Jan. 7: IDF says it struck terrorists in Gaza’s Khan Younis who took part in Oct. 7 attacks

Foreign Ministry announces Israeli man killed in Romania ATV crash

The Foreign Ministry announces an Israeli man was killed in an ATV crash in Romania.

The ministry says diplomats are in touch with the family of the man, who is not immediately named, following the deadly incident in the town of Sinaia, and that it’s helping to repatriate his body for burial.

US general tasked with enforcing Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire praises work of Lebanese army

Members of the committee monitoring the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire, the Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Major General Aroldo Lazaro Saenz of Spain, center, US Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, right, and Gen. Guillaume Ponchamp of France, left, meet with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, December 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

The US military general leading the committee tasked with enforcing the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah hails the efforts of the Lebanese Armed Forces in implementing the early stages of the agreement following a visit to one of the LAF’s bases in southern Lebanon.

US Major General Jasper Jeffers and French Brigadier General Guillaume Ponchin visited the LAF’s 5th Brigade headquarters, which is located five kilometers northeast of Naqoura — one of the two towns from which Israeli forces have withdrawn as part of the ceasefire.

“As part of the Mechanism-enabled transition, the LAF immediately deployed forces to the area to clear roads, remove unauthorized munitions, and provide security for the people of Lebanon,” a statement from the US Embassy in Beirut says.

“Jeffers and Ponchin viewed stockpiles of weapons to be destroyed in the coming days, which the LAF seized from unauthorized armed groups,” the US readout reveals.

“The LAF is the legitimate security provider for Lebanon and continues to demonstrate to me and the rest of the Mechanism it has the capability, intent, and leadership to secure and defend Lebanon. They have acted decisively, rapidly, and with clear expertise. Today, we saw an example of this with the soldiers of the 5th Brigade. The engineer corps in particular is full of true professionals, removing and rendering safe hundreds of pieces of unexploded ordnance every week,” Jeffers says in his own statement.

U.S. Major General Jasper Jeffers, the Co-Chairman of the Cessation of Hostilities Implementation Mechanism, and French Brigadier General Guillaume Ponchin visited the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) 5th Brigade headquarters in southwest Lebanon, Jan. 7. Generals Jeffers and Ponchin… pic.twitter.com/btcsJUWeS9

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) January 7, 2025

US antisemitism envoy to visit Israel later this week

The Biden administration’s antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt will be in Israel on Wednesday and Thursday, where she will meet with President Isaac Herzog, along with diplomats from the Foreign Ministry, the State Department says.

The visit, Lipstadt’s fourth to Israel and fifth to the Middle East and North Africa, marks her final overseas visit as special envoy.

US shifting some military aid from Egypt to Lebanon as Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire holds

US President Joe Biden’s administration will divert $95 million in military aid allocated for Egypt to Lebanon, which faces threats from Hezbollah and other non-state actors, and while a shaky ceasefire with Israel holds, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The State Department notification to Congress of the planned shift calls the Lebanese armed forces “a key partner” in upholding the November 27, 2024, Israel-Lebanon agreement to cease hostilities and to prevent the Hezbollah terror group from threatening Israel.

The move comes after some of Biden’s fellow Democrats in Congress expressed deep concerns about Egypt’s human rights record, particularly the arrests of thousands of political prisoners.

In response to questions about the reprogrammed funding, a State Department spokesperson says the department is still moving forward with foreign military financing for Egypt and said the assessment that Cairo had made progress on political prisoners has not changed.

The Egyptian embassy in Washington does not respond to a request for comment.

IDF: Air Force struck terrorists in Gaza’s Khan Younis who participated in Oct. 7 attacks

Earlier this evening, the Israeli Air Force carried out several strikes in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, targeting terrorists who participated in the October 7, 2023, onslaught, the military says.

The airstrikes were carried out following intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet security agency.

The IDF says it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strikes, including by using “munitions adapted to the type of strike,” aerial surveillance, and other intelligence.

Palestinian media report several casualties in the strikes.

The strikes come as part of efforts led by the Shin Bet to track down and eliminate all the terrorists who took part in the massacre on October 7, 2023.

Report: Katz tries to hide IDF comments that it can draft all eligible Haredim by 2026

Defense Minister Israel Katz at the Knesset on December 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Defense Minister Israel Katz is delaying the filing of the state’s response to High Court petitions on Haredi military enlistment, in order to remove comments made by the IDF regarding its ability to recruit ultra-Orthodox men, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

According to the report, Katz is trying to omit the IDF’s position that it will be able to draft Haredi males without issue by mid-2026 from the response, as it contradicts the position adopted by the government, as it seeks to pass controversial legislation on the issue.

The government, at the behest of the Haredi parties, is attempting to pass a bill that would see some increased enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men, but would broadly maintain the widescale exemption from military or national service that was struck down in a landmark ruling by the High Court of Justice back in June.

Coalition members have often insisted as a way of justifying the legislation that the IDF is not capable of absorbing the estimated 70,000 Haredi males currently eligible for service. IDF officials have disagreed, however, and reportedly said that by July 2026, there will be “no limits” on the number of Haredi males it can absorb into its ranks.

Turkey threatens offensive against Kurdish militia in Syria if demands not met

Syrian Kurds wave independence-era flags during a demonstration in support of the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeastern city of Qamishli, on December 19, 2024. (Delil Souleiman/AFP)

Turkey will carry out a cross-border offensive into northeastern Syria against the Kurdish YPG militia if the group does not meet Ankara’s demands, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says, while adding that Syria’s new rulers must address the issue.

Turkey considers the YPG, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as a terrorist group linked to Kurdish militants waging a decades-old insurgency against the Turkish state.

While repeatedly asking its NATO ally Washington to halt its support for the group, Ankara has carried out several incursions against the YPG in the past, and controls swathes of territory in northern Syria.

Since the ousting of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month by rebels, some of whom Turkey supported, Ankara has demanded that the YPG disband, its non-Syrian militants and foreign terrorist fighters leave Syria, or be repatriated to their source countries, and its leaders turn themselves in.

Speaking to broadcaster CNN Turk, Fidan says Turkey believes the new Syrian administration must address the issue of the YPG’s presence, but adds that this may take time as a transition period is underway in Damascus.

Asked what Turkey will do if Damascus is unable to address the issue, Fidan says, “Whatever is necessary.” When asked what that entailed, he said “a military operation,” while adding that the new Syrian leadership has the power to battle the YPG on its own as well.

The SDF played a key role in defeating Islamic State militants in 2014-2017. The group still guards Islamic State fighters in prison camps there, but has been on the back foot since Assad’s fall.

Turkey has said that the new Syrian leadership has conveyed its proposal to take over the management of those camp prisons.

Fidan, who was the first foreign minister to visit Damascus since Assad’s fall last month, says Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has ordered that Turkish soldiers take over the management of the camp prisons if the new Syrian leadership is unable to do so.

Court cancels next week’s hearings in PM’s corruption trial as he recovers from surgery

The Jerusalem District Court cancels all three hearings for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial on corruption charges that were scheduled for next week.

Although the court agreed on Sunday to cancel Netanyahu’s scheduled testimony for this week and next due to his recent surgery, the court had asked the prime minister’s defense team to find another defense witness to take the stand, so as not to waste time in the trial which is approaching its fifth year.

But Netanyahu’s attorney Amit Hadad informed the court earlier on Tuesday that the defense team had not been able to organize another defense witness to testify, due to the short timeframe of the request.

As a result, Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman who is heading the three-judge panel presiding over the trial, has decided to cancel all hearings for next week and states that the next hearing will be on January 20.

IDF reservist charged in PM’s office leak sharing prison cell with Navy soldier convicted of spying for Iran

Aaron 'Ari' Rosenfeld, one of the suspects in the Prime Minister's Office classified documents leak case arrives to the courtroom at the Tel Aviv District Court on January 7, 2025. (Koko/Flash90)

Ari Rosenfeld, the IDF reservist charged in the Prime Minister’s Office security documents theft and leak scandal, is sharing a prison cell with an Israeli Navy soldier convicted of spying for Iran, Channel 12 reports.

The Navy soldier was sentenced to 33 months in prison for sharing classified information with an Iranian agent, in a case that had not previously been cleared for publication.

The Navy soldier-turned-spy requested to be moved to a cell with Rosenfeld after growing concerned that the reservist would try and harm himself, according to the report, which added that he did so despite the conditions of the shared cell being considerably worse than those of the cell the Navy soldier was previously assigned to.

Channel 12 says that it received a copy of a letter written by Rosenfeld about the imprisoned Navy soldier, in which he expressed appreciation for “moving to those conditions with me, so that I wouldn’t be alone, without the opportunity to cook or watch television.”

“He constantly acted in my best interests even when it was at his own expense,” Rosenfeld wrote.

While Rosenfeld is said to have appreciated the Navy soldier’s decision to share a cell with him, not everyone is, Channel 12 reports, as his lawyer is concerned that her client’s case been made public due to his proximity to Rosenfeld.

Speaking to the news outlet, attorney Hen Meiri says that until recently, “only three judges at the Haifa District Court were exposed to his case,” she says. “It’s not clear why the Israel Prison Service, with criminal negligence, decided to put this prisoner with the most publicized prisoner in the country.”

Government won’t submit Haredi enlistment proposal this week, despite promise to ultra-Orthodox parties

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will not submit a proposed compromise on ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this week, despite a promise to his Haredi coalition to take steps to advance the legislation exempting their constituents from military service this week, Channel 13 reports.

A bill dealing with the issue of enlistment is currently stuck in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, whose chairman, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, has said that the needs of the IDF must come first, and that the panel would only advance the legislation if lawmakers can reach a “broad consensus” on the matter.

The issue has been intentionally left off the committee’s agenda, with Edelstein’s spokesman releasing a schedule late last week that did not mention the conscription issue.

During a meeting of the committee last month, Defense Minister Israel Katz, who is reportedly working on a new outline, called for annual recruitment targets within what he termed a reasonable range, playing up the idea that half of eligible draftees could end up serving, while the rest continue studying in yeshivas.

At the same hearing, chairman Yuli Edelstein warned against any attempt to bypass his committee on the issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment.

“On the matter of the enlistment bill, we strongly hope that, in the end, as I also pledged to the committee members, we will reach a real enlistment bill that will give genuine solutions to the personnel in the IDF, with gradual integration of the Haredi public,” Edelstein said, according to a Knesset readout of the closed session.

Jewish folk artist Peter Yarrow of trio Peter, Paul and Mary dies at 86

Singer-songwriter Peter Yarrow, of the 1960s era musical trio Peter Paul and Mary, performs during a memorial tribute concert for folk icon and civil rights activist Pete Seeger in New York on July 20, 2014. (AP Photo/ Kathy Willens, File)

Peter Yarrow, the Jewish singer-songwriter best known as one-third of Peter, Paul and Mary, whose impassioned harmonies transfixed millions, as they lifted their voices in favor of civil rights and against war, has died. He was 86.

Yarrow, who wrote the popular Hanukkah song “Light One Candle” as a response to the First Lebanon War, died earlier today in New York, publicist Ken Sunshine says. Yarrow had bladder cancer for the past four years.

He also co-wrote the group’s most enduring song, “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

“Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life. The world knows Peter Yarrow the iconic folk activist, but the human being behind the legend is every bit as generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise as his lyrics suggest,” his daughter Bethany says in a statement.

During an incredible run of success spanning the 1960s, Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers released six Billboard Top 10 singles, two No. 1 albums and won five Grammys.

They also brought early exposure to Bob Dylan by turning two of his songs, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and “Blowin’ in the Wind,” into Billboard Top 10 hits as they helped lead an American renaissance in folk music. They performed “Blowin’ in the Wind” at the 1963 March on Washington, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Born May 31, 1938, in New York, Yarrow was raised in an upper-middle-class family that he said placed high value on art and scholarship. He took violin lessons as a child, later switching to guitar, as he came to embrace the work of such folk-music icons as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.

He is survived by his ex-wife Mary Beth McCarthy and his daughter, as well as a son Christopher and granddaughter Valentina.

Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.

Trump: All hell will break loose in Mideast if no deal; it won’t be good for anyone

President-elect Donald Trump walks from the podium after a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, January 7, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

US President-elect Donald Trump triples down on his threat that “all hell will break out” if the hostages in Gaza are not returned by his January 20 inauguration.

“All hell will break out in the Middle East, and it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good — frankly —for anyone,” Trump says during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

He reiterates that Hamas should have returned the hostages a long time ago, and that it should never have taken them in the first place or carried out an attack on October 7 at all.

Trump recalls phone calls he has received from the parents of Israeli-American hostages pleading with him to help secure the release of their child’s body. Apparently referring to slain former hostage Shani Louk, he highlights how Hamas fighters abducted a woman during the onslaught. “That beautiful girl… they… pulled her by her ponytail and threw her in the car like she was a sack of potatoes.”

After calling up his incoming Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff to provide an update on the hostage negotiations, Trump hails him as a well-respected negotiator.

“We have people that know everything about the Middle East, but they can’t speak properly… This is a great negotiator. That’s what I need,” Trump says of Witkoff.

Trump’s Middle East envoy says he’s heading to Qatar as hostage deal nearing

President-elect Donald Trump listens as Steve Witkoff speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Tuesday, January 7, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Incoming US Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff says he will be traveling to Doha later this week in order to advance the ongoing hostage negotiations. He says that a deal is on the verge of completion and that US President-elect Donald Trump expects it to be finalized before his January 20 inauguration, or “all hell will break loose” in the region.

“We’re making a lot of progress, and I don’t want to say too much because I think they’re doing a really good job back in Doha. I’m leaving tomorrow to go back to Doha, but I think that we’ve had some really great progress, and I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural, we’ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president,” Witkoff says, after Trump calls him up to provide an update on the negotiations, during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

“We’re working in tandem in a really good way, but it’s the president, his reputation, the things that he has said, that are driving this negotiation, and so hopefully it’ll all work out and we’ll save some lives,” Witkoff adds.

Pressed on what has been holding up the talks to date, Witkoff declines to get into specifics. “I believe we’ve been on the verge of [a deal]. I don’t want to discuss what’s delayed it — no point to be negative in any way.

Asked whether the parties are waiting to reach a deal until Trump is in office, Witkoff responds, “No, I think they heard him loud and clear. [This] better get done by the inaugural.”

He says he will leave for Qatar either tonight or tomorrow night.

Delegations from Israel and Hamas have been in Qatar since the weekend.

IDF chief says military will make Hamas understand it needs to release all hostages

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks to officers in northern Gaza's Jabalia, January 7, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says the military is working to bring Hamas “to the point where it will understand that it needs to [release] all the hostages.”

“I look at the situation that Hamas is in, they see every day what you are doing to them and they understand that this thing is close to being unbearable,” Halevi tells officers in northern Gaza’s Jabalia.

“We will not stop, we will bring [Hamas] to the point where it will understand that it needs to [release] all the hostages, otherwise the very professional work you are doing will continue and continue, and it means more prisoners and more dead operatives,” he adds.

Palestinian ‘human shield’ in Gaza for IDF troops shot dead in error by officer – report

A Palestinian who was assisting Israeli forces in searching potentially booby-trapped buildings and tunnels in the Gaza Strip over the summer was shot dead by an officer, according to a report by online magazine, Hamakom Hachi Ham Bagehenom (The Hottest Place in Hell).

According to the report, the Palestinian was serving as a human shield for the Nahal Brigade’s 931st Battalion, when the unit was deployed to the Rafah area in August.

The Palestinian would be sent to search buildings and tunnels before troops did, a practice that has been reportedly commonplace in the IDF during the war in Gaza. The IDF has not denied that the practice has been carried out, but says that such conduct is prohibited.

Hamakom says the Palestinian was also allowed to reside alongside the Nahal troops inside a building.

A commander in the battalion who entered the building spotted the man and opened fire on him, without knowing he was cooperating with the military, the report says.

The IDF Spokespersons Unit confirms the incident to Hamakom, saying that “the case was investigated by the brigade commander. The lessons of the investigation have been implemented into the forces’ activities.”

Foreign Minister Sa’ar meets with Emirati counterpart in Abu Dhabi

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar meets with Emirati counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, January 7, 2024. (Courtesy, Foreign Ministry)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar meets his Emirati counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed in the latter’s Abu Dhabi palace, according to Sa’ar’s office.

The two diplomats will “discuss regional developments and bilateral relations between the countries,” says the Foreign Ministry.

Bin Zayed invited Sa’ar to make the trip, according to Israel.

The public nature of the trip during the war in Gaza is surprising. The UAE has maintained full diplomatic ties with Israel, but has drawn back from public visits and initiatives with Israel, as the public is firmly opposed to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Bin Zayed hosted new Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

According to Reuters, the UAE has also discussed with Israel and the United States participating in a provisional administration of post-war Gaza until a reformed Palestinian Authority is able to take charge, according to people familiar with the talks.

The behind-the-scenes discussions included the possibility of the UAE and the US, along with other nations, temporarily overseeing the governance, security, and reconstruction of Gaza after the Israeli military withdraws and until a Palestinian administration is able to take over, a dozen foreign diplomats and Western officials told Reuters.

Similar talks were also reported to have taken place last July.

IDF says 338 ultra-Orthodox soldiers drafted this past week, 211 in combat roles

Col. Avinoam Emunah speaks to ultra-Orthodox soldiers drafting to the IDF's new Haredi brigade, known as the Hasmonean Brigade, January 5, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says that this past week, 338 members of the ultra-Orthodox community enlisted in the military for mandatory service — 211 combat soldiers and 127 combat support.

The combat soldiers include 70 draftees to the Kfir Brigade’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion; 19 to the Tomer Company in the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion; 19 to the Hetz Company in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion; 11 to the Nevatim Airbase’s ground defense unit; 35 to Border Police; and 57 to the Hasmonean Brigade, the IDF’s new Haredi brigade.

Additional Haredi soldiers will be drafted in the coming months, the military says.

The IDF says it has also completed sending out a wave of 7,000 draft orders to members of the ultra-Orthodox community, after 3,000 were sent out over the summer.

The orders constitute the first stage in the screening and evaluation process that the army carries out for recruits ahead of enlistment in the military in the coming year.

US says Sudan’s RSF committed genocide, imposes sanctions on leader

The United States has determined that members of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias committed genocide in Sudan and it imposed sanctions on the group’s leader over a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says in a statement the RSF and aligned militias have continued to direct attacks against civilians, adding that they have systematically murdered men and boys on an ethnic basis and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of sexual violence.

The militias have also targeted fleeing civilians and murdered innocent people escaping conflict, Blinken says.

“The United States is committed to holding accountable those responsible for these atrocities,” Blinken says.

Washington announces sanctions on the leader of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemedti, barring him from traveling to the United States and freezing any US assets he might hold.

“For nearly two years, Hemedti’s RSF has engaged in a brutal armed conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of Sudan, killing tens of thousands, displacing 12 million Sudanese, and triggering widespread starvation,” the Treasury Department says in a separate statement.

Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in conflict for more than 18 months, creating a humanitarian crisis in which UN agencies have struggled to deliver relief.

The war erupted in April 2023 amid a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule.

Majority of Iranian forces, Tehran-backed militias fled Syria after fall of Assad — WSJ report

An Iranian flag lies on the ground in front of the Islamic Republic's embassy in Damascus on December 9, 2024, a day after anti-government fighters ousted president Bashar al-Assad by taking the Syrian capital in a lightning offensive. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

The majority of Iran’s forces have withdrawn from Syria over the past month and various armed groups backed by Tehran have disbanded following the fall of the Assad regime, the Wall Street Journal reports.

For years, Iran propped up deposed president Bashar al-Assad, while at the same time using Syria as a vital land route through which it could smuggle weapons to the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon. As such, thousands of Iranian fighters and members of Iran-backed groups were present across Syria when a rebel offensive overthrew the decades-old Assad regime in December.

At the time of the rebel victory over Assad, fighters from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were mainly stationed in eastern Syria, the WSJ reports, citing Western and Arab officials. Stationed alongside them were Iraqi, Lebanese, Afghan and Syrian militia forces.

The majority of those stationed in eastern Syria have since fled across the border to al-Qaim in Iraq, the report states, while IRGC forces previously stationed in Aleppo have returned to Tehran. It adds that Hezbollah troops that had been stationed in western Syria returned to Lebanon by road.

The WSJ adds that Iraq’s embassy in Washington and the Iraqi foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment, while the Iranian mission to the UN declined to comment on the withdrawal of its forces.

Ireland files declaration of intervention in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel

File: The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the UN, delivers its order South Africa's request for provisional measures against Israel over its actions in the Gaza Strip, January 26, 2024. (International Court of Justice)

Ireland officially files a declaration of intervention in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, says the International Court of Justice.

In December, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he would close Israel’s embassy in Ireland, saying that Dublin “encouraged” antisemitism under a prime minister he accused of hating Jews.

Israel recalled its ambassador in May after Ireland became one of three EU countries that said they would unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state. Ireland has not recalled its envoy to Israel.

In November, the Irish parliament passed a nonbinding motion declaring that “genocide is being perpetrated before our eyes by Israel in Gaza.”

And in December, Ireland’s cabinet voted to join the case accusing Israel of perpetrating “genocide” during its war with Hamas in Gaza, brought by South Africa at the International Criminal Court in The Hague last year.

French special envoy to Lebanon expected in Beirut today

French President Emanuel Macron’s special envoy to Lebanon will land in Beirut today, according to the French Foreign Ministry spokesperson. He will also attend Thursday’s parliamentary session, which is intended to elect a new president for the country.

The position has been empty for more than two years.

Jean-Yves Le Drian’s visit, says the Quai d’Orsay, follows visits by Saudi and American envoys meant to support the election process.

“Electing a new president is the first step in urgently reactivating Lebanon’s institutions and restoring the country’s sovereignty,” it says, adding that it would “pave the way for the formation of a strong government capable of uniting the Lebanese people, addressing their needs, and carrying out the necessary reforms to ensure Lebanon’s stability and security.”

‘Warsaw 1943 = Gaza 2025’: Holocaust memorial vandalized in Polish capital

A Holocaust memorial in Warsaw has been vandalized with graffiti referring to the war in Gaza.

Israel’s ambassador to Poland Yacov Livne shares a photo of the memorial, which has been emblazoned with the words “Warsaw 1943 = Gaza 2025” in red paint.

“Shameful vandalism at Warsaw’s memorial for 300,000 (!) Jews deported to Treblinka,” writes Livne. “Poland has a special responsibility to protect Jewish & Holocaust sites.”

Shameful vandalism at Warsaw's memorial for 300,000 (!) Jews deported to Treblinka. Poland has a special responsibility to protect Jewish & Holocaust sites; hold vandals accountable. pic.twitter.com/4No1PI7ZXd

— Amb. Yacov Livne ???????? (@YacovLivne) January 7, 2025

Iran begins air defense military drills near Natanz nuclear facility

This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows Iran's Natanz nuclear site, on April 14, 2023. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

Iran’s military has begun drills near the Natanz nuclear enrichment plant in the center of the country, state media reports, as part of exercises planned nationwide.

The drills — dubbed Eqtedar, or “might” in Farsi — involved the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, alongside the army.

“The first phase of the joint Eqtedar exercises in the air defense zone of the Natanz nuclear facility has commenced under the orders of the air defense headquarters commander,” state TV says.

It adds that IRGC air forces were undertaking “an all-out point defense” of the site “against a multitude of air threats in tough electronic warfare conditions.”

On Monday, IRGC spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini said the drills, which will also cover other parts of Iran until mid-March, were being conducted in response to “new security threats,” without elaborating.

Several branches of the IRGC, including the navy and the paramilitary Basij forces, will also take part in the exercises, he added.

Israeli strikes on Iranian military facilities in October — carried out in response to a ballistic missile attack launched by Tehran — were reported to have taken out the majority of Iran’s air defenses, including four Russian-made S-300 air defense systems.

Meta ends Facebook fact-checking program, as company returns to ‘prioritizing speech’

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta says it’s scrapping its third-party fact-checking program and replacing it with a Community Notes program written by users similar to the model used by Elon Musk’s social media platform X.

Starting in the US, Meta will end its fact-checking program with independent third parties. The company said it decided to end the program because expert fact-checkers had their own biases and too much content ended up being fact-checked.

Instead, it will pivot to a Community Notes model that uses crowdsourced fact-checking contributions from users.

“We’ve seen this approach work on X – where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context,” Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan says in a blog post.

The Associated Press had participated in Meta’s fact-checking program previously but ended its participation a year ago.

The social media company also says it plans to allow “more speech” by lifting some restrictions on some topics that are part of mainstream discussion in order to focus on illegal and “high severity violations” like terrorism, child sexual exploitation and drugs.

Meta says that its approach of building complex systems to manage content on its platforms has “gone too far” and has made “too many mistakes” by censoring too much content.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledges that the changes are in part sparked by political events including Donald Trump’s presidential election victory.

“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg says in an online video.

Meta’s quasi-independent Oversight Board, which was set up to act as a referee on controversial content decisions, says it welcomes the changes and looks forward to working with the company “to understand the changes in greater detail, ensuring its new approach can be as effective and speech-friendly as possible.”

IDF redeploys Kfir Brigade from northern Gaza after 64 days of anti-terror operations

Troops of the Kfir Brigade operate in the northern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued by the IDF on January 7, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF’s Kfir Brigade has been withdrawn from the northern Gaza Strip after 64 days of fighting, though an operation in the area led by the 162nd Division is still ongoing.

According to the military, the Kfir Brigade killed more than 300 terror operatives during their operations in the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun and in the Sheikh Zayed neighborhood.

Among the dead operatives are many prominent members of terror groups, including those who participated in the October 7, 2023, onslaught, the IDF says.

Twelve soldiers with the brigade were killed in six separate incidents of fighting during the operation. Dozens more were wounded, though many have returned to fighting, according to the IDF.

The military says the brigade’s operations were aimed at removing threats to residents of Israeli communities close to the Gaza border in the Strip’s north.

The brigade was responsible for demolishing the so-called officers’ neighborhood, where Hamas commanders had lived. The residential complex of high-rise towers had served as a “central terror complex” with anti-tank firing positions, booby traps, tunnels and rocket launchers aimed at Israel, according to the military.

The IDF says the brigade demolished other Hamas infrastructure, including 7.5 kilometers worth of tunnels, and captured numerous weapons.

The Kfir Brigade is now preparing for future operations in Gaza, including being deployed to the Philadelphi Corridor in the Strip’s south.

Israel says it facilitated entry of 1,100 humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza in past week

Men stand guard on the side of the truck carrying humanitarian aid as it drives on the main Salah al-Din road in the Nuseirat refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip on December 7, 2024. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

The Israeli government’s liaison to the Palestinians, COGAT, says it facilitated the transfer of some 1,100 truckloads of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip over the past week.

“In accordance with a directive of the political echelon, efforts to transfer aid to the Gaza Strip continue in coordination with COGAT,” it says in a statement. “As part of these efforts, over 1,070 humanitarian aid trucks carrying food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment were brought into Gaza over the past week, with more than 1,100 trucks unloaded on the Gazan side of the crossings.”

COGAT vows to “continue working to allow and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip in collaboration with aid organizations and the international community.” It says all shipments were thoroughly inspected by the Defense Ministry’s Land Crossings Authority.

IDF able to sharply increase the number of Haredi recruits in coming years, top officer says

Lt. Col. Avigdor Dickstein, head of the Haredi branch of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, left, and Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate's Planning and Personnel Management Division, at the Knesset State Control Committee on January 7, 2025. (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)

The IDF’s capacity to absorb ultra-Orthodox recruits is set to increase dramatically in the coming years, Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, tells lawmakers.

Testifying before the Knesset State Control Committee, Tayeb says that in the current year, the IDF can handle 4,800 Haredi recruits, a number that will rise by 20% to 5,700 in 2026. Assuming the IDF is provided with the necessary resources, it will be able to absorb Haredim “without any restrictions” after that.

In addition, all eligible Israelis aged 16 from the current draft cohort will receive recruitment orders, with more than 10,000 outstanding call-up orders issues being issued over the course of the coming year, he adds.

Going forward, “there will be tens of thousands of members of the ultra-Orthodox community under orders,” he says.

Turning to the issue of sanctions, Tayeb argues that the current legal penalties for failing to comply with enlistment orders are “not strong enough” and need to be strengthened.

At the moment, people defined as draft dodgers only face consequences if caught attempting to fly abroad or other marginal activities and do not affect people’s day-to-day lives, he explains.

Likud MK doubles down on refusal to come in for police questioning, claiming immunity

Likud MK Tally Gotliv at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, January 1, 2025 (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Doubling down on her previous rebuff of the Israel Police, Likud MK Tally Gotliv announces that she will refuse to appear for questioning after outing the spouse of a prominent anti-government organizer as a Shin Bet agent last year.

An investigator with Israel Police’s Lahav 433 serious crimes unit summoned the MK for questioning regarding the incident, which security officials say was liable to harm national security by revealing the personal details of security service employees.

“A Lahav investigator politely summoned me for questioning on January 13, and even allowed me to change the date if it was inconvenient for me. I advised her to stop contacting me, since I did not intend to appear,” tweets Gotliv.

Gotliv justifies her continued refusal by citing the parliamentary immunity granted to her as an MK. However, the Attorney General’s Office disputes this as erroneous.

“The immunity law does not grant an MK immunity from appearing for criminal questioning,” wrote Deputy State Attorney Alon Altman in a letter he sent to the legislator earlier this week. “Law enforcement agencies have the authority to summon an MK for questioning, in which the question of whether their actions are protected by the substantive immunity granted to an MK will become clear.”

Hamas official vows legal action against Blinken for ‘partnership’ in Israeli ‘crimes’

Hamas official Osama Hamdan speaks during an interview with AFP in Istanbul on September 15, 2024. (Ozan Kose/ AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be prosecuted for his role in the war in Gaza, says a senior Hamas official.

“His statements are misleading and we do not trust them, and his partnership in the crimes against our people will be pursued legally,” threatens Hamas politburo member Osama Hamdan at a press conference in Algeria, calling Blinken “a partner in the war of extermination.”

In a weekend interview with The New York Times, Blinken put the blame squarely on Hamas for the failure to reach a hostage release agreement.

“What we’ve seen time and again is Hamas not concluding a deal that it should have concluded,” Blinken said.

“Why there hasn’t been a unanimous chorus around the world for Hamas to put down its weapons, to give up the hostages, to surrender — I don’t know what the answer is to that. Israel, on various occasions, has offered safe passage to Hamas’s leadership and fighters out of Gaza. Where is the world? Where is the world saying, Yeah, do that! End this! Stop the suffering of people that you brought on!” he said.

Hamdan claims that negotiations with Israel have proven that the only way to achieve rights for the Palestinians is by force.

“We are determined to stop the aggression and for the enemy to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, and for relief and reconstruction to be without Israeli conditions,” says Hamdan. “We hope that this will be achieved as soon as possible.”

He calls for a “national committee” to manage Gaza and “block the path of every corrupt argument that seeks to oppress our people.”

Indirect talks on a potential hostage deal between Israel and Hamas continue in Qatar, but progress has been slow.

Hamdan says that Hamas hopes that Syria “will remain in the position of resistance” due to Israel’s control of the Golan Heights and beyond. “One of the most important values ​​launched by Al-Aqsa Flood [the Hamas name for the October 7, 2023, terror onslaught] is that peoples will not be liberated except through resistance.”

Referring to a wave of legal complaints against IDF soldiers vacationing abroad, Hamdan says that “pursuing Zionist war criminals is a Palestinian national goal and a goal for all free people in the world. Those who raised the case in Brazil and elsewhere are people whose consciences pushed them to take action against the crimes of the occupation. Those who commit crimes of genocide must be pursued all over the world.”

Soldier killed in fighting in northern Gaza, taking ground op toll to 398

Staff Sgt. Ido Samiach (Courtesy)

An IDF soldier was killed during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today, the military announces.

The slain soldier is named as Staff Sgt. Ido Samiach, 20, a team sergeant in the Nahal Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, from Ganei Tikva.

His death takes Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 398.

French far-right figurehead and Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen dies at 96

File - French founder of the far-right National Front party Jean-Marie Le Pen poses during a photo session at his home in Saint-Cloud, France, January 14, 2021. (Joel Saget/AFP)

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the historic leader of France’s far right, has died aged 96, his family tells AFP.

Le Pen, who had been in a care facility for several weeks, died at midday today “surrounded by his loved ones,” the family says in a statement.

An ultranationalist provocateur with several convictions for Holocaust denial and a penchant for racist and antisemitic remarks, his leadership of the National Rally party had kept it on the sidelines of French politics.

The current party leader, his daughter Marine Le Pen, has attempted to rehabilitate the party’s public image and has led it to become a major political force.

Netanyahu convenes security cabinet to discuss various war fronts

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is convening his security cabinet in Jerusalem, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.

The meeting, which was pre-scheduled and is not in response to any last-minute development, is set to deal with the hostages in Gaza, Syria, West Bank terrorism, the Houthis, and the shaky ceasefire in Lebanon, according to Hebrew media reports.

First international commercial flight since Assad’s ouster lands in Damascus

The first international commercial flight since the fall of Syria’s Assad regime last month lands at the Damascus airport from Qatar.

The head of Syria’s Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission, Capt. Haitham Misto, who is on board the flight with a team of specialists, says the aim is to evaluate the condition of the Damascus airport before resuming regular flights.

Jordanian state-run Petra news agency also reports that a Royal Jordanian Airlines plane is heading to Damascus on a test flight.

Israeli tennis player sidesteps Australian Open ban on wearing hostage pin

Israel’s top tennis player Lina Glushko found a creative idea to work around an Australian Open ban on wearing a pin calling for the release of the hostages held by terrorists in Gaza.

Barred from stepping on court for her qualifying round match with the yellow ribbon pin, which organizers deem a political statement, Glushko instead ties an actual yellow ribbon on her hair.

The game itself doesn’t go as successfully, with the 207-ranked Glushko winning the first set 6-1 against France’s 149-ranked Léolia Jeanjean, but then losing the remaining two sets 2-6 1-6. She has thus been eliminated from the first Grand Slam of the 2025 season.

בצעד אמיץ ביותר, לינה גלושקו שיחקה הלילה עם סמל החטופים על שיערה – בגלל סירוב המארגנים לאפשר לה לשחק איתו על חולצתה, בטענה שמדובר ב"מחאה פוליטית" pic.twitter.com/EVubVJwkYm

— Ben Goldfriend (@GoldfriendBen) January 7, 2025

Katz: Yesterday’s deadly West Bank attack was an ‘act of war’ that will be answered in kind

Defense Minister Israel Katz, left, and senior IDF officers visit the scene of a deadly terror attack a day earlier in the West Bank village of al-Funduq, January 7, 2025. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Israel Katz visits the scene of yesterday’s deadly terror attack in the northern West Bank, saying it was an “act of war” that will be answered in kind.

Two elderly women and an off-duty cop were killed and at least eight other Israelis were wounded when Palestinian terrorists opened fire on vehicles in the Palestinian village of al-Funduq yesterday. The perpetrators are still at large.

The village straddles a major artery used by thousands of Israelis and Palestinian drivers daily.

“The despicable, murderous terror attack that occurred here yesterday is an act of war for all intents and purposes, and it will be answered accordingly,” Katz says in remarks provided by his office.

“We will hit the terrorists and those who sent them, and we will act powerfully against the places from where the terrorists came,” he says.

Far-right government members and settler leaders have called for military action in the West Bank resembling the scenes in Gaza, where the IDF has evacuated and destroyed entire cities that became terror strongholds.

Katz meets and thanks Ami Barber, a civilian who shot at the terrorists yesterday, causing them to flee and likely preventing more casualties.

He also holds a situation assessment with senior officers and tells reporters he has ordered forces in the West Bank to be bolstered.

Israel calls for international pressure on Turkey to stop attack on Kurds

Turkey must face pressure from world powers to stop attacks on Kurds in northern Syria, a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official says.

“The international community must call on Turkey to stop these aggressions and killing. The Kurds must be protected by the international community,” Foreign Ministry Director-General Eden Bar Tal tells foreign reporters.

In IDF interrogation, Hamas member says gunmen operated from inside Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital

Hamas operative Anas Mohammad Faiz a-Sharif in an interrogation video released by the IDF on January 7, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF releases interrogation footage of a Hamas operative detained by troops at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, in which he says that the terror group uses the medical center as a shelter.

Over 240 members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were detained by troops at Kamal Adwan during an operation there last month, according to the military.

“They [the terror operatives] think it is a safe shelter for them, because the army cannot strike it directly,” the operative, Anas Mohammad Faiz a-Sharif, says in the interrogation video.

It is unclear whether the statements were made under duress and if they represent the stances of the other detainees.

A-Sharif says the operatives would move weapons to and from the hospital, as well as set out from the medical center at night to carry out surveillance operations and patrols.

“From the hospital the grenades and mortars were given out, to attack the tanks, for ambushes, and for tunnels,” he says.

A-Sharif says he worked at Kamal Adwan as a janitor but was also a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force.

The IDF says that the operatives interrogated by the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 have so far provided “a lot of intelligence information that helps the IDF in its activities in the area.”

Netanyahu said to weigh tapping his chief of staff as envoy to UK

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with Cabinet Secretary Tzachi Braverman (R) during a weekly cabinet meeting in the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on April 30, 2023. (Abir Sultan/Pool/AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering appointing his chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, as the next ambassador to the UK, the Walla news site reports.

Current Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely will finish her five-year term in August.

The Prime Minister’s Office seems to deny the report.

“Recently, there hasn’t been a single position that hasn’t been ‘assigned’ to chief of staff Tzachi Braverman by the media,” says Netanyahu spokesman Omer Dostri. “It would be better for the media to focus on more substantial matters than engage obsessively in endless vague and anonymous speculation.”

Braverman was questioned by police in November on suspicion of forgery and fraud over the illegal altering of records in the Prime Minister’s Office on the early morning of October 7, 2023, amid the Hamas onslaught.

Yesterday, Haaretz reported that Netanyahu is considering appointing Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel as London envoy, saying that Haskel won’t support a controversial Haredi conscription law the coalition is trying to pass and wants to guarantee her vote. Netanyahu’s office and Haskel denied the report.

Israel urges world pressure on Hamas to agree to hostage deal

Israel is fully committed to reaching an agreement to return its hostages from Gaza but faces obstruction from Hamas, a senior Foreign Ministry official says.

“Hamas is the only obstacle to the release of the hostages,” Foreign Ministry director general Eden Bar Tal tells a briefing with foreign reporters.

He contends that the key to concluding a deal is international pressure on the Palestinian terror group, particularly from countries that have leverage over it.

He also urges the international community to put pressure on Turkey to stop attacking Kurdish militias in northern Syria.

IDF soldier seriously hurt in northern West Bank; 3 terror suspects killed in separate raids

IDF soldiers operate in the northern West Bank, in an image issued on January 7, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

An IDF soldier was seriously wounded during an overnight exchange of fire with a Hamas gunman in the West Bank village of Talluza, near Nablus, the military says.

According to the military, the troops eliminated the gunman in close-quarters combat and seized an AK-type assault rifle. A suspect was also detained in the village.

The soldier, a reservist with the Samaria Regional Brigade’s 7037th Battalion, was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Hamas claimed the gunman, Jaafar Ahmed Dababseh, as a member of the terror group.

Separately, the IDF says it carried out a drone strike overnight in the town of Tamun, in the Jordan Valley, amid a brigade-level counterterrorism raid in the area.

The drone strike targeted a group of gunmen who were shooting at troops, the military says. Two gunmen were killed in the airstrike, according to the IDF.

Several suspects were detained and weapons were also seized during the operation in Tamun.

Hostage’s mom to be allowed back into Knesset, but must avoid ‘breaking the rules’ — Ohana

Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, stands outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, after she was banned from entering to the building, on January 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana announces that Einav Zangauker, a hostage’s mother who has been barred from the parliament building for over a week, will be granted renewed access, but adds that “breaking the rules” may result in another ban.

Zangauker, an outspoken critic of the government over its failure to bring her son Matan Zangauker home after 15 months of captivity in Gaza, has been barred from entering the Knesset over what the Knesset Guard has described as her disruption of discussions.

Ohana says he met Zangauker for a “good meeting” this morning, explaining that she wasn’t targeted for her anti-government activism.

In a statement, Ohana says the Knesset has shown immense flexibility regarding relatives of hostages and avoided imposing sanctions on them for behavior that “normally earns an extended ban from the Knesset.”

“This doesn’t mean there aren’t red lines, and these were sometimes crossed,” he says. “Only after repeated warnings were the violators banned.”

“We cannot judge a person until we stand in their shoes, and we aren’t. Barring access… is meant to guarantee the Knesset’s procedural rules… are upheld, so that the Knesset can continue to fulfill its role as the legislative branch and monitor the government,” Ohana says.

“If [Zangauker] wants to continue sharing her thoughts, she can do so here at the Knesset as well, as she has done since the start of the war, without breaking the rules.”

France accuses Iran of torturing French detainees, urges nationals not to travel to Iran

The situation of three French citizens held in Iran is worsening, with some being detained in conditions similar to torture, France’s foreign minister says, adding that future ties and sanctions lifting will depend on their fate.

“The situation of our compatriots held hostage in Iran is simply unacceptable; they have been unjustly detained for several years, in undignified conditions that, for some, fall within the definition of torture under international law,” Jean-Noel Barrot tells a conference of French ambassadors.

“I say to the Iranian authorities: our hostages must be released. Our bilateral relations and the future of sanctions depend on it,” he says.

He also calls on French citizens not to travel to Iran.

5 countries send hostage coordinators to Israel for meetings with top Israeli officials

Gal Hirsch, the government's point-man on missing and kidnapped citizens, attends a discussion about Israelis being held hostage in Gaza by the Hamas terror group, in Jerusalem, April 10, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, the government point man on hostages, will hold working meetings over the next two days with his American, British, Canadian, German and Austrian counterparts, the Prime Minister’s Office says.

All five hostage coordinators have flown to Israel for the meetings, which began this morning at the Foreign Ministry.

They are scheduled to meet President Isaac Herzog at his residence in the afternoon, and will also meet hostage families on their visit.

Aiming to reduce dependence on US, Israeli firm to produce heavy bombs, other materials for IDF

Illustrative: then Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman (c) at the inauguration ceremony for the new Elbit factory in Arad on April 2, 2017. (Ariel Hermoni/Ministry of Defense)

The Defense Ministry has signed two major deals with Elbit Systems for the arms contractor to supply the military with thousands of heavy bombs and establish a new plant to manufacture raw materials.

The two deals are estimated at NIS 1 billion ($275 million).

The ministry says the agreements are “crucial for enhancing the IDF’s operational endurance and force build-up capabilities.”

Under the first agreement, Elbit will supply thousands of heavy air munitions used by the Israeli Air Force. This will apparently reduce Israel’s need to rely on the United States, which in late spring held up a shipment of heavy bombs.

Under the second agreement, Elbit will establish a “national raw materials plant to produce raw materials that were sourced mainly from abroad before the war.”

“The new facility will feature advanced production lines for energetic materials that Israel’s defense industry uses,” the ministry says, adding that the project is expected to “strengthen domestic manufacturing independence and reduce reliance on imported raw materials.”

Tunisian soccer fans unveil massive banner hailing slain Hamas chief Sinwar

Tunisian fans of soccer club Etoile Sportive du Sahel hold a massive banner of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7, 2023, terror massacre in Israel, who was slain by IDF troops in Gaza several months ago.

#متابعة_شهاب | خلال مباراة في الدوري التونسي لكرة القدم .. جماهير نادي النجم الساحلي ترفع صورة قائد حركة حماس يحيى الســـنوار الذي استشـــهد مشتبكاً مع جيش الاحتلال الإسرائيلي. pic.twitter.com/88Kj088vLS

— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) January 7, 2025

After IDF takeover, Israeli tourism firm marketing hike to Syrian Hermon peak

Troops of the Israeli Air Force's elite Shaldag unit are seen atop the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, in a photo published December 12, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

A month after the IDF took over the peak of Mount Hermon in Syria as part of the buffer zone following the fall of the Assad regime, an Israeli tourism company is already marketing a hike of the site.

The firm is pushing ahead with the unique route — planned for May 31 — despite the army declaring the area a closed military zone and saying it is only staying in the buffer zone temporarily until the power vacuum in Syria is filled and the 50-year Disengagement agreement is restored with a new leadership.

The company, Tiyulim Veagadot (Hebrew for “Hikes and Legends”), is marketing the trek as one for seasoned hikers to “the new peak of the Israeli Hermon (formerly the Syrian Hermon…).”

“Imagine Israel from the peak of the Hermon, at an altitude of 2,814 meters, in a place that until recently was a faraway dream,” it says. “This coming spring, we invite you to be part of history and climb to the peak of the Israeli Hermon that is opening to Israeli hikers for the first time.”

The hike is said to be between 12 and 18 kilometers long, with the cost being NIS 200 ($55) for a full day, including a shuttle bus and cable car ride. Reservations are to open two weeks ahead of time.

Speaking to Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language sister site, company co-manager Meny Nachman says the firm has its “own arrangements” with the IDF, sometimes getting access to closed military zones. He stresses that the hike will only go ahead with the necessary approvals, and that the company isn’t taking money until shortly before the due date.

However, the IDF tells Zman Yisrael that the hikers and organizers “have no chance of reaching this area because it’s a closed military zone and they won’t be able to come,” adding that there is no current intention to open the Syrian Hermon to Israeli civilians.

Second soldier killed yesterday in northern Gaza is named

Maj. Dvir Zion Revah, 28, killed fighting in the Gaza Strip on January 6, 2024. (IDF)

The IDF releases the name of the second soldier killed during fighting in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun yesterday.

He is named as Maj. Dvir Zion Revah, 28, a company commander in the Nahal Brigade’s 932nd Battalion, from Jerusalem.

Revah was killed alongside Cpt. Eitan Israel Shiknazi, while two other soldiers were seriously wounded.

3 Israelis rescued from freezing Japanese mountain after being stranded for 24 hours

Israeli Consul in Japan Avinoam Mizrahi, second from right, with three Israeli men who had been stranded in a mountainous ski resort near Japan's Hakuba, after their rescue, January 7, 2025. (Israeli Embassy in Tokyo)

Three Israeli men in their 20s have been rescued from a mountainous ski resort in Japan after being stranded there in sub-zero temperatures for around 24 hours, the Foreign Ministry announces.

The men had been reported to be “freezing cold” and with cell phone batteries close to running out on a mountain near Hakuba in central Japan, with a military helicopter seen as the only way to rescue them due to weather conditions.

Without detailing the method of rescue, the Foreign Ministry says Ambassador Gilad Cohen worked with senior local government and police officials to get the needed help.

Israeli Consul Avinoam Mizrahi arrived at the scene amid the rescue, and is filmed with the now-safe snowboarders.

Majority of hate crimes in NYC last year targeted Jews, NYPD says

New York Jewish Week — Jews were the target of the majority of hate crimes in New York City last year, according to statistics reported by the NYPD.

Data compiled by the department showed that there were 345 anti-Jewish hate crimes across the US city in 2024, nearly 54% of the 641 total hate crimes tallied. The next-largest category of hate crimes were those related to sexual orientation, at 78.

The number of antisemitic hate crimes in 2024 was slightly larger than in 2023, when police recorded 323 total anti-Jewish crimes. That year’s total was driven by a recorded surge in antisemitism following Hamas’s invasion and onslaught of October 7 of that year, which sparked the war in Gaza. The increase in antisemitism year over year comes as the total number of hate crimes in the city decreased slightly from 2023 to 2024.

High-profile antisemitic incidents occurred last year across New York, which has the largest Jewish population in the United States.

The NYPD data are preliminary figures and are subject to change. Not every recorded hate crime leads to an arrest or prosecution.

Australia cancels ice hockey tournament, reportedly over threats to Israeli team

Australia’s ice hockey federation says it has canceled a planned international qualifying tournament due to safety concerns, with local media reporting the decision is linked to the participation of the Israeli national team.

Multiple local media outlets cite an internal email from Ice Hockey Australia (IHA) to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) saying it cannot hold the tournament due to safety and security concerns over Israel’s attendance.

IHA says in a statement it has decided to cancel the event, due to take place in Melbourne in April, after consultation with local police and the participating venues.

The statement does not mention Israel, with the body saying it cannot comment on “global issues outside the sport.”

“The decision was primarily made to ensure the safety and security of athletes, volunteers, spectators, and other participants,” the statement says. “IHA does not shy away from making this decision with safety at the forefront.”

The IIHF does not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The cancelation follows a spate of antisemitic attacks in recent months, including graffiti daubed yesterday on a car in Sydney.

Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the cancelation is “unfortunate,” but that the government has taken sufficient action to protect Jewish people in Australia.

“This is a decision made by Ice Hockey Australia,” he says in an interview on Channel Nine. “We’re addressing in every single way possible these issues because we understand that [antisemitism] is very hurtful for the Jewish community.”

North Korea’s Kim says new missile will deter ‘rivals’

This photo provided by the North Korean government on September 10, 2023, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un greeting attendants in Pyongyang before boarding a train to Russia. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says a new hypersonic missile system tested this week will help deter the country’s Pacific rivals, state media reports, as Washington’s top diplomat visits the region.

The test comes two weeks before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has previously tried to woo North Korea, and coincided with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to the South.

“The hypersonic missile system will reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region that can affect the security of our state,” Kim, who oversaw the launch, says in comments carried by KCNA.

KCNA cites the use of a “new compound of carbon fiber” in the missile’s engine, which experts warn could allow Pyongyang to hit further targets with technology only the United States, Russia and China currently have access to.

The launch also used a “new comprehensive and effective method” for its flight and guidance control system, KCNA says.

Earthquake in China’s Tibet region kills 9 — state media

A powerful earthquake in China’s remote Tibet region has killed at least nine people and collapsed “many buildings,” state media reports, with tremors also felt in neighboring Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.

The quake struck Dingri county with a magnitude of 6.8 near the border with Nepal at 9:05 a.m. (0105 GMT), according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC). The US Geological Survey reported the quake as magnitude 7.1.

“Dingri county and its surrounding areas experienced very strong tremors, and many buildings near the epicentre have collapsed,” state broadcaster CCTV says.

“The reporter learned that nine people have been confirmed dead so far,” it says, adding that as of 10 a.m., “multiple aftershocks” have been recorded, the largest measuring 4.4 in magnitude.

Xinhua news agency says that “local authorities are reaching out to various townships in the county to assess the impact of the quake.”

Settlers rampage through Palestinian villages after terror shooting

Settlers rampaged through several Palestinian villages throughout the West Bank after a deadly shooting attack that killed three Israelis on Monday morning, the Yesh Din rights groups reports.

Targeted Palestinian towns included al-Funduq — where the suspects in the shooting attack were from — Hajja, Turmusaya and Immatain, Yesh Din says.

Footage from several of those towns shows cars doused by settlers going up in flames.

“Once again, the army is doing nothing to prevent settler violence. This time, too, the writing was on the wall, and notices calling for riots in the villages were distributed publicly among settlers. This is what the Wild West looks like,” says Yesh Din.

????BREAKING: Israeli settler terrorists have announced and launched a pogrom in the West Bank, starting with the village of Hajja in Qalqilya, setting Palestinian homes and vehicles on fire. pic.twitter.com/PZdRPVCVkk

— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) January 6, 2025

Indeed, rights groups had publicized the messages posted on far-right Israeli social media groups calling on members to join in on rampages later today aimed at “erasing al-Funduq.” While the rights groups had called on authorities to take preventative actions, it does not appear that any were taken.

أضرموا النار بجرافة ومنشأة.. مستوطنون إسرائيليون يعتدون على ممتلكات مزارعين فلسطينيين في قرية إماتين شرق قلقيلية وبلدة ترمسعيا شمال رام الله بالضفة الغربية المحتلة. pic.twitter.com/DgMtazSBVi

— TRT عربي (@TRTArabi) January 6, 2025