Dec. 9: US backs Israel’s seizure of Syrian side of Golan, says it’ll ensure it is temporary

The Conservative synagogue Adas Israel in Washington, DC, denies a report in The Forward that claimed it canceled an event with former defense minister Yoav Gallant due to pushback from members over Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza.

The US synagogue says in a statement that the decision to cancel tonight’s event was due to “security concerns,” without going into detail.

“Contrary to speculation, this decision was not based on the event’s subject matter, but rather on our commitment to the safety of our community,” Adas says.

“Adas Israel Congregation has more than 5,000 members and has always been committed to creating space for a wide range of opinions and speakers on issues critical to our community. Open dialogue is key to our commitment to Jewish values,” it adds.

10:50 pm

Biden talks Syria, Gaza with Jordan’s king

US President Joe Biden held a call earlier today with Jordan’s King Abdullah to discuss developments in Syria and efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.

Biden “emphasized his full support for a Syrian-led transition process under the auspices of the United Nations,” says a White House readout.

He also discussed the situation in eastern Syria and reiterated the US commitment to the coalition against ISIS, including through US-led strikes conducted last night against a concentration of fighters and leaders from the terror group, the readout adds.

Biden “emphasized the support of the United States for the stability of Jordan and Jordan’s central role in maintaining stability and de-escalating tensions throughout the Middle East region,” the statement says.

10:44 pm

After 1.5 months in detention, Netanyahu aide Feldstein accused in leaks case is sent to house arrest

Eli Feldstein, a key defendant in the Prime Minister’s Office classified documents leak scandal, is released to house arrest after some 45 days in detention, his lawyer confirms to The Times of Israel, as journalists at the scene photograph him exiting the jail facility along with his parents.

אלי פלדשטיין
עם משפחתו
סוף סוף בדרך הביתה pic.twitter.com/5yQ9hNVRnx

— לירן ברוך ????????????????Liran baruch (@BaruchLiran) December 9, 2024

Feldstein, an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been held in custody since he was arrested on October 27 on suspicion of leaking highly classified military intelligence. He was charged in November with leaking classified information in order to harm state security.

The Tel Aviv District Court said today that Feldstein, could be released to house arrest with an electronic monitoring device.

Under the terms of his house arrest, Feldstein is prohibited from using a telephone or electronic communication of any sort, and the Supreme Court ruled that security services are entitled to intercept any form of communications he might conduct if they suspect that he is violating the terms of his house arrest.

Feldstein is also barred from leaving the country and has been ordered to surrender his passport within 48 hours through a designated third-party guarantor.

10:26 pm

US backs Israel’s seizure of Syrian side of Golan, says it’ll ensure it is temporary

The US defends the recent Israeli takeover of the Syrian side of the Golan Heights while stressing that it expects the move to be temporary, as Israel has said it will be.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller explains during a press briefing that the Syrian army abandoned positions on its side of the Golan Heights amid the collapse of the Assad regime over the weekend and notes that this created a potential vacuum that could’ve been filled by terror organizations that threaten Israel.

Justifying the move by the IDF, he says any country would be concerned and want to take action to prevent such a vacuum from being created.

However, he highlights Israel’s public claims that the takeover of the Syrian side of the Golan Heights is temporary. Miller says the US will be monitoring Israel’s presence and speaking to Israeli counterparts to ensure that the IDF takeover doesn’t become permanent.

Ultimately, the US seeks the restoration of a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that would allow for Israel to return to its side of the Golan Heights.

10:24 pm

Union of Journalists condemns Netanyahu for ‘incitement’ against reporters

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference from the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, December 9, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Union of Journalists in Israel denounces Benjamin Netanyahu’s rhetoric about the media after the prime minister accused reporters of spreading lies about him during a press conference in Jerusalem.

“The Union of Journalists strongly condemns Prime Minister Netanyahu’s attack and incitement against journalists who are carrying out their work and public mission,” the organization states after the premier blamed the media for failing to cover what he said was unfair treatment by the justice system.

The group says that it supports Channel 12’s Yollan Cohen and Kan news correspondent Michael Shemesh after Netanyahu loudly criticized them over their coverage, accusing them of spreading “falsehoods” and “fake news” in response to their questions.

“The role of the media is to ask the prime minister, every prime minister, difficult questions,” the group says, taking issue with the fact that Netanyahu at one point joked that allowing a journalist from the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 to ask two questions rather than one constituted baksheesh or bribery.

10:11 pm

More opposition heads slam PM for focusing on his own legal woes in press conference

The Democrats party leader Yair Golan leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on December 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Democrats party chairman Yair Golan slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for complaining about his press coverage while Israeli soldiers are dying in Gaza.

“Seven soldiers fell today, over 1,800 Israelis have been killed through terrorism and war since the establishment of the government. A hundred Israeli women and men are held hostage by Hamas. The worst security failure in the country’s history, and the prime minister whines about the media and his criminal trial,” Golan tweets following Netanyahu’s press conference this evening in Jerusalem, during which he blamed the media for failing to cover what he said was unfair treatment by the justice system.

“It is a shame for the country that this is what its leader looks like. He will be replaced very soon. That’s a promise,” he writes.

National Unity chairman Benny Gantz declares that Israel deserves a prime minister who “gets upset when he talks about our hostages and victims, and not when he is asked about himself.”

“Netanyahu confuses strength with weakness,” Gantz tweets, arguing that Netanyahu has failed to leverage military victory for diplomatic gains, to return the hostages replace Hamas’s rule in the Gaza Strip, to create regional alliances or to establish a state commission of inquiry into the failure to prevent the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.

Because of his corruption trial, “Netanyahu is crushing the justice system and society as a whole,” Gantz declares.

10:08 pm

‘You’re spreading lies all the time’: Netanyahu berates journalists during press conference

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clashes with members of the press during a press conference from the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, December 9, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

During the question and answer portion of his press conference, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has combative exchanges with reporters from the Kan public broadcaster and Channel 12 news.

“How much fake news can you make up?” he asks Kan’s Michael Shemesh, in response to a question asking why the premier once offered to give up the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace deal with Syria.

Netanyahu says there was no deal with Hafez al-Assad in the 1990s because “I insisted on remaining in the Golan.”

“I’ve listened enough to your lies. Now listen to the truth. All the time, you’re spreading lies all the time.”

To Channel 12’s Yollan Cohen, after she implies he got in the way of a hostage deal with Hamas, Netanyahu makes sure the cameras are still running, then says: “You spread this slander all the time, that there was a deal, and I blocked it.”

When she tries to respond, he points at her and says: “You for one minute listen to me! You listen to me. Because the Israeli public, because the families hear these lies.”

He accuses Cohen of harming the hostage families by spreading lies, as she tries in vain to ask a follow-up question. She attempts to highlight that she spoke to families who he met with in two separate meetings yesterday and that they told her he said different things to them about the prospects of a deal. He interjects that “it’s hard for you to hear the truth,” before his spokesman moves the press conference on to the next question.

Later, he says, “The quantity of lies that are disseminated is so vast and so relentless. I give credit to the citizens of Israel. I wouldn’t be standing here if they believed all the falsehoods disseminated by the media and political opponents. They see the truth.”

Asked about his opposition to a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 failures, he again rules it out: “A state commission is not acceptable to a considerable portion of the people. A government inquiry is not acceptable to another portion. What is needed is to find a different mechanism that will get to the truth and that is acceptable to most portions of the people.”

In response to another question, regarding the indictment of his aide Eli Feldstein and an unnamed IDF reservist for the theft and leaking of classified IDF intel, he again denounces the media for lying about the case, and repeats allegations he made nine days ago that the two suspects were treated in a “shocking manner” by Shin Bet investigators — handcuffed and blindfolded like terrorists. As with the charges in his trial, he says, the investigators probing Feldstein pressured him to “give us something on Netanyahu” and treated him harshly so that he would do so.

He continues attacking law enforcement by protesting last week’s arrest of Israel Prison Service Commissioner Koby Yaakobi in an ongoing case. Yaakobi “is threatened by crime families; his small children are threatened by crime families,” says Netanyahu. And yet, he was arrested last week because “everything goes, in the effort to bring down Bibi.”

” I think it’s awful. It’s not acceptable in a democratic state,” he says.

Asked whether he intends to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and/or not extend the term of IDF Chief Herzi Halevi, Netanyahu says he works with them both to achieve the goals of the war. “Israel is a democracy. and in a democracy, the political echelon sets the policy, and the professional echelon carries it out,” he notes. “There can be differences of opinion
but the political echelon makes the ultimate decision.”

He dismisses the notion of recusing himself as prime minister during his trial, declaring, “recusal does not exist” as a possible course of action, since he was elected by the people and “that’s the basis of democracy.”

9:57 pm

Lapid accuses Netanyahu of focusing on himself rather than on Israel, harming national resilience

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, right, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands during a plenum session in the Knesset, October 16, 2023. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

Responding to Benjamin Netanyahu’s fiery press conference this evening in Jerusalem, in which he railed against the justice system and denied trying to avoid testifying in his graft trial, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accuses the prime minister of being focused on himself rather than on the nation he leads.

“In a day when four soldiers were killed in the north and three in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu is only concerned with one thing: himself. It was a shameful speech of ‘me, myself, and I,'” Lapid argues.

“Anyone who wanted to know why a person under indictment cannot be prime minister had only to watch his press conference tonight. It was a shameful collection of lies and stealing credit for the achievements of the security establishment, which acted heroically despite the weakness of his leadership.”

After discussing the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Netanyahu complained bitterly during his press conference about the “lies” and “fake news” regarding his conduct, stating that rather than seeking to avoid testifying in his ongoing corruption trial tomorrow, he has “waited eight years for the day when I can present the truth.”

Members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have called on the Jerusalem District Court to delay Netanyahu’s testimony because of developments in Syria, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich going so far as to claim that the judges are “harming national security” by rejecting their request.

According to Lapid, the “only reason” why Netanyahu held his press conference was because of the start of his testimony tomorrow.

“His victim blaming and false claim that he waited eight years for his testimony is a bad joke,” the Yesh Atid party chairman states, claiming that Netanyahu used “every trick possible, kosher or not,” to delay his testimony.

“The State of Israel will do just fine without him in the face of the security situation. If he weren’t there, we wouldn’t be in this situation at all. He is to blame for the October 7 attacks, he is to blame for the war, he is to blame for the fact that the kidnapped people have not yet returned. He is guilty of establishing a government of Messianic extremists that is tearing apart Israeli society. He is not contributing to national resilience, he is its biggest problem,” Lapid adds.

“Let him go, let him stand trial like any other person. If he wants to, let him make a plea bargain. The main thing is that he gets out of our lives and lets the State of Israel come back to life and return to sanity.”

9:49 pm

‘I’ve been waiting 8 years to tell the truth’: Netanyahu slams legal system, press ahead of court testimony

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clashes with members of the press during a press conference from the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, December 9, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Some 14 hours before the start of his testimony in his corruption trial tomorrow morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dedicates much of his press conference — the first he has given in over three months — to castigating the legal system over the investigations that led to the charges, and to attacks on some of the journalists asking him questions.

Taking a question about why he hasn’t fired Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, Netanyahu says he is not allowed to be involved in that issue per a conflict of interests agreement he signed due to his ongoing criminal trial. He adds pointedly that the attorney general, who serves also as the government’s legal adviser, “is supposed to aid the government’s work, and not cause it to fail. That’s her job.”

Later, asked about his testimony, Netanyahu goes into a lengthy, passionate and seemingly pre-prepared rant, slamming accusations that he is trying to avoid his graft trial by repeatedly seeking to delay his testimony.

“What lies,” he charges. “Eight years I’ve been waiting for this day. Eight years I’ve been waiting to present the truth. Eight years I’ve been waiting to puncture for good the wild and ridiculous accusations against me. Eight years I’ve been waiting to expose the method, a cruel witch hunt… There was no crime, so they looked for a crime. They didn’t find a crime, so they concocted a crime.

“They arrest dozens of people around me, they ruin their lives, they extort them with threats so they’ll give false testimony… isolation, sleep deprivation,” he says angrily. “Everything so that they give false testimony.

“And if this doesn’t work, they use surveillance, surveillance they use against the worst terrorists. They strip them of all their privacy. And they say to them, think about your families. They won’t have an income. Scaring them, threats. We’ll take everything from you. Forging minutes. Getting rid of exculpatory evidence. Criminal leaks from the interrogations. And endless brainwashing of the public.”

“That is the method,” he says with the same indignation. “Not only in my interrogation. That is the method.

“After all that, I don’t want to talk? Tomorrow, I speak. It’s not me who’s dodging.”

He blames the press for avoiding reporting on what he described above, asking why they didn’t cover it. “I expect you to not dodge tomorrow and in the coming days. When I speak, cover it fairly for once. Let’s see you do it.”

Haaretz has reported that Netanyahu contacted ministers and lawmakers from his Likud party today and asked them to come tomorrow morning to the Tel Aviv District Court building, where his testimony will be held.

He says that despite the investigations, he was able to seal the Abraham Accords and lead the country through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I am strong because I am driven by a sense of mission,” he says. “I am running a marathon. But you can run a marathon with 20 kilograms on your back, with 15 kilograms on your back, or 10 kilograms on your back.”

He says he is not asking for special treatment, but should not given especially harsh treatment in terms of the frequency of his court appearances. “I don’t ask for additional rights, but I shouldn’t have fewer rights,” he says.

He claims it’s extraordinary that he is being called to testify three times a week, adding that he could have been allowed to testify less frequently so he can run the war and the country.

“The entire public knows what is right, and what is expected,” he says.

On other subjects, Netanyahu is asked why Israel still hasn’t taken away Hamas’s control over humanitarian aid in Gaza, and says the country is not yet done destroying the terror group’s military capabilities. “Most of the work has been done; there is still some way left to go,” he says.

He says using local clans for distributing the aid didn’t work, so Israel is looking for other ways to take control of the aid from Hamas, adding that this is key to toppling Hamas’s rule.

“We are working currently on a plan to take it from them,” he says.

On the question of whether Israel can reach a hostage deal before US President-elect Donald Trump assumes office on January 20, Netanyahu says: “There are certain developments; it’s too early to say if they will yield results. We are trying all the time, all day, all night.”

9:05 pm

Fresh Damascus blasts heard near center linked to Assad’s chemical weapons production

At least two explosions heard in Damascus have taken place in the area of Barzeh, north of Damascus, where the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre has an office, three witnesses in the neighborhood tell Reuters.

The SSRC has been sanctioned and previously struck for its links to chemical weapons production under toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

8:59 pm

Israeli strikes said to target airport near Damascus used by Assad’s army

New Israeli airstrikes are reported in Syria, targeting an airbase near the capital Damascus.

Al Jazeera reports that the Qabr Essit Airport, used by the ousted Assad regime’s army for helicopters, was hit in the strikes.

The airbase is located south of Damascus, close to the town of Aqraba.

8:59 pm

PM: Isolation of Hamas opens door for hostage deal; ‘total victory’ is becoming a reality

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war is succeeding because of three elements – the bravery of the soldiers, the resilience of the homefront, and his own and his government’s willingness to stand up to intense domestic and international pressure “to stop the war before we accomplished all of our goals.”

“Our actions are taking apart the axis brick by brick, and all this because we resisted, I resisted, the pressure” to halt the war prematurely, he says, and stuck to “the goals of the war until total victory.”

The goal of total victory — that “people derided,” he says — “is today becoming reality.”

Speaking about Hamas, he says the Gaza-based terror group is “more isolated than ever” after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. “It hoped for a unifying of the fronts. Instead, it got a collapse of the fronts. It expected help from Hezbollah — we took that away. It expected help from Iran — we took that as well. It expected help from the Assad regime – well, that’s not going to happen now,” he says dryly.

“The isolation of Hamas opens another opening to making progress on a deal that will bring our hostages back,” Netanyahu says.

He promises that he and the government are “turning over every stone” to bring all the hostages home — “the living and the fallen.”

“We were here before our enemies, and we will be here after our enemies,” he says.

Israel still has “great challenges” before it, he cautions, but adds he is confident that the Jewish state will prevail.

8:44 pm

At least two explosions heard in Syria’s Damascus

At least two explosions are heard in Syria’s Damascus, reporters in the capital say.

8:43 pm

‘We are transforming the Middle East’: Netanyahu hails series of blows to Iranian axis

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference from the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, December 9, 2024. (Screenshot/GPO)

In his press conference, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that ever since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, Israel has been working in a “systematic, measured and organized fashion” to dismantle the Iranian axis.

In Gaza, says Netanyahu, Israel is now acting “to bring down the remains of Hamas’s military capabilities, and all of Hamas’s governing capabilities” and to bring back all the hostages.

Turning to Lebanon, Netanyahu stresses that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the “axis of the axis. Strike him, and you’ll strike the axis severely.”

Nasrallah linked Hezbollah, Syria and Iran, he says.

“The elimination of Nasrallah was a turning point in the collapse of the axis,” he argues, adding that “Nasrallah is no longer with us, and the axis is not what it was.” Israel is “taking it apart step by step.”

“Iran set up a terror route from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, from Iran to Iraq, Iraq to Syria, Syria to Lebanon. In the south they armed Hamas. Further to the south, the Houthis, who we’ve also hit hard,” he says.

“The axis still hasn’t disappeared,” he continues, “but as I promised, we are transforming the face of the Middle East.”

“The State of Israel is establishing its status as a focus of power in our region, as it has not been for decades,” he says.

“Whoever cooperates with us,” he says, “reaps great benefit. Whoever attacks us, loses greatly.”

Israel, he says, wants to see a different Syria, for the benefit of Israel and for Syrians.

“We proved that at the start of the civil war, when we built a field hospital at the border — and treated thousands of injured Syrian [civilians],” he recalls. “Hundreds of Syrian children were born in Israel.”

“Even today, we [are] reaching out a hand to whoever wants to live with us in peace, and we will cut off the hand or whoever tries to hurt us.”

He notes that he instructed the IDF to take over the buffer zone “between us and Syria” and the access points, “including what is called the Syrian Hermon.”

8:40 pm

Netanyahu: Assad’s fall a ‘direct result of the blows we landed on Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference from the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, December 9, 2024. (Screenshot/GPO)

A new chapter opened yesterday in the Middle East with the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the outset of a press conference in Jerusalem, his first in 99 days.

He says Israel is defeating its enemies “step by step” in a “war of existence that was imposed upon us,” and cites Assad’s Syria as a “central element of Iran’s axis of evil.”

Netanyahu highlights the billions of dollars Iran invested in keeping Assad in power and the regime’s cruelty against its citizens, noting it “massacred hundreds of thousands of its own people.”

He says Assad’s Syria “fostered hostility and hatred” toward Israel, attacked in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, was “a forward post of Iranian terror” and a weapons pipeline from Iran to Hezbollah.

Referencing Israel’s 1967 capture and subsequent annexation of the Golan Heights, Netanyahu says that “today, everyone understands the great importance of our presence there on the Golan, and not on the foothills of the Golan.”

He says Israel’s presence there guarantees its security and sovereignty, and thanks US President-elect Donald Trump for “recognizing Israeli sovereignty” on the Golan in 2019.

“The Golan Heights will forever be an inseparable part of the State of Israel,” he says.

Netanyahu repeats the claim that Assad’s fall is the “direct result of the heavy blows we landed on Hamas, on Hezbollah, and on Iran.”

8:31 pm

Jewish University of Michigan official’s home, car vandalized; school says attack antisemitic

The home and car of a Jewish member of the University of Michigan’s board of regents were vandalized last night in what the US school says was an antisemitic attack.

Jordan Acker posts pictures on social media showing his wife’s car spray-painted with the phrase “Divest and Free Palestine” and the window of his home shattered after he said a mason jar was thrown at it in the middle of the night while his family was sleeping.

“This is the third time that I — and now my family — have been the target of these [Ku Klux] Klan-like tactics,” Acker writes on Facebook.

Acker has become a primary target of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel student activists at the University of Michigan who have sought unsuccessfully to convince their school to cut all ties with Israel.

Earlier this year, Acker’s law firm was targeted by anti-Israel vandals. Police have yet to make an arrest in that case.

“We all need to call out this cowardly act attacking my family and my home for what it truly is — terrorism. And like we always do in this great nation when we’re confronted with terrorism — I will not let fear win. All this does is harden my resolve to continue to do the right thing for the University and the Michigan voters who elected me,” Acker writes.

In a statement condemning the attack, the University of Michigan calls it a “clear act of anti-Semitic intimidation.”

“This is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. We call on our community to come together in solidarity and to firmly reject all forms of bigotry and violence,” the school adds.

In the early hours of the morning, the Free Palestine mob showed up to @UMich Regent @JordanAckerMI’s home, broke his window, vandalized his wife’s car, and terrorized his family. This is the third targeted attack against him since Oct 7th.

This must be called out far and wide. pic.twitter.com/hESVdUpTpU

— Adar Rubin (@rubin_a1) December 9, 2024

8:12 pm

Israel reportedly strikes Syria’s Latakia port, targeting Assad regime’s naval assets

Reports in Syria claim that the Israeli Air Force bombed the Latakia port a short while ago.

According to the reports, the strikes targeted Syrian naval assets belonging to the ousted Assad regime.

Following the fall of the Assad regime, the IDF has carried out dozens of strikes in Syria, taking out weaponry Israel fears could fall into the hands of hostile forces.

The strikes have hit advanced missile storage sites, air defense systems, weapon production facilities, and chemical weapons sites.

The strikes have also taken out planes, helicopters and tanks that belonged to the Assad regime army.

تحاول اسرائيل اعادة سوريا للوراء اعوام وضرب البنى التحتيه واسلحه دفع الشعب السوري ثمنها على مدى عقود

القصف الاسرائيلي استهداف مرفأ اللاذقية الذي يضم الاسطول البحري pic.twitter.com/OuQPBZXyyK

— بشاير حوران ⚙️ (@bashaer165) December 9, 2024

8:04 pm

Government allocates $56 million more for benefits for IDF reservists

Reservists of the 8th Armored Brigade operate in southern Lebanon, in a handout image published on November 6, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The government has approved a plan to allocate an additional NIS 200 million ($56 million) in grants to IDF reservists, extending a previously established program of benefits, until 2025.

In a joint announcement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz say that the newly approved funds bring the total allocated for reservists since the beginning of the war to approximately NIS 6 billion ($1.6 billion).

This new tranche of funds will cover, among other things, monthly grants and psychological support for reservists, unemployment allowances for spouses, and subsidies for summer camps for servicemembers’ children. It will also cover compensation for their employers.

“Reservists, together with active duty soldiers, have been fighting shoulder to shoulder for over a year in the war of revival that was forced upon us,” Netanyahu states, adding that the role of the government is “to help you and your families, and to ease the burden, even if only by a little bit.”

“This is a comprehensive decision that aims to make things easier for reservists and their families and provide a real solution to the challenges they face,” says Smotrich, while Katz says the measure “expresses our deep commitment to the reserve service members who sacrificed so much” to defend Israel.

Many reservists have served more than 200-300 days since October 7, 2023, and critics have accused the government of placing an unfair burden on them while working to pass legislation to enshrine in law ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students’ exemption from conscription.

Last month, Smotrich demanded that Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur amend the criteria for receiving child daycare subsidies because reservists were finding themselves “financially disadvantaged due to the reduction in their eligibility level as a result of the benefits and grants they received during the war.”

7:51 pm

Smotrich: Judges ‘harming national security’ by refusing to delay PM’s court testimony

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads a Religious Zionism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on December 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich accuses the justice system of creating a national security threat after the Jerusalem District Court rejected today’s request by members of the security cabinet to delay the testimony tomorrow of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his criminal trial.

Tweeting a copy of the judges’ ruling, which includes their names, the finance minister writes that the judges are “harming national security.”

Smotrich and the other ministers had argued that the current security situation following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria requires Netanyahu as prime minister to be fully focused on his leadership duties. Their claim was rebuffed by the court, which responded that the ministers did not have standing to request a postponement.

Addressing reporters in the Knesset earlier in the day, Smotrich stated that requiring him to begin testifying tomorrow “seriously harms national interests.”

Whoever ignores warnings about this “may be found responsible for security failures and history will judge them for it,” he declared.

Responding to Smotrich’s latest accusation, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid tweets that “no one has harmed [national] security even a fraction of a percent of what the messianic and reckless government of which you are a member has.”

7:48 pm

Government scraps policy restricting Eilat oil imports; environmental groups decry ‘disaster’

By Sue Surkes

View of the Europe Asia Pipeline Company's oil terminal in the southern city of Eilat, January 14, 2022. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

The government overturns a three-year-old Environmental Protection Ministry policy of capping oil imports at the port of Eilat on the Red Sea to reduce the risk of oil leaks.

Eilat is home to world-renowned corals that underpin the resort city’s economy.

The move comes after years of lobbying by the state-owned Europe Asia Pipeline Company (EAPC) against a decision by the former Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg in 2021.

Infuriated by what she and her officials saw as inadequate environmental risk surveys, Zandberg limited oil imports to two million tons annually.

That was a year after the EAPC signed a deal with Red Med, a consortium of Israeli and UAE businesspeople, which would see Gulf oil offloaded at the EAPC’s Eilat terminal, on the Red Sea, and channeled overground via EAPC’s pipelines to Ashkelon on the Mediterranean. From there, the oil would be reloaded onto tankers bound for Europe.

The Prime Minister’s Office informed the Environmental Protection Ministry just 14 hours before it was due to discuss the government decision, prompting an emergency meeting yesterday and a letter from seven southern local authority heads today urging the prime minister to focus on rebuilding the south after Hamas’s deadly onslaught of October 7, 2023, rather than risk a devastating oil spill.

A wide coalition of environment, public health, civil society, state and local government groups have consistently opposed attempts by the Prime Minister’s Office and its CEO, Yossi Shelley, to undermine the Environmental Protection Ministry and side with the EAPC on the issue.

Speaking on behalf of this coalition, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) calls today’s decision a “disaster.”

“The former head of the National Security Council, Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, warns that increasing oil transportation in the Gulf of Eilat will constitute a security and political risk, dozens of heads of authorities and regional councils are issuing warnings, the Israel Desalination Society is raising a red flag, public health doctors are strongly opposed, hundreds of environmental scientists and ecologists are warning of irreversible damage to the coral reef, to tourism and to the economy of the city of Eilat,” the SPNI says in a statement.

“But despite this, the Israeli government continues its policy of neglect and its mad dash toward the next failure, endangering Eilat, the Negev, the Arava, Ashkelon and all of Israel’s coastal cities.”

“The government is once again ignoring the many risks and acting out of considerations of greed and political interest, against the public and national interest.”

The coalition, it says, will continue to act against any increase in the transportation of oil by the EAPC.

The Europe Asia Pipeline Company has a shoddy environmental record. Among various oil leaks, it was responsible a decade ago for the largest environmental disaster in Israel’s history when one of its pipelines ruptured, sending some 1.3 million gallons of crude oil into the Evrona Nature Reserve in southern Israel. The reserve has not yet recovered.

Earlier today, the EAPC said in a statement: “An inter-ministerial professional committee… has unequivocally determined that the EAPC port in Eilat should be allowed to operate fully, based on the professional opinions submitted by the ministries of energy, defense, finance and foreign affairs, the National Security Council, and the Companies Authority. Upholding the decision of former Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg, which was made without authority and without a professional basis, will lead to the closure of the strategic EAPC port in Eilat and harm the energy security of the State of Israel.”

7:31 pm

Levin lambastes Netanyahu trial as ‘shameful’ saga that won’t stop even for national security’s sake

Justice Minister Yariv Levin speaks during a Knesset plenum session on November 13, 2024. (Chaim Goldbergl/Flash90)

In the latest of a series of interventions by senior political officials against the pending start of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony in his criminal trial tomorrow, Justice Minister Yariv Levin denounces the legal proceedings against the premier as illegal and harmful to Israeli security.

“The legal proceedings against Prime Minister Netanyahu, even from the investigation stages, have been one long saga of shameful and illegal conduct, and of abuse of legal proceedings,” charges Levin.

“Today it becomes clear that nothing will stop this, not even the need to ensure the security of the state,” he continues.

Levin’s comment references the Jerusalem District Court’s decision not to entertain any further delays to Netanyahu’s testimony after members of the security council wrote to the attorney general and the court’s administrator to tell them that it would be harmful to state security for the prime minister to spend days on end in court, as his testimony necessitates.

“Despite this decision, millions of Israeli citizens support and will continue to support Prime Minister Netanyahu, so that he can continue to lead us in these difficult and turbulent days,” adds Levin.

7:30 pm

Judge gives all clear for Netanyahu aide Feldstein to be sent to house arrest

Eli Feldstein, a spokesman in the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the main suspect in an investigation launched in late October 2024 of alleged illegal access and leaking of classified intelligence material. (Kan screenshot, used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)

Judge Ala Masarwa of the Tel Aviv District Court says that Eli Feldstein, the key defendant in the Prime Minister’s Office classified documents leak scandal, can now be released to house arrest.

The decision comes after the Israel Prison Service’s (IPS) electronic tagging unit stated in a feasibility paper that electronic tagging is possible for Feldstein. Masarwa had given the IPS until Thursday to submit its position, but it filed its submission early.

The decision comes following a Supreme Court decision earlier today rejecting the state’s appeal against the Tel Aviv court’s ruling earlier this month that Feldstein could be released to house arrest.

It is not fully clear when exactly Feldstein will be released from detention, although a spokesperson for the IPS says it typically takes only a few hours for its electronic tagging unit to make the necessary arrangements at the address where the individual will remain under house arrest after the court issues its decision.

Masarwa also bars Feldstein from leaving the country and orders that he surrender his passport within 48 hours through a designated third-party guarantor.

7:13 pm

US Conservative synagogue denies nixing event with Gallant over Gaza war

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attends a plenum session on the opening day of the Knesset's winter session, in Jerusalem, October 28, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A prominent US Conservative synagogue in Washington, DC, has reportedly canceled an event hosting former defense minister Yoav Gallant due to pushback from congregants over Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza.

UPDATE: Adas Israel subsequently issues statement denying that cancellation was politically motivated.

Those who registered for the “exclusive conversation on Israel’s multifront security challenges” at Adas Israel were informed yesterday that it would not take place, The Forward reports.

The synagogue did not immediately respond to The Forward’s request for comment.

Adas member Benjamin Temchine tells the left-wing Jewish news site that he met with one of the synagogue’s rabbis on Friday to raise his opposition to hosting Gallant.

“I don’t see Adas opening the door to [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich. I don’t see them opening the door to [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir. How is Gallant different?” Temchine says.

Temchine says he knew of at least 10 other members who feel the same way he did.

Gallant was fired last month, with Smotrich, Ben Gvir and many others in the government accusing him of leading insufficiently offensive policies regarding the war’s prosecution.

6:53 pm

Smotrich says Saudi normalization deal won’t happen if it requires Palestinian state

Illustrative: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Finance Committee meeting at the Knesset, on September 16, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Israel will not agree to a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia if it requires establishing a Palestinian state.

“If that’s a deal breaker, the deal will sink,” he tells Bloomberg in a rare interview with a foreign media outlet.

While US and Arab officials told The Times of Israel that Saudi Arabia before the Gaza war had been prepared to settle with steps by Israel that create a pathway for a Palestinian state in exchange for normalization, Riyadh has raised the price of the Palestinian component of the deal over the past year, stressing in no uncertain terms that it will not agree to recognize Israel without a Palestinian state being established.

Smotrich tells Bloomberg that the incoming administration of Donald Trump “understands the obligation to ensure the future existence of Israel,” arguing that this involves scrapping the two-state paradigm.

US President Joe Biden’s administration and much of the international community have backed strengthening the Palestinian Authority it to return to governing the Gaza Strip after the war.

Smotrich tells Bloomberg that he and Netanyahu oppose the idea. Both of them have likened the PA, which backs a two-state solution, to Hamas. Netanyahu has instead floated the idea of Arab countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia contributing to the administration of Gaza after the war, but those countries and others in the region have repeatedly said that they would not take part in the post-war management or reconstruction of Gaza without the PA’s involvement.

As for the West Bank, where some 160,000 Palestinians have been barred from returning to their jobs in Israel and the settlements since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, Smotrich says that ban will not be lifted.

While Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron has come out against that decision due to the ramifications for Israel’s economy and construction sector, Smotrich says it will pay off in the long run. “It will be a difficult year or two, but eventually the construction sector will emerge with better building technologies and productivity,” he tells Bloomberg.

The finance minister also insists that Israel’s economy remains strong, despite several major agencies lowering Israel’s credit rating in recent months.

“It’s important to me that our partners, investors in Israel and abroad, know our hands are firmly on the wheel,” he says.

Pointing out that the shekel was up eight percent against the dollar last Friday, Smotrich argues that the International Monetary Fund and the credit rating agencies are “misreading the Israeli economy.”

Smotrich also highlights that tech funding in October reached $9 billion year-on-year — fourth only to Silicon Valley, New York City and Boston: “The economy’s working much better than might have been expected.”

He also argues that Trump’s victory provides an opportunity to topple the Islamic Republic of Iran: “We need to deal with the octopus head and eliminate the Iranian regime.”

“We should join hands on this with the new Trump administration. The Western world cannot afford a dictatorial regime which strives for nuclear weapons and threatens to destroy it,” Smotrich says.

Hook said last month that the Trump administration was not seeking regime change in Iran but would take a much harder line against Tehran.

6:38 pm

Court rejects ministers’ request to delay Netanyahu’s court testimony

The Jerusalem District Court rejects today’s request by members of the Security Cabinet to delay the testimony of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his criminal trial, a testimony set to start tomorrow.

The ministers addressed their request to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Director of the Courts Administration Judge Tzachi Uziel, asserting that the current security situation following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria requires Netanyahu as prime minister to be fully focused on his leadership duties and that requiring him to spend many hours of his day in court would cause severe damage to Israel’s security.

The court responds that scheduling matters are conducted only with the parties to a case — the prosecution and the defendants — and that it sees no reason to change that arrangement in Netanyahu’s case.

There will be no further delay in the court schedule for Netanyahu’s testimony, the court rules.

The court has already rejected a request by Netanyahu for a lengthy delay in the start of his testimony and partially accepted a request for a 15-day delay in late November.

Netanyahu is scheduled to begin his testimony tomorrow at 10 a.m. in an underground room in the Tel Aviv District Court, and will continue his testimony on Wednesday afternoon. Further testimony will take place three times a week for the following two weeks at least.

6:28 pm

Golan says Israel must cooperate with PA on postwar Gaza, devise regional plan with West, Arab states

The Democrats party leader Yair Golan leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on December 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Despite this weekend’s sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, which further weakens Hamas’s bargaining power regarding a hostage deal in Gaza, “the obstacle to ending the war and returning all the hostages home remains [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Yair Golan, the chairman of The Democrats left-wing party — a merger of Labor and Meretz — tells reporters.

Speaking ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Golan insists that the “key to building a regional alliance lies in Gaza” and that “without a clear commitment to ending the conflict, neither Saudi Arabia nor the Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Britain, Germany and France will agree to cooperate with us in stabilizing and shaping the Middle East.”

“Yesterday I flew to the Emirates for a quick visit, where I met with the foreign minister. He told me directly and unequivocally that without cooperation with the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, there will be no regional partnership in rebuilding the Strip,” Golan continues, insisting that “it is in Israel’s supreme interest to create an alternative to Hamas.”

Israel “must move away from a policy of ‘conflict management,’ and a policy of dismantling the PA, occupying Gaza and annexing the territories — to a responsible policy of resolving the conflict through a regional arrangement,” he continues, arguing that this is the only way to create an American-backed alliance with moderate Sunni states and halt Iran’s nuclear program.

The current government is incapable of achieving this and the prime minister is “busy saving his own skin, not saving the hostages,” he claims, likely referring to Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial and his dependence on far-right coalition allies.

6:20 pm

Smotrich: Assad’s fall means we should fully topple Hamas too, occupy and settle Gaza

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads a Religious Zionism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on December 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

This weekend’s sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria marks a “dramatic change” in the Middle East, with “enemies that seemed threatening and invincible to us falling and crashing thanks to the power of the IDF and the transition from containment and defense to initiative and attack,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich argues.

“We are still in the middle of the campaign, but now is the time to complete the task and take advantage of the disintegration of the axis of evil to powerfully strike Iran, which is the head of the snake, before it has time to recover from the series of blows we have inflicted on it and its arms,” the far right politician tells reporters in the Knesset ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting.

Meanwhile, in the south, “we must also complete the task of occupying Gaza and destroying Hamas in order to return all the hostages and ensure that it no longer poses a threat to Israel,” he adds.

“The time has come to occupy the territory and take civilian control of Gaza from Hamas, thereby cutting it off from its source of oxygen that still keeps it alive. We have now seen in Syria how the regime’s leaders flee like mice as soon as they realize that they have lost power and control over the citizens. We can do it in Gaza too,” he says.

“Instead of talking about partial deals that will leave behind a large part of the hostages… we need to step on the gas pedal, stop being afraid of our own shadow, and do what is required.”

Turning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, Smotrich asserts that requiring him to begin testifying tomorrow “seriously harms national interests.”

Whoever ignores warnings about this “may be found responsible for security failures and history will judge them for it,” Smotrich states.

As a member of the security cabinet, he is exposed to all sorts of information, both public and confidential, Smotrich says, and that is why he wrote to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and judiciary director Judge Tzachi Uziel to request that Netanyahu’s testimony be delayed.

“The fact that the prime minister is required to appear in court at such a critical time is nothing less than delusional and constitutes a serious violation of national interests,” he states — citing the letter he and other members of the security cabinet sent to Baharav-Miara and Uziel this morning.

Smotrich says that he hopes that in “the moment of truth,” the attorney general and the court will reverse course “and allow the prime minister to manage the affairs of the war.”

6:09 pm

3 Israeli troops killed, 12 injured in fighting in northern Gaza

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

Three Israeli soldiers were killed and 12 others were wounded during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today, the military announces.

The slain troops are named as:

Staff Sgt. Ido Zano, 20, a combat medic with the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Yehud-Monosson.

Staff Sgt. Barak Daniel Halpern, 19, a squad commander in the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Kiryat Ono.

Sgt. Omri Cohen, 19, of the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Ashdod.

In the same incident, 12 soldiers were wounded, including a Givati reservist and a member of the Artillery Corps’ Sky Riders Unit in serious condition.

Further details regarding the circumstances of the incident in Jabalia have not yet been released by the IDF.

5:35 pm

Ex-president Rivlin: Queen Elizabeth ‘believed that every Israeli was either a terrorist or a son of a terrorist’ — report

File - Britain's late Queen Elizabeth II (R) stands with Britain's Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (L) and Britain's Prince Charles, Prince of Wales to watch a special flypast from Buckingham Palace balcony as part of Queen Elizabeth II's platinum jubilee celebrations, in London on June 2, 2022. (Daniel Leal/AFP)

Former president Reuven Rivlin is quoted as saying that ties between Israel and the late Queen Elizabeth II were “difficult” because of her views on the Jewish state.

“The relationship between us and Queen Elizabeth was a little bit difficult because she believed that every one of us was either a terrorist or a son of a terrorist,” Rivlin told a gala event in London commemorating 100 years of Haifa’s Technion Institute of Technology, according to the British Jewish News.

“She refused to accept any Israeli official into [Buckingham] Palace, apart from international occasions,” he added, noting by way of comparison that King Charles III was always “so friendly.”

Throughout her decades as the UK’s head of state, Elizabeth cultivated amicable ties with Jewish communal figures, as well as cordial relations with Israeli leaders. Although she paid official visits to dozens of countries throughout her tenure, she never visited Israel.

Britain’s Prince Charles, left, meets President Reuven Rivlin at the president’s official residence in Jerusalem, Jan. 23, 2020 (Victoria Jones/Pool via AP)

Then-Prince Charles came to Israel in 1995 and 2016 to attend the funerals of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, though those were not official visits. He made an official visit in 2020.

Amy Spiro contributed to this report.

5:26 pm

University of Amsterdam employees strike to suspend ties with Israel, increase rights to protest

By Zev Stub

In this image taken from video police arrest activists as they broke up a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstration camp at the University of Amsterdam in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo)

University of Amsterdam (UvA) employees are holding a four-day strike demanding that the institution suspend ties with Israeli schools and offer greater rights to protest against Israel.

An estimated 150 – 250 employees will strike from today until Thursday after the university’s executive board refused to respond to the FNV union’s ultimatum, FNV says. The strike was cheered on the Facebook page of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement.

The union’s demands include greater freedom to demonstrate, a democratic committee to assess collaborations, and that the university suspends ties with Israeli institutions until further investigation. All three conditions are understood to be anti-Israel measures.

UvA board chair Edith Hooge says the university was surprised by the ultimatum, noting that progress was already being made on the issues of expanding demonstration rights and assessing collaborations. She does not address the demand to suspend ties with Israel.

“This is the democratic way of decision-making within the UvA,” Hooge says. “We believe any further actions are unnecessary.’

Last May, UvA was the site of violent clashes between protesters and police as activists demanded that the university cut all ties with Israeli institutions. Hundreds were arrested and an estimated 1.5 million euros in damages was sustained as students and other protesters occupied campuses and blocked access.

Protesters demanded in May that UvA disclose its collaborations with Israeli institutions, and the school does so on its website. “We see no reason to think that these collaborations contribute negatively to the situation in Gaza: as far as we can tell, they do not contribute to military violence or human rights violations,” the university says.

5:17 pm

Liberman vows: Once opposition comes into power, it will cancel Haredi draft exemption law

Israel Beytenu party chair Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, December 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

One of the first things the opposition will do when it comes to power will be to cancel the ultra-Orthodox draft exemption law the coalition is currently working to pass, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman declares.

Decrying the extension of reserve duty for soldiers who have already served over 300 days over the past year, Liberman tells reporters ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset that he would push a new government to pass a universal conscription law so that even the grandchildren of Hasidic rebbes would not be exempt from military service.

The Mishpacha ultra-Orthodox weekly recently reported that the Haredi United Torah Judaism party is preparing two different laws: one to prevent ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers from suffering financial penalties and the other to dissolve the current government, giving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the option to choose between one and the other.

In October, UTJ backed down from an ultimatum to tank the state budget over the draft. Shortly thereafter, UTJ lawmaker Moshe Roth told The Times of Israel that he did not believe his party would topple the government “in the middle of a war.”

5:07 pm

Reports: Syrian rebels tap Mohamed Al-Bashir as transitional PM

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Arab media reports that the Syrian transitional authority will be headed by Mohamed Al-Bashir, who ran the administration in a small pocket of rebel-held territory before the 12-day lightning offensive that swept into Damascus and toppled the Assad regime yesterday.

Bashir is reportedly meeting with outgoing Syrian prime minister Mohammed al-Jalali in Damascus, who said yesterday that he would cooperate with “any leadership chosen by the Syrian people.”

5:00 pm

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to travel to Israel this week to advance Gaza hostage-truce deal

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

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will travel to Israel later this week to advance efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza and to discuss developments in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran, National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett says in a statement.

4:53 pm

Footage shows Syrian rebels in Damascus vowing: ‘From here to Jerusalem. We’re coming for Jerusalem. Patience, people of Gaza’

By ToI Staff

Islamist rebels make a statement from a mosque in Damascus, warning that they are "coming for Jerusalem," in footage circulating on social media on December 8, 2024. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Footage from a mosque in Damascus aired by Hebrew media shows Syrian rebels vowing to march on Jerusalem, a day after a stunning opposition advance took over the capital, ending the Assad family’s five decades of iron rule.

“This is the land of Islam, this is Damascus, the Muslim stronghold. From here to Jerusalem. We’re coming for Jerusalem. Patience, people of Gaza, patience,” vows an Islamist rebel spokesman surrounded by a group of gunmen who respond with cries of “Allahu akbar! (“God is greatest” in Arabic)

It is not clear which rebel group the fighters represent.

Syrian rebels promise to conquer Jerusalem pic.twitter.com/6Q15YyPvDy

— mikhæl (@officialxkathir) December 9, 2024

The leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest rebel group, has tried to reassure minorities that he will not interfere with them and the international community that he opposes Islamist attacks abroad. In Aleppo, which the rebels captured a week ago, there have not been reports of reprisals.

The IDF seized control of the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, yesterday, in what it said was a defensive and temporary measure, given the chaos in the country following the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Agencies contributed to this report.

4:39 pm

Cabinet gives Diaspora Affairs Ministry responsibility for registering global NGOs providing aid to Palestinians

Boys sit on a cart with humanitarian aid packages provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in central Gaza City on August 27, 2024. (Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP)

According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, the cabinet approves a National Security Council proposal giving the Diaspora Affairs Ministry responsibility for registering international NGOs focused on providing welfare to Palestinians.

Responsibility had previously rested with the Social Affairs Ministry.

The statement says that the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, heading an inter-ministerial team, will now have the tools to determine if an NGO calls for boycotts against Israel or works to delegitimize the state in other ways.

Those approved can register and receive work visas for foreign employees.

4:35 pm

Netanyahu to give press conference this evening at 8 p.m. — official

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will give a press conference this evening at 8 p.m., the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel.

This will mark his first press conference since early September.

It comes the night before Netanyahu is scheduled to begin his testimony in his graft trial in the Tel Aviv District Court.

4:32 pm

Gantz: Fall of Assad regime presents Israel with ‘an opportunity of historic proportion’

National Unity chair Benny Gantz leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, December 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria presents Israel with “an opportunity of historic proportion,” National Unity chairman Benny Gantz tells reporters in the Knesset, asserting that Israel “must develop our relations with the Druze, Kurds and other groups in Syria.”

Speaking ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting, the former IDF chief of staff and defense minister calls to “weaken Hezbollah’s grip on Lebanon, and ultimately invite Lebanon into the circle of moderate states.”

But despite losing one of its key allies in the region, Gantz says Iran has not been defeated, and “we must not allow ourselves into a false sense of hubris; a wounded animal is more dangerous. Iran is more dangerous today,” calling “Iran’s rush to nuclear capabilities is a realistic possibility.”

“For that reason exactly we must prepare ourselves for rapid and dramatic action. We must build our own ‘ring of fire’ — regionally, economically and legally — and ready ourselves for swift military action,” Gantz continues.

“This is the time for both actions and words. This is the time to reach out to Saudi Arabia, the leaders of nations we are at peace at, and nations of the Abraham Accords – and together build a plan. Normalization with Syria and Lebanon premised on Israeli power and might are realistic goals. Normalization vs. ‘Iranization’, that is what is at stake.”

Regarding Syria, Gantz states that Israel “must now set the rules of the game: no Iranian shipment will cross into Syria. No Iranian foothold will be accepted on our border. And no threat will be built near our towns.”

Turning to the issue of a hostage deal with Hamas, Gantz says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “no excuse” not to bring the hostages home and that “he must not give in to political pressure.”

National Unity leader Benny Gantz attends a protest calling for a hostage deal outside of the Kirya IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, September 1, 2024. (courtesy Benny Gantz)

“We must not settle for a partial deal, we must take advantage of the situation to bring everyone back,” he insists, adding that “whoever thinks that we will have no way to return to fighting, I suggest that they look at what the IDF is doing in Lebanon these very days.”

Asked by a reporter if he believes Netanyahu had listened in on his calls during his term as IDF chief, Gantz responds that he has no knowledge of any spying but would not be surprised.

“I wouldn’t fall out of my chair if so [but] I don’t know,” he responds.

Last week, former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen told the Kan broadcaster that Netanyahu had asked him in 2011 to monitor government ministers and top defense officials to ensure they were not leaking information.

The report prompted a harsh exchange between Gantz and Netanyahu, with the former’s party issuing a statement lamenting what it described as the prime minister’s “deteriorating cognitive ability.”

4:28 pm

IDF says two Palestinian gunmen eliminated in drone strike during commando raid in West Bank

The IDF says it eliminated two Palestinian gunmen in a drone strike in the West Bank city of Tubas a short while ago, amid a commando operation in the area.

Troops of the Duvdevan commando unit were operating in Tubas to detain a wanted Palestinian. Amid the operation, the IDF says the troops spotted several gunmen.

A drone carried out an airstrike against two of the gunmen, killing them. The military says troops of the Kfir Brigade raided the site of the strike and seized an assault rifle, two handguns, and a grenade that was on the bodies of the gunmen.

במהלך פעילות של לוחמי יחידת דובדבן למעצר מבוקש ולסיכול תשתיות טרור בטובאס שבחטיבת הבקעה והעמקים, זוהו מספר חמושים במרחב. כלי טיס של חיל האוויר תקף את החמושים וחיסל אותם.
לוחמי חטיבת כפיר פשטו על נקודת התקיפה והחרימו נשק מסוג M-16, שני אקדחים ורימון רסס שהיו על החמושים>> pic.twitter.com/B79GbwWGuj

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) December 9, 2024

4:11 pm

Hamas, Islamic Jihad congratulate Syrians on achieving ‘freedom and justice’ by toppling Assad

By Agencies and ToI Staff

File: Then-Syrian president Bashar al-Assad (2-L) receiving the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziad al-Nakhala (R) Hamas chief of Arab relations, Khalil al-Hayya (2-R) and secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, Talal Naji (L), in the capital Damascus, on October 19, 2022. (STRINGER / Syrian Presidency Facebook page / AFP)

Hamas congratulates the Syrian people for achieving their “aspirations for freedom and justice,” after toppling President Bashar al-Assad, in the Palestinian terror group’s first public comment since rebel forces swept into the Syrian capital Damascus yesterday.

“We stand strongly with the great people of Syria… and respect the will, the independence, and the political choices of the people of Syria,” the Iran-backed group says in a statement.

Hamas also says it hopes that post-Assad Syria will continue “its historical and pivotal role in supporting the Palestinian people.”

In a separate statement, Ziad al-Nakhala, head of the Islamic Jihad, echoes that sentiment, saying that the Iranian-backed group and ally of Hamas “hopes Syria will remain a real support for the Palestinian people, their just cause, as it has always been.”

Hamas publicly endorsed the 2011 Sunni Muslim street uprising against Assad’s rule and vacated its Damascus headquarters in 2012, a move that angered Iran, an ally of both Assad and the Palestinian terror group.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, meets then-Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal in Damascus, July 3, 2008. (The Syrian national news agency, SANA, via AP/File)

Hamas, whose ideological roots stem from the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, distanced itself from Assad — a member of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam — as he cracked down on the mainly Sunni Muslim protesters and rebels.

The Palestinian terror group decided in 2022 to restore ties with the Assad government and sent a delegation to Damascus, where Hamas leaders met Assad in the hope of repairing relations.

Assad’s Syria and Iran formed an “axis of resistance” with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement and Palestinian terror groups to oppose Israel.

Hamas’s positive response to the fall of Assad contrasted with that of Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah, which played a major part in propping up Assad through years of war. Assad’s Syria long served as a vital conduit for Iran to supply arms to the group.

3:28 pm

Lapid says Netanyahu’s claims he sparked downfall of Assad are ‘irresponsible, dangerous’

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid attends a conference at the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem, November 20, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams the government’s handling of the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, stating that while Israel’s actions in Syria are correct its rhetoric is dangerous.

“Considering the events in Syria, Israel acted correctly yesterday on the security front, and with complete irresponsibility on the political front,” Lapid tells reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

Israel’s decision to seize control of the buffer zone on the countries’ border was the right thing to do, he says, arguing that “the change of government and the instability in Syria de facto nullify the 1974 separation agreement.” Taking action to neutralize weapons stockpiles, especially chemical weapons and air defense systems, is also appropriate and the fall of Assad provides an important opportunity “to permanently stop the shipments of weapons to Hezbollah,” he adds.

But while the IDF’s actions on the ground contribute to national security without getting Israel embroiled in the conflict in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that he set off the chain of events that led to the sudden fall of Assad’s regime “was irresponsible, dangerous, and also devoid of any political logic.”

“The last thing the rebels in Syria need or want is for them to say that they came to power thanks to Israel. This is unnecessary arrogance and will lead them to react, sooner or later, to try to prove to the Arab world that this is not true,” Lapid asserts.

“The new government in Syria also does not need to hear the Israeli defense minister explain in his voice that the IDF has captured positions of the Syrian army, and will continue to capture more points deep inside Syria, because this turns a justified security operation into a violation of sovereignty that no country can agree to,” he adds.

On Monday morning, Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the IDF to complete control over the buffer Zone between Israel and Syria, after the IDF began its deployment there yesterday.

In a statement, Katz said that he also ordered the military to create a “security zone free of heavy strategic weapons and terror infrastructure” in southern Syria, including beyond the buffer zone, that could pose a threat to Israel — and that he had instructed the IDF to continue to destroy “strategic weapons” in Syria that Israel fears could fall into the hands of hostile forces.

“What the government, the prime minister, should have done is the most difficult thing for them to do: execute and remain silent,” Lapid states, citing former US President Teddy Roosevelt’s advice to “speak softly and carry a big stick.”

In parallel with its military efforts, Israel should propose a security summit with the Saudis “to help the residents of Syria expel the Iranians and stabilize the country” and “turn the change in Syria into a political lever for building a regional coalition that will ultimately pay off for us in Gaza, Lebanon, and [against] the Iranian threat,” he says.

Asked about efforts by the prime minister and members of his government to postpone Netanyahu’s upcoming testimony in his ongoing corruption trial due to recent developments in Syria, Lapid responds that the trial is only still going on because Netanyahu repeatedly worked to slow it down.

3:13 pm

Hundreds of Syrians start returning from Turkey after Assad falls

By AP

Syrian families arrive to cross into Syria from Turkey at the Cilvegozu border gate, near the town of Antakya, southern Turkey, December 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Metin Yoksu)

Hundreds of Syrian refugees gather at two border crossings in southern Turkey, eagerly anticipating their return home, following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Many arrived at the Cilvegozu and Oncupinar border gates at daybreak, draped in blankets and coats. Some camped by the barriers of the border crossing, warming themselves with makeshift fires or resting on the cold ground. The border crossings correspond to the Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salameh gates on the Syrian side of the border.

Among those waiting at Cilvegozu was 28-year-old Muhammed Zin who voiced excitement at the prospect of returning to his homeland. He fled Damascus in 2016 and has been living and working in Istanbul.

Syrians returning home from Turkey. pic.twitter.com/TywIQlIBXu

— Leila Al-Shami (@LeilaShami) December 8, 2024

“Assad was shooting us, killing us,” he tells the Associated Press. “I will return to Syria now. Thank God, the war is over,” he says.

Seer Ali, 18, who left Damascus six years ago, had been working in the nearby city of Gaziantep to support his mother and siblings back home.

“We are very happy, very happy. Not just me, but everyone, all of us Syrians here are very happy,” he said. “Everyone will return, no one will stay here. They will all go to their families.”

Syrians wait to cross into Syria from Turkey at the Cilvegozu border gate, near the town of Antakya, southern Turkey, on December 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Metin Yoksu)

Hundreds of displaced Syrians were also returning Monday to Syria from Lebanon, with dozens of cars lining up to enter. The day before, Lebanese residents handed out congratulatory sweets to Syrians waiting to go back to their country.

3:03 pm

Syrian insurgents say they won’t impose dress codes on women or limit personal freedoms

By AP

People walk past anti government forces securing the Syrian capital in Damascus, on December 9, 2024. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

Syrian insurgents who toppled President Bashar Assad say they will not impose any religious dress code on women and vowed to guarantee personal freedom for everyone.

In a statement posted on social media, the insurgents’ General Command says, “It is strictly forbidden to interfere with women’s dress or impose any request related to their clothing or appearance, including requests for modesty.”

The command says it affirms that personal freedom is guaranteed to everyone, and that respect for the rights of individuals is the basis for building a civilized nation.

In areas that were controlled by Syrian opposition groups since the civil war erupted in 2011, the vast majority of women dressed modestly, only revealing their faces and hands.

Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the militant leader whose forces entered Damascus over the weekend, has renounced longtime ties to al-Qaida and depicted himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance.

2:43 pm

Egypt condemns Israel’s ‘further occupation’ of Syrian land

By Agencies

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

Egypt condemns Israel’s “further occupation of Syrian lands” and views the Israeli military’s movement into a buffer zone as an attempt to enforce a new reality on the ground, it says in a foreign ministry statement

Israel moved tanks over the border into the buffer zone with Syria, calling the move temporary, limited, and aimed at ensuring Israel’s security.

Egypt and much of the international community consider Israel’s control over the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War, an occupation. Israel annexed the Heights in 1981, a move later recognized by the US.

2:23 pm

Hezbollah sees ‘major, dangerous’ change in Syria after fall of ally Assad

Mourners carry the flag-draped coffins of Hezbollah fighters who were killed in the recent war with Israel, during their funeral procession in the southern Lebanese village of Majdal Selm on December 6, 2024. (Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah views events in Syria as a “major, dangerous and new transformation,” a senior Hezbollah politician says, the Iran-backed terror group’s first reaction to the toppling of its ally, Bashar al-Assad.

Hezbollah played a major part propping up Assad through years of war in Syria, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel — a redeployment that weakened Syrian government lines.

His downfall has stripped Hezbollah of a vital ally along Lebanon’s eastern border. Assad-ruled Syria long served as a vital conduit for Iran to supply weapons to the Shi’ite Islamist Hezbollah.

“What is happening in Syria is a major, dangerous, and new transformation, and how and why what happened requires an evaluation, and the evaluation is not done on the podiums,” Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah says in a statement.

Syrian armed groups led by the Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham swept into Damascus on Sunday, seizing the capital and forcing Assad to leave for Russia.

Israel dealt heavy blows to Hezbollah during more than a year of hostilities, which began when the Lebanese group opened fire on October 8, 2023 in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas in Gaza. A ceasefire in Lebanon took effect on November 27.

2:17 pm

IDF says it carried out a drone strike against gunmen in West Bank

The IDF says it carried out a drone strike against Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank city of Tubas.

It says further details will be provided later.

2:13 pm

Budget deficit drops slightly to 7.7% but still over target due to war spending

By Sharon Wrobel

View of the Bank of Israel's main offices in Jerusalem, January 2, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel posts a budget deficit of NIS 12.2 billion ($3.4 billion), or 7.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in November, which is above the government’s annual target for this year, as costs to finance the ongoing war with the Hamas terror group continue to soar.

The fiscal deficit declines to 7.7% of GDP in November, from 7.9% in the previous month, compared to a target of 6.6% set for all of 2024, according to preliminary figures released by the Finance Ministry.

November marks the second month since the outbreak of the war in October last year that the deficit reversed to a downward trend as expected by the Finance Ministry after widening from 7.6% of GDP in June, 8.1% in July, 8.3% in August, and 8.5% in September, given growing military and civilian spending on the ongoing war. Israel posted a budget deficit of 4.2% in 2023.

In November, government expenditure amounted to NIS 50.9 billion, taking spending since the start of the year to about NIS 553.8 billion, a cumulative increase of 24.5% compared with the same period in 2023. War costs since the outbreak of fighting in October last year ballooned to NIS 112.8 billion.

State revenues amounted to NIS 38.6 billion in November, adding up to NIS 437.2 billion in the first 11 months of the year compared to NIS 401.4 billion in the corresponding period last year, marking an increase of about 9%.

Income from tax revenue rose by 18.8% in November year-on-year and is up 5.4% since the start of 2024, according to figures by the Israel Tax Authority.

2:11 pm

IDF publishes footage of paratroopers deployed in Syria buffer zone

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

The IDF releases new footage showing the Paratroopers Brigade being deployed to the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria.

Yesterday, the IDF’s 210th “Bashan” Regional Division, which is tasked with the Golan Heights area, began to deploy forces to the buffer zone inside Syrian territory, including atop the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.

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

Paratroopers deploy to the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, in footage released by the IDF on December 9, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The paratroopers and other forces are carrying out defensive operations “to prevent any threat,” the military says.

According to the IDF, troops are deployed to specific strategic positions in the buffer zone to prevent unidentified gunmen from being in the area.

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

2:00 pm

Hostage families told optimistic reports on progress in talks are not correct

Israelis attend a rally calling for the release of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at "Hostage Square" in Tel Aviv, December 7, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Families of the hostages have been told that optimistic reports of serious progress in negotiations are not correct.

“In recent hours reports in the Arab press regarding negotiations to bring the hostages home, these reports, that have also been published in Israel, are not correct,” says a statement sent to the families by the government coordinator for the hostage talks.

It comes after the Qatari-owned, London-based al-Araby al-Jadeed news outlet reported that Hamas had sent negotiators a list of hostages it was willing to release and the names of Palestinian security prisoners it wanted in return.

“We continue to take all measures to secure the return of the hostages and take great care to keep this information secured. We urge you to continue to only rely on information coming from authorized sources,” the statement says.

1:21 pm

Thousands of Syrian soldiers cross into Iraq, give up arms, official says

By AP

Military tanks abandoned by the Syrian army are pictured outside Damascus, on December 9, 2024. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)

More than 4,000 Syrian army soldiers have crossed into Iraq since rebel forces seized Damascus and overthrew the government of Bashar al-Assad, a militia official in western Iraq says.

The official with the Anbar Tribal Mobilization Forces says that the soldiers had turned over their weapons, ammunition and armored vehicles and would be housed in a camp. He did not say where the camp was located.

Another security official says that the governor of the Syrian province of Hasakeh had come to the border late Sunday night with a convoy of Syrian army soldiers who wanted to cross into Iraq, and they were allowed in via the Qaim crossing.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The Iraqi government has close ties with Iran and used to be one of Assad’s primary backers but Baghdad has taken a neutral position on the advance of the insurgents and Assad’s downfall.

1:20 pm

Project to retrieve Jewish books stolen by Nazis arrives in Israel

By Zev Stub

An ambitious international project to locate and recover Jewish books looted by the Nazis is set to kick off in Israel.

The project, “Have You Seen This Book?”, focuses on tracing volumes from the library of the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies in Berlin, which was closed by the Nazis in 1942. Many of its 60,000 titles were destroyed or dispersed to libraries and private collections worldwide.

Before World War II, the Hochschule was one of the leading rabbinical schools in Germany. Founded in 1872, it became a thriving center for intellectuals such as Rabbi Leo Baeck, Moritz Abraham Levy, Julius First, and Abraham Geiger, one of the founding fathers of reform Judaism.

The initiative invites individuals to share information through a dedicated website, where discoveries are verified by the Leo Baeck Institute in Jerusalem and displayed on a real-time online map.

Today’s kickoff event at the Ariela House in Tel Aviv includes the Israeli launch of the Library of Lost Books, an exhibition that has appeared in different cities where the Hochschule’s books have already been found.

The exhibition includes a map with information about the Hochschule library, the looted books, and previous attempts to retrieve them. Some 5,000 of the Hochschule’s 60,000 books and journals have been located to date.

“The Hochschule was one of the most important institutes of liberal German Jewry in the interwar period,” says David Rechter, chair of Leo Baeck Institute London. “This exhibition will help us demonstrate the rich diversity of German-Jewish society before the Holocaust.”

The exhibition recently won Germany’s Grimme Online Award, a prize given to outstanding projects that have public and educational significance in the areas of journalism, culture, entertainment, and information studies.

The project is the initiative of the Leo Baeck Jerusalem Institute and its London counterpart. It is conducted jointly with the Leo Baeck Institute Friends Association in Germany, and with the funding of the Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) Foundation, supported by the German Ministry of Finance.

12:35 pm

IDF says drone from Yemen came via Mediterranean Sea; jet scrambled too late to shoot it down

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

The drone launched from Yemen that struck an apartment building in Yavne this morning approached Israel from the Mediterranean Sea after making a long detour apparently over Egypt, according to an initial IDF probe.

It crossed into Israeli territory near the Gaza Strip and headed north along the coast toward Yavne, the probe finds.

The military says it detected the drone at several locations after it entered Israeli airspace, though it was not a continuous detection.

Because of this, the military was unable to predict its route and set off warning sirens.

A fighter jet was scrambled to shoot down the drone, though it did not have enough time and ultimately the drone struck a penthouse apartment in Yavne, causing damage.

12:32 pm

IDF says four reservists killed in ‘operational accident’ in south Lebanon

Top row, from left: Maj. (res.) Evgeny Zinershain, Master Sgt. (res.) Binyamin Destaw Negose. Bottom row, from left: Cpt. (res.) Sagi Ya'akov Rubinshtein, Sgt. First Class. (res.) Erez Ben Efraim (Courtesy)

Four Israeli reserve soldiers were killed in a suspected “operational accident” in southern Lebanon yesterday afternoon, the military announces.

The slain troops are named as:

Maj. (res.) Evgeny Zinershain, 43, from Zichron Yaakov.

Cpt. (res.) Sagi Ya’akov Rubinshtein, 31, from Kibbutz Lavi.

Master Sgt. (res.) Binyamin Destaw Negose, 28, from Beit Shemesh.

Sgt. First Class. (res.) Erez Ben Efraim, 25, from Ramat Gan.

They all served with the 226th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade’s 9263rd Battalion. Zinershain was a company commander and Rubinshtein was a platoon commander.

According to an initial IDF probe, the soldiers were scanning a tunnel in the Labbouneh area of southern Lebanon when a cache of Hezbollah weapons and explosives stored there detonated.

The cause of the blast is under further investigation, though the military suspects that it was not a Hezbollah booby trap, but rather due to explosives previously placed by Israeli forces there.

12:25 pm

Kremlin says Russia will discuss fate of Syria bases with new leaders, confirms Assad granted asylum

By Agencies

Demonstrators react after raising a Syrian opposition flag at the Syrian embassy in Moscow on December 9, 2024.(Photo by Andrey BORODULIN / AFP)

The Kremlin says it would discuss the status of Russia’s two military bases in Syria with the country’s new rulers following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.

Asked about the future of the bases, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says: “It is too early to say. This is a subject for discussion with whoever is going to be in power in Syria.”

The Kremlin also confirm that Russia has granted political asylum Assad, but won’t confirm his location.

Russian President Vladimir Putin personally made the decision to offer asylum to Assad, Peskov says.

Peskov won’t comment on Assad’s specific whereabouts. He says that Putin wasn’t planning to meet with Assad.

“As for president Assad’s whereabouts, I’ve got nothing to tell you,” Peskov says, adding: “What happened has surprised the whole world and, in this case, we are no exception.”

12:07 pm

Supreme Court chief says Justice Minister Levin has refused to meet for 6 months over judicial appointments

Justice Isaac Amit at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, January 4, 2024. (Flash90/Yonatan Sindel)

Acting Supreme Court President Isaac Amit calls on Justice Minister Yariv Levin to meet with him in order to advance key appointments in the judiciary, saying that Levin has refused to meet with either him or his predecessor for half a year.

Since Levin’s judicial overhaul stalled with the outbreak of war following the October 7 atrocities, he has refused to appoint a new Supreme Court president or fill open seats on the Supreme Court, among other moves against the judiciary authority.

Writing to Levin, Amit says that an appointment committee needs to be established for appointing court presidents and senior judges; registrars for the Supreme Court and the National Labor Court need to be appointed; and that members of different statutory committees need to be selected, all of which need cooperation between himself and the justice minister.

“This situation is directly harming the proper operations of the legal system and the interests of those before the courts,” Amit tells Levin in his letter.

“The time has come to establish joint channels of communication and work between us and to return to an organized and professional work program as existed in the past,” says Amit, in order to advance “the joint goal of advancing the good of the system and providing a positive legal service to the public.”

“A source close to Levin” said in response that “Justice Amit can send the letter to himself by return mail. Indeed, the time has come to work without orders and with agreement. There is no such thing as joint work when convenient and orders when convenient.”

The comment refers to the High Court of Justice’s decision on a petition, ruling that Levin is obligated to call a vote in the Judicial Selection Committee to appoint a permanent Supreme Court president after refusing to do so for 12 months.

Amit was not a member of the three-justice panel, including two conservatives, which ruled unanimously that Levin had exceeded his authority in refusing to call a vote for the position. He is however likely to be appointed as permanent court president once a vote is held.

12:03 pm

Local authority heads plead with government not to increase oil imports

By Sue Surkes

View of the Europe Asia Pipeline Company's oil terminal in the southern city of Eilat, January 14, 2022. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

The heads of seven southern local authorities appeal to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to allow the state European Asia Pipeline Company to unload increased amounts of crude oil at ports in Eilat on the Red Sea and Ashkelon on the Mediterranean, and pipe it overland between the two.

“We call on you at this time, a time of national emergency, to stop discussing the issue of increasing piping [of crude oil],” write the mayors of Eilat, Ashkelon, Dimona, Ramat Hanegev, Upper Arava, Mitzpe Ramon and Eilot.

The letter follows an emergency meeting Sunday hosted by the Environmental Protection Ministry at which local council heads called for continuing the “zero additional risk” policy to protect Eilat’s world renowned coral reefs from potential oil leak damage. The reefs underpin Eilat’s tourism economy.

Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman said the planned increased oil was not intended for Israel’s use, but for business, to then be shipped onwards.

Following what it said were inadequate environmental risk surveys from the EAPC for an increase in oil, the ministry in 2021, under a previous minister, Tamar Zandberg, capped oil imports at two million tons (around 14.6 million barrels) annually in an attempt to limit the chance of oil contamination.

The ministry was authorized to do so within its responsibility for issuing permits for toxic materials.

But the EAPC has pressured the government to overrule the zero additional risk policy and allow it to press ahead with a commercial deal it signed with a consortium of Israeli and United Arab Emirates businesspeople in 2020 to unload Gulf oil at its port in Eilat and pipe it overland to Ashkelon for reloading onto tankers bound for Europe.

In today’s letter, the local authority heads protest a plan to override a decision reached with the Environmental Protection Ministry in August that the EAPC would submit an up-to-date environmental risk survey within six months.

Despite promises over the years, the government has not equipped or adequately staff Eilat’s coastal protection unit to be able to deal with a major oil leak.

The EAPC said in a statement, “An inter-ministerial professional committee… has unequivocally determined that the EAPC port in Eilat should be allowed to operate fully, based on the professional opinions submitted by the ministries of Energy, Defense, Finance, Foreign Affairs, the National Security Council, and the Companies Authority. Keeping the decision of former environmental protection minister Tamar Zandberg, which was made without authority and without a professional basis, will lead to the closure of the strategic EAPC port in Eilat and harm the energy security of the State of Israel.”

11:44 am

UN says Syria transition must ensure ‘accountability’ for past crimes

By AFP

People walk past anti government forces securing the Syrian capital in Damascus, on December 9, 2024. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

Any political transition in Syria following the fall of president Bashar al-Assad must include accountability for those behind crimes committed under his rule, the UN rights chief says.

“Any political transition must ensure accountability for perpetrators of serious violations and guarantee that those responsible are held to account,” Volker Turk tells reporters, adding: “All measures must be taken to ensure the protection of all minorities, and to avert reprisals and acts of revenge.”

11:17 am

Ramat Gan Safari announces birth of rhino calf

A newborn Rhinoceros lies next to her 15-year-old mother Rihanna, at the Ramat Gan Safari near the city of Tel Aviv, on December 12, 2024 (Shira Inbar Danin/ Ramat Gan Safari)

The Ramat Gan Safari announces that one of its rhinos had given birth to a healthy male calf and that mother and son were both doing fine.

The 15-year-old Rihanna, named after the Barbados-born R&B singer, gave birth over the weekend at the zoological park, just outside Tel Aviv.

The park says the calf has been named Re’i, which means friend in Hebrew.

“In the spirit of the times, we felt that we could not remain indifferent to what was happening in the country, therefore, we chose the name ‘Re’i’ which symbolizes many things for us from the beginning of the war to the present day, when we understand that in order to return to normalcy with all that this implies, we all need to act for each other, be for each other and be friends and family,” the park says.

This is Rihanna’s fourth calf, following the births of Ruvi, Rami and Rainy Rafiki in recent years. A rhinoceros’s gestation period is usually about a year and a half.

10:45 am

Lebanese army says 1 killed, 4 soldiers hurt in Israeli drone strike on car

By AFP

The Lebanese army says one person was killed and four soldiers wounded in an Israeli strike on a car in the south of the country, where a fragile ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel came into force on November 27.

“The Israeli enemy targeted a car near the Saf al-Hawa/Bint Jbeil military checkpoint, killing a citizen and lightly wounding four soldiers,” the army says in a statement.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

⚡️ Al-Manar: A drone strike targets a vehicle near a Lebanese military checkpoint at Saf al-Hawa – Bint Jbeil, Southern Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/kDgXElJsqa

— Warfare Analysis (@warfareanalysis) December 9, 2024

10:38 am

Supreme Court orders Eli Feldstein released to house arrest, keeps IDF reservist in detention in leak case

People protest in support of Eli Feldstein and the Israeli soldier accused of leaking classified documents outside the Tel Aviv District Court, November 27, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The Supreme Court rejects the state’s request to keep Eli Feldstein, a key defendant in the Prime Minister’s Office classified documents leak scandal, in detention, and orders that he be released to house arrest with an electronic tracker.

Justice Alex Stein rules that the state has already sustained the blow to its security from the information Feldstein leaked and that he doesn’t have any more classified information to reveal, so that the danger to the state posed by releasing him to house arrest is low.

The court rejects, however, the appeal of the IDF reservist noncommissioned officer who is also at the heart of the case and who leaked the classified documents to Feldstein.

Stein writes that since the NCO was exposed to a great deal of classified information during his work for the IDF’s Military Intelligence data security department and since he has leaked such documents in the past, he might do so again, further endangering state security.

The judge writes that the NCO saw himself “and continues to see himself” as a “kind of vigilante of the Intelligence Corps, an ‘independent contractor’ who, when necessary, is allowed to take the reins and establish direct communication channels between himself and government officials in ways he sees fit while completely eliminating the IDF chain of command and information security procedures.”

Stein orders the NCO kept behind bars, but says that he may be able to appeal if circumstances change.

Feldstein and the NCO are charged with leaking classified information, with Feldstein accused of doing so in order to influence public opinion on negotiations for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in a more favorable direction for his boss, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

10:27 am

Sa’ar reiterates Israeli presence in Syrian territory is temporary

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar gives a press conference on November 28, 2024, in Prague, Czech Republic. (Michal Cizek / AFP)

The presence of Israeli forces in Syrian territory is a “limited, temporary” step meant to ensure Israel’s security during the confusion after the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says.

“The only interest we have is the security of Israel,” he tells a news conference in Jerusalem.

Saar also speaks about deadlocked negotiations with Hamas on a release of hostages in Gaza, saying indirect talks were ongoing, without elaborating. He says Israel could be more optimistic about an eventual breakthrough but was not there yet.

10:22 am

Sa’ar confirms Israel hit chemical weapons sites, long-range rockets in Syria

By AP

A man receiving oxygen through respirators following a suspected chemical attack on the town of al-Khalidiya, in Aleppo, Syria, November 24, 2018 (SANA via AP)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar confirms Israel struck suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets in Syria in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile actors.

Sa’ar says that “the only interest we have is the security of Israel and its citizens.”

“That’s why we attacked strategic weapons systems, like, for example, remaining chemical weapons, or long-range missiles and rockets, in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists.

He spoke after Syrian rebels reached Damascus over the weekend and overthrew President Bashar al-Assad’s government following nearly 14 years of civil war.

Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons stockpile in 2013, after the government was accused of launching an attack near Damascus that killed hundreds of people. But it is widely believed to have kept some of the weapons and was accused of using them again in subsequent years.

10:16 am

IDF says drone that hit Yavne apartment was fired from Yemen

A building in Yavne that was hit by a drone on December 9, 2024 (Fire and Rescue Service)

The IDF says the drone that struck a residential building in the southern city of Yavne this morning was launched from Yemen.

The military says it is investigating why sirens were not activated.

There were no injuries in the attack, but damage was caused to several apartments.

10:12 am

Iranian official says Tehran in direct contact with groups in new Syrian leadership

An Iranian flag lies on the ground at the entrance of the Iranian embassy which damaged by opposition fighters in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP/Hussein Malla)

Iran has opened a direct line of communication with rebels in Syria’s new leadership since its ally Bashar al-Assad was ousted, a senior Iranian official tells Reuters, in an attempt to “prevent a hostile trajectory” between the countries.

The lightning advance of a militia alliance spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, marked one of the biggest turning points for the Middle East in generations. Assad’s fall as president removed a bastion from which Iran and Russia exercised influence across the Arab world.

The senior official says Iran’s clerical rulers, facing the loss of an important ally in Damascus and the return of Donald Trump to the White House in January, were open to engaging with Syria’s new leaders.

“This engagement is key to stabilize ties and avoiding further regional tensions,” he said.

9:57 am

Footage shows drone hitting building in Yavneh; IDF says craft not detected, probably fired from Iraq or Yemen

Surveillance camera footage shows the drone impact in the southern city of Yavne a short while ago.

The military suspects the drone was launched from the east, either Iraq or Yemen. The drone apparently went undetected and therefore no sirens sounded.

The impact caused damage to an apartment building, though medics say there are no injuries.

צה"ל: התקבלו דיווחים על נפילת מטרה אווירית חשודה ביבנה, תושבים דיווחו על פגיעה בבניין | תיעוד הפגיעה@hadasgrinberg pic.twitter.com/zdVIqMCXGZ

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) December 9, 2024

9:50 am

Israeli arrested for carrying out missions for Iran, acts of vandalism

An Israeli man is detained on suspicion of spying for Iran in a picture released on December 9, 2024. (Israel Police)

An Israeli civilian from the northern city of Nof Hagalil was arrested for carrying out missions on behalf of Iran, the Shin Bet security agency and police say, the latest in a series of espionage cases.

The suspect, Artyom Zolotarev, 33, was detained in November over suspicions he was “committing security offenses related to contact with Iranian intelligence officials and carrying out security missions in Israel under their direction, for financial gain,” according to the Shin Bet.

The agency says Zolotarev was detained after he graffitied numerous slogans against the government in Nof Hagalil, Haifa, and Migdal Ha’emek, as well as setting fire to a car in Haifa.

The joint Shin Bet and police investigation found that in October, Zolotarev was in contact with a figure online using the handle “Eliad,” who suggested he perform tasks of spraying graffiti against the government to change the civil situation in Israel.”

Zolotarev carried out the graffiti missions and filmed his acts, which he sent to his handler. After sending the footage to Eliad, Zolotarev erased the graffiti, according to the investigation.

The Shin Bet says Zolotarev received $2,800 in cryptocurrency for carrying out the mission.

Later, Zolotarev would realize that Eliad was an Iranian agent.

The Shin Bet says the suspect figured this out after first refusing to carry out several missions including taking photos of residential buildings and an electrical transformer, and burning a car, and later seeing news reports on TikTok regarding the arrest of Moti Maman, an Israeli charged with being smuggled into Iran twice being tasked with assassinating the prime minister, defense minister, or head of the Shin Bet, and the arrests of other suspects in Iran-related spying cases.

After Zolotarev became aware that Eliad was an Iranian agent, the suspect was offered the task of murdering someone for $125,000, and then being smuggled to Russia or Iran, the investigation found. Zolotarev was also asked to purchase a gun to pass it on to someone else, but he refused both of these offers, according to the Shin Bet.

Still, the Shin Bet says, at the request of his Iranian handler, Zolotarev set fire to a car in Haifa in exchange for $2,000.

Later, Eliad would direct Zolotarev to speak to another Iranian operative using the name “Boaz Mar,” and he carried out several more missions in Haifa and Afula, the investigation found.

Zolotarev graffitied “Children of Ruhollah” — referring to Ruhollah Khomeini, the former supreme leader of Iran — in Haifa and Afula, and set fire to another car in Haifa. He also took a video of the car arson and sent it to Boaz Mar, the Shin Bet says.

He was rewarded with thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency for the acts, the agency adds.

An indictment is being filed against Zolotarev this morning at the Nazareth district court for contact with a foreign agent, arson, and vandalism.

9:42 am

Apparent drone explodes in building in southern town of Yavne, no injuries

Smoke rises from a building in Yavne after an apparent drone strike on December 9, 2024 (Screencapture X/ used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

A drone reportedly struck a residential building in the southern city of Yavne a short while ago.

An explosion was reported in the area, and smoke can be seen rising from the apartment block.

Footage also appears to show a drone flying over the area shortly before the blast.

No sirens sounded. Authorities are investigating.

There are no reports of injuries in the blast, medics say.

A drone reportedly struck a residential building in the southern city of Yavne a short while ago.

An explosion was reported in the area, and smoke can be seen rising from the apartment block. Footage also appears to show a drone flying over the area shortly before the blast.

No… pic.twitter.com/U4C1LWxzjA

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) December 9, 2024

9:10 am

Man shot dead in Lod, terror not suspected

The scene of a deadly shooting in Lod on December 9, 2024 (Magen David Adom)

A man in his 40s is shot and killed in the central city of Lod, police and medics say.

Police say officers are on the scene and investigating and that the motive is apparently criminal, not terror-related.

Medics from the Magen David Adom rescue service say they found the man with gunshot wounds and were forced to declare him dead at the scene.

Since the beginning of the year, 230 Arabs have been killed in violent criminal incidents in Israel, according to the Abraham Initiatives coexistence advocacy group.

Many Arab Israeli community leaders put the blame for the rising murders on police, who they say have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence, which includes family feuds, mafia turf wars and violence against women.

9:08 am

South Korean announces travel ban on president after martial law attempt

By AFP

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks at the presidential office in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (South Korean Presidential Office/Yonhap via AP)

South Korea’s justice ministry says it slapped a travel ban on President Yoon Suk Yeol as police probe him for insurrection over his ill-fated declaration of martial law.

At a parliamentary hearing, a lawmaker asked whether Yoon, who stands accused of leading an insurrection by declaring martial law Tuesday, had been banned from leaving the country. “Yes, that’s right,” Bae Sang-up, an immigration services commissioner at the Ministry of Justice, said.

8:01 am

Katz orders IDF to complete seizure of Syrian buffer zone, continue destroying Assad’s ‘strategic weapons’

Troops of the elite Shaldag unit are seen on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, December 8, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Defense Minister Israel Katz has ordered the IDF to complete control over the buffer Zone between Israel and Syria, after the IDF began its deployment there yesterday.

In a statement, Katz says he also ordered the military to create a “security zone free of heavy strategic weapons and terror infrastructure” in southern Syria, including beyond the buffer zone, that could pose a threat to Israel.

Alongside side that, Katz instructed the military to establish contacts with the Druze community and other populations in southern Syria.

Additionally, Katz says he has instructed the IDF to “immediately prevent and thwart the renewal of the arms smuggling route from Iran to Lebanon through Syria, in Syrian territory and at the border crossing points.”

Lastly, Katz instructs the military to continue to destroy “strategic weapons” in Syria that Israel fears could fall into the hands of hostile forces, including “surface-to-air missiles, air defense systems, surface-to-surface missiles, cruise missiles, long-range rockets, and coast-to-sea missiles.”

7:52 am

Israeli among 11 arrested by Russia in crackdown on fraudulent call centers

Russia’s security service, the FSB, has detained 11 employees and head of a network of allegedly fraudulent international call centers who operated in the interests of a former Georgian defense minister, Russian news agencies report.

“The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation has stopped the illegal activities of an international network of call centers that operated in the interests of the former Georgian Defense Minister and founder of Milton Group David Kezerashvili, who is currently hiding in London,” Russia’s RIA state news agency says, citing an FSB statement.

Among those detained is an Israeli-Ukrainian head of one of the call centers, RIA reported.

7:38 am

Report: Hamas submits list of names for hostage-prisoner swap, including US citizens held captive

Israelis attend a rally calling for the release of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at "Hostage Square" in Tel Aviv, December 7, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

The Hamas terror group has submitted a list of hostages it proposes to free in the first stage of a ceasefire deal with Israel in addition to a list of Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel that it wants released, the London-based pan-Arab news site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

The report, citing a source close to the talks, says Israel is evaluating the list and could send a delegation to Cairo later today.

Reports have said that the sides are working on a partial deal under which hostages in the “humanitarian” category would be freed in return for an extended ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

The humanitarian category includes elderly, children, women, ill and badly wounded hostages. The number of living hostages in these groups is today understood to be fewer than the 33 that was previously discussed in talks over past months.

The report also says that Hamas is proposing to release four hostages with US citizenship, some of whom do not not fall under the humanitarian category, in an apparent gesture to incoming US President Donald Trump, who has threatened to punish those responsible if the hostages aren’t released before his inauguration.

For more than a year, waves of negotiations have stalled and failed to reach another agreement to return the hostages still held in Gaza, after 105 of them were released in a weeklong truce in late November 2023. Israel believes that 96 of the 251 hostages kidnapped on October 7 are still in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF. Over the past 14 months, IDF troops have rescued eight hostages and recovered the bodies of 38.

6:45 am

Reports: Fresh Israeli airstrikes in Da’ara in southern Syria

Syrian media report fresh Israeli strikes in Da’ara in southern Syria, after a stunning rebel advance took over the capital of Damascus yesterday and ended the Assad family’s five decades of iron rule.

Unverified footage of the strikes posted to social media appears to show secondary explosions, indicating that weapons were stored in the buildings targeted.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck dozens of targets across Syria yesterday, taking out weaponry that Israel feared could fall into the hands of hostile forces, in light of the dramatic fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Target sites reportedly included advanced missile storage sites, air defense systems, and weapon production facilities, and a chemical weapons site.

The Israeli military also took up new positions in a buffer zone between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights as it prepared for potential chaos.

تغطية صحفية: لحظة شن طائرات الاحتلال غارات على مدينة درعا السورية ومحيطها pic.twitter.com/udYN2eUDco

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) December 9, 2024

6:26 am

South Korea opposition accuses ruling party of ‘second coup’ by refusing to impeach Yoon

By AFP

A protester holding a cardboard reading "Leader of insurgents" on an image depicting the face of South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol takes part in a protest calling for his ouster outside the National Assembly in Seoul on December 8, 2024. (Philip Fong/AFP)

SEOUL – South Korea’s opposition accuses the ruling party of staging a “second coup” by clinging to power and refusing to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his declaration of martial law.

Yoon plunged the country into political chaos with his attempt to scrap civilian rule, which lasted just six hours after lawmakers scuffled with soldiers in the parliament building and managed to vote the measure down, forcing Yoon into an embarrassing U-turn.

The president and a slew of top officials are now being investigated for insurrection, but a bid to impeach Yoon failed Saturday after a boycott by the ruling party, who claim the wildly unpopular leader has agreed to hand power to the prime minister and party chief.

“This is an unlawful, unconstitutional act of a second insurrection and a second coup,” Democratic Party floor leader Park Chan-dae says, urging the ruling party to “stop it immediately.”

Under South Korea’s constitution, the president remains head of government and commander in chief of the army unless he or she is incapacitated, resigns or steps down.

Huge crowds are expected to gather again outside the National Assembly building today.

6:01 am

IDF releases images from Syrian side of Mount Hermon, after it was captured by troops yesterday

Troops of the elite Shaldag unit are seen on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, December 8, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF releases images from the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, after it was captured by troops yesterday.

The Israeli Air Force’s elite Shaldag unit raided the mountain, located more than 10 kilometers from the Israeli border, without facing any resistance.

The IDF has deployed forces to a buffer zone between Israel and Syria, which also includes the Mount Hermon area, as a defensive measure following the collapse of the Assad regime.

Troops of the elite Shaldag unit are seen on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, December 8, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

5:45 am

Syrian soccer federation changes kit color from red to green as Assad regime toppled

Rebels toppling the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad prompt the country’s soccer federation to change the color of the national team’s kit and logo from red to green.

Syrian rebels seized the capital Damascus unopposed on Sunday after a lightning advance that sent Assad fleeing to Russia after a 13-year civil war and six decades of his family’s autocratic rule.

As the events unfold, the Syrian soccer federation announce it is changing the color of its logo and the kit of the men’s first team.

“Our new national team uniform,” the Syrian football federation posts on Facebook alongside a photo of several players clad in green.

“The first historic change to happen in the history of Syrian sports, far from nepotism, favoritism and corruption,” it adds.

#Syrian national soccer team officially changed their logo: #Syria #SyriaisFree #سجن_صيدنايا #سوريا pic.twitter.com/OWkbiqckCN

— IRANIAN MEME FORCES (@sano_polo) December 8, 2024

4:32 am

Police hunting for 3 suspects in Melbourne synagogue arson, now designated as ‘terrorist attack’

By AFP and ToI Staff

A burnt portion of the Adass Israel synagogue that was firebombed two days earlier is seen in the Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea on December 9, 2024. (Martin Keep/AFP)

Australian police say they are hunting for three people suspected of torching a synagogue in Melbourne over the weekend, which authorities have now designated as a terrorist act.

Police have “three suspects in that matter, who we are pursuing,” Victorian police chief commissioner Shane Patton tells a news conference, adding that the fire is now considered a “terrorist attack.”

Victoria state premier Jacinta Allen, who was heckled by some local Jewish community members following the attack, also announces that the “evil, antisemitic attack… has now been declared a terror attack.”

She says “additional resources” can now be diverted to the investigation given its designation as terror-related.

Premier Jacinta Allen alongside Victoria Police have declared last week's firebombing of a Ripponlea synagogue a terrorist event.

The investigation into the incident at the Adass Israel Synagogue has now been transferred to the joint-counterterrorist team and is being run in… pic.twitter.com/adEHkKxgYR

— 10 News First Melbourne (@10NewsFirstMelb) December 9, 2024

Mask-wearing assailants on Friday morning set ablaze the Orthodox Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, a southeast suburb of the Victorian capital home to a large Jewish community.

One congregant was reportedly burned in the attack. The inside of the building was gutted and holy books were destroyed. Community members were seen rescuing Torah scrolls from the building.

Following the attack, police had said the attack was targeted, but that its motive was still unclear.

However, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was quick to comment on the incident: “An attack on a synagogue is by definition an act of antisemitism.”

Melbourne police beefed up security at several Jewish institutions following the arson attack.

Meanwhile, photos from the Adass Israel synagogue since the attack show an outpouring of support from neigbors, with flowers and signs reading, “We support the Jewish community,” and “best wishes for the rebuild” affixed to a barrier erected around the burned building.

Members of the Jewish community read messages attached to the fence at the Adass Israel Synagogue in the Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea on December 9, 2024. (Martin Keep/AFP)

2:54 am

Trump announces his personal lawyer Alina Habba will serve as presidential counselor

By Reuters and ToI Staff

Trump lawyer Alina Habba speaks at a campaign rally for former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on October 29, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP)

President-Elect Donald Trump announced Sunday that his personal lawyer, Alina Habba, will serve as counselor to the president in his upcoming second term.

Trump says in a Truth Social post that Habba has shown “unwavering loyalty” as part of Trump’s legal team across several criminal and civil trials, and calls her a “tireless advocate for justice.”

Habba has served as legal spokesperson for Trump and a senior advisor for his Super PAC, MAGA, Inc. since 2021.

2:33 am

Russia confirms taking in ex-Syrian president: ‘Breaking news! Bashar al-Assad and his family in Moscow’

File - Then-Syrian president Bashar Assad (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Damascus, Syria, January 7, 2020. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Syria’s former president Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow with his family after Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds, a Kremlin source tells Russian news agencies, adding that a deal has been made to ensure the safety of Russian military bases.

Earlier today, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that Assad had left Syria and given orders for a peaceful transfer of power, after rebel fighters raced into Damascus unopposed on Sunday morning, ending nearly six decades of his family’s iron-fisted rule.

“Syrian President Assad of Syria and members of his family have arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds,” the privately-owned Interfax news agency and state media quote the unnamed Kremlin source as saying.

Interfax cites the same Kremlin source as saying Russia favors a political solution led by the UN to the crisis in Syria, where Moscow supported Assad during the long civil war.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, writes on his Telegram channel: “Breaking news! Bashar al-Assad and his family in Moscow. Russia does not betray friends in difficult situations.”

Syrian opposition leaders had agreed to guarantee the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria, the source tells news agencies. But some Russian war bloggers say the situation around the bases was extremely tense and the source does not say how long the security guarantee lasted.

Moscow, a staunch backer of Assad whom it intervened to help in 2015 in its biggest Middle East foray since the Soviet collapse, is scrambling to salvage its position. Its geopolitical clout in the wider region and two strategically important military bases in Syria are on the line.

File – Visiting Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, and Mikhail Bogdanov, right, deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Special Representative of the President of Russia for the Middle East, review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony upon Assad’s arrival at Vnukovo airport in Moscow, Russia, March 14, 2023. (SANA via AP)

1:51 am

Cabinet members rally behind call to delay Netanyahu’s graft trial testimony after collapse of Syrian regime

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset in Jerusalem, November 13, 2024. (Chaim Goldbergl/Flash90)

Almost all of the members of the security cabinet have petitioned Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to delay the start of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony in his graft trial, given the recent fall of the Syrian regime and the ongoing war in Gaza.

Ynet news reports that all ministers apart from Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Defense Minister Israel Katz have signed the letter, penned by Shas chair Aryeh Deri.

“For over a year, Israel has been in an ongoing, multi-front security event, which, as is well known, began with the brutal massacre by Hamas terrorists,” on October 7, 2023, Deri reportedly writes to the attorney general.

“In the past week alone, many significant events have occurred in the security and political arena, some of which are known to the general public and some of which are still classified. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a fateful time for the State of Israel, one of the most fateful times we have known.”

He asserts that at this time, the prime minister should be focused entirely on “natural interests” and that giving testimony will block him from fulfilling that duty.

Netanyahu is currently scheduled to begin his testimony in an underground room in the Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday at 10 a.m.

The opposition has accused him of trying to indefinitely push off his potentially damaging testimony. The testimony comes after a series of delays stemming from the war against Hamas in Gaza and, until last week, against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

1:17 am

Report: Netanyahu planning to attend Trump’s inauguration in January

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

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to attend US President-elect’s inauguration in Washington on January 20, Channel 13 news reports.

The television station quotes a source in the Prime Minister’s Office as confirming that the trip is under consideration, though “no final decision has yet been made on the matter.”

Netanyahu is due to begin giving testimony on Tuesday in his criminal trial, which would need to break to allow for the trip, the report notes.

1:09 am

US, Mideast allies working to destroy chemical weapons that belonged to Assad regime — senior Biden official