The Times of Israel liveblogged Friday’s events as they happened.
Hamas responds to the news that four IDF soldiers were killed earlier today after a booby-trapped building they entered collapsed on top of them.
The spokesman for Hamas’s military wing says the terror group’s fighters “continue to hurl the ‘stones of David’ at the ‘chariots of Gideon,’ — a reference to the name of the ongoing IDF operation in Gaza.
“The enemy’s people have no choice but to force their leadership to halt the war of extermination or prepare to receive more of their sons in coffins,” says the spokesperson Hudhaifa Kahlout, known by the nom de guerre Abu Obeida.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran will respond to the US nuclear deal proposal in the coming days, according to Arabic media reports.
Oman’s foreign minister will then decide when and where the next round of nuclear talks will be held.
While the US proposal would reportedly allow a limited amount of enrichment for a temporary period of time, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, blasted the offer earlier this week.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man mistakenly deported from Maryland to El Salvador by the Trump administration, is on his way back to the US to face criminal charges, ABC News reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Abrego Garcia will face charges for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the US, ABC reports.
His lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Palestinian man arrested earlier today for throwing a chair at a rabbi in a Paris suburban cafe has been sent to hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, French authorities say.
The reason for the attack was unknown, but France’s main Jewish association condemned it as an antisemitic assault, and French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou blamed a “radicalization of public debate” against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza.
The rabbi, Elie Lemmel, suffered a gash to his head from the chair that hit him as he was speaking with a companion in the cafe in the wealthy western Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
The local prosecutors’ office says that it opened a criminal investigation for assault, possibly aggravated by religious motives.
It says the Palestinian, an irregular migrant living with temporary papers in Germany, was thought to be 28 years old and born in the Gaza city of Rafah.
It adds that “he is undergoing a psychiatric examination requiring his forced hospitalization.”
Russia launched an intense missile and drone barrage at the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in the early hours of Friday, killing four people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says, as powerful explosions reverberated across the country.
The attacks followed a warning from Russian President Vladimir Putin, conveyed via US President Donald Trump, that the Kremlin would hit back after Ukrainian drones destroyed several strategic bomber aircraft in attacks deep inside Russia.
Zelensky says three emergency responders were killed in the missile and drone salvo against the capital. Another person died in an attack on the northwestern city of Lutsk.
“Those killed in Kyiv were rescue workers who arrived at the scene of an initial strike and, unfortunately, were killed in a repeat Russian strike,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, writing on X, said Russia had “‘responded’ to its destroyed aircraft… by attacking civilians in Ukraine…. Multi-story buildings hit. Energy infrastructure damaged.”
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had carried out the strike on military and military-related targets in response to what it called Ukrainian “terrorist acts” against Russia.
Zelensky says 80 people nationwide had been injured in the attacks, which also struck several other towns and cities. He said residents could still be trapped under rubble.
In Lutsk, the national emergency service said 30 people were injured in addition to the one death. Prosecutors said the attack damaged private homes, educational institutions, and a government building.
Russian forces also struck industrial facilities and infrastructure in the western city of Ternopil, leaving parts of it without power, Mayor Serhii Nadal said.
The regional administration said the attack had injured 10 people and asked residents to temporarily stay inside due to a high concentration of toxic substances in the air after a fire.
The air force said Russia had used 407 drones, one of the largest numbers recorded in a single attack. Forty-five cruise and ballistic missiles were also fired, it said.
Four leaders of the Proud Boys who were pardoned after being found guilty of trying to keep US President Donald Trump in power on January 6, 2021, after he lost the election to Joe Biden filed a lawsuit on Friday seeking $100 million from the government.
“The plaintiffs bring this suit to seek redress for the multiple violations of their constitutional rights,” the document reads.
The lawsuit was filed in Florida by Henry ‘Enrique’ Tarrio, the former chairman of the far-right group, and Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Ethan Nordean, who all played leadership roles, plus Dominic Pezzola.
Tarrio was convicted of crimes, including seditious conspiracy, for his role in planning the Capitol riot that sought to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s election defeat of Trump in 2020. He was ordered to serve 22 years in prison.
Biggs, Rehl and Nordean all played leadership roles in the Proud Boys and were tried alongside Tarrio for seditious conspiracy and other crimes.
Pezzola was accused of assaulting former Capitol Police Officer Mark Ode by stealing his riot shield and using it to smash a window at the Capitol.
All four also received jail terms.
On the first day of his return to office in 2025, Trump issued a sweeping clemency order, granting pardons to almost all of the more than 1,500 defendants who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and issuing sentence commutations to 14 others.
US President Trump says three of his cabinet officials will meet with representatives of China in London on June 9 to discuss a trade deal.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump says Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will attend from the US side.
“The meeting should go very well,” Trump writes.
The scheduling of the meeting comes a day after Trump spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping in a rare leader-to-leader call amid weeks of brewing trade tensions and a battle over critical minerals.
The countries struck a 90-day deal on May 12 to roll back some of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they had placed on each other since Trump’s January inauguration.
Though stocks rallied, the temporary deal did not address broader concerns that strain the bilateral relationship, from the illicit fentanyl trade to the status of democratically governed Taiwan and US complaints about China’s state-dominated, export-driven economic model.
The FBI and US Department of Homeland Security warn of an elevated threat level to Jewish and Israeli targets, following a string of attacks.
The announcement says it comes in response to the firebombing of a hostages rally in Colorado this week, and the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington last month. Both attackers cited the Gaza war as their motivation, according to investigators.
An arsonist also targeted the home of Jewish Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro in April due to the war.
“The ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters,” the announcement says.
“Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the United States. The FBI and DHS therefore urge the public to remain vigilant and to report any threats of violence or suspicious activity to law enforcement,” it says.
US authorities often warn of elevated threats to Jewish communities at sensitive times, for example, several warnings came after the October 2023 invasion of Israel, and a warning was issued on the first anniversary of the attack.
Ynet reports that ITA Airways will resume its flights to Israel on July 7 after the Italian airline halted its operations to and from the Jewish state along with other competitors after a Houthi missile landed near Ben Gurion Airport.
A Palestinian man was taken into custody after he threw a chair at a rabbi on a cafe terrace in a wealthy Paris suburb, a police source tells AFP, in an attack France’s main Jewish association condemned as antisemitic.
According to the source, the suspect attacked Rabbi Elie Lemmel in the western Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Lemmel was taken to hospital with a head injury.
The assailant was arrested and is in detention.
The attacker is a Palestinian man residing illegally in Germany, says a source close to the case, adding that the man benefits from a status that offers a form of protection for people who cannot be deported to a conflict zone.
Jailed Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah has lost nearly a third of his body weight after spending 98 days on a hunger strike, his sister says, following a brief Eid visit to his prison outside Cairo.
“He’s lost 29 percent of his original weight,” says Sanaa Seif, who saw her brother for 20 minutes behind glass. “He looked very thin, but composed,” she wrote in a post on her Facebook page.
Abdel-Fattah, 43, began refusing food in March in solidarity with his mother, Laila Soueif, a renowned academic who has herself been on hunger strike for 250 days to demand her son’s release.
Her strike began on September 29, 2024 — the day her son was due for release after serving a five-year sentence.
In May, a United Nations panel of experts said his detention was arbitrary and called for his immediate release.
The activist is consuming only herbal tea, black coffee and rehydration salts, his family says.
His mother, 69, was hospitalized last week in London with “critically low” blood sugar, after resuming a full hunger strike.
A French rabbi was attacked earlier today for the second time in a week, he tells Reuters, reflecting a broad rise in hate crimes across France that has included high-profile antisemitic assaults.
Elie Lemmel says he was sitting at a cafe in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine earlier today when he was hit in the head by a chair.
“I found myself on the ground, I immediately felt blood flowing,” he says.
He was stunned and unsure what exactly had happened, he says, initially thinking something must have fallen from a window or roof, before it occurred to him he had been attacked.
“Unfortunately, given my beard and my kippah, I suspected that was probably why, and it’s such a shame,” he says.
Today’s incident follows another in the town of Deauville in Normandy last week, when Lemmel said he was punched in the stomach by an unknown assailant.
Lemmel says he was used to “not-so-friendly looks, some unpleasant words, people passing by, spitting on the ground,” but had never been physically assaulted before the two attacks.
The prosecutor’s office in Nanterre said it had opened an investigation into the Neuilly attack for aggravated violence and that a person was being held for questioning. It said it could not provide further details.
“This act sickens us,” former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal writes on X regarding Friday’s incident involving Lemmel. “Antisemitism, like all forms of hatred, is a deadly poison for our society.”
Last week, five Jewish institutions were sprayed with green paint in Paris.
“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the anti-Semitic attack that targeted a rabbi in Neuilly today. Attacking a person because of their faith is a shame. The increase in anti-religious acts requires the mobilization of everyone,” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau says in a post on X.
France has seen a rise in hate crimes. Last year, police recorded an 11% rise in racist, xenophobic or antireligious crimes, according to official data published in March. The figures did not include a breakdown by attacks on different religions.
France condemns yesterday’s Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, which the army said targeted Hezbollah drone factories.
France “calls on all the parties to abide by the ceasefire signed on November 26, 2024, in order to ensure the safety of civilian populations on both sides of the Blue Line,” a statement from its foreign ministry says.
“France notes that the monitoring mechanism established by the ceasefire agreement is there to help the parties deal with threats and prevent any escalation that would undermine Lebanon and Israel’s security and stability.”
“In accordance with that agreement, the dismantling of unauthorized military sites on Lebanese soil remains a priority for the Lebanese Armed Forces, which have been engaged in this task for several months, with assistance from the monitoring mechanism and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon,” the French statement says.
“France calls on Israel to fully withdraw from Lebanese territory as quickly as possible.”
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency says that 38 people were killed by Israeli strikes or gunfire across the Palestinian territory on Friday.
Civil defense official Mohammed al-Mughayyir tells AFP that 38 people had been killed in various Israeli attacks since dawn, including 11 in a single strike in Jabalia in the north.
Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein conceded that he acted “immorally” but insisted he did nothing criminal as a jury deliberates on his fate for a second day in his sex assault retrial.
Weinstein is on trial again after a New York state appeals court threw out his 2020 convictions, citing irregularities in the presentation of witnesses at the original proceedings.
The former movie industry titan’s 23-year prison sentence for the initial conviction was thrown out, but he remains imprisoned for separate offenses.
Although Weinstein did not take the stand, he spoke out in an interview aired by FOX5 television earlier today as the jury deliberated following six weeks of testimony.
“I have regrets that I put my family through this, that I put my wife through this, and I acted immorally…, but never illegal, never criminal, never anything,” he said.
Weinstein pointed to comments by his defense attorney Arthur Aidala who suggested the three women who testified against him at trial “had four million reasons to testify, as in dollars.”
Judge Curtis Farber issued instructions Thursday to jurors, one of whom had to be swapped out for an alternate after falling ill, before they retired to consider their verdict.
He called on the panel to use their “common sense” for this “very important decision” and reminded them that Weinstein was “presumed innocent.”
On Friday, the jury panel of 12 requested to rehear the emotional testimony of two of the three women whose allegations are being prosecuted at this trial, former model Kaja Sokola and actress Jessica Mann.
The jury must decide whether Weinstein — accused by dozens of women of being a sexual predator — is guilty of sexual assaults in 2006 on former production assistant Miriam Haley and Sokola, and of rape in 2013 of aspiring actress Mann.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir held an assessment and approved battle plans at the Southern Command today, the military says.
Zamir sat down with Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor to assess the ongoing fighting in Gaza and approve “operational plans… for the continuation of the campaign in the Gaza Strip.”
Zamir was also presented with the initial findings of a deadly building collapse in Khan Younis, in which four troops were killed, the army adds.
After the deaths of four troops in a booby-trapped building in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis this morning, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin says sometimes there’s “no choice” but to enter structures in the Strip to investigate them.
“Sometimes there’s no choice but to investigate a tunnel route,” Defrin says in response to a question at a press conference.
“To do this, without being harmed by an explosive, we carry out a variety of methods. We will investigate this incident,” he says.
Also in his press conference, Defrin says IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir held an assessment on the deadly incident at the Southern Command earlier today.
“Will draw lessons from this incident,” he adds.
The US has issued a new round of Iran-related sanctions targeting 10 individuals and 27 entities, including at least two companies it said were linked to Iran’s national tanker company, the US Treasury Department said on Friday.
The sanctions, which target Iranian nationals and some entities in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, were announced as US President Donald Trump’s administration is working to get a new nuclear deal with Tehran.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added Ace Petrochem FZE, and Moderate General Trading LLC, both registered in the UAE, to its Specially Designated Nationals List, freezing any of their US assets. OFAC said they are both linked to the state-owned National Iranian Tanker Company, which is under US sanctions for exporting oil.
Talks between Iran and the US that aim to resolve a decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions have been stuck over disagreements about uranium enrichment.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Three Iranian men appeared in court in London earlier today accused of assisting Iran’s foreign intelligence service and plotting violence against journalists working for a British-based broadcaster critical of Tehran.
The three men — Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55 — have been charged with offences under Britain’s National Security Act, brought in to give the authorities new powers to target threats from foreign states.
They are accused of “engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service” between August 2024 and February this year, and police have said that it related to Iran.
Sepahvand is also charged with carrying out surveillance in preparation to commit serious violence against a person, while Manesh and Noori were charged with surveillance with the intention that serious violent acts would be committed by others.
The men appeared by video link for a brief hearing at London’s Old Bailey court during which their lawyers said all intended to plead not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors told a hearing last month that the allegations involved the targeting of journalists based in Britain connected with Iran International, a broadcaster critical of the Iranian government.
They were remanded in custody until a formal plea hearing on September 26 and they are due to go on trial in October next year.
The suspects were arrested last month on the same day counter-terrorism police detained five other men, including four Iranians, as part of a separate operation. Those men were later released without charge.
Most Israelis are not convinced the IDF’s current military operation in Gaza will help free the hostages or topple Hamas, according to a new poll from the Israel Democracy Institute.
IDI polled 601 Jews and 150 Arabs aged 18 and above from May 26 to May 29, asking them: In your opinion, will the IDF’s current operation in Gaza (“Gideon’s Chariots”) lead or not lead to bringing the hostages home and to defeating Hamas and ending its rule in Gaza?
Only 37% of respondents thought the military operation will bring the hostages home and only 38.5% think it will defeat Hamas and end its rule in Gaza.
Arab Israelis were even less likely to think that the current military operation will achieve either goal, with 27.5% saying it will bring the hostages home (compared to 39% of Jewish Israelis) and 31% of Arab Israelis thinking it will defeat Hamas (compared to 40% of Jewish Israelis).
Even among respondents who voted for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party in the 2022 election, just 27% said that the military operation will lead to the freeing of the hostages and 31% said it would lead to the toppling of Hamas.
Calling it a “sad and difficult day,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offers his condolences after four IDF soldiers were killed in Gaza.
He says that the fallen gave their lives in a campaign “to defeat Hamas and to bring back our hostages.”
“Our four fighters gave their lives for all of our security,” he says in a statement. “The entire people of Israel embrace the dear families in their heavy grief.”
“May the memory of our heroes be blessed and preserved in the hearts of the nation.”
In a condolence message, President Isaac Herzog stresses that “the price of war is extremely heavy,” adding, “This is a time of great sorrow, but also of great commitment: to stand behind the generation of heroic fighters, to embrace the families of the fallen, and to ensure that their names and heroism will never be forgotten.”
Herzog adds: “An entire nation is overwhelmed with sadness.”
A multi-billion-dollar deal to build one of the world’s largest data center hubs in the United Arab Emirates with US technology is far from being concluded due to persistent concerns around security, sources familiar with the matter tell Reuters.
The US and the wealthy Gulf state unveiled the massive artificial intelligence campus project set to contain a cluster of powerful data centers during President Donald Trump’s two-day visit to Abu Dhabi last month.
The planned 10-square-mile site is being funded by G42, an Emirati state-linked tech firm that is driving the development of its artificial intelligence industry.
Technology giants Nvidia NVDA.O, OpenAI, Cisco CSCO.O and Oracle, along with Japan’s SoftBank 9434.T, are working with G42 to build the first phase, known as Stargate UAE, set to go online in 2026.
The project, which plans to use advanced Nvidia AI chips, has been promoted by Trump officials as a win in steering Gulf states toward US technology over Chinese alternatives.
But according to five sources briefed on the project, US officials have yet to determine the security conditions to export the advanced chips or how the agreement with the Gulf state will be enforced, leaving the deal far from resolved.
Four Israeli soldiers were killed and five were wounded by an explosion in a building in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis this morning, the military announces.
Two of the slain soldiers are named as:
Sgt. Maj. (res.) Chen Gross, 33, of the Maglan commando unit, from Gan Yoshiya.
Staff Sgt. Yoav Raver, 19, of the Yahalom combat engineering unit, from Sde Warburg.
The names of the other two soldiers will be released later, the military says.
According to an initial IDF probe, the soldiers entered the building to clear it of possible terror infrastructure, including tunnels.
The building was booby-trapped, and the explosion caused the structure to collapse on the soldiers, killing four and wounding five others, including one seriously.
Transgender television personality and Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner will attend Tel Aviv Pride later this month.
Jenner tells Channel 12 she’s excited to attend the event for the first time.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says it distributed 8,160 boxes of food at two of its Rafah sites today before it closed them due to overcrowding.
GHF says each box has enough food inside to feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days.
It says it has distributed nearly 9 million meals since it launched operations on May 26. But, the boxes are filled largely with dry food products that to prepare still require fuel, cooking equipment, or community kitchens, which are in low supply throughout the war-ravaged Strip.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says it was forced to close its sites early today due to “excessive crowding that made it unsafe to proceed.”
“At no point did violence occur,” GHF stresses in a statement.
The announcement comes several hours after a similar post was made on its Arabic Facebook page, which is used to communicate directly with Gazans.
The Arabic post said GHF had closed its two Rafah sites because large crowds — particularly before the sites even opened — had hindered distribution.
The post also urged Gazans to wait until GHF sends notifications out before heading to distribution sites.
But it is unclear whether the directive accounts for the long distances that Gazans are required to travel in order to reach the sites. Many have reported making the trek of dozens of kilometers only for them to arrive after boxes of food have run out.
The limited food is also likely what has led to the overcrowding, with hunger still plaguing much of the Strip after a 78-day Israeli blockade through most of March, April and May.
GHF says it has distributed roughly 25,000 boxes of food since it began operations late last month, but families with men and boys strong enough to make the trek, wait in line and lug large boxes back to their homes have a major advantage over others. The boxes are filled largely with dry food products that to prepare still require cooking equipment or community kitchens, which are in very low supply throughout the war-ravaged Strip.
GHF does not say how much aid it distributed at its sites on Friday, but a spokesperson says GHF will resume operations on Saturday.
While GHF has been operating three distribution sites, only one or two have been open on most days since the May 26 rollout, and no timeline has been provided for when a site in northern Gaza will be opened.
The small number of distribution sites aimed at serving a population of roughly two million has been a major point of criticism from the UN and other international organizations, who have argued that Palestinians in need should not be forced to walk long distances through war zones in order to pick up food.
The dangerous conditions were highlighted earlier this week when the IDF, three days in a row, admitted to opening fire toward Palestinians who it said had strayed from the pre-approved road they’re supposed to use to reach aid sites. Dozens were killed and hundreds were injured in the three incidents, according to Hamas health authorities and the Red Cross. The IDF insisted that those figures were exaggerated and described its fire as warning shots.
US President Donald Trump has no plans to speak to billionaire Elon Musk on Friday, a senior White House official says, scotching reports of a possible call to smooth over their blazing public row.
“The president does not intend to speak to Musk today,” the White House official tells AFP on condition of anonymity.
Sixteen Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military in Gaza today, according to local Hamas health authorities.
The IDF had no immediate comment on the reports of deaths in war-shattered Gaza. Hamas health authorities say strikes had killed people in Gaza’s Jabalia, Tuffah and Khan Younis areas.
Witnesses and medics tell Reuters that Israeli planes and tanks had intensified strikes on Jabalia and nearby Beit Hanoun since the early hours.
The Israeli military issued evacuation orders to residents of certain blocks in northern Gaza on Friday, spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted on X.
A shattered window on the Supreme Court building in Jerusalem is being investigated by the police, Hebrew media reports, as it was noticed following a large right-wing demonstration at the location yesterday.
According to Channel 12, police suspect a bullet may have been fired at the floor-to-ceiling window, causing it to shatter, as the cracks fan out from a small hole in the top portion of the glass.
The report notes that police have yet to determine whether the incident is connected to last night’s right-wing rally outside the Supreme Court, which was attended by multiple government ministers, including Justice Minister Yariv Levin and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
חלון בית המשפט העליון נופץ אמש, במשטרה בודקים אם בוצע ירי לעבר המבנהhttps://t.co/Ohvq53mmLK | @naimleee pic.twitter.com/imTrusJS4h
— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) June 6, 2025
The Israeli military tells Palestinians in the Gaza Strip that movement toward the humanitarian aid distribution sites is only permitted during daylight, between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Outside the daylight hours, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., “the area is considered a closed military zone,” says Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman.
“Entering it poses a great danger to your lives. It is strictly prohibited to enter the distribution centers and the area near them” during the night, he says.
“Please adhere to the instructions of the organizers on site, particularly regarding entry and exit times,” Adraee adds, referring to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the US- and Israel-backed body in charge of the aid distribution.
London has so far rejected Israeli requests to prevent a high-profile activist mission sailing under a UK flag from reaching Israeli waters in the coming days, an official in Jerusalem tells The Times of Israel.
“They can act,” says the official, “but they say only will if there is a safety risk.”
The UK asked Israel to ensure the safety of the boat and its crew, says the official, calling the mission “the selfie flotilla.”
The Madleen, which was organized by the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel Freedom Flotilla Coalition, is expected in Israeli waters in the coming days.
Among the 12 activists on the ship are Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Brazilian activist Thiago Avila, Irish “Game of Thrones” actor Liam Cunningham and Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian European Parliament member.
Two distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation reopened today, says the Israel- and US-backed organization.
They are now closed, after distributing aid in the two sites in Tel Sultan in the southern city of Rafah.
A report on the day’s activities will be published later in the day, says GHF.
Earlier in the day, GHF told Gazans that all its aid distribution sites in the enclave were once again closed and a reopening date would be announced later, urging residents to stay away from these sites “for their safety.”
The sites were closed on Wednesday after three consecutive days of violence near the humanitarian hubs, and reopened Thursday.
French anti-terror prosecutors have opened a probe into “complicity in genocide” and “incitement to genocide” over French-Israelis suspected of having blocked aid intended for the Gaza Strip, a source close to the case says.
The investigation comes after the Jewish French Union for Peace (UFJP) and a French-Palestinian victim filed a legal complaint in November, levelling accusations of “organizing, participating in and calling for the participation in concrete activities to block humanitarian aid” for Gaza, “including physically preventing the passage of trucks at border checkpoints controlled by the Israeli army.”
Their complaint targeted alleged French members of right-wing groups that have attempted to block humanitarian aid trucks from reaching the Gaza Strip.
It is not immediately clear how many people had been accused.
Two lawyers for the plaintiffs, Damia Taharraoui and Marion Lafouge, tell AFP they are happy a probe has been launched into the events of January 2024, when, according to them, “no one wanted to hear anything about genocide.”
Israel has denied all allegations of war crimes or acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip, 20 months into its war against Hamas.
The source close to the case says prosecutors last month urged a probe into events alleged to have happened at the Nitzana crossing point between Egypt and Israel, and the Kerem Shalom Crossing from Israel into Gaza.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Iran warns European powers against backing a draft resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency next week that finds Iran in non-compliance, calling it a “strategic mistake.”
“Instead of engaging in good faith, the E3 is opting for malign action against Iran at the IAEA Board of Governors,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says on X, referring to Britain, France and Germany. “Mark my words as Europe ponders another major strategic mistake: Iran will react strongly against any violation of its rights.”
The resolution finding Iran in non-compliance with its so-called safeguards obligations will be the first tabled by Western nations in 20 years.
It comes at a sensitive time as US President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to reach a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program. The two sides have held several rounds of talks, so far without agreement.
Germany’s Lufthansa airline group says it will restart flights to and from Tel Aviv on June 23, having suspended them early last month amid the ongoing regional conflict.
The group says in a statement that the decision will affect Lufthansa, Austrian, SWISS, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, ITA and Lufthansa Cargo but that “for operational reasons,” the individual airlines will only resume services “gradually”.
“The decision is based on an extensive security analysis and in coordination with the relevant authorities,” it adds.
The group suspended its flights to Israel’s main airport following a May 4 rocket attack launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and extended the suspension several times since.
The missile landed near a car park at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport and injured six people, the first time a missile had penetrated the airport perimeter.
A French judge has charged three Serbs with vandalizing Jewish sites with paint last weekend “to serve the interests of a foreign power,” a judicial source says.
A source close to the case says investigators suspect Russia is behind the attacks for which the men were charged on Thursday evening.
They had exchanged messages on Telegram with other individuals not yet apprehended, it added.
France’s Holocaust memorial, three Paris synagogues and a restaurant were vandalised with paint on Friday night last week, in what the Israeli embassy denounced as a “coordinated antisemitic attack.”
The source following the case describes the three suspects, two born in 1995 and one born in 2003, as having completed a task motivated by financial compensation, but without being aware of any geopolitical implications.
They were two brothers and a third person who had lived in France for several years, the source says.
They were arrested on Monday in southeast France as they tried to leave the country.
Russia has previously denied involvement in a number of attacks attributed to it by French officials, including an incident in May 2024 when red hands were tagged on Paris’s main Holocaust memorial.
Maj. Gen. David Zini, who was appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to head the Shin Bet security agency, officially left the military this week.
On Wednesday, a ceremony was held to bid Zini farewell after 33 years of service in the IDF. The event was attended by Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, the military says.
Zini was dismissed from the military by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir for holding talks with Netanyahu behind his back.
Zini had commanded the IDF Training Command and General Staff Corps.
Following his departure from the military, the General Staff Corps, a top-level unit only activated in wartime, was given to the chief of the Ground Forces, Maj. Gen. Nadav Lotan, the IDF says.
The Training Command, meanwhile, has temporarily been placed under the responsibility of the chief of staff of the command and the head of its training division, Brig. Gen. Sharon Altit.
In his parting speech, Zini says “messianism” is not “a derogatory term” after Haaretz reported that last year, Netanyahu had refused to appoint him to become his military secretary, telling confidants after interviewing him that he was “too messianic.”
“Recently, the term ‘messianic’ has come to the forefront of discourse. We are all messianic, like David Ben-Gurion and the founding fathers of the nation. Messianism is not a derogatory term. It is thanks to this constant flame that we aspire to perfection in all areas of our lives.” Zini says.
The Israel- and US-backed-Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says that all its aid distribution sites in the enclave are once again closed and a reopening date will be announced later, urging residents to stay away from these sites “for their safety.”
Work at the sites was halted in the latter half of this week in response to a series of deadly shootings close to the operations, but two sites in the Rafah area were reopened yesterday afternoon, and GHF said it had distributed almost 25,000 boxes of food once they were.
It said 18,240 boxes of food were delivered at the Tel Sultan “Swedish village” site, which is closing down, and 6,720 were picked up at the new site in the nearby Saudi neighborhood.
The latest closure notice coincides with the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
The Lebanese Armed Forces condemns the Israeli strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs last night, which the IDF said targeted Hezbollah drone facilities.
It notes in a statement that after the IDF announced the imminent strikes, the LAF contacted the ceasefire monitoring committee in an attempt to prevent the strike from going ahead, but “the enemy refused to respond to the committee.”
It says that Lebanese Army patrols were dispatched to inspect the buildings ahead of the strikes as part of the attempt to prevent them from going ahead.
The strikes were “an attempt to undermine the revival of our homeland,” it asserts.
Iran condemns Israeli “aggression” in Lebanon after a series of airstrikes targeted Hezbollah facilities in the southern suburbs of Beirut last night.
The IDF also targeted what it said was a Hezbollah drone workshop in the southern Lebanon town of Ain Qana
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei describes the strikes “as a blatant act of aggression against Lebanon’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip find themselves struggling to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which begins today, as the 20-month-old war and a recent total aid blockade, which has only been partially lifted, have made it almost impossible to perform the holiday customs.
To mark Eid al-Adha — Arabic for the Festival of Sacrifice — Muslims traditionally slaughter a sheep or cow and give away part of the meat to the poor as an act of charity. Then they have a big family meal with sweets. Children get gifts of new clothes.
But no fresh meat has entered Gaza for three months, and nearly all the territory’s homegrown sheep, cattle and goats are dead.
Some of the little livestock that remains is on sale at a makeshift pen set up in the vast tent camp of al-Mawasi on the southern Gaza coast, but no one can afford to buy.
A few people stop by to look at the sheep and goats, along with a cow and a camel. Some kids laugh watching the animals and call out the prayers connected to the holiday.
“I can’t even buy bread. No meat, no vegetables,” says Abdel Rahman Madi. “The prices are astronomical.”
At a street market in the nearby city of Khan Younis, some stalls have stuffed sheep toys and other holiday knick-knacks and old clothes. But most people leave without buying any gifts after seeing the prices.
“Before, there was an Eid atmosphere, the children were happy … Now with the blockade, there’s no flour, no clothes, no joy,” says Hala Abu Nqeira, a woman looking through the market. “We just go to find flour for our children. We go out every day looking for flour at a reasonable price, but we find it at unbelievable prices.”
Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox slates have scored an unprecedented victory in the US World Zionist Congress elections, winning more than 40 percent of the total vote.
Preliminary results show that seven slates associated with Orthodox movements have received more than 100,000 of the record 230,257 total votes cast in the election held online March 10-May 4 in the United States.
For the second time in a row, and the second time in history, right-wing parties have the majority, with an estimated 81 mandates compared to an estimated 71 for the left-wing bloc.
That number includes 31,765 votes (13.8% of the total) cast for Am Yisrael Chai, a new slate of Jewish college students and young professionals focused on pro-Israel advocacy and promoting the “love of Torah and Judaism.”
Eretz Hakodesh, associated with Israel’s Haredi United Torah Judaism party, receives 29,159 votes, or 12.7% of the total. The Orthodox Israel Coalition, representing mainstream Orthodox institutions, gets 26,975 votes, or 11.7% of the total, while other Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox slates combine for approximately 13,500 more votes.
The party winning the most votes is the Vote Reform slate, representing the Reform Movement, with 47,887 votes, or 20.8% of the total. Mercaz, which represents Conservative/Masorti Judaism, comes in fourth with 27,893, or 12.1% of the vote.
Among the remaining 17 slates out of the 22 that ran in the election, the liberal Hatikvah slate leads the pack with 5% of the vote.
The 230,257 votes recorded represent an 86% increase in votes from the previous election.
This does not include 18,948 votes that were invalidated due to suspicions of fraud. Am Yisrael Chai and Eretz Hakodesh are believed to be among the six parties said to benefit from seemingly orchestrated campaigns to boost votes using duplicate email addresses and suspicious pre-paid credit cards.
The World Zionist Organization’s Area Election Committee (AEC) continues to investigate the fraud and consider how to penalize slates connected with the fraudulent voting schemes, it says.
The World Zionist Congress, which is charged with budgeting more than $1 billion a year in allocations to various Jewish and Israeli causes, will convene in Jerusalem on October 28-30, 2025.
The Israeli Navy is expected to block a high-profile activist mission sailing to Gaza to challenge Israel’s blockade, should it near Israeli territorial waters in the coming days.
Among those aboard the boat, named Madleen, are climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, “Game of Thrones” actor Liam Cunningham, French-Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan — who has been barred from entering Israel — and Brazilian activist Thiago Avila.
Israeli defense officials tell The Times of Israel that they are monitoring the boat’s route, as it heads on a detour to pick up Sudanese migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean.
Still, if it continues on its route to Gaza, it will be intercepted by the Navy, the officials say. The boat may be towed to the Ashdod Port or be left at sea, the Kan public broadcaster reported earlier this week.
The IDF, in response to a query, says that it is “enforcing the maritime security blockade on the Gaza Strip, and is prepared and ready for a wide range of scenarios that it will handle in accordance with the political echelon guidelines.”
As the Muslim world marks the start of Eid al-Adha, one of the two major Islamic holidays, media outlets in Gaza publish footage of hundreds of Palestinians performing the holiday prayers amid the ruins of homes and mosques, or in displaced persons camps across the enclave.
وسط الغارات الجوية الإسرائيلية المستمرة، أحيا الفلسطينيون في غزة عيد الأضحى بالصلاة فوق أنقاض المساجد التي تعرّضت للقصف #خبرني pic.twitter.com/wFWRzzn13p
— خبرني – khaberni (@khaberni) June 6, 2025
أهالي #غزة يؤدون صلاة عيد الأضحى المبارك وسط ركام منازلهم المدمرة وبين الخيام pic.twitter.com/Q3Vx3g4Y4d
— التلفزيون العربي (@AlarabyTV) June 6, 2025
In Jerusalem, meanwhile, thousands of people are recorded performing the holiday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
عشرات آلاف المصلين أدوا صلاة العيد في المسجد الأقصى المبارك pic.twitter.com/DAQxsGeQTV
— شبكة فلسطين للحوار (@paldf) June 6, 2025
Russia carried out a barrage of drone strikes across Ukraine overnight, killing at least four people and wounding 20 in the capital Kyiv, Ukrainian officials say.
“Kyiv came under another attack involving UAVs and ballistic missiles. Rescuers are responding to the aftermath at several locations across the city,” the State Emergency Service of Ukraine writes on Telegram.
Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko says four people have been confirmed dead in the capital, and 20 wounded — 16 of whom were hospitalized.
Several fires broke out in various districts as a result of the shelling, including at a residential building, a civil infrastructure facility and a metal hangar. The shelling also damaged train tracks in the Kyiv region.
Several strikes also hit western Ukraine’s city of Lutsk and Ternopil region, wounding five.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has vowed to take revenge following a recent drone attack by Kyiv on Russian soil, which destroyed billions of dollars’ worth of nuclear-capable bombers.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian strikes overnight on Russia wounded three people in the western Tula region, and Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobianin said Russian air defenses had shot down a drone heading for the capital.
BOSTON — A federal judge in Boston temporarily blocks US President Donald Trump from barring US entry of foreign nationals seeking to study or participate in exchange programs at Harvard University.
Under a two-page temporary restraining order granted to Harvard, US District Judge Allison Burroughs enjoins Trump’s proclamation from taking effect pending further litigation of the matter amid an escalating dispute between the Ivy League school and Republican president.
The judge rules that Trump’s directive prohibiting foreign nationals from entering the United States to study at Harvard for the next six months would cause “immediate and irreparable injury” before the courts have a chance to review the case.
Burroughs last month had blocked Trump from implementing a separate order prohibiting Harvard from enrolling international students, who make up more than a quarter of its student body. Harvard on Thursday amended its lawsuit to challenge the new directive, claiming Trump is violating Burroughs’ decision.
Burroughs’ order also continues a separate temporary restraining order she issued on May 23 against the administration’s restriction on international student enrollment at Harvard.
Iran has ordered large quantities of ingredients for producing ballistic missiles from China, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal that says the Islamic Republic is seeking to reestablish its military capabilities amid ongoing nuclear talks with the United States.
The report says that Tehran has ordered enough ammonium perchlorate, which is needed to produce solid-fuel missiles, to potentially manufacture up to 800 missiles, with some expected to be sent to Iran-backed proxy groups such as the Houthis in Yemen.
The shipment is reportedly expected to arrive in Iran in the coming months.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issues a statement thanking the Trump administration for sanctioning four ICC judges.
“Thank you President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio for imposing sanctions against the politicized judges of the ICC. You have justly stood up for the right of Israel, The United States and all democracies to defend themselves against savage terror,” says the statement.
A Chicago-based private equity firm — controlled by a member of the family that founded American publishing company Rand McNally — has an “economic interest” in the logistics company involved in a controversial new aid distribution operation in Gaza.
McNally Capital, founded in 2008 by Ward McNally, helped “support the establishment” of Safe Reach Solutions, a McNally Capital spokesperson tells Reuters. SRS is a for-profit company established in Wyoming in November, state incorporation records show.
It is in the spotlight for its involvement with the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which last week started distributing aid in the war-torn Palestinian enclave. The foundation paused work on Wednesday after a series of deadly shootings near the distribution sites of people on their way to pick up aid. It has suffered from the departure of senior personnel.
“McNally Capital has provided administrative advice to SRS and worked in collaboration with multiple parties to enable SRS to carry out its mission,” the spokesperson says. “While McNally Capital has an economic interest in SRS, the firm does not actively manage SRS or have a day-to-day operating role.”
SRS is run by a former CIA official named Phil Reilly, but its ownership has not previously been disclosed. Reuters has not been able to establish who funds the newly created foundation.
The spokesperson doesn’t provide details of the scale of the investment in SRS by McNally Capital, which says it has $380 million under management.
McNally Capital founder Ward McNally is the great great great grandson of the co-founder of Rand McNally. The McNally family sold the publishing company in 1997.
A spokesperson for SRS confirms it works with the foundation, also known as GHF, but doesn’t answer specific questions about ownership.
GHF, which resumed aid distribution on Thursday, doesn’t respond to a request for comment.
SRS subcontracts with US private security firm UG Solutions, which provides armed US military veterans to guard the distribution sites and transportation of the aid, two sources familiar with the operations say. UG Solutions doesn’t respond to a request for comment.
The SRS spokesperson says in a statement that under Reilly’s leadership, “SRS brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts in security, supply chain management, and humanitarian affairs.”
McNally Capital has investments in defense contracting companies. Among the firms it acquired was Orbis Operations, a firm that specializes in hiring former CIA officers. Orbis doesn’t return calls for comment. Reilly used to work for Orbis.
BOULDER, Colorado — A man accused of yelling “Free Palestine” and throwing Molotov cocktails at demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza is charged with 118 counts including attempted murder in a Colorado court.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, who has been jailed since his arrest following Sunday’s attack, is advised of the charges during a hearing in Boulder, where he appears in person. Investigators say Soliman, who posed as a gardener, planned it for a year.
The 118 counts include attempt to commit murder, assault in the first and third degrees, use of explosive or incendiary devices and animal cruelty. He has also been charged with a hate crime in federal court and is jailed on a $10 million cash bond.
Soliman’s attorney, Kathryn Herold, waives a formal reading of the charges. A preliminary hearing has been set for July 15 to determine whether the state has enough evidence to move forward.
“The charges reflect the evidence that we have regarding this horrific attack that took place and the seriousness of it,” Michael Dougherty, the Boulder County district attorney, says at a news conference after the hearing.
Authorities have said 15 people and a dog were victims of the attack. Not all were physically injured, and some are considered victims for the legal case because they were in the area and could potentially have been hurt. The dog is among the injured, Dougherty says.
Soliman is accused of trying to kill 14 people and faces two attempted murder charges for each.
Soliman had intended to kill all of the roughly 20 participants the weekly demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine,” police say.
Soliman did not carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote in an affidavit.
Officers responded and took Soliman into custody about five minutes after the 911 call, Police Chief Stephen Redfearn says at the news conference.
According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people” — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel. Authorities say he expressed no remorse.
Harvard adds US President Donald Trump’s proclamation barring new foreign students at the university from entering the United States to existing legal action against the administration, which it accuses of “retaliation” action.
“This is not the administration’s first attempt to sever Harvard from its international students… (It) is part of a concerted and escalating campaign of retaliation,” it says in an amended complaint filed in federal court.
In response, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson calls Harvard “a hotbed of anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist agitators,” claims that the school has previously denied.
“Harvard’s behavior has jeopardized the integrity of the entire US student and exchange visitor visa system and risks compromising national security. Now it must face the consequences of its actions,” Jackson says in a statement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office reports “significant progress” following his hours-long meeting on the ultra-Orthodox conscription bill with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, former Shas MK Ariel Atias and Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs.
“It was decided to make an effort tomorrow to reach agreement on the issues that remain open,” says the statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
The IDF issues footage of its strikes against Hezbollah targets in Beirut and southern Lebanon earlier this evening.
The strikes in Beirut hit several underground drone manufacturing facilities belonging to Hezbollah’s aerial forces, also know as Unit 127, according to the military.
The IDF says Hezbollah’s aerial forces launched over 1,000 explosive and surveillance drones at Israel during the war last year, and was currently working, despite the ceasefire deal, to strengthen its capabilities.
“The unit was working to manufacture many thousands of drones under the direction and funding of Iranian terror officials, as part of Iran’s efforts to harm Israel,” the IDF says.
“Over the years, Iran has funded and directed terrorist attacks through this project, in coordination with Hezbollah. Hezbollah terrorists travel to Iran for training in production systems, which supports the group’s ability to independently manufacture UAVs inside Lebanon,” the military continues.
“The IDF has identified that Hezbollah terrorists have been continuing this activity even since the understandings came into effect, and the IDF is determined to take action against terrorists trained in Iran for terrorist attacks.”
Additionally, the IDF confirms carrying out strikes in southern Lebanon’s Ain Qana, after issuing an evacuation warning. According to the military, the strikes hit a Hezbollah workshop used to build drones for attacks and surveillance.
צה”ל תקף בדאחייה ובדרום לבנון אתרים תת-קרקעיים לייצור ואחסון כטב”מים וסדנה לייצור רחפנים
לפני זמן קצר, צה"ל תקף באופן ממוקד באמצעות מטוסי קרב, אתרי ייצור ומחסני כטב"מים בשימוש היחידה האווירית של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה (127), בדאחייה שבביירות ובדרום לבנון.
היחידה האווירית הוציאה… pic.twitter.com/4CCd7obPjy
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) June 5, 2025
Israel has assured the White House that it won’t launch an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities unless US President Donald Trump signals that the ongoing negotiations with Tehran have failed, Axios reports, citing two Israeli officials familiar with the matter.
Israel has been preparing to launch such a strike, sparking fears in Washington that one might go ahead and scuttle the nuclear talks with Iran.
Trump confirmed publicly last week that he had asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on such an attack for the time being.
Israel conveyed the reassurance to the White House during a visit last week by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Mossad Director David Barnea and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, Axios says.
