July 17: Israeli, US, PA officials said to hold secret talks on control of Rafah Crossing

Report: US privately warned Iran over suspicious nuclear activities

Iran's domestically built centrifuges are displayed in an exhibition of the country's nuclear achievements, in Tehran, Iran, February 8, 2023. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

The United States sent a private warning to Iran last month expressing serious concerns about Iranian research and development activities that could be used for the production of a nuclear weapon, Axios reports, citing three unnamed US and Israeli officials.

The report says both Israel and the US have detected suspicious nuclear activities by Iranian scientists in recent months and fear that Tehran could be using the period in the runup to the US elections for a covert push to nuclear weaponization.

Several months ago, US and Israeli intelligence services obtained information that showed Iranian scientists engaging in computer modeling and metallurgical research that could be used for the development of nuclear weapons, Axios says.

The report says that the US used both direct and third-party channels to send their concerns to Iran. The Iranians responded by clarifying their activities and telling the Americans there had been no change to Iran’s official policy.

The Iranian response “somewhat eased anxieties” over the Iranian research and development activities, Axios says.

“We do not see indications that Iran is currently undertaking the key activities that would be necessary to produce a testable nuclear device,” a US official tells Axios.

Air Force chief says IAF was at full ‘operational competency’ ahead of Oct. 7

IAF chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar speaks at an officers graduation ceremony at the Ovda Airbase, July 17, 2024. (Screenshot: Israel Defense Forces)

The chief of the Israeli Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, says the IAF was at full “operational competency” ahead of the October 7 onslaught, despite it occurring amid protests by reservist pilots over the government’s planned judicial overhaul.

“Recently, various statements have been made regarding the competency of the [IAF] on October 7. I would like to say clearly, the Air Force entered the events of that accursed Sabbath, without an issue of operational competence,” Bar says during a graduation ceremony for air traffic control officers, at the Ovda Airbase.

“We took off for this difficult multi-front war united and consolidated, despite the protest, and since then we have not landed,” he says. “We will not land until the mission is completed, until all our enemies are defeated.”

Bar also says that in the coming weeks, the IAF will complete an investigation into its role during the October 7 onslaught, and present it within the military and later to the public “with transparency.”

On the probe presented last week into the battle at Kibbutz Be’eri, which was critical of actions taken by the IAF’s elite Shaldag unit, Bar says “as their commander, I have supported and will support the actions that were taken on the ground on the morning of October 7.”

“The culture of investigation is deeply rooted in the Air Force’s DNA. That way we will be better, more worthy for the citizens we swore to protect,” he adds.

Gantz slams US for sanctioning Elor Azaria: ‘No justification to interfere in Israel’s internal legal processes’

MK Benny Gantz at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on July 17, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition MK Benny Gantz slams the US for imposing sanctions on former IDF Sgt. Elor Azaria who in 2016 shot dead an incapacitated Palestinian attacker in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Gantz says there is no need for the US to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and interfere in the Israeli judicial system.

“The State of Israel has an independent, robust judicial system that is both capable and willing to punish under Israeli law. There is no reason why the US State Department should impose sanctions against Israeli civilians,” Gantz writes in a post on X.

“Such is the case with Elor Azaria that was investigated, tried in court, convicted while serving in the IDF and ultimately held accountable, like in other cases,” Gantz says. “I want to convey to our American friends – there is no justification to interfere in Israel’s internal legal processes.”

Azaria, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison but only served nine months, will be “generally” barred from entry into the US along with his immediate family members, the State Department said in a statement.

Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai to end term at midnight

Outgoing Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai speaks during a farewell ceremony in his honor at the National Police Academy in Beit Shemesh, July 14, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Police Chief Kobi Shabtai will end his term at midnight and his deputy Avshalom Peled will take over as acting commissioner, police say in a terse announcement.

Shabtai’s term has been marked by repeated conflict with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir who has tried to exert greater authority over the force.

During his farewell ceremony on Sunday, Shabtai urged against making the law enforcement body political, without directly naming Ben Gvir.

Report: Israeli, Palestinian Authority officials held secret meeting over Rafah crossing

The Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, on January 29, 2024. (Said Khatib/AFP)

Israeli, Palestinian Authority and US officials held a secret meeting last week to discuss the reopening of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza as part of a hostage and ceasefire deal, the Axios news site reports.

The report says it marks the first time that such a three-way meeting has been held since October 7, with cooperation with the PA a hot-button issue in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government.

According to Axios, the meeting was held in Tel Aviv and attended by US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s top advisors Hussein al-Sheikh and director of intelligence Majed Faraj.

The report, citing three Israeli and US officials, says the Israelis stressed that Netanyahu was opposed to the direct involvement of the PA in running the Rafah crossing and urged the PA to send people in an unofficial capacity.

The PA refused.

The crossing has been closed since the Gazan side was captured by Israel, with Egypt refusing to reopen it until Palestinians are in charge.

The Axios report says reopening Rafah is a key step in implementing the first phase of a hostage-ceasefire deal currently being negotiated.

US officials also see it as a first step toward building a post-war governing structure that does not include Hamas and believe the PA should take up the Israeli suggestion to have its “foot in the door” of Gaza.

The White House, Shin Ben and the PA declined to comment on the report.

Jets hit Hezbollah targets, rocket launchers in south Lebanon

Israeli fighter jets struck Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon’s Aitaroun and a rocket launcher in Rab al-Thalathine a short while ago, the IDF says.

It publishes footage of the strikes.

Israeli fighter jets struck Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon's Aitaroun and a rocket launcher in Rab al-Thalathine a short while ago, the IDF says. pic.twitter.com/iCv7nUvhGf

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) July 17, 2024

Biden suggests he could drop out of race if doctors tell him he has a medical issue

US President Joe Biden speaks at a 2024 Prosperity Summit, July 16, 2024, in North Las Vegas, Nev. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)

US President Joe Biden indicates he could reexamine his decision to stay in the presidential race if doctors told him he had a medical issue, he says in an excerpt from an interview with BET News released today.

Biden, who has so far been adamant that he would not drop out despite mounting concerns over his age, is asked if there was anything that would make him reconsider.

“If I had some medical condition that emerged,” Biden says. ” If doctors came to me and said, ‘You got this problem, that problem.'”

The comments, made in the interview recorded yesterday, mark the first time he has suggested that something could force him out the race.

President Biden said in a new interview with BET News that he would consider dropping out if he was diagnosed with a “medical condition” by doctors. pic.twitter.com/XecwiBwOE0

— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) July 17, 2024

US military pier for carrying aid to Gaza will be dismantled, returned to US

The image provided by US Central Command shows US Army soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), US Navy sailors assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 1, and Israel Defense Forces placing the Trident Pier on the coast of Gaza Strip on Thursday, May 16, 2024. (US Central Command via AP)

The US military-built pier to carry humanitarian aid to Gaza will be dismantled and brought home, ending a mission that has been fraught with repeated weather and security problems that limited how much food and other supplies could get to Palestinians.

Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander at US Central Command, tells reporters in a Pentagon briefing that the pier achieved its intended effect in what he called an “unprecedented operation.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said yesterday that a new Pier 28 will soon be established at Israel’s Ashdod port for delivering aid to the Gaza Strip as a replacement for the US military-built pier. He did not say when it would start operating.

Report: Probe of Military Intelligence role in Oct. 7 failure finds Hamas planned assault for 7 years

Then-Commander of the IDF Military Intelligence Aharon Haliva at a conference of the Gazit Institute in Tel Aviv, November 4, 2022. (Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)

An ongoing probe into the role of the IDF’s Military Intelligence in the failures leading up to the October 7 Hamas surprise assault has found that the terror group had been planning the operation for over seven years, Channel 12 reports.

The internal probe, which has not been finalized nor officially presented to the IDF chief of staff, is looking at how intelligence missed the warning signs of Hamas’s impending attack for so long.

According to the leaked conclusions, Military Intelligence was convinced that Hamas was deterred from a major confrontation with Israel and that the terror group’s leader Yahya Sinwar was interested in an agreement with Israel that would improve the economic situation in Gaza and entrench his control over the Strip.

Analysts had concluded that Hamas “is not seeking and does not have the ability” to go to war with Israel, Channel 12 reports.

They also completely disregarded the possibility that Hamas sitting out the previous round of fighting with Islamic Jihad could be interpreted as anything other than a sign it did not want war.

The report also says that the IDF cannot yet conclude that it now knows how to prevent similar lapses from occurring in the future.

Outgoing chief of the Military Intelligence Directorate Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, has received the report.

In response to the report, the IDF says that, “When the investigations are completed they will be presented in a transparent way to the public.”

Rocket from Gaza lands near Re’im, no injuries

One rocket launched from the Gaza Strip a short while ago struck an open area near the border community of Re’im, the IDF says.

Sirens did not sound in any towns.

There are no reports of injuries.

Top Democrat Adam Schiff calls on Biden to exit presidential race

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., speaks during the House Judiciary Committee hearing June 21, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP/Jose Luis Magana)

Representative Adam Schiff becomes the most heavyweight Democrat so far to publicly urge US President Joe Biden to step aside for another candidate to face Donald Trump.

He calls on his ally to “pass the torch.”

Schiff, a key congressional powerbroker, praises Biden but tells The Los Angeles Times that he doubts that the 81-year-old incumbent can defeat Trump — a threat to “the very foundation of our democracy.”

The Californian, who is expected to win a Senate seat this November, is one of the party’s most influential members and a key ally in the legislature for the White House.

He served as chairman of the House intelligence panel when Democrats had the majority in 2019 and shot to nationwide prominence as lead prosecutor during then-president Trump’s first impeachment trial.

In a statement to The Los Angeles Times, Schiff airs the worry gripping the party, although often in private, that questions over Biden’s age and health will doom him in the November election.

Those concerns rocketed after Biden performed badly in a televised debate with Trump last month, often looking confused or unable to articulate.

Since then, Biden has repeatedly said he intends to stay in the race, arguing that he remains the best person to defeat Trump. Polls show a tight overall contest, but with Trump pulling ahead in key swing states.

Schiff calls Biden “one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history.”

However, “a second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump in November.”

Biden should “secure his legacy” by stepping aside, he says.

Shas urges Netanyahu to move forward with hostage deal, ignore far-right threats

Chairman of the Shas party, MK Aryeh Deri, speaks during an interview at his home in Jerusalem, on April 15, 2024. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)

The ultra-Orthodox Shas party urges Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ignore threats from his far-right coalition partners and to push ahead with a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas.

“Shas backs your efforts to return the hostages. We are convinced that the conditions that have been created due to the military pressure and the targeted assassinations create an appropriate moment to reach a deal that safeguards the vital security interests of Israel and brings the hostages home,” Shas says in a letter to Netanyahu that was released to the media.

Shas, which is part of the coalition, calls on Netanyahu “not to fear the voices in the coalition opposing the deal.”

Shas says it backs Netanyahu to “continue to act with responsibility in fulfilling the commandment to redeem captives, a commandment of the highest order.”

Shas rabbis tell yeshiva students to ignore draft orders

Police remove ultra-Orthodox Jewish youth blocking a road to protest military recruitment in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The Shas Council of Torah Sages, the spiritual leaders of the ultra-Orthodox party, instruct followers to ignore Israel Defense Forces’ initial draft orders to members of the Haredi community.

The IDF announced yesterday that it will begin to send out the orders on Sunday, though the government appeared no closer to legislation on the issue following a bombshell High Court ruling last month.

“As of now, while no legislation has been agreed on the status of the yeshiva students, do not answer any draft orders including initial orders and you should not show up at draft centers,” the council writes.

The initial draft orders are the first stage in the screening and evaluation process that the army carries out for new recruits, ahead of enlistment in the military in the coming year.

The dispute over the ultra-Orthodox community serving in the military is one of the most contentious in Israel, with decades of governmental and judicial attempts to settle the issue never reaching a stable resolution. The Haredi religious and political leadership fiercely resists and protests any effort to draft mainstream yeshiva students who are actually involved in religious study.

Last month, the High Court ruled that there was no longer any legal framework allowing the state to refrain from drafting Haredi yeshiva students into military service, and the attorney general ordered the government to immediately begin the process of conscription for 3,000 such men — the number the military has said it is able to process at this preliminary stage.

Gallant warns Hezbollah IDF can launch offensive ‘in an instant’

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks with reservists of the Oded Brigade in northern Israel, July 17, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a fresh warning to Hezbollah says the Israeli military can “in an instant” begin an offensive in Lebanon.

He says it will be “fast, surprising and sharp,” while adding that Israel is “approaching a decision-making crossroad.”

“We are waging a limited war in the northern region. We are using a small part of the IDF’s power, but things can change in a second, from a main effort in the south to a main effort in the north, and it will be quick, surprising, and very sharp, it can also happen as a result of [Hezbollah’s] action,” Gallant tells reservists of the Oded Brigade in northern Israel.

“This region has nothing to do with what is happening in the south. If Hezbollah wants to reach an agreement with us and reach a situation where it withdraws from the border line to areas beyond the Litani River as stipulated by the UN resolution, then we will reach an agreement with it. It can be while fighting Hamas and not while fighting Hamas,” he says.

Rallies held across country calling on Netanyahu to approve hostage deal before Washington trip

Israelis protest outside the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv calling for a deal to release the captives on July 17, 2024. (Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Families of the hostages and their supporters demonstrate at over 30 locations across Israel calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to approve a deal to free the captives before he travels to the US next week.

“The families of the hostages, who have been waiting for 285 days for their loved ones, are pleading with the Prime Minister to approve the proposed deal before his flight to Congress. The return of 120 hostages is closer than ever and within reach of an agreement. Everyone agrees: This opportunity must not be missed,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum says in a statement.

“First seal the deal, then give your speech!” the demonstrators chant.

US sanctions ex-IDF soldier Elor Azaria who killed wounded Palestinian stabber

Elor Azaria, center, visits in the West Bank city of Hebron following his release from prison where he served a sentence for the 2016 manslaughter of an incapacitated Palestinian attacker he shot in the city during his military service, July 3, 2018. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

The US State Department announces that it has sanctioned former IDF Sgt. Elor Azaria who in 2016 shot dead an incapacitated Palestinian attacker in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Azaria, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison but only served nine months, will be “generally” barred from entry into the US along with his immediate family members, the State Department says.

Since his release from prison, he has protested in support of soldiers accused of beating Palestinian suspects and appeared in a primary campaign ad for a Likud lawmaker.

Several months after his release he said in an interview that he had no regrets about the incident.

Azaria’s case revealed deep divisions in Israeli society over the army’s activities in the West Bank, with some — mostly on the right — arguing that he had behaved heroically in killing the Palestinian assailant, while others said he had broken the law and deserved a harsher sentence than he received.

The US says it is separately imposing visa restrictions on an additional group of unnamed individuals involved in carrying out attacks in the West Bank.

The State Department began issuing visa bans against violent settlers in December, though those designated are generally not publicized.

The Biden administration has for years urged Israel to clamp down on settler violence and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he took the step to begin imposing entry bans after concluding that Jerusalem was utterly failing to address the issue.

The US went further in February when US President Joe Biden signed an executive order that allowed for more far-reaching financial sanctions to be imposed against Israeli extremists. The US has announced five batches of these sanctions, including last week.

US leads countries adopting new guidelines for combatting antisemitism

US Deputy Special Envoy to Combat and Monitor Antisemitism Aaron Keyak (L) and Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt testify about the recent rise in antisemitism and its threat to democracy before the US Helsinki Commission in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on December 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somondevilla/Getty Images via AFP)

The United States leads 33 other countries in adopting global guidelines for countering antisemitism during a gathering of antisemitism envoys from around the globe in Buenos Aires, Argentina where they will be attending an event marking the 30th anniversary of the AMIA terrorist attack.

“This comprehensive framework, crafted through months of collaboration among special envoys worldwide, lays out essential ‘best practices’ to combat Jew hatred effectively,” says US envoy for combating antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt, calling on more countries and international groups to join in the effort.

The legally non-binding guidelines include policies to monitor and combat antisemitism that can be implemented and adapted to a wide variety of national, regional, and cultural contexts.

The guidelines are as follows: speak out, avoid politicization, adopt and implement, appoint and empower, understand and define, protect, collect, enforce, educate, cultivate a whole-of-society commitment, engage social media, and strengthen international collaboration.

The initiative recognizes the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism and notes that over 40 countries and hundreds of organizations have adopted it. However, the guidelines don’t go as far as to call on countries to follow suit. Some progressive groups argue that the definition’s examples are being used to stifle criticism of Israel.

The initiative is adopted by Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, the Council of Europe, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Ecuador, Estonia, the European Commission, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Organization of American States, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

UN chief says Israel’s West Bank policy is dooming two-state solution

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres speaks during a UN Security Council meeting on the impacts of cyber threats on international peace and security at UN headquarters on June 20, 2024, in New York. (Yuki Iwamura/AFP)

Israel’s policy toward the West Bank is dooming any prospect of a two-state solution with the Palestinians, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says.

Violence and arrests have soared in the territory since the Gaza war erupted after Hamas’s October 7 attacks.

Through administrative and legal steps, Israel is changing the geography of the West Bank, Guterres says in a statement read by his chief of staff, Courtenay Rattray, during a meeting of the Security Council.

Settlement expansion is expected to speed up due to big land seizures in strategic areas and changes to planning, land management and governance, Guterres adds.

“Recent developments are driving a stake through the heart of any prospect for a two-state solution,” says the UN chief.

He says Israel is taking steps to extend sovereignty over the West Bank.

Guterres notes that Israel has taken punitive steps against the Palestinian Authority and legalized five Israeli outposts in the West Bank.

“We must change course. All settlement activity must cease immediately,” Guterres says.

Guterres repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war and the release of all hostages.

“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is a moral stain on us all,” Guterres said.

Israeli protesters disrupt UN Security Council with call to free Gaza hostages

Demonstrators show a picture of an Israeli held hostage in Gaza and a sign during a UN Security Council meeting on July 17, 2024 on the situation in the Middle East. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP)

A meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the Middle East was briefly interrupted on Wednesday when two protesters stood with signs and yelled for the release of Israeli hostages held by Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The demonstration by two women came as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov began to address the 15-member body after a statement by Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan. Protests inside the UN headquarters in New York are rare.

Lavrov, who was chairing the meeting because Russia is the council president for July, responded: “I don’t understand, speak more clearly. One of you can speak clearly to say what you want to say. I see you don’t wish to do so, very well.”

Diplomats in the Security Council chamber said the women, dressed in black, yelled “free the hostages.” UN security asked the women to leave the chamber and they did so, a UN official said.

One of the women was later identified as Israel Teachers Union chief Yaffa Ben David, who was holding up a picture of hostage Ohad Yahalomi.

Israel’s UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the protest.

US urges UN Security Council to pressure Hamas to accept hostage-ceasefire deal

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a UN Security Council Meeting on July 17, 2024, on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP)

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield calls on the Security Council to pressure Hamas to accept the ceasefire and hostage release deal being negotiated.

Addressing the top UN panel’s monthly hearing on the conflict, Thomas-Greenfield says Israel and Hamas have agreed on a framework, which was based on the Israeli proposal submitted in May, outlined by US President Joe Biden in a subsequent speech and enshrined in a resolution adopted by the council.

“There are still gaps to be closed, and this council must keep pressure on Hamas to accept the deal outlined in Resolution 2735, and begin implementing it without delay and without conditions. This is what we all want here in this council, it’s what the Palestinians in Gaza want,” she says.

The US envoy notes that improvements have been made in the distribution of humanitarian aid throughout Gaza since a recent breakdown of law and order. However, many requests by the UN and other aid organizations “particularly related to communications equipment vital for deconfliction processes, remain unresolved.”

“We urge the Government of Israel to work with the UN to overcome these and other roadblocks,” Thomas-Greenfield says.

“Palestinian civilians are living in hell. Over and over, they have had to flee from one place to another in search of safety. And so many people have lost parents and siblings, children and friends, including in a recent IDF strike on a UN-supported school in Nuseirat camp,” she continues.

She stresses the administration’s continues concern with settler violence and condemns recent Israeli steps to expand its footprint in the West Bank. “Unilateral actions, like the Government of Israel’s settlement program, are inconsistent with international law and detrimental to a two-state solution.”

Cathay Pacific extends suspension of flights between Hong Kong and Israel until March 2025

A Cathay Pacific airplane taxis at Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong on Nov. 25, 2022. (AP/Vernon Yuen)

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. suspends all flights between Hong Kong and Tel Aviv for the rest of the year and until the end of March 2025.

The Hong Kong carrier says it “temporarily” cancels all routes to and from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport until March 27 “in view of the uncertainty related to the ongoing situation in Israel.” Earlier this year, Cathay Pacific announced that it halted all of its flights to Tel Aviv up to October 24, 2024.

Passengers who are booked to travel on Cathay Pacific flights between Hong Kong and Tel Aviv up to March 27, 2025, can “rebook, reroute or refund their travel without the usual fees,” the airline announces.

“Despite our best efforts, alternative flights are very limited in the current situation, severely restricting rebooking options,” Cathay Pacific says in a statement.

As war broke out with the shock Hamas-led October 7 onslaught in southern Israel, Cathay Pacific joined major international airlines in halting flight services to Tel Aviv. In recent months, many foreign carriers, including Lufthansa, Swiss, Air France, Austrian, Delta, and United Airlines, resumed their operations to Tel Aviv albeit with a reduced flight schedule.

Among other foreign carriers that have suspended flights to Israel until further notice are Air Canada, Virgin Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Pegasus Airlines.

‘Shogun’ leads all Emmy nominees with 25 and ‘The Bear’ sets comedy series record with 23

This image released by FX shows Jeremy Allen White as Carmen Berzatto, in a scene from 'The Bear.' (FX via AP)

“The Bear” went on a tear at this morning’s Emmy nominations with a comedy-series record 23, and “Shogun” led all nominees with 25 in a dominant year across categories for FX.

Nominations for the acclaimed culinary phenomenon “The Bear” included best comedy series and best actor in a comedy series for Jeremy Allen White – both awards it won at January’s strike-delayed ceremony, along with best actress for Ayo Edebiri, who won best supporting actress last time around.

It was also boosted by a bounty of guest acting nominations, including Jamie Lee Curtis and Olivia Colman, two of many Oscar winners who landed nominations.

“Shogun” took full advantage of the absence of last year’s top three nominees – “Succession,” “The White Lotus” and “The Last of Us” – to dominate in drama and give FX the kind of strong year often reserved for HBO.

Its nominations included best drama series, best actress in a drama series for Anna Sawai and best actor for Hiroyuki Sanada.

The show shook up the drama race when its makers said in May that despite reaching the end of the story of James Clavell’s historical novel about political machinations in early 17th century Japan, they would explore making more than one season, shifting the critical darling from the limited series category to the more prestigious drama one.

Netanyahu, Gantz spar as Knesset rejects bill to establish Oct. 7 state commission of inquiry

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in the Knesset in Jerusalem, on July 17, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Knesset plenum rejects a proposal to establish a state commission of inquiry into the events of October 7, voting 53-51 against the bill brought by Yesh Atid MK Meir Cohen.

Despite calls Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and opposition lawmakers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that an investigation determining the culpability of the government cannot take place while the war in Gaza is ongoing. He has also been non-committal on establishing a state commission — the investigatory body with the greatest powers — indicating that other formats may be appropriate.

With the mounting pressure, Netanyahu reportedly began looking into Knesset legislation to establish an independent panel headed by a figure of his choosing in June.

Several hours before the Knesset shot down the bill to establish a commission, former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz accused Netanyahu of hesitating and delaying necessary operations in Gaza and stated that “everything will be revealed when the protocols and testimonies are heard by the state commission of inquiry.”

In response, Netanyahu accused Gantz of sharing “fake news” and said that a future probe would let “the public will find out who was looking for excuses to ‘stop the fighting for a year or two’ and who really pushed forward to continue the war until victory.”

Hitting back, Gantz tweeted that he is “waiting for the state commission of inquiry to be established and for the protocols to be revealed in order to draw lessons from the greatest disaster in our history.”

High Court seeks compromise over attempts to halt State Comptroller Oct. 7 probes

A High Court of Justice hearing on the state comptroller's investigation into the failings relating to the October 7 Hamas attacks, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, July 17, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The High Court of Justice seeks a compromise over the petitions seeking to halt the State Comptroller’s investigation into the failures of the October 7 attacks, ordering the relevant state agencies that have opposed it to evaluate which aspects of the investigation could be carried out at present.

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman announced in December he would be conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the multi-level failures leading up to, during, and after the October 7 Hamas invasion and atrocities, including military and intelligence failures, but was strongly opposed by several government watchdog groups who expressed concern that it would interfere with the IDF’s operational capabilities and might ignore political responsibility for the devastating invasion and massacres.

Following a hearing earlier today, the High Court asks the IDF, the Shin Bet, the Mossad and other state agencies who oppose the comptroller’s investigation to see which aspects of the first part of Matanyahu’s investigation, which focuses more on civilian issues than military and intelligence concerns, can be carried out.

The court orders the respondents to update it as to their decision by July 28.

The court also tells the respondents to assess whether they view it practical for the comptroller to conduct his investigation into operational and intelligence failures, such as the decision to license the Nova Festival by Kibbutz Reim and the security arrangements for it.

The court gives the respondents until October 31 however, meaning that those aspects of the investigation will continue to be suspended regardless.

In June, the High Court ordered Englman to suspend any aspects of his investigation dealing with the IDF and the Shin Bet, and the court on Wednesday said that suspension remains in effect.

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman at the Federation of Local Authorities conference in Tel Aviv, December 7, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which is one of the primary petitioners against the investigation, welcomes the court’s decision to extend the suspension of the investigation into the military and intelligence agencies, but that the organization remained opposed to the comptroller’s investigation in general.

“Only an independent, impartial state commission of inquiry, can conduct a true investigation and provide the public with the answers it deserves,” said head of the Movement for Quality Government Attorney Eliad Shraga.

Nearly two-thirds of Democrats want Biden to withdraw, new AP-NORC poll finds

US President Joe Biden walks past boxes of cereal in an aisle as he visits Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say US President Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to a new poll, sharply undercutting his post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him even if some “big names” are turning on him.

The new survey by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted as Biden works to salvage his candidacy two weeks after his debate flop, also finds that only about 3 in 10 Democrats are extremely or very confident that he has the mental capability to serve effectively as president, down slightly from 40 percent in an AP-NORC poll in February.

The findings underscore the challenges the 81-year-old president faces as he tries to silence calls from within his own party to leave the race and tries to convince Democrats that he’s the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump.

The poll was conducted mostly before Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. It’s unclear whether the shooting influenced people’s views of Biden, but the small number of poll interviews completed after the shooting provided no early indication that his prospects improved.

IDF demolishes Hamas attack tunnel used in attempted infiltration from Rafah

IDF troops work to demolish a Hamas attack tunnel in southern Gaza's Rafah, in a handout image published July 17, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says it has completed the demolition of a Hamas attack tunnel from which terrorists attempted to infiltrate into Israel last month.

Four Hamas terrorists used the tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah to approach the Israeli border in the attempted infiltration attack on June 6. The shaft they emerged from was about 200 meters from the border, according to the IDF.

In an exchange of fire with the gunmen, Warrant Officer Zeed Mazarib, 34, was killed. Three of the four armed terrorists were killed in a drone strike and tank shelling, while the fourth fled.

The tunnel was destroyed in a joint operation carried out by combat engineers with the Gaza Division, the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, and the Bedouin reconnaissance unit, of which Mazarib was a member.

According to the IDF, the tunnel was part of a 3-kilometer-long tunnel network that had previously been partially destroyed by the military.

Inside the tunnel, troops found several branching paths, blast doors, and a room where Hamas operatives would reside, complete with electricity lines, the IDF adds.

Mossad chief said to tell cabinet female hostages don’t have any more time

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) meets with Mossad chief David Barnea, April 18, 2024. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Mossad chief David Barnea reportedly told the cabinet meeting yesterday that the female hostages don’t have any time left to wait for a new hostage deal framework, Hebrew media reports.

“The girls in captivity don’t have time to wait for changes in the proposal under discussion,” several Hebrew sites quotes Barnea as saying in the closed-door meeting.

Barnea’s comments come amid reports Netanyahu wants to make changes to the deal currently on the table.

The Walla news site says Barnea received support from two of the female ministers.

“It’s an open wound in society. We are obligated to the public and to the citizens who were not protected by the IDF and Shin Bet on October 7,” says Transportation Minister Miri Regev according to Walla.

“Women can give birth after nine months and that is a disaster that you cannot recover from,” Walla quotes Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel as saying in a reference to concerns the female hostages my have been sexually assaulted in captivity.

Costs of Shin Bet protection for Netanyahu’s family revealed: NIS 31.5 million since 2018

(From left to right) Avner, Sara, Benjamin and Yair Netanyahu tour the Golan Heights, on April 23, 2019. (PMO)

The tax payer spent some NIS 31.5 million ($8.5 million) on Shin Bet protection for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife and two sons between 2018 and 2023, according to newly published information.

The details were released following a freedom of information request from a civil society organization, Hatzlaha: The Movement for the Promotion of a Fair Society.

According to the data, the Shin Bet spent NIS 11 million guarding Avner Netanyahu, NIS 10 million on Yair Netanyahu and 10.5 million protecting Netanyahu’s wife Sara.

The information also shows that during the year-long Bennett-Lapid government, it cost NIS 3 million to protect Bennett’s children and NIS 4 million to safeguard his wife Gilat.

Netanyahu has come under criticism for insisting that his adult children continue to receive Shin Bet protection. His son Yair has also continued to receive protection since moving to Miami in the US last year.

According to the data, the Shin Bet spent over NIS 1 million protecting Yair last year.

Israeli delegation arrives in Cairo for fresh hostage-ceasefire talks

Protesters call for the release of the Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza at a demonstration outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, July 16, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

An Israeli delegation arrives in Egypt to continue ceasefire talks as Israel and Hamas consider the latest proposal, three Egyptian airport officials say.

International mediators continue to push Israel and Hamas toward a phased deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages held by the terror group in Gaza.

The Israeli delegation includes six officials, the airport officials say without disclosing identities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the arrival with the media.

Talks between the sides were rattled over the weekend when Israel targeted Hamas’ military commander, Muhammad Deif, in a massive strike. His status remains unclear. Hamas has said the talks continue.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has told US counterpart Lloyd Austin that such heavy pressure on Hamas had “led to the conditions necessary to achieve an agreement for the return of the hostages.” He gave no further details in a statement from his office.

Hostage family members urge freed captive Noa Argamani not to accompany Netanyahu to US

Rescued hostage Noa Argamani is reunited with her father Yaakov Argamani at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, June 8, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Family members of hostages held by the terror group Hamas call on freed captive Noa Argamani not to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s delegation to the United States next week, saying such a move would bolster the premier, who many blame for failing to secure a deal to free the hostages after more than nine months.

According to Hebrew media, Argamani, who was rescued by Israeli forces last month alongside three other hostages, will join Netanyahu with her father and other hostage family members for the prime minister’s speech to the US Congress in Washington, DC, on July 24.

Maayan Sherman, the mother of fallen IDF soldier Ron Sherman whose body remains in the Gaza Strip, posted on Facebook, “Beloved Noa, he’s using you. And others will pay for this with their lives. Explain this to your father. Don’t fly with him as a decoration.”

Ifat Kalderon, a relative of the hostage Ofer Kalderon, posted Sherman’s remarks on X, adding, “Let someone explain to the beloved Noa Argamani that he’s using her. She was kidnapped once by Hamas and a second time by him.”

Saudi Arabia’s MBS calls to congratulate new Iranian president

Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, March 20, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)

Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman calls Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian to congratulate him on winning the election earlier this month.

According to the official Saudi Press Agency, the two “praised the development of relations between the two countries at various levels, stressing the importance of continuing to enhance cooperation in various fields.”

Tehran and Riyadh have been pursuing a detente since renewing diplomatic relations in 2023, but still view one another as dangerous regional rivals.

Instagram briefly takes down new hostage pictures posted by their families

An undated picture of four IDF surveillance soldiers held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023, that was made public by their families on July 16, 2024. From left: Liri Albag, Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, and Karina Ariev. (Courtesy)

Social media site Instagram briefly took down pictures of five hostage surveillance soldiers from their first days of captivity in Gaza released yesterday by their families, saying the photos violated its terms of service.

In one undated image, Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger and Daniella Gilboa can be seen sitting on mattresses on the floor of a room. Ariev and Gilboa both appear to have bandages on their heads.

In a separate undated image, Naama Levy is seen with a heavily swollen eye and cuts on her face.

An undated picture of surveillance soldier Naama Levy held hostage in Gaza that was made public by her family on July 16, 2024. (Courtesy)

All five are still held by Hamas in the Strip after they were kidnapped by terrorists from the Nahal Oz base on October 7. Hamas killed 52 soldiers at the base, including 15 female surveillance officers, and kidnapped 10 soldiers in total.

After the families appealed to the Meta-owned company, they announced that they would be restored.

Homeland Security inspector general investigates US Secret Service handling of security at Trump rally

Former US president Donald Trump is escorted to a motorcade following an attempted assassination at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general says it has opened up an investigation into the US Secret Service’s handling of security for former president Donald Trump on the day a gunman tried to assassinate him at a Pennsylvania rally.

In a brief notice posted to the inspector general’s website, the agency says the objective of the probe is to “Evaluate the United States Secret Service’s (Secret Service) process for securing former President Trump’s July 13, 2024 campaign event.”

There was no date given for when the investigation was launched. The notice was among a long list of ongoing cases that the inspector general’s office is pursuing.

US President Joe Biden already had ordered an independent review of the security at the rally.

The shooting has raised questions about how the gunman was able to climb onto a roof with a clear line of sight to the former president, who was injured.

The 20-year-old shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to get within 135 meters (157 yards) of the stage where the Republican candidate was speaking when he opened fire. That’s despite a threat on Trump’s life from Iran leading to additional security for the former president in the days before the Saturday rally.

A bloodied Trump was quickly escorted off the stage by Secret Service agents, and agency snipers killed the shooter. Trump said the upper part of his right ear was pierced in the shooting. One rallygoer was killed, and two others critically wounded.

Secret Service director Kim Cheatle said the agency understands the importance of the review ordered by Biden and would fully participate in it, as well as with congressional committees looking into the shooting. She said the agency was working to understand how Saturday’s shooting happened and to make sure something like it never happens again.

Ukraine secures release of 95 prisoners of war in swap with Russia, Zelensky says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says 95 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been returned home from Russia.

Zelensky says all of them are from the military and thanks the United Arab Emirates for its help in facilitating the swap.

Arab party leader calls PM ‘terrorist’; another says ‘50,000 murdered in Gaza’

Leader of the Ra'am party Mansour Abbas, left, April 5, 2021; leader of the Joint List party Ayman Odeh, right, March 7, 2021. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File); (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

The leaders of both Arab Knesset parties cause outrage by making controversial remarks in the Knesset plenum.

MK Ayman Odeh, head of the predominantly Arab Hadash-Ta’al party, is ordered out of the plenum entirely for shouting, “The terrorist is you” toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ra’am chief Mansour Abbas speaks from the podium as coalition members heckle him, saying: “You want to stop the war.”

Abbas retorts: “Of course I want to stop the war. Fifty thousand citizens have been murdered in the Gaza Strip.” The Hebrew word for “citizens” used by Abbas could also mean “civilians.”

Even according to the latest death toll by Hamas authorities in the Strip, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians, the number of people killed in the Strip during the war is 38,794.

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana orders Abbas to step down from the podium, as other angry MKs yell at him.

New UK government commits to building Holocaust memorial next to Parliament in London

Britain's incoming Prime Minister Keir Starmer and leader of the Labour Party, addresses the nation after his general election victory, outside 10 Downing Street in London on July 5, 2024 (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)

Britain’s new Labour government says it will build a Holocaust memorial and learning center next to the Houses of Parliament in London.

First proposed nearly a decade ago under the previous Conservative administration, the Holocaust memorial was intended to honor the memory of the more than six million Jews and other victims killed by the Nazis and their collaborators in World War II.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government plans to bring forward the Holocaust Memorial Bill, which authorizes the cost for the project and disapplies a law dating back to 1900 that prevents its proposed location from being used as anything other than a public garden.

“We must do everything we can to ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten and to fight antisemitism and all forms of hatred and prejudice in our society,” the government says in a briefing document accompanying the King’s Speech, setting out its legislative agenda.

Gantz slams PM’s war management, says ‘everything will be revealed’ in future inquiry

This combination photograph created on May 30, 2024 shows (L) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May 12, 2024, and (R) Minister Benny Gantz on May 18, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel and Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz pans Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership, accusing him of hesitating and delaying necessary operations in Gaza.

Addressing Netanyahu in a tweet after the premier defended his wartime leadership during a heated Knesset debate by declaring that Israel is “on the way to absolute victory,” Gantz says that Netanyahu was “afraid” to maneuver in Gaza, having “delayed entering Khan Younis” and “hesitated to enter Rafah.”

“You talked about the city of Rafah for a campaign, when we insisted on the need to first seize the Philadelphi Corridor and prevent a renewed strengthening of Hamas,” he continues, speaking of the time before Gantz left the wartime government, citing the premier’s conduct.

“Everything will be revealed when the protocols and testimonies are heard by the state commission of inquiry, which will have to ask the questions — why did you delay the entry of Rafah and Khan Younis? Why did you fear, delay and hesitate? And what are the prices we paid and are still paying for it?”

Such a commission hasn’t yet been formed, and Netanyahu is reportedly seeking to change the way it could eventually be formed to be more amenable to him.

Lapid to Netanyahu: Either announce at Congress you accept hostage deal, or nix US trip

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid speaks at the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, July 17, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid demands that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu either announce his acceptance of a hostage deal during his July 24 speech to the US Congress, or cancel his upcoming trip to Washington.

“Mr. Prime Minister, are you going to announce next week on the rostrum in Congress that you accept the hostage deal?” Lapid asks during a heated debate in the Knesset plenum. “If that’s what you will say, go in peace with our blessings. It is the right and moral thing to do. If that’s not your plan, don’t go to Washington.”

There are people within Netanyahu’s own bureau “who think and say that you should announce in a speech to Congress that you accept the hostage deal. Not in a twisty wording, not with conditions that would screw it up again,” Lapid continues, calling on Netanyahu to otherwise not “give a speech in the air-conditioning of Washington while the hostages are dying of suffocation in the tunnels of Gaza.”

Lapid also reiterates his prior criticism of Netanyahu for spending two hours discussing incitement against him during Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting rather than focusing on the fate of those suffering because of the war, saying the premier had “not said a word about the hostages.”

“You said that in the Middle East, only the strong are valued. If this is true, why did Hamas invade the territory of the State of Israel on your watch [and] kill 1,200 citizens? Did it not occur to them that there was someone strong before them that they should be afraid of? It’s because they knew something about you,” Lapid accuses.

Netanyahu slammed for reportedly saying ‘hostages are suffering but they are not dying’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, July 17, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu draws fierce criticism from families of Gaza hostages following a report that during last night’s security cabinet meeting he dismissed the danger to those being held in Gaza.

According to the Ynet news site, Netanyahu said during a discussion about the ceasefire and hostage deal being negotiated with Hamas that “we shouldn’t be stressed. Hamas is the one that should be stressed. The hostages are suffering but they are not dying.”

In a statement, the Hostages Families Forum calls on Netanyahu to “immediately explain” his statement.

“The prime minister’s remarks are not only deeply hurtful to the hostages’ families but also factually inaccurate and dangerously irresponsible. The grim reality is undeniable: hostages have already been murdered in captivity. More hostages may be losing their lives at this very moment,” the group says, adding that the negotiations “have reached a critical juncture” and that the current proposal “represents the only viable path to secure the release of all hostages.”

“It is imperative that the entire Israeli government, led by the prime minister, do everything in its power to expedite the signing of this deal, rather than creating obstacles,” the forum declares.

It remains unclear how many hostages are still alive in Gaza, with a Hamas official telling CNN last month that “no one has any idea about this.”

The full text of the Israeli hostage release-ceasefire proposal seems to acknowledge this, stating that if “the number of living Israeli hostages to be released” at a certain stage does not reach the number agreed, “the difference will be completed through the release of a corresponding number of human remains.”

It is believed that 120 hostages are being held by terrorists in Gaza. The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 42 of them.

Labor MK excoriates Netanyahu, says he’s exploiting war to hand ‘bribe money’ to allies

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers at the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, July 17, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Labor MK Naama Lazimi slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, blaming him for strengthening Hamas ahead of October 7 and accusing him of playing political games while Israelis suffer.

Addressing the prime minister during a so-called 40 signatures debate on the “government of abandonment” called by the opposition, Lazimi says that while “entire settlements were bombed and destroyed,” Netanyahu “took advantage of the war to distribute bribe money to [his] cronies.”

“The reservists and their wives, the orphans of the IDF, the farmers — all these will wait. The main thing is that the [coalition] partners loot as quickly as possible before the burning tower of cards finally collapses,” she says, apparently referring to bids to allocate money to priorities of his ultra-Orthodox and far-right coalition partners.

“You strengthened those who slaughtered us. You handed [Hamas] suitcases of dollars in cash, you saw these murders as an asset. You avoided killing the heads of Hamas at least six times. Until now you have not explained to the public why. You are afraid to meet the public because you know that lives have been ruined because of your abandonment,” she says, repeating several unverified claims against Netanyahu — charging him with preferring “political survival over saving lives.”

“The one who prevents the greatest mitzvah of ransoming captives is the one who has forgotten what it is to be a Jew and a human being,” Lazimi adds, paraphrasing a hot mic comment made over 20 years ago by Netanyahu that the left “has forgotten what it is to be a Jew.”

‘Put pressure on Sinwar, not me’: In heated Knesset session, Netanyahu defends management of Gaza war

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, July 17, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defends his record during a stormy Knesset session, insisting that Israel is “making systematic progress toward achieving the goals of the war: the release of the hostages, the elimination of Hamas and the guarantee that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.”

Speaking during a so-called 40 signatures debate — one the opposition can call once a month and which the prime minister is legally obliged to attend — on the “government of abandonment,” Netanyahu hits back at critics, arguing that Israel is achieving its goals in Gaza through a “combination of political and military pressure.”

“Hamas is indeed under pressure because we are eliminating its commanders, thousands of its terrorists, because we have entered Rafah and [the] Philadelphi [Corridor] and we are holding it by the throat,” he says.

Saying that he has resisted “enormous pressures at home and abroad,” Netanyahu declares that despite critics in the Knesset and media allegedly claiming that it is impossible to defeat Hamas, Israel is “on the way to absolute victory.”

“We are going to eliminate this neo-Nazi government in Gaza, to eliminate the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and we are progressing there step by step,” he says. “We were told that Hamas will not agree to release hostages without us first agreeing to end the war. Suddenly it agrees. The more we persist in the pressure – it will give up more and more. And this is the only way to free” the hostages.

“You would give [Muhammad] Deif a gas agreement in Gaza as you did in Lebanon,” Netanyahu charges, referring to a deal that demarcated a maritime border between Israel and Lebanon that was signed under now-Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s government in 2022.

Muhammad Deif was the commander of Hamas’s military wing and is believed to have likely been killed in a recent Israeli airstrike.

“We are determined to win the war and return all our hostages. The key is pressure, pressure and more pressure. The pressure I’m talking about should be directed at [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar. Your pressure on me will not help,” Netanyahu concludes, dismissing calls to establish a state commission of inquiry into the government’s failure on October 7 now, while the war is ongoing.

Report: Gallant says if deal not reached in next 2 weeks, hostages’ fate is ‘sealed’

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks during an assembly session in the plenum hall of the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on July 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said in recent closed meetings that if a hostage and ceasefire deal isn’t reached in the next two weeks, the abductees’ fate will have been “sealed,” the Ynet news site reports, without citing sources.

The outlet says Gallant believes conditions have ripened for a deal with Hamas, but says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hindering progress in order to not lose the support of far-right elements of the coalition.

The report says the negotiating team believed a deal could have been signed even a week ago, citing a breakthrough, but adds that new conditions since announced by Netanyahu are threatening negotiations.

The heads of the IDF, Shin Bet and Mossad all believe agreements are unlikely to be reached that meet Netanyahu’s demands that Israel remain on the Gaza-Egypt border and physically inspect anyone returning to Gaza’s north. All three have reportedly told Netanyahu there is no security impediment to approving a deal that doesn’t include those demands.

Gallant tells Austin Gaza operations have created ‘conditions necessary’ for hostage deal

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (R) welcomes Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to the Pentagon in Washington, June 25, 2024. (Saul Loeb/AFP)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tells his American counterpart, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, that IDF operations in the Gaza Strip have “led to the conditions necessary” for a hostage deal with the Hamas terror group.

In their overnight call, Gallant provided Austin with an assessment of the IDF’s ongoing operations in the Gaza Strip.

“Gallant detailed the precise operation targeting Hamas military leader Muhammed Deif, referred to as the ‘Osama bin Laden of Gaza,'” his office says.

The Defense Ministry says that Gallant “emphasized that IDF operations in Gaza have led to the conditions necessary to achieve an agreement for the return of hostages, which is the highest moral imperative at this time.”

The two also discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and according to the ministry, Gallant told Austin of plans to build a field hospital along the Gaza border to treat sick Palestinian children.

Also according to the Israeli readout, Gallant “emphasized Israel’s determination to ensure the safe return of its northern communities to their homes,” amid daily attacks by Hezbollah, “whether it be via agreement or other means.”

Gallant and Austin also discussed “topics raised by the strategic consultative group that is meeting in the United States to further strengthen joint defense cooperation in the face of Iranian aggression,” the ministry adds.

Israel releases 13 Palestinian detainees into Gaza

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reports that 13 Gazans held by Israel were released back into the Strip this morning.

The detainees crossed into Gaza through the Kissufim checkpoint and were transported by ambulances to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Among them is an elderly woman, according to a short clip shared by PRCS.

🚨Palestine Red Crescent ambulance crews attended to 13 detainees who were released today at the Kissufim checkpoint in central #Gaza and transferred them to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. pic.twitter.com/doowNXNZhR

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) July 17, 2024

Israel has repeatedly freed Gazans arrested after October 7. Among them was the the director of Shifa Hospital Mohammad Abu Salmiya earlier his month, which caused a political uproar.

The decision to release some of the detainees appears to be motivated by the overcrowding in Israel’s detention facilities, particularly after the court-ordered closing of the Sde Teiman prison, which opened after October 7.

Man in his 70s drowns in Dead Sea

A man in his 70s has drowned in the Dead Sea, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says.

Medics pulled the unconscious man from the sea and tried to resuscitate him but eventually pronounced him dead, MDA says.

Visiting US CENTCOM head meets IDF chief to discuss range of regional issues

US CENTCOM chief Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla (right) meets with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi (center) and Northern Command chief, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, in an image published July 17, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has held a series of meetings with Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, during the US CENTCOM chief’s visit to Israel.

The IDF says the pair visited several units and met with other senior Israeli officers.

“They held a joint assessment of the situation in which they discussed strategic security issues, cooperation in the region, and the expansion of operational tools, as part of the response to challenges in the Middle East and in general,” the IDF says.

Yesterday, Kurilla met with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Liberman meets Bennett in Tel Aviv amid talk of potential new right-wing alliance

Yisrael Beytenu party chief Avigdor Liberman meets former prime minister Naftali Bennett in downtown Tel Aviv, amid talks for the potential establishment of a unified right-wing party that could challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc in possible elections.

Several reporters share a photo of Bennett and Liberman holding a coffee meeting, crediting the information and the image to the Yisrael Beytenu chair’s office.

לשכת ליברמן מעדכנת: פגישה בין נפתלי בנט לאביגדור ליברמן מתקיימת כעת.

ולא שוכחת לצרף תמונה 😉 pic.twitter.com/L2qRNJQMNH

— Yanir Cozin – יניר קוזין (@yanircozin) July 17, 2024

Asked by The Times of Israel during his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset on Monday if he is in touch with Bennett, Liberman replied that he had met with him as recently as two days ago and “will also meet with him this coming Wednesday.”

Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen has reportedly backed out of plans to join such an alliance.

High Court justices note risks posed by comptroller’s Oct. 7 probe, but find no current alternative

Justice Noam Sohlberg during a High Court of Justice hearing on the state comptroller's investigation into the failings relating to the October 7 Hamas attacks, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, July 17, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

High Court justices express concern that an investigation by the State Comptroller’s Office into the multi-level failings during and before Hamas’s October 7 attack will harm the IDF’s ability to concentrate on fighting the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza, in a hearing over petitions demanding that the court order the comptroller to end his review of the catastrophe.

The petitioners argue that such a review is not in the purview of the comptroller, would harm the IDF’s operational capabilities, and could ignore political responsibility for the devastating invasion and massacres.

“We can expect a severe problem with [the ability of the IDF] to focus [on the war while being investigated], we all understand that. How do you overcome that?” asks Justice Noam Sohlberg, who heads the three-justice panel presiding over the case.

Pleading for the state comptroller, Eliya Zunz Koller responds that the courts do not automatically accept claims by security agencies that a particular process would harm state security, and points out that the Basic Law: The State Comptroller stipulates that the State Comptroller’s Office is not subject to the government.

A High Court of Justice hearing on the state comptroller’s investigation into the failings relating to the October 7 Hamas attacks, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, July 17, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Justice Yael Wilner insists however that “it’s not a matter of the Basic Laws, it’s a matter of the security of us all.”

The justices nevertheless express skepticism, with Sohlberg pointing out that a state commission of inquiry, which the petitioners say should instead investigate the events, has yet to be set up by the government, which insists that such a panel can only be established after the war has finished.

“If the war continues for many more months, when should the examination start?” Sohlberg asks the attorney for the Ometz Movement, one of the petitioning organizations.

Justice David Mintz asks Eliad Shraga, head of the another petitioner, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, what happens if the government never establishes a state commission of inquiry.

Shraga sidesteps the question and insists it is crucial to establish one immediately to give cover to the state and the IDF from legal proceedings against Israel in the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court.

He argues that the state comptroller, Matanyahu Englman, does not have a record as a jurist and does not enjoy widespread public trust that would convince the courts in The Hague that this was a serious process. “This is a severe problem,” insists Shraga.

Sohlberg asks the representative of the Attorney General’s Office, which also opposes an investigation by the state comptroller, why a state commission of inquiry would itself not distract the focus of the armed forces, but he avoids the question, noting that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has said such an inquiry is the best forum for investigating the October 7 failures but has not said when it should be established.

Nasrallah threatens to launch missiles into Israeli areas that have not yet been targeted

An image grab taken from Hezbollah's al-Manar TV on July 10, 2024, shows the Lebanese terror group's chief Hassan Nasrallah giving a speech from an undisclosed location in Lebanon. (Al-Manar/AFP)

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah says the Lebanese terror group may soon target towns in Israel that haven’t so far been subjected to its rocket attacks if the IDF “continues to strike civilians.”

Lebanese official media reported yesterday that five people were killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, including three Syrian children. In response, the Shiite terror group fired 100 rockets that targeted several areas of northern Israel in four separate waves last night and early this morning.

In an address to mark the Shiite festival of Ashura, Nasrallah further warns Israel to refrain from a ground incursion into its northern neighbor.

“If your tanks come to southern Lebanon, you will not suffer a shortage of tanks, because you will have no tanks left,” he says, according to a report in the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar network.

The comment appears to refer to a response given by the IDF to a High Court petition earlier this week, in which the army stated that it does not have enough tanks to launch a pilot training program for female troops since many tanks were damaged in the war, contradicting previous statements by senior military officers.

Nasrallah vows to continue attacks against Israel as long as the war in Gaza persists, and denies alleged rumors that a diplomatic settlement has been reached to halt the conflict on the Lebanese border.

“All that is being circulated about a finalized agreement regarding the situation on the Lebanese front is incorrect,” he says.

The Hezbollah leader further pledges to rebuild border towns and make them “more beautiful than they were,” and praises the residents for providing a “steadfast environment” to fighters of the “resistance.”

Hostage’s father: Netanyahu associate told us ‘conditions have ripened’ for deal

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) with Israel's Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, at the president's guest house, in Washington, DC, February 14, 2017. (Avi Ohayon/ GPO/ File)

Eli Albag, the father of Liri Albag, one of five surveillance soldiers kidnapped by terrorists from the Nahal Oz base on October 7, says a top government official has told him a hostage deal may be imminent.

Albag tells Army Radio that he and other relatives of abductees have recently met Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“He told us that conditions have ripened for a deal that can be implemented,” he says.

“When he speaks, it’s [as if] the prime minister is speaking. I believe him.”

Macron speaks to Arab leaders, condemns Israel’s Gaza strikes, settlement approvals

French President Emmanuel Macron reviews troops that will take part in the July 14th Bastille Day parade in Paris on July 2, 2024. (Aurelien Morissard/ POOL/ AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke last night with a series of Arab leaders about the war in Gaza, the Élysée Palace says.

Macron held calls with Egypt’s Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Qatar’s Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Bahrain’s Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa.

According to Macron’s office, he condemned IDF strikes on UN schools and the Mawasi humanitarian zone, “reiterating in the strongest terms the imperative that Israel must respect international humanitarian law.”

Israel has said it struck Hamas operatives making use of the civilian infrastructure, which would make the site a legitimate military target under international law.

The latter appears to be a reference to a Saturday strike on a secluded Hamas compound near the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone that likely killed Hamas’s military chief Muhammad Deif along with another senior commander. The IDF has assessed that a very small number of civilians were harmed in the attack

Macron also demanded that Hamas immediately release the hostages it is holding, and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The French leader panned Israel’s approval of new settlements, and welcomed EU sanctions against a series of far-right Israelis and organizations. Israel recently recognized several illegal West Bank outposts.

All the leaders expressed concern over potential escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, and called for “utmost restraint.” Macron said France would continue working to achieve a diplomatic solution to the conflict there, his office says.

Knesset committee chair blasts lack of orderly plan for ultra-Orthodox enlistment

Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) speaks during a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 16, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) accuses the government of having “no plan” for the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews during a hearing in the Knesset this morning.

“I don’t understand why it was so urgent to announce yesterday that thousands of conscription orders had been issued for the ultra-Orthodox, when today it turns out that there is no plan and no numbers,” he says, announcing that a follow-up discussion on the matter will take place in the committee tomorrow, during which he “expect[s] the IDF representatives to come with a detailed plan and present exact numbers.”

Edelstein’s committee is currently debating legislation that would set the age of exemption from mandatory service for Haredi yeshiva students at 21, down from the current 26, while “very slowly” increasing the rate of ultra-Orthodox enlistment.

Following the IDF’s announcement yesterday that it will begin sending out initial draft orders to members of the Haredi community on Sunday, Edelstein insists that there is “no indication of an orderly mechanism or clear criteria as to who is expected to receive the draft orders.”

“Such a move is expected to provoke absolute chaos among the ultra-Orthodox,” his office says in a statement.

In the wake of the government’s inability to deal with the issue legislatively, the High Court of Justice ruled last month that there is no legal basis for excluding Haredi men from the military draft, leading the Attorney General’s Office to instruct the Israel Defense Forces to immediately draft 3,000 Haredi young men.

Addressing the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee earlier this month, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that while the military currently requires some 10,000 new soldiers, it can only accommodate the enlistment of an additional 3,000 ultra-Orthodox this year, which would be in addition to the 1,800 Haredi soldiers who are drafted annually.

IDF says rocket alert in Gaza border area was false alarm

Rocket sirens that sounded in the Gaza border area southern community of Kerem Shalom a short while ago were determined to be false alarms, the military says.

Israel knows abducted female soldiers are alive, in tunnels, says mother of one of them

Surveillance soldier Liri Albag who is held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, pictured (right) in captivity in a photograph that was made public by her family on July 16, 2024 (Courtesy)

Israel recently received a sign of life from female soldiers held hostage in the Gaza Strip, says the mother of one of them.

Shiri Albag, whose daughter Liri is one of five surveillance soldiers kidnapped by terrorists from the Nahal Oz base on October 7, tells Ynet that “around a month and a half ago, we received a sign of life from the girls.

“We weren’t told more than that,” she adds. “We know the girls are alive. They have been surviving, in tunnels, for more than seven months.”

Yesterday, the families agreed to make public photos of the soldiers from their first days of captivity, injured and bruised.

Albag says the photos are taken from a Hamas video retrieved by the IDF during operations in Gaza and first shown to the families about a month ago.

“Each family saw the part [in the video] of their daughter,” she says. “We saw a staged video — [captors] told her to say where she’s from and how old she is, ‘lie down and get up.’ She did whatever she was told, with tears in her eyes.”

Albag adds that she knows that the women were later separated from one another.

Lawmaker in PM’s party says he won’t back government if Israel leaves Gaza-Egypt border

Likud MK Moshe Saada speaks during a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting on the ultra-Orthodox draft law at the Knesset in Jerusalemת June 25, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

A lawmaker in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party says he won’t support the government if it agrees to withdraw IDF troops from the Gaza-Egypt border, known as the Philadelphi Corridor.

Multiple reports in recent days have indicated that Israel has been showing increasing flexibility on the matter, with negotiators agreeing to discuss alternatives to direct Israeli control of the key frontier, including electronic surveillance systems controlled by Israel aimed at preventing weapons smuggling into the Strip. Netanyahu’s office has denied the reports.

“Put simply, if we won’t be at the Philadelphi Corridor, we won’t be in the State of Israel,” Likud MK Moshe Saada tells Radio 103FM, describing the border strip as Hamas’s “oxygen pipe.”

“Leaving the Philadelphi Corridor is an existential threat to the Jewish nation’s life in the Land of Israel. This is one of the red lines because unfortunately, it has been written in blood,” he says.

Asked if he will resign if such a withdrawal goes ahead, Saada says: “I won’t support the government. I have told this to the prime minister in the past and I think he agrees with me.”

IDF: Palestinian tried to enter West Bank settlement overnight; report says fence breached

A suspected Palestinian terrorist tried overnight to enter the settlement of Telem in the southern West Bank, before managing to flee, the military says.

According to the IDF, local security officers reached one of the entrances to the settlement after the Palestinian was spotted there, and fired shots in the air. The suspect then fled the scene.

The Kan public broadcaster reports that the man breached the fence and was inside the settlement’s perimeter for 14 minutes.

The IDF says the officers found “various items” apparently belonging to the suspect at the scene. The Hatzalah ambulance service says one of these items was a knife.

“IDF troops continue searches and pursuing the terrorist,” the military says.

There are no injuries in the incident.

IDF says 25 targets struck in Gaza in past day, Hamas gunmen killed throughout Strip

IDF troops operate in Gaza in a handout photo cleared for publication on July 17, 2024. (IDF)

Over the past day, more than 25 targets were struck by Israeli fighter jets and other aircraft in the Gaza Strip, the IDF says.

According to the military, the targets included sites near a rocket launcher used to fire three projectiles at Sderot yesterday, buildings used by terror groups, booby-trapped buildings, other infrastructure, and cells of gunmen.

In one drone strike in northern Gaza, a Hamas sniper and another member of the terror were killed, the IDF says.

The strikes come as operations continue in southern Gaza’s Rafah, where the IDF says troops with the 162nd Division directed airstrikes that killed several gunmen and destroyed a rocket launcher in the past day.

In the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, the IDF says reservists of the Alexandroni Brigade and 8th Brigade killed several gunmen and destroyed buildings used by Hamas as observation posts.

Netanyahu said seeking to defang eventual commission of inquiry into Oct. 7 failures

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly planning to thwart the eventual formation of a full-on state commission of inquiry into the failures before and during the October 7 Hamas onslaught, searching for ways to circumvent what he views as a threat to his continued leadership.

The Walla news site reports that as pressure mounts to form such a commission — which the premier contends should not be formed while the war in Gaza is ongoing — Netanyahu’s associates are mulling alternatives that would cause the makeup of the commission to be more acceptable to him.

Current law stipulates that the Supreme Court chief justice appoints the members of state commissions of inquiry — a role currently filled by Justice Uzi Vogelman in an acting capacity, as a judge-appointing panel has been refusing to appoint a permanent chief for many months.

Vogelman is seen by Netanyahu as an adversary who would likely tap predecessor Esther Hayut to head the commission, in what would be “a disaster” for the prime minister, Walla reported in May.

Without citing sources, Walla now reports that Netanyahu’s office is weighing several options for improving his standing after the war, including passing legislation enabling a “special state commission of inquiry,” with the same powers, whose members are picked by a “broad agreement” of 80 Knesset members, rather than by the Supreme Court chief.

Another option said to be on the table is calling a referendum to choose the commission’s members.

The report says that in any case, Netanyahu is seeking to postpone the commission’s formation until at least after the next election.

Likud minister casts as ‘uninteresting’ far-right threats to topple the government

File - Education Minister Yoav Kisch at the ministry's Jerusalem offices, August 31, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Education Minister Yoav Kisch of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party appears to dismiss out of hand frequent threats by a pair of far-right coalition parties to bring down the coalition.

Members of Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party have for months been periodically issuing public threats to topple the government over what they view as insufficiently tough action in the war against Hamas in Gaza, and excessive flexibility in talks for a hostage and ceasefire deal.

“I really don’t think that anyone is affected by these threats,” Kisch tells the Kan public broadcaster. “The remarks by Ben Gvir or [Religious Zionism MK Orit] Strock on the negotiations are uninteresting.”

He refuses to go into more detail on the matter, arguing that public discourse should avoid focusing on details of Israel’s negotiating positions in the talks.

FBI said to use Israeli technology to quickly crack phone of Trump’s would-be-assassin

Illustrative: The offices of Israeli company Cellebrite, a provider of mobile forensic software, in Petah Tikva, March 24, 2016. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)

The FBI used Israeli technology to break into the phone of former US president Donald Trump’s would-be assassin, the Washington Post reports, citing people familiar with the investigation.

Investigators enlisted Cellebrite to hack into the phone of Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel, Pennsylvania, who opened fire at a Trump rally in nearby Butler on Saturday. Crooks, who used an assault rifle legally purchased by his father 11 years ago, killed one person and critically injured two, and one of his bullets grazed the Republican presidential candidate’s right ear. A US Secret Service sniper shot and killed Crooks on the spot.

The shooter’s phone was recovered from his body and was hacked to help determine his motive, which remains elusive. While it could otherwise have possibly taken investigators weeks or even months to crack the phone, the Israeli technology enabled them to get the job done in just 40 minutes, the report says.

Cellebrite, which is listed on the NASDAQ, has come under scrutiny from rights groups in the past over the sale of its services to repressive regimes, including Pakistan and Belarus.

Investigators are considering the possibility that Crooks used two phones, after discovering a phone with a dead battery at his home in Bethel Park, where he lived with his parents, the Post said.

The newspaper cites two neighbors and Crooks’ school counselor as saying that Crooks and his parents were normal, with one neighbor describing him as a “quiet, dorky kid” typical of the neighborhood. The counselor, who worked with the shooter’s older sister, denies reports that Crooks was bullied while at school. He is said to describe Crooks as “quiet,” “intelligent,” “cooperative” and “well-spoken.”

Two people familiar with the situation are cited by the Post as saying that Crooks’ parents, both of whom are licensed social workers, were loving though possibly not attuned to specifics of their son’s life. Two neighbors recall seeing Trump signs on the family’s lawn.

Report: Rescued hostage Noa Argamani, relatives of abductees to join Netanyahu on US trip

Released hostage Noa Argamani attends the funeral of her mother, Liora Argamani, at a cemetery in Beersheba, southern Israel, on July 2, 2024. (Dudu Greenspan/Flash90)

Noa Argamani, a Gaza hostage rescued last month in a daring IDF operation, will join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he flies to the United States next week to address Congress, the Ynet news site reports, without citing a source.

The outlet says Argamani will be flying with the premier, as will her father, Yaakov Argamani. Also joining will be other relatives of abductees, including Ditza Or, the mother of Noa Argamani’s hostage partner Avinatan Or.

Family members of victims will also be joining, according to the report.

Hamas-led terrorists systematically committed hundreds of war crimes on Oct. 7 — in-depth HRW report

Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists are seen on their way to cross the Israel-Gaza border fence from Khan Younis during the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023. (Said Khatib/ AFP/ File)

Hamas led other Palestinian armed groups in committing hundreds of war crimes in the October 7 onslaught on Israel that set off the war in Gaza, Human Rights Watch says in a new, comprehensive report.

One of the most in-depth international studies on the unprecedented incursion into southern Israel outlines a host of potential war crimes cases during the attack, which killed some 1,200 people and resulted in 251 people taken hostages, most of them civilians.

“It’s impossible for us to put a number on the specific instances [of war crimes],” HRW associate director Belkis Wille tells a news conference, adding that “there were obviously hundreds on that day.”

The crimes include “deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian objects; wilful killing of persons in custody; cruel and other inhumane treatment; sexual and gender-based violence; hostage taking; mutilation and despoiling (robbing) of bodies; use of human shields; and pillage and looting,” says the report.

Although Palestinian terror group Hamas is recognized as the orchestrator of the attack, the report lists other armed groups that committed war crimes on October 7, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Wille points to the “incredibly organized and coordinated nature” of the assault on cities, kibbutz communities, music festivals and military bases around Gaza.

“Across many attack sites, fighters fired directly at civilians, often at close range, as they tried to flee, and at people who happened to be driving vehicles in the area,” says the report. “They hurled grenades and shot into safe rooms and other shelters and fired rocket-propelled grenades at homes. They set some houses on fire, burning and suffocating people to death, and forcing out others who they then captured or killed.”

HRW says it “found evidence of acts of sexual and gender-based violence by fighters including forced nudity, and the posting without consent of sexualized images on social media.”

The report quotes a team of the UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict who say they interviewed people “who reported witnessing rape and other sexual violence” including “rape and gang rape, in at least three locations.”

But it says the full extent of sexual and gender-based violence “will likely never be fully known” as victims have died, or stigma will stop them from talking out, or Israeli first responders “largely” did not collect relevant evidence in real time amid the chaos of that day.

In a nine-page response to the HRW report, Hamas says its Qassam Brigades planned and led the October 7 attack, not the Hamas political movement, and that fighters were instructed not to target civilians.

HRW says it has found the Hamas response “false” and that “the intentional killing and hostage-taking of civilians was planned and highly coordinated.”

IDF says it carried out overnight strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces says it struck Hezbollah targets overnight, with fighters jet hitting “terror infrastructure” in several southern Lebanese towns while artillery “removed a threat” in another village.

An IDF statement also says some 15 rockets were fired in the overnight barrage from Lebanon, some of which were intercepted by air defenses and the rest landing in open areas, resulting in no injuries or damage.

Austin presses Gallant on Gaza aid as US readies to dismantle beleaguered pier

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, standing right, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, standing left, listen to the playing of the Israeli National Anthem during an arrival ceremony at the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a call with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stressed the importance of Israel increasing the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza as the US gears to soon shut down the temporary pier that it established off the Gaza coast.

The pier was a largely failed project announced by US President Joe Biden in his State of the Union earlier this year. It cost some $230 million and was only operational for several weeks after being hampered by choppy weather conditions.

The Pentagon has defended the project, noting that it still enabled the delivery of 8,100 metric tons of aid, but Biden admitted disappointment last week that it hadn’t been more effective.

In today’s call, Austin “stressed the importance of increasing the flow of humanitarian assistance through all land crossings and supporting aid deliveries to Ashdod Port in Israel for onward distribution in Gaza,” the US readout says.

US officials have said that while a lack of aid getting into Gaza was once the issue, more recently the problem has been distributing that aid throughout the Strip amid increased lawlessness.

Austin and Gallant also discussed ongoing tensions between Israel and Hezbollah along with “military cooperation in response to a range of other regional security threats.”

“Secretary Austin and Minister Gallant reaffirmed the shared desire of ensuring the enduring defeat of Hamas and securing the safe release of all the hostages held captive by Hamas, including American citizens,” the US readout says.

Israeli-Palestinian youth choir advances out of audition round on ‘America’s Got Talent’

A youth choir made up of Israelis and Palestinians has advanced through the audition round of the “America’s Got Talent” TV show after a rendition of Phillip Phillips’ “Home” that visibly moved all four judges.

Describing themselves to the judges after their performance, one of the Palestinian members of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus says they’re “a group of Palestinians and Israelis. We believe through music and through working together and talking to each other, we are taking a step forward into building that amazing future where there is justice and there is freedom and there is equality and there is inclusion.”

Asked what they’ll do if they win the $1 million prize, an Israeli member responds, “We will create more spaces just like this chorus so that people can meet people who are different from them, so we can create this change.”

As the voting begins, Heidi Klum tells the Jerusalem Youth Chorus that their song gave her goosebumps and praised their harmony.

The Jerusalem Youth Chorus brings unity and harmony to @AGT! 🎶✌️ #AGT #AGTAuditions pic.twitter.com/tF236qptlJ

— AGT Auditions (@AGTAuditions) July 17, 2024

Jewish judge Howie Mandel echoes Klum. “I got those same goosebumps. This is a world anthem. We all live on this planet together and thank you so much for appearing on that stage.”

“Spectacular. Heartwarming. The voices are amazing. It was inspiring. What a treat,” adds Sophia Vergara.

The sometimes prickly Simon Cowell is similarly touched. “I love this audition. You made something very complicated beautiful through friendship,” he says.

All four judges vote to move the Israeli-Palestinian choir on to the next round to cheers from the audience.

“You guys symbolize so much for so many right now. Thank you,” AGT host Terry Crews tells the elated teens backstage.

Former chief Sephardic rabbi: Even Haredi ‘deadbeats’ are exempt from IDF service

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef sells the hametz (leavened food) of the State of Israel ahead of the upcoming Passover holiday, in Jerusalem, April 21, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

In a recording published by the Kan public broadcaster, the former Sephardic chief can be heard appearing to say all ultra-Orthodox men should be exempt from mandatory military enlistment, even those not engaged in full-time study at a yeshiva.

“All learned persons [sons of Torah] are exempt from going to the army, even if they’re deadbeats and don’t study,” Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef says. “There are female soldiers, officers and profanity. There are terrible things there — don’t go there, period.”

Hezbollah claims responsibility for latest rocket salvo, says it targeted 2 kibbutzim

Hezbollah releases a statement claiming responsibility for the barrage on the north, saying it fired Katyusha rockets at the Western Galilee kibbutzim of Sa’ar and Gesher Haziv in response to an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon that reportedly killed five Syrians, including three children.

There have been no reports of injuries or damage in Israel following the rocket salvo, part of which was intercepted.

GOP Jewish leader: Trump’s call to swiftly defeat Hamas amounts to ‘blank check for Israel’ in Gaza

Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks speaks during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, July 16, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)

MILWAUKEE — Continuing his address to the Republican National Convention, Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks touts Donald Trump’s record on Israel as president, promising the GOP nominee will “rebuild the US-Israel relationship after four disastrous years under President Biden.”

Brooks excoriates Biden for withholding 2,000-pound bombs from Israel, which the president says he doesn’t want being dropped on highly populated areas.

Trump has also criticized Israel’s prosecution of the war against Hamas but has also asserted that the IDF should be allowed to “finish the job quickly.”

Speaking to reporters after his address, Brooks says this message amounts to a “blank check for Israel.”

“If you need to carpet bomb the area, do it. Just get it done. Rip the band aid off. Finish the job because Hamas needs to be destroyed,” Brooks says.

“This is just taking months and months. All [Trump] is saying is that time is not Israel’s ally. The longer this continues, the more public support erodes, the more international support erodes, and Trump’s point [is] do what you have to do, get it done and get out,” he adds.

RNC crowd erupts in cheers for Israel, as Jewish speaker draws contrast to Democrats

Attendees hold up an Israeli as Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks (out of frame) speaks during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, July 16, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)

MILWAUKEE — The crowd at the Republican National Convention erupts after Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks begins his speech by asking those who support Israel to cheer.

“If someone tried that at the Democrats’ convention, they’d be booed off the stage! But here at the Republican Convention, we proudly and loudly stand with Israel!” Brooks says to more cheers from the several thousand GOP members in the stands at the Fiserv Forum arena for the second night of the RNC in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Hours earlier, the Democratic Party advanced a platform that maintains support for Israel, but the saliency of that backing has indeed waned as the war in Gaza has dragged on.

The RJC leader pledges that the Republican party will continue to build on its support from Jewish voters in the coming election.

Between two-thirds and three-quarters of Jews vote Democrat, but the GOP has in fact enjoyed a gradual boost in recent years. Still, the large majority who have stuck with the Democratic Party have infuriated Trump, who has repeatedly accused them of being disloyal to Israel and their faith.

Touching on rising antisemitism in the US since October 7, Brooks takes out a red yarmulke inscribed with Trump’s name and says, “President Trump will bring back law and order so that American Jews can once again wear a kippah and walk the streets without fear.”

Republicans booed President Joe Biden for withholding a weapons shipment from Israel during the RNC Tuesday. "There is only one pro-Israel party and it's the Republican Party," Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks said.

Our live blog: https://t.co/zHn2L0O8zA pic.twitter.com/00QKG3Sy8f

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) July 16, 2024

Over a dozen rockets shot at Western Galilee in overnight salvo; no injuries reported

Some 15-20 projectiles were fired in the latest rocket barrage on the north, according to Hebrew media reports, after sirens sounded in communities across the Western Galilee an hour ago.

Most of the rockets were intercepted or impacted in open areas.

There are no immediate reports of injuries or damages.

Rocket sirens blare overnight in Nahariya and towns across Western Galilee

Warning sirens are activated overnight in Nahariya and communities across the Western Galilee, following earlier barrages of rocket fire by Hezbollah.

US envoy to UN meets with Lebanon’s FM amid push to defuse Israel-Hezbollah tensions

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield met earlier today with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib to discuss efforts to deescalate tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, with the aim of enabling displaced people on both sides of the Blue Line to return to their homes.

“Thomas-Greenfield reaffirmed the important role the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon continues to play in the region,” a US readout says

Islamic State claims deadly attack on Shiite mosque in Oman

This image grab from a UGC video taken on July 16, 2024, shows shows people fleeing the scene of a deadly attack later claimed by Islamic State at the Imam Ali Mosque in Oman's capital Muscat. (UGC/AFP)

Islamic State claims responsibility for an attack at a Shiite Muslim mosque in Oman, where at least six people, including a policeman, were killed and 28 wounded, in a rare terror operation in one of the most stable countries in the Middle East, the jihadist group says in a statement on Telegram.