Live updates (closed)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Monday’s events as they happened.
Authorities defend 7-month administrative detention for now-freed, emaciated Palestinian
Following footage of the release of Palestinian activist Bassem Tamimi looking emaciated after more than seven months in administrative detention, the Israel Prisons Service defends the conditions under which it is holding security prisoners.
Tamimi was released without charge last night looking frail, exhausted and almost unrecognizable. He is the father of Ahed Tamimi, who was jailed in 2017-2018 for slapping an IDF soldier in the family’s West Bank village of Nabi Saleh.
“The prison service… operates in accordance with the law while maintaining the security of the state and the lives and safety of the incarceration officers,” IPS says, noting that it has been holding thousands of additional Palestinian suspects since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Asked for comment on Bassem Tamimi’s October 29 arrest, the IDF says the 57-year-old was suspected of carrying out “security activity” along with another suspect.
“In light of the intelligence material collected in his case and after no criminal alternative was found to prosecute him, a decision was made to administratively detain him for six months,” the IDF says, noting that the decision was approved by an IDF military court, which rejected an appeal by Tamimi’s attorney.
On April 28, the IDF requested that Tamimi’s detention be extended by six more months, while still refusing to publicize the allegations or hold a trial against him.
More recently, the IDF conducted a review of Tamimi’s administration detention and decided to release him early, the army says, without explaining why.
الإفراج عن "باسم التميمي" والد عهد التميمي، بعد "أشهر معدودة في الحبس الإداري"
الصورتين قبل وبعد الاعتقال. pic.twitter.com/P8vT7WmpTw
— Hosam Yahia (@HosamYahiaAJ) June 9, 2024
Coalition MK says he’ll back Haredi draft law as ‘basis for discussion’ on improving it
Ohad Tal speaks at the annual Jerusalem Day Flag March, June 5, 2024. (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)
Echoing several other critics of the ultra-Orthodox enlistment law being promoted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Religious Zionism party MK Ohad Tal says he will vote for the controversial measure, which lowers the age of exemption from mandatory service for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, to create “a basis for discussion” in the Knesset.
“I will vote tonight in favor of applying a law of continuity to [Benny] Gantz’s outline from the previous Knesset so that it can be used as a basis for discussion in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,” Tal tells The Times of Israel.
The Knesset is slated to vote tonight on whether to approve the revival of a bill from the previous Knesset dealing with the military service of yeshiva students.
The vote is only on renewing the legislative process where it left off, without requiring the bill’s backers to start from scratch in the current session. If eventually approved, the legislation would lower the age of exemption from mandatory service for Haredi yeshiva students from the current 26 to 21 and “very slowly” increase the rate of ultra-Orthodox conscription.
“We need to explain to the public that this does not mean that the conscription law is being passed tonight — absolutely not. It is only a procedural process that provides a basis for discussion. The content of the law is cast within the framework of the discussions in the committee,” he says, calling on those opposed to the measure to “simply roll up their sleeves, come to the committee in the coming weeks and help us build a law that will truly create change and help recruit those who today are not mobilized to defend the security of the State of Israel.”
Tal says that many of his friends and even his staffers have been called for multiple rounds of reserve duty and are “paying a huge personal, family, financial and mental price” and that it is unfair to place demands on some Israelis “while other sections of the public are exempt.”
But while there is no solution that will lead to enlisting all eligible Haredim today, the process “must start happening,” he says, calling for an overhaul of the “current incentive structure” that keeps ultra-Orthodox out of the IDF.
Hamas welcomes Security Council vote, even as it avoids accepting truce proposal
While Hamas has yet to accept the latest Israeli hostage deal proposal after 11 days, the terror group issues a statement welcoming the UN Security Council’s adoption of a resolution calling on it to accept the Israeli offer.
“The movement would like to emphasize its readiness to cooperate with the mediators to enter into indirect negotiations on the implementation of these principles that are in line with the demands of our people and our resistance,” the Hamas statement says.
“We also affirm the continuation of our endeavor and struggle… to achieve their national rights, foremost of which is defeating the occupation and establishing an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, the right of return and self-determination,” adds the terror group, which openly seeks Israel’s destruction.
Likud MK Illouz says he’ll back coalition’s Haredi draft bill even though it’s imperfect
Likud MK Dan Illouz attends a meeting of the Jerusalem lobby at the Knesset, May 17, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
A Likud lawmaker who has expressed reservations about a government-supported bill dealing with military service exemptions for Haredi yeshiva students says he will support the measure even though it “needs significant improvements.”
In response to an inquiry from The Times of Israel, MK Dan Illouz states that “as one of the most vocal MKs in Likud regarding the historic need to draft ultra-Orthodox Jews, I believe we must support the continuity law” — referring to a vote slated for later this evening to revive a 2022 bill lowering the age of exemption from mandatory service for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from the current 26 to 21 and “very slowly” increasing the rate of Haredi conscription.
“The current legislation is not perfect and needs significant improvements, especially given the security challenges we face post-October 7,” Illouz says of the legislation, which was originally introduced by members of today’s opposition and was at the time vociferously opposed by parties in the current coalition.
“However, blocking the legislative process now would only delay the critical discussions and necessary enhancements. We need a law that respects Torah study, meets our urgent security needs, and is crafted through careful deliberation. Voting against the continuity law at this stage is a political move that will push us further away from achieving an effective solution.”
In a joint letter to Netanyahu last week, Illouz, Likud MK Moshe Saada and Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli indicated that while they intend to vote to revive the bill’s revival, they will not support it in its second and third — final — readings without “significant changes.” While Chikli is not a lawmaker and cannot vote in the plenum, his involvement highlights the significant reservations some in the coalition retain regarding the proposed law.
UN Security Council adopts US resolution backing Israeli hostage-truce deal
File: The United Nations Security Council meets on the situation in the Middle East, at UN headquarters in New York City on April 18, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP)
The United Nations Security Council has adopted a US resolution that backs the latest Israeli hostage-ceasefire proposal and calls on Hamas to accept the offer.
There are 14 votes in favor of the resolution, no votes against and one abstention by Russia.
Israel came out against the resolution last week, taking issue with some of the amendments that were made to the text.
The US addressed some of those concerns, dropping an explicit opposition to the establishment of Israeli security buffer zones in Gaza.
Yemen’s Houthis claim to have arrested an ‘American-Israeli spy cell’
Yemen’s Houthis say they have arrested an “American-Israeli spy cell,” a few days after the Iran-backed group detained about a dozen United Nations personnel.
The alleged cell includes former staff of the US embassy in Yemen, according to a television statement from Abdel Hakim Al Khaiwani, the Houthis’ intelligence chief.
“The American-Israeli spy cell carried out espionage and sabotage activities in official and unofficial institutions for decades in favor of the enemy,” he says.
“Members of the spy spell and American officers exploited their positions at the American embassy to carry out their sabotage activities. After the American embassy left Sanaa… the members of the spy cell continued to implement their sabotage agendas under the cover of international and UN organizations.”
Israeli government officials have no immediate comment, and the UN declines to comment on the allegations. The US State Department does not immediately respond to a request for comment.
High Court tells state to explain why it’s not now an ‘occupying power’ in Gaza
The High Court of Justice accepts the request of human rights groups for an interim order against the state, with judges instructing authorities to explain why they should not allow unfettered access of humanitarian aid, equipment and staff into the Gaza Strip in light of the severe humanitarian situation in the enclave as a result of the ongoing war.
The court also issues an order, as requested by the petitioners, instructing the state to explain why it should not be considered an “occupying power” and take responsibility for the provision of essential humanitarian aid to the local population.
The orders mean that the burden of proof is now on the state to demonstrate to the court that it is providing sufficient access of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and that it is not now militarily ruling the territory.
The High Court says that it is issuing the order regarding the humanitarian aid “without taking a position and in order to enable the court to get a full and comprehensive factual basis” for the case.
A final ruling that Israel is legally an occupying power in Gaza would have a significant legal impact, since the obligations of an occupying power are considerably greater than those required under the laws of armed conflict, which the state argues is the relevant legal framework for its operations in Gaza at present.
Despite the order regarding the supply of humanitarian aid, the justices of the High Court underlined on several occasions to the petitioners that the state and its agencies were better placed to know what the true humanitarian situation in Gaza is at present, given its direct access to local sources and its ongoing coordination with UN agencies and international aid groups.
The petitioners have nevertheless contended that the state has not provided a full and reliable account of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, pointing to testimony from medical staff working in the territory which contradicts the state’s account of the condition of medical services in the enclave.
IDF: Aerial targets downed near Nahariya and over Golan; anti-tank fire hits empty home
A “suspicious aerial target” was shot down by air defenses over the sea near the northern coastal city of Nahariya earlier this evening, the military says.
The IDF says another target that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon was shot down over the Golan Heights.
In both cases, sirens had sounded amid fears of falling shrapnel following the interception.
The IDF also says an anti-tank guided missile fired from Lebanon struck a building in the evacuated border community of Shtula, causing a fire.
There were no injuries reported in any of the incidents.
Hostages were beaten, abused ‘almost every day,’ says doctor who treated rescuees
File: Itai Pessach, director of the children’s hospital at Sheba Medical Center, during a television interview (courtesy of Sheba Medical Center)
The doctor in charge of treating the hostages rescued from Gaza on Saturday tells CNN that the abductees were regularly beaten by their captors.
“It was a harsh, harsh experience, with a lot of abuse, almost every day,” Dr. Itai Pessach of Sheba Medical Center says. “Every hour, both physical, mental and other types, and that is something that is beyond comprehension.”
According to the American outlet, Pessach says the eight months the hostages spent under Hamas captivity “left a significant mark on their health,” despite them appearing outwardly to be in good shape.
“They had no protein, so their muscles are extremely wasted, there is damage to some other systems because of that,” he says, adding that they said the supply of food and water varied, and that they were moved a few times and dealt with different guards.
“There have been periods where they got almost no food whatsoever,” Pessach adds. “There were other periods where it was a little better, but all in all, the combination of the psychological stress, malnutrition or not getting enough food or not getting the right kind of food, medical neglect, being limited to space, not seeing the sun and all of the other things have [a] significant effect on health.”
Elaborating on the psychological strain, he says: “As time passes, hope of being released kind of decreases and you start wondering if this would ever end… losing that faith, I think, is where you get to the breaking point.”
Blinken reiterates support of truce deal to Netanyahu, updates him on post-war talks
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, June 10, 2024. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
During his meeting earlier this evening with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed the commitment of US President Joe Biden and other world leaders to “stand[ing] behind” the Israeli hostage release-ceasefire proposal that is awaiting a Hamas response, the State Department says.
Blinken “underscored the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, including through ensuring October 7 can never be repeated,” according to the US readout. In his May 31 speech unveiling key components of the Israeli proposal, Biden argued that Israel has successfully downgraded Hamas’s capabilities to the point where they can no longer carry out another attack like the one they did eight months ago that sparked the ongoing war.
The top US diplomat also reiterated the administration’s belief that the ceasefire proposal would “unlock the possibility of calm along Israel’s northern border and further integration with countries in the region,” while “emphasizing the importance of preventing the conflict from spreading.”
The US readout says Blinken “updated” Netanyahu on “ongoing diplomatic efforts to plan for the post-conflict period” — efforts that Washington has repeatedly implored Netanyahu to advance himself, warning that failure to do so will ensure that Israel gets bogged down fighting in Gaza indefinitely.
National Unity chairman Benny Gantz left the emergency government yesterday, partly over the premier’s refusal to take on this task amid pressure from his far-right coalition partners.
Police air dramatic clip of troops reaching, rescuing 3 hostages from Gaza home
Police release dramatic footage showing the rescue of hostages Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv by forces of the elite Yamam unit and Shin Bet agents from central Gaza’s Nuseirat on Saturday.
The video shows Yamam officers storming the home of Hamas terrorist Abdallah Aljamal, who was holding the three Israeli men hostage.
The men identify themselves to the officers, and they are then taken out while under fire.
Amid the fighting at the home of Aljamal, Yamam officer Ch. Insp. Arnon Zmora was killed.
Blinken ends Netanyahu meeting, sits down with FM Katz
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, meets Foreign Minister Israel Katz in Jerusalem, June 10, 2024. (Lior Dekel/GPO)
The meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ends, and the top US diplomat meets Foreign Minister Israel Katz for a private meeting in Jerusalem.
He is slated to meet Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv later tonight.
PM’s office: Report on hostage deal incomplete, claim Israel agreed to end war a ‘lie’
In response to the Channel 12 report laying out what it says is the proposal offered by Israel to Hamas last month, the Prime Minister’s Office says the “document that was presented is incomplete and misleads the public.”
“The claim that Israel agreed to end the war before achieving all its goals is a total lie,” says the PMO.
According to Channel 12, Israel offered “a sustainable calm,” which the proposal defined as a “cessation of military operations and hostilities permanently.”
The full document, argues Netanyahu’s office, would show that “Israel will not end the war until all its conditions are met — that is, fighting until Hamas is eliminated, returning all of our hostages, and ensuring that Gaza never again represents a threat to Israel.”
Netanyahu has refused to reveal the full proposal to the security cabinet, drawing accusations from his far-right allies that he is purposefully concealing information from them. They have said any end to the war without Hamas being vanquished will cause them to leave the government.
Report details Israel’s deal proposal, including ‘permanent’ cessation of hostilities before all hostages return
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a Knesset plenum session in Jerusalem on May 27, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Channel 12 news publishes extensive details of what it says is Israel’s May 27 proposed hostage and ceasefire deal to Hamas, without citing sources or saying how it obtained it.
Contrary to what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted, the reported document apparently does not include the elimination of Hamas as a governing force in Gaza, and does include an Israeli commitment to end the war even before all hostages are released.
The report says the four-page document, titled “General Principles for an agreement between the Israeli side and the Palestinian side in Gaza on the exchange of hostages and prisoners and restoring a sustainable calm,” includes 18 clauses and three phases.
In the first phase, according to the reported document, Hamas would free all the women — including soldiers — in addition to men over the age of 50 and ill and wounded civilians — 33 hostages in total. In return, Israel would release 30 Palestinian security prisoners per hostage, or 50 per female soldier, with the inmates belonging to the same group (women, children, elderly, etc.) as the hostages they were being exchanged for.
Notably, the release of Palestinian inmates, including terror convicts, would be “subject to lists to be provided by Hamas based on precedence of their imprisonment.”
Out of the 50 Palestinian prisoners freed for each of the five female soldiers believed to be held alive in the Strip, 30 would be inmates serving life sentences, and 20 would be serving other sentences “limited up to 15 years remaining time in prison.”
The identities of those estimated 250 prisoners would also be based on lists provided by Hamas, except an “agreed upon number of prisoners (at least 100) who will be discussed in the second phase 2.” At least 50 of the freed inmates serving life sentences would be released to Gaza or abroad, not to the West Bank.
In the first phase, Hamas would let go of three female civilian hostages on day 1 and another four on day 7, followed by three Israeli hostages every seven days, beginning with women — whether civilians or soldiers — and with all the living hostages being released before any bodies.
During the sixth week of the first phase — after the release of Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu, civilians who separately entered the Strip of their own accord close to a decade ago — Israel would free 47 Palestinians who were freed in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal and have since been rearrested, the reported proposal says.
In addition, Israel during the sixth week would also release all Palestinian women and children under 19 “who are not militants” who have been detained in Gaza since October 7.
All prisoners will not be rearrested for the same offenses, and will not be required to sign any document.
Regarding the sensitive issue of how the transition from the first phase to the second will work — on which Netanyahu’s version of the deal has differed from the one publicly presented by US President Joe Biden — the document says that no later than day 16, indirect negotiations will begin over details of the exchange that will take place in the second phase, when soldiers and remaining men will be released.
“This should be concluded and agreed upon before the end of week 5 of this [first] phase,” it says, adding that “all procedures in this phase including the temporary cessation of military operations by both sides… will continue in phase 2 as long as the negotiations… are ongoing. The guarantors of this agreement shall make every effort to ensure that those indirect negotiations continue until both sides are able to reach agreement on the conditions for implementing phase 2 of this agreement.”
In phase 2, which will last 42 days, the sides will “announce restoration of a sustainable calm (cessation of military operations and hostilities permanently)” which will begin before that phase’s hostage-prisoner exchange. Also, during this part, Israeli forces will completely withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
Israel reprimands Slovenian envoy over Palestinian statehood recognition
Israel has reprimanded the ambassador of Slovenia over her country’s recognition of a Palestinian state, the Foreign Ministry says.
In a statement, the ministry says that during a conversation with the Slovenian ambassador it was emphasized that the statehood recognition “does not promote peace, it encourages the Hamas terrorist organization, and it makes it difficult to promote a deal for the release of the hostages.”
Health minister’s office evacuated after he opens envelope with suspicious powder
Health Minister Uriel Busso when he was Knesset Health Committee chair moderating deliberations over health insurance reform on May 14, 2023. (Noam Moshkovitz/Knesset Spokesperson's Office)
The Knesset Guard has evacuated Health Minister Uriel Busso from his office after he opened an envelope that contained suspicious powder, the Knesset’s spokesperson’s office says.
“The envelope has been put inside a sealed container designed for cases like this, and will be taken for examination at the Biological Institute,” the statement says.
Busso has been examined by a medic at the parliament, without any symptoms found.
His office has been closed until the examination is complete.
שר הבריאות אוריאל בוסו פתח בחדרו בכנסת מעטפה שבה אבקה חשודה, לשכתו פונתה@shemeshmicha @diklaaharon pic.twitter.com/9h9c7TnuA2
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) June 10, 2024
Netanyahu, Blinken joined by multiple aides in their meeting
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, June 10, 2024. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are joined by close aides in their meeting in Jerusalem, says the Prime Minister’s Office.
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi joined Netanyahu, while Blinken’s Counselor Derek Chollet joined on the US side.
The five-way meeting is followed by an expanded format.
Netanyahu’s Chief of Staff Tzachi Braverman, Military Secretary Roman Gofman, Political Adviser Ophir Falk, and hostage pointman Gal Hirsh join, as do US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues Lisa Grande, and Deputy Chief of Mission Stephanie L. Hallett.
US Ambassador Jack Lew is out of the country.
IDF airs new footage of 3 rescued hostages being flown to Israel in helicopter
Rescued hostages Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv are seen on a IAF helicopter after being extricated from the Gaza Strip, June 8, 2024. (Screenshot: Israel Defense Forces)
The military releases new footage showing the moments when rescued hostages Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv were being extracted from the Gaza Strip in a helicopter.
The clip shows the three men boarding the chopper and being flown to Sheba Medical Center in central Israel.
The fourth hostage rescued in Saturday’s operation in Nuseirat, Noa Argamani, was taken in a separate helicopter after being freed by special forces from another building.
Using AI imagery, Israeli FM mocks Spain’s anti-Israel leaders over EU defeat
Foreign Minister Israel Katz posts a rather undiplomatic message on X mocking Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his deputy Yolanda Diaz for the results of their parties in the European elections.
The Spanish people have punished @sanchezcastejon and @Yolanda_Diaz_ coalition with a resounding defeat in the elections.
It turns out that embracing Hamas murderers and rapists doesn't pay off.@NunezFeijoo @Santi_ABASCAL pic.twitter.com/zqTXVhar6Q
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) June 10, 2024
“The Spanish people have punished @sanchezcastejon and @Yolanda_Diaz_ coalition with a resounding defeat in the elections,” writes Katz about the pro-Palestinian politicians, alongside an AI-generated picture of the two leftist politicians with cracked eggs on their faces. “It turns out that embracing Hamas murderers and rapists doesn’t pay off.”
Diaz ended a May speech with the slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Her party only won three seats in the European Parliament elections, and she announced she would step down as leader of the far-left Sumar party. Diaz will remain a minister and deputy prime minister, however.
Sanchez’s socialist PSOE party dropped into second place behind the center-right People’s Party, but limited gains by the far-right allowed Sanchez’s minority government to remain in power.
Spain was one of three European countries that recognized a Palestinian state last month.
Over 19,000 rockets fired into Israel since start of war, IDF says
More than 19,000 unguided rockets have been launched at Israel since the start of the war in October, the Israeli military says.
The projectiles were mostly fired from the Gaza Strip, although the portion of rocket attacks from Lebanon has been steadily growing in recent months.
Thousands of those rockets have been intercepted by air defenses.
The tally only includes projectiles that crossed into Israeli territory. Israel has previously said hundreds or even more rockets launched from Gaza misfired and landed inside the Strip.
It also doesn’t include scores of guided anti-tank missiles fired across the Israel-Lebanon border.
IAF says over 150 enemy drones intercepted amid war, with challenges in detecting them
A Hezbollah drone is seen near Acre in northern Israel, February 20, 2024.(Screenshot: X)
The Israeli Air Force’s Aerial Defense Array has intercepted more than 150 drones using ground-based systems, such as the Iron Dome, amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip and fighting along the Lebanon border, according to new data published by the military.
Many more drones were downed by fighter jets, according to the IAF.
Drone attacks have largely been carried out from Lebanon. Several have been launched from Gaza, and there have also been numerous drones launched by Iran-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Hezbollah’s near-daily explosive-laden drone attacks from Lebanon have been one of the Aerial Defense Array’s most significant challenges amid the war. In numerous cases, the IAF has been challenged to detect the threat in time to intercept it, leading to casualties.
The terror group in recent months has increasingly been using explosive-laden drones, alongside anti-tank guided missiles and barrages of rockets.
Hezbollah’s drones have largely targeted army positions or Israeli communities on the border, with a handful of incidents of drones being launched much further, even up to 40 kilometers deep into Israel.
While being able to detect drones accurately is important, it is also a complicated part of thwarting the threat, IAF officials say.
The Aerial Defense Array uses a wide range of sensors to detect what it calls “suspicious aerial targets” heading into Israeli airspace. Though repeatedly, with Israeli radars set to high sensitivity, many such targets have later been determined to have been “false identifications” — often birds.
At times, Israeli drones that failed to identify themselves correctly were also shot down.
Still, Hezbollah’s drones are not always identified by the IAF until it is far too late to intercept them.
The topography on the Lebanon border, with many ridges and hills, can potentially be a challenge for Israeli radars. This, combined with the often very short flight paths, makes it difficult for the IAF to respond in time to the attack when it does detect the drone.
In contrast, during Iran’s attack on Israel on April 14, the IAF and its allies were able to detect hundreds of Iranian drones heading toward Israel hours in advance, preventing any of them from entering Israeli airspace.
The IAF says that nothing in the Aerial Defense Array is automatic, and every identification and launch of an interceptor is carried out manually by its soldiers.
According to recent IAF assessments, Hezbollah is attempting to harm Israel’s air defenses amid the fighting, and would especially work to target the Aerial Defense Array’s systems in an all-out war. Last week, Hezbollah published a video showing it striking with a guided missile what it claimed was an Iron Dome launcher in northern Israel.
In a war, Hezbollah is likely to launch swarms of drones, rather than two or three at a time as it currently does, in what could become a major challenge, according to the IAF assessments.
5 hospitalized for smoke inhalation from fire sparked by Hezbollah drone
Five people are being treated for smoke inhalation in a fire in northern Israel, which was sparked by a Hezbollah drone, medical officials say.
Ziv Hospital in Safed says the five people are in good condition.
The IDF said earlier that a drone launched from Lebanon impacted near the northern community of Sha’al, sparking a fire.
IDF airs drone footage of RPG-wielding terrorist being killed in Gaza
Earlier today, the Israeli military released footage showing an RPG-wielding terror operative being identified by an IDF drone in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, before he was killed by soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade’s 101st Battalion and tank shelling.
Netanyahu-Blinken meeting kicks off in Jerusalem
The meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has begun in Jerusalem, the Prime Minister‘s Office tells The Times of Israel.
The meeting is expected to focus on attempts to reach a hostage deal with Hamas.
PM to discuss reported US-Hamas deal with Blinken, welcomes ‘any attempt’ to free hostages
Responding to an NBC News report that the United States is exploring the possibility of a deal with Hamas to free American hostages without Jerusalem’s involvement, the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel that “Israel welcomes any attempt to free our hostages.”
An Israeli official adds that Netanyahu will discuss the plan in his meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken this evening in Jerusalem.
Blinken arrives in Israel ahead of meetings with Netanyahu, others
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, on June 10, 2024. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has landed in Israel after holding meetings with Egyptian leaders in Cairo.
Blinken will meet this evening with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem then head to Tel Aviv for a sit-down with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Tomorrow, Blinken will meet with President Isaac Herzog, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and National Unity party leader Benny Gantz, the latter of whom left the coalition yesterday.
He will also meet with the families of American hostages being held in Gaza.
Israeli man says he was assaulted in Barcelona over his Jewish identity
An Israeli man says he was attacked yesterday in Spain over his Jewish identity.
Yotam Eyal tweets a video of what he says were the early stages of the attack in Barcelona, before one of the assailants “kicked my phone out of my hands.”
In the video, several men can be seen shouting “Fuck Israel” toward Eyal.
הותקפתי אתמול על ידי חבורה של ערבים בברצלונה, בזמן שרובם קיללו אותי ואת ישראל כי ראו את הכיפה מישהו הגיע מאחורי והכה אותי בראש, הספקתי לצלם את התוקף וחברים שלו לפני שבעטו לי את הטלפון מהידיים.
הגיעה משטרה, הייתי בבית החולים, ואני בסדר, הם ישלמו על התקיפה הזו, כבר עובד על זה. pic.twitter.com/o0LSfOpmY0
— yotam eyal (@EyalYotam) June 10, 2024
Writing that the attackers were Arab, Eyal says they began the assault due to the kippa he was wearing.
“Police arrived, I was in the hospital, and I’m okay,” he writes. “They will pay for this attack, I’m already working on it.
“It is horrifying to experience antisemitism in the street out of nowhere from people with whom you have no acquaintance,” he adds.
IDF says 2 attack drones struck in Golan Heights today, evading interceptors
Two explosive-laden drones launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon a few hours ago impacted in the northern Golan Heights, the military says.
One of the drone impacts sparked a fire near the northern community of Sha’al, which was extinguished a short while later.
The IDF says several interceptor missiles were launched at the drones, although this failed to down the two devices.
As a result of the interception attempts, a fire was sparked in the Safed area. Firefighters are working to extinguish the blaze.
The IDF says the incident is under further investigation.
Also today, two rockets launched from Lebanon at the Mount Hermon area hit open areas, the military says.
Meanwhile, several of the sirens that sounded in Kiryat Shmona and in the Upper Galilee in recent hours have been determined to be false alarms, the IDF adds.
The IDF also says it struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher and a building used by the terror group in Aitaroun, Lebanon, and another building in Ayta ash-Shab.
מטוסי קרב תקפו לפני זמן קצר עמדת שיגור ומבנה צבאי של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב עיתרון לצד מבנה צבאי של הארגון במרחב עייתא א-שעב.
בהמשך להתרעות שהופעלו בקריית שמונה ב17:45 ובגליל העליון ב-17:20 על ירי רקטות וטילים, וב-15:11 על חדירת כלי טיס עוין, מדובר בכלל המקרים בזיהוי שווא>> pic.twitter.com/ABxhqStrXb
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) June 10, 2024
In Egypt, Blinken discusses need to reopen Rafah Crossing — US State Department
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (3rd-L) meets with Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo, on June 10, 2024 (Amr Nabil / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “discussed the importance of reopening the Rafah Border Crossing” between Gaza and Egypt during his meeting earlier today with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo, according to a US readout.
A US official and an Israeli official told The Times of Israel last week that talks between Israel, Egypt and the United States aimed at reopening the crossing remain at an impasse over Israel’s refusal to accept any involvement by the Palestinian Authority in the management of the border terminal on the Gaza side, which Israel took over last month.
The sides also discussed the latest Israeli hostage deal proposal, as well as “post-conflict governance” in Gaza, “which the ceasefire proposal would advance,” the State Department readout says.
Blinken “reaffirmed the United States’ rejection of any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza” — a line that the US regularly includes in US readouts on meetings with Egyptian officials due to Cairo’s extreme sensitivity to the possibility that Israeli military operations in Gaza will lead to the mass migration of Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad say they are sticking to their conditions for truce deal
The Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups say they are sticking to their conditions for accepting any proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.
These include an end to the war in Gaza and a full Israeli withdrawal from the Strip.
Rescued hostage’s mom says her son’s connection with fellow captive ‘strengthened them’
Aviram Meir (left) and Orit Meir, uncle and mother of rescued hostage Almog Meir Jan, give statements at a press conference at Sheba Medical Center, June 10, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
At a press conference at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Orit Meir shares details of her son Almog Meir Jan’s eight-month captivity by Hamas in Gaza, and of his condition as he undergoes rehabilitation at the hospital.
Meir speaks two days after Israeli forces rescued her son, along with fellow hostages Andrey Kozlov, Shlomi Ziv and Noa Argamani, in a heroic mission.
According to Meir, the close connection her son established with Kozlov and Ziv sustained him.
“They were held together for more than half a year [of the eight months they were hostages]… The connection they had with each other strengthened them. They did not give up hope until the moment they were rescued. They kept each other’s spirits up. Almog never gave up his belief that he would make it through the experience of captivity,” Meir says.
Rescued hostage Almog Meir Jan is reunited with his family at Sheba Medical Center, June 8, 2024. (IDF)
Meir reports that her son learned Arabic while in Gaza and picked up a bit of news by occasionally being able to listen to, but not watch, Al Jazeera. He returned without a full picture of the war or information about the hostages, and his family and hospital staff are slowly filling him in on the details.
“He also learned Russian because Andrey speaks the language. The three of them had a lot of time to talk among themselves. They are talking together in the hospital and appear to have developed their own language with particular signs,” Meir says.
Meir is relieved that her son returned feeling physically well, but acknowledges that his full recovery will take time.
“It will not be easy. Think about it as though he did not have an identity for those eight months. They took away his freedom. We are giving him the space and power to make decisions for himself. This is very critical. I am sure he has a way to go but he is starting from a good place,” Meir says.
“And don’t forget what we went through yesterday. My son is sitting shiva,” she adds, referring to the death and burial of Almog Meir Jan’s father and Orit Meir’s ex-husband, Yossi Jan, who died just hours before being able to hear that his son had been rescued.
Hamas official claims Blinken’s comments on hostage-truce deal ‘biased to Israel’
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri tells Reuters that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Gaza comments on a proposed ceasefire and hostage deal are “biased to Israel” and that his stance is a real obstacle to reaching an agreement.
“Blinken’s speech during his visit to Egypt is an example of bias to Israel and it offers an American cover to the holocaust conducted by the occupation in Gaza,” he claims.
Ben Gvir says Gantz’s departure an opportunity to ‘stop the humanitarian policy’ in Gaza
Otzma Yehudit party leader National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on June 3, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calls last night’s departure from the coalition by National Unity chief Benny Gantz “a very big opportunity,” arguing that in recent months the former war cabinet minister’s centrist party had “put a spoke in the wheels of the war machine.”
Gantz, alongside Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was one of three voting members of the decision-making war cabinet.
Speaking to reporters ahead of his far-right Otzma Yehudit party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Ben Gvir says that he believes “the solution is really that we will enter this [war] cabinet and be able to have even more influence.”
“The people of Israel want victory in the south, the people of Israel want victory in the north, the people of Israel want to stop the fuel and humanitarian policy, most of which ultimately goes to Hamas. This is not how a country that wants to win behaves,” Ben Gvir continues.
Asked about his demands for a seat in the war cabinet, Ben Gvir says with a smirk that he “does not speak to the prime minister with threats, but I’m guessing that the prime minister will understand my words.”
“I am demanding it all the time,” he adds.
When National Unity first joined the government, Ben Gvir demanded a representative of his party be part of the newly formed war cabinet. He was denied his request.
Ahead of Gantz’s resignation yesterday, Ben Gvir stated that he would demand increased say over government decisions, including in the war cabinet.
When asked about an incident yesterday in which he dismissed the relative of a hostage held in Gaza seeking answers by calling him a “leftist,” Ben Gvir declines to comment on the details of that incident, saying that while he appreciates the hostages’ families, “there cannot be a situation where time and again, in the name of the families, things are said which lead to danger to the State of Israel.”
“If we don’t stop the fuel [to Gaza], that endangers the State of Israel,” he says.
IDF says its drone has been shot down over Lebanon; reports say Hezbollah responsible
The IDF confirms Lebanese media reports that one of its drones has been shot down by a surface-to-air missile over Lebanon.
It says the drone crashed in Lebanon after being hit.
The Lebanese reports have said the drone was shot down by Hezbollah over southern Lebanon’s Rihan.
The incident marks the fifth time an IDF drone has been shot down by Hezbollah amid the ongoing war.
"يا علي.. نزلت نزلت"
اسقاط مسيرة اسرائيلية في اجواء الريحان جنوب لبنان. pic.twitter.com/WCAqesLAdM
— أحمد سرحان (@ahmadserhann) June 10, 2024
Top Arab MK Odeh slams Haredi IDF draft law, citing opposition to mandatory consription
MK Ayman Odeh speaks during a faction meeting, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on February 6, 2023.(Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Hadash-Ta’al party chairman Ayman Odeh reiterates his opposition to the enlistment law coming up for a vote in the Knesset plenum this evening, hours after tweeting that he would not “lend a hand to the continuation of Netanyahu’s rule” by supporting the legislation.
Addressing the Arab-majority party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Odeh states that he opposes mandatory service and “is in favor of peace,” adding that it is imperative to do everything possible to topple a government that he alleged has “committed crimes against humanity in Gaza and killed 15,000 children.”
If eventually approved, the legislation would lower the age of exemption from mandatory service for Haredi yeshiva students from the current 26 to 21 and “very slowly” increase the rate of ultra-Orthodox conscription.
In addition to Hadash-Ta’al, the opposition’s Yesh Atid, Yisrael Beytenu and Ra’am parties have also come out against the bill.
Rescued hostage’s mom urges deal with Hamas, says ‘I am one of the lucky ones’
Orit Meir, mother of rescued hostage Almog Meir Jan, give a statement at a press conference at Sheba Medical Center, June 10, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Rescued hostage Almog Meir Jan’s mother Orit Meir and uncle Aviram Meir urge the government to reach a deal to bring the remaining 120 abductees home to Israel.
“Last night I had my first full night’s sleep in eight months… I am one of the lucky ones. There are 120 families who are waiting without being able to breathe or sleep without thinking about their loved ones in Gaza,” Orit Meir says.
“The remaining hostages need a deal to get home safely. There is a deal on the table. We ask the Israeli government to move forward with the deal, and the international community to continue to put pressure on Hamas to accept this deal and free the remaining 120 hostages now,” she continues.
Meir and her brother appear at a press conference at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, where Almog Meir Jan has been hospitalized since his rescue on Saturday from eight months of Hamas captivity in Gaza in a heroic operation by Israeli forces. Meir Jan was rescued along with Andrey Kozlov, Shlomi Ziv and Noa Argamani.
Chief Insp. Arnon Zmora, 36, from the elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit, was killed during the operation.
Referring to his sister’s birthday yesterday, Aviram Meir says: “Orit received the best possible gift. We are exceedingly happy.”
Meir thanks all those involved in planning and executing the rescue operation and reports that his nephew is in “okay” condition but is still undergoing tests and treatment at Sheba.
“We were expecting him to be in worse shape, so we are relieved,” he says. “We only wish for the other hostages’ families to finally be able to breathe as we can now.”
Almog Meir Jan’s father and Orit Meir’s ex-husband, Yossi Jan, died hours before his son was rescued.
Hostage’s mother Rachel Goldberg doubts report of US-Hamas deal, will ask Blinken about it
Rachel Goldberg, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin has been held hostage by Hamas since October 7, poses for a photo next to a poster of her son during an interview in Jerusalem on May 29, 2024. The number 236 that Rachel Goldberg-Polin taped above her heart marks the number of days her son Hersh had been held hostage in Gaza when she met AFP at her Jerusalem office. (Photo by Ahikam Seri/AFP)
Rachel Goldberg, mother of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, says she hasn’t heard anything concrete from US President Joe Biden’s administration regarding an NBC News report that Washington is considering conducting a deal with Hamas to free the five remaining American hostages believed to be held alive in Gaza.
The five are Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Omer Neutra, Keith Siegel and Goldberg-Polin.
“After 248 days, I don’t believe anything I read,” Goldberg tells The Times of Israel. “Is this a case of ‘Let’s make some news?'”
Goldberg says that she, her husband Jon Polin and the other families of US citizens held in Gaza are meeting with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tomorrow morning at 8 a.m.
“We’re going to wait until then and ask him,” she says. “My understanding is that from the get-go, the Americans felt very strongly that they wanted to help facilitate a huge deal with everybody getting out.” She says her interpretation of this is that “if a big comprehensive deal cannot happen, if the two parties are not willing to do what it takes, the second choice is the US talking about their people.”
The one bright point in the last days was the rescue of the four hostages from Gaza by Israeli forces on Saturday, says Goldberg, adding there was a tense of “total elation” among the hostage families.
Goldberg says she and her husband said they hadn’t felt that sense of happiness since hostages Fernando Marman and Louis Har were rescued in February.
Blasting Gantz’s exit, Smotrich vows to thwart Palestinian state via ‘facts on the ground’
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on July 10, 2023. (Maya Alleruzzo/AP)
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich excoriates National Unity party leader Benny Gantz over his party’s exit from the coalition last night, calling it “the least statesmanlike act” possible and accusing him and his allies Gadi Eisenkot and Chili Tropper of placing “personal and political considerations over the national consideration.”
Addressing reporters during his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Smotrich says that responsibility for October 7 and any mistakes made during the war also belong to former IDF chiefs of staff Gantz and Eisenkot, “who held the most senior positions in the security establishment in the last decade, and were partners in the war cabinet and all the decisions made in it.”
Gantz’s exit was allegedly due to the right having blocked his plan “to establish a Palestinian state in the heart of the land that would pose an existential danger to the state of Israel,” Smotrich continues. “Even if they launder it and call it all kinds of names [like] the day after, a political initiative or a regional solution, it is impossible to hide the truth that the steps Gantz is pushing for are the establishment of a monster of terror” adjacent to Israel.
“We succeeded in thwarting Gantz’s demand for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the government, and I am now acting in the field to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state,” Smotrich says — adding that while the international community “can announce day and night that they recognize a Palestinian state, we will establish facts on the ground and guarantee that a Palestinian state will never be established.”
“I hope and believe that the departure of Gantz and Eisenkot will allow us to act in a much more decisive and determined manner against the Palestinian Authority, which is behind the campaign of persecution at the International Court of Justice in The Hague,” he says.
He also calls on Netanyahu to go on the offensive in Lebanon.
Border cops indicted for grenade attack on Palestinian who partially lost eyesight
The Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) indicts two Border Police officers for attacking a Palestinian civilian with grenades “without any reason,” which resulted in the individual losing his sight in one eye, among other injuries.
The incident occurred in the northern West Bank on January 2, 2023, during the course of a combined IDF and Border Police operation.
At the end of the operation, a convoy of military and police vehicles was making its way back to base while the two officers in question were riding in an armored jeep, states the indictment, which has been filed to the Haifa Magistrate’s Court.
“At the same time, the complainant was standing next to his vehicle on the side of the road with others. The complainant was leaning on the side of his vehicle, smoking a cigarette, and watching the convoy go by,” the indictment reads.
“A few moments later, indictee number two opened the vehicle door and held it [open] with his hands and feet in order to enable the throwing of the grenades toward the complainant. Two grenades were thrown from the vehicle, one by indictee number one and the other grenade by an additional [third] police officer, whose identity is unknown to the prosecutor, without any justification.”
The victim of the attack lost sight in his left eye and was injured in his left hand as a result.
The two indicted Border Police officers, whose identities are banned from publication, are charged with one count of an act of recklessness and negligence.
Israel not invited to tomorrow’s Gaza aid confab in Jordan — official
Israel was not invited to the Gaza aid conference tomorrow on the Dead Sea coast in Jordan, a Foreign Ministry official tells The Times of Israel.
The one-day conference on the humanitarian response to the war in Gaza is being organized by Jordan, Egypt and the United Nations.
Blinken to meet PM at 6 p.m., will also sit with other politicians, US hostage families
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is slated to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 6 p.m. this evening in Jerusalem, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
He will also meet separately with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this evening, likely in Tel Aviv.
Tomorrow, Blinken will meet in Tel Aviv with President Isaac Herzog and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, as well as with National Unity party leader Benny Gantz, who left the coalition yesterday. As he always does during his wartime visits, Blinken will meet with families of American hostages held in Gaza.
Blinken is currently in Egypt for a meeting with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
Lapid: Government ‘abandoning IDF fighters’ by okaying Haredi ‘evasion’ law
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid leads a meeting of his Yesh Atid party at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on June 10, 2024. (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for “abandoning” Israeli servicemen in order to pass a draft “evasion” law on behalf of the ultra-Orthodox.
“The right-wing government is going to promote evasion from the IDF today. To promote refusal. The government today is abandoning the IDF fighters in the middle of the battle in favor of petty, self-interested, cowardly and cynical politics,” Lapid says ahead of a vote on a bill to lower the age at which yeshiva students are exempted from military service.
Decrying the government as “hypocritical,” Lapid notes that the ultra-Orthodox parties, which initially vehemently opposed the same proposed law as damaging to their community’s way of life in 2022, are now supporting it.
“May they never tell us again that they have principles. Their only principle is to evade and live at the expense of others. Let them not tell us that they represent the Torah world in the Knesset. They do not. They represent cowards who run away from military service in time of war,” he continues.
“At least the ultra-Orthodox do not claim to represent the fighters. At least they don’t pretend to be on the side of the IDF and its heroes. The great disgrace is of all those who call themselves right-wing people, who say they are the representatives of the combatants,” Lapid argues, adding that “anyone who votes today in favor of this law, anyone who raises their hand — is an accomplice in the crime.”
Lapid also takes aim directly at Netanyahu, stating that “every Jewish mother will know that this prime minister, who when there are operational successes runs to take pictures in a hospital like an Instagram model, is the first to abandon the IDF fighters when it serves his political interest.”
Asked if he envisions any competition for the de facto leadership of the opposition in the wake of National Unity party Benny Gantz’s exit from the coalition yesterday, Lapid says that he intends to “work together” to topple the government.
He says Gantz’s resignation marks one of the first cracks to appear in the coalition and as long as he had been part of the government it was impossible to topple Netanyahu. However, while now possible, Lapid adds this “won’t happen in a day.”
Turning to those on the right who say that only military force will free the hostages, Lapid argues that to bring all of the hostages home, Israel would need to launch 30 more raids like the one conducted over the weekend — something he says will not happen.
Former hostage Maya Regev released from hospital after months of rehabilitation
Former hostage Maya Regev speaks during a International Women's Day ceremony at the Knesset on March 5, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Former hostage Maya Regev is released from hospital after a long rehabilitation process following her release from Gaza in November.
Footage showed her hospital bracelet being ceremoniously removed.
Regev was shot by terrorists at the Nova rave on October 7. Her foot was re-attached during surgery in Gaza, but sideways and at an unnatural angle.
Regev and her brother Itay were among 105 civilian hostages freed in a weeklong truce in late November.
She underwent surgery when she returned to Israel, and had to wear a brace on her leg for a number of months.
מיה רגב השתחררה מבית החולים אחרי שיקום ארוך מאז שחזרה משבי חמאס@Nov_reuveny
(צילום: 27א') pic.twitter.com/7gi0gMCntZ— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) June 10, 2024
NIS 350,000 offered for information on 10-year-old Haymanut Kasau, missing for over 3 months
Haymanut Kasau, 9, who went missing on February 25, 2024, from a Jewish Agency absorption center in Safed, northern Israel. (Courtesy)
The family of Haymanut Kasau and the Jewish Agency are offering a reward of NIS 350,000 (approximately $93,000) for information that could lead to the missing girl being found.
Kasau was last seen on February 25, handing out municipal election leaflets outside the Jewish Agency absorption center, where she has lived for the past three years since immigrating with her family from Ethiopia.
She was 9 years old at the time of her disappearance, but has since turned 10.
לא שוכחים את היימנוט.
משפחתה של היימנוט והסוכנות היהודית מציעים פרס כספי בסך 350 אלף שקלים
למי שימסור מידע שיוביל למציאתה של היימנוט.חייבים לעשות הכל כדי למצוא את הילדה הקטנה שנעדרת מאז יום ה25/2/24 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/CIPr3vAPxT
— Roni (Fantanesh) Malkai (@Roni_Malkai) June 9, 2024
Sirens in northern border towns warn of suspected drone attack
Sirens warning of a suspected drone attack sound in multiple communities along the northern border.
Alerts are heard in Kiryat Shmona and Metula and surrounding towns, as well as Sha’al in the Golan Heights.
Liberman calls on coalition lawmakers to oppose Haredi IDF exemption bill: ‘Vote for Israel’s security interests’
Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on May 27, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman calls on members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party to oppose the prime minister’s Haredi enlistment legislation this evening, stating that they need to “vote for Israel’s security interests” rather than those of the coalition.
If eventually approved, the legislation would lower the age of exemption from mandatory service for Haredi Torah students from the current 26 to 21 and “very slowly” increase the rate of ultra-Orthodox conscription.
Liberman also says that he will meet with National Unity chief Benny Gantz, who announced his resignation from the coalition and Netanyahu’s war cabinet yesterday.
The hawkish opposition politician has previously called on Gideon Sa’ar, Yair Lapid and Gantz to set up a “joint war room so that we can topple this government and establish another government.”
Asked if Gantz would now join his “war room,” Liberman answers that he “hopes they will join… in order to work to replace the government.”
Regarding Gantz’s call to hold elections by the end of the year, Liberman asks why so much time is necessary, pointing to France where elections are now slated to be held less than a month after being announced.
Rocket sirens sound in Gaza border towns
Sirens sound in a number of communities close to the Gaza border warning of incoming rocket fire.
Suspected explosive-laden drones launched from Lebanon toward Nahariya, IDF says
Several suspected explosive-laden drones were launched from Lebanon at the Nahariya area a short while ago, the military says.
According to the IDF, two drones were shot down by air defenses over the sea near Nahariya, while two more impacted near Kibbutz Kabri, causing damage and sparking a fire.
The IDF says it is investigating why it failed to down the drones.
Footage from Nahariya appears to show one of the drones.
Additional suspected drone infiltration sirens a short while ago in the Galilee Panhandle are still under investigation, the military says.
תיעוד מטריד: כטב"ם של חיזבאללה בשמי נהריה + אי הגעה למרחב מוגן pic.twitter.com/h1q8ToV0Uf
— איתי בלומנטל 🇮🇱 Itay Blumental (@ItayBlumental) June 10, 2024
Police major crimes unit raids Transportation Ministry amid probe into alleged corruption
Transportation Minister Miri Regev arrives at a special government conference on Jerusalem Day at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, on June 5, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The Lahav 433 national crime squad of the Israel Police raids the Transportation Ministry’s offices in Jerusalem, conducts searches and seizes documents as part of a new investigation into alleged corruption in the ministry.
The police state that they have opened a criminal investigation into activity in the Transportation Ministry on suspicions of fraud and breach of trust, which comes following a damning media report alleging that Transportation Minister Miri Regev systematically gave preferential treatment to local officials who assisted her politically.
According to the police, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman ordered the opening of the investigation “on suspicion of crimes in the field of ethical [misconduct] and interfering in legal proceedings that were allegedly done in the Transportation Ministry,” following the investigative report into Regev’s behavior on Channel 13.
The police statement does not say whether Regev is herself a subject of the investigation.
According to the Channel 13 report, Regev ranked cities by the level of political assistance she received from mayors and local officials in Likud primaries, agreeing to assist cities and municipalities with transportation projects and requirements if they had been helpful to her and rejecting or ignoring those that were politically antagonistic to her.
Blinken arrives in Cairo to push for hostage-ceasefire deal; will head to Israel later today
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Egypt, at the start of a regional tour to push for a much awaited Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Blinken is expected to hold closed-door talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo before heading to Jerusalem later today to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Smotrich walks out of Knesset committee after confrontation with hostage families
Relatives of Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip react to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during a Finance Committee meeting at the Knesset on June 10, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich walks out of a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee after being confronted by relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Some of the families tell Smotrich that they have waited eight months to meet with him and say their relatives have been abandoned. For his part, Smotrich says that they are engaged in “cynicism and demagoguery.”
Asked what price a hostage’s life is worth, Smotrich accuses the hostages’ families of yelling, prompting loud arguments.
“Let’s say that Sinwar will ask for 20 of the inhabitants of the Gaza border area to be killed. Is that what Sinwar demands now? Releasing hundreds of murderers with blood on their hands, God forbid, could lead to the murder of many Jews,” Smotrich says.
“When Hamas demands an end to the war while it survives in Gaza, that means it will go back to arming itself, digging tunnels, purchasing missiles, and many Jews can be murdered and kidnapped in another October 7,” he adds. “This is the dilemma, and it is painful, and our responsibility as leadership is to think about things not only here and now, but also what the long-term consequences are.”
In response, the families chant a Talmudic saying: “Whoever saves one soul, it is as if he saved the whole world.”
Hamas operatives holding hostages have ‘standing orders’ to kill them if they think IDF is coming — NYT
Screen capture from bodycam video during the rescue of hostages from Gaza on June 8, 2024. (Screen capture: IDF)
Hamas terrorist leaders have given “standing orders” to operatives who are holding hostages “that if they think Israeli forces are coming, the first thing they should do is shoot the captives,” Israeli officials tell the New York Times.
In a report two days after the IDF’s rescue of four hostages from Nuseirat in central Gaza, the newspaper writes that if other hostages were killed on Saturday, as Hamas has claimed, “it might have been at the hand of the militants, not because of an Israeli airstrike.” It also notes that the IDF has directly denied a Hamas claim that three hostages were killed by Israeli airstrikes.
The Times report also says that the US military has flown surveillance drones over Gaza to help in hostage-rescue efforts since almost immediately after the October 7 Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel. “At least six MQ-9 Reapers controlled by Special Operations forces have been involved in flying missions to monitor for signs of life,” it reports, citing US officials.
British and US drones have provided information that Israeli drones do not collect, the Times reports, with the “sheer numbers of American aircraft” involved enabling more territory to be surveilled “more frequently and for longer periods of time.”
While Israel is using ground-based sensors to map out the vast Hamas tunnel network, something the drones cannot do, the drones’ infrared radar “can detect the heat signatures of fighters or other people going into or out of tunnel entrances on the surface,” the report says, citing officials.
Intelligence sharing between the US and Israel has expanded beyond hostage-recovery efforts, it cites current and former US officials saying. Overall, the US and the UK “are part of the largest intelligence effort ever conducted in Israel, and probably ever,” Avi Kalo, a lieutenant colonel in the IDF reserves tells the paper.
A “small group of hostages” are believed to be held near Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, serving as human shields and making it harder for Israel to target him, the Times reports.
Sinwar, it says, hid in tunnels below Rafah for a while, but is now “likely back under Khan Younis,” where there is a vast subterranean network, it says, citing US officials. “Neither the United States nor Israel has been able to fix his precise location,” it cites a US official saying.
“Early in the war, some intelligence officials believed most hostages were being held in tunnels,” the paper says. That may not have been the case, since “living underground has proved tough for Hamas commanders, and… keeping hostages in the apartments of supporters of the organization has turned out to be easier.”
In the wake of Saturday’s rescue operation, however, Hamas is expected to move more hostages into tunnels and potentially out of reach of commando forces, the paper says.
Report: US considering deal with Hamas, without Israel, to free 5 American hostages
From left, top row: Keith Siegel, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Edan Alexander. Bottom row: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Omer Neutra
The Biden administration is considering entering into a deal with Hamas that does not include Israel, according to a report by NBC News.
Citing two current senior and two former US officials, NBC said the deal to free the five American hostages would be hammered out through Qatari mediation if the current effort to reach a comprehensive agreement fails.
Israel would not be part of the negotiations.
The officials did not know what the US could offer Hamas in return, but argued there was an incentive for Hamas to drive a deeper wedge between US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
There is also a sense that a potential deal between the US and Hamas could pressure Netanyahu to agree to a broader deal.
The US citizens held in Gaza are Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Omer Neutra, and Keith Siegel.
Sirens warn of suspected drone attack on northern border communities
Sirens warn of a suspected drone attack in a number of communities close to the northern border.
Hezbollah-led forces have been attacking Israeli communities and military posts along the northern border on a near-daily basis since October 8, a day after its ally, Palestinian terror group Hamas, carried out its October 7 massacre in the south.
Interior minister: Being Haredi not a reason to be exempt from military conscription
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel attends a Knesset committee meeting, Jerusalem, April 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of the Haredi Shas party says that ultra-Orthodox men should not receive automatic exemptions from IDF service.
“A black kippa is not a reason to be exempt from conscription,” Arbel says in an onstage interview at the Muni Expo 2024 conference in Tel Aviv.
Large black kippot, usually velvet, are typically worn by ultra-Orthodox men.
The Knesset is expected to vote tonight on whether to approve the revival of a bill from the previous Knesset dealing with the military draft exemption of Haredi men.
If passed, the legislation would lower the age of exemption from mandatory service for Haredi Torah students from the current 26 to 21 and “very slowly” increase the rate of ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
Ultra-Orthodox men of military age have been able to avoid being conscripted to the Israel Defense Forces for decades by enrolling in yeshivas for Torah study and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of military exemption.
The issue has gained added urgency after eight months of war against the Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and fighting against Lebanon-based Hezbollah in the north, which has placed considerable strain on the army’s resources, requiring that hundreds of thousands of reservists be called up for duty.
Anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah damages home in northern border town
The damage to a home in Yir'on from a Hezbollah anti-tank guided missile, June 10, 2024 (Fire and Rescue Service)
Anti-tank guided missiles launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon at the northern border community of Yir’on caused damage to a home, authorities say.
The Israel Fire and Rescue Service says its firefighters and members of the community’s local security team extinguished a fire at a home that was hit by the anti-tank missiles.
Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack, claiming to target a military position.
Haredi MK to hostage’s mom: ‘You want to make it political, you want to kick Bibi out’
United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Pindrus at the Knesset on June 10, 2024 (Screengrab/Knesset TV)
United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Pindrus accuses the mother of a Gaza hostage of trying to politicize the situation to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“There are bereaved families here. You want to make it political, you want to kick Bibi out and send him wherever you want,” Pindrus says at a Knesset meeting, using the premier’s nickname. “There are people who are in a bad situation and we are trying to help them.”
He makes the comment as Esther Buchshtav, whose son Yagev Buchshtav was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nirim on October 7, tries to speak.
Buchshtav then asks that the Haredi lawmaker apologize for his comment.
“I didn’t come to talk politics, I came here as the mother of Yagev Buchshtav who is hostage in Gaza,” she says. “My heart is with the families of those who were murdered. I am not here to speak against them.”
Far-right Polish politician who extinguished Hanukkah candles wins European Parliament seat
Screen capture from video of Polish ultra far-right lawmaker Grzegorz Braun from Confederation (Konfederacja) using a fire extinguisher to put out a Hanukkah menorah placed in the parliament lobby, Warsaw, Poland, on December 12, 2023. (TVN24/AFP)
Grzegorz Braun, a controversial far-right politician who extinguished candles on a menorah that was lit for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah at the Polish parliament last December, wins a seat in the European Parliament elections.
Braun was a candidate for Confederation, a far-right party with a vocal anti-Ukraine stance, which had its best result ever, coming third with 12.1% — in line with an EU-wide surge of support for nationalist, anti-bloc parties.
Last December, Braun disrupted an event with members of the Jewish community, taking an extinguisher and walking across the lobby of the parliament to where the menorah candles were, creating a white cloud and forcing security guards to rush people out of the area.
He then took to the podium in the chamber where he described Hanukkah as “satanic” and said he was restoring “normality.” Asked later if he was ashamed of his action, he said: “Those who take part in acts of satanic worship should be ashamed.”
IDF says Palestinians set fire to trailer in illegal settler outpost in West Bank
A trailer set on fire by Palestinians in the illegal West Bank outpost of Sde Ephraim, June 10, 2024. (Fire and Rescue Service)
Overnight, Palestinians set fire to a trailer used by settlers as a living space in the West Bank Sde Ephraim farm outpost, the military and the fire service say.
According to the IDF, two Palestinians, one of whom was armed, infiltrated into Sde Ephraim.
In a surveillance camera video, the armed suspect is seen pouring flammable liquid on a vehicle with a caravan, and then setting fire to it, before leaving the scene.
The Israel Fire and Rescue Service says the fire was extinguished.
There were no injuries in the attack, as the couple living there were not home at the time.
The IDF says it has launched a manhunt for the assailants.
Sde Ephraim was established illegally on a hilltop that had been part of the Palestinian village next door, Ras Karkar, also known as Risan. Settlers from the outpost have clashed with local Palestinians in the area in the past.
תיעוד: המחבלים לבושים באפודים שורפים את המבנה בחוות שדה אפרים לאחר שגילו שבני הזוג שביקשו לרצוח לא נמצאים במקום pic.twitter.com/cae9PsIvUG
— חנן גרינווד (@hanan_green) June 10, 2024
Hamas official urges US to pressure Israel to end war
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. (AP/Hatem Moussa)
A senior Hamas official urges the United States to pressure Israel to end its war against the terror group in Gaza, ahead of the planned visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region to push forward hostage-ceasefire deal efforts.
Blinken is set to visit Egypt and Israel today. He also aims to ensure the war does not expand into Lebanon, where the Hezbollah terror group has been attacking Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis since October 8.
“We call upon the US administration to put pressure on the occupation to stop the war on Gaza and the Hamas movement is ready to deal positively with any initiative that secures an end to the war,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri says.
In Blinken’s eighth visit to the region since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, he is also set to travel to Jordan and Qatar.
He is set to meet with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo before traveling to Israel later today, where he will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, according to a US State Department schedule.
US President Joe Biden announced last month what he described as an Israeli proposal for a hostage-ceasefire deal. Hamas has not yet formally responded to the proposal, but officials in the terror group have reiterated their insistence that any agreement must guarantee an end to the war, a demand Israel has repeatedly ruled out.
Prominent doctor who killed wife found dead in jail cell
Dr. Giora Praff during a 2012 interview with Channel 1. (Screenshot: YouTube)
A man jailed for murdering his wife was found dead in his cell, the Israel Prison Service says.
The IPS says the death of Giora Praff at Nitzan Prison will be investigated as is standard in these cases.
Praff was jailed for life in March for the 2019 murder of his wife Esti Ahronovitz.
Praff (also known as Perry), who had a history of domestic abuse, shot his wife five times, including two shots to the back of her head as she lay on the floor.
The judges at Beersheba District Court determined that there were no mitigating circumstances for Praff’s actions and that therefore a life sentence was appropriate.
Praff was a well-known humanitarian doctor who took part in several international aid missions and was the first Israeli member of the Red Cross.
He was well regarded in Israel, the US, and other countries, but has confessed to domestic violence, and has been accused of stalking, assault, and harassment.
According to the indictment, Ahronovitz began taking legal action against Praff as part of a financial dispute over household expenses.
Esti Ahronovitz, whose husband is suspected of her murder on November 3, 2019 (Facebook)
IDF says members of Hamas elite Nukhba force killed in central Gaza airstrikes
Troops operating in the Gaza Strip in an undated photo released June 10, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)
Several Hamas operatives, including members of the terror group’s elite Nukhba force were killed in airstrikes in the central Gaza Strip in the last few hours, the military says.
The IDF says that simultaneously, strikes were also carried out against Hamas tunnel infrastructure in the Deir al-Balah area.
The strikes come as the 98th Division continues an offensive in central Gaza.
Amid the operation in central Gaza, the IDF says troops of the 7th Armored Brigade and elite Yahalom combat engineering unit raided several buildings used by terror groups and demolished tunnels.
Operations also continue in southern Gaza’s Rafah. In one incident in Rafah, the IDF says a drone strike was carried out against two gunmen who were spotted by troops of the 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit heading toward a tunnel shaft.
Gallant to vote against contentious Haredi IDF draft exemption bill – reports
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant delivers a statement to the press at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv, May 15, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
According to Hebrew-language media reports, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is expected to vote against contentious legislation that would lower the age of exemption from mandatory service for male Haredi Torah students from the current 26 to 21 while “very slowly” increasing the rate of ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
The majority of lawmakers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party are expected to vote in favor of the legislation.
According to Haaretz, the vote is expected to reach the plenum after midnight tonight.
The legislation was initially proposed two years ago by National Unity leader Benny Gantz, who slammed Netanyahu’s revival of the bill as a political maneuver.
“The State of Israel needs soldiers and not political exercises that tear the people apart during a war,” Gantz declared last month, insisting that his proposal had been advanced as an interim measure only.
Ultra-Orthodox men of military age have been able to avoid being conscripted to the Israel Defense Forces for decades by enrolling in yeshivas for Torah study and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of military exemption.
Police say Palestinian gunman shot dead during Tulkarem arrest raid
A Palestinian gunman was shot dead by a Border Police sniper during an overnight arrest raid in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, police say.
According to police, undercover officers raided the Tulkarem neighbourhood of Danaba to detain a Palestinian wanted over his alleged involvement in terror activities.
The suspect was detained by the Border Police officers, and clashes erupted in the area.
Police say that an armed Palestinian wearing a military vest was shot dead by a sniper amid the clashes. No Israeli officers were hurt.
IDF: Overnight Acre sirens due to interceptor rockets fired at ‘false identification’ of drone
Overnight, sirens had sounded in the northern coastal city of Acre and the Krayot area near Haifa, after interceptor missiles were launched at a “suspicious aerial target,” the military says.
The IDF says that after an investigation, it was determined that the target was “a false identification,” and there was no infiltration of a drone or other projectile into Israeli airspace.
Sirens were activated due to fears of falling shrapnel following the interceptors exploding.
IDF to test rocket sirens in Safed at 11:05 a.m.
Puffs of smoke are seen in the sky above Safed after the Iron Dome anti-missile system fired interceptors at incoming rockets launched from Lebanon on May 23, 2024. (David Cohen/Flash90)
The IDF says it will hold a test of siren systems in then northern city of Safed later this morning.
The sirens will sound in city at 11:05 a.m.
In the case of an actual attack, the sirens will sound twice, the military says.
Palestinian shot dead by troops during counter-terror raid on Far’a camp in West Bank
A Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces during a raid in the West Bank’s Far’a camp, near Tubas this morning, Palestinian media report.
The IDF says it launched a “wide counter-terrorism operation” in Far’a, northeast of Nablus, during which troops shot several suspects and neutralized explosive devices. The operation is still ongoing.
The official Palestinian Wafa news agency says another four people were wounded by IDF fire.
Ahead of Haredi draft law vote, activists put funeral wreaths at coalition lawmaker’s homes to signal danger
Ahead of an expected first Knesset vote on a contentious bill for the enlistment of Haredi men, activists place funeral wreaths outside the homes of a number of coalition lawmakers, signaling that supporting the law will endanger the lives of citizens.
The Recruiting for Unity forum, made up of bereaved families and reservists, says the wreaths are for the lawmakers to use at the funeral of the “next in line” to die.
“The IDF lacks 7,000 soldiers, and supporting the law endangers the lives of the citizens of the State of Israel,” says the forum.
“We spared the lawmakers who support the law from making an effort, and already prepared the wreaths for them so that they could use them in the next event where the security of the citizens of the State of Israel is violated because of their decision to support the law,” the activists say.
לקראת ההצבעה הלילה על דין הרציפות לחוק הפטור מגיוס, מיצג מחאה חריג מאוד בכניסה לבתיהם של חלק מחברי הקואליציה. בתמונה, אצל ח"כ מילביצקי מהליכוד pic.twitter.com/IVzXAxvo2x
— יובל שגב | Yuval Segev (@Segev_Yuval) June 10, 2024
Ultra-orthodox women and male yeshiva students are generally exempt from military service due to controversial longstanding arrangements that have generated significant criticism and anger among the general population.
The government is trying to move ahead with legislation that will cement in law the exemption, despite opposition to the move within the coalition and pressure in the High Court, where petitions have been filed demanding that eligible men be conscripted. Previous legislation and government orders that shielded the Haredim from the draft expired earlier this year, leaving some 63,000 young ultra-Orthodox men with no legal framework exempting them from service.
The issue has gained added urgency after eight months of war against the Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and fighting against Lebanon-based Hezbollah in the north, which has placed considerable strain on the army’s resources, requiring that hundreds of thousands of reservists be called up for duty.
Blinken heads back to Mideast to push hostage-ceasefire deal, starting with visits to Egypt and Israel
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves as he boards a plane at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on February 4, 2024, en route to Saudi Arabia. (Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading back to the Middle East to push a ceasefire and hostage deal plan, but Israeli political upheaval and silence from Hamas raise questions on whether he can succeed.
The top US diplomat, paying his eighth visit to the region since war broke out, is set to start the trip in Egypt and head later today to Israel.
Blinken is scheduled to hold closed-door talks first in Cairo with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a key US partner in peace efforts, and later in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Blinken planned the visit to push forward a proposal announced on May 31 by US President Joe Biden, who has stepped up efforts to end a war that has taken a mounting toll on civilians and alienated parts of his base ahead of November elections.
But Hamas, which opened the war with a massive October 7 attack on Israel that triggered a relentless retaliatory campaign, has not formally responded.
And while Biden has described his plan as coming from Israel, the resignation yesterday of Benny Gantz from Netanyahu’s war cabinet throws a new wild card on US diplomatic efforts.
Gantz, a former general who leads in polls to replace Netanyahu if new elections are called, protested that the prime minister had not made the hard decisions to enable “real victory,” including by thinking out a post-war plan for Gaza.
Gantz has cast himself as a smoother partner for the United States than Netanyahu, a veteran of political squabbles with Israel’s vital ally. Biden in recent weeks suspended a shipment of weapons to Israel and accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war to stay in power, an assertion on which he backtracked.
US consulate in Sydney vandalized with suspected pro-Palestinian symbol
Australian Prime Minster Anthony Albanese condemns vandalism of the US consulate in Sydney after the building was defaced in what local media says appears to be a pro-Palestinian protest.
The building in the northern suburbs of Australia’s largest city was attacked overnight and sprayed with paint by a person carrying a small sledgehammer, New South Wales police say.
Nine windows of the consulate were damaged and the building’s door was graffitied, police say.
According to ABC News, two inverted red triangles were graffitied over the consulate’s coat of arms on the door.
The symbol has come to signify support for Hamas because the terror group uses the symbol in videos, often to mark a target for attack.
“I would just say that people should have respectful political debate and discourse,” Albanese says in a televised media conference from Canberra when asked about the incident.
“Measures such as painting the US Consulate do nothing to advance the cause of those who have committed what is of course a crime to damage property,” he adds.
The same building was sprayed with graffiti in April, while the US consulate in Melbourne was graffitied by pro-Palestinian activists in May, according to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
JUST IN: Police are investigating after the US Consulate in North Sydney was vandalised early this morning.
CCTV shows a person wearing a dark-coloured hoodie with their face obscured damaging nine windows with a small sledgehammer and painting graffiti on the door. #9News pic.twitter.com/pGtfSNPtCz
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) June 10, 2024
US military confirms Houthi missiles hit 2 commercial ships in Gulf of Aden
LOS ANGELES — Yemen’s Houthis damaged two commercial vessels in missile attacks in the Gulf of Aden in the last 24 hours as part of the militia group’s ongoing campaign against international ocean shipping, US Central Command says.
The Iran-backed Houthis hit the Tavvishi, a Liberian-flagged and Swiss-owned container ship with an anti-ship ballistic missile, CENTCOM says. The vessel was damaged, but no crew were injured, according to CENTCOM.
Two missiles fired by the Houthis struck the Norderney, a German-owned cargo ship operating under Antigua and Barbados flags, CENTCOM says. That ship sustained damage, but no crew were injured and the vessel continued on its journey, CENTCOM says.
The Houthis previously said they had hit the Tavvishi and Norderney, and claimed to have set the latter ablaze.
MSC Ship Management is the manager of the Tavvishi, according to LSEG data. Reuters cannot immediately reach the firm for comment. Sunship Schiffahrtskontor, manager of the Norderney according to LSEG, also cannot be reached for comment.
CENTCOM says its forces also destroyed an uncrewed aerial system over the Gulf of Aden as well as two land attack cruise missiles and one missile launcher in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
UN food agency pauses delivery of aid from US pier in Gaza, citing safety concerns
The image provided by US Central Command shows American and Israeli forces placing the Trident Pier on the coast of Gaza Strip on May 16, 2024. (US Central Command via AP)
The director of the UN World Food Program says Sunday the program has “paused” its distribution of humanitarian aid from an American-built pier off Gaza, saying she was “concerned about the safety of our people” after what had been one of the deadliest days of the war there.
Saturday saw both an Israeli military operation that freed four hostages from Hamas captivity but was accompanied by deadly fighting, and, Cindy McCain says, two of WFP’s warehouses in Gaza had been “rocketed” and a staffer injured.
The UN announcement of the pause appears the latest setback for the US sea route, set up to try to bring more aid to Gaza’s starving people.
The US Agency for International Development describes the pause as a step to allow for a security review by the humanitarian community in Gaza. USAID works with the World Food Program and their humanitarian partners in Gaza to distribute food and other aid coming from the US-operated pier.
The UN agency gives no further details, including how long the pause will last. WFP spokespeople do not respond to requests for further details.
Asked about the pier operation during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” McCain says: “Right now we’re paused.”
“I’m concerned about the safety of our people after the incident yesterday,” McCain says, without elaboration. “We also, two of our warehouses, the warehouse complex were rocketed yesterday.”
“We’ve stepped back for the moment,” she says, and want “to make sure that we’re on safe terms and on safe ground before we’ll restart. But the rest of the country is operational. We’re doing … everything we can in the north and the south.”
USAID says in a statement to The Associated Press that it’s working with other US government officials and with humanitarian groups in Gaza “to ensure that aid can safely and effectively resume movement following completion of the security review that the humanitarian community is currently undertaking.”
US drops UNSC resolution’s rejection of IDF buffer zone in Gaza ahead of Monday vote
General view of a UN Security Council meeting at UN headquarters in New York on April 17, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/AFP)
The US has circulated another amended version of its Security Council resolution in support of Israel’s latest hostage-ceasefire deal proposal ahead of tomorrow’s expected vote.
The draft obtained by The Times of Israel has removed a clause that stressed opposition to the establishment of security buffer zones in Gaza following pushback from Israel.
Israel months ago began work on a security buffer zone on the Gazan side of its southern border, which some of its officials have insisted is temporary. The move has been condemned by the US, but a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel earlier this year that Washington’s opposition hasn’t been as fierce behind closed doors.
The latest text still includes a clause rejecting “any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any actions that reduce the territory of Gaza.”
The new draft also now includes the critical “clause 14” of Israel’s hostage deal proposal, which states that phase one’s six-week ceasefire can be extended as long as the talks between the parties during this stage — aimed at finalizing the terms of phase two — are ongoing.
Additionally, the new draft more clearly states that Israel “accepted” the latest hostage deal proposal, as opposed to the previous version’s text, which said that the most recent offer “is acceptable to Israel.”
US has circulated another amended version of its UNSC resolution in support of Israel's latest ceasefire proposal ahead of tomorrow's expected vote
Clause stressing opposition to establishment of security buffer zones in Gaza has been removed following pushback from Israel (1/5) pic.twitter.com/jyoFfiMKX2
— Jacob Magid (@JacobMagid) June 10, 2024
US resumes airdrops of humanitarian aid into northern Gaza
Humanitarian aid is airdropped to Palestinians over Gaza City, Gaza Strip, March 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Essa)
WASHINGTON — An American cargo plane dropped more than 10 metric tons of rations into northern Gaza on Sunday, the US military says, after a suspension of such deliveries due to Israeli operations in the area.
The air drop provided “life-saving humanitarian assistance in northern Gaza,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) says in a statement.
“To date the US has airdropped more than 1,050 metric tons of humanitarian assistance” in addition to aid delivered via a temporary pier attached to the Gaza coast, it says.
“These airdrops are part of a sustained effort, and we continue to plan follow-on aerial deliveries,” CENTCOM adds.
The Pentagon said in late May that factors including Israeli operations and weather conditions were affecting the drops, while deputy CENTCOM commander Vice Admiral Brad Cooper said Friday that they had been “suspended due to the kinetic operations happening in the north” but were expected to resume soon.
The latest airdrop came a day after aid deliveries were restarted via the pier, which was damaged by bad weather last month and had to be repaired in a nearby port before being reattached to the coast.
IDF confirms launching interceptors at ‘suspicious aerial target’ from Lebanon
The IDF confirms that in launched interceptor missiles at a “suspicious aerial target” that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon.
“The incident is over,” the military says in a statement.
It also adds that sirens were activated in Acre and Kiryat Bialik were activated due to concerns about falling interceptor shrapnel.
Video shows interceptor missile launched over Acre
Video shared on social media shows an interceptor missile being launched over Acre.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service says that a woman was lightly hurt while rushing to a bomb shelter but that otherwise no one was injured in the latest attack on the north.
אזעקות נשמעו בגליל העליון ואזור מפרץ חיפה | תיעוד יירוט מעל עכו@ItayBlumental pic.twitter.com/r7hxMafqe8
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) June 9, 2024
Rocket warning sirens sound in Acre, Haifa suburb
Incoming rocket sirens sound in the northern coastal city of Acre and the surrounding area, around 17 kilometers (10 miles) from the Lebanon border.
A minute later, sirens are activated in Kiryat Bialik, one of the so-called Krayot suburbs of Haifa.
Residents quoted by Hebrew media outlets report hearing the sound of booms.
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