Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday slammed the Palestinian Authority for denying that the terrorist group Hamas was responsible for the Oct. 7 massacre at a music festival in Israel that killed hundreds of attendees.

The Sunday night address came in response to an official statement from the Palestinian Authority that blamed ‘Israeli helicopters’ for the death of hundreds of participants of the Supernova music festival near kibbutz Re’im.

The claim, echoed by Hamas, appeared to reference a report from Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, which said that an Israel Defense Forces helicopter had accidentally hit festival-goers while firing at terrorists.

However, the report, which cited senior Israeli security officials, did not say the helicopters were responsible for all the deaths at the massacre. Fox News Digital has reached out to the reporter for comment.

‘Today, the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah said something utterly preposterous. It denied that it was Hamas that carried out the horrible massacre at the nature festival near Gaza. It actually accused Israel of carrying out that massacre. This is a complete reversal of truth,’ Netanyahu said in a statement posted on X.

Some 1,200 people were killed in Israel on the day of the surprise Hamas assault. Around 240 hostages were dragged into Gaza by Hamas and remain held there.

Israel declared war in response, and more than 11,500 Palestinians have been killed in the past six weeks as the Israeli military conducts a punishing air and ground offensive in Gaza, where Hamas militants have ruled for the past 16 years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: A group of House Republicans is demanding more transparency from TikTok about how content is amplified and how much insight China has into those processes as accusations mount against the social platform that it’s boosting antisemitic videos. 

‘On October 7, the Palestinian terrorist organization, Hamas, brutally attacked Israel and killed more than 1,400 people. Since this terrorist attack, disinformation related to the conflict has run rampant on your platform, stoking antisemitism, support, and sympathy for Hamas,’ they wrote to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.

The letter is being led by Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga. It comes just days after TikTok was under fire for facilitating a surge in viral videos expressing support for Usama bin Laden’s 2002 ‘Letter to America’ written in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. 

TikTok said the content ‘clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism,’ and that it would be removing the content. However, the company defended itself: ‘The number of videos on TikTok is small and reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate. This is not unique to TikTok and has appeared across multiple platforms and the media.’

Carter cited reports that content flagged as pro-Palestinian was far more widely viewed than videos supporting Israel.

‘Many of the younger generations are turning to TikTok rather than search engines and other verifiable sources for their news. You have led these generations to believe that TikTok is an ‘unfiltered’ news source,’ the GOP lawmakers wrote. 

National security hawks have been wary of TikTok’s connection to China, with its parent company ByteDance being based in Beijing.

‘Earlier this year, while testifying before the Committee on Energy and Commerce, you stated that the [Chinese government] did not have control over TikTok. However, former TikTok employees reported that [China] has access to American user data and is closely involved in decision-making and product development,’ the letter said. 

‘This control, alongside troubling reports of privacy and data security breaches, such as monitoring American journalists’ locations, prove that the CCP is using TikTok as a surveillance and manipulation tool.’

The lawmakers are demanding to know how many employees at TikTok have connections to ByteDance, how the platform screens for misinformation and anti-Israel content amid the conflict with Hamas, and how its algorithms are curated, among other queries. 

‘Given that roughly half of TikTok’s U.S. user base is under 25 years old, American youth are being exposed to extremely violent and disturbing images and videos,’ they wrote. 

‘This deluge of pro-Hamas content is driving hateful antisemitic rhetoric and violent protests on campuses across the country. The CCP has already co-opted your platform, and it seems TikTok and TikTok’s employees are resigned to becoming a mouthpiece for antisemites, terrorists, and propaganda.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to TikTok for comment.

On October 7, life for my family stopped, and I don’t know when it will begin again. The civilized world is rightly horrified by the unspeakable brutality of the atrocities committed by Hamas. It is hard for me to believe, let alone write these words, but October 7 happened to us. My parents, Keith and Aviva Siegel, were kidnapped from their home and are now hostages in Gaza. 

Because my parents can’t speak for themselves, as their daughter, I want the world to know who they are. I want the world to know that they believe that love for humanity will defeat hatred. I want the world to know that time is running out to prove them right and secure their release.  

My father was born in the United States, while my mother grew up in South Africa. They moved to Kibbutz Kfar Aza more than 40 years ago, falling in love with this beautiful part of the world. There, they built a wonderful home for our family. In my mind, that home is a haven of love, comfort and happiness. 

But it was shattered on October 7 when terrorists invaded. They forced my parents, unassuming people filled with kindness and a quiet sensitivity, into my father’s car and took them to Gaza. We don’t know where they were taken. We have no idea what condition they might be in. We have heard nothing from them or about them since they were kidnapped.  

Eventually, we had to tell their five young grandchildren. We held hands in a circle and my sister (an American citizen like myself and our father) tried to explain where grandma and grandpa have gone. But how do you explain to children that monsters really do exist? Each day, they ask when their grandparents are coming home. I just hope that my parents are together, so that they too can hold each other’s hands just like we did.      

These are the raw, heartbreaking facts of how my parents became hostages. But they are not just captives, they are my mother and father. I want the world to know that, above all, they believe that a person is a person. Whether Israeli or Palestinian, Jew or Muslim.  

My father worked with many doctors, my mother worked with children. Both worked with Jews and Arabs and treasured them all equally. They lived and loved coexistence. My parents have an innate faith in the goodness of humankind. That is why, even after living through decades of conflict, they believe that peace can be reality. I hope that they still do. 

My parents have a clear sense of right and wrong. Their worldview can be summed up in the conviction that love of humanity will always defeat hatred. They may have had their freedom taken away from them, but I won’t allow their beliefs to be taken away, too. Not only because they are the essence of my upbringing. But because these are the principles upon which the world must now act. 

My parents’ faith in the world is founded on the assumption that world leaders are driven to do good. Countless times I remember them talking in admiration about global figures, because of the positive change they brought to the world.  

In these desperate times, I cling to the hope that my parents were right. I so desperately want their faith in humanity to be repaid. They would assume that securing the freedom of innocent civilians – among them babies, children, women and the elderly – would surely top the global agenda. Any other calculation would be inconceivable to my parents.    

At the end of the day, the story of Keith and Aviva Siegel isn’t just another sad story. Their fate and that of the other approximately 240 hostages, with more than 30 different citizenships, is at the heart of the war in Gaza. Their continued entrapment encapsulates the evil that engulfed Israel’s south on October 7. 

Tragically, the 1,200 souls who were lost on that dreadful day couldn’t be saved. But the hostages can and must be brought home. Doing so would prove my parents right, that love of humanity will always defeat hatred. This fundamental belief, shared by all decent people, is what is at stake.  

Calling for the hostages to be freed is not a political act. Rather, it is a supreme humanitarian demand. I know that war inevitably brings incredible suffering. My family is experiencing it firsthand. I am sure that for many this same sad truth is motivating calls for a ceasefire, including from the world leaders my parents admire so much. Yet, time and again, when talking about the conditions to end the fighting, those very same people fail to even mention the 240 hostages in Gaza. 

It should never need repeating, but innocent civilians like my parents are not legitimate pawns of war. For leaders in Washington and beyond, placing the hostages’ fate front and center is a test of morality. 

Demanding their freedom is to share the values of my parents, of everything that is good in the world. Quite simply, standing with the hostages now and in the days ahead means standing on the right side of history.  

President Biden is set to celebrate his 81st birthday at the White House on Monday by honoring a Thanksgiving tradition.

Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history, will join first lady Jill Biden Monday afternoon for the presidential pardons of Liberty and Bell, two Thanksgiving turkeys that will be spared from becoming someone’s dinner. Later, the Bidens will continue holiday festivities by accepting the delivery of the official White House Christmas tree – an 18-and-a-half foot Fraser fir from Fleetwood, North Carolina.

The event marks the unofficial start of the holiday season in the nation’s capital and will be held on the South Lawn this year instead of the Rose Garden.

From there, Biden will eat his Thanksgiving turkey with his family on Nantucket, a Massachusetts island, continuing a long family tradition. 

Liberty and Bell will be spared in a tradition that dates back to 1947, when the National Turkey Federation, which represents turkey farmers and producers, first presented a National Thanksgiving Turkey to President Harry Truman.

Back then, and in preceding Thanksgivings, a turkey was given to the first family for their consumption on the holiday, but by the late 1980s, the tradition had evolved into an often humorous ceremony in which the birds are pardoned.

‘We think that’s a great way to kick off the holiday season and really, really a fun honor,’ Steve Lykken, chairman of the National Turkey Federation and president of the Jennie-O Turkey Store, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Lykken introduced Liberty and Bell on Sunday at the Willard Intercontinental, a luxury hotel close to the White House. They were checked into a suite there on Saturday following their dayslong road trip from Minnesota.

The male turkeys, both about 20 weeks old and about 42 pounds, were hatched in July in Willmar, Minnesota. After Biden pardons his third pair of turkeys on Monday, Liberty and Bell will be returned to their home state to be cared for by the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences.

‘They were raised like all of our turkeys, protected, of course, from weather extremes and predators, free to walk about with constant access to water and feed,’ Lykken said Sunday.

Markus Platzer, the Willard’s general manager, called the turkeys ‘very special guests of ours’ and said the hotel’s involvement is its ‘highlight of the year.’ The Willard has housed turkeys for such events for more than 15 years, he said.

‘There are so many bad things going on globally that this is something where everybody, you know, brings a smile [to] the face of the people, at least for a few minutes,’ Platzer said Sunday.

On Sunday, he and the first lady served an early Thanksgiving meal to hundreds of service members from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Gerald R. Ford at Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia, the largest installation of its kind in the world.

More than 200 million turkeys will be eaten on Thanksgiving, Lykken said.

Biden was born on Nov. 20, 1942.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Ukraine on Monday, when he will meet with Ukrainian officials to relay a message of solidarity with the Ukrainian people and that America stands firmly behind the Eastern European country in its war with Russia.

After an 11-hour train ride from Poland to Ukraine, Austin exited onto the platform, where he shook hands with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink. U.S. Defense Attaché Brig. Gen. Kipling Kahler was also present to greet him.

‘I just arrived in Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian leaders,’ Austin wrote on the social media site X. ‘I’m here today to deliver an important message – the United States will continue to stand with Ukraine in their fight for freedom against Russia’s aggression, both now and into the future.’

The trip is Secretary Austin’s second to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. His last visit was in April 2022.

The Department of Defense released a statement confirming Austin would meet with Ukrainian leaders to bolster the U.S.-Ukrainian relationship.

‘During his visit, Secretary Austin will engage in high-level talks with Ukrainian leadership. The discussions will focus on further bolstering the strategic partnership between the United States and Ukraine, to include ensuring Ukraine’s armed forces have the battlefield capabilities they need for both the winter and to defend their country against future Russian threats,’ the Defense Department said.

It added, ‘Later this week, Secretary Austin will also host the 17th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group virtually from the Pentagon, continuing the vital work of international coordination and support for Ukraine with nearly 50 nations expected to participate.’

The head of European Command/NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, U.S. General Christopher Cavoli is also on the trip.

Austin’s trip to Ukraine comes as the Pentagon continues to urge Congress — the Republican-led House of Representatives and the Democratic-controlled Senate — to pass additional funding to support Ukraine’s military effort.

‘I am pleased that the passage of another continuing resolution has put off the threat of a lapse of funding,’ Austin said Friday, Nov. 17. ‘Its enactment will ensure that our brave troops and dedicated civilian workforce will be paid through the holidays. Yet I continue to urge Congress to pass full-year appropriations, which remains the best thing that Congress can do for our national defense. As we have long made clear, operating under short-term continuing resolutions hamstrings the Department’s people and programs and undermines both our national security and competitiveness.’

He added, ‘I also urge Congress to take up and pass supplemental funding to strengthen our national security as soon as possible. Our supplemental request directly supports our allies and partners, including Israel and Ukraine, during a critical period and makes key investments in our defense industrial base across the country. These investments will mean greater prosperity at home and greater security abroad.’

‘I continue to stand ready to work with Congress to keep America secure and strong.’

To date, Ukraine has received more than $44 billion from the U.S. and more than $35 billion from other allies in weapons, ranging from millions of bullets to air defense systems, advanced European and U.S. battle tanks and pledges for F-16 fighter jets.

However, Ukraine still needs more.

On Thursday, Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh held a press briefing where she said the Pentagon has been rolling out smaller weapons packages for Ukraine due to the uncertainty on Capitol Hill.

When asked for a preview of the next Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, an alliance of 54 countries that meet monthly for updates on the current conflict with Russia, Singh said an announcement was expected within the next few days.

‘In terms of aid packages, you’ve seen us roll out pretty consistently, aid packages for Ukraine. We have had to pass down our support and our security assistance for Ukraine because we don’t have additional funding, because the supplemental hasn’t been passed. So we just rolled out our last presidential drawdown authority, and I believe that was last week,’ the deputy press secretary continued.

Singh added, ‘Look what we’re when we’re ready to roll out the next one. We certainly will. We know that Ukraine continues to face and continues to endeavor and its counteroffensive, and they need continued support on a regular basis. So we know that we have to do that. We know that we have to continue to meet their needs. And that’s something that certainly will be discussed at the next Ukraine Defense Contact Group. But in terms of a package preview, I just don’t have more for you to announce today.’  

A reporter at the press briefing also asked how long the Pentagon can support Ukraine until Congress needs to appropriate new funding.

‘You have seen smaller packages, because we need to parse these out,’ Singh said Thursday. ‘Because we don’t know when Congress is going to pass our supplemental package. I mean, frankly, that is why we requested an emergency supplemental package to provide funding for our security assistance to Ukraine and also to backfill our own stocks.’

The Pentagon can send about $5 billion more in weapons and equipment from its own stocks; however, it only has about $1 billion in funding to replace those stocks.

‘The supplemental, again, is in Congress. We continue to urge Congress to pass a supplemental package together because it’s an emergency request. It’s not part of the budget process. And so we have a large amount that we want Congress to authorize for Ukraine and for Israel. And for our investments in the Indo-Pacific and, of course, for our own investments in our defense industrial base. So that’s something that we’re going to continue to urge Congress to pass. But you’re absolutely right. You have seen smaller packages because we need to pass these out because we don’t know when Congress is going to pass our supplemental package. And so we’re continuing to talk with allies and partners. We’re not the only country here contributing to Ukraine’s urgent battlefield needs. As you know, the Ukraine contact Group is over 50 nations. So it’s not that it’s just the U.S. supporting Ukraine, but the president has been very clear that we are going to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.’  

Singh was also asked to give a timeline on how long American taxpayers can expect to keep contributing money to the Ukraine-Russia war, but she was unable to do so.

‘I’m not going to forecast how long that’s going to last. That certainly wouldn’t do the Ukrainians any good. That would really benefit the Russians. And so I’m just not going to be able to give you a timeline on how long we’re going to be able to have these packages continue to go forward.’

Monday, Nov. 20, will be the 635th day since Russia first invaded Ukraine in Feb. 2022.

Fox News’ Liz Friden, Jessica Sonkin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.