Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara along with several government ministers, some of whom she has strongly criticized, as well cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs with whom she has frequently clashed, at a special government conference on Jerusalem Day at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, June 5, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Knesset in Jerusalem on December 23, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
A handout picture released by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry shows Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi (center left) being received by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani) (center right) in Damascus on December 23, 2024. (Jordanian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
Firefighters at the scene of a fire at a Jerusalem boarding school, December 23, 2024 (Fire and Rescue Service)
The sun sets behind tents sheltering Palestinians displaced by confict in the north of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 22, 2024 (Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A building in Gaza City's Rimal Neighborhood, where the daughter of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh lived, December 19, 2023. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Monday’s events as they unfolded.
A 60-year-old woman was seriously injured while running to a shelter in Tel Aviv amid the sirens triggered by a missile launched by the Houthis in Yemen, Magen David Adom says.
The woman was evacuated to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital for treatment.
MDA says it has treated 25 people who were lightly injured either while running to shelters or after suffering anxiety attacks.
The Magen David Adom emergency service says it has not received any reports of missile or interceptor fragments landing in populated areas after the IDF intercepted a missile from Yemen that triggered sirens across central Israel.
MDA says its medics provided treatment for at least 20 people who either fell while running to shelters or were suffering from anxiety attacks.
Following the launch of a Houthi missile at Israel earlier tonight, a senior member of the Iran-backed rebel group pledges that such attacks will continue “until the aggression against our people in Gaza stops.”
“Netanyahu will learn that his dreams of a new Middle East are nothing but a punishment for him and his imported entity,” tweets Hezam al-Asad.
Hezbollah made similar pledges to continue its cross-border attacks against Israel until a ceasefire was reached in Gaza but caved last month after two months during which Israel significantly intensified its counter-attacks against the Lebanese terror group.
The IDF says it successfully intercepted a missile that was launched from Yemen.
The missile was intercepted before it crossed into Israel’s airspace, the army adds.
Red alert sirens were triggered across central Israel due to the potential that interceptor fragments could land inside Israeli territory, the military says.
There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Former US president Bill Clinton speaks at a campaign event supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Former US president Bill Clinton, 78, has been hospitalized with a fever, according to his deputy chief of staff.
It is not an emergency situation, NBC News reports.
“President Clinton was admitted to Georgetown University Medical Center this afternoon for testing and observation after developing a fever,” Angel Ureña writes on X.
“He is in good spirits and grateful for the care he is receiving.”
Illustrative: Projectiles fly through the sky in central Israel as a siren sounds a warning of incoming missiles fired from Iran towards Israel, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)
The IDF says a launch from Yemen has triggered across central Israel.
There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The IDF says it will provide an additional update when it has more information.
????Sirens sounding across central and southern Israel following a projectile launched from Yemen???? pic.twitter.com/X0nnsDASGR
Opposition leader Yair Lapid addresses the Knesset in Jerusalem, December 18, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Opposition leader Yair Lapid insinuates that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in a bad emotional state on October 7, 2023, as Hamas’s brutal massacre in southern Israel was unfolding, hinting at a story that the premier would not want to go public.
“I want to remind you,” Lapid says to the prime minister from the Knesset podium, “You and I met on October 7, 2023. I suggest that you don’t speak to me about withstanding pressure. I saw you then. Out of respect for the prime minister, I won’t say what I saw that day.”
The opposition leader’s quip came after the prime minister commented on a speech Lapid gave at a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night in which he vowed to topple the government.
“I don’t want to say that there’s no pressure on the opposition leader, but there’s no need to get carried away. You’ve gotta stay calm,” Netanyahu said of Lapid’s fiery speech.
The wife of Ari Rosenfeld, an IDF reservist charged last month in the Prime Minister’s Office security documents theft and leak scandal, calls for her husband to be released from detention, in a heartfelt social media post.
“Ari and I met when we volunteered together at an organization for cancer patients,” Avital Rosenfeld writes on X.
“My Ari, an Israeli hero and outstanding fighter, has given his heart and soul to the country and contributed to Israel’s security in many ways over the years. We’ve barely seen him since October 7. He would spend long nights serving his country, and the thing that was most important for him to say when we did see him — was how committed we were to doing everything we could to get the hostages home.”
Rosenfeld was charged last month with transferring classified information, an offense that is punishable by seven years in prison, as well as theft by an authorized person and obstruction of justice, together with Eli Feldstein, an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
His name was cleared for publication today after the Tel Aviv District Court lifted a gag order, on the suspect’s request.
Rosenfeld is still in custody, while Feldstein has been released to house arrest.
Information released by the court last month indicated that the apparent motivation behind the leak was to alleviate public pressure and criticism against Netanyahu following the murder of six high-profile hostages by Hamas in late August.
“And now — my hero Ari, is in detention until the end of the proceedings in difficult conditions, because he was sure that he was doing the right thing for our beloved country — and passing on important intelligence material to the political echelon. My Ari does not deserve this treatment,” she writes. “It’s time to let him go home.”
זה בעלי, ארי רוזנפלד. עד עכשיו הכרתם אותו בעיקר כנגד א׳.
ארי- ואני הכרנו כשהתנדבו יחד בארגון לחולי סרטן. המתנדב בעל לב הזהב וטוב העין, שכולם כל כך אהבו והילדים החולים העריצו.
ארי שלי, גיבור ישראל ונגד מצטיין, נתן את הלב והנשמה שלו למדינה ובמשך שנים ארוכות תרם לביטחון ישראל… pic.twitter.com/owh8CaSCSz
Palestinian Authority security officers launch smoke grenades during clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank city of Jenin, December 16, 2024. (Nasser Ishtayeh/ Flash90)
Palestinian media reports that Fatah has banned the Al Jazeera satellite channel from operating in the West Bank, due to its coverage of recent clashes between PA forces and terror operatives in Jenin.
According to the reports, Fatah, which dominates the PA, accuses the Qatari network of labeling the terror operatives from Hamas and Islamic Jihad as resistance fighters and promoting ISIS-style extremism.
Israel, along with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt have all banned Al Jazeera over separate but similar allegations of bias.
The torched command center of the Nahal Oz IDF base, overrun by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, during a visit by relatives of slain lookout soldiers on December 19, 2023. (Courtesy/Eyal Eshel)
The parents of surveillance soldiers killed in Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught react to communications recordings of their daughter’s final moments, which were passed on to them by the IDF earlier today.
“We heard Shay’s voice. We heard her reporting on her last shift — on the morning of Friday, October 6,” says the family of Sgt. Shay Ashram, 19, who was killed at the IDF’s Nahal Oz post in the Hamas attack.
“We heard her laughing, after the last time we spoke to her, we heard her crying and scared on the morning of October 7,” the statement continues. “It’s a shame that we only got to hear her voice after a struggle of over a year, including a petition to the High Court.”
Sgt. Shay Ashram who was killed in Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023. (Courtesy)
The family adds a call for the release of all of the 96 hostages held in Gaza since October 7, 2023, specifically mentioning, Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, and Daniella Gilboa, who were kidnapped from the Nahal Oz base.
Two other surveillance soldiers were also taken hostage to Gaza, one of whom was rescued alive and another whose body was recovered; she was murdered in captivity.
A protest march organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, calling for the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas terrorist in Gaza, seen marching through Central Park in New York City on December 15, 2024. (Israel Hadari/Flash90)
Two former US officials, one from the Biden administration and one from Trump’s first term, pen a joint op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling on Hamas to free the seven American citizens it has been holding since October 7, 2023, in the first phase of a potential hostage-truce deal.
“All parties to these negotiations must know that any agreement must include the immediate release of the American Seven. They aren’t a bargaining chip,” write Trump’s former national security adviser Robert O’Brien and Tom Nides, who served as US ambassador to Israel under US President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2023.
“This is the best deal you are ever going to see, Hamas.”
The seven Americans, who are all also Israeli citizens, were among 251 people who were kidnapped during Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
It is believed that 96 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Defense Minister Israel Katz speaks at a commemoration event for local security officers, December 23, 2024. (Shlomi Amsalem/Defense Ministry)
Defense Minister Israel Katz confirms for the first time that Israel was behind the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran over the summer.
Also at a commemoration event for local security officers, Katz threatens the Houthis in Yemen after the Iran-backed terror group continues to carry out attacks on Israel.
“In these days, when the Houthi terror organization is firing missiles at Israel, I want to convey a clear message to them: We have defeated Hamas, we have defeated Hezbollah, we have blinded the defense systems in Iran, and damaged the [missile] production systems. We have overthrown the Assad regime in Syria, we have dealt heavy blows to the ‘axis of evil,’ and we will also severely strike the Houthi terror organization in Yemen, which remains the last one standing,” he says.
(Israel was not directly involved in overthrowing the Assad regime in Syria, but assesses that its strikes on Iran’s proxies in the region contributed to the fall of the regime).
“We will strike [the Houthis’] strategic infrastructure and decapitate its leaders. Just as we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar, and Nasrallah, in Tehran, Gaza, and Lebanon — we will do in Hodeidah and Sanaa,” Katz says, referring to the slain leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah.
“Whoever raises a hand against Israel will have their hand cut off, and the long arm of the IDF will strike them and settle the score,” he adds.
The opposition Yesh Atid party slams the coalition over reports that its leaders agreed to move forward with ousting Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
“The evening three heroes fell in Gaza was also the evening the coalition celebrated the promotion of the dismissal of the attorney general,” the party says in a statement.
“There is a painful disconnect between those who give their lives for the country and those who take everything from it.”
Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman also criticizes the government, tweeting that, rather than working to return the hostages held in Gaza or draft ultra-Orthodox Israelis to the military, it is taking the “reckless” action of firing the attorney general.
“A government that abandons its soldiers and citizens and prioritizes preserving the coalition over our security is unfit to lead the State of Israel,” Liberman argues.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, second left, and his wife Sara, second right, tour in Tel Gezer and Magshimim Forest, together with their sons, Yair, right, and Avner, left, during the holiday of Sukkot, October 21, 2016. (Kobi Gideon/ GPO/ File)
The family of a deceased former aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to file a NIS 8 million ($2.2 million) lawsuit against the premier’s Likud party and his family for harassment, abuse, humiliation, and economic exploitation, according to a Channel 12 news report.
The report comes after the network’s investigative program, Uvda, last week published text messages between the prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, and his late assistant, Hanni Bleiweiss, that purport to show efforts to combat those perceived as enemies of the first family.
Bleiweiss died of cancer in March 2023.
“In the last year of her life, [Bleiweiss] suffered harassment, abuse, humiliation, and economic exploitation that severely affected her and harmed her health,” the report quotes from the lawsuit.
The family is also quoted as saying that during Bleiweiss’ time working for the Netanyahu family, she was often required to make purchases with her own money and file for expenses, including buying food for Likud staff and personal items for party leadership.
The purchases came to a total of at least NIS 400,000 ($110,000), according to the report.
In another allegation, the family is quoted as saying that Likud members spread false claims that Bleiweiss was pretending to suffer from cancer in order to keep her job.
The lawsuit will include evidence of the claims, Channel 12 reports, citing the Bleiweiss family.
Responding to the report, Likud denies the claims and says the lawsuit is an attempt to squeeze money from the party.
Former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz slams the government, following reports that coalition leaders agreed to move forward with ousting Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
“Instead of the government meeting dealing with the reconstruction of the North and the South, the disconnected government is dealing with ambushing the attorney general,” Gantz writes on X.
In an apparent confirmation of the Hebrew media reports, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi says the “decision of the coalition leaders to begin the process of dismissing the attorney general is a courageous and necessary step to correct serious distortions that have taken root in the Israeli legal system.”
“The time has come to restore the balance between the authorities and to end the unfettered rule of unelected officials,” he adds in a statement.
He calls the process of removing Baharav-Miara “an important step on the path to freeing the State of Israel from the shackles of extremist legal activism.”
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara attends a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting in the Knesset in Jerusalem, on November 18, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
Coalition leaders have agreed on how to move forward with firing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, given growing calls in the government for her termination, according to Hebrew media reports.
The reports come after a fiery meeting of coalition leaders to discuss the matter of the attorney general’s ouster, from which Justice Minister Yariv Levin was said to storm out.
Meanwhile, Bezalel Smotrich denies that coalition leaders discussed legislation to revamp the judicial selection committee during the meeting, following reports that Levin had left after accusing the finance minister of refusing to support his legislative initiative.
“There was no discussion at all on the legislation regarding the Judicial Selection Committee. In fact, no minister expressed his opinion in the discussion that did not take place,” Smotrich’s office says in a statement.
“The statements of various parties on the matter are puzzling. The finance minister, who initiated the legal reform, supports legislation to change the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee.”
Previous reports said that Levin left the meeting angrily, complaining that Smotrich and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar had failed to back him up on bringing the controversial legislation to the plenum for the second and third readings necessary to become law.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Senior American officials have urged their Israeli counterparts to nurture ties with Syria’s new leader, Channel 12 reports.
“Cooperation and communication channels of yours with al-Julani will bolster Israel’s influence in the entire area,” the report quotes US officials saying. “We are talking about a pragmatic leader who wants to develop strategic relations with the nations of the region.”
Israel is listening to what the Americans are saying, but also suspects that al-Julani is playing the US and international community, and trying to stabilize his control, but has not truly changed his spots.
The US, nonetheless, believes cooperation could help ensure that Iran does not return to Syria, the report says.
Soldiers killed in the northern Gaza Strip on December 23, 2024: (L-R) Cpt. Ilay Gavriel Atedgi, Staff Sgt. Netanel Pessach, and Sgt. First Class (res.) Hillel Diener. (Israel Defense Forces)
Three Israeli soldiers were killed during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip today, the military announces.
The slain troops are named as: Cpt. Ilay Gavriel Atedgi, 22, from Kiryat Motzkin; Staff Sgt. Netanel Pessach, 21, from Elazar; and Sgt. First Class (res.) Hillel Diener, 21, from Talmon.
They all served in the Kfir Brigade’s Shimshon Battalion.
According to an initial IDF probe, the soldiers were killed by an explosive device in the Beit Hanoun area.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 391. The toll includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission and a Defense Ministry civilian contractor.
A photo cleared for publication on December 23, 2024, shows a drone used in an attempt to smuggle weapons over the border with Egypt. (Israel Police)
Two suspects were arrested in November on suspicion of smuggling weapons across the border from Egypt via the Sinai Desert, Israel Police and the Shin Bet security agency announce in a statement.
The security forces name the suspects as Zaher Abu Rakeik, from the Bedouin town of Bir Hadaj in the Negev, and Imad Huashla, from nearby Qasr a-Sir, outside Dimona.
A joint Israel Police-Shin Bet operation found that Zaher and Emad were involved in smuggling eight pistols and cartridges across the border from Sinai on October 19 using a drone, according to the statement, among other incidents.
The two suspects were charged today, the statement adds.
Families of Israeli surveillance soldiers who were killed by Hamas terrorists at the Nahal Oz surveillance outpost on October 7 hold up photographs of the soldiers and speak to the press after meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, outside the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, July 17, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
The IDF says that it will pass on communication recordings of surveillance soldiers killed in Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught to the soldiers’ parents, who had petitioned the High Court of Justice for the documentation.
In a statement, the IDF says it updated the families of the surveillance soldiers who were killed at the Nahal Oz post in the Hamas attack that the military “is prepared to hand over the radio recordings from the last day before they fell, before the outbreak of the war, in which the voices of their loved ones can be heard.”
The decision ends a year-plus-long struggle by the bereaved families to receive the documentation of their daughters’ final moments before they were killed by Hamas terrorists.
The military says it will pass the recordings to the families as soon as possible.
The IDF says it also updated the High Court on the decision.
For weeks before Hamas’s onslaught — when thousands of terrorists streamed over the border, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 more — surveillance soldiers reported signs of activity along the restive Gaza border, situated a kilometer from them.
While the surveillance soldiers provide real-time intelligence information to soldiers in the field, earning them the name “the eyes of the army,” members of the all-female force believe that they were not taken seriously, due to their gender — an oversight that they say led to the deaths of 15 of their number at their base next to Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023.
A further seven surveillance soldiers were taken hostage to Gaza, one of whom was rescued alive and another whose body was recovered; she was murdered in captivity.
People carry a man injured in an Israeli strike on the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on December 22, 2024. (Eyad BABA / AFP)
A senior member of Hamas’s general security forces was killed in an airstrike in Gaza City yesterday, the IDF and Shin Bet announce.
According to the military, the target of the strike, Tharwat Muhammad Ahmad al-Bayk, served as the head of the security directorate in Hamas’s General Security Service.
Al-Bayk was targeted while at a Hamas command center embedded within the Musa Ibn Nusayr school, in Gaza City’s Daraj neighborhood, the IDF says.
The school was serving as a shelter for displaced Gazans, and Palestinian media reported at least eight dead in the strike.
The IDF and Shin Bet say that the security directorate in the General Security Service is a Hamas body that is tasked with building an intelligence picture to help the terror group make decisions.
The unit is also responsible for the protection of Hamas’s top officials, and is tasked with providing shelters for the senior commanders and leaders to enable them to continue their military activity, the joint statement says.
“Al-Bayk was considered one of the main links in the mechanism, and a significant factor in [Hamas’s] decision-making,” the statement continues.
The IDF says it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike, including by using a precision munition and aerial surveillance.
The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen take responsibility for launching drones at Israel earlier today.
The IDF said earlier that the Air Force shot down one drone outside of Israeli airspace.
The Houthis claim to have launched two drones, at targets in Ashkelon and the Tel Aviv area. There were no reports of impacts in either city today.
The Iran-backed terror group in recent days has ramped up ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel, in what it says is support for the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing war there.
Sara Netanyahu (front) arrives for a hearing with her husband (unseen) at the Rishon Lezion Magistrate's Court on January 23, 2023. (Abir Sultan/ Pool/ AFP/ File)
Sara Netanyahu files a lawsuit for defamation against Channel 12 News for a report in which it was claimed that she leaked highly sensitive security information, including that Israel was about to assassinate former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah three days before the actual strike.
“The respondents published and amplified a complete lie that the prime minister’s wife is passing sensitive intelligence information to friends and unauthorized parties,” states the lawsuit.
“Lies were spread that the plaintiff told friends about the intention to eliminate the Hezbollah leader three days before he was killed, and other ugly lies,” the suit continues, adding that the report constituted “a new level of severe and wild incitement and slander against the complainant while presenting lies as facts.”
The claim that Sara Netanyahu disclosed such information to her friends came from Udi Mizrahi, the host of a popular Telegram news channel with 250,000 followers.
Mizrahi told Channel 12 News that he knew about Iran’s attack against Israel in April, the assassination of Nasrallah, and Israel’s ground operation in Lebanon before they occurred thanks to second- and third-hand reports he received of information disclosed by the prime minister’s wife.
Mizrahi did indeed publish an item on his Telegram channel that Nasrallah was likely to be assassinated by Israel a day before the air strike killing the Hezbollah leader was carried out.
Sara Netanyahu’s lawsuit is filed against Channel 12 News, the Keshet media group which owns Channel 12, the Kan public broadcaster, the journalist Omri Maniv who published the report for Channel 12, and Udi Mizrahi himself.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting of his Yesh Atid party at the Knesset in Jerusalem, December 23 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, speaking to the Knesset plenum, claims Defense Minister Israel Katz has a secret document outlining the principles of an ultra-Orthodox draft law that was presented to Haredi parties to win their support for the budget.
“Without this document, the Haredim weren’t going to vote for the budget last week,” Lapid says. “Then they voted, unanimously, for the budget. Why did they change their mind? They weren’t persuaded. They received the commitment they asked for.”
A government-backed bill dealing with the issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription is currently stuck in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee
“The Haredim are happy with this document… because it says not one Haredi person will be drafted. There won’t be a draft. It’s a total fraud,” Lapid says.
He accuses the government of lying twice when asked if such an agreement existed, and calls on the defense minister to present the alleged document publicly, or else “he will lose what little of the public’s trust he has left,” saying if not, he will be remembered as “the Minister for Evasion Affairs.”
The Yesh Atid chief claims that ex-defense minister Yoav Gallant was fired because he refused to sign off on a previous version of the same document and that IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi is also being pushed out of his role for opposing it.
IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi (C) and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant (L) attend a ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on October 27, 2024. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)
The opposition leader calls on journalists to expose the document, reiterates his call for Katz to do so, and vows that he will expose it if no one else does.
Finally, Lapid addresses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the premier has “sent fighters, for a year and two months, to a war caused by your lack of responsibility, for which you are guilty. They’re killed every day, they’re wounded every day, their lives are destroyed, their families are crushed. If this law passes, how will you look them in the eyes?”
“If this law passes, you have no right to send a single soldier to war. Whoever signs off on a distinction between blood and blood has no mandate to manage the war, and has no mandate to lead the state,” Lapid says.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin speaks at a Knesset plenum session, December 4, 2024. (Chaim Goldbergl/Flash90)
Justice Minister Yariv Levin accuses allies of failing to back him up on legislation to revamp the judicial selection committee, during a meeting between the various coalition heads on firing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, Hebrew media reports.
According to Channel 14, the meeting was called to discuss firing the attorney general, but Levin stormed out after the ministers wouldn’t back him on the bill to reshuffle the judicial selection committee.
According to the Ynet news site, Levin backs down on the matter in the face of internal opposition and complains angrily that Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich “refuse to back me up.”
A planned meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior coalition allies on the topic was canceled last Monday, after four coalition party chiefs reportedly declined to attend.
Hebrew media reports that Baharav-Miara will instead be summoned to a hearing before the full cabinet to defend her record in the coming weeks — a meeting that will not be part of an official impeachment proceeding.
Hadas Klein at the witness stand in the Jerusalem District Court for the trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, July 12, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Hadas Klein, a key witness in Case 1000, one of the criminal cases against the prime minister, has filed a complaint with the attorney general against the premier’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, according to Hebrew media outlets.
The reports come days after the Channel 12 investigative program “Uvda” alleged that Sara Netanyahu sought to intimidate Klein by having Likud activists publish attacks against her and demonstrate outside her house ahead of, or during, her testimony in court.
The Ynet news site reports that Klein’s complaint says text messages between Sara Netanyahu and the prime minister’s late aide, Hanni Bleiweiss, revealed in the “Uvda” report, point to a campaign of defamation and threats against her.
Klein is a former secretary to Netanyahu benefactor Arnon Milchan, and a key witness in the case alleging that the premier illicitly received hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of cigars, champagne, and jewelry — much of it allegedly at his wife’s request.
Harassing a witness and seeking to subvert the testimony of a witness are criminal offenses punishable by three years and seven years in prison, respectively.
An antisemitic sign at a pro-Palestinian protest of NYU students and others in Manhattan's Washington Square Park on October 25, 2023. (Screen capture/X)
A survey released today by the Anti-Defamation League finds that more than a third of all parents have “witnessed or experienced antisemitism” in K-12 classrooms or through course materials.
The vast majority (71 percent) of Jewish parents and 37% of non-Jewish parents surveyed say they or their child saw or were party to the discrimination.
Zooming in, the ADL survey finds that parents whose children did not have access to antisemitism education were 46% less likely to say they noticed awareness about antisemitic bias on school campuses, which the watchdog says could suggest that antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents are underreported.
“Antisemitism in K-12 schools is an urgent national concern,” ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt says in a statement.
The poll also finds overwhelming support among parents — Jewish and non-Jewish alike — for Holocaust (89%) and antisemitism (84%) education.
A recent ADL audit recorded 1,162 antisemitic incidents in non-Jewish schools in 2023, up from 495 incidents in 2022, representing a 135% increase.
The poll was conducted in October via the Ipsos Observer platform. It surveyed 817 American adults, with a margin of error of 4.2%.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Knesset in Jerusalem on December 23, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
In a typically rowdy session in the Knesset plenum, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expresses cautious optimism about the chances for a hostage deal with Hamas.
“I would like to tell you carefully,” he says during a so-called 40 signatures debate which the opposition can call once a month, “there is some progress and there are three reasons for this particular progress. First, [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar is no longer with us; Hamas hoped that Hezbollah and Iran would come to their aid but they are licking their wounds; and Hamas itself is also taking more and more blows. So there is progress. I don’t know how long it will take, but we are making efforts.”
Days before the Hanukkah holiday, Netanyahu says happiness cannot be complete “until we get all the hostages home.”
“I cannot tell you all the things we are doing, but we are taking significant actions on all levels,” continues Netanyahu.
“We will continue to act in every way, without respite, until we bring everyone home from enemy territory,” he promises.
Netanyahu says that Israel’s military feats are “changing the face of the Middle East.”
“Our string of successes and victories inspires enormous appreciation in our region and throughout the world,” he says, adding that even Israel’s enemies recognize the scale of its achievements.
“They see the enormous destruction that Hamas and Hezbollah have brought upon themselves with their own hands,” he says. “They are staring at the elimination of their leaders in the first, second, and third echelons. In the fourth echelon. There are no echelons left.”
Netanyahu blasts the opposition for mocking his insistence on total victory. “Reality is stronger than your contempt and mockery,” he says.
Had Israel stopped the war before entering Gaza’s Rafah and taking control of the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, and before tackling Hezbollah, as many in the opposition had urged, says Netanyahu, this would have marked a victory for Iran and its axis of evil, and it “would not have freed anybody.”
“Time and again, it has been proven who was right and who was wrong.”
There are more challenges ahead of Israel, he warns. “We are not taking our eyes off Iran, which threatens to destroy us, and we are determined to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and other weapons that could threaten our cities and our homeland.”
Turning to Yemen, Netanyahu says that Israel’s recent strikes on the Houthis “are not the first and I will tell you that will not be the last. We have destroyed significant terrorist assets that the Houthi have, that were used against us.”
Netanyahu also says it is possible to expand the circle of peace around Israel. He blasts the idea that peace with Arab countries depends on peace with the Palestinians.
“You have no idea what you are talking about. And we brought about four historic peace agreements with the Abraham Accords. And now I am telling you there will be more agreements.”
“I’m not saying the Palestinian issue doesn’t make things hard for us,” he allows.
But “there is a change,” he says. “And if you think that our Arab neighbors do not see the reality that many of you here, at least some of you, are trying to deny, the tectonic changes that are taking place here are not happening by themselves.”
Israel’s success in the ongoing war, he claims, “creates opportunities for expanding the circle of peace, and the moderate Arab countries see Israel as a regional power and a possible ally for ensuring their security, the stability, and prosperity of the entire region. And I intend to fully exploit this opportunity, together with our American friends.”
Aaron 'Ari' Rosenfeld, the IDF reservist charged in the Prime Minister’s Office security documents theft and leak scandal, in an undated photo released to the media on December 23, 2024. (Courtesy: Family)
Aaron “Ari” Rosenfeld is the second suspect charged in the Prime Minister’s Office security documents theft and leak scandal.
The IDF reservist’s name can now be published after the Tel Aviv District Court yesterday lifted a gag order, at the suspect’s request.
According to Hebrew media reports, Rosenfeld lives in Bnei Brak and is married with a toddler.
The State Prosecution waives its prerogative to appeal the ruling, despite previously opposing the move over concerns that it would inevitably lead to the revealing of other secret information to which the intelligence soldier had access during his service.
Details such as Rosenfeld’s rank, the material he dealt with, his military past, and his area of expertise remain prohibited from publication.
He was charged last month with transferring classified information, an offense that is punishable by seven years in prison, as well as theft by an authorized person and obstruction of justice, together with Eli Feldstein, an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The allegations surround the alleged leak of a highly classified document to the German tabloid Bild in September, which ostensibly detailed Hamas’s priorities and tactics in hostage negotiations (though it later became apparent the document was written by lower-level officials in the terror group and did not necessarily reflect the leadership’s position).
The document was allegedly unlawfully removed from the IDF’s military intelligence database by Rosenfeld, who gave it to Feldstein, who then saw to it that it was transferred to Bild.
Rosenfeld is still in custody, while Feldstein has been released to house arrest.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset on November 13, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the Knesset plenum within the hour, his office says.
Netanyahu’s address will occur during a so-called 40 signatures debate, which the opposition can call once a month and the prime minister is legally obliged to attend.
Sara Netanyahu, wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, attends a prayer service for the return of the hostages held by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, March 21, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Police have reportedly begun investigating dozens of complaints filed about possible criminal acts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, Channel 12 reports.
The update comes after a report by the Channel 12 investigative program, “Uvda,” last week claimed she sought to intimidate a witness in her husband’s criminal trial and have protesters harass the attorney general, the deputy state attorney, and those seen as hostile to the premier or his family.
Harassing a witness and seeking to subvert the testimony of a witness are criminal offenses punishable by three years and seven years in prison, respectively.
Following the Thursday “Uvda” report, a WhatsApp group was created to give members of the public instructions on how to file police complaints against Sara Netanyahu online.
The latest Channel 12 report quotes one of the complainants as saying, “The complaint we filed today is just the beginning. It’s time for the police to show that no one is above the law, no matter what their last name is. The Netanyahu family doesn’t scare anyone; we will work to ensure that they are brought to justice.”
Anyone who “witnesses a crime or is the victim of a crime is entitled to and even obligated to file a police report,” the source adds.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich addresses the Knesset ahead of a vote on the state budget, December 16, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg FLASH90)
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls on opposition leaders to halt their “cynical” criticism of the government over negotiations for a hostage deal with Hamas.
“The attempt to portray a large part of the people of Israel as having a hard heart for the hostages is cynical, evil and deepens the division and rift between us,” and damages the chances of an agreement, he says.
“We all pray and are committed to the return of all the hostages to their families,” he tells reporters ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.
Many of Israel’s troops who have risked their lives in battle “oppose deals with the devil and agreements that would nullify the achievements of the war,” he continues, singling out National Unity chairman Benny Gantz and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid for criticism.
Turning to the substance of a deal, Smotrich says that “a partial deal with Hamas will result in dozens of hostages being abandoned in captivity, leave Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip, and allow it to prepare for the next massacre with the help of the murderers who will be released from prison.”
“Therefore, we oppose a bad deal of this sort and will do everything in our power to prevent it,” he says.
Changing the subject, Smotrich welcomes Defense Minister Israel Katz’s decision to order IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi to present all of the investigations into the October 7, 2023, onslaught by the end of January.
Katz has stated that he will not approve the appointments of new generals until he is presented with the findings of the IDF’s internal probes.
“The time has come to replace the senior command,” he states, charging that the defense establishment leadership had “failed on October 7” by falling prey tothe widely accepted paradigm that believed Israel’s enemies were deterred and would not start a war that they couldn’t win.
Palestinian security forces patrol in the center of the city of Jenin in the West Bank, December 16, 2024. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)
A Palestinian Authorities officer was killed during clashes with terrorists in the West Bank, the PA security forces announce, marking the second such death in as many days amid ongoing fighting in the Jenin area.
“The officer was killed after he was targeted by treacherous and cowardly gunfire from outlaws in the Jenin camp,” Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the PA’s security force says in a statement.
The incident comes amid a PA crackdown against terror groups in Jenin, which the PA says is to restore security and stability to the area and comes as Ramallah appears to be trying to signal that it could play a significant role in managing a postwar Gaza Strip.
Palestinian rivals of the Fatah party, which dominates the PA, have condemned the arrests and accused the security forces of aiding Israel.
In addition to the two security personnel, three people have been killed since the clashes began on December 5 — two civilians and a field commander of the Jenin armed battalion.
DUBAI – A Russian delegation met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran today, according to Iranian news agencies, as the two countries prepare to sign a comprehensive cooperation agreement.
The media reports say the Russian delegation invited Pezeshkian to visit Russia early in 2025. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei earlier said the deal was set to be signed during a bilateral visit in January.
Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran and other countries hostile toward the United States, such as North Korea, since the start of the Ukraine war.
Washington accused Tehran in September of delivering close-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine, and imposed sanctions on ships and companies it said were involved in delivering Iranian weapons. Tehran denies providing Moscow with the missiles.
The Democrats party leader Yair Golan leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on December 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The Democrats chief Yair Golan levels what his spokesman describes as an “explicit threat” at Police Commissioner Daniel Levy in the wake of a recent investigative report linking Levy to a former senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Netanyahu and [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir will not always be here to protect you. On the day following the current government, the truth will come out and if necessary, we will also hold you to account,” Golan warns Levy.
“Personal loyalty to Netanyahu at the expense of loyalty to the law, the state, and its citizens is not only a moral and ethical error — it is a serious criminal offense,” he states.
On Monday, Levy admitted to a “longstanding friendship” with Netanyahu’s late aide Hanni Bleiweiss after previously denying the matter.
Police Commissioner Daniel Levy near the scene of a stabbing attack at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City on September 15, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
An investigative report aired last week by Channel 12’s “Uvda” television show about the dealings of the premier’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, and allegations she acted to intimidate and harass those she viewed as her family’s enemies also touched on Bleiweiss’s close ties to Levy over the years, before his becoming police chief. Bleiweiss died last year.
The report claimed Bleiweiss had talked Levy up to Sara Netanyahu, and that he himself had offered messages of support for the premier through her.
“Regarding the reports, I wish to clarify that my relationship with the late Ms. Hanni Bleiweiss was a longstanding friendship, devoid of any interests or political considerations,” Levy wrote in a letter to members of the force.
Sara Netanyahu is “responsible for her actions” but so is the prime minister who “enables these moves,” Golan continues, accusing Netanyahu of using his wife “as a smokescreen.”
Responding to Golan, Ben Gvir says the opposition politician’s statement constituted “a dangerous crossing of a red line and an intolerable threat to the rule of law.”
“Anyone who threatens the Israel Police commissioner directly harms democracy and the law enforcement system, and proves once again how disconnected and irresponsible he is,” Ben Gvir charges in a statement.
A poster showing hostages held in the Gaza Strip, displayed at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, December 22 2024. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
Israel still has not received a list of living hostages from Hamas, an Israeli official with knowledge of the details tells The Times of Israel. “We are waiting.”
Still, there is progress in hostage talks in Doha, says the official. “But it’s slow progress. We would want to see it move quicker, the entire process, but there is absolutely progress.”
The official says there is a noticeable gap between the positions of the Hamas leadership abroad and Gaza-based officials. “The leadership abroad would like to finish this,” says the official.
“We understand that [Gaza-based senior official] Mohammed Sinwar is no less of an extremist and zealot than [slain Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar,” the official continues, “and this is definitely causing delays.”
Another factor slowing down talks is the time it takes for Hamas officials in Doha to communicate with those in Gaza, says the official.
The official also alleges that Qatar, despite returning to its mediating role, is also getting in the way at times: “Qatar doesn’t stop playing games and trying to carry out psychological warfare on Israeli society with all kinds of reports, half-truths, all kinds of things that they try to launch, experimental balloons, all kinds of things that don’t contribute to the negotiations.”
The official explains that Israel is willing to use Qatar as a mediator because it has excellent access to Hamas leaders.
View of the Philadelphi Corridor, the Egypt-Gaza border area in southern Gaza’s Rafah, October 20, 2024. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)
The official insists that Israel will not leave the Philadelphi Corridor as part of any partial deal or in the first phase of a deal.
“If we reach an end to the war, then maybe it will be possible,” says the official. “We’ll see what arrangements we reach, but I also find it hard to believe that we will withdraw.”
“We are ready to thin out our forces and redeploy our forces on the ground,” the official concedes.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid attends a conference held by the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem on November 20, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The opposition will not cooperate with any “political commission of inquiry” established by the government in place of an official state probe, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares.
“We will not be part of a fraud,” he tells reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.
“The coalition’s proposal says that if the opposition does not cooperate, then the president will be the one to choose the representatives for the committee. That will not happen,” he says.
“President Herzog will not humiliate himself, nor will he humiliate the institution of the presidency, by cooperating with a blatant attempt to escape responsibility.”
Last week, Israel Hayom reported that Likud MK Ariel Kallner is pushing a bill to establish such a probe into the events of October 7, 2023, in place of a state commission of inquiry. His proposal is said to stipulate that both the coalition and opposition choose representatives on the commission and that in case of a boycott, President Isaac Herzog will choose in place of the opposition.
Netanyahu has been considering such a move to head off the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, to which he has vehemently objected, for some time.
“They are afraid. Netanyahu and his people know what will be revealed as soon as the protocols and documents are released, as soon as the security establishment can say what they know, as soon as all those involved in the most terrible disaster in our history are summoned to testify,” Lapid continues.
“They are afraid of the truth. They do not want the Israeli public to know the truth,” he says, adding that “the only committee that can be established, the only committee that can be trusted, is a state commission of inquiry.”
Earlier this year, a state commission of inquiry named Netanyahu as one of several officials responsible for the 2021 Meron disaster, in which 45 people were killed in a crush at the hilltop gravesite of the second-century sage Shimon Bar Yochai in northern Israel.
In her first public comments since retiring from the Supreme Court last year, former court president Esther Hayut says she is “observing with great concern the disastrous initiatives and actions that pose a real threat to the independence and autonomy of essential democratic pillars.”
She attacks those who “misuse democracy while cynically exploiting democratic tools,” and take actions that “erode the anchors of democracy and the democratic regime as a whole.”
Speaking at a ceremony at the University of Haifa where she is receiving an honorary doctorate, Hayut says: “More than 76 years ago, Israel inscribed on its banner a commitment to the principles of liberty, freedom of religion, conscience, justice, and social and political equality for all its citizens. To uphold such a regime in practice — not merely as empty words on the Declaration of Independence — the state required a comprehensive system of checks and balances to ensure that the majority elected to govern would not concentrate unlimited power in its hands.”
“Such a system of checks and balances was established and includes institutions such as the state comptroller, the attorney general, the judiciary, academia and the media. Those who, ostensibly in the name of democracy, undermine the institutional and professional independence of these bodies misuse democracy while cynically exploiting democratic tools. Such actions erode the anchors of democracy and the democratic regime as a whole.”
During the ceremony, university president Prof. Gur Alroey also criticizes the government over its judicial overhaul efforts, saying the judiciary “is under an attack unprecedented since the state’s founding.”
National Unity chair Benny Gantz seen at the Knesset on December 18, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Faced with attacks by Yemen’s Houthis and other Iranian proxies, Israel “must target Iran directly,” Benny Gantz declares.
Speaking with the press ahead of his National Unity party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Gantz states that “the solution to putting an end to the attacks lies in Tehran.”
“We today have the opportunity to catalyze a ‘strategic flip’ against Iran and its proxies. We must capitalize on the opportunity. It would be a strategic mistake of historic proportions not to,” he says.
“Israel must bring the hostages home, and the nations of the region together with the United States must work together with Israel to remove the threat of a nuclear Iranian regime,” he states, calling for a comprehensive deal with Hamas covering all the hostages held in Gaza, even if their release is spread over a period of time.
“We must use this time to do what Netanyahu has refused to do for over a year — replace the Hamas government,” he continues, stating that while Hamas’s commanders have largely been eliminated and its infrastructure destroyed, Israel “continues to let it run the Strip” by failing to allow an alternative force to take its place.
“The State of Israel has not made a real decision to replace Hamas. It is not working with our friends in the world to establish an administration to run the Gaza Strip as I proposed a year ago. Such plans exist in the defense establishment, but this is something that can only be led by a determined political echelon, one that is not bound by messianic dreams and coalition needs,” he declares.
He stresses that even if a new government focused on de-radicalization is established in Gaza, Hamas will not disappear overnight, requiring the IDF to continue operating in Gaza in the future. Current “ninth-graders will still be fighting in Gaza” when they grow up and are conscripted, he says.
On the topic of enlistment, Gantz cites an internal Finance Ministry report slamming the government’s ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill, stating that if it had accepted his proposal for a mobilization outline for the Haredi public, “we would already have thousands of young soldiers on the front lines.”
“The conscription outline they want to pass is a car without an engine,” he adds, calling on Likud lawmakers Yuli Edelstein and Yoav Gallant not to support the bill.
File: In this May 30, 2023, photo, Col. Ami Biton, the incoming commander of the Paratroopers Brigade, is seen in a handover ceremony (Israel Defense Forces)
The commander of the Paratroopers Brigade, Col. Ami Biton, has been reprimanded by Central Command head Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth for treating subordinates in a humiliating way.
Several reserve officers in the brigade had, between November 2023 and March 2024, filed letters to Biton’s former superior Maj. Gen. Dan Goldfus — who commanded the 98th Division — complaining about Biton’s conduct amid the war. The letters alleged that Biton’s involvement in his forces’ combat engagements was limited, that he unnecessarily risked the lives of his soldiers, that he treated his subordinates in a humiliating way, and that he spent a significant amount of time alongside female soldiers and officers.
Complaints about Biton’s conduct since the beginning of the war were investigated by Brig. Gen. Gal Shuchami, a senior officer from the Armored Corps who did not serve with the paratroopers commander at any point. Shuchami spoke with dozens of Biton’s subordinates from the Paratroopers Brigade and from other roles he filled, as well as with several of his former commanders, and with Biton himself. Bluth, meanwhile, met with the reserve officers who wrote the letters and with Biton.
The investigation found that there was no criminal behavior by Biton, and that the claims that he unnecessarily risked the lives of his soldiers, was not sufficiently engaged in the fighting, and gave women preferential treatment were unfounded. However, the probe did find that Biton acted in a discriminatory way toward his subordinate officers, in a way that humiliated them. The probe also found that after Goldfus spoke with Biton in May about the allegations, his behavior improved.
After weighing the investigation by Shuchami, and Biton’s work as the head of the brigade during operations in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as other letters written in support of the commander, Bluth decided to reprimand him.
The reprimand will go on Biton’s permanent record.
Yisrael Beytenu party chair Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on December 16, 2024 )Chaim Goldberg/Flash90(
The policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition “undermine the Zionist vision” and endanger national security, alleges Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman.
Addressing reporters ahead of his hawkish opposition party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Liberman says Israel faces threats from multiple fronts, including an “internal one.”
“The government is promoting a draft evasion law and is also avoiding the establishment of a state commission of inquiry [into the Oct. 7 events], thus harming the security of the state,” he declares, calling on the IDF to conduct a “comprehensive study” into how the government’s judicial overhaul efforts are harming enlistment and affecting reservists.
“In my opinion, this is a serious blow, which will lead to the dismantling of the Israel Defense Forces,” he states.
Efforts to take control of the High Court of Justice, weaken the Bar Association and shutter public media are a “prelude” to taking over private media as well, he continues, arguing that “all the controversial decisions… undermine the Zionist vision.”
Police Commissioner Daniel Levy near the scene of a stabbing attack at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City on September 15, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Police Commissioner Daniel Levy has admitted to a “longstanding friendship” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s late aide Hanni Bleiweiss, after previously denying the matter.
An investigative report aired last week by Channel 12’s “Uvda” television show about the dealings of Sara Netanyahu and allegations she acted to intimidate and harass those she viewed as her family’s enemies also touched on Bleiweiss’s apparently close ties to Levy over the years, prior to his becoming police chief. Bleiweiss died last year.
The report claimed Bleiweiss had talked Levy up to Sara Netanyahu, and that he himself had offered messages of support for the premier through her.
In response to the “Uvda” report, police issued a response saying, “In practice, there is and never was any connection between the two.”
But today Levy sent a letter to members of the force, “in light of the reports being disseminated in recent days in the media,” acknowledging this was not the case.
“Throughout my years of service in the Israel Police, I have always maintained integrity and acted with loyalty, professionalism, and without political motives,” he writes.
“Regarding the reports, I wish to clarify that my relationship with the late Ms. Hanni Bleiweiss was a longstanding friendship, devoid of any interests or political considerations. This friendship began during her time as a volunteer in the Tel Aviv District, where I served, and nothing more.”
Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians are seen near destroyed buildings near the Hamad Residential City complex in the north of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, as Israel battles the Hamas terror group, December 22, 2024. (Bashar Taleb/AFP)
Organized looting is increasingly threatening aid delivery in war-torn Gaza, with armed groups taking advantage of the chaos and lack of governance to steal basic items, The New York Times reports.
The paper says the phenomenon, which was once limited to desperate individuals, has now blossomed into systematic practices by armed groups in the enclave.
The growing threat has led the UN and other aid groups to halt operations, contributing to rising hunger and leaving tens of thousands of people without critical supplies, the report says.
The report says the Israeli military has tried to find alternate routes for aid that will bypass looters, but success has been only partial.
It adds that the IDF appears to increasingly be targeting armed looters with airstrikes to deter the practice.
US President Joe Biden speaks about the sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad from the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, December 8, 2024. (AP Photo/ Manuel Balce Ceneta)
US President Joe Biden announces that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment mere weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office.
The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings, including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities.
It means just three federal inmates are still facing execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history.
“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden says in a statement. “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”
The Biden administration in 2021 announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to study the protocols used, which suspended executions during Biden’s term. But Biden actually had promised to go further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without the caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated mass killings.
A handout picture released by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry shows Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi (center left) being received by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani) (center right) in Damascus on December 23, 2024. (Jordanian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi expresses his country’s support for Syria’s reconstruction in a meeting with its new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, in the latest visit to Damascus by a high-profile delegation since Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow.
It is the first trip to Syria by a senior Jordanian official since Assad’s fall, with images distributed by the Jordanian foreign ministry showing Safadi and Sharaa shaking hands.
Jordan’s official Al-Mamlaka TV reports that Safadi discussed avenues of cooperation with the new authorities, including in the areas of trade, border management, aid and electricity connections, along with security.
Safadi expresses support for “a government that represents all spectrums in Syria,” as well as for “the drafting of a new constitution,” according to Al-Mamlaka.
“We agree to support the Syrian people in rebuilding their state,” he is quoted as saying, adding that “the Arab countries agree to support Syria at this stage without any external interference.”
Israeli businessman Shaul Elovitch arrives for a hearing in the trial against Benjamin Netanyahu at the District Court in Jerusalem, May 2, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is asked during his testimony in court about regulatory decisions he signed that the prosecution alleges benefited Walla and Bezeq owner Shaul Elovitch, allegedly in exchange for positive coverage from Walla.
Addressing Netanyahu’s approval in January 2014 of a permit approving the issuance of bonds by the B-Com company, owned by Elovitch, which the indictment says was important financially for Elovitch, Netanyahu says he does not remember signing the document.
The prime minister says he signs numerous such approvals a week and has signed thousands in his time as prime minister, and does so in a pro forma manner. He says if a request arrives on his desk, it means it has been approved by professional civil servants and legal officials in the relevant ministry or the Prime Minister’s Office itself.
“If it didn’t pass one of those stages, it wouldn’t get to me,” says Netanyahu, arguing that the approval was authorized at the professional level at the Communications Ministry, which he was not aware of or involved in. He denies it had anything to do with an alleged quid pro quo agreement he had with Elovitch.
He says he doesn’t “remember one incident in which I didn’t sign” such a document when it came to him
“If I dealt with all these approvals, I wouldn’t [have time to] be prime minister,” says Netanyahu.
His defense lawyer, Amit Hadad, also addresses the sale of the Yad 2 website by Elovitch, the authorization for which Netanyahu approved on May 14, 2014, and which netted Elovitch NIS 800 million.
Netanyahu says he signed this authorization as it too was one of many that arrived at his desk, and asserts he had no knowledge that it was important to Elovitch, as the indictment alleges.
He also insists that his authorization of the sale was a matter of excessive bureaucracy and that his approval did not give Elovitch any extra benefits, “not one shekel.”
He recalls being questioned about the sale by police investigators. “This was a regular transaction. I didn’t know why I was being questioned… I asked them what the position of the professional civil servants was. If they had skipped over the legal advisers or someone else from the professional civil ranks. If so, I’d understand why they were investigating, but if it had passed all the professional ranks — then what were they investigating me for?” he says.
“I asked them. I don’t think I got an answer. They should answer now.”
Hadad asked him about a phone call he held with Elovitch on May 10, four days before he signed on the authorization of the sale of Yad 2. Netanyahu says that he called the Bezeq owner because of his expertise in the Japanese economy and because the prime minister was scheduled to visit Japan later that day. The prime minister says he made similar calls to another wealthy investor when he visited China.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has begun a tour of military positions in the country’s south, almost a month after a ceasefire deal that ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Najib Mikati is on his first visit to the southern frontlines, where Lebanese soldiers under the US-brokered deal are expected to gradually deploy, with Hezbollah and Israeli troops both expected to withdraw by the end of next month.
Mikati’s tour comes after the Lebanese government expressed its frustration over ongoing Israeli strikes and overflights in the country. Israel says it targets ceasefire violations by Hezbollah.
“We have many tasks ahead of us, the most important being the enemy’s withdrawal from all the lands it encroached on during its recent aggression,” he says after meeting with army chief Joseph Aoun in a Lebanese military barracks in the southeastern town of Marjayoun. “Then the army can carry out its tasks in full.”
The Lebanese military for years has relied on financial aid to stay functional, primarily from the United States and other Western countries. Lebanon’s cash-strapped government is hoping that the war’s end and ceasefire deal will bring about more funding to increase the military’s capacity to deploy in the south.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar arrives to attend a plenary session of the 31st Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Ministerial summit, in Ta'Qali, Malta, December 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Miguela Xuereb)
Speaking to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says the return of Donald Trump brings “great opportunities” for Israel.
“Next year, 2025, will also be a challenging year,” he says, “but also a year with great opportunities, with a new administration led by President-elect Donald Trump.”
Sa’ar notes that “this does not mean that there will be agreements on everything and that there will be no more debates, but it certainly leaves room for optimism.”
The foreign minister adds that an Association Council meeting with the EU — only the second such gathering since 2012 — will take place in Brussels in two months. “We certainly look forward to opening a new page of constructive dialogue with the European Union,” he says.
Sa’ar says his ministry, which received hundreds of millions of shekels for public diplomacy, is “laying the foundations” for a change in the way Israel presents itself on the world stage. “The trend should not be defensive, the trend should be assertive. We definitely have a case to stand assertively in the international arena, and I do not believe that any other approach can bring results.”
This handout photo taken on December 19, 2024 and released by the South Korean Prime Minister's Office shows South Korea's Prime Minister and acting President Han Duck-soo speaking on the phone to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at his office in Seoul. (Handout / South Korean Prime Minister's Office / AFP)
South Korea’s main opposition party threatens to impeach acting president Han Duck-soo if he fails to approve legislation to launch a special counsel investigation into President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed bid to impose martial law.
Prime Minister Han has taken over from the suspended Yoon, who was impeached on Dec. 14 and faces a Constitutional Court review on whether to oust him.
With a majority in parliament, the opposition Democratic Party (DP) passed a bill this month to appoint a special counsel to pursue charges of insurrection, among others, against the conservative Yoon and to investigate his wife over a luxury bag scandal and other allegations.
The party, which has accused Han of aiding Yoon’s martial law attempt and reported him to police, says it will “immediately initiate impeachment proceedings” against the acting president if the legislation is not promulgated by Tuesday.
Han is a technocrat who has held leadership roles in South Korean politics for 30 years under conservative and liberal presidents. Yoon appointed him prime minister in 2022.
“The delays show that the prime minister has no intention of complying with the constitution, and it is tantamount to admitting that he is acting as a proxy for the insurgent,” Democratic Party floor leader Park Chan-dae tells a party meeting, referring to Yoon.
Iran says it supports Syria’s sovereignty and that the country should not become “a haven for terrorism.”
“Our principled position on Syria is very clear: preserving the sovereignty and integrity of Syria and for the people of Syria to decide on its future without destructive foreign interference,” says foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, adding that the country should not “become a haven for terrorism.”
He adds: “We have no direct contact with the [new] ruling authority in Syria.”
Tehran strongly supported deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.
An undated photo of the Barak MX system. (Israel Aerospace Industries)
The Defense Ministry has signed an agreement to sell the Barak MX air defense system to Slovakia, a deal estimated at 560 million euros (NIS 2 billion).
The ministry says the “landmark deal” is the largest-ever defense export agreement with Slovakia.
Barak MX, produced by Israel Aerospace Industries, is designed to counter various types of aerial threats, including fighter jets, helicopters, drones, cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles and tactical ballistic missiles, according to the ministry.
The system is equipped with three types of interceptor missiles for threats in ranges of up to 35, 70, and 150 kilometers.
The rotor head of an IAF helicopter that crashed in Syria on April 27, 1974, is recovered by Israeli troops, in a handout photo issued on December 23, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
IDF troops operating in Syria found a part of an Israeli Air Force helicopter that crashed there more than 50 years ago.
The military says that during routine defensive operations in Syria, troops of the IAF’s Shaldag unit and the 810th Mountains Regional Brigade located the rotor head of the SA 321 Super Frelon, known in the IAF as “Wasp.”
The chopper, number 17 in the IAF’s 114th Squadron, was involved in a deadly crash on April 27, 1974, after being dispatched to rescue paratroopers wounded in fighting in the Yom Kippur War.
During an attempt to land near an army post in Syria, the helicopter crashed, killing all six crew members — pilots Maj. Golan Levy and Lt. Amir Amit; flight mechanics Staff Sgt. Yaakov Bernheim and Yaakov Rolle; and Unit 669 doctor Maj. Dr. Ahikam Avni Feinstein and Unit 669 medic Sgt. Meir Rosenstein. Their bodies were brought back to Israel for burial.
Illustrative: An IAF SA 321 Super Frelon, also known as Wasp, which later crashed in Syria on April 27, 1974. (Israel Defense Forces)
The military says Unit 669 and the IAF’s missing persons unit came to the site in recent days to recover the rotor head and search for personal or other items left in the area that could be meaningful for their families.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says during his testimony in court in his criminal trial that in 2013, after he realized that Walla owner Shaul Elovitch would not change what he terms the news site’s hostile attitude toward him, he spoke with Australian businessman James Packer and suggested he buy the news outlet.
As alternatives, Netanyahu says he also mentioned that Packer could buy the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper and its internet arm Ynet, or if none of those options worked out, establish his own right-wing news outlet in Israel.
The prime minister has described Israeli media as “monolithic” and unrepresentative of large parts of the public, which he said was why he was trying to encourage the establishment of right-wing media.
“It’s inconceivable for there to be no representation. It’s a massive public… turn on the radio — left; go out — left; come home at night — left; watch the news… [it’s all] left, left, left; current affairs — left. Is this healthy?” Netanyahu demands.
Netanyahu argues that his efforts to have Packer buy Walla demonstrate his dissatisfaction with the news outlet’s coverage of him, asking the judges why he would want Elovitch to sell the site it provided him with the supportive coverage that prosecutors allege.
“If there was an agreement with Elovitch that I control the website and he gives me what I want and I give him what he wants, then why am I trying to get him to sell?” he asks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at a courtroom in the Tel Aviv District Court before the start of his testimony on December 23, 2024 (Reuven Kastro/POOL)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begins his fifth day of testimony in his criminal trial, starting early at 9 a.m. due to his need to be in the Knesset today before 4 p.m. — when the court usually ends its sessions.
Before the hearing begins, the State Attorney’s Office publishes a statement saying it stands behind the indictment, despite the judges of the Jerusalem District Court expressing skepticism last week that Netanyahu was involved in many of the incidents in which prosecutors allege he demanded and received favorable press coverage from the Walla news website in a quid pro quo with its owner.
The State Attorney’s Office says that even if Netanyahu wasn’t directly involved in making the requests, he had general knowledge of such demands and the framework within which they were being made.
“All the demands included in the appendix [of the indictment] originated with defendant no. 1 [Netanyahu] and his family, together and separately, and he was aware of all of them — direct and concrete awareness or general awareness,” the State Attorney’s Office says.
“The claims of the defense contradict claims that it has raised in the past,” the prosecutors continue, adding that it is “obvious” that the State Attorney’s Office never claimed that Netanyahu knew of every specific demand to Walla, stating that “the indictment attributes to defendant no. 1 general awareness that the demands were being made.”
A member of the Lev Tahor Jewish cult protests as Guatemalan police members surround a minibus transferring rescued children to the Alida Espana de Arana special education school in Guatemala City on December 22, 2024 (Johan ORDÓÑEZ / AFP)
Guatemalan officials say that members of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish cult broke into a shelter attempting to recapture 160 minors taken from their compound two days earlier by authorities, who accuse the group of child sexual abuse.
The farm compound in Oratoria, southwest of Guatemala City, was raided on Friday by authorities to rescue 160 minors who “were allegedly being abused by a member of the Lev Tahor sect,” Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez said.
About 100 of the children’s relatives who belong to Lev Tahor gathered yesterday outside a care center in Guatemala City, where the children were being held, to demand their return.
Cult members then “broke into” the center around 4:30 p.m. local time (2230 GMT Sunday), “forcing open the gate and abducting the children and adolescents sheltered there,” a statement from the Attorney General’s Office said.
Guatemalan police members surround a minibus transferring rescued children from the Lev Tahor cult to the Alida Espana de Arana special education school in Guatemala City on December 22, 2024 (Johan ORDÓÑEZ / AFP)
Those outside the shelter tried to prevent the authorities from bringing back the minors, leading to some scuffles with police, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
With police help, the center “managed to locate and protect everyone again,” the Attorney General’s Office says.
Firefighters rescued dozens of female students from a fire at a Jerusalem boarding school a short time ago.
Twelve firefighting teams rushed to the institution on David Yellin Street after receiving reports of the blaze, and extracted 32 students who had been trapped in the burning building, the Fire and Rescue Service says.
Two of the students were seriously hurt, while others were in moderate or good condition.
Firefighters say they searched the premises and ruled out any other individuals being in need of aid.
Teams are working to douse the flames at the scene.
Iran is considering establishing an air corridor to Lebanon by which to resupply the Hezbollah terror group, after losing its land route through Syria with the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, The Times reports.
The paper notes that this would be in breach of Israel’s ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.
An unidentified regional source tells the paper that discussions on the matter are taking place in Tehran. The source says Western nations are “concerned that Iran has lost [Damascus as] its go-to airport in the region for smuggling weapons and is now trying to turn Beirut airport into its new logistics hub, just as they did in Syria.”
They add that such action “could lead to the next escalation.”
Israel has said it will enforce the terms of the ceasefire in Lebanon by force where necessary. It has intercepted cargo flights from Iran to Lebanon that it believed were carrying arms for Hezbollah, forcing them to turn around.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to appear in court today for his fifth day of testimony in his criminal trial.
Though the trial is under the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem District Court, the testimony is being held at a fortified location in the Tel Aviv District Court, as the Jerusalem court does not have such facilities.
Members of an Iraqi Shiite militia attend a funeral for members who were killed by a US airstrike, in Baghdad, Iraq, February 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Iran-backed militia groups in Iraq have decided to stop their attacks on Israel, Lebanon’s pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar reports.
Militias have been launching attack drones at Israel since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, as part of Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance. This past October, two soldiers were killed and 24 others wounded when an Iraqi drone hit their Golan Heights base.
But one militia leader tells the paper that the groups have agreed with the Iraqi government to halt the attacks, while also avoiding getting involved in Syria.
“The armed factions adhered to the words of the Iraqi government, especially after what happened in Syria, which says that there may be an intention to drag the country into a scenario worse than the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which may lead to the return of terrorism to Iraq again,” the member of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba says.
Another militia official, of the Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, argues that “the factions’ operations against Israel were linked to the operations of the Lebanese Hezbollah, and when the ceasefire was reached in Lebanon, the operations of the Iraqi factions stopped, and there are also partners in Iraq who have an opinion and reservations about those operations, and they must be listened to.”
A recently retired Mossad agent speaks on CBS News' 60 Minutes, December 22, 2024. (Screenshot: YouTube/CBS News)
Two recently retired Mossad agents are interviewed anonymously by CBS News’ 60 Minutes and recount the operation that resulted in the detonation of thousands of handheld communications devices used by Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group, injuring and maiming thousands of its operatives.
“The aim, it wasn’t killing Hezbollah terrorists,” says one of the agents, referred to as Gabriel (not his real name) in the interview, wearing a mask and speaking in broken English with his voice altered. “If he just dead, so he’s dead. But if he’s wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and efforts. And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us.’ They are walking proof of our superiority all around the Middle East.”
On September 17 — almost a year after Hezbollah, unprovoked, started launching daily attacks on Israel — numerous pagers bought in the past year blew up in the hands of Hezbollah members throughout Lebanon. The following day, thousands of walkie-talkies bought a decade earlier similarly exploded.
Both sets of devices were made and supplied to Hezbollah by the Israeli spy agency.
“So Israel sold this device to Hezbollah. Hezbollah paid for the — this weapon that was to be used against them,” says host Lesley Stahl.
“They got a good price,” replies the second agent, referred to as Michael.
“We have an incredible array of possibilities of creating foreign companies that have no way being traced back to Israel,” Michael boasts. “Shell companies over shell companies to affect the supply chain to our favor. We create a pretend world. We are a global production company. We write the screenplay, we’re the directors, we’re the producers, we’re the main actors, and the world is our stage.”
Gabriel describes meticulous tests of the pagers to make sure only the person holding them would be hurt, not people beside them.
He says he convinced his director that the bulky pagers would be marketable, offering added features such as a long battery life and water resistance, and that Mossad put up online ads to catch Hezbollah’s eye, while hitting other interested would-be buyers with high price quotes to avoid selling to them.
Gabriel says: “When [Hezbollah] are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad. We make like ‘Truman Show,’ everything is controlled by us behind the scene. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher including businessmen, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything,” he says.
Gabriel goes on to say the operation was a watershed moment in the conflict with Hezbollah, and that the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah saw people next to him get hit by the pager blasts.
“Nasrallah, when we operate the beeper operation, just next to him in the bunker, several people had a beeper receiving the message. And in his in own eyes, he saw them collapsing,” he says.
When the terrorist leader gave a speech two days later, “If you look at his eyes, he was defeated,” Gabriel asserts. “He already lose the war. And his soldier look at him during that speech. And they saw a broken leader. And this was the tipping point of the war.”
Michael talks about the psychological side of the unprecedented operation, and indicates more is in stock for the future.
“The day after the pagers exploded, people were afraid to turn on the air conditioners in Lebanon because they were afraid that they would explode. So there was — there is real fear,” he says.
“We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are. We can’t use the pagers again because we already did that. We’ve already moved on to the next thing. And they’ll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is.”
US Representative Mike Waltz, a Florida Republican, speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill, July 22, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)
The incoming US national security adviser speculates that there are good chances that there will be a Saudi-Israeli normalization agreement.
“I think it’s a natural next step,” Mike Waltz says during a podcast interview with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, reiterating Donald Trump’s belief that the deal would have already been forged had the president-elect won in 2020.
“The reordering was focusing on Iran as the common enemy that they are… versus putting the Palestinian issue right in the center,” he says, summarizing the idea behind the Abraham Accords. Waltz asserts that Iran saw how close the sides were to a deal “and lit the match with Hamas [that led to] October 7… [which] put that issue right back into the center.”
“We’ve had a lot of good discussions with the Saudis [about] normalization,” the top Trump aide notes, adding that he is still reviewing the issue.
“The overall prospects of moving that relationship forward — get our [hostages] out, get the issue of Gaza to a better place — at least for now — and then we absolutely are talking about a broader deal,” says Waltz.
Houthi fighters march during a rally of support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and against the US strikes on Yemen outside Sanaa on January 22, 2024. (AP Photo)
US President-elect Donald Trump’s national security adviser pick Mike Waltz knocks the 2021 decision by Joe Biden’s administration to remove the Houthis’ designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and pledges to reverse the move, which had been pushed by progressive Democrats due to fears that it was hampering international efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in Yemen.
“I guarantee what you’re going to see very soon is a redesignation of them for what they are — a terrorist organization,” Waltz says in a podcast interview with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.
The Biden administration did restore the Specially Designated Global Terrorist designation for the Houthis last year, but stopped short of reviving the more severe FTO label for the same reason that Biden removed it.
Waltz acknowledges that a humanitarian crisis does exist in Yemen but insists that Democrats took the wrong approach.
On Iran, the top Trump aide says the Islamic Republic now faces a choice.
“Is this a moment where they say we are completely exposed, therefore we rush towards a nuke? Or is this a moment they say, ‘We are completely exposed. [Let’s not] provoke the Israelis by rushing toward a nuke? We’ll see which way they go… I don’t want to reveal our hand, but we’re watching very closely,” Waltz says.
US Representative Mike Waltz, US President-elect Donald Trump's national security adviser pick, speaks in a podcast interview with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, December 22, 2024. (Screenshot: YouTube; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
US President-elect Donald Trump’s national security adviser pick warns that those who take American hostages will think twice come January 20 because the costs will outweigh the benefits.
In a podcast interview with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, Rep. Mike Waltz notes that the four remaining American hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have been held longer than the captives during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979.
“That’s totally unacceptable, and I think writ large, there has never been enough consequences,” says Waltz. “That’s what we need to be talking about with these people. [If] You take an American,… There is going to be all hell to pay. There are going to be nothing but consequences for you financially, and maybe even a bullet in your damn forehead.”
“The next time you think about it… a lot of these groups are going to say, ‘Woah, it’s just not worth it under Donald Trump,'” he predicts.
WATCH: @realDonaldTrump’s incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz warns the world:
“You take an American, you illegally detain them, if you're a nation state or if you're a terrorist, you hold them hostage there is going to be all hell to pay! There are going to be nothing… pic.twitter.com/PAMKFnLKbO
“If the bad guys are incentivized to take more because they keep getting more, then they’re going to keep doing it. If the bad guys feel nothing but cost and pain for taking our people, they’re going to stop doing it,” Waltz summarizes.
Later in the interview, the top Trump aide hails Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular for the operation that simultaneously detonated Hezbollah’s communication devices en masse in what resulted in the maiming of thousands of its operatives.
“There’s going to be some amazing movie about that one day — one of the gutsiest, most effective covert action ops in modern history. Because of that, taking down Hezbollah, [which] everybody said couldn’t be done and would be too provocative — [it] expos[ed] Iran’s air defenses so that they literally are naked right now and on their back foot,” Waltz says, adopting much of the talking points used by Netanyahu and adding that Hamas is now isolated more than ever.
“Hamas has every exit blocked except one, and that’s to release our hostages if you want to live,” he says.
US police have arrested a man they say set a woman on fire while she appeared to be asleep on a New York City subway train on Sunday morning, killing her.
The woman, who has not been identified, sat motionlessly aboard a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in Brooklyn at about 7:30 a.m. local time, when an unknown man approached her and used a lighter to set her clothing on fire, the New York Police Department says. Police say there was no interaction before the attack and they do not believe the two people knew each other.
The man got off the car as police officers on patrol in the station rushed to the blaze.
“What they saw was a person standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch says at a press conference.
The officers used fire extinguishers to put out the fire and the woman was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders, police say.
Police arrested a suspect, who has not been publicly identified, as he rode the subway later in the day.
Police say they are still investigating the victim’s identity and the reason for the attack.
Stephen Feinberg on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, December 11, 2008. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)
US President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate billionaire investor Stephen Feinberg to serve as deputy secretary of defense.
Feinberg, who is Jewish, is the co-chief executive of Cerberus Capital Management LP, a private equity firm he co-founded in 1992. He served on an intelligence advisory board during Trump’s 2017-2021 White House term.
Feinberg would serve as the No. 2 official at the Pentagon under Trump’s choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host who faces questions about allegations of alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct. Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing.
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Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara along with several government ministers, some of whom she has strongly criticized, as well cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs with whom she has frequently clashed, at a special government conference on Jerusalem Day at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, June 5, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Knesset in Jerusalem on December 23, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
A handout picture released by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry shows Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi (center left) being received by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani) (center right) in Damascus on December 23, 2024. (Jordanian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
Firefighters at the scene of a fire at a Jerusalem boarding school, December 23, 2024 (Fire and Rescue Service)
The sun sets behind tents sheltering Palestinians displaced by confict in the north of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 22, 2024 (Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A building in Gaza City's Rimal Neighborhood, where the daughter of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh lived, December 19, 2023. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)
