Live updates (closed)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they happened.
Top Iranian general acknowledges Assad regime’s fall was ‘very big blow’ to Tehran
An Iranian flag lies on the ground at the entrance of the Iranian embassy which damaged by opposition fighters in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP/Hussein Malla)
In a speech last week, Iran’s top general in Syria said the Islamic Republic was “defeated very badly” by the fall of Syria’s Bashar Assad, despite the repeated public downplaying of its significance by Iranian leaders.
“I don’t consider losing Syria something to be proud of,” says Brig. Gen. Behrouz Esbati in a recording of the speech, according to the New York Times. “We were defeated, and defeated very badly, we took a very big blow and it’s been very difficult.”
Esbati also said ties with Assad had been strained prior to the Syrian regime’s collapse over his refusal to let Iran-backed militias to open a new front against Israel from Syria, and accused Russia of saying it was bombing rebel forces when it was in fact dropping munitions on open fields.
Despite Assad’s ouster, Esbati said Tehran will still look for ways to enlist fighters in Syria regardless of political developments there.
“We can activate all the networks we have worked with over the years,” he is quoted as saying. “We can activate the social layers that our guys lived among for years; we can be active in social media and we can form resistance cells.”
“Now we can operate there as we do in other international arenas, and we have already started.”
Jerusalem said blocking UN investigation on Hamas sexual violence that also requires probe of Israel
Israel is reportely blocking the United Nations from launching an investigation into Hamas’s sexual violence during its October 7 onslaught because doing so would also require allowing the UN to probe alleged sex crimes committed Palestinians in Israeli detention.
The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten already published a report last year on the sexual violence perpetrated during the October 7 attack, but said her mandate at the time wasn’t broad enough to allow for a determination on whether Hamas could be added to the UN’s blacklist of entities suspected of committing sexual crimes.
Patten has urged Israel to sign a framework agreement with her UN office, similar to the one Ukraine signed in 2022 that allowed for an investigation into sexual violence perpetrated by Russia, the Haaretz daily reports.
The agreement would also require Israel to grant the UN access to its detention facilities to probe allegations of sexual violence committed by Israeli security forces — a request Israel has denied, according to the report.
“The office is exploring a future mission to the region after receiving an invitation from the Palestinian Authority regarding reports of conflict-related sexual violence against Palestinians as well as outreach by the Government of Israel for a follow-up visit on the 7 October attacks and their aftermath,” Patten’s office says.
Haaretz cites unnamed sources who warn that Israel’s refusal to grant Patten’s office access to conduct her probe into Hamas’s October 7 sexual violence could backfire, as it could lead to Israel being added to the UN blacklist, while Hamas would be left off it.
In a statement to the newspaper, the Foreign Ministry doesn’t comment on whether it will allow Patten’s office to launch an investigation but does insist that it is working to coordinate a visit from the UN special representative.
US Quaker group says NYT rejected proposed ad claiming Israel committing ‘genocide’
A Quaker group denounces the New York Times for rejecting an ad that claimed Israel is committing genocide amid the war with Hamas in Gaza.
According to the American Friends Service Committee, the proposed ad said, “Tell Congress to stop arming Israel’s genocide in Gaza now! As a Quaker organization, we work for peace. Join us. Tell the President and Congress to stop the killing and starvation in Gaza.”
A statement from the organization says the newspaper told it in response that there are “differing views on the situation. In line with our commitment to factual accuracy and adherence to legal standards, we must ensure that all advertising content complies with these widely applied definitions.”
That explanation doesn’t assuage the group’s general secretary, however, who accuses the New York Times of engaging in “an outrageous attempt to sidestep the truth.”
“Palestinians and allies have been silenced and marginalized in the media for decades as these institutions choose silence over accountability. It is only by challenging this reality that we can hope to forge a path toward a more just and equitable world,” says Joyce Ajlouny in the statement.
Settlers allegedly torch car in Palestinian village near Bethlehem
For the second night in a row, settlers have allegedly torched a Palestinian vehicle in the West Bank as violence from Israeli extremists continues to unchecked throughout the territory.
The latest incident takes place in the village of Wadi Rahhal near Bethlehem, Palestinian media reports.
There are no reports of arrests, which are highly rare in such cases, leading Western countries to begin sanctioning violent settlers last year.
عاجل| مصادر محلية: مستوطنون يشعلون النار بمركبة بقرية واد رحال جنوب بيت لحم pic.twitter.com/MUMMSumJxL
— قناة القدس (@livequds) January 8, 2025
US officials say a decision on lifting Syrian rebel sanctions will be up to Trump
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
The Biden administration is expected to defer to the incoming Trump administration to decide whether to lift sanctions on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its leader, according to two US officials familiar with the outgoing administration’s thinking on the matter.
The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, say that the Biden administration has sought to take a careful approach to HTS, the new de facto authority in Syria after overthrowing president Bashar al-Assad.
The officials add that lifting a foreign terrorist designation is a cumbersome process and that it’s unlikely the administration could come to a final decision on the matter with just 12 days to go before Trump takes office.
The US on Monday eased some restrictions on Syria’s transitional government to allow the entry of humanitarian aid. And the Biden administration in December decided to drop a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of al-Sharaa.
Hamas claims responsibility for deadly West Bank shooting attack this week
The scene of a deadly terror shooting attack in the West Bank village of al-Funduq on January 6, 2025. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)
The Hamas terror group takes responsibility for Monday’s deadly terror shooting attack in the West Bank village of al-Funduq in which two Israeli women and a police officer were killed.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, says the operation was carried out jointly with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades terror groups.
Hamas also says that the mastermind of the attack was Jaafar Ahmed Dababseh, who was killed yesterday by IDF troops in the West Bank village of Talluza, near Nablus.
The three terrorists who carried out the shooting are still at large.
Hamas provides no proof of its involvement in the attack.
IDF names 3rd soldier killed in northern Gaza incident earlier today
Staff Sgt. Nevo Fisher (IDF)
The IDF identifies the third soldier killed in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun earlier today.
He is named as Staff Sgt. Nevo Fisher, 20, from Bruchin.
Fisher was a tank commander in the 401st Armored Brigade’s 46th Battalion.
Two other soldiers, Staff Sgt. Matityahu Ya’akov Perel and Staff Sgt. Kanaoo Kasa, were killed in the incident and their names were announced earlier.
Biden admin is working with Trump team on hostage deal, says White House
Relatives of hostages held in Gaza protest outside the Likud Party headquarters in Tel Aviv, January 8, 2025 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby reiterates that the outgoing Biden administration is closely collaborating with the incoming Trump administration to secure a hostage deal.
“The American people have every right to expect that we would make sure the incoming team is fully informed, and if we don’t get this deal before we leave, then when they walk in the door at noon on January 20, they can hit the ground running and try to close it for themselves,” Kirby says during a press briefing.
However, Kirby clarifies that the current administration is the one at the negotiating table, with White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk currently representing the US in Doha.
White House’s Kirby: No genocide in Gaza even though civilian toll is ‘unacceptably high’
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks at the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, October 23, 2024. (AP/ Ben Curtis)
Pressed on why the US formally recognized the genocide in Sudan while refraining to do so in the case of Gaza, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby insists that it’s because no genocide is unfolding in the coastal enclave.
“The IDF isn’t waking up every day and putting their boots on the floor, saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to go kill some innocent people because they happen to be Palestinian,'” Kirby says during a press briefing.
“That doesn’t mean that there haven’t been too many civilian casualties in this conflict… and we have been nothing but direct with our Israeli counterparts about our concerns on that and about trying to get them… to be more discriminate about the civilian toll in Gaza. It’s unacceptably high… but that is not the same as saying genocide,” he argues.
The White House spokesperson says slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his terror organization have been the ones with “genocidal intentions,” as demonstrated during their October 7 onslaught.
Wax figure of Netanyahu destroyed by activist in Mexico City museum
Israel’s embassy in Mexico condemns the “odious” destruction of a wax statue of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by a pro-Palestinian activist at a museum in Mexico City.
A video showing the activist destroying the statue at the city’s Wax Museum was uploaded onto a pro-Palestinian account on X yesterday, captioned: “This is for Gaza.”
It shows the man placing a Palestinian flag at the foot of the statue and then dousing the statue with red paint, whacking it with a hammer and toppling it to the ground.
JUST NOW: Activists in Mexico City destroy a wax statue of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with hammers pic.twitter.com/nIVljKUnS2
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) January 8, 2025
“The attack carried out on the statue of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an odious act which sends a dangerous message of violence, intolerance and hate that goes beyond all legitimate criticism,” the Israeli embassy says in a statement.
Amid prosecution attempts abroad, IDF says identities of all combat soldiers to now be concealed
Troops of the Kfir Brigade operate in the northern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued by the IDF on January 7, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Amid efforts by pro-Palestinian organizations to get IDF soldiers who travel abroad to be arrested and prosecuted for war crimes, the Israeli military has decided to conceal the identities of all troops who participate in combat.
Under the IDF’s new guidelines for the media, any interview with an officer under the rank of brigadier general will be held with their face blurred or from the back, and their full name hidden, similar to the current conduct when interviewing members of special forces and pilots.
The guidelines will apply to all soldiers, especially those with foreign citizenship.
Soldiers being interviewed are also not allowed to be “linked” to a specific incident of combat under the new guidelines.
Senior officers above the rank of brigadier general, or officers whose names are already public, will be allowed to show their face and full name in interviews.
Before any interview with the media, members of the Military Advocate General’s Department of International Law will brief officers, and the footage will need to be approved by the Military Censor and Information Security Department.
It is unclear if these guidelines will have any effect on the efforts to get IDF soldiers tried for war crimes, as the organizations behind the attempts identify troops via social media content that they post from their operations in Gaza, and rarely content from the news media. The IDF has done little to stop soldiers from posting unauthorized content from operations online.
Gal Gadot says she was ‘never forbidden’ from wearing hostage pin at Golden Globes
Gal Gadot arrives at the 82nd Golden Globes on Jan. 5, 2025, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Hollywood superstar Gal Gadot says she was never told she couldn’t wear a hostage pin to the Golden Globes, weighing in on the controversy that has surrounded her in recent days.
“It’s important for me to clarify: I was never forbidden from wearing a pin at the Golden Globes,” Gadot writes on Instagram, after an unnamed representative of the actress was widely quoted as saying she was. “Some people chose to tell a story that never happened, and I prefer to focus on what’s real and truly important – our hostages.”
Gadot writes that “everyone expresses their support in a way that suits them. I chose to share a post with global reach and wear a yellow ring as a symbol of solidarity. What truly matters is that the hostages come home now. My heart is with the families waiting for them.”
Smotrich says he doesn’t have ‘a shred of trust’ in Israeli justice system
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announces a compensation plan for evacuees returning to their homes in northern Israel, at a press conference on January 5, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reiterates his opposition to establishing a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 Hamas onslaught, saying that Israel’s justice system can’t be trusted.
“I don’t have a shred of trust in the Israeli justice system which has completely lost its judgment,” he says in a statement, pointing to the ongoing case of the leak scandal linked to the prime minister’s office as “an example.”
“I am not prepared to abandon this important task to a system I have no faith in,” he adds. “I am in favor of an independent investigative committee that will turn over every stone.”
3 IDF soldiers killed during fighting in northern Gaza, says military
Staff Sgt. Matityahu Ya'akov Perel (left) and Staff Sgt. Kanaoo Kasa (IDF)
Three IDF soldiers were killed and three were wounded during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today, the military announces.
Two of the slain troops are named as Staff Sgt. Matityahu Ya’akov Perel, 22, from Beit El, and Staff Sgt. Kanaoo Kasa, 22, from Beit Shemesh.
The name of the third soldier will be announced later, the IDF says.
The troops all served with the 401st Armored Brigade’s 46th Battalion.
In the same incident, three other soldiers were wounded, including an officer in serious condition.
According to an initial IDF probe, the troops were hit by a large explosive device that was detonated against a tank during operations in Beit Hanoun.
Families of US-Israeli hostages to attend Trump inauguration
US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, January 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP/ Evan Vucci)
Relatives of the seven American-Israeli hostages still held in Gaza will attend the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump on January 20.
During their time in Washington, the families plan to meet with officials from the incoming Trump administration along with members of Congress and their staff, they say in a joint statement.
“The families are urging leaders to prioritize the safe return of their loved ones and to take decisive action to bring an end to their prolonged captivity,” the statement adds.
Attending the inauguration will be the parents of hostage Edan Alexander, the parents and brother of hostage Omer Neutra, the parents of slain hostage Itay Chen, the father of hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, the daughter of slain hostages Gad Haggai and Judi Weinstein, the parents of slain former hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, freed hostage Aviva Siegel and the daughter and sister of hostage Keith Siegel.
IDF detains and later releases French journalist in southern Syria
An Israeli soldier stands guard at the Hermon ski resort, bordering Syria and Lebanon, during a media tour organized by the IDF, January 8, 2025. (Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
The IDF detained a French freelance journalist and his fixer in southern Syria earlier today, inside a buffer zone now controlled by the Israeli military.
The military says the pair were identified close to troops in the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, where the IDF deployed troops following the fall of the Assad regime a month ago.
“IDF troops interrogated the suspects and released them with their equipment and personal belongings,” the military says in response to a query.
The journalist, Sylvain Mercadier, says he and his fixer Mohammed al Fayyad were detained in the village of Hamidiyah near Quneitra.
“We were handcuffed and blindfolded, brought to the governorate’s house and mistreated for more than 4 hours. We were threatened and humiliated,” Mercadier says on X.
“After all of this, we were dropped in a field where our restraints were removed. The Israeli [sic] stole my sim card, my camera memory cards as well as 200 USD from Mohammed. We walked for 30 min before reaching a house,” he adds.
Hi Everyone,
Today, alongside my fixer Mohammed al Fayyad, I was arrested by the Israeli army in the village of Hamidiye . We were handcuffed and blindfolded, brought to the governorate's house (muhafaza) and misstreated for more than 4 hours.
We were threatened and humiliated— Sylvain Mercadier (@Sylv_Mercadier) January 8, 2025
Rescued Bedouin hostage eulogizes childhood friend Youssef Ziyadne
Rescued hostage Farhan al-Qadi, 52, meets his relatives and friends after arriving in the Khirbet Karkur village, near Rahat, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP/Mahmoud Illean)
Rescued hostage Farhan al-Qadi eulogizes his former neighbor and fellow hostage Youssef Ziyadne after his body was recovered from Gaza.
“Everyone in our home is crying, we hoped to see them alive,” says al-Qadi, a fellow Bedouin Israeli who was kidnapped on October 7 and rescued by the IDF from a tunnel in Gaza in August 2024.
“Youssef, my friend, my neighbor, my childhood friend. It’s very hard. We need to end this war and bring them home, everyone. He was a friend to everyone, a father to everyone, he doesn’t deserve this — nobody does.”
Settlers reportedly erect billboard in West Bank threatening ‘There is no future in Palestine’
Palestinians report that Israeli settlers have erected another billboard in the West Bank that reads, “There is no future in Palestine” in an apparent attempt to intimidate Palestinians.
The Arabic message is accompanied by a picture of displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, implying that Palestinians in the West Bank will eventually have the same fate.
Several of these billboards have gone up in recent months, without intervention from Israeli security forces.
Israeli settlers have put up more of these billboards across the West Bank reading "No Future in Palestine," accompanied by an image of displaced families in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/omMlDnwJXI
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) January 8, 2025
NGO calls for criminal probe of defense minister, accusing him of lying to High Court
Defense Minister Israel Katz visits an IDF position in south Lebanon on December 22, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel demands the opening of a criminal investigation into Defense Minister Israel Katz on charges of obstruction of justice and breach of trust, arguing that he is attempting to hide from the High Court the truth about the IDF’s ability to draft Haredim.
In a letter to the Israel Police and the Attorney General’s Office, the NGO alleges that Katz is trying to cover up the truth for political reasons, “instead of working to increase the manpower of the army during a time of war. This is a serious violation of the rule of law and state security.”
The group accuses Katz of ordering the IDF to censor certain elements of its response to a High Court case on the issue, something the defense minister has denied.
Iranian president urges Israeli withdrawal from Syrian territory
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrives at Kazan International Airport for the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, October 22, 2024. (Maxim Blinov/Photo host brics-russia2024.ru via AP)
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian calls for the withdrawal of Israel from Syrian territory following the fall of long-time Tehran ally Bashar al-Assad.
“The need for the Zionist regime to withdraw from the territories it occupied and the importance of respecting religious sentiments [in Syria], particularly regarding Shiite holy places and shrines, were among the concerns” raised in the meeting, says Pezeshkian in a briefing alongside visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
The Iranian president also warns of the “reactivation of terrorist cells” in Syria.
During the visit, Sudani affirmed Iraq’s respect for “the will of the Syrian people and support for any political or constitutional system they choose themselves without external interference.”
Israel now among 48 countries whose citizens need to apply for ETA to visit UK
An Israeli passport on January 18, 2023. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
Starting today, Israelis have to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorization to travel to the United Kingdom. The online pre-approval process costs 10 pounds and is valid for two years.
Forty-seven other countries, including the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are now on the list alongside Israel, dozens of which also joined today. Before the ETA took effect, travelers from these countries were approved to enter the country at passport control.
EU citizens will have to apply for an ETA from April 2 onward.
Israelis who are also dual British or Irish citizens will not have to apply, nor will those who need to apply for visas to enter the UK.
Netanyahu offers condolences to Ziyadne family: ‘We hoped and worked for their safe return’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video statement released on December 26, 2024. (Screenshot/GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offers condolences from himself and his wife Sara to the Ziyadne family.
“We hoped and worked for the safe return of the four members of the family from Hamas captivity,” says Netanyahu. “We returned the children Bilal and Aisha on November 23, and we wanted to return Youssef and Hamza in the same way.”
The IDF said that Youssef’s body had been recovered and that it was investigating findings that could indicate the fate of Hamza, although both the family and Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the bodies of both men had been found.
Netanyahu thanks the IDF and Shin Bet for their ongoing determination to bring the hostages back.
“We will continue to make every effort to bring all of our hostages home,” he says, “both the living and the dead.”
Dermer reportedly set to discuss hostage deal with Trump’s Mideast envoy in Florida
President-elect Donald Trump speaks as Steve Witkoff listens, during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, January 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP/ Evan Vucci)
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer is expected to meet in Florida today with incoming US envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff to discuss efforts to reach a hostage deal with Hamas, according to Axios’s Barak Ravid.
The meeting comes ahead of Witkoff’s trip to Doha later tonight, where Israeli and Hamas delegations have been working on a potential deal since the weekend.
“We’re making a lot of progress, and I don’t want to say too much because I think they’re doing a really good job back in Doha,” said Witkoff yesterday at a press conference. “I’m leaving tomorrow to go back to Doha, but I think that we’ve had some really great progress, and I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural, we’ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president.”
Eric Trager tapped for Mideast slot on Trump’s National Security Council
Eric Trager, a Republican staffer on the Senate Armed Services Committee, will become the next White House National Security Council senior director for the Middle East and North Africa, a source familiar with the matter confirms to The Times of Israel.
Trager, who previously worked at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, will replace Brett McGurk, who played a massive role in crafting outgoing US President Joe Biden’s Mideast policy, the source says, confirming reporting by Jewish Insider.
Trager has staked out hawkish foreign policy positions regarding the Middle East with his research focusing on Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Blinken: ‘We’re very close’ to ceasefire-hostage deal, plan will be handed to Trump administration if not finalized
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot prepare to deliver remarks at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris, on January 8, 2025. (Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says “we’re very close to a ceasefire and hostage agreement.”
“I hope that we can get it over the line in the time that we have left, but if we don’t, then the plan that President [Joe] Biden put forward for a ceasefire-hostage deal will be handed over to the incoming administration, and I believe that when we get that deal — and we’ll get it — it’ll be on the basis of the plan that President Biden put before the world back in May,” Blinken says during a press conference with his French counterpart in Paris.
Blinken says that the Biden administration has also spent significant time advancing an initiative for the post-war management of Gaza that includes arrangements for the Strip’s security, administration and reconstruction.
“There too, we’re ready to hand that over to the [Trump] administration so it can work on it and run with it when the opportunity is there,” he says.
He then highlights the work that the Biden administration has done to secure a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“All of that is ready to go if the opportunity presents itself, with a ceasefire in Gaza, as well as understandings on a pathway forward for the Palestinians,” Blinken says. “So there’s tremendous opportunity there.”
IDF: Body of Youssef Ziyadne recovered from Rafah tunnel alongside bodies of 2 Hamas operatives
A large Hamas tunnel found along the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza's Rafah, September 12, 2024. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)
The tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah from which the body of hostage Youssef Ziyadne, 53, was recovered, is located in an area where the military had operated before.
The IDF returned to the area following new intelligence to recover the body.
The bodies of at least two Hamas operatives were located alongside Ziyadne’s remains in the tunnel, and they are believed by the IDF to have been guarding him.
Also inside the tunnel, the IDF recovered findings that raise concerns for the life of Youssef’s son, Hamza — who was also taken hostage — as well as other intelligence materials.
The cause of Youssef’s death is still under investigation by the IDF, though according to initial assessments, it did not occur recently.
Top Biden aide: Israel’s strategic position stronger since Oct. 7, but at major humanitarian cost
US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer speaks from the White House at a virtual event organized by Chatham House on January 8, 2025. (Screen capture/YouTube)
While it came at a significant humanitarian cost, Israel is now in a stronger strategic position against its adversaries more than a year after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer says.
In a virtual interview hosted by Chatham House, Finer notes predictions made in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attack that the US, Israel and their adversaries were more vulnerable have not panned out.
“In reality, strategically, our adversaries, Israel’s adversaries, our Gulf partners’ adversaries, are actually the ones who are now on the back foot,” Finer says.
He points to Iran, which carried out two missile attacks against Israel, which the US helped thwart along with its proxies that have been significantly weakened, with the possible exception of the Houthis, which Finer acknowledges have been a more difficult challenge to address.
“The strategic position of Israel almost a year and a half since October 7, is… stronger than it was,” he says.
“This has come at a significant cost — obviously, an enormous cost paid by Israel on October 7 in these unconscionable attacks — and a significant cost paid by ordinary Palestinians in Gaza and to some extent in the West Bank,” Finer says, highlighting US efforts to work and sometimes pressure Israel on this issue.
IDF confirms hostage Youssef Ziyadne’s body recovered, says findings raise ‘grave concerns’ for son Hamza’s fate
Youssef Ziyadne (right) and his son Hamza Ziyadne. (Courtesy)
The IDF in a statement confirms that the military recovered the body of hostage Youssef Ziyadne, 53, who was abducted by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, alongside three of his children.
According to the military, Ziyadne’s body was found in a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah, and was brought back to Israel for identification.
Additionally, the IDF says it located findings in the tunnel linked to Ziyadne’s son, Hamza, who was abducted with him on October 7.
The military says the findings raise “grave concerns for his life.”
Two of Youssef’s other children, Bilal and Aisha, were released on November 30, 2023 after more than 50 days in Hamas captivity.
Despite the IDF statement, Defense Minister Israel Katz says in a statement that the bodies of both Youssef and Hamza were recovered “in a heroic operation,” and expresses his condolences to the Ziyadne family.
Youssef Ziyadne’s body found in tunnel; military working to determine fate of Hamza Ziyadne
Youssef Ziyadne (right) and his son Hamza Ziyadne. (Courtesy)
The body of hostage Youssef Ziyadne was found in a tunnel in the Gaza Strip, The Times of Israel has learned.
In the same tunnel, the military located findings that raised heavy concerns for the life of his son, Hamza Ziyadne, who was abducted alongside him.
Youssef’s body and the other findings were brought to Abu Kabir Forensic Institute for identification. The IDF is continuing to operate in the area where the body was to locate additional findings.
Members of the Ziyadne family told the media that they were informed that Youssef and Hamza’s bodies were found and recovered, but the IDF has not officially confirmed that news.
Bodies of father and son hostages Youssef and Hamza Ziyadne found in Gaza, says family
Youssef Ziyadne (right) and his son Hamza Ziyadne. (Courtesy)
Family members of hostages Youssef Ziyadne, 53, and his son Hamza Ziyadne, 22, say the military has informed them that their bodies have been located in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF has not yet commented.
Youssef was abducted by Hamas terrorists during the October 7, 2023 onslaught, along with three of his children, Hamza, Bilal Ziyadne, 18, and Aisha Ziyadne, 17, while working in Kibbutz Holit.
Bilal and Aisha were released on November 30, 2023, after more than 50 days in Hamas captivity.
Until now, Youssef and Hamza were presumed alive.
Youssef, 53, married with two wives and 19 children, was working in the kibbutz cowshed. Hamza, 22, married and father of two, and Bilal, 18, were working with their father, while their sister Aisha had joined them for the morning.
The family lives in Rahat, in the Ziyadne neighborhood, named for their extensive family clan.
Amid coalition cracks, Shas MKs back state commission of inquiry into October 7
Shas leader Aryeh Deri with relatives of hostages during a faction meeting in the Knesset, February 12, 2024. (Courtesy)
Members of the coalition Shas party come out in favor of a state commission of inquiry into October 7.
Addressing members of the October Council organization, which represents relatives of victims of the Hamas attack, Shas MK Yinon Azoulay states that he believes such a probe “should be established… as soon as possible,” Walla reports.
According to the Israel National News site, Shas MK Yosef Taieb tells the families that “a state commission of inquiry is needed but we will act in accordance with the directive of the Council of Torah Sages,” which runs the ultra-Orthodox party.
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of Shas has also endorsed establishing a state commission of inquiry, in a letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara last August.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rebuffed such calls, instead reportedly pushing for the creation of an alternative, political probe.
Report: Biden officials warn Trump team that UNRWA ban in Gaza could be ‘catastrophe’
A Palestinian child sits on top of sacks of flour at a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) aid distribution center in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 3, 2024. (Eyad BABA / AFP)
Officials in the outgoing Biden administration have reportedly warned incoming Trump officials that an Israeli law that will effectively shut down UNRWA in Gaza could create a humanitarian “catastrophe.”
According to an Axios report citing three unnamed US officials, the outgoing State Department figures sought to brief their incoming replacements about a “looming crisis” once the law, passed by the Knesset last year, takes effect in a few weeks.
The report says that the officials briefed Trump transition executive Joel Rayburn about the situation and their concern over the implications of the ban, which they referred to as a “catastrophe waiting to happen.”
Bill would allow victims to uncover identity of online defamers
Lawmakers during a plenum session at the Knesset in Jerusalem, January 8, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In its preliminary reading, lawmakers vote 25-2 to in favor of a bill mandating the identification of internet users guilty of defamation.
If passed into law, the bill, sponsored by Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky, would allow people who believe they have been defamed under Israeli law to turn to the courts to request that internet providers reveal the identity of the author of the remarks.
The bill’s explanatory notes acknowledge the right to anonymous expression, but say “the internet should not be seen as a sanctuary that allows the commission of wrongful acts or violations of rights without being held accountable.”
Bill mandating prison for desecrating heritage sites, memorials passes 1st reading
A bill mandating prison terms for the desecration of heritage sites, monuments and memorials passes a preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum 24-0.
If passed into law, the legislation, co-sponsored by Likud MK Moshe Saada and Religious Zionism’s Simcha Rothman, would prohibit damaging or desecrating such national sites.
Those convicted of doing so would face a two-year jail sentence and would make relatives of fallen soldiers whose memorials are desecrated eligible to receive damages of up to NIS 120,000 ($32,775).
Report: Intel officers sought to leak document about ‘foreign actor’ in Oct. 7 attack to PM
Soldiers of an IDF Military Intelligence Directorate team for the Golani Infantry Brigade are seen working at computers, in a handout photo published November 12, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)
According to Hebrew media reports, a group of officers and reservists in the Military Intelligence Directorate tried to sneak an intelligence document about the October 7 attack to the prime minister after they were forbidden by their commanders to distribute it.
A transcript of a December 5 Supreme Court hearing related to the leak scandal — first obtained and published by the Ynet news website — reveals the claim that six officers drafted a document accusing a “foreign actor” of being involved in the October 7 Hamas onslaught.
When they were told by Military Intelligence Directorate commanders to kill the document, they instead reportedly tried to leak it to Likud MK Amit Halevi, hoping that he would pass it on to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The attorney for Ari Rosenfeld, a reservist charged in the leak scandal, claims that the officers approached Rosenfeld in order to get him to leak the document to relevant politicians.
Katz’s spokesman fumes at Hagari: ‘An apology this time will not be enough’
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari speaks to the media on December 4, 2024 (Video screenshot)
Defense Minister Israel Katz’s spokesman issues a veiled threat at IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari over the military’s response to the minister’s order to cooperate with the state comptroller’s investigation into Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.
“The IDF spokesman, who apologized not long ago for exceeding his authority, and attacking the political echelon, again exceeds his authority, attacks and preaches morality to the political echelon,” Adir Dahan says.
“An apology this time will not be enough,” Katz’s spokesman adds.
IDF: Interceptor fired at falsely identified aerial threat near Gaza border
An interceptor missile was launched a short while ago near the border with the Gaza Strip.
According to the IDF, the interceptor was launched following the identification of a target, which was soon found to have been a “false” identification, meaning not a threat.
IDF hits back at Katz: Issues shouldn’t be resolved via the media, military fully cooperating with Oct. 7 probe
(L) Israel Katz speaks at the Foreign Office in Budapest, Hungary, on June 17, 2024. (Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP) and (R) IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi attends a state ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 on October 27, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg FLASH90)
The IDF hits back at Defense Minister Israel Katz after he ordered the military to “fully cooperate” with the state comptroller’s investigation into the October 7, 2023, onslaught, saying that the issues should not be resolved via the news media.
The military says it is in the midst of carrying out internal investigations “to improve the defense of the country and its citizens.”
The probes are progressing alongside the military’s activities, the IDF says, noting that “the commanders who are [currently] managing the battles are also the ones who are carrying out the investigations.”
The military warns that if the commanders are distracted by the investigations during the current fighting, it may cost lives.
“The IDF cooperates fully with the state comptroller, even though such an audit has never been conducted during a war,” the military says, adding that currently 18 probes are being carried out by State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman in the IDF.
The IDF argues that its “quality investigations” are “a very important basis” for the state comptroller’s probe, and they will be given to Englman upon completion.
The military says it is prioritizing the “quality of the investigations” over completing them at a faster rate, but will still “do everything to finish them professionally as quickly as possible.”
“The resolution of the issues should take place in a dialogue between the defense minister and the chief of staff and not through the media,” the IDF adds.
Trump shares clip of Columbia prof calling Netanyahu a ‘dark son of a bitch’ who is ‘obsessive’ in trying to get US to fight Iran
Former US president Donald Trump (left) hosts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Florida, July 26, 2024. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
US President-elect Donald Trump shares a video on his Truth Social account which includes a professor calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “dark son of a bitch,” accusing him of being “obsessive” as he tries to get the US to go to war against Iran.
Trump shares a snippet of a lecture by Columbia University economics professor Jeffrey Sachs, where he speaks about the pretext for the US invasion of Iraq, and how the US government at the time was trying to find a way to sell the “phony war” to the American people.
“Where did that war come from?” Sachs asks, rhetorically, in a speech that is an attack on the Obama administration’s actions.
“You know what? It’s quite surprising. That war came from Netanyahu, actually,” he claims.
“Netanyahu had, from 1995 on, the theory that the only way we are going to get rid of Hamas and Hezbollah, is by toppling the governments that support them. That’s Iraq, Syria and Iran,” he adds.
“And the guy [Netanyahu] is nothing if not obsessive, and he is still trying to get us to fight Iran to this day, this week,” he claims. “He is a deep, dark son of a bitch, sorry to tell you.”
“He has gotten us into endless wars, and because of the power of all this in US politics, he has gotten his way,” Sachs concludes.
Donald Trump Truth Social 03:50 PM EST 01/07/25 pic.twitter.com/HLnrAMfN3d
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) January 7, 2025
Amid growing spat, Katz says he instructed Halevi to ‘fully cooperate’ with state comptroller’s Oct. 7 probe
Defense Minister Israel Katz, left, during a visit to Northern Command with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi on November 13, 2024. (X video screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Defense Minister Israel Katz says he has instructed IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi to “fully cooperate” with the state comptroller’s investigation into the October 7, 2023, onslaught.
The order comes amid tensions between Katz and Halevi, and after State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman accused the military of “intimidating” senior officers giving testimony in the framework of his investigation.
“There is no way for there to be a situation where the IDF appears to be afraid of the necessary public scrutiny and transparency, given the grave nature of the events that took place on October 7, when the chief of staff was in command of the IDF,” Katz says in a statement.
Katz says he ordered Halevi to allow the state comptroller “access to any material that may be required and fully cooperate” with the investigation.
The statement issued by Katz’s office also says the defense minister “reminds the chief of staff of his directive to finish the [internal] investigations being carried out by the IDF by the end of this month and to present him with the investigations that are already prepared at a faster pace, so that he can examine them and assess their impact on the planned rounds of appointments in the IDF.”
Katz had told Halevi that he would not approve the appointments of generals until the investigations were completed and presented to him.
In the latest statement, Katz’s office says that “due to the delay in presenting the investigations and the fact that substantial investigations, including the events of [the night between] October 6 and 7, have not yet been presented to him, there is great difficulty in approving even appointments at lower ranks.”
“Therefore he decided to approve at this stage only appointments up to the rank of colonel,” Katz’s office says.
Katz also intends to summon Halevi for a meeting on the matter, the statement adds.
Earlier this week, in a highly critical and strongly worded letter to Halevi, the state comptroller said that army officials had clandestinely recorded interviews his office conducted and briefed officers as to how to answer questions, among other measures he claimed were designed to obscure the “the truth from being disclosed.”
The IDF said in response that “the IDF always acts in accordance with the law and cooperates fully and transparently with the state comptroller.”
Englman’s probe is not a state commission of inquiry, the establishment of which has thus far been rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and most members of his government.
Los Angeles area synagogue totally gutted in wildfire, other Jewish institutions threatened
The Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center burns during the Eaton fire in Pasadena, California on January 7, 2025 (JOSH EDELSON / AFP)
A Los Angeles area synagogue has now been completely gutted by fire, a local television station reports, with other Jewish institutions also threatened by massive wildfires sweeping through the region.
Television footage shows flames and widespread destruction inside the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, with a reporter on the screen describing rubble strewn about and loud pops.
A correspondent for the Jewish Daily Forward reports that Torah scrolls were taken out of the building before it was consumed by what has been dubbed the Eaton fire, which has burned over 1,000 acres and is not at all contained, according to officials.
“It’s still burning inside,” says KABC correspondent Jaysha Patel. “It’s different every single minute that goes by because these embers just keep picking up different parts of this center.”
“Pieces of the building look like they are about to fall off, you can hear the aluminum creaking,” she adds.
Eaton is one of three major fires burning in the Los Angeles area.
In Pacific Palisades, where a fire has burned over 2,900 acres and is also zero percent contained, according to CAL Fire, the state of the Reconstruction Kehillat Israel synagogue remains unknown.
According to the Forward correspondent, a rabbi for a Chabad in nearby Malibu says his synagogue is safe.
A fire is seen in a classroom at the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center on January 8, 2025. (Screen capture: ABC News/Youtube)
Flames from the Palisades Fire burn in front of the Chabad of Pacific Palisades on Sunset Boulevard during a powerful windstorm on January 7, 2025 in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California (Apu Gomes/Getty Images/AFP)
In one of his final interviews before leaving office, Biden focuses on domestic policy and mentions Israel only in passing
US President Joe Biden pauses during a photo opportunity with Medal of Valor recipients in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Friday, January 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In an exit interview with USA Today shortly before he leaves office, US President Joe Biden mentions Israel once in passing, and does not bring up the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas.
“I’ll just skip real quickly to Saudi Arabia,” he says while discussing energy policy. “They want to work out a deal with recognition of Israel [inaudible]. They said on two things. One, ‘Can you help us transition from making oil to move to peaceful nuclear reactors? You build the reactor, you occupy them, you show us how you do it. And can you have oil companies disinvesting in oil drilling?'”
Biden discusses the broad contours of his foreign policy over the past four years, saying he “reestablished our alliances because they’re our safety. And I diminished the direct conflict with major adversaries.”
“I thought it was critically important to reestablish America’s preeminence in foreign policy,” he continues. “I said, ‘If we don’t lead the world, I don’t know who does.'”
The bulk of the interview focuses on domestic issues like economic and infrastructure policy.
On the November elections, Biden says he thinks he would have been able to defeat Donald Trump. Asked whether he would have had the “vigor” to serve for four more years, Biden responds, “I don’t know.”
Reflecting on his legacy, Biden says “I hope that history says that I came in and I had a plan how to restore the economy and reestablish America’s leadership in the world.”
IDF intercepts rocket fired from Gaza; over 20 rockets launched from Strip at Israel in past 2 weeks
A rocket launched from the southern Gaza Strip at the Kerem Shalom area was successfully intercepted by air defenses, the military says.
There are no reports of injuries.
In the past two weeks, more than 20 rockets have been fired from Gaza at Israel, mostly from the Strip’s north.
US says it hit Houthi underground weapon storage facilities in Yemen strikes
The US Central Command says its forces conducted strikes against two Houthi underground advanced conventional weapon (ACW) storage facilities.
The facilities were in areas of Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis, CENTCOM says, and were used in attacks against US Navy warships and merchant vessels in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The US military says there were no injuries or damage to its personnel or equipment.
Sirens sound in Kerem Shalom near Gaza border
Sirens sound in Kerem Shalom near the Gaza border, warning of incoming rocket fire.
Projectiles are being fired at the border area on a near-daily basis. On Monday, a home in Sderot was hit during a volley, sustaining damage though no injuries were caused.
IDF: Strike targeted Hamas command center at former school used as shelter in Gaza’s Jabalia
Earlier today, an Israeli Air Force attack helicopter carried out a strike against a group of Hamas operatives at a former school in northern Gaza’s Jabalia, the military says.
According to the IDF, the Hamas operatives were at a command center embedded within the Halawa School, and were using the complex to plan and carry out attacks against troops in Gaza and against Israel.
The building had also served as a shelter for displaced Gazans, according to Palestinian media.
Gaza’s Civil Defense says at least nine people were killed in the strike.
The IDF says it took “numerous steps” to mitigate civilian harm, including by using aerial surveillance and other intelligence.
Otzma Yehudit removed Cohen from WhatsApp groups after he defied party line on votes – report
Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen attends a Labor and Welfare Committee meeting at the Knesset on January 8, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Otzma Yehudit has reportedly removed MK Almog Cohen from its internal WhatsApp groups after the lawmaker defied his party’s pledge to oppose the state budget during a committee vote on an important budget-related bill.
A screenshot posted by Makor Rishon political correspondent Amiel Yarhi shows Cohen being removed from several chat groups belonging to the party. The lawmaker does not respond to a request for comment from The Times of Israel.
Cohen’s key abstention on the Economic Efficiency Bill this morning came less than a day after Otzma Yehudit attempted to have him replaced on the committee. After the vote, the party complained that he was “acting contrary to his faction’s position.”
Responding to his party’s criticism, Cohen tweeted that he had been “forced to be the responsible adult in the face of childish acts that undermine the stability of the coalition and the nation.”
“My faction’s boycott and such spin will not bring me to be part of the current bickering that is harming the war effort,” he declared, calling for “immediate negotiations” to discuss the issue of the police budget.
On Monday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir held Otzma Yehudit’s weekly faction meeting without Cohen after he broke party discipline last week to vote with the coalition on another key budget-related bill.
IDF says it destroyed 5 Hezbollah weapons depots in recent south Lebanon operations
Weapons found by IDF troops in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo issued on January 8, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF says it located and demolished five Hezbollah weapon depots in southern Lebanon, during recent operations amid the ongoing ceasefire.
The depots found by the 300th “Baram” Regional Brigade included over 200 mortars, primed rocket launchers, and other military gear, the military says.
The troops also located a truck-mounted rocket launcher.
The weapons were confiscated and the sites were demolished.
The IDF says it is working to “remove threats and terror infrastructure, in accordance with the understandings between Israel and Lebanon, while abiding by the ceasefire agreement.”
Troops of the 300th Brigade operate in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo issued on January 8, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Italian journalist freed from detention in Iran, Meloni’s office says
Italian journalist Cecilia Sala in undated footage from the Tg3 news program on Italy's state broacaster RAI. (Screen capture: X/Tg3, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
An Italian journalist arrested in Iran and jailed for three weeks has been freed and is returning to Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office says.
“The plane taking journalist Cecilia Sala home took off from Tehran a few minutes ago” following “intense work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,” Meloni’s office says in a statement.
2 Palestinian children among 3 killed in West Bank drone strike; IDF said it targeted cell of gunmen
At least three Palestinians, including two children, were reportedly killed in the IDF’s drone strike this morning in the northern West Bank town of Tamun.
A security source cited by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, says the dead include Reda Basharat, 9, Hamza Basharat, 10, and Adam Basharat, 23.
WAFA says that their bodies were taken by Israeli soldiers.
The IDF said earlier that it targeted a cell of gunmen, without immediately providing further details. There is no comment from the military about the reported deaths of the children.
Herzog to fly to Cyprus for talks on regional developments, efforts to secure release of hostages
President Isaac Herzog attends an emergency conference on the medical condition of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip at the President Residence in Jerusalem, December 10, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)
President Isaac Herzog will fly to Cyprus tomorrow for several hours to meet with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, says the President’s Residence.
During the brief visit, says his office, Herzog will discuss “intensified international efforts to secure the return of hostages to their families,” and “the latest regional and international developments.”
Otzma Yehudit MK abstains from vote that would delay key budget bill, paving its path to plenum
Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, July 1, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
MK Almog Cohen abstains from a vote to reopen discussions on a key budget-related bill in the Knesset Welfare Committee, paving the way for it to go to the plenum for its second and third readings despite the opposition of his far-right Otzma Yehudit party.
Cohen’s key abstention on the Economic Efficiency Bill came less than a day after Otzma Yehudit attempted to have him replaced on the committee. Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik tells lawmakers that the request was not submitted in accordance with Knesset regulations and was rejected.
“With this budget, Finance Ministry officials will cause the closure of police stations and civil defense squads and mass layoffs of police officers,” claims Otzma Yehudit in a statement. “It is very unfortunate that MK Cohen is acting contrary to his faction’s position.”
On Monday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir held Otzma Yehudit’s weekly faction meeting without Cohen, who last week broke party discipline to vote with the coalition on another key budget-related bill.
On Sunday, coalition whip Ofir Katz announced that legislation sponsored by Otzma Yehudit would be removed from the Knesset agenda due to the party’s pledge to continue voting against the government.
Los Angeles wildfires destroy Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, damage Chabad center
The Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center burns during the Eaton fire in Pasadena, California on January 7, 2025 (JOSH EDELSON / AFP)
The Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center has been destroyed by wildfires ripping through parts of the Los Angeles area, a local ABC affiliate reports, airing footage of flames engulfing the Conservative synagogue.
At least three major brushfires are burning through foothills northeast of Los Angeles, according to Cal Fire, whipped up by strong winds, with authorities saying the situation may yet worsen as firefighters attempt to contain the blazes. The fires have forced tens of thousands to evacuate and there a number of reports of injuries.
“The roof of this building, the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, has completely collapsed,” a correspondent for KABC says from the scene, as video appears to show the building being consumed by flames. “In a matter of minutes this has just completely collapsed.”
In the seaside community of Pacific Palisades, a Chabad center says it has also been affected by the fires, publishing a picture on Facebook of Torah scrolls being removed from the synagogue as smoke wafts in the background.
“Unfortunately, our property has been impacted—our storage area has suffered severe damage, as well as multiple cars in the parking lot. While these losses are difficult, we are most thankful that everyone is safe, and we continue to pray for the protection of all in the affected areas,” a post from the Chabad center reads.
Flames from the Palisades Fire burn in front of the Chabad of Pacific Palisades on Sunset Boulevard during a powerful windstorm on January 7, 2025 in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California (Apu Gomes/Getty Images/AFP)
Lawyer for PM’s aide: Netanyahu knew he planned to leak classified document to press
Eli Feldstein (left), a former spokesman in the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the main suspect in an investigation launched in late October 2024 of alleged illegal access and leaking of classified intelligence material (Kan screenshot, used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law); Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) at a plenum session at the Knesset, Jerusalem, November 12, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knew that his aide Eli Feldstein intended to leak a highly classified document to the press, Feldstein’s lawyer told the Supreme Court last month, a newly released court transcript has revealed.
The transcript of the December 5 hearing, first obtained and published by the Ynet news website, includes an exchange between Feldstein’s lawyer Oded Savoray and Supreme Court Justice Alex Stein when Savoray was arguing for his client’s release from detention to house arrest.
“[Feldstein] whispered in [the prime minister’s] ear after the press conference. He said to the prime minister, ‘I have a document from my sources in IDF Military Intelligence with the same content but more updated, [top adviser Yonatan] Urich and I are working on getting it out,'” Savoray told the Supreme Court.
The lawyer said this exchange took place five days before the classified document was published in the German tabloid newspaper Bild.
The allegations against Feldstein and a reserve IDF noncommissioned officer in the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate are at the heart of a scandal at the Prime Minister’s Office in which a highly classified document ostensibly detailing Hamas’s priorities and tactics in hostage negotiations was unlawfully removed from the IDF’s military intelligence database by the noncom and leaked to the German newspaper by Feldstein.
The affair centers around what prosecutors allege were Feldstein’s efforts to sway public opinion surrounding the negotiations for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in a more favorable direction for Netanyahu, after six hostages were murdered by the terror group last August.
Oded Savoray speaking to Channel 12 News, November 23, 2024. (Screenshot/Channel 12; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
PM’s office denies reported proposal of truce in exchange for list of living hostages
Relatives of hostages held in Gaza protest outside the Likud Party headquarters in Tel Aviv, January 8, 2025 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Israel denies a report in Lebanese media that talks for a hostage-ceasefire deal are examining the possibility of a truce lasting six to eight weeks, during which Israel would receive a list of the names of all the living hostages.
In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office calls the report “a complete lie and another part of the psychological warfare that Hamas is trying to inflict on the hostage families and on the citizens of Israel.”
“Israel will continue to work around the clock and tirelessly to bring all of our hostages home,” it says.
Lebanon to extradite son of late Muslim cleric al-Qaradawi to UAE over alleged inflammatory comments
Lebanon is set to extradite the son of late senior Muslim cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi to the United Arab Emirates after the country’s caretaker cabinet approved the move, the Lebanese prime minister’s office says.
Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-Turkish poet, was detained in Lebanon on Dec. 28 after returning from Syria, according to his lawyer Mohammad Sablouh and human rights group Amnesty International.
His arrest followed critical comments Qaradawi made of the UAE, Saudi Arabian and Egyptian authorities in a video posted online.
The UAE and Egypt have both filed requests for his extradition.
The requests “are believed to be based on the legitimate exercise of his right to freedom of expression,” Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Sara Hashash says in a statement, urging Lebanese authorities to reject the extradition requests.
The Egyptian and Emirati foreign ministries do not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Qaradawi’s lawyer says he will file an urgent appeal to block his client’s extradition but fears the poet might be flown out of the country before then.
Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, who died in 2022, was a spiritual guide to the Muslim Brotherhood who championed the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings and unsettled rulers in Egypt and the Gulf with his Islamist preaching. He spoke in favor of suicide bombings against Israelis and denied Israel’s right to exist.
Born in Egypt, Qaradawi spent much of his life in Qatar, where he became one of the Arab world’s most influential Sunni Muslim clerics thanks to regular appearances on Qatar’s Al Jazeera television network.
Broadcast into millions of homes, his sermons fueled tensions that led Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies to impose a blockade on Qatar in 2017 and declare Qaradawi a terrorist.
Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi speaks to a crowd in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, February 2, 2014 (Khalil Hamra/AP)
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
IDF says it carried out drone strike on cell of gunmen in West Bank’s Tamun
The IDF says it carried out a drone strike against a cell of gunmen in the West Bank town of Tamun a short while ago.
Further details will be provided later, the military adds.
Report: Deal proposal would see Israel receive list of living hostages in exchange for 6-8 week Gaza truce
Visitors at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, January 5, 2024. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
A Lebanese outlet affiliated with Hezbollah says the latest negotiations for a potential hostage-ceasefire deal are examining the possibility of a truce lasting six to eight weeks, during which Israel will receive a list of the names of all the living hostages.
Egyptian sources tell the outlet that Hamas will also formulate a list of dead hostages in the cases “in which the locations of their bodies are known to officials.”
The Cairo officials tell the outlet that during the truce, the amount of aid entering the Strip would increase and work would take place to rebuild the health system in Gaza.
The report says discussions on governance in Gaza after the war have been postponed to a later stage, and that while IDF troops would be expected to remain on the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors, the status of the Rafah Border Crossing to Egypt remains under discussion by Cairo, Washington and Jerusalem.
A list of 34 names of Israeli hostages held in Gaza who could be released in the first stage of an elusive ceasefire agreement with Hamas was published by a Saudi news outlet Monday, after the Palestinian terror group apparently leaked the document amid reports that negotiators were moving closer to sealing a potential hostage release and ceasefire deal.
That list was swiftly downplayed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office said it was the list given by Israel to the mediating countries in July. On Sunday, reports indicated that Hamas had okayed the months-old lineup while refusing to provide information on whether those hostages were alive, which Israel insists on getting before any agreement moves forward.
Blinken arrives in Paris to receive France’s highest honor, hold talks on Mideast
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks after a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at Ishiba's office in Tokyo, Jan. 7, 2025. (Issei Kato/Pool Photo via AP)
Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken begins a visit to Paris in which he will receive France’s highest honor and seek further coordination on the turbulent Middle East.
The top US diplomat arrives in Paris after stops in Japan and South Korea on what is expected to be his final trip before he is slated to be replaced with Marco Rubio once US President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20.
Blinken will meet President Emmanuel Macron, who will decorate him with the Legion of Honor, France’s highest order of merit.
The award will be especially poignant for Blinken, a fluent French speaker who spent part of his childhood in Paris and has spoken of France’s role in forming his worldview.
The decision to recognize Blinken also shows the full turnaround in relations since the start of US President Joe Biden’s term in 2021, when France was infuriated after the United States forged a new three-way alliance with Britain and Australia that resulted in the rescinding of a lucrative contract for French submarines.
Biden and Blinken have repeatedly said that their priority has been to nurture ties with US allies and partners — a sharp contrast with Trump, who even before taking office has not ruled out military force to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal.
Blinken will also meet Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot for talks focused on the Middle East including Syria, where Islamist-led forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last month.
Barrot visited Damascus last week with his German counterpart, part of cautious Western efforts to engage with the new Syrian leadership and encourage stability after a brutal civil war that contributed to the rise of the Islamic State extremist group and a migration crisis that rocked European politics.
Blinken on Monday said that he will also work until his final hours in the job for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, as the United States and Qatar step up indirect diplomacy between Israel and Hamas.
Hostage families protest outside Likud HQ in Tel Aviv: ‘End the war. Hostage deal now’
Relatives of hostages held in Gaza protest outside the Likud Party headquarters in Tel Aviv, January 8, 2025 (Zohar Bar-Yehuda via the pro-democracy protest groups)
The families of some of the hostages held in Gaza protest outside the Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling for a deal that would see them all released.
The protesters block traffic on King George Street as they march with an English-language sign reading: “End the war. Hostage deal now.”
While US officials from the outgoing Biden administration and incoming Trump administration have expressed some optimism at prospects of an agreement being reached, Israel and Hamas meanwhile accused each other of blocking a deal by adhering to conditions that torpedoed all previous negotiations.
State tells High Court all eligible Haredi men can be drafted into IDF from 2026
An ultra-Orthodox man is seen in front of a sign for an IDF recruitment office during a protest against conscripting Haredi men to the military, in Jerusalem, May 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara files the state’s response to High Court petitions on Haredi military enlistment, stating that there is no limit on the numbers of ultra-Orthodox men recruited into the Israel Defense Forces from mid-2026.
According to a report yesterday, Defense Minister Israel Katz had been delaying the filing of the state’s response because the IDF’s position that Haredi men could be recruited without limit contradicts the position adopted by the government, which is seeking to pass controversial legislation on the issue.
Katz responds to the filing by denying that he had asked for the IDF’s comments on recruitment figures to be removed: “To those who built fantasies and jumped headlong into an empty pool without water – I wish them health and success.”
The government, at the behest of the Haredi Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, is attempting to pass a bill that would see some increased enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men, but would broadly maintain the widescale exemption from military or national service that was struck down in a landmark ruling by the High Court of Justice last June.
Coalition members have often insisted as a way of justifying the legislation that the IDF is not capable of absorbing the estimated 70,000 Haredi males currently eligible for service. IDF officials disagree; however, Kan said Katz nevertheless asked the Justice Ministry several days ago not to include the military’s assessment in the state’s response to the petitions.
Iran says France should review ‘unconstructive’ approach ahead of nuclear talks
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei holds a weekly press conference in Tehran on October 28, 2024. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Iran’s foreign ministry calls upon Paris to review its “unconstructive” approach, a few days before Tehran is set to hold a new round of talks about its nuclear program with major European countries.
On Monday, Emmanuel Macron said Tehran’s uranium enrichment drive is nearing a point of no return and warned that European partners in a moribund 2015 nuclear deal with Iran should consider reimposing sanctions if no progress is reached.
“Untrue claims by a government that has itself refused to fulfill its obligations under the nuclear deal and has played a major role in [Israel’s] acquisition of nuclear weapons is deceitful and projective,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei writes on X.
France, Germany and Britain were co-signatories to the 2015 deal in which Iran agreed to curb enrichment, seen by the West as a disguised effort to develop nuclear-weapons capability, in return for lifting international sanctions.
Iran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes and has stepped up the program since US President-elect Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the 2015 deal during his first term of office and restored tough US sanctions on Tehran.
French, German and British diplomats are set to hold a follow-up meeting with Iranian counterparts on Jan. 13 after one in November held to discuss the possibility of serious negotiations in coming months to defuse tensions with Tehran, as Trump is due to return to the White House on Jan. 20.
Baghaei does not mention French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot’s comment regarding three French citizens held in Iran.
Barrot said yesterday that future ties and any lifting of sanctions on Iran would depend on their release.
Wildfire rages in Los Angeles, destroying homes and forcing 30,000 to evacuate
The Palisades Fire ravages a neighborhood amid high winds in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
A rapidly growing wildfire is raging across an upscale section of Los Angeles, destroying homes and creating traffic jams as 30,000 people evacuate beneath huge plumes of smoke that covered much of the metropolitan area.
At least 2,921 acres (1,182 hectares) of the Pacific Palisades area between the coastal settlements of Santa Monica and Malibu have burned, officials say, after they had already warned of extreme fire danger from powerful winds that arrived following extended dry weather.
The fire spread as officials warned the worst wind conditions were expected to come, leading to concerns that more neighborhoods could be forced to flee. The city of Santa Monica later ordered evacuations in the northern fringe of town.
Witnesses report a number homes on fire with flames nearly scorching their cars when people fled the hills of Topanga Canyon, as the fire spread from there down to the Pacific Ocean.
“We feel very blessed at this point that there’s no injuries that are reported,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley tells a press conference, adding that more than 25,000 people in 10,000 homes were threatened.
Firefighters in aircraft scooped water from the sea to drop it on the nearby flames. Flames engulfed homes and bulldozers cleared abandoned vehicles from roads so emergency vehicles could pass, television images show.
Foreign Ministry announces Israeli man killed in Romania ATV crash
The Foreign Ministry announces an Israeli man was killed in an ATV crash in Romania.
The ministry says diplomats are in touch with the family of the man, who is not immediately named, following the deadly incident in the town of Sinaia, and that it’s helping to repatriate his body for burial.
US general tasked with enforcing Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire praises work of Lebanese army
Members of the committee monitoring the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire, the Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Major General Aroldo Lazaro Saenz of Spain, center, US Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, right, and Gen. Guillaume Ponchamp of France, left, meet with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, December 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
The US military general leading the committee tasked with enforcing the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah hails the efforts of the Lebanese Armed Forces in implementing the early stages of the agreement following a visit to one of the LAF’s bases in southern Lebanon.
US Major General Jasper Jeffers and French Brigadier General Guillaume Ponchin visited the LAF’s 5th Brigade headquarters, which is located five kilometers northeast of Naqoura — one of the two towns from which Israeli forces have withdrawn as part of the ceasefire.
“As part of the Mechanism-enabled transition, the LAF immediately deployed forces to the area to clear roads, remove unauthorized munitions, and provide security for the people of Lebanon,” a statement from the US Embassy in Beirut says.
“Jeffers and Ponchin viewed stockpiles of weapons to be destroyed in the coming days, which the LAF seized from unauthorized armed groups,” the US readout reveals.
“The LAF is the legitimate security provider for Lebanon and continues to demonstrate to me and the rest of the Mechanism it has the capability, intent, and leadership to secure and defend Lebanon. They have acted decisively, rapidly, and with clear expertise. Today, we saw an example of this with the soldiers of the 5th Brigade. The engineer corps in particular is full of true professionals, removing and rendering safe hundreds of pieces of unexploded ordnance every week,” Jeffers says in his own statement.
U.S. Major General Jasper Jeffers, the Co-Chairman of the Cessation of Hostilities Implementation Mechanism, and French Brigadier General Guillaume Ponchin visited the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) 5th Brigade headquarters in southwest Lebanon, Jan. 7. Generals Jeffers and Ponchin… pic.twitter.com/btcsJUWeS9
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) January 7, 2025
US antisemitism envoy to visit Israel later this week
The Biden administration’s antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt will be in Israel on Wednesday and Thursday, where she will meet with President Isaac Herzog, along with diplomats from the Foreign Ministry, the State Department says.
The visit, Lipstadt’s fourth to Israel and fifth to the Middle East and North Africa, marks her final overseas visit as special envoy.
US shifting some military aid from Egypt to Lebanon as Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire holds
US President Joe Biden’s administration will divert $95 million in military aid allocated for Egypt to Lebanon, which faces threats from Hezbollah and other non-state actors, and while a shaky ceasefire with Israel holds, according to a document seen by Reuters.
The State Department notification to Congress of the planned shift calls the Lebanese armed forces “a key partner” in upholding the November 27, 2024, Israel-Lebanon agreement to cease hostilities and to prevent the Hezbollah terror group from threatening Israel.
The move comes after some of Biden’s fellow Democrats in Congress expressed deep concerns about Egypt’s human rights record, particularly the arrests of thousands of political prisoners.
In response to questions about the reprogrammed funding, a State Department spokesperson says the department is still moving forward with foreign military financing for Egypt and said the assessment that Cairo had made progress on political prisoners has not changed.
The Egyptian embassy in Washington does not respond to a request for comment.
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