Nov. 10: US official calls on Lebanon to end ‘malign influence of Iran through Hezbollah’

Trump says he will make ‘some announcements on Syria’ after White House meeting with Sharaa

US President Donald Trump says he will be making “some announcements on Syria” following his Monday White House meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Trump doesn’t elaborate on the content of those pending announcements when asked about a potential deal between Israel and Syria.

“We want to see Syria become a country that’s very successful, and I think this leader (Sharaa) can do it. People said he’s had a rough past. We’ve all had rough pasts, but… if you didn’t have a rough past, you wouldn’t have a chance,” Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office, referring to Sharaa’s previous position as the head of an Islamist rebel group affiliated with Al-Qaeda.

Trump notes that Sharaa gets along “gets along very well” with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is “a great leader.”

“We’re working also with Israel on getting along with Syria, getting along with everybody, and that’s working amazingly,” Trump says.

He then points out that Hamas has returned “numerous bodies” of deceased hostages in recent days.

“They worked very hard to do that. So we have peace in the Middle East,” Trump says.

John Cleese cancels planned Israel shows as his tone on country turns sour

British comedian and actor John Cleese has cancels his scheduled performances in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The Israeli production company behind the planned performances states that the reason for the cancellation was threats from the BDS movement.

For the last several days, the comedian has been reposting anti-Israel comments and media on his X account, including false claims, a video of actor Mandy Patinkin raging against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and actor Mark Ruffalo railing against his Jewish friends. Cleese was previously not known to have a stance particularly critical of Israel, and performed there a few years ago.

Alon York Productions issues a statement, noting that all tickets to Cleese’s shows in Israel had been sold out.

Cleese had already postponed his trip to Israel from June to November, following the war with Iran.

He had been scheduled to perform four shows, one in Jerusalem and three in Tel Aviv, from November 26 to December 1.

Lawmakers approve bill on death penalty for terrorists in its first reading

Lawmakers vote 39-16 in favor of the first reading of the controversial government-backed bill to impose the death penalty on terrorists who have killed Israelis.

Two other death penalty bills, sponsored by Likud MK Nissim Vaturi and Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer, also pass 36-15 and 37-14.

Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech’s bill stipulates that Israeli courts must impose the death penalty on those who have committed a nationalistically motivated murder of a citizen of Israel, while allowing judges serving on military courts in the West Bank to sentence offenders to death with a simple majority, rather than unanimous decision. The bill would also remove the possibility of regional military commanders commuting such sentences.

The bill states that it applies to those who kill Israelis due to “racism” and “with the aim of harming the State of Israel and the revival of the Jewish people in its land,” leading to criticism that it would apply only to Arabs who kill Jews and not to Jewish terrorists.

“Today, we took a historic step towards true justice and strengthening deterrence against terrorism. The death penalty law for terrorists, which passed its first reading, is a moral and national expression of a people that refuses to accept a reality in which murderers of Jews live in prison and expect deals,” says Har-Melech.

The bill will now be referred to committee to be prepared for the final two readings it must pass to become law. After the vote on Har-Melech’s bill, Otzma Yehudit chairman and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir begins handing out baklavas until they are confiscated by Knesset ushers. The handing out of baklavas has sometimes been seen on Palestinian streets when rejoicing in deadly attacks on Israelis, and has become synonymous in Israel with the celebration of such murderous violence.

הצעת חוק עונש מוות למחבלים אושרה בקריאה ראשונה, בן גביר חילק בקלאוות במליאה pic.twitter.com/A6Yfaq53GK

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) November 10, 2025

“Those who murdered, raped, and kidnapped our sons and daughters do not deserve to see the light of day, and their sentence should be death,” Ben Gvir says in a statement. “The death penalty law is not only a moral and just step, but also critical to the security of the state.”

Except for Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party, which voted in favor, the votes were largely boycotted by the opposition, with all of Blue and White and all but one of Yesh Atid’s MKs staying away.

Among the Haredi parties, United Torah Judaism’s Degel HaTorah faction pledged to oppose the bill. All but two of Shas’s lawmakers missed the late night vote.

Three Arab MKs removed from Knesset plenum as fights erupt over death penalty bill

Three Arab lawmakers were removed from the Knesset plenum during the debate on the controversial government-backed bill to mandate the death penalty for terrorists.

United Arab List (Ra’am) MK Waleed Taha was removed from the rostrum after an angry verbal exchange with coalition lawmakers who attempted to shout him down during a speech slamming the proposed law and accusing Israel of killing Palestinian civilians.

Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh — who screamed that “the occupation will end and a Palestinian state will be established” — was then removed following a confrontation with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose Otzma Yehudit party is behind the bill. The two traded insults, with Odeh calling Ben Gvir a terrorist. Ben Gvir then got up and approached Odeh, who was hustled away by security.

During a subsequent heated confrontation between Arab and far-right lawmakers, Hadash-Ta’al lawmaker Ahmad Tibi was also kicked out of the plenum by Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech, who was chairing the debate and is the sponsor of the bill.

תיעוד: בן גביר ועודה התעמתו, משמר הכנסת התערב

במהלך דיון על חוק עונש מוות למחבלים התעמת השר איתמר בן גביר עם הח"כים הערבים וסדרני הכנסת נאלצו להפריד בינו לבין ח"כ איימן עודה pic.twitter.com/uA9QxyTOOS

— ערוץ 7 (@arutz7heb) November 10, 2025

Trump says US working with Israel to get along with Syria

US President Donald Trump tells reporters, “You can expect some announcements on Syria,” following his Monday White House meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Trump doesn’t elaborate on the content of those pending announcements in response to a question about a potential deal between Israel and Syria.

“We want to see Syria become a country that’s very successful, and I think this leader (Sharaa) can do it. People said he’s had a rough past. We’ve all had rough pasts, but… if you didn’t have a rough past, you wouldn’t have a chance,” Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office, referring to Sharaa’s previous position as the head of an Islamist rebel group affiliated with Al-Qaeda.

Trump notes that Sharaa gets along “gets along very well” with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is “a great leader.”

“We’re working also with Israel on getting along with Syria, getting along with everybody, and that’s working amazingly,” Trump says.

He then points out that Hamas has returned “numerous bodies” of deceased hostages in recent days.

“They worked very hard to do that. So we have peace in the Middle East,” Trump says.

IDF holds wide-scale drill in West Bank

The IDF this morning began a pre-planned wide-scale drill in the West Bank involving both the Judea and Samaria Division, and the newly established 96th “Gilad” Division, the latter of which is tasked with the Jordanian border.

The exercise, which is due to end on Wednesday, is simulating various scenarios and also involves the Israeli Air Force, Technological and Logistics Directorate, and other IDF units, the military says.

The IDF has warned that there will be an increased movement of troops — including those acting as an opposing force — vehicles, and aircraft during the exercise.

MK Gilad Kariv: Death penalty bill will lead to an increase in terror attacks

The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv slams efforts to pass a pair of bills imposing the death penalty on terrorists, telling the Knesset that the controversial legislation is “unbefitting a state that seeks to be part of the civilized family of nations.”

“Regarding the Jewish legal position on the death penalty — Jewish law does not allow the imposition of a death sentence by a mere single-vote majority. This proposed law creates a dramatic distinction between one court and another, as if taking a terrorist criminal’s life could depend on whether his case is tried in a military court or a civilian one,” Kariv, a Reform rabbi, argues.

The proposed bill stipulates that Israeli courts must impose the death penalty on those who have committed a nationalistically motivated murder of a citizen of Israel, while allowing judges serving on military courts in the West Bank to sentence offenders to death with a simple majority rather than unanimous decision.

In Jewish law, capital cases are never judged by a tribunal of three judges, but for the bill’s backers, “Judaism is a source of inspiration only when it is convenient to promote extremist positions,” he argues.

“This proposed law will not lead to deterrence — it will lead to an inflation of hostage-taking attacks. It will lead to an increase in terror attacks. This bill will bring about dramatic international pressure at a time when the State of Israel is already on the edge.”

Yisrael Beytenu MK backs death penalty for terror: ‘Our goal is to create a true deterrent’

Addressing lawmakers, Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer calls for the Knesset to support his own bill seeking the death penalty for terrorists.

Noting that former Palestinian police officer Raed Sheikh, who was part of a Palestinian mob that lynched two Israelis in a Ramallah police station in 2000, was freed as part of the recent hostage release and ceasefire deal, Forer calls the passage of a death penalty law “an issue that directly concerns Israel’s security.”

“Our goal is to create a true deterrent [and] not a process in which we tell terrorists: ‘Go ahead and murder — you’ll be caught and later freed in another deal,'” he says.

“Had this law been approved before October 2023, maybe someone would have thought twice before doing what they did. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you I’m certain this proposal will reach its second and third readings. I’ve already seen the prime minister stop this legislation several times,” Forer continues.

“But I hope — and I say this as an opposition [lawmaker] — that this bill that I submitted will be approved today in its first reading. Yet it’s not enough to approve it once; we must move quickly to the second and third readings, and complete the legislation, so that every participant in acts of terror knows his fate will not be among the living.”

Citing her husband’s murder, MK lobbies for death penalty for terrorists

In an impassioned speech, Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech calls on lawmakers to vote in favor of a government-backed bill that would impose the death penalty on terrorists who have killed Israelis.

Har-Melech’s bill stipulates that Israeli courts must impose the death penalty on those who have committed a nationalistically motivated murder of a citizen of Israel, while allowing judges serving on military courts in the West Bank to sentence offenders to death with a simple majority rather than unanimous decision. The bill would also remove the possibility of regional military commanders commuting such sentences.

The bill states that it applies to those who kill Israelis due to “racism” and “with the aim of harming the State of Israel and the revival of the Jewish people in its land,” leading to criticism that it would apply only to Arabs who kill Jews and not to Jewish terrorists.

Paraphrasing former attorney general Gideon Hausner at the opening of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Har-Melech says that standing with her “are thousands of murder victims, but they cannot stand on their feet to point an accusing finger at the loathsome murderers and to cry out against the Palestinian terrorists — I accuse them.”

The far-right lawmaker says that she came to speak on behalf of “all the victims of Palestinian terror,” describing how she was moved to follow her current path following the murder of her husband in a terror attack in 2003.

“I stand here on behalf of an entire people who see the murderers of their nation released in deals [and] received [at home] as heroes,” she says. “At that moment, I promised myself that from now on my life’s mission would be to do everything in my power so that others would not join our bereaved family.”

The terrorist who led the cell that murdered Har-Melech’s husband Shalom went on to take part in other attacks, including October 7 — although two others implicated in the attack were released as part of the latest ceasefire deal, she says, asking how many people would have been saved had they been executed.

“And what about Yahya Sinwar — may his name and memory be blotted out — and the rest of his leadership in Hamas, many of whom were released in prisoner exchanges,” she continues, arguing that “the death penalty for terrorists is our personal and national duty.”

“When the message is unequivocal, without loopholes and without equivocation, the death penalty for terrorists law changes perception. It changes the paradigm. No more prisons. No more deals. No more suspended sentences. But a death sentence. Because it’s very simple: when a terrorist dies, he does not return to the circle of terror and will not be released alive,” she argues.

“No more mercy, no more hesitation. We choose life, and whoever chooses death will bear the consequences of his actions.”

Coalition lawmakers May Golan, Tally Gotliv, and Michal Woldiger hug her after her remarks.

Zangauker recalls jeering Gaza crowds beating him: ‘Children, women, elderly; with stones, with pipes’

In his interview with Channel 12, Matan Zangauker recalls his first moments of being dragged into Gaza by terrorists on October 7, and being attacked by jeering crowds.

“I arrive on the streets of Gaza, and I see children, women, adults, elderly people, standing right there in a long line, with sticks, with stones, with pipes. They start hitting me. They really start striking me.”

He recounts hunger and abuse while in captivity.

“There were days when they told us there wasn’t much food. They would give us half a pita each, and after half an hour, they would make food for themselves. You’d smell eggplant, tomato — they really pampered themselves. They would cook rice for themselves. At the beginning, they had meat. We wouldn’t get any of it.

“We were in a small cage, with two mattresses. One tiny, miserable blanket. The dampness, the smells — it was really disgusting. You weren’t allowed to get up. If you did, you’d get shouted at, and it could even get physical.”

He says he was often moved by his captors from place to place and dressed up as a Gazan to blend into the population.

“My mind wasn’t really functioning in those days. I was always thinking about my family, about [my girlfriend] Ilana. I didn’t think about myself or about the situation I was in. I was thinking about what was happening outside. That’s what interested and occupied me during those days. The fear was immense. You don’t know what they’ll do to you, whether they’ll execute you or keep you in that condition.”

He says his captors promised that he and other hostages would not be rescued by troops alive.

“They really emphasized that: ‘Either you leave here in a deal, or you don’t leave at all.’ They said that if the IDF tried to rescue us, they would simply shoot us and we’d all die together.”

Matan Zangauker: My mom saved me; there are moments I don’t truly process that I’m home

In an interview with Channel 12 news, released hostage Matan Zangauker says: “My mom saved me. I am here thanks to my mom. She turned the world upside down. She truly turned the world upside down for her son, for me.”

Matan’s mother Einav was vocal and relentless in her campaign for the release of the hostages since October 7, 2023, leading weekly boisterous rallies demanding a deal to free the captives.

Zangauker, who was freed last month after two years in captivity, recounts that at one point a Hamas commander came into the tunnel in which he was held and said: “‘You’re Zangauker, right?’ I told him, ‘Yes, why?’ He said, ‘Your mother is protesting, she has shaken up the whole country.’ That made me very happy. It really strengthened me on a personal level. I thought, ‘My mother is fine; if she’s going out of the house and doing things, it’s better than sitting at home being depressed.’ So I was very glad to hear that, it helped me a lot.

“My mother has always been a lioness, always. She’s always conquered the world and succeeded. She got everything we needed, everything we wanted. She was always independent, always taking care of us — a real lioness.”

״אמא שלי הצילה אותי, בלב שלי אני יודע שאני כאן בזכות אמא שלי, עם ישראל והחיילים הגיבורים שלנו״.

מתן צנגאוקר, גיבור!!!! pic.twitter.com/ENAYxEDJBF

— הדר סגל Hadar Segal ???????? (@hadarse) November 10, 2025

Matan adds: “There are moments when I really can’t grasp that I’m here. Whether it’s while driving, or even just before going to sleep in bed. There are moments when I don’t truly process that I’m home. I pinch myself and wake up. I come back to reality.”

Police arrest 3 soccer players on suspicion of raping American tourist

Police arrested three young men from Netanya earlier today on suspicion of raping an American tourist in Tel Aviv earlier this month, law enforcement announces.

The suspects, all in their 20s, are soccer players in Israel’s lower leagues, Channel 12 reports.

Moshe Meroz, a defense attorney for one of the suspects, tells the outlet that his client denies the allegations and insists that “everything was done with consent. There was no rape.”

The three suspects will be brought before the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court for a hearing on extending their remand, police say.

Israel lashes Norway after PM attends Kristallnacht memorial organized by anti-Israel groups

The Foreign Ministry summons Norway’s Ambassador Per Egil Selvaag for a diplomatic dressing down after Norway’s prime minister participates in a Kristallnacht memorial event organized by anti-Israel groups, including the Norway Centre Against Racism, the Norwegian Palestine Committee, and the Action Group for Palestine.

“The participation of the Norwegian prime minister in this particular event, despite explicit requests from the leadership of the Jewish community in Norway not to do so, due to concerns that the event could become a platform for promoting antisemitism, is particularly troubling in its insensitivity and moral distortion,” the Foreign Ministry says in a statement.

Yossi Amrani, head of the ministry’s Political Division, tells Selvaag that Norway’s policies toward Israel fuel antisemitism, and says the anniversary of the 1938 pogrom against German Jews was “turned into a weapon against the Jewish state, its citizens, and the Jewish people as a whole.”

I kveld gjorde Jonas Gahr Støre en grov feilvurdering…
Da han skulle markere Krystallnatten, valgte han nazistenes side og ikke jødene – som vitterlig var ofrene på Krystallnatten.
Dette er faktisk skammelig! ????????
—— pic.twitter.com/QmydrKZ0Fp

— Egil Andreas Aasheim ???????????????????? (@eaaasheim) November 9, 2025

“Israel expects European countries to demonstrate moral integrity, reject antisemitism in all its forms, oppose historical distortion, and take a firm stand against attempts to delegitimize or deny the legitimacy of Israel,” says the ministry.

Selvaag lived in Bat Yam in his youth, and has deep personal connections to Israel.

After ToI revelation of PA’s ongoing prisoner payments, Sa’ar says Abbas trying ‘to fool world’

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to fire his finance minister over illicit payments to security prisoners is insufficient, claiming that Ramallah is trying to “fool the world.”

“Dismissing the Palestinian Authority’s finance minister will not absolve the dismisser, Mahmoud Abbas, and the PA, of their complicity in pay-for-slay and responsibility for the ongoing payments to terrorists and their families,” Sa’ar writes on X, following a revelation by The Times of Israel that PA Finance Minister Omar Bitar signed off on payments to some prisoners based on the length of their sentences, even though Abbas had ordered the cessation of that practice.

Abbas’s office announced earlier that PA Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Estephan Salameh had replaced Omar Bitar as finance minister, without providing a reason for the move.

A Palestinian official and a second source familiar with the matter said Bitar’s dismissal followed an internal investigation revealing that he authorized payments to some Palestinian security prisoners outside the new system that the PA established earlier this year, which conditioned those welfare stipends strictly on financial need, rather than the length of one’s sentence.

US Supreme Court rejects bid to overturn same-sex marriage right

The US Supreme Court rejects a bid by a former Kentucky county official to overturn its landmark 2015 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, as the justices steer clear of the contentious case some 3-1/2 years after its conservative majority reversed abortion rights.

The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, turns away an appeal by Kim Davis, the former Rowan County clerk who was sued by a gay couple after refusing to issue any marriage licenses following the 2015 decision that recognized a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Davis has said same-sex marriage conflicts with her religious beliefs as an Apostolic Christian.

Davis appealed after lower courts rejected her claim that the US Constitution’s First Amendment right to free exercise of religion shields her from liability in the case. Davis was ordered to pay more than $360,000 in damages and legal fees for violating the same-sex couple’s right to marry.

The 2015 ruling in the case called Obergefell v. Hodges represented a historic victory for LGBT rights in the United States. It declared that the Constitution’s guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law means states cannot ban same-sex marriages.

“The Supreme Court’s denial of review confirms what we already knew: same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, and Kim Davis’s denial of marriage licenses in defiance of Obergefell plainly violated that right,” say William Powell, an attorney representing the plaintiffs.

“This is a win for same-sex couples everywhere who have built their families and lives around the right to marry,” Powell adds.

US official calls on Lebanon to end ‘malign influence of Iran through Hezbollah’

A US official visiting Lebanon calls on its authorities to end “the malign influence of Iran through Hezbollah,” adding that his country is determined to cut off Tehran’s funding of the Islamist terror group.

“We think the key for the Lebanese people getting their country back is ending the malign influence of Iran through Hezbollah in Lebanon,” deputy director for counter-terrorism John Hurley tells journalists.

The US “administration is very serious about cutting off Iran’s funding” to Hezbollah, he adds.

Hurley is part of a delegation led by Sebastian Gorka, Washington’s counterterrorism director, which has been meeting Lebanese officials since Sunday.

A Lebanese official who requested anonymity to speak freely, tells AFP that the delegation delivered a “clear and firm” message on the need to actively fight against Hezbollah’s funding sources.

According to the US Treasury, Iran has transferred more than $1 billion to the group since January.

Indian capital car blast kills at least eight

A car blast in the bustling heart of the Indian capital has killed at least eight people and injured another 19, officials say.

Police have not given details on the cause, but say that forensic and anti-terrorism agencies are at the site, near the landmark Red Fort.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offers his condolences to the families of those killed, and says he has “reviewed the situation” with Home Minister Amit Shah and other officials.

The blast took place in the early evening, as people returned from work, close to a metro station in the crowded Old Delhi quarter of the city.

Ambulances streamed into a nearby public hospital, carrying several injured people, AFP reporters say.

Citing authorities at the hospital, New Delhi’s deputy chief fire officer AK Malik tells AFP that “eight people have died so far and 19 are injured.”

IDF chief says he supports external commission of inquiry into Oct. 7

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says he supports an external commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7, after the military investigated its own probes.

“The expert team’s report presented today is a significant step toward a comprehensive understanding, one required of us as a society and as a system,” Zamir says in remarks released by the IDF alongside the findings of a panel of experts that looked into the IDF’s October 7 investigations.

“However, to ensure that such failures never happen again, a broader understanding is needed, one that includes inter-organizational and inter-level interfaces that have not yet been examined,” he says.

“For this purpose, a wide and comprehensive systemic investigation is now required,” Zamir adds.

Despite polls consistently showing a substantial majority of Israelis want a state commission of inquiry to be established, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition have rejected attempts to establish one. They say a commission should only be set up after the war is concluded, and reject a state commission appointed by the Supreme Court chief, claiming it would be biased against them.

Investigative panel appointed by IDF chief finds most of army’s Oct. 7 probes inadequate

Most of the Israel Defense Force’s top-tier investigations into its failures on and ahead of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror onslaught are inadequate, with some considered to be unacceptable, a panel of former senior military officers determined.

The IDF’s October 7 investigations were led by former chief of staff Herzi Halevi. In one of his first decisions upon entering the role in March, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir appointed the external panel to further examine those probes. The panel was tasked with evaluating the IDF’s top-level investigations, overseeing implementation of findings, and recommending repeat investigations or additions to probes if necessary.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Sami Turgeman, a former head of the Southern Command, headed the panel, which included ex-Navy chief Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit, ex-IAF chief Maj. Gen. (res.) Amikam Norkin, and other retired senior officers.

In total, the panel reviewed 24 General Staff-level investigations, along with one tactical investigation — the attack on the Nova music festival, due to its massive scope and context for the top-tier probes.

Of the 24 top-tier investigations, Turgeman’s team found 10 to be “green,” meaning they were “professional, comprehensive, and enable learning and progress.” The findings of these investigations are set to be implemented in the IDF.

Nine of the General Staff-level probes, along with the Nova festival investigation, were classified as “orange,” meaning they “provide a solid factual foundation, but do not identify the points of failure or the necessary changes.” These investigations require various additions before their findings can be implemented in the military.

And the last five were classified as “red,” meaning “unsatisfactory.”

For example, the IDF’s strategy vis-à-vis Gaza and the Operations Division’s investigations were listed as “red” because the commanders who led those probes were not suited for the job, according to Turgeman’s team. In both cases, the officers who led the investigations were relatively junior, and therefore the panel found the probes to be unprofessional.

The probe into the decision-making process on the night between October 6 and 7 was also not considered up to the standards of a military investigation. However, in contrast, the probe that looked into the intelligence on the eve of October 7, was listed as “green.”

While the Navy’s investigation provided an accurate and detailed account of what happened on the morning of October 7, it was listed as “red” because it had no conclusions that could be implemented, Turgeman’s team found.

Visiting Zambia, Herzog says Israel wants ‘nothing more than peace with Palestinians’

President Isaac Herzog met his Zambian counterpart, Hakainde Hichilema, in Lusaka today, becoming the first Israeli president to visit the southern African country.

While meeting with Hichilema, Herzog commented on regional matters, stating that, “We want peace. We seek peace. There is nothing we want more than peace with our Palestinian neighbors,” according to a readout from his office.

The president adds that Israel has faced a “terrible period” since the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, noting that the atrocity “claimed the lives of citizens from many nations, including from African countries,” and that, only last week, Hamas released the remains of slain Tanzanian hostage Joshua Loitu Mollel.

“We wish to continue moving forward toward dialogue and stability,” Herzog says, but calls first for the return of the remaining four slain hostages held in Gaza.

In a post on X, Herzog thanks Zambia for its “deep friendship and their solidarity with the people of Israel,” adding that the two countries share a bond “reflected in cooperation across many fields including innovation, science, health, food security, and water management, as well as tourism, investments, and advancing potential trade.”

The president hails “a new chapter of bilateral relations” with Lusaka, saying that Israel seeks “to alleviate the man-made and natural humanitarian crises in Africa.”

In August, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar opened an Israeli embassy in Lusaka, over three decades after Israel and Zambia reestablished ties, as part of ongoing efforts to expand and deepen Israel’s ties with African countries.

Bennett blasts Netanyahu’s ‘fake’ inquiry plan, vows to cancel it ‘on first day’

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for seeking to establish a “fake commission,” after the premier tells lawmakers that he wants to “establish a commission of inquiry based on broad agreement” to probe the failures of October 7, rather than a traditional state commission of inquiry.

The families of the fallen “deserve answers about this enormous failure,” he declares in a statement. “I now hear that the government wants to establish a kind of fake commission whose members it appoints — even though this same government bears immense responsibility for this disaster.

“Therefore, I say here as clearly as possible: On the first day of the government that we will form, we will cancel any circus committee that is established, and we will create a state commission of inquiry to investigate the failure of the October 7 massacre,” Bennett adds.

Lapid rejects Netanyahu’s criticism of the 2022 maritime deal with Lebanon

Hitting back at criticism from Opposition Leader Yair Lapid during the 40-signature debate in the Knesset, Prime Minister Netanyahu declares that his government has “changed the face of the Middle East.”

Netanyahu slams Lapid for having “surrendered” and handed Israel’s natural gas to Lebanon, a reference the a 2022 US-brokered maritime deal with Lebanon intended to end a long-running dispute over some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea, covering Israel’s Karish and Lebanon’s Qana gas fields.

“You gave Nasrallah the gas fields and we eliminated Nasrallah. That’s the difference between us. You complain about the composition of the government. You formed a government with the Muslim Brotherhood,” Netanyahu asserts — referring to the inclusion of the Islamist Ra’am party in Lapid’s short-lived government.

“I say that the people want leadership that guarantees the security, existence, and future of the State of Israel,” Netanyahu declares.

Lapid pushes back against criticism of the maritime deal, stating that Netanyahu had himself “agreed to a discussion on border amendments between Israel and Lebanon” before that deal was made.

“You talk about people having to vote for you because of security? …You brought the greatest disaster on the people of Israel since the Holocaust,” he continues.

Siblings of Hadar Goldin thank Israeli nation for support

Ayelet Goldin, Chemi Goldin, and Tzur Goldin, the three siblings of Hadar Goldin, make a statement outside their parents’ Kfar Saba home ahead of tomorrow morning’s funeral for their brother, the fallen soldier whose body was brought home after 11 years of captivity in Gaza.

“Before the funeral tomorrow, I want to stop and say thank you to the Israeli nation,” says Ayelet. “Without you, Hadar wouldn’t be home.”

She says the fact that her brother was able to be returned after 11 years proves that Hamas knows where all the hostages are located.

She says there is no other option than to bring home every hostage, including the four still remaining in Gaza.

“These are Israel’s values. This is Israel. This is us,” she says.

She thanks all those who went out to protest with signs, those who made signs, those who stood at intersections and the Hostages Forum that organized every rally.

“We see the huge embrace of Israel from all over. It proves to us that Israeli society is in the right mindset, and we will recover,” she says.

Syrian president meets Trump at White House

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa meets US President Donald Trump at the White House for unprecedented talks just days after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist.

“The president of Syria arrived at the White House… The meeting between President Trump and President al-Sharaa has also started,” the White House says in a statement.

Lapid says Netanyahu will ‘never’ be able to shirk responsibility for Oct. 7

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing to establish a state commission of inquiry into October 7, painting him as a leader who avoids responsibility while seeking to benefit his family.

Addressing lawmakers following the prime minister during a 40-signature debate in the Knesset, Lapid notes the recent effort to appoint Netanyahu’s son Yair to a senior position at the World Zionist Organization.

“There was even a comical moment, when the prime minister said, ‘I didn’t know about it.’ Because it’s entirely plausible that a minister in the government would try to arrange a job for the prime minister’s son, but he probably forgot to tell the prime minister about it,” he says.

“On your watch, no one takes responsibility, no one says: ‘I apologize,’ ‘I’m ashamed,’ ‘It’s terrible, I know that if I’m at the head of the system, the responsibility is mine,'” Lapid continues, turning to Netanyahu’s refusal to establish a state commission of inquiry.

“It doesn’t occur to you. Someone who didn’t take responsibility for October 7, for the greatest disaster in our history, a disaster that happened on his watch, why would he take responsibility for something else?” Lapid asks — pledging, “We will never forget.”

“Anyone who was in a leadership position on October 7, 2023, cannot and will never be able to remove responsibility and blame from themselves. They need to go,” Lapid insists.

The heads of the IDF, Shin Bet and Defense Ministry have all gone, leaving only Netanyahu, “the one who really headed the system on October 7 and ignored all the warnings,” he adds.

Lapid asserts that this is why Netanyahu is doing everything he can to prevent the establishment of a powerful inquiry committee, because “there will be no escaping the truth: and the truth is that you are responsible and you are guilty and you need to go.”

The opposition leader also slams the government for supporting a bill aimed at regulating the enlistment of yeshiva students, asserting that it was in effect drafted by the ultra-Orthodox Shas party “in such a way that not a single Haredi person will enlist.”

Keeping the Haredim out of the army and workforce costs the government tens of billions of shekels a year and drafting them would provide a real solution to cost of living problems, he contends.

“Soon there will be a normal, efficient, functioning, and non-corrupt government here that will deal with what’s really important,” such as lowering the cost of living, he concludes.

“I know what you’re thinking — you think the public no longer cares. You don’t understand that it’s the opposite. The reason no one is shocked by anything anymore is because everyone knows what you are. Everyone understands — even your supporters — that this government is corrupt and rotten to the core,” he says.

“That’s what will bring you down: the public’s realization that everything is rotten. Nothing works, except your corruption operations. This is not a government for the good of the country — it’s a group of people who know the end is near, so each one is rushing to grab as much as he can before leaving the stage.”

Citing US’s 9/11 probe, Netanyahu says he wants to ‘establish inquiry commission with broad public support’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking in the Knesset, argues that many in the Israeli public would not accept the makeup of a state commission of inquiry into October 7, as it would be appointed by the Supreme Court, distrusted by many on the right.

Netanyahu says his government “wants to establish a commission of inquiry with as broad public support as possible,” and not one rejected by what he claims is “at least half the country.”

Polls have actually indicated consistently that a clear majority of Israelis support a state commission.

“It has to be a balanced commission that will hear everyone, will investigate everyone, and that will earn the greatest possible public trust.” he says.

“The only way to ensure public trust in the commission’s work is through broad agreement on its composition,” he says. “The commission of inquiry we establish must be based on representation of all parts of the nation, not only a part of it, or at least the great majority of it.”

He says the critical question is whether it is possible to create a commission based on broad national consensus.

Netanyahu points to the commission created to investigate the 9/11 attacks on New York as a model. “The American people wanted to understand how such an event occurred. Under whom did the event occur? Who has responsibility for the event?”

“They did something different,” he says. “They established a bipartisan commission. A national investigation commission shared equally by Republicans and Democrats.

“Both sides of the political divide cooperated fully to learn lessons for the good of the country. No one tried to use the commission as a political tool.”

Israel, he says, “must establish a commission of inquiry based on broad agreement.”

“I will be the first to stand before it and answer every question,” he adds.

“But I will not be the only one who answers the questions,” he continues. “Everyone will be asked, and everyone will have to respond.”

“Let’s investigate what happened,” he says. “Let’s investigate who did what, in the diplomatic realm, in the security realm, in the early-warning realm. All of these things must be investigated, but they must be investigated not by a panel that more than half of the public believes has pre-written conclusions.”

Critics claim Netanyahu wishes to establish a governmental committee over whose makeup he will have greater control, and with lesser powers than a state commission, which they argue would hinder its ability to reach the truth.

Netanyahu says leaking of video ostensibly showing abuse of prisoners at Sde Teiman marks ‘a terrible libel’

Speaking at the Knesset, Netanyahu calls the leaking of a video ostensibly showing abuse against prisoners in the IDF’s Sde Teiman detention center has caused “a terrible libel.”

He says it has caused “indescribable damage to Israel and to the IDF.”

He says the video has been viewed over 100 million times worldwide, and prompted allegations that Israel runs concentration camps and comparisons of Israeli soldiers to Nazis.

“Difficult questions are being brought up,” he says, “very difficult questions.”

“Those charged with finding out the truth used their power to pervert the truth,” he charges, saying they gave ammunition to Israel’s worst enemies.

Former IDF military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned from her post and admitted to leaking a surveillance video that purported to show troops severely abusing a Gazan detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel last year.

He says that the video was “edited” and suggests this was done to skew its content.

There has so far been no credible evidence that the video was inauthentic, and several soldiers have been indicted on charges of abuse in the case.

Netanyahu calls for an investigation into the Sde Teiman affair. “The question isn’t only what to investigate, and not only who is investigated, the critical question is who investigates the truth,” he says.

Netanyahu: War has not ended, those who seek to do us harm are re-arming

The war “has not ended,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stresses in an address to the Knesset.

“Those who seek to do us harm are re-arming. They did not give up their aim of destroying us.”

Hamas “will be disarmed,” he promises. “Gaza will be demilitarized. It will either happen the easy way, or it will happen the hard way. But it will happen.”

Netanyahu hints that Israel is growing closer to “more states in the region” than it ever has, and says that the public will hear more about it.

He insists Israel wants “real peace,” while needing to keep “the sword of David” in its hands.

He decries those on the far-left, Islamic extremists, some on the far-right and some in the media internationally who want to claim that Israel is a Goliath, and are depicting Israel as a destructive force and its enemies as a David.

“We are the David,” he says, highlighting those trying to destroy Israel as an Iranian-led Goliath.

Israel is proving victorious, “and we have no intention of apologizing for that,” he says.

Netanyahu: Israel will enforce ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon ‘with an iron fist’

Israel is determined to enforce the ceasefire agreements in Gaza and Lebanon “with an iron fist,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in an address to the Knesset plenum, adding “of course, only as long as they exist.”

“You can see what is happening every day in Lebanon,” he says of near-daily Israeli strikes against Hezbollah.

Netanyahu says that military pressure on Hamas and the IDF operation in Gaza City “along with the addition of diplomatic pressure to isolate Hamas that was applied by the US, this combined pressure allowed us to bring home all the living hostages, and the vast majority of the fallen hostages.”

“We prevented a grievous surrender” by not giving in to domestic and international pressure, argues Netanyahu, accusing the opposition of pushing for a deal that would have amounted to a capitulation to Hamas. “Doing it your way, [the hostages] would not have come back, but worse than that, Hamas would be preparing for the next kidnappings,” he tells the opposition.

Israel “is determined to bring back the four slain hostages left in Gaza,” he promises, naming the three Israelis but not the slain Thai citizen.

Critics, including the families of hostages, have argued that a deal for the release of all hostages could have been agreed earlier, saving the lives of many hostages who were killed in captivity.

40-year-old man shot and killed in Nazareth

A 40-year-old man was shot and killed while driving his car in Nazareth this evening, police say.

The shooting left a 38-year-old man, reportedly the deceased’s brother, with light injuries.

It is the latest homicide to rock Arab society, part of a wave of criminal violence that has claimed eight lives since Friday. Police say they are investigating the incident and are currently searching for suspects.

Police say officers shot and killed gunman who opened fire on them in south West Bank

Police say officers shot an assailant who opened fire on them in the southern West Bank, near the Beit Hagai settlement.

During operational activity in the area, detectives from the Hebron police station “returned fire and neutralized the terrorist,” law enforcement says. No police officers were injured in the incident.

Supporters and opponents of Netanyahu clash in Knesset visitor’s gallery

Supporters and opponents of Benjamin Netanyahu respond with concurrent praise and protest in the Knesset visitor’s gallery as the prime minister addresses lawmakers during a debate.

Backers of Netanyahu stand and clap while his critics turn their backs on the premier. Members of both groups begin yelling at each other, requiring security personnel to keep them apart.

Supporters and opponents of the prime minister react as he addresses the Knesset. Some clap while others turn their backs on him pic.twitter.com/5ba9xUPhUV

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) November 10, 2025

Ahmad Tibi: State inquiry needed into crime in Arab society

Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his party supports a state commission of inquiry into October 7 but also demands “another state commission of inquiry — into crime in Arab society.”

“There have been 23 more murder victims this year than last year — as of yesterday,” he says, accusing the prime minister of failing to fulfill his promises to combat crime in the Arab sector.

Tibi’s speech comes during a so-called 40-signature debate in the Knesset to discuss the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023.

“There’s an escalation, a strengthening of crime organizations, a state within a state, autonomy for criminal organizations,” he continues, asserting that Netanyahu bears “the highest degree of responsibility.”

Hezbollah-linked media shows footage of Israel building new wall on Lebanon border

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV airs footage showing Israeli forces constructing a new concrete wall along the border with Lebanon.

The border is being built on the Israeli side of the UN-demarcated Blue Line, opposite the northern Israeli community of Avivim, and not inside Lebanese territory as some unverified reports claimed.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV shows images of Israeli forces constructing a new concrete wall along the border with Lebanon, behind the Blue Line, in the area of Avivim. pic.twitter.com/SXeVwxCO41

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) November 10, 2025

The footage emerges amid heightened tensions along the northern border, as Israel has stepped up airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in recent weeks.

An earlier version of this live blog update cited false claims that the border wall was being constructed inside Lebanese territory. The post has been updated to reflect the fact that the wall is being built on the Israeli side of the Blue Line.

Liberman accuses Netanyahu of abandoning responsibilities of leadership

Addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman accuses the premier of abandoning his leadership responsibilities while blaming others for his failings.

“Mr. Prime Minister, I hear a lot from those around you about the deep state. Is it the deep state or deep fake?” asks Liberman.

“A month ago they released a Hamas terrorist. The key witness in the Sde Teiman affair. The chief accuser against our heroic soldiers. Who signed the deal that released him? You and your cabinet. So who’s to blame — you or the deep state? [Jared] Kushner runs security, your son runs appointments, the Haredim run IDF manpower. So tell me, what exactly are you doing?” he asks wryly.

“You are responsible for sabotaging the [IDF] conscription law, and you are the main person responsible for the October 7 massacre. You corresponded with the arch-murderer Yahya Sinwar… [and] transferred the Qatari money,” he declares.

“The state investigation committee on the Meron disaster determined that you are personally responsible, but did not draw any operative conclusions. I promise you — we will establish a state investigation committee that will really interrogate everyone. We will force it to draw personal conclusions. Nothing will help you — this time you will not be able to escape,” he says.

Liberman’s comments come during a so-called 40-signature debate in the Knesset to discuss the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023. Such a debate is a Knesset discussion that the opposition can call once a month and that the prime minister is legally obliged to attend. It is usually called to discuss criticism of the government, its policies and its legislative agenda.

France probes plot linked to jailed jihadist’s ex-girlfriend

French magistrates are investigating the ex-girlfriend of a man jailed for the deadly November 13, 2015, Paris attacks over an alleged jihadist plot, prosecutors say.

But Salah Abdeslam himself was not involved in any plot, the national anti-terror prosecutor’s office (PNAT) says.

The probe comes as France prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the Islamic State group’s attacks in and around Paris, which killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more. Abdeslam was sentenced to life in jail in 2022, after nine fellow attackers blew themselves up or were killed by police.

Magistrates opened a probe after finding several discussions or internet searches linked to a “plot for violent action” on electronic devices found at the home of Maeva B, the PNAT says. The woman, who has been in custody since Tuesday, exhibited “clear radicalization and a fascination for jihad,” the PNAT says. Local broadcaster RTL reports she is 27 years old.

Her home was searched as part of another investigation into USB devices handed to Abdeslam in detention in December last year and this January, it adds.

Exclusive: Abbas sacks finance minister for illicit payments to prisoners, sources reveal to ToI

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has ousted his finance minister for allowing direct payments to Palestinian security prisoners through an old mechanism that awards them based on the length of their sentence, a Palestinian official and a second source familiar with the matter tell The Times of Israel.

Abbas’s office announced earlier Monday that PA Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Estephan Salameh had replaced Omar Bitar as finance minister through the PA’s official Wafa news outlet but did not provide a reason for the decision.

The sources say Bitar’s dismissal follows an internal investigation revealing that he authorized payments to some Palestinian security prisoners outside the new system that the PA established earlier this year, which conditioned those welfare stipends strictly on financial need, rather than the length of one’s sentence.

The reform had long been demanded by the US, Israel and many of the PA’s backers in the Arab world and Europe, who accused Ramallah of incentivizing attacks on Israelis, dubbing the old policy “pay-to-slay.”

Abbas signed a decree in February scrapping the old system and publicly reiterated that it was no longer in place in remarks to the UN General Assembly in September.

While the vast majority of payments under the old system had indeed ceased as the new system came into place, a small minority of prisoner families managed to receive stipends through the old payment mechanism, the two sources tell The Times of Israel.

World must act now to halt ‘horrific atrocities’ in Sudan, UN says

The world must act immediately to halt the “horrific atrocities” in Sudan’s El-Fasher, the UN rights chief tells AFP, urging countries not to wait until a “genocide” is declared.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been at war with the regular army since April 2023, captured the last military stronghold in western Darfur on October 26. Since El-Fasher’s takeover after a gruelling 18-month siege, the United Nations and rights monitors have reported widespread atrocities, including ethnically driven killings and abductions.

“It’s clear that atrocity crimes are being committed as we speak,” UN Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk says, stressing that the siege has in itself been “an atrocity crime.”

“People were beleaguered and under siege, under horrific conditions, no food, hardly any water… We have reports of people having to eat animal feed, for example, eating peanut shells.”

Pointing to the declaration of famine in some parts, he says it was “so desperate… with children dying of starvation,”

Since the RSF swept in, Turk says his office has received “credible evidence of mass killing; that when people are trying to flee this horrible situation, they get shot at.”

“There are very serious reports of rape and sexual violence and gang rape, [and] we have very serious issues of killings of those who are supposedly collaborators,” he says.

The rights chief says there are fears that the atrocities unfolding in El-Fasher might be repeated in Sudan’s oil-rich Kordofan region. “I hope that the international community really wakes up,” he says, lamenting that “all the warnings that we have given over the whole year… were not heeded.”

IDF says latest airstrikes in south Lebanon killed three Hezbollah operatives

The IDF says it killed three Hezbollah operatives in separate strikes across southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, following the announcement of a wave of airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in the region and the Beqaa Valley earlier today.

According to the military, one of those killed was Samir Ali Fakih, a Hezbollah member involved in smuggling weapons for the terror group across Lebanon. He was targeted in an airstrike in Srifa, southern Lebanon.

Two additional Hezbollah operatives were killed yesterday in Houmine El Faouqa and as-Sawana, also in southern Lebanon.

בשלושה מרחבים שונים בדרום לבנון: צה"ל חיסל שלושה מחבלים מארגון הטרור חיזבאללה

צה"ל תקף וחיסל מוקדם יותר היום, בהכוונה מודיעינית מדויקת של אמ"ן ובאמצעות חיל האוויר, את המחבל סמיר עלי פקיה במרחב סריפא שבדרום לבנון.
המחבל עסק בהברחות אמצעי לחימה של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה למרחבים… pic.twitter.com/UinNPkLscM

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 10, 2025

The IDF says a total of 15 Hezbollah operatives have been killed since the beginning of November, adding that their activities posed a threat to Israel and violated the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.

The military says it will continue operating to “eliminate any threat against the State of Israel.”

Knesset to hold first reading on bill to make ‘Al Jazeera Law’ permanent

Likud MK Ariel Kallner’s proposal to turn the so-called Al Jazeera Law — which permits the closure of foreign media outlets in Israel under certain conditions — into permanent legislation is set for its first reading in the Knesset today, after the Knesset National Security Committee voted in July to prepare the bill for a preliminary reading.

The temporary measure now in effect was passed in April 2024 and provided the prime minister and communications minister with the authority to order the closure of foreign networks operating in Israel and to confiscate their equipment if they have grounds to believe they are “doing real harm to state security.”

It was used to close down Qatari news network Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel in May 2024. It also led to the temporary seizure of equipment belonging to the Associated Press, as it was providing images to Al Jazeera. The law sparked criticism both within Israel and abroad.

Currently, the measure must be regularly renewed until a law is passed to make it permanent.

In addition to codifying the bill, Kallner is also seeking to make several amendments, including removing the current requirement for a court to review or approve the communications minister’s decision to shut down a foreign media outlet — eliminating judicial oversight.

He is also seeking to significantly broaden the minister’s authority, allowing the cabinet member to direct internet platforms and content distributors to block or remove specific materials in Israel and to direct the defense minister to take technical measures — such as disrupting satellite signals — to prevent the reception of broadcasts considered harmful to national security.

If approved in its first reading today, the bill will then move on to the committee process for further approval.

Iran says IAEA inspectors visited nuclear sites last week

Inspectors of the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA visited Iranian nuclear sites last week, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson asserts, according to state media, a week after the IAEA urged Iran to “seriously improve” cooperation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has carried out about a dozen inspections in Iran since hostilities with Israel in June, but last week highlighted it had not been given access to nuclear facilities such as Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, which were bombed by the United States.

“As long as we are a member of the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons), we will abide by our commitments, and just last week, IAEA inspectors visited several nuclear facilities, including the Tehran Research Reactor,” Esmaeil Baghaei says, without naming the others.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said last week that Iran must “seriously improve” cooperation with the United Nations inspectors to avoid heightening tensions with the West.

Iranian officials have blamed the IAEA for providing a justification for Israel’s bombing of its nuclear facilities in a 12-day war in June, which began the day after the IAEA board voted to declare Iran in violation of obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Baghaei’s comments today are in response to Grossi saying last week that Iran “cannot say ‘I remain within the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons treaty,’ and then not comply with obligations.”

UNRWA chief: Agency should have role in rebuilding Gaza

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is calling for his agency to have a central role in the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip, as Israel increasingly attempts to sideline the organization, accusing it of ties to terror and incitement against Israel.

“UNRWA, with its thousands of Palestinian personnel, has the capacity, expertise and community trust required to provide healthcare, education and other public services to a devastated population,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini writes in The Guardian.

“For decades, the agency’s teachers, doctors and engineers have formed a vital part of a functioning system of public services for millions of Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the region,” he writes.

“In its advisory opinion last month, the International Court of Justice reaffirmed the professionalism of UNRWA’s staff, underlined the agency’s indispensable humanitarian role and concluded that UNRWA remains an impartial and neutral actor.”

Israel has previously alleged that more than 10 percent of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza have ties to terrorist factions, and that educational facilities under the organization’s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror.

In February 2024, the IDF revealed the existence of a subterranean Hamas data center directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza Strip headquarters. The IDF has also repeatedly targeted Hamas command centers and gunmen hiding out in UNRWA schools.

In October 2024, lawmakers passed legislation barring UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory and curtailing its activities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by banning state authorities from having any contact with the agency.

Yesterday, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill that would prohibit the provision of electricity or water to facilities owned by or operated on behalf of UNRWA. It will need to pass plenary votes before becoming law.

Lapid says Otzma Yehudit’s death penalty bill is a ‘political stunt’

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says he will not cooperate with Otzma Yehudit’s “political stunts” by voting for its bill to impose the death penalty on terrorists who kill Israelis.

Addressing reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting, Lapid says that “there already is a death penalty law for terrorists in the State of Israel” on the books and that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right party is just engaging in “PR tricks.”

Although the death penalty formally exists in Israeli law, it has only ever been used once, in 1962 — in the case of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust.

It is technically allowed in cases of high treason, as well as in certain circumstances under martial law that applies within the IDF and in the West Bank, but currently requires a unanimous decision from a panel of three judges, and has never been implemented.

Otzma Yehudit’s bill stipulates that courts must impose the death penalty on those who have committed a nationalistically motivated murder of a citizen of Israel.

Asked by The Times of Israel if his party would support a similar bill, sponsored by the opposition Yisrael Beytenu party, which is being voted on in the plenum today, Lapid replied that he would speak with Yisrael Beytenu, but that the two bills were being presented together and that they would not support anything being advanced by Otzma Yehudit.

Ben Gvir vows swift passage of bill on death penalty for terrorists

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir declares that his Otzma Yehudit party’s proposed death penalty bill for terrorists will move “swiftly and without compromise” through the Knesset, ahead of the bill’s first reading later today.

Speaking to reporters before a meeting of his faction, Ben Gvir says that the controversial legislation, which would mandate courts to impose the death penalty on those who have committed a nationalistically motivated murder of a citizen of Israel, will deter terrorism and end what he calls the “ritual” of kidnapping of Israelis to secure prisoner releases.

He urges all coalition parties and “Zionist” opposition parties to back the bill, while accusing Arab lawmakers Ahmad Tibi, Mansour Abbas and Ayman Odeh, who oppose it, of “defending terrorists.”

Ben Gvir says his bill will pass, despite reports that the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party will vote against it. He claims that the majority of UTJ’s constituents support his bill, regardless of what their leadership states.

IDF says strikes targeted Hezbollah weapons depots, rocket launch sites in south Lebanon, Beqaa Valley

The IDF confirms it carried out a wave of airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley earlier today, targeting sites used for rocket launches and the production and storage of strategic weapons.

The strikes follow reports from Lebanese media of a wave of Israeli air attacks across southern Lebanon.

According to the military, the operations were guided by the Military Intelligence Directorate and carried out with the air force under the Northern Command.

The IDF says the strikes were aimed at neutralizing weapons directed at Israel and preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding its terror infrastructure.

The army adds that the presence of such facilities violates the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and pledges to continue acting to eliminate threats.

צה"ל תקף לפני זמן קצר, בהובלת פיקוד הצפון, בהכוונה מודיעינית של אמ"ן ובאמצעות חיל האוויר, תשתיות טרור של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב הבקעא ובדרום לבנון.

במרחב דרום לבנון, הותקף אתר של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה, אשר שימש לשיגור רקטות ובו זוהתה פעילות טרור של חיזבאללה במהלך החודשים… pic.twitter.com/DZxENBz5KO

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 10, 2025

In south Lebanon, the IDF says it struck a site previously used by Hezbollah to launch rockets, where activity by the terror group was detected in recent months.

In the Nabatieh area, the IDF says it struck several more Hezbollah targets. And in the Beqaa Valley, the military says it targeted infrastructure at a site used by the terror group to store and manufacture strategic weapons.

The site in the Beqaa Valley has been struck by the IDF several times in the past.

‘You are home now’: Lior Rudaeff buried at Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak as family praises his bravery on Oct. 7

After a funeral procession made up of Magen David Adom riders and an ambulance donated in his name, Lior Rudaeff, emergency service volunteer and deputy security coordinator at Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, is buried at the kibbutz.

Rudaeff, 61, is survived by his wife, four children and father.

His wife, Yaffa Rudaeff, says in her eulogy that it’s not the ending she prayed for, but that Lior would have been proud of his children for battling to bring him home.

“You are home now,” says Yaffa Rudaeff. “You would have been so proud to see our children showing such strength in the struggle to bring you back.”

She addresses her husband, telling him how much their children resemble him.

“Now I say goodbye to you forever — the half of our whole, the glue of our family,” says Yaffa Rudaeff. “Thank you for 41 years together, in good times and in bad. Your journey in this world ended far too soon, and I want to ask your forgiveness — forgiveness that it took so long, and that we never truly said goodbye that morning.”

Rudaeff’s daughter, Noam Katz Rudaeff, describes some of what happened on that day as her father tried to save members of his fellow kibbutz response team and as dozens of armed terrorists closed in on him.

“The anger that it happened to you, that the state wasn’t there, that the army — which promised it would be there within minutes — wasn’t,” says Katz Rudaeff, adding that he has a new granddaughter, “sharp, just like you.”

His son, Ben Rudaeff, tells his father how much he has to share with him, about his travels to Thailand and India when he was sad throughout, about his inability to face the world.

“In what kind of world did you have to sacrifice your life like that?” says Ben Rudaeff. “In what kind of world do we bury you after two years? Who would have believed we’d have to fight to bring you back?”

He tells his father that every field shelter in the region has become a memorial site, that Lt. Hadar Goldin was finally brought home after a decade, with four more hostage bodies still held in Gaza.

Nadav Rudaeff says how much he misses his father’s voice, his scoldings, his strong hugs, his smiles and joy over his grandkids, as well as the toothpick that was often in his father’s mouth.

“We fought for you, Dad — you wouldn’t believe how far we went and what we did for you,” says Nadav Rudaeff, who was a familiar face in the two-year public struggle for the hostages. “We fought for you just as you fought for us on that cursed day. You were always the first to go out and the last to come back.”

“Today is finally for you,” adds Nadav Rudaeff. “I hope that somewhere, you’re driving a pickup truck with a dog in the back, blasting the music you love.”

Rudaeff was at first believed to be a living hostage in Gaza, but in May 2024, authorities confirmed that he was killed on October 7, and his body taken. His family held a memorial service and sat shiva, but did not hold a funeral.

Lapid: Ben Gvir a ‘dangerous Jewish fascist’ and ‘people have died because of him’

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir as a “dangerous Jewish fascist” and a “disgrace to Judaism” over the recent arrest of a protester who heckled the far-right politician at an event last week at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Alec Yefremov was detained by police on Thursday after calling Ben Gvir a “racist,” “responsible for so much death,” and a “Kahanist,” referring to the ideology espoused by US-born extremist rabbi Meir Kahane, who called for the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel.

He also called Ben Gvir a “Goldstein fan,” referring to Baruch Goldstein, the US-born settler who in 1994 killed 29 Muslim worshipers in a terror attack at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Ben Gvir, for many years, kept a photo of Goldstein in his home.

“In response, the police arrested him, handcuffed him, subjected him to a strip search, and took him in for questioning. For what reason? Itamar Ben Gvir is a Kahanist, a racist, an admirer of Baruch Goldstein, and people have died because of him. All of it is true,” Lapid tells reporters at his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

“He regularly takes part in memorials for Meir Kahane; for years, a photo of Baruch Goldstein hung in his living room. He is an avowed racist, and we have all heard the testimonies of those who returned from Hamas captivity about how they were abused because of his behavior and statements. He is a central part of the negligence that led to the disaster of October 7. People truly did die because of him,” Lapid continues.

Lapid slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for allowing Ben Gvir, a “nationalist criminal convicted of supporting terrorism” who “was fully complicit in the incitement that led to the assassination of Rabin,” to head up the Israel police.

“Ben Gvir is a national disaster, an international disaster, a disgrace to Judaism, a stain on Zionism, a dangerous Jewish fascist. There is one thing Itamar Ben Gvir is not: he is not immune to criticism,” he continues, arguing that the minister is “neither allowed nor entitled to silence the justified demonstrations against him.”

Turning to the police, Lapid declares that Ben Gvir will not be minister for much longer and that their job is “not to protect the minister” but rather “to protect the right to protest and Israeli democracy.”

French court orders ex-president Sarkozy released from jail pending appeal

A Paris court grants former French President Nicolas Sarkozy early release from jail, pending an appeal, just weeks after he started a five-year sentence for conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya.

The conservative former president, 70, was jailed on October 21 after a court found him guilty in September of criminal conspiracy over efforts by close aides to procure funds for his 2007 presidential bid from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

He was acquitted of all other charges, including corruption and receiving illegal campaign financing.

2 detained for disrupting Kristallnacht ceremony in Germany; teen suspected of trying to burn Israeli flag

German police say they detained two people who disrupted a small Kristallnacht commemoration event in the town of Lahr last night, including a teen suspected of stealing and trying to burn an Israeli flag.

According to police in Offenburg, the nearest large town, the 17-year-old was with a group of young men who arrived at the event, which was made up of some 15 participants carrying Israeli flags.

A 32-year-old man was also detained on suspicion of insulting participants at the event, which took place in the Black Forest region of southern Germany. Authorities say they are currently searching for a third suspect and the incident remains under investigation.

Events were held across Germany last night to mark 87 years since November 9, 1938, known as Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, when antisemitic mobs destroyed synagogues and attacked Jews.

Liberman demands Oct. 7 inquiry, citing Netanyahu’s 2022 quote that only state probes give ‘clear answers’

Standing next to a sign featuring a 2022 quote by then opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu demanding a state commission of inquiry into allegations that police hacked the phones of private citizens, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman demands the establishment of an official state probe into October 7.

Addressing reporters during his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Liberman cites Netanyahu’s 2022 statement that “only a state commission of inquiry “can give the public clear answers to the key questions, and that “every day that passes without a state investigation committee increases the chances of obstructing an investigation, coordinating testimony, and concealing evidence.”

Liberman also demands that the government either arrest or kill 100 to 200 Hamas operatives holed up in a tunnel network on the Israeli-controlled side of the Yellow Line in southern Gaza’s Rafah, arguing that to free them would show that terror pays.

Knesset Finance Committee approves NIS 2.5 billion in 2025 state budget transfers

The Knesset Finance Committee approves budget transfers totaling approximately NIS 2.5 billion NIS ($773 million), with the largest allocation — around NIS 2.45 billion — earmarked for National Insurance Institute operations, following an agreement reached between the Institute and the Finance Ministry over the release of funding.

The transfers are part of the 2025 state budget.

The committee also approves NIS 101 million ($31 million) for the Finance Ministry, and NIS 44 million NIS ($13.6 million) for the Tax Authority, including to enhance computer operations.

About NIS 17 million ($5.25 million) will be transferred to the Justice Ministry for the Enforcement and Collection Authority amid rising crime rates, particularly among Bedouin and Arab communities. About NIS 12 million ($3.7 million) of these funds will be reallocated from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Other transfers include NIS 7 million ($2.1 million) from the general reserve to the Communications Ministry for cellular network energy initiatives and NIS 12.5 million ($3.8 million) from local authorities to the Interior Ministry for “local government election activities” in accordance with the Party Financing Law, according to a statement from the Knesset Spokesperson’s Office.

Trump to meet Sharaa at White House today, capping whirlwind turnaround for Syria

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s White House meeting with US President Donald Trump later today caps a stunning year for the rebel-turned-ruler who toppled a longtime autocratic leader and has since toured the world as he seeks to end Syria’s international isolation.

Trump is set to welcome Sharaa in the first-ever visit by a Syrian president to the White House, six months after the pair first met in Saudi Arabia and just days after Washington said the former al Qaeda member was no longer a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.”

Sharaa, 42, took power last year after his Islamist fighters launched a lightning offensive from their enclave in Syria’s northwest and overthrew longtime Syrian President Bashar al-Assad just days later on December 8.

Syria’s regional realignment has since moved at a dizzying pace, away from Assad’s key allies Iran and Russia and toward Turkey, the Gulf, and Washington.

Security is likely to be a top focus of the meeting.

The US is brokering talks between Syria and Israel on a possible security pact, and the US is said to be planning to establish a military presence at a Damascus airbase.

Syria is also set to join a US-led coalition to fight Islamic State, which could be formally announced at the White House meeting.

Forest fire nearing homes in Yarka; dozens of firefighting squads battling blazes

Dozens of firefighting squads are trying to extinguish a forest fire that broke out in the north near the town of Yarka and is quickly approaching residents’ homes.

The blazes have so far consumed a wooden structure, and firefighters are working to prevent them from reaching the first line of houses in the village, the Fire and Rescue Service says.

The 24 squads are being assisted by JNF-KKL firefighters and four firefighting planes, the agency adds.

Lebanese media reports a wave of Israeli airstrikes in south

Lebanese media reports a wave of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

مراسلة «الأخبار»: غارات إسرائيلية تستهدف بلدة المحمودية في قضاء جزين pic.twitter.com/L5qWYnr9hV

— جريدة الأخبار – Al-Akhbar (@AlakhbarNews) November 10, 2025

Histadrut chief Bar-David’s detention extended until Thursday in corruption probe

The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court extends Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David’s detention until Thursday, after police requested to keep the union leader in custody for another nine days in a far-reaching corruption probe, Hebrew outlets report.

He was arrested last week alongside his wife when police went public with the investigation, which was launched over two years ago. At the center of the probe is Bar-David’s insurance agent, Ezra Gabay, who was also arrested and is suspected of operating a massive bribery network.

Gabay allegedly exploited his close connections to the Histadrut chairman and Likud party officials to fix jobs for his associates.

Police suspect that Gabay, through Bar-David, handed out senior positions in government-owned corporations and local authorities in exchange for insurance contracts signed with his agency.

In her decision on the matter, Judge Dorit Saban Noy says the Histadrut under Bar-David “was run like a private business,” Channel 13 reports.

She adds there is reason to believe that if freed, he will try to obstruct the investigation, attempting to coordinate suspects’ testimonies.

A representative for police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit reportedly tells the court that investigators need additional time to question a large number of suspects, arguing that Bar-David’s release could disrupt the interrogations.

Last week, heads of various workers’ councils affiliated with the Histadrut were arrested alongside Bar-David, including the head of the Israel Railways union. The chairman of El Al’s union was questioned as a suspect after police raided his office.

The mayors of Kiryat Gat and Harish were also detained, Channel 13 reports.

Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar is also said to be suspected of involvement in the affair, and many of his subordinates in the ministry have already been questioned.

IDF says it killed 2 terror operatives who crossed Gaza ceasefire line, posed threat to troops

The IDF says it killed two terror operatives who crossed the Yellow Line demarcating the military’s withdrawal and approached troops in southern the Gaza Strip today.

The military says the operatives “posed an immediate threat” to the troops, and the Israeli Air Force struck them “to remove the threat to the forces.”

Trump pardons Giuliani and others who backed efforts to overturn 2020 election, official says

US President Donald Trump has pardoned his former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and others accused of backing the Republican’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a Justice Department official says.

Ed Martin, the government’s pardon attorney, posts on social media a signed proclamation of the “full, complete, and unconditional” pardon, which also names conservative attorneys Sidney Powell and John Eastman. The proclamation explicitly says the pardon does not apply to Trump.

Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, and none of the Trump allies was charged in a federal case. But the move underscores Trump’s efforts to continue to rewrite the history of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Also pardoned were Republicans who acted as fake electors for Trump in 2020 and were charged in state cases of submitting false certificates that confirmed they were legitimate electors despite Biden’s victory in those states.

The proclamation described efforts to prosecute those who were involved in the 2020 election schemes “as a grave national injustice perpetrated on the American people” and said the pardons were designed to continue “the process of national reconciliation.”

Ra’am’s Abbas says Gaza needs ‘new governmental reality,’ but declines to state if Hamas should be destroyed

While calling for a new government in Gaza focused on “peace and reconciliation,” MK Mansour Abbas, the head of the Islamist Ra’am party, declines to state whether Hamas should be destroyed, sparking right-wing outrage.

Responding to a question during a radio interview with the Kan public broadcaster, Abbas shouts that he had come on the program to discuss domestic issues facing Arab Israelis.

He had stated earlier in the discussion that “we want to bring about a new governmental reality in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian people need to choose their leadership and embark on a new path that emphasizes the values of peace and reconciliation.”

In response, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls Abbas’s party “a sister movement of Hamas” that “supports terrorism and encourages terrorism, and whose place is place is in prison, not in the Israeli Knesset.”

“It is sad that even today many of Israel’s left-wing leaders see them as legitimate partners,” he adds.

Responding to his critics, Abbas says that he had stated that “our plan is consistent with President Trump’s plan, I spoke about our desire for a new governmental and security reality within the Gaza Strip, I spoke about an international force that will replace the government within the Gaza Strip, I spoke about Palestinian forces that will later be trained to govern within the Gaza Strip, and I spoke about the need to reach a peace agreement and reconciliation between the two peoples.”

“Anyone who expects me to speak like Ben Gvir and Smotrich is mistaken,” he adds.

IDF says it foiled attempt to smuggle assault rifles from Egypt into Israel by drone

The IDF says it foiled an attempt to smuggle weapons from Egypt into Israel using a drone this morning.

The drone was identified crossing the border by soldiers monitoring surveillance cameras and the Israeli Air Force’s air traffic control array.

Troops stationed in the area then downed the device. According to the IDF, the drone was found to be ferrying three assault rifles.

The weapons were handed over to the police for further investigation.

In the past year, there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons and drugs over the Egyptian border using drones.

Gafni slams Ben Gvir, Liberman over claim of deal with Arab MKs over terrorist death penalty bill

Degel HaTorah chairman Moshe Gafni slams National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman after the two right-wing politicians accuse him of opposing the death penalty for terrorists who kill Israelis due to a political deal with Arab MKs.

“Avigdor Lieberman and Itamar Ben Gvir do not know how to contend with Degel HaTorah’s stance and worldview opposing the death penalty law for terrorists, and they blame it on agreements that never existed. Their personal attacks reflect a lack of serious arguments,” Gafni declares.

Earlier today, a spokesman for Degel HaTorah spiritual leader Rabbi Dov Lando said that he had instructed the faction’s lawmakers to vote against a government-backed bill that would impose the death penalty on terrorists who kill Israelis in the Knesset plenum this afternoon.

Degel HaTorah is one of two factions comprising the larger United Torah Judaism party. The party’s other faction, Agudat Yisrael, has not yet publicly announced a position nor has fellow ultra-Orthodox party Shas.

Following this morning’s announcement, Ben Gvir accused Gafni of having “once again chosen his old alliance with [Ahmad] Tibi,” one of the leaders of the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al party.

“There will be no forgiveness for anyone who keeps the terrorists, those human beasts, from ascending the gallows,” he later tweeted.

In a separate statement, Liberman, whose party supports the death penalty for terrorists and has a similar bill on today’s Knesset agenda, accused Haredi politicians of hiding behind their rabbis “every time they want to escape responsibility.”

“This is a fraud. These wheeler-dealer politicians who don’t want a conscription law and hide behind the ‘rabbis’ have now struck a deal with Tibi and Cassif against the death penalty law for terrorists that Yisrael Beiteinu is bringing to a vote today,” he states. Ofir Cassif is the only Jewish member of Hadash-Ta’al.

Israeli authorities seek to confiscate boats used in Gaza activist flotilla, claiming Hamas funding ties

Authorities are attempting to confiscate 50 boats used by activists in Gaza-bound flotillas aimed at breaking Israel’s naval blockade on the enclave, claiming Hamas helped fund and coordinate the attempts.

In a request filed today in the Haifa District Court, the State Attorney’s Office alleges a “significant number of the vessels” used in the flotillas are owned by a front company for the terror group.

According to the request, 16 of the vessels were owned by the company Neptune Cyber, which allegedly operates under a Hamas-aligned NGO called the Palestinian Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA).

The State Attorney’s Office has still not managed to identify the owners of all the ships subject to the request.

Prosecutors argue that Israel is authorized to take possession of the ships under international law, which provides for sovereign states to intercept and potentially impound vessels that attempt to breach a naval blockade.

The effort “was unprecedented in scale and scope, with organized planning and centralized command, all aimed at challenging the navy and breaking the naval blockade,” prosecutors write. They add that the ships’ movement “resembled the maneuvers of military ships sailing in formation.”

Hundreds of activists arrived in two waves in early October this year. The navy intercepted both flotillas, the first consisting of 41 separate ships, the second consisting of just nine, prosecutors say. Israel detained the activists before deporting them.

Female combat soldiers tell Knesset panel about gender-related PTSD issues

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, chaired by Likud MK Boaz Bismuth (Likud), holds a special session today on PTSD among female combat soldiers and the gender-specific issues they face.

The discussion was initiated by MK Meirav Ben-Ari of Yesh Atid, following weeks of testimony from female soldiers in several Knesset committees.

Several female combat soldiers shared testimonies with lawmakers, raising gender-specific issues, including the need for trauma-recovery centers that provide services separate from men; the fact that rehabilitation centers are not open 24/7, while nightmares and panic attacks often strike at night; fear of pregnancy and childbirth because of violent flashbacks, often triggered by the sight of blood; and difficulty functioning as mothers while coping with trauma.

Committee members ask the Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department to return with detailed answers on how treatment differs between male and female combat veterans.

Post-traumatic stress among IDF troops has become a major public concern since the start of the war on October 7, 2023. According to official IDF figures, 279 soldiers and security personnel attempted suicide between January 2024 and July 2025, while 67 have died by suicide since the war began.

Bill allowing police to probe incitement without state attorney’s go-ahead advances for final votes

Lawmakers in the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee vote 6-5 to advance a controversial bill allowing police greater discretion in probing suspected incitement, while chipping away at state attorneys’ oversight of investigations into such cases.

The bill, which will now go to the Knesset plenum for the final two votes needed for it to pass into law, would allow police to open investigations into possible incitement offenses without approval from the State Attorney’s Office.

The bill also calls for stricter legal penalties for incitement by prohibiting praise for an individual who committed a terrorist act, rather than just for the act itself.

The committee initially voted to advance the legislation last week but the opposition lodged thousands of objections, requiring follow-up votes in the committee today.

The bill has drawn criticism from civil rights groups and opposition MKs over restrictions on freedom of speech. The committee’s legal advisor has also stated that the bill raises constitutional concerns.

The committee vote is welcomed by the far right Otzma Yehudit party, several of whose MKs sponsored the measure.

“This is a real revolution in the fight against incitement to terrorism. For years, we have seen how terrorists incite online, call for the murder of Jews and harm to IDF soldiers – and the system simply did not act in time. Our law is here to change that. From now on, the police will have the tools to act immediately, to arrest instigators before they send the next terrorists. This is how deterrence is strengthened and lives are saved,” Ben Gvir says in a statement.

Speaking with The Times of Israel after the vote, sponsor MK Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) calls the legislation an “important law” that will “save lives.”

“We are very, very happy that today the entire ongoing and lengthy process that existed until now regarding the decision to open investigations into incitement to terrorism will no longer exist. And truly, whoever incites terrorism will know that the procedures against them will be very fast,” she adds.

The bill is condemned by committee member MK Gilad Kariv (The Democrats), who declares that it “will lead to countless wrongful arrests of citizens and the abuse of arrest and investigation powers by officers lacking proper training, who will seek to curry favor with politicians.”

“If approved, the bill will severely harm freedom of expression in Israel, falsely and manipulatively exploiting the need to combat incitement to terrorism.”

Israel pushing Lebanon army to search private homes for Hezbollah weapons, officials say

Israel is pressing Lebanon’s army to be more aggressive in disarming the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah by searching private homes in the south for weaponry, three Lebanese security officials and two Israeli officials say.

The demand has emerged in recent weeks and been rejected by Lebanon’s military leadership, who fear it would ignite civil strife and derail a disarmament strategy seen by the army as cautious but effective, the Lebanese security officials tell Reuters.

The army is confident it can declare Lebanon’s south free of Hezbollah arms by the end of 2025, in line with a truce deal that ended a devastating Israeli war with Hezbollah last year, sparked when the terror group began firing rockets and drones at Israel on October 8, 2023, the day after its ally Hamas carried out its devastating attack.

A sweep of valleys and forests has located more than 50 tunnels and resulted in the confiscation of over 50 guided missiles and hundreds of other weapons, according to two Lebanese civilian sources briefed on army operations.

But the army’s plan never included searching private property, according to the Lebanese security officials.

Israel doubts it will succeed without such measures.

Lebanon’s army fears that residents of the south would see house raids as subservience to Israel, the Lebanese security officials say.

Beirut also worries that Israel will keep moving the goalposts, creating a permanent risk of escalatory strikes and undermining attempts to stabilize a country battered by geopolitical and economic upheavals, the security officials and a political official say.

But Israeli officials say Hezbollah is accelerating efforts to re-arm from properties in the south and further north, and that the Lebanese army is failing to confront it.

Likud MK claims IDF’s legal office ‘has turned into a criminal organization’

The Military Advocate General’s Office “has turned into a criminal organization that uses the practices of a criminal organization,” Likud MK Moshe Saada tells The Times of Israel, echoing comments made in the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee moments before.

Everyone, “including the prosecutor’s office, maintained a bond of silence, and there was no righteous man in Sodom who would say, ‘Guys, there is a conflict of interest here, and therefore this system must be fixed,'” he asserts.

Former military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi is currently being investigated for the leak of footage purporting to show troops severely abusing a Gazan detainee.

Addressing lawmakers in the committee, Saada, a former senior investigations official at the Justice Ministry, also argued that it was imperative to split up the role of the attorney general, arguing that “you can’t have an attorney general who has a conflict of interest” and sits with ministers for consultations in the mornings and works on indicting them in the evenings.

Police said seeking to extend detention of Histadrut chief Bar-David in corruption probe

Police reportedly seek to extend Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David’s detention as they investigate the union leader, his insurance agent and other senior officials in a far-reaching corruption probe.

Officers bringing him to the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court today are requesting to keep Bar-David and his insurance agent, Ezra Gabay, in custody for another nine days, Hebrew outlets report.

Bar-David was detained alongside his wife and dozens of other suspects last week in police raids on the labor federation’s offices, officials’ homes and local authorities’ offices. Police seek to keep his wife, Hila Knister Bar-David, in detention for another five days.

Announcing the investigation last week, law enforcement said the probe has been underway for over two years and those detained are suspected of bribery, fraud, breach of trust, money laundering and tax offenses. Some 350 people have been questioned so far in the case.

At the center of the investigation is Gabay, Bar-David’s insurance agent, who is suspected of exploiting his close connections to the Histadrut chairman and Likud party officials to fix jobs for his associates.

Police suspect Gabay handed out senior positions in government-owned corporations and local authorities, on the condition the recipients secure insurance contracts with his agency.

The agent’s son, Assaf, who works as a senior executive in his father’s company, was also arrested on suspicion of partaking in the alleged million-shekel bribery scheme. Police are reportedly seeking to detain him for another seven days.

Kariv: Israelis must take to the streets over government proposals to weaken AG’s office

The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv calls on Israelis to take to the streets in response to a series of government-backed proposals to significantly weaken the power of the attorney general, effectively depriving the position of all authority and independence.

During a meeting of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, the left-wing lawmaker argues that the government is taking Israel back to January 2023, when it announced its contentious judicial overhaul agenda, and is now working to “completely politicize” the judicial system.

The committee is discussing a bill by far-right Religious Zionism MKs Simcha Rothman, Ohad Tal and Michal Woldiger, which, if passed into law, would split the position of attorney general into three separate jobs. It is also discussing several additional bills aimed at making it more difficult to open legal proceedings against elected officials by stripping the attorney general of the authority to do so.

The goal of this legislation is to free all government officials from the need to have to operate in line with the law, Kariv alleges, calling for mass protests against what he calls an “anti-democratic” threat.

In response, Rothman, who chairs the committee, dismisses what he calls “populist hysteria.”

Katz signs off on Itai Ofir as next IDF legal chief, despite reported opposition from PM

Itai Ofir will become the military advocate general later this month after Defense Minister Israel Katz signed off on an official document yesterday ratifying his appointment.

Ofir will be promoted to the rank of major general before entering the role on November 24, Katz’s office says.

The announcement from Katz’s office comes after Channel 12 news claimed this morning that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was shocked and angered by the appointment of Ofir, and had apparently expected the defense minister not to ratify it. The outlet had previously reported that Netanyahu’s son, Yair, had cited multiple grievances against Ofir and apparently wanted the appointment cancelled.

Ofir is an attorney who served as the Defense Ministry legal adviser between 2017 and 2024. Before that, he worked as a lawyer in the private sector in Israel and the United States.

In the military, Ofir was a combat officer in the Givati Brigade, and in the reserves, he served in the Negev Brigade.

This means that Ofir will be promoted by five ranks, from captain to major general. (Such promotions are rare but not unprecedented in the military.)

Ofir is replacing Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who resigned over the Sde Teiman abuse video leak scandal.

Netanyahu meeting with Kushner on Gaza ceasefire, remaining hostages

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with top White House advisor Jared Kushner, an official in the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel.

Much of the meeting will focus on the state of the ceasefire in Gaza and efforts to bring back the remaining fallen hostages.

This post has been updated.

Boundaries set for 13 West Bank settlements, including several recently legalized outposts

The Settlement Administration in the Defense Ministry has fixed permanent boundaries for 13 West Bank settlements, including several that were retroactively legalized recently by the government.

Among the 13 settlements is Sa Nur in the northern West Bank, which was one of the settlements evacuated as part of the 2005 Gaza Disengagement plan, along with another three settlements in that region.

Sa Nur is yet to be repopulated, but plans are afoot to re-establish it.

The boundary determination process was led by the head of the Settlement Administration, Yehuda Eliyahu, whose agency is under the authority of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in his additional role as minister within the Defense Ministry.

The process will further formalize the legalization process for the settlements, which until recently were illegal outposts, and enable further planning and development within the new boundaries for all 13.

The 13 settlements to receive new, final boundaries are Ahiya, Harasha, Migron, Nofei Prat, Adei Ad, Shvut Rachel, Sa Nur, Yair’s Farm, Tel Menashe, Maoz Tzvi, Givonit, Ir Hatamarim, and Gadi.

“The decision on the new boundaries provides stability, enables planning and development, and establishes the settlement blocs in the heart of the country,” says Smotrich.

“This is Zionism at its best, this is national responsibility, and this is the historical justice of the generation of children who are returning to build their country.”

Former Israel Air Force chief Herzl Bodinger dies at 82

Maj. Gen. Herzl Bodinger, who led the Israel Air Force between 1992 and 1996, has died at the age of 82, Hebrew media reports.

Born in Haifa and raised in Kiryat Motzkin, Bodinger began his military career as a cadet in the Air Force youth program before enlisting in 1961 and volunteering for flight school. He went on to serve in several combat squadrons, including those operating the French Dassault Mystère IV and Dassault Ouragan fighter jets, and rose through the ranks to command the air force.

Following his military service, Bodinger remained active in defense and industry circles, serving as head of the Committee for Industry Relations with the Defense Establishment at the Israel Manufacturers Association.

He was later appointed to a post-war inquiry panel following the Second Lebanon War, but stepped down for “personal reasons.” In 2013, Bodinger was considered a candidate for the role of National Security Council head, though the position ultimately went to ex-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen.

‘Idiot’: Likud MK Gotliv attacks police chief over Sde Teiman video leak investigation

Firebrand Likud MK Tally Gotliv decries Israel Police chief Danny Levy as an “idiot” over his reported refusal to give investigation material regarding the Sde Teiman video leak to retired judge Asher Kula.

“There is no constitutional crisis here — not even something resembling a constitutional crisis. We simply have an idiot police commissioner,” she tells Radio Kol Barama, questioning why the senior law enforcement officer does not summon Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara for questioning in the matter.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir slammed the police’s senior command yesterday after they declined to pass on investigative material in the case, which focuses on former military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi’s leak of footage purporting to show troops severely abusing a Gazan detainee.

Ben Gvir, who oversees law enforcement, met with Levy and Boaz Blatt, the head of the police’s investigations and intelligence division, and reportedly demanded that they obey the government’s wishes.

Arguing that Baharav-Miara is compromised in the case, Justice Minister Yariv Levin last week tapped Kula, the state ombudsman for judges, to head the investigation in her stead, leading the attorney general to accuse Levin of misusing his authority. The High Court is set to issue a ruling tomorrow determining who should lead the investigation.

Macron to host Palestinian Authority’s Abbas tomorrow

French President Emmanuel Macron will host Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas tomorrow, Macron’s office said in a statement.

France officially recognized a Palestinian state in September.

Egypt heads to polls in elections expected to tighten Sissi’s grip on power

Egyptians head to the polls to elect a new parliament, which critics say will only further cement President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi’s grip on power.

The opening of polling stations marks the start of a weeks-long process to fill 568 of the 596 seats in the lower house, with some provinces not voting for another two weeks.

The remaining 28 lawmakers will be appointed directly by Sissi, the former army chief who seized power after ousting late Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Egyptians abroad cast their ballots on Friday and Saturday. In regions such as Alexandria, voters have until tomorrow to cast their ballots in a first round. Some regions including Cairo will not vote until November 24.

Final results are expected by December 25.

Half of the seats will be filled through closed party lists and the other half by individual candidates, with a quarter of the seats reserved for women.

The parliamentary vote comes more than two months after elections for the senate, the upper chamber, which saw a low turnout of about 17 percent.

The pro-government “National List for Egypt” coalition swept that vote, running unopposed in the party list race.

The coalition is expected to dominate again.

Report: BBC had to correct 2 ‘biased, inaccurate or misleading’ Gaza stories a week

The BBC has corrected on average of two stories a week reporting on Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, The Telegraph reports, citing research by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), a pro-Israel media watchdog.

BBC Arabic has had to make 215 corrections and clarifications since October 7, 2023, the report says, on stories “found to be biased, inaccurate or misleading.”

CAMERA obtained the corrections after over 100 of its complaints over coverage by the BBC’s Arabic service were upheld, according to The Telegraph.

The report comes as the BBC’s boss Tim Davie and its head of news Deborah Turness resigned yesterday following criticism over bias at the British national broadcaster, including in the way it edited a speech that US President Donald Trump made on January 6, 2021, and in its coverage of the Gaza war.

The BBC had been under mounting pressure after an internal report by a former standards adviser was leaked to the Daily Telegraph newspaper last week, citing failings in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, trans issues, and the speech made by Trump.

The report’s section on the Gaza war documented that BBC Arabic’s story selection and editing largely omitted pieces criticizing Hamas or highlighting the suffering of Israelis, including the hostages kidnapped by the terror group.

The BBC has also faced backlash over a number of other issues related to the war, including over a documentary narrated by the child of a Hamas official, and accusations that journalists posted antisemitic content on social media, as well as its coverage of antisemitic chants at the Glastonbury music festival.

Pressure on the network rose when the White House recently denounced the broadcaster as a “propaganda machine,” after its flagship Panorama documentary program last year was found to have edited two parts of Trump’s speech together so he appeared to encourage the January 6, 2021,  riot at the US Capitol.

Iran dismisses accusation that Quds Force plotted to kill Israeli ambassador in Mexico: ‘Absurd’

Iran dismisses the accusation that Tehran had attempted to kill the Israeli ambassador in Mexico last year, describing it as “absurd.”

“We found this claim very ridiculous and absurd,” says foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei during a weekly press briefing, adding that it was part of an attempt “to destroy Iran’s friendly relations with other countries.”

Israeli and US officials said Friday that Mexican authorities, with assistance from the United States and Israeli intelligence agencies, thwarted an alleged plot by Iran to assassinate the Israeli ambassador to Mexico.

A US official said that the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps initiated the plot to kill Ambassador Einat Kranz Neiger in late 2024 and that it was disrupted this year. The plot allegedly included recruiting operatives out of Iran’s embassy in Venezuela, whose authoritarian left-wing president, Nicolas Maduro, has a tactical alliance with Tehran.

Senior Haredi leader tells Degel HaTorah to vote against death penalty for terrorists bill

The spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah party, Rabbi Dov Lando, instructs his faction’s lawmakers to vote against a government-backed bill that would impose the death penalty on terrorists who kill Israelis in the Knesset plenum this afternoon, sparking a public clash with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Degel HaTorah is one of two factions comprising the larger United Torah Judaism party. The faction’s opposition will not necessarily scupper the bill, as there are some members of the opposition who may vote for it.

Ben Gvir has threatened that his far right Otzma Yehudit party would cease voting with the coalition unless the controversial legislation passes its first reading this week. The bill is currently being advanced with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s support.

In a statement, Ben Gvir slams Degel HaTorah chairman MK Moshe Gafni, accusing him of having “once again chosen his old alliance with [Ahmad] Tibi,” one of the leaders of the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al party.

“Gafni’s constant flirtation with the left is contrary to the position of his voters, who are persecuted by the left. The death penalty for terrorists will bring both justice and deterrence, including for the families of Haredim who were murdered in terror attacks. I expect all Haredi Members of Knesset to support this life-saving law and not believe the false promises of the left and the Arab parties,” Ben Gvir says in a statement.

Hitting back, a spokesman for Lando argues that such a policy would endanger Jewish lives “because if Arabs around the world see that we are doing such a thing, it could lead to bloodshed.”

“And in any case, there is no chance that a court would approve a death sentence, so it is pure provocation,” the spokesman adds.

The ultra-Orthodox UTJ and Shas parties are engaged in a protracted partial legislative boycott of the coalition in a bid to pressure Netanyahu to advance a bill granting sweeping exemptions from military service to yeshiva students.

UAE ‘probably’ won’t join Gaza stabilization force due to lack of framework, senior official says

The United Arab Emirates is not planning to join the international stabilization force for Gaza because it lacks a clear framework, a senior official says.

“The UAE does not yet see a clear framework for the stability force, and under such circumstances will probably not participate in such a force,” presidential advisor Anwar Gargash tells a forum in Abu Dhabi.

The International Stabilization Force (ISF) is set to take the reins of Gaza as part of US President Donald Trump’s comprehensive ceasefire plan, which the US is seeking to enshrine into international law via a UN Security Council vote.

Trump has claimed that many countries have been volunteering to contribute troops to the force to take on Hamas if necessary. The claim contradicted what Arab diplomats are saying behind closed doors — that they don’t want to send their troops into Gaza if it means clashing with Hamas, which is publicly refusing to disarm.

Saudi doctor goes on trial for deadly German Christmas market attack last year

A Saudi doctor goes on trial in Germany later today accused of driving an SUV through a Christmas market in a rampage that killed six people and wounded more than 300.

Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old psychiatrist, was arrested next to the battered vehicle after the attack on December 20 last year in the eastern city of Magdeburg.

Prosecutors say Abdulmohsen — a critic of Islam and an adherent of far-right views and radical conspiracy theories — was motivated by “dissatisfaction and frustration.”

They say he aimed “to kill as many people as possible” in the attack that stunned the nation.

The attack, in which a rented BMW raced into the crowd, killed a nine-year-old boy and five women aged between 45 and 75.

Security services later faced uncomfortable questions about whether the attack could have been prevented, given Abdulmohsen’s history of extreme rhetoric and violent threats.

He will face six counts of murder and 338 counts of attempted murder in a trial expected to last until at least March.

The enormous number of victims and witnesses means that the trial will be held in a specially built temporary hall as no existing courtroom in the state of Saxony-Anhalt could accommodate the trial.

Abdulmohsen, who will be seated in a bullet-proof booth, faces life in prison if convicted.

In pair of criminal incidents, car explodes in Hadera with no injuries; sappers defuse pipe bomb in Netanya

Police say a car exploded in Hadera and a pipe bomb was found near a Netanya residential building in a pair of apparently unrelated criminal incidents.

There were no injuries reported at either location.

Law enforcement officers arrived on the scene after the explosion in Hadera and have begun gathering evidence, police say.

Police say sappers neutralized what appeared to be a pipe bomb near a residential building on Sheshet Hayamim Street in Netanya.

There are no reports of arrests in either incident.

Paris court to decide whether to release Sarkozy from prison, less than 3 weeks after he was jailed

A Paris court is set to decide whether to release former French President Nicolas Sarkozy from prison, less than three weeks after he began serving a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya.

Sarkozy, 70, became the first former French head of state in modern times to be sent behind bars after his conviction on Sept. 25. He was jailed on Oct. 21 pending appeal but immediately filed for early release.

Under French law, detention before an appeal ruling is supposed to be exceptional. Judges will weigh whether Sarkozy presents a flight risk, might pressure witnesses, or could obstruct justice.

If the request is granted, Sarkozy could leave Paris’ La Santé prison within hours under judicial supervision.

The former president, who governed from 2007 to 2012, denies wrongdoing and says he is the victim of a “plot” linked to the former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Sarkozy also faces separate proceedings, including a Nov. 26 ruling by France’s highest court over illegal financing of his failed 2012 reelection bid, and an ongoing investigation into alleged witness tampering in the Libya case.

Lebanese media reports Israeli strike on vehicle near Sidon

Lebanese media reports an Israeli drone strike targeted a car in the Sidon area.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

Since a November 2024 ceasefire in Lebanon, the IDF says it has killed over 330 Hezbollah operatives in strikes, hit hundreds of Hezbollah sites, and conducted over 1,000 raids and other small ground operations in the south of the country in response to violations by the terror group.

In recent weeks, the IDF appears to have stepped up the rate of attacks on Hezbollah.

דיווחים בלבנון: צה"ל תקף רכב באזור צידון. לפי דיווחים ישנם נפגעים | תיעוד@migansh5 pic.twitter.com/hqprkG3nDn

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) November 10, 2025

Senators reach deal that could end government shutdown, US media reports

US senators have reached a bipartisan deal that would resume federal funding and end a shutdown which has stretched to a record 40 days and forced most government operations to grind to a halt, US media reports.

Outlets including CNN and Fox News report that lawmakers have reached a stopgap agreement to fund the government through January after wrangling over health care subsidies, food benefits and US President Donald Trump’s firings of federal employees.

The measure is expected to get a procedural vote in the Senate in the coming hours.

Lebanon fighting ‘terror financing,’ president tells US

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun tells US officials that his country is tackling money laundering and the financing of terrorism, days after Washington imposed sanctions on three Hezbollah members.

The trio was accused of money laundering to fund Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group.

The US delegation’s visit to Beirut, headed by senior director for counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka, comes as Washington works to cut off Iran-backed Hezbollah’s funding and Lebanon’s government tries to disarm it.

The group was severely weakened in its most recent war with Israel, which was halted by a November 2024 ceasefire.

“Lebanon strictly applies the measures adopted to prevent money laundering, smuggling, or its use in financing terrorism, and severely punishes financial crimes of all kinds,” Aoun says he had told the delegation.

On Thursday, the US imposed sanctions on three Hezbollah members allegedly involved in the transfer of tens of millions of dollars from Iran, the group’s main sponsor.

Part of the funding was via money exchange businesses that operate in cash, said a US Treasury statement.

Since January 2025, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have “transferred over $1 billion” to Hezbollah, “mostly through money exchange companies”, it added.

“Lebanon has an opportunity to be free, prosperous and secure — but that can only happen if Hezbollah is fully disarmed and cut off from Iran’s funding and control,” deputy director for counter-terrorism John Hurley said Thursday.

Hurley later posted on X that he, Aoun and Gorka had “discussed ways in which we can partner together to stop the flow of money from Iran to Hezbollah and create a safer and more prosperous Lebanon.”

Beit Shemesh mayor attacked by Haredi extremists in Bnei Brak

Beit Shemesh Mayor Shmuel Greenberg was attacked in Bnei Brak earlier tonight by ultra-Orthodox extremists, Hebrew-language media reports.

He was in the city to attend the wedding of the son of Elad Mayor Yehuda Botbol, Ynet reports.

He did not require medical attention.

This is the third attack against the Beit Shemesh mayor by Haredi extremists within the past year.

Most recently, in October, dozens of ultra-Orthodox rioters broke down the gates around his home, threw stones and damaged the house’s electrical system.

In March, extremists attacked Greenberg and his family, overturning his car and injuring his 19-year-old son.