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The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.
Netanyahu compares Israeli anti-government protest movement to ‘mobocracies’ on US campuses
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a Memorial Day ceremony for Israel's fallen soldiers and victims of terror, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, May 12, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In an interview with CNBC released earlier today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compares the anti-government protest movement in Israel to the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests that have erupted on US college campuses in recent weeks.
Asked if he believes he still has the backing of the majority of the Israeli public, over seven months on from the October 7 Hamas massacre and the start of the war in Gaza, Netanyahu says that “you can go on the streets and see the vast support that is there,” for his government.
“You won’t know it, because everyone’s fixated on these protests,” he says of the weekly demonstrations in favor of a hostage deal and early elections that attract thousands in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and across Israel each week.
“But they don’t reflect the majority of the people any more than the mobocracies in American campuses,” Netanyahu says, drawing a comparison between the two. “These protesters, these mobs, do they reflect the majority of the American people? No. Well it’s the same thing here,” he adds.
“The majority of the people here support a victory, they want to see a victory, they want to see Hamas removed because they understand that their very future is on the line,” Netanyahu adds.
👀 Netanyahu compares Israelis protesting his government/lack of hostage deal to pro-Pales. campus protesters.
“These protests.. don't reflect the majority of the people anymore than the mobocracies in American campuses.. do they reflect the majority of the American people? No.” pic.twitter.com/vNyavFpAWb
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) May 15, 2024
The protests calling for early elections and the demonstrations in favor of a hostage deal have increasingly merged in recent months as the mass anti-government protests that were a weekly event before October 7 slowly picked up momentum once more.
The protests frequently feature speeches from family members of Hamas hostages, some of whom have accused Netanyahu of blocking a hostage deal for political reasons.
The protests for the hostages are organized and led by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an umbrella body founded on behalf of the families of 252 people abducted from Israel on October 7.
The anti-Israel campus protests in the US were the result of a wave of unrest that saw students set up encampments with calls for the school to cut ties with Israel and any businesses that support it.
Students and others on campuses whom law enforcement authorities have identified as outside agitators have taken part in the protests from Columbia University in New York City to UCLA.
Netanyahu previously compared the anti-Israel protests in the US to “what happened in German universities in the 1930s,” under Nazi rule.
Agencies contributed to this report.
Greek police clash with pro-Palestinian protesters marching to Israeli embassy in Athens
Pro-Palestinian protesters chant slogans outside the Israeli Embassy in Athens, on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Greek police clashed with protesters after a pro-Palestinian march to the Israeli embassy in Athens on Wednesday, Reuters witnesses and police officials say.
More than 2,500 people marched through the streets of Athens to the embassy carrying Palestinian flags and chanting “Free Palestine!”
A group of protesters broke off the march, which was largely peaceful, and hurled stones at police who had formed a security cordon outside the embassy. Police fired tear gas to disperse them.
Three people were detained during the brief clashes, a police official says.
Earlier this month, violence broke out during a pro-Palestinian rally in central Athens, a day after the Israeli military launched a ground and air operation in part of eastern Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’s Haniyeh says postwar plans for Gaza that exclude terror group will be rejected
Hamas’s Qatar-based chief Ismail Haniyeh says that any post-war plan for Gaza that excludes Hamas will be rejected by the terror group.
“Hamas existed to stay,” he says in a televised speech. “The movement [Hamas] will decide, along with all national factions, the administration of the Gaza Strip after the war.”
Haniyeh also blames Israel for the current deadlock in negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, saying that by demanding the terror group amend its proposal, it has led the talks into a stalemate.
Earlier this month, Hamas claimed to have accepted a truce agreement with Israel, though it later emerged that the proposal it said had come from Egyptian and Qatari mediators included several elements fundamentally different from what Israel had agreed to.
Jerusalem swiftly rejected the proposal for falling short of its “vital demands,” but okayed dispatching a working-level delegation to the indirect talks in Cairo.
Days later, however, Hamas said talks had ended after Israel “rejected the proposal submitted by the mediators and raised objections to it.”
The terror group said it had decided to stick to the terms of the proposal it had agreed to, rejecting the possibility of making any concessions.
Haniyeh reiterates the group’s demand that a ceasefire agreement should end the war in the Gaza Strip, which Israel has said it will not agree to until it achieves its goals, which include destroying Hamas’s military and governance capabilities.
Schumer says he won’t provide floor time for Republican legislation blocking Biden from withholding aid to Israel
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks after the Senate passed a foreign aid bill, including billions of dollars in military assistance for Israel, at the US Capitol in Washington on April 23, 2024. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/AFP)
WASHINGTON, As expected, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he does not plan to provide floor time for a vote on Republican legislation preventing US President Joe Biden from withholding weapons shipments from Israel.
House Republicans are expected to vote and pass the legislation either today or tomorrow, but the bill was always a long shot because the Democrats control the Senate.
US President Joe Biden pledged to veto the bill if it reached his desk but Schumer indicated that won’t be necessary.
“The president has already said he’d veto it, so it’s not going anywhere,” he tells reporters.
In first, Jewish Biden appointee publicly resigns over US support of Israel amid Gaza war
WASHINGTON — A US Department of the Interior staffer has become the first Jewish political appointee to publicly resign in protest of US support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the Interior Department, accuses US President Joe Biden of using Jews to justify US policy in the conflict.
Call had worked for the presidential campaigns of both Biden and US Vice President Kamala Harris, and was a longtime activist and advocate for Israel in Washington and elsewhere before joining the government.
She is at least the fifth mid- or senior-level administration staffer to make public their resignation in protest of the Biden administration’s military and diplomatic support of the now seven-month Israeli war against Hamas, which began with the October 7 terror assault in southern Israel.
She is the second political appointee to do so, after an Education Department official of Palestinian heritage resigned in January.
Her resignation letter describes her excitement at joining an administration that she believed shared much of her vision for the country. “However, I can no longer in good conscience continue to represent this administration,” she writes.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Call points to comments by Biden, including at a White House Hanukkah event where he said, “Were there no Israel, there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who was safe,” and at an event at Washington’s Holocaust Memorial last week in which he said the October 7 Hamas-led massacre was driven by an “ancient desire to wipe out the Jewish people.”
“He is making Jews the face of the American war machine. And that is so deeply wrong,” she says.
Lapid accuses government of losing control, says Israel ‘can’t go on like this’
Opposition and Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid, leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on April 15, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accuses the government of losing control and says that as long as it is in power, Israel will not be able to win its war against Hamas.
His statement comes after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he wouldn’t consent to Israeli civil or military governance of Gaza after Hamas is defeated, sparking calls for his termination among right-wing ministers and lawmakers.
“The government has lost control,” Lapid writes on X, formerly Twitter. “Soldiers are killed every day in Gaza and they fight among themselves on television. The cabinet is disassembled and non-functional. Ministers protest in front of cabinet meetings.”
“One cabinet sends humanitarian aid convoys and the other burns them,” he continues. “Relations with the US are collapsing, the middle class is collapsing, they have lost the north.”
“You can’t go on like this. We will not win with this government,” he adds.
IDF says Hezbollah drone hit Lower Galilee in terror group’s deepest strike of war
Smoke rises after rockets fired from Lebanon hit an open area in mount Meron, northern Israel, May 15, 2024. (David Cohen/Flash90)
A drone launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon struck an area in the Lower Galilee earlier this evening, according to the military.
Hezbollah in a statement claims to have targeted an army base near the Golani Junction, west of Tiberias, and some 35 kilometers from the Lebanon border, with several explosive-laden drones.
It would mark Hezbollah’s deepest strike in Israel amid the war.
Hezbollah says the drone attack is a response to recent Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon that killed members of the terror group.
The IDF says there are no injuries in the attack.
Extremists attacked commercial truck in West Bank, mistaking it for Gaza aid convoy – report
Haaretz reports that Israeli extremists mistook a regular commercial truck traveling in the West Bank for a convoy carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The vigilantes set fire to the road at the Givat Asaf Junction, dumped the truck’s contents onto the pavement and assaulted the Palestinian driver.
The driver is seen lying on the street, bloodied.
לפי גורם בטחוני, פעילי ימין שקיבלו הודעות לחסום משאיות סיוע לעזה בציר 60, חסמו משאיות מסחר רגילות, הבעירו צמיגים בוערים, רגמו את הנהג הפלסטיני באבנים והוא פונה לבית חולים. במהלך היום נפוצו קריאות רבות בנוגע למיקומי ותנועת המשאיות. לפי גורם בטחוני אחר בתרקומיא בדקו תעודות משלוח של… https://t.co/uXF1Gcievu
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) May 15, 2024
Gantz comes to Gallant’s defense amid calls for his termination
Outgoing defense minister Benny Gantz (left) embraces his successor Yoav Gallant, at military headquarters in Tel Aviv, January 1, 2023. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)
War cabinet minister Benny Gantz comes to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s defense, amidst calls for his termination after he challenged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Gaza policy in a nationally televised address.
“The defense minister speaks the truth, the leadership’s responsibility is to do the right thing for the country, at any cost,” he says in a statement.
First British aid shipment departs Cyprus for newly constructed Gaza pier
A British shipment of nearly 100 tons of aid has left Cyprus bound for a new maritime pier in Gaza, the British Foreign Office says in a statement.
“We are leading international efforts with the US and Cyprus to establish a maritime aid corridor. Today’s first shipment of British aid from Cyprus to the temporary pier off Gaza is an important moment in increasing this flow,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says.
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron says the pier will “play a vital role in getting aid to those who need it in Gaza, but it must be accompanied by an increase in aid delivered through land routes.”
“Israel’s commitments to increase access are welcome but we need to see more aid making it over the borders,” he adds.
IDF says Israeli fighter jets hit Hezbollah rocket launch site used in barrage earlier today
Israeli fighter jets struck a Hezbollah rocket launch site in southern Lebanon, used in the barrage on the Mount Meron area earlier today, the military says.
Additionally, a building belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force was struck in the Jabal Rezlane area, and another Hezbollah building was hit in Blida, the IDF says.
The IDF says it also shelled the source of rocket and missile fire on northern Israel today with artillery.
Israeli fighter jets struck a Hezbollah rocket launch site in southern Lebanon, used in the barrage on the Mount Meron area earlier today, the military says.
Additionally, a building belonging to Hezbollah's elite Radwan force was struck in the Jabal Rezlane area, and another… pic.twitter.com/9khFFjmsKn
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) May 15, 2024
Otzma Yehudit lawmaker posts famous photo from Ramallah lynching in response to Gallant
Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf of Otzma Yehudit slams Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s demand that Netanyahu eschews Israeli military and civilian rule following Hamas’s defeat.
The hardline legislator from the far-right Otzma Yehudit party tweets a famous picture of a Palestinian man in Ramallah showing off his bloodstained hands during the vicious lynching of a pair of Israeli reservists at the start of the Second Intifada.
“Palestinian actors backed by Arab countries,” he captions the image.
"גורמים פלשתינים בגיבוי מדינות ערב" pic.twitter.com/ygJ6ZuXU1Y
— יצחק וסרלאוף (@ItshakWaserlauf) May 15, 2024
Extremist Israelis in the West Bank reportedly block humanitarian aid headed for Gaza
Extremist Israelis are filmed blocking what reportedly is another humanitarian aid truck in the West Bank, preventing it from making its way from Jordan to the Gaza Strip in what is at least the sixth such incident this week.
Several vigilantes have started a fire on the road at the Givat Asaf Junction, preventing the truck from proceeding, while over a dozen other young suspects are seen dumping bags of food onto the pavement
The far-right activists claim that the aid is being funneled to Hamas, but the attacks have infuriated the US and much of the international community, which has criticized the Israeli government for not doing enough to reign in on the extremists, arguing that the aid is being kept from civilians at a key moment when they are particularly in need.
عاجل | مراسل العربي: مستوطنون ينهبون شاحنة مساعدات إنسانية أردنية قرب القدس كانت في طريقها إلى غزة pic.twitter.com/9Yn33TF2rE
— أحمد دراوشة (@AhDarawsha) May 15, 2024
Ben Gvir demands Gallant be fired, says he must be replaced to achieve war’s goals
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, center, speaks to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir after a Knesset vote in Jerusalem, February 15, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir demands that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant be fired after he publicly challenges Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the postwar governance of Gaza.
“From Gallant’s point of view, there is no difference between whether Gaza is controlled by IDF soldiers or whether Hamas murderers control it,” he tweets.
“This is the essence of the conception of a defense minister who failed on October 7, and continues to fail even now. Such a defense minister must be replaced in order to achieve the goals of the war.”
In jab at Netanyahu, Labor chief Michaeli asks if he’ll fire Gallant again over comments on postwar Gaza
Labor party chief Merav Michaeli slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following a public feud between him and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant surrounding the postwar governance of the Gaza Strip.
“Once again, Gallant again warns Netanyahu about the devastating consequences of his actions and Bibi doesn’t like what he hears,” she says. “Is he just going to fire him again?”
Netanyahu announced he was firing Gallant last March over his criticism of the government’s judicial overhaul — before reversing course two weeks later under intense public pressure.
Responding to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s declaration that he would “not allow” him to impose “civil or military governance of Gaza after Hamas” on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that he is “not ready to replace Hamas with Fatahstan.”
Suspected drone infiltration alarm sounds in Jordan River Village
A suspected drone infiltration alarm is sounding in the Jordan River Village, a recreational village in the Lower Galilee.
No further details are immediately available.
Yariv Levin: Israelis not ready to be ‘humiliated’ by second Oslo process
Justice Minister Yariv Levin arrives at a Likud faction meeting in the Knesset, February 5, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“The people of Israel are not ready to be humiliated,” Justice Minister Yariv Levin declares in a statement castigating Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for insisting that Israel not exercise “civil or military governance of Gaza” after the war.
“The people of Israel are not ready to be led into a second Oslo process, which will lead Israel to another disaster,” he insists, referring to the early 1990s peace process that led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority.
“The people of Israel will not agree to hand over Gaza to the control of the Palestinian Terrorist Authority. The people of Israel know that Israel’s security will only be achieved by determination to win, and not by relying on promises of peace from the vile terrorists and their various organizations.”
Smotrich calls for cabinet to ban PA involvement in postwar Gaza, and for Gallant to be ousted if he disagrees
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls on the cabinet to vote on a decision to prevent the Palestinian Authority’s involvement in the coastal strip’s postwar governance — and for Gallant to be forced out if he does not agree.
“Defense Minister Galant today announced his support for the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state as a reward for terrorism and Hamas for the most terrible massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Smotrich declares in a video message posted to X, formerly Twitter, after Gallant said that he will “not allow” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to impose “civil or military governance of Gaza after Hamas.”
Gallant’s plan would “pave the way for the establishment of an Arab terrorist state and for Hamas to take over Judea and Samaria as well,” a position completely at odds with that of the prime minister and the rest of the cabinet, Smotrich says.
Smotrich demands that Netanyahu bring a resolution ruling out PA involvement in Gaza to the government and then present Gallant with a choice to either “implement the government’s policy or return the keys” to his office.
“A government in which we are members will not… establish a Palestinian state and will not endanger the existence of the State of Israel,” he says.
שר הביטחון גלנט הודיע היום למעשה על תמיכתו בהקמת מדינת טרור פלשתינית כפרס לטרור ולחמאס על הטבח הנורא ביותר שבוצע בעם היהודי מאז השואה.
גלנט מתחבא מאחורי אמירות אמורפיות על "גורם שלישי" שהוא לא חמאס ולא ישראל כדי להחביא את האמת. אבל האמת היא שאין שום גורם כזה.
התכנית של גלנט היא… pic.twitter.com/12quZxsIWm
— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) May 15, 2024
Defense Ministry contractor succumbs to wounds sustained in southern Gaza mortar attack
Liron Yitzhak (right) a Defense Ministry contractor fatally by a mortar in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, and died of his wounds on May 15. (Courtesy)
Liron Yitzhak, 30, a Defense Ministry contractor who was wounded in a mortar attack in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday has died, the ministry and hospital officials say.
Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva says Yitzhak was brought to the medical center with a critical head injury following the mortar attack.
After two days, medical officials declared his death, the hospital says.
In addition to Yitzhak, the mortar attack in the Rafah area left eight soldiers wounded, including two seriously, and another Defense Ministry contractor lightly hurt.
Yitzhak, from Petah Tikva, is survived by his fiancée, to whom he was supposed to marry in two weeks, his parents, and two siblings.
The Defense Ministry says “Yitzhak was carrying out work on behalf of a company contracted by the Defense Ministry, as part of assistance to IDF troops operating in Gaza.”
Responding to Gallant, Netanyahu says he won’t replace ‘Hamastan with Fatahstan’ in Gaza
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a recorded statement on the war with Hamas in Gaza, May 15, 2024. (Screenshot/GPO)
Responding to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s declaration that he would “not allow” Israeli “civil or military governance of Gaza after Hamas,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declares that he is “not ready to replace Hamastan with Fatahstan.”
Fatah is Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s party.
“After the terrible massacre on October 7, I ordered the destruction of Hamas,” Netanyahu states in a video response to Gallant’s televised address. “As long as Hamas remains intact, no other party will step in to manage civilian affairs in Gaza, certainly not the Palestinian Authority. 80 percent of the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria support the terrible massacre of October 7,” Netanyahu said, referring to the West Bank.
“I am not prepared to switch from Hamastan to Fatahstan,” he says, referencing the Fatah-dominated PA.
The data cited by Netanyahu appears to come from a December poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research which showed that 82 percent of West Bank Palestinians supported the events of October 7. A second poll released by the same organization in March showed that number had dropped to 71%.
“The Palestinian Authority supports terror, educates for terror, funds terror. And so the first condition for preparing the ground for another party is to eliminate Hamas, and to do so without excuses,” Netanyahu adds.
אני לא מוכן להחליף את חמאסטאן בפת״חסטאן pic.twitter.com/gB4HmZZ1BF
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 15, 2024
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Gallant hints he won’t support latest draft law proposal backed by Netanyahu
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant hints that he will not support the current draft law suggested by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“My position has not changed. Any draft law that will be acceptable by all parts of the coalition I will support. And a draft law that will be brought unilaterally by some of the coalition factions, I will not [allow it to pass] and the defense establishment will not advance it,” he says in response to a question at a press conference.
The latest proposal suggested by Netanyahu earlier today would lower the age of deferment for yeshiva students, a bill that was first proposed by then-defense minister Benny Gantz in 2022.
Israeli delegation visits Cairo in attempt to smooth things over amid Rafah offensive
An Israeli delegation visited Cairo earlier today in an attempt to smooth things over amid the ongoing offensive in Rafah, which shares a border with Egypt, Hebrew media reports.
The delegation was led by the COGAT head Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian and senior Shin Bet officials.
The talks focused on the urgent need to reopen the Rafah Crossing and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza after Israel seized control of it earlier this month. Egypt has refused to reopen the crossing in protest of the offensive in Rafah.
On Sunday, a senior Egyptian official warned that its peace treaty with Israel — a cornerstone of regional stability — was at high risk. Cairo later announced that it would support South Africa’s ongoing lawsuit in the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
The Israeli delegation has returned from Cairo following the talks, reports add.
In cabinet meeting leak, Smotrich appears unaware Scotland is part of the UK – report
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads a Religious Zionism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, April 30, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)
Discussing last week’s UN General Assembly vote last week expanding Palestine’s standing at the international body, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reportedly appeared to exhibit ignorance of Scotland’s lack of sovereignty during Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.
“Ireland was in favor,” Kan quotes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling the cabinet.
“Scotland didn’t vote?” asks Smotrich.
“It’s not a separate country, it’s part of Britain,” Netanyahu replies.
“So we can continue drinking Scotch whisky,” Smotrich reportedly says in response.
Last week, the assembly adopted a resolution with 143 votes in favor and nine against – including the US and Israel – while 25 countries abstained. It does not give the Palestinians full UN membership, but simply recognizes them as qualified to join.
The resolution “determines that the State of Palestine… should therefore be admitted to membership” and it “recommends that the Security Council reconsider the matter favorably.”
Scotland has been ruled from London since 1603 and united with England and Wales in 1707, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Gallant to Netanyahu: You must publicly reject Israeli civil or military governance of Gaza after Hamas; I won’t allow it
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant delivers a statement to the press, May 15, 2024. (Screenshot)
In a televised address, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he must take “tough decisions” to advance non-Hamas governance of Gaza, because the gains of the war are being eroded and Israel’s long-term security is at stake.
He also warns that he will not consent to Israeli civil or military governance of Gaza, and that governance by local, non-Hamas Palestinians there is in Israel’s interest. Netanyahu, he says, must publicly rule out the notion of ongoing Israeli governance in the Strip.
Hours after Netanyahu declared that any discussions of the “day after” in Gaza are meaningless until Hamas is defeated, Gallant specifies that failing to find a replacement for Hamas in the Gaza Strip will undermine Israel’s military achievements, as the terror group is managing to regroup and exercise civil control.
“As long as Hamas retains control over civilian life in Gaza, it may rebuild and strengthen, thus requiring the IDF to return and fight in areas where it has already operated.”
“We must dismantle Hamas’s governing capabilities in Gaza. The key to this goal is military action, and the establishment of a governing alternative in Gaza,” he says in his televised statement.
“In the absence of such an alternative, only two negative options remain: Hamas’ rule in Gaza or Israeli military rule in Gaza,” Gallant warns. “The meaning of indecision is choosing one of the negative options. It would erode our military achievements, reduce the pressure on Hamas, and sabotage the chances of achieving a framework for the release of hostages,” he says.
Gallant claims that since October, during sessions of the security cabinet, he has been bringing up the subject of finding a replacement for Hamas, but has been rebuffed.
“The end of the military campaign must come together with political action. The ‘day after Hamas’ will only be achieved with Palestinian entities taking control of Gaza, accompanied by international actors, establishing a governing alternative to Hamas’s rule. This, above all, is an interest of the State of Israel,” he says. “Unfortunately, this issue was not raised for discussion, and worse, no alternative was brought up in its place.”
“Indecision is, in essence, a decision,” he says. “This leads to a dangerous course, which promotes the idea of Israeli military and civilian governance in Gaza. This is a negative and dangerous option for the State of Israel — strategically, militarily, and from a security standpoint.
“[Should this be the decision], military rule in Gaza would become the main security and military effort of the State of Israel over the coming years, at the expense of other arenas. The price paid would be bloodshed and victims, as well as a heavy economic price,” Gallant says.
“I will not agree to the establishment of Israeli military administration in Gaza. Israel must not exercise civilian control in Gaza,” he states bluntly.
“The security establishment and the IDF are responsible for destroying Hamas and retaining full military freedom of action in Gaza. The capacity to do so depends on the creation of alternative governance in Gaza,” he says, “and all parts of the government of Israel have to work on this.”
“The way this is implemented will influence Israel’s security situation for decades to come.”
Gallant now turns directly to the prime minister, who temporarily fired him in March 2023 when he spoke out against the “tangible” security threat posed by the rifts over the coalition’s judicial overhaul plans.
Says Gallant: “I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a decision and declare that Israel will not exercise civilian rule in the Gaza Strip, because no Israeli military administration will be established in Gaza, and that an alternative government to Hamas in the Gaza Strip will be advanced immediately. That is our obligation and responsibility in order to lead the state to a better place.”
“Right now,” he says, “on our watch, for the sake of the state’s future, we have to take tough decisions — advancing the national interest over all other interests, even if this requires paying personal or political costs.” He says the eyes of the nation “are on us,” and that Israelis “expect us to take the correct decisions.”
USAID official says Gaza floating pier expected to be operational ‘in coming days’
US soldiers assemble the Roll-On, Roll-Off Distribution Facility (RRDF), or floating pier, off the shore of Gaza in the Mediterranean Sea on April 26, 2024. (US Army via AP)
The US Army JLOTS floating pier off of Gaza is expected to be operational “in the coming days,” says Dan Dieckhaus, response director for USAID, in a briefing.
The port was built in the Ashdod Port, where it remains, and commodities are currently in Cyprus being inspected and loaded, says Dieckhaus.
He warns that “the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains incredibly dire.”
“Humanitarian conditions are deteriorating, and insecurity is escalating, particularly in Rafah, and civilians are suffering,” he continues, adding that “the entire population of Gaza… is facing acute food insecurity, meaning they require food assistance. And the threat of famine is looming.”
“More than half the population in northern Gaza is facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity,” warns Dieckhaus, “and nearly 30% of the children there are severely malnourished.”
In the south, he says, it’s nearly half the population.
This is “further complicated by what is happening in Rafah,” he says, noting that around 450,000 people have fled since May 6 when the IDF took control of the Rafah Crossing. This “risks compounding a humanitarian catastrophe.”
He says aid workers are facing “significant challenges” getting food in and accessing warehouses.
The US is “greatly concerned about further population displacement,” from Rafah, says Dieckhaus.
He notes that there had been “some progress” on the amount of aid going into Gaza, and “more must be done now, especially in light of recent setbacks.”
He says that the US is pressing Israel to do more to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers and to open additional land crossings into Gaza.
He stresses that the humanitarian organizations receiving the food will do so in an “independent, neutral, and impartial manner.”
Vice Admiral Bradley Cooper, deputy commander of the US Central Command, stresses repeatedly that the US military’s only role is “to provide our unique logistics ability” to bring in more aid.
It “has no other purpose,” Cooper stresses, adding that the US is now “focused on flooding the zone with humanitarian assistance.”
The ships will sail from Cyprus to a floating platform several kilometers off the Gaza shore. They will then be unloaded, then repacked and loaded onto smaller ships that can carry between five to fifteen truckloads of aid. Those ships will bring it to the floating causeway connected to the coast, where trucks will bring the aid to land.
The shipments will be received by the World Food Program and the United Nations.
In response to a question from The Times of Israel, Cooper will not say whether the US would respond to an attack on US troops by Hamas. “Any attack on those working on the mission is an attack on aid for the people of Gaza,” says Cooper.
The officer says that the US does not believe the pier is exposed to any additional risk beyond what is inherent in a war zone.
He adds that there are two coordination cells, one in Cyprus and one in Israel.
Jerusalem “has been highly supportive of this effort,” says Cooper.
The Palestinian Authority has also been looped into discussions with the US on the plan, says Dieckhaus. “Our understanding is that there is general support.”
Consumer prices in Israel accelerated faster than expected in April, data shows
Consumer prices in Israel in April accelerated at a faster pace than forecast, led by an increase in transportation costs and housing prices, data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics shows.
The consumer price index (CPI), a measure of inflation that tracks the average cost of household goods, rose 0.8% in April above analysts’ expectations of between 0.5% to 0.6%. The figure is up from the March CPI monthly reading of 0.6%.
The April print brings annual inflation over the past 12 months to 2.8%, up from 2.7% in March, and 2.5% in February. The government’s annual target range of inflation is between 1% to 3%.
In April, price increases were seen in the cost of transportation, which was up 3.4%, clothing and footwear rose 2.3%, culture and entertainment increased 1.6%, and housing prices edged up 0.6%, according to the statistics bureau. These were offset by declines in the cost of fruit and vegetables, which dropped 1.3%, and furniture and home equipment costs, which slipped 0.5%.
Rents on renewal of contracts jumped 2.3% in April and rents on contracts for new tenants soared 2.2%, the statistics bureau said.
IDF says rocket fired from Rafah toward Kerem Shalom Crossing struck open area
A rocket launched from southern Gaza’s Rafah toward the Kerem Shalom Crossing area struck an open area, the military says.
The IDF says no damage or injuries were caused.
An alert was activated in an open area on the Home Front Command mobile app, and not in any towns.
Lapid: Netanyahu is playing ‘shameful’ political games while soldiers die
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for promoting legislation to lower yeshiva students’ age of exemption from military service.
Condemning Netanyahu for engaging in a “shameful wartime political exercise while soldiers are being killed every day,” Lapid promises that the opposition “will oppose him with all their strength.”
“Netanyahu continues to act as if October 7 did not happen. October 7 did happen. On his watch,” Lapid declares, inveighing against “discrimination between blood and blood.”
“We will not accept the Haredim continuing to shout ‘we will die and not enlist’ while our children continue to die because [the Haredim] did not enlist.”
After failing to come to an agreement with his Haredi coalition partners on legislation to enlist members of the ultra-Orthodox community into the Israel Defense Forces, Netanyahu on Wednesday morning announced that he would revive the 2022 bill, first advanced by then-defense minister Benny Gantz during the short-lived Bennett-Lapid government.
Netanyahu’s announcement drew immediate condemnation from Gantz, who insisted that “the law you are bringing is not the [military] service outline that I [advanced] in the previous government.”
When promoting the bill two years ago, Gantz insisted that it needed to be accompanied by efforts to extend the national service requirement to both Haredi and Arab Israelis.
‘Terror supporter’: Ben Gvir slams far-left lawmaker Cassif over participation in Nakba Day protest
MK Ofer Cassif, Arab and Israeli left-wing activist students, attend a rally marking the anniversary of the Nakba at Tel Aviv University on May 15, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calls far-left lawmaker Ofer Cassif a “terror supporter” after he attended a Palestinian “Nakba” demonstration at Tel Aviv University.
“This terrorist supporter filed a complaint against me to the Knesset Ethics Committee for calling him a terrorist supporter… irony is dead,” Ben Gvir tweets alongside of an image of Cassif at the rally, which was organized by his Hadash party.
Police had to step in to physically separate Cassif and several dozen other demonstrators from a group of counter-protesters at the event marking the Nakba.
The Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” refers to the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel before and during the War of Independence in 1948 after rejecting the UN-proposed division of mandatory Palestine.
Events commemorating it are commonly held across the Arab world on May 15, which this year comes one day after Israel’s Independence Day — marked on the Hebrew date of the state’s founding.
The counter-protesters, who numbered “in the hundreds” according to a TAU official, included MK Almog Cohen of Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party and Yoseph Haddad, an Arab Israeli journalist and activist.
Cassif, who was photographed standing next to a sign calling for the end of the “genocide in Gaza,” was suspended from the Knesset for 45 days by the ethics committee after he made a series of statements linking “Holocaust imagery and the government’s policy during the war.”
Right-wing lawmakers attempted to impeach Cassif earlier this year over his public support for South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice but the effort failed after centrist parties sat out the final vote in the Knesset plenum.
Gallant: Israel’s relationship with US is ‘strong and steady’ despite disagreements
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant delivers a statement to the press, May 15, 2024. (Screenshot)
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a press statement says Israel’s relationship with the United States is “vital, strong, and steady.”
He says there are “differences of opinion, but I would like to make it clear that the US was the first to stand with us in actions, not in words.”
“We resolve the disputes in the closed rooms, not in interviews or in tweets,” Gallant says, in veiled remarks at other politicians.
IDF officer seriously wounded in northern Gaza fighting, two others moderately hurt
An officer of the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion was seriously wounded during a battle with terror operatives in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today, the military announces.
Another two soldiers were moderately hurt in the same incident.
Slovak prime minister in life-threatening condition, government office says
Rescue workers take Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot and injured, to a hospital in the town of Banska Bystrica, central Slovakia, May 15, 2024. (Jan Kroslak/TASR via AP)
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is suffering from life-threatening injuries after he was shot and wounded in an attempted assassination earlier today, Slovakia’s government office says.
Fico, 59, was initially rushed to the hospital in the central city of Handlova after holding a government meeting there, and is being transported by helicopter to the city of Banska Bystrica for urgent treatment, it says.
“An assassination [attempt] on Prime Minister Robert Fico was carried out today at the government’s off-site meeting in Handlova,” the government office says. in a statement.
“At the moment he is being transported by helicopter to Banska Bystrica, because it would take too long to Bratislava in view of the necessity of an acute intervention.”
Acknowledging US misgivings, Netanyahu tells CNBC that Rafah offensive ensures Israel’s survival
Israel is proceeding with its offensive in Rafah despite US misgivings because “we have to do what we have to do,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells CNBC in a newly released interview.
Acknowledging the disagreements with the US over the IDF operation in Rafah, where Israel believes four of Hamas’s remaining six battalions to be located, Netanyahu says “sometimes you just have to do what is required to ensure your survival and your future.”
“I hope we can see eye to eye with the United States, we’re talking to them,” he adds. “But ultimately we have to do what we have to do to protect the life of our nation.”
IDF: At least 10 rockets launched from Lebanon at Western Galilee
At least 10 rockets were launched in the Hamas-claimed barrage from Lebanon a short while ago, according to the IDF.
The rockets all struck open areas in the Western Galilee, causing no injuries, the military adds.
Hamas in Lebanon claims responsibility for Western Galilee rocket barrage
Hamas’s Lebanon branch claims responsibility for launching a barrage of rockets at the Western Galilee a short while ago.
The terror group claims to have targeted a military base in the area.
Sirens had sounded in the largely evacuated communities of Rosh Hanikra, Betzet, and Shlomi.
WATCH: IDF releases footage of fighter jets downing drones heading toward Israel overnight
The military releases footage of fighter jets downing two drones that were flying toward Israel from the east last night.
The drones were apparently launched by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq, which has claimed dozens of attacks on Israel amid the war.
The IDF also releases a clip showing another drone being downed by the Iron Dome this week.
Slovakia’s prime minister shot after government meeting
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was injured in a shooting after a government meeting, news agency TASR reports.
TASR cites parliament’s vice-chairman Lubos Blaha as saying Fico was shot and injured.
A Reuters witness says he heard several shots and that he saw a man being detained by police.
The Reuters witness says he saw security officials pushing someone into a car and driving off.
The government office could not immediately be reached for comment.
Netanyahu: Discussions about postwar Gaza meaningless until Hamas is defeated
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a recorded statement on the war with Hamas in Gaza, May 15, 2024. (Screenshot/GPO)
Israel has been dealing with the question of who will run Gaza after Hamas for months, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in a video statement.
Netanyahu says that he approved a plan over three months ago for Gazans unaffiliated with Hamas to distribute humanitarian aid in Gaza, but that plan failed because Hamas threatened and attacked them.
“Until it becomes clear that Hamas doesn’t rule Gaza militarily, no actor will be ready to accept upon himself the civil rule of Gaza out of fear for his own safety,” Netanyahu argues.
He says that any discussions of the “day after” are meaningless until Hamas is defeated.
He adds that Israel is working to find solutions to the issue of the civil rule of Gaza, and some of what Israel has been doing is confidential.
“There is no alternative to a military victory,” says Netanyahu. “The attempt to bypass it with all sorts of claims is simply detached from reality. There is only one alternative to victory — defeat. A military and diplomatic defeat, a national defeat. My government will never agree to this.”
Netanyahu says that Israel is evacuating civilians from Rafah, and almost 500,000 have left so far.
“The humanitarian disaster they spoke about did not take place, nor will it,” he insists.
He also decries the UN General Assembly vote last week expanding Palestine’s status at the international body. “No one will prevent us, Israel, from fulfilling our basic right to defend ourselves,” he says, “not the UN General Assembly and not any other actor.”
Elad Fingerhut, 38, identified as civilian killed in Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack Tuesday
Elad Fingerhut, who was killed by Hezbollah missile fire in Adamit on May 14, 2024. (Courtesy of the family)
The Israeli civilian killed in yesterday’s anti-tank guided missile attack against the northern community of Adamit was identified as Elad Fingerhut, 38, a father of three.
Originally from Efrat, Fingerhut lived in Kibbutz Matzuva in northern Israel. His children reportedly live in Katzrin with his ex-wife.
Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack in which Fingerhut was killed and five IDF soldiers were wounded.
Hamas denies involvement in Iranian plot to smuggle weapons to Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan
After Jordanian sources say the country foiled a suspected Iranian-led plot to smuggle weapons into the kingdom to a Muslim Brotherhood cell with links to Hamas, the Gaza-based terror group denies it was involved.
According to the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese outlet Al-Mayadeen, Hamas says it has a “clear and consistent policy limiting its confrontation” to Israel.
Biden dares Trump to a debate: ‘Make my day pal. I’ll even do it twice’
US President Joe Biden says he is willing to debate Republican presidential rival Donald Trump twice before the November 5 election.
“Make my day pal. I’ll even do it twice,” the Democratic president teases in a video message posted on X.
Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate.
Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again.
Well, make my day, pal. pic.twitter.com/AkPmvs2q4u
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 15, 2024
Yemen’s Houthis claim to target 2 vessels, including US warship, in Red Sea
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis say they have targeted a US warship and a vessel called “Destiny” in the Red Sea.
Blinken: Israel needs ‘clear and concrete plan’ for Gaza’s future; Rafah op has had ‘negative impact’
Israel needs a clear and concrete plan for the future of Gaza where it faces the potential for a power vaccum that could become filled by chaos, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says.
Israel’s limited operation in Rafah has had a “negative impact” just as it has taken steps to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza, Blinken says during a press conference in Kyiv.
“We do not support and will not support an Israeli occupation. We also of course, do not support Hamas governance in Gaza … We’ve seen where that’s led all too many times for the people of Gaza and for Israel. And we also can’t have anarchy and a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by chaos,” Blinken says.
The US top diplomat has held numerous rounds of talks with Israel’s Arab neighbors on a post-war plan for Gaza.
“It’s imperative that Israel also do this work and focus on what the future can and must be,” Blinken says. “There needs to be a clear and concrete plan, and we look to Israel to come forward with its ideas.”
Netanyahu says Israel will increase foreign workforce, allow over 300,000 to enter
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the cabinet has decided to ease regulations and “significantly increase” the foreign worker quota in Israel as the country faces a labor shortage amid the Gaza war.
Among the steps Israel will take is to allow entry of more than 300,000 foreign workers, or up to 3.3% of the population. The statement says this is meant to cover shortages across the economy, including in construction, agriculture and nursing.
“This is an important decision for businesses, for our economy and also for our security,” says Netanyahu.
Gantz slams PM’s Haredi enlistment move: ‘Israel needs soldiers, not political tricks’
National Unity party head and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz holds a press conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem, April 21, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)
War cabinet minister Benny Gantz criticizes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s embrace of Gantz’s previously endorsed plan for ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
“The State of Israel needs soldiers and not political tricks that tear the people apart during wartime,” he declares, saying that his proposal had been advanced as an interim measure and as “a basis for the development of an Israeli service outline, in order to bring about [military] service for all sections of the people.”
That law “was not satisfactory then, and is not relevant in today’s post-October 7 reality,” he argues, stating that “the time for talk is over, it’s time for action.”
The ultra-Orthodox parties fiercely object to drafting yeshiva students to the military, while the High Court of Justice has ruled that the current situation violates the principle of equality and critics of the Haredi community argue that it is forcing the rest of the population to shoulder the burden of risking combat fighters’ lives in battle.
Gantz had previously insisted his version of the law needed to be accompanied by efforts to extend the national service requirement to both ultra-Orthodox and Arab Israelis.
IDF calls on more residents of northern Gaza to evacuate ahead of widened operation
The Israeli military is calling on Palestinians in additional neighborhoods of northern Gaza to evacuate the area, as it presses on with its operation against Hamas in Jabaliya.
Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, publishes a list of the new zones that need to be evacuated alongside the announcement.
Over the weekend, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for Jabaliya before it pushed into the area. Yesterday, it expanded the warning to the al-Atatra and Salatin areas.
The latest warning covers the Sheikh Za’id and al-Mansheya neighborhoods, close to Beit Lahiya.
“Hamas and other terror organizations are carrying out terror activities and launching rockets [from these areas] at Israeli towns,” Adraee says in a post on X.
Palestinian civilians are told to move to shelters west of Gaza City.
The IDF has said it is expanding its operation against Hamas in Jabaliya, which was launched after it identified terror operatives regrouping there.
🔴 هام وعاجل لأهالي #غزة
الى المتواجدين في أحياء المنشية والشيخ زايد فى بلوكات 1778, 1762, 1763, 1764, 1765, 1774, 1770, 1768, 1769
تقوم حماس والمنظمات الارهابية الأخرى بالأنشطة الإرهابية وبإطلاق القذائف الصاروخية نحو البلدات الاسرائيلية
جيش الدفاع سيعمل بقوة بشكل فوري ضدها… pic.twitter.com/JUQTr0xV4f
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) May 15, 2024
Member of Gantz’s party rejects PM’s Haredi draft move as ‘lame, transparent trick’
Then-tourism minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen in Tel Aviv, April 27, 2021 (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
MK Orit Farkash-Hacohen of Benny Gantz’s National Unity party slams as a “lame and transparent trick” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement that he’s advancing a Haredi enlistment bill previously endorsed by Gantz.
Gantz had issued a warning to Netanyahu not to promote his own version of legislation on the highly divisive issue, with the premier’s decision widely seen as an attempt to defang that warning and compel Gantz’s party to back it.
Writing on X, Farkash-Hacohen says: “This is not at all a ‘brilliant’ trick by the prime minister. On the contrary. Only an immoral prime minister like ours can, one minute after such a difficult Memorial Day, advance such a lame and transparent trick at the expense of the citizens of Israel.
“What was justified before October 7 is not justified today,” she says.
The ultra-Orthodox parties fiercely object to drafting yeshiva students to the military, while the High Court of Justice has ruled that the current situation violates the principle of equality and critics of the Haredi community argue that it is forcing the rest of the population to shoulder the burden of risking combat fighters’ lives in battle.
Palestinians claim man killed by Israel troops after West Bank march marking ‘Nakba’
Palestinian Authority officials claim Israeli troops have shot dead a man as clashes broke out after a West Bank march commemorating the Palestinian “Nakba,” or catastrophe, of Israel’s creation in 1948.
“A young man was killed by occupation bullets at the northern entrance of the city of Al-Bireh,” the Palestinian Authority health ministry says.
The PA’s official news agency WAFA reports the man killed is a 20-year-old student at Birzeit University.
The Israeli army does not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After over 24 hours, firefighters still battling warehouse blaze in IDF base in Ramat Gan
More than 24 hours after a fire broke out at a warehouse complex at the Tel Hashomer military base in Ramat Gan, firefighters are still battling the blaze.
The Fire and Rescue Services says four firefighting teams are currently at the scene.
It says the fire is under control, but not fully extinguished.
The warehouses were used to store various equipment.
The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
*שריפת מחסן ציוד בבסיס תל השומר*
בשעה זו פועלים 12 רכבי כיבוי ו-3 רכבי אספקת מים בשריפת מחסן ציוד בבסיס תל השומר.
עשן סמיך ורב מיתמר ונראה למרחק מאזור הבסיס, צוותי הכיבוי מתחמים את הבעירה ופועלים לכיבוי המוקד. pic.twitter.com/ens4Knbl3Q
— מה חדש. What's new❓ (@Gloz111) May 14, 2024
Netanyahu says he’ll advance Haredi enlistment bill previously endorsed by Gantz
File - Minister Benny Gantz, right, shakes hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset in Jerusalem, December 25, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
After failing to hammer out an agreement on ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the army with his Haredi coalition partners, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces that he will advance a bill to lower yeshiva students’ age of exemption — legislation first proposed by then-defense minister Benny Gantz in 2022.
By electing to advance a version previously adopted by Gantz, Netanyahu is apparently seeking to defuse a public warning issued by the current war cabinet minister over the weekend in which Gantz said the premier must not advance his own version of the law. Gantz said that would not boost enlistment among Haredim and would be deeply divisive, and that Netanyahu advancing such a proposal for “political purposes” would be a mistake.
“In order to bridge the differences and bring about a broad consensus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to advance the conscription law that passed its first reading in the previous Knesset” and bring it to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation tomorrow, the Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement.
Netanyahu calls on all of the parties that previously supported the measure to come out in favor of it once more.
Under that plan, the age of exemption from mandatory service for Haredi yeshiva students would be lowered from the current 26 to 21. Many yeshiva students are thought to remain in religious study programs longer than they normally would in order to dodge the draft by claiming academic deferments until they reach the age of exemption. By lowering the exemption age, the government hopes to spur those Haredi men to leave the yeshiva and enter the workforce at a younger age.
It is unsure if Gantz will support the measure at this time, as he has previously insisted that it be accompanied by a plan to extend the requirement of national service to both ultra-Orthodox and Arab Israelis. Additionally, media reports are increasingly saying Gantz is looking for a pretext to leave the emergency government he joined days after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
During a press conference in February, Gantz and fellow National Unity minister Gadi Eisenkot presented an outline for the enlistment of Arabs and Haredi Jews into the army calling for an “absolute majority of young people” to serve their country.
While Gantz did not propose specific quotas of Haredi recruits, he indicated that the number should increase gradually year-over-year, and said that while most Haredim would be drafted under the plan, there would still remain an “elite who will continue to study, and many will serve at the same time as studying.”
Erdogan claims Israel will seek to occupy parts of Turkey if it defeats Hamas
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to the media during a press conference following the Friday noon prayer in Istanbul, May 3, 2024. (Khalil Hamra/AP Photo)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims that Israel will “set its sights” on Turkey if it succeeds in defeating the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.
Erdogan has cut trade ties with Israel, maintained close ties with Hamas, and repeatedly lambasted Israel and its “Nazi” leaders since the war was sparked by the terror group’s massacre on October 7.
He has voiced support for Hamas, which is classed as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, among others.
“Do not think that Israel will stop in Gaza,” Erdogan tells his party lawmakers in the parliament in the capital Ankara.
“Unless it’s stopped… this rogue and terrorist state will set its sights on Anatolia sooner or later,” he claims, referring to the large Turkish peninsula also called Asia Minor that comprises more than half of Turkey’s territory.
“We will continue to stand by Hamas, which fights for the independence of its own land and which defends Anatolia,” adds Erdogan.
Israel has never claimed any part of Turkey belongs to it, and it is unclear what Erdogan is basing his claims on.
Some 80 retired senior US army officials urge Biden to ‘unequivocally stand by’ Israel
Some 80 retired American flag officers sign an open letter calling for the US to “unequivocally stand by” Israel.
The letter, originally published May 10 and released in an updated version by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America yesterday, says that “US support for the only Jewish state should be clear, unwavering, and not conditioned.”
The missive comes after US President Joe Biden’s administration said last week that it would stop supplying offensive weapons to Israel that could be used in a major Gaza offensive.
The generals and admirals warn that Iran and its armed proxies “are watching closely to see whether the United States will stand by one of its closest allies fighting in self-defense, even when the going gets tough.”
“Israel is a visceral part of the West with its liberal democracy, ethnically diverse population, and support for individual rights,” say the officers, adding that Israel has “fought in accordance with the laws of armed conflict.”
They also emphasize how important the relationship with Israel is for American national security, citing Israel’s intelligence, technology and military experience. “Israel’s military and intelligence services have also often protected US soldiers and civilians and provided critical intelligence,” they add.
The signatories include former head of the US Central Command Gen. Frank McKenzie, past Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. Philip Breedlove, former US Strategic Command commander Gen. Kevin Chilton, and several recent commandants of the Marine Corps.
Irish FM confirms Dublin will recognize Palestinian statehood ‘this month’
Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin attends a joint press conference with his German counterpart (not pictured) at the foreign ministry in Berlin, on January 18, 2024. (Michele Tantussi/AFP)
Ireland is certain to recognize Palestinian statehood by the end of May, the country’s foreign minister says, without specifying a date.
“We will be recognizing the state of Palestine before the end of the month,” Micheal Martin, who is also Ireland’s deputy prime minister, tells the Newstalk radio station.
In March, the leaders of Spain, Ireland, Slovakia and Malta said in a joint statement that they stand ready to recognize Palestinian statehood.
Last week, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Spain, Ireland and Slovenia plan to symbolically recognize a Palestinian state on May 21, with others potentially following suit.
But Ireland’s Martin shies from pinpointing a date.
“The specific date is still fluid because we’re still in discussions with some countries in respect of a joint recognition of a Palestinian state,” says Martin. “It will become clear in the next few days as to the specific date but it certainly will be before the end of this month. I will look forward to consultations today with some foreign ministers in respect of the final specific detail of this.”
IDF: 60 rockets fired from Lebanon, mostly targeting Mount Meron; no injuries
The military says a barrage of some 60 rockets was launched from Lebanon at northern Israel earlier, mostly targeting Mount Meron, atop which sits a sensitive air traffic control base.
At least one heavy rocket was fired at the Biranit army base on the Lebanon border amid the barrage on Mount Meron.
Several of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses, while some caused “minor damage,” the IDF says.
Hezbollah claims responsibility for the attacks, saying it targeted the Mount Meron base with dozens of rockets, as well as the Biranit base with additional projectiles.
There are no injuries, according to the IDF.
The terror group says the attacks are a response to the killing of a top field commander in an IDF drone strike last night.
Government rejects UN boost of Palestinians’ status, says it won’t be basis for future talks
The government unanimously rejects last week’s UN General Assembly resolution upgrading the Palestinians’ status at the body, and says that the decision won’t have any impact on disputed territories or Israel’s rights anywhere in the Holy Land.
The government decision also stipulates that the UN move will not serve as a basis for any future negotiations, and does not help bring about a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We will not give a prize to the terrible massacre of October 7, which 80% of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank support,” says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement. “We will not allow them to create a terror state from which they will be able to attack us even more ferociously.”
Police separate ‘Nakba’ demonstrators and counter-protesters at Tel Aviv Uiniversity
Arab and left-wing activist students attend a rally marking the Palestinian 'Nakba' anniversary at the Tel Aviv University on May 15, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Police step in to physically separate those marking the Palestinian “Nakba” from a group of counter-protesters on the campus of Tel Aviv University. The event, which was approved by the university following High Court intervention, was organized by students from the leftist Hadash political party and attended by “several dozens,” according to a Ynet report.
Police were already present to provide security at the event, an annual demonstration on campus marking the “catastrophe” of Israel’s creation in 1948. The counter-protesters, who number “in the hundreds” according to a TAU official, include MK Almog Cohen of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party and Yoseph Haddad, an Arab Israeli journalist and activist. Many of them appear to be associated with Im Tirtzu, a right-wing NGO active on university campuses, according to Hebrew media reports.
In approving the event, the university said that “all citizens, Jews and Arabs, left and right, have the right to demonstrate… At the same time, it must be emphasized that we are in the midst of a war, in which the TAU community has lost dozens of its members. We call upon protestors on all sides to show responsibility and restraint, and respect the restrictions and rules set by the police,” according to a statement sent to The Times of Israel.
The “Nakba” is how the 1948 founding of the State of Israel is generally referred to in the Palestinian and Arab worlds, and events commemorating it are commonly held on May 15, which this year comes one day after Israel’s Independence Day — marked on the Hebrew date of the state’s founding.
Right-wing activists from the Im Tirzu movement demonstrate in front of a rally by Arab and left-wing activist students (unseen) marking the Palestinian ‘Nakba’ anniversary at the Tel Aviv University on May 15, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
ממול הפגנת "הנכבה" באוניברסיטת ת"א מפגינים פעילי ימין עם דגלי ישראל. אוניברסיטת תל אביב על ההפגנות: "זכות ההפגנה נתונה לכל אזרח. תלמידינו מתא חד"ש ביקשו להפגין המשטרה אישרה"
*להצטרפות לזירת החדשות* >> https://t.co/JuxK4CBkB4
*בטלגרם* https://t.co/BII1Lu7fNl pic.twitter.com/XBs4wKpdY7— Arik Mesilati (@arik487) May 15, 2024
IDF reviewing incident in which unintercepted Gaza rocket hit empty house in Sderot
A building in Sderot damaged by a rocket fired from Gaza on May 15, 2024. (Sderot Municipality)
The IDF acknowledges that one of the rockets fired from the Gaza Strip at Sderot earlier today was not intercepted, as it initially had claimed.
Damage was caused in the strike to an unoccupied building.
“The incident is under review,” the military says.
Dutch chief rabbi asks king to disaffiliate from Royal Academy of Art over Israel boycott
Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)
Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs calls on King Willem-Alexander to disaffiliate the royal house from an academic institution that has cut its ties with Israel.
“Institutions that boast the title of ‘royal’ in their names must not engage in hate campaigns,” Jacobs says in a statement about the Hague-based Royal Academy of Art’s public decision last week to cut its ties with the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem.
Separately, another institution affiliated with the monarchy, the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, yesterday canceled concerts scheduled for May 16 and 18 by the Israel-based Jerusalem Quartet.
In a statement, the prestigious concert hall cited security concerns stemming from anti-Israel demonstrators.
The Royal Academy is the first Dutch institution of higher education to sever its ties with Israel, according to the NOS broadcaster, followed by the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, which similarly announced yesterday, as Israel marked Independence Day, that it will no longer cooperate with Israeli institutions, including Bezalel.
Both Dutch institutions cited concerns of alleged human rights violations by Israel and perceived complicity in those alleged violations by Israeli academia.
Dozens of rockets fired from Lebanon in apparent Hezbollah response to commander’s death
Rocket sirens continue to sound in the Mount Meron area of northern Israel, as dozens of projectiles are fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon.
The large attack appears to be a response by the terror group to the killing of a top field commander in an IDF drone strike last night.
The IDF has not yet commented on the rocket attack.
After Herzbollah field commander killed by IDF, rocket alarms blare in northern Israel
Incoming rocket sirens are sounding in the Mount Meron area in northern Israel, as well as in the city of Kiryat Shmona.
The sirens come after a top Hezbollah field commander was killed in an IDF drone strike last night.
Hezbollah has attacked Mount Meron, which is located some eight kilometers (5 miles) from the Lebanon border, several times amid the ongoing war, launching large barrages of rockets at the mountain, as well as guided missiles at the Israeli air traffic control base that sits atop it.
The largely evacuated Kiryat Shmona has also been targeted numerous times amid the war.
Hezbollah hosts senior Hamas delegation to discuss Gaza and beyond — report
Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group, has reportedly hosted a Hamas delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya, the Palestinian terror group’s deputy politburo head in Gaza.
According to the pro-Hezbollah Al Mayadeen news site, they discussed developments in Gaza and the region, including negotiations for a truce and hostage deal, as well as the anti-Israel student encampments around the world.
The meeting “confirmed the unity” of the Iran-aligned “axis of resistance” and the continued efforts to achieve victory over Israel “no matter the sacrifices,” the report says.
EU urges Israel to end Rafah op ‘immediately,’ warns ties will be harmed if not
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell attends a meeting with European and Arab foreign ministers held in Riyadh on April 29, 2024. (Fayez Nureldine / AFP)
The European Union urges Israel to end its military operation in Gaza’s Rafah “immediately,” warning that a failure to do so will undermine ties with the bloc.
“Should Israel continue its military operation in Rafah, it would inevitably put a heavy strain on the EU’s relationship with Israel,” says the statement issued in the EU’s name by its foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
Rocket from Gaza hits unoccupied building in Sderot; 2 other projectiles downed
A building in Sderot damaged by a rocket fired from Gaza on May 15, 2024. (Sderot Municipality)
One of the rockets launched from the Gaza Strip at Sderot a short while ago struck an unoccupied building, the municipality says.
The IDF says the Iron Dome downed two rockets fired at the city.
Damage is caused in the strike, but there are no injuries.
IDF enters Gaza’s Jabaliya, kills many gunmen; army says some troops remain in Zeitoun
Israeli troops operate in eastern Rafah in the Gaza Strip, in a handout photo published May 15, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF’s 98th Division pushed into the Jabaliya camp in the northern Gaza Strip overnight, killing many gunmen amid the fighting, the military says.
The IDF says the division’s 7th and 460th armored brigades battled “dozens of armed squads and eliminated a large number of terrorists” over the past day.
In the same area, a drone strike killed members of a cell responsible for rocket fire on Sderot yesterday, the military says.
Meanwhile in southern Gaza, the IDF says, its 162nd Division is continuing operations in the eastern part of Rafah.
During the Rafah operations, troops of the Givati Brigade raided a Hamas training camp, the IDF says. The soldiers killed several gunmen at the Hamas base, captured weapons and located mock IDF vehicles used by the terror group for training, the military says.
Also in the past day, some 80 sites used by terror groups, including buildings, weapon depots, rocket launchers, observation posts and other infrastructure, were struck by the Air Force, the military says.
The IDF also confirms that troops of the Nahal Brigade withdrew from Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood after six days, to prepare for “additional offensive operations.”
Reservists of the Carmeli Brigade continue to operate in Zeitoun, the IDF adds, contradicting media reports claiming that the six-day operation there has ended.
Swiss police clear anti-Israel encampment at University of Bern
Swiss police moved in early this morning to remove dozens of anti-Israel student protesters holed up at the University of Bern, the school says in a statement.
Student demonstrations have gathered pace across Western Europe in recent weeks with protesters demanding an end to the war in Gaza and urging that ties with Israel be cut.
Swiss police acted following a request by the Bern university’s management, which had described the student occupation as “unacceptable.”
The last of around 30 protesters left the Bern university early this morning. They chanted pro-Palestinian slogans outside the building before leaving the area, a journalist from the Keystone-ATS agency says.
Dozens of demonstrators had been occupying university premises, including the restaurant, since Sunday night.
They were demanding an “academic boycott of Israel institutions” and had ignored a university ultimatum to leave the premises.
University rector Christian Leumann says in a statement that he is open to talks but that “an occupation with politically motivated demands does not create an environment for constructive dialogue.”
After ban in Israel, Gallant reportedly orders Al Jazeera blocked in West Bank too
File: Employees at Al Jazeera's offices in Jerusalem, August 8, 2017. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
After Israel blocked Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera in the country and shuttered its local offices, Army Radio reports that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has ordered IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi to block the network in the West Bank as well.
The report quotes unnamed sources in the IDF as saying they are working to implement the order.
However, the report says it isn’t yet known whether the order applies only to areas of the West Bank where Israeli settlers live, or if it extends as well to the Palestinian areas, where Al Jazeera is much more widely watched.
Asked by The Times of Israel for comment on the report, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit says: “The IDF is working to implement the defense minister’s order.”
However, the military refuses to confirm what the order is, saying that question should be directed at Gallant’s office, which doesn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
IDF says 2 more rockets fired from Gaza at Sderot have been downed
Another two rockets launched from the Gaza Strip at Sderot have been intercepted by the Iron Dome, the military says,
There are no injuries in the attack.
Rocket sirens blare in Sderot for second time in an hour
Rocket alerts have sounded in the city of Sderot and nearby comunities for the second time in an hour.
There are no immediate reports of impacts or casualties.
UN launches probe into unidentified strike that killed its Indian staffer in Rafah
The United Nations has launched an investigation into an unidentified strike on a UN car in Rafah on Monday that killed its first international staffer in Gaza since October 7, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary General says.
The staff member, retired Indian Army officer Waibhav Anil Kale, was working with the UN Department of Safety and Security and was on route to the European Hospital in Rafah along with a colleague, who was also injured in the attack.
It is unclear whether Israeli forces or terror operatives opened fire at the UN car. The Israel Defense Forces has said it is looking into the incident.
Coalition MK: ‘Not sure’ returning all Gaza hostages is possible
Zvi Sukkot attends a Religious Zionism Party meeting at the Knesset, January 23, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
MK Zvi Sukkot of the coalition’s Religious Zionism Party says he’s doubtful Israel can return all 132 hostages being held by terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
“I wish it were possible to return all the hostages — I’m not sure that’s possible,” Sukkot tells Radio 103FM, adding: “We need to do everything to return them home, but not anything that will critically harm national security.”
The far-right Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties have been arguing in favor of intensifying military operations in Gaza to pressure Hamas to release the hostages. In now-moribund negotiations, the terror group consistently demanded the end of the war, plus the release of many hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners, in what Israel says is a nonstarter.
“We think the way to return [the hostages] is when Hamas understands it doesn’t have a choice but to return them,” Sukkot says, adding that currently, Hamas is banking on international pressure hindering Israel’s operations, and therefore “has no reason to make concessions to Israel.”
IDF says rocket fired from Gaza at Sderot was intercepted
One rocket launched from the Gaza Strip at Sderot was intercepted by the Iron Dome, the IDF says.
There are no reports of injuries.
Sirens had sounded in the city.
The military says the rocket was launched from the Jabaliya area, where the IDF is carrying out an operation.
The rate of rocket fire on southern towns has steadily increased in recent days as the IDF launches new operations against Hamas.
Report: IDF forces have left Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, ending 6-day raid
Israeli troops have withdrawn from Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood following a six-day operation, Al Jazeera reports.
The IDF reentered Zeitoun last Thursday for the third time in the ongoing war after identifying Hamas regrouping there.
Last night, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said troops have killed more than 150 gunmen and destroyed some 80 sites used by terror groups in the Zeitoun operation.
The IDF has not yet confirmed it has wrapped up the raid.
Rocket alarms sound in Sderot, nearby towns
Air raid sirens have sounded in the Gaza-adjacent city of Sderot and the nearby towns of Ibim and Nir Am.
There are no immediate reports of impacts or casualties.
Some 200 people rally for hostages at junction in central Israel
About 200 people stage a police-approved protest demanding the return of the 132 Hamas-held hostages in Gaza, intermittently blocking southbound traffic on Route 482 at Hakfar Hayarok Junction near the central Israel city of Ramat Hasharon.
The rally is attended by several relatives of hostages, as well as students of a local school and their relatives. High school teachers around the country are currently staging a two-hour strike over work conditions.
תלמידי בית ספר "הכפר הירוק", בני משפחותיהם ונציגים משפחות חטופים חוסמים כעת הכביש הראשי והכניסה למוסד הלימודי על דרך 482. בין המפגינים בני משפחת יבלונקה וגת ממשפחות החטופים. (קרדיט גיל בארי) @N12News pic.twitter.com/bTYBscuXlT
— אור רביד | Or Ravid (@OrRavid) May 15, 2024
Jordan thwarts Iran-led plan to carry out acts of sabotage in kingdom — sources
Jordan has foiled a suspected Iranian-led plot to smuggle weapons into the kingdom to help opponents of the ruling US-aligned monarchy carry out acts of sabotage, according to two Jordanian sources with knowledge of the matter.
The weapons were sent by Iranian-backed militias in Syria to a cell of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan that has links to the military wing of Palestinian terror group Hamas, the sources tells Reuters. The cache was seized when members of the cell, Jordanians of Palestinian descent, were arrested in late March, they say.
The alleged plot and arrests come at a time of sky-high tensions in the Middle East, with an American-backed Israel at war in Gaza with Hamas, part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” network of proxy groups built up over decades to oppose Israel.
The two Jordanian sources, who have requested anonymity to discuss security matters, decline to say what acts of sabotage were allegedly planned, citing ongoing investigations and covert operations.
They say the plot’s aim was to destabilize Jordan, a country that could become a regional flashpoint in the Gaza crisis as it hosts a US military base and shares borders with Israel as well as Syria and Iraq, both home to Iranian-backed militias.
The sources don’t specify what weapons were seized in the March raid, though they say in recent months security services have thwarted numerous attempts by Iran and its allied groups to smuggle in arms including Claymore mines, C4 and Semtex explosives, Kalashnikov rifles and 107mm Katyusha rockets.
Most of the clandestine flow of arms into the country has been bound for the neighboring West Bank, according to the Jordanian sources. However, some of the weapons — including those seized in March — were intended for use in Jordan by the Brotherhood cell allied to Hamas militants, they say.
Jordanian authorities believe Iran and its allied groups like Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah are trying to recruit young, radical members of the kingdom’s Brotherhood to their anti-Israel, anti-US cause in a bid to expand Tehran’s regional network of aligned forces, according to the two sources.
A senior representative of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood confirms that some of its members were arrested in March in possession of weapons but says whatever they did was not approved by the group and that he suspected they were smuggling arms to the West Bank rather than planning acts in Jordan.
High school teachers staging 2-hour strike, with classes to start at 10 a.m.
High schools around the country are currently undergoing a two-hour strike, in response to a push by the Knesset Finance Committee to initiate individual contracts for teachers for next year, instead of a collective salary agreement.
The High School Teachers Union last week announced today’s strike, which is taking place from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.
In a statement, union head Ran Erez claimed at the time that the Knesset’s planned move is an effort to “transform teachers into contractor employees… the first step in the privatization of the education system.”
The union has warned that if the matter is not resolved, it will continue “low-key” strikes until the end of the school year, in order to not disrupt graduations and other activities, but will prepare to “not start the school year” in the fall, a threat of a full walk-out.
The UN has become a ‘terrorist entity,’ asserts Israel’s UN envoy
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan speaks during a Security Council meeting on a resolution that would have recognized the Palestinians as a full UN member state, at United Nations headquarters, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
The United Nations has become a “terrorist entity,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan tells Army Radio, citing its alleged collaboration with Hamas in Gaza and documented cases of terror activities carried out from within UNRWA facilities.
“The UN, since Israel withdrew from Gaza, has essentially become a collaborator with Hamas, and more than that, has become a terrorist entity of its own,” Erdan says.
Asked by the interviewer to elaborate on the accusation, Erdan softens his words slightly, claiming the UN has “partially” become a terrorist entity, and citing its frequent and swift condemnation of Israel upon any “unverified” accusation against it, while it declines to comment on allegations of Hamas use of UN infrastructure and fails to take action to prevent that or to fire UNRWA staff who have allegedly engaged in terrorism.
“And thus the body has partially become a sort of terror organization, I have no better way of putting it,” he says.
Report: Israel fears Egypt will halt Hamas mediation role, as ties hit new low
Senior Israeli officials fear Egypt may cease mediating between Jerusalem and the Hamas terror group regarding a Gaza truce and hostage deal, warning that the military and intelligence cooperation between the countries will be harmed if the current crisis continues, according to Haaretz.
The report comes as Israel and Egypt accuse each other of hindering aid flow to Gaza, after Cairo said it will join South Africa’s “genocide” case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, and after Egyptian sources have threatened that a planned offensive in Rafah would endanger the 1979 peace accord between the countries.
“The current situation vis-a-vis Egypt is the worst that has been since the war began,” one unnamed official is quoted as saying.
One of the quoted officials says that while Cairo in the first months of the war understood Israel’s goals of toppling Hamas’s rule in Gaza, since the Rafah operation was launched, “they have been purposely acting to hinder us and to try and compel us to stop the war.” The official adds this is something that “never happened” in previous operations in Gaza.
IDF confirms Lebanon strike, says slain Hezbollah member was a top field commander
A top Hezbollah field commander was killed in last night’s drone strike in southern Lebanon, the military says.
Hussein Ibrahim Makki, according to the IDF, was a senior commander in the terror group’s so-called Southern Front unit. He previously commanded Hezbollah’s coastal division, the military says.
Hezbollah announced his death earlier following the airstrike near Tyre, but did not refer to him as a commander.
The IDF says Makki “planned and carried out many terror attacks against the Israeli home front amid the war.”
במהלך הלילה צה"ל תקף וחיסל באמצעות כלי טיס של חיל האוויר, במרחב צור, את המחבל חסין איברהים מכי, מפקד שטח בכיר בחזית הדרום של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה.
חסין היה אחראי על תכנון והוצאה לפועל של מתווי טרור רבים לעבר העורף הישראלי במהלך הלחימה>> pic.twitter.com/7NNF0FY0XV— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 15, 2024
Soldier killed in Gaza fighting, marking IDF’s first Rafah fatality
Sgt. Ira Yair Gispan, killed in the southern Gaza Strip, May 14, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
An Israeli soldier was killed during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, the military announces, marking the first fatality in the IDF’s push into Rafah.
The slain soldier is named as Sgt. Ira Yair Gispan, 19, from Petah Tikva. He served in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 75th Battalion.
Gispan’s death brings the IDF’s toll during its ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in operations on the border to 273.
The IDF began sending troops into the southern Gaza border city of Rafah last week in what it has described as a “precise” operation, with soldiers currently holding a relatively small area southeast of the crowded city.
UC Berkeley protesters take down tents, New Mexico activists defiant
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up a tent encampment to protest against Israel in front of Sproul Hall on the UC Berkeley campus on April 22, 2024, in Berkeley, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP)
Students at the University of California, Berkeley, demanding the school divest from companies doing business in Israel have begun removing their campus protest encampment as activist leaders hold discussions with university administrators.
In a letter sent Tuesday evening, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ tells the demonstrators she agrees “to support a comprehensive and rigorous examination of our investments and our socially responsible investment strategy.”
Meanwhile, at the University of New Mexico, a deadline set by school president Garnett Stokes for an encampment along a busy stretch of the Albuquerque campus to be dismantled by 5 p.m. Tuesday has passed with no discernable action.
Visited the University of New Mexico's Gaza Solidarity Encampment today. They occupied the Student Union Building last night, but it was evicted with 16 arrests. The encampment was ongoing. pic.twitter.com/hmtj1ACvQg
— Matt Peterson (@mattpetersonnyc) May 1, 2024
Student activists had reacted to the threat by reinforcing their encampment in hopes of thwarting its demise.
Stokes says those who do not comply will be subject to “institutional enforcement.”
GOP Jews happy as Capitol rioter accused of antisemitism defeated in WV primary
The Republican Jewish Coalition is celebrating after a candidate it endorsed in West Virginia’s congressional primary beat out a challenger accused of antisemitism.
Carol Miller, who has represented West Virginia’s first district since 2019, managed to stave off a challenge from Derrick Evans, who served a three-month jail sentence after livestreaming himself participating in the storming of the US Capitol.
“Republican voters in West Virginia and Nebraska soundly rejected extremist candidates,” the RJC says in a statement.
Derrick Evans exits the Sidney L. Christie US Courthouse and Federal Building after being arraigned, January 8, 2021, in Huntington, West Virginia. (Sholten Singer/The Herald-Dispatch via AP, File)
While the statement does not mention Evans by name, it appears to allude to past comments he has made questioning if Jews were behind the January 6 insurrection.
In February, Evans appeared on the show of far-right streamer Stew Peters and appeared to endorse the idea that Israel may have “been behind January 6.” He added that “whether the Jews stole the election” was a good question to ask.
“Let there be no doubt: if you don’t stand with the Jewish community if you don’t stand with Israel, the RJC will work to defeat you,” the group says.
IDF says two drones shot down after Iraqi group claims attack
The Israel Defense Forces says it shot down two drones headed to Israeli territory.
The statement comes shortly after the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed to have launched two drones at Eilat.
The IDF says fighter jets shot down the two drones, which had been headed for Israel from the east. No other details are given.
مشاهد من اطلاق #المقاومة_الإسلامية_في_العراق لطيران مسير باتجاه هدفاً #عسكرياً في #ايلات ام الرشراش باراضينا #المحتلة بتاريخ 14-5-2024 pic.twitter.com/vIU3RV5nHh
— نـ ـورس. مـ ـهاجـ ـر (@bas_irra) May 14, 2024
Neither drone entered Israeli airspace, the army adds.
The Iraqi group claimed it had launched the drone in defense of Gaza. A video published by the group showed two drones being launched, though the timing seemed to indicate they had not been the pair shot toward Israel.
Hezbollah names slain operative after Israel said to hit car in Tyre
Hezbollah says one of its operatives was killed in fighting with Israel, hours after Lebanese security sources told Reuters one of the terror group’s field commanders had been targeted in an alleged Israeli airstrike on a car in southern Lebanon’s Tyre.
The operative is named as Hussein Ibrahim Makki from the southern Lebanese town of Beit Yahoun. He was in his mid-50s.
المقــ ـاومـ ـة الإسـ ـلامـ ـية تزف الشــ ـهيد حسين ابراهيم مكّي "السيد مكّي" من بلدة بيت ياحون في جنوب لبنان#ملحق pic.twitter.com/AxvpU3obdW
— Mulhak – ملحق (@Mulhak) May 14, 2024
Emergency responders said two others were wounded in the strike.
The Hezbollah statement does not list a rank or role for Makki.
Biden seeking congressional okay to send Israel $1 billion in arms — report
US President Joe Biden’s administration has informed Congress that it is moving ahead with sales of munitions to Israel potentially worth over $1 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The transfer includes up to $700 million in tank rounds, another $500 million worth of tactical vehicles and $60 million-worth of mortar shells, the report says. The munitions are intended to replenish stocks used during the war against Hamas, though it could take years for everything included in the deal to reach Israel.
The report comes as Biden has faced pressure over his decision to freeze the transfer of large bombs to Israel over fears it could be used in the Gazan city of Rafah.
Biden would veto bill seeking to unfreeze arms transfers to Israel — White House
The White House says US President Joe Biden would veto a bill seeking to shield Israel from attempts by the administration to withhold arms sales or weapons transfers, maintaining that Israel is already getting “what it needs to defend itself.”
“We strongly oppose attempts to constrain the President’s ability to deploy U.S. security assistance consistent with U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives,” the White House’s budget office says in a statement.
It calls the bill “a misguided reaction to a deliberate distortion of the Administration’s approach to Israel,” asserting that Biden’s commitment to Israel remains ironclad.
“The President has been clear: we will always ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself,” the statement reads.
The GOP-led bill would freeze the budgets of the secretary of state, the defense secretary and the National Security Council until arms Israel is expecting from the US are released.
It is largely aimed at forcing Biden to release a shipment of high-payload bombs for Israel that he withheld earlier this month amid concerns that they would be used by the IDF in a major Rafah offensive that Washington opposes.
While it will likely pass the Republican-controlled House, it is similarly certain to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Gantz discusses hostage talks, Saudi normalization with top Biden aide Sullivan
War cabinet minister Benny Gantz says he spoke earlier in the night with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who is slated to travel to Saudi Arabia and Israel at the end of this week and early next week.
On the call, Gantz emphasized “the imperative of increasing the international pressure on Hamas in addition to continuing the military pressure to secure an arrangement to return the hostages and remove the threat of Hamas,” he tweets.
He says the pair also discussed the US effort to broker a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, expanding “the regional alliance of moderates” and the post-war management of Gaza.
UN blames Israeli tank for deadly strike on ‘clearly marked’ vehicle
The United Nations claims an Israeli tank attacked a clearly marked UN vehicle on Monday, killing a UN security officer from India and wounding another security officer from Jordan.
The United Nations has no doubt that shots from an Israeli tank hit the back of a white UN vehicle en route to the European hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq says.
He tells reporters that the UN Department of Safety and Security, which employed the two staffers, has set up a fact-finding panel to discover the circumstances of the incident; the United Nations is in discussion with Israeli authorities, he adds.
The IDF said earlier that the pair had been driving through an area where fighting was ongoing and indicated issues with deconfliction.
“An initial inquiry conducted indicates that the vehicle was hit in an area declared an active combat zone,” the military said, maintaining that it had “not been made aware of the route of the vehicle.”
Haq identifies the UN staff member killed as Waibhav Anil Kale. He is the first international employee of the United Nations to be killed in the current war in Gaza.
On his LinkedIn page, Kale said he left the Indian army as a deputy sector commander in July 2022 and then worked for Amazon as a program manager until June 2023. He joined the UN in April as a security coordination officer. Indian media said he was 46 and a retired army colonel.
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs identifies the injured UN staffer as Yara Dababneh and says a Jordanian military aircraft was slated to fly her from Jerusalem — where she was being transferred — to Amman for treatment at Al-Hussein Medical City, a military medical complex.
“She’s receiving medical attention,” Haq says. “We believe that she will make it through.”
ToI staff contributed to this post.
Hezbollah commander said among those killed in strike on car in Tyre
Two Lebanese security sources tells Reuters that a field commander from Lebanon’s Hezbollah was one of those killed in an alleged Israeli strike targeting a car in Tyre.
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