Jan. 21: White House Mideast envoy heading to Egypt, Qatar for hostage deal talks

Iranian soldier kills 5 comrades in southeastern city where ISIS attack killed dozens

An Iranian soldier opened fire on fellow soldiers, killing five of them in the southeastern city of Kerman, where 94 people were killed in a bombing attack earlier this month, Iranian state TV reports.

State TV says the shooting happened when the soldier arrived at a barracks dormitory and opened fire on the resting soldiers. It says the motive is not immediately clear and the suspect, who is not identified, is at large. No other details are released.

The report says the attack took place in Kerman some 830 kilometers (515 miles), southeast of the capital Tehran.

Kerman was the scene of two deadly explosions earlier this month that killed 94 people and wounded hundreds of others during an anniversary ceremony for the death of an Iranian general killed in a 2020 US drone strike in Iraq. The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility.

White House Mideast envoy heading to Egypt, Qatar for hostage deal talks

US National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk speaks during the IISS Manama Dialogue security conference, in Manama on November 18, 2023. (Mazen Mahdi / AFP)

The White House’s Middle East czar Brett McGurk will be traveling to Egypt and Qatar this week for talks with his counterparts regarding the war in Gaza and efforts to secure the release of the remaining 136 hostages, a US official tells The Times of Israel.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier today that the US, Egypt, and Qatar are pushing Israel and Hamas to accept a comprehensive plan that would end the war, see the release of hostages held in Gaza, and ultimately lead to full normalization for Israel with its neighbors and talks for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Israeli and US officials have, however, stated publicly today that a hostage deal is not imminent.

Appointee to Finance Ministry post to oversee wartime civilian matters resigns position

Tal Basechess, who was appointed at the start of the war to serve as the civilian control center project manager in the Finance Ministry, announces that he is resigning from the post due to a lack of tools and powers to accomplish the position’s goals.

“Around a month after the start of the war I was ‘called to the flag’ to serve as the head” of the Finance Ministry’s control center for war-related civilian affairs, he says in a statement. “Despite my great efforts and working around the clock to achieve the challenges and national missions, I found that the control center does not have the necessary powers or tools to fulfill the responsibility assigned to it.”

The Finance Ministry says in a statement that Minister Bezalel Smotrich received Basechess’s request to resign his post “due to the fact that because of bureaucratic and legal challenges the command center did not receive the necessary powers.”

Smotrich thanks Basechess for his service, calling him “a professional and a patriot.”

Families of hostages pitch tents outside PM’s residence, vow to remain until he ‘agrees to a deal’

Tents erected by the families of Hamas hostages along Jerusalem's Azza Street near the prime minister's private residence on January 21, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Family members of Hamas hostages, accompanied by protesters, pitch tents on the sidewalk of Azza Street outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home in Jerusalem after staging a protest demanding the government strike an immediate hostage deal.

The demonstration takes place on the backdrop of a proposed plan by the US, Egypt and Qatar to end the ongoing war and arrange the return of the hostages held in Hamas captivity.

According to a spokesman from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the demonstrators will remain in their tents until “the prime minister agrees to a deal to return the hostages.”

Alongside the tents hang signs and posters calling for the hostages’ release. One in the center of the set-up reads: “We love our children more than we hate Hamas.”

Republican Ron DeSantis suspends his primary campaign for president, endorses Trump

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by NBC News, November 8, 2023, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County in Miami, Florida. (AP Photo/ Rebecca Blackwell)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspends his run for the Republican presidential nomination, he says in a video posted to the X social media site, and throws his support behind Donald Trump.

This comes as South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley makes her closing argument in New Hampshire to challenge Trump as the Republican presidential nominee.

A poll released today showed Trump widening his lead in the state to again secure his party’s nomination.

Father of Hamas captive: ‘Bringing home 136 hostages in body bags is not a victory’

Jon Polin, father of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, at a protest outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence on Azza Street in Jerusalem, January 21, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Jon Polin, the father of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, speaks to protesters outside the prime minister’s private residence in Jerusalem.

Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped on a camping trip with his friend in the Gaza Envelope. The two made a stop at the Supernova music festival near Re’im, and were attacked by Hamas along with the rest of the partygoers on the morning of October 7.

The last time Polin saw his son was on video being loaded onto a pickup truck, with his arm blown off from the elbow down.

“All of us as citizens have a contract with the country,” says Polin. “In exchange for our service and taxes, we expect the government to keep us safe, and this government and prime minister totally failed us.”

“We ask that they fix the failure of October 7… Bringing home 136 hostages in body bags can never be considered any part of a victory,” he says.

Gallant to families of hostages: IDF activity in Khan Younis is helping advance war goals

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (center) meets with the families of hostages at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, January 7, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meets with the families of the Hamas hostages, telling them that there are positive signs the IDF is moving toward accomplishing the goals of the war.

“The operation in Khan Younis is in full swing. There are initial signs that reaching the most sensitive places for Hamas is advancing us toward accomplishing the two primary goals of the war,” he tells them, according to a statement from his office, referring to both the return of the hostages and the toppling of Hamas.

Gallant meets weekly with the families of the hostages, providing them with operational updates.

Mother of slain Hamas hostage protests outside PM’s house: ‘Give up on ego’

Orrin Gantz, mother of slain hostage Eden Zacharia speaks to demonstrators outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem on January 21, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

A crowd of hostage families and protesters are gathered in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private Jerusalem residence demanding an immediate hostage deal.

“We will stay here until the prime minister agrees to a deal to return the hostages,” says a Hostages and Missing Families spokesman.

Orrin Gantz, the mother of 28-year-old Eden Zacharia, who was kidnapped and murdered in Hamas captivity, speaks to the crowd and urges the prime minister and the war cabinet to “give up on ego.”

“My daughter didn’t just die, she died on our watch,” she says. “Bibi Netanyahu, we trust you. There is no other person who can [return the hostages],” she continues. “107 days, they don’t have time. In captivity, there is no tomorrow.”

Report: Sara Netanyahu pushing to oust English-language spokesman Eylon Levy

Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy, November 2023. (Avner Hofstein)

According to an unsourced Channel 12 report, Sara Netanyahu is seeking to have a prominent English-language government spokesman fired over past posts critical of the prime minister, as well as his participation in protests against the judicial overhaul.

Eylon Levy, who entered the role in the wake of the October 7 Hamas massacre, and previously worked as a journalist as well as an adviser to President Isaac Herzog, has become a familiar face on many US and UK TV networks presenting a defense of the Jewish state and Israeli activity over the past several months.

The report says that officials have decided to minimize Levy’s appearances immediately and he is expected to be fully removed from the position within a few weeks. The official reason, Channel 12 stated, is the government’s desire to present a more diverse face to the international media.

But the report claims that the prime minister’s wife is the real force pushing to oust Levy, due to past social media posts that were highly critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the current government.

Levy did not respond to an immediate request for comment.

Related: Israel’s newest, British-born international spokesperson is raising some eyebrows

Israeli smart energy firm SolarEdge says it will slash 16% of its global workforce

SolarEdge Technologies' offices in Modiin, seen on January 21, 2022. (MagioreStock/ Shutterstock.com)

Israeli-founded smart energy tech firm SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. announces plans to slash 16% of its global workforce, to cut operating costs, in light of the weak demand for its solar invertors.

Based in Herzliya and with US headquarters in California, SolarEdge says the reduction translates into layoffs of 900 employees, of which about 500 are from the firm’s various manufacturing sites. The move is part of a restructuring plan following the discontinuation of manufacturing in Mexico, the reduction of manufacturing in China, and the termination of the firm’s light commercial vehicle e-mobility operations.

“We have made a very difficult, but necessary decision to implement a workforce reduction and other cost-cutting measures in order to align our cost structure with the rapidly changing market dynamics,” states SolarEdge CEO Zvi Lando. “We remain confident in the long-term growth of the solar energy market… These changes do not impact our strategic direction and priorities and we remain committed to continue to drive the renewable energy transformation.”

SolarEdge was founded in 2006, seeking to make solar energy more affordable and widespread. It developed an inverter solution for harvesting and managing power in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems.

However, over the past year, SolarEdge shares plunged almost 80 percent, as the solar company warned in October about “substantial unexpected cancellations” from European distributors.

World Bank: 45% of housing units in Gaza rendered unlivable

A picture taken from southern Israel shows destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip on January 17, 2024. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Some 45% of housing units in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed and rendered unlivable since war erupted between Israel and Hamas on October 7, according to a World Bank report based on satellite images.

According to the report, which was first published by the Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister site, Zman Yisrael, 60 percent of residential buildings in the Gaza Strip have sustained significant damage in the war.

The World Bank report has been distributed to diplomatic contacts around the world on a bi-weekly basis since the outbreak of the war, and cites data on the damage and impact of the war.

Families of hostages hold protest outside Netanyahu’s private Jerusalem home

Protesters gather outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private Jerusalem home demanding a hostage deal, January 21, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Hostage families are blocking traffic outside Prime Minister Netanyahu’s private Jerusalem residence on Azza Street.

The protest consists of a few dozen demonstrators, quickly growing in numbers, waving signs with the faces and names of the remaining hostages in Hamas captivity.

The crowd is shouting a chant demanding an immediate hostage exchange deal.

“The cabinet is responsible for the lives of the hostages!” they shout.

At the conclusion of the protest, the families are expected to pitch a tent below Netanyahu’s home and stay there through the night.

Around 1,000 Gazans have been treated aboard French ship field hospital near Egypt

Palestinians play cards in front of military medical staff onboard the French LHD Dixmude military ship, which serves as a hospital to treat wounded Palestinians, at the Egyptian port of Al-Arish on January 21, 2024. (Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)

About 1,000 people from Gaza have been treated in a French field hospital aboard a ship off the coast of Egypt, its captain says.

The Dixmude, a French helicopter carrier, has been docked in the Egyptian port of al-Arish, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the Gaza Strip, since November. The vessel is equipped with wards, operating theaters, and 70 medical personnel.

Nearly 120 injured people have been hospitalized on board, while hundreds more have been seen for outpatient consultations, including follow-ups on injuries and psychiatric issues, says Captain Alexandre Blonce, calling it an “unprecedented mission.”

Minister Strock claims some fellow ministers are struggling financially

Orit Strock, national missions and settlements minister, attends a Religious Zionism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, January 8, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Orit Strock, the national missions and settlements minister, claims that there are ministers in the government who are struggling financially, according to a screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation reported on by the Kan public broadcaster.

“No ministers receive inflated salaries, I know ministers who don’t manage to finish the month even though they work very hard, night and day — and there are even those whose parents are supporting them financially,” Strock reportedly says in the WhatsApp message in an argument with a party insider over a tax on electric vehicles.

Ministers in the government make NIS 58,274 per month; the national average salary in Israel is around 13,300.

Netanyahu vows no Palestinian state, and no ‘entity that finances terror’ in post-war Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with US President Joe Biden in Tel Aviv, October 18, 2023. (Miriam Alster/ Flash90)

In a video statement that is sure to heighten tensions with the Biden administration, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turns to the “day after,” insisting that Israel will achieve “total victory,” after which, “there will be no entity in Gaza that finances terrorism, educates for terrorism or sends our terror.”

Netanyahu demands that Gaza be demilitarized under Israel’s full security control.

“I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over all the territory west of Jordan,” he says, repeating a position that has put him at odds with Washington’s desire to see movement toward a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza. “As prime minister, I stood firm on this position in the face of heavy international and domestic pressures.”

In so doing, Netanyahu takes credit for preventing a Palestinian state over the years: “My insistence is what for years prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state that would have constituted an existential danger to Israel,” he says.

“As long as I am prime minister, I will continue to firmly stand by this,” he pledges. “If someone has a different position, let them show leadership and state their position honestly to the citizens of Israel.”

After flight over Strip, Gallant says IDF ground operation in Khan Younis will expand

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant flies over the Gaza Strip, January 21, 2024. (Elad Malka/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says the IDF will further expand its ground offensive in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

“We are carrying out an intensive operation in the Khan Younis area, and it will continue to expand,” says Gallant following a flight over the Strip with the Israeli Air Force’s 100th Squadron.

“The plumes of smoke from the tanks, artillery and Air Force planes, will continue to cover the skies of the Gaza Strip, until we achieve our goals, chief among them, the defeat of Hamas and the return of hostages to their homes,” he adds.

Netanyahu says Israel rejects Hamas demands for ‘surrender’ in exchange for hostages

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference at the Defense Ministry, in Tel Aviv on January 18, 2024. (Yariv Katz/POOL)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in a video statement that Israel completely rejects Hamas’s demands for “surrender” in exchange for releasing the remaining 136 hostages in Gaza.

“We brought home so far 110 hostages, and we are committed to bringing them all back,” says Netanyahu. “I am working on this around the clock. But let it be clear: I reject outright the terms of surrender of the Hamas monsters.”

The prime minister says in exchange for releasing the hostages, “Hamas is demanding the end of the war, the exit of our forces from Gaza, releasing all the murderers and rapists of the Nukhba [forces] and leaving Hamas intact.”

Netanyahu adds that “if we agree to this, our soldiers fell in vain. If we agree to this, we cannot guarantee security for our citizens. We cannot bring the evacuees home safely, and the next October 7 will be just a matter of time. I am not able to agree to such a fatal blow to Israeli security, and therefore I cannot agree to that.”

The prime minister says he made Israel’s stance on this issue clear to US President Biden when they spoke over the weekend.

Grieving family members plant seedlings at site of Supernova massacre

Friends and relatives pray before planting a tree in memory of person who was killed on October 7, 2023, at the site of the Supernova music festival near Re'im, January 21, 2024. (AP Photo/ Leo Correa)

Some of the bereaved families whose loved ones were killed in a Hamas rampage at the Supernova music festival join together for a special tree-planting event at the site.

Around 1,000 people plant about 200 seedlings in the scorched earth of the Re’im parking lot, where thousands of young people were partying in the dawn hours of October 7, when Hamas terrorists stormed in.

According to police, 364 people were shot, bludgeoned, or burned to death at the rave in a stretch of tree-dotted brush near Kibbutz Re’im. Another 40 people were taken hostage by Hamas to Gaza.

IDF says soldier held captive in Gaza was killed on October 7, body held by Hamas

Shay Levinson was taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. (Courtesy)

The IDF announces the death of soldier Staff Sgt. Shay Levinson, 19, who was killed and abducted by Hamas on October 7.

Levinson served in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion, and his body was taken hostage from the Nahal Oz area, following a battle with terrorists during the Hamas onslaught.

His death was recently declared by the Military Rabbinate based on findings and new intelligence information.

While Levinson’s body remains in Gaza, his family can sit shiva, according to Jewish law.

Saudi FM says no normalization with Israel without ‘resolving Palestinian issue’

Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud attends a session during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, January 16, 2024. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

There can be no normalization of ties with Israel without resolving the Palestinian issue, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister tells CNN in an interview airing today.

Asked if there could be no normal ties without a path to a credible and irreversible Palestinian state, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud tells CNN: “That’s the only way we’re going to get the benefit. So, yes, because we need stability and only stability will come through the resolving the Palestinian issue.”

Seven gazelles found dead in suspected poisoning near Gaza

A handout photo of dead gazelles discovered in an agricultural area in the Gaza envelope, January 21, 2024. (Koby Soffer/Israel Nature and Parks Authority)

Seven out of a herd of 12 mountain gazelles are found dead in an agricultural area of the Gaza border in a suspected poisoning, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority reports.

A citizen alerted the INPA.

Rangers with sniffer dogs are searching for poison in the area, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Sdot Negev Regional Council in southern Israel.

Farmers sometimes illegally poison an animal carcass to attract and kill predators that attack their herds.

IDF says it carried out two waves of strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon

A photo taken from a position in northern Israel along the border with Lebanon on January 21, 2024. (jalaa marey / AFP)

The IDF says it carried out two waves of strikes against Hezbollah targets in the southern Lebanon village of Markaba earlier today.

The sites hit by fighter jets in Markaba include a military building, observation posts, rocket launch positions and other infrastructure belonging to the terror group, the IDF says.

The IDF says it carried out two waves of strikes against Hezbollah targets in the southern Lebanon village of Markaba earlier today.

The sites hit by fighter jets in Markaba include a military building, observation posts, rocket launch positions, and other infrastructure… pic.twitter.com/gRWre8eO0U

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 21, 2024

The IDF says it carried out additional strikes, using tank shelling and aircraft, in other areas of southern Lebanon, hitting a Hezbollah command center and another building used by the terror group.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, names a member killed in an Israeli strike earlier today in the village of Kafra, bringing the terror group’s death toll since the beginning of the war to 164.

Prosecutors from nations whose citizens were killed on Oct. 7 to land in Israel tomorrow

Destroyed houses are seen in Kibbutz Be'eri, Dec. 20, 2023. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A delegation of senior prosecutors from countries whose citizens were among those murdered or taken hostage in the October 7 atrocities perpetrated by Hamas will arrive in Israel tomorrow to gain a firsthand understanding of the brutal terror assault.

The heads of the prosecution service from Germany, the US, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Portugal, and Estonia — as well as representatives from the Japanese, Australian and Danish embassies — will visit towns and communities in the Gaza border region where Hamas carried out its deadly attack, the Justice Ministry says.

They prosecutors will meet with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, State Attorney Amit Eisman, and members of the legal team that defended Israel in the International Court of Justice against South Africa’s genocide allegations, and receive briefings on the crimes committed by Hamas on October 7 from senior officials in the defense establishment as well as the Foreign Ministry and the Israel Police.

The delegation will also meet with relatives of those killed and taken hostage by Hamas on October 7.

“[This] is another stage in the efforts to advance enforcement measures against Hamas officials and operatives worldwide,” says Itamar Donenfeld, director general of the Justice Ministry.

“The visit to the kibbutzim of the south and the meeting with the families of the hostages will be an opportunity to present a clear, accurate and firsthand picture of the heinous crimes that Hamas has committed, not only against Israelis but against all of humanity,” he adds.

Troops locate, destroy weapons plant, rocket launcher in central Gaza, says IDF

IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip in pictures cleared for publication on January 21, 2024. (IDF)

Reservists of the Yiftah Brigade operating in central Gaza’s Maghazi camp located a weapons manufacturing plant and a nearby rocket launcher armed with projectiles, the IDF says.

The IDF says the troops raided a Hamas site in Maghazi, where they located machinery used to build firearms in the yard of a home. Nearby, a rocket launcher was found, it says.

Reservists of the Yiftah Brigade operating in central Gaza’s Maghazi camp located a weapons manufacturing plant and a nearby rocket launcher armed with projectiles, the IDF says.

The IDF says the troops raided a Hamas site in Maghazi, where they located machinery used to build… pic.twitter.com/LnIywb3AuC

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 21, 2024

The machinery, weapons, rockets and rocket launcher were all later destroyed.

Amid the operation, the IDF says Hamas operatives fired an RPG at one of the unit’s tanks. The soldiers spotted the squad behind the attack, returned fire, and called in an airstrike, it says.

Some of the operatives were killed, while at least one fled and was later killed in a gun battle with troops, after being spotted by the Yiftah Brigade’s observation company.

Hamas says its October 7 assault on Israel was a ‘normal response’ to Israeli ‘conspiracies’

FILE - Hamas terrorists are seen crossing the Israel-Gaza border fence on October 7, 2023. (Kan TV screenshot; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The Hamas terror group says that its October 7 onslaught that led to war with Israel was a “necessary step” but “chaos” led to “faults” in the operation.

The attacks were “a necessary step and a normal response to confront all Israeli conspiracies against the Palestinian people,” the group says in a 16-page document marking its first public account of October 7.

“Maybe some faults happened during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’s implementation due to the rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system, and the chaos caused along the border areas with Gaza,” the group writes.

Hamas says that its murderous rampage through southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed, was aimed at “the immediate halt of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, the crimes and ethnic cleansing committed against the entire Gaza population.”

The group also calls for Israel to immediately stop its “aggression” in Gaza and says only Palestinian people will decide the territory’s future.

French defense minister to arrive in Israel tonight after trips to Egypt, Lebanon

File: France's Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu in Beirut on November 2, 2023 (ANWAR AMRO / AFP)

France’s Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu will land tonight in Israel for meetings tomorrow with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, war cabinet member Benny Gantz, and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi.

According to the French Embassy, Lecornu will also meet with families of French hostages held in Gaza.

Lecornu was last in Israel in November, and was recently in Egypt and Lebanon.

The meetings, according to the French, will focus on the war in Gaza, attempts to release the hostages, the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and France’s attempts to prevent escalation in Lebanon and in the Red Sea.

After US ire, IDF says it is probing controlled explosion of campus in Gaza last week

Before and after photos of Israa University in Gaza that was blown up by the IDF on January 17, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

The IDF says it is probing the approval process of a controlled explosion of a university campus in the Gaza Strip last week.

Footage widely shared on social media showed a massive blast at Israa University, prompting the Biden administration to ask Israel for clarifications.

جيش الاحتلال يقوم بتفجير جامعة فلسطين في غزة بواسطة 315 لغم pic.twitter.com/aemM8Ezh5C

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

In response to a query on the matter, the IDF says “the collapse of the building and the approval process for the explosion are being investigated by the IDF.”

It says that the investigation will be shown to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi in the coming days.

According to the army’s initial probe, the university building and the surrounding area had been used by Hamas “for military activity against our forces,” the IDF adds.

Israel says troops have seized around NIS 15m from Hamas strongholds in Gaza recently

Money the IDF says its troops have seized in recent weeks from Hamas strongholds in Gaza, in a photo released on January 21, 2024. (Defense Ministry)

The Defense Ministry says that IDF troops have seized around NIS 15 million ($4 million) from Hamas strongholds and the homes of wanted Hamas figures in recent weeks.

It says that around 1 million US dollars have also been seized, in addition to currencies from Iraq, Jordan and Egypt.

The ministry says that the money will be passed to the Defense Ministry’s finance wing and be placed in state coffers.

BBC’s Gary Lineker on his view of Hamas war: not ‘a Jewish thing. I see it as the Israeli government’

Gary Lineker leaves his house in London on March 13, 2023. (Niklas Halle'n/AFP)

Days after he reposted, removed and explained as an oversight a tweet urging FIFA and the International Olympic Committee to join a global boycott of Israel, Gary Lineker speaks to The Guardian about Israel’s war against Hamas, saying that “one atrocity does not deserve 80 atrocities. Or more.”

Lineker, the BBC’s highest paid presenter with some 8.9 followers on X alone, is asked about the fact that he has not come out against Hamas’s atrocities on October 7.

He says that the has not lost Jewish friends over his views, but that he has “associates” he has decided not to see, saying that “their views are so hardcore.”

“But I don’t see it as a Jewish thing. I see it as the Israeli government. Obviously, they’re responding to 7 October, but crikey, one atrocity does not deserve 80 atrocities. Or more,” he says.

He says that while some of his Jewish friends have asked him to show support for Israel, “I had to say, ‘What?! Look, absolutely no. And nor should you.’”

The UK has experienced a surge in antisemitic and anti-Israel activity since October 7, when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping at least 240 people to Gaza.

Israel then launched a military campaign — aimed at toppling the Hamas regime which has ruled Gaza since 2007 — and securing the release of the hostages. The offensive has come under harsh international criticism for its mounting death toll.

Lineker is also asked about the fact that he posted an an interview with Israeli academic Raz Segal, who calls Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza “textbook genocide.”

The Guardian writes that Lineker “rolls his eyes” when asked about the clip.

“But it wasn’t my opinion. It was [Raz Segal’s]. I thought it was well argued and worth listening to. It’s for others to decide what they think. For me, what’s going on is completely distressing,” Lineker says.

“It’s another reason why I find it difficult to look at social media. Because I can’t bear looking at little children being killed constantly,” he says.

Lineker, who hosts the flagship soccer highlight show “Match of the Day,” has been the focus of an ongoing dispute over the impartiality of the BBC.

2 Hezbollah members killed in alleged Israeli drone strike in south Lebanon

A screengrab from a video showing an alleged Israeli strike on a car in south Lebanon on January 21, 2024 (Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Two Hezbollah fighters were killed in a direct hit by an Israeli drone on their vehicle in southern Lebanon, security sources say.

Their ranks in the terror group were not revealed following the latest alleged Israeli strike in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, security sources say.

The vehicle was hit in the Bint Jbeil region, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Media reports suggested that a senior Hezbollah member managed to escape the strike but that two of his aides were killed.

The Washington Post reported Friday that Israel plans to escalate fighting on the Lebanese border with Hezbollah if a long-term diplomatic agreement is not reached soon.

Report: US, Egypt, Qatar pushing plan for hostage release, end of war, normalization, Palestinian state talks

Soldiers seen at a staging area near the Gaza border, southern Israel, January 21, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The US, Egypt and Qatar are pushing Israel and Hamas to accept a comprehensive plan that would end the war, see the release of hostages held in Gaza, and ultimately lead to full normalization for Israel with its neighbors and talks for the establishment of a Palestinian state, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The 90-day plan would reportedly bring all fighting to an extended halt, during which time Hamas would free all civilians, while Israel would release hundreds of prisoners, pull out of Gaza’s cities, allow freedom of movement in the Strip, cease drone activity over Gaza, and double the amount of aid, says the WSJ.

The next stage would see Hamas release female IDF soldiers and Israeli bodies, as Israel releases more prisoners.

The third phase would have Israel pull back troops to the Gaza border, while Hamas free soldiers and fighting age men.

Egyptians officials tell WSJ that there would be then be talks about a permanent ceasefire, normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia in addition to other Arab countries, and a new process leading to a Palestinian state.

Egyptian officials add that Israel is pushing for a two-week ceasefire, and is avoiding talks about a permanent ceasefire.

Negotiations on a ceasefire are set to begin in Cairo in the coming days, according to the report.

Though the article does not say what would happen to Hamas in such an agreement, it does say that Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar and its Doha-based politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh have not spoken in a month, and are at odds over the potential demilitarization of the Strip.

Rocket sirens sound in Sufa, Kissufim, Ein HaShlosha near Gaza border

Sirens sound in the Gaza border towns of Sufa, Kissufim and Ein HaShlosha warning of incoming rocket fire.

The communities bordering Gaza have been largely evacuated of civilians since October 7.

At least 2 killed in suspected Israeli drone strike on car in south Lebanon – security sources

At least two people were killed and several others injured in a suspected Israeli drone strike on Sunday that targeted a car in southern Lebanon, security sources say.

Ambulances rushed to the site near a Lebanese army checkpoint, and it was not clear who was targeted in the strike, residents and security sources say.

Since October 8, a day after the Hamas onslaught in southern Israel, the Hezbollah terror group 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 within several kilometers of the border to evacuate. Israel has responded with its own strikes on Hezbollah targets and has warned it will not be able to tolerate the terrorists’ continued presence on the border.

Katz to address EU meeting attended by Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, PA; Borrell to present peace plan

National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Minister Israel Katz attends the Special Committee for Oversight of the Israeli Citizens' Fund at the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 4, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The European Union Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels tomorrow, which Foreign Minister Israel Katz will address, will also be attended by his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the PA, and the Arab League Secretary-General.

In addition, EU Security Chief Josep Borrell will present a ten-point plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

In a letter to member states, Borrell wrote that his roadmap will “elaborate, with practical proposals, on the agreed principle that only a political, sustainable, long-term solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will bring peace to the two peoples and stability to the region.”

According to Euronews, Borrell’s plan calls for a peace process leading to a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and full normalization between Israel and Arab states. An international peace conference would look to end the war between Hamas and Israel, and the larger Israel-Palestinian conflict, which would create an “initial framework” for peace within one year. There would be “robust security assurances” for both states, and the agreement would be “conditional upon full mutual diplomatic recognition and integration of both Israel and Palestinian in the region.”

The 27 EU member states have been divided in their responses to the war in Gaza, and are unlikely to support Borrell’s roadmap.

Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, speaks at a joint press conference with Lebanon’s foreign minister following their meeting in Beirut on January 6, 2024. (Anwar Amro/AFP)

Airstrike targets car in south Lebanon — reports

A car was hit in a suspected drone strike in Kafra in south Lebanon, Lebanese media reports.

The village is part of the Bint Jbeil district, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Large parts of Bint Jbeil were destroyed during the 2006 war between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group.

דיווח בלבנון: כלי רכב הותקף באמצעות כטב"ם ישראלי באזור בינת ג'בייל בדרום לבנון pic.twitter.com/1HDMHMJflu

— איתי בלומנטל 🇮🇱 Itay Blumental (@ItayBlumental) January 21, 2024

Top soccer league referee seriously injured by Hezbollah anti-tank missile is released from hospital

A soccer referee in Israel’s top league who was seriously injured by anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah on December 8, is released from hospital.

Niv Steif, who serves in the IDF Armored Corps, was wounded last month.

“We were on a crazy rollercoaster for six weeks, but the staff were amazing and they welcomed us with love,” his mother told the Kan public broadcaster.

Steif underwent multiple complex and long operations.

Staff cheer him as he was wheeled out of Haifa’s Rambam hospital.

שופט הכדורגל מליגת העל ניב שטייף, שרופאים נלחמו על חייו לאחר שנפצע קשה מפגיעת נ"ט – השתחרר מרמב"ם. אימו של ניב: "היינו בשישה שבועות של רכבת הרים מטורפת, אבל הצוות היה מדהים, קיבל אותנו באהבה"@CBeyar

צילום: דוברות רמב"ם pic.twitter.com/UDcxYFVYTR

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 21, 2024

UN’s Guterres denounces Israel for ‘heartbreaking’ civilian deaths in Gaza

Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres attends the closing session of the 19th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Kampala on January 20, 2024. (LUIS TATO / AFP)

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres denounces Israel for the “heartbreaking” deaths of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and says it is unacceptable to resist statehood for the Palestinian people.

“Israel’s military operations have spread mass destruction and killed civilians on a scale unprecedented during my time as secretary-general,” Guterres says at the opening of a summit of the G77+China in the Ugandan capital Kampala.

“This is heartbreaking and utterly unacceptable. The Middle East is a tinder-box, we must do all we can to prevent conflict from igniting across the region,” he says.

Guterres adds that denying Palestinians the right to statehood “would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security,” in comments a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against a report that he’d told US President Joe Biden he has not ruled out the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza was triggered by the October 7 terror onslaught in southern Israel in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst into the country by land, air and sea, slaughtering some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seizing around 240 hostages under the cover of thousands of rockets.

In response to the deadly assault, Israel launched an aerial campaign and subsequent ground operation, vowing to destroy Hamas and end its 16-year rule in the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip says 25,105 people have been killed inside the enclave since the start of the war with Israel.

The numbers provided by the Hamas-run ministry 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.

In apparent compromise, ministers approve transfer of frozen funds to Norway to hold for Palestinian Authority

File - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) speaks with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on June 18, 2023. (Amit Shabi/Pool)

The cabinet approves a plan to transfer frozen funds earmarked for the Palestinian Authority to Norway, which would only transfer them to Ramallah with the express permission of Jerusalem, following fierce internal debate and extended American pressure.

The government’s decision follows last Thursday’s cabinet discussion of a proposal to transfer the tax revenues — which are collected by Israel on the PA’s behalf, via a third party, which did not end with a vote.

“The United States and Norway respect the decision of the political and security cabinet that ordered a halt to the transfer of Gaza funds to the Palestinian Authority. Therefore, the frozen funds will not be transferred to the Palestinian Authority, but will remain in the hands of a third country,” the Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement.

“The money or its consideration will not be transferred under any circumstances, except with the approval of Israel’s finance minister, not even through a third party. Any violation of the agreement allows the finance minister to immediately freeze” all of the Palestinian tax funds, it continues, adding that Washington had agreed to serve as a guarantor of the plan’s implementation.

Last November, the cabinet approved a partial transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority while retaining nearly half the initial amount — corresponding to the sum the PA uses to pay its employees in the Gaza Strip — with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich steadfastly refusing to transfer the funds, claiming the cash could be transferred to Hamas.

The PA has refused to accept any of the funds, which total around NIS 275 million per month, as long as the money for services and employees in Gaza is not included. Despite prolonged US pressure for Israel to release the monies, Smotrich has remained adamant in his position.

According to the approved outline, Norway will not be allowed to release any of the frozen funds — which would have been used by the Palestinian Authority to pay salaries of government workers in Gaza —without prior Israeli permission, with Jerusalem within its rights to halt the flow of money should Oslo take any such action.

Responding to the decision, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir tweets that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “constantly moves the red line. Sometimes they give fuel, sometimes they give up humanitarian aid in exchange for humanitarian aid, last week they started moving flour trucks and now they are making a decision that does not guarantee that the money will not reach the Nazis from Gaza.”

Visiting Israel last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel to transfer the funds: “Those are their revenues,” he said at a January 9 press conference. The PA “should have them.”

Blinken said the PA needed the money to pay its employees, some of whom do essential work in the West Bank. He cited the PA security forces, who he said were trying to keep peace, security and stability in the West Bank — and that’s “profoundly in Israel’s interests.”

Rocket sirens in Gaza border town warn of first rocket fire from Strip in 48 hours

Sirens sound in the Gaza border town of Kissufim, warning of incoming rocket fire.

It is the first time in some 48 hours that rockets have been fired from the Strip.

The communities bordering Gaza have been largely evacuated of civilians since October 7.

UK defense minister: ‘Disappointing’ that Netanyahu doesn’t believe in 2-state solution, but he’s always said that

Britain's Defense Secretary Grant Shapps during a meeting with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides at the Presidential Palace in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Jan. 19, 2024 (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Britain’s Defense Minister Grant Shapps says it is “disappointing” that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not in favor of a Palestinian state.

“It’s disappointing to hear that Netanyahu doesn’t believe in a two-state solution, although in fairness, he’s said that all of his political career, as far as I can tell,” Shapps tells Sky News.

“I don’t think we get to a solution unless there’s a two-state solution,” he says.

“We don’t interfere in other countries’ democratic processes,” Shapps says, noting the divisions within the Israeli political leadership, as well as the close relations between the UK and Israel.

Netanyahu pushed back yesterday against a report that he’d told US President Joe Biden he has not ruled out the creation of a Palestinian state.

However, the carefully worded statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office did not definitively rule out the possibility of a Palestinian state with less than full sovereignty — a possible option that Biden mentioned in comments after the leaders’ Friday call when he spoke of “types” of two-state solution.

Hamas-run health ministry says 25,105 killed in Gaza since Oct. 7

A picture taken from Rafah shows smoke billowing over Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip during Israeli strikes on January 20, 2024 (AFP)

The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip says 25,105 people have been killed inside the enclave since the start of the war with Israel.

The numbers provided by the Hamas-run ministry 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.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza was triggered by the October 7 terror onslaught in southern Israel in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst into the country by land, air and sea, slaughtering some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seizing around 240 hostages under the cover of thousands of rockets.

In response to the deadly assault, Israel launched an aerial campaign and subsequent ground operation, vowing to destroy Hamas and end its 16-year rule in the Gaza Strip.

Katz heads to Brussels to address EU Foreign Affairs Council, meet ministers

Energy Minister Israel Katz speaks at a conference in Tel Aviv, March 13, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Foreign Minister Israel Katz takes off for Brussels to participate in the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council meeting, attended by the member states’ foreign ministers.

Katz will address the forum, and will meet with his counterparts from the EU, France, Greece, Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Belgium, Bulgaria and Denmark, as well as other EU officials.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Katz will focus on the importance of defeating Hamas and of bringing home the hostages held in Gaza.

Hamas leader Haniyeh said to meet Turkish FM to discuss hostages, ceasefire

File: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh visits the Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon's top Sunni religious authority, in Beirut on June 22, 2022. (Anwar Amro/AFP)

Hamas’s Qatar-based chief Ismail Haniyeh has held a meeting with the Turkish foreign minister, diplomatic sources say, in the first official contact between the two for more than three months.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Haniyeh on Saturday in Turkey, the sources say.

The potential release of hostages held in Gaza, along with the establishment of “a ceasefire as quickly as possible,” were the main topic of discussions, according to one of the sources.

The source says that during the meeting, the two sides also discussed “increasing humanitarian aid… and a two-state solution for a permanent peace.”

Fidan and Haniyeh last had official contact in a phone call on October 16.

Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan delivers a speech at the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM), about security measures, against terrorism, in Ankara, on January 16, 2024. (Adem ALTAN / AFP)

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza was triggered by the October 7 terror onslaught in southern Israel in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst into the country by land, air and sea, slaughtering some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seizing around 240 hostages under the cover of thousands of rockets.

In response to the deadly assault, Israel launched an aerial campaign and subsequent ground operation, vowing to destroy Hamas and end its 16-year rule in the Gaza Strip.

Following the outbreak of war, Israel recalled its diplomats from Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of committing war crimes.

Turkey’s strong relationship with Hamas has long remained a major sore point between the two countries, with Erdogan refusing to cut ties and allowing the terror group to continue to operate from an office in Istanbul.

Navy struck Gaza building where Hamas was readying to ambush troops, IDF says

IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip in pictures cleared for publication on January 21, 2024. (IDF)

The Israeli Navy struck a building in central Gaza Strip where a number of Hamas operatives were readying to ambush troops, the military says.

The IDF says the Navy identified the threat and, together with the 179th Reserve Armored Brigade, struck the operatives.

Meanwhile, in southern Gaza, the IDF says that in a joint operation between the Air Force and snipers of the Commando Brigade, numerous Hamas operatives were killed.

In the Gaza City neighborhoods of Daraj and Tuffah, the IDF says the 401st Armored Brigade battled Hamas operatives, killing some 15, and raided a building used by the terror group, where soldiers found weapons.

כוחות זרוע הים ממשיכים לסייע לכוחות הקרקעיים הפועלים ברצועת עזה בתצפית ובתקיפת מטרות של ארגוני הטרור. ביממה האחרונה, זיהו מבנה בו ארבו מחבלים לכוחותינו במרכז הרצועה ובשיתוף פעולה עם לוחמי חטיבה 179 תקפו את המחבלים והסירו את האיום>> pic.twitter.com/kbnvt4OLAl

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 21, 2024

Gallant picks former air force chief to lead Haredi IDF recruitment efforts – report

Haredi men who decided to join the IDF following the October 7 onslaught by Hamas arrive at recruiting offices in Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv, October 23, 2023 (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has reportedly appointed a point man to work on the recruitment and integration of members of the Haredi community into the Israel Defense Forces.

The Kan public broadcaster says Gallant has picked a former commander of the Israeli Air Force, Maj. Gen. (res.) Eliezer Shkedi, to take on the role.

Shkedi worked to recruit Haredi men into the air force when it was under his command.

Haredi women and male yeshiva students are generally exempt from military service due to controversial longstanding arrangements.

In 2017, the High Court of Justice invalidated the legal exemption and ordered the government to pass a new conscription law. The government has since been unable to agree on legislation, repeatedly extending the non-conscription policy, while Haredi politicians have sought to pass legislation cementing the exemptions.

Many Haredim believe that studying the Torah helps protect the Jewish people and even the state, and that serving time in the army would dilute adherence to their strict ways of life and lead impressionable members of the community astray.

Among non-Haredi Jews, this is widely perceived as draft-dodging by a group that refuses to integrate into mainstream society.

Many of those who do draft into the military and are counted in statistics as Haredi recruits have actually left the ultra-Orthodox world or are from the less stringent streams.

The Hamas attack and subsequent war with its massive mobilization of reservists has led commentators to note that a new law exempting members of Haredi society seems increasingly unlikely.

UK to upgrade warship Sea Viper defense missile system used against Red Sea Houthi attacks

In this photo provided by the Royal Navy on December 16, 2023, an image shows the HMS Diamond firing its Sea Viper missile to engage and shoot down an aerial drone over the Red Sea. (Royal Navy/Ministry of Defence via AP, File)

Britain’s Ministry of Defence says it will spend 405 million pounds ($514 million) to upgrade a missile system now being used by the Royal Navy to shoot down hostile drones over the Red Sea.

The Sea Viper Air Defence system will be upgraded with missiles featuring a new warhead and software enabling it to counter ballistic missile threats, the MoD says in a statement.

The contracts were awarded to the British division of MBDA, a missiles joint venture owned by Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo, the MoD says.

“As the situation in the Middle East worsens, it is vital that we adapt to keep the UK, our allies and partners safe,” UK Defense Minister Grant Shapps says in the statement.

“Sea Viper has been at the forefront of this, being the Navy’s weapon of choice in the first shooting down of an aerial threat in more than 30 years.”

US and British naval forces in the Red Sea have shot drones and missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi movement this month as the war between Israel and Hamas spilled out into the broader region.

US said to believe Israel has killed just 20-30% of Hamas terrorists in Gaza fighting

IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip in pictures cleared for publication on January 21, 2024. (IDF)

Israeli security forces have killed just 20-30 percent of Hamas’s terrorists in the Gaza Strip, US intelligence agencies reportedly estimate.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the US believes the terror group still has enough munitions to continue fighting Israeli forces for a number of months.

The US figures appear to largely square with Israeli estimates.

Last week, the IDF said that more than 9,000 Hamas operatives and members of other terror groups have been killed by the IDF in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7, when gunmen rampaged through southern communities massacring some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting over 240 to Gaza.

In 2021, a senior IDF commander said that Hamas was believed to have around 30,000 fighters.

The IDF has assessed that fighting in Gaza will likely last throughout all of 2024, as Israel works to strip Hamas of its military and governing capabilities. It has also vowed to continue fighting until all remaining hostages are released from captivity.

IDF demolishes home of terrorist who perpetrated deadly November attack – Palestinian media

Palestinian media reports that security forces destroyed the Hebron home of one of the perpetrators of a deadly November shooting attack by terrorists who targeted the “tunnels” checkpoint on the West Bank’s Route 60, south of Jerusalem.

Cpl. Avraham Fetena, 20, a Military Police soldier from Haifa was critically wounded in the attack and later succumbed to his wounds.

Police said the three gunmen had planned to carry out a much larger massacre in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem defends the practice of razing the family home of attackers as a deterrent against future assaults. Over the years, a number of Israeli defense officials have questioned the efficacy of the practice, and human rights activists have denounced it as unfair collective punishment.

דיווחים פלסטיניים: כוחות הביטחון הישראליים הרסו את בית המחבל נסראללה אלקוואסמה בחברון שביצע את הפיגוע במחסום המנהרות שבו נהרג החייל אברהם פטנה ונפצעו שישה@migansh5 pic.twitter.com/FxBABN9V9J

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 21, 2024

IDF releases video of Khan Younis tunnel where 20 hostages were held

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 Israel Defense Forces releases video showing the inside of a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis where Israeli hostages were held by Hamas.

The military says the tunnel is approximately 830 meters in length (half a mile), and was dug 20 meters (66 feet) below the ground.

There was a central space as well as five barred cells.

The IDF says that troops fought a number of gunmen when they entered the tunnel, but there were no longer any hostages there.

The entrance to the tunnel was from inside the home of a Hamas terrorist, the military says.

Last night, the military revealed that troops had recently uncovered the tunnel where the hostages were held “in harsh and inhumane conditions.” Among the objects found in the tunnel were drawings by five-year-old Emilia Aloni, who was freed in November during a temporary ceasefire.

סורגים ומזרנים, 20 מטרים מתחת לאדמה: תיעוד מהמנהרה בה הוחזקו כ-20 חטופיםhttps://t.co/yAyeeG5SEu@OrHeller pic.twitter.com/WFbOyPcbG0

— חדשות 13 (@newsisrael13) January 21, 2024

IDF says reservist Uriel Aviad Silberman killed in battle in Gaza over the weekend

Sgt. First Class (res.) Uriel Aviad Silberman, killed during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip, as announced by the IDF on January 21, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF announces the death of a soldier killed during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip over the weekend, bringing the toll of slain troops in the ground offensive against Hamas to 195.

He is named as Sgt. First Class (res.) Uriel Aviad Silberman, 23, of the Kiryati Brigade’s 7421st Battalion, from Nehalim.

Another officer and soldier of the same battalion were seriously wounded in the same battle, the IDF says.

UK chief rabbi: ‘Genocide’ accusations aimed at ‘tearing open’ the wound of the Holocaust

British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis speaks at a National Holocaust Memorial Day event at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, on January 26, 2017, in London, England. (Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis charges that the “genocide” accusations against Israel are a “moral inversion” designed to “tear open the still gaping wound of the Holocaust,” and constitute a hijacking of the term to commit “the ultimate demonization of the Jewish state.”

In an opinion piece for The Telegraph written days ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Mirvis says the accusation is “deployed not only to eradicate any notion that Israel has a responsibility to protect its citizens, but also to tear open the still gaping wound of the Holocaust, knowing that it will inflict more pain than any other accusation. It is a moral inversion, which undermines the memory of the worst crimes in human history.”

He adds: “It should be obvious that if Israel’s objectives were genocidal, it could have used its military strength to level Gaza in a matter of days.

“Instead, it is placing the lives of its own soldiers at risk in its ground operations, securing humanitarian corridors and providing civilians with advance notice of its operations, even to the detriment of its military objectives.”

Cop breaks glasses of journalist who recorded his alleged violence at soccer stadium

A journalist is apparently attacked by a police officer, breaking his glasses, after filming a violent altercation between the cop and several soccer fans during a game at Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium.

The match between Hapoel Jerusalem and Hapoel Beersheba features officers raiding the stands to enforce anti-smoking rules, with footage showing violent clashes and apparent police violence.

Haaretz reporter Chaim Levinson publishes footage showing what he says is an officer in civilian clothing “going wild and beating” fans, before he walks up to the man and asks him if he’s a cop.

The cop then “jumped on me, strangled me so I couldn’t breathe, took my glasses and slammed them against the gate,” breaking them and his cylindrical lenses, which Levinson says are worth NIS 2,000 ($530).

מגיע לטדי באיחור מפגוש את העיתונות. רואה שוטר משתולל על אזרחי משתולל ומרביץ
תראו אותו קירח באמצע נותן אגרופים

מצלם אותו
קופץ עלי
חונק אותי שלא יכלתי לישום
לקח לי את משקפיים והטיח אותם בשער

שבר את המשקפיים והעדשות(יש לי צילנדר) 2000 שקל

ומה
באתי לראות כדורגל

שתפו
נמאס pic.twitter.com/QhU55XptMI

— Chaim Levinson (@chaimlevinson) January 20, 2024

Police say cops were attacked, with one hurt in the eye, and that one fan was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an officer, with three others taken out of the stadium for “wild behavior.”

“Alongside this unacceptable behavior, it turns out that during the incident, one of the fans who was nearby and wasn’t involved in the incident recorded it, and his glasses were broken due to use of force by a police detective toward him,” police say in a statement. “The conduct in this case will be examined and taken care of accordingly.”

ילדים באים למשחק כדי לחוות קצת שקט מהטירוף כאן, ונמחצים בגלל חבורה של ביריונים במדים. מאחל לכל אחד ואחד ממיליציית הבהמות של בן גביר, שבעצם עדיף לא לכתוב מה אני מאחל להם כדי לחסוך דפיקות של הסיקוריטטה בדלת. pic.twitter.com/Gko9zix8cQ

— Yehuda Shohat (@yudash) January 20, 2024

Multiple ballistic missiles, rockets fired at US air base in Iraq, causing injuries

Multiple ballistic missiles and rockets have been launched by Iranian-backed militias in Western Iraq targeting al-Asad air base in Iraq, the United Sates Central Command (CENTCOM) says in a statement.

Most of the missiles were intercepted by the base’s air defense systems while others impacted on the base, the statement adds.

Damage assessments are ongoing, and a number of US personnel are undergoing evaluation for traumatic brain injuries, and at least one Iraqi service member is wounded, the CENTCOM statement says.