of racist, Islamophobic remarks made by colleagues in internal communications. Those complaints, according to her lawsuit, were quietly closed without serious inquiry.

Before her recent outspoken support for Palestinian rights, Marya had long been a respected figure in the medical community. Named one of Nature’s 20 most influential women in biomedicine, she served on multiple national advisory boards and co-authored the book Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice, a study of how colonialism and structural racism affect health outcomes. Her research often focused on care disparities among Black, Indigenous, and unhoused patients—work she says also drew backlash inside the university.

“UCSF leadership repeatedly characterized Dr. Marya’s advocacy for marginalized patients as ‘unprofessional,’ ‘aggressive,’ and ‘harmful,’” the complaints read. As a woman of Indian descent raised in a Sikh household, Marya says she was targeted with “racist tropes” meant to discredit her both personally and professionally.

Her lawsuits—one filed in federal court for First Amendment violations, the other a state civil rights complaint—seek damages for loss of income and psychological distress. They name UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood and other university officials, and come at a time when the UC system has faced criticism for disciplining faculty and staff who have spoken out against Israel’s military campaign.

Marya says her comments—most notably “stop bombing hospitals”—should never have put her career at risk. “It is our moral and professional obligation to speak out about children being harmed in the ways that they are in Gaza, about hospitals and the whole healthcare structure being destroyed in Gaza,” she told Democracy Now! “and about our healthcare colleagues who have been abducted, tortured and killed in Gaza.”

Her firing has since galvanized a growing coalition. More than 1,000 healthcare workers and students have signed open letters demanding her reinstatement and denouncing UCSF’s crackdown on political expression. Meanwhile, the university has continued to promote speakers with close ties to Israeli lobbying groups, including Elan Carr of the Israeli American Council—despite vocal objections from Jewish, Arab, Muslim, LGBTQ+, and Palestinian members of the campus community.

Marya hopes the lawsuits will spark public awareness and systemic change. “Solidarity is the only thing we have. It’s our superpower to fight authoritarianism, fascism and this kind of racist repression,” she said. “So, I ask for all healthcare workers around the world to stand in solidarity with me, because my fight is our fight, and our fight is for the liberation of Palestine and our collective liberation.”

Image: © pitpony photography / Wikimedia

Previously: Doctors at UCSF Battle Over Opinions of the Gaza War, Question Whether Protest Should Happen at a Hospital

Photo: Leo Escala

Just imagine the douche who bought a Tesla Cybertruck and then decided to put a license plate on it trivializing violence.

A Tesla Cybertruck owner ordered a vanity plate from the California DMV that said "LOLOCT7," making reference to Hamas's attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, and the DMV didn't catch the reference and let it go through. Now, the agency has issued an apology.

As KPIX reports, the DMV apologized Thursday for allowing the offensive plate to slip past its review process. The plate had apparently been photographed on a Cybertruck in Los Angeles (actually Culver City).

Calling the plate "unacceptable and disturbing," the statement say, "The DMV Is taking swift action to recall these shocking plates, and we will immediately strengthen our internal review process to ensure such an egregious oversight never happens again."

The DMV adds, "The use of hateful language is not only a clear violation of our policies but also a violation of our core values to proudly serve the public and ensure safe and welcoming roadways."

After this reference managed to slip through, the agency said it would be reviewing all custom vanity plates in its database to identify "similar content."

The group StopAntisemitism responded after seeing a photo of the license plate on Twitter, reposting and saying that people should demand that the DMV recall the plate "that celebrates the October 7th terrorist attack — a vile mockery of the 1,200 innocent lives lost and the countless others scarred."

The DMV's apology and recall came shortly after.

The owner of the Cybertruck was not publicly identified, but the DMV told the Los Angeles Times that the owner had the right to appeal their decision to recall the plate.

The day before the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and the now-year-long response of sustained Israeli counterattacks, a Sunday Mission District protest drew 1,500 people but left the event space Manny’s coated with malicious graffiti.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 Isrealis and took another 250 hostage. In the year since, the prolonged Israeli response has killed an estimated 42,000 Palesitinians. While we do not see any further Bay Area Gaza protests listed for today on the Arab Resource and Organizing Center event page where such things are typically listed (and there are events listed every day for the rest of this week), it seems likely there will be some form of action today.

And there was on Sunday, as KTVU reports that around 1,500 pro-Palestine protesters took to the Mission District Sunday afternoon. (This video of the march suggests it was larger.) While it was largely peaceful, the SF Standard notes that the event space Manny’s was thoroughly tagged with graffiti by the protesters. This is not the first time we’ve seen anti-Semitic graffiti on the Manny’s storefront.  

The above video shows one tagger explaining (from behind a mask) that “Manny supports Kamala. Manny supports bombing Palestine.” Other photos from the SF Standard show the graffiti also said “Manny is a rich murderer” and “Zionists out of Frisco.”

“I’m deeply troubled and saddened to have our community attacked like this,” Manny’s owner Manny Yekutiel told the SF Standard. “Vandalizing a Jewish-owned business on the eve of the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust is disgusting and has no place in the city of Saint Francis.”

But per KTVU, the protest otherwise went without notable incident. It started at 1 pm at Valencia and 16th streets — where Manny’s is located — and continued around the Mission on Sunday afternoon.

"We’re mourning for all who have lost their lives,” Jewish Voice for Peace member Alice Robinson told KTVU. “And we’re also here to fight for those who are still living who could still be saved.”

KTVU has video from Sunday’s protests, though the segment starts with a Palo Alto gathering honoring those that are still being held hostage, before chronicling the much larger Sunday Mission District protests.

Meanwhile, the Jewish News of Northern California notes that there are several commemorations to mourn the October 7 victims on Monday throughout the Bay Area, including one in SF on Ocean Beach.

Related: Berkeley Protesters Have Broken Into and Occupied Empty Building In Renewed Pro-Palestine Protest [SFist]

Image: @domestic415 via Twitter

Among the six hostages found fatally shot in a tunnel under the city of Rafah on Saturday was American citizen and Berkeley native Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents have spent the past eleven months advocating for the hostages.

Goldberg-Polin, 23, had dual Israeli and US citizenship, and was one of a number of hostages taken from a music festival in rural Israel on October 7 last year. Five of the six hostages found dead on Saturday were reportedly among those young music festival attendees.

As the New York Times reports, the Israeli military is saying that the six were "brutally murdered" by Hamas not long before they were found, sometime between Thursday night and Friday. All six had been listed among the sick, wounded, or vulnerable who were to be in a first wave of hostages released, per Israel's demands.

Goldberg-Polin, as SFist previously reported, had lost part of his arm when he attempted to throw a live grenade back at Hamas militants who invaded the music festival. As of April, he appeared in a proof-of-life video released by Hamas, marking 200 days since his capture. To his family, he said, "I love you so much and miss you. It won’t be a happy [Passover] holiday for me, but I wish you one."

The deceased hostages have been identified as Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino. They ranged in age from 23 to 40.

President Biden issued a statement saying of Goldberg-Polin, "I am devastated and outraged. Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on October 7... He had just turned 23. He planned to travel the world. I have gotten to know his parents, Jon and Rachel. They have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable. They have been relentless and irrepressible champions of their son and of all the hostages held in unconscionable conditions. I admire them and grieve with them more deeply than words can express."

Protests have erupted across Israel, largely expressing outrage at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not securing a deal sooner to get the hostages released.

The hostages were found during a military operation, though the Israeli Army has not been specific about whether they were on a mission to free hostages. All of them were reportedly found with gunshot wounds that came from close-range shots.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin, Hersh's mother, spoke at the Democratic National Convention two weeks ago, and said at the time, "Hersh is a happy-go-lucky, laid-back, good-humored, respectful and curious person. “He is a civilian. He loves soccer, is wild about music and music festivals, and he has been obsessed with geography and travel since he was a little boy."

Goldberg-Polin's family issued a statement late Saturday saying, "With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh. The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time."

Previously: Berkeley-Born Israeli Hostage Appears to Still Be Alive, After 201 Days, In Newly Released Video

Is a tent encampment really the best form of protest in San Francisco regarding the situation in Gaza? A few dozen protesters figured so on Monday, but were quickly driven off by police with something resembling rubber bullets.

The “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” phenomenon has died down for the moment here in the Bay Area, though we have seen similar large-scale efforts this week at UCLA and in Washington DC. Your Bay Area protest types attempted to form another encampment Monday afternoon at the Phillip Burton Federal Building at 450 Golden Gate Avenue, according to the Chronicle, with tents at first being strewn right on the street in the car traffic lanes.

Around a dozen tents showed up shortly after 3 pm Monday, with some on the street, while the bullhorn-wielder led chants of “Free, free Palestine.” The encampment eventually moved out of traffic and onto the sidewalk in front of the Federal Building.

At that point, some 50-80 protesters continued their chants and set up their tents on that sidewalk. But it did not take long for police to move in. (Note: The video below contains an F-bomb if you have the sound on.)

Judging by the badges, these appear to be Federal Protective Service officers and not SFPD. An apparent eyewitness claimed that “riot police shot [the protesters] with rubber bullets and pepper balls,” and indeed, these officers were certainly firing something. The protesters used tables and whatever else was at their disposal in an attempt to shield themselves.

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That said, the cops apparently won this round pretty quickly. About an hour after the above video was posted, an update from the original poster said, “all have been dispersed. Stay tuned for jail support.” Similarly, a livestream link on the rabble-rousing site IndyBay is defunct.

Per the Chronicle, “It was unclear if any arrests were made.” We will update this post if any information on arrests associated with this incident comes available.

Related: USF Starts Clearing Gaza Encampment, Protesters Mad Because They Claim They Said They’d Leave Willingly [SFist]

Image: spirit.ofthelion via Instagram