The Times of Israel is liveblogged Friday’s events as they unfolded.
After an hour, the IDF’s Home Front Command gives residents of Karmei Tzur the all-clear to leave their homes after telling them to shelter in place due to a suspected infiltration in the West Bank settlement.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, the group says on its Telegram channel.
A suicide bomber killed at least 31 people and wounded nearly 170 others during Friday prayers at the mosque, police and government officials say.
Israel’s Olympic team walked into the stadium during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday to a smattering of boos at what had otherwise been an upbeat and festive celebration of the global winter sports extravaganza.
The four-person Israeli delegation, waving the country’s flag and smiling, marched into the San Siro stadium during the parade of participating countries, with the boos quickly drowned out by the loud soundtrack.
In Cortina d’Ampezzo, where a simultaneous parade was held for competitors located in the mountain cluster, Israel’s athletes earned some cheers, while in Predazzo, site of the ski jumping venue, there were some boos heard.
Israeli athletes said prior to the opening ceremony that they were prepared for a potentially hostile reception following the war in Gaza.
ISRAËL HUÉE AUX JO !!!
La delegation israélienne huée au moment de defiler lors de la cérémonie d’ouverture des JO de Milan Cortina.
Ça devient vraiment insupportable. pic.twitter.com/vlcMeHIQeW— E. David Benaym (@benaym) February 6, 2026
“I’m prepared, they can do whatever they want,” Israeli skier Barnabas Szollos said ahead of the opening ceremony. “I just want to have a good race, fun race and do the best I can.”
The IDF says it has dispatched troops to the West Bank settlement of Karmei Tzur after two suspects were identified approaching the community’s fence.
A siren warning of a suspected infiltration sounds in the settlement, and residents are instructed to remain locked in their homes until further notice.
“IDF troops are scanning the area and additional forces have been deployed,” the army says.
A fire erupted at a wood workshop located within the grounds of a military barracks in the Iranian capital on Friday, the army says in a statement.
The blaze was contained and no injuries have been reported, the army adds, as it blamed an electrical fault for the fire.
“The fire was brought under control when firefighting teams arrived on time,” sats the statement, which is carried by official media.
Earlier this week, a fire broke out at a bazaar west of Tehran, with rescuers bringing it under control.
The fire on Tuesday did not result in any injuries, rescuers had said at the time.
The US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee has added a terrorism charge to an indictment against a man who allegedly firebombed a nonprofit research and education center.
According to court documents from yesterday published by the Court Watch website, Regan Darby Prater has now also been accused of handing over a list of “individuals purportedly affiliated with Israel” to the Hezbollah terror organization.
Along with malicious use of fire, the additional charge Prater now faces is for the attempted provision of material support to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Earlier court documents said Prater was motivated by the mass shootings targeting mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, several days before he carried out the firebombing attack in March of 2019.
He spray-painted a symbol of the Iron Guard, a WWII-era Romanian Nazi group, in the parking lot of the nonprofit center that he targeted, the documents said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas received a draft constitution yesterday that aims to transition the PA to a full-fledged state, Ramallah’s official Wafa media outlet says.
Drafting committee chairman Muhammad al-Hajj Qasim presented the nearly-70 page document to Abbas after holding seven months of consultations.
The importance of the development is not fully clear because the PA already refers to itself as a full-fledged state, but this would be the first time the transition is embedded in a constitutional framework.
To date, the PA has been operating under the PA basic laws.
Abbas ordered that the draft constitution be submitted to the Palestine Liberation’s Executive Committee for review.
It will then have to go through a public referendum — something Israel will likely seek to block as it violates the Oslo framework, which envisions Palestinian statehood resulting from direct negotiations between the parties. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long opposed such negotiations, though, and Jerusalem has accused Ramallah of rejecting previous statehood offers.
The draft constitution stipulates that if approved, some of its provisions would take effect before a presidential election is held, while other provisions would take effect afterward.
The document maintains the main elements of the existing presidential system, but stipulates that the position should have a limit of two four-year terms. Abbas is currently serving in the 21st year of his first term after cancelling several planned elections over what he says has been Israel’s refusal to allow balloting in East Jerusalem. The decision is also widely understood to also be due to fears of Hamas gains.
No date has been set for either the parliamentary or presidential elections in the PA.
However, PA municipal elections are slated for April and the first-ever direct, popular elections for the PLO’s Palestinian National Council are scheduled for November. The latter body selects the members of the PLO’s Executive Committee.
The PLO is supposed to be the overarching umbrella body representing Palestinians worldwide, whereas the PA is supposed to be a transitional administrative body providing services for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
No date has been set for a referendum on the draft constitution, and analysts speculate that Abbas is not likely to rush the move. Such a vote would likely meet significant pushback from Israel, which is already withholding several billion dollars in tax revenues that belong to Ramallah, significantly hampering its effort to pay public sector employees and continue to function.
But Abbas is also facing pressure both domestically and from the international community to reform the PA, and the new constitution is framed as a key part of that process.
Today’s nuclear talks between the US and Iran in Oman included an in-person meeting between US President Donald Trump’s top aides Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi, Channel 12 reports, citing two sources familiar.
The rest of the talks were held indirectly, with Oman mediating.
Channel 12 says the US negotiators told their Iranian counterparts that they expect Tehran to come to the next meeting with a tangible and significant concession related to the nuclear file.
The network also indicates the US will likely take additional steps to boost its military presence in the region on Saturday, improving Washington’s posture ahead of a potential strike if the talks fail.
Channel 12 cites an unnamed senior Israeli official who warns Iran against targeting the Jewish state, saying the response to such an attack would be “Operation Rising Lion on steroids.”
“Rising Lion” is the name Israel gave to its June 2025 strikes on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which also saw the IDF decimate Tehran’s air defenses.
The network cites another Israeli official who speculates that today’s talks between the US and Iran in Oman will not lead to an agreement, as the gaps between the sides are too large.
Iran has rejected US calls to halt uranium enrichment on its territory during talks in Oman on Friday, a regional diplomat briefed by Tehran tells Reuters, but said it was willing to discuss the “level and purity” of enrichment or a regional consortium.
The diplomat adds that Tehran believed the US negotiators “seemed to understand Iran’s stance on the enrichment … and they showed flexibility about Tehran’s demands.”
He adds that Iran’s missile capabilities were not discussed during the talks in Muscat.
After indirect talks between Iran and the United States were held today in Oman over Tehran’s nuclear program, the US Central Command publishes new footage of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which arrived in the region last week.
“The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, accompanied by two military supply ships, and two US Coast Guard cutters, sailed together in the Arabian Sea today as aircraft from Carrier Air Wing 9 flew overhead,” CENTCOM writes on X.
The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, accompanied by two military supply ships, and two U.S. Coast Guard cutters, sailed together in the Arabian Sea today as aircraft from Carrier Air Wing 9 flew overhead. Peace through Strength! ⚓️ pic.twitter.com/xkiCk8qymB
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) February 6, 2026
The aircraft carrier was moved to the Arabian Sea as US President Donald Trump threatened to attack Iran in response to the regime’s deadly crackdown on protesters.
The White House said Friday that a post on President Donald Trump’s social media account sharing a racist video depicting Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as apes was made in error by a staff member, and has been removed.
“A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down,” a White House official tells AFP. Trump’s spokeswoman had dismissed “fake outrage” over the post hours earlier.
A Palestinian who crossed the Gaza ceasefire line in the Strip’s north earlier today was killed by troops, the military says.
According to the IDF, several terror operatives crossed the Yellow Line and approached reservists of the Alexandroni Brigade “in a manner that posed an immediate threat.”
“Immediately after the identification, the troops fired toward the terrorists to remove the threat. One of the terrorists was eliminated,” the army says.
Since the start of the ceasefire in October 2025, the IDF has said it has killed dozens of terror operatives and other “suspects” who have crossed the Yellow Line — demarcating the military’s withdrawal in the Strip — and approached troops. Such incidents have taken place on a near-daily basis.
The US has reportedly carried out two deportation flights for Palestinians illegally residing in the country, cooperating with Israel to send them back to the West Bank while using a private jet belonging to an Israeli-American businessman allied with President Donald Trump.
Haaretz says the first flight was carried out on January 21, carrying eight shackled passengers, and a second flight carrying an undisclosed number was conducted on February 2, according to the Guardian.
Both flights used the private jet belonging to Gil Dezer, a Trump donor, friend of Donald Trump Jr. and a member of the Miami branch of Friends of the IDF.
The Palestinians were flown to Ben Gurion Airport before being picked up by Israeli security officials who drove them to a West Bank checkpoint and left them there.
“They dropped us off like animals on the side of the road,” 24-year-old Maher Awad said. “We went to a local house, we knocked on the door, we were like: ‘Please help us out.’”
A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not answer questions about the deportation flights to Israel, but tells the Guardian, “If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry declines to comment on the operation.
The United States is sanctioning 15 entities and 14 shadow fleet vessels connected to the illicit trade in Iranian petroleum, petroleum products and petrochemical products, the State Department says.
The announcement comes hours after the US and Iran wrapped up nuclear talks in Oman.
Iran has repaired several ballistic missile manufacturing facilities damaged during last year’s 12-day war, while only making limited repairs to a major nuclear site struck by Israel and the US during that conflict, satellite imagery published by The New York Times suggests.
The photos indicate Iran’s priorities as it prepares to fend off a potential US attack, with ballistic missiles likely to be used in such a scenario to retaliate against Israel and US assets in the region.
The satellite images show work carried out over the past several months at a dozen ballistic missile facilities.
While the photos show some work at Iran’s three main nuclear facilities — Isfahan, Natanz and Fordo — appear inoperative, The Times says.
A suicide blast at a Shiite mosque in Islamabad killed at least 31 people earlier today, with 169 more wounded in the deadliest attack in Pakistan’s capital since the 2008 Marriott hotel bombing.
City officials say 31 people died in the blast at the Imam Bargah Qasr-e-Khadijatul Kubra mosque in the Tarlai area on the city’s outskirts, with scores more being treated for injuries. The death toll is expected to rise further.
The explosion occurred at Friday prayers, when mosques around the country are packed with worshippers.
“The attacker was stopped at the gate and detonated himself,” a security source tells AFP.
Muhammad Kazim, a 52-year-old worshipper, says an “extremely powerful” explosion ripped through the building as prayers were just starting. “During the first bow of the Namaz (prayer ritual), we heard gunfire.”
“And while we were still in the bowing position, an explosion occurred,” he says.
Another worshipper, Imran Mahmood, tells AFP there was a gunfight between the bomber, a possible accomplice and volunteer security personnel at the mosque.
“The suicide attacker was trying to move forward, but one of our injured volunteers fired at him from behind, hitting him in the thigh,” he tells AFP.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says those behind the blast would be found and brought to justice.
South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman says on X that the target suggested it was either the local affiliate of the Islamic State group or anti-Shiite militants.
US President Donald Trump used his social media account to share a video about election conspiracy theories that includes a racist depiction of former president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as apes in a jungle.
The Republican president’s Thursday night post immediately drew backlash for its treatment of the nation’s first Black president and first lady. It was part of a flurry of social media activity that amplified Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite courts around the country and a Trump attorney general from his first term finding no evidence of fraud that could have affected the outcome.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected criticism of the post that depicted the Obamas, who are Democrats. An Obama spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Nearly all of the 62-second clip, which was among dozens of Truth Social posts from Trump overnight, appears to be from a conservative video alleging deliberate tampering with voting machines in battleground states as the 2020 presidential votes were tallied. At the 60-second mark is a quick scene of two primates, with the Obamas’ smiling faces imposed on them.
It is absolutely positively real. Donald Trump posted this video that depicts the Obamas as apes. It’s 59 seconds into the video.
I just screen grabbed it for the people who are saying it isn’t true.
Was it snuck in there? If so it needs the apology of all time. pic.twitter.com/0ALSFH1Il0
— Jennifer ????????????♀️????????⬛ ???? (@babybeginner) February 6, 2026
Those frames were taken from a longer video, previously circulated by an influential conservative meme maker. It shows Trump as “King of the Jungle” and depicts a range of Democratic leaders as animals, including Joe Biden, who is white, as a primate eating a banana.
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” Leavitt says by text, referring to Disney’s 1994 feature film. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Trump does not comment on the video in his post.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott, who is Black, is among those who criticized the post.
“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it,” Scott, who chairs Senate Republicans’ midterm campaign arm, says on social media.
The US has arrested a person suspected of playing a role in the 2012 attack on its consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Attorney General Pam Bondi says.
Bondi says Zubayar al-Bakoush has been extradited to the United States and will face murder, arson and terrorism related charges.
“The FBI has arrested one of the key participants behind the Benghazi attack. Zubayar al-Bakoush landed at Andrews Air Force Base at 3 a.m. this morning. He is in our custody,” Bondi says at a news conference.
Four US personnel were killed in the September 11, 2012, incident, which was initially thought to be a spontaneous reaction to protests but was later identified as a deliberate attack carried out by extremists, some of whom were linked to groups affiliated with al Qaeda.
Two other people have been arrested and sentenced for playing a role in the attack.
The attack became a symbol of the chaos in Benghazi and Libya as a whole, highlighting the instability and the presence of terrorism in the region. It led to a series of investigations in the United States, in which congressional Republicans clashed with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ahead of her 2016 presidential run as a Democrat.
Hezbollah has accepted the resignation of senior security official Wafiq Safa, the first time an official of his rank has stepped down, sources familiar with the group’s thinking tell Reuters.
Safa, who heads Hezbollah’s liaison and coordination unit responsible for working with Lebanese security agencies, survived an Israeli assassination attempt in October 2024.
Progressive US Sen. Bernie Sanders’ political director is holding onto a very thin lead in a special House Democratic primary race, indicating AIPAC’s strategy in it may have backfired.
Analilia Mejia is leading former congressman Tom Malinowski by 486 votes, amounting to less than a percentage point after 91% of the ballots have been counted.
The AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project spent significant funds to try and boost another candidate who finished in a distant third, while running attack ads against Malinowski — a former ally of the pro-Israel lobby who has become increasingly critical of the Israeli government’s policies toward the Palestinians.
Mejia’s was not favored to win, but may have benefited from the negative campaign against Malinowski.
Responding to the initial results, UDP says, “The outcome in NJ-11 was an anticipated possibility, and our focus remains on who will serve the next full term in Congress. UDP will be closely monitoring dozens of primary races, including the June NJ-11 primary, to help ensure pro-Israel candidates are elected to Congress.”
Mejia and Malinowski are competing to fill the New Jersey 11th District seat, which was vacated after Mikie Sherill was elected governor of the state.
All three counties in the district report some mail-in ballots yet to be processed. Also, mail-in ballots postmarked by election day can arrive as late as Wednesday and still be counted.
Malinowski did better than Mejia among the mail-in ballots already counted in all three counties, leaving the outcome of the race uncertain.
The Democratic winner will face Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway, who was unopposed in the Republican primary, on April 16.
Malinowski served two terms in the House before losing a bid for reelection in a different district in 2022. He had the endorsement of New Jersey Democratic Sen. Andy Kim, who has built support among progressive groups.
Mejia, a former head of the Working Families Alliance in the state and political director for Sanders during his 2020 presidential run, had the Vermont independent senator’s endorsement as well as that of US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York. She also worked in President Joe Biden’s Labor Department as deputy director of the women’s bureau.
The special primary and April general election will determine who serves the remainder of Sherrill’s term, which ends next January. There will be a regular primary in June and a general election in November for the next two-year term.
A Hamas weapon production site and an arms depot were targeted in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in response to an attack on troops yesterday, the military says.
One of the sites was struck in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis overnight, and the second site, in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, was hit this afternoon following an evacuation warning.
The IDF says it launched the strikes in response to an attack by gunmen on troops in the Strip’s north yesterday.
No soldiers were hurt by the gunfire, which the IDF says was a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
“As part of the strikes, the IDF targeted a site used by the Hamas terror organization for weapons production and a weapons storage facility belonging to the organization,” the military says.
The IDF says it carried out the strikes following warnings to civilians, and “after identification confirmed that no uninvolved civilians were present in the vicinity of the targeted terror infrastructure.”
“The IDF views any violation of the ceasefire agreement gravely, and will act against any attempt by terror organizations in the Gaza Strip to carry out terror attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel,” the army adds.
בתגובה להפרת הסכם הפסקת האש אתמול: צה"ל תקף תשתיות של ארגון הטרור חמאס ברצועת עזה
צה"ל תקף ביממה האחרונה תשתיות של ארגון הטרור חמאס ברצועת עזה, בתגובה להפרת ההסכם בעקבות ירי מחבלים אתמול לעבר כוחות צה"ל בצפון רצועת עזה.
במסגרת התקיפות, צה"ל תקף אתר ששימש את ארגון הטרור חמאס… pic.twitter.com/p8VnR3Hbo5
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) February 6, 2026
Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit says in a statement she “deeply regretted” her friendship with US convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the situation it had put the royal family in.
A commoner who married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, Mette-Marit’s name appears in the tranche of new Epstein documents released a week ago, revealing an unexpected close friendship between the two and raising questions in Norway of whether she can be queen one day.
“I deeply regret my friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. It is important for me to apologize to all of those whom I have disappointed … I also regret the situation I have put the royal family in, especially the king and queen,” she says.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi tells reporters after today’s nuclear talks with the US in Oman that they were “positive” and that the sides agreed to continue negotiations.
The exact time and place of the next round still need to be decided, he notes.
Aragchi says the sides are working to build mutual trust and that if this trend continues, a clearer framework for negotiations can be identified.
Iranian state TV reports that Tehran’s nuclear talks with the US in the Omani capital Muscat have ended.
Citing an unnamed source familiar, Axios reports that another round will take place in the coming days.
A man has been shot and killed near the entrance to Yafia, an Arab town just south of Nazareth.
The victim, a man in his 30s, is identified by Arabic outlets as Islam Rajeh Abu Ahmad. With his death, the death toll from homicides in Arab society is hiked up to nine within the first week of February.
Paramedics found the man in critical condition on the town’s perimeter and took him to the hospital, where medical staff pronounced him dead.
Police say they have opened an investigation into the lethal shooting and are searching for the perpetrators. No suspects have yet been arrested.
Arab society has witnessed a particularly bloody week after two homicides, a double homicide and two triple homicides claimed 10 people’s lives. Last year was the deadliest year for Israel’s Arab minority on record in terms of crime, however, this year stands to surpass even that if killings continue at their current pace.
Last night, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir held a situation assessment with senior police brass on violent crime in the Arab sector, after two men were shot dead in East Jerusalem. During the meeting, he urged officers to “acknowledge the silver lining” that homicides in the Jewish sector have dropped since the start of the year.
Following an IDF evacuation warning, Palestinian media reports that an Israeli airstrike targeted a three-story residential building in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood.
The military, an hour ago, warned that it would strike “Hamas terror infrastructure” at the building.
It marks the first Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip with an official prior evacuation warning issued by the military since September 2025, before the ongoing ceasefire.
لحظة قصف طيران الاحتلال لبناية بعد أن هددها في حي الزيتون، جنوب شرق مدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/qgBCo23oYd
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) February 6, 2026
The military has not yet provided further details on the strike.
Amid the ongoing tensions with Iran, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin once again reiterates that there are no still changes to the military’s guidelines for the Israeli public.
“As in previous weeks, I wish to emphasize IDF troops are prepared both defensively and offensively along all the country’s borders. There is no change in the directives, and we will know to update as needed should there be any change,” he says in a post on X.
The IDF has been on high alert and has carried out preparations in recent weeks after US President Donald Trump threatened military action against Iran, against the backdrop of the regime’s killing of protesters.
Lebanon signs an agreement with Syria to hand some 300 convicts over to Damascus, a move seen as key to helping turn a new page in ties between the countries.
Overcrowded Lebanese prisons hold more than 2,200 Syrians held on various charges. Many of them are still awaiting trial, while hundreds accused of “terrorism” or related offenses, including attacks on Lebanese forces, have been brought before military courts.
Others are in custody for alleged membership in jihadist or armed groups that were opposed to now ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who was supported by Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group during the Syrian civil war.
Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri and Syrian Justice Minister Mazhar al-Wais announce the signing of the agreement at a press conference in Beirut.
Wais calls it “an important step on the path to justice in addressing the situation of convicts who have spent a long time in prison and whose cases were among the most complex legally.”
The agreement covers around 300 convicts, while the remaining detainees require “long procedures” before a similar agreement on them can be reached, Wais says.
The deal reinforces “the trust and political will that already exists between the two countries,” he says, expressing hope it would help improve ties.
Lebanese authorities have said that the convicts who meet the requirements, including having spent at least 10 years behind bars, will be handed over to Syria, where they will serve the rest of their sentences.
Mitri tells AFP that cooperation extended beyond the issue of convicts, with officials working to “resolve all common issues that will set bilateral relations right.”
The first step following the deal’s signing would be a cabinet decision to “abolish the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council,” an Assad-era body.
Authorities will also review “unfair agreements concluded during the time of Syrian tutelage in Lebanon, as well as the demarcation of the land and maritime borders,” Mitri adds.
The IDF issues an evacuation warning for a building in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, ahead of an airstrike against “Hamas terror infrastructure.”
“The IDF will attack the building in the near future due to the presence of Hamas terror infrastructure inside it or in its vicinity,” warns Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman.
Civilians in the area are instructed to distance themselves at least 100 meters from the site.
#عاجل ‼️انذار عاجل إلى سكان حي الزيتون وتحديدًا في مفرق شارعيْ أم المون والمعمداني البرية في المبنى المحدد بالأحمر والسكان المتواجدين على مقربة منه
⭕️سيهاجم جيش الدفاع المبنى على المدى الزمني القريب وذلك نظرًا لوجود بنى تحتية إرهابية تابعة لحماس داخله أو قريبًا منه
⭕️من أجل… pic.twitter.com/rRqP5Y0H8Z
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) February 6, 2026
The planned strike comes after the military said it struck a “terror infrastructure” in southern Gaza overnight, which came as a response to gunfire toward Israeli troops in the Strip’s north yesterday.
No soldiers were hurt by the gunfire, the IDF said, adding that the attack was a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire.
Former IDF chief of staff and ex-Knesset member Gadi Eisenkot writes to State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman to accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of submitting a “fabricated defense” in response to the comptroller’s October 7 investigation.
Last night, Netanyahu released the full 55-page document of his answers given to the state comptroller as part of the ombudsman’s investigation into the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led atrocities. In it, he pinned the failure to prevent the onslaught on political rivals and security chiefs, including Eisenkot, while presenting himself in a positive light and reducing his responsibility for the attack.
In his answers to Englman, Netanyahu sought to build the case, with partial, curated quotes from cabinet protocols, that he repeatedly pushed for assassinating Hamas leaders, but security chiefs consistently argued against the idea. The prime minister has the authority, subject to legal challenge, to release and redact such materials.
Now, Eisenkot charges in a letter to Englman that Netanyahu “constructed and published a fabricated defense adapted to his needs from confidential minutes, while abusing his exclusive authority to see and publish minutes from sensitive meetings.”
“The situation in which one of the main responsible parties, if not the main and foremost one, can publish misleading and false statements and gain an advantage over all the other witnesses, is an unacceptable situation,” continues Eisenkot, who, since leaving the Knesset, has formed his own political party to run in the elections later this year.
Continuing, Eisenkot accuses Netanyahu of using secretive documents deliberately in an election year “out of a desire to improve his image, distance himself from blame, and harm the other candidates facing him.”
Eisenkot requests that the State Comptroller’s Office allow the relevant people to review the full minutes of the meetings referenced by the premier in his “partial and manipulative” response, and tells Englman that he will be happy to “set the record straight” regarding his own actions during his time as IDF chief.
A second round of indirect negotiations is underway in Oman, according to media reports, after the first round this morning lasted for about 90 minutes.
The talks are being mediated by Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi.
In both rounds, the Iranian delegation met with al-Busaidi first, and the US delegation only arrived at the location in Muscat after the Iranians had departed.
Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties with former prime minister Ehud Barak prove that he wasn’t an Israeli agent, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on X.
“Jeffrey Epstein’s unusual close relationship with Ehud Barak doesn’t suggest Epstein worked for Israel,” he writes. “It proves the opposite.”
“Stuck on his election loss from over two decades ago, Barak has for years obsessively attempted to undermine Israeli democracy by working with the anti-Zionist radical left in failed attempts to overthrow the elected Israeli government,” writes Netanyahu.
The US Justice Department’s release of millions of internal documents related to Epstein revealed the late financier’s ties to many prominent people in politics, finance, academia and business, including Barak.
“Barak’s personal fixation led him to engage in activities publicly and behind the scenes to undermine the government of Israel, including fueling mass protest movements, fomenting unrest and feeding false media narratives,” says Netanyahu.
Conspiracy theories about Epstein working for the Mossad abound online.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges, including soliciting an underage girl.
He was arrested again in 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors. His death in a Manhattan jail cell that year was ruled a suicide.
Israel’s Kan public broadcaster announces that it has selected the song that Noam Bettan will sing at this year’s Eurovision — which will be revealed next month.
The committee tapped by Kan to pick this year’s song narrowed around 200 submissions down to four finalists. Bettan recorded the four songs and the committee of experts crowned a winner, Kan says.
The song will be released by Kan on March 5. It contains lyrics in Hebrew, French and English (Bettan was born in Israel to French immigrant parents and often sings in the language).
It was written by Nadav Aharoni, Tslil Klifi and Yuval Raphael — a survivor of the Nova festival massacre who represented Israel at last year’s Eurovision.
Unlike the past two years, when Israel sent a ballad to the song contest, this year’s entry will be in “a slightly different style,” says Kan.
Kan says the song will now be sent to the European Broadcasting Union for final approval. The Eurovision is scheduled for May in Vienna, Austria.
Pope Leo XIV urges nations to respect the tradition of the Olympic Truce as an “instrument of hope,” ahead of the opening ceremony of the Winter Games in Italy.
“On the occasion of the upcoming Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, I wholeheartedly encourage all nations to rediscover and respect this instrument of hope that is the Olympic Truce, a symbol and promise of a reconciled world,” the US-born pontiff says in a letter on the value of sport.
UN member states last November adopted a resolution urging international conflicts be paused during the Olympics — an ideal embraced in principle every two years yet regularly ignored.
In the eight-page document, released by the Vatican ahead of tonight’s ceremony at Milan’s San Siro stadium, Leo reflects on the benefits of sport — and the risks of its corruption.
A keen tennis player, the 70-year-old noted the “exhilarating” experience of a prolonged rally between players, as well as the sense of accomplishment that sports bring and their power to unite people.
He stresses the importance of making sports accessible to everyone — and warns of the risks that it becomes solely about business, or exploited for political means.
“When sport succumbs to the mentality of power, propaganda or national supremacy, its universal vocation is betrayed,” the pope says.
“Major sporting events are meant to be places of encounter and mutual admiration, not stages for the affirmation of political or ideological interests.”
Modelled on a millennia-old Greek tradition, the Olympic Truce has been introduced at the UN biennially since 1993 by the host country.
In theory, for these Winter Games, it would be observed seven days before the February 6 start until seven days after the March 15 conclusion of the Paralympics.
But peace, as ever, remains elusive.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and that war shows no sign of ending, a conflict which also led to a range of sporting bans for Russian and Belarusian athletes.
A ceasefire deal between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas came into effect on October 10, but it remains fragile, with both sides accusing each other of violating the terms.
Lebanon’s army must be given the means to disarm the Hezbollah terror group, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot tells AFP ahead of his expected arrival in Beirut on Friday.
“France’s vision for Lebanon is that of a strong, sovereign state holding a monopoly on arms,” he says.
“The first step to fulfil this mission is to give the Lebanese Armed Forces the means to continue the work of disarming Hezbollah,” adds the minister, whose country will host a conference in support of the Lebanese army on March 5.
The bus driver who crashed into a building in Ramat Gan, injuring 10, has been detained for questioning, the Israel Police confirm.
According to Ynet, the bus driver claims he lost control of the bus after he accidentally pressed the gas pedal instead of the brakes.
Oman confirms it mediated indirect talks this morning between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program and other issues.
Oman’s Foreign Ministry makes the announcement in a post on X.
Oman says Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi met separately with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, then with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
“The consultations focused on preparing the appropriate circumstances for resuming the diplomatic and technical negotiations by ensuring the importance of these negotiations, in light of the parties’ determination to ensure their success in achieving sustainable security and stability,” the Omani announcement says.
Magen David Adom says it is treating 10 people for varying degrees of injuries after a bus crashed into a building in Ramat Gan, central Israel.
The ambulance service says that a woman previously reported to be in critical condition is suffering from multi-system injuries after she was trapped under the bus.
Another woman, said to be in her 60s, was moderately injured and was evacuated to the hospital from the scene of the crash, MDA says.
An additional eight people were lightly injured and were treated at the scene.
Police forces are present at the scene of the crash, the Israel Police say.
A motorcade believed to be carrying American officials has left the site of talks between Iran and the United States in Muscat, Oman.
The cars left a palace on the outskirts of the sultanate’s capital after about an hour and a half.
There is no immediate comment from US officials.
Iranian officials had been at the site before the Americans arrived.
A woman is in critical condition after a bus crashed into a building in Ramat Gan, in central Israel.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service says the woman, 30, is being transferred to Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv while undergoing emergency medical treatment.
It is unclear if there are any other injuries as a result of the crash.
State prosecutors have filed an indictment charging a soldier with murder over the fatal shooting of a young Druze man in northern Israel last month.
Police confirmed earlier this week that prosecutors were preparing the charges.
The 21-year-old soldier, who was off-duty at the time, is suspected of killing 23-year-old Sharif Hadid the evening of January 8 following a roadside argument on Route 6, a major highway.
His attorney requested an extension this morning to the gag order preventing his name from being made public.
According to Ynet, he requested the extension to prevent the suspect’s brother from harassment, as he was also initially arrested on suspicion of tampering with evidence but was not charged.
The soldier, according to Hebrew reports over the past week, claimed to interrogators he shot Hadid because he felt threatened, after the man and his brother advanced toward him “in a threatening manner.”
However, the victim’s brother, Amir Hadid, who was also at the scene, reportedly claimed the soldier first hit his brother in the head with the barrel of his gun, then shot him five times unprovoked.
Yesh Atid lawmaker Elazar Stern writes to the chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, MK Boaz Bismuth, to request full transcripts of various cabinet meetings referenced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a closed-door committee meeting yesterday.
During the meeting, the premier was reported to have tried to distance himself from the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, averring that the intelligence presented to him did not indicate such an invasion and that his previous efforts to deter Hamas were thwarted by defense officials.
To back up his claims, Netanyahu presented snippets from various cabinet meetings and security discussions held in the weeks and months leading up to October 7.
Stern, in his letter to Bismuth, says that the committee’s “ability to fulfill its role” will be impaired if it does not receive the full transcripts of all the meetings referenced by Netanyahu.
He writes that he had warned during yesterday’s meeting that Netanyahu, “with the help of his aides sitting next to him, only quotes the parts of sentences and discussions that are convenient for him.”
He suggests that Bismuth should either reconvene the committee for another closed-door discussion to present the full minutes of all relevant meetings or, if he prefers, distribute the minutes to committee members ahead of time and convene to review them afterward.
“Since partial quotes have already been provided, if you do not respond to my request, this will continue to seriously harm the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s ability to fulfill its role, in deliberations and in voting,” he writes.
Stern publishes the letter online, and again warns in an accompanying statement that “presenting partial and biased quotes” harms the committee’s ability to function.
“Failure to present the full material will harm the status of the committee and the public’s trust in its work, and will portray it as acting out of narrow political considerations rather than security considerations,” he says.
Negotiations between Iran and the United States have kicked off in Oman, Iranian media reports.
The Iranian delegation is being led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff leading the US delegation.
Just before the talks began, Araghchi warned that Tehran was ready to defend itself against “excessive demands or adventurism” by the US.
He told his Omani counterpart that the Islamic Republic would take the “approach of using diplomacy to secure Iran’s national interests.”
Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi met with his Omani counterpart in Muscat this morning ahead of Oman-mediated talks with the United States on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
Araghchi and Badr al-Busaidi “discussed the most important bilateral, regional, and international issues,” reported Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency, which published a photo of the two diplomats seated at a table with their national flags on it.
Oman previously served as a mediator between Iran and the United States in nuclear negotiations held in 2025, which were interrupted in June by the 12-day Israel-Iran war that was briefly joined by the US military.
A resident of Beit She’an, in northern Israel, has been indicted on suspicion of attacking the city’s chief rabbi last month.
The indictment filed this morning against the 44-year-old suspect charges that he physically attacked Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Lasri at the entrance to his own home on January 17 and then fled the scene.
Ynet reports that at the time, Lasri decided against pressing charges and instead handled the incident directly with the suspect’s family.
Nevertheless, an indictment was filed against the suspect by the Tiberias police department.
The Iranian delegation in Oman is en route to the location of today’s negotiations with the US, Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reports.
The talks were originally due to begin at 10 a.m. local time (8 a.m. Israel time), but the Iranian news outlet reports that they were pushed back by about an hour.
Iran’s foreign minister calls for “mutual respect” ahead of talks with the United States on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and other issues.
“Iran enters diplomacy with open eyes and a steady memory of the past year. We engage in good faith and stand firm on our rights,” Abbas Araghchi writes on X.
“Commitments need to be honored. Equal standing, mutual respect and mutual interest are not rhetoric — they are a must and the pillars of a durable agreement.”
The military says that it carried out targeted strikes on “terror infrastructure” in the Gaza Strip after Israeli troops were fired at on Thursday.
The Israel Defense Forces says that no soldiers were hurt by the gunfire in northern Gaza and accuses the operatives who shot at troops of a “brazen violation” of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.
In his newly publicized answers to the state comptroller’s October 7 inquiry, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu releases a partial cabinet meeting transcript from September 12, 2023 in which then-defense minister Yoav Gallant says the security situation in Gaza is “stable,” and that Israel should “hold back its forces” against Hamas.
The released answers — designed to place responsibility on the shoulders of IDF and Shin Bet leadership — were presented to State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman on December 25, 2025.
In the highly curated document meant to present Netanyahu in a positive light and reduce his responsibility for the October 7, 2023 attacks, he includes a summary of a September 21, 2023 situational assessment headed by then-IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi that says that “the chief of staff believes that it is possible to create a positive direction with Hamas” with economic incentives.
In a meeting with Netanyahu ten days before Hamas invaded, a representative from the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate said that Hamas “does want to reach an escalation,” while then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar said “they very much want to avoid a round of fighting.”
Gallant, subsequently fired by Netanyahu during the war, voices a similar assessment about Hamas’s intentions, and pushes for a long-term arrangement with Hamas to ensure quiet.
Through the selected debates he released, Netanyahu seeks to show that top ministers and security chiefs were consistently pushing for ways to buy extended quiet from Hamas, while the prime minister was arguing for preparations for assassinations of Hamas leaders.
He focuses especially on Bar — whom he also sacked during the war — and releases quotes in the day leading up to the invasion in which Bar says that quiet has been returned to the Gaza border, and a “deeper arrangement” with Hamas can be reached.
On the day of that attack itself, Netanyahu presents a timeline of the events.
At 6:29 a.m., his military secretary Maj. Gen. Avi Gil informed him that an attack has begun.
At 6:44 a.m., Netanyahu asked if Israel can take out Hamas leaders, and whether the call-up of reserves is necessary.
He headed to the IDF Kirya headquarters in Tel Aviv at 8 a.m. During a 9:55 a.m. meeting, he ordered the Gaza border closed hermetically to stop continued incursions and hostages being taken into Gaza, according to Netanyahu’s curated answers to Englman. He also said he ordered a full call-up of reserves and prepare for attacks from the north as well.
Netanyahu also stated that he ordered plans for a ground invasion of Gaza to be drawn up as well.
According to Netanyahu, in parallel Gil received a summary of the Shin Bet situational assessment that wrapped up at 5:15 a.m., shortly before the Hamas attack.
In fragmented quotes shared by Netanyahu, the summary of the Shin Bet meeting says that the chances of a broad conflict with Hamas are low, and therefore Israeli actions should focus on stopping any attacks and not anything that could lead to a miscalculation and a war with Hamas.
Netanyahu points out that nowhere in the summary is there an instruction to update his military secretary, seeking to bolster his claim that key information was kept from him before the invasion.
Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Oman late Thursday for nuclear talks with the United States, Iranian state news agency IRNA reports.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “arrived in Muscat, the capital of Oman, to participate in a new round of nuclear talks with the American delegation,” the agency says.
He is scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, with Washington seeking diplomatic progress on the Iranian nuclear program and other issues while refusing to rule out military action.
Iran has said the talks will start from 10 a.m. local time in Oman.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman that he examined the possibility of conquering the Gaza Strip many times in the years before the October 7, 2023, attacks, but the security establishment repeatedly shot it down, arguing that it would take a long, costly war without domestic or international legitimacy, and that there was no governing alternative to Hamas ready.
In his answers, released this evening, Netanyahu builds the case with curated quotes that he repeatedly pushed for assassinating Hamas leaders, but security chiefs consistently argued against the idea.
Netanyahu included in his response to Englman a cabinet meeting from July 2014, during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
He brings up conquering Gaza, and then-economy minister Naftali Bennett, who says, “I never talked about ‘conquering Gaza.'” According to the protocols, Netanyahu responds that the only way to demilitarize Gaza is to conquer it militarily.
Bennett is the leading challenger to Netanyahu in this year’s elections, and the prime minister has a clear political incentive to portray Bennett as someone who argued against taking out Hamas.
Netanyahu includes quotes from the same discussion from other figures who are today highly critical of Netanyahu, including then- IDF deputy chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, chief of staff Benny Gantz, and defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, all of whom argued against taking the Gaza Strip.
Gantz, according to the records, called the idea “a strategic mistake,” while Eisenkot said it would be “a severe mistake.” Then-foreign minister Avigdor Liberman, who now leads an opposition party, said that “I am not recommending conquering or a ground invasion.”
Netanyahu shares selected quotes from subsequent debates that show senior security officials, including the head of the Shin Bet, saying that Hamas’s only ability to surprise Israel is through cross-border tunnels. He selects a 2016 discussion in which Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman told Netanyahu that killing Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif would not cause Hamas to collapse, while the prime minister continues to argue for their assassination.
In the same debate, Eizenkot argues against bringing down the Hamas government and brushes aside the idea that Israel’s intelligence wouldn’t pick up on a potential Hamas attack.
He shares quotes from a 2021 discussion after Operation Guardian of the Walls against Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in which Netanyahu pushes again for assassinating Sinwar and Deif, while then-IDF chief of staff Aviv Kochavi firmly opposes such a policy.
A 2022 Shin Bet document shared by Netanyahu suggests easing economic pressure on Hamas instead of defeating the organization.
Netanyahu shares a series of meetings in 2023 in which he brings up killing Hamas leadership, but was opposed by the IDF and Shin Bet.
