A U.S.-owned ship in the Gulf of Aden was hit by a missile fired from Yemen on Monday, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. Central Command identified the vessel as the M/V Gibraltar Eagle, a Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier. The ship is owned by Eagle Bulk, a Stamford, Connecticut-based shipping firm.

‘On Jan. 15 at approximately 4 p.m. (Sanaa time), Iranian-backed Houthi militants fired an anti-ship ballistic missile from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and struck the M/V Gibraltar Eagle, a Marshall Islands-flagged, U.S.-owned and operated container ship,’ U.S. Central Command said on X. According to the statement, there were no reported injuries or significant damage. The vessel is continuing its journey.

This is the 30th attack on commercial vessels by the Houthi’s since November 19th.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which oversees Mideast waters, also confirmed Monday’s attack, saying it happened some 110 miles southeast of Aden. 

UKMTO has received a report of an incident 95NM South East of Aden, Yemen. Master reports port side of vessel hit from above by a missile.’

‘Authorities are investigating. Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity to UKMTO,’ it added.

Since the U.S. strikes on Thursday night and the one on Friday night, Houthi rebels have fired at least three ballistic missiles and one cruise missile toward international shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. 

These attacks include the Houthi’s firing one ballistic missile into the Red Sea on Friday, Jan. 12th. No ships were impacted. 

On Sunday, Jan 14th, a U.S. fighter jet intercepted a cruise missile that Houthi militants fired toward the USS Laboon in the southern Red Sea.  

In addition to the attack on the Gibraltar Eagle, U.S. Central Command said a second missile was fired from Yemen earlier in the day. It did not enter commercial shipping lanes. 

‘Earlier in the day, at approximately 2 p.m. (Sanaa time), U.S. Forces detected an anti-ship ballistic missile fired toward the Southern Red Sea commercial shipping lanes. The missile failed in flight and impacted on land in Yemen. There were no injuries or damage reported,’ the statement read.

No group claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack.

Attacks against U.S. forces and commercial vessels have increased in the months since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7. 

This report is developing and will be updated. 

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

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is calling for the firing of federal workers who are reportedly planning to walk out on their jobs in protest of U.S. policy on Israel and Gaza.

He suggested the House of Representatives would help ensure that employees who protest on Tuesday are punished.

‘Any government worker who walks off the job to protest U.S. support for our ally Israel is ignoring their responsibility and abusing the trust of taxpayers. They deserve to be fired,’ Johnson stated on X Sunday.

‘Oversight Chairman Comer and I will be working together to ensure that each federal agency initiates appropriate disciplinary proceedings against any person who walks out on their job.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the House Oversight Committee for further comment. 

Johnson was responding to a report by Middle East-focused outlet Al-Monitor that said hundreds of federal employees from 22 government agencies pledged to participate in a walkout on Tuesday. 

The group reportedly staging the protest, Feds United for Peace, is doing so in opposition to the Biden administration’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas. It’s reportedly advertising the event as a ‘Day of Mourning’ to mark 100 days since Israel’s invasion of Gaza began.

Fox News Digital found an Instagram account called ‘Feds United for Peace’ advertising a ‘Day of Mourning’ for Gaza on Jan. 16. 

According to one post, they label themselves ‘a group of federal employees representing a range of federal agencies who believe it is our patriotic duty and moral imperative to urge our government to support calls for a ceasefire, and support humanitarian aid and access for Gaza.’

The issue of Israel has been driving a wedge between establishment Democrats and hardline leftists since Hamas militants invaded the country on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said that more than 24,000 people have been killed so far in Israel’s response.

U.S. participation in the conflict escalated last week when it partnered with the U.K. to lead a coalition air attack on Houthi positions in Yemen.

Progressives like Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Cori Bush, D-Mo., blasted the Biden administration for skirting Congress for the bombings. 

The White House is calling on Israel to scale back its military offensive in the Gaza Strip as the country’s war with Hamas in Gaza crossed the 100-day milestone.

On Sunday, the official 100th day of the conflict, U.S. officials said ‘it’s the right time’ for Israel to transition to ‘low-intensity operations’ in Gaza. The comment was met with Israeli leaders again vowing to continue with their ground operation through the Gaza Strip to eradicate the ruling Hamas militant group.

During a public interview on Sunday, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. has been speaking to Israel ‘about a transition to low-intensity operations’ in Gaza.

‘We believe it’s the right time for that transition. And we’re talking to them about doing that,’ he added.

Kirby credited Israel with having taken some ‘precursory steps’ toward scaling down its offensive, but said there was more to do.

‘We’re not saying let your foot up off the gas completely and don’t keep going after Hamas,’ he continued. ‘It’s just that we believe the time is coming here very, very soon for a transition to this lower intensity phase.’

In a short and sure response, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed Sunday that Israel would continue its war against Hamas.

‘It’s been 100 days, yet we will not stop until we win,’ he said.

The war in Gaza, launched by Israel after Hamas-led forces carried out an unprecedented terror attack on Israeli soil on Oct. 7, has killed nearly 24,000 Palestinians and displaced approximately 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million residents. Israel faces a world court hearing over genocide allegations stemming from the deaths.

Hamas’ initial terror attack killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 others hostage. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue fighting until Hamas is destroyed and the remaining 100+ hostages still in captivity are freed.

Separately, tens of thousands of people in Europe and the Middle East took to the streets Sunday to mark the 100th day of the war. These included opposing demonstrations with some groups demanding the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas or and others calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Biden campaign raised more than $97 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, and has $117 million cash-on-hand — the ‘highest total of any Democratic candidate in history’ at this point in a presidential election cycle.

The campaign announced Monday that President Biden’s re-election campaign is entering the 2024 presidential election year with ‘historic resources,’ and touted the campaign’s grassroots efforts.

‘This historic haul—proudly powered by strong and growing grassroots enthusiasm—sends a clear message: the Team Biden-Harris coalition knows the stakes of this election and is ready to win this November,’ Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said. ‘Across our coalition, we are seeing early, sustained support that is helping us scale our growing operation across the country and take our message to the communities that will determine this election.’

She added: ‘Our democracy and hard-fought basic rights and freedoms are on the line in 2024, and these numbers prove that the American people know the stakes and are taking action early to help defeat the extreme MAGA Republican agenda again.’

The campaign out-raised its Q3 numbers. In October, the campaign announced it raised approximately $71 million in the third quarter of 2023. 

The campaign said it has successfully grown its cash on hand for the last three quarters – starting at $77 million in Q2, to $91 million in Q3, and now $117 million at the end of Q4.

‘While most of the Republicans have not yet announced their fundraising numbers, we fully expect to lap them…Several times.’ Biden Senior Advisor for Communications TJ Ducklo said.

The Biden campaign, in December, had its strongest grassroots fundraising month, breaking its previous record from November. The campaign said nearly 1 million supporters have made more than 2.3 million contributions.

The campaign reported that 97% of its donations in Q4 were under $200, with the campaign seeing an average grassroots contribution of $41.88.

Reflecting on its fundraising history, the campaign said its ‘Cup of Joe’ contest to meet with Biden and Vice President Harris was the campaign’s ‘most successful contest to date, raising over $3 million.’

The campaign has also held 110 fundraisers since President Biden announced his re-election campaign —including 39 in the last quarter of 2023.

In December, Biden raised more than $15 million during a fundraising blitz. 

First, the president attended a fundraising event in Boston, Massachusetts, which featured a concert by singer-songwriter James Taylor. Front-row tickets sold for $7,500 per seat.

Then, he traveled to Los Angeles for a Hollywood fundraiser hosted by Steven Spielberg, Shona Rhimes, CEO of Paramount Pictures Jim Gianopulos, actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner, and others. Top tickets for that event were said to be $930,000 each. 

But the campaign said the numbers tell a story — and reflect efforts across not just the Biden re-election campaign, but the Democratic National Committee and its joint-fundraising committees.

The campaign said one-third of its donors are new donors since the 2020 campaign.

‘As Republicans burn through millions of dollars in their race to out-MAGA each other, grassroots supporters across the country are pitching in to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and stop MAGA extremism in its tracks,’ DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said. ‘This historic haul—powered by grassroots donors—makes it clear that voters understand the stakes of this election and they’re ready to stand up and fight for our democracy and freedoms.’

Harrison said the Biden campaign and the DNC are working ‘as one team with a single mission.’

That mission is ‘to build a winning campaign that has the resources to send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris back to the White House, and elect Democrats up and down the ballot.’ 

The campaign announced the numbers on the day of the Iowa caucuses — the first-in-the-nation presidential primary contests. With Joe Biden running unopposed in the Democratic primary, all eyes are on Republicans.

Voters, for the first time, will choose between former President Trump, who is leading the GOP field by a massive margin; former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

FIRST ON FOX – The Biden administration is facing pressure from numerous human rights and religious groups for failing to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (‘CPC’) for the brutal killing of over 200 Christians last month. 

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, two dozen interest groups, including Advancing American Freedom, Alliance Defending Freedom, the Hudson Institute, former Ambassador Sam Brownback and former defense and national security officials, scolded the State Department for its ‘refusal’ to designate Nigeria as a CPC – calling the lack of action ‘unconscionable.’

‘Less than two weeks ago, almost 200 Nigerian Christians became martyrs while celebrating Christmas. According to one account, these Christians were ‘killed for sport.’ Just weeks earlier, the Christian Association of Nigeria received a letter threatening them against celebrating Christmas,’ the letter sent Monday states.

‘The international religious freedom community stands outraged at your refusal to hold these acts of evil to account,’ it continues.

The letter notes that the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a Nigeria-based nonprofit, has found that more than 52,000 Christians have been killed and more than 14 million Christians have been forced to flee Nigeria since 2009. 

Over that same period, Intersociety also found that 18,000 churches and 2,200 schools had been attacked, according to the letter.

On Jan. 4, Blinken announced that he’d designated a series of countries, including Iran and Russia, as a CPC, but Nigeria was notably left off the list. 

The letter says that ‘within hours’ of Blinken’s announcement, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) called for a congressional hearing, and international religious freedom advocates ‘publicly criticized’ his decision.

USCIRF is a federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and consists of commissioners who are appointed by the president and a bipartisan group of congressional leaders.

Nigeria, which is a hub for Boko Haram, was added to the list during the Trump administration but has been left off the list since 2021.

According to the Pew Research Center, Nigeria has the largest Christian population of any country in Africa, with over 80 million believers. 

‘The eyes of the world look to the United States as a beacon of hope and freedom. Religious freedom is grounded in the American founding, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, and quintessential to what it means to be an American,’ the letter states. 

‘When the United States stands silent as evil runs amok, the world takes notice,’ it concludes.  

As America enters a pivotal election year, faced with a decision that will determine nothing less than the future of our country, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day offers us a moment to stop and reflect on where we have come and how far we have strayed from our foundational values.

Jan. 15, 2024, marks the 95th anniversary of the birth of my uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who, in 1963, stood upon the Lincoln Memorial steps and delivered his famed ‘I Have a Dream’speech – remarks that helped define the Civil Rights Movement and indeed the whole of the 20th century.

As MLK spoke that day, he reminded the masses that his dream was not set apart from America or our national story; instead, as a patriot, MLK’s dream was ‘deeply rooted in the American dream.’ As patriots, it is all our duty to keep that dream alive.

In contrast, today, in 2024, Americans have seen the opposite of this dream come to life. Violent protesters have rioted and looted our cities and small businesses, which flies in the face of my uncle’s commitment to nonviolent protest.

The current administration has focused on expanding abortions and taking away parental rights over children, opposing school choice, and even spying on communities of faith. 

Israel has come under violent attack and faces terrorism and hate in the most extreme form since the Holocaust, while the leaders of our major universities and academic institutions have refused to condemn these acts of brutal savagery against the Jewish people.

In my mind, these recent actions are the ultimate betrayal of my uncle’s legacy. Indeed, Rev. King taught civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance to injustice in everything he did. He taught that ‘we must come together as brothers’ – and here I will add ‘and as sisters’ – so that we do not ‘perish together as fools.’

MLK also taught we are the one-blood human race, based on Scripture: ‘…and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation…’ (Acts 17:26). 

I, too, believe that we are ‘one blood/one human race.’ What’s most important is that we respond to each other’s concerns without violence, in unity and peace, so that we can affirm the fundamental truths that make our nation the greatest on Earth.

In that spirit, my uncle always remained a man of peace who sought justice and preached unity, and he would be abhorred by the violence on our streets today.

My uncle also said once that our people ‘cannot win’ if we are ‘willing to sacrifice [our] children for immediate personal comfort and safety.’ He followed this sentiment with one of his most iconic lines: ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’

This strikes me as eerily similar to the debate we are having on abortion in America today. It also leads me to ask our country the following question: ‘How can the dream survive if we murder the children?’

Of course, we agree that a woman has a right to choose what she will do with her own body. However, the baby in her womb is not her body but an independent creation with the breath of life from God himself. Where is the choice for the baby?

As we ponder these truths, we must examine the spirit of error that has taken hold of our lawmakers, deceived our nation’s people, and hoodwinked the entire world regarding the sanctity of life. 

This spirit of error tells us that a living, breathing, independent baby in her mother’s womb is not worthy of value or protection. It is this same spirit of error that tells us an unborn child is simply a ‘clump of cells’ rather than a human being made in the image and likeness of God. 

For far too long, our society has accepted the lie being pushed by the government, media and education system that abortion is a proper remedy for women’s health issues, financial struggles, relationship woes and even racial justice. 

But the reality is that the answer to these things is not allowing us to kill our children. Instead, the answer is in seeing God with our hearts. Therein lies the source of the ‘possible dream.’

So, this year, as we reflect on the 95th anniversary of my uncle’s life and legacy, let us pray that our efforts and examples in our interactions with one another will reflect God’s love for us all. 

Let us embrace a time for repentance, forgiveness, revival and jubilee. Imperfect vessels, though we are, we can all work together to bring an end to the evils we face in America today. 

By doing so, we may someday live in a country that Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed about – a nation that cherishes all life from the womb to the tomb.

The late, very wise Andrew Breitbart famously and correctly said politics flows downstream from culture.  

Not unlike politics — though less cringey — the musical tone in the country is also set by culture. The power of music is real. It’s capable of eliciting strong emotional responses in us. 

The songs that resonate with us, and we gravitate toward, are the ones we find most relatable and are often a reflection of our values and worldview — a worldview which shapes our musical taste. 

Even if country music isn’t your thing, you’ve likely heard of the 31-year-old megastar with crossover appeal.  

His song, ‘Last Night,’ was the most streamed song of 2023 across all genres on Apple and Spotify, as well as the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 for the year. 

In addition to the most streamed song of the year, the unassuming country boy who is selling out Taylor-Swift-size stadiums surpassed Swift to land the top album of the year on Billboard’s 200 chart with ‘One Thing at a Time.’ 

He also racked up his eleventh career No. 1 hit on country radio in December with ‘Everything I Love,’ and finished the year with the highest grossing country tour. 

Put quite simply, Wallen dominated 2023. 

To say he’s an epic conundrum for the cancel culture class is an understatement. If it were up to them, this would have been the year that wasn’t.  

In 2021, while on a drunk bender, he was secretly recorded in a leaked video calling his white friend the ‘N’ word. He immediately apologized, canceled his concert tour, checked himself into rehab and donated half a million dollars to Black causes.  

Radio stations pulled his music, multiple media platforms including Cumulus, iHeart Radio, Sirius XM and Country Music Television canceled him. His record label suspended him, and he was banned from the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards. 

Despite all of that, it still wasn’t enough for the cancel culture crowd and media elites who wanted him completely erased from existence. You know, like they did with Hunter Biden after his racist text messages were released and like they do with all rap music.  

Just kidding.  

His fans believed he had done his penance, gave him time served and canceled cancel culture on his behalf. As it turns out, his comeback has proven greater than his setback. 

With the spotlight stuck on him, the raw talent of this not-so-average, small-town boy from Tennessee shined bright. 

Even many in the Black community seemingly agreed he atoned for his sin, as he ended 2021 No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop chart for his song with rapper Lil Durk. 

Laughably, the woke brass in the country music industry are still trying to shun Wallen out of existence. At last year’s CMA Awards, they gave the not-so friendly finger to their industry’s biggest star, leaving him empty-handed after he had a massive record-crushing year, and was nominated in three categories. His response on social media was all class: 

‘Walked in tonight a winner, didn’t leave no different.’ 

Billboard agreed, they awarded him 11 wins at their awards ceremony last year — the most wins by any artist since Drake in 2019. 

Oliver Anthony didn’t even bother with the woke music industry — one that would have canceled ‘Rich Men North of Richmond,’ the blue-collar song that rails against the government, before the last chord was played. Then, an unknown name, he uploaded the song on YouTube. It went viral and topped the charts on Apple, Spotify and Billboard Hot 100. 

And his fans most certainly agree. In case there’s still any misconception that his base is just a bunch of low-information hillbillies, he’ll be performing at MetLife Stadium this spring — that’s in New Jersey, not the deep south. The stadium seats 82,500 people. And he’ll be there for two nights. 

The out of touch suits at the CMAs might be the only ones who don’t understand winners and losers in this scenario. 

In country music recently — from Wallen and Jason Aldean to John Rich — we’ve seen cracks start to form in the foundation of cancel culture. 

If you remember last year they screamed ‘racism’ at Aldean for his music video ‘Try That in a Small Town,’ which called out violent crime in our cities. Aldean and his fans weren’t having it, and fans responded by sending the song to No. 1 on iTunes. 

Blackballed by Nashville’s Music Row because he’s too politically incorrect, Rich started going around the industry brass to release his music on various free speech online platforms. His fans are following him, and in 2022 his song ‘Progress’ hit number one on iTunes. 

Oliver Anthony didn’t even bother with the woke music industry — one that would have canceled ‘Rich Men North of Richmond,’ the blue-collar song that rails against the government, before the last chord was played. Then, an unknown name, he uploaded the song on YouTube. It went viral and topped the charts on Apple, Spotify and Billboard Hot 100. 

People want music they can relate to. 

For years, country music fans have been the brunt of overplayed jokes about beer, trucks and women. Hilarious.   

The truth is, the culture of country music goes much deeper, with traditions rooted in faith, family and patriotism, and fans who are fiercely loyal.  

Country music is recognizing the cultural moment. Fans don’t want their culture corrupted. Artists are noticing what happens every time one of them stands up against woke insanity — their fans rally firmly behind them, not the transplanted West Coast suits in the industry.  

This backlash is a contagious energy that will likely only embolden more artists to take a stand and stay true to their roots. If it continues, stay tuned for more sold-out stadiums in 2024. 

It could very well be this is the year cancel culture crumbles. 

JERUSALEM – Top Iran experts in the U.S. and in Israel are warning President Biden that his administration’s strategy of de-escalation and containment targeting the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism – the Islamic Republic of Iran – has failed and America needs to reestablish deterrence against Tehran as fears of the regime obtaining a nuclear device grow.

Alarming reports about Iran moving at an astonishingly fast pace to possess a nuclear weapon have emerged since last month.

In December, Reuters reported that a confidential IAEA report released to member states said it had ‘increased its production of highly enriched uranium, reversing a previous output reduction from mid-2023.’ Reuters also said in its report ‘that Iran is enriching to up to 60%, close to the roughly 90% that is weapons grade, at its Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) in its sprawling Natanz complex and at its Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), which is dug into a mountain.’

In a report titled ‘How quickly could Iran make nuclear weapons today?’ published earlier this month by David Albright, a physicist and founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, stated, ‘The long pole in the tent of building nuclear weapons is essentially complete. Iran can quickly make enough weapon-grade uranium for many nuclear weapons, something it could not do in 2003.’ Albright said Iran had a ‘crash nuclear weapons program’ up until 2003, which it then changed to a ‘more dispersed nuclear weapons effort.’

In his report, Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, wrote, ‘Today, it would need only about a week to produce enough for its first nuclear weapon. It could have enough weapon-grade uranium for six weapons in one month, and after five months of producing weapon-grade uranium, it could have enough for 12.’

Asked by Fox News Digital about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a State Department spokesperson said, ‘As the President and the Secretary have made clear, the United States will ensure one way or another that Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon. We continue to use a variety of tools in pursuit of that goal, and all options remain on the table. As the Secretary has said, we always prefer diplomacy to achieve that goal, but given Iran’s nuclear escalations and its failure to cooperate with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], unfortunately we are far away from anything like that right now.’

Gabriel Noronha, a former U.S. Department State adviser on Iran, told Fox News Digital, ‘Biden’s hope has been to bribe Iran not to advance its nuclear program through economic concessions and non-enforcement of sanctions. Iran advanced its nuclear program anyway and pocketed the extra revenue from oil sales to increase funding to its terror proxies. We have had zero wins on the Iran file in the past three years, but seen their strength return from their weakened state during the policy of maximum pressure.’

In addition to the nuclear fears, critics worry about Iran’s proxies disrupting the world’s economy. The lack of counterattacks against the regime has compounded the dangers for international navigation in the vital Red Sea passage, which is linked to Israel’s port of Eilat and Egypt’s Suez Canal, argue experts. 

The U.S. and the U.K. on Friday and Saturday launched pinpoint air strikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen, whose slogan is: ‘Allah is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam.’

‘The United States needs to restart a diplomatic pressure campaign to have nations around the world place terror sanctions on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as its proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Dozens of countries in the West have not sanctioned these groups and are, accordingly, places where these terror groups can fundraise and conduct activities without appropriate scrutiny,’ Noronha said.

The Trump administration listed the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. However, after Biden entered the White House, he quickly delisted the Houthis as a terrorist entity in February 2021. 

When asked last week if the Houthis are a terrorist group, he said, ‘I think they are,’ but did not state if he plans re-designate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Houthi leaders claim their goal is to stop Israel’s campaign to root out Hamas in Gaza and permit aid to reach Gaza. Yet the Houthis have launched missile attacks against Saudi Arabian oil installations and its cities over the years. 

Saudi Arabia – ostensibly sensing U.S. weakness against Iran and the Houthis – is an important American ally in the Middle East but has started to drift out of Washington’s orbit toward American adversaries during the Biden presidency. 

Iran has been a zealous supporter of Hamas and has provided missiles to the terror organization and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.

Noronha, who is also a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), said, ‘The United States needs to reinstate a campaign of maximum economic pressure against the Iranian regime to cut off its ability to finance and support its terror proxies. Oil sales are the lifeblood of the regime’s terror funding, and the U.S. should start enforcing sanctions aggressively as the U.S. did from 2018-2020. Instead, the Biden administration has admitted it is looking the other way in the misplaced hope that it will help ‘de-escalate’ the tensions in the Middle East.’

Noronha is one of many veteran Middle East experts urging Biden’s administration to tackle Iran’s clerical regime with more economic pressure and force.

Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, an Israeli intelligence and security expert who is now a senior researcher at the Israeli Defense Security Forum, told Fox News Digital the Biden administration ‘should realize that this war is about their national security and global status as it is about the safety of American and Western citizens, and that sticking to the old strategy will eventually tempt Iran to break out for a nuclear weapon. Therefore, they should force Iran and its proxies to stop their violence and charge them with a much heavier price.’

The State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, ‘We take the Iranian threat very seriously overall, as a total package, and we are committed to confronting the full range of Iran’s problematic behaviors, from its human rights abuses to its advancement of its nuclear program, to its support for terrorism and lethal plotting.’

The spokesperson added, ‘Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and a serial human rights abuser. We are joined by a broad cross-section of like-minded partners in confronting all the threats and challenges to security emanating from Iran. And our policy is focused on practical ways to counter these threats. That said, we are constantly evaluating our approach to Iran and finding additional ways to add pressure.’

The Trump administration introduced a policy of maximum pressure, a potent amalgamation of diplomatic isolation, economic sanctions and military strikes to reverse Iran’s malign activities. Proponents of Trump’s maximum pressure strategy argue it deterred Iranian jingoism and terrorism and the Middle East was more stable during the 2016-2020 period. The Biden administration favors a path of diplomacy to influence a change in Iran’s behavior.

Fox News Digital sent numerous press queries to Iran’s U.N. Permanent Mission in New York and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran.

Reuters contributed to this report.

JERUSALEM — For the past three months, almost on a daily basis, Israeli ground troops fighting inside the war-weary Gaza Strip have been sending missives and images of tunnel shafts or underground complexes, including weapons dispensaries or bunkers, discovered beneath homes, schools, mosques and hospitals. 

In some cases, the tunnels are simple warrens enabling Hamas fighters to ambush Israeli soldiers; in others, the shafts are vast, elaborate creations replete with elevators, electricity and full ventilation systems. 

Some are even equipped with bedrooms, bathrooms and dining rooms, as well as command centers for Hamas to carry out its ongoing military operation against Israel. In one of those command centers, the IDF uncovered a video of Hamas’ Southern Brigade Commander, Mohammed Sinwar, brother of the group’s top leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, driving a car through a broad underground passage. 

According to Israeli military estimates shared with Fox News Digital, Hamas, the Islamic terror group that sparked the war with Israel, has spent tens of millions of dollars — and the last 16 years as it governed Gaza — designing, digging and cementing an entire subterranean system rivaling London’s Underground or Paris’s Metro.

A report sent by IDF troops Thursday said it was likely Hamas ‘used more than 6,000 tons of concrete and 1,800 tons of metal to build hundreds of miles of underground infrastructure.’   

While the existence of what Israelis refer to as the ‘Gaza Metro,’ which Palestinians call ‘Lower Gaza,’ has been well known about for years, with Hamas leaders even boasting about it, the question remains how, in one of the world’s most poverty-stricken territories, which relies largely on aid from U.N. agencies, regional and Western powers, the terror group had the financial means to invest in such an intricate and expansive terror tunnel network.

‘I don’t know if anybody knows exactly how much money Hamas spent on building this tunnel system,’ Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of Shurat HaDin, the Israel Law Center, told Fox News Digital. 

Darshan-Leitner, whose 2017 book ‘Harpoon’ takes a deep dive into how terror groups, including Hamas, find their funding, said she did not believe that at this stage even the IDF understands the extent of Hamas’ underground metropolis.

‘Every day they are surprised to find another tunnel; they are surprised by its length, its complexity, how many floors it has, how wide it is. I don’t think they have the whole picture yet,’ she said.

She added that building such an elaborate system would likely have cost ‘tens of millions of dollars, if not more. The question is where did the money come from?’ 

As the governing body in Gaza, Darshan-Leitner said a large bulk of Hamas’ funds were levied from the Strip’s 2.2 million residents via ordinary taxes, even as aid agencies such as the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA; the Palestinian Authority, which governs Palestinians in the West Bank; and regional powers like Qatar provided crucial humanitarian services or built key infrastructure projects in the coastal enclave. 

‘Hamas took taxes from its residents and let others pay for everything that, as a government, it was supposed to take care of,’ Darshan-Leitner said. She described how for most of the past two decades, Qatar supplied oil and funded humanitarian projects, the PA covered the costs of electricity, water, health and education, while UNRWA – including with funding from the U.S. – took care of a wide variety of needs for some 75% of the population considered refugees. 

‘Hamas does not need to pay a dime for the population. Everything is taking care of by others,’ she said. ‘This allows them to use their money for military purposes.’ 

Juliette Touma, director of communications for UNRWA, told Fox News Digital the agency had no knowledge that its activities, which she said were mandated by the U.N. General Assembly, enabled Hamas the freedom to build the tunnels. 

‘We are a humanitarian United Nations agency,’ she said. ‘We provide, through UNRWA staff, screened and scrutinized humanitarian assistance to people. There is no third party.’ 

However, Hamas leaders have admitted to taking advantage of the fact that the U.N. and others care for the civilians to build a vast tunnel network beneath the enclave. In a recent interview, Qatari-based Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk said the reason Hamas built no bomb shelters for Gaza’s population — only tunnels for Hamas fighters to hide and fight — was because it was the U.N.’s responsibility to ‘protect’ the majority of Gaza’s population. 

Funding the tunnel project from inflated taxation and minimal governing responsibility, however, forms just a small portion of Hamas’ terror income, Dr. Ronnie Shaked, a researcher on Palestinian Affairs at the Truman Institute at Hebrew University, told Fox News Digital. 

He said the U.S-designated terror group, like other Islamic organizations in the region, was closely aligned with Iran and clandestinely received millions of dollars a year, as well as weapons and military training from Tehran.

‘It is all part of an Iranian doctrine,’ said Shaked, a former senior correspondent and commentator on Palestinian Affairs for the popular Hebrew daily Yedioth Aharanoth and author of a book studying the rise of Hamas within Palestinian society.

He said Hamas had not only invested billions of dollars in building the tunnels but also devoted a huge amount of manpower and effort to create an underground city, where the top Hamas leaders have been hiding for most of the past 100 days. 

‘In order to create a tunnel that is around 400 km (250 miles) over 15 years, then you need millions of dollars. You also need tools and tens of thousands of workers to dig and find ways to remove all the sand and dust from inside the tunnels,’ he said. ‘Then there’s the electrical system, ventilation system and special machinery needed to build it all.’ 

Shaked said designing such tunnels and mapping them out in a coastal territory like the Gaza Strip would also have required top-notch engineers who could contend with the unique topography and proximity to the sea, as well as designers mapping out complex routes beneath the densely populated enclave. 

According to the former journalist, Hamas’ tunnel project began in the early 2000s with underground passageways used to smuggle goods from Egypt into the enclave. The terror group quickly moved on to attack tunnels snaking beneath the border with Israel, which were used most notably in 2006 when Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was attacked and kidnapped back to Gaza. At that same time, Hamas also started creating its complex network of tunnels beneath the homes, schools and medical centers of its own people.

While a large part of the covert funding came from Iran, Shaked also noted that, over the years, Qatar was also directly involved in sending millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip. In the early days, much of the funding arrived in cash-filled suitcases, first smuggled into Gaza via Egypt. But, later, after a special Mossad unit tasked with tracking and thwarting the flow of money to Hamas was disbanded, it arrived as part of a special arrangement with Israel. 

Beginning in 2018, Qatar’s Special Envoy to Gaza, Mohammed Al Emadi, was permitted to enter the Strip and hand-deliver millions of dollars in cash meant for humanitarian projects. Now, it appears that money too went straight into the hands of Hamas. 

‘In recent years, instead of fighting the terror financing, Israel began to allow money to flow into Gaza, including enabling Qatar to give the cash straight to Hamas,’ Darshan-Leitner said. She described an official Israeli policy aimed at keeping the Palestinian leadership — Hamas in Gaza and the PA in the West Bank — divided and therefore preventing the creation of a cohesive Palestinian state. 

‘Israel also thought that if they gave money to Hamas and if they allowed Palestinians workers to enter Israel — if they allowed the people in Gaza just a little bit better quality of life — then they would have no reason to terrorize Israel,’ she said.

That plan backfired Oct. 7 when thousands of highly trained Hamas terrorists stormed across the border massacring some 1,200 Israelis on army bases, in their homes and at a music festival in the area. That attack initiated the current war, and now Israeli forces are working hard to dismantle Hamas’ underground terror threat and locate more than 130 Israeli nationals who it believes are being held hostage in the tunnels. 

Brig. Gen. (Retired) Yaakov Nagel, Israel’s former acting national security adviser and now a senior research fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said Hamas built ‘a full city beneath a city.’

‘We knew about the tunnels, but we didn’t know the width, the depth or the length of them,’ he said. ‘People estimated there was about 200 kilometers [125 miles], but it now looks like there’s thousands of kilometers.

‘In some places, there are three layers of tunnels. And in other places it is wide enough to drive a jeep,’ Nagel said. He noted it was clear a large chunk of the Qatari money meant to help Gaza civilians rebuild the strip following a previous round of fighting in 2014 ‘went to the terrorist group’s programs, its tunnels, its missiles, its weapons production sites and into the pockets of corrupt leaders.’ 

Before Oct. 7, he said, the military’s focus was only on destroying the tunnels that crossed the border into Israeli territory. Following the 2014 war — and mass border protests in Gaza in 2018 — Israel ramped up its border defense system, investing $1 billion on an underground barrier to block those tunnels and develop new intelligence technology above ground to monitor what was happening on the other side. 

‘Unfortunately, we now know it was a mistake because it pushed them to attack the weakest part of our defense, the one that relied solely on technology,’ said Nagel. ‘We had the intelligence, but we did not fully understand or digest it. So, when 3,000 terrorists forced their way into Israel in 33 places along the border using heavy machinery, there were not enough people on our side of the border to physically stop them.’

The surprise attack and now the surprises that the Israeli military is revealing inside Gaza are among the reasons, he said, that Israel is pushing for greater control of the Strip once the war is over. 

‘What we are dealing with now is so big, and it will be a lot of work to dismantle it all,’ Nagel said. ‘If Israel is not inside in the future, then it can’t control what is happening. And that is why Israel favors having greater control over Gaza the day after the war — so we don’t encounter any more surprises.’