Jan. 16: US says IDF scale-back of Gaza op will allow for more aid, residents’ return home

Pakistan says Iran violated airspace, killing two children

Pakistan says neighboring Iran has violated its airspace resulting in the death of two children, hours after Iranian state media said missiles targeted two bases of militant group Jaish al Adl.

Islamabad warns that the incident could have “serious consequences” and was “completely unacceptable” in a statement released by Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson in the early hours of Wednesday.

Iran’s foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Jaish al Adl has previously mounted attacks on Iranian security forces in the border area with Pakistan.

“These bases were hit and destroyed by missiles and drones,” Iranian state media reported earlier, without elaborating.

Pakistan’s statement does not mention the location of the incident, nor the nature of the airspace violation but says it had lodged a protest with Tehran and the head of the Iranian mission in Islamabad had been called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The responsibility for the consequences will lie squarely with Iran,” Pakistan’s statement says, adding that the incident had occurred despite the existence of several channels of communication with Iran.

The Pakistani military’s public relations wing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iraq files complaint against Iran at UN Security Council over Iranian ‘aggression’

This handout photograph released and taken on January 16, 2024 by Kurdistan 24 broadcast news station shows a damaged building at a site hit by a missile attack launched by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region. (Kurdistan24/AFP)

Iraq has filed a complaint against Iran at the United Nations Security Council over Iranian “aggression,” the Iraqi foreign ministry says in a statement.

US envoy said to hold frustrating meet with PM who rejected request to expand aid for Gaza

US envoy for the humanitarian situation in Gaza David Satterfield in October 2023. (Screen capture, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The Biden administration’s envoy for the humanitarian situation in Gaza reportedly held a frustrating meeting today with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior military officials who rejected the US request to expand the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

Satterfield sounded the alarm over what the US views as a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the Kan public broadcaster reports without citing any sources.

Netanyahu responded that, actually, there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, pointing to footage showing several open-air markets that are filled with people and supplies being sold.

Aid agencies note that such scenes are not proof of a stable humanitarian environment, adding that the entire population of the Strip “are in crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity.”

Netanyahu told Satterfield that the problem is not the amount of aid entering Gaza — 218 trucks today — but the manner in which it is being distributed.

While he has avoided admitting this publicly, Kan says Netanyahu told Satterfield that the aid entering Gaza is being diverted by Hamas, which is controlling its distribution and prioritizing aid for its fighters, leaving little for civilians.

US expected to redesignate Yemen’s Houthis as terrorist group — sources

A fighter, loyal to Yemen's Houthi rebels, stands guard during a protest following US and British forces strikes, in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on January 12, 2024. (Mohammed Huwais/AFP)

The US is expected to re-designate Yemen’s Houthis as a terrorist group after the ongoing spate of attacks by the Iran-backed rebels on Red Sea shipping routes, AP reports, citing unnamed sources.

White House spokesman John Kirby was asked about the matter earlier this afternoon but said the administration is still deliberating on the matter and has not made a decision.

Biden said Friday that he thinks the Houthis are a terror group, leading many to speculate that a re-designation was imminent.

But yesterday, he said, “It’s irrelevant whether they’re designated.”

IDF says it struck several Hezbollah sites after terror group launched missiles into Israel

Israeli artillery unit firing shells toward Lebanon from northern Israel on January 15, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The IDF says fighter jets carried out airstrikes and tanks and artillery shelled several Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon over the past few hours.

The targets in Houla, Marwahin and Ayta ash-Shab include several military buildings and other infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah, according to the IDF.

Hezbollah fired rockets and missiles today at Ramot Naftali, Shtula and a number of army positions on the border. The IDF says it struck the launch sites.

France to hold national ceremony paying tribute to 41 citizens killed Oct. 7

France's President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference at the COP28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai on December 2, 2023. (Ludovic Marin/AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron announces that France will hold a national ceremony to pay tribute to the 41 French nationals who were killed by Hamas on October 7.

The ceremony will take place at the Invalides in Paris on February 7, exactly 4 months after the Hamas assault.

Report: Since war, Egypt has refused to send final payment it owes Israel for gas never transferred

File: Flames are seen after an explosion at a gas terminal in Egypt's northern Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, Feb. 5, 2011 in El-Arish (AP Photo/Ashraf Swailem)

Egypt has reportedly been refusing for the past month and a half to send Israel roughly $8 million it owes Jerusalem for gas the latter purchased from Cairo but never received.

Egypt and Israel signed an agreement in 2019 in which Cairo agreed to gradually repay Jerusalem for half a billion shekels ($132 million) in gas it purchased but never received due to damages in Egypt’s gas fields.

The final payment was supposed to be sent last month, but Egypt has refused to transfer the money, according to the Kan public broadcaster, which doesn’t cite any sources.

Kan notes that Israel hasn’t publicly pressed Egypt over the payment as Cairo continues to be Jerusalem’s preferred mediator with Hamas. However, the apparent Israeli decision to leak the failed payment to the press indicates that frustration is mounting.

Blinken on rumored federal walkout against Biden’s Israel policy: ‘People need to be on the job to do the job’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center, with his entourage, walks from panel to panel at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is asked about speculation that federal employees from 22 agencies will hold a walkout today in protest of the administration’s Israel policy.

Those participating in the protest are understood to be low-level staffers with little-to-no influence on the administration’s policy.

Blinken says he wants the State Department to be a place where employees are comfortable expressing their opinions and that he’s written each of the several dissent memos that some staff members have submitted in protest of US President Joe Biden’s support for Israel.

“But people also need to be on the job to do the job,” Blinken clarifies during an interview with CNBC.

“If the policies an administration is pursuing that individuals object to in a way that they can’t continue to work, that’s their decision,” he adds.

The walkout was rumored to take place on Tuesday, but as of 4 p.m. it had not taken place.

Federal offices have also been formally closed today due to the weather.

SecState Blinken on federal employees’ walkout to protest admin’s Gaza policy:

“I want to make sure that people feel that they can say what they believe, express themselves. But that they ultimately have to be on the job and do their jobs.” pic.twitter.com/NUzKrA8Jwu

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) January 16, 2024

White House: IDF scaleback of Gaza op will allow for more aid and for residents to return to homes

IDF forces operating in the Gaza Strip in images released on January 16, 2024. (IDF)

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says that the IDF shift to low-intensity fighting in northern Gaza and the imminent shift to low-intensity fighting in southern Gaza as announced yesterday by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will allow for an increase of humanitarian aid as well as the return of civilians to their homes.

With the scale-back in fighting, “We are preparing to increase the humanitarian assistance… as well as to help set the conditions for the population to return to north Gaza where the UN hopes to conduct assessment missions over the coming week,” Kirby says.

Israel has approved the UN assessment but has rejected efforts to allow evacuated Gazans to return to their homes in the northern Strip, saying that the fighting is still ongoing there and that it will not allow the step unless there is an advancement in efforts to release the hostages.

“We’re making these preparations because we believe that these lower intensity operations inside Gaza should be able to not only allow for a reduction in civilian casualties, but a more reliable distribution of aid over the coming period,” Kirby says during a press briefing, adding that Biden’s Gaza humanitarian envoy David Satterfield and US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew were meeting today with senior Israeli political and military leaders to discuss the issue further.

Kirby says, “the images coming out of Gaza continue to be heartbreaking and painful” and that the US is continuing its efforts to limit civilian casualties while stressing that Hamas hinders these efforts by operating among civilians.

PM thanks mediators of deal transferring meds to hostages, pledges that it will be seen through

People attend a 24-hour rally for the hostages taken on October 7, marking 100 days since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, at 'Hostages Square' in Tel Aviv, on January 14, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirms the successful mediation of a deal with Hamas to transfer medicine to the hostages shortly after Qatar first announced the agreement.

Netanyahu “conveys his appreciation to all those who helped during the process,” says a statement from his office, adding that Israel will see to it that the medications reach their destination.

Blinken, Sullivan discuss efforts to release hostages in Davos meetings with Qatari PM

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets with Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani at a hotel during a day of meetings, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, in Amman, Jordan, November 4, 2023. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool Photo via AP)

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed efforts to negotiate the release of the remaining 136 hostages in Gaza during separate meetings with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, White House spokesman John Kirby says.

White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk was also in Doha earlier this week for meetings with Qatari leaders on the same issue, Kirby says.

“We are having very serious and intensive discussions in Qatar about the possibility for another deal… [and] we’re hopeful that it can bear fruit soon,” the White House spokesman says, echoing statements he has made over the past month and a half that have not seen any substantive progress.

Hamas says it will not release the hostages for anything less than a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which Israel has rejected off-hand.

Kirby highlights the propaganda videos of the hostages published by Hamas this week, which he says “are a reminder of [the terror group’s] cruelty and barbarism.”

He notes that they featured Noa Argamani, who was supposed to have been released along with the other female hostages during the seven-day truce in late November, but that Hamas backed out of the deal.

Six US citizens are counted among the remaining living hostages.

Kibbutz confirms Yossi Sharabi and Itay Svirsky were killed in Gaza, bodies being held by Hamas

Yossi Sharabi, left, and Itay Svirsky, right, were taken hostage by terrorists on October 7 from Kibbutz Be'eri. The kibbutz announced their death in Gaza captivity on January 16, 2024. (Courtesy)

Kibbutz Be’eri announces that its residents Yossi Sharabi and Itay Svirsky were killed in Gaza and that their bodies are being held by the Hamas terror group.

It calls for their bodies to be returned for burial and for the release of all hostages.

Sharabi and Svirsky were featured in a pair of propaganda videos published earlier this week by Hamas with the latter clip leading the IDF to fear for the lives of the pair.

Qatar formally announces successful mediation of deal to provide medicine to hostages

Israelis attend a rally marking 100 days since the hostages were kidnapped into Gaza, on January 13, 2024. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

Qatar formally announces its successful mediation of an agreement between Israel and Hamas to deliver medication to the hostages in Gaza.

The medications will leave Doha tomorrow aboard two Qatari military aircrafts en route to the coastal city of el-Arish in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. It will then be transferred into the Gaza Strip, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry says in a statement, adding that France played in a role in the mediation of the deal.

The Qatari statement adds that Doha’s mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas will continue “within the framework of Qatari efforts to bring about an end to the war in Gaza.”

Earlier today, French President Emmanuel Macron’s office revealed Paris’s role in the deal, saying that he had ordered his Foreign Affairs Ministry to draw up a list of medicine for 45 hostages, make the purchase and send it to Qatar.

The medicine arrived in Doha on Saturday.

Israel is overseeing the security aspects of the operation, a French official told The Times of Israel, adding that the International Committee of the Red Cross is involved as well.

If the project succeeds, a joint French-Qatari statement is expected.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Friday that the medications would be delivered in the coming days but did not offer an exact date.

In exchange for the medicine for the hostages, Israel agreed to expand the amount of medical aid included in the humanitarian assistance entering Gaza each day, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel. The Qatari statement indicates that some of that aid will be included in the shipment being ferried to Egypt tomorrow.

Al Jazeera’s Gaza chief leaves enclave for treatment of injury suffered in airstrike

Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh receives the news that his wife and three children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on October 25, 2023. (Screen capture/X)

CAIRO — Al-Jazeera’s veteran bureau chief in Gaza, who lost his wife, three of his children and a grandchild in Israeli airstrikes, has left the territory for medical treatment.

The IDF says that one of his sons killed was a PIJ operative.

The head of Egypt’s journalist syndicate, Khaled al-Balshy, says Wael Dahdouh will travel to Qatar, where Al Jazeera is based, for medical treatment. Dahdouh, 53, crossed into Egypt earlier today.

He has reported continuously on the fighting between Israel and Hamas even as it has taken a devastating toll on his own family, and was wounded in an Israeli airstrike last month that killed a cameraman working with him.

Dahdouh tells Egypt’s state-run Qahera TV that he would get treatment for the hand injury he suffered in the strike and would return to work, without providing further details.

He has been the face of Al Jazeera’s 24-hour coverage of the war for millions of Arabic-speaking viewers across the region.

Police aggressively break up Tel Aviv protest calling for a ceasefire

Israel Police break up a protest calling for a ceasefire in Tel Aviv on January 16, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

Israel Police have aggressively broken up a small protest in Tel Aviv calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Footage shows officers violently stripping away signs that read, “stop the massacre” from the handful of demonstrators.

Police reportedly told the demonstrators that they were breaking up the protest because it was “harming the feelings of the public.”

Protests against the war are not illegal under Israeli law.

ארדואן, לפניך: ברגעים אלה, שוטרי מחוז תל אביב ניגשים למפגינים ופוקדים עליהם לצנזר שלטים הקוראים להפסקת המלחמה בעזה, בטענה ל"פגיעה ברגשות הציבור". לא חולפת דקה והשוטרים מסתערים בטירוף.

לא מאמינים? צפו: pic.twitter.com/oc7PufRMXk

— ישראל פריי (@freyisrael1) January 16, 2024

TV report: Netanyahu says war against Hamas set to continue into 2025

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of the security cabinet meet with western Negev local council chiefs in Beersheba, January 16, 2023. (Itai Ben-Onn/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told local council chiefs from communities near Gaza today that he anticipates the war against Hamas extending into 2025.

According to an unsourced Channel 12 report on the meeting, which was held at the IDF’s southern command headquarters in Beersheba and attended by other security cabinet ministers, Netanyahu told the council chiefs that, according to the current assessment, the war would continue into 2025.

He disclosed the assessment in the course of a discussion in which he also reportedly agreed to revise a current Defense Ministry framework that provides financial assistance to Israeli citizens who are prepared to return to evacuated communities 4-7 kilometers from the Gaza border.

The local council chiefs told Netanyahu that most of their residents do not wish to return at this point, because of ongoing rocket fire from Gaza and other security concerns, the TV report said. They called for the process of returning to be delayed or extended until the summer and the start of the new school year, and for the state to continue to fund them staying in temporary accommodation until then.

Netanyahu said he accepted their request, promised that the financial assistance would be applicable then as well, and instructed the relevant officials to draw up the necessary framework, the TV report said.

In public remarks at the start of the meeting, Netanyahu said: “We are determined to rehabilitate the kibbutzim and communities in what is known as the so-called Gaza envelope area, to return the residents to their homes, and to ensure that [the area] thrives and grows far more than it was before the war.”

Iran says it targeted bases of militant group in Pakistan

Baluchi leaders of Pakistani opposition parties raise their hands in solidarity during a demonstration in Quetta on April 2, 2006. (Banaras Khan/AFP)

Two bases of Baluchi militant group Jaish al Adl in Pakistan were targeted by Iranian missiles, state media reports, a day after Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards attacked targets in Iraq and Syria with missiles.

The militant group has previously mounted attacks on Iranian security forces in the border area with Pakistan.

“These bases were hit and destroyed by missiles and drones,” Iranian state media reports, without elaborating.

Gantz urges Netanyahu to stop dragging feet on planning for war

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Yoav Galant, and Minister Benny Gantz hold a joint press conference at the Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv on November 11, 2023. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool)

War cabinet minister Benny Gantz has submitted an urgent letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding that he stop dragging his feet on a series of decisions relating to planning for the ongoing war as well as for the “day after.”

Gantz wants Netanyahu to allow the government to move forward with decisions regarding:

1. Who will control the Philadelphi Route along the Egypt-Gaza border as well as the Rafah Crossing;

2. When will residents of the north be allowed to return to their homes (Netanyahu has twice delayed meetings with local mayors on this issue);

3. A deadline setting how long Israel is willing to give diplomatic efforts to resolve tensions with Hezbollah before it turns to more significant military action;

4. The formation of a mechanism for providing humanitarian aid to Gazans in areas from which the IDF has evacuated;

5. A plan for who will rule Gaza if and when Hamas is removed from power;

6. Gantz also is urging Netanyahu to re-assess the war aims and present an updated version that takes into account the developments of the last three months.

IDF reveals another ‘strategic’ Hamas tunnel under Gaza’s main north-south highway

Footage of a tunnel in Gaza uncovered by the IDF on January 16, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

The IDF reveals another Hamas tunnel under the Gaza Strip’s main north-south highway, this time in Nuseirat.

Troops of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade, elite Yahalom combat engineering unit and other combat engineers discovered and destroyed what the IDF says is a “strategic” Hamas tunnel, located under Salah a-Din road.

The tunnel, which is hundreds of meters long and around nine meters deep, crosses Wadi Gaza, also known as Besor Stream, the IDF says.

The IDF says the tunnel was used by Hamas gunmen to travel between north and south Gaza undetected.

Following the detonation of the tunnel below Salah a-Din road, the IDF says it has opened a new alternative route in the area.

The IDF reveals another Hamas tunnel under the Gaza Strip’s main north-south highway, this time in Nuseirat.

Troops of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade, elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, and other combat engineers, discovered and destroyed what the IDF says is a… pic.twitter.com/SN2c9tHIo8

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 16, 2024

218 trucks of humanitarian aid entered Gaza today — COGAT

A truck carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza on January 15, 2024. (COGAT)

Israel’s COGAT military liaison to the Palestinians says that 218 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were inspected and transferred to the Gaza Strip today, with 99 going through Egypt’s Rafah Crossing and 119 entering via Israel’s Kerem Shalom.

Seventy percent of the aid consisted of food and the rest was made up of water, medical supplies and shelter equipment.

UN aid agencies say the ongoing IDF offensive severely hampers efforts to distribute the aid and that hundreds of thousands of Gazans are suffering from a lack of food.

Jordanian PM says Amman will ‘react’ to ‘existential threat’ of Palestinian displacement

Jordan's Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 16, 2024. (Screen capture/WEF)

Jordan’s Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh says the Hashemite Kingdom’s peace deal with Israel was a “strategic choice,” but that mass displacement of Palestinians would pose an “existentialist threat” and Jordan would be forced “to react” if such a step were taken by Israel, along with steps that upend the status quo at Jerusalem holy sites.

But Khasawneh clarifies during an on-stage interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, “We hope that we never arrive at that point.”

The Jordanian premier notes that Amman was in “serious discussions” to advance an energy-for-water deal with Israel.

“Today under the existing conditions, it’s quite inconceivable for any Jordanian minister to just sit on a podium and have that type of interaction and transaction with an Israeli counterpart,” he says, explaining the kingdom’s decision to walk out of the talks and again urging a ceasefire in Gaza.

Khasawneh indicates that Jordan will follow the path of Germany and participate as a third party in the International Court of Justice case in which Israel is accused of perpetrating genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. However, Amman will argue on the side of South Africa, which presented the case, while Germany will argue on the side of Israel.

Today’s rocket barrage was fired from Gaza area from which IDF troops recently withdrew

The scene of a rocket impact in the southern city of Netivot, following a barrage fired from the Gaza Strip, January 16, 2024. (Flash90)

A large rocket barrage fired from Gaza at the southern city of Netivot earlier today was launched from a location in the central part of the Strip from which IDF troops recently withdrew, Israeli military sources told The Times of Israel.

Yesterday, the IDF began to withdraw the 36th Division from the central Gaza Strip, as part of its plans for a long war, which is expected to include smaller, targeted operations against Hamas, once its main fighting force is defeated.

Today, Hamas fired dozens of rockets from central Gaza, from an area where the 36th Division had operated previously, but not declared by the IDF as under “operational control.”

The IDF’s 99th Division still remains in other areas of central Gaza, where intense fighting is currently taking place between Israeli troops and Hamas’s operatives.

The scene of a rocket impact in the southern city of Netivot, following a barrage fired from the Gaza Strip, January 16, 2024. (Fire and Rescue Services)

Blinken says Arab countries not keen to rebuild Gaza if it will be ‘leveled’ again

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center, with his entourage, walks from panel to panel at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Arab countries are not keen to get involved in the rebuilding of Gaza if the Palestinian enclave will be “leveled” again in a few years, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says, adding that the Palestinian statehood question needed to be addressed.

“You have to resolve the Palestinian question,” Blinken tells CNBC in an interview in Davos.

“Arab countries are saying this: They’re saying, look, we’re not going to get into the business, for example, of rebuilding Gaza only to have it leveled again in a year or five years and then be asked to rebuild it again.”

US targets Houthi anti-ship missiles in new strike on Yemen – officials

Fighters from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels stage a rally against the US and the UK strikes on Houthi-run military sites near Sanaa, Yemen, on January 14, 2024. (AP Photo)

The US military carried out a new strike today in Yemen targeting anti-ship ballistic missiles in a Houthi-controlled part of the country, two US officials tell Reuters, the latest military action against an Iran-backed group over its targeting of Red Sea shipping.

US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, say today’s strike targeted four anti-ship missiles. The strike has not been previously reported.

Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping have continued even after US President Joe Biden last week ordered an initial wave of strikes to degrade Houthi capabilities.

The Houthis, who control most of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, have claimed their attacks on commercial ships are aimed at supporting the Palestinians in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

The Houthi movement has pledged to expand its targets in the Red Sea region to include US ships and has vowed to keep up attacks after US and British forces carried out dozens of strikes last week against radar and missile capabilities.

Earlier today, Houthi forces struck the US-owned and operated dry bulk ship Gibraltar Eagle with an anti-ship ballistic missile, the US military says.

Houthis targeted Zografia ship headed to Israel, rebel group claims

Fighters from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels stage a rally against the US and the UK strikes on Houthi-run military sites near Sanaa, Yemen, on January 14, 2024. (AP Photo)

Yemen’s Houthi movement have targeted the Zografia ship that was heading to Israel with naval missiles which resulted in a “direct hit,” the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Sarea says in a statement.

The Malta-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier sustained material damage but no injuries after it was hit in the Red Sea near the Yemeni port of Saleef, a security firm and two Greek shipping ministry sources say.

Katz thanks Australian counterpart for solidarity with Israel after their meeting in Jerusalem

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong meets with Foreign Minister Israel Katz on January 16, 2024. (Rafi Ben Hakun)

After their Jerusalem meeting, Foreign Minister Israel Katz thanks visiting Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong “for her expression of solidarity with Israel and her crystal clear condemnation of the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7th.”

He says in a statement they held a “constructive meeting” in which they discussed the importance of continuing the “traditional excellent relations” between the countries. The families of hostages Romi Gonen, Michael Levy and Louis Har joined the diplomats.

Wong has come under some criticism from Israel supporters in Australia for not visiting sites of Hamas massacres during the trip.

Sullivan: Israeli-Palestinian peace doesn’t need to be years away, is possible ‘in near term’

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan addresses the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 16, 2024. (Screen capture/WEF)

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says peace between Israel and the Palestinians along with an expansion on the Abraham Accords is possible in the “near term,” despite the ongoing war in Gaza.

“It is not impractical… The pieces are there to be put together to achieve this outcome; and not years down the road, but in the near term, if all of us pull together and make the wise and bold decisions to choose this course,” Sullivan says during remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Sullivan says the US is actively working to advance Israel’s integration in the region as a tool to address the crisis in Gaza. His remarks all but confirm The Times of Israel’s reporting last week, which revealed that technical conversations between the US and Saudi Arabia about a potential normalization agreement between Jerusalem and Riyadh have continued amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Three officials told The Times of Israel that while the broader interests of the countries involved have not changed since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, the price of the “significant Palestinian component” of the deal has gone up.

Explaining the Biden administration’s approach before the war, Sullivan says that the US felt another round of direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians was unlikely to succeed.

“We determined that the best approach was to work toward a package deal that involved normalization between Israel and key Arab states together with meaningful progress and a political horizon for the Palestinian people,” Sullivan says.

“That was our goal before October 7, and it was our progress toward that goal that Hamas sought to destroy on October 7,” he adds, while noting that the administration has not given up on its efforts.

Condition of one of the seriously injured victims from Ra’anana attack improves

Israeli security forces work at the site of a Palestinian car-ramming and stabbing attack at a bus stop, in Ra'anana, Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

The condition of one of the seriously wounded victims from yesterday’s terror attack in Ra’anana has improved. He is now breathing on his own and listed as moderately injured, according to the Beilinson hospital where the man in his 30s is being treated.

The condition of the other seriously wounded victim, a man in his 60s, remains the same, the hospital adds, noting that his injuries are still life-threatening.

One woman was killed and 18 were injured in the terror attack.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander from Gaza nabbed by IDF tells interrogators he was trained in Iran

Basel Mahadi, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander who was nabbed by troops in Gaza, speaks in an interrogation video published by the Shin Bet on January 16, 2024. (Shin Bet)

Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives were trained in Iran, a captured commander in the terror group reveals in an interrogation published by the Shin Bet security agency.

Basel Mahadi, an Islamic Jihad platoon commander, who was nabbed by troops in Gaza on December 20, details how he left Gaza and was sent to Iran for military training.

Mahadi says he was trained with 15-20 other Islamic Jihad operatives, from Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria.

“My commander called me and said that I should go to Iran for a sniper course, I will benefit from it and my salary will increase when I return,” Mahadi recalls, in excerpts of the interrogation provided by the Shin Bet.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives were trained in Iran, a captured commander in the terror group reveals in an interrogation published by the Shin Bet security agency.

Basel Mahadi, an Islamic Jihad platoon commander, who was nabbed by troops in Gaza on December 20, details… pic.twitter.com/8xuOhKxCxB

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 16, 2024

“I went from the Gaza Strip to Egypt where I stayed for about two weeks, from there I went to Syria for a few days and then to Lebanon. After two weeks we went from Syria to Iran,” he says.

“In Iran, the course was 15 days. It had physical fitness training and shooting training on different types of weapons,” the Islamic Jihad commander says.

He says that they spent four days training on Kalashnikov rifles up to distances of 100 meters, another five days up to 150 meters, and then six days training on Dragunov sniper rifles up to distances of 300 meters.

He says other Islamic Jihad operatives in Iran also underwent rocket training.

Family of hostages slams PM for ‘belittling’ their plight, urges him to take initiative for deal

The Ziyadne family issues a statement to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to do more to secure the release of the hostages, from their home in Rahat, on January 16, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

Ali Ziyadne, whose brother Yousef and nephew Hamza remain in Hamas captivity, issues a statement calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cease “belittling the feelings of the families of the hostages.”

During a press conference Saturday night, Netanyahu was pressed to address the plight of the roughly 132 hostages still in Gaza.

The premier responded that no one can put themselves in the “nightmare” situation in which the hostages’ families have found themselves over the past 100 days, adding that his heart is with them and that he will not rest until all of the hostages are returned.

But he went on to say that the hostages’ families cannot put themselves in the shoes of the political decision-makers, suggesting that other considerations need to be taken into account in negotiations to free those held captive.

Some critics of this stance argue that the government must pay whatever price is necessary to free the hostages, given that the state had a responsibility to protect its citizens and failed to do so on October 7.

Ziyadne — a resident of the southern Bedouin town of Rahat whose niece and nephew Aisha and Bilal were released from Hamas captivity during the seven-day a month and a half ago — urges Netanyahu to “take the initiative and put on the table a proposal for a hostage deal to bring them all back now.”

משפחת אל-זיאדנה בקריאה לראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו: די לזלזל ברגשות משפחות החטופים. תהיה רציני, קח יוזמה ותניח על השלוחן הצעה לעסקת חילופי שבויים כדי להחזיר את כולם עכשיו. pic.twitter.com/Yh6tX2POIz

— מוחמד מג'אדלה محمد مجادلة (@mmagadli) January 16, 2024

Shell reportedly suspends all Red Sea shipments amid Houthi attacks

The Shell logo is at a gas station in London, on January 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file)

British oil major Shell suspended all shipments through the Red Sea indefinitely after US and UK strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels triggered fears of further escalation, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the decision.

EU states give nod for Red Sea mission to deter Houthis – diplomats

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Laboon approaches the oiler USNS Kanawha (background) for replenishment-at-sea operation in the Red Sea on December 25, 2023, in this handout photo. (Elexia Morelos / US Department of Defense / AFP)

European Union member states have given initial backing to create a naval mission to protect ships from attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, European diplomats say.

The diplomats say the aim was to establish the mission by February 19 at the latest, with it becoming operational quickly afterwards, and that it would work in coordination with other like-minded partners in the region as part of efforts to stop disruptions to the key trading route.

Report: Hamas’s Gaza tunnel network much longer than IDF thought, has 5,700 access shafts

Israeli soldiers show the media an underground tunnel found underneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, November 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano, File)

The New York Times cites anonymous senior Israeli defense officials who assess that Hamas’s Gaza tunnel network is between 350 and 450 miles long.

This estimate is far longer than the one the IDF made just a month ago and is astoundingly high given that Gaza is only 25 miles long.

The two senior Israeli defense officials speaking with NYT also assess that there are roughly 5,700 separate shafts leading down to the tunnels.

“The numbers could not be independently verified, and there are varying estimates by Israeli officials for the increased scope of the tunnel network, based on different intelligence,” NYT says.

IDF says it raided offices of several senior Hamas commanders in Khan Younis

This image released by the IDF on January 16, 2024, shows troops of the Commando Brigade operating in southern Gaza's Khan Younis. (Israel Defense Forces)

Troops of the IDF’s Command Brigade raided the offices of several senior Hamas commanders in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, the military says.

The IDF says the Command Brigade launched a large offensive on Hamas infrastructure in new areas of Khan Younis, which included a series of airstrikes before the troops moved in. The strikes targeted several Hamas sites, as well as the headquarters of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the the area, according to the IDF.

The Maglan and Egoz commando units raided the offices of several senior commanders in Hamas’s South Khan Younis Battalion, including the battalion commander. The IDF says the troops seized weapons in the offices, and destroyed cameras used by Hamas for surveillance in the area.

The Duvdevan unit, meanwhile, raided dozens more Hamas sites in southern Khan Younis, during which the commandos battled and killed several Hamas cells, the IDF says.

After fighting in southern Israel on October 7 and participating in the ground offensive in Gaza, Duvdevan is due to be withdrawn from the Strip and sent to the West Bank for various operations.

Troops of the IDF's Command Brigade raided the offices of several senior Hamas commanders in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, the military says.

The IDF says the Command Brigade launched a large offensive on Hamas infrastructure in new areas of Khan Younis, which included a series… pic.twitter.com/ksKUwFyweo

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 16, 2024

US Senate to vote on Hail Mary resolution aiming to condition aid to Israel on human rights benchmarks

US Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, talks with reporters following his meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington, August 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The US Senate will vote on a resolution submitted by Sen. Bernie Sanders that aims to condition security aid to Israel on human rights benchmarks.

The resolution has no chance of passing, given the overwhelming support for security assistance to Israel in Congress. The outliers who oppose it are a small but growing far-left flank of the Democratic Party along with a handful of Republican libertarians who oppose all foreign aid. Both flanks are even smaller on the Senate side where the vote is taking place.

Sanders’s resolution seeks to freeze all US security aid to Israel unless the State Department issues a report within 30 days that examines whether the IDF committed human rights violations in the conduct of its war in Gaza.

“There is growing concern among the American people and in Congress that what Israel is doing now is not a war against Hamas, but a war against the Palestinian people,” Sanders tells The New York Times. “That with American military aid, children are starving to death… It’s disgraceful, and I think I’m not the only one who feels that.”

The Democratic White House has come out against the bill, with National Security Council spokesman John Kirby calling it “unworkable.”

“The Israelis have indicated they are preparing to transition their operations to a much lower intensity. And we believe that transition will be helpful both in terms of reducing civilian casualties, as well as increasing humanitarian assistance,” Kirby says.

Rafael Nadal to serve as an ambassador for Saudi Tennis Federation

Rafael Nadal of Spain reflects between games in his quarterfinal match against Jordan Thompson of Australia during the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia, Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard, File)

Rafael Nadal will serve as an ambassador for the Saudi Tennis Federation, part of a recent effort by the kingdom to make inroads into tennis and other sports.

Nadal, a 37-year-old from Spain who owns 22 Grand Slam titles, currently is missing the Australian Open while recovering from a muscle tear near his surgically repaired hip. He had hoped to return to Grand Slam action at Melbourne Park after missing nearly all of 2023.

Nadal’s new role includes promoting tennis in Saudi Arabia and plans for a Rafa Nadal Academy there.

It signals yet another step into tennis for the kingdom, which is hosting the men’s tour’s Next Gen ATP Finals for top 21-and-under players in Jedda through 2027. The women’s tour has been in talks to place its season-ending WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia.

Rights groups say women continue to face discrimination in most aspects of family life in the kingdom, and homosexuality is a major taboo, as it is in most of the rest of the Middle East.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has worked to get himself out of international isolation since the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. He also clearly wants to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy and reduce its reliance on oil.

Finland to donate $1 million to Magen David Adom

Finland's ambassador to Israel Dr. Nina Nordström signs a collaborative agreement with Magen David Adom on January 16, 2024. (MDA)

The Finnish government signs an agreement to donate $1 million to Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical, disaster, ambulance, blood bank and breast milk bank service.

Finland’s ambassador to Israel Dr. Nina Nordström signs the agreement with MDA director-general Eli Bin and meets with the MDA senior management team to learn about the organization’s preparedness, especially now during the war with Hamas in Gaza and attacks from Hezbollah along the northern border.

Nordström also tours the MDA 101 Emergency Call Center in Kiryat Ono and hears from teams who answer calls from across the country, using advanced dispatch technologies. She meets with emergency medical technicians and medics from the western Negev and Sderot who responded to calls under rocket fire on October 7 and in the first days of the war. Nordström also hears the stories of MDA volunteers and employees who were killed in the line of duty treating others.

“I thank the Finnish government for their wonderful donation that will help us to act wherever needed and as much as needed, to ensure the wellbeing of Israeli residents,” Bin says.

UN chief warns of starvation and disease in Gaza as aid falters

Palestinians line up for free food during the ongoing Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. (AP/Hatem Ali)

UNITED NATIONS — The UN secretary-general says Gaza faces “the long shadow of starvation” and the risk of disease outbreaks because of barriers to delivering vital aid.

Antonio Guterres does not mention Israel by name in his remarks, but blames the inability to meet Gaza’s growing humanitarian needs on widespread bombardment, barriers to entering the territory and restrictions on distribution inside of it — all under Israel’s control.

He says he is “deeply troubled by the clear violation of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing.”

Israeli officials have denied hindering aid delivery, saying the UN needs to provide more workers and trucks.

But Guterres says the UN and its partners “cannot effectively deliver humanitarian aid while Gaza is under such heavy, widespread and unrelenting bombardment.”

He points to the deaths of 152 UN staffers in Gaza since the start of the war, “the largest single loss of life in the history of our organization.”

Palestinian says Israeli soldiers used him as human shield during West Bank raid

An IDF raid in the West Bank village of Dura on January 15, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

A Palestinian shop owner said Israeli troops used him as a human shield to protect themselves during a raid on the town of Dura in the West Bank yesterday.

Cellphone footage showed Baha Abu Ras being marched up a street by a soldier who guided him from behind with one hand and kept a rifle resting on his shoulder with the other. Two Israeli soldiers advanced carefully behind them, their rifles raised.

Abu Ras said he had been taken from his cellphone shop in Dura, near the city of Hebron, after Israeli soldiers searched the premises during a raid in which Palestinian officials said two Palestinians were shot dead.

The raid was carried out to arrest suspects tied to a terror rampage in Ra’anana in which two Palestinian relatives from the Dura area stabbed and ran over Israelis in the central town, killing one and injuring 18 people.

Baha Abu Ras, a mobile shop owner in the occupied West Bank, says that an Israeli soldier used him as a human shield during a military raid on Monday. According to Reuters, Abu Ras said that the soldiers asked him if he sold drones and searched his shop before taking him outside. pic.twitter.com/GiX7AeQ7UC

— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 16, 2024

“He (the first soldier) told me that he will use me as a human shield, that young people shouldn’t hurl stones,” Abu Ras tells Reuters. “‘You will walk in front of me.’ That’s what happened and he took me toward the center of the town.”

Asked about the incident, the Israeli military had no immediate comment. It said in an earlier statement that troops in Dura had used live fire to disperse about 100 people who had thrown stones and fire bombs at them.

The use of human shields is widely condemned under international law. Israel accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields in Gaza.

Herzog to bring hostages’ families with him for meetings with world leaders at Davos forum

President Isaac Herzog addresses the assembly during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, on May 25, 2022. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP)

President Isaac Herzog’s office officially announces that he will be flying to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, tomorrow, and will bel taking families of hostages held by Hamas

He will hold meetings with world leaders and sit down for an on-stage interview as part of the conference.

The President’s Office says the meeting are meant to “promote intense political pressure” for the release of the hostages as well as show world leaders the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7.

“The President will also emphasize to the leaders the humanitarian efforts that Israel is making, which are an integral part of the overall campaign, along with the essential security threat facing Israel and the entire region as long as the terrorist organization Hamas continues to control the Gaza Strip,” says his office.

IDF: Hamas launched a rocket at troops from a Khan Younis hospital

This infographic released by the IDF on January 16, 2024, shows the location of a rocket launch near Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza's Khan Younis. (Israel Defense Forces)

Hamas launched a rocket from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis at Israeli troops operating in the Gaza Strip earlier this week, the IDF says.

The IDF says that it investigated a rocket fired at troops in the northern part of Khan Younis this week, and the military’s systems revealed that it was launched from Nasser Hospital.

“Hamas operates systematically in the hospitals in the Gaza Strip and in the areas adjacent to them, using the civilian population as a human shield and exploiting the hospital infrastructure,” the IDF says in a statement.

EU adds Hamas chief Sinwar to terror list, freezes assets

Yahya Sinwar (C), Hamas's Gaza Strip chief, waves to supporters in Gaza City, on April 14, 2023. (MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

The European Union officially adds Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to its terrorist list. Sinwar’s assets in EU member states will be frozen, and no economic resources can be made available to him from EU states.

“The decision comes as part of the European Union’s response to the threat posed by Hamas and its brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023,” says an official statement from the Council of the European Union.

In December, the Council added Hamas military leaders Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa to the list.

Father of released hostage Emily Hand says Israel critics ‘don’t know a thing’

Thomas Hand, left, and his daughter Emily speak to Piers Morgan on January 15, 2024 (Screencapture)

Thomas Hand, the father of 9-year-old former hostage Emily Hand, dismisses criticisms from anti-Israel activists that the country’s response to the Hamas onslaught is disproportionate, saying they are ignorant of reality.

Irish-Israeli Hand is asked about this in an interview with the UK’s Piers Morgan.

“They don’t know a thing,” Hand says impassionedly.

“We are living it, OK?” he says. “You have no right to even speak to me. Have you ever been to Israel, ever, any one of you saying ‘it’s disproportionate,’ any one of you coming to see ‘apartheid’ in this country? It doesn’t exist, you idiots. It doesn’t exist.”

Hand notes how all signs across the country and on all public transportation are in Arabic as well as Hebrew.

“If it were apartheid you wouldn’t do that; you wouldn’t waste your money, for crying out loud,” he says.

“Come to any hospital in this country, come to any school in this country, come to any city in this country, you’ll find Arabs, women, female Arabs, professors in hospitals, everywhere,” he says.

“You are talking out of your bottoms. You have no idea,” he says. “And you are all chanting “From the river to the sea” — you don’t know what river, you don’t know your history, you don’t know your geography.”

"You're all chanting 'From The River To The Sea' – you don't know what river!"

Thomas Hand, whose daughter was held captive by Hamas for 50 days, reacts passionately to those who say Israel's response has been disproportionate.@piersmorgan | @TalkTV | #PMU pic.twitter.com/UI3WNfClN7

— Piers Morgan Uncensored (@PiersUncensored) January 15, 2024

Saudi FM urges ceasefire, says Riyadh interested in Israel normalization alongside Palestinian state

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan attends a news conference about the Israel-Hamas war Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and says that Saudi Arabia would “certainly” be in interested in a normalization deal with Israel that is linked to a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

“Peace and security for Israel is intimately linked with peace and security,” says Bin Farhan in Davos at the World Economic Forum. “We are fully onboard with that.”

He says that Riyadh agrees that “regional peace means peace for Israel,” but “that can only happen with a Palestinian state.”

“What Israel is doing now is putting the prospects for regional peace and security at risk,” says the foreign minister.

There must be a ceasefire on all sides, he says, which “should be a starting point for peace” in the region.

He also says attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea are connected to the war in Gaza.

Amid war, broadcaster says Israel’s next Eurovision song will include Hebrew lyrics

Singer Noa Kirel poses at a press conference in Tel Aviv on August 10, 2022, announcing her participation in the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. (Avshalom Sassoni/FLASH90)

The Kan public broadcaster opens up its selection process for Israel’s Eurovision song this year, and unlike past contests, the song will be required to have some Hebrew lyrics.

While the contestant this year will be chosen via the Keshet 12 reality show “Next Star,” the song will be selected as in years past by a professional committee, which will “listen to all the songs and choose the most worthy song to represent Israel in light of the complicated period Israel is experiencing in recent months.”

While Eurovision does not require participating nations to perform in their native language — a requirement it dropped in 1999 — Israel is seeking to include Hebrew in the song as its war against Hamas rages on and antisemitism spikes worldwide.

The song selection will be revealed in March, and this year’s contest is slated for May 7-11 in Malmo, Sweden. Participants in some countries have called for Israel to be barred from the competition, citing the ongoing war, but the European Broadcasting Union, which hosts the event, has ignored such petitions.

Senior Iraq official says Iran claim it hit Mossad base ‘false’

This handout photograph released and taken on January 16, 2024 by Kurdistan 24 broadcast news station shows a damaged building at a site hit by a missile attack launched by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region. (Kurdistan24/AFP)

Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem al-Araji dismisses as “false” Iran’s claim that it hit an Israeli intelligence base in an overnight missile strike in the Kurdish regional capital Erbil.

“Concerning the alleged presence of a headquarters of Israel’s Mossad, we visited the house, we inspected every corner of it and everything indicated that it was the family home of an Iraqi businessman,” Araji told Kurdish television station K24 after touring the building that was hit.

“These allegations are false and incorrect,” added Araji, who has been tasked by the Baghdad government with investigating the Iranian strikes.

Emhoff to discuss antisemitism and gender equity at Davos

Illustrative: US Vice President Kamala Harris, left and her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, attend Israel's Independence Day Reception, hosted by the Embassy of Israel to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, June 6, 2023. (Saul Loeb/AFP)

Doug Emhoff, the husband of US Vice President Kamala Harris, is taking his advocacy against antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hate to the snowcapped Swiss Alps.

Emhoff will make his first-ever appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week to talk about combating religion-based and other forms of hate and promoting gender equity and women’s rights, the White House says. He also will discuss the issues in meetings with foreign government officials and private sector leaders.

Emhoff is scheduled to arrive in Switzerland on Thursday. His agenda includes a roundtable discussion with CEOs on combating hate that is to be hosted by Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan.

Tanker reported hit by missile in Red Sea

Brtish maritime security firm Ambrey says in an advisory note that a Malta-flagged Greek-owned bulk carrier was reportedly targeted and impacted with a missile while transiting northbound in the Red Sea, 76 nautical miles northwest of Yemen’s port city of Saleef.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) also said it received a report of an incident 100 nautical miles northwest of Saleef.

IDF says it carried out a wave of strikes against Hezbollah targets

The IDF says it carried out a large wave of airstrikes and artillery shelling against Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon’s Wadi Saluki.

It says Israeli Air Force fighter jets and artillery units struck dozens of targets belonging to the terror group within a short period, including observation posts, military buildings, and other Hezbollah infrastructure.

The IDF says Hezbollah “makes extensive use of the [Wadi Saluki] area for terror purposes,” and has dozens of positions hidden in the forested area.

The strikes come amid repeated missile, rocket, and drone attacks carried out by Hezbollah on northern Israel.

צה"ל השלים לפני זמן קצר תקיפה משולבת של מטרות רבות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב ואדי סלוקי שבדרום לבנון באמצעות מטוסי קרב וארטילריה.

תוך זמן קצר הושלמה תקיפה לעבר עשרות עמדות, מבנים צבאיים ותשתיות אמצעי לחימה של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה >> pic.twitter.com/KwVY6KPubc

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 16, 2024

Netanyahu meets southern leaders, promises to rebuild and bring prosperity

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, meets with regional leaders from southern Israel on January 16, 2024 (Haim Zach/GPO)

“We are determined to rehabilitate the communities and kibbutzim,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells local council heads from the region bordering the Gaza Strip, promising to “return the residents to their homes and bring about prosperity — prosperity far beyond what existed even before the war.”

Sitting with the local leaders and members of his cabinet, Netanyahu links renewed life in the Gaza border communities to “victory over Hamas.”

“We rely on our heroic soldiers and excellent commanders to achieve the military objective. At the same time, we also trust your leadership, the heads of the communities, in working together with the government ministries, to achieve the same restoration, the same prosperity and the same flourishing,” he says.

France working with Qatar to get medicines to hostages in Gaza

People attend a 24-hour rally for the hostages taken on October 7, marking 100 days since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, at 'Hostages Square' in Tel Aviv, on January 14, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

France and Qatar are working together to get medicine to Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, the French Embassy in Israel tells The Times of Israel.

The two countries have been working together since late October, after being approached by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, says France.

French President Emmanuel Macron ordered his Foreign Affairs Ministry to draw up a list of medicine for 45 hostages, make the purchase, and send it to Qatar.

The medicine was sent to Qatar on Saturday, and has yet to reach Gaza.

Israel is overseeing the security aspects of the operation, a French official tells The Times of Israel.

“The operation is at its height,” says France.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is involved as well.

If the project succeeds, a joint French-Qatari statement is expected.

The Prime Minister’s Office leaked the operation on Friday, but did not mention France’s involvement.

Soldier injured last month in Gaza dies of his wounds; ground op toll rises to 190

Sgt. Maj. (res.) Noam Ashram (Courtesy)

The IDF announces the death of a soldier who succumbed to injuries sustained during fighting in Gaza in December, bringing the toll of slain troops in the ground offensive against Hamas to 190.

He is named as Sgt. Maj. (res.) Noam Ashram, 37, of the 179th Brigade’s 5352nd patrol company, from Kfar Saba.

Ashram was critically wounded on December 29 during a battle in central Gaza, during which an RPG was fired at troops.

IDF to examine recognizing some civilians and hostages as fallen soldiers in Gaza war

Alon Shamriz (Courtesy)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has ordered the establishment of  a committee to examine cases of civilians and hostages who could be recognized as having participated in the war.

The military has received requests from a number of families of slain civilians who participated in the fighting during Hamas’s onslaught on October 7, as well as the family of one of three Israeli hostages mistakenly killed by IDF troops in Gaza, Alon Shamriz, asking to have them recognized as fallen soldiers.

The committee will examine “recognizing and honoring civilians and hostages who participated in the fighting or in unique situations,” according to the IDF.

It says the committee, with representatives of the Defense Ministry, will convene when “the operational situation allows it.”

Netanyahu: Absurd to say his comparison of Hamas to biblical Amalekites a call to genocide

The Prime Minister’s Office hits out at South Africa’s allegation that comments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referencing the Amalekites, the biblical enemy of the ancient Israelites, were incitement to genocide.

The references to the Amalekites were cited as part of South Africa’s charge of genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice, heard last week in The Hague.

“This false and preposterous charge reflects a deep historical ignorance,” the PMO says in a statement, dismissing the claim as absurd.

It adds that when Netanyahu used the biblical quotation “Remember what Amalek did to you” he was using it as a way of describing the savage Hamas attack of October 7, and not as a call for genocide.

The PMO points out that the same phrase appears in a permanent exhibit at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, as well at a memorial in the Hague for Dutch Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

“Obviously neither reference is an incitement to genocide of the German people,” posts the PMO.

“So too Prime Minister Netanyahu’s reference to Amalek was not an incitement to genocide of Palestinians, but a description of the utterly evil actions perpetrated by the genocidal terrorists of Hamas on October 7th and the need to confront them.”

There are several accounts of, and references to, the Amalekites in the Bible, including an attack by the Amalekites on the Israelites in Exodus; a commandment to “Remember what Amalek did to you” in Deuteronomy; another commandment in Deuteronomy to “blot out the memory of Amalek,” interpreted to mean destroy the Amalekites; and the account of King Saul’s attack on and destruction of the Amalekites in Samuel I.

Among the absurdities levelled against Israel at the Hague was the charge that after the October 7th massacre PM Netanyahu incited genocide by quoting the biblical phrase "remember what Amalek did to you."

This false and preposterous charge reflects a deep historical ignorance.

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) January 16, 2024

The statement comes as the judges in the ICJ deliberate on whether to grant the provisional measures against Israel requested by South Africa based on its allegations that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

It is crucial in genocide proceedings in the court to prove that there was intent to deliberately destroy a people, or part of it, in order to rule that genocide took place, which is why the South Africans cited Netanyahu’s references to the Amalekites, as well as other inflammatory comments against the Palestinians by senior Israeli government ministers.

South Africa’s application to the ICJ also included charges that some Israelis were guilty of incitement to genocide and that Israel had failed to punish such people as it is required to under the Genocide Convention, to which it is signatory.

Qatari PM says Israel must be held to a mandatory path to a two-state solution

Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of the state of Qatar, attends the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Qatar’s prime minister calls for Israel to be held to a mandatory path to a two-state solution at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“It needs to be time-bound, it needs to be irreversible,” says Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who also serves as the emirate’s foreign minister.

Al-Thani says Palestinian political division also must be addressed to achieve a two-state solution.

Hamas, he says, is part of the Palestinian political system, and “the Palestinians are the only ones who have a choice to have them as part of a resolution or not.”

On the war in Gaza, Al-Thani says that “we need to address how to end the war as soon as possible, how to get the hostages released and also the Palestinian prisoners, to address the issue in the West Bank,” and that another ceasefire-for-hostages deal is “going through a lot of difficulty.”

Qatar has been a key mediator between Israel and Hamas.

Al-Thani accuses Israel’s “extremist government” of calling for genocide of the Palestinians, and of carpet bombing, saying “Gaza is not there anymore.”

Turning to normalization, Al-Thani says that further normalization will not happen without a two-state solution: “All of us, we are showing our willingness to extend our hands, to have a peace agreement with Israel, if they are willing to engage genuinely in a process that will make the Palestinians have their state at the end.”

Jordan says Israel placing ‘big impediments’ to aid for Gaza

This handout picture released by the Jordanian armed forces media office on January 5, 2024, shows boxes of French-Jordanian humanitarian aid being dropped from a military cargo plane during airdrops over Khan Yunis and a Jordanian field hospital in the Gaza Strip (Jordanian Armed Forces / AFP)

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi says Israel is placing many obstacles to the entry of aid into Gaza that were worsening the plight of Palestinians.

In remarks during a press conference with his Australian counterpart, Safadi says these hurdles meant only 10% of the total needs of more than two million Gazans under siege were being covered.

Israel has said it is clearing aid to enter Gaza faster than the UN can clear and distribute it.

Israel has also allowed Jordan to airdrop aid into Gaza on several occasions.

Iraq recalls ambassador from Tehran after missile strikes

Iraq says it has recalled its ambassador from Tehran for consultations after its ally’s Revolutionary Guards carried out deadly missile attacks on its autonomous Kurdish region.

Ambassador Nassir Abdel Mohsen was “recalled for consultations in the context of the latest Iranian attacks on (regional capital) Erbil in which there were dead and wounded,” a foreign ministry statement says.

IDF northern commander: We are ‘more prepared than we’ve ever been’ for escalation with Hezbollah

Israeli artillery unit firing shells toward Lebanon from northern Israel on January 15, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The chief of the IDF’s Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, says the military is “more prepared than we’ve ever been, for tonight if we have to,” to address a potential further escalation in violence on the Lebanese border.

“We will continue and strengthen the readiness and assessments going forward,” Gordin says yesterday during a drill carried out by the 228th Reserve Brigade, simulating an offensive in Lebanon.

“On October 7 we went to war, a war for our home. You all showed up long before we called you for this defense mission. Even now, tens of thousands of soldiers are deployed to defend the northern border with Lebanon. We hit a lot of squads on the other side, more than 150 squads hit and a lot of capabilities removed,” he says.

Gordin says the IDF is working to “strip away Hezbollah’s capabilities and push it back” from the border.

Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid Israel’s war with the Hamas terror group there.

Hamas says Gaza death toll at 24,285

The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip says 24,285 people have been killed since October 7.

These figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 9,000 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

Video shows rocket narrowly missing group of people near Netivot

Footage from the Netivot area shows a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip narrowly missing a group of people working in an open area near the southern city.

Hamas claims responsibility for the barrage, which according to local officials in Netivot comprised more than 50 rockets.

At least 20 of the projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome over the area, while some rockets landed in the city and a nearby community, causing damage but no injuries.

Footage from the Netivot area shows a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip narrowly missing a group of Israelis working outside the southern city, as more than 20 projectiles are intercepted by the Iron Dome over the area. Hamas has claimed responsibility for the barrage pic.twitter.com/BJWXSSNOdI

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 16, 2024

Sa’ar urges convening war cabinet over barrage at Netivot, says Gaza drawdown a mistake

Minister Gideon Sa'ar (R) arrives at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem on December 10, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

National Unity party minister Gideon Sa’ar calls for convening the war cabinet over the massive barrage of rockets fired at southern Israel from Gaza.

Sa’ar says the body, of which he is an observer, needs to discuss “the continuation of the war in the Gaza Strip and the way it is being handled.”

“The reduction of the intensity and activities of the IDF in the Strip and the drawdown of forces there is a mistake,” Sa’ar says. “We need to decide to increase the pressure on Hamas. We also need to decide that changes to the combat situation be based on advances and achieving goals and not a timetable.”

IDF chief said to warn Gaza military gains being eroded due to lack of plans for after the war

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks to the press, January 13, 2024. (Screenshot: Israel Defense Forces)

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has repeatedly warned the political leadership that the military gains achieved in the Gaza Strip could be eroded because there is no plan in place for a postwar Gaza, Channel 13 reports.

The unsourced report quotes Halevi as telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, “We face the erosion of our achievements up till now in the war because there is no strategy for the day after.”

“It is possible that we will have to go back into areas where we have already completed the fighting,” Halevi reportedly warned.

He is said to have repeated these warnings multiple times.

The IDF says it has completed its primary operations in northern Gaza and will soon end fighting in Khan Younis in the south.

The security cabinet has met several times to discuss plans for Gaza after the war, but no decisions have been made, with meetings dissolving amid bickering among ministers.

Officials say more than 50 rockets fired at Netivot area, largest barrage in weeks

More than 50 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at the southern city of Netivot, local authorities say.

In a statement to residents, the municipality says there are rocket impacts within the city, but no reports of injuries.

The attack on Netivot appears to be the largest rocket barrage from Gaza in several weeks.

המטח לדרום: כ-50 רקטות שוגרו מצפון רצועת עזה, פגיעה ישירה בחנות בנתיבותhttps://t.co/qQx6NFeKFF@bokeralmog pic.twitter.com/sVSDoTmGnf

— חדשות 13 (@newsisrael13) January 16, 2024

Three armed drones shot down over US base in northern Iraq

Three armed drones are shot down over Erbil airport in northern Iraq, where US and other international forces are stationed, Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service says.

A statement from the service does not say if there were any casualties or damage to infrastructure as a result of the attack.

Rockets hit store in Netivot, warehouse in Givolim; no injuries reported

A rocket impact is reported in Netivot, following a barrage launched from the Gaza Strip at the southern city.

Images from the scene posted to social media show a damaged storefront.

Another rocket is reported to hit a warehouse in the adjacent community of Givolim, causing damage.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service says it has not received any reports of injuries.

Rocket impact reported in Netivot, no immediate reports of injuries. pic.twitter.com/3OgWUE0vvg

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 16, 2024

Another rocket impact is reported in the community of Givolim, close to Netivot. pic.twitter.com/Humdf085DB

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 16, 2024

Barrage of rockets fired at Netivot, 20 Iron Dome interceptions

A barrage of rockets are fired from the Gaza Strip at the southern city of Netivot.

Sirens sound in the city, as well as several nearby towns.

Footage posted to social media shows some 20 interceptions by the Iron Dome air defense system over the city.

It marks one of the largest rocket barrages from Gaza in several weeks, as the rate of fire has slowed significantly amid the IDF’s ground operation.

Multiple Iron Dome interceptions seen over Netivot, following a barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/KRyrcydkGo

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 16, 2024

Hospitals say four victims of Ra’anana attack still in serious condition

Israeli security forces work at the site of a Palestinian car-ramming and stabbing attack at a bus stop, in Ra'anana, Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Nine of the victims of yesterday’s terror attack in Ra’anana are still hospitalized at Beilinson Hospital, Meir Medical Center, and Ichilov Hospital, including four in serious condition after surgery, the hospitals say.

This is in addition to the seven children hospitalized at Schneider Children’s Medical Center, announced earlier, including a 16-year-old boy in serious condition.

At Beilinson, a man in his 60s is reported to be slightly more stable but is still in critical condition. A man in his 30s underwent orthopedic surgery during the night and is in serious but stable condition. Both men are sedated and intubated. A woman who was mildly injured is expected to be discharged today.

Two of the victims at Meir, a man and woman, are still in serious condition. Another man is in moderate condition and a woman is suffering from light injuries.

The two male victims at Ichilov underwent orthopedic surgery. One had complicated breaks in his thigh bone, and the other a badly broken elbow.

Iraq condemns Iran’s ‘aggression’ on Erbil, will take legal measures 

This image taken from video provided by Rudaw TV shows smoke rising from a building hit by a strike in Erbil, Iraq, January 16, 2024. (Rudaw TV via AP)

Iraq condemns Iran’s “aggression” in Erbil that led to civilian casualties in residential areas, according to a statement by the Iraqi foreign ministry, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they attacked Israel’s “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

The Iraqi government will take all legal measures against these actions, which are considered a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and the security of its people, including filing a complaint at the United Nations Security Council, the statement says.

IDF names Yossi Sharabi as hostage whose life it has fears for after Hamas propaganda video

Yossi Sharabi, taken captive by Hamas terrorists when they waged an assault on Kibbutz Be'eri on October 7, 2023 (Courtesy)

Yossi Sharabi, 53, is named as the second Hamas-held hostage whose life the military has concerns for.

Last night, the IDF said it had notified the families of two hostages several days ago that it had concerns regarding their fates in the Gaza Strip.

It named one as Itay Svirsky, while the family of the second hostage had not yet allowed his name to be published.

The IDF now names the second as Sharabi.

The announcement comes after Hamas published several clips showing hostages Svirsky, Sharabi, and Noa Argamani. The latest propaganda video, published Monday evening, raised concerns regarding the possible death of Svirsky and Sharabi. Argamani is believed by the IDF to be alive.

7 children still hospitalized after Ra’anana terror attack; boy, 16, in serious condition

The scene of a terror attack in Ra'anana, on January 15, 2024. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Schneider Children’s Medical Center says seven children wounded in yesterday’s car-ramming and stabbing terror attack in Ra’anana are still hospitalized.

Among the wounded is a 16-year-old boy who remains in serious condition and is being treated in the intensive care unit, where he is sedated and on a ventilator.

The other six are being treated in surgical wards and their conditions range from good to moderate, the hospital says.

A woman was killed and 17 people were injured in the attack carried out by two Palestinian terrorists from the West Bank.

IDF airstrike hits Hezbollah missile launcher

The IDF says it carried out an airstrike overnight against a Hezbollah anti-tank guided missile launcher in southern Lebanon’s Kafr Kila.

Also overnight, special forces struck a target in Ayta ash-Shab to “remove a threat,” the IDF says.

A suspected drone infiltration alarm that sounded in northern Israel this morning was a false alarm, the IDF adds.

The IDF says it carried out an airstrike overnight against a Hezbollah anti-tank guided missile launcher in southern Lebanon's Kafr Kila.

Also overnight, special forces struck a target in Ayta ash-Shab to "remove a threat," the IDF says.

A suspected drone infiltration alarm… pic.twitter.com/MfnMljJ36s

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 16, 2024

Troops find 100 rocket launchers in northern Gaza, kill Hamas operatives

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip in a handout image published January 16, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF troops operating in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya located some 100 rocket launchers, the IDF says, as the military continues to carry out clear-up operations in the northern part of the Strip.

The IDF says troops of the 401st Armored Brigade found some 100 launchers and at least 60 rockets prepared for launch in Beit Lahiya, adding that troops battled and killed dozens of Hamas operatives in the area.

In the northern part of Gaza City’s Shati, the IDF says the 5th Reserve Infantry Brigade directed an attack helicopter and another aircraft against a group of Hamas gunmen, killing nine of them.

Meanwhile in southern Gaza, the IDF says the 7th Armored Brigade directed several aircraft to strike Hamas operatives in the Khan Younis area, and an attack helicopter to hit observation equipment used by the terror group.

Also in Khan Younis, the Paratroopers Brigade spotted an armed Hamas operative in a building near them and killed him in a gun battle. The IDF says that a short while later, a second gunman was spotted in the same building, and he was killed by tank shelling.

IDF troops operating in northern Gaza's Beit Lahiya located some 100 rocket launchers, the IDF says, as the military continues to carry out clear-up operations in the northern part of the Strip.

The IDF says troops of the 401st Armored Brigade found some 100 launchers and at… pic.twitter.com/gcSs4gcN3b

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 16, 2024

Trump says he will solve ‘horrible’ Israel situation ‘very fast’ if reelected

Republican presidential candidate former president Donald Trump pulling out a copy of his remarks before speaking at a caucus night party in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, Jan. 15, 2024.(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Former US president Donald Trump says that Israel would not have been attacked if he were still president and vowed to solve the situation “very fast” if reelected.

Speaking after his big win at the Republican Iowa caucuses, he calls President Joe Biden the “worst president that we’ve had in the history of country,” and says that if he were still president “Russia would not have attacked, Israel would never have been attacked.”

He vows to quickly solve both issues if he is reelected in November.

“The Ukraine situation is so horrible, the Israeli situation is so horrible, what’s happened. We’re going to get them solved, we are going to get them solved very fast,” he says without giving details.

Ramaswamy drops out of GOP race after poor showing in Iowa, endorses Trump

Republican presidential candidate businessman Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by NBC News, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy says that he’s suspending his 2024 Republican presidential campaign after a disappointing finish in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses.

Ramaswamy, 38, endorses his rival, former US president Donald Trump. He has previously called Trump the “best president of the 21st century” even as he tried to convince Republican voters that they should opt for “fresh legs” and “take our America First agenda to the next level.”

The wealthy political outsider also modeled his own bid on Trump’s run, campaigning as a fast-talking, headline-grabbing populist who relentlessly needled opponents.

DeSantis edges out Haley to finish a distant 2nd in Iowa caucuses

DES MOINES — The Associated Press has determined that DeSantis will finish in a distant second in the Iowa caucuses, ahead of Haley and behind Trump.

With an estimated 10% of ballots remaining to be counted, DeSantis leads Haley by approximately 2,300 votes, or about 2 percentage points.

With votes reported in all but one of Iowa’s 99 counties, Haley isn’t doing well enough anywhere to catch DeSantis, based on the number of outstanding votes.

Trump celebrates caucus victory with family and supporters

Reservist Nitzan Schessler killed fighting in southern Gaza, bringing ground op toll to 189

Sgt. First Class (res.) Nitzan Schessler (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israel Defense Forces announces that Sgt. First Class (res.) Nitzan Schessler was killed fighting yesterday in the southern Gaza Strip, raising the death toll in Israel’s ground offensive against Hamas to 189.

Schessler, 21, from Hadera, was in the the 55th Brigade’s 7155th Battalion.

The army says that another reservist from Schessler’s battalion was seriously injured during the battle in which he was killed and that in a separate incident, a soldier in the Combat Engineering Corps’ 603rd Battalion was seriously hurt fighting in southern Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian protesters shout ‘shame’ at ‘complicit’ NYC cancer center

Pro-Palestinian protesters shout “shame” at a New York City cancer hospital that cooperates with medical centers in Israel.

“Another complicit institution: the Sloan Kettering Center,” an activist yells to the marching crowd of pro-Palestinians as they walk past the hospital.

“Make sure they hear you; they’re in the windows. On this day, shame on you. You support genocide, too,” the activist continues, as at least one child can be seen peering through the window.

Sloan Kettering has participated in collaborations with the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, but the activist leading the chants against the New York hospital did not appear to mention this to fellow protesters who proceeded to shout “shame.”

Not a good look as pro-Palestinian protestors target a cancer hospital on New York’s Upper East Side. The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center also houses a paediatric day hospital…

“Make sure they hear you, they’re in the windows”. pic.twitter.com/qKC7ma1v52

— Danny Morris (@DannyMMorris) January 15, 2024

US denounces ‘reckless’ Iranian missile strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan

This image taken from video provided by Rudaw TV shows authorities and others near the site where missiles hit in an area near the US consulate in Erbil, Iraq, January 15, 2024. (Rudaw TV via AP)

The US condemns tonight’s Iranian attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan.

“We oppose Iran’s reckless missile strikes, which undermine Iraq’s stability,” says US State Department spokesman Matt Miller in a statement.

“We support the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s efforts to meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people,” Miller adds.

Trump wins Iowa caucuses in crucial victory at the outset of GOP presidential campaign

Republican presidential candidateDonald Trump arrives to pick up pizza at a Casey's in Waukee, Iowa, January 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

DES MOINES, Iowa — Donald Trump wins the Iowa caucuses Monday, a crucial victory at the outset of the Republican primary that reinforces the former US president’s bond with his party’s voters even as he faces extraordinary legal challenges that could complicate his bid to return to the White House.

The magnitude of Trump’s success is still coming into focus, but the former president’s supporters endured a historic and life-threatening cold snap to participate in caucus meetings that unfolded in schools, churches and community centers across the state.

The results are just the first in what will be a monthslong effort for Trump to secure the GOP nomination a third consecutive time. But they send an unmistakable message to the Republican Party that the nomination is Trump’s to lose and crystalize the challenge facing his GOP opponents.

Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are Trump’s most prominent primary rivals. They are aiming for a second-place finish in Iowa that would give them at least some momentum heading into future races. Both are already pivoting their focus, with Haley poised to compete vigorously in New Hampshire, where she hopes to be more successful with the state’s independent voters heading into the January 23 primary. DeSantis, meanwhile, is heading straight to South Carolina, a conservative stronghold where the February 24 contest could prove pivotal, before then going to New Hampshire.

Iowa is an uneven predictor of who will ultimately lead Republicans into the general election. George W. Bush’s 2000 victory was the last time a Republican candidate won in Iowa and went on to become the party’s standard-bearer.

Iowa caucuses begin, kicking off 2024 Republican presidential primary

Andy Swanson adjusts a flag at precinct 227 as voters wait to caucus at the Marriott Hotel in West Des Moines, Iowa, January 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

DES MOINES, Iowa — Voting begins in the Iowa caucuses, where former US president Donald Trump is aiming for a victory that sends a resounding message that neither life-threatening cold nor life-changing legal trouble can slow his march toward the Republican Party’s 2024 nomination.

The opening contest in the monthslong Republican primary process is unfolding inside more than 750 schools, churches and community centers where participants are gathering to debate their options before casting secret ballots.

The findings from AP VoteCast suggest that Trump is in a strong position as the caucuses began. He shows significant strength among urban, small- town and rural communities. Trump also performs well with evangelical Christians and those without a college degree. And a majority of caucusgoers say that they identify with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

One relative weakness for Trump comes in the suburbs, where only about 4 in 10 support him.

AP VoteCast is a survey of more than 1,500 voters who said they planned to take part in Monday’s Republican caucuses in Iowa. The survey is conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Philadelphia police investigating swastika spray-painted next to Holocaust memorial

PHILADELPHIA — Police have opened a vandalism investigation into the spray-painting of a swastika on a wall adjacent to a Holocaust memorial in Philadelphia over the weekend.

Authorities say the symbol, measuring about two feet by two feet and scrawled with green spray-paint, was reported Sunday on the wall adjacent to the Horowitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza next to the Ben Franklin Parkway a few blocks away from City Hall.

Surveillance video captured images of a man wearing a black mask and a dark jacket with a stripe across the chest and down the arms who appeared to scrawl the symbol on the wall at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, officials said. The symbol was removed later in the day.

Eszter Kutas, executive director of the Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation which manages the memorial, says news of the vandalism was “very, very upsetting, but not shocking for our community.”

Seeing rising antisemitism anywhere was very concerning, “but to have a hate symbol at a Holocaust memorial plaza is especially upsetting,” she tells WCAU-TV.

The memorial, perhaps the oldest public Holocaust monument in the United States, was commissioned in the 1950s by Holocaust survivors and other Jewish community members. The monument was erected in 1964 and the site was redesigned in 2018 with new educational installations and artifacts added.

IDF says soldier lightly hurt after being struck in firefight along Egyptian border

The Israel Defense Forces announces that a soldier was wounded in a firefight with suspected drug smugglers along the border with Egypt earlier tonight.

A statement from the military says the soldier was moderately hurt and taken to a hospital, adding that her condition has since improved and she is now listed as lightly wounded.

Iraqi officials say 4 civilians killed in Iranian missile attack, including Kurdish businessman

ERBIL, Iraq — A missile attack by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on targets in Iraq’s Erbil killed at least four civilians, officials say.

The Kurdistan security council says four people died and six others were wounded in the attack, while the Kurdistan Democratic Party says “a massive ballistic missile attack” has killed a number of civilians “including Peshraw Dizayee, the prominent Kurdish businessman.”