The Times of Israel liveblogged Monday’s events as they unfolded.
A CNN reporter says his crew was attacked by settlers while they were in the West Bank on Monday to cover the death of a 20-year-old Palestinian-American who was allegedly beaten to death by Israelis near Ramallah several days ago.
“As we were covering this story, my team and I were attacked by Israeli settlers. The back window of our vehicle was smashed, but we managed to escape unharmed,” tweets CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond.
“This is just a sliver of the reality many Palestinians face in the West Bank amid rising settler violence.”
Earlier this month, two reporters from Deutsche Welle were injured in an attack by settlers in the same area.
As we were covering this story, my team & I were attacked by Israeli settlers. The back window of our vehicle was smashed, but we managed to escape unharmed.
This is just a sliver of the reality many Palestinians face in the West Bank amid rising settler violence. pic.twitter.com/RJM7nYa3P6— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) July 14, 2025
During his visit to the European Union in Brussels today, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar notes the presence of his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, who is attending the same EU gathering.
“We welcome the participation of the Syrian minister. We will be together in the same meeting. Let’s see what will happen,” Sa’ar told reporters after arriving in Brussels.
The joint attendance of the two ministers drew attention amid quiet diplomatic efforts between Israel and Syria to explore a potential security or even peace agreement. However, a spokesperson for Sa’ar tells The Times of Israel that no personal meetings between the two are planned.
In an interview with Euronews, Sa’ar says Israel has no intention of maintaining permanent control over the Gaza Strip.
“We don’t have any intention to do so,” he says. “With regard to the Gaza Strip, we have only security concerns.”
Sa’ar also reiterated that Hamas “cannot be part of the future of Gaza,” and pushes back against claims that Israel’s campaign has been disproportionate, calling them “ridiculous.”
“What would you say about the Western attack against ISIS that destroyed ISIS? Was it proportionate?” he asks rhetorically. “Israel should agree to the existence of this terrorist state, one mile from its communities… What are proportions in this case? This terror state should be eliminated as a state,” he adds.
Sa’ar is in Brussels for the EU–Southern Neighbourhood Ministerial Meeting, a forum aimed at strengthening cooperation between the EU and southern partners from the Middle East and North Africa. He is expected to return to Israel on Tuesday.
Israeli settlers torched Palestinian vehicles parked in a lot on the outskirts of the central West Bank village of Burqa earlier tonight, Palestinian media reports.
Footage from the scene shows a number of cars engulfed in flames.
A Burqa resident tells the Palestinian Authority’s official Wafa news site that Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene after the settler attack but that no arrests were made, as is almost always the case in such incidents.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
BREAKING: Israeli settlers launched a violent attack on the village of Burqa near Ramallah in the West Bank, setting multiple Palestinian vehicles ablaze and hurling Molotov cocktails at a home.
The situation is still unfolding. pic.twitter.com/DyTnwHzN8k
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) July 14, 2025
Lawmakers from the Agudat Yisrael faction of United Torah Judaism will join their Degel HaTorah counterparts and resign from the coalition and government, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush says.
In a statement published by his office, Porush says the decision to resign was made after viewing the new Haredi conscription bill this evening, which he says does not “satisfy the demands” of the faction and its spiritual leaders.
With both factions of UTJ gone, Aryeh Deri’s Shas party will be the sole ultra-Orthodox faction in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
An IDF soldier was found dead earlier today at a base in northern Israel, in an incident of suspected suicide.
The IDF says a Military Police investigation has been opened into the soldier’s death. The findings of the investigation will be sent to the Military Advocate General for review.
The soldier served with the Nahal Brigade.
Last Wednesday, another soldier who served in Gaza died by suspected suicide.
During the ongoing war, the military has seen a rise in suicides among soldiers.
The three members of a United Nations commission charged with investigating human rights abuses in Israel and the Palestinian territories have resigned, saying it is time to renew the body, a UN spokesperson says.
The three-person commission was created in 2021 and has been sharply criticized by Israel.
South Africa’s Navi Pillay, 83, who once headed the international tribunal for Rwanda, cites her age in a letter announcing her resignation.
Australia’s Chris Sidoti, 74, says in his letter it was an “appropriate time” to renew the commission, while India’s Miloon Kothari, in his late 60s, just says it had been “an honor” to serve.
Jurg Lauber, the head of the UN’s Human Rights Council, asks the council’s member states to propose new members by August 31.
The Degel HaTorah faction of the United Torah Judaism party confirms that it will resign from the coalition and government, despite last-ditch efforts to prevent it from doing so, claiming that the wording of a drafted Haredi conscription law presented to ultra-Orthodox lawmakers this evening differed from what was previously agreed upon.
In line with the instructions of faction’s spiritual leader Rabbi Dov Lando, “and after the wording of the law presented this evening to the Haredi members of Knesset deviated from what was agreed upon and what the Likud and coalition had pledged, Degel HaTorah will leave the coalition and the government,” a spokesman for the rabbi declares.
The spokesman says that Lando spoke with Degel HaTorah MKs this evening “about the great responsibility placed on their shoulders and the sanctification of God’s name brought about by their firm stand on behalf of Torah students, and ordered them to resign immediately.”
Minutes before Degel HaTorah’s announcement, Netanyahu was asked by a reporter if the coalition had been saved, and he replied in the affirmative.
Two rockets launched from the central Gaza Strip at southern Israel a short while ago were intercepted, the military says.
Sirens did not sound in any towns, but alerts were activated in open areas near the Gaza border. There are no injuries.
Responding to the failed effort to expel him from the Knesset, Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh declares that “the despicable and fascist move against me has failed.”
“We will stand firm against [fascism], and fight for democracy, for equality, and for peace,” he tweets. “From here, we must liberate both peoples from the yoke of occupation. Because we were all born free!”
Hadash-Ta’al MK Aida Touma-Sliman warns that while “the attempt to impeach (sic) Ayman Odeh has failed — but the attack on our political existence continues.”
“They wanted to silence a voice that speaks out against the war, against the occupation, and for a just peace. They tried to send a message: if you refuse to fall in line with the nationalist consensus — you will be punished. But that message didn’t pass. Not today,” she writes on X.
“We were elected to represent the people, to oppose crimes, to speak truth — and that’s exactly what we’ll keep doing. You can threaten, suspend, and incite — but you will not erase us. Our resistance will not be impeached.”
Note that Touma-Sliman’s use of the English “impeach” should oust or expel. Impeachment is not the ousting of a serving official, but the decision to send the matter to a vote in the body that may then oust the official. Ayman Odeh was impeached on June 30, and the subsequent vote to expel him from Knesset has now failed.
A motion to expel Hadash-Ta’al chair Ayman Odeh from the Knesset fails to pass, with only 73 out of the required 90 lawmakers voting in favor. 15 MKs vote against, and multiple opposition MKs boycott the vote.
The vote requires a supermajority of 90 out of 120 to pass. Last month, the Knesset House Committee approved lawmakers’ statutory 70-signature petition, which included at least 10 signatures from the opposition.
The petition was put forth in January, when Odeh said he was “happy for the release of hostages and prisoners” as part of the Gaza truce that was signed that month. The petition clinched the required number of signatures after Odeh said at an anti-war protest in Haifa in May that “Gaza has won and Gaza will win.”
Both United Torah Judaism and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White—National Unity party boycott the vote, while Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and most of his Yesh Atid party’s MKs are absent as well.
The measure is supported by the coalition and by opposition party Yisrael Beytenu. The Democrats vote against it.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken matters into his own hands and is personally making revisions to Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair Yuli Edelstein’s ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill, the Haaretz newspaper reports, citing an unnamed source from United Torah Judaism.
The report comes after UTJ’s Degel HaTorah faction announced that it would be resigning from the Knesset tonight, as Edelstein had failed to present them with a copy of the legislation.
Netanyahu has been in talks with Edelstein over the issue for the last several hours, and, according to Haaretz, told him that he must present the ultra-Orthodox parties with the watered-down version of the legislation to which he committed last month, on the eve of Israel’s war with Iran, or else he will be fired.
Three IDF troops were killed and an officer was seriously wounded during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip today, the military announces.
The slain troops are named as:
Staff Sgt. Shoham Menahem, 21, from Yardena
Sgt. Shlomo Yakir Shrem, 20, from Efrat
Sgt. Yuliy Faktor, 19, from Rishon Lezion
They all served with the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion.
According to an initial IDF probe, the soldiers were in a tank that was hit by an explosion in northern Gaza’s Jabalia at around noon today.
The IDF initially suspected the tank was hit by Hamas RPG fire. However, in the hours following the incident, the military increasingly believes the explosion may have been caused by a malfunctioning shell that detonated inside the turret.
Other causes of the explosion are being investigated, the military says.
Likud MK Nissim Vaturi and Yesh Atid MK Yaron Levi are kicked out of the Knesset plenum for interrupting a speech by Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh, ahead of a scheduled vote on his expulsion from the Knesset.
Also removed are Otzma Yehudit’s Almog Cohen and Likud MK Tally Gotliv.
Addressing lawmakers, Odeh says that those seeking his expulsion from parliament are “fascists and Kahanists,” prompting jeers and insults in return.
“Go to Gaza,” one MK screams, as Odeh continues to speak after the Vaturi and Levi are removed. “You represent Hamas,” another calls out.
US President Donald Trump says he briefly ordered the cancellation of the US strike against Iran’s nuclear sites last month, in an attempt to deceive Tehran.
Speaking at a White House luncheon for faith leaders, Trump says he had been watching CNN shortly before the strike and claims that the network aired when the American military planes were to be entering Iranian airspace.
He recalls that he then phoned the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and said, “Wouldn’t a surprise be better? Well, then let me cancel it and let’s make it at a different time.”
“Everyone knew it was being canceled. [But then] I said, let’s leave it the exact same time we were supposed to leave, the following day,” Trump says.
Trump: I watched horrible, horrible CNN. I saw that they had basically the plans of when we're going in, when we would be entering Iranian oil air space and I said, you know, that's weird.. I said, but wouldn't a surprise be better? Yeah, it would be better. I said, well, then… pic.twitter.com/2EiUcoZFla
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 14, 2025
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushes back against accusations that he and his government bear any responsibility for failures that led to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught and reaffirms his belief that the security establishment — not the political echelon — failed to prevent the attack, in a staged eight-minute English-language interview with his recently appointed international affairs adviser, Caroline Glick.
Responding to claims that domestic turmoil caused by Netanyahu — particularly over the government’s judicial overhaul agenda — created the conditions for the attack, the premier dismisses the idea as “bogus.”
“Don’t mistake our internal democratic debate,” he says. “On the day of reckoning, if we are attacked, we shall all be there, left and right — and that’s exactly what happened.”
Asked about claims by former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi and ex-Shin Bet head Ronen Bar that they warned Netanyahu of an impending attack months earlier, Netanyahu denies it. “It’s exactly the opposite,” he insists, referencing “recorded conversations with the entire cabinet.”
Netanyahu repeats previous claims that the security establishment “convinced the government not to worry about it,” and that they instead told him that “Hamas is deterred. Hamas wants workers, they want economic benefits, there’s no danger of an impending attack.”
Furthermore, he repeats that there were “a lot of intel signs” just hours before the attack, suggesting something was coming. But, he says, “they didn’t call me. They didn’t wake up the commander-in-chief. Because let me tell you, if I’d received a call, I would have acted differently — and that didn’t happen.”
The premier also points to the so-called “Jericho Wall” plan — an April 2022 Hamas blueprint for an October 7-style attack reportedly dismissed by military intelligence as unrealistic — saying he never saw it.
“No, we never saw it,” he says, arguing that the very existence of the plan contradicts those blaming the judicial overhaul for creating the conditions for the assault. “It was hatched by Hamas in 2022, when a leftist government was in power. It didn’t have anything to do with the judicial reform.”
Just the facts. Watch >> pic.twitter.com/jcxrJlgyg5
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) July 14, 2025
On the matter of hostage negotiations, Netanyahu dismisses the suggestion that he has allowed coalition politics to block progress.
“That’s ridiculous,” he says. “In fact, I made hostage deals against my political partners in the coalition. Some of them voted against it. It didn’t faze me.”
He says he only refuses when the deal on the table is bad: “A bad deal would be to leave Gaza, allow Hamas to rearm, and attack us again and again. No sane government would do it. I certainly didn’t.”
“I intend to get all of them,” Netanyahu says of the remaining 50 hostages.
Pressed on his “endgame” in Gaza, Netanyahu replies simply: “It’s called victory, victory, victory.”
He concludes by aligning himself with US President Donald Trump, saying they both abide by “a doctrine called peace through strength. First comes strength — then comes peace. That’s what’s going to happen.”
According to Hebrew media reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein are currently meeting with Haredi representatives of the Degel HaTorah faction to present them with an updated ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill — likely averting a coalition crisis that would have seen the United Torah Judaism party bolt the coalition.
This comes shortly on the heels of a spokesman for Rabbi Dov Lando, the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah, part of the larger United Torah Judaism party, announcing that the faction’s MKs would resign from the government today over the Haredi conscription issue.
Lawmakers from the Degel HaTorah faction of United Torah Judaism’s will resign from the government today over the Haredi conscription issue, a spokesman for the faction’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Dov Lando, announces.
“In accordance with [the rabbi’s] instructions, Degel Hatorah Knesset members will leave the government and coalition today,” the statement reads.
The statement is accompanied by a copy of a letter the rabbi wrote on Sunday evening calling on his faction’s MKs to quit the coalition.
Accusing the government of seeking “to increase the hardship of the lives of Torah students” and repeatedly “failing to fulfill their obligations to regulate the legal status of the dear yeshiva students,” Lando states in the letter that his view is that “participation in the government and the coalition should be immediately terminated, including immediate resignation from all positions.”
The letter is also signed by Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, the dean of Bnei Brak’s Slabodka yeshiva, another member of Degel HaTorah’s ruling Council of Torah Sages.
The party’s other faction, Agudat Yisrael, has previously said it is in concert with Degel HaTorah, but it has not yet commented on Degel HaTorah’s announcement.
UTJ as a whole has not made any formal announcement on the matter, either.
The party does not hold enough seats in the Knesset to bring down Netanyahu’s government without fellow ultra-Orthodox party Shas following its lead.
While Shas has threatened to do so, it has not yet announced any decisions on the matter.
Even if the two parties quit, they have said they are uninterested in toppling the coalition at this juncture. The upcoming three-month Knesset recess, which starts on July 27, would give Netanyahu time to try to come to an agreement with the Haredim.
Earlier, UTJ threatened to bolt the coalition if Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein failed to present the bill by the end of the day, with MK Moshe Roth of the party’s Agudat Yisrael faction saying that the Likud lawmaker had until the end of the day to comply with its demands.
Speaking with Channel 13, a party source says Netanyahu has 48 hours to deal with the issue “or it’s over.”
Footage circulated on social media today shows dozens of Palestinians lying on the ground as prolonged gunfire is heard around them.
Based on the location in the video, the incident appears to have occurred near one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution centers, specifically in the Rafah area.
The IDF stated that “the details of the video are under review. At this stage, there are no known casualties from IDF fire at the distribution center in Rafah today.”
https://twitter.com/ustafa_ad/status/1944704067114033254
Israeli women must be allowed to take the same rabbinical tests that the Chief Rabbinate of Israel administers to ordain male rabbis, the High Court of Justice rules.
The Chief Rabbinate administers tests in the major areas of Jewish law, including kashrut, family purity laws, Shabbat, mourning, and marriage laws.
While candidates who pass at least six of such tests can be appointed as local rabbis, they also receive a certificate that has significant social and economic benefits — for example, the certification is considered equivalent to an academic degree for teaching positions, and it is a prerequisite to apply for specific public jobs.
The current ruling does not state that women are entitled to be ordained as rabbis, but that they should be allowed to sit for the tests and receive the same certifications and benefits as their male counterparts.
The petition was brought before the court in 2019 by five female Torah scholars, the religious rights organization ITIM, the Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women’s Status, and the Kolech Religious Women Forum.
“This is a historic and significant moment not only for religious women, but for religious Zionism as a whole,” ITIM head Seth Farber says in a statement. “Women’s Torah study is one of the most important and impressive enterprises of recent decades, and today it is finally receiving institutional recognition of equal value.”
“The State of Israel has stated in a clear voice,” he adds. “Women study Torah out of commitment, talent, and fear of God and have a place of honor in shaping our spiritual lives.”
The Syrian foreign minister indirectly addressed the IDF fire: “No one has the authority to interfere in our affairs.”
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani tells Saudi news outlet al-Hadath that “no one has the authority” to interfere in internal Syrian affairs, in what appears to be a veiled reference to the IDF’s shelling of tanks in southern Syria earlier today.
He says as much while discussing the deadly clashes between Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters in recent days in the area where the strikes were carried out.
Al-Shibani adds that it is the responsibility of the state, and nobody else, to bear arms.
“Syria is beginning to return to its natural place in the Arab and international arenas,” he says.
Al-Shibani is currently in Brussels for meetings at the European Union. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is there as well, though his spokesperson says there are no personal meetings planned with his Syrian counterpart.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently meeting with Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) in his Knesset office, in an effort to convince him to present Haredi lawmakers with a copy of his revised ultra-Orthodox conscription bill this evening, Hebrew media reports.
According to a source with knowledge of the matter who spoke earlier with The Times of Israel, Edelstein will not present ultra-Orthodox lawmakers with a draft of legislation today, despite the United Torah Judaism party’s threat to bolt the coalition if Edelstein fails to present the bill.
According to UTJ MK Moshe Roth, the Likud lawmaker had until the end of the day to comply with his party’s demands.
Israel submitted a new series of maps to mediators in Doha earlier today that envision a further reduction in its presence inside Gaza during the 60-day truce under discussion, an Arab diplomat tells The Times of Israel.
However, the adjustments are unlikely to be significant enough to allow for a breakthrough, the Arab diplomat says, adding that Hamas is still reviewing the updated Israeli proposal and will likely need a day or two before responding.
This is the second time that Israel has revised the maps of its proposed partial withdrawal from Gaza in two weeks.
Last week, it agreed to do so under US pressure, but the proposal was rejected by Hamas as insufficient, as it still envisioned Israel maintaining control of over one-third of the Strip, including a three-kilometer buffer zone in Rafah where Israel wants to create a controversial “humanitarian city.”
There, Gaza’s entire population will be herded, vetted upon entry and prevented from leaving, as Jerusalem encourages their migration to countries outside the Strip.
Confirming reporting on the Axios news site, the Arab diplomat says the new version of the Israeli maps envision a reduction of the Rafah buffer zone from three kilometers to two.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he needs to instruct all relevant government departments to immediately lay out a plan for increasing enforcement against ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers.
She says that only 1,700 men from the Haredi community enlisted in the 2024-2025 draft year, whereas the government had committed to the High Court of Justice to draft at least 3,000.
“A situation in which the government, on the one hand, is not taking the minimal means to increase enforcement of the draft obligation, and, on the other hand, is making the burden [of military service] even heavier for those serving in regular and reserve duty, constitutes a severe blow to the right to equality, and greatly increases the inequality in military service and the harm to those who serve,” Baharav-Miara tells Netanyahu.
“Your clear instructions are therefore needed to all relevant government departments to present in the immediate term a program for increasing enforcement, including through cabinet and administrative decisions which the government can make without needing to pass legislation,” she adds.
The attorney general’s comments come as Netanyahu manages a severe coalition crisis with the ultra-Orthodox parties, which are demanding the government pass legislation reinstating blanket military service exemptions for yeshiva students.
Likud MK Tally Gotliv tries to prevent United Arab List MK Waleed Taha from speaking in Arabic during a parliamentary debate ahead of a vote to expel Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh from the Knesset.
Gotliv repeatedly interrupts Taha’s speech, screaming that he should not be speaking Arabic.
She then attempts to silence Hadash-Ta’al MK Samir Abu Said, when he speaks in Arabic as well, entering an extended shouting match with Arab MKs.
Abu Said yells back at Gotliv, sparking a verbal confrontation with Deputy Knesset Speaker Erez Mallul (Shas), and is physically removed from the Knesset rostrum.
Despite her repeated interruptions, Gotliv, who makes a crying motion at Abu Said as he tries to continue speaking, is not removed from the chamber.
Debates in the Knesset plenum are conducted in Hebrew, but members may speak Arabic, as both Hebrew and Arabic are official languages of the state. Simultaneous translation is available.
Gotliv and other coalition lawmakers also yelled at Odeh last month when he attempted to speak Arabic during a hearing discussing his potential impeachment.
“Don’t speak Arabic,” Gotliv yelled at the time. “Terrorist,” shouted far-right Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech.
In response, Odeh railed against the “fascist right,” which he said is curtailing freedom of speech in Israel.
Defense Minister Israel Katz says the IDF strike against tanks in Syria earlier today was “a message and a clear warning to the Syrian regime. We will not allow harm to the Druze in Syria.”
“Israel will not stand idly by,” he adds.
IDF troops killed a Palestinian gunman who was spotted near the West Bank settlement of Maoz Tzvi a short while ago, the military says.
The IDF says the troops identified the armed Palestinian, opened fire, and killed him.
No other injuries were caused, it adds.
Hamas accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not wanting to reach a deal to end the war in Gaza as negotiations in Qatar for a hostage release and ceasefire deal enter their second week.
“Netanyahu is skilled at thwarting one round of negotiations after another, and is unwilling to reach any agreement,” the Palestinian terror group says in a statement on its Telegram channel.
Netanyahu has accused Hamas of refusing to move forward with a US-backed proposal for a deal, and yesterday accused Hebrew media outlets of “echoing Hamas propaganda” in response to reports claiming that he and his government have been obstructing the deal.
US President Donald Trump says “we’re doing pretty well on Gaza” and that “we could have something fairly soon to talk about.”
On June 27, Trump predicted that a ceasefire would take effect “within the next week.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump appears to call Israel’s unilateral 2005 withdrawal from Gaza “one of the worst real estate deals ever made.”
“They gave up the oceanfront property… [and] it was supposed to bring peace… [but] it brought the opposite,” Trump says.
Despite Haredi threats to bolt the coalition, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein will not present ultra-Orthodox lawmakers with a draft of his Haredi military draft exemption legislation today, a source familiar with the matter tells The Times of Israel.
According to the source, Edelstein intends to “keep his word and present it to the members of [his] committee before presenting it to the Haredim.”
The United Torah Judaism party has threatened to bolt the coalition if Edelstein fails to present the bill, with party MK Moshe Roth stating this afternoon that the Likud lawmaker had until the end of the day to comply with its demands.
A spokesman for Edelstein does not respond when asked if he intends to present the legislation today.
Returning MKs Yael Ron Ben-Moshe and Akram Hasson are sworn in as lawmakers in the Knesset plenum.
Ben-Moshe replaces Blue and White-National Unity MK Matan Kahana, who submitted his letter of resignation to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana last week. She was previously an MK for Blue and White between 2020 and 2022 and served as the chairwoman of the Knesset Special Committee for Public Inquiries.
Druze politician Akram Hasson replaces New Hope party chairman Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who also resigned from the Knesset last week, opening up his seat under the so-called Norwegian Law.
The Norwegian Law allows ministers and deputy ministers from large factions to resign from the Knesset, with their seats then filled by other members of their parties.
Hassan served as mayor of Carmel City, an amalgamation of Daliyat el-Carmel and neighboring Isfiya that lasted from 2005 to 2008. He became a lawmaker for the now-defunct Kadima party in 2012 and, in 2015, became its final leader before joining the also-now-defunct Kulanu. He later ran unsuccessfully on Benny Gantz’s National Unity list.
A large contingent from Israel’s Druze community watches his inauguration from the Knesset visitors’ gallery.
The IDF releases footage showing its airstrike on Syrian tanks in the Sweida area of southern Syria earlier today.
The military says the tanks were struck near the village of Sami’, after they were spotted heading toward Sweida.
“The IDF struck the tanks to prevent their arrival to the area,” the military says in a statement.
מוקדם יותר היום (ב'), זוהו מספר טנקים במרחב בין א-סיג'ין לסמיע שנעו לכיוון א-סווידא שבדרום סוריה. צה"ל תקף את הטנקים על מנת לשבש את הגעתם למרחב.
הימצאות אמצעים אלו בדרום סוריה עשויה להוות איום על מדינת ישראל. צה״ל לא יאפשר קיום של איום צבאי בדרום סוריה ויפעל נגדו.
צה״ל ממשיך… pic.twitter.com/Unf1rMKjpx
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 14, 2025
“The presence of these assets in southern Syria may pose a threat to the State of Israel. The IDF will not allow the establishment of a military threat in southern Syria and will operate against it,” the statement says, adding that “the IDF continues to monitor the developments in the area.”
In the same area, there have been deadly clashes between Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters in recent days. Israel has previously vowed to protect members of Syria’s Druze community.
Israeli officials have said that they seek to completely demilitarize the southern Syria area, and not allow any armed groups to enter it and gain a foothold, including those of the new Syrian government.
Actor Mandy Patinkin appears to liken Israel’s “unconscionable” actions in Gaza to those perpetrated against Jews in previous generations.
In an interview with The New York Times alongside his wife and son, the Jewish-American “Homeland” star answers a question about his public calls for a Gaza ceasefire by highlighting a line from a character he played in “The Princess Bride.”
“‘I have been in the revenge business so long. Now that it’s over, I do not know what to do with the rest of my life,” Patinkin says, using the accent of Inigo Montoya from the hit 1987 film.
— Amos Biderman (@Amos123Biderman) July 14, 2025
“I ask Jews to consider what this man [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government is doing to the Jewish people all over the world,” he says. “They are endangering not only the State of Israel, which I care deeply about and want to exist, but endangering the Jewish population all over the world.”
“For the Jewish people to allow this to happen to children and civilians of all ages in Gaza, for whatever reason, is unconscionable and unthinkable,” Patinkin continues. “And I ask you Jews, everywhere, all over the world, to spend some time alone and think, Is this acceptable and sustainable?”
“How could it be done to you and your ancestors and you turn around and you do it to someone else?” he asks angrily.
Hannah Cohen, aunt of slain hostage Inbar Haiman — the last remaining female hostage in Gaza — delivers an emotional plea before the Knesset Finance Committee, demanding that the government retrieve her niece’s body and allow the family to lay her to rest.
“Inbar is the only woman in Gaza,” Cohen says. “All the other young women were released in the last humanitarian deal, but it was decided that she would not be because she is considered dead.”
The remaining female hostages in Gaza were returned to Israel during a ceasefire between January and March, including the bodies of slain captives, except for Haiman.
Cohen accuses the government of abandoning her niece twice: once when she was kidnapped on October 7, and again when she was excluded from previous hostage deals.
“[Inbar] has been abandoned for two years. If she were the daughter of an MK or minister, you wouldn’t have left her there,” she says. “But she’s our daughter, so she’s not worth much. She’s a tool in a game between Hamas and the Israeli government.”
Haiman was attending the Nova festival when Hamas launched its assault on October 7, 2023, and she was kidnapped after evading Hamas gunmen for several hours. The army informed the family in December 2023 that she had been murdered on October 7. Her body remains held captive by Hamas in Gaza.
“I’ve cried, I’ve screamed, and nothing has helped,” says Cohen, who has appeared regularly before various Knesset committees on behalf of the Haiman family. “My cat was buried with more feeling than my niece.”
Cohen chastises lawmakers for their inaction and indifference, pointing to MKs on their phones during her testimony. “I’m sorry if my story isn’t so interesting to you. I don’t want to bother you.”
“Does anyone have a recommendation for what I should do? What would you do if you were me?” she says, appealing directly to both coalition and opposition lawmakers.
Three Democratic senators in the US blast the effort to oust Hadash-Ta’al chair Ayman Odeh from the Knesset in a relatively rare statement weighing in on an internal Israeli affair.
“All over the world, democracy is under assault. If Israel is going to call itself a democracy, it must tolerate peaceful dissent,” says a joint statement issued by Sens. Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch and Chris Van Hollen ahead of today’s vote to remove Odeh from the Knesset.
Right-wing and centrist MKs have gotten behind an effort to kick out Odeh for a social media post he published earlier this year in which he hailed the release of “hostages and prisoners” freed in the previous Gaza ceasefire deal. Most of the Palestinian prisoners released were held on administrative detention and hadn’t been charged but critics said the comment amounted to support for terrorism.
While the Israel Prison Service did not provide a breakdown of the demographics of the released prisoners, contradictory media reports said Israel had released between 62 and 69 women — including one minor — and between 13 and 28 men, and eight teenagers.
While none of those released were charged with murder, several were behind non-deadly terror attacks, including 15-year-old Mahmoud Aliowat, who was the youngest prisoner freed Monday. Aliowat was convicted of carrying out a shooting in the City of David area of Jerusalem, wounding two people, when he was 13.
The list also included 62-year-old Khalida Jarrar, a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group, which has been carrying out attacks on Israel for decades, including past plane hijackings.
While some opposition lawmakers have backed the coalition-led effort to oust Odeh, it appears to be losing steam, and it is not clear that there are the 90 votes needed, in the 120-member Knesset, to remove the head of the majority-Arab party.
“For over a decade, MK Odeh has been a leading advocate for peace, justice, and Jewish-Arab partnership. The current expulsion effort is a direct response to MK Odeh’s outspoken and brave calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, an end to the occupation, and a political solution between Israelis and Palestinians,” Sanders, Welch and Van Hollen say in their joint statement.
“This expulsion effort sends a chilling message to millions of Palestinian citizens of Israel: that their representation is conditional and their rights revocable. Such a message has no place in any democratic society,” they adds.
Sharp-eyed customs inspectors nab a traveler from Thailand entering Israel at Ben Gurion Airport with 17 live ornamental fish, including seven alligator gars, one of the biggest freshwater species in North America.
The fish are hidden in a plastic bag inside a hard suitcase.
The gars, with long, thin bodies and alligator-like snouts, can reach over 2.4 meters (eight feet) in length and weigh over 135 kilograms (300 pounds).
An Agriculture Ministry statement says the species is considered dangerous and aggressive toward humans and local fish species. In their natural habitat, they are top predators and voracious eaters.
Also found are 10 freshwater Potamotrygon stingrays, an endangered species according to the CITES Convention for the Protection of Endangered Species.
The fish have venomous glands at the tips of their tails, which cause severe pain to humans if stung, and, in rare cases, even death.
The smuggling suspect, in his 30s, will be summoned for questioning.
Invasive species — species that come from elsewhere in the world, are able to survive local conditions and even compete and replace local flora and fauna, seriously undermining biodiversity.
In Israel, the possession of crocodile and Potamotrygon fish is a criminal offense.
Shadi Khalil, an inspector in the Agriculture Ministry’s Fisheries Division, says, “There is a concern that ornamental fish enthusiasts, out of naivete, will buy the fish when they are small and add them to their home aquarium.”
“After they grow to a length of over a meter and are not suitable for life in an aquarium, the breeders may release them in good faith into water sources in the country, causing ecological damage and harming the local fish population,” he says.
Hagai Neuberger, head of supervision and enforcement in the same division, adds, “Attempts to smuggle rare and protected fish species are not only a violation of the law, but may also constitute harm to public health and the environment. The Agriculture Ministry is working determinedly to prevent the entry of invasive or dangerous species into Israel and continues with coordinated enforcement with all relevant bodies.”
Neuberger calls on members of the public to contact the ministry hotline at *6016 if they suspect fish are being illegally kept in private homes and businesses. He adds, “I once again remind the public that importing animals, especially protected or dangerous species, requires obtaining prior approval, meeting veterinary requirements, and coordinating with enforcement and regulatory agencies.”
The entire ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party stands behind the Degel Hatorah faction’s threat to exit the if Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein fails to present a draft of his Haredi military draft exemption legislation today.
Speaking with The Times of Israel during and after its weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, party insiders and MKs confirm that both Degel Hatorah and the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction are working in concert, with a spokesman for party chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf stating that “the factions are working together.”
Confirming Hebrew media reports that Degel Hatorah had given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Edelstein 24 hours to present the draft bill, Agudat Yisrael MK Moshe Roth states after the meeting that they had until “until the end of the day” to comply. He put the odds of them doing so at 50-50.
In the meantime, Roth states that UTJ has decided to intensify legislative measures aimed at pressuring Edelstein into presenting the bill, which until now have consisted of boycotting coalition bills in the Knesset plenum.
“As of the moment, we are voting against the coalition,” he says. “Not only not with the coalition, not refraining, but against.”
“If he’s successful in bringing something that we could work with, then we won’t vote against the coalition, but if not, then we’ll also leave the government,” Roth states.
Netanyahu is expected to meet with Edelstein this afternoon in an effort to pressure him into presenting his draft enlistment bill. Should he present it today, it could push off UTJ’s exit by up to a week as the party debates how to respond, one insider states.
Democrats chair Yair Golan urges opposition lawmakers to vote against a motion to expel Hadash-Ta’al chair Ayman Odeh from the Knesset this afternoon, urging them to present a “united and strong front.”
“The vote to oust Odeh is not merely a technical vote,” Golan says in remarks to the press. “This is a dangerous and essential move in a coup d’état.”
He calls on his “friends in the entire democratic camp” and Yesh Atid in particular, whose lawmakers have been given free rein to vote as they please, to oppose the motion rather than vote with “the government of destruction and hatred.”
“Stand with us in the struggle for the fate of the country, not with Netanyahu and Yariv Levin, and certainly not Ben Gvir and Smotrich. Do not vote with these people who want to destroy our home, which I know is dear to you as well,” he adds.
He also criticizes the High Court of Justice for its decision yesterday to allow for today’s hearing to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
“This government is rushing toward a full-scale coup d’état,” he says, adding that he was mystified by the court’s decision to approve the government’s request, “as if it isn’t a violent and dangerous government for democratic Israel.”
He says that the High Court must stand as “an essential gatekeeper of Israeli democracy.”
“We are one step away from declaring that ‘the fortress has fallen.’ Wake up.”
At a faction meeting in the Knesset, leaders of the majority Arab Hadash-Ta’al party sharply criticize the push to oust party chair Ayman Odeh from the Knesset, calling the effort racist and anti-democratic, and framing it as part of a broader battle over the future of Israeli democracy.
Odeh, who is facing a vote on his dismissal in the Knesset later today, compares the struggle to the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution, whose anniversary is marked today.
“Just as the French won at the Bastille, we will win our Bastille,” he declares, appealing for the other opposition parties to vote against his ouster.
“There is a real opportunity here to build a wide Arab-Jewish coalition against fascism and occupation,” he says. “Will fascism succeed in conquering the center, or will we succeed in recruiting it to stand with us?”
“This is a fight between democracy and fascism, equality and oppression, between those who think only one people can live between the river and the sea instead of two,” Odeh says, urging allies to “strengthen, widen and deepen our coalition on the basis of equality and shared values.”
MK Ahmad Tibi, who heads the Ta’al faction of the party, calls the impeachment effort “a racist and anti-democratic process,” and slams the expected attempt from the government to push the vote through, despite the Haredi United Torah Judaism party saying it will not vote on the matter.
“The Haredi parties won’t vote in favor,” Tibi says. “If the Haredim aren’t going to vote, why should even one Yesh Atid or National Unity MK vote for this racist process?”
Shas, unlike UTJ, announced earlier today that it will vote in favor of expelling Odeh from the Knesset.
Tibi slams the push to oust Odeh as deeply hypocritical, pointing out that some of the very ministers condemning him, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have themselves called to “flatten” Gaza and worse.
“Those who have condemned [Odeh] have also called for the murder of children, to destroy Gaza, etc.,” he says, arguing that the effort to oust the Hadash-Ta’al leader is rooted in racism.
The United Torah Judaism party will not vote to expel Hadash-Ta’al chair Ayman Odeh from the Knesset, likely dooming the coalition effort to oust him, two party lawmakers tell The Times of Israel.
While MK Yitzhak Pindrus of the party’s Degel Hatorah faction expresses negative feelings toward Odeh, he says that the High Court of Justice would overturn the decision, making the point moot.
MK Moshe Roth, of UTJ’s Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction, confirms that the party will not participate in today’s expulsion vote as it is currently voting against the coalition as a way of exerting political pressure in an unrelated matter regarding military conscription.
The Knesset is scheduled to vote this afternoon on whether to eject Odeh. The vote requires a supermajority of 90 out of 120 to pass. Last month the Knesset House Committee approved lawmakers’ statutory 70-signature petition, which included at least 10 signatures from the opposition.
The petition was put forth in January, when Odeh said he was “happy for the release of hostages and prisoners” as part of the Gaza truce that was signed that month. The petition clinched the required number of signatures after Odeh said at an anti-war protest in Haifa in May that “Gaza has won and Gaza will win.”
In order for the motion to pass, all of the coalition lawmakers and 22 opposition MKs would need to vote in favor.
UTJ’s decision not to vote in favor of the measure likely means its defeat.
Fellow ultra-Orthodox party Shas has indicated that it will vote in favor, while Opposition Leader Yair Lapid has said he will allow his MKs to vote according to their consciences.
However, addressing his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting this afternoon, Lapid stated that “if the coalition doesn’t bring its members [the Haredim], I won’t show up.”
The ministerial committee tasked with giving the government its recommendation on whether or not to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara decides at the end of today’s hearing that it will hold a second session this Thursday.
Baharav-Miara refused to attend today’s meeting, describing it as a “sham hearing” with a predetermined outcome, and warning it would deal a severe blow to the rule of law and to democracy.
The process has also been heavily criticized by opposition lawmakers, many of whom use today’s Knesset faction meetings as an opportunity to speak out against it.
The Democrats chair Yair Golan declares that the government is “rushing toward a full-scale coup d’état,” while Yesh Atid MK Naor Shiri warns that Israel is “in a destructive process of dismantling democracy.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives testimony at the Tel Aviv District Court on the fifth day of cross examination in his criminal trial, and once again insists that his relationship with Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan was based on true friendship and not, as the prosecution argues, one in which Milchan sought Netanyahu’s favor by showering him with luxury gifts.
“When Arnon celebrated his birthday, he didn’t invite all these people,” Netanyahu says, referring to several prominent politicians at the time who, unlike him, were not in attendance.
“If you would question him, you would need to ask him if he had such a connection, of such depth, with all these people – I tell you unequivocally no. The connection between us was unique, deep and very, very friendly,” Netanyahu tells prosecutor Yonatan Tadmor.
In Case 1000, Netanyahu is charged with the crime of fraud and breach of trust over allegations that he used his influence to try and benefit Milchan on several issues, while at the same time receiving cigars, champagne and jewelry worth hundreds of thousands of shekels from the billionaire.
Speaking with The Times of Israel ahead of United Torah Judaism’s weekly faction meeting, Motti Babchik, a senior adviser to chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf, says that the ultra-Orthodox party is headed toward an exit from the coalition.
“We’re dragging everybody out,” he says.
Babchick and Goldknopf represent the party’s Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction.
Degel Hatorah MK Yitzhak Pindrus also confirms reports that his faction will withdraw from the coalition unless presented with an updated enlistment bill within the day.
“It looks like we will leave,” the Haredi lawmaker confirms.
According to the Haredi media reports, two of Degel Hatorah’s senior rabbinical leaders sent a letter to party MKs instructing them that “in the absence of a law by this evening, Degel Hatorah will immediately withdraw from the government.”
The letter called on Degel Hatorah politicians to leave their positions, including Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev and Knesset Finance Committee chairman Moshe Gafni, the ultra-Orthodox Behadrei Haredim news site reports.
Speaking at the opening of the weekly Yesh Atid faction meeting, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid criticizes plans to establish a so-called “humanitarian city” in the Gaza Strip, pointing out the many flaws he sees in the government’s vision.
“Will its residents be allowed to leave? If not, how will they be prevented from leaving? Will there be a fence? A regular fence? An electric fence? How many soldiers will guard it?” Lapid queries. “What will the soldiers do if children want to leave the city? Who will feed them? Who will be responsible for water and electricity? What will happen if there are epidemics and diseases? Who will treat them?”
“Most relevant for Israeli citizens: How much will this cost us?” asks the Yesh Atid leader.
He says that the most conservative estimated cost for the project is about NIS 15 billion (around $4.5 billion), while other estimates, including from the IDF, suggest it could cost upward of NIS 20 billion.
“It’s a crazy idea — even by this government’s standards. But we know how they operate: before they admit failure, they’ll spend billions,” he adds.
Turning to more immediate issues, Lapid addresses an upcoming vote to oust Hadash-Ta’al chair Ayman Odeh, over a remark in which he welcomed both the release of the Gaza hostages and of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
“I would have voted in favor of ousting Ayman Odeh, but if the coalition doesn’t bring its members [the Haredim], I won’t show up,” says Lapid.
Shas has said it will vote in favor of his ouster, while United Torah Judaism hasn’t confirmed either way.
If Lapid, and by extension Yesh Atid, is absent from the plenum, the move will likely be rejected by a large margin. Yesh Atid has given its lawmakers free rein to vote as they wish.
For the motion to pass, all of the coalition lawmakers and 22 opposition MKs will need to vote in favor.
A Hamas terrorist who infiltrated Israel during the October 7 onslaught and held Emily Damari hostage in his home was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month, the IDF announces.
Nasr Ali Quneita was targeted in Gaza City on June 19, according to the IDF.
The military says Quneita was a member of Hamas’s military intelligence unit in the Sheikh Radwan Battalion, known in the IDF as the al-Furqan Battalion, and had invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, and held Damari hostage in his home at the start of the war.
The IDF releases footage of the strike.
Damari was freed in a hostage release-ceasefire deal in January this year.
A Hamas terrorist who infiltrated Israel during the October 7 onslaught and held hostage Emily Damari in his home was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month, the IDF announces.
Nasr Ali Quneita was targeted in Gaza City on June 19, according to the IDF.
The military says… pic.twitter.com/fbZQTAon9d
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) July 14, 2025
Avigdor Liberman’s hawkish Yisrael Beytenu party calls on “all Zionist factions from the coalition and the opposition” to vote in favor of the expulsion of Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh in the Knesset today.
“Do not repeat the mistake you made in voting to dismiss [complaints against] Ofer Cassif. There is no reason for Israeli citizens to continue to fund salaries of terror supporters,” the party states, referring to a failed 2024 effort to expel a Hadash-Ta’al lawmaker who expressed public support for South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
“Yisrael Beytenu will vote in favor of his dismissal and expects all Zionist parties to do the same.”
The Knesset is scheduled to vote this afternoon on whether to eject Odeh. The vote requires a supermajority of 90 out of 120 to pass. Last month the Knesset House Committee approved lawmakers’ statutory 70-signature petition, which included at least 10 signatures from the opposition.
The petition was put forth in January, when Odeh said he was “happy for the release of hostages and prisoners” as part of the Gaza truce that was signed that month. The petition clinched the required number of signatures after Odeh said at an anti-war protest in Haifa in May that “Gaza has won and Gaza will win.”
In order for the motion to pass, all of the coalition lawmakers and 22 opposition MKs would need to vote in favor.
Shas has indicated that it will vote in favor while Opposition Leader Yair Lapid has said he will allow his MKs to vote their consciences. Addressing his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting, Lapid on Monday stated that “if the coalition doesn’t bring its members [the Haredim], I won’t show up.”
United Torah Judaism has not yet said how it will vote on the issue.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will go straight from his criminal trial to the Knesset to pressure Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein to present a draft of his Haredi military draft exemption legislation today.
According to Channel 12, Edelstein has said he will present the bill but it is expected to contain changes that the ultra-Orthodox parties will object to.
The United Torah Judaism party’s Degel Hatorah faction is threatening to withdraw from Netanyahu’s ruling coalition within the day unless it is presented with a draft of a bill exempting yeshiva students from military service.
Hebrew media reports that Shas is also threatening to bolt the coalition unless presented with the long-delayed compromise bill.
“This is a cowardly government that is unworthy of our fighters,” says National Unity leader Benny Gantz before a faction meeting with the press, regarding the government’s ongoing attempts to pass a Haredi draft exemption bill. “The government is destroying us from the inside.
“Netanyahu can – and will, I hope – achieve normalization with countries in the region, but he cannot achieve the most important normalization, that within [Israeli society,” he adds.
On Attorney General Galia Baharav-Miara’s refusal to attend the controversial hearing today regarding her potential dismissal, Gantz says, “I am confident that what she’s doing is lawful.”
King Abdullah II of Jordan labels Israel’s actions in Gaza “genocide,” in a written statement in which he also condemns extremist settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.
The king condemns in particular what he says are “brutal attacks recently carried out by extremist settlers” at the Church of St. George in the Christian West Bank town of Taybeh, in reference to an arson attack at the site last week.
Abdullah’s written statement was delivered by Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem during a press conference in Taybeh held by senior church leaders to draw attention to extremist settler attacks in the twon and the surrounding area.
“His Majesty denounces the settlers’ act of setting fire to trees within the cemetery [of the Church of St. George], in a blatant violation of the sanctity of the dead, Christian holy sites, and [the] Christian presence in the Holy Land,” reads the statement.
The Jordanian king says that the “severity of the settlers’ assaults, their daily terrorization of Palestinians, and their systematic aggression against dozens of villages, towns, and camps in the occupied Palestinian territories demand an immediate firm international position to halt these attacks — especially the ongoing genocide of killing and starving children, women, the elderly, and civilians in the Gaza Strip.”
Last week, Taybeh residents said they witnessed extremist settlers starting a fire next to the ruins of the Church of St. George in the town which damaged a Christian cemetery next to the site.
Residents of the town have also complained of severe, ongoing harassment by such settler activists in recent weeks, and of harming agricultural activity and damaging olive groves on Taybeh land.
There are scuffles outside the Justice Ministry as dozens gather in protest of the hearing on the potential dismissal of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, with demonstrators decrying the coalition’s efforts to sack the top legal official.
Some demonstrators try to block the ministry’s exits and entrances after others were forcibly removed by Border Police from inside the building following an attempt to barricade themselves inside.
One protester has been detained so far, according to a group of lawyers that represents detained anti-government demonstrators.
Some of the protesters wear masks in the likenesses of far-right government ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom sit on the five-member ministerial committee tasked with recommending to the government whether or not to fire Baharav-Miara.
The committee is currently holding a hearing on Baharav-Miara’s dismissal, which the attorney general herself declined to attend.
Earlier today, Baharav-Miara issued a statement describing the procedure as a “sham hearing” and warned it would deal a severe blow to the rule of law and to Israeli democracy.
“Israel can end the war on three conditions,” says Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman ahead of a faction meeting. “The release of all 50 hostages, keeping a kilometer perimeter [buffer zone around the Strip], and retaining freedom of military movement to prevent Hamas from regrouping.”
“We have to end the war,” he emphasizes.
Regarding the government’s proposed Haredi draft exemption bill, which Leberman fiercely opposes, the party chair says he doesn’t know if it will pass but says that the government doesn’t understand the widespread outrage that its passing would elicit across Israeli society.
“It’s a betrayal of soldiers – there’s no other way to describe it,” he says. “All decisions made by this government are political.”
Asked about the decision of Attorney General Galia Baharav-Miara not to attend the controversial hearing today regarding her dismissal, he says that it is not a real committee. “She’s absolutely right – what should she go for? Everyone on that committee has already made their decision.”
The IDF says it carried out a strike a short while ago against several tanks near the Syrian village of Sami’, in the Sweida area of southern Syria.
It says further details will be provided soon.
In the same area, there have been deadly clashes between Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters in recent days. Israel has previously vowed to protect members of Syria’s Druze community.
The strike marks an apparent rare occurrence of Israel striking military forces of Syria’s new government.
Israeli officials have said that they seek to completely demilitarize the southern Syria area, and not allow any armed groups to enter it and gain a foothold, including those of the new Syrian government.
A hearing on the potential dismissal of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara begins.
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli presents an 84-point document to the controversial panel, summarizing what he describes as hundreds of pages of allegations against the attorney-general prepared by Justice Minister Yariv Levin.
Ahead of the meeting, Baharav-Miara said she would not attend, issuing a stark warning that the proceedings pave the way for the government to remove her, or any future attorney general, on the basis of “unrelated and corrupt considerations.”
The BBC says its documentary “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone” breached an editorial guideline by not disclosing that the child narrator was the son of a major Hamas governmental figure.
The British public broadcaster says its internal review, carried out independently of the news department, finds no other breaches of editorial guidelines and no evidence that outside interests “inappropriately impacted on the programme.”
“Careful consideration of the requirements of due impartiality was undertaken in this project given the highly contested nature of the subject matter,” the review finds.
However, the review says the role of the narrator’s father was “critical information,” which was not shared with the BBC ahead of the broadcast.
“Regardless of how the significance or otherwise of the narrator’s father’s position was judged, the audience should have been informed about this,” the report says.
The report concludes that the independent production company HOYO Films did not deliberately mislead the BBC, but bears the most responsibility in the matter. However, the review says that the public broadcaster does bear some responsibility.
The review says, among a number of recommendations, that the BBC will issue new editorial guidance on the translation of the word “Yahud/ Yahudi” into English and that staff should now default to using the literal translation of those terms as “Jews/ Jewish.”
All mentions of the word had been translated to “Israelis” or “Israeli forces” in the documentary.
“Given the serious editorial breach identified in the production of Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, we do not think it is appropriate to reinstate the programme in its current form to iPlayer,” the broadcaster says, referring to its online streaming tool.
“However, as we said at the time, it is important to tell the story of what is happening in Gaza, despite BBC News being prevented from reporting independently on the ground,” the report says.
Iran will react to any reimposition of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear program, the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson says, without elaborating on what actions Tehran might take.
A French diplomatic source told Reuters last week that European powers would have to restore UN sanctions on Iran under the so-called “snapback mechanism” if there were no nuclear deal that guaranteed European security interests.
The “snapback mechanism” is a process that would reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran under a 2015 nuclear deal that lifted the measures in return for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program.
“The threat to use the snapback mechanism lacks legal and political basis and will be met with an appropriate and proportionate response from the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei tells a press conference, without giving further details.
The 2015 deal with Britain, Germany, France, the US, Russia and China – known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – states that if the parties cannot resolve accusations of “significant non-performance” by Iran, the “snapback mechanism” process can be triggered by the 15-member UN Security Council.
“The European parties, who are constantly trying to use this possibility as a tool, have themselves committed gross and fundamental violations of their obligations under the JCPOA,” Baghaei says.
“They have failed to fulfill the duties they had undertaken under the JCPOA, so they have no legal or moral standing to resort to this mechanism.”
Western countries accuse Iran of plotting to build a nuclear weapon, which Tehran denies.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar took off for Brussels this morning to attend meetings at the European Union, at the invitation of EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica, his office says.
During the visit, Sa’ar will take part in a ministerial meeting between the EU and its southern neighbors from the Middle East and North Africa, and will also hold separate talks with Kallas, Šuica, and other foreign ministers on the sidelines, according to Sa’ar’s office.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani is also expected to attend the ministerial gathering this evening, drawing attention amid quiet efforts between Israel and Syria to explore a potential security or even peace agreement, though a spokesperson for Sa’ar tells The Times of Israel that no personal meetings are planned between the two.
Kallas announced last Thursday that Israel and the EU agreed on increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, amid growing tensions between Jerusalem and Brussels over Israel’s military conduct during its war against Hamas. Also on Thursday, the EU’s External Action Service presented 10 potential options for measures against Israel, after concluding last month that there were “indications” Israel had violated the human rights clause under the EU-Israel Association Agreement, the pact governing political and economic ties between Israel and its largest trading partner.
The EU’s Foreign Affairs Council has discussed the agreement repeatedly in recent months, with several member states, including Ireland and Spain, calling for a full suspension, while others have pushed for more limited action.
Most options would require unanimous approval from all 27 member states, a need widely considered to be out of reach. One European diplomat cautioned that no concrete decision is expected before the end of the summer, noting that Israel’s campaign against Iran last month prompted some EU states to reaffirm their support for Israel.
Agencies contributed to this report.
The most senior church leaders in Israel allege that Israeli authorities have facilitated and enabled the presence of settler extremists inside the Christian Palestinian West Bank town of Taybeh, where local residents have reported severe harassment and damage to agricultural land by radical settler activists in recent weeks.
Last week, Taybeh residents said they had witnessed extremist settlers starting a fire next to the ruins of the Church of St. George in the town which damaged a Christian cemetery next to the site.
“The Council of Patriarchs and Heads of Churches calls for these radicals to be held accountable by the Israeli authorities, who facilitate and enable their presence around Taybeh,” say Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa in a joint statement in the town hall of Taybeh.
They also call for “an immediate and transparent investigation into why the Israeli police did not respond to emergency calls from the local community and why these abhorrent actions continue to go unpunished.”
Theophilos and Pizzaballa say Taybeh is facing “an intensifying trend of systemic and targeted attacks,” and call the settler attacks “a direct and intentional threat” to the local Christian community and to “the historic and religious heritage of our ancestors and holy sites.”
Speaking to The Times of Israel, Pizzaballa said that he had been in touch with the Israeli authorities regarding the attacks in Taybeh and had been told they would look into the allegations.
Asked if he believed there would be an effective law enforcement response, however, he said, “I doubt it, but I hope so.”
The United Torah Judaism party’s Degel Hatorah faction is threatening to withdraw from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition within the day unless it is presented with a draft of a bill exempting yeshiva students from military service.
“The next few hours are definitely the last to save the prime minister. If a draft law is not submitted in the next few hours, the decision will be made,” a party source tells Channel 12.
Another source in the party tells the network that Aryeh Deri, the chairman of fellow ultra-Orthodox party Shas, is also “applying very heavy pressure to immediately withdraw from the coalition,” presumably on UTJ, and “doesn’t want to do it alone, so that they don’t say he is the one bringing down the government.”
According to national broadcaster Kan, two of Degel Hatorah’s senior rabbinical leaders sent a letter to party MKs instructing them that “in the absence of a law by this evening, Degel Hatorah will immediately withdraw from the government.”
The letter was sent by rabbis Moshe Hirsch, the dean of Bnei Brak’s Slabodka yeshiva, and Dov Lando, the senior leader of the so-called Lithuanian stream of non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodoxy. Both are members of the faction’s ruling Council of Torah Sages.
Kan also reports that Deri could pull Shas out of the coalition within days, as the start of the Knesset summer recess approaches on July 27 without any progress having been made toward legalizing the exemption of Haredi men from mandatory military service.
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein has long blocked the passage of a government-backed bill enshrining the broad exclusion from IDF service for Haredi men, but agreed last month to soften some of the harsh sanctions included in his proposed bill, in a last-minute deal with Shas and UTJ to prevent them from voting in favor of an opposition-backed bill to disperse the Knesset and call early elections, in the days ahead of the war with Iran last month.
But as Edelstein’s new, watered-down version of the bill has failed to materialize, having been pulled from the committee’s agenda for this week, the Haredi parties have again run out of patience.
To that end, Kan reported yesterday that Deri has told party officials to begin preparing to resign from the government in the coming days and join the opposition. The move is being coordinated with UTJ, the report said.
While this would leave Netanyahu’s 67-person strong coalition suddenly lacking a ruling majority in the 120-member Knesset, the report said that Shas and UTJ — which have 18 Knesset seats combined — do not intend to topple the government at this time.
The lengthy recess would give Netanyahu time to try and resolve the issue.
In a letter released ahead of a scheduled hearing on her potential dismissal, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara says she will not attend the meeting and issues a stark warning that the proceedings pave the way for the government to remove her — or any future attorney general — on the basis of “unrelated and corrupt considerations.”
According to Baharav-Miara, the hearing set for today by a controversial, recently appointed panel is a response to decisions she has made in line with her legal duties: blocking unlawful government actions, ordering investigations or indictments of coalition members, or refusing to halt ongoing criminal proceedings involving a sitting minister.
She also cites concerns that the move may be part of a “political deal” aimed at ensuring the government’s survival.
She describes the process as a “sham hearing” with a predetermined outcome, warning it will deal a severe blow to the rule of law and to democracy.
The coalition and the attorney general have been in conflict since the government was sworn in at the end of 2022, with the government accusing her of serially thwarting its policies and actions, and Baharav-Miara — who was appointed by the previous government — accusing the government of acting unlawfully and advancing unconstitutional legislation.
In March, the government set in motion the process of firing the attorney general under a system established in 2000. But in June, after failing to make progress under the existing procedures, the cabinet passed a resolution establishing a new five-member ministerial committee that could trigger the process, headed by Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli.
High Court Justice Noam Sohlberg yesterday dismissed a petition by anti-government activists and civil society groups to prevent the ministerial panel from convening for the dismissal hearing. Baharav-Miara expressed support for the petition in a court filing last week.
Sohlberg rejected the petition on procedural grounds, saying the ministerial committee still had not made a recommendation on Baharav-Miara’s ouster, so there was nothing to adjudicate yet. That means petitioners can refile their objections to the court should the committee indeed recommend Baharav-Miara’s removal.
Benny Gantz’s Blue and White-National Unity announces that it is opening up its ranks, as of today allowing the general public to become members as part of a democratization drive within the party.
Gantz’s number 2, MK Gadi Eisenkot, recently announced his imminent departure from the party and from the Knesset. Senior MK Matan Kahana also said he would be leaving the party.
Gantz has said he would take several steps to democratize the party, including holding a leadership primary in the coming months.
In a statement last month, the party said that an outline presented to its lawmakers detailing this process called for it to “open its ranks to public participation” in the coming months and said the “party assembly will be renewed and significantly enlarged.”
As part of this process, party leadership elections will be held and members of the party’s audit committee and other internal institutions will be reappointed, the statement continued, adding that the initiative will be headed by a diverse team.
Ten Hamas terrorists who were exiled to Gaza in the 2011 Shalit deal, including some behind the killing of Israelis, were killed in an airstrike last week in the Strip, the Shin Bet security agency and IDF announce.
Most of those killed were members of Hamas’s so-called West Bank headquarters, a unit involved in recruiting terrorists and advancing attacks against Israel from or within the West Bank, the Shin Bet says.
Among those killed were Riyad Assila and Bassem Abu Sanina, who were accused of murdering Israeli civilian Haim Karman in a 1998 stabbing attack in Jerusalem.
Both had been exiled to Gaza in a 2011 deal in which Israel exchanged 1,027 terror convicts for captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
Assila served as a member of Hamas’s West Bank headquarters, specifically involved in recruiting terrorists from East Jerusalem, the Shin Bet says.
Also killed in the strike was Mohammed Saria, who the Shin Bet says was charged with killing IDF soldier Staff Sgt. Ehud (Udi) Tal in a stabbing attack at the Dotan Civil Administration facility in the West Bank in 1996.
Seven more members of Hamas’s West Bank headquarters were killed in the strike. The Shin Bet says the seven were all convicted during the Second Intifada of involvement in deadly terror attacks and were given life sentences, before being exiled to Gaza in the Shalit deal.
After their exile, the Shin Bet says the operatives held roles in the West Bank Headquarters, “within which they operated in regional committees responsible for advancing attacks in the Judea and Samaria areas, including by transferring weapons and funds to terrorists.”
President Isaac Herzog issues a fierce warning against the ongoing proceedings weighing the potential firing of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara today, denouncing the process as “utter chaos” and demanding “responsibility” from the government.
In a video address released by his office, Herzog likens the situation to “a rollercoaster that’s lost its brakes,” saying the country is being driven by “utter chaos.”
“Everyone is attacking everyone. Everyone is blaming everyone. Everyone is striking out at everyone,” he says, describing what he calls an increasingly perilous atmosphere. “It’s a very dangerous situation… it’s incredibly dangerous.”
The president defends Baharav-Miara, praising her actions during the war against Hamas in Gaza and saying her decisions helped protect Israel against international criticism.
“I saw Gali Baharav-Miara in wartime. She made very courageous decisions, gave full backing to the government, the cabinet, the army, and the security services, with courage and integrity,” Herzog says. “That helped protect us even on the international stage.”
“I believe the role of attorney general is so sensitive in a democracy that every step must be measured and considered a thousand times before being taken,” he says.
Herzog also speaks out against attacks on public servants, noting that many civil servants “even support the coalition, as is fitting in any democracy.”
“And I say to everyone: we must stop. Stop before we collapse under the avalanche, truly. It’s that dangerous.”
“It’s legitimate to criticize,” Herzog adds, saying “there’s harsh criticism, and that’s understandable given the nature of the role, but it must be done responsibly.”
“That’s what I call for,” the president repeats, “responsibility.”
Ahead of last month’s surprise attack on Iran, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri asked Rabbi Moshe Maya, one of the ultra-Orthodox party’s spiritual leaders, to allow a delay on a potential vote on dissolving the Knesset “for security reasons,” apparently hinting at the upcoming assault on Tehran’s regime to the religious figure.
In a recording of Maya broadcast by Army Radio, the hardline rabbi can be heard saying that while he was not informed of the details of why a delay was necessary, Deri told him that it was for unspecified “security reasons.”
According to Maya, prior to the vote Deri had been sitting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when an American official arrived and warned against dissolving the Knesset ahead of a major military operation.
The rabbi does not name the US official.
Deri then “sent me an emissary” who asked “can we postpone the vote for a week” for security reasons, Maya recalls.
“I didn’t ask questions. I told him, of course, yes. And then the war started,” the rabbi says.
Israel launched its attack early in the morning of June 13.
The previous day, the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, angered by the coalition’s delays in passing a bill exempting yeshiva students from military service, had been poised to vote in favor of an opposition measure to dissolve the Knesset.
However, Haredi representatives reached a last-minute compromise on the issue with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, averting the crisis, and the opposition-backed bill to disperse the Knesset and call early elections failed to advance.
Deri and Edelstein were both briefed in advance of the attack, contributing to their decision to compromise on the military draft issue and avoid early elections.
At the time of the reported conversations, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee was said to have met with ultra-Orthodox coalition members as part of efforts to prevent Netanyahu’s government from collapsing. The US envoy denied the report.
Iran says it has “no specific date” for a meeting between its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and US envoy Steve Witkoff on Tehran’s nuclear program.
“For now, no specific date, time or location has been determined regarding this matter,” says foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.
Iran had been negotiating with the United States before Israel began strikes on its nuclear facilities last month, which Washington later joined.
Israel said its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy Israel.
Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said it had recently taken steps toward weaponization.
Iran retaliated to Israel’s strikes by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel.
The ultra-Orthodox Shas party announces that it will vote in favor of expelling MK Ayman Odeh, the chair of the majority Arab Hadash-Ta’al party, from the Knesset.
The Knesset is scheduled to vote this afternoon on whether to eject Odeh. The vote, which requires a supermajority of 90 out of 120 to pass, takes place after the Knesset House Committee last month approved lawmakers’ statutory 70-signature petition, which included at least 10 signatures from the opposition.
The petition was put forth in January, when Odeh said he was “happy for the release of hostages and prisoners” as part of the Gaza truce that was signed that month. The petition clinched the required number of signatures after Odeh said at an anti-war protest in Haifa in May that “Gaza has won and Gaza will win.”
In order for the motion to pass, all of the coalition lawmakers and 22 opposition MKs would need to vote in favor.
Yisrael Beytenu’s six MKs are expected to vote in favor.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party has given its lawmakers free rein to vote as they wish while it remains unclear how Benny Gantz’s Blue and White-National Unity party’s MKs will vote.
An explosion at a residential building injured seven people in the Pardisan neighborhood of Qom city, Iran’s Student News Network reports, quoting a local emergency official, who added that five ambulances were dispatched to the area.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the blast.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responds to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s announcement yesterday of pending criminal charges against Jonatan Urich, a top aide to the premier, calling the move “baseless and unfounded.”
“This is a baseless and unfounded move – meant to serve a different agenda, not the public interest,” writes Netanyahu on X.
“The disgraceful statement by the attorney general… especially at this particular time, is a miserable decision that raises serious concerns,” he says.
Pending a hearing, Urich faces charges related to allegations that he extracted classified documents from the IDF and leaked them to the press, together with another aide.
“I am familiar with the details, and I state clearly and unequivocally: there was no harm to state security. Jonatan did not harm state security,” continues the premier.
Baharav-Miara’s also announced pending charges against a senior police official connected to far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, in a series of dramatic legal moves just ahead of a controversial government panel hearing set to weigh her potential firing today.
More than 100 terror targets were struck by the Israeli Air Force in the Gaza Strip in the past day, the military says.
The IDF says the targets included operatives, buildings used by terror groups, weapon depots, tunnels, and other terror infrastructure.
Dozens of casualties were reported by Palestinian media in Gaza over the past day, but there are no immediate tolls from the Hamas-run health ministry or other health authorities.
The strikes come as five IDF divisions, made up of tens of thousands of troops, continue to operate across Gaza.
The military says in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun, troops of the Givati Brigade located and destroyed a tunnel, while forces of the 99th Division directed airstrikes on operatives who tried to plant bombs on a road.
In the nearby town of Jabalia, the IDF says troops of the 401st Armored Brigade and elite Multi-Domain unit killed several more operatives, including by directing strikes, and destroyed terror infrastructure.
In the Gaza City neighborhoods of Daraj and Tuffah, troops of the Nahal Brigade killed additional operatives, and the 98th Division operating in the neighborhoods of Zeitoun and Shejaiya directed strikes on operatives and destroyed buildings used by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the IDF adds.
Former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit says he believes Israel is heading in the direction of the end of democracy, with state institutions expected to be beholden to the coalition: “Instead of loyalty to the state, there will be loyalty to the ministers and to government.”
When asked by the Kan public broadcaster if he believes Israel is heading toward the end of democracy with the government’s attempts to subjugate institutions including the IDF, Shin Bet and Attorney General’s Office, Mandelblit responds “yes,” adding that it is not a recent development.
“It began in January 2023,” says the one-time ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s initial announcement of the contentious judicial overhaul.
“Then the direction was clear,” Mandelblit says. “The government’s direction is to weaken the gatekeepers and the defense mechanisms. We have the attorney general and the Supreme Court, and the free press. They don’t sit well with the government and it thinks they should be abolished.”
“Instead of loyalty to the state, there will be loyalty to the ministers and to government, and when there is only one authority, that’s not democratic,” he says.
“That’s what they want. I hope they won’t succeed,” says Mandelblit.
Mandelblit is also asked whether he believes his successor Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara would be correct if she decides not to attend a dismissal hearing today as the government works to fire her.
“If the hearing is illegal, and if it’s a hearing where there is no openness or willingness to listen, why show up? Why take part in this circus when the outcome is already predetermined?” says Mandelblit.
The X account of beloved Sesame Street character Elmo is apparently hacked with the publication of posts calling to “kill all Jews” and a claim that US President Donald Trump is the “puppet” of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
One post refers to Trump as “child fucker” and calls on him to “release the files” amid a storm over notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Elmo says all Jews should die. Fuck Jews. Donald Trump is Netanyahu’s puppet because he is in the Epstein files,” reads the message posted on the account of Elmo, an actual puppet.
“Jews control the world and need to be exterminated,” reads the now-deleted post.
The Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children’s Television Workshop, tells Fox that the account was hacked.
“Elmo’s X account was compromised today by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts,” the organization says. “We are working to restore full control of the account.”
Just what we needed….Elmo going Neo-Nazi. pic.twitter.com/qZlHrN7Kab
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) July 14, 2025
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says at least 58,026 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far.
The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
The ministry says women and children make up more than half of the dead in the war. The UN and other international organizations see the figures from the Hamas-run ministry as the most reliable statistics on Palestinian casualties in the war, sparked by the terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
The search for those missing after Yemen’s Houthi rebels sank a ship in the Red Sea has ended as at least four people are presumed dead and 11 others remain unaccounted for, the private security firms involved say.
The announcement comes as satellite photos show long, trailing oil slicks from where the bulk carrier Eternity C sank, as well as another where the sinking of the bulk carrier Magic Seas by the Iranian-backed Houthis took place.
Both ships were attacked over a week ago by the rebels as part of their campaign targeting vessels over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip that’s upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which $1 trillion of goods usually passes a year.
The private security firms Ambrey and Diaplous Group ran the search for those missing from the Eternity C, which had a three-man security team aboard but requested no escort from either the US Navy or a European Union force in the region. The ship came under attack July 7 and faced hours of Houthi assaults by small arms and bomb-carrying drones before ultimately sinking in the Red Sea.
Ten people were recovered alive from the attack, including eight Filipino crew members and a Greek and Indian from the vessel’s security team, the EU’s Operation Aspides said. At least four are presumed to have been killed in the attack, leaving 11 others missing, the EU mission has said.
The Houthis claimed to have taken some mariners after the attack, but have offered no evidence of that. The US Embassy in Yemen said it believed the rebels had “kidnapped” some of the crew.
At least 30 people have been killed and 100 injured in a preliminary count in armed clashes between local military groups and tribes in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria’s interior ministry says.
The ministry says that its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict and halt the clashes.
US President Donald Trump is expected to announce a new “aggressive” plan to arm Ukraine with offensive weapons in a sharp departure from his earlier stance, Axios reports, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
The White House does not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters can’t immediately verify the report.
US President Donald Trump says he will send Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine, saying they are necessary to defend the country because Russian President Vladimir Putin “talks nice but then he bombs everybody in the evening.”
Trump does not give a number of Patriots he plans to send to Ukraine, but he says the United States will be reimbursed for their cost by the European Union.
The US president has grown increasingly disenchanted with Putin because the Russian leader has resisted Trump’s attempts to negotiate a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked for more defensive capabilities to fend off daily barrages of missile and drone attacks from Russia.
“We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need, because Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then bombs everybody in the evening. But there’s a little bit of a problem there. I don’t like it,” Trump tells reporters at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington.
“We basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military equipment. They are going to pay us 100% for that, and that’s the way we want it,” Trump says.
He plans to meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to discuss Ukraine and other issues this week.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas urges Hamas to release the hostages it is holding and hand over its weapons to the PA, stressing that the terror group “will not rule the Gaza Strip” after the ongoing war ends.
In a meeting in Amman with former British prime minister Tony Blair, Abbas also calls for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and unhindered entry of humanitarian aid to the Strip, according to the PA’s official news agency WAFA.
Abbas also calls for the PA to be given control of the enclave, a notion long rejected by Israel.
Asked about the ongoing effort to secure a Gaza ceasefire, US President Donald Trump tells reporters: “Hopefully we’re going to get that straightened out over the next week.”
Over the past several weeks, Trump has repeatedly given timelines that proved incorrect for when a deal would be reached.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar derides his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi as panicky, after the latter tweeted an attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest public demands regarding US-Iran talks for a deal curtailing Tehran’s nuclear program.
Speaking to Fox News in an interview broadcast yesterday, Netanyahu said he would only back such a deal if it meant the Islamic Republic couldn’t enrich uranium at all, would give up its regional array of terror proxies, and could produce no ballistic missiles with a range of over 300 miles (480 kilometers).
Araghchi responds on X: “Apart from farce that Iran will accept anything a wanted war criminal has to say, the inevitable question arises: what exactly is Netanyahu smoking? and if nothing, what exactly does the Mossad have on the White House?”
Sa’ar retweets the post, saying: “Trying to remember when I last read something so sweaty and tense. Try to stay cool, Minister!”
Trying to remember when I last read something so sweaty and tense.
Try to stay cool, Minister! https://t.co/BS2SH5jA13— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) July 13, 2025
