Jan. 28: Trump envoy said to meet top adviser to PA’s Abbas during Saudi Arabia visit

White House: Biden earmarked $50M for Gaza condoms; Biden official calls claim a ‘feverish dream’

The White House claims the previous administration had earmarked $50 million for a condom distribution program in the Gaza Strip, but does not offer evidence to back up the claim, which a former senior Biden official dismisses as a “feverish dream.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says the expenditure was discovered in Trump’s first week including by the new Department of Government Efficiency led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Musk’s initiative and the budget office “found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza,” Leavitt tells her debut press conference.

“That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money,” she says.

Andrew Miller, who served as deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs under former US president Joe Biden, calls the claim “outlandish.”

“It’s possible that $50 million is put aside for sexual health or something of that nature, which would include gynecology and many other services, but definitely not condoms alone,” he tells The Times of Israel.

The US Agency for International Development’s spending on injectable contraceptives, contraceptive implants, IUDs, male condoms, oral contraceptives, Standard Days Method and female condoms amounted to $60 million in the fiscal year of 2023, and that was across the globe — not just Gaza.

Condoms generally cost less than one dollar each in the United States and much less in bulk. Just over two million people live in Gaza, nearly all of which has been heavily damaged in the 15-month war with Israel.

Man shot dead in northern city of Zarzir

A man in his 40s was shot dead in the northern city of Zarzir tonight, according to the police and medics.

According to local Arabic-language media, the victim’s name is Abdel-Moneim Jandawi.

First responder Amir Elisha says his team “saw the injured man unconscious, without a pulse and not breathing with penetrating wounds on his body” and eventually declared him dead at the scene.

Police have opened an investigation into the shooting and say the circumstances were criminal rather than terror-related.

Since the start of 2025, 18 Arab Israeli citizens have been killed in violent incidents, amid a years-long epidemic of crime in the community.

Ex-hostage Soussana credits Liri Albag with saving her life as captors tortured, threatened her

Released hostage Amit Soussana speaks during a rally calling for the release of Hamas captives held in Gaza, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, January 18, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Amit Soussana, a hostage kidnapped to Gaza on October 7, 2023, and freed in a hostage deal in November of that year, says fellow captive Liri Albag, who was released on Saturday after 477 days, saved her life by convincing their terrorist captors that she, Soussana, was not an IDF officer.

In an interview with Channel 12’s “Uvda” investigative program, Soussana, 40, says the captors bound her hands and legs together while one beat her with a stick and the other threatened her with a sharp metal object, and demanded that she admit being in the military, claiming they had seen as such on TV.

She says the captors brought other hostages, including Albag, to ask her to come clean.

A guard told her, “You have 40 minutes to tell us the truth, or else I kill you,” while pointing a gun at her head, she says.

She says Albag talked to the guard and managed to persuade the captors that Soussana wasn’t in the military.

“I told her when she came back: ‘I don’t know if they would have killed me or not; as far as I’m concerned, you saved my life.'”

Released hostage Liri Albag is seen with her parents Eli and Shira after being freed from Hamas captivity on January 25, 2025 (Israel Defense Forces)

Soussana also says that in the first three weeks of her captivity, she was kept alone in an apartment with two guards who tied her legs with a metal chain and with two locks to a window, “like an animal.”

She again recounts the sexual assault she endured by one of the captors, a story she first revealed in an interview with The New York Times last year.

Palestinian Authority PM meets Syrian leader, in first in over 15 years

A delegation from the Palestinian Authority visited Damascus today and met Syria’s new leader, in the first such meeting in over 15 years.

The delegation, headed by PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, met with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the PA says in a statement. No details of what was discussed are given.

Palestinian PM Mohammad Mustafa arrived at the People’s Palace in Damascus and met with Ahmed Al-Sharaa, The head of the new Syrian administration.

This marks the first visit by a high-level Palestinian official to Syria in nearly two decades. pic.twitter.com/QEJAmx346V

— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) January 28, 2025

UN says over 376,000 Gazans have returned to Strip’s north since Monday

Displaced Palestinians walk on a road to return to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip, January 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

More than 376,000 Palestinians displaced by the war between Israel and Hamas have returned to northern Gaza, the UN’s humanitarian body OCHA says.

“Over 376,000 people are estimated to have returned to their places of origin in northern Gaza, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the two main roads along the Netzarim corridor” that leads into the north, OCHA says in a humanitarian update.

Democrats block GOP effort to push US sanctions on ICC through Senate

Exterior of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, June 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

US Senate Democrats have blocked a Republican effort to advance legislation sanctioning the International Criminal Court over the arrest warrants it issued against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

A vote to invoke cloture has fallen six lawmakers short of the 60 needed in order to bring the legislation to a floor vote.

The 54-45 vote result means that the Democrats will be able to continue filibustering the legislation and will likely require Republicans to resume negotiations with the Democrats aimed at reaching a compromise on the matter — one that at the very least will likely require tweaking the legislation that already passed the Republican-led House.

Sen. John Fetterman is the only Democrat who votes with Republicans to advance the bill.

The Biden administration had refrained from backing the effort, and Democrats apparently have decided to double down on that stance to block the bill.

But it’s unclear whether the Congressional legislation will be necessary, given that US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office restoring sanctions he had instituted during his first term against the ICC, which former president Joe Biden revoked with his own executive order.

US sending patriot missiles from Israel to Ukraine — report

File: A Patriot battery is seen stationed in northern Israel, August 2, 2018. (Basel Awidat/Flash90)

The United States transferred some 90 Patriot air defense interceptors from Israel to Poland this week to then deliver them to Ukraine, Axios reports, citing three sources with knowledge of the operation.

IDF says forces opened fire to deter several threats in Gaza today

The IDF says it operated against several threats in the Gaza Strip today.

In central Gaza, a drone strike was carried out as a warning after a vehicle attempted to travel to north Gaza via an area that is prohibited for vehicular traffic per the agreement, and as such would not have undergone inspection, the military says.

In southern Gaza, the IDF says troops fired warning shots after suspects were approaching forces “and posed a threat.” After the suspects continued to near the troops, they were directly targeted.

In other areas of Gaza, warning shots were fired at suspects who “posed a threat” to troops, the army adds.

US envoy fully backs Israeli stance against UNRWA at Security Council meeting

Laborers sit on the back of an UNRWA truck during a visit by a senior emergency officer of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) to Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 3, 2024. (BASHAR TALEB / AFP)

Breaking with the previous administration of Joe Biden, US President Donald Trump’s administration comes out in favor of Israeli legislation to sever Jerusalem’s ties with the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, UNRWA, and to severely restrict its operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

“It is Israel’s sovereign decision to close UNRWA’s offices in Jerusalem on January 30. The United States supports the implementation of this decision,” US chargé d’affaires ad interim Dorothy Shea says in remarks during the UN Security Council’s monthly session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Biden administration raised concerns over the extent to which Hamas has managed to infiltrate UNRWA and moved to freeze US funding to the agency following revelations that a number of its members actively participated in Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

However, it came out against Congress’s decision to extend that freeze to this coming March, when lawmakers are expected to maintain the hold indefinitely.

Biden officials argued that UNRWA plays too essential of a role in Gaza’s humanitarian operations, and that it therefore should not be shuttered. It is behind many logistical aspects of aid delivery, including storage and transport.

The Knesset legislation passed in the fall also bars Israeli officials from any contact with UNWRA, which the agency says will lead to the collapse of its operations in Gaza and the West Bank where coordination with Israeli authorities is essential.

Israel after passing the legislation said it would work with international organizations to ensure that a vacuum in the humanitarian effort would not be created by UNRWA’s departure, but Israeli officials have acknowledged to The Times of Israel that those preparations have not yet been completed as the law comes into place.

These concerns were not voiced by Trump’s interim envoy at the UN, who echoed Israeli stances questioning the UN’s objectivity.

“We are concerned about reports that returned Israeli hostages were held by Hamas in UN facilities during their prolonged captivity in Gaza. It is vital for a full and independent investigation to assess these very serious allegations,” Shea says. “Unfortunately, this follows a pattern of serious allegations on the misuse of UN facilities – particularly UNRWA facilities – by Hamas terrorists.”

She goes on to criticize UNRWA for “exaggerating the effects” of the Knesset legislation by “irresponsibly and dangerously… suggesting that they will force the entire humanitarian response to halt.”

“What is needed is a nuanced discussion about how we can ensure that there is no interruption in the delivery of humanitarian aid and essential services,” the US envoy says.

Trump envoy said to meet senior Palestinian official in Saudi Arabia

US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff met today with a top adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in the first meeting between a Palestinian official and a member of the new US administration since the November election, according to Axios.

According to the report, which cites two unnamed sources with knowledge of the meeting, Witkoff sat down in Saudi Arabia with Hussein al-Sheikh following weeks of back-channel communications, amid efforts in Riyadh to reach a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and potentially broker an Israeli-Saudi normalization deal.

The Saudis have been adamant that any such agreement include a viable pathway toward a Palestinian state, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has ruled out.

Lebanon’s caretaker PM condemns Israeli strikes

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemns strikes by Israel on southern Lebanon, calling for a firm stance to guarantee Israel’s implementation of its commitments during a phone call with US General Jasper Jeffers, who chairs the monitoring committee, according to a statement from the PM’s office.

The IDF has said it struck vehicles near Nabatieh used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons.

Despite PM’s claim, White House official says date not set for Trump-Netanyahu meeting

After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the White House invited him to meet US President Donald Trump next Tuesday, a White House official tells The Times of Israel that a date has not yet been finalized for the sit-down.

The official clarifies that an invitation has indeed been extended and that the meeting will still take place early next week.

At UN, Trump envoy avoids criticizing Israel, says US committed to entire Gaza truce deal

US Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Dorothy Camille Shea speaks during a UN Security Council meeting concerning the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) at UN headquarters in New York City on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Yuki IWAMURA / AFP)

US President Donald Trump’s administration is “strongly committed” to implementing the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal, its envoy tells the UN Security Council, in one of its firmest statements yet in support of implementing all three stages of the agreement, amid calls from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners to resume the war after the first phase ends next month.

“The United States is strongly committed to implementing the ceasefire agreement, so that the hostages can return home and the people of Gaza can look toward a brighter future under new leadership,” US Chargé d ‘Affairs ad interim Dorothy Shea says in her remarks during the Security Council’s monthly session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Trump and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff have also spoken about the importance of returning all of the hostages, but the former has also said he’s not confident the ceasefire will hold.

Netanyahu says he has received assurances from Trump that the US will back Israel in resuming the war if Hamas violates the terms of the ceasefire or stops negotiating in good faith regarding the terms of the second phase.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has suggested the premier has given him an assurance to resume fighting that isn’t conditional on whether Hamas violates the deal.

Shea — who is part of an interim staff running the US Mission to the UN until Trump’s nominee Rep. Elise Stefanik is confirmed by the Senate — is careful not to criticize Israel in her remarks or even suggest that Netanyahu is not supportive of sticking with the hostage deal.

Overall, the speech is a clear departure from the previous administration of Joe Biden, which also consistently sought to defend Israel at the UN, but did so while criticizing Israeli policy in the West Bank and for not doing enough to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and sometimes even exacerbating it.

Shea avoids criticizing Israel altogether, placing all of the onus for civilian casualties on Hamas.

Israel outlaws, shuts offices of Arab reconciliation body headed by Islamist Raed Salah

Sheikh Raed Salah, center, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, arrives after his release from prison in Umm al-Fahm, December 13, 2021. (Flash90)

Security forces shuttered the offices of reconciliation committees in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm earlier today, citing Islamist ties, says a police spokesman.

Police and Shin Bet raided the committees’ offices and arrested their head, Sheikh Raed Salah, but released him later today.

The “peace spreading” committees are an initiative of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, a leading umbrella organization among Israel’s Arab minority. Established by Salah in 2017, the committees operate with the stated goal of curbing violence in Arab society by mediating between feuding families.

Israeli police arrest prominent Palestinian figure Sheikh Raed Salah after searching his home and office in his hometown of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, according to his lawyer https://t.co/f2dIqVZxgR pic.twitter.com/pHaU32FFj5

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) January 28, 2025

The raid comes after a decision by Defense Minister Israel Katz to outlaw the reconciliation program, citing its links to the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, which Salah heads.

Israel declared the northern branch of the movement illegal in 2015 over repeated incitement to terrorism.

Two years later, police arrested Salah and he was convicted of incitement to terror. He was released in 2021, and continues to lead the reconciliation committees.

IDF says it struck vehicles in Lebanon used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons

The IDF confirms carrying out an airstrike in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon an hour ago.

According to the IDF, the strike targeted a truck and several other vehicles used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons in the area.

“The truck and vehicles were struck after being monitored by the IDF while transferring the weapons,” the military adds.

Netanyahu said set to boycott Isaac Amit’s swearing-in as Supreme Court president

Supreme Court Justice Isaac Amit leaves the offices of the Israel Courts Administration in Jerusalem after a meeting of the Judicial Selection Committee which appointed him new Supreme Court president, January 26, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to skip the swearing-in ceremony for incoming Supreme Court president Isaac Amit, Hebrew media reports.

It would be the first time in Israeli history that a sitting premier doesn’t attend the swearing-in of a chief justice.

According to Channel 12 news, Netanyahu’s associates are attributing the decisions to security concerns — despite the ongoing ceasefire — and to the premier having a “conflict of interest” since he is a criminal defendant.

The network cites unnamed political sources as saying that in fact, the move is part of the coalition’s efforts to delegitimize Amit’s tenure after Justice Minister Yariv Levin tried to thwart the appointment for 15 months and recently said he doesn’t recognize Amit and will boycott him.

Israeli contractor mistakenly killed by IDF troops in Gaza, army says

Jacob Avitan, a Defense Ministry contractor killed in Gaza on January 28, 2025. (Courtesy)

A civilian Defense Ministry contractor was killed in an incident of so-called “friendly fire” in the central Gaza Strip today, the military announces.

He is named as Jacob Avitan, 39.

Avitan was contracted to operate an excavator to clear structures and rubble in Gaza. The Defense Ministry has hired numerous civilians with construction experience for these tasks, freeing up IDF units.

According to an initial IDF probe, the contractor arrived at an army post inside Gaza, in an area of the Netzarim Corridor where troops are still deployed, and was mistakenly identified as a threat. A soldier opened fire on Avitan, killing him.

The IDF Military Police is investigating the incident.

Hamas said to promise families of terror chiefs Barghouti, Saadat they’ll be freed in 2nd phase

Palestinian women take a picture in front of a big poster of Marwan Barghouti, the highest-profile Palestinian prisoner held by Israel, during a rally in solidarity with Gaza and prisoners held by Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, August 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Hamas has promised the families of prominent terror convicts Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat that they will be released from Israeli prison in the second stage of the ongoing ceasefire and hostage deal, the Kan public broadcaster reports, citing an unnamed Palestinian source involved in the negotiations.

Both prisoners are senior terror chiefs and are considered icons by many Palestinians.

Barghouti, 64, is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for his part in planning three terror attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada.

Saadat, 72, the leader of the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was sentenced in 2008 to 30 years behind bars for masterminding the 2001 assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi.

PFLP Secretary-General Ahmad Saadat at the Jerusalem’s Magistrate Court in September 2012. (Yoav Ari Dudkevitch/Flash90)

Israel has previously said Barghouti won’t be freed in a deal.

The Palestinian source is cited as saying Hamas is preparing a strategic plan to take over the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority after the latter’s elderly leader Mahmoud Abbas is no longer in office.

The popular Barghouti is seen as a leading candidate to win potential Palestinian national elections, and if Hamas secures his release, Barghouti will be owing the terror group his life and freedom, the report says.

Deri sets ultimatum to Netanyahu: If Haredi draft law doesn’t pass in next 2 months, government will fall

Shas leader MK Aryeh Deri (right) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seen during a Shas party meeting at the Knesset, January 23, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri threatens to bring down the government unless it passes a conscription law exempting yeshiva students from military service in the next 60 days.

Speaking with ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Berama, Deri declares that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition have two months to regulate the status of Torah students, and “if it’s not regulated, we’ll go to elections.”

“Who would have dreamed that Torah scholars would be called criminals,” he asks — alleging that members of the religious Zionist community have become “partners in this hate campaign” and arguing that it is they and not him who “will bring about the fall of the right-wing government.”

While not stated explicitly, Deri’s threat likely relates to Shas’s support — or potential lack thereof — for the 2025 state budget, which must be passed by the end of March 2025 or the government will automatically fall, triggering early elections.

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is currently debating a bill regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment, although chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) has warned that he “would only produce a real conscription law that will significantly increase the IDF’s conscription base.”

Netanyahu to meet Trump at White House on Feb. 4, PM’s office says

Then-US President Donald Trump, right, meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, September 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet in the White House with US President Donald Trump next week, his office confirms.

The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 4, his office says, pointing out that Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to receive such an invitation in Trump’s second term.

Netanyahu is still recovering from surgery to remove his prostate a month ago.

Lebanon says 7 injured in Israeli strike; IDF doesn’t immediately comment

The Lebanese health ministry says seven people were wounded in an Israeli airstrike in the Nabatieh area.

The IDF has not yet commented on the strike in southern Lebanon.

Lebanese media report Israeli strike in country’s south

Lebanese media report an Israeli airstrike in the town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa in southern Lebanon.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

غارة إسرائيلية على حي الدير في النبطية الفوقا #جنوب_لبنان pic.twitter.com/vtPRHLlN2i

— nbnlebanon (@nbntweets) January 28, 2025

‘Feeling better by the day’: Freed hostage Naama Levy issues 1st message, thanks public

Freed hostage Naama Levy hugs her relatives after reuniting in the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva on January 25, 2025. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Former hostage Naama Levy sends out her first message to the public since her release on Saturday.

“After 477 days, I’m at home at last,” she writes on Instagram, according to Hebrew media. “I am safe and protected, surrounded by family and friends, and feeling better by the day.”

Speaking about her time in captivity, Levy says that for the first 50 days after being kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists on October 7, 2023, she was mostly kept alone.

“After that, I stayed with my friends” — four fellow IDF lookout soldiers abducted with her, three of whom were released with her, as well as other female hostages — “who gave me strength and hope,” she adds. “We strengthened each other until the release day and also after it.”

She says the released troops are waiting for their colleague Agam Berger, who is slated for release on Thursday, and for the rest of the captives.

“It is important to me to thank IDF fighters and all the Israeli people — already in captivity I saw how you were fighting for me. Thank you everyone, I love you,” she concludes.

Initiative urges public to dress in orange tomorrow to honor Bibas family hostages

Yifat Zailer shows photos of her cousin, Shiri Bibas, center, her husband Yarden, left, and their sons Ariel, top right, and Kfir, who were taken hostage by Hamas terrorists, at her home in Herzliya, January 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

A support group for the Bibas family asks the public to dress in orange tomorrow in honor of hostage parents Shiri and Yarden and their sons Ariel, 5, and Kfir, 2 — marking the bright red hair of the two boys — who were all taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, by Hamas terrorists.

Instructions are to wear orange clothes or accessories, tie orange ribbons or balloons to the car, balcony or office, and use the color orange in any way.

“The people of Israel haven’t forgotten the Bibas family!” states a flyer making the rounds on social media. “Join us and together we will color the country in orange.”

The Bibas family stated yesterday that they are still holding on to hope that the family will return from captivity in Gaza, although Shiri and the boys should have been among the first seven civilian hostages released in the last ten days, and despite “grave concerns” for their lives.

“We said then, and we say now: we hold on to hope and continue waiting for their return. We await clarity regarding their condition,” said the family in the statement.

“The list that was recently forwarded by Hamas to Israel is not a list of names and does not change our standpoint. Even a list of names, an announcement by Hamas, or any video is not considered certainty for us,” it said, referring to a Hamas-provided list that said eight of the remaining 26 hostages to be freed in the ongoing first phase of a ceasefire and hostage deal are dead.

US envoy: UNRWA ‘exaggerating the effects’ of Israel’s decision to cut contact with agency

The United States supports Israel’s move to cut all contact with the United Nations’ Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, a US envoy to the UN tells a Security Council meeting on the issue.

“The United States supports the implementation of this decision,” says Dorothy Shea, a United States representative to the UN who accuses UNRWA officials of “exaggerating the effects of the laws.”

At Security Council meeting, UNRWA chief decries ‘disastrous’ impending Israeli ban on agency

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, speaks during a UN Security Council meeting at UN headquarters in New York City on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Yuki IWAMURA / AFP)

Implementation of a ban — due to come into effect on Thursday — on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, UNRWA, in Israel would be disastrous and cripple the body’s work in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, its chief tells the Security Council.

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, claims the ban would “heighten instability and deepen despair in the occupied Palestinian territory at a critical moment,” undermine the ceasefire in Gaza, and sabotage the enclave’s recovery and political transition.

“The relentless assault on UNRWA is harming the lives and future of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory. It is eroding their trust in the international community, jeopardizing any prospect for peace and security,” he contends.

Israel is due to cease all contact with UNRWA and any other body acting on its behalf, accusing the organization of undermining its security and being infiltrated by Hamas and other terror groups.

Israel says members took part in the October 7, 2023, onslaught, and for years has accused the agency of taking a part in radicalizing Palestinians against Israel and perpetuating the conflict by automatically bestowing refugee status on descendants of refugees, unlike the situation with the rest of the world’s refugees.

“The legislation forbids UNRWA from operating within the sovereign territory of the State of Israel, and forbids any contact between Israeli officials and UNWRA,” Israel’s UN envoy Danny Danon says ahead of the Security Council meeting on Israel’s passage of the legislation.

“Israel will terminate all collaboration, communication and contact with UNRWA or anyone acting on its behalf.”

In call with Netanyahu, Zelensky welcomes hostage release, discusses need for closeness with Trump

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, in Jerusalem, January 24, 2020. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken by phone to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader says.

In a post on X, Zelensky says he “welcomed the beginning of the release of hostages” and expressed hope they would all be released soon, adding that “it is crucial to ensure a reliable and lasting peace, so that people can live in safety and security.”

Zelensky says he also discussed with Netanyahu the Ukrainian leader’s participation yesterday in a memorial at Auschwitz marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp.

Zelensky says he and Netanyahu “also discussed maintaining close contact with partners, particularly the United States and President Trump.”

There is no immediate readout of the call from the Israeli side.

American and Qatari top diplomats speak, voicing hope Gaza ceasefire becomes permanent

Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, took part in a phone call today with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss the continuation of their joint mediation efforts in Gaza, the Qatari foreign ministry says.

The men expressed hope that a ceasefire deal reaches its second phase and turns into a permanent ceasefire, according to the statement.

IDF chief tells Knesset committee he couldn’t quit immediately after Oct. 7; army can resume fighting despite deal

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi attends a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, January 28, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has defended his decision to stay in his role after the failure to prevent Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, instead announcing only recently that he will step down in March, according to leaked comments he made today at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

According to Hebrew media, Halevi says that had he stepped down immediately, “this would have damaged the war effort — the military had to be led.”

Halevi also contends that the government made the right decision in approving the current ceasefire and hostage deal, even though it includes “painful” concessions.

Hinting at a potential resumption of the fighting, Halevi says: “We will make an effort for the price to be small, and we will know how to resume fighting with power and by way of deception.”

Referring to a law bill to regulate the issue of Haredi enlistment to the IDF, Halevi says that while he’s in contact with ultra-Orthodox leaders over the matter, he believes any law must include sanctions on draft dodgers since more friendly approaches over the years “led to very low enlistment rates.”

He says that this year, the military can recruit 4,800 Haredim, while next year that number will grow by 20%, and in 2027 “we will be able to absorb everybody.” Haredi leaders are demanding much smaller numbers, with the rest exempted, and without sanctions on evaders.

Halevi casts enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men as “a distinct security need,” adding that the IDF is short 10,000 soldiers — many of them combat troops — due to the “price of the war.”

Speaking of the army’s internal probes of the failures that enabled the Oct. 7 attack, Halevi says these were initiated early in the war in order to learn from the mistakes, “while fighting on seven fronts, and without making mistakes or cutting corners, even if it takes two extra weeks.”

Emirati conglomerate EDGE set to buy 30% of Israeli defense tech startup Thirdeye

UAE-based advanced defense technology group EDGE will invest $10 million to buy a 30% stake in Israel’s Thirdeye Systems, a developer of AI-based electro-optical systems to detect drone threats.

The deal is subject to approval by Israel’s Defense Ministry. The Netanya-based defense tech startup says that Abu Dhabi’s EDGE group has also committed to investing $12 million to create a joint venture with Thirdeye that will be tasked with development and sales of electro-optical object recognition systems to new global regions and markets.

Founded in 2010 by CEO Lior Segal, Yoel Motola and Gil Barak, Thirdeye develops fully automated electro-optical scanning systems to detect fast-evolving threats on the battlefield, including UAVs and enemy drones.

EDGE, an Abu Dhabi-based conglomerate of private firms and government-owned bodies, has 25 subsidiaries and employs 12,000 workers across various sectors: defense platforms and systems; missiles and precision-guided weapons; cyber defense; electronic warfare and intelligence; and mission support.

Defense Minister Katz says IDF to stay in Syria buffer zone indefinitely

Defense Minister Israel Katz meets with troops of the Alpinist Unit atop the summit of Mount Hermon, Syria, on January 28, 2025. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Israel Katz says during a visit to the Syrian side of Mount Hermon today that the IDF will remain there indefinitely.

“The IDF will remain at the summit of the Hermon and the security zone indefinitely to ensure the security of the communities of the Golan Heights and the north, and all the residents of Israel,” Katz says, apparently referring to a buffer zone on the Syrian side of the border that Israel seized following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime last month.

“We will not allow hostile forces to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria… we will act against any threat,” he says.

Katz says Israel will make contact with “friendly populations” in the southern Syria area, “with an emphasis on the large Druze community which has historic and close family relations with our Druze brothers in Israel.”

The defense minister visited an army post at the Mount Hermon summit, where he held an assessment with senior officers and spoke with troops, according to his office.

Israel has previously described its takeover of the buffer zone as a temporary measure aimed at preventing hostile forces from taking advantage of the power vacuum in Syria to enter the strategic zone and threaten Israeli territory.

Israeli mining magnate Beny Steinmetz appeals Greek extradition order to Romania

French-Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz looks on as he arrives for the third day of his appeal against a corruption sentence linked to mining rights in Guinea, at the Geneva's courthouse, on August 31, 2022. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

Israeli mining magnate Beny Steinmetz has appealed a Greek court ruling ordering his extradition to Romania on an arrest warrant, his lawyer and sources say.

Steinmetz has appealed against the decision at the country’s Supreme Court, his lawyer Stavros Togias says.

“Despite our deepest disappointment, the ruling does not bend my client’s confidence in Greek justice,” Togias says in a statement.

Steinmetz is currently held in custody while in hospital in Greece.

He was detained by Greek police on October 13, hours after he arrived on a private aircraft at Athens International Airport.

An arrest warrant has been issued against him in relation to a case dating back several years and concerning his involvement in a group that allegedly illegally tried to secure land rights in Romania.

Steinmetz’s legal advisers have dismissed the Romanian authorities’ accusations as “unfounded” and called the extradition requests by Romania “abusive,” arguing that he has the right to travel freely.

In 2022, a Greek court that examined his case had ruled against his extradition. Last year, Cyprus’s Court of Appeal also ruled against his extradition to Romania, overturning a lower court ruling. A court in Italy has also rejected the request.

Haredi extremists block Jerusalem road outside event honoring ultra-Orthodox soldiers

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox extremists block a central road outside Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, which is hosting an event honoring Haredi soldiers.

The protesters decry enlistment to the military within the community, which has become a politically fraught issue after the High Court has ruled that a decades-long exemption no longer has any legal framework, prompting the government — which includes two Haredi parties — to work on a new law regulating the matter by having some enlist and exempting other yeshiva students.

מפגינים נגד גיוס חסמו את שדרות שז"ר בירושלים לקראת כנס הוקרה לחיילים החרדים שייערך בבנייני האומה@eli_hirschmann pic.twitter.com/L0NSAfXBHc

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) January 28, 2025

The hardline demonstrators oppose any ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the military, viewing it as a red line out of fear they will be secularized.

Blocking Shazar Boulevard, the protesters also hand out flyers decrying Shas party chief Aryeh Deri as a “murderer of souls” over his participation in talks over the new law and willingness to compromise.

הכרוזים בהפגנה נגד הגיוס בירושלים נגד דרעי וש"ס. pic.twitter.com/WhEQBOuljz

— שילה פריד???????? (@shilofreid) January 28, 2025

Border Police officers are working to clear the road.

לוחמי מג"ב מנסים לפנות את הכביש. https://t.co/3szpzmqkQH pic.twitter.com/wRTuSWeFEp

— שילה פריד???????? (@shilofreid) January 28, 2025

Hind Rajab Foundation says it filed criminal complaint against Chikli that forced him to cancel Belgium trip

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli at the Knesset, June 26, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

The Hind Rajab Foundation says that its president recently filed a criminal complaint against Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli for allegedly “making terrorist threats against him.”

Chikli was forced to cancel a visit to the European Parliament in Brussels this week, reportedly over concerns that pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel groups would seek a warrant for his arrest after Belgium officials said that he would not have diplomatic immunity due to the unofficial nature of the visit.

The foundation, which is named for a 6-year-old Gazan girl killed in January 2024, has sparked alarm in Israel recently by seeking the arrest of Israeli officials and soldiers traveling abroad over alleged war crimes.

The foundation says in a statement that its founder, Dyab Abou Jahjah, filed a criminal complaint accusing Chikli of “making terrorist threats against him, a Belgian national, with the intent to intimidate and suppress the foundation’s advocacy for justice and accountability for war crimes.”

The complaint cites a comment made by Chikli on X on January 6, in which he told Abou Jahjah to “watch your pager,” in reference to the Hezbollah pagers detonated by Israel in a September operation.

“By evoking this event, Mr. Chikli threats Mr. Abou Jahjah with death or at least with the intentional infliction of blows and injuries resulting in mutilation,” the foundation says, charging that Chikli’s comment “constitutes an act of terrorism under Belgian law.”

The foundation claims that the reason Chikli wouldn’t have had diplomatic immunity while in Belgium was not because his visit was unofficial, but rather due to “Belgium’s commitment to upholding its international obligations to address crimes effectively.”

Egyptian officials deny Trump claim that he spoke with Sissi yesterday

US President Donald Trump told reporters last night that he had spoken to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, but the White House has yet to issue a readout and Egyptian media is now citing government sources as saying that the pair have yet to speak.

If they did, Sissi’s office would issue a readout, the Egyptian officials tell local media.

Trump claimed last night that he raised the issue of Cairo taking in Palestinians from Gaza in their call.

Asked how Sissi received the idea, Trump avoided answering directly, saying, “His response [was] that he’d like to see peace in the Middle East.”

Haredi lawmakers tell PM he has their support to carry out hostage deal in full

Lawmakers from the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism party urge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure that the hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas is implemented in full, and pledge to support him in the face of demands from fellow government ministers to break it off after the first phase.

“Go for the next deal, move on to the second phase, don’t stop,” demands Labor and Welfare Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur, addressing the premier from the Histadrut Labor Federation’s economic conference in Eilat.

“Our sons and daughters are suffering there,” he says of the hostages in Gaza. “I promise you — all six Shas ministers, led by Aryeh Deri, will support you. Bringing them back is the most sacred goal.”

Housing Minister and UTJ leader Yitzhak Goldknopf echoes Ben-Tzur’s commitment, telling the conference that his party will continue to back Netanyahu throughout each stage of the staggered deal, “until the last hostage.”

IDF assesses tens of thousands of Gazans have returned to north, far below Hamas claim of ‘over 300,000’

Displaced Palestinians walk on a road to return to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip, January 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The Israeli military assesses that only tens of thousands of Palestinians have returned to the northern Gaza Strip since troops withdrew from most of the Netzarim Corridor yesterday morning and authorized the opening of south-north roads.

Hamas claimed yesterday that “over 300,000 displaced” returned to the Strip’s north.

The Times of Israel has learned that according to the IDF’s assessments as of this morning, that number is far lower, estimated in the tens of thousands.

Since yesterday morning, as part of a ceasefire deal with Hamas, Gazans have been able to freely return to northern Gaza after being prevented by the IDF from doing so since the beginning of the war — when civilians were called to head for the Strip’s south to avoid combat zones.

Many of the buildings in northern Gaza have been destroyed amid the fighting, and it is unclear where civilians are supposed to reside. In southern Gaza, tent camps were constructed for displaced civilians.

Haredi lawmaker says son is willing to go to prison rather than serve in the IDF

MK Yosef Taieb, chair of the Knesset Education, Culture, and Sports Committee leads a meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on January 25, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A lawmaker belonging to the ultra-Orthodox Shas party announces that despite receiving an enlistment order from the IDF, his son is willing to go to prison rather than serve in the Israeli military.

“My son… received an order and he asked me what to do. I told him to ask the heads of his yeshiva and act according to their instructions,” MK Yosef Taieb tells Radio Kol Baramah.

“He sits and studies seriously and loves to learn. We will do what they instruct us to do. If they tell us that what should happen is that he should be arrested, then he will be arrested and learn Torah from prison.”

While some Shas politicians have called for drafting Haredim who do not study full-time in yeshiva, the Shas Council of Torah Sages, the spiritual leaders of the ultra-Orthodox party, instructed their followers last summer to ignore all initial draft orders.

Rabbi Moshe Maya, a senior member of the Shas Council of Torah Sages, told Radio Kol Baramah in June 2024 that it was “forbidden for those who don’t study to go to the army. Those who do will end up violating the Shabbat.”

Iran’s Khamenei brags that ‘small, limited Gaza’ brought Israel ‘to its knees’

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declares that Gaza has brought Israel “to its knees,” in a reference to the ceasefire and hostage release deal that came into effect on January 19.

“The small, limited Gaza brought the Zionist regime, armed to the teeth, and fully supported by America, to its knees,” Khamenei says.

He appears to avoid direct mention of the ruling Hamas terror group that waged war against Israel, preferring instead to speak of Gaza as a whole.

The war in Gaza was sparked by the terror group’s invasion and massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

Danny Elgarat tells Knesset House Committee he has reason to believe hostage brother Itzik Elgarat is dead

Illustrative: Danny Elgarat, brother of hostage Itzik Elgarat, speaks at a weekly hostages' families protest in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square on June 29, 2024. (Adar Eyal/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Danny Elgarat tells the Knesset House Committee that he believes his brother Itzik Elgarat, who is held hostage in Gaza and is slated for release in the first phase of the ceasefire deal, is no longer alive.

“We know more today about the list that Hamas passed on,” Elgarat says. “I won’t speak for others but we will probably not receive him [Itzik] alive.”

According to the list Hamas provided on Sunday night, eight of the 26 hostages still to be freed in the first phase of the deal are dead. Although the list did not provide information on each hostage individually, officials have said that the document matched Israel’s existing information.

Elgarat tells the committee he believes Itzik could have been saved if earlier attempts to negotiate a ceasefire-hostage deal had been successful, and asks: “Who will be held accountable for this decision that killed 40 hostages?”

At least 34 of the 87 hostages still in captivity have been confirmed dead by the IDF, and the bodies of 40 others have been recovered throughout the course of the war.

Sa’ar announces Israel will open embassy in Zambia

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announces that Israel will be opening an embassy in Zambia.

A statement from the Foreign Ministry calls Zambia a “friend of Israel” and says opening an embassy there will advance bilateral relations and is also “part of a broader move to strengthen relations with countries in Africa.” Sa’ar invites his Zambian counterpart, Mulambo Haimbe, to visit Israel.

Diplomat Ofra Farhi currently serves as a non-residential ambassador to Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema visited Israel in August 2023. Zambia and Israel re-established ties in 1991 and the African nation opened an embassy in Tel Aviv in 2015.

IDF publishes footage of temporary army post built on Syrian side of Mount Hermon

A temporary IDF post on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, in a handout photo issued on January 28, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF publishes footage showing the construction of temporary army posts atop the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, where troops have been deployed since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime last month.

The military says the Technological and Logistics Directorate provided troops with insulated structures and equipment to reside atop the mountain during the harsh winter weather.

A temporary IDF post on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, in a handout photo issued on January 28, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Among the structures erected in the army posts is a medical building that is equipped to treat cold weather injuries.

The IDF provided the forces with generators, heating devices, and clothing and shoes for snow.

The military has said that its deployment to a buffer zone on the Syrian side of the border and strategic positions beyond the zone is a defensive and temporary measure.

A temporary IDF post on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, in a handout photo issued on January 28, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Hearing in PM’s criminal trial will be canceled tomorrow as well, court says

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony will be postponed tomorrow as well as today since one of the judges presiding over his trial, Judge Moshe Bar-Am, has the flu, the Jerusalem District Court announces.

Lapid: Diplomacy with Palestinian Authority is only way to end Hamas rule in Gaza

Opposition leader Yair Lapid leads a Yesh Atid faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on January 27, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says the only way to prevent Hamas rule in Gaza and to bring about regional security is to take part in a wider diplomatic deal with regional players, including the Palestinian Authority.

“Anyone who saw hundreds of thousands of Gazans yesterday crossing the Netzarim Corridor and returning to the northern Strip understands that the war is over,” Lapid tells a conference in Tel Aviv organized by the Commanders for Israel’s Security group. “If Israel doesn’t set out on a major diplomatic process, Hamas will simply return to rule Gaza, and we will miss out on a historic opportunity.”

However, he says, “in this Netanyahu government it won’t happen,” in large part because the prime minister has stated a refusal to “accept that the Palestinian Authority” will play a role in Gaza. Lapid says without PA involvement in the Strip, “the Saudis, Emiratis, Egyptians, Jordanians won’t be involved.”

Lapid warns that the Trump administration “can make a deal with the Saudis without us… if the government of Israel won’t be at the table, they’ll write a side memo on the Israeli-Palestinian issue and put it in a drawer. This is a very bad idea, this would be to miss out on all the potential of the Trump administration.”

This government’s “refusal to involve the PA in Gaza leads to one thing — Hamas remains the ruler in Gaza, because if there is no alternative it will only perpetuate Hamas rule.”

IDF: Vehicles heading to northern Gaza must travel via Salah a-Din road, undergo inspection

The IDF warns Palestinians in the Gaza Strip that northbound vehicle traffic is only permitted via the Salah a-Din road, where cars will be inspected by security contractors.

“According to the agreement, vehicle movement to the northern Gaza Strip is permitted, only after inspection, and via Salah al-Din road,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, says on X.

“For your safety and the safety of your loved ones, please obey the instructions. IDF forces are operating in the area. Attempts to move north via non-agreed routes expose you to danger,” he adds.

Last night, the IDF said it carried out a drone strike near a vehicle trying to travel to north Gaza via a prohibited area.

IDF again warns Lebanese civilians not to return to southern border villages

Lebanese citizens attempt to return to their villages in southern Lebanon, January 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

The IDF again warns Lebanese civilians against returning to villages in southern Lebanon, where troops are still deployed as a ceasefire deal has been extended by several weeks.

“Residents of Lebanon, as you know, the IDF has recently redeployed to various locations in southern Lebanon, per the ceasefire agreement, to gradually enable the effective deployment of the Lebanese army, and dismantling and removing the Hezbollah terror group, with its operatives and infrastructure, from southern Lebanon,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, says on X.

“I remind you that the agreement period has been extended and IDF forces are still deployed on the ground. The deployment process is taking place gradually and in some sectors, it is being postponed and requires more time to ensure that Hezbollah cannot re-establish its strength there,” he says.

“Hezbollah, as usual, puts its narrow interests above the interests of the Lebanese state and tries through its mouthpieces to heat up the situation, despite being the main reason for the destruction of the south,” Adraee says.

The IDF spokesman adds that “until further notice, all previously published instructions remain in effect,” and the military will update when it is safe to return to the border villages.

Son of hostage Oded Lifshitz says there is ‘grave fear’ for his elderly father’s life

A poster advocating for the release of hostage Oded Lifshitz hangs in his daughter Sharone Lifschitz's home in London, January 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Yizhar Lifshitz, the son of hostage Oded Lifshitz and former hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, tells the Ynet news outlet that there is “grave fear” for his 84-year-old father’s life, after more than 15 months in Hamas captivity.

Yesterday, Israel said that a Hamas list showed eight of the 26 hostages still to be freed in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal are dead.

While the list did not provide the status of each individual, and instead showed only how many of the 26 hostages are alive, officials have said that the Hamas document matched Israel’s existing information.

Yizhar says his mother Yocheved heard the updates regarding the number of living hostages “and understood that the chances of him being alive are slim.”

He says that the last time there was a sign of life from Oded was on the 25th day of his father’s now 480-day captivity.

He urges Israel to continue to implement the hostage-ceasefire deal in full, rather than abandon it before the final phase.

Iran’s FM says Israel, US would be ‘really crazy’ to target Iranian nuclear sites

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi attends a joint press briefing with his Syrian counterpart Bassam Sabbagh, in Tehran, Tuesday, November 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi/File)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warns Israel and the US against attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities, in an interview with Sky News aired this morning.

“We have made it clear that any attack to our nuclear facilities would be faced with an immediate and decisive response,” Araghchi says, but expresses doubt that Israel and the US will actually “do that crazy thing.”

Some in Israel have hoped that US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House earlier this month would lead to the US backing an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites, or even carrying out such an attack itself.

Trump has signaled, however, that he hopes to address Tehran’s nuclear program diplomatically, rather than militarily, saying that it “would be really nice” to work things out without military force.

Attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities would turn the Middle East “into a very bad disaster,” Araghchi says, reiterating the assertion that Israel and the US would be “really crazy” to try it.

The Iranian diplomat also touches briefly on the heavy blows dealt to proxy groups Hamas and Hezbollah amid their wars with Israel.

“Hamas and Hezbollah have been damaged,” he acknowledges. “But at the same time, they are rebuilding themselves… This is a school of thought, this is an idea, this is a cause, this is an ideal that will always be there.”

IDF to test rocket sirens in two localities today

The military says it will carry out a test of rocket sirens in two areas today.

Sirens will sound at 10:05 a.m. in Kibbutz Tlalim, southern Israel, and at 11:05 a.m. in Buq’ata in the north.

In the case of an actual attack, the sirens will sound twice, according to the IDF.

Tuesday hearing in PM’s criminal trial canceled as judge is unwell

A hearing in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criminal trial scheduled for today has been postponed, as one of the judges on the panel is unwell.

A statement issued by Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman says that a decision will be made later today as to whether tomorrow’s hearing will proceed as planned.

Trump signs executive order to develop ‘Iron Dome for America’

US President Donald Trump signs an executive order to develop “the Iron Dome for America,” which he says is needed to help protect against “the threat from next-generation strategic weapons.”

Trump issues statement marking Auschwitz liberation, says ‘no place’ for antisemitism

US President Donald Trump declares Monday to be the National Day of Remembrance of the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, in a statement issued less than two hours before midnight Tuesday.

“Today, we renew our promise that antisemitism has no place in a civilized society, no place in our foreign policy, and no place in the United States of America,” Trump says in a statement.

Doubling down, Trump suggests Gazans better off somewhere not ‘associated with violence’

US President Donald Trump, watched by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaks to reporters while in flight on Air Force One en route Joint Base Andrews, on January 27, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/AFP)

US President Donald Trump doubles down on his desire for Egypt and Jordan to take in Gazans, suggesting that Palestinians would be better off somewhere not “associated with violence.”

“I’d like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence,” Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One.

“When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years… There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable,” Trump says.

Asked if this stance means he no longer believes in a two-state solution, Trump avoids answering directly, saying he’ll be discussing the issue with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he comes to Washington to meet him “in the not so distant future.”

He says a date will be set for the meeting “very soon.”

Two sources familiar told The Times of Israel on Monday that Netanyahu’s office is planning for the premier to travel on Sunday to Washington, where he’ll meet Trump at the beginning of the week before returning to Israel on Wednesday. The trip has not been finalized and will depend on Netanyahu’s health as he recovers from prostate surgery, the sources said.

Asked how Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi received his idea of relocating Gazans to his country, Trump responds, “His response [was] that he’d like to see peace in the Middle East.”

“I’d like to see peace in the Middle East,” Trump adds.

Pressed further on how Sissi reacted to his idea, Trump insists that both the Egyptian and Jordanian leaders “would do it.”

“I’d love to do that. I wish [Sissi] would take some. We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us. He’s a friend of mine. He’s in… a rough neighborhood. But I think he would do it, and I think the King of Jordan would do it too,” Trump adds.

Both Egypt and Jordan have come out strongly against Trump’s idea, saying that Palestinians should be allowed to remain in Gaza, where members of Israel’s far right have been calling to reestablish settlements while advocating for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from the enclave.

Minister reportedly scrapped Brussels trip over fears arrest warrant could be issued

Amichai Chikli, minister of Diaspora affairs and social equality, arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on May 14, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli scrapped a planned trip to the European Parliament in Brussels over concerns that pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel groups would seek a warrant for his arrest, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

The Prime Minister’s Office released a statement saying the trip was cancelled “in light of concrete warnings, and in accordance with the guidance of security officials,” though the broadcaster says its inquiries with Shin Bet sources established that there were no such concrete threats against Chikli.

According to the report, Belgian officials relayed to Israel that Chikli would not enjoy diplomatic immunity during his time in Belgium, as he would not be there on an official visit to the country.

Widely shared clip shows Al Jazeera cutting off Palestinian criticizing Hamas

An Al Jazeera interview of a Palestinian returning to northern Gaza is being widely shared after the reporter cut off the man once he started criticizing Hamas.

The man can be heard telling the Al Jazeera reporter that Hamas allowed thieves to loot his house before being cut off.

It is one of a growing number of clips showing reporters from the Qatar-backed network blocking the dissemination of voices critical of Hamas.

Hamas failed to provide us with a bottle of water, or a food meal!

"Hamas allowed the gangs in Gaza to steal our properties".

When I talk about that and expose what Hamas does to the people of Gaza, I often get called "a tokenized Palestinian." Here you go, from the mouth of a… pic.twitter.com/L0XeQI3bSv

— Hamza (@HowidyHamza) January 28, 2025

Trump says he’ll sign executive order to build ‘state-of-the-art Iron Dome’

US President Donald Trump says he will sign an executive order to start building an “Iron Dome” air defense system for the United States, like the one that Israel has used to intercept thousands of rockets.

“We need to immediately begin the construction of a state-of-the-art Iron Dome missile defense shield,” Trump tells a Republican congressional retreat in Miami on the day new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth takes office.

Rubio speaks with Jordan’s Abdullah after Trump suggested kingdom take in Gazans

Jordan's King Abdullah II (R) is greeted by US President Donald Trump at the White House on June 25, 2018. (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a call Monday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, the State Department says, with the call coming two days after a suggestion by President Donald Trump that Jordan and Egypt should take more Palestinians from Gaza.

“The secretary and King Abdullah discussed implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the release of hostages, and creating a pathway for security and stability in the region,” the State Department says in a statement. Trump’s weekend remarks are not mentioned in the statement.

Albanian PM denies Israeli TV report claiming he’s talking with US about housing Gazans

Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama holds a press conference after the European Political Community (EPC) Summit at the Puskas Arena in Budapest , Hungary, November 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

The prime minister of Albania forcefully denies a report by Israel’s Channel 12 news claiming that his government has been in talks with the Trump administration about taking in as many as 100,000 Palestinians from Gaza.

“I haven’t heard something so fake in quite some time—and there’s been a lot of fake news lately! It is absolutely not true,” Edi Rama tweets, along with a screenshot of the Channel 12 reporter’s purported scoop.

“Full respect and solidarity for the people of Gaza, who have been dehumanized by the savage Hamas regime and have endured a hellish war following the medieval horrors of October 7,” Rama adds.

“But let me be clear: Albania has not been asked by anyone, nor can we even consider to take on any such responsibility.”

“We are proud of our strong friendships with Israel, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and, of course, the Palestinian people, whose state Albania recognized a very long time ago,” the Albanian premier continues.

“But Albania is not in the Middle East itself, and from the heart of Europe, we cannot do more than any other European country in such a matter.”

“Yet, we wish and pray that the Palestinian people are given the chance to live in their own state, as free people under democratic rule, and that Hamas will never again be able to harm Israel—or, first and foremost, the Palestinians themselves,” he adds.

Channel 12 claimed that Israel believes US President Donald Trump’s call for Jordan and Egypt to take in Palestinian refugees is unrealistic and that Washington is accordingly looking to other suitors, such as Albania.

NBC News reported earlier this month that the US also is considering Indonesia as a landing spot for Palestinians while the Gaza Strip is being rebuilt.

Egypt and Jordan have strongly come out against the idea of hosting Gazans, which Israeli far-right leaders have responded to by calling for Jerusalem to “encourage emigration” of Palestinians from the Strip.