Jan. 2: PM hails Syria commando raid, one of the most important strikes against Iranian axis

IDF soldiers said diverted from missions to thwart Israeli extremists trying to infiltrate Gaza

Over the past day, IDF surveillance soldiers have reportedly been forced to deprioritize their efforts to track potential terror operatives in Gaza in order to thwart attempts by far-right Israeli extremists who have been trying to cross Israel’s border with the Strip to establish settlements there.

The result is a game of cat and mouse between the IDF and the settlers that has been going on for hours, the Kan public broadcaster reports, citing a reservist at the scene.

The surveillance trackers who are taking part in the effort are being pulled away from their typical task of helping ground troops identify and eliminate terrorists in northern Gaza, the reservist says.

Report: Biden recently presented with plans for potential US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities

US President Joe Biden waves as he and first lady Jill Biden walk across the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington, after returning from Camp David. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan recently presented US President Joe Biden with options for potential American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites if Tehran decides to move toward a nuclear weapon before the inauguration of Donald Trump later this month, the Axios news site reports.

The presentation was made in a secret briefing several weeks ago, Axios reports citing three officials.

An official tells Axios that the meeting was not sparked by new intelligence and that Biden did not make a final decision.

The source says the meeting was part of  “prudent scenario planning.”

One source says Biden was focused on the question of whether Iran had taken nuclear steps that create an urgent situation that would justify such a dramatic military strike a few weeks before a new president takes office.

Culture minister booed at opening of Haifa Film Festival

Culture Minister Miki Zohar is booed by the crowd at the opening of the Haifa Film Festival.

Many among the crowd slammed Zohar for the government’s failure to bring home the hostages in Gaza.

Zohar asks the crowd to let him speak, saying freedom of expression is one of the values exemplified by the film festival.

“I came here even though I knew there would be shouts and protests,” Zohar says, adding that he understands the public’s anger.

שר התרבות ספג קריאות מחאה בפסטיבל הסרטים: "הגעתי למרות שידעתי שיהיו צעקות, אוהב אתכם"https://t.co/A3vWeQ7qc3 | @Noam92Cohen pic.twitter.com/XnzIZAvHx9

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) January 2, 2025

Netanyahu to hold assessment on hostage talks amid reports of progress in recent days

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold an assessment on the hostage talks after authorizing a delegation to head to negotiations in Qatar, Hebrew media report.

The team will leave tomorrow, Channel 12 reports.

An unnamed official tells Channel 12 that the decision came after there was “progress in recent days.”

Earlier, Hamas also expressed optimism that a deal could be reached.

However, the report comes after several days of Israeli officials saying that talks were deadlocked.

Hostage families hail decision to send negotiating team to Qatar: ‘We can’t miss this window of opportunity’

Israeli rally for the release of hostages held by Hamas, at Tel Aviv's Hostage Square, December 21 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum hails a decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send a new negotiating team to hostage talks in Qatar, saying “We can’t miss this window of opportunity.”

“The 100 hostages held in the depths of the Hamas tunnels don’t have time for foot-dragging in the negotiations, we demand that the prime minister give the negotiating team a mandate to reach an agreement that will see the return of every last hostage — the living to rehabilitation and the murdered for an honorable burial,” the forum says.

Vehicular ramming that sparked alarm for New York Jews was an accident, NYPD says

The NYPD says a vehicular ramming incident that sparked alarm among Jews in New York City was an accident.

Security footage circulating online shows a black minivan plowing into a group of women pushing strollers who appear to be Jewish.

Terrifying. A driver saw visibly Jewish women and children with strollers in Brooklyn and drove right into them. pic.twitter.com/DUBbThggyI

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) January 2, 2025

Social media users claim the incident is a hate crime, but a police spokesperson says it was a “motor vehicle collision” that took place on Tuesday.

A 69-year-old man driving a 2014 Toyota made a right turn onto Nostrand Ave. at the Kings Highway intersection, striking three pedestrians, the NYPD tells The Times of Israel.

The intersection is next to the Kingsway Jewish Center and the area has a large Jewish population.

The accident caused injuries to two women, aged 62 and 56, and a 1-year-old boy, the NYPD says. Emergency responders took the injured to Maimonides Medical Center in stable condition.

NYPD Deputy Chief Richie Taylor, the NYPD’s highest-ranking Orthodox Jewish officer, told The Times of Israel the collision was the result of “extreme inattention” on the part of the driver, who stayed on the scene and apologized after the incident.

“We don’t see anything about criminality,” Taylor said.

The incident surfaced a day after a ramming attack in New Orleans.

In May, a man was arrested on hate crimes charges after attempting to ram Orthodox Jews with his car in Brooklyn.

Netanyahu okays sending a delegation to renew hostage talks in Qatar

Families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists, and others calling for the release of the hostages light candles in memory of the Israeli soldiers killed throughout the war, on the eighth night of Hanukkah, in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv., January 1, 2025. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu okays sending a new Israeli delegation to hostage talks in Qatar.

“Netanyahu authorized a working level delegation from the Mossad, Shin Bet and IDF to continue with negotiations in Doha,” according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.

Israeli officials have expressed pessimism in recent days that talks were stuck amid a refusal by Hamas to issue a list of names of live hostages it could release.

The Israeli delegation will reportedly depart tomorrow.

IDF says jets hit Hezbollah rocket launchers in south Lebanon after Lebanese army failed to deal with them

The IDF confirms that fighter jets carried out an airstrike in southern Lebanon a short while ago, saying it targeted medium-range rocket launchers at a Hezbollah position.

Another rocket launcher next to the Hezbollah site in the Iqlim al-Tuffah area, in the Nabatieh District, was also struck, the military adds.

The IDF says that as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, Israeli authorities sent a request to the Lebanese army to neutralize the launchers “that posed a threat to the Israeli home front” and troops.

“The launchers were struck only after the request was not handled by the Lebanese army,” the IDF says.

The IDF is still deployed to southern Lebanon under the ceasefire agreement, and it has until late January to withdraw, in accordance with the deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces to the area.

מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו והשמידו לפני זמן קצר, בהכוונה מודיעינית של אמ״ן, משגרי רקטות לטווח בינוני שהיו בשימוש ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה, באתר צבאי של הארגון. כמו כן, בסמוך לאתר צבאי נוסף הותקפו משגרי רקטות של הארגון במרחב נבטיה>> pic.twitter.com/0yPWZO27dB

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 2, 2025

Netanyahu hails Syria commando raid, one of the most important strikes against the Iranian axis

Members of the IAF's Shaldag unit carry out a raid against an Iranian missile factory near Masyaf, Syria, September 8, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hails the recently acknowledged IDF commando operation deep in Syria in which 120 members of special forces units raided and destroyed an underground Iranian missile manufacturing plant.

“I salute the heroic fighters on the successful and daring mission deep in Syria,” Netanyahu posts on X.

“This is one of the most important actions to thwart the efforts of the Iranian axis to arm in order to harm us,” Netanyahu says.

The prime minister says the raid highlights Israel’s daring and “determination to act anywhere to defend ourselves.”

Israel undecided on sending new team to hostage talks amid impasse

After optimism about the chances for a hostage deal ebbed this week, Israel is considering sending a team to Doha or Cairo for further talks, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.

“No decision has been made yet,” says the official.

A mid-level team returned from Doha last Tuesday.

Earlier, a Hamas official said the terror group was optimistic a deal could be reached.

Reported Israeli strike hits southern Lebanon

Lebanese media report an Israeli airstrike in the Iqlim al-Tuffah area, in the Nabatieh District of southern Lebanon.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF on the strike.

مشاهد للغارة "الإسـ ـرائـ ـيلية" التي استهدفت مرتفعات اقليم التفاح في جنوب لبنان#ملحق pic.twitter.com/819ojndhli

— Mulhak – ملحق (@Mulhak) January 2, 2025

FBI says New Orleans terrorist planted two homemade bombs

Security with bomb sniffing dogs patrol the area around the Superdome ahead of the Sugar Bowl NCAA College Football Playoff game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

New Orleans truck-ramming suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar also planted two homemade bombs on the streets of the bustling French Quarter, the FBI says.

“We did obtain surveillance footage showing Jabbar placing the devices where they were found,” FBI deputy assistant director Christopher Raia said of the bombs hidden in coolers, adding that they were left on Bourbon Street — the road that he later drove down — and another spot nearby.

Katz meets with ministers on efforts to destroy Hamas’s governing capacity in Gaza

Defense Minister Israel Katz leads a meeting of ministers and security officials in Tel Aviv on January 2, 2025 (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Israel Katz meets with a ministerial group for talks on how best to destroy Hamas’s governing capacity in Gaza.

The discussion was attended by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of National Missions Orit Struk, Minister Zeev Elkin, IDF chief Herzi Halevi, and other senior officials in the defense establishment.

The discussion presented all the actions taken so far to undermine Hamas’s rule in the Gaza Strip, and examined a variety of steps aimed at destroying Hamas’s governing abilities, damaging its infrastructure, and destroying its ability to continue conducting its military and civilian activities, a statement from Katz’s office says, adding that the forum will continue to meet regularly.

Berlin denounces Palestinian Authority’s suspension of Al Jazeera

Germany’s foreign ministry denounces the Palestinian Authority’s suspension of Qatar-based television network Al Jazeera’s broadcast.

“The Palestinian Authority’s ban on Al Jazeera’s work in the West Bank is deeply worrying,” it says in a post on X.

“Press freedom is a precious asset. Free reporting must also be guaranteed in conflict situations.”

The move has been condemned by press watchdogs and the UN human rights office.

Al Jazeera is already banned from broadcasting from Israel.

FBI says New Orleans attacker acted alone in an ‘act of terrorism’

A state trooper stands by New Orleans' Canal and Bourbon streets, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

The FBI now says that the pickup truck driver responsible for a deadly rampage in New Orleans acted alone and say it was definitely “an act of terrorism.”

Officials said yesterday that they were seeking additional potential suspects in an attack being investigated as an act of terrorism.

But Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, says today that the evidence now shows that Shamsud-Din Jabbar was solely responsible for the attack and had professed allegiance to the Islamic State.

“He was 100 percent inspired by ISIS,” he adds.

Netanyahu thanks public for support during hospitalization

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) enters the Knesset plenum on December 31, 2024, for a budgetary vote. His doctor Tzvi Berkovitz is at right. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

After leaving Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanks the public and the doctors who performed his prostate removal surgery.

“I would like to thank the many, many of you, citizens of Israel, for the prayers, encouragement, and support that have deeply moved me and my family,” he writes on X.

He thanks by name Hadassah Medical Center CEO Yoram Weiss and his staff; Shamir Assaf Harofeh Hospital doctors Ofer Gofrit, Mordechai Duvdevani, Stefan Ladot, Yuval Meroz, Ofer Amir, and Ehud Gansin; his personal physician Zvika Berkowitz; and “all the doctors, nurses, and medical staff who went above and beyond.”

“A huge thanks,” he concludes, adding a heart emoji.

UN Security Council to meet on IDF raid on north Gaza hospital

Ambulances transport wounded Palestinians from the Kamal Adwan Hospital to the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, on December 28, 202 (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

The UN Security Council will convene tomorrow for an emergency meeting to discuss Israel’s recent raid of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, the Israeli Mission to the UN says.

The session was requested by Algeria, which is the Arab representative on the council. There are not expected to be any practical implications from the meeting, though some members will likely try and push for a symbolic joint statement condemning Israel for the raid, which would likely be blocked by the United States.

Israel says it targeted the hospital after Hamas fighters once again began operating in and around the site. Critics of the Israeli operations have pointed to the scope of destruction it left behind and have demanded the release of the hospital’s director, who Israel claims is a terror suspect.

“Hamas cynically exploits civilian buildings for terrorist purposes and uses civilians as human shields. All of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip are in accordance with international law. We will continue to use all means necessary to protect the citizens of Israel. We will continue to fight until all the hostages are returned home,” says Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.

Musk urges release of British far-right figurehead

Elon Musk listens as US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington DC, November 13, 2024. (Allison Robbert/POOL/AFP)

Elon Musk calls for the release from prison of Tommy Robinson, one of Britain’s best known far-right agitators, in the US tech billionaire’s latest UK intervention.

In a flurry of messages on his X platform, Musk also renewed his criticism of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, highlighting that his time as chief state prosecutor in England and Wales coincided with the emergence of a child grooming scandal.

It comes after Musk, the world’s richest man and key ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, faced recent criticism over his support for Germany’s far-right AfD party.

Concerns have also emerged in Britain over claims that Musk is set to donate tens of millions of pounds to the upstart hard-right, anti-immigrant Reform UK party, led by Nigel Farage.

Why is Tommy Robinson in a solitary confinement prison for telling the truth?

He should be freed and those who covered up this travesty should take his place in that cell. https://t.co/Dn48JLoJgR

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 1, 2025

Sa’ar tours Syrian border, meets area UN peacekeeper commander

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar tours the Syrian border with UN officials on 02/05/2025 (Shlomi Amsalem/GPO)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar visits the Syrian border and meets with the commander of UN forces in the area.

At the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force base at Camp Zivant, Sa’ar meets with Maj. Gen. Patrick Gauchat, commander of UNDOF and the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, and with other senior officers of the force monitoring the border between Israel and Syria.

In a statement, Sa’ar says that he “heard praise there for the cooperation with Israel in general and with the IDF in particular.”

“We discussed the effective collaboration between the IDF and their forces,” says Sa’ar on X. “UNDOF forces were attacked by extremist armed groups in the buffer zone in violation of the Disengagement Agreement.”

He adds, “Israel is closely monitoring the situation in Syria, and will not jeopardize its own security. We will not allow another October 7 on any front.”

Netanyahu released from hospital four days after prostate surgery

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a vote at the Knesset after leaving the hospital following prostate removal surgery, December 31, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is discharged from the hospital, according to his office.

Netanyahu underwent prostate removal surgery on Sunday, then two days later left the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital to cast a decisive vote on a budget law to ensure the legislation was approved. He then returned to the medical center.

Netanyahu’s doctors state upon his release that his condition is stable and he is recovering satisfactorily from the surgery. He still faces a recovery period and medical follow-up.

Upon his discharge, Netanyahu expressed his deep gratitude to the specialists at Hadassah, the entire staff, the expert from Assaf Harofeh, and his personal physician, Dr. Zvika Berkowitz, who cared for him with dedication, the hospital says.

UN urges Palestinian Authority to reverse Al Jazeera suspension

An employee of the Qatar based news network and TV channel Al-Jazeera is seen at the channel's Jerusalem office on July 31, 2017. - The Palestinian Authority on January 1, 2025 ordered the suspension of broadcasts by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera across the Palestinian territories, accusing the network of airing "inciting content," official media reported. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

The United Nations urges the Palestinian Authority to “reverse course” after it suspended broadcasts by Qatar-based Al Jazeera and leveled allegations of incitement.

“We are deeply concerned by Palestinian Authority’s suspension of Al Jazeera operations and reporters in the West Bank amid troubling trend of suppressing freedom of opinion and expression” in the Palestinian territories, the UN human rights office says on X.

“We urge PA to reverse course and respect its international law obligations,” it says.

Shin Bet says no reason not to release details of Sara Netanyahu’s work for Jerusalem municipality

Sara Netanyahu, center, and her husband Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend a state ceremony marking the first Hebrew calendar anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, October 27, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg FLASH90)

The Shin Bet security service tells the Jerusalem District Court that there is no impediment to publicly disclosing details on the scope of work done by Sara Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, for the Jerusalem municipality.

The court is ruling on a freedom of information request submitted by an organization. The request covers the period when Netanyahu was head of the opposition in 2021 and 2022.

Lawyers for Sara Netanyahu, who works as an educational psychologist for the city, argued that as she was protected by the Shin Bet, these details could not be released.

Similar appeals in the past have forced the city to publish details on her employment.

Hamas expresses optimism over hostage talks as delegation travels to Qatar

Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk, center, attends the funeral of founding commander of the terror group's military wing Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut, Lebanon, January 4, 2024. (AP/Hussein Malla)

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk tells the Qatari daily al-Araby al-Jadeed “there is a good chance that negotiations will succeed this time.”

His comments come as a Hamas delegation was said to leave Cairo for Doha today to continue talks with mediators.

No Israeli delegation is expected to take part in talks in Qatar tomorrow.

The optimism from Hamas contradicts recent assessments in Israel that talks have ground to a halt over the terror group’s refusal to provide Israel with a list of living hostages to release.

Another Hamas official, Jihad Taha, tells the Qatari outlet that the Hamas delegation has met with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators in Cairo “in order to overcome the obstacles and conditions put recently by the Israeli side with the goal to continue the aggression against our people,” adding that “Hamas is dealing positively and openly with all the issues.”

Al-Araby al-Jadeed reports that talks in Cairo revolved around the possibility to postpone negotiations on some sticking points until after the first stage of a ceasefire. The paper claims that the proposal, to which Hamas has reportedly agreed, will be submitted to the Israeli side in an attempt to reach an agreement before US President-elect Donald Trump, takes office on January 20. But it is not clear when and where mediators will sit down with an Israeli delegation in the near future.

Dutch online archive releases names of 425,000 suspected WWII Nazi collaborators

Illustrative: Prisoners of the Dutch Labor Corps work in chain gang fashion under a Nazi foreman in a forced labor camp in the Netherlands, March 2, 1944, during World War II. (AP Photo)

A Dutch project called “War in Court” digitally releases a list of names of nearly half a million suspected wartime Nazi collaborators today after the expiry of a law that had restricted public access to the archive.

The archive, consisting of 32 million pages, includes about 425,000 mostly Dutch people who were investigated for collaboration with German occupiers during World War II. The law restricting public access expired on New Year’s Day.

Only a fifth of those listed ever appeared before a court, and most cases concerned lesser offenses such as being a member of the Nationalist Socialist movement.

Although the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) protects personal data, it does not apply to those who have died — the vast majority of those listed in the archive.

Initially, scanned files from the archive were set to be made available online today, giving users access to dossiers of suspects, which also includes their victims and witnesses.

However, following a warning from the Dutch Data Protection Authority, the decision was made last month to postpone the full release and instead publish only the list of names.

No date has been set for publication of those dossiers but people with a research interest – including descendants, journalists and historians – can make a request to consult them at the Dutch National Archives in The Hague.

Internal divisions continue to plague coalition regarding Haredi enlistment bill

A senior ultra-Orthodox coalition official reportedly rejects Defense Minister Israel Katz’s promise to pass a law that will draft thousands of Haredi men to the military.

Katz said today that he’ll advance legislation that will “be a historic turning point and will recruit tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox to meaningful service in the IDF, for the first time since the establishment of the state.”

According to the Ynet news site, a senior official in the Agudat Yisrael faction of the United Torah Judaism party said that even though political officials have said they agree to the quotas of people to be enlisted, the faction’s spiritual leaders — who determine how its lawmakers vote — will not agree to the law currently drafted.

“The law talks about a goal of 50% enlistment out of yeshiva students in each age group, and we can’t agree to such numbers,” the source is quoted as saying. “If needed, we won’t hesitate to clash with the state to defend the world of Torah.”

Ynet also reports that the bill will not come up for discussion next week at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, after committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) published an agenda that excludes such discussions sought by party colleague Katz. Edelstein has been demanding that the law be passed with broad agreement.

Likud has reportedly promised the Haredi parties to expedite the discussions on the legislation.

IDF says it struck Hamas command center in Khan Younis municipality building

The IDF says Air Force planes struck a command center operated by Hamas operatives inside the Khan Younis municipality building, within the designated humanitarian zone.

The command center was used to “plan and execute acts of terrorism against IDF forces and the State of Israel,” the army says.

The army says many steps were taken before the strike to mitigate harm to civilians including using precise munitions, aerial observations and other intelligence gathering.

“The Hamas terror group systematically violates international law, while viciously using the cover of civilian shelters, civilian buildings and the civilian population as a human shield while carrying out terror activities,” the IDF says.

6 said killed in Israeli strike on Hamas Interior Ministry HQ in Gaza’s Khan Younis

Six people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike at the Hamas-run Interior Ministry headquarters in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, medics tell Reuters.

Shin Bet, Courts Administration recommend Netanyahu keep testifying in underground courtroom

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives testimony in his trial on corruption charges in a courtroom of the Tel Aviv District Court, December 18, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The Shin Bet and the Israel Courts Administration recommend that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony in his corruption trial continue to be held in the secure, underground courtroom at the Tel Aviv District Court building.

Their recommendation comes following a Shin Bet assessment that the security circumstances — which required Netanyahu to testify in the secure room in the Tel Aviv court in the first place — have not changed.

Netanyahu is on trial in the Jerusalem District Court, but its courthouse does not have bomb shelters or alternative security arrangements in the event of a rocket or missile attack. The security services recommend Netanyahu give testimony in the underground courtroom in Tel Aviv due to the ongoing multifront war Israel is fighting.

“Should the evaluation of the situation relating to security arrangements change, the court will be updated, and appropriate instructions will be requested,” the Israel Courts Administration legal adviser tells the court.

Government secretary rebuffs AG, says Haredi draft bill will be evaluated by Knesset’s legal advisers

Government Secretary Yossi Fuchs criticizes Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s demand that legislation regulating the military enlistment of Haredi men be coordinated with her office.

“The Knesset and the [Foreign Affairs and Defense] Committee have excellent legal advice mechanisms, and they — not the Attorney General’s Office — will determine whether the law meets the necessary standards.”

AG: Haredi draft bill must include personal sanctions against dodgers, consider post-Oct. 7 reality

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara listens as she attends a cabinet meeting at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem on June 5, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool Photo via AP)

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara writes to Defense Minister Israel Katz, stating that a bill currently being drafted to regulate the enlistment of some ultra-Orthodox men to the military — while exempting many others — must include personal sanctions against draft dodgers and take into account the fundamentally changed reality since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, including the security threats and the needs of the manpower-strapped army.

Baharav-Miara says she has received information that the legislation is currently being drafted based on a bill that passed its first reading in 2022 and has been revived in the current Knesset, arguing that the current bill cannot resemble that draft.

She warns that past outlines and assumptions regarding the number and age of people to be recruited, the pace of the process, the length of the service, and the lack of personal sanctions, “are no longer relevant.”

Therefore, Baharav-Miara says, “it is required to set provisions that enable the imposition of personal sanctions on individuals.” Such sanctions are vehemently opposed by the Haredi political and religious leadership, which objects to members of the community serving in the army, fearing they will be secularized.

The attorney general warns that without the bill being sent to her office, “no proper procedure for legal advice can be done by anyone, including the defense establishment’s legal advice bodies.”

She contends that advancing the law without consulting her office “is another procedural fault” in addition to several other steps she contends were taken to circumvent her office.

In a landmark ruling in June, the High Court of Justice ruled unanimously that the government must draft ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students into the military since there is no longer any legal framework to continue the decades-long practice of granting them blanket exemptions from army service.

Legislation dealing with the issue of enlistment is currently stuck in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, whose chairman, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, has said that the needs of the IDF must come first and that the panel would only advance the legislation if lawmakers can reach a “broad consensus” on the matter.

The ultra-Orthodox coalition parties are demanding contentious legislation that broadly maintains the widescale exemption from IDF or other national service of ultra-Orthodox males. Netanyahu, whose governing majority depends on the support of the UTJ and Shas parties, has been seeking to meet their demand, in the face of bitter political and public opposition, especially given the unprecedented burden on the IDF, notably including reservists, more than 14 months into a multifront war.

Sam Sokol contributed to this report.

Israeli strike allegedly kills 8 Gazan members of forces securing aid convoys

An alleged Israeli strike has killed at least eight Palestinian men in the central Gaza Strip, according to officials in the Hamas-run territory.

The dead are members of local committees that help secure aid convoys, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital confirms the toll.

IDF says it killed head of Hamas’s internal security apparatus in southern Gaza

Palestinians walk amid scattered debris of tents on January 2, 2025, following an overnight Israeli strike on a makeshift displacement camp in al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip, that reportedly killed at least 11 people, including the chief of the Hamas police chief and his deputy. (Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP)

The Israeli Air Force conducted a strike overnight that killed the head of the Hamas terror group’s internal security apparatus in the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF says.

The army says Hussam Shahwan had been hiding among civilians in the humanitarian zone on the outskirts of Khan Younis.

Palestinian media described Shahwan as the deputy chief of Hamas’s police force. The reports, including in the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV station, said that the police chief Mahmoud Salah was also killed in the strike, in addition to nine others, including women and children.

The military, however, doesn’t mention Salah in its statement.

It says that under Shahwan, the Hamas internal security apparatus — tasked with generating intelligence against Israeli forces operating in Gaza — has conducted violent interrogations of Gazans, while violating their human rights and persecuting dissidents.

The army says many steps were taken ahead of the strike to mitigate harm to civilians, including using precise munitions, aerial observations and other intelligence gathering.

“The Hamas terror group systematically violates international law, while viciously using the cover of civilian shelters, civilian buildings and the civilian population as a human shield while carrying out terror activities,” the IDF says.

IDF intercepts rocket fired from Gaza toward Israeli community

The IDF has intercepted one projectile launched from the southern Gaza Strip toward Israel, the military says.

Incoming rocket sirens sounded in the Gaza-adjacent community of Holit amid the attack.

Levin: High Court ruling nixing some of Ben Gvir’s powers demonstrates need for judicial overhaul

Justice Minister Yariv Levin speaks at a Knesset session, December 4, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Justice Minister Yariv Levin lambastes the High Court of Justice’s decision to strike down a key provision of legislation granting the national security minister greater authority over the police, accusing the court, as he frequently does, of being a closed club that overrides the will of the Knesset.

Levin insists that the ruling demonstrates the need to pass legislation he has championed to give the government control over the judiciary.

“Many people understand that this cannot continue. That the time has come to restore authority to the sovereign — the people,” says Levin,  seeking to revive legislation granting the government control over the Judicial Selection Committee and thus over the judiciary itself.

“I hope that all parts of the coalition will act in accordance with the urgency of the current situation and finally allow the necessary changes to the process of choosing judges to be carried out,” says the justice minister in reference to that legislation.

Al Jazeera condemns Palestinian Authority’s decision to bar it from operating in West Bank

A picture shows a view of the Al Jazeera television network offices in Ramallah in the West Bank on May 5, 2024. (Zain JAAFAR / AFP)

Al Jazeera has condemned the Palestinian Authority’s decision to bar it from operating in the West Bank, saying the decision is “in line” with similar actions taken by Israel.

In a statement, the Qatar-based broadcaster accuses the Western-backed authority of seeking to “hide the truth about events in the occupied territories, especially what is happening in Jenin and its camps.”

The PA, which cooperates with Israel on security matters, launched a rare crackdown on Palestinian terror groups in the urban Jenin refugee camp last month.

The PA announced the suspension of Al Jazeera’s activities yesterday, accusing it of incitement and interfering in Palestinian internal affairs. The PA exercises limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank.

Israel banned Al Jazeera last year, accusing it of being a mouthpiece for the Hamas terror group amid the ongoing war. Israeli strikes have killed or wounded several Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza, and Israel has accused some of them of being terror operatives. Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera’s West Bank headquarters last year, but the broadcaster has continued to operate in the territory.

Al Jazeera denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its coverage.

Ben Gvir slams High Court ruling: ‘Strips the minister of his authorities’

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir denounces the High Court of Justice’s decision to strike down a key part of a law that granted the minister increased authority over police investigations, saying the court has “once again turned itself into the sovereign and tramples the will of the voter.”

“The grave decision by the High Court to neuter the Police Ordinance is designed to strip the minister of his authorities and to try and grant the State Attorney’s Office and the attorney general authority over the police,” he argues. “In a democratic state, the one who determines policies for the police is the minister in charge over the force, but this of course does not interest the High Court.”

High Court okays most of Ben Gvir law, but nixes the part giving him control over investigations policy

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir attends a ceremony for the incoming police commissioner at the National Security Ministry in Jerusalem, August 25, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The High Court of Justice rules to strike down a key component of a highly controversial law passed at the behest of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir granting the minister the power to delineate “general principles” regarding police investigations, including “the determination of fundamental priorities” for police investigations.

The court upholds, however, other aspects of the law handing the minister power to “delineate the policies of the police and the general principles of its operation,” including “priorities, work programs, and general guidelines.”

The decision to uphold the clauses of the law granting the minister more general authority was taken unanimously.

The decision to strike down the clause regarding authority over police investigations policy was made by a majority of five justices to four.

The decision is the latest in a series of rulings by the judiciary against the hard-right government, which coupled with the coalition push to overhaul the justice system has generated a slow-burning constitutional crisis between the two branches of government.

Petitioners against the law, including the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, argued in their petitions and in court that the law gave the minister excessive authority over police work and would politicize the police force, endangering democratic rights.

The petitioners objected to clauses in the law allowing the national security minister to “delineate the policies of the police and the general principles of its operation,” including “priorities, work programs, and general guidelines,” arguing that it allowed the minister to intervene in sensitive policing decisions, which could harm constitutional rights such as freedom of protest and freedom of expression.

ACRI and the Movement for Quality Government also strongly objected to a second controversial clause in the law allowing the national security minister to “delineate general principles in the field of investigations, including determining principle priorities.”

The petitioners argued that these powers in the minister’s hands could politicize law enforcement and undermined the independence of the police, and would therefore severely harm democratic principles.

In addition, they contended that the law put the minister in an institutional conflict of interest, since he would then be in charge of determining policy regarding investigating corruption and wrongdoing by public officials.

Netanyahu still recovering from surgery at hospital

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a vote at the Knesset after leaving the hospital following prostate removal surgery, December 31, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still recovering from his prostate removal surgery at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital, a source familiar with the matter says.

The premier left his hospital bed on Tuesday, two days after the operation, against the advice of his doctors, to cast a decisive vote on a budget law to ensure the legislation was approved. He then returned to the medical center.

It is unknown whether Netanyahu will be released from the hospital today.

Petah Tikva resident indicted for spying for Iran, sending footage of sensitive sites

This image released by police on December 30, 2024, shows a car allegedly set on fire by Alexander Granovsky, a civilian recruited by 'foreign elements.' The graffiti on the car reads 'Children of Ruhollah.' (Israel Police)

An Israeli resident of the central city of Petah Tikva has been indicted at the Central District Court for carrying out missions on behalf of Iran that harmed national security, prosecutors say.

Days after the Shin Bet and police revealed the arrest of Alexander Granovsky, 29, he is charged with being in contact with a foreign agent, handing information to the enemy, and additional vandalism and arson offenses. Prosecutors ask the court to extend his remand until the end of proceedings in the case.

According to the indictment, Granovsky has been in continuous contact with an Iranian agent since November, receiving thousands of dollars and carrying out “a series of severe acts, including filming security facilities, spray-painting political messages, torching cars and additional acts.”

It says that in December, Granovsky was asked to purchase weapons and filmed the neighborhood where former defense minister Benny Gantz lives, as well as power plants in Hadera and Tel Aviv, sending the Iranian agent the footage.

He was also allegedly asked to buy and then destroy army uniform, and to find people with criminal pasts to carry out “acts of violence.” He sent contact details for two such people. The indictment says he also agreed to make Molotov cocktails but failed due to language barriers.

Granovsky was allegedly aware he was cooperating with a hostile element, and even brought up more potential tasks and demanded that the agent give him more — and bigger — missions.

There has been a series of plots involving civilians apparently recruited by Iran that security agencies say have been foiled in recent months.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.

Israeli-Hungarian Agnes Keleti, one of the greatest Jewish athletes in history, dies at 103

Agnes Keleti, former Olympic gold medal winning gymnast, poses for a photo with two of her Olympic medals at her apartment in Budapest, Hungary on January 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Laszlo Balogh)

Agnes Keleti, considered one of the best Jewish athletes ever, has died at age 103, Hungarian media reports.

She had been the oldest living Olympic champion — having won 10 medals in gymnastics — and would have turned 104 next Thursday.

The Holocaust survivor had Hungarian and Israeli citizenship. She continued to perform full leg splits well into her 90s.

Keleti, who was born Agnes Klein in 1921, had her illustrious career interrupted by World War II and the subsequent cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympics.

Forced off her gymnastics team in 1941 because of her Jewish ancestry, Keleti went into hiding in the Hungarian countryside where she survived the Holocaust by assuming a false identity and working as a maid.

Her mother and sister survived the war with the help of famed Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, but her father and other relatives perished at Auschwitz, among the more than half a million Hungarian Jews killed in Nazi death camps and by Hungarian Nazi collaborators.

Resuming her career after the war, Keleti was set to compete at the 1948 London Olympics but a last-minute ankle injury dashed her hopes. Four years later, she made her Olympic debut at the 1952 Helsinki Games at the age of 31, winning a gold medal in the floor exercise as well as a silver and two bronzes.

Keleti was awarded the Israel Prize in 2017 — considered the country’s highest cultural honor — and is the recipient of numerous other prestigious awards, including being named one of Hungary’s “Athletes of the Nation” in 2004.

AP contributed to this report.

Senior cop arrested again for allegedly ignoring Jewish attacks in West Bank to win Ben Gvir’s favor

Head of the Judea and Samaria Police District investigations and intelligence department Commander Avishai Muallem (center) arrives for a hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, December 5, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

A senior police officer who is already under investigation for bribery and other offenses relating to his alleged refusal to investigate Jewish nationalist crimes in the West Bank is arrested again on suspicion of obstructing the investigation against him and abusing his authority.

The Department for Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) says that Police Commander Avishai Muallem, the head of the Judea and Samaria Police District’s investigations and intelligence department, was arrested because, after he had already been suspended from his position, Muallem requested that his department “remove materials from the police systems and transfer them to him.”

Muallem was arrested by DIPI agents and will be brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court at noon for a hearing, where the department will request he be released under restrictive conditions.

Muallem was arrested over the original allegations in early December and detained for four days, before being released to house arrest.

The investigation against Muallem revolves around the suspicion that his department conducted sham investigations into acts of Jewish nationalistic crimes in the West Bank, merely to give the appearance that probes were being conducted without actually bringing perpetrators to account, in order to please far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

IDF says number of troop suicides has risen during war, with hundreds of thousands in reserves

Inside an IDF forward operating base in the Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip, December 26, 2024. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

The IDF says it has seen a rise in the number of suspected suicides in the military amid the war, as it releases statistics of its fatalities from the past two years.

According to the IDF’s data, 38 soldiers are believed to have taken their own lives in 2023 and 2024 — 28 of them after the October 7, 2023, onslaught that started the ongoing war. In 2022, the IDF recorded 14 suicides and in 2021 it recorded 11.

Unsurprisingly due to war in the Gaza Strip and fighting in Lebanon and on other fronts, the number of deaths in the IDF in 2023 and 2024 has been the highest in decades.

According to the IDF, 558 soldiers were killed in 2023, including 512 during “operational activity” — apparently including the hundreds who were killed during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught — and three in terror attacks.

Sixteen soldiers died in accidents — two in training, four in civilian car crashes, five in military car crashes, one as a result of an accidental weapon discharge, and four in other incidents — and 10 died from illness in 2023.

In 2023, the IDF says that 17 soldiers were believed to have taken their own lives. They include seven conscripts, four career soldiers, and six reservists. Seven of the suspected suicides in 2023 were after the October 7 onslaught.

During the past year, the total number of fatalities in the IDF has decreased compared to 2023, but the number of suicides has risen, according to the IDF’s data.

In 2024, the IDF recorded a total of 363 deaths in the military, including 295 in operational activity amid the war and 11 in terror attacks.

Twenty-three soldiers died in accidents — 17 in civilian car crashes, three in military car crashes, and three in other incidents — and 13 died by illness in 2024.

In 2024, the IDF says at least 21 soldiers died by suspected suicide — including seven conscripts, two career soldiers, and 12 reservists.

The high number of reservist suicides is explained by the IDF calling up nearly 300,000 reservists during the war.

All of the 38 suspected suicides in 2023 and 2024 were male.

The IDF says it is working to prevent suicides in the military, including by opening a 24/7 helpline, which has received over 3,900 calls since it was established in October 2023. The IDF has also called up over 800 reservist mental health officers amid the war.

Since the beginning of the war, the IDF says 891 soldiers have died, not all of them in combat. They include 329 during the October 7 onslaught, at least 390 during fighting in Gaza, 37 in attacks on northern Israel, 50 during fighting inside Lebanon, and 11 in the West Bank.

Katz rejects predecessor Gallant’s ‘cynical’ criticism of Haredi draft bill

Incoming Defense Minister Israel Katz (L) embraces Yoav Gallant at a handover ceremony in the Defense Ministry after Gallant was fired from the post, November 8, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Israel Katz rejects accusations by his predecessor Yoav Gallant that a law Katz and the coalition are advancing regarding the enlistment of Haredi men to the military exempts too many of them from service and doesn’t meet the IDF’s needs during a multifront war.

Announcing his resignation from the Knesset last night, Gallant said his opposition to that law was the reason he was fired as defense minister.

“There should be no cynical political use of an ethical issue such as enlistment to the IDF,” Katz claims in a statement, without directly mentioning Gallant.

“When it is completed, the new enlistment law will be a historic turning point and will recruit tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox to meaningful service in the IDF, for the first time since the establishment of the state — in contrast with the recently employed policy, which failed and caused a decline in the number of Haredim serving in the IDF.”

In the months before he was fired, Gallant issued thousands of enlistment summonses to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to comply with a High Court ruling saying the community’s decades-long blanket exemption no longer had any legal basis.

Gallant’s resignation makes it easier for Netanyahu to pass Haredi draft law, opposition MK laments

Former defense minister Yoav Gallant announces his resignation from the Knesset, in a speech on January 1, 2025. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

MK Matan Kahana, of Benny Gantz’s centrist opposition party National Unity, criticizes former defense minister Yoav Gallant’s resignation from the Knesset, pointing out that this will make it easier for the coalition to pass a law enshrining exemptions from military draft for ultra-Orthoox men.

Gallant cited his objection to that law in his press conference last night explaining his resignation, saying he is unwilling to lend a hand to such a law during a multifront war when the IDF needs all the manpower it can get. He resigned from the Knesset and vowed to remain in the ruling Likud party, indicating a potential future primaries run.

But Kahana, speaking to Army Radio, notes that his resignation means he will be replaced with a new lawmaker — likely Abed Afif, a representative of the Druze minority — who will be aligned with the coalition, essentially boosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s standing amid multiple recent coalition crises.

“This is an act that will make it easier for Netanyahu to advance the exemptions law,” Kahana laments. “There is no doubt he could have spearheaded the struggle against the law [as an MK] — nobody knows better than him how much the IDF needs fighters right now.”

At least 10 said hurt in shooting outside NYC nightclub; police say not terror

At least 10 people have been injured in a shooting outside the Amazura nightclub in the Queens borough of New York, US media outlets report, citing police.

None of the casualties are in life-threatening condition, the New York Post reports citing the NYPD.

Police rule out the possibility of a terrorist attack.

Reports: Strike on Gaza humanitarian zone killed Hamas police chief and his deputy

Palestinian and Arab media, including the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV, is reporting that the terror group’s chief of police in Gaza was killed in an alleged Israeli strike on the humanitarian zone that medics in the Hamas-ruled enclave claim killed 11 people.

Mahmoud Salah’s tent in the Mawasi area was reportedly targeted in the strike, along with his deputy Hussam Shahwan.

The medics earlier claimed the dead also include women and children.

Top IDF lawyer says troops not adequately accounting for civilians before Gaza strikes

Palestinian children inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli strike the previous night, in Jabalia, in the central Gaza Strip on January 1, 202. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi penned a letter to the head of the IDF Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman stating that the army has not adequately assessed the size of the civilian population in the areas where it has operated throughout the Gaza Strip, Army Radio reports.

Tomer-Yerushalmi points to the IDF’s recent assessment that 3,000 civilians remained in the area of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, when the actual number was 14,000.

The incorrect IDF assessment has hampered the IDF’s ability to assess the scope of collateral damage in strikes on terror targets, she says. It has also led to far less aid than needed being allowed into the area by the IDF.

Army Radio reports that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi ordered an internal probe into the matter following receipt of the letter.

The probe found that IDF strikes did not end up leading to an excess in civilian casualties and that enough aid has entered Beit Lahiya.

Nonetheless, Halevi directed that an external panel look into the matter, ostensibly recognizing that Tomer-Yerushalmi had in fact exposed problems in the IDF’s conduct.

IDF strike kills at least 10 in southern Gaza humanitarian zone, medics say

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 Palestinians in a tent encampment sheltering displaced families in the southern Gaza Strip early on Thursday, medics in the Hamas-ruled territory say.

The 10 people, including women and children, were killed in a tent in the area of Al-Mawasi, designated as a humanitarian area in western Khan Younis, according to the medics. Fifteen people were also wounded, the medics add.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF, which has long insisted that it does not target civilians, while Hamas hides and fights among them.

Biden says investigators looking for links between New Orleans attack, Las Vegas incident

U.S. President Joe Biden says law enforcement is investigating whether there are any links between a New Orleans truck attack that killed 15 people and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel Las Vegas.

“We’re tracking the explosion of a Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas,” Biden says. “Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there’s any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans.”

Biden adds that the suspect posted videos “indicating that he was inspired by ISIS” hours before the attack.

“The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before the attack he posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS,” Biden says of suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar.

Suspect who shot dead 10 in Montenegro kills himself — authorities

A gunman who killed at least 10 people in a rampage in a small town in Montenegro died from self-inflicted injuries on Thursday after attempting suicide, the country’s interior minister, Danilo Saranovic, says.

The gunman, identified by police as Aleksandar Martinovic, 45, attempted suicide near his home in the town of Cetinje after being cornered by police.

“When he saw that he was in a hopeless situation, he attempted suicide. He did not succumb to his injuries on the spot, but during the transport to the hospital,” Saranovic tells Montenegro’s state broadcaster, RTCG.

Saranovic provides no details on the attempted suicide.

Martinovic was on the run after opening fire on Wednesday afternoon at a restaurant in Cetinje, a small town located 38 km (23.6 miles) west of Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, where he killed four people.

The shooter then moved on to three other locations, killing at least six more people, including two children, police said. Four other people suffered life-threatening injuries.

Police say Martinovic had a history of illegal weapons possession.

Late on Wednesday, police director Lazar Scepanovic said the suspect was thought to have been drinking heavily before the shooting. Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said there had been a brawl before shots were fired.

Police say the shooting was not thought to be connected to organized crime.

Death toll rises to 15 in New Orleans truck-ramming attack

At least 15 people have died in a truck-ramming attack in the US city of New Orleans, the FBI says, lifting the earlier toll of 10 killed during New Year celebrations.

An FBI official confirms the toll citing figures from the coroner’s office when contacted by AFP by telephone.