July 24: Hamas says French announcement reflects growing global support for Palestinian cause

Blasting Israeli ‘aid denial,’ Australian PM says every effort should be made to end Gaza starvation

Every effort must be made to safeguard innocent life and end the suffering and starvation of the people of Gaza, the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says in a statement, describing the situation as a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

“Israel’s denial of aid and the killing of civilians, including children, seeking access to water and food cannot be defended or ignored,” Albanese says in the statement.

Footage shows far-right activists blocking aid trucks en route to Gaza

Palestinian media is airing footage of far-right activists blocking a road being used by several trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza.

Proponents of such actions claim Hamas steals the aid entering Gaza, while critics say blocking aid further exacerbates the humanitarian crisis in the Strip.

مستوطنون يغلقون الطريق لمنع عبور شاحنات المساعدات المتجهة إلى قطاع غزة pic.twitter.com/z93IcYZmZS

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) July 25, 2025

Rubio: Macron’s Palestine recognition serves Hamas, is slap in the face to Oct. 7 victims

The US “strongly rejects” French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweets.

“This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th,” Rubio adds.

Israeli envoy reportedly angers Emiratis over ‘undignified’ conduct at Abu Dhabi bar

Yossi Shelley, director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, at a Finance Committee meeting at the Knesset on June 5, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel’s Ambassador to the UAE Yossi Shelley has reportedly upset his Emirati hosts over inappropriate conduct during an incident at a bar several months ago.

Shelley was out on a Friday night in Abu Dhabi with several friends and acted in an “undignified” manner, Channel 12 reports, citing three sources familiar with the incident, who said the Israeli envoy “crossed the boundaries of personal space”

Shelley’s personal security guards even reported the incident to their superiors.

The Emirati government got wind of the incident and is unhappy about it, but has refrained from lodging a formal complaint to Jerusalem, Channel 12 says.

An Emirati source tells the network that the government would have ordered Shelley to leave the country had it not been for his position.

Responding to the Channel 12 report, Shelley says in a statement that he was made aware of conduct that the Emiratis interpreted as disrespectful. He stresses that it took place at a private event and was not related to his work as ambassador. In light of the concern raised, he says he has taken the matter into consideration.

Settlers said to disconnect water supply for 30 Palestinian villages in order to fill up pool

Settlers have taken over a spring that is used to supply water for 30 Palestinian villages in the Ramallah area, Haaretz reports.

The settlers dismantled the flow of the Ein Samia spring’s water to neighboring villages and instead connected it to a nearby pool, according to the report.

Ein Samia includes five wells that belong to the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Water Authority. The wells were vandalized four times in the past month.

Nonetheless, the ID has not deployed troops to secure the spring, and no suspects have been arrested.

Settlers have damaged security cameras at Ein Samia and vandalized water infrastructure in what has caused prolonged water outages to the neighboring villages.

The pool that the settlers are using Ein Samia to fill is called “Shepherds Spring,” and is named after two Israelis who were killed in a 2023 terror attack.

In a video urging the public to donate to the pool, settlers say it has pumped water to the Ramallah area since 1965. “But we did not give up, and after significant efforts, Shepherds Spring is coming back to life,” says Micha Sudai, the owner of an illegal farm outpost nearby.

Responding to the Haaretz report, the IDF says that in recent days, troops received several reports of Israeli civilians damaging water infrastructure in the Ein Samia area. However, by the time troops arrived at the scene, the suspects had fled.

The army says it takes the issue seriously and has allowed PA municipal workers to conduct repairs at Ein Samia.

Arrests in incidents of settler violence are highly rare and convictions are even less likely in what has led a growing number of Western countries to impose sanctions against violent settlers.

Canada condemns Israeli government over ‘humanitarian disaster’ in Gaza

Canada condemns the Israeli government for failing to prevent what Prime Minister Mark Carney calls a humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

Carney also accuses Israel of violating international law over the blocking of Canadian-funded aid delivery to civilians in the war-torn enclave.

“Canada calls on all sides to negotiate an immediate ceasefire in good faith. We reiterate our calls for Hamas to immediately release all the hostages, and for the Israeli government to respect the territorial integrity of the West Bank and Gaza,” Carney says on X.

Democratic senators demand probe of Palestinian-American killed by Israeli settlers

Saif Musallet, a Palestinian-American who was allegedly beaten to death by settlers in the West Bank on July 11, 2025. (X, used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)

More than half of the Democrats in the US Senate have called on US President Donald Trump’s administration to conduct an independent investigation into the death of Saif Musallet, an American citizen allegedly beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Their request is unlikely to be met, though, as even the Democratic Biden administration refused to launch independent probes into the killings of Palestinian-Americans by Israelis in the West Bank, instead relying on Israeli authorities to investigate.

Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland leads other Democrats in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi seeking an investigation, adding to pressure from Washington for accountability in Musallet’s death.

The senators also note what they called the repeated lack of accountability in the deaths of other Americans killed in the West Bank since January 2022, and asked for updates on the status of investigations into those killings.

Musallet, 20, was allegedly severely beaten this month when he was visiting family in Sinjil. His family, who are from Florida, said medics failed to reach him for hours and he died before reaching the hospital.

Unchecked settler attacks on Palestinians and Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank have risen since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, though violence has long simmered in the territory.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on July 15 that he had asked Israel to “aggressively investigate” Musallet’s death, describing it as a “criminal and terrorist act.”

The comments by Huckabee, a staunch supporter of Israeli settlement construction, marked a rare and pointed public intervention by the US following the death of a Palestinian-American in the West Bank

IDF: We intercepted drone from Yemen; Sderot siren was false alarm

The IDF says it intercepted a UAV from Yemen, adding that no sirens were triggered, as there was no threat posed to civilians.

In a separate statement, the IDF says that sirens triggered after midnight Thursday-Friday in the Gaza border towns of Sderot and Ibim were false alarms.

Welcoming French announcement, Hamas says it reflects growing global support for Palestinian cause

Hamas issues a statement welcoming the announcement by French President Emmanuel Macron that Paris will recognize a Palestinian state in September.

“Macron’s announcement is a positive step in the right direction toward justice for our oppressed Palestinian people and toward support for their right to establish their own state,” Hamas says.

Hamas says Macron’s decision “reflects the growing international conviction of the justice of the Palestinian cause and the failure of the occupation to distort the facts.”

“We call on all countries around the world that have not yet recognized the State of Palestine to follow France’s example,” the terror group adds.

Siding with Israel in aid row, Huckabee accuses UN of being ‘a tool of Hamas’

Amid the ongoing trading of blame for the Gaza humanitarian crisis, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee takes Jerusalem’s side and accuses the UN of being “a tool of Hamas.”

Huckabee points to the large amount of aid that has been amassing on the Gaza side of the border.

The UN says Israel repeatedly denies requests for aid workers to pick up the assistance, while creating conditions that have made it unsafe for that aid to be transported.

“US-based GHF is actually delivering food FOR FREE and SAFELY. UN food is either looted by Hamas or rots in the sun!” Huckabee tweets.

UN food is also distributed for free, but has indeed endured more looting as it is being distributed beyond the militarized zones from which GHF operates.

Moreover, hundreds of Gazans have reportedly still been killed trying to reach the GHF sites over the past two months, as they have been forced to walk long distances, while crossing IDF lines in order to pick up boxes of food.

Here are photos of UN trucks & enough food to feed all of Gaza but it sits rotting! UN is a tool of Hamas! US based GHF is actually delivering food FOR FREE and SAFELY. UN food is either looted by Hamas or rots in the sun! Photos from yesterday. pic.twitter.com/syvtbhxYHJ

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) July 24, 2025

Top Abbas aide thanks Macron for plan to recognize Palestinian state

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s deputy Hussein al-Sheikh thanks French President Emmanuel Macron after the latter announced that he would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.

“This position reflects France’s commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state,” Sheikh tweets.

Sheikh also thanks Saudi Arabia, which has been advancing the effort behind the scenes.

Israel rejected half of the requests to transport aid on Wednesday, UN spokesperson says

Piles of humanitarian aid packages wait to be picked up on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing in the Gaza Strip, Thursday, July 24, 2025. during a media tour organized by the Israeli army. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israel rejected half of the UN requests to transport humanitarian aid in Gaza on Wednesday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says.

Eight of the sixteen requests made by UN staff were rejected, Dujarric says during a press briefing. Two other requests were initially approved, but UN staff faced impediments on the ground. One denied request was for UN staff to pick up medical supplies that have been waiting on the Gazan side of the border.

Israel in recent days has intensified its assertion that the UN is to blame for the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, claiming that it is failing to pick up aid that is amassing at the border.

The UN in turn has contended that the hundreds of truckloads of aid sitting in a lot guarded by Israel are not readily accessible to humanitarian workers.

“Bureaucratic, logistical, administrative and other operational obstacles imposed by Israeli authorities; ongoing hostilities and access constraints within Gaza; and incidents of criminal looting, and more shooting incidents that have killed and injured people gathering to offload aid supplies along convoy routes” have hampered UN efforts to deliver aid, Dujarric says.

“Taken together, these factors have put people and humanitarian staff at grave risk and forced aid agencies on many occasions to pause the collection of cargo from crossings controlled by the Israeli authorities,” he adds.

The UN spokesperson also notes that Israel is trying to squeeze Gaza’s entire population into an area that makes up just 12 percent of the Strip.

“Meanwhile, the entry of shelter materials has been banned by the Israeli authorities for over 20 weeks, and the trickle of fuel now let in is also wholly insufficient,” Dujarric asserts.

A screening conducted earlier this month found that nearly 5,000 of the 56,000 Gazan children under the age of 5 were found to be acutely malnourished.

The nine percent rate is a uptick from 6 percent just a month earlier and from 2.4% in February.

Hamas ‘surprised’ by Witkoff rejection of its response, insists it’s still committed to making a deal

Hamas says it is “surprised” by US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s statement that rejected the terror group’s response to the latest Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal proposal.

Hamas insists in a statement that it has engaged constructively in the negotiations and submitted a response that was well-received by other mediators.

Hours earlier, Witkoff issued his own statement in which he declared that the US had decided to recall its negotiating team from Doha due to Hamas’s response, “which clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.”

“We are surprised by the negative statements made by US envoy Steve Witkoff regarding the movement’s position at a time when the mediators welcomed and expressed their satisfaction with [our] constructive and positive stance that opens the door to reaching a comprehensive agreement,” Hamas says in its statement.

The group says it remains committed to reaching a ceasefire agreement is working to overcome remaining obstacles.

A source involved in the mediation effort told The Times of Israel shortly before Witkoff’s statement that while Hamas’s response included a number of reservations to the latest hostage deal proposal, the gaps were still bridgeable.

PM: Minister who said Israel ‘racing to wipe out Gaza’ doesn’t represent the government

Breaking his silence over Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu’s declaration that Israel is advancing the destruction of Gaza to make the Strip totally Jewish, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that the far-right minister “does not speak for the government I lead.”

“He is not a member of the security cabinet that determines the conduct of the war,” Netanyahu says in a statement.

The prime minister does not announce any disciplinary action against Eliyahu who has a history of incendiary rhetoric against Palestinians.

US envoy confirms meeting with Israeli, Syrian officials in France

US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack confirms he met with Syrian and Israeli officials in Paris this evening, without specifying names.

According to multiple reports, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was slated to meet with Barrack and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani.

“Our goal was dialogue and de-escalation, and we accomplished precisely that,” says Barrack. “All parties reiterated their commitment to continuing these efforts.”

Foreign minister calls Macron announcement on recognition of Palestine ‘absurd’

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemns French President Emmanuel Macron’s “absurd and unserious” decision that Paris will formally recognize a Palestinian state in September.

“The French president’s pretension to conjure a permanent settlement in our land with a mere breath is absurd and unserious,” writes Sa’ar in a Hebrew-language statement on X.

Sa’ar argues that “A Palestinian state would be a Hamas state — just as the [Israeli] withdrawal from the Gaza Strip twenty years ago led to Hamas’s takeover there.”

Macron “cannot provide security for Israel,” Sa’ar adds, saying that “Israel’s attempt to base its security on Palestinian promises to fight terror failed entirely in the Oslo process,” referring to the 1990s peace initiative between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization that aimed for a two-state solution.

“Israel will no longer gamble with its security and its future,” he concludes.

Netanyahu condemns Macron, says Palestinian state would try to ‘annihilate Israel’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron (L), as they hold a joint press conference in Jerusalem on October 24, 2023. (Christophe Ena/Pool/AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that he “strongly condemn[s] President Macron’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the October 7 massacre.”

In a statement issued by his office, Netanyahu says “such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became. A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it.”

“Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel,” he says.

Ambassador disavows minister’s claim that government pushing to wipe out Gazans

Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter says Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu was “wrong, foolish and totally unrepresentative” of Israel and its leadership in claiming that the government is racing to wipe out Gaza and make it completely Jewish.

In a tweet, Leiter says Eliyahu’s comments, which also included denying Israeli responsibility for starvation in the Strip, “do not reflect the policy of Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government.”

“The exact opposite is true. Despite the enormous difficulties of providing humanitarian aid to the non-combatant population of Gaza, we have done so with determination and commitment,” he says in a tweet.

“The government’s objective has been to create a mechanism that will amply supply Gazans with the aid they need, BUT NOT THROUGH HAMAS,” he adds. To provide aid through Hamas is to prolong the war.”

The quotes attributed to Minister Eliyahu to the effect that the government of Israel is “rushing towards Gaza being wiped out,” and that, “we don’t have to be concerned about hunger in the Strip,” do not reflect the policy of Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government.

The…

— Ambassador Yechiel (Michael) Leiter (@yechielleiter) July 24, 2025

Justice minister urges West Bank annexation in response to French recognition of Palestinian state

Justice Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Yariv Levin condemns French President Emanuel Macron’s announcement that France will recognize a State of Palestine, and says Israel’s response must be to annex the West Bank.

“French President Macron’s decision to recognize the fictitious Palestinian state is a black mark on French history and direct assistance for terrorism,” says Levin.

“It is time to apply Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley. This is the response of historical justice to the shameful decision of the French president,” he says, using biblical terms for the West Bank.

The Yesha Council, representing West Bank settlement municipal authorities, makes similar comments and says it is demanding that Israel respond to Macron’s announcement by “applying Israeli sovereignty” to the contested territory.

“The Knesset has supported [annexation], now it’s the turn of the government. The excuses have ended,” the Yesha Council says in reference to a non-binding motion in favor of annexing the West Bank approved 71 – 13 in the Knesset yesterday.

Israelis fume at Macron, say he is giving prize to terror

Cabinet ministers and opposition politicians alike are both reacting to France’s Palestinian statehood announcement by calling it a prize for terror.

Macron just awarded Hamas a prize for committing the October 7 massacre.

This shameful act is nothing less than a betrayal by one of the so-called “leaders” of the free world. It sends a chilling message: terrorism pays off.@EmmanuelMacron will be remembered as a collaborator…

— Amir Ohana – אמיר אוחנה (@AmirOhana) July 24, 2025

Defense Minister Israel Katz calls the move a “disgrace, surrender to terror, and a prize and wind at the back of the murderers and rapists of Hamas,” accusing Macron of trying to weaken Israel.

“We will not allow the creation of a Palestinian entity that harms our security and risks our existence and hurts our historic rights to the Land of Israel,” he adds.

I thank President Macron for providing yet another compelling reason to finally apply Israeli sovereignty over the historic regions of Judea and Samaria, and to definitively abandon the failed concept of establishing a Palestinian terroist state in the heart of the Land of…

— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) July 24, 2025

“There will be no Palestinian state,” Education Minister Yoav Kisch declares. “The out-of-touch Macron has announced he is giving a prize to terror and to Hamas, [but] it doesn’t change a thing. For shame!”

“Recognizing a Palestinian state is a prize for terror and bolsters Hamas,” complains Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman. “This is not justice.”

Macron’s recognition of a Palestinian state after the October 7th massacre isn’t diplomacy; it’s moral collapse.

It rewards mass murder and tells Islamist terrorists: kill Jews, and the world will hand you a state.

This shameful decision will be tossed this into the dustbin…

— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) July 24, 2025

More than one politician notes France’s own struggles with absorbing its Muslim population.

“Macron, instead of worrying about a Palestinian state that will never happen, wake up to your own country,” tweets Transportation Minister Miri Regev, claiming that Paris “looks more like Kabul.”

“Maybe first recognize a state of France at the UN before you start fantasizing about Palestine,” she adds.

Yuli Edelstein, the soon-to-be ousted head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, says Israel “is watching with worry how Islamic immigration is influencing the decision-making of the French Republic. I wish the French people luck in fighting for their identity and freedom.”

His likely replacement, Boz Bismuth, says Israel “will recognize [a Palestinian state]… in France.”

Hadash-Ta’al head Ayman Odeh, on the other hand, says he welcomes the decision, calling it a “necessary step for a people that has suffered so much.”

Hamas seeking release of commandos who led October 7 attack in hostage swap — report

In its response this week to the latest ceasefire proposal in Gaza, Hamas is for the first time demanding the release of Nukhba terrorists who participated in the October 7, 2023, massacre, in exchange for a temporary truce and release of hostages, according to an unsourced report by the Kan Public Broadcaster.

The terror group has not listed the individual prisoners it seeks to free, but for the first time since negotiations began it requests that members of its elite Nukhba force, the commando unit which spearheaded the October 7 attack, be released among other Palestinian prisoners, according to Kan.

A non-Israeli source involved in mediation efforts for a truce told The Times of Israel earlier today that Hamas’s proposal included trading 10 hostages for 200 security prisoners serving life-sentences, as well as 2,000 Gazans detained by Israel since October 7, without specifying if those prisoners include Nukhba terrorists.

According to the source, mediators believe that Hamas views the demand for 200 prisoners as an opening position and may be willing to compromise.

Israel has proposed a lower offer to release 125 life-term prisoners and 1,200 post-October 7 detainees, according to Channel 12 news.

Minister, Netanyahu aid slap back at Macron with cheeky meme

Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli and a media adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both tweet out nearly identical snotty tongue-in-cheek — or perhaps hand-at-cheek — responses to French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris will recognize a Palestinian state in September.

“On behalf of the Government of Israel, here is our response to your recognition of a Palestinian state,” tweets Chikli above a gif of Macron getting slapped around by his wife, Brigitte Macron, as they visited Vietnam in May. He addresses the tweet to Macron.

Media adviser Jonatan Urich uses the same gif, declaring, “There’s only one state from the river to the sea.”

President @EmmanuelMacron,
On behalf of the Government of Israel, here is our response to your recognition of a Palestinian state. pic.twitter.com/5NV2tvYDui

— עמיחי שיקלי – Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) July 24, 2025

As for an official response, the government is still ostensibly slapping one together.

Macron says France to recognize Palestinian state in September

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrive for a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, July 20, 2022. (Ludovic Marin/Pool via AP )

France will recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, President Emmanuel Macron announces.

“True to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine. I will make a formal announcement at the United Nations General Assembly in September,” the French head of state writes on X and Instagram.

Fidèle à son engagement historique pour une paix juste et durable au Proche-Orient, j’ai décidé que la France reconnaîtra l’État de Palestine.

J’en ferai l’annonce solennelle à l’Assemblée générale des Nations unies, au mois de septembre prochain.… pic.twitter.com/7yQLkqoFWC

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) July 24, 2025

The post includes a letter he wrote to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas informing him of the decision.

UK’s Starmer to meet with French, German leaders on ‘indefensible’ Gaza situation

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he would hold an emergency call with France and Germany over the situation in Gaza, which he describes as an “unspeakable and indefensible” humanitarian catastrophe.

In a strongly worded statement late on Thursday, Starmer says he would discuss with partners “what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need,” and called on Israel to allow aid into the Palestinian enclave.

“The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible. While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen. We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe,” Starmer says.

“We all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay,” he adds, referring to France and Germany.

Starmer also says he supports US, Qatari and Egyptian efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.

“A ceasefire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution,” he says.

At least 2 detained as protesters burn tires, block traffic in Tel Aviv

At least two people have been detained after anti-war protesters leaving a demonstration at Habima Square burned tires and blocked roads in two different places in Tel Aviv, according to Hebrew media reports and footage shared online.

גמרנו לחטוף מכות מהשוטרים ,שלא היו בכביש 4 ולא בנס ציונה אבל מאד היה חשוב להם לפרק הפגנה נגד המלחמה, והגענו לבקר את ביסמוט האפס וגילה גמליאל. pic.twitter.com/956wZgK62x

— Roni ???????? (@Roni65043634) July 24, 2025

Thick smoke could be seen near Begin Road and on King George Street before officers put out the flames.

Demonstrators also sit in the road to block traffic before being forcibly cleared by police.

קצין המשטרה דורש מעצרים והפרשים עולים על המדרכה כנגד החוק.

תל אביב 24.07.2025 ????בני משי Benny Meshy pic.twitter.com/moa899IVng

— אלימות ישראל (@Alimut_Israel) July 24, 2025

The Protest Detainee Legal Support Front, which has confirmed only one arrest, publishes footage of police officers yanking a man by his shirt out of a crowd of protesters near Begin Road.

אלימות שוטרים ומעצר בהפגנה להפסקת המלחמה והחזרת החטופים.
בשלב זה עצור אחד.
עו״ד איריס שמואלי צסלר בדרכה לתחנת לב
צילום: אלון בנקי
נעדכן

למידע נוסף ולתרומות:https://t.co/0Xhn1Wowsc

עקבו אחרינו בפייסבוק:https://t.co/7pWfXdBW5A

עקבו אחרינו ב-Xhttps://t.co/apVlrXUWp4

עקבו… pic.twitter.com/rnlLdSCr3Y

— מערך עוטף עצורים (@AtzurimHafganot) July 24, 2025

Columbia president denies caving to Trump after settlement

Columbia University’s agreement to pay over $220 million to the US government in a settlement with US President Donald Trump’s administration to resolve federal probes was not capitulation but a means to restore vital federal funding, the university’s acting president says.

Claire Shipman tells CNN the university could have won short-term legal victories against the government but would have faced the long-term loss of billions of dollars in funds for cutting-edge research, like finding a cure for cancer.

She says the school would have also faced the potential revocation of the visa status of thousands of international students.

“This was not capitulation,” Shipman says, adding that the deal protected the university’s “academic integrity.”

Under the settlement, Columbia will pay $200 million to the US Treasury and a further $21 million to a fund to resolve alleged civil rights violations against Jewish employees following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, senior administration officials said.

The fund is for janitors caught inside Columbia’s Hamilton Hall during a protest as well as Jewish faculty and staff, says an official, calling it the largest employment-discrimination public settlement in almost 20 years and the biggest on record for antisemitism.

Columbia law professor David Pozen calls the agreement a “shakedown” and said it set a precedent for “pay-to-play” deals the Trump administration is seeking with other schools.

“The agreement gives legal form to an extortion scheme,” Pozen says in a blog post, calling it the first time antisemitism and DEI have been invoked as the basis for a government-enforced restructuring of a private university.

But Shipman says the agreement contains no provisions that “shall be construed as giving the United States authority to dictate faculty hiring, university hiring, admissions decisions, or the content of academic speech.”

US won’t attend United Nations confab on two-state solution

The United States will not attend an upcoming conference on a two-state solution, State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott tells reporters during a press briefing.

A conference regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state is scheduled to take place later in the month at the United Nations.

Pigott also says the US is working to get more aid into Gaza without it being looted by Hamas.

She accuses Hamas of the “weaponization” of aid.

“We have a system in place, attempting to get as much aid into Gaza as possible in a way where [it] is not being looted by Hamas… that is the reality that we’re pushing for — trying to get as much aid in there as possible.”

Netanyahu meets Druze spiritual leader

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, meets in his office with Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif on July 24, 2025. (Maayan Toaf/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, the spiritual leader of Israel’s Druze community, in Jerusalem, says Netanyahu’s office.

Earlier this week, Tarif met with President Isaac Herzog following deadly sectarian violence targeting the Druze community in the Sweida province of Syria.

Israel has carried out a series of airstrikes against the new Syrian regime in what it says is part of its commitment to protect Syria’s Druze.

The meeting comes as Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer is reportedly set to meet with Syria’s Foreign Minister in Paris.

Police arrest 24 at Haifa anti-war protest

Police arrested 24 protesters at a small anti-war demonstration in Haifa’s German Colony this evening, law enforcement says.

Officers were filmed attempting to disperse the demonstrators while tearing up signs only a few minutes after the protest began.

Later on, officers started tackling protesters to the ground, handcuffing them and carrying them to a police van.

Police describe the 24 detained protesters as rioters, saying they “did not respond to officers’ orders, held up signs and chanted slogans against Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza.”

In a video from the site of the protest, one handcuffed demonstrator shouts to reporters that officers had beaten several female protesters inside the van, before she herself is pushed into a police car.

The protest is one of several anti-war demonstrations organized by Haifa’s Arab residents amid the ongoing fighting in Gaza, which often sees mass arrests. A small number of left-wing Jewish Israelis also attend these demonstrations, which typically amount to a few dozen participants.

In April this year, police forcefully arrested 23 demonstrators at a similar protest in the same spot, tearing paper signs from participants’ hands as they chanted against the war.

Boston Consulting Group says US-based staffers bypassed controls to help set up GHF

Members of a private US security company, contracted by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) direct displaced Palestinians as they gather to receive relief supplies at a distribution center in the central Gaza Strip on June 8, 2025. (Eyad Baba/AFP)

An investigation commissioned by Boston Consulting Group has found that some of its US-based staff sidestepped its risk controls to do work related to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and to “post-war reconstruction” for the Palestinian enclave, the consulting firm says.

In a response to a British parliamentary committee inquiry published on Thursday, BCG details the role some of its staff played in establishing the GHF during late 2024 and early this year, and then the efforts made by one of its managing directors to carry out further work in March.

The operations of the US- and Israel-backed GHF have been beset by violence and chaos, including deadly shootings of scores of Palestinians near its food distribution sites guarded by Israeli forces, Reuters has reported.

The UN and other humanitarian groups have refused to work with GHF, questioning its neutrality and criticizing the new distribution model as dangerous.

“We deeply regret that, in connection with the work about which the committee has asked, we did not live up to our standards,” BCG said in its July 22-dated response to the parliamentary committee inquiry.

A “largely complete” review led by law firm WilmerHale had shown that “BCG’s approval processes were circumvented” by now-former BCG staff, the Boston-based management consulting firm said.

Thousands in Tel Aviv rally to end war, free hostages

People attend a rally calling for the end of the war and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP/Ariel Schalit)

Thousands of people cram into Tel Aviv’s Habima Square and adjacent streets for a protest demanding an “end to the war and return home of the hostages,” according to large screens set up across the plaza. The crowd, a mishmash of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jewish critics, is so dense that cellular service is sluggish.

The rally begins with a moment of silence for fallen soldiers, and a prayer for the safety of the troops and release of the hostages.

Closest to the central stage, protesters wave Israeli flags.

People attend a rally calling for the end of the war and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as they gather in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP/Ariel Schalit)

“There is no forgiveness for the angels of death,” protesters chant against the premier.

On the opposite end of the square, left-wing protesters hold up signs accusing Israel of war crimes and genocide in Gaza and calling on soldiers to refuse to serve.

A few yards down is a group hoisting signs declaring themselves as adherents of a “dignified Religious Zionism.”

Lapid pushes back at Haredi leader’s claim of 100,000 Tel Aviv draft dodgers

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf after the Haredi politician said that instead of drafting yeshiva students, the army should go after “100,000 draft dodgers in Tel Aviv and Gush Dan.”

“Goldknopf is once again repeating the sickening lie about ‘the draft dodgers from Tel Aviv.’ The draft percentage in Tel Aviv is the same as the national average; in the northern neighborhoods, it is much higher (82 percent),” declares north Tel Avivian Lapid.

He notes that 29 soldiers from Tel Aviv have been killed in the war.

“I invite Goldknopf to come with me on the upcoming Memorial Day to the ceremony to read the names of those who fell in my neighborhood. Maybe he will learn there to be ashamed,” says Lapid.

In an interview with the national-religious Makor Rishon newspaper, Goldknopf declared that Israel’s Haredi population will leave the country en masse if authorities start arresting yeshiva students who refuse to report for military enlistment.

“If there is no choice and the ultra-Orthodox have to leave the country, then they will leave the country. There will be a state without ultra-Orthodoxy. The ultra-Orthodox will not change their way of life because there is an army and a war. There is an army, and there are also those who will go to the army. If you say you are short 50,000 soldiers, take these draft dodgers… There are 100,000 draft dodgers in Tel Aviv and Gush Dan,” he said.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for IDF service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits, due to the strain on standing and reserve forces in the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.

Currently, only around 1,800 Haredim enlist annually. About 2,700 enlisted over the past year, far short of the IDF’s goal of 4,800.

Police enlist volunteer teams in manhunt for ramming suspect

Police have called up local volunteer security teams in central Israel to assist in an ongoing manhunt for the perpetrator of a car-ramming terror attack earlier today.

Central District police commander Yair Hetzroni gave the order to enlist their help in tracking down the suspect, 27-year-old Arkan Khaled, a resident of Taybeh.

Police say that over 350 volunteers from the Sharon Region police and Border Police have been working since the morning in the ongoing search.

Khaled, still at large, is suspected of ramming eight soldiers near the entrance to Kfar Yona and then fleeing the scene. Police found his deserted car, a white Toyota, in the Beit Lid area of the West Bank later that morning.

Israeli official says no collapse in talks, but Hamas must shift stance to advance

The return of Israel’s negotiating team from Qatar is not an indication that there is a crisis in talks, says a senior Israeli official.

There was “no explosion, no collapse,” the official tells Israeli reporters in a phone briefing.

At the same time, the current situation is evidence of Hamas’s “rejectionist and unfortunate approach.”

The terror group’s answer, received by mediators at 2:30 a.m., “does not allow progress without a shift in Hamas’s positions and without consulting on ways to do this both with the mediator and with ourselves,” says the official.

There are still gaps between the sides in all the topics, though “progress has been made” in the 18 days of talks in Doha, the official says.

“We reached the stage where we actually need to return, and we will return here as soon as the right way is found to reduce the gaps and reach the closing stage,” says the official.

Hamas has not offered any compromise of the demilitarization of Gaza or the end of the war, says the official, adding that there were “difficulties” around the a potential release of Palestinian prisoners. A source earlier told The Times of Israel that the group had suggested 200 security prisoner for 10 hostages, angering Israel, though it was only an opening bid.

The sides did not discuss guarantees about ending the war, a key Hamas demand, or the technical arrangements around the implementation of a deal. “We can arrive at this quickly,” says the official.

Still, Israel is under the assumption that Hamas wants an agreement, the official says.

Israeli negotiators held a follow-up meeting with the mediators in Doha on Thursday evening after being called home, and plan to continue contacts with mediators after returning to Israel.

The official says the team will continue to work “from the moment it lands and there is reception.”

“We will enter into the Sabbath and continue to work, and we operate continuously to conduct all the required consultations in Israel, formulate positions, and in parallel continue with the mediators and try to bring to a situation where we can return to close an agreement and quickly,” he says.

The official praises Egypt and Qatar, “who showed a proactive approach, activity, and very, very significant efforts throughout all these 18 days.”

The official says there is still reason for cautious optimism: “We are in proximity talks, there is a Hamas delegation here, there is an Egyptian delegation here that has been here all this time and has not moved until now. Of course, the sides here have American involvement, and we are here with a team that came here to achieve an agreement.”

“So that is regarding optimism. I am realistic, and I still think we can continue to operate to reduce the gaps and bring about an agreement,” says the official.

Hamas response shows it doesn’t want deal, Witkoff says, as US team leaves Gaza talks

US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff delivers remarks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, May 28, 2025. (Andrew Harnik / Getty Images via AFP)

US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff announces that Washington is calling back its negotiators from hostage talks in Doha and will pursue “alternative options” after the latest response from Hamas “clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.”

“While the mediators have made a great effort, Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith,” Witkoff says in his statement. “We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza.”

“It is a shame that Hamas has acted in this selfish way. We are resolute in seeking an end to this conflict and a permanent peace in Gaza,” Witkoff adds.

Witkoff doesn’t elaborate on what “alternative options” the US might consider, and it’s unclear if the statement is an attempt to ratchet up pressure on the terror group to compromise.

An Arab diplomat and a second source involved in mediation efforts told The Times of Israel that Hamas’s response was constructive enough to enable the sides to move forward.

Israel has also recalled its negotiating team.

Israeli liaison blames UN for not delivering aid, says Hamas using famine claims as leverage in talks

A soldier stands near aid packages on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2025. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

Speaking to reporters on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing, a senior officer in Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories says only limited aid is entering the Strip because of a “lack of cooperation from the international community,” while also dismissing Hamas’s “famine narrative” as a tactic used in the ongoing hostage talks.

Col. Abdullah Halabi, head of COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, says that approximately 1,000 trucks’ worth of aid are piled up inside the Strip, awaiting collection by the United Nations and aid groups.

He says truckloads are waiting on the Gaza side of the crossing “due to a lack of cooperation from the international community and international organizations.”

“We have seen in the last two days a slight improvement in their work, especially in the UN’s position and the UN’s organizations. We invited them here as we have done several times to continue to encourage them, to check together with them what can be done to transfer this aid in,” he says.

Piles of humanitarian aid packages wait to be picked up on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing in the Gaza Strip, Thursday, July 24, 2025. during a media tour organized by the Israeli army. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The UN has repeatedly claimed that COGAT has refused its requests for collection and distribution authorization, and that dangerous and complex conditions inside Gaza made aid distribution very difficult.

Halabi says Israeli moves in recent weeks to facilitate the delivery of aid include “expanding” the Kerem Shalom Crossing, and opening up three other terminals in the north and center of the Strip.

“We allowed longer work hours, and we took all the necessary steps to allow the international community to bring a very large amount of humanitarian aid into [Gaza], to combat the famine narrative, which Hamas uses to fight against us,” he says.

“The State of Israel allows the entry of humanitarian aid beyond the standards of international law, without restriction. As long as the international community makes an effort to bring in the aid, we will allow them to bring it in,” he continues.

According to Halabi, the military and COGAT have identified an “intense and violent campaign” by Hamas against Israel’s humanitarian aid mechanism.

“This campaign is based on lies,” he says, referring to claims of widespread starvation in Gaza. “It was created not to help Gaza’s population receive the aid, but primarily to improve Hamas’s standings in the [hostage] negotiations that are taking place over the last few days, and it is using different means, in particular the famine narrative, to improve their standings.”

Halabi notes recent reported attacks by Hamas against the new aid distribution sites, run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, accusing Hamas of working “to create chaos and to create a reality in which the humanitarian situation is depicted poorly.”

Col. Abdullah Halabi, head of COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, speaks to reporters on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2025. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

There have been repeated reports of mass killings outside aid sites, most of them blamed on Israeli fire. Israel has admitted firing warning shots at groups of civilians getting too close to troops.

The depiction of the humanitarian situation in Gaza “doesn’t correspond with the 4,500 trucks that entered in the last two months, carrying everything, from personal humanitarian aid for families to medical equipment, hygienic supplies, and more,” he claims.

“We, the army and COGAT, will continue doing whatever is possible and necessary, improve the relevant conditions, strengthen our relationship with the international community and with the different humanitarian organizations, and help them to allow the entry of aid,” he continues.

“We are fighting Hamas, we will continue to fight Hamas. We will not allow a reality in which Hamas uses anything, whether it is humanitarian aid or any other means, to strengthen its interests or itself,” Halabi says.

Netanyahu says Israel won’t concede ground in hostage talks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns Hamas that Israel is not going to give in to its demands in hostage talks in Qatar.

“If Hamas understands our readiness to reach a deal as weakness, as an opportunity to dictate terms of surrender to us that will endanger Israel, it is greatly mistaken,” says Netanyahu, speaking at the state ceremony marking 85 years since the death of Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky.

“We are determined to achieve all the aims of the war,” he adds.

“We are determined to bring everyone back, and that is what we will do,” Netanyahu says of the hostages still held in Gaza.

The prime minister adds that Israel “will not abandon our Druze brothers in southern Syria.”

“We will make sure the territory south of Damascus, along our border, is free of weapons,” he promises, “and we will do everything we need to help and protect the Druze.”

Israeli aircraft bombard Hezbollah assets in southern Lebanon — IDF

The Israeli Air Force killed a Hezbollah operative and struck several of the terror group’s military facilities in southern Lebanon today, the IDF says.

The operative was killed in a drone strike in Ayta ash-Shab, also in southern Lebanon, according to the military.

Elsewhere, fighter jets bombed Hezbollah sites that the IDF says contained weapons caches and rocket launchers.

The military says the presence of the weapons and Hezbollah’s activities in the area “constitute a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”

IDF chief talks up unity, hands over reins of Home Front Command

Maj. Gen. Shai Klepper, the incoming chief of the IDF Home Front Command, speaks at a handover ceremony at a military base, July 24, 2025. (Screen c apture: Israel Defense Forces)

Maj. Gen. Shai Klepper takes over the IDF Home Front Command, replacing Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, who will go on to head the Northern Command.

Speaking at the ceremony, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says, “These days remind us of the importance of unity: a united nation is one with a strong home front, which stands firm in the face of any difficulty and gives us the confidence to continue acting for the security of the homeland and its citizens.”

“In the war, our enemies mistakenly thought that the Israeli home front was our weak point; the truth is that it is our source of resilience, it is what gives us the strength to continue fighting for the home of us all, for the State of Israel,” he adds.

Klepper is the former commander of the 91st “Galilee” Regional Division, responsible for the Lebanon border, from Rosh Hanikra up to, but not including, Mount Dov. He served in the role from 2022 until January 2025, including during major fighting against the Hezbollah terror group.

US Justice Department to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell over Epstein saga

Audrey Strauss, acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell during a news conference in New York, July 2, 2020. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

US Justice Department officials are set to meet on Thursday with Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned girlfriend of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The meeting in Florida, which Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Tuesday he was working to arrange, is part of an ongoing Justice Department effort to cast itself as transparent following fierce backlash from parts of US President Donald Trump’s base over an earlier refusal to release additional records in the Epstein investigation.

Maxwell, the daughter of the late British press baron Robert Maxwell, is the only former Epstein associate who was convicted in connection with his activities, which right-wing conspiracy theorists allege included trafficking young models for VIPs. She is serving a 20-year sentence.

“If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” Blanche said in a statement on Tuesday. “No one is above the law — and no lead is off-limits.”

Robert Maxwell fled the Nazis as a child and is rumored to have spied for Israel. He was buried in Jerusalem after dying under mysterious circumstances in 1991.

In 2023, it was reported that Ghislaine Maxwell was receiving prison services from a non-profit for Jewish inmates, using her Jewish ancestry for better food and time off.

She allegedly attempted to take refuge in Israel while under investigation for her role in Epstein’s sex abuse scheme before her arrest in 2020.

Iran foreign minister says no retreat on enrichment ahead of talks with Europeans

Iran will defend its nuclear rights, including uranium enrichment, in talks scheduled for Friday with France, Britain and Germany, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says in a video carried by state media on Thursday.

Araghchi says the talks will be used to tell the Europeans that its position has not changed in light of the Israeli and US military campaigns against its nuclear program last month.

Iran has always been willing to advance its nuclear program in a logical way to reassure countries that might have worries, he says.

IDF says it killed Rafah crossing chief who helped Hamas bring in weapons

Members of Palestinan security forces stand guard at the closed off Rafah border crossing to Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip, on August 23, 2021 (SAID KHATIB / AFP)

A key Hamas official who helped the group bring in arms was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis earlier today, the IDF announces.

Muhammad al-Amour, according to the military, was responsible for the goods terminal at the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza. “As part of his role, he oversaw the smuggling of hundreds of weapons and military equipment into the Gaza Strip, directly contributing to Hamas’s military buildup,” the IDF says.

Over the years, the military says Amour “played a key role in the smuggling network of Hamas’s military wing, coordinating and leading efforts to bring weapons into the Gaza Strip and to Hamas with the help of collaborators.”

The Rafah Crossing, which Israel took over in May 2024 and has since razed, “served as a gateway for smuggling military equipment and weapons into the Gaza Strip,” the IDF says.

Eight troops wounded in north Gaza accident — IDF

Eight IDF soldiers were wounded, including two moderately and six lightly, in an “operational accident” in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today, the military says.

The troops were taken to a hospital and their families were notified, the army adds.

Police identify suspect in car-ramming, ask for public to help track him down

Arkan Khaled, the suspected perpetrator of a car-ramming terror attack in central Israel on July 24, 2025. (Israel Police)

Police say they suspect Arkan Khaled, a 27-year-old resident of Taybeh, of carrying out a car-ramming attack earlier this morning in central Israel, and ask the public for its help in tracking him down.

Police say they located Khaled’s car earlier this morning after he rammed into a group of soldiers near the entrance to Kfar Yona, injuring eight, but are still hunting for the suspect himself.

Law enforcement requests that anyone who spots the suspect dial 100 — the police emergency hotline — publishing a blurry screen capture of him.

Smotrich slams UTJ head for saying ultra-Orthodox need not be bothered by others dying in war

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Finance Committee meeting at the Knesset on December 4, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich slams United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf after he says it’s none of the Haredi community’s concern if other Israelis are dying while fighting in a war while they refuse to join.

“Goldknopf, you should be ashamed. Our sages taught us that anyone who does not grieve for the public’s distress will not see its consolation. The immense pain of the bereaved families who lost their loved ones in our existential war is not the pain of religious Zionism. It is the pain of the people of Israel,” tweets Smotrich, the chairman of the Religious Zionism party.

Speaking with the national-religious Makor Rishon weekly, Goldknopf, whose party recently left the coalition over its failure to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from the mandatory draft, was asked about the high number of members of slain soldiers from the national-religious community and answered, “Their pain will be with them and our pain will be with us. Don’t bring me your pain and pass it on to me. Let’s decide that everybody has their own burden.”

“Whoever excludes themselves from the collective is a disbeliever,” Smotrich continues. “Instead of spouting nonsense and once again displaying detachment from the people of Israel, lower your gaze and ask for forgiveness.”

“I am certain that the vast majority of the ultra-Orthodox public is ashamed of you. It’s time they replace you with a representative who is connected to the people of Israel and understands his role and place.”

Mediation source in Qatar says Hamas doesn’t actually expect to get 200 top prisoners for 10 hostages

A source involved in mediation efforts for a truce deal in Gaza says gaps between Israel and Hamas are not very wide.

The source claims that Israel is upset over Hamas’s proposal to exchange 200 Palestinian security prisoners serving life sentences for 10 hostages, but tells The Times of Israel that the number was merely a starting bid and that the terror group is prepared to come down closer to a number Jerusalem deems reasonable.

Moreover, the vast majority of the 2,000 Palestinians detained in Gaza since the war’s outbreak, who Hamas is also demanding be released as part of the swap, have not even been charged, the non-Israeli source says, accusing Israel of arbitrarily detaining Gazans for use as barter in the negotiations.

As for the scope of the Gaza border belt that the IDF would remain in during a truce, the source describes Hamas’s response issued last night as only roughly 200 meters less than what what Israel is demanding. Israel had earlier demanded a two-kilometer buffer zone, while Hamas had countered with a one-kilometer buffer. Israel then lowered its demand to 1.2 kilometers, but the source’s description means Hamas is continuing to hold firm on its 1-kilometer demand rather than compromise in turn.

The source says both Egyptian and Qatari mediators believe that the gaps can be bridged within days and hope Israel hasn’t recalled its negotiating team in order to withdraw from the talks.

The source indicates that US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff is in agreement with Israel that Hamas’s latest response was not acceptable.

Amid the apparent logjam, today’s scheduled meeting between Witkoff, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman al-Thani in Italy appears up in the air, the source says.

Leading Islamic authority in Gaza slams Hamas for using civilians as shields

A former dean of Sharia and Law at the Islamic University of Gaza publishes a post online criticizing Hamas for sacrificing Gazan lives to fight Israel.

“You have no right to use the people of Gaza as a shield for your own interests — especially after God has shown you that the resistance is incapable of achieving the goals it declared,” writes Salman Al-Daya, an important religious authority in Gaza. “The convoys of martyrs, the wounded, the displaced, the hungry, and the sick who are facing death… What miracle are you waiting for?!”

Al-Daya has previously condemned Hamas during the war. In November 2024, he issued an Islamic legal opinion, or fatwa, denouncing the October 7 massacre, saying it violated Islamic principles.

Divisive vote on attorney general’s firing pushed off until after 9th of Av fast

Sunday’s cabinet meeting, during which a controversial vote on dismissing Attorney General Baharav-Miara was ostensibly set to take place, has been canceled.

The next cabinet meeting will now be held on August 4, the day after the Fast of the Ninth of Av.

According to several Hebrew media outlets, the cabinet meeting was canceled so as not to avoid tackling divisive issues during the days leading up to the Ninth of Av, in accordance with requests of religious cabinet ministers. The day commemorates the destruction of the Second Temple, which tradition holds was burned down as punishment for baseless hatred between Jews.

A ministerial committee recommended earlier this week that the cabinet fire Baharav-Miara due to “substantive and ongoing differences of opinion between the government and the attorney general, preventing effective cooperation.”

The vote enabled the cabinet to make a final decision at its next meeting.

Haredi political leader says ultra-Orthodox will up and leave if draft dodgers arrested

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men block a road and clash with police outside Bnei Brak, during a protest on July 23, 2025. (David Cohen/Flash90)

United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf declares that Israel’s Haredi population will leave the country en masse if authorities start arresting yeshiva students who refuse to report for military enlistment.

“If there is no choice and the ultra-Orthodox have to leave the country, then they will leave the country. There will be a state without ultra-Orthodox. The ultra-Orthodox will not change their way of life because there is an army and a war. There is an army, and there are also those who will go to the army. If you say you are short 50,000 soldiers, take these draft dodgers… there are 100,000 draft dodgers in Tel Aviv and Gush Dan,” the Haredi politician tells the national religious Makor Rishon newspaper.

Asked about others having to pay a price for the ultra-Orthodox refusal to serve, including religious people losing their lives or others being forced to miss religious observances due to manpower shortages, Goldknopf states that it is not his or his community’s concern.

“Don’t bring me your pains and pass it on to me. Let’s decide that everybody has their own burden,” he says.

Goldknopf’s comments come a day after mass Haredi protests in the wake of the arrest of three Haredi draft dodgers.

At the same time as the protests, members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud faction voted to replace MK Yuli Edelstein as chairman of the powerful Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee over his refusal to advance a conscription bill based on a compromise reached with the Haredi parties last month, under which most ultra-Orthodox males would continue to avoid IDF or other national service.

The senior Haredi politician’s rhetoric echoes that of former chief Sephardic rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who in May warned that if the government arrests yeshiva students for dodging the draft, then the ultra-Orthodox community will be forced to leave Israel for some unspecified alternate country.

Responding to Goldknopf, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman tweets that “the time has come to end the rule of the evaders.”

Official says recall of negotiating team sign that talks are stuck

The return of the negotiating team from Qatar is an indication that talks are stuck, an official in the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel.

However, the Kan public broadcaster quotes an unnamed official involved in talks with a more positive spin on the move. “The talks did not collapse,” the official says. “This is a move coordinated between all the sides. There are fateful decisions that need to be made, and therefore the delegation came back for continued consultations. The momentum is still positive.”

A senior official and source familiar with the details tells Axios that Hamas is insisting that Israel free 200 Palestinians serving life sentences and 2,000 Palestinians arrested in Gaza after October 7 in exchange for the release of 10 living hostages.

Senior Israeli officials told US special envoy Steve Witkoff that the Hamas demands are “unacceptable,” says one of the sources, adding that Israel does not see Hamas’s demands as final.

‘Just like Germany’: Opposition leaders lash minister for comments on wiping out Gaza

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says comments from Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu that Gaza is being wiped out and made Jewish are “an attack on values and a public relations disaster.”

“Israel will never convince the world of the righteousness of our war against terror so long as we are led by an extremist minority government with ministers who sanctify blood and death,” he says in a statement.

Lapid adds that Israel’s soldiers are not “fighting, dying and being injured in order to wipe out a civilian population.”

MK Ayman Odeh, head of the Hadash-Ta’al alliance, tweets that “this is exactly how they spoke in Germany.”

Hamas source says counteroffer includes clause preventing resumption of fighting even if no deal

A senior Hamas source told Reuters on Thursday that there was still a chance of reaching a Gaza ceasefire agreement but it would take a few days because of what he called Israeli stalling.

The source said Hamas’s response to the latest ceasefire proposal included requesting a clause that would prevent Israel from resuming the war if an agreement was not reached by the end of the 60-day truce period.

The source also says Hamas proposed a new mechanism for releasing hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and claims the issue has not been discussed at all so far.

Netanyahu recalls hostage-ceasefire negotiating team from Doha

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at a Likud faction meeting in the Knesset, July 23, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

After Hamas responds to the latest ceasefire and hostage release proposal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is bringing the hostage negotiating team back from Qatar to “continue consultations in Israel,” says his office in a statement.

“We appreciate the efforts of mediators Qatar and Egypt and the efforts of [US special envoy Steve] Witkoff to bring about a breakthrough in the talks,” says the PMO.

It’s unclear from the statement whether the development points to a breakdown in talks.

Minister says Israel racing ahead to wipe out Gaza, will make it Jewish

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu arrives at a government meeting at the Prime Minister's Office, December 10, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu says Israel is advancing the destruction of Gaza, and that the Strip will be made totally Jewish.

“The government is racing ahead for Gaza to be wiped out,” Eliyahu tells Haredi radio station Kol Barama. “Thank God, we are wiping out this evil. We are pushing this population that has been educated on Mein Kampf.”

Eliyahu says Gaza will be cleared for Jewish settlement, but says Jewish towns won’t be “fenced in inside cantons.”

“All Gaza will be Jewish,” he says, though he clarifies that Arabs who are loyal to Israel will be tolerated.

“We aren’t racists,” the far-right Otzma Yehudit politician adds.

Eliyahu also denies that Gazans are not getting enough food, calling it a campaign against Israel, but notes that we are at war and trying to kill “these monsters.”

“There’s no hunger in Gaza,” he says. “But we don’t need to be concerned with hunger in the Strip. Let the world worry about it.”

Ex-UK Labour leader Corbyn launches new anti-Israel party

Former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, center, joins pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel supporters preparing to march through central London, on May 18, 2024, at a demonstration mourning the 76th anniversary of Israel's establishment and calling for an end to arms sales to Israel. (Photo by BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP)

Former UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn says he is forming a new political party alongside fellow ex-Labourite Zarah Sultana, with the pair’s strident opposition to Israel at the top of the new faction’s agenda.

Corbyn, who lost two elections as Labour leader in 2017 and 2019, and Sultana, who has led calls for Britain to freeze arms sales to Israel, say the new outfit will be called Your Party.

“It’s time for a new kind of political party. One that is rooted in our communities, trade unions and social movements,” they say in a joint statement.

In their announcement, they called for a “mass redistribution of wealth and power” and said they would “keep demanding an end to all arms sales to Israel.”

They also committed to a “free and independent Palestine.”

Corbyn, 76, was suspended by Labour in 2020 after he refused to fully accept the findings of a rights watchdog’s probe into claims that anti-Semitism had become rampant within Labour’s ranks under his leadership.

Corbyn, who was accused of having ties to Hezbollah and Hamas, said anti-Semitism had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons.”

Sultana was suspended by Labour for what she said were her pro-Palestinian views and left the party earlier this month. Both she and Corbyn, who was expelled for Labour, remain members of Parliament.

Netanyahu to huddle with officials on Gaza starvation claims

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold an urgent meeting today in Jerusalem on the allegations that there is starvation in Gaza, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.

The premier will be joined by representatives from the Foreign Ministry, COGAT, the National Security Council, and others.

The allegations and larger issue of getting aid to Gazan civilians is dominating discussions in the Prime Minister’s Office today, says the official on condition of anonymity.

Israel to send aircraft to help Cyprus put out wildfire

Flames burn near a house in Souni village, Cyprus, during a massive wildfire on the southern side of the east Mediterranean island nation's Troodos mountain range, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Israel will send Israeli Air Force aircraft to Cyprus this evening to assist with putting out a massive wildfire that is sweeping through the Mediterranean island, the Foreign Ministry announces in a statement.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and his Cypriot counterpart, Constantinos Kombos, “remain in close and continuous contact to ensure that the aid is delivered and deployed as swiftly as possible,” says the ministry.

“Israel stands with Cyprus, a close friend and neighbor, and remains committed to offering assistance in times of emergency,” adds the ministry.

EU says all options on the table if Israel doesn’t meet aid commitments in Gaza

Israel has made some efforts toward improving the delivery of humanitarian aid to the population in Gaza, but the situation remains dire, an European Commission spokesperson says.

He adds that the EU is currently assessing the situation and that all options remain on the table if Israel does not deliver on an agreement made with the EU earlier this month about improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

This agreement includes the substantial increase of daily trucks for food and non-food items to enter Gaza, the opening of several other crossing points in both the northern and southern areas, and the reopening of the Jordanian and Egyptian aid routes.

A senior Israeli official claimed earlier this week that while Israel came to “understandings” with the EU over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, it did not make any “formal agreement,” as Israel’s actions are determined by its cabinet decisions, not by external guarantees.

Nava Freiberg contributed to this report.

Most of the Jewish campers booted from Vueling flight have since reached their destination, Foreign Ministry says

Security forces are seen arresting a woman, said to be the director of the French Kinneret summer camp, after her group of 50 kids was removed from an airplane in Valencia, Spain, on July 23, 2025. (X; used in accordance with article 27a of the Copyright Law)

After 50 Jewish summer campers were removed from a Vueling flight at the Valencia airport in Spain last night, the Foreign Ministry says that most of the group has reached their intended destination and the remaining passengers departed on a separate flight a short while ago.

The Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Embassy in Madrid “maintained continuous contact” with authorities at the airport following the incident, the ministry says in a Hebrew-language statement.

“Israel, the Foreign Ministry, and Israeli missions around the world will continue to act and provide assistance to Israelis and Jews in distress wherever they may be,” adds the ministry.

Around 50 Jewish students from France were forcibly removed from a Vueling flight at Valencia Airport on Wednesday evening, apparently after singing in Hebrew.

According to reports, the group — part of a Jewish summer camp — stopped singing when asked, but police were called anyway and ordered the campers and their director off the plane.

Vueling denied accusations of antisemitism, claiming the campers were disruptive, mishandled emergency equipment, and ignored safety instructions. However, some witnesses allege staff made inflammatory remarks, including calling Israel a “terrorist state.”

The Foreign Ministry has intervened in several other incidents that caused concern for Israeli and Jewish safety abroad this week, including an Israeli-owned cruise ship that was blocked by anti-Israel protesters from docking a Greek island, and two Israelis who were briefly detained in Belgium after an organization lodged a complaint against them, citing alleged war crimes in Gaza.

IDF confirms all 8 people wounded in suspected car-ramming were soldiers

The IDF confirms that all eight people wounded in the suspected car-ramming attack near Netanya earlier today were soldiers.

According to the military, two soldiers sustained moderate injuries and six others were lightly hurt when a vehicle rammed into them at the Beit Lid junction, near the entrance to Kfar Yona on Route 57.

The injured troops were taken to the hospital for treatment, and their families have been notified.

Police said the suspected assailant fled the scene on foot after abandoning the vehicle, prompting a large-scale manhunt in the area.

Iran ready to resume nuclear talks with US if conditions met, says deputy FM

Iran is ready to resume nuclear talks with the United States as long as some principles are respected, deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi says, a day before a meeting with European powers in Istanbul.

The Iranian diplomat says talks could resume as long as Tehran’s rights under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are recognized, Washington builds trust with Tehran and guarantees that negotiations will not lead to renewed military action against Iran.

Dermer to meet with Syrian FM, US envoy for Syria in Paris today — reports

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will meet today in Paris with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, according to multiple Hebrew-language media reports.

US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack will join the talks, designed to hammer out security arrangements in southern Syria, a source tells Axios.

Dermer is expected to meet US special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff tonight in Rome, an Arab diplomat tells The Times of Israel.

Leading news outlets call on Israel to allow foreign press into Gaza, say their journalists there are starving

Palestinians wait to receive a hot meal at a charity kitchen in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22, 2025. (AFP)

Four leading news organizations say their journalists in Gaza are facing the threat of starvation, and call for Israel to allow journalists in and out of the Strip.

“We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,” says a joint statement by The Associated Press, AFP, Reuters, and the BBC.

“For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering.”

“We once again urge the Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there,” they conclude.

Israel has repeatedly dismissed reports of widespread starvation in the Strip, saying it is permitting humanitarian aid, including food, to enter, and accusing the UN and other aid agencies of failing to distribute it.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Saudi Arabia announces $6.4 billion in Syria investments as war-torn country looks to rebuild

Saudi Arabia announces $6.4 billion of investments in Syria, reflecting the kingdom’s deepening ties with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government as it seeks to rebuild Syria after a 14-year civil war.

The deals, unveiled by Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih at a Damascus forum, are a major financial boost for Sharaa as he struggles to establish control over Syria, which was rocked this month by sectarian violence in the southwest.

Al-Falih says his visit to Syria was ordered by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and de-facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman, calling the trip “confirmation of the kingdom’s firm and supportive stance towards sisterly Syria.”

The investment deals included $2.93 billion for real estate and infrastructure projects and about $1.07 billion for the telecommunications and information technology sector, Al-Falih says.

He says 47 agreements will be signed over the course of the conference, with more than 100 companies participating.

Al-Falih also announces the establishment of a Saudi-Syrian Business Council at the event, which had been scheduled for June but was delayed due to the conflict between Iran and Israel.

Riyadh has been a key ally of Sharaa’s government, which came to power after longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December, using its diplomatic influence to persuade US President Donald Trump to lift sanctions.

Companies, many from Gulf states and Turkey, have expressed interest in rebuilding Syria’s power generation capacity, roads, ports and other damaged infrastructure.

Farkash-Hacohen announces resignation from Blue and White-National Unity, in latest blow to Gantz

Then-tourism minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen holds a press conference on encouraging tourism from abroad, in Tel Aviv, on April 27, 2021. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

MK Orit Farkash-Hacohen is leaving Benny Gantz’s Blue and White-National Unity party but will continue to coordinate with it, a spokesperson for the opposition faction announces.

“Farkash is not resigning from the Knesset,” the spokesperson states, adding that she will continue to “act in coordination” with the opposition “so as not to give the coalition another vote.”

The spokesperson adds that Gantz “thanked Farkash-Hacohen for [her] partnership and wished her success.”

Less than a month ago MKs Gadi Eisenkot and Matan Kahana left the party and the Knesset, with Eisenkot stating that he is working to build a “governing alternative.”

Ukrainian FM gifts Sa’ar copies of his ancestors’ birth certificates during trip to Kyiv

Ukraine's ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk (left), Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha (2nd from left) presents Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar (second from right) with a copy of 19th century documents and birth certificates from his Ukrainian ancestors, July 23, 2025. (Embassy of Ukraine in Israel)

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha gave Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar a copy of 19th-century documents and birth certificates from his Ukrainian ancestors, Ukraine’s embassy in Israel says.

Saar’s great-grandfather hails from Zhytomyr area in northwestern Ukraine.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk initiated the gesture, in cooperation with the country’s justice minister and State Archives.

Palestinian-American mediator praises Hamas’ ‘real and positive’ response to ceasefire proposal

Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian-American businessman and a campaign surrogate for US President Donald Trump during the previous election, takes to social media to praise Hamas’s response to the latest ceasefire and hostage release proposal, after criticizing the group the day before for its conduct in talks.

“Hamas this morning gave its response to the Israeli proposal on the subject of redeployment and a prisoner exchange,” he writes on Facebook.

“Hamas’s response has been real and positive. Now Israel must enter into serious and swift negotiations to reach a ceasefire. Everyone is waiting for relief. The people of Gaza have suffered enough killing, destruction, and starvation.”

NIS 918 million allocated to West Bank roads in ‘de facto sovereignty’ move

A construction site in the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim on February 29, 2024. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

The Knesset Finance Committee has approved nearly a billion shekels in additional funding for roads and transportation infrastructure in the West Bank in what Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich describes as a lesson in “how to do de facto sovereignty” over the contested territory.

In total, some NIS 918 million ($275 million) will be spent on upgrading existing roads, paving new roads, building bypass roads for motorists in the West Bank to avoid Palestinian towns, and for other road infrastructure upgrades.

“This is how you do facto sovereignty. This is how you bring in a million residents [to the West Bank]. This is how you take the idea of a Palestinian terrorist state off the table,” says Smotrich enthusiastically in announcing the new funding.

The ultranationalist minister said that the “massive investment” was part of a strategic plan for “strengthening settlement, physically and politically connecting the region to the State of Israel, and making sovereignty a fait accompli on the ground.”

Transportation Minister Miri Regev concurs with Smotrich, saying the new funds are the “direct continuation of clear policies: sovereignty in practice, through action,” and says that during her tenure as minister, “billions” have been invested in transportation infrastructure in the West Bank.

The term “applying sovereignty” is used by the Israeli right for the annexation of the West Bank. Smotrich has been openly advocating for and advancing policies for the de facto annexation of the West Bank over the last two and a half years, with a series of administrative measures bringing the territory under civilian, not military, governance, as has been the case since 1967, and massively expanding the settlement enterprise.

Three Palestinians from East Jerusalem arrested on suspicion of joining ISIS, plotting to attack security forces

Three Palestinians from East Jerusalem were arrested recently on suspicion of plotting a terror attack against security forces at a checkpoint in the area, police say.

The three suspects had allegedly planned to target the Sheikh Saed checkpoint in the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood with a car bomb.

According to police, all three suspects had joined ISIS and were in contact with the terror group’s operatives in the West Bank and Syria. They had planned to travel to Syria to be trained in bombmaking. The suspects also consumed large amounts of online ISIS content, including propaganda and execution videos from warzones abroad, police say.

Operating off Shin Bet intelligence, the police arrested one of the suspects, a resident of Sur Baher in his 20s, several weeks ago. In the days following the initial arrest, police detained two additional suspects, also in their 20s, for questioning.

Officers searched the home of the initial suspect a few days later and discovered he had been in possession of a pistol, as well as ammunition concealed inside one of his socks.

One of the suspects had purchased a firearm with the stated intent of “killing Jews,” police say.

The three explored several methods of carrying out their thwarted terror attack. They had considered shooting at checkpoint security forces and also weighed using a drone, but eventually settled on detonating a car bomb at the checkpoint, believing it would cause greater damage and more deaths, police say.

The suspects’ remand has been extended several times by the court since their initial arrest. Law enforcement says that it expects prosecutors to file charges against all three, after a prosecutor’s statement was filed against two of the detainees earlier.

Opposition lawmakers decry ‘failed coalition’ as Knesset heads into summer recess

Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari addresses the Knesset plenum, June 25, 2025. (Dani Shem-Tov/ Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)

As the Knesset summer session ends, opposition coordinator Merav Ben Ari (Yesh Atid) slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “minority government” and “failed coalition.”

The exit of the Haredi Shas and United Torah Judaism parties from government means that the welfare, health, labor, interior, and housing ministries are all without a minister, she notes, adding that, at the same time, the Knesset ethics, labor, and interior committees have effectively been shut down.

She points out that the coalition has also failed to pass its “Haredi evasion law,” promised media reforms, and other flagship bills into law.

For months, Haredi boycotts have prevented the advancement of private member bills by coalition members while “the minority government dropped from 68 MKs to 61 or 50, depending on how you count,” she states.

“But the main thing is that they applied fake sovereignty [over the West Bank] in a meaningless and toothless motion of order and ousted the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in time of war.”

Yesterday, the Knesset passed a non-binding resolution calling to annex the West Bank, while Likud lawmakers overwhelmingly supported replacing Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein with MK Boaz Bismuth in an internal faction vote.

With UTJ’s exit, the coalition dropped to 61 seats. Shas, which has 11 seats, left the government but not the coalition. Avi Maoz, the far-right Noam party’s sole MK, recently announced his withdrawal from the coalition, bringing it down to 60 seats.

50 Jewish youths booted from flight in Spain in alleged antisemitic incident; airline says group posed danger to flight safety

A group of some 50 Jewish students from France was forcibly removed from an airplane at an airport in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday evening, according to reports, apparently after singing loudly in Hebrew aboard the plane.

Some claim that the incident was fueled by antisemitism, although the airline has denied this.

According to reports, the 50 members of a Jewish summer camp were singing in Hebrew aboard the plane and were told to stop by flight attendants, who warned that the police would be called if the singing continued.

A woman claiming to be the mother of one of the youths tells i24 News that the group stopped singing but that police came aboard anyway, and ordered the summer camp director and children to deplane.

Vueling, the low-cost Spanish airline on whose plane the incident happened, denies accusations of antisemitism that have arisen around the incident, saying the youths were “engaged in highly disruptive behavior and adopted a very confrontational attitude, putting at risk the safe conduct of the flight.”

It says they “mishandled emergency equipment and actively disrupted the mandatory safety demonstration” and ignored “multiple warnings,” leading crew to summon police.

However, witnesses say staff made incendiary statements toward the group, including one who allegedly called Israel a “terrorist state.”

Video from the scene shows police handcuffing a woman pinned to the ground by security agents.

The woman who was arrested and beaten is the director of the Kinneret summer camp.

Fifty Jewish French children, aged 10 – 15, were singing Hebrew songs on the plane.

The @vueling airline crew said that Israel is a terrorist state and forced the children off the aircraft; they… https://t.co/V78PEHB58B pic.twitter.com/HizF6SZoaD

— עמיחי שיקלי – Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) July 23, 2025

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli shares a video on X of a woman, said to be the director of the Kinneret summer camp, being violently arrested.

“The @vueling airline crew said that Israel is a terrorist state and forced the children off the aircraft; they are now in Valencia, waiting to return to France,” Chikli writes. “In line with Hamas’s campaign of lies echoed by Al Jazeera, Haaretz, and others, we are seeing numerous severe antisemitic incidents recently; this is one of the most serious.”

Greece to deploy salvage ship to Red Sea to protect against Houthi maritime attacks

This handout picture released by Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah Media Centre on July 8, 2025, reportedly shows a view of damage to the Liberia-flagged bulk carrier Eternity C after it was attacked by the Houthis at sea (ANSARULLAH MEDIA CENTRE / AFP)

Greece will deploy a salvage vessel in the Red Sea to assist in maritime accidents and protect seafarers and global shipping, the shipping minister says, following attacks on two Greek vessels by Yemen’s Houthi rebels this month.

Two Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated cargo ships, Magic Seas and Eternity C, sank off Yemen after repeated attacks by the Iran-aligned militant group.

The strikes on the two vessels marked a resumption of attacks on shipping by the Houthis, who struck more than 100 ships between November 2023 and December 2024 in what they said was a show of solidarity with the Palestinians in the war in Gaza.

Shipping Minister Vassilis Kikilias says the salvage vessel — called Giant and provided by the Hellenic Association of Tugboat Owners — will “support, protect and assist Greek-owned vessels and Greek seafarers.”

All of the crew members from the Magic Seas were rescued by a passing ship.

The crew of the Eternity C had to abandon the ship. Ten were rescued by a privately led mission, but five more are feared dead and the Houthis are believed to be holding another 10 crew members, maritime security sources have said.

Aspides, the European Union naval mission protecting shipping in the Red Sea, did not have assets in the area at the time of the incidents.

Giant is manned by a specialist crew of 14 Greek sailors, has four engines with 16,000 horsepower, and can sail in the most adverse weather conditions, the Shipping Ministry says.

It can participate in search and rescue operations, with accommodation for 40 people, help prevent marine pollution and also has firefighting capacity.

Sa’ar meets with Moldovan foreign minister in Chisinau

Following his diplomatic trip to Ukraine yesterday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has begun an official visit to Chisinau, his office says.

Sa’ar met this morning with Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mihai Popsoi, during which pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated against Israel’s actions in Gaza outside the foreign ministry, says Sa’ar’s office in a statement, sharing footage of the scene.

The statement adds that Sa’ar is also set to meet with Moldovan Parliament President Igor Grosu and later with leaders of Moldova’s Jewish community.

????????????????Productive meeting with Israeli FM @gidonsaar in Chișinău. Discussed economic cooperation in areas like agriculture, green energy, health, education and tourism.

We aim to relaunch the Moldova–Israel joint commission to boost trade, joint projects, and investment. pic.twitter.com/D1C3RE1Spm

— Mihai Popșoi (@MihaiPopsoi) July 24, 2025

Popsoi wrote on X that the meeting was “productive,” and the two “discussed economic cooperation in areas like agriculture, green energy, health, education and tourism.” He added that Moldova and Israel aim to relaunch their joint commission to advance trade and investment.

Sa’ar visited Chisinau in February to open Israel’s first embassy in Moldova — a move Popsoi recently told The Times of Israel is already strengthening bilateral ties.

Sa’ar’s office has not yet released a readout of the meeting.

Palestinian woman said injured in settler attack on village in South Hebron Hills

Palestinian media reports that settlers attacked a Palestinian woman this morning in the West Bank village of Shaab al-Butum in the South Hebron Hills.

Footage shared on social media shows damage inside a home, and smashed solar panels outside.

A local Palestinian resident tells The Times of Israel that the woman was taken to a hospital for medical treatment following the attack.

آثار هجوم المستوطنين على مساكن الأهالي في شعب البطم بمسافر يطا جنوب مدينة الخليل. pic.twitter.com/m8ClYVZs5d

— أخبار الأردن (@AkhbarOrdon) July 24, 2025

Hungary bans anti-Israel group Kneecap from entering country for festival performance

Naoise O Caireallain, left, and Liam Og of the hip hop trio Kneecap perform during the Glastonbury Festival, June 28, 2025. (Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Members of the Irish-language rap group Kneecap have been banned from entering Hungary ahead of their scheduled performance at the popular Sziget Festival, with authorities arguing the musicians’ presence in the country would constitute a risk to national security.

The Belfast trio, scheduled to play on Sziget’s closing day on August 11, is known for anarchic energy, satirical lyrics and use of symbolism associated with the Irish republican movement.

It has drawn criticism and police scrutiny, however, after videos emerged allegedly showing the band shouting “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah.”

Hungary’s immigration authority, the National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing, publishes decrees declaring Kneecap members Naoise Ó Cairealláin, J.J. Ó Dochartaigh and Liam Óg ÓhAnnaidh would be banned from Hungary’s territory for three years since their “entry and stay constitute a serious threat to national security.”

Government spokesman Zoltán Kovács writes on social platform X that the decision to ban Kneecap was due to “antisemitic hate speech and open praise for Hamas and Hezbollah.”

Hungarian authorities and other groups had earlier pushed Sziget Festival to cancel the band’s performance. Hungary’s minister for European affairs, János Bóka, noted the government’s “zero-tolerance” policy toward antisemitism in a July 11 letter to the festival’s organizers.

Hundreds of figures from Hungary’s music and cultural community have also signed a petition calling for Kneecap’s performance to be canceled.

The group performed in April at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California, where they accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians, enabled by the US government. That sparked calls for the rappers’ US visas to be revoked and several Kneecap gigs have since been canceled as a result.

Defense Ministry director general visits India in bid to deepen defense, industrial ties

Defense Ministry Director General Amir Baram (left) meets with Indian Defense Secretary Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh (right) in India, in a photo cleared for publication June 24, 2025. (Defense Ministry)

Defense Ministry Director General Amir Baram made his first working visit to India this week, the ministry announces, aiming to deepen defense and industrial cooperation between the two countries in the wake of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran.

During the visit, Baram held high-level meetings with top Indian officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Defense Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh. He presented operational lessons and technological achievements from the recent Iran conflict and discussed the evolving strategic landscape in the Middle East, the ministry says.

Talks focused on expanding joint defense initiatives, particularly in research and development, as well as co-production ventures. Baram also met with Indian defense firms to explore future industrial collaborations.

“India is a key strategic ally of Israel, and our partnership has proven resilient through difficult times,” Baram said, according to the defense ministry statement. “Recent operational achievements and common security challenges create an important window to expand our nations’ defense-industrial collaboration.”

Foreign Ministry warns Israeli tourists to stay away from Thailand-Cambodia border

Amid escalating military conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, the Foreign Ministry issues a travel warning urging Israelis to stay away from the Southeast Asian neighbors’ disputed border area.

“Due the growing tensions between Thailand and Cambodia, the Foreign Ministry recommends that Israeli travelers avoid entering or staying in the border area between the two countries — particularly in the northeastern provinces of Thailand and the northwestern provinces of Cambodia,” says the ministry in a statement.

“Special emphasis is placed on avoiding proximity to border crossings, most of which are currently closed. We recommend following reports in the local media and adhering to the instructions of security authorities as they are issued,” adds the ministry.

Thailand launched airstrikes on Cambodian military targets along their disputed border today after border clashes killed civilians, escalating a sharp deterioration in relations.

Thailand and its neighbors are among the most popular flight destinations for Israeli tourists, with some statistics showing an average of around 200,000 Israelis visiting Thailand annually in recent years.

IDF says Hamas fired rocket at aid distribution site in southern Gaza overnight

Hamas launched a rocket at one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution sites in the southern Gaza Strip last night, the military says.

According to the IDF, the rocket was launched from Khan Younis toward the area of the GHF sites in Rafah. The projectile impacted some 250 meters from one of the aid sites, close to the army’s Morag Corridor, it says.

The aid site opened for Palestinians to collect food packages today despite the attack.

The IDF says the rocket attack “adds to the attempts by the terror organizations, who operate cruelly and systematically, to sabotage the aid distribution sites program… while attempting to disrupt the distribution of humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip.”

חמאס וארגוני הטרור פועלים להכשלת מתחמי חלוקת הסיוע: זוהה שיגור לעבר מתחם חלוקה ברפיח

אמש, צה"ל זיהה שיגור ממרחב חאן יונס שבדרום הרצועה, לעבר המרחב בו ממוקמים מתחמי חלוקת הסיוע ברפיח.

השיגור נפל במרחק של כ-250 מטרים ממתחם חלוקת הסיוע בסמוך לציר מורג שבמרחב רפיח. עם זאת, על אף… pic.twitter.com/oeOSFufCc9

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 24, 2025

UN report finds childhood malnutrition in Gaza worsened in July

Palestinians, mostly children, push to receive a hot meal at a charity kitchen in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22, 2025. (AFP)

Data published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicates a worsening in cases of child malnutrition in Gaza in July.

According to the report published today, of the 56,000 children under the age of five screened in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, and Khan Younis during the first two weeks of July, 5,000 were found to be suffering from severe malnutrition.

This represents nearly 9% of those examined, compared to 6% a month prior, and 2.4% in February during the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The report also states that UN-affiliated organizations have documented 20 cases of children dying from severe malnutrition since the beginning of 2025, 13 of them in July alone.

The UN does not specify the methodology of the surveys or which specific organizations are collecting the data in Gaza.

The sample size may vary from one survey to another.

Anti-government activist charged with conspiring to commit act of terror over plot to kill PM

State prosecutors today filed charges against an anti-government activist arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The defendant, in her 70s, decided to assassinate the premier after she was diagnosed with a terminal illness and realized she only had a short time to live, prosecutors say.

The woman’s identity remains barred from publication under a court-issued gag order. She is charged in the Tel Aviv District Court with conspiring to commit a terrorist act.

Prosecutors say the defendant sought to die as a martyr and “sacrifice her life” for the anti-government struggle, thereby “saving” the State of Israel.

Police were notified of the plan via one of her fellow activists in the anti-government movement, whom she tried to rope into her assassination plot.

She told her friend about her plan in late June, to which he immediately objected. He asked her to hold off for a few days on carrying out the plan, in an apparent effort to dissuade her.

A few days later, the defendant invited him again to her home, requesting he help her obtain an RPG rocket launcher to kill Netanyahu. She also tried to enlist him in gathering intelligence regarding the premier’s schedule, movements, whereabouts and security detail. She ensured that phones were kept outside of the room during these conversations.

After realizing that he would be unable to dissuade the defendant, the activist contacted a lawyer, who informed police of the assassination plot.

Alongside the indictment, state prosecutors also requested the court keep the defendant under house arrest until the end of legal proceedings against her, saying that she still may attempt to carry out her plan against Netanyahu if freed.

Plane carrying 49 people crashes in eastern Russia

A passenger plane carrying 49 people crashed in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur this morning, authorities say.

The aircraft, a twin-engine Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar, regional governor Vassily Orlov says on Telegram.

A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a mountainside about 16 kilometres (10 miles) from Tynda.

The helicopter saw no evidence of survivors from above, local rescuers say.

The Amur region’s civil defense agency says it is dispatching rescuers to the scene.

“At the moment, 25 people and five units of equipment have been dispatched, and four aircraft with crews are on standby,” it says.

Paramedics say eight injured in suspected ramming attack, 5 moderately and 3 lightly

Paramedics update that eight people were injured in the suspected car-ramming in central Israel this morning, five of whom are in moderate condition.

The other three sustained light injuries. The wounded are being taken to the nearby Hillel Yaffe and Laniado hospitals.

Police located the suspect’s vehicle but are still searching for the perpetrator, who remains at large after deserting his car in the Beit Lid area.

Police find abandoned vehicle used in suspected car-ramming, suspect still at large

Police have located the car of a suspected car-ramming attack in central Israel moments ago, but are still pursuing the suspect, who fled the vehicle.

The car was found abandoned in the Beit Lid area.

Station and district officers are conducting searches along the roads and in open areas, assisted by other security forces, police helicopters, Yasam motorcycle units and police dogs.

The Central District commander has ordered the immediate activation of all first response teams in the nearby communities, police say.

Several West Bank crossings closed as security forces search for perpetrator of suspected car-ramming

Police have launched a manhunt for the perpetrator of a suspected car-ramming attack in central Israel.

Security forces have closed crossings into the West Bank in the area, including the road leading to Tulkarem, as they pursue the suspect, according to a military official. A police helicopter is also aiding in the searches.

Six people were injured in the hit-and-run near Kfar Yona, including two with moderate injuries, paramedics say.

Police chief Danny Levy is en route to the scene of the ramming where he will conduct a situational assessment, police say.

Updated Hamas proposal is ‘workable,’ Israeli source says

The updated Hamas response to a Gaza ceasefire proposal is “workable,” an Israeli source tells The Times of Israel.

Hamas’s initial response, delivered hours before this one, had been quickly rejected by Arab mediators, who refused to even share it with the US and Israel and demanded that the terror group present something more reasonable.

Two people moderately wounded in suspected car ramming, others lightly hurt

The Magen David Adom ambulance service says two people, both in their 20s, were moderately injured in the suspected ramming attack in central Israel.

They are being taken to Laniado Hospital in Netanya.

Several others are being treated for light injuries at the scene of the suspected ramming.

Several people injured in suspected car-ramming attack in central Israel

Magen David Adom ambulances at the scene of a suspected car ramming terror attack on Route 57 in central Israel, on July 24, 2025. (Magen David Adom)

Several people have been injured in a suspected car-ramming on Route 57, in central Israel, emergency services say.

Emergency services say that a vehicle drove into a bus stop near the Beit Lid junction, close to the entrance of Kfar Yona.

Magen David Adom says its medical teams are treating six people for varying degrees of injury.

Police are investigating the circumstances of the incident.

Tank soldier seriously wounded during fighting in southern Gaza, IDF says

A tank soldier with the 188th Armored Brigade’s 71st Battalion was seriously wounded during fighting in southern Gaza yesterday, the IDF announces.

He was taken to a hospital for treatment and his family was notified, the army adds.

PM’s office confirms Israel reviewing Hamas’s latest response to ceasefire proposal

Protesters rally for the release of Israelis held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, outside the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, July 23, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

The Prime Minister’s Office confirms that Israel has received Hamas’s latest response to the proposed ceasefire and hostage release deal, and is reviewing it in full.

Hamas’s initial response, delivered hours before this one, was quickly rejected by Arab mediators, who refused to even share it with the US and Israel and demanded that the terror group present something more reasonable.

Israel says 70 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza yesterday

Aid awaits collection on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing with the Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued on July 21, 2025. (COGAT)

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) says that 70 humanitarian aid trucks, primarily containing food, were transferred to the Gaza Strip yesterday.

Some of the trucks were transferred to southern Gaza via the Kerem Shalom Crossing and others to the northern part of the Strip through the Zikim Crossing.

The aid was delivered following thorough security inspections, COGAT says.

COGAT tells The Times of Israel that contrary to criticism from the UN and other aid organizations, there has been no pause in delivering aid to the Strip in recent days, and that deliveries have continued, “albeit at reduced effectiveness.”

Humanitarian organizations have voiced growing concerns in recent days about food shortages within Gaza, citing their inability to collect aid trucks from the border.

COGAT says that it has already coordinated the collection of more than 150 trucks on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, but that over 800 trucks are still awaiting pickup at the crossings.

Hamas response to ceasefire proposal said to include updated demands on humanitarian aid, IDF withdrawal from Gaza

Demonstrators gather during an anti-government protest calling for action to secure the release of Israeli hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip, outside the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv on July 19, 2025. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)

As Israel reviews Hamas’s latest response to a ceasefire and hostage release deal proposal, a Palestinian source familiar with the ongoing negotiations tells AFP that the terror group’s demands are mainly focused on the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and the withdrawal of IDF troops.

The source says that Hamas is also demanding guarantees on securing a permanent end to the war, to ensure that Israel doesn’t return to fighting after the 60-day truce is up.

According to Ynet, previous guarantees on securing an end to the war have only been given orally, and Hamas is seeking to have them included in the text of the proposal.

Regarding the matter of humanitarian aid, reports in both Hebrew and Arabic media suggest that Hamas is demanding that the responsibility for bringing aid into the Gaza Strip be returned to the UN.

It is unclear from the reports whether the controversial US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would be removed from the Strip entirely in this scenario, or if it would continue to play a role in aid distribution.

Israel’s Channel 12 reports that Hamas is demanding a more extensive withdrawal of IDF troops than Israel had proposed, with a narrower buffer zone along the Gaza border.

While sources told the Times of Israel earlier this month that Israel was pushing for a two-kilometer (1.2 mile) buffer zone around Gaza’s perimeter, the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reports that Hamas is now demanding that the buffer zone extend no further than 800 meters (0.49 miles) into the enclave.

Separately, the news outlet cites a Palestinian source familiar with the negotiations as saying that Hamas has upped the number of Palestinian security prisoners serving life sentences that it expects Israel to release in exchange for each living hostage.

Hamas’s latest response to the ceasefire and hostage deal proposal was submitted just hours after a previous response was rejected by Arab mediators, who refused to even share it with the US and Israel and demanded that the terror group present something more reasonable.

Jacob Magid contributed to this report.

Israeli official says Jerusalem reviewing latest Hamas response to ceasefire proposal

An Israeli official tells The Times of Israel that a Hamas statement announcing it gave mediators its response to a Gaza ceasefire proposal refers to an updated response.

Hamas submitted an earlier response on Tuesday, which was quickly rejected by the Arab mediators, who refused to even share it with the US and Israel and demanded that the terror group present something more reasonable.

Hamas agreed to the demand, with the Israeli official confirming that the latest response doesn’t include some of the demands in the proposal that the terror group submitted on Tuesday.

Israel is still reviewing the Hamas response in full, the official adds.

Hamas confirms giving mediators response to Israeli truce proposal

Hamas confirms that it has submitted its response to an Israeli proposal for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire to negotiators.

“Hamas has just submitted its response and that of the Palestinian factions to the ceasefire proposal to the mediators,” the Palestinian terrorist group says in a statement posted on Telegram.

It’s not immediately clear whether the statement is referring to an updated response or the one Hamas already submitted Tuesday night, though the terror group issued no public statement at the time.

Moreover, that proposal was quickly rejected by the mediators who viewed its new series of demands to have been unacceptable, according to a source involved in the talks.

Mediators told Hamas on Tuesday night to send a more constructive response instead.

Columbia reaches $200m settlement with Trump administration over campus antisemitism

FILE - Students sit on the front steps of Low Memorial Library on the Columbia University campus in New York City, February 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

Columbia University has reached a deal with US President Donald Trump’s administration over federal funding, it says.

In a statement, the university says it will pay a $200 million fine over three years to settle allegations that it failed to do enough to stop the harassment of Jewish students on campus.

“Under today’s agreement, a vast majority of the federal grants which were terminated or paused in March 2025—will be reinstated and Columbia’s access to billions of dollars in current and future grants will be restored,” Columbia says in a statement.

The US Department of Education doesn’t immediately respond to request for comment.

The announcement Wednesday comes a day after the university disciplined dozens of students over pro-Palestinian protests against Israel on campus.

In March, the Trump administration canceled grants and contracts worth about $400 million for the Ivy League school because of what it described as antisemitic harassment on and near the school’s New York City campus.

Missile fired by Yemen’s Houthis fails to reach Israel

A ballistic missile launched at Israel by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen a short while ago fell short outside the country’s borders, according to military officials.

The IDF identified the launch but no sirens sounded in Israel because the missile did not pose a threat.

IDF says troops shot dead 2 Palestinians hurling firebombs at West Bank highway

Two Palestinians who allegedly hurled Molotov cocktails at a highway near the West Bank town of al-Khader were shot dead by troops, the military says.

According to the IDF, troops of the 636th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit waiting in an ambush near al-Khader spotted a group of Palestinians throwing firebombs on a nearby highway.

The troops opened fire on the suspects, killing two, the IDF says, adding that no soldiers were hurt.