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The Times of Israel liveblogged Thursday’s events as they happened.
Business park plans for Nazi camp site spark ire in Austria
Crematoria entrance at the former Nazi concentration camp Mauthausen, in Austria, in 2013. (Matt Lebovic/The Times of Israel)
Plans to build a business park on the site of a former Nazi concentration camp have drawn outrage in Austria, with the Mauthausen Memorial calling for the site’s preservation.
Austrian media revealed this week that the real estate company of Andreas Ramharter, the mayor of Leobersdorf town in Lower Austria, sold a plot of land which houses the remnants of former labor camp barracks.
Around 400 women, mainly Russian, Italian and Polish, were forced to manufacture infantry munitions between September 1944 and April 1945 at the Hirtenberg site, an annex of the Mauthausen concentration camp complex.
The site is to be re-developed into a business park following a zoning change, Austrian media reported. The buyer paid more than 15 million euros ($16 million) to buy the private land from Ramharter’s company, the reports said.
Ramharter, who does not belong to any political party, tells AFP that the zoning change was approved in the 1980s before he was mayor.
He adds that his company sold the land in 2022 and until then worked in coordination with the authorities in charge “to examine the historical significance.”
A stele monument was erected this April near the site to commemorate the victims.
The Mauthausen Memorial was informed of the project in 2021, but its requests “to discuss the possibilities for commemorating the victims” were “ignored or rejected,” the organization’s spokeswoman Valerie Seufert tells AFP.
The group wants to protect the site “from development and destruction, so that the history of this place can be visible and the victims… can be appropriately commemorated.”
Criticism also came from other groups and political parties.
Report: Elon Musk met with Iran’s UN ambassador to the UN
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is pictured during a visit at the company's electric car plant in Gruenheide near Berlin, eastern Germany, on March 13, 2024 (Odd Andersen/AFP)
Billionaire Elon Musk, who is an adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump, met with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations on Monday, The New York Times reports.
Citing two Iranian officials, the newspaper reports that the meeting was a discussion of how to defuse tensions between Iran and the United States.
After physical altercations in stands at Paris match, Israel holds France to 0-0 tie
Security separates a section with many Israeli fans from the neighboring zone at the France-Israel Nations League game at the Stade de France in Paris, November 14, 2024. (Joshua Genuth)
PARIS — After physical altercations break out at the Israel-France Nations League game at the Stade de France, orange-vested security personnel create a buffer zone separating two sections, one of which has many Israel supporters waving blue and white flags.
The game ends in a 0-0 draw — a highly impressive achievement for Israel. France were the defeated finalists in the 2022 World Cup.
Though the stadium is believed to be at record-low capacity with an estimated 20,000 attendees, many more Israelis appear to be in the crowd than previously expected.
French-Jewish fans Menachem Cohen, 18, and Dov Ber Cerf, 21, say the booing heard each time Israel charges with the ball goes far beyond the usual levels of home team support.
A physical altercation at the France v Israel Nations League game at the Stade de France, Paris, November 14, 2024. (Maor Bokobza)
“We came because we wanted to show that we support Israel, that we are not afraid of anyone, and we won’t be intimidated by anyone. There’s a God [to protect us], and all will be okay, God willing,” they say.
Dov Ber Cerf, left, and Menachem Cohen at the Stade de France in Paris, November 14, 2024. (Joshua Genuth)
French authorities stepped up security ahead of the Israel-France Nations League soccer match in Paris, hoping to avoid a repeat of the violent clashes in Amsterdam a week earlier.
Attending the game are French President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Michel Barnier, former president Nicolas Sarkozy, former French president François Hollande, Israel’s ambassador Joshua Zarka and many other French officials.
Agencies contributed to this report.
Blinken, Sa’ar discuss Iran, Gaza and Lebanon in first phone call
Illustrative: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks at his cellphone as he walks for a group photo session during the G7 foreign ministers meetings at the Iikura Guest House, November 8, 2023, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
New Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar speaks with his American counterpart, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for the first time since entering the role, to discuss Iran, the fighting in Lebanon and the humanitarian situation in Gaza, says the Foreign Ministry.
Blinken congratulates Sa’ar on his new position, according to the Israeli readout, and Sa’ar thanks his counterpart for his comments on Israel’s recent efforts to improve the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
IDF says HRW report on Gaza contains ‘blatant misrepresentations’ and ‘factual distortion’
IDF troops operate in the central Gaza corridor, in a handout image published April 28, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF says in a statement that a Human Rights Watch report accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza “follows their long-standing pattern of anti-Israel bias and factual distortion.”
The report, the IDF says in an English-language statement, “selectively presents information in a manner that obscures context, as well as makes certain blatant misrepresentations.” The Israeli military says that the report in question “relies heavily on Hamas-controlled sources” and also “most egregiously” omits mention of Hamas’s longstanding policy of embedding itself in civilian areas “in an effort to maximize civilian harm.”
The IDF says the HRW report is “deeply misleading” in portraying the military’s “efforts to minimize civilian harm as tools for forcible displacement.”
“The IDF’s warnings to members of the civilian population to temporarily distance themselves from areas expected to be exposed to intense warfare are made in accordance with the obligation under international law to take feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm by providing advance warnings prior to attacks,” it says. “The IDF only operates in areas in which there is known to be a military presence, and is still at this time working to dismantle Hamas’ military infrastructure in various parts throughout the Gaza Strip.”
Ben Gvir accuses AG of ‘attempted coup’ against him, calls on PM to fire her
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (left) and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. (Composite: Liron Moldovan/Flash90; Israel Bar Association)
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir denounces Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his conduct as “an attempted coup” and calls for her to be fired.
Baharav-Miara sent a letter to Netanyahu this evening calling on him to considering firing Ben Gvir as police minister due to his repeated illegal attempts to intervene in police activity.
“The only ousting that needs to occur is the removal of the attorney general, who is trying to force the recusal of the prime minister and to fire a minister from his job due to political positions and policy implementation,” Ben Gvir writes.
Rumors have circulated that the attorney general could seek to have Netanyahu briefly recused from office while he is testifying in his corruption trial next month, though Baharav-Miara has never suggested any such move.
UN says food stolen, shots fired at aid convoy in Gaza in ‘law and order’ incident
Trucks loaded with aid drive down the Salaheddin road in the central town of Deir el-Balah in the Gaza Strip on November 5, 2024. (Eyad Baba/AFP)
The United Nations says 14 trucks in a 20-truck convoy carrying humanitarian aid were shot at and the food stolen in central Gaza, injuring three drivers.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric tells reporters the trucks collected aid from the newly opened Kissufim border crossing with Israel and were heading to a warehouse in Deir Al-Balah when the shots rang out.
He calls it a “law and order” episode — not the result of firing from either Hamas or Israeli troops. Dujarric says the six other trucks reached the warehouse.
“As we’ve said repeatedly, it is also critical that Israeli authorities facilitate the movement of aid workers and supplies across the Gaza Strip,” he says.
“For months we’ve been calling for the opening of more land routes, both into and within Gaza,” Dujarric says. “But we also need increased access and security assurances as well as more supplies so they can quickly reach all people across Gaza at necessary scale.”
12 reported killed in Israeli strike on eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek
Rescuers gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a house in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek on November 14, 2024. (Nidal Solh/AFP)
An Israeli strike kills 12 people after it hit a civil defense center in Lebanon’s city of Baalbek, the regional governor tells Reuters, adding that rescue operations are ongoing.
Eight others, including five women, were also killed and 27 wounded in another Israeli attack on the Lebanese city, health ministry reported today.
There was no immediate comment from the IDF on the strike.
AG calls on PM to weigh firing Ben Gvir over his illegal interventions in police conduct
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, embraces National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir as ministers attend a meeting on the planned state budget, in the Knesset in Jerusalem, May 23, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he must reevaluate National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s tenure in light of his apparent repeated and ongoing intervention into operational police matters and his politicization of police promotions.
The attorney general points out that when the High Court of Justice rejected petitions against Ben Gvir being made a cabinet minister at the beginning of the current government, it placed considerable weight on his statement that despite his previous criminal convictions, he had changed his ways.
But Baharav-Miara notes that new petitions to the High Court demanding Ben Gvir be forced to step down include a series of examples in which the ultranationalist firebrand has seemingly violated High Court decisions and orders instructing him not to intervene in operational police matters.
“It appears that the minister is using his authority to make appointments and end the tenure of officers in a manner which constitutes illegitimate intervention in the operational running of the police,” writes the attorney general to the prime minister.
She adds that the combination of the misuse of this power and “the illegitimate intervention in the operational activity of the police is harming the possibility of ensuring that the police can act out of a sense of duty to the public and not the political echelon.”
Baharav-Miara cites numerous acts of intervention by Ben Gvir into police operations, including publicly summoning senior police officials for a dressing down due to his displeasure at their handling of anti-government protests; declaring at a police operations room that he had gone there to ensure the police carried out his directives for handling protests; and a letter by former police commissioner Kobi Shabtai that Ben Gvir had instructed senior police officers to disregard cabinet orders regarding the protection of humanitarian aid convoys on their way to Gaza.
The attorney general says that Ben Gvir’s actions reflected a pattern of behavior of “contempt for the law, violation of the law and harm to the foundational principles of governance, and by the politicization of police work.”
As such, she says Netanyahu needs to address these issues and ask Ben Gvir to respond to the claims. She adds that the prime minister should then sit down with her to discuss their response to the High Court petitions demanding Ben Gvir be removed from office.
Rocket fired at Kiryat Shmona falls in open area, says IDF
One rocket was launched from Lebanon at Kiryat Shmona a short while ago, setting off sirens in the northern city and surrounding towns.
According to the IDF, the rocket struck an open area.
There are no reports of injuries.
Israeli anthem booed ahead of France v Israel Nations League game in Paris
France's President Emmanuel Macron, Israel's Ambassador to France Joshua Zarka, former prime minister Manuel Valls, former French president Francois Hollande, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and other officials applaud ahead of the UEFA Nations League match between France and Israel at The Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, November 14, 2024. (Franck Fife/AFP)
The Israeli anthem is booed and whistled by the Stade de France crowd before Les Bleus’ Nations League game against Israel.
The match takes place a week after violence in Amsterdam around a Europa League match involving Maccabi Tel Aviv.
88 Democratic lawmakers urge Biden to sanction Ben Gvir and Smotrich
Religious Zionist party head MK Bezalel Smotrich with Head of the Otzma Yehudit party MK Itamar Ben Gvir at a vote at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on December 28, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Eighty-eight Democratic lawmakers have signed onto a letter calling on US President Joe Biden to sanction far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich before he departs the White House in January.
Smotrich and Ben Gvir are “driving policies that promote settler violence, weaken the Palestinian Authority, facilitate de facto and de jure annexation, and destabilize the West Bank,” the House and Senate lawmakers argue in a letter sent on October 29 but made public today.
The Biden administration has weighed the unprecedented step in recent months, but has thus far held off on the move, with the president feeling the US should not be sanctioning officials from a democratic ally country, US officials have told The Times of Israel.
A move to sanction them would almost certainly be reversed by President-elect Donald Trump and it also comes with significant questions regarding enforcement. If Israel continues to pay the ministerial salaries of Smotrich and Ben Gvir, the government would be exposed to sanctions of its own, which is likely not the administration’s intention, given its support for the US-Israel relationship more broadly.
“Government leaders instigating violence must be subject to US sanctions… with radical officials in the Netanyahu government continuing to enable settler violence and enact annexationist policies, it is clear that further sanctions are urgently needed,” the letter states.
The signatories are largely made up of some of the more progressive Democrats in Congress, but they also include the more moderate Sen. Chris Coons as well as Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democratic appropriator who, this year, received the endorsement of a PAC affiliated with the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. Eight Jewish lawmakers are also among the signatories
JTA contributed to this report.
UN peacekeeping chief says boosted UNIFIL must support Lebanese troops in ceasefire
Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol the southern Lebanese Marjayoun district, near the border with Israel, on October 16, 2024. (AFP)
The UN peacekeeping chief whose force monitors Lebanon’s south says that redeploying Lebanese troops there is crucial for any solution to ending a year of escalating Hezbollah-Israel violence.
“The redeployment of the Lebanese armed forces is an absolutely central element to any durable settlement,” Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix tells reporters during a briefing in the Beirut area.
Lacroix says the UN intends to bolster its peacekeeping mission in Lebanon to better support the Lebanese army once a truce is agreed to, but will not directly enforce a ceasefire.
“I think that has to be very clear. Implementing the [2006 UN Resolution] 1701 is the responsibility of the parties,” says Lacroix. “UNIFIL has a supportive role, and there is a lot of substance in that supporting role.”
Following a truce, UNIFIL’s capacities could be expanded to include clearing explosive devices and reopening roads, he says.
“We don’t necessarily think in terms of numbers, we think in terms of what would be the needs and how could they be fulfilled,” he adds.
US State Department rejects UN report accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza
Troops operating in the Gaza Strip in an undated photo released for publication by the military on November 13, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel rejects the conclusion of a report submitted by a UN special committee that Israel is carrying out a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
“That is something we would unequivocally disagree with. We think that kind of phrasing and those kinds of accusations are certainly unfounded, as it relates to the humanitarian situation,” Patel says during a press briefing.
He also calls out aid organizations for some of their reporting regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which Patel claims is not grounded in facts.
He points to a “scorecard” published by eight rights organizations stating that Israel has not allowed any aid to reach northern Gaza, which he says is inaccurate. Israel has in fact allowed several aid convoys to reach northern Gaza in recent days but did for nearly a month seal off several major towns in north Gaza to such convoys until mid-October.
Patel says the scorecard also claims that Israel has not expanded the Muwasi humanitarian zone when it has. However, the scorecard doesn’t actually claim that Israel hasn’t expanded the zone, but rather states that only a limited number of people have been allowed to move outside of it.
The State Department spokesperson notes that in the coming days, the IDF and COGAT will shrink the list of “dual-use items” that are banned from entering Gaza, as requested by the US in its letter to Israel last month giving it 30 days to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza or risk being deemed in violation with US law.
The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that Israel had taken enough steps to remain in compliance with US law but insisted that it would continue to monitor the situation to ensure that measures to boost the humanitarian crisis are sustained.
Thousands of Lithuanians protest inclusion in coalition of party head on trial for antisemitism
A demonstrator holds up a placard during a silent protest in Independence Square in front of the Parliament in Vilnius, Lithuania on November 14, 2024. (Petras Malukas/AFP)
Thousands of people protest in Lithuania against the inclusion of a party whose leader is on trial over alleged antisemitic remarks in the ruling coalition as the new parliament was sworn in.
The coalition deal risks sparking a constitutional crisis, with the Baltic state’s president saying he will refuse to approve government ministers from the Nemunas Dawn party.
A junior partner in the alliance forged by the Social Democrats who won the election last month, Nemunas Dawn is led by Remigijus Zemaitaitis, a politician currently on trial for alleged incitement to hatred. He has publicly quoted an antisemitic rhyme about killing Jews in his criticism of Israeli actions in the West Bank and was criticized for other remarks seen as minimizing the Holocaust.
Several thousand people gather outside the Lithuanian parliament in Vilnius to protest against Nemunas Dawn, with some carrying Lithuanian and Israeli flags.
Zemaitaitis, who denies the charges against him, expressed personal support for combating antisemitism and in recent days appeared to tone down his rhetoric on social media. A verdict in his case is still pending.
Israeli fighter jets strike Hezbollah weapons depots in Beirut, says IDF
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut's southern suburbs neighbourhood of Ghobeiry on November 14, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli fighter jets struck several Hezbollah weapons depots in Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier this evening, the IDF says.
The Hezbollah sites were located “in the heart of a civilian population,” the IDF says, accusing the terror group of using human shields.
Before the strikes, the IDF issued evacuation warnings to civilians in the area.
Israel says HRW ‘crimes against humanity’ allegations are ‘completely false’
Israel denies allegations by Human Rights Watch that the IDF has forcibly displaced Gazans and that its actions in more than a year of war amount to “crimes against humanity.”
“Time and again, Human Rights Watch’s rhetoric regarding Israel’s conduct in Gaza is completely false and detached from reality,” foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein says in a post on X.
In a report published earlier today, the New York-based rights group said it had “amassed evidence that Israeli officials are… committing the war crime of forcible transfer.”
“Statements by senior officials with command responsibility show that forced displacement is intentional and forms part of Israeli state policy and therefore amount to a crime against humanity,” Human Rights Watch added.
“Contrary to claims in HRW’s report, Israel’s efforts are directed solely at dismantling Hamas’s terror capabilities and not at the people of Gaza,” says Marmorstein.
He also charges that Hamas “uses civilians as human shields and embeds terror infrastructure within residential areas.”
“Israel will continue to operate in accordance with the law of armed conflict,” the spokesman adds.
US ambassador hands ceasefire proposal to Lebanese parliament speaker
Troops of the IDF Commando Brigade operate in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo issued on November 14, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The US ambassador to Lebanon submitted a draft truce proposal to Lebanon’s speaker of parliament Nabih Berri today to halt fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, two political sources tell Reuters, without revealing details.
The US has sought to broker a ceasefire that would end hostilities between its ally Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, but efforts have yet to yield a result.
Earlier today, Energy Minister Eli Cohen said in an interview that Israel was closer than it had been over the past year to a deal to end hostilities in Lebanon.
More than 300 Hezbollah targets struck in Lebanon in past week, says IDF spokesman
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike on a neighborhood in southern Beirut on November 13, 2024. (Ibrahim Amro/AFP)
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the military has struck more than 300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in the past week, including 40 in Beirut.
“We are striking across Lebanon, from Dahiyeh to Damascus,” he says in a press conference.
The targets in Lebanon included weapons depots, commander centers and rocket launchers, according to Hagari.
“We have identified that there are rockets and other weapons, that Hezbollah is launching at Israel, that were manufactured in Syria, and were transferred to Hezbollah from Syria,” he continues, vowing that the IDF will strike “all attempts to transfer weapons from Syria to Hezbollah and strike any infrastructure we identify in Syria that is being used to manufacture weapons for Hezbollah.”
Yesterday, the IDF struck land crossings between Lebanon and Syria, which were being used by Hezbollah to bring weapons from Iran into Lebanon. Earlier today, the IDF said it struck Palestinian Islamic Jihad sites in Damascus.
Lebanese Christian party head: Hezbollah should abandon its arms to end war
Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces party, gestures as he speaks during an interview with the Associated Press, in Maarab east of Beirut, April 30, 2024. (AP/Hussein Malla)
The head of Lebanon’s largest Christian party says that the Iran-backed Hezbollah should relinquish its weapons as quickly as possible to end its yearlong war with Israel and spare Lebanon further death and destruction.
Samir Geagea, Hezbollah’s fiercest political opponent in Lebanon, speaks to Reuters at his mountain home and party headquarters in Maarab, north of Beirut.
“With the destruction of all of Hezbollah’s infrastructure and its warehouses, a big part of Lebanon is also being destroyed. That’s the price,” he says.
The intense pressure of Israel’s military campaign presents an opportunity to get the country back on track, Geagea says.
“If the challenges and the prices paid are so big, then we can take advantage of them to get the situation back to normal,” he says, calling on Hezbollah and the Lebanese state to swiftly implement local accords and international resolutions disbanding armed factions outside the control of the state.
“That is the shortest way to end the war. It’s the least costly way for Lebanon and for the Lebanese people,” he adds.
Despite his decades-old opposition to Hezbollah, Geagea, 72, says he opposes the Lebanese army forcefully disarming the group.
UNIFIL says 2-3 unknown people fired 30 shots in their direction, no one hurt
Members of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force stand at the site of an Israeli strike at the northern entrance of the southern city of Sidon, on November 7, 2024. (Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) says that two or three unknown people fired approximately 30 shots in direction of peacekeepers, who fired back and moved to safety.
No one was hurt and an investigation was launched, UNIFIL adds in a statement.
“We remind the Lebanese authorities of their responsibility to ensure the safety and security of peacekeepers who are carrying out sensitive and important work on Lebanese territory,” UNIFIL says. “We have requested the Lebanese authorities undertake a full and complete investigation of this incident and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Two soldiers wounded in drone strike in north hospitalized in moderate condition
Two soldiers wounded by a Hezbollah drone impact near the northern town of Eliakim earlier this evening are listed in moderate condition, Rambam Hospital in Haifa says.
The hospital says the two victims were admitted with shrapnel wounds.
The two victims of the drone attack are soldiers, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari reveals in a press conference.
Syria’s state news reports fresh Israeli airstrikes near its border with Lebanon
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reports fresh Israeli airstrikes in the al-Qusayr area, near the border with Lebanon.
The reported strike comes as Israel has vowed to prevent arms smuggling from Iran to Hezbollah via Syria.
In recent weeks, several IDF strikes have been carried out on the Syria-Lebanon border, aimed at preventing weapons from being transferred to Hezbollah.
Coalition chiefs in joint statement vow to reject any attempt to legally sideline PM
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his office at the Knesset in Jerusalem, November 11, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
In a joint statement, the heads of the parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition say they reject any possible attempt to force Netanyahu to step aside, even for a brief period.
The letter comes a day after the Jerusalem District Court rejected a request to delay Netanyahu’s testimony in his corruption trial, currently set for next month, amid a slew of unconfirmed reports that the attorney general could seek to sideline the prime minister during the time he is testifying. The attorney general has not publicly suggested any such move.
“We the heads of the coalition parties reject outright any attempt to declare the prime minister incapacitated, even for a very short period of time,” the statement reads. “We stand and will continue to stand to protect democracy. Only the people, through their elected representatives in the Knesset, will determine who will lead the nation and who will serve as prime minister.”
The statement is signed by the heads of the Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit, New Hope and Noam factions.
IDF confirms drone from Lebanon impacted near Eliakim; 2 reported wounded
The IDF in a statement confirms that a drone launched from Lebanon impacted near the northern town of Eliakim, some 50 kilometers from the northern border.
According to first responders, two people were injured in the impact.
The drone had set off sirens along Israel’s northern coast, including in Haifa.
Central suspect in PMO leak case to be released to house arrest tomorrow after 20 days in prison
Eli Feldstein, a spokesman in the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the main suspect in an investigation launched in late October 2024 of alleged illegal access and leaking of classified intelligence material. (Kan screenshot, used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)
Eli Feldstein, the central suspect in the Prime Minister’s Office security documents leak scandal, is set to be released to house arrest tomorrow afternoon, the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court rules.
Feldstein was arrested on October 27 on suspicion that he leaked sensitive security documents to the foreign press. Four other suspects, all of whom are IDF personnel, have also been held in detention on suspicion of unlawfully removing these security documents from an IDF database. Two of them have been released to house arrest.
If the Shin Bet and police do not appeal the court decision, Feldstein will be released from prison after 20 days in detention.
Ahead of IAEA meeting, Sa’ar tells UK counterpart Iran must be held accountable
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (R) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi pose for a photo before their meeting in Tehran on November 14, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar speaks with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy ahead of the meeting next week of the Board of Governors of the UN nuclear watchdog.
“Member states should demand that the IAEA condemn Iran and report on its repeated violations,” says Sa’ar, according to his office.
Sa’ar also warns Lammy of the dangers that could be unleashed if Tehran is being “shielded by a nuclear umbrella.”
After desalination plant hooked up to Israeli power grid, Gazans line up for drinking water
Palestinians collect clean drinking water at a desalination plant that now operates round the clock in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians have been lining up at a desalination plant that now operates around the clock in central Gaza to fill up containers of clean drinking water — a resource they have barely had any access to during the war.
The plant previously operated for just three to four hours a day. The Israeli military said they connected the UN-built plant in the western part of Deir al-Balah to Israel’s power grid to increase the amount of drinking water in Gaza.
Associated Press video shows people lining up at the Southern Gaza Desalination Plant, with children filling jerry cans and containers with water.
The plant, which was built by UNICEF in 2017, can desalinate 20,000 cubic meters of water per day and will provide drinking water to Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah and the Muwasi humanitarian area. The electricity provided by Israel will go only to the desalination plant.
“The amount of water will increase… it will remain available for 24 hours and life will become easier,” says Muhammad Shehab, who was displaced from Gaza City.
Drone impact reported near town of Eliakim after more than 30 minutes of sirens
After over half an hour of drone infiltration sirens across a wide swath of northern Israel, medics are responding to reports of an impact in the Eliakim area.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
Sirens began in the Nahariya area and continued across Acre, Haifa, Yokneam, Zichron Yaakov and Caesarea.
US slaps sanctions on Syrian conglomerate for funding Quds Force and Houthis
The US Treasury Department imposes sanctions on companies, individuals and vessels associated with a Syrian conglomerate that Washington says is funding Iran’s Quds Force and Yemen’s Houthis.
The Syrian conglomerate, the Al-Qatirji Company, is responsible for generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the Quds Force and the Houthis through the sale of Iranian oil to Syria and China, the department says in a statement.
“Iran is increasingly relying on key business partners like the Al-Qatirji Company to fund its destabilizing activities and web of terrorist proxies across the region,” says department official Bradley Smith.
The Al-Qatirji Company had already been under sanctions for its role in facilitating the sale of fuel between the Syrian regime and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the department says. Some 26 companies, individuals and vessels associated with the company were targeted in today’s action, it adds.
Ahead of France-Israel match, Macron says ‘we will not give in to antisemitism’
French President Emmanuel Macron attends the first working session of the 19th Francophonie Summit, at the Grand Palais in Paris, Oct. 5, 2024. (Ludovic Marin/Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron says “we will not give in to antisemitism” ahead of Israel’s Nations League soccer match against France in Paris later tonight.
Speaking to broadcaster BFMTV a few hours before the high-risk match, which he will attend, Macron says: “We will not give in to antisemitism anywhere, and violence — including in the French Republic — will never prevail, nor will intimidation.”
The Paris police chief Laurent Nunez has described the match at the Stade de France as “high risk” and Israel has urged its citizens to avoid the fixture. The authorities fear it could become another flashpoint following last week’s violence in the Netherlands.
French Prime Minister Michel Barnier will also attend the match, as well as former presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.
Gag order lifted: PM’s chief of staff suspected of forgery, illegally altering records
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with Cabinet Secretary Tzachi Braverman (R) during a weekly cabinet meeting in the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on April 30, 2023. (Abir Sultan/Pool/AFP)
Tzachi Braverman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, is suspected of forgery and illegally altering records in the Prime Minister’s Office held by the prime minister’s military secretary relating to Netanyahu’s activities in the very first minutes of the October 7 Hamas invasion, Hebrew media outlets report, after a court lifts a gag order on the affair.
Braverman is suspected of having altered the stated time at which Netanyahu first received an update via phone call from the prime minister’s military secretary about the situation, changing it from 6:40 a.m. to 6:29 a.m, Ynet reports.
Braverman was questioned under caution by the Lahav 433 major crimes unit of the police for three hours today regarding his role in the scandal.
An investigation into the allegations was opened after the military secretary at the time, Maj. Gen. Avi Gil, sent a memo to the attorney general over the matter, Channel 13 has reported.
Allegations that Braverman blackmailed an IDF officer to alter the records by threatening him with a delicate video recording have not yet been investigated.
Sirens sound in Haifa Bay area after drone infiltrates from Lebanon, says IDF
Sirens warning of a drone infiltration sound in the Western Galilee and Haifa Bay area as the IDF says it is tracking a target that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon.
“The incident is still ongoing,” the IDF says.
PMO director Yossi Shelley tapped as next ambassador to the UAE
Yossi Shelley, director of the PMO (standing), meets with northern mayors in Nof Hagalil on April 11, 2024. (Eran Yardeni/GPO)
The Civil Service Commission approves the appointment of Yossi Shelley, director general of the Prime Minister’s Office, as the next ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
The cabinet still has to approve the appointment, but is expected to do so.
The embassy, located in one of Israel’s most important partners in the region, is currently headed by a professional diplomat below the rank of ambassador after the previous envoy, Amir Hayek, returned to Israel last month.
Shelley’s replacement in the PMO has not yet been announced.
Drone alert sirens sound in Nahariya area
Sirens warning of a drone attack sound in Nahariya and surrounding areas in Israel’s north.
IDF officer killed fighting in southern Lebanon, says military
Lt. Ivri Dickshtein. (IDF)
An IDF officer was killed and another officer was seriously wounded during fighting in southern Lebanon earlier today, the military announces.
The slain soldier is named as Lt. Ivri Dickshtein, 21, a platoon commander in the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion, from Eli.
According to an initial IDF probe of the incident, the officer was killed during an exchange of fire with Hezbollah operatives.
Dickshtein had led his platoon in an offensive in a village in southern Lebanon. Amid the operation, the troops entered a building where they encountered at least five Hezbollah gunmen.
The platoon commander was killed and another officer was seriously wounded during the gun battle. Another soldier was also moderately hurt in the incident. According to the probe, all five Hezbollah operatives were killed in the exchange.
Number of daily rockets fired by Hezbollah has dropped over past week, says IDF
An Iron dome interceptor targets a rocket form Lebanon, as it seen from the northern city of Safed, November 13, 2024. (David Cohen/Flash90)
The IDF has seen a decrease in the number of rockets fired by Hezbollah at Israel in the past week, down to under 100 a day on average, compared with 150-200 a day last month and in the months before that.
Today, Hezbollah has fired at least 25 rockets at the north. Yesterday, the terror group launched 50, and the day before that it launched 55.
The major exception was on Monday, when Hezbollah launched 190 rockets at Israel, as the terror group commemorated its martyrs’ day.
The military assesses that Hezbollah is struggling to carry out major barrages, as most of its rocket stockpiles have been targeted and dozens of its commanders have been killed. Before the war, the IDF had assessed that Hezbollah would fire thousands of rockets per day in an escalation.
FM Sa’ar tells French counterpart there’s ‘progress’ on Lebanon ceasefire talks
Smoke plumes rise after an Israeli airstrike on the Chouaifet neighborhood in southern Beirut on November 14, 2024. (Anwar Amro/AFP)
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar speaks with his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot, and tells him that there is “progress” in attempts to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon that will allow Israelis to return to their homes safely.
According to the Foreign Ministry, Sa’ar stresses that implementation of any agreement must be ensured, including keeping Hezbollah away from the border and preventing it from rearming through Syria.
Sa’ar stresses that “the international community has a role to act so that Lebanon will once again belong to the Lebanese people and not to the Iranian regime.”
Barrot tells Sa’ar that France is pushing for a resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors meeting next week calling for a detailed report on Iran’s violations of its obligations, says the Israeli readout.
Sa’ar emphasizes that immediate steps must be taken against Iran, especially as some in Tehran call for attaining nuclear weapons.
The foreign minister also repeats Israel’s opposition to unilateral steps to create a Palestinian state, and moves against Israel in international bodies.
The two diplomats speak about the France-Israel soccer game tonight, and Barrot stresses the security measures in place to ensure the safety of Israeli fans.
Pope Francis meets family members of hostages, prays for their release
Pope Francis shakes hands with Sharone Lifshitz, the daughter of Israeli hostage Oded Lifshitz, during a meeting in the Vatican on November 14, 2024. (Vatican media)
Family members of hostages being held captive in Gaza and Israelis who were freed from captivity meet with Pope Francis in the Vatican.
Some of the families present the pope with gifts related to the hostages. The family of hostage Tal Shoham, from Kibbutz Be’eri, presents the pontiff with a soccer jersey of Shoham’s favorite team with his name on the back. Shoham’s 8-year-old son, Naveh — who was abducted and later released — had corresponded previously with Francis about their shared love of soccer.
The family of Oded Lifshitz, who was kidnapped with his wife from Kibbutz Nir Oz, gives the pope a pin made from Lifshitz’s cactus garden.
Freed hostage Louis Har, who grew up in Argentina, speaks in Spanish with the Argentinian pontiff and gives him a picture with the word “homeward.”
Yelena Trufanova, who was freed from captivity, also attended, a day after Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a video of her son, Sasha, who is still being held hostage in Gaza.
Pope Francis says he feels close to the hostage families, and promises to do everything he can for their release. “The most important thing is to save people,” he says, according to the Foreign Ministry.
The meeting concludes with a silent prayer. “I hope that God releases these hostages,” Francis says.
UN claims aid deliveries to northern Gaza blocked by Israel repeatedly in recent days
Trucks with humanitarian aid from the European Union idle at the Erez Crossing into Gaza, on November 11, 2024. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)
Six attempts by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to deliver aid to besieged areas in northern Gaza were blocked over the past two days by Israeli authorities, the spokesman for the UN secretary-general says.
“Every attempt by the UN to access these areas with food, water and health missions this month were either denied or impeded,” Stéphane Dujarric says during a press briefing.
Seventy-nine percent of Gaza remains under active evacuation orders, Dujarric says, as more and more Palestinians have been pushed into the coastal Muwasi humanitarian zone. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel yesterday to rescind evacuation orders once it finishes military operations in those areas — something the IDF has yet to do.
Dujarric cites a World Food Program report from the end of October that found that entire food groups have disappeared from Gaza’s markets, with dairy products and eggs “nearly non-existent” and raw fruits and vegetables also scarce.
“Many items have increased over 1,000 percent from pre-conflict prices,” he adds.
COGAT did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the UN claims.
Greece in talks with Israel to develop 2 billion euro ‘Iron Dome’
Illustrative: A battery of Israel's Iron Dome defense missile system sits in Ashkelon, Aug. 7, 2022. (AP/Ariel Schalit, File)
Greece is in talks with Israel to develop a 2 billion euro ($2.11 billion) anti-aircraft and missile defense dome, part of a wider push to modernize its armed forces as it recovers from a protracted debt crisis, Greek officials say.
The defenses would likely mimic Israel’s Iron Dome and other systems that intercept short- and long-range missiles launched during strikes from its neighbors amid the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.
Greece is keen to invest in its defenses to keep up with its NATO ally and historic rival Turkey, which is also developing its own air defenses, despite some improvement in relations.
“The plan is to create a multi-layer anti-aircraft and anti-drone system,” one source with knowledge of the issue tells Reuters after a closed door briefing with Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias. “We are in discussions with Israel.”
A second official confirms the scale of the potential deal, adding that Greece needs to spend 12.8 billion euros by 2035 to modernize its armed forces.
Police said to rule out blackmail in questioning of PM’s chief of staff, but still probing improper conduct
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's chief of staff Tzachi Braverman at the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 13, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
According to Hebrew media reports, police have ruled out blackmail in their questioning of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman.
Braverman is reportedly still being questioned over charges that he sought to improperly alter the minutes of official discussions related to the Hamas October 7 attack last year.
Reports earlier this week in Hebrew media indicated that Braverman was suspected of using a sensitive video of an IDF official to blackmail him into changing the minutes. Braverman called the report slander and threatened to sue the Kan network if it did not issue an apology for its report and pay him damages.
There was no immediate official comment from police or the Prime Minister’s Office.
9 reported dead in airstrike on Baalbek in eastern Lebanon
An Israeli airstrike hit a building in Baalbek city in northeastern Lebanon, killing at least nine people and wounding five others, Lebanon’s state media says.
The strike on Baalbek came without warning. The Israeli military did not immediately comment and the target was not clear.
Throughout the day, sporadic airstrikes targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs in a clear uptick in attacks on the area over the past two days, with the IDF issuing evacuation warnings for several locations and buildings in the suburbs.
Ministers to vote next week on banning Palestinian flag at state-backed institutions
Israelis stage a protest at Tel Aviv University against a far-right bill to ban waving Palestinian flags on Israeli campuses, May 28, 2023. (Credit: Standing Together)
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation is slated to vote Sunday on a bill prohibiting the waving of the flags of enemy nations or the Palestinian Authority on the grounds of any institution funded or supported by the state.
According to the bill, an amendment to the penal code sponsored by Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi (Likud), a gathering of two or more people at which such flags are waved would be considered an unlawful assembly, with participants facing a year in prison and a minimum NIS 10,000 ($2,674) fine.
The law would apply to institutions such as universities, where protesters have at times waved Palestinian flags at demonstrations.
Vaturi has been critical of anti-government demonstrations in the past, stating this summer that protesters demanding early elections and the release of hostages held in Gaza were a “branch” of the Hamas terror group.
Vaturi later backtracked amidst widespread criticism, claiming in a tweet that his comments were “taken out of context.” The protests “harm our national resilience,” but “the horrible actions of the Hamas Nazis are not fit to be compared to any protest or political act,” he wrote.
Similar bills, promoted by members of the far-right Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties, were advanced in the Knesset last year amid fierce opposition from university presidents, but were not voted into law.
IDF confirms striking Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in Syria; 15 said dead
People check the damage following a reported Israeli strike in the Mazzeh district of Damascus on November 14, 2024. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
The IDF confirms carrying out airstrikes in Syria a short while ago, saying that it targeted several buildings and command centers belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.
The strikes are a “significant blow” to the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian terror group and its operatives, the military says.
Islamic Jihad carried out the October 7 onslaught alongside Hamas, and its operatives have also been involved in launching attacks on Israel from Lebanon, alongside Hezbollah.
מוקדם יותר היום, מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר, בהכוונת פיקוד הצפון תקפו מספר מבנים צבאיים ומפקדות של ארגון הטרור הג׳יהאד האיסלאמי בסוריה>> pic.twitter.com/8XjXqleY2C
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 14, 2024
Syria’s Defense Ministry says that the strikes killed 15 people in the upscale Mazzeh district of Damascus and in the outskirts of the capital.
“The Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan [Heights], targeting residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus and the Qudsaya area in the Damascus countryside, killing 15 people and injuring 16 others,” the ministry says.
Report: Lebanese response to ceasefire proposal could arrive within 24 hours
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike targeting a Hezbollah site in the Al Ghobeir neighborhood in southern Beirut on November 14, 2024. (AFP)
A response from Lebanon to a ceasefire proposal sent to Beirut from the US could come within the next 24 hours, Channel 12 reports.
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was in Washington this week to meet with Biden administration officials on the finishing touches to the proposal, including written guarantees that Israel has freedom of action against Hezbollah threats in Lebanon.
Dermer also met with US President-elect Donald Trump on his trip, according to Axios.
Israel closer to Lebanon ceasefire deal ‘than we have been since start of war’ — minister
Troops of the IDF Commando Brigade operate in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo issued on November 14, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
Israel is closer to reaching an arrangement over fighting with Hezbollah than it has been since the start of the war, but it must retain freedom to act inside Lebanon should any deal be violated, says Energy Minister Eli Cohen.
“I think we are at a point that we are closer to an arrangement than we have been since the start of the war,” says Cohen, a member of the security cabinet, in an interview with Reuters.
A key sticking point for Israel, he says, is ensuring it retains freedom of action should Hezbollah return to border areas where it could pose a threat to Israeli communities.
“We will be less forgiving than in the past over attempts to create strongholds in territory near Israel,” Cohen says.
Five rockets fired toward Haifa, with most intercepted, says IDF
An Israeli anti missile system intercept missiles fired from Lebanon as it seen from the northern Israeli city of Haifa, on October 23, 2024. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)
A barrage of five rockets was launched from Lebanon at Haifa a short while ago.
The IDF says most of the projectiles were intercepted, while the rest struck open areas.
There are no reports of injuries or major damage.
Iran president tells IAEA chief he’s willing to resolve nuclear ‘ambiguities’
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visit Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's shrine in the south of Tehran on July 6, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian tells the visiting head of the UN nuclear watchdog that Iran is willing to resolve “ambiguities and doubts” about its atomic program, his office says.
“As we have repeatedly proven our goodwill, we announce our readiness to cooperate and converge with this international organization to resolve the alleged ambiguities and doubts about the peaceful nuclear activity of our country,” Pezeshkian says in a meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi in Tehran.
Rocket sirens sound in center of Haifa
Sirens warning of a rocket attack sound in the center of Haifa and several nearby suburbs.
IDF issues fresh evacuation orders in parts of southern Beirut
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike targeting a Hezbollah site in the Al Ghobeir neighborhood in southern Beirut on November 14, 2024. (AFP)
The IDF has issued new evacuation orders for Lebanese civilians in the vicinity of two buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, ahead of airstrikes against Hezbollah assets.
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, publishes maps alongside the announcement, which call on civilians to distance themselves at least 500 meters from the sites.
#عاجل إلى جميع السكان المتواجدين في منطقة الضاحية الجنوبية وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط المرفقة والمباني المجاورة لها في منطقة الغبيري
⭕️أنتم تتواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله حيث سيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع بقوة على المدى الزمني القريب
⭕️من أجل سلامتكم… pic.twitter.com/CCrnwjiUrf
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 14, 2024
Syrian state media says several killed in Damascus strike blamed on Israel
People check the damage as smoke billows from a building hit by a reported Israeli strike in the Mazzeh district of Damascus on November 14, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reports that several people were killed and wounded in the Israeli strike on Damascus.
The strikes targeted two residential buildings in the Mezzeh district of the capital and the nearby city of Qudssaya, SANA says.
The Mazzeh neighborhood, home to embassies, United Nations offices and security headquarters, has been the target of previous strikes blamed on Israel.
Qudssaya is located on the outskirts of Damascus.
IDF finds multiple-rocket launcher aimed at Israel in southern Lebanon
A multiple rocket launcher is found by troops of the IDF Commando Brigade in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo issued on November 14, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
During expanded ground operations in new areas of southern Lebanon, IDF commandos located a multiple-rocket launcher belonging to Hezbollah, the military says.
The Commando Brigade, operating under the 91st Division, has been operating in recent days at several “new targets” in southern Lebanon.
The IDF says the commandos found and destroyed a rocket launcher with 32 barrels aimed at Israel, along with other weapons.
Report says Netanyahu will testify at corruption trial on Dec. 2
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, walking outside his office at the Knesset on November 11, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided he will testify at his corruption trial on December 2 after the court yesterday rejected his request for a further postponement.
The unsourced report from Channel 12’s political analyst Amit Segal, who is regarded as close to Netanyahu, says he will no longer try and seek to put off his testimony.
Netanyahu’s defense team requested the delay because it said the prime minister has been unable to prepare for giving testimony, set to begin on December 2, due to the time pressures of managing the current multifront conflict.
The court ruled, however, that it had given Netanyahu a long period of time for testimony preparation when it set the date back in July and that it was “not convinced that a substantial change in circumstances has occurred which would justify a change to the date we set in our [original] decision.”
The prime minister was charged in January 2020 with fraud and breach of trust in two cases and bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a third, and the trial began in May of that year.
He denies all the charges against him.
Israeli airstrike reported in Damascus
An alleged Israeli airstrike is reported in Damascus, according to Syrian media.
The state-run SANA news agency says the strike targeted the upscale Mezzeh district of the capital.
غارات على المزة وقدسيا في دمشق.. https://t.co/Ek8KXEWEjT pic.twitter.com/fbs7LNpxBp
— Ali Bk (@Bk_Hanas) November 14, 2024
Man arrested for running over, seriously injuring person at pro-Gallant protest 10 days ago
Israelis block the Highway 2 near Beit Yanai as they protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, November 5, 2024. (Tal Gal/Flash90)
Police say they have detained a suspect believed to have run over and seriously wounded a man demonstrating against the decision to fire then-defense minister Yoav Gallant.
Police say the suspect, a man in his 30s from Holon, will be brought before a judge today and they will request to keep him in custody.
A 64-year-old man was seriously injured in the incident, in which he was hit by a vehicle in the Beit Yanai junction in central Israel 10 days ago.
The incident was “an accident that occurred at the beginning of the protest when the victim descended to the road at night, alone,” according to a police statement at the time.
Witnesses said the suspect was driving aggressively, and fled when other demonstrators called out to him to stop.
UN nuclear chief to visit Iran’s key Fordo and Natanz enrichment facilities
This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows construction on a new underground facility at Iran's Natanz nuclear site, on April 14, 2023. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi, on a visit to Iran, says that he will visit the uranium enrichment sites of Fordo and Natanz tomorrow to help him have “a full picture” of the country’s nuclear program.
“Tomorrow will be a very important step in my visit this time, since I am going to be visiting important facilities in Fordo and Natanz, which are also going to help me in having a full picture of the evolution of the program,” Grossi says alongside Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, according to a video sent to AFP by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran has greatly stepped up its uranium enrichment in recent years to just below weapons-grade levels.
IDF says it hit over 30 Hezbollah sites in Beirut in last day
Smoke plumes rise after an Israeli airstrike on the Chouaifet neighborhood in southern Beirut on November 14, 2024. (Anwar Amro/AFP)
The IDF says it has completed another wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah assets in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The strikes, targeting Hezbollah command centers, weapon depots, and other infrastructure, were carried out overnight and earlier today.
Over 30 Hezbollah sites in Dahiyeh have been targeted over the past two days, the military says.
The Hezbollah sites were located “in the heart of a civilian population,” the IDF says, accusing the terror group of using human shields.
Before the strikes, the IDF issued evacuation warnings to civilians in the area.
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר, בהכוונת אגף המודיעין, השלימו לפני זמן קצר סדרת תקיפות נוספת במרחב הדאחייה שבביירות בה הותקפו מחסני אמצעי לחימה, מפקדות צבאיות ותשתיות נוספות שהיו בשימוש ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה>> pic.twitter.com/4aIVr3LVyH
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 14, 2024
Iran activist kills himself after demanding release of prisoners
Human rights campaigners say an Iranian activist killed himself hours after warning he would do so if four inmates seen to be political prisoners were not freed.
Kianoosh Sanjari, an opponent of the Islamic Republic’s clerical authorities, warned in a message on X late yesterday that he would take his own life if the release of the two men and two women did not take place.
He then killed himself, according to multiple rights campaigners and organizations.
The formal announcement of his death, which is swiftly published by families in Iran when a relative dies, is also widely shared on social media.
Sanjari had demanded the release of veteran campaigner Fatemeh Sepehri, Nasreen Shakarami, the mother of a teenager killed during 2022 protests, rapper Tomaj Salehi and civil rights activist Arsham Rezaei.
“If they are not released from prison by 7:00 pm today, Wednesday, and the news of their release is not published on the judiciary news site, I will end my life in protest against the dictatorship of (supreme leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei and his accomplices,” he said.
He later added: “No one should be imprisoned for expressing their opinions. Protest is the right of every Iranian citizen.
“My life will end after this tweet but let’s not forget that we die and die for the love of life, not death,” he added.
It was not immediately clear how he killed himself. Sanjari had late Wednesday posted an image that appeared to have been taken looking down on the street from the upper floor of a Tehran tower block.
۷ شب، پل حافظ، چهارسو pic.twitter.com/xBXjJ5gFpF
— Kianoosh Sanjari (@Sanjaribaf) November 13, 2024
Footage shows IDF strike near Beirut airport as plane taxis in background
Footage shows an Israeli airstrike in the vicinity of Beirut’s international airport, as a passenger plane is seen taxiing in the background on November 14, 2024 (Screencapture: X used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Footage shared by Lebanese media shows an Israeli airstrike in the vicinity of Beirut’s international airport, as a passenger plane is seen taxiing in the background.
The IDF issued an evacuation warning ahead of the strike.
"مطار الشهيد رفيق الحريري / بيروت الدولي " هذا الصباح 👇#هيدا_نحن_هيدا_جونا#اهلا_بهالطلة pic.twitter.com/AtYPTwYdOU
— الزعيم الفينيئي (@zaaeim) November 14, 2024
IDF says two senior terror operatives killed in West Bank raid overnight
Two Palestinian gunmen, including a senior terror operative, were killed by special forces in the West Bank last night, the military and police say.
Officers of the police’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit, alongside soldiers of the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit, operated in the town of Danaba, near Tulkarem, to arrest wanted Palestinians.
During the raid, one of the wanted Palestinians, who was armed, attempted to flee with another suspect. The Yamam officer opened fire, killing the two Palestinians and wounding a third.
The IDF and police say that one of the slain gunmen was the head of a terror network in Tulkarem. He was involved in attacks and responsible for recruiting operatives, according to the statement.
No Israeli forces were hurt in the raid.
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) assassinated two Palestinian resistance fighters on Wednesday evening after besieging a house in Ezbet al-Jarad suburb, east of Tulkarem in the West Bank.https://t.co/DBPa3CYFQF
— Palestine Info Center (@palinfoen) November 14, 2024
IAEA chief says Iranian ‘nuclear installations should not be attacked’
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks during a joint press briefing with head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Mohammad Eslami in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi says in Tehran that Iranian nuclear installations “should not be attacked.”
“I say this with regards to Iran… nuclear installations should not be attacked,” Grossi told a news conference after Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that Iran was “more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities.”
Israel is believed to have destroyed parts of Iran’s air defenses in a series of strikes in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on Israel.
Israel reportedly held off attacking Iranian nuclear sites during the strikes due to pressure from the Biden administration.
Israel views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat.
Israel says 15 trucks of aid from UAE entered northern Gaza via Israel
Aid from the UAE is unloaded at Ashdod port on November 13, 2024 en-route to northern Gaza (COGAT)
Israel says 15 trucks loaded with aid have been allowed into northern Gaza, where aid groups have warned of harsh conditions amid a monthlong offensive.
The military body handling aid deliveries into the territory, COGAT, says the 15 trucks entered Gaza on Wednesday with aid shipped in by sea by the United Arab Emirates. It said the aid consists of food and water, as well as hygiene, shelter and medical supplies.
“We remain committed to supporting humanitarian aid delivery through land, sea and air routes in collaboration with international partners,” COGAT says.
UN agencies did not immediately confirm that the aid was delivered to its destination inside northern Gaza.
Over the past week, the UN says aid trucks have entered the north but have not reached their final destinations due to Israeli movement restrictions and looting.
Israel has scrambled to ramp up aid to Gaza after a monthlong stretch during which aid plunged to its lowest levels this year.
The US Biden administration warned Israel to increase the aid last month, saying a failure to do so could lead to a reduction in military support. The White House backed down this week, citing improvements and ruling out any reduction in arms supplies.
Humanitarian aid from the @UAEmediaoffice, is entering Gaza through the Erez West Crossing. 15 trucks loaded with goods from the UAE's "MIRA" vessel—delivered to Ashdod Port—entered northern Gaza today.
The shipment included 2,261 pallets of water, medical equipment, shelter… pic.twitter.com/40TkFeW16z
— COGAT (@cogatonline) November 14, 2024
Syrian state media report explosions near Damascus and Homs
Syrian state media are reporting explosions near the capital, Damascus, and the central city of Homs in what appeared to be Israeli airstrikes.
State news agency SANA said the country’s air defenses were activated against a “hostile target” south of Homs on Thursday. It gave no further details.
The agency later reported an explosion near Damascus, adding that the cause of the blasts was not immediately clear.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iranian-backed groups.
UN nuclear chief says achieving ‘results’ with Iran vital to avoid ‘war’
Iran's head of the Atomic Energy Organisation Mohammad Eslami (R), speaks to the United Nations nuclear chief Rafael Grossi, following a joint press conference in Tehran on November 14, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Visiting United Nations nuclear chief Rafael Grossi says in Tehran that achieving “results” in talks with Iran is vital to avoid a war.
“It is indispensable to get, at this point in time, to some concrete, tangible, visible results that will indicate that this joint work is improving the situation… and in a general sense is moving us away from conflict and ultimately war,” Grossi tells a joint news conference with Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami.
Eslami say Iran will take “immediate countermeasures” against any resolution by the UN nuclear agency’s board of governors that interferes with its nuclear program.
“Any interventionist resolution in the nuclear affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran will definitely be met with immediate countermeasures,” he says.
Dutch police probed for ‘brutality’ against anti-Israel protesters who defied ban; 281 arrests
Police forces leave the Dam square after shutting down a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protest at the square in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Dutch police say that they have opened an inquiry into alleged police brutality during and after a banned pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protest in Amsterdam in which 281 demonstrators were detained.
Social media footage showed riot police shouting at protesters and hitting them with batons after they were released from a bus on the outskirts of the Dutch capital following last night’s protest.
Several hundred demonstrators, dressed in Palestinian scarfs and chanting slogans, gathered on the city’s famous Dam Square despite a ban following last week’s attacks on Israeli football fans.
The city did grant an exemption for a protest on Wednesday, but on the condition that it take place at the city’s Westergast terrain, outside of the center.
“Videos are circulating on social media showing members of the Mobile Unit (riot police) acting against protesters who have just been removed from a bus,” police say in a statement.
The police in #Amsterdam brutally beat up pro-#Palestinian Protesters and threw them to the ground after taking them to a remote location in the dark. #Netherland #Israel #France #Paris
⚽⚽⚽ pic.twitter.com/kR4U7NVAPc— Mahalaxmi Ramanathan (@MahalaxmiRaman) November 14, 2024
“These protesters were transported to this location after they were previously arrested on Dam Square for violating the emergency ordinance,” police say.
“The exact reason for the Mobile Unit’s action in this specific video fragment is being investigated,” police say, without specifying which footage they were referring to.
AFP reporters at the protest saw police dragging demonstrators to waiting buses, with some putting up heavy resistance.
The demonstration came almost a week after the attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans after a football match with local club Ajax, when Israeli fans were chased and beaten up by men on scooters.
Ten Israelis were injured with five of them briefly hospitalized in what Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called an incident of “unadulterated antisemitism,” after the attacks were sparked by calls on social media to single out Jews.
Macron, French leaders to attend France-Israel soccer game amid tensions
Protestors clash with French gendarmes during an anti-Israel rally in Paris, on November 13, 2024, on the eve of the UEFA Nations League 2025 football match between France and Israel. (Photo by Gregoire CAMPIONE / AFP)
As Paris prepares a massive security operation, top French officials say they will attend the France-Israel soccer match this evening.
French President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Michel Barnier, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, Sports Minister Gil Averous, and former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande will all be at the game, says France’s embassy.
Israel’s ambassador Joshua Zarka will also be there.
France has deployed 4,000 security personnel and 1,600 private contractors to ensure the violence against Israeli fans in Amsterdam — where they were attacked by gangs of Arabs and Muslims — last week is not repeated.
Troops in southern Lebanon uncover arms depots, rocket launchers
Hezbollah weapons discovered by troops operating in southern Lebanon in an undated picture released on November 14, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF says troops from the 188th Brigade operating in southern Lebanon have uncovered large weapons depots belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit.
Among the arms discovered are anti-tank weapons and sniper rifles.
They also discovered several rocket launchers primed to fire at communities in northern Israel, the IDF says.
All the arms were destroyed.
Iran says it is willing to hold nuclear talks, but not ‘under pressure and intimidation’
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (R) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi pose for a photo before their meeting in Tehran on November 14, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)
Iran says it is willing to hold nuclear talks, but will not negotiate “under pressure and intimidation” as International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi met Iran’s top diplomat.
The crunch nuclear talks in Tehran are taking place weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
During his first term in the White House from 2017 to 2021, Trump was the architect of a “maximum pressure” policy that reimposed sweeping US economic sanctions that had been lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal.
Grossi, who arrived in Tehran late yesterday, is expected “to negotiate with the country’s top nuclear and political officials,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency reports.
Grossi described his meeting with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as “indispensable” in a post on X. Araghchi was Iran’s chief negotiator in the talks that led to the 2015 deal.
For his part, Araghchi said the meeting was “important & straightforward” and renewed Iran’s commitment to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“We agreed to proceed with courage and good will. Iran has never left the negotiation table on its peaceful nuclear program,” he says in his post.
Araghchi said Iran was “willing to negotiate” based on the “national interest” and “inalienable rights,” but was not “ready to negotiate under pressure and intimidation.”
Grossi also met the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, the Tasnim news agency reports.
Later, the IAEA chief is expected to meet President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Police complete demolition of unrecognized Bedouin village Umm al-Hiran
Police demolish a mosque in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev on November 14, 2024 (The Regional Council for the Unrecognized Bedouin Villages in the Negev)
Police demolish the last remains of the unrecognized southern Bedouin village Umm al-Hiran to make way for a planned Orthodox Jewish Jewish community called Dror.
The demolition ends a more than 20-year legal battle and carries out a 2015 High Court of Justice ruling that the Bedouin have been illegally squatting on land that belongs to the state.
Efforts to convince the roughly 300 residents to move to plots prepared for them in the nearby Bedouin town of Hura largely failed.
Many of the residents opted to demolish their homes themselves. Police on the scene today raze a mosque that still stands, according to video released by the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Bedouin Villages in the Negev, a nonprofit that represents the impoverished southern communities.
The group says three members of Umm al-Hiran’s leadership were detained ahead of the demolition and their whereabouts are unknown.
A spokesman for the Council calls the demolition “another chapter in the ethnic cleansing and expulsion of Arabs in this country.”
In a statement, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir hails his “strong policy of demolishing illegal homes in the Negev,” saying he has overseen a 400% rise in demolition orders there since the start of 2024.
A previous 2017 demolition in Umm al-Hiran resulted in police shooting and killing a Bedouin driver, causing his vehicle to run over and kill a policeman. He was falsely accused of being a terrorist.
The 37 unrecognized villages in the Negev house some 150,000 people, or roughly a third of Israel’s Bedouin population, according to the Council. Israel decided in the 1990s to raze some of the illegally built villages and build authorized communities in their stead.
According to the Council, the plan will see some 9,000 Bedouins in 14 villages lose their homes.
Netanyahu’s chief of staff to be questioned under caution in blackmail case
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) speaks with then-cabinet secretary Tzachi Braverman during the weekly government meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, June 17, 2018. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)
Tzachi Braverman, who serves as chief of staff to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will be questioned under caution today by the police’s Lahav 443 serious crimes unit, Hebrew media reports.
Braverman was reported on Sunday to be the official suspected of blackmailing an IDF officer to allegedly alter minutes from wartime meetings by threatening him over a sensitive video recording of the officer.
The case, one of several scandals roiling the Prime Minster’s Office, is largely under a court gag order. The reports say police will ask to lift the order after he completes his questioning.
Braverman’s name was first reported by the Kan public broadcaster, which also stated that the video in question had been obtained from security cameras in the PMO and that other PMO employees had been allowed to watch the recording.
In a statement, Braverman denied any such activity, calling the report “false” and “defamatory,” and claiming he had neither collected any such video nor attempted to use it for blackmail purposes: “This is a lie from start to finish, whose aim is to harm me and the Prime Minister’s Office in the middle of a war.”
Strike hits Beirut after IDF evacuation warning
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike targeting a Hezbollah site in the Al Ghobeir neighborhood in southern Beirut on November 14, 2024. (AFP)
An airstrike hit the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Thursday after an Israeli warning to evacuate parts of the Hezbollah bastion, images show.
A plume of gray smoke rose over the area. Shortly before the strike, Israel had issued a warning to residents to evacuate their homes.
“You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests against which the (Israeli military) will operate in the near future,” army spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X that included a map identifying buildings in the Shouaifat al-Omrousiya and Ghobeiry areas.
IDF says airstrikes destroyed 140 Hezbollah launchers, killed 2 top commanders
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike targeting Hezbollah sites in the village of Kfar Roummane in the Nabatieh Governorate on November 13, 2024. (AFP)
The IDF says that in the past week airstrikes have destroyed more than 140 Hezbollah rocket launchers.
Among the launchers hit were those used to fire barrages at northern and central Israel yesterday.
The IDF also says that an airstrike killed two senior commanders in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, who were responsible for anti-tank units and operations in the coastal area.
The IDF says some 200 Hezbollah operatives were killed during the fighting in southern Lebanon and in airstrikes over the past week.
The IDF publishes footage of some of the strikes.
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר, בהכוונת פיקוד הצפון, תקפו והשמידו במהלך השבוע האחרון יותר מ-140 משגרים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בדרום לבנון בסגירות מעגל מהירות. משגרים אלו היוו איום מיידי על העורף הישראלי ועל כוחות צה"ל אשר פועלים בדרום לבנון>> pic.twitter.com/54wHV5hANq
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 14, 2024
Anti-migrant activist Sheffi Paz enters jail to serve 45-day sentence for vandalizing EU mission in Tel Aviv
Far-right anti-migrant activist Sheffi Paz speaks during an election campaign event of Itamar Ben Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party in Holon, on March 20, 2021 (Gili Yaari/Flash90)
Hundreds of supporters accompany far-right anti-migrant activist Sheffi Paz as she arrives at the Neve Tirza women’s prison in Ramla to start her 45-day sentence for acts of vandalism, including against the European Union diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv in 2020.
Paz, 72, who has for years campaigned against asylum seekers and migrants in her south Tel Aviv neighborhood, smiled and waved a megaphone as she got out of her vehicle.
The crowd waved Israeli flags and chanted “We are all Sheffi Paz.”
She had expressed no remorse for her actions when being sentenced.
In 2020, Paz broke into a preschool for children of asylum seekers in south Tel Aviv during the school day and the following year was banned from the Knesset after she called for the execution of a lawmaker who backed offering asylum to Afghan refugees.
She has also been detained over instances of graffiti against senior figures in the justice system.
תראו!
אשה בת 72 נכנסת לכלא כי נלחמה בעבריינות הגבול.
אין פה ליצן אחד מאלו שנורא "דאגו" לדמוקרטיה בשנתיים האחרונות… pic.twitter.com/WNCRblVql8— Igal Malka (@igal_malka_5G) November 14, 2024
UN nuclear chief Grossi meets Iranian foreign minister
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (R) shakes hands with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi before a meeting in Tehran on November 14, 2024. (Photo by Atta KENARE / AFP)
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
“Rafael Grossi… who arrived in Tehran last night at the head of a delegation to negotiate with the country’s top nuclear and political officials, met with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi,” IRNA state news agency reports.
IDF issues evacuation orders for two buildings in southern Beirut
The IDF issues new evacuation orders for Lebanese civilians in the vicinity of two buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, publishes maps alongside the announcement, which called on civilians to distance themselves at least 500 meters from the sites, saying they are Hezbollah facilities.
#عاجل انذار جديد الى جميع السكان المتواجدين في منطقة الضاحية الجنوبية وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط المرفقة والمباني المجاورة لها في المناطق التالية:
🔸شويفات العمروسية
🔸الغبيري⭕️أنتم تتواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله حيث سيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع على… pic.twitter.com/OvPSQre8Mf
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 14, 2024
Israel said pushing ahead with Lebanon ceasefire plan as ‘gift’ to Trump
Former US president Donald Trump (left) hosts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Florida, July 26, 2024. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
Israel is pushing ahead with efforts to forge a ceasefire in Lebanon as an early foreign policy “gift” for the incoming Trump administration, the Washington Post reports, citing Israeli officials.
“There is an understanding that Israel would gift something to Trump … that in January there will be an understanding about Lebanon,” an Israeli official tells the Post, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The report comes after it was reported that Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer met with US President-elect Donald Trump at the latter’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Sunday.
According to a report in Axios earlier in he week, the aim of the meeting was for him to pass along messages regarding Israel’s plans for Gaza, Lebanon and Iran over the next two months. A US official said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a heads-up to the Biden administration about the Mar-a-Lago meeting.
Dermer also met with Trump’s son-in-law and former senior adviser Jared Kushner, who is not slated to play a role in the next administration.
He then traveled to Washington where he met on Monday with US special envoy for Lebanon Amos Hochstein, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk.
Hochstein told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that “there is a shot” to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah soon and that he is “hopeful” about the prospects for such a deal.
Hochstein had met earlier that day with Dermer, who presented Israel’s updated position regarding the ceasefire proposal currently on the table.
Hochstein told reporters that the US will now wait to hear back from the Lebanese side.
HRW accuses Israel of ‘war crime’ with ‘forcible transfer’ in Gaza
This aerial image from video shows the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, in footage published April 25, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
Human Rights Watch said in a report released today that Israel’s repeated evacuation orders in Gaza amount to the “war crime of forcible transfer,” and to “ethnic cleansing” in parts of the Palestinian territory.
“Human Rights Watch has amassed evidence that Israeli officials are… committing the war crime of forcible transfer,” the report says.
“Israel’s actions appear to also meet the definition of ethnic cleansing” in the areas where Palestinians will not be able to return, HRW adds.
The 172-page report’s findings are based on interviews with displaced Gazans, satellite imagery, and public reporting conducted until August 2024.
Although Israel says the displacement is justified for civilians’ safety or by military imperatives, the report claims that “Israel cannot simply rely on the presence of armed groups to justify the displacement of civilians.”
“Israel would have to demonstrate in every instance that displacement of civilians was the only option,” to fully comply with international humanitarian law.
“Systematically rendering large parts of Gaza uninhabitable… in some cases permanently… amounts to ethnic cleansing,” Ahmed Benchemsi, spokesman for HRW’s Middle East division said in a press briefing.
The HRW report pointed in particular to the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors, running along the Egyptian border and cutting Gaza along its east-west axis respectively, which have been “razed, extended, and cleared,” by Israel’s army to create buffer zones and security corridors.
The report says Israeli forces have turned the central Netzarim corridor, between Gaza City and Wadi Gaza, into a buffer zone four kilometers (2.5 miles) wide mostly cleared of buildings.
Israel went into Gaza after the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre to destroy the terror group and try and free the 251 hostages. Israel denies violating international law and has repeatedly called on civilians to evacuate to humanitarian zones as it battles Hamas, which is deeply imbedded in civilians infrastructures and in a series of tunnel complexes under residential areas.
Ben & Jerry’s suing parent Unilever, says it was silenced over Gaza stance
Pro-Israel demonstrators protest against Ben & Jerry's over its boycott of the West Bank, and against antisemitism, in Manhattan, New York City, on August 12, 2021 (Luke Tress/Flash90)
Ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s says in a lawsuit filed yesterday that parent company Unilever has silenced its attempts to express support for Palestinians in Gaza, and threatened to dismantle its board and sue its members over the issue.
The lawsuit is the latest sign of the long-simmering tensions between Ben & Jerry’s and consumer products maker Unilever. A rift erupted between the two in 2021 after Ben & Jerry’s said it would stop selling its products in West Bank settlements because it was inconsistent with its values, a move that led some investors to divest Unilever shares.
The ice cream maker then sued Unilever for selling its business in Israel to its licensee there, which allowed marketing in the West Bank and Israel to continue. That lawsuit was settled in 2022.
In its new lawsuit, Ben & Jerry’s says that Unilever has breached the terms of the 2022 settlement, which has remained confidential. As part of the agreement, however, Unilever is required to “respect and acknowledge the Ben & Jerry’s independent board’s primary responsibility over Ben & Jerry’s social mission,” according to the lawsuit.
“Ben & Jerry’s has on four occasions attempted to publicly speak out in support of peace and human rights,” according to the lawsuit. “Unilever has silenced each of these efforts.”
Unilever did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s nominee for Pentagon chief suggested new temple could be built on Temple Mount
Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth addresses the Arutz Sheva conference in Jerusalem in 2018. (Screen capture/YouTube)
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense Pete Hegseth suggested that a temple could be re-established on the Temple Mount in a resurfaced speech he gave in 2018 at the Arutz Sheva conference in Jerusalem.
“There’s no reason why the miracle of the re-establishment of the temple on the Temple Mount is not possible,” Hegseth said.
“I don’t know how it would happen. You don’t know how it would happen, but I know that it could happen,” he added.
Hegseth also appeared to endorse annexing Israeli settlements, an effort backers of the effort often describe as “applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria,” using the biblical names for the West Bank.
“A step in that process, a step in every process, is a recognition that facts and activities on the ground truly matter,” he said.
“That’s why going and visiting Judea and Samaria and understanding that sovereignty — the very sovereignty of Israeli soil, Israeli cities, locations — is a critical next step to showing the world that this is the land for Jews and the Land of Israel,” Hegseth added
He also rejected the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that “If you walk the ground today, you understand that there is no such as the outcome of a two-state solution. There is one state.”
AJC on Trump’s AG pick: ‘Need someone who will tackle antisemitism, not peddle in it’
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., walks through a basement corridor to a closed-door meeting with House Republicans on the morning after he filed a motion to strip Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from his leadership role, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Leading Jewish groups come out against President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of far-right Florida Representative Matt Gaetz to be the next US attorney general, saying the congressman has trafficked in antisemitism.
“At a time of historic levels of antisemitism, we need someone at the helm of the Department of Justice who will tackle antisemitism — not peddle in it,” the American Jewish Committee says. “Matt Gaetz’s history of problematic remarks — including perpetuating antisemitic conspiracy theories — should be disqualifying for anyone seeking to be America’s top law enforcement officer.”
“We urge President-elect Trump to reconsider this nomination, otherwise the Senate has a responsibility to reject it.”
ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt similarly denounces Gaetz.
“Rep. Matt Gaetz has a long history of trafficking in antisemitism — from explaining his vote against the bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act by invoking the centuries-old trope that Jews killed Jesus to defending the Great Replacement Theory and inviting a Holocaust denier as his 2018 State of the Union guest,” Greenblatt writes on Twitter. “He should not be appointed to any high office, much less one overseeing the impartial execution of our nation’s laws.”
AP declares Republicans have won majority of seats in US House
WASHINGTON — Republicans have won enough seats to control the US House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on US government alongside President-elect Donald Trump.
A House Republican victory in Arizona, alongside a win in slow-counting California earlier Wednesday, gives the GOP the 218 House victories that make up the majority. Republicans earlier gained control of the Senate from Democrats.
IDF says it intercepted another drone from Iraq over Syrian skies
The IDF says it has shot down another drone “from the east” headed toward Israel, hours after downing a UAV over Syrian skies.
Like the earlier incident, the military stresses the drone from Iraq never entered Israeli airspace and was intercepted over Syria.
US military says it conducted strikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The US military says it has conducted several days of strikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The strikes included US Air Force and US Navy aircraft, including the Navy’s F-35C stealth fighter jet, it says Thursday.
The military also released video showing a strike by an MQ-9 Reaper drone on a mobile missile launcher placed on the back of what appeared to be a truck. A person standing next to the launcher is seen running away after the strike.
“This targeted operation was conducted in response to the Houthi’s repeated and unlawful attacks on international commercial shipping, as well as US, coalition and merchant vessels in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden,” the US military’s Central Command says. “It also aimed to degrade the Houthi’s ability to threaten regional partners.”
The strikes happened Saturday and Sunday.
The Houthis launched an attack this week targeted two US Navy destroyers entering the Red Sea. The Americans said they “engaged and defeated” eight bomb-carrying drones, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and four cruise missiles that the Houthis used to target the vessels.
IDF issues fresh evacuation orders for southern Beirut ahead of strikes
The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, announces fresh evacuation orders for Lebanese civilians near a pair of buildings in separate areas of Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.
Adraee says the IDF will soon strike Hezbollah targets.
EU’s Borrell proposes suspending ties with Israel due to ‘serious concerns’ over Gaza war
EU foreign minister Josep Borrell looks on during a joint press conference following his talks with Poland's foreign minister in Warsaw on November 12, 2024. (Sergei Gapon/AFP)
BRUSSELS — European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has proposed that the bloc suspend a political dialogue with Israel, citing possible human rights violations in the war with Hamas in Gaza, according to four diplomats and a letter seen by Reuters.
In the letter sent EU foreign ministers ahead of their meeting this coming Monday, Borrell cites “serious concerns about possible breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza” and says “thus far, these concerns have not been sufficiently addressed by Israel.”
The political dialogue is enshrined in a broader agreement on relations between the EU and Israel, including extensive trade ties, that entered into force in June 2000.
“In light of the above considerations, I will be tabling a proposal that the EU should invoke the human rights clause to suspend the political dialogue with Israel,” Borrell writes.
A suspension would need approval from all 27 EU countries, which the diplomats say is very unlikely. Multiple countries objected when a senior EU official briefed ambassadors in Brussels on the proposal on Wednesday, say three of the diplomats, who speak on condition of anonymity.
Borrell’s proposal is intended to send a strong signal of concern about Israel’s conduct in the war, one diplomat says.
It will be discussed at the foreign ministers’ meeting, the last he will chair before ending his five-year term.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Strike hits Beirut’s southern suburbs after IDF issues evacuation order for area
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike on a neighborhood in southern Beirut on November 13, 2024. (Ibrahim Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT — A strike hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, according to an AFP videographer, after a series of three attacks on the Hezbollah stronghold in less than 24 hours.
AFP footage shows smoke rising from an area subject to a call to evacuate from the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee around an hour beforehand.
IDF says it intercepted drone ‘from the east’ over Syrian airspace
The IDF says it downed a drone “from the east” — a term the military uses for Iraq — over the skies of Syria as it headed toward Israel.
IDF: Rocket launcher positioned in southern Gaza humanitarian zone destroyed in airstrike
An IDF-provided graphic showing the location of a rocket launcher positioned in the Israeli-designated 'humanitarian zone' in the southern Gaza Strip that was hit in an airstrike on November 13, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
A rocket launcher positioned in the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” in the southern Gaza Strip was destroyed in an airstrike earlier today, the IDF says.
The launcher was loaded and primed for an imminent attack on Israel, according to the military.
Before carrying out the strike in the humanitarian zone, where the vast majority of the Palestinian population in Gaza is currently residing, the IDF says it carried out steps to mitigate civilian harm.
The steps included issuing warnings to civilians in the area to evacuate, as well as using a precision munition and aerial surveillance, the military says.
The IDF says secondary blasts were seen following the strike, indicating that weapons were stored there.
Palestinian media published footage of a strike in the humanitarian zone earlier today, which appears to have been the strike on the launcher.
لحظة استهداف الطائرات الإسرائيلية خيام النازحين في المنطقة الإنسانية الآمنة بغرب خان يونس، جنوب قطاع غزة. pic.twitter.com/FMdTTehG9N
— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) November 13, 2024
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