Dec. 10: Mediators said pressing Israel to withdraw from Gaza-Egypt border in potential deal

Sullivan meets relatives of American-Israeli hostages at White House

The families of the remaining American-Israeli hostages in Gaza have wrapped up their meeting with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House.

A readout issued by the families says the sides discussed efforts to secure a hostage deal but does not provide any new information.

Syrians are ‘exhausted from war’ and won’t get into another one, rebel leader says

Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani vows the country will not face another war, telling Sky News that its citizens are already “exhausted” by years of conflict.

“People are exhausted from war. So the country isn’t ready for another one and it’s not going to get into another one,” he says in Damascus while visiting a mosque.

San Francisco Hillel vandalized with allegedly antisemitic slogan

The building housing San Francisco Hillel graffitied with the word "Khaybar," which refers to an ancient battle between Arabs and Jews on the Arabian peninsula, alongside communist and anarchist symbols, December 2024. (Courtesy via JTA)

US vandals have spray-painted the Hillel building at San Francisco State University with a slogan referencing an ancient battle in which Muslim troops defeated a group of Jewish fighters.

The perpetrators in San Francisco also tried to break into the building, according to the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area.

The sign on the front of the San Francisco Hillel was spray-painted late Sunday or early Monday with the word “Khaybar,” which is chanted at protests against Israel around the world, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The word refers to a battle between Muslims and local Jews on the Arabian Peninsula at the dawn of Islam that ended with the slaughter of the Jewish tribes. Underneath the word, vandals drew symbols for communism and anarchism.

The center’s garage door was covered with graffiti in large capital letters reading, “Death to Western imperialism!”

Tyler Gregory, CEO of the local JCRC, calls the incident an antisemitic attack and links it to what he describes as a pattern of hateful acts against Jews at universities.

“The Hillel House is a vibrant community center and should be a place where Jewish students feel safe and comfortable, especially as antisemitism continues to soar on campus,” he says in a statement. “It is imperative that our elected officials and education leaders dramatically curb the antisemitic rhetoric at campus protests and in college classrooms that inevitably leads to attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions.”

Police open suspected terror probe after building near West Bank settlement is torched

Police open an investigation into the torching of a wooden structure near the settlement of Evyatar in the northern West Bank.

According to a police statement, the motive for the arson is suspected to have been “nationalistic,” apparently meaning the perpetrators were allegedly Palestinian terrorists.

Nobody was hurt in the incident.

Guard seriously hurt in Karmiel stabbing today; police said increasingly believing it was terror

Police are increasingly suspecting that an incident today in which a man stabbed a police officer and a security guard in the northern city of Karmiel was a terror attack, according to several Hebrew media reports.

The incident has its roots on Saturday, when the assailant, from the Arab town of Nahf, was briefly arrested after a soldier complained that he had tried to reach for her firearm. In his questioning, the man said he had merely tried to move the weapon out of his way, not grab it.

Today, the same man arrived at the police station in Karmiel and was stopped at the entrance after giving insufficient answers as to why he was entering, saying he wanted to “speak with the cops,” according to the Ynet news site.

He then brought out a knife and attacked the cop — who didn’t require hospitalization — and the guard, who was seriously injured.

Police initially said the motive was criminal, but are now saying all possibilities are being looked into.

הדקירה בכניסה לתחנת המשטרה בכרמיאל הבוקר pic.twitter.com/BTVVymdn6A

— מנדי ריזל (@mendi_rizel) December 10, 2024

Germany arrests ISIS sympathizers who reportedly planned to attack Xmas markets

Three suspected Islamist extremists have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of preparing a “serious act of violence,” with an assault rifle and knives also seized, authorities say.

Police swooped Sunday on the homes of two German-Lebanese brothers aged 15 and 20 in the city of Mannheim, and a 22-year-old German-Turkish man from the Hochtaunus district of Hessen state.

German media reports say they were planning to attack Christmas markets in either Frankfurt or Mannheim.

Local prosecutors and police say in a statement that the act they were planning could have “endangered the state,” without disclosing further details.

Germany has faced a string of attacks and plots by suspected Islamists in recent years and has been on high alert since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror onslaught in Israel sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.

The brothers detained in Mannheim, who have a “strong religious ideology and profound sympathy” for the Islamic State group, made concrete preparations for an attack, authorities say.

The assault rifle, along with ammunition, was found during a search of the 22-year-old German-Turkish man’s home, they say. Several knives, a balaclava and mobile phones also turned up during searches.

But officials stress that “at no point was there any concrete danger to the public.” The suspects are in pre-trial detention.

US says it wants to speak privately with Israel about bombing campaign in Syria before commenting publicly

Pressed to comment on widening IDF strikes targeting military sites throughout Syria, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says Washington wants to discuss the matter privately with Israel in order to get an understanding of what it is trying to accomplish before commenting publicly on the matter.

US man charged with burning American flag during July DC protest over Netanyahu visit

The aftermath of the burning of an effigy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a flag as protesters look on, July 24, 2024, in Washington near Union Station and the US Capitol. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

US federal authorities have charged a man with burning an American flag in the nation’s capital during protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress in July.

Michael Snow Jr., 24, of Durham, North Carolina, is charged with destruction of federal property over the burning of the flag that was pulled down at Columbus Circle — in front of Union Station — by demonstrators calling for an end to the war in Gaza.

Authorities say video shows Snow shouting “I need a better lighter!” after initially failing to ignite the flag. Someone then hands him a bottle of lighter fluid, which he uses to douse the flag before he and another person set it on fire, authorities say.

“Stealing a federal flag and burning it is not speech, it’s destruction of federal property,” said Matthew Graves, US attorney for the District of Columbia.

There is no lawyer listed in the court docket for Snow, and a message seeking comment has been left at a number listed for him in public records.

Thousands of protesters converged on Washington in July to condemn Netanyahu during his address to Congress, in which the prime minister pledged to achieve “total victory” against Hamas.

Outside Union Station, protesters spray-painted graffiti on a monument to Christopher Columbus and hoisted Palestinian flags in place of the American flags that were removed.

A group of protesters had a permit to demonstrate in front of Union Station, but the US Park Police said it revoked the permit after it couldn’t reach protest organizers that afternoon.

The National Park Service estimated that it cost more than $11,000 to clean up and fix the damage at the site.

World Central Kitchen fires 62 workers in Gaza after Israel accuses them of terror ties

Local volunteers of the World Central Kitchen cook meals to be distributed to needy Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 3, 2024. (AFP)

The World Central Kitchen, a US-based charity, has fired dozens of Palestinians working for it in the Gaza Strip, at least three workers tell Reuters, after Israel said at least 62 staff are linked to Palestinian terror groups.

In a message to staff, WCK confirms that it has “made changes” after Israel demanded an investigation into its hiring practices in Gaza.

“This should not be taken as a conclusion by WCK that the individuals are affiliated with any terror organization,” it says, adding that Israel has not shared its intelligence and “we do not know the basis for Israel’s decision to flag these individuals.”

It says it has taken the step “to protect our team and our operations.” A WCK spokesperson confirms 62 people have been let go.

An Israeli security official tells Reuters that Israel demanded an investigation into staff potentially linked to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel, after it said a WCK employee identified as Ahed Azmi Qdeih took part in the attack, in which some 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.

Qdeih was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on November 30. WCK confirmed the airstrike at the time and said it had no knowledge about an employee involved in last year’s attack.

The official says an Israeli security review found that 62 WCK employees have “affiliations and direct connections” with terror groups.

“Consequently, senior Israeli officials demanded that WCK terminate the employment of those workers,” he says.

The Israeli allegations against WCK staff echo similar accusations against staff working for the main United Nations Palestinian relief body UNRWA. In August, the United Nations said nine UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the October 7 attacks and had been fired.

Mediators said pressuring Israel to withdraw from Gaza-Egypt border in potential deal

The US and Egypt, who are mediating renewed talks for a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, are pressuring Israel to agree to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, according to reports by the Kan public broadcaster and Saudi outlet Al Arabiya.

Al Arabiya also reports that the proposal being discussed in clandestine talks would have the Palestinian Authority manage the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt, and that Hamas has handed Egypt a list of hostages it is holding.

Israel has repeatedly said over the past months that it will not agree to leave the Philadelphi Corridor or to let the PA have any role in postwar Gaza.

Accordingly, Kan cites Israeli sources saying it is too early for optimism since a deal still depends on the sides showing more flexibility.

It cites an Egyptian source saying many problems remain, including that Israel is expressing dissatisfaction with the progress in the talks, especially “hawkish” elements in the Israeli government.

The same source says the outline under discussion isn’t very different from previous proposals that were discussed and ultimately rejected in the past.

This is despite renewed reports and statements about progress in the talks and hopes that the fall of the Assad regime in Syria will further drive the isolated Hamas to compromise on its long-held hardline demands.

Meanwhile, Channel 12 news reports that the government’s point man on the hostages, Gal Hirsch, has told hostage families recently that Israel won’t leave Gaza before the last hostage returns.

AG urges High Court to set date by which new Supreme Court president must be tapped

Justice Minister Yariv Levin (L) at the Knesset, in Jerusalem on September 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90); Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara attends a farewell ceremony in honor of outgoing Police Chief Kobi Shabtai, at the National Police Academy in Beit Shemesh, on July 14, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara calls on the High Court of Justice to set a date by which a new Supreme Court president will have to be appointed.

In a legal opinion filed to the High Court in response to a petition demanding such an appointment, Baharav-Miara says that “the continuous harm to the judiciary must be stopped, and a date in the near future should be set by which a head for the judiciary — a Supreme Court president — must be appointed.”

Justice Minister Yariv Levin has avoided appointing a full-time chief justice for over a year, aiming to avoid tapping Justice Isaac Amit for the job, whom the minister views as adversarial.

The High Court has ruled that Levin must convene the Judicial Selection Committee, which appoints Israel’s judges, after he long refused to call a meeting to avoid tapping a chief justice. Since the ruling, Levin has held one meeting and has announced a second meeting for this Thursday, but neither’s agenda has included a vote on the Supreme Court president.

Levin, a hawkish Likud party member who led the government’s stalled judicial overhaul effort, is looking to steer the court in a more conservative direction and prevent the election of liberal justice Amit, who stands to win the majority on the committee.

Amit is currently the acting president, and is expected to become the permanent president under the longstanding seniority system, which Levin seeks to upend, by which the justice with the most years on the court is elected the next president.

Levin argues that the seniority system is merely a tradition and not legally binding. He prefers conservative Justice Yosef Elron for the position, and has spent the past 13 months trying to prevent Amit’s selection.

350 strikes, targeting most arms stockpiles in Syria: IDF airs clip of its bombing spree

The IDF releases footage from its 48-hour bombing campaign against the former Assad regime’s military, destroying advanced weaponry Israel fears could fall into the hands of hostile elements, including Hezbollah.

The military says the Israeli Air Force and Israeli Navy carried out over 350 strikes during the operation, dubbed internally “Bashan Arrow.”

The IDF says it struck “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria.” The military estimates that it destroyed 70-80% of the ousted regime’s strategic weapons.

The waves of airstrikes carried out by IAF fighter jets and drones hit Syrian air defense systems, airbases, weapon depots and weapon production sites in Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Latakia and Palmyra, according to the military.

The IDF says the airstrikes destroyed many long-range projectiles, Scud missiles, cruise missiles, coast-to-sea missiles, air defense missiles, fighter jets, helicopters, radars, tanks, hangars and more.

The Israeli Navy’s strikes at the Minet el-Beida bay and Latakia port on the Syrian coast destroyed 15 Syrian naval vessels, the military adds.

Footage released by the IDF on December 10, 2024, shows Israeli Navy and Israeli Air Force strikes on Syria. (Israel Defense Forces)

Police said to declare Bnei Brak incident a terror ramming attack; 1 lightly hurt

The incident in Bnei Brak in which a car hit a pedestrian, lightly wounding him, has been declared a terror attack by police, multiple Hebrew media outlets report.

Police don’t immediately issue a formal statement to this effect.

The driver, who has been arrested, is reportedly an Arab Israeli man from the Arab town of Zemer.

The Ynet news site publishes what it says is footage of the incident.

סוטה מהמסלול – ומאיץ: צעיר נפצע קל בפיגוע דריסה בבני ברק | תיעוד בלעדי @ynetalerts pic.twitter.com/jGETP08uus

— ליאור אוחנה Lior ohana (@liorohana77) December 10, 2024

UN says it opposes Israel’s strikes on Assad regime’s army

Syrians look for metal pieces and unexploded ammunition at the site of an Israeli airstrike the previous evening that targeted shipments of weapons that belonged to Syrian government forces in Qamishli, in mainly Kurdish northeastern Syria, on December 10, 2024. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP)

The United Nations is against any violation of the territorial integrity of Syria, a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says when asked about strikes by Israel on the military capabilities of the now-defunct Assad regime army, which Jerusalem aims to ensure won’t fall into hostile hands.

“We’re against these types of attacks. I think this is a turning point for Syria. It should not be used by its neighbors to encroach on the territory of Syria,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric tells reporters, even though Israel has repeatedly said it is only holding the buffer zone between the countries temporarily, until a new regime is set up, to prevent jihadists from taking advantage of the power vacuum to threaten Israel.

Gallant meets senior US official, touts ‘real possibility’ for hostage deal breakthrough

Likud MK Yoav Gallant, left, meets with White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk in Washington on December 10, 2024. (Yoav Gallant/Facebook)

After meeting with White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk in Washington, former defense minister Yoav Gallant says “there’s a real possibility for a breakthrough” toward a hostage deal with Hamas in the near future.

The breakthrough was made possible by a series of accomplishments Israel has made on the battlefield in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, which led to “the weakening of the Shiite axis, to the point of the fall of the murderous Assad regime,” Gallant says in a Facebook post.

UAE slams Israel’s seizure of buffer zone in Golan Heights

The United Arab Emirates strongly condemns Israel’s seizure of the buffer zone in the Golan Heights, the country’s foreign ministry says.

Yemen’s Houthis say they targeted 3 supply ships and 2 American destroyers

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have targeted three supply ships and two American destroyers accompanying them in the Gulf of Aden, a military spokesman for the Houthis says.

Netanyahu: Israel wants relations with next Syrian regime, but will attack if it poses a threat

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in a video message on December 10, 2024. (Screenshot)

In a message to the new regime taking shape in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel wants to establish relations, but won’t hesitate to attack if it threatens the Jewish state.

“If this regime allows Iran to reestablish itself in Syria,” he says in a video statement, “or allows the transfer of Iranian weapons or any other weapons to Hezbollah, or attacks us — we will respond forcefully and we will exact a heavy price from it.”

“What happened to the previous regime will also happen to this regime,” he warns, adding that Israel has no intention of interfering in Syria’s internal affairs, but will do what is necessary to ensure its security.

Netanyahu compares the widespread Air Force bombing campaign of Syria’s strategic military capabilities this week to the 1940 Royal Navy bombing of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir in Algeria to keep it from falling into the hands of the Nazis. Netanyahu mistakenly attributes the operation to the Royal Air Force.

South African police investigate bomb scare at Cape Town Jewish community center

South African police are investigating reports of an explosive device that was found outside a Jewish community center in Cape Town on Friday morning.

On Friday, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies informed police that an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) was discovered outside the Jewish community offices around 10:30 a.m.

Following some confusion, local media subsequently reported that the news was false. However, that was mistaken, and the serious crimes division of South African police, known as the Hawks, is now investigating.

Driver arrested after hitting pedestrian in Bnei Brak in suspected terror attack

The Israel Police say they have arrested a driver who hit a pedestrian in the central Israel city of Bnei Brak, in what Hebrew media report is suspected to have been a terror attack.

The injured man is in good condition and has been taken to Mayanei HaYeshua Medical Center in the city.

Police say the incident is under investigation.

Hamas has changed tack, now wants hostage deal, contends senior Israeli official

According to a senior Israeli official, until recently Jerusalem assessed that Hamas did not want to conclude a hostage release deal, but that has changed, and chances have gone up for a deal.

“Two weeks ago I thought Hamas didn’t want a deal,” says the official, “Now I am inclined to think that it has changed its mind.”

“There is a chance to reach a deal in the coming month,” before Donald Trump enters the White House, says the official.

US National Security Adviser Sullivan set to meet US hostage families ahead of trip to Israel

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, November 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet with the families of the remaining American hostages being held in Gaza this afternoon at the White House ahead of his travel to Israel this week, where he will be working to advance a hostage release and ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Developments in Syria will also be on the agenda during Sullivan’s meetings with Israeli leaders. However, the hostage deal effort will be the main topic, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says during a briefing with reporters.

“One would hope that recent developments in Syria reinforce for [Hamas] that they are just increasingly isolated and ought to take a deal… They can’t rely on Hezbollah, they certainly can’t rely on Iran,” Kirby says, asserting that Hamas continues to be the main obstacle to a deal.

Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt have privately held the opposite view, blaming the impasse on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to end the war in exchange for a hostage deal, which Doha and Cairo deem as a reasonable exchange.

Kirby acknowledges that the sides are not on the brink of a deal, but says the US thinks one is possible and is working tirelessly to do one.

Pressed repeatedly on Israel’s takeover of the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, Kirby refrains from criticizing the operation, saying the US recognizes that Israel “lives in a tough neighborhood” and that the US supports Israel’s right to defend itself.

Yesterday, the State Department noted that Israel understandably is acting to ensure that vacuums created by the fleeing of Assad-backed Syrian troops from the Golan Heights are not filled by terror groups. However, it noted Israel’s assertions that its military operations in Syria are temporary and that Washington wants them to remain that way.

IDF: We struck 320 Syria targets since Assad’s fall, taking out over 70% of army’s capabilities

An aerial picture shows smoke billowing following airstrikes in Damascus early on December 10, 2024. (Omar Haj Kadour/AFP)

The Israeli military says it carried out strikes against 320 “strategic targets” in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime over the weekend, destroying advanced weaponry Israel fears could fall into the hands of hostile elements, including Hezbollah.

The name of the operation to destroy the former Assad regime army’s weapons is dubbed “Bashan Arrow” within the military, after the biblical name for the region in the Golan Heights and southern Syria.

The military estimates that it has taken out over 70% of the former Assad regime’s strategic military capabilities.

The strikes began late Saturday, first taking out Syrian air defenses to give the Israeli Air Force more freedom.

According to the IDF, the 320 targets were struck across all of Syria, from Damascus to Tartus.

The targets destroyed in the strikes included Syrian air defense systems, missile depots, manufacturing facilities, drones, helicopters, fighter jets, tanks, radars, navy vessels and more, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The Syrian navy vessels were destroyed last night in a large-scale operation carried out by the Israeli Navy.

The military says the missile depots destroyed in the strikes included long-range projectiles, Scud missiles, cruise missiles, coast-to-sea missiles, and others.

The IDF also targeted several chemical weapons sites in Syria during the waves of strikes, Israeli officials have said.

Following the fall of the Assad regime, the IDF has said that it is tracking advanced weapons in Syria and working to prevent them from reaching Hezbollah or any other hostile force that could threaten Israel.

Meanwhile, the IDF says it continues to be deployed to the buffer zone between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights, on the Syrian side of the border, as part of Operation Bashan Arrow.

The IDF has stressed that its deployment to the buffer zone is a defensive and temporary measure amid the chaos in the country following the fall of the Assad regime, but it may end up staying there for a long time depending on the developments.

The military says it will not get directly involved in incidents in Syria and it is only carrying out defensive operations.

Israeli official: We’re mulling changing tack on Ukraine war now that Russia is weakened

Israel is in “constant dialogue” with the Druze community in Syria, says a senior Israeli official, adding that “there are also things beyond the dialogue.”

In conversations with the US and other Western countries, Israel has been stressing the importance of protecting minority groups in Syria.

The new government in Damascus, says the official on condition of anonymity, is led by people who are “very extreme, who were involved in terrorism, people with a radical Islamist ideology that are trying to present themselves right now as moderates.”

The best outcome for Israel, says the official, is a Syria that becomes a federation of autonomous ethnic regions.

With Russia’s position in Syria weakened, Israel has discussed shifting its stance toward Ukraine, says the official, and has brought up the issue with one of its allies. For now, however, Israel is waiting to see what stance the incoming Trump administration will take, and what capabilities Russia will maintain in Syria.

Most of Israel’s strikes on Syria’s strategic military hardware “are behind us,” continues the official. The official adds that the strikes included chemical weapons, long-range missiles, ground-to-sea missiles and fighter jets.

Israel feels that allies in the West accept the IDF’s moves into the buffer zone between Syria and Israel, the official adds.

US credits its support for Israel, Ukraine for failure by Iran and Russia to save Assad’s rule

The White House claims US support for Israel and Ukraine so significantly weakened Iran and Russia that they were unable to prevent the rebel takedown of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

“Much of the developments that we’ve seen in Syria are an outgrowth of the fact that that Assad’s biggest supporters — Russia and Iran — are significantly weakened now, and that is tied directly to the unflagging American support for Israel in their fight against Hamas and in the effort to secure a ceasefire with Hezbollah,” US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says during a press briefing.

“And it is absolutely an outgrowth of our support for Ukraine that has consistently weakened Russian military forces, and certainly caused the Russians to refocus the great locus of their military efforts on that war in Ukraine that they started… [Russia and Iran] are both significantly distracted and weakened by the efforts in the Middle East and in Europe,” he says.

“It isn’t just that Russia and Iran were unwilling to help Assad after 14 years. It is that they were unable to. And the United States played a major role in that,” Kirby adds.

“The ceasefire that we mediated between Israel and Hezbollah sent a strong signal to people in the region and in Syria that Hezbollah was done, that Hezbollah was out of it, that they weren’t going to come to Hamas’ assistance, and that Iran wasn’t going to be able to rely on them.”

“We have been robust in our support of Israel’s right to defend itself and backing that up with real arms and ammunition as well as diplomatic efforts, [which] played a real role [in getting us here],” Kirby continues.

Heads of IDF, Shin Bet meet Egyptian officials in Cairo to discuss potential hostage deal

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi (left) and Shin Bet security services Director Ronen Bar at the special operations room overseeing a mission to release hostages in the Gaza Strip, June 8, 2024. (Shin Bet security services)

Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi were in Cairo today to meet senior Egyptian officials, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel, confirming a report in the Walla news outlet.

The two were there to discuss, among other issues, attempts to reach a hostage release deal. “Hamas still hasn’t given an answer on if it is willing to engage in negotiations,” says the official.

According to Walla, this was a visit planned weeks ago primarily to discuss issues relating to the border between Egypt and Gaza.

Judicial overhaul champion Rothman says Netanyahu trial motivated him to join politics

MK Simcha Rotman, head of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, leads a committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on December 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman, the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and one of the architects of the government’s judicial overhaul program, tells lawmakers that the corruption cases against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were part of the reason he ran for a parliamentary seat in the first place.

During a hearing on a bill limiting the uses to which the Bar Association can raise money through membership fees, Rothman rails against “a biased and political system” whose violations of suspects’ rights have “mobilized support for the campaign to reform the judicial system.”

Rothman claims that opposition members who had previously supported reforms are now against them because the legal system “turned its attention to Netanyahu, their political opponent,” drawing angry responses from opposition lawmakers.

The presence of government ministers and coalition MKs at Netanyahu’s trial “is an embarrassing and strange phenomenon,” counters Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovich.

“This is not a trial against the Likud or a political party, but about bribery and breach of trust.”

First hostage to return from Gaza meets Trump, urges him to free all captives

Released hostage Judith Raanan, left, meets with US President-elect Donald Trump in Florida, December 10, 2024. (Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

An Israel-American former hostage has met US President-elect Donald Trump in Florida and urged him to do everything he can to free the remaining 100 captives held by terrorists in Gaza, according to a statement by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Judith Raanan, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught along with her 18-year-old daughter Natalie. Less than two weeks later, on October 20, the pair became the first to be released by Hamas.

Raanan gives Trump a painting of hers and tells him about the kidnapping and her time in captivity, according to the statement.

It adds that Raanan’s main message was that she trusts Trump and is asking him to do everything in his power to secure the return of all the hostages, the living and the dead.

In testimony, PM says news site’s coverage of him was so bad it was known as ‘Walla akbar’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next to his defense attorney, Amit Hadad (left), in the Tel Aviv District Court, December 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Toward the end of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony today in his corruption trial, the premier described what he viewed as hostile coverage he received a decade ago from the Walla news site.

In the most serious of the three cases against him, the prime minister is being charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust for allegedly having aides intervene in Walla’s coverage to make it more pro-Netanyahu in exchange for benefits for Shaul Elovitch, then the controlling shareholder of the Bezeq telecom firm, which owned Walla.

In particular, prosecutors allege that this scheme was agreed upon at a dinner in 2012 in which Netanyahu and his wife Sara hosted Elovitch.

“There was no agreement, no bribery, no nothing. Even after the dinner,” Netanyahu argues.

He contends that Walla at the time was extraordinarily adversarial toward him, and that this did not improve over the next period of time.

“There is a reason it was called ‘Walla akbar'” — a play on the Arabic phrase “Allahu akbar” (God is Greatest) — “or ‘Walla Hamas,’ and now I add, ‘Walla Iran,'” Netanyahu says, implying that the news site’s slant was so notable it supported Israel’s enemies.

“The important point is that all this case is based on this ridiculous comment that there was some telepathy about an agreement which never happened,” he says.

“You also saw what terrible coverage I got. The claim is that I got special treatment. You asked me if there was a change in the treatment of Walla toward me after the dinner — there was no change before and after.”

Israeli warships destroyed Syrian fleet, defense minister Katz confirms

Israeli naval missile ships destroyed the Syrian military fleet in an operation last night as part of a broad campaign to eliminate strategic threats to the country, Defense Minister Israel Katz says during his visit to a Navy base in Haifa.

In a statement, he says Israeli forces are establishing themselves in the buffer zone between Syria and the Golan Heights and says he has ordered a “sterile defensive zone” to be created in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence, to prevent any terrorist threat to Israel.

First day of Netanyahu’s testimony at his trial ends after 5 hours

The first day of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony in his corruption trial has ended after some five hours.

It is set to resume tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. and last until the evening.

Katz warns Syria’s rebels: ‘Whoever follows in Assad’s footsteps will end up like Assad did’

Defense Minister Israel Katz tours a Navy base in Haifa with senior IDF officers, December 10, 2024. (Shlomi Amsalem/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Israel Katz issues a warning to Syria’s rebels, saying that any entity that poses a threat to Israel will be targeted relentlessly.

Touring a Navy base in Haifa a day after Syria’s fleet was destroyed by missiles fired from warships, Katz is briefed by senior officers on how the operation was carried out.

“The IDF has acted in the last few days to attack and destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel,” Katz says, warning the rebels that “whoever follows [ousted president Bashar] al-Assad’s footsteps will end up like Assad did. We won’t allow an extremist Islamic terror entity to act against Israel from beyond its borders… we will do anything to remove the threat.”

Katz repeats that the IDF is creating a demilitarized zone — without permanent Israeli presence — beyond the buffer zone it has taken over in the border area.

Banks and shops reopen in Damascus

A group of Syrians plays cards at a café in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP/Hussein Malla)

Banks and shops are reopening in Damascus after the chaos and confusion of the first two days following the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad.

Sadi Ahmad, manager of Syria Gulf Bank, says life is returning to normal. A customer who came to withdraw money from an ATM was surprised to see it functioning.

At the historic Hamadiyeh market, fighters who seized power were still standing guard, but shops have reopened — even an ice cream stand.

Resident Maysoun Al-Qurabi says she was initially “against what happened,” referring to the insurgency, but changed her mind after seeing footage of rebels releasing inmates from the notorious Sednaya prison.

“People are at ease and secure now,” she says. “Before, people were hungry and scared.”

Noa Argamani says she was wounded in captivity ‘and nobody came to help me’

Rescued hostage Noa Argamani addresses a gathering at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on December 10, 2024. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Rescued Israeli hostage Noa Argamani reveals that she was seriously wounded during captivity from an Israeli airstrike and received no medical treatment from her captors.

“An Israeli Air Force missile hit the building” where I was being held hostage, Argamani tells a gathering of former hostages and family members of captives at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.

“I was left wounded, I was left bruised, I was bleeding with my whole head cut open, and nobody came to help me, not the Red Cross, not the doctors, nobody,” she says.

Upon her return to Israel after she was rescued by IDF troops in June, “when the doctors saw all my wounds when I came back, they said it was a medical miracle.”

“There are 100 hostages still there, and it could be that their fate is worse than mine,” she adds.

President Isaac Herzog hosts a meeting in his residence to mark International Human Rights Day focusing on the “dire situation and deep concern for the wellbeing of the hostages,” his office says.

“This morning, I spoke with a leader in our region, and I can confirm that there is global convergence on prioritizing a hostage deal,” he says in a statement. “The goal is to secure an agreement for their release. We want to see everyone home as quickly as possible, and I call on all parties: Bring them home.”

201 trucks of humanitarian aid entered Gaza yesterday, says COGAT

A truck delivering flour to Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza on December 6, 2024. (COGAT)

COGAT, the Defense Ministry body which coordinates Israeli activity in Gaza and the West Bank, says that 201 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Strip yesterday.

In a statement, COGAT says that 55 of the trucks entered Gaza directly through Gate 96, entering the northern Strip near Kibbutz Be’eri. It also says that six tankers of cooking gas were also transferred into Gaza yesterday.

Rebels appoint Mohamed al-Bashir as caretaker Syrian PM of transitional government

Mohamed al-Bashir has been appointed caretaker prime minister of the transitional Syrian government until March 1, 2025, he says in a televised statement.

Al-Bashir ran the rebel-led Salvation Government before the 12-day lightning offensive swept into Damascus.

StandWithUs UK opens October 7 education center in London

A handout photo of the StandWithUs UK October 7 education center in London. (StandWithUs UK)

StandWithUs UK is opening an October 7 education center in London, the Israel advocacy organization says.

The center “was created as a direct response to the tragic events of October 7 and the severe escalation of antisemitism, denial and misinformation that followed,” StandWithUs UK says.

“StandWithUs UK recognized the urgent need to educate and support students, young professionals and communities across the UK by providing accurate information, tailored resources and tools to confront these challenges effectively.”

This will include sharing stories of survivors and victims of the October 7 massacre, in which Hamas terrorists launched a war against Israel, killing some 1,200 people, and taking 251 hostages, the organization says.

“Despite being just a year away from the brutal 7/10 attacks, denials are already widespread,” says StandWithUs UK chair Rene Anisfeld.

Pope Francis to meet PA President Mahmoud Abbas this week in Vatican

Pope Francis (L) speaks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the end of a private audience at the Vatican, on December 3, 2018. (Andrew Medichini / POOL / AFP)

Pope Francis will meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, the Vatican says in a planning note.

Abbas is traveling to Italy this week, where he is expected also to meet with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Francis and Abbas have met several times in the past.

The pope has recently become more vocal in his criticism of Israel’s military campaign in the ongoing conflict with Hamas, saying in recently reported comments that some experts view the war in Gaza as a “genocide,” and attending the inauguration over the weekend of a Vatican nativity scene in which baby Jesus was lying on a keffiyeh, the scarf used as a national symbol for Palestinians.

PM says he was ‘astonished’ to be indicted on charges of attempting to control media

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to testify at the Tel Aviv District Court in his long-running corruption trial, in Tel Aviv, December 10, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he was “astonished” when he was told he was being investigated over allegations he attempted to improperly use his position to gain positive media coverage.

“I was astonished when they asked me in the investigations, I said, ‘Are you serious? This is in the indictment? The most basic democratic thing? The obligation to diversify different markets? That is seen as criminal?'” Netanyahu says during testimony on his corruption trial. “I said, ‘You are disconnected.’”

Netanyahu says he first met Shaul Elovitch, the former head of telecommunications giant Bezeq, which owns Israeli news outlet Walla, “in 1996 or 1997… I met with economic leaders, he was among them. I didn’t know him personally, but I tried to give everyone a chance to speak.”

“It wasn’t personal familiarity, it was distant familiarity,” he says. “A tight relationship was not formed. Cordial relations were formed, but not beyond that.”

In one of the three cases against Netanyahu, he is accused of authorizing regulatory decisions that financially benefited Elovitch in exchange for favorable media coverage from Walla.

In court, Netanyahu says he doesn’t want ‘control’ of media, but more diversity of opinion

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the Tel Aviv District Court to testify in his long-running trial for alleged corruption, in Tel Aviv, December 10, 2024. (Menahem Kahana/Pool Photo via AP)

Speaking on the stand at his criminal corruption trial, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies trying to control media outlets, but claims there is a need for more balance in the industry.

“Israel used to be freer in terms of opinions in the early years of the state,” says Netanyahu in testimony at the Tel Aviv District Court. “Gradually, the diversity in opinions was reduced, until most editors and journalists came from the left-wing camp and shared left-wing opinions.”

Two of the corruption cases against Netanyahu accuse him of improperly using his position to gave positive media coverage: Case 2000, in which he is accused of attempting to reach an agreement with the publisher of the Yedioth Aharonot newspaper to provide more positive coverage in exchange for legislation weakening its key rival, Israel Hayom; and Case 4000, in which he is accused of authorizing regulatory decisions that financially benefited Bezeq telecommunications giant shareholder Shaul Elovitch in exchange for favorable media coverage from the Walla news site, which Elovitch also owned.

Netanyahu says he believes in a “free market for opinions,” and that while “2/3 of the Jewish Israeli public defines itself as right wing… 90% of the media is left wing.”

“Until recently Israel had very monolithic media,” Netanyahu claims. “We don’t want to take control of the media, we want to diversify the media. The most important thing is to add more TV stations that aren’t controlled by one camp, that’s what is essential.”

The prime minister says he had conversations over the years with many different figures across Israeli media, “including Shaul Elovitch,” about Israeli media and the diversity of opinions.

Tehran says 4,000 Iranians returned home from Syria since Assad’s fall

Tehran says it has brought home 4,000 Iranian citizens from Syria following the ouster of its ally Bashar al-Assad as rebels took over Damascus.

“Over the past three days, 4,000 Iranian citizens were returned to Iran,” Fatemeh Mohajerani, a spokeswoman for Iran’s government, says at a press conference in the capital.

Germany arrests suspected Islamist extremists over attack plot

Three suspected Islamist extremists have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of preparing a “serious act of violence,” authorities say, adding that an assault rifle and ammunition have also been seized.

The suspects, arrested on Sunday, are two German-Lebanese brothers from the city of Mannheim, aged 15 and 20, and a 22-year-old German-Turkish man from the state of Hessen, local prosecutors and police say in a statement.

National Unity slams lawmakers for attending PM’s trial instead of serving public

Likud MK Avihai Boaron (from left), former Likud MK Osnat Mark, Transportation Minister Miri Regev and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana at the Tel Aviv District Court before the testimony of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, December 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Benny Gantz’s National Unity party slams members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s cabinet for attending his corruption trial rather than attending to the needs of displaced citizens who are now returning to their homes in the north.

“Instead of showing up this morning to take care of the residents of the north… government ministers showed up today to take care of their place in the primaries. For God’s sake, go do your jobs,” the party tweets.

Ministers who showed up at the trial include National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and Transportation Minister Miri Regev, as well as Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and other lawmakers.

Turkey, Qatar condemn Israeli troop presence across Syrian border

The IDF's Paratroopers Brigade is seen entering Syria, in a handout photo issued by the military on December 9, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Turkish foreign ministry says it strongly condemns Israel’s entry into the buffer zone between Israel and Syria.

“Israel is once again displaying its occupation mentality,” the foreign ministry says in a statement.

Israel denied that its forces had entered Syrian territory beyond the buffer zone, after Syrian sources claimed the incursion had extended to within 25 kilometers (15 miles) of the capital Damascus.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Qatari foreign ministry says it is “unacceptable” that Israel is “exploiting the current situation in Syria” and that it is “violating its sovereignty.”

On witness stand, Netanyahu says he has received ‘awful press coverage’ while juggling pressure

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the Tel Aviv District Court before the start of his testimony in the trial against him, December 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

Appearing on the stand at his corruption trial inside the Tel Aviv District Court, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has long experienced negative press coverage while dealing with critical national affairs.

During the Obama administration, he says, the then-US president “turned to the Muslim world in his appeasing speech in Cairo. And he turned to Iran as not a big threat but an opportunity.” Netanyahu says there was also “a demand for a total freeze in settlement construction. Massive pressure.”

“There was awful press coverage of this,” he says.

“There was the stabbing intifada [in 2015-2016], there were the social protests, starting with the cottage cheese protest [in 2011], we needed to deal with it and we dealt with it… needed to deal with Obama, Iran, political challenges, social protests — this is just a taste of what I was dealing with.”

His wife, Sara, “has undergone a terrible character assassination. She goes to visit cancer patients, lone soldiers,” the prime minister says.

Netanyahu steps out of the courtroom to deal with a national security issue after receiving a note while on the stand.

Taking stand, PM says allegations he used position for his own enjoyment ‘simply ridiculous’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enters the Tel Aviv District Court at the start of his hearing on corruption charges on December 10, 2024. (Menahem Kahana / POOL / AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, taking the stand in his corruption trial, responds to allegations that he demanded champagne and cigars and exploited his position to receive thousands of shekels of benefits.

“This is total lies. I work 17, 18 hours a day. Everyone who knows me knows this,” he says. “That’s how I work. I eat my meals at my work table, it’s not cordon bleu, it’s not waiters coming with white gloves.”

Netanyahu says that he works “around the clock, I go to bed at 1 or 2 at night, I have almost no time to see my family, see my children, which is a big price to pay.”

The prime minister says that “sometimes I sit with a cigar, and I can’t smoke it all at once because I smoke them between meetings.” He adds, “I hate champagne, I can’t drink it.”

During the time between his terms in office as prime minister, Netanyahu says, “I had freedom, I went with my family to Disneyland, to Australia, we went on excursions, it was great.”

However, he says, “public service called to me… and I asked myself, what am I doing? I asked myself at age 50: ‘Is this the purpose of your life? Is this what you inherited from your father?”

He calls accusations that he is seeking “enjoyment and leisure” to be “simply ridiculous.”

PM says Syrian upheaval and ‘7 fronts’ of war ‘require my attention’ during ongoing trial

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, arrives to begin his testimony at the district court in his long-running corruption trial, in Tel Aviv, December 10, 2024. (Menahem Kahana / POOL / AFP)

Taking the stand in his corruption trial in the Tel Aviv District Court, Benjamin Netanyahu says that the recent upheaval in Syria has made his testimony as a sitting prime minister even more challenging.

“I want to talk about it, I want to testify,” he says.

Nevertheless, “I am leading Israel and the State of Israel on seven [war] fronts, and I thought and still think I can do all these things at once.”

“But a few days ago, an earthquake happened in our region,” the prime minister says. “We have already changed the face of the Middle East, and this has global effects. It requires my attention. It is possible to find a balance between the needs of the country and the needs of the trial.”

Netanyahu says that “if I wanted good press, I could have taken the agenda of the left and then I wouldn’t be standing here today.” He calls it “absurd that all my life, all my public service has been the total opposite” of attention and headline seeking.

UN Syria envoy says Israeli bombing in country ‘needs to stop’

A bombed hangar on the day after the Israeli military was said to have hit weapons depots near the Mezzeh military airbase, outside Damascus, on December 9, 2024. (Bakr Alkasem/AFP)

The UN special envoy for Syria calls on Israel to halt its military movements and bombardments inside Syria, days after the fall of president Bashar al-Assad.

“We are continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory. This needs to stop. This is extremely important,” Geir Pedersen tells reporters in Geneva.

Israel Air Force strikes on Sunday hit advanced missile storage sites, air defense systems, weapon production facilities, and chemical weapons sites, and also took out planes, helicopters and tanks that belonged to the Assad regime’s military.

The IDF has denied that troops have crossed beyond the buffer zone between the Golan Heights and Syria.

Netanyahu in court: ‘I have waited 8 years for this moment to say the truth’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next to his defense attorney, Amit Hadad (left), in the Tel Aviv District Court, December 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Finally taking the stand in the corruption trial against him, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says “I have waited 8 years for this moment, to say the truth as I remember it, which is important for justice. There is no justice without truth.”

Speaking in the Tel Aviv District Court — where the trial was moved from the Jerusalem District Court for security reasons — Netanyahu says, “This is the opportunity to dispel the allegations against me. There is a great absurdity in the charges and great injustice.”

Netanyahu takes the stand to begin his testimony in corruption trial

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the Tel Aviv District Court before the start of his testimony in the trial against him, December 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu officially takes the stand inside the Tel Aviv District Court for historic testimony in his ongoing corruption trial.

Netanyahu’s defense attorneys will question the prime minister first, during which time he will be able to expound at length in defense of his actions, in a process which will likely last two to three days.

The majority of the prime minister’s time at the witness stand will then be taken up by the cross examination of the prosecution.

Report: Syrian defense ministry research center destroyed in Israeli airstrike

FILE: A Syrian soldier films the damage of the Syrian Scientific Research Center which was attacked by US, British and French military strikes, in Barzeh, near Damascus, Syria, April 14, 2018. (AP/Hassan Ammar)

Strikes that a Syrian war monitor said were carried out by Israel in Damascus’s Barzeh area have completely destroyed a defense ministry research center, AFP correspondents report.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported yesterday that “Israeli warplanes launched over 100 strikes… including on the Barzeh scientific research center.”

Western countries including the United States struck the facility in 2018, saying it was related to Syria’s “chemical weapons infrastructure.”

Regev denounces ‘political’ trial of PM which will ‘harm security of the state’

Transportation Minister Miri Regev in the Tel Aviv District Court ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's testimony in his trial, December 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

“The court had to humiliate the prime minister, humiliate the State of Israel and harm the security of the state,” Transportation Minister Miri Regev tells reporters outside the courthouse where Benjamin Netanyahu is set to testify in his ongoing corruption trial.

“What would happen if his testimony were pushed off for a few months?” she asks, arguing that every officer or NCO who is in the reserves and asks to postpone a trial can do so.

This is a “political” trial against the prime minister, she asserts.

The case against Netanyahu will collapse like a “house of cards,” Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi declares.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu is coming to the hearing today not as a defendant, but as an accuser. We are witnessing the collapse of the cases one by one, even before a single defense witness has taken the stand,” he says.

“The decision to force the prime minister of Israel to testify no less than three days a week in the midst of a war is unbearable. When the judges want to go to a Bar Association party in Eilat there is no problem canceling hearings,” but not “when the people of Israel need their prime minister to bring about complete victory and return the hostages home,” Karhi says.

“Since the investigations began, the people have proven time and time again at the ballot box that they believe in the prime minister and support him, and not even persecution and the fabrication of cases will change that,” he adds.

IDF spokesman denies Israeli troops have crossed beyond Syria buffer zone

Israeli soldiers sit on top of a tank along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Golan Heights from Syria, in the town of Majdal Shams, December 9, 2024. (AP/ Matias Delacroix)

The IDF denies reports claiming that Israeli troops are advancing toward Damascus, saying that it is only operating inside the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights.

“Reports circulating in some media outlets claiming that IDF troops are advancing or approaching Damascus are completely incorrect,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman says on X.

“IDF troops are present inside the buffer zone and at defensive positions close to the border in order to protect the Israeli border,” he adds.

Reuters, citing two regional security sources and one Syrian security source, claimed that troops reached Qatana. It was unclear if the report was referring to the Qatana district, parts of which jut the buffer zone, or the town, which is around 25km from Damascus and east of the buffer zone.

In opening address, PM’s attorney says case against premier has ‘numerous holes’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next to his defense attorney, Amit Hadad (left), in the Tel Aviv District Court, December 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s primary defense attorney, Amit Hadad, gives an opening address to the Jerusalem District Court judges ahead of the prime minister’s testimony, saying that they and the premier are glad to have the opportunity to present Netanyahu’s side of the events, “as they happened in real time, and without filters.”

Hadad asserts that there are “numerous holes and unusual aspects” of the indictment in all three cases against the prime minister.

Hadad focuses on the allegations in Case 4000, in which Netanyahu allegedly provided then-Bezeq majority shareholder Shaul Elovitch with regulatory benefits in return for positive media coverage on the Walla news website, which Elovitch also owned.

Netanyahu is accused of both bribery and fraud, as well as breach of trust in this case.

Hadad insists that there was never any formal agreement or dialogue between Netanyahu and Elovitch in which they came to such an agreement, and says that the indictment does not even allege that such an agreement was agreed upon, but that it was an informal understanding.

“We don’t understand how Netanyahu could get this special treatment [from Walla] without an agreement,” says Hadad.

He argues that other politicians who received positive coverage in other newspapers after contacting the outlets editorial staff have not been subject to similar criminal charges.

Hadad also insists that the allegations of bribery and fraud and breach of trust through positive media coverage is “a new construction” and asserts that “there is no such thing as bribery through media coverage.”

Dueling protests take place outside court during Netanyahu testimony

Protesters outside the Tel Aviv District Court ahead of the start of the testimony of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the trial against him, December 10, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Dueling groups of protesters, each about 100-strong, rally on either side of the entrance to the Tel Aviv District Court as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begins to testify in his corruption trial.

Police separate Netanyahu’s supporters and detractors, who largely drown each other out in a din of competing chants.

Coalition lawmakers and ministers, who arrive to show support for Netanyahu, shake hands and take selfies with the premier’s loyalists.

Relatives of hostages stand in front of the courthouse. Maayan Sherman, mother of slain captive soldier Ron Sherman, holds a picture of her son, on which she wrote: “Kidnapped because of Netanyahu. Murdered by Netanyahu.”

Across the street, mounted police officers stand at the ready, in case chaos breaks out.

Likud MK calls trial of Netanyahu ‘a hate crime’ and a ‘holy war’ against PM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the Tel Aviv District Court before the start of his testimony in the trial against him, December 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

The ongoing prosecution of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “not a trial, it is a hate crime,” asserts backbencher Likud MK Amit Halevi, as the premier is set to begin testifying in a Tel Aviv courthouse.

The case against Netanyahu is motivated by the kind of “hatred that drives jihad, the holy war against Netanyahu, the values ​​and the public he represents,” he states.

“Don’t be impressed by the morning headlines in the newspapers, even dead fish would be ashamed if they were wrapped in them.”

Opposition’s Yair Golan says PM ‘launched a war against Israel’ since he was indicted

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the Tel Aviv District Court before the start of his testimony in the trial against him, December 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

Since his criminal indictments in 2020, Benjamin Netanyahu “launched a war against the State of Israel,” The Democrats party chairman Yair Golan alleges ahead of the start of the prime minister’s testimony in his ongoing corruption trial.

“From that moment on, we were dragged into five election campaigns, a crazy coup that tore the nation apart, and a massacre the likes of which has not been seen since the rise of Zionism,” Golan says.

Between 2019 and 2022, Israel held five national elections.

“Every trick and stunt Netanyahu tried to do to prevent his trial failed, and he will also fail the test of the trial itself. Israel will win,” he adds.

Israeli Navy carries out large-scale operation to destroy Assad regime’s fleet

Last night, the Israeli Navy carried out a large-scale operation to destroy the former Assad regime’s navy fleet in Syria.

Numerous Syrian navy vessels armed with sea-to-sea missiles were destroyed in strikes carried out by Israeli Navy missile boats, at the Minet el-Beida bay and Latakia port on the Syrian coast, according to military sources.

The strikes were carried out to prevent the Syrian navy capabilities and weaponry from falling into the hands of hostile forces, following the collapse of the Assad regime.

The Israeli Air Force, meanwhile, has carried out some 300 airstrikes in Syria since the collapse of the regime, destroying advanced weapons and other capabilities that Israel seeks to prevent from reaching hostile forces.

Outside court, Ben Gvir slams ‘campaign of persecution’ against Netanyahu

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir arrives at the the Tel Aviv District Court ahead of the testimony of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the trial against him, December 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

Speaking to reporters outside the Tel Aviv courthouse where Benjamin Netanyahu is soon slated to begin testifying in his ongoing criminal trial, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir declares that he is there to support the prime minister, who is suffering from a “campaign of persecution against him.”

Claiming that the charges against Netanyahu are fabricated, Ben Gvir says it is not enough merely to speak out, and calls on his fellow ministers to raise a proposal to fire Attorney General Gali-Baharav Miara at the next cabinet meeting.

“I say something very simple: It is clear to everyone that she is fabricating cases,” he says. “I have been demanding her dismissal for over a year, and I say again, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, to all my friends in the Likud and in the right-wing government, I love and appreciate you, but it is time to bring this to a government decision!”

Culture Minister Miki Zohar appears to imply that Netanyahu’s ongoing trial endangers the hostages held in Gaza in a statement released ahead of the start of the premier’s testimony in his ongoing corruption case.

“The Middle East is undergoing historic changes with dramatic implications for Israel’s security. We are on the verge of a critical deal to free our brothers and sisters who are languishing in Hamas captivity and Israel is in the middle of a war on seven simultaneous fronts,” Zohar says in a statement.

“Why does the legal system insist on dragging the prime minister, who is leading the campaign, into long hours of testimony precisely now?” he asks, calling it “an absurd and illogical decision by any standard.”

Netanyahu should be allowed to run the war without distraction and “there will be time for everything else later,” he asserts.

Netanyahu arrives at court to take the stand in his corruption trial

The courtroom in the Tel Aviv District Court ahead of the testimony of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his corruption trial, December 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Nearly five years after his trial on corruption charges began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in court to take the witness stand as a defendant to answer questions over the criminal allegations against him in three different cases.

The hearings are taking place in an underground hall in the Tel-Aviv Jaffa District Court for security reasons, since the Jerusalem District Court house lacks adequate security arrangements.

In recent months, Netanyahu repeatedly sought to delay testifying, but having exhausted all avenues, his testimony begins now, in an effort to refute the charges of fraud and breach of trust leveled at him in all three cases, and bribery, the most serious allegation, in one of them.

Netanyahu’s defense attorneys will question the prime minister first, during which time, he will be able to expound at length in defense of his actions, in a process which will likely last two to three days. The majority of the prime minister’s time at the witness stand will then be taken up by the cross examination of the prosecution.

Once the prosecution completes its cross examination, Netanyahu’s defense attorneys will be able to call him back to the witness stand if they feel that he needs to clarify anything in his testimony.

Ministers and Netanyahu loyalists Miri Regev, Shlomo Karhi and Itamar Ben Gvir have arrived at the court to offer their support to the prime minister. Knesset Speaker, and Likud MK Amir Ohana, as well as Likud MKs Avichay Boaron, Osnat Mark, and Tali Gotliv are also in attendance to lend their public backing to Netanyahu.

Justice Minister Levin denounces PM’s testimony in corruption trial as an ‘injustice’

Justice Minister Yariv Levin speaks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a Knesset debate on the state budget, December 14, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony in his ongoing corruption trial, Justice Minister Yariv Levin releases a statement describing the ongoing legal proceedings against the premier, including now, “when so much is placed on his shoulders,” as an “injustice.”

“Together with many, many citizens of Israel, I seek to strengthen you, Mr. Prime Minister. I know that today, too, you will stand tall and present the simple truth as it is,” Levin states.

IRGC commander says Iran not weakened following the fall of Assad

Head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Hossein Salami speaks during a rally outside the former US embassy in Tehran on November 3, 2024. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says the Islamic Republic has not been weakened following the fall of its ally, Bashar al-Assad, in Syria, Iranian media reports.

“We have not been weakened and Iran’s power has not diminished,” Hossein Salami is quoted as telling members of parliament in a closed session.

“The overthrow of the Zionist regime is not off the agenda,” Salami says in the session, which meets to discuss the latest developments in Syria.

Salami says no Iranian forces remain in Syria.

Report: Israeli tanks reach point 25km from Damascus

IDF forces seen entering Syria, in a handout photo issued by the military on December 9, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

An Israeli military incursion into southern Syria has reached about 25 kilometers (16 miles) southwest of the capital Damascus, two regional security sources and one Syrian security source says.

The Syrian security source says Israeli troops reached Qatana, which is 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Syrian territory, east of a demilitarized zone separating the Golan Heights from Syria.

Despite the claims, the IDF has indicated that it only plans to operate on the ground inside the buffer zone, and not beyond it.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the report.

Anti-government protesters gather outside site of Netanyahu trial ahead of testimony

Anti-government protesters outside the Tel Aviv District Court, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's testimony in his corruption trial, December 10, 2024. (Jeremy Sharon/ Times of Israel)

A small protest is being held by campaigners calling for a hostage release agreement and anti-war activists outside the Tel Aviv-Jaffa District Court house, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled testimony in his criminal trial.

Protesters accuse Netanyahu of refusing to reach a hostage deal for political purposes, and of continuing the war to advance the cause of his ultranationalist political allies who wish to build Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Inside the courthouse, a plethora of media outlets, including foreign press, have set up broadcast stations ahead of the unprecedented spectacle of a sitting prime minister taking the witness stand in his own criminal trial.

IDF: Airstrike kills 10 Hamas operatives involved in slaying of 3 soldiers yesterday

From left: Staff Sgt. Ido Zano, Sgt. Omri Cohen and Staff Sgt. Barak Daniel Halpern (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says it has killed in an airstrike 10 Hamas operatives who were involved in the deaths yesterday of three IDF soldiers killed in northern Gaza.

Staff Sgt. Ido Zano, Staff Sgt. Barak Daniel Halpern and Sgt. Omri Cohen were killed and 12 others were wounded in Jabalia when Hamas operatives launched anti-tank projectiles and opened fire at the troops as they were getting ready to head out of the Strip for a furlough.

בפעילות משותפת של חטיבה 401 וחיל האוויר, כלי טיס תקפו וחיסלו עשרה מהמחבלים שלקחו חלק בפעולת הטרור אתמול בה נפלו סמ״ר עידו ז'נו ז"ל, סמ״ר ברק דניאל הלפרן ז"ל וסמל עמרי כהן ז"ל.

כוחות אוגדה 162 ממשיכים בלחימה במרחב, מחסלים מחבלים ומשמידים תשתיות טרור pic.twitter.com/MyNxlIu24b

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) December 10, 2024

Iran slams Israeli incursion into Golan buffer zone as ‘violation’ of law

Israeli soldiers sit on top of a tank along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Golan Heights from Syria, in the town of Majdal Shams, December 9, 2024. (AP/ Matias Delacroix)

Iran condemns Israel’s incursion into a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights on the border with Syria as a “violation” of the law.

“This aggression is a flagrant violation of the United Nations charter,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei says in a statement published last night.

Air Force chief says it failed to flag drone that hit building in Yavne as a threat

A member of the Israeli security forces takes pictures at the site where a drone exploded on the top floor of a residential building in the southern Israeli city of Yavne on December 9, 2024. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

Israeli Air Force chief Tomer Bar says that a drone fired from Yemen which hit a building in the city of Yavne yesterday without any sirens was mistakenly thought to pose no threat.

A statement from the IDF says that after Bar investigated the incident, it was found that the drone was initially flagged as suspect, and was slated to be shot down, before officials decided instead not to, believing it to be a civilian aircraft.

Since the drone was not classified as a threat, no sirens were sounded, the statement says.

Bar says that the “Air Force failed in the incident and did not provide protection and warning to Israeli citizens,” and says that in the future, sirens should be sounded even if a drone is not fully determined to be a threat.

Syria’s White Helmets rescuers announce end to search at notorious prison

A man breaks the lock of a cell in the infamous Sednaya military prison, just north of Damascus, Syria, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP/Hussein Malla)

Syria’s White Helmets rescue group announces the end of search operations at the notorious Sednaya prison without finding further detainees.

“The White Helmets announce the conclusion of search operations for possible remaining detainees in potential undiscovered secret cells and basements” at the facility, says a statement. “The search did not uncover any unopened or hidden areas within the facility.”

Suspect charged with murder in shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO

This booking photo released Dec. 9, 2024, by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections shows Luigi Mangione, a suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (Pennsylvania Department of Corrections via AP)

A man suspected in the brazen Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO has been arrested and charged with murder after a quick-thinking McDonald’s customer in Pennsylvania recognized him from a surveillance photo and police officers found a gun, mask and writings linking him to the ambush.

The chance sighting at the restaurant in Altoona led to a dramatic break in a challenging but fast-moving investigation that captivated the public in the five days since the shooting that shook the business world.

Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, had a gun believed to be the one used in last Wednesday’s shooting of Brian Thompson, as well as writings suggesting anger with corporate America, police say.

Late last night, Manhattan prosecutors filed murder and other charges against Mangione, according to an online court docket. He remains jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police.

In his backpack, police found a black, 3D-printed pistol and a 3D-printed black silencer, the complaint said. Such ghost guns can be assembled at home from parts without a serial number, making them difficult to trace. The pistol had a metal slide and plastic handle with a metal threaded barrel.

Visiting torched synagogue, Australian PM calls for unity after ‘evil crime’

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (C) and Rabbi Shlomo Kohn visiting the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December 10, 2024, days after it was set ablaze. (Handout / DEPARTMENT OF PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET / AFP)

Australia’s prime minister tours the charred wreckage of a synagogue, urging the nation to unite in the face of an “evil” arson attack.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets Jewish leaders outside the synagogue, pledging to do what is necessary to help rebuild in the wake of “this evil crime.”

“This arson attack is an act of terrorism. It was fueled by antisemitism and it was stoked by hatred,” says Albanese, donning a Jewish skullcap and flanked by Jewish community leaders. “We’re a country that needs to come together and unite.”

His comments came just days after Australia voted for a United Nations General Assembly resolution that demanded the end of Israel’s “unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Loud explosions reported in Damascus

AFP journalists report hearing loud explosions in Damascus early Tuesday, hours after the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported around 250 Israeli air strikes on Syrian territory since the fall of president Bashar al-Assad.

According to the Britain-based war monitor, Israel had conducted more than 100 airstrikes on military targets in Syria on Monday, including a research center Western countries suspected of having links to chemical weapons production in Damascus.

SOHR, run by a single person, has regularly been accused by Syrian war analysts of false reporting and inflating casualty numbers as well as inventing them wholesale.

Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.

Report: Senior Syrian officials fled to Lebanon with help of Hezbollah after fall of Assad

Citing Lebanese media outlets, the Kan public broadcaster reports that senior officials of the toppled Syrian regime have fled across the border into Lebanon with the help of the Hezbollah terror group.

Among those said to have fled to Lebanon in the days leading up to the dramatic fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime are his family members, intelligence officials, and close business associates, Kan reports.

The former director of Syria’s national security bureau Ali Mamlouk is also said to be among them.

Mamlouk has been wanted by the Lebanese government since 2012 for allegedly planning the assassination of Lebanese political and religious leaders, and by the French government since 2018 for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

According to the report, the Syrian officials were provided with Lebanese license plates and smuggled into Beirut with the help of Hezbollah operatives. It adds that they are believed to be located in Dahiyeh, the Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Syrian rebel leader says he will announce list of former officials wanted for torture

The leader of Syria's Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that headed a lightning rebel offensive snatching Damascus from government control, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, address a crowd at the capital's landmark Umayyad Mosque on December 8, 2024. (Aref Tammawi/AFP)

Syria’s Islamist rebel leader says that the incoming authorities will announce a list of former senior officials “involved in torturing the Syrian people.”

“We will offer rewards to anyone who provides information about senior army and security officers involved in war crimes,” rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, says in a statement on Telegram.

The rebel leader began discussions yesterday with the ousted government on transferring power, a day after his opposition alliance dramatically unseated president Bashar al-Assad following decades of brutal rule.

“We will not hesitate to hold accountable the criminals, murderers, security and army officers involved in torturing the Syrian people,” Sharaa says in the statement, adding they “will pursue war criminals and ask for their hand over from the countries to which they fled.”

“We have affirmed our commitment to tolerance for those whose hands are not stained with the blood of the Syrian people, and we have granted amnesty to those who were in compulsory service,” he says.

Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group had been administering swathes of Idlib province and parts of neighboring areas until November 27, when along with allied factions it launched a lightning offensive, seizing government-held territory and capturing Damascus on Sunday.

Assad fled Syria as the Islamist-led rebels swept into the capital, bringing a spectacular end to five decades of brutal rule by his family.

Hezbollah media claims Israeli tanks crossed Syria buffer zone boundary, reached outskirts of Damascus

The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen news outlet reports that Israeli tanks have advanced beyond the boundaries of the Golan Heights buffer zone in Syria that it moved troops into earlier this week.

According to the unverified report from the Lebanese outlet, the tanks progressed past the abandoned buffer zone town of Qunaitra before stopping near Qatana, a southern Syria city just over 21 kilometers away from the capital city of Damascus.

The report further that Israeli troops also entered several villages on the outskirts of Damascus.

Despite the claims, the IDF has indicated that it only plans to operate on the ground inside the buffer zone, and not beyond it.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF on the report.

US charges two former Assad-regime officials with war crimes

A US indictment unsealed Monday charges two high-ranking Syrian officials under ousted President Bashar al-Assad with war crimes, the US Justice Department says in a statement.

The indictment, which was unsealed in the Northern District of Illinois, charges the former Syrian intelligence officials with engaging in a conspiracy to commit cruel and inhuman treatment of civilian detainees, including US citizens, during the course of the Syrian civil war.