Live updates (closed)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they unfolded.
Omer Neutra’s father on return of son’s body: ‘So much pain and so much relief’
Ronen Neutra, father of slain hostage Omer Neutra, says his son is “on Israeli soil.”
In a statement, Neutra quotes from the Book of Jeremiah: “’There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall return to their own land.’
“Our Omer is on Israeli soil,” he says. “Finally — so much pain and so much relief!”
Trump reveals one of three bodies transferred to Israel is of American-Israeli soldier Omer Neutra
Orna and Ronen Neutra, parents of Omer Neutra, taken hostage and killed in Gaza on October 7, 2023, during a June 26, 2025 press conference. (Screen capture)
US President Donald Trump reveals that one of the three bodies of hostages returned on Sunday night by Hamas to Israel was that of American-Israeli soldier Omer Neutra.
The New York native’s parents have confirmed the matter.
Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One that he spoke to the couple following the news.
“They’re thrilled in one sense, but in another sense, obviously, it’s not too great,” Trump says. “We’re very happy to have done it.”
Police arrest former military advocate general, former chief prosecutor
Former military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi has been arrested by the police, officials say.
Additionally, police detained the military’s former chief prosecutor, Col. Matan Solomosh.
Media reports say both are suspected of obstruction of justice over the leak of the Sde Teiman abuse video and an alleged subsequent cover-up with false reports given to officials regarding an internal investigation into the leak. Police say that the pair, who are suspected of “leaking and other serious criminal offenses,” will be brought tomorrow before the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court for an extension of their remand.
On Friday, Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned over her involvement in the Sde Teiman abuse video leak, which is being investigated by police. Today she went missing for several hours after reportedly leaving a concerning note for her family, sparking fears for her wellbeing and a massive search effort, before being found alive and well.
Solomosh recently completed his tenure as chief military prosecutor.
Tulsi Gabbard to visit Israel on Monday, Trump administration official says
US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks during a Senate Committee on Intelligence Hearing in Washington, DC, on March 25, 2025.(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/AFP)
Tulsi Gabbard, US President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, will visit Israel on Monday, a Trump administration official tells The Times of Israel.
Gabbard will be the latest in a wave of senior American officials who have arrived in the country over recent weeks as Washington works to advance Trump’s peace plan in Gaza.
The official could not provide further details on the length or agenda of Gabbard’s visit, noting the sensitivity of her role.
Egypt’s intel chief visits Beirut, reportedly to talk Hezbollah disarmament
Egypt’s powerful intelligence chief Hassan Rashad was in Beirut today and met with President Joseph Aoun.
Lebanon’s presidency says in a tweet that the two discussed “the general situation in the region as a whole, and in [Lebanon’s] south in particular, in addition to the situation in Gaza.” It says Rashad “expressed his country’s readiness to assist in stabilizing the south and ending the turbulent security situation there. The reaffirmation of Egypt’s support for Lebanon was also renewed.”
According to Channel 12, the trip focused on Hezbollah disarmament.
_ اللواء حسن رشاد ، رئيس جهاز المخابرات العامة المصرية ، خلال زيارته الي دولة لبنان 🇱🇧🇪🇬🦅
_ هدوء من النوع المرعب 👌🇪🇬🦅#الجيش_المصري_الالكتروني #تحيا_الجمهورية_المصرية_العظمي #معركة_الوعي pic.twitter.com/gPYrpDj64S
— 🦅🇪🇬COMMANDER999𓂀🇪🇬 (@COMMANDER_103) October 29, 2025
Reports: Excavator in southern Lebanon targeted by Israeli drone
Lebanese media reports that an excavator in the southern Lebanon town of Khiam was targeted by an Israeli drone this evening.
Footage shows that the excavator sustained slight damage after the Israeli drone reportedly dropped a grenade on it. There are no reports of injuries.
The IDF has not yet commented. In the past, the military has said it has struck excavators in southern Lebanon being used by Hezbollah to restore its infrastructure.
🚨المحلقة الإسرائيلية استهدفت جرافة في مدينة الخيام pic.twitter.com/JlZkkVVM57
— bintjbeil.org (@bintjbeilnews) November 2, 2025
Dispute breaks out in Satmar Hasidic movement over NYC mayoral endorsement
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani attends a campaign event on November 1, 2025, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images/AFP)
A dispute breaks out in the Satmar Hasidic movement in New York City over which candidate to endorse in the upcoming mayoral election.
Local media reported earlier today that Rabbi Moishe Indig, a prominent leader in the Satmar Ahronim faction, was set to endorse State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, a far-left, anti-Israel candidate. Indig and Mamdani then met this afternoon.
Around the same time, three other leaders of the faction released a statement endorsing former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, a pro-Israel centrist and Mamdani’s leading challenger.
“The progressive movement’s crusading agenda is a threat to our ability to live as Torah Jews,” the statement says. “Please out-vote the progressive agenda and vote for Andrew Cuomo.”
“Sincerely honored by the endorsement of my good friends in the Satmar community,” Cuomo says on X. The Cuomo campaign is also claiming that the Aharonim faction endorsed him due to his “leadership and commitment to protecting their community in the face of an increasingly radicalized political environment.”
Sincerely honored by the endorsement of my good friends in the Satmar community https://t.co/XYZTvd7ipP
— Andrew Cuomo (@andrewcuomo) November 2, 2025
Mamdani said on X that he was “honored to receive the endorsement of Rabbi Moshe Indig and Ahronim leaders.”
I was honored to receive the endorsement of Rabbi Moshe Indig and Ahronim leaders in Williamsburg today, where we were joined by my friend @LincolnRestler.
Together, we will fight the scourge of antisemitism and build a city that works for every New Yorker. pic.twitter.com/hPyAh5k3MH
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) November 2, 2025
A separate faction of the Satmars, the Zalonim, said last week that it was not making an endorsement in the race.
Mamdani is the heavy favorite to win Tuesday’s election over Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
Some far-left Jews are backing Mamdani, while many mainstream and Orthodox groups and leaders have backed Cuomo or issued warnings about Mamdani.
The Satmars, whose New York City community is based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, are one of the city’s largest Hasidic voting blocs.
The movement is theologically non-Zionist, making Mamdani’s anti-Israel activism less of an issue, even if the movement is not aligned with left-wing political anti-Zionism.
Mamdani has said that, if elected mayor, he would not restrict yeshiva education, one of the community’s top priorities.
But progressives around Mamdani and in his potential administration could oppose the yeshiva system and other Satmar community priorities, like restricting bike lanes in their neighborhood.
Hasidic areas of Williamsburg overwhelmingly voted for Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary earlier this year, which the former governor lost to Mamdani.
Note reportedly left by former MAG Tomer Yerushalmi: ‘Take care of yourselves’
Chief Military Advocate Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi speaks at the Israel Bar Association annual conference of attorneys in Eilat in southern Israel, on May 27, 2024. (Flash 90)
Former IDF military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi left what appeared to be a suicide note before abandoning her car and disappearing for several hours earlier today at a beach near Tel Aviv, Hebrew outlets report.
Police had reportedly tracked her personal phone number to the area, but remain unable to find the cellphone itself.
There are conflicting reports as to what the note said, as well as where it was found. Channel 13 and the Kan public broadcaster report that it was found in her car, while Ynet and Channel 12 report that it was at her home.
The complete text of the note does not appear to be printed in any of the publications. Channel 12 reports that the note read, “I love you, take care of yourselves.” According to Ynet, it said, “Don’t look back.”
The ex-IDF legal chief resigned from her post Friday and confessed that she had been behind the leak of surveillance footage depicting the alleged abuse of a Gazan detainee by several soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention facility.
She went missing earlier today, but was found in Herzliya, reportedly after contacting her husband, who guided police to her location.
Police and IDF forces had spent hours searching for her along the coast near Tel Aviv. A police source speaking earlier to Channel 12 said that Tomer-Yerushlami would arrive for interrogation immediately after her physical check-up.
He confirmed to the outlet that “at this moment it is not known to us where her personal phone is. We understand that it has ‘disappeared.'”
A Tel Aviv police spokesman has yet to respond to a request for comment.
Likud MK files petition asking High Court to prevent AG from involvement in Sde Teiman leak investigation
MK Avichay Buaron speaks during a meeting of the Knesset Education, Culture, and Sports Committee, in Jerusalem, March 3, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)
Likud MK Avichay Buaron, together with the Lavi conservative legal advocacy organization, files a petition to the High Court of Justice requesting that it issue an order to prevent Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara from participating in the investigation into former military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi’s leak of a video from the Sde Teiman detention center.
The letter is the latest development in the most recent feud between Baharav-Miara and the government. Justice Minister Yariv Levin told Baharav-Miara last night that she could not be involved in the investigation, accusing her of lying to the High Court about the incident and implicitly alleging that she had known of the leak.
Baharav-Miara today rejected Levin’s statement and said she and her office were continuing to deal with the investigation.
Buaron, in his petition, alleges that documents submitted by the Attorney General’s Office to the High Court demonstrated that Baharav-Miara was in close contact with officials in the Military Advocate General’s Office regarding the probe into the leak, and that the attorney general has therefore played a key role in closing that investigation.
“The attorney general was fully involved in the probe and in the decision [to close it],” says Buaron’s office in announcing the submission of the petition, filed with the Lavi legal organization.
“For months, she has been deeply involved in this affair – in the details of the investigation, in the instructions to the deputy military advocate general, and in the decision itself to end the probe, and now she is also seeking to represent the state in a petition that concerns her own actions,” says Buaron.
Baharav-Miara told Levin earlier today that those same accusations, which he made against her, “lack any basis, factual or legal,” and insisted that he did not have the authority to remove her from an investigation.
The stand-off between the minister and the attorney general has the potential to flare into a constitutional crisis, if Levin goes ahead and appoints another public official to investigate the affair — as he has said he will — which would create uncertainty as to which official law enforcement agencies must listen to. A High Court ruling, however, could resolve that issue.
Nitzan Alon, IDF’s point man on hostage negotiations, to leave role after over two years
Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon attends a ceremony at the IDF Central Command headquarters in Jerusalem on July 8, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/ Flash90/ File)
Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, who has served as the IDF’s point man on hostage negotiations since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught, is ending his reserve duty and role in the military after over two years.
The military says that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir agreed to end Alon’s tenure at his request. He will officially end his reserve duty in the coming days, according to the IDF. Alon also led the IDF’s intelligence effort on captives and missing persons.
The development comes as Hamas no longer holds any living hostages, having released the last 20 surviving captives on October 13. The terror group is now in the fraught process of returning the bodies of deceased captives still held in the Strip.
Alon began his reserve duty on the morning of the October 7, 2023 attack — during which 251 people were abducted — and was appointed by former IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi to head the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters.
“Under his command, the headquarters operated to return the hostages, focusing on intelligence collection and research, assisting in negotiations, leading and executing special operations, and maintaining ongoing contact with the families of the hostages,” the IDF says in a statement.
Zamir thanked Alon for “taking on the important national mission of bringing the hostages home, for his unique contribution to the IDF during the war, for his dedication, and for his decisive contribution to the effort to safeguard the lives of the hostages, to secure their release, and to bring the fallen back for burial,” the military says.
The Hostages Headquarters will continue to operate despite Alon’s departure, the IDF says, adding that it will be headed by a colonel who has been serving as chief of the headquarters’ operational department since its inception.
The IDF says Zamir “regards the return of the hostages as a supreme mission and a moral duty, emphasizing that as long as there remain fallen hostages in the Gaza Strip, the mission is not over.”
Opposition MKs condemn incitement following brief disappearance of Tomer-Yerushalmi
Labor MK Gilad Kariv chairs a meeting of the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee, October 21, 2025. (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)
Opposition leaders condemn political incitement against former military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, which they claim contributed to her brief disappearance today, before she was found alive by police.
In a statement, Labor MK Gilad Kariv calls Likud spokesperson Guy Levy, who blamed the attorney general for Tomer-Yerushalmi’s disappearance, “an evil and despicable person, a rusted and warped cog in the poison machine.” Kariv added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers bear direct responsibility for the rhetoric Levy spreads.
Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned last Friday after admitting to leaking a video allegedly showing soldiers abusing a Palestinian security detainee at the Sde Teiman military detention facility.
Democrats leader Yair Golan says Tomer-Yerushalmi is subject to the same incitement that was directed against former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by far-right Jewish extremist Yigal Amir in 1995, 30 years ago this week.
“Thirty years after Rabin’s assassination, this same method of labeling ‘traitors’ and encouraging political violence continues. The incitement will only stop after those leading it are removed from power,” he says in a post on X.
Former opposition Blue and White MK Gadi Eisenkot, now leading an eponymous new party, also speaks out against incitement.
“Even if mistakes and failures occurred, inciting violence against public servants is grave and destructive,” he says. “The incitement and inflammatory rhetoric are tearing Israel apart from within.”
Bodies said to belong to three deceased hostages brought out of Gaza by IDF
The caskets containing the apparent remains of three dead hostages have been brought out of the Gaza Strip by troops, the military says.
The bodies are now escorted by the police to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification, a process that officials have said may take up to two days.
If the bodies are confirmed to belong to hostages, it would mean that the remains of eight dead hostages are still held in Gaza. Hamas has previously transferred remains that did not belong to any of the deceased hostages being held in the Strip.
Zamir expresses confidence in Military Advocate General’s office in wake of Tomer-Yerushalmi incidents
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir speaks at a cadets' graduation ceremony at the Bahad 1 officers' school in southern Israel, October 30, 2025. (Screenshot: Israel Defense Forces)
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir met this evening with senior officers at the Military Advocate General’s office, in light of recent contentious events surrounding the unit’s former chief, Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi.
On Friday, Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned over her involvement in the leak of the Sde Teiman abuse video, which is being investigated by police. Today, she went missing for several hours before being found alive and well.
“The events of recent days have caused severe harm to the trust of both the IDF and the public in the military justice system,” Zamir says to the legal officers, according to remarks provided by the military.
“Alongside the pursuit of truth, I am confident that the Military Advocate General (MAG) will continue to fulfill its role as expected and required of it by all of us. Even if some officers acted in a grave and improper manner, I have full confidence in our ability to emerge stronger from this difficult event and to restore trust in the MAG, following its actions on behalf of IDF soldiers and commanders over the past two years and beyond,” he says.
“At this time, we will do everything possible to maintain stability, appoint a new military advocate general, and ensure that the IDF continues to operate according to the law in carrying out its missions,” Zamir continues.
“We will conduct the necessary processes professionally, impartially, and for the sake of the IDF, its soldiers, and the State of Israel,” he adds.
Likud spokesperson blames AG for Tomer-Yerushalmi’s disappearance, calls for her arrest
Likud spokesperson Guy Levy attends a press conference at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on December 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Likud spokesperson Guy Levy accuses Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of being responsible for the brief disappearance of former Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, at a time when police feared for Tomer-Yerushalmi’s life.
The former IDF official was later found alive.
“All this madness we are seeing now is a direct result of the insane obstruction of the investigation that the attorney general has been carrying out for over two weeks,” writes Levy in a post on X, written when Tomer-Yerushalmi was still missing. “She didn’t detain the Military Advocate General, seize her mobile devices, take her testimony, and even place her under protective custody. The Attorney General must be arrested and interrogated tonight.”
Levy’s is not the only post from a Likud figure to use strong language in response to the incident. Likud MK Tali Gotliv posts that “the Military Advocate General belongs in jail! Her so-called ‘suicide attempt’ is an attempt to regain control of the public discourse, to remove from the headlines the disgrace of her actions, and once again to smear people on the right.”
The ex-military advocate general was reported missing this morning after she was unreachable for hours, and as her car was reportedly found abandoned at Hatzuk Beach near Tel Aviv, before police located her.
Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned on Friday after admitting that she had leaked a video that purportedly showed soldiers severely abusing a Palestinian security detainee at the Sde Teiman military detention facility last year.
Meanwhile, meetings of Knesset committees that had been scheduled for tomorrow, including of the Constitution Committee and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, have been postponed, a Knesset spokesperson says.
Prominent US Jewish lawyer quits Heritage Foundation’s antisemitism task force after defense of Tucker Carlson
Mark Goldfeder, a prominent lawyer who represents Jews and Zionists in US court, says he is quitting the Heritage Foundation’s National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism because the prominent conservative think tank’s president defended Tucker Carlson’s interview this week with the antisemitic influencer Nick Fuentes.
Goldfeder, who is also a conservative, is the head of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, a Jewish legal group that has represented Jewish and non-Jewish pro-Israel figures in discrimination cases across the US.
The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, founded in the wake of an upsurge of antisemitic incidents following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, says it is an informal volunteer coalition, supported by the Heritage Foundation, that aims to combat antisemitism.
But the Heritage Foundation has been embroiled in controversy this week after its president, Kevin Roberts, defended right-wing pundit Carlson in a video statement and said the group would not cut ties with him days after Carlson hosted a friendly interview with Fuentes. In the video, Roberts took aim at the “globalist class” and “their mouthpieces in Washington.”
In an open letter posted on social media, Goldfeder says he agreed to join the task force “because I believed that combating antisemitism must remain a nonpartisan moral imperative.”
The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, a project of @Heritage, has done valuable work. But free speech includes the right to associate—and not to.
I cannot serve under someone who thinks Nazis are worth debating. Here is my resignation letter: pic.twitter.com/ccVHMdlDbO— Mark Goldfeder (@MarkGoldfeder) November 2, 2025
“I hoped this initiative could model something better: a principled coalition grounded in shared decency and moral clarity,” he writes.
“Unfortunately, the recent decision by Heritage leadership to defend and even celebrate Tucker Carlson’s decision to platform Nick Fuentes — a figure whose record of overt racism, sexism and antisemitism is beyond dispute — makes continued participation impossible,” Goldfeder writes.
“Elevating him, and then attacking those who object as somehow un-American or disloyal, in a video replete with antisemitic tropes and dog-whistles no less, is not the protection of free speech: It is moral collapse disguised as courage,” he says. “Free speech protects the right to speak; it does not compel anyone to provide a megaphone for a Nazi.”
IDF receives apparent remains of three hostages from Red Cross, en route to Israel
Footage released on social media on November 2, 2025, showing the apparent retrieval of remains of a deceased hostage held in Gaza. (Screenshot/Al-Arabiya via X)
IDF troops in the Gaza Strip have received three caskets, with the apparent bodies of three deceased hostages, from the Red Cross a short while ago.
The Red Cross had previously collected the caskets from Hamas in southern Gaza.
The IDF is set to inspect the caskets before draping them in Israeli flags and holding a short ceremony led by a military rabbi.
The remains will then be taken to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification.
Herzog urges end to ‘mutual attacks’ after ex-military advocate general found
President Isaac Herzog meets with Mike Huckabee (unseen) at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, on April 21, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
President Isaac Herzog urges calm after former military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi was located alive by authorities, following an expansive search triggered by the resigned general’s disappearance this morning.
“Stop the accusations and mutual attacks!” the president implores, in a Hebrew-language post on X, in the wake of a wave of heated reactions by public officials over Tomer-Yerushalmi’s resignation after she had leaked a video that purportedly showed soldiers abusing a Palestinian security detainee at the Sde Teiman military detention facility last year.
“Alongside the sense of relief, the past hours compel us to draw immediate lessons. As a society and as a nation, we will still need to investigate and learn much about the past few days and this deeply troubling affair, with all the implications that follow,” he continues.
“Words that spiral out of control ignite a dangerous fire — and endanger lives. It is now essential to lower the flames, to show humanity and sensitivity,” he writes.
Tomer-Yerushalmi is set to be questioned under caution as part of a criminal investigation into the leak.
Police said to probe protest leader Shikma Bressler over post that mistakenly said Tomer-Yerushalmi had died
Protest leader Shikma Bressler speaks in Caesarea at the start of a national 'day of disruption,' in protest of the government, May 20, 2024. (Reuven G.Sz / Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Police are reportedly investigating prominent anti-government protest leader Shikma Bressler after she wrote a social media post that mistakenly said former military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi had died, and blamed a far-right ideology for motivating her death.
Police conducted a search for Tomer-Yerushalmi after she disappeared this morning. She was later found alive. The former IDF official resigned from her post on Friday and confessed that she had been behind the leak of surveillance footage depicting alleged abuse of a Gazan detainee by several soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention facility.
“Those who incited against Rabin have gained control over the police,” Bressler wrote in the post on X, appearing to refer to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who was filmed as a teenager threatening former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin prior to Rabin’s assassination, 30 years ago by far-right extremist Yigal Amir.
Bressler added, “But there should be no doubt, the same ideology that brought about Rabin’s murder also pushed the military advocate general to her death.”
When Tomer-Yerushalmi was located alive on the Tel Aviv coast, Bressler deleted the post.
Police chief Danny Levy instructed law enforcement to investigate Bressler on suspicion of incitement and obstruction of an investigation, Hebrew outlets reported.
Bressler also referred to the Sde Teiman incident in the post, accusing law enforcement of failing to protect soldiers or the state prosecutor’s office when “an incited mob from within the Knesset and without broke into Sde Teiman and Beit Lid.” The two military bases were stormed by a right-wing mob protesting the Military Police’s arrest of several soldiers suspected of abusing the inmate.
It was “under this abhorrent pressure that the military advocate general made a mistake,” Bressler continues, referring to the leak.
Tomer-Yerushalmi earlier this week confessed to leaking the surveillance footage in an attempt to “counter the false propaganda directed against the military law enforcement authorities.”
IDF says Red Cross has received remains said to belong to three hostages
Footage released on social media on November 2, 2025, showing the apparent retrieval of remains of a deceased hostage held in Gaza. (Screenshot/Al-Arabiya via X)
The IDF says the Red Cross has notified the military that it has collected three caskets, with the apparent bodies of three deceased hostages, from Hamas in southern Gaza a short while ago.
The Red Cross is now bringing the caskets to IDF troops inside the Strip, where a small ceremony, led by a military rabbi, will be held.
UK’s Corbyn, who faced Labour party antisemitism allegations, campaigns for Mamdani
Jeremy Corbyn, left, outside the Royal Courts of Justice in central London on May 13, 2025. (Adrian Dennis / AFP)
The New York branch of the far-left Democratic Socialists of America says UK lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn is working the phones for New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
Corbyn and Mamdani are both known for their far-left anti-Israel activism. Corbyn, the former head of the British Labour party, dragged the party through a series of antisemitism scandals, including facing accusations of being antisemitic himself, before a decisive electoral defeat in 2019 and his ouster in 2020.
Mamdani is a longtime Democratic Socialists of America member, who is running for mayor as the Democratic party nominee.
New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America sends out an email to its members saying Corbyn will phone bank for Mamdani later today.
“Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the UK’s Labour Party known for his decades long commitment to grassroots organizing, will be joining NYC-DSA to make calls to New Yorkers and get out the vote for Zohran,” the message says.
The email says those interested in joining will receive a Zoom link. It is unclear whether Corbyn is in New York.
The ad for the event says it has been paid for by Mamdani’s campaign.
Corbyn, who currently serves in the UK Parliament as an independent, has expressed support for Mamdani in the past.
“Your campaign proves what can happen when a grassroots movement stands up to corporate greed, defends the humanity of Palestinians, and makes no apology for its belief in a more equal & affordable society for all,” Corbyn said on X, after Mamdani’s upset primary victory in June.
Many New York Jewish leaders have warned that Mamdani’s anti-Israel activism threatens to encoureage antisemitism.
Red Cross en route to receive apparent remains of three deceased hostages from Hamas
Red Cross vehicles are now heading to a handover site in the southern Gaza Strip to collect remains, said to belong to three deceased hostages, from Hamas, the IDF says.
Hamas claimed to have found the bodies in a tunnel in southern Gaza earlier today.
Tomer-Yerushalmi receiving physical examination after being located alive, police say
Rescue and police forces search for ex-military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi at Hof Hatzuk Beach in Tel Aviv, November 2, 2025. (Tal Gal/ Flash90)
Former military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi is being escorted by police and soldiers for a physical check-up, after authorities located her alive on the Tel Aviv coast, following her disappearance this morning.
Tel Aviv District Police Commander Haim Sargarof says the former official will arrive at a police station in the city following her check-up.
Addressing press gathered on the beach, Sargarof says law enforcement this afternoon received a report that Tomer-Yerushalmi had gone missing, prompting fear for her life. Her car was reportedly found abandoned at the Hatzuk Beach near Tel Aviv.
Police arrived at the area and began searches “with boosted forces,” says Sargarof. “Of course, we used all means at our disposal, including on sea and land, as well as technological means.” He takes no questions from reporters.
Only two weeks of water left in Tehran’s main reservoir, Iranian state media reports
People cross an intersection in northern Tehran, Iran, September 28, 2025. (AP/ Vahid Salemi)
Tehran’s main source of drinking water is at risk of running dry within two weeks, state media warns, owing to a historic drought.
The Amir Kabir dam, one of five that provide drinking water for the capital, “holds just 14 million cubic meters of water, which is eight percent of its capacity,” the director of the capital’s water company, Behzad Parsa, is quoted as saying by the IRNA news agency.
At that level, it can only continue to supply Tehran with water “for two weeks,” he says.
The metropolis of more than 10 million people is nestled against the southern slopes of the often snow-capped Alborz mountains, which soar as high as 5,600 meters (18,000 feet) and whose rivers feed multiple reservoirs.
But the country is in the midst of its worst drought in decades. The level of rainfall in Tehran province was “nearly without precedent for a century,” a local official declared last month.
A year ago, the Amir Kabir dam held back 86 million cubic meters of water, Parsa says, but there has been a “100% drop in precipitation” in the Tehran region.
Parsa does not provide details on the status of the other reservoirs in the system.
According to Iranian media, the population of Tehran consumes around three million cubic meters of water each day.
As a water-saving measure, supplies have reportedly been cut off to several neighborhoods in recent days, while outages were frequent this summer.
In July and August, two public holidays were declared to save water and energy, with power cuts an almost daily occurrence amid a heatwave.
“The water crisis is more serious than what is being discussed today,” Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian warned at the time.
State Comptroller’s Office insists it has right to probe military failings of October 7
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman attends a meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on May 12, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The State Comptroller’s Office insists, in a submission to the High Court of Justice, that it must be allowed to exercise its duty to probe and review the key military failings before, during, and after the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023.
The submission was filed in response to a petition by the Military Defense Unit of the IDF’s Military Advocate General department, which asked the court to order the State Comptroller’s Office not to investigate issues “at the heart of the October 7 failure.”
The state comptroller has until now probed some of the ancillary failings, regarding the preparedness of the home front, assistance to citizens after the outbreak of war, and others, while the IDF has vigorously opposed any review of its role by the comptroller’s office.
“The State Comptroller’s Office sees before its eyes those whose voices were silenced, the [hostages] who returned, the families of all of these people, and all citizens of Israel — and is determined to complete all probes on the subject of the failures of October 7 and the ‘Swords of Iron War,'” states the State Comptroller’s Office.
Opposition parties and some government watchdog groups have insisted that the state comptroller’s remit does not cover military disasters and failures, and have also raised concerns that State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, who was appointed under a Netanyahu-led government, may minimize responsibility of the political leadership for the disastrous October attack invasion.
Police: Ex-military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi is alive and well
IDF Advocate General Brig. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi speaks at the Israel Bar Association annual conference of attorneys in Eilat in southern Israel, on May 27, 2024.(Flash 90)
Police say that ex-military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi is alive and well, after she was missing since this morning.
There were fears for Tomer-Yerushalmi’s life, and a search, after she was unreachable for hours and her car was reportedly found abandoned at the Hatzuk Beach near Tel Aviv.
Hamas says it will hand over three hostages’ bodies at 8 p.m.
Hamas announces that it will hand over three hostages’ bodies this evening at 8 p.m.
According to the statement, the hostages’ bodies were recovered today from a tunnel.
Hamas published a picture showing a body bag with the name of a deceased hostage on it. The other two were not named. The terror group has previously transferred remains that did not belong to hostages held in Gaza.
Eleven deceased hostages remain held in the Strip.
Police searching near Tel Aviv beach for missing ex-military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi
Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi at a farewell ceremony for retiring acting Supreme Court President Uzi Vogelman, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on October 1, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Pool)
The IDF confirms that Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who resigned on Friday, has gone missing.
Police have been searching for Tomer-Yerushalmi, who has been unreachable since this morning. The scans have focused on Hatzuk Beach in Tel Aviv for the past few hours, according to first responders.
Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned on Friday after admitting that she had leaked a video that purportedly showed soldiers severely abusing a Palestinian security detainee at the Sde Teiman military detention facility last year.
She was set to be questioned under caution as part of a criminal investigation into the leak.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir instructed the Operations Directorate “to use all the means at the IDF’s disposal in order to try to locate her as soon as possible,” the military says.
Syrian inquiry finds most allegations of kidnapped Alawite women are false
People gather for a mass demonstration in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on March 11, 2025 protesting against a recent wave of sectarian violence targeting Syria's Alawite minority in the west of the country along the Mediterranean sea coast. (Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP)
A Syrian government-led committee finds that most allegations of kidnapping of women from the Alawite religious minority were false, the findings of the months-long probe released today show.
Syria’s Interior Ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba announces the outcome of the inquiry into 42 allegations of women and girls during widespread violence in March along Syria’s coastal provinces.
Al-Baba says the committee, which was set up in July, spoke to affected women and girls and concluded that only one case was a kidnapping.
“In the one confirmed kidnapping case, the girl was safely returned after security agencies investigated the matter,” Al-Baba tells a news conference. “The search continues to identify the perpetrators.”
Amnesty International said in July it had received credible reports of several dozen Alawite women and girls being kidnapped across the provinces of Latakia, Tartus, Homs, and Hama.
The Syrian inquiry concludes that of the remaining 41 cases it examined, 12 involved women fleeing with romantic partners, nine were “temporary absences” with relatives or friends, six were instances of fleeing domestic violence, six were false allegations on social media, four were victims of extortion or prostitution, and four were perpetrators of criminal offenses who were apprehended by security agencies.
“We urge citizens, civil society, and human rights organizations to first report any such incidents or suspicions to the Interior Ministry,” al-Baba says.
The violence began after armed groups aligned with former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who belongs to the Alawite minority, attacked government security forces. The counter-insurgency spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks and massacres that killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite community.
Netherlands to return 3,500-year-old Egyptian sculpture that turned up at art fair
The Netherlands will return a 3,500-year-old sculpture that turned up at a Dutch art fair to Egypt, Prime Minister Dick Schoof says during a visit to the country, where he met with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The artifact in question, which depicts a senior official from the 1479–1425 BCE reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III, is believed to have been stolen and illegally exported, most likely during the unrest of the 2011 Arab Spring, before appearing on the international art market.
The “historic cultural artifact (was) confiscated at a Dutch art fair” in Maastricht in 2022, Schoof says, after someone anonymously tipped off the authorities about its illicit origin.
An investigation by Dutch police and the cultural heritage inspectorate confirmed that the sculpture had been plundered and unlawfully removed from Egypt. The dealer who had the piece voluntarily surrendered it following the inquiry.
The Dutch government says it expects to hand over the artifact to the Egyptian ambassador in the Netherlands by the end of this year, although no specific date has been set.
Netherlands to return 3,500-year-old Egyptian sculpture likely looted during Arab Spring https://t.co/U50ZzaQHq2
— NL Times (@NL_Times) November 2, 2025
Germany arrests Syrian suspected of plotting ‘jihadist’ attack
German authorities say they arrested a 22-year-old Syrian man in Berlin suspected of preparing a “jihadist” attack, without giving details of the alleged plot.
The suspect, arrested yesterday in the capital’s southern Neukoelln district, has been kept in a detention center and is set to be brought before an investigating judge later today.
He is alleged to have plotted “a jihadist-motivated attack,” a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Berlin tells AFP.
He is being held on suspicion of preparing an act of a serious nature putting the country in danger, the spokesman says.
The newspaper Bild reports that a search by special police units of three Berlin residential addresses linked to the suspect turned up items that could be used to build explosives.
The daily said the alleged plot was thought to be an attack in Berlin, but that no other details had yet emerged.
Germany in recent months has seen several knife attacks, as well as attacks with jihadist and far-right motives, that have thrown a focus on security measures.
Berlin remains under vigilant watch, especially since a murderous 2016 jihadist attack at a Christmas market, when a truck mowed down a crowd, killing 12 people.
Released hostage Alon Ohel undergoes eye surgery, orthopedic procedure
Released hostage Alon Ohel heads home to Lavon on October 24, 2025. (Reuven G Sz/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Released hostage Alon Ohel underwent an eye surgery and an orthopedic procedure today at Rabin Medical Center, the hospital announces.
The former hostage’s right eye was injured by bullet shrapnel from a Hamas gunman during the terror group’s October 7 massacre of Nova festival partygoers. He was held for two years in Gaza and released along with 19 other living captives on October 13.
“Today we performed a complex and exceptional eye surgery that was supposed to take place two years ago,” says Prof. Irit Bahar, head of the Ophthalmology Division, at the hospital, which is also known as Beilinson. Bahar performed the surgery with Dr. Asaf Dotan, head of the Retina Unit.
“When we realized a few days ago that it might still be possible to save the eye, it was a deeply moving and hopeful moment,” she says. “The surgery was successful, and in the coming days, we will know the extent of improvement in his vision.”
Ohel also underwent orthopedic surgery performed by shoulder surgeons Dr. Yoav Rosenthal, Dr. Mark Lovenberg, and Dr. Shay Ribenzaft.
‘I’ve waited two years for this’: Crowds greet released hostage Bar Kuperstein as he returns home
Released hostage Bar Kuperstein makes a heart sign at well-wishers as he returns home on November 2, 2025. (Dana Reany/Israeli Pro-Democracy Movement)
Cheering crowds mob the van carrying released hostage Bar Kuperstein as he returns home to the central city of Holon after two years in captivity in Gaza.
Well-wishers hold signs with Kuperstein’s photo and the message “Welcome back.” The first two letters of the Hebrew word “baruch” on the signs, which spell Kuperstein’s first name, are highlighted in yellow.
Kuperstein makes a heart sign with his fingers and addresses the crowd of hundreds.
“Thank you to everyone who prayed for me, thank you to my dad and my mom, thank you to everyone who helped me get out,” says Kuperstein, according to the Hebrew publication Ynet. “I’ve waited two years for this. I’m home!”
He continues, “Thank you to my friends, thank you to the city of Holon that has embraced me, thank you to the Creator of the world who strengthened me. Unfortunately, there are other bereaved families. We won’t give up until everyone returns home.”
Kuperstein was released along with 19 other living hostages on October 13, and today left a hotel where he was staying while he recuperated in the hospital.
Reports: Hamas shuts down shawarma shops in Gaza under price monitoring regime
Illustration: Armed Palestinian Hamas operatives pictured in Gaza City on November 2, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Telegram channels affiliated with Hamas report that the terror group shut down several shawarma restaurants yesterday along Salah al-Din Road, which runs down the length of the Strip, as part of efforts to regulate food prices.
According to the reports, the restaurants were selling chicken at inflated prices, higher than what Hamas had permitted.
In recent days, lists of regulated food prices — apparently set by Hamas — have circulated on social media, outlining the rates that vendors must adhere to.
Slain hostage Amiram Cooper’s son, in eulogy, says his story ‘should have ended differently’
Rotem Cooper, center, at the funeral of his father, hostage Amiram Cooper, whose body was buried on November 2, 2025, at Kibbutz Nir Oz. (Uriel Even Sapir/Hostages Forum)
Rotem Cooper, son of Amiram Cooper, the slain hostage kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz whose body was released back to Israel last week, eulogizes his father as a man always devoted to the kibbutz, never leaving their home, even during the hardest days under rocket fire.
“And so it was on that Black Saturday, when you and Mom were kidnapped by despicable murderers and abandoned by small and cowardly leaders,” says Cooper, one of the more visible family members in the struggle to bring home his father’s body, referring to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught.
Amiram Cooper was assessed by the IDF to have been murdered in captivity in February 2024. The IDF confirmed his death in June 2024.
Cooper notes that his mother was released after 17 days in Gaza’s tunnels, and imagines how his father must have struggled during the weeks and months of captivity.
He asks his father’s forgiveness, “for our collective failure, from the prime minister of Israel down to its last citizen, to free you and your fellow captives in time,” says Cooper, saying that there wasn’t a responsible, courageous leadership that could have secured the release of his father and other hostages.
“This story, Dad, could and should have ended differently — and for that, there can be no atonement,” says Cooper.
He says they will bury his father in the kibbutz he loved, alongside his friends from Nir Oz, “one more grave in a heartbreakingly long row dug since that Black Saturday,” says Cooper.
Cooper says the burial of his father, the final Nir Oz hostage brought back from Gaza, represents a sense of closure for the kibbutz, while its members will never forget the remaining 11 other bodies of hostages still held in Gaza.
Former hostage Nurit Cooper eulogizes her husband, slain captive Amiram Cooper, at his funeral
Former Hamas-held hostage Nurit Cooper eulogizes her husband, slain hostage Amiram Cooper, at his funeral in Nir Oz on November 2, 2025. (Uriel Even-Sapir/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)
Former hostage Nurit Cooper, widow of slain captive Amiram Cooper, eulogizes her husband at his funeral.
“Writing about Cooper in the past tense feels so strange to me,” says Nurit Cooper, referring to her husband.
Both husband and wife were taken hostage by Gazan terrorists on October 7, 2023, from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. Nurit was released after three weeks along with fellow Nir Oz resident Yocheved Lifshitz. Amiram was killed in captivity, and his body was released by Hamas back to Israel last week.
She says she arrived at Nir Oz at the age of 18 as part of the Tzabar youth group and that, even before they met, she heard about a guy who wrote songs and whistled melodies.
“I loved his songs,” said Cooper. “Later we met, fell in love, and built a family together.”
Cooper recalls her husband as a devoted, warm and loving father to their children and grandchildren, remembering their full, good life in Nir Oz.
She says they were always together, “inseparable.”
“Even in the tunnels, we were together,” says Cooper. “We shared the same mattress and the little food we were given, and we hoped to return home alive.”
“Life without him is lonely,” says Cooper.
2 US Jewish women get 10-year ban from Israel for entering IDF zone to aid Palestinian olive harvest
Illustration: A Palestinian woman harvests olives in the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya on October 20, 2025. (Hazem Bader/AFP)
Two American Jewish women who entered a closed military zone in the West Bank to help Palestinian olive growers with their harvest have been banned from Israel for 10 years. They had been deported over the incident.
The women were detained on Wednesday for entering a closed military zone imposed by the IDF over the Palestinian village of Burin on October 29, the same day the women and nine other activists went to volunteer picking olives . They were held in the Givon Prison in Ramle and were deported on Friday.
The two women, one an 18-year old and the other in her 50s, were participating in a project run by the Rabbis For Human Rights organization to help Palestinians harvest their olives. The program aims to show solidarity with Palestinians in the face of violence by extremist settlers, which has erupted in the West Bank since the olive harvest season began in mid-October.
During a hearing at the Detention Review Tribunal at Givon Prison, the judge noted that both women were accused of violating a military order and not obeying instructions from security forces.
Democrats MK Gilad Kariv, the chairman of the Knesset Diaspora Affairs Committee, described the 10-year ban against the women as “outrageous,” and said he intends to hold a hearing in his committee on the issue and summon the relevant officials to explain the decision.
“Beyond the injustice, this does direct harm to Israel’s relationship with Diaspora Jewry, and harms the legitimacy of liberal-Zionist worldviews,” said Kariv, a left-wing lawmaker.
Director of Rabbis for Human Rights Avi Dabush says it is “anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish to ban Jews from Israel,” and insisted that his organization’s activities are non-violent and law-abiding.
“Two Jewish women came to Israel with with Zionist values and for Zionist purposes, and to help people in distress, and the outcome is really crazy,” says Dabush. “The fact that the police don’t stop the Jewish terrorists working against us and the Palestinian olive growers is also very frustrating.”
IDF reportedly recalling 700 senior officers’ Chinese cars due to security fears
Illustration: Visitors look at an earlier Chery model, the Chery Tiggo 7 SUV, after it was unveiled at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition in Beijing, Monday, April 25, 2016. (AP/Andy Wong)
The IDF has reportedly begun recalling Chinese cars given to senior officers in recent years, after defense officials warned of security concerns.
Earlier this year, the IDF banned all Chinese cars from entering military bases, over fears that their sensors and cameras could be used to collect sensitive information.
The Calcalist financial publication and Israel Hayom daily both report today that the IDF is recalling some 700 Chinese cars, mostly the Chery Tiggo 8 Pro model, which had been offered to lieutenant colonels and colonels with large families since 2022.
The IDF declines to comment on the reports.
Released hostage Bar Kuperstein heads home to Holon after recuperation in hotel
Bar Kuperstein, right, with his father Tal Kuperstein, outside Kfar Maccabiah on November 2, 2025. (Yael Gadot/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Former captive Bar Kuperstein is released from Kfar Maccabiah, the Ramat Gan hotel complex that has served as housing for released hostages and their families while they recuperated at nearby hospitals after returning to Israel.
Kuperstein stands outside the hotel’s front doors alongside his father, Tal Kuperstein, who learned how to stand and speak during his son’s captivity, after suffering a stroke during a surgery prior to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack.
Kuperstein, from Holon, was working as a medic at the Nova music festival on October 7 when he was taken captive.
He was released from Hamas captivity on October 13, one of the final 20 surviving hostages.
Mamdani releases campaign ad in Arabic, jokes about knafeh from Nablus
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani releases a campaign ad in Arabic.
Mamdani, who is a Muslim and recently gave a landmark speech about Islamophobia, is the frontrunner to win Tuesday’s election.
“I know what you’re thinking — I might look like your brother-in-law from Damascus, but my Arabic needs some work,” Mamdani, who is of Indian descent, says in the video. “Still, I would love to ask for your support on November 4th.”
In the ad, Mamdani pitches his promises to make New York more affordable, pets a bodega cat, and jokes about knafeh — an Arabic dessert — from Nablus, a city in the northern West Bank. A Palestinian flag is briefly seen behind the candidate, who is a longtime anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activist and whose positions on the country and conflict have been a central issue in the race.
“I’m from you, and for you,” he says.
أنا اسمي زهران ممدان وعم رشّح حالي لأكون العمدة الجديد في مدينة نيويورك pic.twitter.com/ptfVdpansX
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) November 1, 2025
Mamdani studied Arabic in Cairo while he was a college student. As is customary in New York City mayoral campaigns, he has released campaign materials in different languages, including Yiddish.
Charlie Kirk’s widow to accept public diplomacy award on his behalf at Jerusalem summit
Erika Kirk gives a press conference after her husband Charlie was killed, September 12, 2025 (TURNING POINT USA/AFP)
Erika Kirk, the widow of assassinated US conservative activist and Israel supporter Charlie Kirk, will accept an award on his behalf at the Christian Media Summit in Jerusalem this week, the Government Press Office says in a statement.
Israel is hosting over 100 influential Christian figures for the event, which includes an award ceremony honoring some participants for their “exceptional contribution” to Israeli public diplomacy worldwide, according to the GPO, which is organizing the four-day summit alongside the Foreign Ministry and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
“Over 100 representatives of leading Christian media outlets, opinion leaders, religious figures, and heads of organizations from various countries” are expected to attend, the GPO says, adding that the summit aims “to deepen understanding of Israeli society, confront the phenomenon of antisemitism on social networks, and present Israel as an innovative, diverse, and open nation.”
Four months before he was assassinated during an appearance at a US college campus in September, Kirk wrote a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticizing Israel’s efforts on social media, recommending ways for Israel to improve its public diplomacy, and offering to meet with the premier on the matter.
The summit comes as conservatives in the US are embroiled in a debate over antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment in their movement.
IDF rules out terrorist infiltration in West Bank’s Shavei Shomron following sirens
The Home Front Command says it has ruled out a terrorist infiltration in the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron, after sirens were triggered in the community.
Residents are free to leave their homes following the scare.
The sirens were triggered after a technician who arrived at the settlement was misidentified, according to a preliminary military investigation.
Levin fires back against AG, says he will stop her office from investigating Sde Teiman leak
Justice Minister Yariv Levin attends a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting at the Knesset, on January 21, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Justice Minister Yariv Levin is pressing on in his effort to bar Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara from the legal proceedings against the former military advocate general regarding the Sde Teiman video leak, saying he “totally rejects” Baharav-Miara’s claim that he has no authority to exclude her.
Writing to Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon, who authored this morning’s letter to Levin on behalf of the attorney general, the justice minister says the public “no longer accepts your custom of having one law for yourselves and another law for everyone else.”
Levin also repeats his statement from Saturday, insisting that Baharav-Miara and the entire Attorney General’s Office be excluded from prosecuting the case against the former military advocate general.
It appears likely that government watchdog groups will file petitions to the High Court of Justice over the dispute between the justice minister and the Attorney General’s Office.
Terrorist infiltration siren sounds in Shavei Shomron settlement
A suspected terrorist infiltration siren sounds in the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron.
The IDF Home Front Command instructs residents to remain locked in their homes until further notice.
The military says the incident is under investigation.
IDF says it killed a terror operative who crossed Gaza’s Yellow Line
Troops of the Nahal Brigade operate in southern Gaza's Rafah, in a handout photo issued on November 1, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF says it killed a terror operative who crossed the Yellow Line, demarcating the military’s withdrawal, in Gaza City today.
The operative had approached troops “in a way that posed an immediate threat,” the military says, adding that shortly after he was identified, the Israeli Air Force struck him “to remove the threat.”
Palestinian media also reports that one person was killed in the strike, which took place in Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiya neighborhood.
Knesset committee again delays hearing on ultra-Orthodox draft exemptions bill
Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest against conscription into Israel's military in Jerusalem on October 30, 2025. (Photo by Fadel SENNA / AFP)
Discussion on Likud MK Boaz Bismuth’s controversial bill to regulate military conscription and exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox community has been removed from Monday’s agenda for the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which he chairs, and postponed yet again.
The delay follows Hebrew media reports over the weekend that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested that Bismuth hold off on submitting the bill, reportedly to review it.
According to committee rules, a bill must be presented to the panel at least 48 hours before a discussion, which did not occur. No new date for the debate has been announced.
For the past year, ultra-Orthodox leadership has pushed to pass a law keeping its constituency, also known as Haredi, out of the IDF, after the High Court ruled that decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were illegal.
Bismuth replaced Likud MK Yuli Edelstein on the powerful committee to draft legislation more palatable to the Haredi parties, after the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties quit the government over Edelstein’s version of an enlistment bill, which would have levied harsh sanctions on draft evaders.
Some 200,000 ultra-Orthodox men staged a mass rally against the draft in Jerusalem last week.
Defendants in Sde Teiman abuse case say video leak means they can’t get a fair trial
Reserve soldiers indicted for abusing a Palestinian security detainee at the Sde Teiman military detention center speak to the media outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on November 2, 2025 (Jeremy Sharon/ Times of Israel)
One of the five soldiers indicted for abusing a Palestinian security detainee at the Sde Teiman military detention center accuses the military justice system of carrying out an unfair “drumhead court martial” against him and his fellow defendants.
Speaking to journalists at a press conference organized by the Honenu legal aid organization outside the Supreme Court, attorneys representing the defendants said that due to the leak of a video from Sde Teiman by the former military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the defendants could not get a fair trial. The indictment process was tainted by her action, they claimed.
“On October 7 we left our families, children, parents, unquestioningly. We knew we had to defend the country. Since that day, dozens of fighters are still fighting for justice not on the battlefield but in courtrooms. Dozens of fighters who need the backing of the country and the system, because they defended our home and we are here only in their merit,” said one of the defendants, who were all wearing ski masks to avoid identification.
Moshe Polski of Honenu claimed that the defendants cannot have a fair trial due to the leak by Tomer-Yerushalmi, saying “the wheel cannot be turned back.”
And the wife of one of the defendants said that the country “spat in the face” of her husband by putting him on trial, saying her husband had “collapsed from the inside, not on the battlefield but because of the country.”
An indictment was filed against five IDF reserve soldiers in February this year for beating and severely assaulting a Palestinian security prisoner after he was brought to the detention facility in July 2024. The assault left him with severe injuries, including broken ribs and a tear in his rectum.
Numerous allegations have been made by Israeli whistleblowers, former detainees, and civil rights organizations that detainees at Sde Teiman were subjected to severe abuse, including physical assault and beatings, psychological abuse, humiliation, neglect of medical problems, and the deprivation of adequate food and sanitary conditions.
Boy, 14, from Jaffa charged with spying for al-Qaeda
Prosecutors file charges against a 14-year-old and accuse him of spying for al-Qaeda, after he was arrested last month in the West Bank while visiting his mother’s family.
The minor, whose name is barred from publication, is charged today in the Tel Aviv Juvenile District Court with maintaining contact with a foreign agent and providing intelligence to benefit the enemy.
The defendant, an Arab Israeli teen from Jaffa, has been diagnosed with autism and is developmentally challenged, according to his lawyer.
The boy had allegedly been active in an al-Qaeda group chat called “Cyber and Armed Jihad Movement” on the Signal messaging app, run by an agent for the terror group. He filmed two buildings formerly used as military facilities and provided the agent with their coordinates, prosecutors say. He supposedly planned to photograph a large police station in Tel Aviv, but never followed through with that.
In the group chat, he allegedly expressed his desire to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and carry out a suicide attack against Israelis. He attempted to join Hamas and began to experiment with constructing homemade explosives, prosecutors add.
The boy’s mother has insisted on his innocence and urged that he be released from detention and undergo a psychiatric evaluation. He is being held in the Russian Compound, a detention facility in Jerusalem, where he has been subjected to beatings from guards and inmates, according to his lawyer.
Netanyahu says there are two pockets of Hamas forces behind Israeli lines in Gaza, vows to eliminate them
Troops of the Nahal Brigade operate in southern Gaza's Rafah, in a handout photo issued on November 1, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that there are two remaining Hamas pockets in Israeli-controlled territory in Gaza, one in Rafah and one in Khan Younis.
“They will be eliminated,” he promises.
Netanyahu says Hamas’s “attempts to deceive us, the US, and the world” are pathetic.
“They will not succeed, and we will gradually bring back all our hostages,” he continues. “This is our commitment.”
He stresses that protecting IDF forces in Gaza is a top priority.
“My directive is unequivocal,” says Netanyahu. “If there is any attempt to harm our soldiers, we strike those who attack and their networks — in defense of our troops.”
“We report to our American friends, but we do not seek their permission,” he insists, after growing criticism that crucial decisions on the future of Gaza are being made by the White House. “I hear statements that are simply untrue. We retain full security responsibility and will not relinquish it.”
Netanyahu promises that Hamas will be disarmed, and that Gaza will be demilitarized. “It is an understanding I share with President Trump, and we are acting according to a clear framework. If it cannot be achieved one way, it will be achieved another way — and everyone knows what that other way is, and who will carry it out.”
Turning to Lebanon, Netanyahu says that Hezbollah is looking to rearm.
“We expect the Lebanese government to uphold its commitments, namely to disarm Hezbollah,” Netanyahu says. “But it is clear that we will exercise our right to self-defense as stipulated in the ceasefire terms. We will not allow Lebanon to become a renewed front against us, and we will act as necessary.”
Netanyahu also pledges that Israel “will do whatever is necessary to eliminate” the Houthi threat from Yemen.
The meeting is attended by billionaire philanthropist Sylvan Adams, who pledged $100 million to renovate and expand Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, which was damaged by an Iranian missile.
Soroka hospital to get $100m from government, another $100m from philanthropist Sylvan Adams, after Iran missile damage
From left to right, Beersheba Mayor Ruvik Danilovich, Sylvan Adams, and Prof. Shlomi Codish, director of Soroka Medical Center, on November 2, 2025 (Courtesy)
The Finance Ministry and the Health Ministry announce they will invest NIS 360 million ($111 million) over the next five years to strengthen and protect Soroka University Medical Center, which was badly damaged in an Iranian missile attack.
In addition, Soroka director Prof. Shlomi Codish announces that businessman Sylvan Adams will donate $100 million (NIS 325 million) to the medical center, in the largest donation to the hospital since its establishment.
“We welcome the government’s decision made today to allocate the necessary budget for the rehabilitation and protection of Soroka,” says Codish. “I also thank Mr. Adams for his generous donation, which is expected to change the face of the medical center for many years to come.”
On June 19, a ballistic missile from Iran directly hit the medical center, causing massive damage to infrastructure and key services.
Adams, an Israeli-Canadian billionaire, says that it is a “great honor” for him to help build and redesign the hospital as “a first-class advanced medical center, a national asset to the Negev and the entire State of Israel.”
In response to June’s missile attack on the hospital, the Koum Family Foundation began a philanthropic campaign to help restore and rebuild Soroka. The foundation donated $50 million (NIS 162 million). The Helmsley Foundation, a longtime partner of Soroka in a variety of projects, also contributed $15 million (NIS 49 million).
Israel preparing for possible return of hostages’ bodies tonight
Hamas gunmen stand near a International Red Cross (ICRC) vehicle, as a search for the bodies of killed Israeli hostages takes place, in Gaza City on November 2, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Israel is preparing for the possibility that Hamas may return the bodies of hostages tonight, The Times of Israel has learned.
It is not yet fully certain that the handover will take place tonight, and Hamas has yet to announce it.
Thee Saudi channel Al-Arabiya reports that Hamas located the bodies of three hostages in eastern Khan Younis. There is no further confirmation of the report.
Currently, the bodies of 11 hostages remain held in Gaza.
Netanyahu says prison abuse leak caused ‘enormous reputational damage to Israel,’ calls for inquiry
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a cabinet meeting on November 2, 2025 (Screencapture/GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the leak of footage showing ostensible abuse of a Palestinian prisoner at Sde Teiman “caused enormous reputational damage to Israel, to the IDF, and to our soldiers.”
“It is perhaps the most serious public-relations attack Israel has experienced since its founding — I cannot recall one so concentrated and intense,” he continues. “This requires an independent and impartial inquiry, and I expect that such an investigation will indeed take place.”
Military Advocate Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned from her post on Friday after admitting that she had leaked a video that purportedly shows several Israeli soldiers severely beating and injuring a Palestinian security detainee at the Sde Teiman military detention facility in 2024.
UK police rule out terror in train stabbings, two British nationals arrested
Police Superintendent John Loveless addresses the media after a mass stabbing on a London-bound train in Huntingdon, England, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
UK police say two British nationals were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder following a mass stabbing on a train in eastern England, adding the attack was not a “terrorist incident.”
The men in custody were a “a 32-year-old male, a Black British national, and a 35-year-old man, a British national of Caribbean descent,” British Transport Police superintendent John Loveless tells reporters.
“At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that this is a terrorist incident.”
Model Leen Peer is named as suspect in murder case after gag order lifted
Leen Peer is the Israeli model arrested in October on suspicion of homicide, Hebrew outlets report, after a gag order was lifted on her name.
She and three other suspects were arrested last month in connection with the death of Shalom Nissim.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, Peer had in the past been implicated in violent acts, the most recent of which involved her stabbing her ex-boyfriend five months ago.
She also attempted to stab a woman she had intimate relations with around a decade ago, the outlet reports.
Prosecutors claim that Nissim arrived at her Petah Tikvah apartment on October 15, where a fight broke out.
The suspects allegedly stabbed and assaulted Nissim with pepper spray, before he fell from the apartment’s balcony. He then landed on a fence and broke his neck, which killed him on the spot, according to prosecutors.
The other suspects are named as David Kricheli, Maor Elisha and Bar Outmezgine.
The suspects are thought to have consumed hard drugs, including heroin, before the victim’s death, according to Hebrew reports.
Peer was also one of the dozens of complainants against modeling agent Shai Avital, who was convicted of sexual assault earlier this year.
הדוגמנית לין פאר היא החשודה במוערבות ברצח שלום ניסים, שנפל אל מותו מבניין מגורים בפתח תקווה@NaamaMazor
צילום: לפי סעיף 27 א' pic.twitter.com/NVkLPIIbRW— גלצ (@GLZRadio) November 2, 2025
Hardline Gvura Forum protests outside PM’s office, calling for a return to war
Members of the Gvura Forum, bereaved families, and activists call to resume the war against Hamas, outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, November 2, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
About a dozen members of the hardline Gvura Forum, which represents some families of soldiers killed during the war against Hamas in Gaza, protest outside the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, calling for a resumption of hostilities.
The demonstrators hold up photos of the fallen and call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “return to forceful combat.”
“The number of [Hamas] violations of the agreement is unbearable,” one demonstrator shouts through a megaphone.
“We have reached a situation where the violations are the most grievous violations,” he says.
Since the start of the US-brokered truce there have been two fatal attacks on IDF soldiers by terror operatives in Gaza, which were met by brief but heavy Israeli strikes.
Hamas has also failed to return all the bodies of the slain hostages it still holds, claiming that it has difficulty locating them.
New list of WZO appointments excludes Yair Netanyahu despite reports of pressure from PM’s office
Yair Netanyahu (L) and Sara Netanyahu listen to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deliver a speech at the 80th session of The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 26, 2025 in New York City. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images/AFP)
Following the dramatic collapse Wednesday night of an agreement on appointments at key Zionist institutions, World Zionist Organization heads are voting on a new slate of incoming executive appointments that does not include Yair Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial elder son.
A source in the WZO says there is currently no path for Yair Netanyahu to receive the appointment. However, the source notes, the Prime Minister’s Office made an effort overnight to torpedo the new list so that Yair could still be included.
Under the arrangement currently up for vote, Rabbi Doron Perez, chairman of the religious Zionist World Mizrachi movement — and father of Cpt. Daniel Perez, who was killed in the October 7 Hamas attack and whose body was held captive in Gaza for two years — will become the next WZO chair. Halfway through the five-year term, Yaakov Hagoel, the current chairman, will replace him.
A list of about 30 other people is set to be approved as members of the WZO Executive. In addition to these, the current draft of appointments allows for two other members to be added by the World Likud party in the future, to be approved by a vote of the Zionist General Council.
As the ZGC would never approve the nomination of Yair Netanyahu, this closes off any possibility of him getting in, the WZO source says.
The vote, currently underway, closes Tuesday morning, the source notes.
AG says Justice Minister Levin has no authority to bar her from investigating military leak affair
Justice Minister Yariv Levin (left) and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, in a composite image. (Flash90)
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara rejects Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s declaration last night that she is legally barred from involvement in the investigation against former military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi over the Sde Teiman video leak affair, saying he has no authority to take such action.
The attorney general also insists that Levin has no authority to appoint another official to conduct the investigation as he has said he will, or to bar other officials in the Attorney General’s Office from dealing with the investigation, and says his effort to do so “lacks any basis, factual or legal.”
Levin’s letter to Baharav-Miara on the issue “constitutes an effort to unlawfully interfere with investigative and enforcement processes,” the attorney general insists.
Baharav-Miara insists that the investigation into the affair will be handled by the heads of the law enforcement services, including herself, State Attorney Amit Aisman, and the head of the police’s investigations and intelligence department.
The clash between Levin and Baharav-Miara over the investigation appears likely to end up in the Supreme Court in order to determine if Levin indeed does have the authority to sideline the attorney general and her office under the circumstances.
Katz to meet IDF chief Zamir to discuss new military advocate general after leak scandal
Defense Minister Israel Katz (left) and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir are seen at the Knesset, October 13, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Defense Minister Israel Katz will meet this afternoon with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir to discuss appointing a new military advocate general.
This comes after Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi stepped down on Friday over her involvement in the leaking of a surveillance video from the Sde Teiman detention facility that purported to show soldiers severely abusing a Palestinian detainee last year.
Zamir is set to present Katz with several candidates for the role.
The Kan public broadcaster cites Katz’s “inner circle” as saying that the next military advocate general must come from “outside the system,” meaning someone who did not serve in the Military Advocate General’s office.
But according to the Military Justice Law — the legal framework for military jurisdiction in Israel — the military advocate general must be “a military attorney with at least seven years of legal experience,” which removes the possibility of a civilian legal expert, or even a senior IDF officer who is not an attorney, serving in the role.
Police detain Ramle man who threatened on TikTok to carry out terror attack
A Ramle resident seen in a TikTok video where he threatened to carry out a terror attack on November 2, 2025 (Israel Police)
Police say they detained a man who threatened to carry out a terror attack in Ramle and shot his dog, after it bit one of the officers arresting him this morning.
The suspect, a resident of Ramle in his 20s, was arrested alongside another man who tried to attack police after they arrived at the suspect’s home. Police will bring the two men to court and request an extension on their remand, law enforcement says.
A photo shared by police shows the suspect during a TikTok livestream, his face obscured with a balaclava, during which he reportedly threatened to carry out the attack.
Iran’s president says Tehran will rebuild its nuclear facilities with ‘greater strength’
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian takes questions from the media at a press briefing in New York, September 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
Tehran will rebuild its nuclear facilities “with greater strength,” Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian tells state media, adding that the country does not seek a nuclear weapon.
US President Donald Trump has warned that he would order fresh attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites should Tehran try to restart facilities that the United States bombed in June.
Pezeshkian made his comments during a visit to the country’s Atomic Energy Organization, during which he met with senior managers from Iran’s nuclear industry.
“Destroying buildings and factories will not create a problem for us, we will rebuild and with greater strength,” the Iranian president tells state media.
In June, the US joined Israel to launch strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities that Washington says were part of a program geared towards developing nuclear weapons.
Tehran, which routinely calls to destroy Israel, maintains that its nuclear program is for purely civilian purposes. However, before the war, Iran had been enriching uranium to levels just below weapons grade that has no peaceful purpose.
“It’s all intended for solving the problems of the people, for disease, for the health of the people,” Pezeshkian says in reference to Iran’s nuclear activities.
IDF to test warning sirens in Arad
The IDF says it will conduct tests of the warning siren system in the southern city of Arad this morning.
Sirens will sound at 11:35 a.m.
In the event of an actual incident, a second siren will sound, the military says.
IDF to discipline soldiers seen stealing olives from Palestinians during harvest
The IDF says soldiers will be disciplined after footage showed them stealing olives from a grove in a West Bank Palestinian village on Friday.
The incident took place in Sinjil, close to Ramallah.
جنود الاحتلال يسرقون ثمار الزيتون من أراضي المزارعين في بلدة سنجل شمال رام الله، بعد طرد أصحابها منها. pic.twitter.com/ApgjbnQxkM
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) October 31, 2025
According to the IDF, it received reports of stone throwing by Israelis and Palestinians at each other in Sinjil.
“Upon receiving the report, IDF, Border Police, and Israel Police forces arrived at the scene and acted to disperse all those involved. For this purpose, a closed military zone order was imposed in the area,” the military says in response to a query.
The IDF says that the “conduct of the forces” seen stealing the olives “does not align with the values of the IDF.”
“The incident will be investigated and handled through disciplinary measures,” the military adds.
Charges filed against Tiberias man suspected of spying for Iran
Prosecutors file charges against another suspected Iran spy who allegedly took photos of Dead Sea hotels and passed them to his Iranian handlers, law enforcement announces.
Tiberias resident Yosef Ein-Eli, 23, is suspected of maintaining contact with Iranian agents since late 2024, for whom he spied in exchange for money.
While working at a hotel near the Dead Sea, the defendant allegedly passed to his handlers information about his place of work and other hotels in the area, as well as tourist sites in southern Israel.
He was also asked to gather intelligence on National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, various crime families in Israel, and unspecified IDF soldiers though he is not known to have carried out these tasks. His handlers also tried, without success, to convince him to throw a grenade at a house, set cars on fire and take photos in army bases.
Ein-Eli was arrested in September this year, and was investigated by the Shin Bet and police’s Lahav’s 433 major crimes unit. He was indicted this morning in the Beersheba District Court, police say.
IDF says it shot down drone smuggling arms across Egyptian border
Weapons and a drone that were seized by IDF troops following an attempted smuggling on the Egyptian border, November 1, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF says it foiled yet another attempt to smuggle weapons into Israel from Egypt, using a drone, overnight.
Troops located the drone after it was shot down inside Israel. It was found to be ferrying eight handguns, the military says.
In the past year, there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons and drugs over the Egyptian border using drones.
Katz says Lebanese president ‘dragging his feet’ on disarming Hezbollah
Defense Minister Israel Katz at the graduation of an IDF officers' course, October 30, 2025. (Noam Revkin Fenton/FLASH90)
Defense Minister Israel Katz says that Lebanese President Joseph Aoun is stalling in efforts to disarm the Hezbollah terror group, and warns Israel will act if Beirut does not.
“Hezbollah is playing with fire and the Lebanese president is dragging his feet,” Katz says in a post on X after the IDF confirms it carried out a strike last night killing a senior official in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and three other force members.
“The Lebanese government’s commitment to disarm Hezbollah and remove it from southern Lebanon must be realized,” Katz says.
“Maximum enforcement will continue and deepen – we will not allow a threat to the residents of the [Israeli] north,” he says.
IDF confirms strike that killed four members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, including logistics chief
The IDF confirms carrying out an airstrike last night in southern Lebanon, saying it killed four members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.
The military says the primary target of the strike in Kfar Roummane was the force’s logistics chief. The military does not name the man, but said he was involved in transferring weapons and “attempts to restore terror infrastructure” in southern Lebanon.
The three other men killed in the strike were also members of the Radwan Force, the IDF says, adding that their activities constitute a violation of the ceasefire.
Lebanese media names the four as Jawad Jaber, Hadi Hamid, Abdullah Kahil, and Muhammad Kahil.
شهـ… مجزرة كفررمان أمس الذين ارتقوا بالغارة من مسيرة على سيارة pic.twitter.com/pf31JKz2QM
— bintjbeil.org (@bintjbeilnews) November 2, 2025
Hamas denies ‘false’ US accusations its operatives looted Gaza aid
Screenshots of video released by US Central Command shows suspected Hamas operatives looting a truck transporting humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip on October 31, 2025. (X screenshots)
Hamas issues a statement saying that US accusations that the terror group looted an aid convoy in Gaza were “false.”
“The accusations by the US Central Command are false, lack field evidence, and are part of a systematic disinformation campaign,” says a statement issued by the Hamas-run Gaza government media office.
The statement comes after the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) published a drone video over the weekend showing what it said were suspected Hamas operatives looting an aid truck in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday.
In a statement, CENTCOM said the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) — which is based in southern Israel’s Kiryat Gat — “observed suspected Hamas operatives looting an aid truck traveling as part of a humanitarian convoy delivering needed assistance from international partners to Gazans in northern Khan Younis.”
The CMCC, established under US leadership, is designed to coordinate humanitarian, logistical, and security assistance into Gaza while helping oversee the postwar stabilization phase. Roughly 200 American military personnel have been dispatched to set up the center, which currently hosts troops from several allied countries.
The CMCC was alerted to the incident through video surveillance from an American MQ-9 drone flying over Gaza as part of monitoring the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
9 with life-threatening injuries after UK train stabbing; 2 arrested; motive unclear
UK police officers and members of emergency services search the track beneath an LNER Azuma train at Huntingdon Station in Huntingdon, eastern England, on November 1, 2025, following a stabbing on a train. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)
UK police say they have arrested two suspects as “a number of people” are taken to hospital and a “large-scale” emergency response is mobilized after a stabbing on a train in Cambridgeshire, eastern England.
“We are currently responding to an incident on a train to Huntingdon where multiple people have been stabbed,” British Transport Police say on X, adding that “two people have been arrested.”
Cambridgeshire police say: “A number of people have been taken to hospital.”
“Ten people have been taken to hospital with nine believed to have suffered life-threatening injuries,” the statement says. “This has been declared a major incident and Counter Terrorism Policing are supporting our investigation whilst we work to establish the full circumstances and motivation for this incident.”
“We’re conducting urgent enquiries to establish what has happened, and it could take some time before we are in a position to confirm anything further,” British Transport Police Chief Superintendent Chris Casey says. “At this early stage, it would not be appropriate to speculate on the causes of the incident.”
Media reports say nine victims have life-threatening injuries.
A witness describes seeing a man with a large knife and tells The Times newspaper there was “blood everywhere” as people hid in the washrooms.
Some passengers were getting “stamped [on] by others” as they tried to run, and the witness tells The Times they “heard some people shouting we love [you].”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the “appalling” incident is “deeply concerning.”
“My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response,” Starmer says in a statement on X.
“Anyone in the area should follow the advice of the police,” Starmer adds, while his interior minister Shabana Mahmood confirms two people have been taken into custody.
Trump: US may go ‘guns-a-blazing’ into Nigeria ‘to completely wipe out Islamic terrorists’ killing Christians
US President Donald Trump says that he has asked the Defense Department to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria if the Nigerian government “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”
The US government will also immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, Trump says in a post on Truth Social.
Trump says the US may “very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
Four said killed in Israeli strike targeting operative from Hezbollah’s Radwan force
Four people were killed and three were wounded in the Israeli drone strike on a car in southern Lebanon’s Kfar Roummane, Lebanese media reports.
According to Israeli defense sources, the target was an operative in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.
استهداف سيارة في كفرمان وهناك اصابات pic.twitter.com/JwKu4BFNL7
— Jamal Chaiito (@Jamalchaiito1) November 1, 2025
Shas spiritual leader: Confront anyone who says world created more than 6,000 years ago
Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, during a weekly teaching at the Yazdim synagogue in Jerusalem, on June 7, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)
Former Sephardic chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who is also the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, calls on his followers to challenge any teacher or lecturer who says the world is older than the Genesis story in the Bible.
In a video of a sermon he gave, Yosef claims that the messiah will come in 15 years and that 200 years after that, the world will end.
“If there are teachers who explain [to students] that the world has existed for millions of years — gentlemen, stop them, don’t stay silent and listen because it’s unpleasant to comment,” continues Yosef. “Don’t tell me when the world was created. The world was created less than 6,000 years ago.”
‘They would say it’s because of Ben Gvir’: Freed hostage Segev Kalfon recalls beatings in captivity
Freed hostage Segev Kalfon speaks with Channel 12 news in an interview aired on November 1, 2025. (X screenshot)
Freed hostage Segev Kalfon recalls how his Hamas captors tortured him while he was held in Gaza, and, similar to other released hostages, says the terrorists who abused him cited far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s push for harsh treatment of Palestinian security prisoners.
“They would beat us with all [their] force, they would put rings on in order to leave marks. There was hemorrhaging on my neck and back. They would say it’s because of Ben Gvir,” Kalfon says in an interview with Channel 12 news. “[The captors] saw a video, they told us they brought dogs in with their prisoners, and they saw how they beat them, and now we need to get it.”
“They would punch us, film us,” Kalfon adds, saying sometimes he and other captives were beaten as frequently as every other day.
He also says “always” when asked if his Palestinian captors would explicitly link the beatings to Ben Gvir.
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