Feb. 9: PM will reportedly brief Trump on Israel’s latest intel about Iran while in DC

Netanyahu shares social media post accusing ex-Shin Bet chief Bar of appointing himself ‘de facto prime minister’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shares a post on social media accusing former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar of falsifying the intelligence agency’s probe into the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault.

The post was originally published on X by former Likud spokesman Erez Tadmor on February 6. Netanyahu reposts it, almost word-for-word, on his X account, with attribution to Tadmor at the start.

Tadmor claims that Bar decided Netanyahu was “an illegitimate prime minister who has already dragged Israel into an unnecessary war [the 2014 Gaza war], and therefore — in order to prevent him from making another miscalculation — decided to appoint himself de facto prime minister on the night of the [October 7] massacre.”

He further claims that “after the decisions he made led to the greatest disaster in the country’s history, Bar realized that the only thing worse than the reckless decisions themselves was that they were made as part of a rebellion against the prime minister — and decided to falsify the Shin Bet investigation.”

“The top brass of the Shin Bet in particular and the top brass of the security establishment in general were infected with an anti-democratic virus,” Tadmor charges, and they acted as though they were required to “[protect the state of Israel from the prime minister.”

“After the rebellion they led ended in the most terrible disaster in the history of the state, they added sin to crime and embarked on a campaign of covering up, falsifying, and rewriting history,” Tadmor concludes.

Hamas threatens Gazans collaborating with Israel after gang leader taunts family of slain Rafah gunman

Abu Obeida, the spokesman for al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, threatens “a dark fate is coming soon” for Israeli-backed Palestinian forces in Gaza.

The threat appears to come in response to a statement by an anti-Hamas gang leader who mocked the death in battle this morning of the scion of a prominent Hamas family.

“These femboys act like men only in areas controlled by the Zionist army and under the protection of its tanks,” says Abu Obeida in a statement, accusing Israeli-backed forces of “aligning completely with the occupation, implementing its agendas and exchanging roles with it.”

“A dark fate is coming soon for those tracking dogs and tools of the occupation, the grandsons of Abu Righal,” Abu Obeida says, referring to a man identified in the Muslim tradition as a traitor for having divulged the road to the Kaaba in Mecca to a king who wanted to destroy it.

“Their ending will be death and annihilation, and the enemy will not protect them from the justice of our people,” says Abu Obeida.

“Godspeed to our heroic resistance fighters besieged in Rafah… who preferred martyrdom to surrender. Their story will be taught for generations,” added Abu Obeida, referring to four gunmen whom the IDF said it killed this morning after they emerged from a tunnel in Rafah.

Abu Obeida’s threat comes after Ghassan al-Dahini, leader of the Israeli-backed Abu Shabab gang near Rafah, taunted one of the gunmen’s family over their son’s death.

In a social media post, Dahini shared what he said was footage of the gunman being bombed, as well as a graphic photo of the gunman’s mangled head after the strike. Dahini’s post did not say that the IDF killed the four gunmen or explicitly take credit for the killing.

Calling the gunman a “killer criminal,” Dahini said: “Does anyone know this brother?… I know him.”

“Tell his mother he’s not coming home,” wrote Dahini. “Tell her, ‘Your son got what he asked for.'”

“I want his family to know how the terrorist Hamas sold him for cheap and its leader fled through the crossing,” added Dahini, referring to the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which reopened last week and which Dahini’s militia, which has been accused of stealing humanitarian aid, claims to be helping administer.

Hamas’s Sahm 103 unit, which targets suspected collaborators with Israel, claimed that, after the “four besieged resistance fighters” were killed by the IDF in Rafah this morning, Dahini “appeared beside the bodies, expressing his joy at the news” of the gunmen’s death.

Sahm claimed Dahini took credit for the killing of the four gunmen, “despite knowing full well that it was the occupation that bombed them.” The Hamas unit also denied Dahini’s claim that Hamas leaders had fled Gaza through the Rafah Crossing,

According to the Hamas unit, the gunman mocked by Dahini was Anas al-Nashar, whose two brothers were also killed by Israel, and whose father, Issa, is a senior Hamas official in Gaza and former mayor of Rafah.

The slain gunman’s mother, who goes unnamed in the statement, is the sister of Hamas’s East Rafah Battalion commander Mohammad Bawab, whom Israel killed in December, also after he emerged from a tunnel in Rafah, according to Sahm.

“While this family mourns a procession of martyrs, the wife of the agent Dahini sits on social media, begging with donation links, unsatisfied with what was stolen from the people’s aid,” Sahm accused.

Echoing Shas counterpart, Degel HaTorah spiritual leader says those who arrest draft dodgers will face divine justice

The spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah party appears to warn those involved in the arrest of ultra-Orthodox draft evaders that they will face divine justice.

Addressing a gathering in Bnei Brak, Rabbi Dov Lando declares that the arrest of yeshiva students “shakes the heart of every Jew” and that “anyone who is complicit in [this] terrible crime…should know: there is a creator of the world; there is justice, and there is a judge!”

“We all share in the pain of those who have been imprisoned because of their desire to study Torah, and in the pain of their families. We pray with all our hearts that this evil will pass and dissipate like smoke,” he adds.

Lando’s statement comes on the heels of a radio interview in which Rabbi Moshe Maya, one of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party’s senior spiritual leaders, called on members of the military police to refuse orders rather than arrest yeshiva students who evade the draft, adding that anybody who carries out arrests loses his portion in heaven and deserves to be excommunicated.

Report: Indonesian troops to deploy in southern Gaza

Illustrative: Indonesian soldiers are deployed following days of violent protests against lawmakers’ perks and privileges, in Jakarta, Indonesia, September 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Several thousand Indonesian troops are expected to deploy in Gaza in the coming weeks, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.

The Indonesian soldiers would be the first members of the International Stabilization Force to reach Gaza. There is no set date for their arrival.

The force will live in the southeast of Rafah, according to the report. Offices and living quarters will be built for the force in the coming weeks.

In November, Indonesia’s defense minister said the country had trained up to 20,000 troops to take on health and construction-related tasks.

An Indonesian official told reporters that President Prabowo Subianto was invited to attend the February 19 Board of Peace meeting in Washington, but had not decided whether he would make the trip.

IDF says Palestinian killed by troops after crossing Gaza ceasefire line

A Palestinian who crossed the Gaza ceasefire line in the Strip’s north earlier today was killed by troops, the military says.

According to the IDF, the terror operative crossed the Yellow Line and approached soldiers of the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade “in a manner that posed an immediate threat.”

“Immediately after identification, the forces eliminated the terrorist in order to remove the threat,” the army says.

Since the start of the ceasefire in October 2025, the IDF has said it has killed dozens of terror operatives and other “suspects” who have crossed the Yellow Line — demarcating the military’s withdrawal in the Strip — and approached troops. Such incidents have taken place on a near-daily basis.

Netanyahu to brief Trump on Israel’s latest intel on Iran while in DC, report says

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to move his meeting with US President Donald Trump to this week in order to deliver an in-person briefing on Israel’s latest intelligence regarding Iran, Channel 12 reports.

According to the news outlet, Netanyahu will deliver the same briefing to Trump that he gave to US special envoy Steve Witkoff when he visited Israel last week.

He is choosing to deliver it himself to ensure Trump receives all the information accurately, the report says, citing an unnamed source close to the prime minister.

The briefing will cover the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and missile programs, as well as its support for regional proxies and the deadly suppression of protesters during recent demonstrations against the regime, Channel 12 adds.

‘You are welcome to go to Jordan’: Likud MK demands Arab lawmakers speak Hebrew in Knesset

MK Tally Gotliv reacts during a Knesset conference on June 4, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90/ File)

Firebrand lawmaker Tally Gotliv slams Arab lawmakers for speaking Arabic in the Knesset plenum, declaring that “if you don’t feel like speaking Hebrew, you are welcome to go to Jordan.”

Gotliv frequently yells at Arab lawmakers when they attempt to speak Arabic from the Knesset rostrum during debates.

“You don’t want to go to Jordan? No problem. Egypt, we’ll see if they accept you. You don’t want Egypt? Saudi Arabia. They won’t accept you either. Maybe they’ll really accept them in Somalia, maybe in Sudan? Maybe in Ethiopia? I don’t know,” she continues.

“Here, you are citizens with equal rights, and therefore you have to respect the law. And the fact that you sit here in the Israeli Knesset and don’t recognize a Jewish state and say this on Al Jazeera makes you, in my opinion, supporters of terrorism.”

Members of Knesset have the right to speak in Arabic from the plenum, as it has a special status under Israeli law.

Addressing the Arab and Bedouin communities, Gotliv declares that “none of the Arab Knesset members represents you,” slamming them for criticizing far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Report: PM’s chief of staff summoned to hearing at Civil Service Commission as it seeks to suspend him

The Prime Minister's Office's Chief of Staff Tzachi Braverman, seen in the Knesset in Jerusalem, November 11, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, has been summoned to a hearing at the Civil Service Commission, which is pursuing disciplinary measures against him, Channel 13 reports.

Braverman is the subject of an ongoing police investigation due to suspicion that he tried to obstruct a probe into the leak of classified documents from the Prime Minister’s Office to German tabloid Bild.

According to Channel 13, the Civil Service Commission is seeking to suspend Braverman for six months.

Should the suspension move ahead, Channel 13 says Braverman will be unable to take up his post as the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, which he was tapped for back in September.

Ben Gvir refuses to sign off on promotion of senior investigator he has clashed with in the past

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announces his refusal to sign off on the promotion of Chief Superintendent Ruti Hauslich, a high-ranking police investigator with whom he has reportedly clashed in past meetings.

The far-right minister publishes a statement on Hauslich just hours after a judge ordered him to stop stonewalling the advancement of another detective, saying his behavior is motivated by “external considerations” and threatens law enforcement’s independence.

Hauslich will not advance in rank due to “a string of serious lapses in her conduct… which do not permit her promotion to a senior and sensitive role in the investigative system,” Ben Gvir says in a statement.

He accuses the officer of presenting positions in Knesset committee meetings that “contradict those of the Israel Police and National Security Ministry.”

Such behavior, he claims, amounts to impersonating authority, presenting false information to non-police bodies, and violating the law and the police’s code of conduct.

A former police investigator who worked with Hauslich tells The Times of Israel that she is a “very worthy, intelligent” officer who has been an investigator for many years. He adds that her boss, the chief of the police’s investigations and intelligence division, Deputy Commissioner Boaz Blatt, is disliked by Ben Gvir because he operates according to “professional standards, rather than the political desires and interests.”

Earlier today, the Jerusalem District Court ordered Ben Gvir to sign off on the promotion of Superintendent Rinat Saban, another officer in the police’s investigations and intelligence division who testified in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial.

Ben Gvir openly said in a statement decrying the ruling that Saban should be fired due her role in the supposedly “illegal” investigation into Netanyahu and his circle.

Shas spiritual leader: Anyone who arrests ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers should be excommunicated

Rabbi Moshe Maya speaks during a rally marking one year since the death of Rabbi Shimon Hirari in Tel Aviv on February 28, 2016. (Yaacov Cohen/ Flash90/ File)

One of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party’s senior spiritual leaders calls on members of the military police to refuse orders rather than arrest yeshiva students who evade the draft, adding that anybody who carries out arrests loses his portion in heaven and is subject to excommunication.

Speaking with Radio Kol Barama, Rabbi Moshe Maya, a member of Shas’s ruling Council of Torah Sages, states that “anyone who despises the scholars has no part in the world to come” and that there is “no greater dishonor of a scholar than arresting him and putting him in prison.”

In the case of someone who so disgraces a scholar by arresting him, Jewish law states that “he should be excommunicated because he has disgraced a scholar,” Maya declares.

Maya advises soldiers ordered to arrest evaders to ask their rabbis to ask if the IDF is “forcing [him] to transgress a Torah command,” adding that if they asked him directly he “would have told him to refuse an order,” even though he is not a decisor of Jewish law and would not give the soldier a binding ruling.

However, at the end of the day, if a soldier is ordered “to violate a Torah prohibition…it is forbidden to listen,” he says.

After a 2024 High Court decision struck down sweeping exemptions from conscription for Haredi men, the military began sending those men draft notices and, more recently, arresting several who did not obey the notices. Military police attempting to arrest draft evaders have at times encountered street demonstrations.

Shas lawmakers have repeatedly visited draft evaders in military prison.

Coalition whip says ultra-Orthodox parties will vote in favor of key adjustment to passage of state budget

“Despite differences in opinion, the ultra-Orthodox Shas and Degel HaTorah parties “will vote in favor of splitting the Arrangements Law this evening,” announces coalition whip Ofir Katz (Likud).

In a statement, Katz adds that “talks will continue until a solution is reached,” an apparent reference to disagreements over the text of the coalition bill regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment, whose advancement is the Haredi parties’ condition for supporting the 2026 state budget.

The Arrangements Law, a key part of the annual budgetary legislative package, determines how funds will be disbursed and must be passed along with the budget to avoid triggering early elections.

Haredi parties have threatened to torpedo a technical vote that will allow the measure to speed ahead as leverage for legislation on IDF draft exemptions.

Palestinians report two dead, several wounded in Israeli airstrike in Gaza City

Palestinian media reports two dead and several wounded in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City.

The IDF has not yet commented on the reports, but it comes after gunmen emerged from a tunnel and attacked troops in southern Gaza’s Rafah this morning.

Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers rail against IDF after jailed draft dodger prevented from donning tefillin

Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers harshly criticize the military after an IDF spokesperson confirms reports that draft dodger Avraham Ben Dayan was not allowed to put on tefillin while held in military prison.

In a statement, the IDF said that Ben Dayan had indeed been prevented from wearing tefillin — small leather boxes containing Torah verses, which Orthodox Jewish men don every weekday morning during prayers — due to a delay in his transfer to a detention unit. The spokesperson added that it was contrary to regulations and that “procedures in the prison have been sharpened” to prevent a recurrence.

In response, Agudat Yisrael MK Meir Porush declares that the spokesperson’s statement is indicative of an “unacceptable systemic failure.”

“It is illogical that, on the one hand, the legal system, in its madness, obsessively demands the arrest of yeshiva students, and, on the other hand, allows the most basic Jewish rights to be violated,” he declares. “The time has come, long ago, to stop arresting Torah students. This is not how a country governed by Jews operates.”

Degel HaTorah chairman Moshe Gafni accuses the IDF of arresting “a young rabbi in Ofakim for the crime of studying Torah” and adding “a sin to a crime and not letting him don tefillin all day long, as if we were in the Roman Empire.”

“If anyone thinks we will move past this in silence, they are mistaken. We will not remain silent about this. Those who study Torah will continue to study Torah,” he declares.

Shas MK Yoav Ben-Zur questions how people are being prevented from putting on tefillin “in the state that rose from the ashes of the terrible destruction after the Holocaust, a state that was established with the vision of protecting the Jewish people and the tradition.”

Independent journalist arrested, briefly held on suspicion of being in contact with Iranian agents — report

An independent journalist was nabbed last week on suspicion of maintaining contact with Iranian agents, but has since been released from police custody, Ynet reports.

The man was arrested by the Shin Bet and Jerusalem District police after he himself reached out to police’s cyber division with concerns about having received messages from unidentified individuals, according to the outlet.

He was interrogated by Shin Bet agents and then transferred to police investigators for further interrogation. He holds a press ID card, the outlet notes.

He was contacted several times, once by someone requesting that he send them photos of a Haredi anti-draft protest in exchange for money. He became suspicious after someone else reached out asking him to photograph a street, which he refused to do.

The journalist had corresponded with the unidentified individuals under the impression he was helping the Haredi public, his associates tell Ynet.

Officers brought the reporter to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court in a bid to extend his detention by eight days. Their request was granted, but overturned a day later by the city’s district court upon appeal.

Haredi support for splitting Arrangements Law still up in the air

Neither the ultra-Orthodox Shas party nor United Torah Judaism’s Degel HaTorah faction has decided how they will vote on the Arrangements Bill this evening, leaving the critical budget bill’s advancement up in the air.

According to Hebrew media reports, only hours before the scheduled vote in the Knesset plenum, representatives of both parties announced in their respective faction meetings that the issue was still undecided.

“We are coordinated with Shas regarding the discussion on the Conscription Law and the vote on splitting the Arrangements Law; a decision has still not been made on how to vote,” the Israel Hayom daily quotes UTJ MK Uri Maklev as stating.

Emess political reporter Shalom Stein, meanwhile, quotes Shas MK Yinon Azoulay telling the party’s lawmakers that “there is still no decision on how to vote on the Arrangements Law.”

Earlier today, a Degel HaTorah source with knowledge of the matter told The Times of Israel that this evening’s planned vote to split the annual Arrangements Law from a package of economic reforms being pushed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as part of the 2026 state budget is expected to pass.

According to the source, his party will vote in favor of the motion after the ultra-Orthodox parties closed the gaps in their disagreements on the coalition’s Haredi draft exemption bill with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee legal advisor Miri Frenkel Shor.

Report: PM’s office recruited reservists to sort through minutes of pre-Oct. 7 security meetings without knowledge of IDF chief

The Prime Minister’s Office recruited reserve soldiers from the IDF’s intelligence unit last year to obtain the protocols of various security meetings held in the run-up to and the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, the Haaretz newspaper reports.

According to the report, the soldiers were recruited in May and June 2024 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military secretary, Roman Gofman, and without the knowledge of then-IDF chief Herzi Halevi.

The report comes days after the premier published a 55-page document with select quotations from cabinet meetings in the years leading up to October 7, which painted a picture in which Netanyahu ostensibly pushed for aggressive policies against Hamas, while his current political rivals and security chiefs urged long-term deals with the terror group and blocked the assassinations of its leaders.

According to Haaretz, the reserve soldiers were kept in the dark about the purpose of their task, and questioned whether sorting through the minutes of security meetings was beneficial for the army, but did not raise any concerns with their commanders.

Once the relevant protocols had been obtained, Gofman shared them with Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, who then handed them over to Netanyahu, Haaretz reports.

The IDF says in response to the report that the reservists “were assigned to and carried out professional and operational tasks as part of the military secretariat’s routine activities.”

Tibi says Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al will vote against Haredi draft exemption bill

Hadash-Ta'al MK Ahmad Tibi (right) and United Torah Judaism MK Uri Maklev attend a National Security Committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, on February 9, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi tells The Times of Israel that his party will vote against the government’s draft exemption bill for yeshiva students, amid speculation that the Arab-majority party may support or abstain from the vote in exchange for concessions from the coalition.

“Hadash-Ta’al will vote against the draft bill,” says Tibi, speaking to the press before a faction meeting at the Knesset.

“We are interested in shortening the life of the government and doing anything that will destabilize the coalition. This is a law that this coalition is built on, and therefore, we will vote against it,” he continues.

Asked by The Times of Israel whether the party has received offers from the coalition to back the bill in exchange for a quid pro quo, Tibi does not confirm whether any such proposals have been made, but ambiguously says that he asks “the coalition not to contact us on this issue,” and repeats that the party will vote against the bill.

Amid intense debate over the coalition’s Haredi draft exemption bill, every vote counts.

How Hadash-Ta’al, which holds five seats in the Knesset, votes or whether it abstains could be decisive for the bill’s passage.

The battle over the bill is coming down to the wire as the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party remains split, with its Degel Hatorah faction saying it will back the bill, while Agudat Yisrael will not.

Additionally, several coalition lawmakers, including members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s party, have also voiced strong opposition to the bill and have said that they will not support it in its current form.

Names of Nazi collaborators found among signatures on Jewish group’s petition against Herzog’s Australia visit

A petition published by an Australian Jewish anti-Zionist organization in opposition to President Isaac Herzog’s state visit is found to be sporting several fake signatures, including the name of at least one Jewish Nazi collaborator, or Kapo, and a name transliterated from a Hebrew insult.

The petition was published as full-page ads in two Australian newspapers, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, according to the Jewish Council of Australia, which was behind the campaign.

“Over 1,000 Jews and thousands of allies have signed our open letter to say that Israeli President Isaac Herzog is not weclome here,” the organization wrote in a post on X and Facebook, which is accompanied by a snapshot of the petition and the names of those who signed it.

However, social media users were quick to point out several inconsistencies, including that one of the names listed, “Milkek Tachat,” means “ass licker” in Hebrew.

Another name found on the list, Eliezer Gruenbaum, was a Jewish communist who became a kapo after being deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942. He died in 1948.

Other signatures include Carmen Mory, a Swiss spy for Nazi Germany who was executed for her crimes in 1947, and Josef Heiden, who spent three years in Dachau as a political prisoner before being released and joining the Nazi Waffen-SS in 1941.

Haredi protesters clash with police, block major road after suspected draft dodgers arrested

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox anti-draft demonstrators are clashing with police and blocking Route 4 near the Haredi city of Bnei Brak to protest the arrest of two suspected draft evaders last night.

Police have declared the demonstration illegal.

Footage from the protest site shows a crowd of young men sitting in front of cars on the major highway as a police officer yells at them through a megaphone, demanding they clear the road.

Border Police are also deployed to the scene. Officers are directing drivers to alternate routes as the highway remains blocked.

The Jerusalem Faction, an ultra-Orthodox group known for organizing stormy demonstrations against Haredi conscription, announced that a similar protest is set to take place in southern Israel.

Haredi anti-draft demonstrators block traffic on Route 4, near Bnei Brak, as a police officer demands they disperse on February 9, 2026. (Israel Police)

Liberman accuses PM of ‘funneling goods’ to Hamas at expense of Israeli citizens

Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Lieberman (Second right) stands with activists from the Tzav 9 organization protesting the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, February 9, 2026. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of “returning to exactly the same failed concept that led to the disaster” of October 7.

Addressing the press ahead of his hawkish opposition party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Liberman discusses his visit to the Gaza border today, arguing that “the October 7 government is imposing a ‘Hamas tax’ on Israeli citizens and is funneling goods to it at the expense of Israeli citizens.”

“Today I arrived at the Kerem Shalom crossing together with MK Yulia Malinovsky and MK Sharon Nir. What we saw there is unimaginable! Hundreds of trucks entered the Gaza Strip, and at the same exact time, right near there, four terrorists came out of a hole in Rafah. There is not a day that Hamas does not violate the agreement,” he says.

The IDF announced this morning that troops killed four Palestinian gunmen who emerged from a tunnel and attacked soldiers in southern Gaza’s Rafah.

“The government is rehabilitating Gaza even before anyone is even talking about disarming Hamas,” Liberman says. “This government is unable to restore security: not to the residents of the Gaza envelope, not to IDF soldiers, nor to Israeli citizens within the country’s borders.

“We saw this yesterday in Ofakim, when clans went wild in the streets with chainsaws. There is no governance, no security, and no leadership,” he declares, referring to a violent incident in the southern city on Sunday in which residents threw stones and one person was filmed carrying a chainsaw.

According to Liberman, Hamas rules Gaza “completely” on its side of the ceasefire line. He argues that “there is no doubt” that October 7 would not have occurred if not for the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza.

Yair Golan says party will seek communications portfolio amid government’s attacks on media

Democrats chair Yair Golan leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on February 9, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Democrats leader Yair Golan says his party will seek the communications portfolio in a future government amid the coalition’s attacks on the media, and following the potentially imminent acquisition of Channel 13 by businessman Patrick Drahi, who is widely considered to be a supporter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The attempt to take over Channel 13 is a real alarm bell for Israeli democracy. It is a despicable attempt by a government that has lost the public’s trust and is striving to cling to power by force,” Golan says, speaking to the press ahead of a faction meeting at the Knesset.

“We, the Democrats, will take the Communications Ministry and restore the media to being free, courageous, and investigative,” the left-wing party leader continues. Golan has previously said that his party will also seek the Public Security portfolio to address the crime epidemic plaguing Arab society.

According to Walla, sources close to Netanyahu have told billionaire Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries that the offer from Drahi, who owns the HOT cable channel and i24NEWS, would be approved faster than a larger offer by a rival group led by Wiz founders Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Ami Luttwak and Roy Reznik, whose bid was much higher and who have said they want to protect independent journalism.

Channel 13 has been fighting for survival for a number of years, with past claims that journalists were fired for voicing criticism of Netanyahu and the government. Rappaport and his company have also criticized the government, particularly over the contentious judicial overhaul.

“Netanyahu wants mouthpieces. He wants media outlets that will applaud him while he evades responsibility, praise him while he sacrifices Israel’s security, and remain silent while he protects advisers and aides who betrayed the state and received money from Qatar, the same Qatar that funded Hamas and the October 7 massacre,” Golan says, referring to the ongoing investigation into senior Netanyahu aides accused of lobbying on behlaf of Qatar during Israel’s war against Hamas while being employed by the premier’s office.

“He knows that a free and independent press poses a real threat to a corrupt government built on cover-ups. That is why he seeks to turn news channels into obedient, hollow mouthpieces that avoid criticizing him and his government,” he says.

Netanyahu has consistently amplified media outlets that echo the government’s positions, most notably Israel Hayom, a free paper published by Miriam Adelson — and her husband Sheldon Adelson prior to his death — that is widely seen as reflective of Netanyahu’s views and was reportedly founded at his request, and Channel 14, a right-wing news channel that identifies as pro-Netanyahu and that media experts have said he effectively controls.

He has long held an acrimonious relationship with Israeli media, refusing interviews with the notable exception of Channel 14, and has frequently portrayed the press as a hostile force that is persecuting him and even as an enemy of the state.

IDF says cutting back superfluous reservists, will reduce reserve duty time under routine call-up orders to 55 days in 2026

IDF reservists operate in the northern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued by the military on January 17, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says it is working to reduce superfluous reserve forces after the government ordered the military to cap the number of reservists serving this year, while vowing not to harm the benefits provided to those who report for duty.

At the peak of the war, the IDF activated around 300,000 reservists, and it had previously been expected to call up some 60,000 during 2026 for routine activities. In December, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich agreed, as part of the state budget, to cut the number of reservists serving on any given day in 2026 to 40,000 — a move they say will save billions of shekels.

The IDF says it is scaling back roles it deems unnecessary, such as full-time reservists reinforcing civil defense squads in border communities, as well as certain headquarters positions.

The military also says it will reduce the number of days reservists are required to serve under routine call-up orders — not emergency ones — from 72 to 55. It will also end several practices that have become commonplace since the start of the war on October 7, 2023.

At the same time, the IDF says it will not harm the benefits given to reservists who serve for extended periods. Various benefits will now be granted after 45 days of reserve duty, in what the military says is an effort to discourage reservists from continuing to serve unnecessarily beyond that point rather than returning to their civilian jobs.

Frequent and prolonged waves of reserve call-ups during the war drew criticism from the Finance Ministry, which cited inefficiency and extensive waste of funds within the IDF.

To curb the use of superfluous reservists, the IDF says it will prohibit units from recruiting reserve soldiers through social media advertisements, a practice that became widespread during the war. Many reservists would complete their service in one unit and then move to another to continue serving.

Under new army guidelines, recruiting reservists is only permitted through an official military website, a move intended to prevent reservists from being transferred between units without oversight.

Another practice being halted is the so-called “hybrid service,” in which reservists perform their military duty while continuing to work at their civilian jobs, sometimes on a week-on, week-off basis.

Beyond the economic impact, the military says the week-on, week-off arrangement has harmed the cohesion of combat units, as some soldiers never end up serving alongside those who are meant to be their comrades.

The direct cost of the war has been estimated at around NIS 220 billion ($67 billion), of which approximately NIS 50–70 billion was allocated to funding the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists for extended periods.

Two brothers indicted on suspicion of espionage on behalf of Iran

State prosecutors file an indictment against two brothers suspected of spying on behalf of Iranian intelligence agents.

The suspects live in separate cities near Jerusalem and were arrested last month by West Bank police. Police announced the case last week, but noted it was under a gag order.

According to a brief statement from the State Attorney’s Office, one of the suspects provided intelligence to Iranian agents with the help of his sibling.

Prosecutors claim that both were fully aware at the time that they were assisting hostile elements, but did so anyway in exchange for money.

The brothers face a litany of security offenses, including contact with a foreign agent and transmitting information to the enemy.

The State Attorney’s Office requests that the court keep the pair in custody until the end of legal proceedings against them.

Opposition parties remove no-confidence motions from Knesset agenda ahead of key budget vote

A plenum session for the Knesset's 77th birthday, February 2, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

In a joint statement, the heads of the opposition announce that “in light of the coalition crisis with the Haredim” they are withdrawing all motions of no-confidence in the government from the Knesset plenum agenda today “in order to move straight to a vote on the division” of the Arrangements Law.

The planned vote to split the annual Arrangements Law from a package of economic reforms being pushed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as part of the 2026 state budget is expected to pass this evening, a source in the United Torah Judaism party’s Degel HaTorah faction told The Times of Israel earlier today.

According to the source, his party will vote in favor of the motion after the ultra-Orthodox parties closed the gaps in their disagreements on the coalition’s Haredi draft exemption bill with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee legal advisor Miri Frenkel Shor.

Degel HaTorah and Shas are expected to vote in favor of the motion. However, Agudat Yisrael, which together with Degel HaTorah comprises the larger United Torah Judaism party, announced it would vote against it.

IDF: Hezbollah operative killed by Israeli troops in Ayta ash-Shab, southern Lebanon

A Hezbollah operative was killed by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon’s Ayta ash-Shab earlier today, the military says.

The IDF says it collected intelligence on the operative in recent months, and recently he had worked to collect intel on Israeli forces and rebuild Hezbollah’s infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

“The terrorist’s activities constituted a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and posed a threat to IDF troops operating in the area,” the army says.

Following the intelligence-gathering operations, troops of the 300th “Baram” Regional Brigade killed the operative, the army says.

Netanyahu to fly to DC at noon tomorrow, land back in Israel Friday morning

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to take off from Ben Gurion Airport on the Wing of Zion aircraft at noon tomorrow, and land in Washington DC around 6 p.m. local time.

Unlike his previous two US trips, Netanyahu will bring reporters on his plane.

He is slated to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday.

Netanyahu is scheduled to head back to Israel at noon on Thursday and land early Friday morning.

Lapid slams Haredi community for financially supporting draft evaders

Responding to a Times of Israel report that the extremist Jerusalem Faction and the Satmar Hasidic faction are paying tens of thousands of shekels to draft dodgers after they are released from prison, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid calls to cut Haredi budgets until they begin serving in the IDF.

Asked about the Jerusalem Faction’s announcement that one evader had received NIS 60,000 ($19,500) from rabbis and activists after being released from 18 days in military prison, Lapid says “we are making it too easy for them when we call them the ‘Jerusalem Faction.’ I saw the celebrations at the Ponevezh Yeshiva surrounding deserters who were released; this goes beyond just the most extreme elements.”

“In the end, you know what’s most infuriating about what you described? It’s coming from Israeli taxpayers’ money. That’s where it’s coming from. It’s the 60 billion shekels that Israeli citizens pay every year to draft dodgers. We need to say: ‘You won’t receive a single cent if you don’t enlist in the IDF’ and then they won’t have the money to give to deserters.”

Antiquities bill extending Israeli civilian control over West Bank ready for Knesset plenum vote

Workers keep flat the restored floor of the ancient theater built by Herod the Great between 23-15 BCE in the Judaean desert, southeast of Bethlehem in the West Bank, on December 7, 2020. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

A controversial bill creating a new civilian authority that will be in charge of antiquities in the West Bank is ready to be voted on by the Knesset plenum after its draft was approved by the security cabinet yesterday, the bill’s sponsor, Likud MK Amit Halevi, tells The Times of Israel in an exchange of written messages.

A date for the vote has yet to be set.

In a dramatic move, the bill, if approved, would also apply to Areas A and B. Under the Oslo Accords, Area B is under the Palestinian Authority’s civilian control, while Area A is under both PA civilian and security control.

Last week, the Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee okayed the draft, but given its sensitive nature, and at the Justice Ministry’s request, the committee decided that the bill would return to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation for discussion.

The committee’s legal adviser, Tamar Sela, stressed that if passed into law, the legislation 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.

Supporters of the bill claim the measure is necessary to preserve archaeological sites and artifacts in the area that are languishing due to decades of neglect, damage, and looting.

Its critics maintain that the move would amount to de facto annexation in the field of antiquities without improving the situation for archaeological and ancient sites and artifacts.

Halevi says that in light of the cabinet’s decision, the draft will now go straight to the plenum for its first reading. If approved, the bill will then return to the committee to be prepared for the plenum’s second and third readings.

Yesterday, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced a series of security cabinet decisions to “dramatically” change land registration and property acquisition procedures in the West Bank, easing Jewish settlement in the territory.

It was also decided to expand oversight and enforcement activities into areas A and B with regard to water violations, damage to archaeological sites, and environmental hazards that pollute the entire territory, they said in a joint statement.

Gantz accuses Netanyahu of ‘rewriting history’ by deflecting blame for October 7

Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz speaks at a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on February 9, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz calls Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 55-page document deflecting responsibility for the October 7 attacks a “rewriting of history,” noting that he was present in the room on many occasions, both as IDF chief of staff and later in successive governments led by Netanyahu, when the premier chose not to pursue various policies that he has since blamed on the defense and intelligence establishment.

The premier published last week a document of answers he gave to State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman as part of the ombudsman’s investigation into the October 7 attacks.

Netanyahu, who has served as prime minister since 2009, save for an 18-month period from 2021-2022, has been criticized for seeking to portray himself as having sought far-reaching action against Hamas, while being thwarted by the objections of security chiefs and the lack of public backing for such a move.

“I was there as chief of staff when I told him we were ready to strike Iran and he decided not to,” says Gantz, speaking to reporters before a faction meeting at the Knesset.

“When I presented the implications of conquering Gaza and the entire cabinet decided not to conquer it, and when, after I proposed seizing the Netzarim Corridor, the political echelon decided not to seize it,” he continues.

“And, I was there when I warned Netanyahu and [Justice Minister] Yariv Levin that the rush toward a judicial overhaul would bring disaster upon us, and they decided to keep rushing ahead and brought upon us a disaster we could not have imagined,” Gantz says.

“Even if we ignore the rewriting of history, Netanyahu has presented a severe indictment against himself. He was the one who insisted on leaving ‘Hamas deterred and weakened’ in power,” Gantz adds.

The party leader notes that Netanyahu readily takes credit for successes and positive developments, but when it comes to failures or disasters, he deflects blame, attributing them instead to “the deep state.”

Lapid accuses Democrats chair Golan of ‘breaking’ terms of Labor-Meretz merger deal

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid criticizes Democrats chairman Yair Golan for “breaking” the Labor party’s agreement with the left-wing Meretz faction which led to the creation of the unified Democrats party in June 2024.

Last week, Channel 12 reported that Golan was trying to convince Meretz to give up several of their places on the party list for other candidates to allow for additional candidates to join. However, Meretz reportedly threatened to withdraw from The Democrats should Golan take away any of their places without their agreement.

Speaking with reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Lapid claims that the two parties splitting would be a “disaster” and had they run together in the last election, “I would be standing here today as prime minister, not as opposition leader.”

Meretz was unable to pass the election threshold in the 2022 election and did not make it into the Knesset. It was a member of the short-lived 2021-2022 “government of change” headed by Lapid and former prime minister Naftali Bennett.

Lapid and Golan have traded barbs in recent months, with Golan slamming Lapid last September for saying that there won’t be another government with Arab parties after Hamas’s October 7 attack. In October, a leaked recording purported to capture Lapid accusing Golan’s party of “weakening” his centrist Yesh Atid party during a Zoom with party activists.

The Democrats “want to weaken us because they want to draw votes away from us,” he said then. Such behavior is “legitimate in the political world, but they also know the truth — and the truth is that Yesh Atid is doing an exceptional job in opposition under very difficult conditions, winning battles without losing its identity and without becoming what it hates.”

UK’s Starmer refuses to heed calls to quit over Mandelson-Epstein scandal

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech at Horntye Park Sports Complex, in St Leonards-on-Sea, southeast England, February 5, 2026. (Peter Nicholls / POOL / AFP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer “is concentrating on the job in hand” and will not resign, his official spokesman says, as the embattled leader faces intense pressure over the Epstein scandal.

Starmer was “getting on with the job of delivering change across the country,” the spokesman tells reporters, hours after the prime minister’s communications chief and chief of staff both resigned.

The Labour leader, in office for 19 months, is himself facing calls from opposition politicians to resign over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, despite knowing Mandelson had maintained links to Epstein after the US sex offender was convicted in 2008.

Lapid acuses Netanyahu of falsifying security protocols to avoid Oct. 7 blame

Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on February 9, 2026.(Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of falsifying security protocols in an effort to deflect blame from himself over his government’s failures on October 7.

“The Netanyahu document is a forgery of security protocols in an official document issued by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, in a way that must be intentional,” Lapid declares, referring to a 55-page document released by Netanyahu last week containing his answers given to the State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman as part of the ombudsman’s investigation into the attack.

By releasing the document, Netanyahu “made a mistake. He opened Pandora’s box, and they are trying to close it again. It will not work for them,” Lapid tells reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, adding that “the problem is not that Netanyahu is lying. The fact that Netanyahu is lying is not exactly news. This is much more serious. The biased editing of protocols of security discussions is a violation of the Official Secrets Law.”

In his answers to State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, Netanyahu sought to build the case, with partial, curated quotes from cabinet protocols, that he repeatedly pushed for assassinating Hamas leaders but security chiefs consistently argued against the idea.

However, according to Lapid, Netanyahu’s description of a security assessment he held with senior defense and security officials on October 1, 2023, less than a week before the attack, omitted key details, releasing only a single misleading paragraph.

“What actually happened in that meeting,” says Lapid, is that “then-Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar recommended preparing for a series of escalation scenarios and targeted preventions in Gaza. In that same meeting, then-Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi recommended preparing a plan for a broad campaign in the Gaza Strip.

“The recommendations of Ronen Bar and Herzi Halevi came following particularly severe and urgent intelligence warnings about Hamas’s organization for combat in Gaza. I was familiar with these warnings; the entire system was familiar with them. We all thought the danger was immediate and tangible,” says Lapid.

EU condemns Israel’s new West Bank control measures

The European Union condemns new Israeli measures to tighten control of the West Bank and pave the way for more settlements in the territory.

“The European Union condemns recent decisions by Israel’s security cabinet to expand Israeli control in the West Bank. This move is another step in the wrong direction,” EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni tells journalists.

MKs vote to advance bill banning use of ‘skunk’ spray at protesters

Police fire skunk liquid at protesters during demonstrations against the decision of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, in Jerusalem, March 20, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Lawmakers on the Knesset National Security Committee vote to advance a bill banning the use of  “skunk” spray on protesters to the second and third readings needed to pass it into law.

The legislation, sponsored by United Torah Judaism MKs Moshe Gafni and Yaakov Asher, is intended to ensure that police water cannons used to disperse demonstrations will only fire clean water without the addition of any substance, including color and odor.

Sprayed out of a high-pressure water cannon truck, the putrid liquid is often used on Haredi anti-draft demonstrators and Palestinians in the West Bank, but has also been rolled out against anti-government protesters in recent years.

The makeup of the substance is shrouded in mystery and relevant authorities have declined to disclose its exact ingredients. Some of those who have been sprayed with the substance reported skin irritation, shortness of breath and headaches.

The bill, which is supported by both coalition and opposition lawmakers, stipulates that police take video of the use of such cannons and save it for three years, providing it upon request to anyone who claims to have been injured — although law enforcement would be allowed to request a court order to withhold such documentation if its release would harm an ongoing investigation or public safety.

Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi celebrates its advancement, calling it “an important bill for both citizens and police officers,” while committee chairman Zvika Fogel (Otzma Yehudit) states that “we are going to limit the extent of police force, but I ask that the spirit of the police does not falter. Where necessary, I strengthen the police, and where necessary, I ensure that the use of force is carried out within a framework of clear tools.”

UTJ source says Arrangements Law expected to pass

MK Moshe Gafni, a member of the Degel Hatorah faction of United Torah Judaism party, attends a plenum session in the Knesset, November 5, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A planned vote to split the annual Arrangements Law from a package of economic reforms being pushed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as part of the 2026 state budget is expected to pass this evening, a source in the United Torah Judaism party’s Degel HaTorah faction tells The Times of Israel.

According to the source, his party will vote in favor of the motion after the ultra-Orthodox parties closed the gaps in their disagreements on the coalition’s Haredi draft exemption bill with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee legal advisor Miri Frenkel Shor.

The Haredi Degel HaTorah and Shas parties have been in intense discussions after the ultra-Orthodox Shas party last week blocked a vote for the split in order to protest the slow pace at which the bill regulating conscription was advancing.

Further delays could complicate the timeline for approving the budget, which must pass three readings by the end of March in order to prevent the dissolution of the Knesset, triggering early elections three months later. Elections are currently slated to be held by late October.

Ultra-Orthodox representatives had been pushing back hard against changes demanded by Frenkel Shor, who has expressed significant criticism of the bill and called for the addition of several amendments to the legislation that are opposed by the Haredim.

She has previously warned that the bill violates the principle of equality and fails to meet security needs. She has also called to reexamine a clause ending sanctions at age 26 and argued that by effectively resetting the status of yeshiva students who ignored call-up orders over the past year, the legislation would grant legal immunity to Haredim but not to non-Haredi evaders.

One of the key sticking points was Frenkel Shor’s opposition to a clause in the bill allowing an advisory committee to lower recruitment targets should its members feel that insufficient Haredi-oriented tracks have been established in the IDF. Haredi lawmakers have also objected to Frenkel Shor’s call to pass the law “as a temporary provision for a maximum period of five years.”

However, according to the source, the Haredim have backed away from some of their demands and agreed to allow the bill to pass as a temporary measure. At the same time, the oversight committee would be allowed to function, but its recommendations would not be obligatory, and it would not be allowed to lower enlistment targets.

Defense Ministry says it faces massive shortage of therapists to treat soldiers with PTSD

Former soldiers who are suffering from PTSD speak during a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem, November 10, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The defense ministry is currently grappling with a shortage of therapists for IDF combatants suffering from post-traumatic stress following the war in Gaza, the defense ministry tells lawmakers.

Addressing the Knesset Health Committee, Ronit Sandrovich, the head of the Defense Ministry’s Social Services Responses Division, states that there is only one caseworker for approximately 850 injured individuals.

“We owe our psychological casualties, the post-trauma victims. The State of Israel sent them into battle, or was responsible for them in moments of horror, and now it is our duty to stand by them in the rehabilitation process,” says chairwoman Limor Son Har-Melech, adding that her committee will “ensure that their rehabilitation is at the top of the healthcare system’s priorities.”

Addressing the committee, Micha Katz, one of the leaders of a long-running combat-trauma victims protest outside the Knesset, called for the development of a family-based rehabilitation framework and work to reintegrate and empower PTSD-sufferers while Avichai Levi, another trauma victim, accuses the public of forgetting him and his comrades.

“We went out to die and we came back dead. Do some soul-searching,” he declares.

Iran warns of ‘deep distrust’ with US despite talks

A handout photograph released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry on February 8, 2026, shows Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaking to a forum in Tehran (Iran's Foreign Minister / AFP)

Iran still holds “deep distrust” for the United States despite agreeing to return to talks on its disputed nuclear program, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warns.

“We are looking for serious negotiations to achieve a result, provided the other side shows the same seriousness and is also ready for constructive negotiations,” the minister says.

“Unfortunately, a deep mistrust persists due to the behavior of the United States in recent years,” he says, addressing ambassadors at a diplomatic gathering in Tehran.

Herzog tells Sydney’s Jews he hopes to ‘increase understanding’ with Australian leaders

President Isaac Herzog gestures after delivering a speech as he participates in an event titled 'An Evening of Light and Solidarity' for the victims of the December 14, 2025 gun attack in Sydney on February 9, 2026. (Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP)

President Isaac Herzog expresses Israel’s solidarity with the Australian Jewish community and says he intends to “increase understanding” with the country amid rising antisemitism there, speaking at a memorial event for the victims of the December terror attack on a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach, during which 15 people were murdered.

“The hatred that triggered the shooting at Bondi is the very same, age-old, plague of antisemitism endured by our parents and grandparents,” Herzog says in a readout from his office, adding that “somehow, the [Hamas-led 2023] October 7th massacre…emboldened closeted antisemites, here in Australia and around the world.”

“We have longed to see you and to grieve with you, and we come bearing the prayers of your Israeli family,” Herzog says at the ceremony, attended by survivors of the attack, families of victims, and thousands of members of the Sydney Jewish community.

The event was also attended by New South Wales Governor Margaret Beazley, New South Wales Premier Chris Minn, and additional senior officials and representatives of the Jewish community.

“I am here also to reinvigorate the important relations between our two strong democracies,” Herzog continues. “I know that by working together we will find the way to expand collaboration and increase understanding and upgrade our relations. During my visit, I intend to discuss it with your national leadership,” he says.

“Together we grieve, together we remember, and together we will build a safer future we can share,” Herzog concludes.

Herzog is slated to meet with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who invited him for the visit, as well as Governor-General Sam Mostyn and others “from across the political spectrum” during his trip, which has also drawn widespread opposition and organized protests from local anti-Israel groups.

Starmer’s communications director quits, 2nd top aide to go in a day over Epstein scandal

(COMBO) This combination of file photos created on February 5, 2026 shows Jeffrey Epstein in an undated handout photo obtained July 11, 2019 courtesy of the New York State Sex Offender Registry (L); British Labour MP and former UK ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson (C) speaking during a press conference in London on January 30, 2013; and Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) inside 10 Downing Street in London on September 16, 2025. (Photo by New York State Sex Offender Registry / AFP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s director of communications Tim Allan resigned on Monday, a day after Starmer’s top aide Morgan McSweeney quit over his role in backing Peter Mandelson over his known links to Jeffrey Epstein.

The loss of two senior aides in quick succession comes as Starmer tries to draw a line under the crisis in his government resulting from his appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to the US.

“I have decided to stand down to allow a new No. 10 team to be built. I wish the PM and his team every success,” Allan said in a statement on Monday.

Allan served as an adviser to Tony Blair from 1992 to 1998 and went on to found and lead one of the country’s foremost public affairs consultancies in 2001. In September 2025, he was appointed executive director of communications at Downing Street.

Thousands attend funeral ceremony for singer Matti Caspi in Tel Aviv

Family members and friends attend a funeral service for singer and composer Mati Caspi, who died after a prolonged battle with cancer, in Tel Aviv, February 9, 2026. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Several thousand people, including family, friends and fans, attend a funeral ceremony for iconic Israeli singer and songwriter Matti Caspi in Tel Aviv ahead of his burial.

Caspi’s coffin was on view in the courtyard of The Performing Arts Center, where several fellow artists, including Riki Gal, Shlomo Gronich and Danny Robas, performed his songs.

He was eulogized by Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and several of the performers.

Robas hailed Caspi as “the greatest musician of our generation.”

Caspi died yesterday. He was 76 and had suffered from cancer in recent years.

Saudi Arabia, 7 other Muslim countries condemn Israel over ‘illegal’ measures tightening control in West Bank

A young boy from the Palestinian hamlet of Umm al-Khair in the West Bank plays on a soccer pitch just meters from the settlement of Carmel in the background, February 2, 2026 (Jeremy Sharon/Times of Israel)

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey condemn the Israeli security cabinet’s approval yesterday of a West Bank policy overhaul altering land registration and property acquisition procedures to ease Jewish settlement and Israeli authority in the territory.

The measures are “aimed at imposing unlawful Israeli sovereignty, entrenching settlement activity, and enforcing a new legal and administrative reality in the occupied West Bank, thereby accelerating attempts at its illegal annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian people,” the countries say in a joint statement, calling on the international community “to compel Israel to halt its dangerous escalation in the occupied West Bank and the inciting statements of its officials.”

Earlier, the Palestinian Authority condemned the move, calling for UN and US intervention, while Hamas called for an “escalation” of the conflict “by all available means,” urging Arab and Muslim states to cut ties to Israel.

Iran’s supreme leader urges Iranians to show ‘resolve’ against foreign pressure

A giant billboard displaying a map of potential targets in Tel Aviv along with a warning message reading, 'You start, we finish!' is seen at Palestine Square as traffic move through the area, in Tehran on February 9, 2026. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls on his compatriots to show “resolve” ahead of the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution this week.

Since the revolution, “foreign powers have always sought to restore the previous situation,” Khamenei says, referring to the period when Iran was under the rule of shah Reza Pahlavi and dependent on the United States.

“National power is less about missiles and aircraft and more about the will and steadfastness of the people,” the leader says, adding: “Show it again and frustrate the enemy.”

IDF says Lebanon strike targeted Hezbollah artillery commander

A Hezbollah artillery commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon this morning, the IDF says.

According to the IDF, the strike in Yanouh killed Ahmad Ali Salami, who served as an artillery commander in Hezbollah.

The military says Salami advanced numerous rocket attacks on Israel during the 2023-2024 war with Hezbollah, and recently was working to restore the terror group’s artillery infrastructure “from within the civilian population in Lebanon.” His actions were a violation of the ceasefire, the army says.

“The IDF is aware of the claim that uninvolved civilians were killed,” the military says, after Lebanon’s health ministry reported three dead, including a three-year-old.

The IDF says it took steps to mitigate civilian harm, and that it “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians and operates to minimize harm as much as possible.”

“The incident is under review,” the military adds.

Court orders Ben Gvir to stop blocking promotion of officer who testified against Netanyahu

Police Supt. Rinat Saban arrives at the Jerusalem District Court for a hearing on National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's refusal to sign off on her promotion on January 25, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Jerusalem District Court rules that far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir must stop blocking the promotion of  Supt. Rinat Saban, an officer who testified against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The court says that the events “raise real concern about the existence of external considerations” affecting her promotion.

Ben Gvir has for months, against the counsel of senior police brass, been preventing the advancement of Saban, who helped investigate and later testified in Netanyahu’s corruption trial.

Ben Gvir later tells a conference that he will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, adding that he is “not a rubber stamp.”

Traditionally, the minister responsible for police signs off on officers’ promotions in rank. However, the signature was seen as little more than a formality until Ben Gvir was appointed.

Police chief Danny Levy has been seeking to promote the superintendent and argued in a November court filing that Ben Gvir’s refusal to give the final signature “could sow fear among police officers who testify in criminal investigations.”

Ben Gvir signed off on Saban’s promotion in December 2024 conditional on her completing the police command and staff course. She finished the course in April 2025, a month after testifying against Netanyahu in court. Then, in a reversal, he blocked the promotion.

UK’s Starmer to address Labour lawmakers as he fights for survival amid spreading Epstein scandal

FILE - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, talks with Britain's ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson during a welcome reception at the ambassador's residence on February 26, 2025 in Washington. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP, file)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s position hangs by a thread as he tries to persuade his Labour Party’s lawmakers not to kick him out of his job after just a year and a half in office.

Starmer lost his chief of staff yesterday and is rapidly shedding support from Labour legislators after revelations about the relationship between former British ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Starmer is due to address Labour lawmakers behind closed doors later today in an attempt to rebuild some of his shattered authority.

The political storm stems from Starmer’s decision in 2024 to appoint Mandelson to Britain’s most important diplomatic post, despite knowing he had ties to Epstein.

Starmer fired Mandelson in September after emails were published showing that he maintained a friendship with Epstein after the late financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor. Critics say Starmer should have known better than to appoint Mandelson, 72, a contentious figure whose career has been studded with scandals over money or ethics.

A new trove of Epstein files released in the United States has brought more details about the relationship, and new pressure on Starmer.

Starmer apologized last week for “having believed Mandelson’s lies.”

He promised to release documentation related to Mandelson’s appointment, which the government says will show that Mandelson misled officials about his ties to Epstein.

Police are investigating Mandelson for potential misconduct in public office over documents suggesting he passed sensitive government information to Epstein a decade and a half ago. The offense carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Mandelson has not been arrested or charged, and does not face any allegations of sexual misconduct.

Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, took the fall for the decision by quitting yesterday, saying that “I advised the prime minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice.”

McSweeney has been Starmer’s most important aide since he became Labour leader in 2020, and is considered a key architect of Labour’s landslide July 2024 election victory. But some in the party blame him for a series of missteps since then.

Adviser to Iran’s supreme leader to visit Oman on Tuesday

Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, attends a ceremony at Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's grave in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, marking the first anniversary of Nasrallah's assassination in Israeli airstrikes. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will visit Oman accompanied by a delegation on Tuesday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reports.

American and Iranian diplomats held indirect talks in Oman last week, aimed at reviving diplomacy amid a US naval buildup near Iran and Tehran’s vows of a harsh response if attacked.

“During this trip, (Larijani) will meet with high-ranking officials of the Sultanate of Oman and discuss the latest regional and international developments and bilateral cooperation at various levels,” Tasnim says.

The date and venue of the next round of talks are yet to be announced.

Sydney police use pepper spray, scuffles break out at anti-Israel protest

A protester is helped after police deployed pepper spray to disperse demonstrators taking part in a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel rally against President Isaac Herzog's visit to Australia in Sydney on February 9, 2026. (Saeed Khan / AFP)

Police in the Australian city of Sydney deploy pepper spray and scuffle with protesters as a march against a visit by President Isaac Herzog turned violent, an AFP journalist says.

Police hit protesters and members of the media, including AFP, with pepper spray as a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel rally attempted to leave a designated area.

Prince William, Kate ‘deeply concerned’ by latest revelations tying Epstein to Andrew

Britain's Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales meet Archbishop of Canterbury Dame Sarah Mullally at Lambeth Palace, London, Thursday Feb. 5, 2026. (Aaron Chown/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine have been “deeply concerned” by the latest revelations linking William’s uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Kensington Palace says.

“I can confirm that the Prince and Princess of Wales have been deeply concerned by the continued revelations,” the palace says in a statement.

The statement — first public comments from the heir to the throne and his wife on the scandal since the latest release of Epstein files more than a week ago — added that “their thoughts remain focused on the victims” of Epstein, who died in prison awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.

UTJ’s Agudat Yisrael faction to vote against Arrangements Law in budget vote

Agudat Yisrael chairman (center) speaks with members of his party during a vote on the 2026 state budget, January 28, 2026. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party’s Agudat Yisrael faction will vote against the Arrangements Law, a critical part of the 2026 state budget, in the Knesset plenum today, faction mouthpiece HaModia announces.

Last night, Haredi media reported that the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s legal adviser and representatives of Haredi parties had begun closing the gaps between their positions on the coalition’s bill regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment and exemptions, following several hours of negotiations.

This is likely enough to prevent Shas and UTJ faction Degel HaTorah from blocking the advance of the bill, and both will likely join the coalition in voting in favor of splitting the annual Arrangements Law from a package of economic reforms being pushed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as part of the budget.

Last week, Shas blocked such a vote in order to protest the snail’s pace of the coalition’s draft exemption bill. The bill, if passed, will preserve sweeping exemptions from conscription for yeshiva students.

Degel HaTorah mouthpiece Yated Neeman does not state how the faction will vote.

Haredi group calls for protests this evening after 2 draft dodgers arrested

Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest against the drafting of Haredim, in Jerusalem, January 11, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Haredi anti-draft demonstrations are expected in several locations nationwide this evening after the IDF and police arrested another two yeshiva students on suspicion of draft dodging.

The Jerusalem Faction, a Haredi group known for its stormy protests against the conscription of ultra-Orthodox men, has called on its followers to gather at 4 p.m. for demonstrations in Bnei Brak and southern Israel.

Last night, traffic police detained Avraham Ben Dayan in southern Israel, then transferred him to the IDF Military Police after realizing he was evading conscription, the group says.

Military Police officers in Be’er Ya’akov arrested another yeshiva student, Eliyahu Kashi, also suspected of draft dodging. Officers entered his family’s home and took him into custody, the group claims.

Lebanon says 3 killed in Israeli strike, including child

Lebanon’s health ministry reports that the Israeli strike today in Yanouh, near Tyre, killed three people, including a three-year-old.

The IDF said it had targeted a Hezbollah operative.

Iran arrests at least four reform front politicians as crackdown expands

A man walks past a mural depicting the US Statue of Liberty with the torch-bearing arm broken, painted on the outer walls of the former US embassy, in Tehran on February 6, 2026. (Photo by AFP)

The Islamic Iran Nation’s Union Party sought the release of secretary-general Azar Mansouri, the Shargh newspaper says, after her arrest along with other members of the Reform Front, an umbrella body of Iranian reformists and moderates.

A campaign of mass arrests and intimidation has led to the arrests of thousands as authorities seek to deter further protests after last month’s crackdown on the bloodiest unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Yesterday, state media said three senior figures from Iran’s Reform Front were arrested, among them Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, Mohsen Aminzadeh, and Azar Mansouri, who acts as the front’s head.

Shargh says at least two more Reform Front members were asked to report to the prosecutor’s office in Tehran’s Evin prison tomorrow.

The Reform Front’s spokesperson, Javad Emam, was also arrested, Mansouri’s lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, says, adding that it was unclear what charges those detained face.

On Sunday, the judiciary’s media outlet Mizan said “four important political elements supporting the Zionist (regime) and the United States” were indicted, but gave no details.

Tehran has blamed unrest-related violence on “rioters and armed terrorists” it says were backed by its key enemies, Israel and the United States.

Past Reform Front statements have been highly critical of authorities. After the 12-day war against Israel, its members warned that “incremental collapse” awaited the country if it did not adopt fundamental reforms.

Activist Somaya Bashir seeks spot on Democrats’ slate, calls for Arab-Jewish partnership

Somaya Bashir speaks during an anti-government protest at Habima Square, Tel Aviv in January, 2026. (Courtesy/ Caroline Dervil)

Arab-Israeli activist Somaya Bashir says that she is running in the primaries for the left-wing Democrats party to advocate for issues facing the Arab community and to advance Arab-Jewish partnership.

Bashir announced on her Facebook page yesterday that she would be running in the party’s primaries, making her the left-wing party’s first potential Arab candidate.

A longtime activist and psychologist from the northern village of Jatt, Bashir has established several non-profits, including “We Have No Other Land,” and has been a leader in the non-profit Women Wage Peace.

She says that as a hijab-wearing woman from a traditional village, she debated whether she wanted to enter the political fray, knowing the criticism she would receive. But at 50, she tells the Times of Israel that she has waited long enough.

“I haven’t seen any change, so I decided to do it. If I don’t, nobody else will,” she says.

“The Arab community is burning, and nobody is doing anything,” she continues, pointing to the ongoing wave of crime and violence plaguing Arab towns, in addition to a lower quality of life and rights for Arab citizens.

In the current political landscape, Bashir says the left-wing party led by Yair Golan, following last year’s merger between the Labor Party and Meretz, is the only party meaningfully engaging with Arab society.

Bashir says she did not consider joining one of the four Arab-majority parties that recently signed an agreement to work towards a Joint List.

“That is no way to influence or have power. You need to be part of the system,” she says. While she says she is proud of the Arab parties, she argues they “haven’t helped us be part of the greater society and haven’t advanced” meaningful change.

She wants to have meaningful power and the ability to effect change, which “cannot be done” from outside the government.

Man seriously wounded in shooting in central Israel

A man was seriously injured after assailants shot at his car in Tira, an Arab city in central Israel.

The victim, who is around 50 years old, was found conscious by paramedics but evacuated in unstable condition to a nearby hospital, Magen David Adom says.

Police say the shooting was carried out against the backdrop of a “blood feud between criminals.”

Large police forces are operating at the scene of the shooting and have launched a manhunt for the perpetrators.

Thousands protest across Australia against Herzog visit

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters take part in a demonstration against President Isaac Herzog's visit to Australia in Sydney on February 9, 2026. (Photo by Saeed Khan / AFP)

Thousands gather across Australia to protest the arrival of President Isaac Herzog, who is on a multi-city trip aimed at expressing solidarity with Australia’s Jewish community after a deadly mass shooting last year.

Herzog is visiting Australia this week following an invitation from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the aftermath of the December 14 shooting at a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that killed 15.

The visit has attracted the ire of some people in Australia, who accuse Herzog of being complicit in civilian deaths in Gaza. Pro-Palestine, anti-Israel groups have organized protests in cities and towns across the country.

In Sydney, thousands gathered in a square in the city’s central business district, listening to speeches and shouting pro-Palestinian slogans. There was a heavy police presence with a helicopter circling overhead and officers patrolling on horseback.

“The Bondi massacre was terrible but from our Australian leadership there’s been no acknowledgment of the Palestinian people and the Gazans,” said Jackson Elliott, a 30-year-old protestor from Sydney.

“Herzog has dodged all the questions about the occupation and says this visit is about Australia and Israeli relations but he is complicit.”

Herzog has a largely ceremonial role.

Israel denies accusations of war crimes, saying its military actions in Gaza, sparked by the October 7 massacre, are targeted at terror groups, which it accuses of using the civilian population as human shields.

Fringe anti-Zionist Australian Jewish group takes out ads against Herzog visit

President Isaac Herzog (C) and his wife Michal (R) arrive to lay a wreath for the victims of the December 14, 2025 gun attack at the Bondi Pavilion, in Sydney on February 9, 2026. (Photo by David GRAY / AFP)

The fringe anti-Zionist Jewish Council of Australia community group runs full-page ads in Sydney and Melbourne newspapers protesting the visit of President Isaac Herzog.

The ads, endorsed with the names of 687 Australian Jews, say that: “Herzog does not speak for us and is NOT WELCOME HERE.”

“We refuse to let our collective grief be used to legitimize a leader whose rhetoric has been part of inciting a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and has contributed to the illegal annexation of the West Bank,” the council’s executive officer Sarah Schwartz says.

Israel denies accusations of genocide and war crimes, saying its military actions in Gaza, sparked by the October 7 massacre, are targeted at terror groups, which it accuses of using the civilian population as human shields.

Mainstream Jewish groups have welcomed the visit of Herzog, a former leader of the centrist Labor Party who now plays a largely ceremonial role.

Herzog is making the visit in the wake of the December terror shooting at a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in which 15 people were massacred by a father and son in an Islamic terrorist attack.

Thanks to your support, our full-page ad is in today’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Over 1,000 Jews and thousands of allies have signed our open letter to say that Israeli President Isaac Herzog is not welcome here.

Help us spread the word! pic.twitter.com/sq1k2he7rf

— Jewish Council of Australia (@jewishcouncilAU) February 9, 2026

IDF says four gunmen killed after emerging from Rafah tunnel, firing on troops

Illustrative: Israeli soldiers climb on the rubble next to the entrance of a tunnel in Rafah, Gaza Strip, December 8, 2025. (AP/Sam Mednick)

IDF troops killed four Palestinian gunmen who emerged from a tunnel and attacked soldiers in southern Gaza’s Rafah a short while ago, the military says.

According to the IDF, during mop-up operations in eastern Rafah, four terror operatives were identified emerging from a tunnel and opening fire on troops of the 7th Armored Brigade.

The IDF says the soldiers returned fire, “and eliminated the four terrorists.” There are no reports of Israeli casualties in the incident.

The IDF says the attack is a “blatant violation of the ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas, and it views the incident “gravely.”

Dozens of Hamas operatives were believed to be trapped underground in the eastern Rafah area, on the Israeli side of the ceasefire line. The IDF has reported killing or capturing some 40 of them in recent months.

The IDF says it is continuing to operate in the area “to locate and eliminate all remaining terrorists in the tunnel.”

Six daycare workers arrested on suspicion of abuse at West Bank settlement

A suspect is arrested during an overnight raid on December 8, 2025. (Israel Police)

Police arrested six employees of a daycare in Beit Aryeh, a West Bank settlement, on suspicion of abusing children.

The investigation has been ongoing for several days after officers at the Modi’in Illit police station received a report of the alleged abuse, police say.

The six suspects, women in their 20s and 40s from Beit Aryeh, were arrested for interrogation. Police say they plan to bring the six to court and request to keep them in custody.

Police detained the director of the daycare center for questioning over the alleged abuse.

Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya IDs captured operative, says it holds Israel responsible for his life

Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group) identifies the official in the terror group captured by Israeli troops overnight in southern Lebanon as Atwi Atwi.

Atwi was nabbed in the town of Habbariyeh, located some five kilometers north of Israel’s border, according to al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya.

The group in a statement says it holds Israel “responsible for any harm that may befall him.”

The raid, which began late Sunday and wrapped up early this morning, was carried out by an Israeli special forces unit operating under the IDF’s 210th “Bashan” Regional Division, according to military sources.

IDF says airstrike targets Hezbollah operative in south Lebanon

The IDF says it carried out an airstrike against a Hezbollah operative in the southern Lebanon town of Yanouh a short while ago.

No further details are immediately provided by the military.

صورة من مكان الغارة الإسرائيلية التي استهدفت آلية في بلدة #يانوح – جنوب لبنان pic.twitter.com/mlFFQLGUZA

— lebanon_trend1 (@lebanon_trend1) February 9, 2026

IDF captures ‘senior’ Islamist terror operative in south Lebanon raid

Illustrative: Troops of the 769th "Hiram" Regional Brigade operate in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo issued by the military on February 1, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF troops captured a “senior” member of the al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group) terror organization during an overnight raid in southern Lebanon, the military says.

According to the IDF, the operative was nabbed late Sunday by troops of the 210th “Bashan” Regional Division from a building in the Mount Dov area near the border.

The military says it had collected intelligence on the operative in recent weeks, which led it to launch the raid.

“The terrorist was detained and transferred for further interrogation within Israeli territory. In addition, weapons were located in the building where the terrorist was arrested,” the army says.

The IDF does not provide further details on the operative, other than describing them as a “senior” member of the terror group.

Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya is a Sunni faction that forms part of the broader Muslim Brotherhood political network. The armed wing of the group, the al-Fajr Forces, established in the 1980s, repeatedly targeted Israel from Lebanon amid the 2023-2024 war with Hezbollah, often working in conjunction with the Shiite Lebanese terror group.

The IDF says that al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya “advanced throughout the war and continues to attempt to advance terror activities against the State of Israel and its citizens in the northern sector.”

The military has also previously accused the group of closely cooperating with the Hezbollah and Hamas terror groups in both Lebanon and Syria, and maintaining military sites in southern Lebanon and infrastructure along the Syria-Lebanon border and in southern Syria.

Herzog meets families of Bondi victims: ‘When one Jew is hurt, all Jews feel their pain’

President Isaac Herzog and his wife Michal meet with family members of the Bondi terror attack victims, telling them that Israel stands with them.

“The world’s only Jewish state, the State of Israel and the nation of Israel, stood together with the Australian people,” Hezog says, according to remarks published by the Israeli embassy.

“We stood with Australian Jews, for we are one big family, and when one Jew is hurt, all Jews feel their pain,” he says.

Herzog is on a four-day trip to Australia in the wake of the terror attack on a Hannukah event that killed 15 people.

President @Isaac_Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog met the families of the Bondi terror attack this morning and told them they are not alone, standing with them in their time of grief.

“The world’s only Jewish state, the State of Israel and the nation of Israel, stood together… pic.twitter.com/xLdsdS5Y8F

— Israel in Australia (@IsraelinOZ) February 9, 2026

Seahawks beat the Patriots 29-13 at Super Bowl

Seattle Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu (7) celebrates his touchdown on a fumble recovery during the second half of the NFL Super Bowl 60 football game against the New England Patriots, February 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, California. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

SANTA CLARA, California — The Seattle Seahawks produce a dominant defensive display to outmuscle the New England Patriots 29-13 and clinch a comprehensive Super Bowl victory on Sunday.

The NFL showpiece — enlivened by a joyous half-time performance from Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny — largely failed to deliver in terms of thrills on the pitch at the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold threw one touchdown, and kicker Jason Myers slotted a Super Bowl record five field goals as the Seahawks clinched the Vince Lombardi Trophy for a second time.

New England’s Drake Maye had been bidding to become the youngest quarterback in NFL history to win the Super Bowl after leading the Patriots through a resurgent regular season campaign.

But the 23-year-old endured a nightmare outing in the biggest game of his young career, getting sacked six times and failing to get the Patriots’ offense moving throughout.

New England was forced to punt away eight of its first nine possessions, and although they finally got in the end zone with a fourth-quarter touchdown, Maye’s misery continued with an interception that led to another Myers field goal.

There was no let-up for Maye after that, with the New England quarterback being strip-sacked, allowing linebacker Uchenna Nwosu to race into the end zone for a touchdown.

Hong Kong court jails pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai for 20 years

Pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai poses for a photograph during an interview with AFP at the Next Digital offices in Hong Kong, June 16, 2020. (Anthony Wallace/AFP)

HONG KONG, China — Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai is sentenced to 20 years in prison for foreign collusion and sedition, marking an end to a high-profile national security trial that sparked international condemnation.

“After considering the serious and grave criminal conduct of Lai… the Court was satisfied that the total sentence for Lai in the present case should be 20 years’ imprisonment,” a summary document from the judges says.

Two of those years will overlap with Lai’s existing prison term, meaning he will serve an additional 18 years, the judges write.

Christchurch mosque shooter, who murdered 51 people in 2019, appeals conviction

Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 29, sits in the dock on day three at the Christchurch High Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one count of terrorism in Christchurch, New Zealand, August 26, 2020. (John Kirk-Anderson/Pool Photo via AP)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A white supremacist who shot and murdered 51 people at two New Zealand mosques in 2019 launches an appeal seeking to overturn his conviction.

Brenton Tarrant, an Australian former gym instructor, admitted carrying out New Zealand’s deadliest modern-day mass shooting before being sentenced to life in jail in August 2020.

Now, the convicted killer argues that his “torturous and inhumane” detention conditions during his trial made him incapable of making rational decisions when he pleaded guilty, according to a court synopsis of the case.

If the Court of Appeal in Wellington upholds his conviction, it would hold a separate hearing later in the year to consider an appeal against his sentence.

His penalty of life imprisonment without parole was the stiffest in New Zealand history.

Tarrant filed his appeal out of time, so he would need the court’s leave for it to proceed.

Armed with an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons, Tarrant attacked worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch on March 15, 2019.

He published an online manifesto before the terror attack and then livestreamed the killings for 17 minutes.

His victims were all Muslim and included children, women, and the elderly.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Lebanon building collapse death toll rises to nine, official says

Rescue workers and residents search for survivors in the rubble of a building that collapsed in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, February 8, 2026. (AP Photo)

TRIPOLI, Lebanon — The death toll in a building collapse in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Sunday climbed to nine, a civil defence official says — the second such incident in weeks.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reports “the collapse of an old building” in Tripoli’s Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood, the poorest in the impoverished city. Rescuers are still searching for survivors.

Security personnel evacuated adjacent buildings, fearing further collapses, it adds.

An AFP correspondent saw teams of rescue workers toiling into the night on the rubble of the collapsed structure, as ambulances stood by.

Civil defense director general Imad Khreish tells local media that nine people had been killed, but that six others who were rescued were taken to hospital.

The building consisted of two blocks, each containing six apartments, he added. Residents estimated some 22 people were inside at the time of the collapse, he said.

Local activist Jumana al-Shahal tells AFP at the site that the incident was “a testament to the accumulated neglect of this forgotten city.”

Mayor Abdel Hamid Karimeh tells journalists, “we declare Tripoli a disaster-stricken city” due to unsafe buildings.

“Thousands of our people in Tripoli are threatened due to years of neglect,” he says. “The situation is beyond the capabilities of the Tripoli municipality.”

Venezuela frees several opposition figures from prison

Opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa rides on the back of a motorcycle after his release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, February 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s government releases from prison several prominent opposition members, including one of the closest allies of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, after lengthy politically motivated detentions.

Their releases come as the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez faces mounting pressure to free hundreds of people whose detentions months or years ago have been linked to their political beliefs. They also follow a visit to Venezuela of representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“Today, we are being released,” Juan Pablo Guanipa, a Machado ally and former governor, says in a video posted on X. “Much to discuss about the present and future of Venezuela, always with the truth at the forefront.”

Guanipa, who spent more than eight months in custody, is released from a detention facility in the capital, Caracas. An armored vehicle and officers appear behind him in the video he released.

Venezuelan-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal confirms the release of at least 30 people on yesterday.

In addition to Guanipa, Machado’s political organization says several of its members were among the released, including Maria Oropeza, who livestreamed her arrest by military intelligence officers as they broke into her home with a crowbar. Machado’s attorney, Perkins Rocha, is also freed.

“Let’s go for the freedom of Venezuela!” Machado posts on X.

Guanipa was detained in late May and accused by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello of participating in an alleged “terrorist group” plotting to boycott that month’s legislative election. Guanipa’s brother Tomás rejected the accusation and said that the arrest was meant to crack down on dissent.

‘We shall overcome this evil’: Herzog lays wreath at site of Bondi Hanukkah attack

President Isaac Herzog, center, visits Bondi Beach in Sydney, February 9, 2026. (AP/Rick Rycroft)

SYDNEY, Australia — President Isaac Herzog lays a wreath at the site of a mass shooting that killed 15 people celebrating a Jewish festival on Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

The head of state pays respect in the rain outside Bondi Pavilion to victims of the December 14 terror attack as he embarked on a tightly secured, four-day visit to console the Jewish Australian community.

Herzog says people of all faiths will “overcome this evil” as he mourns the victims of the shooting.

“The bonds between good people of all faiths and all nations will continue to hold strong in the face of terror, violence, and hatred,” he says.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.