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The Times of Israel liveblogged Saturday’s events as they happened.
Police filmed shoving MK trying to verify who is being arrested at Tel Aviv hostage rally
Police are filming twice shoving Labor MK Naama Lazimi as she tries to use her parliamentary immunity to verify who officers are arresting at a Tel Aviv protest calling for the release of the hostages held in Gaza.
שוטר דוחף את נעמה לזימי כשהיא מנסה לברר את זהות העצור pic.twitter.com/rUtsbiVSkx
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) May 25, 2024
Objects hurled at police in Meron as hundreds try to violate wartime Lag B’Omer stay ban
Police officers escort a Haredi man outside of the Meron compound on May 25, 2024. (Screenshot/Israel Police)
Several people in Meron hurl bottles at police officers enforcing the ban on the presence of more than 30 people at the village and compound on Lag B’Omer this year.
In addition to the bottles, at least one person points a water hose at police in a video taken outside the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a 2nd century sage whose presumed burial place is the focus of the annual pilgrimage led by tens of thousands of Jews on Lag B’Omer.
Police officers are seen escorting at least two men dressed like ultra-Orthodox Jews away from the compound.
Hundreds have ignored an Israel Defense Forces order declaring the area a closed military zone in connection with rocket fire from Hezbollah, the police say in a statement accompanying a video of the disturbances in Meron.
“Rioting began, including the hurling of objects at officers, and resisting the officers’ instructions to disperse,” the statement reads. “Reinforcement arrived and removed the rioters, who were not allowed at the compound,” adds the statement. It does not say whether police detained anyone in Meron.
Authorities this year allow a maximum of 30 people at any given time in Meron, which last year saw some 100,000 pilgrims celebrating Lag B’Omer on-site.
Shots fired at Jewish school for girls in Toronto; no injuries reported; police investigating
Police in Toronto are searching for multiple suspects after shots were fired at a Jewish elementary school early this morning, according to Canadian media reports.
CBC Canada quotes Insp. Paul Krawczyk of the guns and gangs task force as saying that the suspects had fired multiple shots at the the Bais Chaya Mushka school for girls from a vehicle.
There are no injuries reported in the apparent antisemitic attack, though the police inspector says the front of the building sustained some damage.
????????BREAKING????????
There’s been a shooting at Bais Chaya Mushka, Jewish school in Toronto for girls age 4-14.
Toronto Police are on scene.
This hate and violence has gone too far.
Who will protect Canada’s Jewish children if our government won’t? pic.twitter.com/CFoHppr7Tt
— Joe Roberts (@Joe_Roberts01) May 25, 2024
A Jewish advocacy group cited in the CBC report calls the incident “a clear, calculated and premeditated targeting of a Jewish school for girls.”
“The fact a school was targeted regardless of whether kids were present or not represents another worrying escalation in the violence Jewish Canadians have been experiencing,” the statement from the The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs reads.
Earlier this month, B’nai Brith Canada published its annual audit of antisemitic incidents, showing a dramatic rise since the October 7 massacre, in which Hamas-led terrorists brutally murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted 252 to the Gaza Strip.
Based on cases reported to B’nai Brith, including through work with police, there were 5,791 documented acts of violence, harassment and vandalism targeting Jews in 2023, more than twice the total in 2022.
CENTCOM: Houthis launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles toward Red Sea
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) says Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles toward the Red Sea early this morning.
In a post on X, CENTCOM says no injuries were reported in the attack.
The Houthis, which control the Yemeni capital Sanaa and much of the country’s Red Sea coast, have launched dozens of attacks in the area since November.
The US-designated terror group says its campaign is in solidarity with Palestinians amid the Gaza war that was sparked by Palestinian terror group Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, in which some 1,200 people were murdered in Israel and 252 were taken hostage.
IDF: Several Hezbollah operatives targeted in airstrike in southern Lebanon
Several Hezbollah operatives were targeted in an airstrike in southern Lebanon’s Aitaroun earlier this evening, the military says.
The IDF says the operatives were spotted at a building used by the terror group.
Also this evening, missiles and rockets were launched from Lebanon at a number of locations in northern Israel, causing damage in Shtula and Metula. There are no injuries.
Hezbollah has claimed responsibly for at least eight attacks on the north today.
The terror group also named a member killed in an Israeli strike, bringing its death toll amid the war to at least 314.
Mounted police officers disperse anti-government sit-in calling for hostage deal at Tel Aviv’s Democracy Square
Anti-government protesters march from Begin Street towards Democracy Square in Tel Aviv, May 25, 2024. (Eitan Slonim/Pro-Democracy Movement)
Police, including mounted officers, are dispersing a sit-in on Democracy Square on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan street that was blocking traffic to call for a hostage release deal and for the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Earlier in the evening, anti-government protesters marched along Begin Street to join families of hostages held by terror groups in Gaza since October 7 for the demonstration after their weekly rally.
Photos from the demonstrations show protesters marching with a banner that reads, “The government gave up (on the hostages). The people will bring them home.”
An AFP correspondent reports that protesters observed a minute’s silence in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in honor of seven captives whose bodies were recovered by Israel Defense Forces troops this month.
At Democracy Square, protesters light a bonfire to mark the eve of the Lag B’Omer holiday tonight.
Videos on social media show multiple police officers surrounding a protester and forcibly removing him from the crowd.
מעצרים אלימים בהפגנה למען שחרור החטופים
25/05/24 תל אביב pic.twitter.com/5lKqihnh9d
— אלימות ישראל (@Alimut_Israel) May 25, 2024
It is not clear if the man was formally detained. Hebrew media sites report that two protesters have been arrested at this evening’s protests.
Ynet reports that Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan has been held by terror groups in Gaza, is detained by police during the rally on Kaplan Street.
Another video shows mounted police officers dispersing protesters in Tel Aviv amid shouts from the crowd of “shame, shame!”
קפלן.
האמת לא הייתה שום סיבה שהמשטרה תתחיל להפעיל אמצעים. המפגינים ישבו בצומת אבל זה לא מצא חן בעיניי המשטרה. כוחות נכנסו בכח, האווירה התלהטה, המכתז הגיע והפרשים התחילו להשתולל.
מיותר ממש. pic.twitter.com/GIYLqQgluw— Josh Breiner (@JoshBreiner) May 25, 2024
The anti-government protest movement says that some activists are blocking water canon trucks to prevent police from using them to disperse the crowds.
Similar protests against the government are held simultaneously around the country, in cities including Jerusalem, Ra’anana, Netanya and outside Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea.
Agencies contributed to this report.
Police enforce total travel ban around Meron to prevent Lag B’Omer pilgrimage
File - Members of the Shomer Emunim Hasidic sect at gravesite of Rashbi, or Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai, in Meron in the northern Galilee ahead of the start of the Jewish holiday of Lag B'Omer, on April 27, 2021. (David Cohen/Flash90)
At a pop-up checkpoint at Ein Zeitim Junction, police officers and Border Police soldiers stop a passenger car heading west on Road 89 in the Upper Galilee.
One officer informs the driver, a Druze Israeli citizen named Wiyam Amar, that the road is closed because the area has been declared a closed military zone in connection with Lag B’Omer, to prevent the annual pilgrimage by Jews to the Meron compound built around the presumed gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a 2nd-century sage.
“Brother, we’re Druze. We’re not going to Meron. I want to get home to my village, Ein al-Asad so let me through or you’re sending us on a 70-kilometer (43 miles) detour,” Amar, a local merchant and IDF reservist, tells the officer. He is not let through and turns the car around while shaking his head and speaking to another man sitting in the passenger seat.
The closure en route to Meron, where more than 100,000 had gathered last year on Lag B’Omer, is to prevent large crowds amid exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah in the Galilee and Southern Lebanon.
The checkpoint is one of 11 roadblocks set up around Meron in an effort involving hundreds of police officers to enforce the ban following concerns that some pilgrims would defy it.
The events at Meron are limited this Lag B’Omer to three ceremonial bonfire lighting ceremonies attended by no more than 30 people at any given time.
Jerusalem protesters accuse Netanyahu of ‘abandoning’ hostages, demand deal to secure their release
Protesters attend hostage families rally in Jerusalem's Paris Square on May 25, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
Hundreds of protesters are gathered in Paris Square outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem for the weekly hostage families rally.
Protesters chant, “Bibi is abandoning the hostages!” while gathered around drummers at the core of the rally.
Tom Barkai, lead organizer of the Jerusalem branch of Hostages and Missing Families Forum, tells the crowd that although she fears for the hostages’ future, she and others in the crowd “are continuing, without any question… to fight for their return.”
Daniel Epstein, philosopher and rabbi, is first to speak to the crowd outside Netanyahu’s home, refusing to wish the protesters a good week this Saturday night, because “our week will only be good until all of them return.”
Rabbi Daniel Epstein speaks to a crowd at weekly Jerusalem hostage families rally in Paris Square on May 25, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
They [the hostages] are looking at us, each one of them. What are they saying? They are saying: where are you? where are your consciences?” he says.
“They are here [with us], their glance, their voice… they are here… And we are there with them. We are them, and they are us,” he continues.
It is believed that 121 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.
The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 37 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
WATCH: Lag B’Omer celebrations kick off at the Western Wall in Jerusalem
Lag B’Omer celebrations have kicked off at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and are being streamed live online.
Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox men and boys can be seen singing and dancing around a bonfire in the middle of the Western Wall plaza.
This year, the government canceled the annual Lag B’Omer pilgrimage to Mount Meron in the Galilee for fear of rockets from Lebanon, amid daily cross border attacks by Hezbollah terrorists.
In many secular and national religious communities, Lag B’Omer is a relatively minor date. Children and families enjoy bonfires on the eve of Lag B’Omer, whose name means the 33rd day of Omer, the 49-day period that separates Passover from Shavuot.
For many Haredim, it is a major occasion. The Talmud ties it to a plague that claimed the lives of thousands of students of Rabbi Akiva, one of the greatest early rabbinic figures and one of 10 holy martyrs later executed by the Romans for teaching Torah. The plague ended on Lag B’Omer, according to legend.
Canaan Lidor contributed to this report.
Nasrallah’s mother dies; unclear if Hezbollah chief will leave Beirut bunker for burial
The mother of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has passed away, according to a statement from the Lebanon-based terror group carried by Arab and Iranian media.
“The honorable Mrs. Hajja Umm Hassan, mother of His Eminence the secretary-general of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, passed away to the mercy of God Almighty,” the Hezbollah statement says.
The funeral will reportedly be held tomorrow south of the Lebanese capital of Beirut. It is unclear whether Nasrallah, who has rarely left his Beirut bunker for public appearances in recent year, will attend the burial.
Al-Mayadeen announced the death of the mother of Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah in Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/bi82FpVHZZ
— IRNA News Agency (@IrnaEnglish) May 25, 2024
Hamas officials deny reports hostage talks will resume this week, blame Israel for rejecting last proposal
A Hamas official denies media reports that talks to secure a hostage ceasefire talks will resume in Cairo on Tuesday.
“There is no date,” the Hamas official tells Reuters, asked about the reports.
The comments come after a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel that negotiations for a truce in Gaza and the release of hostages held there by Hamas will resume next week.
Mossad chief David Barnea returned to Israel earlier today after meeting top US and Qatari mediators in Paris to discuss the stalled negotiations.
Separately, Hamas official Osama Hamdan is quoted by Al Jazeera as saying that Israel had rejected a proposal which the terror group agreed to and charged that there is “no guarantee that [Israel] will accept new proposals to restart negotiations.”
“Talk about Israeli readiness for continued calm is not enough,” he is quoted as saying, in an apparent reference to Hamas’s insistence on ending the war as a condition for a hostage release deal – a term that Israel has repeatedly rejected.
After masked reservist’s video threat, Gantz urges Netanyahu to denounce insubordination calls
War cabinet minister Benny Gantz in a video message issued May 23, 2024, demanding the immediate establishment of a state commission of inquiry in the events leading up to October 7, 2023. (Screenshot)
War cabinet minister Benny Gantz calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to denounce calls for IDF soldiers to disobey orders, following the online publication of a video showing a masked reservist calling for the defense minister’s resignation and threatening to defy orders if the government doesn’t pursue “complete victory” over Hamas.
“In the IDF, as the people’s army, soldiers from all parts of Israeli society serve, with a variety of views and beliefs – but there is only one top command rank: the chief of staff,” Gantz, one of only three voting members of Netanyahu’s war cabinet, says in a statement.
“Expressing support for the call for rebellion during wartime, or in general, as in the video published yesterday, harms Israel’s security,” the former IDF chief of staff warns, calling on Netanyahu to “clearly and unambiguously condemn the seditious video and not to hide behind a laundromat of words.”
The IDF has said has opened a criminal probe into the video, which was shared by Netanyahu’s son Yair and shows a masked reservist vowing to refuse Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s orders and asserting that soldiers will only listen to Netanyahu.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the video is for you. We reservist soldiers do not intend to hand the keys over to any Palestinian authority. We do not intend to give the keys to Gaza to any entity — Hamas, Fatah or any other Arab entity,” the soldier declared.
The reservist’s message comes a week-and-a-half after Gallant made a public appeal to Netanyahu in which he stated that he would not consent to Israeli civil or military governance of Gaza, and that governance by non-Hamas Palestinian entities, accompanied by international actors, is in Israel’s interest.
His appeal was rebuffed by Netanyahu, who said that he was “not prepared to switch from Hamastan to Fatahstan” — referencing the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority.
Shortly before Gantz’s statement and only minutes after Hebrew media published a quote from a senior official slamming his “deafening silence” on the matter, the Prime Minister’s Office released a statement saying that Netanyahu “has warned many times about the dangers of the phenomenon of insubordination and the permissive attitude towards it.”
US Central Command: Four military vessels ran aground near Gaza aid pier
A washed up US Army vessel and a strip of docking area stranded off the coast near Ashdod, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
Four US Army vessels supporting the temporary pier built to deliver aid to Gaza have run aground in heavy seas and Israel is aiding a recovery effort, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM).
“The vessels broke free from their moorings and two vessels are now anchored on the beach near the pier. The third and fourth vessels are beached on the coast of Israel near Ashkelon,” the statement says.
“No US personnel will enter Gaza. No injuries have been reported and the pier remains fully functional,” it continues, adding that the Israeli Navy is assisting with recovering the vessels.
US President Joe Biden ordered the pier’s construction in March to alleviate restrictions on land deliveries of humanitarian aid amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the terror group’s October 7 massacre.
The UN World Food Programme “took possession of 97 trucks since the floating dock came into operation” on May 17, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, told reporters yesterday.
In the first few days of deliveries earlier this month, desperate Palestinians made off with the contents of some trucks heading to warehouses, but the situation has now stabilized, according to the UN spokesman.
Netanyahu makes statement on IDF reservist mutiny threat, after source comments on his ‘deafening silence’
A screenshot of a video purporting to show an IDF reservist in Gaza threatening mutiny published on May 24, 2024. (Screencapture/X: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Minutes after Hebrew media publishes a quote from a senior official slamming his “deafening silence” on the matter, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu releases a statement apparently referring to a video shared online — including by his son Yair Netanyahu — showing a masked reservist threatening mutiny if the government doesn’t pursue what he defined as “complete victory” over Hamas.
“The prime minister has warned many times about the dangers of the phenomenon of insubordination and the permissive attitude towards it,” the PMO statement reads.
Without directly referring to either the video or his son, the statement adds that Netanyahu has been “consistent” in his position on military refusal and that he “rejects outright any refusal from any side.”
The prime minister expects “all systems to treat [those who refuse] equally.”
Netanyahu made similar statements against “insubordination” when hundreds of elite reservists stopped volunteering in early 2023 in protest of his government’s plans to upend the judicial system.
The senior source quoted by Channel 12 a short while ago had said that Yair Netanyahu’s sharing of the video is “a clear call for rebellion against the IDF command.”
“The prime minister in his deafening silence, hour upon hour, backs up this grave act,” the source was quoted as saying.
In the video, first shared on social media by far-right journalist Yinon Magal and later republished by Yair Netanyahu, a masked reservist soldier demands that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant quit and threatens to defy orders if the government doesn’t pursue “complete victory” over Hamas.
Senior Israeli official confirms Mossad chief agreed to new round of hostage talks in Paris meeting over weekend
Mossad chief David Barnea at a Memorial Day ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, May 12, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Mossad Chief David Barnea met with the CIA director and Qatari prime minister in Paris over the weekend to discuss building a new framework in order to revive negotiations with Hamas to release the remaining 121 hostages that the terror group is holding in Gaza, a senior Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
The Mossad chief, CIA Chief Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani agreed to launch a new round of talks in the coming days based on new proposals crafted by Qatar and Egypt with US involvement, the official says.
IDF: Soldier seriously hurt fighting terrorists in northern Gaza; evacuated for treatment
A reservist with the Bislamach Brigade’s 6828th Battalion was seriously wounded earlier today during fighting against terror operatives in the northern Gaza Strip, the military says.
He was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Israeli officials interpret ICJ ruling on Rafah as allowing some military action in city
Judges arrive at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on South Africa's request on a Rafah and wider Gaza war ceasefire, in The Hague, on May 24, 2024 (Nick Gammon / AFP)
Israel considers that an order by the World Court limiting its military offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza does allow room for some military action there, Israeli officials says.
In an emergency ruling in South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide, judges at the International Court of Justice ordered Israel on Friday to immediately halt operations in Rafah that would risk the destruction of the civilian population sheltering there.
Israel says that Rafah is Hamas’s last major stronghold in Gaza, and where four of its battalions are located.
“What they are asking us [at the ICJ], is not to commit genocide in Rafah. We did not commit genocide and we will not commit genocide,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, tells Channel 12 news.
Asked whether the Rafah offensive would continue, Hanegbi says: “According to international law, we have the right to defend ourselves and the evidence is that the court is not preventing us from continuing to defend ourselves.”
The ICJ, which is based in The Hague, did not immediately comment on Hanegbi’s remarks. Hamas also did not immediately comment.
Another Israeli official points to the phrasing of the ruling by the ICJ, or World Court, depicting it as conditional.
“The order in regard to the Rafah operation is not a general order,” the official says on condition of anonymity.
Reading out the ruling, the ICJ’s president, Nawaf Salam, said the situation in Gaza had deteriorated since the court last ordered Israel to take steps to improve it, and conditions had been met for a new emergency order.
“The state of Israel shall (…) immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” Salam said.
That wording does not rule out all military action, the Israeli official says.
“We have never, and we will not, conduct any military action in Rafah or elsewhere which may inflict any conditions of life to bring about the destruction of the civilian population in Gaza, not in whole and not in part,” the official says.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
IDF releases footage, details from op to recover bodies of 3 hostages
Troops operate in northern Gaza's Jabaliya to recover the bodies of three Israeli hostages, late May 23, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The military releases footage and additional details from the operation to recover the bodies of three slain hostages from the northern Gaza Strip late Thursday.
The bodies of Orión Hernández Radoux, 30, Hanan Yablonka, 42, and Michel Nisenbaum, 59, who were all killed on October 7, were located in a tunnel in Jabaliya, the same area from which the bodies of another four hostages were recovered a week earlier.
L-R: Hostages Michel Nisenbaum, Orion Hernandez, Hanan Yablonka. Their bodies were recovered from northern Gaza’s Jabaliya in an operation announced May 24, 2024. (Courtesy)
The IDF says that troops of the 75th Armored Battalion killed a terror operative who was apparently a lookout over the area where the bodies were held. The soldiers then raided and captured the site.
A short while later, troops of the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, Shin Bet agents, and special forces of the Military Intelligence Directorate entered the tunnel and located the bodies.
The bodies were extracted from the tunnel in a “complex” overnight operation, the military says.
According to the IDF, the location of the bodies was extracted from intelligence obtained in recent days by the military and Shin Bet.
The intelligence also revealed that the three were abducted by Hamas terrorists from the Mefalsim area in southern Israel on October 7, and were killed there or a short while later en route to Gaza.
Crowds gather in Tel Aviv for weekly anti-government rally
Anti-government protesters gather at Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, May 25, 2024. (Pro-Democracy Protest Movement/Reuven G.Sz)
Crowds gather on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv for the weekly rally calling for an immediate deal to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and new elections.
Anti-government protests are also ongoing outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea, as well as Haifa and junctions and bridges across the country.
War cabinet said set to meet 6 p.m. Sunday to discuss hostage deal, truce talks
The war cabinet is set to convene Sunday at 6 p.m. to discuss efforts to reach a hostage deal and truce with Hamas, Hebrew media reports.
The scheduled meeting comes after reports Saturday said mediators and Israel had agreed to restart negotiations, which have been frozen since April.
Biden highlights key role of US in world, including defending Israel from Iranian missile attack
US President Joe Biden speaks during the graduation ceremony of the US Military Academy class of 2024 at Michie Stadium, May 25, 2024, in West Point, New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
WEST POINT, New York — US President Joe Biden emphasizes the critical role of US support to allies around the world including Israel, Ukraine, and the Indo-Pacific in a speech at the commencement of the US Military Academy at West Point, New York.
The speech before 1,036 graduating US Army cadets is part of a push by Biden to highlight the administration’s efforts to support active and retired military personnel. These include a bipartisan law he signed two years ago to help veterans who have been exposed to burn pits or other poisons obtain easier access to healthcare.
Biden describes American soldiers as “working around the clock” to support Ukraine in its effort to repel a two-year-long Russian invasion but repeated his commitment to keeping them off the front lines.
“We are standing strong with Ukraine and we will stand with them,” Biden tells the crowd to a round of applause.
He also highlights the US’s role in repelling Iranian missile attacks against Israel and support for allies in the Indo-Pacific against increasing Chinese militarism in the region.
“Thanks to the US Armed Forces, we’re doing what only America can do as the indispensable nation, the world’s only superpower,” Biden says.
Sudanese general says Russia has requested Red Sea fueling station in exchange for arms
File: A Russian navy missile ship 'Veliky Ustyug' sails off from the Russian naval facility in Tartus, Syria, on patrol in eastern Mediterranean, September 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
CAIRO, Egypt — A top Sudanese general, Yasser al-Atta, says Russia had asked for a fueling station on the Red Sea in exchange for weapons and ammunition, and that agreements with Russia would be signed soon.
The two countries signed a naval base deal under former Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, but army leaders later said that plan was under review and it never materialized.
Russia has previously developed ties with the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, which is the army’s foe in a year-old war and which Western diplomats say has also had ties with Russia’s Wagner private military group.
Group of hostages’ relatives demand end of war in exchange for hostage deal
Relatives of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza say the only way to bring their loved ones home is by ending the ongoing war, in a press conference in Tel Aviv.
“The conditions for a deal have not changed, the only way to return the hostages is by ending the war,” says Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held hostage, and demands the government to reach a deal to return the captives.
Omri Lifshitz, whose son Oded is a hostage, said that the families of captives are living an “ongoing nightmare.”
“There are hostages alive in Gaza, we want to bring them back home alive. All of us, with the exception of some cold-hearted ministers, watched the horrific video of the abduction of observation soldiers,” he says, saying no parent should have to witness such scenes.
“The government of Israel abandoned them on October 7 and is continuing to abandon them now,” he says.
Ayala Metzger, whose father-in-law Yoram was taken captive, stresses that security officials, including IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, say in closed-door meetings that returning the hostages must be a priority over the efforts to eliminate Hamas.
Yifat Calderon, whose cousin Ofer is held by Hamas, accuses Netanyahu of preventing a deal and calls on other ministers in the cabinet to pressure the prime minister to reach an agreement.
“Because of Netanyahu our sisters and daughters are being raped in Gaza. Because of Netanyahu our parents, brothers, and sons are exposed to torture, hunger, and death,” she says.
Or Gat, whose brother Carmel is held hostage, highlights public demand for an agreement, and warns ministers that “history will judge every one of you.”
Lapid says seditious videos by IDF troops are ‘dangerous and disastrous’
A screenshot of a video purporting to show an IDF reservist in Gaza threatening mutiny published on May 24, 2024. (Screencapture/X: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Opposition Yair Lapid says videos calling for rebellion within the Israeli military are “dangerous and disastrous” regardless if they are authentic or staged, referring to, among others, a video of a reservist threatening mutiny that circulated social media Saturday.
Lapid writes on X the fact that supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “enthusiastically” shared the video demonstrates “another attempt to escape responsibility for the one who led to the biggest disaster in the history of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
“This insanity should be stopped. This government needs to be removed from our lives before it destroys everything that is true and sacred to this country,” he writes.
Spain’s defense minister calls Israel’s offensive in Gaza ‘real genocide’
MADRID, Spain — The Spanish defense minister says that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is a “real genocide,” as relations between Israel and Spain worsen following Madrid’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state.
Reuters couldn’t immediately reach Israeli officials for comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.
Israel has strongly rejected accusations made against it by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that it is committing genocide against Palestinians, saying its offensive is targeting the Hamas terror group which carried out the brutal massacre of southern communities on October 7.
The remark by Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles in an interview with TVE state television echoes a comment by Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz who earlier this week also described the Israel-Hamas war as a genocide.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
At anti-government protest in Rehovot, candidate for Labor leadership says PM only interested in his own survival
Anti-government protesters demand immediate elections in Rehovot, May 25, 2024. (Pro-Democracy Protest Movement/Ori Koren)
Anti-government protesters are demanding immediate elections in Rehovot, as weekly nationwide demonstrations kick off around the country.
Former left-wing Meretz party MK and deputy IDF chief of staff Yair Golan, who is campaigning to lead the Labor party, rails against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a speech to protesters, saying that for years he has “escaped from decision-making.”
“He is the king of status quo. He won’t change anything, and won’t work to repair anything. All his resources are invested only in his survival,” he says, adding that this way of governing has led to a “series of failures,” among them, the Hamas massacre on October 7.
Report: Hamas planned terror attacks on Israeli embassy, US military base in Germany
File - Two suspects are led from a helicopter to a car by police officers at a helipad in Karlsruhe, Germany, December 15, 2023. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)
A Hamas terror cell planned to carry out terror attacks on the Israeli embassy in Berlin and a US military base in Germany, the Welt am Sonntag German newspaper reports.
The targets were found on the smartphone of a terror suspect, who was arrested in Berlin in December, and accused by prosecutors of looking for places to hide weapons for the terror group, the outlet reports, citing sources in the German security services.
According to the report, the suspect, who has Lebanese origins, received his instructions from Hamas officials in Lebanon.
The Prime Minister’s Office revealed in January that Hamas runs a network of operatives in Europe commanded by terror leaders in Lebanon, and aimed to attack Jewish and Israeli targets abroad.
UK warns ICJ ruling will incentivize Hamas to keep hostages, hold out in Gaza
The British government criticizes the International Court of Justice for ordering Israel to halt military operations in the southern Gazan city of Rafah that would risk the destruction of the civilian population sheltering there, saying the ruling would strengthen the Hamas terror group.
The ICJ, which is the highest UN body for hearing disputes between states, made the emergency ruling on Friday in South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide.
“The reason there isn’t a pause in the fighting is because Hamas turned down a very generous hostage deal from Israel. The intervention of these courts –including the ICJ today — will strengthen the view of Hamas that they can hold on to hostages and stay in Gaza,” a UK foreign ministry spokesperson says.
“And if that happens there won’t be either peace, or a two-state solution.”
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
IDF jets strike Hezbollah buildings in southern Lebanon towns
Israeli fighter jets struck several buildings the IDF says are used by Hezbollah in the southern Lebanon towns of Odaisseh, Yaroun, and Marwahin.
The military also says troops shelled areas near Matmoura, Hamoul, Rachaya Al Foukhar, and as-Sawana with artillery to “remove threats.”
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו מספר מבנים צבאיים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחבים אל-עדייסא, יארון ומרווחין שבדרום לבנון.
במהלך היום כוחות צה"ל ביצעו ירי ארטילרי להסרת איום במרחבים אל מטמורה, ואדי חמול, רשיא אל פוחר וא-צוונה pic.twitter.com/aenw1e3lIh
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 25, 2024
Hamas health ministry updates Gaza death toll to 35,903
A displaced Palestinian cooks on a wood burning stove in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on May 24, 2024. (Bashar Taleb/AFP)
A total of 35,903 Palestinians have been killed and 80,420 have been injured in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says in a statement.
These figures have not been verified and only some 25,000 fatalities have been identified at hospitals. The tolls include some 15,000 terror operatives Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
IDF: Rocket sirens in north earlier were false alarms
Rocket sirens that sounded in northern Israel a short while ago were false alarms, the military says.
The alerts were activated in communities in the Galilee Panhandle.
Report: Israel, US, Qatar agree to resume hostage deal, truce talks with Hamas this week
People walking next to large pictures of pictures of people who were murdered in captivity in the Gaza Strip, as part of a protest calling for their release, near the Prime Minister's official residence in Jerusalem, May 23, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Israel, the United States and Qatar have agreed to renew mediated talks on a hostage deal and truce with Hamas, an Israeli official tells the Walla news site.
Egypt and Qatar will mediate fresh negotiations this week on the basis of a new outline negotiated in Paris by CIA Director William Burns, Mossad chief David Barnea, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, according to the report.
There has been no progress in talks since April.
The war cabinet has expanded the mandate of the team negotiating a deal for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, the Ynet news site reported Thursday.
The report said that there was a wide consensus among the security establishment, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, ministers Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot and Ron Dermer, and cabinet observer Aryeh Deri that the negotiation team’s “leash” should be lengthened.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was originally against expanding the negotiation team’s mandate, according to the reports, but was swayed by the broad support for the move and the recent release of footage showing the kidnapping of female IDF soldiers on October 7.
Spain demands Israel abide by ICJ ruling and halt Rafah op
The Spanish government demands that Israel comply with an order by the top UN court to immediately stop its bombardment and ground assault on the Gazan city of Rafah.
It stresses that the ruling on Friday by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was legally binding.
“The precautionary measures set out by the ICJ, including that Israel should cease its military offensive in Rafah, are compulsory. Israel must comply with them,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares writes on X.
“The same goes for a ceasefire, the release of the hostages and access for humanitarian aid [to Gaza],” he says.
“The suffering of the people of Gaza and the violence must end.”
Spain is one of the European countries to have been most critical of Israel over the war against Hamas.
On Wednesday, Spain, Ireland and Norway said their governments would recognize a Palestinian state from next week.
Israel summoned their envoys to “reprimand” them for the decision and on Friday said it would ban Spain’s consulate in Jerusalem from helping Palestinians in the West Bank.
Las medidas cautelares de @CIJ_ICJ, incluido el cese de la ofensiva de Israel en Rafah, son obligatorias. Exigimos su aplicación.
También el alto el fuego, la liberación de los rehenes y el acceso humanitario.
El sufrimiento de los gazatíes y la violencia deben terminar.— José Manuel Albares (@jmalbares) May 25, 2024
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Several rockets fired from Lebanon at northern communities
Around 10 rockets were fired from southern Lebanon at Western Galilee towns, while two were fired at Misgav Am in the Upper Galilee, Channel 12 news reports.
There are no injuries in the barrages.
Group of hostage families to hold press conference addressing video of female captives at 6:15 p.m.
File: Relatives of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza hold a press conference in Tel Aviv on May 18, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
A group of hostage families, who have in recent weeks taken a more combative approach in their campaign to free their loved ones, will give a press conference tonight at 6:15 p.m. outside the Kirya Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv.
The group says it will address the video released this week of female soldiers kidnapped from the Nir Oz military base, information about the kidnapping of Matan Zangauker, the alleged scuttling of a proposed hostage deal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the accountability of war cabinet ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other ministers.
The group will also hold a separate demonstration, titled “Night of the Mothers,” at 8:30 p.m. outside the Defense Ministry after the main anti-government rally.
Speakers at the rally will include Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held hostage; Vicky Cohen, whose son Nimrod is held hostage; Anat Angrest, whose son Matan is held hostage; Mayaan Sherman, whose son Ron was killed in captivity; and Yifat Calderon, whose cousin Ofer is held captive.
Alleged Israeli drone strike kills two Hezbollah operatives in Syria
An alleged Israeli drone strike in central Syria killed two operatives from the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group on Saturday, a war monitor says.
“An Israeli drone fired two missiles at a Hezbollah car and truck near the town of Qusayr in Homs province, as they were on their way to Al-Dabaa military airport, killing at least two Hezbollah fighters and wounding others,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.
The Observatory, which is based in the UK and whose sources of funding are unclear, has been accused of exaggerating the effectiveness of Israeli strikes in the past.
Qusayr has been identified in the past as a Hezbollah stronghold.
While Israel does not, as a rule, comment on specific strikes in Syria, it has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed terror groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country over the last decade. The Israeli military says it attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups, chief among them Hezbollah. Additionally, airstrikes attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defense systems.
⚡️ Al-Mayadeen correspondent: An #Israeli drone targets a car and a truck in the vicinity of the city of Qusayr in the Homs countryside in central #Syria pic.twitter.com/tdluIbSIEy
— Middle East Observer (@ME_Observer_) May 25, 2024
IDF to probe video of reservist threatening mutiny, says it may be criminal offense
The Israeli military says a video shared online showing a masked reservist threatening to defy orders if the government doesn’t pursue what he defines as “complete victory” over Hamas, may be a criminal offense.
“The behavior in the video is a serious violation of IDF orders and IDF values, and constitutes a suspicion of criminal offenses,” the military says in response to a query on the matter.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit says the Military Advocate General has ordered an immediate Military Police investigation into the clip.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has also ordered commanders to immediately speak with their subordinates regarding the video, at all ranks, “given the severity of the incident.”
IDF soldiers kill dozens of gunmen in north Gaza’s Jabaliya
IDF troops operate in northern Gaza's Jabaliya, in an image cleared for publication on May 25, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
Israeli troops operating in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya killed dozens of gunmen in close-quarters combat and by calling in airstrikes over the past day, the military says.
The troops also located and demolished rocket launching sites and buildings used by terror groups, alongside caches of weapons, the IDF says.
Among those killed were operatives who had directed attacks on troops, and a Hamas sniper cell that had opened fire at soldiers several times in recent days, according to the military.
Meanwhile, in central Gaza, several more operatives were killed in clashes with troops and by tank shelling, the IDF says.
In Rafah, in the Strip’s south, the IDF says a cell that had opened fire at troops was killed, and several tunnel shafts were found and destroyed, alongside caches of weapons.
Rocket sirens blare in northern communities
Incoming rocket alerts are activated in several communities in the Upper Galilee, near the border with Lebanon.
Sirens sound in Misgav Am, Kiryat Shmona, Kfar Giladi, Tel Hai and Margaliot.
Red Alert [12:33:31] – 5 Alerts:
• Confrontation Line — Misgav Am, Kiryat Shmona, Kfar Giladi, Tel Hai, Margaliot#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/hMLj706OSO
— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) May 25, 2024
US vessels used to unload Gaza aid run aground on Ashdod beach
American vessels are stuck on the Ashdod beach, May 25, 2024. (Courtesy)
An American vessel used to unload humanitarian aid from ships into the Gaza Strip via a floating pier disconnected from a small boat tugging it this morning due to stormy seas, leading it to get stuck on the coast of Ashdod, eyewitnesses say.
Another ship was then sent to try and extract the stuck vessel, but also got beached.
There are no reports of injuries in the incident.
In video, masked reservist demands Gallant quit, threatens mutiny if government gives up on ‘complete victory’ over Hamas
A masked reservist soldier appears in a video shared on social media demanding Defense Minister Yoav Gallant quit and threatens to defy orders if the government doesn’t pursue what he defines as “complete victory” over Hamas.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the video is for you. We reservist soldiers do not intend to hand the keys over to any Palestinian authority. We do not intend to give the keys to Gaza to any entity — Hamas, Fatah or any other Arab entity. Reservist soldiers are behind you and we want to win,” the soldier says, in what appears to be a ruined building in Gaza.
The soldier appears to refer to conversations over the “day after” the war in Gaza, and various options of who will govern the Strip. Defense Minister Gallant made a public appeal to Netanyahu earlier this month, saying in a speech that he must take “tough decisions” to advance non-Hamas governance of Gaza, whatever the personal or political cost because the gains of the war are being eroded and Israel’s long-term security is at stake.
Gallant warned in his address that he will not consent to Israeli civil or military governance of Gaza, and that governance by non-Hamas Palestinian entities, accompanied by international actors, is in Israel’s interest.
Netanyahu quickly retorted that he was “not prepared to switch from Hamastan to Fatahstan,” referencing the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority.”
“We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you have 100,000 reservist soldiers that are ready to give their lives for the people of Israel. Ready to die. We lost everything, we lost our family life, we lost our livelihoods and we have nowhere to go. We will stay here, until the end. Until the victory,” the reservist soldier states.
“Yoav Gallant, you can’t win the war. Quit. You can’t win this war. You can’t command us,” the reservist says.
The soldier vows to refuse Gallant’s orders and asserts that soldiers will only listen to Netanyahu. He threatens that the 100,000 reservist soldiers would station themselves at the border and not move, and call on citizens of Israel to join them there if the government steps back from the goal of completely eliminating Hamas.
“Think really well who you leave the keys to after this. We want victory. Our brothers did not die for nothing, weren’t raped for nothing, and were not slaughtered in their beds for nothing,” he says, referring to the atrocities of Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
The IDF did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the video.
הסרטון הזה (שינון מגל פרסם בהתלהבות וערך ידידיה חממי) הוא קריאה למרד, ומגלם בתוכו את פירוק הממלכתיות, התרופפות המשמעת הצבאית, ושחיקת ערכי צה״ל
מישהו צריך להתעורר. אומה חפצת חיים, צבא חפץ ניצחון אמיתי, צריך לשלוט בחיילים שלו. שריפת ספרים, ביזה וגרפיטי הם רק קדימון לבאות
תתעוררו pic.twitter.com/BJAl9frWMV
— Nadav Oz Salzberger נדב עוז זלצברגר (@NadavSalz) May 24, 2024
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
G7 finance leaders to call on Israel to keep ties with Palestinian banks
Finance ministers and central bank governors pose for the family picture at the G7 Finance Ministers meeting in Stresa, Italy, on May 24, 2024. (Gabriel Bouys/AFP)
STRESA, Italy — G7 finance leaders will call on Israel to maintain correspondent banking links between Israeli and Palestinian banks to allow vital transactions, trade and services to continue, according to a draft joint statement seen by Reuters.
The statement, to be released at the end of a Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors’ meeting in northern Italy, also calls for Israel “to release withheld clearance revenues to the Palestinian Authority, in view of its urgent fiscal needs.”
The statement echoes a warning on Thursday from US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said the failure to renew a soon-to-expire banking waiver would cut off a critical lifeline for the Palestinian territories amid a devastating conflict in Gaza.
“We call on Israel to take the necessary measures to ensure that correspondent banking services between Israeli and Palestinian banks remain in place, so that vital financial transactions and critical trade and services continue,” the draft statement says.
The G7 finance leaders will also call for the removal or relaxation of other measures “that have negatively impacted commerce to avoid further exacerbating the economic situation in the West Bank.”
Far-right Finance Minister Belazel Smotrich has indicated that Israel may not renew a waiver that expires on July 1 that allows Israeli banks to process shekel payments for services and salaries tied to the Palestinian Authority, in response to the PA’s efforts for international recognition of a state and for what he said was its bid to obtain international arrest warrants against Israelis over the war in Gaza.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Italy to resume funding UNRWA, pledges $38 million aid package for Palestinians
Activists protest against United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) outside their offices in Jerusalem, March 20, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Italy will resume funding for the United Nations’ Palestinian relief organization UNRWA as part of a 35 million euro ($38 million) aid package, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani says.
Tajani makes the commitment during a meeting in Rome with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.
The Italian minister says five million euros ($5.4 million) would go to UNRWA projects, with the remainder destined for its “Food for Gaza” initiative.
Italy was one of a number of countries to block aid for UNRWA following accusations by Israel that some of the agency’s staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.
“Italy has decided to resume financing specific projects destined to help Palestinian refugees, but only after rigorous checks that guarantee that not one cent risks ending up supporting terrorism,” Tajani says.
UNRWA employs 13,000 people in Gaza, running the enclave’s schools, its primary healthcare clinics and other social services, and distributing humanitarian aid.
In recent weeks, several countries have resumed funding the agency. Germany said last month it would resume cooperation with UNRWA following a report led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna into UNRWA’s procedures for ensuring adherence to principles of neutrality.
Car blast kills one in Syrian capital – state media
A car explosion killed one person in Damascus, the official Syrian news agency SANA reports, without identifying the victim.
Security incidents, including blasts targeting military and civilian vehicles, occur intermittently in the capital of war-ravaged Syria.
Quoting a police official, SANA says “one person was killed when an explosive device exploded in their car in the Mazzeh district.” It did not provide any other details.
The explosion comes against a backdrop of heightened regional tensions, including the war between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Last month, an explosive device went off in a car in Mazzeh, an upscale neighborhood of Damascus, without causing any casualties, SANA reported at the time.
Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011, targeting Iranian military officials and other Iran-backed forces, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as well as Syrian army positions.
A source in the Damascus Police Command: A person was killed as a result of an explosive device exploding in his car in the Mezzeh area near Talat al-Iskan. pic.twitter.com/KJ2sRWkY06
— Report Syrian (@reportsyrian) May 25, 2024
Five killed and five seriously injured in spate of traffic accidents
First responders at the scene of a deadly car accident on Route 90 near the Dead Sea on May 25, 2024 (Magen David Adom)
Five people and killed five others seriously wounded in a series of traffic accidents today, police and medics say.
Two men were killed when their car overturned and caught fire on Route 90 near the Dead Sea, Magen David Adom medics say.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Overnight, three people were killed in a collision between two vehicles on Route 6 near Kiryat Gat, medics say.
Three men in their 20s were also seriously injured and airlifted to hospital by an IDF helicopter.
Also today, two men are seriously wounded in a crash between two vehicles on Route 7 near Ashdod.
Body washes up on Haifa beach
Ambulances at Haifa's Meridian Beach after the body of a man was found floating in the sea on May 25, 2024 (Magen David Adom)
The body of a man was found washed up on a beach in the northern city of Haifa this morning, medics say.
The Magen David Adom rescue service says beachgoers spotted the body in the water off Meridian Beach and called for help.
Medics say they had no choice but to declare the man, described as in his 50s, dead at the scene.
Palestinians report airstrikes across Gaza
Israel carried out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip early today, including in Rafah, Palestinian witnesses said.
Clashes also continued between IDF soldiers and Hamas terrorists.
Palestinian witnesses and AFP teams reported Israeli strikes in Rafah and the central city of Deir al-Balah.
There was no immediate comment from the IDF
CUNY security officer suspended for telling anti-Israel protester ‘I support killing all you guys’
NEW YORK — A campus safety officer at a public college in New York City has been suspended after footage circulated online showing him cursing at pro-Palestinian protesters during a graduation ceremony and saying he supported killing them all, the school confirms.
An unidentified protester filmed the officer at Thursday’s graduation for the College of Staten Island, part of the public City University of New York system that was rocked by a recent police crackdown on campus protests.
In a highly edited video shared by Instagram accounts affiliated with student protest organizers, a demonstrator can be heard yelling at the officer, “You support genocide!”
“Yes I do, I support genocide,” says the officer. “I support killing all you guys, how about that?”
In another clip posted in the video, the officer can be heard hurling an expletive at another protester, followed by “your mother.”
Phone calls and emails seeking comment from the officer were unsuccessful. A person who answered a number listed under his name hung up when a reporter identified themself, and emails were not immediately returned.
CUNY confirms the suspension but declines to provide details, such as whether the officer was on paid leave.
“We condemn the offensive language used by a CUNY officer,” College of Staten Island spokesperson David Pizzuto says in a statement. “His words don’t reflect the values of the College of Staten Island or the 50 officers on our Public Safety staff. The officer has been suspended pending a full review of the incident, and we will take further action as appropriate.”
France’s Strasbourg indefinitely postpones Israeli film festival amid Gaza war
STRASBOURG, France — An Israeli film festival in the eastern French city of Strasbourg has been indefinitely postponed as the Gaza war rages, authorities say.
The Shalom Europa festival has been hosted in the city for 15 years and was scheduled to be held from June 16 to June 20. But France has reported an increased number of antisemitic attacks since the Hamas-led October 7 terror attack on Israel that started the Gaza war.
The city council doesn’t give a reason for the postponement but says Strasbourg “has always supported the Shalom Europa festival and will continue to do so. It promises to help hold the festival on a date that is opportune for the organizers.”
The Israeli community group that organizes the event did not reply to AFP requests for comment.
The Shalom Europa festival says on its Facebook page that “events” had forced the decision to hold the event at a “calmer” time, adding that “The safety and well-being of our participants is our absolute priority.”
The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.
On May 17, French police shot dead a man who set fire to a synagogue in the northern city of Rouen.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
After ‘rocky start,’ UN says Gaza aid delivery operation from US pier has stabilized
Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid from the United Arab Emirates and the United States Agency for International Development cross the Trident Pier before entering the beach in Gaza, May 17, 2024. (Staff Sgt. Malcolm Cohens-Ashley/US Army Central via AP)
UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations says that after “a rocky start” the operation to deliver aid that arrived from a US-built pier is stabilized and 97 trucks made it to the World Food Program warehouse though some had been looted.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric tells reporters that the looting – which he called hungry people self-distributing aid – took place in the first two days.
The first aid transported by sea that used the US floating dock arrived on Friday. But on Saturday, 11 of the 16 trucks in an aid convoy were stripped of food and other humanitarian items en route to a UN World Food Program warehouse in Deir Al-Balah.
Operations were halted on Sunday and Monday but resumed Tuesday and Dujarric says WFP found various other routes to get to the warehouse, where 97 trucks have arrived. No trucks were lost, he stresses.
From the warehouse, he says, WFP has notified UN agencies, non-UN agencies and international humanitarian organizations that the goods can be picked up for delivery to needy Palestinians. Some food has also been sent to large feeding kitchens, he says.
“I think the operation is very much stabilized,” Dujarric says.
But he stresses that deliveries via the US floating dock, while helpful, cannot replace what the UN wants to see – massive aid coming into Gaza through land routes.
US says Blinken spoke with Gantz, reiterated Biden’s position on Rafah operation
War cabinet minister Benny Gantz, right, meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv, March 22, 2024. (Courtesy)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated President Joe Biden position on “a major Rafah operation” when he spoke with Israeli Minister Benny Gantz on Friday, the US State Department says.
The readout comes after the International Court of Justice ruling on Rafah echoes remarks by a White House spokesperson, with the administration yet to give a detailed response to the court’s decision.
Blinken also discussed importance of Israel and Egypt concluding talks to reopen Rafah the crossing as soon as possible, the department says.
There is no immediate statement from Gantz’s office on the call.
White House on ICJ ruling: Our position on Rafah is ‘clear and consistent’
In response to Friday’s International Court of Justice ruling, a White House National Security Council spokesperson says that “we’ve been clear and consistent on our position on Rafah,” without elaborating.
The significant but somewhat ambiguous ICJ ruling calls on Israel to halt military operations in Rafah that would risk the destruction of the civilian population sheltering there. According to the interpretation of four judges, the order is a limited one instructing Israel not to violate the Genocide Convention in Rafah, not halt its military operations there altogether.
The US administration has repeatedly stated it opposes a major Israeli offensive in Rafah, with President Joe Biden pausing a shipment of bombs over concerns Israel might use them as part of the operation, while National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said this week that Israel’s military activities have not reached the level Washington warned against.
IDF says rocket barrage fired from Lebanon at northern towns, causing damage but no injuries
A barrage of some 20 rockets was launched from Lebanon at northern Israel about an hour ago, the military says.
Several rockets struck Manara and Dovev, causing damage but no injuries.
The IDF says it shelled the launch sites.
Additional, a “suspicious aerial target” was intercepted by air defenses over the northern community of Dishon, the military says.
Separately, fighter jets struck several buildings used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Souaneh and Ramyeh, and other infrastructure in Yaroun; and a drone hit a group of Hezbollah operatives in Hanine, the military adds.
The IDF publishes footage of the latter strike.
לפני זמן קצר מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו מספר מבנים צבאיים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחבים א-צוונה ורמיה, לצד תשתית טרור של הארגון במרחב יארון.
כלי טיס של חיל האוויר תקף מחבלים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב חנין שבדרום לבנון>> pic.twitter.com/ojhL9dSgTo
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 24, 2024
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