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The Times of Israel liveblogged Saturday’s events as they happened.
All IDF standing infantry and armored brigades in Gaza as it prepares to ramp up combat
IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip, in an image released on May 24, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
As a new week dawns, the IDF has said that all of its standing army infantry and armored brigades are now deployed to the Gaza Strip, as Israel prepares to further intensify its offensive against Hamas.
In addition to the Golani, Paratroopers, Givati, Commando, Kfir, Nahal, 7th, 188th, and 401st brigades, a small number of reserve units are also in the Strip.
The IDF had previously announced that five divisions were operating in Gaza, amounting to tens of thousands of troops.
Israeli officials have warned that as long as Hamas refuses to agree to a hostage deal, the IDF will ramp up its offensive against the terror group.
Mia Schem wears hostages pin on Cannes red carpet as she comes to raise awareness
Freed hostage Mia Schem walked the red carpet at the closing ceremony of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on Saturday night, where she wore a yellow hostages pin.
Schem was invited to the event by the Jewish community of Cannes to raise awareness of the plight of the hostages still held in Gaza. While there, she also spoke before the Nice city council.
At the ceremony, Schem says she was prevented by security from wearing a ribbon with the message “Bring Them Home Now.”
“I came to support the struggle to bring back the hostages. Unfortunately, at the entrance to the red carpet, the festival organizers confiscated the ribbon I was supposed to wear. I refused to concede. I took a yellow hostage pin from one of the delegation members and wore it on my dress,” she says.
Mia Schem, ex-otage du Hamas, kidnappée le 7 octobre 2023 pendant le festival Nova (libérée le 30 novembre 2023, après 54 jours de captivité) était présente pour le dernier tapis rouge de cette 78e édition du Festival de Cannes.
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Mia Schem, former Hamas hostage, kidnapped on… pic.twitter.com/FZcP6rP9rD
— TOUS 7 Octobre????️ (@tous7octobre) May 24, 2025
Malaysia slams world’s ‘double standards’ on Gaza
Malaysia’s foreign minister condemns “atrocities” in Gaza, saying they reflect “indifference and double standards” on the plight of the Palestinian people.
“They are a direct result of the erosion of the sanctity of international law,” Mohamad Hasan tells his counterparts from the regional ASEAN bloc.
After controversy, Yair Golan says ‘of course Israel doesn’t’ kill Gaza 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)
Democrats party chairman Yair Golan has further walked back comments in which he appeared to accuse Israel of killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby,” saying he did not, in fact, believe Israel had done so, but rather was expressing his fear that extremist politicians in the government sought to.
During a Channel 12 interview, Golan was asked whether he believed Israel has killed any babies in Gaza for sport, and replied, “Of course not.”
“I wasn’t speaking about the military at all. I didn’t say that,” Golan said.
He held up a paper with quotes by far-right ministers and politicians who had called at various points to “destroy” and “erase” Gaza.
“I said something simple: that it’s unacceptable that we’re resuming fighting in Gaza, and that the political goals set for the IDF, which unfortunately are not goals connected to Israel’s national security at all… are shaped by people with such a worldview.”
In the Tuesday interview that caused a political firestorm, the retired general told Kan 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. 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.”
During his Channel 12 interview, Golan was asked about comments he himself made in October 2023, days after the October 7 attack, when he suggested that all aid to Gaza must be cut off. “We need to tell them, listen, until these [hostages] are released, as far as we care you can starve to death — it’s completely legitimate,” Golan said then.
Confronted with that quote, Golan asserted on Saturday he had not called to starve Gazans but rather to pressure Hamas.
“What may have been the right move on October 13th… as an opening act for war, is not the right move after 20 months of fighting,” he said.
Syria reboots interior ministry as Damascus seeks to reassure West
People walk past a billboard displaying portraits of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US President Donald Trump with a slogan thanking Saudi Arabia and the United States, in Damascus on May 14, 2025 (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
Syrian authorities announced yesterday an interior ministry restructuring that includes fighting cross-border drug and people smuggling, as they seek to improve ties with Western nations that have lifted sanctions.
Keen to reboot and rebuild nearly 14 years after a devastating civil war broke out, the new authorities in Damascus have hailed Washington’s lifting of US sanctions.
The move was formalized Friday after being announced by President Donald Trump on a Gulf tour this month during which he shook hands with Syria’s jihadist-turned-interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Spokesman Noureddine al-Baba said the interior ministry restructure included reforms and creating “a modern civil security institution that adopts transparency and respects international human rights standards.”
It includes setting up a citizens’ complaints department and incorporating the police and General Security agency into an Internal Security command, he told a press conference.
A border security body for Syria’s land and sea frontiers will be tasked with “combating illegal activities, particularly drug and human smuggling networks,” Baba said.
The restructure includes “strengthening the role of the anti-drug department and further developing its importance within Syria and abroad” after the country became a major exporter of illicit stimulant captagon, he added.
Russia says anti-air units intercept 95 Ukrainian drones, 6 of them headed for Moscow
Russia’s Defense Ministry says its air defense units intercepted and destroyed 95 Ukrainian drones over Russia, mostly central and southern regions, but also around Moscow, over a four-hour period.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin writes on the Telegram messaging app that six drones were destroyed while heading towards the capital.
Death toll in US strikes on al-Qaeda members in Yemen rises to 9
The number of al-Qaeda members killed in strikes on southern Yemen blamed on the United States has increased to nine, a Yemeni security source tells AFP.
The official in Abyan province, which borders the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognized government in Aden, says the strikes killed nine members of the group, including a local leader.
The security official, who earlier said the attack had taken place on Friday evening in north Khabar Al-Maraqsha, adds that the strikes hit several locations in the mountainous area known to be used by Al-Qaeda.
“I saw five charred bodies at one of the targeted sites, as well as a burned-out car,” a local tribesman tells AFP, adding others killed in the strikes were at another location.
Earlier, a second security official, who confirmed an initial toll of five al-Qaeda members killed in the attack, also said that while the names of those killed were unknown, it was believed one of the group’s local leaders was among the dead.
Lebanon army says receives suspect in Christian party official’s killing
Lebanon’s army says it has taken into custody a suspect in last year’s killing of a Christian political official, with help from Syria’s new authorities, in a case that sparked public outrage.
Pascal Sleiman, a coordinator in the Byblos (Jbeil) area north of Beirut for the Lebanese Forces (LF) Christian party, was abducted and killed in April 2024. The army had said he was killed in a carjacking by Syrian gang members who then took his body across the border.
The army received “one of the main individuals involved in the crime of kidnapping and killing” Sleiman after coordinating with Syrian authorities, a military statement says.
The suspect “heads a gang involved in kidnapping, robbery and forgery and has a large number of arrest warrants against him,” the statement says, adding that investigations are underway.
Sleiman’s LF party opposed Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in December, as well as its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
Beirut and Damascus have been seeking to improve ties since the overthrow of Assad, whose family dynasty for decades exercised control over Lebanese affairs.
Ex-hostage Agam Berger to French FM: ‘Diplomatic solutions’ won’t resolve Hamas conflict
Former hostage Agam Berger told French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot that “diplomatic solutions” to ending Israel’s war with Hamas will not work, in a meeting with the top French diplomat in Paris on Friday.
“They don’t want ‘together.’ All these diplomatic solutions, I don’t know how to call them, it’s not going to work because it’s us or them,” Berger says in Hebrew during the meeting, seeming to reference the Hamas terror group in a clip shared by the Kan public broadcaster.
שורדת השבי אגם ברגר לשר החוץ של צרפת בארו: "ברגע שיש מלחמת קיום על הארץ שלנו, זה מה שנעשה. הם לא רוצים 'ביחד'. פתרונות דיפלומטיים לא יעבדו כי זה או אנחנו או הם" • בארו: "יש לשחרר את כל החטופים. עכשיו. על חמאס להתפרק מנשקו ולא להיות כלול בעתיד הפוליטי של עזה"@ishayb2003 pic.twitter.com/Xb7i96r65W
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 24, 2025
“If it were possible not to choose war, we wouldn’t choose it. But the moment there is a war for the existence of our land — that’s what we’re going to do,” she says.
Following the meeting, Barrot writes that he met “with the families of the hostages and Agam Berger…held in captivity for 473 days in inhumane conditions,” in a French-language post on X.
https://twitter.com/jnbarrot/status/1926228324377862563?s=46
“All the hostages must be freed. Now. Hamas must be disarmed and excluded from Gaza’s political future,” he writes.
The meeting took place at the French Foreign Ministry in Paris and was attended by the families of 20 of the 58 remaining hostages.
Among those in attendance were the families of Elkana Bohbot, Bar Kuperstein, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Matan Angrest, Uriel Baruch, Yosef-Haim Ohana, Tamir Adar, Segev Kalfon, Jonathan Samerano, Idan Shtivi, and Guy Illouz, according to the French embassy in Israel.
A French readout of the meeting will be circulated at a later time, according to the French embassy.
The meeting comes amid heightened diplomatic tensions with France, which has repeatedly called on Israel to halt its military campaign in Gaza and lift restrictions on allowing humanitarian aid into the enclave.
France is also co-hosting a conference with Saudi Arabia next month to promote the two-state solution as a means of resolving the ongoing conflict.
Tel Aviv anti-government protesters rage at PM; Silent vigil for Gaza’s slain children swells in size
Protesters demand a hostage deal and an end to the war in the Gaza Strip at a demonstration on Begin Street, Tel Aviv, May 24, 2025. (Dana Reany/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Anti-government, pro-hostage deal protesters in front of the IDF headquarters on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road start clearing off as the protest winds down following angry speeches from a former hostage and the parents of young men still held captive in the Strip.
During the protest, smokestacks were lit and chants of “Why are they still in Gaza?” could be heard, accompanied by drumming.
Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, and Yehuda Cohen, father of captive soldier Nimrod Cohen, repeat their accusations from earlier this evening that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is abandoning the hostages.
Referring to Netanyahu’s statement this week that Hamas used cheap equipment including “flip-flops amd Kalachnikovs” in the onslaught of October 7, 2023, Cohen says, incredulously, that the premier thinks “Nimrod’s tank was taken over with flip-flops.”
Zangauker says that instead of reaching a ceasefire-hostage deal, the government “will continue sending our troops to the front, to create settlements on the backs of our hostages. They’ll continue sabotaging the country and shirking responsibility.”
“In order to reach a deal that will release all the hostages, we have to kick out this government,” she says.
Matan’s partner, Ilana Gritzewsky, who was released from Hamas captivity in the weeklong November 2023 truce, also speaks, demanding an end to the war and the return of the hostages. She tells the crowd she lost 11 kilograms (24 pounds) in captivity and was treated “like chattel that can be moved from place to place.”
The Begin Road protest, which appeared to draw over 1,000 people at its peak tonight, was bolstered by protesters from the earlier anti-government demonstration on Habima Square.
Activists hold up photos of children killed during the war in Gaza, during a protest calling to end the war, in Tel Aviv, May 24, 2025. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
On Kaplan Street, in between the two protests, left-wing activists stood in silence, holding up candles and pictures of children killed by Israel in Gaza since the fighting renewed on March 18.
Most of the photos feature the name of the slain child, as well as the date and place of their death. By contrast, the entrance to Begin Road from Kaplan boasts a large protest display featuring the names of Israelis killed during the October 7 Hamas onslaught.
The silent anti-war demonstration, which positions itself outside the IDF headquarters’ south gate, was noticeably bigger this week than in past weeks, with about 400 participants standing on the sidewalk and the traffic island in the middle of the street, whereas previously, they stood only on the sidewalk.
This week’s Kaplan protest comes after The Democrats chair and former IDF deputy chief Yair Golan sparked controversy by saying Israel was “killing babies as a hobby in Gaza.”
Dissident Iranian filmmaker urges Iranians to work for ‘freedom’ as he accepts top prize at Cannes
Director Jafar Panahi, accepts the Palme d'Or for the film 'It Was Just an Accident', during the awards ceremony of the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, May 24, 2025. (Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)
Dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi urges Iranians to put their differences aside and work for “freedom” as he accepts an award for best film at the Cannes Film Festival.
“I believe this is the moment to call on all people, all Iranians, with all their differing opinions, wherever they are in the world — in Iran or abroad — to allow me to ask for one thing,” Panahi said, according to a translation.
“Let’s set aside all problems, all differences. What matters most right now is our country and the freedom of our country.”
His film “It Was Just an Accident” tells the tale of five ordinary Iranians confronted with a man they believed tortured them in jail.
Panahi, who was banned from making films in 2010 and has been imprisoned twice, argues that cinema must be a space for free expression.
“No one has the right to tell you what you should do and what you should not do,” he says, according to remarks in Persian which are translated into French at the ceremony.
He was in Cannes for the first time in 15 years, having seen a travel ban lifted on him in 2023.
“Cannes is a bigger stage and has its own qualities, but what I truly want is to sit in a cinema with ordinary people in Iran and watch this film. That’s the most important thing,” he told AFP this week.
Former hostage Naama Levy says IDF airstrikes were the thing she feared most in captivity
Released hostage Naama Levy speaks at Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, on May 24, 2025. (Alon Gilboa/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Naama Levy, one of five IDF female surveillance soldiers released in the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal back in January, tells the 1,500-odd crowd at Hostages Square that the thing she feared most in Gaza was the Israeli airstrikes.
“They come by surprise,” she says. “First you hear a whistle, pray it doesn’t fall on you, and then — the booms, a noise loud enough to paralyze you, the earth shakes.”
“I was convinced every single time that this was my end, and it’s also what put me in the most danger: one of the bombardments collapsed part of the house I was in,” she says. “The wall I was leaning on didn’t collapse, and that’s what saved me.”
“That was my reality, and now it’s their reality,” she says. “At this very moment, there are hostages who hear those same whistles and booms, shaking with fear. They have nowhere to run, just pray and cling to the wall in a horrible feeling of powerlessness.”
She says in her first few weeks in captivity, she was held alone, “just me and my captors, constantly on the run.”
“There were entire days without food and little water. One day, I had nothing left, not even water.”
“Fortunately, it started raining. My captors put a pot outside the house where I was held, and the rain filled it,” she says. “I drank that rain water, which was enough for a pot of rice. That’s what kept me going.”
She says that in captivity, she didn’t believe anyone could be aware of what the hostages were experiencing and still be willing to keep them in Gaza.
“But then the first hostages came back, and they said what was happening there,” she says. “They told the truth. That truth wasn’t enough.”
IDF says all standing army infantry, armored brigades have now been deployed to Gaza
IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip in an undated photo published on May 23, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
All of the IDF’s standing army infantry and armored brigades are now deployed to the Gaza Strip, as Israel prepares to further intensify its offensive against Hamas.
In addition to the Golani, Paratroopers, Givati, Commando, Kfir, Nahal, 7th, 188th, and 401st brigades, a small number of reserve units are also in the Strip.
The IDF had previously announced that five divisions are operating in Gaza, amounting to tens of thousands of troops.
Israeli officials have warned that as long as Hamas refuses to agree to a hostage deal, the IDF will ramp up its offensive against the terror group.
Anti-corruption watchdog chief says PM will have to recuse himself if he defies court on new Shin Bet chief pick
Anti-government protesters at Habima Square carry a banner reading, "80,00 are shirking their duty, riding on the backs of the reservists," in Tel Aviv, May 24, 2025. (OM/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Eliad Shraga, head of the Movement for Quality Government anti-corruption watchdog, tells some 1,000 anti-government protesters at Habima Square that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be forced to recuse himself if he defies the order of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, based on this week’s High Court ruling, not to appoint a new Shin Bet chief, given the premier’s conflict of interest stemming from the security agency’s probe of his top aides’ alleged criminal ties to Hamas-backer Qatar.
Despite the orders of Baharav-Miara, whom the government plans to oust, Netanyahu announced this week that he would appoint Maj. Gen. David Zini to the role of Shin Bet chief
Addressing Netanyahu, Shraga, whose movement successfully petitioned the court to pause Netanyahu’s dismissal of incumbent Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, says: “Remember, if you defy the ruling, and if you defy the orders of the attorney general, you’re on the way to recusal. You’ve been warned.”
Though Bar has announced he would resign next month anyway, the court considered the principle of his dismissal, and found it had been decided on in a flawed procedure.
Shraga calls the ruling “pivotal,” adding that “every future Shin Bet chief will sleep with it under their pillow.”
“The ruling determined that the Shin Bet head’s loyalty lies with the kingdom, not the king,” he says. Rising to a yell, he adds: “We will not allow the Shin Bet’s tools to be used against protesters” — something Bar said in an affidavit to the court that Netanyahu had pressured him to do.
IDF says it is probing drone strike that reportedly killed 9 children in Gaza
The IDF says it is investigating a drone strike it carried out last night in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis that reportedly killed nine children.
According to Palestinian media, the strike hit a home in Khan Younis, killing nine children of the same family, all under the age of 12. The father of the family and one of the children, aged 11, were seriously wounded. The mother, Alaa Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty at the time of the strike.
In response to the reports, the IDF confirms it carried out a strike in Khan Younis, saying it targeted several suspects identified at a building close to where ground troops were operating.
“The Khan Younis area is a dangerous combat zone which the IDF ordered civilians to evacuate for their safety before the start of the troops’ operation,” the military says, referring to its warning on Monday.
“The claims about harm to uninvolved [civilians] are being looked into,” the IDF adds.
Shin Bet chief nominee ‘takes the hostages less into account,’ security official tells Channel 12
Maj. Gen. David Zini meets with ultra-Orthodox conscripts during a conference at the Glilot Base near Tel Aviv, November 17, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
Channel 12 reports additional information showing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s designated Shin Bet chief prefers continued war against Hamas in Gaza over a deal to return hostages.
According to the report, Zini expressed anger at then-IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi at an IDF Southern Command meeting last year, stating: “You are preferencing the return of hostages over the elimination of Hamas.”
A security official present at IDF General Staff meetings tells Channel 12 explicitly that Zini “takes the hostages less into account,” adding that while the military carries out operations to avoid hurting hostages, for him, “it is no parameter.”
Another source says Zini’s views are known, and while he is usually the minority in the room without much influence, as chief of the Shin Bet, “this would not be the situation.
Channel 12 reported Friday night that Zini, whose appointment Netanyahu announced Thursday in defiance of the attorney general, had reportedly said to colleagues in the military: “I’m against hostage deals. This is an eternal war.” The network also reported that Netanyahu selected Zini after a brief, impromptu conversation that went behind the back of IDF chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.
US’s Syria envoy says he met with Sharaa, praises him on measures related to foreign fighters, Israel ties
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Syria says he met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and commended the leader’s steps taken regarding foreign fighters and relations with Israel.
Thomas Barrack, a special envoy to Syria and the current US ambassador to Turkey, says in a statement that the two met in Istanbul today, and that he commended Sharaa for “taking meaningful steps” on foreign fighters as well as “relations with Israel.”
Anti-government, hostage deal activists rally across the country
A gigantic flag of the “Brothers in Arms” reservist protest group is spread out at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, reading, “80,000 draft evaders on the backs of the reservists.” (Alon Banki/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Anti-government and hostage deal demonstrations begin throughout the country.
At Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, anti-government protesters hold banners demanding the release of hostages and the end to the war, and decrying the burden of the war on reservists as ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva students evade military recruitment.
Protests are also ongoing in smaller cities and intersections across the country.
Senior US official dismisses reports of breakthrough in talks to free Israeli hostage in Iraq
There is no breakthrough for a deal to free Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped two years ago in Baghdad, a senior official in the US government tells the Walla news site.
The official says that Washington will not agree to the release of an Iranian national who killed an American in Iraq in exchange for the hostage, dismissing reports in Arab media of such a deal.
Nine of doctor’s 10 children killed in latest Gaza strikes, colleagues and Hamas-run Health Ministry say
Palestinians gather to fill their containers with water in the Nuseirat camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip on May 24, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)
CAIRO, Egypt — The bodies of 79 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry says— a toll that doesn’t include hospitals in the battered north that it said are now inaccessible.
Figures provided by the ministry cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
The dead over the past day in Israel’s renewed military offensive included nine of a doctor’s 10 children, say both horrified colleagues and the Health Ministry.
Alaa Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty at the time and ran home to find her family’s house on fire, Ahmad al-Farra, head of the hospital’s pediatric department, tells The Associated Press.
Najjar’s husband was severely wounded, and their only surviving child, an 11-year-old son, was in critical condition after Friday’s strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, Farra says.
The dead children ranged in age from seven months to 12 years old. Khalil Al-Dokran, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Health Ministry, tells the AP that two of the children remained under the rubble.
The IDF says it is looking into the reports.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
Israeli envoy to US makes political comments defending Netanyahu, falsely claims PM on trial over submarine affair
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, is greeted by Israel's Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter on his arrival in Washington DC, February 3, 2025. (Yechiel Leiter/X)
Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter blasts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents in an interview with conservative non-profit PragerU.
Members of the diplomatic corps are supposed to be non-political, and his comments marked a rare instance of an Israeli politician or diplomat publicly bashing political adversaries in English, which Netanyahu has also done and been castigated for in Israel.
Leiter accuses the prime minister’s political opponents, who are accusing Netanyahu of prolonging the war in Gaza for political reasons, of “blood libel.”
“I’ve known the prime minister for 40 years. He’s a sensitive man who cares about people. What kind of insanity is that? How dare they say something as malicious as that? He wants the war to end in victory because he carries the weight of the Jewish people on his shoulders.”
Leiter also dismisses the criminal charges against Netanyahu.
“The charges are crumbling like a deck of cards. They just built these sand castles. The idea was to tire him to the point where he’d break. He’s not breaking.”
He also falsely claims that Netanyahu was in court over the so-called submarine affair corruption case, the week he was planning an operation in Lebanon. Netanyahu was questioned by police in connection with the deal, and several of his close associates were indicted for their involvement in the negotiations, but the prime minister himself was not charged and is not standing trial over the scandal.
“He was in court the week that he was planning the operation in Lebanon. Over what accusation? That we ordered submarines from Germany and why was it from Germany and not from elsewhere? And these are all trumped-up charges. It has to stop,” Leiter falsely claims.
Hostages families: Netanyahu prefers an eternal political war over the return of hostages taken on his watch
A group of hostages’ families holds a weekly press conference in Tel Aviv, blasting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for continuing the war, and expressing concern over his appointment of a Shin Bet chief who has reportedly expressed opposition to a hostage deal.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held hostage in Gaza, says of Netanyahu: “An eternal political war is preferable over the return of civilians kidnapped on his watch.
“He prefers to flatten Gaza indefinitely, even at the price of 58 Ron Arads,” she says, referring to an Israeli pilot, presumed dead, who went missing in action in 1986.
Zangauker also expresses concern over Netanyahu’s appointment of Maj. Gen. David Zini as Shin Bet chief, amid reported comments that he opposed a deal to return hostages.
Yehuda Cohen, whose son Nimrod is held in Gaza, accuses Netanyahu of evading responsibility. “How is it that after 600 days, he proposes a selective deal? This is a death sentence for whoever is left behind. I call upon President Trump — only you can stop this disaster and return everyone home.”
Gil Dickman, whose cousin was murdered in captivity, says that military pressure “killed hostages,” and urged Netanyahu, “Don’t appoint a Shin bet chief who will turn the service into a hostage-burying service. End the war — and bring everyone back now.”
Hamas struggling to pay salaries, govern Gaza, amid worst financial crisis since founding — report
A crowd greets Islamic Jihad and Hamas terror operatives as they arrive for the handover of hostages to the Red Cross in the south Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Hamas has been hit with its worst financial crisis since its founding, severely impacting salaries for government employees and military wing members in Gaza, the London-based Al Sharq Al Awsat reports, citing sources in the terror group.
Hamas sources tell the news outlet that four months ago, the terror group dispersed NIS 900 ($250) to its civil workers in Gaza, encouraging bitterness among those who cannot provide for their families.
The sources add that members of the al-Qassam brigades, its military wing, have not been paid for around three months, while families of dead members of the terror group, prisoners, and wounded did not receive their usual salaries.
The sources also say that there is an “administrative vacuum” in Gaza’s Hamas-run regime, with Israel’s continued targeting of any political figure from the terror group to carry out the work of the government.
Israel may allow UN aid groups in Gaza to stay in charge of non-food aid, letter says
A worker unloads cargo from a truck carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip at the offload area of the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
As pressure mounts to get more aid into Gaza, Israel appears to be changing tack and may let aid groups operating in the battered enclave remain in charge of non-food assistance while leaving food distribution to a newly established US-backed group, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
The development indicates Israel may be walking back from its plans to tightly control all aid to Gaza and prevent aid agencies long established in the territory from delivering it in the same way they have done in the past.
The letter, dated May 22, is from Jake Wood, the head of the Israel-approved Gaza Humanitarian Foundation or GHF, and is addressed to COGAT, the military agency in charge of transferring aid to the territory.
It says that Israel and GHF have agreed to allow non-food humanitarian aid — from medical supplies to hygiene items and shelter materials — to be handled and distributed under an existing system, which is led by the United Nations. UN agencies have so far provided the bulk of the aid for Gaza.
The foundation would still maintain control over food distribution, but there would be a period of overlap with aid groups, the letter said.
“GHF acknowledges that we do not possess the technical capacity or field infrastructure to manage such distributions independently, and we fully support the leadership of these established actors in this domain,” it says.
The foundation confirmed the authenticity of the letter but did not comment on it further.
COGAT declined to comment on the letter and referred the AP to the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which did not respond to a request for comment.
UN officials also did not reply to requests for comments.
Global outage affecting X social media site
The opening page of X is displayed on a computer and phone, October 16, 2023, in Sydney. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
Users around the world are reporting outages on the X social media site, formerly known as Twitter.
Around one-third of Syrians were wanted by Assad regime ‘for political reasons’
Bullet holes deface a mural depicting the toppled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in Adra town on the northeastern outskirts of Damascus, Syria, December 25, 2024. (Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP)
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s Interior Ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba says that more than eight million people were wanted by the intelligence and security services of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in December.
Baba tells a press conference in Damascus that “the number of people wanted by the former regime for political reasons exceeds eight million,” adding that “we are talking about around a third of the Syrian people who had records and were wanted by the repressive intelligence and security agencies of the former regime.”
5 Al-Qaeda members killed in alleged US strike in southern Yemen
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants in Yemen in 2014. (Screen capture: Wikimedia commons)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Five Al-Qaeda members have been killed in a strike blamed on the United States in southern Yemen, two Yemeni security sources tell AFP on Saturday.
“Residents of the area informed us of the US strike… five Al-Qaeda members were eliminated,” says a security source in Abyan province, which borders the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognized government in Aden.
“The US strike on Friday evening, north of Khabar Al-Maraqsha, killed five,” says a second source, referring to a mountainous area known to be used by Al-Qaeda.
The second security source adds that, though the names of those killed in the strike were not known, it was believed one of Al-Qaeda’s local leaders was among the dead.
Washington once regarded the group, known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as the militant network’s most dangerous branch.
Born in 2009 from the merger of Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni and Saudi factions, AQAP grew and developed in the chaos of Yemen’s war, which since 2015 has pitted the Iran-backed Houthi rebels against a Saudi-led coalition backing the government.
Earlier this month, the United States agreed on a ceasefire with the Houthis, who have controlled large swathes of Yemen for more than a decade, ending weeks of intense American strikes on rebel-held areas of the country.
The Houthis began firing at shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in November 2023, weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, prompting military strikes by the US and Britain beginning in January 2024.
The conflict in Yemen has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, although fighting decreased significantly after a UN-negotiated six-month truce in 2022.
Turkey’s Erdogan and Syria’s Sharaa hold meeting in Istanbul
ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was holding talks with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Istanbul on Saturday, broadcaster CNN Turk and state media say.
State broadcaster TRT Haber publishes photos of Sharaa shaking hands in Erdogan’s offices at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul. No further details are immediately available.
בינתיים באיסטנבול, נשיא טורקיה ארדואן, מארח את נשיא סוריה א-שרע יחד עם שר החוץ א-שייבאני ושר ההגנה, אבו קסרה. לא בלתי מעניין pic.twitter.com/ng08kHBWmk
— roi kais • روعي كايس • רועי קייס (@kaisos1987) May 24, 2025
Pro-Iran Iraqi militias have not yet given OK to deal to free Israeli hostage, official in contact with groups says
Pro-Iran Iraqi militias have still not given final approval for a deal to free Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped two years ago in Baghdad, an Iraqi official in contact with the groups tells the Kan public broadcaster.
The official says Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani is putting pressure on the groups to please the US government.
IDF says air force struck over 100 targets in Gaza over past day
The Israeli Air Force struck over 100 targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day, the military says.
The targets included a launcher used to fire a rocket at southern Israel yesterday afternoon. Other targets included terror operatives, buildings used by terror groups, tunnels, and other infrastructure, the IDF says.
Additionally, the military says ground forces killed several operatives and destroyed booby-trapped buildings, tunnel infrastructure, anti-tank launch posts, and other sites used by terror groups.
כוחות צה״ל בפיקוד הדרום ממשיכים לפעול בהכוונת אגף המודיעין ושב"כ נגד ארגוני הטרור ברחבי רצועת עזה.
צה"ל תקף באמצעות מטוסי קרב בצפון רצועת עזה והשמיד את המשגר ממנו נורה השיגור לעבר מרחב עוטף עזה אתמול.
במסגרת פעילות הכוחות ביממה האחרונה כחלק ממבצע "מרכבות גדעון", הכוחות חיסלו… pic.twitter.com/ZDPho1roD2
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 24, 2025
Sister of Israeli hostage in Iraq says she has no details on reported deal to release captive
Emma Tsurkov says she has no details on a reported deal to free her sister Elizabeth, who was kidnapped two years ago in Baghdad.
“We are hoping that reports are correct, but at the moment we have no details. We are waiting for official updates,” she says in a statement carried by media outlets.
Efforts to release Israeli hostage in Iraq ongoing, Israeli official says
Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian academic who was kidnapped in Iraq in March 2023, speaks in a clip aired November 13, 2023, by Iraq's Al Rabiaa satellite TV network. (Screenshot: X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Efforts to secure the release of Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian academic kidnapped nearly two years ago in Baghdad, are ongoing, an Israeli official tells the Ynet news site after an Iraqi report says she will be released in around a week.
The official says, “Israel has requested assistance from the US and additional countries” on the matter.
IDF says Palestinian attempted to stab troops in Hebron; attacker ‘neutralized’
A Palestinian attempted to stab troops at a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron a short while ago, the military says.
Troops “neutralized” the assailant, the army adds.
Deal to release Israeli hostage in Iraq to be carried out in about a week — report
Elizabeth Tsurkov in an undated photo (Social media; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
A deal for the release of Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian academic kidnapped nearly two years ago in Baghdad, will be carried out in around a week, according to the Iraqi Al Rabaa channel, aligned with pro-Iranian militias.
Tsurkov is being held in Iraq by the Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah, a group backed by Iran, according to Israeli officials.
According to the report, Tsurkov will be released in exchange for an Iranian and six other individuals held in Iraq over attacks on American targets.
Earlier, the Saudi Al Hadath TV network reported, citing Iraqi sources, that “significant efforts” were underway to secure her release.
According to that report, Baghdad and Washington had reached an understanding on the matter after an Iraqi security official visited the US recently. Tsurkov would reportedly be transferred to a “neutral country” before her full release, the report says.
AP report alleges systematic Israeli use of human shields in Gaza; military says it’s probing cases
This photo provided by Breaking the Silence, a whistleblower group of former Israeli soldiers, shows two soldiers behind Palestinian detainees being sent into a Gaza City-area house to clear it in 2024. (Breaking the Silence via AP)
Israeli soldiers are systematically using Palestinian detainees as human shields to clear buildings of bombs in Gaza, according to an Associated Press report citing testimonies of Palestinians and Israeli whistleblowers.
Dressed in army fatigues with a camera fixed to his forehead, Ayman Abu Hamadan was forced into houses in the Gaza Strip to make sure they were clear of bombs and gunmen, he tells The Associated Press. When one unit finished with him, he was passed to the next.
“They beat me and told me: ‘You have no other option; do this or we’ll kill you,'” the 36-year-old says, describing the 2 1/2 weeks he was held last summer by the Israeli military in northern Gaza.
Orders often came from the top, and at times nearly every platoon used a Palestinian to clear locations, an Israeli officer says, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Several Palestinians and soldiers tell the AP that Israeli troops are systematically forcing Palestinians to act as human shields in Gaza, sending them into buildings and tunnels to check for explosives or militants. The dangerous practice has become ubiquitous during 19 months of war, they say.
In response to these allegations, Israel’s military says it strictly prohibits using civilians as shields, a practice it has long accused Hamas of using in Gaza.
In a statement to the AP, the military says it also bans coercing civilians to participate in operations, and “all such orders are routinely emphasized to the forces.”
The military says it’s investigating several cases alleging that Palestinians were involved in missions, but wouldn’t provide details. It didn’t answer questions about the reach of the practice or any orders from commanding officers.
The AP spoke with seven Palestinians who described being used as shields in Gaza and the West Bank and with two members of Israel’s military who say they engaged in the practice, which is prohibited by international law. Rights groups are ringing the alarm, saying it’s become standard procedure increasingly used in the war.
The IDF said in March that it had launched investigations into at least six cases where troops operating in the Gaza Strip allegedly used Palestinians as human shields. It has said that such conduct is prohibited, and that this has been made clear to troops.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Israelis called from unknown numbers with recordings of hostages begging for help
People walk past posters of Israelis who have been and are still held hostage in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, May 21, 2025. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Israelis overnight say on social media that they received calls with recorded messages of hostages begging for help to be released, with sounds of sirens and explosions in the background from unknown phone numbers.
The voices of hostages were taken from Hamas propaganda videos of the captives.
In one of the reported calls, a person can be heard saying, “There are hostages in Gaza, why are you waiting?”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum says in a statement that the calls were not made on their behalf.
The National Cyber Directorate is investigating the calls, which came from numbers including 0747375311, 0799444000 and 0722604986, and advises the public to block the numbers.
It says the calls are “attempts to create panic among the public.”
Syria hails US lifting of sanctions as ‘positive step’
People walk past a billboard displaying portraits of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US President Donald Trump with a slogan thanking Saudi Arabia and the United States, in Damascus on May 14, 2025. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
Syria hails the formal lifting of sanctions by the United States as a “positive step” that will help its post-war recovery.
“The Syrian Arab Republic welcomes the decision from the American government to lift the sanctions imposed on Syria and its people for long years,” a foreign ministry statement says, adding that it was a positive step in the right direction to reduce humanitarian and economic struggles in the country.”
Saudi, Egyptian, Jordanian and French FMs meet to discuss upcoming two-state solution confab
Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt say their foreign ministers met with their French counterpart to discuss the war in Gaza and preparations for an upcoming conference on the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Kyiv mayor says 8 wounded in ‘massive’ Russian drone and missile attack
Russia attacks Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with drones and missiles, triggering fires, strewing debris in districts throughout the city and injuring at least eight people, the city’s mayor says.
Reuters witnesses see and hear successive waves of drones flying over Kyiv, and a series of explosions jolted the city.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko says two residents require hospital treatment and that air defense units are in action.
Klitschko says fragments from one drone struck the top floor of an apartment building in the Solomyanskyi district on the west bank of the Dnipro River, which bisects the city. One apartment building is on fire in the area as is one non-residential building.
Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, says a fire also broke out on two floors of an apartment building in Dniprovskyi district on the opposite bank.
Officials also report a fire in Obolon in the city’s northern suburbs and fallen debris on a shopping center in the same area. They say drone fragments hit the ground in a number of other widely separated neighborhoods.
An air alert remains in effect more than two hours after it was first declared.
The overnight strikes follow several days of Ukrainian drone attacks — some 800 attacks — on targets inside Russia, including capital Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had vowed on Friday to respond to those attacks.
After Trump announcement, Treasury Department says US formally lifting Syria sanctions
A cropped handout picture provided by the Saudi Royal Palace shows US President Donald Trump (R) shaking hands with Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) in Riyadh on May 14, 2025. (Bandar AL-JALOUD / Saudi Royal Palace / AFP)
WASHINGTON — The United States has lifted comprehensive economic sanctions on Syria, marking a dramatic policy shift following the end of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and opening the door for new investment in the war-torn country.
Syria must “continue to work towards becoming a stable country that is at peace, and today’s actions will hopefully put the country on a path to a bright, prosperous and stable future,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says in a statement.
The move formalized a decision announced by US President Donald Trump last week.
IDF says it targeted armed gunmen spotted near aid trucks in central Gaza this morning
The IDF says it targeted several armed Palestinians — some of them Hamas operatives — who were spotted next to humanitarian aid trucks in the central Gaza Strip early this morning in a drone strike.
In response to a query by The Times of Israel, the IDF says that it targeted the gunmen after identifying them near the trucks, adding “the aid was not hit as a result of the strike.”
The statement doesn’t elaborate on how the army knew that only some of the armed operatives targeted were Hamas members.
Hamas claimed that the targeted gunmen were “members of the aid security and protection teams… who were performing purely humanitarian tasks,” and that six were killed in the strike.
A military source denies Hamas’s allegation that the targets were local security, saying, “This is a false and unfounded claim.”
“This is another example of the cynical use by terror organizations in the Gaza Strip of civilians and humanitarian aid infrastructure that enters the area. The IDF will allow humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, while making every effort to ensure that the humanitarian aid does not reach terror organizations,” the IDF adds in its response.
While critics argue that armed guards are needed to secure aid to prevent looting, given the desperate need for food in Gaza, Israel in the past has targeted gunmen unless their operations are coordinated. But aid groups say that many of their requests to coordinate the transportation of trucks go unanswered by Israel.
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