Dec. 3: PM says pardon doesn’t require him to admit guilt, declines to say when he’ll retire

Asked about his age, Netanyahu declines to put an end date on his political career

Asked about his age in an interview at The New York Times’s DealBook Summit, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 76, declines to say when he’ll retire.

“I don’t measure it by time,” he says. “I measure it by missions, by tasks.”

The prime minister, Israel’s longest-serving leader, has faced a variety of health problems in recent years.

He claims, contrary to many polls that show his coalition struggling to retain a majority in next year’s election, that he has broad support in Israel.

“I’m supported by a great majority of the people in the country,” he says. “You’d never know that by the foreign reporting, but that’s it. That’s why I keep winning these elections.”

He says that his two priorities moving forward are technological innovation, including AI, and what he calls a “broader peace.”

“I think there’s another revolution coming,” he says regarding technology. “I intend to steer it, along with the achievement of a broader peace. These are two enormous tasks that I’d like to take on. And you know, when history is within reach, you don’t step aside. You step forward, and that’s what I’m doing.”

Netanyahu: Corruption charges are ‘bogus,’ pardon doesn’t require me to admit guilt

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at The New York Times's DealBook Summit on December 3, 2025. (Screenshot from YouTube)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls his corruption charges “bogus,” accuses the prosecution of seeking to oust him from office, and claims that receiving a pardon in his trial does not require him to admit guilt, in an interview at a conference hosted by The New York Times.

The remarks come days after Netanyahu formally requested a pardon from President Isaac Herzog in his years-long trial for fraud, bribery and breach of trust.

Speaking via video at the publication’s DealBook Summit, Netanyahu says prosecutors have pursued the case over the course of years in order to remove him as prime minister.

“So they kept on going because they don’t want justice, they want me out of office,” he says, adding later, “This trial is just collapsed, it’s become a joke.”

He claims that “in our system, when you ask for a pardon, you’re not admitting to any guilt, you don’t have to, and I don’t.” Legal scholars have questioned that claim, and the premier’s critics say he must admit guilt as part of receiving a pardon.

He declines to detail what he and US President Donald Trump discussed regarding the trial in their recent phone call. Trump has repeatedly called for Netanyahu to be pardoned.

IDF confirms Khan Younis airstrike targeting Hamas operative after attack on troops

IDF soldiers in the Harel Brigade operate near the Yellow Line in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, in an image published on November 5, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF confirms carrying out an airstrike in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis a short while ago, saying it targeted a Hamas operative in response to an attack on troops earlier today.

“Earlier today, the Hamas terror organization committed a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, during which terrorists attacked IDF troops deployed in the Rafah area,” the military says.

Five soldiers were wounded in the attack, including one seriously.

In response to the violation of the ceasefire, the IDF says it “struck a Hamas terrorist in the southern Gaza Strip.”

The military does not elaborate on the identity of the target.

Palestinian media reported that at least six were killed in the strike.

France sentences student for defacing tomb of Jewish minister who abolished guillotine use

French police officers stand next to the grave of former French justice minister Robert Badinter, which had been vandalized, at the Bagneux cemetery in Bagneux, near Paris, on October 9, 2025. (Thomas SAMSON / AFP)

A French court sentences a student to a suspended term of one year in jail over desecrating the tomb of Robert Badinter, a former French justice minister and Holocaust survivor who ended the death penalty in France in 1981.

The court sentences the engineering student from a prestigious graduate school for spraying graffiti on Badinter’s tomb in October.

The incident occurred just hours before Badinter, whose legacy also included decriminalizing homosexuality, was to symbolically enter the country’s Pantheon mausoleum of outstanding historical figures.

“Eternal is their gratitude, the murderers, the paedophiles, the rapists,” read the blue graffiti on his tombstone, according to local authorities.

President Emmanuel Macron reacted immediately, writing on X: “Shame on those who wanted to sully his memory.”

The defendant told a court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre that he was a “royalist” who had been upset by someone taking a sledgehammer to the tombstone of former far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, a Holocaust denier, in January.

Badinter, born in 1928, survived the Holocaust under a false name in Vichy France. His father was murdered by the Nazis in the Sobibor death camp. He served as France’s justice minister from 1981 to 1986 and died in 2024.

Man arrested after allegedly chasing people with an axe in a public park

An axe seized by police after they arrested a man suspected of chasing people around a public park with the weapon in Ashdod on December 3, 2025. (Israel Police)

A man in his 20s was arrested after he allegedly chased after passersby with an axe in a public park in Ashdod, police announce.

Police arrived at the scene to arrest the suspect in the coastal city after receiving a report of the incident. He resisted arrest and tried to assault the officers, but eventually was overpowered by police, who detained him and seized the axe.

Police are currently questioning the man and will decide whether to request to extend his remand, as well as whether to refer him for a psychiatric evaluation, upon finishing the interrogation.

Palestinian reports: Six dead in Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis area

Palestinian media outlets report six dead in an Israeli airstrike in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel would respond to an attack on troops in Rafah that left five soldiers injured.

Palestinian media reports wave of Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis

Palestinian media reports a wave of Israeli airstrikes in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza.

The strikes apparently come as a response to an attack on troops in the Rafah area today, during which five soldiers were wounded.

Robert Kraft, Jewish philanthropist and Patriots owner, is US football Hall of Fame finalist

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft walks the field during practice before an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, in Orchard Park, New York, January 8, 2023. (Jeffrey T. Barnes/AP)

Robert Kraft, the Jewish philanthropist and owner of the New England Patriots, is named a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026.

Kraft, 84, who has owned the Patriots since 1994, is the lone finalist in the contributor category. It is his first time making it this far in the voting process.

He is nominated alongside Bill Belichick, 73, who guided the Patriots to six Super Bowl championships. Belichick is the finalist in the coaching category, in his first year of eligibility.

Two different nine-member committees selected Belichick and Kraft for consideration by Hall of Fame voters next month. They need to receive 80 percent of the vote from the full selection committee to be enshrined next summer in Canton, Ohio.

Side-by-side inductions would undoubtedly make for good theater, as Kraft and Belichick have had a falling out since the end of their glory days. They officially parted ways in January 2024 after Belichick set a franchise record with 266 wins over 24 seasons.

According to ESPN sources, Belichick is believed to be a favorite for induction while Kraft’s fate is more uncertain.

All five finalists named Wednesday will be competing directly against each other, as committee members can only vote for three of the five total finalists. A maximum of three can be elected.

Kraft’s Patriots have been to 10 Super Bowls. The team he paid $172 million for in 1994 is now worth an estimated $9.25 billion.

He has donated to a wide variety of Jewish causes, including Jewish student life, fighting antisemitism and American football in Israel. In 2019, he won the Genesis Prize, known colloquially as the “Jewish Nobel.”

Egyptian official: Israel unilaterally opening Rafah crossing would violate Gaza truce

Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s State Information Service, says in interviews with Arabic media that Cairo has a “veto” against Israel’s decision to reopen the Rafah Border Crossing, and that doing so would be a violation of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza.

The comments come after a source in the SIS, the Egyptian government media agency, was cited in Egyptian media denying Israel’s statement that the crossing would reopen in the coming days for Palestinians leaving Gaza. Trump’s plan says “we will encourage people to stay” in Gaza.

“Holding onto the right to stay in Gaza is firmly established in international law, and anything contrary to that would be a war crime,” Diaa is quoted by Egyptian media telling the Cairo News Channel.

Speaking later to Al Jazeera, he says, “the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip is a red line.”

“We won’t accept the unilateral opening of the Rafah Crossing in violation of President Trump’s plan,” he says.

He also blames Israel for not advancing to the second stage of Trump’s plan for Gaza, and says the failure to progress is “part of the internal political crisis in Israel.”

رئيس الهيئة العامة للاستعلامات ضياء رشوان: لا يوجد شيء إطلاقاً اسمه التنسيق بين #مصر والجانب الإسرائيلي حول فتح #معبر_رفح وذلك خلال تصريحات متلفزة#مزيد pic.twitter.com/B196sXq6JB

— مزيد – Mazid (@MazidNews) December 3, 2025

Bat Yam mayor says Iranian agents openly trying to recruit Israelis as spies, including teens

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir (center) speaks to officers at the scene of an Iranian ballistic missile impact in Bat Yam, June 17, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Iranian intelligence agents have stepped up their efforts to recruit Israelis as spies since the war between the countries in June, and have tried to draw in youths, Bat Yam’s mayor says in an interview.

Speaking to Channel 12, Mayor Tzvika Brot claims that millions of Israelis, himself included, have received texts from Iranian agents recently, as Tehran attempts to recruit as many spies as possible into its network. The recruitment texts “don’t hide” and plainly state that the senders are Iranian agents seeking to pay Israelis to carry out espionage missions, he claims.

In recent weeks, the Shin Bet has reached out to Bat Yam and other municipalities in order to enlist their help in curbing the Iranian espionage phenomenon. The joint effort is aimed at appealing to the dozens, if not hundreds, of Israelis who have made contact with Iranian agents, either from a lack of understanding or to earn extra money, Brot says.

“The amazing thing that we’ve seen in recent weeks is that a very shocking number of Israelis… clicked on those links and made contact with the Iranians,” Brot says, adding that “on the fringe, there is a small number of people who are truly Iranian spies, possibly for ideological reasons,” but the “decisive majority” are regular citizens.

Brot claims that in an esteemed high school in one of the cities that implemented the initiative, a double-digit number of students admitted to having made contact with Iranians online. Mayors in several cities are currently spearheading a new initiative to raise awareness among students in a bid to prevent them from falling into the Iranian espionage trap.

Last night, the mayor appealed to Bat Yam’s residents in a video message, urging those who have made contact with or know others who have made contact with Iranian agents to come forth. He tells the outlet that within 24 hours of the clip’s publication, 10 people reached out to the municipality with such admissions.

He says his goal is not only to protect Israel’s national security, “but to keep so many Israelis from getting an indictment on perhaps the most serious offense in the books.”

Turkish hackers try to steal Israir passengers’ info, may have gotten passport numbers — report

An Israir flight takes off from Ben Gurion International Airport, outside of Tel Aviv, August 25, 2024. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Turkish hackers tried to steal personal information from Israir customers, Channel 12 reports.

The attempt to steal information from a third-party service provider was identified a few days ago and blocked in its early stages, according to the report.

Investigators are still working to figure out what details leaked, and believe that credit card information did not reach the hackers. However, passport numbers and ticket information may have.

At no point were the Israeli airline’s computer systems themselves in danger, says the company.

The airline says in a statement reported by the network that the leak may have involved “a limited amount of information connected to [customer] orders and tickets.” It adds that “the incident was blocked and contained.”

Preliminary IDF probe: Operative likely fired RPG at IDF vehicle, wounding troops

An updated preliminary military investigation finds that a terror operative likely fired an RPG at an armored vehicle in southern Gaza’s Rafah, wounding five troops, and did not place an explosive device.

Troops of the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit stationed in eastern Rafah — where dozens of Hamas fighters were believed to be trapped underground — spotted a suspicious figure covered in a blanket entering a building.

A Namer armored personnel carrier (APC) with troops was dispatched to the area to aid in the search for the suspected terror operative. The soldiers in the APC then spotted two operatives who emerged from a tunnel.

One of the operatives fired an RPG at the APC, wounding the five soldiers, including one seriously, according to the initial investigation.

The soldiers returned fire, killing one of the operatives and wounding the second. The wounded operative, who had fired the RPG, managed to flee back into the tunnel.

The IDF is searching the area for the second operative who fled, along with the suspect spotted earlier.

PM said to be holding urgent meeting on Rafah attack, says ‘Israel will not tolerate’ attacks on troops

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a cabinet meeting on September 30, 2025. (Screenshot/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding an urgent meeting to debate how Israel should respond to the attack on IDF troops in Rafah today, in which five IDF soldiers were wounded, including one seriously, Channel 12 reports.

Separately, Netanyahu says in a statement that Hamas has violated the truce and vows a response.

“The Hamas terror organization continues to violate the ceasefire agreement and carries out terror attacks against our forces,” he says in the statement. “Our policy is clear: Israel will not tolerate attacks on IDF soldiers and will respond accordingly.”

Netanyahu also sends wishes for a speedy recovery to the soldiers.

According to the Channel 12 report, Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, and Shin Bet director David Zini are participating in the meeting.

Zamir argues that Israel cannot let the attack go by without a response, according to the outlet.

“This is a serious violation of the ceasefire agreement,” a senior Israeli official tells the outlet, “we are in full coordination with the Americans on the topic, and we have emphasized the severity of the matter.”

PM’s office praises ‘positive spirit’ at Israel-Lebanon-US meeting, floats ‘economic cooperation’

Illustrative: A Lebanese and Israeli flag placed together at a memorial for the fallen soldiers of the South Lebanon Army near the Israeli–Lebanese border, on November 27, 2025. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

The meeting today in Lebanon between Israeli, Lebanese and US officials was held “in a positive atmosphere,” says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

“The meeting was conducted in a positive spirit, and it was agreed that ideas would be developed to promote possible economic cooperation between Israel and Lebanon,” says the PMO.

“Israel emphasized that the disarmament of Hezbollah is mandatory, regardless of progress in economic cooperation,” according to the Israeli readout of the meeting, which took place just over the border in Lebanon’s Naqoura.

The sides agreed to continue the dialogue, says Israel. It was the first direct talks in decades between Israel and Lebanon.

Israel was represented by National Security Council Deputy Director for Foreign Policy Uri Resnick. Morgan Ortagus, the US special representative for Lebanon, headed the US delegation, while Lebanon was represented by former ambassador to the US Simon Karam.

Earlier on Wednesday, Netanyahu’s office confirmed that the premier instructed Gil Reich, acting head of the National Security Council, to send a representative to Lebanon to meet with government and economic officials, calling it “an initial attempt to create a basis for a relationship and economic cooperation between Israel and Lebanon.”

Wednesday’s meeting came as Israeli and US officials have warned that the IDF could embark on a major operation if the Lebanese government does not make progress in disarming the Hezbollah terror group.

Earlier, Lebanon’s prime minister said if there were to be a peace agreement between the countries, “normalization will follow, but we are not there at all.” He said the talks today were not peace talks.

Reuters contributed to this report. 

UN chief: Israel’s Gaza conduct ‘fundamentally wrong,’ ‘strong reasons’ to say war crimes committed

Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, at UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

There was something “fundamentally wrong” with how Israel conducted its military operation in the Gaza Strip and there are “strong reasons to believe” that war crimes have been committed, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tells Reuters.

“I think there was something fundamentally wrong in the way this operation was conducted with total neglect in relation to the deaths of civilians and to the destruction of Gaza,” Guterres says in an interview at the Reuters Next conference in New York.

“The objective was to destroy Hamas. Gaza is destroyed, but Hamas is not yet destroyed. So there is something fundamentally wrong with the way this is conducted,” he says.

Israel’s mission to the United Nations in New York does not immediately respond to a request for comment on Guterres’ remarks, but has criticized the UN chief’s remarks in the past.

When asked if war crimes had been committed, Guterres says: “There are strong reasons to believe that that possibility might be a reality.”

Guterres praised the United States – an ally of Israel – for being instrumental in improving aid access in Gaza.

“There is an excellent cooperation in the humanitarian aid between the UN and the US, and I hope that this will be maintained and developed,” he says.

The UN has long complained of obstacles to delivering and distributing aid in Gaza, blaming impediments on Israel and lawlessness. Israel has criticized the UN-led operation and accused Hamas of stealing aid.

Apparent body of hostage being ID’d in Tel Aviv, Health Ministry says

The apparent body of a hostage returned to Israel from Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip today has arrived at the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv, the Health Ministry says.

The ministry says the remains will undergo identification and an investigation into the cause and circumstances of death.

Five soldiers wounded, one seriously, in attack by terror operatives in Gaza, IDF says

Troops of the Nahal Brigade operate in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued on November 26, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Five IDF soldiers were wounded, including one seriously, in an attack by terror operatives on troops stationed in southern Gaza’s Rafah this afternoon, the military says.

According to the IDF, troops of the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit encountered several terror operatives who had emerged from a tunnel in eastern Rafah — an Israeli-held area in the Strip’s south, where dozens of Hamas fighters were believed to be trapped underground.

The army says that a soldier with Golani’s reconnaissance unit was seriously injured in the clash, while three other soldiers — including two from Golani and an NCO in the Gaza Division — were moderately injured. A fifth soldier was lightly hurt.

According to a preliminary probe, two terror operatives who approached the troops were shot dead, and a short while later, a third operative who was not immediately identified placed a bomb on an armored vehicle and fled.

In response, the IDF carried out airstrikes and artillery shelling in the area.

Four injured in knife fight in Rahat, after one injured by gunfire east of the Bedouin city

Four young men have been injured in a knife fight in the Bedouin city of Rahat tonight. Two of the wounded are in serious condition and are being rushed to the hospital.

“This is a violent incident with several wounded, some of whom arrived by themselves at the Magen David Adom station,” paramedics for the emergency medical service say. The two others are suffering from moderate injuries.

Paramedics administered life-saving treatment to the two young men in serious condition, stopping their bleeding with a tourniquet and providing medication. Both are en route to the hospital.

Earlier today, a 19-year-old was seriously injured in a shooting that took place in Kuseife, another Bedouin locale east of Rahat. He was taken to Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center while in unstable condition.

Both violent incidents occurred as large police forces patrolled the northern Negev as part of a far-reaching, controversial operation aimed at combating crime in Bedouin society, announced by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir two weeks ago.

Israel advancing plan to build hospital for Jordanian patients in joint industrial park along border

View of the Jordan River Crossing, or Sheikh Hussein Bridge, one of the three international border crossings between Jordan and Israel, on May 20, 2025. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

Israel is advancing a plan to develop a hospital on its territory to treat Jordanian patients as part of a joint Israeli-Jordanian industrial park along the border of the two countries, the Emek HaMaayanot regional council head tells The Times of Israel.

“One of the ideas is that [the hospital] might be a center for cancer treatment, so that people from Jordan or further away could come and receive treatment,” says Itamar Matiash, who heads the council in northern Israel that will house the Israeli side of the industrial park.

The park, dubbed the “Jordan Gateway,” will enable Israelis and Jordanians to cross between the sides to work on joint projects. An existing bridge, the Jordan River Crossing, already connects the two sides of the proposed Jordan Gateway zone, near the Israeli city of Beit She’an.

Matiash adds that while the immediate purpose of the bridge and the two zones is to promote cooperation between Israel and Jordan, the site also sits on a key node in the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor, the US-backed vision to build a rail and shipping corridor linking those regions.

US representatives, including an official from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s office, will be in Israel next week to view the site, a US official tells The Times of Israel.

First proposed during the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace talks and approved by the government in 2022, plans for the industrial zone stalled in recent years due to mutual lawsuits between the state, the contractor building the bridge, and the regional council, according to Matiash. Over the past year, however, the regional council led a mediation process together with the state and the contractor, during which “the disagreements came to an end, and the project is now getting pushed forward,” he says.

On the Jordanian side, multiple “low-tech factories” aimed at employing Jordanians already exist, Matiash explains, adding that more are being planned. On the Israeli side, the activities are focused on “high-level projects like medical tourism, the potential hospital, academia, innovation hubs, and so on,” he says.

He adds that the Finance Ministry is currently budgeting for a new road into the Israeli zone, in cooperation with the Transportation Ministry and the Ministry for Regional Cooperation. He also says the Israel Land Authority will soon begin work on issuing a tender for a developer to build up the Israeli area.

“What remains for the state is to finalize the security and safety arrangements with the security bodies,” he says.

Regarding security concerns emanating from Jordan, Matiash stresses that the industrial zone will function as an “ex-territorial bubble,” whereby Israelis may cross into the Jordanian industrial area but not into Jordan proper, and Jordanians may cross into the Israeli commercial/medical side but cannot enter Israel beyond the zone.

Full entry into Israel will still need to go via the Allenby Crossing through the West Bank, he says.

‘Preventing the truth’: Levin slams ruling again striking down his pick to oversee Sde Teiman probe

Justice Minister Yariv Levin speaks during a rally outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, June 5, 2025. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)

Levin denounces the High Court of Justice ruling striking down his second pick for the ad-hoc role of overseeing the criminal investigation into the Sde Teiman video leak affair.

Levin accuses Justice Yael Willner, who wrote the unanimous decision, Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of a conspiracy against him, noting that Willner had headed the High Court panel that ordered the justice minister to hold a vote on appointing a new Supreme Court president in January after he had refused to do so for nearly 16 months.

Amit was appointed president in a vote in the Judicial Selection Committee, in line with the principle of seniority.

“Now the debt has been paid,” storms Levin.

“Amit and Willner are shooting down one after the other, the judges who were appointed to supervise the [Sde Teiman] investigation. They are preventing the truth from being revealed in connection to the involvement of Baharav-Miara and those under her authority in the military advocate general affair,” he continues, in reference to former military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi’s admission that she leaked the surveillance video from the Sde Teiman military facility.

“This is the nucleus of control that repeatedly thwarts the clarifying of the truth. Those who call themselves gatekeepers and guardians of the law are actually guarding each other,” he says.

Lebanon PM says truce monitor negotiations with Israel are not peace talks

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam arrives to attend a cabinet meeting which will discuss the army plan for disarming Hezbollah, at the Presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, September 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam says new negotiations with Israel taking place under the auspices of a ceasefire monitoring mechanism were not broader peace talks, while adding his country is open to the mechanism verifying efforts to disarm Hezbollah.

Israel and Lebanon have technically been in a state of war since 1948, and despite the new diplomatic contact, Salam says in an interview that “we are not yet at peace talks.”

He also says that economic talks would be part of any normalization process with Israel, which would have to follow a peace agreement.

If both countries adhere to a 2002 Arab peace plan, which calls for a Palestinian state and which Israel has not accepted, “normalization will follow, but we are not there at all”, he tells journalists.

He also says Lebanon is “open to verification by the mechanism” when it came to its efforts to disarm Hezbollah. Israel and the terror group fought a war that ended in a ceasefire a year ago.

The ceasefire required both Israel and Hezbollah to vacate southern Lebanon, to be replaced by the Lebanese armed forces. Israel has withdrawn from all but five strategic posts along the border.

Since the ceasefire, the IDF said it has killed over 370 Hezbollah operatives and members of allied terror groups in strikes, hit hundreds of Hezbollah sites, and conducted over 1,200 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon.

Weakened by the war and still facing regular Israeli strikes, Hezbollah is under internal and international pressure to hand over its weapons, with the Lebanese army having drawn up a plan to disarm it.

‘The Iranians have come to Bat Yam, and it’s no joke’: Mayor warns against spying for Tehran

Bat Yam mayor Tzvika Brot cautions residents against maintaining ties with Iranian intelligence agents in a video message released on December 2, 2025. (Screenshot/X)

Bat Yam’s mayor calls on the city’s residents to refrain from spying for Iran in a video message, in light of the Islamic Republic’s ongoing and intensifying efforts to recruit Israelis into espionage activities.

In a short clip released Tuesday night, Mayor Tzvika Brot says the municipality is working with the Shin Bet to fight the burgeoning phenomenon and is already aware of several residents with ties to Iranian agents.

“The Iranians have come to Bat Yam, and it’s no joke,” he says.

“We have recently been in contact with security officials, particularly the Shin Bet, regarding the possibility that our residents will fall into the espionage network and collaborate with them [Iranian agents], in the wake of all the messages they sent to our phones,” he says. “We are aware that there are also Bat Yam residents who are currently maintaining these connections.”

Though Israel’s homegrown spies for Iran come from a range of different ethnic and religious backgrounds, Iranian agents have been known to target Israelis from the former Soviet Union, who also happen to comprise a large segment of Bat Yam’s population.

Brot cautions residents against fostering ties with Iranian agents, saying they “endanger not only Israel’s security, but their own personal future.”

“These are very serious offenses and anyone who is arrested by the Shin Bet will cause themselves irreversible harm,” he says. He urges anyone who has come into contact with Iranian agents or knows people who have to confess.

“If you, family members, or friends have responded to one of these requests, conversed with the Iranians, or maybe even carried out various tasks already, don’t wait until they come knocking on your door. It is probably not too late to reach out to us, and we can try together with security officials to turn the clock back,” he says.

IDF troops bring casket with apparent body of hostage to Israel, taken for identification

The casket containing the apparent remains of a deceased hostage has been brought out of the Gaza Strip by troops.

The body is now escorted by police to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification, a process which officials have said may take up to two days.

Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups did not provide the identity of the hostage they handed over.

If the body is confirmed to belong to a hostage, it would mean that the remains of one hostage is still held in Gaza — either police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili or Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak.

IDF troops receive casket with apparent body of hostage from Red Cross, en route to Israel

IDF troops in the Gaza Strip have received a casket, with the apparent body of a hostage, from the Red Cross a short while ago.

The casket had been collected by the Red Cross from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in northern Gaza.

The IDF is set to inspect the casket before draping it in an Israeli flag and holding a short ceremony led by a military rabbi.

The remains will then be taken to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification. Prior to the handover, the bodies of two slain hostages were held in Gaza.

Croatian police charge nine over pro-Nazi salute

Fans of Croatian nationalist singer Marko Perkovic Thompson gather at the Zagreb hippodrome during a concert by the singer, who is known for his sympathies for the country's World War II Nazi-allied regime, to an expected crowd of some 450,000 people on July 5, 2025. (Damir Sencar/AFP)

Croatian police charge nine people after a masked group performed fascist salutes in a confrontation with a march against the far right over the weekend.

The accused individuals allegedly performed the salute of the Ustasha, Croatia’s Nazi-backed government during World War II, in what is the latest of several public displays of support for a regime that persecuted and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

On Sunday, thousands of anti-fascist protesters rallied in four cities against the rise in far-right incidents, including the disruption of a Serb community event by masked men in early November.

In Rijeka, on the northern Adriatic coast, around 30 people wearing masks were filmed performing the Ustasha salute in a confrontation with the anti-fascist demonstration. Fireworks were also heard exploding in the crowd.

Protest organizers said two people were injured by a flare and a firework during the incident.

Police told AFP they had charged nine people with public order offenses over the confrontation, including for shouting the Ustasha salute while raising their right arms.

After being questioned at a municipal court, all nine were released.

If found guilty, they face up to 30 days in jail and fines of up to 4,000 euros ($4,670).

High Court again strikes down Levin’s choice for official overseeing Sde Teiman probe

Justice Minister Yariv Levin attends a plenum session at the Knesset in Jerusalem, October 29, 2025. (Chaim Goldbergl/Flash90)

The High Court of Justice rules that Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s second choice to supervise the investigation into the Sde Teiman video leak is invalid.

The court has now invalidated two of Levin’s picks for the ad-hoc role. The ruling is certain to further ramp up the already considerable tension between Levin and the judiciary.

In a unanimous ruling of the three judges on the panel, the court points out that in its ruling in November invalidating Levin’s selection of State Ombudsman for Judges Asher Kula, it gave strict instructions for who would qualify to supervise the investigation.

In particular, the court notes that its original ruling said that the investigation supervisor must be a “senior public official,” who was an expert in legal affairs, and whose job was closely connected to criminal investigations or prosecutions.

Levin subsequently picked retired judge Yosef Ben-Hamo, but the court says he does not qualify as a senior public official.

Justice Yael Willner, a conservative, who wrote the lead opinion, asserts that the condition of a senior public official was crucial and stipulated by the court to mitigate the problem of a serving cabinet minister being involved in the staffing of a criminal investigation, when such investigations must be nonpolitical in nature.

“When the [justice] minister selects someone from outside the civil service… the selection of the minister under these circumstances – regardless of the identity of the person selected – inherently increases the concern that extraneous political considerations underlie the appointment,” wrote Willner.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel described the ruling as an “important victory for the rule of law,” and described the appointment of Ben-Hamo as “fundamentally flawed,” claiming he had political affiliations.

Levin has not yet responded.

Rafah strikes came after 2 terror operatives came out of tunnel, third put bomb on IDF vehicle

The IDF launched strikes in southern Gaza’s Rafah after troops stationed in the area came under attack, The Times of Israel has learned.

According to a preliminary probe, two terror operatives who approached troops, after apparently emerging from a tunnel, were identified by the forces and shot dead.

A short while later, an apparent third operative who was not immediately identified managed to place a bomb on an armored vehicle and flee.

The IDF is currently searching for the operative, with airstrikes and artillery shelling being conducted in the area.

Israeli delegation heads to meeting on Eurovision to push back on disqualification attempt

JJ from Austria stands on the stage with the trophy after winning the Grand Final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, May 18, 2025. (Martin Meissner/AP)

Representatives of Israel’s Kan public broadcaster are heading to Geneva for tomorrow’s European Broadcasting Union general assembly, where they are set to oppose calls to exclude Israel from the Eurovision song contest.

Golan Yochpaz, the director general of Kan, and Ayala Mizrachi, a Kan attorney who is its representative in the EBU, are representing the Israeli broadcaster at the two-day meeting, where member countries are set to discuss whether Israel should be allowed to continue to participate in the annual contest.

In a statement, Kan says that the pair will “present Kan’s position regarding attempts to disqualify Israel from the competition.”

A number of countries, including Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands, have led the call to oust Israel from the competition, citing its conduct during the war in Gaza. Several countries have vowed that they will pull out of the contest if Israel is allowed to compete.

Host Austria has expressed strong support for Israel remaining in the contest, as has Germany, with a broadcasting industry source telling Reuters that Berlin could even withdraw if Israel is kicked out.

The EBU last month unveiled a series of changes to voting and transparency ahead of next year’s Eurovision, and has said it hopes that the reforms will be enough to assuage concerns.

In addition, Kan reveals new regulations for its song selection process, after a number of Israeli artists expressed ire that songwriter Keren Peles wrote both the 2024 and 2025 Israeli Eurovision songs. Under the new rules, no composer whose song was selected for two consecutive years can submit a song the following year.

In addition, composers cannot submit demos recorded in their own voices, but only by an unrelated singer or using AI-generated vocals.

Finance Ministry takes steps toward new contract for Dead Sea minerals that ups government take

A general view shows the Dead Sea in the Israeli resort town of Ein Bokek on October 18, 2024. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

The Finance Ministry’s Accountant General publishes a draft bill for public comment on a new contract that will define the terms for extracting minerals from the Dead Sea beginning on April 1, 2030.

The current contract is held by ICL’s Dead Sea Works.

Officials tell a press conference that the bill attempts to balance economic and environmental needs.

As expected, the bill, a decade in the works, will increase the government take from 35 percent of the profits to 50% on a multi-year average.

It will halve the area within which the new franchisee will operate, from 3% of Israel’s total land surface to 1.5%, and will allow as much public access as possible.

It will seek to incentivize the next franchise holder to use water more efficiently by charging for use of water drawn from wells and from what remains of the Dead Sea.

The sea, a terminal lake, is receding by more than a meter each year because of industrial pumping by Israel and Jordan, and diversion for human needs of the rainwater that historically compensated for evaporation.

A new Dead Sea Affairs Directorate will ensure, among other things, that the next franchisee regularly reports to the Knesset on its activities, and that data is made available to the public.

Alongside the legislative process in the Knesset, details on taxes and on employees are yet to be published, in addition to the tender itself.

Accountant General Yali Rothenberg says the Dead Sea Concession Law Memorandum emphasizes the “fair, efficient and responsible use of one of Israel’s most important natural resources.”

He adds, “The law will ensure that the state maximizes the economic benefit to the public, promotes optimal competition and protects the unique environment of the Dead Sea region for future generations.”

Anti-government activist suspected of incitement against PM is released to house arrest

Anti-government activist Yolanda Yavor poses with friends after being released to house arrest from Kishon Detention Facility in northern Israel on December 3, 2025. (Protest Detainee Legal Support Front/Courtesy)

Anti-government activist Yolanda Yavor has been freed to house arrest, her lawyer says, after being held in custody for nearly a week on incitement suspicions.

The Tel Aviv University lecturer will remain under surveilled house arrest but next Monday, and is permitted to leave her home to teach classes, according to a ruling by Haifa Magistrate’s Court Judge Boris Sherman.

Prosecutors are planning to file incitement charges against her in the coming days.

Police arrested Yavor on Friday for social media posts calling for a “rebellion” against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The only choice is… to fight the traitor, the mouthpieces, the damned collaborators and his bargain-bin Freikorps militias with all the strength and all means,” she wrote on Facebook.

Yavor’s lawyer Oshrat Kirma previously slammed the police’s investigation as politically motivated, arguing that the activist was exercising her right to free speech. She further claimed that the activist’s continued detention at northern Israel’s Kishon detention center was endangering her life.

Herzog to fly Sunday to NYC, will address ‘significant concern’ over Mamdani’s election

President Isaac Herzog speaks at a memorial to David Ben-Gurion in Sde Boker on November 26, 2025. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

President Isaac Herzog will take off on Sunday for a two-day trip to New York, where he will address concerns over the election of Zohran Mamdani as the city’s incoming mayor, his office says.

“Against a background of the deeply concerning rise in antisemitic incidents from both the right and the left in the United States,” says the President’s Residence, “and amidst significant concern voiced by the Jewish community following the mayoral election results in New York City, the president will address the challenges facing American Jewry in his public appearances.”

On Sunday night, Herzog will deliver the keynote address at Yeshiva University’s 101 Annual Hanukkah dinner, where he will receive an honorary doctorate.

He will also be guest of honor at the American Zionist Movement Biennial National Assembly.

Herzog will hold meetings with US lawmakers and presidents of leading American universities. There is no mention of a visit or call with US President Donald Trump.

The visit comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally asked for a pardon from Herzog, something that Trump is pushing Herzog to grant.

It also comes after the election of Mamdani, a far-left candidate and longtime anti-Israel activist, as mayor of New York. He takes office on January 1.

The 34-year-old Mamdani has raised alarm among many of the city’s Jews for his anti-Israel rhetoric. During the campaign this year, he declined to voice support for Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, and initially declined to condemn the slogan “Globalize the Intifada,” though he later said he would discourage its use following significant backlash. He has also said he would arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits the city, acting on a warrant from the International Criminal Court, though US law likely prevents Mamdani from doing so.

Palestinian media report IDF strikes in Rafah, after troops come under fire

Palestinian media reports a series of Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling in southern Gaza’s Rafah a short while ago.

The strikes come after Israeli forces stationed in the Rafah area came under attack by terror operatives, in an apparent violation of the ceasefire.

The IDF has not yet officially commented on the incident.

UN experts urge Iran not to execute child bride over death of abusive husband

The Iranian flag flutters over the capital Tehran amid heavy winter smog pollution, November 25 2025. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

UN rights experts are urging Iran to halt the execution of a woman over the death of her abusive husband, whom she was married off to at 12 years old.

Goli Kouhkan, an undocumented Baluch woman today aged 25, is set to be executed this month, eight independent United Nations experts warned in a statement published yesterday.

“Kouhkan’s case exemplifies the systemic gender bias faced by women victims of child marriage and domestic violence within Iran’s criminal justice system,” the experts said. “Carrying out the execution would constitute a grave violation of international human rights law.”

Kouhkan was forced into marriage at the age of 12 to her cousin, and at 13 gave birth to her son at home without medical care, the statement said.

The experts, including the special rapporteur on the rights situation in Iran and members of the working group on discrimination against women and girls, said she had been subjected to years of physical and psychological violence while working as a farm laborer.

Then in May 2018, when she was 18 years old, her husband beat both her and their five-year-old son. After she called a relative for help, a fight broke out that ended with her husband being killed.

“Goli Kouhkan is a survivor of domestic violence and a victim of the justice system,” said the experts, who were mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.

The experts highlighted that Kouhkan, who is illiterate and had no access to legal representation, was reportedly coerced into accepting full responsibility for her husband’s death.

The victim’s family had meanwhile agreed to forgo her execution if she paid so-called “blood money,” something that is permitted under Iran’s sharia law.

But the statement stressed that the equivalent of $90,000 being asked for was “considerably higher than the recommended rate and far beyond her reach.”

They pointed out that nearly half of the 241 women executed in the country between 2010 and 2024 were sentenced for homicide, mainly of husbands or intimate partners.

According to human rights groups including Amnesty International, Iran is the world’s second most prolific executioner after China.

Red Cross says it has received casket with apparent body of slain hostage — IDF

Illustrative: Hamas operatives accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) head to east of Gaza City to search for the bodies of hostages, November 13, 2025. (AP Photo/ Jehand Alshrafi)

The IDF says the Red Cross has notified the military that it has picked up a casket, with the apparent body of a slain hostage, from Hamas in northern Gaza a short while ago.

The Red Cross is now bringing the casket to IDF troops inside the Strip, where a small ceremony, led by a military rabbi, will be held.

The Islamic Jihad terror group said earlier that the body it had been holding was located today during excavation work in the Strip’s north.

The Palestinian terror groups did not provide the identity of the body they are set to return to Israel.

IDF drone strikes near Syrian village where troops faced gunfire on Friday — report

An Israeli drone has carried out three strikes on a road near the southern Syrian village of Bein Jinn, where IDF forces faced gunfire while carrying out an arrest on Friday, the Qatari-owned Syria TV outlet reports.

No injuries were reported, the outlet says.

Separately, Syria’s state-owned SANA news network reports that Israeli forces in Quneitra, near the border with Israel, have set up a temporary roadblock in the area.

The IDF does not immediately comment.

The reports come after US President Donald Trump on Monday warned Israel not to “interfere” in Syria.

Ben Gvir hits back at AG: ‘She doesn’t like that I am advancing my policies’

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaks to police at a promotions ceremony at the National Police Academy in Beit Shemesh on December 3, 2025. (Screenshot/Office of Itamar Ben Gvir)

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir hits back at Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara during a police promotions ceremony, after the AG accused him yesterday of eroding law enforcement’s independence.

“There are certain officials I know, particularly one official who really doesn’t like that I take action and get things done. She doesn’t like that I am advancing my policies, for which I was elected,” the far-right minister says to a crowd of officers at the National Police Academy in Beit Shemesh.

“Unfortunately for this official, I received my mandate from the people of Israel. I received my power from the public that chose me to be Israel’s national security minister,” he continues.

Baharav-Miara penned a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday claiming that petitions calling for the far-right leader’s dismissal have a “factual and legal foundation” due to his repeated interference in police investigations and appointments.

She said it is impossible to safeguard the police’s independence in the face of Ben Gvir’s “repeated, illegitimate interventions, which harm the rule of law and human rights.”

Responding to the letter yesterday, Ben Gvir called the attorney general a “criminal,” accusing her of interfering with an investigation into the Sde Teiman video leak affair and of repeatedly impeding the government’s agenda.

Ben Gvir has enjoyed vast discretion in pushing the limits of the force, with critics claiming he uses his power over promotion as a carrot-and-stick approach to influence police decision-making.

‘You gave me hell, I’ll give you hell back,’ Edan Alexander warns Hamas in speech on Gaza border

Edan Alexander, an American-Israeli released hostage, speaks in IDF uniform to a Christian group at the Gaza border on December 3, 2025. (Shlomi Amsalem)

Released hostage Edan Alexander speaks in IDF uniform to a group of 1,000 Christian pastors and influencers at the site of the October 7, 2023, Nova music festival massacre.

The American-Israeli former captive tells the group about fighting the Hamas-led October 7 attack, and his determination to offer the knowledge about Hamas that he gained in captivity to the IDF.

“I know the language, I know their culture, I know a lot of things about these demons. I just told myself there’s no way I’ll take this present and put it aside. I have to use it and return it.”

He says this is the first time he has been in uniform along the Gaza border, and he wants Hamas to see that. “You gave me hell, I’ll give you hell back,” he says.

The delegation, the largest Christian group ever to visit Israel, was organized by Mike Evans, founder of the Friends of Zion (FOZ) museum in Jerusalem, and the Foreign Ministry.

Freed hostages Emily Damari, Tal Shoham, Moran Stella Yanai, and Aviva and Keith Siegel also addressed the groups, and received the Here Am I Award from Evans in recognition of their contribution to international advocacy.

Damari told the group as she looks at her award, “It is written FOZ. Foz in Arabic says win, just so you know.”

The delegation will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and top defense and intelligence officials.

Israel gives Germany Arrow 3 missile defense system, in its largest defense export deal ever

The flags of Israel and Germany fly in front of the Arrow 3 missile defense system and a radar dome during an event of the German Air Force at the Holzdorf Air Base, eastern Germany, on December 3, 2025. (RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP)

Israel hands over its Arrow 3 long-range missile defense system to the German Air Force in a ceremony at an airbase south of Berlin today, completing a €4 billion ($4.6 billion) sale, the largest defense export deal in Israel’s history.

The completion of the sale, which was formally agreed to in September 2023, represents the first time that the Arrow 3 system is being deployed beyond the borders of Israel and the United States, and the first time the advanced system is being operated independently by another country.

The system is first being deployed at the Holzdorf Air Base, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Berlin, with additional sites to follow.

From the Israeli side, the ceremony is attended by Defense Ministry Director General Amir Baram; the chief of the ministry’s Directorate of Defense Research & Development, Danny Gold; Israel Aerospace Industries CEO Boaz Levy; the director of Israel’s Missile Defense Organization, Moshe Patel; and other top officials.

German media reported that German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Chancellor Friedrich Merz would not be attending the ceremony, but other German military and defense officials were expected to be present.

The Arrow 3 system is designed to take out ballistic missiles while they are still outside of the atmosphere. It has downed hundreds of ballistic missiles launched at Israel by Iran and the Iran-backed Houthi terror group in Yemen, with an interception rate of 86% during the 12-day conflict with Tehran in June.

The sale represents part of the German-led European Sky Shield Initiative to beef up continental Europe’s air defenses in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Israel and Germany say that the agreement represents close and growing defense cooperation, which has included joint defense drills and the sale of the Israeli TROPHY active protection system for Germany’s Leopard 2 tanks. The first such tanks were rolled out last month to the German Army and the Norwegian Armed Forces.

Silman presents plan to tackle illegal waste burning in West Bank, new landfill planned

Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman attends a rally in Jerusalem for the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, on February 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman presents the main points of a strategic plan to deal with illegal waste burning in the West Bank and halt resulting pollution that crosses the Green Line into Israel.

As an immediate move, the ministry has allocated NIS 40 million ($12.4 million) to help rehabilitate one of two landfill sites serving the entire West Bank and to hire additional inspectors, including at checkpoints along the Green Line, where trucks illegally transport Israeli waste for burning in the West Bank to avoid paying Israeli landfill fees.

Silman’s plan calls on the Israeli Civil Administration — which is responsible for civil affairs in Area C of the West Bank, the area under full Israeli control — to fast-track building permits for a new landfill site at Ramun, near Ramallah.

The site will include a sorting facility and will be open for use by Israeli settlements, too.

A long-term plan foresees the establishment of two additional waste treatment sites at Tarkumiya, northwest of Hebron in the southern West Bank, and at Rantis, northwest of Ramallah.

A new hotline for public complaints about air pollution emanating from the fires will be established with the participation of the Environmental Protection and Finance Ministries, the Fire and Rescue Service, Israel Police, and the Civil Administration.

An additional three air monitoring stations will be established along the Green Line.

Silman, who unveiled her plan at a raucous meeting of the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, is asking the Finance Ministry for NIS 134.6 million ($41.7 million) to enable the Civil Administration to employ additional inspectors, investigators, and prosecutors, and to boost inspections along the Israeli side of the Green Line as well, where illegal waste burning is also taking place, primarily in Arab municipalities.

Iran’s Khamenei defends hijab as more women flout dress code

A woman holds her drink as she walks on a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, November 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a staunch defense of the hijab as more women flout the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code, prompting criticism from ultraconservatives.

His remarks came a day after more than half of Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament accused the judiciary of failing to properly enforce the law on mandatory headscarves on women.

Last week, Khamenei’s office faced backlash from some ultraconservatives after it published in its newspaper a photo of an unveiled Iranian woman killed in the 12-day war in June with Israel.

In the picture, the woman appeared with a baseball cap on her head, her hair clearly visible.

“In the Islamic Republic, it has been shown that a Muslim woman, wearing the hijab and respecting the Islamic dress, can progress more than others in all areas and play an active role both in society and in her home,” says Khamenei in a meeting with a group of women.

“With this vision, established in the Islamic Republic after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, our women and girls have progressed in many areas.”

Covering the neck and head and dressing modestly became mandatory for women in Iran following the Islamic Revolution that overthrew the US-backed shah in 1979.

Women in Iran have in recent years been increasingly flouting the strict dress code, especially since nationwide protests following the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

The 22-year-old Iranian Kurd had been arrested for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.

Amini’s death triggered months of unrest, with hundreds of people, including dozens of security personnel, killed and thousands more arrested in what authorities labeled foreign-instigated “riots.”

Iran’s government has refused to ratify a bill passed by the parliament in 2023 that would have toughened penalties for women who do not wear the hijab or dress improperly.

Since coming to power in July 2024, President Masoud Pezeshkian has maintained that women cannot be forced to wear the hijab.

Knesset advances motion adopting Trump’s plan to end Gaza conflict, coalition boycotts vote

A motion to adopt US President Donald Trump’s 20-point “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict” advances in the Knesset, passing its first reading with 39 votes in favor and zero votes against.

Almost no coalition lawmakers attend the vote, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an apparent coalition boycott of the motion, which was brought by the opposition. The few who do attend, such as Likud MK Tally Gotliv, don’t participate in the vote.

Speaking before the Knesset, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, who sponsored the measure, says that he is “surprised and disappointed” by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s absence.

“This is the first opportunity we have been given as a Knesset to tell President Trump, to tell the world, to tell ourselves, that we are uniting around a common goal,” he says. “Netanyahu chose to boycott the vote and not come here. It’s a shame.”

The Knesset overwhelmingly approved my proposal to endorse and adopt President Trump’s 20 point plan on Gaza with a vote of 39 in favor and 0 against.

Israel now officially endorses and adopts President Trump’s plan.

Thank you @realDonaldTrump 🇺🇸🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/9CZbWR3vcN

— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) December 3, 2025

A coalition boycott of the vote was expected given the plan’s reference to Palestinian statehood, which the government strongly opposes.

The plan does not commit to Palestinian statehood. It outlines a path toward ending the Gaza conflict, disarming Hamas and putting Gaza under the authority of a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” and multinational peacekeeping force.

But the plan also asserts that “while Gaza re-development advances and when the Palestinian Authority reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged that “there will not be a Palestinian state.”

Lapid says that this vote is an opportunity for the Knesset to “show its gratitude to President Trump for this plan, and for what it has achieved: the return of the hostages, the end of the war, a return to life.”

The bill will now proceed to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee where it will be discussed ahead of a second and third reading.

Sa’ar hosts Ukraine’s deputy PM in Jerusalem for meeting of bilateral economic commission

Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka (left) meets with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on December 3, 2025. (Avi Hayun/Foreign Ministry)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar meets in Jerusalem with Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka, the most senior Ukrainian official to visit Israel since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Kachka is leading a delegation to convene meeting of the Israel–Ukraine Intergovernmental Economic Commission, the first since 2021.

According to Sa’ar’s office, the two discussed the war in Ukraine, and bilateral relations between Israel and Ukraine. Sa’ar says that Israel is “aware of the difficult times Ukraine is experiencing and of the suffering endured by the Ukrainian people.” He also pushes Ukraine to recognize Hamas and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorist organizations.

They agree that joint Israel-Ukraine dialogue on the Iranian threat, which has been suspended since the Russian invasion, will resume shortly. Sa’ar announced the resumption during his visit to Kyiv in July without specifying a timeline.

While providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Jerusalem has pursued a relatively restrained response to the invasion due to Russia’s widespread military presence in Syria, Israel’s northern bellicose neighbor, and the need to balance security interests at home and policy abroad while maintaining relations with both Moscow and Kyiv. However, with the fall of the Russia-allied Bashar Assad regime in Syria last year, there has been a moderate warming of ties between Kyiv and Jerusalem.

Israel confirms it expects to receive the body of a hostage from Gaza this afternoon

Islamic Jihad and Hamas members carry a white body bag that is believed to be the remains of a deceased hostage, in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza Strip, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi).

Israel is readying to receive in the coming hours, via the Red Cross, the body of a hostage that was located today by Palestinian terror groups in the northern Gaza Strip, the Prime Minister’s Office says.

Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced earlier that they would hand over the body at 5 p.m.

Once handed over, the remains will be taken to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification.

If the body is confirmed to belong to a hostage, it would mean that the remains of only one hostage will still be held in Gaza — either police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili or Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak.

Troops located several rocket launchers in northern Gaza, says IDF

Rocket launchers located by IDF troops in the northern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued by the military on December 3, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF troops stationed in the northern Gaza Strip amid the ongoing ceasefire with Hamas located several rocket launchers, the military says.

The launchers were found by reservists of the Carmeli Brigade, who were deployed to the Israeli side of the Yellow Line for defensive and mop-up operations.

The IDF says the launchers contained rockets that were intended to be launched at Israel.

Israeli teen arrested for planning ISIS-inspired attack on IDF soldiers

Prosecutors indict an 18-year-old on terror charges after he allegedly plotted to carry out an ISIS-inspired attack on IDF soldiers at a bus station in Beersheba.

The defendant, who lives in the Negev, was arrested by police in November 2025 on suspicion of committing security offenses while still a minor. He was interrogated by Shin Bet officers, police say in a statement.

Prosecutors in the State Attorney’s Office claim the defendant initially planned to stab soldiers with a knife he bought, but later resolved to carry out a suicide bombing.

The defendant allegedly tried to create his own explosives. He tried to manufacture two devices, but gave up after realizing he didn’t have the necessary materials, prosecutors write.

He then opted for a simpler bombmaking recipe, throwing his two unfinished IEDs in the garbage near his home, they add.

The defendant allegedly consumed online ISIS content throughout his adolescence, starting in 2020. He began to identify more strongly with Hamas later on, and decided to commit an attack in the terror group’s name following its October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel.

He is charged in the Beersheba District Court with planning to commit a terrorist act involving aggravated murder, training for a terrorist act, and attempting to obtain a weapon for terrorist purposes.

Trump-Netanyahu meeting could take place at Mar-A-Lago, says source

Former US president Donald Trump (left) hosts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, July 26, 2024. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Donald Trump in late December might take place at Mar-A-Lago, Trump’s resort in southern Florida, an Israeli diplomatic source tells The Times of Israel.

“Nothing is finalized, but the Americans are looking into that possibility as well,” says the official.

Iran’s currency falls to new low as nuclear sanctions squeeze ailing economy

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

Iran’s rial currency fell today to a new low of 1.2 million to the US dollar as nuclear sanctions squeeze Tehran’s ailing economy.

Traders offered the new exchange rate as attempts so far to restart negotiations between America and Iran over its nuclear program appear stalled.

The new record low is increasing pressure on food prices and other costs have been making daily life that much more challenging for Iranians. Prices are up on meat, rice and other staples of the Iranian dinner table.

Meanwhile, people worry about a new round of fighting between Iran and Israel — as well as potentially the United States — after June’s 12-day war.

“Life will not only become more difficult for ordinary people, but it will also fuel public concern over whether the government — given the limited inflow of foreign currency caused by sanctions — has the resources to maintain and repair the country’s aging infrastructure,” says Ali Moshtagh, a 53-year-old electrical engineer.

Egyptian source says it will only agree to reopen Rafah Crossing in both directions

Egyptian ambulances cross the Rafah border crossing towards Gaza on February 1, 2025, to transport Palestinian patients out of the Strip. (Kerolos Salah/AFP)

Egypt’s State Information Service denies that the country is coordinating with Israel to reopen the Rafah Crossing for Gazans in coming days, the country’s al-Qahera news reports.

An Egyptian official cited by al-Qahera says any agreement to open the Rafah crossing will see it open to traffic in both directions, in accordance with US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan.

Earlier today, Israel announced that it would reopen the crossing to allow Gazans to exit “in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and the directives of the political echelon.”

Hundreds of retired cops call on Herzog to reject Netanyahu’s pardon request

Hundreds of retired police officers call on President Isaac Herzog to reject Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon in a letter addressed to the head of state, Hebrew outlets report.

The petition, signed by around 400 former officers including ex-commissioners and deputy commissioners, warns that “such a step without [Netanyahu’s] confession and remorse is liable to ignite severe violence in Israeli society.”

The premier this week submitted a request asking the president to pardon him for criminal charges in the three cases for which he is currently standing trial, claiming that the move would mend divisive rifts within Israeli society over his ongoing prosecution.

But the undersigned officers say Netanyahu’s request contains “not even a hint of admission of guilt,” making it a nonstarter. The letter harks back to presidential pardons given by Herzog’s father, former president Chaim Herzog, to ex-Shin Bet chief Avraham Shalom and four other officers involved in the extrajudicial killings of two Palestinian bus hijackers after they were captured, known as the “Bus 300” affair.

Clemency in the 1984 incident was granted to the five before any indictments were submitted against them, after they had already admitted to wrongdoing, confessed to the acts, expressed remorse and resigned from their posts, the officers note.

“We are sure that it is important to you, as someone who is privileged to lead the country, not to go down in history as someone who succumbed to pressure to grant a political pardon against the values of truth, justice and morality, at the head of the country, and to tarnish the glorious legacy of the Herzog family for generations,” the letter reads, according to Ynet.

Report: Netanyahu likely to visit Washington December 28-31

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) talks with US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington DC, September 29, 2025. (Avi Ohayon / GPO, via Reuters)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump on December 28-31, Army Radio reports, adding that the dates are not yet finalized.

The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the planned dates for the premier’s visit.

Much of the US will be on vacation for the period between Christmas and New Year’s, and Congress will not be in session during that time.

The PMO announced yesterday that Trump invited Netanyahu to meet with him at the White House for what would be the latter’s fifth visit since Trump took office in January. The meeting is likely to focus on an emerging security deal between Israel and Syria as well as coordination on implementing Trump’s Gaza peace plan.

Hamas says body of hostage has been recovered, will hand it over to Israel at 5 p.m.

Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) arrive at the site where Hamas is searching for the remains of hostages in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, December 1, 2025. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi)

Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, says it will hand over the body of a deceased hostage to Israel at 5 p.m. today after it was discovered in the northern Gaza Strip during a search conducted along with Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades.

The Hamas-affiliated outlet Quds News Network earlier reported that the Quds Brigades and Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades located human remains believed to belong to a deceased hostage in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip. The outlet also published a photo of masked gunmen carrying a body bag.

Beit Lahiya lies on the Hamas-controlled side of the Gaza ceasefire line.

The bodies of two hostages killed on October 7, 2023, remain in Gaza: Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, killed fending off the Hamas-led attack on Kibbutz Alumim; and Sudthisak Rinthalak, a Thai national killed in Kibbutz Be’eri, where he worked in agriculture.

عاجل| تغطية صحفية.. كتــائب القــسام وســرايا القدس تعثران على جثة من المحتمل أن تكون لأسير إسرائيلي في بيت لاهيا شمال قطاع غزة. pic.twitter.com/J7EvDjpU6T

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) December 3, 2025

Dead Sea Works ordered to pay millions for brackish well water pumped out since 2017

The Dead Sea Works at the Dead Sea, southern Israel, March 21, 2023. (Moshe Shai/FLASH90)

The High Court of Justice rules that the ICL company’s Dead Sea Works must pay for the brackish water pumped from wells within its mineral concession, finding that the groundwater is not covered by an agreement exempting it from paying for water removed from the Dead Sea itself.

The environmental advocacy organization Adam Teva V’Din, which petitioned the court together with the crowd-funded civil society lobby Lobby 99, estimates that the company will have to pay some NIS 500 million ($154.2 million) for water extracted from 2017 until its franchise expires in 2030.

The petition was filed after the Justice Ministry ruled in 2022 that the brackish well water had the same status as water pumped from the Dead Sea and exempt from water fees as part of the lease.

Now, the court says in its ruling, “The use of water by the Dead Sea Works in the concession area is not covered by the royalty regime. This means that it must pay separate water fees like any other water producer.”

The Dead Sea Works, which has held the concession since 1961, pumps water from the Dead Sea and the area in order to extract potash, bromine, magnesium and other chemicals, paying royalties, corporate taxes and an excess profit fee to the state. Its annual profits from the activity in the years 2017 to 2023 amounted to $690–$830 million, according to a 2024 state report.

Meirav Abadi, director of regulation at Adam Teva V’Din, says the ruling “is precedent-setting and does justice to the public, who time and again are robbed of their natural resources, without receiving compensation for it.”

Syria says it killed man attempting to smuggle landmines to Hezbollah

Syrian authorities say they killed a man and arrested four others who were attempting to smuggle hundreds of landmines to Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group.

In a statement, the interior ministry says it launched a raid in Al-Jebbe, near the capital Damascus, during which “four people were arrested and a fifth neutralized after a clash.”

Khaled Abbas Taktouk, internal security director for the Yabrud region, which is close to the Lebanese border, is quoted as saying that “1,250 mines armed with detonators” were seized.

According to the statement, they were “intended to be smuggled to Hezbollah” in Lebanon.

Under deposed president Bashar al-Assad, Syria was a key plank of Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance” against Israel and enabled the transfer of weapons and money from Iran to Hezbollah. The new government in Damascus, dominated by the Islamist-led rebels who toppled Assad, has rejected Iran and attempted to cut off the supply of weapons to Hezbollah.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Family of last Thai hostage in Gaza praying to receive ‘whatever is left of him’

A man holds a photo of Sudthisak Rinthalak at a rally near Sderot calling for the release of the final two hostages whose bodies are held in Gaza, November 29, 2025. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)

The family of Sudthisak Rinthalak, one of the two hostages whose bodies are still held by terror groups in Gaza, say they are hoping and waiting to be able to bury their loved one soon.

Speaking to Army Radio in Thai through a translator, Rinthalak’s father, Thong Ma, says he feels sad that he hasn’t received his son’s body.

“I feel I always worry about him, I pray for him,” says Thong Ma.

Rinthalak’s mother, Orn, is deaf.

His brother, Thepporn, tells Army Radio that he pushed his brother to go work in Israel eight years earlier, when Rinthalak was 35 years old and had just gotten divorced.

“I feel guilty but I wanted him to find himself there,” said Thepporn.

Rinthalak had begun working at Kibbutz Be’eri three months before he was murdered, after years working in Israel’s north. He was killed and taken captive during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.

The last time his family spoke to Rinthalak was on October 5, his father says. After the Hamas massacre, the family was sent a clip showing Rinthalak and five others being abducted.

“My heart hurt when I saw it,” says his father.

Five months later, they were told that intelligence showed that Rinthalak was killed on October 7 and his body abducted. His father says that when his son’s body is returned, they will bury him with the proper ceremony.

“I want them to send whatever is left of him,” says Thepporn. “I know he can’t be with us any longer, he is no longer alive.”

Vaccinated 6-year-old boy dies of flu

A six-year-old boy has died from the flu, the Health Ministry reports.

The boy, who had no underlying health conditions and was vaccinated against the flu, began suffering from fever and a severe cough several days ago. His condition then deteriorated, and he died despite resuscitation efforts, the ministry says.

The ministry says that this year’s flu season began early in Israel and other countries. From monitoring worldwide data, it is expected to be a season with severe morbidity.

The ministry emphasizes that although the flu vaccine does not completely prevent infection with the disease, it helps alleviate its severity and significantly reduces the risk of serious illness or death. The vaccine is available and provided free of charge at all healthcare providers.

Last week an otherwise healthy 10-year-old girl who was not vaccinated against the flu died of the disease.

Two said killed by Israel on Hamas-controlled side of Gaza City’s Zeitoun

Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire this morning in Gaza City’s southeastern neighborhood of Zeitoun, Al Jazeera reports, citing a source in Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.

According to the report, the two were killed on the Hamas-controlled side of the Gaza ceasefire line, which passes through the neighborhood.

There was no immediate comment from the IDF.

Officials from Israel and Lebanon hold first direct talks in decades in Naqoura

UNIFIL armored vehicles patrol on the entrance of the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura near the border with Israel on June 17, 2024. (Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)

Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives hold their first direct talks in decades, part of a year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism in the war with Hezbollah, a source close to the talks tells AFP.

The meeting is taking place at the UN peacekeeping force’s headquarters in Lebanon’s Naqoura near the border with Israel, the source says.

Morgan Ortagus, the US special representative for Lebanon, is present at the talks.

Lebanon is being represented by former ambassador to the US Simon Karam and Israel reportedly sent Uri Resnick of the National Security Council.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed that he would send a representative to Lebanon to meet with government and economic officials, calling it “an initial attempt to create a basis for a relationship and economic cooperation between Israel and Lebanon.”

Lebanon said earlier that it agreed to send its own civilian representative — rather than a military figure — following a request to do so by the US, and Netanyahu was reportedly pressured by Washington to follow suit.

No basis for Filber allegations of sexual assault after arrest, says State Attorney’s Office

Shlomo Filber, former director general of the Communications Ministry, at a court hearing in the trial against Benjamin Netanyahu, at the Jerusalem District Court, June 1, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The State Attorney’s Office Central District informs Shlomo Filber, a former Communications Ministry director general and adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that no evidence has been found in a police investigation to show that Filber was sexually assaulted during a body search after he was arrested in 2018.

Filber was arrested over his involvement in Case 4000 — in which it is alleged that Netanyahu made regulatory decisions that benefited Bezeq majority shareholder Shaul Elovitch in return for favorable coverage on the Walla news website, also owned by Elovitch.

Earlier this year, Filber filed a lawsuit against the Israel Prison Service and senior law enforcement officials demanding NIS 6 million ($1.7 million) in compensation for sexual assault he said he was subjected to during a body search conducted by the IPS after he was arrested.

“The National Unit for Investigating Prison Guards of the Israel Police investigated the complaint thoroughly and exhaustively, statements were collected from all relevant IPS officials at the time, and documents that could be restored were collected,” said the State Attorney’s Office.

“After a thorough examination of all the evidence collected, the State Attorney’s Office came to the conclusion that the investigation did not reveal any basis to show a criminal offense had been committed, and therefore the case was closed.”

‘Reservists’ party accuses Likud of pressuring registrar to block its registration

Yoaz Hendel speaking at a press conference for his HaMiluimnikim party, November 19, 2025. (Courtesy)

The HaMiluimnikim (“The Reservists”) Party accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party of pressuring the state registrar to withhold final approval for the new faction’s registration.

According to the party, Likud first petitioned the registrar to prevent the use of the name “HaMiluimnikim,” and is now “pressuring the registrar to disqualify the Reservists’ name and block the final stage of registration.”

The registrar, under Justice Minister Yariv Levin, has been delaying the final stage of registration beyond the legal 30-day deadline, the party claims, describing it as “an attempt to silence criticism and harm the party’s ability to compete fairly.”

HaMiluimnikim calls the move “unprecedented,” noting that no governing party has ever filed an objection to another party’s name or sought to block the registration of a competitor in this manner.

Neither Likud nor Levin respond to a request for comment.

“Despite the registrar’s commitment to comply with the timeline dictated by law, it has recently become clear that he is delaying his response,” the party says.

“Likud’s petition is a direct continuation of the all-out war the ruling party is waging against reservists in the Knesset and in the government,” says HaMiluimnikim chairman and former communications minister Yoaz Hendel.

“The ruling party, which talks endlessly about the ‘deep state’ and the [judiciary] as an excuse for all their failures, is now using those same tools to harm democratic competition,” he adds.

The dispute emerges as the Knesset debates the government’s latest conscription bill for yeshiva students, proposed by Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth, which HaMiluimnikim fiercely opposes and which has met widespread condemnation, including from within Likud itself.

Survey: Antisemitic incidents in Australia down in 2025 from record high, still ‘unprecedentedly high’

People hold placards and wave flags during an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian march through the streets of Melbourne on July 6, 2025. (William WEST / AFP)

The number of antisemitic incidents across Australia declined over the past year from the record high level recorded in the immediate aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, but remains at “unprecedentedly high levels,” a new report from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry says.

ECAJ recorded 1,654 incidents during the 12-month period spanning October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025, about three times the annual average recorded in the decade prior to the October 7 massacre. That was fewer, however, than the 2,062 incidents recorded a year earlier, immediately following the attack.

Verbal abuse remained the most frequent type of incident, with 621 incidents, or 38% of the total. The number of physical assaults dropped by 63% from the previous year, but vandalism increased by 14%, the report shows.

Over the past year, Jews in Australia have seen synagogues, schools and homes firebombed, two nurses threatening to kill Jewish patients in their hospital, and the discovery of a trailer filled with explosives said to have been intended to cause a mass-casualty event at a Sydney synagogue.

The country’s recent decision to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September has aggravated a growing sense of alienation among the country’s 120,000-strong Jewish community and sparked a sharp war of words between Albanese’s government and Israeli officials.

In its report, ECAJ notes a marked increase in graffiti calling to kill Jews as a direct imperative, in contrast to previous messaging that it saw as an expression of sentiment rather than a call to action.

Israel sending official to attend meeting in Lebanon with government figures

As a senior White House official heads from Israel to Lebanon to head off a potential escalation in conflict, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructs Gil Reich, acting head of the National Security Council, to send a representative to meet Lebanese economic officials there, according to Netanyahu’s office.

“This is an initial attempt to create a basis for a relationship and economic cooperation between Israel and Lebanon,” says the Prime Minister’s Office.

US envoy Morgan Ortagus is slated to arrive in Lebanon today to take part in a meeting of the “Cessation of Hostilities Implementation Mechanism” — made up of US, UNIFIL, Israeli, French and Lebanese officials — aimed at pushing forward with the ceasefire reached a year ago with Israel.

According to the MTV Lebanese news site, the Israeli official slated to take part in the talks is Uri Resnick of the National Security Council.

Lebanon announces that it will also appoint a civilian to lead its delegation to the body overseeing the ceasefire, following a request from the United States. Until now, Lebanon had insisted on keeping a military officer in the role.

Lebanon’s military representatives had avoided any direct contact with Israel’s delegation.

“President Joseph Aoun has decided to appoint former ambassador Simon Karam to lead the Lebanese delegation,” presidency spokeswoman Najat Charafeddine says. The decision followed a US request and “after being informed that Israel agreed to include a non-military member in its delegation,” she adds.

The meeting comes as Israeli and US officials warn that the IDF could embark on a major operation if the Lebanese government does not make progress in disarming Hezbollah.

Netanyahu is expected to visit the White House later this month to discuss ongoing conflict in Lebanon, as well as Syria, Gaza, and beyond.

Iranian athlete pulls out of taekwondo tournament over bout with Israeli

Iranian athlete Rozhan Goudarzi withdrew from a taekwondo tournament in Kenya after refusing to compete against an Israeli opponent, local media reports.

“Rozhan Goudarzi withdrew from the competition at the U-21 World Taekwondo Championships because she was in the same group as an athlete from the Zionist regime,” the ISNA news agency reports.

It adds that Goudarzi had been due to face the Israeli competitor, Yarden Nesher, in the first round.

Iranian officials protested against placing an Iranian athlete in the same group as an Israeli, but the World Taekwondo Federation said it could not alter the competition schedule, the agency added.

Last month, Goudarzi won a bronze medal for Iran in the women’s under 51 kg category at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Riyadh.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad says it is searching for hostage’s body in northern Gaza

Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) arrive at the site where Hamas operatives are searching for the remains of hostages in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, December 1, 2025. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi)

A group allied with Hamas says it is searching for the body of a hostage in northern Gaza with a team from the Red Cross.

The announcement from the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, the Al Quds Brigades, comes a day after Hamas handed over remains to Israel via the Red Cross, which Israel said today did not belong to either of the two remaining hostages.

The bodies of Israeli Ran Gvili and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak are still being held in Gaza.

Israel says it will reopen Rafah Crossing within days to allow Gazans to exit to Egypt

Egyptian ambulances cross the Rafah border crossing towards Gaza on February 1, 2025, to transport Palestinian patients out of the Strip. (Kerolos Salah/AFP)

Israel will reopen the Rafah Crossing in the coming days for the exit of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt.

Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories says the move is “in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and the directives of the political echelon.”

COGAT says that Palestinians will be able to leave Gaza via the Rafah Crossing in coordination with Egypt, after Israeli security approval, and under the supervision of a European Union delegation — a mechanism similar to one activated in January.

There is no details on when Palestinians who left Gaza will be able to return to the Strip via the crossing.

Knesset to vote on opposition-sponsored motion to adopt Trump’s Gaza peace plan

A view of the plenum hall of the Knesset in Jerusalem, on November 10, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

The Knesset is expected to vote this afternoon on a Yesh Atid-sponsored motion to adopt US President Donald Trump’s 20-point “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict.”

“We fully expect the prime minister and his party to vote in favor. It’s the least we can do to support President Trump and the efforts he’s made to bring our hostages home and bring about peace in the Middle East,” a source in Yesh Atid tells The Times of Israel ahead of the vote.

Beyond outlining a path toward ending the conflict and disarming Hamas, Trump’s plan asserts that “while Gaza re-development advances and when the Palestinian Authority reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people” — though it does not go further into the matter.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged that “there will not be a Palestinian state.”

Given the plan’s reference to Palestinian statehood, there is a strong possibility that the coalition will either boycott or vote down Lapid’s motion, embarrassing the government vis-a-vis Trump.

In a statement this morning, Lapid says that he has been asked about the Knesset motion by US government officials, and that he told them “I believe Prime Minister Netanyahu will ensure that the coalition will also come to support and thank President Trump” by voting for the resolution.

IDF’s Haredi brigade graduates its first squad commanders’ course

Ultra-Orthodox soldiers from the Hasmonean Brigade take part in a ceremony after completing a squad commanders' course, December 2, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF’s new Hasmonean Brigade for ultra-Orthodox troops completed its first-ever squad commanders’ course, which the military says lays the groundwork for “the future generation of Haredi commanders in the army.”

Some 70 soldiers in the brigade completed the course and are now certified squad commanders. The IDF says they underwent combat training in urban and open areas, navigation exercises throughout the country, and briefly fought in Gaza.

Last night, a ceremony was held marking the end of the squad commanders’ course.

The military says the course “is part of significant IDF processes aimed at integrating ultra-Orthodox youth into the army.”

The ceremony comes amid deep societal tensions over whether and how to draft Haredi soldiers into the IDF.

The establishment of the brigade was part of the military’s efforts to expand the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men, as it faces personnel shortages caused by the ongoing war in Gaza. It also aims to demonstrate, despite opposition to enlistment from leading Haredi rabbis, that military service can go hand in hand with ultra-Orthodox observance.

Over 200 cultural figures sign petition calling for release of Marwan Barghouti

Marwan Barghouti, center, raises his handcuffed hands in the air on the opening day of his trial in Tel Aviv, Aug. 14, 2002. (AP/Brennan Linsley, File)

More than 200 cultural figures have signed onto a petition calling for the release of prominent Palestinian security prisoner Marwan Barghouti, a campaign for his freedom says.

The diverse range of celebrities who signed onto the “Free Marwan” petition includes several Jewish names, including British actor Stephen Fry, American singer-songwriter Paul Simon, American actresses Hannah Einbinder and Ilana Glazer, and British actress Miriam Margolyes.

Other prominent names include actors Mark Ruffalo, Sir Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Josh O’Connor; musicians Annie Lennox, Sting and Brian Eno; and author Margaret Atwood.

“We express our grave concern at the continuing imprisonment of Marwan Barghouti, his violent mistreatment and denial of legal rights whilst imprisoned. We call upon the United Nations and the Governments of the World to actively seek the release of Marwan Barghouti from Israeli prison,” the petition’s statement reads.

Barghouti, seen by many Palestinians as a potential successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, has been incarcerated since 2002. He is serving five consecutive life terms plus 40 years in prison for helping plan attacks during the Second Intifada that killed five civilians.

US envoy headed to Beirut to reportedly demand strict ceasefire implementation

US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus arrives for a meeting with with Lebanon's parliament speaker in Beirut on April 5, 2025. (AFP)

US envoy Morgan Ortagus is slated to arrive in Lebanon today to take part in a meeting of the “Cessation of Hostilities Implementation Mechanism” — made up of US, UNIFIL, Israeli, French and Lebanese officials — aimed at pushing forward with the ceasefire reached a year ago with Israel.

According to the MTV Lebanese news site, the Israeli official slated to take part in the talks is Uri Resnick of the National Security Council. Former Lebanese ambassador to the US Simon Karam will reportedly represent Beirut in the negotiations.

The pro-Hezbollah Lebanese al-Akhbar news site reports that Ortagus is expected to demand a strict enforcement of the ceasefire deal including searching private homes in southern Lebanon as well as in the Beqaa Valley, considered Hezbollah strongholds.

Ortagus met yesterday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar. Israeli officials reportedly presented her with intelligence showing repeated Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire deal.

Tensions between Israel and Lebanon have soared in recent weeks as the IDF has stepped up its strikes on Hezbollah targets in the country, including a targeted assassination of the terror group’s chief of staff last month.

Pope Leo visited Lebanon this week and with his departure last night, Lebanese citizens are said to now be bracing for a renewed Israeli bombing campaign.

Israel says remains handed over yesterday by Hamas do not belong to either hostage

A vehicle carrying remains handed over by Hamas to Israel arrives at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israel says that the forensic remains handed over yesterday from Hamas are not connected to either of the two remaining hostages in the Strip.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the tests were completed by the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv and the families of the two remaining hostages — Israeli Ran Gvili and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak — were informed of the update.

“The efforts to bring them home will not stop until the mission is complete — returning them for a proper burial in their country,” the PMO adds.

A senior Red Cross official told The Times of Israel yesterday that the findings it handed over to the IDF from Hamas included “small remains, pieces” of a body.

Rubio says ‘some progress’ made in US-Russia talks on Ukraine

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a meeting with Ukrainian officials, Nov. 30, 2025, in Hallandale Beach, Florida. (AP/Terry Renna)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says “some progress” has been made in talks with Russia to end its war with Ukraine.

“And so what we have tried to do, and I think have made some progress, is figure out, what could the Ukrainians live with that gives them security guarantees for the future,” Rubio tells Fox News host Sean Hannity, adding that the US hopes the compromise “allows them not just to rebuild their economy, but to prosper as a country.”

Danon slams annual UN resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from Golan Heights

The United Nations General Assembly passes two resolutions calling for Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights, and from the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The body has introduced and passed such resolutions regularly over the years.

The resolution calling for an Israeli wthdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem passes with 151 countries in favor, 11 against and 11 abstentions. The resolution on the Golan passes with 123 in favor, seven against and 41 abstentions. In both cases, Israel and the United States both voted against the resolutions.

The Golan resolution comes as efforts continue toward a security accord between Israel and Syria, from which Israel conquered the territory in the 1967 Six Day War. It later annexed the Golan.

UN Ambassador Danny Danon slams the resolution.

“The UN General Assembly once again proves how disconnected it is from reality,” he posts on X. “Instead of addressing the crimes of the Iranian axis and the dangerous activities of militias in Syria, it demands that Israel withdraw from the Golan Heights – a vital defense line that protects our citizens.”

The UN General Assembly once again proves how disconnected it is from reality.

Instead of addressing the crimes of the Iranian axis and the dangerous activities of militias in Syria, it demands that Israel withdraw from the Golan Heights – a vital defense line that protects our… pic.twitter.com/HJGYrQDeRT

— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) December 2, 2025

US pauses all immigration applications from 19 non-European countries

US President Donald Trump walks out of the Cabinet Room following a cabinet meeting at the White House, December 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

The administration of US President Donald Trump says it has paused all immigration applications, including green card and US citizenship processing, filed by immigrants from 19 non-European countries, citing concerns over national security and public safety.

The pause applies to people from 19 countries that were already subjected to a partial travel ban in June, placing further restrictions on immigration — a core feature of Trump’s political platform.

The list of countries includes Afghanistan and Somalia.

The official memorandum outlining the new policy cites the attack on US National Guard members in Washington last week, in which an Afghan man has been arrested as a suspect and has pleaded not guilty. One member of the National Guard was killed and another was critically wounded in the shooting.

At a cabinet meeting, Trump says that Somali Americans “contribute nothing” and he berated Ilhan Omar, the outspoken Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota who is originally from Somalia.

“Ilhan Omar is garbage. Her friends are garbage,” Trump says.

“Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”

Omar later writes of Trump on X, “His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”

Trump last week ended protections against deportations of Somalis in place in the United States since 1991, when Somalia descended into anarchy.

Prosecutors are investigating several plots to steal taxpayer money, allegedly led by members of the Somali community in Minnesota, including by groups that falsely claimed to be feeding children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The list of countries targeted in Wednesday’s memorandum includes Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, which were subjected to the most severe immigration restrictions in June, including a full suspension on entries with a few exceptions.

Others on the list of 19 countries, which were subjected to partial restrictions in June, are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

Netanyahu said to back recognition of illegal farming outposts in West Bank

An all terrain vehicle awarded by the Settlements and National Missions Ministry to an illegal West Bank farming outpost in the Gush Etzion region, July 28, 2025. (Courtesy Gush Etzion Regional Council Spokesperson's Department)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly supports the authorization of illegal farming outposts in the West Bank, some of which have been home to extremist hilltop youth settlers who have been carrying out regular attacks against neighboring Palestinians.

The prime minister also reportedly called for educational measures to reduce violence from hilltop youth.

Netanyahu’s stance was laid out in a document, obtained by the Ynet news site, summarizing a discussion last month on addressing violence by hilltop youth. The discussion, which also included Defense Minister Israel Katz and the chief of the IDF Central Command, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, came as settler violence spiked across the territory.

Ynet reports that a section of the document titled “Prime Minister’s Summary” calls the farms “a positive response that is necessary in order to safeguard Area C,” the part of the West Bank under full Israeli control, and says they “act as a response to Palestinian activity in the area.”

Settler leaders claim that Palestinians are illegally expanding their villages in Area C, while Palestinians note that Israel grants building permits in the territory almost exclusively to Jewish settlers.

Rights groups also argue that settlers have been using the farming outposts to take over additional land, while violently intimidating neighboring Palestinians. Hundreds of Bedouin families have fled their homes due to repeated attacks.

Nonetheless, Ynet reported that Netanyahu is pushing for the farming outposts to be legalized.

While successive governments have provided security and funding to West Bank outposts, they were built without the necessary permits, making them illegal under Israeli law.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also oversees civilian affairs in the West Bank, and Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock — both on the far right — have directed tens of millions of shekels to the farms, according to Ynet. The funds have gone to security measures and mobile dwelling structures.

Ynet reports that, according to security officials, there are approximately 1,000 hilltop youths, among them 300 who are considered violent. At the center of that group, the officials said, is a hard core of 70 activists.

According to the document, Netanyahu called for combating the violence through education.

“The goal we should pursue is using educational tools to remove as many Jewish youths as possible from the cycle of violent activity in Judea and Samaria,” the document said, according to Ynet, using the government’s preferred term for the West Bank.

“Unfortunately, although efforts have been made, the number of youths who are involved has only grown, and that’s because there isn’t a central address that covers the spectrum of social and educational treatments,” it adds.

US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, to visit Israel with Israeli counterpart next week

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz addresses the High-Level Security Council on Palestinians and Israel during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, September 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, File)

UN Ambassador Danny Danon will accompany his US counterpart Mike Waltz on a visit to Israel next week, Danon’s office tells The Times of Israel.

The two will be in the country from December 8-10.

Waltz is the latest in a string of top Trump administration officials to visit since the Gaza ceasefire went into effect in October.