Feb. 25: Freed hostages urge PM to bring captive fathers home to their children

Australian nurse indicted for threatening to kill Israeli patients

SYDNEY — An Australian nurse filmed in an online video chat saying she would kill Israeli patients has been charged with threatening violence, police say.

Footage released by Israeli influencer Max Veifer on social media this month showed him in a video chat with a male and a female nurse at a Sydney hospital.

Asked how they would treat Israeli patients in their Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in southwest Sydney, the female nurse told Veifer: “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.”

Detectives charged the 26-year-old woman — named in Australian media as Sarah Abu Lebdeh — with threatening violence to a group; using a carriage service to threaten to kill; and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, police said in a statement.

Police had acted “swiftly under enormous pressure and public expectation,” New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb says.

The woman is scheduled to face court in Sydney on March 19.

Trump says he may have handled Hamas threat not to free hostages ‘differently’ than Netanyahu

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press after signing an executive order, alongside US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (L) and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (R), at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on February 25, 2025. (Jim Watson/AFP)

US President Donald Trump says he might have responded differently to Hamas’s threat not to release a batch of hostages earlier this month than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did.

After Hamas made the threat, citing Israeli violations of the ongoing ceasefire deal, Trump set a Saturday noon deadline for all remaining hostages to be released or there would be all hell to pay.

Mediators subsequently brokered an agreement for Hamas to release the three hostages as slated so Israel would not resume the war, which Trump appeared to be green-lighting.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump reiterates his belief that Hamas backed down from its threat because of his Saturday ultimatum.

“The rest is really up to [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu],” Trump says. “I may have done it differently than him… I may have taken a different stance.”

Israeli official says hostages’ remains to be released on Wednesday

An Israeli official confirms to The Times of Israel that an agreement has been reached with Hamas on the return of four slain hostages and the release of 602 prisoners.

The release will be carried out through Egypt on Wednesday, says the official.

Hamas: Deal reached for ‘simultaneous’ release of 4 slain hostages, 602 Palestinian prisoners

An armed member of the Hamas terror group precedes International Red Cross vehicles as they arrive in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip to receive three Israeli hostages being freed on February 22, 2025. (Bashar Taleb/AFP)

Hamas announces that an agreement has been reached with Israel for the “simultaneous” release of four Israeli hostages’ bodies and 602 Palestinian security prisoners, which would an end to an impasse that risked collapsing the ceasefire agreement before its first phase was even completed.

“An agreement was reached to resolve the issue of the delayed release of Palestinian prisoners who were supposed to be freed in the last batch,” Hamas says in a statement. “They will be released simultaneously with the bodies of the Israeli prisoners agreed upon for transfer during the first phase, in addition to an equivalent number of Palestinian women and children.”

The deal was also confirmed by an Israeli official to The Times of Israel, and another source familiar with the matter said Egypt will be responsible for the swap.

Israel was supposed to release the Palestinian prisoners on Saturday but has been refusing to do so, citing Hamas violations of the deal during the return of the three Bibas family members’ remains as well as the propaganda ceremonies it has been putting on throughout the hostage releases so far in phase one.

Earlier today, the Israeli official told The Times of Israel that Hamas has agreed not to hold such ceremonies during the release of the four slain hostages, but similar assurances were given ahead of the release of the Bibas family and body of Oded Lifshitz that were not upheld, leading Jerusalem to refuse to release the Palestinian prisoners before the hostages are freed.

Hamas says the agreement was reached during meetings that its delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya held in Cairo with Egyptian officials.

“The Hamas leadership delegation reaffirmed its clear position on the need for full and precise adherence to all its terms and stages,” the terror group’s statement adds.

IDF says strikes in southern Syria hit military targets, including weapon storage sites

The IDF confirms that it struck “military targets” in southern Syria, including weapon storage sites.

“The presence of military assets and forces in the southern part of Syria constitutes a threat to the citizens of the State of Israel,” the military says. “The IDF will continue to act to remove any threat to the citizens of the State of Israel.”

Katz confirms Israeli strikes in southern Syria: ‘We will not allow it to become southern Lebanon’

Defense Minister Israel Katz confirms that Israel is carrying out airstrikes in southern Syria after blasts were reported in several areas south of Damascus, and warns Israel “will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon.”

The strikes come after several Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanded in recent days the demilitarization of southern Syria, and warned that Israel would prevent the Syrian army from moving south of Damascus.

“We will not endanger the security of our citizens,” Katz says. “Any attempt by Syrian regime forces and the country’s terrorist organizations to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria — will be met with fire.”

After US envoy Witkoff delays visit to region, sources say he’ll likely make trip next week

The Trump administration’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff won’t be departing for the region this week, a US official and two Arab diplomats confirm to The Times of Israel.

He will likely depart next week instead, but the trip has not been finalized, the three sources say.

Israeli strikes reported south of Damascus, security source says military site targeted

Israeli airstrikes are reported in the Quneitra region of southwest Syria, as well as in the city of Al-Kiswah, just south of Damascus.

A security source tells Reuter that a military site was targeted, without providing further details.

Residents of Damascus and Reuters reporters in the city heard the sound of airplanes flying several low passes over the capital and a series of blasts.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

Ashkenazi chief rabbi to visit Russia Thursday to strengthen ties with communities there

Rabbi Kalman Ber attends a vote for the new Chief Ashkenazi rabbi, at the Chief Rabbinate headquarters in Jerusalem, October 31, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber announces that he will visit Russia
on Thursday.

According to a statement by his office, Ber was invited by Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar and “local authorities who seek to strengthen ties with Israel once again under the guidance of the Trump administration.”

“After the UN vote, relations between Israel and Russia continue to warm,” the statement adds.

Relations between Israel and Moscow have been tense since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. For three years, Jerusalem sought to maintain a delicate balance between its principled support for Ukraine and its need to preserve ties with Moscow, due to its influence over Syria.

On Monday, however, Israel joined the US and Russia in voting 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 war’s third anniversary.

Ber will spend several days in Russia, including Shabbat in Moscow’s Jewish neighborhood of Marina Roscha.

25-year-old shot dead in Ramle in what police say was a criminal dispute

Paramedics in Ramla take a shooting victim to a nearby hospital on February 25, 2025. (Magen David Adom)

A 25-year-old was shot dead in Ramle earlier tonight, police and paramedics say.

The shooting also wounded an 18-year-old, who is in moderate condition.

Medics called to the scene evacuated both young men to the hospital, where medical staff pronounced the 25-year-old dead. The slain victim’s name is Mohammad Nazal, according to local media outlets.

Police are investigating the incident and say it took place in the context of a criminal dispute. They have not yet arrested any suspects.

Since the start of 2025, 43 Arab Israelis have lost their lives in violent criminal incidents.

Egypt said to reject Lapid’s proposal for it to administer Gaza for years to come

Egypt rejects a proposal presented by Opposition Leader Yair Lapid today that would see Cairo taking over management of the Gaza Strip for 8 years, reports the Saudi state-owned Al Arabiya network.

Egyptian sources tell the outlet that Palestinians will run the Strip, and that “Egypt will not be led by an attempt to administer Gaza.”

IDF says it carried out strike on Hezbollah operatives in eastern Lebanon

The IDF says it carried out an airstrike against a group of Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley earlier today.

The strike was carried out after the military says it identified the operatives at a “strategic weapons” manufacturing and storage facility belonging to the terror group.

The operatives’ activity at the site is a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, the IDF says.

Syrian army will risk facing Israeli fire if it moves south of Damascus, Israeli official says

Any Syrian army forces that move south of Damascus will risk “facing an Israeli response by fire,” an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.

“We are not going to allow jihadists near our border, we are not going to allow threats to the Druze in Syria, the brothers of brothers, and we will not allow another October 7 to happen in the Golan,” says the official.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Syria’s new leadership against moving troops into southern Syria.

Sa’ar defends establishing relations with 3 far-right European parties but acknowledges they have ‘bad roots’

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar meets with Jewish and pro-Israel leaders in Brussels, February 25, 2025. (Shalev Man/Foreign Ministry)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar explains his decision to establish relations with three European far-right parties, saying that he is looking at their current attitudes and that he would never legitimize neo-Nazis.

“I instructed my ministry to establish relations with National Rally, the Sweden Democrats, and Vox,” he tells Jewish and pro-Israel leaders in Brussels. “The connection will be like with any other political party. After I reviewed the matter and heard the opinion of the professional level – I didn’t see a reason not to do so. The opposite.”

“We are checking responsibly per case the different parties,” he continues. “We check their attitudes toward Israel and their support for Israel. We are also reviewing their attitudes toward antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and other such matters.”

Sa’ar acknowledges that some of the parties “have bad roots.”

“But we look at their deeds on the ground today. Do they denounce or ban party members with antisemitic statements? This is a substantial indication.”

He says the Foreign Ministry is also speaking to them about ritual issues necessary for Jewish life, like circumcision and Kashrut.

“We do not want to give up on friends in Europe, but we also don’t want to give legitimacy to parties that empower neo-Nazi phenomena,” he insists. “Ultimately, we make the final decision. But we have a dialogue with leaders of Jewish communities on the topic.”

Sister of Yarden Bibas decries ‘abuse’ after PM shares graphic details about murders of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir against family’s wishes

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a graduation ceremony for cadets in the IDF Ground Forces officers' course, and holds up a photo of slain hostages Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel Bibas, February 23, 2025. (Screen capture via YouTube, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Ofri Bibas, sister of released hostage Yarden Bibas, slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Israeli news outlets, social media users and public diplomats for detailing, against the family’s will, the murders in captivity of Yarden’s wife Shiri and young sons Ariel and Kfir.

Publishing such information over the family’s repeated requests was “abuse for its own sake of a family that has gone through 16 months of hell and still has the worst ahead,” writes Ofri Bibas on Facebook, a day before the funeral of her nephews and sister-in-law.

Netanyahu had described the young boys’ murder in graphic detail in a speech before the America Israel Public Action Committee on Tuesday, and, while holding a picture of the victims, at a military ceremony on Sunday.

Following Netanyahu’s speech, the Bibas family sent a cease and desist letter to Netanyahu’s and other government offices asking they stop publishing unapproved details of their murders, the Ynet news site reports.

The family also issued a statement via the Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Saturday requesting media outlets “stop adding details to the fact that Shiri and the kids were murdered by their captors.”

“As someone who sat in the room with [IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel] Hagari that day, I’ll write this: Yarden and the family approved, word for word, what the IDF spokesman said in the statement. Nothing more,” she writes.

She says that authorities were yet to complete their report on the murders, much less present it to the family, which, to its great consternation, nonetheless found out details from “the media, public diplomacy apparatus, Twitter users and yes, for whatever reason, even the prime minister.”

Israel expects four slain hostages to be returned by Thursday; if no further hostages released by March 8, ToI told, ceasefire will end

Protesters at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv call for the release of all 63 hostages still held in Hamas captivity, February 22, 2025. (Omer Yelin/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Israel is expecting the remains of the four remaining slain hostages from the first phase of the hostage deal to be returned by Hamas, as scheduled, on Thursday, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel. The official adds that there are ongoing efforts to move up the release.

Once that final release of hostages envisioned in the first phase happens, says the official, Hamas has three choices.

One: It can agree to Israel’s terms — that it disarm, that its leaders go into exile, and that it give up any civil control over Gaza — and then Israel will move to the second phase of the deal, which would see all hostages released and the war come to an end.

Two: Hamas can also continue releasing hostages and extend the ceasefire.

Or three, says the official, Hamas can choose the end of the ceasefire, which would mean a return to all-out war. “It would be different,” says the official. “A new defense minister, a new chief of staff, all the weapons we need, and full legitimacy, one hundred percent, from the Trump administration.”

“The gates of hell will be opened, as they say.”

After the release of the bodies on Thursday, says the official, Israel will give Hamas some time to decide what it wants to do. But if there isn’t another release of hostages by next Saturday, March 8, Israel will consider the ceasefire over.

Israel expects US special envoy Steve Witkoff to come to Israel in the coming days, despite his postponing the trip scheduled to begin tomorrow. “He is waiting for things to be a bit more ripe.”

The official adds that Israel has set up teams to work out the details of how to make US President Donald Trump’s proposal to allow voluntary migration from Gaza a reality, and to find countries to take in Gazans.

IDF, Shin Bet say they thwarted plan to target troops in the West Bank with 100 kg bomb

Israeli security forces have foiled an attempt to target troops operating in the West Bank with 100 kg of explosives, the IDF and Shin Bet say in a joint statement.

It says that the plan was thwarted due to intelligence information received by the Shin Bet during an interrogation of two terror suspects.

The two suspects, both from Nablus, were arrested as part of a joint operation between the IDF, the Shin Bet, and the Border Police, which was aimed at apprehending terrorist cells in the Jenin area believed to be planning attacks against Israel.

The two men, members of a terror cell in Qabatiya, near Jenin, were apprehended with two M16 assault rifles in their possession while driving to what the IDF says was the location of a planned shooting attack in Huwara.

During the Shin Bet interrogation, they revealed that they had acquired, through operatives in the Jenin Battalion, a 100 kg bomb that they were planning to use against IDF troops operating in the area.

Using the information given to them by the suspects, the statement says that security forces carried out a raid in Qabatiya last night, in which they seized the 100 kg bomb, along with other weapons, and apprehended additional terror suspects.

Leaked IDF probe: Only one soldier was guarding Nahal Oz outpost on Oct. 7, Hamas had studied base layout for years

Memorial candles line the charred desks in the destroyed command center of Nahal Oz base, February 23, 2024. (Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

A leaked IDF probe into the October 7, 2023, attack on the Nahal Oz military outpost reveals that there was only one soldier on guard duty that morning, and he was stationed at the entrance to the base, Channel 12 reports.

More than 50 soldiers were killed and 10 were taken hostage from the Nahal Oz outpost, situated less than one kilometer from the Gaza border.

On the morning of October 7, 162 soldiers were present in the outpost, of whom 81 were armed combat soldiers and another 9 were armed but not trained for combat, Channel 12 reports, meaning that half of all soldiers on the base at the time of the attack were non-combatants.

Hamas had studied Nahal Oz from afar for years prior to launching the deadly assault and was intimately familiar with the layout of the base, including “where every room was,” the report says. It adds that the terror group knew that the base would be operating at a reduced capacity due to the Jewish holiday of Simhat Torah, which fell on a Saturday that year.

The IDF investigation found that Hamas began its final preparations for the attack on the evening of October 6, roughly 12 hours before the first air-raid sirens would blare in southern Israel, Channel 12 says. However, senior officers alerted to the unusual movement concluded that there was no need to send troops down to the border.

Had troops been instructed to take up their positions, “the battle picture would have looked different,” the report says.

The probe also reportedly addresses the impact that the incessant rocket fire had on the devastation inside the military outpost, as terrorists were able to easily kill large groups of soldiers who had gathered in bomb shelters.

The official findings of the probe are to be presented to relevant families on Thursday and then made available to the public.

Knesset illuminated by orange lights in memory of murdered Bibas family

The Knesset lights up in orange in memory of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were murdered in captivity in Gaza, on February 25, 2025. (Dani Shem Tov/Knesset Spokesman)

The Knesset is lit up orange in memory of murdered hostages Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who are slated to be buried tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana will open the day’s plenum session with a minute of silence in memory of the Bibas family, Oded Lifshitz and everybody else killed on October 7 and during the following war.

IDF says it fired at vessels off the coast of Gaza that violated maritime security restrictions

The IDF says troops opened fire at a number of vessels off the coast of the Gaza Strip earlier today that violated maritime security restrictions.

The vessels did not immediately return to shore, the IDF says, but did so after troops fired in their direction a second time.

Elsewhere in the enclave, the military says troops opened fire to repel people who approached them “and posed a threat to them.”

“The IDF once again calls on Palestinian civilians to obey IDF instructions, not approach the forces deployed in the area, and to pass through the agreed checkpoints.”

Four freed hostages pen letter to PM asking him to bring captive fathers home to their children

L-R: Tal Shoham, Ofer Calderon, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Or Levy (IDF)

Four recently released hostages have penned a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which they appeal for the government to “bring fathers back to their children.”

In the letter, Or Levy, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Ofer Calderon, and Tal Shoham explain that “we were not the only ones who went through hardships and upheavals during this period. Our families and children suffered [and are still suffering] from ongoing trauma, and at the time, endless uncertainty and longing.”

“The harm to them in our absence was significant,” the four say, adding that their children now require “long-term rehabilitation and constant support” to heal from what they endured.

They note that for some families — including Shoham’s — the trauma is compounded by the fact that their children were also taken hostage and were released during the November 2023 truce, while their fathers were left behind. Others, they say, witnessed the “horrific events” of the October 7, 2023 attacks and are now “forced to endure further harm in the form of the delay in returning their hostage fathers to Israel.”

“The State of Israel has a duty to put the welfare of children and the welfare of families first, and to do everything in its power so that the hostage fathers, some of whom are dead…are returned as soon as possible,” continues the letter.

They say that the children of the hostages deserve an absolute answer “about the basic question: ‘Where is dad?'”

“This is the least that can be done for us,” they write. “This is the essence of solidarity, of concern for others, and of thinking about the next generation.”

Reports of Israeli airstrike in eastern Lebanon, two said killed

Lebanese media reports an Israeli airstrike in the Beqaa Valley region in eastern Lebanon.

The pro-Hezbollah al Mayadeen outlet reports two dead and two others wounded in the alleged Israeli strike.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

Hamas calls on Muslims to oppose reported plans to limit Temple Mount access during Ramadan ‘by any means’

Thousands of worshipers attend the last Friday prayers of the Musliim holy month of Ramadan, at the Al Aqsa Mosque atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, April 5, 2024. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

Hamas rails against the Israeli security establishment’s recommendation to restrict Muslim prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan, which begins this Friday.

In a Telegram statement, Hamas calls on Palestinian Muslims in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as Arab Israelis to travel to the Temple Mount in large numbers and oppose attempts by Israel to “desecrate and control” the site, “by any means.”

The statement comes in the wake of Hebrew media reports claiming that Israel’s security establishment plans to allow only 10,000 West Bank Palestinians to enter the al-Aqsa compound for Friday prayer, given they submit a request in advance. Ex-prisoners released under the current ceasefire deal will not be permitted to enter the compound.

On the final Friday of Ramadan last year, some 120,000 worshippers prayed at Al-Aqsa — under heavy security — without major incidents, despite heightened tensions related to the war in Gaza. However, the site is a flashpoint, having seen frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces over the years.

Security officials also recommended allowing entry only to younger children and older adults, namely children younger than 12, men older than 55, or women over the age of 50, per the reports. The IDF issued similar age restrictions for West Bank Palestinians last year.

The recommendation followed a series of discussions between the IDF, Defense Ministry, Israel Police, Shin Bet and Israel Prison Service. Security forces have yet to announce an official policy regarding Muslim access to the site.

The Kan public broadcaster reports that 3,000 security personnel will be deployed at checkpoints each day of the fast-approaching holy month.

Gantz demands that government find ‘courage’ to establish state inquiry into Oct. 7

Speaking at a conference organized by the Institute for National Security Studies, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz says that on October 7 “the State of Israel experienced an invasion which hasn’t happened since 1948, and must never happen again.”

“In my view, when a broad, significant, and immediate threat emerges, we must launch a preemptive war to eliminate it,” he says calling for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry to probe “the fundamental question of ‘How could this have happened?'”

“The disaster that befell us is far too severe to be addressed solely through an internal military investigation. I expect this government to have the courage to at least establish a state commission of inquiry,” he continues.

“I joined the emergency government out of a shared sense of destiny, not political partnership. Recently, I personally called [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and told him that we would support him in everything related to bringing the hostages home—and that is exactly what we will do.”

Yair Golan: Netanyahu solely to blame for Hamas’s ability to rebuild itself in Gaza

The Democrats chief Yair Golan accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of having “mismanaged” the war in Gaza, asserting that “it could have been won more effectively and much faster.”

Addressing a conference organized by the Institute for National Security Studies, Golan says that “the same government that failed on October 7 has also failed in its management of the war and continues to fail by not translating military achievements into a political resolution.”

“Wars are not won through military action alone, a war is a national effort that must be concluded with a political, diplomatic, and civil process that provides a solution. The fact that Hamas was able to rebuild itself in Gaza is solely Netanyahu’s fault. We did not invest a single moment of effort in preventing this, and as a result, we now find ourselves in this disgraceful situation,” he asserts.

Defense committee chair Edelstein warns against firing Shin Bet chief, calls for state commission into Oct. 7

Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair Yuli Edelstein attends a Conference of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), in Tel Aviv, on February 25, 2025. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) comes out against the potential termination of Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency.

Speaking at a conference organized by the Institute for National Security Studies, Edelstein says that the Shin Bet “as an organization does its job faithfully” and that he has not heard of any plans to fire Bar, who should “finish his term when he decides to end it.”

Last week, national broadcaster Kan reported that once the security agency completes its internal probes into the failures of October 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will demand Bar’s departure, either through his resignation or by a cabinet decision to remove him from office.

Edelstein also calls for a state commission of inquiry into October 7, stating that only such a probe would be given access to the minutes of his committee — and says that current efforts to advance the government’s judicial overhaul have come about “because there was no dialogue and no discourse regarding the changes that are truly necessary in the judicial system.”

“I talked about this years ago. Everyone needs to look at themselves in the mirror and ask how we got to this point,” he says.

As Edelstein speaks, protesters hold up a banner reading “Edelstein, don’t give a hand to an evasion law,” a reference to the ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill currently being debated in his committee.

מחאה שקטה בזמן ראיון עם יו"ר ועדת חוץ ובטחון יולי אדלשטיין בכנס INSS:
"אדלשטיין אל תתן יד לחוק ההשתמטות".
(ועל אף השקט, המוחים פונו)

צילם- אודי סלמנוביץ' pic.twitter.com/Swbr1iZoS5

— Noa Shpigel (@NoaShpigel) February 25, 2025

US Mideast envoy delays trip to the region, reportedly due to US focus on ending Russia-Ukraine war

Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump's special envoy for the Middle East, arrives for a press conference with the US president and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, on February 4, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP)

US special envoy Steve Witkoff will not be coming to the region tomorrow, according to the Ynet news site.

Axios reports that Witkoff is delaying the trip to focus on US-led efforts to find a negotiated end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

No new date has been given for the visit.

Witkoff had said on Sunday morning news shows that he could be coming to the region Wednesday to talk about extending the first phase of the deal between Israel and Hamas, and to discuss a second phase.

Witkoff met with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer in Washington in recent days to discuss the talks.

Syria calls for Israel’s withdrawal from its lands, in closing statement of national dialogue summit

A temporary IDF post on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, in a handout photo issued on January 28, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Syria condemns Israel’s incursion past its borders and calls for it to withdraw, according to the closing statement of a national dialogue summit organized by Syria’s new Islamist rulers to outline the country’s political roadmap.

Israel moved forces into the UN-monitored demilitarized zone within Syria after rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Al Qaeda affiliate, toppled former president Bashar al-Assad in December.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel will not tolerate the presence of HTS in southern Syria, nor any other forces affiliated with the country’s new rulers, and demanded the territory be demilitarized.

Noa Argamani tells UN Security Council the hostages feel ‘abandoned by the world,’ pleads for full deal

Former hostage Noa Argamani places a photo of her captive partner Avinatan Or on the desk as she addresses the UN Security Council, on February 25, 2025. (Screenshot, UN)

Noa Argamani, who was rescued from Hamas captivity in June 2024, addresses the UN Security Council’s monthly session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and asks its members to push for the release of the remaining hostages.

“I was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7 from the Nova music festival with my partner, Avinatan Or,” she begins, taking out a photo of her partner, who is still in Gaza. “We were taken by force into Gaza, we were held in total fear, living in a nightmare.”

After 8 months in captivity, I was rescued by the Israeli soldiers. Being here today is a miracle.,” she says. “But I’m here today to tell you we have no time. As I speak, there are still 63 hostages living in a nightmare.

“Our lives cannot go [on] without them,” she tells the council. “The deal must go on in full… my partner and many other hostages are only supposed to be released in the second stage of the deal.”

Pleading for the international community’s assistance, Argamani says she is talking about “innocent people taken from their beds, from a dance party, from their simple lives, into a pure hell.”

“You don’t need me to tell you about 9-month-old Kfir, and 4-year-old Ariel and their mother Shiri. A mother and her babies were brutally murdered in captivity. The crime is unthinkable. We cannot imagine it. But it happened,” she says.

“I know what it [feels like] to be left behind, or watch other hostages being released to their families,” says Argamani, who was one of the few women not released during the weeklong truce in November 2023.

While I was in Gaza, I was held with two little girls – Hila Rotem and Emily Hand. At that time, Emily was 8 years old and Hila was 12,” she recounts. “I had to be brave, not only for myself but also for the girls.”

“Hila and Emily were both released in the first hostage deal after 50 days. I watched them, and two other women who had been with me in captivity go home to their families as I stayed behind…I can’t even begin to explain the feeling of being the one who was left behind.”

“But I can tell you this is exactly how the hostages are feeling today. Abandoned by the world,” Argamani tells the council.

She recounts how, later in her captivity she was held with Yossi Sharabi and Itay Svirsky, both of whom were killed in Gaza —  Sharabi in an IDF strike, and Svirsky by their captors.

“We were in a warzone, 24/7. It was terrifying, every day, every second,” she says, recalling how she heard Sharabi scream, and then fall silent after the IDF strike rained rubble down on them.

“From that moment, I was by myself,” says Noa.

She appeals for the council to “work for the light and against the darkness,” and warns that, “Without immediate action, many more innocent people will be killed.”

“What kept me alive in captivity, and until this very moment, was something my mother used to tell me: ‘Always be kind.’

“So in this forum, let me end with that,” Noa says. “Be kind to each other, and please, bring all of them home now.”

In Washington, Lapid presents ‘day after’ plan for extended Egyptian guardianship of Gaza

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid presents a plan for the post-war Gaza Strip, in Washington DC, February 25, 2025. (Screenshot/FDD)

Speaking in Washington DC, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid presents a plan for Gaza for the “day after” Hamas, envisioning an extended Egyptian guardianship of the Strip.

“Israel cannot agree to Hamas remaining in power,” says the former prime minister. “The Palestinian Authority is neither willing nor able to manage Gaza in the near future. Israeli occupation is neither desirable nor possible. A constant state of chaos is both a security threat and a humanitarian disaster.”

The plan would have Egypt take responsibility for managing Gaza for 8 years, with the option to extend to 15 years.

In exchange, Cairo would have its foreign debt paid off by the international community. Lapid argues that if Egypt’s economy does not recover, the regime’s “leadership is at risk. That is bad news for us all.”

Egyptian troops would be deployed to Gaza alongside forces from Gulf states, during which time “the conditions for self-governance in Gaza will be created and the process of the total demilitarization of Gaza will be completed.”

Immediate security threats would be handled by a joint Israel-Egypt-US mechanism.

Over the 8 years of Egyptian guardianship, the Palestinian Authority would undergo significant reforms in corruption, support for terrorism, and education in order to prepare for eventually assuming control of Gaza.

“Egypt is a key strategic partner and a reliable ally for almost fifty years,” says Lapid, speaking at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “A strong, moderate, pragmatic Sunni state and a crucial player in the region. President [Abdel Fattah] el-Sissi is a stabilizing force in the Middle East and Africa. He is a long-time fighter against religious fanaticism.”

Lapid calls for the completion of the ceasefire deal with Hamas and the release of all the hostages held in Gaza.

He backs elements of the Donald Trump vision for Gaza, in which Gazans are free to emigrate if they so choose, and the US will oversee massive investment into Gaza. At the same time, he notes that Egypt wants to avoid the transfer of Gazans into Egypt. Lapid does not call for Gazans to be evicted.

Lapid presented the plan to the top levels of the Trump administration, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.

Mossad chief says Hezbollah pager operation was ‘turning point’ in war against the terror group

Mossad chief David Barnea at a Memorial Day ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, May 12, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

Speaking at the INSS International Conference in Tel Aviv, Mossad chief David Barnea praises Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for ordering September’s exploding beeper and walkie-talkie operations against Hezbollah, and pushes back on claims made by former defense minister Yoav Gallant about the ideal timing of the attack.

Contradicting what Gallant – who pushed for a major operation in Lebanon days after October 7, 2023 – has said in recent weeks, Barnea argues that the operation wouldn’t have had the same effect if it was used earlier in the war.

There were “ten times as many beepers” in Hezbollah hands when they were detonated on September 17 than at the beginning of the war, he says, “and two times as many walkie-talkies were detonated.”

He also lauds Netanyahu, who decided to move ahead with the operation “in the face of the majority opinion in the room.”

Barnea goes into detail about the operation, which he calls a “turning point” in the fight in Lebanon. Preparation for the walkie-talkie operation began over a year ago, says Barnea. When Mossad staff understood that booby-trapped walkie-talkies wouldn’t be used in all situations, they began working on the pagers in late 2022.

Some 500 beepers arrived in Lebanon weeks before the October 7 attacks, says Barnea.

When they were detonated in September, most of the walkie-talkies were in storage in Hezbollah warehouses, he says.

The amount of explosives in all the beepers and walkie-talkies was less than that contained in a standard mine, says Barnea.

A car burns after fresh explosions are reported in Lebanon on September 18, 2024, a day after thousands of Hezbollah pagers exploded in an attack blamed on Israel (Screen capture X/ used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Sa’ar praises ‘great meeting’ with EU’s von der Leyen, invites her to visit Israel

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says he had a “great meeting” with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels.

Writing on X, Sa’ar says he presented Israel’s positions on Gaza and the hostage release deal, Iran, Lebanon and Syria.

“We also discussed our mutual desire to strengthen the relations and partnership between Israel and the European Union,” says Sa’ar.

He invites von der Leyen to come back to Israel.

Great meeting with the President of the European Commission @vonderleyen, a friend of Israel. An important opportunity to present Israel's positions regarding all issues on the agenda: Gaza and the framework for the release of our hostages, Iran, Lebanon and Syria. We also… pic.twitter.com/xWFRufXy3H

— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) February 25, 2025

Hamas-run agency says 6 newborns have died as cold snap grips Gaza

The Hamas-run civil defense agency in Gaza says that six newborn babies have died in a cold snap that has gripped the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave over the past week.

“As a result of a severe cold wave and the lack of heating, we have recorded the deaths of six newborns during the past week up until today,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal tells AFP.

Temperatures have fallen to zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent days as a cold front has gripped the eastern Mediterranean.

Although an ongoing ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has seen a surge in the volume of humanitarian aid entering Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians continue to live in tents.

Many are camped out in the rubble of their former homes and are struggling to survive as temperatures drop.

Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of preventing shelter materials and mobile homes from being delivered to Gaza’s 2.4 million people, most of whom have been displaced at least once during the war.

Reports earlier this month alleged that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had refused to approve the entry of mobile homes into the enclave, but a senior Israeli official said last week that the issue had been resolved and that Israel was starting to allow the temporary housing into the Strip, along with heavy construction equipment.

Hamas nevertheless blames the deaths of the six newborns on Israel’s blocking of aid materials.

“We call on the mediators to take immediate action to stop the occupation’s violation of the ceasefire agreement … and facilitate the entry of essential supplies such as shelter, heating and urgent medical items into Gaza,” the terror group says in a statement.

“This is crucial to protect the children of Gaza.”

Mossad chief Barnea to speak at INSS conference this afternoon

Mossad chief David Barnea is scheduled to speak at the annual Institute for National Security Studies International Conference in Tel Aviv at 4:25 p.m. today.

Until recently, Barnea led Israel’s negotiations over a hostage release deal with Hamas. His address comes as a British newspaper reports that Iran has placed its nuclear facilities on high alert bracing for an attack by either Israel or the United States.

Ideals that Oded Lifshitz lived by are ‘stronger than terror,’ German ambassador says

(L-R) German ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert, British ambassador Simon Walters, Polish ambassafor Maciej Hunia speak at the funeral of murdered hostage Oded Lifshitz, in Kibbutz Nir Oz, February 25, 2025. (screenshot)

The German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, British ambassador Simon Walters, and Polish ambassador Maciej Hunia speak briefly at the funeral for murdered hostage Oded Lifshitz at Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Seibert, speaking in Hebrew, says that Lifshitz was a German citizen, a person who looked out for others.

“Hamas murdered this man who was a Jew — and didn’t see all the good that he had done,” says Seibert.

He says that the message of Lifshitz’s life “is stronger than terror.”

“His life is the message for me, and it is stronger than terror,” says Siebert.
“To love the people around you, to play the piano and grow cactus, to help others and to be engaged in the work of peace.”

Walters echoes Siebert’s words and also speaks in Hebrew.

“We hoped he would return, it’s a terrible tragedy for this man of peace who believed in coexistence, not naively, but for the love of Israel.”

Police file indictment against Tel Aviv resident said to have attacked teen boy with scissors

Tel Aviv resident arrested by police on allegations of assaulting a 13-year-old with scissors caught on video before the incident occurred on February 13, 2025. (Israel Police)

Tel Aviv District Police prosecutors have filed an indictment against a city resident who allegedly attacked a 13-year-old boy with scissors, a spokesman says.

Police arrested the 39-year-old suspect on February 13, the day of the attack, as he tried to flee the scene by motorbike.

A law enforcement spokesman says the suspect attempted to slash the victim’s face on King George Street in Tel Aviv, with a pair of scissors that he hid under his sock. He apparently had no previous connection to his victim.

Footage attached by the spokesman depicts the suspect dressed in a tracksuit, holding the pair of scissors in his left hand presumably before the incident occurred.

He was caught and arrested by police while fleeing the scene of the crime and was charged yesterday with assault of a minor, vehicle theft and making threats.

Iran rules out ‘direct talks’ with US over nuclear issue

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gives a press conference in Tehran on December 30, 2024. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismisses the possibility of direct negotiations with the United States on his country’s nuclear program.

“There will be no possibility of direct talks between us and the United States on the nuclear issue as long as the maximum pressure is applied in this way,” Araghchi says during a joint press conference with his visiting Russian counterpart, referring to US President Donald Trump’s hardline approach to Tehran.

Herzog eulogizes Oded Lifshitz as ‘a man who loved peace and pursued peace’

President Isaac Herzog speaks at the funeral of slain hostage Oded Lifshitz in Kibbutz Nir Oz on February 25, 2025. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Speaking at the funeral of slain hostage Oded Lifshitz, President Isaac Herzog says he didn’t have the privilege of knowing him personally, but has learned so much about him from his family, his many friends and the articles written about him.

“You embodied the quintessential Israeli spirit in its purest form — shaped by the land you walked and the homeland you loved,” says Herzog. “An Israeli. A Zionist. A Jew. A humanist. A man who loved his people and all people. A kibbutznik, a pioneer, a warrior, a settler, a dedicated member of Hashomer Hatzair, a man of conviction and action, and, above all, a devoted family man.”

The president describes him as “a man who loved peace and pursued peace — who always extended a hand to his neighbors in a wise and profound way, seeing it as a supreme interest of the State of Israel. And yet, to our deep sorrow, you were abducted to Gaza and brutally murdered by monstrous terrorists, consumed by blind hatred.”

Herzog asks for forgiveness from Lifshitz and his family, forgiveness that the country did not protect him, his family and his kibbutz, that he had “to face these monsters alone,” he says. “Forgiveness that we were unable to rescue you and bring you and all your friends home from the clutches of the murderers — alive and in peace.”

Herzog calls for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 attack, “the hallmark of a properly functioning country.”

“This is a critical milestone on the road to healing, rebuilding and strengthening our nation after this terrible tragedy,” says Herzog.

“It is inconceivable that this very land will today and tomorrow receive Oded, along with Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel Bibas, may their memories be a blessing,” says Herzog, who offers his condolences to freed hostage Yarden Bibas, whose wife and two children were killed in captivity and will be buried tomorrow.

He says that the community of Nir Oz has shown incredible spirit, showing the essence of Nir and Oz, light and strength, and that the community will overcome, will live and thrive, will rebuild and be rebuilt, will remain a symbol of resilience, renewal, faith and great hope.

Trial opens in Germany for 4 alleged Hamas members accused of stashing weapons across Europe

Policemen stand in front of a house in Berlin's Friedrichshain district, as a raid was under way against Hamas and Samidoun, both of which are banned in the country, November 23, 2023. (Odd ANDERSEN/AFP)

A trial begins today in Germany for four alleged Hamas members suspected of organizing weapons caches across Europe.

They are accused of seeking out and setting up weapons depots for the terror group across Europe so terrorists could later use the firearms and ammunition for attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets on the continent, prosecutors said when filing charges last year.

The weapons were allegedly moved around Europe in preparation for Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack against Israel, prosecutors said.

Hamas also considered targeting the Israeli Embassy in Berlin, the area around Tempelhof Airport in the capital and the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany, authorities said.

Abdelhamid Al A., Mohamed B., Nazih R. and Ibrahim El-R. were arrested in December 2023. Prosecutors identified them only by their first name and last initial in line with German privacy laws.

All four had important positions within Hamas, prosecutors asserted.

The men allegedly set up a weapons cache in Bulgaria in 2019 and in Denmark later that year. They sought to find a spot in Poland but were unsuccessful, prosecutors said.

Yocheved Lifshitz at husband’s Oded funeral: ‘We fought for peace, were attacked by those we helped’

Former hostage Yocheved Lifshitz (right) at the funeral of her husband, slain hostage Oded Lifshitz, at Kibbutz Nir Oz on February 25, 2025. (Screenshot)

Former hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, the widow of murdered hostage Oded Lifshitz, says how strange it feels to be the one speaking when he was the one who always took the stage and she was the photographer.

“Our abduction and your death have shaken me to the core,” says Lifshitz at her husband’s funeral in Kibbutz Nir Oz. “We fought all through the years for social justice, for peace. To my sorrow, we were hit by a terrible attack by those we helped on the other side. I stand here staggered to see the number of graves, and the terrible destruction of our community that was completely abandoned on October 7.”

She continues: “Our hostages remain chained, starved, and tortured underground in Gaza for over 500 days. It is possible to bring everyone back now, in a single exchange. I will continue on our path and continue the struggle to free all the hostages, down to the very last one.”

Concludes Yocheved: “In the apartment where I live right now, a new piano has been sitting, waiting [after Oded’s piano was destroyed when the terrorists attacked their home] for a year. I so waited to hear you play once again, in your special way with your great talent. Reality slaps me in the face and the pain is immense. Goodbye, my dear Oded. We will meet when the time comes.”

WHO says Trump aid suspension freezes $46 million for Gaza operations

Trucks carrying WHO (World Health Organization) aid prepare to cross a checkpoint on Salah al-Din road in al-Mughraqa in the central Gaza Strip, on February 13, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

A Trump administration move to suspend funding to the World Health Organization has frozen $46 million for its operations in Gaza, a top WHO official in the region says.

Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the Palestinian territories, says the “freezing” will leave six areas underfunded, including EMT operations, rehabilitation of health facilities, coordination with partner organizations and medical evacuation operations.

Speaking from Gaza to reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva, Peeperkorn says money for such operations remains in WHO’s funding pipeline and “we’re still going full steam ahead” with activities.

Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesman, says he does not have figures about how the US funding cuts affect the entirety of its operations worldwide.

‘Dad, now you’re home’: Family says final goodbye to slain hostage Oded Lifshitz

Arnon Lifshitz at the funeral of his father, murdered hostage Oded Lifshitz, at Kibbutz Nir Oz on February 25, 2025. (Screenshot)

Oded Lifshitz, one of the Nir Oz hostages who was slain in captivity, is laid to rest in the kibbutz he helped found 70 years ago.

His eldest son, Arnon Lifshitz, eulogizes him: “Dad, you’re here now, now you’re home.”

Arnon says his father always knew how to help and do for others, and was deeply connected to the kibbutz, filling every kind of job, from the chicken coop to the administration.

“The kibbutz was destroyed on October 7, people couldn’t lock their doors, others were outside, fighting against many,” he says. “Now the government must pay any price to return all those who are there. We don’t ask, we demand that.”

Lifshitz says that other released hostages from Nir Oz, like Gadi Mozes, say that that the rehabilitation of Nir Oz is the best revenge, “so that we can return to being us, a light among the nations.”

NGO demands probe of widespread Haredi fraud in daycare subsidies

Advocacy group Israel Hofsheet calls on the government to probe “the severe phenomenon of encouraging fraud and criminal behavior in daycare subsidy applications.”

In a letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, the group’s attorneys demand the opening of a criminal investigation into the matter after the Calcalist business daily reported that the government suspects tens of thousands of members of the ultra-Orthodox community had illegally received subsidies in recent years.

According to the report, the government cross-referenced applications for discounts against National Insurance Institute data, causing it to more than double the number of rejected applications.

“The request details findings indicating that certain guidelines not only allow but even encourage the submission of false subsidy applications by exploiting regulatory loopholes. Each fraudulent claim amounts to tens of thousands of shekels that individuals have attempted to unlawfully obtain from the state,” Israel Hofsheet says in a statement.

In their letter, Israel Hofsheet’s attorneys call not only to probe those submitting false claims but also “elected officials and parties who encourage the public to systematically violate the law.”

This is the second demand for a probe by the group, which recently demanded an investigation into a Ynet report that a hotline set up by the United Torah Judaism party’s Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction had instructed members of the Haredi community on how to circumvent a High Court ruling restricting daycare subsidies for children of yeshiva students who fail to enlist.

Israel, Hamas reportedly reach deal to return bodies of 4 more hostages ahead of schedule

An agreement has been reached between Israel and Hamas on returning early the bodies of the last four hostages slated to be handed over in the first phase of the deal, Channel 12 reports, citing Israeli sources.

There are also ongoing talks to extend the first phase by adding additional batches of hostage and prisoner releases.

Israel is demanding the four bodies be handed over by Thursday, the day they were slated for release, but has been working to move up the handover. The first phase of the deal, which includes the ongoing ceasefire, ends on Saturday.

Report: Iran deploying air defenses to brace for possible US or Israeli strike

This photo released November 5, 2019, by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran shows centrifuge machines in Natanz uranium enrichment facility near Natanz, Iran. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP, File)

Iran has reportedly placed its nuclear facilities on high alert bracing for an attack by either Israel or the United States.

According to a report in the British Telegraph, Tehran has deployed additional air defense system launches around key sites.

“They [Iranian authorities] are just waiting for the attack and are anticipating it every night and everything has been on high alert – even in sites that no one knows about,” a source was quoted telling the news outlet, saying that concerns have heightened with rhetoric from new US President Donald Trump.

WATCH: Funeral for slain hostage Oded Lifshitz gets underway in Nir Oz

The coffin of slain hostage Oded Lifshitz arrives at the entrance to Kibbutz Nir Oz, February 25, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The funeral of Oded Lifshitz, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz and slain in captivity, is being held now in the kibbutz.

The 83-year-old’s remains were returned by Hamas to Israel last week, along with those of the Bibas family.

President Isaac Herzog is slated to make remarks during the funeral proceedings.

Lebanon’s prime minister says only nation’s armed forces can defend country

This handout picture released by the Lebanese presidency shows designate Prime Minister Nawaf Salam delivering a statement to the press at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut on February 8, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency/AFP)

Lebanon’s new prime minister reads his government policy statement stating that only the country’s armed forces should defend the nation in case of war.

Nawaf Salam was picked to form a new government last month after a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah that killed scores and caused widespread destruction.

The Hezbollah terror group has kept its weapons over the past decades saying it is necessary to defend Lebanon against Israel. But many in Lebanon have been calling on the group to disarm, and such calls intensified during the latest war that stopped when a US-brokered ceasefire went into effect on Nov. 27.

Salam says the government asserts that Lebanon has the right to defend itself in case of “aggression” and only the state has the right to have weapons. He also said that the government takes measures against Israel “through its forces only.”

Knesset advances law to give coalition control over appointing judicial ombudsman

Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman leads a committee meeting at the Knesset on February 25, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

A bill that would likely grant the coalition control over the appointment of the ombudsman for judges is approved by the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee for its final readings to pass it into law.

The bill will create a seven-member committee to appoint the ombudsman, who has substantive oversight powers over judges and investigates complaints against them, on which the current coalition will likely have an automatic majority.

Committee member MK Karine Elharrar of Yesh Atid denounces the legislation, and accuses the coalition of carrying out a “regime coup in the shadow of war.”

Elharrar claims the law is designed to “take control of judges and leave them intimidated, and dependent on the coalition.”

“This is a political takeover of the committee which appoints the judges ombudsman, the battle for democracy won’t end here,” she adds.

Under the current law, the judges ombudsman is selected by the Judicial Selection Committee, after the justice minister and the president of the Supreme Court agree upon a candidate. But Justice Minister Yariv Levin has refused to meet with the Supreme Court president since last June, meaning that a new ombudsman could not be appointed. The last ombudsman, Uri Shoham, retired in May.

Knesset committee chair rejects Labor party request to change name to Democrats

Leader of The Democrats party Yair Golan holds a press conference in Tel Aviv, on February 13, 2025. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Coalition whip and Knesset House Committee chairman Ofir Katz rejects the Labor party’s request to officially change its name to The Democrats.

Labor began calling itself by the new name following its merger with the left-wing Meretz party last June. Meretz currently does not have any representatives in the Knesset.

Addressing Labor’s request to make the name change official, Katz slams the liberal faction as antidemocratic and violent.

“Those who try to overthrow an elected government with violence, by calling for rebellion and a siege of the Knesset — are anything but democrats,” Katz states, adding that party chair Yair Golan should “change the name to the Anarchist Party, and then we will happily approve it.”

Following Katz’s statement, Labor MK Efrat Rayten withdraws her party’s request.

“Why is the Likud afraid of the Democrats? In the midst of a war, while hostages are being held, the Likud party mobilized to fight changing the name of the Democratic faction,” she tweets. “A technical change that was supposed to take five minutes turned into two hours of undemocratic and bullying discussion,” she writes, accusing the coalition of spreading “falsehoods, conspiracies [and] slander.”

“If the Likud panicked at the word ‘democracy,’ we probably chose the right name.”

Russian foreign minister arrives in Tehran for meetings

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrives at the Doha Forum in the Qatari capital on December 7, 2024. (KARIM JAAFAR / AFP)

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lands in Tehran for talks with Iranian officials, Iranian state media reports, days after Moscow held initial talks with the US just a month after Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Lavrov will discuss regional and bilateral topics with his Iranian counterpart during his one-day trip to Iran, state media reports.

The visit comes a day after the United States imposed a fresh round of sanctions targeting Iran’s oil industry, the Islamic Republic’s main source of income.

Trump earlier this month had restored his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran that includes efforts to drive the country’s oil exports to zero, reimposing Washington’s tough policy on Iran that was practiced throughout his first term.

Israel says vote against UN resolution backing Ukraine aimed at supporting US efforts to end war

Ambassadors vote on a resolution to reaffirm Ukraine's territorial integrity during United Nations General Assembly meeting on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in New York City, on February 24, 2025. (Charly Triballeau/AFP)

After voting with the US and Russia — and against Ukraine and most Western allies — against a United Nations General Assembly resolution reaffirming Ukraine’s territorial integrity, Israel says that its position was meant to back ongoing US efforts to resolve the war.

“Israel believes it is important to support the American effort aimed at bringing about progress in efforts to end the war and resolve the conflict peacefully,” the Foreign Ministry tells The Times of Israel.

Brother of hostage Bar Kupershtein: ‘We know he’s alive – but tomorrow everything could change’

A poster calling for prayer on behalf of Bar Kupershtein and for his freedom from Hamas captivity. (Courtesy)

Dvir Kupershtein, the brother of hostage Bar Kupershtein, tells a Knesset committee that his brother is alive, but might not be in another minute or hour or day.

“We know that Bar is alive 100%, but tomorrow everything could change, or even in an another hour or minute,” says Dvir of his brother, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023.

Bar, who was working as festival security, is not slated for release in the current first stage of the ceasefire deal, with future possible stages hanging in the balance.

“He’s not just another hostage, he’s my brother and he’s a hero,” Dvir tells the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “He evacuated the wounded under fire to save lives, he went back again and again to save people, and when he’s the one who needed help there was nobody there to save him.”

Karhi, Smotrich call on public to rally for resettling Gaza, expelling Palestinians

Thousands of people turn out for an ultra-nationalist march and rally in Sderot to call for the rebuilding of Jewish settlements in Gaza, May 14, 2024. (Courtesy Nachala Settlement Movement)

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi of the Likud party calls for the forced expulsion of the Gazan population in a video promoting a right-wing rally by ultranationalist groups calling for the occupation of the Gaza Strip, the expulsion of the Palestinian population and the re-establishment of Jewish settlements in the territory.

“We have a historic opportunity in which the US president supports eliminating Hamas and the deportation of Gazans outside of the Gaza Strip,” says Karhi.

“We have already said a year ago ‘you force him until he says I want to.’ Occupy, deport, settle, bring total victory, God willing,” says the cabinet minister, and calls on the public to attend the rally.

The rally, scheduled for Thursday evening in Jerusalem, is being organized by the ultranationalist Nachala organization, which promotes the construction of settlements and illegal outposts in the West Bank and, since the early months of the war following October 7, the establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza as well.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also backs the rally in his own video, saying Israel will renew its war against Hamas and occupy Gaza.

“The people of Israel are coming to support and demand victory and triumph, we are not stopping midway, we’re going back, striking the enemy, smashing Hamas, occupying the Gaza Strip, removing its threat to Israeli citizens, returning to fight, until victory,” says the finance minister.

Funeral procession begins for slain hostage Oded Lifshitz

People pay their respects during the funeral process of slain hostage Oded Lifshitz, in Rishon Lezion, February 25, 2025. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The funeral procession for slain hostage Oded Lifshitz sets out from Rishon Lezion to make the slow journey to Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he will be buried this afternoon.

Members of the public have lined the route holding Israeli flags and signs asking for forgiveness from the family.

Oded and his wife, Yocheved, were kidnapped from their home in the Kibbutz on October 7, 2023. Yocheved was freed several weeks later. Oded’s remains were returned by Hamas to Israel last week, and Israeli authorities determined he had been killed at least a year ago, at age 83.

IDF says booms in central Israel caused by routine training activity

Israeli Air Force F-15 fighter jets prepare for airstrikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, December 26, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says that booms heard a short time ago in central Israel were caused by routine Israeli Air Force training activity.

There is no concern over a potential security threat, the IDF adds.

Israel optimistic US will ‘soon’ ease travel advisory, officials tell ToI

An El Al flight takes off at Ben Gurion Airport, outside of Tel Aviv, August 25, 2024. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Jerusalem has been leaning on the Trump administration to ease the US travel advisory for Israel and is optimistic that it will be updated “soon,” officials from the respective countries tell The Times of Israel.

The travel advisory has been at level three — “reconsider travel” — since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught and the ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza.

Israel has for months been seeking to have the advisory lowered to at least a level two — “exercise increased caution” — as it seeks to encourage tourism to the country, a US official and an Israeli official say.

The Biden administration held off on heeding the Israeli request, as the war in Gaza dragged on, the officials say.

With the entry of Donald Trump into the White House and a Gaza ceasefire currently in place, Jerusalem has intensified its efforts to get the travel advisory lowered.

Israel has managed to convince the US Embassy in Jerusalem to get behind the idea, and the mission has been recommending to the State Department back in Washington that the advisory be lowered, the US official says.

The Israeli official speculates that the Trump administration is waiting to see how efforts to maintain the Gaza ceasefire hold in the days and weeks ahead before making the decision, while adding that the hold-up may be more bureaucratic in nature.

Egypt says displacement of Gazans would threaten national security of countries in region

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi attends a ceremony at the Presidential palace in Ankara, September 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Egypt rejects proposals to displace the Palestinian people in order to not “liquidate” the Palestinian cause and to avoid threatening the national security of countries in the region, according to a statement by the Egyptian Presidency.

US President Donald Trump has infuriated the Arab world with a plan to permanently displace the population of more than 2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, claim US control of it and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

Egypt has repeatedly expressed opposition to such a plan.

Sa’ar to meet in Brussels with ministers from Netherlands, Cyprus and Belgium

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

In Brussels for meetings with EU leadership and European counterparts, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will meet today with Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp, Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos and Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken.

He will also meet with senior EU officials, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Defense and Space Commissioner Andrius Kubilius and Mediterranean Commissioner Dubravka Šuica.

Sa’ar will also sit down with local Jewish leaders and with Belgian pro-Israel organizations.

Opposition MK warns bill to change how judicial ombudsman is appointed is’ very dangerous’

Members of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee during a committee hearing at the Knesset in Jerusalem on February 25, 2025. (Jeremy Sharon/Times of Israel)

Democrats MK Gilad Kariv labels the draft legislation to change the way the ombudsman for judges is appointed as “very dangerous,” and says that the coalition’s efforts to pass the bill, and others, signal a return to its judicial overhaul agenda from before the October 7 catastrophe.

Kariv is also critical of some members of the opposition who he says are not fighting hard enough against the government’s efforts to change the judiciary.

“This law is very dangerous, and I’m critical of my colleagues in the opposition who are not using the all parliamentary tools available to stymie the regime coup legislation which you [the coalition] are bringing back,” says Kariv.

The MK, who accuses the government of taking advantage of the nation’s focus on the plight of the hostages in Gaza to advance such legislation, was speaking during a hearing of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee which is voting on the bill to approve it for its final readings in the Knesset plenum.

The legislation will likely give the coalition an automatic majority on a seven-member committee to appoint the ombudsman for judges — which has substantive oversight powers over judges and investigates complaints against them — leading to accusations that the new law will politicize the position and the oversight process itself.

Freed hostage Agam Berger says hearing debate over ceasefire made captives feel ‘our lives weren’t worth enough’

Freed hostage Agam Berger squeezes her brother's face as they reunite in the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva on January 30, 2025. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Agam Berger, an IDF surveillance soldier who was kidnapped on October 7 and freed last month, says it was hard while in captivity to hear about the debate in Israel over the costs of a deal to bring the hostages home.

“It’s not their fault that they were kidnapped, they need to know that people are fighting for them,” Berger says in an interview with Kan public radio, about suggestions that the price of a ceasefire deal was “too high.”

“We have to pay a price, but we have to keep fighting for the [hostages left behind]… the young men are being abused in a different way,” she says.

Hearing about such a debate while in captivity made us “feel like our lives weren’t worth enough.” However, she says, they heard senior officials saying they were ready to pay the price of a deal, and that gave them hope.

Berger says that in January 2024 they were given things that IDF troops left behind, including a siddur prayerbook and a newspaper which “gave us some answers” about the situation in Israel.

But she says that after the rescue by IDF troops of Shlomo Ziv, Noa Argamani, Andrey Kozlov and Almog Meir Jan in June 2024, her captors took away their radio, cutting off much of their access to news.

When Berger was left alone in captivity after her four comrades were freed, she says she asked herself “Is there a ceasefire? Am I going home? I believed in it, but it was still a surprise to be told that in two days I’d be home.” She says she wasn’t allowed to take anything back with her, including a notebook she and Liri had written in while in captivity.

She says she was forced to dress in the fake IDF uniform they gave her and to film videos thanking her captors: “In that moment I couldn’t say what I wanted to, I did what I could but I didn’t care, the main thing was that I was going home.”

New Syria leader plans to set up transitional justice committee, emphasizes state monopoly on weapons

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa attends a meeting with officials and local leaders in the western coastal city of Tartus, Syria, in a handout photo issued on February 16, 2025. (Syrian Presidency / AFP)

Syria’s new interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, says he plans to establish a transitional justice committee, in a speech after the opening of a national dialogue conference.

Sharaa, whose Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled longtime president Bashar al-Assad in December, also emphasized the unity of Syria and the state’s “monopoly” on weapons.

The national dialogue conference, held in the presidential palace in Damascus, marks the start of a crucial phase for the country’s future governance after a devastating civil war.

“Over the past two months, we have worked on pursuing those who committed crimes against Syrians,” Sharaa tells the gathering. “We will work on forming a transitional justice body to restore people’s rights, ensure justice, and, God willing, bring criminals to justice.”

He adds that “the unity of arms and their monopoly by the state is not a luxury but a duty and an obligation,” says that “Syria is indivisible; it is a complete whole, and its strength lies in its unity.”

Freed hostage Karina Ariev helps take down poster of her face at Jerusalem synagogue

Freed hostage Karina Ariev (right) helps take down a poster calling for her release outside a Jerusalem synagogue, February 24, 2025. (Courtesy)

Freed hostage Karina Ariev joined the community of Jerusalem’s Kol Haneshama synagogue yesterday to take down a banner featuring her image and the call to bring her home.

Ariev is one of the five surveillance soldiers taken hostage on October 7 from the Nahal Oz army base, and she was released from Gaza a month ago.

The synagogue, situated at the capital’s busy Oranim intersection, had hung the banner where it was visible to traffic and pedestrians, and at the many rallies and sit-ins held at the corner. Ariev’s cousin, Anna Astamker, is the executive director of the Reform synagogue.

When Ariev was released home, synagogue members first adjusted the banner to read, “Karina is home.”

After Ariev returned from captivity in Gaza and heard about the demonstrations and efforts for her and other hostages at this corner, she asked the community to wait for her to join them in taking down the banner.

Alongside family members, Ariev yesterday helped take down the banner featuring her face, and hung a new banner reading: “Karina came home, we’ll continue until everyone comes home.”

IDF says drone warning sirens in Golan Heights were a false alarm

The IDF says that it fired interceptor missiles at two suspicious aerial objects a short while ago that turned out to be a false alarm.

Sirens sounded in a number of communities over fears of falling shrapnel from the interceptors. No injuries are reported.

Katz issues sanctions against freed prisoners who received payments from PA

Palestinian prisoners are greeted after being released from the West Bank's Ofer Prison following a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, February 15, 2025. (AP/Mahmoud Illean)

Defense Minister Israel Katz issues sanctions against freed security prisoners and their family members who received payments from the Palestinian Authority during their time in prison.

According to Katz’s office, the order applies to citizens and residents of the State of Israel. Israeli forces raided a number of homes and seized property and cash amounting to hundreds of thousands of shekels under the sanctions, his office adds.

Katz says that the seized funds will be transferred to victims of terror and their families.

Drone alert sirens sound as IDF fires at suspicious target over Golan Heights

Sirens warning of a possible drone infiltration sound in a number of communities in the Golan Heights near the border with Syria.

The IDF says that interceptor missiles were fired at a suspicious aerial target and that the details are being investigated.

Sirens to be tested in a number of northern communities

The IDF says that test sirens will sound in a number of communities near the northern border this morning and afternoon, including Kibbutz Hagoshrim, Kibbutz Dan, Kibbutz Dafna and She’ar Yashuv.

In the case of a real siren, the alert will sound twice consecutively, the IDF says.

Slain hostage Oded Lifshitz to be laid to rest in Kibbutz Nir Oz today

Oded Lifshitz (Amiram Oren)

Oded Lifshitz, who was slain in captivity and his body returned to Israel by Hamas last week, will be buried today in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Members of the public were asked to accompany the path of his coffin from Rishon Lezion to Nir Oz with Israeli flags.

Oded was kidnapped along with his wife, Yocheved, who was freed a few weeks later. Israeli authorities determined that he was killed in captivity more than a year ago, at age 83.

The couple’s grandson, Daniel, tells Army Radio that his grandmother said “we have today, the moment we bury him [to mourn], but tomorrow, we keep fighting to bring everyone back.”

Saudi defense chief discusses boosting security cooperation in meeting with Hegseth

Saudi Arabian Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman says he and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth discussed ways to bolster defense cooperation and regional and international developments, the kingdom’s minister says in a post on social media website X.

The Saudi defense minister met Hegseth in Washington Monday.

Met with @SecDef to reaffirm the enduring friendship and strategic partnership between our countries. During the meeting, we explored ways to bolster our defense cooperation. We also discussed regional and international developments and efforts to promote security and stability. pic.twitter.com/rn8K3gfP1a

— Khalid bin Salman خالد بن سلمان (@kbsalsaud) February 25, 2025

The visit follows Saudi Arabia, a major US ally, recently hosting high-level US and Russian officials to discuss the war in Ukraine and restoring broader Russia-US ties. The administration is also thought to be seeking a deal to normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Pope shows slight improvement, holds call with priest in Gaza

Pope Francis remains in critical condition but has showed slight improvement in laboratory tests and resumed some work, the Vatican says, including calling a parish in Gaza City that he has kept in touch with since the war there began.

The Vatican’s evening bulletin is more upbeat than in recent days, as the 88-year-old Francis battles pneumonia in both lungs at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.

Francis is in good spirits, is not in pain and is not receiving artificial nutrition, the Vatican says.

The Argentine pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has been hospitalized since Feb. 14 and doctors have said his condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease.

But in Monday’s update, they say he hadn’t had any more respiratory crises since Saturday, and the supplemental oxygen he is using continued but with a slightly reduced oxygen flow and concentrations. The slight kidney insufficiency detected on Sunday is not causing alarm at the moment, doctors say, while adding his prognosis remains guarded.

Francis received the Eucharist Monday morning and resumed working in the afternoon.

“In the evening he called the parish priest of the Gaza parish to express his fatherly closeness,” the statement says.

For over a year, Francis has checked in daily via videocall with the Argentine priest, the Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, who leads the Catholic community at the church, which during Israel’s war had served as a shelter for Palestinians.

Romanelli had reported hearing from Francis soon after he was hospitalized, but not since. He had sent Francis a video, and the pope called to thank him, the Vatican said.

Two suspects detained after sneaking across border from Jordan — IDF

The border between Israel and Jordan on the Route 90 highway in the Jordan Valley, July 6, 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Two suspects who allegedly slipped across the border from Jordan were detained by Israeli forces following a search, the army says.

The two suspects, who were detained near the border, “were turned over to be dealt with [by] security forces,” the Israel Defense Force says in a statement.

The army said shortly after midnight that it had launched a manhunt in the Dead Sea area after footprints were found on the border with Jordan.

A military source says the pair were likely work migrants seeking employment.

TV report shows US Jewish delegation visiting Syria

A report by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster shows a group of US Jews visiting Syria for the first time since the fall of the Assad regime.

The delegation toured Jewish sites in Damascus last week on a visit coordinated by a US-based nonprofit, the Syrian Emergency Task Force.

Members of the delegation included Rabbi Yusuf Hamra, a leader in the Syrian community in the US, his son, Henry Hamra, and Rabbi Asher Lopatin, from the Jewish Federation in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

"כולם רוצים להצטלם עם הכיפה שלי": יהודי דמשק חוזרים לסוריה אחרי נפילת אסד ובחסות השלטון החדש. האם היהודים הסורים בארץ יוזמנו גם הם? הכתבה של @kaisos1987 מתוך #חדשותהערב pic.twitter.com/tAjIFwy2V7

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 24, 2025

The Kan report shows the delegation embracing Torah scrolls in the al-Franj Synagogue, leafing through shelves of books, greeting crowds of excited schoolchildren on a sidewalk, and praying in a cemetery.

The group also surveyed damaged sites, picking their way through nearby rubble, the footage shows.

“We saw that the people in Syria want Jews to return to Syria,” Lopatin says in an interview with the network.

Trump said to tear up Biden policy that sought to ensure arms not misused by Israel

The Trump administration has reportedly rescinded a policy created during former US president Joe Biden’s administration that could have potentially restricted aid to Israel at the urging of progressive Democrats.

The Washington Post obtained an order signed by US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on February 21 that rescinds National Security Memorandum-20.

Signed by Biden last year, NSM-20 required all countries that receive weapons from the US to commit in writing that they will not use them to target civilians or restrict humanitarian aid. Such conditions were already in place, but the concept of a written commitment was new as was the memo’s directive for the State Department to report to Congress on the mater.

Biden agreed to sign the memo amid pressure from progressive Democrats who specifically were looking to curb US military assistance to Israel, arguing that it was being used to harm civilians in Gaza.

The State Department report issued several months after the memo avoided reaching a determination that Israel was indeed misusing US security assistance, infuriating the progressive lawmakers behind NSM-20.

Army searching near Dead Sea after footprints found on border

Troops are carrying out searches near the Dead Sea over suspicions of an infiltration attempt from Jordan, the Israel Defense Forces says.

The search was ordered after “soldiers identified footsteps along the border in the Dead Sea area,” the IDF says in a short statement.

Israel says its long border with Jordan, including the Israel-controlled frontier between the Hashemite Kingdom and the West Bank, has seen an uptick in attempts to smuggle weapons or other contraband into the country or the West Bank in recent years. Some of the smuggling attempts have been tied to an Iranian effort to arm West Bank Palestinians.

Hamas ceremonies spurring Trump pressure for Arab plan to push group out — diplomats

The hostage-release ceremonies that Hamas has been holding throughout the first phase of the ceasefire have significantly harmed the terror group’s chances to remain in power in Gaza, two international diplomats tell The Times of Israel.

Hamas has sought to use the ceremonies to demonstrate that it remains in control of the coastal enclave after over 15 months of war with Israel. Israel and others have rejected the displays as “humiliating” and demanded they stop before any more prisoners are released in exchange for hostages.

A senior Arab diplomat and a senior European Union diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity say that the performances have led the Trump administration to massively ratchet up its pressure on its Arab allies to advance a plan for the post-war management of Gaza that sees Hamas removed from power.

“This was something that the Arab states wanted before but were resigned to the fact that it wasn’t possible, given that Israel had tried to defeat Hamas for over a year and couldn’t succeed,” the EU diplomat says.

“Hamas has been sending signals that it is prepared to give up ruling Gaza. Giving up its weapons will be far more difficult, but that is being discussed in the region in recent weeks,” the senior Arab diplomat adds.

Morocco says it foiled major Islamic State plot

Moroccan authorities say they arrested a dozen people this month allegedly planning attacks on behalf of the Islamic State in the Sahel, a region south of the Sahara Desert.

The discovery of the terrorist cell and what authorities called an “imminent dangerous terrorist plot” reflect the expanding ambitions of extremist groups in the region.

Authorities do not provide details of the suspects’ motives or their plot, beyond saying they planned to set off bombs remotely. They release photographs and videos showing officers raiding terrorist cells throughout the country.

#Morocco #Maroc ???????? Anti-terrorist intervention carried out yesterday by the BCIJ Intervention Unit, part of #Moroccan Internal Intelligence???? which allowed to foil a large-scale terrorist attack & arrest of 12 #terrorists who had pledged allegiance to #ISIS #Daech pic.twitter.com/Cppreu3fIh

— ۞ Kingdom of Morocco Armies-جيوش المملكة المغربية (@KOMARMIES) February 20, 2025

The images show weapons stockpiles found during police raids, Islamic State flags drawn on walls, and thousands of dollars of cash.

The revelation of the plot comes days after Morocco hosted Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev for a traffic safety conference. Regev cut her visit short last week after bombs exploded on empty buses near Tel Aviv Thursday.

“Morocco remains a major target in the agenda of all terrorist organizations operating in the Sahel,” Habboub Cherkaoui, the head of Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations, says at a news conference.

Authorities say the Morocco-based cell called itself “the Lions of the Caliphate in the Maghreb” and took direction from Islamic State in the Sahel commanders.

The weapons found include materials to make explosives including nail bombs, dynamite and gas cylinders as well as knives, rifles and handguns whose serial numbers had been filed off.

Investigators say the 12 men arrested ranged from 18 to 40 years old and were apprehended in nine different cities, including Casablanca, Fez and Tangier. The majority were unmarried and had not finished high school. They have not yet been charged under Morocco’s anti-terrorism laws.

Based on materials gathered in raids last week, authorities were able to locate a cache of weapons in the desert near Morocco’s border with Algeria, including firearms and ammunition wrapped in newspapers printed in Mali in late January.