Jan. 17: IDF says Jordanian field hospital in Gaza wasn&#8217;t badly damaged, troops didn’t target it

Trucks with aid arrive at the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip, on January 17, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Israel’s leaders “understand the need for a consistent flow of humanitarian aid and for deconfliction mechanisms in Gaza to allow for that assistance to be distributed to people in need across the Strip,” a senior US official tells The Times of Israel.

The comments come after a report of a heated meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his aides held with US humanitarian envoy David Satterfield yesterday, during which Israeli officials were said to have rejected Washington’s request to expand aid into Gaza and to insist that no humanitarian crisis is unfolding there.

The senior US official presents a tamer account of the meeting, suggesting that there is still a substantial degree of agreement between the sides regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The senior official clarifies that the “US shares the UN’s concerns regarding growing food scarcity and the potential spread of disease in Gaza.”

Israeli officials have rejected claims that the Gazan population is suffering from starvation, insisting that enough food has been going into the Strip.

11:12 pm

Qatar confirms that medicine for hostages, Gazans has entered the Strip

Trucks with aid arrive at the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip, on January 17, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Qatar confirms that a shipment of medicines, some intended to be given to Israeli and foreign hostages held by the Hamas terror group, has entered the Gaza Strip.

Majed Al Ansari, a spokesperson for Doha’s foreign ministry, tweets that “over the past few hours, medicine & aid entered the Gaza Strip, in implementation of the agreement announced yesterday for the benefit of civilians in the Strip, including hostages,” adding that mediation is continuing “at the political and humanitarian levels.”

11:04 pm

Yemen’s Houthis say they targeted US ship in Gulf of Aden with missiles

Yemen’s Houthi movement earlier targeted the US Genco Picardy bulk carrier with missiles, resulting in a “direct hit,” the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree says in a statement.

“The naval forces will not hesitate to target all sources of threat in the Red and Arabian Sea(s) within the legitimate right to defend Yemen and to continue supporting the oppressed Palestinian people,” Sarea adds.

11:03 pm

IDF denies Jordanian field hospital in Gaza was badly damaged, says troops didn’t target it

An aerial view of Jordan's field hospital in southern Gaza's Khan Younis on January 17, 2024, at 1:55 p.m., in footage released by the Israel Defense Forces later the same day. (IDF)

The IDF denies claims by Jordan that the country’s field hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis was damaged today by Israeli shelling, attaching aerial imagery showing all the tents are intact.

Earlier today, the Jordanian military claimed its military field hospital was badly damaged as a result of Israeli shelling in the vicinity.

In response to a query on the matter, the IDF’s Spokesperson’s Unit tells The Times of Israel that the military “did not attack the Jordanian hospital in Khan Younis,” but that troops were engaged in a gun battle with Hamas operatives in a nearby area.

“There are claims that a medical staff member of the hospital was injured as a result of the shooting. As of now, it is not possible to verify that the injury is the result of IDF troops firing,” the IDF says.

The IDF says that before troops entered the area, they were briefed on the hospital and were told that it is “a sensitive place and it is very important for the IDF not to endanger it and its people.”

“Therefore, fire was not intentionally directed at” the hospital, the IDF says.

The IDF also says “coordination was carried out between the relevant parties,” ahead of the army’s operations near the hospital today, in which it instructed the hospital staff to seek shelter.

“The hospital is not damaged and continues to function and provide medical care to those who need it,” the IDF says, including an aerial photo from earlier today, following the alleged incident.

10:31 pm

Schumer: Democratic caucus weighing best way forward on conditioning aid to Israel

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tells reporters that the Democratic caucus is still discussing the best way forward, regarding conditioning aid to Israel.

Schumer does not suggest that the Democratic Party will seek conditions on aid for Israel in his response to a question on the matter.

While 10 left-wing Democratic caucus members voted in favor of a resolution last night seeking to condition aid to Israel, the vast majority of Democrats in the Senate voted with Republicans to block the measure advanced by Bernie Sanders.

Conditioning aid to Israel is opposed by the Democratic-led White House as well as the overwhelming majority in Congress.

10:27 pm

Man stabbed to death in Baqa al-Gharbiya, in 6th homicide in Arab community this year

A man in his 30s is stabbed to death in the town of Baqa al-Gharbiya, with police saying they are investigating the incident as suspected murder and searching for suspects.

He is the sixth member of Israel’s Arab community to be killed in homicides this year, according to Haaretz. Last year saw a record crime wave, with the Abraham Initiatives watchdog saying 244 in the community were killed, more than double the previous year.

10:16 pm

Aunt of former hostage says PM blocking deals in order to keep war going and remain in office

Liz Hirsh Naftali, great aunt of Abigail Mor Edan, joined by other relatives of people held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip speaks during a bipartisan press conference by lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 17, 2024. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP)

The aunt of a former Hamas hostage in Gaza says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected several proposals that would have seen the release of hostages from Hamas in Gaza and is trying to keep the war going, at the expense of the hostages, in order to remain in office.

“This holdup is really not with the US or the Qataris. This holdup is with the Netanyahu government,” Liz Naftali says during a press conference US Senate leaders are holding with the families of the hostages on Capitol Hill.

Naftali, whose 4-year-old niece Avigail Idan was released during a seven-day truce at the end of November, says she and other relatives of hostages have been briefed on several deals that would have seen a staggered release of the remaining abductees, which have not been reached because of Netanyahu.

“When [Netanyahu] tells the public that he wants to… bring home all of the hostages, the lack of action… clearly demonstrates to us that he wants to keep this war going to remain in office,” says Naftali, who is also a Democratic Party donor.

Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the accusation.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a news conference with family members of people held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and a bipartisan group of Senators from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the U.S. Capitol January 17, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP)

“President Biden has been very clear that he and the US government are friends of Israel and the Israeli people, but sometimes friends have to deliver hard messages,” Naftali says.

“We need to make sure that Israel is put under pressure to make a deal to stop this war and bring home these hostages… if bringing home these hostages is the priority, then we need to stop this war,” she adds.

A reporter goes on to ask the Senate leaders and other relatives of the hostages at the press conference whether they share Naftali’s assessment regarding Netanyahu.

Ruby Chen, whose 19-year-old son Itay is being held captive in Gaza, responds that all of the hostages’ families view Netanyahu as responsible because their loved ones were taken on his watch. He goes on to urge the prime minister to allow the cabinet to hold a conversation regarding the “day after” in Gaza, saying that such planning “is an integral component… of reaching a conclusion… for the families.”

Jonathan Polin, father of Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, joined by other relatives of people held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip speaks during a bipartisan press conference by lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 17, 2024. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)

Senator Ben Cardin. the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, avoids criticizing Netanyahu directly, suggesting that his focus is maintaining contacts with Israeli leaders in order to help free the hostages.

But he and several other lawmakers at the press conference have less of an issue publicly pressuring Qatar, saying Doha should use the fact that it hosts Hamas’s leaders to lean harder on them to release the hostages.

Also addressing the press conference is Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer who says he spoke with the families about “a new strategy we can implement [to secure the hostages’ release] and I promise to try and do that.”

He does not elaborate on what that strategy is but says there has been some progress and that he remains hopeful.

10:00 pm

Feiglin urges resettling Gaza, says his far-right party will aim to replace Netanyahu

By Canaan Lidor

Moshe Feiglin delivers a speech about the future of Gaza in Jerusalem on January 17, 2024. (Canaan Lidor/Times of Israel)

Moshe Feiglin, a far-right politician who left Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party a decade ago, announces his bid to run against it in the next general election.

Feiglin tells a crowd of about 500 people at Jerusalem’s Cinema City complex that the decision to have his Zehut party run for election for the first time since 2019 is because of what Feiglin perceives as Netanyahu’s failure, with regard to the war in Gaza.

“We need a different prime minister who is willing to stick his neck out to win. Zehut will provide, whenever elections happen, such a candidate,” says Feiglin, referring to the party he established in 2014, and which failed to cross the voting threshold in 2019, the last time it ran.

Hundreds of people chant “occupation, deportation and settlement” at the rally, whose focus is the future of the Gaza Strip. It is one of the first right-wing political rallies since war broke out on October 7.

“For us, the war in Gaza is not merely a defensive war. It’s a war of liberation, the liberation of the land from its occupiers,” Feiglin says. He advocates replacing the Gaza Strip’s Palestinian population with Jews.

The rally is occurring at the same time that frustration with the progress of the war is growing in right-wing circles, and with what they view as insufficiently hawkish policies by Netanyahu.

Feiglin, who left Likud in 2014 following efforts by Netanyahu to sideline him, pleases his listeners with descriptions of residential homes “with neat, green backyards” in a future Jewish Gaza. He quotes biblical verses to establish historical precedence and argue for Jewish ownership of Gaza. He shows the audience a drawing of the Great Temple in Jerusalem together with modern high-rise buildings: A vision for the replacement of the Al Aqsa Mosque with the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount.

Feiglin takes aim at Netanyahu: “The historian’s son failed to learn history’s lesson. He failed to act and failed to understand the greatness of the hour. The buck stops with him. Not the head of the Mossad. Not the head of the army.”

Zehut previously ran as an independent party, and, in one election in 2019, was widely projected in opinion polls to enter the Knesset with up to 10 seats, before faltering and failing to enter the parliament entirely.

9:40 pm

Israel didn’t condition Gazan return to north on progress toward hostage deal — US official

Israel did not link allowing the return of evacuated Palestinians to northern Gaza to progress toward a hostage deal during talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US State Department spokesman Matt Miller says.

Ahead of Blinken’s arrival, the Axios news site reported that Israeli officials planned to tell Blinken that they would not allow Gazans to return to their homes in the northern Strip — a key US demand — absent major progress in securing the release of the hostages.

Miller says he read the report ahead of Blinken’s trip, and that Israeli officials did not make such a condition in their meetings. They did, however, say that Gazans should only be allowed to return to their homes when active fighting there subsides, the spokesman notes.

Miller also highlights that Israel agreed to allow a team of UN workers into Gaza in order to carry out an assessment regarding the conditions necessary for allowing Palestinians to return to the northern Strip. He says many of the homes have been booby-trapped by Hamas fighters and that those IEDs need to be removed before Palestinians can return.

Blinken announced the UN mission while he was in Israel, saying the US expected it to move forward immediately. No such development has taken place yet, though.

9:31 pm

IDF says intel on locations of hostages is incomplete, is working to gather more info

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the military still does not have information on where all the hostages are being held by the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.

In a press conference, Hagari says the IDF is “making every effort to build an intelligence picture regarding the hostages.”

“We are adapting the fighting [in Gaza] according to the intelligence we have. We must say to the public, we do not have a full picture of the hostages,” he says.

“We are in continuous effort, intelligence-wise, to complete the picture,” Hagari continues.

He says the efforts to return the hostages are a top priority for the IDF, which include intelligence and operational actions.

“Most important is to create ideal conditions on the ground… so that there will be moves to return the hostages,” he says, referring to the army’s ground offensive against Hamas.

9:23 pm

UK monitor reports ship has been hit by drone in Red Sea

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organization says it has received a report of an incident 60 nautical miles southeast of Yemen’s Aden.

The master reported the “vessel has been hit on port side by an uncrewed aerial system,” UKMTO says in an advisory note.

“There was a fire onboard, which has now been extinguished,” it adds.

9:00 pm

Police chief’s powers said handed to deputy as he undergoes operation under general anesthesia

Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai attends a Rosh Hashanah ceremony at police headquarters in Jerusalem on September 13, 2023. (Arie Leib Abrams/ Flash90)

Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai has been hospitalized to undergo a medical procedure under general anesthesia, with his powers temporarily handed over to his deputy, Maj. Gen. Avshalom Peled, Hebrew media outlets report.

Some of the reports say Shabtai was hospitalized last night, and some say he was hospitalized this morning. He will reportedly be unable to fulfill his duties for at least several days and possibly a week, the reports say.

8:54 pm

Report: Netanyahu unilaterally toughened Israeli stance on hostage deal, angering ministers

The government has recently set ground rules for any deal with Hamas to free the hostages being held in Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later unilaterally decided to toughen them, Channel 13 news reports.

“Netanyahu is fudging the advancement of a hostage deal,” the network quotes an unnamed government official as saying.

The report says war cabinet minister Benny Gantz and observer Gadi Eisenkot were not told or consulted about the change, and that some ministers angrily confronted the premier on the matter.

Unnamed diplomatic officials are quoted saying work on a potential deal has not stopped. The Prime Minister’s Office comments that “the principal that Hamas demanded and that Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected outright is the demand to end the war.”

8:25 pm

IDF airs footage of strike on 2 Hamas members attempting to fire mortars at troops

Two Hamas operatives attempting to launch mortars at troops in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah have been struck by an aircraft, the IDF says, releasing footage of the strike.

It says that an aircraft identified the operatives in an area from which rockets were fired at Israel this week, and struck them as they prepared to fire mortars at troops.

Meanwhile, in southern Gaza’s Rafah, the IDF says a fighter jet struck a rocket launcher used to fire a rocket toward Israel this morning, January 17.

Two Hamas operatives attempting to launch mortars at troops in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah were struck by an aircraft, the IDF says, releasing footage of the strike.

It says that an aircraft identified the operatives in an area from which rockets were fired at Israel this week,… pic.twitter.com/OovoO5kYIh

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 17, 2024

8:22 pm

Medicine shipment for hostages, Gazans has been checked by Israel, entered Strip — reports

The five trucks carrying medicines meant for Israeli and foreign hostages and for Palestinian civilians have been inspected by Israeli officials at the Kerem Shalom crossing, multiple Hebrew media outlets report.

The shipment is being taken to Rafah crossing in Egypt and entering Gaza, the reports say.

8:20 pm

Polish lawmaker who extinguished Hanukkah candles in parliament loses immunity

Polish ultra far-right lawmaker Grzegorz Braun from Confederation (Konfederacja) using a fire extinguisher to put out a Hanukkah menorah placed in the parliament lobby, Warsaw, Poland, on December 12, 2023. (TVN24/AFP)

Poland’s parliament has voted to remove the immunity from prosecution of a lawmaker who used a fire extinguisher to put out Jewish Hanukkah candles in the country’s parliament in December, an incident that caused international outrage.

The vote opens the way for prosecutors to press charges against Grzegorz Braun from the far-right Confederation party for seven acts committed during 2022 and 2023, including the incident involving the candles.

“There is no reason to protect him using immunity… We know what he did and it was not acceptable,” says Agnieszka Pomaska, a lawmaker from the largest grouping in Poland’s coalition government, Civic Coalition (KO).

The largest opposition party, the nationalist law and Justice (PiS), also votes in favor of removing Braun’s immunity.

Warsaw District Prosecutor Mariusz Dubowski has told a parliamentary committee that Braun will face charges including destruction of property, violation of bodily integrity, and insulting objects of religious worship, the state-run news agency PAP reports.

After extinguishing the candles in the parliament on December 12, Braun took to the podium where he described Hanukkah as “satanic” and said he was restoring “normality.” Asked later if he was ashamed of his action, he said: “Those who take part in acts of satanic worship should be ashamed.”

8:06 pm

IDF chief says likelihood of war in Lebanon in coming months is ‘higher than before’

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi (center) meets troops during a drill in northern Israel, January 17, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says “the likelihood of war in the north is higher than before.”

Speaking to troops in northern Israel, during a drill simulating an offensive in Lebanon, Halevi says the IDF is “increasing readiness for fighting in Lebanon, we have a lot of lessons from the fighting in Gaza, many of them are very relevant to fighting in Lebanon, and there are some that must be adjusted.”

“We want to reach a very clear goal in Lebanon, to return the residents to the north, all the communities in the north,” he says, referring to some 80,000 displaced Israelis due to the Hezbollah terror group’s daily attacks.

“I don’t know when the war in the north [will happen]. I can tell you that the likelihood of it happening in the coming months is much higher than it was in the past,” Halevi says.

“I can tell you that I think we are starting it with many more advantages,” he adds.

8:04 pm

IDF says it struck Lebanese terror cell minutes after it fired rockets at northern Israel

The IDF says it struck a terror cell in southern Lebanon that carried out a rocket barrage on the northern Israeli town of Rosh Hanikra.

The strike was carried out within minutes of the attack, the IDF says.

The Hamas terror group says its Lebanon branch carried out the rocket fire. It also names one member killed in the Israeli strike.

The IDF says it also hit a number of other rocket launching sites and Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, including one used in an attack on the Mount Dov area earlier.

The IDF says it struck a terror cell in southern Lebanon that carried out a rocket barrage on the northern Israeli town of Rosh Hanikra.

The strike was carried out within minutes of the attack, the IDF says.

The Hamas terror group says its Lebanon branch carried out the rocket… pic.twitter.com/ublQtOSWyl

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 17, 2024

7:49 pm

Yesh Atid files first no-confidence motion against government since war began

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party announces that it has filed a no-confidence motion against the government over the recently-approved state budget for 2024.

It is the first motion of its kind placed on the Knesset’s agenda since the war began in October.

“This government cannot continue to exist. It is a failure that is costing human lives and the future of the country,” Yesh Atid says in a statement, adding that the budget “favors unnecessary government ministries and coalition funds over aid to evacuees, to reservists, and to strengthening the sense of security.”

7:40 pm

Liberman, Lapid said to reject offers to join coalition, war cabinet; Likud denies ‘lies’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is trying to shore up his wartime coalition by offering deals to opposition parties to join, the Ynet news site reports, with Likud issuing a denial.

The report, citing unnamed senior political sources says Netanyahu’s aides have in recent days offered Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman a spot in the narrow war cabinet directing the war against Hamas, but demanded that he publicly commit not to leave the coalition once the war is over.

It says Opposition Leader Yair Lapid has also been offered a war cabinet slot if his Yesh Atid party joins, but only if Lapid pledges to not talk about elections.

The report says both Liberman and Lapid rejected the offers.

In response to the report, Likud casts it as “baseless lies” aims at “causing the crumbling of the unity government during wartime.”

7:13 pm

IDF says it destroyed rocket launchers used in Netivot barrage, caught 7 gunmen, killed others

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)

The IDF releases new footage from the site in central Gaza from which Hamas launched a barrage of more than 25 rockets at the southern city of Netivot yesterday.

According to the IDF, immediately after troops of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade spotted the barrage, they launched a pursuit after several suspects in the area.

The IDF says the soldiers captured seven armed operatives and killed several more gunmen in the area.

The rocket launch site had three launchers, each capable of firing 10 rockets. Some of the launchers were primed with rockets.

The launchers were later destroyed by troops of the Combat Engineering Corps’ 710th Battalion, the IDF says.

The barrage on Tuesday was one of the largest attacks from Gaza in weeks. Local authorities in Netivot said it included some 50 rockets, although the IDF has estimated it to be around 25. Two rockets caused damage in Netivot and a nearby community.

The IDF releases new footage from the site in central Gaza where Hamas launched a barrage of more than 25 rockets at the southern city of Netivot yesterday.

According to the IDF, immediately after troops of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade spotted the barrage, they… pic.twitter.com/UtMqWXzr6S

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 17, 2024

6:52 pm

More hostile aircraft alarms blare in northern communities

Fresh hostile aircraft invasion alarms are sounding in multiple northern communities.

The Home Front Command says a short while later that the incident is over, without elaborating

A previous round of alerts two hours ago were later said to be false alarms.

A barrage of rockets from Lebanon two hours ago has been said not to cause damage, with projectiles either being intercepted or falling in open areas.

6:44 pm

Yemen’s Houthis say attacks on ships heading to Israel to continue despite US blacklist

The US re-designation of Yemen’s Houthis as a terrorist group will not affect the rebels’ operations to prevent Israeli ships or ships heading to Israel from crossing the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam tells Reuters.

The Biden administration today returned the Iran-aligned Houthi militia to a list of terrorist groups, US officials said, in the latest attempt by Washington to stem attacks by Houthi forces on international shipping in protest over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

6:40 pm

Gallant: If Hamas isn’t totally dismantled, we won’t be able to live in Israel

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks to troops of the Navy's Shayetet 13 unit at the unit's base in Atlit, January 17, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vows that Israel will continue the fighting in the Gaza Strip until the hostages are returned and Hamas is defeated.

“If the fate of Hamas is not complete dismantlement, we will not be able to live in the State of Israel,” says Gallant to troops of the Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit.

“We continue fighting until victory… until we defeat the Hamas organization, take away all of its significant military capabilities and remove it from power in Gaza,” he says.

Gallant says that regarding the hostages, “we have no right to stop the fighting as long as there are hostages in Gaza. The only way and thing that brings hostages [back] is military pressure, because Hamas understands only one thing.”

6:12 pm

IDF says soldier killed in Gaza fighting, another killed in West Bank car crash

Staff Sgt. Oriya Ayimalk Goshen (left) and Master Sgt. (res.) Anwar Serhan (right), who were killed on January 17, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF announces the death of a soldier killed in southern Gaza, bringing the toll of slain troops in the ground offensive against Hamas to 193, as well as the death of another soldier killed in a military-related car crash.

Staff Sgt. Oriya Ayimalk Goshen, 21, of the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, from Jerusalem, was killed during a battle with Hamas terrorists in southern Gaza. Another two soldiers were seriously wounded in the same battle.

Master Sgt. (res.) Anwar Serhan, 26, of the Etzion Regional Brigade’s 910th Battalion, from Hurfeish, was killed in a car crash while on duty in the West Bank.

5:39 pm

US relists Houthis as terror group, partially restoring Trump-era sanctions that Biden revoked

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)

US President Joe Biden’s administration re-designates Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a terrorist organization, partially restoring sanctions it lifted three years ago on the Iran-backed militia group, whose repeated attacks in the Red Sea since Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught have significantly disrupted shipping in the key maritime corridor.

The US State Department announces that it is re-designating the Houthis as a “specially designated global terrorist” (SDGT) entity, in a step aimed at blocking the group’s access to the global financial system but that falls short of the more far-reaching option the Biden administration had at its disposal — re-labeling the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).

In 2021, Biden removed both labels, which had been applied by his predecessor Donald Trump during the latter’s final days in office.

The Biden administration argued that the Trump-imposed sanctions blocked efforts to get humanitarian aid into Yemen in areas controlled by Houthi rebels. This is the same concern that led the administration to only re-apply the SDGT label, fearing the added FTO label would again harm the ongoing humanitarian effort in Yemen, US officials briefing reporters ahead of today’s announcement explained.

The Houthis have launched dozens of attacks since November on vessels in the Red Sea in what they claim is an effort to support Palestinians amid Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships targeted have had no ties to Israel whatsoever. Over the past week, US and British forces have responded by carrying out air and sea strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, though they have not deterred attacks from the rebel group.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield said last week that since November, 2,000 ships have been forced to divert thousands of miles to avoid the Red Sea. The attacks have caused significant disruptions to global trade with oil prices on the rise in recent days.

5:31 pm

Israeli military liaison confirms it will inspect shipment of medicines to Gaza

Five trucks of medical aid entering the Gaza Strip, including medicine for Israeli hostages held by the Hamas terror group, will be inspected by Israeli authorities, the Defense Ministry body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs says.

In response to a query, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) says: “Per the directive of the political echelon, five trucks carrying medicine will undergo a security check at the Kerem Shalom crossing.”

“At the end of the inspection, the trucks will enter the Gaza Strip,” COGAT adds.

5:11 pm

Gaza under longest internet blackout since war began, monitor says

By AFP

A telecommunications blackout in the Gaza Strip has entered its sixth day, the longest continuous outage since the Israel-Hamas war began, internet monitor NetBlocks says.

Gaza’s internet services have been constantly disrupted throughout the war, now in its fourth month.

“The disruption, now entering its sixth day, is the longest sustained telecoms outage on record since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war,” NetBlocks says in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

4:50 pm

France says accusing Israel of genocide ‘crosses moral threshold,’ is exploitative

By AFP

France does not back South Africa’s case against Israel at the UN’s top court accusing the country of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza, the French foreign minister says.

“Accusing the Jewish state of genocide crosses a moral threshold. The notion of genocide cannot be exploited for political ends,” Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne tells parliament.

4:44 pm

Iranian foreign minister claims attacks on Israel will end if Gaza ‘genocide’ stops

Iran’s foreign minister says attacks against Israel and its interests by the “Axis of Resistance” will stop if the war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza ends, warning that the conflict could heighten tensions across the Middle East.

“An end to the genocide in Gaza will lead to an end of military actions and crises in the region,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“The security of the Red Sea is tied to the developments in Gaza, and everyone will suffer if Israel’s crimes in Gaza do not stop… All the fronts will remain active.”

4:35 pm

After drawing criticism, PM said to order IDF to inspect Gaza medicine shipment

Multiple Hebrew media outlets report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to inspect a shipment of medicines set to enter Gaza today, some of which are meant to be delivered to hostages held by Palestinian terrorists.

Netanyahu was widely attacked earlier today by fellow politicians, including senior coalition members, for claiming he had nothing to do with the lack of planned security checks.

Hamas announced this morning that the deal reach via France and Qatar does not include Israel inspecting the shipment, in what would be a first during the war.

It is unclear how the new order by Netanyahu will affect the implementation of the deal.

4:24 pm

IDF tells families 2 hostages weren’t killed by its airstrikes, cause of death probed

Left: Cpl. Nik Beizer, taken hostage from his army base near the Erez Crossing by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023; Right: Sgt. Ron Sherman, taken hostage from an IDF base near the Gaza border (Courtesy)

IDF representatives yesterday updated the families of former Gaza hostages Sgt. Ron Sherman and Cpl. Nik Beizer regarding new information on the cause of their deaths during Hamas captivity.

The bodies of the two soldiers, along with civilian Elia Toledano, were recovered from a Hamas tunnel in Jabaliya on December 14. Two days prior, the bodies of Warrant Officer Ziv Dado and civilian Eden Zacharia, who were murdered on October 7, were found in the same area.

The IDF representatives presented the families of Sherman and Beizer with the pathology report and findings from the operation to retrieve the bodies.

Near the location where the bodies were found, the IDF carried out an airstrike targeting the commander of Hamas’s Northern Gaza Brigade, Ahmed Ghandour, who was hiding in a tunnel.

The IDF’s investigation, presented to the families, has found that the military was not aware of hostages being held in the area when the strike on the tunnel was carried out.

The bodies were found during scans of the tunnel, without any prior intelligence, according to the IDF’s findings.

The pathology report shown to the families shows that their bodies had no signs of trauma or gunfire, indicating that they were not killed directly by the airstrike or other IDF action.

Due to the condition of the bodies, medical officials have so far been unable to determine a cause of death.

At this stage, the military cannot confirm or deny that they may have suffocated, been strangulated, poisoned, or another cause indirectly related to an IDF attack or Hamas action.

Samples were taken for toxicology testing, which may shed light on their cause of death.

4:23 pm

Alarms sound in north, ending nationwide lull of over 24 hours

Rocket alarms sound in the largely evacuated northern towns of Metula, Shlomi and other border communities.

There are no immediate further details.

The development happens after hostile aircraft invasion sirens sounded not long ago in several other northern towns, in what has been said to be a false alarm.

They were the first alerts nationwide in over 24 hours.

3:52 pm

Bomb targeted Greece offices of Israeli shipping firm Zim yesterday, local police say

A makeshift explosive device went off yesterday morning outside the Greece offices of shipping company Zim, Israel’s main container shipping line, local police sources have said.

Minor damage was caused by the blast, they add.

The unknown attackers threw leaflets reading “Free Palestine” at the scene of the attack.

3:49 pm

Attorney general to indict far-left MK Cassif for 2022 assault on police officer

By Jeremy Sharon

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara informs far-left Hadash MK Ofer Cassif that she will indict him on charges of aggravated assault against a police officer during an incident in the West Bank in May 2022.

A copy of the indictment has been passed to the Knesset speaker and to the chairman of the Knesset House Committee so that Cassif can request immunity from prosecution from the Knesset if he wishes.

In May 2022, Cassif was trying to reach a protest against the evacuation of Palestinians from their homes in Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills, but was blocked from doing so by the police officer.

According to the indictment, Cassif got back in his car and tried to continue along the route toward the protest despite being blocked by the police officer, hitting the policeman in the left leg as he was slowly trying to drive around him. Cassif then stopped, and after a verbal exchange between the two, the police officer poked Cassif in the face with his finger — lightly according to the indictment — and Cassif then strongly slapped the police officer on the side of the head, the indictment says.

The State Attorney’s Office and the police recommended indicting Cassif in 2022.

כתב אישום נגד ח"כ עופר כסיף בגין תקיפת שוטר בנסיבות מחמירות | התיעוד שהוביל להחלטהhttps://t.co/UeiroS5Avn | @guypch2news pic.twitter.com/AwrzfEZjbU

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) January 17, 2024

3:27 pm

Iran says it shared info on Mossad HQ in Kurdish region with Iraq

By Agencies

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian gestures during a discussion at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says that Tehran shared intelligence with Baghdad about what it said were activities of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

Iran has said its Revolutionary Guards attacked Israel’s “spy HQ” in Iraq in the city of Erbil on Monday. Iraq later denied that there was any such spy center in the country.

Speaking in Davos, Amir-Abdollahian also says that his country’s armed forces targeted an “Iranian terrorist group” in Pakistan the day before, after Islamabad said the strike killed two children.

“On Pakistan, none of the nationals of the friendly and brotherly country of Pakistan were targeted by Iranian missiles and drones,” Amir-Abdollahian says on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“The so-called Jaish al-Adl group, which is an Iranian terrorist group, was targeted,” he adds.

2:59 pm

Ben Gvir tells Netanyahu to stop trying to dodge responsibility amid row over Gaza medicine

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir at the Knesset on November 20, 2023 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop trying to avoid taking responsibility amid controversy over who exactly authorized a shipment of medicine for the hostages and Gaza civilians to enter the Strip without being checked by Israel.

“Mr. Prime Minister, enough of chasing after [Minister Benny] Gantz and enough trying to dodge [your responsibility],” Ben Gvir tweets after Netanyahu said the responsibility lay with the IDF.

“Perhaps the technical inspection arrangements are the responsibility of the IDF and the security forces, but the responsibility for the IDF and the security forces to check that the trucks that are supposed to carry medicine for the hostages do not also carry ammunition and equipment for Hamas – is your responsibility and the responsibility of the war cabinet,” Ben Gvir says.

“If the trucks have not yet been brought in, simply instruct the IDF and the security forces not to allow them to be brought in without an inspection. This is absolutely within your responsibility and authority. Medicines for the hostages — absolutely. Oxygen for Hamas to continue fighting — madness.”

2:45 pm

IDF reservist seriously wounded in Tulkarem raid

An IDF reservist was seriously wounded after Palestinian gunmen opened fire at troops in the West Bank city of Tulkarem earlier, during a counter-terrorism operation, the military says.

The IDF says it carried out a drone strike against a group of Palestinians hurling explosives and shooting at the soldiers, killing several gunmen. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, four men were killed in the strike.

It releases footage of the strike.

An IDF reservist was seriously wounded after Palestinian gunmen opened fire at troops in the West Bank city of Tulkarem earlier, during a counter-terrorism operation, the military says.

The IDF says it carried out a drone strike against a group of Palestinians hurling explosives… pic.twitter.com/mXhTgDsqt0

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 17, 2024

In the Tulkarem operation, dozens of suspects have been questioned, seven have been arrested, and engineering vehicles have uncovered explosive devices hidden under the roads, the IDF says.

The IDF says the raid is still ongoing.

In the southern West Bank town of Bani Naim, the IDF says troops mapped out the homes of the two Palestinian terrorists who carried out the deadly ramming attack in Ra’anana on Monday, ahead of their demolitions.

In all, 26 wanted Palestinians were detained overnight, the IDF says.

Since October 7, troops have arrested more than 2,700 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,300 affiliated with Hamas.

2:34 pm

India in diplomatic talks with Iran over Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping

Yemenis chant anti-Israel and anti-US slogans during a protest in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on January 17, 2024 (Photo by MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AFP)

India is engaged in diplomatic negotiations with Iran on the attacks on ships in the Red Sea carried out by the Tehran-backed Houthi movement, an Indian government source says.

India’s foreign minister was in Iran this week to hold talks with his counterpart and said on Monday the discussions touched on the Red Sea situation, where the attacks have disrupted shipping on the global trade route.

The source, who requested anonymity, said the finance ministry’s banking division would also make it easier for Indian exporters affected by the disruption to get credit.

2:25 pm

Sources say IDF had no idea medicine shipment for Gaza was exempt from security check

Military sources tell Channel 12 that the Israel Defense Forces had no idea that a shipment of medicine for Gaza civilians and the hostages was to be exempted from security checks.

The comments come after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied a report that said he had authorized the move.

However, the military source tells Channel 12 that the first the army knew about the agreement was when it heard about it from senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk, who tweeted about it this morning.

2:08 pm

International Ice Hockey Federation backtracks on banning Israel from tournament

Illustrative: Israel national hockey team members on the bench at the IIHF world championships in Mexico City, April 2019. (Ice Hockey Federation of Israel)

The International Ice Hockey Federation backtracks on its decision to bar Israel from competing in its world championship events, citing security concerns.

Israel had responded angrily to the move, vowing to dispute it and decrying the decision as “antisemitic” and “dangerous.”

In a statement posted to its website today, the IIHF says Israel will be able to participate in an upcoming tournament in Bulgaria, saying it had received from local authorities “the required confirmation for the safety and security support needed to allow the Israeli National Team to take part.”

“We wish the Israeli National Team and all other participating teams all the best for the competition,” the IIHF says, but adds it will review Israeli participation in upcoming tournaments.

Further decisions will be announced next month, the IIHF says.

1:55 pm

Pakistan recalls ambassador after Iran airstrike

By AFP

Pakistan recalls its ambassador from Iran and blocks Tehran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad after an Iranian airstrike killed two children in the west of the country a day earlier, the foreign ministry says.

“Last night’s unprovoked and blatant breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty by Iran is a violation of international law and the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,” spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch says in a statement.

1:46 pm

Netanyahu denies exempting medicine shipment into Gaza from security checks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives for a Likud party meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on January 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies a report that says he gave the go-ahead to exempt a shipment of medications for hostages and Gaza civilians from security checks before they enter into Gaza.

“The prime minister authorized sending the medicines to the hostages but did not deal at all with the security procedures that are set by the IDF and security officials,” his office says in a statement.

The medicines, provided by Qatar, are set to be delivered to Gaza later in the day under a deal brokered by Doha and France.

1:33 pm

Blinken says a pathway to Palestinian state a necessity for Israel’s security

By AP

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gestures during his speech at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterates the need for a “pathway to a Palestinian state” at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss resort of Davos, saying that Israel would not “get genuine security absent that.”

If Israel can be brought into the fold of the Middle East, Blinken says, the region would be coming together to isolate Iran, which he called “the biggest concern in terms of security,” as well as its proxies, which include Yemen’s Houthi rebels who have been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea.

“The problem is getting from here to there, and of course, it requires very difficult, challenging decisions. It requires a mindset that is open to that perspective,” Blinken says.

He said that what is different now is the mindset of leaders in the Arab and Muslim world on integrating Israel into the region and that he feels “a fierce urgency of now” because “we’re in the midst of what is human tragedy in so many ways in the Middle East right now — for the Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a right-wing government that is opposed to Palestinian statehood, and Netanyahu himself recently said that his actions over the years prevented the formation of such a state.

Blinken says Israelis would need to decide on its leadership and its direction, saying it’s up to them whether the country can “seize the opportunity that we believe is there” and calling this “an inflection point” for the Middle East that requires hard decisions.

1:17 pm

At Davos, Israeli MK lambastes women’s groups for silence on Hamas sexual crimes

By Sam Sokol

Then Immigration and Absorption Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata attends a press conference at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, on April 4, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

The “deafening silence of the international women’s organizations” in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack sends a message of “#MeToo, unless you’re a Jew,” the chairwoman of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality tells members of the Women Political Leaders (WPL) organization on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“The reactions from the UN in general and from the women’s committees in particular were too little, too late,” says National Unity lawmaker Pnina Tamano-Shata, arguing that “if the world is incapable of standing with Israeli women who experienced the atrocities of terrorism under the auspices of Iran and its proxies, the promise ‘Never Again’ has lost its meaning.”

Calling on her fellow female lawmakers to “stand shoulder to shoulder alongside Israeli women,” Tamano-Shata says that “what happened in Israel could happen anywhere in the world, if we don’t work together to defeat terrorism and bring these monsters to justice.”

Hamas engaged in widespread sexual assault during its attack on the south, when thousands of terrorists invaded Israel by land, sea, and air, killing 1,200 people — a majority of them civilians — and taking 240 others hostage into Gaza.

Tamano-Shata has also criticized the Israeli government’s assistance to sexual assault victims, declaring at a hearing of the Committee on the Status of Women earlier this month that the various agencies handling the issue appeared to have failed to coordinate their efforts satisfactorily.

1:11 pm

Russia and Iran to sign new strategic treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) shakes hands with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during their meeting in the Kremlin on December 7, 2023, in Moscow. (Sergei Bobylyov/Pool/AFP)

Russia’s foreign ministry says that it expects President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart to soon sign a new interstate treaty between the two countries that is in the final stages of being worked out.

Putin held five hours of talks in the Kremlin with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi last month amid growing political, trade and military ties between Moscow and Tehran that the United States and Israel view with concern.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, tells reporters that the new treaty would consolidate the strategic partnership between Moscow and Tehran and cover the full range of their ties.

“This document is not just timely, but also overdue,” says Zakharova. “Since the signing of the current treaty, the international context has changed and relations between the two countries are experiencing an unprecedented upswing.”

The Kremlin in November said Russia and Iran were developing their relations, “including in the field of military-technical cooperation,” but declined to comment on a suggestion by the White House that Iran may be considering providing Russia with ballistic missiles.

Iranian authorities have said military cooperation with Russia is expanding day by day. Iran said in November it had finalized arrangements for Russia to provide it with Su-35 fighter jets, Mi-28 attack helicopters and Yak-130 pilot training aircraft.

1:04 pm

Jordan says IDF shelling hit its field hospital in Khan Younis

By Reuters and ToI Staff

An aid convoy transporting a Jordanian field hospital enters the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, on November 20, 2023. (Mohammed ABED / AFP)

The Jordanian army says its military field hospital in the city of Khan Younis in Gaza was badly damaged as a result of Israeli shelling in the vicinity.

In a statement, the Jordanian military says it held Israel responsible for a “flagrant breach of international law.”

The Israel Defense Forces says it is looking into the report.

1:03 pm

Likud MKs demand Israel permanently bar Palestinian laborers due to security risk

By Sam Sokol

Palestinian laborers line up to cross a checkpoint at the entrance to the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, near Jerusalem, June 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

Palestinian laborers from the West Bank must not be allowed back into Israel, Likud lawmakers demand in an open letter to their party’s representatives in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, arguing that their presence poses a security risk and that they can be replaced by foreign workers.

The 12 Likud legislators were joined by Economy Minister Nir Barkat and Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli in arguing that while the economy has suffered billions of shekels in losses since West Bank Palestinians were barred from entry following Hamas’s brutal attack on October 7, their role in the economy “can be filled through arrangements with various countries, where thousands of workers who wish to come to work in Israel will be accommodated.”

The lawmakers question why “the intention is still to continue to rely on [Palestinians] as a workforce” when an overwhelming majority “supported the terrible massacre,” adding that such a policy constitutes “a great security risk and a serious moral failure.”

“Besides our security obligation, we also have a moral duty — we are not responsible for the livelihood of those who support the murder of Jews in the Land of Israel,” they write, dismissing members of the security services who have warned of a West Bank eruption of violence and terrorism due to deteriorating economic conditions there as adhering to a pre-October 7 mindset.

“The time has come to say explicitly that no more Palestinian workers will be allowed to enter Israel. The more the Israeli government hastens to bring in workers from abroad and closes the door on the idea of bringing in the Palestinians, the sooner the economy will return to strength,” they write.

The government’s decision to prohibit the entry of most Palestinian workers from the West Bank since October 7 could cost approximately NIS 3 billion ($830 million) per month, according to the Finance Ministry, which has partnered with other government agencies on plans to encourage the arrival of foreign workers.

Around half of Israel’s construction sites are currently inactive due to a lack of workers, the Globes business daily reported yesterday, citing numbers provided by the Association of Contractors and Builders in Israel.

12:53 pm

IDF striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon

The IDF says it has been carrying out airstrikes against Hezbollah sites in Lebanon since this morning.

Sites hit by fighter jets in Houla included military buildings and various infrastructure used by the terror group, the IDF says.

The IDF also says a tank shelled an area in Ayta ash-Shab, and artillery shelled an area in Dhayra, to “remove threats.”

In southern Lebanon’s Marwahin, the IDF says it also hit a Hezbollah cell.

An anti-tank missile was also fired at an army post on the border. The IDF says it is striking the launch site.

The IDF says it has been carrying out airstrikes against Hezbollah sites in Lebanon since this morning.

Sites hit by fighter jets in Houla included military buildings and various infrastructure used by the terror group, the IDF says.

The IDF also says a tank shelled an area in… pic.twitter.com/6kmPIvZXWb

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 17, 2024

12:31 pm

UN chief says parties to Gaza conflict ‘trampling’ on international law

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the assembly during the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos on January 17, 2024. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says that parties to the conflict in Gaza are “trampling” on international law and urges them to implement an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Guterres says the warring parties were “ignoring international law, trampling on the Geneva Conventions, and even violating the United Nations Charter.”

“The world is standing by as civilians, mostly women and children, are killed, maimed, bombarded, forced from their homes and denied access to humanitarian aid,” he says.

“I repeat my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, and a process that leads to sustained peace for Israelis and Palestinians, based on a two-state solution.”

12:19 pm

IDF airdrops supplies to troops in southern Gaza

Equipment that was airdropped to troops in the Khan Younis area, in an image published January 17, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says it recently airdropped some 16 tons of equipment to thousands of troops of the 98th Division operating in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza.

The operation, carried out in recent days by the Technological and Logistics Directorate and Marom Brigade’s air supply unit, included a C-130J transport aircraft airdropping ammunition, fuel, water, and food for the division.

Since the beginning of the ground offensive, five airdrop operations have been carried out in Gaza, with a total of some 60 tons of equipment for the troops, according to the IDF.

The IDF has airdropped equipment to areas in Gaza that are either too dangerous or logistically difficult to reach with convoys of trucks.

The IDF says it recently airdropped some 16 tons of equipment to thousands of troops of the 98th Division operating in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza.

The operation, carried out in recent days by the Technological and Logistics Directorate and Marom Brigade's air supply… pic.twitter.com/8qGUPVKg5C

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 17, 2024

12:09 pm

Hamas says 1,000 medicine packages to enter Gaza for every package sent to hostages

By Agencies

Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk, center, attends the funeral of Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. (AP/Hussein Malla)

Hamas provides more details about an agreement brokered by France and Qatar to deliver medicine to Israeli hostages held by the terror group in Gaza.

Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk says that for each box of medicine provided to the hostages, 1,000 boxes would be sent for use by Palestinian civilians.

In a posting on X, he says the International Committee of the Red Cross would deliver all the medicines, including those destined for the hostages, to hospitals serving all parts of Gaza.

The agreement also includes the delivery of additional food and humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Abu Marzouk says Israeli authorities will not have the chance to inspect the shipments. He says Hamas insisted that Qatar provide the medications and not France because of the European country’s support for Israel.

This is the first agreement reached between the warring sides since a weeklong ceasefire in November. Hamas and other terror groups are still holding around half of the estimated 250 hostages they captured during the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. Most of the rest were freed in November in return for the release of Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel.

Those remaining in captivity in Gaza include several older men and others who require medication for chronic illness.

11:57 am

Netanyahu said to approve no security checks for medicine shipment to Gaza

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his approval that a shipment of medicine for Gaza civilians and hostages held by Hamas could enter the Strip without first being examined by Israel, the Ynet news site reports.

The shipment from Qatar is expected to enter Gaza later today under a deal negotiated by Doha and France.

This will be the first shipment to enter the Strip without first being inspected by Israel since the start of the war amid fears Hamas would try to smuggle in weapons.

11:42 am

In world first, Health Ministry approves sale to public of Aleph Farm’s cultivated meat

Aleph Farms' cultivated thin-cut steak. (Courtesy)

In a world first, the Health Ministry says it has granted approval to Israel’s Aleph Farms Ltd., a startup that grows meat cuts directly from cattle cells, to sell cultivated meat to the public.

The Rehovot-based maker of cultivated meat Aleph said last year that it was targeting the rollout of its first product, a cultivated thin-cut steak, in limited quantities in Singapore and Israel, pending regulatory approvals. It has also requested approval in Switzerland.

“In view of the growing global demand for proteins and the importance of producing products of non-living origin, the Ministry of Health is working to approve alternative food sources,” the ministry says.

“In light of this, and as part of a pilot program for the examination of an alternative protein, carried out in the Department of Food Risk Management, in the National Food Service of the Ministry of Health, a ‘new food’ product that includes cell culture originating from cattle, rather than chicken cells, also known as ‘cultured meat,’ was approved for the first time in the world.”

The ministry says approval to sell to the general public came after widespread health and safety checks on the product.

To produce its meat, Aleph leverages the ability of animals to grow tissue muscle constantly and isolates the cells responsible for that process. It then reproduces the optimal conditions for these cells to grow into tissue, basically growing meat outside the animal without using antibiotics. The tissue is grown in tanks that act as fermenters, similar to those in a brewery. There the cells are nurtured and shaped into a 3D structure that makes the meat.

The startup is one of the main players in the growing Israeli food tech sector, which in recent years has become an important hub for cultured meat — a key subsector in the alternative protein market, which comprises plant-based substitutes for meat, dairy, and egg; cultured dairy, meat and seafood; insect proteins; and fermentation products and processes.

11:40 am

Palestinian Red Crescent says 4 killed in Israeli strike in Tulkarem

The Palestinian Red Crescent says four people were killed in an Israeli drone strike in the West Bank city of Tulkarem.

Earlier, military sources said the strike targeted suspects who were shooting and hurling explosive devices at troops operating in Tulkarem.

11:13 am

Hamas says Gaza death toll at 24,448

People inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on January 17, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says that the death toll in the Strip is at least 24,448 people.

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.

11:05 am

IDF airstrike hits Palestinian gunmen in West Bank city of Tulkarem

The IDF carried out an airstrike against a group of Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank city of Tulkarem amid a counter-terrorism operation, military sources say.

Palestinian media report the strike, with images on social media showing at least two Palestinians wounded or killed next to a heavily damaged vehicle that was apparently hit.

IDF sources say the suspects were shooting and hurling explosive devices at troops operating in Tulkarem.

It marks the second airstrike in the West Bank within hours, after the head of a terror network and several more operatives were struck in the Balata camp near Nablus.

شهيدين بدرون انتحارية استهدفت مجموعة من الشبان داخل حارة التمام بمخيم طولكرم pic.twitter.com/GI20foFJnd

— Hisham Abu Shaqrah | هشام أبو شقرة (@HShaqrah) January 17, 2024

10:22 am

Qatari planes with medicines for hostages arrives in Egypt

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)

Two Qatari military aircraft containing medication for the hostages in Gaza arrives in el-Arish in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Arabic media reports.

The consignment will then be transferred into the Gaza Strip.

Qatar announced yesterday that it had successfully mediated an agreement between Israel and Hamas to deliver the medication.

9:59 am

IDF conducting air drills in Eilat

A trail of smoke, apparently from an Israeli air defense missile, is seen over the Eilat area in southern Israel, October 31, 2023. (Courtesy)

The Israel Defense Forces say it is conducting military drills in skies above Eilat.

The army says there will be military aircraft in the skies from morning to evening as “part of a regular inspection” by the IDF that has been coordinated with local security officials.

No further details are given.

The drills come as the Iran-backed Houthis have tried to fire several missiles and drones at the southern Israeli city in recent weeks.

9:45 am

China urges Iran, Pakistan to ‘exercise restraint’ after deadly airstrike

By AFP

China urges Pakistan and Iran to show “restraint,” after Islamabad said Tehran had carried out an airstrike on its territory that killed two children.

“We call on both sides to exercise restraint, avoid actions that would lead to an escalation of tension and work together to maintain peace and stability,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning tells a regular briefing.

“We consider both Iran and Pakistan as close neighbors and major Islamic countries,” she says.

Both Iran and Pakistan are close partners of Beijing and members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Pakistan denounced the strike, near the nations’ shared border late on Tuesday, as “completely unacceptable,” saying it was unprovoked.

Iran offered no immediate official comment but its state-run Nour News agency said the attack destroyed the Pakistan headquarters of the jihadist group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice.)

Pakistani location which was hit by Irani missile….#Iran #IranAttackPakistan #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/awCLZ3kxNZ

— Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) January 17, 2024

9:28 am

IDF says it killed Hamas spy catcher in southern Gaza, five other terrorists

Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip have killed six Hamas operatives, including the southern district Hamas officer in charge of interrogating suspected spies, the Israel Defense Forces say.

The IDF identifies the spy catcher as Bilal Nofal and says he was killed in an airstrike carried out by the military, acting on information provided by the Shin Bet.

Nofal was “responsible for interrogating those suspected of spying against Hamas in southern Gaza,” the army says, adding that he had “developed the interrogation and investigative techniques” used by Hamas.

“His killing significantly impacts the ability of the terrorist organization to develop and enhance its capabilities,” it says.

In addition, the army says it killed a three-man mortar team in Khan Younis and two others were killed in an airstrike in central Gaza.

חוסל פעיל חמאס שהיה אחראי על חקירת חשודים בריגול נגד הארגון בדרום רצועת עזה; אותרו והושמדו עמדות השיגור מהן בוצעו השיגורים לעבר נתיבות אתמול>> pic.twitter.com/1V5JsC40dL

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 17, 2024

8:59 am

IDF says it found and destroyed Gaza rocket launchers used to fire barrage at Netivot

Rocket launchers in central Gaza used to fire a barrage at the southern city of Netivot, in a handout image published January 17, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israel Defense Forces says troops operating in central Gaza have found and destroyed the rocket launchers used to fire a barrage of dozens of rockets at the southern city of Netivot yesterday.

Troops of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade found three launchers, each capable of launching 10 rockets at a time. Some of them were primed for further launches.

The soldiers destroyed the launchers and the site, the army says.

8:13 am

IDF: Man killed in drone strike was top West Bank terror leader, planning imminent attack

The Israel Defense Forces confirms it carried out a drone strike near the Balata camp, saying the target was a top terror leader in the West Bank who was planning an imminent attack.

The IDF identifies him as Abdallah Abu Shalal and says he was killed in a combined operation carried out by the military and the Shin Bet security service.

The military said Abu Shalal was responsible for a string of recent attacks, including a shooting attack in Jerusalem’s Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood in which two Israelis were injured, and planting a bomb that wounded a soldier.

After the strike on the terror cell led by Abu Shalal, weapons were found in the car. The other members were not immediately identified.

The army said Abu Shalal had received financing and instructions from Iran and terror groups in Gaza and overseas.

Palestinian sources said three people were killed in the strike on his car.

The IDF publishes video of the drone strike.

בפעילות משותפת של צה"ל ושב״כ חוסלה מהאוויר חוליית מחבלים, בראשה עמד עבדאללה אבו שלאל>> pic.twitter.com/2S0bNDOihy

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 17, 2024

8:01 am

Hamas says 81 people killed in overnight strikes in Gaza

By Agencies

A picture taken from Rafah shows fire erupting over Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, during Israeli strikes on January 16, 2024 (Photo by AFP)

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza reports that 81 people were killed in overnight strikes, including in the main southern city of Khan Yunis.

These figures cannot be independently verified, and the ministry does not differentiate between Hamas members and civilians.

There is no comment from the IDF.

7:45 am

Palestinians say three killed in drone strike on car in northern West Bank

A vehicle hit in Israeli drone strike near the Balata camp in the northern West Bank on January 17, 2024. (Wafa - used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike on their vehicle near the Balata camp in the northern West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

The report, citing Palestinian security sources, says the strike took place during an Israel Defense Force arrest raid in the camp that is near Nablus. It says that IDF soldiers initially prevented Palestinian medical teams from reaching the scene of the strike.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

7:33 am

Japan’s Nippon Yusen latest major shipping firm to suspend Red Sea routes amid Houthi attacks

By AFP

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)

Japanese shipping firm Nippon Yusen says it is joining other major companies in suspending routes through the Red Sea over Houthi rebel attacks on vessels in the vital waterway.

“We have suspended navigation through the Red Sea by all ships we operate,” a spokesman for the firm, also known as NYK Line, tells AFP, adding the decision was to “ensure the safety of crews.”

Since Friday, US and British forces have been striking targets inside Houthi-controlled Yemen in response to the attacks by the Iran-backed group, which says it is targeting Israeli-linked shipping in the Red Sea in solidarity with Gaza.

The situation has heightened fears of the Israel-Hamas war, which began with a devastating shock assault by Hamas on southern Israel, flaring across the region and disrupted trade in one of the world’s key maritime commercial routes.

The waterway between Asian and European markets normally carries about 12 percent of global maritime trade.

Diverting around the southern tip of Africa takes longer and is more expensive.

Two other major Japanese shipping firms — Kawasaki Kisen and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines — have also suspended navigation through the Red Sea, Japanese business daily Nikkei reported yesterday.

Officials of the two companies were not immediately available for comment on the report.

— with Times of Israel staff

6:31 am

IDF announces deaths of two reservist soldiers as ground op toll climbs to 192

By ToI Staff

Sergeant Major (res.) Yair Katz, 34 (left) and Master Sergeant (res.) Zechariah Pesach Haber, 32 (right), who were killed in Gaza on January 16, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF announces the deaths of two reservists who were killed during fighting in Gaza on Tuesday, bringing the toll of slain troops in the ground offensive against Hamas to 192.

They are:

Master Sgt. (res.) Zechariah Pesach Haber, 32, of the 14th Armored Brigade’s 87th Battalion, from Jerusalem.

Sgt. Maj. (res.) Yair Katz, 34, also of the 14th Armored Brigade’s 87th Battalion, from Holon.

Both were killed fighting in northern Gaza, the IDF says.

The military said two other reservists were seriously injured, one during fighting in northern Gaza, and the second in a Gaza border area in Israel.

4:53 am

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

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

An Iranian missile strike on targets in northern Iraq set off an unusual dispute between the neighboring allies on Tuesday, with Baghdad recalling its ambassador and Tehran insisting the attack was intended to deter threats from Israeli “spies.”

Iran fired missiles late Monday at what it said were Israeli “spy headquarters” in an upscale neighborhood near the sprawling US Consulate compound in Erbil, the seat of Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region, and at targets linked to the extremist Islamic State group in northern Syria.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said in a statement Tuesday that it launched four Kheibar missiles at IS positions in Idlib in Syria and 11 precision ballistic missiles at the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, where it said it hit a center of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. Iraqi officials denied that the building was related to Mossad, with Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem al-Araji dismissing the “false” claim.

The Iranian attack was “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq, strongly contradicts the principles of good neighborliness and international law, and threatens the security of the region,” the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Agencies contributed to this report.

4:08 am

UN calls on Iran-backed Houthis to stop attacks on Red Sea shipping

By AP

The United Nations is calling on Yemen’s Houthi rebels to implement the Security Council resolution adopted last week demanding an immediate halt to its attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

“We’re very concerned by the continuing strikes,” says UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

The Iranian-backed Houthis, who have been engaged in a civil war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government since 2014, have said they launched the attacks in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, amid the war triggered by Hamas’s October 7 shock assault.

The UN resolution condemns the more than two dozen Houthi attacks which have disrupted one of the world’s major trade routes and raised shipping costs.

Dujarric said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Monday about the situation in the Red Sea and in Gaza. The UN chief “reiterated his call to all the parties to avoid any further escalation” in Yemen and implement last week’s resolution, and reiterated the need for greater humanitarian access in Gaza and the immediate release of all Israeli hostages, the UN spokesman said.

The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, who has been consulting with all sides, spoke to the Iranian foreign minister’s senior advisor, Ali Asghar Khaji earlier Tuesday, Dujarric said.

They discussed “the need to maintain an environment conducive to constructive dialogue and sustained concerted regional efforts to peace in Yemen,” the UN spokesperson said.

Grundberg and others then briefed the Security Council behind closed doors.

3:00 am

Senate rejects measure to force human rights report on Israel for aid

By Jacob Magid and Agencies

A resolution aiming to place new conditions on US security aid to Israel has been overwhelmingly voted down in the Senate, as anticipated.

The resolution submitted by progressive senator Bernie Sanders sought 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.

The resolution was voted down 72 to 11, with only Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders, Chris Van Hollen, Heinrich, Laphonza Butler, Ed Markey, Ben Ray Lujan, Mazie Hirono, Peter Welch and Elizabeth Warren and Republican Rand Paul voting for it.

The vote was forced earlier by Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

While the measure was handily defeated, it reflected growing concern among some of US President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats, especially on the left. The outliers who supported the measure are a small but growing far-left flank of the Democratic Party along with a handful of Republican libertarians who oppose all foreign aid.

“We must ensure that US aid is being used in accordance with human rights and our own laws,” Sanders said in a speech before the vote urging support for the resolution, lamenting what he described as the Senate’s failure to consider any measure looking at the war’s effect on civilians.

The White House had said it opposed the resolution, which could have paved the way toward the imposition of conditions on security assistance to Israel.

The United States gives Israel $3.8 billion in such assistance each year, ranging from fighter jets to powerful bombs that could destroy Hamas tunnels. Biden has asked Congress to approve an additional $14 billion.

Sanders’ resolution was filed under the Foreign Assistance Act, which allows Congress to direct State to provide a human rights report and other information on any country received US security assistance.

If the resolution had passed, it would have required the State Department to provide a report to Congress within 30 days. After receiving the report, Congress could consider another resolution proposing changes to security assistance to Israel.

Israel launched the war to eradicate Hamas, an Iran-backed group sworn to Israel’s destruction, after thousands of terrorists stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing 240 hostages.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said the war has killed over 24,000 people. The figure cannot be independently verified, and is 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 and immediately after October 7.

1:09 am

US welcomes Qatar deal to deliver medicine to Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza

By Reuters and ToI Staff

The Biden administration welcomed an announcement by Qatar that it had reached an agreement to deliver medicine to Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, says National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson.

Earlier Tuesday, the White House said US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed efforts to negotiate the release of the remaining hostages during separate meetings with Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk was also in Doha earlier this week for meetings with Qatari leaders on the same issue, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

Six US citizens are counted among the remaining living hostages who number about 100. Israel has confirmed the deaths of 27 hostages – including two whose deaths were announced earlier Tuesday — held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza. One more person has been listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.

“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,” Kirby said, 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 outright.

12:36 am

Biden admin to relist Houthis as specially designated global terrorists – source