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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 652

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LiveUpdated 35min ago

Hostages’ families: ‘Israel must join hands with the US, abandon the madness of eternal war’

Delayed response to updated ceasefire proposal partly because Hamas leaders are in Gaza tunnels, source says * South Syria death toll reaches 940, including over 180 executed Druze, says monitor

A policeman escorts a car carrying MK Ayman Odeh as right-wing demonstrators surround the vehicle in Nes Ziona, July 19, 2025. (X screenshot used in accordance with article 27a of the Copyright Law)

Right-wing protesters attack car transporting MK Ayman Odeh, chant ‘death to Arabs’

Three arrested for damaging vehicle; demonstrators curse the Hadash party leader, who vows he ‘won’t let the fascists win’ days after motion to expel him from the Knesset fails

Bedouin and tribal fighters gather in the streets of the city of Sweida in southern Syria's Druze majority province on July 19, 2025. (Bakr Alkasem/AFP)

Syria’s Sharaa urges Bedouin to honor truce with Druze, slams Israeli intervention

By Agencies and ToI Staff

FM Gideon Sa’ar accuses Syrian leader of ‘glorifying jihadists’ and victim blaming, says global community ‘has a duty to ensure the security and rights’ of Syria’s minority groups

IDF troops are seen deployed to the Syrian border near the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, early July 19, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Several dozen Israeli Druze enter Syria after allegedly acting violently toward troops

By Emanuel Fabian and Agencies

Left to right: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to staff at a Shin Bet facility, June 29, 2025. (Maayan Toaf/GPO); Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa attends the signing of an agreement for a regional energy project, in Damascus, Syria, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Israel and Syria have agreed to ceasefire, announces US envoy

By Agencies, ToI Staff and Emanuel Fabian

Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, right, meets with US Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, at the People's Palace in Damascus, Syria, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Syria erroneously thought it had green light from US, Israel to deploy troops to Sweida

By Timour Azhari, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Maya Gebeily

Fighters from Bedouin tribes gather near a burning building in al-Mazraa village, in Syria's southern Sweida governorate, as clashes with Druze gunmen continue on July 18, 2025 (OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

Israel says it’s allowing Syrian forces to enter Sweida for 48 hours amid renewed clashes

By Lazar Berman, Agencies and ToI Staff

LiveUpdated 35min ago

Hostages’ families: ‘Israel must join hands with the US, abandon the madness of eternal war’

Delayed response to updated ceasefire proposal partly because Hamas leaders are in Gaza tunnels, source says * South Syria death toll reaches 940, including over 180 executed Druze, says monitor

A policeman escorts a car carrying MK Ayman Odeh as right-wing demonstrators surround the vehicle in Nes Ziona, July 19, 2025. (X screenshot used in accordance with article 27a of the Copyright Law)

Right-wing protesters attack car transporting MK Ayman Odeh, chant ‘death to Arabs’

Three arrested for damaging vehicle; demonstrators curse the Hadash party leader, who vows he ‘won’t let the fascists win’ days after motion to expel him from the Knesset fails

Bedouin and tribal fighters gather in the streets of the city of Sweida in southern Syria's Druze majority province on July 19, 2025. (Bakr Alkasem/AFP)

Syria’s Sharaa urges Bedouin to honor truce with Druze, slams Israeli intervention

By Agencies and ToI Staff

FM Gideon Sa’ar accuses Syrian leader of ‘glorifying jihadists’ and victim blaming, says global community ‘has a duty to ensure the security and rights’ of Syria’s minority groups

Several dozen Israeli Druze enter Syria after allegedly acting violently toward troops

By Emanuel Fabian and Agencies

Israel and Syria have agreed to ceasefire, announces US envoy

By Agencies, ToI Staff and Emanuel Fabian

Syria erroneously thought it had green light from US, Israel to deploy troops to Sweida

By Timour Azhari, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Maya Gebeily

Israel says it’s allowing Syrian forces to enter Sweida for 48 hours amid renewed clashes

By Lazar Berman, Agencies and ToI Staff

'People need to pay a price, not just be reprimanded'

US envoy demands ‘harsh consequences’ as he visits Christian town attacked by settlers

Touring Taybeh, Mike Huckabee says ‘desecrating a church, mosque or synagogue is a crime against humanity and God’ following arson attack on ruins of Christian house of worship

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee (C) shakes hands with Father Daoud Khoury of the Greek Orthodox Church during his visit to the Christian Palestinian village of Taybeh in the West Bank on July 19, 2025. (Jaafar Aashtityeh/AFP)

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee delivers remarks as US President Donald Trump hosts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a dinner in the Blue Room of the White House on July 7, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik / Getty Images via AFP)

Huckabee threatens to declare Israel does not welcome Christians, as visa row blows open

By Lazar Berman and ToI Staff

Matt Gaetz during a One America News broadcast on July 16, 2025. (Screen capture/X)

In sign of shift, far-right US network airs segment on unchecked settler violence

By ToI Staff, Jacob Magid and Nurit Yohanan

Left: National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, January 16, 2025; Right: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, January 13, 2025. (Both photos by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

In EU first, Slovenia to ban Ben Gvir and Smotrich over ‘genocidal statements’

By Agencies and ToI Staff

A Palestinian woman mourns over the body of a man said to have been killed near a food distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US- and Israel-backed organization, at the Nasser hospital on July 19, 2025 (AFP)

Palestinians say at least 26 killed near Gaza aid sites; IDF says troops fired warning shots

By Agencies, Emanuel Fabian and ToI Staff

Military says crowd approached troops in a way that ‘threatened’ them a kilometer away from food-distribution site, is investigating reports of mass casualties in latest deadly incident

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III in Gaza City's Holy Family Church, July 18, 2025, a day after the church was damaged by a shell fired from a nearby Israeli tank (Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem)

Jerusalem’s highest-ranking Christian officials enter Gaza to visit church hit by IDF

By Reuters and Lazar Berman

This picture taken from Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing over destroyed buildings during an Israeli strike on July 17, 2025. (Jack Guez/AFP)

More deaths reported near aid sites; Mossad chief, Witkoff said to discuss relocating Gazans

By Emanuel Fabian, Nurit Yohanan and AFP

Christian Palestinian mourners attend the funeral ceremony of Saad Salameh and Foumia Ayyad, killed earlier in an Israeli strike that hit the Holy Family church in Gaza City, as Archbishop Alexios of the Saint Porphyrius Church leads the mass on July 17, 2025. (Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

After angry call from Trump, PM says Israel deeply regrets mistaken shelling of Gaza church

By Lazar Berman, Jacob Magid and Emanuel Fabian

Illustrative: An Israeli soldier on a tank salutes in front of an Israeli flag at an IDF gathering point in a field near the Israeli border with Gaza, 2014. (Edi Israel/FLASH90)

Inside story

Alone in uniform: Israel’s overlooked sabra lone soldiers come from broken or Haredi homes

By Stav Levaton

Thousands of native-born Israelis serve in the IDF without family support — but unlike immigrant volunteers, their struggles rarely make headlines

What Matters Now

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Those we have lost

Stories of the civilians and soldiers who have fallen in the Israel-Hamas war

Those we have lost
Amir Naim, 27: Engineering student was eagerly awaiting son’s birth

By ToI Staff
Those We Have Lost
Moshe Ridler, 91: Holocaust survivor was ‘kibbutz grandfather’

By ToI Staff
Those we have lost
Staff Sgt. Yaad Ben Yaakov, 20: Golani soldier with a beaming smile

By ToI Staff
Those we have lost
Staff Sgt. Itay Ron, 20: Golani soldier ‘sacrificed himself for others’

By ToI Staff
Those We Have Lost
Liam Shrem, 25: Third-year business student ‘was a kid with dreams’

By ToI Staff
Those we have lost
Alon Toledano, 54: Sensitive man who aimed to help others

By ToI Staff
Those we have lost
Hanan Amar, 38: Barber and devoted dad of three children

By ToI Staff
Those We Have Lost
Orit, Rafi Svirsky, 70, 71: 3 kids mourned parents; 4th killed in Gaza

By ToI Staff
Those We Have Lost
Nir Forti, 29: Slain just before his 30th birthday trip to Spain

By ToI Staff
Those We Have Lost
Bernard Cowan, 57: Scottish-Israeli lover of diving and traveling

By ToI Staff
Those we have lost
Matan ‘Kido’ Elmalem, 42: DJ & trance music legend, beloved friend

By ToI Staff
Those We Have Lost
Tamar Torpiashvili, 9: An ‘angel’ who dreamed of being famous

By ToI Staff
Those We Have Lost
Tal Maman, 38: Father, farmer who fought to protect community

By ToI Staff
Those we have lost
Yoram Metzger, 80: Kibbutznik and war veteran spoke Arabic and Yiddish

By ToI Staff
Those we have lost
Shahar Manzur, 28: Electrician had plans to propose to girlfriend

By ToI Staff
Those we have lost
Lt. Yonatan Goutin, 20: Star judoka who chose combat in IDF

By ToI Staff
Those we have lost
Tianchai Yotthongdee, 34: Father of 2 documented farm life online

By ToI Staff
Those we have lost
Maj. Ido Yehoshua, 27: Elite unit fighter never got to meet firstborn

By ToI Staff
Those we have lost
Sgt. Benyamin Gavriel Yona, 19: Helped struggling parents pay rent

By ToI Staff
Those We Have Lost
Settha Homsorn, 36: Thai worker who supported his young daughter

By ToI Staff

Those we are missing

The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown

Those we are missing
Taken captive: Ziv Berman, from his home in Kfar Aza’s young generation neighborhood

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Evyatar David, IDed in a Hamas photo on Telegram

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Maxim Herkin, was attending his first trance rave

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Bar Kuperstein, last seen tied up by Hamas

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Elkana Bohbot, young son asking, ‘Where’s Daddy?’

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Informal educator Eitan Horn visiting from Kfar Saba

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Avinatan Or, planning to move in with girlfriend

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Yosef-Haim Ohana, helped injured at Supernova rave

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Alon Ohel, pianist’s family recorded song for him

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Bipin Joshi, Nepalese student who deflected grenades

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Eitan Mor, guard at rave who helped save others

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Segev Kalfon, last seen running across Highway 232

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Nimrod Cohen, twin working to bring him home

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Matan Zangauker ‘is a survivor’

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Guy Gilboa-Dalal, took a selfie with his brother for mom

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Tamir Nimrodi, walked by gunmen to base gate

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Omri Miran, driven in his own car to Gaza

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Gali Berman, from Kfar Aza’s ‘young neighborhood’

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: David Cunio, abducted from burning house

By ToI Staff
Those we are missing
Taken captive: Ariel Cunio told brother ‘We are in a horror film’

By ToI Staff

Tales of the Times

The quirky, improbable, infuriating and uplifting

Borscht Belt to TikTok
Connie Francis, 20th-century star, recorded 60s album of Jewish songs

By PHILISSA CRAMER
Shin Bets are off
Israeli-American wins main event at World Series of Poker

By Grace Gilson
Coker for Passover
Trump call with Coca-Cola may turn kosher-for-Passover pop obsolete

By PHILISSA CRAMER
Dinosaur beats meteor
Martian meteorite sells for record $5.3 million at New York auction

By Dave Collins
Musical reactions
Israel Festival opens Thursday with jazz piece written after Oct. 7

By Jessica Steinberg
Alternative art
Jerusalem art show to examine shift from routine to extreme

By Jessica Steinberg
Golden oldie
Tower of David exhibit tunes in to cultural icon Yehoram Gaon

By Jessica Steinberg
Brook no fascists
Alaska’s Nazi Creek given less offensive name after 2-year campaign

By Grace Gilson
Curbing 250 years
Larry David teams up with the Obamas on US history comedy series

By Grace Gilson
Beak traffic
Cop escorts mother duck, ducklings to safety on key highway

By ToI Staff
Wing and a prayer
Netanyahu gifts Trump mezuzah case in shape of B-2 bomber

By ToI Staff
Free love
Released hostages Troufanov, Cohen announce plans to marry

By ToI Staff
Scenes to be seen
Award-winning docs and dramas dot Jerusalem Film Festival

By Jessica Steinberg
Just passing through
Scientists find new interstellar object racing through Solar System

By AFP
The art of the matter
When artists make movies: Free screenings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv

By Jessica Steinberg
Cinema of value
Jerusalem Film Festival to open with Cannes winner ‘Sentimental Value’

By Jessica Steinberg
Can't stop the music
Israel Festival schedules new dates following ceasefire with Iran

By Jessica Steinberg
Movie time
Gal Gadot to be special guest at this year’s Jerusalem Film Festival

By Jessica Steinberg
A beer for the boys
Brewery creates ‘My Brother’ pale ale for kidnapped soldiers

By Jessica Steinberg
Underground art
Iranian missiles force museums to move valuables to safe areas

By Jessica Steinberg

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