Dec. 15: Israel rejects ICC decision to continue Gaza probe as ‘politics in the guise of international law’

A Haredi toddler was found alone overnight at a bus terminal near the Qalandiya checkpoint, south of Ramallah.

An employee at the terminal noticed the boy at around 2 a.m. and called police, who took the child to a nearby station.

Police located the parents this morning. They are residents of Modi’in Illit, a Haredi settlement in the West Bank. They will reunite with their child and then undergo questioning by police about the incident.

The child is around three years old and speaks only Yiddish. Officers were unable to glean any relevant information from him, police say.

10:08 am

Suspected smuggler seriously injured after jumping into sea during police boat chase

Boxes of cigarette packs seized by police after arresting two men who tried to smuggle the goods into Israel overnight, December 15, 2025. (Israel Police)

Marine police chased down a pair of smugglers off the coast of Acre last night in a pursuit that left one suspect seriously injured, foiling an attempt to bring a large amount of cigarettes into Israel.

They had been transporting 4,500 packs of cigarettes worth around NIS 2 million ($620 million) purchased at sea from a Cypriot merchant ship, police say.

The suspects, both residents of Acre in their 30s, tried to flee back to shore after police caught them, leading to a high-speed pursuit on the water.

The two men chucked boxes of cigarettes into the Mediterranean in a bid to discard evidence, rammed one of the police boats several times and then jumped into the water.

Police were able to immediately detain one of the men. His accomplice was seriously injured and taken to the hospital by Magen David Adom paramedics.

Officers recovered the cigarettes from the water and seized the suspects’ boat. Police intend to confiscate the vessel.

10:27 am

1,300-year-old menorah-decorated pendant found near Temple Mount in Jerusalem

By Rossella Tercatin

A 1,300-year-old menorah-decorated pendant found at the Davidson Archaeological Park in Jerusalem, in a discovery announced on December 15, 2025. (Eliyahu Yanai/City of David)

A cast-lead round pendant decorated with a seven-branched menorah on both sides, dating back approximately 1,300 years, has been discovered during an archaeological excavation at the Davidson Archaeological Park in Jerusalem, near the Temple Mount, the Israel Antiquities Authority announces.

According to IAA experts, the discovery marks the first time such a pendant made of lead has been unearthed in an archaeological excavation.

“Research has identified pendants of glass and other metals decorated with a menorah, but we know of only one other pendant in the world bearing the symbol of the menorah, made of lead,” IAA researchers Dr. Yuval Baruch, Dr. Filip Vukosavović, Esther Rakow-Mellet, and Dr. Shulamit Terem explain in a statement. “That pendant, of unknown origin, is housed in The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, USA.”

“The double appearance of the menorah on each side of the disc indicates the deep significance of this symbol, and the central place of the menorah in the visual expression of connection to the Temple and its memory, even in periods long after the destruction of the Temple,” they add.

The archaeologists uncovered it in the remains of a late Byzantine building from the late 6th/early 7th century, a period when, according to historical sources, Jews were not allowed to enter Jerusalem.

“In recent years, there is increased archaeological evidence that shows that Jews, despite all the prohibitions and difficulties imposed on them, found ways to reach Jerusalem – and it is possible that there were even some who settled there,” Baruch says.

The excavation is being carried out by the IAA in cooperation with the City of David Foundation and the Company for the Restoration and Development of the Jewish Quarter.

10:45 am

Australia’s antisemitism envoy: Hate has been ‘seeping into society for many years’

By AFP

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Jillian Segal speaks during a media conference in Sydney on October 9, 2023 (David Gray / AFP)

The Australian government’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, says hate has been “seeping into society for many years and we have not come out strongly enough against it.”

The Bondi shooting was an “attack on Australia, not just on the Jewish community,” she tells public broadcaster ABC.

Segal was appointed Australia’s first antisemitism envoy in 2024, after a string of attacks in Sydney and Melbourne following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Even before the latest shooting, she had decried an upswing in violence against Jewish Australians.

“We’ve seen cars being torched, synagogues being torched, individual Jews harassed and attacked, and that is completely unacceptable,” she said in July. “These are not isolated events, and they form part of a broader pattern of intimidation and violence that is making Jewish Australians feel very unsafe.”

In a 16-page report, Segal made a broad set of recommendations, including strengthening hate and intimidation laws, improving education about the Holocaust and other issues, and holding universities accountable for antisemitism.

11:14 am

‘Hero’ who disarmed Bondi gunman recovering after surgery, family says

Screengrab of Ahmed al Ahmed, 43-year-old fruit store owner, wrestling the weapon from one of the two gunmen who attacked a Hanukkah event at Sydney's Bondi Beach, December 14, 2025. (Footage from X, used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)

A Sydney resident who wrestled a gun from one of the alleged attackers during the mass shooting at Bondi Beach is recovering in hospital after undergoing surgery for bullet wounds to his arm and hand, his family says.

Forty-three-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed was identified on social media as the bystander who hid behind parked cars before charging at the gunman from behind, seizing his rifle and knocking him to the ground.

An apparently new video circling online shows the heroic actions of al Ahmed from a previously unseen angle.

Australian police on Monday said a 50-year-old father and his 24-year-old son carried out the attack at a Jewish celebration at Bondi Beach on Sunday afternoon, killing 15 people in the country’s worst mass shooting in almost 30 years.

Jozay Alkanji, cousin of Ahmed al Ahmed, speaking while he was leaving the hospital in Sydney on Monday evening, said: “He’s done the first surgery. I think he’s got two or three surgeries, that depend on the doctor, what he says.”

Tributes have poured in from leaders both abroad and at home.

US President Donald Trump called Ahmed “a very, very brave person” who saved many lives. Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales state where Sydney is located, has hailed him “a genuine hero” and said the video was “the most unbelievable scene I’ve ever seen.”

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up for Ahmed with just over A$200,000 ($132,900) raised in a few hours. Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman was the largest donor, contributing A$99,999 and sharing the fundraiser on his X account.

11:23 am

Australia plans tougher gun laws after Bondi Beach killings

Australia vows stricter gun laws as it mourns victims of its worst mass shooting in almost 30 years, in which police accuse a father-and-son duo of killing 15 people at a Jewish celebration at Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach.

The incident has raised questions about whether Australia’s gun laws, among the toughest in the world, need an overhaul, with police saying the older suspect had held a firearms license since 2015, along with six registered weapons.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his cabinet agreed to strengthen gun laws and work on a national firearms register to tackle aspects such as the number of weapons permitted by gun licenses, and how long the latter are valid.

“People’s circumstances can change,” he told reporters before the cabinet met. “People can be radicalized over a period of time. Licences should not be in perpetuity.”

Albanese says measures being considered range from curbs on open-ended licenses to limits on weapons held by a single individual and the types that are legal, including modifications, with permits restricted to Australian citizens.

11:42 am

Ohana brings Paraguay parliament speaker to Netanyahu’s trial in show of support

By Jeremy Sharon

The president of Paraguay’s Chamber of Deputies, Raúl Latorre, goes to the Tel Aviv District Court to lend his support to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is giving testimony in his criminal trial on corruption charges.

Latorre is brought into the courtroom by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana as the judges and the prosecution attorney discuss a final matter before ending the hearing early.

Judge Rivka Feldman-Friedman then declares the hearing closed after less than an hour and a half of testimony from Netanyahu, after the judges had on Sunday responded to Netanyahu’s request to cancel the hearing by reducing it from a full day to just two hours.

ראש הממשלה @netanyahu עם נשיא בית הנבחרים של פרגוואי ויו"ר הכנסת @AmirOhana pic.twitter.com/L9E6HHYxjD

— כנרת בראשי kinneret barashi (@BarashiKinneret) December 15, 2025

After the judges leave, Netanyahu and Latorre exchange a few words and then leave the courtroom to speak outside.

“We are here to give you our full support. We admire you and see you as one of the main leaders of the free world,” Latorre tells Netanyahu.

“My brother here spoke with me about how unfair this trial is,” Latorre continues in reference to Ohana, with Netanyahu interjecting and calling the trial “comical.”

12:15 pm

Mourners sing peace prayer at Bondi Beach as they light Hanukkah candles a day after killings

Mourners gather to light Hanukkah candles at Bondi Pavilion a day after the deadly terror attack against the Jewish community there, on December 15, 2025. (Video screenshot; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

A day after the terror attack on a Jewish-community event at Bondi Beach in Sydney, people gathered there this evening (Australia time) to light Hanukkah candles, on the second night of the eight-day holiday.

The large crowd sang “Ya’aseh Shalom,” a prayer for peace.

The Jewish community came to Bondi to light the second candle of Hanukkah and is singing songs of peace, because this is who we are, a peaceful people who just want to live freely.

pic.twitter.com/TwTOWgCaZX

— Vivid.???????? (@VividProwess) December 15, 2025

12:20 pm

Police file prosecutor’s declaration against soccer fans for lighting flares, smoke grenades

Police stand guard after the Israeli Premier League match between Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Tel Aviv was canceled at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv, on October 19, 2025. (Flash90)

Police file a prosecutor’s declaration against 24 Hapoel Tel Aviv soccer fans suspected of lighting pyrotechnics and causing injuries before a planned Tel Aviv derby match in October.

The suspects, according to police, set off army-grade smoke grenades and flares within the stadium, injuring several fans and police officers.

The match was set to take place between Tel Aviv’s Hapoel and Maccabi teams, but was canceled due to rioting in and around Bloomfield Stadium.

The disruption was allegedly coordinated in advance, with each suspect having been assigned a specific role to play ahead of the match. Police identified them via footage taken inside and outside the stadium.

Police add that many of the suspects were involved in a brawl with rival fans in March at Peres Park in Holon. They were equipped with metal batons, brass knuckles and pepper spray, police claim.

Earlier this month, police, including officers in the Border Police’s National Guard forces, detained dozens of Hapoel Tel Aviv fans and raided a warehouse belonging to the club, confiscating dozens of extendable batons and tear gas canisters. The raid was part of a probe into the October incident by the Tel Aviv District’s investigative unit.

12:31 pm

Australian PM rejects Netanyahu’s linking of Palestine recognition to Bondi Beach attack

A handout photo taken and released by the Australian Prime Minister's Office on December 15, 2025, shows Prime Minister Anthony Albanese preparing to lay flowers at the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach, the scene of a terror shooting targeting the Jewish community where 15 people were killed. (Handout / AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE / AFP)

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejects Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion that his government’s recognition of Palestinian statehood earlier this year “pours fuel” on an “antisemitic fire.”

Asked during an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation if he saw a link between that action and the Bondi Beach terror attack, Albanese responds: “No I don’t.”

“And overwhelmingly, most of the world recognizes a two-state solution as being the way forward in the Middle East,” he adds.

Netanyahu also said yesterday that in an August letter, he’d urged Albanese to “replace weakness with action, appeasement with resolve,” but that the Australian leader had instead “replaced weakness with weakness and appeasement with more appeasement.”

Asked for his response to those comments, Albanese says his role “at this time is to bring the nation together, is to promote unity” and that the terrorists seek “to divide us as a nation, to pitch Australian against Australian.”

“We need to wrap our arms around members of the Jewish community who are going through an extraordinarily difficult period, not just those who are grieving loved ones and friends, but every member of the Jewish community in Australia,” he says. “This has been an extraordinarily traumatic 24 hours. My job is to provide support for the Jewish community, is to make it clear that Australians overwhelmingly stand with the Jewish community at this difficult time.”

1:05 pm

Slovakia’s president says one of the Bondi Beach victims was a Slovak citizen

By Reuters and ToI Staff

Slovak President Peter Pellegrini says a woman from Slovakia was killed during a mass shooting at a Jewish celebration at Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach in Australia on Sunday.

“Already yesterday, I unequivocally condemned the brutal, deadly attack… Today, that grief has reached Slovakia as well — among the victims of this senseless, violent rampage was a Slovak woman, Marika,” Pellegrini wrote on X.

It is not immediately clear if he is referring to Marika Pogany, identified earlier.

“It is terrifying to see how far sick, faceless hatred toward strangers can go,” he adds. “We must remember this every time we carelessly, without reflecting on the consequences, whether knowingly or unknowingly, contribute to the spread of hatred ourselves. Hatred ultimately recognizes no limits, and its final outcome is the destruction of innocent human lives.”

Already yesterday, I unequivocally condemned the brutal, deadly attack on innocent people during the Hanukkah celebrations at Australia’s Bondi Beach and expressed my deep solidarity with a nation plunged into grief and shock. Today, that grief has reached Slovakia as well —…

— Peter Pellegrini (@PellegriniP_) December 15, 2025

1:21 pm

Lapid blasts Knesset speaker for bringing Paraguayan counterpart to PM’s trial: ‘A disgrace’

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana after the Likud lawmaker brought his Paraguayan counterpart to the Tel Aviv District Court to lend support to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is giving testimony in his criminal trial on corruption charges.

“It’s a disgrace. Instead of taking him to Nir Oz, they’re taking him to the courthouse. When I said that Ohana is the speaker of half the Knesset, he was offended, and that’s precisely what being the speaker of half the Knesset is. Why is he involving him in the prime minister’s trial?” Lapid says, arguing that “Netanyahu has become an embarrassment to the State of Israel worldwide.”

Ohana brought Raúl Latorre, the president of Paraguay’s Chamber of Deputies, into the courtroom, where the official told Netanyahu that “we are here to give you our full support,” adding that Ohana had told him “how unfair this trial is.”

1:25 pm

Defense Ministry, Jerusalem municipality sign deal to establish new defense HQ, relocate military colleges to capital

By Emanuel Fabian

Left to right: Defense Ministry Director General Amir Baram, Defense Minister Israel Katz, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, and Jerusalem Municipality Director General Ariela Rejwan are seen at a ceremony marking the signing of a major agreement in Jerusalem on December 15, 2025. (Arnon Busani/Jerusalem municipality)

The Defense Ministry says it has signed an agreement with the Jerusalem municipality that will establish a new defense headquarters in the capital and relocate the military’s colleges to the city, among other moves.

The agreement was signed today by Defense Minister Israel Katz, Defense Ministry Director General Amir Baram, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, and Jerusalem Municipality Director General Ariela Rejwan.

Under the framework, a branch of the defense establishment will be built at Jerusalem’s city entrance complex. The branch will include offices for the Defense Ministry and IDF, as well as a research and development site.

Additionally, a new IDF museum will be established near the Mandel Institute in the city, the ministry says.

Also, as part of the agreement, the army’s induction center in Jerusalem will undergo a “facelift to adapt it to current and future needs,” and at the same time, the ministry and municipality will begin work to locate a site in Jerusalem for a new induction center to replace the current one.

The ministry says that the military colleges, currently located at the Glilot base near Herzliya, will be moved to Jerusalem, “to one of the areas most accessible and well connected by diverse public transportation.”

“The colleges are expected to serve hundreds of officers and personnel and to strengthen the character of the surrounding neighborhoods,” the ministry says.

Lastly, the agreement will see the Jerusalem municipality and the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Housing Administration advance housing projects for IDF career officers in the city.

1:41 pm

Lapid: We refuse to surrender to hatred, we will not give in to despair

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid at a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on December 15, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says that the Jewish people “refuse to surrender to hatred” following yesterday’s mass shooting at a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

Addressing Jews “from Sydney to California, from Amsterdam to Manchester, from Pittsburgh to Berlin” during a press conference ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Lapid says that the attack presents the Jewish people “with a choice.”

“Shall we put out the candles and hide, or shall we light them and say: ‘We are here, we refuse to submit to hatred, we believe in the power of the Jewish people?'”

He goes on: “There is one thing that the holiday of Hanukkah symbolizes… We are here. The empires that tried to destroy us are gone, the antisemites who thought to destroy us are gone.” He says he told an Australian Jewish leader that his community needs to hear from him that “hatred will not defeat them.”

“These are difficult days, but we will not give in to despair. We send you strength and love from here. Our door is always open to you. This country, the State of Israel, is also yours and always will be. We are once again and forever — choosing life.”

1:48 pm

Sydney Opera House lit with Hanukkah menorah after Bondi shooting

A Hanukkah menorah is projected onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House in memory of the victims of a terror attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney on December 15, 2025 (DAVID GRAY / AFP)

In Sydney tonight, the world-famous Opera House is lit with an image of the Hanukkah menorah, in honor of the victims of the Bondi Beach killings yesterday.

2:13 pm

Former Australian PM: Jews have ‘felt very alone these last few years, very abandoned’

Former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison testifies during a House Select Committee on China hearing on Capitol Hill, July 23, 2025, in Washington, DC. (AP/Mariam Zuhaib)

Former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison says the country’s Jewish community has “felt very alone these last few years, very alone, very abandoned, very isolated, very forgotten.”

“And at this moment, the country is putting their arms around them, and I’m very pleased for them,” he tells Australia’s ABC News.

“This has been a hard road since October 7 for them. And as each day has passed, we have just seen antisemitism in this country just unleashed in a vacuum — where evil has occupied that vacuum. And it’s just gone from worse to worse to worse, and it’s now been manifested in this most despicable and appalling attack,” he says.

“They have sought to combat it, they have sought to stand up against it… to overcome their fear. But the fear is real, and their safety has not been secured. That’s very clear with what we’ve seen tragically occur here,” Morrison adds.

“I just hope that leads to a genuine acknowledgement and appreciation of what must be done to combat this just appalling antisemitism that has no place in this country, but [which] clearly has found a foothold over these last few years since October 7.”

2:21 pm

Pope urges end to antisemitic violence after Sydney attack

By AFP

Pope Leo XIV speaks to journalists aboard a flight to Rome at the end of his trip to Turkey and Lebanon, on December 2, 2025. (Alessandro DI MEO / POOL / AFP)

Pope Leo XIV offers his prayers for the victims of the attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that left 15 people dead, and calls for an end to antisemitic violence.

“Today I wish to entrust to the Lord the victims of yesterday’s terrorist massacre in Sydney against the Jewish community. Enough of these forms of antisemitic violence — we must eliminate the hatred in our hearts,” he says during an audience at the Vatican.

2:40 pm

Iran’s rial currency plummets to new low, sparking fears of higher food prices

By AP

This picture shows new Iranian bank notes of one million, 500,000, and 100,000 rials on August 3, 2025. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

TEHRAN — Iran’s rial slides further to a new record low of more than 1.3 million to the US dollar, deepening the currency’s collapse less than two weeks after it first breached the 1.2-million mark amid sanctions pressure and regional tensions.

Currency traders in Tehran quote the dollar above 1.3 million rials, underscoring the speed of the decline since December 3, when the rial hit what was then a historic low. The rapid depreciation is compounding inflationary pressures, pushing up prices for food and other daily necessities and further straining household budgets, a trend that could be intensified by a gasoline price change introduced in recent days.

The fall comes as efforts to revive negotiations between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear program appear stalled, while uncertainty persists over the risk of renewed conflict following June’s 12-day war between Iran and Israel. Many Iranians also fear the possibility of a broader confrontation that could draw in the United States, adding to market anxiety.

Iran’s economy has been battered for years by international sanctions, particularly after Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. At the time the 2015 accord — which sharply curtailed Iran’s uranium enrichment and stockpiles in exchange for sanctions relief — was implemented, the rial traded at about 32,000 to the dollar.

After Trump returned to the White House for a second term in January, his administration revived a “maximum pressure” campaign, expanding sanctions that target Iran’s financial sector and energy exports. Washington has again pursued firms involved in trading Iranian crude oil, including discounted sales to buyers in China, according to US statements.

Further pressure followed in late September, when the United Nations reimposed nuclear-related sanctions on Iran through the “snapback” mechanism. Those measures once again froze Iranian assets abroad, halted arms transactions with Tehran and imposed penalties tied to Iran’s ballistic missile program.

2:41 pm

Saudi Arabia sets new death penalty record, executing 340 people in 2025 — AFP tally

By AFP

Saudi Arabia set a new record for the number of executions carried out in a single year, according to an AFP tally, with the kingdom killing 340 people so far this year after authorities said three people were put to death today.

The toll marks the second straight year Saudi Arabia has broken its own record since rights groups first began documenting the number of executions in the 1990s. The kingdom executed 338 people in 2024, an AFP tally showed.

2:43 pm

Eurovision 2026 will feature 35 countries, organizers say

By AFP

Israeli singer Yuval Raphael performs the song "New Day Will Rise" during the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, at the St. Jakobshalle arena in Basel on May 15, 2025. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

Thirty-five countries will compete in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, organizers say, despite five countries boycotting over Israel’s participation in the glitzy annual extravaganza.

Opposition to Israel’s tactics in the two-year war in Gaza had led to some calls for it to be excluded from the world’s biggest live televised music event. On December 4, members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the world’s largest public service media alliance, decided no vote was needed on Israel’s continued inclusion.

Public broadcasters in Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain duly announced they would boycott the 70th edition of the contest, to be held in the Austrian capital in May.

The Geneva-based EBU is now announcing the list of broadcasters competing in the show, saying 35 will be sending songs and artists to Vienna.

A total of 37 countries competed in this year’s contest in Basel, Switzerland, which was won by Austrian operatic singer JJ with “Wasted Love.”

Despite the five-country boycott, 35 nations will compete next year as Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova return to the contest after absences of three, two and one year respectively.

“As we prepare to celebrate 70 years of the Eurovision Song Contest it remains a place where voices, cultures, languages and music are woven together. Where people from many backgrounds can show that in a difficult world a better one is possible,” Eurovision director Martin Green says in a statement.

2:45 pm

German far-right MP charged over Hitler salute in parliament

By AFP

German lawmaker Matthias Moosdorf campaigns for the right-wing populist AfD party in Zwckau, Germany, on May 10, 2021. (Courtesy of Moosdorf/File)

Berlin prosecutors say they have charged a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party with making a Nazi salute in parliament.

The suspect allegedly “greeted a party colleague… at the east entrance to the Reichstag building with a heel click and a Hitler salute” in June 2023, the prosecutors say in a statement.

Making such a salute is illegal in Germany and is punishable by up to three years in prison.

The Bild daily named the lawmaker as Matthias Moosdorf, 60, a member of parliament for the city of Zwickau in the former East German state of Saxony.

“The accused is said to have been aware that the greeting… was visible to others in the entrance area,” the prosecutors say.

Moosdorf was stripped of his parliamentary immunity over the accusation in October. On Monday he posted on the X platform denying having made the gesture.

Moosdorf has been a member of the AfD since 2016 and was until recently a foreign policy spokesman for the party’s parliamentary group.

2:59 pm

MKs advance bill requiring state agencies to send voice updates for users of kosher phones

Lawmakers vote 72-0 in favor of the first reading of a bill requiring public bodies, such as the National Insurance Institute and Israel Tax Authority, to send out recorded voice messages to members of the public who own phones that cannot receive updates via text message.

The bill, sponsored by United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler, will be referred back to the Knesset Science and Technology Committee, where it will be prepared for the final two readings needed for it to pass into law.

Many in the ultra-Orthodox community who shun unfiltered access to the internet do not use smartphones and instead use so-called “kosher phones,” which are stripped of features such as web browsers and messaging apps and do not even allow their owners to receive SMS messages.

Last year, lawmakers approved a controversial law rolling back consumer protections in order to give cellphone carriers legal grounds to continue offering restricted plans to ultra-Orthodox Israelis and handing Haredi institutions the means to verify that individuals are using such censored phones.

3:11 pm

IDF to demolish 25 residential buildings in West Bank refugee camp — local authorities

By AFP

Israeli military vehicles seen during a raid in the Nur Shams camp near the city of Tulkarem in the West Bank on August 28, 2024. (Flash90)

The Israeli army is to demolish 25 residential buildings in the north West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp later this week, local authorities tell AFP.

Abdallah Kamil, governor of the Tulkarem governorate where Nur Shams is located, says he was informed of the planned demolition by the Israeli defense ministry body COGAT.

COGAT, which is in charge of coordinating civilian affairs in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military says it is “looking into it.”

Faisal Salama, head of the popular committee for Tulkarem camp, which is near Nur Shams, says the demolition order would affect 25 buildings holding up to 100 family homes.

“We were informed by the military and civil coordination that the occupation will carry out the demolition of 25 buildings on December 18, Thursday,” he tells AFP.

3:22 pm

Amid warnings over renewed fighting, Netanyahu meets US envoy to Syria, Lebanon

By Lazar Berman

A meeting between US and Israeli government officials, December 15, 2025. (Ma’ayan Toaf/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets in his Jerusalem office with the US Ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack.

Netanyahu is joined by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, acting National Security Adviser Gil Reich, Military Secretary Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, and Israel’s Ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter. The US side included Ambassador Mike Huckabee and Middle East adviser Aryeh Lightstone.

Barrack is also an envoy to Lebanon, whose government Washington warned recently about the likelihood of a major Israeli military strike against Hezbollah soon if Beirut doesn’t step up its campaign to disarm Hezbollah.

3:58 pm

Knesset speaker hits back after Lapid slams him for bringing Paraguayan official to PM’s trial

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana accuses Opposition Leader Yair Lapid of “speaking out of ignorance” for criticizing Ohana’s decision to bring his Paraguayan counterpart to the Tel Aviv District Court this morning to lend support to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was giving testimony in his criminal trial on corruption charges.

Following the visit, during which Raúl Latorre told Netanyahu that “we are here to give you our full support,” Lapid declared that Ohana’s actions were “a disgrace” because “instead of taking him to [October 7 hotspot] Nir Oz, they’re taking him to the courthouse.”

Reacting to Lapid, Ohana says he also took Latorre to communities ravaged in the 2023 Hamas onslaught.

“Do you want to compete over who has taken more leaders there? I’m ready. We were there not long after October 7,” he says, after which Latorre returned home “and passed resolutions in parliament expressing solidarity with Israel and recognizing Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorist organizations,” Ohana says in a video message sent to the press.

“In the midst of the war, Paraguay opened its embassy in Jerusalem and voted with Israel in every UN vote, even when Israel was in a small minority. Ahead of the current visit, we requested and received a meeting with the prime minister in his office. He, in turn, requested — and was refused by the judicial system — to change the date of his hearing, so we were forced to arrive and hold the meeting at the courthouse. That is indeed a disgrace, [but] whose?” Ohana continues, accusing Lapid of attacking “one of Israel’s greatest friends in the world.”

“Being in opposition to the government is important; being in opposition to the State of Israel is a disgrace. And that, Opposition Leader Lapid, is what you did today,” Ohana argues.

4:10 pm

Iran Nobel winner Narges Mohammadi ‘unwell’ after violent arrest, supporters say

By AFP

Narges Mohammadi, the Iranian women's rights campaigner imprisoned by Iran who won the Nobel Peace Prize, on October 6, 2023. (AFP/ Narges Mohammadi Foundation/ File)

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi was taken to the hospital twice after being violently arrested last week and appeared unwell in her first telephone contact since being detained, her supporters say.

Mohammadi suffered “severe and repeated baton blows to the head and neck” during her arrest, and in the call, “her physical condition was not good, and she appeared unwell,” her foundation says in a statement.

Iranian civil society activists, including prize-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi, have called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of Mohammadi and other campaigners arrested on Friday.

Mohammadi, who won the 2023 Nobel prize, was detained after addressing a memorial ceremony in the eastern city of Mashhad for lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead earlier this month.

Hamid Mohammadi, one of her brothers, who lives in Norway, tells AFP in Oslo that Narges Mohammadi called another brother inside Iran, telling him she was hit “brutally” on the head and her face and “as a result had been taken to be checked by a physician.”

“She’s not hospitalized and is still in detention,” he says.

4:37 pm

Courts orders release of 15 protesters arrested after marching to decry attack on Arab woman

Arab residents of Jaffa protest against an attack on a pregnant community member, in an incident allegedly motivated by racism, December 13, 2025. (Screenshot from X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court has released all 15 protesters arrested by police last night, after they partook in a stormy march decrying the assault of a pregnant Arab woman by Jewish assailants in Jaffa.

Police arrested all but one of the men in their homes a full day after the march on suspicion of engaging in “behavior that is liable to disturb the public peace.” The other detainee, Sheikh Issam al-Satal, was nabbed the night of the protest on incitement suspicions and also released today.

The court rejected police’s request to extend the protesters’ detention by five days and temporarily bar them from Jaffa, freeing them on bail. Police also sought a stay of execution of the decision, but were denied.

The impetus for the march was the assault on 30-year-old Hanan Abu Shehadeh, who was pepper-sprayed by three Jewish assailants while driving with her two kids in the city’s Ajami neighborhood. She recounted to Arabic outlets that the attackers hurled racist epithets at her and spat on her seven-year-old daughter.

Hundreds of outraged Arab residents marched to the site of the attack Saturday night, accusing the government of complicity. Participants chanted, “Tell the Shin Bet dogs we’re not afraid of conflict,” referring to Israel’s domestic security agency.

Police are still searching for Abu Shehadeh’s suspected assailants and have called for the public’s help in tracking them down, in order to “get to the truth of the matter and clarify the circumstances of the incident.”

معتقلو مدينة يافا المفرج عنهم في محكمة تل أبيب

تصوير: أمير بويرات (عرب 48)
التفاصيل: https://t.co/6PMqpLOsB4 pic.twitter.com/FWlxOYdQ6h

— موقع عرب 48 (@arab48website) December 15, 2025

Meanwhile, Arab residents of Jaffa are striking today over the attack, keeping schools and businesses closed for the day. Many community activists accuse the police of adhering to a double standard by arresting participants in Saturday night’s march, but not the perpetrators of the attack that sparked the demonstration.

A member of the Islamic Council in Jaffa, Abed Abu Shehadeh, tells Ynet that the strike was widely adhered to, despite being announced yesterday. “Even two Jewish schools joined the strike in the first two hours of the day,” he says to the outlet.

Another protest over the attack and its aftermath is scheduled to take place on Friday in Jaffa, according to Arabic outlets.

4:47 pm

Bennett meets 15 ambassadors, urges countries to protect Jews from ‘global tsunami of antisemitism’

By Lazar Berman

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, right, meets 15 foreign ambassadors at the residence of British Ambassador to Israel Simon Walters, December 15, 2025. (Office of Naftali Bennett)

Following the deadly terror shooting attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, former prime minister Naftali Bennett — a leading challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in elections next year — tells 15 foreign ambassadors that “Jews around the world are in clear and immediate danger,” according to his office.

“We are witnessing a global tsunami of antisemitism,” says Bennett. “Every country has an obligation to protect its Jewish citizens. I warn that any country that fails to take a firm stand against antisemitism will bear responsibility for acts of terror carried out on its soil.”

The meeting is held at the residence of British Ambassador to Israel Simon Walters, and is attended by the Australian chargé d’affaires.

The meeting is also attended by the ambassadors of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, India, Poland, Japan, Norway, Ukraine, Greece and Belgium, as well as the Italian deputy ambassador.

5:19 pm

Exiled in Moscow, toppled Syrian dictator Assad makes quiet return to ophthalmology — report

By Nava Freiberg

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 24, 2024. (Valery Sharifulin/Pool/AFP)

Over a year since he fled to Moscow after his regime was toppled by rebel forces, former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is taking ophthalmology lessons and enjoying a luxurious lifestyle with his family in Russia, according to a report by The Guardian, citing sources familiar with his situation.

Assad, a London-trained ophthalmologist, is currently “studying Russian and brushing up on his ophthalmology again,” a friend of the Assad family says in the report, adding that the ex-ruler is potentially aiming to practice medicine among Moscow’s elite.

The Assad family is largely cut off from political power or influence and is living a quiet, private life in Moscow, with the Assad children frequently visiting the United Arab Emirates, according to the report.

The report adds that the former dictator’s wife, Asma al-Assad, who had been battling leukemia, received experimental treatment in Moscow and has since recovered. With his wife’s health stabilized, Assad is said to be seeking media appearances to share “his side of the story” on the fall of his regime, and has lined up interviews with Russian and American media, but is awaiting approval from Russian authorities to speak publicly.

Assad was deposed in November 2024 after 14 years of civil war that killed some 600,000 people and displaced close to 14 million.

5:33 pm

US authorities foil New Year’s Eve plot for coordinated terror bombings in Los Angeles

By Reuters and ToI Staff

The FBI has foiled a bomb plot targeting multiple targets, including immigration agents and vehicles, in Los Angeles and Orange County, US Attorney General Pam Bondi says.

According to US media, the statement says four members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, a radical pro-Palestinian group, have been arrested over the plot for coordinated bombings in five places on New Year’s Eve using improvised explosive devices.

5:37 pm

Trump claims director Reiner was killed for angering people with criticism of US president

By AFP

Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner arrive on the red carpet at the State Department for the Kennedy Center Honors gala dinner, December 2, 2023, in Washington, DC. (AP/Kevin Wolf)

Donald Trump suggests that the apparent murder of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife is linked to Reiner’s criticism of the US president, in an extraordinary claim just one day after the killings.

The Reiners died “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME,” Trump posts on Truth Social.

“He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness.”

5:46 pm

Report: US told Netanyahu strike on Hamas general violated ceasefire, White House fed up with PM

By Lazar Berman

US envoy Steve Witkoff (left) and US President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner (right) flank Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a cabinet meeting on October 9, 2025. (Maayan Toaf/GPO)

The White House sent a stiff rebuke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Israeli strike on senior Hamas commander Ra’ad Sa’ad on Saturday, two US officials tell Axios.

“The White House message to Netanyahu was, ‘If you want to ruin your reputation and show that you don’t abide by agreements, be our guest, but we won’t allow you to ruin President Trump’s reputation after he brokered the deal in Gaza,'” says one of the US officials.

The US told Netanyahu that Israel violated the ceasefire with the strike, according to the report.

The officials tell the US outlet that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, top envoy Steve Witkoff, and Middle East adviser Jared Kushner are fed up with Netanyahu. “Steve and Jared are pissed by Israeli inflexibility around several Gaza-related issues,” says one of the Americans.

The allegations come two weeks before Netanyahu and Trump are scheduled to meet at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The Prime Minister’s Office does not respond to requests for comment.

An Israeli official tells Axios that the White House is indeed displeased, but sent a relatively restrained message that “certain Arab countries” saw the assassination as a violation of the ceasefire. The officials adds that it was Hamas that violated the ceasefire by carrying out attacks on soldiers and trying to smuggle weapons into Gaza.

The White House feels that Israel is unnecessarily angering potential Arab partners and won’t move on from the war in Gaza to a new era of peace-making.

“Netanyahu has turned over the last two years into a global pariah. He should ask himself why [Egyptian leader Abdel-Fattah] el-Sissi refuses to meet him and why five years after the Abraham Accords he still hasn’t been invited to visit the UAE,” says a US official. “The Trump administration is doing a lot of hard work to fix it. But if Netanyahu doesn’t want to take the steps that are needed to de-escalate, we are not going to waste our time on trying to expand the Abraham Accords.”

The White House is also upset over settler violence in the West Bank, according to a senior US official. “The US doesn’t ask Netanyahu to compromise Israel’s security. We ask him not [to] take steps that are perceived in the Arab world as provocations,” says the official.

6:06 pm

Soldiers seen carrying away Palestinian amputee allegedly attacked by settlers in West Bank

By Noam Lehmann

Footage published by left-wing Israeli activists who accompany Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, a hamlet of communities in the southern West Bank, shows four soldiers carrying away a Palestinian amputee who the activists say was assaulted by settlers.

Another soldier in the footage can be seen clutching the crutches of the Palestinian man, identified as Sheikh Sa’id al-Amour.

لحظة اعتقال قوات الاحتلال للجريح سعيد العمور، أثناء دفاعه عن أرضه عقب اقتحام المستوطنين لها، في مسافر يطا جنوب الخليل.

– المعتقل العمور، فقد إحدى ساقيه بعد إصابته برصاص مستوطن، قبل أشهر. pic.twitter.com/ScDC07VE11

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) December 15, 2025

According to the activists, Amour was attacked by settlers as he tried to chase them away while they were cutting the fence around his land in Rakiz, one of the small farming communities that make up Masafer Yatta.

Amour lost his leg after a settler shot at him in April, the activists say. He was 59 at the time, according to a contemporary report by Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, reports that Amour was held for hours in a nearby military base before being released.

Amour was then taken to the Government Hospital in Yatta for treatment for wounds sustained in the alleged settler attack, according to WAFA.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society also confirms treating an “elderly man wounded after settlers attacked him in Masafer Yatta,” without specifying the severity of the wounds or whether the man was taken to a hospital.

The IDF does not respond to a request for comment.

Separately, WAFA reports that at least three Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces — two in the Jenin refugee camp, and one in the town of Beit Rima, near Ramallah, whose age is given as 23.

6:21 pm

ICC rejects Israeli bid to halt its Gaza war investigation

By Reuters and ToI Staff

Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) reject one in a series of legal challenges brought by Israel against the court’s probe into its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza.

On appeal, judges refuse to overturn a lower court decision that the prosecution’s investigation into alleged crimes under its jurisdiction can include events following the Palestinian terror group’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, which started the war.

The ruling means the investigation continues, and the arrest warrants issued last year for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant remain in place.

Israel rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies it has committed war crimes in Gaza, where it has waged a military campaign it says is aimed at eliminating Hamas following the October 7 attacks.

This ruling focuses on only one of several Israeli legal challenges against the ICC investigations and the arrest warrants for its officials. There is no timeline for the court to rule on the various other challenges to its jurisdiction in this case.

6:27 pm

Palestinian Authority says teen shot dead by IDF in southern West Bank

By Noam Lehmann

A Palestinian teenager has been shot dead by the IDF in the Palestinian town of Teqoa in the southern West Bank, the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry says.

It identifies him as Ammar Yasser Muhammad Taamra, 16, and says he was shot in the chest.

Citing Teqoa local council chief Tayseer Abu Mufreh, WAFA, the PA’s official news agency, says the teenager was shot during a clash with Israeli forces and was taken to a local first aid clinic in serious condition before being pronounced dead.

#عاجل | وزارة الصحة الفلسطينية: استشـ.ـهاد الطفل عمار ياسر تعامرة "16 عاما" برصاص الاحتـ.ـلال في الصدر خلال اقتحام بلدة تقوع جنوب شرق #بيت_لحم #قناة_فلسطين #فلسطين_اليوم #غزة #عاجل #عاجل_فلسطين #قطاع_غزة #عاجل_غزة #القدس pic.twitter.com/0Ak6HXtE21

— PaltodayTV (@Paltodaytv) December 15, 2025

The IDF does not immediately comment.

6:48 pm

Rob Reiner’s son is in custody after deaths of director-writer and his wife

By AP

Rob Reiner’s son has been taken into custody after the deaths of the director-writer and his wife, a US law enforcement official tells The Associated Press.

The official confirms 32-year-old Nick Reiner is in police custody. The official could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele Singer, were found dead yesterday at their home.

Online jail records show Nick Reiner has been booked by Los Angeles police and remains in jail. It is not immediately clear what charges he will face. The online records show a $4 million bail has been set.

7:01 pm

Two days later, police arrest 2 suspects in attack on pregnant Arab woman in Jaffa

Police say they have arrested two suspects over the attack on a pregnant Arab woman in Jaffa over the weekend, which has inflamed tensions in the mixed Jewish-Arab city in recent days.

The suspects were arrested this evening and are being interrogated by police officers at the Ayalon District’s crimefighting unit.

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court has issued a gag order on details of the investigation, forbidding the publication of any information that could identify the two suspects.

Both are suspected of pepper-spraying 30-year-old Hanan Abu Shehadeh while she was driving Saturday with her two children in the city’s Ajami neighborhood. The attackers shouted racist epithets and spat on her 7-year-old daughter, she told Arabic outlets.

According to Abu Shehadeh, she was confronted by three assailants, meaning one is still at large.

Police said the incident occurred after an argument between Abu Shehadeh and the assailants, but she and her family have rejected the claim, insisting that the attackers were motivated by anti-Arab sentiment.

Yesterday, police solicited the public’s help in searching for three young men suspected in the attack, sharing a still from security camera footage displaying their faces. According to Hebrew outlets, the Shin Bet is assisting police in the case.

The attack sparked outrage among Jaffa’s Arab residents, many of whom went on strike at the behest of the Islamic Council of Jaffa, leading schools and businesses to shutter today.

On Saturday night, hundreds took part in a stormy march to the scene of the incident, accusing the government of complicity in the attack.

Police nabbed a sheikh who took part in the demonstration on incitement suspicions the same night, and a day later they arrested 14 other men involved in the march. They were all released by the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court earlier today.

7:17 pm

Israel’s annual inflation down to 2.4%, as prices of many goods fall

By Sharon Wrobel

Israel’s annual inflation in November retreated, led by declines in the costs of fresh fruit and vegetables, foreign travel, along with entertainment and culture, as shown in data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Annual inflation over the past 12 months decelerated to 2.4%, from 2.5% in October. In August, the inflation rate moved within the government’s annual target range of between 1% to 3% for the first time since June 2024.

On a monthly basis, the consumer price index (CPI), a measure of inflation that tracks the average cost of household goods, fell in November by 0.5%, at the upper range of analysts’ expectations of a decline of between 0.4% to 0.5%. The CPI rose 0.5% in October from September.

In November, declines were seen in the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables, which were down 4.1%, entertainment and culture fell 2.5%, while communication and transportation prices slipped 1.6%. Expenses for travel abroad and in
Israel dropped 5.6%, and costs of accommodation and travel in Israel were down 8.6%.

These were offset by notable increases in the cost of food, not including fruit and vegetables, which rose by 0.4%.

Rents on renewal of contracts soared 2.8% in November, and rents on contracts for new tenants jumped 4.7%.

7:34 pm

Western, Arab diplomats tour Israel-Lebanon border to observe Hezbollah disarmament efforts

By AP and ToI Staff

Part of the new fence that runs along the border with Lebanon, with Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah stronghold, on the hill, on November 26, 2025. (Diana Bletter/ Times of Israel)

Western and Arab diplomats tour an area along Lebanon’s border with Israel, where Lebanese troops and UN observers have been working for months to end the armed presence of the Hezbollah terror group.

The delegation, which includes ambassadors of the United States and Saudi Arabia, is accompanied by General Rodolph Haikal, commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, as well as top officers in the border region.

The Lebanese government has said that by the end of the year, the army should have cleared all the border area south of the Litani River from Hezbollah’s armed presence.

Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem has said that the Iran-backed group will end its military presence south of the Litani, but vowed again over the weekend that it will keep its weapons in other parts of Lebanon — which would go against a UN Security Council resolution from 2006.

Parts of the zone south of the Litani River and north of the border with Israel were formerly a Hezbollah stronghold, off limits to the Lebanese national army and UN observers deployed in the area.

During the tour, the diplomats and military attaches are taken to an army post that overlooks one of five hills inside Lebanon that were captured by Israeli troops last year.

“The main goal of the military is to guarantee stability,” an army statement quotes Haikal as telling the diplomats. Haikal adds that the tour aims to show that the Lebanese army is committed to the ceasefire agreement that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war last year.

There are no comments from the diplomats.

7:37 pm

US police confirm Nick Reiner is suspected of murdering his parents

By AFP

Hollywood director Rob Reiner’s son has been arrested for murder, US police say, after his father and mother were found dead in their Los Angeles home.

“We have our robbery homicide division handling the investigation,” LA police chief Jim McDonnell tells reporters. “They worked throughout the night on this case and were able to take into custody Nick Reiner, a suspect in this case. He was subsequently booked for murder.”

8:21 pm

Moscow condemns ‘barbaric’ Sydney attack, says Russians among those killed

Russia’s Foreign Ministry condemns the mass shooting at a Hanukkah event in Australia and says Russian nationals are among those killed.

“We firmly condemn the barbaric attack by extremists as a result of which 15 people, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed and dozens wounded,” spokeswoman Maria Zakharova writes on the ministry website.

“It has become known that our compatriots, permanent residents of Australia, were among those killed in the terrorist act.”

Russia, she says, stands firmly in favor of an “uncompromising fight” against terrorism in any form it assumes.

8:39 pm

Israel up in arms as US, Qatar renew talks for sale of advanced F-35 jets – report

By Stav Levaton

A squadron of US Air Force F-35 Lightning II aircraft flyover at the White House, September 3, 2025. (AP/ Alex Brandon)

Israel is increasingly concerned over renewed US discussions with Qatar regarding the possible sale of F-35 fighter jets, Channel 12 news reports, as Washington weighs major arms deals across the Middle East that could affect Israel’s qualitative military edge.

According to the report, Doha has reopened a request to purchase the stealth aircraft, after a similar bid was rejected five years ago. This time, however, contacts between Qatari and US officials are said to be already underway. Israeli officials are reportedly also closely watching parallel developments, including an emerging US-Saudi defense deal, the possibility of renewed sales to the United Arab Emirates, and even potential future sales to Turkey.

Channel 12 says Israel fears that a wave of advanced US arms sales in the region could erode the Israeli Air Force’s reginal qualitative military edge. In response, Israel’s defense establishment is reportedly formulating a package of requests to the US administration, seeking to secure compensatory capabilities.

Those requests are said to include two squadrons of advanced fighter jets – one of F-35s and another of F-15I aircraft, a model tailored to Israel’s operational needs – as well as expanded access to advanced munitions and related systems. The report notes that Israeli officials believe there is a narrow window to act before production slots are filled by other buyers.

According to the report, the issue now hinges on whether Israel’s political leadership can make swift decisions and engage in intensive talks with Washington to ensure Israel’s long-term military requirements are met given shifting US arms sales in the region.

9:05 pm

Palo Alto CEO says firm still committed to investing in Israel, even after US-Israeli founder left

By Sharon Wrobel

Palo Alto Networks chairman and CEO Nikesh Arora speaks at a press briefing at the cybersecurity firm's Tel Aviv office, December 15, 2025. (Mooli Goldberg)

Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora says the cybersecurity giant remains committed to investments in Israel even after American-Israeli founder Nir Zuk stepped down earlier this year.

“One of the things I’ve learned in life is that you can’t separate the company from its founder,” Arora says at a press conference in Tel Aviv. “Our commitment to Israel has not changed despite the fact that Nir is not actively at Palo Alto.”

The Santa Clara, California-based cybersecurity firm founded by serial entrepreneur Zuk acquired Israeli firm CyberArk in July, in a deal valued at a staggering $25 billion. It marked the biggest-ever acquisition of an Israeli company after Google’s $32 billion purchase of Israeli-founded cybersecurity unicorn Wiz earlier this year. Zuk, who also served as CTO, decided in August to retire from Palo Alto after two decades.

“I firmly believe that the most amount of innovation in cybersecurity comes out of Israel. It’s not for debate; it’s a fact,” says Arora. “To the extent that people are building, solving hard problems as it relates to cybersecurity, we are constantly scanning the market, and even during my visit, I will see a few companies.”

Over the past decade, Palo Alto has invested more than $1.5 billion in acquiring smaller startups in Israel and views the country as a key hub for its growth.

“Israel is not the simplest country to operate, and not the easiest people,” says Arora. “But it has some of the most passionate people, who can handle adversity better than most people in the world, and despite the adversity, bring their best to work every day and try to do a great job.”

“I have never found the team from Israel not willing to accept feedback and desire to build the best product in the world — that trumps everything,” he remarks.

9:30 pm

‘Politics in the guise of international law’: Israel rejects ICC decision to continue its Gaza probe

The Foreign Ministry rejects an International Criminal Court decision affirming the continuation of its investigation into the conduct of the war on Hamas in Gaza, and maintaining the arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

“Israel rejects the ICC Appeals Chamber’s decision, by a narrow majority, to deny Israel’s right to receive advance notice, as demanded by the principle of complementarity particularly with regard to a democratic state with an independent and robust judicial system,” the ministry tweets.

“This is yet another example of the ongoing politicization of the ICC and its blatant disregard for the sovereign rights of non-party states, as well as its own obligations under the Rome Statute,” it charges, adding: “This is what politics in the guise of ‘international law’ looks like.”

9:44 pm

Hasmonean oil lamp found in Nebi Samuel in the West Bank, COGAT announces

By Rossella Tercatin

A clay lamp from the Hasmonean period found at Nebi Samuel in the West Bank, in a discovery made public on December 15, 2025. (COGAT)

An ancient clay oil lamp dating over 2,000 years ago has been uncovered in the site of Nebi Samuel in the West Bank, the Civil Administration announces, without specifying when the discovery was made.

The lamp was found during archaeological work carried out by the Staff Officer for the Archaeology Unit of the Civil Administration. According to a statement by the Civil Administration, it dates to the time the Hasmonean dynasty ruled over Israel (between the mid-2nd century and the mid-1st century BCE).

The Hasmonean dynasty was established by the Maccabees, who defeated the Seleucid Greeks in the events celebrated by the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, which began yesterday and will conclude next Monday. Archaeological authorities tend to time announcements of findings relating to a certain Jewish festival for that festival.

Clay lamps and pottery are usually dated by archaeologists based on their typology.

The Civil Administration, a branch of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), is responsible for civilian affairs in the West Bank, including archaeology.

Nebi Samuel is located northwest of Jerusalem. It is designated as a national park by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. The park incorporates the Palestinian village of Nabi Samwil.

The site houses an ancient tomb that, according to both Jewish and Muslim traditions, marks the burial place of the prophet Samuel. It also presents remains spanning centuries of history, including those from the Persian period in the 6th-4th centuries BCE, a 12th-century Crusader fortress, and a 14th-century Mamluk mosque.

10:43 pm

Trump: Deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine is closer than ever

US President Donald Trump speaks during a Mexican Border Defense Medal presentation in the Oval Office of the White House, December 15, 2025, in Washington, DC. (AP/Alex Brandon)

US President Donald Trump says an agreement aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine is closer than ever, as his team reports progress after talks in Berlin.

Trump speaks at a White House event after calling into a dinner in Berlin at which US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are holding talks about Ukraine with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders.

“I think we’re closer now than we have been ever,” Trump says.

10:54 pm

Trump: US is ‘looking into’ whether Israel violated ceasefire by killing Hamas general

By Jacob Magid

US President Donald Trump speaks during a Mexican Border Defense Medal presentation in the Oval Office of the White House, December 15, 2025, in Washington, DC. (AP/Alex Brandon)

US President Donald Trump says Washington is “looking into” whether Israel violated the Gaza ceasefire with its strike that killed senior Hamas commander Raad Saad over the weekend.

Trump denies any rift in his relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel more broadly, despite reporting that his top aides are fuming at the premier over his conduct in Gaza.

Asked when the International Stabilization Force (ISF) will begin operating in Gaza, Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office that, “in a form, it’s already running.”

No country has publicly announced that it will contribute troops to the ISF, given concerns over Hamas’s refusal to disarm and Israel’s veto on the involvement of key mediating countries Turkey and Qatar. The US is hosting a conference in Doha tomorrow aimed at offering potential donor countries more details on how the ISF will operate in a bid to move ahead with the initiative that has appeared to stall since the UN Security Council backed its formation roughly a month ago.

Trump again asserts that Hamas has agreed to disarm and that countries are eager to send troops in order to advance that effort if the terror group refuses to do so. Those claims have been refuted by officials from Hamas and potential ISF donor countries, respectively.

“They’ll send any number of troops that I ask them to send,” Trump insists nonetheless.

11:02 pm

German authorities seek to deport man suspected of planning Islamist attack

By AFP

German authorities have detained a 21-year-old man in the central city of Magdeburg who was allegedly plotting to attack “large crowds,” regional officials tell AFP.

The man, who is originally from Central Asia, expressed plans to carry out an attack that “could have had an Islamist motivation,” according to the interior ministry of Saxony-Anhalt, the eastern state that includes Magdeburg.

The ministry says it is preparing a deportation order, citing a “fact-based prognosis” that the man may pose a danger to Germany or a “terrorist threat.”

The 21-year-old man was taken into custody on Friday, the same day that German police arrested five men for allegedly plotting an Islamist car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the southern German state of Bavaria.

The five suspects arrested in Bavaria include three Moroccans, a Syrian and a 56-year-old Egyptian who — according to the tabloid, “Bild” — serves as imam at a mosque in the Bavarian town of Dingolfing-Landau.

11:22 pm

Third suspect arrested over assault on pregnant Arab woman in Jaffa

Hanan Abu Shehadeh, an Arab resident of Jaffa, recounts being attacked by three Jewish assailants on December 13, 2025, in an interview with the Arab48 news outlet on December 15, 2025. (Arab48/ Screenshot)

Police have arrested a third suspect over an attack on a pregnant Arab woman in Jaffa over the weekend.

Earlier this evening, police arrested two other suspects in the incident.

They are suspected of pepper-spraying 30-year-old Hanan Abu Shehadeh, as she drove with her two children Saturday.

Her assailants also shouted racist epithets at her and spat on her young daughter while the car windows were open, she recounted in interviews to Hebrew and Arabic outlets.

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court has issued a gag order on details of the investigation and information that could identify the suspects.

11:29 pm

Trump says he will file lawsuit against BBC by tomorrow

By AFP

US President Donald Trump says he will imminently be filing a lawsuit against the BBC over its editing of his 2021 speech to supporters before their assault on the US Capitol.

“We’ll be filing that suit probably this afternoon or tomorrow morning,” Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office, more than a month after he first threatened a billion-dollar defamation complaint against the British broadcaster.

11:47 pm

Beitar Jerusalem soccer fan arrested for firing flare during match