Live updates (closed)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Tuesday’s events as they happened.
Macron urges Netanyahu to prevent ‘conflagration’ between Israel and Hezbollah
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron (L) as they hold a joint press conference in Jerusalem on October 24, 2023. (Christophe Ena/Pool/AFP)
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron urged leader Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent a “conflagration” between Israel and Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, during a telephone call between the two leaders.
Macron “reiterated his serious concern over a deepening of tensions between Hezbollah and Israel… and underscored the absolute need to prevent a conflagration that would harm the interests of Lebanon as well as Israel,” the French presidency says in a statement.
He also insists on the “urgency for all parties to move rapidly toward a diplomatic solution” to end the conflict sparked by the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
“The two leaders discussed the diplomatic efforts underway toward this,” the Elysee Palace says, ahead of a visit by the US envoy for the conflict, Amos Hochstein, to Paris on Wednesday.
Hochstein is scheduled to meet with Macron’s Lebanon envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian following visits to Israel and Lebanon in June to try to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
Macron also called on Netanyahu to refrain from any “new operation” in Gaza near Rafah or Khan Younis, “which would only aggravate the human toll and a humanitarian situation that is already catastrophic,” the Elysee says.
Macron and Netanyahu also discussed recent “developments” in Iran’s nuclear program, in particular reports of “the installation of new centrifuges” for enriching uranium.
In mid-June, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tehran was further expanding its nuclear capabilities, with Western nations fearing the country is pursuing nuclear weapons following the US withdrawal from a 2015 deal to limit its atomic program.
The IAEA has said that Tehran has significantly ramped up its nuclear program and now has enough material to build several atomic bombs, though Iran says it is only for peaceful purposes.
“France, with its partners, remains fully committed to continuing to exert pressure on the Iranian government, which must respect its international obligations and fully cooperate with the IAEA,” Macron’s office says.
Israeli forces begin razing home of Palestinian charged with murdering Israeli teen
Israeli forces are currently operating in the West Bank town of Duma to demolish the home of Ahmed Dawabsha, who was indicted last month for the grizzly murder of 14-year-old Benjamin Achimeir in April.
Rocket sirens sound in south
Rocket alerts are sounding in Sufa and Holit near the Gaza border.
Palestinians report four killed in West Bank drone strike
The Palestinian Authority health ministry in the West Bank says four people have died as the result of an IDF drone strike in the Nur Shams camp near Tulkarem.
Palestinian media named the four as Yazid Saad al-Shafi, Nimr Anwar Hamarsheh, Mohamed Yasser Shehadeh and Mohamed Hassan Ghannam, with photos showing them two of them holding rifles and a third in a tactical vest.
شهداء عملية الاغتيال في مخيم نور شمس
يزيد صاعد الشافع
نمر انور حمارشة
محمد ياسر شحادة
محمد حسن غنام pic.twitter.com/k8LVfWB9wa— Hisham Abu Shaqrah | هشام أبو شقرة (@HShaqrah) July 2, 2024
IDF says drone strike targets Palestinian cell planting roadside bomb near Tulkarem
An Israeli drone strike was carried out against a cell of terror operatives in the West Bank’s Nur Shams camp a short while ago, the military says.
According to the IDF, the operatives were planting an explosive device when they were struck.
A military source says the IDF was tracking the cell, and ambushed them as the operatives began to plant a roadside bomb.
📸 متابعة صفا| قصف إسرائيلي يستهدف وسط مخيم نور شمس شرق طولكرم pic.twitter.com/7zbF4vSYY0
— وكالة صفا (@SafaPs) July 2, 2024
The location of the strike was about 100 meters from where an Israeli soldier was killed by a roadside bomb on Monday morning, according to the source.
Palestinian media also report the strike.
There is no immediate information on the number of casualties in the attack, but a report claims at least one person was killed and footage shared by Palestinian media shows at least one person being transported by ambulance as medics perform chest compressions.
تغطية صحفية: اللحظات الأولى لاستهداف الاحتلال مجموعة من الشباب في مخيم نور شمس pic.twitter.com/R8onOUf2Ti
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) July 2, 2024
Settlers stone Palestinian cars in West Bank, injuring three — reports
Hebrew media reports say a large group of Israeli settlers hurled stones at Palestinian cars on a major West Bank road, injuring at least three travelers.
According to the reports, citing an unnamed defense source, the army was called in to break up the riot on Route 60 near Luban al-Sharqiya, south of Nablus.
A Palestinian young man was injured and vehicles were damaged due to an attack by Israeli settlers near the village of Al-Lubban Al-Sharqiya on the road between Ramallah and Nablus in occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/xJmA0GwIWs
— AlQastal News (@QastalNewsEn) July 2, 2024
The official Palestinian news outlet Wafa reports that three people were injured in the attacks, and damage was caused to a number of cars.
It’s unclear if the attack is related to an incident earlier in the day in which a group of settlers touring an outpost near Nablus were shot at, with one person lightly injured.
Report says Biden told Netanyahu ‘I’m out’ if Israel retaliated for Iran ballistic attack
US President Joe Biden in Syracuse, New York, April 25, 2024. (Evan Vucci/AP)
The New York Times reports that US President Joe Biden threatened to pull support for Israel if it carried out a significant retaliation against Iran for launching hundreds of ballistic and cruise missiles at the Jewish state in April.
“Let me be crystal clear… If you launch a big attack on Iran, you’re on your own,” Biden is quoted telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a call the paper describes as a “lecture” following the successfully thwarted April 18 attack.
According to the account, which quotes aides who had been in the situation room with Biden at the time, during a call Netanyahu pushed Biden hard over the need to hit Iran back and avoid looking weak.
“You do this, and I’m out,” Biden is quoted telling Netanyahu. “Take the win.”
The war room vignette is part of a larger investigation by the paper examining Biden’s mental acuity, with the exchange used to illustrate times under high pressure that the 81-year-old president appears to be on the ball. Most other accounts included in the report portray Biden as increasingly confused, frail and prone to mental gaffes.
Houthis and Iraqi militia claim joint strike on Haifa; no attack reported
Yemen’s Houthis say they and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have conducted a joint operation attacking a vital target in the Israeli city of Haifa, though no such attack appears to have taken place.
The military operation has been carried out with “a number of winged missiles,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree says in a televised statement, without identifying the target.
There are no reports of attacks in or near Haifa or anywhere else in the country. The last air raid sirens sounded at 5 p.m. for a Hezbollah barrage aimed at the northern city of Kiryat Shmona. Earlier in the day, a drone alert sounded in the Golan Heights and the army said two UAVs were downed in southern Lebanon before reaching Israeli airspace.
The Houthis and Islamic Resistance in Iraq, both aligned with Iran, regularly make claims of attacks deemed overblown.
US says Palestinian banking waiver, unfrozen PA tax transfers good but not enough
The US says Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s decision to temporarily extend Israel’s banking relationship with the Palestinians and to release some of the tax revenues withheld from the Palestinian Authority is welcome, but not enough.
State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel says both moves were insufficient amid continued concerns of the PA’s potential collapse, and also speaks out against moves to expand settlements okayed by Israel to gain the concessions from Smotrich.
Smotrich last week agreed to extend indemnity to Israeli banks working with Palestinian ones in the West Bank for an additional four months and agreed to partially release three months’ worth of tax revenues that Israel collects on the PA’s behalf.
The tax revenues did not include a significant portion that the PA uses to pay for services and employees in Gaza, which Israel claims will end up in the hands of Hamas. This portion makes up roughly 40 percent of the revenue.
The moves by Smotrich were taken in exchange for the security cabinet approving a series of sanctions against the PA over its support for efforts against Israel in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, along with decisions by three European countries to recognize the State of Palestine.
The cabinet also okayed the legalization of five wildcat outposts that were built largely on private Palestinian land along with next week’s advancement of plans for over 6,000 new settlement homes.
Asked about the quid pro quo agreement, Patel tells a press conference the US “welcome[s] reports that Israel will extend the corresponding banking relationship for four months… But our call is for Israel to extend corresponding banking for at least 12 months
As for the tax revenues, Patel stresses that “These are funds that belong to the Palestinian Authority” and calls on Israel to release the remainder of the funds. “We have made these concerns clear to our partners in Israel at the highest level and will continue to engage with them on that issue.”
The State Department spokesperson speaks out against the outpost approvals and new homes planned, saying they are “inconsistent with international law and something that only serves to weaken Israel’s security.”
“Unilateral actions like settlement expansion and legalization of outposts are detrimental to a two-state solution. We’ll continue to use the tools at our disposal to expose and promote accountability for those who threaten peace and stability in the region,” he says.
Two killed in separate shootings
A series of shootings in recent hours have left two people dead and a teen girl injured.
Police say they have opened an investigation and are searching for suspects after a man in his 40s was shot to death in the central city of Lod.
The killing is the 110th suspected murder in the Arab community since the start of the year, according to the Abraham Initiatives. The pace of killings has nearly matched last year’s record-setting tally.
In the Arab town of Jat, the Magen David Adom paramedic service says it was unable to revive a woman in her 40s who died of wounds sustained in a shooting.
The circumstances of the shooting are not immediately known.
Hours earlier, a 15-year-old girl was taken to a hospital in moderate condition after being hit by a stray bullet in Haifa.
Facebook parent company ending ban on use of ‘shaheed’
Meta Platforms says it is lifting its blanket ban on the word “shaheed,” Arabic for “martyr,” after a year-long review by its oversight board found the social media giant’s approach was “overbroad.”
The company has been criticized for years over its handling of content involving the Middle East, including in a 2021 study Meta itself commissioned that found its approach had an “adverse human rights impact” on Palestinians and other Arabic-speaking users of its services.
Those criticisms have escalated since the onset of hostilities between Israel and Hamas in October.
The oversight board, which is funded by Meta but operates independently, started its review last year because the word accounted for more content removals on the company’s platforms than any other single word or phrase.
Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
The review found in March that Meta’s rules on “shaheed” failed to account for the word’s variety of meanings and resulted in the removal of content not aimed at praising violent actions.
Meta acknowledges the findings of the review, saying its tests showed that removing content when “shaheed” was “paired with otherwise violating content captures the most potentially harmful content without disproportionally impacting the voice.”
The oversight board welcoms the change, saying Meta’s policy related to the word had led to the censoring of millions of people across its platforms.
State prosecutor seeking to probe Ben Gvir for anti-Gazan incitement, in bid to pacify Hague — report
Head of the Otzma Yehudit party and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir leads a faction meeting of the Otzma Yehudit party at the Knesset, June 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
The Kan public broadcaster reports that State Prosecutor Amit Aisman has asked Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara for permission to open a criminal investigation into National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for allegedly inciting violence against residents of Gaza.
According to the report, officials close to the State Attorney do not however believe the investigation will result in an indictment, to say nothing of a conviction, especially given Ben Gvir’s parliamentary immunity.
Rather the move is designed to show the International Court of Justice, where South Africa has alleged Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, that Israel is complying with is orders to investigate and punish anyone who violates the clause of the Genocide Convention prohibiting incitement to genocide.
Israel adopted the Genocide Convention into law in its 1950 Law for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, which includes the prohibition on incitement to genocide.
Ben Gvir has made several inflammatory comments about the Gazan population since October 7, including a remark in November that “When we say that Hamas should be destroyed, it also means those who celebrate, those who support, and those who hand out candy — they’re all terrorists, and they should also be destroyed.”
This comment, as well as remarks by Ben Gvir demanding the cessation of humanitarian aid to Gaza, was cited by South Africa in their various filings to the ICJ.
The Attorney General’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office issued a joint statement in response to the Kan report saying that a decision has yet to be made as to whether to open an investigation into Ben Gvir, but that it is examining all comments which may have violated Israeli criminal law.
Responding to the report, Ben Gvir says in a statement that the probe is a sham, part of a judicial “deep state” attempting to undermine him, and takes a fresh shot at the Shin Bet as well.
“Unbelievable! The state prosecutor is trying to make an Israeli minister stand trial for ‘incitement’ against citizens of an enemy state that danced on the blood of our soldiers on the streets of Gaza on October 7,” the statement reads. “Instead of the Shin Bet and the state prosecutor carrying out assassinations in Gaza, they are trying to assassinate an Israeli minister. It won’t succeed.”
The ICJ has issued provisional orders against Israel regarding the provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza, the issue of incitement to genocide, and even regarding Israel’s operation in Rafah, on three occasions as a result of South Africa’s suit against Israel, which referenced numerous comments by senior Israeli officials which it said were genocidal in nature.
Israel has vociferously rejected the allegation and the premise of the case.
TV report: IDF probe finds intel before October 7 should have been sufficient to prevent Hamas invasion
A handout photo released by the Shin Bet on June 14, 2024, shows agency chief Ronen Bar, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, head of the Operations Directorate Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk, head of the Intelligence Directorate Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, and IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, before the start of Operation Arnon on June 8, 2024. (Shin Bet)
An investigation by the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate into the events surrounding Hamas’s October 7 invasion and slaughter in southern Israel, presented to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi last night, has found that there were more than enough indications of the imminent Hamas attack to have set off warning lights and enabled the prevention of the catastrophe, Channel 12 reports.
The results of the probe, described in the report as the “initial findings,” were presented to Halevi at a high-level meeting in his office, at which participants were required to sign a document pledging not to leak and agreeing to undergo polygraph tests if necessary in the future.
The TV report quotes “sources familiar” with the Intelligence Directorate probe saying there were signs ahead of the attack that should have “lit up all the red lights” and that “we’ve mobilized various fronts in the past on less than this.”
People who have seen the material in the investigation have expressed “deep frustration,” the TV report says, because it should have been “possible to connect all the dots and prevent this.”
Last night’s meeting was also presented with material covering the IDF Gaza Division’s assessments from 2018 until October 7, and specific material concerning the events of October 6 and 7, the report says.
The presentation covered “what each of the [various IDF] elements knew, what information they shared with each other, and what steps were taken in light of what they understood.” The TV report says there were no arguments over the facts, but “to some extent over interpretations.”
The TV report says Halevi may now seek a fuller investigation by incoming IDF intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, because of “tensions” between the chief of staff and outgoing intel chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, who announced his resignation in April. But it quotes other sources saying the probe is “very thorough.”
Third Biden appointee resigns to protest support for Israel, after 5 months on job
A low-level Muslim-American staffer in the US Department of the Interior has become the third political appointee to resign in protest of the Biden administration’s support for Israel in the war against Hamas.
“I cannot continue working for an administration that ignores the voices of its diverse staff by continuing to fund and enable Israel’s genocide of Palestinians,” Maryam Hassanein writes in an open resignation letter.
Nearly one dozen government officials have resigned in protest of the administration’s policy, though Hassanein, 24, is the youngest. She joined the administration as special assistant to the assistant secretary for land and minerals management in February, well after others had already resigned their positions in protest of Biden’s well-known support for Israel.
The resignations have largely been of lower-level staffers with no influence on the administration’s policy toward Israel.
“I joined the Biden-Harris administration with the belief that my voice and diverse perspective would lend a hand in the pursuit of that justice,” Hassanein writes in her resignation letter. “However, over the past nine months of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, this administration has chosen to uphold the status quo instead of listening to the diverse voices of staff urgently demanding freedom and justice for Palestinians.”
Smotrich: Facing defeat and panicking, Sinwar might take the latest proposal; we need to step up IDF pressure
Minister of Finance and Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich speaks at a faction meeting in the Knesset, July 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Speaking in Sderot, Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich says Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar is facing defeat and might suddenly accept a ceasefire hostage deal “to save himself” and Hamas. This, he says, is therefore the time to increase IDF military pressure in Gaza.
“We see more and more indications that Hamas is breaking, and there are more and more elements who feel that [Hamas] is a moment away from the end,” says the finance minister.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if suddenly, after months of refusal, Sinwar decides to respond positively to the proposal he received for a deal,” says Smotrich, who last month threatened to bring down the government if it goes ahead with its latest hostage-ceasefire offer, which Hamas has not accepted.
Sinwar, he says, “is panicking, because he understands that we are close to victory, and he will want to save himself and Hamas’s rule in Gaza, so that he can return and rebuild its power, and again become part of Iran’s conventional [military] plan for the destruction [of Israel] in the next round.”
This, therefore, is “precisely not the time to stop,” says Smotrich. “This is not the time to take our foot off the gas. On the contrary. This is the moment to send in more forces [to Gaza] and turn up the military pressure.”
UN claims Khan Younis evacuation order largest since October
The United Nations says an evacuation order for parts of Khan Younis and Rafah is the largest such edict in the Gaza Strip since 1.1 million people were told to leave the north of the enclave in October.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric says Monday’s evacuation order applies to about a third of Gaza and initial estimates by the UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, show that some 250,000 people may have been currently living in that area.
#عاجل الى كل السكان والنازحين المتواجدين في مناطق القرارة واحيائها، بني سهيلا واحيائها، بما في ذلك احياء معن، قيزان النجار، القرين، جورت اللوت، المنارة والسلام، عبسان الجديدة واحيائها، عبسان الكبيرة واحيائها، بلدية الخزاعة واحيائها، بلدية الفخاري واحيائها، المناطق الاقليمية،… pic.twitter.com/fBRzjxF3Wq
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) July 1, 2024
Dujarric says “an evacuation of such a massive scale will only heighten the suffering of civilians and drive humanitarian needs even higher.”
“People are left with the impossible choice of having to relocate, some most likely for the second or third time, to areas that have barely any spaces or services, or staying in areas where they know heavy fighting will take place,” he says.
Military headstones to allow religious phrases, defense minister says
The grave of Yisrael Yudkin who was killed in battle in the Gaza Strip, pictured in Jerusalem on June 23, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)
Following an outcry, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant authorizes the addition of the phrase “God will avenge his/her death” to military headstones of fallen soldiers whose families request it.
The decision follows complaints by the relatives of Cpt. Yisrael Yudkin, a Haredi soldier who fell in Gaza on May 22, to add to his military headstone in Jerusalem the Hebrew letters Hey, Yud and Daled, which stand for Hashem Yikom Damo, a standard formulation in religious circles for people who died because they were Jewish.
Multiple lawmakers, including ones from the coalition, are on record as criticizing the Defense Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces’ initial refusal to allow the acronym to be added.
A committee set up by Gallant to address the issue recommended allowing that acronym or phrase, as well as zichrono/zichrona l’vracha, or zaiyn, lamed, meaning “of blessed memory,” a Defense Ministry spokesperson says.
For many Israelis, the initial controversy over the acronym underscores the need for the defense establishment to accommodate the needs of Haredi and other observant troops amid demands for greater participation on their part in the burden of military or national service.
First Democratic lawmaker publicly calls on Biden to quit presidential race
WASHINGTON — Lloyd Doggett becomes the first Democratic US lawmaker to publicly call on Joe Biden to withdraw from the race for the White House, following the president’s poor performance in last week’s presidential debate.
“Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so,” the Texas Congressman says in a statement.
IDF chief tallies 900 terror operatives killed in Rafah
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi meets with troops at a forward logistics base in southern Gaza's Rafah, July 2, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says troops have killed at least 900 terror operatives in southern Gaza’s Rafah amid the ongoing operation there.
“We count in [Hamas’s] Rafah Brigade, what we saw with our eyes… over 900 dead terrorists, including commanders, at least one battalion commander, many company commanders and many operatives,” Halevi says to troops during a visit to a forward logistics base in the southern Gaza Strip.
He says the military will continue to destroy Hamas’s infrastructure in Rafah, including its tunnels. “It takes time, so this campaign is long because we do not want to leave Rafah with the infrastructure,” Halevi says.
Firefighters battling blaze sparked by rockets near Kiryat Shmona
Firefighters battle a brush fire sparked by Hezbollah rockets near Kiryat Shmona on July 2, 2024. (Fire and Rescue Service)
Eight firefighting crews are battling a blaze near Kiryat Shmona sparked by a volley of rockets fired from Lebanon at the area earlier today, the fire service says.
Teams have been working for two hours to try to keep the flames from spreading to homes, but have yet to gain control over the fire, the service says.
Blinken chews over Gaza ceasefire efforts with top Emirates diplomat
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Emirati counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed discussed ongoing efforts to broker a Gaza ceasefire along with efforts to establish post-war governance, security and reconstruction in the enclave during a call earlier today, the State Department says.
Blinken “thanked the Emirates for its significant humanitarian support for Gazans. Secretary Blinken and Sheikh Abdullah also discussed shared objectives for promoting regional stability, including efforts to deescalate tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, and end the conflict in Sudan,” the US readout says.
Egypt and the United Arab Emirates are prepared to participate in a post-war Gaza security force, Blinken informed counterparts during his recent visit to the region, three officials familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel last week.
Hezbollah No. 2 says attacks could halt if Gaza war winds down without ceasefire, or not
Hezbollah deputy leader Sheik Naim Kassem, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP/Bilal Hussein)
The deputy leader of Hezbollah says the group cannot say if it would halt hostilities against Israel should the war in Gaza wind down without a formal ceasefire.
“If there is a ceasefire in Gaza, we will stop without any discussion,” Sheikh Naim Kassem tells The Associated Press at the terror group’s political HQ in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Hezbollah’s participation in the Israel-Hamas war has been as a “support front” for its ally, Hamas, Kassem says. “If the war stops, this military support will no longer exist.”
But he is less unequivocal on what happens if Israel withdraws but no ceasefire is declared, a scenario that Israeli and US officials have increasingly looked to as a possible way to bring fighting on Israel’s northern border to an end before it snowballs into all-out war.
“If what happens in Gaza is a mix between ceasefire and no ceasefire, war and no war, we can’t answer [how we would react] now, because we don’t know its shape, its results, its impacts,” Kassem says.
Kassem says he doesn’t believe that Israel has the ability or has made a decision to launch a war at present. He warns that even if Israel intends to launch a limited operation in Lebanon that stops short of a full-scale war, it should not expect the fighting to remain limited.
“Israel can decide what it wants: limited war, total war, partial war,” he says. “But it should expect that our response and our resistance will not be within a ceiling and rules of engagement set by Israel… If Israel wages the war, it means it doesn’t control its extent or who enters into it.”
Gazans flee Khan Younis hospital even as Israel says they can stay
Patients and staff have fled Gaza’s European Hospital in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered residents in nearby areas to evacuate, health officials say, despite the IDF insisting that those in the hospital do not need to leave and will not be targeted.
“The hospital staff and the patients decided to already evacuate themselves,” says World Health Official spokesperson Rik Peeperkorn, adding that just three patients remain. “We plea the European Gaza hospital will be spared, will be non-damaged.”
An Israeli defense official says that although evacuation orders had been issued for the area in which the hospital is located, staff and patients were told they could stay.
“We didn’t give them any order to evacuate. So patients and the medical teams can stay over there. It’s safe for them,” says Col. Elad Goren of COGAT, the Defense Ministry agency that coordinates with the Palestinians.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which had a medical team in the hospital, including surgeons, is moving its team and patients to a field hospital in Rafah-Mawasi, it says in a statement.
Rescued hostage Argamani eulogizes mother after being reunited ‘against all odds’
Rescued hostage Noa Argamani says she is grateful she was able to spend her mother’s last moments with her as Liora Argamani is laid to rest in Beersheba, after she died earlier in the day following a lengthy battle with brain cancer.
“I stand here and it’s still hard for me to accept. Against all odds I was privileged to be with you in your last moments, to talk to you, laugh with you and hear you,” she says in front of a packed room.
Noa Argamani was kidnapped from the Nova festival on October 7 and held hostage until June 8, when she was rescued from an apartment building in central Gaza, along with three other hostages in a nearby building, in an operation by Israeli special forces. She was swiftly reunited with her mother, who was already in a deteriorated condition, and the two spent the last weeks together.
“Thank you for being strong and holding on so I could see you one last time,” Argamani says.
Noa Argamani en el funeral de su madre: "Gracias por esperar, contra todo pronóstico tuve el privilegio de estar contigo en tus últimos momentos" pic.twitter.com/geJPUSBSKp
— 🇪🇸Spain4Israel🇮🇱#🟦 עם ישראל חי (@Spain4Israel) July 2, 2024
She thanks her mother for their 26 years together and for everything she taught her.
“You made me who I am today,” she says.
Kiryat Shmona bombarded with 15 rockets from Lebanon, IDF says
A barrage of some 15 rockets was fired from Lebanon at the Kiryat Shmona area an hour ago, the IDF says.
Ten of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses, and the other five impacts caused no injuries, according to the military.
Hezbollah claimed responsibly, saying it launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at a military base in the area.
Meanwhile, the IDF says its fighter jets struck a building in southern Lebanon’s Yarine after a Hezbollah operative was identified entering the structure.
It publishes footage of the strike.
כוחות חטיבה 228 זיהו מוקדם יותר היום מחבל נכנס למבנה צבאי של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב יארין שבדרום לבנון, זמן קצר לאחר מכן מטוסי קרב תקפו את המבנה הצבאי בו פעל המחבל>> pic.twitter.com/QVG9Oj4cmc
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 2, 2024
State Comptroller may launch probe into release of Shifa hospital chief
Shifa Hospital director Mohammed Abu Salmiya makes a statement after his release from Israeli prison alongside other detainees, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 1, 2024. (Bashar TALEB / AFP)
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman says he may open an examination into how the director of the Shifa Hospital in Gaza was released from custody by Israeli authorities earlier this week despite being suspected of collaboration with Hamas.
Englman says he will request that the prime minister provide him with any material that comes out of internal investigations into why Mohammad Abu Salmiya was set free despite his apparent connections to the terror group in order to check whether the error was reflective of deeper problems in the decision-making process for security issues.
Englman says that security officials have stated that “severe crimes were carried out” in Shifa under Abu Salmiya’s tenure and that “naturally, the director of the hospital… bears responsibility.”
He also notes that Abu Salmiya’s release led to a rancorous exchange of accusations between National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the High Court of Justice also shared partial blame.
“The dialogue between political and security officials that is taking place on the issue raises concerns that no organized work was done that examined all aspects of [Abu Salmiya’s] release,” says the state comptroller.
“After we look at the investigations we will check the need to open a review into the issue. It is essential to ensure that the process for making decisions in this matter is not symptomatic of a fundamental problem in the decision-making process for security issues,” says Englman.
IDF smart TV app will send you rocket alerts even as you binge Netflix
This image released by the IDF on July 2, 2024, shows a new Home Front Command app displaying a test alert on a smart TV screen. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF Home Front Command is deploying a new application for smart televisions to provide civilians with rocket alerts and other emergency alarms.
The app will be available on the Google Play Store for Android TV users.
Unlike alerts that are displayed on television broadcasts, the app will allow Israelis to receive rocket alerts for their specific location, and will show the alerts while they are watching any content on their TV, including via streaming services such as Netflix.
The app requires a brief setup process and several permissions to run.
The Home Front Command plans to also bring the app to Apple TV and other systems in the future. Officials say it started with Android TV since it has the largest market share in Israel.
Knesset committee discusses trio of bills targeting UNRWA shutdown
Protesters gather with flags and banners outside the West Bank field office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Jerusalem on March 20, 2024. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is considering merging three bills aimed at significantly curtailing the activities of UNRWA amid a wave of popular anger against the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in the wake of October 7.
The first bill, proposed by Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, would ban the organization from operating on Israeli territory and would effectively erase its presence in Jerusalem.
The second, promoted by Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky, would brand UNRWA a terrorist organization and require Israel to cut ties with it.
“UNRWA should not exist at all,” Malinovsky tells the committee, calling it a “branch of Hamas” and stating that it is “a terrorist organization for all intents and purposes.”
The third proposal, by Yesh Atid MK Ron Katz, would strip UNRWA personnel of the legal immunities and privileges afforded to United Nations staff in Israel, such as exemptions from property taxes.
National Security Council legal advisor Adam Wolfson says the Ministerial Committee for Legislation requested that Malinovsky and Katz’s proposals be merged with Bismuth’s.
The legislation should continue to advance with the agreement of relevant ministries so long as they do “not harm Israel’s international obligations or humanitarian aid,” he says.
A Finance Ministry representative informs the committee that any services provided by UNRWA in Jerusalem that would be halted under the bills would have to be covered by the Jerusalem municipality.
United Nations and Red Crescent workers prepare the aid for distribution to Palestinians at UNRWA warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Oct. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah)
A senior official from the Jerusalem Affairs Ministry says it has been working on mapping out all the services provided by UNRWA in Jerusalem for the last six months and knows “exactly which services are required in a situation where UNRWA leaves the region and what gaps and deficiencies exist.”
Israel has accused multiple UNRWA staffers of taking part in Hamas’s attack on October 7, and the IDF found a Hamas data center located directly beneath UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City.
The UN has suspended investigations into several of the accused, claiming that Israel had provided insufficient evidence.
“We remember the atmosphere after October 7 when several countries announced a delay in funding and we felt that there was finally a political success, but as we get further away from the event, more and more countries return to funding [UNRWA], claiming that there is no alternative,” says committee chair Yuli Edelstein.
He gives the relevant government ministries a week to submit comments on the legislation and says he will sit down with Bismuth, Malinovsky and Katz to discuss whether to merge their proposals or advance them separately.
Troops shoot four gunmen in West Bank clashes — IDF
IDF troops search the Nablus area in the northern West Bank following a shooting attack that left one Israeli wounded, July 2, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
IDF troops have shot at least four gunmen during searches in the Nablus area for a terrorist who opened fire on Israeli civilians at a West Bank outpost earlier today, the military says.
An Israeli civilian at the Mitzpe Yosef outpost near the settlement of Har Bracha was slightly wounded by gunfire that came from deep within Nablus, according to the IDF and medics.
Following the attack, the IDF says it launched a manhunt for suspects in the Nablus area, during which it exchanged fire with several gunmen. A military source says at least four armed Palestinians were shot.
The official Palestinian Wafa news outlet reports that one person was shot in the foot during IDF operations in Nablus. It says soldiers have set up checkpoints around the city.
Former US envoy Friedman: Trump doesn’t care about Netanyahu’s call to Biden anymore
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman speaks during the Kohelet Forum Conference at the Begin Heritage Center, in Jerusalem, on January 8, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman says he does not see any chance Donald Trump will withhold military aid to Israel should he win back the presidency, and that his relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely be patched up.
“I think he’ll want to understand better why Israel hasn’t won by November,” Trump’s envoy to Israel tells Channel 12 news. “His view has been to give Israel what it needs to win.”
Friedman, who bought a home in Israel after ending his posting when US President Joe Biden took office, says he thinks ties between Trump and Netanyahu will likely go back to being extremely warm should the Israeli premier still hold power if Trump returns to the White House.
Trump has angrily lashed out at Netanyahu since leaving office over the fact that the Israeli leader called Biden to congratulate him on winning the presidency. He has also repeatedly criticized Netanyahu for declining to back the US operation to assassinate Iranian general Qasem Soleimani
Friedman indicates that the famously thin-skinned Trump has bigger fish to fry than obsessing over Netanyahu’s call to Biden in 2021. “I don’t think he spends five seconds thinking about that call,” he says.
“The relationship is bigger than two people,” Friedman adds, and Trump is “committed to an unprecedented [sic] strong relationship between Israel and the United States.”
After NYT report, Netanyahu says ending the war with Hamas still in power won’t happen
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a July 2, 2024 video statement, says the war in Gaza will not end until Hamas is destroyed. (PMO screenshot)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasts “anonymous sources” in the IDF quoted telling The New York Times that Israel’s military leadership wants a ceasefire in Gaza even if it leaves Hamas in power for the time being.
“I don’t know who those unnamed parties are, but I’m here to make it unequivocally clear: It won’t happen,” says Netanyahu in a video statement. “We will end the war only after we have achieved all of its goals, including the elimination of Hamas and the release of all our hostages.”
According to the report, which quoted nine current and former military officials, army brass see a break in the fighting as the best way to free the hostages, as well as replenish depleted weapons stocks and troop strength ahead of a possible war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Netanyahu denies the army is short on anything it needs to fulfill the goals set for it by the political leadership.
“The IDF has all the means to achieve [the goals],” he says.
“We will not succumb to defeatism, neither at The New York Times nor anywhere else,” he adds. “We are filled with the spirit of victory.”
Singing songs of peace, women hold subdued Knesset protest to urge hostage deal
Women dressed all in white demonstrate for a hostage deal and an end to the Israel-Hamas war outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on July 2, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
Hundreds of women wearing all white are have gathered outside the Knesset building in Jerusalem to sing songs of peace and urge a hostage deal and end to the war.
The demonstration, which activists organized as a quiet, calm display rather than a typically boisterous Israeli protest, has drawn hostage family members along with bereaved mothers, daughters and sisters.
While singing Israeli peace ballads and Jewish prayers for peace, the demonstrators hold up a large banner toward traffic that reads, “Do a deal, stop the war now.”
Efrat Machikawa, niece of 80-year-old Hamas captive Gadi Mozes, says the demonstration is an outlet for those who wouldn’t normally attend a protest to join in the hostage families’ cause.
“We need a million or two million citizens out,” Machikawa tells The Times of Israel, so that “people can see that they can do something rather than stay at home.”
She adds that the choice of all-white clothing represents “hope and purity.”
“Our worry is pure, and our means are pure. We need to bring them [the hostages] back,” she says.
IDF’s new Mountains Brigade drills Lebanon invasion in first exercise
The 810th Mountains Regional Brigade carries out a drill in northern Israel, in a handout photo published by the military on July 2, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF’s newly formed 810th Mountains Regional Brigade, tasked with operating in the rugged Mount Hermon and Mount Dov regions in northern Israel, carried out its first exercise, simulating an offensive inside Lebanon, the military says.
The drill included “attack scenarios in Lebanon, including combat in dense vegetation [and] combat in urban areas,” the IDF says.
The Mountains Brigade, commanded by Col. Liron Appleman, was established in March, replacing the Hermon Regional Brigade. The army says the move was part of “adapting the operational response to the changing reality on the Syria-Lebanon border.”
The exercise comes amid daily attacks by the Hezbollah terror group on northern Israel amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has warned it can no longer tolerate Hezbollah’s presence along its border following the October 7 atrocities, and has warned that should a diplomatic solution not be reached, it will turn to military action to push Hezbollah northward.
Galilee tree-planting honors fallen troops from Druze community
A ceremony for fallen Druze soldiers in the Ahihud forest, July 2, 2024. (Guy Assayag/ KKL-JNF)
The spiritual leader of Israel’s Druze community says he is touched by a KKL-JNF Jewish National Fund tree-planting ceremony in northern Israel in memory of Druze IDF soldiers who were killed during the ongoing war in Gaza.
During the ceremony, bereaved Druze families plant olive trees at the Ahihud Forest in the Galilee, “where the roots of the Druze community have been planted for nearly 1,000 years,” says Sheikh Muafak Tarif.
Those present included Imad Habaka, father of the late Lt. Col. Salman Habaka, 33, commander of the 188th Armored Brigade’s 53rd Battalion, from the Druze village of Yanuh-Jat in the western Galilee, who was killed battling Hamas in Gaza in early November. Habaka was one of the first IDF soldiers to enter Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, the site of countless Hamas atrocities.
“Our sons sacrificed themselves for the security of the state,” says Imad Habaka. “For us Druze, this is our country too, and it is our duty to protect and defend it.”
He adds that through the planting, “everyone has a place to honor our sons.”
KKL-JNF has established several projects with the Druze over the years, including a Path of Sons, a 250-kilometer (155-mile) route that connects Druze villages in the Galilee and on Mount Carmel, south of Haifa.
Around 150,000 Druze live in Israel, according to Central Bureau of Statistics figures for 2022.
Theirs is a close-knit community, which frowns on intermarriage and practices a secretive religion that is closed to non-Druze.
Top adviser to Khamenei says Iran will back Hezbollah with all means if war breaks out
File: Iran's Kamal Kharrazi during a 2019 interview with Al Jazeera (Video screenshot; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
A top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader says the Islamic Republic and its proxies would support Hezbollah with “all means” if Israel launches a war in Lebanon, the Financial Times reports.
While stressing that Iran is not interested in a war, Kamal Kharrazi, Ali Khamenei’s foreign affairs adviser, warns that “there would be a chance of expansion of the war to the whole region, in which all countries including Iran would become engaged. In that situation, we would have no choice but to support Hezbollah by all means.”
He notes that such a war serves neither the interests of Iran nor of the US.
A second Iranian official tells the UK paper that Iran is unlikely to attack Israel directly, instead leaning on armed proxy groups.
On Friday, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said that if Israel embarks on a “full-scale military aggression” in Lebanon against Hezbollah, “an obliterating war will ensue.”
Health Ministry reports 104 cases of West Nile Fever, 8 deaths
The Health Ministry reports that 104 patients have been diagnosed with West Nile Fever in the recent outbreak, of whom 68 were hospitalized.
Eight people have died from the disease.
A special emergency committee was convened in the Knesset yesterday because of concern about the surge in virus cases.
Army says it shot down suspected drone over south Lebanon
A suspected drone was shot down by Israeli air defenses over southern Lebanon’s Kafr Kila earlier today, the military says.
Separately, the IDF says an Iron Dome missile was fired at another suspected drone over southern Lebanon, though it did not hit the target.
Amid the second incident, suspected drone infiltration sirens sounded in several communities in the Upper Galilee.
Both suspected drones did not enter Israeli airspace, according to the IDF.
NY Times reports IDF pushing for ceasefire even if Hamas stays in power
The Israel Defense Forces operate in Gaza, in a handout photo published June 30, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
Israel’s military leadership wants to see a ceasefire in Gaza even if it leaves Hamas ruling the Strip, The New York Times reports, citing six current and former security officials.
The generals believe that a permanent ceasefire is the best way to free the remaining hostages, and that the IDF needs to restock ahead of a potential war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to the report. An end to the fighting in the south would also open the door for Hezbollah to hold its fire.
The report does not indicate how strenuously this position has been pushed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who promises to keep fighting until “total victory.”
In response, the IDF insists that it is “determined to keep fighting until it achieves the goals of the war — the destruction of Hamas’s military and governance capabilities, the return of our hostages, and the safe return of residents in the north and south to their homes.
“The IDF will continue fighting Hamas across the Gaza Strip,” the statement continues, “alongside continuing to improve our readiness for a war in the north, and defending all of our borders.”
Former education minister Yifat Shasha-Biton announces break from politics
File: Yifat Shasha-Biton, at the Education Ministry in Jerusalem on January 1, 2023 (Olivier Fitoussil/FLASH90)
MK Yifat Shasha-Biton, the former education minister, says she is taking time off from politics.
Shasha-Biton, a member of Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party, says “the current political reality does not allow me to have a significant influence, if at all, on the direction of the country.
“The months I spent in the [wartime] cabinet sharpened my understanding of how much it was possible and necessary to run the war differently, on the front lines and on the home front,” she adds.
“With great pain, I have decided at this state to take a break from political life. Sometimes one must take a step back in order to break forward. This is my time to do so.”
Shasha-Biton served as housing minister in 2019-2020, as education minister in 2021-2022 under Naftali Bennett, and as a minister without a portfolio in the emergency cabinet formed shortly after the war began.
Israeli injured in West Bank shooting was lightly hurt
The Israeli injured in the West Bank shooting attack earlier was lightly hurt in the upper body, the Magen David Adom service says.
He was treated at the scene and taken to Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba.
Malaysian PM says willing to send peacekeeping troops to Gaza with Indonesia
Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim speaks at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on May 14, 2024. (Karim JAAFAR / AFP)
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says his country is willing to send peacekeeping troops to Gaza if they operate with Indonesia under a United Nations mandate, according to a post on X.
Ibrahim says he “welcomed the idea of cooperation in the Malaysia-Indonesia international peacekeeping mission” in a Monday call with Indonesian President-Elect and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto.
Neither country recognizes Israel.
Ibrahim has been accused of making antisemitic remarks, including alleging while opposition leader that Mossad spies were controlling the Malaysian government and that Jews controlled a public relations firm hired by then-prime minister Najib Razak. In 2012, Ibrahim told The Wall Street Journal that “I support all efforts to protect the security of the State of Israel,” comments that sparked outrage in Malaysia, which strongly identifies with the Palestinian cause.
In April, an Israeli official said that Indonesia could normalize ties with Israel as part of a deal to smooth the entry of the world’s most populous Muslim nation into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which Israel currently opposes.
Hostages’ families request establishment of rehabilitation center to support them
Representatives from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum request the establishment of a rehabilitation center to help support the families and the returning hostages at the Knesset’s Health Committee on Tuesday, according to Hebrew media.
The request comes after a new study shows that family members have prolonged traumatic stress, helplessness, and terror that causes mental psychopathology and chronic illnesses.
Despite the family members’ unique situation, their medical treatment is carried out at health fund clinics like all other patients.
Israeli said injured by gunfire at outpost near West Bank’s Nablus
An Israeli is reportedly injured by gunfire at the Mitzpe Yosef outpost near the settlement of Har Bracha and the West Bank city of Nablus.
The military says it received reports of gunfire in the area and is sending forces to the scene.
Vast majority of Gaza’s population now in Israeli-designated humanitarian zone
Palestinians walk through a street market in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
The vast majority of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip is currently residing in the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone,” according to fresh IDF assessments.
Some 1.9 million Palestinians of the 2.3 million Gazan population are currently in the humanitarian zone, located in the al-Mawasi area on the Strip’s coast, some western neighborhoods of Khan Younis, and central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.
A few hundred thousand Palestinians remain in northern Gaza, and only some 20,000 Palestinians remain in the Rafah area, according to the estimates.
Around 1.4 million Palestinians had been sheltering in Rafah, until the IDF launched its offensive there in May, ordering civilians to move to the humanitarian zone.
Security officials: Gaza electric work critical for Israeli effort against Hamas
Security officials say work that began this morning to boost electric power to a Gaza desalination plant is critical for Israel to continue its operations against Hamas in the Strip.
Officials say the desalination plant will potentially provide 20,000 cubic meters of water daily to the humanitarian zone area, where the vast majority of Gaza’s population is currently residing.
Some 1.9 million Palestinians are currently in the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone, according to Israeli estimates.
Increased drinking water is especially necessary during the summer, and the humanitarian zone also requires water for sanitation to prevent diseases from spreading. Such diseases could also harm Israeli soldiers in Gaza, as well as hostages held by Hamas.
Officials say that preventing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is key to continuing the fighting against Hamas. Otherwise, the country could potentially be forced to end the war.
The move to provide power to the desalination plant was approved by government officials, including the defense minister and energy minister.
Officials say that the plant will be immediately disconnected if the military sees Hamas siphoning off electricity.
MK alleges dramatic rise in police violence against protesters in recent months
Police clash with demonstrators protesting against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government and for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, in Jerusalem, June 29, 2024. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)
MK Gilad Kariv welcomes the announcement by the Department for Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) that the police officer who forcefully shoved him at an anti-government protest will be put on disciplinary trial.
He asserts, however, that there has been a dramatic rise in incidents of police violence against demonstrators, and lays the blame at the door of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has authority over the police, and at that of DIPI itself.
“In recent months we have seen a steep increase in the level of violence by police officers. This is a direct result of the attitude encouraged by the minister, but no less due to the lenient treatment [of police violence] by DIPI and by the disciplinary authorities of the police,” says Kariv during a hearing of the Knesset Caucus for the Fight Against Police Violence.
“It cannot be that for months citizens’ complaints are not handled properly,” adds the Labor MK.
Two soldiers killed last night in central Gaza combat, army says
Maj. (res.) Eyal Avnion (left) and Master Sgt. (res.) Nadav Elchanan Knoller, killed in the central Gaza Strip on July 1, 2024. (Courtesy)
Two Israeli soldiers were killed during fighting in the central Gaza Strip last night, the military announces.
The slain soldiers are named as:
Master Sgt. (res.) Nadav Elchanan Knoller, 30, a platoon sergeant in the 8th Reserve Armored Brigade’s 121st Battalion, from Jerusalem.
Maj. (res.) Eyal Avnion, 25, a deputy company commander in the 8th Reserve Armored Brigade’s 121st Battalion, from Hod Hasharon.
Their deaths bring Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 322.
Another reservist of the 121st Battalion was seriously wounded in the same incident.
The IDF is still investigating the circumstances.
Separately, a soldier of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion was seriously wounded by anti-tank fire in southern Gaza’s Rafah.
Smotrich attacks Israeli move to boost electricity to Gaza desalination plant
Work began today, under Israeli-Palestinian cooperation, to boost electric power to a Gaza desalination plant to allow it to produce more water.
According to Channel 12, citing a Defense Ministry document, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called the work to boost water in the Strip “a basic humanitarian need.”
Still, the fact that Israel is enabling reconstruction work in Gaza has angered some ministers in the government.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich tweets: “We’ve lost it completely. We are rebuilding Gaza ourselves, before it has been demilitarized… Mr. Prime Minister, stop this folly.”
לקראת התחלת חידוש אספקת החשמל לרצועה, חברת החשמל בעזה החלה בתיקון תשתיות שאמורות להזרים חשמל למתקן התפלה וביוב באזור דיר אל באלח ובאזור ההומניטרי בשכונת המוואסי. התוכנית אושרה על ידי הדרג המדיני >>> https://t.co/6cqjbM89JB@ItayBlumental pic.twitter.com/0JvbUEuE93
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) July 2, 2024
Police internal affairs division says cop who shoved MK at protest must be disciplined
The Department for Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) announces that it has instructed the Israel Police’s disciplinary unit to hold a disciplinary hearing for a police officer who shoved MK Gilad Kariv during an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv in February.
Video footage from the incident showed Kariv, an MK for the Labor party, engaged in an angry exchange with the police officer in question, who then shoved Kariv twice.
DIPI says the police officer had no authority to use force against the MK.
Complaints of police violence against anti-government protestors have mounted in recent months, leading the Public Defender’s Office to strongly criticize DIPI last week for failing to deal with the growing problem.
National Unity submits bill to cancel Knesset’s upcoming recess
The National Unity party submits a bill that seeks to cancel the Knesset’s upcoming recess, slated to begin at the end of the month and run until October 27.
“Going on a three-month recess at this time, while 120 hostages are still in the hands of Hamas, thousands are still displaced from their homes, and thousands of men and women of the security forces are being called to serve and are forced to leave their homes, their families and their workplaces harms government oversight during wartime as well as the public interest,” the party says in a statement.
The Knesset is currently holding “critical discussions” on issues such as ultra-Orthodox military service, the extension of conscripts’ and reservists’ service, and the rehabilitation of the battered north of the country, it notes. Just as Israeli solders “are not going on vacation,” neither should elected officials, National Unity argues.
Their announcement comes a week after Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer, making a similar argument, called on Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana to cancel the recess.
Recalling his party’s unsuccessful call to cancel the Knesset’s previous recess, which ran from April 7 to May 19, Forer said lawmakers now “have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past and do the minimum required to change the situation.”
Man given 16-year sentence for 2022 murder of pedestrian on Holon crosswalk
Yuri Volkov (Courtesy)
Adi Mizrahi was sentenced Tuesday to 16 years in prison for the murder of a man in a road rage incident in Holon in 2022.
Mizrahi stabbed Yuri Volkov to death after a brief confrontation over an illegal maneuver Mizrahi carried out with his moped, endangering pedestrians crossing the road.
Mizrahi was sentenced as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. One judge in the panel of three who issued the ruling called for a 20-year sentence for Mizrahi, believing 16 years to be too light.
Prosecutors have said they came to the plea deal due to difficulties with the evidence against Mizrahi.
Air Force struck 30 targets in Gaza over the past day, army says
Palestinians displaced by Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip walk through a street market in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi)
Israeli fighter jets, attack helicopters, and drones struck more than 30 targets in Gaza over the past day, as part of support for ground forces operating in the Strip, the military says.
The IDF says the targets included weapon depots, buildings used by Hamas, tunnel shafts, and other infrastructure.
The strikes come as troops continue to battle the terror group in southern Gaza’s Rafah, in Gaza City’s Shejaiya, and in the Netzarim Corridor in the Strip’s center.
In Rafah, the IDF says, troops of the Nahal Brigade ambushed a group of gunmen in a vehicle heading toward an area where forces were operating. The troops opened fire at the car, killing the gunmen.
In Shejaiya, troops of the 7th Armored Brigade located a large amount of weaponry and other military equipment used by terror groups, according to the military.
And in the Netzarim Corridor, the IDF says troops with the 99th Division killed several gunmen in close-quarters combat and located weapons and military equipment.
IDF confirms airstrikes in Khan Younis, targeting weapons depot, terror operatives
The IDF confirms carrying out a wave of airstrikes in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis overnight, after ordering civilians to leave the area.
According to the military, the strikes targeted sites in an area from which a barrage of 20 rockets was fired at southern Israeli towns yesterday.
The sites included a weapons depot, an apartment used by terror operatives, and other infrastructure, the IDF says.
Before the strikes, the IDF says, it allowed civilians to evacuate the area. It had called on Palestinians in eastern Khan Younis to head to the designated “humanitarian zone.”
Gantz: ‘Heart aches’ for Liora Argamani, was ‘a symbol for the fact there is no time’
War cabinet minister Benny Gantz at a Jerusalem Day ceremony in Jerusalem, on June 5, 2024. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)
National Unity party chief Benny Gantz says “the heart aches” with the news of the passing of Liora Argamani.
Gantz says Argamani was “a symbol for the fact that there is no time — for the hostages, and for those waiting for them at home.”
“After Operation Arnon [in which Noa Argamani was rescued] we were all moved, both for Noa who would be able to see her mother again, and for Liora who was able to be reunited with her daughter before leaving this world,” he says.
“We will not forget and not rest from our moral obligation to act to return all 120 hostages to their families.”
Police rule out foul play after man’s body found in bus luggage hold
Police say they have ruled out foul play after the body of a man was found in the trunk of a bus in Afula earlier this week.
The man appears to have entered the luggage hold of his own accord, for unclear reasons. The cause of death has not been given.
Israel strikes southern Gaza after ordering evacuations
Israel has carried out fresh strikes in southern Gaza, leading hundreds of Palestinians to flee after the army once again ordered the evacuation of certain densely populated areas.
Witnesses report multiple strikes in and around the city of Khan Younis, where eight people were killed and more than 30 were wounded, according to a medical source and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The bombardment came after a rare rocket barrage claimed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has fought alongside Hamas. The rockets were aimed at Israeli communities near the Gaza border.
Mother of rescued hostage Noa Argamani dies after battle with brain cancer
Liora Argamani in a recorded video message on November 29, 2023, for her daughter, Noa Argamani, who was abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023. (Courtesy Sarai Givaty and Keren Kozlova)
Liora Argamani, the mother of recently rescued hostage Noa Argamani, has died of terminal brain cancer.
The Tel Aviv hospital where Argamani was treated says she “spent her final days alongside her daughter Noa, who returned from captivity, and her close family.”
“We relay the family’s request to respect its privacy at this difficult time,” Icholov Hospital says in a statement.
Argamani had publicly appealed for her daughter’s release ahead of last month’s IDF rescue operation in which three other hostages were also freed, saying she did not have long to live and wanted to see Noa before she died.
Biden slams US Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, in first White House remarks since debate
US President Joe Biden speaks in the Cross Hall of the White House, July 1, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden criticizes the US Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity that was seen as a win for his rival, former president Donald Trump, in forceful remarks from the White House.
The US Supreme Court found that Trump cannot be prosecuted for any actions that were within his constitutional powers as president, but can be for private acts, in a landmark ruling recognizing for the first time any form of presidential immunity from prosecution.
“This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America,” Biden says, adding that no one is above the law. With the Supreme Court decision, he says, “That fundamentally changed.”
Biden is running for re-election against Trump and has been sharply critical of his rival’s actions related to the January 6, 2021, raid on the US Capitol by Trump’s supporters, who believed Trump’s false claims that he had won the 2020 election.
Biden, 81, is making his first set of remarks at the White House since his shaky debate against Trump last week led to calls for him to step aside as the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer for the election.
After he stumbled over his words on the Atlanta debate stage, his remarks and comportment will be scrutinized for signs that he is up to the job of running for re-election and of governing the country for four more years.
Lufthansa Group suspends nighttime flights to Beirut amid Israel-Hezbollah fighting
A Lufthansa Airbus A380 lands in Frankfurt, Germany, February 14, 2019. (AP/Michael Probst)
BERLIN — In response to the escalating conflict between Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Israeli military, the Lufthansa Group is temporarily suspending nighttime flights to and from Beirut, German news agency dpa reports.
The airline group, which also includes carriers Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Brussels Airlines, is suspending night flights to and from Beirut until July 31, it tells dpa. Daytime flights to and from Beirut will continue to be offered, it says.
Probe said opened against protest leader who called for ‘wiping out the memory of Netanyahu’
The State Prosecutor’s Office has given an okay to police to open an investigation against a prominent anti-government protest leader on suspicion of incitement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a Hebrew media report.
The probe against Ami Dror will reportedly focus on remarks he made several days ago, during a protest outside the premier’s residence in Caesarea.
Dror said there was a need “to wipe out the memory of Netanyahu,” a play on the Jewish command to wipe out the memory of the ancient biblical foe, Amalek.
Dror also referred to the prime minister as “Satan” in that protest.
A complaint on the matter was reportedly filed by Shai Rosengarten, deputy head of the right-wing organization Im Tirtzu.
read more: