Feb. 24: Hostage deal said on brink of collapse amid logjam over ending ceremonies

EU delegation cancels trip to Jerusalem, West Bank after Israel banned 4 participants

A delegation of European Union parliament members has canceled its trip to Jerusalem and Ramallah after Israel barred two lawmakers and two staffers from entering the country, the EU’s mission to the Palestinians tells The Times of Israel in a statement.

The Interior Ministry said earlier today that it had denied entry to EU MP Rima Hassan over her support for boycotts against Israel, but the Jerusalem-based EU mission tells The Times of Israel that the delegation’s leader MP Lynn Boylan was also denied entry along with two other EU staffers accompanying the lawmakers.

While the Interior Ministry statement said that Hassan was banned over her public support for boycotting Israel, the EU mission says that Israeli authorities did not provide any reasons to any of the officials who were denied entry.

The three other MPs traveling with Boylan and Hassan were allowed into Israel, but they will return to Europe on the first flight tomorrow morning, as Boylan decided to cancel the delegation entirely, the EU mission says.

‘Gaza must never be again a terror haven,’ EU foreign policy chief says

Speaking at a press conference after the Association Council meeting between Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and EU foreign ministers, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas calls for a move to the second phase of the hostage release deal with Hamas.

She also pushes against US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Gazans, saying “Palestinians must be able to live in Gaza.

“At the same time, Gaza must never be again a terror haven,” she says, later adding that “we do not want to see Hamas there.”

Kallas says the EU is concerned about events in the West Bank, and reiterates the call for a two-state solution.

Asked about the International Criminal Court’s warrants from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Kallas says that the EU supports the court, but notes that “the enforcement of the International Criminal Court warrants is up to the Member States to decide.”

Sa’ar urges European counterparts not to trust Syria’s new ‘Jihadist Islamist’ leaders

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar meets with European counterparts in Brussels, February 24, 2025. (Shalev Man/Foreign Ministry)

Addressing 20 European Union counterparts in Brussels, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar calls for Europe not to trust the new government in Syria.

“I hear talks about transition in Syria,’ Sa’ar says at the second EU-Israel Association Council meeting since 2012. “This is ridiculous. The new government is a Jihadist Islamist terror group from Idlib.”

He blasts the new government for harming the Kurds, and even points at “vengeance” being exacted on the Alawites, the minority community from which Bashar al-Assad hailed.

“A stable Syria can only be a Federal Syria that includes different autonomies and respects different ways of life,” he says.

Sa’ar is more optimistic about Lebanon, saying, “There is an opportunity for positive change.”

“There is an opportunity for the transformation of Lebanon from Iranian occupation to the pragmatic Arab camp,” he says, adding that a better future is contingent on the Lebanese army being stronger than Hezbollah.

He calls on the international community to make it clear to Iran that if it moves ahead with its nuclear program, the survival of the regime will be at risk.

Foreign ministers from the Czech Republic, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Romania, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and 11 other countries participate.

Sa’ar argues that Europe and Israel face common threats, and both sides have an interest in strong ties.

“Our relations should not be held hostage to the bitter conflict we have with our Palestinian neighbors,” he says.

Noa Argamani to address UN Security Council on Tuesday, first former hostage to do so

Rescued hostage Noa Argamani attends an emergency conference on the medical condition of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip at the President's Residence, in Jerusalem, on December 10, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/ Flash90)

Noa Argamani will address the UN Security Council’s monthly session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict tomorrow, becoming the first released hostage to brief the top body, Israel’s mission to the UN announces.

The US mission joined Israel in lobbying for Argamani to address the council, the Israeli mission says.

Hamas claims comments attributed to official who criticized Oct. 7 attack impact on Gaza were ‘taken out of context’

In a statement, Hamas claims that comments attributed to politburo official Moussa Abu-Marzouk by the New York Times, in which he said he would not have backed the October 7, 2023, attacks had he known what the impact on Gaza would be, were “incorrect and taken out of context.”

“The interview was conducted a few days ago and the published statements did not reflect the full content of the answers,” the terror group claims.

Hamas spokesman slams senior politburo official for saying Gaza’s destruction makes him regret Oct. 7

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem slams senior politburo official Moussa Abu-Marzouk, after he told The New York Times that he would not have supported the October 7, 2023, assault on Israel had he known what the consequences would be for the Gaza Strip after thousands of Hamas-led terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

“The occupation’s aggressive and destructive behavior is the cause of the destruction in Gaza,” says Qassem. “The October 7 epic marks a strategic turning point in the Palestinian national struggle.”

Qassem also rejects Abu-Marzouk’s suggestion that the terror group could be open to considering proposals for disarmament.

“We hold onto our resistance weapon as a legitimate right, and what was attributed to Moussa Abu Marzouk does not represent the movement’s stance,” he says. “Resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right for our people until liberation and return.”

Hostage deal said on ‘brink of collapse’ after PM hardened stance on Palestinian prisoner release

Palestinian security inmates released by Israel as part of a hostage release-ceasefire deal with Hamas are welcomed by family members as they arrive on buses to the European hospital in Khan Younis on February 1, 2025. (Eyad Baba / AFP)

The ceasefire and hostage release deal is on “the brink of collapse,” an unnamed Israeli source tells the Walla news site, as Israel is said to be in talks with the US and other mediating countries regarding the 602 Palestinian security prisoners that it was to have released on Saturday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided, late Saturday night, that Israel would postpone the release of the Palestinian prisoners until Hamas guaranteed that it would not conduct any more elaborate, propaganda-filled ceremonies when releasing hostages or transferring the bodies of those slain in captivity.

Speaking to Walla, however, the Israeli source says Hamas agreed that the transfer of the bodies of four hostages — the final release slated to take place in the first phase of the deal — could be carried out in private.

While the agreement seems to have met the conditions initially set by the premier for the release of the 602 security prisoners, the source says Netanyahu then hardened his stance and informed mediators that a commitment from the terror group was not enough, and that Israel would only release the prisoners after the bodies of the slain hostages were received by Israel.

“Unfortunately, there are people in the government who are more interested in Hamas’s ceremonies than they are in returning civilians for burial in Israel,” an official tells Walla.

In response, the Prime Minister’s Office dismisses what it says is “more fake news from the echoes of Hamas propaganda.”

“Through his aggressive stance, the prime minister has already returned 192 hostages and he is determined to return them all,” the PMO adds.

Report: Hamas could transfer bodies of 2 hostages to Egypt in exchange for half of the prisoners Israel should have released Saturday

A deal is emerging in which Hamas will transfer two bodies of slain hostages to Egypt, while Israel releases 301 of the 602 prisoners it was scheduled to release last Saturday, according to Channel 12.

If that is carried out successfully, then the same formula could be repeated with two more slain hostages, and the remaining 301 prisoners scheduled to be released in the first phase, says Channel 12.

Going through Egypt would likely mean that the ceremony Hamas put on during the release of the Bibas boys and Oded Lifshitz last Thursday would not be repeated.

Israel is insisting that it will not release the prisoners until it verifies that the released hostages are indeed whom they expect to receive. Last week, Hamas gave Israel the body of a Gazan woman instead of Shiri Bibas.

The first stage is slated to end on Saturday.

Religious Zionism’s Strock says victory over Hamas ‘more important’ than returning all hostages

Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock attends a Religious Zionism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, January 27, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strock, of the Religious Zionism party, tells the right-wing Israel National News conference that, in her opinion, victory over Hamas “is more important” than the return of all the hostages.

During an on-stage discussion with Strock, Channel 12 pundit Amit Segal inquires whether she believes that winning a victory over Hamas is “more important than returning every last hostage.”

“I agree,” Strock says. “Victory in the war is more important.”

Segal then reiterates, asking her whether, “in the dilemma between ending the war and recovering all the hostages, you’re saying with a heavy heart: ‘I am Minister Orit Strock. I will have to abandon some hostages in order to achieve the strategic victory over Gaza’?”

“I am saying this,” Strock confirms. “And I’m saying this was the Israeli consensus 10 years ago.”

Ex-hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen urges Netanyahu to put politics aside, accompany him on visit to Kibbutz Nir Oz – report

Freed hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen with his wife Avital aboard an IDF helicopter en route to the hospital soon after his release from 498 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza, February 15, 2025. The whiteboard message refers to the then-73 hostages still held in Gaza, and urges 'return all of them to us.' (IDF)

Recently freed hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen encouraged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Kibbutz Nir Oz when the two spoke on the phone yesterday, Channel 12 reports.

The Prime Minister’s Office said yesterday that Netanyahu had spoken to Dekel-Chen and Ohad Ben Ami, and told them that Israel had needed to apply great pressure on Hamas to secure their release.

Dekel-Chen, a dual Israeli-American citizen, was freed from captivity on February 15, and Ben Ami was released a week earlier.

In what Channel 12 says is a transcript of their conversation, Dekel-Chen told the premier that he cannot “eat, drink, shower, or play with my daughters while there are hostages that I left behind, some of them my friends, dead and alive.”

“I will not leave anyone there,” Dekel-Chen added.

Netanyahu, in response, told him that he “will not leave anyone behind,” and stressed that “we are working extremely hard to return everyone.”

Dekel-Chen, who had no exposure to the outside world for the duration of his captivity, and did not find out about the vast protest movement in Israel until his return, told the prime minister that the footage from the protests “of my father crying on the stage, of my wife and daughters standing at protests and crying,” have been hard for him to take in.

“I understand that you haven’t visited Nir Oz,” Dekel-Chen said to Netanyahu. “I’m inviting you, with a personal invitation. We will put politics aside and I will take you, without any politics — just you and me on the paths of Nir Oz.”

“Right now, everything is blossoming, but I will show you blood-soaked places and burnt homes,” he said, according to Channel 12.

The prime minister has not visited Nir Oz over the past 16 months, despite appeals for him to do so from its residents, after 117 members of the tight-knit community were either murdered or abducted on October 7, 2023.

“We come from different viewpoints, but I have always believed, even in captivity, that the considerations in Israel are made professionally, and I ask that they are,” said Dekel-Chen.

He told Netanyahu that “the real victory will be returning love to the streets, and that will only happen with the return of the hostages.”

IDF says it foiled attempt to smuggle drugs into Israel from Egypt via drone

The IDF says it foiled an attempt to smuggle drugs into Israel from Egypt earlier today, using a drone.

The drone was identified crossing the border from Egypt into Israel, and troops of the Bardelas Battalion operating in the area captured it

The soldiers found that the drone was ferrying two kilograms (nearly 4.5 pounds) of marijuana, according to the IDF.

מוקדם יותר היום, כוחות צה״ל זיהו רחפן שניסה להבריח סמים משטח מצרים לשטח ישראל במרחב חטיבת פארן.

לוחמי צה״ל שפעלו במרחב, סיכלו את ההברחה ותפסו כ-2 ק״ג של סמים.

הסמים שנתפסו הועברו להמשך טיפול משטרת ישראל pic.twitter.com/uGo3PVwVau

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) February 24, 2025

In recent months, there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons and drugs over the Egypt border using drones. There have also been attempts to smuggle similar contraband from Israel into Gaza using drones.

After closed-door briefing with IDF intelligence chief, court cancels tomorrow’s hearing in PM’s criminal trial

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at Tel Aviv District Court to testify in his criminal trial, February 24, 2025. (Moti Milrod/POOL)

The head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, Shlomi Binder, addressed the judges of the Jerusalem District Court in a closed-door session of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criminal trial, as part of the premier’s request to reduce the number of hearings at which he must give testimony every week.

The prime minister’s military secretary briefed the judges, but Binder was also in attendance in the hearing, Hebrew media reported, apparently to buttress Netanyahu’s claims that the country is in the midst of significant security developments requiring him to spend less time in court.

In its decision, which was issued following the closed-door session, the court says that tomorrow’s scheduled hearing is canceled due to what the judges were told by the military officials. The next hearing will take place on Wednesday.

Following the court’s decision to cancel the hearing in light of the briefing on security developments, Hebrew media reports that members of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s intelligence subcommittee have been summoned to a confidential meeting with the prime minister tomorrow at 11 a.m.

Netanyahu has requested the number of hearings for his testimony be reduced from three times each week to two. The court is considering the request and will make a final ruling after it receives the additional details it requested from the prime minister’s defense lawyers, and the position of the prosecution.

Israel joins US, North Korea, Russia to vote against UN resolution reaffirming Ukraine’s territorial integrity

Israel has voted against a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling to reaffirm Ukraine’s territorial integrity, rejecting a strongly worded condemnation of Russia’s invasion of its neighbor on the third anniversary of the war.

Eighteen countries voted against the resolution, 93 voted in favor, and 65 abstained.

Among those who joined Israel in voting against the resolution were the US, Hungary, North Korea, Nicaragua, and Russia, while Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, China, and Iran were among those who abstained.

93 UN member states voted in favor of a resolution authored by Ukraine and European countries.

❌18 countries voted against, including the U.S., Russia, Hungary, Belarus, and Israel. China abstained.

The resolution designates Russia as an aggressor state and demands the… pic.twitter.com/x1lxfNMacZ

— Saint Javelin (@saintjavelin) February 24, 2025

IDF hits two rocket launching sites in south Gaza after projectile falls short in Strip

The IDF says it struck a launch site in southern Gaza from which a rocket was fired earlier today.

The rocket had fallen short in the Strip.

In addition, a second rocket launch site in the area was also targeted, the military says.

IDF says it is striking source of rocket launch in southern Gaza that fell in Strip

The IDF says it is striking the source of a rocket launch in the southern Gaza Strip.

The rocket had fallen short in Gaza.

Senior Hamas official says he wouldn’t have backed Oct. 7 attacks if he knew the consequences for Gaza

Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk, September 18, 2014. (AP/Khalil Hamra)

Senior Hamas politburo member Mousa Abu Marzouk says he would not have backed the October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel if he had known what the consequences would be for the Gaza Strip after thousands of Hamas-led terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

“If it was expected that what happened would happen, there wouldn’t have been October 7,” he says in an interview with The New York Times.

The Qatar-based official says Hamas’s survival was a “kind of victory” but ultimately, Hamas cannot claim to have defeated Israel.

“We’re talking about a party that lost control of itself and took revenge against everything,” says Abu Marzouk of Israel. “That is not a victory under any circumstances.”

He also tells the Times that Hamas is ready to consider proposals for disarmament: “We are ready to speak about every issue. Any issue that is put on the table, we need to speak about it.”

ADL faces off with Betar US after adding it to its list of extremist organizations

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has added Betar USA to its database of extremist groups, the only Jewish organization on its list.

In a harshly-worded response, Betar USA calls the decision “not only false, but deeply antisemitic.” The organization has frequently attacked the ADL publicly for what it sees as prioritizing political correctness over Jewish security.

ADL writes on its website that Betar encourages Jewish people to fight on the streets against antisemitism with “aggressive in-person protests.”

The organization “adopts the far-right Kahanist slogan calling for Jewish armament, “Every Jew, a .22,” openly embraces Islamophobia and harasses Muslims online and in person,” according to ADL’s glossary of Extremism and Hate, which includes 276 groups and movements that “subscribe to and/or promote extremist or hateful ideologies.”

In response, Betar USA has hit back at the antisemitism watchdog with the charge that the ADL itself is an extremist organization that “actively infringes upon free speech… and divides American society through the relentless promotion of DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] policies that do nothing to protect Jews.”

Betar is a right-wing movement founded in 1923 by Zeev Jabotinsky to empower Jews to be strong and fight back against antisemitism. New leadership figures at the US branch installed in June 2023 have brought a more aggressive tone to the organization, posting spiteful material on social media and promoting US President Donald Trump’s motion to deport foreign pro-Hamas students from the country.

Red Cross ‘deeply concerned’ by impact of IDF offensive in northern West Bank

The International Committee of the Red Cross expresses its concern over the impact of a weeks-long Israeli offensive in the West Bank that has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians.

“The International Committee of the Red Cross is deeply concerned with the impact of ongoing security operations on the civilian population in Jenin and Tulkarem, Tubas and other locations in northern West Bank,” it says, adding that “people are struggling to access basic needs such as clean water, food, medical care and shelter.”

The IDF launched its ongoing counter-terror offensive in the northern West Bank, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, on January 21.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said last week that more than 40,100 Palestinians have been displaced since the start of the operation, allegedly the largest displacement since the Six Day War in 1967.

US imposes sanctions on dozens of targets involved in Iran’s ‘shadow fleet’

The United States has imposed sanctions on more than 30 people and vessels for their role in selling and transporting Iranian petroleum-related products as part of Tehran’s “shadow fleet,” the Treasury Department says.

The sanctions target oil brokers in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, tanker operators and managers in India and China, the head of Iran’s National Iranian Oil Company, and the Iranian Oil Terminals Company, says the US Treasury.

It says the sanctioned vessels shipped tens of millions of barrels of crude oil valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Iran continues to rely on a shadowy network of vessels, shippers, and brokers to facilitate its oil sales and fund its destabilizing activities,” says Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The sanctions build on those imposed by the Biden administration.

Such sanctions target key sectors of Iran’s economy with the aim of denying the government funds for its nuclear and missile programs. The move generally prohibits any US individuals or entities from doing any business with the targets and freezes.

Shas minister defies party stance, calls on Haredim to serve in the military

Taking a position opposite that of his ultra-Orthodox party, Interior Minister Moshe Arbel (Shas) declares that Haredi Jews should serve in the Israeli armed forces.

Addressing a conference organized by the right-wing Israel National News outlet, Arbel says “it is possible and necessary to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, to remain Haredim even after the conclusion of service. This is the mission of the IDF and this is the mission of the State of Israel.”

This is not the first time that Arbel has broken ranks with Shas. Last April, he stated that there was no longer a “moral” justification to exempt ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who were not studying in a yeshiva from army service.”

“The reality after October 7 is that the ultra-Orthodox community must understand that it is no longer possible to continue like this,” he said at the time, prompting Shas to issue a statement insisting that “the subject of the conscription law and the status of yeshiva students is entrusted exclusively to the rabbis of the Council of Torah Sages” and party chief Aryeh Deri.

Arbel’s earlier comments echoed those of his fellow Shas Minister Ya’akov Margi, who told the Kikar Hashabbat website in February 2024 that members of the Haredi community not engaged in full-time Torah study should be drafted “by force.”

Deri has taken a harder line than Arbel and Margi. In an interview with ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Berama last month, Deri gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two months to resolve the status of yeshiva students, warning that if the matter is “not resolved, we’ll go to elections.”

Shas subsequently backed down, with Deri reportedly conveying a message to the coalition that his ultimatum was a “slip of the tongue.”

בוידאו – האמירה המשמעותית של שר הפנים ארבל מש"ס: "צריך לשרת בצה"ל ולסיים כחרדים בסוף השירות" https://t.co/NhfVTUvym5 pic.twitter.com/GXR1PIaMLP

— יואלי ברים yoeli brim (@yoeli_brim) February 24, 2025

Massive Ukrainian flag unfurled at Western Wall on third anniversary of Russian invasion

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, unfurls a large Ukrainian flag at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and offers a prayer for peace on the third anniversary of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the start of the war there.

The Ukrainian embassy in Israel wrote in a post on social media earlier today that “Ukraine has endured and continues to defend its freedom and independence.”

Embassy staff, members of the Ukrainian community, and the non-profit organization Israeli Friends of Ukraine join the ceremony as a light snow falls on the capital.

שגריר אוקראינה בישראל, איבגן קורניצ'וק וצוות השגרירות, יחד עם הקהילה האוקראינה, הגיעו לכותל המערבי בירושלים כדי להתפלל לשלום וימים שקטים באוקראינה ובישראל
Ambassador of Ukraine, Yevgen Korniychuk, and Embassy staff, together with the Ukrainian community, "Israeli Friends of… pic.twitter.com/It1Q5zxeoa

— Ukr Emb in Israel (@UKRinIsrael) February 24, 2025

Hamas denies reports that it will hand over bodies of two hostages in exchange for Israel allowing release of Palestinian prisoners

Hamas denies Saudi news reports that it plans to hand over the bodies of two hostages today in exchange for the Palestinian prisoners whose release was postponed, doubling down on its boycott of talks with Israel through mediators.

In a statement on Telegram, Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi demands that Israel implement the ceasefire agreement by “releasing the 600 Palestinian prisoners” who were supposed to be freed on Saturday, and says the terror group has not changed its stance regarding continued negotiations.

Israel announced Sunday morning that it was delaying the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners until Hamas promised to end the “humiliating ceremonies” it stages when hostages are handed over.

The Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat alleges that negotiations between Israel and Hamas were progressing and could lead to the handover of two hostages’ bodies in the next few hours, however, the Hamas spokesman stridently denies this claim.

In addition, multiple Hebrew media outlets cite unnamed Israeli sources denying the report.

According to a Ynet report from earlier today, Israeli negotiators told mediators it would free the prisoners so long as Hamas agreed to hand over four bodies today, without performing a ceremony with the coffins as it did with the bodies of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz.

Lapid at AIPAC summit: ‘Whoever messes with the Jewish people will pay the price’

Opposition leader Yair Lapid addresses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's Congressional Summit in Washington, February 24, 2025. (Screenshot, AIPAC)

Addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s Congressional Summit in Washington, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares that “whoever messes with the Jewish people will pay the price.”

“Israel has been through the hardest year of its existence, but our spirit has not been broken,” Lapid says, noting that the Syrian regime that “celebrated” the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror assault “no longer exists” while the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah are now dead.

“After October 7, they celebrated in the streets of Iran and handed out candies. They felt that Israel’s defenses had collapsed. The Iranian defenses no longer exist. Israeli planes, Israeli pilots, destroyed them,” Lapid boasts, adding that if Tehran “believes that it can continue to develop its nuclear program and Israel will stand by, then they are making the biggest mistake of their lives.”

“Our message to all those who hate us is simple: whoever messes with the Jewish people will pay the price. Whoever messes with the State of Israel will pay with his life,” he declares, praising the United States for its “unbreakable alliance” with Jerusalem and calling to return the hostages.

“Donald Trump is not only a president who loves Israel, he is also a president unafraid of big ideas and big opportunities… together we can change history,” Lapid continues.

“When this war is won and our hostages are home, the idea is to sign a normalization agreement between the United States, the Saudis and Israel” in order to “create a new regional coalition” that “will manage Gaza and stand united opposite Iran and its evil plans,” he adds.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid addresses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s Congressional Summit in Washington, February 24, 2025. (Screenshot, AIPAC)

This new coalition “will open new markets for the American and Israeli economies” while also working “towards a separation between Israel and the Palestinians,” he says.

According to Lapid, he spoke with a leader of one of the Gulf states following Trump’s announcement of his plan for Gaza, which involves the relocation of many of its Palestinian residents.

“I asked him, ‘What did you think?’ and he said, ‘I was excited. We have still a lot of work to do, but I was excited that the president spoke about peace and prosperity and new opportunities, not only war and destruction,'” Lapid recalls.

“Together with our partners in the Abraham Accords, together with the United States, we will provide the alternative to the agents of chaos from Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah. We will provide a vision of peace, prosperity and cooperation,” Lapid says.

IDF says it carried out dozens of ‘targeted raids’ in southern Syria in recent weeks

IDF troops uncover a cache of weapons in southern Syria, in a handout photo published February 24, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says it has carried out dozens of “targeted raids” in southern Syria in recent weeks, during which troops captured weapons “which posed a threat to the security of the State of Israel and our forces.”

In one raid last week, the military says soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade located a cache of rifles, ammunition, and other military equipment left behind by the former Assad regime.

The IDF has described its presence in southern Syria’s buffer zone as a temporary and defensive measure, though Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that troops will remain deployed to nine army posts in the area “indefinitely.”

Report: Israel creating program that would allow Syrian Druze to work in Israeli towns in Golan

Residents in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights celebrate on December 8, 2024, after Islamist-led rebels declared that they have taken the Syrian capital in a lightning offensive, sending president Bashar al-Assad fleeing and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria. (Jalaa Marey/ AFP)

Israel has begun staff work on a pilot program that would allow Syrian Druze to work in Israeli towns on the Golan Heights, according to the Kan public broadcaster.

The program was initiated by Golan Druze who asked Israeli security officials and the military to assist their Druze brethren over the border, says Kan.

The plan is being drawn up by Gen. Ghassan Alian, who heads the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and is Druze himself.

The initial stage will see dozens of Syrian Druze working in construction and agriculture in Golan Druze towns.

Israeli leaders have publicly warned Syria’s government not to harm the Druze in southwestern Syria, and regularly speak with foreign leaders about the importance of protecting them, along with Syria’s Kurds.

Sa’ar tells EU counterparts Israel interested in extending Gaza ceasefire if more hostages released

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, right, meets Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Maria Valtonen in Brussels, February 24, 2025. (Shalev Man/Foreign Ministry)

In Brussels, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar tells EU counterparts that Israel is open to extending the ceasefire if more hostages are released, his office says.

“It will not happen without the release of hostages,” says Sa’ar in his meetings with the Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Finnish, and Slovakian foreign ministers. “We are committed to the release of our hostages and to the war’s objectives that we set.”

Sa’ar also tells them that it is time to enforce existing sanctions on Iran and impose new ones.

IDF: Rocket launched from southern Gaza, fall short, inside enclave

The IDF says it identified a rocket being launched from southern Gaza which fell short in the Strip.

Further details are under investigation, it adds.

Smotrich says he supports efforts to replace AG Baharav-Miara

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich tells reporters that he supports replacing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

Asked about Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s statement on Monday that the government will begin the process of removing Baharav-Miara from her position in the coming weeks, Smotrich replies that the issue is the responsibility of Justice Minister Yariv Levin but that he believes that “she should be replaced.”

How this should be done is up to Levin, he says. “He is responsible for that, that is his role and responsibility and we will back him up.”

Asked about Karhi’s statement, which was made during a conference organized by the right-wing Arutz Sheva news outlet, a spokesman for Levin tells The Times of Israel that “I am not aware of anything new about this matter.”

WATCH: Lapid addresses AIPAC confab

Opposition leader Yair Lapid is slated to address a gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington at 5 p.m. Israel time (10 a.m. Eastern time).

The conference is closed to the press, save for Lapid’s speech.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also slated to virtually address the gathering along with senior White House official Eric Trager.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are also slated to speak.

Throughout the week, participants will converge on Capitol Hill to lobby Congress in favor of legislation to further sanction Iran and expand aid to Israel.

Smotrich claims his party’s influence prevented release of Palestinian prisoners on Saturday

Finance Minister and Religious Zionism head Bezalel Smotrich leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, February 24, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The massive public funeral of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Sunday shows just how weak the terrorist group is following its recent war with Israel, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says.

Addressing the press ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Smotrich derides a “beaten and bruised enemy that did not even dare to bury the arch-terrorist leader we eliminated for five months.”

Sunday’s funeral was attended by tens of thousands of people but only junior Hezbollah officials were present while the group’s senior leaders were “hiding like mice” out of “fear that we will eliminate them,” Smotrich says.

“And the truth is that they are right, God willing, we will eliminate them at the first opportunity. What we saw yesterday is a movement that invites the world to its own funeral procession in an amazing show of self-awareness.”

Smotrich likewise dismisses Hamas’s hostage release ceremonies, which have been attended by uniformed, masked and armed terrorists who have paraded the hostages around on stage, and says that “the only reason you cannot see the frightened faces of Hamas terrorists is simply because they cover them out of fear.”

Hamas knows “very well that their time on earth is limited, until the State of Israel returns to fight with full force, speed, and lethality that will overwhelm and destroy them,” he says, adding that “you will be surprised by the power, sharpness, and lethality of the operation to occupy Gaza when we decide that the time has come to renew it.”

Turning to the hostage deal, Smotrich takes credit for the government’s decision to halt the release of 600 Palestinian security prisoners on Saturday evening, pending assurances from Hamas that it will halt the “humiliating ceremonies” accompanying the freeing of Israeli hostages.

“Every day I am convinced that we acted correctly” in not leaving the government, he says. “Our influence on decision-making is very great, including the decision not to release the 600 terrorists on Saturday night.”

Smotrich also takes credit for the ongoing anti-terror operation in the West Bank, stating that “after two years of the settlement revolution that we are leading in the Settlement Administration, we are leading, together with the defense minister, a change in the security concept as well.”

State comptroller finds some communities targeted on Oct. 7 haven’t received state support, tells PM to find solution

A mural in Ofakim's Mishor Hagefen neighborhood honors those killed in the October 7, 2023, massacre, September 19, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

An interim report by the State Comptroller on the rehabilitation of Gaza border communities following the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion finds that communities badly hit on that day but located more than seven kilometers from the Gaza border — thus making them ineligible for special state support — are suffering and in need of assistance.

These include the city of Ofakim, where 27 civilians and six members of the security forces were murdered in a single neighborhood, and 16 further residents were gunned down in the city’s south.

By December last year, some 500 residents were waiting to begin therapy at Ofakim’s Resilience Center and new referrals were averaging 30 per week, the report says. The average waiting time was 60 days, with social workers saying they had triple the workload without the resources.

The comptroller says the Prime Minister’s Office and the Finance and Defense ministries have not met their commitments to review and decide on an updated geographical boundary within which to focus support. The decision should have been brought for government approval by February 10, 2024.

This failure, says the State Comptroller, has led to a freeze on NIS 5 billion ($1.4 billion) of development funding for the region and is holding up major projects, such as the creation of a southern Wingate sports facility for the city of Sderot.

The report criticizes the government for leaving the Tekuma Directorate — tasked with rehabilitating the region — without a full-time director and deputy director since August, saying it has impeded progress.

It also describes problems getting temporary housing sites ready on time for three of the kibbutz communities hit the hardest — Be’eri, Kfar Aza, and Holit.

It says that if the government had a plan in hand for establishing temporary sites to accommodate evacuees in emergency events, with a single coordinator, work could have proceeded more quickly.

European Parliament member who expressed support for violence against Israel barred from entering country

Israel refuses entry to Rima Hassan, a member of the European Parliament who landed in Israel as part of an EU Commission delegation that is slated to meet Palestinian Authority officials.

Hassan, a French jurist born in Syria to Palestinian parents, has expressed support for violence against Israel and was summoned by French police for comments allegedly lauding terrorism.

A statement by Interior Minister Moshe Arbel issued shortly before she landed accuses Hassan of working to “promote boycotts against Israel.” Arbel adds that the decision was made in conjunction with the Diaspora Affairs Ministry.

“Hassan will be returned to Brussels,” he says.

Hassan is currently awaiting boarding for a flight back, an Interior Ministry official tells The Times of Israel.

The incident occurs as Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is in Brussels for meetings with EU leaders and the 27 foreign ministers from EU states.

???????? résolution 3070 (XXVIII) de l’assemblée générale des nations unies : réaffirme la légitimité de la lutte des peuples pour se libérer de la domination coloniale et étrangère et de l’emprise étrangère par tous les moyens en leur pouvoir y compris la lutte armée. pic.twitter.com/WkaGYxPsHm

— Rima Hassan (@RimaHas) February 23, 2025

UN chief warns global security agreements are ‘unraveling,’ threatening peace, stability

GENEVA, Switzerland — The head of the United Nations warns that the decades-old security arrangements that have supported global peace are unraveling and urges countries to work together towards a nuclear-free world.

“The bilateral and regional security arrangements that underwrote global peace and stability for decades are unraveling before our eyes,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres tells the Conference on Disarmament gathered in Geneva.

“Trust is sinking, while uncertainty, insecurity, impunity and military spending are all rising,” Guterres adds.

He says these factors are impacting the spirit of “mutual restraint” and calls on countries to effectively implement nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation commitments and obligations.

Sixty-five states, including the United States, China and Russia, are members of the Conference which was established in 1979 and is overseen by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA).

Bank of Israel leaves borrowing costs unchanged at 4.5% after inflation rose to 3.8% last month

The Bank of Israel opts to leave borrowing costs unchanged at 4.5% after inflation accelerated last month fueled by war-related costs and government spending on defense needs.

“The recovery in economic activity continues at a moderate pace, in view of geopolitical developments… the annual inflation rate increased, partly due to tax increases, and is above the upper bound of the target range,” the central bank says in a statement. “In view of the continuing war, the monetary committee’s policy is focusing on stabilizing the markets and reducing uncertainty, alongside price stability and supporting economic activity.”

Annual inflation accelerated to 3.8% in January from 3.2% in December after a series of government tax hikes came into effect last month to help fund war expenditure, according to data by the Central Bureau of Statistics. The government’s target range for inflation is between 1% and 3%.

Ahead of the interest rate decision, economists were in consensus that the central bank would not rush to lower the base lending rate, but projected that borrowing costs for mortgage and loan holders could start coming down over the course of the year with the first decrease expected as early as May.

The central bank last lowered interest rates in January 2024, which marked the first cut in almost four years, in an effort to support households and businesses as the economy got battered by the war with the Hamas terror group and as the inflation environment was easing. Since then, borrowing costs have remained steady.

Guards at Ketziot Prison transfer Palestinians to solitary confinement after anti-Israel messages scrawled on cell walls

Caption: Palestinian security prisoners made to kneel before an armed guard as another inmate paints over a vandalized cell wall in footage shared by Israeli prison service on February 24, 2025. (Courtesy/Israel Prison Service)

Guards at Ketziot Prison transferred multiple Palestinian security prisoners to solitary confinement after inmates penciled messages on cell walls ahead of their anticipated release Saturday.

The Israel Prison Service says in a statement today that guards entered the cells to implement “resolute and uncompromising prison governance” and then moved the inmates to solitary confinement.

In footage shared by the spokesperson, five inmates are seen kneeling before an armed guard who stands watch, while a sixth is made to repaint a prison cell wall.

Israeli news outlet Ynet reports that inmates wrote, “We will not forget, we will not forgive, we will not kneel,” in response to shirts detainees were made to wear during last week’s handover, which bore a Star of David and the words “We will not forget or forgive.”

The spokesperson adds that guards also discovered messages which read “Jerusalem is Arab” and “Now is the time of the dogs,” the latter in apparent reference to Jews.

Over 445 inmates of some 600 in total stood to be freed back into the Gaza Strip from the Negev’s Ketziot Prison on Saturday. However later that night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would not follow through with the release until Hamas promised to end its “humiliating” propaganda ceremonies during hostage handovers.

It is unclear whether those moved to solitary confinement were slated for release.

Report: Hezbollah tells operatives to allow Lebanese army to take control of border area

Lebanese army troops deploy in the southern Lebanese border town of Aitaroun, following the pullout of Israeli forces, on February 2, 2025. (Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)

Hezbollah has issued internal directives for its operatives who do not live south of the Litani River to vacate the area to allow the Lebanese Armed Forces to assume control over the border region as demanded by the ceasefire with Israel, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing a source close to Hezbollah.

Some Hezbollah units have been totally dismantled after the Israeli campaign in Lebanon, says the source, but others were reconstituted by bringing fighters back from Syria following the fall of deposed president Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The report cites another source who indicates that the Iran-backed terrorist group has lost some 5,000 operatives fighting against Israel since October 7, 2023.

Israeli troops completed their withdrawal from southern Lebanese villages on February 18, but remained deployed in five strategic positions.

Defense committee chair Edelstein vows Haredi conscription bill ‘will have teeth’

The Haredi conscription bill currently being debated in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee “will have teeth,” chairman Yuli Edelstein says, insisting that the legislation will contain sanctions on both institutions and individuals.

“The principle of, ‘You didn’t serve, you don’t get,’ should apply to everyone,” he says, addressing a conference organized by the right-wing Israel National News site.

Edelstein’s committee this week is debating the issue of sanctions in a series of meetings aimed at hammering out the outlines of an eventual Haredi enlistment law.

The bill “does indeed talk about recruiting Haredim, but the recruitment rates among the general public can and should also be improved in order to bring more soldiers to the IDF,” Edelstein adds.

Gantz: Attempted bus bombings must be ‘wake-up call,’ PM playing politics at expense of security

Leader of the National Unity party MK Benny Gantz leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Calling last week’s failed plot to bomb multiple buses in Israel’s central Gush Dan region a “wake-up call,” National Unity chairman Benny Gantz says that Israel must “destroy the terrorist nests that are minutes away” from Israeli communities by “pouring” additional forces into the West Bank.

Three empty buses exploded in quick succession in parking lots in the Tel Aviv suburbs of Bat Yam and Holon Thursday night and one or two more bombs were discovered on additional buses in Holon. No casualties occurred as a result of the explosions.

The IDF is currently engaged in an ongoing major offensive in the northern West Bank, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, which was launched on January 21.

To defeat terror, “thousands more fighters are needed” but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “is busy making political deals at the expense of security and the economy,” Gantz alleges in remarks to the press ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

Netanyahu has repeatedly promised his ultra-Orthodox partners to pass an enlistment bill regulating the status of yeshiva students whose longtime IDF deferrals were struck down by the High Court of Justice last summer.

“Thousands have been injured and killed and the IDF is desperate for more soldiers. The reservists are returning [to service] for the fifth and sixth time. The best of our sons are risking their lives again and again and the prime minister is not willing to risk the integrity of the coalition” by drafting Haredim, Gantz says.

“Where will the soldiers who will unleash hell on Gaza, while at the same time operating in Tulkarm, southern Lebanon and the Syrian Golan, come from? A year and a half into the most complex war in our history, and the October 7 government is not expanding the ranks. The government is playing for time – and we will all pay the price.”

Helmsley Charitable Trust donates $5.45 million for Holon Institute of Technology

The US-based Helmsley Charitable Trust donates NIS 19.44 million ($5.45 million) for a new medical technology building at the Holon Institute of Technology.

The planned six-story building will feature applied research labs, design studios, an innovation center, and a large public event space. The overall project, supported by the Council of Higher Education, is budgeted at NIS 70 million ($19.6 million).
The new building will have enough classroom space to accommodate approximately 850 students.

A Holon Institute of Technology spokesperson says that the institute is focused on addressing Israel’s growing elderly, chronically ill and vulnerable populations.

“There is an increasing need to train new generations of physicians and health technologists who will be able to advance Israel’s digital health system,” the spokesperson says.

Harry and Leona Helmsley owned a chain of hotels and the Empire State Building. Since 2008, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Fund has donated more than NIS 16 billion ($4.5 billion) in grants worldwide, including NIS 2.5 billion ($700 million) in grants in Israel.

Liberman says many questions surrounding IDF probes into Oct. 7 failures

Yisrael Beiteinu party chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on February 24, 2025.(Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

There are “many questions surrounding” the IDF investigations into its failures during the lead-up to October 7, which are due to be presented this week, states Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman.

“Who will interrogate the Chief of Staff and his deputy” as well as other senior IDF officials, the former defense minister asks during a press conference ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

“With great power comes great responsibility,” he continues, arguing that a probe into Israel’s military “cannot be presented” without also investigating the country’s political echelon.

“Who will interrogate the prime minister, the head of the national security council and the prime minister’s military secretary about the greatest disaster that has ever befallen the State of Israel,” he asks.

“The only body capable of conducting an objective investigation is not people who are subordinate to the government, but only a state commission of inquiry that has the necessary resources and capabilities,” he says, adding that if such a body “is not established during this government, it will be established by the next government.”

Israeli reporter details the classified materials he found at Iran’s embassy in Damascus soon after Assad’s fall

Israeli investigative reporter Itai Anghel in a visit to Damascus days after the fall of Assad's regime (Channel 12)

Channel 12’s investigative program Uvda is to air a report tonight documenting its reporter Itai Anghel’s visit to Damascus a few days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

In a promo, Anghel is seen roaming the markets of Damascus, entering abandoned military bases and Iranian headquarters, and interviewing soldiers from the post-revolution Syrian army.

Ahead of the broadcast, Anghel shared details of his visit, stating: “Everything is open; you can walk into bases and even the Iranian embassy. I took a folder from there that might contain descriptions of Iranian spies. There are passports and photos. It’s hard to believe how exposed everything is.”

Regarding his visit to the abandoned Iranian embassy, Anghel added: “There were hidden doors in the embassy building, behind which I found a massive server farm and loads of files. They shredded a lot of documents, but many were left intact. You can see classified materials still there. This was Shi’ite Iran’s greatest power hub. From here, they operated Hezbollah.”

“Surely, our [Israeli security] people were also there in the first chaotic days to gather intelligence,” Anghel said. “I wandered alone in the bases. You could take grenades or the warheads of fighter jets.”

Merz says Netanyahu ‘can visit’ Germany despite ICC warrant

Leader and top candidate for chancellor of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Friedrich Merz gestures as he addresses a press conference following a CDU party leadership meeting at the party's headquarters, the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus, in Berlin, on February 24, 2025, one day after the German general elections. Germany's election winner Friedrich Merz has vowed to rule Europe's largest economy by returning to his Christian Democrat party's conservative roots, ease restraints on business and crack down on irregular immigration. (Photo by INA FASSBENDER / AFP)

Friedrich Merz, who is expected to be Germany’s next chancellor after his conservative CDU/CSU bloc won national elections, says that he would make sure Benjamin Netanyahu “can visit” Germany despite an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister issued by the International Criminal Court.

“In the event that he plans to visit Germany, I have also promised myself that we will find a way to ensure that he can visit Germany and leave again without being arrested,” Merz tells a press conference in Berlin.

Breaking taboo, Foreign Ministry holding talks with three European far-right parties

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, center, speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU-Israel meeting at the European Council building in Brussels, Belgium, February 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar instructed diplomats to open channels of communication with far-right political parties in Sweden, France, and Spain, Walla reports, citing senior officials in the Foreign Ministry.

A Foreign Ministry official confirms the report to The Times of Israel.

The French National Rally, Sweden Democrats, and Spanish Vox factions had been shunned by the Foreign Ministry, President’s Residence, and Prime Minister’s Office over concerns over antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and fascist roots. Rogue Israeli ministers and legislators have also met with party official recently, without approval from the government.

“We do not agree with the entire platform of these parties or with every statement made by their leaders, but we believe that it is possible to have a dialogue with them,” one of the senior diplomats tells Walla.

Staff work began under Sa’ar’s predecessor Israel Katz, according to the report. Upon his appointment as foreign minister, Sa’ar assessed the parties based on their support for Israel, attitude toward the local Jewish community, the communities’ feelings toward the parties, and whether they had confronted their antisemitic legacies.

Sa’ar decided to continue avoiding contacts with the Austrian Freedom Party and the German AfD, says Walla.

Local Jewish communities were notified by the Foreign Ministry about the contacts.

Communications minister says efforts to remove AG will start in next few weeks

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara listens as she attends a cabinet meeting at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem on June 5, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool Photo via AP)

Addressing a conference organized by the right wing Arutz Sheva news website, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi promises to begin the process of removing Attorney General Gali-Baharav Miara from her position in the coming weeks.

“I said that in the next two to three weeks, an actual impeachment process will begin, and that is exactly what will happen,” he says.

“The Justice Minister [Yariv Levin] prepared a hearing with hundreds of examples of illegal activity – things that it would be unthinkable for an attorney general to do. There is no scenario in which she remains in her position. The law states that the attorney general’s role is to advise and assist the government in advancing policy [and] ​​not to block it from within.”

Karhi also states that he plans on establishing a “media committee” in the Knesset in order to bypass the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee, whose chairman, MK David Bitan (Likud), has promised to block a controversial bill aimed at shutting down the Kan public broadcaster supported by the minister.

“Unfortunately, there are those within the coalition who are delaying the reforms,” he says, accusing Bitan of “going with the opposition.”

However, “I do not intend to stop,” Karhi states, predicting that “the reforms will be completed by the end of July.”

Hamas says 2 wounded in drone strike in Rafah

The Hamas-run civil defense agency says two Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli drone strike near a school in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of southern Gaza’s Rafah a short while ago.

Their conditions are not immediately known, and the IDF has not yet commented.

‘She saw how people were fighting to bring her home’: Freed hostage Liri Albag visits Hostages Square

Freed hostage Liri Albag visits Hostage Square on February 24, 2025 (Courtesy Albag family)

Freed hostage Liri Albag visits Hostages Square with her older sister Shay, who says that Liri saw an image of Hostages Square while in Hamas captivity.

“She saw the Saturday night rallies,” writes Shay Albag on Instagram. “It strengthened her, that’s how she knew she wasn’t forgotten.”

“She saw how people were fighting to bring her home,” writes Albag. “And today for the first time, she’s seeing it with her own eyes. She sees the square and the sighs and the people who are part of the struggle. She seems how much love was around her all the time. We have to continue doing everything we can until the final hostage.”

לירי אלבג ביקרה בכיכר החטופים בפעם הראשונה. אחותה שי מספרת שבשבי לירי ראתה את העצרות בימי שבת וכך ידעה שנלחמים כדי להחזיר אותה הביתה.

היום בפעם הראשונה לירי ראתה בעיניים את הכיכר, המקום בו נלחמו עליה והפעם כשהיא בבית pic.twitter.com/U5JGhkRu6J

— שיר ביטון || shir bitton (@shirbitton_) February 24, 2025

Israel said to tell mediators it will release prisoners if Hamas returns 4 bodies today without a ceremony

Coffins apparently containing the bodies of slain Israeli hostages Shiri Bibas, her two children Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz, are displayed on a stage with a propaganda message before being handed over to the Red Cross by Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Israel has told the mediating countries that it is willing to release the 602 prisoners that it was scheduled to let go on Saturday if Hamas gives back today the four bodies it is supposed to release this week, Ynet reports, citing an Israeli official.

Israel is also demanding that Hamas not perform a ceremony with the coffins, as it did with the bodies of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz.

Two Palestinians detained for attacking Israelis in the West Bank

Two Palestinian suspects were detained overnight for allegedly attacking and wounding two Israelis in the central West Bank on Saturday, the military says.

The suspects were arrested in the village of Dayr Dibwan, just outside Ramallah, close to where the incident took place.

According to the army, Palestinians armed with batons, a knife, and stones attacked two Israelis, lightly wounding them. Other reports described the incident as clashes between settlers and Palestinians, saying three Palestinians were also injured and that settlers set fire later to several buildings in a Bedouin village near Jaba, an adjacent town.

The two Palestinian suspects were handed over to the Israel Police and Shin Bet for questioning.

Separately, the IDF says it detained eight wanted Palestinians during overnight raids in Jenin and Qaffin overnight.

Released hostage Omer Wenkert: I’m joining the struggle to free all the captives

Freed hostage Omer Wenkert flies with his parents Niva and Shai to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, February 22, 2025. (IDF Spokesperson's Office)

Released hostage Omer Wenkert posts a picture on social media, showing a conversation with his mother in which he vows to join the public struggle to free all the remaining hostages.

In the conversation, his mother tells him that “from tomorrow we rejoin the struggle to free everyone.”

He replies: “No you are not going back, It’s me that’s joining the struggle with all my force. I won’t stop until everyone is back.”

“Two of my brothers are still there and I will use every drop of energy there is to bring them back,” he says.

עומר ונקרט הגיבור: ״אמא, אנחנו ממחר חוזרים למאבק להחזיר את כולם. בכל הכח לא נעצור עד שכולם יחזרו. שני אחים שלי שנשארו מאחור, אדאג בכל טיפת אנרגיה שקיימת בי שתחזרו אלי״. pic.twitter.com/BkTIGiGT8n

— almog boker (@bokeralmog) February 24, 2025

Herzog says Israel must retain strong ties with both parties in the US

President Isaac Herzog speaks at the B'Sheva Group Jerusalem Conference, February 24, 2025 (Maayan Toaf/GPO)

Speaking at the B’Sheva Group Jerusalem Conference, President Isaac Herzog calls for Israel to ensure that ties with both parties in the US remain strong.

“The alliance with the United States is essential for Israel, and we must maintain a courageous relationship with both sides – both Republicans and Democrats,” says Herzog. “Just last week, I hosted the US secretary of state, and we discussed our strategic cooperation on issues such as Iran and the release of the hostages. We must manage these relations carefully, transparently, and in close cooperation.”

He also calls for domestic unity and “a strong judicial system.”

“Sometimes I think that one day historians will look back on this period and ask – what were they arguing about?” says the president. “Didn’t they see the threats? We must restrain ourselves, speak up, listen, and maintain a strong judicial system. We must not descend into a controversy that will tear the people apart again. We built our country shoulder to shoulder, regardless of their political views, and we must act accordingly.”

Israel Business Forum gives workers morning off to attend Bibas funeral procession

IDF officers salute a casket containing the body of slain hostage Shiri Silberman Bibas, late on February 21, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israel Business Forum, which represents most workers in the private sector in Israel from 200 of the country’s largest companies, says employees will be permitted to go to work late on Wednesday, in order to participate in the funeral procession route of slain hostages Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel Bibas, and show their support along the way.

“There is no consolation we can provide for dear Yarden and the members of the Bibas-Silberman family in the face of the horrific act, but we feel it is important to encourage the public to pay their last respects to the brutally murdered by Hamas,” the business forum says in a statement. “May their memory be a blessing.”

In Brussels, Sa’ar tells EU that PA must stop incitement against Israel in education system

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU-Israel meeting at the European Council building in Brussels, February 24, 2025. (AP Photo/ Virginia Mayo)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar tells European Parliament President Roberta Metsola that the Palestinian Authority “must stop incitement against Israel in their education system,” according to his office.

“The EU must ensure that their funds do not contribute to these purposes,” he writes on X.

Sa’ar calls Metsola a “true friend of Israel.”

Sa’ar is in Brussels to meet with EU leadership and the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers, as part of the annual Association Council meeting.

UK opposition leader demands probe into whether BBC license fees used to pay Hamas

This screenshot from the trailer for 'Gaza: How to Survive A War Zone' shows narrator Abdullah Al-Yazouri, whose father is a Hamas minister. (YouTube screenshot used in accordance with article 27a of the Copyright Law)

UK opposition leader Kemi Badenoch sends a letter to the BBC demanding to know whether the broadcaster used license fees paid by the British public to make payments to Hamas, the Daily Mail reports.

Her inquiry comes after the BBC on Friday removed a documentary about the Gaza war from its online streaming service, once it emerged that the child who is a central figure in the film is the son of a Hamas deputy minister, a fact that is not disclosed in the movie.

Badenoch’s letter, seen by the Daily Mail, calls for a probe into any “potential collusion with Hamas” and “the possibility of payment to terrorists.”

According to the Daily Mail, the BBC said it could not immediately answer her question and was carrying out “further due diligence” on how the program was made.

“Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone” is narrated by Abdullah Al-Yazouri, a 14-year-old boy. His father is Ayman Al-Yazouri, deputy minister of agriculture in the Strip’s Hamas government.

Badenoch also said anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s reporting of the conflict was not an “isolated incident” and called for rooting out the “systemic and institutional bias against Israel.”

Man shot dead in Bedouin town of Tel Sheva

A 22-year-old was shot dead in the southern Bedouin town of Tel Sheva last night, police and paramedics say.

Medics declared the man, Salah Salama Abu Ghanem, dead at the scene. Police say they have opened an investigation into the murder and have not yet arrested any suspects.

The victim was shot outside his home by unknown assailants trying to steal his car, according to a Ynet report.

Since the start of 2025, 42 Arab Israelis have been killed in violent criminal incidents. Many Arab community leaders attribute the stark rise in crime seen over the past few years to police neglect.

Yesterday, residents of Tamra in northern Israel held a general strike and protest outside the local police station, following the murder of 17-year-old Jawad Amer Yassin a day prior.

Public urged to accompany Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas funeral procession

Funeral announcement for Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas (Hostages Families Forum)

The family of slain hostages Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel publishes the route of their funeral procession and urges the public to show support along the way.

The Wednesday funeral will be closed to the general public.

The procession will depart from the Hevra Kadisha in Rishon Letzion (Ehad Ha’Am 1) at 7:45 a.m.

It will then pass the Rishonim Interchange at 08:00 in the direction of Route 431. At 8:15 a.m., it will go over the Yavne Interchange bridge, and then pass through the Silver Junction at 8:30.

The funeral procession will proceed past the Yad Morderchai Junction at 8:45 a.m., Nir Am Junction at 9:00, and Sha’ar Hanegev Juntion at 9:15.

The funeral service will be broadcast at 11:30 a.m..

In a statement yesterday, the family said that “in order to enable the family to say their goodbyes in the most personal and intimate way, and due to space limitations, the funeral ceremony itself will only be for members of the family and close friends.”

Asking to reduce court appearances, Netanyahu says country at ‘historic turning point’ that affects ‘foundation of our existence’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the courtroom at the Tel Aviv District Court for the 10th day of his testimony in his corruption trial, February 17, 2025. (Gideon Markowicz/ POOL)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the judges in his trial that Israel is in the midst of a “historic turning point” that affects the very existence of the country, in comments regarding his request to reduce the number of hearings in his criminal trial from three a week to two.

“We are at a historical turning point. We are discussing issues that are the very foundation of our existence,” the prime minister tells the judges.

“There is a change in circumstances that has implications for our existence, for the future of the country,” he continues, in reference to questions from the judges about his request that the defense minister be present in a hearing to discuss his appeal.

Trump reposts message from released US-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel

Released US-Israeli hostage stands in front of a ruined home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza in a video message to US President Donald Trump on February 23, 2025 (Screencapture/X)

US President Donald Trump reposts a message sent to him by released US-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel on his Truth Social page.

In the video, Siegel is standing outside the ruins of a home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza and he introduces himself as the “first American hostage freed in the deal that you set in place.”

He again thanks Trump for his efforts.

Siegel says it is hard for him to comprehend the destruction that Hamas wrought on October 7. “Homes that were destroyed by Hamas, that were burned. People of the kibbutz that were murdered, burned alive.”

He urges Trump to act to get the rest of the hostages out of Gaza, saying the situation is urgent.

Donald Trump Truth Social Post 05:09 PM EST 02/23/25 pic.twitter.com/sIezXfyugm

— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) February 24, 2025

Pope is resting on 10th day of hospitalization after early stages of kidney failure detected

People pray for Pope Francis in front of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, in Rome, February 23, 2025, where the pontiff has been hospitalized since February 14. (AP Photo/ Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis was resting this morning after a quiet night, on the 10th day of his hospitalization for a complex lung infection that has provoked the early stages of kidney failure, the Vatican said.

The one-line statement did not say whether Francis, 88, had woken up. “The night passed well. The pope slept and is resting,” it says.

Late Sunday, doctors reported that blood tests showed early kidney failure that was nevertheless under control. They said Francis remained in critical condition, but that he had not experienced any further respiratory crises since Saturday.

UN chief ‘gravely concerned’ at Israeli settler violence in West Bank

Palestinians survey the damage caused during a rampage by extremist Israeli settlers, in the West Bank village of Jinsafut, January 21, 2025. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

The UN chief voices alarm at rising violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and calls for annexation.

“I am gravely concerned by the rising violence in the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers and other violations, as well as calls for annexation,” Antonio Guterres tells the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Court to limit Netanyahu questioning by defense to 14 more sessions

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and his lawyer Amit Hadad arrive at the courtroom at the Tel Aviv District Court for the 10th day of the premier's testimony in his corruption trial, February 17, 2025. (Gideon Markowicz/POOL)

The Jerusalem District Court decides that the primary questioning of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his defense attorney for all the charges against him will be limited to another 14 sessions.

The court says it is making the decision “in light of the amount of time the [prime minister’s] testimony has taken until now,” with Netanyahu having testified on only 11 occasions so far, despite starting to give testimony on December 10, due to the prime minister’s leadership responsibilities, his prostate removal surgery, and other scheduling problems.

In court, the judges have tried repeatedly to get Netanyahu’s defense attorney, Amit Hadad, to speed up his questioning, reduce repetitious questioning, and reduce the amount of time he dwells on certain specifics of the cases, but both Hadad and Netanyahu have refused.

Hadad said last week he would need another 24 sessions to complete his primary questioning of the prime minister, with the prosecution saying they would need three times as many hearings for cross examination, as the total number of defense hearings, which would mean more than 120 further hearings.

The court also orders Netanyahu’s defense team to provide it with a list of other defense witnesses who could testify once a week by February 26, if the court is to agree to Netanyahu’s request that he testify only twice a week, and not three times.

That is, the court wishes to hold hearings once a week with other defense witnesses, if it is to agree to reduce Netanyahu’s testimony to twice a week.

The State Attorney’s Office, which is strongly opposed to reducing the number of hearings for Netanyahu, will respond and the court will then make a decision.

Netanyahu will need to testify three times a week until that decision is made.

In bid to reduce trial appearances, Netanyahu asks judges for closed-door security meeting

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives for his trial at the Tel Aviv District Court on February 19, 2025. (Tamar Matsafi/ POOL)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requests to hold a closed door session with the judges in his criminal trial to discuss a “security matter,” in connection to his request last week to switch from three days of hearings every week, to two.

Netanyahu requests that both Defense Minister Yisrael Katz and the Director of Security of the Defense Establishment, an official responsible for security in the Defense Ministry, be present at the hearing.

“This is a sensitive security matter, exposure to which requires meeting the terms of the security authorities, including about the site where the classified hearing will take place,” Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad writes to the court.

The security agencies will need to coordinate matters with the Israel Court’s administration before the hearing, Hadad says.

“In light of the above, and in light of the important need to bring the information before the court, prior to deciding on arrangements for hearings, the court is requested to order the coordination of the security hearing as detailed above,” concludes Hadad.

It is requested that the closed-door hearing take place around noon. The court is yet to respond.

Netanyahu has ‘warm conversation’ with Merz after German election win

Friedrich Merz, leader of Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and his party's main candidate for chancellor, applauds supporters after the first exit polls in the German general elections were announced on TV during the electoral evening in Berlin on February 23, 2025. (INA FASSBENDER / AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a “warm conversation” last night with Friedrich Merz, the presumptive German chancellor after his CDU/CSU came first in the German elections yesterday.

According to Netanyahu’s office, Merz said he would invite him to Germany, which seems to indicate that Merz would not enforce the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Netanyahu.

Arkia flight from Israel to Georgia forced to return due to snow storm

An Arkia plane lands at Ben Gurion International Airport, on November 3, 2019. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90/File)

An Arkia flight from Tel Aviv to Batumi, Georgia was forced to return to Israel because of a large snowstorm at the destination, the airline says.

Arkia says flight 413 could not land and returned to Ben Gurion Airport.

The airline says passengers were taken to a hotel and would be informed of when the weather would allow a new flight to be scheduled.

Brother of Avera Mengistu: He’s still not sharing, he has a long recovery ahead

Avera Mengistu (left) embraces his brother, Ilan, at a military facility near Re'im on February 22, 2025. (IDF)

Ilan Mengistu, the bother of Avera Mengistu who was released on Saturday from more than a decade of Hamas captivity, says that he has a long period of recovery ahead of him.

“He is still not sharing [what he went through], we are trying not to pressure him,” Ilan tells Ynet. “He has a long period of rehabilitation ahead of him.”

Mengistu entered the Gaza Strip of his own accord in 2014, with mental distress.

He was freed on Saturday along with Hisham al-Sayed, who also entered Gaza in 2015 and alongside Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen and Tal Shoham, all of whom were abducted on October 7, 2023.

“Meeting him gave us chills,” says Ilan. “I immediately saw that he realized that something good had happened.”

In first, Olmert reveals map of his offer to Abbas for two-state solution

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert holds up the map he presented to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2008 for a two-state solution in a BBC documentary that aired in February, 2025. (Screencapture/ BBC)

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert for the first time reveals the map of his 2008 offer to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for a two-state solution that would have given the Palestinians 95.1% of the West Bank and Gaza, with one-for-one land swaps in Israel.

Details of the offer have long been known, but largely from a hand drawn version of the map that Abbas recreated after the meeting.

“This is the first time that I expose this map to the media,” Olmert says in the documentary, “Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7th October,” which airs on the BBC today.

“In the next 50 years, you will not find one Israeli leader that will propose to you what I propose to you now,” Olmert recalls telling Abbas. “Sign it! Sign it and let’s change history!”

Olmert presented Abbas with a large formal map in September 2008 showing his territorial compromise proposal for the contours of a Palestinian state as part of a permanent peace accord, and demanded that Abbas initial the proposal before taking it back to Ramallah for consideration by the Palestinians. Abbas refused to do so.

The map shows that Olmert was willing, more or less, to return to the pre-1967 lines, though maintaining the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem, the settlement city of Ma’ale Adumim to the east, and a slice of territory that would encompass the large settlement of Ariel in Samaria. In exchange for expanding Israeli sovereignty to those areas, Israel would have given up some of its own land to the new Palestinian state.

He also endorsed a tunnel route to link Gaza and the West Bank.

Olmert was also prepared to divide Jerusalem into Israeli- and Palestinian-controlled neighborhoods, and to relinquish Israeli sovereignty at the Temple Mount and the entire Old City. He has said that he proposed that the “Holy Basin” be overseen instead by a five-member, non-sovereign, international trusteeship, made up of Israel, the PA, Jordan, the US, and Saudi Arabia.

In the documentary, Abbas’s then-chief of staff, Rafiq Husseini, says the Palestinians did not take the offer seriously because Olmert was embroiled in a corruption scandal and would soon resign.

“It is unfortunate that Olmert, regardless of how nice he was… was a lame duck,” Husseini says, “and therefore, we will go nowhere with this.”

Home Front Command to test rocket warning sirens in northern communities

The Home Front Command will test rocket warning sirens in three northern communities.

Sirens will sound in Margaliot at 11:05, in Metula at 13:05, and in Tel Hai at 14:05.

In the event of a real incident, a second siren will sound.

EU leaders arrive in Kyiv to mark 3rd anniversary of Russian invasion

The heads of the European Union arrived in Kyiv to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s February 2022 invasion, a show of solidarity amid a rift between Ukraine and new US President Donald Trump.

“We are in Kyiv today, because Ukraine is Europe. In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake. It’s Europe’s destiny,” EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen says on social media with a video of her arriving in Kyiv alongside Antonio Costa, president of the European Council.

On the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion, Europe is in Kyiv.

We are in Kyiv today, because Ukraine is Europe.

In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake.

It’s Europe’s destiny. pic.twitter.com/s0IaC5WYh6

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 24, 2025

Conservative talk show host, ex-police officer named as FBI deputy director

President Donald Trump says in a post on social media that Dan Bongino, a conservative talk show host, will be deputy director of the FBI.

Bongino will join Kash Patel, who was recently confirmed by the Senate as director of the FBI. Trump says Bongino was named to the role by Patel. The position does not require Senate confirmation.

“Great news for Law Enforcement and American Justice!” Trump posts on his social media network, Truth Social, calling Bongino “a man of incredible love and passion for our Country.”

Bongino was previously a New York City police officer, and a member of the US Secret Service. He most recently had been known as a conservative radio host and podcaster.

Trump says in his post that Bongino is “prepared to give up” his program as he steps into the new role. “The Dan Bongino Show” was most recently the 56th-ranked podcast in the United States, according to Spotify.

German election victor Merz says he will strive for Europe’s ‘real independence’ from US

Friedrich Merz, the candidate of the mainstream conservative Christian Democratic Union party, arrives on stage to address supporters at the party headquarters in Berlin, Germany, February 23, 2025, after the German national election. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Friedrich Merz, set to become Germany’s next chancellor after his opposition conservatives won the national election, vows to help give Europe “real independence” from the US as he prepares to cobble together a government.

Merz, 69, faces complex and lengthy coalition negotiations after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged to a historic second place in a fractured vote after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unloved three-way alliance.

Mainstream parties rule out working with the AfD which enjoyed the endorsement of prominent right-wing US figures including Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and ally of President Donald Trump.

Merz, who has no previous experience in office, is set to become chancellor with Europe’s largest economy ailing, its society split over migration and its security caught between a confrontational US and an assertive Russia and China.

He takes aim at the US in blunt remarks after his victory, criticizing the “ultimately outrageous” comments flowing from Washington during the campaign, comparing them to hostile interventions from Russia.

“So we are under such massive pressure from two sides that my absolute priority now is to achieve unity in Europe. It is possible to create unity in Europe,” Merz tells a roundtable with other leaders.

Merz’s broadside against the US comes despite Trump welcoming the election outcome with a post on his Truth Social platform.

“Much like the USA, the people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration, that has prevailed for so many years,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Hitherto seen as an Atlanticist, Merz says Trump had shown his administration to be “largely indifferent to the fate of Europe”.

Merz’s “absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that we can achieve real independence from the USA step by step,” he adds.

White House backs Israel’s decision to delay releasing 600 Palestinian security prisoners

The White House says that it supports Israel’s decision to delay releasing 600 Palestinian prisoners, citing the “barbaric treatment” of Israeli hostages by Hamas.

“Given Hamas’ barbaric treatment of the hostages, including the hideous parade of the Bibas children’s coffins through the streets of Gaza, Israel’s decision to delay the release of prisoners is an appropriate response,” a statement from National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes says.

“The President is prepared to support Israel in whatever course of action it chooses regarding Hamas,” he adds.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday morning that Israel will not release the 602 prisoners that had been slated for release Saturday until Hamas provides guarantees that it will end the “demeaning” ceremonies it has held to mark the transfer of Israeli hostages.

Houthis launched missile at US fighter jet but missed, officials say

Yemen’s Houthis launched surface-to-air missiles at an American fighter jet and MQ-9 Reaper drone this week, but did not hit either, two US officials tell Reuters.

The officials, who speak on condition of anonymity, do not specify if the attacks occurred over the Red Sea or Yemen itself.

One says the incidents can suggest the Houthis were improving their targeting capabilities.

Abdul Malik al-Houthi, who leads the Iran-backed rebel group, said in a televised speech on February 13 that the Houthis would intervene with missiles and drones and attack vessels in the Red Sea if the United States and Israel tried to remove Palestinians from Gaza by force, after Trump presented his plan to displace the enclave’s population and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

Anti-Israel activists hold funeral event for terror chief Nasrallah in NYC

A funeral event for Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah in New York City, February 23, 2025. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

Several dozen anti-Israel protesters hold a funeral for Hezbollah terror leader Hassan Nasrallah in New York City.

The protest takes place in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park on the same day as Nasrallah’s funeral in Lebanon.

The protesters chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine is almost free,” “Settlers settlers go back home, Palestine is ours alone,” and “From New York to Gaza, globalize the intifada.”

Several people in the crowd hold photos of Nasrallah and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. A Hezbollah flag hangs at the head of the group.

Several dozen pro-Israel counterprotesters blow air horns, wave Israeli and American flags and chant, “USA.” Police separate the two groups.

“Fuck Palestine,” a passerby shouts.

Unlike most anti-Israel rallies in the city, there appear to be more pro-Israel counterprotesters.