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The Times of Israel liveblogged Thursday’s events as they unfolded.
Netanyahu, Gallant meeting with negotiating team to decide on mandate for Qatar hostage talks – report
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly holding talks with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Shas party leader Aryeh Deri, along with members of Israel’s negotiating team, regarding the mandate it will be granted for hostage deal talks in Qatar tomorrow.
The talks are being held following the conclusion of this evening’s Security Cabinet meeting, the Walla news site reports.
UK exit polls show Labour heading for landslide victory with 410 seats out of 650
A BBC election exit poll shows Labour under Keir Starmer winning a landslide election victory in the July 4, 2024 British general election. (BBC screenshot)
As voting ends in the UK, exit polls show Labour, under Keir Starmer, will win 410 seats in the 650-seat parliament, ending 14 years of Conservative-led government.
Incumbent Rishi Sunak’s Conservative party is forecast to only take 131 seats, down from 346 when parliament was dissolved, as voters punish the Conservatives for a cost-of-living crisis and years of instability and in-fighting which has seen five different prime ministers since 2016.
Britain’s opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria arrive to cast their votes at a polling station in London on July 4, 2024, as Britain holds a general election. (Paul Ellis / AFP)
In the last six national elections, only one exit poll has got the outcome wrong – in 2015 when the poll predicted a hung parliament when in fact the Conservatives won a majority. Official results will follow over the next few hours.
Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak looks on as journalists ask him questions, during a visit to Braishfield primary school as part of a Conservative general election campaign event in Hampshire, England, July 3, 2024. (Claudia Greco/Pool Photo via AP)
If confirmed, the result would represent one of the greatest slumps in support for the Conservatives in history, and one of the biggest swings ever from Conservatives to Labour.
French far right party likely to win, but fall short of absolute majority, poll shows
Leader of the French far-right National Rally Marine Le Pen, left, and lead candidate of the party for the European election Jordan Bardella during a political meeting on June 2, 2024 in Paris. (AP/Thomas Padilla)
PARIS – France’s far-right National Rally party is set to fall short of an absolute majority in Sunday’s parliamentary election run-off, an opinion poll shows, suggesting efforts by mainstream parties to block the far right might be working.
It is the second survey in as many days to show Marine Le Pen’s RN winning more seats than any other party, but also missing the 289 threshold required for an absolute majority.
This suggests that a “republican front,” by which more than 200 candidates across the political spectrum pulled out of three-way second rounds over the past days to clear the path for whoever was best placed to defeat the RN option in their district, seems to be yielding results.
The IFOP poll for LCI and Le Figaro shows the RN winning 210 to 240 seats, down from 240-270 before the withdrawals.
The leftist New Popular Front is seen in second place, with 170 to 200 seats, ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Together group with 95 to 125 seats. The conservative Republicans is forecast to win 25 to 45 seats.
Yesterday, a Harris Interactive poll forecast 190 to 220 seats for the RN.
The RN have said they will not run the government if they do not gain the absolute majority they would need to have free rein.
Le Pen and party chief Jordan Bardella have also repeatedly criticized the “republican front,” saying it shows disdain for their voters.
Toddler dies after being hit by car while riding scooter in Beit Shemesh building parking lot
A toddler has died after being hit by a car while riding his scooter in the parking lot of a residential building in Beit Shemesh.
Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the two-year-old to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in a critical condition earlier this evening, where doctors were forced to pronounce him dead.
Washington believes there’s a ‘pretty significant opening’ to reach hostage-ceasefire deal – senior US official
Washington believes Israel and Hamas have a “pretty significant opening” to reach an agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by the terror group since October 7, a senior US official says.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official says the Hamas proposal “moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal,” while stressing it does not mean an agreement was likely in the coming days, and that “significant work” remains.
Hamas has insisted on an end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal of all troops from Gaza as a prelude to any hostage deal, a term Israel has repeatedly rejected.
The current version of the deal in play is based on a proposal made public at the end of May in a speech by Biden, built on a three-stage long-term Israeli outline that would ultimately lead to the end of the war and the release of all the hostages.
More than six months of negotiations carried out by mediators including the US, Qatar and Egypt have time and again failed to advance toward a deal that would see the release of the 116 hostages kidnapped on October 7 who are believed to remain captive in Gaza, in exchange for a truce in fighting and the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners.
Ex-IDF commando eulogizes Yoni Netanyahu: ‘You sacrificed your life for the hostages; PM and his partners sacrifice the hostages for themselves’
Friends attend an alternative memorial ceremony for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's older brother Yoni, who was killed 48 years ago in Operation Entebbe, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery, July 4, 2024. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Friends of Yonatan (Yoni) Netanyahu, who was killed 48 years ago today during the famous Operation Entebbe to rescue Israeli hostages kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists to Uganda, hold a memorial ceremony at his grave — without his younger brother, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We won’t attend to a ceremony where Benjamin Netanyahu is present,” Udi Shalvi, one of the late Netanyahu’s subordinates in the Israel Defense Force’s elite Sayeret Matkal unit, tells Channel 12 News.
Lt. Col. (ret.) Shlomi Reisman, who also took part in Operation Entebbe, says during the ceremony at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery, “I chose to visit your grave separately from the prime minister’s ceremony. I can’t lie to myself. He and his partners are acting the opposite of how you brought us up. How he was brought up.”
“You chose to sacrifice your life for Israel and the hostages — and they sacrifice Israel and the hostages for themselves, Reisman adds.
“If Yoni were alive, he would be prime minister and not his brother, who has led us to the terrible place we’re now in,” Shalvi tells Channel 12.
Yoni Netanyahu’s partner, Bruria Shaked-Okon, also attends the alternative ceremony, saying, “I feel that there’s no choice and we can’t keep playing this game, that’s why I’m here.”
Some of the attendees were also planning to join tonight’s anti-government protest outside the prime minister’s house in Jerusalem after the memorial ceremony, Channel 12 reports.
Three Israeli civilians detained on suspicion of murdering Palestinian man during October 7 onslaught
Three Israeli civilians, who are not members of the security forces, were recently detained on suspicion of murdering a Palestinian man during the October 7 onslaught and stealing weaponry, police say.
One of the suspects is being held until the end of legal proceedings for weapons offenses, while the other two were released under “restrictive conditions.”
Further details are barred from publication due to a court-issued gag order.
IDF: Fighter jets strike additional Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon after major barrage earlier today
Israeli fighter jets struck additional Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in the last few hours, the military says.
The IDF says the targets included Hezbollah infrastructure in Mays al-Jabal and a building used by the terror group in Ayta ash-Shab.
מטוסי קרב תקפו בשעות האחרונות תשתית טרור של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב מיס אל ג׳בל ומבנה צבאי של הארגון במרחב עייתא א-שעב שבדרום לבנון pic.twitter.com/eSIlMWQGXu
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 4, 2024
Delegation headed by Mossad chief heading to Qatar for indirect hostage negotiations, Israeli official confirms
Mossad chief David Barnea at a Memorial Day ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, May 12, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Israel’s hostage negotiating team headed by Mossad chief David Barnea will travel to Qatar for meetings with mediators, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
Barnea will meet tomorrow with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani to try and build off of the updated hostage-ceasefire deal proposal Hamas submitted yesterday, the Israeli official says.
Thousands protest against government outside PM’s house in Jerusalem, demanding hostage deal
Anti-government protesters march to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house in Jerusalem, July 4, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Thousands of anti-government protesters are gathered in Jerusalem near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house, calling for early elections and for the government to close a deal to free Israeli captives in Gaza, amid reports of a breakthrough in hostage-ceasefire talks.
Police are deployed in force, blocking traffic in both directions with barriers and vehicles on Azza Street.
Before rallying near Netanyahu’s house, protesters marched through central Jerusalem, chanting for the government to close a deal with Hamas to free the remaining 116 hostages abducted on October 7.
A statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum quoted by Hebrew media called on the public to join the rally in Jerusalem.
“After 272 days, Hamas’s response to the ‘Netanyahu deal’ was received – not another minute must be wasted,” the Hostages Forum says.
🟥 ירושלים: מוחים נגד הממשלה ובעד עסקת חטופים צועדים לעבר מעון רה"מ. pic.twitter.com/6VG5g4l7t1
— Asslan Khalil (@KhalilAsslan) July 4, 2024
IDF announces death of Staff Sgt. Eyal Mimran, 20, killed in Gaza City fighting earlier today
Staff Sgt. Eyal Mimran, 20, from Ness Ziona, was killed in battle in Gaza on July 4, 2024. (Courtesy)
An IDF soldier was killed during fighting earlier today in Gaza City’s Shejaiya, the military announces.
He is named as Staff Sgt. Eyal Mimran, 20, of the Paratroopers Brigade’s 101st Battalion, from Ness Ziona.
His death brings Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 325.
Separately, a reservist with the Alexandroni Brigade was seriously wounded in central Gaza, the IDF adds.
Hamas hostage-ceasefire proposal includes ‘very significant breakthrough’ — Israeli negotiator
There is a “real chance” of achieving a deal with Hamas on the release of hostages held in Gaza since October 7, a source in the Israeli negotiating team says, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to send a delegation to the next round of talks.
“The proposal put forward by Hamas includes a very significant breakthrough,” says the source, after the Palestinian terror group presented a revised proposal for a deal, via mediators, to Israel.
“It can serve to advance negotiations. There’s a deal with a real chance of implementation. Though the clauses are not easy, they shouldn’t scupper the deal.”
A different Israeli official confirms an earlier report that the delegation to the talks will be led by Mossad chief David Barnea.
‘The sword is coming’: TV report quotes IDF email warning of Hamas invasion plans, days before Oct. 7
Channel 12 News shares quotes from an urgent warning sent by an operator from the IDF’s Military Intelligence’s Unit 8200, days before Hamas’s brutal October 7 massacre in southern Israel.
The email warns that the intelligence establishment would likely not be able to give the military enough warning to prevent mass casualties and kidnappings in a potential Hamas terror attack, and calls for a plan to be put into place.
“This email serves as a blowing of the ‘shofar’ because the sword is coming — now is the time to warn the nation,” the messages reads, referencing a quote from the Book of Eziekiel.
“The ‘Jericho Wall’ plan is an operative, practiced plan, meaning that Hamas already has forces that drill these plans and know how to put them into action when ordered,” the email reads.
The message was sent following a detailed document put together by 8200 less than three weeks before October 7 that warned Hamas was training for a large-scale invasion of Israel, dubbed “Jericho Wall,” during which hostages would be taken en masse. The document was first exposed by Channel 12 in mid June.
The 8200 document, which was reportedly brought to the attention of senior intelligence officials, at least those within the Gaza Division, outlined a series of exercises by the Palestinian terror group’s elite forces who drilled raids on Israeli towns and military posts, including on how to hold soldiers and civilians hostage when back inside Gaza, and in what conditions they can be killed.
The email also stresses that a mass infiltration of terrorists from Gaza into Israel, as described in the plan, would be challenging for the IDF to control.
“If the plan is implemented – bitter and difficult fighting is to be expected,” it email warns.
Some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists burst from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel on October 7, carrying out a murderous rampage of unprecedented intensity and breadth that left 1,200 people dead and 251 kidnapped to Gaza. The IDF struggled to mount a response, with bases closest to the border overrun and the chain of command seemingly broken amid the chaos.
Gallant tells families of Hamas captives Israel ‘closer than ever’ to hostage-truce deal – TV report
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at an honor cordon before a meeting with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (not in picture), at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, June 25, 2024. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/AFP)
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tells families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7 that Israel is “closer than ever” to closing a deal to secure their release from captivity, Channel 12 reports.
“A month ago I was pessimistic about our chances of reaching a deal anytime soon. One of my prime goals in all of my meetings in the United States was to put pressure on Hamas to come to a deal with the understanding that there’s not going to be a better deal,” he is quoted as saying.
“Today, and I’m saying this cautiously, we’re closer than ever.”
The report comes as the security cabinet is meeting to discuss Israel’s position on the latest hostage-ceasefire proposal on the table, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to send a delegation to the next round of indirect negotiations.
Netanyahu: Israel’s ‘principle’ in the fight against Hezbollah — ‘Whoever harms us, his blood is on his head’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets senior Air Force leadership at the IDF’s Kirya HQ in Tel Aviv, July 4, 2024. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the air force leadership that Israel has “established a principle” in its fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon, “Whoever harms us, his blood is on his head.”
“We have put this into practice,” says Netanyahu as he visits the air force operational headquarters in the Pit in the Kirya.
“We know the road is long, but we are determined to restore security to the north and return the residents safely to their homes,” he tells IAF commander Tomer Bar and the service’s top brass.
Hamas spokesman on hostage-truce talks: ‘We don’t trust Netanyahu or the US administration’
As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells US President Biden that he has agreed to send an Israeli delegation to renewed indirect negotiations, a Hamas spokesman is quoted as saying, “We do not trust Netanyahu or the US administration. We trust the resistance, our people, and the support fronts,” a reference to other Iran-backed terror groups including Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“By monitoring Netanyahu’s statements, we can notice the contradiction, and this confirms that Netanyahu is not serious about reaching an agreement,” Hamas spokesman in Lebanon Ahmed Abdel Hadi tells the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese al Mayadeen satellite news station, adding that “Netanyahu does not want a ceasefire.”
He says that Hamas is “dealing objectively” and vows to “continue the resistance if an agreement is not reached, and if an agreement is reached, that is excellent.”
The Hamas spokesman says the terror group did not “submit a paper or provide a response” to the latest hostage-ceasefire deal proposal, but rather “showed flexibility.”
“We were seeking to formulate fixed phrases, and the flexibility today is in form, not content,” Abdel Hadi is quoted as saying.
“We were told by the mediators that the atmosphere is positive and that an agreement can be reached,” he adds.
More than six months of negotiations carried out by mediators including the US, Qatar and Egypt have time and again failed to advance toward a deal that would see the release of the 116 hostages kidnapped on October 7 who are believed to remain captive in Gaza, in exchange for a truce in fighting and the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners.
Lazar Berman contributed to this report.
Netanyahu tells Biden Israel is committed to ending war in Gaza ‘only after achieving all of its goals’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls US President Joe Biden from IDF's Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv on April 14, 2024. (GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells US President Joe Biden that Israel is committed to “ending the war only after achieving all of its goals,” according to the Israeli readout of the conversation.
In their phone call, Netanyahu also discusses his decision earlier in the day to send a negotiating team to participate in indirect talks with Hamas around a hostage release-for-ceasefire deal. Mossad chief David Barnea is expected to take off soon for talks, Channel 13 reports.
Netanyahu also offers his greetings for US Independence Day, and tells the president that “without the US, there is no freedom in the world.” Biden responds that without Israel, there is no safety for Jews in the world, according to the PMO.
Netanyahu convenes security cabinet to discuss Israel’s position in imminent hostage-ceasefire talks
In this handout photo, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a security cabinet meeting at military headquarters in Tel Aviv on May 9, 2023. (Avi Ohayan/GPO)
As momentum builds toward the renewal of talks on a hostage deal with Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes his national security cabinet to discuss Israel’s position in indirect negotiations, which are expected to begin in the coming days.
The meeting is held at the IDF’s Kirya headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Earlier today, Netanyahu approved sending a negotiating team after reviewing Hamas’s response to Israel’s latest proposal.
Senior Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, have expressed optimism around chances for a deal over the past day.
Man, 26, hospitalized in serious condition after contracting encephalitis caused by rare amoeba
An Israeli man has been hospitalized and is listed in serious condition after contracting encephalitis caused by a rare amoeba, the Health Ministry announces.
The ministry’s investigation finds that the otherwise healthy 26-year-old man could have come into contact with the organism at Gai Beach in Tiberias.
The amoeba, known as Naegleria fowleri, lives in soil and warm freshwater, such as lakes, rivers, and hot springs. According to the CDC, it is commonly called the “brain-eating amoeba” because it can cause a brain infection when water containing the amoeba goes up the nose.
While infection is extremely rare, with only some 400 cases diagnosed worldwide, it is often fatal.
Symptoms often include headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck, and neurological symptoms such as confusion, seizures, and hallucinations. It is a life-threatening condition requiring immediate medical attention.
The Health Ministry has sent environmental health inspectors to check the water at the beach.
A 36-year-old man died of Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis in August 2022, a brain infection caused by the same amoeba.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Chief scientist joins exodus of senior officials from Environmental Protection Ministry
Just four days after the government approved the appointment of a new Director General of the Environmental Protection Ministry, the ministry’s chief scientist tells a conference that she will be leaving too.
Prof. Noga Kronfeld -Schor, who was appointed to the post in January 2021, will return to Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology.
Several senior officials have quit the ministry over the past year, among them Shuli Nezer, responsible for industry and licensing; legal adviser Dalit Dor; Yuval Laster, who headed the policy and strategy unit; and Dr. Netta Lipman, who oversaw the field of natural resources and climate resilience.
The newly-appointed director general, Assaf Yazdi, will replace ministry veteran, Guy Samet.
Norway condemns Israeli move to legalize five West Bank settlement outposts
Youths at the illegal West Bank outpost of Evyatar bring in a water tanker, June 22, 2023. (Flash90)
HELSINKI – Norway condemns Israel’s decision to “legalize” five Wset Bank settlement outposts, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide says.
The security cabinet, at the behest of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, last week announced the steps along with a series of punitive moves against the Palestinian Authority.
Barth Eide adds that Norway finds it “totally unacceptable” that Israel has also decided to advance the approval of another 6,016 housing units for settlements in the West Bank.
He says the decisions undermined efforts to establish peace in the region and demands Israel reverse them.
“Israelis and Palestinians deserve to live their lives in peace and security, with freedom, dignity and equal rights. The two-state solution is the only viable solution,” Barth Eide says, referring to Norway’s earlier stance.
Norway, which recognized Palestine as a state in May, has been a vocal supporter of a two-state solution. Interim peace accords were brokered in Norway in the 1990s.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
IDF announces death of reservist in Hezbollah attack in northern Israel earlier today
Maj. (res.) Itay Galea, 38, a deputy company commander in the Yiftah Reserve Armored Brigade's 8679th unit, was killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack in northern Israel, July 4, 2024. (Courtesy)
An Israeli reservist officer was killed in northern Israel by a rocket launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon earlier today, amid the terror group’s major barrage.
The slain soldier is named as Maj. (res.) Itay Galea, 38, a deputy company commander in the Yiftah Reserve Armored Brigade’s 8679th unit, from Ramat Gan.
Hezbollah fired some 200 rockets and 20 drones at northern Israel, in response to the killing of a top commander in the terror group in an IDF strike yesterday.
Ministerial committee on high cost of living short tracks regulation on imported goods
Illustrative: A worker stacks dairy products at a Shufersal supermarket in the Golan Heights town of Katzrin, on July 1, 2022. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)
The ministerial committee for tackling the high cost of living unanimously approves a reform under which imported goods that adhere to European quality standards won’t need to undergo additional domestic regulatory standards approval, thereby cutting lengthy bureaucratic processes and lowering costs for consumers.
As part of the “What’s good for Europe is good for Israel” draft reform, the ministerial committee allow imported goods with European quality standards or certification to be automatically standardized, without requiring additional regulatory approval by the Standards Institution of Israel, as is currently the case.
The committee against the high cost of living was summoned at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem to present Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the progress on the draft legislation of the import reform that is being advanced to lower prices for consumers by forgoing time-consuming local certification processes that drive up costs for importers.
“Today, the government is taking another significant step towards the implementation of the ‘What’s good for Europe is good for Israel’ reform,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich writes in a joined statement. “The fight against the cost of living requires us to correct distorted norms that have been established in Israel for many years and perpetuated the high concentration and control of the monopolies in the market.”
The legislation will facilitate the import of dozens of consumer products, including diapers, washing powder, dishwashing liquid, computers, household appliances, mobile phones, televisions, computers, kitchen appliances, stoves, baby strollers and beds, toys, washing machines and dryers, and glassware and ceramics.
The inter-ministerial committee, which includes Smotrich, and Economy Minister Nir Barkat, was formed to tackle the cost of living, as Israelis battle persistent price increases despite government promises to focus on lowering the cost of living.
Barkat says the reform “will open the Israeli market to real competition and will lower prices.”
“Every family will be able to save NIS 500 a month and NIS 6,000 a year,” Barkat says. “We are opening Israel to tens of thousands of cheap products from Europe, without barriers, without unnecessary standards and without the control of monopolies and cartels.”
AG tells Netanyahu: Ben Gvir blocking transfer of Palestinian terrorists from contentious detention facility
This undated photo taken in the winter 2023 and provided by Breaking the Silence, a whistleblower group of former Israeli soldiers, shows blindfolded Palestinians captured in the Gaza Strip in a detention facility on the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel. (Breaking The Silence via AP)
Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the National Security Ministry, headed by far-right Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir is preventing the transfer of the remaining Palestinian terrorists held in the Sde Teiman detention facility to the Israel Prison Service.
Following a petition to the High Court of Justice by human rights groups demanding the closure of Sde Teiman following reports of severe abuse at the facility, the IDF pledged to the court to transfer all the detainees to the custody of the IPS which comes under the authority of the national security minister.
Ben Gvir has insisted that the IPS prisons are overcrowded and that there is no more room to accept the Hamas terrorists being held in Sde Teiman.
“In recent days, it has become clear the National Security Ministry has practically stopped the progression of efforts led by the National Security Council to implement necessary solutions,” Baharav-Miara told Netanyahu in a letter sent yesterday.
“If it will not be possible to inform the High Court in the immediate future that the [Sde Teiman] facility has been restored to its previous function as agreed by the National Security Council it will have very serious and broad consequences,” she warned, although did not specify what those might be.
The petitioning organizations have alleged that the physical abuse of terrorist detainees at Sde Teiman, officially labeled by Israel as unlawful combatants, and the poor conditions of their incarceration could constitute war crimes.
At the end of June, the High Court ordered the state to update it as to the current conditions under which the remaining detainees were being held, including their food, health care, and hygiene.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, 124 detainees remain in Sde Teiman out of some 1,400 unlawful combatants originally held there.
Hostage Matan Angrest’s mother says raw footage found by IDF in Gaza shows ‘serious trauma’ from Oct. 7
Anat Angrest, whose son Matan Angrest has been held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, speaks to Channel 12 News, July 4, 2024. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
The mother of Matan Angrest, 21 who has been held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, tells Channel 12 that she recently saw raw video footage found by IDF soldiers operating in the Strip around November that showed her son.
“He looked like he’d been through serious trauma” during the fighting on October 7, Anat Angrest says in the television interview.
“He survived inside a tank in which three other soldiers were killed and kidnapped dead. Matan survived and was kidnapped while he was seriously injured,” she adds.
Anat says that hostages who were released in a a weeklong truce in late November had said they’d met Matan in Gaza and that he had received medical treatment.
Matan was on duty at the IDF’s Nahal Oz base on the morning of October 7, when some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
It is believed that 116 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during the November deal, and four hostages were released prior to that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.
The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 42 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
IDF says strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon ongoing after massive barrage on northern Israel
The IDF says it continues to strike Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, after the terror group launched a barrage of 200 rockets and 20 drones at northern Israel.
In the last few hours, fighter jets struck buildings used by Hezbollah in Qanatra, Rab al-Thalathine, Deir Seryan, and Tallouseh, the IDF says.
Other Hezbollah infrastructure was targeted in Naqoura, the military adds.
מטוסי קרב בשיתוף פיקוד הצפון, תקפו מבנים צבאיים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בארבעה מרחבים שונים בדרום לבנון, בניהם קנטרה, רב א-תלתין, דיר סירין ותלוסה, והותקפה תשתית טרור של הארגון במרחב א-נקורה
במהלך היום צה"ל ביצע ירי להסרת איום באמצעות ארטילריה במספר מרחבים בדרום לבנון pic.twitter.com/6z6c99cdoH
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 4, 2024
Nazareth court extends remand of mother, brothers of terrorist who killed soldier in Karmiel yesterday
Police and rescue forces outside the scene of a stabbing attack in Karmiel, northern Israel, July 3, 2024. (David Cohen/Flash90)
The Nazareth Magistrate’s Court extends the detention of the brother and mother of the terrorist who fatally stabbed an off-duty soldier in Karmiel yesterday until July 11, following a police request.
A second brother is ordered held in custody until Friday.
The police say that the investigation into the terror attack is being conducted by the police’s Northern District Central Unit.
The police often question relatives of terror suspects to determine if they had any involvement in the attack perpetrated by their family member and to understand if the attack was coordinated by a terror group.
Sgt. Aleksandr Iakiminskyi, 19, a truck driver in the 188th Armored Brigade’s 71st Battalion, from Nahariya, was stabbed to death in the attack and another soldier from the same battalion was severely injured.
Greece arrests 7 terror suspects over arson attacks on synagogue, Israeli-owned hotel
Illustrative - A Greek police officer closes the entrance of the court house following the transfer of suspects that have been charged with membership in a terrorist organization, in Athens, March 2023. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
ATHENS – Greece’s anti-terrorism police arrest seven people over separate arson attacks against an Israeli-owned hotel and a synagogue in central Athens this year, according to a police statement.
A 25-year-old Greek woman, two Iranians aged 46 and 36 and an Afghan accomplice, 44, have been arrested over a May 15 attack with a makeshift incendiary bomb on a building housing an Israeli-owned hotel and restaurant.
The four are accused of arson that could potentially put human lives at risk and of causing damage to foreign-owned property in a racially motivated attack.
In another incident on June 18, a 44-year old Greek man and a 26-year old Afghan rode near a synagogue in Athens on a motorcycle and threw flammable material at its entrance causing fire, police add. A police official says a 30-year-old Iranian has been arrested as their accomplice.
The three are accused of arson, gun possession and robbery among other violations, the official adds.
Police have seized evidence including mobile phones found in a residence in Athens and a prison.
Five of those arrested have been detained and two released on restrictions while awaiting trial.
Netanyahu will send negotiating team to next round of hostage-ceasefire talks — Israeli official
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a debate at the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 24, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will send a negotiating team to participate in talks to try to reach a hostage release-for-ceasefire-deal with Hamas, according to an Israeli official.
In the meeting with his negotiators ahead of the decision, Netanyahu “stressed again that the war will end only after achieving all of its goals, and not one moment earlier.”
It was not immediately clear where the next round of talks will be held. Previous meetings have been hosted in Doha and Cairo, and recent low-level meetings have taken place in Doha.
Last night, Netanyahu’s office announced Israel had received Hamas’s latest response to Israel’s proposal, and would study it today. Hamas continues to insist it will only agree to a deal that guarantees a permanent end to the war in Gaza.
IDF demolishes homes of Palestinian terrorists who carried out deadly Jerusalem shooting in February
IDF troops demolish the homes of Palestinian terrorists Muhammad Zawahra and Kathem Zawahra in the West Bank town of Za'atara, near Bethlehem, early July 4, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
Overnight, the IDF demolished the homes of Muhammad Zawahra and Kathem Zawahra, two of three Palestinian terrorists who carried out a deadly shooting attack near a Jerusalem checkpoint in February, killing Matan Elmaliah and wounding 11 others.
The pair, who are brothers, were killed by security forces and armed civilians amid the attack on the Route 1 highway between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement city of Ma’ale Adumim on February 22. The third terrorist, Ahmed Al-Wahsh, was detained.
The IDF says troops operated in the Bethlehem area town of Za’atara overnight to demolish the homes.
As a matter of policy, Israel demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out deadly terror attacks.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, three wanted Palestinians were detained. Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,200 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,750 affiliated with Hamas, according to the IDF.
At memorial for slain commander, senior Hezbollah official says terror group will ‘target new sites’ in Israel
Hezbollah members surround the coffin of senior commander Mohammed Naameh Nasser during his funeral in a southern Beirut suburb on July 4, 2024.(Anwar Amro/AFP)
A senior Hezbollah official hints that the terror group will expand its attacks on Israel, amid heightened tension on the border with Lebanon.
Speaking at an event in Beirut commemorating senior Hezbollah commander Muhammad Nimah Nasser, who was killed in an Israeli strike yesterday, Hashem Safieddine says, “The series of responses continues in succession, and this series will continue to target new sites that the enemy did not imagine would be hit.”
Earlier today, Hezbollah fired some 200 rockets and 20 explosive-laden drones at Israel in retaliation to Nasser’s killing, some of which sparked fires in and around northern cities and towns.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was carrying out a wave of airstrikes in southern Lebanon in response to the major rocket and drone attack.
IDF says it struck Hamas command rooms in UNRWA schools in Gaza City
Hamas operatives gathered at United Nations schools in Gaza City were struck by Israeli aircraft earlier today, the military says.
According to the IDF, Hamas had established command rooms in the Al-Qahirah and Musa schools, run by UNRWA, in Gaza City.
The military says the schools were used as “hideouts for terrorists and as an active operational infrastructure of the Hamas terror organization, from which Hamas terrorists planned, directed, and carried out many terror attacks against IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip”
Attack helicopters and fighter jets struck the sites and the Hamas operatives.
The IDF says it carried out several measures to “mitigate harm to civilians” in the strike, including carrying out aerial surveillance, using “precise munitions,” and employing other intelligence.
“The Hamas terror organization regularly violates international law, while systematically exploiting civilian buildings and the civilian population as human shields for terror activity against the State of Israel,” the military notes.
Lebanese report: Israeli jets break sound barrier over Beirut after major Hezbollah attack
Smoke billows after rockets launched by terrorists in southern Lebanon hit areas in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel on July 4, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)
Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that Israeli jets broke the sound barrier in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon today, after Hezbollah launched a major rocket and drone attack on northern Israel earlier in the day.
Hezbollah’s barrage of more than 200 rockets and a swarm of drones came in retaliation for Israel’s killing of commander Mohammed Nasser in the south of Lebanon yesterday.
There are no casualties reported in Hezbollah’s attacks, though some of the drones and interceptor shrapnel set off fires in northern Israel.
In response, the IDF says the Air Force “struck Hezbollah military structures” in the areas of Ramyeh and Houla in south Lebanon.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war against the Hamas terror group there.
So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in 10 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 15 IDF soldiers and reservists.
Hezbollah has named 360 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 65 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.
Hamas spokesman says terror group ‘dealing positively’ with efforts to close hostage-truce deal
Activists protest calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza, outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, July 3, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
A Hamas spokesman says the terror group is “dealing positively” with Egyptian and Qatari efforts to close a hostage release and ceasefire deal in Gaza, according to London-based news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
“These discussions and ideas serve the national issues of our people, who are being subjected to the ugliest forms of genocide by the Israeli occupation, which continues to practice a policy of evasion and procrastination,” Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha is quoted as saying.
Israel said last night that it had received Hamas’s response to the latest truce-hostage deal outline and would evaluate the document before replying.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to convene a meeting of the security cabinet later today to discuss the proposals from Hamas, along with consultations with the Israeli negotiating team.
More than six months of negotiations carried out by mediators including the US, Qatar and Egypt have failed to advance toward a deal that would see the release of the 116 hostages kidnapped on October 7 who are believed to remain captive in Gaza, in exchange for a truce or ceasefire in fighting in Gaza, and the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners.
Eisenkot doubts Netanyahu has ‘strategic leadership’ needed to close hostage deal, rally coalition support
National Unity MK Gadi Eisenkot attends a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting on the ultra-Orthodox draft law, Jerusalem, July 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
While he believes that Israel is the closest it has been to a hostage deal in months, National Unity MK Gadi Eisenkot expresses doubt that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can rise “to the strategic level of leadership” needed to come to an agreement and sell it to his hard-right coalition allies.
“I find it difficult to see Netanyahu accepting a deal and telling Smotrich and Ben Gvir that this is the right thing,” the former war cabinet observer tells news site Walla, arguing that the prime minister is “bound by personal and political needs that overpower his capacity to save the State of Israel.”
“He does not have these leadership abilities, that’s why he needs to be replaced,” says Eisenkot, who quit the coalition alongside National Unity chair Benny Gantz last month.
“The price of a deal will be high but Israel can afford to halt the war for several months,” he continues, insisting that while the “central villain” holding back a deal is Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, “Netanyahu is the prime minister who is supposed to achieve the goals of the war” and the buck stops with his government.
“He has a strategic dilemma in front of him: the return of hostages versus the survival of a government,” he adds, arguing that the Netanyahu he had served under when he was IDF chief of staff “would have chosen the right path” and “reached an end to the war and made a deal even through difficult negotiations.”
Turning to the crisis in the north, Eisenkot tells Walla that while Israel has the military capacity to go to war against Hezbollah, he does not trust the government to lead the country through such a conflict.
“Today, Israel has a government that is unable to make decisions,” he charges, casting doubt on the knowledge and ability of the cabinet and accusing Netanyahu of taking little action to roll back the Iranian nuclear threat over the past two years.
“The path that Netanyahu is taking does not lead to victory,” he insists.
Asked about the recent High Court of Justice ruling that there is no legal basis for excluding ultra-Orthodox men from the military draft, Eisenkot replies that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi must order the army to “to issue orders to all those eligible for enlistment” even though it is “impossible” to mobilize all of the tens of thousands of Haredi yeshiva students previously exempt from service.
Fires rage in Galilee, Golan Heights after major Hezbollah drone, rocket attack
Smoke and fire caused from rockets and drones fired from Lebanon, in the northern town of Katzrin, July 4, 2024 (Michael Giladi/Flash90)
Fires are raging across numerous locations in the north after the massive Hezbollah rocket and drone attack.
According to the Ynet news site, firefighters are tackling large blazes in at least 10 locations in the Galilee and Golan Heights after this morning’s assault by the Lebanon-based terror group.
The news outlet says that at least one highway in the Golan Heights is blocked as a result of fires.
Hezbollah launched some 200 rockets and 20 drones from Lebanon at northern Israel in the terror group’s major attack. It came a day after the IDF killed a senior Hezbollah commander.
IDF: Hezbollah launched some 200 rockets, 20 drones from Lebanon at north in earlier attack
Smoke and fire after rockets and drones fired from Lebanon hit open areas in the Golan Heights, July 4, 2024 (Maor Kinsbursky/Flash90)
The IDF reports in an update that Hezbollah launched some 200 rockets and 20 drones from Lebanon at northern Israel in the terror group’s major attack earlier.
It says that some of the rockets and drones were shot down by air defense and fighter jets.
In response, fighter jets struck several Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon’s Ramyeh and Houla, it adds.
The IDF publishes footage of some of the strikes in Lebanon and some of the interceptions.
The IDF updates that Hezbollah launched some 200 rockets and 20 drones from Lebanon at northern Israel in the terror group's major attack earlier.
It says that some of the rockets and drones were shot down by air defense and fighter jets.
In response, fighter jets struck… pic.twitter.com/suikbSq1EM
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) July 4, 2024
Man charged with mowing down, killing Israeli cycling champion while drunk and unlicensed
The Beersheba District Court indicts a man accused of running over and killing a top cyclist last month while drunk and unlicensed.
Nachman Khoury is charged with negligent homicide for the killing of Guy Timor, 21, a member of the Israeli national team in track and road cycling.
Timor was killed during his final training session before he was set to fly to the Czech Republic for a Grand Prix competition.
According to the indictment, Khoury violated the conditions of house arrest imposed on him by a Haifa court and drove to a friend in in the south, even though he had never been issued a driver’s license and was ineligible to obtain one.
While at his friend’s home, Khoury consumed alcohol and drugs, the indictment says, according to the Kan public broadcaster.
In the morning, two of his friends asked for a ride somewhere else and Khoury volunteered.
According to Kan, he did not comply with his friends’ requests to stop and continued driving fast and dangerously.
The report says he swerved sharply from lane to lane and almost hit a minibus with children that was stopped at the side of the road. After several more requests from his friends to stop, they managed to get out of the vehicle, but Khoury continued driving.
Khory apparently hit Timor while trying to escape from police officers who ordered him to stop when he was seen driving erratically.
“This is a killer among us. Guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but the same killer could have killed many others, the children and other people who were at the bus stop,” Timor’s parents tell the Kan public broadcaster.
רוכב האופניים גיא תימור, חבר נבחרת ישראל באופני מסלול וכביש, נהרג הבוקר בתאונת דרכים באזור לכיש. תימור, בן 21 ממושב יד נתן, היה בעיצומו של אימון בוקר כהכנה לתחרות גראנד פרי בצ'כיה כשנדרס על ידי אדם שנהג בכלי רכב ללא רישיון בעת שניסע לברוח מהמשטרה
צילום: נמרוד הנגבי ורותם פבר pic.twitter.com/ieRHCadLcG
— Ido Rakovsky (@Nesherke) June 6, 2024
Lebanese report: Hamas maintains demands for permanent ceasefire, full IDF withdrawal from Gaza
Al Mayadeen, a Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese news website, publishes what it claims are the details of Hamas’s response to the latest truce-hostage deal outline, which is being evaluated by Israeli officials.
Hamas’s latest amendments “do not affect the essential issues” of the deal, Al Mayadeen claims, quoting a source familiar with the proposal.
The terror group is said to insist on its demands for a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the entire territory of the Gaza Strip, including the Philadelphi corridor along the Egypt border and the Rafah crossing, and the return of displaced people to their homes.
Furthermore, Hamas refuses to grant Israel the option to veto the Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences who would be released in exchange for hostages, Al Mayadeen says.
The terror group, however, “shows flexibility in dealing with clauses 8 and 14 of the proposal, so as to ensure the continuation of negotiations until a permanent ceasefire is reached in the Gaza Strip,” the outlet adds.
Clause 8 of the hostage-truce deal concerns the negotiations between Israel and Hamas that would be held during the six-week first phase of the ceasefire deal. Clause 14 deals with the transition between stage one and stage two of the deal.
The reported proposal differs from the one published earlier by Al Akhbar, another Lebanese news site affiliated with Hezbollah.
Large blaze breaks out near Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood; some residents evacuated
Israeli firefighters try to extinguish a fire which broke out in the Gilo Neighborhood of Jerusalem, July 4, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
A large fire has broken out near Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood, with firefighters battling to control the blaze.
A number of residents who live closest to the flames have been asked to evacuate their homes.
Channel 12 news reports that 18 teams of firefighters are working on the scene.
שריפה פרצה בשכונת גילה בירושלים, החל פינוי קו הבתים הראשון@VeredPelman pic.twitter.com/mzh8evnASW
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) July 4, 2024
Sirens warn of rocket fire toward Nahal Oz
Sirens warn of incoming rocket fire toward Nahal Oz near the Gaza border.
It is the second time today that sirens have sounded in Nahal Oz.
IDF says Hezbollah fired 160 rockets, launched 15 drones at northern Israel
Smoke billows after a hit from a rocket fired from southern Lebanon over the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel on July 4, 2024 (Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
According to the IDF, 160 rockets were fired at northern Israel in Hezbollah’s major barrages earlier today.
Another 15 drones were launched by the terror group at northern Israel, and many of them were shot down by air defenses, the military says.
Hezbollah said the attack was a response to the killing of a senior commander in an IDF strike yesterday.
Trump calls Biden ‘an old, broken-down pile of crap,’ says Harris is ‘just so f***ing bad’
This combination of photos shows Republican US presidential candidate former president Donald Trump, left, and President Joe Biden during a presidential debate hosted by CNN, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP/Gerald Herbert)
Video shows presidential hopeful Donald Trump calling US President Joe Biden an “old, broken-down pile of crap” who is on the verge of pulling out of the November elections.
The video, obtained by The Daily Beast,” is filmed as Trump sits in a golf cart with son Barron. It is unclear where or when the footage was filmed.
The footage begins with Trump asking “How did I do with the debate the other night?”
“We kicked that old, broken-down pile of crap. He just quit, you know, he’s quitting the race,” Trump says.
“And that means we have Kamala. I think she’s going to be bad. She’s so bad. She’s so pathetic. She’s just so fucking bad,” he says.
Trump then goes back to Biden: “Can you imagine that guy dealing with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin? And the president of China, who’s a fierce person. He’s a fierce man, a very tough guy,” Trump says.
HIGHER QUALITY VIDEO:
Trump says Joe Biden is “quitting the race"
"I got him out” he’s an “old broken-down pile of crap… Now we have Kamala. She’s so f—king bad”
(looks like Barron Trump in passenger seat 👀👀) pic.twitter.com/GXBZjxiP7p
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) July 4, 2024
Brother of Gaza hostage Itzik Elgarat says Hamas claims he is no longer alive
Itzik Elgarat was taken captive from his Kibbutz Nir Oz home by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 (Courtesy)
Danny Elgarat, whose brother Itzik Elgarat was taken hostage on October 7, says that he was informed by the military that Hamas claims his brother is no longer alive.
“I met with our intelligence officers yesterday and as far as Hamas is concerned, my brother is not alive,” Danny tells Channel 12, referring to the army representatives assigned to the family.
“In all the reports that Hamas sends, in all the intelligence that comes in, Itzik is not alive,” Danny says. “He was kidnapped alive, the hostage Yelena sat with him for a whole day and talked to him.”
“The doctor who treated him gave us an accurate report of what treatment he received. He received really excellent care there, they saved his hand,” Danny says, without giving further details on how the information was received from the doctor.
“We knew that on January 1 he moved from Khan Younis to Rafah. We know that he was in motion, that he was alive,” Danny says.
“When we said that time was running out and we needed to bring them home, they thought we were just stressed and talking out of pain,” he says. “We were not just speaking out of pain.”
Itzik Elgarat, 69, was in his Kibbutz Nir Oz home on the morning of October 7 when Hamas terrorists attacked his home, shooting him through his safe room door and injuring him, then taking him captive.
Illustrative: Danny Elgarat, brother of hostage Itzik Elgarat, speaks at a weekly hostage families protest in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on June 29, 2024. (Adar Eyal/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)
IDF carries out wave of Lebanon airstrikes after major Hezbollah rocket, drone attack on north
The IDF says it is carrying out a wave of airstrikes in southern Lebanon following Hezbollah’s major rocket and drone attack on northern Israel.
Several rocket launchers have been hit so far, the military says.
The IDF does not provide the number of rockets and drones launched by Hezbollah, but says air defenses and fighter jets shot down several projectiles. Hezbollah claimed to have launched 200 rockets and a swarm of drones.
Fires were sparked a result of some of the rocket and drone impacts, the military says. It does not immediately provide information on potential casualties in the attacks.
The IDF also confirms that sirens that sounded in Ilaniya, some 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Lebanon, were false alarms.
Hezbollah claims to have launched rockets, swarm of explosive-laden drones at IDF bases
A projectile fired from southern Lebanon is intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defense system over the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel on July 4, 2024 (Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
In official statements, Hezbollah claims to have launched 200 rockets and a swarm of explosive-laden drones at several Israeli military bases in northern Israel.
It says the attacks are a response to the killing of senior commander Muhammad Nasser in an Israeli airstrike yesterday. Nasser commanded one of Hezbollah’s three regional divisions in southern Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says it treated two people who were lightly hurt after falling while running to shelters amid the attack.
The IDF has not yet commented on the attack.
Fire on roof of Acre mall apparently sparked by falling shrapnel after rocket interception
A fire has reportedly sparked on the roof of a mall in Acre, possibly by falling shrapnel from an interceptor missile.
Sirens had sounded in Acre a short while ago, amid a major Hezbollah rocket and drone attack on northern Israel.
There are no reports of injuries.
A fire has reportedly sparked on the roof of a mall in Acre, possibly by falling shrapnel from an interceptor missile. pic.twitter.com/eJrapceAF0
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) July 4, 2024
Netanyahu, Biden expected to speak today after Hamas response to hostage deal proposal
This combination photo shows US President Joe Biden, left, on March 8, 2024, in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, October 28, 2023. (AP Photo)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to speak by phone with US President Joe Biden today after Hamas sent Israel a response to the latest proposal for a hostage deal, an official in the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel.
Netanyahu will lead a cabinet meeting at 8 p.m. tonight to come to a decision on Hamas’s response.
Citing a senior Israeli official, Channel 12 says that Hamas has withdrawn its demand for guarantees that Israel would end the war and withdraw entirely from Gaza in order for it to even agree to the first stage of the deal.
“It is possible to bring back the observation soldiers, the women, the children, the injured, the sick, the elderly,” says the official. “And there is an off-ramp to return to the fighting if Hamas violates the terms of the agreement. There is the foundation for a good deal.”
The official brings up the possibility that Hamas will introduce roadblocks during the talks: “It won’t be easy. There is a long way.”
Hezbollah says it fired over 200 rockets, some 20 drones at northern Israel
Smoke billows after a hit from a rocket fired from southern Lebanon at the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel on July 4, 2024 (Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
A source in Hezbollah tells Al Jazeera that the terror group launched more than 200 rockets and some 20 drones at military bases in northern Israel in the past hour.
The IDF has not yet commented on the attack.
Rocket, drone attacks from Lebanon sparked a number of fires – northern official
Smoke and fire caused from rockets and drones fired from Lebanon, in the northern town of Katzrin, July 4, 2024 (Michael Giladi/Flash90)
A local council leader in the north says that the large rocket and drone attacks have caused a number of fires in the area.
“They have mainly landed in open areas, but have sparked fires,” Ori Kallner, head of the Golan regional council, tells Channel 12, noting the hot and dry weather.
He adds that the summer vacation has begun but says there is currently no discussion of closing day camps in the area, saying that they should all have shelters.
The apparent Hezbollah attack comes a day after the IDF killed a senior leader in the terror group.
Rocket, drone sirens sound in Western Galilee, including coastal cities Acre and Nahariya
After a brief lull in alarms, sirens warning of rocket fire and suspected drone infiltrations are sounding in the Western Galilee, including the coastal cities of Acre and Nahariya.
Sirens have been sounding across northern Israel for more than an hour, aside from a 15-minute respite.
The suspected drone and rocket alerts have mostly been activated in towns close to the Lebanon border. Sirens also sounded in the community of Ilaniya, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Lebanon, although they appear to have been a false alarm.
Rocket sirens sound in Nahal Oz near Gaza border
Sirens sound in Nahal Oz near the Gaza border, warning of incoming rocket fire.
The sirens come amid nonstop alerts in communities on Israel’s northern border amid an apparent large attack by the Hezbollah terror group.
Rocket sirens sound in Upper Galilee and southern Golan Heights
After the series of drone alerts, sirens are sounding in the Upper Galilee and southern Golan Heights warning of a rocket attack from Lebanon.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service says it has received no reports of injuries so far in what appears to be a major Hezbollah attack in response to the killing of a top commander yesterday.
Sirens continue to warn of drone attacks on northern communities
Suspected drone infiltration sirens continue to sound across northern Israel.
The alerts are mostly activated in towns close to Lebanon in the Upper Galilee, Western Galilee and Golan Heights area, although sirens also sound in the community of Ilaniya, located some 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the border.
The IDF has not yet commented on the apparent Hezbollah attack, which comes a day after Israel killed a senior commander in the terror group.
PM to meet with negotiation team as security cabinet set to discuss hostage-ceasefire deal
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a cabinet meeting at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, January 7, 2024. (Yariv Katz / Pool)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene a meeting of the security cabinet to discuss proposals from Hamas about a possible ceasefire and hostage deal, a source in Netanyahu’s office says.
Before the cabinet meets, Netanyahu will hold consultations with his negotiation team, the source also says.
Sirens in northern towns warn of suspected drone attack
Sirens warn of a suspected drone attack in communities close to the northern border.
Health Ministry warns of risks from upcoming heatwave
The sun sets over the forest near Jerusalem on September 2, 2021. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
Israel is set to go through a heatwave for the next few days, with a rise in temperatures in most areas of the country, according to the Health Ministry.
The ministry calls on the general public, and particularly the elderly population, children, pregnant women, and patients with chronic diseases, to be careful and avoid exposure to heat and the sun.
Rocket sirens sound in Kiryat Shmona, surrounding communities near northern border
Sirens sound in communities close to the northern border, warning of incoming rocket fire.
The alerts are heard in Kiryat Shmona and a number of surrounding towns.
Senior Hezbollah commander Muhammad Nimah Nasser was killed yesterday in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon. He was one of the highest-ranking officials in the terror group to be killed in nine months of fighting along the border.
The IDF expected Hezbollah to respond with major attacks to Nasser’s killing.
The terror group responded hours later by firing at least 100 rockets at northern Israel.
IDF says it hit over 50 terror sites in Gaza airstrikes over past day
Troops operating in the Gaza Strip in an undated photo released for publication on July 4, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
Israeli fighter jets and drones struck more than 50 sites belonging to terror groups in the Gaza Strip over the past day, the military says.
The strikes come as troops continue to operate in Gaza City’s Shejaiya, in southern Gaza’s Rafah, and in the Netzarim Corridor in the Strip’s center.
In Shejaiya, the IDF says troops with the 98th Division killed dozens of gunmen in close-quarters combat, tank shelling, and by calling in airstrikes.
Several tunnels were also demolished in Shejaiya, according to the military.
In Rafah, the IDF says troops under the 162nd Division killed several gunmen using a drone. And in central Gaza, the 99th Division called in airstrikes against terror operatives and infrastructure, the military adds.
Lebanese report: Latest hostage deal proposal includes ‘clear wording’ on ceasefire, plan for Rafah
Demonstrators call for the release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip, outside Hakirya Base in Tel Aviv, July 3, 2024 (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
The latest version of a proposal for a potential hostage-ceasefire deal includes “clear wording that does not allow for interpretation,” Hezbollah-linked newspaper Al-Akhbar reports.
The Lebanese outlet says the plan includes proposals prepared by CIA chief William Burns, in coordination with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey.
According to the report, the potential agreement includes a clear statement that there will be a sustainable calm during the period of negotiations between the first and second stages of the deal.
Additionally, the plan reportedly says that Israel will withdraw troops from the Rafah Crossing area in agreement with Egypt, provided there is an understanding over the management of the border point, but without having to fully withdraw from the key Philadelphi Corridor.
Israel said yesterday that it had received Hamas’s response to the latest truce-hostage deal outline, and would evaluate the document before replying.
Hamas later confirmed that it had submitted its latest demands, issuing a statement saying that it is “eager to reach an agreement to stop the war, and our communication with the mediators continues.”
Health Ministry says 153 diagnosed with West Nile fever since start of outbreak, 11 have died
Illustrative: Mosquitoes cling to the inside of a jar loaded with repellent during a test as part of a tour of the Centers for Disease Control laboratory, April 4, 2024, in Fort Collins, Colorado. (David Zalubowski/AP)
The Health Ministry reports that 153 patients have been diagnosed with West Nile fever in an ongoing outbreak, and a total of eleven people diagnosed with the virus have died.
Most of the patients are from the central region of the country.
UK polls open as British voters expected to hand resounding victory to Starmer’s Labour
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, center, leaves after addressing supporters during his visit to the West Regwm Farm Events Venue in Whitland, Carmarthenshire, while on the General Election campaign trail, in Wales, July 3, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)
Polls open in the United Kingdom as British voters pick a new government in a parliamentary election that is widely expected to bring the Labour Party to power against a gloomy backdrop of economic malaise, mounting distrust in institutions and a fraying social fabric.
A jaded electorate is delivering its verdict on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party, which has been in power since 2010.
The center-left Labour Party led by Keir Starmer has had a steady and significant lead in opinion polls for months, but its leaders warn against taking the election result for granted, worried their supporters will stay home.
“We cannot afford five more years under the Conservatives. But change will only happen if you vote Labour,” Starmer said yesterday.
The Conservatives have conceded that Labour appears headed for victory and urged voters not to hand the party a “supermajority.”
In the final days of campaigning Sunak insisted “the outcome of this election is not a foregone conclusion.”
Anti-government protesters block highways demanding elections
Anti-government protesters block the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv on July 4, 2024 (Aviv Atlas/Pro-democracy protest groups)
Demonstrators demanding elections block two major highways, causing traffic jams.
The protesters block the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv during the rush hour. A second group prevents traffic flow on Route 4 near Even Yehuda.
The demonstrators call for a national strike to pressure the government into calling an election.
“Israel needs a responsible and sane government that will guarantee a better future for the State of Israel. We must stop the abandonment,” the protesters say.
מפגינים נגד הממשלה חסמו את איילון דרום לתנועה ליד מחלף קק"ל@AnnaPines_ pic.twitter.com/W6KR2Dp7xF
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) July 4, 2024
Doron Steinbrecher’s mother demands PM not torpedo chance for deal: ‘Hostages are dying’
Doron Steinbrecher was alone in her Kibbutz Kfar Aza apartment on October 7 when Hamas terrorists swooped in, presumably taking her captive (Courtesy)
The mother of hostage Doron Steinbrecher insists that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not scupper the chances for a potential deal.
“I demand that the prime minister not torpedo this,” Simona Steinbrecher tells the Kan public broadcaster. “There are hostages who are dying and every day we fear that more will be murdered in captivity.”
“Many times there has been a feeling that there will be a deal soon, and every time someone torpedoes it,” she says.
Israel said last night that it had received Hamas’s response to the latest truce-hostage deal outline, and would evaluate the document before replying.
Hamas later confirmed that it had submitted its latest demands, issuing a statement saying that it is “eager to reach an agreement to stop the war, and our communication with the mediators continues.”
More than six months of negotiations carried out by mediators including the US, Qatar and Egypt have time and again failed to advance toward a deal that would see the release of the 116 hostages kidnapped on October 7 who are believed to remain captive in Gaza, in exchange for a truce or ceasefire in fighting in Gaza, and the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners from Israeli jails.
The current version of the deal in play is based on a proposal made public at the end of May in a speech by US President Joe Biden, built on a three-stage long-term Israeli outline.
Both Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar have been accused of torpedoing the chances for an agreement.
Man linked to neo-Nazi group convicted of 2018 murder of gay, Jewish student Blaze Bernstein
Samuel Woodward talks to his attorney Edward Munoz before being led out of a court hearing at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018. Woodward is charged with the murder of a University of Pennsylvania student Blaze Bernstein. (Paul Bersebach/The Orange County Register via AP, Pool)
A California man is convicted of murder with a hate crime enhancement for the 2018 stabbing death of a gay University of Pennsylvania student.
Samuel Woodward, 26, was found guilty of first-degree murder plus the enhancement in the killing of Blaze Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college sophomore who was home visiting his family in Southern California on winter break when he went missing. Authorities scoured the area for him and found his body a week later in a shallow grave at a nearby park.
The question during the monthslong trial was not whether Woodward killed Bernstein but why, and the circumstances under which it happened. During closing arguments, prosecutor Jennifer Walker emphasized Woodward’s affiliation with a violent, anti-gay, neo-Nazi extremist group known as Atomwaffen Division.
“This is a person focused on hate,” Walker said. “Not following, not being led by, influenced by, victimized by Atomwaffen — seeking it out.”
With the hate crime enhancement, Woodward could face a sentence of life without parole.
This undated file photo provided by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department shows 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student Blaze Bernstein. (Orange County Sheriff’s Department via AP, file)
IDF says it struck multiple Hezbollah sites overnight
Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, including a building in Shihine and infrastructure in the Jabal Blat area, were struck by fighter jets overnight, the military says.
מטוסי קרב תקפו לאורך הלילה מטרות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בדרום לבנון, ביניהם מבנה צבאי במרחב שיחין ושלוש תשתיות טרור במרחב בלאט.
בנוסף, כוחות צה״ל ביצעו ירי להסרת איום למרחב שבעא שבדרום לבנון. pic.twitter.com/zdZ9supYPy
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 4, 2024
IDF announces death of platoon commander Roy Miller in battle in northern Gaza
Cpt. Roy Miller, killed during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip on July 3, 2024. (Courtesy)
The Israel Defense Forces announces the death of a soldier yesterday in battle in the northern Gaza Strip.
He is named as Cpt. Roy Miller, 21, a platoon commander in the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion, from Herzliya.
His death brings Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 324.
Another officer and a soldier of the Rotem Battalion were seriously wounded in the same incident, the IDF adds.
Anti-Israel protesters clear out Canadian campus encampment after 2 months
Students and activists pray inside an anti-Israel encampment at the University of Toronto campus in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on May 2, 2024. (Cole Burston/AFP)
Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters have cleared out tents and tarps from a fenced-off grassy area on the campus of Canada’s largest university, where for two months they had held an encampment, ahead of an evening deadline.
In a ruling on Tuesday, an Ontario judge ordered the protesters to leave by 6 p.m. on Wednesday, granting an injunction requested by the University of Toronto. The judge said in this case, free expression is no defense to trespass.
“We are leaving on our terms to protect our community,” says Mohammad Yassin, a recent University of Toronto graduate, a Palestinian and a spokesman for the protesters, to a crowd of supporters and reporters outside the former encampment site.
He claims the occupation through the school’s convocation period was “a massive victory.”
The protesters were calling on the University of Toronto to disclose its investments, divest from investments associated with Israel and cut ties with some Israeli-affiliated institutions.
“Negotiations have been frozen for a little while now,” Yassin says.
University of Toronto President Meric Gertler says in a statement that he is pleased the encampment ended peacefully.
“Members of our community continue to be free to exercise their right to free speech and lawful protest,” he says.
Anti-Israel protesters breach roof of Australia’s Parliament, unfurl banners
This frame grab taken from video footage provided by Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) on July 4, 2024, via AFPTV shows anti-Israel protesters unfurl banners after scaling the roof of Australia's Parliament in Canberra (Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC / AFP)
Anti-Israel protesters have climbed the roof of Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra and unfurled banners, accusing Israel of war crimes, TV footage shows, in a serious security breach condemned by lawmakers.
Footage shows four people dressed in dark clothes on the roof of the building, unfurling black banners including one reading, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a common refrain that critics say is a call for the elimination of Israel.
The banners also include a red triangle, the symbol used by Hamas to mark targets.
Meanwhile in Canberra watch these protestors on the parliament room #Auspol pic.twitter.com/l9Pbgrl4qh
— 🎀𝕂𝔼𝕃𝕃𝕀𝔼🎀 𝕀 𝕊𝔼𝔼 𝔻𝕌𝕄𝔹 ℙ𝔼𝕆ℙ𝕃𝔼 ™ (@kelliekelly23) July 4, 2024
One of the protesters begins a speech using a megaphone accusing the Israeli government of war crimes, an accusation Jerusalem firmly rejects.
“We will not forget, we will not forgive and we will continue to resist,” the protester says.
A handful of police and security have advised people not to walk directly under the protest at the main entrance to the building, a Reuters witness says.
The protesters later pack up their banners before being led away by waiting police.
“This is a serious breach of the Parliament’s security,” opposition Home Affairs spokesperson James Paterson says in a post on social media platform X.
“The building was modified at great expense to prevent incursions like this. An investigation is required.”
Democratic governors say they stand behind Biden amid questions about his shaky debate
A group of Democratic governors of US states say they are standing behind US President Joe Biden amid increasing calls from some in their party for him to leave the presidential race.
Biden met for more than an hour at the White House in person and virtually with more than 20 governors from his party. The governors tells reporters afterward that the conversation was “candid” and say they expressed concerns about Biden’s debate performance last week.
But they did not join other Democrats in urging him to leave the race.
“The president is our nominee. The president is our party leader,” says Governor Wes Moore of Maryland. He adds that, in the meeting, Biden “was very clear that he’s in this to win it.”
Minister for advancement of women helps sink bill for equal representation in boards of directors
The minister of social equality and the advancement of women’s status voted today against a law bill proposing equal representation for women in boards of directors of publicly listed companies.
May Golan is one of 49 coalition members who opposed the legislation in the Knesset plenum, enough to sink the bill which was backed by 41 opposition members.
Man killed, 3 injured in shooting incident in Umm al-Fahm
A man in his 30s has been killed and three others injured in a shooting incident in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.
MDA medics have taken the three non-fatal casualties — men said to be aged 19, 25 and 40, all in moderate condition — to nearby hospitals.
Police forces are at the scene, with an investigation launched.
Israel’s Arab community has for years been suffering an epidemic of violent crime.
Blinken, Saudi FM discuss Israel-Hamas truce talks, plans for postwar Gaza
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud to discuss efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says in a statement.
The two, the statement says, “continued discussions about how to establish governance, security and reconstruction in the post-conflict period in a way that builds lasting peace and security, as well as steps to further greater regional integration.”
They also spoke about “efforts to deescalate tensions along Israel’s northern border,” amid daily skirmishes with Hezbollah.
Blinken condemns the arrests of UN officials, diplomats and others by Yemen’s Houthis, calling for their immediate release.
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