Live updates (closed)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Saturday’s events as they happened.
Zelensky calls Trump’s claims he can quickly stop the war with Russia ‘very dangerous’
In this photo from September 25, 2019, US President Donald Trump, left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. (Saul Loeb/AFP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is worried at the prospect of Donald Trump returning to the White House, branding Trump’s claim that he could stop Ukraine’s war with Russia in 24 hours as “very dangerous.”
In an interview with the UK’s Channel 4 News that aired Friday, the Ukrainian leader says: “[Trump] is going to make decisions on his own, without… I’m not even talking about Russia, but without both sides, without us. If he says this publicly, that’s a little scary. I’ve seen a lot, a lot of victims, but that’s really making me a bit stressed.”
He adds: “Because even if his idea [for ending the war] — that no one has heard yet — doesn’t work for us, for our people, he will do anything to implement his idea anyway. And this worries me a little.”
Zelensky invites the former US president and front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination to visit Kyiv, but only if Trump delivers on his promise.
“Donald Trump, I invite you to Ukraine, to Kyiv. If you can stop the war during 24 hours, I think it will be enough to come,” Zelensky says.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung does not respond to a message seeking comment.
Freed hostage recounts time in captivity with Yossi Sharabi: ‘He always tried to care for us’
Freed hostage Amit Shani, 16, speaks to Channel 12 about his time in Hamas captivity with Ofir Engel, 18, who was freed in late November, and Yossi Sharabi, whose death was announced in mid-January 2024. (Screen capture/ Channel 12, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Former hostage Amit Shani, 16, recalled his time in Hamas captivity in Gaza for more than 50 days, with his Kibbutz Be’eri neighbor Yossi Sharabi, whose death was announced this week, and with 18-year-old Ofir Engel.
Engel, from Jerusalem, was visiting his girlfriend Yuval Sharabi on October 7, and was taken together with Yossi Sharabi and Eli Sharabi, Yuval’s father, who remains in Hamas captivity, as well as Shani, whose family lives next door to the Sharabis.
Speaking to Channel 12 in an interview tonight, Shani says Sharabi “paid a price he didn’t deserve — he was abducted, held for over 100 days, and in the end he was murdered there.”
“It was a comfort that he was there… he always tried to care for us,” says Shani, in reference to himself and to Engel.
“Things felt safer for us with him there,” says Shani, who turned 16 while in captivity.
The remaining hostages in Gaza “don’t deserve any of this, they were abandoned once” in that their abduction took place, “and now they are being abandoned again, for over 100 days. Some are being killed there,” he says.
“This is the most urgent matter that needs to be addressed as quickly as possible,” he says.
On his time as a hostage with Engel and Sharabi, Shani says the three stayed together and “tried to encourage each other” to hold on, “to tell each other it would be ok.”
He says that when he realized they weren’t going to be killed for now, “I sort of calmed down because I thought a deal [to secure their release] would only take a few days.”
Yossi (left) and Eli Sharabi, brothers who were taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 (Courtesy)
But the weeks dragged on. At first, he says, Sharabi convinced their captors to supply them with a radio but it was taken away when Israel launched a ground offensive in Gaza in late October.
The trio was held in an apartment, he says, until he and Engel were freed in late November in a Qatar-brokered truce deal.
They were not able to say farewell to Sharabi, he recalls.
Pro-Palestinian students heckle Palestinian envoy at London university
A group of pro-Palestinian students at SOAS University of London are filmed verbally harassing the Palestinian ambassador to the UK who was invited to speak at an event on campus.
“You have blood on your hands! You’re a PA collaborator… Shame on you!” a student from the Palestine Society at SOAS University in London is heard yelling at Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot.
The Palestine Society also posted a statement condemning Zomlot’s invitation due to the Palestinian Authority’s “collaborating with the Zionist entity” on the Oslo Accords.
Zomlot is an ambassador representing the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is largely controlled by the PA.
The incident highlights the relative extremism of many pro-Palestinian students on campuses abroad compared to the political representatives on the ground.
Members of the Palestine Society at London’s SOAS university confronted Palestinian ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot at the university. The students say the senior diplomat represents the Palestinian Authority (PA) which is “complicit in Zionist aggression in Palestine.” pic.twitter.com/yY7l7182He
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) January 19, 2024
IDF hits Hezbollah sites in south Lebanon in response to earlier attacks
The IDF says it struck additional Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon today in response to attacks on northern Israel.
The sites hit fighter jets in southern Lebanon’s Odaisseh and Houla included rocket launch positions and other infrastructure used by the terror group, the IDF says.
The IDF says one projectile was also fired from Lebanon at the Mount Dov area earlier, landing in an open area.
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו מוקדם יותר היום תשתית טרור ועמדת שיגור של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחבים אל עדייסא וחולא שבדרום לבנון.
בנוסף, זוהה מוקדם יותר היום שיגור אחד שחצה משטח לבנון לעבר מרחב הר דב שנפל בשטח פתוח pic.twitter.com/ZjysvI80dc
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 20, 2024
US ‘devastated’ over death of Palestinian-American teen in West Bank Friday
The US says it is “devastated” over the killing of a Palestinian-American teen yesterday in a reported clash with security forces in the West Bank.
“We call for an urgent investigation to determine the circumstances of his death,” the US Office for Palestinian Affairs says in a tweet.
The 17-year-old, Tawfiq Hafiz Ajaq, was according to reports hit in the head with live ammunition during a Friday evening incident in the West Bank town of Al-Mazra’a Al-Sharqiya, which according to Reuters included stone-throwing.
WAFA reported that Ajaq sustained critical injuries before being pronounced dead at the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah.
Jabbar was reportedly shot in an incident in which an off-duty policeman, a soldier and a civilian opened fire in circumstances under investigation.
According to AP, there was a pledge from Israeli authorities to investigate.
Relatives carry the body of 17-year-old American Tawfiq Ajaq at his funeral in his family’s Palestinian home village in Al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya, West Bank, Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024. (AP/Nasser Nasser)
Ajaq was born and raised in Gretna, Louisiana, near New Orleans, relatives said. His parents brought him and his four siblings to the village of Al-Mazra’a Ash-Sharqiya in the West Bank last year so they could reconnect with Palestinian culture.
The teen was buried on Saturday.
During the funeral, Ajaq’s father criticized the long-standing US support for Israel. “They are using our tax dollars in the US to support the weapons to kill our own children,” he charged.
Anti-government protest in Tel Aviv begins winding down
Anti-government demonstrators protest on both sides of Tel Aviv's Kaplan Street on January 20, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
Anti-government protesters are demonstrating on both sides of Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, though their numbers are thinning out.
A few passersby have shouted down the demonstrators, but most of the cars driving down Kaplan are honking in sync with the protesters’ chants, calling for the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Dani Danieli, who traveled from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv for tonight’s protest, said he prefers demonstrations in Tel Aviv to the “very pareve” Jerusalem protests.
“I prefer to be here because here they really shout, and signal to the right thing, in my opinion. In Jerusalem they say general things, and it’s not for me,” he says.
Anti-government protesters cut through rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv
Anti-government protesters cut through a rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, the latter organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
The anti-government demonstrators are calling on those at the hostages event to join them.
“Come join the march, from Shaul HaMelech to the direction of Begin! If you want to do everything for the sake of the hostages, come join the march!” shouted one of the protesters with a megaphone.
One man from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum protest interrupts: “Kudos to you my friend but you’re disturbing the others here.”
The interaction devolves into a brief argument between the two protests.
The remaining anti-government protesters are currently marching down Kaplan Street.
‘America stands with you,’ US rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz tells Tel Aviv rally in filmed message
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the representative for Florida’s 25th congressional district, tells the families of more than 130 hostages held in Gaza that she is praying and working for their release.
In a filmed message played on a giant screen on Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, Wasserman Schultz says: “I’m praying for the release of your loved ones. Know that America stands with you. I’m working in Congress, at home and abroad, to do all I can to bring them home now.”
“And to the women who were subjected to unimaginable violation on October 7: I stand with you, believe you, and will fight for you,” says Wasserman Schultz, a Jewish Democrat. “Am Israel Chai,” she adds, Hebrew for “the People of Israel lives.”
IDF finds tunnel under Hamas commander’s home in Khan Younis where about 20 hostages had been held
This combination image shows drawings made by a 5-year-old hostage held in Gaza and found in a tunnel in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, on the left, and an area where hostages were held in the tunnel, in images released by the IDF on January 20, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF releases images showing the inside of a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, in which Israeli hostages were previously held by Hamas.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says in an evening press conference that an entrance to the tunnel was found in the home of a Hamas commander.
He says troops battled Hamas gunmen inside the tunnel, killing them. The tunnel contained explosive devices and blast doors, he says.
Hagari says that one kilometer in and about 20 meters below ground, the soldiers found a large room where hostages had been previously held.
Some hostages held there have already been released, he says, noting that the soldiers found drawings made by five-year-old Emilia Aloni, who was released in November.
This image released by the IDF on January 20, 2024, shows the inside of a Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis where hostages were held. (Israel Defense Forces)
The area had five holding cells, each with a mattress and a toilet, he says.
According to Hagari, some 20 hostages were held in the tunnel at different times.
“According to the information we have, in this tunnel 20 hostages were held, at different times, in difficult conditions without daylight, with dense air, little oxygen, and terrible humidity which makes it hard to breathe,” Hagari says.
“Some were released some 50 days ago, and others are held in Gaza, possibly in even worse conditions,” he adds.
Netanyahu, Regev dismiss TV report that they pre-planned assault on Halevi in cabinet meeting
File: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) and Transportation Minister Miri Regev at the Knesset on February 20, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The offices of both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Transportation Minister Miri Regev deny a report on tonight’s Channel 12 news that suggested Netanyahu primed Regev to lead a verbal assault on IDF Chief Herzi Halevi at a security cabinet meeting two weeks ago, and congratulated her afterward for doing so.
The meeting in question took place on January 4. Intended to focus on planning for the “day after” the war in Gaza, it descended into a fracas and Netanyahu cut it short after several right-wing ministers angrily confronted Halevi for setting up an internal investigation into the army’s handling of the October 7 Hamas attacks and their aftermath.
According to the TV report, an unnamed participant in the meeting, heading to the parking lot at the Defense Ministry headquarters after the meeting, overhead Netanyahu telling Likud colleague Regev, “Well done, Miri, you did good work.”
This participant reported the incident to his superior, and this in turn created a sense among defense officials that the incident had been pre-planned to undermine Halevi. (Some analysts have suggested the incident related to efforts by political leaders to place maximal blame for October 7’s failures on the military, and/or to ministers’ discomfort that the IDF is starting a probe of its own performance while Netanyahu is staving off wider investigations until after the war.)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi at a security assessment at the military’s Northern Command, December 7, 2023. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
The Prime Minister’s Office, in a statement, says the report is untrue, that Netanyahu does not tell ministers what to say at cabinet meetings, and that he did not speak to Regev before or after that meeting.
Regev’s office also says the report is untrue. It says ministers only heard about Halevi’s internal investigation in the course of the meeting, and hence asked him questions about it.
In a TV interview on Thursday, war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot expressed deep dismay about what he called the “ambush” of Halevi at that meeting. “I was pretty shocked by that show — it looked like an ambush, not spontaneous,” said Eisenkot. “It was very disrespectful, to put it mildly.”
Speaking at rally, mother of hostage says she didn’t recognize daughter in photo from captivity
Life feels like death for Shira Albag, she tells thousands of people on Tel Aviv Hostages Square tonight.
Thoughts of her daughter Liri Albag, 18, who is held hostage in Gaza, “never leave me.”
“I wake up alive and I got to sleep feeling dead,” says Shira.
Two weeks ago, she says at the 15th weekly really for the release of more than 130 people presumed to be held hostage in Gaza, images of Liri and three other women in captivity emerged.
“It took me a while to recognize her, to understand that that girl in the blue sweatshirt is my daughter,” says Shira of her 18-year-old daughter.
“If I’m having it tough, how tough is she having it? She cries out to me, I can hear her calling for help, with no one to protect her and hug her. But there are those who can save her, and we can make it happen,” says Shira Albag, referencing the government and pressure for it to make deal for the release of the hostages.
Hezbollah member killed in earlier Israeli strike on south Lebanon, security sources say
An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed a member of Hezbollah and one other Lebanese national, two security sources in Lebanon tells Reuters, after earlier saying two members of Hamas were killed.
Israel has been carrying out airstrikes on southern Lebanon against Palestinian terror groups based there as well as their Lebanese ally Hezbollah, a powerful armed group also backed by Iran, which have fired rockets across the border at Israel.
Hezbollah named the member who was killed as Ali Haderaj, a resident of the village in the areas east of Tyre.
Public broadcaster Kan reports that Haderaj served as a coordinator between Hezbollah and Hamas in Lebanon on matters of electronic warfare and air defenses.
‘136 coffins are not what victory looks like,’ relative of hostage in Gaza says at Caesarea protest
Speaking near the private residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea, Mor Shoham says that “136 coffins are not an image of victory.”
Shoham, whose brother Tal was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7 from Kibbutz Be’eri, is speaking at a rally that is occurring simultaneously with the weekly rally in Tel Aviv for the return of 136 people believed to be held hostages in Gaza, 132 of then taken on October 7.
Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
“As we stand here, women are being abused, all hostages are without food and daylight. I want to ask the war cabinet: What are you waiting for? We demand to know your plan,” says Mor Shoham.
Chen Goldstein-Almog, who was abducted to Gaza on October from Kibbutz Kfar Aza 7 and was returned with her children during a weeklong ceasefire and prisoner swap in late November, speaks about the plight of women in captivity.
They are “injured emotionally and physically,” says Goldstein-Almog at the Tel Aviv rally. “I keep asking myself whether we’re doing enough to bring them back,” she says. Hamas is believed to be holding 14 female hostages.
Goldstein-Almog’s husband and eldest daughter, Yam, 20, were murdered on October 7.
Hagit Pe’er, the head of the Na’amat women’s rights groups, calls for an agreement with Hamas and condemns international women’s groups for not speaking up against acts of rape and sexual violence against women by Hamas terrorists on October 7, and possibly after.
“It’s me too, unless you’re a Jew,” says Pe’er.
‘Set a date for elections now,’ demand protesters in Jerusalem
Avner Vilan, a former Defense Ministry official who is now the CEO of a startup, at a Jerusalem rally against the government, calling for new elections, January 20, 2024. (Jessica Steinberg/The Times of Israel)
Hundreds gather outside the President’s Residence in Jerusalem for a protest organized by the Safeguarding Our Shared Home group, calling for new elections.
It’s been several weeks that the group, which organized last year’s weekly anti-judicial overhaul protests, has been calling for new elections.
The first speaker is Sigalit Tchernihovsky, whose son, Or Tchernihovsky, was killed at the Supernova desert rave on October 7.
“I’m asking for wiser agreements, for unified thinking,” says Tchernihovsky, who stops several times to swallow tears as she describes 29-year-old “Oriki,” who was “full of light” like his name.
“We want a different kind of leadership,” she demands.
The second and final speaker is Avner Vilan, a former Defense Ministry official who is now the CEO of a startup.
Vilan tells the crowd that he knows it feels unnatural to protest with soldiers on the borders, with hostages still held captive in Gaza, with evacuees not in their homes.
“People told you it’s not fitting to come protest tonight, during a war,” says Vilan. “The problem is, no one will say when the war will be over. The government is running the war as if it’s a TikTok story. How can the IDF win if they have no idea what the plan is for after the war?”
This government can’t do what’s needed, says Vilan. He points out what war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot said about the government during a recent television interview, when he said that the “absolute defeat” of Hamas is a tall tale.
“Our demand is simple,” says Vilan. “Set a date for elections now.”
The crowd claps and begins calling “Achshav! (Now).”
At the end of the protest, people gather with Israeli flags, some tied with yellow ribbons, to march to nearby Paris Square for a separate gathering calling for the release of the hostages.
Iran president says strike in Syria that killed 5 Revolutionary Guard officers won’t go ‘unanswered’
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi vowed to punish Israel for a strike on Saturday that killed five Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Syria, state media says.
“The Islamic Republic will not leave the Zionist regime’s crimes unanswered,” Raisi said in a statement condemning the strike, state broadcaster IRIB says.
Matisyahu performs at weekly rally in Tel Aviv for return of hostages
Jewish-American rapper Matisyahu performs at the weekly Tel Aviv rally to release the hostages, January 20, 2024. (Screen capture, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
The Jewish-American rapper Matisyahu kicks off the main weekly rally for the return of the hostages in Tel Aviv.
“You’ll have my voice and all I’ll be thinking is the return of the hostages,” Matisyahu, whose real name is Matthew Paul Miller, tells the thousands of people gathered at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Saturday night.
He performs a song about antisemitism featuring multiple allusions to the Holocaust followed by his well-known hit “One Day.”
This week’s rally, the 15th since October 7, is split between Tel Aviv and Caesarea, near the private residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where a number of relatives of hostages in Gaza camped out Friday night for the first time to pressure the government to do more to bring home the hostages who remain in Gaza.
The rallies, organized by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, feature speakers who demand an end to the fighting in Gaza and an exchange with Hamas for the hostages’ return. Hamas reportedly is demanding a ceasefire as a precondition for any deal.
The rally in Tel Aviv broadcasts the protest in Caesarea, where people shouting are heard shouting into megaphones “Deal, right now!”
Cousin of hostage Ofer Calderon calls on government to ‘stop the fighting, pay the price’ for the hostages
Yifat Calderon, the cousin of Ofer Calderon, one of the 132 people still held in Gaza after being seized on October 7, speaks to the crowd at Habima Square in Tel Aviv and calls on the government to “stop the fighting, to pay the price” for the hostages.
“Now is the time to use all our power to save the civilians who are going through hell, and it is only by chance that they are not you,” she says to a crowd, and is met with shouts calling for new elections.
Many members of the crowd are leaving Habima now, some heading to the ongoing rally at Hostages Square organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Smotrich claims ‘broad consensus’ in Israel against Palestinian state, calls on US to ‘wise up’
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says there’s a “broad consensus” in Israel against the establishment of a Palestinian state, and that such a state would be “a push for the next massacre.”
In a post on X, the far-right minister says “Israel’s friends should understand that the push for the establishment of a Palestinian state is a push for the next massacre, God forbid, and [poses] a threat to the existence of the State of Israel.”
The White House, he says, must “wise up on the concepts that led to [this] national disaster in Israel.”
Anti-government protest demanding release of hostages kicks off in Tel Aviv
Anti-government demonstrators gather at Habima Square in Tel Aviv on January 20, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
An anti-government protest spotlighting the speeches from family members of hostages is underway in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square.
Before any speakers came up to the stage, a parody of “The Sound of Silence” calling for the resignation of Israel’s current government played for demonstrators on the giant screen facing the crowd.
The demonstration’s first speaker, Shirel Hogeg, tells the audience that they “are the generation of victory” and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “playing politics with medicine for the hostages,” alluding to reports that he hid the details of the Qatar-brokered deal to deliver medications to hostages in Gaza from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
A small altercation at the center of the protest, involving a counter-protester who fell on the ground and shouted at the crowd, calling them “haters of Israel,” interrupted his ascent to the stage.
However, most counter-protesters remained at the margins of the protest.
Hundreds protest against Netanyahu in Jerusalem, demand new elections
A protester in Jerusalem holds a sign that reads: 'Mothers' cry: We will not sacrifice our children in the war to save the right wing,' January 20, 2024. (Courtesy)
Hundreds of people are gathered outside the president’s residence in Jerusalem for a protest demanding new elections to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Protesters hold signs and banners, including one that reads: “Mothers’ cry: We will not sacrifice our children in the war to save the right wing.”
US strikes another Houthi anti-ship missile
US Central Command forces on Saturday struck a Houthi anti-ship missile that was aimed into the Gulf of Aden and prepared to launch, the US military says, with the latest round of strikes coming hours after the United States struck three other Houthi anti-ship missiles.
“US forces determined the missile presented a threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region, and subsequently struck and destroyed the missile in self-defense,” the US Central Command says in a statement on X.
Iran names 5 IRGC officers killed in Damascus strike, including Syria intel chief and deputy
Nour News, which is believed to be close to Iran’s intelligence apparatus, has identified two of the dead in Damascus as Gen. Sadegh Omidzadeh, the intelligence deputy of the guard’s expeditionary Quds Force in Syria, and his deputy, who goes by the nom de guerre Hajj Gholam.
The guard later issued statements identifying the five dead as Hojjatollah Omidvar, Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi, Saeed Karimi and Mohammad Amin Samadi.
It gave no ranks for them.
The difference in information could not be immediately reconciled.
UN chief: Denial of Palestinian statehood ‘unacceptable’
The right of the Palestinian people to build their own state “must be recognized by all,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tells the Non-Aligned Movement, a forum of over 100 countries that are not aligned with any major bloc at the UN, during a summit in Uganda.
“The refusal to accept a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable,” the UN leader insists in the Ugandan capital Kampala.
Such a stance “would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security; exacerbate polarization; and embolden extremists everywhere,” Guterres warns.
“The right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognized by all,” he says.
Gaza terror group publishes clip of hostage Ohad Yahalomi
The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees publishes a video of an Israeli hostage who appears to be wounded.
The clip released last night by the al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades shows Ohad Yahalomi being treated for an injury and speaking to the camera.
There is no information indicating when the video was filmed.
On October 7, Yahalomi, 49, was shot in the leg after he engaged in a gun battle with gunmen in his house in Kibbutz Nir Oz, before being abducted. His son Eitan Yahalomi, 12, was taken hostage separately, and was released in late November.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip have previously issued similar videos of hostages they are holding, in what Israel says is deplorable psychological warfare.
Hamas is believed to be holding the vast majority of the remaining 132 hostages taken on October 7 in Gaza, although some are held by other terror groups.
Hamas has also been holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
IDF says troops destroy PIJ rocket manufacturing facility, rocket launchers in north Gaza
The IDF says it has discovered and destroyed a number of rocket launchers armed with long-range projectiles in the northern Gaza Strip, along with a nearby rocket manufacturing facility belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Troops of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade and 179th Reserve Armored Brigade raided the Islamic Jihad rocket manufacturing plant in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood following new intelligence information.
The IDF says the soldiers located and destroyed dozens of machines, including lathes, and a large amount of chemical and explosive materials used to manufacture rockets. It estimates that with the equipment, Islamic Jihad would have been able to build some 800 rockets.
Several rocket launchers, embedded in the ground with long-range rockets in them, were also located in the area and destroyed, the IDF says.
The IDF says it has discovered and destroyed a number of rocket launchers armed with long-range projectiles in the northern Gaza Strip, along with a nearby rocket manufacturing facility belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Troops of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade… pic.twitter.com/5UQPpF8aj6
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 20, 2024
Fifth Iran Revolutionary Guards member dies after strike in Syria attributed to Israel
DUBAI — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said a fifth member has died after being wounded in a missile strike attributed to Israel in Syria earlier today, Iranian state media reports
An IRGC statement says Mohammad Amin Samadi “fell as a martyr after being among those wounded in today’s Zionist terrorist crime in Damascus.”
The deaths of four other Guards members, including the intelligence chief for Syria and his deputy, were reported earlier.
US personnel suffer minor injuries in Iraq base attack, says US official
WASHINGTON — US personnel suffered minor injuries and a member of Iraq’s security forces was seriously wounded in an attack on Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base on Saturday, a US official says, citing initial assessments, which are subject to change.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said initial reports indicated that the base was hit by ballistic missiles but left open the possibility the base was hit by rockets, adding an assessment was ongoing.
Anti-Israel protest at Italy jewelry fair turns violent
Demonstrators clash with riot police during a protest against the presence of an Israeli pavillion at Vicenzaoro, the largest show in Europe for the gold and jewelry industry, at Fiera Vicenza in Vicenza, on January 20, 2024. (Piero Cruciatti/AFP)
VICENZA, Italy — Protesters clashed with police in the Italian city of Vicenza on Saturday after a demonstration against the presence of Israeli exhibitors at an international jewelry fair.
Police used water cannon against demonstrators who fired smoke bombs and flares after violence erupted after a planned march by hundreds of people, some holding up banners saying “Free Palestine” and “Stop Bombing Gaza.”
More than 1,300 exhibitors from almost 40 countries are showing at the Vicenzaoro fair, which opened on Friday and runs until Tuesday, according to organizers.
A spokesperson tells AFP the clashes took place several kilometers away and had no impact on the event, while declining to give information on the Israeli presence at the fair.
Vicenza mayor Giacomo Possamai says there was “no justification” for the violence.
“It also hurts the causes that it claims to support — it is a contradiction in terms to demonstrate for peace and a ceasefire through violence,” he says in a statement posted on social media.
Israel eyes end of January as target for deal on Lebanon border, or may escalate fight — report
Israel is eyeing an end-of-January timeframe for reaching a long-term diplomatic agreement on the Lebanon front with Hezbollah, but will likely escalate fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah if a deal is not secured, The Washington Post reports, citing a Western diplomat and three Lebanese officials.
A US official told the publication that Israel has not put forward a “hard deadline” but the officials cited that Jerusalem was looking toward the end of January as a target for a potential agreement, as Washington works to avoid a new front to the war.
The US official said the window of opportunity for talks was narrowing.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat told The Washington Post: “The Israeli position is that we prefer a diplomatic solution, and if a diplomatic solution will not be possible, we will have to act on our own.”
In a call Thursday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told his American counterpart Lloyd Austin that Israel was nearing a decision point on Lebanon, as Hezbollah presses its daily attacks on the northern border.
Since October 8, a day after the deadly Hamas killing spree on southern Israel, Hezbollah has engaged in cross-border fire on a near-daily basis, launching rockets, drones and missiles at northern Israel in a campaign it says is in support of Hamas. The attacks forced most residents several kilometers from the border to evacuate. Israel has responded with its own regular strikes on Hezbollah targets, and has warned it will not be able to tolerate the terrorists’ continued presence on the border.
Lebanese officials said Thursday that Hezbollah had rebuffed Washington’s initial proposal for stopping clashes with Israel, including pulling its fighters further from the border, but remained open to US diplomacy to avoid a ruinous war.
In his call with Austin Thursday, Gallant said Israel had a duty to restore security and return evacuated Israeli residents to their communities along the border, and although Israel would prefer to do this through diplomacy, it was “prepared to do this through military force,” a statement from the defense minister’s office said.
Touring the Lebanon border Friday, Gallant said that “as long as fighting continues in the south, there will be fighting in the north.”
“But we will not accept this reality for an extended period. There will come a moment when if we do not reach a diplomatic agreement in which Hezbollah respects the right of the residents to live here in security, we will have to ensure that security by force,” he said.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
Iran blames Israel for deadly strike in Damascus, says it ‘reserves right to respond’
Iran blames Israel for a deadly strike in Damascus, saying it “reserves the right to respond” after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said four of its members were killed.
Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani says Tehran would respond “at the appropriate time and place,” and condemned “an escalation in aggressive and provocative attacks” by Tehran’s arch-foe Israel.
IDF says commanders’ comments in NYT report on hostages ‘not known,’ don’t reflect military position
The Israel Defense Forces says the comments cited in a New York Times report earlier were “not known” to the military and “do not reflect the IDF’s position.”
The NYT reported today that four senior IDF commanders now believe Israel’s two stated goals of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages are not compatible.
In a brief statement in response to the report, the IDF says the release of the hostages is part of the goal of the war against Hamas in Gaza and a “major effort” by the IDF.
US forces at Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base come under rocket attack – sources
BAGHDAD — Attackers fired multiple rockets at US forces at Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base on Saturday, two security sources and one government source in Iraq say.
Residents of northern Israel feel abandoned, says head of regional council near border
Residents of northern Israel feel largely abandoned, says Moshe Davidovitz, head of the Mateh Asher Regional Council and chairman of the forum of residents on the northern frontline.
Speaking to Channel 13, Davidovitz says “it’s been over 100 days that [residents] are sequestered in hotels with their kids and just like the government isn’t speaking to the families of the hostages, they aren’t speaking to us either.”
“The prime minister and the defense minister are not speaking to us,” he says, adding that he does support Israel’s demand to push Hezbollah back from the border but is unclear on the plan going forward.
“We want to return home, the residents want to return home,” he says.
“We bury our dead in the middle of night, it’s unreal,” he says, demanding a solution.
Lapid slams Netanyahu: Ties with US ‘too important to turn them into public quarrels’
Opposition Head Yair Lapid blasts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the way he’s handled his most recent disagreement with Washington over the Gaza war, publicly rebuking the US for its push for Palestinian statehood in a combative press conference Thursday.
Lapid writes on X that as a former prime minister and foreign minister, “I had many arguments, some of them difficult, with the Americans. I just never managed them at press conferences and in front of cameras.”
Ties with the US “are too important to turn them into public quarrels whose only purpose is political gain” with Netanyahu’s right-wing base.
Lapid says it’s irresponsible “to do this during wartime, when the US stands by us.”
After ban lifted, hundreds in Haifa protest against war on Hamas
Demonstrators protest Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza on
Haifa's Paris Square on January 20, 2024. (Canaan Lidor/Times of Israel)
Some 300 people chant against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza in Haifa’s Paris Square, flanked by a smaller counterprotest of people holding up multiple Israeli flags.
The anti-war protest Saturday, the first licensed one in the northern district since October 7, features an array of flags that reflects the ideological diversity among the 40-odd organizations that teamed up to hold the controversial event despite initial refusal by the authorities to allow it.
Among the flags on display are that of Antifa, the former Communist Party of Israel, the rainbow flag and the Palestinian one. Arab and Jewish participants chant about what they call Israel’s “genocide” against Palestinians and call the government “fascist.”
The protesters “know we don’t agree on everything but we’re united by a single cry,” Amjad Shbita, the secretary-general of the Arab-Israeli left-wing party Hadash, says during a speech at the rally.
He reads out a list of five demands agreed upon by the organizing groups, which include Breaking the Silence, Yesh Gvul, Machsom Watch, Rabbis for Human Rights and Zochrot. The demands include an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza; a comprehensive prisoner exchange with Hamas; an end to the “political persecution” of Arabs in Israel, as Shbita put it; “full equality” for Arabs; and recognition that it is “legitimate to live as an Arab and have opinions,” he says.
The counter-protesters aren’t buying the demands. “This is a rally meant to extract an Israeli surrender. To help terrorism, to harm Israel,” says Yarden Or, who is protesting together with her two siblings and mother against the anti-war rally. “The talk of equality is just the wolf’s sheep clothing,” she says. “It’s a pro-Hamas rally.”
At the anti-war rally, Ayman Odeh, a lawmaker for Hadash, dismisses the allegations by pointing to the slogans and flags on display. “Do you see any Hamas banners?” Odeh, who has in the past called Palestinian terrorists “martyrs,” tells The Times of Israel.
The protest follows a petition filed by the organizers to the High Court of Justice against the police’s initial refusal to allow them to march on Saturday night in Haifa. The rally on Paris Square on Saturday afternoon is a compromise agreed upon by the police following the petition.
Report: Top IDF commanders believe freeing hostages not compatible with goal of destroying Hamas
IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip in pictures published on January 20, 2024. (IDF)
Senior Israel Defense Force commanders now believe that Israel’s two stated goals of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages are not compatible, The New York Times reports.
Four senior commanders, speaking on condition of anonymity, tell the Times that “the dual objectives of freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas are now mutually incompatible.”
The report says it has reviewed Israeli battle plans from the start of the war and that the IDF is currently in control of a smaller part of the Strip than originally envisioned.
This slow progress has caused military leaders to express frustration with the political leadership “and led them to conclude that the freedom of more than 100 Israeli hostages still in Gaza can be secured only through diplomatic rather than military means,” the paper reports.
Asked to comment on the report, the Prime Minister’s office said: “The Prime Minister is leading the war on Hamas with unprecedented achievements in a very decisive manner.”
The IDF declines to comment.
Hamas says Biden ‘a full partner in the genocidal war’ against Palestinians
US President Joe Biden salutes as he board Air Force One in the snow at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, to head to Delaware to spend the weekend at his home in Rehoboth Beach. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
A senior Hamas official dismisses comments by US President Joe Biden about the possibility of Israel agreeing to the establishment of a Palestinian state, calling the American leader “a full partner in the genocidal war.”
Biden said Friday it was still possible that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could agree to some form of a Palestinian state after the two leaders spoke by phone for the first time in nearly a month, while Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza grinds on.
“The illusion that Biden is preaching about a state of Palestine and its characteristics does not fool our people,” Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, says in a statement.
“Biden is a full partner in the genocidal war and our people do not expect any good from him.”
Biden said after the call that it was possible that Netanyahu could become open to some form of a two-state solution, raised for decades to end tensions in the Middle East.
“There are a number of types of two-state solutions. There’s a number of countries that are members of the UN that… don’t have their own militaries,” Biden told reporters after an event at the White House.
The call between Biden and Netanyahu came a day after the Israeli leader said he opposes allowing Palestinian sovereignty as the war in Gaza shows no signs of letting up.
Hostages’ families rally at Netanyahu’s home, demand deal
Relatives and friends of hostages sit on a camp set up outside the private residence of the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Caesarea, Israel, Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Relatives of the hostages held in Gaza rally outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home in Caesarea after they camped out overnight to protest what they said was the government’s inaction in securing the release of their loved ones, asserting that “time has run out” for those held by terrorists in the Strip.
Shelly Shem-Tov, whose 21-year-old son Omer is among the hostages held in Gaza, issues a desperate plea for supporters to stand with the families to show the government that there is public support for a deal.
“Do you know where your child slept last night?” she asked viewers. “Can you call your child right now and ask how he is? For 105 days, I haven’t known where my child is,” she cried.
Netanyahu denies telling Biden he isn’t ruling out a Palestinian state
US President Joe Biden, left, meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, to discuss the the war between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 18, 2023. (Miriam Alster/Pool Photo via AP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies telling US President Joe Biden that he has not ruled out the creation of a Palestinian state.
A rare statement put out by Netanyahu’s office on Shabbat comes after CNN, citing a person familiar with the conversation, reports that Netanyahu told Biden that the public comments he made a day earlier — in which he appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state — were not meant to foreclose that outcome in any form.
“In his conversation last night with President Biden, Prime Minister Netanyahu repeated his consistent position for years, which he also expressed at a press conference the day before: after the elimination of Hamas, Israel must remain in full security control of the Gaza Strip to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, and this conflicts with the demand for Palestinian sovereignty,” the PMO statement says.
The CNN report follows similar comments from Biden himself, who said that the creation of an independent state for Palestinians is not impossible while Netanyahu is still in office, and that the two leaders discussed the issue during their phone call on Friday.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with US mayors, Biden was asked directly whether a two-state solution was impossible with Netanyahu still in office.
“No it’s not,” the president replied.
He was then asked: “Are you going to reconsider conditions on Israel aid given what Bibi [Netanyahu] said on a two-state solution?” (The Israeli prime minister reiterated and detailed his opposition to Palestinian sovereignty during a press conference on Thursday.)
Said Biden: “I think we’ll be able to work something out.”
Asked how this could be done, the president intimated that there might be “types” of two-state solutions that Netanyahu may not be opposed to: “There are a number of types of two-state solutions. There’s a number of countries that are members of the UN that are still — don’t have their own militaries. Number of states that have limitations on [inaudible]. And so I think there’s ways in which this could work.”
The reporter then told Biden that “Bibi just said he’s opposed to any two-state solution.”
“No, he didn’t say that,” Biden asserted.
At his press conference on Thursday, Netanyahu said that “in any future arrangement, or in the absence of an arrangement,” Israel must maintain “security control” of all territory west of the Jordan River — meaning, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. “That is a vital condition.”
He acknowledged that this “contradicts the idea of sovereignty [for the Palestinians]. What can you do? I tell this truth to our American friends.”
Top IRGC officer killed in Syria strike identified as Gen. Sadegh Omidzadeh
Nour News, which is believed to be close to Iran’s intelligence apparatus, identifies two of the dead in an alleged Israeli strike on Damascus as Gen. Sadegh Omidzadeh, the intelligence deputy of the guard’s expeditionary Quds Force in Syria, and his deputy, who goes by the nom de guerre Hajj Gholam.
The guard later issued a statement identifying the dead as Hojjatollah Omidvar, Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi and Saeed Karimi. It gave no ranks for them. The difference in information could not be immediately reconciled.
Old photo circulating on pro-#Iran regime Telegram accounts of #IRGCterrorists' Quds Force Intelligence Deputy Sadegh Omidzadeh (on the far left). pic.twitter.com/OxsKyw3qqa
— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) January 20, 2024
IDF says it carried out a wave of strikes against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Smoke billows over hills near the southern Lebanese village of Odaisseh on the border with Israel on January 20, 2024 during Israeli strikes. (Rabih Daher/AFP)
The IDF says it carried out a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
The sites hit by fighter jets in southern Lebanon’s Odaisseh include an observation post, a rocket launch position and other infrastructure belonging to the terror group, according to the IDF.
The IDF says that overnight, tanks also carried out shelling in the Mount Dov area, to “remove a threat.”
The IDF adds that the sirens that sounded in the Galilee panhandle earlier were a false alarm.
An interceptor missile had been launched following a “false identification,” it says.
Meanwhile, two missiles were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon in the last few hours, and the IDF says it is striking the launch sites.
There are no injuries in the attacks.
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו לפני זמן קצר תשתית טרור, עמדת תצפית ועמדת שיגור של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב אל עדייסא שבדרום לבנון. במהלך הלילה, טנק של צה"ל ירה להסרת איום במרחב הר דב>> pic.twitter.com/5WXP3uvnnT
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 20, 2024
Lebanese security sources: 2 Hamas members targeted in drone strike on car
A suspected Israeli strike on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed two members of the Palestinian terror group Hamas as they were traveling in a car, three security sources in Lebanon tell Reuters.
Israel has been carrying out air strikes on southern Lebanon against Palestinian terror groups based there as well as their Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which has fired rockets across the border at Israel.
السياره المستهدفه على طريق البازورية- البرج الشمالي pic.twitter.com/Yqd5ZYUByD
— bintjbeil.org (@bintjbeilnews) January 20, 2024
Iranian, Hezbollah advisers in Yemen directing Houthi attacks on shipping: sources
People lift rifles and placards as they chant during an anti-Israel and anti-US rally in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on January 19, 2024, (Mohammed Huwais/AFP)
Commanders from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group are on the ground in Yemen helping to direct and oversee Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, four regional and two Iranian sources tell Reuters.
Iran – which has armed, trained and funded the Houthis – stepped up its weapons supplies to the group in the wake of the war in Gaza, which erupted after Iranian-backed terrorists Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, the four regional sources said.
Tehran has provided advanced drones, anti-ship cruise missiles, precision-strike ballistic missiles and medium-range missiles to the Houthis, who started targeting commercial vessels in November in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, the sources says.
IRGC commanders and advisers are also providing know-how, data and intelligence support to determine which of the dozens of vessels traveling through the Red Sea each day are destined for Israel and constitute Houthi targets, all the sources say.
Lebanese media reports Israeli drone strike on vehicle near Tyre
A vehicle traveling near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre is hit by an Israeli drone strike, the pro-Hezbollah al Mayadeen satellite news station reports.
No details are given about the occupants of the car or casualties.
There is no comment from Israel.
مصادر لبنانية: طيران الاحتلال المسيَر يشن غارة شرقي صور pic.twitter.com/zSo8GxJqWY
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) January 20, 2024
Moody’s planning to downgrade Israel’s credit rating due to war — report
A sign for credit agency Moody's shown on August 13, 2010 in New York. (AP/Mark Lennihan)
The US ratings agency Moody’s is planning to downgrade Israel’s credit rating due to the war with Hamas, the Ynet news site reports.
Ynet says it has learned the ratings agency plans to take the step soon, but did not cite sources.
In October, Moody’s announced that it had put the Israeli government’s A1 credit ratings on review for downgrade, citing the “unexpected and violent conflict between Israel and Hamas.”
The severity of the conflict, sparked by the deadly shock assault by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, “raises the possibility of longer lasting and material credit impact,” Moody’s said at the time.
Home Front command sounds all-clear after drone alert in the north
The Home Front Command sounds the all-clear after a drone infiltration alert sounded in the Galilee panhandle in northern Israel.
No further details are given, including whether there was a drone attack or if it was intercepted.
Iran media confirms 4 IRGC officers, including Syria intel chief, deputy, killed in Damasus
People and rescuers gather in front of a building destroyed in a reported Israeli strike in Damascus on January 20, 2024. (Louai Beshara/AFP)
An alleged Israeli strike on Damascus killed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence chief for Syria and his deputy as well as two other Guards members on Saturday, Iranian media reports.
“The Revolutionary Guards’ Syria intel chief, his deputy and two other Guards members were martyred in the attack on Syria by Israel,” Iran’s Mehr news agency says, quoting an informed but unnamed source.
Rocket, drone infiltration alerts sound in northern Israel
Sirens warning of rocket fire and a drone infiltration alert sound across northern Israel.
The drone sirens go off in several communities in the Galilee panhandle.
A rocket warning siren goes off in Zarit in the western Galilee.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF on the source.
🚨✈️ Hostile Aircraft Intrusion Alert in northern #Israel.
• Confrontation Line — Mevuot Hermon Regional Council, Tel Hai, Metulla, Kiryat Shmona, Beit Hillel, Margaliot, Ma'ayan Baruch, Misgav Am, Kfar Giladi, Kfar Yuval, Manara, Ramot Naftali, Dishon, Malkia, Iftach, Zarit pic.twitter.com/fJJFlYxETJ
— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) January 20, 2024
IDF drops leaflets with pictures of hostages on southern Gaza, asks for info
The Israel Defense Forces dropped thousands of leaflets on southern Gaza with pictures of the remaining hostages.
The leaflets call on residents to provide information on the whereabouts of the hostages who are being held by terror groups, and offer rewards.
Israeli Aircraft Drop Leaflets Over Gaza Urging Citizens to Aid Hostage Information#GazaAlert #IsraeliAircraft #HostageCrisis #GazaLeaflets #Military #CitizenAppeal #Information #SecurityUpdate#PalestinianFactions #BNNhttps://t.co/XDDE26CG3f pic.twitter.com/62cGXi0t53
— Nasiru Abdulrasheed (@neabdulrasheed) January 20, 2024
Iran media confirms 2 high ranking Guards Corps officers among dead in Damascus strike
People and rescuers gather in front of a building destroyed in a reported Israeli strike in Damascus on January 20, 2024. (Louai Beshara/AFP)
Two high-ranking Iranian military advisers were killed in an alleged Israeli strike on the Syrian capital Damascus, Iranian media outlets report.
“Two high-ranking Iranian advisers were martyred in today’s attack by the Zionist regime [Israel] in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus,” Iran’s Mehr news agency says, quoting an informed but unnamed source.
State-run Press TV reports the same information, adding the two were members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
4 IRGC officials, including head of information unit, said killed in Damascus strike
People and security forces gather in front of a building destroyed in a reported Israeli strike in Damascus on January 20, 2024. (AFP)
Four members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, including the head of their information unit, were killed in an alleged Israeli strike on Damascus, Reuters reports, citing sources in the pro-Syrian alliance.
An official with an Iran-backed group in the Middle East told The Associated Press that the building was used by Revolutionary Guard officials, adding that the “Israeli missiles” destroyed the whole building.
Islamic Jihad denies its leaders were in Damascus building hit in alleged Israeli strike
A spokesman for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad tells Reuters that no members of their group were wounded in an alleged Israeli strike in Damascus, following reports that some were at the bombed-out building.
Unsourced Hebrew and Arabic media reports had said that PIJ leader Akram al-Ajouri had also been killed in the strike.
📹 Netizens share videos of the alleged Israeli strike on a residential building in Damascus, Syria pic.twitter.com/668PRqrzk1
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) January 20, 2024
Hamas says 165 Palestinians killed in Gaza in last 24 hours; death toll at 24,927
The scene of an Israeli strike in the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza Strip, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says 165 Palestinians were killed in the Strip over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll in the war to 24,927.
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.
Iran launches satellite that is part of a Western-criticized missile program
Iran says it had conducted a satellite launch, the latest for a program the West fears improves Tehran’s ballistic missiles.
The announcement, on state television, says the launch was part of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ space program.
The United States has previously said Iran’s satellite launches defy a UN Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. UN sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired last October.
The US intelligence community’s 2023 worldwide threat assessment said the development of satellite launch vehicles “shortens the timeline” for Iran to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile because it uses similar technology.
Iran successfully launched a satellite into space for the first time, an Iranian satellite reached an orbit of 750 km from the earth by the Qaim 100 satellite carrier. pic.twitter.com/ZJTmZFmiKg
— War Intel (@warintel4u) January 20, 2024
Sources say Iran Revolutionary Guards official killed in alleged Israeli strike on Damascus
An Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps official was killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike on Damascus, the Reuters news agency reports, citing sources in the regional pro-Syria alliance.
The source says the multi-story building was used by Iranian advisers supporting Syria’s government and that it was entirely flattened.
Local reports in Syria say that four people were killed in the strike.
Syrian state media blamed the strike on “an Israeli aggression.”
No further details were given on the target of the alleged strike.
There was no confirmation from Israel.
Explosions occurred in the Mezzeh neighborhood, west of the Syrian capital, Damascus. This a heavily populated residential area. It appears to be a Zionist targeted assassination in central Damascus. Details to follow. #Damascus pic.twitter.com/GesKuvCAEA
— vanessa beeley (@VanessaBeeley) January 20, 2024
Syrian media reports apparent Israeli airstrike on residential building in Damascus
Smoke rises from an explosion in Damascus Syria, on January 20, 2024 (Screencapture/ X used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Syrian state media says that a residential building in Damascus was hit in an apparent Israeli airstrike.
Video showed a large plume of smoke rising into the air in the Mezzah neighborhood.
There is no confirmation from Israel.
🇸🇾
Massive explosion reported in Damascus, #Syria. pic.twitter.com/OZHXX38smw— ConflictLive 🌐 (@conflict_live) January 20, 2024
Two Eritrean migrants killed in brawl in Rishon Lezion
Two Eritrean migrants are killed in a brawl in Rishon Lezion overnight, police say.
Recent months have seen several deadly clashes in the community among supporters and opponents of Eritrea’s government.
Eritreans make up the majority of the more than 30,000 African asylum-seekers in Israel. Most asylum seekers arrived in Israel through Egypt in 2007-2012.
Rocket warning sirens sound in northern Israel
Rocket warning sirens are sounding in northern Israel.
The sirens sound in Arab al-Aramshe, Eilon and Idmit.
Rocket Alerts [09:35:39] – 3 Alerts:
• Confrontation Line — Arab al-Aramshe, Eilon, Idmit#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/vvKF6jjVCv
— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) January 20, 2024
Troops find and destroy rocket launchers at several sites as battles continue in Gaza
IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip in pictures published on January 20, 2024 (IDF)
The Israel Defense Forces say that troops found and destroyed rocket launchers at several sites across the Gaza Strip as battles continue.
Troops that raided a military compound in Khan Younis in southern Gaza found six rocket launchers, some of them primed to fire, and destroyed them. In the same compound, they found explosive devices and an underground tunnel shaft.
During the raid they identified two armed operatives who threatened them and called in an air strike that killed the gunmen.
Rocket launchers that had been used to fire into Israel were also found and destroyed in northern Gaza, the army says.
Forces in the north also called in airstrikes on cells trying to plant explosives and an anti-tank team, killing them, the army says.
הכוחות המתמרנים ממשיכים לפעול בשטח הרצועה, בסיוע לוחמי זרוע הים ובשיתוף כוחות חיל האוויר שתוקפים ומשמידים תשתיות טרור ואמצעי לחימה במרחבים השונים>> pic.twitter.com/key6jHDJIa
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 20, 2024
Member of new Harvard antisemitism task force signed letter saying Israel imposes ‘apartheid’
Harvard professor Derek Penslar, who was tapped as a co-chair of the new antisemitism task force announced by the university, signed a letter in August that denounced Israel as an “apartheid regime.”
The open letter, which is titled “The Elephant in the Room” and has nearly 2,900 signatories, denounced the controversial judicial overhaul advanced by the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government and asserted it had a “direct link” to Israel’s “illegal occupation of millions of Palestinians.”
“American Jews have long been at the forefront of social justice causes, from racial equality to abortion rights, but have paid insufficient attention to the elephant in the room: Israel’s long-standing occupation that, we repeat, has yielded a regime of apartheid,” states the letter, which was flagged by the conservative news site the Washington Free Beacon.
The letter also states that “as Israel has grown more right-wing and come under the spell of the current government’s messianic, homophobic, and misogynistic agenda, young American Jews have grown more and more alienated from it. Meanwhile, American Jewish billionaire funders help support the Israeli far right.”
Near PM’s home, daughter of hostage urges him to take ‘brave step to bring home those still alive’
Ela Ben Ami holds a poster with a photo of her father Ohad, who is being held hostage by Hamas since being kidnapped during the Oct. 7 terror onslaught, during a protest near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in the northern coastal city of Caesarea, January 20, 2024. (Screenshot: X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Relatives of Israelis held hostage by Hamas have begun setting up tents near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea, where they are camping out overnight as part of a protest urging the return of their loved ones from the Gaza Strip.
“It’s gone from pleading for their return to pleading to save their lives. This is a matter of life or death,” says Ela Ben Ami, whose father Ohad is still captive in Gaza after being kidnapped on October 7 alongside her mother Raz, who was released by Hamas as part of weeklong truce in late November.
She says the families are demanding an “international conference of Qatar, Egypt, the US and Israel, in which they sit in the same room and reach an understanding on how to bring the hostages home.”
Turning to Netanyahu, Ela Ben Ami calls on him to take “a brave step to bring home those still alive, and the bodies [of those killed] to be buried in Israel, as they deserve.”
ההפגנה ליד ביתו של רה"מ בקיסריה: משפחות החטופים, בהם משפחת שם טוב, קלדרון, שוהם, סמרנו, בן עמי, אדר, עידן ושתיוי – הקימו אוהלים מול בית נתניהו@SuleimanMas1 @YoavBorowitz https://t.co/0GhUdy9fVC pic.twitter.com/5wsmjgMJiO
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 19, 2024
US says probing cause of drone crash in Iraq after Iran-backed militias claim to down UAV
WASHINGTON — An American drone crashed north of Baghdad, a US defense official says Friday, after Iran-backed militants claimed they fired on an unmanned aircraft flying over Iraq.
“A US UAV crashed near Balad airbase, Iraq” on Thursday night local time, the official tells AFP, without identifying the type of drone that was lost.
“Iraqi security forces recovered the aircraft. There were no injuries reported,” the official says, adding that “an investigation of the cause of the crash is underway.”
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose US support for Israel, said Friday that it fired on a US MQ-9 — a type of drone that can be used for both surveillance and strikes — which was operating over Iraq the day before.
“Mujahideen yesterday targeted… an MQ-9 drone belonging to the American occupation,” the group said in a statement.
CENTCOM says Houthi anti-ship missiles targeted in latest US strikes
WASHINGTON – US Central Command forces have conducted strikes against three Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed into the Southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch, the US military says on X, formerly called Twitter.
“US forces identified the missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined that they presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US Navy ships in the region. US forces subsequently struck and destroyed the missiles in self-defense,” the US Central Command says in the post on X.
After phone call, Biden says two-state solution not impossible while Netanyahu in office
US President Joe Biden addresses a mayoral conference at the White House in Washington on January 19, 2024. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP)
WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden says the creation of an independent state for Palestinians is not impossible while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still in office, and that the two leaders discussed the issue during their phone call earlier today.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with US mayors, Biden is asked directly whether a two-state solution is impossible with Netanyahu still in office.
“No it’s not,” the president replies.
He is then asked: “Are you going to reconsider conditions on Israel aid given what Bibi [Netanyahu] said on a two-state solution? (The Israeli prime minister reiterated and detailed his opposition to Palestinian sovereignty in a press conference on Thursday.)
Says Biden: “I think we’ll be able to work something out.”
Asked how this could be done, the president intimates that there might be “types” of two-state solutions that Netanyahu may not be opposed to: “There are a number of types of two-state solutions. There’s a number of countries that are members of the UN that are still — don’t have their own militaries. Number of states that have limitations on (inaudible). And so I think there’s ways in which this could work.”
Asked what Netanyahu is open to, Biden says: “I’ll let you know.”
read more: