May 20: Defense officials said to refuse to draw up a partial list of hostages if limited deal reached

Source denies PM’s characterization of current status of talks: Not just waiting for Hamas to say ‘yes’

A banner at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, May 19, 2025. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

A source involved in the hostage negotiations tells The Times of Israel that the statement issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office earlier this evening claiming that Israel has accepted the so-called “Witkoff proposal,” while Hamas has refused to do so, mischaracterizes the current status of the talks.

The source says that mediators are still working to coax both sides to compromise on a number of issues. “This is not a matter of just waiting for Hamas to say ‘yes,'” the source says.

Negotiators are trying to come up with a temporary hostage deal that allows Hamas to claim that the agreement will lead to the eventual end of the war, while Israel can claim that it hasn’t committed to doing so, the source explains.

Given the lack of trust between the sides, this has been a difficult task to accomplish, the source says, while insisting that a deal is still possible.

While the senior members of Israel’s negotiating team have been called back from Qatar to Jerusalem by the prime minister, the source says that those individuals weren’t really playing an integral role in the talks to begin with.

US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff is not in Doha either, but has been in continued contact with Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.

Palestinian-American political activist Bishara Bahbah continues to operate a backchannel between the US and Hamas leaders in Qatar where he arrived yesterday, the source says.

British maritime agency says Panama-flagged tanker ‘hijacked’ off coast of Iran

CAIRO, Egypt — British maritime security firm Ambrey says a Panama-flagged and UAE-linked products tanker was reportedly interdicted approximately 51 nautical miles northwest of the Iranian port of Bandar-e jask.

It says an urgent broadcast was transmitted that the vessel has been “hijacked.”

Trump announces plans for ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system, says it will be ready by end of term

US President Donald Trump listens to US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks about the Golden Dome missile defense shield, in the Oval Office of the White House on May 20, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Jim WATSON / AFP)

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump unveils plans for a “Golden Dome” missile shield system to protect his country against foreign attacks, saying it should be operational by the end of his second term.

“In the campaign, I promised the American people I would build a cutting-edge missile defense shield,” Trump says at the White House. “Today, I am pleased to announce we have officially selected architecture for this state-of-the-art system.”

Jordan evacuates 6 child cancer patients, 19 relatives from Gaza as part of promise to Trump

An ambulance arriving from Jordan makes its way to the Gaza Strip from the Kerem Shalom border crossing, on May 20, 2025. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)

For the second time in days, Jordan carried out an evacuation of child cancer patients along with their family members from Gaza as it works to gradually fulfill a promise King Abdullah made to US President Donald Trump.

Six young patients and 19 family members were evacuated by the Jordan Armed Forces from Gaza, a Jordanian official tells The Times of Israel.

Abdullah announced during a February meeting with Trump that Jordan would take in 2,000 child cancer patients and other sick children from Gaza for treatment in the Hashemite kingdom, as Washington sought to push countries in the region to facilitate the emigration of Palestinians from the war-torn Strip.

The total number of sick Gazan children taken in by Jordan now stands at 39, after four were evacuated last week with 12 of their family members and 29 were evacuated in March along with 44 family members.

The Jordanian official says Amman seeks to evacuate more children from Gaza, but Israeli authorities have “put up hurdles.”

“Jordan wanted to evacuate all the children from Gaza by air, but Israeli authorities didn’t agree,” the Jordanian official says, adding that the evacuations took place by land, with patients being driven into Israel and then through the West Bank before reaching Jordan for treatment at the King Hussein Cancer Center.

The official notes that Ammn is also seeking to deliver aid into Gaza and has 100 trucks sitting in Jordan that are ready to enter the Strip, but that Israel has not allowed them in.

While Israel has not guaranteed that those who leave Gaza will be able to return, a group of patients who had received treatment in Jordan were allowed back into the Strip on May 13. However, before they reentered, Israeli authorities seized their belongings, including money, cellphones, and food, the Jordanian official says.

Palestinian story needs platform, says director of Gazan film at Cannes

CANNES, France — The decision to include a film set in Gaza in the Cannes Film Festival’s official selection comes at a particularly urgent time for the small coastal enclave, twin Palestinian filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser say.

“There is a need to give a platform to the voice of Palestine, the Palestinian story, the Gaza story, in an international festival like the Cannes Film Festival, with a wide audience from all over the world,” Arab Nasser tells Reuters.

The brothers’ film “Once Upon A Time in Gaza,” which is competing in the second-tier Un Certain Regard category, premiered at the festival in southern France on Monday.

Their previous work includes “Condom Lead,” the first-ever Palestinian short to compete at Cannes in 2013, as well as their 2015 debut feature “Degrade” and 2020’s “Gaza Mon Amour.”

“Once Upon A Time in Gaza” begins in 2007, the year the Hamas terror group violently took over Gaza, with low-level drug dealer Osama (Majd Eid) running a falafel stand that serves as a front.

His underling Yahya (Nader Abd Alhay) looks after the restaurant and pines for a better life outside Gaza.

After an incident with a corrupt cop, the story fast-forwards to 2009, when Hamas has fully taken control, and Yahya is cast in a cheap-looking TV series commissioned by the group about a terrorist who died a hero in the fight against Israel.

Yahya is meant to symbolize a whole generation of Gazans who have been stuck in the coastal enclave with few perspectives, said Tarzan Nasser.

“Maybe his lot would have changed had Israel allowed him to leave the Gaza Strip,” says the director, who, along with his brother, has been in exile in Jordan for more than a decade.

The film’s name is meant to capture the rhythm of Gaza at the time, where there is no stability or continuity, and “an incident now would become a ‘once upon a time’ tomorrow,” Arab Nasser says.

But it has a different meaning with a view to the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel, saw 251 taken hostage, and triggered the ongoing war.

Now, “we refer to all of Gaza as ‘once upon a time,’ because Israel destroyed Gaza from north to south and has damaged all means of life,” he adds.

“All the memories, all the incidents that one has in one’s memory of this place, have all vanished; Israel has destroyed it completely.”

Report: Israel stopped EU from suspending cooperation deal, which instead decided on a review

Israeli diplomatic efforts succeeded in stopping the European Union from halting its cooperation deal with Israel, a senior official in the Foreign Ministry tells the Walla news site.

By enlisting the help of 10 countries, including Germany and Italy, the EU instead agreed on a review of the agreement, instead of its suspension, the official says.

The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said today that Brussels was acting after “a strong majority” of its 27 member states backed the move, in a meeting of EU foreign ministers, in a bid to pressure Israel on alleged human rights abuses in Gaza.

AFP contributed to this report.

Air Force members said increasingly asking whether Gaza strikes are justified

Smoke rises following an Israeli army shelling in Khan Younis, Gaza, as seen from southern Israel, May 19, 2025. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Channel 13’s defense analyst Alon Ben David says he’s spoken to Israeli Air Force members who are beginning to express their discomfort about some of the strikes they’ve been carrying out in Gaza as of late.

There is an understanding among these air force members that Israel is now in a war of its choosing — as opposed to shortly after October 7, 2023, when Israel’s operations in Gaza seemed less politically motivated, Ben David says.

The shift has led to discomfort among these air force members who know that their strikes are killing hundreds of Palestinians, “and they’re asking themselves whether it is justified and whether it serves a purpose,” he continues.

The IDF says it takes steps to avoid civilian casualties, while Hamas hides among them, but the army hasn’t denied that scores of civilians in Gaza have been killed in its strikes, particularly as of late.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the IDF pressure is designed to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

Hamas says it is prepared to release the hostages in exchange for an end to the war — a trade Netanyahu has refused, arguing that it leaves Hamas in power. But a growing number of critics argue that Israel’s military strategy lacks a clear end game and is being guided by Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, who want to permanently reoccupy Gaza and kick out all of its Palestinians.

EU will lift sanctions on Syria, keep those targeting Assad regime

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas speaks with the media as she arrives for a meeting of EU defense ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Belgium, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

BARCELONA, Spain — The European Union will lift sanctions on Syria’s economy but keep those in place targeting the former Assad regime, the EU’s top diplomat announces.

Foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas speaks after chairing a meeting of foreign ministers from the 27-member bloc. She says the decision was designed to avert poverty and radicalism in the country after more than a decade of civil war sent millions fleeing, including to Europe.

The sanctions are “conditional” and could be resumed if the new government of Ahmad al-Sharaa doesn’t keep the peace, Kallas says.

“Saving lives must be our top priority on Syria,” she said.

The announcement came a week after US President Donald Trump’s meeting with Sharaa and his announcement that the US would ease sanctions on Syria. Lifting sanctions could bring much-needed investment to Syria, which needs tens of billions of dollars to restore its battered infrastructure.

Hostage Families Forum: Government has ‘no real plan to return the last hostage’

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum accuses the government of having “no real plan to return the last hostage” being held in the Gaza Strip, after the Prime Minister’s Office said it was bringing back high-level negotiators from hostage talks in Doha.

“A majority of the nation supports the return of all the hostages, even at the price of ending the war. Only the return of everyone in one stage will allow a process of rehabilitation and renewal for the country and the army,” the forum says.

“Hamas will not be defeated without the return of the last hostage. Until then, there will be no victory, nor even the appearance of victory.”

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 58 hostages, including 57 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023.

They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF, and 20 are believed to be alive. There are grave concerns for the well-being of three others, Israeli officials have said.

Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March, and one additional hostage, a dual American-Israeli citizen, in May as a “gesture” to the United States.

The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.

Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.

The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas, and is counted among the 58 hostages.

PM calls back top members of Doha team due to ‘Hamas refusal’ of deal based on Witkoff framework, leaves behind some reps

Pictures of hostages taken to Gaza on October 7, 2023, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, May 19, 2025. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces that after a week of “intensive” hostage talks in Doha — which have not yet shown progress toward a deal — high-level members of the negotiating team will return to Israel, while some representatives stay back.

“After about a week of intensive talks in Doha, the senior negotiation team will return to Israel for consultations, while working-level representatives will remain in Doha for the time being,” writes the Prime Minister’s Office in a statement.

“Israel agrees to the American proposal for the return of the hostages, which is based on the Witkoff framework,” adds the PMO, referring to US Envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposal for a short-term ceasefire in exchange for about half of the living hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

“This proposal was recently conveyed to Hamas via the mediators, but so far, it continues to cling to its refusal,” says the PMO.

Defense officials said to refuse to draw up a partial list of hostages if limited deal reached; PM denies report

Eliya Cohen (left), Omer Shem Tov (center) and Omer Wenkert, flanked by armed fighters, on stage at a Hamas propaganda ceremony for their release in Gaza on February 22, 2025 (Eyad BABA / AFP)

Senior officials in the defense establishment have informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they will not compile a partial list of hostages if Hamas agrees to release a limited number of captives in a potential ceasefire deal, Channel 12 reports this evening.

High-ranking Mossad officials informed Mossad chief David Barnea that “there is no reasonable way” to create such a list, as all hostages equally need to be freed, according to the network.

In addition, a senior defense official told Netanyahu that “I will not compile a partial list. If it comes to that, I will give the data to [Strategic Affairs Minister] Ron Dermer, let him decide, or let the prime minister decide. Or they’ll decide not to decide and leave it to Hamas to determine the list.”

“In any case, I made it clear that I will not be the one to decide who is released in a partial deal like this and who is not,” the network quotes the official as saying in Hebrew.

The list of hostages slated for release during the first phase of the January ceasefire agreement was formulated in the middle of last year, based partly on information provided by the hostages’ families regarding the different health conditions of their loved ones, notes Channel 12.

The report cites another senior security official saying that “we’ve asked several times to convene a special discussion in which the decision-makers would be presented with all the data we have on the conditions of the living hostages.”

“They don’t want to. They run away from it like fire. It’s clear to everyone that this is a highly explosive issue,” says the official.

Netanyahu’s office denies the report, calling it “another piece of fake news from an anonymous and irresponsible source on Channel 12.”

“Prime Minister Netanyahu is fully and continuously updated on the condition of the hostages, according to the information available to Israel,” says the Prime Minister’s Office in a statement.

Sources: Syrian government found Eli Cohen dossier in state security building, offered it indirectly to Israel to ease tensions

Nadia Cohen (L), the widow of spy Eli Cohen, meets with Prime Minister Netanyahu (R) in his office, May 18, 2025, after Israel retrieved some 2,000 documents related to his capture from Syria. (Prime Minister's Office)

AMMAN/DAMASCUS, Jordan/Syria — Syria’s leadership approved the handover of the belongings of long-dead spy Eli Cohen to Israel in a bid to ease Israeli hostility and show goodwill to US President Donald Trump, three sources tell Reuters.

Israel announced its recovery of the trove of documents, photographs and personal possessions relating to Cohen on Sunday, saying its spy agency Mossad had worked with an unnamed foreign intelligence agency to secure the material.

However, a Syrian security source, an adviser to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and a person familiar with backchannel talks between the countries say the archive of material was found by the rebels in a state security building, and offered to Israel as an indirect gesture by Sharaa as he seeks to cool tensions and build Trump’s confidence.

Cohen, who was hanged in 1965 in a downtown Damascus square after infiltrating Syria’s political elite, is still regarded as a hero in Israel and Mossad’s most celebrated spy for uncovering military secrets that aided its lightning victory in the 1967 Six Day War.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Cohen on Sunday as a legend and “the greatest intelligence agent in the annals of the state.”

While Israel has long sought to recover his body for reburial at home, the return of his archive held for 60 years by Syrian intelligence was hailed by Mossad as “an achievement of the highest moral order.”

Israel has not publicly revealed how the archive came into its possession, saying only that it was the result of “a covert and complex Mossad operation, in cooperation with an allied foreign intelligence service.”

After rebels led by Sharaa suddenly ousted President Bashar al-Assad in December, ending his family’s 54-year-long rule, they found the Cohen dossier in a state security building, according to the Syrian security source.

Sharaa and his foreign advisers quickly decided to use the material as leverage, the source added.

The Syrian security source said Sharaa had realised that the Cohen archive was important to the Israelis and that its return could amount to a significant diplomatic gesture.

Netanyahu’s office, Syrian officials, and the White House do not immediately respond to requests for comment on Syria’s role in Israel’s recovery of the Cohen archive.

TV report: Hostage Matan Zangauker struggling to stand, suffering painful stomach issues

Ilana Gritzewsky shouts to hostage partner Matan Zangauker near the border with Gaza, April 20, 2025 (Erik Marmor/Flash90)

Hostage Matan Zangauker is struggling to stand on his own and suffers from continuous periods of intestinal problems and stomach pains, Channel 12 reports, citing an eyewitness account of captive hostage Edan Alexander, who was held alongside him.

Zangauker, whose mother, Einav, is a leading figure in the campaign for a deal to free hostages, suffers from shakes and weakness due to muscular atrophy.

Zangauker goes through long periods of closing himself off in a corner of the tunnel where he is held, refusing to speak or eat.

Citing unspecified “assessments,” Channel 12 reports that Zangauker has been held alongside senior Hamas officials in various locations above and below ground, including displacement camps and mosques.

COGAT: 93 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza today

The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announces that 93 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip today.

Israel resumed aid deliveries to Gaza yesterday, after a pause since March 2.

COGAT says the aid delivery comes “following the recommendation of professional IDF officials and in accordance with the directive of the political echelon.”

Today’s trucks included “flour for bakeries, food for babies, medical equipment and pharmaceutical drugs,” COGAT says.

The aid underwent an inspection first by Israeli authorities before entering Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.

EU’s top diplomat says union will review cooperation deal with Israel over Gaza ‘abuses’

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas (L) speaks with Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul during a Foreign Affairs Council meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on May 20, 2024. (JOHN THYS / AFP)

BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Union agrees to review its cooperation deal with Israel over alleged human rights abuses in Gaza, the bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas says.

Kallas says Brussels was acting after “a strong majority” of its 27 member states backed the move, in a meeting of EU foreign ministers, in a bid to pressure Israel.

“What it tells is that the countries see that the situation in Gaza is untenable, and what we want is to really help the people, and what we want is to unblock the humanitarian aid so that it will reach the people,” Kallas tells journalists.

נתניהו מבודד את ישראל ברוב של 17 מדינות, האיחוד האירופי ייבחן את הסכם האסוציאציה עם ישראל – הסכם סחר של עשרות מיליארדים שהפך את אירופה לשותפת הסחר הגדולה של ישראל. באיחוד ייבחנו אם ישראל הפרה את סעיף 2 שקובע שהשותפות תתבסס על כבוד לזכויות אדם וערכים דמוקרטיים.
(חדשות 12) pic.twitter.com/dCbMz8Z8bx

— לירי בורק שביט (@lirishavit) May 20, 2025

Netanyahu reportedly decides to return some negotiators from Doha

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decides to return part of the delegation negotiating a ceasefire-hostage release deal in Doha, the Walla news site reports.

A senior Israeli official tells the site that Netanyahu believes that the team has exhausted efforts in Doha.

IDF chief says military will conquer more of Gaza if Hamas keeps refusing hostage deal; tells Gazans: ‘Hamas brought this destruction upon you’

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir visits the Gaza Strip, May 20, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, in a video statement, says the military will capture more territory in the Gaza Strip if Hamas continues to refuse to agree to a hostage deal.

“Hamas will pay the price for its refusal, it will face intense firepower, we will expand the ground maneuver, conquer additional territory, clear and destroy the terror infrastructure until its defeat,” Zamir says.

“We are defending ourselves, and for that we must attack,” he says.

Zamir says, “Hamas has one option, and that is to release our hostages. If there is an agreement, the IDF will know how to adjust its activity accordingly.”

Zamir also delivers remarks to Gazans, telling them that Hamas is responsible for their suffering:

“I wish to address the residents of Gaza: We are not the ones who brought this destruction upon you. We did not start the war. We did not rob you of food, shelter, or money. We are not the ones hiding in hospitals or schools. We are not the ones staying in luxury hotels while you live in hardship. This is your leadership, those who are holding our hostages.

“Hamas is responsible for starting the war. It is responsible for the dire situation of the population,” he continues. “It destroyed, and it will not be the one to rebuild.”

He also relates to controversial remarks made earlier today by The Democrats chairman Yair Golan, who said the IDF was killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby.”

“The IDF operates at all times in accordance with the IDF’s values, the law and international law, while uncompromisingly safeguarding the security of the State of Israel and its citizens,” Zamir says.

“Any statement that casts doubt on the integrity of our actions and the morality of our fighters is baseless,” Zamir adds.

Zamir had visited Gaza today to hold an assessment with Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor, and 98th Division commander Brig. Gen. Guy Levi.

Rubio: Trump still wants to push Saudi normalization, but Riyadh won’t move forward amid war in Gaza

US President Donald Trump arrives with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the group photo with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders during the GCC Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 14, 2025. (Alex Brandon/AP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserts that the Trump administration is still interested in brokering a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, but “the Saudis are the ones [who] have expressed their inability to move forward on it so long as the conflict is happening in Gaza.”

Riyadh has also made clear that it won’t normalize relations with Israel absent Jerusalem agreeing to allow for the establishment of an irreversible, time-bound pathway to a future Palestinian state, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to oppose.

US President Donald Trump said while in Riyadh last week that he hopes Saudi Arabia will soon enter the Abraham Accords, but recognized that they will do it at their own time.

Asked about reports that he is planning to shutter the office of the US Security Coordinator in Jerusalem, which is responsible for boosting security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Rubio says “the only thing that’s been discussed about [this office] is whether it should be brought under the authority of the [US] ambassador” in Jerusalem.

It appeared possible that Rubio thought the question was about the Jerusalem-based Office of Palestinian Affairs, which indeed has been moved by the Trump administration so that it reports directly to the US ambassador to Israel, rather than having an independent line of communication to Washington.

TV report: Freed hostage Edan Alexander meets Gallant, tells him he slept on Gazan street and nobody noticed

Released hostage Edan Alexander reunites with his grandmother Varda Ben Baruch at Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, May 12, 2025. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Freed hostage Edan Alexander describes the difficult conditions of his captivity to former defense minister Yoav Gallant, including sleeping on Gaza’s street, in quotes reported by Channel 12 news.

Asked by the former Likud lawmaker how he held onto hope in captivity, Alexander reportedly answered: “I knew that my friends from Golani were fighting above for me and I had a duty to survive for them.”

“My captivity was difficult. We moved between dozens of places, we slept in apartments, mosques, and even on the street. One of the times we didn’t stop moving from place to place, and then we slept on Basmata Street — without anyone noticing. And now we must do everything to release everyone,” he said, Channel 12 reports.

Channel 12 also says that Alexander was held alongside senior Hamas officials, including its former leader and October 7, 2023, massacre mastermind, Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by IDF troops in October.

According to Alexander’s reported testimony, food cans would explode in the tunnels due to the intense summer heat.

Separately, Channel 12 reports on a meeting between Alexander and the family of hostage Nimrod Cohen, with whom he was held in captivity.

Alexander reportedly told them Cohen supported him during their time together, but was very depressed and traumatized due to his experiences of the October 7 massacre, when he saw his friends murdered.

Rubio: We’re pleased by Israeli decision to allow some aid into Gaza, but it’s insufficient

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on May 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/AFP)

The US is “pleased” by Israel’s decision yesterday to lift its 78-day blockade on humanitarian assistance for Gaza but recognizes that the small handful of trucks that have entered the Strip are not sufficient, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says.

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio says it is his understanding that another 100 aid trucks — if not more — will be entering Gaza in the coming days.

He says he recently met with representatives from the World Food Program to discuss efforts to ramp up the distribution of aid into Gaza.

A Western diplomat familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel earlier this month that the Trump administration has threatened to cut its funds to WFP if the organization doesn’t cooperate with a new Israeli-backed Gaza aid initiative.

WFP and other aid groups have pushed back on the initiative, arguing that it will force the mass displacement of Gazans to southern Gaza, where a handful of aid distribution centers will be established, and includes other strict Israeli criteria that international organizations claim don’t meet the gravity of the humanitarian crisis.

Rubio tells the Senate committee that the US wants the war in Gaza to end “hopefully with the elimination of Hamas.”

“Because the people of Gaza deserve a more prosperous, peaceful future, which they’ll never have as long as Hamas exists,” he says.

An elderly Palestinian man pushes a bicycle past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Gaza City, on May 20, 2025. (Bashar TALEB / AFP)

Asked about Israel’s current military strategy of flattening the vast majority of Gazan buildings in order to reoccupy and indefinitely hold onto the Strip, Rubio claims he doesn’t believe that is the case, adding that Israel is “targeting elements of Hamas.”

He adds that Hamas has been an “impediment” to multiple deals in the past, with the group’s Gaza-based leadership overruling its abroad negotiators after the latter had reached agreements with the mediators.

Rubio confirms that the US has asked countries in the region and beyond whether they’d be willing to temporarily take in Gazans who are interested in leaving due to the ongoing war. However, he denies that there is a “deportation” initiative in motion.

Rubio is pressed whether the plan can really be considered “voluntary” if Israel is cutting off aid to Gaza and razing almost all of its structures, while certain senior ministers pledge that Israel will remain there permanently.

“You don’t want people trapped there… They may want to live there in the future, but right now, they can’t… [so] we’ve asked countries preliminarily whether they would be open to accepting people — not as a permanent situation but as a bridge toward reconstruction,” Rubio says.

Asked whether one of the countries approached was Libya, which the US is reportedly hoping will take in one million Gazans, Rubio responds that he’s not aware of such discussions.

To date, no countries have come forward, as Israel has refused to publicly commit to allowing those who leave the ability to return and as coalition members claim the plan is for Israel to establish settlements in the Strip where Palestinian villages once stood.

Students protest Columbia U’s acting president during commencement over actions against anti-Israel activists

Columbia University students shout at acting university president Claire Shipman during a graduation ceremony.

Students shout, “You arrested us,” at Shipman as she delivers a speech to Columbia College graduates, a video shows. Shipman called the police onto campus earlier this month after anti-Israel activists invaded a campus library.

Another clip from students booing acting President Claire Shipman
during the graduation ceremony for Columbia College Class of 2025.

Shipman couldn’t go five seconds without students’ chants, including demanding she get off the stage, drowning out her speech.

“You arrested… pic.twitter.com/8aAyHH0B7D

— Jessica Schwalb (@jessicaschwalb7) May 20, 2025

the columbia college class of 2025 is booing through the president's speech pic.twitter.com/DXK97bl8a9

— mj (@mollikajaisingh) May 20, 2025

The students at the ceremony also chant “Free Mahmoud,” referring to the campus protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested by federal immigration agents.

LIVE: At @Columbia College commencement, the speech of acting president Claire Shipman is drowned out as graduates erupt into a “FREE MAHMOUD” chant. pic.twitter.com/EQ6yzxU7PO

— Jessica Schwalb (@jessicaschwalb7) May 20, 2025

The university’s main commencement ceremony is scheduled for tomorrow. Anti-Israel protest groups have vowed to disrupt the event.

Last year, the university’s commencement ceremony was canceled due to anti-Israel protests.

PA’s Abbas will discuss issue of arms in refugee camps during visit to Lebanon

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the opening session of the Palestinian Central Council, in the West Bank city of Ramallah on April 23, 2025. (Flash90)

A member of Mahmoud Abbas’ delegation to Beirut tells AFP that the Palestinian Authority president will discuss the issue of weapons in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps during his three-day visit to the country.

“The issue of Palestinian weapons in the camps will be one of the topics on the agenda for discussion between President Abbas, the Lebanese president, and the Lebanese government,” says Ahmad Majdalani, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee who is accompanying Abbas on the visit.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Hamas: No serious negotiations have taken place in Qatar since last Saturday

Hamas issues an official statement claiming that no serious negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages have taken place since the weekend.

The terror organization claims, “The presence of the Zionist delegation in Doha is a blatant attempt by [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to mislead global public opinion. Since Saturday, no serious negotiations have taken place in Qatar.”

The statement also responds to the Israeli announcement that five humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza last night, saying: “Only a small number of trucks entered Gaza, and none have yet been handed over to any official party.”

Likud MK booted from Knesset panel blasts Katz for reportedly comparing him to left-wing party head

Likud MK Amit Halevi speaks during Education, Culture, and Sports Committee meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem on February 19, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

MK Amit Halevi slams Defense Minister Israel Katz after his fellow Likud politician reportedly compared him to left-wing The Democrats chairman Yair Golan, who this morning sparked widespread condemnations by accusing Israel of killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby.”

According to Hebrew media, Katz harshly criticized Halevi in an internal Likud chat over his opposition to a government-backed measure to extend the government’s ability to issue emergency call-up orders for IDF reservists.

Halevi voted against the measure earlier this week, leading Likud to remove him from the powerful Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Halevi said his opposition was motivated by his doubts about the IDF’s latest offensive in Gaza, dubbed Operation Gideon’s Chariots. Halevi protested the fact that “according to this plan, aid will continue to reach Hamas, it will continue to control a large area and population, and thus the enemy will not be defeated.”

Citing Channel 14, the Maariv daily reported that Katz directly compared Halevi to Golan, writing that he would “not allow anyone to harm IDF soldiers.”

“Amit Halevi from the Likud is slandering the heroic commanders of the Southern Command…a blood libel as if they are abandoning the fighters in Gaza” in the middle of the war, he reportedly wrote.

In response, Halevi releases a statement asserting that “the only one who is creating libels here is Minister Israel Katz with false quotes and a lack of even a basic security understanding of what I claimed in the committee.”

“As was clearly reported to us in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee: the ‘Gideon Chariots’ plan, even if successful, will leave Hamas in control of the territory, the population, and aid. The operation does not include a tight siege before soldiers enter on foot, as was rightly suggested by 10 IDF major generals in the generals’ plan,” he writes.

“This is not the way to defeat Hamas, this is the way to continue the waffling that has been exacting terrible prices from us for over 20 months,” Halevi continues.

In the wake of Halevi’s removal, the committee held another vote on Tuesday in which it approved the measure. Following Tuesday’s vote, committee chairman Yuli Edelstein called on his Likud party to restore Halevi, whom he called a “hardworking, diligent and opinionated parliamentarian.”

Yair Golan says his charge that Israel ‘killing babies as a hobby’ was criticism of ‘failed’ government, not IDF

Leader of The Democrats party Yair Golan heads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, May 19, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

In a televised address to the nation, The Democrats party chairman Yair Golan pushes back against widespread criticism over his comments this morning that Israel was killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby,” arguing that his “criticism was directed against the government, not the IDF.”

“I said this morning that we are a sane country that does not kill children. When ministers in this government celebrate the death and starvation of children, we must say so. I was referring solely to the most failed government in Israel’s history — not to the IDF. Our mission is to ensure that Israel remains a sane country that does not kill children either as a hobby or as a policy,” Golan declares.

“A government that says that it is possible to abandon hostages and that children should be starved is a government that sounds like a Hamas spokesman. A government that talks about an atomic bomb in Gaza is not a Jewish government, and it is certainly not Zionist,” he continues, asserting that the IDF “is my home and it is my heart.”

“Neither [Bezalel] Smotrich nor [Itamar] Ben Gvir, who are [military service] evaders, and certainly not Netanyahu, will teach me what combat ethics are, and what it means to protect the IDF. Therefore, I am not willing to remain silent when an irresponsible government harms my army. Those who truly hold the IDF dear to their hearts…must stand up courageously against the government,” asserts Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff.

Continuing, Golan accuses the government of turning a “justified and necessary” war into “a war without a security or national purpose,” asserting that “what we are seeing now in Gaza is not a maneuver to release hostages because it was possible long ago to release all the hostages in one comprehensive deal and return them home.”

The current operation in Gaza is also “not a campaign to topple Hamas” because Israel could have long ago taken steps to begin establishing an alternative to the terror group’s rule “with the assistance of the moderate Sunnis, as a regional project that strengthens Israel’s position and security,” he adds.

Turning to the criticism against him, Golan says that he is “not frightened by the poison machine,” nor “by the bullying” or “the attempt to terrorize anyone who dares to speak the truth.”

Speaking with national broadcaster Kan this morning, the retired general said that “Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was, if we don’t return to acting like a sane country.”

The political leader, who is not a current member of Knesset, added that “a sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not give itself the aim of expelling populations.”

His comments drew criticism from both the coalition and the heads of all of the Jewish opposition parties.

Rubio warns Syria close to civil war, ‘country splitting up’

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on May 20, 2025, in Washington. (AnnaMoneymaker/Getty Images/AFP)

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warns that Syria could be weeks away from civil war, days after he met with the country’s transitional leaders.

“It is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they’re facing, are maybe weeks — not many months — away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions, basically the country splitting up,” Rubio tells a Senate hearing.

Trump reportedly ‘frustrated’ by Gaza war, sees it as last ‘hot spot’ preventing prosperity in region

US President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he leaves the West Wing of the White House, April 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

US President Donald Trump is “frustrated” by the ongoing war in Gaza and feels it is the last issue preventing prosperity in the Middle East, the Axios news site reports, citing White House officials.

One of the officials says Trump pressured Israel to open crossings for humanitarian aid after assistance had been blocked since March, having been upset by images of suffering children and babies in the Strip.

“The president is frustrated about what is happening in Gaza. He wants the war to end, he wants the hostages to come home, he wants aid to go in and he wants to start rebuilding Gaza,” a White House official says. “The president sees a real chance for peace and prosperity in the region, but the war in Gaza is the last hot spot and he wants it to end.”

A second official says, “There is a lot of frustration by this crisis getting dragged on,” adding that the backchannel deal to release US-Israeli hostage soldier Edan Alexander last week developed from that feeling.

An Israeli official tells the site that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t feel pressured on the matter by Trump.

“If the president wants a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza he needs to put much more pressure on both sides,” the official says.

The White House stressed Monday that Trump wants the war in Gaza to end, as American officials denied reports that Washington was threatening to “abandon” Israel if it didn’t follow suit.

Rights group slams High Court for terse response to its appeal for more Gaza aid

Trucks carrying aid wait to enter the Gaza Strip from the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, on May 20, 2025. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)

The Gisha human rights group upbraids the High Court of Justice for its laconic response to a petition the organization filed asking the court to order the government to facilitate the large-scale delivery of aid to Gaza, in light of reports by humanitarian groups of a growing crisis in the territory.

Gisha filed its petition on Sunday, but the court only responded today, and gave the state another week to respond.

The wording of the decision, issued by conservative judge Yosef Elron, was also formulated somewhat unusually, asking the state in an anticipatory manner if it wished to argue that circumstances have changed since the petition was filed.

*We didn’t have high expectations from the court, but we could still be hopeful that the court might begin to take itself seriously in light of the utter humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip and the state’s role in creating and sustaining it,” says Gisha executive director Tania Hary.

“Instead of the requisite urgency, the court granted the state a full week to respond and even directed it to argue that the factual situation has changed so that it could dismiss the petition.

“Remedy for Gaza’s civilian population, who are deliberately being deprived of food, medicine, and other essential aid vital for their survival, will apparently not come from Israel’s High Court. It will need to come from international pressure.”

After denying entry to all humanitarian aid since March 2, the government allowed five trucks into Gaza on Monday and today gave permission for some 100 aid trucks to enter the territory.

UK pauses free trade talks with Israel; Foreign Ministry says move ‘will not divert’ Israel in the ‘struggle for its existence’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) speaks in a video statement on November 12, 2024. (Screenshot/GPO); Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street, London, November 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool)

Following British Foreign Minister David Lammy’s announcement earlier today of the United Kingdom’s suspension of free trade agreement negotiations with Israel and other punitive measures including the imposition of sanctions on West Bank settlers, the Foreign Ministry says London’s actions “will not divert” Jerusalem from defending itself militarily.

Britain paused the free trade talks after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was horrified by the military escalation in Gaza.

Lammy told Parliament: “We cannot stand by in the face of this new deterioration. It is incompatible with the principles that underpin our bilateral relationship.”

He added: “Frankly, it’s an affront to the values of the British people. Therefore, today, I’m announcing that we have suspended negotiations with this Israeli government on a new free trade agreement.”

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem retorts: “The British Mandate ended exactly 77 years ago. External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in the struggle for its existence and security against enemies seeking its destruction.”

The UK’s moves, which included summoning Israel’s ambassador, Tzipi Hotovely, to address the war in Gaza, come amid mounting international outrage leveled at Israel over its conduct during its war against the Hamas terror group.

“The Israeli government has a responsibility to intervene and halt these aggressive actions,” Lammy says. “Their consistent failure to act is putting Palestinian communities and the two-state solution in peril.”

Yesterday, the leaders of the UK, France, and Canada threatened “concrete actions” if Israel did not halt its military campaign and lift restrictions on humanitarian aid. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said earlier today that Paris supports a review of economic ties between Israel and the European Union in response to the war.

“Even before today’s announcement, the matter had not been advanced at all by the current British government,” says Israel’s Foreign Ministry about the UK’s actions, adding that the trade agreement “is mutually beneficial” and if, “due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy — that is its decision.”

The ministry also calls sanctions on settlers announced earlier today “puzzling, unjustified, and regrettable,” pointing to last week’s murder of Tzeela Gez by a Palestinian terrorist in the northern West Bank as evidence of the sanctions’ absurdity “at a time when Israel is mourning yet another victim of Palestinian terror.”

Gez was pregnant and on her way to the delivery room at the time of the shooting attack, and “doctors are still fighting for the life of her newborn in the hospital,” the statement adds.

AP contributed to this report.

Swedish FM says she will push for EU sanctions against Israeli ministers

Sweden's Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (C) and others prepare to pose for a family photo with EU foreign ministers during their informal meeting in Gymnich format, in Warsaw, Poland, on May 8, 2025. (Wojtek RADWANSKI / AFP)

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Sweden’s top diplomat says that the Nordic country would work within the EU to push for sanctions against certain Israeli ministers over Israel’s treatment of civilian Palestinians in Gaza.

“Since we do not see a clear improvement for the civilians in Gaza, we need to raise the tone further. We will therefore now also push for EU sanctions against individual Israeli ministers,” Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard says in a statement to AFP, adding that the officials targeted would be the subject of discussions within the EU.

Senior Hamas official sparks outrage in Gaza after referring to war casualties as ‘material calculations’

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. (AP/Hatem Moussa)

A senior Hamas official has drawn widespread anger from Gaza residents after referring to the high death toll in the Strip as “material calculations.”

In a recent interview, Qatar-based Hamas senior official Sami Abu Zuhri remarked that the number of births in Gaza — around 50,000 — exceeds the number of war casualties, which he claimed demonstrates that the losses do not reflect the broader picture of the conflict.

He added, “The martyrs [killed in the war] — the wombs of Gaza’s women will give birth to twice as many. This is the price that must be paid. If we thought in material terms, we would not be able to hold onto our land.”

The interview, which originally aired in late March on a podcast, resurfaced in recent days and quickly went viral, prompting a wave of backlash from Gaza residents who viewed the comments as deeply disrespectful to the tens of thousands killed.

One Gaza resident filmed himself responding: “A man outside the Strip says that everyone who was killed can simply be replaced. This is someone deluded beyond reason — he’s not one of us.”

Another resident posted a video saying: “Hamas leadership says — so what if 60,000 people died? Someone else will take their place. Osama Abu Zuhri, you’re speaking from outside the Strip. Your children are outside the Strip. You ignite this war, and we are the fuel?!”

The outrage also spilled into the streets. During an anti-Hamas protest held yesterday in Khan Younis, demonstrators directly condemned Abu Zuhri’s remarks, chanting: “Oh Abu Zuhri, you disgrace, even the child wants to live.”

🟨قطاع غزة | مسيرات غاضبة تطالب حماس بالتخلي عن الحكم و تهاجم تصريحات سامي ابو زهري القيادي في حماس المسيئة للشهداء . pic.twitter.com/mhSWoks4u7

— شبكة يافا الإخبارية (@yaffa_ps) May 19, 2025

IDF says drone strike killed Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon

The IDF confirms carrying out a drone strike in the Lebanese town of al-Mansouri, close to Tyre, today, killing a Hezbollah operative.

According to the military, the operative was the commander of Hezbollah’s forces in al-Mansouri.

The IDF says he was involved in advancing numerous attacks on Israel during the war, restoring Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the al-Mansouri area, and smuggling weapons.

מוקדם יותר היום, צה״ל תקף וחיסל באמצעות כלי טיס את מפקד מתחם אל מנצורי של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב אל מנצורי שבדרום לבנון.

במהלך המלחמה, המחבל קידם מתווי טרור רבים נגד מדינת ישראל, ניהל את ניסיונות השיקום של מתחם אל מנצורי וקידם ניסיונות העברת אמצעי לחימה pic.twitter.com/m2Iq14fnZP

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 20, 2025

Police readying for tensions ahead of annual Jerusalem Day Flag March on Monday

National religious Jews take part in the annual Jerusalem Day Flag March through the Arab Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, June 5, 2024. (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)

Police are bracing for friction ahead of the annual Jerusalem Day Flag March slated for Monday, which will see thousands of national religious Israelis parade through the Old City’s Muslim Quarter toward the Western Wall.

Thousands of officers and border cops will be deployed in Jerusalem on the holiday, which marks the reunification of the city in the wake of the Six Day War.

The parade will take its usual route, beginning at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, continuing into the Old City via Damascus Gate, and ending at the Western Wall.

To make way for marchers, police will close several roads to traffic, including the main thoroughfare between West and East Jerusalem.

Extremist Jewish youth attending the Flag March have been known to harass and beat Palestinians during the procession, especially as it enters the Old City through Damascus Gate.

Last year’s march saw several attacks on Palestinians and journalists by marchers, who chanted anti-Arab refrains and plastered stickers on shuttered shops supporting the ideology of the late ultranationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane and calling for the expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Officers arrested 18 suspects for violent offenses over the course of the day.

Police say they will “work to prevent all forms of violence or provocation,” in a statement this afternoon. They further call on participants and the wider public to “refrain from physical or verbal violence, and allow the event to proceed peacefully and lawfully.”

Sa’ar ‘takes note’ after WJC president asks why PM doesn’t stop Smotrich’s damaging comments

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar (left) attends a meeting of the World Jewish Conference, seated alongside WJC President Ron Lauder (center) in Jerusalem, May 20, 2025. (Tal Schneider/Times of Israel)

At the World Jewish Congress conference in Jerusalem, the body’s president, Ronald Lauder, asks Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar why his government doesn’t understand the damage done by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose statements are translated and quoted around the world.

“Let me tell you, all the good things that Israel is doing are being destroyed by Smotrich. Because his statements about starving the people and destroying [Gaza] were played all over the world, and the prime minister has the chance to stop him from saying these things, and he will not do it. The question is, why not?”

Sa’ar responds to Lauder: “President, I took note of what you said.”

Many people in the crowd, coming with Jewish delegations from around the world, applaud Lauder’s questions.

In recent weeks, Smotrich has been widely quoted when saying “Gaza will be totally destroyed” as a result of an Israeli military victory, and that its Palestinian population will “leave in great numbers to third countries,” raising fears of international law violations.

Lebanon has ‘more’ to do in disarming Hezbollah, US envoy says

US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus attends a session at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on May 20, 2025. (Karim JAAFAR / AFP)

DOHA, Qatar — Lebanon still has “more” to do in disarming Hezbollah following the war between the Iran-backed terror group and Israel, Deputy US Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus says.

As part of a deal agreed to end 14 months of fighting last November, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River, while Israel was to pull all its forces from south Lebanon.

The Lebanese army has been deploying in the area as Israeli forces have withdrawn and have been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure there.

UN peacekeepers are also present in the area and play a role in supervising the ceasefire.

Lebanese authorities “have done more in the last six months than they probably have in the last 15 years,” Ortagus says at the Qatar Economic Forum, referring to efforts to disarm Hezbollah.

“However, there’s a lot more to go,” she adds.

“We in the United States have called for the full disarmament of Hezbollah. And so that doesn’t mean just south of the Litani. That means in the whole country,” Ortagus says at the Qatar conference, calling on Lebanese politicians “to make a decision.”

UK sanctions settlers, groups linked to violence against West Bank Palestinians

Illustrative: Earth moving machinery prepares the ground for what appears to be a new illegal settlement outpost in the South Hebron Hills region of the West Bank, just opposite the Palestinian hamlet of Khirbet Zanuta, March 10, 2024. (Jeremy Sharon / The Times of Israel)

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain says it has sanctioned a number of individuals and groups in the West Bank who it said had been linked with acts of violence against Palestinians.

Among those hit by the sanctions is Zohar Sabah, for involvement in threatening, perpetrating, permitting, and supporting acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians.

Sabah was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.

The sanctions also hit Neria’s Farm, an outpost in the West Bank, including people residing at the outpost, for involvement in human rights abuses.

Sanctions were also imposed on the settler group Nachala, Libi Construction and Infrastructure LTD, company administrator Harel Libi, settler activist Daniella Weiss, and the Coco’s Farm outpost.

Netanyahu cancels appointment of top civil service role after AG’s opposition

Eden Bar Tal, then director general of the Communications Ministry, at the Finance Committee of the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on Oct 12, 2009. (Kobi Gideon / FLASH90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has canceled the appointment of Eden Bar Tal as interim Civil Service commissioner, following the Attorney General Office’s opposition to the appointment and Bar Tal’s subsequent request that it be annulled.

Writing to Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs lambastes the Attorney General’s Office, accuses it of “conquering” the Civil Service Commission, and of serially thwarting the government’s efforts to fill the position of commissioner.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and the government have been engaged in legal battle over filling the position, empty since December last year, with Baharav-Miara opposing the government’s proposed method for appointing a permanent commissioner, which led to a recent High Court decision siding with the attorney general.

Before that decision, Baharav Miara also opposed the appointment of a previous interim commissioner, although the High Court allowed the appointment for a short duration of time. Last week, Limon told the prime minister that he had failed to consult with the Attorney General’s Office in appointing Bar Tal, the current Foreign Ministry director general, and was obliged to do so before the appointment could take effect.

Fuchs insists in his letter to Limon that there is no such obligation, and that the insistence that such consultation take place “in the absence of any anchor in law to that effect raises legal and public astonishment.”

PM said to be discussing bringing back Doha delegation amid impasse in hostage talks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently holding a security meeting to decide whether to return the hostage and ceasefire negotiation team from Doha, where indirect talks between Israel and Hamas have been held for nearly a week, according to Hebrew media reports.

The premier reportedly instructed the Doha team last night to remain in Qatar for one more day, despite Israeli and Hamas officials claiming there is no perceived progress toward a deal.

Hostage Families Forum: Israel will be ‘a loser in every way’ if it abandons truce talks in Doha

Posters of hostages held in Gaza, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, May 19, 2025. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum says, “Israel does not have the privilege to abandon the negotiations” for a deal to release hostages held in Gaza, responding to reports that talks in Doha with Hamas are deadlocked.

“If it decides to do so, the State of Israel will leave a loser in every way: The hostages will remain in serious danger, our soldiers will pay a heavy price and Israel will sink into the Gaza quagmire while being isolated diplomatically. Maximum price, minimum achievements,” it says in a statement.

The forum says there has been a clear deal on the table for over a year, referring to an end to the war in exchange for the release of hostages, adding Israel has no more excuses to keep fighting since it has eliminated Hamas’s leadership and destroyed its military.

‘A serious mistake, delaying our victory’: Ben Gvir slams resumption of aid to Gaza

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir leads an Otzma Yehudit faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on May 12, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Far right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir slams the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza after the United Nations announces that Israel has permitted the entrance of 100 additional aid trucks into the coastal territory today.

In a statement, Ben Gvir complains that the aid is entering Gaza “while our hostages continue to be dragged through the tunnels” and states that “there is no way to guarantee [that the supplies] will not end up in the hands of Hamas murderers.”

“This is a serious mistake, which is delaying our victory. I call once again on the prime minister to explain to our friends in the White House the implications of this ‘aid,’ which only prolongs the war and delays our victory and the return of all our hostages,” he says.

Former PM Ehud Barak defends Yair Golan amid outcry over ‘killing babies’ accusation

Former prime minister Ehud Barak at an anti-government rally in Tel Aviv on May 17, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Former Labor prime minister Ehud Barak defends The Democrats chairman Yair Golan following widespread outrage over a statement he made during a radio interview on Tuesday morning, alleging that Israel was killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby.”

“Yair Golan is a brave, direct man [and] if I had to go on a raid tonight or a tough political campaign tomorrow, I would prefer him by my side over all his detractors and condemners of the last few hours,” Barak, an ex-IDF chief of staff, tweets.

“Even if it would have been better if he had chosen one or two other words, it is clear that he meant the political leadership, not the fighters,” Barak insists.

Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff and current head of The Democrats party, a merger of Labor and Meretz, said in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster that “Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was, if we don’t return to acting like a sane country.”

The political leader, who is not a current member of Knesset, added that “a sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not give itself the aim of expelling populations.”

Following a massive public backlash, Golan sought to defend himself from the criticism, praising IDF fighters as “heroes” fighting on behalf of a “corrupt” government.

“IDF fighters are heroes; government ministers are corrupt. The IDF is ethical, and the people are upright; the government is crooked. The war must be ended, the hostages returned, and Israel rehabilitated,” Golan tweeted.

Starmer says UK, French and Canadian leaders ‘horrified’ by Israel’s military escalation in Gaza: ‘We cannot allow the people of Gaza to starve’

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a reception following the UK-EU summit, in London, Monday May 19, 2025. (Hannah McKay/Pool via AP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he, along with the leaders of France and Canada, is horrified by the military escalation in Gaza, repeating calls for a ceasefire and declaring: “We cannot allow the people of Gaza to starve.”

“I want to put on record today that we’re horrified by the escalation from Israel,” Starmer tells parliament, after releasing a joint statement yesterday with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“We repeat our demand for a ceasefire as the only way to free the hostages, we repeat our opposition to settlements in the West Bank, and we repeat our demand to massively scale up humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”

He says, “The recent announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is totally and utterly inadequate,” he said.

“So we must coordinate our response, because this war has gone on for far too long. We cannot allow the people of Gaza to starve.”

Starmer says Foreign Minister David Lammy will set out Britain’s “response in detail” later today.

IDF says strikes over past day hit more than 100 ‘terror targets’

Over 100 “terror targets” were struck by the Israeli Air Force in the Gaza Strip over the past day, the military says.

The IDF says the targets included a weapons depot, terror operatives, buildings used by terror groups — including one where the Palestinian Islamic Jihad stored weapons — and observation posts.

The military also announces that a strike on Saturday eliminated Moataz Dib, the commander of Hamas’s aerial forces in northern Gaza. The IDF says he was involved in advancing drone attacks on Israel and attempts to knock down Israeli aircraft.

יותר מ-100 מטרות הותקפו ביממה האחרונה: צה״ל ושב"כ חיסלו את מפקד המערך האווירי של חמאס בצפון הרצועה

צה״ל ושב"כ תקפו בשבוע שעבר בצפון רצועת עזה וחיסלו את מעתז דיב, מפקד המערך האווירי של חמאס בצפון הרצועה. מעתז קידם והכווין מתווי טרור לפגיעה בכלי טיס ישראליים ושיגור כלי טיס בלתי… pic.twitter.com/F2w6plhIMF

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 20, 2025

Ultra-Orthodox parties to continue to boycott Knesset votes amid ongoing IDF draft dispute

Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest the IDF draft outside the Jerusalem enlistment center, April 28, 2025. (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)

A spokesman for the United Torah Judaism party confirms that the partial legislative boycott it and fellow Haredi party Shas were engaging in will continue for a third week, and members of the two parties will oppose any coalition bills brought to the Knesset plenum tomorrow.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies have pledged to block the advancement of private member bills sponsored by their coalition partners to protest the government’s failure to advance a controversial bill regulating ultra-Orthodox IDF enlistment.

Both Shas and UTJ have been pushing for the passage of legislation enshrining military exemptions for yeshiva students and other members of the Haredi community, after the High Court ruled in June last year that the dispensation that have been in place for decades were illegal, since they were not based in law.

Their boycott caused the removal of private members bills sponsored by coalition lawmakers from the Knesset agenda for the past two Wednesdays. Tomorrow’s legislative agenda has not yet been released and it remains unclear if the coalition will again remove its bills.

Among the legislation withdrawn from consideration last Wednesday were bills that would dilute the powers of the attorney general and strip the Supreme Court president of authority to appoint judges to specific cases.

Probe said to rule out arson in massive Jerusalem-area fires

View of a massive wildfire near Latrun, outside of Jerusalem, April 30, 2025. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

A fire service investigation team privately concluded the huge fires that devastated the Jerusalem hills earlier this month were not caused by arson, but rather a flare-up from a wildfire a week prior, Ynet reports.

The Fire and Rescue Service, averse to publicly airing its investigations, refused to confirm or deny the team’s findings to the outlet.

The day the fires broke out, on Memorial Day, politicians and ministers lent credence to quickly spreading rumors that Palestinian arsonists intentionally sparked the conflagrations.

Instead, the flames were reignited from an earlier wildfire on Holocaust Remembrance Day, the team reportedly finds.

A former high-ranking fire service official explains to Ynet that “tree roots often smolder beneath the surface for weeks after a fire.” Strong winds can then “feed the fire with oxygen and reignite the ground.” He adds that firefighters should continue to inspect the area for at least two weeks after the fire to prevent the possibility of another outbreak.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed during an Independence Day speech that police had arrested 18 people on suspicion of nationalistically motivated arson. The remark surprised law enforcement, which had only made three arrests in relation to the fires.

One of the detainees, a 19-year-old from Issawiya, was arrested for rejoicing over the blazes on social media and posting calls to go out and light fires, but was not suspected of actually committing arson.

Another detainee, 63-year-old East Jerusalem resident Riyad Abu Tir, was released to house arrest days after he was apprehended.

Officers said they nabbed him with an igniter and combustible materials, sharing a photo of a lighter, cotton wool and tissues they found on his person. But Abu Tir’s lawyer argued that his client had gone to the area to smoke, adding that he also had a pipe and tobacco on him at the time of his arrest.

High Court tells government to respond to petition on allowing aid into Gaza

A truck carrying aid makes its way to the Gaza Strip from the Israeli Kerem Shalom crossing, on May 20, 2025 (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)

The High Court of Justice tells the government to respond to a petition demanding the immediate facilitation of large supplies of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, by May 27.

The Israeli human rights group Gisha and others argued in a petition filed this week that Israel’s blockade of Gaza since March 2 constitutes a violation of its obligations under Israeli and international law to enable the provision of humanitarian supplies to Gaza’s civilian population.

In response to the petition, Justice Yosef Elron asks the government to update it within a week whether “a change in factual circumstances justifies rejecting the petition.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that “a basic quantity of food” would be allowed into Gaza, and five trucks of aid were allowed to enter the territory on Monday.

In the petition filed on Sunday, the human rights groups asserted that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is the worst it has been since the beginning of the war that started with the October 7, 2023, Hamas atrocities, and pointed to a sharp increase in the cases of child malnutrition as recorded by humanitarian organizations working in Gaza between March and April.

It also pointed out that in the state’s response to a 2024 petition by Gisha on the same issue that was ultimately dismissed by the court, the government did not deny it had an obligation to provide for the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s civilian population and the court affirmed this obligation in its decision, despite its ruling against the motion.

Gisha asserted in its petition that the government’s decision to prohibit the entry of all aid into Gaza violated the orders of the International Court of Justice in the genocide case brought by South Africa.

And the organization pointed out that the Israeli ad hoc judge on the ICJ panel, Aharon Barak voted in favor of that specific order, despite voting against most of the other court orders against Israel.

“The government’s decision [to block aid] is using a protected civilian population to exert pressure on Hamas and therefore amounts to prohibited collective punishment and even using starvation as a tool of war,” alleged Gisha in its petition.

World Jewish Congress cancels Golan talk after ‘killing babies’ comment

After Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing The Democrats party, said that Israel was killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby,” the World Jewish Congress (WJC) cancels a private talk he was scheduled to give to members of the organization.

Golan was scheduled to speak at a closed forum of WJC members on the subject of Israel-Diaspora relations this afternoon, following the closing of the organization’s three-day plenary assembly in Jerusalem, a WJC spokesperson says.

However, his appearance was canceled “in order not to lose focus on the important broad discussions that need to be had,” the spokesperson says.

Two Israelis arrested for spying for Iran, attempting to target Defense Minister Katz

Defense Minister Israel Katz at the Knesset in Jerusalem, April 24, 2025. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)

Israeli authorities announce that they have arrested two Israeli citizens suspected of conducting intelligence-gathering missions for Iran in the community of Kfar Ahim, where Defense Minister Israel Katz resides, according to a joint statement from Israel Police and the Shin Bet.

Katz, in a separate statement, thanked the security services for “foiling an Iranian plot to harm me as defense minister of the state of Israel.”

This is the third such incident of Israelis allegedly spying for Iran announced in recent days and joins a spate of similar plots uncovered over the past year.

Roy Mizrahi and Almog Atias, both 24 and residents of Nesher near Haifa, were detained in late April following a joint investigation by the Shin Bet and the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit.

Officials say Mizrahi maintained contact with Iranian operatives throughout 2025 and carried out a series of security-related tasks — some alongside Atias — with full knowledge they were acting under Iranian direction.

Among the missions detailed was the transfer of a bag, believed to contain an explosive device, from one location to another at the instruction of Iranian handlers. A phone and encrypted messaging app were also reportedly used to communicate with Tehran.

The Central District Attorney’s Office is expected to file serious indictments in the coming days.

“This case joins a series of recent incidents that point to persistent efforts by hostile terrorist and intelligence entities to recruit Israeli citizens to carry out missions intended to harm the security of the State of Israel and its citizens,” a security official says, with authorities reiterating calls for vigilance and warning of severe legal consequences for collaboration with foreign intelligence.

IDF probe finds soldier killed yesterday in Gaza was hit by friendly fire

Sgt. Yosef Yehuda Chirak (IDF)

An initial IDF investigation has found that Sgt. Yosef Yehuda Chirak, 22, who was killed in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, was hit by so-called friendly fire.

According to the probe, combat engineers operating in northern Gaza under the 401st Armored Brigade located a tunnel shaft and were working to map it out ahead of its demolition. During the operation, another company was securing the surrounding area.

Chirak, who was next to the tunnel, was hit by fire from the company securing the area, the investigation finds.

The military has presented his family with the initial findings.

Levin calls on IDF to strip Yair Golan of rank after comment on killing babies

Yair Golan, October 14, 2023. (Kan TV screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law).

Justice Minister Yariv Levin calls on the IDF to revoke The Democrats chief Yair Golan’s military rank in the wake of his comment this morning that Israel was killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby.”

“The terrible things that Yair Golan said this morning are a vile and despicable blood libel, the brainchild of the greatest haters of Israel,” Levin says in a statement calling his statement an “unprecedented low for the Labor Party.”

“This is also a testing time for the heads of the army. Anyone who spreads such a lie about IDF soldiers can no longer bear the rank of general. The revocation of the ranks is the least that can be done to erase the slander that has been cast on our loved ones who are fighting right now on the battlefield for the release of the hostages and the victory over our enemies,” Levin declares.

A former commander of the Northern Front and the Home Front and deputy IDF chief of staff, the retired major general was passed over for the position of IDF chief of staff in 2018, after a 2016 speech in which he likened contemporary trends in Israel to the “disturbing processes” that took place in Europe in the run-up to the Holocaust.

Golan entered politics in 2019 as part of the left-wing Democratic Union’s electoral slate before joining Meretz ahead of the March 2021 elections.

He subsequently won the Labor party primary and became chairman in May 2024, overseeing its merger with Meretz to become the party now known as The Democrats.

He made headlines and received accolades in 2023 when he headed to the front lines of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught on his own initiative and rescued many partygoers fleeing the massacre at the Nova rave.

Sa’ar rejects demand of France, UK, Canada to end Gaza war, says it’s part of Macron’s two-state agenda

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar attends a conference organized by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem on March 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responds to yesterday’s joint statement by the United Kingdom, France, and Canada calling on Israel to immediately halt its military campaign in Gaza and lift restrictions on the entry of aid, saying that France is exploiting the Gaza war to push its initiative of achieving a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that Israel will not let other states influence its national security policies.

“The declaration from yesterday — it is totally connected to an axis that was built previously toward what [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron planned on June,” Sa’ar says in English-language remarks while speaking at a World Jewish Congress event in Jerusalem.

Sa’ar was referring to the planned French- and Saudi-led conference at the United Nations next month to discuss recognition of a Palestinian state as a means of resolving the conflict.

“The unilateral recognition in a Palestinian state — the ongoing reality is just something to be used in order to push it,” says Sa’ar, adding that “by the way, President Macron during this war also prohibited Israel from participating in certain exhibitions in Paris — it’s sanctions, it is sanctions,” he continues.

“So what I want to tell to every country, mainly those who had a colonial past: This is a proud nation, an independent nation, fighting on its existence, and we will not get any dictates from outside with regard to our national security, this should be very understood,” concludes Sa’ar.

Asked earlier today about the joint statement’s mention of “further concrete actions” if Israel did not sufficiently address the humanitarian situation in Gaza, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that Paris backs a Dutch-led initiative to review the EU-Israel Association Agreement in response to the Gaza war, the suspension of which could greatly harm political and economic ties.

UN says it has received permission to bring 100 trucks of aid into Gaza today

Palestinians receive meals from volunteers in Deir al-Balah, in the Gaza Strip, on April 19, 2025. (Ali Hassan/Flash90)

The United Nations has received permission from Israel for about 100 more aid trucks to enter Gaza today, a spokesperson for its humanitarian office says.

“We have requested and received approval for more trucks to enter today, many more than were approved yesterday,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office tells a Geneva press briefing.

Asked to specify how many, he says “around 100.”

After an 11-week Israeli blockade, Israel cleared nine aid trucks on Monday to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, although Laerke said just five of those entered Gaza.

“The next step is to collect them, and then they will be distributed through the existing system, the one that has proven itself,” says Laerke, adding that those trucks contained baby food and nutritional products for children.

IDF chief slams Golan comments, says they ‘cast doubt on the ethical integrity’ of military

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir (left) and Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor in the northern Gaza Strip on May 18, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir “strongly condemns any statement that casts doubt on the ethical integrity of IDF operations and the morality of its soldiers,” after Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing The Democrats party, said Israel was killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby.”

“The IDF and its soldiers operate against our enemies with loyalty to the values of the IDF, the law, and international law, while uncompromisingly safeguarding the security of the State of Israel and its citizens,” the military says in a statement.

“IDF soldiers operate, and will continue to operate, day and night, on all fronts, with determination and morality, as they always have,” the IDF adds.

UN official says 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in next 48 hours if aid does not reach them

A truck carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip enters to Kerem Shalom Crossing in southern Israel, Tuesday May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Clarification: The UN claim that 14,000 Gazan babies could die within 48 hours has turned out to be false and based on an incorrect interpretation of a report issued by the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

A top UN official says that some 14,000 babies in Gaza could die in the next 48 hours if aid does not reach them in time.

“There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them,” Tom Fletcher, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, tells the BBC Radio 4’s “Today” show. “I want to save as many as these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours.”

He stresses that “we need to flood the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid.”

When the “Today” program’s Anna Foster says that 14,000 figure is “an extraordinary figure,” Fletcher replies that is is an “utterly chilling” figure.

Asked how the UN arrived at these figures Fletcher responds, “We have strong teams on the ground – and of course many of them have been killed.”

However, he says “we still have lots of people on the ground — they’re at the medical centers, they’re at the schools… trying to assess needs.”

“But this is what we do, we keep going. It will be frustrating, we will be impeded and run huge risks. But I don’t see a better idea than getting that baby food in,” he says.

There was no immediate comment on his claims from the Israeli government or military.

Israel yesterday resumed sending aid into Gaza with five trucks of humanitarian aid going in, marking the first such delivery since March 2, when Israel barred goods from entering the territory.

The shipment included flour, baby food, and medical supplies.

Aid has been blocked from Gaza, with Israel arguing that sufficient humanitarian assistance entered the Strip during a six-week ceasefire early this year and that Hamas has been stealing much of that aid, with the blockade necessary to pressure the terror group to release dozens of hostages it is holding. In recent weeks, though, some officials in the IDF have begun warning the political leadership that the enclave was on the brink of starvation.

Lufthansa extends suspension of flights to Israel until June 8

A Lufthansa Airbus A380 lands in Frankfurt, Germany, February 14, 2019. (AP/Michael Probst)

The Lufthansa group of carriers continues to extend the suspension of flight services to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport until June.

The Lufthansa group – whose carriers also include SWISS, Austrian Airlines, and Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings – says that “due to the current situation” in Israel it has decided to further extend flight suspensions to and from Tel Aviv through June 8, from the previously announced date of May 25.

On May 4, the group of carriers joined a list of foreign airlines canceling flight services to Israel, after a ballistic missile from Yemen struck an area of Israel’s main international airport.

French FM: Paris may reconsider Israel-EU trade pact in response to Gaza war

France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot looks on during an informal meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) foreign ministers ahead of potential peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, in Antalya, Turkey, on May 15, 2025. (Ozan KOSE / AFP)

After the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada threatened in a joint statement yesterday to take action against Israel if it refuses to halt its military campaign in the Gaza Strip and lift restrictions on the entry of aid, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says that these actions could include a review of the European Union-Israel Association Agreement.

Asked on French public radio about the joint statement’s mention of “further concrete actions” if Israel did not sufficiently address the humanitarian situation in the Strip, Barrot says that France backs a Dutch-led initiative to review the EU-Israel pact in response to the Gaza war, which could affect political and economic ties.

The comment comes during a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels today, where the Association Agreement — which governs the ties between Israel and the EU, its largest trade partner — is expected to be formally discussed by EU foreign ministers.

In response to Israel’s conduct in Gaza, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp has led an initiative demanding a review of the pact, which dictates that cooperation between the EU and Israel “shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles.”

“The situation is unbearable because the blind violence and the blocking of humanitarian aid by the Israeli government have turned Gaza into a dying ground — if not a cemetery,” Barrot tells France Inter radio, calling Israel’s military campaign “a total violation of all rules of international law, and contrary to the security of Israel — to which France is committed — because those who sow violence reap violence.”

“Indeed, it’s been nearly three months that the Israeli army had been blocking access to all humanitarian aid, and it has now decided to slightly open the door, notably for reasons of domestic politics,” continues Barrot, saying Israel’s limited allowance of aid into Gaza yesterday is insufficient, “and it already was, even before the blockade.”

Israel began halting the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip in March, saying Hamas was stealing the supplies to replenish itself, and as part of a military pressure campaign to return hostages held by the terror group.

Yesterday, under intense pressure from the United States and widespread international outrage, Israel authorized a limited passage of aid trucks into the enclave.

IDF says 162nd Division has returned to fighting in Gaza

Troops of the 162nd Division operate in northern Gaza, in a handout photo published on May 20, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF’s 162nd Division has returned to operating in the Gaza Strip, the military announces.

The division is currently fighting in the Strip’s north, with the 401st Armored Brigade and Givati Infantry Brigade — comprising several thousand soldiers.

In February, the 162nd Division was withdrawn from Gaza after 15 months of continuous operations.

In the latest Gaza offensive, the IDF says the 401st Brigade has so far located and demolished buildings used by Hamas, killed dozens of terror operatives, and found a tunnel next to a building containing weapons.

Givati troops are operating in northern Gaza’s Tal al-Zaatar, where the military says in the past day they found and demolished buildings used by terror groups and killed dozens more operatives, including by directing airstrikes.

The division’s 215th Artillery Regiment, meanwhile, struck over 30 sites in the area, including weapon depots, booby-trapped buildings, and observation posts, the IDF adds.

Knesset committee extends government authority to issue emergency reservist call-up orders

Reservists of the Jerusalem Brigade operate in the northern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued by the IDF on May 15, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee votes 8-7 to approve a government-backed measure to extend the government’s ability to issue emergency call-up orders for IDF reservists

Earlier this week, a previous effort stalled due to internal coalition resistance.

The measure will be extended to May 29 before needing to be renewed again.

After the measure initially fell in the committee vote last week, it was voted on for a second time and passed, but with the extension was limited to just seven days — forcing another vote on Sunday that failed due to opposition by Likud MK Amit Halevi.

Halevi was then removed from the committee and replaced by coalition whip and fellow Likud MK Ofir Katz, paving the way for the motion’s passage on Tuesday.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid condemns the passage of the measure, stating that the government was increasing the burden on reservists “with the votes of the ultra-Orthodox parties.”

“The people who are doing everything to encourage evasion [of military service by the ultra-Orhodox] are increasing the burden on people who have done 400 and 500 days of reserve service. IDF fighters should know that we will continue to oppose this move every time it comes to a vote,” he declares.

Envelope with suspicious powder sent to Health Minister Busso’s Knesset office

Health Minister Uriel Busso attends a Health Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on March 24, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Knesset guards are examining an envelope “containing a suspicious powder” that was sent to Health Minister Uriel Busso’s Knesset office, a Knesset spokesman announced.

“In accordance with the Knesset guard’s procedures for events such as these, an update has been forwarded to the Israel Police and the envelope and the suspicious material inside will be forwarded for further examination by the authorized authorities,” the statement reads.

This is the second time in under a year that Busso’s office has been targeted in this manner. In June 2024, the Knesset Guard evacuated the Shas politician from his office after he opened an envelope that contained suspicious powder.

Last month, Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman Simcha Rothman also said he had received a “suspicious envelope” and accused the Shin Bet security service of falling down on the job.

Also last month, police announced that they were investigating several threatening letters that had been sent to elected officials and their families. According to Channel 12, these included Likud MK Shalom Danino and United Torah Judaism lawmaker Moshe Roth.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei doubts success of nuclear talks with US

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with teachers, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei voices doubts over whether nuclear talks with the United States will lead to an agreement, Mehr news reports, as Tehran reviews a proposal to hold a fifth round of negotiations.

“I don’t think nuclear talks with the US will bring results. I don’t know,” Khamenei says during a speech in remembrance of Iran’s late president Ebrahim Raisi.

IDF participating in US-led ‘African Lion’ military drills in Morocco

The Israeli military is participating in a major American-led military drill in Morocco and nearby African nations.

The US Africa Command says its joint annual drill with Morocco — dubbed “African Lion” — involves some 10,000 servicemembers from over 40 countries, and is running between April 14 through May 23.

Israeli troops are only participating in the drill in Morocco, though parts of the exercise are also held in Ghana, Senegal, and Tunisia, the latter of which does not have any diplomatic ties with Israel.

It is not the first time that the IDF is taking part in the African Lion drill.

Last week, during the exercise, two soldiers of the military’s parachuting school were moderately wounded in a car crash, the IDF says.

The IDF does not confirm which other units are taking part, but a photo circulated online yesterday shows that members of the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit were at the drill.

لسنا في وارد التدخل في شؤون المملكة المغربية أو قراراتها السيادية — فهذا حقها الأصيل، ولا جدال فيه.

لكن هنا، ينفجر القلب قهرًا، وتصرخ الروح وجعًا.
أيُعقَل هذا؟!

سرية الاستطلاع في جولاني — الوحدة ذاتها التي ارتكبت قبل شهرين فقط في رفح أكبر مجزرة منذ عقود طويلة بحق 15 مسعفًا،… pic.twitter.com/uwvpP42jEg

— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) May 19, 2025

Qatar says Israel’s offensive in Gaza ‘undermining any chance at peace’

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani speaks at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on May 20, 2025. (Photo by Karim JAAFAR / AFP)

Qatar’s prime minister says Israel’s renewed military offensive in Gaza has undermined peace efforts after the release of US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander.

“When Israeli American soldier Edan Alexander was released, we thought that moment would open a door to end this tragedy, but the response was a more violent wave of strikes,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani says at the Qatar Economic Forum.

“This irresponsible, aggressive behavior undermines any potential chance for peace,” he says. Qatar is hosting and mediating talks for a hostage-ceasefire deal.

Iran reviewing proposal for 5th round of nuclear talks

Left: US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Paris, France, April 17, 2025. (Ludovic Marin, Pool Photo via AP); Right: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Moscow, Russia, April 18, 2025. (Tatyana Makeyeva/Pool Photo via AP)

Iran received and is reviewing a proposal for a fifth round of nuclear talks with the United States, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi says, according to Nournews, days after US President Donald Trump said Tehran needed to move quickly with negotiations.

Bank Leumi reports profits up 12% for first 3 months of year

A Bank Leumi in Jerusalem, November 16, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Bank Leumi, one of Israel’s two largest lenders, saw its profit leap almost 12 percent in the first three months of the year as it cashed in on high interest rates paid by mortgage and loan holders.

The profits come while the cost of living continues to rise and households are struggling to make ends meet during the challenging war period.

Leumi’s net income in the January to March quarter rose to NIS 2.40 billion ($646 million), from NIS 2.15 billion ($565 million) in the corresponding period last year.

Net interest income jumped 6.6% in the reported quarter of the year to NIS 4.02 billion ($1.14 billion) from about NIS 3.77 billion ($1.07 billion) during the same period in 2024. Fee income generated NIS 1.02 billion ($290 million) in the first quarter, an increase of 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year.

Net credit to the public amounted to NIS 462.8 billion ($124.5 billion) as of March 31, up 8% from the NIS 428.6 billion ($115.3 billion) recorded a year ago.

Housing loans or mortgages rose 10.4% to NIS 148.3 billion ($39.9 billion) at the end of March, from NIS 134.3 billion ($36.1 billion) year-on-year. Credit to retail customers was up 3.4% in the first quarter and totaled NIS 30.4 billion ($8.2 billion), compared to NIS 29.4 billion ($7.9 billion) a year ago.

Hezbollah operative said killed in apparent Israeli strike in southern Lebanon

The Saudi Al-Arabiya channel reports that a Hezbollah operative was killed in an Israeli strike in the Tyre area of southern Lebanon.

Earlier, Lebanese media reported that Israel had targeted a motorcycle in the area and that one person was killed.

The IDF has yet to issue a response.

عاجل| مصادر لبنانية: شهيد جراء قصف طيران الاحتلال المسير لدراجة نارية في بلدة المنصوري جنوب لبنان. pic.twitter.com/ayGYLOaFpz

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) May 20, 2025

Golan says baby killer comments aimed at government, not hero IDF soldiers

Leader of the Democrats party Yair Golan leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on May 19, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Defending himself from widespread criticism over his comment that Israel was killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby,” The Democrats chairman Yair Golan praises IDF fighters as “heroes” fighting on behalf of a “corrupt” government.

“We have already tried Gantz’s method of flattering Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben Gvir and it failed,” Golan tweets, following a torrent of condemnations from both the coalition and his fellow opposition party leaders.

National Unity chairman Benny Gantz — who following October 7 joined the coalition to serve in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet before resigning and rejoining the opposition — called on Golan “to retract and apologize” to the troops on Tuesday morning.

“The meaning of my words was clear: This war is the realization of the fantasies of Ben Gvir and Smotrich and if we allow them to put this into action, we will become a pariah state. It is time for us to have a backbone of hardened steel, we must stand up for our values ​​as a Zionist, Jewish and democratic state,” Golan argues.

“IDF fighters are heroes; government ministers are corrupt. The IDF is ethical, and the people are upright; the government is crooked. The war must be ended, the hostages returned, and Israel rehabilitated.”

Family names son of woman slain in terror attack while on way to deliver baby

Hananel Gez (right) sits during a ceremony for the naming of his infant son who was delivered by emergency C-section after his mother was shot and killed in a terror attack, May 20, 2025. (Courtesy Bruchin settlement)

The baby of Tzeela Gez, the 30-year old woman who was killed in a deadly terror attack last week, was named this morning in a special ceremony at the Gez family home in the West Bank settlement of Bruchin where Tzeela’s family is still observing the seven-day mourning period for her.

The baby boy is named Ravid Haim, a name Tzeela had chosen, a statement on behalf of the family says.

The ceremony was conducted in the presence of close family friends, the rabbi of Bruchin Meir Hilowitz, and the head of the Samaria Regional Council Yossi Dagan. Psalms were sung at the conclusion of the ceremony for Ravid Haim, and the family requested the public pray for the baby’s recovery “who is in need of much mercy from Heaven,” the statement says.

Performing the traditional Brit Milah circumcision ceremony, which is when baby boys are usually named. was not possible since Ravid Haim remains in the hospital in serious condition.

Gez was driving the hospital with her husband Hananel to give birth when she was shot by a Palestinian terrorist near the Palestinian village of Bruqin.

Gez succumbed to her wounds in hospital but the baby was delivered by emergency C-section.

Coalition, opposition politicians condemn Golan for saying Israel ‘killing children as a hobby’

Head of The Democrats party Yair Golan, head of National Unity party Benny Gantz, head of Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid and head of Yisrael Beytenu party Avigdor Liberman hold a joint press conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem, November 6, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Politicians from across the political spectrum condemn Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing The Democrats party, after he declares that Israel was killing children in Gaza “as a hobby.”

Golan apparently “took a page from the Hamas spokesman” and his own hobby “has always been spreading antisemitic blood libels against the State of Israel,” says far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

“Yair Golan is a terrorist” who is “sabotaging efforts to achieve war goals, sabotaging the safety of IDF fighters and sabotaging Israeli democracy,” says Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar slams Golan’s “blood libel against the State of Israel and its army,” asserting that it will “add fuel to the fire of antisemitism in the world.”

“Accusing our heroic fighters, who risk their lives for the country, of murdering babies is not criticism. It is a blood libel and serious incitement,” echoes Education Minister Yoav Kisch.

Golan is not an MK and does not have parliamentary immunity, he adds, calling on the attorney general “to immediately open an investigation against him for incitement.”

“Every decent, ethical and moral Zionist must renounce Golan and his actions and make it clear that there are red lines that are not crossed,” says Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, accusing him of giving Israel’s enemies “a sword to kill us.”

“Anyone who compared Israeli society in the past to the Nazi regime and is now slandering and defaming the State of Israel and the IDF in a time of war must be ostracized from public life,” says Defense Minister Israel Katz, referring to a 2016 speech in which the then-senior IDF officer likened developments being seen in Israel to what he said were similar “disturbing processes” that took place in Europe in the run-up to the Holocaust.

“He who slanders the country does not deserve it,” tweets United Torah Judaism chairman Housing Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf, while Shas leader Aryeh Deri calls on Golan’s fellow opposition party leaders to “unequivocally disavow Yair Golan and make it clear to the public that under no circumstances will they form a government with him.”

Opposition party leaders also condemn Golan.

In a statement, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says that Israel’s fighters “are heroes” and any claim that they kill babies is “a gift to our enemies.”

“I support the IDF and its fighters and condemn the statement,” he says.

National Unity chairman Benny Gantz calls on Golan “to retract and apologize” to the troops for his “outrageous, false, and extreme” statement, which he says “endangers the freedom of our heroic fighters” to operate in Gaza.

“The State of Israel has waged a just war since its founding and does so according to international rules and the highest moral values. Someone like Golan, who was deputy chief of IDF staff, knows this. Come back to your senses, Yair, and apologize, it’s not too late,” Gantz tweets.

“The IDF is the most moral army in the world, and any such false statement against it harms our soldiers and the security of the state,” weighs in Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, while former prime minister Naftali Bennett declares that “the one who murders babies is Hamas and only Hamas.”

“Israel is in a difficult defensive war against an enemy that is using its own population as a human shield. Hamas’s goal is to bring about the killing of its own citizens,” tweets Bennett. “Our fighters are working and will continue to act with courage, morality, and determination to protect us.”

‘Blood libels’: Netanyahu slams Golan for saying Israel killing babies as a hobby

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the District Court in Tel Aviv on May 19, 2025. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slams the Democrat’s Yair Golan for saying Israel was killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby,” calling the statement “wild incitement” and a blood libel.”

“I vehemently condemn the wild incitement from Yair Golan against our heroic soldiers and against the State of Israel,” Netanyahu says in a statement. “The IDF is the most moral army in the world, and our soldiers are fighting in a war for our existence.”

“Golan, who encourages refusal to serve and compared Israel to Nazis while he was still in the military, has now reached a new low when he claimed Israel is ‘killing babies as a hobby,'” Netanyahu says.

“At a time when we are fighting a multifront war and leading complicated diplomatic efforts to free our hostages and defeat Hamas, Golan and his friends in the radical left are trumpeting the most despicable antisemitic blood libels against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel,” Netanyahu says. “There is no limit to the moral decay.”

Gaza medics say at least 44 killed in Israeli strikes overnight

A boy gestures as he stands near the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on May 20, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 44 people overnight.

“Civil defense teams have transferred (to hospitals) at least 44 dead, mostly children and women, as well as dozens of wounded” across Gaza since 1 a.m., agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal tells AFP.

Bassal says eight were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City and 12 in a strike on a house in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

Another 15 were killed in a strike on a gas station near the Nuseirat refugee camp and nine in a strike on a house in the Jabalia refugee camp.

There was no immediate comment on the strikes from the Israeli military and the figures, which do not differentiate between civilians and gunmen, could not be verified.

Israel says it takes steps to minimize civilian casualties and blames Hamas which is deeply embedded in civilian infrastructure, operating out of camps, hospitals and schools

British doctor in Gaza says children dying due to lack of basic medical aid

A British surgeon in the Gaza Strip says that children are dying of easily treatable issues due to a lack of medical aid going into the Strip.

“We are losing children left, right, and center, these are avoidable deaths,” Dr. Victoria Rose, who is volunteering at the  Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, tells the UK’s Channel 4.

“I lost a four-year-old two nights ago from overwhelming sepsis that in the UK would not have happened because I would have had the facilities to run basic tests like a full blood count and a renal function,” she says. “I don’t have any of that. Our blood bank has been absolutely destroyed.”

“These are all things that could be treated, we need the aid,” says Rose. “Irrespective of what’s going on in the Strip with regard to, you know, the politics, it’s a humanitarian issue and we need to give these people food and medical aid.”

https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1924544454653853741

Five aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday for the first time since March 1, when Israel halted the assistance to pressure Hamas to release dozens of hostages it is holding.

Israel argued that a sufficient amount of goods had entered the Strip during a six-week ceasefire and that Hamas has been stealing much of that aid. In recent weeks, though, some officials in the IDF have begun warning the political leadership that the enclave was on the brink of starvation.

Delta to resume Tel Aviv-New York flights starting today

Illustrative: A Delta Air Lines plane lands at Logan International Airport, Jan. 26, 2023, in Boston (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Delta Air Lines says it will resume daily nonstop flights to Tel Aviv from New York’s JFK airport starting today.

“The decision to resume the route on May 20, which was temporarily suspended in response to ongoing conflict in the region, follows an extensive security risk assessment by the airline,” Delta says in a statement. “Delta is continuously monitoring the evolving security environment and assessing operations based on security guidance and intelligence reports.”

The US carrier says a travel waiver will be valid for customers who purchased tickets to Tel Aviv on or before May 5 for travel through May 25.

On May 4, Delta halted all flights to Tel Aviv after a ballistic missile from Yemen struck an area of Israel’s main international airport.

Golan: Israel becoming a pariah state, is ‘killing babies as a hobby’

Leader of The Democrats party Yair Golan heads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, May 19, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Yair Golan, head of the opposition Democrats, issues a scathing denunciation of the government and the war in Gaza, saying that Israel is killing children in Gaza “as a hobby.”

“Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was, if we don’t return to acting like a sane country,” the left-wing leader, a former IDF deputy chief of staff, says in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster.

“And a sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not give itself the aim of expelling populations,” he says.

“This government is full of vengeful types with no morals and no ability to run a country in a time of crisis. This endangers our existence,” Golan says.

US terminates $60 million in Harvard grants over alleged antisemitism

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters gather at Harvard University to show their support for Palestinians in Gaza at a rally in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14, 2023, a week after Hamas terrorists launched a massacre in southern Israel. (Joseph Prezioso / AFP)

The US Department of Health and Human Services says that it was terminating $60 million in federal grants to Harvard University saying the Ivy League institution failed to address antisemitic harassment and ethnic discrimination on campus.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has frozen or ended federal grants and contracts for the university worth nearly $3 billion in recent weeks.

Since taking office in January, the Republican president has sought to use federal research funding to overhaul US academia, which he says has been gripped by anti-American, Marxist and “radical left” ideologies.

The administration has accused Harvard of continuing to consider ethnicity when reviewing student applications and of allowing discrimination against Jews as a result of the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled American campuses last year.

New York’s Columbia University has also been targeted over antisemitism.

“Due to Harvard University’s continued failure to address antisemitic harassment and race discrimination, HHS is terminating multiple multi-year grant awards … over their full duration,” the health department says in a post on X.

Harvard University did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based institution has previously said that it “cannot absorb the entire cost” of the frozen grants, and that it was working with researchers to help them find alternative funding. It is also suing the Trump administration over its decision to cut grants.

Earlier this month, the university settled a high-profile lawsuit by an Orthodox Jewish student who said Harvard was ignoring antisemitism on campus.

The settlement came four months after Harvard promised additional protections for Jewish students, as it resolved two lawsuits claiming it was a hotbed of antisemitism.

Trump in-law Charles Kushner confirmed as US ambassador to France

Charles Kushner arrives for the funeral of Ivana Trump, July 20, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

The US Senate approves the nomination of Charles Kushner, the father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, as the next US ambassador to France.

The vote was 51 to 45.

Kushner, a real estate executive and former attorney who spent time in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2004 to tax evasion, among other crimes, was pardoned by Trump in 2020 near the end of his first term.

Kushner’s son Jared Kushner, who married Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka in 2009, also served as the president’s advisor during his first term, notably on conflict in the Middle East.

The elder Kushner, 71, heads to Paris at an interesting time in US-France relations, as the historic allies — and Europe in general — are strained by the US president’s trade policies.

Kushner “is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests,” Trump said on his Truth Social website when announcing his nomination of Kushner for the post.

In addition to his role in Paris, Kushner will serve as US ambassador to Monaco.

IDF says it foiled another attempt to smuggle weapons into Israel from Egypt using a drone

The IDF says it foiled yet another attempt to smuggle weapons into Israel from Egypt using a drone last night.

The drone had been identified crossing the border from Egypt into Israel before it was downed by troops deployed to the area.

The drone was found to be ferrying 19 handguns and three machine guns. The contraband and drone were handed over to the police.

In recent months, there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons and drugs over the Egypt border using drones. There have also been attempts to smuggle similar contraband from Israel into Gaza using drones.

כוחות צה”ל סיכלו ניסיון הברחת אמצעי לחימה ממצרים לישראל

אמש, תצפיות צה”ל במרחב חטיבת פארן זיהו רחפן שחצה משטח מצרים לשטח ישראל בניסיון להבריח אמצעי לחימה.

הרחפן הופל ע”י כוח צה”ל, ובסריקות שביצעו לוחמי צה״ל אותר הרחפן שנשא 19 אקדחים, שלושה מקלעים ותחמושת.

אמצעי הלחימה הועברו… pic.twitter.com/aC5qk0exGV

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 20, 2025

Former hostage throws out first pitch at Fenway as Red Sox host Jewish Heritage Night

Former hostage Omer Shem Tov throws out the first pitch as the Boston Red Sox mark Jewish Heritage Night at Fenway Park on May 19, 2025. (Screen capture/X)

Former hostage Omer Shem Tov threw out the first pitch as the Boston Red Sox marked Jewish Heritage Night at Fenway Park this evening.

Shem Tov wore a Red Sox jersey with his name on the back and a yellow hostage ribbon on the front along with sneakers inscribed with the phase “Bring them home.”

Omer Shem Tov, who was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and survived 505 days in captivity, throws out the first pitch at Fenway Park on Jewish Heritage Night🎗️ pic.twitter.com/Dlam3pJzSr

— Gabrielle Starr (@gfstarr1) May 19, 2025

PM said to order Israeli hostage negotiators remain in Doha despite impasse

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israel’s negotiation team to remain in Doha for at least another day, despite the impasse in hostage talks, Hebrew media reports.

“We’re staying in order not to offend the United States. It won’t look good if Israel leaves Doha before Hamas,” an Israeli official tells the Kan public broadcaster.

Channel 13 cites an unnamed official who says Netanyahu made the decision in order to try and demonstrate that Israel is not the obstacle in the talks.

Report: Social Equality Ministry ordered municipalities to remove its logo from LGBTQ programming

Social Equality Minister May Golan at the (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Social Equality Ministry headed by far-right Likud MK May Golan sent a directive to local municipalities ordering them to remove the office’s logo from any LGBTQ programming, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

Kan publishes screenshots of the directive sent by a representative from Golan’s office in a WhatsApp group with municipal officials.

Responding to the report, Golan claims the directive was sent by a junior employee acting on his own volition in order to stir controversy.

But Kan says that the directive was sent out by multiple officials from Golan’s ministry who told municipal representatives that they were following orders from above.

Golan is also currently holding up funding for the LGBTQ community in what could cost dozens of municipal officials tasked with assisting the community their jobs.

Boehler defends past talks with Hamas, says US could deal with terror group again

US President Donald Trump's special envoy on hostages Adam Boehler, center, visits Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, May 13, 2025. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

US hostage envoy Adam Boehler defends his past talks with Hamas, denies any tensions between the Trump administration and Israel, and says the odds of a hostage deal have increased.

Speaking at the annual Jerusalem Post Conference in Manhattan, Boehler says that, as a hostage envoy, his job entails “engaging with people who are in general not good people.”

“Engagement is not weakness. It does not mean you accept something or you let people off the hook,” Boehler says. “There was some interest there and we thought we would see if we can speed things up. In that particular case, it didn’t work. We walked away.”

He indicates the US could hold further talks with the terror group.

“It’s getting closer and closer to being the right time to make a deal,” he says. “If Hamas wants to come forward and make a very legitimate offer that they’re willing to stand by and release hostages, we’re always willing to listen to that.”

Boehler says he cannot comment on the current status of negotiations, but says that, in general, “We’re closer than we ever were, and part of that is because of movement that the IDF and Israel did on the ground.”

Boehler stresses that “the main force holding back a deal is Hamas,” and that the terms for the deal have become “tighter and tighter because they need to understand the longer they wait, there’s a cost.”

Asked if he is optimistic about a deal, Boehler says, “I think that as time goes on, we have increased in strength… I think the odds go up.”

He says that President Donald Trump did not intend to snub Israel by not visiting during his recent Middle East tour, and denies there are tensions between Washington and Jerusalem.

“Every foreign visit obviously is not a referendum on a particular country,” he says, noting that Trump hosted Netanyahu twice in Washington. “I don’t think the support’s ever wavered.”

Asked about the UK, France and Canada’s statement threatening “concrete actions” against Israel over its conduct in Gaza, Boehler responds, “If I were a European country, I would be particularly sensitive to how I criticize Israel.”

‘Joe is a fighter’: Netanyahu tweets support for Biden amid cancer diagnosis

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweets his support for former US president Joe Biden who revealed yesterday that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

Sara and my hearts and hopes are with Joe and Jill Biden. I have known Joe for 45 years. One thing is for sure, Joe is a fighter and a survivor.

The people of Israel and I wish @JoeBiden a full and speedy recovery.

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 19, 2025