Feb. 3: Shin Bet head’s brother reportedly to be charged with assisting enemy in wartime

Three men killed in highway shooting that police say is linked to blood feud

First responders arrive at the scene of a shooting and car crash that left three men dead in central Israel on February 3, 2026. (Magen David Adom)

Three men were killed in a highway shooting in central Israel, in an incident police say is linked to a blood feud between warring families.

The victims, Arab citizens in their mid-20s, were in a car when assailants shot at them. The ambush caused them to collide with a bus. The impact appears to have destroyed half of the car and crushed its passengers.

The three were unconscious and without a pulse by the time firefighters managed to pull them from the vehicle. Paramedics declared them dead on site.

Officers are currently conducting a manhunt to track down the perpetrators, police say. No suspects have yet been arrested.

Trump signs bill ending partial US government shutdown

US President Donald Trump speaks before signing executive orders in the Oval Office in the White House in Washington, DC, on January 30, 2026. (Annabelle GORDON / AFP)

US President Donald Trump signs a bill into law to end a partial government shutdown and restore lapsed funding for defense, healthcare and other agencies.

IDF says man shot dead in Jericho threw stones at troops

A Palestinian who hurled stones at troops was shot dead in the West Bank city of Jericho this evening, the military says.

According to the IDF, during a raid in Jericho, several Palestinians threw stones at the soldiers.

“The troops responded with gunfire, killing one of the terrorists and wounding several other terrorists,” the army says, adding that no soldiers were hurt.

The slain Palestinian is identified by the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry as Said al-Sheikh, 24. The ministry says three others were also wounded by IDF fire in the incident.

PA: 1 killed, 3 wounded by IDF gunfire in Jericho; no comment from military

The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry reports one man killed and three wounded by IDF gunfire this evening in Jericho, in the central West Bank. The deceased is identified as Said al-Sheikh, 24.

The IDF has not commented on the incident.

Palestinian media reports al-Sheikh took a bullet to the stomach as locals clashed with Israeli forces in various parts of Jericho. He reportedly succumbed to his wounds at the Nablus Governmental Hospital, where footage published by Arabic media shows his family mourning him.

الصحة: استشهاد الشاب سعيد نائل سعيد الشيخ (٢٤ عاماً) برصاص الاحتلال في أريحا، وإصابة ٣ آخرين بجروح متفاوتة. pic.twitter.com/dTnYksfxt5

— palgraph (@palestine_graph) February 3, 2026

Separately, Bedouin rights group al-Bidar reports that three families fled the pastoral community of Tel al-Samadi, north of Jericho, due to settler harassment, including theft, arson, vandalism and prevention of grazing.

Palestinian media says the families left after settlers set their homes on fire earlier today. Footage from the area published by a Palestinian outlet shows one of the tents on fire.

تغطية صحفية| مستوطنون يحرقون منازل ويهجرون ثلاث عائلات في تل الصمادي pic.twitter.com/PxAMQGjnKq

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) February 3, 2026

Judge: Details about Zini’s brother were publicized to dispel rumors; lawyer says he’s innocent

Cigarette packages with a warning label reading 'Watch out- smoking kills' for sale at the Ben Gurion International Airport on September 13, 2021. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Yaniv Ben Harush, the judge presiding over a high-profile Gaza smuggling case that implicates Bezalel Zini, the brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini, says he cleared the publication of the allegations against the security official’s relative in order to put rumors to rest.

“It is important that the public knows that tanks and drones were not smuggled, otherwise people believe the rumors that are published online,” he says, according to Channel 12 News.

Zini and two others are suspected of smuggling cigarettes into the Strip while serving in the IDF reserves. However, 13 others allegedly involved in the smuggling network face security-related charges for the supposed smuggling of dual-use items that can be put to civilian or military ends.

Assaf Klein, the lawyer representing Zini, insists on his client’s innocence and says he “unequivocally denies all the suspicions attributed to him” in a statement to reporters.

“He has contributed and will continue to contribute to the State of Israel,” he continues. “The good of the country has always been in his eyes and always will be, just like his entire family.”

Another lawyer representing one of three suspects thought to have trafficked cigarettes into the Strip stresses that the accusations do not involve items that Hamas could potentially use toward violent ends.

The suspicion is “the smuggling of cigarettes, as we surmised from the start, not dual-use items, drones, weapons,” says Kobi Yaakobi Kisos to the Kan public broadcaster.

“I suggest everyone hold their breath and not decree the fate of people who have served more than 200 days of reserve duty,” he continues.

Iranian drone completed surveillance mission in international waters, Iranian media say

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, left, the air-defense destroyer HMS Defender and the guided-missile destroyer USS Farragut transit the Strait of Hormuz with the guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf, November 19, 2019. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Zachary Pearson/U.S. Navy via AP, File)

An Iranian drone completed a “surveillance mission in international waters,” Iranian media including the semi-official Fars news agency says.

The US military earlier today shot down an Iranian drone that “aggressively” approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, the US military said earlier.

US State Department OKs potential sale of F-15 support, equipment to Saudi Arabia for $3 billion

The State Department has approved a potential sale of F-15 aircraft sustainment and related equipment to Saudi Arabia for $3 billion, the Pentagon said Tuesday in a statement.

Discussions said to be underway on where US and Iran will meet for talks

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson says consultations on the venue for talks with the United States are underway, Iranian Nour News reports.

The spokesperson says planning has been carried out to hold the negotiations with the US in the coming days.

Iran reportedly requested recently that the talks, due to take place on Friday, be held in Oman, as opposed to the previously reported location of Istanbul.

Justice Ministry’s legal adviser declines to revisit question of AG’s conflict of interest

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara attends a ceremony for outgoing Supreme Court Justice Yosef Elron at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, September 18, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Justice Ministry legal adviser Yael Kotik declines to revisit the ministry’s position that a conflict of interest exists in the Attorney General’s Office regarding the Sde Teiman leak case, despite a letter to that effect sent by her police counterpart.

Earlier today, police announced they had completed their investigation into the leak of security footage from Sde Teiman purporting to show reservists severely abusing a Gazan detainee.

After the IDF’s top legal official, the military advocate general, confessed to leaking the footage last year, Justice Minister Yariv Levin accused Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of having a conflict of interest in the case because she accepted the recommendation of an internal probe by the military advocate general’s office not to open a criminal investigation.

Baharav-Miara, whose office oversees the state prosecution, is not currently a suspect in the case. Her sidelining at Levin’s behest complicates the investigation, since state prosecutors are needed to file indictments.

Police legal adviser Elazar Kahana sent Kotik a letter today asking Kotik to re-examine the conflict of interest issue, which she now rejects.

“A complete factual basis is required to allow for the examination of the conflict of interest issue,” her letter reads.

She further requests that Kahana send her details about officials in the Attorney General’s Office and State Attorney’s Office who gave testimony to investigators as part of the probe, suggesting that they may have a conflict of interest in the matter as well.

“Once you provide us with the necessary information, we will be able to reassess our position regarding the individual and institutional conflict of interest,” Kotik writes.

French prosecutors request 5-year ban on far-right Marine Le Pen from holding office

President of the parliamentary group of the French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, Marine Le Pen (right), walks followed by co-defendant French member of European Parliament Catherine Griset (left) as they exit a courtroom while leaving the Tribunal de Paris courthouse during the reading of sentencing in their trial verdict on suspicion of embezzlement of European public funds, in Paris, on March 31, 2025 (ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)

French prosecutors request a five-year ban on holding elected office against far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a crucial appeal trial in Paris, an outcome that may prevent her from running in the 2027 presidential election.

Le Pen, 57, is seeking to overturn a March 2025 ruling that found her guilty of misusing European Parliament funds in the hiring of aides from 2004 to 2016. Prosecutors accused Le Pen of being at the head of a “system” meant to “siphon off” EU public funds to the benefit of her party.

In addition, they requested one year of house arrest with an electronic bracelet and a 100,000 euro ($118,000) fine against Le Pen.

The appeals court’s verdict is expected at a later date, possibly before summer.

During the trial that started last month, Le Pen acknowledged some people performed work for her party, then known as the National Front, while being paid as EU parliamentary aides, calling it “a mistake.”

Le Pen was seen as the potential front-runner to succeed President Emmanuel Macron in the 2027 election until last year’s ruling, which sent shock waves through French politics.

Several scenarios are possible, from acquittal to another conviction that may bar her from running in 2027. She also could face an even tougher punishment if convicted anew — up to 10 years in prison and a fine of 1 million euros ($1.17 million).

If she becomes ineligible, she has designated her 30-year-old protégé, Jordan Bardella, as her successor in the presidential bid.

US House narrowly approves deal to end government shutdown, sends to Trump

The US Capitol, including the House of Representatives, left, is seen on November 14, 2024, in Washington. (AP/Mariam Zuhaib)

The US House of Representatives narrowly approves a bipartisan deal that would end a partial US government shutdown and sends it on to US President Donald Trump to sign into law.

The legislation would restore lapsed funding for defense, healthcare, labor, education, housing and other agencies, and temporarily extend funding for the Department of Homeland Security while lawmakers negotiate possible changes to immigration enforcement.

Funding for those agencies expired on Saturday as the US Congress did not act in time to avert a shutdown, which has not resulted in major disruptions to government services.

The deal has already passed the US Senate by a wide bipartisan margin and now heads to Trump, who is expected to sign it into law.

The Republican-controlled House passed it by a vote of 217-214, with 21 Republicans voting against it and 21 Democrats voting for it.

Democrats are demanding new restraints on Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics following the killing of two US citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis last month.

Some Republicans on the party’s right flank had sought unsuccessfully to modify the bill to include a provision that would tighten voting requirements.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of late Libyan leader, has been killed, sources say

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi speaks to the media at a press conference in a hotel in Tripoli, Libya, in February 2011. (AP/Ben Curtis, file)

The most prominent son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, has been killed, sources close to the family, his lawyer Khaled el-Zaydi and Libyan media say.

Details surrounding the circumstances of his death are not immediately clear. Arabic media reports say he was killed in his private garden.

While Saif al-Islam is well-known in the North African country, especially for his role in shaping policy before 2011, his public profile has receded in recent years.

In 2015, a Libyan court passed a death sentence in absentia on Saif al-Islam for suppressing peaceful protests during the country’s 2011 revolution that ended his father’s rule.

He has also been provisionally charged by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity, a case his lawyers failed to dismiss.

In 2021, Saif al-Islam registered as a presidential candidate for a December vote that eventually collapsed amid a political deadlock.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

Israel said to ask US to demand Iran end nuclear and ballistic programs, stop funding proxies

Israel has relayed several demands to American negotiators ahead of renewed US nuclear talks with Iran, a senior diplomatic official tells Channel 12 News.

US envoy Steve Witkoff just met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of a planned Friday meeting in Istanbul with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, where the pair will discuss a possible agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and other issues.

Ahead of the talks, Israeli officials are insisting that the US not budge on four key demands, including that Iran transfer its highly-enriched material to another country, halt nuclear enrichment completely, cease its production of ballistic missiles and stop funding its proxies in the Middle East.

“Every agreement that does not include these conditions is a bad agreement. This administration has proven its commitment to Israel in every area, and specifically in the Iranian area,” the senior official tells Channel 12.

He adds that “Israel has had influence in the past, and will wield influence this time too” in negotiations between the two powers.

Farmers call off milk strike after Dichter intervenes, Smotrich threatens to scrap tariffs

A man walks past empty shelves marked price-controlled milk at a Shufersal supermarket in the northern city of Haifa, February 3, 2026. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

The Israel Cattle Breeders’ Association announces that in response to a request from Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, it will resume supplying raw milk to dairy processing plants, following a day in which supplies were halted and milk shelves in supermarkets quickly emptied countrywide.

But plans for large protest convoys that will disrupt traffic and converge on the Knesset in Jerusalem tomorrow will go ahead as planned.

The announcement comes after the Finance Ministry announced earlier in the day that, in response to the strike, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich intended to sign an order “in the coming days” to scrap tariffs on imported dairy products “for an extended period.”

Smotrich is intent on breaking the centralized planning that has characterized the country’s dairy industry since the beginning of the state.

He wants to slash milk production by 30%, lower by 15% the price per liter that processing companies pay to dairy farmers, and scrap tariffs to allow more imports.

Farmers charge that the reform will cause widespread job losses in an industry that employs 15,000 and will harm food security. They complain that Smotrich should instead be tackling the monopolies that control the processing and retailing of dairy products.

The Wednesday demonstration aims to amplify those complaints.

The farmers continued to milk their cows despite not supplying the milk. A Dairy Board spokesman said the milk could be stored for 48 hours before it has to be disposed of.

Hasidic leaders participated in discussions over new protocols for Haredi soldiers — report

The leader of the Belz Hasidic sect, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, December 15, 2015. (Yaacov Cohen/ FLASH90/ File)

Two prominent Hasidic leaders took part in the deliberations leading to the IDF’s approval today of new protocols regulating service conditions for Haredi troops.

According to Channel 13, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, the leader of the Belzer Hasidic sect, and Rabbi Boruch Meir Yaakov Shochet, the leader of Karlin-Stolin, were involved in the discussions, sending representatives to discussions and approving proposed conditions for the troops.

IDF officials acknowledged that non-military rabbinical figures were consulted ahead of the publication of the General Staff order, but stressed that they were not given any authority over the protocols.

While the Belzer leader is a member of the Agudat Yisrael faction’s ruling Council of Torah Sages, which is vehemently opposed to the government’s proposed bill regulating Haredi enlistment, his approach has been significantly more pragmatic than those of other Hasidic groups, such as the more hardline Gur.

Agudat Yisrael is currently in the opposition, but faction MK Yisrael Eichler recently accepted a deputy ministerial position, allowing Degel HaTorah MK Yitzhak Pindrus to re-enter the Knesset under Knesset procedures, giving the conscription bill an additional supporter in the plenum. Both Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah are members of the larger United Torah Judaism party.

The new general staff protocols approved today carry binding authority and mandate oversight of special service conditions for Haredi soldiers.

Palestinian living illegally in Israel arrested on suspicion of involvement in terror — police

A West Bank Palestinian illegally residing in Israel, who is suspected of involvement in terror activities, was arrested earlier this week, police say.

According to the police, the suspect, in his 20s, from the Balata camp near Nablus, was nabbed by detectives of the Kfar Qasim station in central Israel.

He is suspected of building explosive devices and of other “acts of terror” against Israeli soldiers, police say, adding that he was handed over to the Shin Bet domestic security agency for interrogation.

Settlers said to assault Palestinian minor, accompanied by IDF troops who arrest local

Settlers assaulted a Palestinian youth this afternoon as they took their livestock to graze adjacent to Palestinian homes in Huwara, part of the Masafer Yatta collection of hamlets near Hebron in the southern West Bank, Palestinian media outlets report.

The minor received treatment in the field for bruises, according to Palestinian outlets. The outlets say another local man, described as elderly, was arrested by Israeli troops who were said to have accompanied the settlers.

قوات الاحتلال تعتقل المسن عادل الحمامدة في مسافر يطا، بعد قيام مستوطنين بإطلاق مواشيهم قرب مساكن المواطنين في منطقة حوارة pic.twitter.com/Tabgka8FNO

— القسطل الإخباري (@AlQastalps) February 3, 2026

A photo of the arrest, published by Palestinian outlets, shows the man seated in the field with three soldiers in full gear standing in front of him.

Earlier footage published by the outlets shows a group of people, reportedly settlers, walking with a few head of livestock adjacent to some of the structures that make up Huwara, which is itself surrounded by open spaces.

#فيديو| مستوطنون بحماية قوات الاحتلال يطلقون مواشيهم بمحيط المنازل ويحتجزون مسنًا، داخل منطقة حوارة في مسافر يطا، جنوب الخليل pic.twitter.com/SvXlxuukg6

— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) February 3, 2026

Other footage from Huwara, published by activist Palestinian outlet Eye on Palestine, shows two Palestinians in a shouting match with at least two armed people, apparently settlers, wearing what appears to be partial IDF uniforms.

Armed settlers attack the residence of Huwara village in Masafer Yatta, southern Hebron. pic.twitter.com/XwVegW74nM

— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) February 3, 2026

During the argument, one of the settlers cocks a standard-issue IDF assault rifle, pointing it in the air, and the other settler cocks a pistol, aiming it at the Palestinians.

The IDF does not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In meeting with Witkoff, Netanyahu stressed Hamas disarmament, ruled out PA governing Gaza — PMO

Illustration: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, meets with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff at his office in Jerusalem on July 31, 2025. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

During his meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, which has ended, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says he stressed Israel’s uncompromising demand for Hamas to be disarmed, the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, and the completion of the war objectives before Gaza’s reconstruction.”

In an uncharacteristically verbose statement after a meeting with a senior US official — one that might indicate some anxiety over the issues at hand — Netanyahu’s office says that he told the US side “that the Palestinian Authority will not be involved in governing the Strip in any way.”

He also updated US Ambassador Mike Huckabee that bags belonging to the UNRWA agency for Palestinian refugees were used to hide weapons, his office says.

Turning to Friday’s Iran talks, Netanyahu emphasized his position that “Iran has repeatedly proven it cannot be trusted to keep its promises,” says the PMO.

In reversal, High Court rules for government’s position on appointing civil service commissioner

Illustration: The High Court of Justice hears petitions against the government’s dismissal of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, December 1, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

An expanded panel of the High Court of Justice rules in favor of the government’s position that the civil service commissioner does not need to be appointed in a competitive process, reversing a ruling of a smaller panel, which included Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, that had blocked the government’s proposed appointment process.

The ruling is a blow to Amit, who wrote the majority opinion in May 2025 that the Civil Service commissioner must be appointed in a competitive process to guarantee the independence, impartiality, and apolitical nature of the role.

In today’s ruling by the expanded panel, three of Amit’s colleagues overturned that decision, with Amit himself and Justice Daphne Barak-Erez dissenting.

The ruling is also a rebuke to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who opposed the government’s position and backed requiring a competitive process.

Writing for the majority, Justice David Mintz points out that the appointments law does not require a competitive process. He also rules there is no room for judicial intervention, since there was no flaw in the government’s decision-making not to have a competitive process, and pointed out that a previous High Court ruling on the issue had upheld this position.

Mintz also rejects claims by petitioners against the government, who said that the government had used non-pertinent considerations to formulate its decision not to have a competitive selection process.

Mintz writes that a distinction must be made between “the law as it is and the law as might be desirable,” noting that even if a competitive process may improve the selection process for the civil service commissioner, that is not a sufficient reason to oblige the government to do so.

Joining Mintz in the majority are Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg and Justice Yael Wilner.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, one of the petitioners against the government’s appointment process, describes the ruling as “the most severe injury to the ethos of Israel’s civil service,” “a substantial retreat from the principles of proper administration,” and a ruling that could pave the way for political appointments to the position.

Man arrested after arson attack on Iran-linked Islamic center in London

FILE: Police officers patrol the King's Cross train station, in London, November 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

An investigation has been launched into an arson attack on an Islamic center linked to the Iranian government in London in which two flammable objects were thrown into the grounds, police say.

A 47-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life following the incident.

“The Islamic Center has previously been the site of protest and altercations between groups who support and are opposed to the regime in Iran,” a spokesperson for London’s Metropolitan Police says.

No one was injured in the incident in the central London district of Maida Vale and there was no damage to the center, police added.

Knesset education panel advances bill to create civilian body in charge of West Bank antiquities

The Civil Administration seizes dozens of archaeological artifacts from the Burj Lasana archaeological site north of Ramallah in the West Bank on December 4, 2025. (COGAT)

The Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee advances a controversial bill to establish a civilian body to manage antiquities in the West Bank.

The bill seeks to create a Judea and Samaria Heritage Authority that would take over the responsibilities that currently lie with the Defense Ministry. The person responsible for the file now is a staff officer of the Archaeology Unit of the Civil Administration, a branch of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is in charge of civilian affairs in the territory.

Given its sensitive nature, and at the Justice Ministry’s request ahead of the vote, the bill will return to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation for discussion. Then it will need to be reapproved by the education committee before the first vote on the bill in Knesset.

If passed into law, it would mark the first time the Knesset exercises direct power over expropriation and acquisition of land in the West Bank, as well as additional enforcement powers, which would also apply to Palestinian residents, according to committee legal adviser Tami Sela.

“[The bill] raises concern that the bill will be perceived as a step advancing de facto annexation, and de facto application of Israeli law in Judea and Samaria, without a comprehensive examination of the issue,” she said ahead of the vote.

Seven MKs vote in favor of the bill, while five oppose it.

“Jewish history is found less on Dizengoff Street [in Tel Aviv] and more in Shiloh,” says Committee Chairman MK Zvi Sukkot of the far-right Religious Zionism party. “Antiquities are being destroyed and disappearing from under our hands almost daily, and we want to put things in order.”

The European Union condemns the vote.

“The proposed Israeli bill to transfer control over the management of archaeological sites & antiquities in the occupied West Bank to an Israeli civilian authority raises serious concerns, including with regards to the possible violation of international law,” the EU Delegation to the Palestinians writes on X.

US-Iran talks ‘still scheduled’ after drone shot down, White House says

Talks between US and Iranian officials are “still scheduled” this week, the White House says, even after a US warplane shot down an Iranian drone that approached an American aircraft in the Arabian Sea.

US envoy Steve Witkoff “is set to have conversations with the Iranians later this week, those are still scheduled as of right now,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says on Fox News.

Iran said looking to move its talks with US, keep other countries out

US President Donald Trump (left) seen arriving to a wedding event at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, February 1, 2026. (SAUL LOEB / AFP); Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran on February 1, 2026, ahead of the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)

Iran wants to change the location and format of Friday’s talks with the US, Axios reports, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter.

According to the report, the Iranians are trying to move the talks to Oman. They are currently slated to take place in Istanbul.

Tehran also wants to limit participation in the discussions, turning them into bilateral talks with the US. Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are meant to participate, but Iran wants them to be observers, per the report.

According to a report on Channel 12, Iran wants to keep the other countries out of the talks in order to limit the negotiations to Iran’s nuclear program, as opposed to a broader discussion of Iran’s conduct in the region, including its missile production and its support for proxy terror groups.

The report comes amid a US military buildup in the region and threats from US President Donald Trump of a strike on Iran following its bloody crackdown on anti-regime protesters. Iran has threatened to strike Israel and US targets in response.

Today, the US military shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, a US official told Reuters.

IDF, police nab three weapons smugglers on border with Egypt

A group of weapons smugglers was captured by the IDF and police on the Egyptian border yesterday, authorities announce.

The military and police say that, following a pursuit on the border, three suspects were arrested. The off-road vehicles and drone equipment they used in the smuggling attempts were also captured, authorities say.

Over the past two years, there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons, and sometimes drugs, over the Egyptian border using drones.

בתום מרדף ובהכוונת חמ"ל משותף של כוחות הביטחון: נעצרה חוליית מבריחים בגבול המערבי

בפעילות משותפת של כוחות אוגדה 80, חיל האוויר, מסתערבי מג״ב דרום ושב"כ אתמול, נעצרה חוליית מבריחים ישראלים בסמוך לגבול המערבי לאחר שזוהו על ידי תצפיות צה״ל.

בסיומו של המרדף, נעצרו שלושה חשודים יחד… pic.twitter.com/dOF35bPpbU

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) February 3, 2026

Shin Bet chief’s brother reportedly to be charged with assisting enemy in wartime

Illustrative. Handcuffs, in a Jerusalem court on November 21, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/ Flash90)

Law enforcement is reportedly planning to indict Bezalel Zini, the brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini, who is a suspect in a large-scale smuggling ring, for assisting the enemy during wartime.

The severe charge is added to his pending indictment shortly before the filing of a prosecutor’s declaration, which precedes an indictment, Hebrew outlets report.

Police believe the IDF reservist, who commanded the “Uriah Force” that worked to demolish buildings in Gaza, smuggled cigarettes into the enclave.

He will be charged this Thursday alongside two other suspects, Hebrew outlets report.

Tomorrow, prosecutors will file security charges against 13 suspects involved in the network who are thought to have smuggled dual-use items into the Strip.

US shoots down Iranian drone approaching aircraft carrier, official says

Illustrative: This undated photo provided by the US Navy on April 13, 2022, shows USS Abraham Lincoln, front, and other warships sail in formation during a US-Japan bilateral exercise at the Sea of Japan. (US Navy via AP)

The US military shoots down an Iranian drone that approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, a US official tells Reuters on Tuesday.

The Iranian Shahed-139 drone was flying toward the carrier and was shot down by a F-35 US fighter jet.

The incident comes ahead of talks between the US and Iran later this week, amid an American military buildup in the region.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

UNIFIL accuses IDF of ‘aggressively’ flying drones above it, dropping grenade

UNIFIL forces inspect the aftermath of IDF strikes in the outskirts of the town of al-Khiam, southern Lebanon on January 31, 2026. (Rabih DAHER / AFP)

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) accuses the Israeli military of flying drones “aggressively” above its observers this morning, with one dropping a stun grenade.

UNIFIL says that its observers were conducting a routine patrol near Kfarkela in southern Lebanon when they “observed two drones hovering aggressively above them.”

“The peacekeepers could see one of the drones was carrying an unidentified object and assessed it had entered a range that constituted an immediate threat to the safety and security of peacekeepers. Following established procedures, the peacekeepers took defensive action against the threat,” UNIFIL says, adding that “the drone then dropped a stun grenade that exploded about fifty meters away from the peacekeepers before flying toward Israeli territory.”

“Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the patrol continued,” UNIFIL says.

The observer force says it assesses that the drones belonged to the IDF, and that “such use of armed drones is unacceptable.”

There is no immediate comment from the IDF on the incident, the latest in a long list of complaints lodged in recent months by the UN body against the Israeli military.

Israel has long argued that the observer force has failed in its mission, doing little to block Hezbollah from building up its forces near the Israeli border over the decades. UNIFIL’s mandate is due to expire at the end of the year.

Iranian gunboats approach US-flagged tanker in Strait of Hormuz

Three pairs of Iranian gunboats approached a US-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz north of Oman, maritime sources and a security consultancy say.

The tanker, the Stena Imperative, “did not enter Iranian internal territorial waters” and was escorted by a US warship, maritime risk management group Vanguard says.

The incident comes ahead of talks between the US and Iran later this week, amid an American military buildup in the region.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

Iran intensifying persecution of Bahai minority in crackdown, community says

A woman walks past a mural depicting a US drone painted on the outer walls of the former US embassy in Tehran, colloquially-referred to as the "Spy Den,"on February 1, 2026. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran is stepping up persecution of the Bahai, the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, in the crackdown launched during protests that rocked the Islamic republic, community representatives say.

As well as arrests of Bahais, state television has broadcast “false accusations” against the community as well as “forced confessions” from arrestees, the Bahai International Community (BIC) says in a statement.

The BIC, which represents the interests of the Bahai at the United Nations, says it is “alarmed by an increasing effort by the Iranian government to use Bahais as a scapegoat in a moment of national crisis.”

Over the past week, it says, state television has broadcast “false accusations” against the community and the “confessions” of two arrested Bahais that it said were “manifestly obtained under pressure and coercion.”

This marks “a major escalation in the Iranian government’s campaign against the Bahai community,” it says. “This has been accompanied by reports of an increase in the arrest and detention of Bahais across the country.”

How many members of the community remain in Iran is unknown, but activists believe there could still be several hundred thousand.

Members have repeatedly faced charges of being agents of Israel, which activists say are baseless. The Bahais have a prominent holy site in the Israeli city of Haifa, whose history dates back to before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

Repression of the Bahais, 200 of whom were executed in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, has varied in strength over the last four-and-a-half decades but has been in one of its most intense phases in recent years, community members and observers say.

The statement did not say how many Bahai have been arrested in recent weeks.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said that over 50,000 people have been arrested in total nationwide in the crackdown, which has left thousands dead. It has also counted over 300 “forced confessions” related to the protests.

“During every period of national crisis, whether social, economic, or political, the Iranian authorities consistently and systematically scapegoated the Bahais, said Simin Fahandej, BIC representative to the UN in Geneva.

German govt says AfD’s new youth wing maintains extremist links

German police officers stand together during a demonstration against the planned re-founding of the AfD youth organization in Giessen, Germany, early Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

The new youth wing of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has clear “continuity” with its defunct predecessor, which was classified as right-wing extremist, the German Interior Ministry says.

The AfD last March disbanded its previous youth organization, the Young Alternative (JA), and in November founded its successor body, called Generation Germany (GD).

Speeches at the GD founding conference reflected hostility against the “free democratic order” and a racial and ethnocentric “understanding of the nation,” the ministry says in a reply to an inquiry from a Greens party MP obtained by AFP.

“There are known links between members of Generation Germany and other extremist organizations,” the ministry says in the response.

The BfV domestic intelligence agency had classified the JA as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization in 2023.

The replacement group, Generation Germany, claims to have over 2,100 members.

The ministry declines to provide further details about the alleged extremist links, citing the need to protect potential and ongoing investigations.

Marlene Schoenberger, the Greens MP who filed the parliamentary inquiry, calls for proceedings to ban the AfD’s new youth wing as well as potentially the entire political party itself.

The AfD is currently the second-largest party in Germany’s lower house of parliament, having won more than 20 percent of the vote in last February’s national elections.

Israeli restaurant in NYC closes doors, citing hostile environment and business challenges

Reunion, a popular Israeli restaurant in New York City, says that it will shutter this week.

Reunion has operated for nearly 12 years in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg.

The restaurant cites business challenges and a hostile environment for Israeli companies.

“Over the past few years, running an independent restaurant has become increasingly challenging,” the restaurant owners say in a statement.

“Rising food and operating costs, along with the realities of being an Israeli restaurant during a very difficult time, have made it impossible for us to continue in a sustainable way,” the statement says.

Reunion’s last day serving patrons will be on Sunday.

@reunion in Williamsburg the best Israeli restaurant ever ! pic.twitter.com/brmUjCzymL

— Lisa (@sooobad6) March 18, 2023

Erdogan meets with MBS in Saudi Arabia ahead of US-Iran nuclear talks

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Riyadh.

Before flying, Erdogan said they would discuss the reconstruction of Gaza, and efforts to prevent Iran-US tensions from escalating.

Turkey’s military Chief of Staff Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu also held a phone call with his Saudi counterpart, Lt. Gen. Fayyad bin Hamed Al-Ruwaili, according to Turkey’s Defense Ministry.

There has been concern in Israel that MBS is shifting toward Turkey in recent months. “We expect from anybody who wants normalization or peace with us that they not participate in efforts steered by forces or ideologies that want the opposite of peace,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a press conference last week in response to a question from The Times of Israel.

Such efforts “reject the legitimacy of the State of Israel, and nurture all kinds of forces that attack the State of Israel,” said Netanyahu. He went on to say that he’d be “happy to have a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia,” provided “they want normalization and peace with a secure and strong Israel.”

President @RTErdogan, who is in Riyadh for an official visit, met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. pic.twitter.com/PrLCNCv88L

— Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye (@trpresidency) February 3, 2026

Yoel Guzansky, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, rejects the idea that Saudi Arabia is suddenly rushing into Turkey’s arms.

“It’s been strengthening relations with Turkey for five years already,” says Guzansky.

He adds that the UAE, which has normalized relations with Israel, has strengthened its ties with Ankara far more than Riyadh in that period.

“Turkey is limited in how far it can go with Saudi Arabia, because its main trade partner in the Gulf is Abu Dhabi,” he says.

“Iran is weakening, Israel is strengthening, Saudi Arabia is looking for its place—strengthening relations with the United States, with Pakistan, with various actors in the region,” says Guzansky. “It’s not a love story; there’s no love there. Salman is very wary of Erdogan, very suspicious.”

Israel and Azerbaijan sign artificial intelligence MOU in Jerusalem

Israel and Azerbaijan sign a memorandum of understanding on artificial intelligence on February 3, 2026. (Haim Zach / GPO)

Israel and Azerbaijan have signed a memorandum of understanding in the field of artificial intelligence, the Prime Minister’s Office announces.

The head of Israel’s National Artificial Intelligence Directorate, Gen. (res.) Erez Eskel and Azerbaijani Digital Development and Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev signed the MOU in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, the PMO statement says, adding that the two countries “intend to deepen their ongoing alliance through artificial intelligence.”

“The partnership will focus on supercomputing infrastructure, the application of AI in critical civilian sectors, human capital, and joint research,” according to the PMO.

“We must ensure that we are among the leading countries in this field, and I think we can do much more, and do it better, together,” Netanyahu says at the event.

The event follows Israel’s signing last month of a joint declaration on artificial intelligence with the United States, the first country to do so with Washington.

New NY business coalition aims to back Israeli companies amid concerns over Mamdani

A line of patrons extends out the door of Breads Bakery in New York City on January 9, 2026. (Jackie Hajdenberg/JTA)

Business leaders in New York announce a new coalition to support Israeli and Jewish businesses, amid concerns in the community over the administration of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a harsh critic of Israel.

The New York-Israel Chamber of Commerce Coalition aims to “protect the right to create, sustain and grow” businesses that were founded in Israel, have Israeli or Jewish owners, or are otherwise affiliated with Israel.

“These rights are being eroded by recent municipal policy changes in New York City as well as antisemitic incidents impacting local businesses and affecting New York’s business climate,” the group says in a statement.

New York is one of the main destinations for Israeli companies seeking to expand beyond their country’s small domestic market. A report late last year said that nearly 600 Israeli-founded companies have created more than 27,000 jobs in New York City, adding an estimated $12.4 billion in value to the city’s economy in 2024.

Israeli businesses in the city have been targeted by graffiti and employee demands that they disassociate from the Jewish state.

Mamdani, who took office last month, is a longtime supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel. He has not announced any boycott policies as mayor, though on his first day in office, Mamdani revoked the city’s use of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which covers some forms of anti-Israel rhetoric, as well as an order that opposed the anti-Israel boycott campaign.

The statement announcing the coalition’s launch does not name Mamdani directly.

The coalition, a nonprofit, says its members include the New York Israel Chamber of Commerce, the Business Council of New York State, Inc., the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce and the Israel America Chamber of Commerce. The coalition says its advocacy will cover both New York City and New York state, although the vast majority of Israeli businesses in the state are located in the five boroughs.

The coalition says its goals include strengthening security for businesses by implementing policies that will “protect Israelis from antisemitic business practices and other direct or implied threats”; promote regulations that will allow Israeli companies “to invest, hire, and grow on a level playing field”; and provide resources for Israeli tech.

“The free enterprise system that made New York City strong and encouraged many Israeli founders to select New York City for US operations is at risk,” says Al Kinel, the coalition’s president. “Beyond the economic damage, we are deeply alarmed by the correlation between these policies and the rise in unsafe conditions for our employees and customers.”

‘They can solve this problem’: Rally in Mazra’a protests violent crime wave in Arab society

Mazra’a Mayor Fuad Awad speaks at a demonstration against violent crime in Arab society in Mazra'a on February 3, 2026. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)

Hundreds demonstrate in the Arab town of Mazra’a in northern Israel against the ongoing wave of violent crime in Arab society.

The widow of Dr. Abdallah Awad, 30, a pediatrician who was murdered at a Clalit health clinic in the Western Galilee a year ago, stands silently at the demonstration, and told The Times of Israel that “nothing has changed.”

Mazra’a Mayor Fuad Awad, a close relative of the slain doctor, tells the crowd of protesters, a mix of Arabs and Jews, “If Israel can send a rocket through a window in Tehran, they can solve this problem.”

Last year, 252 Arabs in Israel were killed in violent circumstances. So far this year, the tally is 29.

The past three years have seen a huge uptick in violent crime among Arab citizens of Israel.

“We will succeed in stopping these murders,” says Qasem Awad, Dr. Awad’s father. “We want security. We thank our Jewish brothers and sisters from all our heart for being here.”

“We are not asking for anything but justice,” says Ashraf Suliman, whose nephew, Najwan Suliman, 19, a student, was killed at work at a clothing store in Tamra in October 2025.

“We face discrimination because the government thinks of us as numbers,” Suliman says.

He says the police have yet to offer any information to the family about the cause of his nephew’s murder, except to say, “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

He complains that “lawyers defend the criminals who then get out of jail within a month.”

Suliman predicts that if the government abandons the Arab sector, “it will explode.”

Netanyahu, US envoy Witkoff begin meeting in Jerusalem

The meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US special envoy Steve Witkoff begins in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu is joined by the heads of Israel’s security services, the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel.

The discussion comes days before Witkoff is to meet Iran’s foreign minister in Istanbul for talks that Tehran hopes could head off a US strike on the country. Netanyahu is expected to push the White House to take a hard line in negotiations.

US-Israeli former hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel to meet with Melania Trump tomorrow

Keith and Aviva Siegel at a rally in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square on September 13, 2025. (Uriel Even Sapir/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Keith and Aviva Siegel, an Israeli-American couple who were held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, are scheduled to meet with US First Lady Melania Trump tomorrow at the White House.

The Siegels met with US President Donald Trump last year, after Trump helped secure a ceasefire in early 2025 during which Keith Siegel was released.

The Siegels were each taken hostage during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack from their home in Kibbutz Aza. Aviva was released during a ceasefire in November 2023 and Keith was released more than a year later, in February 2025.

The announcement of the meeting, from Melania Trump’s office, notes that both Keith and Aviva were taken hostage, and says they will both be present at the conversation, but calls it a meeting between the first lady and Keith. The notes accompanying the announcement also appear to suggest that an earlier meeting between Aviva and the first lady played a part in Keith’s release.

“His liberation followed the First Lady’s meeting his wife, Aviva Siegel, which helped initiate the events, which ultimately secured his freedom,” the announcement says.

While US President Donald Trump’s team — which was about to take office when the January 2025 ceasefire began — has been credited for helping achieve the truce and hostage release along with the outgoing Biden administration, Melania has not previously been cited as having a role in the process.

Bezalel Zini, brother of Shin Bet chief, said named as suspect in Gaza smuggling case

Bezalel Zini, brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini, is suspected of being part of a Gaza smuggling ring and is set to be indicted soon. (Facebook, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Bezalel Zini, the brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini, is named as one of the suspects alleged to have trafficked goods into the Gaza Strip as part of a large-scale smuggling ring, Hebrew media outlets report.

The reports say that Bezalel Zini, who allegedly helped to smuggle cigarettes into the enclave, will be indicted in the coming days, as a prosecutor’s declaration, which precedes an indictment, is filed against him.

The reservist is one of more than a dozen individuals detained on suspicion of exploiting their roles in the army to smuggle prohibited items, worth hundreds of thousands of shekels in total, from Israel into the enclave.

The Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court extended Bezalel Zini’s detention by a day yesterday. It issued a statement last week revealing that one of the Shin Bet chief’s relatives is a suspect in the case, but added that the senior official himself has no connection to the alleged scandal.

2 Swedes jailed in Denmark, found guilty of terrorism, for 2024 attack on Israeli embassy

A police vehicle is seen as police officers investigate two blasts near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 2, 2024. (Ritzau Scanpix/via Reuters)

Two young Swedes are sentenced to jail terms for throwing grenades at Israel’s embassy in Denmark in October 2024.

A Copenhagen court sentences an 18-year-old to 12 years in prison and a 21-year-old to 14 years after finding them guilty of “terrorism” in the incident.

“The two men threw the grenades with the intention of seriously frightening the Israeli and Danish populations — the attack therefore constitutes a terrorist act,” police say in a statement.

The Copenhagen court also rules that the two men, aged 16 and 18 at the time, acted in concert after prior agreement with one or more unidentified accomplices belonging to a criminal network in Sweden.

During the hearing, the youngest of the two, who is also being prosecuted in Sweden for shooting at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, admits to being a member of the Foxtrot criminal network, which had recruited him during his years in school.

“The criminal network acted as the armed wing of a Middle Eastern terrorist organization in Denmark, where the Israeli embassy had been designated as the target of the attack,” prosecutor Soren Harbo says in the press release.

In the middle of the night on October 2, 2024, two grenades damaged the terrace of a house next to the diplomatic mission in the upscale Hellerup neighborhood. No one was injured.

Police identified the DNA of the younger man on a grenade found in the building’s garden.

The two are also convicted of attempted murder against the occupants of the house, but acquitted of endangering the lives and physical safety of the soldiers guarding the embassy. They will be expelled to Sweden after serving their time.

In May 2024, Swedish intelligence services claimed that Iran was recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to carry out “acts of violence” against Israel, a claim Tehran denied.

Hamas health ministry says 3 killed by IDF brought to Gaza hospitals over past day

Gaza hospitals have over the past 24 hours received the bodies of three people killed by IDF gunfire as well as 15 wounded people, the Strip’s Hamas-run health ministry says in an afternoon report.

The report does not identify the dead, say where the people were killed or wounded, or specify the severity of the wounds. Nor does it specify, as the near-daily reports frequently do, whether the dead were killed within the past 24 hours or before that.

The IDF said yesterday that it killed four gunmen who approached troops near the Gaza ceasefire line in the Strip’s north.

The four were not immediately identified in Palestinian media, and it was unclear if any of their bodies were subsequently retrieved by Gazan first responders and brought to a hospital.

Meanwhile, Palestinian media have reported at least two people killed and several wounded by the IDF in Gaza since yesterday afternoon.

The IDF has not commented on the reports, but regularly says such shootings come in response to ceasefire violations.

According to the Palestinian reports, 19-year-old Ahmed Aal was killed by IDF gunfire this morning on the Hamas-controlled side of the ceasefire line south of Khan Younis, in the Strip’s south. His body was reportedly brought to Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital.

Yesterday afternoon, a man was also reportedly shot dead by the IDF on the Hamas-controlled side of the Gaza ceasefire line in Jabalia, in the Strip’s north. The man was not immediately identified, and it was unclear if he was killed in the strike referred to by the military. His body was reportedly brought to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.

Several people were also reportedly wounded yesterday afternoon in an Israeli strike in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. The strike was said to have targeted a mourners’ tent.

Footage published by Arabic media showed first responders searching for people in the rubble in the immediate aftermath of the strike, and the wounded, including women and a small child, being taken to al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.

مشاهد أولية لقصف إسرائيلي استهدف بيت عزاء في مخيم النصيرات وسط قطاع غزة، فيما أفاد مصدر في مستشفى العودة بوقوع عدد من المصابين جراء القصف#فيديو pic.twitter.com/gMhrz6B2NP

— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) February 2, 2026

Saudi Arabia set to announce major new Syria investments, Syrian official says

This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receiving Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan (L) in Damascus on May 31, 2025. (AFP PHOTO / HO / SANA)

Saudi Arabia will invest in a new private Syrian airline as part of a multi-billion-dollar investment package expected to be announced on Saturday, the head of the Syrian Investment Authority says, reflecting Riyadh’s deepening ties to Damascus.

The latest planned investments will mark the largest such announcement since the United States lifted a tough set of sanctions on Syria in December.

The sanctions, lifted roughly a year after the current Syrian interim government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa ousted longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2024,  had been a significant obstacle to the country’s economic revival after a 14-year civil war that inflicted deep damage on much of the country and displaced millions of people.

Saudi investments would include projects in “telecommunications and real estate, especially in the old towns,” says the investment authority head, Talal al-Hilali, speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai.

Hilali says that the majority of the planned investments would take the form of ready-to-implement contracts, rather than non-binding memoranda of understanding. He declines to give a value for the investments.

The Saudi government media office does not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. The Syrian ministry of information declines to comment.

Riyadh has emerged as a close ally of Sharaa. Last year, Riyadh announced $6.4 billion of investments, split into 47 deals with more than 100 Saudi companies working in real estate, infrastructure and telecoms.

The interim government has faced criticism over the past year for making broad development promises based on MOUs with foreign investors, many of which have yet to be finalized into binding contracts.

Two Syrian sources familiar with the matter say aviation investments would include contracts to develop Aleppo International Airport. The sources say the new private airline is expected to launch with more than a dozen aircraft.

A senior Syrian businessman familiar with the matter tells Reuters that Saudi Arabia intends to provide insurance coverage for the investments to be implemented in Syria, a move aimed at encouraging Saudi companies to enter the market.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

Fire at bazaar in western Tehran is ‘under control,’ no injuries reported

Smoke rises as firefighters battle a fire that broke out in Jannat Bazaar, in the western Tehran area, on February 3, 2026. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

A massive fire that broke out today at a bazaar west of the Iranian capital of Tehran has been brought under control, authorities say, with the cause of the blaze unclear.

Footage showed thick plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky in the morning and blanketing the surrounding area.

But the fire has “so far resulted in no injuries,” Tehran emergency services operations commander Mohammad Behnia says.

The blaze erupted at a market in the Jannat Abad neighborhood in Tehran’s west, an area filled with stalls and shops, state TV quotes the city’s fire department as saying.

“The fire is extensive, to the extent that it is visible from various parts of Tehran,” spokesman Jalal Maleki said.

Later, Maleki said it had been “brought under control” and that “smoke removal and spot-check operations” were underway, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reports.

State TV says firefighters had been dispatched immediately to the site to contain the blaze.

Gaza Palestinian technocratic panel indicates PA-style logo may change after Israeli fury

The newly-changed logo of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, now nearly identical to that of the Palestinian Authority, February 2, 2026 (Facebook screenshot)

The Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with governing Gaza’s daily affairs indicates that its logo may again change after Israel slammed the panel’s adoption of the Palestinian Authority’s emblem.

“The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) has been testing a range of visual concepts since its establishment,” the fledgling body says in a statement.

It appears to acknowledge external pressures it is facing over the selection of a logo, while insisting it won’t be swayed by those forces.

“Official branding will be released with the launch of the Committee’s website. Designs may evolve, but the decision is NCAG’s,” it adds.

“‎Our focus is humanitarian relief, civilian administration, recovery, and a livable future for Gaza – with real security for all according to President Trump’s Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict,” the NCAG statement continues. “That’s the conversation that matters.”

FM Sa’ar in Washington for minerals conference

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will participate today and tomorrow in the US State Department Critical Minerals Ministerial, where dozens of countries are gathering to discuss critical minerals and supply chains, Sa’ar’s office announces.

The conference is chaired by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and will be attended by international ministers and company heads operating in the critical minerals sector.

Sa’ar will also meet on the sidelines of the gathering “with senior American officials and foreign ministers,” his office adds.

Supreme Court president Amit delegates authority to determine judicial panel for Oct. 7 inquiry petitions to deputy

Supreme Court President Isaac Amit arrives for a hearing at the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem, December 23, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Supreme Court President Isaac Amit delegates his authority to determine the members of the expanded judicial panel hearing petitions demanding the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the events of October 7, 2023, to Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg.

Amit says he is giving Sohlberg the authority since if a state commission were to be established, he as Supreme Court president would be empowered to choose the members of that panel, under the terms of the 1969 law for state commissions.

“I am of the opinion that in the interest of probity, it would not be appropriate for me to issue decisions in these proceedings,” says Amit of the petitions asking the court to order the government to establish a state commission into the October 7 invasion and atrocities.

In November, the Supreme Court sitting in its capacity as the High Court of Justice issued a conditional order against the government requiring it to justify why it is not establishing a state commission of inquiry.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes the formation of a state commission, and has resisted pressure to do so throughout the more than two years since the deadly Hamas onslaught.

The government has claimed that, because a state commission is appointed by the judiciary – whose powers his government has sought to curb – it would be biased against the government.

Petitioners to the court have argued that a state commission is the only tool available to investigate the catastrophe in a politically independent and comprehensive manner.

Religious Zionism MK says Haredi draft law is ‘not good’

Religious Zionism MK Michal Woldiger, speaking at the Knesset. (Courtesy)

In its “current form,” the government’s proposed bill regulating ultra-Orthodox conscription is “not good,” declares Religious Zionism MK Michal Woldiger, whose party has not yet officially announced whether or not it will vote for the controversial legislation.

“In the last form I saw, it is not good. We do have some red lines,” the right-wing lawmaker announces during an economic conference, saying that Haredi conscription must be undertaken gradually.

“We have a one-time opportunity to begin a process of recruiting the ultra-Orthodox [but] a law that says everyone is obligated is a law that I think will destroy this opportunity,” she adds.

Woldiger is one of several coalition MKs who have come out against the bill, which would exempt yeshiva students from conscription. She is one of several lawmakers who signed a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth demanding that the bill be amended with a clause extending recognition to Haredi hesder yeshivas, which combine Torah study with a shortened military service.

Religious Zionism chairman Bezalel Smotrich has repeatedly declined to state how his party would vote on the bill, although several of his MKs have come out strongly against it.

Channel 12 reported on Monday that reservist activists had claimed that the minister was running an influence operation in support of the bill.

Palestinian said killed by IDF in West Bank overnight while trying to enter Israel illegally for work

Palestinians carry the body of twenty-one-year-old Omer Al-Swarki during his funeral in the West Bank city of Qalqilya on February 3, 2026 after he was killed while trying to cross the separation wall between Qalqilya and Israel in order to work inside Israel. (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP)

A Palestinian man was reportedly shot dead by Israeli forces overnight in Qalailya, close to the security barrier between Israel and the West Bank, while he was trying to enter Israel illegally for work.

He is identified as Omer al-Swarki, 21. The IDF does not respond to a request for comment.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported yesterday evening that the man was hospitalized in critical condition at the Darwish Nazzal Medical Center in the northern West Bank city.

Palestinian media later reported that he succumbed to his wounds at the hospital. Hundreds attended the funeral, where his flag-draped body was carried through the city.

Since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, Israel has restricted the entry of Palestinian laborers, depriving the West Bank of a key source of income.

Defense Ministry refuses to release committee protocols on Army Radio closure

An Israeli soldier serving at Army Radio holds a microphone in Jerusalem, December 22, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Defense Ministry says that it will not provide the full protocols of an advisory committee that recommended closing the IDF-run Army Radio station, arguing that doing so would require an unreasonable allocation of resources.

In a limited response to a freedom of information petition by the Hatzlacha consumer advocacy group, the ministry claims the committee’s records span hundreds of pages and would also require consulting numerous third parties before any material could be disclosed.

Citing Section 8 of the Freedom of Information Law, the Defense Ministry says “a public authority is not obligated to process a request for information if it requires an unreasonable allocation of resources.”

The response comes after Hatzlacha filed the petition in August seeking documents related to the committee’s work, including appointment materials, conflict-of-interest arrangements, minutes and professional opinions presented to the panel.

After the ministry did not respond within the legally required timeframe, the group petitioned the Tel Aviv District Court in December, arguing the information is vital for public oversight as Defense Minister Israel Katz advances concrete steps toward shutting down Army Radio.

“The partial decision delivered today indicates that the Defense Ministry does not intend to allow scrutiny of, or disclose, the decision-making infrastructure that led to the recommendation to close the public radio station,” Hatzlacha says about the ministry’s limited response. “Instead, it is choosing to hide behind exemption clauses in the law in a way that will keep the protocols broadly classified and withheld.”

In December last year, the cabinet unanimously approved Katz’s controversial proposal to shut down Army Radio by March 1, 2026, arguing that the station’s political and current affairs programming “creates a fundamental difficulty for the IDF, stemming from the IDF’s involuntary involvement in political discourse,” and that its content “harms the Israel Defense Forces, its soldiers and its unity.”

The High Court issued an interim order at the end of December freezing implementation of the decision until it issues a final ruling.

Police say they’ve completed Sde Teiman leak probe, but will have outside official review case

Former IDF military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi is released to house arrest outside Neve Tirtza Women’s Prison in Ramla, November 7, 2025 (Flash90)

The Israel Police have completed a high-profile investigation into the Sde Teiman abuse leak, but will hold off on moving forward with the case until an external official can review their findings, police say.

“In light of the fact that this is a highly sensitive public matter… the chief commissioner believes it is appropriate to allow a senior professional official, external to the police, to examine the entirety of investigative actions carried out,” police say.

The identity of the official has not yet been decided, police say.

The case — which concerns the leaking of footage purporting to show reservists severely abusing a Gazan detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility — is at the heart of a power struggle between Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Justice Minister Yariv Levin.

After former military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi confessed to leaking the footage, Levin and his allies seized on the confession as further proof of widespread corruption within the justice system.

Levin accuses Baharav-Miara of having a conflict of interest and is demanding he be permitted to pick someone to oversee the investigation, since the attorney general’s office oversaw an earlier internal probe that failed to implicate Tomer-Yerushalmi.

Police note that their transfer of findings to an external official via the Justice Ministry is in accordance with a High Court decision to temporarily sideline Baharav-Miara from the case at Levin’s behest.

Levin previously nominated two officials to oversee the investigation, both of whom were rejected by the court.

The police legal adviser Elazar Kahana confirms to Ynet that Baharav-Miara, along with all other officials outside the Military Advocate General’s office, is not currently a suspect in the case.

Kahana met with his counterpart in the Justice Ministry to update him on the “factual situation report that arose from the investigation, insofar as it is relevant to the conflict of interest issue,” police say.

The Justice Ministry’s legal adviser will transfer the police’s findings to an “authorized review body” to check whether there is a need to carry out “additional investigative steps, summon additional witnesses and suspects, or alternatively, file indictments against suspects found to be relevant.”

Police deny reports that police chief Levy intervened in the probe amid political pressure from National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who is reportedly insistent on implicating Baharav-Miara in the scandal.

EU to assess whether former UK ambassador to US Mandelson broke rules over Epstein links

Then-British ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson speaks as US President Donald Trump makes a trade announcement in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 8, 2025. (Jim WATSON / AFP)

The European Commission says it will look into whether Peter Mandelson, a former EU commissioner, broke its code of conduct over his ties with late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Mandelson, who was fired as the British ambassador to Washington last year over his links to the disgraced financier, served as the EU’s trade chief between 2004 and 2008.

The 72-year-old allegedly received several payments from Epstein in the early 2000s, according to a trove of documents released on Friday by the US Department of Justice.

“We have rules in place emanating from the treaty and the code of conduct that commissioners, including former commissioners, have to follow,” Commission spokesman Balazs Ujvari tells a press conference.

“We will be assessing if, in light of these newly available documents, there might be breaches of the respective rules with regard to Peter Mandelson,” he says.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has ordered an urgent inquiry into Mandelson’s ties with Epstein during the politician’s time as a government minister in Britain.

Mandelson — a backroom architect of Labour’s revival as an electoral force in the 1990s under Tony Blair — quit the party on Sunday to avoid causing it “further embarrassment.”

IDF approves orders regulating service conditions for ultra-Orthodox troops

Ultra-Orthodox soldiers from the Hasmonean Brigade take part in a ceremony, after completing seven months of basic and advanced training, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on August 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

While the government works to advance legislation giving ultra-Orthodox men renewed exemptions from military service, the IDF says it has approved new protocols that regulate service conditions for Haredi troops.

The General Staff order has been in the works for over a year, according to the military, and it was recently approved by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir. It was also written in coordination with the Defense Ministry and presented to Defense Minister Israel Katz, the IDF says.

Facing a manpower shortage, the IDF says the order intends to enable more ultra-Orthodox men to join the military and maintain their level of religiosity throughout their service. Zamir has said that expanding Haredi enlistment is “an essential operational necessity.”

The IDF has worked for years to integrate members of the Haredi community, although without any binding guidelines, relying instead on internal policy within the Personnel Directorate. The new order, at the General Staff level, carries binding authority and mandates oversight of the service conditions for Haredi soldiers.

The order only applies to Haredi men who enlist within three new designated service tracks. Ultra-Orthodox troops who choose to serve in a unit that is not within the new service tracks will not be entitled to the new protocols.

The first service track is “Magen,” Hebrew for shield, where male Haredi soldiers are assigned to a gender-segregated team within a unit that also has female troops. The units within this track are mostly non-combat, such as intelligence.

The second is “Herev,” Hebrew for sword, where the entire framework is gender-segregated for the ultra-Orthodox troops, such as the Kfir Brigade’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion or the Israeli Air Force technicians unit for Haredim. The commanders of the units in this track will generally be those who observe a Haredi or religious lifestyle, and women will be able to serve on the same base in various other roles.

And lastly, “David,” where all personnel in the unit are male and observe a religious lifestyle. The only unit currently in this track is the Hasmonean Brigade, and additional units would need to be individually approved by the chief of the Personnel Directorate.

The General Staff order also details additional rights to which Haredi soldiers are entitled, such as prayer times, kosher standards, a declaration of allegiance to the IDF instead of an oath, and more.

The IDF vows that the service of other populations in the military, especially women, will not be harmed due to the integration of Haredi soldiers, “except as explicitly permitted by the order.”

Charity founded by Sarah Ferguson shuts down after release of Epstein emails with former duchess

Sarah Ferguson waves the to the crowd was she attends the Easter Matins Service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, England, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file)

The charity founded by Sarah Ferguson, the former duchess of York, is shutting down following the release of emails showing the depth of her friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Sarah’s Trust, which focused on improving the lives of women and children, says it will close for the “foreseeable future,’’ following the revelations in latest documents released by the US Department of Justice. Ferguson is the ex-wife of the former Prince Andrew, who was stripped of his royal titles due to his own links with Epstein.

“Our chair Sarah Ferguson and the board of trustees have agreed that with regret the charity will shortly close for the foreseeable future,’’ the trust says in a statement. “This has been under discussion and in train for some months.’’

Emails released on Friday revealed that Ferguson remained in contact with Epstein long after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. In the email exchanges, Ferguson referred to Epstein as a “legend’’ and “the brother I have always wished for.’’

In one exchange, from March 2011, Epstein complained about a story in London’s Evening Standard newspaper in which he was identified as a pedophile and Ferguson said she had “deep regret” over her ties to Epstein.

The following month, someone identified as “Sarah” emailed Epstein saying she “did not” and “would not” call him a “P” and that she had acted to “protect my own brand.”

Netanyahu to meet Witkoff at 4:30 p.m.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, meets with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff at his office in Jerusalem on July 31, 2025. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with US special envoy Steve Witkoff at 4:30 p.m. today, Netanyahu’s office tells The Times of Israel.

Witkoff has landed in Israel, according to Channel 12.

The meeting comes ahead of US talks with Iran scheduled for Friday.

US official says Israel pressing for American strikes on Iran, but Trump ‘really does not want to do it’

President Donald Trump listens to a question from a reporter as he speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Senior Israeli officials, including IDF chief Eyal Zamir, who visited Washington over the weekend, have been pushing the US to strike Iran, but US President Donald Trump is reluctant, Axios reports.

The report says that Zamir briefed Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Dan Caine on Israel’s offensive and defensive plans in the event of war with Iran.

“It’s safe to say that nothing came out of that meeting to change his or the president’s mind on attacking Iran,” Axios quotes a US official as saying, referring to Caine and Trump.

“It’s really the Israelis who want a strike. The president is just not there,” the official says.

Another senior US official says Trump “really does not want to do it.”

The report quotes three senior Trump advisers as saying that while the president initially favored strikes during the mass protests in Iran, he now feels that launching a military move wouldn’t be the right way to go. One of them says that skepticism holds for many in Trump’s close orbit.

However, a senior official from one of the mediating countries tells Axios that Trump’s attitude could change if Iran doesn’t show willingness to meet US demands.

“If Iran doesn’t come to the talks on Friday with tangible things, it could find itself very quickly in a very bad situation,”  the official says.

Iran businessman arrested for ‘inciting unrest’ during protests, assets seized

In this photo obtained by The Associated Press, Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, January 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

An Iranian business tycoon is under investigation after he was arrested over alleged support for nationwide protests last month, a judiciary spokesman says.

Mohammad Saedinia, who owns a well-known Iranian confectionery brand and multiple cafes across the country, was arrested on January 13 on charges of “inciting unrest.”

Authorities later ordered the seizure of his assets.

“The case is still under investigation,” judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir tells reporters.

“If it is proven in court that his actions caused damage, he will not only face legal punishment” but his assets will go towards compensation, he adds, without elaborating.

Jahangir says the investigation into Saedinia was launched following intelligence reports alleging that he “had provided support to rioters.”

Posters glorifying Bondi Beach terrorist plastered around Melbourne

Posters of Naveed Akram, one of the Bondi Beach terrorists, have been plastered in Melbourne’s central business district in “a calculated and deeply offensive act,” according to the Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), an Australian organization founded to combat antisemitism in the country.

Approximately 40 posters, designed to deliberately mimic the distinctive visual style of the “Aussie” street art series promoting inclusion, were unlawfully plastered on public infrastructure around the CBD, says the ADC.

The posters display the face of Akram using imagery designed to elevate and aestheticize Akram, who, together with his father, Sajid Akram, killed 15 people and wounded dozens at a Hanukkah party at Bondi Beach on December 14.

“This is not street art. This is grave-dancing,” says ADC chair Dvir Abramovich. “Putting the face of a Bondi terrorist on city walls is psychological terrorism aimed at families who are still burying their dead. That is rot. It’s glorification of mass murder and it tells Jewish Australians that even our mourning is not sacred.”

“Let me be clear,” Abramovich continues. “When you elevate a terrorist, you are not exercising free speech. You are continuing the attack.”

Abramovich calls for the neighborhood council to immediately take down the posters and find the perpetrators for the police to charge.

A poster of alleged Bondi gunman Naveed Akram has been put up under Richmond Station on Punt Road. ????

And it's been called out by a number of people on 3AW, including a member of the Jewish community.

FULL REACTION ???? https://t.co/h6nMkWmO6j pic.twitter.com/jeCmrUZxAC

— 3AW Melbourne (@3AW693) February 3, 2026

Church and state in Italy are investigating the appearance of a cherub resembling Meloni

A detail of a restored chapel with angels depicted on a fresco to the memory of late Italy's King Umberto II inside the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Lucina in Rome, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

There is a long tradition of painters depicting real people in their religious art, but the appearance in a Roman church of a cherub that bears a striking resemblance to Premier Giorgia Meloni has sparked a minor scandal for both church and state in Italy.

The diocese of Rome and the Italian Culture Ministry both launched investigations into the recent renovations at the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, after photographs of the Meloni-esque cherub were published in Italian newspapers this weekend. Their swift and harsh reactions indicated little tolerance for the profane in a sacred place.

The ruckus has given the basilica, already well known as one of the oldest churches in Rome, newfound celebrity status. It was jammed on Sunday and Monday with curiosity-seekers straining to photograph the angel in a side chapel up near the front altar, at times disrupting Mass.

Meloni, for her part, tried to tamp down the outcry and make light of it.

“No, I definitely don’t look like an angel,” Meloni wrote on social media with a laughing/crying emoji alongside a photo of the work.

The basilica is located on one of Rome’s fanciest piazzas just down the block from the Spanish Steps. It was consecrated in 440 by Pope Sixtus III and subsequently enlarged and rebuilt. It is now the property of the Interior Ministry, which is responsible for its upkeep.

In 2000, one of the front chapels was renovated to include a bust of the last king of Italy, Umberto II. Included in the decoration was a cherub holding a map of Italy, seemingly kneeling down before the king.

That figure is now under scrutiny since the cherub’s face, after a recent restoration, appears modeled on Meloni’s. It is problematic because the cherub appears in a position of deference to the king. Italians rejected the monarchy after World War II because of its support for Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini; Meloni’s right-wing party has its roots in the neo-fascist party that succeeded Mussolini.

The cherub was restored after water infiltrations damaged the basilica starting in 2023. The parish priest, the Rev. Daniele Micheletti, acknowledged the resemblance to Meloni but dismissed the significance, noting that plenty of artists depicted real life people in their works.

The restorer, for his part, has denied wrongdoing and denied he used Meloni as a model. In interviews with Italian media, Bruno Valentinetti said Meloni was in the eye of the beholder and that he merely restored the original painting, which he himself had made in 2000.

The investigations are looking to determine what the original 2000 cherub looked like.

Hundreds of Nazi-linked accounts discovered at Credit Suisse, US lawmaker says

A woman walks past the Credit Suisse bank headquarters in London, Thursday, March 16, 2023.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

An investigation has identified 890 accounts at Swiss lender Credit Suisse with potential Nazi links, US Senator Chuck Grassley says before a Judiciary Committee hearing on banks’ facilitation of the Holocaust.

The accounts included previously undisclosed wartime accounts for the German Foreign Office, a German arms manufacturing company, and the German Red Cross, adds the lawmaker, who chairs the committee and has followed the investigation into Credit Suisse for years.

UBS, which acquired Credit Suisse in an emergency takeover in 2023, said last year it was working with former US prosecutor Neil Barofsky to shed light on Nazi-linked accounts held at its former competitor.

Dairy Board announces halt to milk supplies as farmers step up reform protests

Workers milk cows at Kibbutz Ginosar, northern Israel, February 3, 2026. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)

The Israel Dairy Board, which regulates the dairy industry, announces that it will henceforth stop providing raw milk to the companies that process milk and make dairy products.

Hebrew media reports said some supermarkets had begun limiting how much milk customers could buy.

The move is part of an escalating campaign to halt the Finance Ministry’s dairy reform plan.

The ministry wants to dismantle the central planning system of quotas, fixed prices for farmers, and protectionist tariffs, and open the market up to imports. It says this will help bring down prices and the cost of living.

The farmers say this will endanger jobs and Israel’s food security, and point out that prices will not go down as long as no action is taken against the monopolies that control manufacturing, retail and imports.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told the Knesset plenum yesterday that just three dairy manufacturers, Tnuva, Tara and Strauss, control 85% of the market.

He also threatened the milk producers: “If you stop producing milk, I will remove all tariffs and open the market to competition. This is my authority as minister of finance.”

MKs call to recognize ultra-Orthodox ‘Hesder’ yeshivas that allow Haredi youth to combine army service with Torah study

Ultra-Orthodox soldiers from the IDF's new Haredi Hasmonean Brigade take part in a beret march after completing seven months of basic and advanced training, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, on August 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

A group of coalition lawmakers led by Likud MK Amit Halevi is demanding that the government’s proposed bill regulating ultra-Orthodox conscription be amended with a clause extending recognition to Haredi hesder yeshivas, which combine Torah study with a shortened military service.

Their proposal calls for recognition of hesder yeshivas — which already are relatively common among in the religious Zionist community — in the Haredi sector, and calls on the state to work to establish additional institutions along these lines. It furthermore calls for allowing ultra-Orthodox men enrolled in such programs to combine their Torah studies with work on an academic degree.

Writing to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth, the legislators “insist” on their amendment to the legislation, calling Haredi hesder yeshivas and pre-military academies “the most significant factor in recruiting Haredim today.”

“In practice, these frameworks currently constitute the core of the integration of the Haredi public into military service and the central infrastructure for
meeting the recruitment goals of the State of Israel, both in terms of quantity and quality. Today, these organizations encounter many challenges, a
lack of resources and, absurdly, a lack of clear support from the State of Israel,” they assert.

“The lack of explicit legislative recognition of the Haredi hesder
yeshivas and Haredi preparatory academies constitutes a direct harm to the national effort, the IDF and the State of Israel’s ability to expand and deepen
the partnership of the Haredi public in carrying the security burden.”

The letter is signed by Halevi, Religious Zionism MK Michal Woldiger, Otzma Yehudit MKs Zvika Fogel and Limor Son Har-Melech, and Likud MKs Moshe Passal and Moshe Saada.

Asked if MK Halevi would vote against the bill if his amendment is not included, a spokeswoman for the lawmaker tells The Times of Israel that he “is currently investing all his efforts in making sure the answer is ‘yes.’ He estimates that this will indeed be the case.”

Representatives of the Haredi hesder yeshivas have previously complained about the bill’s lack of recognition in position papers submitted to Bismuth’s committee.

IDF’s Haredi brigade gets new commander

A handover ceremony for the commander of the IDF's Hasmonean Brigade for ultra-Orthodox troops in the northern city of Beit She'an, February 3, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF’s Hasmonean Brigade for ultra-Orthodox troops gets a new commander, Col. Shemer Raviv.

A handover ceremony is held in Beit She’an.

Raviv, a former commander of the Paran Regional Brigade on the Egyptian border, is replacing Col. Avinoam Emunah.

“The IDF intends for this process to succeed, and the integration of the Haredi public is genuine, and we are committed to seeing it through. Not a melting pot, but integration while preserving the uniqueness of the Haredi community and its contribution to the people of Israel,” Raviv says at the ceremomy.

Emunah is set to be promoted to brigadier general and enter a new role as an adviser to the IDF chief of staff on ultra-Orthodox affairs. Emunah was the inaugural commander of the Hasmonean Brigade, beginning with the unit’s inception in late 2024.

The handover comes as the IDF prepares to issue a General Staff order formalizing arrangements that will make it easier for ultra-Orthodox troops to serve.

Qatar says regional efforts underway to de-escalate Iran tensions

Qatar's Foreign Mininstry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari looks on at a press conference during the 2025 Arab-Islamic emergency summit in Doha on September 15, 2025. (Mahmud HAMS / AFP)

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Majed Al-Ansari, says that there is regional collaboration and ongoing efforts aimed at ensuring de-escalation concerning Iran.

On Saturday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met with top Iranian security official Ali Larijani in Tehran and reviewed efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region.

Lebanese PM says he won’t allow Hezbollah to drag country into a new conflict

Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam gestures as he speaks during a meeting with a United Nations Security Council delegation at the Government Palace in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 5, 2025. (Anwar AMRO / AFP)

Lebanon’s prime minister says he will not allow his country to be dragged into a new conflict, after Hezbollah warned any attack on its Iranian backer would be an attack on the group.

“We will never allow anyone to drag the country into another adventure,” Nawaf Salam says during the World Governments Summit in Dubai, in response to a question about comments made by Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem last week.

Qassem had responded to American threats of military action against Iran, saying “We will choose at that time how to act… but we are not neutral.”

Salam says Hezbollah’s decision to enter the Gaza war in support of its ally Hamas had “very big” consequences for Lebanon and that “no one is willing to expose the country to adventures of this kind.”

More than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which largely ended with a November 2024 ceasefire, badly weakened the group.

The government has begun implementing a plan to disarm it starting in the south, one of its main traditional strongholds.

In January, Lebanon’s army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm Hezbollah, covering the area south of the Litani river, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border.

Salam says that the state had “worked to regain control over decisions on war and peace.”

“The Lebanese army has full operational control over the south,” he adds

Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army’s progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Israelis split on joining possible US strike on Iran, survey finds

Israeli Air Force F-15 fighter jets fly over Israel en route to carry out strikes in Iran, in a handout photo published on June 25, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Israelis are almost evenly split over whether the country should take part in a potential US-led attack on Iran, a new Israel Democracy Institute survey finds amid heightened tensions with the Islamic Republic.

Half of respondents say Israel should join such a strike only if Iran attacks Israel first, while 44 percent support direct military participation from the outset, coordinated with Washington.

Support for immediate involvement is strongest on the political right, while most Israelis in the center and left favor holding back unless Israel is struck first.

The poll also finds broad concern about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to gradually reduce US military aid, with 49% of Israelis believing it will harm national security.

Additionally, the survey finds a rise in optimism about Israel’s future – particularly on national security and the economy – but also underscores deep Jewish-Arab divides. While 52% of Jews said they are optimistic about the future of Israel’s national security, only 11% of Arab respondents expressed the same view.

The survey was conducted January 25-29 among a representative sample of 755 Jewish and Arab adults.

Senior female Muslim officer tapped as next IDF Arabic-language spokesperson

Military spokesperson Maj. Ella Waweya in an undated portrait. (Israel Defense Forces)

Maj. Ella Waweya has been selected by the military to replace Col. Avichay Adraee as the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson.

Waweya, who is known as “Captain Ella,” is among the most senior female Arab Muslim officers in the military.

She has been serving in the IDF since 2013, and is currently Adraee’s deputy.

Adraee, who served as the Arabic-language spokesman for the past 20 years, is set to retire.

Waweya will be promoted to lieutenant colonel, and a handover ceremony is expected to take place in the coming weeks.

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Oman, and UAE invited to Iran talks

The priority of talks between Iran and the United States this week in Istanbul is to avoid any conflict and de-escalate tensions between the two sides, a regional official told Reuters on Tuesday, adding a group of regional powers were also invited.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some of the countries invited to the talks at the foreign ministers’ level included Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.

The person said the format of the meetings remained unclear, but that the “main meeting” would be on Friday and that it was important to start dialogue between the parties to avoid further escalation.

30 out of 42 Palestinians who tried to cross into Gaza through Rafah said barred from entering

Palestinians coming from the Rafah crossing from Egypt arrive at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on February 2, 2026. (Photo by Bashar Taleb / AFP)

Thirty of 42 Palestinians who sought to return to the Gaza Strip yesterday via the Rafah Border Crossing were prevented from entering and were returned to Egypt, Qatari channel Al-Araby reports.

Citing unnamed sources, the network says those who returned to Gaza were interrogated several times during their journey, including by masked gunmen who stopped them at a checkpoint 500 meters from the Rafah Crossing.

The sources say that the armed individuals handed the returnees over to IDF troops, whereupon they were interrogated and their belongings were confiscated.

Palestinians who are returning to Gaza via Egypt first pass through the Rafah Crossing, which is being operated by a team of Palestinian Authority representatives and monitors from the European Union.

From there, they make their way to an IDF checkpoint — located around five kilometers northeast of Rafah Crossing, on the Salah a-Din highway — for a security screening. Only afterward will they be permitted to continue toward the Hamas-controlled areas of Gaza.

An area between Rafah Crossing and the IDF’s checkpoint is controlled by the Popular Forces, a militia founded by an anti-Hamas armed Bedouin leader, Yasser Abu Shabab.

Going in the other direction, only 12 Palestinians entered Egypt from Gaza yesterday, a diplomatic official tells The Times of Israel.

Soldier to be charged with murder for Route 6 road rage shooting

State prosecutors are preparing to charge a soldier with murder over the fatal shooting of a young Druze man in northern Israel last month, police say.

The 21-year-old soldier, who was off-duty at the time, is suspected of killing 23-year-old Sharif Hadid the evening of January 8 following a roadside argument on Route 6, a major highway.

The soldier has been in custody since police arrested him and his older brother at the scene of the shooting. The State Attorney’s Office filed a prosecutor’s declaration against the younger man this morning.

The suspect’s brother was arrested on suspicion of tampering with evidence, but it is unclear whether he faces charges.

According to Channel 12 News, the soldier claimed to interrogators he shot Hadid because he felt threatened, after the man and his brother advanced toward him “in a threatening manner.”

However the victim’s brother, Amir Hadid, who was also at the scene, claimed the soldier first hit his brother in the head with the barrel of his gun, then shot him five times unprovoked, Channel 12 reports.

הירי בכביש 6 בחודש שעבר: חייל צה"ל יואשם ברצח שריף חדיד עקב ויכוח | @uriya_keshet https://t.co/DFPYfhrhZQ

— i24NEWS (@i24NEWS_HE) February 3, 2026

Trial opens for Norway crown princess’s son on rape charges

Norway's Marius Borg Hoiby and Crown Princess Mette-Marit in Oslo, June 16, 2022. (Lise Aserud/NTB via AP, File)

The trial of the son of Norway’s crown princess, on charges that include rape, starts, opening weeks of proceedings in a case that has cast a shadow on the royal family’s image.

Marius Borg Høiby, 29, is the eldest son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit from a previous relationship and the stepson of the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Haakon. He has no royal title or official duties.

Høiby has been under scrutiny since he was repeatedly arrested in 2024 on various allegations of wrongdoing.

Høiby took his seat at the Oslo district court this morning for the trial, which is scheduled to last until March 19.

He faces 38 counts. They include rape, abuse in a close relationship against one former partner, acts of violence against another and transporting 3.5 kilograms (7.7 pounds) of marijuana. Other charges include making death threats and traffic violations.

Prosecutors have said Høiby could face up to 10 years in prison, if convicted. Seven alleged victims are expected to testify. Parts of the proceedings, particularly their testimony, will be held behind closed doors.

Høiby’s defense team has said that he “denies all charges of sexual abuse, as well as the majority of the charges regarding violence.”

Sydney nurses plead ‘not guilty’ for viral video threatening to kill Israeli patients

Screen capture from an undated video of Israeli influencer Max Veifer during a conversation with two nurses from a hospital in Sydney, Australia. (X: Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Two Sydney nurses accused of threatening to kill Israeli patients in a viral video last year pleaded not guilty, local media reports.

Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 27, and Ahmad Rashad Nadir, 28, were seen in a viral video last February, allegedly showing them making threats against Israeli patients during a chat with Israeli influencer Max Veifer.

The video sparked outrage across Australia and the Jewish world after it was released. The pair were later barred from working as nurses nationwide.

At the Downing Centre District Court, both entered not-guilty pleas when asked by Judge Stephen Hanley to respond to charges of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend. Abu Lebdeh also faces a charge of threatening violence against a group.

Their trial is scheduled to begin on August 31, and is expected to run for five days. A pretrial hearing on the issue is scheduled for June 1.

Nadir’s lawyer said he will challenge whether the video can legally be used in court as evidence.

Two NSW healthcare nurses from Bankstown Hospital were stood down and are under investigation by police after claiming on camera they killed Israeli patients. This horrific incident raises urgent concerns: How many individuals like this work in other Australian hospitals?… pic.twitter.com/F0ywNhQdtK

— Piazza Victoria (@Piazza_VIC) February 11, 2025

Massive fire breaks out at western Tehran bazaar

A massive fire broke at a bazaar west of the Iranian capital, state media reports, although the cause of the blaze was unclear.

The fire erupted at a market in the Jannat Abad neighborhood in Tehran’s west, an area filled with stalls and shops, state TV quoted a spokesman for Tehran’s fire department as saying.

“The fire is extensive, to the extent that it is visible from various parts of Tehran,” Jalal Maleki said.

Huge fire has been reported in Jannat Abbad market, in West of Tehran.

Firefighters & ambulances have been sent to the place.

No details of the number of injured or the reason for the fire have been announced yet. pic.twitter.com/RvroiHVQlp

— Tala Taslimi (@tala_taslimi) February 3, 2026

Only 12 people entered Egypt from Gaza on first day of Rafah Crossing opening

A Palestinians child waves from the window of a bus evacuating patients, accompanied by relatives, as they ready to leave the Gaza Strip for treatment abroad through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the day after it was opened by Israel for a limited number of people, in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on February 2, 2026. (Photo by Bashar Taleb / AFP)

Only 12 Palestinians entered Egypt from Gaza yesterday, the first day of a limited reopening of the Rafah border crossing, a source at the border tells AFP.

“Five injured people and seven companions” crossed the border, the source says.

This number is significantly lower than the quota of 50 patients and two companions per patient that was set, according to three officials at the Egyptian border.

It was not immediately clear how many Palestinians entered Gaza through the crossing, which is open for a limited number of pedestrians per day.

Senior UAE official say Iran needs to reach a nuclear deal with US

Diplomatic advisor to the United Arab Emirates president Anwar Gargash arrives at the opening ceremony of the summit on peace in Ukraine, at the luxury Burgenstock resort, near Lucerne, on June 15, 2024. (Denis Balibouse / POOL / AFP)

Iran needs to reach a nuclear deal with the United States, a senior United Arab Emirates official says, ahead of talks between the two sides after repeated threats of American military action.

“Iran today needs to reach a deal,” presidential adviser Anwar Gargash says during the World Governments Summit in Dubai, adding that Iran needs “to rebuild their relationship with the United States.”

“I think that the region has gone through various calamitous confrontations. I don’t think we need another one, but I would like to see direct Iranian-American negotiations leading to understandings that we don’t have these issues every other day,” he says.

Over 100 mortar shells found in UNRWA bags in Gaza

A cache of mortar shells found by IDF troops in the southern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued by the military on February 3, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF troops located and destroyed a cache of more than 100 mortar shells during mop-up operations on the Israeli side of the Gaza ceasefire line, the military says.

According to the IDF, the 110 mortars, several rockets, and other military equipment were stored inside repurposed UNRWA bags.

The cache was located by troops of the 7th Armored Brigade, who are stationed on the eastern side of the Yellow Line in the southern Gaza Strip.

A cache of mortars is uncovered and destroyed by IDF troops in the southern Gaza Strip, in a video issued by the military on February 3, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)

Iran’s president seeks ‘fair and equitable negotiations’ with the United States

In this handout picture provided by Iranian presidency, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian addresses cabinet members, as they visit of the tomb of the late Iranian revolutionary leader ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in Tehran on January 31, 2026 (Handout/Iranian Presidency/AFP)

Iran’s president says he has instructed the country’s foreign minister to “pursue fair and equitable negotiations” with the United States.

The comments from reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian represent the first clear signal from Iran that it may take part in negotiations being organized by Turkey.

Pezeshkian makes the comments on X.

“I have instructed my Minister of Foreign Affairs, provided that a suitable environment exists — one free from threats and unreasonable expectations — to pursue fair and equitable negotiations, guided by the principles of dignity, prudence, and expediency,” he says.

The US has yet to acknowledge the talks will take place.

Trump seeks $1 billion from Harvard University in damages in antisemitism row

A person dressed as Donald Trump interacts with a group of protestors outside of the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse on July 21, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts, amid a legal battle between Harvard University and the US government. (Scott Eisen/ Getty Images via AFP)

US President Donald Trump says that his administration is seeking $1 billion in damages from Harvard University.

“We are now seeking One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University,” he says in a post on Truth Social, without saying what specific harms the university had caused.

Trump’s administration in December appealed a judge’s ruling holding that it unlawfully terminated more than $2 billion in grants awarded to Harvard and can no longer cut off research funding to the Ivy League school.

Harvard has been a central focus of the administration’s broad campaign to leverage federal funding to force change at US universities, which Trump says are gripped by antisemitic and “radical left” ideologies.

Trump said last year that his administration was close to a deal with Harvard that would include a $500 million payment by the school, after months of negotiations over school policies.

Russia resumes strikes on freezing Ukrainian capital

People take shelter at a metro station during a Russian air attack, in Kyiv, on early February 3, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Serhii Okunev / AFP)

Russia has resumed strikes on Kyiv, Ukrainian officials say, as a week-long truce announced by US President Donald Trump gives way to renewed attacks in freezing conditions.

Trump said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to stop striking Kyiv and “various towns” during cold weather.

The Kremlin said the truce would last until Sunday but did not link it to the subzero temperatures. Ukraine says Moscow kept up its strikes anyway.

Russia hit Kyiv “in the bitter cold with another massive strike” overnight, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration, says on Telegram. He urges the capital’s residents to stay in shelters, and says in a later post that two people were wounded.

US top diplomat in Venezuela says discussed ‘transition’ with interim leader

Washington’s new top diplomat in Venezuela says that in a meeting Monday with the country’s interim president, she addressed the issue of a transition after the ouster of Nicolas Maduro.

Chief of mission Laura Dogu says on X that she talked with Delcy Rodriguez about US plans for “stabilization, economic recovery, reconciliation and transition.”

#2feb ???????? CARACAS – Dogu & Rodriguez pic.twitter.com/iilBSwV8HH

— EL MONSE (@MonseTalleyrand) February 2, 2026

In addition to meeting with Dogu, Rodriguez made several key appointments to her presidential cabinet on Monday, including tapping former foreign minister Felix Plasencia to lead Venezuela’s diplomatic mission in the United States.

His appointment marks a pivotal change in diplomatic relations between Caracas and Washington, which were severed in 2019 after the United States refused to recognize Maduro’s re-election, instead opting to support a parallel government led by then-opposition leader Juan Guaido.

US House set for vote to end government shutdown

The US Congress has teed up a vote today on a spending bill to end the government shutdown, following a House committee vote late yesterday.

The shutdown followed a breakdown in spending negotiations amid Democratic anger in response to federal immigration agents killing two US citizens in Minneapolis, which derailed talks over new money for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Late Friday, the Senate passed a package clearing five outstanding funding bills to cover most federal agencies through September, along with a two-week stopgap measure to keep DHS operating while lawmakers negotiate immigration enforcement policy.

Shutdowns temporarily freeze funding for non-essential federal operations, forcing agencies to halt services, place workers on unpaid leave or require them to work without pay.

On Monday evening, the House Rules Committee voted to move the Senate package forward for a full House vote, which is expected today.

Trump has been pressuring Republicans to swiftly adopt a spending bill to end the shutdown, even as some have voiced their disdain for the deal that opens the door to modest reforms on immigration agents.

In a Truth Social post earlier, Trump said “there can be NO CHANGES at this time” to the legislation and called for its immediate passage.