Data used for Gaza famine claims changing as expert cautions 'no one seems to be trying to explain why'

Dire warnings from the United Nations, the U.S. EU and aid organizations of mass starvation and famine among civilians in northern Gaza seem to be overstated, according to some experts.

"Leaders said that thousands of children were going to die, and it didn’t materialize, and no one seems to be trying to explain why," David Adesnik, senior fellow and director of research for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Fox News Digital. Adesnik has been tracking recent increases in food availability in northern Gaza that have gone without comment from researchers and the media.

The first warning of famine came on March 18 in a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Famine Review Committee (FRC), which stated famine was "projected and imminent" in northern Gaza and the Gazan governorates. Without "an immediate political decision for a ceasefire together with a significant and immediate increase in humanitarian and commercial access to the entire population of Gaza," the FRC stated that there would be a markedly increased "impact on mortality and the lives of Palestinians."

A day following the report, Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed the report, noting during a press conference in the Philippines that "according to the most respected measure of these things, 100% of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity. That’s the first time an entire population has been so classified."

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By May 31, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), reported that it was "possible, if not likely, that all three IPC thresholds for Famine…were met or surpassed in northern Gaza in April."

On June 4, the FRC released a different prognosis, contradicting the FEWS NET’s results and stating they were not "plausible." Among the reasons cited for disagreement was their finding that "while FEWS NET estimated the caloric availability in the area as covering only 59%- 63% of the needs…in April, the review done by the FRC estimates that this range would be 75% to 109% if commercial and/or privately contracted food deliveries were included," and "157% if a higher estimate was used."

Fox News Digital reached out to both the IPC and FEWS NET about the differences between their most recent reports. The IPC said that FRC analysts were unable to respond as they were at work on a forthcoming report, due for release on June 25, about conditions throughout Gaza.

FEWS NET pointed out that where FRC suggested there was not enough evidence to determine barriers to accessing aid, FEWS NET "observed significant challenges in both physical and financial access."

"Analysis of acute food insecurity does not (and should not) only consider available supply, but access to and utilization of available food," FEWS NET explained.

FEWS NET also stated that "when combining FEWS NET’s estimate of kilocalories available from food assistance with FEWS NET’s estimate of kilocalories available from subsidized bread from [World Food Programme (WFP)]-supported bakeries and [Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories]-facilitated commercial/private sector food commodities, the differences between FEWS NET and the FRC’s estimates are not significant. FEWS NET estimates that these three sources combined offer a total supply of nearly 150% of caloric needs in the month of April."

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Adesnik, however, pointed out that FEWS NET’s original assessment did not include calories obtained through World Food Program (WFP) bread or commercial and private sector foods, noting that the FRC found that "FEWS NET simply ignored 940 tons of sugar, flour, salt and yeast that the World Food Program delivered to north Gaza bakeries. The tone of the FRC review is always respectful, yet it exposes the extent to which FEWS NET made indefensible assumptions that all serve to underestimate Israel’s efforts to help more food reach the people of northern Gaza." 

While Adesnik said that without question "hunger persists in northern Gaza and there is a deep need for humanitarian assistance," he also said that the "stark differences" between FEWS NET and FRC’s assessments "underscore the subjectivity inherent in famine assessments, along with the potential for politicization."

As an example, Adesnik noted that a lack of humanitarian aid reaching Gazans was "an integral part of the charges" that the International Criminal Court leveled against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on May 20 when they issued arrest warrants for the men. The ICC believes Netanyahu and Gallant "bear criminal responsibility" for war crimes and crimes against humanity." Among the allegations the men face is that they "plan[ned] to use starvation as a method of war." 

Adesnik said that "regardless of whether the situation in Gaza improved because the famine declaration was premature or because Israel facilitated dramatically more shipments of food in March and April, this just shows how laughable the ICC’s charges are."

Fox News Digital reached out to the ICC to ask whether they would change their assessment that Israeli officials intentionally starved Gazans based on FRC findings about food availability in April, prior to charges being filed. The ICC responded by directing Fox News Digital to its statement announcing war crimes charges against Israeli and Hamas leaders.

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Other institutions likewise seem reticent to acknowledge that the dire threats said to be "imminent" in March have not come to pass.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the WFP’s Hunger Hotspots outlook on food insecurity from June to October notes that "in Palestine, over 1 million people – half of the population of the Gaza Strip – is expected to face death and starvation (IPC Phase 5) by mid-July." 

In response to Fox News Digital’s questions about whether the FAO planned to amend its report based on the FRC’s latest information on food availability in Gaza, the FAO news team stated that the organization would wait until the FRC released its updated report to revise its assessment.   

A State Department spokesperson responded to Fox News’ requests for comment about the disparities between FEWS NET and FRC reporting by expressing concern about the "more than 2 million people and the most rapid onset of the levels of food insecurity that we’ve ever seen." Noting that neither FRC nor FEWS NET confirmed that a famine was ongoing, the spokesperson said that "Gaza remains in a dire food security crisis with unacceptable rates of child malnutrition and elevated levels of associated sickness and deaths. And the whole point of measurements and early warning is to spur action now and not wait until it’s too late, and we’ve definitively reached a specific threshold." 

The increased aid entering Gaza has been affected in recent weeks by cigarette smuggling that "now threatens United Nations aid convoys." Attacks on convoys thought to hold coveted cigarettes have led the U.N. to stop picking up aid, according to Israel's TPS news agency.

Citing the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the TPS reported that 285 aid trucks were transferred to the Gaza Strip from the Kerem Shalom and Erez crossings. Of these, "only 88 aid trucks were collected by U.N. aid agencies and the private sector." According to COGAT, "over 1,000 trucks" and "hundreds of aid pallets" await collection and distribution.

"The U.N. needs to scale up," COGAT posted online on June 20, sharing an aerial video of unclaimed aid in the JLOTS collection and distribution compound.

The WFP’s country director for the Palestinians, Matthew Hollingworth, recently stated in an interview with CNN that "in terms of our operations, we have been able to bring more food into the north over the past few weeks, which has improved access to basic food commodities for people there, but we need to diversify the assistance given. It’s not enough to have basic food commodities. There needs to be basic health care, there needs to be water and sanitation, otherwise, we won’t turn the curve on famine."

The WFP spokesperson did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about whether Hollingworth believed famine to be impending in Gaza.

As various entities continue to indicate that Israel’s efforts to aid the civilian population have fallen short, FRC’s assessment is in line with a study by academics and public health officials in Israel who found that aid entering the Gaza Strip could provide for the population of 2.4 million and meet its nutritional needs.

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Russia opens terror probe after attacks on synagogues, Orthodox churches; priest and police officers killed

Gunmen opened fire on two synagogues, two Orthodox churches and a police post in Russia's North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a terrorism investigation in response to the "armed attacks in Derbent and Makhachkala, as a result of which police officers and civilians were killed and injured," according to the agency’s Telegram page. 

Shamil Khadulaev, chairman of the Public Monitoring Commission of Dagestan, said a 66-year-old priest was found with his throat slashed at an Orthodox church, the state-sponsored TASS news agency reported. 

At least two police officers were also killed, news agencies quoted the Russian Interior Ministry as saying, according to Reuters. At least six people were wounded. 

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Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement, confirming a "combined attack in two cities in Dagestan province, Makhachkala and Derbent."

"The synagogue in Derbent was set on fire and burned to the ground. Local guards were killed. The synagogue in Makhachkala was attacked by gunfire, there are no further details," the statement said. "At the same time, churches were attacked in Makhachkala and a priest was murdered in Derbent." 

"As far as is known, there were no worshipers in the synagogues at the time of the attack and there are no known casualties from among the Jewish community," it added. "The Israeli embassy in Moscow is in contact with the leaders of the Jewish community in the district."

Videos circulated online showing buildings set on fire and gunmen engaging in shootouts with police. 

Citing unspecified reports, Reuters said one officer was killed when shots were fired at a synagogue in Derbent, home to an ancient Jewish community in the North Caucasus. 

Gunfire was also reportedly exchanged in an Orthodox church in the town that is a UNESCO heritage site. Another shootout was reported at a police post in Makhachkala, about 75 miles to the north along the Caspian Sea coast and the main city in Dagestan, a mainly Muslim region in southern Russia, according to Reuters. 

Sergei Melikov, Vladimir Putin's appointed head of Dagestan, said "unknown persons" in Derbent and Makhachkala attempted to "destabilize the social situation," Russian news agency RIA reported. 

The attacks were not immediately attributed to a specific group. 

They come, however, amid concern about the rise of Islamic militants, specifically the ISIS-K group, in the region. 

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FBI Director Christopher Wray warned earlier this month of a heightened terror threat following the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan, coupled with the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas terrorists, warning of "the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, not unlike the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russian concert hall back in March." 

On March 22, Moscow’s Crocus City concert hall was attacked by terrorists, leaving more than 140 people dead and over 180 wounded. The gunmen who conducted the attack were identified by Russian media as Tajikistan nationals. After walking in with automatic weapons, the terrorists indiscriminately opened fire on the 6,200-seat venue.

Images from the scene showed a massive fire raging at the concert venue. 

Sunday's reports of attacks in Russia come the same day U.S. second gentleman Douglas Emhoff and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro were among the dignitaries marking the groundbreaking of a new structure at the site of Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue, where 11 Jewish worshippers were murdered in the deadliest act of antisemitism in U.S. history on the Sabbath morning of Oct. 27, 2018.

Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of an American president or vice president, said his purpose on Sunday was to "send a message to the Jewish community of Pittsburgh, to the country, and to the world, that we must never forget what the poison of antisemitism can do."

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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WATCH: Russian amusement park ride malfunctions, trapping a dozen people 50 feet in the air

Firefighters in Russia last week had to rescue dozens of riders from an amusement park attraction when they got stuck dangling 50 feet above the ground. 

"Swing rides at the amusement park… stopped due to technical reasons," officials said after the rescue, according to Newsflare. 

The swing ride at the park in Nalchik City malfunctioned on June 16, prompting the Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM) to deploy a rescue operation. Video of the rescue showed a fire rescue worker climbing up a ladder to bring down the 13 people stranded on the ride. 

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EMERCOM said rescue personnel managed to bring everyone down safely with no injuries. The service will investigate the cause of the malfunction. 

Russia has seen trouble with swing rides before, with one such ride collapsing last year and injuring 20 people after the carousel roof, which anchors the seats, collapsed, The New York Post reported.

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Bystanders rushed to help the victims in that incident, helping pull the victims free. At least eight children were hurt, while a 27-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl were rushed to a hospital in "grave" condition. The girl required surgery, per-local outlets. 

Portland’s Oaks Amusement Park last week suffered a malfunction, with 28 people stuck upside down at the top of the AtmosFEAR ride. The park said the ride’s operators called 911 immediately after the ride got stuck at the "apex" position and initiated "emergency procedures." 

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The riders remained suspended for about 25 minutes before first responders from Portland Fire & Rescue arrived and started bringing people down. No one was injured during the rescue and everyone was brought down safely. 

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The AtmosFEAR ride began operation in 2021 but will remain closed until further notice, according to a statement posted by the park on social media platform X. 

However, angry parents have sued the park over the malfunction, demanding $125,000 in damages for negligence. 

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Right surges in Europe: What to know and what it means for US

The success of right-wing parties in the recent European Parliament elections has shocked the continent and countries around the world, indicating a potential bellwether for the upcoming U.S. presidential election. 

Voters across the 27 member states that make up the European bloc voted between June 6 and 9, with the results keeping European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s center-right European People’s Party (EPP) Group in the majority with 189 of the 720 seats available, but seeing a significant shift from the left to right across the remaining groups.

Here's what happened, along with the winners and losers of this surprising electoral result.

The results in Europe could indicate a continuing global shift to the right during one of the busiest election years on record: Over 50 countries had elections scheduled this year, even before France announced a snap election due to the European Parliament results, according to the Associated Press.

With U.S. politics so tightly poised ahead of the 2024 elections, analysts will look to the other global contests to get some sense as to universal voter sentiments — recalling that the historic and surprise Brexit vote preceded Donald Trump's own surprise victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 — particularly as similar issues appear to trouble both Europeans and Americans despite the Atlantic divide. 

The successive wins of Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV) in the national and European elections, for example, have cemented the Netherlands' shift to the right. Wilders gave up his bid to become prime minister, but seemingly ensured a PVV-led government that will prove to be the country’s most conservative one in decades. 

"The Greens and Liberals are big losers," Wilders wrote on social media platform X. "They will lose many seats in the European Parliament. On the other hand, the PVV is winning big, just like our friends in France, Belgium, Austria, Portugal and many other countries. It was a very beautiful election day!" 

London-based think tank Chatham House cited immigration as one of the primary issues that right-wing parties have pushed to the forefront of voters' minds. They also cited "genuine" grievances about healthcare, housing and an ongoing cost of living crisis as issues that voters had on their minds when they went to the polls this month. 

Support for Ukraine also remains a key issue, though the think tank warns it is "perhaps the least controversial foreign policy issue," instead focusing on the question of E.U. membership expansion: Russia's invasion prompted Finland and Sweden to break decades-long policies of neutrality and to join the union. 

The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) gained 21 seats and became the third-biggest European party, and the Rassemblement National (NA) party in France will have 30 seats overall, giving right-wing parties a significant presence in the parliament. Meanwhile, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the liberal Renew Europe, Independent and Democracy (ID) and Greens/European Free Alliance (EFA) each lost over a dozen seats.

Much like the U.S. House of Representatives, the number of MEPs depends on the population of their parent country: Austria, for instance, has 20 seats, while Cyprus has only six seats. Germany and France top the count with 96 and 81 seats each, while Italy has 76 seats, Spain has 61, and the Netherlands has 31 seats. 

The ECR will have 83 seats with by far the biggest gains, though media tried to position the EPP’s gains as a bigger story after the party had lost seats in previous elections. ECR also registered strong numbers in Poland, where it gained 20 seats, as a runner-up to EPP, which indicates the divided nature of politics in many European countries. 

National parties in each country take seats and then filter into one of the parliamentary groups, which means that wins from parties such as Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) — which enters the European Parliament for the first time with 15 seats — and Wilders' PVV, helped bolster ECR’s standing.

A party needs at least 23 MEPs from seven member states to have a presence in the European Parliament, according to Reuters. This means that winning even one seat — especially in countries that have only a handful of MEPs to elect — in some countries often proves a vital step in securing a place at the table. 

In Germany, EPP won its most seats, followed by NA and Greens, while France saw ID take command over S&D and Macron's own party, Renew. Italy gave ECR its biggest win, with S&D the runner-up by only a few seats. Spain gave both EPP and S&D strong support, while the Netherlands virtually provided even support to Renew, EPP and ID each. 

Politicians on the left have voiced concerns that ECR’s major success has given the right a significant bargaining chip in future policy discussions, with the ruling EPP likely to engage with them as needed to pass its desired legislation and giving the right wing more of a hand in pushing its own agenda. 

The ECR party is a Eurosceptic party most closely affiliated with the right-wing parties of Italy: Brothers of Italy member Nicola Procaccini has served as chairman of the party since 2019, and the group made its biggest gains in France, Germany and Italy. 

The party is also closely associated with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has found herself as an archrival on the continental stage to French President Emmanuel Macron, who also faces a rising tide of right-wing opposition in his home country as Marine Le Pen and her National Rally party — renamed from National Front in 2018 after nearly five decades — seek gains in an upcoming snap election. 

Macron called a snap election after National Rally took 31.4% of the vote for European Parliament, blowing away any other party, citing a concern that surging support for the party could hinder his remaining term and arguing that an election was the "most responsible solution," France24 reported. 

ECR describes itself as a "constructive center-right force," according to Politico: The group also counts Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s party as part of its body, as well as Spain’s far-right Vox party. Romania added five new members to the group, proving once again that every win counts. 

One of the most prominent new faces on the rising right is Jordan Bardella, the president of National Rally, who has served as an MEP since 2019 and has taken a galvanizing role in French politics in the last few years, becoming the party's "poster boy," and he now finds himself poised to become prime minister should his party win the French elections set for July. (Note: France has both a President, Macron, who executes national and international policy and a prime minister who guides the parliamentary agenda and domestic policy.)

Bardella has already tried to show a more moderate temperament, turning away from his party's 2022 promise to prioritize a departure from "the integrated NATO command," instead insisting that such a move during wartime would "considerably weaken France’s responsibility on the European scene and, obviously, its credibility with regard to its allies."

Von der Leyen herself hails from Germany’s Christian Democratic Union, the party of former Prime Minister Angela Merkel, but analysts have warned that if she should retain her role as president of the European Commission, she will need to try and balance the demands of both ends of the political spectrum if she wishes to find success. 

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Sandro Gozi, the leading MEP in Renew, told Politico that he doesn’t believe that ECR’s upswing at the expense of his own party will provide any kind of fundamental change to the parliament’s policies and approach, arguing that the "pro-European majority" in the left-wing parties will prove enough to keep things much the same. 

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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How the UN emboldened Hezbollah terror regime as war with Israel imminent: 'Complete failure'

JERUSALEM — Nearly nine months of mounting tension between Israel and the radical Islamic Shiite terror group Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon looked set to implode this week after the U.S.-designated terror organization fired hundreds of missiles and rockets into northern Israel and the Israeli military responded with air strikes deeper inside Lebanon. 

As communities on both sides of the border reported widespread damage and destruction, leaders in each country ramped up the rhetoric, with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah saying Wednesday that "an invasion of the Galilee remains on the table," and Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz declaring on X: "We are getting very close to the moment of deciding to change the rules of the game against Hezbollah and Lebanon. In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed, and Lebanon severely beaten."

The increasing odds of an Israeli-Lebanon war come almost exactly 18 years after the previous round of fighting, and despite the existence of a U.N. Security Council resolution that is meant to preserve calm in the area and provide an international military force to keep the peace.

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In fact, Resolution 1701 — which was passed by the United Nations Security Council in August 2006 in an attempt to disarm Hezbollah and push it back from Israel’s border — seems to have had the opposite effect, analysts and experts told Fox News Digital this week, with the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) failing to prevent the Iranian-backed group from rearming itself. Some estimate that it may have acquired as many as 150,000 missiles and rockets of various types and ranges since the resolution was passed.

Jonathan Conricus, who previously served as the Israeli military liaison with UNIFIL, as well as the army’s special representative to the U.N., told Fox News Digital that "the whole security architecture of Resolution 1701, its framework, its implementation, and even its mandate, everything is a complete failure." 

Now a Senior Fellow at the Washington D.C.-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), Conricus said the resolution "failed to prevent the military buildup of Hezbollah and it failed to prevent the conditions for a third Lebanon War, which we now see unfolding." 

"It is really putting the whole region at risk for a significant war that will be much more severe than what we're facing with Hamas in Gaza," he said.

Conricus, who also previously served as the Israel Defense Forces' international media spokesperson, said that Hezbollah had used a combination of "soft" and "hard" power, including directly targeting peacekeepers, to render UNIFIL ineffective in its task of preventing or even reporting the group’s mounting violations to the Security Council. Instead, he said, they "fed the world a distorted picture of the reality on the ground whereby it appeared that the resolution was actually being implemented and that everything was okay." 

In Israel, military intelligence and local residents have been warning for years that Hezbollah was rearming and moving its forces closer to the border, placing observation posts and even its bright yellow flag in positions that were in clear sight of Israeli communities and army bases. 

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Following the brutal Oct. 7 attack in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists infiltrated civilian communities in southern Israel — and the regional tensions around the ensuing war in Gaza — Israeli authorities, fearing a similar attack from Hezbollah, decided to evacuate some 80,000 residents from their homes on the border with Lebanon. 

In Lebanon, there have been reports that Israeli airstrikes have damaged or destroyed around 1,700 homes in the southern border region and many civilians there, too, have also been forced to evacuate further to the north as the fighting escalates.   

"We are extremely concerned about the current situation and the potential for the conflict in the Middle East to escalate and widen," Farhan Aziz Haq, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told Fox News Digital. "The Secretary-General has warned that any escalation of the fighting would be a catastrophe for the region."

Haq said he believed the resolution had been successful in "contributing to over 18 years of relative stability for communities in northern Israel and southern Lebanon." He also said that the U.N.’s special coordinator for Lebanon, whose role is to mediate between Lebanon and Israel, and the UNIFIL force were still intensively engaged in the area. 

However, Haq said, "ultimately, it is the responsibility of the parties to implement Resolution 1701 and its success depends on the parties to re-commit to its full implementation and immediately return to a cessation of hostilities." 

UNIFIL, he said, was only there to support this implementation but could not replace the local parties or substitute for a longer-term political process. 

A former member of the peacekeeping force, who spoke to Fox News Digital on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of his position, confirmed that UNIFIL’s role was not to fight and that over the past 18 years it "never interfered with Hezbollah."

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"The message was very clear that we needed to step aside whenever Hezbollah started acting," the former serviceman said, adding that the force even reduced its patrols along the Israel-Lebanon border in order to avoid confrontation.

"UNIFIL is there to observe but will not put its troops in danger," he said. 

"One could even argue that Hezbollah has benefited from the U.N. presence because they’ve been able to use UNIFIL bases as cover, placing their firing positions nearby," he said. 

An Israeli official, speaking anonymously in order to comment more broadly on the U.N. and the failure to uphold the 1701 resolution, told Fox News Digital that Israel welcomed the presence of an international peacekeeping force on its northern border, but that the U.N. resolution was never properly implemented and that "from day one, Hezbollah began to rearm."

"UNIFIL chose not to engage because when it did try to stop Hezbollah, it was attacked," the official said, emphasizing that Hezbollah did everything but stay out of the area, amassing its terrorists and weapons along the border in plain sight. 

"The main problem is that the U.N. ignored Hezbollah’s small steps from the beginning and even now, when they are targeting civilians in Israel almost every day, the U.N. continues to ignore [Hezbollah’s] acts of violence," said the official. 

Michael Horowitz, head of intelligence for Le Beck, a Middle-East-based geopolitical consultancy, told Fox News Digital that "it is obvious to everyone the resolution has failed."

Horowitz — whose recent book, "Hope and Despair: Israel’s Future in the New Middle East," looks at Israel’s uncertain place in a region scarred by conflict and insecurity — pointed out that the resolution called "for the establishment of an ‘area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons’ other than the Lebanese army and UNIFIL, yet not a day has gone by since the resolution was passed 18 years ago that this key requirement was ever met." 

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"The opposite has happened," he said. "Hezbollah has maintained and entrenched its presence in southern Lebanon, in the de facto "buffer zone" that Resolution 1701 called for, and even along the border itself."

UNIFIL, Horowitz added, "has been constantly undermined by Hezbollah, with its forces unable to enter certain areas without facing violence and intimidation by the U.S.-designated terror group." 

"The only reason there has been 18 years of quiet along that border is because of Israel’s military deterrence, and the fact that neither Israel nor Hezbollah are interested in a conflict," he said. 

Dr. Eyal Pinko, a senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, also said that the 18 years of relative quiet on the Israel-Lebanon border had nothing to do with the U.N. resolution or the international force sent there to enforce it but was due to external factors. 

"Following the Second Lebanon War, which ended in 2006, Hezbollah had to rebuild its forces, receiving support from Iran, that took about seven or eight years," he said. "Then they became engaged in the civil war in Syria, sending hundreds of troops to help the regime of [President Bashar] Assad — this was their main priority and war with Israel was less relevant."

After assisting in stabilizing Assad’s position in Syria, Hezbollah faced some economic hardships as its benefactor, Iran, cut back on funding due to sanctions imposed during the Trump administration. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic and a deadly 2020 explosion at Beirut’s main port, which was said to have been at a Hezbollah weapons facility, have left the country’s economy in tatters. 

This week, President Biden’s Special Envoy Amos Hochstein visited the region in an attempt to mediate a diplomatic solution and restore calm before it turns into a full-blown war between the sides. Following a day of meetings with Israeli leaders on Tuesday, he headed to the Lebanese capital, Beirut, where he told journalists in a briefing that the "situation is serious." 

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"We have seen an escalation over the last few weeks, and what President Biden wants to do is to avoid a further escalation to a greater war," said Hochstein, who in 2022 succeeded in mediating a maritime agreement between the two countries. "That is the effort here. It will take everyone’s interest in ending this conflict now. And we believe that there is a pathway diplomatically to do it. If the sides agree to it." 

Hochstein, who made no mention of Resolution 1701 or the international UNIFIL force, did not say what the administration believes is the pathway to preventing war and bringing peace to the region.

Jonathan Schanzer, also from the FDD, said Resolution 1701 "has only reinforced the absurdity of the U.N., and its ability to broker peace in the Middle East." 

"Hezbollah never stopped operating in southern Lebanon," he said, adding, "If anything, the group has tightened its stranglehold on Lebanon over the last 18 years, and that has enabled the group to stockpile more advanced weapons and prepare the ground for the battle that looms."

Schanzer said that while part of the problem definitely stemmed from the lack of a legitimate mandate for UNIFIL and was also partly due to corruption in the Lebanese Armed Forces, which is supposed to bolster UNIFIL’s work, ultimately "it all tracks back to the U.N.’s inability to acknowledge its own shortcomings and failures." 

"We all knew the system failed years ago, but the fiction of a functioning apparatus was perpetuated nonetheless," he said.

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Hot tub death: Wife files wrongful death lawsuit, calls for 'accountability'

A Texas woman has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against two Mexican resort travel companies, seeking more than $1 million, after her husband tragically died after being electrocuted in a resort hot tub.

In the lawsuit, Lizzette Zambrano, from El Paso County, Texas, named vacation rental companies Casago LLC, Casago International LLC and High Desert Travel Inc., which operated Sonoran Sea Resort, where she was staying with her husband, Jorge Guillen.

Zambrano accused the companies of being "grossly negligent" and has called for the companies to "take accountability" for her 43-year-old husband's death.

"I want somebody to take accountability for what happened to my husband and myself," Zambrano told ABC’s "Good Morning America."

MEXICO HOT TUB DEATH: US TOURIST WHO WAS ELECTROCUTED REMEMBERED AS ‘BIG FAMILY MAN’ WHO HAD ‘HEART OF GOLD’

The lawsuit paints a picture of the couple's last moments together before being electrocuted in a hot tub while vacationing.

As soon as Guillen entered the tub, he was "exposed to an electrical current in the water," it said.

"Jorge immediately keeled over into the tub and was taken under the surface of the water," the lawsuit said. "Witnessing her husband immediately collapse, Lizzette sprang forward from the pool deck to try and grab Jorge’s body."

Zambrano attempted to rescue him, but was also shocked. 

She was eventually rescued by a bystander and taken to a hospital.

"Patrons attempted to assist, grabbing a shepherd’s cross and other items to attempt to get Jorge’s body," the lawsuit said. "However, the metal from the objects carried the electrical current and began shocking the rescuers."

The lawsuit said it took "ten painstaking minutes" before staff members "availed themselves and began to assist in rescuing Jorge."

MAN KILLED AFTER GETTING ELECTROCUTED IN SEASIDE RESORT JACUZZI 

"At no time prior to this, did Defendants seek to engage the emergency shutoff for the jacuzzi or attempt any rescue of either Jorge or Lizzette," it said. "Jorge was being electrocuted and drowned under water for 10 minutes."

Guillen was remembered in a GoFundMe for having a "heart of gold."

"Our best friends have experienced a horrible accident. Jorge had a heart of gold and was always there for family and friends. The love they shared was one for ages," reads a GoFundMe page set up for the couple. 

In a comment to the New York Post, Casago denied responsibility. 

"The Sonoran Sea is a condo resort and the homeowners' association is responsible for all common areas, including the maintenance of the swimming pool, hot tubs, and grounds," they said. "Casago, a vacation rental company, is not involved in any management or maintenance of the resort."

Fox News Digital has reached out to Sonoran Sea Resort for comment.

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Newly found Assyrian camp supports epic biblical account, expert says

A recent discovery in Israel may corroborate an epic biblical account of an angel of the Lord wiping out 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, an independent scholar claims.

Stephen Compton, an independent scholar specializing in Near Eastern archaeology, utilized a modern mapping technique to find the discovery of, what he believes, are ancient Assyrian military camps, from circa 700 B.C.

The discovery, which is also detailed in Assyrian texts, Greek histories and the Hebrew Bible, could verify the biblical account of 2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37: 36-38 and 2 Chronicles, 32:21.

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The scholar detailed his finds in the journal Near Eastern Archaeology and shared with Fox News Digital the historical significance.

"One of the important cities that he conquered, which is mentioned in the Bible as well as in Assyrian documents, is Lachish," he said. "And on the wall of Sennacherib's palace he had a relief depicting, in stone carving, the conquest of the city of Lachish, and then after one side his military camp. And his military camp was a large oval. This image from the wall of his palace is now on the wall of the British Museum. But it's never been found."

Matching the landscape to the relief in Assyrian King Sennacherib's palace and using early aerial photographs of Lachish prior to modern development, Compton created a virtual map to pinpoint the site of the military camp.

The oval shape of Assyrian King Sennacherib's military camp helped narrow down Compton's research.

"We knew it was an oval. What I did was I took the image of the relief and match it up with recognizable features in the landscape with the actual landscape and overlayed the two," he said. "I used earlier photographs of the landscape from World War II, right before major changes were made."

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"And it was a match," he said.

Compton said the military camp's location, position, dates and name fit into the historical context of Sennacherib’s invasion camp.

Compton shared that he hopes an archaeological excavation team will investigate the site to provide additional information.

"I think it's exciting to have found the spot, and I hope that we'll soon see archaeological excavations there that can give us more information about the site," he said.

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