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The Times of Israel liveblogged Saturday’s events as they happened.
Israel slams South Africa after ICJ rejected request to limit Israeli op in Rafah
The Foreign Ministry issues a statement blasting South Africa after the International Court of Justice rejected Pretoria’s request to order limitations on Israeli military operations in Rafah.
“South Africa’s failed attempt to undermine Israel’s right to defend itself and its citizens from the Hamas terrorist organization provides further proof that its claims are baseless and unsubstantiated,” the statement says, referring to South Africa’s accusation of “genocide” against Israel.
The ministry goes on to accuse South Africa of “serving as the legal arm of Hamas” and “working to advance the interests of this terrorist organization.”
“Israel is acting and will continue to act based on its right to protect its citizens and to release the hostages, while remaining committed to upholding international law, facilitating the transfer of humanitarian aid, and making every effort to prevent harm to uninvolved civilians,” the statement adds.
Medications found at Gaza hospital were sent in private initiative by hostages’ families — TV
Containers of medication bearing the names of hostages, found by IDF soldiers at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, were sent as part of an initiative by relatives of several captives that did not involve the State of Israel, Channel 12 news reports.
According to the report, the families gathered a list of medicines the hostages need and working together with David Meidan — a former top hostage negotiator — along with local and international groups, had the medicines shipped in November by European nations that the network would not name.
After arriving in Egypt from Europe, the report says the medications then entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing but notes there has yet to be any indication they actually reached the intended recipients.
Russia says it has ‘full control’ of Avdiivka after Ukrainian withdrawal
MOSCOW — Russia’s defense ministry says it has taken “full control” of the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, following a hasty withdrawal by Kyiv’s forces.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has informed President Vladimir Putin that his troops had seized “full control… of Avdiivka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, which was a powerful defensive hub for the Ukrainian armed forces,” the ministry says in a statement.
Ben Gvir calls to bar ‘Palestinian Authority residents’ from Temple Mount over Ramadan
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visits the Temple Mount, January 3, 2023. (Courtesy Minhelet Har Habayit)
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir says “residents of the [Palestinian] Authority]” should be barred from attending prayers at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during Ramadan.
“We cannot take a chance,” the far-right Otzma Yehudit party leader writes on X, adding that PA residents should not be allowed to enter Israeli territory during the monthlong Muslim holiday, less than a month away.
“It can’t be that women and children are hostages in Gaza and we allow Hamas victory celebrations on the Temple Mount.”
The social media post from Ben Gvir comes a day after Israeli television reported Ben Gvir is pushing to ban Palestinians from the Jerusalem holy site over Ramadan.
London cops arrest 12, including 2 for antisemitic posters, at anti-Israel march
Pro-Palestinian activists and supporters wave flags and carry placards during a protest against Israel in central London on February 17, 2024. (Justin Tallis/AFP)
LONDON — Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters march in London, with police making 12 arrests for alleged offenses including inciting racial hatred and assaulting emergency workers.
The demonstrators gathered at Park Lane in the center of the British capital holding banners demanding a “ceasefire now” while chanting “free Palestine.”
“People are very, very concerned that there’s going to be a disaster piled upon an already existing disaster in Rafah,” John Rees, from Stop the War Coalition, tell AFP. “What I hope is that we can avert this tragedy being made permanent.”
London’s Metropolitan Police say 12 people were arrested, including two for displaying antisemitic placards.
“A man was seen in the crowd with an antisemitic placard. When officers went in to arrest him they were assaulted, resulting in six arrests,” the force posts on X, formerly Twitter.
Officers have made nine further arrests during an incident at Hyde Park Corner.
A man was seen in the crowd with an antisemitic placard. He has been arrested for inciting racial hatred.
When officers went in to arrest him they were assaulted, resulting in six arrests for… pic.twitter.com/d9pnfKQ6cd
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) February 17, 2024
Two other people were arrested for refusing to remove face coverings when required to do so, while another person was arrested on suspicion of support for a proscribed organization in relation to a placard.
‘Today it is us, tomorrow it could be you,’ says daughter of Hamas hostage at Jerusalem protest
Shira Siegel, daughter of Keith Siegel who remains captive in Gaza, speaks to Jerusalem rally for the hostages on February 17, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
Shira Siegel, the daughter of 64-year-old Hamas captive Keith Siegel, is speaking to a crowd of protesters outside the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem.
“Today it is us, tomorrow it could be you… We are all hostage families,” she says.
Siegel’s mother, Aviva, was freed in November in a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.
A handful of pro-Netanyahu counter-protesters, consisting of a man with a megaphone, a couple of women and their children, can be heard in the background of Siegel’s speech from a nearby street.
Herzog says Saudi normalization would be a win over Hamas, pushes back on Qatari PM’s hostage remark
This handout photo shows President Isaac Herzog holding a copy of “The End of the Jews” by Hamas cofounder Mahmoud al-Zahar, at the Munich Security Conference on February 17, 2024. (Haim Zach/GPO)
President Isaac Herzog calls for Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with his country as that would be a win against Hamas.
Herzog tells the Munich Security Conference that one of the aims of Hamas when it attacked Israel on October 7 was to disrupt talks to establish ties with Riyadh.
“That is why moving on with Saudi Arabia will clearly be a victory over what Hamas did,” he argues. “And that is why I truly believe that moving forward to normalization and making whatever efforts that can be made is a very important, historical opportunity.”
Herzog confirms meeting yesterday with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who he says is making “major efforts” toward the return of the hostages.
“It’s complicated, it’s difficult. One has to make sure that we know whether there is anybody who makes decisions on the other side,” Herzog says. “After all, you’re dealing with people who are being hidden and scattered all around Gaza, mostly in the tunnels and we have to know their whereabouts. We are worried about the medication that came in and according to our data and information, it hasn’t been received yet — or by some of them, but most of them we don’t know.”
He then appears to reject the Qatari premier’s comment that ending the Israel-Hamas war shouldn’t be conditioned on a hostage agreement.
“If one wants to move on and find a horizon and end this dire situation, which was initiated by Hamas in cruelty of unprecedented record… one has to resolve the issue of the hostages and bring them back home safely and as soon as possible,” the president says.
The president also reveals Israeli forces operating in Gaza found a book titled “The End of the Jews” that was written by Mahmoud al-Zahar, a cofounder of the Hamas terror group.
“This book first of all says we should not recognize the fact that there are Jews and Jewish people, but most predominantly it hails the Holocaust. It hails what the Nazis have done, and calls for nations to follow what the Nazis have done,” Herzog says, noting Munich’s proximity to the Dachau concentration camp.
At the end of Herzog’s remarks, several freed hostages and their relatives who attended his speech chant to the audience: “Bring them home now!”
חזק! בסוף נאומו של הנשיא @Isaac_Herzog בועידת מינכן #MSC24 חטופים שחזרו משבי חמאס ובני משפחות של חטופים החלו לצעוק לעבר הקהל: Bring them home now
A heartbreaking moment when the hostages that came back from Gaza call upon the audience in the #MSC24 to BRING THEM HOME pic.twitter.com/IpgjJImOB7
— Antonia Yamin אנטוניה ימין (@antonia_yamin) February 17, 2024
In pouring rain, hostages’ families demonstrate outside PM’s residence in Jerusalem
The family of Itay Chen addresses a demonstration outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem on February 17, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
In pouring rain, protesters in Jerusalem demanding the return of the hostages have arrived outside the Prime Minister’s Residence
Family members of the hostages are now speaking to the crowd from a large stage erected by organizers, blocking one of the streets leading to Netanyahu’s home.
Rubi Chen, the father of Itay Chen, who recently turned 20 in Hamas captivity, condemns the government for not sending a delegation back to Cairo to continue hostage negotiations.
“What right do the prime minister and the war cabinet have to not send a representative to Cairo?” he says.
“[Itay] loves basketball, to sing and dance, he loves this country,” says Hagit Chen, Itay’s mother.
“There won’t be a victory until we bring home all the hostages, including our soldiers,” she adds.
Freed hostage warns husband’s ‘life is a Russian roulette,’ as he remains in Hamas captivity
Sharon Aloni Cunio, 34, her husband David Cunio, 34, and their twin daughters, Yuli and Emma, 3, were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. Sharon, Yuli and Emma were released on November 27, 2023. (Courtesy)
Sharon Aloni-Cunio, who Hamas terrorists abducted alongside her husband David and their 3-year-old twin daughters Ella and Yuli, breaks down in tears as she describes the trials of captivity and her fear that her husband will not survive.
“David’s life is a Russian roulette,” says Aloni-Cunio, who returned to Israel with her daughters during a weeklong hostage release and truce deal in late November.
Thousands at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square hear her plea to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send a negotiation team to Cairo to work out a deal with Hamas, and respond by chanting “Go bring them back.”
Carmit Palty Katzir, whose brother Elad is held hostage, addresses Netanyahu, telling him: My brother has no time for political maneuvers.”
She calls on Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot and Yoav Gallant of the war cabinet to “not be a fig leaf” for the government.
At Tel Aviv rally, families cry out for hostages ‘who cannot be here to cry out themselves’
At the 19th consecutive weekly rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, organizers announce a change in the event’s format so it only features speeches by relatives of hostages and no musical performances.
Haim Rubinstein, the spokesperson of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, opens the demonstration with a moment of silence, inviting the thousands of people present to think of the soldiers fighting in Gaza.
“Tonight on the stage, families will cry out in the name of their loved ones wasting away in tunnels in Gaza, who cannot be here to cry out themselves,” says Rubinstein. He lists the forum’s grievances, including the government’s decision not to send a negotiation team to Cairo on Thursday to continue talks with Hamas on a hostage swap.
“Hamas demands may be high, and we’re not calling for a deal at any price, we understand. But the negotiation only started — get into the negotiation room now,” says Rubinstein.
Danny Elgarat, 69, whose brother Itzik was abducted from Nir Oz, cries out “Go get them” 12 times, directing his call to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A brother of Omer Neutra, an Israeli soldier in Hamas captivity who is also a US citizen, echoes Elgarat. “We’ve run out of time; we need a deal now to save my brother’s life,” he says.
PM: IDF will operate in Rafah even if there is a new hostage deal; can’t leave a quarter of Hamas intact
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a press conference in Jerusalem, February 17, 2024 (GPO screenshot)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comments on the expected Israeli operation in Rafah in response to a question from The Times of Israel’s Lazar Berman on whether there had been plans to enter Gaza’s southernmost city at the beginning of the ground offensive and, if so, why had that step not been taken then.
“I won’t get into our plans,” the premier responds, adding that the large number of Palestinians taking refuge in Gaza won’t ultimately be a hindrance. He says the IDF’s capacity to enter Rafah militarily and to evacuate the [civilian] population has “been proved realistic” by its campaign in Gaza thus far.
“The IDF can reach everywhere in the Gaza Strip, including Rafah,” he says.
He also says “there is a lot of space north of Rafah” to evacuate the million-plus civilians sheltering there. “There will be space for evacuation.”
“We have to do this in an orderly fashion — and that’s the instruction I’ve given to the IDF.”
He acknowledges international pressure not to operate in Rafah. But he asks how the international community can expect Israel “to leave a quarter of Hamas’s [organized fighting] force intact, in a defined territory. We won’t allow that.”
He says everyone wants to reach another hostage deal. “I also want it,” he says, and it’ll be “very good” if this can be achieved. But he reiterates that a new hostage deal with Hamas “does not appear very close” given the terror group’s demands.
Yet “even if we achieve it, we will go into Rafah,” he stresses. “There is no alternative to total victory. And there is no way to achieve total victory without destroying those battalions in Rafah, and we will do so.”
Answering final questions, he denies sidelining Ministers Gantz and Eisenkot in decisions regarding the hostage talks.
He says he wants the current leadership — his hardline prewar coalition, bolstered by Gantz’s National Unity party — to remain intact, in the cause of national unity.
Told that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir wants to bar West Bank Palestinians from the Temple Mount during Ramadan, he says ministers are entitled to express their opinions at cabinet meetings, and that there will be an orderly discussion of the issue and a decision.
Netanyahu ends his press conference by asking the gathered reporters why the Israeli media has not investigated a major new advertising campaign “full of incitement” against him, including “huge advertisements on the Ayalon Highway” and other roads, on the internet, and elsewhere, that must be costing “tens of millions of dollars.”
He asks: “Have you not thought to look into this,” and to find out who is behind it and where the vast money coming from? He asks the reporters to do so.
“If tens of millions were being spent” on a campaign backing him, he asks,
“wouldn’t you open the nightly news” with the story, and commission investigative programs?
Netanyahu: Danger of another Oct. 7 is over; Moody’s downgrade not an economic failure; we don’t need elections
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference at his office in Jerusalem on February 17, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
At his press conference, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is asked about his handling of the hostage negotiations and his reported failure to consult with war cabinet colleagues Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot before deciding not to send Israel’s negotiators back to Cairo after initial talks there this week.
He says “we took a decision” not to return to the talks after Israel went a long way as regards the terms it was ready to accept but “got nothing in return” except Hamas’s “delusional” demands. These included “demands regarding the Temple Mount, demands to end the war and leave Hamas intact, demands to withdraw from Gaza, demands to free thousands of murderers.”
He says that despite those demands, he had “accepted a request” from US President Joe Biden to send an Israeli delegation to Cairo at the start of the week. He says he instructed the Israeli team to “sit and listen” — and that this approach had been approved by the cabinet.
“There was no change” in the Hamas position, he says. So the delegation came back home, “and obviously there was no change in the instruction: There was no point in going [back] there [to Cairo], until we see a change.”
He says this reflected the war cabinet’s policy, and adds: “I’m running a give and take [negotiation], not a give and give.”
Asked whether relations with the US would be easier were Donald Trump in power, as his son Yair and others have claimed, he says Israel is working with the US president and the administration, and “we appreciate the support we have received. There is a lot we agree on and there are things we disagree on. My policy is much more simple: I don’t get involved in internal US politics. I do insist on the demands of our state. When it’s possible, I say yes. When it’s necessary, I say no.”
He is asked about Moody’s decision to downgrade Israel’s credit rating for the first time ever, whether he will rethink the state budget, and if he will accept responsibility for this “economic failure.”
“I don’t think at all that there’s been an economic failure here. Israel’s macroeconomic data are very good,” he says, again insisting the downgrade was first and foremost due to the Israel-Hamas war and will rise again once the fighting is over.
He also addresses the prospect of elections, saying they will be held as scheduled “in another few years.”
“The last thing we need right now is elections,” he says, arguing that voting for a new Knesset would divide Israelis and therefore be a boon to Hamas. “What we need now is unity. That’s not spin… There’s another quarter of Hamas’s organized fighting force to destroy. We will destroy it… We are taking apart their underground infrastructure. We have brought back more than half of the hostages and we will bring the rest.”
This is not the time for politics, he says. “I suggest everyone wait patiently.”
He is asked when and whether he will formally announce to residents of communities close to Gaza that it is safe to return home.
He says financial arrangements have been agreed on, and the Defense Ministry will soon issue a clear statement regarding the security situation.
“There is never a situation of ‘no danger,'” he says. “But the danger of a ground invasion of the kind that happened on October 7 is not real, that’s clear to you. Hamas is deep in the tunnels. Someone can always get through the fence. But that [kind of] mass military terrorist invasion is off the table. And we will not let it return.”
As for mortar, rocket and missile fire, “it is always possible.” But Israel has destroyed a “huge proportion” of Hamas’s capacities in this regard. “I’m not saying it’s impossible” for such fire to happen. That’s why the possibility of residents returning to their homes in the south is close at hand, he says, while the situation in the north still has to be resolved.
Hundreds call for hostage deal, immediate elections in rally outside President’s Residence
Protesters gather outside the President's Residence in Jerusalem to demand a hostage deal on February 17, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
Hundreds of protesters are rallying outside the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, demanding a hostage deal and immediate elections.
The rally takes place in the wake of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision last week not to send an Israeli delegation to Cairo on Thursday for further hostage negotiations, incensing the Hostages and Missing Families Forum who decried the decision as a “death sentence” for the remaining captives.
Organizers are passing out strips of tape with the number 134 written on them, signaling both the number of days since the hostages were kidnapped by Hamas and the number of hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.
Lia, one of the student organizers of the protest, quotes the late Alexei Navalny as she speaks from the stage, comparing Israel’s right-wing government to Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
“You are not allowed to give up,” she says. “We are a huge power that is being oppressed by these bad dudes.”
After gathering outside the President’s Residence, the protesters will march to Paris Square and demonstrate next to the Prime Minister’s Residence.
Anti-government protesters call for elections at Tel Aviv rally
Anti-government demonstrators gather at an entrance to the Defense Ministry's Kirya HQ in Tel Aviv, February 17, 2024. (Rony Shapiro / Israel Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Anti-government protesters rally on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street, the epicenter of the demonstrations against the judicial overhaul, to demand that fresh elections be held.
Smaller protesters are held elsewhere around the country, including near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea.
IDF says it struck Hezbollah rocket launching post and another site in southern Lebanon
The IDF says it carried out strikes with fighter jets against a Hezbollah rocket launching position and another site belonging to the terror group in Jabal Blat in southern Lebanon earlier today.
The IDF says it also shelled an area near Hamoul with artillery, to “remove a threat.”
IDF announces airstrikes on Hamas command rooms in central Gaza
The IDF says it carried out a wave of airstrikes against several Hamas command rooms in the central Gaza Strip earlier today.
The sites, referred to as “operational headquarters” in Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah, were struck by fighter jets, following intelligence information that Hamas operatives were gathered at the sites, the IDF says.
The IDF has carried out only limited ground operations in Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah, and the remaining two Hamas battalions in the areas are believed to be largely functional.
Lapid: If I’d been PM on Oct. 7, Netanyahu ‘would have sent people to burn my house’
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid speaks to Channel 12, February 17, 2024. (Screenshot; used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)
Opposition leader Yair Lapid says Israel must be prepared to pay a higher price than it has ever paid before to secure the release of the remaining hostages from Gaza.
He recalls that he opposed the 2011 deal to secure the release of soldier Gilad Shalit, but says “this is not the same thing.”
Israel should not agree to a deal “at any price… There are prices Israel cannot pay… But if we don’t get the hostages back, it won’t be a victory,” he says.
Lapid repeats his contention that Benjamin Netanyahu “is not fit to be the prime minister of Israel,” and protests “the complete abandonment, by the government, of Israeli citizens who are sitting in the Hamas tunnels.”
“If October 7, heaven forbid, had happened on my watch,” he charges, Netanyahu “would have sent people to burn my house.”
He also criticizes Netanyahu for the friction in US ties over the Palestinian Authority’s post-war role. “The PA must be deradicalized” before Israel can start to talk to it, he says. “This can’t happen in the near future.”
But “why do we always have to be the rejectionists,” Lapid laments. “Why not say: Yes, but?”
PM: Those who want to prevent us fighting in Rafah are telling us to lose the war. I won’t let that happen
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a press conference in Jerusalem, February 17, 2024. (GPO screenshot)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference to address the ongoing war in Gaza and efforts to return the hostages.
According to the premier, yesterday’s deadly terror shooting in southern Israel shows “the entire country is a [war] front.”
“This victory is within reach,” he says of the fight against Hamas.
After praising Israeli troops, Netanyahu turns to the hostages, saying his policy is “strong military pressure and tough negotiations.”
“We will continue to act this way until we free everyone,” he says.
He says Hamas’s demands remain “delusional,” and that accepting them would spell defeat for Israel. “Obviously, we won’t agree to them.
“When Hamas gives up on those delusional demands, we can make progress,” he says.
He says Israel is “close to being able to return southern residents safely to their homes.” In the north, creating the circumstances for residents to return will be achieved either diplomatically or militarily, he says.
He says “our military pressure is working” in Gaza, with most Hamas battalions destroyed. “We won’t stop until they are all destroyed,” he says.
The premier asserts that “total victory” over the Gaza-ruling Hamas will send a message to other adversaries of Israel.
The Hamas leadership is on the run, and running out of places to hide. “The day is near” when the Hamas leaders will have nowhere left to escape, he says. “It’s only a matter of time.”
Netanyahu says he told US President Joe Biden that Israel will fight until “total victory — and yes, that includes action in Rafah.” The IDF operation in Gaza’s southernmost city, he stresses, however, will “obviously” come only after civilians there have an opportunity “to evacuate to safe areas.”
“Those who want to prevent us from operating in Rafah are essentially telling us: lose the war. I won’t let that happen,” he vows. “We won’t capitulate to any pressure.”
The US has warned that it will not support a major IDF operation in Rafah unless or until it is clear that measures are in place to ensure the safety of civilians sheltering there.
Netanyahu says Israel also “will not capitulate to international dictates” regarding a future agreement with the Palestinians. “An agreement will be achieved only in direct talks between the two sides, without preconditions,” he says.
He says he will also continue “to firmly oppose unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood.” He protests at the notion of countries giving such recognition, saying there would be “no greater prize for terror” than doing so after the onslaught on Israel on October 7. He says it would also “prevent any future peace agreement.”
He ends his prepared remarks with a call for unity, and recounts an incident in which a wounded soldier, Noam Benchlouch, who lost a leg in Gaza and whom he met in hospital, insisted on the imperative of unity when another visitor criticized the heroic soldier for meeting with Netanyahu.
He says only a minority of Israelis are sowing division, and that there is unity in the IDF, in all parts of the nation and all parts of the country.
Qatar’s PM says ending Israel-Hamas war shouldn’t be conditioned on release of hostages
Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (not pictured) as part of Blinken's weeklong trip aimed at calming tensions across the Middle East, in Doha on January 7, 2024. (Karim Jaafar/AFP)
Qatar’s prime minister says that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas “should not be conditioned” by an agreement on hostage release.
“This is the dilemma that we’ve been in and unfortunately that’s been misused by a lot of countries, that in order to get a ceasefire, it’s conditional to have the hostage deal. It shouldn’t be conditioned,” Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani tells the Munich Security Conference.
Sheikh Mohammed, who is also foreign minister, says he cannot get into the details of negotiations, but as with past deals, there were two elements, the humanitarian conditions in Gaza and the number of Palestinian prisoners who would be released in exchange for hostages held by Hamas.
“I believe in this agreement we are talking at a bigger scale and we still see some difficulties on the humanitarian part of these negotiations,” he says.
He adds that he thinks that if negotiations on the humanitarian element of any deal progress, then the obstacle over the numbers of those released would be ultimately tackled.
Talks involving officials from Qatar, Egypt, Israel and the United States have so far not yielded a deal for a pause in the fighting.
Qatari PM: Hostage deal possible soon, but talks ‘not really very promising’ right now
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of the state of Qatar, attends the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (AP/Markus Schreiber)
Talks between Israel and Hamas to agree to a hostage deal and accompanying truce in Gaza has been “not really very promising” in recent days, says the prime minister of Qatar, a key mediator for the negotiations.
“I believe that we can see a deal happening very soon. Yet the pattern in the last few days is not really very promising,” Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani says at the Munich Security Conference.
“We will always remain optimistic, we will always remain pushing,” he adds, speaking in English.
“The time is not in our favor.”
Likud charges Histadrut chief’s call for PM to resign ‘divides nation, weakens war effort’
The ruling Likud party hits out at Histadrut chief Arnon Bar-David for calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take responsibility for the Hamas-led October 7 terror onslaught and resign.
“It’s shameful that amid this war, as the nation cries out for unity, Histadrut chairman Arnon Ben-David chose to deal with petty politics that divide the nation and weaken the war effort,” Likud charges in a statement.
Hamas threatens to suspend hostage talks unless more aid sent to northern Gaza
A man walks past a truck carrying humanitarian aid from the UK that entered Gaza by truck through the Kerem Shalom on February 17, 2024, in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas. (Said Khatib/AFP)
Hamas threatens to suspend hostage talks unless urgent aid is brought into the north of the Gaza Strip, where aid agencies have warned of a looming famine.
“The movement intends to suspend negotiations until aid is brought into northern Gaza,” a senior source in the Palestinian terror group tells AFP.
“Negotiations cannot be held while hunger is ravaging the Palestinian people,” he says, asking not to be identified as he is not authorized to speak on the issue.
IDF says second victim of Re’em terror shooting was reserve soldier
Sgt. First Class (res.) Ori Yaish, who was killed in a terror shooting at the Re'em junction in southern Israel on February 16, 2024. (Courtesy(
The IDF announces the death of a soldier in reserves who was killed in the terror shooting attack at the Re’em junction in southern Israel on Friday.
He is named as Sgt. First Class (res.) Ori Yaish, 27, of the Jerusalem Brigade’s 8119th Battalion’s support company, from Modiin.
He was off-duty at the time of the attack.
The second slain victim was named on Friday as Yishai Gartner, 23, from Modiin Illit.
Herzog to Blinken: We must finish ‘eradicating’ Hamas before pursuing normalization opportunities
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L), President Isaac Herzog (R) and members of their delegations meet meeting during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, southern Germany on February 17, 2024. (Thomas Kienzle/Pool/AFP)
President Isaac Herzog meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
In public remarks before the meeting, Blinken says the US is “doing everything possible” to return the hostages held by Hamas and stresses the Biden administration is “thinking, as we always do, about Israel’s security both today, but also for every day, for the long term.”
“We’re thinking of the suffering of people caught up in the middle of conflict, including the Palestinian men, women and children in Gaza,” he says. “We’re thinking as well of the genuine opportunities that lie before us for a better, more secure future for Israelis, Palestinians and all of our friends in the region. There’s a lot of work to be done to move toward that future, but I’m grateful for President Herzog and our work to not only think about it, but to help realize it.”
Responding to Blinken, Herzog hails US support for Israel “in these dire moments” and says bringing back the hostages “is at our top priority.”
“We want them back and we’re working with the international community. We are working with you and the international community on the issue of the humanitarian supply, making sure to upgrade it according to the rules of international humanitarian law whenever and wherever is necessary,” he says.
The president also addresses Blinken’s “opportunities” comment.
“I heard your remarks today, and I think that I find them very interesting. I think there are opportunities; they need to be studied in depth. However, first and foremost, Israel’s security must be preserved, and for this, we have to complete the work of undermining and eradicating the basic infrastructure of Hamas,” Herzog says.
Norway PM says deal for Israel to release PA tax funds is ‘imminent’
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store speaks to the media during a visit to the weapons manufacturer Nammo, in Raufoss, Norway on January 17, 2024. (Petter Berntsen/AFP)
MUNICH — An agreement to unfreeze tax funds earmarked for the Palestinian Authority that are held by Israel is “imminent,” says Norway’s prime minister, whose country is working as an intermediary.
Under interim peace accords reached in the 1990s, Israel’s finance ministry collects tax on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the PA. But no payments have taken place since November following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas terrorists based in the Gaza Strip in October.
On January 21, Israeli officials said the cabinet had approved a plan for frozen tax funds earmarked for the Gaza Strip to be held by Norway instead of transferred to the PA.
“I would say that the talks have been concluded and we are very close to settling an arrangement,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store tells Reuters in an interview, saying he believed they have been able to forge a compromise.
“I think we are trusted by the parties to manage financial support to the PA in a responsible way,” he says. “It has taken a lot of diplomatic work between Norway, the PA, Israel, the US, but I will say that we are very close, imminent.”
‘From the river to the sea’: 3,000 pro-Palestinian protesters march in Madrid against Israel
MADRID — Waving pro-Palestinian flags and banners, thousands march through the streets of Madrid to demand an immediate ceasefire in the deadly war between Israel and Hamas.
The crowd snakes under bright sunshine through closed-off streets in the Spanish capital from Atocha train station to the central Plaza del Sol square behind a large banner that read “Freedom for Palestine.”
Many wave Palestinian flags or carry signs that read “Peace for Palestine” and “Don’t ignore Palestinian suffering.”
Six ministers from Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s cabinet took part — all five from hard-left party Sumar, his junior coalition partners, as well as Transport Minister Oscar Puente of the premier’s Socialist party.
“We need an immediate ceasefire, an end to the killing and attacks against innocents, we must achieve the release of all hostages,” Puente tells reporters at the start of the march.
Around 3,000 people are taking part in the demonstration, according to the central government’s delegation to Madrid, a much smaller turnout than the last protest in the Spanish capital on January 27, when some 20,000 participated.
Some chant: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – a slogan that critics interpret as a call for the elimination of Israel. Chants of “It’s not a war, it’s genocide” are also heard.
Spain, Ireland and Belgium have been among the most critical in Europe of the way Israel has conducted its Gaza campaign.
G7 ministers warn of ‘potentially devastating consequences’ if Israel enters Rafah
MUNICH — G7 foreign ministers say they’re worried by the risk of forcible displacement of Palestinian civilians out of Gaza and the possible consequences of an Israeli military operation in the Rafah region.
“They called for urgent action to address the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza, particularly the plight of 1.5 million civilians sheltering in Rafah and they expressed deep concern for the potentially devastating consequences on the civilian population of Israel’s further full-scale military operation in that area,” according to a statement released by Italy, which is currently chairing the Group of Seven wealthy nations.
The foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States met in Munich on Saturday.
UK lord suspended as head of housing association after X post against Hamas
Lord Austin. (Youtube screenshot; used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)
UK Housing Secretary Michael Gove slams a housing association for moving to oust a former member of parliament who mocked UNRWA’s claim it was unaware Hamas was operating under its headquarters in Gaza.
“Everyone, better safe than sorry: before you go to bed, nip down and check you haven’t inadvertently got a death cult of Islamist murderers and rapists running their operations downstairs. It’s easily done,” Lord Austin wrote in a post that he’s since deleted and apologized for.
Midland Heart announced Friday it was suspending him as chairman for 14 days “to discuss his removal from the board” over the social media comments. According to The Telegraph, the move followed a campaign accusing him of “Islamaphobia” by the group Muslim Engagement and Development, which the UK government’s counter-extremism program says has “a well-established track record of working alongside extremists.”
“I am deeply concerned by Midland Heart’s actions in seeking to remove Lord Austin from their board. I will be writing to the board to demand an urgent meeting and explanation,” Gove says. “Not only is Ian a champion for affordable housing, he has spent his career fighting racism. Islam is a religion of peace, but Islamists — including the proscribed terrorist organization Hamas — are extremists characterized by violence and oppression who seek to undermine our democratic values. They must be challenged wherever we encounter them.”
Families of captives call on Netanyahu to hold press conference at Hostages Square
People walk by photographs of civilians held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, February 14, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
A group representing families with loved ones held hostage in Gaza calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move his scheduled press conference this evening to Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square.
“That way you won’t miss the scream of the families,” spokesman Haim Rubinstein of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum writes on X. “The families invite you. It’s important to us.”
African Union chief slams Israel over Gaza war: ‘Attacks unprecedented in the history of mankind’
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Leaders at an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa condemn Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza and call for its immediate end.
Moussa Faki, the chair of the African Union Commission, says Israel’s offensive is the “most flagrant” violation of international humanitarian law, and accuses Israel of having “exterminated” Gaza’s inhabitants.
Faki spoke alongside Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who also addressed the summit.
“Rest assured we strongly condemn these attacks that are unprecedented in the history of mankind,” Faki says to applause from delegates. “We want to reassure you of our solidarity with the people of Palestine.”
Azali Assoumani, president of the Comoros and the outgoing chairperson of the African Union, praises the case brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice while condemning “the genocide Israel is committing in Palestine under our nose.”
“The international community cannot close its eyes to the atrocities that are committed, that have not only created chaos in Palestine, but also have disastrous consequences in the rest of the world,” Assoumani says.
During last year’s AU summit, an Israeli delegate was unceremoniously removed from the plenary hall amid a row over the country’s observer status at the continental body.
Leading US Black church: Stop support of Israel’s ‘mass genocide’ in Gaza
A leading American Black church has accused Israel of “mass genocide” in the Gaza Strip and urged Washington to pull all support and aid it provides to the country.
In a statement Thursday, the Council of Bishops of the American Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) said the Jewish state has “trapped 1.6 million desperate Palestinians in the southern Gaza city called Rafah. Most of them are women and children. They have denied them access to food, water, shelter, and health care. After this torture, they plan to murder them.”
It goes on to say the US “will have likely paid for the weapons they use,” before urging the government to “immediately withdraw all funding and other support from Israel.”
It claims Israel has shown “a willful disregard for the human dignity of Palestinians” for decades.
“Since October 7, 2023, in retaliation for the brutal murder of 1,139 Israeli citizens by Hamas, Israel has murdered over 28,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. The United States is supporting this mass genocide. This must not be allowed to continue.”
Those numbers are provided by Hamas, and do not differentiate between combatants and civilians. Israel says at least 10,000 of those killed are terror operatives, and asserts it makes considerable effort to avoid harm to civilians while fighting in a complex urban environment. It accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
The New York Times describes the AME as “one of the country’s oldest and most prominent Black Christian denominations.”
US military: No reports of damage to ships in yesterday’s Red Sea Houthi attack
Officials in US CENTCOM say four anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched yesterday from Iranian-backed Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea.
They say there were no reported injuries or damage from any ship in the area, including the British oil tanker Pollux, which the Houthis claim to have hit.
US forces successfully conducted two self-defense strikes in Yemen, they say.
Blinken: Israel has extraordinary opportunity, ‘virtually every Arab country’ wants ties
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock attend a panel at the Munich Security Conference at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
There is an “extraordinary opportunity” in the months ahead for Israel to be integrated into the Middle East as Arab countries are willing to normalize ties with the country, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says.
Speaking at a panel at the Munich Security Conference, Blinken also highlights the “urgent” imperative to proceed with a Palestinian state that would also ensure the security of Israel.
“Virtually every Arab country now genuinely wants to integrate Israel into the region to normalize relations… to provide security commitments and assurances so that Israel can feel more safe,” Blinken says.
“And there’s also, I think the imperative, that’s more urgent than ever, to proceed to a Palestinian state that also ensures the security of Israel,” he adds.
The Biden administration has been working to secure a mega-deal that will see ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel normalize. The Kingdom and other Arab countries are seeking steps toward the creation of a Palestinian state as part of the deal.
The top US diplomat says there are genuine efforts led by Arab countries to revitalize the Palestinian Authority so it can be more effecting in representing the Palestinians.
Also speaking at the conference, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says that to establish a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, there needs to be a guarantee that something like the October 7 attacks by Hamas can never happen again.
Netanyahu should resign, ‘he took Israel to the edge’: Union chief threatens to join protests, calls for elections
Histadrut union chief Arnon Bar-David (right) speaks at an event in Beersheba, February 17, 2024. (Youtube screenshot; used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)
Arnon Bar-David, the head of the powerful Histadrut labor union, calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take responsibility for the failure to prevent the October 7 massacres and call elections by the end of the year, warning that the union could join anti-government protests.
The Netanyahu government “brought disaster upon Israel,” Hebrew media quotes Bar-David telling an event in the southern city of Beersheba.
“He took us to the edge, to a place we should not have been… We’re at a dead-end, and there’s only one way out: elections,” says Bar-David. “He should take responsibility for what happened, and then he should he decide for himself; if I was prime minister, I would resign.”
The union chief calls on Netanyahu to set a date for new elections, and warns that the union — which can shut down much of the economy — will join protests if Netanyahu tries to cling to power.
“The country cannot carry on like this… The State of Israel needs a restart,” he says, specifying that an agreed date for new elections should be set “for the end of the year, December — by then the war can be won.” It would be wrong to hold elections now, with the war continuing, and the dangers of escalation in the north, he says.
He adds: “We need to build something new. Everyone wants something new… for new people to enter politics… We can’t continue with the [current] 120 people in the Knesset… who do almost nothing for us.”
“We may have to take to the streets” to press for elections, he warns. “I hope that won’t be necessary.”
“And if the people [when they vote] want the same coalition… so be it. And if the people want change, there will be change.”
Even before the war, Israel had gone through “the worst year in its history, a year of polarization and divide and judicial revolution,” Bar-David says, referring to the coalition’s attempt to overhaul the judiciary. “And someone turned us into each other’s enemy, someone stirred up one sector against the other; the writing was on the wall.”
He denounces the pre-war focus on the judicial overhaul, when Israel should have focused on its external enemies.
Bar-David also appears to accuse Netanyahu of holding up a deal to free the hostages for political reasons.
“There is a deadline. We have to free the hostages and reach a deal, if it doesn’t happen because it doesn’t suit someone politically, then the government will fall apart,” Channel 12 quotes him as saying.
According to Ynet, Bar-David also told the gathering that he had spoken to Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and urged them to adapt the budget to wartime, including shuttering several largely superfluous government ministries.
However, Bar-David says they refused.
UNRWA chief say Israel waging concerted campaign to destroy agency
UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini speaks to the press after a briefing to diplomats on the situation in Gaza, at the United Nations Offices in Geneva, on February 13, 2023. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP)
Israel is waging a concerted campaign aimed at destroying UNRWA, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees claims in an interview published today.
Philippe Lazzarini says calls for his resignation were part of the Israeli government’s push.
“Right now we are dealing with an expanded, concerted campaign by Israel aimed at destroying UNRWA,” he tells the Swiss newspaper group Tamedia.
“It is a long-term political goal because it is believed that if the aid agency is abolished, the status of the Palestinian refugees will be resolved once and for all — and with it, the right of return. There is a much larger political goal behind this.”
“Just look at the number of actions Israel is taking against UNRWA,” the main aid body in the Gaza Strip, he says.
He cites measures in the Israeli parliament, moves to remove the agency’s VAT exemption and orders for contractors at Israel’s port of Ashdod to “stop handling certain food deliveries for UNRWA.”
“And all these demands come from the government.”
Furthermore, Lazzarini says more than 150 UNRWA installations have been hit since the Gaza war began.
Israel has called for Lazzarini to step down following the discovery that at least 12 UNRWA staffers directly took part in the October 7 massacres and hostage-taking and at least another 30 provided assistance. Several thousand of them are affiliated with terror organizations.
Israel also discovered a Hamas tunnel housing a major server center under UNRWA’s evacuated Gaza City headquarters.
IDF soldiers inside what the army said was a Hamas data center in a tunnel under a compound of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) in Gaza City, February 8, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)
Lazzarini said the tunnel was 20 meters below ground and UNRWA as a humanitarian organization did not have the capabilities to examine what was underground in Gaza.
The tunnel was found to be drawing electricity from the headquarters.
He also said Israel was alone in calling for him to quit and there was “no reason” to comply with a single UN member state’s demand for him to go, “especially since my resignation would not improve the situation at UNRWA.”
“The criticisms are not concerned with me personally, but with the organization as a whole. The calls for resignation are part of the campaign to destroy UNRWA,” he says.
Israel has long argued that UNRWA perpetuates antisemitism and glorifies terrorism in its schools. The recent allegations have led several donor countries to announce funding freezes, leading to concerns that the agency, which says it is the main conduit for aid for millions in the Strip amid the Israel-Hamas war, could stop operating in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East within weeks.
IDF identifies and kills Hamas operative minutes after he launched rocket at Ashkelon
The IDF says it struck and killed a Hamas operative who launched a rocket from northern Gaza at Ashkelon this morning, within half an hour of the attack.
This morning, sirens sounded in Ashkelon after one rocket was fired from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.
According to the IDF, the rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system.
Within 30 minutes, the IDF says the Nahal Infantry Brigade and 215th Artillery Regiment identified the operative behind the attack, and called in an airstrike, killing him.
Netanyahu to give press conference at 7.30 p.m.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on February 7, 2024. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will give a press conference this evening at 7.30 p.m.
The address, in which he will answer questions from journalists, comes amid an apparent deadlock in talks for a hostage deal and mounting international pressure on Israel to hold off launching an offensive in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
Heavy rains bring floods to Hadera, Netanya
Unusually heavy rains cause flooding in at least two central Israeli cities.
Flooding is reported in Hadera and Netanya with footage posted to social media showing submerged vehicles in flooded roads.
The Ynet news site said several residents reported flooding in their homes.
Almost 90 millimeters (3.5 inches) of rain fell in the last 24 hours as the region was hit by a winter storm.
נראה כמו שכונה של ישראל הראשונה
בהצלחה בבחירות…
חדרה הצפות קשות בשכונת בית אליעזר pic.twitter.com/NEaJvAfagq— ימינצ'יקית (@PrettySharpShot) February 17, 2024
Alexei Navalny is dead, spokeswoman confirms
A person holds a picture of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny during a vigil in front of the Russian embassy in Lisbon, Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Alexei Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh confirms that Navalny was dead, citing an official notice given to Navalny’s mother, Lydumila.
Yarmysh, writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, demands that Navalny’s body be immediately handed over to his family.
Hamas’s Haniyeh blames Israel for lack of truce progress, demands complete halt to war
This handout picture provided by the Iranian foreign ministry on December 20, 2023, shows Qatar-based Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh speaking to journalists as he welcomes the Iranian foreign minister (not in the picture), in Doha. (Photo by Iranian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh blames Israel for a lack of progress in achieving a truce deal in Gaza, the terror group says in a statement.
Haniyeh adds that Hamas “will not accept anything less than a complete cessation of the aggression, withdrawal of the occupation army from Gaza and lifting of the unjust siege.”
Haniyeh also insists that Israel free Palestinian security prisoners serving long sentences in any deal to free the hostages being held by Hamas.
There are more than 500 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli jails, most of them for deadly terror attacks.
Hamas says Gaza death toll at 28,858
A Palestinian looks at the destruction after an Israeli strike in the Maghazi camp, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says the Palestinian death toll in the war in the Strip has reached 28,858.
These figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed nearly 11,000 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
French police shoot ‘threatening’ cleaver-wielding man
Paris police shot dead a man who threatened them overnight with a meat cleaver, prosecutors say, adding that they opened fire after using a Taser.
The man was born in 1984 in Sudan and had no criminal record, they say.
Warning sirens in Ashkelon; 1 rocket intercepted
Rocket warning sirens sound in the Ashkelon area.
The Ashkelon municipality says one rocket was apparently intercepted over the city.
There are no reports of injuries or damage.
Rocket Alerts [10:07:08] – 4 Alerts:
• Western Lakhish — Ashkelon – South, Mavki'im, Ashkelon Southern Industrial Zone, Ashkelon Northern Industrial Zone#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/mc8VjeiFOj
— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) February 17, 2024
Iran unveils new air defense weaponry as regional tensions ramp up
This handout picture provided by the Iranian Defence Ministry on February 17, 2024 shows a Sayad-3 missile during the unveiling of the Arman defense systems at an undisclosed location. (Photo by IRANIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY / AFP)
Iran unveils new weaponry including what it says was the locally made Arman anti-ballistic missile system and the Azarakhsh low-altitude air defense system, the official IRNA news agency reports.
The announcement comes amid heightened tensions in the region, with Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels carrying out a string of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, claiming the move is a show of solidarity with the Gaza Strip.
The unveiling ceremony of the two vehicle-mounted systems takes place in the presence of Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani.
“With the entry of new systems into the country’s defense network, the air defense capability of the Islamic Republic of Iran will increase significantly,” IRNA says.
It said the Arman missile system “can simultaneously confront six targets at a distance of 120 to 180 km,” while the Azarakhsh missile system “can identify and destroy targets… up to a range of 50 km with four ready-to-fire missiles.”
In June Iran presented what officials described as its first domestically made hypersonic ballistic missile, named Fattah, with a range of 1,400 km.
IDF: Terrorist killed in Lebanon strike; targets in Syria hit after rockets fired at Israel
Illustrative: Hezbollah supporters attend the funeral of Ali al-Debs, one of the terror group's commanders killed by an Israeli air raid two days earlier, in Lebanon's southern city of Nabatieyh on February 16, 2024. (Photo by MAHMOUD ZAYYAT / AFP)
The IDF says that it carried out a series of strikes in southern Lebanon yesterday against Hezbollah sites, killing one terrorrist.
The man was killed in a strike military infrastructure in the Jabal Blat area. In addition sites were hit in Bint Jbeil.
The army also shelled several sites in southern Lebanon.
Overnight, in response to rockets that were launched from Syria toward the Golan Heights, artillery shelled the source of the fire. The rockets did not cross into Israeli terrirotory.
In addition, warplanes hit a Syrian army munitions warehouse in the Mahajjah area.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in six civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of ten IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 206 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 32 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and at least 30 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.
Over 100 detained at memorials for Navalny in Russia
Police officers detain a man laying flowers to Alexei Navalny at the Memorial to Victims of Political Repression in St. Petersburg, Russia on Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. (AP Photo)
Russian police have detained over 100 people at spontaneous memorials for deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the OVD-Info rights group says.
As of February 17, “more than 101 people have already been detained in 10 cities” including 11 in the capital Moscow, OVD-Info says on its website.
Iranian man kills 12 relatives in shooting spree
A 30-year-old man gunned down 12 of his relatives in a remote rural area in southeast Iran, the deadliest shooting reported in decades.
Head of the justice department of the province of Kerman, Ebrahim Hamidi, tells the semiofficial ISNA news agency the gunman opened fire on his father, brother and other relatives early morning in a village because of family disputes.
The report, which does not identify the assailant, states he used a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
Local media report on occasional shootings, but this attack has had the highest death toll in Iran, where citizens are only legally allowed hunting rifles, common in rural areas.
In 2022, an employee, who was dismissed from a state-owned financial conglomerate, opened fire at his former workplace, killing three people and injuring another five before killing himself in the country’s west. In 2016, a 26-year-old man shot 10 relatives in a rural area in the south of Iran.
In recent years, violence has spiked in the country suffering from deteriorating economic conditions coupled with crushing American sanctions that helped spark soaring inflation and increasing unemployment.
Troops searching Khan Younis hospital arrest more than 100 terror suspects
IDF troops seen in the Gaza Strip in a photo released by the IDF, Feb. 17, 2024. (IDF Spokesperson)
The IDF says that special forces soldiers are continuing to carry out searches inside the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and have arrested more than 100 terror suspects.
The IDF says that forces from the Maglan and Egoz units have also killed several terrorists on the outskirts of the hospital.
As the fighting continues in Khan Younis, troops led by the 7th Armored Brigade raided several compounds, finding weapons including explosive devices, grenades and Kalashnikov rifles.
Troops in the area also called in several air strikes on Hamas forces including three terrorists who were trying to launch rockets.
In addition, a paratrooper force killed a terror cell in close-quarters combat, the IDF says.
The IDF says that there were also clashes in central Gaza where Nahal soldiers killed several operatives.
Yemen’s Houthis claim missile attack on British oil tanker Pollux
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis fired missiles at British oil tanker Pollux in the Red Sea, the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Sarea says in a statement.
Sarea claims the ship suffered a direct hit.
Yesterday, the US State Department said the Pollux had been hit on its port side by a missile launched from Yemen. It identified the ship as a Panamanian-flagged tanker carrying crude oil bound for India.
Earlier, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency and British maritime security firm Ambrey said a Panama-flagged tanker had reportedly been hit 72 nautical miles (133 km) northwest of the port of Mokha, off Yemen.
“The vessel … reportedly sustained minor damage. The crew was reported safe and unharmed,” Ambrey said.
M/T Pollux embarked from Russia’s Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk on Jan. 24 and was due to discharge in Paradip, India, on Feb 28, according to LSEG data. Indian Oil Company has a 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil refinery at Paradip, in eastern Odisha state.
The ship is owned by Oceanfront Maritime Co SA and managed by Sea Trade Marine SA, according to LSEG data. Representatives from those firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
نفذتِ القواتُ البحريةُ في القواتِ المسلحةِ اليمنيةِ عمليةَ استهدافٍ لسفينةٍ نفطيةٍ بريطانية "Pollux" في البحرِ الأحمرِ بعددٍ كبيرٍ من الصواريخِ البحريةِ المناسبةِ وكانتِ الإصابةُ دقيقةً ومباشرةً بفضل الله.
pic.twitter.com/hFh8dAcS7L— يحيى محمد حميد (@YahiaHomiad) February 17, 2024
Hundreds hold vigil outside Russian embassy in Tel Aviv after Navalny death
Demonstrators carry placards during a protest following the death in jail of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, outside the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv, on February 16, 2024. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)
Hundreds of people hold a vigil outside the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv to protest the death in prison of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The demonstrators, many of them originally from Russia, hold up signs accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing Navalny.
They also hold up the flashlights on their phones in silent protest and light candles and place flowers outside the building.
מאות יוצאי רוסיה הפגינו הלילה מול שגרירות רוסיה בתל אביב לאות אבל על מותו בכלא של פעיל האופוזיציה אלכסיי נבלני@EranCicurel
(צילום: אולג יקובלב) pic.twitter.com/mWAW7ERiyb— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 16, 2024
Report: US readying new arms shipment to Israel; embassy says no human rights concerns
This picture taken from southern Israel shows an Israeli fighter jet over the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas, on January 12, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)
The Biden administration is preparing to send bombs and other weapons to Israel that would add to its military arsenal even as the US pushes for a ceasefire in Gaza, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing current and former US officials.
According to the report, the proposed shipment includes around a thousand MK-82 bombs, fuses and JDAM guidance kits to make the munitions more precise, a package estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
A US official quoted by the newspaper says the proposal is still undergoing internal administration review and could change before being sent to congressional committee chiefs for approval.
The report also cites an assessment on the proposal by the US Embassy in Jerusalem, which says the Israeli government is seeking “rapid acquisition of these items for the defense of Israel against continued and emerging regional threats.”
It reportedly finds no human rights concerns about the deal: “Israel takes effective action to prevent gross violations of human rights and to hold security forces responsible that violate those rights. In the past, Israel has been a transparent partner in US investigations into allegations of defense article misuse.”
NY governor sorry for saying ‘there would be no Canada’ if it attacked Buffalo, in Oct. 7 analogy
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks to thousands at a 'New York Stands With Israel' vigil and rally on October 10, 2023 in New York City. (SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES via AFP)
New York Governor Kathy Hochul apologizes for remarks she made at a Jewish philanthropy event in New York City that went viral on social media and which suggested Israel had justification to destroy Gaza following the October 7 Hamas terror attack.
“If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I’m sorry, my friends, there would be no Canada the next day,” Hochul said in a portion of her speech on Thursday at an event for the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York.
“That is a natural reaction. You have a right to defend yourself and to make sure that it never happens again. And that is Israel’s right.”
On Friday, in a statement cited by the New York Times, she says she regrets her “inappropriate analogy” and apologizes for her “poor choice of words.”
“While I have been clear in my support of Israel’s right to self-defense, I have also repeatedly said and continue to believe that Palestinian civilian casualties should be avoided and that more humanitarian aid must go to the people of Gaza,” she says in the statement.
UK’s Cameron asks Chinese FM to use influence on Iran to pressure Houthis
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, the Foreign Office says in a statement.
Cameron told his counterpart that China should use its influence on Iran to pressure the Houthi militants over their actions in the Red Sea, the statement on Saturday says.
Cameron also set out Britain’s position on human rights issues in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, raised the case of British parliamentarians sanctioned by China, and again called for the release of media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
Ukrainian general announces withdrawal from Avdiivka ‘to avoid encirclement, preserve lives’
FILE - A Ukrainian soldier sits in his position in Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on August 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Libkos, File)
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces have withdrawn from the eastern town of Avdiivka, where the situation has deteriorated considerably in recent days, General Oleksandr Tarnavsky, who commands the area, says early Saturday.
“Based on the operational situation around Avdiivka, in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen, I decided to withdraw our units from the city and move to defense on more favorable lines,” he says on Telegram.
‘Russia without Putin!’: Hundreds rally outside Russia’s embassy in Tel Aviv after Navalny’s death
Demonstrators carry placards during a protest following the death of jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, outside the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv on February 16, 2024. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)
In Israel, home to a large number of people who came from Russia, hundreds rallied outside the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv after the death of dissident Alexei Navalny in an Arctic penal colony, chanting “Russia without Putin!” and “Russia will be free!”
מאות יוצאי רוסיה הפגינו הלילה מול שגרירות רוסיה בתל אביב לאות אבל על מותו בכלא של פעיל האופוזיציה אלכסיי נבלני@EranCicurel
(צילום: אולג יקובלב) pic.twitter.com/mWAW7ERiyb— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 16, 2024
Israeli leaders have yet to comment on Navalny’s death, which Western leaders have roundly denounced and blamed on the Kremlin.
UN officials say Palestinians are fleeing Rafah back to central Gaza
Palestinians line up for a free meal in Rafah, Gaza Strip, February 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
UNITED NATIONS — UN humanitarian officials say Palestinians in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah are reportedly moving out of that region toward central areas around Deir al-Balah as intensified Israeli airstrikes continue.
An estimated 1.4 million Palestinians, more than half of Gaza’s population, have crammed into Rafah, most of them displaced by fighting elsewhere in the territory. Hundreds of thousands are living in sprawling tent camps.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric tells reporters Friday about the reported movements toward Deir al-Balah, which is roughly 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of Rafah. He also describes the lack of food in Rafah and elsewhere — especially in northern Gaza, the first target of the offensive, where large areas have been completely destroyed.
“In Rafah, humanitarian conditions have become increasingly severe, with continued reports of people stopping aid trucks to take food,” he says. “Vulnerable segments of the population include children, the elderly, and people with underlying health conditions, are particularly susceptible to the risk of malnutrition.”
Throughout Gaza, Dujarric says the delivery of aid is hindered by frequent border closures, longstanding import restrictions of goods into Gaza, damage to critical infrastructure, and the security situation.
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