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The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they happened.
US CENTCOM chief postpones Senate testimony due to Mideast tensions, officials say
US Army Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, commander of US Central Command, testifies before the House Armed Services Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 21, 2024. (US Department of Defense/EJ Hersom via AP)
The head of US forces in the Middle East has postponed testimony before US lawmakers that he was set to give tomorrow because of tensions in the Middle East, two US officials say.
US Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the head of US Central Command, was set to testify in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday.
US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
High Court orders PM to respond to petition for Shin Bet chief to remain in post
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar attends a ceremony held at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, April 23, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
The High Court orders the government and the prime minister to respond to a petition demanding that outgoing Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar remain in his post until a replacement is found for him.
Bar is set to step down this Sunday, and so the court orders the respondents to file their responses by 2 p.m. tomorrow to the petition filed earlier today by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel and the Defensive Shield of Israel Forum.
“The State of Israel is in the longest war in its history, and the Shin Bet is taking a central part in the war effort. Leaving the position unstaffed could seriously harm the state’s security,” the petitioners argue.
Bar was fired by the government in March under highly controversial circumstances. The High Court froze his dismissal while it adjudicated petitions arguing that his firing was tainted by severe procedural failures and motivated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal and political expediencies, including investigations conducted by the Shin Bet into allegedly illicit ties between the prime minister’s aides and Qatar.
Bar subsequently announced he would step down on June 15. The High Court then ruled that his dismissal had been unlawful and that Netanyahu had a conflict of interest in firing Bar due to the so-called Qatargate investigation, but did not issue operative orders due to Bar’s decision to resign.
Netanyahu, nevertheless, nominated Maj. Gen. David Zini to replace Bar, but the attorney general said this was a conflict of interest for the prime minister and that Zini’s appointment was unlawful.
It remains unclear if Netanyahu will press ahead with Zini’s appointment.
Member of Hezbollah’s Radwan force killed in south Lebanon drone strike, says IDF
A member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force was killed in a drone strike in southern Lebanon’s Beit Lif earlier today, the IDF says.
More than 180 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in Israeli strikes since the start of the November 2024 ceasefire in Lebanon.
US Embassy to boycott Tel Aviv Pride Parade, in Trump-era reversal
A yellow ribbon in solidarity with the hostages still held captive in the Gaza Strip is displayed on a giant screen during the Tel Aviv pride rally on June 6, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)
The US Embassy in Israel will boycott this year’s Tel Aviv Pride parade and will not host any pride month events of its own, unlike in previous years.
Haaretz obtained a letter that the US Embassy sent to Israel’s Foreign Ministry notifying Jerusalem, saying it was in line with a shift in the Trump administration’s approach.
The letter referred to the “LGB community,” dropping the TQ+ in line with Washington’s policy against the trans community. The policy is in line with a State Department directive to embassies around the world, Haaretz reports.
The new US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a devout Evangelical Christian, is himself an opponent of LGBTQ equality. In 2015, he said asking Christians to accept same-sex marriage is “like asking someone Jewish to start serving bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli.” He has not since backed down from that position.
IDF confirms recovering the bodies of two slain hostages from Gaza earlier today
Yair Yaakov (Courtesy)
The IDF confirms that it recovered the bodies of two slain Israeli hostages from southern Gaza’s Khan Younis earlier today.
One of the hostages, Yair Yaakov, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz and murdered by Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists on October 7, 2023, the military says.
The second hostage, whose name will only be permitted for publication later, was also abducted from Nir Oz and murdered during the onslaught. His family has been notified.
The operation to recover the bodies was carried out by the 36th Division and was “enabled by precise intelligence” obtained by the military’s Hostages Headquarters unit, the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet, the IDF says.
The bodies were brought to Israel for identification at the Abu Kabir forensic institute, after which their families and the kibbutz were notified.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are now holding 53 hostages, including 52 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 31 confirmed dead by the IDF, and 20 are believed to be alive. There are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said.
Body of Yair Yaakov and another unnamed hostage recovered from Gaza, confirms Netanyahu
Yair Yaakov (Courtesy)
Israeli troops recovered the body of a second slain hostage from the Gaza Strip, in addition to Yair Yaakov, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reveals.
The name of the second hostage has not yet been permitted for publication, and the IDF has not yet commented on the operation.
“Together with all citizens of Israel, my wife and I extend our heartfelt condolences to the families who lost their dearest loved ones,” Netanyahu says in a statement released by his office.
The second hostage was also abducted from Nir Oz during the October 7, 2023, onslaught.
Jury convicts Harvey Weinstein of top charge in New York sex crimes retrial
Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial, June 11, 2025. (Steven Hirsch /New York Post via AP)
Former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is convicted of one of the top charges in his sex crimes retrial but acquitted of another, and jurors have been unable to reach a verdict on a third charge.
The split verdict metes out a measure of vindication to his accusers and prosecutors — but also to Weinstein — after the landmark case was thrown into limbo.
Weinstein’s initial conviction five years ago seemed to cement the downfall of one of Hollywood’s most powerful men in a pivotal moment for the #MeToo movement. But that conviction was overturned last year, and the case was sent back for retrial in the same Manhattan courthouse.
This time, a majority-female jury opted to convict the former studio boss of forcibly subjecting someone to a criminal sex act in 2006.
But jurors chose to acquit Weinstein of another criminal sex act charge from 2006. And jurors are to continue deliberating on a charge that he raped another woman in 2013. Under New York law, the third-degree rape charge carries a lesser penalty than the first-degree criminal sex act offense.
Weinstein, 73, denies sexually assaulting or raping anyone. He was also charged, convicted and sentenced to prison in California, a conviction which stands, though he is pursing an appeal.
US evacuating staff from Iraq embassy as Pentagon OKs voluntary departure of Mideast troops’ dependents
The US State Department confirms that it is evacuating some of its staff from its embassy in Iraq.
“President Trump is committed to keeping Americans safe, both at home and abroad. In keeping with that commitment, we are constantly assessing the appropriate personnel posture at all our embassies. Based on our latest analysis, we decided to reduce the footprint of our Mission in Iraq,” a State Department official tells The Times of Israel.
In addition, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations across the Middle East, a US official said. Another US official said that it was mostly relevant to family members located in Bahrain — where the bulk of them are based.
Another US official said that there was no change in operations at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest US military base in the Middle East and that no evacuation order had been issued for employees or families linked to the US Embassy in Qatar, which was operating as usual.
Sarajevo hotel cancels European rabbis’ conference after minister calls to ban event
Pinchas Goldschmidt, a Swiss-born rabbi and Jewish community leader, is pictured after receiving the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen 2024 (Karlspreis) on May 9, 2024 in Aachen, western Germany. (INA FASSBENDER / AFP)
The Conference of European Rabbis has been forced to relocate its biannual meeting to Munich from Sarajevo, after a Bosnian government minister called to “ban the European Jewish event from its city,” says the body’s president, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the former chief rabbi of Moscow.
The CER’s biannual meeting was set to be held at a hotel in Sarajevo next week, “to discuss the most pressing issues facing European Jewish life today and matters of freedom of religion or belief,” Goldschmidt writes in a tweet. “Shockingly, the hotel has suddenly canceled on us.”
The cancellation follows an open letter published by Bosnian Federal Minister of Labour and Social Policy Adnan Delic, in which he calls on “citizens and civil society organizations not to remain silent in the face of this attempt to morally humiliate our capital and our country.”
He also reportedly refers in the letter to Israel as a “genocidal entity” committing “shameful crimes against humanity.”
“We have been made unwelcome and this last-minute ministerial boycott of Jewish European citizens, dedicated purely to promoting Jewish life in Europe and furthering dialogue and democracy across the continent, is disgraceful,” says Goldschmidt, noting that the CER has heard nothing from other Bosnian government officials.
“The CER’s biannual Standing Committee meeting was due to be held at the Swisshotel in #Sarajevo, #Bosnia and Herzegovina, next week. Chief Rabbis from all over #Europe, including France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, were due to convene to discuss the most… pic.twitter.com/nkpJVcuXYf
— Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt (@ChiefRabbiPG) June 11, 2025
Edelstein said to be meeting with Haredi leaders as efforts continue to stave off coalition collapse
Members of Knesset seen in the plenum at the parliament in Jerusalem on June 11, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, is reportedly meeting with leaders of the Haredi political parties in an effort to stave off their support of a preliminary vote on dispersing the Knesset and triggering a new election.
With a raft of legislation still up for debate tonight, any such vote is unlikely to happen before 3 a.m., if at all, with marathon talks between the sides ongoing.
If the legislation to dissolve the Knesset passes its preliminary vote tonight, it would still need to pass three further votes to take effect. If it is voted down, the opposition will have to wait six months to bring another Knesset dissolution bill to a vote.
A Haredi news outlet reports that a spiritual leader of Shas has ordered its MKs to vote in favor of dissolving the Knesset. The Haredi parties are locked in a battle over their demand that the government pass a bill exempting ultra-Orthodox from military service.
Edelstein has vowed that any legislation must levy strong financial sanctions on draft dodgers. The Haredi political parties have sought to have Edelstein, a longtime Likud lawmaker who has previously clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ousted from his position.
Egypt says any convoys headed toward Gaza crossing need approval from Cairo
Members of a convoy en route to Gaza wave Palestinian flags from a bus as the group travels toward Egypt's Rafah Crossing, in Zawiya, Libya on June 10, 2025. (AP/Yousef Murad)
Egypt says that it backs efforts to put “pressure on Israel” to lift its blockade on Gaza, but added that any foreign delegations seeking to visit the border area must receive prior approval through official channels.
Egypt “asserts the importance of putting pressure on Israel to end the blockade on the Strip,” the foreign ministry says as hundreds of activists in a Gaza-bound convoy originating in Algeria head to the Egyptian border on their way to Gaza.
It adds, however, that “we will not consider any requests or respond to any invitations submitted outside the framework defined by the regulatory guidelines and the mechanisms followed in this regard.”
Body of slain hostage Yair Yaakov recovered from Gaza, says family
Yair Yaakov (Courtesy)
IDF troops have recovered the body of slain hostage Yair Yaakov during an operation in the Gaza Strip, his son Yagil says.
The military has not yet commented on the operation.
Yaakov, 59, and his partner, Meirav Tal, were abducted from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, as Hamas terrorists assaulted the community. Yaakov’s sons, Or and Yagil, were also taken captive from their mother’s nearby Nir Oz home.
Tal and Yaakov’s sons were released in a November 2023 hostage deal with Hamas.
Yaakov was murdered during the October 7 onslaught, and his death was confirmed by the IDF in February 2024.
Yagil thanks Israel’s security forces for recovering his father’s body and expresses his hope that the remaining hostages will be returned “through a deal that doesn’t endanger soldiers.”
Report: Israel prepares its response to latest Hamas ceasefire offer amid stalled talks
Israel has reportedly formulated a response to the latest offer in the ongoing hostage-ceasefire negotiations with Hamas that includes some flexibility but maintains its demand not to end the war.
According to an unsourced report in Channel 12 news, Israel is offering flexibility in the timeline of the release of hostages, as well as in lengthening the period of time of a ceasefire.
The report claims, however, that Israel is standing firm on its refusal to agree to a permanent end to the war, and is also demanding to continue to control the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Strip.
The TV report says that the latest amendments were formulated in a limited meeting of officials last night that included Defense Minister Israel Katz and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
The latest US proposal offered a 60-day truce in the war-torn Gaza Strip, accompanied by a partial Israeli military withdrawal and increased humanitarian aid deliveries, in exchange for the release of 10 living hostages and 18 deceased hostages. Hamas’s response to the offer included a demand that would make it more difficult for Israel to resume fighting if talks on a permanent ceasefire were not completed by the end of the 60-day truce.
Channel 12 also reports this evening that several unnamed senior ministers have begun to speak out about the need to end the war against Hamas, citing the “diplomatic damage” being caused by the lengthy fighting and the enormous damage in Gaza.
Dodging question on two-state solution, White House says Trump’s priority is ending Gaza war
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a briefing at the White House, June 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP/Evan Vucci)
Asked whether US President Donald Trump’s administration no longer supports a two-state solution, as his ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee indicated yesterday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dodges the question, while asserting that Trump’s top priority is to end the war in Gaza and free the remaining hostages.
Trump “views the situation in Israel and Gaza as deeply unfortunate and needing to end,” Leavitt says during a press briefing.
“The president is realistic about the current state of affairs in this region. That’s why the president has said that the number one focus and priority of this administration is to release all of the hostages from Gaza and to end this conflict as soon as possible,” Leavitt adds.
The comments appear to echo what Trump told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a call earlier this week when he reportedly urged the Israeli premier to not only agree to a US proposal for a temporary truce but also a permanent ceasefire. Netanyahu has resisted ending the war, asserting that doing so would leave Hamas in power.
But critics argue that in addition to risking the lives of the remaining hostages, Israel’s current military operations lack a clear end-game or metric for defeating Hamas, given that the terror group is now largely operating as a decentralized guerrilla insurgency, after the IDF succeeded in dismantling Hamas’s critical military infrastructure months ago, along with eliminating the vast majority of its leadership.
Accordingly, Netanyahu is facing increasing accusations that he is prolonging the war in order to keep his coalition intact, as his far-right partners who envision Israel permanently occupying the Strip, establishing settlements there and encouraging the mass-migration of its Palestinians threaten to collapse the government if he agrees to a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal from Gaza.
“As for what happens next, clearly Gaza is an uninhabitable place. It needs to be rebuilt with the help of our Arab partners, and the president wants to see that happen as well,” Leavitt says, notably leaving out Trump’s February call for the US to take over Gaza and clear the area of its residents.
Arab countries have indeed offered to take part in the post-war rehabilitation of Gaza, but they have conditioned their assistance on being able to work in tandem with the Palestinian Authority, which Netanyahu has blocked to date.
In Israel for Pride Parade, Caitlyn Jenner says she’s working to ‘change people’s minds’ on Israel
Caitlyn Jenner holds a press conference in Tel Aviv, ahead of the upcoming annual Pride parade, on June 11, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Caitlyn Jenner, visiting Israel for the Tel Aviv Pride Parade, tells reporters at a press conference that she is doing her part to change people’s perceptions of the Jewish state.
“I was in Israel years ago and I had such a wonderful time and I met the nicest, friendliest people in any country I’ve ever been to in my life,” says Jenner. “And, I thought, some day I’d really like to come back.”
לקראת השתתפותה במצעד הגאווה בתל אביב, הכוכבת ההוליוודית קייטלין ג'נר משתפת בהצהרה לתקשורת: "אני מספרת לאנשים שאירוע הגאווה השני בגודלו בעולם מתקיים בתל אביב וכל התגובות הן – 'מה? לא יכול להיות'. אני כאן בשביל העם הישראלי החם והמקבל ובשביל לשנות את דעתם של אחרים" pic.twitter.com/azXFBrJFA7
— Guy Rimon גיא רימון (@guyrimon1) June 11, 2025
The transgender influencer, Olympic gold medalist and right-wing pundit landed in Israel earlier today ahead of her appearance as guest of honor at Tel Aviv’s LGBTQ Pride Parade, the largest such event in the Middle East.
This marks Jenner’s first time attending the Tel Aviv Pride Parade, which is set to take place on Friday and typically draws tens of thousands of participants from across Israel and abroad. It follows the smaller, more subdued Jerusalem Pride march, which was held last week.
“I tell people, the second biggest pride event in the world is in Tel Aviv. And every single response is exactly the same,” she says, describing people’s surprise to learn such a fact.
“Israeli people are very open-minded, they’re friendly, they’re great for the LGBT community and nobody knows this,” Jenner says.
“We can change people’s minds, the perception of what Israel is all about. That’s why I’m here to do my little part,” she adds.
Likud said to hold meeting with Shas, UTJ over ousting Edelstein
Members of Knesset seen in the plenum at the parliament in Jerusalem on June 11, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is currently speaking with the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox factions about the possibility of removing MK Yuli Edelstein from the chairmanship of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Israel Hayom reports.
Despite extended negotiations between Haredi representatives and coalition officials over the enlistment bill currently making its way through his committee, Edelstein’s spokesman vowed earlier today that no decision on revising the legislation will be made without the veteran Likud lawmaker’s agreement.
The heart of the current crisis lies with the ultra-Orthodox leadership’s frustration with Edelstein, who has long blocked the passage of a government-backed bill enshrining the broad exclusion from IDF service for Haredim — and has instead been pledging that any law coming out of his committee would levy strong financial sanctions on draft dodgers.
Milei says Argentina to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2026
Argentinian President Javier Milei (left) speaks at the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Argentine President Javier Milei says his country will move its embassy in Israel from the Tel Aviv area to Jerusalem next year.
“I am proud to announce before you that in 2026 we will make effective the move of our embassy to the city of west Jerusalem,” Milei says in a speech to the Knesset during an official state visit.
Argentina’s embassy is currently located in Herzliya, just outside Tel Aviv.
Addressing members of Knesset, Milei says that “Argentina stands by you in these difficult days. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about a large part of the international community that is being manipulated by terrorists and turning victims into perpetrators.”
The visiting Argentinian leader says that Buenos Aires will continue to demand that the hostages be released, including the four with Argentinian citizenship.
He also criticizes climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was recently detained and deported by Israel after she boarded a ship aimed at breaking the Gaza blockade. Thunberg “became a hired gun for a bit of media attention, claiming that she was kidnapped when there are really hostages in subhuman conditions in Gaza,” he says, according to the translation of his remarks from Spanish provided by the Knesset.
“How does the world allow a murderous terrorist organization to continue to hold innocent civilians hostage?” he asks. “When both sides are good and evil, there is no moral equality here.”
US embassy in Iraq preparing for evacuation due to ‘heightened security risks’
Iraqi counterterrorism forces stand guard in front of the US embassy in the capital Baghdad, on January 2, 2020. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP)
The US embassy in Iraq is preparing for an ordered evacuation due to heightened security risks in the region, an Iraqi security official and a US source both say.
Iran’s Minister of Defense Aziz Nasirzadeh said earlier in the day that Tehran will strike US bases in the region if nuclear talks and conflict arise with Washington.
Netanyahu thanks Milei for ‘standing by our side’ in battle against Hamas
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) speaks alongside Argentinian President Javier Milei (center) at the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanks visiting Argentinian President Javier Milei for “standing by our side in the campaign against the forces of darkness” during a special Knesset session in honor of the visiting South American leader.
“Javier, you are a true friend. With this visit, we are bringing our relations to new heights. 12,000 kilometers separate Buenos Aires, Israel and the Knesset in Jerusalem. This great distance is compensated for by the closeness of our hearts,” Netanyahu says, declaring that “together we will achieve enormous things” for both countries.
In the face of Hamas’s “brutal and unprecedented aggression, you said in clear words – we are on your side in the battle against the forces of darkness. Thank you for standing by us in the battle against the forces of darkness,” Netanyahu states.
Hamas is trying to “trample human dignity and will not hesitate to do so by any means. I can assure you that we will continue to fight them. Israel is a fortress of democracy in the Middle East,” he continues.
“We will not fall, nor will we surrender, we will win, and we will bring back all the living and the dead. We will make sure that Gaza no longer threatens Israel,” the prime minister adds.
GHF says security at distribution sites will improve as more food enters Gaza
Palestinians wait for food at a distribution point in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on June 11, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)
Once more food reaches Gazans, security and order will improve at distribution sites, the new US- and Israeli-backed aid organization tells The Times of Israel.
“Ultimately the solution is more aid, which will create more certainty and less urgency among the population,” says a spokesperson for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. “There is not yet enough food to feed everyone in need in Gaza.”
The organization’s current focus is to feed as many people as safely possible “within the constraints of a highly volatile environment,” says the spokesperson.
“We are doing it successfully day after day even as other aid organizations continue to lose all of their aid convoys to looting,” the spokesperson continues, claiming that today, GHF delivered more than 2 million meals while all 58 trucks from other organizations were totally looted.
“Once food security improves, we will begin to strengthen systems for safer, more orderly and equitable distribution,” the official concludes.
The organization has come under criticism for chaos at its sites, for working closely with the IDF, and for regular reports that Israeli forces are using deadly violence against civilians making their way to aid sites.
Ohana, Lapid welcome ‘great friend of Israel’ Argentinian President Milei to Knesset
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (center) speaks alongside Argentinian President Javier Milei (left) at the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana praises Argentinian President Javier Milei during a special plenum session in honor of the visiting leader, declaring that he is “the best friend ever to the State of Israel and the Jewish people” in his country’s history.
Calling Milei’s upcoming speech “a historic moment in the history of Israel-Argentina relations,” Ohana says that “time and again, you have chosen to prefer truth over comfort, faith over fashion, and a moral compass over belonging to an automatic majority.”
These words were “also backed up by actions” and “you stood up to Iran, the evil force that is currently financing the war being waged against Israel on seven fronts,” he adds.
“By standing by the State of Israel, you have woven yourself and the Argentine people into the eternal story of the Jewish people. On behalf of the Knesset, which represents all citizens of Israel, I thank you,” he adds.
Addressing Milei in Spanish from the Knesset rostrum, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid welcomes the South American leader’s support for Israel.
“Sir, since the prime minister does not know Spanish, I can tell you in secret that we disagree on almost everything. But there are two things on which we agree,” Lapid says.
“The first is that Jews have the right to defend themselves. Israel will not surrender or bend. Neither in the face of terrorism nor in the face of lies. The second is that your friendship and support for Israel move us all.”
Turning to Milei’s economic reforms in Argentina, Lapid launches a coded attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Speaking in Hebrew, Lapid says that Milei is “not only a great friend of Israel, he is also a true economic right-winger” and because of that, the “first thing” he did upon taking office was to close all of his government’s “unnecessary ministries.”
“Today, they have eight government ministries. A country of 46 million people. Enough for them. Cut jobs, fired cronies, reduced benefits, fought a culture of idleness and living at the expense of others,” Lapid says, adding: “Let’s learn from the man who came to visit us today.”
2 young men shot dead in northern town of Basmat Tab’un
Two young men were shot dead in the northern town of Basmat Tab’un this evening, police and paramedics say.
Medics found the two victims — both in their 20s — unconscious on the ground and pronounced them dead at the scene.
Police have opened an investigation into the incident. Israel Police chief Danny Levy is on his way to the northern village as cops at the scene set up roadblocks in an attempt to track down the suspect, a law enforcement spokesman says.
Four people have been killed in violent incidents over the past 24 hours, amid an unrelenting crime wave in Arab society that has worsened considerably over the past two years.
Last night, two men were killed in separate shootings in Tira and Kafr Qara.
US warns countries against attending UN conference on recognizing Palestinian state
United Nations Security Council members vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, at UN headquarters in New York City on June 4, 2025. (Leonardo Munoz / AFP)
US President Donald Trump’s administration is discouraging governments around the world from attending a United Nations conference next week in New York on a possible two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
The cable, sent yesterday, says countries which take “anti-Israel actions” on the heels of the conference will be viewed as acting in opposition to US foreign policy interests and could face diplomatic consequences from the US.
It adds that Washington would oppose any steps that would unilaterally recognize a conjectural Palestinian state.
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The conference is being co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia. French President Emmanuel Macron said last week that he expected the conference to take steps “toward recognizing Palestine.”
French PM says aid boat activists exploiting Gazans for political ends
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou at a parliamentary inquiry in Paris, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou accuses French activists who sailed on a Gaza-bound aid boat of capitalizing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for political attention.
The activists — who hoped to raise awareness about the humanitarian situation in war-torn Gaza — included Rima Hassan, a member of the European Parliament from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, who is of Palestinian descent.
She is among four French activists still detained in Israel after Israeli forces intercepted the Madleen sailboat and its 12 crew members in international waters off of Gaza earlier this week. The interception followed repeated warnings to the activists against attempting to sail to the Gaza coast.
Another four, who are not French, were also taken into custody. The remaining four, including two French citizens and Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, agreed to be deported immediately after being banned from Israel for 100 years.
The eight activists who remain in Israeli custody, including Hassan, were detained after they refused to sign paperwork agreeing to leave the country. They are expected to be deported later this week.
“These activists obtained the effect they wanted, but it’s a form of instrumentalization to which we should not lend ourselves,” Bayrou says in the National Assembly, in response to LFI leader Mathilde Panot’s accusation that the prime minister failed to condemn Israel’s actions.
It’s “through diplomatic action, and efforts to bring together several states to pressure the Israeli government, that we can obtain the only possible solution” to the conflict, he adds.
“In no way whatsoever do the gesticulations of Ms. Rima Hassan, her instrumentalization of the suffering of Gazans, help to achieve these goals,” he says.
He says the French consul has visited all four French activists in Israeli detention.
Edelstein says any deal on Haredi enlistment must pass through his Knesset committee
MK Yuli Edelstein chairs a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, April 23, 2025. (Noam Moskowitz, Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)
Despite extended negotiations between Haredi representatives and coalition officials over the enlistment bill currently making its way through the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, no decision on revising the legislation will be taken without chairman Yuli Edelstein’s agreement, his spokesman asserts.
“We are happy about every initiative and every way to advance the enlistment law, but every outline or document discussed outside of Yuli’s office will come up for discussion with us,” Maayan Samun posts on X.
“When we receive an outline, we will discuss it and decide whether and what to adopt it. The law will be fair and effective. Nothing else is on the agenda.”
According to Hebrew media reports, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs and coalition whip Ofir Katz, along with Knesset legal adviser Sagit Afik, have been directing their efforts toward finding a compromise draft of an enlistment bill that all sides can support — including the possibility that some sanctions on draft dodgers could be postponed by half a year or more.
The heart of the current crisis lies with the ultra-Orthodox leadership’s frustration with Edelstein, who has long blocked the passage of a government-backed bill enshrining the broad exclusion from IDF service for Haredim — and has instead been pledging that any law coming out of his committee would levy strong financial sanctions on draft dodgers.
Edelstein’s unwillingness to back down from this position in last-ditch talks with the Haredim brokered by Netanyahu last week was what led Haredi leaders to support dissolving the Knesset. While he has shown somewhat more flexibility in subsequent talks over recent days, it was not enough to placate Shas and United Torah Judaism.
Katz says IDF will block protest convoy from Tunisia from entering Gaza
Members of a convoy en route to Gaza wave Palestinian flags from a bus as the group travels toward Egypt's Rafah Crossing, in Zawiya, Libya on June 10, 2025. (AP/Yousef Murad)
Defense Minister Israel Katz says he has instructed the IDF to “prevent the entry of jihadist protesters from Egypt into Gaza.”
The remarks come as a convoy of hundreds of protesters makes its way from Tunisia, across North Africa, to the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza.
“I expect Egyptian authorities to prevent the arrival of jihadist protesters to the Egyptian-Israel border and not allow them to perform provocations and try and enter Gaza, which will endanger the security of IDF soldiers,” Katz says.
UTJ-Shas meeting on coalition crisis reportedly fails to produce any agreement
Members of Knesset seen entering the plenum on June 11, 2025. (Dani Shem-Tov/Knesset Spokesman's Office)
A meeting between Shas and Degel Hatorah representatives in the office of Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev has failed to produce any agreement regarding a proposed compromise agreement on ultra-Orthodox enlistment, Hebrew media reports.
According to Ynet, Shas is currently placing pressure on the Degel HaTorah faction within UTJ to withdraw its support for measures to dissolve the Knesset for at least another week in order to provide Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with more time to broker an agreement.
The ultra-Orthodox Kikar Hashabbat website reports that within the Degel Hatorah faction of United Torah Judaism, there is a split on whether or not to vote in favor of a measure to dissolve the Knesset — a move backed by the party’s senior rabbinic leadership.
Before a separate meeting with coalition whip Ofir Katz of Likud, Maklev told the Kikar Hashabbat website that there had been some progress and that he was hopeful.
Meanwhile, Behadrei Haredim, another Haredi news site, reports that the Haredim are demanding a written commitment from Netanyahu regarding concessions on enlistment.
Talks between senior coalition figures and Haredi representatives have centered on the possibility that some sanctions on draft dodgers contained in an enlistment bill making its way through the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee could be postponed by half a year or more.
Addressing the Knesset plenum, MK Tally Gotliv slams fellow Likud lawmaker Yuli Edelstein, who chairs the committee, asserting that “he cannot be the chairman” because “he is undermining the prime minister and the government.”
Netanyahu said to ask Trump administration to mediate Israel-Syria peace talks
In this photo released by the Saudi Royal Palace, Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, left, shakes hands with President Donald Trump, centre, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. At right is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. (Bandar Aljaloud/Saudi Royal Palace via AP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the Trump administration to mediate in talks with Syria’s new government, Axios reports.
When Tom Barrack, US President Donald Trump’s Syria envoy and ambassador to Turkey, was in Israel last week, according to the report, Netanyahu indicated he wants to negotiate a new security deal as a step toward a peace agreement.
The deal would update the 1974 disengagement agreement between the countries, and would start the process of full peace.
“We want to try and move towards normalization with Syria as soon as possible,” says a senior Israeli official.
Israeli officials initially branded the government led by Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa as “terrorists” due to their jihadist past, and waged an aerial bombing campaign there. The attacks have subsided since mid-May, when Trump turned decades of US policy on its head by lifting sanctions on Syria and meeting Sharaa in Riyadh.
Syria’s new rulers have from the outset indicated that they seek calm and even eventual peace with Israel.
Israel engaged Syria’s new government indirectly at first, according to the report, then moved to direct covert meetings in third countries, two Israeli officials tell Axios.
“It is better for us that the Syrian government is close to the US and Saudi Arabia” than Turkey, a senior Israeli official tells Axios.
Israeli officials told Barrack that their red lines in Syria are no Turkish bases, no Iranian or Hezbollah presence and demilitarization of southern Syria. Israel also wants US forces in the UN force overseeing the truce between the sides.
Israeli officials believe the Sharaa government might be open to an agreement that does not include a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, says Axios.
Hamas claims more than 55,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since start of war
Women mourn during the funeral of a man killed in a strike in the Shati camp in the west of Gaza City on June 10, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
The Palestinian death toll from the 20-month Israel-Hamas war has climbed past 55,000, the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry says.
The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but has claimed that women and children make up more than half the dead.
The ministry says 55,104 people have been killed since the start of the war and 127,394 wounded.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 429. The toll includes two police officers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
2 IDF soldiers wounded in Khan Younis after tank hit by RPG, says military
IDF soldiers seen operating in the Gaza Strip on June 11, 2025, in this handout photo. (Israel Defense Forces)
Two more IDF soldiers were moderately wounded during fighting in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis today, the military says.
The soldiers were in a tank that was hit by an RPG.
Both were taken to a hospital for treatment.
Smotrich move to end cooperation with Palestinian banks could halt food and fuel supply, warn Palestinians
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich addresses the Knesset, June 11, 2025. (Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)
An Israeli move to cut off cooperation with Palestinian banks could halt the supply of essential goods such as food and fuel to the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA) says.
This follows Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s order yesterday to cancel a waiver on cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian banks, a move that puts the Palestinian banking system, trade and overall economy at risk. Israeli banks Hapoalim and Israel Discount Bank work with Palestinian banks.
Canceling the waiver would require approval by Israel’s security cabinet. No date for a vote has been set and it is not clear whether it would pass.
The PMA says it is following developments and warns that such disruption poses a serious threat to Palestinian access to basic goods and services. It notes it has ongoing coordination with the political leadership and international community to safeguard correspondent banking relationships.
“These efforts are vital to ensuring the continuity of commercial transactions and the payment of essential imports and services, including food, electricity, water and fuel,” the PMA says.
Members of UTJ said to meet with Shas amid coalition crisis over Haredi enlistment
Members of the United Torah Judaism party’s Degel Hatorah faction are currently meeting with representatives of the Sephardic Shas party to discuss the ongoing negotiations to find a solution to the enlistment crisis, the ultra-Orthodox Behadrei Haredim news site reports.
According to Ynet, Shas is currently placing pressure on the Degel HaTorah faction within UTJ to withdraw its support for measures to dissolve the Knesset for at least another week in order to provide Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with more time to broker an agreement.
Extremist Haredi protesters block entrance to IDF induction center in Jerusalem
An Ultra-Orthodox man near a protest outside an IDF enlistment center in Jeursalem, June 10, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Extremist members of the ultra-Orthodox community block the entrance to the IDF’s Jerusalem enlistment bureau. Videos from the scene show the protesters sitting inside the building’s revolving gate and loudly banging on its fence.
The protest comes as senior coalition officials hold talks with Haredi representatives in a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement on conscription that would keep them from voting in favor of a preliminary reading of a bill today to dissolve the Knesset.
Haredim protesting outside the Jerusalem enlistment bureau (video via @lechathila) pic.twitter.com/8XWqeXMHco
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) June 11, 2025
Argentinian President Milei tells freed hostages he will ‘continue fighting for the cause’
Visiting Argentinian President Javier Milei meets with released hostages and the relatives of Hamas victims, June 11, 2025. (Office of the Argentinian President via X)
Visiting Argentinian President Javier Milei meets with released hostages and the relatives of victims of the Hamas October 7 attack who have ties to Argentina, including Yarden Bibas.
Yarden’s wife, Shiri, who was murdered in captivity with their two children, Ariel and Kfir, was born in Israel to a father who immigrated from Argentina. Both of Shiri’s parents, Margit and Yossi Silberman, were murdered on October 7.
Also in attendance are Luis Har and Fernando Merman, Argentinian natives and former hostages who were rescued from Gaza last year; Clara Merman, Luis’s partner and Fernando’s sister who was kidnapped and released from Gaza in November 2023; and Ruth Strum, the mother of hostage Eitan Horn, who are both Argentinian-Israeli dual citizens.
Milei’s office says the president had an “emotional meeting” with the group of relatives of victims and hostages.
“I want you to know that I defend you in every forum and every place,” Milei tells the group, in video posted on X of their meeting. “I do it from the heart because I believe in it.”
Milei adds that “I want to be clear that I will continue fighting for the cause and that we will never abandon you… keep it up, even knowing how difficult all of this is.”
Axel Wahnish, Argentina’s ambassador to Israel and a close associate of Milei, writes on X that it is a “source of pride to know that Argentina, with Milei, is on the right side of history.”
El Presidente Javier Milei compartió un encuentro emotivo con familiares argentinos de víctimas y secuestrados durante el ataque terrorista perpetrado por Hamas el 7 de octubre de 2023 en Israel. pic.twitter.com/bZQXNMKUqg
— Oficina del Presidente (@OPRArgentina) June 11, 2025
Meeting troops in Gaza, IDF chief says Israel needs ‘broad defense margins’
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir speaks with officers in the northern Gaza Strip, June 11, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir met with troops in the Gaza Strip today, telling them of plans he recently approved to expand several units and change the military’s structure.
“This week, I approved a broad plan for force build-up, the structure and organization of the IDF, including the establishment of an additional division, a tank brigade, an infantry brigade, and other frameworks,” Zamir says.
“The State of Israel cannot exist on the basis of a minimal force, but rather needs broad defense margins. In addition, more standing army and reserve forces will ease the burden on reservists,” he adds.
Convoy arrives in Libya en route to Gaza to challenge Israel’s aid blockade
Members of a convoy, including activists and supporters from Algeria and Tunisia, wave Palestinian flags from a bus as the group travels toward Gaza via Egypt's Rafah Crossing, in Zawiya, Libya, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad)
A convoy carrying hundreds of activists has arrived in Libya after driving from Algeria and crossing through Tunisia on its way to the Gaza Strip to challenge Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid on the territory.
The convoy is made up of at least 1,500 people, including activists and supporters from Algeria and Tunisia, with more expected to join from Libya.
The group has arrived in Zawiya city in Libya and plans to reach Gaza via Egypt’s Rafah Crossing, traveling by cars and buses. It drove through the Libyan cities of Tripoli, Misrata, Sirte and Benghazi to reach the Saloum Crossing which borders Egypt. It is expected to soon reach Cairo before heading to the Rafah Crossing.
Jamila Sharitah, an Algerian participant, says that authorities in Tunisia and Libya have been cooperative with the convoy, helping facilitate their smooth journey. Zayed al-Hamami, another participant, says the convoy aims to push for reopening crossings and allowing aid into the Gaza Strip.
“There are land, sea and air convoys that will arrive in Gaza despite the restrictions,” says convoy organizer Terkiya Shayibi. She adds that violent responses against the convoy will not frighten them.
After a two-and-a-half-month total blockade — aimed at pressuring the Hamas terror group, which is holding hostages it seized from Israel during its massacre on October 7, 2023 — Israel started allowing some basic aid into Gaza last month, but humanitarian workers have warned of famine unless the blockade is lifted altogether and Israel ends its military offensive.
GHF says it distributed 34,000 boxes of food today in Gaza, its highest one-day total
Palestinians wait for food at a distribution point in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on June 11, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)
The US- and Israeli-backed aid organization in Gaza says it delivered 45 truckloads of food today, totaling around 2.5 million meals in 34,000 boxes. This represents the most meals the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distributed in a day, according to its own reports.
GHF opened three sites today, two in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood and one in central Gaza.
The organization says distribution at all sites “proceeded without incident,” but health officials in Gaza reported that some 25 people were killed by Israeli fire as they approached an aid site.
IDF troops fired warning shots at Palestinians who approached forces and posed a threat in the Netzarim Corridor area of central Gaza overnight, the military said.
“It is also critical that news agencies take care not to confuse the public by reporting on GHF operations in the same breath as Israeli military operations far removed from distribution sites,” says the organization.
Photos from at least one distribution site showed mass crowds and chaos as Palestinians clamored for supplies.
The US- and Israeli-backed foundation says each box contains meals for 5.5 people for 3.5 days.
However, its contents are largely dry food products that require community kitchens or cooking equipment to prepare, which are very scarce in war-ravaged Gaza.
2 IDF soldiers wounded in Khan Younis gun battle, says military
IDF soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip on June 11, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Two IDF soldiers were moderately wounded during a gun battle with a terror operative in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis this morning, the military says.
The pair were taken to a hospital for treatment.
Footage shows GHF site overrun upon opening, as dangerous chaos plagues Gaza aid initiative
Palestinians overrun a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution site on June 10, 2025. (Screen capture/X)
Footage taken yesterday from one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution sites shows the compound being completely overrun immediately upon its opening by Palestinians rushing to secure food.
The video was filmed by one of the American security contractors working at the site, according to Israeli peace activist Alon-Lee Green, who declined to offer further details in order to protect the identity of the individual.
The large crowds of Gazans seen inside the designated fenced-in waiting area ahead of the site’s opening are overtaken by a rush of others hopping over the outer fences of the compound.
The scene highlights the chaos that has plagued GHF aid distribution sites since their launch on May 26. With between zero and three sites open each day, the Israeli- and US-backed organization has struggled to serve Gaza’s population of some two million people after a 78-day Israeli aid blockade was lifted.
A GHF spokesperson doesn’t respond to requests for comment on the footage, but the organization has said it is working to adapt its procedures to better serve Gaza’s population, including by opening designated lines for women.
Red Cross and Hamas-linked health officials have reported near-daily fatal shooting incidents involving Palestinians trekking to aid sites. The IDF has acknowledged on six occasions that it fired warning shots at people who strayed off the approved access routes and approached troops, posing a threat.
The UN and other aid groups in Gaza warned for weeks that such incidents would take place under the GHF model, arguing that such a small number of distribution sites for Gaza’s entire population of two million people would force many to make long treks through IDF lines in order to secure food.
Israel says the goal of the initiative is to box Hamas out of the aid distribution process, so that it cannot divert assistance from those in need.
GHF says it has distributed roughly 271,200 boxes of aid to date. They are largely filled with dry food products that need to be prepared before they can be consumed.
An average of 65 aid trucks have entered Gaza each day since Israel partially lifted its blockade on May 19, but the World Food Program says roughly 300 trucks a day are needed to serve Gaza’s population, which IDF officials acknowledged was on the brink of starvation before it resumed allowing aid in last month.
את הווידאו הזה שהשגתי ישירות דרך עובד של החברה האמריקאית בעזה, אין דרך אחרת לתאר מלבד כאפוקליפטי. אבל לא מדובר בסרט אסונות, אלא בגיהינום שיצרנו בעזה. ככה נראים בני אדם מורעבים שמסתערים על אוכל תוך סיכון חייהם. ככה נראית דה-הומניזציה של מיליוני אנשים. אל תעצמו עניים. הביטו בזה. pic.twitter.com/qGJk5ICYg9
— Alon-Lee Green – ألون-لي جرين – אלון-לי גרין :large_purple_circle: (@AlonLeeGreen) June 11, 2025
Trial opens for 3 French boys charged with antisemitic gang rape of Jewish girl
The trial opens today for three French boys charged with the gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in 2024 outside Paris, a crime that shocked the Jewish community at a time of rising antisemitic attacks.
The trial, which is due to last until Friday, is being held at a juvenile court in Nanterre, a suburb of western Paris.
Two boys, aged 13 at the time, are being tried on charges of the gang rape of a minor on religious grounds. The third, then aged 12, is accused of being complicit in the crime.
All three boys are charged with sexual assault on a minor as well as recording and sharing sexual images, aggravated by being committed on religious grounds.
The girl told police she was approached by the three boys on June 15, 2024, in a park near her home in the northwestern Paris suburb of Courbevoie, close to the La Defense financial district.
She was dragged into a shed where the suspects beat her and “forced” her to have sex “while uttering death threats and antisemitic remarks,” one police source had told AFP.
Muriel Ouaknine-Melki, one of the victim’s lawyers, tells the court that their client “expects that the aggressors will be punished for what they did and that the punishment is in line with the gravity of their actions.”
Clementine Berthier, the defense lawyer for one of the suspects, says she hopes “the trial would be serene and peaceful for all parties.”
IDF says it fired warning shots overnight at Palestinians who ‘posed a threat’ to troops
IDF troops fired warning shots at Palestinians who approached forces and “posed a threat” in the Netzarim Corridor area of central Gaza overnight, the military says.
Health officials in Gaza reported that some 25 people were killed by Israeli fire as they approached an aid site operated by the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the area.
The IDF says it is aware of the reports of casualties in the area and is further investigating the incident.
The military says the Palestinians approached the troops “despite warnings that the area is an active combat zone.”
Last week, the army warned Palestinians not to approach routes leading to GHF sites between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time, describing these roads as closed military zones.
Additionally, the IDF says it is “unaware of gunfire by IDF troops” during daylight hours, after a video circulated online purportedly showed Palestinians running from an aid site as gunfire is heard. The military says it is investigating the footage further.
#فيديو | "كمائن لحصد أرواح المُجوعين".. مشهد يوثق إطلاق جنود الاحتلال النار على الفلسطينيين وارتكاب مجازر، خلال محاولتهم الحصول على مساعدات من مراكز توزيع الشركة الأمريكية. pic.twitter.com/mwS3Gtlj2i
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) June 11, 2025
GHF did not respond to a request for comment on conflicting posts suggesting that its sites were operating before 6 a.m., against IDF instructions.
IDF says structural changes to military include bolstering border and air defense units
Israeli army tanks take position at the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on May 22, 2025. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)
The Israeli military is advancing several changes to its structure and expanding some units, as part of lessons learned from Hamas’s October 7 attack, the IDF announces.
The decisions include bolstering border and air defense units, reviving a defunct armored brigade, establishing a new infantry brigade, and increasing the “strategic capabilities” of the Navy.
The effort, led by Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, is not meant to replace the army’s multi-year plan, which is a significantly longer process. Some of the moves Yadai is leading are supposed to be implemented within months.
As part of the changes to border defenses, the military says it seeks to bolster local security teams and regional defense squads, including by providing additional training and equipment.
Additionally, the IDF says it will be expanding its units on the borders with Lebanon and Syria. The 474th “Golan” Regional Brigade — responsible for the Golan Heights — and 810th “Mountains” Regional Brigade — responsible for Mount Hermon and Mount Dov — will both have additional forces and better equipment, to bring them up to the level of other light infantry brigades, so they can fight on their own if need be.
On the Jordan border, the IDF is in the midst of establishing a new eastern regional division, dubbed the Gilad Division, which is set to operate from the Israel-Jordan-Syria tri-border area in the north down to the Ramon Airport in southern Israel, encompassing the territory currently handled by the Jordan Valley and Yoav regional brigades.
The Gilad Division, part of the Central Command, will begin initial operations on August 1 and later expand its area of responsibility. Israel also plans to upgrade its fence on the border with Jordan in the coming years.
The division is set to be staffed by standing army troops as well as members of a new light infantry division, known as the 96th Division or the David Division, which itself is based on volunteer reservists.
So far, the 96th Division has recruited over 10,000 soldiers and commanders. It is set to have five brigades based on where the soldiers reside. In addition to operations on the Jordan and West Bank borders, the division’s members would also be ready to respond to sudden events in their respective regions, as they are slated to keep their weapons and equipment at their homes.
Following the departure of Maj. Gen. David Zini, who was appointed to head the Shin Bet security agency, from the military, the IDF is restructuring the Training Command, which he had headed.
The Training Command is being downgraded to a division, headed by Brig. Gen. Sharon Altit, and will encompass the School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders, the Armored Corps training school, and the Bahad 1 officers’ school. It will be subordinate to the Ground Forces.
Until now, in wartime those training schools would turn into fighting brigades and be deployed under various other divisions. The new change will see the chief of the Training Division, currently Altit, command those units himself during ground operations.
Bahad 1 is also reorganizing, and will have 10 battalions instead of six, split up among the different professions that cadets are training for — combat officers and noncombat roles.
The officers’ school until now turned into the 261st Brigade during wartime. The IDF says it will be splitting the 261st Brigade from Bahad 1, and it will become a new reserve infantry brigade under the 252nd Division.
Meanwhile, the IDF says it is reviving the 500th Armored Brigade, which had been closed in 2003. Starting in 2026, the IDF will establish the unit’s tank battalions.
The military also plans to reestablish three Armored Corps’ patrol companies, a type of unit that was shuttered several years ago.
Also, the IDF says it plans to establish a fifth standing army combat engineering battalion, in addition to the 607th, which was established during the war.
Another Home Front Command Search and Rescue Battalion is also being established, and the IDF is looking at forming a new reserve battalion for ultra-Orthodox soldiers.
Additionally, the IDF says the Israeli Air Force would be further expanding its aerial defense array, and potentially add a new attack drone unit.
Meanwhile, the military says it seeks to expand the Navy to become a “long-range strategic arm,” similar to the IAF, and operate at distant locations with new capabilities.
Shas said pressuring UTJ to delay support for Knesset dissolution vote; Haredi parties lift voting boycott to buy time
Shas chairman Aryeh Deri and Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef at a press conference in Jerusalem, June 8, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In an attempt to buy time during talks with coalition leaders over a possible compromise on Haredi enlistment, the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism party lift their partial legislative boycott, the Ynet news site reports.
The boycott has led to the removal of private members bills sponsored by coalition lawmakers from the Knesset agenda for the last several weeks.
However, the boycott has now been paused in order to allow Haredi lawmakers to vote for coalition bills. In order to give itself time to negotiate a solution with the Haredim, the coalition packed today’s Knesset agenda with numerous bills, likely delaying a potential preliminary vote on dissolving the Knesset until this evening.
According to Ynet, Shas is currently placing pressure on UTJ’s Degel HaTorah faction to withdraw its support for measures to dissolve the Knesset for another week in order to provide Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with more time to broker an agreement. The news site also reports that Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein is being kept out of the ongoing talks until the evening.
While the ultra-Orthodox parties are still negotiating, they are ready to go ahead with the vote to dissolve the Knesset, United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Roth tells The Times of Israel.
“There’s nobody excited about this. It’s a last resort but we have no choice,” he states.
Roth, who belongs to UTJ’s Agudat Yisrael faction, says that he has no knowledge of any contacts between Shas and Degel HaTorah.
The Kikar Hashabbat news site quotes senior Shas and Degel HaTorah officials as saying that “if there is no breakthrough, we will vote in favor of dissolving the Knesset, but we must remember that the goal is not elections but the regulation of the status of yeshiva students. We will do everything to regulate their status.”
According to the site, Rabbi Dov Lando, the chairman of Degel HaTorah’s ruling Council of Torah Sages, has indicated that he will not agree to a compromise unless a revised bill is approved by the Knesset and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s legal advisers and contains “an orderly and agreed-upon timetable for the enactment of the law.”
If the legislation to dissolve the Knesset passes its preliminary vote today, it would still need to pass three further votes to take effect. If it fails, opposition parties have to wait six months to bring another Knesset dissolution bill to a vote.
Jerusalem man charged over alleged murder of Arab man in car-ramming after park brawl
Jewish and Arab residents of Jerusalem gather near San Simon Park to mourn Fouad Alian, who was killed in the area on May 22, photo taken May 30, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
State prosecutors file charges against Eliyahu Shkalim, a 24-year-old Jerusalemite accused of killing an Arab man in a ramming last month after a brawl near a park in the city.
Shkalim is charged with murder and aggravated assault after he fatally rammed Fouad Alian, a resident of Jerusalem’s Beit Safafa neighborhood, after a brawl in San Simon Park that escalated into a vehicle pursuit.
Alian’s family and friends argue the killing was racially motivated. According to lawyers representing the family, the skirmish broke out because Shkalim had threatened Alian and his cousin, telling the two men to leave the West Jerusalem park because they are Arabs.
Lacking footage of the initial argument, state prosecutors decline to add this to their indictment filed at the Jerusalem District Court.
As the hearing takes place, dozens of protesters stand on a sidewalk outside the courthouse with signs reading “Fouad didn’t die, Fouad was murdered,” and similar slogans demanding prison time for the defendant.
הפגנה מול בית המשפט המחוזי בירושלים על הרצח של פואד עליאן תושב בית צפופי על רקע לאומני pic.twitter.com/49809B0LMc
— Avishai Green אבישי גרין أفيشاي چرين (@AvishaiGreen) June 11, 2025
According to the indictment, Shkalim and his cousins had previously encountered Alian, his cousin Bara’a and their friend in the same area two days before the incident. A skirmish broke out between the two groups, leading Alian and his friends to call the police. They soon left the area.
Two days later on the evening of May 22, Alian and his cousin went to sit in the same spot to smoke. Shkalim and his cousins were at the park to train on the exercise equipment.
Shkalim left the park before his two cousins and went to sit in his car, which was parked nearby. His cousins soon ran into the two men from Beit Safafa, which led to another brawl that made its way to the defendant’s car.
Upon noticing Alian and his cousin, Shkalim revved up his car and tried to run them over, but they ducked out of the way, the indictment says. Bara’a then sprayed the car with pepper spray.
The fight then escalated into an auto chase as Fouad and his cousin climbed onto their motorcycle and began to pursue Shkalim in his car. The two passed Shkalim, who had stopped at a red light. Alian hit Shkalim’s car mirror with his hand, and the two drove away.
Prosecutors claim that at this point, the defendant resolved to seriously harm Alian and his cousin, and began to chase the motorcycle.
After a pursuit, Shkalim rammed into the motorcycle. The impact threw the two men from the vehicle, killing Alian on the spot and badly injuring his cousin, who remains hospitalized.
Police arrested Shkalim an hour and a half after the incident. A gag order initially placed on the defendant’s identity was lifted earlier this week.
State prosecutors are requesting Shkalim be held in custody until the end of legal proceedings against him, while the defendant’s lawyers attempt to have him freed to house arrest.
Shkalim’s lawyer Merav Zamir argues Shkalim had been blinded by the pepper spray and could not see the road in front of him when he rammed into the two men.
It is unclear from the indictment whether Shkalim himself was hit with the pepper spray, or just his car.
IDF says dozens of targets hit in Gaza over past day; Palestinian media reports dozens of casualties
The Israeli Air Force hit dozens of targets across Gaza in the past day, including cells of terror operatives, buildings used by terror groups, tunnels, and other infrastructure, the military says in a daily update.
Some of the strikes were part of support for ground troops, the IDF says.
Palestinian media reported dozens of casualties in Israeli strikes across Gaza in the past day.
In northern Gaza, the IDF says the 252nd Division struck several operatives moving weapons to a building in use by Hamas. The troops also demolished a Hamas weapons manufacturing site, according to the military.
Additionally, the IDF says the 179th Reserve Armored Brigade destroyed buildings used by Hamas to store weapons.
Child survivor of IDF strike in Gaza that killed his father, 9 siblings heads to Italy with his mother for treatment
A wounded Palestinian child, the only surviving child of doctor Alaa al-Najjar, lies in a hospital bed at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after an Israeli airstrike on May 23, 2025, allegedly hit their home. Al-Najjar lost 9 of her 10 children in the attack, which occurred shortly after she had left for work. (Hani Alshaer / Anadolu via Reuters)
A 10-year-old Palestinian boy who survived an Israeli airstrike in Gaza last month that killed his father and nine siblings is heading to Italy today for treatment.
Adam and his mother, pediatrician Alaa al-Najjar, are due to fly to Milan in northern Italy alongside his aunt and four cousins, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani says.
“Adam will arrive in Milan and will be admitted to the Niguarda [hospital], because he has multiple fractures and he will be treated there,” Tajani tells Rtl radio.
Adam had a hand amputated and suffered severe burns across his body following the strike in the city of Khan Younis on May 23.
His mother was at work at the time of the strike, which killed nine of her children and injured Adam and his father, doctor Hamdi al-Najjar, who died of his injuries last week.
Al-Najjar, who ran to the house to find her children charred beyond recognition, tells Italy’s Repubblica daily: “I remember everything. Every detail, every minute, every scream.”
Al-Najjar says she has packed the Quran, their documents and Adam’s clothes.
“I am heartbroken. I am leaving behind everything that was important to me. My husband, my children, the hospital where I worked, my job, my patients,” she says.
The IDF says it has been investigating the deadly incident.
According to the IDF’s preliminary probe, soldiers spotted several suspected terror operatives at a building several hundred meters from where ground troops were operating and called in an airstrike.
The IDF had ordered the area, in southern Khan Younis, to be evacuated on March 31.
The military says it did not expect any civilians to be in the area when the incident took place.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson to address Knesset on June 22
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (left) shakes hands with US House Speaker Mike Johnson in Washington, February 7, 2024 (Press Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives)
US House Speaker Mike Johnson will travel to Israel to address the Knesset on June 22, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana’s office announces.
Johnson will be the third House speaker to address the Knesset, after Newt Gingrich and Kevin McCarthy.
Stressing his close relationship with the Republican lawmaker, Ohana says in a statement that Johnson “is a great friend of the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”
“From the first moment he was elected, he not only expressed his support in words, but also acted, even at the risk of his position, to assist the State of Israel in its most difficult moments. I am full of appreciation… and I look forward to hosting him and hearing his words to the nation,” Ohana says.
“It will be one of the greatest honors of my life to accept Knesset Speaker Ohana’s invitation to address the Knesset at this crucial time,” Ohana’s Hebrew-language statement quotes Johnson as saying.
“Our bonds run deeper than military partnerships and trade agreements. We are connected by the same beliefs, the same Psalms, and the same sacred pursuit of freedom. Today, the State of Israel and the Jewish people around the world face grave threats, and it is our moral duty to stand by our sister democracy. As terrorism and the vile ideology of antisemitism threaten Western civilization, Israel must know that when America said ‘never again,’ we meant it,” Johnson says, according to Ohana’s office.
According to Punchbowl News, Johnson is also expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem during the brief trip.
Gazan medics: At least 25 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire near aid center; no comment from IDF
Gazan health officials say at least 25 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire as they approached an aid site operated by the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Strip.
There is no comment from the Israel Defense Forces.
The tolls given by medical officials at Shifa and Al-Quds Hospitals cannot be verified. Israel has long charged that the hospitals are under the control of the Hamas terror group.
It is unclear when the reported shooting near the Netzarim Corridor took place. Last week, the IDF warned Palestinians not to approach routes leading to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time, describing these roads as closed military zones.
The GHF has faced heavy scrutiny from other aid bodies, as well as the UN and foreign countries, which say that it does not sufficiently address the humanitarian needs in the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
Critics have also accused GHF of putting aid seekers in harm’s way, with operations beset by deadly incidents for multiple days in a row.
Israel says the mechanism is required to keep aid out of the hands of Hamas.
Trump says he’s growing ‘less confident’ US will reach a deal with Iran, vows Tehran won’t have nuclear weapons
US President Donald Trump pumps a fist as he boards Air Force One before departing for Camp David from the Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, June 8, 2025. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
US President Donald Trump says he is growing “less confident” that he can close a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, he says in an interview with the New York Post.
“I don’t know. I did think so, and I’m getting more and more — less confident about it,” he tells Miranda Devine on her Pod Force One podcast.
“They seem to be delaying, and I think that’s a shame, but I’m less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago,” says Trump. “Something happened to them, but I am much less confident of a deal being made.”
Trump pledges that, whether or not ongoing talks succeed, Iran will not get a nuclear weapon.
“Well, if they don’t make a deal, they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon,” says the president. “If they do make a deal, they’re not going have a nuclear weapon, too, you know? But they’re not going a have a new nuclear weapon, so it’s not going to matter from that standpoint.”
“But it would be nicer to do it without warfare, without people dying, it’s so much nicer to do it,” he continues. “But I don’t think I see the same level of enthusiasm for them to make a deal. I think they would make a mistake, but we’ll see. I guess time will tell.”
A sixth round of talks between Iran and the US is expected to take place this weekend. If nuclear negotiations fail and conflict arises with the United States, Iran will strike American bases in the region, said Iran’s Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh earlier today.
IDF tells lawmakers it will increase enforcement against draft dodgers
Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate's Planning and Personnel Management Division, addresses the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, May 8, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The IDF intends to strengthen enforcement against draft dodgers, expanding its activities and speeding up the process by which those who refuse to report when summoned are declared evaders, the head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division tells lawmakers.
Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s Subcommittee for IDF Human Resources, Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb says that the military “intends to carry out increased enforcement activity,” including expanding arrest operations beyond Ben Gurion International Airport.
The IDF has three main enforcement mechanisms: stopping people at Ben Gurion Airport, random police checks, and dedicated operations against evaders. Tayeb has previously stated that such operations have been limited over the last year and a half as the bulk of the Military Police’s resources are stretched amid the war and holding facilities are in short supply.
A recent Military Police campaign to detain people who ignored enlistment orders reportedly led to the arrest of one ultra-Orthodox draft dodger and 37 other draft dodgers.
According to Tayeb, while detentions outside the airport will increase, they will be limited by the lack of holding facilities. And while new enforcement measures will be more effective, he says, they will “not cover everything” because of the significant size of the target group.
Confirming last week’s announcement by the Attorney General’s Office, Tayeb says that starting in July, the IDF intends to begin sending out 54,000 initial enlistment orders to ultra-Orthodox men.
“We see that in the army they intend to do everything to try to expand the ranks,” says subcommittee chairman Elazar Stern of the Yesh Atid party, himself a former head of the IDF’s manpower directorate.
“It won’t happen tomorrow morning, but it will give hope to those who serve, that in a year or two the State of Israel will begin to see many more people carrying the burden.”
Although the orders will be issued in July, the dates on which those receiving the orders must present themselves at IDF recruitment offices will be staggered throughout the upcoming conscription year, which starts on July 1, the Attorney General’s Office has said.
8 Gaza boat activists, including French MEP, remain in detention in Israel — rights group
Activists aboard the Madleen holding their hands up in a screenshot from video taken on June 9, 2025. (screen capture: Al Jazeera/YouTube)
Eight of the 12 pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists from the Madleen boat, which sought to break Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza this week, are still being held in detention, the Adalah civil rights organization representing the activists states.
Late last night, the Detention Review Tribunal, which reviews decisions of the Interior Ministry’s border control administration, upheld orders to keep the eight international volunteers from the Madleen boat in custody until they are deported.
Adalah’s lawyers argued in the tribunal’s hearing that the law under which the activists have been detained — illegal entry into Israel — is inapplicable to the Madleen activists since “they neither sought to enter Israel nor intended to enter Israeli territorial waters.”
The organization says that the Madleen was sailing in international waters and intended to directly enter “the internationally recognized territorial waters of the State of Palestine, into Gaza,” when it was intercepted by Israeli naval forces and towed to the Port of Ashdod.
The tribunal dismissed Adalah’s arguments, asserting that the naval blockade on Gaza is lawful under Israeli law and that the activists knowingly attempted to breach it.
A lawyer for Adalah says the organization expects the activists to be deported in short order.
The individuals being held in Givon Prison in Ramle are Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament; Suayb Ordu from Turkey; Mark van Rennes from The Netherlands; Pascal Maurieras, Reva Viard and Yanis Mhamdi from France; Thiago Avila from Brazil; and Yasemin Acar from Germany.
The Foreign Ministry does not immediately respond to a request for comment on when they would be deported.
Four activists, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, waived their right to be brought before a judge yesterday and were deported immediately. Thunberg is now back in Sweden.
Smotrich: Bringing down government during war would pose ‘existential danger’ to Israel
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at a Religious Zionism party faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, May 5, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Bringing down the government during wartime would pose an “existential danger” to Israel, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warns ahead of a scheduled preliminary vote on dissolving the Knesset.
“History will not forgive anyone who drags the State of Israel into elections during a war and leads to a loss in the war,” the Religious Zionism party chairman declares from the Knesset rostrum.
“We need our ultra-Orthodox brothers to be part of the great mitzvah of military service with us. It is a great mitzvah and it is also an existential, national and security need,” he continues, arguing that this needs to be accomplished “while preserving the government.”
Going to elections now constitutes “an existential danger to the future of the State of Israel” and doing so is a “terrible national irresponsibility,” Smotrich asserts.
If the legislation to dissolve the Knesset passes its preliminary vote today, it would still need to pass three further votes to take effect. If it fails, opposition parties have to wait six months to bring another Knesset dissolution bill to a vote.
Coffin of slain hostage Nattapong Pinta arrives in Thailand, is met by his widow
Narissara Chantasang, fifth from left, wife of Nattapong Pinta, a Thai laborer who was taken hostage and killed by terrorists in Gaza, attends a silent memorial service near the coffin containing his body at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Samut Prakarn province Thailand, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
The body of slain hostage Nattapong Pinta, who Hamas-led terrorists abducted on October 7, 2023, arrives in Thailand.
His coffin is met by his widow and Thai officials.
Thai national Pinta’s remains were recovered in a joint Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet operation in the southern Gaza Strip, officials announced Saturday morning.
He was kidnapped alive by terrorists of the Mujahideen Brigades — a relatively small terror group in the Strip loosely allied with Hamas — from the Gaza border community of Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he worked as a farmhand.
The IDF said it believed that the terror group murdered Pinta in captivity during the first months of the war.
Thai farm worker Nattapong Pinta (left), who was taken hostage by terrorists on October 7, 2023, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, is seen with his wife and son in an undated photo. (Courtesy)
Elite troops killed head of a north West Bank terror network, police say; Palestinian media: Target a senior Islamic Jihad member
Officers of the elite Yamam unit killed the head of a terror network in the northern West Bank town of Tamun overnight, police say.
Also in the joint operation carried out by Yamam officers and IDF troops, two wanted Palestinians, part of the same network, were detained, the military and police add.
לוחמי הימ"מ, צה"ל ושב"כ חיסלו את ראש התארגנות הטרור בכפר טמון, שהיה מעורב בתכנון וביצוע פיגועים נגד כוחות הביטחון ואזרחים ישראלים. במהלך הפעילות נעצרו שני מחבלים נוספים בזמן ששהו בדירת מסתור pic.twitter.com/1fiDBdY7Xs
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) June 11, 2025
The terror operative, Raeq Basharat, is identified by Palestinian media as a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
حركة الجـ.ـهاد: ننعى الشهـ.ـيد القائد رايق عبد الرحمن بشارات الذي اغتاله الاحتلال غدرا الليلة الماضية في طمون بالضفة pic.twitter.com/LE9aiMaGwV
— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) June 11, 2025
Herzog appears to criticize Likud’s Distel Atbaryan for anti-Reform Judaism comments
President Isaac Herzog speaks during a swearing in ceremony for new rabbinic judges at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on June 10, 2025 (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)
President Isaac Herzog appears to criticize Likud MK Galit Distel Atbaryan after she ejected Labor MK Gilad Kariv from a Knesset committee meeting and snapped at the Reform rabbi that “the Jews here want to continue.”
Speaking with a delegation of LGBTQ+ Pride community leaders organized by the Jewish Federations of North America, Herzog emphasizes the importance of inclusion and equality in Israeli society and condemns what he describes as recent comments against prominent members of the Reform and LGBTQ+ communities in Israel.
“I condemn utterly any harassment or insult to our brothers and sisters – wherever they are – including recent comments in the Knesset,” Herzog declares.
Distel Atbaryan ejected Kariv from a discussion in the Subcommittee on Jewish Thought in the Education System after he mentioned that one of his two daughters was “meticulous about putting on tefillin.”
“I am sure that there will be a paragraph in the circular making clear that all students, as permitted in halacha, can do it,” he said, referring to a recent push by Education Minister Yoav Kisch to ensure that students can put on tefillin, also known as phylacteries, in Israeli schools.
“I don’t have the strength for these provocations,” Distel Atbaryan responded. “If you conduct a bar mitzvah for a dog, I will come and celebrate,” she added, apparently comparing holding a coming-of-age ceremony for an animal to a woman wrapping tefillin.
Kariv responded that the Likud MK “probably doesn’t understand anything about halacha or Jewish tradition,” gesturing toward her, and adding: “This is the face of Israeli tradition.”
“Please remove the reformer,” she retorted. “The Jews here want to continue.”
From left to right: Labor MK Gilad Kariv at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on June 9, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90) and Likud MK Galit Distel Atbaryan at the Knesset on July 17, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
At least 3 killed in methanol reservoir fire in Iranian port of Bushehr
At least three people have died and 10 were injured when a methanol reservoir caught fire in the southern port of Bushehr, state media IRNA reports.
The report says the toll is expected to rise, given the “scale of the incident.”
Coalition packs legislative agenda with bills in attempt to delay vote on dissolving Knesset
A mainly empty session at the assembly hall of the Knesset, in Jerusalem on March 31, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In an apparent attempt to buy time while it negotiates with the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition packs the Knesset’s agenda with numerous bills, likely delaying a preliminary vote on dissolving the Knesset until this evening.
In a joint statement earlier this morning, the Knesset opposition parties announced that they would place bills to dissolve the Knesset on the agenda and would all of their other legislation from the agenda “in order to concentrate all efforts on one goal: to overthrow the government.”
Shortly thereafter, the Knesset released today’s legislative agenda, which runs to nine pages, with the various bills to dissolve the Knesset set to be considered only after a long list of coalition measures.
Senior coalition officials are currently in talks with the Haredi officials in hopes of finding common ground on the issue of military exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men, and prevent the advancement of the opposition legislation.
Both the United Torah Judaism and Shas parties have said they will support dissolution, although Shas appears to have begun pulling back and its chairman, Aryeh Deri, was reportedly pushing to find a compromise.
According to HaDerech, Shas’s official newspaper, the party’s ruling Council of Torah Sages will decide on a course of action today, leaving its position unclear in the interim.
If the legislation to dissolve the Knesset passes its preliminary vote today, it would still need to pass three further votes to take effect. If it fails, opposition parties have to wait six months to bring another Knesset dissolution bill to a vote.
Top coalition officials meet Haredi representatives in last-ditch attempt to reach compromise
Housing Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf, right, and his senior adviser Motti Babchik arrive at United Torah Judaism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, February 17, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
After Knesset opposition parties announce that they will place a bill to dissolve the Knesset on today’s agenda, senior coalition officials meet with Haredi representatives in a last-ditch effort at finding a compromise draft of an enlistment bill that all sides can support.
According to Hebrew media reports, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs and coalition whip Ofir Katz are currently meeting with the ultra-Orthodox in the Knesset in the hope of preventing them from voting in favor of legislation to dissolve the Knesset. Also present at the meeting is Knesset legal adviser Sagit Afik.
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline coalition currently holding 68 out of the 120 parliamentary seats, both Shas and United Torah Judaism would need to back the legislation.
The two parties have publicly said that they will vote to dissolve the Knesset in the bill’s preliminary reading due to the coalition’s failure to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service.
However, Shas is working hard behind the scenes to postpone the vote and prevent the fall of the government. The legislation, if advanced today, would require three more plenum votes to take effect.
In a statement to online Haredi news channel Pargod, chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf says that in line with his party’s rabbinic leadership’s instructions, United Torah Judaism will vote in favor of dissolution.
“They say that we need to vote to dissolve the Knesset so we will vote. There is no doubt,” he states.
According to HaDerech, Shas’s official newspaper, the party’s ruling Council of Torah Sages will decide on a course of action today.
Iran says will strike US bases in Mideast if nuclear talks fail and conflict begins
If nuclear negotiations fail and conflict arises with the United States, Iran will strike American bases in the region, Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh says, days ahead of a planned sixth round of Iran-US nuclear talks.
US President Donald Trump has warned Tehran of potential military action if a deal is not reached.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly assured the White House that Israel won’t launch an attack on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites unless Trump signals that the ongoing negotiations with Tehran have failed, Axios said last week, citing two Israeli officials familiar with the matter. Iran repeatedly calls for Israel’s destruction.
On critical day for coalition, Netanyahu says he’s not feeling well and cuts court testimony short
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Tel Aviv District Court before the start of his testimony in his trial, June 3, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cross-examination at a hearing in his criminal trial in the Tel Aviv District Court is cut short one hour into his testimony, after the prime minister said he was feeling unwell.
Today could be a critical day for Netanyahu and his coalition, with opposition parties announcing they will bring to a preliminary vote a bill to dissolve Knesset and hold early elections, amid a crisis between the prime minister and his ultra-Orthodox allies.
The Haredi parties have threatened to back the dissolution of the Knesset due to the government’s failure to pass legislation reinstating blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students. The legislation, if advanced today, would require three more plenum votes to take effect.
Netanyahu will likely need to work hard during the course of the day to try to stave off the crisis in his coalition.
Opposition parties confirm will submit bill today to dissolve Knesset
Head of The Democrats party Yair Golan, head of National Unity party Benny Gantz, head of Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid and head of Yisrael Beytenu party Avigdor Liberman hold a joint press conference at the Knesset, November 6, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In a joint statement, the Knesset opposition parties announce that they will place a bill to dissolve the Knesset on today’s agenda, adding that the decision was “made unanimously and is binding on all factions.”
“In addition, in coordination between all factions, it was decided to remove opposition legislation from the agenda in order to concentrate all efforts on one goal: to overthrow the government,” reads the statement, which is released following a meeting of the opposition parties in the Knesset.
The coalition is widely expected to seek to pack the agenda with its own bills in order to delay a preliminary vote on the measure.
It remains unclear if both the Haredi parties will ultimately support the legislation to dissolve the Knesset in today’s preliminary vote.
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline coalition currently holding 68 out of the 120 parliamentary seats, both Shas and United Torah Judaism would need to back the measure.
The two parties have publicly said that they will vote to dissolve the Knesset in the bill’s preliminary reading due to the coalition’s failure to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service. However, Shas is working hard behind the scenes to postpone the vote and prevent the fall of the government. The legislation, if advanced today, would require three more plenum votes to take effect.
Musk says he regrets that some of his posts about Trump ‘went too far’
US President Donald Trump (right) shakes Elon Musk's hand in the Oval Office, Washington DC, May 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Billionaire Elon Musk says that he regrets some of the posts he made last week about US President Donald Trump, in a message on his social media platform X.
“I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far,” Musk writes.
Trump and Musk began exchanging insults last week on social media, with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO describing the US president’s sweeping tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination.”
Musk also claimed Trump would not have won the 2024 election without his financial support, hinted at supporting Trump’s impeachment, and baselessly asserted that Trump’s name is in the Epstein files, which is why the files are not being released to the public.
Musk’s post comes days after Trump said his relationship with the mogul was over.
Report: PM, ministers agree on response to Hamas hostage deal counter-offer, forward it to mediators
An installation calling for US President Donald Trump to secure a deal for the 55 hostages held in Gaza, on the beach opposite the US Embassy's Tel Aviv Branch on JUne 11, 2025 (Aviv Atlas via the pro-democracy protest groups)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Defense Minister Israel Katz agreed on Israel’s response to Hamas’s counter-offer to a US proposal for a hostage-ceasefire deal at their meeting yesterday, Army Radio reports.
The response has been forwarded to mediators, the report says.
Officials are now awaiting the terror group’s response, Army Radio says.
The most recent US proposal offered a 60-day truce in the war-torn Gaza Strip, accompanied by a partial Israeli military withdrawal and increased humanitarian aid deliveries, in exchange for the release of 10 living hostages and 18 deceased hostages.
Hamas’s response to the offer included a demand that would make it more difficult for Israel to resume fighting if talks on a permanent ceasefire were not completed by the end of the 60-day truce.
It also envisioned the release of the 10 living hostages being spread out throughout the truce, rather than in two batches on the first and seventh day as the US offer had stipulated.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 55 hostages, including 54 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023.
They include the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF, and 20 are believed to be alive. There are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said.
Israel says 108 humanitarian aid trucks carrying flour, food entered Gaza Strip yesterday
Palestinians line up to receive donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announces that 108 humanitarian aid trucks carrying flour and food entered the Gaza Strip yesterday.
Israel resumed aid deliveries to Gaza on May 19, after a pause since March 2. Since then, 1,459 trucks have entered the Strip.
Some of the truckloads have been taken to the new aid distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The contents of many of the trucks that entered Gaza in recent weeks are still awaiting collection on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom crossing.
The aid underwent an inspection by Israeli authorities before entering Gaza via the crossing.
2 men shot and killed within hours amid unrelenting deadly crime wave
Two men were killed in apparently separate incidents overnight, police say, amid an unrelenting deadly crime wave.
A man in his 20s was shot and killed in a central square in Tira.
“The murder was carried out in front of dozens of residents, including children. We saw a gunman chasing the victim and shooting at him,” an eyewitness tells the Ynet news site. “He tried to enter businesses and was unsuccessful, until he was murdered in the middle of the road. They almost murdered us too.”
Police are said to believe the killing was the result of a conflict between criminals. According to the Haaretz daily, the man was the ninth person killed violently in Tira since the start of the year.
Hours later a man in his 30s was shot and killed in Kafr Qara.
Police are said to believe that killing was also part of a criminal feud.
The crime wave has worsened considerably over the past two years since the installation of the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir as national security minister. Much of the deadly violence has happened in the Arab Israeli community.
Ben Gvir has remained silent throughout the past few days despite the high number of murders.
Report: Opposition leaders to meet for final decision on whether to submit bill to dissolve Knesset
Head of The Democrats party Yair Golan, head of National Unity party Benny Gantz, head of Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid and head of Yisrael Beytenu party Avigdor Liberman hold a joint press conference at the Knesset, November 6, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Leaders of opposition parties are set to meet this morning to make a final decision on whether to submit the bill to dissolve the Knesset, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
By law, if the vote fails, parties would have to wait six months before bringing another Knesset dissolution bill to the floor.
According to Kan, Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman is determined that the bill be brought for a vote, even without the support of Shas, which is working hard behind the scenes to postpone the vote and prevent the fall of the government.
The meeting comes as it remains unclear which, if either, of the Haredi parties will ultimately vote for the legislation.
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline coalition currently holding 68 out of the 120 parliamentary seats, both Shas and United Torah Judaism would need to back the measure.
The two parties have publicly said that they will vote for the measure in its preliminary reading due to the coalition’s failure to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service.
Iran says it executed 9 Islamic State group operatives over 2018 clash with troops
Iran says it executed nine militants of the Islamic State group detained after a 2018 clash with troops.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency announces the executions, saying that the death sentences had been upheld by the country’s top court.
It describes the militants as being detained after a clash in the country’s western region with Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in which three troops and several ISIS fighters were killed. Authorities say they seized a cache of combat weapons, including a machine gun and 50 grenades, after surrounding the militants’ hideout.
Iran carries out executions by hanging. In the past eight months, it has executed an average of one person every six hours, according to Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of advocacy group Iran Human Rights.
He says the executions were issued without fair trials and that there have been no updates about seven others reportedly detained in the 2018 attack.
Arizona governor vetoes bill banning antisemitic teaching, calls it an attack on educators
Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, center, applauds for those affected by the Los Angeles area wildfires as she gives the State of the State address in the House of Representatives at the state Capitol on Jan. 13, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoes a proposal that would have banned teaching antisemitism at the state’s public K-12 schools, universities and colleges and would have exposed educators who violate the new rules to discipline and lawsuits.
The proposal would have prohibited teachers and administrators from teaching or promoting antisemitism or antisemitic actions that create a hostile environment, calling for the genocide of any group, or requiring students to advocate for an antisemitic point of view. It also would have barred public schools from using public money to support the teaching of antisemitism.
Educators would have personally been responsible for covering the costs of damages in lawsuits for violating the rules.
Hobbs, a Democrat, says the bill is not about antisemitism but rather about attacking teachers.
“It puts an unacceptable level of personal liability in place for our public school, community college, and university educators and staff, opening them up to threats of personally costly lawsuits,” she says in a statement. “Additionally, it sets a dangerous precedent that unfairly targets public school teachers while shielding private school staff.”
Hobbs described antisemitism as a very troubling issue in the US, but says students and parents can go through the state’s Board of Education to report antisemitism.
The measure cleared the Legislature last week on a 33-20 vote by the House, including a few Democrats who crossed party lines to support it. It’s one of a few proposals to combat antisemitism across the country.
Democrats tried but failed to remove the lawsuit provision and swap out references to antisemitism within the bill with “unlawful discrimination” to reflect other discrimination.
Oman scores last-gasp goal to end Palestinians’ World Cup dreams
Oman ends the Palestinians’ hopes of a first appearance at the World Cup finals with a last-gasp draw.
Playing their home fixtures at a neutral venue, the Palestinians took the lead on 49 minutes when Oday Kharoub headed Adam Kaied’s corner into the top corner.
Oman were reduced to 10 men in the 73rd minute after Harib Al-Saadi was shown a second yellow card.
Yet the visitors rallied to snatch a precious point in the 97th minute, Issam Al-Sabhi converting a spot-kick following a foul on Muhsen Al-Ghassani.
The result means Oman finishes fourth in the group at the Palestinians’ expense and therefore advances to the next phase of qualification.
The top two teams in each of the three groups go straight to the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, while those in third and fourth move on to the fourth round.
Australian PM dismisses ‘predictable’ Israeli and US criticism of sanctions on Ben Gvir, Smotrich
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during a joint press conference with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto after their bilateral meeting at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
SYDNEY — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says condemnation by the US and Israel of sanctions imposed on two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers is “predictable,” and that the two men have impeded a two-state solution.
“The Israeli Government does need to uphold its obligations under international law and some of the expansionist rhetoric that we’ve seen as well is clearly in contradiction of that from these hard-line right wing members of the Netanyahu government,” Albanese says on Wednesday in an interview with ABC Radio Sydney.
Comments by the two men “have aided what is a serious impediment to a two-state solution,” he adds.
The sanctions freeze the assets and impose travel bans on National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, both West Bank settlers, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong says.
“We, along with those other countries and the broader international community, believe we can only see peace in the Middle East when we deal with two states and when both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security,” she says in a television interview with Seven.
Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, writes on X that the sanctions are “deeply concerning and entirely unacceptable.”
Los Angeles mayor declares overnight curfew in downtown LA
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declares an overnight curfew in the downtown area of the United States’ second-largest city, after several nights of unrest and vandalism.
“I have declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting,” she tells reporters.
Rubio denounces sanctions on Ben Gvir and Smotrich, urges their reversal
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio steps off Air Force One in Hagerstown, Maryland, on June 8, 2025, en route to Camp David. (Andrw Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)
After the State Department’s spokesperson condemned the decision by five Western government’s decisions to sanction far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, the office issues a statement in Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s name echoing disapproval of the move.
The statement is largely a regurgitation of the one made earlier by State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, but also includes a call from Rubio for United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, New Zealand and Australia to reverse the decision.
“These sanctions do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home and end the war,” Rubio says.
The secretary’s statement focused on Gaza, but the British-led move came in response to Israel’s policies in the West Bank, where they said Smotrich and Ben Gvir have incited extremist violence against Palestinians. Settler attacks have been taking place there unchecked on a near-daily basis and the head of the police’s West Bank division is currently under investigation for ignoring the phenomenon in order to curry favor with Ben Gvir.
“We reject any notion of equivalence: Hamas is a terrorist organization that committed unspeakable atrocities, continues to hold innocent civilians hostage, and prevents the people of Gaza from living in peace. We remind our partners not to forget who the real enemy is. The United States urges the reversal of the sanctions and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel,” Rubio says.
Responding to UK-led sanctions, Smotrich cancels waiver allowing Israel-PA bank ties
Ilustrative: A man withdraws cash from an ATM machine at Bank of Palestine in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on May 15, 2018. (Said Khatib/AFP)
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has directed his office to cancel a critical agreement for sustaining the Palestinian economy in retaliation for the decision by five Western countries to sanction him and fellow far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Smotrich’s office says in a statement that he directed the Finance Ministry’s accountant-general, Yali Rotenberg, to waive the indemnity that Israeli banks have been given to correspond with Palestinian banks.
Smotrich earlier in the day reportedly pledged to collapse the PA in response to the sanctions, even though Ramallah was not known to have any involvement in the joint decision by the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway.
The Palestinian economy relies heavily on the banks’ relationships with their Israeli counterparts to process transactions made in shekels, as the PA does not have its own currency. Some NIS 53 billion ($14 billion) were exchanged at Palestinian banks in 2023, according to official data.
The overwhelming majority of exchanges in the West Bank are in shekels, Israel’s national currency, because the Palestinian Authority is prevented from having a central bank that would allow it to print its own currency.
The so-called corresponding banking agreement requires periodic extensions by Israel to remain in effect, and the Biden administration exhausted significant efforts in urging Israel not to allow its expiration. The administration warned that failing to maintain the banking relations between Israel and the Palestinians would turn the West Bank into a “cash economy,” which would benefit terrorist organizations in the territory and make it harder for the already-weakened PA to fight such groups.
The Israeli security establishment also pushed back against the move, and Smotrich ultimately agreed to grant a one-year extension to the banking deal last November.
Rubio discusses Gaza with UAE counterpart
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met earlier today with UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed and discussed the ongoing Gaza war, the State Department says.
The two leaders discussed the “UAE’s provision of humanitarian assistance and highlighted the imperative of ensuring that Hamas can never rule Gaza or threaten Israel again,” the US readout adds.
Huckabee appears to express skepticism of Witkoff’s efforts in Gaza and Iran talks
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee appears to express skepticism with US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s efforts to broker a Gaza hostage deal and Iran nuclear deal.
Huckabee is asked during a Free Press podcast interview about Witkoff’s assertion earlier this year that Qatar is doing “God’s work” in mediating between Israel and Hamas.
“I hadn’t heard him say that. It would be very interesting if he did say that,” Huckabee responds.
“Steve and I have a different view of Qatar and how trustworthy they are,” he adds after the interviewer asserted that Witkoff had indeed made that comment.
The US ambassador then clarifies that both he and Witkoff are “playing for the same team, playing for the same president. I’m not going to criticize or condemn him.”
“He may be working in a way that ultimately is going to be helpful. Whether it’s with dealing with Hamas or dealing with Iran — I hope so,” Huckabee continues.
“But I have a lot of doubt about whether… negotiations with people who are inherently sponsoring evil things are going to be trustworthy to do the right thing, the best thing, and the good thing when it really comes down to it,” Huckabee adds.
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