June 4: Unrecognized Syrian militia claims responsibility for rocket fire on Israel, says it’s only the start
Ex-hostage Eli Sharabi says captives knew they would’ve been freed sooner under different government * After meeting with Edelstein, PM says Haredi draft law gaps can be bridged
A police officer at the site of a rocket impact near the Golan Heights community of Ramat Magshimim, shortly after two rockets were fired from Syria, June 3, 2025. (Israel Police)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says its distribution sites will be opening later than normal tomorrow due to maintenance and repair work.
The announcement from GHF on its Arabic Facebook page doesn’t specify which of its sites will open tomorrow and when, in what will likely further complicate efforts by Gazans to plan lengthy walks to pick up aid.
The GHF post says the organization will share information on opening times as soon as the work is complete.
A GHF spokesperson separately says that the sites won’t reopen tomorrow morning, but will resume operations later in the day. However, he doesn’t say when.
GHF did not open its sites on Wednesday, after eight consecutive days of operation. The shutdown was implemented in order to carry out logistical work in order to more safely accommodate more Palestinians at distribution sites.
On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, the IDF said it fired warning shots toward Palestinians outside an aid distribution site after they approached troops while straying off a pre-approved path. Hamas officials and the Red Cross claimed dozens were killed and hundreds wounded from gunfire. The IDF asserts that those figures are exaggerated, while saying it is investigating the allegations.
A GHF spokesperson said Tuesday that the shutdown would only last a day, but the delay in reopening indicates that its logistical work is running behind schedule.
“GHF is working to make the distribution of food boxes as safe as possible, despite the difficult circumstances. We strongly urge all those heading to our locations to follow the routes set by the IDF to ensure safe passage,” the foundation said.
A spokesman for the Islamic Resistance Front, a new unrecognized militia in Syria, claims responsibility for the rocket fire on Israel Tuesday, and vows that it was only the start of the group’s fight against Israel.
Along with the Islamic Resistance Front, a group calling itself the Mohammed Deif Brigade has also claimed it was behind the attack. Neither claim could be immediately verified.
The spokesman, identified only as Abu Qasem, says in a recording published by Lebanon’s pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen news outlet that the rocket fire was a response to “Israel’s massacres in Palestine, Israel’s daily attacks in Syria, and the wave of normalization between the current Syrian regime and Israel.”
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)
The United States vetoes a UN Security Council resolution calling for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the release of all the hostages and unhindered aid access across the enclave.
“The United States has been clear we would not support any measure that fails to condemn Hamas and does not call for Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza,” Acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the council before the vote.
“This resolution would undermine diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire that reflects the realities on the ground, and embolden Hamas,” she said of the text that was put forward by 10 countries on the 15-member council.
The remaining 14 council members vote in favor of the draft resolution.
The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen take responsibility for launching the drone that was shot down by the Israeli Air Force over the Israel-Egypt border earlier this evening.
The Houthis claim to have launched two drones at Ben Gurion Airport in the attack, indicating that the second one likely crashed before reaching Israel.
Eight civilians from Syria’s Alawite minority were shot dead by “security checkpoint personnel” on Wednesday in the central province of Hama, a war monitor says.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, of unclear funding, says that “security checkpoint personnel carried out a field execution of eight civilians, including three women, and injured five others — all Alawite, travelling in “a civilian passenger bus” in the western Hama countryside.
The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announces that 88 humanitarian aid trucks carrying flour and food entered the Gaza Strip today.
Israel resumed aid deliveries to Gaza on May 19, after a pause since March 2. Since then, 1,197 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 first by Israeli authorities before entering Gaza via the crossing.
The Prime Minister’s Office accuses Channel 13 of misrepresenting a leaked recording of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling a senior Haredi rabbi that he removed top defense officials from their posts to pass legislation exempting Haredim from military service, in a statement that only partly addresses the contents of the recording.
“As can be clearly heard in the recordings — without the distorted interpretation of Channel 13’s so-called ‘analysts’ — the Prime Minister notes that it was the former chief of staff and Defense Minister who prevented the establishment of dedicated units for Haredi service,” writes the PMO.
“In contrast, the current Defense Minister and Chief of Staff are advancing the issue swiftly and professionally, and we are proud of that,” concludes the statement.
Contrary to Netanyahu’s claims, former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi and former defense minister Yoav Gallant did, in fact, advance and approve the establishment of dedicated units for ultra-Orthodox soldiers, including the IDF’s first-ever Haredi brigade, known as the Hasmonean Brigade.
Halevi also suggested establishing a yeshiva in the Jordan Valley to benefit Haredi soldiers who could serve there as part of a new eastern division.
Then-defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks during a press conference at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to fire him from his position, on November 5, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Former defense minister Yoav Gallant appears to respond to leaked recordings of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying he was removed from his post so that the premier could push through a Haredi draft exemption bill, writing in a post on X that “there are more important things than a position or title.”
I suggest that every leader and public figure in Israel adopt the order of priorities I set for myself decades ago: Israel, the IDF and the security forces, everything else — including politics,” Gallant writes.
“The soldiers on the battlefield are crying out for reinforcements. Political battles do nothing to help them. I’m proud to have stood by the principle that everyone must take part in the mission of defending our country. To sustain Israel, we need a strong and determined army.”
אני גאה בכך שעמדתי על העיקרון לפיו כולם צריכים לקחת חלק במשימת ההגנה על הארץ.
על מנת לקיים את מדינת ישראל, אנו זקוקים לצבא חזק ונחוש. הצורך לגייס לצה״ל כל צעיר בגיל גיוס, חיוני כדי לקיים את ביטחון ישראל – כולם חייבים להתגייס: חילונים, דתיים וחרדים, כולם.
— יואב גלנט – Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) June 4, 2025
“The need to enlist every young person of draft age into the IDF is essential to ensuring Israel’s security — everyone must serve: secular, religious and ultra-Orthodox alike,” the former defense minister says.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a 40 signatures debate, at the plenum hall of the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on May 28, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In leaked recordings aired by Channel 13, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells a senior rabbi that his effective removal of former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi and former defense minister Yoav Gallant was intended to eliminate them as “obstacles” to advancing legislation demanded by the Haredi factions in his coalition that would exempt ultra-Orthodox men from military service.
Channel 13 publishes the recordings after the spiritual leader of Degel Hatorah, one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, instructed their MKs to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset due to the coalition’s failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from conscription.
It says the conversation took place in March, just ahead of the vote on the 2025 state budget.
“We need the time to pass the law in a proper way that cannot be challenged,” Netanyahu is heard telling Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, a member of the Council of Torah Sages of Degel HaTorah and a leader of the Lithuanian-Haredi community, in the English-language call.
“The reason we weren’t able to do it is because we had enormous obstacles that we removed. You know, when the defense minister is against you and the chief of staff is against you, you cannot move. Now we can move,” he says.
He tells Hirsch that with Halevi gone, the IDF is now working to improve its ability to integrate Haredi soldiers.
“In fact, it’s because we changed the chief of staff, because we changed the defense minister who was blocking us all this long period, we are now able to move more confidently and more professionally,” the premier says.
“We can save the Torah world,” declares Netanyahu, adopting a term used by Haredim to refer to religious Jewish communities. “We can finish this matter once and for all. And get this heavy load that they put on us and on the Torah world, get rid of this once and for all.”
He tells Hirsch that doing this would be possible “with your help.”
The premier elaborates on what he says are the legislative challenges of passing the bill, saying, “To put a deadline that is too quick will impair the process. I think Rosh Hashanah is a sufficient time,” referring to the Jewish holiday, which this year falls in September.
The extended deadline is necessary, says Netanyahu, as the legislative process in the Knesset moves slowly, and the opposition will try to prevent the law from passing.
He says he thinks they need another eight weeks until the legislation is ready, but that there may be “obstacles.”
“So I don’t want to be caught in a deadline that I promised you, and I won’t be able to keep. But if there’s an agreed-upon time that is feasible and is beyond their ability to block, then we’ll get it done and that’s it,” he says.
The premier also takes the opportunity to attack those on the political left, accusing them of “trying to bring down the government to hurt the Torah world.”
These people are against the Torah world,” he says of his left-wing and centrist opponents. “This is the biggest threat to the Torah world. If we don’t pass a law, they will continue to try and bring it down.”
He adds that he needs the rabbi’s help in order to pass the conscription law, saying, “If we work together, we can finish this thing — and once and for all.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and former prime minister Naftali Bennett (right) attend the funeral of
Rabbi Haim Drukman, at Merkaz Shapira, near Kiryat Malachi, on December 26, 2022. (Gil Cohen-Magen/ AFP)
If elections were to be held in Israel today, the parties that make up the current Netanyahu-led government would only receive 48 seats, falling far short of the 60-seat minimum needed to form a government, a new Channel 12 poll finds.
In contrast, a bloc of current opposition parties led by former prime minister Naftali Bennett and his newly registered party would receive 72 seats, the poll finds. As it is unclear whether the Arab-majority Hadash Ta’al or Islamist Ra’am party would join such a government, the poll also notes that the bloc would receive 62 seats without their participation, clearing the 60-seat threshold.
The poll was conducted today, after the spiritual leader of Degel Hatorah, one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, instructed their MKs to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset due to the coalition’s failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from conscription.
The two largest parties in the Knesset, according to the poll, would be Bennett’s party with 24 seats, followed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud with 22 seats.
The remainder of the 120 Knesset seats would be split as follows: The Democrats 12, Shas 10, Yisrael Beytenu 10, Yesh Atid 9, Otzma Yehudit 8, UTJ 8, National Unity 7, Hadash-Ta’al 5 and Ra’am 5.
The Religious Zionism and Balad parties would get no seats.
In light of UTJ’s threats to dissolve the coalition over IDF conscription laws, Channel 12 asks respondents whether they would want the ultra-Orthodox parties to be part of a future government.
Fifty-five percent of respondents said they would not want them to be part of the coalition, 33% said they would and 12% said they didn’t know.
Eli Sharabi, a former hostage, speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting recounting his time in Hamas captivity in Gaza on March 20, 2025 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP)
Former hostage Eli Sharabi says he and other captives understood while being held by Hamas in Gaza that they would have been freed a lot sooner if it weren’t for the current makeup of Israel’s government.
The damning determination is voiced during a Channel 12 interview by Sharabi, a national consensus figure who to date has largely avoided criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. He was even tapped by Israel’s Foreign Ministry to testify before the UN Security Council earlier this year.
“We didn’t have a doubt, even when we were in a tunnel 50 meters underground — and the four of us [hostages] discussed this point exactly — that if there was a different political makeup [of the Israeli government], we would’ve been freed a long time ago,” Sharabi tells Channel 12.
“This was what we said. It was clear to us [then], and it has been more clear to us since our release,” Sharabi says.
Netanyahu asserts that freeing the hostages is a top priority of the government, but he has acknowledged that defeating Hamas is of greater importance, and has accordingly rejected Hamas offers to release all the hostages at once in exchange for a permanent end to the war, arguing that doing so would leave the terror group in power.
The stance has put him at odds with the majority of Israelis, as polls suggest most support ending the war in exchange for the release of the remaining 58 hostages. But Netanyahu also faces pressure from his far-right coalition partners who have threatened to collapse the government if he were to agree to such an exchange.
Polls for months have also shown that if elections were held today, the current coalition parties would be far off from having the majority needed to form a government.
The family of slain Israel embassy staffer Sarah Milgrim speaks to CBS news in an interview broadcast on June 4, 2025. From left, father Robert, mother Nancy and brother Jacob (Screencapture/CBS)
The family of Sarah Milgrim, an Israeli embassy staffer who was gunned down in Washington, DC last month, speaks out against activists supporting the attack in the family’s first TV interview since Milgrim’s death.
Groups, including a faction of the Democratic Socialists of America and the extremist anti-Israel group Unity of Fields, have supported the alleged shooter, Elias Rodriguez.
Milgrim’s older brother, Jacob, tells CBS News, “There’s nothing more important in Judaism than life and the sanctity of life, and to what end is this fighting and sacrifice?”
“What does it accomplish taking my sister from me? It’s not going to accomplish anything,” he says.
Asked about activists supporting the shooter, Milgrim’s mother Nancy says, “I don’t know anything about that, but Sarah wasn’t against the Palestinians, she wasn’t against the people in Gaza.”
“She was in all her heart working towards finding a way for everyone for everyone to live together peacefully,” she says.
Milgrim was killed after leaving an event at the Capitol Jewish Museum, alongside her partner, Yaron Lischinsky. After the shooting, Rodriguez shouted, “Free Palestine,” according to authorities and video from the scene.
Lischinsky had bought Milgrim an engagement ring and was planning to propose to her during an upcoming trip to Jerusalem, Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, said after the shooting. Milgrim’s family found out about the planned proposal after her death.
“We saw their love blossom for each other and we knew how strong it was. We were hoping that they would be getting married,” Milgrim’s father, Robert Milgrim, tells CBS.
The family is planning to visit Israel in the fall, where they will meet Lischinsky’s family and visit his gravesite.
Milgrim graduated with a master’s degree in international affairs from American University in Washington and started working at the embassy soon after, in November 2023. She met Lischinsky through work.
The family is still processing her death, her father says.
“Right now, I’m hurt. I’m too hurt to say it’s anger or frustration and I don’t know what I’m going to feel later on,” her father says.
The report says Milgrim “fell in love with Israel” after holding her Bat Mitzvah in Jerusalem. She toured Israel another time while she was in college, and another time through a work-study program for Israelis and Palestinians called Tech2Peace.
“She’s not a tech person so she learned some things but really she was involved in the social immersion between bringing all the people together,” Nancy Milgrim says.
“She was the perfect child, we never argued about anything. She loved the environment, loved Mother Earth, loved people. She loved family, she loved her community,” her father says. “Usually, a parent tries to mold their child. Sarah molded us. She was a stronger person than I ever was.”
Scenes from a settler attack on the Palestinian village of Deir Dibwan, near Ramallah, in the West Bank, on June 4, 2025. (X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Palestinian media reports that settlers set fire to vehicles and buildings in the village of Deir Dibwan in the Ramallah area of the West Bank, and threw stones at residents.
The Palestinian Red Crescent says two Palestinians were injured and evacuated to a hospital, while five others sustained lighter injuries and were treated at a clinic in the village.
The Israel police have not yet issued a response.
Residents of the village tell the Times of Israel that dozens of settlers joined the attack.
One resident estimates that the settlers burned or partially burned around 10 houses in the village.
A youth carries an empty box of relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as displaced Palestinians walk near a food distribution center in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on June 1, 2025. (AFP)
The Israeli government has set aside hundreds of millions of shekels to fund the new humanitarian aid mechanism in the Gaza Strip, the Kan public broadcaster reports, contrary to government officials who have insisted that Israel has no part in its funding.
According to the report, the government approved the transfer of 700 million shekels ( roughly $280 million) last month to an unclear source, identified by the government only as “the defense establishment.”
Citing unnamed officials, Kan reports that the money is being used to fund the new aid mechanism, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and that the decision to transfer the funds was made under the radar, in an attempt to keep the public from finding out.
The government has insisted that it has no part in funding GHF, which has faced scrutiny due to the lack of information regarding its funds.
The organization claimed to have received more than $100 million in commitments from a foreign government donor but did not name the donor.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid suggested last week that the government was secretly funding the aid group through foreign “shell companies,” but this was quickly shot down by the Prime Minister’s Office.
“Israel does not fund the humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Omer Dostri. “Israel and the United States are working in full coordination and through various channels to cut off aid from reaching Hamas.”
In response to the Kan report, the Prime Minister’s Office and the office of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich insist: “The State of Israel is not funding humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
US President Donald Trump says “Iran has been slow-walking” in the ongoing nuclear talks.
“Time is running out on Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons, which must be made quickly!” Trump writes on Truth Social, saying he discussed the matter on a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier today.
The post was subsequently deleted.
“I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement,” Trump had written.
Trump said Putin offered to personally participate in the nuclear talks in order to help push them along.
US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack says on X that he is flying to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over threats from Syria.
According to the businessman-turned-diplomat and Trump ally, the US president “envisions a Syria that cannot be used as a platform by any 3rd party nation state, or non-nation state, to threaten Syria’s neighbors, including Israel.”
Syrian authorities insisted earlier today that they would “never be a threat” to anyone in the region, a day after two rockets were fired from Syria at the Israeli Golan Heights for the first time in over a year.
An FBI team is investigating an attack on demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, at the scene on Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado, on June 1, 2025. (Eli Imadali / AFP)
The FBI office in Denver says the number of victims wounded in the Boulder, Colorado, firebombing attack has climbed to 15.
Authorities initially reported eight victims who were the most severely injured.
That figure was later updated to 12, as more victims have come forward who were less badly wounded during the investigation.
The victims, eight women and seven men, are between the ages of 25 and 88. One dog was also injured, the FBI says.
An 88-year-old woman was the most severely wounded. A female Holocaust survivor was also wounded.
The number of victims could have implications for the suspect’s charges and sentencing.
The suspect, Mohamed Soliman, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder for each of the initial eight victims, for a total of 16 counts of attempted murder.
Those charges are being filed by the state of Colorado. Federal prosecutors are also charging Soliman with a hate crime. He faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
The results of a vote on a resolution for the UN Security Council to reconsider and support full UN membership for the Palestinian Authority as the State of Palestine is displayed during a special session of the UN General Assembly, at UN headquarters in New York, May 10, 2024. (Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP)
The United States has informed Israel that it will later today veto a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire, release of the hostages and surge of humanitarian aid into the Strip, an Israeli official says.
The US believes that the resolution does not adequately lay blame on Hamas for the ongoing conflict and it will not complement the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, the Israeli official tells The Times of Israel, confirming reporting by the Axios news site.
The US also believes that the resolution’s demand for the resumption of aid distribution by the UN, which Washington fears will undercut the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation efforts on the ground, which are aimed at preventing Hamas from diverting aid.
The vote marks the first time since US President Donald Trump took office that the UNSC will discuss a substantive resolution related to the war in Gaza, according to the office of Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
Danon will state during the session that “anyone who supports a one-sided and biased resolution is effectively providing aid to Hamas,” his office adds.
“Instead of pressuring Hamas to accept the framework currently on the table, there are those who believe international pressure will stop Israel. Our message is clear: No discussion or resolution will cause us to leave the hostages behind,” he continues in the statement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, attends a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting alongside Likud MK Yuli Edelstein at the Knesset on June 13, 2023. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)
The Prime Minister’s Office announces that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just finished a meeting with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, at which “it was clarified that there is a way to bridge the gaps on the issue of conscription.”
Tomorrow afternoon, Netanyahu and Edelstein are slated to meet with former Shas MK Ariel Atias and Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs “to advance the solution,” the PMO states.
Netanyahu summoned Edelstein for the meeting after last-ditch talks last night between the Likud lawmaker and Haredi representatives failed to settle their differences regarding an ultra-Orthodox conscription bill currently making its way through the Knesset.
Edelstein has pledged that any law coming out of his committee would levy sanctions on draft dodgers, a position he apparently maintained last night. Following Edelstein’s refusal to back down on sanctions during the meeting, the spiritual leaders of Degel HaTorah, one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, instructed their MKs to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset.
Shas leader Aryeh Deri has since stated in an internal party meeting that Shas also supports dissolving the Knesset, according to Hebrew media reports.
In a separate statement, Edelstein’s spokesman says that the meeting was conducted “in a good spirit” and that “discussions will continue tomorrow.”
An Edelstein spokesman used similar language to describe last night’s failed meeting, writing at the time that it was also conducted in “a good spirit and further discussions on the subject were scheduled.”
Shas party leader and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, right, presents his letter of resignation from the Knesset to Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein, October 31, 2016. (Knesset spokesperson)
During this afternoon’s Shas faction meeting, chairman Aryeh Deri declared that the ultra-Orthodox party will support United Torah Judaism’s effort to dissolve the Knesset, according to Hebrew media.
“There is no choice left. We don’t like it, but we need to support the dissolution of the Knesset,” the Israel Hayom daily quotes Deri as saying.
According to the Ynet news site, Deri also harshly attacks Likud lawmaker Yuli Edelstein, whose Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman is currently working on a bill to regulate Haredi conscription.
Edelstein is “screwing everything up. He wants to screw Bibi over and bring down his coalition out of personal revenge. He’s the one who’s working to bring down the government and is dragging the entire right into elections… because he didn’t get a ministerial position,” the site quotes Deri as stating.
“We’re going to elections,” he states.
Edelstein has pledged that any law coming out of his Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee would levy sanctions on draft dodgers, a position he maintained during last-ditch talks with Haredi representatives last night.
The two sides’ failure to come to terms led the spiritual leaders of Degel HaTorah, one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, to instruct their MKs this morning to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset.
In a tweet, Edelstein asserts that the “enlistment law I presented last night at the meeting is the same draft that we have been discussing for over a year. A law without effective personal sanctions, high draft targets and a high rate of increase [of the number of draftees] — is not draft but evasion, and I opposed it all the way.”
While he is committed to easing the burden on Israel’s reservists and to expanding the IDF’s recruitment base, Edelstein writes that he is “not in favor of dissolving the coalition or the government, and I do not share in the hatred of our ultra-Orthodox brothers.”
“We must not stop the work on the various fronts and engage in politics. The order of the hour is to promote an effective and genuine conscription law. After 77 years, we can make history,” Edelstein adds.
New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani responds to a question during the New York City Mayoral Candidates Forum at Medgar Evers College, April 23, 2025, in New York. (AP/Frank Franklin II)
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
Mamdani is polling in second place ahead of this month’s Democratic party primary that will likely decide the winner of the November election in the mostly Democratic US city.
Mamdani, a state assembly member from Queens, is a longtime pro-Palestinian activist and is harshly critical of Israel. His views on Israel’s right to exist have come under scrutiny in recent weeks. He has previously identified as an anti-Zionist.
CNN reports that a Mamdani aide recently attempted to stop an interview when the candidate was pressed to clarify his view on Israel.
Asked multiple times if he believes Israel should exist as a Jewish state, Mamdani said he believes that “Israel has a right to exist as a state with equal rights.”
Mamdani has voiced a variation of the same line before.
After he affirmed Israel’s right to exist last month while under pressure, without mentioning Israel’s Jewish character, he came under fire from anti-Israel activists.
Mamdani is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, a far-left group that has made anti-Israel activism one of its party planks.
Mayoral candidates, including frontrunner Andrew Cuomo, have been battling for Jewish votes ahead of the June 24 primary. Jews make up about 16% of the primary electorate.
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz attends a Knesset plenum session in Jerusalem, June 4, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In a statement, Benny Gantz’s National Unity opposition party expresses support for legislation to dissolve the current Knesset, calling for the government to be “overthrown.”
This morning, the spiritual leaders of Degel HaTorah, one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, instructed their MKs to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset due to the coalition’s failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from conscription.
This prompted Yisrael Beytenu, The Democrats and Yesh Atid to likewise announce they would submit legislation for the Knesset’s dissolution for an initial vote next week.
National Unity itself did not announce the submission of such a bill alongside its fellow opposition parties.
A Rafael laser interceptor system, in a handout photo issued by the defense firm on June 4, 2025. (Rafael Advanced Defense Systems)
After the Israeli military last week disclosed it had been using a laser interception system to shoot down Hezbollah drones, the Rafael defense firm unveils several new versions of its Iron Beam and other laser systems.
Rafael says it will unveil its family of “high-energy laser weapon systems” at the Paris Air Show, set to be held later this month.
The systems include the Iron Beam 450, an upgraded version of the in-development Iron Beam, which is set to be delivered to the IDF by the end of 2025.
Rafael says the Iron Beam 450 is “widely considered the most advanced high-energy laser air defense system in the world,” and is capable of shooting down drones, rockets and other aerial threats up to distances of 10 kilometers.
A Rafael laser interceptor system, in a handout photo issued by the defense firm on June 4, 2025. (Rafael Advanced Systems)
Alongside the powerful system, Rafael is set to reveal at the airshow the Iron Beam M, a compact and mobile version of the laser interceptor, designed to be mounted on a truck and used by ground forces or to protect strategic sites.
The defense firm also says it will unveil the Lite Beam, which is a lightweight, compact and lower-powered laser interceptor designed to be mounted on armored personnel carriers or other armored vehicles during ground operations.
US President Donald Trump, right, and White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, left, May 28, 2025, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Mediators are optimistic that Hamas will soon submit an updated hostage deal proposal that will be closer to what US special envoy Steve Witkoff presented last week, three sources familiar with the matter tell The Times of Israel.
Hamas submitted an earlier response to Witkoff’s proposal on Saturday, which the US envoy blasted as unacceptable.
Since then, Egyptian and Qatari mediators — along with Witkoff’s representative in Doha, Palestinian-American businessman and political activist Bishara Bahbah — have been working with Hamas officials to soften or remove some of the changes they made to the US proposal, an Arab official and a second source familiar with the matter say.
A third source says Witkoff is optimistic about the chances for a breakthrough before the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, which is slated to begin on Friday.
Witkoff met yesterday with a group of hostage families in the White House, along with several other senior Trump aides.
Even if Hamas submits a softened proposal, the sides will still need to hold a round of proximity talks aimed at ironing out final details, including the exact parameters of Israel’s partial withdrawal from Gaza during the 60-day temporary truce currently under discussion.
The main issue of contention in the talks remains whether the temporary truce under discussion leaves enough of a window for Israel to resume fighting after it expires or if the proposal’s assurances from the Trump administration are enough to convince Hamas that the ceasefire will hold permanently.
US law enforcement officers detain a suspect - named as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, an Egyptian national - after an attack that injured multiple people, in Boulder, Colorado, June 1, 2025. (X/@OpusObscuraX/via REUTERS)
A new video shows the man who attacked a US rally for the Gaza hostages in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday accidentally lighting himself on fire during the incident.
The suspect, Mohamed Soliman, threw two Molotov cocktails into the crowd. Investigators have said he wore a backpack weed sprayer filled with gasoline that he intended to use as a makeshift flamethrower.
Video shared by witness Alex Osante shows Soliman running towards pedestrians with a lit firebomb and hurling the device forward.
As he throws the firebomb, the flames spread to his clothes, and he briefly goes up in flames. He then removes his orange vest, his shirt and the weed sprayer.
The video confirms the accounts of eyewitnesses who have said Soliman was shirtless in videos of the attack because he had stripped off his shirt when it caught fire.
The wife and children of Boulder, Colorado, terrorism suspect Mohamed Soliman are in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the family is being processed for expedited removal, according to the Department of Homeland Security. @trevorlault reports. pic.twitter.com/EwmFmBvNOQ
Soliman disguised himself as a gardener, wearing the orange vest and weed sprayer and carrying flowers, to approach his victims with the weapons without raising suspicion.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul answers questions at a plenary session of the German lower house of parliament (Bundestag), on June 4, 2025, in Berlin. (Photo by John MACDOUGALL / AFP)
Germany’s foreign minister says the country will continue arms deliveries to Israel despite earlier suggesting that these are under review.
Johann Wadephul tells a heated session in parliament that Israel, amid its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, is also under threat from Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group and Iran, and that “Germany will continue to support Israel, including with weapons deliveries.”
Last week, Wadephul said that Germany was assessing “whether what is happening in Gaza is in line with international law” and that arms sales to Israel would be evaluated on this basis.
This brought criticism from some within Wadephul’s own CDU/CSU conservative alliance, who accused him of insufficient support for Israel.
Tomorrow, Wadephul will welcome his Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa’ar to Berlin.
Today’s parliamentary session is briefly disrupted by a protester shouting “Free Palestine” and “No to genocide,” who is then escorted from the spectators’ gallery.
Earlier, an MP for the far-left Die Linke party, Cansin Kokturk, was ordered to leave the chamber for wearing a T-shirt with the word “Palestine” on it.
Germany has been one of Israel’s strongest supporters as it tries to atone for the murder of more than six million Jewish people during the Holocaust.
However, conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz said last week: “I no longer understand what the Israeli army is now doing in the Gaza Strip, with what goal.”
He added that the impact on Gaza’s civilians “can no longer be justified by a fight against Hamas terrorism.”
MK Moshe Tur-Paz speaks during a Finance committee meeting at the Knesset, February 23, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The Yisrael Beytenu opposition party has already submitted a bill to dissolve the Knesset, which it will “promote next week, and we very much hope that the Knesset will agree to end this circus,” party lawmaker Evgeny Sova tells The Times of Israel.
This morning, the spiritual leaders of Degel HaTorah, one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, instructed their MKs to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset due to the coalition’s failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from conscription. This prompted the Yisrael Beytenu, The Democrats and Yesh Atid opposition parties to likewise announce they would submit legislation for the Knesset’s dissolution for an initial vote next week.
Because the opposition waited until Degel HaTorah’s MKs received their own instructions, showing cracks in the coalition, they missed the deadline for having such a bill considered by the plenum this week, causing a weeklong delay.
Asked why the opposition’s bills were not submitted earlier, Yesh Atid MK Moshe Tur-Paz tells The Times of Israel that “we didn’t want to submit it before the Haredim’s meetings [with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] so as not to make them close ranks. In any case, there was no majority because Shas is not there yet. And of course, if the Haredim keep threatening [to do so], they are welcome to resign from the government.”
Following Tur-Paz’s remarks, it was reported that Shas is expected to come out in favor of dissolving the Knesset.
Shas party leader MK Aryeh Deri, right, speaks with United Torah Judaism No. 2 MK Moshe Gafni during a Knesset plenum session in Jerusalem, February 10, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas party’s lawmakers finish a faction meeting to discuss whether or not to support dissolving the Knesset over the coalition’s failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from military service.
According to multiple Hebrew press reports, the party is expected to come out in favor of the move, which is being led by the United Torah Judaism party. Speaking with the Haaretz daily, a Shas source states that the party will indeed push to dissolve the Knesset, leading to new elections.
There has been no public comment from Shas on the developments, although it has been coordinating its efforts with UTJ in recent weeks, with both parties engaging in a partial legislative boycott of the coalition in an effort to exert pressure on Netanyahu.
Shas’s top rabbinic leadership is also expected to convene to discuss whether they will stay in the coalition.
Responding to Shas’s reported decision, firebrand Likud lawmaker Tally Gotliv slams the Haredi party’s chairman.
“Aryeh Deri, I never thought you were a right-winger, but Shas voters are overwhelmingly right-wingers! Right-wingers who will shudder at anyone who dares to harm the government’s resilience during a war on multiple fronts,” she declares in a video posted to X.
“Of course, if you go to the elections, I will do everything in my power to convince your public to vote for a right-wing party, and there is a good chance that I will succeed,” she adds.
Police sort through the luggage of two West Bank Palestinians who were reported to be carrying a suspicious object, in south Tel Aviv's Elifelet light rail station, June 4, 2025. (Israel Police)
Police have reopened south Tel Aviv’s Elifelet light rail station to the public after arresting two West Bank Palestinians over a suspicious object report.
Light rail security staff previously called the cops on the two men, reporting that they had been carrying “suspicious luggage,” a law enforcement spokesman says. Police officers and bomb disposal specialists who arrived at the scene did not find any weapons or dangerous items in their possession.
Officers checking their luggage instead found pants that are part of an IDF uniform, among what appears to be a plethora of other clothing and shopping bags.
They have taken the two men — a 44-year-old Nablus resident and a 59-year-old Beita resident — for questioning at a nearby station.
A photo shared by the police spokesman shows the contents of the detainees’ luggage strewn about the light rail platform.
The scene of a traffic accident between a truck and a bus along Route 1 in the West Bank, east of Jerusalem and near the Dead Sea, on June 4, 2025. (Magen David Adom)
Some 30 people have been injured in a traffic accident between a truck and a Palestinian passenger bus along Route 1 in the West Bank, east of Jerusalem and near the Dead Sea, paramedics say.
The wounded passengers are being taken by the Palestinian Red Crescent to receive medical care in Palestinian Authority-run territory, according to the Magen David Adom emergency service.
The truck driver, who was lightly injured, is being taken by MDA paramedics to Hadassah Mount Scopus hospital in Jerusalem.
Santa Ono addresses the media after being introduced as the new president of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Michgan, July 13, 2022. (Carlos Osorio/AP)
Florida officials have rejected the University of Florida board’s choice to helm the US university, citing his record at the University of Michigan where his tenure included fierce anti-Israel protests.
Santa Ono drew criticism from both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel camps in Michigan over his handling of the protests. Pro-Palestinian activists accused him of being heavy-handed when he ordered their encampment cleared and students arrested in the spring of 2024. Pro-Israel voices, meanwhile, said he had been too lenient in allowing the encampment to last as long as it did.
“This is the right decision for UF,” Florida Sen. Rick Scott says on X after the 10-6 vote yesterday by the Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s public university system, to reject Ono’s candidacy. “UF’s students, faculty and staff deserve a president who will stand for Florida values and against antisemitism.”
Ono also faced scrutiny over his approach to campus diversity. Under his leadership, Michigan had a robust Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program — a bugbear for Republicans — until announcing in March that it would be dismantled.
In recent months, Ono sought to distance himself from the controversies of his tenure. He spoke at the Anti-Defamation League’s Never is Now summit in New York City in March, where the pro-Israel podcaster Dan Senor said his administration “seems to have gotten things under control.”
But the Florida officials are not convinced.
“The public record completely contradicted what the nominee was telling us,” Paul Renner, a former speaker of the Florida House and vociferous DEI critic who voted against Ono on the Board of Governors, tells The New York Times.
The UK government calls for an “immediate and independent investigation” into a string of deadly incidents at aid distribution sites in the Gaza Strip this week.
Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer says the deaths of Palestinians as they allegedly sought food are “deeply disturbing,” as he calls Israel’s new measures for aid delivery “inhumane.”
The IDF has said it only shot at suspects deemed to be potentially endangering troops, not at civilians.
MK Yuli Edelstein attends a plenum session in the Knesset, June 4, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summons Yuli Edelstein for a meeting this evening after last-ditch talks between the Likud lawmaker and Haredi representatives failed to settle their differences regarding an ultra-Orthodox conscription bill currently making its way through the Knesset.
Edelstein has pledged that any law coming out of his Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee would levy sanctions on draft dodgers, a position he apparently maintained last night. Following Edelstein’s reported refusal to back down on sanctions during the meeting, the spiritual leaders of Degel Hatorah, one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, instructed their MKs to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset.
According to media reports, Netanyahu has been considering replacing Edelstein as chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, although this move has been rejected by the Haredim, who believe it would deepen opposition to the bill. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has proposed that Netanyahu allow him to resign from his ministerial position and replace Edelstein, the Israel Hayom daily reported.
While the final text of the bill, which is undergoing revisions by committee staff, has not been made public, the ultra-Orthodox news site Kikar Hashabbat reports that it includes a variety of harsh sanctions that would hit draft dodgers hard in the wallet.
These include the loss of property tax and public transportation discounts, the removal of tax benefits for working women married to dodgers, exclusion from the housing lottery and the cancellation of daycare and academic subsidies. The bill would also prevent draft dodgers up to the age of 29 from receiving driver’s licenses or traveling abroad and would open them up to the threat of arrest.
Commenting on the sanctions, committee member Moshe Tur-Paz (Yesh Atid) tells The Times of Israel that the ultra-Orthodox have been receiving privileges — such as property tax discounts pegged to how many children they have — for years and that this is “unreasonable” given “the economic burden they create.”
“Regarding some of the sanctions, they are sanctions that exist anyway; it’s just a matter of activating them,” the opposition member continues, adding that most Israelis believe that those “who don’t contribute to the state by enlisting in the IDF” should receive nothing.
“I fully support all the sanctions mentioned here and I think the time has come, certainly during a war in which four soldiers were killed in a week,” Tur-Paz says.
The number of antisemitic incidents in Germany almost doubled last year, at a time of continued war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, the semi-official German body that tracks antisemitism reports.
The Federal Research and Information Point for Antisemitism (RIAS) says it registered 8,627 incidents of violence, vandalism and threats against Jews in Germany last year, almost twice the 4,886 recorded in 2023, and far ahead of 2020’s 1,957.
“Objectively, the risk of being persecuted as a Jew in Germany has increased since October 7, 2023,” Benjamin Steinitz, head of RIAS, tells a news briefing on the report, referring to the date of the Hamas onslaught that started the Gaza war.
“But debates about what counts as an expression of antisemitism seem to take up more space than empathy for the victims.”
The largest category of incidents reported by RIAS — about 25% of the total — fall within the category of “anti-Israeli antisemitism,” which covers criticisms of Israeli policy that some regard as legitimate political expression in a democracy.
In a report published last month, Jewish activist group Diaspora Alliance questioned what it said was RIAS methodology equating such criticism with antisemitism.
Alliance activist Jossi Bartal claimed RIAS’s approach “delegitimizes criticism of the Israeli state [for] marking every expression of Palestinian identity as suspect.”
Steinitz tells the briefing in response to questions that the Diaspora Alliance report distorted RIAS’s work. “I think the aim of publishing the report now was to present our work as somehow controversial and discredit the experiences of victims.”
Antisemitic violence, vandalism and threats have surged in recent years, with far-right Germans responsible for around three times as many incidents as Islamists, RIAS reports.
For Germany, tracking such incidents and countering antisemitism is central to its postwar project of atoning for the Nazi-era Holocaust of Europe’s Jews.
Russia is concerned about rising tensions around Iran and the risk of the situation slipping into a full-scale confrontation, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says.
The IDF publishes a video it says shows a drone strike on two Palestinian terror operatives who were carrying explosive devices meant to be used in an attack on troops in the Gaza Strip.
The video appears to show secondary blasts, indicating that the pair were carrying explosives.
The strike was carried out during operations of the Nahal Brigade in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, the military says.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi attends a Knesset plenum session in Jerusalem, June 4, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The government will not fall but will instead pass legislation regulating ultra-Orthodox conscription, contends Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi.
“This Knesset is not going anywhere – not now, and not because of cynical political pressures,” the Likud politician tweets, vowing that nobody “will drag the State of Israel into unnecessary elections” during “a war for the future of the state.”
“This historic and important conscription law will be legislated – not with slogans or political maneuvers, but with responsibility and respect for the world of Torah and for Israel’s security,” he writes.
According to the Israel Hayom daily, Karhi has proposed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allow him to resign from his ministerial position and replace Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, who has pledged that any law coming out of his committee would levy sanctions on draft dodgers, a position rejected by the Haredim.
“I hope that someone will be found who will be able to solve the problem,” and if Edelstein cannot, then “we need to find someone who will succeed,” Karhi is quoted as saying by the right-wing news outlet.
This morning, the spiritual leaders of Degel Hatorah, one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism coalition party, instructed its MKs to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset due to the coalition’s failure to pass a bill exempting yeshiva students from conscription — a longstanding UTJ goal.
Police have arrested an 18-year-old East Jerusalem resident on suspicion that he sexually assaulted a young boy repeatedly over the past few months.
The suspect is said to have made threats against the life of the boy, who is under 14 years of age, in an attempt to extort money from him.
The threats later escalated into outright violence when the young man allegedly dragged the victim to his home, attacked him with a soldering iron and sexually assaulted him.
The suspect has been brought to court, where a judge has extended his detention for an extra day as police continue to investigate the case.
Education Minister Yoav Kisch slams the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism coalition party, whose spiritual leadership is pushing for the dissolution of the Knesset.
“If the Haredim overthrow the government now, in the middle of the war, it will be remembered as an eternal disgrace,” Kisch tweets.
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street in central London on June 4, 2025 (Adrian DENNIS / AFP)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says in the House of Commons that London will consider further actions against Israel, including sanctions, decrying settler violence and the recently expanded military campaign in Gaza.
“Israel’s recent action is appalling and in my view counterproductive and intolerable, and we have strongly opposed the expansion of military operations and settler violence, and the blocking of humanitarian aid,” says Starmer in response to a question about Gaza.
“We have suspended the FTA talks and sanctioned extremists supporting violence in the West Bank,” he continues, saying, “We will keep looking at further actions along with our allies, including sanctions.
“Let me be absolutely clear, we need to get back to a ceasefire. We need the hostages who’ve been held for a very long time to be released and we desperately need more aid at speed and at volume into Gaza, because it’s an appalling and intolerable situation,” Starmer says.
Last month, the UK imposed sanctions on two illegal West Bank settlement outposts and three Israeli settlers, including veteran settler leader Daniella Weiss and her organization Nachala, and a company involved in the construction of illegal settlement outposts.
It also froze its Free Trade Agreement talks with Israel in protest of the ongoing conflict.
A short while ago, explosions were reported at a munitions depot at an air defense base near the Syrian city of Hama.
The reports are not confirmed by official Syrian media or authorities.
The cause of the blast is not immediately clear.
#شام|| انفجارات عنيفة قرب بلدة الربيعة بريف حماة، ناتجة عن انفجار صواريخ ضمن مستودع للذخيرة في منطقة عسكرية سابقة لأسباب مجهولة، ولا أنباء عن حجم الأضرار حتى اللحظة. pic.twitter.com/lVkMggCYqb
كتيبة #الدفاع_الجوي على أطراف بلدة #الربيعة بريف #حماة الغربي، انفجارات ضخمة مستمرة حتى الآن. الانفجارات أدت إلى إصابة حافلة ركاب بين بلدتي #متنين و #الربيعة، ما أسفر عن مقتل جميع من كانوا على متنها. تحذير عاجل: الصواريخ في المستودع تنفجر تلقائياً، وعلى القاطنين بالقرب من… pic.twitter.com/KIDr1X2eQX
Opposition Leader MK Yair Lapid attends a plenum session at the assembly hall of the Knesset on June 4, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
All Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has brought Israel is pain and disaster, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares, reiterating his party’s earlier statement that it will submit a bill for the Knesset’s dissolution next Wednesday.
“Next week, Yesh Atid will put forth legislation dispersing the Knesset. This Knesset is done for. It has nowhere left to go. All it has brought onto the people of Israel is pain, disaster, loss, and crises,” Lapid tells the Knesset plenum.
“You will not pass an evasion law when every day…wonderful Israeli children are killed defending us,” he adds, refering to contentious legislation enshrining draft exemptions for Haredi men.
Itai Shamai is named as the 13-year-old boy apparently murdered by his mother earlier this week in Modiin.
First responders found Shamai dead alongside his mother Sunday, after a fire in their home.
Police are investigating the incident as a murder-suicide and suspect the mother killed her young son, set fire to the apartment and then stabbed herself.
Shamai’s funeral will be held at 4 p.m. at Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul Cemetery.
A statement from Shamai’s school in Modiin describes him as a “sensitive, caring boy beloved by his friends and the school staff.”
“His quiet smile, generosity and open heart touched everyone who knew him,” the statement reads.
Displaced Palestinians push a cart with bodies after people were reportedly hit by gunfire near a food distribution center in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on June 1, 2025 (AFP)
The BBC defends its reporting of an incident in which Palestinians were killed near a Gaza aid center on Sunday, after the White House accused the British broadcaster of taking “the word of Hamas.”
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said Israeli gunfire killed at least 31 people on Sunday near the US- and Israel-backed aid center in Rafah. The IDF acknowledged firing “warning shots” at Palestinian suspects who approached forces around a kilometer away from the aid site, hours before the facility opened for the distribution of food packages.
Responding to a question about the incident, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said yesterday the BBC had to “correct and take down” its story about the incident.
“The administration is aware of those reports and we are currently looking into the veracity of them because, unfortunately, unlike some in the media, we don’t take the word of Hamas with total truth,” she said.
“We like to look into it when they speak, unlike the BBC, who had multiple headlines,” she said, citing stories that gave different death tolls.
“And then, oh, wait, they had to correct and take down their entire story, saying ‘We reviewed the footage and couldn’t find any evidence of anything,'” she added.
But the BBC says the White House claims were not accurate and that it had not removed its story.
“The claim the BBC took down a story after reviewing footage is completely wrong. We did not remove any story and we stand by our journalism,” it says in a statement.
It notes that headlines giving varying death tolls are “totally normal” journalistic practice due to the story being “updated throughout the day with the latest fatality figures as they came in from various sources.”
It says the death tolls were always “clearly attributed, from the first figure of 15 from medics, through the 31 killed from the Hamas-run health ministry to the final Red Cross statement of ‘at least 21,'” it adds.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its field hospital in Rafah received 179 people, including 21 pronounced dead on arrival.
Leavitt also criticized the Washington Post for its reporting of the incident.
The Post deleted one article over sourcing issues “because it and early versions of the article didn’t meet Post fairness standards.”
“The article and headline were updated on Sunday evening making it clear that there was no consensus about who was responsible.”
A police officer at the site of a rocket impact near the Golan Heights community of Ramat Magshimim, shortly after two rockets were fired from Syria, June 3, 2025. (Israel Police)
Syrian authorities insist they would “never be a threat” to anyone in the region, after two rockets were fired from Syria at the Golan Heights yesterday for the first time in over a year.
The IDF said it responded with artillery fire at the source of the rockets, some 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the border with Israel. The IDF also carried out a series of airstrikes throughout southern Syria that it said targeted weapons belonging to the regime.
Syria condemns the Israeli shelling as a “blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty” that “aggravates tensions in the region.”
“Syria has never been and will never be a threat to anyone in the region,” the foreign ministry says, in a statement carried by the official SANA news agency.
The ministry denies responsibility for the rocket fire and says it can not confirm whether rockets were launched towards Israel, blaming “numerous parties… trying to destabilize the region.”
After the rocket fire, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Jerusalem would mount a “full response” against the regime of Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman at the Israel Bar Association's conference on justice in Tel Aviv, September 3, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
The IDF’s chief defense attorney, Col. Ofira Elkabetz, has filed a petition against the State Comptroller’s Office, demanding it halt an examination into the “core issues” surrounding the army’s failure to prevent Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, and other events in the war.
The Military Advocate General’s Military Defense unit claims that State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman is “exceeding his authority and is causing serious and irreversible harm to the rights of IDF servicemembers, and the work of any investigative committee that may be established in the future.”
“However, the defense emphasizes that the state comptroller will still have over 35 important audit issues concerning the IDF, in connection with the events of October 7 and the war,” the Military Defense adds.
The comptroller’s probe into the events of October 7 is currently the only state-sanctioned comprehensive investigation into the attack, during which some 1,200 people were massacred by terrorists from Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in southern Israel, and 251 people taken hostage.
Critics of the government, including members of the opposition and several government watchdog groups, have expressed concern that the probe by Englman, who has no legal background and was appointed to his position under a Netanyahu-led government, could seek to minimize political responsibility for the devastating October 7 onslaught.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has refused to establish a state commission of inquiry.
State prosecutors are preparing to indict a Population and Immigration Authority employee who is suspected of sexually exploiting women seeking entry into Israel at Ben Gurion Airport.
Police say the suspect, a man in his 30s from southern Israel, abused his position for years by making sexual propositions to women who were trying to enter the country.
According to Hebrew-language media reports, the man’s victims were tourists.
He denied entry to those who refused his sexual advances, police say.
The suspect is also believed to have assaulted several women in bathrooms and in his vehicle while parked near the airport.
The suspect was arrested and questioned. A formal indictment against him is expected in the coming days.
A Population and Immigration Authority worker suspected of sexually exploiting women trying to enter Israel is filmed, apparently in the act, as he repeatedly leads women to the same place in Ben Gurion Airport, dates unknown. (Israel Police)
Palestinian residents of Maghar al-Deir pack up belongings as they flee the West Bank village on May 22, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
A group of European countries, Canada, and the European Union issue a joint call for Israel to crack down on settler violence against Palestinians and to allow the return of Palestinians who fled their homes after repeated harassment by Israeli extremists.
Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, and the EU stress their “strong solidarity” with Maghar al-Deir, whose residents abandoned the hamlet last month after settlers established an outpost nearby and began assaulting them.
The countries “urge the Israeli authorities to dismantle the outpost immediately and to take urgent and effective measures to enable the safe return of displaced residents. It is imperative that the community is protected from further violence and intimidation.”
According to the statement, the Maghar al-Deir incident is part of a “broader pattern of displacement in Area C of the West Bank.”
Area C is where Israel maintains both military and administrative control, and where the Israeli settlements are located.
The joint statement decries “a coercive environment marked by repeated settler violence, movement restrictions, land confiscation, demolitions and inadequate access to essential services.”
“We call on Israel to respect its obligations under international law, including the prohibition of forcible transfer,” the countries say. “We also reaffirm our clear and consistent opposition to settlements, which are illegal under international law. We emphasise Israel’s responsibility to protect all Palestinian communities in Area C.”
Last week, the High Court of Justice urged the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police to ensure that the residents of the nearby Palestinian Bedouin hamlet Wadi as-Seeq, who fled in the face of persistent settler violence in October 2023, could return home.
Handcuffed Hamas terrorists sit next to a picture of Palestinians walking past destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip and an Israeli flag, in a prison in central Israel, May 6, 2025 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Israel confirms that 2,790 Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip are currently held in Israeli jails and detention facilities.
The information is revealed in the state’s response to a petition by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and other organizations against the Law for Unlawful Combatants.
The law enables the holding of suspected terrorists and combatants from terror groups fighting Israel without providing them with a “prisoner of war” status under international humanitarian law, since they are not members of the legal armed forces of a sovereign state.
According to the state’s response to PCATI, 660 of the Gazan detainees are being held in military detention facilities.
The state’s response also confirms that a military detention facility at the Anatot base has been closed, following reports of harsh conditions there, and a facility at the Amiad base used to hold Hezbollah operatives captured in Lebanon was also shuttered.
Since December, Israel has freed 1,244 Gazan detainees — mostly in the hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas — and has detained 455 more, according to the state response.
PCATI notes that there is a “discrepancy” of 144 detainees since the state’s last update. “The fate of these detainees is unknown, and has not been explained by the state authorities,” the organization says.
The family of a Palestinian man shot dead by troops last week say that he was killed in his bed as he slept.
Jassem al-Sadeh, 19, from the village of Jit near Qalqilya in the West Bank, was fatally shot in his home by soldiers in the early hours of May 28.
Footage taken by the family in the aftermath of the incident shows blood on and under the bed, as well as four bullet casings found at the scene.
His brother, Darwish al-Sadeh, who was home at the time, tells The Times of Israel: “Five soldiers came to our house at 1:35 a.m. on the night between May 27 and 28. It was just Jassem, our father, and me at home. They entered, didn’t speak to anyone, and went straight into the room where Jassem was sleeping. I heard heavy gunfire. It happened in minutes.
“I heard the soldiers arguing with each other in the next room after the shooting. One of them said in Hebrew, ‘What are you doing, are you crazy?’ I didn’t hear Jassem’s voice before the shooting – not a word. He was still asleep.”
Darwish adds that after the shooting, the soldiers told the family to call an ambulance but did not allow them to enter the room where Jassem had been shot.
They did not ask for names or identification papers, he says, only telling them, “Sit down, the ambulance will arrive in ten minutes.”
After some time, the soldiers took Jassem outside to a military jeep and then handed him over to the Red Crescent.
Jassem was pronounced dead at a Palestinian hospital. According to what the family has been told, the hospital’s medical report stated he had been shot twice in the chest. Video of the body also shows bleeding from the chest.
The IDF reiterates that “the incident is under investigation.”
Last week, the IDF said that as the troops were operating in Jit, “a terrorist tried to attack the force with a sharp object and posed a threat.”
In response, the soldiers opened fire, “neutralizing the terrorist,” the army said.
قـ،،تلوه أثناء نومه |
ارتقاء الشاب جاسم إبراهيم السدة برصـ،ـاص الاحـتـ.ـلال في قرية جيت شرق مدينة قلقيلية. pic.twitter.com/EsXgjyOy83
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits at the Tel Aviv District Court before the start of his cross-examination in the criminal trial against him, June 4, 2025 (Moti Milrod/POOL)
On the second day of his cross-examination during his criminal trial, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu details some of the gifts and luxury vacations he was given by Arnon Milchan, claiming the Hollywood mogul’s generosity came despite the fact that the lawmaker had no intention of returning to politics when he was out of office in 2007.
The cross-examination is focusing on Case 1000, in which Netanyahu is accused of fraud and breach of trust for allegedly accepting luxury gifts worth hundreds of thousands of shekels from Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer, and doing various favors for Milchan in return.
“He understood that I liked cigars so he would bring them for me. Between 1999 and 2000 he brought me cigars, and champagne for Sara [Netanyahu, the premier’s wife],” Netanyahu tells the court, according to Channel 13 news.
“The first meeting… he saw that I liked cigars and would bring boxes of cigars and when we would meet in Israel, he would bring a box. Usually one, occasionally two boxes. That’s what happened,” he says, according to Haaretz.
Netanyahu says that Milchan was generous and the two would meet at the billionaire’s mansion in Paris.
Netanyahu says that the meetings took place even though Milchan understood that Netanyahu was a “political corpse” in 2007 whose career had ended, Haaretz reports.
“I had no intention of returning to politics. He knew that,” Netanyahu says, according to Channel 13 news.
“We would meet there, several times. At his invitation, with his full hospitality, every trip. Even at these meetings he would bring cigars and champagne. I flew at his expense time and time again. But not when I was in politics, because that is prohibited.”
The cross-examination will likely take some 12 months to complete, given the numerous complications of the legal calendar and the prime minister’s responsibilities. His direct testimony took 36 sessions.
Businessman Arnon Milchan seen on a screen before his testimony in Netanyahu’s Case 1000 corruption trial, in Brighton, June 29, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
A few dozen anti-war protesters set out on a three-day march from Tel Aviv to the Gaza border, demanding a hostage deal and an end to fighting in the Strip.
The procession is the latest in a long string of days-long protest marches staged by Israeli activists in recent years.
Hostage families and anti-government protesters have on a number of occasions made the trek from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, usually culminating in a mass demonstration near the Knesset and other government buildings.
Despite scant numbers, organizers say they anticipate the march will swell to tens of thousands of participants in the coming days, particularly as protesters near the border. Several relatives of hostages are expected to join in the procession.
On Friday, anti-war protesters will stage a “White March” near the Gaza border led by a large coalition of left-wing organizations, says a spokesman for organizing group Standing Together.
אנשים מתאספים! עוד רגע נצא לצעדה לכיוון עזה! חם היום, אבל אי אפשר יותר לשבת מהצד. חייבים לקום ולעשות משהו! בדיוק בגלל זה אנחנו צועדים למקום שהממשלה לא רוצה שנראה, שהיא מטביעה בדם כדי לשרוד בשלטון. אנחנו מסרבים לתת להם לקחת לנו את העתיד!
The Yasser Abu Shabab clan, an armed gang operating in recent weeks in the area near Gaza’s Kerem Shalom border crossing, releases a video calling on residents to return to eastern Rafah to receive food, medicine and shelter.
The Israel Defense Forces has called on residents of eastern Rafah to evacuate amid the resumption of fighting and return of Israeli troops to the area.
The voice in the video is reportedly that of the clan leader, Yasser Abu Shabab.
Reports from Gaza in recent weeks have increasingly highlighted the activity of the group, made up of members of a single extended family led by Abu Shabab.
Armed group members have been seen wearing uniforms with the Palestinian flag and the “counter-terrorism unit” badges. According to the video, they now refer to themselves as the “Popular Forces.”
Local reports indicate the group operates in the vicinity of the Kerem Shalom crossing, which sees the passage of humanitarian aid and has an Israeli military presence.
Abu Shabab claims his forces have been protecting aid convoys, while Hamas has accused him of looting the aid trucks and maintaining connections with Israel.
Israeli officials have declined to comment on Abu Shabab’s or other militias’ activities in Gaza.
إعلان القوات الشعبية للعودة لمناطق شرق رفح حتى منطقة المشروع بدعم وغطاء الشرعية الفلسطينية يزفها لكم القائد العام ياسر أبو شباب للعودة التواصل على الأرقام 0567229958 0592511782 أو رسالة على الصفحة بأرقام جوالاتكم https://t.co/oOKVSZkiK7
— Yasser Abu Shabab-Popular (@yasserpopular) June 3, 2025
Palestinian children wait for food at a distribution point in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, June 2, 2025 (Eyad BABA / AFP)
The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announces that 157 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.
Some of the truckloads have been taken to the new aid distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Those sites are closed today in order to give time for the US- and Israeli-backed organization to carry out logistical work needed to safely accommodate larger crowds.
The contents of many of the trucks that entered Gaza in recent weeks are still awaiting picking up on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom crossing.
The aid underwent an inspection by Israeli authorities before entering Gaza via the crossing.
The UN has said 600 trucks of aid need to be distributed each day in order to properly feed the Strip’s roughly two million people.
Illustrative photo of the Tel Aviv Municipality building at Rabin Square on July 5, 2015. (Matt Hechter/Flash90)
Police arrest six employees of a corporation owned by the Tel Aviv municipality on suspicion of bribery, aggravated fraud and money laundering.
Four others were also detained for questioning in relation to the case, says a law enforcement spokesman, adding that the arrests came after weeks of covert investigation.
Investigators believe that the prime suspect maintained “corrupt relationships” with the corporation’s contractors, suppliers and franchisees. He is thought to have promoted their business interests in exchange for bribes.
Police interrogated the suspects at the Lahav 433 headquarters and will bring them before the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court today to request an extension of their remand.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits at the Tel Aviv District Court before the start of his cross-examination in the criminal trial against him, June 4, 2025 (Moti Milrod/POOL)
The second day of the prosecution’s cross-examination of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his criminal trial on corruption charges begins at the Tel Aviv District Court.
The cross-examination is expected to focus on Case 1000, in which Netanyahu is accused of fraud and breach of trust for allegedly accepting luxury gifts worth hundreds of thousands of shekels from Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer, and doing various favors for Milchan in return.
An Israeli airstrike on a Khan Younis school housing displaced Palestinian families killed at least 10 people, including children, Hamas-run health authorities say.
There is no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces on the strike.
Residents said the IDF escalated airstrikes and tank shelling on parts of Khan Younis, a day after it dropped leaflets warning residents to leave their homes and head west, saying forces would fight Hamas and other terror groups in those areas.
A handout picture provided by the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneu's office shows him addressing the nation on the first anniversary of the death of Iran's former president Ebrahim Raisi, on May 20, 2025 in Tehran (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says a US proposal for a nuclear deal is against Tehran’s national interests, and that the country will not give up uranium enrichment.
The issue of uranium enrichment has been a sticking point in negotiations between the US and Iran. Uranium enrichment remained key to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, Khamenei says in a speech.
“Independence means not waiting for the green light from America and the likes of America,” Khamenei says, adding that the proposal is “100 percent against” the ideals of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Tehran says it wants to master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and has denied longstanding accusations by Western powers that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
File: Likud leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu (sitting) with MK Moshe Gafni at a vote in the assembly hall of the Knesset in Jerusalem, on December 28, 2022 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Haredi leaders have reportedly told their representatives in the United Torah Judaism party that they should withdraw from the government over its failure to pass legislation that would exempt yeshiva students from the draft, leading opposition parties to announce they will submit a bill for the Knesset to be dissolved.
According to Hebrew-language media reports, senior officials from United Torah Judaism said that last night’s meeting with Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein was a failure, and that Degel Hatorah chair MK Moshe Gafni has received instructions from his party’s spiritual leaders to leave the coalition and work to dissolve the government.
Degel Hatorah is one of the two factions that make up the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party — the other one UTJ chair Yitzchak Goldknopf’s Agudat Yisrael, was reportedly already pushing to advance a bill to dissolve the Knesset and force new elections.
“After Knesset members last night briefed [Rabbi Moshe] Hirsch on the details of the meeting with Edelstein, it is clear that there is no progress at all on the draft issue. Accordingly, the rosh yeshiva will order withdrawal from the coalition in the near future,” a statement on behalf of Hirsch, the dean of Bnei Brak’s Slabodka yeshiva and a member of Degel Hatorah’s Council of Torah Sages, reportedly reads.
In response to the reports, opposition parties Yesh Atid, Yisrael Beytenu and The Democrats say they will submit a bill for the Knesset’s dissolution next Wednesday, giving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a week to try to resolve the issue, in addition to the period it would take for the bill to be voted on by the parliament.
Both Shas and UTJ, the two Haredi parties in the Knesset, had demanded the passage of the controversial military draft legislation by the Shavuot holiday, which this year ended on June 2, warning that any delay would endanger the government’s continued existence.
With seven mandates, UTJ does not have the ability to bring down the government by itself. Any effort to do so on its part would require the active cooperation of Shas. Netanyahu’s coalition currently holds 68 out of 120 seats in the Knesset.
There has been no public comment from Shas on the development.
While the ultra-Orthodox, also known as Haredim, have repeatedly backed down from previous ultimatums, recent developments — including IDF plans to increase the number of draft orders sent to young ultra-Orthodox men — have seen their relationship with Netanyahu approaching a breaking point.
Hamas used a drone to drop an explosive or a grenade on forces operating in the Jabalia area of the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, according to the military.
The explosion wounded two soldiers of the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit moderately and lightly injured a Shin Bet officer.
In a separate incident yesterday in operations in in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, IDF reservist Master Sgt. (res.) Alon Farkas, 27, was killed by gunfire. A second reservist was seriously wounded.
An overall view shows the United Nations Security Council during a meeting concerning the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) at UN headquarters in New York City on January 28, 2025 (Yuki IWAMURA / AFP)
The UN Security Council will vote later today on a resolution calling for a ceasefire, the release of the hostages, and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, a measure expected to fail due to a US veto.
It is the 15-member body’s first vote on the subject since November, when the United States — a key ally of Israel — also blocked a text calling for an end to fighting.
The new resolution, seen by AFP, “demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties.”
It also calls for the “immediate, dignified and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups.”
Underlining a “catastrophic humanitarian situation” in the Palestinian territory, the resolution additionally demands the lifting of all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
It will be put to vote at 4:00 pm Wednesday (2000 GMT), but several diplomats indicate to AFP that they expect the United States to wield its veto power.
They add that the representatives from the 10 elected members of the Council, who will introduce the text, tried in vain to negotiate with the American side.
Master Sgt. (res.) Alon Farkas, killed in Gaza on June 3, 2025 (IDF)
An IDF reservist was killed during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, the military announces.
The slain soldier is named as Master Sgt. (res.) Alon Farkas, 27, of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade’s 6646th Battalion, from Kabri.
Another reservist of the battalion was seriously wounded in the same incident, the military adds.
According to an initial IDF probe, Farkas was killed and the other soldier was wounded by gunfire during operations in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood.
A Palestinian gunman opened fire on the forces with an assault rifle, before managing to flee.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the White House,May 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The United States doubled tariffs on imported steel and aluminum have come into effect, widening US President Donald Trump’s trade war in a move set to fan tensions with key economic partners.
The move, which Trump earlier said was aimed at protecting domestic steel and aluminum industries, takes his levies on both metals from 25 percent to 50 percent.
Hostage families meet with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles at the White House on June 3, 2025. (Hostage Family Forum)
A delegation of hostage families met at the White House today with US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
The Israeli delegation included former hostage Tal Shoham, relatives of hostage Guy Gilboa Dalal, the parents of hostage Evyatar David and the parents of slain hostage Omer Neutra.
“Wiles, Leavitt, and Witkoff expressed deep solidarity with the families and reaffirmed the Trump administration’s full commitment to securing the release of all 58 hostages. They emphasized that the administration will continue working relentlessly until every hostage is brought home,” a statement from the Hostage Family Forum says.
“The Trump officials also expressed deep shock over the recent terror attack in Colorado, which took place during a march in support of the hostages. They strongly condemned the violence, stressed that there is no place for such acts on American soil, extending their full support to the victims and all those affected,” the statement continues.
“We are fully committed to securing the release of all the hostages and believe their return is essential—not only on humanitarian and moral grounds, but also as a critical step toward regional stability,” says a statement from Leavitt. “The [March] meeting between the president and the captivity survivors had a profound impact on him and reinforced his determination to bring every hostage home.”
The Tuesday meeting came amid an ongoing impasse in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Hamas said Monday that it is prepared to immediately enter indirect talks in order to bridge remaining gaps, in an apparent softening of its position after the updated proposal it submitted to the US on Sunday was blasted by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who said it took the sides backward.
The main issue of contention remains whether the temporary truce under discussion leaves enough of a window for Israel to resume fighting after it expires or if the proposal’s assurances from the Trump administration are enough to convince Hamas that the ceasefire will hold permanently.
Iran is open to basing a nuclear agreement with the United States around the idea of a regional uranium enrichment consortium based in Iran, Axios reports, citing a senior Iranian official.
The IDF carried out a series of airstrikes throughout southern Syria that it says targeted weapons belonging to the regime after a pair of projectiles were fired into the Israeli side of the Golan Heights on Tuesday night.
“The Syrian regime is responsible for what is happening in Syria and will continue to bear the consequences as long as hostile activity continues from its territory,” the IDF said in a statement.
A group of released hostages meets US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on March 5, 2025. (White House/X)
The families of some of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza will be meeting with senior Trump administration officials in Washington this week, a White House official tells The Times of Israel.
The meetings will come amid an ongoing impasse in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Hamas said Monday that it is prepared to immediately enter indirect talks in order to bridge remaining gaps, in an apparent softening of its position after the updated proposal it submitted to the US on Sunday was blasted by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who said it took the sides backward.
The main issue of contention remains whether the temporary truce under discussion leaves enough of a window for Israel to resume fighting after it expires or if the proposal’s assurances from the Trump administration are enough to convince Hamas that the ceasefire will hold permanently.
The Syrian foreign ministry asserts that it “has not and will not pose a threat to any party in the region” and is working to rein in armed, non-state actors in southern Syria.
The statement comes after Israel said a pair of rockets were fired at its side of the Golan Heights from southern Syria and blamed the Syrian government for the attack.
The Syrian government claimed it had yet to confirm the rocket launches that targeted Israel, but it did condemn the Israeli counter-attack, saying it resulted in “heavy human and material losses” and violated Syria’s sovereignty “at a time when we are most in need of calm and peaceful solutions.”
“We call on the international community to assume its responsibilities in stopping these attacks, and to support efforts aimed at restoring security and stability to Syria and the region,” the Syrian foreign ministry statement says.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee meets with Frimet and Arnold Roth at the US Embassy in Jerusalem on May 13, 2025. (Courtesy)
Frimet and Arnold Roth, the parents of Malki Roth, an American citizen killed at age 15 in the 2001 Sbarro Pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem, met last month with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee to deliver a petition urging the extradition of the attack’s orchestrator, Hamas terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, from Jordan, according to a statement shared by the parents today.
“This is a matter of justice for the families of murdered Americans,” Arnold told Huckabee during a May 13 meeting at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, according to the family’s statement.
The Roths presented Huckabee with a petition bearing 30,000 signatures and demanding that Washington press Jordan to extradite Tamimi, who was convicted in an Israeli court for playing a central role in the suicide bombing that killed 16 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman, and injured 130 more. Tamimi later found shelter in Jordan after being released from prison in the 2011 deal in which Israel freed 1,027 terrorists in exchange for captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
“What brought us to the embassy was remembrance, but also justice,” Arnold continued. “Justice in the Tamimi prosecution has been thwarted for years and barely mentioned publicly by the very US officials who bear the responsibility of bringing the fugitive to trial. We came to implore the government represented by Ambassador Huckabee to carry out its duty to protect and stand for American victims of terrorism abroad.”
Ahlam Tamimi is welcomed at Queen Alia international airport in Amman, late October 18, 2011. (LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images)
The petition was submitted for delivery to US President Donald Trump, US Attorney General Pam Bondi, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the statement adds, and urges Jordan to honor its 1995 extradition treaty with the US. Despite the treaty, Jordan’s high court blocked Tamimi’s extradition in 2017, reportedly claiming the agreement was never ratified, a contention disputed by Washington.
The Roths also presented Huckabee with a photo of Malki’s shattered phone, recovered from the attack site, on which she had written a Hebrew message about the Jewish prohibition against speaking ill of others. “This phone is one of the few physical traces we have left of Malki,” he said.
A framed photo of Malki Roth’s shattered phone presented by her parents to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on May 13, 2025 (Courtesy of the Roth Family)
Shortly before King Abdullah II’s February meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, Arab media reported that Jordanian intelligence had warned Hamas Tamimi might be handed over unless another country agreed to take her in. No official sources confirmed the reports.
Since her release, Tamimi has lived openly in Jordan, where she holds citizenship, and has publicly glorified the bombing. In a 2017 Associated Press interview, she stated that Palestinians have the right to resist Israel “by any means,” including deadly attacks.
“Tamimi has never shown the smallest degree of remorse. The massacre she spearheaded made her a celebrity in Jordan and beyond…It is unconscionable that Jordan, a lavishly funded beneficiary of US tax-payer-funded aid, has enabled her to be glorified as an icon while her victims’ families — including American families — are ignored,” Arnold said in the meeting.
A senior IDF official tells the Axios news site that initial findings from a probe into the latest mass-casualty incident surrounding Palestinians near a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution site indicate that Palestinians mistakenly approached soldiers after getting lost on their way to the aid center.
The UN and aid organizations warned for weeks that such incidents would result from forcing Gaza’s entire population of two million people to travel long distances and pass through IDF lines in order to reach the GHF’s distribution sites.
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