Feb. 3: Qatar: We’re counting on Trump to stand behind efforts to reach 2nd phase of truce

Columbia faculty urge protective measures for Jewish students

Close to 200 members of Columbia University’s faculty send a letter to University President Katrina Armstrong and the board of trustees calling on them to implement policies to protect Jewish students.

The letter urges the university to enforce a mask ban on campus, with exceptions for medical purposes; adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism; expel students who break into buildings or disrupt classes; remove and investigate Joseph Massad, a professor who applauded the Hamas attack on Israel; announce an opening date for a university center in Tel Aviv; appoint a committee to review undergraduate curriculum for bias; reinstate outspoken pro-Israel professor Shai Davidai’s access to campus; and hire at least three pro-Israel faculty for the department covering Middle East studies.

“We trust you will act swiftly, as the students and the Jewish community deserve to see decisive and meaningful change,” says the letter, according to a copy shared with The Times of Israel.

Close to 200 Columbia faculty sign letter urging university president to take steps to protect Jewish students pic.twitter.com/yndK91Pshi

— Luke Tress (@luketress) February 3, 2025

Netanyahu meets Evangelical American leaders in Washington

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has wrapped up a meeting with Evangelical American community leaders in Washington.

Those in attendance included former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who is US President Donald Trump’s nominee to become the next US ambassador to Israel.

Jewish Insider reported earlier today that Netanyahu is not currently scheduled to meet with American Jewish leaders, with whom he has had a rockier relationship over the years.

Netanyahu is slated to meet later this evening with Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.

שמחתי לפגוש את חברי הטוב מייק האקבי, שעתיד לכהן כשגריר ארה״ב בישראל, במהלך פגישתו של ראש הממשלה נתניהו עם מנהיגים אוונגליסטים בוושינגטון. אני מכיר את מייק עשרות שנים והוא חבר אמת של ישראל והעם היהודי. אני מצפה לעבודה המשותפת שלנו למען חיזוק הברית האיתנה בין מדינת ישראל וארצות… pic.twitter.com/DTMVlVSWtc

— Danny Danon ???????? דני דנון (@dannydanon) February 3, 2025

Netanyahu meets with Elon Musk, Trump joins them

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with billionaire and Donald Trump adviser Elon Musk in Washington, according to multiple media reports.

A photograph making the round shows that Trump joined the pair, though he and Netanyahu are only set to officially sit down tomorrow.

It is not immediately clear where the three met.

Netanyahu, Trump, and Musk all in D.C. pic.twitter.com/WVYRl5jN7b

— James Spiro (@JamesSpiro) February 3, 2025

Qatar: We’re counting on Trump to stand behind efforts to reach 2nd phase of truce

Qatar foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari gives a press conference in Doha on December 3, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson says Doha is counting on US President Donald Trump to stand behind efforts to reach the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal when he meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tomorrow.

“We are counting on President Trump and the administration to give the clear message that they are behind the negotiation process and they are behind phase two and that they will support this process throughout the peacemaking,” Majed al-Ansari says in an interview with the Breitbart news site.

“The 16th day [of the ceasefire] was supposed to be the day when the Israeli delegation comes to Doha and we start the negotiations of phase two. However, they have not sent the delegation yet, but we are in contact with both sides to make sure they remain committed to that. From what I understand, Prime Minister Netanyahu wants to meet with President Trump first and have a discussion with him and then send the delegation,” he adds.

Al-Ansari adds that Qatar hopes “Trump will convey to Prime Minister Netanyahu how he believes in the mediation process, he believes in bringing the hostages back home, and he believes that the negotiations should go forward.

“We hope that upon returning to Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu will immediately dispatch his negotiation team to Doha to begin the phase 2 talks with [US Mideast envoy] Steve Witkoff and the negotiations continue.”

In a recent Fox News interview, Israel’s new ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter accused Qatar of playing a “duplicitous game of funding the pyromaniacs and funding the firefighters at the same time.” Critics of Doha have pointed to its close ties to Hamas and its funding to Gaza that has allowed the terror group to prioritize building up its arsenal to attack Israel.

Qatar, in turn, has argued that Israel and the US lobbied aggressively for Doha to make such payments in order to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Al-Ansari tears into Leiter for his comments.

“If we spent a dime of effort on every single individual who tried to scapegoat using Qatar or tried to use Qatar as a political punching bag we wouldn’t have any time to do any of our mediation work,” al-Ansari says. “We have been the firefighters for so much time now… working on extinguishing fires lit by… megalomaniacs and narcissists and people with larger-than-life egos who just want to realize their personal ambitions, even if it meant costing lives of thousands of innocent civilians.”

Al-Ansari urges Leiter to ask the families of hostages what they think of Qatar’s role. “I have certainly been in contact with some of the hostage families on the day they have seen their loved ones back, the day a mother hugs her child coming back from being a hostage in Gaza — she sent me a text message thanking Qatar for its role.”

Robert Kraft releases a new ad against divisiveness, starring Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg

Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg start in an advertisement produced by Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, released on February 3, 2025. (Screenshot)

Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism releases a new ad against divisiveness, starring Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg.

In the 30-second commercial, the two stand face-to-face flinging hurtful messages at each other, followed by text reading, “The reasons for hate are as stupid as they sound.

“I hate that things are so bad, that we have to do a commercial about it,” Snoop says in the spot.

The New England Patriots CEO tells People Magazine that he recruited the two stars for the ad because he “tried to think about how I could stimulate a message to people from different backgrounds” by collaborating with “who I had in my life, who I could get to speak out on this issue.”

“I’m really worried about our country and the divisiveness,” he says.

The clip is the most recent in a series of similar ads produced by the foundation, which Kraft founded in 2019.

Syria’s interim president Sharaa says elections could take up to 5 years to organize

Syria's then-de facto leader, now interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, walks in the presidential palace in Damascus, December 28, 2024. Mosa'ab Elshamy/ AP)

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa says organizing elections could take up to five years, the week after he was appointed interim president and less than two months after ousting Bashar al-Assad.

“My estimate is that the period of time will be approximately between four and five years until the elections,” Sharaa says in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on a private Syrian television channel.

In late December, he told Al Arabiya TV the election process could take four years.

The infrastructure for the vote “needs to be re-established, and this takes time,” Sharaa adds.

He also promises “a law regulating political parties,” adding that Syria will be “a republic with a parliament and an executive government.”

Sharaa has been tasked with forming an interim legislature and the Assad-era parliament was dissolved, along with the Baath party which ruled Syria for decades. Syria’s constitution was also repealed, and the Assad-era army and security forces were dissolved, as were armed groups including Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

A transitional government has been installed to steer Syria until March 1.

IDF says troops fired warning shots after Palestinians approached forces in several areas of Gaza

The IDF says troops fired warning shots, after Palestinian suspects approached forces in several areas of the Gaza Strip today.

Israeli troops are still deployed inside some areas of Gaza during the ceasefire with Hamas.

The IDF says it is “determined to fully maintain the terms of the agreement in order to return the hostages,” and is “prepared for any scenario and will continue to take any necessary actions to thwart any immediate threat to IDF soldiers.”

“The IDF calls the residents of Gaza to follow its instructions and avoid approaching the troops deployed in the area,” the military adds.

Elon Musk is a ‘special government employee’ — White House spokesperson

Elon Musk listens, as US President Donald Trump speaks after taking the oath of office at the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, January 20, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/ Pool Photo via AP)

WASHINGTON — Billionaire Elon Musk, a key Trump ally, is considered a “special government employee,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt tells reporters.

Leavitt, speaking at the White House, says she cannot provide any details about what, if any, security clearance Musk has, but says he has abided by all applicable federal laws.

Settler extremists attack Palestinian village in West Bank — reports

Settler extremists are reportedly attacking the Palestinian village of Susya in the southern West Bank, slashing tires and smashing car windows.

Footage posted to social media also shows a hole drilled in a water tank.

The incident comes against the background of a series of severe violent attacks perpetrated by Israeli extremists against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.

Israeli authorities have been accused of turning a blind eye to claims of rampant settler violence, particularly since the start of the Gaza war, with many attributing the lack of response to the government’s far-right flank, including former police minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a lawyer known for defending settlers accused of violent attacks.

ממש עכשיו מתנחלים תוקפים את הכפר הפלסטיני סוסיא שבדרום הר חברון

ניקבו צמיגים ניפצו חלונות של רכב (סרטון 1)
חוררו מיכל מים גדול (סרטון 2)
ברחו חזרה להתנחלות הקרובה (סרטון 3)

הזרוע הצבאית של תנועת ההתנחלות לא עוצרת לרגע pic.twitter.com/ogdyWylNj9

— נדב וימן Nadav Weiman (@weimanadav) February 3, 2025

I’m surrounded now by armed and masked settlers, who are leading a terror attack on Masafer Yatta as I write.

Dozens of settlers arrived to friend Naser’s house in Susya, throwing stones at his home, smashing his vehicle, and slashing tires with knive. pic.twitter.com/Sl7bpdoO1U

— Basel Adra (@basel_adra) February 3, 2025

PM’s office: Sara Netanyahu arrived at Blair House in Washington, DC yesterday

Then-US President-elect Donald Trump (left) dines with Sara Netanyahu, at the Trump International Golf Course in Florida on December 1, 2024. (Margo Martin/X)

Sara Netanyahu, wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arrived at the Blair House yesterday, the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel.

She has been living in Miami since mid-November, and did not fly back to Israel for her husband’s surgery in late December. She did not meet him on the tarmac yesterday at Andrews Air Force Base either.

US Justice Department launches task force aimed at combating school antisemitism

The US Justice Department announces a task force to combat antisemitism aimed at schools and colleges, the latest move by the Trump administration to crack down on anti-Jewish discrimination on campuses.

The task force will include officials from the Justice Department, Department of Education, and Department of Health and Human Services, the Justice Department says in a statement.

The group will be led by Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights.

“Antisemitism in any environment is repugnant to this nation’s ideals,” Terrell says in a statement. “The department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found.”

The task force is the first step in US President Donald Trump’s push to combat antisemitism in schools, announced in an executive order last week,” the announcement says.

Bibas relatives: Yarden asks about his wife and sons, and we have no answers for him. We demand answers

Relatives of released hostage Yarden Bibas and family, (from left) Eli Bibas, Ofri Bibas Levy, Dana Silberman Sitton, Jimmy Miller), hold a press conference at the Sheba Medical center in Ramat Gan on February 3, 2025. (Dana Reany / Hostages Familes Forum)

Two members of the Bibas family — Ofri Bibas Levy, sister of released hostage Yarden Bibas, and Dana Silberman Sitton, his sister-in-law — speak at Sheba Medical Center, where Yarden is hospitalized.

“Yarden is here and we realized again what we already knew, how strong and wonderful he is,” says Ofri Bibas, of her brother, who was released by Hamas on Saturday. “We found out how he took care of himself in hell, with the sensitivity and humor that so characterize him.”

Ofri says her brother is slowly hearing and learning about what happened during the last 15 months since he and his family were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, as they help him fill in the blanks, as difficult as it is for him to hear everything.

He has told them that he was moved many times in his captivity, with little food. He lost a lot of weight and muscle mass, and almost never saw the sun.

Ofri Bibas says that her brother realizes that he is no longer anonymous, and how beloved he and his family are, which moves him but is not easy to get used to.

His path to rehabilitation has only begun, says Bibas, but will not be complete until his family — wife Shiri and small sons Ariel and Kfir — are home.

“It all feels very fragile,” says Bibas. “My brother returned, but my sister in-law and nephews have not. Yarden asks about them and I have no answers for him.”

Ofri Bibas demands that the prime minister “give him and us the answers. He deserves that, after all he has suffered.”

Yarden Bibas, flanked by his sister and father, is seen on an IDF helicopter on his way to a hospital in central Israel on February 1, 2025 (Israel Defense Force)

She thanks the government for making the difficult decision to agree to the hostage release-ceasefire deal, and calls to bring about the second stage of the deal in order to get all the hostages home.

Dana Silberman-Sitton, older sister of Shiri Bibas, says she is finally able to breathe a little now that Yarden is home. She chokes on tears, as she notes that her parents and friends were killed on October 7, and her little sister Shiri was taken captive with her nephews, Ariel and Kfir, and their father Yarden.

“I’m so happy that I’m able to hug him, to hear his voice and to look at him again in the eyes,” says Silberman-Sitton. “But where are Shiri and the boys? Three-quarters of our heart is still held hostage. And until they come home, it will remain missing.”

Silberman-Sitton says she is demanding answers about her sister and nephews.

“We have only one question: Where are Shiri and the children. We won’t accept this uncertainty any longer. We demand answers. We demand their return. That is the state’s obligation to us, after all we have been through.”

“Shiri and the boys were in a complete home, in a complete kibbutz, still in their pajamas, as the whole world and the nation saw,” she continues. “The state failed to protect them. The state has failed for almost 500 days to get them home. No longer.

“It is the responsibility of the government and country to Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir,” she says. “To Yarden. To me and our family. And for every Israeli citizen who looks and asks if the State of Israel knows how to protect its sons and daughters. Does the State of Israel know how to bring them all home?”

Yarden, Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas (Courtesy)

According to a Channel 12 report earlier this evening, Yarden was held in a cell separate from other Nir Oz captives, was dressed in a galabiya, and was taken out once a day to eat with other hostages.

Yarden reportedly thought that Shiri and the boys were saved at home on October 7, and kept asking his captors about them all the time. They eventually lied to him and told him Shiri and the boys had been seen in Tel Aviv.

Eventually, the terrorists told one hostage to tell him their fate and she refused. Another was forced to tell him, and, in a shaking voice, updated him, a moment that the the terrorists filmed. (Hamas claimed in late November 2023 that Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir were killed in an IDF strike, and filmed Yarden in a video at the time that it issued this claim. The IDF has never confirmed the claim, and has described the video as cruel propaganda. Israel has said it has “grave concerns” about the fate of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir.)

Report: Trump administration asked Congress to approve $1 billion in weapons sales to Israel

US President Donald Trump’s administration has asked congressional leaders to approve new transfers of roughly $1 billion worth of bombs and other military hardware to Israel, the Wall Street Journal reports

The planned weapons sales include 4,700 1,000-pound bombs, worth more than $700 million, and armored bulldozers, built by Caterpillar CAT.N, worth more than $300 million, the report adds, citing sources.

Asked if he’d back West Bank annexation, Trump says Israel ‘a small country, in terms of land’

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump avoids answering a question from a reporter in the Oval Office regarding whether he would support Israel annexing the West Bank.

“I’m not going to talk about that. It certainly is a small, it’s a small country in terms of land,” he says.

“See this pen?” he continues, holding up the pen he was using to sign executive orders. “This wonderful pen on my desk is the Middle East, and the top of the pen — that’s Israel.”

“That’s not good, right? You know, it’s a pretty big difference. I use that as an analogy — it’s pretty accurate, actually.”

“It’s a pretty small piece of land. It’s amazing what they’ve been able to do when you think about it, [There’s] a lot of good, smart brain power, but it is a very small piece of land, no question about it,” he says, appearing to talk about Israel.

President Trump: "It's amazing what Israel has been able to do with a lot of brainpower, but very little land area. I have no guarantees that the agreement will last. I've seen people go through brutal things. Nobody has seen anything like this." pic.twitter.com/pZIZQRKhNR

— Emily Schrader – אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) February 3, 2025

Report: Trump set to sign executive order prohibiting future US funding to UNRWA

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump is reportedly slated to sign an executive order tomorrow that will prohibit future funding to the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, in addition to again withdrawing the US from the UN Human Rights Council.

The Biden administration froze funding to UNRWA last year, upon revelations that a number of its staff actively participated in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught. US lawmakers then passed legislation barring the resumption of funding to UNRWA until next month — a directive that the Republican-controlled Congress was almost certain to extend indefinitely.

Biden had renewed funding to UNRWA after Trump cut it during his first term, when he also pulled the US from the UN Human Rights Council, arguing that the panel was overly critical of Israel.

Netanyahu’s office denies report he wants to convince Trump to strike Iran before 2nd stage of Gaza deal

US President Donald Trump, right, meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, September 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

The Prime Minister’s Office denies a Channel 12 news report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to ask US President Donald Trump to carry out a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and close a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia before moving on to the second stage of an ongoing hostage release-ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

“It is a total lie that harms the families of the hostages,” says the PMO.

The report had claimed that the plan would entail postponing the second stage of the deal with Hamas, currently in its initial phase, for several months, and that Netanyahu’s reported deliberation over removing Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar from the Gaza negotiating team is related.

As per the terms of the ceasefire and hostage release deal, negotiations for the second phase of the agreement were meant to begin today.

The second phase of the deal is expected to include the return of all the remaining living hostages — including men under the age of 50 and male soldiers — held by terrorists in the Gaza Strip, in exchange for a yet-to-be-determined number of Palestinian security prisoners and a full Israeli withdrawal from the Strip.

Israel flies in family members of Thai hostages freed from Gaza last week

Thai hostages who were freed from Hamas captivity, from left to right, Surasak Lumnau, Sathian Suwannakham, Bannawat Saethao, Watchara Sriaoun and Pongsak Thaenna, hold the Thailand flag in Israel, January 30, 2025. (Royal Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv via AP)

The Foreign Ministry is flying family members of the five Thai hostages released from captivity in Gaza last week.

The families will arrive tomorrow, says the Foreign Ministry, and will be reunited with their loved ones at the Shamir Medical Center near Tel Aviv. The visit has been coordinated with the Thai embassy in Israel.

Sathian Suwannakham, Pongsak Thenna, Bannawat Seathao, Watchara Sriaoun, and Surasak Lamnau were kidnapped to Gaza during the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, and endured 482 days in captivity.

The families will stay in Israel until the freed hostages can return home to Thailand, says the ministry.

“Israel was overjoyed last Thursday to see the freedom of the Thai hostages restored, after being held in cruel captivity in Gaza,” says Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in a statement.

“I wish them and their families a good life, health, and freedom. We are still waiting for the remaining 79 hostages, who are held by the terror organizations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”

Health minister calls on police to expedite murder investigation of pediatrician at Western Galilee clinic

Health Minister Uriel Buso calls on the police to expedite the investigation into this evening’s murder of Dr. Abdallah Awad, a pediatrician who was working at the time at a Clalit Health Services clinic in Kafr Yasif, in Western Galilee.

“It is unthinkable that medical facilities, where lives are saved, should become places where patients or medical staff feel their lives are at risk,” Buso says.

Awad is the sixth Arab Israeli killed in a violent incident since last night.

“The unbearable violence and lawlessness have led to the deaths of six Israeli citizens in a single day,” adds Israel Medical Association Chairman Prof. Zion Hagay. “The state must wake up and put an end to this.”

He adds that the Israel Medical Association demands that the government puts “an end to the negligence that has characterized this recent period” and “increases personal security in the Arab sector.”

Halevi holds work meeting with nominated next IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi held a work meeting this evening with Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Zamir, the nominated next chief of staff, the military says.

Halevi will be resigning on March 6.

Zamir’s nomination still needs to be approved by the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee and a cabinet vote.

Daughter says Keith Siegel was held in inhumane conditions, starved; sorry to those who lost lives so hostages could return

Family members of released Hamas hostage Keith Siegel -- (L-R) his wife, Aviva Siegel, who is also a former hostage; daughter Shir Siegel; and brother, Lee Siegel -- hold a press conference at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center - Ichilov, on February 3, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Former hostage Aviva Siegel, whose husband Keith Siegel was released from Hamas captivity over the weekend, speaks from Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, with her daughter, Shir Siegel on one side and Keith’s brother, Lee Siegel, on the other.

“Our Keith returned to us, how good it is to have him home!” says Aviva Siegel.

“For me, to see Keith with us, living, breathing, eating, smiling, being emotional, is the most amazing, the hugest, the most unbelievable thing,” she says.

Siegel thanks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the negotiators, the government, the cabinet, and the US government, as well as former US president Joe Biden, for their support and work in bringing Keith, a US citizen, home to Israel.

Her daughter, Shir Siegel, offers a longer message, relating that her father, who returned thin and weak, but walking on his own two feet, was held in inhumane conditions in Gaza for 484 days, by evil terrorists who abused him emotionally, and physically.

Keith Siegel barely saw daylight, was starved for long periods of time, and held in solitude for periods of time, says Shir.

Released hostage Keith Siegel reunites with his family at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) on February 1, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

“I always knew my father was strong, but I never realized how strong,” she says. “My father didn’t just survive captivity; he overcame it by acting with determination and faith.”

Shir Siegel says that her father told his family that the few times he was exposed to the media during his captivity, he was strengthened by seeing Israelis and the army fighting to bring the hostages home. He was also broken by seeing the division, violence, and incitement in Israeli society.

“One of the first things my father said after coming home was, ‘What can I do to help bring everyone home?'”

“With teary eyes and a hoarse throat, my father isn’t willing to give up. Even though he is very weak, and with a long rehabilitation in front of him, he wants to do what he can to bring them out of hell,” she says.

Siegel says Israeli society must look at those returning from captivity and learn about ourselves as a nation, society, and people.

She also says that since his return, her father asked them to tell him what happened in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, their home, on October 7, 2023, and to go over the list of names of the 64 people who were killed.

“He couldn’t believe that so many of his friends and neighbors were killed,” she says.

Shir Siegel asks those present to bend their heads, to beg forgiveness.

“I’m sorry to those who lost their loved ones so that my father and the other hostages could come home,” she says. “I’m sorry to those who received a knock on the door [informing them of the death of a loved one] so that we would receive life. I’m sorry to the citizens, soldiers, and security forces who sacrificed their lives for us, for the State of Israel. I’m sorry and thank you. And another I’m sorry for the hostages who were alive and were killed in captivity. The dream was to see them with us at home, and it shouldn’t have happened this way.”

Shir Siegel also refers to the ongoing hostage release-ceasefire deal with Hamas, and says that that while she knows that not every Israeli agrees with it, she hopes “we, as Israelis, as Jews, as people and a society, will learn how to deal with the complexities and most importantly, to be unified after this complicated period.”

Trump says he has ‘no guarantees’ Gaza ceasefire will continue; Witkoff: It’s holding for now

Then-US President-elect Donald Trump speaks as Steve Witkoff listens, during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, January 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP/ Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump says, “I have no guarantees that the Gaza ceasefire will hold,” while his Mideast envoy says the hostage-truce deal between Israel and Hamas is holding for now.

Trump’s remark appears to be an extension of his admission on his first day in office that he had no confidence that the ceasefire would hold.

Asked by Trump in the Oval Office to give an update on the ceasefire, Witkoff says, “It’s holding so far. We’re certainly hopeful.”

“That’s the president’s direction — get the hostages out and save lives and come to… a peaceful settlement of it all. So far it’s holding,” Witkoff adds.

Trump and US special Middle East envoy Witkoff make the remarks to reporters at the White House.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Report: Netanyahu considering removing Shin Bet director Ronen Bar from hostage negotiating team

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, on April 4, 2023. (Kobi Gideon/GPO/File)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering removing Shin Bet director Ronen Bar from the hostage negotiating team, Channel 12 reports.

Another senior Shin Bet official would replace Bar, according to the outlet.

The move would follow Netanyahu’s placing Strategic Affairs Minister and close ally Ron Dermer at the head of the team, replacing Mossad chief David Barnea.

A senior Israeli official does not directly deny the report, telling The Times of Israel that, “as of now, there is no change to the make-up of the negotiating team.”

Meanwhile, Channel 13 reports that Netanyahu met with Bar over the weekend, and in a tense conversation informed him that he intends to change the negotiating team. Officials in the building tell the outlet that Bar left the meeting visibly upset.

Israel and the US are kicking off efforts to move toward the second phase of the hostage release deal today, with a meeting between Netanyahu and US Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Moscow tells Hamas to ‘keep promises’ on release of hostages Alexander Trufanov, Maxim Herkin

Hostages Maxim Herkin (left) and Alexander (Sasha) Trufanov. (Courtesy)

A deputy Russian foreign minister has met with a senior Hamas official in Moscow and urged the Palestinian terror group to keep “promises” to release two Israeli hostages, according to the ministry.

Mikhail Bogdanov, who is also Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy on the Middle East, met with Moussa Abu Marzuk, a senior member of Hamas’s political bureau.

Russia has called for the release of dual Russian-Israeli citizen Alexander “Sasha” Trufanov and Maxim Herkin, an Israeli man from the Donbas area of Ukraine who has Russian relatives.

At their talks, Bogdanov “again placed particular stress on the necessity of carrying out the promises given by Hamas’s leadership on releasing from imprisonment Russian citizen Trufanov and other hostages,” the ministry says.

Trufanov was abducted on October 7, 2023, with his girlfriend, Sapir Cohen, from their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza border. His father was killed in the brutal Hamas attack, and his mother and grandmother were abducted and released in November 2023. The family emigrated from Russia to Israel in the late 1990s.

Herkin immigrated to Israel from Ukraine with his mother. He was kidnapped from the Supernova rave music festival on October 7, 2023.

Earlier today, Abu Marzuk told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency that Trufanov would “definitely be released in the near future… in the first stage of the deal,” while talks on releasing Herkin would be held at a “second stage.”

The Russian ministry says the two also discussed “the progress of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, with the stress on the importance of increasing humanitarian aid to the suffering Palestinian population.”

Ben Gvir associates, including MK, summoned, in ongoing probe into top West Bank cop

Otzma Yehudit party chief Itamar Ben Gvir (L) speaks with his chief of staff Chanamel Dorfman, during a Knesset special committee to discuss his proposed Police Ordinance changes, December 18, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Chanamel Dorfman, a senior official in the National Security Ministry who is close to ex-minister Itamar Ben Gvir, is being summoned by the Department of Internal Police Investigations to appear before the unit, during an ongoing investigation into a top West Bank cop.

The DIPI has not specified whether he is being summoned for questioning or to testify.

A handful of other Ben Gvir associates were also summoned alongside Dorfman, including former Otzma Yehudit MK Zvi Sukkot and West Bank District Commander Moshe Pinchi, Ben Gvir’s former security affairs secretary, according to the Kan broadcaster.

Commander Avishai Muallem, whom the DIPI is probing on suspicion he faked investigations into settler attacks to earn Ben Gvir’s favor and a possible promotion, was also summoned to appear before the department.

Many in the far-right politician’s circles are under scrutiny from the Justice Ministry, as part of the probe against Muallem, who is currently suspended from his position at the helm of the West Bank police’s investigations and intelligence unit.

The DIPI also suspects Israel Prisons Chief Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi of informing Muallem that he was the central suspect in an investigation, which would constitute obstruction and breach of trust. He has not yet been indicted.

Ben Gvir decries the DIPI’s summons in a statement accusing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of continuing “to harass and intimidate people close to me, as well as distinguished police officers, as part of her persecution campaign of politicized investigations — again through the means of her private police, or under the formal title ‘DIPI.'”

‘We are ready’: Billboards in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Washington urge Israel-Saudi normalization

People walk past an electronic billboard shows US President Donald Trump, left, shaking hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with text that says: 'We are ready,' in Tel Aviv, February 3, 2025. (AP Photo/ Ariel Schalit)

A series of billboards showing US President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shaking hands with the messages “We are ready” and “Israel is ready” went up around Israel and Washington, DC today, in support of the advancement of the Abraham Accords.

The campaign, led by the Coalition for Regional Security, calls on the US and Saudi leaders to “reshape history.”

“Saudi-Israel normalization will transform the Middle East, securing our shared future against Iranian aggression and regional instability. It’s time for moderate forces to come together. It’s time for a new regional order. The day after is now. We are ready. Israel is ready,” the coalition says in a statement.

On the matter of Palestinian statehood, the statement calls for “a gradual, secure, and sustainable separation framework backed by regional collaboration.”

The group also calls for the leaders to work towards solutions to neutralize Iran-backed terror groups Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, to protect the border with Syria, and to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

The Coalition for Regional Security is an Israeli group of former military and political officials that seeks normalized relations with Saudi Arabia and separation from the Palestinians.

An electronic billboard at the entrance to Jerusalem shows US President Donald Trump, left, shaking hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with text that says: ‘Israel is ready,’ newly placed by the group Coalition for Regional Security, February 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Netanyahu’s office shares schedule of meetings with top US officials in Washington

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet evangelical leaders at 5:00 p.m. local time this afternoon, at the Blair House in Washington, DC, his office announces.

At 6:30 p.m., he is slated to meet US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.

Netanyahu will meet Trump at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, followed by a joint press conference and an off-the-record briefing for Israel journalists.

On Wednesday, at 11:00 a.m., Netanyahu will meet National Security Adviser Michael Waltz. He is scheduled to meet Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at 3:00 p.m., at the Pentagon.

Netanyahu will be on Capitol Hill on Thursday. At 10:00 a.m., he will meet Senate Majority Leader John Thune, followed by a meeting with other Senate leaders.

He is slated to meet US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson at 1:00 p.m., followed by a joint statement to the press. He will then meet other senior lawmakers.

In first, IDF using ‘Eitan’ APCs to bolster West Bank operation in Tubas area

An 'Eitan' armored personnel carrier is seen during an IDF operation in the West Bank, in the Tubas area, in a photo cleared for publication on February 3, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

In a first, the IDF is using “Eitan” armored personnel carriers in the West Bank, during an operation in the Tubas area.

A small number of Eitan APCs are being used by the Bislamach Brigade for supply, extraction, and other missions, according to the military.

The IDF says the APCs are not replacing other methods of mobility; rather, they are bolstering the existing systems.

The Eitan is an eight-wheeled, lightweight vehicle that combines technologies from the Merkava tank and the Namer APC. It began serial production in 2022.

Hamas says ‘ready’ for talks on second stage of Gaza deal, asks mediators to make sure Israel doesn’t ‘stall’

Hamas fighters deploy at the stage where the hand over of American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, 65, to the Red Cross will take place in Gaza City, February 1, 2025. (AP Photo/ Mohammed Hajjar)

Hamas is ready to begin talks on the details of a second phase of the ongoing truce in Gaza, two officials from the Palestinian terror group tell AFP.

“Hamas has informed the mediators, during ongoing communications and meetings held with Egyptian mediators last week in Cairo, that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase,” one Hamas official says on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

“We call on the mediators to ensure that the occupation adheres to the agreement and does not stall,” they add.

A second official says the terror group is “waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round.”

Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel — the first phase of which came into effect on January 19 — indirect talks to hammer out the details of phase two were due to start today.

The 42-day phase one revolves around the release of 33 Israeli hostages kidnapped in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre, in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinian security prisoners, including hundreds serving life sentences.

The second phase is expected to cover the release of the remaining hostages and include discussions on a permanent end to the war.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said he will begin discussions about the second phase with US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff today.

The premier is currently in Washington and is due to meet Trump tomorrow.

Netanyahu extends Washington trip over weekend after ‘many requests for meetings from US officials’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exits a car at Ben Gurion Airport ahead of a trip to the United States, February 2, 2025. (Lazar Berman/Times of Israel)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will remain in Washington until Saturday night, his office says, citing “the many requests for meetings from US officials.”

He was originally slated to head back to Israel on Thursday.

The change means that Netanyahu will be in the US over the Jewish Sabbath, and will be abroad as the next release of hostages from Gaza is expected to take place.

Police say doctor shot dead in northern town, in 6th murder in Arab Israeli community since last night

Police at the scene where a 14-year old boy was shot and killed in Lod, central Israel, February 3, 2025. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

A doctor was shot dead in his clinic in the northern town of Kafr Yasif this evening, according to police and paramedic spokespeople. He is the sixth Arab Israeli killed in a violent incident since last night.

Police say the suspects fled the scene after opening fire on their victim. Paramedics who arrived shortly after declared him dead on the spot. Officers have opened an investigation into the incident.

The past 24 hours have seen two deadly shootings. In Lod earlier today, a 14-year-old boy was shot dead.

In Abu Snan last night, three young men were killed near a kiosk in what is thought to be a revenge shooting for another murder two weeks prior.

A 46-year-old man was stabbed to death, likely by his former brother-in-law during an altercation in Abu Ghosh, according to police.

Ben Gvir urges Acting PM Levin to fire AG while Netanyahu is out of the country

Otzma Yehudit party head MK Itamar Ben Gvir leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on January 27, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben Gvir calls on Justice Minister Yariv Levin to take the opportunity of the prime minister’s absence to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

“Today, my friend Minister Yariv Levin is currently acting prime minister and this is an opportunity to do it and fire the attorney general, now before it’s too late,” Ben Gvir tells reporters ahead of his far-right party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently in Washington DC to meet with US President Donald Trump.

“If you don’t fire the attorney general, she will send you all home. She will bring down the government. What more does she have to do for you to understand this? It’s only a matter of time before she brings you all down and fabricates cases against you all. I’m very much afraid that by the time you realize it, it will already be too late,” he says.

A growing number of coalition lawmakers and cabinet ministers have called for Baharav-Miara’s ouster due to frustration over her refusal to defend various controversial and unprecedented measures the government seeks to advance that she has determined would be against the law.

Ben Gvir has accused Baharav-Miara of engaging in a fishing expedition, claiming in November that she had undertaken a search for a legal pretext to take action against him.

Ben Gvir also calls on Netanyahu to come back to Israel with an American commitment to restart the war and urges him to take steps to advance Trump’s proposal to move Gazans out of the Strip.

“As long as there is no government that wants to overthrow Hamas rule, I do not see myself and Otzma Yehudit returning to the government,” he adds.

Otzma Yehudit left Netanyahu’s coalition last month after Israel agreed to a hostage-ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza.

PM spokesman denies reports PA managing Rafah crossing, says only role ‘is the PA stamp on passports’

After reports that the Palestinian Authority is involved in running the Rafah Crossing from Egypt into Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman issues a denial while acknowledging a minor PA role at the key site.

“The Palestinian Authority does not operate the Rafah Crossing, despite the narrative it is trying to create,” writes Omer Dostri on X.

Netanyahu has consistently pledged that Israel would retain control over the site.

“Nothing has changed in the management of civilian affairs in Gaza since the beginning of the war, including at the Rafah Crossing,” Dostri continues.

“The only involvement of the PA is the PA stamp on passports, which according to the international arrangement only allows Gazans to leave for other countries or to be absorbed into them.”

Egyptian ambulances cross the Rafah border crossing towards Gaza on February 1, 2025, to transport Palestinian patients out of the Strip as the key gateway reopened as part of a hostage-ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group.(Kerolos Salah/AFP)

Ynet reported that nine PA police officers are back at the crossing, managing the site alongside Egyptian and European officials.

A 2005 agreement between Israel and the PA stipulates that Rafah Crossing would be controlled by the PA under EU supervision.

After a January report in a Saudi outlet that Israel would allow the PA to manage the crossing under international supervision, the PMO issued a similar statement, noting that “non-Hamas Gazans” provide technical management of the crossing with international oversight, and the PA provides the stamp on passports allowing Gazans to exit the Strip.

Days after her release from Gaza, Agam Berger attends IDF ceremony for her sister Bar

Former hostage soldier Agam Berger attends an IDF ceremony for her sister Bar, who completed a military course, February 3, 2025. (IDF)

Days after being released from Hamas captivity, former hostage soldier Agam Berger attends an IDF ceremony for her sister Bar, who completed a military course.

Bar Berger is now going to serve as a mashakit tash, or noncommissioned officer responsible for service conditions — a sort of social worker for soldiers.

Agam is seen placing a purple aiguillette, worn by a mashakit tash, on Bar’s shoulder.

Trump pauses new tariffs after Mexico agrees to reinforce border with 10,000 troops to stop drug smuggling

Then-US President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he tours a section of the US-Mexico border wall in Alamo, Texas, January 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS – US President Donald Trump says he’ll pause new tariffs on Mexico for one month after Mexico agreed to reinforce its northern border with 10,000 National Guard members to stem the flow of illegal drugs, particularly fentanyl.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says the agreement also includes a US commitment to act to prevent the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico. The two leaders spoke by phone today, just hours before US tariffs on Mexico, China and Canada were set to take effect.

The two countries will use the monthlong pause to engage in further negotiations, Trump says on social media.

US stocks and other global financial markets slumped on the looming tariffs, while world leaders responded to Trump’s threats to expand tariffs to the European Union as well.

Cousin of Scottish student killed in 2002 Tel Aviv attack grapples with release of terrorist who drove suicide bomber

Undated picture of Scottish student Yoni Jesner, who was killed in a 2002 terror attack in Tel Aviv. (screen capture: YouTube)

The cousin of a Scottish student who died in a Tel Aviv bus bombing in 2002 grapples with the release during an ongoing hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas of a terrorist convicted of driving the suicide bomber to carry out the attack, in an op-ed in The Free Press.

Rabbi Gideon Black, who himself survived the 2002 terror attack, writes, “Ashraf Zughayer, the Hamas leader who arranged for the killing of my cousin and attempted to have me killed, got out of prison January 25 as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. He had served 22 years of what were supposed to be six life sentences—one for each person whose murder he orchestrated.”

“The moments after the explosion are still vivid in my mind—the shattered glass, the heap of skinless bodies at the front of the bus, the few silent seconds as an aura of death hung in the air before it gave way to piercing sirens and screams,” he writes.

Yoni Jesner was 19 when he came from Glasgow, Scotland, to study at Yeshivat Har Etzion and was killed, along with five others, in a September bombing that year during the Second Intifada.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, in which a suicide bomber set off an explosive charge aboard a bus on Allenby Street.

“Yoni was bound for medical school in London following our time in yeshiva… Though in his life he was deprived of the opportunity to save lives as a doctor, in death he was not, his donated organs saving three people: two Jewish men from Tel Aviv and an 8-year-old Muslim girl from East Jerusalem, Yasmin Abu Ramilah, who received one of Yoni’s kidneys after years on dialysis,” the rabbi writes.

Zughayer is one of some 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners, including hundreds serving life sentences, who are being freed in exchange for hostages held in Gaza as part of the deal with Hamas that began in January.

Footage posted to social media last week showed the Hamas terrorist atop a slow-moving pickup truck at the center of a celebration for the released Palestinian security prisoners in Jerusalem’s Kafr Aqab neighborhood, though police banned such demonstrations.

مشاهد من استقبال الأسير المقدسي المحرر أشرف زغير في كفر عقب ، يذكر أنه محكوم بالمؤبد 6 مرات وستين عاماً، وقد أفرج عنه اليوم ضمن صفقة طوفان الأحرار pic.twitter.com/XyirBYGtTf

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) January 25, 2025

But while he writes that “releasing terrorists has been proven to lead to more terror,” Black ultimately concludes that releasing the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023, “takes precedence.”

“We must move mountains to bring them home, even as we fear that those very mountains may bury our loved ones in the future. The moral dilemma is excruciating,” he writes.

Report: Trump will watch documentary of Hamas Oct. 7 atrocities before meeting Netanyahu tomorrow

Israeli soldiers walk next to bodies of people murdered by Hamas terrorists in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, October 7, 2023. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

US President Donald Trump will watch a documentary of Hamas October 7 atrocities before meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says the Ynet news outlet.

According to the report, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff saw the footage while in Israel last week and was left shocked, and decided that the president should view it as well.

The 47-minute IDF compilation of footage from Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel to kill some 1,200 people and seize 251 hostages, mostly civilians, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault, will be shortened to 20-30 minutes for the US president, Ynet reports.

The footage, first screened for foreign journalists in Israel on October 23, 2023, includes harrowing scenes of murder, torture and decapitation from the Hamas slaughter in southern Israel, including raw videos from the terrorists’ bodycams.

Smotrich says he supports normalization with Saudi Arabia as long as it doesn’t cost Israel its security

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads a Religious Zionism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, February 3, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says he supports expanding the Abraham Accords, including with Saudi Arabia, while cautioning that such an agreement must be “based on truth and not on lies… and not come at the expense of the security of the residents of the State of Israel, including the achievement of the war goals of destroying Hamas’s military and governmental power, removing the threat, and returning all the kidnapped.”

Israel established relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco during US President Donald Trump’s first term in office under the Abraham Accords.

Normalization with Saudi Arabia, which did not join the 2020 accords and has never recognized Israel, has been all but shelved due to the war in Gaza as well as Riyadh’s demands that Israel establish a diplomatic horizon for a future Palestinian state.

The far-right minister has in the past spoken against normalization with Saudi Arabia if it requires the establishment of a Palestinian statement.

Addressing reporters in the Knesset, he also welcomes what he calls a “refreshing change in the new administration’s attitude toward the State of Israel” after Trump succeeded former US president Joe Biden last month.

Speaking a day before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Trump at the White House, Smotrich makes no mention of his previous threats to leave the coalition, and thus deprive it of its Knesset majority, if it does not resume fighting Hamas at the end of the current 42-day first phase of the hostage-ceasefire deal.

Smotrich says that he is “certain that President Trump will continue to work to strengthen the security and status of the State of Israel as he has done to date.”

“Unfortunately, the previous administration chose to publicly boycott a large part of the Israeli people and their elected officials, and the Trump administration, on the other hand, presents a different approach that expresses mutual respect and appreciation for Israeli democracy,” Smotrich states.

The Biden administration maintained an effective boycott of Smotrich and former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who represent the far-right flank of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

Smotrich praises Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, who helped close the ongoing hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas, as showing “an open mind and creative thinking about solutions, along with a deep commitment and concern for the State of Israel and its security.”

FM Sa’ar asks Greece to help bring international sports contests back to Israel

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar meets his Greek counterpart Giorgos Gerapetritis in Jerusalem, February 3, 2025 (Asi Efrati/GPO)

Hosting his Greek counterpart Giorgos Gerapetritis in Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar asks for Athens’s help in bringing international sports contests back to Israel, says the Foreign Ministry.

“The security situation allows for the return of sports games to Israel,” Sa’ar tells his Greek counterpart. “We need to return to normality.”

Israel’s national teams and Israeli clubs playing in European leagues have had to hold home games in Europe since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023.

Gerapetritis promises to help, says Sa’ar’s office.

Sa’ar also discusses the return of hostages from Gaza, and the “absurdity” of international legal actions against Israel.

The Democrats chair Golan blames Netanyahu for Hamas’s recovery in Gaza via ‘policy of neglecting security’

The Democrats party chair Yair Golan leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, February 3, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saved Hamas by declining to advance an alternate government for the Gaza Strip, Yair Golan alleges.

Speaking with reporters ahead of The Democrats’ weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Golan says that the terror group’s “recovery in Gaza is a direct result of Netanyahu’s continued policy of neglecting security.”

“His refusal to introduce a governing alternative to Hamas in Gaza stemmed from his preference for Smotrich and Ben Gvir in the coalition over the safety of the hostages and soldiers, thereby allowing Hamas to continue to control the Strip and restore its status. I want to be clear: The IDF severely damaged Hamas, but Netanyahu, who did not care about an alternative government, saved it. Hamas needs to be eliminated – not saved,” Golan says.

“Victory over Hamas will not be achieved solely through military force – it requires a complementary, determined and strategic move in the regional arena. As long as Hamas remains the sole governmental address in Gaza, any achievement on the battlefield will be temporary, and a future military campaign is only a matter of time.”

Welcoming the pending appointment of Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Zamir as the next Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Golan says that the senior officer will have to both rehabilitate the armed forces and engage in a “struggle against a corrupt and corrupting political echelon, which has abandoned the security of the country in favor of political interests and the pursuit of power.”

Danon backs EU lawmakers’ call for disbanding UNRWA after ex-hostage says she was held in UN facilities in Gaza

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon speaks during a UN Security Council meeting concerning the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) at UN headquarters in New York City on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Yuki IWAMURA / AFP)

Israeli ambassador to the UN Danny Danon voices support for a letter written by European lawmakers demanding that UNRWA be removed from the United Nations, and tells Channel 12 that the agency should be disbanded and funds allocated to alternative aid organizations.

The letter to UN chief Antonio Guterres, signed by dozens of lawmakers from 14 European countries, came after Mandy Damari revealed that her daughter Emily was held by the Palestinian terror group Hamas at UNRWA facilities in Gaza during her 15 months of captivity.

“UNRWA has contravened all its missions and has helped a terrorist organization to hide hostages, which is politically, morally and legally highly reprehensible,” the lawmakers write.

They call for UNHCR, the UN agency mandated to aid all other refugees around the world, to take responsibility for the Palestinians as well.

Damari, a dual British-Israeli national, is one of 18 hostages — civilians, soldiers, and Thai nationals — kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, who have been released during a ceasefire that began in January.

Responding to the letter, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini writes, “Claims that hostages have been held in UNRWA premises are deeply disturbing and shocking. We take any such allegations extremely seriously.”

He calls for an “independent investigation” and claims the UN body was “forced to vacate all its installations in the north of Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, on 13 October 2023 and has, since then, had no control over them.”

“I repeat our call for the immediate release and safe return of all hostages,” he adds.

An Israeli ban on the UN agency for Palestinians because of its ties to terror organizations, including Hamas, came into effect last week.

Israel has provided evidence that some UNRWA employees were actively involved in Gaza terror groups and participated in Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion and slaughter. Israel has also provided evidence that the agency’s schools incited hatred of Israel and glorification of attacks against Israelis.

Gantz: Hamas must be replaced, Gaza Strip must be demilitarized before it is rebuilt

National Unity leader MK Benny Gantz leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on February 3, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Gaza Strip must not be rebuilt before it is demilitarized, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz declares.

“The transition to phase two of the hostage deal must include the replacement of the Hamas regime and the demilitarization of Gaza,” the former war cabinet minister tells reporters ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

“The reconstruction efforts in Gaza must be conditioned on the replacement of the Hamas regime. Either Gaza will be demilitarized – or it will remain demolished. That must be the condition for reconstruction, in coordination with the United States and the world.”

Gantz insists that Israel must ensure that Hamas is not able to access humanitarian aid meant for Gazan civilians and argues that “even after the Hamas regime is replaced, it will remain the strongest military force in Gaza – we must not allow for that to happen.”

“Once it is replaced and is cut off from its financial sources, we must hunt every Hamas terrorist in every last tunnel and hideout,” he argues.

He adds that it is now also time “to dismantle the Iranian nuclear project.”

“We must not miss the opportunity. Coordination with the Americans is crucial… We must continue bringing our hostages home, dismantle Hamas, weaken Iran and advance normalization with Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries – and all of this can happen in the next few months. That is what real victory means.”

Liberman welcomes Trump proposal to relocate Gazans, backs Saudi normalization ‘but not at the price they are demanding’

Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on February 3, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Hawkish opposition politician Avigdor Liberman endorses US President Donald Trump’s proposal to move some of Gaza’s population to Jordan and Egypt, temporarily or permanently.

“I want to thank the US president for his initiative to transfer the population of Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula,” Liberman tells reporters ahead of his Yisrael Beytenu party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

Both Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Jordan’s King Abdullah have rejected the proposal by the US president.

This is not the first time that Liberman has endorsed a plan to transfer Palestinians. He has previously proposed transferring jurisdiction of some Arab Israeli towns to a future potential Palestinian state, claiming their residents have never wanted to be part of the Jewish state.

Turning to normalization with Saudi Arabia, Liberman says that he is in favor “but not at the price they are demanding” — establishment of a Palestinian state and assistance with a civilian nuclear program.

14-year-old boy shot and killed in Lod, the 5th murder in Arab community within hours

A teenage boy was fatally shot in Lod, police say, taking the death toll in the Arab community to five since last night.

The 14-year-old Ramle resident was shot and critically injured, alongside two others. All three were taken to hospital, where doctors pronounced his death.

Earlier this morning, a 46-year-old man was stabbed to death in Abu Ghosh, likely by his former brother-in-law, according to police and medical sources. He succumbed to his wounds at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Police arrested a suspect, a 31-year-old resident of Ein Rafah, and took him for questioning.

Just after midnight on Monday, three people were gunned down near a kiosk in the northern town of Abu Snan.

Since the start of 2025, 28 Arab Israelis have died as a result of violent crime.

Newly minted National Security Minister Haim Katz, in charge of Israel’s police since far-right Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir’s resignation from the government, currently holds three other ministerial portfolios.

IDF says troops recently demolished Hezbollah weapons depots in south Lebanon

IDF troops operating in southern Lebanon recently demolished several Hezbollah weapons depots, the military says.

The IDF says the depots included mortars, missiles, rockets, explosive devices, guns, and other military equipment.

IDF troops are still deployed in several areas in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon amid a ceasefire.

Edelstein calls on MKs to ‘put political considerations aside’ and pass law for mass draft of Haredim

Yuli Edelstein leads a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on February 3, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

In a Facebook post, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) calls on his fellow lawmakers to “put political considerations aside” and work to pass legislation that will enable mass conscription of ultra-Orthodox men to the IDF.

“We are at a historic and fateful time for the future of the State of Israel. We, the members of the Knesset, stand between a real draft law that I am leading, and a law of full-blown evasion,” he writes. “The IDF urgently needs combat troops, and our mission is to provide it with the conditions for their conscription. This is a testing time for us as leaders and legislators.”

“This is the time to put political considerations aside and unite around a correct and true bill that will recruit thousands and tens of thousands of Haredim to the IDF. We have no other choice but to do it right once and for all.”

Hamas official on Russian-Israeli hostages: Maxim Herkin to be prioritized in 2nd stage of deal, Sasha Trufanov to be released soon

Hostages Maxim Herkin (left) and Alexander (Sasha) Trufanov. (Courtesy)

Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk says that Maxim Herkin, kidnapped by Gazan terrorists from the Nova festival on October 7, 2023, will be released as a priority in the second stage of the deal.

He also tells Russian outlet Sputnik that hostage Sasha Trufanov, a dual Russian-Israeli national, will be released imminently.

“One of them, Trufanov, will definitely be released in the near future. He will be released despite the fact that he is a serviceperson, but it was decided to release him at the first stage of the deal,” the Hamas official says. Trufanov is a civilian and was abducted from his home, but Hamas classifies all male hostages under 50 as members of the military.

“This is our response to Russia’s position on the Palestinian issue,” the Hamas official says.

Trufanov, 28, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, alongside his mother, grandmother and girlfriend, while his father was murdered. The rest of his family was released in November 2023. He is on the list of the first 33 hostages to be released in the ongoing first stage of the hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Herkin has a 3-year-old daughter and is the primary provider for his mother and 11-year-old brother.

He went to the Nova festival almost by chance, invited by friends at the last minute. It was the first time he had gone to a trance rave.

Meeting Argentina’s foreign minister in Jerusalem, Ohana invites President Milei to address Knesset

(L) Argentine Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein and (R) Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana in the Knesset on February 3, 2025 (Knesset Spokesperson – Noam Moskowitz)

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana invites Argentine President Javier Milei to address Israel’s parliament, calling him the “most pro-Israeli president in the history of Argentina.”

Ohana extends the invitation in a conversation with Argentine Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein during which he thanks the South American nation for “its firm stand by Israel from the very beginning.”

Werthein “is a Jew with pro-Israeli positions, who supports Argentina’s association with free democratic countries like the United States and Israel,” the Knesset speaker notes in a statement praising him for declaring Hamas a terrorist organization.

ISIS-affiliated terrorist gets 3 life sentences plus 40 years for murdering 3 in Jerusalem

Wasim a-Sayed seen on a screen during a court hearing at the District Court in Jerusalem, February 3, 2025 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The Jerusalem District Court sentences Wasim a-Sayed, an ISIS-affiliated terrorist from Hebron who murdered three people in Jerusalem, to three life sentences and another 40-year prison sentence.

A-Sayed murdered Yehuda Kaduri, 71, and Tamar Kaduri, 68, in their home in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv in 2019, and murdered Ivan Tarnovski, a foreign worker from Moldova in 2022 in the same neighborhood.

The day before he murdered the Kaduris he had tried to slit the throat of a 14-year old girl also in Armon Hanatziv, but she managed to escape harm, and he also severely wounded Tarnovski’s roommate in the 2022 attack.

A-Sayed was convicted in September last year on terror charges of two counts of premeditated murder, one count of murder under aggravated circumstances, and two counts of attempted murder.

The court ruled that the severity of his crimes means he will not be eligible for release under any future diplomatic agreement the government might enter into, essentially ruling out his release as part of a hostage deal, or similar.

In 2019, A-Sayed, who had associated himself with the ISIS terror organization, crossed into the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood and stabbed Tamar Kaduri to death and then slit the throat of her husband Yehuda Kaduri in their apartment.

In March 2022, A-Sayed entered the same neighborhood and stabbed Tarnovski to death, also severely wounding his roommate.

A-Sayed confessed to the crimes in 2022 after he was arrested by police, telling investigators he had been looking for Jews to kill.

“The accused slaughtered… three people and tried to slaughter two others, by slitting their throats while they were in their homes or were leaving them, just because they were Jews, or because he thought they were Jews,” says the Jerusalem District Court in announcing its sentence.

Tamar Kaduri, left, and husband Yehuda, who were found murdered in their Jerusalem home on January 13, 2019. (Courtesy)

Ivan Tarnovski (Foreign Ministry)

Ahead of PM’s meeting with Trump, Lapid says government won’t fall over completion of hostage deal

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid at Kibbutz Nir Oz on February 3, 2025 (Yesh Atid)

Ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming meeting with US President Donald Trump, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid reiterates his offer to provide the prime minister with a political “safety net” in order to complete the upcoming stages of the ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Speaking at Kibbutz Nir Oz along the Gaza border, Lapid says that “the American administration needs to know that there is no risk to the government because of the deal.”

“Tomorrow, a meeting will be held in Washington between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu. It is important to clarify before this meeting: Netanyahu has a safety net from the opposition for the entire hostage deal, in all its stages,” Lapid says.

“There is no political obstacle that prevents Netanyahu from reaching the second phase of the deal. It has a huge majority [of support] among the people, it has a huge majority here in the Knesset and in the political system in Israel,” he continues, adding that “the hostage deal will not bring down the government.”

“Without President Trump and his commitment to the issue, it is very doubtful whether we would have seen the men and women who returned home in the last two weeks alive,” Lapid says. “The [US] president promised that he would make sure that the deal continues until the last of the hostages returns home, those who are dead and those who are alive, and we know that we can trust his word.”

Former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party has already withdrawn from the coalition over opposition to the deal while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has threatened to pull his Religious Zionism party out as well if Israel does not return to fighting Hamas after the 42-day first phase of the agreement.

Kremlin says Russia continuing talks with Damascus about fate of its military bases in Syria

A Russian helicopter flies over the Khmeimim Air Base, a Russian-run Syrian airbase, located southeast of the city of Latakia in the town of Khmeimim, Syria, December 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

The Kremlin says that Russia is continuing to talk to the Syrian authorities about various subjects, including the fate of Moscow’s two military bases in the country.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov traveled to Damascus last week for the first talks with Syria’s new leaders since president Bashar al-Assad was toppled late last year. Assad and members of his family fled to Moscow.

Russia, whose troops and air force backed Assad for years against Syrian rebels, is seeking to retain its naval base in Tartous and its Hmeimim air base near the port city of Latakia.

Levin declines to sign official announcement of Amit’s appointment as head of Supreme Court

Justice Minister Yariv Levin (left) attends a plenum session in the Knesset on November 13, 2024. (Chaim Goldbergl/Flash90); Acting Supreme Court President Justice Isaac Amit at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, November 14, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Justice Minister Yariv Levin declines to sign the official announcement of the appointment of Justice Isaac Amit as the new president of the Supreme Court in the state gazette, with the director of the Israel Courts Administration, Judge Tzachi Uziel, signing instead.

Usually it would be Levin, as justice minister, who signs such announcements in the gazette, the official register of formal state processes, but he has vowed to boycott Amit as president of the Supreme Court in protest at how the court itself, sitting as the High Court of Justice, ordered him to hold a vote for a new president after he refused to do so for over a year.

Levin will boycott Amit’s swearing-in ceremony next week at the President’s Residence, while Hebrew media has reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will also not attend the event.

It would be the first time in Israeli history that a sitting premier fails to attend the swearing-in of a chief justice.

Arrest warrants issued for 1,212 Haredi men who defied IDF draft orders last summer, lawmakers told

An ultra-Orthodox man is seen in front of a sign for an IDF recruitment office during a protest against conscripting Haredi men to the military, in Jerusalem, May 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Only 461 out of 3,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18-26 who received enlistment orders from the military last summer have presented themselves at IDF draft offices, although the number continues to rise, Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, tells lawmakers.

Testifying before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Tayeb says arrest warrants have been issued for 1,212 men, and an additional 1,242 of those who have not complied with call-up orders have been barred from the leaving the country.

These numbers are slightly higher than those presented by the government to the Knesset’s State Control Committee in early January, when it was reported that some 400 recipients presented themselves at the IDF drafting offices, but only approximately 70 actually enlisted at the end of the process.

The dispute about the ultra-Orthodox community serving in the military is one of the most contentious in Israel.

The Haredi religious and political leadership fiercely resists any effort to draft young men, who have in the past been granted exemptions from serving. The issue has come to a head in light of recent High Court rulings demanding an end to blanket exemptions, and public pressure has risen due to the manpower shortages caused by the war.

The military has said that it currently requires some 10,000 new soldiers, 75 percent of whom will be combat troops.

Iran warns against Trump proposal to relocate Gazans: ‘Ethnic cleansing’

Displaced Palestinians walk on a road in central Gaza to return to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip, amid the implementation of the Israel-Hamas hostage-ceasefire deal, January 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Iran condemns US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, warning it would amount to “ethnic cleansing.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei says the international community should help Palestinians “secure their right to self-determination… rather than pushing for other ideas that would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing.”

Arab foreign ministers on Saturday rejected the transfer of Palestinians from Gaza “under any circumstances or justifications,” presenting a unified stance against Trump’s call for Egypt and Jordan to take in residents of the Strip.

Ex-Charlie Hebdo cartoonist wins award for comic book about painting looted by Nazis from Jewish owner

French cartoonist known by his pen name Luz, former contributor to the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, poses during a photo session in Paris on October 11, 2023 (JOEL SAGET / AFP)

A graphic novel about a painting looted by the Nazis wins the prize for best comic book at the prestigious International Comics Festival in Angouleme, southwest France.

Its author, “Luz,” is a former cartoonist at the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, who escaped the deadly 2015 Islamist attack on its Paris offices because he arrived late that day.

“Deux Filles Nues” (Two Naked Girls) traces the true history of the 1919 painting by German Expressionist Otto Mueller, which was looted from a Jewish collector by the Nazis. It was eventually returned to his descendants after WWII.

The album wins out of 44 in competition for the prize.

“I started to become a comic book artist 10 years ago” after the attack on Charlie Hebdo, he says when receiving his award. “That was all there was to do.”

FAUVE D’OR – MEILLEUR ALBUM????

Le Fauve d’Or – Meilleur Album du FIBD 2025 est attribué à… "Deux filles nues" de Luz aux Éditions @AlbinMichel

Félicitations ✨ pic.twitter.com/DmrSnvf0AU

— Festival d'Angoulême (@bdangouleme) February 1, 2025

15 agricultural workers killed in car bomb near Manbij, Syrian civil defense says

Fourteen women and one man were killed and fifteen other women were injured in a car bomb explosion on a main road on the outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Manbij, Syria’s civil defense says.

All of them were agricultural workers, it adds in a statement.

IDF to test rocket sirens in Herzliya this morning

The Home Front Command says sirens will be tested in Herzliya today.

Alerts will be heard in Herzliya Center – Glil Yam at 11:05 a.m. and in Herzliya West at 11:10 a.m.

In the case of an actual attack, the sirens will sound twice, according to the IDF.

Defense Ministry says clearing mines in Ein Zivan area of Golan Heights, explosions may be heard

Snow in Kibbutz Ein Zivan, in the northern Golan Heights, January 26, 2022 (Michael Giladi/Flash90)

The Defense Ministry says it will be carrying out operations today to clear mines and other ordnance from the Ein Zivan area of the Golan Heights.

Israel National Mine Action Authority says explosions may be heard in the area.

Trump accuses South Africa of ‘confiscating’ land, cuts funding

US President Donald Trump walks towards the White House from Marine One after landing on the South Lawn on February 2, 2025 in Washington, DC (Samuel Corum / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

US President Donald Trump asserts South Africa is “confiscating” land and “treating certain classes of people very badly” as he announces he was cutting off all future funding to the country pending an investigation.

The land issue in South Africa has long been divisive, with efforts to redress the inequality of white-rule drawing criticism from conservatives including Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, who was born in South Africa and is a powerful Trump adviser.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last month signed a bill that stipulates the government may, in certain circumstances, offer “nil compensation” for property it decides to expropriate in the public interest.

“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” Trump writes on his Truth Social platform.

“I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!” Trump writes.

Pretoria argues the bill does not allow the government to expropriate property arbitrarily and must first seek to reach agreement with the owner.

However, some groups fear a situation similar to the Zimbabwe government’s seizure of white-owned commercial farms, often without compensation, after independence in 1980.

IDF to drill in north, says residents may see increased military activity

Israeli soldiers seen on the Israeli border fence with Lebanon, northern Israel, on February 2, 2025. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

The Israel Defense Forces announces that it will conduct a drill throughout today in the Upper Galilee, an area still partially on war footing following months of fighting against the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.

The army warns that civilians in the area may see increased military activity, but “there is no concern over a security incident,” the IDF says in a statement.

The announcement is made a day after Defense Minister Israel Katz toured Israeli military posts in southern Lebanon — set to be removed under a ceasefire deal signed in November — and threatened that Israel could take severe action if cross-border drone attacks do not end.

Defense Minister Israel Katz, center, visits an IDF position in southern Lebanon alongside senior IDF officials, February 2, 2025. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Australia slaps sanctions on far-right hate network ‘Terrorgram’

Australia says it is imposing sanctions on extreme right-wing online network “Terrorgram” as part of its efforts to combat a rise in antisemitism and online extremism, following similar moves by Britain and the United States.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the government’s action will make it a criminal offense to engage with “Terrorgram” and will help prevent children from becoming caught up in far-right extremism.

“Terrorgram is an online network that promotes white supremacy and racially-motivated violence,” Wong says in a statement. “It is the first time any Australian Government has imposed counterterrorism financing sanctions on an entity based entirely online.”

Offenders will face up to 10 years in jail and heavy fines, she says.

Wong also announces renewed sanctions on four right-wing groups: the National Socialist Order, the Russian Imperial Movement, Sonnenkrieg Division and The Base.

Australian authorities have vowed in recent weeks to tamp down on an escalating series of attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars targeting the country’s Jewish community.

Trump says talks with Israel and others on Middle East ‘progressing’

US President Donald Trump says talks with Israel are advancing, previewing upcoming talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other “big meetings.”

“The discussions on the Middle East with Israel and various and sundry other countries are progressing,” Trump tells reporters over the whine of a jet engine on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

He does not offer details, but the comment comes as indirect talks are slated to resume between Israel and Hamas on a second stage of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

“Bibi Netanyahu’s coming on Tuesday, and I think we have some very big meetings scheduled,” Trump adds.

Roadworker killed by passing car on Route 6

A laborer on a crew doing roadwork on Route 6 was killed when he was struck by a passing vehicle, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says.

The crash occurs near the Nitzanei Oz junction east of Netanya.

First responders attempted to save the 65-year-old man but were forced to declare him dead at the scene, MDA says.

It is not immediately clear if the driver was apprehended.

According to labor rights group Kav LaOved – Workers Hotline, seven workers were killed on the job in January, putting 2025 on pace to match record numbers seen in 2023 and reversing gains in worker safety notched last year.

Netanyahu checks into Washington’s Blair House for record 14th time

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara at Blair House, the official White House guest residence, on March 4, 2018. (Prime Minister's Office)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is staying at the Blair House — the historic guest lodging for dignitaries visiting the White House — for the 14th time, Blair House general manager Matthew Wendel tells the premier as he welcomes him back to 1651 Pennsylvania Avenue.

According to Wendel, no foreign leader has bedded down at Blair more than Netanyahu.

Three shot to death in northern town of Abu Snan

Three people have been shot to death in the northern town of Abu Snan, according to Hebrew-language media reports.

Police are investigating the triple homicide as a domestic criminal matter, according to reports. There are no reports of arrests.

The killings are the latest to rock the Arab community, which has seen unprecedented levels of violence in recent years. They come just days after another triple murder in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm.

The Abraham Initiatives NGO, which tracks crime stats in Arab society, said Sunday that 21 Arabs had been killed violently in January 2025 alone, more than double the total for the year before.

PM welcomed by US honor guard, Israeli diplomats as he disembarks Wing of Zion

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu steps down the stairs from Wing of Zion on a chilly overcast day, where he is welcomed on a red carpet by Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, UN Ambassador Danny Danon, and Consul General to NY Ofir Akunis.

An honor guard greets him as well, bearing American and Israeli flags.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disembarks Wing of Zion at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, February 2, 2025. (Lazar Berman/Times of Israel)

Netanyahu lands in US ahead of meetings with Trump, senior US officials

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lands at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, ahead of his meeting with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

Netanyahu’s first high-level meeting will be on Monday with special envoy Steve Witkoff.