The Times of Israel liveblogged Tuesday’s events as they unfolded.
The Haredi teen run over and killed this evening by a bus in Jerusalem during a demonstration against enlistment is identified as Yosef Eisenthal, 14.
Eisenthal was a resident of Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood.
The driver of the bus has been arrested and taken for questioning.
Three other young Haredi demonstrators were lightly injured in the incident.
President Isaac Herzog says it is a “deeply sad and painful evening” after a young Haredi was run over by a bus and killed during a demonstration.
“Violence crosses a red line in the gravest and most dangerous sense,” Herzog writes on X. “This painful evening must be a wake-up call for all of us… Now is the time to show responsibility, lower the flames, and do everything possible to prevent the next disaster before it is too late.”
He says he trusts police to conduct “a swift and thorough investigation in order to quickly bring those responsible to justice and draw conclusions.”
Young Haredi demonstrators in Jerusalem continue to block the corner of Shamgar and Yirmiyahu streets, near where a bus ran over protesters, as a bonfire started on the street continues to burn.
One young man calls out that Zionists should not be in Israel.
MK Meir Porush of UTJ’s Agudat Yisrael blames this evening’s ramming incident in which a young anti-conscription demonstrator was killed on what he describes as anti-Haredi incitement.
“The situation in which a teenager who came to participate in a protest against the draft decree was killed and perhaps even murdered is extremely serious,” he says.
“It is impossible to ignore the fact that more than once during demonstrations by the ultra-Orthodox public, there is a public atmosphere that it is permissible to harm the demonstrators. The situation in which incitement is rampant against the ultra-Orthodox public is causing Jews to fear for their safety in the Land of Israel. I call on all public leaders to call for an end to the harm and incitement against the ultra-Orthodox public.”
Fellow Agudat Yisrael MK Yisrael Eichler also blames “incitement” by the press, judiciary and legislators.
“The brutal murder tonight of a Haredi teenager dragged under a bus in Jerusalem is a direct result of wild and antisemitic incitement against the Haredim, in the media, the legal system and even in the Knesset,” the Hasidic lawmaker says in a statement.
“We have warned again and again that this incitement… will end in bloodshed. And now it has happened. I hope this is not just the beginning. We demand an immediate end to the wild incitement against the Haredim. Does blood need to be spilled in the streets so that the inciters… understand that words kill and that their hands are stained with the blood of the victims of the civil war they have declared?”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says the military is building a new strategy centered on the event of a “surprise war,” such as that brought on by the October 7 attack, during the “Leaders on the Home Front” conference, which spotlights the role of civilian resilience and local authorities in enabling the IDF’s operations.
At the event in central Israel, Zamir highlights lessons learned from October 7, saying, “We have made changes to readiness, to orders,” and “addressed operational gaps.” He adds that “there will be no more containment,” and that Israel will not allow “terror organizations or proxies to entrench themselves along our borders.”
The conference is attended by Defense Minister Israel Katz, senior defense officials, emergency and rescue organizations, and heads of local authorities.
Zamir emphasizes the role of local authorities in Israel’s defense, telling heads of local and regional councils, “The most important and essential cornerstone is the local authority: Your ability to function in emergency situations has an impact on our ability in the IDF to function.”
He praises the cooperation between local authorities and the IDF during recent conflicts, including the war with Iran last June, saying, “Your work on the home front enables the IDF to have the quiet it needs to do what must be done, where it must be done.”
Home Front Command chief Maj. Gen. Shai Klepper describes Israel’s civilians as “the strongest in the world.” He adds that “partnership… is how we will be able to save lives.”
The IDF confirms a targeted strike earlier today in the Khirbet Selm area of southern Lebanon, saying the two reported killed were Hezbollah operatives.
According to the IDF, the pair were involved in efforts to rehabilitate Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, with one of the operatives identified as an engineering specialist leading the group’s reconstruction activities. The IDF says that its actions were a violation of the established understandings between Israel and Lebanon.
The military adds that it will continue to act to remove any threat and protect the State of Israel.
Earlier, Lebanese media reported that two individuals were killed, and one seriously injured in an IDF strike in the village of Kfardounin, located about two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the village of Khirbet Selm.
The ultra-Orthodox Shas party expresses its shock at this evening’s death of a young Haredi protester who was run over by a bus in Jerusalem.
“We are shaken to the depths of our souls by the grave ramming incident in Jerusalem, in which a Haredi young man was run over and killed during a protest. The horrific scenes of a bus driver wildly driving into a crowd of people, dragging a young man for dozens of meters, are chilling and deeply disturbing, and must not be met with silence,” the party says in a statement.
“We demand from the police an immediate, thorough and uncompromising investigation, and full justice for those responsible. The blood of Haredi men is not cheap.”
United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf calls on police to bring to justice the driver of the bus who ran over multiple Haredi demonstrators, killing one. He sends his wishes for the recovery of the wounded.
“I was shocked to receive reports of the difficult and horrific incident in Jerusalem, in which protesters were run over, including a teenager who lost his life. My heart goes out to the young man’s family at this difficult time, and I send my best wishes for a speedy recovery and a full recovery to the other injured in the incident,” he says in a statement.
“Loss of control and harm to human life cannot be allowed to become the order of the day.”
A teen has been killed and three others injured after a bus rammed into Haredi demonstrators at the intersection of Yirmiyahu and Shamgar streets in Jerusalem.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service says the victim was around 18 years old.
The driver has been arrested. According to Channel 12, he told police he was trying to get away from demonstrators who blocked his way.
According to MDA, three pedestrians were initially hit during the protests on Shamgar Street. The bus continued on to Ohel Yehoshua Street where it hit another pedestrian. It said two of the victims were 14 and 17 years old.
“We received a report of several pedestrians who were hit by a bus during a demonstration,” Emergency Medical Technician Eli Eisenbach says. “When we arrived at the scene of the accident, we saw a difficult sight. There was a lot of commotion, and a young victim, approximately 18 years old, was trapped under the bus. During the rescue operations, we performed medical examinations and found that he had no pulse, was not breathing, and was suffering from very severe multi-system trauma. Unfortunately, we had to declare his death at the scene of the accident.”
Graphic video from the scene shows the bus driving through the intersection, where protesters had set a fire, a victim being pushed underneath it as bystanders scream. Witnesses who spoke to the Times of Israel across the street from a burning dumpster said that the young men had attempted to block traffic, although this reporter was unable to corroborate their statements.
The Times of Israel witnessed emergency responders attempting to extricate somebody from under the bus on Ohel Yehoshua Street before being pushed away by police.
“Israel Police forces are working to disperse a violent disturbance in Jerusalem, after a handful of rioters threw objects and eggs at police officers, set fire to bins, blocked vehicles and attacked journalists,” police say in a statement.
“A bus that passed by, apparently during the disturbance, hit several participants, and as a result, there are several injured people at the scene, and the case is under investigation. The bus driver was arrested and taken to the police station for further investigation,” police say, adding that journalists at the scene were attacked with stones and taken for medical treatment.
“The Israel Police will continue to act decisively against anyone who harms public safety, journalists and police officers, while maintaining the law and public order,” they add.
Some Haredi protesters, separate from the main anti-enlistment demonstration in Jerusalem, set several fires in the middle of Yirmiyahu Street, blocking the intersection with Shamgar Street.
In the middle of a busy shopping district, protesters burn dumpsters and flammable liquids at multiple locations. A loud boom, the origin of which this reporter could not ascertain, was heard down the street.
Walking past a melting dumpster, a middle-aged Haredi man yells at the youth standing around the fire, “Don’t enlist!”
One young man is taken away by paramedics. Witnesses at the scene claim he had tried to block the road and had been hit by a bus driver, but this reporter was unable to confirm this.
Hundreds of Palestinians participate in a protest in the northern West Bank city of Nablus against the Palestinian Authority’s reform of its prisoner payment system.
The protests are becoming a regular occurrence throughout the West Bank in recent weeks amid pushback over Ramallah’s decision to condition welfare payments strictly on recipients’ financial situation, rather than the length of their prison sentences.
The reform has seen several thousand people lose stipends that they had been receiving for years.
Israel claims that the reform is artificial but has yet to publicize information demonstrating as much.
مسيرة في نابلس دعمًا للأسرى وحقوقهم، ورفضًا لقطع رواتبهم وتحويلها لمؤسسة "تمكين" كحالات اجتماعية. pic.twitter.com/Sb6qHj9RIS
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) January 6, 2026
The PA says an international audit of the reform is underway to prove that it is real, as the protests against it appear to suggest.
ההפגנות בעניין האסירים נמשכות בשכם גם בימים האחרונים. ברקע תנאי האסירים בכלא לצד הפסקת תשלום המשכורות למחבלים. אירוע שכרגע נראה שהרשות מחליטה להכיל – לא שולחים את מנגנוני הביטחון לפזר, גם כשחוסמים כבישים https://t.co/LNEiMoK0dS pic.twitter.com/4zkTVrE4LM
— Nurit Yohanan (@nurityohanan) January 6, 2026
Israel and Syria agreed during talks today in Paris to create a “joint fusion mechanism,” according to a joint statement from the two countries and the US that was released by Washington.
The mechanism is a “dedicated communication cell,” says the statement, meant to “facilitate immediate and ongoing coordination on their intelligence sharing, military de-escalation, diplomatic engagement and commercial opportunities under the supervision of the United States.”
The mechanism will also serve as a means of rapidly resolving disputes.
The talks, according to the statement, “centered on respect for Syria’s sovereignty and stability, Israel’s security, and prosperity for both countries,” and both Syria and Israel reaffirmed “their commitment to strive toward achieving lasting security and stability arrangements for both countries.”
“The United States commends these positive steps and remains committed to supporting the implementation of these understandings, as part of broader efforts to achieve enduring peace in the Middle East,” says the statement. “When sovereign nations cooperate in a respectful and productive way, prosperity will be unleashed.”
According to the three countries the joint statement “reflects the spirit of today’s great meeting and the Sides’ determination to turn a new page in their relations for the benefit of future generations.”
Addressing the anti-conscription demonstration in Jerusalem, Rabbi Ben Zion Mutzafi, 75, one of the top Sephardic Haredi spiritual leaders, complains that the government is jailing Torah students.
“Torah scholars are not for sale. Under no circumstances will yeshiva students be conscripted,” he says, arguing that even the “wicked gentiles” don’t conscript yeshiva students.
Hundreds of Haredim scream at The Times of Israel’s reporter and others at the demonstration after they use smartphones to take pictures of the crowd from a scaffolding.
Multiple Haredim in the press area approach this correspondent afterward, insisting that using a smartphone is forbidden.
The crowd at the demonstration grows so large that it begins to strain against the barricades separating it from the rabbis and media. People are pushed against the metal fences and begin climbing over with the help of others within the enclosure, prompting rabbis to call on the demonstrators to back up before a disaster ensues.
Protesters continue to overflow the barrier, filling the press area, leading to fights with ushers attempting to control the crowd. One haredi knocks down a journalist’s smartphone.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says that talks with Syria in Paris today “took place as part of US President Donald Trump’s vision to advance peace in the Middle East,” and that Israel is pushing economic ties between the enemy states.
According to the PMO, Israel “emphasized the importance of ensuring the security of its citizens and preventing threats along its borders.”
Israel’s negotiators also stressed Jerusalem’s “commitment to promoting regional stability and security, as well as the need to advance economic cooperation for the benefit of both countries.”
The countries agreed to continue the talks “to advance shared objectives and to safeguard the security of the Druze minority in Syria,” says the Israeli readout.
Israeli intelligence officials assess there is a slim chance at this time that the current wave of protests in Iran will lead to the fall of the regime, Channel 12 reports.
The network says the assessments presented to Israeli leaders assert that the Revolutionary Guard’s paramilitary Basij forces “have been able to clamp down relatively effectively on protests” and that there is no sign of wavering loyalty to the regime in the security forces.
Intelligence officials also posit that Iran could seek to renew nuclear talks with Washington, as “negotiations, regardless of how they conclude, serve the regime at this time.”
Iran’s Defense Council warns the nation could preemptively strike its enemies if it perceived an imminent threat to its security.
In a statement, the council, which was formed to spearhead defensive strategy following the 2025 war with Israel, warns that “Iran’s security, independence and territorial integrity are an uncrossable red line, and any aggression or continuation of hostile behavior will be met with a proportionate, decisive and decisive response.”
It adds: “The long-standing enemies of this land… are pursuing a targeted approach by repeating and intensifying threatening language and interventionist statements in clear conflict with the accepted principles of international law, which is aimed at dismembering our beloved Iran and harming the country’s identity.”
It stresses that Tehran “does not consider itself limited to reacting after the fact, and considers objective signs of threat as part of the security equation.”
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has completed a series of demonstrations showcasing a new, integrated border defense system designed to address threats along Israel’s borders in both routine and emergency scenarios, multiple Hebrew media outlets report.
The system combines real-time intelligence gathered from a wide range of sensors, platforms and domains — land, air, sea and space — into a unified operational picture. This integration facilitates rapid responses to detected threats, with certain capabilities operating autonomously.
The demonstrations featured IAI’s comprehensive solution, which included an advanced mix of electro-optical systems, radars, autonomous vehicles, drones and UAVs, all of which demonstrated their effectiveness against a variety of threats in the operational scenario.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) unveils groundbreaking defense system to protect Israel’s borders (N12 News)
It fuses real-time intel, AI for early detection of threats, lethal weapons for rapid response.
System presented to Israel’s military & political leaders (Photo: IAI) pic.twitter.com/c98uKCZqpH
— Israel Radar (@IsraelRadar_com) January 6, 2026
The platforms are remotely monitored by human operators and controlled via a single centralized command system with a relatively small team.
Additionally, the demonstrations introduced several new platforms, including advanced surveillance drones capable of operating in poor weather and low-visibility conditions, vertical takeoff-and-landing UAVs designed for reconnaissance and rapid strike missions, and a light aircraft developed specifically for border security duties.
“The solution we presented is autonomous, innovative and highly survivable, providing a relevant response to all threats across all border scenarios and protecting the lives of combat soldiers,” says IAI CEO Boaz Levy. “This is the first solution of its kind to be successfully demonstrated in Israel.”
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox men gather on Jerusalem’s Yirmiyahu Street for a major anti-conscription demonstration.
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 in October, organizers claim “tens of thousands” of people are expected to attend.
The streets of Jerusalem are plastered with flyers against the government’s draft exemption bill — which many in the community believe does not do enough to absolve them of service — and the Haredi Shas party, which supports it.
Protesters carry signs saying one can either be Haredi or serve in the army, and calling Israel an apartheid state for its alleged mistreatment of the community.
Rabbis addressing the gathering say avoiding army service is a matter of life and death, priming cheers from the crowd and people perched on balconies and looking out windows.
One speaker calls conscription efforts “a holocaust” and an attempt to destroy the Jewish people. “Conscription to the army is destruction!” he screams.
Dozens of rabbis sit on an elevated dais before the crowd, gathered under a giant banner that decries the bill as a “decree of destruction” and states, “Better to die than transgress.”
The Swiss bar where 40 people were killed in a fire at the New Year had not been subjected to any annual safety inspections since 2019, the mayor of the ski resort of Crans-Montana says.
Swiss authorities have been searching for explanations for the blaze, which tore through the “Le Constellation” bar in the early hours of January 1. Most of the victims were teenagers.
“We are deeply sorry. We had no indication that the checks had not been done as requested,” Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud tells reporters, adding that bars in the town are meant to have such inspections each year.
Prosecutors have said the fire was likely caused by sparkling candles igniting the ceiling of the bar’s basement, which was covered in a foam material used for soundproofing.
A video from New Year’s Eve 2019-2020 shared by Swiss broadcaster RTS showed revelers carrying similar sparklers in bottles as a waiter warns: “Watch out for the foam!”
German federal prosecutors launch an investigation on terrorism charges into an arson attack on high-voltage cables that caused a power blackout impacting 45,000 Berlin households.
The service says it is probing the January 3 attack — claimed online by a far-left extremist group — on charges including “membership in a terrorist organization, sabotage, arson and disruption of public services.”
A Muslim man who disarmed one of the shooters in the massacre targeting Jews at Sydney’s Bondi Beach visits the grave of the Chabad movement’s leader in New York.
The gravesite in Queens, known as the Ohel, is the resting place of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the revered late leader of the Chabad Hasidic movement.
The Bondi shooting targeted an event hosted by Chabad for Hanukkah.
✨BONDI MASSACRE HERO AHMED AL- AHMED, BONDI RABBI, YEHORAM ULMAN, VISIT REBBE'S OHEL
Ahmed, who heroically disarmed a terrorist during the Bondi Massacre, and Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, of Chabad of Bondi, prayed for humanity at the Ohel, the Rebbe's resting place, in Queens, New… pic.twitter.com/GkuenmAY3P
— Chabad.org (@Chabad) January 6, 2026
Photos shared by Chabad show Ahmed Al-Ahmed, wearing a kippah and an arm sling, praying at the site. He is joined by Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, a rabbi from Chabad of Bondi.
Most of the fatalities in Sydney were members of Ulman’s congregation, and he presided over their funerals.
The IDF says the raid on Birzeit University earlier today was prompted by intelligence indicating that a “gathering in support of terrorism” was expected to take place on campus.
According to the military, IDF troops and Border Police officers entered the university area as the gathering began, used crowd-dispersal measures and fired warning shots only, eventually dispersing the crowd.
The IDF says that later, an additional violent disturbance developed involving hundreds of suspects, during which stones and rocks were thrown from rooftops at Israeli forces, posing what it describes as an immediate threat. Troops responded with additional crowd-control measures and live fire directed at “central violent instigators.”
Earlier, Palestinian media reported that Israeli forces raided the campus north of Ramallah, clashing with students and firing tear gas. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said 11 students were hospitalized, including five with bullet wounds.
WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, said Israeli forces broke into campus buildings and seized property belonging to a Hamas-affiliated student bloc.
The talks between Syria and Israel in Paris today were “good and important,” a senior Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
The sides “agreed for a working group to meet on a frequent and ongoing basis,” says the senior official.
A majority of voters for most opposition parties support establishing a government with the support of the Islamist Ra’am party in the event of a tie between the two major blocs in the next election, a new poll by the Israel Democracy Institute has found.
According to the institute’s monthly Israeli Voice Index for December 2025, 94.5 percent of voters for The Democrats, 62% of Bennett 2026 voters, 58% of Yesh Atid voters and 52% of Gadi Eisenkot’s Yasher voters answered positively when asked if “in the event of a tie between the blocs after the next elections, would you support or not support the establishment of a government headed by the political camp that is closest to your position, which relies on cooperation with Ra’am, headed by Mansour Abbas.”
Supporters of Yisrael Beytenu were divided 47% for and 44% against.
The survey found 29.5% of Bennett voters, 17% of Yashar voters and 25% of Yisrael Beytenu voters would only support such a move if there were no other possibility to establish a government.
Recent polling has shown the Bennett-led bloc hovering around 58-59 seats and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc standing around 51-52 seats, leaving neither with the 61-seat majority necessary to form a government.
The Naftali Bennett-Yair Lapid government, which was in office from 2021 to 2022, made history by including Ra’am in its diverse coalition of right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties.
However, both Bennett and Liberman have vowed not to sit with Ra’am again, even as Eisenkot has implied that Zionist opposition parties might rely on the cooperation of Arab parties to form a government after the next elections.
The Democrats chairman Yair Golan announces that several leaders of the anti-government protest movement are joining the left-wing party, and calls on all protest leaders and their supporters to join.
Golan is joined by anti-government protestors and tech entrepreneurs Moshe Radman and Ami Dror, key figures in the widespread movement against the government’s contentious judicial overhaul, and Danny Elgarat, the brother of murdered Hamas hostage Itzik Elgarat, and a prominent advocate on behalf of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
They are also joined by other activists, including Tomer Avital, Lee Hoffman, Moran Michel, Hadas Ragolsky and Kati Piasecki.
“Tonight, the most natural and necessary transition in the past three years is happening,” Golan says, adding that the protest movement is “a part of us, a part of our backbone.”
הערב קורה המעבר הכי טבעי והכי מתבקש שקרה כאן בשלוש השנים האחרונות, הדמוקרטים אומרים בקול ברור: המחאה היא לא אורחת שלנו. המחאה היא בשר מבשרנו. היא חלק מעמוד השדרה שלנו.
אלו ההורים והילדים שהניפו דגלים וצעקו "דמוקרטיה" בגשרים, ואלו האזרחים שהתקבצו בכיכרות בהתמדה ובנחישות מדהימה -… pic.twitter.com/wjjXvmIXT8
— Yair Golan – יאיר גולן (@YairGolan1) January 6, 2026
“The Democrats are the home for everyone who took to the streets, for anyone concerned about the fate of the country,” he says, speaking at a press conference at the party’s headquarters, calling the protest movement the “backbone of democracy.”
“Today, we are opening the doors of the party to new members. We have open primaries for everyone, with many excellent candidates,” Golan says.
“I call on protest leaders and other civil society leaders — come. We need strong Democrats in the next government for the future of the State of Israel,” he adds.
Talks between Israel and Syria in Paris today were “positive,” an Israeli official tells Axios.
The two sides agree to step up the pace of the talks and meet more often, according to the report, and also to institute confidence-building measures.
“Both countries expressed a desire to reach a security agreement under President Trump’s vision for the Middle East,” the official tells Axios.
Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu accuses former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak of destroying Israeli democracy and paving the way for October 7, in response to the retired jurist’s statement on Saturday that Israel was no longer a liberal democracy.
“Are we a liberal democracy? My answer: Not anymore,” the 89-year-old, who is often accused by the right of entrenching judicial overreach in Israel during his years in office between 1995 and 2006, told an anti-government rally.
Hitting back in an op-ed on the right-wing Israel National News site, Eliyahu argues that Barak was “absolutely right. Israel did indeed cease to be a liberal democracy, but not yesterday and not because of the current government.
“Israel ceased to be a liberal democracy 30 years ago, on the day you, Mr. Barak, created what you grandly called the ‘constitutional revolution.’ It was the day you decided, without a mandate from the people, without the approval of the Knesset, and without any democratic process, that you and your legal elite would be the true sovereigns of the country,” Eliyahu writes.
According to Eliyahu, the court’s decisions since Barak’s tenure “tied the hands of our soldiers and allowed Hamas to approach the fence almost unhindered and prepare the infrastructure to blow up the perimeter fence on the day of the massacre” on October 7, 2023.
“You are a full partner to the failure that enabled the massacre,” he alleges.
Eliyahu, a member of the ministerial panel appointed to determine the mandate of the government’s controversial commission of inquiry into October 7, said in November that the panel will probe “the judicial system” and others who “weakened our deterrence.”
Lebanese media reports that two people were killed and one was seriously injured in an IDF strike on the southern Lebanon village of Kfardounin, located approximately two kilometers from Khirbet Selm, where the IDF says it targeted Hezbollah operatives earlier today.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF on the reported casualties.
The share of Israelis who support a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7 attack has dropped by nearly 10 points in the last year, while support for a politically appointed probe has risen, a new poll by the Israel Democracy Institute has found.
According to the institute’s monthly Israeli Voice Index for December 2025, 55% of Israelis still support the formation of a state commission of inquiry, Israel’s highest investigative authority. But this represents a drop of 9.5% from January 2025, and 12% from July 2024.
“This change is due to a sharp decline in support, primarily on the right among Jewish Israelis,” IDI says in a statement. Among Jewish right-wing Israelis, support for a state commission of inquiry has “dropped by over 20 percentage points, from 57% in January 2025 to 36% today,” it says.
Support for a state commission of inquiry remains high on the left (100%) and center (84%).
IDI’s polling shows that 22% of Israelis are in favor an investigative panel whose members are appointed by the government, an increase of 5.5% over January 2025 and 8.5% over July 2024. Meanwhile, 8% support a review by the state comptroller, defense establishment and government agencies.
Among members of Netanyahu’s Likud party, opinion is split, with 36.5% supporting a state commission of inquiry and 36% in favor of a government-appointed probe.
Netanyahu opposes the formation of a state commission, claiming that as it is appointed by the judiciary whose powers his government has sought to curb, it would be biased against the government. Last month his coalition voted in favor of a preliminary reading of a highly controversial bill sponsored by Likud MK Ariel Kallner to set up a politically appointed probe.
Kallner’s plan, a prior version of which the lawmaker floated earlier this year, calls for a Knesset supermajority — 80 out of 120 MKs — to appoint a six-member investigative committee and its chairman. If there is no agreement after two weeks, both the opposition and coalition would be allowed to select three committee members each, who would be joined by four supervisory members representing bereaved families.
The proposal states that if either the coalition or opposition does not cooperate in the process or cannot settle on a candidate, the Knesset speaker will choose instead — giving the coalition effective control, as opposition figures have pledged to boycott the commission.
As senior Israeli and Syrian negotiators meet in Paris, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is in the French capital as well to participate in the Coalition of the Willing summit, which is bringing together 35 backers of Ukraine.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shibani is meeting Fidan in Paris to discuss “regional and international developments,” according to a Syrian readout.
وزير الخارجية والمغتربين السيد أسعد حسن الشيباني يلتقي نظيره التركي السيد هاكان فيدان في العاصمة الفرنسية باريس وذلك على هامش زيارة السيد الوزير إلى فرنسا.
وجرى خلال اللقاء بحث المستجدات الإقليمية والدولية، وتعزيز التعاون والتنسيق بين البلدين. pic.twitter.com/EeSyh5dfHN— وزارة الخارجية والمغتربين السورية (@syrianmofaex) January 6, 2026
Turkey is a leading backer of the new government in Damascus, and Syria, which sits between Turkey and Israel, is developing as a new area of tension between the regional heavyweights.
Somalia condemns today’s visit by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to Somaliland, labeling it an “unauthorized incursion,” less than two weeks after Israel officially recognized the breakaway region, which has had an independent government for 34 years.
“Somalia condemns in the strongest terms the unauthorized incursion by the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs into Hargeisa,” the region’s capital, the Somali foreign ministry says in a statement, adding that such a visit without the “explicit consent and authorization of the Federal Government of Somalia is illegal, null and void.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s office confirms his visit to Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa to meet with Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi.
He also meets Somaliland’s Foreign Minister Abdirahman Dahir Adam, Presidential Affairs Minister Hader Hussein Abdi, and Chief of Staff Nimsan Yusuf Osman, according to the Foreign Ministry.
“Unlike ‘Palestine,’ Somaliland is not a virtual state,” Sa’ar says alongside Abdullahi. “It’s a functioning state. Somaliland is a fully functioning country based on the principles of international law. Somaliland is, and has been, a stable democracy for nearly 35 years. It has democratic elections, most recently in November 2024, and peaceful transitions of power. It’s pro-Western and friendly to Israel.”
Sa’ar says Israel is “truly honored” to be the first country to recognize Somaliland as an independent and sovereign country.
“This is the moral thing to do and this is what we did,” says Sa’ar. “We hear the attacks, the criticism, the condemnations. Nobody will determine for Israel whom we recognize and whom we maintain diplomatic relations with.”
“We hope to see other nations soon follow suit,” he continues, amid rumors that other countries could recognize Somaliland in the near future.
Israeli forces have arrested at least two Palestinians near Bethlehem in the West Bank, after a clash with settlers that left a settler and two Palestinians wounded, according to settlers and Palestinian media.
There are no reports of any settlers being arrested. The IDF has not immediately responded to a request for comment.
WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, says in a 1:30 p.m. report that two Palestinians were wounded by settler gunfire in the village of Arab al-Rashayida. They were reportedly taken to a hospital with gunshot wounds to the hand and leg, respectively. Israeli forces later reportedly came to the village to arrest two other Palestinians, aged 21 and 22, respectively.
Extremist settler activist Elisha Yered later praises the IDF for arresting three Palestinians whom he accuses of having assaulted a Jewish shepherd around 1 p.m. Yered posts a picture of the shepherd’s bloodied hand and says he was hospitalized with bruises to his stomach and hands following an assault by “dozens of rioters from Rashayida” close to the nearby ultra-Orthodox settlement of Ma’ale Amos. Yered posts a picture of the shepherd’s bloodied hand.
תחילתו של שינוי בגזרה? לפני זמן קצר עצרו לוחמי צה"ל שלושה מהתוקפים של רועה הצאן – ביניהם הפורע שהוביל את האירוע.
כעת נותר לוודא שמשטרת עציון תיקח את העצורים לידיה ותטפל בהם במלוא חומרת הדין. עם אירועי טרור חמורים כמו שראינו בשבועות האחרונים נגמרה האופציה לעוד "דלת מסתובבת". https://t.co/0EIGcBAK1A pic.twitter.com/YisDDGxz5k
— אלישע ירד (@ElishaYered) January 6, 2026
In footage published by Palestinian media at roughly the time Yered says the attack took place, settlers appear to be throwing stones at a group of Palestinians near a road outside Rashayida. Footage from the same area published by Yered roughly an hour later shows an IDF soldier in full gear marching a Palestinian who is bound and blindfolded.
#شاهد| إصابات واعتقالات في "عرب الرشايدة" شرق بيت لحم، جراء اقتحام وحشي نفذه مستوطنون. pic.twitter.com/ewkbo8D2Xo
— شبكة فلسطين للحوار (@paldf) January 6, 2026
The IDF says it carried out a strike on Hezbollah operatives in the area of southern Lebanon’s Khirbet Selm a short while ago, in response to the terror group’s “continued violations of the ceasefire understandings.”
The IDF does not provide further details on the violations or the outcome of the strike.
غارة إسرائيلية استهدفت بلدة كفردونين في جنوب لبنان pic.twitter.com/8m7yz2TLfA
— Annahar النهار (@Annahar) January 6, 2026
Canadian-born Likud MK Dan Illouz calls on American conservatives to reject right-wing pundits Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, calling their views “a threat to America as much as to Israel.”
Speaking with The Times of Israel, Illouz says the two prominent far-right pundits “are not just antisemites, they are anti-Western world and act like the woke left. Israel and America are deep allies and our alliance is critical [for] freedom. We must work together to sideline these views.”
Addressing the Knesset in English yesterday evening, Illouz denounced the pair’s “intellectual vandalism,” calling them “a new enemy rising from within” who are selling “poison” as patriotism.
“If the West allows these voices to rewrite history and erase the line between good and evil, it is committing civilizational suicide,” he said.
Asked if he was worried about the appearance of interfering in American politics, Illouz tells The Times of Israel that “defending the alliance between America and Israel is not interfering. I am in touch with many pro-Israel conservatives who know that Candace and Tucker are a threat to America as much as to Israel.”
The two controversial talk show hosts, who have come to represent a fault line within the pro-Donald Trump Make America Great Again movement, each significantly intensified their focus on Israel this year, taking a hard antisemitic turn in their rhetoric.
Carlson, who was ousted from his top-rated Fox News show in 2023 amid fallout from a defamation lawsuit, has in recent months accused conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew, of being loyal to Israel rather than to the United States, and of supporting “usury.”
In recent months, Owens has also attacked Shapiro — who originally platformed her on his Daily Wire website — as a “Talmudic Jew,” urging her listeners to buy a discredited antisemitic screed from the 19th century. She has also claimed that Jews were behind the transatlantic slave trade, and that “they believe they have a right to own us.”
Shapiro attacked both figures during a speech of his own at an event at the Heritage Foundation in December, declaring that “if conservatives do not stand up and draw lines, conservatism and the dream of America itself will cease to exist.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies that his wife Sara is closely involved in the affairs of his office or in appointments to his staff, during testimony in his corruption trial at the Tel Aviv District Court.
“There is an urban legend that she interviews them, it’s all nonsense,” Netanyahu says of accusations his wife has been involved in vetting his various chiefs of staff, Channel 12 news reports
“They are not interviews… she doesn’t sit with me when I interview him. It’s possible that she meets with them, yes. In order to understand who the person is. He needs to work with her after all. They don’t sit in a proper interview with her, ‘a job interview.’ I’ve read [the claim] for years, it’s absurd.”
Prosecutor Yehudit Tirosh asks Netanyahu about the matter since he has asserted in testimony that it was not he, but his wife, who sought on various occasions to intervene in news coverage of his affairs by the Walla news website. The premier is accused of repeatedly demanding changes to coverage as part of an illicit quid pro quo with Walla owner Shaul Elovitch.
Netanyahu has claimed that he had nothing to do with such requests, and that he rarely sees Sara during the day due to how busy they both are, and therefore could not have coordinated such requests regarding media coverage through his wife. Tirosh says her line of questioning is designed to show that the couple work together to a much greater extend than the prime minister acknowledges, and that therefore the prime minister was in a position to request his wife’s help.
In the case, known as Case 4000, Netanyahu is alleged to have made various regulatory decisions that favored Elovitch and his business interests, in return for favorable coverage on his Walla news website.
Netanyahu strenuously denies such an arrangement ever existed, and his defense team has pointed to negative coverage by Walla of the prime minister during the period in question to demonstrate that there was no quid pro quo agreement between the two men.
Protesters conducted a sit-in at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, witnesses say, with security forces ultimately firing tear gas and dispersing demonstrators as the rest of the market shut down.
The protest at the Grand Bazaar, the beating heart for centuries of both Iran’s economic and political life, represents the latest signal that the demonstrations likely are to continue as the country’s rial currency fell to a record low.
Already, violence surrounding the protests has killed at least 35 people with authorities detaining more than 1,200 others, activists abroad say.
Tenth day of anti-establishment protests in Iran
Video shows a group of protesters dispersed in Tehran
Location: https://t.co/aG1KGN8UE2pic.twitter.com/Hz0oeqng9o
— Ghoncheh Habibiazad | غنچه (@GhonchehAzad) January 6, 2026
Meanwhile, the situation is likely to worsen as Iran’s Central Bank drastically reduced the subsidized exchange rates for dollars it offers to importers and producers in the country. That likely will see merchants pass on price hikes in the coming days for goods directly onto consumers, whose life savings already have dwindled over years of international sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, while ordering a government investigation into one incident involving the protests, otherwise signals the crisis may be rapidly moving beyond the control of officials.
“We should not expect the government to handle all of this alone,” Pezeshkian says in a televised speech. “The government simply does not have that capacity.”
Tenth day of anti-establishment protests in Iran
Viral photo shows protesters sitting in front of security forces in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar.
Location: https://t.co/oIdxft8vwC@GeoConfirmed pic.twitter.com/zVlXNcbPtf
— Ghoncheh Habibiazad | غنچه (@GhonchehAzad) January 6, 2026
Clashes between government personnel and Kurdish-led forces in the north Syrian city of Aleppo kill four people, with both sides trading blame over who started the fighting.
State news agency SANA blames the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for “the death of one defense ministry member,” while state television reports “two women were killed… in SDF bombing of residential buildings.”
The SDF says groups affiliated with the Syrian government “targeted the Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood” resulting in “the death of one resident.”
Ta’al leader Ahmad Tibi files a complaint against head police spokesman Aryeh Doron calling on investigators in the State Attorney’s Office to probe him, after the two got into a spat on air over police’s fatal shooting of a Bedouin man.
In a letter sent by his office to the Department of Internal Police Investigations, the longtime Arab MK says Doron “is bound to neutrality, transparency and statesmanship” and is not allowed to “insult an elected official or conduct political and moral discourse using police’s power.”
Last night, during an exchange on a Channel 13 News broadcast, Doron told Tibi to “be ashamed” and called him a “disgrace of an Israeli Knesset member” after the lawmaker likened the police to a mafia over the killing of 36-year-old Muhammad Hussein Tarabin.
Tibi replied by calling the police officer a “loser” and telling him to “shut his mouth.”
Police decried the lawmaker’s response in an official statement last night, accusing him of committing a crime by insulting a public servant. They demanded he issue an apology and threatened to take legal action if he refused.
In his letter to the DIPI, Tibi calls Doron’s statements “blatant and illegitimate intervention by a police officer in political and public discourse.”
He also accuses police of attempting to intimidate him with the threat of legal action “when it is clear that no criminal offense has been committed.”
He notes that the heated argument concerned a “fatal incident, sensitive and charged, which involved a police officer.” The fatal shooting has sparked outrage as police continue a controversial crackdown on crime in Bedouin society.
A group of European leaders underline their support for Denmark after US President Donald Trump again voiced designs on its autonomous Arctic territory of Greenland.
The leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain as well as Denmark say that sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders are “universal principles, and we will not stop defending them.”
Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears about Trump’s designs on Greenland, which has untapped rare earth deposits and could be a vital player as polar ice melts, opening up new shipping routes.
Greenland is on the shortest route for missiles between Russia and the United States, and Washington already has a military base there.
With the situation in Venezuela more pressing, Trump quipped on Sunday that “we’ll worry about Greenland in about two months.”
The European leaders’ joint statement says: “Arctic security remains a key priority for Europe and it is critical for international and transatlantic security.
“NATO has made clear that the Arctic region is a priority and European allies are stepping up.
“We and many other allies have increased our presence, activities and investments, to keep the Arctic safe and to deter adversaries.”
They stress that Denmark — including Greenland — was part of NATO.
“Security in the Arctic must therefore be achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies including the United States, by upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders,” the leaders say.
“These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them.”
The statement is signed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
They add that the US is “an essential partner in this endeavour.”
“Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland,” they say.
Israeli forces clash with students during a raid at Birzeit University, north of Ramallah in the West Bank, according to videos published by Palestinian media.
WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, says Israeli forces broke down the university’s main gate, searched several buildings and seized property from the student movement, which is dominated by a Hamas-affiliated bloc.
About 8,000 students were on campus at the time, WAFA says.
Footage from the campus shows some students fleeing as teargas canisters land behind them.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society says 11 students were hospitalized as a result of the raid, including five for bullet wounds, four who were teargassed and two who stumbled and fell.
The IDF does not respond to a request for comment.
#شاهد| قوات الاحتلال تطلق قنابل الغاز تجاه الطلاب في جامعة بيرزيت شمال رام الله. pic.twitter.com/AUnslmPIH1
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) January 6, 2026
Other footage from the campus shows military vehicles and troops moving about, and troops and police officers can be seen searching a car and entering a building. The footage appears to show at least seven armored vehicles on the campus.
عاجل| الاحتلال يحتجز الصحفيين الزملاء معتصم سقف الحيط وكريم خمايسة عند مدخل كلية التجارة بجامعة بيرزيت. pic.twitter.com/hENmuKjpzk
— شبكة قدس | الأسرى (@asranews) January 6, 2026
According to Palestinian media, the IDF closed all the university’s gates during the raid
The daytime raid comes after the IDF carried out a predawn search at Birzeit early last month.
The El Kassum Regional Council has filed a petition to the High Court of Justice against the controversial ongoing police operation in the Bedouin town of Tarabin al-Sana.
The petition asks the court to order the removal of concrete barriers that have been used by the police to seal off the town, as well as an end to heavy-handed police tactics that have seen heavily armed Border Police forces entering homes in the town, making arrests, and using riot control methods such as water cannon, tear gas, and stun grenades during their operations.
Muhammad Hussein Tarabin, a town resident, was allegedly shot dead by an officer at the entrance to his home on Saturday night when the police came to arrest him, an incident that is being investigated by the Justice Ministry’s Department for Internal Police Investigations.
The petition also requests that the court order National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to cease his “showcase visits” to Tarabin, which he has conducted on several occasions since the operation began and which have angered residents.
“The police are carrying out oppressive operations actions in Tarabin, which include placing concrete barriers at the entrance and exit to the town, spot checks on those entering and leaving, closing the town for extended periods of time, including restricting residents’ freedom of movement, stationing police forces on an unprecedented and disproportionate scale within the town, all by way of collective punishment based on a public relations campaign by Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is in charge of the National Security Ministry,” charges the petition.
The Democrats chairman Yair Golan will hold a joint press conference with “leading figures” in the anti-government protest movement at his party’s headquarters this evening at 5 p.m. to announce that they are joining the left-wing party.
According to Hebrew-language media reports, among those joining the party are tech entrepreneurs Moshe Radman and Ami Dror.
The two were part of a widespread movement protesting the government’s contentious judicial overhaul.
Radman has previously made waves by comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, while Dror has described the premier as “Satan.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has arrived in Somaliland on the first formal visit by an Israeli official since Jerusalem recognized the republic as an independent state, a senior Hargeisa official says.
According to Somaliland’s Information Ministry, Sa’ar was received by senior Somaliland officials at the airport.
Sa’ar will meet with President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi later today.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry does not respond to requests for comment.
Last month, Israel became the first UN member state to recognize the Republic of Somaliland as an independent state.
The move drew outrage from Somalia as well as many Middle Eastern and African countries, and a rebuke from the EU.
Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1991 and had fruitlessly sought global validation until Israel’s announcement of official recognition.
Located in the Horn of Africa, the northern region of Somaliland is across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, where the Houthis hold territory, making it strategically valuable.
Israel Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in Somaliland, the first senior Israeli official to visit the country since Israel’s recognition. https://t.co/OsiXC9HvqV pic.twitter.com/pJ5id41Jdp
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 6, 2026
Lazar Berman contributed to this report.
Slamming his partners in the anti-Netanyahu bloc, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid announces that he will bring a bill to nationalize the Jewish National Fund (JNF) to a vote in the Knesset tomorrow, calling the political maneuvering around appointments to positions in the national institution “corruption of the worst kind.”
“It is very surprising that opposition parties are still partners to the corrupt deal in the national institutions, under which jobs are handed out to the [Shas chairman Aryeh] Deri[‘s] family in exchange for job arrangements for associates — in a camp that calls itself liberal — and hundreds of millions of shekels are given to extremist initiatives of [Settlements and National Projects Minister] Orit Strock in exchange for job arrangements for friends,” Lapid declares.
“This is a disgraceful, shameful agreement, corruption of the very worst kind. As we committed, Yesh Atid will not take part in the corrupt jobs enterprise and will act to nationalize the JNF and shut down the national institutions. I expect all parties to enter the plenum tomorrow and vote in favor of the bill,” he says.
In November, Lapid announced that his party will no longer take part in any of the negotiations over the appointment of new leadership roles at the large Zionist institutions, decrying a system he said was steeped in “a culture of corruption and political appointments.”
Lapid took particular issue with the appointment of relatives of political figures to senior appointments, including a proposal (which ultimately did not succeed) to give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair a position with the World Zionist Organization that came with an office, a car, and a salary commensurate with that of a government minister.
He also objected to the nomination of Shas chairman Aryeh Deri’s brother as JNF co-chair. Deri’s son Yanki was appointed to a senior position in the World Zionist Organization in 2020.
KKL-JNF owns approximately 13% of the total land in Israel (roughly 2.5 million dunams or 620,000 acres), and commands an annual budget of more than a billion dollars to be used for Jewish causes. (KKL-JNF is a separate organization from Jewish National Fund-USA.)
A recent poll of party members published by the Walla news site finds that firebrand Likud legislator Tally Gotliv, who entered the Knesset at the 25th slot on the party’s slate, would come in first in a non-leadership primary to choose the party’s electoral list, edging out current Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana at number two.
Over 140,000 Likud members are eligible to vote in internal elections for the party slate. Israel is slated to hold elections in October 2026, although if the government fails to pass the 2026 budget by the end of March, the elections will be moved up.
Gotliv’s pugnacious approach to politics has made her one of the Knesset’s more recognizable backbenchers and may be responsible for turning her into a rising star within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud. She came in ahead of Justice Minister Yariv Levin (no. 11), with whom she has publicly sparred.
Netanyahu is reportedly concerned about Gotliv’s rise. According to Channel 12, Netanyahu complained to Levin last month that Gotliv is costing Likud 3-5 Knesset seats, a report denied by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The poll of 1,223 Likud members representing so-called “free votes” not connected to any voting deals or blocs, was conducted by researchers at Tel Aviv University. The poll has a margin of error of 3.8 percent.
Following Ohana are MK Moshe Saada, Deputy Minister Almog Cohen — a member of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party who had a falling out with his faction and is widely expected to jump ship to Likud — Defense Minister Israel Katz, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth, Energy Minister Eli Cohen, Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, Transportation Minister Miri Regev and Social Equality Minister May Golan.
According to Walla, Bismuth’s drop from sixth place in a previous poll is likely due to internal party opposition to his revised Haredi draft exemption bill, which he is currently shepherding through his committee. While the bill proposes continued military service exemptions to full-time yeshiva students, Walla reports that 61% of Likud voters polled believe in drafting Haredim and sanctioning evaders.
While Gotliv tells The Times of Israel that “a poll is just a poll” and warns against making too much out of it, she also frames her improved standing as an endorsement of her approach from the party’s base.
“I can only say that I am grateful for the great trust I receive from the right-wing voters in Likud, who see the correctness of my path, and theirs, reflected in my work in the Knesset and in shifting the discourse toward right-wing governance, and in pursuing this path without apologizing,” she says.
Talks in Paris between Israel and Syria will continue for a second day today, a diplomatic source tells The Times of Israel.
The US will be mediating the talks, and France will not participate. The talks are the third round between the two enemy states held in Paris.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has met his Syrian counterpart Asaad Hassan Al-Shaibani.
According to the Syrian readout, the two diplomats discussed “ways to enhance strategic partnerships between the two countries, in addition to France’s readiness for its companies to resume operations in Syria.”
Barrot will likely meet US envoy Tom Barrack tomorrow, and will meet members of the Israeli delegation as well.
The Democrats party leader Yair Golan accuses National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of “sowing destruction and chaos” in Israeli society.
Speaking at a conference for shared society in the Givat Haviva center, Golan accuses the far-right minister, who oversees law enforcement, of using violent crime in Arab society as a cover to crack down on regular citizens.
He lambasts what he characterizes as police’s “shows of power without dealing with crime,” mentioning the controversial policy of sealing off entire Arab towns by placing cinderblocks at each entrance.
He accuses the government of turning a blind eye to the crime wave rocking Arab society, which has already claimed seven lives in 2026.
“Deserving, intelligent and industrious young people full of potential are blocked by a government that has no interest in their future, a government that persecutes them, endangers them and leaves them to die,” he says.
He appears to reiterate his commitment to join with Arab parties in order to form a potential government after concluding his speech.
As he leaves the stage, an audience member calls on the left-wing lawmaker to “commit to including the Arab politicians in the next government.”
Golan shrugs casually as if to indicate he takes no issue with the idea and embraces Ra’am chair MK Mansour Abbas, who is in the front row of the auditorium.
Key Qatargate suspect Jonatan Urich and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke for the first time in a year by telephone this morning, Channel 12 News reports, after restrictions on his activities expired two days ago.
The conversation took place before a hearing in the Central District Court, where Judge Ami Kobo rejected a police appeal of the Rishon Lezion Magistrate Court’s decision not extend the restrictions on Urich, including contacting those connected to the Qatargate, such as Netanyahu.
Kobo rejects the appeal since, as the lower court pointed out, the police requested the extension after the restrictions had already expired, making it technically and legally impossible for the court to “extend” them.
Lawyers for Urich suggested yesterday that he be able to return to work in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Urich, along with former Netanyahu spokesman Eli Feldstein and ex-campaign adviser Yisrael Einhorn, 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 attack, 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.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is visiting Somaliland, according to multiple reports in Somaliland media.
The Foreign Ministry does not respond to requests for comment.
According to the reports, Sa’ar is meeting with President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi in the capital Hargeisa.
Last month, Israel became the first country to recognize the Republic of Somaliland as an independent state, more than three decades after the African region broke away from Somalia.
Swiss local authorities admit they failed to conduct periodic fire and safety inspections over the past five years at a bar where an inferno killed 40 people and injured 116.
“Periodic inspections were not conducted between 2020 and 2025. We bitterly regret this,” Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud tells a press conference in the Alpine ski resort, five days after the disaster at Le Constellation bar.
The US Department of Justice says it is still reviewing more than two million documents potentially related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as it pushed more than two weeks past a deadline to release all files connected to him.
The department began releasing documents from the decades-long investigation into the late disgraced financier last month, but failed to meet the December 19 deadline mandated under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
In a letter last night to a federal judge, DOJ officials say more than two million documents remained “in various phases of review.”
About 12,285 documents comprising more than 125,000 pages, the letter says, had already been publicly released in response to the law — less than one percent of the tranche currently in review.
The DOJ says it identified on December 24 more than one million files not included in its initial review.
Some of those documents appeared to be duplicates but would still need “processing and deduplication,” the letter notes.
“Substantial work remains to be done,” says the letter, signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and others involved.
More than 400 DOJ attorneys will spend “the next few weeks” reviewing the documents, the officials says.
At least 100 FBI employees trained in handling “sensitive victim information” will assist the effort.
US President Donald Trump is facing strong pushback from Democrats for failing to release all files related to Epstein in a timely manner.
The Trump administration has defended its handling of the documents, noting the need to protect sensitive information about victims.
In the letter, the DOJ officials say they must “manually” review the documents for “victim identifying information.”
After three Arab citizens were killed within hours last night, President Isaac Herzog calls the rampant violent crime rocking Arab society a “national challenge” and blames the issue on inequality.
“The issue of crime, delinquency and the loss of personal security in Arab society in Israel is a national challenge in every sense,” he says, speaking at a conference focused on shared society at the Givat Haviva center.
He says the issue should be “occupying the thoughts” of Israel’s politicians day-to-day as a top priority.
“The responsibility [for the issue] of the communities and Arab society itself of course has its place, but there is no replacement for the responsibility of the state,” he continues.
He adds that the two-year war with Hamas in Gaza was “especially fruitful for agents of hate, despair and chaos.”
“Arab citizens of Israel are the flesh and blood of Israeli society,” he says. “They obviously deserve, by right and not by kindness, equality in the full sense of the word.”
Herzog says that the absence of equality in Israel not only drives the burgeoning violence in Arab society, but also is to blame for a “missed opportunity on a historic scale.”
“Arab society is perhaps the resource with the greatest potential, but on the other hand is the most unfulfilled, of the State of Israel,” he says.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemns Israel’s latest strikes, saying they undermine efforts to prevent escalation.
Aoun’s criticism came after Israel launched a series of strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon yesterday and overnight, targeting Hezbollah and Hamas infrastructure.
Israel issued evacuation warnings to civilians prior to the strikes and said the terror groups were in violation of ceasefire understandings.
In a statement, Aoun says that “Israel’s continued attacks aim to thwart all efforts made locally, regionally and internationally to stop the ongoing Israeli escalation, despite the response shown by Lebanon to these efforts at various levels.”
Israel reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu on a farm in the north of the country, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) says.
The outbreak, the first in a year in Israel, was detected in a flock of 2,000 ducks in the village of Sde Yaakov, causing the death of 90 birds, the Paris-based WOAH says, citing a report from the Israeli authorities. The remaining birds were subsequently culled as a precaution.
The spread of avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has raised concerns among governments and the poultry industry after it ravaged flocks around the world in recent years, disrupting supply, fueling higher food prices and raising the risk of human transmission.
The Defense Ministry announces the launch of a new mobile app, Shikum.Me, aimed at streamlining access to rehabilitation services for wounded soldiers coping with post-traumatic stress disorder, mental health injuries or head trauma.
The app, developed by the ministry’s Rehabilitation Department, allows eligible users to use an annual NIS 6,000 ($1,900) allocation for alternative treatments and sports activities through a digital wallet, without submitting receipts or waiting for reimbursements.
The service includes a nationwide network of more than 5,000 therapists and providers, offering options ranging from complementary medicine, including acupuncture and massage, to fitness and outdoor activities.
According to the ministry, eligible patients will begin receiving their annual allocation through the app starting this month. There will be a three-month transition period during which users may continue submitting receipts from treatments while adjusting to the new system.
“The new app was developed through close listening to the field and focus groups with wounded individuals, with the aim of making it easier for them to use the benefits they are entitled to,” says deputy head of the Rehabilitation Department Shirit Kedron. “We expanded the services and added new sports activities, all through virtual currency, without requiring them to pay out of pocket or submit invoices. Users will also be able to view therapists’ availability, see service quality ratings, and track their remaining balance.”
חדש באגף השיקום: אפליקציית https://t.co/jjoYf6bBz0 למימוש ישיר של טיפולים אלטרנטיביים ופעילויות ספורט למתמודדים עם פוסט טראומה, נפש או פגיעת ראש
להסבר על האפליקציה: https://t.co/foKev0bY3K
— משרד הביטחון (@MoDIsrael) January 6, 2026
The Foreign Press Association “expresses its profound disappointment” after the Israeli government told the High Court of Justice that a ban on international media access to Gaza should remain in place due to security risks in the enclave.
“Instead of presenting a plan for allowing journalists into Gaza independently and letting us work alongside our brave Palestinian colleagues, the government has decided once again to lock us out. This comes even when a ceasefire is now in place,” the FPA says.
The FPA says it will submit a “robust” response.
“The FPA is confident that the court will provide justice in light of the continuous infringement of the fundamental principles of freedom of speech, the public’s right to know and free press,” the FPA says.
Defending its position, the government said in a submission filed earlier this week that the ceasefire in Gaza, which came into effect on October 10, continues to face regular threats.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says that at least 420 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the ceasefire took effect, although this number cannot be independently verified and does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
Three IDF soldiers have been killed in the same period.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas-led massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli authorities have barred foreign journalists from independently entering the devastated enclave.
Instead, Israel has allowed only a limited number of foreign reporters to enter Gaza on a case-by-case basis, embedded with its military forces operating inside the Strip. While Israeli journalists have been granted more opportunities to enter the enclave, they too must be embedded with troops to go in.
The FPA, which represents hundreds of foreign journalists working in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, filed a petition with the High Court in 2024 seeking immediate and unrestricted access to the Gaza Strip for international media.
A soldier from the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion was seriously injured yesterday in an operational accident in the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF says.
According to the military, the soldier was evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment, and his family has been notified.
Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado says she hasn’t spoken to US President Donald Trump since October 2025.
“Actually, I spoke with President Trump on October 10, the same day the [Noble Peace] Prize was announced, [but] not since then,” Machado says on Fox News’ “Hannity” program.
She was awarded the prize for her fight against what the Norwegian Nobel Committee called a dictatorship. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Trump’s decision not to boost Machado stemmed from his unhappiness that she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize that he coveted.
Machado – widely seen now deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s most credible opponent- left Venezuela last month to travel to Norway to accept the award, and hasn’t returned since.
“I’m planning to go as soon as possible back home,” she tells Fox News when asked about her plans to return to Venezuela.
The interview was Machado’s first since the US launched strikes on Venezuela on Saturday and captured its president.
She welcomes the US actions as “a huge step for humanity, for freedom and human dignity.”
Venezuela’s vice president and oil minister Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as interim president on Monday, but Washington’s move over the weekend has left many to wonder about the future leadership of the South American country.
Trump on Saturday dismissed the idea of working with Machado, saying “she doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE RECIPIENT @MariaCorinaYA ON DEDICATING HER PRIZE TO PRESIDENT TRUMP:
"Let me be very clear. As soon as I learned that we had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, I dedicated it to President Trump because I believed at that point that he deserved it. And a lot… pic.twitter.com/ufiMKFXnEQ
— Sean Hannity ???????? (@seanhannity) January 6, 2026
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Deni Avdija, the Israeli forward enjoying a breakout season for the Portland Trail Blazers, is named the NBA’s Western Conference Player of the Week.
It’s the latest accolade for Avdija, who last month was one of the top vote-getters in balloting ahead of the league’s All-Star Game in February.
The honor comes after a week when Avdija scored 34 points, then notched a triple-double, in consecutive games.
NBA Players of the Week for Week 11.
West: Deni Avdija (@trailblazers)
East: Tyrese Maxey (@sixers) pic.twitter.com/f76XZhOH4w— NBA (@NBA) January 5, 2026
The NBA notes that Avdija averaged 26.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game over the past week.
Tyrese Maxey of the Philadelphia 76ers is the Eastern Conference Player of the Week.
The Israel Defense Forces confirms that it targeted infrastructure used by the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups in strikes across Lebanon yesterday.
The IDF says the sites were in civilian areas and were an example of the terror groups using the population as human shields. Israel issued evacuation warnings prior to the strikes.
The military says it hit Hezbollah weapons depots and military sites, both above and below ground, and Hamas weapons production sites in southern Lebanon.
The IDF notes that the activities of the terror groups are in violation of the ceasefire.
Israel has been ramping up its military operations in Lebanon in recent weeks, amid reports of a possible wide-scale offensive targeting Hezbollah.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, says that Venezuela should hold elections soon, after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called voting premature following the US’s toppling of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
Speaking to reporters after a briefing to lawmakers from Rubio and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Johnson adds that he does not expect the United States to send troops to Venezuela, a possibility that US President Donald Trump refused to rule out publicly.
“I expect that there will be an election called in Venezuela,” says Johnson, the top member of Trump’s party in Congress.
“Some of these things are still being determined, of course, but it should happen in short order. And I think it will need to be, so that their economy can remain stabilized and the country can remain stabilized,” he says.
The United States for years described Maduro as illegitimate after successive elections that observers said were riddled with irregularities.
But Trump said after US forces captured Maduro that the United States would secure interests — notably access to oil — by forcing cooperation with Maduro’s vice president turned interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez.
Trump also dismissed the leader of the democratic opposition long championed by Washington, Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado.
Rubio, in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, said that discussion of elections “is premature at this point.”
Johnson defends the legality of the operation and the lack of prior notice to Congress, which constitutionally has the authority to declare war.
“We are not at war. We do not have US armed forces in Venezuela and we are not occupying that country,” Johnson says.”We don’t expect troops on the ground. We don’t expect direct involvement in any other way, beyond just coercing the new — the interim — government.”
Democrats left the briefing skeptical. Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Senate Democrat, says: “Regime change and so-called nation building, it always ends up hurting the United States.”
“I left the briefing feeling that it would again,” Schumer says, adding that more questions were raised than answered.
The death toll in violence surrounding protests in Iran has risen to at least 35 people, activists say, as the demonstrations show no signs of stopping.
The figure comes from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which says more than 1,200 people have been detained in the protests, which have been ongoing for more than a week.
It says 29 protesters, four children and two members of Iran’s security forces have been killed. Demonstrations have reached over 250 locations in 27 of Iran’s 31 provinces.
The group, which relies on an activist network inside of Iran for its reporting, has been accurate in past unrest.
The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, reported late yesterday that some 250 police officers and 45 members of the Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force have been hurt in the demonstrations.
The growing death toll carries with it the chance of American intervention. US President Donald Trump warned Iran on Friday that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.”
While it remains unclear how and if Trump will intervene, the comments took on new importance after the US military on Saturday captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran.
The protests have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations. However, the protests have yet to be as widespread and intense as those surrounding the death of Amini.
Iran has faced rounds of nationwide protests in recent years. As sanctions tightened and Iran struggled after a 12-day war with Israel in June, its rial currency collapsed in December, reaching an exchange rate of 1.4 million to $1. Protests began soon after.
A suspicious package believed to contain an explosive material turned up in the mail room of the Arizona Supreme Court, prompting an evacuation of the courthouse and other Capitol Mall buildings near downtown Phoenix, officials say.
No injuries were reported in the incident, which began Monday at 8 a.m. (5 p.m. Israel time) when the Arizona Department of Public Safety, which provides security for the courthouse complex, was contacted about a suspicious package, the agency says in a statement.
The package was found to contain multiple vials, two of which tested positive for an unspecified “homemade explosive substance,” according to the statement.
The State Courts Building was evacuated as a precaution, along with the state Education Department, the state Attorney General’s Office and the Arizona Department of Administration, DPS spokesperson Bart Graves says.
Graves says the Supreme Court was not in session at the time.
The courthouse remained closed while security sweeps of the building were conducted. Graves says authorities are in the process of removing the package from the scene for further investigation and subsequent disposal.
No further official information about the package is provided, but local news media outlets report that the parcel in question bore no return address label. Graves declines to say how or when the parcel arrived or whether it contained a device capable of exploding.
A delegation led by Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the leader of Yemen’s main separatist group will soon travel to Saudi Arabia, two sources tell Reuters, a potential sign of progress towards ending a conflict between the separatist UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council and Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
The conflict, which began early last month, has triggered a major feud between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and fractured a coalition fighting the Houthi terror group.
The Iran-backed Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014 and Gulf countries intervened the following year in support of the internationally recognized government, splitting Yemen into rival zones of control.
The STC has for years been part of that government, which controls southern and eastern Yemen and is backed by Gulf states. But last month STC forces suddenly seized swathes of territory.
Al-Zubaidi’s visit would come days after the internationally recognized government said late on Friday that it had asked Saudi Arabia to host a forum to resolve the southern issue. Riyadh agreed and extended invitations to southern factions.
The STC welcomed the call for dialogue, potentially signaling that all sides now see negotiation as the eventual means of ending the brief conflict.
Government forces backed by Saudi airstrikes on Friday and Saturday took back control of the strategically important Hadramout and Mahra provinces in the east of Yemen.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump discussed bilateral ties, defense industry cooperation, steps to boost trade, and developments in Gaza and Venezuela in a phone call today, the Turkish presidency says.
The presidency says in a statement on X that the leaders of the NATO allies also discussed other regional and global issues, but provides no further details.
