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The Times of Israel liveblogged Friday’s events as they happened.
S&P reaffirms Israel’s credit rating after downgrades in 2024, outlook stays ‘negative’
The S&P Global logo is seen outside a building in Washington, on July 25, 2019. (Alastair Pike/AFP)
S&P reaffirms Israel’s A/A-1 credit rating — which it downgraded twice last year — while keeping its outlook negative, warning that “the conflict between Israel, Hamas, and other proxies of Iran could substantially weaken Israel’s economy, public finances, and balance-of-payments position, particularly if the conflict escalates.”
“We could lower our ratings on Israel in the next 24 months if the military conflicts hamper the country’s economic growth, fiscal position, and balance of payments more than we currently anticipate,” the credit ratings agency writes in its report. “This could be the case, for example, if the ongoing conflict persists, raising the risks of retaliatory attacks against Israel, or if the prospect of a direct war between Israel and Iran increases.”
Despite these risks, S&P says it could revise the outlook to stable from negative “if we observed a reduced likelihood of military escalation and broader security risks reduced.”
Former EU top diplomat Borrell accuses Israel of ‘genocide’ in Gaza
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell speaks to the press as he arrives for a meeting of EU Defence Ministers in Brussels on November 19, 2024. (NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP)
The European Union’s former foreign policy chief accuses Israel of “genocide” during the war against Hamas in Gaza.
“We’re facing the largest ethnic cleansing operation since the end of the second world war in order to create a splendid holiday destination once all the millions of tons of rubble have been cleared from Gaza and the Palestinians have died or gone away,” Joesp Borrell says, in apparent reference to US President Donald Trump’s proposal for a Middle Eastern “Riveria.”
“Three times more explosive power has been dropped on Gaza than was used in the Hiroshima bomb,” he continues, according to the Guardian. “And for months now, nothing has been getting into Gaza. Nothing: no water, no food, no electricity, no fuel, no medical services. That’s what [Benjamin] Netanyau’s ministers have said and it’s what they’ve done.”
“We all know what’s going on there, and we’ve all heard the objectives stated by Netanyau’s ministers, which are clear declarations of genocidal intent. Seldom have I heard the leader of a state so clearly outline a plan that fits the legal definition of genocide.”
8-year-old killed, several others hurt in shooting on wedding convoy near Tel Sheva
An eight-year-old boy was shot dead near the southern city of Tel Sheva while partaking in a wedding convoy Friday, police and paramedics say.
The shooting injured six other people, one who is in serious condition, the other five with minor injuries.
The victim, Yousef Awad Abu Rqayiq, succumbed to his wounds after being taken by paramedics to Soroka Medical Center.
Haaretz reports that eyewitnesses say the boy was shot at close range, raising police’s suspicions that he was the intended target of the shooting, which officers speculate was a revenge attack related to feuding criminal groups in Bedouin society.
Police say that large number of forces from the Southern District are operating in Tel Sheva and its surrounding area to probe the incident and locate suspects.
Violent crime in Arab society has spiraled in recent years, claiming 91 lives since the start of 2025.
Earlier this week, Israel’s Channel 12 news reported an 84% jump in the number of Arab community homicides compared to the same time last year, citing the Abraham Initiatives organization.
Trump says US to maintain 10% tariff ‘baseline’ even after trade deals reached
US President Donald Trump says that the United States will maintain a baseline 10 percent tariff on imports even after trade deals are struck, adding there could be exemptions when countries offer significant trade terms.
Trump says to expect new trade deals in the coming weeks, but “we always have a baseline of 10%.”
Academic held in Iran at ‘immediate’ risk after heart attack, wife warns
A flyer during a protest outside the Iranian embassy in Brussels for Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian academic detained in Tehran for nearly a year and reportedly sentenced to death for espionage, February 13, 2017. (Photo by DIRK WAEM / Belga / AFP)
Sweden on Friday demanded that Iran release academic Ahmadreza Jalali, who is on death row in Iran, after his wife said he had a heart attack in prison and his life is “at immediate risk.”
Jalali, an Iranian who was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges and was granted Swedish nationality while in jail, suffered a heart attack in Tehran’s Evin prison, Vida Mehrannia writes in a post on X.
“He has been transferred to the hospital section in Evin prison. He was informed that he will not be able to see a cardiologist until Sunday,” the wife adds.
“After nine years of suffering, his health is declining rapidly. His life is at immediate risk and he must urgently receive proper care,” she says.
She urges Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard “to do everything in their power to secure his immediate release.”
Stenergard says on X that she had “spoken urgently tonight with the Iranian foreign minister.”
“During the conversation, I demanded that Ahmadreza Jalali immediately receive the specialized care he needs.”
“My work, and that of the government, for Ahmadreza Jalali continues with unabated strength. Ahmadreza Jalali must now be immediately released on humanitarian grounds so that he can be reunited with his family, something I also expressed in today’s conversation,” she says.
Sweden has previously said that Iran does not recognize Jalali as a Swedish national since he was only an Iranian citizen when he was arrested.
In June 2024, Tehran freed two Swedes held in Iran in exchange for Hamid Noury, a former Iranian prisons official serving a life sentence in Sweden. Jalali was left out of the swap.
“It seems not to be a priority for the Swedish officials what may happen to me as a Swedish citizen while I risk dying either by execution or due to poor health,” Jalali said in January, in a voice message obtained by AFP through his wife.
“It seems that due to my dual nationality, I am considered as a second-class citizen,” he said.
Western countries have long accused Iran of detaining foreign nationals on trumped-up charges to use them as bargaining chips to extract concessions.
Poll: Most Israelis believe government’s decision to expand the war politically motivated
Demonstrators raise placards during an anti-government protest calling for the end of the war and for action to secure the release of hostages held by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip, in front of the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on May 8, 2025. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
A majority of Israelis believe that the Israeli government’s decision to expand the ongoing war in Gaza is motivated by political considerations, and not genuine security concerns.
Asked in a poll aired on Channel 12 what the reason for the government’s decision earlier this week to expand the war, 54 percent of respondents said political reasons, while just 36% said substantive reasons. Ten percent of respondents said they weren’t sure.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have threatened to collapse the government if he agrees to end the war, even if it secures the release of the remaining hostages. The premier has rejected this exchange, arguing that it would leave Hamas in power.
Just 25% of respondents agree with the government’s prioritization of destroying Hamas above freeing the remaining hostages. Sixty-one percent of respondents said freeing the hostages and ending the war should be the priority. Fourteen percent said they weren’t sure.
Seventy-eight percent of Israelis oppose the government’s refusal to launch a state commission of inquiry into the failures that allowed Hamas’s October 7 onslaught to unfold. Thirteen percent of Israelis back the government’s decision to hold off on such a probe and focus on expanding the war in Gaza. Nine percent weren’t sure.
Sixty-nine percent of the public is in favor of enlisting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who have long enjoyed blanket exemptions. Seventeen percent are against drafting Haredim and 14% said they weren’t sure.
Trump yanks prosecutor nomination of Ed Martin, who called a Nazi sympathizer ‘extraordinary’
Ed Martin, president of the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund speaks during a January 6th field hearing held by Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in the US Capitol on June 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. R (Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images/AFP)
US President Donald Trump says he has pulled his nomination of Ed Martin Jr. to be the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital, bowing to bipartisan concerns about the conservative activist’s modest legal experience, divisive politics and support for January 6 rioters.
Instead, the president said Martin will be tapped as an associate deputy attorney general and pardon attorney, putting him in the position of recommending pardons for a slew of defendants involved in the violent insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. When he returned to office in January, Trump granted sweeping pardons and commutations of all people charged with crimes in connection with the riot, or vowed to dismiss their cases.
In his new role, Martin will also be director of the “weaponization working group” at the Justice Department. That group was created in February to investigate the work of former special counsel Jack Smith, who led two federal prosecutions of Trump that were ultimately dismissed, and other instances during the administration of former President Joe Biden that Republicans say unfairly targeted conservatives.
Martin had faced revelations that his ties to Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a Nazi-sympathizing participant in the January 6 riot, were closer than the nominee had previously described — including under oath in the Senate.
Martin recently apologized for his past vocal praise of Hale-Cusanelli, who was sentenced to four years in prison for his role on Jan. 6 before being pardoned by Trump along with virtually all other Jan. 6 defendants.
A Navy contractor and ex-Army reservist, Hale-Cusanelli sported a Hitler-like mustache and joked online about killing and eating Jews.
As part of Martin’s advocacy for Jan. 6 defendants, he presented Hale-Cusanelli with an “Eagle Award” during an event held at a Trump golf club last year, where he also called the rioter “extraordinary.” He also interviewed him multiple times on his own podcast.
Martin claimed that, at the time, he had not been aware of the extent of Hale-Cusanelli’s views, which he now called “abhorrent and deplorable.” But reviews of Martin’s media output revealed that he had, in fact, asked Hale-Cusanelli about court reports that he’d shown up to work at a naval weapons station saying, “Hitler should have finished the job,” along with multiple other podcast interviews and interactions.
Margot Friedlander, German Holocaust survivor who landed a Vogue cover, dies at 103
Holocaust Survivor Margot Friedlander steps away from the podium after speaking at a ceremony attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and then-German Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas, left, for the launch of a US-Germany Dialogue on Holocaust Issues at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, June 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
Margot Friedlander, a Holocaust survivor who grew prominent in Germany after returning from the United States decades after surviving the Holocaust, has died at 103.
The Margot Friedlander Foundation announced her death on Friday, just weeks after opening applications for a 25,000 euro prize to recognize efforts to fight antisemitism and promote democracy. Friedlander was known for her concern about the rise of the political far right in Germany, as well as her impeccable style and the mantra she promoted: “Be human.”
Friedlander had appeared less than two days before her death at Berlin’s commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the rule of the Nazi Party. There, she read from her story, as she had countless times to student groups, public gatherings and public officials.
Friedlander was born and raised in Berlin and hid there after the Nazis rose to power and began deporting and murdering Jews. She was apprehended in April 1944 and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she remained until its liberation a year later. Her entire family had been murdered.
Friedlander and her husband, whom she met in Theresienstadt, moved to New York City, where they lived an unassuming life in Queens. But after her husband’s death in 1997, she began writing about her Holocaust experience, ultimately catching the eye of a filmmaker who brought her to Germany over the course of making a documentary about her.
The trip, which Friedlander had once sworn never to make, changed her life. She moved back permanently in 2010, at age 89, and quickly became a local celebrity, according to a Forward profile that appeared three years after her arrival. She made hundreds if not thousands of appearances to tell her story, taking center stage in a country haunted by its Holocaust history.
In 2023, she met with then-Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff during his visit to Berlin. She also presented a prize to Guy Nattiv and Helen Mirren, the director and star of “Golda,” the biopic about Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
Last year, according to a Vogue Germany cover story, “she was invited to a member of the Bundestag’s party at Soho House and celebrated until the lights came back on.” That fall, she met with then-US president Joe Biden in Berlin.
Macron calls for US-Europe Ukraine plan backed by ‘massive sanctions’
France’s President Emmanuel Macron calls for the speedy drawing up of a US-Europe plan for a 30-day truce in the Russia-Ukraine war that would be backed by “massive sanctions.”
“My wish … is that in the coming hours and coming days, we manage to all come together to commit to a ceasefire, saying that if one of the parties betrays it, there will be massive economic sanctions,” Macron tells Polish television channel Telewizja Polska.
He says that there had to be stronger action “so that we are much more dissuasive, Europeans and Americans united”.
Settlers reportedly set fire to Palestinian agricultural land in West Bank
Settlers torched agricultural land belonging to residents of the central West Bank village of al-Mughayyir, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reports.
Arrests for such attacks are highly rare, and none are reported in this case either.
Israeli settlers torched Palestinian lands and fields in the village of Al-Mughayyir, West Bank.
Another day in the West Bank, another act of settler terrorism—unchecked, unpunished, and funded by the Israeli government. pic.twitter.com/XOP3seun9P
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) May 9, 2025
Columbia suspends more than 65 students for library protest
Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters are escorted out of Columbia University's Butler Library after being arrested for occupying the library space on May 7, 2025, in New York City.(Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP)
Columbia University in New York has suspended more than 65 students for their role in an anti-Israel protest at a campus library on Wednesday, a Columbia official says.
The students are on interim suspension pending further investigation.
The official says 33 individuals, including some from affiliated institutions, have been barred from Columbia’s campus.
Protesters from the Columbia affiliate Barnard College often collaborate with Columbia activists.
Some alumni have also been barred from the campus.
IDF says it targeted Hamas operatives at UNRWA aid center; several reportedly killed
The IDF says it targeted several Hamas operatives in northern Gaza’s Jabalia a short while ago.
According to Palestinian media, the strike hit an UNRWA aid supply center, killing several people.
The military says it took “numerous steps” to mitigate civilian harm, including by using a precision munition, aerial surveillance and other intelligence.
#صور| انتشال عدد من الشهداء من تحت أنقاض مركز تموين جباليا التابع لوكالة الأونروا وسط مخيم جباليا شمال قطاع غزة، الذي استهدفه الاحتلال قبل قليل pic.twitter.com/tUhK2CdNXk
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) May 9, 2025
Saudi crown prince reportedly reassured Abbas deputy that Riyadh won’t ink deal with Israel absent end to war, two-state path
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) hosts the recently-appointed vice chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee Hussein al-Sheikh in Riyadh on May 8, 2025. (Saudi Press Agency)
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reaffirmed to the recently appointed vice chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, Hussein al-Sheikh, during a meeting this week that Riyadh will not agree to normalize relations with Israel until the war in Gaza ends and a pathway toward the establishment of a Palestinian state has been established, Sky News Arabia reports, citing an unnamed Palestinian source.
The Palestinian source also reveals that Saudi Arabia will resume financial aid to the Palestinian Authority and will announce the decision during an annual summit of Arab leaders that will be held later this month in Baghdad.
Separately, the Kan public broadcaster reports that Riyadh has sent messages to the Trump administration warning the US president against making any surprise announcements during his trip to the region next week that might embarrass the kingdom.
Kan cited a senior Arab official who said the message was particularly regarding potential announcements by Trump regarding Saudi-Israel normalization, which they have repeatedly insisted will not be advanced absent an end to the Gaza war and a political horizon for the Palestinians.
Judge rules Tufts student detained by US immigration authorities must be released
In this image taken from security camera video, Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by Department of Homeland Security agents on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo)
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release a Tufts University student from Turkey who has been held for over six weeks in a Louisiana immigration detention facility after she co-wrote an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
US District Judge William Sessions, during a hearing in Burlington, Vermont, granted bail to Rumeysa Ozturk, who is at the center of one of the highest-profile cases to emerge from Republican President Donald Trump’s campaign to deport pro-Palestinian activists on American campuses.
The judge ruled shortly after a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s bid to re-detain Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian campus activist who a different judge in Vermont ordered released last week after immigration authorities arrested him as well.
Ozturk’s arrest on March 25 by masked, plainclothes law enforcement officers on a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville, Massachusetts, near her home, was captured in a viral video and occurred after the US Department of State revoked her student visa.
The sole basis authorities have provided for revoking her visa was an opinion piece she co-authored in Tufts’ student newspaper criticizing the school’s response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.”
White House’s Leavitt: Israel’s Dermer was at White House Thursday
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a top adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was at the White House on Thursday for talks on Gaza and other issues, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tells reporters.
“We are in constant communication and dialogue with our counterparts and our allies and friends in Israel. Ron Dermer was here at the White House yesterday meeting with members of President Trump’s team,” Leavitt says.
She avoids confirming that Dermer met with US President Donald Trump, himself, but she already did that separately to Axios, which revealed the meeting yesterday.
Leavitt separately reiterates that securing the release of the hostages in Gaza is a top priority for the Trump administration.
Ukraine expels two Hungarian diplomats over spying row
Ukraine says it was expelling two Hungarian diplomats in retaliation for Budapest expelling two of its own, in an escalating row over Kyiv’s detention of alleged spies for Hungary.
“Two Hungarian diplomats must leave our country within 48 hours,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga says in a post on X. “We are acting in response to Hungary’s actions, based on the principle of reciprocity and our national interests.”
UAE rejects Israeli request to bankroll Gaza aid initiative, arguing it fails to address crisis — official
Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, May 5, 2025. (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)
The United Arab Emirates has rejected an Israeli request to bankroll a new initiative to resume the distribution of aid into Gaza after an over two-month embargo, a senior official familiar with the matter tells The Times of Israel.
The rejection marks a major blow to the initiative, which hasn’t even fully gotten off the ground, as Israel hoped that Emirati support would help convince other countries and international organizations to follow suit.
Israeli officials have been deeply involved in the recent establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which they want to manage the resumption of aid into Gaza in a manner that prevents its diversion from Hamas.
But a GHF memo provided to potential donors states that the initiative will only feed about 60% of Gaza’s population in an unspecified initial phase. The UN and international organizations briefed on the plan issued a statement earlier this week saying they won’t cooperate with the initiative, as it fails to sufficiently address the humanitarian crisis and “weaponizes” aid.
Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, who heads the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer’s aid Moran Stav visited the UAE yesterday to meet with Emirati Minister for International Cooperation Reem Al Hashimy, hoping to convince Abu Dhabi to back the plan, the senior official says, confirming reporting in the Walla news site.
Hashimy told the Israeli officials that the UAE would not be able to provide such financial support because the GHF initiative — as it currently stands — does not properly address the humanitarian crisis, the official says.
The official stresses that Abu Dhabi’s position could change if the initiative is adapted to properly meet the moment.
A Western diplomat told The Times of Israel earlier this week that GHF was planning to go public with the roll-out of its new initiative this week, but the lack of international support appears to be delaying the announcement.
Organizers sufficed with a press conference held earlier today by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee where he said that the effort was already underway, but he offered minimal details how the initiative would work, while calling on the international community to back the program.
Huckabee: It’s reckless and irresponsible to allege Trump and Netanyahu aren’t getting along
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee holds a press conference at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, May 9, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)
Amid mounting reports of a growing divide in the relationship between the US and Israel, US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, tweets, “It’s reckless and irresponsible for press to allege that [US President Donald Trump] and [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] are not getting along.”
“Bibi has spent more time with [Trump] than I have in past three months, and I’m his ambassador! The relationship between US and Israel remains STRONG!” Huckabee adds.
Witkoff: Goal of nuclear talks is for Iran to ‘voluntarily’ shift away from enrichment program
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Assistant to the President, Senior Adviser and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff after Witkoff's swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 6, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)
US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff says his goal in the ongoing Iran nuclear talks is for Tehran to “voluntarily shift away from an enrichment program where they can enrich to not have centrifuges, to not have material that can be enriched to weapons-grade levels 90 percent.”
“If we can get them to voluntarily do that, that is the most permanent way to make sure that they never get a weapon,” Witkoff says in an interview with Breitbart during which he stresses the Trump administration’s preference for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear threat over a military one.
Addressing those who have criticized his handling of the Iran talks, Witkoff says, there is a “neocon element” among them that “believes war is the only way to solve things.”
“In their minds, anything that is of a military nature is a solution to that problem — they have a bias toward that. They give no consideration whatsoever on what the consequences are, on that,” he continues.
Iran “may attempt to manipulate me. I don’t think they’re going to be able to manipulate me,” Witkoff says.
“If the Iranians make the mistake of thinking they can procrastinate at the table, then they won’t see that much of me and the alternative, as the president says, will be a bad alternative for them,” he adds.
“The president believes that his force of personality… can bend people to do things in a better way in the interests of the United States government. I believe in that too.”
IDF: ‘Most wanted West Bank terror operative’ who was planning imminent attacks killed in Nablus op
A senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative who Israeli authorities say was planning imminent terror attacks was killed by troops earlier today in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Members of the police’s elite Yamam unit, Shin Bet agents, and IDF troops had encircled a home in Nablus where Nour Bitawi was holed up, killing him along with another terror operative, the military says.
Bitawi had “advanced significant terror activity, and was involved in guiding, financing and carrying out terror attacks against Israeli citizens and security forces,” the IDF, Shin Bet, and police say in a joint statement, adding that he also was in contact with Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip and abroad.
عاجل | استشهاد القائد في كتيبة جنين "نور عبد الكريم البيطاوي" بعد خوضه اشتباكاً مسلحاً مع قوات الاحتلال بمنطقة عين كاكوب قرب حي المساكن شرق مدينة نابلس. pic.twitter.com/rbacAuN3pn
— بوابة اللاجئين الفلسطينيين (@refugeesps) May 9, 2025
“Bitawi was responsible for the flow of terror funds to Jenin and the other villages in the area, and in this framework, worked to recruit and arm terrorists to carry out attacks against IDF troops. At the same time, he worked to build explosive devices and plant them in the Jenin area,” the statement says.
The IDF says Bitawi had been wanted for many months and was identified fleeing the Jenin area to Nablus, where he was ultimately located and killed.
The Yamam officers carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker,” which involves escalating the volume of fire against a building to flush suspects out. The officers used an explosive-laden drone to eliminate him inside the building, alongside another operative, according to officials.
A military official describes Bitawi as “the number one most wanted” terror operative in the West Bank .
Nazi war criminal Barbie was key figure in cocaine trade — report
Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie was deeply involved in setting up one of South America’s most important drug cartels, according to a report by German news weekly Der Spiegel.
Dubbed the “Butcher of Lyon” for his wartime torture of prisoners, the former Gestapo chief in the occupied French city fled to South America after the end of World War II.
He was extradited from Bolivia to France in 1983 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 on charges of crimes against humanity. He died in prison in 1991.
According to Der Spiegel, Barbie — living under the alias Klaus Altmann — became a security adviser to drug baron Roberto Suarez after the two men met in the 1970s.
Suarez’s son, Gary, tells the magazine that Barbie was “an important person to my father.”
“He knew something about security, military strategy and secret service work,” he says.
Barbie was also active in advising the Bolivian security services, helping set up a death squad for dictator Luis Garcia Meza.
A CIA despatch from May 1974, seen by Der Spiegel, reveals that the agency’s officers already suspected Barbie of involvement in the drug trade, the magazine says.
Barbie was recruited as an anti-communist agent by American secret services after the war, and the United States later apologized to France for helping Barbie evade justice.
French pro-Palestinian group contests government decision to shut it down
A French pro-Palestinian protest group is contesting a government decision to shut it down, saying the move was politically motivated and based on “false” arguments as part of a wider crackdown on the movement for Palestinian rights.
Urgence Palestine (Emergency Palestine), created in 2023 to protest against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, filed its counterarguments to the shutdown procedure on Thursday, their lawyer Elsa Marcel says.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, explaining the decision, said in a letter dated April 28 to one of the group’s founders, Omar Alsoumi, that Urgence Palestine had provoked violent acts, including toward Jewish people, and had called for armed struggle.
Asked about the decision, Alsoumi tells Reuters, “This shows the partiality of the French government on the genocidal war that the Palestinian people are experiencing.”
He says the group, which has been organizing protests across France over the past 19 months, rejects any conflation of Jews and the Israeli government and that Palestinians have the right to resist occupation under international law.
The French Interior Ministry does not respond to a request for comment.
Iran agrees to fourth round of indirect nuclear talks with US on Sunday
Iran has agreed to hold a fourth round of indirect nuclear talks with the United States on Sunday in Oman, Tasnim news reports, citing a member of the Iranian team.
The fourth round of negotiations, initially scheduled for May 3 in Rome, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing “logistical reasons.”
A source familiar with the matter says US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff will travel to Oman to participate in the talks.
Ukraine imposes sanctions against Chinese, Iranian companies
Ukraine has introduced sanctions against one Chinese and three Iranian companies, according to a presidential decree.
The sanctions list includes Smart Kit Technology Limited from Hong Kong, and Alvand Motorbuilding Industries Company, Bonyan Danesh Shargh Private Company and Pishro Sanat Aseman Sharif Private Company registered in Iran.
No reason is given in the decree for introducing restrictions but Ukraine has previously accused both China and Iran of supporting Russia’s war effort.
Report: US wants to postpone effort to disarm Hamas until after deal reached to free hostages, end war
The Qatari newspaper al-Araby al-Jadeed reports that in the past two days, senior US officials have changed their stance regarding the disarmament of Hamas.
According to the report, the US officials have conveyed their decision to postpone dealing with the issue until after an agreement has been reached to end the war.
Al-Araby also reports that the US believes the Israeli demand to expel all members of Hamas’s military wing from the Gaza Strip is unrealistic, due to the large number of fighters and the lack of willingness from other countries to accept them.
Moreover, al-Araby reports that the US does not believe Israel’s policy of using more military force to release the remaining hostages will work. Instead, the US is working toward a deal that secures the release of all 59 hostages in one batch. Hamas has offered to do this if Israel agrees to permanently end the war — something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do, arguing that it leaves Hamas in power.
There is no confirmation of the Al-Araby report, which relies on a lone unnamed Egyptian source.
Shots fired at building near Israeli consulate in Istanbul; suspect arrested by Turkish police
The Foreign Ministry says shots were fired at a building near the Israeli consulate in Istanbul.
The shooter was arrested by Turkish police. There are no casualties or damage to the Israeli mission, the Foreign Ministry says.
Earlier today, the ministry said that an “unusual envelope” arrived at the Israeli Embassy in Paris. The envelope was examined and transferred to local security. No one was injured in the incident, the ministry says.
Following the two events, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar tweets that they prove that “terrorism is trying to harm us everywhere.”
“We will not be deterred and will continue to represent Israel with pride,” Sa’ar adds.
Houthis take responsibility for missile that triggered central Israel sirens before interception
The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen take responsibility for today’s ballistic missile launch at Israel.
The Houthis claim to have targeted Ben Gurion Airport with the missile. The IDF said the projectile was intercepted by air defenses.
Additionally, the Iran-backed group says it launched a drone at a target in the Tel Aviv area. There have been no reports of drones reaching Israel from Yemen today.
“The ban on air navigation to the airports of occupied Palestine, as well as the ban on the passage of Israeli ships through the Red and Arabian Seas, in addition to supportive operations, will continue until the aggression on Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted,” the Houthis add.
Jewish worshippers vandalized property, shouted ‘Death to Arabs’ on recent pilgrimage to shrine in Palestinian village
Breslov Hasidim seen throwing stones at the Palestinian village of Kifl Haris in the West Bank, on April 23, 2025. (Ouhud Hofesh)
During a visit to a religious shrine in the Palestinian village of Kifl Haris, Orthodox Israelis were filmed vandalizing property, shouting “Death to Arabs” and “May your village burn,” while under the protection of the IDF, Haaretz reports.
Such scenes take place every three months when the IDF shuts down the village to allow for a pilgrimage to what participants believe is the site of the biblical prophet Yehoshua bin Nun in the northern West Bank.
האירוע הבאמת מופרע הזה מגיע לעתים רחוקות לתקשורת הישראלית, בגלל שהמבקרים נוהגים גם להשחית את רכוש התושבים: גרפיטי גזעני, ניפוץ חלונות של בתים וניתוק של מערכות המים שלהם. הונדליזם הזה, שאם היה קורה בישוב ישראלי היה זוכה לכותרות ראשית של "פוגרום" הוא ממש לא היוצא מן הכלל. הוא הכלל.… pic.twitter.com/MpyAi8TMJF
— Hagar Shezaf (@hagar_shezaf) May 9, 2025
Palestinians are ordered to remain in their homes from the afternoon until the morning, as hundreds of Israeli troops secure the town for the visit by several hundred Orthodox Jews.
The violence got so bad in a previous pilgrimage that reservists securing the visit penned a letter to the military leadership urging that they intervene, Haaretz reports, adding that no decipherable changes were made.
עיתון הארץ פרסם היום סרטון של הכתבת הגר שיזף על שגרת הביקורים באתר ״קבר יהושע בן נון״ בכפר כיפל חארס, שבמסגרתם הצבא מאפשר למבקרים לרסס גרפיטי ולפגוע ברכוש תושבי הכפר pic.twitter.com/5EzayZ2IWc
— תיעודי אלימות ופשעי מלחמה (@arixegal) May 9, 2025
Katz vows strong response to latest Houthi missile attack
Defense Minister Israel Katz warns that Israel will respond to the Iran-backed Houthis’ latest ballistic missile attack on Israel.
“The Houthis continue to launch Iranian missiles at Israel. As we promised, we will respond strongly in Yemen and anywhere else necessary,” he says in a statement.
IDF says it razed major Hamas tunnel in Rafah; location provided by operatives who surrendered
During recent operations in southern Gaza’s Rafah, the IDF says two Hamas operatives surrendered to troops and provided intelligence on a major tunnel in the area, which was demolished.
The two Hamas terror operatives were captured by soldiers of the 188th Armored Brigade and handed over to the Shin Bet. During their interrogation, the military says the pair provided “significant intelligence, pointing to the location of underground infrastructure in the area.”
The tunnel, which was located shortly after in Rafah’s Shaboura camp, served “key terrorists” in Hamas, the IDF says.
Combat engineers of the elite Yahalom unit mapped out the tunnel, which spanned around a kilometer and was some 25 meters below ground. The military says the tunnel featured rooms to reside in, a bathroom, a kitchenette, blast doors, and several entrance shafts.
The tunnel was then demolished, the army adds.
This video published by the IDF on May 9, 2025, shows the inside of a major Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah, and it being demolished. (Israel Defense Forces)
Senate Democrats urge Trump to broker deal releasing hostages, ending Gaza war
Twenty-five Senate Democrats have signed onto a letter to US President Donald Trump to oppose Israel’s impending military operation aimed at reoccupying Gaza and to demand that Israel lift its ongoing blockade on humanitarian assistance for Gaza.
The letter calls the Israeli plan to resume aid “simply not viable.”
“It would limit aid distribution to just a few sites in southern Gaza secured by private US contractors, and nearly all aid groups operating in the region note this would only increase insecurity and displacement,” the senators say.
The lawmakers urge Trump to broker a deal that would see the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for an end to the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected this deal, arguing that it would leave Hamas in power.
But the senators note that nearly three-quarters of the Israeli public backs this trade, according to successive polls.
“Hamas’s military capacity had been effectively obliterated, with the IDF calling it a ‘guerilla terror group’ that could no longer mount a sustained military operation against the people of Israel,” the senators add.
Separately, Rep. Brad Schneider leads 25 House Democrats in another letter to Trump urging him to lean on Netanyahu to resume aid in Gaza, Jewish Insider reports.
That letter followed another one signed by 96 House Democrats to Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter in which they blasted Israel’s aid blockade, which has been in place since March 2.
IDF chief meets former hostages, emphasizes commitment to returning all those still in captivity
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir meets with former hostages Liri Albag, Romi Gonen, Omer Shem Tov and Sasha Troufanov on May 9, 2025. (IDF)
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir met today with former hostages Liri Albag, Romi Gonen, Omer Shem Tov and Sasha Troufanov.
Zamir “expressed his great appreciation for the candid conversation and emphasized the IDF’s commitment to working to return all the hostages,” the military says.
“I wanted to hear from you directly about your feelings during the time when you were held hostage, and IDF troops were operating near you. The experiences you went through were difficult and you radiate strength and resilience that are worthy of appreciation,” Zamir is quoted as saying in the statement.
“The return of the hostages and their protection are before our eyes all the time, we will continue to act in every possible way to meet the goals of the war, to return all the hostages to us and to defeat the Hamas terror organization,” he adds.
Zamir has been meeting weekly with families of hostages and former hostages.
Tunisia Jewish man injured in knife attack; motive unclear
Tunisian security forces stand guard during a visit by the US deputy chief of mission for Tunisia and French ambassador at the Ghriba synagogue in the resort island of Djerba on May 26, 2024. (FETHI BELAID / AFP)
A Tunisian Jewish jeweler has been injured in a knife attack in Djerba, days before the island holds its yearly Jewish pilgrimage, community representative Rene Trabelsi said.
The motive for the attack, which took place on Thursday in the island’s Jewish quarter, remained unclear, Trabelsi says.
“At this time, we still don’t know if it was an antisemitic attack,” he said on Thursday night.
The jeweler was “doing well” following the assault, but “he had two damaged fingers” and “wounds to his shoulder and arm,” he adds.
The attacker, who was arrested, was armed with a large knife, “the kind used in butcher shops,” Trabelsi said.
Djerba, whose palm trees and beach resorts attract flocks of tourists each year, sits off southern Tunisia and is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in that region outside of Israel.
גורמים בקהילה היהודית בתוניסיה לכאן חדשות: מוכר יהודי נדקר בשוק באי ג'רבה על ידי תושב שאינו יהודי. לפי הגורמים, לפני כשבועיים נדקרה באזור תיירת מצרפת שזוהתה בטעות כיהודייה @kaisos1987 @OmerShahar123 pic.twitter.com/AbG7LA6m97
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 8, 2025
Each year, it hosts a Jewish pilgrimage at the Ghriba synagogue, Africa’s oldest, usually drawing thousands of pilgrims from Europe, Israel and beyond.
But after a 2023 deadly attack on the synagogue that killed two worshippers and three police officers, fewer pilgrims have turned out to make the pilgrimage amid tightened security measures.
On Thursday night, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemned the attack on the jeweler and called “on the Tunisian authorities to take all necessary measures to protect the Jewish community.”
But Trabelsi, who is Tunisia’s former minister of tourism, said the statement “bothered [him] a lot.”
“I don’t understand the attitude of the Israeli foreign minister,” he told AFP. “We don’t depend on Israel. We are Tunisians in our own right. We depend on our country, which is Tunisia.”
Tunisian authorities did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.
This year’s pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue is due to take place on May 15 and 16.
It is at the heart of the Jewish tradition in Tunisia, where only about 1,500 members of the community still live — mainly on the island — compared to around 100,000 in the 1950s, before many left for Israel and France.
Source: Houthi missile shot down by Arrow after US THAAD missed for 2nd time this week
The Houthi ballistic missile fired from Yemen at Israel a short while ago was successfully intercepted by Israel’s Arrow long-range air defense system, a security source tells The Times of Israel.
The American THAAD system deployed to Israel also engaged the missile but missed, for the second time this week, the source says.
On Sunday, a THAAD interceptor missed a Houthi missile fired at Israel, while an Arrow interceptor malfunctioned, allowing the projectile to strike Ben Gurion Airport.
Netanyahu aide to remain in custody until Monday after Supreme Court rejects appeal
Aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatargate suspect Jonatan Urich arrives for a Supreme Court hearing on his appeal against his remand in custody, in Jerusalem, May 9, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal against a decision to keep Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top aide, Jonatan Urich, in custody over his alleged involvement in the Qatargate scandal.
Judge Yechiel Kasher states in his ruling, “I am satisfied that there was no miscarriage of justice in the district court’s decision. The appeal is denied.”
The Qatargate affair has revolved primarily around suspicions that two Netanyahu aides — Urich and Eli Feldstein — had committed multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, all while working for the prime minister.
Urich was re-arrested on Wednesday night following developments in the case, but a Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court judge ordered that he be released, while questioning the legality of the detention.
The state appealed that decision to the Lod-Central District Court, which ruled in its favor and led to an ultimately unsuccessful Supreme Court appeal by Urich’s lawyers.
IDF says it successfully intercepted Houthi missile that triggered central Israel sirens
Smoke trails, apparently from the interception of a Houthi missile fired from Yemen, are seen above Kibbutz Baram in northern Israel, May 2, 2025. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)
A ballistic missile launched at Israel by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen was successfully intercepted by air defenses a short while ago, the military says.
There are no reports of injuries or damage in the attack.
Sirens had sounded across central Israel. Preceding the sirens by some three minutes, an early warning was issued to residents, alerting civilians of the long-range missile attack via a push notification on their phones.
As is routine, Ben Gurion Airport halted operations when the missile was launched, and has now reopened. A Houthi ballistic missile on Sunday unprecedentedly impacted a few hundred yards from the main control tower, after interception efforts failed, prompting most foreign airlines to begin an ongoing suspension of Israel flights.
Today’s attack comes three days after US President Donald Trump announced a truce between the US and the Houthis, which caught Israel by surprise. The Houthis vowed to continue their attacks against Israel, despite the agreement with Washington.
Since March 18, when the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen have launched some 28 ballistic missiles and dozens of drones at Israel.
Sirens triggered across central Israel after launch of ballistic missile from Yemen
Sirens are sounding across central Israel following the launch of a ballistic missile from Yemen.
The IDF says it is working to shoot down the projectile.
Ben Gvir urges Netanyahu to walk back ‘disastrous decision’ to allow Gaza aid
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir issues a statement blasting the decision to allow humanitarian aid to return to the Gaza Strip, urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other ministers to “reverse this disastrous decision in the next cabinet meeting.”
“It is foolishness and a moral and strategic mistake for Gazans to get supplies while our hostages are starved,” he argues. “The equation must be clear: Want humanitarian [aid]? Release our hostages.”
Ex-PM Olmert: Gaza is Palestinian, not Israeli, and must be part of a Palestinian state
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert (sitting onstage) and former Palestinian Authority foreign minister Nasser Al-Kidwa (onscreen) address the People's Peace Summit in Jerusalem on May 9, 2025. (Rossella Tercatin/Times of Israel)
Gaza belongs to the Palestinians and must be part of a future Palestinian state, former prime minister Ehud Olmert says as he addresses the left-wing People’s Peace Summit at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, with former Palestinian Authority foreign minister Nasser Al-Kidwa.
Olmert and Al-Kidwa discuss their peace framework, which they first unveiled last year, and are promoting together. The framework aims at reaching a two-state solution based on Israel’s pre-1967 borders with its neighbors, with land swaps.
While acknowledging that the concept is not popular in the current political climate, Olmert says that “only a two-state solution is a prescription for a dramatic change in the direction of our country and the whole region.”
He maintains that Israel achieved what it could militarily in Gaza “a long time ago” and that the war must stop immediately.
“The hostages should have been back already,” Olmert says.
“We must pull out from Gaza,” he adds. “Gaza is Palestinian and not Israeli. It needs to be part of a Palestinian state.”
Olmert calls for an interim security force to ensure that Hamas does not go back to power, and a new administration linked to the Palestinian Authority that can rebuild Gaza without any involvement of the terror group. According to the former premier, this can be achieved within the framework of a comprehensive normalization of ties for the whole region.
“In 1977, when the Likud [party] entered the government for the first time, nobody believed that Menachem Begin would make peace with Egypt and Israel would pull out of Sinai, but it happened,” Olmert says.
“We all understand that we need a new situation in Gaza,” Kidwa says.
“Nobody is going to do the job on our behalf; we need to do the job and people from abroad can help us,” he says, adding that everyone needs to do more for this.
Hegseth said to cancel reported plan to visit Israel in coming days
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly canceled a visit to Israel that he was said to be planning for the coming days.
An Axios report earlier this week said Hegseth was intending to arrive in Israel on May 12, a day before US President Donald Trump begins his trip to Saudi Arabia, followed by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. It would have been Hegseth’s first trip to Israel as defense secretary, and he was slated to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz.
But several Hebrew media outlets now say he has canceled the planned visit.
IDF says Palestinian who planned attack was shot and detained in West Bank yesterday
The IDF says troops shot and detained a Palestinian, who was allegedly planning to carry out a terror attack, during operations in the northern West Bank yesterday.
The suspect, who the IDF says was involved in building explosive devices, was shot by members of the Duvdevan commando unit in his home in the town of Tamun. His condition is not immediately known.
The army says the troops came under fire during the operation, though none were injured.
Firefighters stop blaze that endangered Nazareth buildings
The Fire and Rescue Service says firefighters have stopped the blaze that threatened buildings in Nazareth in the north.
It says 12 teams, along with three planes, heavy equipment, and police officers, acted together to prevent the fire from spreading into the city, halting it next to the first line of buildings, which includes a commercial compound and agricultural buildings.
IDF says it hit over 60 terror targets in Gaza, struck Hamas targets in Morag Corridor
Israeli troops operate in Gaza in a photo published by the IDF on May 9, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF says it struck over 60 targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day, including cells of terror operatives, buildings used by terror groups, weapon depots and other infrastructure.
In addition, dozens of strikes were carried out overnight by the Israeli Air Force against Hamas targets in the Morag Corridor area of southern Gaza, in a joint operation with the 36th Division, the military says.
Elsewhere in Gaza, a drone strike yesterday killed a terror operative who emerged from a tunnel near where ground forces were operating, the army says, and another strike hit a building from which troops came under fire.
Firefighters battle large brush fire that quickly spreads to outskirts of Nazareth
Firefighters battle a brush fire on the outskirts of Nazareth, May 9, 2025. (Fire and Rescue Service)
Amid a heatwave, a large blaze is raging between the northern city of Nazareth and the town of Yafa an-Naseriyye, with the fire spreading quickly toward residential buildings in Nazareth, the Fire and Rescue Service says.
Eleven firefighting teams are working to stop the flames before they engulf the houses, accompanied by three firefighting planes.
“This is a big fire that is spreading quickly in light of the extreme weather conditions. The firefighters are working with determination to prevent harm to the buildings and residents,” says local fire chief Ofer Edri.
תיעוד מפעולות מטוסי הכיבוי, בסמוך לקו הבתים בנצרת
קרדיט: גיא קבלו, כבאות והצלה צפון pic.twitter.com/sdTlLpsxXa
— NWS news (@nws_report) May 9, 2025
Germany says Merz spoke to Netanyahu, voiced concern for hostages, Gazans
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, meets Germany's then-opposition leader, now Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, February 12, 2024. (Kobi Gideon / GPO)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has expressed his concern about the fate of the hostages and the humanitarian plight in Gaza in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a German government spokesperson says in a statement.
Merz “expressed his hope that negotiations on a ceasefire would soon get underway,” says the spokesperson, who adds that the situation in Syria was also discussed in yesterday’s call.
Macron: Peace would require hostages be freed, Hamas disarmed, PA reformed
French President Emmanuel Macron sends a video message to the People’s Peace Summit at International Convention Center in Jerusalem on May 9, 2025. (Rossella Tercatin/Times of Israel)
French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the People’s Peace Summit in Jerusalem, organized by almost 60 grassroots organizations, in a video message.
“Your mobilization is a signal of hope in a time marked by pain, fear and misunderstanding that live in all of us since the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, and the tragedy that struck the Palestinian people in Gaza,” says Macron.
The French leader highlights that France lost the highest number of citizens after Israel in the Hamas onslaught and remembers the many peace activists killed by the terrorists.
Macron says that “France will always stand with builders of peace.”
He says that in this spirit, he will co-chair a conference for the two-state solution with Saudi Arabia in June. He says that the release of hostages, disarmament of Hamas and reform of the Palestinian Authority are “prerequisites” to achieve a long-lasting peace.
Online footage said to show Hamas shooting, beating Gazans accused of stealing food
Footage from the Gaza Strip circulating on social media shows armed men shooting and beating bound individuals.
Users claim that these are Hamas members targeting those suspected of stealing food.
A Palestinian website recently reported that Hamas has reestablished a unit that previously operated in Gaza to enforce order, in light of increasing theft due to the food shortage in the Strip.
Horrifying; a new video of Hamas thugs torturing a starving Gazan for allegedly stealing food. Barbaric, inhuman, routine.
And then comes a Western leftist telling us not to speak ill of the “freedom fighters.”
Spare us the lectures. pic.twitter.com/xkSsh1N8Lo— Hamza (@HowidyHamza) May 9, 2025
PA’s Abbas tells Jerusalem peace summit he rejects terror, backs 2-state solution
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the People’s Peace Summit by video at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, May 9, 2025. (Rossella Tercatin/Times of Israel)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the People’s Peace Summit in Jerusalem in a video message.
“After all these years of conflict, war and suffering, many are wondering, is there still a chance to achieve peace based on the two-state solution?” Abbas asks. “I say with confidence, yes, peace can be achieved and all the people in the region can live in security and stability.”
Abbas says that in order to do so, “justice that gives everyone their rights” is needed.
He states he rejects terrorism in all forms, without explicitly mentioning Hamas or its onslaught of October 7, 2023.
Abbas also declares that he is in favor of releasing “all detainees and prisoners,” a possible reference to the Israeli hostages in Gaza, but also to the Palestinian security inmates detained in Israeli prisons.
He calls for a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital that can live side by side with the State of Israel, calling this the one way for peace.
US envoy: We’re not pulling away from close Israel ties; IDF involvement in Gaza aid plan is marginal
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee addresses reportedly at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, May 9, 2025. (Screensot)
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee rejects the notion that Washington is “pulling away” from close ties with Jerusalem or that it is trying to sidestep the Israeli government, describing the relations as very close, after a report revealed that the Trump administration is no longer demanding that Saudi Arabia recognize Israel as part of a nuclear pact with Riyadh.
“Under [US President Donald] Trump, the special relationship has never been stronger,” he tells reporters at the US Embassy in Jerusalem.
Huckabee also argues that it is “wholly inaccurate” to describe the US-led humanitarian aid initiative being launched in Gaza as Israeli, saying media reports characterizing it as such were “off the mark.”
However, officials familiar with the plan have told The Times of Israel that the Israeli government and military have been heavily involved in putting together the details of this plan, even if a new international organization — the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — will be the one managing the initiative and the IDF won’t be the one to distribute the aid.
Huckabee says Israel’s involvement will only be “on the perimeters,” in securing the aid distribution zones.
“They’re not bringing the food or distributing it,” he says, adding that the Israelis “are supportive” of the plan. “They care very much about humanitarian aid to Gaza, but they also care that Hamas doesn’t steal the aid.”
Asked by The Times of Israel how a potential ceasefire with Hamas could affect the initiative if it requires an IDF withdrawal to buffer zones, Huckabee says that “any ceasefire still requires security,” and the focus in any case will be getting the food to the Gazan population. He also says that humanitarian aid isn’t dependent on the existence of a ceasefire.
He says the key elements of the plan are to get food distributed efficiently and safely, and prevent the Hamas terror group from getting its hands on it and stealing it. He pans Hamas as “100% responsible for the horrific situation,” accusing it of “starving their people” and preventing a solution, and urges unanimous international condemnation of its “torturing of hostages in tunnels.”
He says the aid initiative involves many groups, nonprofits and agencies, none of whom he agrees to name. Huckabee also declines to disclose who will be funding the effort.
But he acknowledges that alongside the “good initial response,” many challenges remain and an “extraordinary amount of planning” is required.
He declines to give a timeline for when the aid will begin being distributed, beyond insisting that it will be hopefully very soon. However, the US ambassador acknowledges that the initiative “won’t be perfect — especially in its early days.”
Hamas-linked sources: Group met mediators this week but ‘no progress’ toward deal
A Hamas delegation held two meetings with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Doha this week but they produced no breakthrough in the search for a Gaza truce, sources close to the Palestinian terror group say.
“Egyptian officials met twice with a high-level Hamas delegation led by [chief negotiator] Khalil al-Hayya [and] Qatari officials on Wednesday and Thursday in Doha,” one source tells AFP. A second source says the talks were “serious” but made “no concrete progress.”
Australia set to swear in its first cabinet without any Jew since 2010
Then-Australian Labor Party member, Shadow Attorney General Mark Dreyfus (C), is seen in the House of Representatives in Canberra, Australia on December 7, 2017. (SEAN DAVEY / AFP)
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hosts a public Labor Party meeting in Parliament House for the first time since his government won an emphatic election victory on May 3.
The government has been criticized for dropping Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, the government’s most senior Jew, and Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic, the government’s most prominent Muslim, from the new cabinet that will be sworn in on Tuesday.
The government would be the first in Australia without a Jewish minister since 2010, Dreyfus staffer Stephen Spencer says. Dreyfus is one of three Jewish lawmakers in the government.
Cabinet ministers are decided by party factions that are entitled to a proportion of ministerial seats that reflects their share of government lawmakers.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Defense Minister Richard Marles, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher have been assured they will hold their portfolios. But Albanese has yet to announce the remainder of his ministers.
The meeting of Labor lawmakers endorses the 30 appointments to the cabinet and junior ministries.
Health Minister Mark Bulter says Anne Aly, a junior minister, is expected to be promoted to cabinet next week, which would mean a Muslim woman replacing Husic.
“It’s a tough day for Ed and for Mark,” Bulter tells Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Meanwhile, Sydney Muslim community leader Jamal Rifi calls on Albanese to intervene to keep Husic, a Sydney lawmaker, in cabinet.
“The prime minister needs to reflect on what sort of message he sends to all these people who worked hard in southwestern Sydney” for the government’s reelection, Rifi said. Southwest Sydney has a large Muslim population.
Husic is one of the government’s most vocal critics of how Israel has waged war on Hamas in Gaza.
Two weeks after the Hamas onslaught in Israel on October 7, 2023, Husic said: “I feel very strongly that Palestinians are being collectively punished… for Hamas’s barbarism.”
Several thousand people gather in Jerusalem for grassroots peace summit
Several thousand people gather at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem for the “It’s Time” peace summit on May 9, 2025. (Rossella Tercatin/Times of Israel)
Several thousand people gather at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem to attend the “It’s Time” peace summit organized by a coalition of some 60 grassroots peace-building organizations.
“We are here to rebuild a strong peace camp that can return peace to the streets, and to the Knesset,” says actor Yossi Marshek, who is hosting the event.
Several activists, former army officers, relatives of hostages and terror victims — mostly Israeli Jews, but also several Arabs — take the stage in the inaugural session, calling for the end of the war, the return of the hostages, and a comprehensive path to peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
According to the organizers, tens of thousands of people are also attending the summit virtually, through dozens of broadcasting events.
Iran’s top diplomat to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar tomorrow
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, center, and Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, left, walk through the Muscat International Book Fair in Oman, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will visit Saudi Arabia and Qatar tomorrow and will participate in the Iran-Arab World Dialogue summit in Doha, a ministry spokesperson says, ahead of possible US-Iran talks on Sunday.
A fourth round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States is likely to take place over the weekend in the capital of Oman, and US President Donald Trump is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next week.
Trump, who withdrew the US from a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, has threatened to bomb Iran if no agreement is reached with his administration to resolve the longstanding dispute.
Report: US heavily pressuring Israel to reach deal with Hamas; Witkoff asked for his criticism of Jerusalem to be leaked
L to R: US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, March 19, 2025, outside the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein); US President Donald Trump, April 3, 2025, upon arriving in Miami, Florida. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell); Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to press in Budapest, Hungary, April 3, 2025; Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer in the Knesset in Jerusalem, January 22, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
US President Donald Trump’s administration is heavily pressuring Israel to reach a ceasefire-hostage deal with Hamas ahead of Trump’s visit to the Middle East, threatening that if Jerusalem doesn’t move along with the US toward such an agreement, Israel will be “left alone,” Haaretz reports, citing an unnamed source familiar with the details.
The outlet says the office of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer refused to comment.
The report adds, without citing a source, that Steve Witkoff is the anonymous senior US official cited by Channel 12 as criticizing Israel’s conduct in a meeting with families of hostages.
“If until today, the hostages paid the price for not ending the war, then today the price will be much heavier for Israel, and not only the hostages,” the official was quoted as saying, adding that Israel has failed to take advantage of the emerging US nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, which Trump is reportedly no longer conditioning on Riyadh normalizing ties with the Jewish state.
“If Israel doesn’t come to its senses, the price of missing out will be higher than ever before,” the official — reportedly Witkoff — warned.
Haaretz also reports that Witkoff’s criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was leaked to the media at Witkoff’s request.
Witkoff’s office is denying that the administration is pressuring Israel to reach a deal.
Ex-hostage Eliya Cohen says he and others tried to escape on their 1st day in Gaza
Freed hostage Eliya Cohen speaks in a video message played at Hostages Square on March 8, 2025. (Hostages Families Forum)
Freed hostage Eliya Cohen says he and other abductees tried to escape on their first day in captivity in Gaza.
As Israel started striking the Strip and flattened a building where they were initially held, another warning of an impending bombing caused the captors to leave Cohen and several others alone, he tells Ynet.
“I looked at the hostages who were with me. I didn’t even know their names yet, and I told them: ‘Let’s escape’. You can call it an instinct, maybe a gut feeling. And we just started running in the street,” he recounts.
However, they were quickly stopped by a Gazan man who identified them as Israelis. The person who had been guarding them then showed up and argued with the other Gazan, before they decided to take the hostages to hide in a grocery store, before they were taken back to the ruins of the home and kept there for two months.
Then they were taken into underground tunnels, where ironically, Cohen felt safer since “the only consolation was knowing I wouldn’t die from a missile.”
Arab Israeli indicted for swearing allegiance to ISIS, trying to join it in Syria
Prosecutors say they have indicted a resident of the Arab city of Kafr Qasim over alleged membership in the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.
Adam Sarsour, 29, is accused of having consumed ISIS material for a decade through social media and other websites. He allegedly decided to join the group, traveled to Turkey twice and unsuccessfully tried to cross the border into Syria.
He later swore allegiance to ISIS online, and during the current war he shared “dozens of violent videos” linked to the group, including on the messaging app WhatsApp.
The indictment has been filed with the Kfar Saba Magistrate’s Court.
Police said yesterday that they seized ISIS-related items from his possession during the arrest. A spokesperson published a photo — displayed in Hebrew text on a computer screen — of an oath to slain Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as well as a ring bearing the Seal of Muhammad, used on the group’s flag.
Lawyers for Qatargate suspect Urich seek appeal to Supreme Court against continued detention
Likud media adviser Jonatan Urich arrives at a conference organized by Makor Rishon and the Israeli Democracy Institute at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, November 11, 2019. (Noam Revkin/ File)
Lawyers for Jonatan Urich, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a key suspect in the Qatargate probe, file a request to appeal to the Supreme Court against a decision made yesterday to keep Urich in custody until Monday.
The Lod-Central District Court overturned a previous decision to free Urich from detention as well as from house arrest, with the judge saying his remand should be extended as suspicions against him “significantly strengthened in the past day.”
Attorneys Amit Hadad and Noa Milstein have filed the request to take the matter to the country’s top court.
The Qatargate affair has revolved primarily around suspicions that two Netanyahu aides — Urich and Eli Feldstein — committed multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, all while working for the prime minister.
In their new request, the attorneys argue that the district court “made a mistake in defining the offense,” adding that Qatar isn’t defined by Israeli law as an enemy country and that “many officials in Israel, including very senior defense officials,” regularly work with the Gulf nation.
They also argue that Urich, as a private individual providing services to the premier’s Likud party rather than a state-employed official, “is allowed to concurrently work in any role.”
Former envoy to US: Netanyahu ‘unwilling to pay the price’ for Saudi normalization
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog speaks during an event on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 14, 2024, to raise awareness of the sexual and gender-based violence Hamas perpetrated against women and children in Israel on and since October 7. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Former Israeli ambassador to the United States Mike Herzog, who served until January, accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of missing opportunities for a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, including a few months ago.
After the news that US President Donald Trump is no longer conditioning a landmark nuclear pact with Riyadh on the latter recognizing the Jewish state, Herzog tells the Kan public broadcaster that “since Israel is planning to widen the operation in Gaza, normalization is getting farther away.”
“I think Israel should make [normalization] a very high priority. I don’t think Netanyahu doesn’t want it, but he probably isn’t willing to pay the price. I think it’s a missed opportunity,” he says, though he adds that the past opportunities were missed due to multiple factors.
“Trump was elected over the ‘America first’ stance and he is implementing it. This means, all the rest, including Israel, come after American interests,” Herzog says, adding that “there is a possibility that a hostage deal will reopen the chances for normalization with Saudi Arabia.”
Ecuador leader says Israel will provide intelligence to help country’s war on cartels
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, May 5, 2025. (Maayan Toaf/ GPO)
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa tells AFP he has sought assistance from Israel and the United Arab Emirates to combat the drug cartels that are terrorizing the South American country.
In an interview in Paris, the iron-fisted 37-year-old who won reelection last month says Israel and the UAE have agreed to provide intelligence “to help” fight cocaine traffickers.
Once-peaceful Ecuador averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year, as cartels battle for control over cocaine routes that pass through the nation’s ports.
During presidential campaigning, Noboa suggested US special forces should be deployed to Ecuador to tackle the violence, and floated legal reforms to allow US bases to reopen.
Over the past week, he traveled to Italy, Spain, Britain and France — some of the European countries experiencing rocketing cocaine consumption — to develop further security alliances, as well as Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
He says he spoke to Israeli and Emirati leaders about “cooperation on security at ports and borders… since the violence is there, in the areas or on the routes to the ports.”
But Noboa admits “there is not much interest so far” from foreign powers in establishing military bases in the Andean country.
PM may initiate early elections, preempt Haredi threats over enlistment bill, ministers tell ToI
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, right, arriving for a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on September 27, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
In recent days, some government ministers are asserting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may decide soon to dismantle the coalition and go to early elections of his own initiative, if he feels like the Haredi parties indeed intend to topple the government over the issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the military.
“Netanyahu knows there is no solution to the Haredi enlistment matter,” a senior minister tells Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language sister site. “He is bidding for time and will eventually say that ‘on this important matter, I didn’t cave.’ This way, he’ll at least win the election with the support of reservists and civilians who can’t live with the inequality in military conscription.”
The issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the IDF is politically fraught, with community leadership decrying it as secularization of its young men and ordering yeshiva students to defy callups.
Decades of efforts to pass a law regulating the matter have fallen flat as the High Court of Justice strikes down any law remotely acceptable to Haredi leaders as it harms the principle of equality.
Last year, the court ruled that decades-long sweeping exemptions for the community are unlawful, and the Haredi parties have been demanding the passage of a law enshrining the exemptions for most men.
Netanyahu has been pushing off the matter, diffusing periodic crises and threats to topple the government mid-war, but the threats to the coalition appear to be more serious this time, with no solution in sight and potential political rivals escalating their attacks on the government over the issue.
Two IDF soldiers killed, six wounded in fighting in southern Gaza, military says
Sgt. Yishai Elyakim Urbach (left), and Staff Sgt. Yam Frid (right)(Israel Defense Forces)
Two IDF soldiers were killed and at least six were wounded in separate incidents amid fighting in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, the military announces.
The slain soldiers are named as:
Sgt. Yishai Elyakim Urbach, 20, of the Combat Engineering Corps’ 605th Battalion, from Zikhron Ya’akov.
Staff Sgt. Yam Frid, 21, of the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, from Sal’it.
According to an initial IDF probe of the first incident, Hamas operatives fired an RPG at a building in Rafah’s Jenina neighbourhood, where troops were stationed. The building partially collapsed on the troops, killing Urbach and wounding two others, including one seriously and one moderately.
The second incident took place some two hours later in the same area. According to the investigation, an armored personnel carrier was hit by an explosive device, killing Frid and wounding four other soldiers, including three listed in serious condition.
Report: Dermer met with Trump at the White House to discuss Iran talks, Gaza war
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer speaks at the Jewish News Syndicate conference in Jerusalem, on April 28, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
US President Trump met Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Thursday and discussed the nuclear talks with Iran and Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, Axios reports, citing two sources briefed on the meeting.
The meeting was held at the White House and was not made public by the US or Israel, according to Axios.
Dermer met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday and had several meetings in the White House including one with Trump on Thursday, Axios reports.
Thursday’s meeting was also attended by Vice President JD Vance, Rubio, and US special envoy Steve Witkoff, the report adds.
Dermer is in Washington for meetings with senior US officials ahead of Trump’s upcoming visit to the region next week.
Shin Bet said urging lawmakers to treat proliferation of weapons in Arab communities as national security threat
Shin Bet officials are reportedly urging politicians to treat the proliferation of weapons in Arab society as a national security threat, reports Israel’s Channel 12 News.
According to the report, the agency’s research division authored a document defining the accessibility and quantity of illegal arms in Arab society as “a threat to Israel’s national security” that must be dealt with immediately.
The Shin Bet reportedly fears another outbreak of widespread nationalist violence, akin to the interethnic riots that swept across mixed cities on the backdrop of the 2021 Gaza war.
The document reportedly suggests that in order to deter illegal weapons trafficking, enforcement agencies treat weapons-related offenses as security offenses — a move that would lead to harsher sentencing for the former.
Violent crime in Arab society has spiraled in recent years, claiming 89 lives since the start of 2025. According to the Abraham Initiatives, there has been an 84% jump in the number of Arab sector homicides compared to the same time last year.
Arab resident deported from Israel to Gaza in February said killed in Israeli airstrike
Basel al-Qur'an, a temporary resident of Israel who was deported to Gaza after serving out a jail sentence for traffic violations, takes a selfie in Rafah on March 5, 2025. (Courtesy)
An Arab man deported from Israel to Gaza in February was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Rafah, reports the Arab48 news site.
28-year-old Basel al-Qur’an was born in Deir al-Balah but spent his entire adult life in Israel, until he was sent back to the Strip when he completed a prison sentence for traffic violations.
Al-Qur’an’s mother Marwa tells the outlet yesterday that she was notified of her son’s death by one of the people he had been staying with in the Strip. His corpse was taken to Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis for identification. It is unclear when al-Qur’an was killed.
Al-Qur’an was born to an Arab Israeli mother and an Egyptian father in Gaza. Upon his parents’ divorce, he moved with his mother to Israel as an adolescent, where he spent his entire adult life.
Though his mother, wife and children are Israeli citizens, al-Qur’an was never able to obtain permanent residency or citizenship in Israel due to a 2003 law largely barring Palestinians married to Israeli citizens from the naturalization process.
Al-Qur’an migrated to Israel in 2013 on a temporary permit granted by the army that must be renewed every six months. Holders of these permits are largely barred from obtaining driver’s licenses.
In June 2023, Al-Qur’an was arrested and convicted of driving without a license — which he could not obtain because of his temporary status in Israel.
Basel al-Qur’an, a temporary resident of Israel deported to the Gaza Strip, with his two eldest children Adam and Marwa. (Courtesy)
His residency permit expired during the 20 months he spent in prison, leaving him without legal status in Israel. He was deported to Rafah upon his release from prison.
Over several phone calls with The Times of Israel in March, the deportee claimed that upon his release from Shikma Prison on February 1 — the same day that 150 Gazan security detainees were freed as part of the hostage release-ceasefire deal with Hamas — Shin Bet agents took him to the Kerem Shalom border crossing, where two IDF soldiers loaded him onto an aid truck headed to Rafah.
His lawyer, Uzi Avraham, appealed to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Defense Ministry body that oversees coordination in the West Bank and Gaza, requesting he be allowed to return to Israel.
According to Avraham, COGAT responded that they were reviewing the situation and would decide how to address it by the end of March, however both Avraham and al-Qur’an say the agency never followed up with them.
PA president Abbas calls on new pope Leo XIV to uphold predecessor’s ‘legacy’ of defending Palestinian rights
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas calls on the new Pope Leo XIV to pursue the “peace efforts” of his predecessor Francis, an official statement says.
Abbas sends “best wishes for the success of Pope Leo XIV in the pursuit of his noble task and maintaining the legacy of the late Pope Francis,” says the statement. Abbas highlighted the “importance of the moral, religious and political role of the Vatican in the defence of just causes,” adding that “the Palestinian people and their right to liberty and independence” should be at the top.
Pope Francis, who died last month after a 12-year papacy, had drawn anger from Israel over his criticism of the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.
IDF says baby lightly hurt in stone-throwing attack on bus in Jordan Valley
The military says that a baby was lightly wounded while riding on a bus in the Jordan Valley that was targeted in a stone-throwing attack.
The Israel Defense Forces says the baby was treated at the scene and that troops are searching for the culprits.
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