In a powerful gesture of solidarity, Pope Francis held a private audience at the Vatican on Wednesday with Alon Kaminer, a wounded Israeli soldier currently receiving treatment at Sheba Medical Center, along with Sheba’s Director General, Prof. Yitshak Kreiss, and Yoel Har-Even, Director of Sheba Global. The meeting followed a recent visit by a Vatican official to Sheba Medical Center in Israel, where he met with soldiers and civilians injured in the ongoing conflict, including Kaminer.

In a targeted airstrike on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) eliminated Mustafa Ahmad Shahadi, Deputy Commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh region. Shahadi, known for his role in coordinating Hezbollah’s operations in Syria from 2012 to 2017, was reportedly responsible for planning multiple attacks from southern Lebanon. The strike occurred just as Hezbollah’s newly appointed leader, Naim Qassem, was preparing to deliver his first public address.

Following a recent attack on an Orthodox Jewish man walking to synagogue in Chicago’s West Rogers Park neighborhood, Mayor Brandon Johnson faced backlash for his response, which omitted mention of the victim’s Jewish identity. The incident occurred on Saturday and involved 22-year-old Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, who later engaged in a shootout with police. Abdallahi now faces 14 felony charges, including attempted first-degree murder, but has not been charged with hate crimes a point of contention within Chicago’s Jewish community.

A thousand artists, including celebrated musicians, authors, and intellectuals, have joined forces to oppose a petition calling for the boycott of Israeli publishers, book fairs, and literary organizations. The petition, organized by the Palestine Festival of Literature and Fossil Free Books, demands boycotts against any Israeli cultural institution or organization that has not condemned the Israel Defense Forces’ operations against Hamas following the October 7 attacks. The petition labels these organizations as “complicit in genocide.”