The Times of Israel liveblogged Monday’s events as they unfolded.
Azerbaijan has no intention of sending a contingent of its troops to take part in peacekeeping operations outside its borders, including in the International Stabilization Force in Gaza, President Ilham Aliyev says.
Aliyev, interviewed by Azeri television channels, says Azerbaijan had been in contact with Donald Trump’s US administration with a list of questions about the operation of a peacekeeping force in Gaza.
“We prepared a questionnaire of more than 20 questions and provided it to the American side. No participation in peacekeeping forces is envisaged,” Aliyev says.
“I am not considering participation in hostilities outside Azerbaijan at all.”
Baku has been leaning in this direction for some time, as reported last month by The Times of Israel.
Additionally, an Azeri government source had said in November that Azerbaijan would provide no troops for such an operation unless there was a complete halt to fighting between Israel and terror group Hamas.
No country has confirmed its participation in the Trump-envisioned Gaza Stabilization Force to date.
Indonesia is the only country to have publicly expressed its readiness to participate in the ISF, even declaring in November that it is prepared to dispatch 20,000 troops, though it has been mum on the issue ever since.
A man has been shot and killed in the Arab city of Kafr Qara, police and paramedics say.
The victim, 30-year-old barber Mahmoud Ghawi, is the third person to fall victim to homicide within hours this evening.
Paramedics declare his death just as President Isaac Herzog issues a rare statement on the violent crime wave in Arab society, saying that it has turned into a “national scourge.”
In his statement, Herzog mourns Adham and Nadim Nasser, a father and his teenage son ,who were shot and killed in Nazareth earlier this evening.
The victims resided in Tur’an, a village just north of Nazareth. They were killed while installing security cameras outside a home in the city, according to Hebrew reports.
Herzog further notes that within just five days since the start of 2026, six Arab citizens have fallen victim to violent crime, calling it a “chilling statistic.”
The recent homicide in Kafr Qara brings the number up to seven.
In 2025, Arab society experienced its deadliest year on record, with a total of 252 homicide victims.
Herzog says that the current reality is “not a decree of fate.”
He calls the fight against violent crime a “critical national mission” and says Israel must “strengthen enforcement, defeat criminal organizations, and restore to citizens — in Arab society and Israeli society as a whole — the right to live in security.”
Venezuela’s vice president and oil minister Delcy Rodriguez is formally sworn in as the country’s interim president, as US-deposed President Nicolas Maduro appears in a New York court on drug charges after the Trump administration removed him from power in a dramatic weekend military action.
Rodriguez, a 56-year-old labor lawyer known for close connections to the private sector and her devotion to the ruling party, is sworn in by her brother Jorge, who is the head of the national assembly legislature.
The IDF says that troops from the 188th Armored Brigade operating in southern Gaza identified a terror operative who crossed the so-called Yellow Line and approached the forces “in a way that posed an immediate threat.”
According to the military, the Air Force, acting under the direction of the ground troops, carried out a strike on the suspect to remove the threat.
The IDF says troops under the Southern Command remain deployed in the area in line with the current ceasefire agreement and will continue acting against any immediate dangers.
The IDF and Shin Bet announce in a joint statement that Central Command head Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth has signed an order authorizing the use of technological monitoring to enforce movement restriction orders in the West Bank.
The measure is meant to replace administrative detention — the practice of holding terror suspects without charge in cases where authorities believe revealing evidence would harm national security — after the government last year decided to stop using it on Jewish suspects.
While the statement does not specify who would be subject to the monitoring, the move appears to target extremist settler activists, or “hilltop youth,” after a recent uptick in attacks against Palestinians and IDF troops.
According to the security agencies, the decision follows directives from Israel’s political echelon and coordinated staff work involving the IDF, Shin Bet, Israel Police, Justice Ministry, and the legal adviser for the West Bank.
The order allows authorities to mandate the installation of “technological monitoring measures” on individuals under administrative orders restricting their movement in the West Bank, and to monitor violations of those restraining orders accordingly, amid efforts to curb a recent uptick in settler violence against Palestinians and IDF troops.
The move follows reports in November that Shin Bet chief David Zini recommended approving the use of electronic monitoring bracelets on extremist settlers, viewing the measure as more effective than existing restraining orders that bar suspects from entering the West Bank.
Officials stress that breaching the restraining orders or damaging the monitoring equipment constitutes a criminal offense and may lead to prosecution.
The Honenu legal aid organization, which often represents hilltop youth, says it will appeal the unprecedented order.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett announces a proposed benefits package for soldiers and reservists in response to the government’s ongoing attempt to pass a draft exemption bill for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, dubbing it the “servicemembers’ law.”
“From today, those who serve are at the top, and those who choose to evade service are at the bottom,” says Bennett, speaking in a video statement.
Bennett, who reentered the political arena last year with the registration of his new party, is widely viewed as the strongest potential challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this year’s election.
“This will be the flagship law of the next government,” he says, adding that anyone who seeks to join his government must support his proposed law.
Bennett frames the law as a means to support those who serve the country, halt funding to those who do not, and also incentivize the ultra-Orthodox to enlist in the army.
“This law will cause massive numbers of Haredi youths to join the IDF,” Bennett claims.
“We serve in the IDF out of a sense of mission and love for our country, and we will continue to serve under any circumstances regardless of economic conditions,” he says, “But this amendment is essential economically, morally, and it will also unite the nation.”
According to Bennett’s proposal, active reservists will receive grants to buy a first home, childcare, and continuous subsidization of utility bills so long as they continue reserve duty.
Those who complete mandatory service will have their undergraduate degrees fully funded — a condition that currently applies only to combat soldiers — while combat soldiers will also receive fully funded masters degrees. Those who complete mandatory service will also receive other benefits, including childcare and public transportation subsidies.
Meanwhile, “those who choose not to serve simply won’t receive anything.”
The initiative, Bennett says, will be funded out of NIS 25 billion ($7.9 billion) he claims currently goes to “draft dodgers and coalition handouts.”
“This money exists. I built the servicemembers’ bill with people who were in the Budget Department and the Housing Ministry and know exactly where these billions are now,” he emphasizes.
He further claims that this bill will “inject over NIS 100 billion ($31.7 billion) into the economy, currently being wasted because of draft evasion.”
Police appear to threaten legal action against longtime Arab lawmaker Ahmad Tibi unless he apologizes for insulting their head spokesman on air.
Earlier today, the Ta’al MK called Israel Police spokesman Aryeh Doron derogatory names on a Channel 13 news broadcast, after the latter told him to be ashamed for likening the police to a mafia.
The spat erupted over a police officer’s killing of a Bedouin man during a midnight raid on his house in Tarabin al-Sana, a village in the Negev.
Tibi echoed claims made by the victim’s older brother, who was present at the scene of the lethal shooting, that police tampered with evidence at the crime scene by washing away the blood from the floor.
“Be ashamed, a member of the Israeli Knesset who calls the police a mafia,” Doron said to the lawmaker on air.
Tibi shot back, telling the spokesman, “Shut your mouth” and deriding him as a “loser” and “rascal.”
In a statement, police “strongly condemn” Tibi’s words and say they are “not only slanderous, but constitute the criminal offense of insulting a public servant.”
They add that the politician’s alleged crime “will be dealt with accordingly,” despite his parliamentary immunity protecting him from prosecution.
Police then call on Tibi to issue a public apology, while demanding that the press “not provide a platform for such conduct.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has conveyed a message to Iran that Israel is not interested in an escalation at this time and does not intend to attack the Islamic Republic, the Kan public broadcaster reports, citing unnamed diplomatic sources.
The message was conveyed in recent weeks through Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom Netanyahu spoke on the phone several times, the report says.
It adds that Jerusalem is worried that Tehran, believing an Israeli attack is imminent, may miscalculate and strike Israel first, and that Netanyahu’s message is aimed at preventing this.
Speaking at the Knesset today, Netanyahu said that any Iranian attack would have “grave consequences.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met this evening with the family of Haymanut Kasau, a young Ethiopian girl who went missing nearly two years ago and whose fate has attracted major public attention, his office says.
Meeting with the girl’s parents in his office, Netanyahu vows to get “personally” involved in the case.
“We will bring her home,” he tells them.
Kasau was last seen in February 2024 at a Safed absorption center, where she lived with her family at the time.
Her case was recently transferred to the Lahav 433 major crimes unit immediately following a supposed breakthrough, which turned out to be spurious.
Police arrested a man in December suspected of trying to abduct another young Ethiopian girl from her home in Beersheba. The girl and her family had lived at the same absorption center as Kasau, briefly leading police to believe the suspect may be linked to her disappearance, but the suspicion has been ruled out.
The IDF says that a record 537 ultra-Orthodox men enlisted in the army during the December-January intake, which took place yesterday and today, to its designated Haredi service tracks, marking the largest such recruitment period to date.
According to the IDF, 230 of the new recruits joined combat roles, while 307 were placed in combat-support positions across a range of units, with the enlistment process to be completed in the coming days.
Speaking to the recruits at the IDF Recruitment Center at Tel HaShomer, Personnel Directorate head Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa stresses both the operational need and the effort to accommodate religious lifestyles.
“Operational needs require us to fill the ranks. You are trailblazers, and many more will follow in your footsteps,” Bar Kalifa told the recruits, according to an IDF statement. He said that the military will not compromise on allowing them “to fulfill your duty to defend the country while preserving your Torah world and the spirit of Jewish law.”
The military says the enlistment figures reflect ongoing efforts to expand recruitment among the ultra-Orthodox community, including by broadening existing tracks, establishing new dedicated frameworks, holding outreach and information conferences, and adjusting training and service conditions.
A cadet in the IDF officers’ training school was seriously injured earlier today in a training accident at a base in northern Israel, the military says.
According to the IDF, the cadet, from the Bahad 1 officers school’s Gefen Battalion, was evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment, and his family has been notified.
Speaking at the Knesset, opposition leader and Yesh Atid party chair Yair Lapid excoriates Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his government’s ongoing attempts to pass a draft exemption bill for yeshiva students, the so-called Qatargate scandal, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s recent controversial attack on Supreme Court President Isaac Amit.
“You stand here after 1,200 deaths and say you want to promote evasion to protect the world of Torah?” Lapid says, referring to the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, which saw the murder of some 1,200 people in Israel. “How dare you?”
The opposition leader adds that “bereaved families sit and collapse” watching the government’s attempts to pass a highly controversial draft exemption law for yeshiva students and hearing ultra-Orthodox leaders comparing proposed sanctions on draft evaders to the yellow star that the Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust.
Lapid also condemns Netanyahu’s allegedly insufficient response regarding Smotrich’s recent comments regarding Amit.
“Your finance minister said that the Supreme Court president should be ‘trampled.’ How come we haven’t heard a single word of condemnation from you?” says Lapid, who, along with other opposition figures, accuses Smotrich of incitement.
On the Qatargate scandal — in which several Netanyahu aides are accused of acting as lobbyists for Qatar while in the prime minister’s employ for over a year after October 7, despite the Gulf state’s strong ties to Hamas — Lapid asks why Netanyahu does not fire the aides.
“There is not a single Israeli citizen who understands how you don’t say: ‘Anyone who received money from Qatar betrayed Israel and me, and he will never enter my office again,'” he continues.
“We’ve heard your story 70 times already about how you changed the Middle East. I ask you, how did you change the lives of the citizens of Israel?” says the lawmaker. “We know the answer, and so do you. We ran this country much better than you — more quietly, with many fewer dead and wounded, and much more efficiently.”
A man and his 15-year-old son have been shot and killed in Nazareth, first responders say.
Just five days into the new year, the double homicide brings the death toll of violent crime in Arab society to six.
Paramedics found the victims, Adham and Nadim Nasser, unconscious and without a pulse, both suffering from several bullet wounds.
The pair were shot while installing security cameras outside a house in the city, according to Ynet. The outlet reports that the assailants likely mistook them for their target.
The teenager was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, while the father was rushed to a hospital in the city. He succumbed to his wounds on the way.
Police have opened an investigation into the shooting and are searching for suspects, they say.
Last year was the deadliest year on record for Arab society, which mourned 252 homicide victims killed over the course of 2025.
Venezuela’s ousted leader Nicolas Maduro appears in a New York court and pleads not guilty to narco-trafficking and weapons charges, as he slams the US military operation that resulted in his capture.
“I am innocent, I am not guilty,” the 63-year-old tells the court, saying, “I was captured,” regarding his seizure by US forces from his home in Caracas, and adding that he still considers himself the president of Venezuela.
Maduro, wearing a blue jail uniform, and his wife are led into court for a brief, but required, legal proceeding that will likely kick off a prolonged legal fight over whether he can be put on trial in the US. Both put on headsets to hear the English-language proceedings as they are translated into Spanish.
Israel and Morocco signed a joint military work plan for 2026 this week during the third meeting of their Joint Military Committee, held in Tel Aviv, marking five years since relations were normalized under the Abraham Accords, the IDF announces.
The talks were led by the IDF’s Planning Directorate and its Tevel Division, and included professional working meetings, alongside visits to IDF units, defense industries, military units and relevant directorates.
At the center of the visit was a panel focusing on force build-up from a strategic perspective and shared objectives for cooperation between the two militaries, according to the IDF.
The IDF says the meeting marks another milestone in deepening security cooperation with Morocco, which it describes as a “key partner for regional stability.”
The High Court of Justice orders the government to respond within a week to a request for a contempt of court order against the government for failing to draw up a concrete strategy for enforcing military service obligations for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
On November 19, the High Court unanimously ordered the government to draw up within 45 days effective enforcement measures, including criminal proceedings and economic and social sanctions, against ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who have refused to comply with IDF conscription orders.
In a withering written opinion excoriating the ultra-Orthodox community for largely failing to enlist, Sohlberg writes that “the time for action” has arrived, and that failure to enforce the law could undermine the rule of law in general and negatively impact the motivation of the rest of the Israeli public to enlist in the IDF.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which filed the request for a contempt of court order, has argued that the government has failed to take any steps to begin drawing up the kind of economic and social sanctions the court and professionals in the IDF have said would be effective and increase compliance with conscription orders.
The organization argues that the attorney general has twice requested that the government address the issue since the November 19 decision, but that the dedicated ministerial committee for the matter has not convened to discuss it.
The Movement for Quality Government filed its request for a contempt of court order yesterday, the day the court’s 45-day deadline expired, stating that failure to enforce the original court order posed a danger to the rule of law in Israel and its democratic regime.
“This is blatant disobedience to the court’s order, which is the culmination of almost three decades of government foot-dragging on the issue of equal enlistment,” says the organization’s head Eliad Shraga.
“The rule of law does not pass over anyone, including state authorities… If the contempt of court continues, we will demand that the court impose the penalties prescribed by law, including financial sanctions and imprisonment.”
In June 2024, the High Court ruled that ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students were obligated to enlist since there was no longer any legal framework for the military service exemptions they had long enjoyed.
Although enlistment orders have been issued to tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men since then, just 2.3% of those currently required to enlist have done so.
Speaking in the Knesset plenum, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses the opposition of standing in the way of a commission of inquiry into the failure to prevent the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, that enjoys broad consensus.
Netanyahu, who has resisted forming any such probe for over two years, opposes an independent state commission, which opinion polls consistently show is the public’s preferred option. The premier, who publicly backed state commissions of inquiries until 2022, now contends that such a panel would be biased against him since its members would be tapped by Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, whom the current government views as adversarial.
Speaking at the plenum, the premier claims that the members of a state commission would be chosen by only one side of the political spectrum, and that supporters of his government will not accept its legitimacy.
Netanyahu notes that in his proposal, half of the commission members are chosen by the government, and half by the opposition. The commission members will have the power to “ask what they want, and to bring whoever they want [for questioning,” he says.
Critics have argued that such a commission would be highly politicized since all its members will have been selected by politicians who want to avoid being found responsible for the failures, and that it will be bogged down by disagreements and face major difficulties in mustering a majority for any conclusion.
The IDF says it has begun carrying out strikes on targets belonging to Hezbollah and Hamas in Lebanon.
The military announcement comes shortly after the IDF issued public evacuation warnings to residents of four villages in southern Lebanon, instructing civilians to leave buildings near sites it said were being used by the two terror groups ahead of the strikes.
🚨🚨 الغارات الإسرائيلية التي استهدفت مبنى في قرية عين التينة بالبقاع اللبناني بثلاثة صواريخ#لبنان #الاحتلال_الإسرائيلي pic.twitter.com/izO2Pi7JvN
— ديوان (@DiwanDaily) January 5, 2026
Speaking at the Knesset, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the government is seeking “broad consensus” on military draft for Haredim in its efforts to pass a law formalizing broad exemptions for the community.
“We are advancing a historic proposal,” he says, “which will draft 23,000 in the next 3.5 years.”
“It will greatly lighten the burden on reservists,” Netanyahu argues.
He says that the government bill includes personal and institutional sanctions against draft dodgers. Netanyahu claims that the previous government’s bill would only have drafted a few thousand ultra-Orthodox soldiers.
“You don’t even want to draft Haredim,” Netanyahu charges.
A Palestinian embassy is officially inaugurated in London in a short ceremony, hailed by its ambassador as a “profound milestone” in British-Palestinian relations.
“We gather today to mark a historic moment — the inauguration of the embassy of the State of Palestine to the United Kingdom, with full diplomatic status and privileges,” says ambassador Husam Zomlot in a speech outside what has previously been known as the Palestinian Mission to the UK in west London.
The official upgrading of the Palestinian Authority’s mission to embassy status came after the UK announced it would recognize a Palestinian state in September, along with several other countries, including Australia and Canada, at a time of major international concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Sporting a traditional black and white keffiyeh scarf, Zomlot tells the ceremony that this is “not merely a change of name,” but a “change of direction” toward Palestinian statehood.
“What a way to begin a new year together, marking a profound milestone in the British-Palestinian relations, and in the Palestinian people’s long journey to freedom and self-determination,” Zomlot says, before unveiling the embassy’s new plaque.
“This is a day of hope, a day of steadfastness, and a day that reminds the world that peace is not only possible, it is inevitable… when rooted in justice, dignity, equality and mutual recognition.”
The UK’s foreign ministry does not immediately respond to an AFP query on whether the UK plans to follow suit by opening a British embassy in the Palestinian-controlled territories.
Speaking just after Zomlot at a lectern flanked by Palestinian and British national flags, UK diplomatic representative Alistair Harrison says the occasion represents a “moment of hope.”
“This is the beginning of a step change in our bilateral relationship,” he says. “I wish you, ambassador, and your team, a very happy stay in what is now your embassy, and congratulations.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel and the US “agree on the big things.”
He allows that there “are different approaches over certain points,” but says the two sides work out the differences.
Speaking in the Knesset, Netanyahu stresses that “Israel supports the determined decision by the [US] president, and the bold action by the US army in Venezuela.”
“There is a global struggle between countries that represent freedom and progress, and violent countries that threaten the world order,” says Netanyahu.
The prime minister argues that Israel leads the civilized world’s fight in the Middle East, and that the US and its government are deeply appreciative of this stance.
He tells the opposition that they totally misread the diplomatic reality throughout the war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his close personal relationship with US President Donald Trump, and the deep ties between the two countries, are “a recipe for the continuation of our series of achievements in 2026 as well,” during a so-called 40-signature debate in the Knesset.
He says that he and Trump have dealt extensively with attempts to bring back the body of the last hostage, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, from the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu says that he and Trump “will not allow Iran to rebuild its ballistic missile industry, and we certainly won’t let it renew its nuclear program.”
Their shared position, he says, is that there must be zero enrichment capability for Iran, that all of Iran’s enriched uranium must be sent outside of the country, and that there must be close oversight over its nuclear facilities.
“We in Israel identify with the struggle of the Iranian people,” he says, “and its aspirations for freedom and justice.”
Netanyahu says that Iran might have reached “a decisive moment, in which the Iranian people take their futures into their hands.”
Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give an explanation regarding the Qatargate scandal in which three of his aides are accused of acting as lobbyists for Qatar.
Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein, ex-campaign adviser Yisrael Einhorn, and former aide Jonatan Urich are suspected of taking money to spearhead a public relations campaign to cast Doha in a positive light while in the prime minister’s employ for over a year after the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught, despite the Gulf state’s strong ties to the Palestinian terror group.
“Netanyahu, look me in the eye. You and I know that Feldstein was your employee. He was close to you throughout the war. He was with us in the bunker. He was next to us in the aquarium at the Prime Minister’s Office,” says Gantz, addressing Netanyahu directly during a 40-signature debate in the Knesset called by the opposition to express opposition to the government’s policies.
Gantz’s then-National Unity party joined Netanyahu’s government days after October 7, 2023, to form an emergency unity government. It left the government in June 2024 over being sidelined from wartime decision-making, as well as unresolved issues ranging from the postwar vision for Gaza to the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
“I suggest you look the people of Israel straight in the eye and finally explain how a person who received money from Qatar sat next to you at the most critical moments for Israel’s security,” he continues.
“If you didn’t know, fire everyone who had a hand in this,” Gantz adds. “And if you did know, it’s more serious than any of the cases currently being conducted against you in the courts.”
The premier is on trial for fraud and breach of trust in three cases and bribery in one of them.
Rabbi Chezky Lifshitz, head of the Chabad of Nepal in Kathmandu, tells The Times of Israel he never intended to accuse the owner of his building of antisemitism after his organization was evicted last week.
The Chabad House, which hosts thousands of Israeli backpackers every year, was recently told it would have to leave the premises. Numerous sources have informed The Times of Israel that the group had failed to pay rent for several years and owed more than $100,000 in back payments.
However, a post on the Chabad of Nepal Facebook page yesterday seemed to imply that the reason for the eviction was due to the owner’s alleged antisemitism, a message that was repeated in numerous media outlets, including The Times of Israel. Behind the group’s painful experience leading up to the eviction, including being asked to take down signs in Hebrew, “was a clear sense of antisemitism,” the post said.
“People didn’t understand the post,” Lifshitz says. “The owner had asked us to take down signs written in Hebrew because he was worried that the building would be targeted by antisemites. The landlord himself is not anti-Israeli.”
Sources note that the landlord is very supportive of Jews and Israel, and actually has a Jewish brother-in-law. The building, which is famous for hosting more than 2,000 people at what has been called the largest Passover Seder in the world, is located in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Nepal, and the owners missed out on significant income by allowing Chabad to remain there, one source notes.
“Blaming this on antisemitism in Nepal is shameful,” says Rina Lamsal, a former Israeli who has run a travel agency in Nepal for 13 years. “This is the most accepting place in the world.”
Lifshitz says the institution’s extensive belongings have been put in storage, and that he is working hard to find a new hub by the end of February. “That’s when the next tourist season for Israelis starts,” he says.
Hadash-Ta’al party leader Ayman Odeh says that he appealed to police chief Daniel Levy today to demand the immediate release of body-camera footage from police officers involved in the killing of 36-year-old Muhammad Hussein Tarabin on Saturday night.
The father of seven was shot and killed by a police officer in his home in Tarabin al-Sana, a Bedouin village in the Negev, during a controversial police crackdown on the town.
“I have just returned from the funeral of Mohammad Hussein Tarabin, whom a police officer killed the day before yesterday, as part of the so-called ‘governance’ approach of the fascist minister [Itamar] Ben Gvir,” says the leader of the Arab-majority party at the Knesset before a faction meeting, blaming the far-right national security minister, who oversees the police.
“Hadash-Ta’al submitted a request to the police commissioner to immediately expose the body-camera footage worn by the officer who killed Tarabin. We all want to know the truth, even though it is so clear,” he continues.
In the letter addressed to Levy, Odeh says he wrote that “substantial discrepancies between the police version [of events] and residents’ testimonies require full and immediate transparency,” especially as this was “a serious incident involving the lethal use of force, which ended in the loss of human life.”
According to the police report, Odeh says, Tarabin was killed during an attempted arrest after allegedly running toward police officers while holding a suspicious object.
However, the letter states that village residents reject this report, saying that Tarabin didn’t pose a threat and that the shooting took place immediately as the forces entered his house.
“We, the Arab population, have nobody to turn to in this country — not the minister, not the prime minister, and not the attorney general, who is a great democratic figure in regards to the judicial overhaul but does nothing when it comes to the Arab population,” Odeh says, adding that the only power the Arab community has is to turn out in force at the next election and “throw all of the racists out of government.”
At least four people have been killed and several others wounded in a pair of Israeli drone strikes on a displaced persons’ camp in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis a short while ago, Palestinian media reports.
The attack targeted the Asdaa area northwest of Khan Younis, on the Hamas-controlled side of the Gaza ceasefire line, according to the reports.
The IDF has said it struck a Hamas operative who was planning an “imminent attack” on troops in southern Gaza.
📹مشاهد متداولة تظهر استهداف القوات الإسرائيلية عددًا من المباني السكنية شرق مدينة خان يونس، جنوبي قطاع غزة pic.twitter.com/6twlBiFQNj
— Sputnik Arabic (@sputnik_ar) January 5, 2026
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon deliver remarks during a so-called 40-signature debate in the Knesset.
The opposition can call for such a Knesset discussion once a month by submitting a request with 40 Knesset members’ signatures, legally obligating the premier to attend. It is usually called to discuss criticism of the government, its policies and its legislative agenda.
Knesset members are currently delivering three-minute speeches in the Knesset plenum, concluding with Netanyahu and then Opposition Leader Yair Lapid.
Today’s debate, initiated by Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party, is titled “The extremist government acting contrary to the Zionist majority and harming national cohesion and the core values of the State of Israel” — referring to its efforts to pass a law formalizing large-scale exemptions from military service for ultra-Orthodox men.
The IDF issues an urgent evacuation warning to residents of four villages in southern Lebanon ahead of planned strikes on Hamas and Hezbollah targets.
In a statement by the military’s Arabic spokesperson, Col. Avichay Adraee, residents of Annan and Al-Manara are told the IDF will soon strike Hamas military infrastructure in the area.
In a separate warning, residents of Kfar Hatta and Ayn al-Tineh are told the IDF plans to strike military infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah, citing what it describes as the terror group’s prohibited attempts to reestablish activity in the area.
Residents living in buildings marked in red on maps published with the warnings, as well as in nearby structures, are instructed to evacuate immediately and move at least 300 meters away, the statements say, warning that remaining in the area would put civilians at risk.
While the IDF has issued many similar evacuation warnings ahead of strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, as well as ahead of strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza during the war, this is the first time such public advance notice has been issued before a strike on Hamas targets in Lebanon.
#عاجل ‼️ إنذار عاجل إلى سكان لبنان وتحديدًا في القريتيْن التاليتيْن:
⭕️أنان (عنان)
⭕️المنارة (الحمارة)🔸سيهاجم جيش الدفاع على المدى الزمني القريب بنى تحتية عسكرية تابعة لحماس الارهابية في تلك المنطقتيْن
🔸نحث سكان المباني المحددة بالأحمر في الخريطتيْن المرفقتيْن والمباني… pic.twitter.com/si7qZNP3hF
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) January 5, 2026
عاجل ‼️ إنذار عاجل إلى سكان لبنان وتحديدًا في القريتيْن التاليتيْن:
⭕️كفر حتا
⭕️ عين التينة
🔸سيهاجم جيش الدفاع على المدى الزمني القريب بنى تحتية عسكرية تابعة لحزب الله الإرهابي وذلك للتعامل مع المحاولات المحظورة التي يقوم بها لإعادة إعمار أنشطته في المنطقتيْن
🔸نحث سكان المباني… pic.twitter.com/tguJ8G4UZM— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) January 5, 2026
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich endorses National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s controversial crackdown on Bedouin communities in the Negev, declaring that “an unimaginable amount of illegal weapons are circulating in the Negev, weapons that threaten the lives of citizens, the rule of law and the sovereignty of the State of Israel.”
Police shot and killed a man in his home Saturday night in Tarabin al-Sana, during a week-long raid in the Bedouin town. Last week, Ben Gvir vowed to press on with the raid during an address to reporters near the town’s entrance, cordoned off by cinderblocks.
“I say to everyone who is law-abiding, there is nothing to fear, but to everyone who isn’t law-abiding, we will thrash you,” Ben Gvir said at the time.
The National Guard, which is part of the Border Police gendarmerie force rather than standard police, has been overseeing an operation in Tarabin al-Sana that began December 28. Police cordoned off the town with cinderblocks and began requiring anyone who exits and enters the village to show identity cards to security forces.
Addressing reporters ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Smotrich calls for “collecting weapons, real enforcement, and restoring security to the citizens of the Negev,” insisting that “this is a test of sovereignty, and we do not intend to fail in it.”
“I would like to strengthen my friend, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, for his determined struggle and to call on him to stand strong and expand this operation to Lod, Jaffa, the north and the triangle region and return governance to all the citizens of Israel,” Smotrich adds, referring to an epidemic of violent crime in Israel’s Arab community that has worsened significantly during Ben Gvir’s three years in office.
The IDF says it carried out a strike a short while ago targeting a Hamas operative who was planning an “imminent attack” against Israeli troops operating in southern Gaza.
According to the military, the operative posed an immediate threat to IDF troops and was hit in a pinpoint strike. The IDF says steps were taken beforehand to reduce the risk to civilians, including the use of precision munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.
The military adds that forces under the Southern Command remain deployed in the area in line with the current ceasefire agreement and “continue operating to remove any immediate threats.”
צה"ל תקף מחבל מארגון הטרור חמאס שתכנן לבצע מתווה טרור נגד כוחות צה"ל בטווח הזמן המיידי
צה"ל תקף לפני זמן קצר, מחבל מארגון הטרור חמאס אשר תכנן לבצע מתווה טרור נגד כוחות צה"ל הפועלים בדרום רצועת עזה בטווח הזמן המיידי.
המחבל היווה איום ממשי על כוחות צה"ל ולכן הותקף בתקיפה מדויקת.… pic.twitter.com/h9iET4sGwy
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 5, 2026
The first confirmed case of bird flu this winter has been detected in a flock of ducks in a commercial poultry farm in the moshav of Sde Yaakov, in the Jezreel Valley region, the Agriculture Ministry says in a statement.
The ministry’s veterinary services have declared a quarantine zone with a 10-kilometer radius around the affected area.
Avian influenza of the H5N1 strain was diagnosed in a breeding duck flock following unusual mortality among ducks at the commercial poultry farm, which includes approximately 2,000 ducks aged 41 weeks, according to the statement.
During the previous flu season in 2024–2025, the ministry handled 16 bird flu outbreak sites.
In order to prevent the spread of the disease, the Agriculture Ministry says it is acting in accordance with procedures recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health regarding avian influenza control. In addition to the quarantine zone, the restocking of poultry houses is prohibited, and strict biosecurity measures are required for those working in the sector. The ministry says it is monitoring all poultry farms in the area.
The ministry also calls on owners of ornamental birds, backyard poultry, and free-range poultry farms to keep their birds indoors and prevent roaming in open areas in order to reduce the risk of infection from wild birds during the migration season.
The ministry calls on the public to only consume meat, poultry and eggs purchased from regulated sales and marketing points, and to thoroughly cook them to prevent health risks.
In a surprising move, the Bank of Israel decides to lower interest rates to 4 percent, and says it expects the economy to grow at a faster pace this year and in 2026, as the inflation environment eases and “Israel’s risk premium is close to its prewar level.”
The central bank cuts borrowing costs from 4.25% to 4% and says it now forecasts that the country’s economy will grow by 2.8% in 2025 and 5.2% in 2026. That projection has been revised from a September growth estimate of 2.5% in 2025 and 4.7% in 2026.
“The forecast was formulated under the assumption that the ceasefire will be maintained and that the volume of reserve military service will continue to decline,” the central bank says in a statement.
In its previous rate decision in November, the central bank cut borrowing costs for the first time in almost two years to 4.25% from 4.5%, following a ceasefire agreement with the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
Venezuela’s deposed leader Nicolas Maduro has arrived at a New York court to face drug charges, after a brief trip across Lower Manhattan to the courthouse.
After the vehicle carrying Maduro backed into a garage in the courthouse complex, he will be out of public view until he appears in court, which is expected at around noon local time (7 p.m. Israel time).
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized by US forces during a pre-dawn raid Saturday in Caracas and brought to New York to face charges of “narcoterrorism” tied to alleged trafficking of tons of cocaine into the United States.
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency session later today at Venezuela’s request.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman slam senior ultra-Orthodox political and religious leaders for comparing advocates of Haredi conscription to the Nazis, accusing them of dishonoring the Torah.
Addressing reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting, Lapid slams United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf, who yesterday accused those in favor of sanctions against draft evaders of supporting a “yellow star” for Torah scholars — as well as prominent yeshiva dean Rabbi Menachem Zvi Berlin, who declared at a gathering in honor of two draft evaders released from military prison that advocates of Haredi enlistment were “no better than Hitler.”
“Hitler killed a million and a half Jewish children, and [Berlin] stood there and compared him to the Israel Defense Forces and no one stood up and said, ‘Sir, Jews don’t talk like that,'” complains Lapid.
“My father had a yellow badge. A 13-year-old Jewish boy who lived in the Budapest ghetto and the Nazis wanted to kill him. My grandfather was murdered in the cold and snow in the concentration camp. Thin as a skeleton. He was in Auschwitz, survived, was transferred to Mauthausen and was murdered there. When he died, he had a yellow badge on him,” he continues.
“How dare you? How dare you compare the Israel Defense Forces to the Nazis? If there were no IDF, we would all be dead like my grandfather long ago,” Lapid asserts, asking “what kind of Judaism” the rabbis are espousing.
“Since when do Jews talk to each other like this? Someday you will have to understand: We are not trying to fight you, we are trying to live with you. We just cannot continue like this while our children die and yours do not.”
Liberman, during his own party’s faction meeting, also slams Goldknopf, calling his statement a “desecration of God’s name” and of the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
“I call on the Haredi public to establish a party that will truly represent them and I very much hope that in the next elections we will see a modern Haredi party that will strive to be an integral part of Israeli society,” he says.
Liberman also harshly criticizes Degel HaTorah spiritual leader Rabbi Dov Lando, who during last night’s event in honor of the draft evaders said that those enforcing the conscription of Haredi men into the military are fighting against God and Torah and that the Haredim find themselves “in exile among Jews.”
Asked about Lando’s comments, Liberman tells The Times of Israel that unlike Haredim in Israel, “Jews in the exile [Diaspora] all work and pay income tax.”
US-mediated talks between Syria and Israel have resumed in Paris, Syria’s state news agency SANA reports, the first meetings in nearly two months after progress toward a security arrangement between the countries stalled.
SANA, citing a Syrian government source, says the Syrian delegation is led by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani and intelligence chief Hussein al-Salama.
The negotiations are expected to last two days, Axios reported yesterday, citing an Israeli official and another source with knowledge of the details.
US President Donald Trump, who has been eager for a deal to be signed, asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restart the talks when they met last week at Mar-a-Lago, according to the report.
While Netanyahu agrees with Trump that a deal must be reached soon, he has insisted that an agreement not cross Israel’s red lines on ensuring security along its frontier with Syria, the Israeli official told Axios.
Syria is seeking an Israeli withdrawal to positions held before Bashar Assad was toppled in December 2024, and wants a reciprocal security framework guaranteeing its sovereignty and preventing interference in its internal affairs.
Trump’s Syria envoy, Tom Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to Turkey, is mediating the talks.
Netanyahu placed Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, at the head of the Israeli team, along with his military secretary, Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, and acting National Security Adviser Gil Reich, the Axios report said.
All 116 people who were injured in the bar fire in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana that killed 40 people have now been identified, police say.
Some 83 people are still in hospital after the blaze which broke out early on January 1, police from the canton of Valais say in a statement.
The police gave no names but said Swiss citizens make up the majority of the injured.
An online map identifying Jewish and Israeli-linked businesses in Spain has been taken down after drawing sharp criticism from Spain’s Jewish community.
The project, called “Barcelonaz,” appeared this week on the French-hosted mapping platform GoGoCart, claiming to be “a collaborative map of the Zionist economy in Barcelona.”
It listed more than 150 businesses, schools and organizations that it labeled as “Zionist.”
Numerous groups, including the Movement Against Intolerance and the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), petitioned to have the site removed, and by Friday afternoon, GoGoCart had removed it.
The site’s origins are still being investigated.
“While the website has now been taken down, investigations are ongoing, and CAM is fully mobilized to determine who is behind this initiative and ensure accountability,” CAM Director of European Affairs Shannon Seban says.
Venezuela’s deposed leader Nicolas Maduro is en route to a New York courthouse to face drug charges, as the UN is set to scrutinize the legality of US President Donald Trump’s extraordinary operation to capture him.
Footage shows the motorcade and helicopter transporting Maduro to the court, apparently alongside his wife Cilia Flores.
In the biggest US intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama, special forces swooped into Caracas on helicopters over the weekend to smash through Maduro’s security cordon and nab him at the door of a safe room.
Senior officials from his 13-year-old government remain in charge of the South American oil producer of 30 million people, first spitting defiance then pivoting to possible cooperation.
Yesterday, interim leader Delcy Rodriguez, in a potential win for Washington, stepped back from her initial defiance by offering to work with Trump.
“We extend an invitation to the US government to work together on an agenda for cooperation,” the former vice president said, hours after claiming that the operation to seize Maduro had a “Zionist tint.”
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency session later today at Venezuela’s request.
Law enforcement officials are investigating an incident at US Vice President JD Vance’s Ohio home and have taken one person into custody, CNN reports, noting that Vance and his family were not there at the time.
CNN, citing an unnamed US law enforcement source, says authorities do not believe the person was able to enter the residence and that local news outlets reported what appeared to be damage to at least one of the home’s windows.
Starting today, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange shifts its trading days to a Monday-to-Friday week to align with global standards and markets and lure international investors to the local bourse.
Trading on Friday will end at 2 p.m., ahead of the start of Shabbat — the Jewish sabbath – when most Israeli businesses close. Previously, the local stock exchange operated Sunday-Thursday and was closed on Friday.
The alignment of local to overlap more with the trading week and hours on Wall Street and European bourses will allow local investors more flexibility in responding to material market announcements abroad, according to the TASE.
The IDF condemns threatening graffiti sprayed on the offices of the Army Radio in Jaffa, calling it a “serious and unacceptable act of incitement” against military personnel.
In a statement, the IDF says the vandalism must be “unequivocally condemned” and urges law enforcement to bring those responsible to justice.
The condemnation comes after graffiti was sprayed outside the station’s offices, including one message reading, “Your time is running out, your days are numbered,” written in a style resembling religious texts.
Another message threatened what it described as “the head of the snake,” listing the Supreme Court, the Department for Internal Police Investigations and state prosecutors, and declaring “secular heresy” must be removed.
Last month, the cabinet unanimously approved Defense Minister Israel Katz’s controversial proposal to shut down Army Radio, with broadcasts set to end by March 1. The High Court of Justice has issued an interim order freezing the closure until the court reaches a final ruling on petitions against the move.
The legal system and legacy media have long been targeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Lawyers for Qatargate suspect Jonatan Urich reportedly say their client should be permitted to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and return to work at the Prime Minister’s Office now that restrictions placed on the top aide to the premier have expired.
Yesterday, the Israel Police handed its investigation into the Qatargate scandal over to the State Attorney’s Office, saying it has completed the probe and recommending continued sanctions against Urich. However, the restrictive conditions on Urich have now expired.
According to Channel 13 news, Urich’s lawyers, Amit Hadad and Noa Milstein — who also represent the prime minister — say there is now no reason that a meeting between the two cannot take place.
Channel 12 news and the Kan public broadcaster say the lawyers informed police that Urich now intends to return to work at the PMO as soon as possible.
Urich is accused of taking money to spearhead a public relations campaign to cast Qatar in a positive light for over a year after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, despite the Gulf state’s strong ties to the terror group, and doing so while working in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Urich is suspected of contact with a foreign agent, bribery, fraud, breach of trust and money laundering in connection with the ongoing probe.
Hundreds join in the funeral procession for Muhammad Hussein Tarabin, a 36-year-old Bedouin man who was shot and killed by a police officer in his home over the weekend.
Residents of Tarabin al-Sana and surrounding Bedouin towns join in the procession after praying in a mosque near the village’s entrance.
Black-clad mourners chant “God is great,” and the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith, as they walk to the cemetery.
Tarabin was shot in the chest by a police officer overnight Saturday-Sunday, during a house search, part of a controversial police crackdown on the town that has lasted a week.
Habis al-Atouneh, the mayor of Hura, a nearby Bedouin town, says that it is a “dark day for the Negev, and a dark day in the history of the Israeli police force.”
He decries far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police, and blames him for the lethal shooting, but calls on mourners to obey the law.
Bedouin leaders have called a protest for Sunday against the police’s crackdown in the south, which has been going on for a month, in which officers have infuriated residents by placing ad hoc checkpoints at the entrances to several Bedouin towns.
The funeral procession for Muhammad Hussein Tarabin, a Bedouin resident of Tarabin al-Sana killed by police fire in his home Saturday night pic.twitter.com/LSz8FGvOZH
— charlie summers (@cbsu03) January 5, 2026
The Shin Bet and Israel Police say they have arrested a resident of central Israel’s Rishon LeZion suspected of carrying out surveillance missions under the direction of Iranian intelligence, including photographing near the home of former prime minister Naftali Bennett.
According to a joint statement, the suspect – identified as 30-year-old Lekacho Demsash, who was arrested last month – had been in contact with Iranian handlers in recent months and was asked to carry out a series of tasks in exchange for money.
Investigators say the assignments began with simple missions and later escalated to photographing locations in his home city and elsewhere, including near Bennett’s residence.
Security officials assess that the activity was part of Iranian intelligence-gathering efforts aimed at facilitating an attack on the former prime minister, noting similarities to a separate case made public last month involving another suspect accused of spying near Bennett’s home.
An indictment was filed earlier today at the Central District Court in Lod, authorities say, as the Shin Bet and police warn Israelis against maintaining contact with hostile foreign actors, including through social media.
Over the past two years, dozens of Israelis have been charged with espionage on behalf of Iran. In many of the cases, Iranian agents recruited Israelis via social media, specifically the Telegram messaging app.
Iran will offer no leniency to “rioters,” though the public has a right to demonstrate, the head of the judiciary says, following more than a week of protests.
The demonstrations began last Sunday when shopkeepers staged a strike over high prices and economic stagnation, but they have since spread to other places and expanded to include political demands.
“I instruct the attorney general and prosecutors across the country to act in accordance with the law and with resolve against the rioters and those who support them… and to show no leniency or indulgence,” Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei says, according to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency.
He adds that Iran “listens to the protesters and their criticism, and distinguishes between them and rioters.”
Protests have taken place in 25 out of Iran’s 31 provinces and affected, to varying degrees, at least 45 different cities, most of them small or medium-sized and concentrated in the west, according to an AFP tally based on official statements and media reports.
At least 16 people have been killed, rights groups say.
Israel carried out a drone strike on a vehicle in the southern Lebanese village of Braiqaa a short while ago, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reports.
The report does not mention any casualties.
The IDF does not immediately comment. Israel says it has been targeting operatives from the Hezbollah terror group that are violating the ceasefire.
🛑عاجل| مصادر لبنانية: طيران الاحتلال المسير يستهدف سيارة في بلدة بريقع جنوبي لبنان. pic.twitter.com/Xzl3pshtvx
— شبكة يافا الإخبارية (@yaffa_ps) January 5, 2026
Members of the Hasidic and Sephardic ultra-Orthodox community are planning an anti-conscription rally tomorrow in Jerusalem’s Romema neighborhood, along Yirmiyahu and Sarei Israel Streets at 7 p.m.
The rally is the initiative of a group of leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis, including Rabbi Moshe Tzedakah, a member of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages, as well as rabbis representing, among others, the Slonim and Chernobyl Hasidic groups.
It is also connected to the Jerusalem Faction, an extremist ultra-Orthodox group numbering some 60,000 members which is considered among the most conservative of Haredi factions and regularly demonstrates against the enlistment of yeshiva students.
While attendance will be significantly lower than the 200,000 ultra-Orthodox men who blocked the entrance to Jerusalem last October, organizers claim “tens of thousands” of people are expected to turn up tomorrow.
A Paris court finds 10 people guilty of cyberbullying France’s first lady Brigitte Macron by spreading false online claims about her gender and sexuality, including allegations she was born a man.
The court convicts all defendants to sentences ranging from a cyberbullying awareness training to eight-month suspended prison sentences.
The court points to “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious” comments referring to false claims regarding alleged trans identity and alleged pedophilic criminality targeting Brigitte Macron.
The defendants, eight men and two women aged 41 to 65, are accused of having posted “numerous malicious comments” falsely claiming that President Emmanuel Macron’s wife was born a man and linking their 24-year age gap to pedophilia. Some of the posts were viewed tens of thousands of times.
Brigitte Macron did not attend the two-day trial in October. Speaking on TF1 national television yesterday, she said she launched legal proceedings to “set an example” in the fight against harassment.
The case follows years of conspiracy theories falsely alleging that Brigitte Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, which is actually the name of her brother. The Macrons have also filed a defamation suit in the United States against conservative influencer Candace Owens.
The Macrons, who have been married since 2007, first met at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher. Brigitte Macron, 24 years her husband’s senior, was then called Brigitte Auzière, a married mother of three.
Emmanuel Macron, 48, has been France’s president since 2017.
Israeli authorities have told the High Court of Justice that a ban on international media access to Gaza should remain in place, arguing it is necessary for security reasons, according to a government submission filed by the public prosecutor.
“Even at this time, entry of journalists into the Gaza Strip without escort, as requested in the petition, should not be permitted,” says the government submission, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
“This is for security reasons, based on the position of the defense establishment, which maintains that a security risk associated with such entry still exists,” the submission says.
The document was filed after the High Court of Justice last month gave the state a final extension to respond to a petition by the Foreign Press Association (FPA) demanding unfettered media access to Gaza and scolded the government for its repeated delays despite a long series of extensions granted by the court.
The FPA filed its petition in 2024, and the state has since been repeatedly granted delays on requests to update its position that it cannot grant press access to Gaza on security grounds.
Israel’s policy, determined by the defense minister and the IDF, has been to deny independent access to all journalists to Gaza since the beginning of the war.
It has, however, allowed Israeli journalists, and to a lesser extent foreign journalists, to enter Gaza as embedded reporters with IDF forces.
The Defense Ministry announces that it will conduct mine and unexploded ordnance clearance operations tomorrow in the areas surrounding the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan Valley in northern Israel.
According to the ministry, the work will be conducted by its Mine and Unexploded Ordnance Clearance Authority, and residents may hear explosions and see smoke as part of the planned activity.
The mines date back decades, to periods when the areas served as active military fronts during past conflicts.
The IDF says that troops thwarted another attempt to smuggle weapons into Israel from Egypt overnight.
According to the military, surveillance units and the IDF’s aerial monitoring system identified a drone crossing into Israeli territory from the west.
Forces from the Paran Regional Brigade intercepted the drone, which was carrying three M-16 rifles and magazines.
Hundreds of farmers across the country take to the streets to protest against the government’s planned reforms of the agricultural dairy industry.
Farmers and dairy farmers from across the country are gathering at major intersections, with tractor convoys blocking some roads in protest. Some of the protesters symbolically spill milk onto highways.
Dairy associations are warning that the reform will severely damage the dairy industry and lead to the closure of about 400 dairy farms in kibbutzim and peripheral areas across the country.
Local dairy industry advocates claim that the reform will have serious implications for food security and consumers in Israel.
Amid recurring nationwide shortages of milk, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is spearheading a new reform, vowing to end a problem that he says stems from an overregulated, overly concentrated dairy market.
The Finance Ministry, led by Smotrich, plans to scrap the centralized quota system and open the dairy market to competition. Dairy prices have long been a flashpoint in Israel, with spikes often touching off public anger and even mass protests over the high cost of living — a theme that has consistently ranked among voters’ top concerns in recent elections.
At least two people were killed and five wounded when a home collapsed in the central Gaza refugee camp of Maghazi, Hamas’s civil defense agency says.
The dead are identified as Ibrahim al-Shana, 29, and his son Muhammad al-Shana, 8. One of the wounded is in critical condition, the agency says.
The five-story building had been damaged during the war and collapsed this morning with people inside, according to Palestinian media.
انهيار منزلٌ مكوّنٌ من خمسة طوابق يعود لعائلة الشنّا فوق رؤوس ساكنيه في مخيم المغازي وسط قطاع غزة، ما أسفر عن استشهاد فلسطينيين، وإصابة آخرين، ووجود مفقودين. pic.twitter.com/B6n97KTHxO
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) January 5, 2026
The UN reported in October that over half of Gaza’s structures were destroyed in the war with Israel and that roughly 40 percent of the remaining structures are severely or moderately damaged.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans face flooding of their tents and shelters by heavy rains, and materials for shelters and sandbags are not being allowed to enter the enclave. COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body that oversees aid to Gaza, has denied the allegations, saying it has let in hundreds of thousands of tents and tarpaulins and is waiting for international organizations to let in close to 100,000 pallets of “water-related items.”
Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas announces that his Islamist party will become a broad tent party open to Jewish candidates, in a major shift.
“Every citizen of the State of Israel – Jewish and Arab – can join Ra’am and be among its Knesset candidates,” says Abbas speaking in a radio interview with Radio 103. “I want to expand the ranks of the party within Jewish society.”
On whether he is already speaking with potential Jewish candidates who could join Ra’am, Abbas says, “There are Jewish Knesset members with whom I see eye to eye and I would be honored if they joined Ra’am.”
Ra’am is affiliated with the southern branch of the Islamic Movement, and its candidate lists have historically been exclusively Arab Muslim. However, the party announced last month that it would separate from the religious council to which it is linked and establish its own institutions.
The move to turn Ra’am into a civic party open to Jewish candidates appears to be aimed at distancing the party from hardline Muslim organizations in order to boost its legitimacy among Zionist Israeli parties ahead of elections set to be held before the end of October.
Several opposition leaders, including Yair Golan’s left-wing Democrats and Yashar party chair and ex-military chief Gadi Eisenkot, have expressed willingness to form a government supported by Arab parties, though others, including Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu, have vetoed the option.
Abbas is emphatic that there is no possibility of Ra’am’s joining a coalition with the parties now in the government.
“These people abandoned us in favor of extremist parties. Today we are suffering from the policies of Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit,” he says.
In the same interview, the leader discusses the violent crime epidemic ravaging Arab society, which he calls “the worst crisis” the community has experienced, and claims that the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, “smiles” every time an Arab is murdered.
The IDF says a drone strike it carried out in southern Lebanon yesterday killed two Hezbollah operatives.
The pair, who were targeted while driving near the town of Jmaijmeh, were involved in restoring Hezbollah infrastructure in the area, in violation of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, according to the military.
Lebanon’s health ministry also reported yesterday two killed in an Israeli strike in the area.
The IDF issues footage of the strike.
צה"ל חיסל שני מחבלים שעסקו בשיקום תשתיות צבאיות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה
צה"ל תקף וחיסל אתמול, במרחב ג'מיג'מה שבדרום לבנון, שני מחבלים מארגון הטרור חיזבאללה.
המחבלים עסקו בניסיונות שיקום תשתיות צבאיות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה.
פעילותם של המחבלים היוו הפרה בוטה של ההבנות בין… pic.twitter.com/uRdYoV3qd8
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 5, 2026
Iran says that its relations with close ally Venezuela remained unchanged despite the United States capturing its leader Nicolas Maduro and taking him to New York for trial.
“Our relations with all countries, including Venezuela, are based on mutual respect and will remain so,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baqaei says at a press conference. “We are in contact with the Venezuelan authorities.”
Iran accuses Israel of trying to undermine its national unity after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed support for protests in the Islamic Republic.
“The Zionist regime is determined to exploit the slightest opportunity to sow division and undermine our national unity, and we must remain vigilant,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei says at a weekly press conference, before accusing Israeli and US leaders of “incitement to violence.”
At least 16 people have been killed during a week of unrest in Iran, rights groups said yesterday, as protests spread across the country, sparking violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces.
Netanyahu said yesterday that Israelis “identify with the struggle” of Iranians.
“The government of Israel, the State of Israel, and my own policies — we identify with the struggle of the Iranian people, with their aspirations for freedom, liberty and justice,” Netanyahu said. “It is quite possible that we are at a moment when the Iranian people are taking their fate into their own hands.”
The woman killed overnight in a home in Pardes Hanna is named by Hebrew-language media as 49-year-old Ina Danilov.
Danilov’s husband has reportedly been arrested in connection with the killing.
According to the Ynet news site, complaints over domestic violence were filed with police in 2017 and 2018, but were closed.
Last year a complaint was filed over violence toward children in the household and Danilov’s husband was removed from the house for a few days, but the family members did not cooperate with the investigation, Ynet says.
Addressing a gathering in honor of two draft evaders released from military prison, the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah party claims that those enforcing Haredi military conscription are fighting against God and Torah.
“When a yeshiva student is placed in prison solely because he wishes to study Torah, it is not he who is in prison! The Torah itself, God forbid, is in prison,” Rabbi Dov Lando claims during a celebration in honor of Yitzhak Revivo and Yair Saadeh.
“Let everyone who is complicit in this crime of casting the holy Torah, the Torah of God, behind bars know this: you are not fighting flesh and blood; you are fighting the Torah and the one who gave it, blessed be his name,” Lando declares.
“Regrettably, we find ourselves in exile among Jews, and we all pray that God will help us, that he will soon redeem us from this exile and that we will study Torah in peace and security.”
Lando, 95, is a steadfast opponent of Haredi conscription to the Israel Defense Forces and has ordered yeshiva students to ignore call-up orders, prompting Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman to file a criminal complaint against him.
Earlier this year, a Times of Israel investigation found that the Vaad HaYeshivot (Yeshiva Committee), on whose board he sits, had been actively advising yeshiva students to ignore enlistment orders in violation of the law.
The High Court of Justice is set to hear petitions this morning against the funding of ultra-Orthodox schools that do not teach the required number of hours of core curriculum subjects, such as math, English, and science.
The petition was filed by the Hiddush Religious Freedom and Equality organization in March last year, demanding that the budget for two large ultra-Orthodox school networks, which are fully state funded and supposed to teach a specified number of hours of core curriculum studies, be adjusted in line with the actual number of hours that are taught of such subjects.
A State Comptroller’s Report from 2020, as well as position papers by the Attorney General’s Office and the legal adviser to the Finance Ministry in 2024, found that the Independent school network associated with the United Torah Judaism party and the Bnei Yosef – Maayan Torah Education network associated with the Shas party were not fulfilling the required teaching hours for core curriculum studies as stipulated for fully funded schools.
Hiddush’s petition requests that the court order the Education Ministry to adjust the budget allocated to these educational networks based on the number of hours that each of its schools teaches of core curriculum studies; that reporting of taught hours be done in a trustworthy and legal manner; and that the schools fulfill their legal requirement to participate in external testing.
The petition will be heard by judges Daphne Barak Erez, David Mintz, and Ruth Ronen.
Following a police officer’s fatal shooting of a Bedouin man over the weekend, the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court issues a gag order barring the officer’s name from publication.
The gag order was requested by the Israel Police, says the Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI).
He was interrogated by DIPI investigators and ordered to five-day house arrest yesterday, after shooting 36-year-old Muhammad Hussein Tarabin in his home on Saturday evening.
The officer is also banned from entering police stations until next Sunday.
Police arrived at the slain man’s home on Saturday as part of a week-long raid on Tarabin al-Sana, a Bedouin town in the Negev, and said Tarabin was suspected of setting cars alight in nearby Jewish towns.
The circumstances surrounding the shooting remain unclear and the officer is being investigated for opening fire unlawfully, according to the Department of Internal Police Investigations.
Family members accuse police officers of having cleaned blood from off the floor following the shooting. The DIPI did not indicate that it is investigating him or others on suspicion of tampering with evidence, in response to an inquiry about the matter.
Graffiti sprayed outside the offices of the Army Radio in Jaffa threatens “your time is running out, your days are numbered.”
The graffiti reads: “The head of the snake, the Supreme Court, the Department for Internal Police Investigations, prosecutors. Secular heresy. Must be removed.”
The style of the graffiti mimics the lettering found in religious texts.
In November, threatening graffiti was found spray-painted outside the offices of the Channel 13 news network in Tel Aviv.
Last month, the cabinet unanimously approved Defense Minister Israel Katz’s controversial proposal to shut down Army Radio, with broadcasts set to end by March 1. The High Court of Justice has issued an interim order freezing the closure until the court reaches a final ruling on petitions against the move.
The legal system has long been targeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government.
שוב כתובות נאצה ליד כלי תקשורת : הפעם גלי צה״ל. כנראה על ידי אותו חשוד שצייר גרפיטי ליד רשת 13. ״זמנכם קצוב, ימיכם ספורים״ pic.twitter.com/iENainxjmH
— Yossi Eli (@Yossi_eli) January 5, 2026
The Israel Defense Forces announces that the home of a Palestinian terrorist who killed two people in a stabbing and car-ramming rampage last month in northern Israel is slated for demolition.
In the attack, Ahmed al-Rub, a Palestinian from Qabatiya, murdered 68-year-old Shimshon Mordechai and 19-year-old Aviv Maor on a highway near Beit She’an.
As a matter of policy, Israel demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out deadly terror attacks. An appeal can be submitted, but such attempts rarely succeed.
Israeli officials have said the policy is intended to dissuade Palestinians from planning terror attacks, as doing so will harm their extended families’ livelihood. Critics call it collective punishment.
Police say 10 suspects will be charged in connection with the activities of the Abu Latif criminal organization.
Those set to be indicted include the head of the gang, Nidal Abu Latif, and ten other individuals including senior members of the organization, an accountant, a lawyer, and a former deputy mayor.
Allegations against the suspects include extortion by threats, conspiracy to commit a crime, extortion by force, obstruction of justice, fraud, money laundering, tax and customs fraud.
The suspects were arrested in a raid last December as the result of a year-long operation in which an undercover agent forged relations with senior members of the Abu Latif and Hariri crime families, two of the biggest criminal organizations in Israel.
Police say the operation took place after an individual who turned state’s witness revealed offenses worth millions of shekels that had been carried out over a period of five years.
US President Donald Trump’s brushing aside of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado as a potential interim leader of Venezuela, stems from her decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize last year, the Washington Post reports.
Citing two sources close to the White House, the report says that Machado’s efforts to praise Trump after she won the award were not enough to placate the US president, who openly covets the award and feels he deserved to receive it.
“If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” one of the sources says.
Machado’s acceptance of the prize was an “ultimate sin,” the person says.
Washington is instead working with deposed Nicolas Maduro’s vice president, Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who said yesterday that the operation to capture her predecessor had a “Zionist tint” to it.
A 49-year-old woman was stabbed to death overnight in Pardes Hanna, Hebrew media outlets report.
The woman’s husband was arrested as a murder suspect, the Ynet news site reports.
According to an initial probe by police, the suspected murder was a result of a family dispute, Ynet reports.
A total of 32 Cuban nationals were killed during the US attack on Caracas that culminated in the capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, the government in Havana says.
The Cuban military and police officers were on a mission in the Caribbean country at the request of Venezuela’s government, according to a statement read on Cuban state TV.
“As a result of the criminal attack carried out by the government of the United States” against Venezuela, “32 Cubans lost their lives in combat operations,” the Cuban government says in the statement.
What the Cubans were working on in the South American nation was unclear, but Cuba, a close ally of Venezuela’s government, has sent military and police forces to assist in operations for years.
“You know, a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday,” US President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew Sunday night from Florida back to Washington. “There was a lot of death on the other side. No death on our side.”
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s Interim President Delcy Rodriguez on calls for a “balanced and respectful” relationship with the United States, a day after American forces attacked Caracas and captured leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.
“We consider it a priority to move toward a balanced and respectful relationship between the US and Venezuela,” Rodriguez, Maduro’s vice president, writes on Telegram.
“We extend an invitation to the US government to work together on an agenda for cooperation that is aimed toward shared development.”
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — US President Donald Trump warns Iran that it would get “hit very hard” by the United States if more protesters die during demonstrations that have entered a second week.
“We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One, repeating the same threat he made on Friday.
At least 16 people have been killed in the protests, according to human rights groups.
Arkia Airlines launches its Tel Aviv to Hanoi services, becoming the first Israeli carrier to operate a direct route to Vietnam.
The flight to Hanoi will take 11 hours and 35 minutes, and the return flight will take 12 hours and 30 minutes.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will escape to Moscow if his regime collapses, an intelligence report shared with The Times says.
Khamenei, 86, will flee Tehran with his aides and family members if his security forces fail to halt the growing demonstrations or desert his side amid the unrest, the report says.
“The ‘plan B’ is for Khamenei and his very close circle of associates and family, including his son and nominated heir apparent, Mojtaba,” an intelligence source tells the British newspaper.
In December 2024, then-Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, an ally of both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Khamenei, fled a rebel takeover to Moscow.
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan opposition figure Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia says that US forces’ ousting of his country’s leftist leader, Nicolas Maduro, was “an important step, but not enough” to return the crisis-hit nation to normal.
“This moment represents an important step, but it is not enough,” he says in a post on Instagram from exile in Spain.
Urrutia says the country could only return to normal when “all Venezuelans who have been deprived of their freedom for political reasons are released” and the results of the 2024 election, which he claims to have won, are respected.
LONDON — Eva Schloss, the Auschwitz survivor who dedicated decades to educating people on the Holocaust and was the step-sister of diarist Anne Frank, has died aged 96, her foundation announces.
Her family expresses their “great sadness” at the loss of this “remarkable woman: an Auschwitz survivor, a devoted Holocaust educator, tireless in her work for remembrance, understanding and peace.”
King Charles III, who danced with Schloss at an event in London in 2022, and his wife Camilla, patron of her Anne Frank Trust UK foundation, say they were “greatly saddened.”
“We are both privileged and proud to have known her and we admired her deeply,” the royal couple says in a statement.
Schloss co-founded the organization in 1990 to pass on the memory of the Holocaust to young people and combat prejudice.
Senior officials in Iran have acknowledged that the country has been “thrust into survival mode” amid growing protests against the Islamic Republic’s regime, three Iranian officials familiar with government deliberations tell The New York Times.
After US President Donald Trump threatened to intervene if Iran killed peaceful protesters on Friday, the country’s Supreme National Security Council, in charge of the country’s security, held a meeting to discuss how to temper the protests without reacting violently and avoid fueling the rage toward the regime, the three Iranian officials tell the Times.
The council also prepared for a scenario where Iran was hit with military strikes, the report says.
