Jan. 9: IDF says it killed Hamas battalion commander for Gaza City in recent strike

Macron says Mideast situation among the issues he discussed with UK’s Starmer

French President Emmanuel Macron says in a post on X that he met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and they both reaffirmed their commitment to support Ukraine and discussed several other issues.

At Chequers, the British prime minister’s official country residence, Macron says that he spoke to Starmer regarding the situation in the Middle East and the relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

The two countries are now prepared for the upcoming Franco-British Summit, he says in the post on X.

After Herzog visit, Cypriot official says Israel and UAE worried about Turkish influence in Syria

NICOSIA, Cyprus — Israel and the United Arab Emirates are concerned about the extent of Turkey’s military footprint and influence inside Syria and have reached out to Cyprus to act as a mediator, a Cypriot official says.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and the Emirati foreign minister held separate meetings with the president of Cyprus on Thursday to discuss events in Syria, the official says, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to publicly discuss details of the meetings.

The impromptu meetings came a day after Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides attended a trilateral summit in Cairo with Egypt’s president and Greece’s prime minister.

The official says there is a “convergence of views” between Israel, the UAE, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and other neighboring countries about how the situation within Syria will unfold and what repercussions they will have on the future of the region.

Turkey had long backed the Syrian rebels who overthrew President Bashar Assad, and is looking to protect its interests in the country now that Assad is gone. Turkey has also threatened a new military offensive into northern Syria unless Syrian Kurdish fighters lay down their arms.

Thank you, President @Christodulides, for your steadfast friendship and the warm and productive discussion we shared. We spoke about the issue that is of the highest priority—bringing home the hostages being cruelly held by Hamas in Gaza—as well as the latest regional challenges… pic.twitter.com/EIGxvZtbmU

— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) January 9, 2025

Biden: ‘Real progress’ being made in hostage talks, but Hamas ‘in the way’ of a deal

US President Joe Biden speaks about the Los Angeles fires at the White House in Washington, on January 9, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)

US President Joe Biden says he thinks his administration will be able to secure a hostage deal, even though Hamas is currently the obstacle to an agreement.

As is often the case, a question about Israel is among the first to be shouted by the White House press corps as Biden wraps up a briefing on a completely different topic — the wildfires devastating Los Angeles.

Asked to provide an update on the hostage talks, Biden is cautious to get into detail but says, “We’re making some real progress,” adding that he spoke with US negotiators earlier Thursday.

He then switches topics to the Lebanese parliament’s election of military chief Joseph Aoun to be Lebanon’s president. Biden calls him a “first rate guy” and says he heard from the general his plans to ensure that the Lebanese military is “accountable to the Lebanese people — not Hamas, not Hezbollah, not any other group.”

To date, successive Lebanese governments have had a difficult time maintaining independence from the Iran-backed terror group, which has enjoyed veto power over much of the country’s decision-making. With Hezbollah significantly weakened due to an intensified military campaign by Israel late last year, the parliament was able to move forward with today’s vote. While the US publicly refrained from backing any candidate, it privately lobbied for Aoun, according to an official familiar with the matter.

Biden then shifts back to the hostage talks. “I know hope springs eternal, but I’m still hopeful that we’ll be able to have a prisoner exchange.”

“Hamas is the one getting in the way of that exchange, right now, but I think we may be able to get that done. We need to get it done,” he says.

For over a year, the White House has blamed Hamas for the lack of ceasefire in Gaza.

While Egyptian and Qatari diplomats along with some members of Israel’s negotiating team and even several US officials have told The Times of Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to anything more than a temporary ceasefire has been the main obstacle, Washington has refrained from voicing that belief publicly.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested in a New York Times interview last week that US pressure on Israel has led Hamas to harden its positions.

Venezuela’s opposition leader Machado freed

Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has been freed after being detained upon leaving a protest in Caracas Thursday against President Nicolas Maduro, whom she accuses of stealing a presidential election last July, her team says.

Machado “was intercepted and knocked from the motorcycle she was traveling on” leaving a rally in the capital, her entourage says on X, adding shots were fired.”She was forcibly detained. During the period of her abduction, she was forced to record several videos and then released.”

Tlaib dons keffiyeh at Carter funeral to thank him for ‘speaking out against apartheid’

US Rep. Rashida Tlaib and university employees at a press conference titled "Unions Defend Free Speech on Campus" on Capitol Hill on May 23, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Michael A. McCoy / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Palestinian-American House Rep. Rashida Tlaib tweets she attended the funeral of former US president Jimmy Carter and wore a Palestinian keffiyeh “to show my gratitude for your courageous stance in speaking out against apartheid and standing up for peace.”

Rest in peace, President Jimmy Carter. It was an honor to be there with your family. I wore my Palestinian keffiyeh to show my gratitude for your courageous stance in speaking out against apartheid and standing up for peace. pic.twitter.com/Vf0XLN2BtJ

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) January 9, 2025

IDF releases footage of Houthi drone interception over Mediterranean Sea

The IDF releases footage showing the interception of one of three drones launched from Yemen at Israel this evening.

The interception seen in the video took place over the Mediterranean Sea.

מצורף תיעוד של יירוט כלי הטיס הבלתי מאויש במרחב הים התיכון, ששוגר מתימן מוקדם יותר הערב pic.twitter.com/0n09PbYJvk

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 9, 2025

Venezuela opposition candidate demands ‘immediate liberation’ of arrested leader Machado

Venezuela’s Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who the opposition says won a July election over incumbent Nicolas Maduro, calls for the “immediate liberation” of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado who was detained after leaving an anti-Maduro rally.

“As president-elect I demand the immediate liberation of Maria Corina Machado,” Gonzalez Urrutia, who went into exile in September, writes on X, appealing to Venezuela’s security forces to “not play with fire.”

France’s Macron will travel to Lebanon very soon, his office says

French President Macron will visit Lebanon very soon, the French presidency says, after Macron spoke with Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese army chief who was elected president, to congratulate him.

The Elysee says in a statement that it would support Aoun’s efforts to form a new government, underlining that it must be capable of carrying out the reforms necessary for Lebanon’s economic recovery and stability.

IDF says it intercepted night’s third drone from Yemen

A third drone launched at Israel apparently from Yemen was intercepted by the Israeli Air Force a short while ago, the military says.

According to the IDF, the drone launched “from the east” was shot down over the Mediterranean Sea, before reaching Israel.

Earlier, two more drones apparently launched from Yemen were shot down over southern Israel and the Mediterranean Sea.

House okays bill to sanction ICC over Israeli arrest warrants; Senate path to be harder

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (left) Netanyahu at the Knesset, November 11, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90); An exterior view of the International Criminal Court, or ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands, on April 30, 2024. (AP/Peter Dejong); Then-defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks during a press conference at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, on November 5, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The US House of Representatives advances legislation to sanction the International Criminal Court over the arrest warrants it issued against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

The legislation still needs to be passed by the Senate where it will have a harder time passing. Republicans will need to recruit around seven Democrats to vote with them, which may be difficult given that the outgoing Biden administration has to date refrained from backing such punitive measures against the court, not wanting to delegitimize the international body whose sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin it supports.

Today’s vote in the House passes overwhelmingly with 243 lawmakers voting in favor of sanctioning the ICC, 155 voting against and one lawmaker abstaining. All 140 votes against the legislation came from Democrats. The lone abstention came from Republican Rep. Thomas Massie who tweeted afterward that the House “should not get involved in disputes between other countries.”

Roughly 30 Democrats joined Republicans in voting to advance the bill.

The breakdown is largely the same as the one on similar House legislation last year that failed to advance out of the Senate, though, the number of “Nos” was slightly lower amid absences due to former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral and the wildfires in Los Angeles.

Republicans prioritized the legislation out of the gate with the new GOP-controlled Congress and Senate Majority Leader John Thune has vowed to pass it.

The bill urges US sanctions against any ICC official or entities backing The Hague who advance “any effort to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies.”

The sanctions include blocking or revoking visas and prohibiting US property transactions.

The legislation states that the US and Israel are not signatories to the Rome Statute that created the ICC, which accordingly has no jurisdiction over their conduct.

AIPAC has urged lawmakers to back the legislation, while the more dovish J Street has come out against it.

Biden hails Aoun as ‘right leader’ for Lebanon

US President Joe Biden welcomes the election of Joseph Aoun as Lebanon’s president, saying in a statement that the army chief was the “right leader” for the war-battered country.

“President Aoun has my confidence. I believe strongly he is the right leader for this time,” says Biden, adding that Aoun would provide “critical leadership” in overseeing an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.

Separately, the United Nations Security Council also hails Aoun’s election

Council members emphasize the need for “fully functional state institutions, to address the pressing political, economic and security challenges” in Lebanon, according to a statement read to reporters by Algerian Ambassador Amar Bendjama, whose country currently holds the body’s rotating presidency.

US anti-Israel activists blame Israel for Los Angeles wildfire crisis

A protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the White House in Washington, DC, October 1, 2014. (photo credit: AFP/Jim WATSON)

Anti-Israel activists and commentators in the US blame Israel for the wildfire crisis in Los Angeles.

Code Pink, a far-left activist group, says on Instagram, “When US taxes go to burning people alive in Gaza, we can’t be surprised when those fires come home.”

The New York branch of the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace, in a post about the fires, says, “Instead of putting resources toward making our country livable, our government is putting billions toward Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.”

Fatima Mohammed, a leader of the hardline anti-Israel group Within Our Lifetime, posts an image of the fires and says, “The flames of Gaza will not stop there.”

“Dropping hundreds of thousands of bombs on Gaza, turning it into a blazing inferno, has consequences,” she says. “There are climate consequences that will find us all.”

Commentator Mehdi Hasan also links US military aid to Israel to the LA fire department’s budget.

The Los Angeles Fire Department is mainly funded by the city of Los Angeles, while aid to Israel is from the federal government.

New York Congressman Ritchie Torres, one of Israel’s most outspoken supporters in Washington, lashes Code Pink for blaming Israel for the fires.

“The nature of Antisemitism is to scapegoat the Jewish People and the Jewish State for everything wrong in the world—no matter how tenuous the causal connection,” he says on X. “The modus operandi of Antisemitism is slanderous scapegoating: when in doubt, blame the Jews.”

Amy Spitalnick, the head of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, calls the Code Pink statement “the latest example of a relentless scapegoating of Israel or Jews for virtually any global problem.”

PM’s envoy tells families temporary deal under discussion to be followed by additional phase of hostage releases

Gal Hirsch, the government's point man on missing and kidnapped citizens, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, April 10, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hostage envoy held a meeting with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum today amid the families’ fury over the government’s effort to try and reach a temporary deal that will only see the release of roughly one-third of the remaining hostages.

Hostage envoy Gal Hirsch told the families that the temporary ceasefire is only one phase of a three-phase deal and that two weeks into the six-week pause, negotiations will begin on the terms of the second phase when the remaining living hostages will be released, Channel 12 reports.

But Netanyahu is seeking to resume fighting after the first phase which has hostage families very concerned about whether there would be a second or third phase when the remaining bodies of slain hostages would be released.

Channel 12 says Hirsch declined to say during the meeting that the government is prepared to permanently end the war — which has long been Hamas’s condition for releasing the remaining hostages.

Ex-hostage publishes Arabic video asking Hamas to send sign her husband still alive

Sharon Alony Cunio speaks at the start of a march from Kibbutz Reim to Jerusalem, February 28, 2024 (Courtesy Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Former hostage Sharon Cunio publishes an Arabic video urging her husband David’s Hamas captors to send a video showing that he is still alive.

Cunio quotes a passage from the Quran, which directs Muslims to treat hostages like other marginalized populations worthy of compassion.

שרון קוניו, שהוחזרה מהשבי בעסקה בנובמבר פונה בכאב למחבלי חמאס המחזיקים בבעלה דוד שעדיין בשבי בעזה.

בסרטון היא מבקשת מהם לראות את בעלה ולשמור על החטופים כפי שמורים חוקי האסלאם@michalpeylan pic.twitter.com/bdJiXtiJ01

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) January 9, 2025

IDF says it intercepted second drone from Yemen within minutes

The IDF says a second drone launched at Israel from Yemen was intercepted by the Israeli Air Force a short while ago.

The second drone was shot down over the Mediterranean Sea, the military says.

No sirens sounded as no towns were under any threat.

Earlier, the IDF said a drone apparently launched from Yemen was shot down over southern Israel.

IDF says it intercepted drone ‘from the east’ over southern Israel

The IDF says a drone launched at Israel “from the east,” was intercepted by air defenses over southern Israel.

Sirens had sounded in the community of Gvulot amid the incident.

According to initial assessments by the IDF, the drone was likely launched from Yemen, though this is still under investigation.

Shin Bet chief said to urge ministers to approve major counterterror op in West Bank

Against the backdrop of the deadly terror shooting in the West Bank earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu consulted with a small group of ministers and security chiefs, Channel 12 reports.

During the meeting, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar urged the government to approve a major IDF counterterror operation in the West Bank.

The IDF has already been carrying out near-daily raids throughout the West Bank and in recent weeks, it has been joined by the Palestinian Authority, which is carrying out an unprecedented operation of its own in the Jenin refugee camp, which has become a hotbed for Iran-backed armed groups.

But Bar appears to argue in favor of a more intensive effort by Israel.

“The significant decrease in the number of attacks in Judea and Samaria [West Bank] is deceptive and does not reflect the scope of terrorism on the ground. We identify a consistent escalating trend from [2021] where attackers have shifted from throwing Molotov cocktails to using rifles and explosive devices,” Channel 12 quotes Bar as having said during the meeting.

“Israel should learn from October 7 and not allow the intensification of these terrorist elements. Therefore a broad, reality-changing move must be initiated that will collapse and eliminate the phenomenon of the armed Palestinian battalions in Judea and Samaria in order to ensure our freedom of operation there,” Bar says.

Suspected drone infiltration sirens triggered in southern town of Gvulot

Suspected drone infiltration sirens are sounding in the southern community of Gvulot.

The IDF says it is looking into the incident.

In the past, drones launched at Israel from Yemen have crossed into southern Israel via the Egypt border.

Ryanair plans to fly full summer schedule from Tel Aviv

A Ryanair plane at Ben Gurion International Airport, outside of Tel Aviv. March 2, 2021. (Yossi Aloni/ Flash90)

Ryanair opens new tab plans to operate a full schedule of flights from Tel Aviv this summer and is hopeful that Ben Gurion Airport will reopen its shuttered Terminal 1, senior executive Eddie Wilson says in an interview.

Ryanair is one of several airlines to have withdrawn from Israel due to war in Gaza and Lebanon. It restarted flights from neighboring Jordan in December.

“We rely on (European aviation regulator) EASA guidance … but our view is that we will be back,” says Wilson, chief executive of Ryanair DAC, the largest of five subsidiary airlines operated by the Ryanair Group.

“We’ve got a full schedule I think for Tel Aviv…so we will be back in there for the summer as I think most of the other airlines will be,” Wilson says.

Asked about the reopening of Ben Gurion’s Terminal 1, which is used by low-cost operators, Wilson says: “We would hope that they would take the sensible decision to open that.”

Wilson, who was speaking in Berlin, said Ryanair planned to deploy two additional aircraft to regional airports in Germany this summer, offering 800,000 more seats.

IDF says it killed Hamas battalion commander for Gaza City in recent strike

The commander of Hamas’s Sabra Battalion, part of the Gaza City Brigade, was killed in a recent airstrike, according to the military and Shin Bet.

A separate strike killed the battalion’s deputy commander, along with other operatives, according to the IDF.

In a joint statement, the IDF and Shin Bet say that the Sabra Battalion commander, Osama Abu Namus, was eliminated in a drone strike this week.

The IDF says Abu Namus was a “significant source of knowledge” in Hamas and was responsible for attacks on Israel and IDF troops in Gaza, especially soldiers operating in the Netzarim Corridor area, located just south of Gaza City.

A separate strike killed Mohammed al-Tarq, the deputy commander of Hamas’s Sabra Battalion, the military says. According to the IDF, he previously served as the commander of a Nukhba force company in the battalion.

Al-Tarq was also responsible for attacks on troops in the Netzarim Corridor, the military says.

The IDF says recent airstrikes also eliminated two commanders in the Sabra Battalion’s Nukhba force company, including one responsible for the supply of weapons.

The Sabra Battalion is named after the neighborhood of Gaza City in which it operates.

Russia says Aoun election is a chance for stability; Germany says it’s a chance for reform

Russia says it welcomes the election of a new president of Lebanon, which it hopes will bring political stability to the country.

The foreign ministry in a statement says the election of army chief Joseph Aoun “opened up the prospect of strengthening internal political stability in Lebanon and righting the country’s complex social and economic position.”

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says Aoun’s election is a chance for “reforms and change” in the war-ravaged country.

“After many years of crisis and stagnation, this is a moment of opportunity to bring about reforms and change,” Baerbock says on social media platform X. “Germany stands by the side of the people of Lebanon on the way forward.”

‘Most destructive’ Los Angeles fires still ‘zero percent’ contained: officials

The Palisades Fire ravages a neighborhood amid high winds in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, January 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The two largest fires burning in Los Angeles remained “zero percent” contained, despite a vast firefighting operation, local officials warn.

A 17,000-acre (6,900-hectare) blaze in Pacific Palisades has become “one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of Los Angeles,” says city fire chief Kristin Crowley, while a 10,000-acre fire in Altadena was also at “zero percent containment,” says county fire chief Anthony Marrone.

Police arrest fourth suspect in Tel Aviv stabbing earlier this week

Tel Aviv police arrested a fourth suspect in connection to the stabbing of a man earlier this week on Rothschild Boulevard, a spokesperson says.

The suspect is a 19-year-old resident of Elad, in central Israel. Officers are bringing him to the police station in central Tel Aviv for questioning.

Earlier today, police arrested three young men, two 18-year-olds and one 16-year-old from central Israel, also thought to have been involved in the attack.

PA’s Abbas says Lebanon will overcome ‘repercussions of Israeli aggression’ with new president

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says that Lebanon will overcome the “repercussions of Israeli aggression” under the leadership of its new president, Joseph Aoun.

“We are confident that our brotherly Lebanon will overcome the repercussions of the Israeli occupation’s aggression and achieve development and prosperity,” Abbas says in a statement, referring to Israel’s war with Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, which ended late last year.

Biden warns against ‘hate’ and ‘abuse of power’ at Carter’s funeral

US President Joe Biden warns against “hate” and the “abuse of power” in a speech at Jimmy Carter’s state funeral Thursday, attended by all five living presidents including incoming leader Donald Trump.

“We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor, and to stand up to… the greatest sin of all, the abuse of power,” Biden, who leaves the White House on January 20, says in his eulogy for former president Carter.

Gantz’s opposition party says it is still examining Levin-Sa’ar judicial reform

The opposition National Unity party says that it is still examining the far-reaching package of judicial reforms proposed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and refrains from immediately commenting on its merits — although it does appeal to Levin to comply with a recent court ruling touching on the issue.

“We are studying the details of the [compromise] and its implications. Tomorrow, the National Unity faction will convene for an initial discussion on the issue after consulting with experts,” the party says in a statement.

“Nevertheless, the justice minister must allow the appointment of the president of the Supreme Court as required by the court’s ruling,” it adds.

IDF says Houthis have launched 40 missiles, 320 drones at Israel since start of war

Yemenis brandish rifles and chant slogans during an anti-Israel demonstration in the Houthi-controlled capital Sana'a on December 27, 2024.(Mohammed Huwais/AFP)

The IDF says that since the beginning of the war, the Houthis in Yemen have launched some 40 ballistic missiles at Israel, the vast majority of which were intercepted by Israeli air defenses.

In one case, the military failed to shoot down a Houthi missile, and there were two incidents of partial interceptions, all of which resulted in damage and injuries in Israel.

According to the military, some of the Houthi ballistic missiles fell short before reaching Israel.

Additionally, the IDF says it has recorded over 320 drones launched at Israel from Yemen amid the war.

Over 100 of the drones were intercepted by the Israeli Air Force using ground-based air defense systems, fighter jets, and helicopters. Several drones were also shot down by the Israeli Navy.

There have been two cases of what the IDF calls “effective” drone impacts in Israel, with causalities and damage, while the others either struck open areas or did not reach the country, according to the military.

The Iran-backed Houthis in the past month ramped up missile and drone attacks on Israel, though there has been a lull of several days now.

The IDF says that the Houthi regime is a “central branch of the Iranian axis, and is responsible for undermining the regional order and disrupting global freedom of navigation.”

Polish gov’t says will ensure representatives of Israel can attend Auschwitz memorial ceremony

The Polish government says it will ensure free and safe participation in the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp to the highest representatives of Israel.

Swiss national commits suicide in Iranian prison, Tasnim news agency says

A Swiss national arrested in Iran and accused of spying committed suicide in prison, the chief justice of Iran’s Semnan province is quoted as saying by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Ultra-Orthodox demonstrators block major highway in protest against IDF conscription

Ultra-Orthodox demonstrators block traffic on Route 4 near Bnei Brak during protest against IDF conscription on January 9, 2025. (Screen capture/X)

Ultra-Orthodox demonstrators are blocking traffic on Route 4, a major north-south highway near the entrance to Bnei Brak, in a protest against IDF conscription.

The protesters are affiliated with the Jerusalem Faction, a radical Haredi sect that regularly demonstrates against the conscription of yeshiva students.

The protest takes place in light of intensifying government efforts to draft Haredi men to the military, following a June High Court ruling that demanded an end to blanket exemptions.

חרדים מהפלג הירושלמי מפגינים נגד גיוס לצה"ל בכביש 4, שנחסם לתנועה בשני הכיוונים @AkivaWeisz pic.twitter.com/lVfmJchwZA

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 9, 2025

Earlier this week, the IDF drafted its first 50 ultra-Orthodox soldiers to a newly established “Hasmonean Brigade” for regular service.

Police officers in the area are redirecting traffic to alternative routes, says a spokesperson.

Hebrew media shows protesters sitting cross-legged on the ground, holding signs that read: “We will die and not enlist” among other anti-draft slogans. Police, who declared the demonstration illegal, are using force to clear protesters from the road.

Hostage families gather to mourn Youssef Ziyadne, argue that military pressure killing hostages

Bereaved hostage family members speak at Tel Aviv's Hostages Square on January 9, 2025. (Hostages Forum)

Family members of hostages killed in Gazan captivity stand together in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square to mourn the loss of another hostage, Youssef Ziyadne, whose body was found by the IDF in Gaza, and call on the government to sign the hostage deal currently in negotiations.

“We are the members of a cohort of loss and bereavement,” says Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was executed with five other hostages by their captors in late August. “We don’t want any more people to join our community of agony and pain and yet tragically just yesterday the Ziyadne families joined us. We implore all world leaders to make a deal and bring all 99 remaining hostages home.”

Goldberg-Polin completed her remarks by asking Israel’s leaders the first question posed by God in the Bible, in Genesis, to Adam: “Where are you?” yells Goldberg-Polin into the microphone. “Bring them home now.”
She is echoed by the other bereaved hostage families.

“These families, siblings, full families, have been destroyed,” says Elhanan Danino, whose son Ori Danino was one of the five hostages killed alongside Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Opening his jacket lapel to reveal a photo of his son Ori, Danino calls to the government leadership, “Who are you waiting for? Please, those sitting around the prime minister’s table — wake up. You abandoned them, now bring them back.”

Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin speak at Hostages Square on January 9, 2025. (Hostages Forum)

Alon Gat, the brother of Carmel Gat, another one of the hostages killed alongside Goldberg-Polin in a Gaza tunnel, speaks about his own experiences on October 7, when his mother, Kinneret Gat, was killed in their Kibbutz Be’eri home, while he, his wife Yarden Roman-Gat and their three-year-old daughter were taken hostage, along with Carmel.

Alon and Geffen were able to escape, eventually making their way to safety by the next day. Roman-Gat was released in the November 2023 ceasefire, but Carmel never made it home.

“You can’t imagine what it’s like telling a three-year-old that her aunt who was supposed to come, isn’t, and that she was killed,” says Gat.

“We’ve been standing here more than a year,” calls Gat, “since Geffen’s mother was released. I know what it is to get someone back alive. I lost my sister Carmel and I will carry that with me for the rest of my life.”

Elhanan Danino, father of murdered hostage Ori Danino, speaks at Hostages Square on January 9, 2025. (Hostages Forum)

Carmit Palty Katzir says she lost her entire family in the last year. Her father, Rami Katzir was killed on October 7 as her elderly mother and brother, Hanna Katzir and Elad Katzir, were taken captive. Elad Katzir was killed in captivity in January and his body was recovered by the IDF in April and brought home for burial. Hanna Katzir was released home in November 2023 but died in December from medical complications from her captivity.

“We want to close our club,” she says. “Our club is the nightmare of every family, the place no one wants to join. We’re the face of missed opportunities.”

“We’re here because there was no deal,” adds Palty Katzir. “We have no one to bring home or save but we’re here so that no other family will go through this.”

“I know in my bones and in the bones of my family, that only an agreement will bring back the rest of the hostages… The government must make sure that an agreement is implemented immediately to return everyone before it is too late for more abductees,” she says.

Merav Svirsky, the sister of Itai who was killed in captivity and whose body was returned to Israel, says, “Far too many hostages, who could have returned alive have been murdered and killed as a result of military pressure.”

“It is now clear as day: military pressure endangers the lives of the hostages. The military pressure killed and continues to kill them. And military pressure also endangers and harms the lives of our soldiers. The policy that prioritizes the continuation of military pressure must be replaced by a life-saving policy committed to the return of all hostages,” she adds.

Democrats MK Kariv says coalition’s judicial reform plan politicizes judicial appointments

Gilad Kariv attends a Knesset Economic Affairs Committee meeting in Jerusalem, on July 17, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Democrats MK Gilad Kariv comes out against the judicial reform package proposed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, saying it “appears to be a severe politicization of the Judicial Selection Committee without appropriate balances,” and which he adds appears not to have sufficient protections for human and civil rights.

Kariv also insists that an agreement on such a critical issue for Israeli society cannot be drawn up by two cabinet ministers alone, “and cannot be imposed on the political system, the judiciary, and the entire public, amid a severe attack on the legal system and the gatekeepers [of the rule of law].”

Head of the Israel Bar Association Amit Becher goes further, calling Levin and Sa’ar’s agreement “a trick of the justice minister and not a ‘compromise,'” but rather a “deceptive and dangerous proposal to implement the principles of the coup d’état, the main focus of which was the politicization of the election of Supreme Court justices and the increase in the government’s power over the judiciary.

Becher says the notion of replacing the representatives of the Israel Bar Association currently on the Judicial Selection Committee with attorneys chosen by the Knesset – one by the coalition and one by the opposition – would annul the “professional majority” of legal professionals on the committee and greatly politicize the panel.

PA says it has arrested 247 suspects thus far in Jenin camp counterterror raid

Palestinian Authority security forces use tear gas to disperse a protest against their security operation in Jenin, West Bank, December 16, 2024. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP)

The Palestinian Authority has arrested 247 outlaws as part of its counterterror raid in the Jenin refugee camp that has been ongoing for several weeks, PA security forces spokesperson Anwar Rajab says.

Speaking at a press conference in Jenin, Rajab says PA forces have defused 245 explosive devices in addition to confiscating weapons and ammunition.

Eight of those arrested are suspected of illicitly financing terror groups in the northern West Bank.

Rajab says PA forces also seized funds that were supposed to go toward the families of “martyrs and prisoners” but had been “misappropriated by the lawbreakers,” Haaretz reports.

Thousands attend funeral of slain Bedouin hostage; no coalition member makes it

Mourners attend the funeral of Israeli hostage Youssef Ziyadne in Rahat, southern Israel, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, after his body was recovered in an underground tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, where he had been held captive by the Hamas terror group. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Several thousand people are in attendance at the Rahat funeral of Youssef Ziyadne whose body was recovered from Gaza 15 months after Hamas terrorists abducted him and his son.

The 53-year-old’s body was found Tuesday night in a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, along with findings that the IDF said were linked to his son Hamza Ziyadne, 22, who was taken hostage alongside him during the October 7, 2023, terror onslaught.

No government representative attended the funeral.

Following reports of government ministers’ absence, the Prime Minister’s Office issues a statement saying that two representatives from its hostage department are among attendees.

Egypt top diplomat meets Palestinian delegation, urges unity

Egypt’s foreign minister meets a Palestine Liberation Organization delegation, calling for “unity” and the strengthening of the Palestinian Authority amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.

During his meeting with the PLO delegation in Cairo, Badr Abdelatty “reaffirmed Egypt’s supportive stance towards the Palestinian Authority,” his office says in a statement.

The minister also reiterated “Egypt’s rejection of any plans to displace Palestinians from their lands,” it adds.

Last month, Egypt hosted talks between rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas to discuss bringing postwar Gaza under PA control.

Fatah, which governs parts of the West Bank under the PA, dominates both the PA and the PLO, an internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people.

It has been excluded from Gaza since Hamas seized control in 2007.

Abdelatty also discusses with the PLO delegation Egypt’s efforts to end the Gaza war, reach a ceasefire agreement and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been engaged in months of talks to cement a truce in Gaza, but so far to no avail.

Qatar welcomes election of Lebanon president, hopes for ‘stability’

Qatar praises the election of Lebanese army chief Joseph Aoun as president, calling for “stability” after the more than two-year vacancy was filled.

“The State of Qatar welcomes the election of Lebanese army commander General Joseph Aoun,” the foreign ministry says in a statement, adding that it hoped his election would “contribute to establishing security and stability in Lebanon.”

US, Arab mediators make some progress in Gaza peace talks, but no deal yet, sources say

US and Arab mediators have made some progress in their efforts to reach a ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but not enough to seal a deal, unnamed Palestinian sources close to the talks tell Reuters.

A Palestinian official close to the mediation effort says the absence of a deal so far does not mean the talks are going nowhere and that the current attempt is the most serious so far.

“There are extensive negotiations, mediators and negotiators are talking about every word and every detail. There is a breakthrough when it comes to narrowing old existing gaps but there is no deal yet,” he tells Reuters, without giving further details.

Lapid says he won’t comment on coalition’s new judicial reform package until Levin allows appointment of Supreme Court chief

Responding to a far-reaching package of judicial reforms proposed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says that he won’t even weigh in on the issue until Levin shows that he can obey court orders.

“I will respond d to Yariv Levin immediately after he complies with the court order and appoints a president of the High Court of Justice by January 16,” Lapid states.

Last month, the court ordered Levin to hold a vote in the Judicial Selection Committee for a new president of the Supreme Court by January 16.

France calls for Lebanese government capable of carrying out reforms

The election of a new Lebanese president turns a new page for the country and must now be followed by the appointment of a new government capable of carrying out reforms, France’s Foreign Ministry says.

Foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine says that a new government will have to carry out reforms necessary for Lebanon’s economic recovery, stability, security and sovereignty, and added that France calls on all Lebanese political leaders and authorities to work toward those goals.

Ben Gvir welcomes judicial reform package announced by Levin and Sa’ar

While far from perfect, a far-reaching package of judicial reforms proposed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar today is an acceptable compromise, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir declares.

“The outline is not perfect, but we can live with it. Reform with a broad consensus is the right compromise, even when it is not perfect, and therefore I support the outline and the change is welcome,” says Ben Gvir.

Congratulating Levin and Sa’ar, Ben Gvir repeats his call to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, stating that it is “imperative to urgently resolve the issue.”

After striking compromise deal, ministers Levin and Sa’ar unveil far-reaching judicial reform package

Incoming Justice Minister Yariv Levin (right) poses with his predecessor Gideon Sa'ar during a meeting on January 1, 2023 (Michael Dimenstein/GPO)

Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar unveil a far-reaching package of judicial reforms, which would slightly alter the membership of the critical Judicial Selection Committee; establish a formal mechanism for passing quasi-constitutional Basic Laws distinct from regular legislation; prohibit judicial review over Basic Laws except for those relating to voting rights; and require a majority of all justices on the High Court before Knesset legislation can be struck down.

All of the reforms would only come into effect in the next Knesset term, that is, after the next elections.

And a vote will be called next week to elect a new Supreme Court president in which Acting Supreme Court President Isaac Amit will likely be selected as the next head of the court, despite Levin’s intense opposition to his appointment.

The ministers state that the reform package was devised between the two of them, together with former cabinet minister Yizhar Shai who was a member of Benny Gantz’s now-defunct Israel Resilience party, and Brig. Gen. (Res) Dedi Simchi, and describe the agreement as “an historic amendment” one and a half years in the making.

According to the proposed reforms, the number of members on the Judicial Selection Committee will stay the same, at nine. The number of coalition members on the committee will remain at three, the number of opposition representatives will stay at one, and the number of Supreme Court justices will also remain at three.

The two representatives of the Israel Bar Association will, however, be removed in favor of attorneys with experience in litigation. One will be chosen by the coalition and one by the opposition.

Judicial appointments to lower courts will be made by a simple majority of five votes on the committee, and must include a member of the coalition, opposition, and a Supreme Court justice.

Appointments to the Supreme Court will also be made by a majority of five, and must include a member of the coalition and a member of the opposition.

This arrangement means, Levin and Sa’ar say in their joint statement, that the representatives of the Supreme Court will not have a veto over appointments to that court. At the same time, the two ministers point out, a Supreme Court justice will not be able to be appointed merely by representatives of the coalition, or by representatives of the judiciary and the opposition alone.

Under the reform package, Basic Laws will only be able to deal with key matters of the state’s Jewish and democratic identity, human rights, and aspects of government.

The legislation of Basic Laws will be different from regular laws, increasing their constitutional standing. The ministers state that it will not be possible to change Basic Laws “suddenly” or due to the needs of the coalition. They do not state exactly what the process will be for passing Basic Laws, however.

US ambassador to Lebanon ‘very happy’ over Aoun’s election as president

US ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson says she is “very happy” about Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun’s election as president, ending a more than two-year vacuum in the post.

Johnson and other foreign envoys are attending today’s session at the Lebanese parliament in which Aoun was elected.

Welcoming election of Lebanese president, Iran says it wants to work with him

Iran’s embassy in Beirut welcomes the election of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, expressing hopes for close cooperation between the two countries.

“We congratulate brotherly Lebanon for the election of General Joseph Aoun,” says the embassy in a statement on X, adding that “we look forward to working together… and to cooperate in different fields in a way that serves the common interests for our countries.”

PM said set to hold security consultation on Israel’s readiness to strike Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding a security consultation this evening, an aide to one of the ministers in the forum tells The Times of Israel.

According to Channel 12, the meeting will deal with Israel’s readiness to strike Iran, including its nuclear program.

IDF says it demolished West Bank home of Palestinian involved in 2023 shooting attack

The IDF says it demolished the Tulkarem home last night of a Palestinian terrorist involved in a deadly shooting attack in November 2023.

The terrorist, Mahmoud Salit, was part of a cell that carried out a shooting attack near the West Bank town of Bayt Lid on November 2, 2023, killing off-duty IDF reservist Sgt. First Class (res.) Elhanan Klein.

Salit was reportedly detained in January 2024, and the other members of the cell were eliminated in airstrikes in May and August.

In message to Hezbollah, new Lebanese leader vows to ensure state has monopoly on power

Lebanon’s newly elected President Joseph Aoun tells lawmakers he will work to ensure the state has the exclusive right to carry arms, in his first speech at parliament after he was elected.

His comments are seen partly as a reference to the Hezbollah terror group’s arsenal, which he had not commented on publicly as the former army commander.

According to Reuters, lawmakers burst into the longest applause of the speech after Aoun’s statement, while Hezbollah parliamentarians remained still.

Before Israel dealt it a series of setbacks in recent months, the Iran-backed Hezbollah over the years amassed far greater powers than the Lebanese army and took over southern Lebanon in violation of a UN Security Council resolution.

He also vows to end the Israeli presence in southern Lebanon from which the IDF is slated to finish withdrawing at the end of the month.

“I pledge to oversee the activation of security agencies and to discuss a strategic defense policy that enables the state to remove Israeli occupation from all territories,” Aoun says.

FM Sa’ar welcomes Aoun’s election as Lebanese president, wishes for ‘good neighborliness’

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar addresses the press ahead of his New Hope party's weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, December 16, 2024. (Chaim Goldbergl/Flash90)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar congratulates Lebanon on the election of Joseph Aoun as president after more than two years in which the position was unfilled in the midst of a political crisis.

In a post on X, Sa’ar expresses his hope “that the election will contribute to strengthening stability, a better future for Lebanon and its residents, and good neighborliness.”

Aoun’s election was pushed by the US, Saudi Arabia and France, and is seen as a prerequisite for the full withdrawal of IDF troops from southern Lebanon.

After 2 years without a president, Lebanese MKs pick army chief Joseph Aoun for role

Lebanese Army Commander General Joseph Aoun arrives for a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, December 16, 2024. (AP/Bilal Hussein)

Lebanese lawmakers elects army chief Joseph Aoun as head of state, filling the vacant presidency with a general who enjoys US approval and showing the diminished sway of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group after its devastating war with Israel.

The country has been without a president for two years, and multiple previous efforts to elect one had failed.

IDF says it struck Lebanon suspects loading Hezbollah weapons onto vehicle

Earlier today, the IDF says, it carried out a drone strike in southern Lebanon after identifying suspects loading a vehicle with weapons.

The weapons were being taken from buildings that the military says were used by Hezbollah.

An Israeli Air Force drone struck the vehicle with the weapons “to remove the threat,” the IDF says.

מוקדם יותר היום, זוהו מספר חשודים שהעמיסו אמצעי לחימה מתוך מבנים צבאיים ששימשו את ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה, על כלי רכב בדרום לבנון.

כלי טיס של חיל האוויר תקפו להסרת האיום את אמצעי הלחימה שהיו על כלי הרכב>> pic.twitter.com/Rq2ZNfY5HU

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 9, 2025

Left-wing leader sues 2 coalition MKs for defamation after they accused him of espionage

The Democrats leader Yair Golan leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on November 25, 2024. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

The Democrats party chairman Yair Golan announces that he is suing two coalition lawmakers for alleged defamation.

In a statement, the left-wing politician says that he is going after Likud MK Tally Gotliv and Otzma Yehudit’s Almog Cohen “for spreading conspiracies and lies across the internet and from the Knesset plenum rostrum,” adding that Gotliv has previously received a warning letter from an attorney demanding NIS 250,000 ($68,000) in damages and a public apology.

“I am determined to dismantle the poison machine and I will continue to do so with full force,” Golan declares.

Both Gotliv and Cohen have spread internet conspiracy theories about Golan claiming that he was involved in espionage against Israel following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught. The baseless conspiracies link Golan to an IDF reservist who presented himself as an intelligence officer following the Hamas attack to enter restricted areas and record classified discussions.

Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen attends a Labor and Welfare Committee meeting at the Knesset on January 8, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Last month, Cohen called on the police to investigate Golan regarding the “alleged connection of his name to the serious espionage affair in the Southern Command that I exposed.”

A former IDF Northern Front and Home Front commander, Golan made headlines and received accolades in 2023 when he headed to the front lines of the October 7 onslaught on his own initiative and rescued many partygoers fleeing the Hamas-led massacre at the Nova rave.

In response, Cohen’s office issues a statement calling on Golan “to join my demand that the prosecutor’s office reveal the notebook of the defendant” in the Southern Command espionage case, claiming that it “contains Yair Golan’s name and number.”

“For 15 months, it and this entire affair have been under a strict gag order. Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” Cohen’s bureau says.

In a lengthy tweet, Gotliv confirms receiving Golan’s letter and says that he “belongs behind bars for his despicable and dangerous actions and statements.”

MK Tally Gotliv attends a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting in the Knesset in Jerusalem, on September 16, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

“The fact that he was not questioned in the espionage case… is frightening. I still wonder how Golan wasn’t investigated for the many offenses he committed,” she writes.

Her comments in the Knesset plenum were made because she “had a duty” to raise the fact that “he was the politician connected to the espionage case” and “I wondered and still wonder why they didn’t investigate him and who is covering for him.”

“My clear statements in the Knesset are protected by substantive parliamentary immunity and therefore I cannot be sued for them.”

Gotliv is currently being sued for defamation by anti-government protest leader Shikma Bressler. She has rebuffed summonses for police questioning, citing parliamentary immunity.

Cohen and Gotliv are not the only coalition MKs to spread conspiracy theories about Golan. During an interview on the Knesset channel on Tuesday, Deputy Knesset Speaker MK Nissim Vaturi (Likud) insinuated that Golan may have betrayed Israel by allegedly cooperating with the Hamas terror group in the October 7 assault and dismissed multiple eyewitness testimonies that Golan rushed to the scene of the attack where he saved several people by evacuating them from the danger zone.

US announces new $500 million military aid package for Ukraine

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announces a new $500 million military aid package for Ukraine at a meeting of Kyiv’s international supporters in Germany.

The package includes “additional missiles for Ukrainian air defense, more ammunition, more air-to-ground munitions and other equipment to support Ukraine’s F-16s,” Austin says.

800 parents of soldiers accuse PM of aimlessly extending Gaza war, threaten action

More than 800 parents of IDF conscripts and reservists who fought or are still fighting in Gaza issue a public letter accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of irresponsibly and unnecessarily risking their children’s lives, and demanding that he reach a deal to end the war.

In a letter addressed to the premier, the relatives accuse him of leading “a war without a horizon, unlike anything in our history, solely in the interest of your own political survival.”

“Our sons and daughters set out on a necessary war brought upon us by your actions,” they claim. “They lost many friends and are continuing to die and get injured, mentally and physically.”

They say the troops were motivated by the stated war goals, “first and foremost returning the hostages.” But now, after more than a year, they assert the only way this will happen is as part of a deal with Hamas, alleging that the war is being extended aimlessly and that “the IDF has no reason to stay in Gaza, besides fulfilling messianic wishes of settling there.”

“We accuse you of abandoning the hostages and the soldiers,” the parents write, threatening to launch an “all-out struggle.”

Lebanese parliament adjourns for consultations after failing to elect Aoun as president in first round

Lebanon’s parliament speaker Nabih Berri adjourns a session to elect a president for two hours of consultations, after a first round of voting failed to produce enough votes for Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun.

Aoun needs 86 votes to be elected but received 71. Two political sources say he is likely to cross the 86-vote threshold in a second session later today.

Israel says it facilitated transfer of fuel, food, water, medications to Gaza hospitals

A truck with humanitarian supplies makes its way to the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, January 6, 2025. (COGAT)

Israel’s liaison to the Palestinians, COGAT, says that over the past three days it has facilitated the transfer of large quantities of humanitarian aid to several hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, COGAT says this includes 6,750 liters of fuel, 10,000 liters of water, dozens of food crates and nearly 300 boxes of medical supplies.

It says that on Monday, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, supplies were delivered to Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, including 291 boxes of medical equipment, along with food supplies, and that water supplies totaling 10,000 liters and food crates were transferred to the Indonesian Hospital.

And yesterday, also in collaboration with WHO, “6,750 liters of fuel were transferred to hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip — A-Nasser, Al-Aqsa, and the European Hospital — to sustain their critical operations.”

“The IDF, through COGAT, will continue to act in accordance with international law to allow and facilitate humanitarian assistance for the residents of the Gaza Strip, with a focus on medical support,” the statement says.

Hamas claims 70 Gazans killed in past day, pushing war’s alleged total above 46,000

The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip says 70 Palestinians were killed and 104 were wounded by Israeli strikes in the past day.

The ministry says the death toll since the war began on October 7, 2023, has now risen to over 46,000.

The terror group’s figures are unverified and don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

Katz to present Haredi enlistment proposal at key Knesset committee next week

Chairman Yuli Edelstein, right, and Defense Minister Israel Katz, second from right, during a closed meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, December 16, 2024. (Noam Moskowitz, Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)

Defense Minister Israel Katz will present his long-awaited proposal formulating an outline for ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday next week, a spokesman for committee chairman Yuli Edelstein announces.

The minister’s proposed compromise bill will contain “principles for achieving the goal of a significant increase in the number of yeshiva students serving,” along with anchoring the status of the full-time yeshiva students who will remain exempt from conscription.

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 decades-long, widescale exemption of the community from military or national service.

The issue is a highly controversial one, with Haredi leaders vehemently opposed to the community’s young men serving in the military, fearing they will be secularized, and non-Haredi Israelis saying the exemptions harm the value of equality and the needs of the army for more manpower during wartime.

The bill is currently stuck in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, with Edelstein insisting that the needs of the IDF must come first and that the panel will only advance the legislation if lawmakers can reach a “broad consensus” on the matter.

During a meeting of the committee last month, Katz called for annual recruitment targets within what he termed a reasonable range, playing up the idea that half of eligible draftees could end up serving, while the rest continue studying in yeshivas. In response, Edelstein warned against any attempt to bypass his committee on the issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment.

Yesterday, the state told the High Court of Justice that starting in 2026, there will be no limit to the number of ultra-Orthodox servicemen the Israel Defense Forces will have the capacity to enlist. According to multiple Hebrew media reports, Katz attempted to delay the filing of the state’s response in order to remove this assessment.

Netanyahu had reportedly promised his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners that Katz’s proposal would be submitted this week, but the issue of Haredi enlistment was left off the committee’s agenda.

Court rejects Netanyahu’s request to strike many examples of alleged news intervention from indictment

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and attorney Amit Hadad (R) at the Tel Aviv District Court, December 18, 2024 (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The Jerusalem District Court rejects a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense attorneys to remove dozens of examples of alleged news coverage interference from the indictment against him.

The request came after Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad called into question, during the prime minister’s testimony in December, 141 examples of 315 listed in the indictment of alleged intervention or attempted intervention by Netanyahu or his associates and family members in the Walla news website’s coverage of the prime minister and his family.

According to the prosecution, this was part of an unlawful quid pro quo agreement with Walla owner Shaul Elovitch, in return for Netanyahu approving regulatory measures that benefited Elovitch’s other business interests.

The prime minister is accused of accepting a bribe in the form of more positive news coverage.

Hadad pointed out that in the 141 examples in question, the indictment does not actually allege that Netanyahu himself was involved in the request for better coverage, or was even aware that a request had been made to improve the coverage.

The Jerusalem District Court decides, however, to accept the prosecutor’s contention that Netanyahu had general knowledge and awareness of a broader framework within which requests for improved coverage were made by his family members and associates to senior Walla staff and to Elovitch or his wife.

The court says prosecutors “are not alleging active awareness of every example [of alleged news coverage intervention],” and adds that responses Netanyahu gave to the indictment made clear he understood the prosecution was alleging general awareness of the alleged agreement with Elovitch, and not awareness of every single request.

During Netanyahu’s testimony, he and Hadad have spent much time going through each of the examples listed and arguing that either Walla did not change its coverage in specific news items following a request, or that it did so in a very minor manner, and that in general Walla’s coverage was very hostile to the prime minister during the relevant period.

Netanyahu aide says attending Auschwitz memorial in Poland currently ‘not in the program’

After a report said that Poland’s president asked the country’s government to guarantee Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t be arrested if he attends a key Holocaust memorial event in the country later this month, a senior aide to the premier tells The Times of Israel: “We’ll look into [coming] if we receive an invitation. For now it’s not in the program.”

“First of all, they’ll have to solve the ICC issue,” says the adviser.

Last month, Polish media reported that Netanyahu will avoid attending the late January events marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp, fearing he may be arrested due to Poland’s commitment to respecting an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued for the premier for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Israeli official lays out state of hostage talks, says no dramatic developments

There have been no dramatic developments in hostage talks in Doha in recent days, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel. Hamas still has not provided a list of living hostages, but talks are ongoing.

Egypt is not present at the talks, says the official. “They help when there are certain obstacles. It is possible that if there is progress we will bring in the Egyptians physically. For now, they’re helping from the side.”

In recent days, discussions have focused on Hamas’s demand that the war in Gaza end in order to release the hostages not freed in the first “humanitarian” phase.

“We are trying to find language that is ambiguous enough to square the circle,” says the official.

There is also disagreement over freeing male hostages under 50. “Hamas says they are willing to release them, but they want a lot of ‘valuable’ terrorists, terrorists with blood on their hands, released,” according to the official.

Contradicting recent reports in the media, the official insists that Israel is not open to giving Hamas a short ceasefire period to put together a list of living hostages. “Fake news,” says the official.

Israel welcomes the arrival of top Donald Trump aide Steve Witkoff to the Qatar talks. “More pressure on Hamas is always welcome,” says the official.

Netanyahu unlikely to attend Trump inauguration, aide tells ToI

US President Donald Trump (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, May 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unlikely to fly to  Washington for Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration as US president, a senior aide tells The Times of Israel.

Netanyahu had been expected to make the trip, Israeli officials said in recent weeks, but barring any last minute changes, won’t do so.

No invitation has been received by the Prime Minister’s Office.

IDF finds Syrian military vehicle full of ammunition near buffer zone

A Syrian BMP-1 IFV captured by IDF troops in southern Syria, in a handout photo issued by the Israeli military on January 9, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF troops operating in southern Syria have located a BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle packed with ammunition, the military says.

The find was made by troops of the 474th Golan Regional Brigade, who are operating in a buffer zone on the Syrian side of the border and in some areas just beyond it.

Alongside the IFV, the military says the Golani Brigade found additional caches of weapons, which were captured or destroyed.

The IDF says it seeks to prevent the weapons from reaching “hostile elements” that could harm troops and Israeli civilians in the Golan.

Pope calls situation in Gaza ‘shameful,’ slams ‘bombing of civilians’

Pope Francis reiterates his recent criticisms of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, calling the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave “very serious and shameful.”

In a yearly address to diplomats delivered on his behalf by an aide, Francis appears to reference deaths caused by winter cold in Gaza, where there is almost no electricity.

“We cannot in any way accept the bombing of civilians,” the text says. “We cannot accept that children are freezing to death because hospitals have been destroyed or a country’s energy network has been hit.”

Israel says Hamas terror operatives took over multiple hospitals, using them as shelter and necessitating military action there.

The pope is present for the address but asks an aide to read it for him as he is recovering from a cold.

Arab Israeli charged with planning suicide bombings

Suspected bomb parts planned to be used in terror attacks, in Kabul, northern Israel, in an image released on January 9, 2024. (Israel Police)

An Israeli civilian from the northern Arab town of Kabul has been charged with planning a bombing attack, the Shin Bet security agency says.

The suspect is named by the Shin Bet and Israel Police as Mahmoud Hussein Muhammad Bushkar, 37, whose father is a West Bank Palestinian.

Bushkar was recently detained by Border Police officers. The Shin Bet says he told interrogators that he planned to build suicide belts to carry out an attack.

The investigation found that Bushkar “viewed content dealing with the preparation of explosives, purchased equipment and various materials with which he performed several experiments, including the production of a TATP-type explosive and the preparation of a pipe bomb, and later even planned to prepare an explosive belt in order to carry out attacks in Israel,” the security agency and police say.

Authorities say that the suspect unsuccessfully attempted to recruit two others to aid him in carrying out the attack.

The Shin Bet and police investigation found that the suspect was “inspired” by the events of the current war and the 2021 Gaza conflict to carry out the attack.

A handgun and materials to build bombs were seized from his possession, the Shin Bet adds.

An indictment was filed against Bushkar this morning at the Haifa District Court.

Woman stabbed in Jerusalem, suspect arrested; motive believed not to be terror

The scene of a stabbing incident in downtown Jerusalem on January 9, 2025. (Magen David Adom)

A 38-year-old woman was stabbed in downtown Jerusalem this morning, says a spokesperson for the Magen David Adom ambulance service.

Paramedics are taking the victim, reportedly in good condition with one stab wound, to Shaare Zedek Medical Center for further treatment.

Jerusalem District police say they arrested a suspect soon after the stabbing occurred and are opening an investigation into the incident.

Law enforcement officials do not suspect a terror motive.

Family of Israeli held in Iraq said to meet hostage coordinators as efforts to free her ramp up

Elizabeth Tsurkov in an undated photo (social media; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Family members of Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian-Israeli researcher held in captivity in Iraq since her abduction in 2023, met yesterday with the government’s point man on hostages, Gal Hirsch, and with foreign coordinators of the issue who are visiting Israel, Hebrew media reports say.

The Israel Hayom daily cites unnamed officials familiar with the details as saying the goal is to advance indirect talks with Baghdad to free Tsurkov, noting that this is the first public evidence of efforts by Jerusalem to secure her release via mediators.

The newspaper quotes an unnamed senior diplomatic official as voicing hope that recent positive regional developments, including the decision by Iran-backed Iraqi militias to stop launching attacks on Israel, “will also create the opportunity to bring Elizabeth home.”

Police arrest 3 suspects in Tel Aviv stabbing in electric scooter row

Tel Aviv police arrested three young men last night on suspicion of stabbing a man in the city earlier this week, a police spokesperson says.

The suspects are two 18-year-olds from Elad and a minor, 16, from central Israel.

After being questioned at the central Tel Aviv police station, the three suspects appeared before the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court for a hearing to extend their detention.

The stabbing occurred early Sunday morning, just after midnight, as the victim left a bar on Rothschild Street in Tel Aviv and attempted to rent an e-scooter.

Footage of the incident captured from security cameras of a nearby cafe shows four young men approaching and cornering their victim near the scooter rack. One of the assailants then stabs him in the leg before leaving the scene with the rest of the group.

Regarding the fourth suspect still at large, the Tel Aviv police spokesperson tells The Times of Israel that law enforcement is continuing its investigation.

3 נעצרו בחשד לדקירת הגבר ברוטשילד בת"א – בגלל ויכוח על קורקינט | התיעוד שהוביל למעצר.@OrRavid pic.twitter.com/7gvdHFlUBj

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) January 9, 2025

Hamas officials claim 12 killed today in Israeli strikes, including children

Hamas officials in Gaza claim Israeli strikes today have killed at least 12 people, including three girls.

Three girls and their father were killed when an airstrike hit their house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, the civil defense agency alleges.

In a separate strike, eight people were killed when their house was struck in the town of Jabalia in northern Gaza. Several more were wounded in that strike, according to the civil defense agency.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.

IDF says sirens heard in Gaza border towns were false alarm

Incoming rocket sirens have sounded in a pair of communities near the Gaza border, with the IDF saying minutes later it was a false alarm.

The alerts sounded in Magen and Ein Habesor.

3 Singaporeans accused of planning to travel to Mideast to join fight against Israel

Singapore says it has detained three men since October last year who were preparing to travel to the Middle East to fight against Israel, and one expressed willingness to carry out attacks in Singapore if instructed to do so.

The Home Affairs Ministry says in a statement that the three Singaporean men are not linked to one other and were “radicalized” online, but there is no indication others were recruited.

It is not immediately clear why the ministry is announcing the detentions now.

Following their arrest in October, they were detained under Singapore’s Internal Security Act, which allows suspects to be held for lengthy periods without trial.

The three are a director of a digital marketing company, a lift mechanic and a security guard, aged 41, 21 and 44, respectively.

One of the three was willing to carry out any instruction from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the statement says, “including conducting attacks in Singapore,” adding the man had no specific attack plans.

The Palestinian terror group Hamas is backed by Iran. Iran has not made a threat against Singapore, though it has vowed to target Israeli and Jewish targets abroad.

One of the men visited a shooting range in Thailand to learn to operate firearms, while two planned to visit shooting ranges in Indonesia, it says.

The ministry says restrictions were placed on two other Singaporeans in June and July last year under the security law, related to the conflict in Gaza.

After trading barbs, Katz said meeting IDF chief Halevi

(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)

After yesterday’s public spat, Defense Minister Israel Katz is meeting with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Army Radio reports.

The one-on-one meeting comes after Katz ordered Halevi to “fully cooperate” with an investigation carried out by the state comptroller into the October 7, 2023, onslaught, and the IDF hit back saying it was already doing so and that the issues shouldn’t be resolved via the media.

Earlier, former IDF spokesman Avi Benayahu told Army Radio that Halevi had been trying to meet with Katz for over a week without success.

Polish president said to urge Netanyahu not be arrested if he attends Auschwitz memorial event

Polish President Andrzej Duda, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, talk after a group photo at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, February 13, 2019. (AP/Czarek Sokolowski)

Polish President Andrzej Duda has asked the country’s government to guarantee Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t be arrested if he attends a key Holocaust memorial event in the country later this month, Bloomberg reports.

Last month, Polish media reported that Netanyahu will avoid attending late January events marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp, fearing he may be arrested due to Poland’s commitment to respecting an ICC arrest warrant issued against the premier for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

In a letter sent yesterday to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Duda asks for Netanyahu’s potential stay to be “unhindered” due to the events’ “absolutely exceptional circumstances,” Bloomberg reports, saying it has seen a copy of the letter.

Duda calls on the Polish government to “devise an adequate formula” to both guarantee Netanyahu isn’t arrested and assure the country respects international law.

However, Bloomberg notes Duda has frequently been at odds with the Polish government, suggesting the latter may not cooperate with the president’s request.

Netanyahu’s office says the premier hasn’t been invited, but Polish officials reportedly believe that the lack of contact from Israeli counterparts is linked to fears he will be arrested.

Israel’s delegation at the event is set to be headed by Education Minister Yoav Kisch.

Report: Israel mulling international summit that would divide Syria into cantons

Israeli government and security officials have reportedly been holding covert talks about the future of Syria, including an initiative for an international summit that would discuss a proposal to split Syria into different administrative divisions (cantons) in order to guarantee the safety and rights of all Syrian ethnic groups.

The Israel Hayom daily, without citing a source, says top officials in the security establishment and the government have discussed the possibility since the fall of the Assad regime last month, and Energy Minister Eli Cohen has proposed holding the international summit during which it would be weighed.

The developments reportedly happened during a security cabinet meeting two days ago helmed by Defense Minister Israel Katz, ahead of an imminent discussion led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The ministers are also said to have discussed Turkey’s influence in Syria and ways to counter it, as well as suspicions regarding new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and fears for the Druze and Kurdish minorities.

The goal of holding the international summit would be to enable Israel to defend itself from the threats posed by the Islamist former rebel groups that are now in power and aren’t committed to a decades-old Israel-Syria ceasefire agreement.

“The main fear is that an idea that is identified with Israel will necessarily not be accepted in Syria, which is why the discussions on the matter are classified,” Israel Hayom says in its report.

Man shot dead in Tira, marking 2025’s first homicide in Arab community amid crime epidemic

A 51-year-old man was fatally shot in his car early this morning in the central city of Tira, says a police spokesperson. Paramedics have declared the victim dead at the scene.

“When we arrived at the scene, we saw the injured man lying unconscious without a pulse,” says Magen David Adom paramedic Mohammad Habashi. “We immediately performed medical tests but his injury was critical and we had to pronounce him dead on the spot.”

Officers are combing the area and collecting forensic findings as part of the ongoing investigation. Additional officers have been deployed in the city, says a spokesperson.

The incident marks this year’s first killing in an Arab town, signaling a potential continuation of the soaring homicide rate that has plagued Arab communities over the past two years.

The Abraham Initiatives, a watchdog that tracks violent crime in the Arab society, counted 230 Arab Israeli murder victims in 2024. It recorded 244 homicide victims in 2023, which was more than double the previous year and an all-time record by a big margin.

Otzma Yehudit MK quips that rebel Almog Cohen has decided to defect to Likud

Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen attends a Labor and Welfare Committee meeting at the Knesset on January 8, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A member of Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party suggests that wayward party MK Almog Cohen has decided to jump ship after defying the party’s positions this week.

“Otzma Yehudit is a faction with values and ideology,” MK Yitzhak Kroizer tells the Kan public broadcaster. “Whoever is uncomfortable with these values is welcome to get up and go.

“Almog Cohen has decided to move over to the Likud,” he alleges, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling party. “He is welcome to join their WhatsApp groups.”

That is a jab after Otzma Yehudit yesterday removed Cohen from all its groups on the popular messaging app.

Despite being part of the coalition, Otzma Yehudit has been opposing a series of budget-related bills in the Knesset in an effort to secure more funds for the police force, which Ben Gvir overlooks. Failure to pass the budget by March would topple the government, and coalition members have been lambasting Ben Gvir and his party. Cohen has recently been defying Otzma’s position and voting with the coalition.

Ahead of presidential term, Trump says he wishes Iran’s Khamenei ‘luck’

US President-elect Donald Trump is asked at the US Capitol if he has a message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ahed of Trump’s inauguration later this month.

He answers: “That I wish him luck.”

US settles with Johns Hopkins over rise in antisemitic, anti-Arab incidents

The US Education Department notes concerns about discrimination against people of Jewish and Arab ancestry at Johns Hopkins University and reaches a settlement with the institution to resolve the complaints.

The university has agreed to review its anti-harassment policies and to provide training to staff and students on addressing discrimination and harassment based on ancestry and ethnicity, according to the settlement posted online by the Education Department.

Johns Hopkins confirms the settlement to local media.

“Discrimination of any kind, including antisemitism and anti-Arab bias, is not only at odds with university policy, but is also antithetical to our most fundamental values,” a spokesperson for Johns Hopkins tells the Baltimore Banner news website.

Rights advocates have noted rising antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents, including during campus protests, since the Hamas terror group launched its deadly October 7, 2023, onslaught in Israel, sparking the still-ongoing war in Gaza.

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