The Times of Israel liveblogged Thursday’s events as they happened.
Released hostage Ofer Calderon recalls the hardship of captivity in Gaza, describing the feeling of hopelessness when there are no negotiations to free the Israelis held there by Hamas.
“I really want the deal to continue, because who like me knows how the people there feel right now,” he tells the Kan public broadcaster at a medal ceremony for Israeli cyclists.
“When there are no talks, it’s a disaster,” Calderon adds. “People there feel like they are dying and the light in the tunnel went out.”
US President Donald Trump says he will travel to Saudi Arabia in the spring after Riyadh agreed to invest $1 trillion in American companies over the next four years.
Speaking to reporters in the White House, Trump says Saudi Arabia agreed to invest $450 billion in US companies during his first term
“They’ve gotten richer, we’ve all gotten older. So I said, ‘I’ll go if you pay a $1 trillion to American companies… over a four-year period,” Trump says.
“They’ve agreed to do that, so I’m going to be going there… probably over the next month and a half.”
“I have a great relationship with them, and they’ve been very nice, but they’re going to be spending a lot of money to American companies for buying military equipment and a lot of other things,” he says.
Support for Israel is at a 25-year low, according to a new poll released by Gallup, which also shows backing for the Palestinians at a record high.
Asked who “in the Middle East situation” their sympathies lie more with, 46 percent of respondents say Israelis versus 33% who say Palestinians.
The 46% support for Israel marks a five percent drop from last year, which had tied the previous low of 51% in 2001.
The one-third backing for the Palestinians was up six percent from 2024, when support slipped from the previous high of 31% recorded in 2023.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says foreigners supporting terror groups will face deportation, in a statement issued shortly after Axios reported that his office is planning to use artificial intelligence to revoke visas of foreign students who are perceived as supporters of Hamas.
“Those who support designated terrorist organizations, including Hamas, threaten our national security. The United States has zero tolerance for foreign visitors who support terrorists. Violators of US law — including international students — face visa denial or revocation and deportation,” Rubio tweets.
The State Department’s “Catch and Revoke” initiative will include AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders’ social media accounts, Axios reported.
At the same time, officials will also launch a probe into whether any visa holders were arrested but allowed to stay in the country during former US president Joe Biden’s administration, the report added.
Axios said officials are checking news reports of demonstrations against Israel’s policies and Jewish students’ lawsuits highlighting foreign nationals allegedly engaging in antisemitism.
It says the State Department will work in cooperation with the justice and homeland security departments to carry out the plan.
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce suggests the Trump administration’s hostage envoy merely used his direct talks with Hamas to convey the same message that Washington has been seeing through other channels to date.
“Nothing was conveyed differently. There was no change of position. It was the conveyance of the existing American position about Hamas and how it cannot exist in Gaza,” Bruce says during a press briefing.
“Whether it is through a tweet or a diplomatic cable or on television or through envoys or in a meeting, that message can be conveyed… so that a blood thirsty group like Hamas understands that our message is not fluid.”
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce says the Trump administration views the Arab plan for the post-war management of the Gaza Strip to be inadequate.
Bruce doesn’t offer specifics on what is missing from the plan, but states that the US will not accept a framework that leads to a return of the cycle of violence involving Gaza, and insists that Hamas can not continue to exist in the Strip.
While the Arab plan envisions Hamas no longer in control of Gaza’s governance, it doesn’t specifically address the terror group’s military wing, beyond saying that armed groups in the Strip can only be addressed through a political process that establishes a Palestinian state.
Still, the Arab League, in a statement endorsing the Egyptian plan, asserted that the security of Gaza “remains the exclusive responsibility of legitimate Palestinian institutions, [who will operate] in accordance with the principle of one law and one legitimate weapon” — meaning that armed groups other than the Palestinian Authority’s security forces will not be accepted.
Bruce says that US President Donald Trump’s proposal for the US to take over Gaza and relocate all of its Palestinians was “an invitation for new ideas, and it seemed to have spurred some new ideas” from the Arab world. However, what Washington has seen to date from its allies has not been “adequate.”
“The Arab [plan] does not fulfill… the nature of what President Trump was asking for,” she says.
However, the US welcomes the Arab effort to address the issue, which Bruce says must continue.
Earlier Thursday, US envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff took a softer approach when asked about the Arab plan, saying it was a “good faith first step” with “a lot of compelling features to it.”
The US State Department defends Israel’s decision to withhold aid from Gaza, which Israel said it began doing on Sunday in order to prevent the assistance from reaching Hamas.
“Aid can only be delivered in a safe framework, so as long as… we can’t guarantee the safety of something moving in, that is going to be stopped,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce says during her first briefing of the administration.
“It is not a withholding, but it’s a reflection of the framework of the situation on the ground,” she adds.
Shortly after Israel announced on Sunday the halt on the entry of aid into Gaza, the White House issued a statement backing the Israeli position in the hostage talks more broadly, without specifically saying that it supported the withholding of aid.
The Israeli decision came as the first phase of the ceasefire deal with Hamas drew to a close.
Under the terms of the deal, Israel is supposed to allow aid in as long as negotiations regarding phase two of the deal are ongoing. But Israel has largely refused to even start those phase two negotiations, to begin with, even though the deal required them to begin over a month ago.
The sides are currently in a state of limbo, with Israel looking to rework the terms of the deal moving forward, while Hamas is insisting that the sides stick to the terms that were approved in January.
Rights groups say the withholding of aid or its use as a bargaining chip amounts to a violation of international law.
Members of the coalition’s Agudath Yisrael faction send a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning they will vote against the state budget if the government does not pass legislation formalizing sweeping exemptions to mandatory military service for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
The letter is signed by the faction’s leader, Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, along with MKs Ya’akov Tessler and Moshe Roth.
Agudath Yisrael is a Hasidic faction within the United Torah Judaism party, which also includes the non-Hasidic Degel HaTorah.
US President Donald Trump defends his administration’s unprecedented direct negotiations with Hamas, saying, “We are helping Israel in those discussions because we’re talking about Israeli hostages.”
Israel, however, is opposed to the direct US negotiations with Hamas, an official familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel earlier Thursday.
Speaking to reporters while signing executive orders in the Oval Office, Trump says, “We’re not doing anything in terms of Hamas. We’re not giving cash.”
“You have to negotiate. There’s a difference between negotiating and paying. We want to get these people out,” Trump says.
Reflecting on his meetings with a group of eight released hostages Wednesday, Trump says he couldn’t believe their stories about how poorly they were treated in captivity.
“They want to know if we could just continue” with the release of additional hostages, Trump says.
“We have 59 left — of which 24 are living. The rest are dead… Those 24 who are living… they said they’re in very bad shape.”
“I put out a statement that’s self-explanatory,” Trump says, referring to the ultimatum he issued for Hamas to immediately release the remaining hostages or face destruction. “Somebody’s going to have to get a lot rougher than they’re getting. It’s a shame.”
“We want to get these people out. If you would have seen the people yesterday… the way they spoke about their captivity, it was unbelievable. It’s terrible.”
Asked about the Arab rejection of his plan to relocate all of Gaza’s residents, Trump avoids responding directly.
“Gaza could be good, but it’s got to be run properly. Right now, Gaza is an absolute mess, and it has been for many, many years and decades,” Trump says.
The US State Department is planning to use artificial intelligence to revoke visas of foreign students who are perceived as supporters of the Hamas terror group, Axios reports, citing senior State Department officials.
The AI-fueled “Catch and Revoke” effort will include AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders’ social media accounts, the news website reports.
At the same time, officials will also launch a probe into whether any visa holders were arrested but allowed to stay in the country during former US president Joe Biden’s administration, the report adds.
Axios says officials are checking news reports of demonstrations against Israel’s policies and Jewish students’ lawsuits highlighting foreign nationals allegedly engaging in antisemitism.
It says the State Department will work in cooperation with the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to carry out the plan.
US President Donald Trump repeatedly asked about the public support for a hostage deal in Israel, during a meeting with several freed hostages at the White House yesterday, Channel 13 reports.
According to the report, Trump inquired about whether the Israeli public wanted to see the continuation of a hostage release and ceasefire deal with Hamas, after the first phase of the agreement ended last week.
The meeting was attended by Iair Horn, Omer Shem Tov, Eli Sharabi, Keith Siegel, Aviva Siegel, Naama Levy, Doron Steinbrecher and Noa Argamani.
With the exception of Aviva Siegel, who was released from captivity in November 2023, and Noa Argamani, who was rescued by IDF troops in June 2024, the attendees were all released from Hamas captivity during the recent deal.
Trump is quoted by Channel 13 as having asked if the public was “ready for a deal to release the hostages that includes the release of terrorists?”
A suspect is arraigned in a New York court for allegedly threatening a New York synagogue last month.
Luis Ramirez, 23, was arrested in New Jersey, on his way into New York City, after allegedly threatening violence against Central Synagogue in Manhattan.
Ramirez is charged with one count of making a terroristic threat as a hate crime, and another count of making a terroristic threat, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office tells The Times of Israel.
The top charge carries a mandatory prison term of three-and-a-half years.
Ramirez was discharged from a military training school in January for psychological reasons. While jailed in New Jersey, he was diagnosed as schizophrenic, the DA’s office says.
Ahead of his arrest, Ramirez posted on social media threatening statements, including, “THE JEWS KILLED ME IN MY PAST LIFE IF YOU TRY TO KILL ME AGAIN TODAY IN NYC WHEN I PULL UP TO SHABBAT I WILL KILL YOU FIRST.”
“I WILL BE VISITING MY BROTHERS AND SISTER IN NYC TOMORROW PULL UP TO SHABBAT AT THE CENTRAL SYNAGOGUE 6 PM,” he said.
Ramirez also said that “in a past life” he was Adolf Hitler and swore allegiance to Allah.
“Luis Ramirez allegedly made extremely disturbing and serious threats against Central Synagogue, and we have absolutely no tolerance for this conduct,” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg says in a statement. “He is now charged with significant terrorism and hate crimes charges and was remanded into custody. Any form of antisemitism is despicable, and I want Manhattan’s Jewish community to know we are remaining extremely vigilant.”
Ramirez’s threatening posts were first identified by the Community Security Initiative, a Jewish security group, which relayed the threats to law enforcement, leading to the arrest.
On October 1, 2023, days before the October 7 Hamas assault on southern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Israel’s security establishment to make various civilian concessions to Hamas in exchange for quiet, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
In particular, the report says Netanyahu wished to increase the use of humanitarian benefits as a tool to influence Hamas’s conduct.
The meeting was held in the wake of violent protests along the Gaza border fence, which ended the week before October 7. The IDF recently said it believes the protests had been part of Hamas’s attempt to con Israel into thinking all had returned to normal.
At the same time, the report says the premier had also instructed the defense establishment to increase its operational readiness for thwarting potential Hamas attacks.
In response to the report, the Prime Minister’s Office slams Kan for what it says are “continued attempts to divert the discussion from the Shin Bet’s enormous failure.”
It claims that in reality, Shin Bet officials had been the ones to recommend the use of civilian benefits as a way to buy calm, while the premier had “warned against attempts by elements in the region to lead to escalation,” and had advised the defense establishment “not to ignore Hamas’s provocations.”
US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff appears to walk back the Trump administration’s opposition to the Arab plan for the post-war management of Gaza.
Shortly after the plan was presented by Egypt on Tuesday, White House National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes issued a statement saying it did not address “the reality that Gaza is currently uninhabitable” and that US President Donald Trump stands by his Gaza takeover plan.
But asked about the Arab plan during a press gaggle outside the White House, Witkoff tells reporters that “there are a lot of compelling features to it.”
“We need more discussion about it, but it’s a good faith first step from the Egyptians,” he says.
“The larger point is that what President Trump is now talking about in Gaza is now encouraging other people in the Middle East to present proactive proposals for what we might consider,” Witkoff adds, again suggesting that a goal of Trump’s Gaza take over plan was merely to push regional allies to come up with alternatives.
Asked whether he accepts the Arab plan’s notion that the reconstruction of Gaza can take place while Palestinians remain, Witkoff responds, “We’re evaluating everything there. It’s a little bit early to comment.”
Earlier in his remarks, though, Witkoff reiterated that the reconstruction of Gaza will take 10-15 years and that the Strip will be uninhabitable in the interim.
The Arab plan envisions an independent committee of technocrats running Gaza for a six-month period before handing off control of the Strip to the Palestinian Authority. It provides for Palestinians to remain in the Strip while it is being rebuilt, as opposed to Trump’s proposal that the entire population be relocated.
The Arab plan offers for international peacekeeping troops to be dispatched in Gaza through a UN Security Council resolution.
The plan doesn’t address Hamas by name, though, instead maintaining that armed groups in Gaza can only be fully addressed through a political process that establishes a Palestinian state.
Still, the Arab League, in a statement endorsing the Egyptian plan, asserts that the security of Gaza “remains an exclusive responsibility of legitimate Palestinian institutions, in accordance with the principle of one law and one legitimate weapon.”
US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff acknowledges that there is a lot of uncertainty regarding what will happen next in Gaza after President Donald Trump issued an ultimatum to Hamas that it immediately release all hostages or be destroyed.
“It’s unclear exactly what’s going to happen. There’s going to be some action taken. It could be jointly with the Israelis,” Witkoff tells reporters outside the White House.
Pressed further on those comments, Witkoff appears to walk back the suggestion that the US could join Israel in military action against Hamas.
“We’re a guarantor of the process. It’s the Israelis who control Gaza today… and the counterparty is Hamas. Any action principally comes from the Israelis. But you heard the president say yesterday, he’s giving the Israelis anything they need. It’s the Israelis [who will act], but with very, very strong physical and emotional support from the United States,” Witkoff says.
Asked what Trump’s ultimatum means for phase two of the deal, which was supposed to begin on Sunday, Witkoff responds, “People define it as an extension of phase one or phase two. For me, I don’t really care what we call it.”
“What we call it is, ‘Are we going to have a resolution? Are we going to have a peace deal? Are we going to get all of those hostages home, which is the aim of the Trump administration?’ That’s going to require some good, reasonable humanitarian action on the part of Hamas. It’s time for them to gain some political capital and show that they’re capable of doing that.”
“Hamas has an opportunity to act reasonably, to do what’s right, and then to walk out. They’re not going to be a part of a government there,” Witkoff says, claiming that Hamas’s exit from Gaza is implicitly part of the phased framework that was presented in May 2023 and signed at the beginning of the year.
Pressed on how the US might respond to Hamas, Witkoff responds, “I don’t think you alert everybody as to how you’re going to negotiate or what your reaction is going to be. But I wouldn’t test President Trump.”
Asked whether Trump’s ultimatum has a specific deadline, Witkoff says, “I think there definitely is such a date, but I’m not at liberty to discuss what that is.”
He says he plans to visit four countries in the region next week but declines to specify whether one of those will be Israel. He has, however, delayed his trip to the region several times over the past two weeks.
US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff defends the Trump administration’s decision to launch direct talks with Hamas, breaking with longstanding policy not to negotiate with the terror group.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Witkoff says Trump’s hostage envoy Adam Boehler held such conversations in recent days — not weeks — and that doing so is within his purview.
“I commend him for doing that. Adam cares about lives. The hostage families are grateful for it, and so is President Trump,” Wiktoff says.
“It was the responsibility of the special envoy to actually have a conversation and see if anything can be achieved,” Witkoff continues.
“Unfortunately, what we learned is that Hamas told us they were going to be thinking about it a certain way… That’s important information for us to have. And so came the tweet from the president,” Witkoff said, referencing Trump’s post on Truth Social last night that warned Hamas that it would be destroyed if it didn’t immediately release the hostages.
Witkoff says Trump’s message to Hamas was, “Your behavior is unacceptable. You need to clean up your behavior.”
“We want to see these hostages come home. We’re not going to sit here and do nothing and tolerate these kinds of inhumane conditions. They’ve lived in a terrible situation. Who keeps dead bodies? Who does that? Who keeps people chained up downstairs? Who murders in front of other hostages? What has happened here is intolerable, and it’s not going to be tolerated by President Trump.”
“We’re prepared to have dialogue. But if the dialogue doesn’t work, then the alternative is not such a good alternative for Hamas,” Witkoff says.
While a government official told The Times of Israel earlier today that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unhappy about Washington’s direct negotiations with Hamas, Witkoff insists that Israel is supportive of the administration’s efforts and that he is in regular contact with officials in Jerusalem.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir visited troops in the Gaza Strip earlier today as part of his first day on the job.
“Always be ready, always be vigilant, always be suspicious, always be practicing,” Zamir says to troops of the Kfir Brigade’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion.
“If you look behind you, you will see the houses of Sderot. You protect the civilians in Sderot. You are our line of defense,” he says.
US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff indicates that the Trump administration wants Hamas to release American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander as a demonstration of goodwill.
“Edan Alexander is very important to us — as all the hostages are — but Edan Alexander is an American, and he’s injured, so he’s a top priority for us,” Witkoff tells reporters during a gaggle outside the White House.
He appears to confirm that Alexander’s release was a topic of conversation in the direct talks that US hostage envoy Adam Boehler held with Hamas, which were leaked to the media yesterday.
“Adam Boehler is the special envoy in charge of hostages, and he’s had conversations. We feel that Hamas has not been forthright with us, and it’s time for them to be forthright with us,” Witkoff says. “Edan Alexander would be a very important show. We’ll see how [Hamas is] going to react.”
“The president has issued a statement about what’s acceptable to him and what’s not. Hopefully, we’ll see some good conduct next week, and I’ll be able to go in there and have discussions,” the US envoy says.
Pressed about concerns from some hostage families that the talks surrounding Alexander’s release means the US is prioritizing the release of Americans over other hostages, Witkoff asserts that the president cares equally about all hostages.
He points out that the vast majority of released hostages who met with Trump yesterday were not Americans. “All lives matter to him, And he was focused on all lives.”
“We want Edan back, but we want everybody back,” he says, noting that there are roughly two dozen hostages who are believed to still be alive and that the US wants all of the bodies back, too.
Switzerland has canceled a conference on the application of the Geneva Conventions to the Palestinian territories for want of participants, its Foreign Affairs Ministry confirms, after some countries expressed dissatisfaction.
The country had invited 196 parties to the conventions to participate in the March 7 conference in Geneva on the situation of civilians living in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, but then told them the gathering had been canceled, four diplomatic sources tell Reuters.
“In the absence of a consensus between the High Contracting Parties, (Switzerland), as depositary State, decided not to convene the meeting,” Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Nicolas Bideau says on X.
The conference was set to address the Fourth Geneva Convention, part of a series of international treaties agreed in 1949 after World War Two, which defines humanitarian protections for civilians living in areas of armed conflict or occupation.
The cancellation amounted to a diplomatic blow for neutral Switzerland, which prides itself on conflict mediation and frequently hosts summits and peace talks.
The Palestinian Authority ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, tells Reuters that his delegation did not plan to attend the event, criticizing a draft declaration circulated among participants.
“We want the international community to take concrete measures and this fell short of expectations,” he tells Reuters, saying such measures could include economic or diplomatic steps against Israel. “What we want is for the Geneva Conventions to be implemented.”
A member of The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation says that the group had also planned to miss the event, saying the document “did not reflect the gravity of the situation.”
Israel had previously criticized the planned conference, calling it “part of the legal welfare against Israel.”
In a statement on the event’s cancellation, the Foreign Ministry reveals that it conducted an “intensive diplomatic operation” aimed at encouraging its allies to refrain from attending the conference.
“The intensive diplomatic operation was successful, and a large number of countries decided not to participate in the biased conference,” it says in the self-congratulatory statement, alleging that had the event gone ahead, it would have led to decisions intended to “continue to discredit Israel.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to reduce the security detail granted to former defense minister Yoav Gallant, some four months after firing him from his post, Channel 13 reports.
The report asserts that Netanyahu’s office is examining several ways to reduce the level of security provided to Gallant, after it was increased at the start of the war with Hamas.
Among the possibilities being considered is the option to shorten the number of years that Gallant is required to receive a security detail for, Channel 13 says.
The Prime Minister’s Office says in response that the report is “disturbing fake news,” while a representative for Gallant declines to comment.
US government officials have accused Israel of leaking information to the media about the Trump administration’s would-be-secret direct negotiations with Hamas in an attempt to sabotage the talks, the Ynet news outlet reports.
According to the report, Israel was not informed of the talks between the US and Hamas ahead of time, as a previous attempt to hold such a meeting had been canceled following pressure from Jerusalem.
As such, Ynet reports, when the US decided to go ahead with the talks despite Israel’s stance, it was decided that Jerusalem would not be informed of their existence. Nevertheless, when Israel’s point man on the hostages, Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, got wind of the talks, he informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about their existence.
The first media reports regarding the existence of the talks between the US and Hamas appeared less than a day after Netanyahu was informed of them, Ynet says, leading the US to suspect it was behind the leak.
Citing US officials, the report suggests that Israel leaked the information with the intent of sabotaging the talks as it is opposed to being left in the dark as other parties make arrangements for the future of the Gaza Strip.
Furthermore, the report suggests that Jerusalem opposes the talks as it is concerned that the US will lose interest in pursuing a complete hostage deal for all remaining captives if it succeeds in freeing the five US citizens held by the Gaza terror group.
The US will exert a campaign of maximum pressure of sanctions on Iran to collapse its oil exports and put pressure on its currency, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says.
“Making Iran broke again will mark the beginning of our updated sanctions policy,” Bessent tells members of the Economic Club of New York.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir will meet tomorrow with the families of Israeli soldiers held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
A total of 14 male soldiers are being held by Hamas, eight of whom have been officially declared dead by the IDF, including Lt. Hadar Goldin, who has been held by the terror group since 2014.
Gunmen loyal to ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad killed seven members of the country’s new security forces and wounded 11 on Thursday, a war monitor says.
“Seven members of the security forces were killed and 11 wounded in attacks and ambushes launched by gunmen loyal to Assad in the town of Jableh” and nearby areas of Latakia province, which has seen clashes and helicopter strikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.
SOHR, run by a single person, has regularly been accused by Syrian war analysts of false reporting and inflating casualty numbers as well as inventing them wholesale.
Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida warns that any Israeli military escalation against the Gaza terror group will most likely lead to the killing of some hostages.
He further adds that Israeli threats of war and blockade will not secure the release of hostages, and claims that the terror group is still committed to abiding by the truce deal with Israel, the first stage of which recently concluded.
Fifty-nine hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip following the end of the first phase of the ceasefire, at least 35 of whom have been confirmed dead by the IDF.
US President Donald Trump “has no [qualms] about using action when it’s necessary,” US hostage envoy Adam Boehler says during an event at the State Department for the families of American hostages being held in Gaza.
“You saw what the president said yesterday to Hamas, where he made it abundantly clear that taking US citizens, or any citizens, wrongfully, is not appropriate and it will be answered in the toughest way possible. This president has no qualms about using action when it’s necessary. And we will all back him up in that.
Boehler is referencing Trump’s threat made yesterday to Hamas, demanding the terror group immediately release all hostages or be destroyed.
“It’s starting a new era,” Boehler says. “I think you’ll see some announcements in the coming days, and the president will continue to push until all of our Americans, dead or alive, are returned.”
Yesterday, the White House confirmed that Boehler has been leading direct talks with Hamas on behalf of the US, with an official telling The Times of Israel that the negotiations are largely aimed at securing the release of American hostages.
אדם בוהלר, שליחו של הנשיא טראמפ לענייני חטופים ושבויים: ״הנשיא לא יהסס לנקוט בצעדים כדי להבטיח שחרור אזרחים. זה לא מקובל בשום אופן להחזיק בחטופים אמריקאים או חטופים בכלל״.@aboehler pic.twitter.com/4E0nV2w1Y7
— Suleiman Maswadeh סולימאן מסוודה (@SuleimanMas1) March 6, 2025
The Police Prosecutions Division files an indictment against a resident of Holon who transported a terrorist to Bat Yam and who was responsible for placing explosives on buses that exploded in Holon and Bat Yam last month.
The defendant told investigators that he transported the terrorist twice on that day in return for a payment of NIS 450, Kan News reports
In the first journey, he took the terrorist to a checkpoint in the West Bank, and the second time, he transported him from the checkpoint to Bat Yam.
He admitted that he transported the terrorist but claimed he did not know that he was involved in terrorist activity.
“He sat next to me with the bag, I didn’t know that he had an explosive and that he was a terrorist,” the defendant is reported as having told investigators.
The defendant was released to house arrest after being indicted since the judge did not believe there was evidence that he knew he was transporting a terrorist.
Kan reports that the terrorists responsible for placing the explosives have yet to be apprehended.
Israel’s “Bikur Rofeh” emergency medical service was targeted in a cyberattack earlier this evening, Hebrew media reports.
The reports say it is too early to know whether any sensitive information was leaked during the cyberattack, but the Bikur Rofeh cybersecurity teams are looking into the possibility.
Defense Minister Israel Katz issues a highly unusual statement, threatening to deport members of protest flotillas to the Gaza Strip and use their boats to allow Palestinians to leave the territory.
There were attempts last year for protesters to reach the Gaza Strip by boat and deliver aid there with the approval of Israeli authorities, though there have been no reports of such attempts recently.
“The defense minister instructed the IDF to allow the protest flotillas to reach the Gaza coast, disembark the protesters in Gaza, and seize the ships and transfer them to the port of Ashdod so that they can be used to evacuate Gaza residents who are interested in leaving Gaza,” reads a statement issued by Katz’s office.
“Whoever comes to demonstrate on the shores of Gaza, we will send them into Gaza and use the ships to evacuate Gaza residents who are interested in leaving voluntarily,” Katz says in remarks provided by his office.
Israel is considering cutting back on intelligence sharing with the United States due to concerns over the recent warming of ties between US President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, NBC reports, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
Several other longtime US allies, including the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia, are said to be considering changes to their intelligence sharing protocols.
According to the report, among the concerns shared by various US allies is the fear that the identity of important foreign assets could be revealed, thus jeopardizing them, amid the US’s reconciliation with Russia.
Citing unnamed sources, NBC says that discussions on the potential scaling back of intelligence sharing “are already happening,” but that no decisions have been made thus far.
An Israeli official denies the report’s content, telling NBC that “cooperation between Israel and the United States on every level, including the sharing of crucial intelligence data, is as strong and solid as ever.”
The UK and Canada similarly reject the report, and there is no comment from New Zealand or Saudi Arabia.
The US has offered Hamas a deal in which 10 living Israeli hostages would be released in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire, a Palestinian source tells Sky News Arabia on Thursday.
“Washington asked Hamas to release ten hostages… in exchange for extending the ceasefire for sixty days, starting negotiations on the second phase and the position of Israeli forces along the Philadelphi Corridor,” as well as resuming the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, the source says.
The source does not indicate when the offer was presented.
According to the source, “Hamas is still considering its response to the American proposal.”
Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern has been reelected to another term in office, the results of the city’s hugely delayed municipal elections confirm.
The northern city’s municipal elections were delayed by 15 months due to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which began on October 8, 2023, when the Lebanese terror group began attacking Israel unprovoked, prompting the evacuation of some 70,000 residents of communities close to the Lebanese border.
The results of the February 18 election were published today, after taking longer than normal to be confirmed due to the city’s scattered population, most of whom have yet to return.
With 56% of the vote, Stern decisively defeated his opponent Eli Zafrani, who, despite receiving significant backing from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, received 44% of the vote.
Israel was not given advance notice by the Trump administration that it would be holding talks directly with Hamas officials, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
Israel heard about the talks through “other channels,” says The New York Times, citing an Israeli official.
Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, Israel’s point man on the hostages, informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the talks, and told the US team in Doha that it knew about the contacts with Hamas, according to the Times.
The Times report corroborates a report from Axios yesterday, which says Israel only learned about specific aspects of the talks through other channels.
France welcomes an Arab plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip under the future administration of the Palestinian Authority, and stresses that the Hamas terror group should be “entirely” excluded from running the territory.
The proposal from Arab leaders “constitutes a serious and credible basis to respond to reconstruction, governance and security needs after the Gaza war,” French foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine says.
But “the plan must entirely exclude Hamas from governing Gaza, where it must be disarmed and give Israel serious security guarantees.”
Arab leaders on Tuesday endorsed a plan that would finance Gaza’s reconstruction through a trust fund, and would see the return of the Palestinian Authority to the territory.
The PA had previously governed Gaza before being ousted in 2007 by Hamas.
The plan is intended to serve as an alternative to US President Donald Trump’s plan for the US to take control of the territory and resettle its residents elsewhere.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Jews were targeted in 28 hate crimes in New York City last month, far more than any other group, the NYPD says.
The figure amounts to 68% of the 41 total hate crimes reported to police last month.
The total antisemitic incidents for February is twice the amount reported to police during the same period last year.
Jews are consistently targeted in hate crimes in the city more than any other group, and last year were targeted more than all other groups combined.
Roughly 12% of New York City’s population is Jewish.
Last month, Asians were targeted once, four incidents targeted Black people, two were against other ethnicities, three against Muslims, and two hate crimes were based on sexual orientation.
The figures are preliminary and subject to change if, for example, a crime that appeared to be discriminatory turns out to have had another motivation.
Jewish security personnel say many antisemitic hate crimes likely go unreported to police.
On his first day on the job, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir met with mayors and leaders of local councils in the Gaza border area.
Zamir, alongside outgoing Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, incoming chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor, and Home Front Command chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, met with the heads of the Shaar Hanegev, Sdot Negev, Eshkol, and Hof Ashkelon regional councils and the mayor of Sderot.
“During the meeting, the chief of staff spoke to the heads of the local authorities, thanked them for the important cooperation, and emphasized the IDF’s commitment to the security of the area, restoration of trust, elimination of Hamas, and return of the hostages,” the military says.
IDF troops operating in the West Bank city of Tulkarem located and destroyed a bomb-making lab and another site used by Palestinian terror operatives to build drones, the military says.
Troops of the Kfir Brigade’s Shimshon Battalion found the explosives lab and an adjacent depot, which included some 100 pipe bombs, eight makeshift mines, and detonator systems, according to the IDF.
The IDF adds that the soldiers also found and demolished a lab used by terror operatives to build drones, and several other buildings “which were used as terror infrastructure in Tulkarem.”
Israel hopes to take direct control of the entry of all humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, and presented a plan last week that would enable it to do so, the Washington Post reports, citing sources briefed on the details of the plan.
Relevant agencies are said to have been briefed on Wednesday and Thursday last week by COGAT, the Defense Ministry body facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza, regarding its plans for the future of aid deliveries to the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
According to the report, the plan will see all entry points from Israel into the Strip shuttered, with the exception of the Kerem Shalom Crossing. Any aid arriving at the Kerem Shalom border crossing will undergo a mandated screening, the Post reports, and will be directed to one of several planned “logistics hubs,” from where it will be distributed.
The logistics hubs could potentially be secured by private contractors, the Post says, citing officials from several international aid organizations and the United Nations.
It adds that Israel also plans to create a tracking system to ensure that all aid reaches its intended destination, amid accusations from Israel that the Hamas terror group that rules Gaza has been diverting supplies for its own use.
The report comes after Israel announced earlier this week that it was halting the entry of all aid into Gaza due to what it said was Hamas’s refusal to accept a proposal to extend the recently completed first stage of a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Military prosecutors indict a West Bank mayor, accusing him of incitement on social media, police say in a statement.
West Bank cops arrested Biddya Mayor Zahir Abdelhadi last month for posts he made on Facebook in apparent praise of Hamas’s October 7 attack. They accuse the politician of attempting to influence popular opinion in the municipality through posts that “harm the public order.”
Police say the defendant posted a video on October 7 depicting armed men in masks, accompanied by a song with lyrics in Arabic vowing a “people’s war” against a generalized enemy.
They also cite a photo he posted of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin alongside PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, with a caption hailing unity between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements.
Police intend to detain the mayor until the end of court proceedings, says a police spokesman.
The IDF confirms carrying out a drone strike in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today, saying it targeted several suspects who were spotted planting a bomb near troops.
According to Palestinian media, one person was killed in the strike and several were wounded.
The strike was reported in Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiya neighborhood.
Ten foreign workers from India were rescued overnight from a West Bank village where they had been held for over a month, the Population and Immigration Authority says.
Palestinians had lured the workers to the West Bank village of al-Zaayem with promises of work and then taken their passports and tried to use them to cross into Israel, the authority says.
The workers, who had originally come to Israel to work in construction, were rescued in an overnight operation led by the authority together with the IDF and the Justice Ministry. They have been transferred to a safe location until their employment status is determined.
The IDF had identified the illicit use of the passports and later returned them to their owners.
Some 16,000 laborers have come to Israel from India in the last year as part of an Israeli government effort to fill a void left when tens of thousands of Palestinian construction workers were barred from entering Israel after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack.
An earthquake measuring over 4 on the Richter scale has struck in the middle of the Red Sea, with shaking felt as far away as Eilat, authorities say.
Residents of the southern resort city of Eilat report feeling tremors, but no damage is reported.
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center estimates the magnitude at 4.4 on the Richter scale while the Egyptian National Seismic Network puts it at 4.2.
The quake was centered some 11 kilometers off the coast of Nuweiba in the Sinai peninsula, at a depth of 19 kilometers, according to Egypt, which also reports that a sensor in Eilat picked up shaking at a 4.0 magnitude.
Israel has been tensing for years for a major earthquake, which are thought to strike the region around once a century.
The Red Sea sits on the Dead Sea Transform fault system, a major active tectonic zone.
In 1995, a 7.2 magnitude quake struck in the same area, killing eight people in Egypt.
Palestinian media reports one dead and several wounded in an Israeli drone strike in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood a short while ago.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
Israeli forces are still deployed to a buffer zone along the Gaza border amid the ceasefire, and the IDF has repeatedly warned Palestinians against approaching the area.
Speaking to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, a senior IDF officer in charge of encouraging ultra-Orthodox enlistment says that of around 10,000 draft orders sent to Haredim since the summer, only 177 have so far enlisted in the military.
The IDF sent out 10,000 initial draft orders to members of the Haredi community in several waves between July 2024 and this month.
Lt. Col. Avigdor Dickstein tells the committee that 2,231 second draft orders were sent to those who did not show up at induction centers after receiving a first order.
Over 1,000 “arrest warrants” have been issued against those who ignored the second draft order. The IDF Military Police does not plan to actually carry out arrests, but will instead wait until they are declared “draft evaders” and leave it to law enforcement.
After receiving an arrest warrant, those recruits will receive an immediate call-up order, and if they ignore it, will be declared as draft evaders. The consequences of being declared a draft evader include receiving a “no exit order” — being barred from leaving the country — and during any encounter with the police, the draft dodger can be arrested.
So far, 265 Haredim out of the 10,000 have been declared draft evaders, Dickstein says.
Released hostage Sasha Troufanov publishes a video in which he provides the first public sign of life from captive Rom Braslavski.
In the video, Troufanov, who was freed last month, says that while he is relieved and happy to be home, he “can’t disconnect from the captives still held in Gaza, those left behind.”
“I think a lot about my friends, especially one person that I briefly met in captivity, named Rom Braslavski,” he says.
Troufanov was held by Islamic Jihad and was alone for most of the time in captivity. News that he had met Braslavski amounts to the first evidence made public that Braslavski was alive after being captured.
“Rom, I hope my voice will give you light and hope in the dark place where you are. I want you to know that myself, and your friends and family and all of Israel are praying for you and doing everything we can to secure your release.”
שורד השבי סשה טרופנוב במסר לחטוף רום ברסלבסקי, בעברית ובערבית: "אני מקווה שהקול שלי יהיה לך לאור ותקווה במקום החשוך והאפל שאתה נמצא בו. אני, החברים, המשפחה שלך וכל עם ישראל מתפללים לשלומך ועושים הכל למען שחרורך"@YoavBorowitz pic.twitter.com/rFksKIRBEj
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 6, 2025
Braslavski, now 21, was working as a security guard when he was taken captive by Hamas terrorists from the Nova desert rave on October 7.
The Jerusalem resident was one of several security guards at the party who tried to save others as the wave of terrorists launched an assault on the event during the early morning.
He was in touch with his mother around 10:30 a.m., telling her that he was okay, located in a situation room, and would be home in a few hours.
Rom got two young women to safety that morning and then was wounded in both hands, according to other survivors who saw him.
He continued to try and save others. He was last seen at 1:30 p.m. while helping a young woman get out of a garbage container where she was hiding and to a safer location.
Senior US officials engaged in discussions last night with Hamas leaders, and mediators from Egypt and Qatar, Reuters reports, citing two Egyptian sources.
The conversation between the Americans and Egyptians included talks on who would govern Gaza after the war, says Reuters, and touched on specific names of figures who could be involved in its management.
The sources say that the talks “ended positively” and that they point to a transition to the second phase of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel in the near future.
The Prime Minister’s Office indicates to The Times of Israel that is unaware of the development.
“We do not know of progress in talks on phase two,” says a PMO official.
US President Donald Trump’s administration is considering a plan to stop and inspect Iranian oil tankers at sea under an international accord aimed at countering the spread of weapons of mass destruction, sources familiar with the matter tell Reuters.
Trump has vowed to restore a “maximum pressure” campaign to isolate Iran from the global economy and drive its oil exports to zero, in order to stop the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Trump hit Iran with two waves of fresh sanctions in the first weeks of his second term, targeting companies and the so-called shadow fleet of aging oil tankers that sail without Western insurance and transport crude from sanctioned countries.
Those moves have largely been in line with the limited measures implemented during former US president Joe Biden’s administration, during which Iran succeeded in ramping up oil exports through complex smuggling networks.
Trump officials are now looking at ways for allied countries to stop and inspect ships sailing through critical chokepoints such as the Malacca Strait in Asia and other sea lanes, according to six sources who asked not to be named due to the sensitive subject.
That would delay delivery of crude to refiners. It could also expose parties involved in facilitating the trade to reputational damage and sanctions, the sources say.
“You don’t have to sink ships or arrest people to have that chilling effect that this is just not worth the risk,” one of the sources says.
“The delay in delivery… instills uncertainty in that illicit trade network.”
The administration was examining whether inspections at sea could be conducted under the auspices of the Proliferation Security Initiative launched in 2003, which aims to prevent the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction.
The US drove that initiative, which has been signed by over 100 governments.
This mechanism could enable foreign governments to target Iran’s oil shipments at Washington’s request, one of the sources said, effectively delaying deliveries and hitting supply chains Tehran relies upon for revenue.
The National Security Council, which formulates policy in the White House, was looking into possible inspections at sea, two of the sources say.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with released hostage Tal Shoham, who describes the hardships he faced while in Hamas captivity, the Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement.
Shoham describes the “the cruel psychological warfare inflicted upon them by Hamas terrorists,” according to the PMO. The two discuss the plight of hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David, who were brought by Hamas terrorists to a staged ceremony last month and forced to watch the release of Shoham and other hostages while they remained in captivity.
“The prime minister and his wife listened to Tal as he recounted the difficulty he and his fellow captives endured, the suffering the hostages continue to experience daily,” the PMO says.
Shoham was joined by his wife, Adi, and their two young children, who were also taken captive by Hamas and released separately in November 2023.
“The prime minister reaffirmed that efforts and actions to secure the release of all hostages — both the living and the fallen — continue relentlessly and without pause,” says the PMO.
Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai has entered the role of deputy IDF chief of staff, under new IDF chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.
Yadai replaces Maj. Gen. Amir Baram, who has been selected by Defense Minister Israel Katz to serve as the next director general of the Defense Ministry — Zamir’s former role.
A small handover ceremony is held today at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Yadai, 55, began his service in the Golani Brigade. He rose through the ranks and went on to command the brigade in 2005, including during the Second Lebanon War.
In 2009, he was appointed head of the 80th Edom Regional Division — responsible for the borders with Egypt and Jordan — and between 2013 and 2015 served as the commander of the West Bank division.
In 2017, Yadai was promoted to the rank of major general and served as head of the Home Front Command until 2020, including during the outbreak of COVID-19. His command led the army’s response to the pandemic.
He was then appointed to head the IDF Central Command, though he only served in the role for less than a year and was moved to lead the IDF Ground Forces, his third role as major general.
Yadai served as chief of the Ground Forces until December 2024, requesting that his three-year tenure not be extended further. During his time in the role, he was responsible for IDF ground troops amid the ongoing war, which began on October 7, 2023.
Speaking at the memorial event for fallen soldiers whose burial places are unknown, President Isaac Herzog says Israel has a “supreme moral imperative” to allow families to come full circle and grieve properly by bringing the dead home for a proper burial.
“It is true for our loved ones who joined this terrible cycle during the war that we are still in the midst of,” he says at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery.
“We must not rest and we must not be silent until everyone returns home, all the living hostages and all the dead hostages,” says Herzog, calling it a “supreme covenant” between the state and its soldiers and citizens.
Herzog says that Israel’s enemies are “once again mistaken in their understanding of our determination and commitment to change reality. They are mistaken in analyzing Israeli society and the determination of the IDF and the security forces, and are repeatedly bringing disaster on their people.”
He stresses Israel’s commitment to bring home the body of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, who was killed and abducted in Gaza during a ceasefire in 2014.
The memorial day for soldiers whose burial place is unknown was set by the Chief Rabbinate on the 7th of Adar in the Hebrew calendar — tomorrow — which is in Jewish tradition the date of birth and death of Moses, whose burial place is unknown.
Herzog warns against internal strife as well: “The internal war is raising its head. As if we have learned nothing! As if we do not remember that the evil Iranian empire celebrates the wars of the Jews.”
“I cry out and call: We do not want more, stop!”
Speaking at a memorial event for fallen soldiers whose burial places are unknown, Defense Minister Israel Katz vows to return all of the hostages still held by Hamas, including those killed.
“Just as we managed to bring Oron Shaul back and lay him to rest, we are obliged to continue to turn every stone and make every possible effort to bring home our fallen, and of course all the hostages, held by the vile people in the Gaza Strip,” he says, referring to a soldier killed in Gaza in 2014, whose remains were recently recovered in an IDF operation.
“The ceasefire agreement with the murderous Hamas, and the heavy prices Israel paid, and is willing to continue to pay, within its implementation, are intended to bring about the rapid release of all living Israeli hostages, who are held under the most severe conditions in Gaza, and to bring all of the hostages who are not alive for burial in Israel,” Katz says.
“One thing is clear — the fighting will end in two clear achievements: the release of all of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas,” he adds.
MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud), the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, accuses Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of impeding lawmakers’ efforts to draft legislation regulating ultra-Orthodox military enlistment.
Baharav-Miara has “prohibited the Defense Ministry’s legal adviser from taking any part in the conscription law debates,” he states. “What has been forgotten in recent years is that the attorney general is not supposed to decide or interfere in the work of the Knesset.”
His comments come amid an almost unprecedented push by the government to fire Baharav-Miara.
The Israeli Air Force held a joint exercise with the US Air Force this week, during which pilots “practiced operational coordination between the two militaries to enhance their ability to address various regional threats.”
The drill included Israeli F-15I and F-35I fighter jets flying alongside a US B-52 bomber.
“The exercise aimed to strengthen and maintain the long-standing cooperation between the forces while expanding connectivity and building integrated capabilities for a range of scenarios,” the IDF says.
The drill is potentially aimed at readying the Israeli military for a potential joint strike with the US on Iran. The IAF has already carried out two strikes on Iran without US support, but would likely need the heavy capabilities of the B-52s to effectively hit Iran’s heavily fortified underground nuclear sites.
Police say they plan to deploy some 3,000 police and border officers across Jerusalem tomorrow for the first Friday prayers of Ramadan at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.
A spokesman says police will operate with additional reinforcements at checkpoints on the perimeter of Jerusalem, in East Jerusalem and within the Old City. Police say they aim to prevent “hostile elements from exploiting Ramadan for incitement, disturbances, terrorism or any form of violence.”
Several roads adjacent to the Old City, including Nablus, Sultan Suleiman and Salah a-Din Streets in the East Jerusalem downtown, will be closed to traffic from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Police advise drivers to use Begin Road as an alternative route.
The holy site has been a flashpoint for violence, particularly with large crowds gathering on Ramadan, and has seen frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces over the years, sometimes leading to wider violence.
Last month, Hebrew outlets reported that Israel’s security establishment plans to allow only 10,000 West Bank Palestinians to enter the al-Aqsa compound for Friday prayer, and only if they submit a request in advance. Ex-prisoners released under the current ceasefire deal will not be permitted to enter the compound.
Hamas calls on Palestinian Muslims in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as Arab Israelis to reject efforts to impose restrictions and to travel to the Temple Mount in large numbers and oppose attempts by Israel to “desecrate and control” the site, “by any means.”
The family of a top Hamas official was paid some $1,000 (£790) for his 14-year-old son to narrate a BBC documentary, the Telegraph reports.
The BBC has apologized for “serious flaws” in the making of the “Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone,” which was produced by UK company Hoyo Films, after it emerged that the child narrator was the son of Hamas’s former deputy minister of agriculture Ayman al-Yazouri.
The money was paid into a bank account belonging to the boy’s sister, the report says, noting that it was paid by Hoyo Films and not directly by the BBC.
The BBC has previously acknowledged that a payment was made, but has not disclosed the amount.
The BBC removed the documentary from its platform after a backlash and launched an immediate review into the “mistakes,” which it called “significant and damaging.”
Hamas says US President Donald Trump’s threats against the terror group are encouraging Israel to avoid negotiating the second phase of a ceasefire between the two groups.
Trump’s comments would “complicate matters regarding the ceasefire agreement,” Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem tells CNN, urging the president to pressure Jerusalem into agreeing to a second phase “as stipulated in the agreement.”
Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif al-Qanua tells Reuters that the US president’s threats equal support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to avoid entering another ceasefire agreement.
“The best track to release the remaining Israeli prisoners is by the occupation going into the second phase and compelling it to adhere to the agreement signed under the sponsorship of mediators,” he says.
After meeting with a group of released Israeli hostages yesterday, Trump threatened Hamas on social media.
“‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye – You can choose,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Release all of the hostages now — not later — and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you.”
Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri and United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni appear to distance themselves from UTJ chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf’s opposition to the 2025 state budget, releasing a joint statement celebrating the Haredi camp’s “dramatic achievements” in increasing government funding of their institutions.
Gafni leads UTJ’s non-Hasidic Degel Hatorah faction while Goldknopf heads its Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction, as well as the party as a whole.
On Tuesday evening, the cabinet approved approved the allocation of NIS 5 billion ($1.3 billion) in coalition funds — including NIS 1.27 billion ($351 million) for ultra-Orthodox yeshivas and hundreds of millions for various other Haredi institutions. The allocations were passed unanimously, with the exception of Goldknopf, who objected to the fact that the funds were not included in the base budget for 2025.
Goldknopf has repeatedly threatened to oppose the budget unless a law exempting yeshiva students is passed first, pitting him against Deri and Gafni, both of whom are willing to wait until after the budget’s passage to advance the law to its final readings.
In their statement, Deri and Gafni welcome the approval of the coalition funds, arguing that the fact that the full amount of the yeshiva funds will ultimately be included in the base budget starting in 2026 is a victory brought about by years of stubborn fighting on their parties’ part.
“We welcome the historic achievement of introducing NIS 1 billion from the yeshiva budget into the budget base, a step that expresses the righting of a great injustice and the official recognition by the state of the value of Torah study. In addition, the move will ensure stability and long-term planning ability for the administrators of [Torah] institutions,” the pair state.
They add that the issue of conscription of yeshiva students “keeps us awake at night.”
“Under the guidance of [our rabbis] we are continuing to work determinedly to settle the issue – and we will not rest or be silent until every threat to Torah students in Israel is removed,” they assert.
France’s defense minister says Paris is providing military intelligence to Ukraine, after Washington suspended sharing its own with Kyiv.
“Our intelligence is sovereign… with our own capacities,” Sebastien Lecornu tells France Inter radio. “We are passing this on to the Ukrainians.”
New IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir announces a round of senior appointments in the military, which until now had been on hold by Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Promotions by Zamir’s predecessor, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, had come under fire by some members of the government, arguing that as he had failed in his role, he should not be the one to appoint commanders.
The list announced by Zamir this morning includes one new brigadier general and 27 new colonels, as well as one brigadier general and 14 colonels who are moving to new positions at the same rank.
Last night, Zamir announced the appointments of two generals: Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor to head the Southern Command and Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen to head the Operations Directorate.
All of the appointments were approved by Katz.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir will meet today with mayors and leaders of local councils in the Gaza border area, the military says.
Afterward, Zamir will hold a meeting with the General Staff Forum to discuss and approve operational plans for the Gaza Strip amid a fragile ceasefire with Hamas.
In an interview, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urges Hamas to take seriously Trump’s threats.
“People don’t realize the President meets with these people, he hears their stories; he’s outraged and rightfully so. He’s tired of watching these videos every weekend where hostages that are emaciated are released and bodies are turned over, and sometimes it’s the wrong bodies and there’s five here and three there and there’s games that are being played. And he’s lost his patience with it,” Rubio tells Fox News.
“He doesn’t say these things and not mean it, as folks are finding out around the world. If he says he’s going to do something, he’ll do it,” Rubio says. “And so they’d better take that seriously.”
Trump earlier issued an ultimatum to Hamas leaders to release the hostages and to flee.
“Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform after meeting freed hostages.
“This is your last warning! For the leadership, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance.”
New IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir sends his first army-wide missive, saying the military’s chief mission will be “victory and defeating the enemy.”
“We will not be silent until the return of our brothers from the tunnels of captivity, this is our moral duty,” he adds.
He also touts the army’s “great accomplishments” while warning of “many challenges ahead of us.”
“We will have difficult days, but we will also have better days ahead.”
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich agreed to strengthen “dialogue mechanisms to enhance collaboration in key areas” in a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the economic partnership between the two countries, the Treasury Department says.
“This is a critical time to shape a new strategic economic future for both countries, reinforcing American global leadership and Israel’s role as a key economic partner,” the Treasury Department says in a statement.
“To advance shared economic interests, both sides agreed to strengthen dialogue mechanisms to enhance collaboration in key areas, including economic policy, technology, and financial regulation,” the department adds.
The eight former hostages who met with US President Donald Trump release a statement thanking the American leader and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff “for their efforts in securing their release from Hamas hell,” and says they stressed to him the urgency of returning the remaining captives from Gaza.
“[Trump and Witkoff] made a deal possible, they got us all home,” Keith Siegel is quoted saying in the statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. “We urged them to continue their enormous efforts. They have done so much. We trust them and we know they will get the job done to get all the rest of the 59 remaining hostages held in Gaza back to their families, back to Israel.”
Fellow freed captive Eli Sharabi says the group met with Trump “to ensure that the 59 hostages still being held will be released through an agreement for their return as soon as possible,” and thanks the US president and Witkoff for being “committed to this goal.”
The White House puts out a statement on US President Donald Trump’s Oval Office meeting with a group of former Hamas hostages.
“Today, President Trump took time to meet with eight of the released hostages from Gaza. The President listened intently to their heartbreaking stories. The hostages thanked President Trump for his steadfast efforts to bring all of the hostages home,” says White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement.
The former hostages who participated in the meeting were Iair Horn, Omer Shem Tov, Eli Sharabi, Keith Siegel, Aviva Siegel, Naama Levy, Doron Steinbrecher and Noa Argamani.
The Jewish people are at an important moment in their history, and must be prepared to fight for their future, President Isaac Herzog tells Jewish leaders gathered at the Voice of the People summit.
“I tell everybody, fight back. Don’t be afraid. Raise your voice. Be proud of yourself,” he says.
Voice of the People is an initiative spearheaded by Herzog, bringing together 150 members chosen to work on tackling pressing communal challenges. Members convened in person for the first time this week in Haifa.
“Our story is not only about bloodshed and tears,” Herzog says. “The Jewish story is something huge, unique, and unbelievable, and its impact reverberates throughout the globe.”
Herzog says that he’s visited more than 1,000 bereaved families since the war began, from all sectors of Israeli society.
“Each family has an incredible story,” he says. “I know the names and families, and the intertwining of the Jewish story all comes back.”
Herzog also comments on Israeli actress Gal Gadot’s speech earlier this week at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conference in New York, where she spoke of her Jewish pride and stated, “My name is Gal, and I’m Jewish.”
The president says he and his wife wrote to Gadot following the speech.
“We truly respect her, and I think it was a very important speech,” particularly at a time when college students are “afraid to tell their fraternity friends that they’re affiliated with Israel or that they’re even Jewish,” he says.
