Dec. 23: Bennett calls on Shin Bet, police to probe Netanyahu in Qatargate ‘betrayal’ case

Ex-Syrian officer close to Assad-era commander said killed in Lebanon

A former Syrian intelligence officer who was close to one of the ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad’s top army commanders was killed in Lebanon, a judicial official says, with the army announcing it has arrested a suspect.

It was the first confirmation since Assad’s ouster in December last year of a former Syrian government official being present in Lebanon, though many in Syria believe Assad-era figures are hiding in the neighboring country.

The judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity, tells AFP that the body of Ghassan al-Sukhni was found near the house where he was staying in the Kesrwan area, north of Beirut.

Lebanon’s army announced in a statement on X that it had arrested the alleged perpetrator, who it said killed Sukhni “following a financial dispute.”

The judicial official says Sukhni “sought refuge in Lebanon after the fall of the Assad regime” and was a former Syrian intelligence officer closely associated with Suhail al-Hassan.

Driver crashes through Ben Gurion Airport security barrier before fleeing on foot, say police

People walk past a sign pointing to the Ben Gurion Airport police station on June 10, 2025. (Jack Guez/ AFP)

A vehicle crashed through a security barrier near Ben Gurion Airport before fleeing on foot, police say.

Police say that the incident is not believed to be terror-related in nature, but rather a criminal event.

In a statement, police say that a “suspicious vehicle bearing a fake license plate” arrived at the main entrance gate to the airport, ignored the instructions of security guards, and kept driving before exiting the vehicle and fleeing on foot.

Police officers are searching for the driver. An examination of the vehicle by bomb disposal experts found no explosives, and there is no threat of a security incident, police say.

Such instances have happened repeatedly over the years, often by Palestinians who steal cars inside Israel and accidentally enter airport grounds while attempting to get away.

Libyan chief of staff killed in plane crash after departing Turkey, say officials

The prime minister of Libya’s UN-recognized government, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, says he has received news of the death of Libya’s army chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, after Haddad’s plane lost radio contact above Turkey’s Ankara.

Dbeibah, mourning Haddad’s death, says the army chief of staff had been accompanied by others, including military officials.

Turkey says its gendarmerie has discovered the wreckage of the plane, which disappeared shortly after taking off from Ankara.

“The wreckage of the business jet that departed Ankara’s Esenboga airport for Tripoli has been located by Turkish gendarmerie approximately two kilometers south of Kesikkavak village in the Haymana district” 74 kilometers (45 miles) from Ankara, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya says on X.

Australian state lawmakers approve sweeping gun bill after Hanukkah terror attack

Mourners visit the site of a memorial outside the Bondi Pavilion after the clean-up of floral tributes following seven days of mourning, a week after the Bondi Beach terror attack targeting a Hanukkah event, in Sydney on December 22, 2025. (Saeed KHAN / AFP)

Lawmakers in Australia’s most populous state approve a sweeping bill cracking down on guns after the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in decades.

The Upper House in New South Wales, where 15 people were killed last week in an antisemitic massacre at a Hanukkah festival on Bondi Beach, voted 18-8 to pass the legislation.

“There being 18 ayes and 8 nos, the question is resolved in the affirmative,” Ben Cameron, president of the Legislative Council of NSW, says after the vote.

Deputy AG: Media regulation bill needs more work before Knesset deliberation

Deputy Attorney General Avital Sompolinsky (right) attends a meeting of the Special Committee for the Communications Bill at the Knesset, December 23, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Parliamentary deliberations on Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s controversial media regulation bill should be halted and the legislation referred back to the government, Deputy Attorney General Avital Sompolinsky tells the recently established contentious Committee for Deliberating the Communications Bill.

“A government bill is supposed to come to the Knesset only after the government has completed its work and the required legal approval has been granted, and not when substantive disputes are still unresolved,” Sompolinsky tells lawmakers, prompting opposition calls to halt discussions on the bill.

In response, Communications Ministry director general Elad Makdasi counters that the Justice Ministry was “demanding a veto right, such that any further advancement of the legislative process would require their approval — effectively a halt to the Knesset’s deliberations — and this is a demand we cannot accept.”

In response, a representative of the Justice Ministry says that after the legislation was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, “we made it clear that the process was not finished and that more time was needed.”

“We did not demand a veto option, only to preserve the accepted work process,” she states.

Weighing in, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs insists that a government decision “is binding on everyone… as long as there is no High Court of Justice order freezing the legislation.”

The Knesset voted earlier this month to establish the special panel to advance the bill, which aims to give the government significant control over broadcast media, news sites, and other media by establishing a new regulatory council, a majority of whose members would be chosen by the communications minister, that would have an array of authorities over broadcast media, including the ability to issue hefty fines.

The special committee is meant to bypass Likud MK David Bitan, chairman of the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee, which usually deals with media-related legislation. Bitan has expressed opposition to the bill in its current form.

Despite assurances from the coalition that the legislation is intended to increase freedom of the press, chairwoman MK Galit Distel Atbaryan (Likud) has used the new committee as a platform for attacking the media, stating during the panel’s inaugural session that the media was “centralized, monopolistic and frighteningly oppressive.”

Turkey says contact lost with business jet carrying Libyan chief of staff from Ankara

Turkey says it lost contact with a Falcon 50-type business jet with five passengers onboard, including Libya’s chief of staff, after it took off from the capital Ankara.

“Contact was lost at 20:52 local time with a Falcon 50-type business jet, tail number 9H-DFJ, departing from Ankara’s Esenboga airport bound for Tripoli at 20:10 local time,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya says in a statement posted on X.

Five passengers were onboard, including the Libyan chief of general staff, General Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, he adds.

He says the flight had made a request for an emergency landing while over the Haymana district of Ankara, but no contact was established afterward.

Likud slams Bennett, accusing him of ‘blood libels’ against the prime minister

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and former prime minister Naftali Bennett (right) attend the funeral of Rabbi Haim Drukman, at Merkaz Shapira, near Kiryat Malachi, on December 26, 2022. (Gil Cohen-Magen/ AFP)

The Likud party slams Naftali Bennett, accusing him of mudslinging in order to distract from his own problems, after the former premier demanded that the Israel Police and Shin Bet security agency investigate Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in connection with the Qatargate scandal.

In a statement, Likud says chief suspects Srulik Einhorn and Eli Feldstein “were never part of the Prime Minister’s Bureau” and that out of all of the material that has come out in connection with the scandal, “there is not a shred of involvement by the Prime Minister’s Office or anyone on its behalf, quite the opposite.”

“Since the beginning of the war, the Prime Minister’s Office and the prime minister have attacked Qatar, and Qatar has attacked the prime minister countless times,” Likud says.

“Bennett, who chose to use the word ‘treason,’ would do well to look at himself,” the spokesman continues, accusing him of having “betrayed his voters when he formed a government with the Muslim Brotherhood, which Bennett himself defined as a sister movement to Hamas.”

“The refuge of the arch-swindler Bennett is the invention of blood libels,” the Likud continues, claiming Bennett’s rhetoric stems from a desire to divert attention from “the serious materials revealed in the hacking of his phone, which are being concealed from the public eye.”

Last week, Bennett acknowledged that hackers had gained access to his Telegram account, and a number of files, including his contact list, were posted online.

France launches probe over video of man seen harassing Jewish boy at Paris airport

A woman walks past the departure board at Charles de Gaulle airport on July 19, 2024. (AP/Thomas Padilla)

France has launched a probe after a video emerged of a man harassing and humiliating a young Jewish child at a Paris airport, demanding that he “free Palestine” and “dance,” a judicial source says.

The Paris police chief, Patrice Faure, expresses his “outrage at these unacceptable and intolerable remarks.”

“They will not go unpunished,” he says on X, adding that an investigation is “underway to identify the individual and bring him to justice.”

“We express our support for our Jewish compatriots and assure them of our full commitment to combating antisemitic acts,” Faure says in a post showing an image from the video of the incident.

On Sunday, The SwordOfSalomon account posted footage of the incident on X which has been viewed more than 440,000 times, claiming that it was filmed at the French capital’s Charles de Gaulle airport on June 25.

????✈️???? ANTISEMITIC INCIDENT AT PARIS–CDG AIRPORT :

???????? Wednesday, June 25, 2025, at around 7:00 a.m, in the PlayStation Zone ???? of Terminal 2B at Paris–Charles de Gaulle Airport, a man in his early 30s, speaking with a British accent ????????, verbally and physically targeted two… pic.twitter.com/8XY3ze0EYb

— SwordOfSalomon (@SwordOfSalomon) December 21, 2025

The video shows a young boy, whose face has been pixelated, playing a video game. A man, whose face cannot be seen, comes up to the boy and takes the toy.

“Are you gonna free Palestine, bro?” the man says to the boy in English, in a British accent. “If you don’t free them, I’ll snatch your hat off, bro,” he says, referring to the child’s kippa.

The man also tells the child several times, in broken French, “dance, cachou” — apparently mispronouncing the French word “cochon” (pig), and the confused boy is seen trying to dance.

Paris airports company Groupe ADP says it is “working closely with the state services and all stakeholders in the airport community, including the chief rabbi, who is one of the airport chaplains,” on the investigation, and says it will not tolerate any antisemitism.

Bennett calls on Shin Bet, police to probe Netanyahu in Qatargate ‘betrayal’ case

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett speaks at the annual Cyber Week at Tel Aviv University on December 9, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett calls on Israel’s law enforcement agencies, the Shin Bet and Israel Police, to “exhaust the [Qatargate scandal] investigation to its very end,” including questioning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself.

In the so-called Qatargate affair, Netanyahu’s close aide Jonatan Urich and former spokesman Eli Feldstein are suspected of offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corruption charges involving lobbyists and businessmen, while they were working for the prime minister.

Their actions are a “knife in the heart of our heroic soldiers, and a knife in the heart of the entire people of Israel,” says Bennett in a video message.

“This is the gravest betrayal in the history of the State of Israel because it does not come from minor figures… but from the most senior and powerful people in Israel. We must honestly acknowledge that planting active agents inside the office of the prime minister of Israel is a significant intelligence and security success for our enemy, Qatar.”

Bennett says that he is “not claiming that Netanyahu gave the order to act on behalf of Qatar, or even that he knew his closest advisers were receiving hundreds of thousands of shekels from the enemy.” But he is asking why the prime minister remains silent and continues “at this very moment, to cover up the betrayal in his office.”

Netanyahu, Bennett asserts, should have taken action the minute he found out about the scandal and “immediately dismissed, in disgrace,” his advisers and “urgently summoned the head of the Shin Bet and the Police commissioner, and demanded they open a thorough security investigation to expose the entire network of agents” and ensure his office was untainted.

However, Netanyahu acted in “exactly the opposite way,” alleges Bennett, accusing the prime minister and his team of “doing everything they can to torpedo the investigation of the truth.”

“I hereby call on the Shin Bet and the Israel Police: It is your national duty to exhaust the investigation to its very end,” Bennett says, demanding that everyone involved, including Netanyahu himself, answer who knew about the scandal and when, and what intelligence was compromised because of it.

“I trust the security and law enforcement systems to act quickly and not abandon the security of the state,” Bennett adds.

2 Israelis escorted from Palestinian village by IDF after mistakenly entering

In another incident in the West Bank this evening, the IDF says it dispatched troops to Husan after two Israeli civilians mistakenly entered the Palestinian village in their car.

The military says troops located the pair and escorted them out of the village.

Earlier today, in a separate incident, the IDF said it escorted a woman from the village of Ni’lin after she had entered the town.

It is against the law for Israeli citizens to enter areas of the West Bank under Palestinian Authority control.

AI-generated Ran Gvili asks Trump to ‘bring me home’ in new video clip

An AI-generated video of the last deceased hostage, Ran Gvili, asking US President Donald Trump to help bring his body home (Screenshots/Hostages Forum)

The family of Ran Gvili, the last hostage whose remains are still being held in Gaza, issues a plea from an AI-generated Gvili to US President Donald Trump in a new video clip.

The AI clip shows Gvili inside a Hamas tunnel in Gaza recounting his experiences on October 7, when the police officer was killed in action fighting the terror invasion.

An AI-generated video of the last deceased hostage, Ran Gvili, asking US President Donald Trump to help bring his body home (Screenshots/Hostages Forum)

“Thank you for standing with us and for making a courageous agreement that brought so many of my brothers and sisters home,” says the AI-generated Gvili, in a video circulated by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

“Mr. President, I’m asking you to see this through — I deserve the right to be buried with honor in the land I fought for,” he continues in the clip. “Mr. President, finish what you started, bring me home before it’s too late.”

Gvili’s mother, Talik, says in a statement that “seeing and hearing Rani speak in his own voice is moving and sad at the same time. I would have given everything to hear, see, and hug him again. But all I have left is to beg them not to move to phase two of the agreement before they bring Rani home to me, because heroes must not be left behind.”

Deputy Shin Bet head tenders his resignation to new director David Zini

Shin Bet chief David Zini attends the state memorial ceremony marking 30 years since the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, November 3, 2025. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

Shin Bet head David Zini has accepted the request of his deputy to resign after some 30 years in the security agency.

The Shin Bet says that the deputy, identified only by his first initial in Hebrew, Shin, agreed with Zini when the latter entered the role in October to continue to serve as deputy “until the agency stabilizes.”

Shin had served as interim chief since June, after former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar’s term ended.

“The head of the Shin Bet expressed his great appreciation to Shin for his significant service, in a variety of roles in the field and at headquarters, and for his willingness to serve as his deputy,” the agency says.

Channel 12 news reports that the resignation comes due to serious and frequent differences of opinion between Zini and Shin.

Zini’s nomination for the role was marked with controversy, including a petition to the High Court from three former Shin Bet chiefs claiming that he was unfit for the role. The High Court declined to intervene in the nomination.

Lebanon says retired security officer with ties to capture of Ron Arad has disappeared

Missing Israeli Air Force officer Ron Arad, photographed by Amal militants in Lebanon in 1987. (Wikipedia)

Lebanese authorities are investigating the recent disappearance of a retired security officer whose brother was allegedly involved in the 1986 capture of an Israeli air force navigator, a Lebanese judicial official tells AFP.

Israeli Air Force officer Ron Arad’s plane went down over southern Lebanon during the country’s 1975-1990 civil war, and he was believed to have been initially held by the Amal Shiite group. He is now presumed dead, though his remains were never returned.

The Lebanese judicial official says on condition of anonymity that authorities are looking into the disappearance a week ago of retired General Security officer Ahmad Shukr amid conflicting information about his fate.

Initial investigations indicate Shukr “was lured from his hometown of Nabi Sheet” to a location near the city of Zahle, where he disappeared.

A source close to the family says Shukr is the brother of Hassan Shukr, who “was a fighter in the group that participated in capturing Israeli pilot Ron Arad after his plane was downed on October 16” in 1986.

Hassan Shukr was killed in 1988 in a battle between Israeli forces and local fighters, including those from the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, the source close to the family adds, requesting anonymity.

The judicial official says information indicates Ahmad Shukr “was lured by two Swedes who arrived in Lebanon two days before his kidnapping, and that one left through Beirut airport the day Shukr disappeared.”

Investigators are looking into the possibility that he was killed by Israeli agents or transferred to Israel, the official says, adding that so far no trace has been found of him in Lebanon.

Shukr is a relative of Hezbollah military chief Fouad Shukr, whom Israel assassinated last year, according to the UK-based Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.

According to the newspaper, Hassan Shukr was part of a cell led by then-Amal commander Mustafa Dirani that took part in shooting down Arad’s plane and abducting him. Arad was held for a while in a house belonging to the Shukr family in Nabi Chit, the newspaper says.

Dirani, who later broke with Amal and joined Hezbollah, is long thought to have been the last person to see Arad alive, was abducted by Israeli elite commandos in 1994 and released a decade later in an exchange with Hezbollah.

Belgium joins South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at ICJ

Judges arrive at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on South Africa's request on a Rafah and wider Gaza war ceasefire, in The Hague, on May 24, 2024. (Nick Gammon / AFP)

Belgium joins South Africa in a case brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which accuses Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The UN’s highest court, based in The Hague, says in a statement that Brussels has filed a declaration of intervention.

Several countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Ireland, Mexico, Spain and Turkey have already joined the case.

In December 2023, South Africa brought a case to the United Nations’ highest court in The Hague, alleging Israel’s Gaza offensive breached the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Israel denies the accusation and has criticized the proceedings.

IDF escorts Israeli woman out of Palestinian West Bank town she entered

An Israeli woman entered the West Bank Palestinian village of Ni’lin, prompting the IDF to dispatch troops to escort her out.

The woman had entered the village, located in Area B of the West Bank, with her car, the army says.

“After IDF troops scanned the area, the forces located the civilian and extracted her safely out of the village,” the military says.

US accuses Israel of ‘provoking’ Arab world after Katz’s call for Gaza settlements

Defense Minister Israel Katz is seen in the Morag Corridor area of the southern Gaza Strip, between Rafah and Khan Younis, April 9, 2025. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

The Trump administration suggests Israel is harming efforts to advance peace in Gaza with Defense Minister Israel Katz’s comments in favor of building settlements in the Strip.

“The more Israel provokes, the less the Arab countries want to work with them,” reads a statement sent to querying reporters and attributed to a US official.

Katz said earlier today that Israel will establish Nahal pioneer communities in northern Gaza in what would amount to a defiance of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war, which envisions Israel gradually withdrawing from the Strip, rather than establishing settlements there.

Hours after the comments by Katz — who has become known for staking hardline positions to cater to his Likud party base — the defense minister issued a statement clarifying that Israel has no intention of re-establishing settlements in Gaza.

While the comments were initially seen as a walk-back, Katz says his comments on such a move were made in a “security context” only. Historically, however, such communes have been precursors to full-fledged settlements, even if they are launched initially for supposed security reasons.

Ostensibly unsatisfied with Katz’s clarification statement, the White House felt compelled to respond.

“The United States remains fully committed to President Trump’s 20-Point Peace Plan, which was agreed to by all parties and endorsed by the international community. The plan envisions a phased approach to security, governance, and reconstruction in Gaza. We expect all parties to adhere to the commitments they made under the 20-Point Plan,” reads the statement attributed to a US official.

Suspects in assault on pregnant Arab in Jaffa released to house arrest

Three Jewish suspects, accused of assaulting a pregnant Arab woman in Jaffa several days earlier, arrive for a hearing on the extension of their detention at the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on December 16, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

The three suspects accused of attacking a pregnant Arab woman have been freed to house arrest, after police requested their release before the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court earlier today.

The three are suspected of planning and carrying out a racially-motivated assault against 30-year-old Hanan Abu Shehadeh, a resident of Jaffa, while she was in her car near her home. They were arrested about a week ago, several days after the incident.

“A request was made, together with the prosecution, to conditionally release the suspects to house arrest and restrict their access to Jaffa,” a police spokesman tells The Times of Israel. The investigation into the incident is ongoing.

The court today ruled to release the three suspects to six days of house arrest, subject to limitations including the payment of bail, a ban from entering Jaffa and a ban on contacting others involved in the case.

The young men, whose names are barred for publication, allegedly hurled anti-Arab epithets at the pregnant mother and spat on her seven-year-old daughter before pepper-spraying Abu Shehadeh, her two children and mother-in-law in their vehicle.

Standing Together, a Jewish-Arab movement that organized a protest against the attack, says the police’s request to release the suspects signifies the “complete abandonment of the Arab public in Jaffa, for extremists’ benefit.”

“Rather than holding the attackers legally accountable for severe, life-threatening violence, the police are signaling to them that they can get off easy — just because the woman they assaulted was Arab,” the movement says in a statement, adding that the ruling sends a message that “the blood of Arab citizens is cheap.”

Meanwhile, the suspects’ lawyer welcomes the decision and purports that law enforcement has accepted the trio’s claim of self-defense.

“As we have argued from day one, and in complete contrast to many media outlets that were quick to classify the incident as a ‘racist attack’ on a pregnant woman, the court today ruled that my clients will be released to house arrest,” says Assaf Gonen, a lawyer representing the trio on behalf of Honenu, a right-wing legal aid group.

According to Gonen, the suspects had come to Jaffa for a walking tour and accidentally bumped into the family’s car, prompting passengers to exit the vehicle and encircle them. One of them used pepper spray in self-defense, he claims.

A police representative has claimed in past remand hearings that the suspects are hilltop youth who were involved in previous acts of violence against West Bank Palestinians.

Greta Thunberg released on bail after arrest at pro-Palestinian protest in London

A handout photograph released by Prisoners for Palestine in London on December 23, 2025, shows Swedish activist Greta Thunberg before her arrest by police officers outside the offices of Aspen Insurance at Plantation Place at a protest in support of Palestine Action hunger strikers. (AFP/Prisoners for Palestine/Handout)

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg is released from custody after being arrested today in London at a pro-Palestinian protest, police say.

UK-based campaign group Prisoners for Palestine said Thunberg was earlier arrested under the Terrorism Act for holding a sign that said “I support the Palestine Action prisoners. I oppose genocide.” The British government has proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist group.

City of London Police say Thunberg has been bailed until March.

Police said earlier that two other people had been arrested for throwing red paint at a building. A spokesperson said that a 22-year-old woman — Thunberg — later attended the scene and was arrested for displaying a placard in support of a proscribed organization.

PA slams approval of new West Bank settlements as ‘dangerous step’

The Palestinian Authority condemns Israel’s plan to approve 19 new settlements in the West Bank, accusing it of tightening its control over Palestinian land.

In a statement, the PA’s foreign ministry describes the move as a “dangerous step aimed at tightening colonial control over the entirety of Palestinian land,” calling it a continuation of “apartheid, settlement, and annexation policies that undermine the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”

UK police drop probe into Bob Vylan comments about ‘death to the IDF’

The Bob Vylan duo performs at the Glastonbury Festival, June 28, 2025. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

British police say they will take no further action over comments made about the IDF during a performance by punk duo Bob Vylan at the Glastonbury music festival in June.

“We have concluded, after reviewing all the evidence, that it does not meet the criminal threshold outlined by the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) for any person to be prosecuted,” Avon and Somerset Police say.

The rap duo led crowds in chants of “Free, free Palestine” and “Death, death to the IDF” during their performance, which led to condemnation by the British prime minister and an apology from the BBC for livestreaming the show.

New Health Ministry guidelines: Sperm bank donations from one donor limited to 12 families

Illustrative image: egg, and sperm (iLexx via iStock via Getty Images)

The Health Ministry says it is updating the regulations governing the management of sperm donations in Israel to balance the demand and need for sperm donations with the protection of donors’ rights and the health of future offspring.

The ministry has established a central sperm donor registry for the 17 sperm banks currently operating in Israel to prevent donors from donating to more than one bank and to secure information sharing between banks regarding genetic and other findings, thereby reducing the risk of children being born with genetic diseases.

Donations from the same donor are now limited to a maximum of 12 families, in addition to up to five women who are storing sperm for future use.

To increase the pool of donors, men up to the age of 38 will be eligible to donate sperm, the ministry says. In addition, a married donor or a donor in a domestic partnership may donate sperm, provided that he declares to inform his wife or partner.

Lebanon rejects IDF claim that soldier killed in Israeli airstrike was Hezbollah member

A Lebanese soldier inspects the wreckage of a car that was targeted in an Israeli air strike near the southern Lebanese village of Mazraat al Qnaitra on December 22, 2025. (Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)

Lebanon rejects Israeli accusations that a Lebanese soldier killed in an airstrike near the southern city of Sidon had links to Hezbollah, after Israel said it had attacked three terror operatives working to rebuild the group’s infrastructure.

The IDF said the men were involved in planning attacks against its forces and that two were members of Hezbollah’s air defense unit. It also alleged that one of those killed was serving concurrently in Lebanese army intelligence.

The Lebanese army later confirmed that Warrant Officer Ali Abdullah of the army’s Support Brigade and Anti-Tank Regiment was killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle near Sidon yesterday.

The Lebanese defense ministry says suggestions that army personnel were tied to political or armed groups were false, and Defense Minister Michel Menassa says such reports amount to a “malicious attack” on the institution.

A Hezbollah official also denies to Reuters any link between the terror group and members of the Lebanese army.

Remains of man missing for 2 years discovered in northern Israel

Search and rescue teams have recovered the remains of Itamar Schlesinger, who went missing over two years ago following a car accident in northern Israel.

Police say the remains were found last Thursday in Ein Hod, just 600 meters (656 yards) from where his car was found after the car accident, in which he injured three pedestrians.

Schlesinger had been on a hiking trip on Mount Carmel in September 2023 at the time of his death. Authorities believe that he sped away in his car following the collision and ended up crashing into a gate leading into Ein Hod, his parents told Channel 13 last summer.

Police contacted his family the evening of his disappearance, notifying them that they had discovered his car overturned near the village’s entrance.

After Israeli authorities came up short, his family decided in March 2024 to enlist the help of a private firm.

Last week, teams with the Magnus Search and Rescue firm found human remains during a scan of the area. The findings were sent to the Abu Kabir forensic institute for DNA testing, and were matched with Schlesinger today, police say.

IDF says it foiled attempt to smuggle 40 handguns from Jordan via drone

Weapons and a drone seized by IDF troops following a smuggling attempt on the Jordanian border, December 23, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The army says it foiled an attempt to smuggle 40 handguns into Israel from Jordan using a drone today.

The drone was identified crossing the border, before it was downed by troops of the Yoav Regional Brigade, the IDF says.

The soldiers found the drone to be ferrying 40 pistols. The IDF says the drone and the weapons were handed over to the police.

In the past year, there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons and drugs over the Egyptian border using drones. Smuggling attempts are also frequent on the Jordanian border, although less commonly via drone.

Iran halts all of its gas supplies to Iraq ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’

A gas station in Sulamaymaniyeh, Iraq. (Jacob Magid/Times of Israel)

Iraq’s supply of gas from Iran has been halted, the Iraqi electricity ministry says, adding that the stoppage is due to the shutdown of some generating units and load shedding at others.

The ministry reports that 4,000 to 4,500 megawatts of power has been lost from the electrical system as a result of the halt to Iranian gas supplies.

“The Iranian side sent a telegram informing the Ministry of Electricity of the complete cessation of gas supplies due to unforeseen circumstances,” the statement adds.

Iran supplies between a third and 40% of Iraq’s gas and power needs.

In March, US President Donald Trump’s administration rescinded a waiver that had allowed Iraq, which struggles with chronic power shortages, to pay Iran for electricity. The move was part of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.

Smotrich signs order raising VAT exemption on overseas orders from $75 to $150

Airport workers unload packages from a freight plane at the Ben Gurion Airport on October 20, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signs an order expanding the value added tax exemption on personal imports from $75 to $150, arguing that it is necessary to allow cheaper imports in order to encourage competition and lower prices.

In a statement, Smotrich says that the move is part of “a broad and significant series of steps” aimed at lowering the cost of living, alongside efforts to shake up the banking and dairy sectors.

All of these steps are predicated on the proposition that “it can be cheap here,” he says, arguing that “the Israeli economy is often dominated by a small number of strong monopolies,” giving consumers only the illusion of choice while things are really controlled by “a handful of controlling owners who allow themselves to exploit the citizens of Israel.”

“There is no reason why an international chain’s garment should be sold here for” significantly more than abroad, he argues. “There is no justification for a shoe that is sold in the United States for half the price – to be sold here for double the price.”

The finance minister asserted that the change will “oblige the monopolies to enter into real and fair competition for your hearts and your pockets. To be better and cheaper and more service-oriented and more competitive.”

Smotrich says that he really wants consumers “to buy in Israel, but I do not want you to be a captive customer. I don’t want the monopolies to take advantage of the fact that you are a captive customer to charge you exorbitant prices and get rich at your expense.”

2 men convicted of plotting ‘deadliest terror attack in UK history’ against British Jews

Two men are found guilty of plotting to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired gun rampage against the Jewish community in England, a planned attack investigators say demonstrates the resurgent risk posed by the terror group.

Police and prosecutors say that Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, who went on trial a week after an unrelated deadly attack on a synagogue in the nearby northwest city of Manchester in October, were Islamic extremists who wanted to use automatic firearms to kill as many Jews as they could.

Had their plans come to fruition, it would have resulted in “one of, if not the, deadliest terrorist attack in UK history,” says Assistant Chief Constable Robert Potts, in charge of Counter-Terrorism Policing in northwest England.

British prosecutors told jurors that Saadaoui and Hussein had “embraced the views” of Islamic State and were prepared to risk their own lives in order to become “martyrs.”

Saadaoui had arranged for two assault rifles, an automatic pistol and almost 200 rounds of ammunition to be smuggled into Britain through the port of Dover when he was arrested in May 2024, prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu said.

He added that Saadaoui planned to obtain two more rifles, another pistol and collect at least 900 rounds. Unbeknown to him, a man known as “Farouk” he was trying to get the weapons from was an undercover operative, which police said meant his plan never came close to being put into operation.

Walking back comments, Katz says government ‘has no intention’ of establishing Gaza settlements

Defense Minister Israel Katz attends a ceremony at Jerusalem City Hall, December 15, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Defense Minister Israel Katz appears to walk back comments made earlier today about establishing settlements inside Gaza.

In a statement sent to reporters, Katz’s office says that “the government has no intention of establishing settlements in the Gaza Strip.”

He asserts that comments made to settler leaders this morning about sending pioneer groups into northern Gaza “were made solely in a security context.”

During that conversation, Katz told a group of settlement leaders that “with God’s help, when the time comes, we will also establish… pioneer groups in northern Gaza, in place of the settlements that were evacuated.”

He added that Israel will not ever fully leave the Strip: “We are deep inside Gaza and we will never leave Gaza — there will be no such thing. We are here to defend and to prevent what happened from happening again.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly asserted that Israel has no intention of reestablishing settlements inside Gaza, but several ministers in his far-right government have called to do so over the past two years. Under the Trump peace plan, Israeli troops would eventually completely withdraw from Gaza with the deployment of the International Stabilization Force.

Flooding in Netanya area due to heavy rainfall; major highway blocked

Flooding is reported in the Netanya area in central Israel due to heavy rainfall.

The north-south Route 2 highway has been blocked in the area due to high water levels.

בעקבות הגשמים: הצפות ענק בעיר נתניה. pic.twitter.com/TiMHUUyeA2

— מה חדש. What's new❓ (@Gloz111) December 23, 2025

Germany deports man to Syria for first time since 2011

Germany has deported a man to Syria for the first time since the civil war broke out in that country in 2011, the interior ministry in Berlin says.

A Syrian immigrant previously convicted of criminal offenses in Germany was flown to Damascus and handed over to Syrian authorities this morning, the ministry says.

“Our society has a legitimate interest in ensuring that criminals leave our country,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt says in a press release.

The deportation just before Christmas caps months of talks with Syria’s government, which mirrored similar efforts by Berlin to strike a deportation deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Human rights groups have criticized efforts to send immigrants back to either country, citing continued instability and evidence of rights abuses.

But Germany’s conservative-led government has made the resumption of deportations to Syria a diplomatic priority since former president Bashar al-Assad fled the country just over a year ago. In July, Austria became the first European Union country to deport someone to Syria since 2011.

The German ministry says that deals have now been struck with both Damascus and Kabul to allow regular deportations of “criminals and dangerous individuals” in the future.

High Court to hear petitions against government plan to close Army Radio

Supreme Court President Isaac Amit at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, December 23, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The High Court of Justice takes up petitions against the government’s decision on Monday to shutter Army Radio and says a hearing will be held on the matter by the end of January 2026, due to the government’s intention to fully close the station down by March 1.

Supreme Court President Isaac Amit orders the various parties to file their positions on the matter.

Amit adds by way of disclosure that his daughter and one of his legal advisers did their military service in Army Radio, but says they finished their service more than a decade ago.

Eisenkot blasts Katz’s ’empty statements’ on Gaza settlement that ‘only harm Israel’

Then-MK Gadi Eisenkot holds a press conference after announcing his resignation from the Knesset and his departure from the National Unity party, in Tel Aviv, July 1, 2025. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)

Yashar party chair and ex-military chief Gadi Eisenkot criticizes Defense Minister  Israel Katz for saying Israel will eventually settle the northern Gaza Strip.

Eisenkot pans Katz for “another day in which he is acting against broad national consensus.”

“While the government votes with one hand in favor of the Trump plan, with the other it sells myths about isolated settlements in the Gaza Strip,” Eisenkot posts on X.

“Instead of strengthening security and passing a draft law [mandating military service for the ultra-orthodox community] that would bolster the IDF, the government — driven by narrow political considerations — is continuing to make irresponsible, empty statements that only harm Israel’s standing in the world.”

IDF says it’s probing soldiers’ killing of Palestinian teen after video prompts questions

The military says it is investigating the circumstances surrounding the killing of a teenage boy by soldiers in the West Bank over the weekend.

Surveillance footage circulating on social media appears to show the boy approaching two Israeli soldiers at an intersection in the town of Qabatiya, in the northern West Bank.

In the video, one of the soldiers, who is kneeling, stands up and opens fire, after which the teenager is seen collapsing.

On Saturday, the military said it conducted an operation in the Qabatiya area, south of Jenin. At the time, it said that “a terrorist hurled a block toward the soldiers, who responded with fire and eliminated the terrorist.”

However, the footage does not show the 16-year-old throwing anything at the soldiers. He was later identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Rayan Mohammed Abu Muala.

Asked by AFP about the footage, an army spokesman says the incident is under review.

“We saw that. The incident is under investigation,” he says.

Mohammed Abu Muala, the boy’s father, tells AFP that his son had intended to go to a shop nearby but turned back after noticing military vehicles in the area.

“Thinking the military had left, he stepped outside but was shocked to see soldiers still on the ground, who then opened fire on him,” Abu Muala says.

Greta Thunberg arrested at pro-Palestinian protest in London, UK group says

British police have arrested Swedish activist Greta Thunberg in London at a pro-Palestinian protest, UK-based campaign group Defend Our Juries says.

Police do not immediately respond to a Reuters request for confirmation. The campaign group says she was arrested under the Terrorism Act at the “Prisoners for Palestine” protest outside the offices of Aspen Insurance in the British capital.

A video shows Thunberg holding a sign declaring support for the proscribed group Palestine Action.

NOW: Greta Thunberg was arrested in London after holding a sign supporting the proscribed organisation Palestine Action. Can she just be deported and NEVER allowed back into this country. @ShabanaMahmood pic.twitter.com/6sq67Bzyaz

— Heidi Bachram ????️ (@HeidiBachram) December 23, 2025

Smotrich: Netanyahu must convince Trump to back West Bank annexation during upcoming US trip

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a faction meeting in the Knesset on December 8, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demands that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convince US President Donald Trump to back Israeli annexation of the West Bank during his upcoming trip to the United States — a highly unlikely prospect.

“Mr. Prime Minister, we expect you to return from Washington with a decision on de jure sovereignty,” Smotrich declares during an event marking the establishment of a new building for employees of the Civil Administration in the West Bank.

“The day is not far off, that, God willing, this building will also provide government services to settlements in the Gaza area. I am instructing the director of government housing at the Finance Ministry to locate a building for opening a southern branch so that residents of the renewed settlements in Gaza will not have to travel all the way here,” he adds, echoing Defense Minister Israel Katz’s statement this morning at an event in the Beit El settlement that Israel will resettle Gaza “at the appropriate time.”

Smotrich and Katz’s statements contradict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated assertions that Israel does not plan to resettle the coastal enclave, as well as the US peace plan, which calls for an eventual Israeli withdrawal and stipulates that “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza.”

Trump’s administration also opposes West Bank annexation and has warned Jerusalem against advancing such moves.

Speaking at the same event earlier, Smotrich declared that his “life’s mission is to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state — and I am sticking to this mission with full determination.”

This is the second time this week that Smotrich has called on Netanyahu to bring up annexation with Trump. Speaking with reporters ahead of his hard-right Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset on Monday, Smotrich insisted that Netanyahu “must finally also put Judea and Samaria on the table.”

Asserting that “the PA is a terrorist entity that must be eradicated,” Smotrich insisted that in order to ensure that the West Bank does not become the next Gaza, Israel must apply sovereignty there.

In September, Smotrich proposed annexing 82 percent of the West Bank in order to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. Since then, Smotrich and Katz have worked to expand Israeli settlement, leading to a government decision to build 11 new settlements and legalize or recognize eight illegal outposts.

Houthis, Yemen government to exchange nearly 3,000 prisoners

Supporters of Yemen's Houthis brandish weapons during a rally condemning Israel, in Sanaa on October 17, 2025. (Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP)

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels and its internationally recognized government have agreed to a prisoner swap that includes nearly 3,000 people in total, including seven Saudis, officials from both sides say.

Majed Fadhail, a member of the government delegation for the prisoner swap talks, says they agreed with the Houthis on a new exchange that would see “thousands” of war prisoners released.

Abdulqader al-Mortada, an official with the Houthi delegation, says in a statement on X that “we signed an agreement today with the other party to implement a large-scale prisoner exchange deal involving 1,700 of our prisoners in exchange for 1,200 of theirs, including seven Saudis and 23 Sudanese.”

US Justice Department releases thousands of new Epstein-linked documents

Thousands of new documents related to the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are available today on the US Department of Justice’s site.

The DOJ has been accused of withholding information and was criticized by Democrats over the slow release and heavy redaction of records from the investigation into Epstein.

The new files include hundreds of videos or audio recordings, notably surveillance footage from August 2019, the month Epstein was found dead in his jail cell.

Defying PM and Washington, Katz says Israel will resettle north Gaza ‘at appropriate time’

Defense Minister Israel Katz attends the signing of a housing framework agreement at Jerusalem's City Hall, December 15, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Contradicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated assertions that Israel does not plan to resettle Gaza, as well as the US peace plan for the enclave, Defense Minister Israel Katz tells settlements leaders, “With God’s help when the time comes, we will also establish… pioneer groups in northern Gaza, in place of the settlements that were evacuated.”

“We will do this in the right way, at the appropriate time,” Katz says at a meeting to mark the establishment of 1,200 new Jewish homes in the West Bank settlement of Beit El.

שר הביטחון ישראל כ"ץ בהשקת 1200 יחידות דיור בבית אל, "בצפון רצועת עזה נקים גרעיני נח"ל". pic.twitter.com/MdJAlLuDIM

— חזקי ברוך (@HezkeiB) December 23, 2025

He adds: “We are in a period of practical sovereignty. There are opportunities here that have not existed for a long time.”

He also says Israel will not leave the Strip: “We are deep inside Gaza and we will never leave Gaza — there will be no such thing. We are here to defend and to prevent what happened from happening again.”

Both statements contradict US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, which calls for an eventual Israeli withdrawal and stipulates that “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza.”

Numerous members of Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition have expressed their desire to rebuild settlements in the Gaza Strip, evacuated in 2005, in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack and two-year war in the territory — a move that would doubtless face intense international backlash and which is opposed by the Trump administration.

The prime minister has insisted there are no plans to do so.

Ben Gvir screams ‘Hamas supporter’ at rights official who opposes death penalty for terrorists

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir enters into a shouting match with the director of an Israeli human rights group during a Knesset debate over his party’s proposed death penalty for terrorists law, calling her a “supporter of murderers.”

The legislation, which passed its first reading in November despite opposition from rights groups and others, mandates the death penalty for those who took part in the October 7 massacre, and for “terrorists who reside in the Palestinian Authority” — that is, Palestinian terror convicts from the West Bank who do not possess Israeli citizenship.

Addressing the National Security Committee, Einat Ovadia, the executive director of Zulat for Equality and Human Rights, speaks out against the bill, arguing that the global trend has been to reduce the use of the death penalty.

“You are going to invent a new role in Israel — executioner,” she says.

In response, Ben Gvir says Ovadia has a “twisted morality,” asks her why she objects to executing people “who murdered babies and burned children,” and accuses her of accepting European Union funding.

“Hamas supporter,” he yells repeatedly.

"תתביישי, תומכת ברוצחים, תומכת חמאס!" – עימות בין השר בן גביר ומנכ"לית מכון זולת לשוויון ולזכויות אדם בדיון על חוק עונש מוות למחבלים@itamarbengvir @einatovadia @ZulatEquality pic.twitter.com/Tw8UBTYfvc

— ערוץ כנסת (@KnessetT) December 23, 2025

Following the exchange, Ben Gvir, who earlier this month was spotted wearing a noose-shaped pin in the Knesset, criticizes a bill that would establish a special tribunal to charge terrorists who took part in the October 7 atrocities with acts of genocide against the Jewish people. The bill is being advanced by coalition MK Simcha Rothman, the head of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and MK Yuli Malinowsky of the opposition Yisrael Beytenu party.

Ben Gvir says that by not mandating the death penalty, their bill leaves room for the judicial system to let terrorists off the hook.

“Rothman has good intentions, Yulia and everyone in the committee have good intentions, but… I am not sure that under the legal system here judges will rise up and volunteer to impose the death penalty,” he says.

“There is only one sentence appropriate for these terrorists, and that is the death penalty.”

Greece joins Gaza oversight center in Kiryat Gat

Three Greek officials joined the Civil-Military Coordination Center in Kiryat Gat in southern Israel last week, according to a diplomatic source.

The delegation consists of two engineering officers from the Hellenic Army and one diplomat.

The CMCC is overseeing the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire that went into effect in October.

Herzog to visit Australia after Sydney attack

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese invites President Isaac Herzog to visit Australia and its Jewish community, says the President’s Residence.

Herzog tells Albanese that he will accept the invitation.

During the call, initiated by Albanese, the Australian premier expresses “his profound shock and dismay” over the deadly shooting attack at a Hanukkah event in Sydney last week, and conveys his “deep sorrow to the families of the victims,” according to Herzog’s office.

Herzog underscores “the importance of taking all legal measures to combat the unprecedented rise in antisemitism, extremism, and jihadist terror.”

Levin fumes at court decision: ‘A system that has lost all shame’

Justice Minister Yariv Levin denounces the High Court for its decision rejecting his second attempt to appoint State Ombudsman for Judges Asher Kula to supervise the Sde Teiman leak probe.

Levin says the court has “not stopped its tricks” intended “to thwart the appointment of a supervisor” and to allow police to obstruct the investigation.

“This is the look of a system that has lost all shame, that knows it has the scent of corruption and double standards, and that is desperately clinging to its power and authority even at the cost of a complete loss of public trust in it and its leaders,” fumes Levin.

“Those responsible for the failure and cover-up will not be able to hide forever behind the robes of judges, and when the truth is revealed, they will not be able to say ‘We did not know,’ ‘We did not act to close the case for our friend at the expense of IDF soldiers and their right to justice.’”

High Court rejects Levin’s 2nd request to have ombudsman oversee Sde Teiman probe

Justice Minister Yariv Levin in the Knesset in Jerusalem, November 19, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The High Court of Justice rejects a second request by Justice Minister Yariv Levin to allow him to appoint State Ombudsman for Judges Asher Kula as supervisor over the investigation into the former military advocate general and the Sde Teiman video leak affair.

The court had already ruled he could not take the post due to explicit stipulations in the law that the state ombudsman for judges may have no other role.

Levin sent what he called a “clarification” to the court last week saying he could not find anyone who met the court’s criteria to appoint as supervisor, and asked the court to let him appoint Kula, provided he take a temporary leave from his position.

In its decision on Levin’s request, the High Court says there exists no procedure in the court for a “clarification.” The court says further that Levin was actually asking for a “pre-ruling” on whether Kula could serve in the position if he took temporary leave, but says that the court does not issue what amounts to “legal position papers” on “future administrative actions.”

Even if these procedural issues were not a problem, the court says that the obligations on the state ombudsman for judges apply even if he is on leave, including the prohibition on him not serving in any other role.

The court ends by telling Levin that if he cannot find an investigation supervisor he can request that the High Court appoint one for him, as the court already said in a previous decision on the issue.

“Due to the urgency and importance of the appointment of a supervisor for the investigation, which the respondent [Levin] has himself asserted in his request, it would seem that if the respondent desires to make such a request he should do so as soon as possible,” the court tells the justice minister.

The Israel Democracy Guard organization, which petitioned the court against Kula’s original appointment, welcomes what it says is the court’s decision to “draw a line for the justice minister’s efforts to distort, to outsmart, and to change the court’s ruling, after the fact,” and says the organization “expects the justice minister to now cease his efforts to intervene in the investigation of the military advocate general affair, and his efforts to artificially tar the attorney general with criminal allegations.”

Australian state poised to approve sweeping new gun laws, protest ban

A sign reading 'Jewish Lives Should Matter, Too' is seen at the floral tributes area outside Bondi Pavilion in Sydney on December 18, 2025, to honor victims of the Hanukkah terror attack targeting the Jewish community (DAVID GRAY / AFP)

Australia’s most populous state is set to approve sweeping laws cracking down on guns and giving authorities the power to ban protests after the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in decades.

Father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram are accused of targeting a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach, killing 15 people in what authorities have said was an antisemitic terrorist attack.

Facing growing political pressure over the attack, state and federal governments have proposed changes to gun laws and a broad hate speech ban.

The government of New South Wales — where the shooting took place — has recalled its parliament to introduce what it called the “toughest firearm reforms in the country.”

The new rules will cap the number of guns an individual can own to four, or 10 for exempted individuals like farmers.

The legislation will also ban the display of “terrorist symbols,” including the flag of Islamic State, which was found in a car linked to one of the alleged shooters.

And it will give authorities power to prohibit protests for up to three months following a terrorist incident.

The reforms are expected to pass the upper house of the New South Wales parliament today or tomorrow.

State Premier Chris Minns says the laws will “keep the people of New South Wales safe.”

“Whether that’s on gun regulation in New South Wales, or secondly, changes to protest, in order to lower the temperature in Sydney,” he tells reporters.

Bereaved families demand Shin Bet probe ‘suspicions of treason at highest levels’

The October Council, an organization of families who lost loved ones on October 7, calls on Shin Bet chief David Zini to launch “a comprehensive, swift, and independent investigation that will examine all suspicions of treason at the highest levels of the State of Israel.”

It cites yesterday’s airing of an interview with Eli Feldstein, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s indicted former spokesperson, in which he asserted that the premier was aware and supportive of his efforts to make use of classified intelligence to sway public opinion against a hostage deal, that top aides attempted to quash investigations, that the prime minister directed aides to attempt to end public discourse about his being “responsible” for October 7, and more.

It alleges that the government’s ongoing refusal to form a state commission of inquiry, together with a series of additional actions, “raises a grave suspicion that this is not merely an evasion of responsibility, but an ongoing effort at a cover-up — so that the truth will never be revealed.”

“Already, protocol changes have been exposed. Already, contradictory versions have been revealed. Already, reports have been published about investigative disruptions and attempts to shift blame from one party to another,” it says.

“Already, we have seen attempts to control what the media reports or does not report. Already, interventions have been recorded in security bodies that are supposed to be professional and independent. Already, we have witnessed ongoing attempts to incite, divide, and delegitimize the judicial system.

“It is time to stop the downward spiral, dismantle the walls built around the truth, and restore to the public the confidence that its state functions with transparency and loyalty.”

IDF says Lebanon strike killed 3 Hezbollah men, one of whom also served in Lebanese army

The IDF announces that its drone strike targeting a car near the coastal Lebanese city of Sidon yesterday killed three Hezbollah operatives, including one who also served in the Lebanese army.

The trio were targeted over their efforts to advance attacks against the IDF and attempts to rebuild Hezbollah infrastructure in the Sidon area, the military says.

The IDF says that one of the three operatives, Ali Abdullah, served simultaneously in the Lebanese army’s intelligence unit.

“The IDF emphasizes that it is acting against terrorists from the Hezbollah terror organization, who are working to restore terror infrastructure, in serious violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the army says.

One of the other two operatives was involved in Hezbollah’s air defenses in Sidon, the IDF adds.

צה״ל ממשיך בסיכולים ממוקדים בדרום לבנון: חוסלו שלושה מחבלי חיזבאללה ובהם מחבל ששירת במקביל ביחידת המודיעין של צבא לבנון ומחבל אשר עסק בהגנה אווירית בגזרת צידון

צה״ל תקף וחיסל אתמול שלושה מחבלים מארגון הטרור חיזבאללה, שפעלו לקידום מתווי טרור נגד כוחות צה״ל ועסקו בניסיונות שיקום… pic.twitter.com/mxIstiM5gt

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) December 23, 2025

485,000 more flu shots arrive in Israel under vaccination drive, Health Ministry says

Illustrative: A patient is vaccinated at a health clinic in Jerusalem. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

The Health Ministry reports that it has purchased some 485,000 additional doses of flu vaccine, which landed at Ben Gurion Airport and will be distributed to health maintenance organizations across the country in the next few days.

The ministry also says that it has distributed masks, vaccines, and flu diagnostic tests to 255 nursing homes to reduce severe morbidity and prevent widespread outbreaks among vulnerable populations.

Over the past four weeks, five children have died from the disease.

Although the flu vaccine does not completely prevent infection, it significantly reduces the risk of serious illness and complications. The ministry recommends that the entire population be vaccinated as soon as possible. The vaccine is available free of charge through health insurance providers.

The ministry also recommends that at-risk populations consider wearing masks in closed spaces and in public places. In addition, masks are recommended for medical staff and visitors to nursing homes and geriatric institutions, to protect residents and staff.

Defense minister appoints ministry chief to lead closure of Army Radio

A statement from Defense Minister Israel Katz’s office says he has appointed the ministry’s director general Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, to lead the implementation team for the closure of the IDF’s radio station, Army Radio, in accordance with the government’s decision.

“The implementation team will address all aspects related to the termination of the station’s operations, as well as examine how the Galgalatz radio station will continue to operate, while preserving its character and identity,” the statement says.

Galgalatz is a sister station to Army Radio, focusing mainly on music.

Police arrest 5 settlers suspected of attacking Palestinian shepherd’s home, slaughtering sheep

Police have arrested five settlers suspected of breaking into a Palestinian shepherd’s home, slaughtering several of his sheep and attacking residents in the southern West Bank overnight.

Security forces were dispatched to Samu, a town in the South Hebron Hills, after receiving reports that a group of young men from the nearby settlement of Susya were raiding the village. The attackers were seen in security camera footage beating sheep in their pen with what appeared to be large metal poles, before the video was suddenly cut after one of the men manages to disarm the surveillance device.

In footage taken after the incident, one of the sheep is seen lying bloodied and lifeless on the ground.

According to Arabic outlets, the flock’s owner is named Mahmoud al-Daghameen. The assailants reportedly threw stones at his home, shattering its windows.

Settlers injured three Palestinians with pepper spray in the attack. They were taken to a hospital for medical treatment, according to the IDF and police.

https://twitter.com/Yossi_eli/status/2003325944988393551?s=20

Police say they searched a nearby compound belonging to the suspects in wake of the attack and found “extensive evidence.” They detained the five suspects and transferred them for interrogation.

Russia launches air attack on Kyiv after latest peace talks end, Ukraine’s military says

Russia launched an early morning air attack on Kyiv, Ukrainian military says, just days after a US-led round of peace talks in Miami ended on Sunday.

“Air defense forces are working to eliminate the threat in the sky over the capital,” the Kyiv military administration says on Telegram, urging residents to remain in shelters until the all-clear is given.

Officials do not immediately report casualties or damage. The full scale of the attack is not immediately known.

Latest US strike on alleged drug boat in eastern Pacific kills one — US military

The US military says it killed one alleged drug trafficker aboard a “low-profile” boat travelling along what it added were known drug transit routes in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

“One male narco-terrorist was confirmed killed during this action. No US military forces were harmed,” US Southern Command, which oversees Washington’s military operations in South America, says in a post on X.

Trump: Further release of Epstein files risks harming reputations of those who ‘innocently met’ him

US President Donald Trump speaks after announcing the US Navy's new Golden Fleet initiative, unveiling a new class of warships, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on December 22, 2025. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

US President Donald Trump says people who “innocently met” Jeffrey Epstein in the past risked having their reputations ruined by the further release of the investigative files on the convicted sex offender.

Trump, in his first comments since the Justice Department began releasing the files on Friday, also dismissed the furor over Epstein as a distraction from his party’s achievements.

“This whole thing with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has,” he tells reporters at his Mar-a-Lago home.

Former president Bill Clinton featured prominently in the first batch of photos from the Epstein files released by the Justice Department and Trump was asked for his reaction.

“I like Bill Clinton. I’ve always gotten along with Bill Clinton. I hate to see photos come out of him,” he said.

“There’s photos of me too,” Trump notes. “Everybody was friendly with this guy (Epstein).”

Trump says he did not like the release of pictures of Clinton and others, calling it a “terrible thing.”

“Bill Clinton’s a big boy, he can handle it,” he says.

“But you probably have pictures being exposed of other people that innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago, many years ago, and they’re highly respected bankers and lawyers and others.”

The Republican president said a “lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein.

“But they’re in a picture with him because he was at a party and you ruin a reputation of somebody,” he says.

Epstein, a wealthy and well-connected financier, died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in what was ruled a suicide.

Palestinian extremists said to torch Jenin church’s Christmas tree, nativity scene

A Christmas tree and nativity were burned before dawn on Monday in Jenin’s Holy Redeemer Church, the Latin Catholic church says on Facebook.

The Palestinian Authority’s civil defense agency was able to contain the fire within the church gates, according to the church. No injuries or arrests are reported.

The church indicates that the arson is thought to have been committed by Muslim Palestinians rather than Jewish settlers.

Father Amer Jubran, the parish priest, says in a statement via the church that the fire was a “shameful and reprehensible act perpetrated by outlaws” that did not reflect Muslim-Christian relations among Palestinians.

The Christmas tree at the Holy Redeemer Church in Jenin was set on fire and destroyed. pic.twitter.com/9rf6s0ll79

— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) December 22, 2025

Jenin area church leaders met with Jenin Governor Kamal Abu al-Rub and other PA officials at the governor’s office later Monday to discuss the arson investigation and stress inter-communal unity, according to the Holy Redeemer Church.

Referring to Israel, the church says: “We’re certain that this incident only serves the occupation’s agenda — to sow division among our people.”

Trump announces new US warship class named after himself

US President Donald Trump announces a new class of US warships that will be named after himself.

The Trump-class ships “will be the largest battleship in the history of our country, the largest battleship in the history of the world ever built,” the president tells journalists at his Mar-a-Lago residence in the US state of Florida.

TRUMP CLASS BATTLESHIPS ⚓️????????

President Trump announces Trump Class Battleships, manufactured in the USA, the new class ships will be the fastest, biggest and most lethal ships ever constructed. pic.twitter.com/pWj6IiQEEc

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 22, 2025

Settlers filmed hurling stones at left-wing activist in West Bank; 2nd activist said hit by stone hours later

Footage from the Palestinian village of Mukhmas, north of Jerusalem in the West Bank, shows several masked settlers hurling stones at Palestinians and at activists from left-wing Israeli human rights group Torat Tzedek this afternoon.

Torat Tzedek head Rabbi Arik Ascherman, who is seen in the driver’s seat of a car as the settlers approach, tells The Times of Israel that two of the car windows were shattered but no one was hurt.

Ascherman says he and other activists drove down to Mukhmas to warn of an incoming settler attack after two stick-wielding settlers charged at them near Mukhmas’s barn, away from the village. About six settlers followed the activists and stoned them, he says.

????Now:
Settlers attack Palestinians & Human rights activists in Mikhmas.

Literally while activists were on the phone with Police being gaslighted about imminenet danger, Aprox. 6 Settler terrorists attacked with rocks and slingshots, causing damage to property.

This is ???????? face. pic.twitter.com/Z6xmXrHp28

— Herd of Justice (@JustHerds) December 22, 2025

According to Ascherman, the assailants came from the illegal outpost of Kol Mevaser, one of several settler communities that have encircled Mukhmas over the past few months. It is the same outpost whose inhabitants in October carried out a large-scale attack on Mukhmas — wounding Palestinians and activists, burning cars and olive groves, and stealing livestock — amid a surge in settler violence targeting Palestinians during the olive harvest season, Ascherman says. At the time, it took Israeli security forces two hours to arrive on the scene from the time they were first contacted, says Ascherman.

The outpost has a standing demolition order against it, and Israeli security forces have dismantled it repeatedly, but the settlers have kept rebuilding until “the forces gave up” a few weeks ago, says Ascherman. Israeli forces responding to the stone-throwing today did dismantle the outpost afterward, but it was back up again about an hour later, he says. No arrests were reported.

Molly Hart, the activist who captured the footage of Ascherman’s car being stoned, later traveled to the Palestinian village of Duma in the northern West Bank. Hart says settlers came to Duma four times this evening and harassed people, including by shining flashlights in their faces.

Settlers play loud music outside the Palestinian village of Duma in the northern West Bank, December 22, 2025. (courtesy Molly Hart)

In the fourth incident, Hart tells The Times of Israel, a fellow activist was left limping after being hit in the leg by a stone hurled by a settler who had walked into the Palestinians’ compound and rattled the shaky homes. That settler had broken off from three others who were playing loud music from a boombox that they placed just outside the village fence. Police arrived about 15 minutes after the settlers left and made no arrests, she says.

Police and the IDF do not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Alluding to Turkey, Netanyahu hits out at those who fantasize they can reestablish their empires

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center), Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (left) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (right) hold a joint press conference after a trilateral meeting in Jerusalem on December 22, 2025. (ABIR SULTAN / POOL / AFP)

Speaking to the press during a trilateral summit with his Greek and Cypriot counterparts, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells “those who fantasize they can reestablish their empires and their dominion over our lands” to “forget it,” in what is likely a thinly veiled reference to Turkish influence in the region.

Delivering remarks alongside Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, Netanyahu says: “It is true that all of our countries were conquered in the past by a succession of empires.”

“But through courage and sacrifice, we achieved our independence in modern times,” he continues. “To those who fantasize they can reestablish their empires and their dominion over our lands, I say: Forget it. It’s not going to happen. Don’t even think about it,” he warns.

“We are committed and able to defend ourselves and our cooperation further enhances that capability,” Netanyahu says.

The trilateral summit, the tenth such summit between the countries, follows reports that Greece, Cyprus and Israel are exploring the creation of a rapid-response military force in the eastern Mediterranean, in light of growing concern in Athens over Turkey’s expanding military posture.

Netanyahu warns Iran: ‘Any action against Israel will be met with a very severe response’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center), Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (left) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (right) hold a joint press conference after a trilateral meeting in Jerusalem on December 22, 2025. (ABIR SULTAN / POOL / AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is aware that Iran has been conducting “exercises” recently, adding that Tehran’s nuclear activities will be discussed with US President Donald Trump.

“We are following this and doing all the necessary preparations,” Netanyahu says in a press conference in Jerusalem alongside the leaders of Greece and Cyprus.

“I want to convey this clearly to Iran: Any action against Israel will be met with a very severe response.”