Idit Ohel, the mother of Israeli hostage Alon Ohel, urgently pleaded for President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure the release of the remaining Oct. 7 captives held by Hamas amid fears the current ceasefire deal is disintegrating.

‘They have no more time. And please don’t go back to war. Please. Because if that happens, if we go back to war, the hostages could die. The hostages that are alive could die,’ she told Fox News Digital. ‘That’s what happened last time. Last time we saw that after the hostages came out and war started, so many hostages died and were murdered by Hamas. So we cannot let this happen. Please do everything in your power and do something for my son. He’s in the tunnels. He’s crying for help.’ 

Idit Ohel said she received confirmation that her son is still alive from released hostages Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, two of the three gaunt, frail-looking Israelis forced to speak Saturday during a Hamas hand-over ceremony in Gaza. 

The mother said the released hostages, who were held with her son for part of their nearly 500 days in captivity, told her that Alon Ohel is unable to see out of an eye after being struck by shrapnel when Hamas was closing in on Oct. 7, 2023. Alon Ohel, a civilian, was attending the Nova music festival when terrorists attacked, and he took cover in a bomb shelter. Hamas pounded the shelter with grenades and gunfire, and he ‘was taken, wounded, with blood all over him,’ Idit Ohel said. 

Alon Ohel’s ancestors survived the Holocaust, including his great-grandfather who weighed just 30 kilos [about 66 pounds] when he was released from the Auschwitz concentration camp, Idit Ohel said. ‘So if he was alive today, he would probably die instantly just knowing that his great-grandson in the year of 2025 is starving,’ she said. ‘Alon has these genes. So he’s fighting. He’s fighting for his life every day.’ 

Under the deal, another three hostages were due to be released by next Saturday, but Hamas said Monday that the group would not let them go, accusing Israel of violating terms of the ceasefire agreement. 

Concerns that fighting will resume are rising. Trump has since said that Hamas must release all remaining 76 hostages by noon Saturday, or he would demand the ceasefire deal be canceled and ‘let all hell break out.’ Netanyahu backed the demand. 

Israeli media is reporting that Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is being dispatched to Israel and Qatar this week to prevent the ceasefire deal from unraveling. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected in Israel on Saturday. 

To Trump and Netayanhu directly, Idit Ohel said, ‘Do something and bring them home. Please. Please.’ 

‘Give him a chance. It’s unbearable. Something has to change. You have to do everything in your power to bring him home to me, to his family,’ she said. ‘There’s still hostages alive. There’s still hostages alive. Please. Please, do something.’ 

Idit Ohel said she learned her son is being held in tunnels without medical attention and little food and has been ‘tortured, chained and starved.’ 

‘It’s not humane. There’s so much food getting into Gaza, and he’s not getting any of it,’ she said.

‘Alon, right now as we speak, is still being not fed, sleeping on the floor, being chained, constrained. So he cannot move for 494 days,’ Idit Ohel said. ‘My son is important. My son is only an innocent civilian. He went to the Nova festival to have fun. He’s a pianist. He loves music. He did nothing wrong to nobody. We need to get him out now. He cannot continue. This is humanitarian.’ 

Days before Trump took office, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement. Former President Joe Biden said at the time that the first phase involved a ‘surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza’ – something Idit Ohel stressed her son is not getting. 

She said the International Committee of the Red Cross ‘have never seen Alon and have never seen any of the hostages – [he] didn’t get any treatment.’ 

‘Where is he? Why is he not coming?’ Idit Ohel added. ‘I do not understand it. I will never understand it. This is wrong. This is not moral.’ 

Ohel rallied thousands in Tel Aviv over the weekend on her son’s 24th birthday – the second birthday he has spent in captivity since the Oct. 7 attacks. 

‘I wanted to say happy birthday to my son. I couldn’t even talk [to him] and see and hear his voice,’ she said. ‘When I heard about his condition, I fainted … I haven’t been sleeping for days … I cannot control what Hamas is doing to my son.’ 

‘Every mother in this world. Think just for a second. If there’s one night that your son or daughter doesn’t eat, you can’t even live with yourself,’ Ohel added. ‘My son has not been getting food for 494 days.’

The mother also delivered a message directly to her son. 

‘If you’re listening to me, you know I love you and your father loves you. And we’re doing everything in our power to make sure that you’re home alive. You’re coming home. And there’s so many people all over the world and in Israel that are with you and are praying for you,’ Ohel said, asking fellow musicians to play songs in her son’s honor in the coming days. ‘And you are not alone, Alon. You are not alone.’ 

The Senate voted Wednesday to advance Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial nomination to serve as Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, sending him on a path to final confirmation.

The vote to invoke cloture on Kennedy’s nomination ends debate and starts the clock ticking toward the final Senate vote on his confirmation.

The Senate agreed to advance the nomination by a party-line, 53-47 vote. 

Kennedy, the well-known vaccine skeptic and environmental crusader who ran for the White House in 2024 before ending his bid and endorsing Trump, needed a simple majority to advance to a final vote in the chamber, which Republicans control by a 53-47 majority.

Kennedy survived back-to-back combustible Senate confirmation hearings late last month, when Trump’s nominee to lead 18 powerful federal agencies that oversee the nation’s food and health faced plenty of verbal fireworks over past controversial comments, including his repeated claims in recent years linking vaccines to autism, which have been debunked by scientific research.

During the hearings, Democrats also spotlighted Kennedy’s service for years as chair or chief legal counsel for Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit organization he founded that has advocated against vaccines and sued the federal government numerous times, including a challenge over the authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine for children.

With Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee voting not to advance Kennedy, the spotlight was on Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a physician and chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP).

Cassidy issued a last minute endorsement before the committee level vote, giving Kennedy a party-line 14-13 victory to advance his confirmation to the full Senate.

Cassidy had emphasized during Kennedy’s confirmation hearings that ‘your past of undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments concerns me,’ which left doubt about his support.

However, after speaking again with the nominee, Cassidy rattled off a long list of commitments Kennedy made to him, including quarterly hearings before the HELP Committee; meetings multiple times per month; that HELP Committee can choose representatives on boards or commissions reviewing vaccine safety; and a 30-day notice to the committee, plus a hearing, for any changes in vaccine safety reviews.

‘These commitments, and my expectation that we can have a great working relationship to make America healthy again, is the basis of my support,’ the senator said.

Earlier this week, another Republican senator who had reservations regarding Kennedy’s confirmation announced support for the nominee.

‘After extensive public and private questioning and a thorough examination of his nomination, I will support Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services,’ moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, announced on Tuesday.

Another Republican who was on the fence, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alalska, also voted to advance Kennedy’s nomination.

‘I continue to have concerns about Mr. Kennedy’s views on vaccines and his selective interpretation of scientific studies, which initially caused my misgivings about his nomination,’ Murkowski said in a statement.

But Murkowski added that Kennedy ‘has made numerous commitments to me and my colleagues, promising to work with Congress to ensure public access to information and to base vaccine recommendations on data-driven, evidence-based, and medically sound research. These commitments are important to me and, on balance, provide assurance for my vote.’

Kennedy, whose outspoken views on Big Pharma and the food industry have also sparked controversy, has said he aims to shift the focus of the agencies he would oversee toward promotion of a healthy lifestyle, including overhauling dietary guidelines, taking aim at ultra-processed foods and getting to the root causes of chronic diseases.

The push is part of his ‘Make America Healthy Again’ campaign.

‘Our country is not going to be destroyed because we get the marginal tax rate wrong. It is going to be destroyed if we get this issue wrong,’ Kennedy said as he pointed to chronic diseases. ‘And I am in a unique position to be able to stop this epidemic.’

The 71-year-old scion of the nation’s most storied political dynasty, launched a long-shot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination against then-President Joe Biden in April 2023. However, six months later, he switched to an independent run for the White House.

Trump regularly pilloried Kennedy during his independent presidential bid, accusing him of being a ‘Radical Left Liberal’ and a ‘Democrat Plant.’

Kennedy fired back, claiming in a social media post that Trump’s jabs against him were ‘a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims.’

However, Kennedy made major headlines again last August when he dropped his presidential bid and endorsed Trump. While Kennedy had long identified as a Democrat and repeatedly invoked his late father, former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and his late uncle, former President John F. Kennedy – who were both assassinated in the 1960s – Kennedy in recent years built relationships with far-right leaders due in part to his high-profile vaccine skepticism.

After months of criticizing him, Trump called Kennedy ‘a man who has been an incredible champion for so many of these values that we all share.’

Trump announced soon after the November election that he would nominate Kennedy to his Cabinet to run HHS.

President Donald Trump continued his successful Cabinet confirmation roll on Wednesday, with Tulsi Gabbard officially being approved by the Senate to become his director of national intelligence (DNI). 

She became his 14th Cabinet confirmation following the 52-48 Wednesday vote. The vote was party-line, with the exception of former GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who opposed Gabbard. 

Despite an uphill battle before her first hurdle in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the former Democratic representative managed to come back and get key Republicans to support her in her bid to oversee the nation’s intelligence agencies. 

With the coordinated and persuasive assistance of Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Vice President JD Vance, crucial senators who had lingering concerns about Gabbard were convinced to back her in the crucial committee vote last week, including Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Todd Young, R-Ind.

Her success came despite the impassioned plea of Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and Democrats, who all opposed Trump’s DNI pick. 

‘We need leaders in the Intelligence Community and throughout government who are prepared to stand up to short-sighted attempts to attack our workforce at the expense of our national security. Unfortunately, I do not believe Ms. Gabbard is such a leader. Nor is she well-suited, by dint of experience or judgment, to serve as director of national intelligence,’ he explained on the chamber floor on Monday. 

But Warner failed to persuade any Republicans, and Gabbard’s nomination advanced past its last obstacle on Monday evening. The vote passed by a party-line margin of 52-46. 

Gabbard’s Senate comeback was achieved despite concerns regarding her past meeting with former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, her previous FISA Section 702 stance and her past support for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. 

Trump announced his selection of Gabbard for DNI in November shortly after being elected. ‘I am pleased to announce that former Congresswoman, Lieutenant Colonel Tulsi Gabbard, will serve as Director of National Intelligence (DNI),’ he said in a statement at the time. 

‘For over two decades, Tulsi has fought for our Country and the Freedoms of all Americans. As a former Candidate for the Democrat Presidential Nomination, she has broad support in both Parties – She is now a proud Republican! I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights, and securing Peace through Strength. Tulsi will make us all proud!’

Gabbard notably left the Democratic Party and subsequently endorsed Trump in the 2024 election. 

Elon Musk announced on Tuesday that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was looking into a limestone mine in Pennsylvania, where the cost-cutting organization says federal employee retirements are processed manually using a system that could take months. 

Musk told reporters about the mine on Tuesday during an appearance with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, as the president prepared to sign an executive order concerning the billionaire’s work leading DOGE.

‘And then we’re told this is actually, I think, a great anecdote, because we’re told the most number of people that could retire possibly in a month is 10,000,’ Musk said.

‘We’re like, well, what? Why is that? Well, because all the retirement paperwork is manual on paper,’ he continued. ‘It’s manually calculated and written down on a piece of paper. Then it goes down to mine and like, what do you mean, a mine?’

DOGE wrote on X that an old limestone mine in Boyers, Pennsylvania, about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, is where about 700 workers operate more than 230 feet underground to process about 10,000 federal retirement applications per month.

The applications are processed by hand using paper, and are stored in manila envelopes and cardboard boxes, DOGE said.

The Washington Post described the facility as a ‘sinkhole of bureaucracy’ in a 2014 article. At the time, the report said the total spending on the retirement system was $55.8 million. 

Multiple attempts to digitize the system have been made since 1987, according to the report. Each attempt largely failed and was eventually scrapped, with reported costs totaling over $130 million.

Musk said the facility was started in 1955 and looks ‘like a time warp.’ He noted the slow processing speed, which DOGE says can take multiple months.

‘And then the speed, the limiting factor is the speed at which the mine shaft elevator can move, determines how many people can retire from the federal government,’ Musk said. ‘And the elevator breaks down and sometimes, and then you can’t, nobody can retire. Doesn’t that sound crazy?’

Musk said the flawed system of ‘carrying manila envelopes to, you know, boxes in a mine shaft’ could be remedied with ‘practically anything else.’

‘That’s an example, like at a high level, if you say like, how do we increase prosperity is we get people to shift from roles that are low to negative productivity to high productivity roles,’ he said.

In recent weeks, Democrats have largely criticized the work of Musk and DOGE to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending and trim the more than 2 million-person federal workforce.

Musk has pushed back, telling reporters Tuesday that ‘the people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get.’ 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Europeans this week that ‘realities’ prevent the U.S. from being its security guarantor, and to expect a drawdown of U.S. forces in the region. 

‘We are focusing on security of our own borders. We also face a peer competitor in the Communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland and core national interests in the Indo-Pacific,’ Hegseth told a meeting of a Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Belgium on Wednesday. 

‘The U.S. is prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific. Recognizing the reality of scarcity and making the resourcing trade-offs to ensure deterrence does not fail. Deterrence cannot fail.‘

This was Hegseth’s first trip to the headquarters of the NATO alliance. 

The U.S. defense secretary called on Europe to ‘take ownership of conventional security on the continent.’

‘European allies must lead from the front,’ he went on. ‘Together, we can establish a division of labor that maximize our comparative advantages in Europe and Pacific, respectively.’

Hegseth said on Tuesday the U.S. has no active plans to draw down forces in Europe but remains committed to analyzing U.S. troop postures across the globe. Speaking at U.S. Africa Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, he said the U.S. is committed to having a presence in Europe while emphasizing the continent should not rely on that presence for security. 

‘The European continent deserves to be free from any aggression, but it ought be those in the neighborhood investing the most in that defense,’ he said. ‘That’s common sense. You defend your neighborhood, and the Americans will come alongside you in helping in that defense.’

Roughly 100,000 U.S. troops are deployed across Europe, about a third of which are in Germany, according to Defense Department figures. Some 375,000 U.S. forces are assigned to the Indo-Pacific Command. 

During his first term, President Donald Trump began pulling thousands of troops out of Europe. 

Under the Trump administration, the U.S. has begun to bolster its troop presence on the southern border. Some 1,500 more U.S. troops deployed to the southern border last week, bringing the total up to 3,600. 

Hegseth also said that any European peacekeeping forces sent to help Ukraine win the war against Russia must not be from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and would not be protected under Article 5, a provision that states an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all. 

The defense secretary said the U.S. does not believe allowing Ukraine into NATO is a ‘realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.’

Hegseth also called on NATO countries to step up after Trump recently called on them to boost defense spending to 5%. 

‘The United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency.’

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy suggested that security guarantees for Ukraine without the U.S. are ‘not real security guarantees.’ 

‘There are voices which say that Europe could offer security guarantees without the Americans, and I always say no,’ he told The Guardian. ‘Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees.’

President Donald Trump is on the cusp of seeing his 14th Cabinet member confirmed in former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. 

Gabbard is slated for a final Senate confirmation vote to be Trump’s director of national intelligence (DNI) on Wednesday morning, after the planned midnight vote was scrapped due to a snowstorm in Washington.

The 30 hours of post-cloture debate officially expired on her nomination just after midnight. 

Frequently, the debate between the cloture motion and the final vote is minimized in what’s referred to as a ‘time agreement’ between Republicans and Democrats. But with the controversial nature of Gabbard’s nomination and ongoing frustrations with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its government audit, no such agreement is expected. 

Gabbard is expected to be confirmed and has already amassed support from hesitant Republicans who voted against Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, requiring Vice President JD Vance to break the tie in the upper chamber. 

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who are often considered the conference’s moderate members, have both already come out in support of Gabbard. Both lawmakers voted against confirming Hegseth. 

Collins is a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and voted in favor of the nomination, helping advance it to the full Senate floor. 

Gabbard also snagged the backing of key Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Todd Young, R-Ind., despite the latter being uncertain before the committee vote. 

Young is also on the Intel Committee and ultimately voted to advance her to the floor, but only after some prodding and discussions with Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Vance, who operated rigorous operations to ensure the nomination got through. 

Some concerns that followed Gabbard through her confirmation hearing were her past meeting with former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, her previous FISA Section 702 stance and her past support for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. 

But these worries were apparently quelled by her answers and the persuasive support of both Cotton and Vance.

The United States is releasing Russian prisoner Alexander Vinnik as part of the deal to secure Marc Fogel’s freedom, a Trump administration official told Fox News on Wednesday.

Fogel, an American teacher who had been detained in Russia since 2021, was freed on Tuesday. A plane carrying him landed in the U.S. late last night. 

Vinnik was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the U.S. on cryptocurrency fraud charges. He was later extradited to the United States where he pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier said the Russian prisoner’s name would be revealed when he returns home. 

‘Recently, work has been intensified through the relevant agencies, there have been contacts,’ Peskov said in a conference call with reporters, according to the Associated Press. ‘And these contacts have led to the release of Fogel, as well as one of the citizens of the Russian Federation, who is currently being held in custody in the United States. This citizen of the Russian Federation will also be returned to Russia in the coming days.’ 

The State Department did not immediately respond Wednesday morning to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Fogel, a history teacher from Pennsylvania, was serving a 14-year prison sentence after his arrest in August 2021 at a Russian airport for being in possession of drugs, which his family and supporters said were medically prescribed marijuana. 

Anne Fogel, his sister, told ‘Fox & Friends’ on Wednesday that she is ‘so happy to have this massive boulder’ lifted off her shoulders with her brother’s release. 

‘I am so incredibly grateful to the president,’ she added. ‘Just amazing.’ 

Fogel said her brother’s situation has ‘taken a toll’ on her family but they ‘can’t even believe that he is safe and at home and can get medical attention.’ 

After his arrival in the U.S., Fogel met with President Donald Trump at the White House and called him a hero for securing his release. 

‘I want you to know that I am not a hero in this at all. And President Trump is a hero,’ Fogel said after meeting Trump. 

‘These men that came from the diplomatic service are heroes,’ Fogel continued. ‘The senators and representatives that passed legislation in my honor – they got me home – they are heroes.’ 

When asked by reporters on Tuesday whether the U.S. had given up anything in return for Fogel, Trump replied ‘not much’ without offering additional details. 

Fox News’ Pat Ward, Landon Mion and the Associated Press contributed to this report.