Nov. 27: Hamas, mediators said discussing issue of Hamas fighters trapped in Gaza tunnels

Iran transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to Hezbollah via Dubai – WSJ

Iran has sent the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon hundreds of millions of dollars over the past year via money laundering operations in Dubai, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The money, earned through oil sales, moves through Iran-linked exchange shops and private companies, as well as to businessmen and couriers.

It’s then transferred to Lebanon through the Hawala system, in which individuals rather than banks act as brokers for money transfers. The system is widely used in Muslim countries.

A United Arab Emirates official says the country is working to stop such activity on its territory and is working with international partners to do so.

Prior to the recent Israel-Hezbollah war, Iran was known to send large quantities of cash to Lebanon through the Beirut airport, but this was largely stopped as a condition of the November 2024 ceasefire deal, which went into effect a year ago today.

Now, Iran is sending more travelers to the airport, with smaller quantities of cash or with small valuables that can easily be hidden, Arab officials tell the Journal. They also note that Hezbollah has streams of income around the world, including trade in drugs and diamonds.

The newspaper cites a senior US official who says Washington is also concerned about money going to Hezbollah by way of Turkey and Iraq.

17-year-old stabbed, severely wounded at party in Ashdod; terrorism not suspected

A 17-year-old was stabbed and severely injured at a party in Ashdod tonight, first responders say.

Paramedics arrived to find the youth conscious, but suffering from multiple stab wounds. He was taken to Assuta Medical Center while in a serious, unstable condition.

Police are investigating the incident and suspect he had been attending a party in the southern city and had gotten into a fight, which led to the stabbing. Terrorism is not suspected.

No suspects have yet been arrested in connection with the incident.

Teenagers throw stone at bus driver in Netanya, breaking glass and injuring him

Teenagers assail a bus driver with stones in Netanya, pelting him in the head and damaging his vehicle, the latest in a string of attacks on transit workers in recent months.

In a video taken in the aftermath of the attack, the driver says that the teen who threw a rock at him was accompanied by two other boys.

He had seen them a few days ago while working a line, and this time opened the door in order to get a better glimpse of them.

The youths then attacked the driver, throwing stones that shattered a window separating the driver’s cabin from the passengers, and hitting him in the head. He was treated on-site for the injury.

נערים תקפו קשות באבנים נהג אוטובוס בנתניה.
רק בחודש שעבר נהג אושפז מורדם ומונשם (!) לא רחוק משם.

הנהג סיפר:
״אנחנו מאוימים כל הזמן ויש השנה עליית מדרגה. איך שפתחתי את הדלת הם זרקו עליי אבן, הזכוכית התנפצה עליי, הרבה נהגים עוזבים כי נמאס להם שמרביצים להם״.https://t.co/OR2TBwwDAH pic.twitter.com/Dlu68yZnB7

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— Ofek Tzach אופק צח (@OfekTzach) November 27, 2025

Ofer Sitruk, who chairs the “Extra” transit company’s workers’ organization, denounces the attack and calls on law enforcement to “immediately arrest the attackers and punish them harshly.”

“The blood of drivers must not be cheap,” he says. The organization has shut down line 68, on which the attack took place, until further notice.

“Any line in which violence is used against drivers will be shut down! We must not wake up only after the funeral of the first driver to be murdered by passengers. The writing is already on the wall,” the Histadrut trade federation says in a statement.

The incident is one of many attacks on bus drivers and other transit workers in recent months, many of which have targeted Arab employees.

Earlier in November, a 13-year-old was indicted after allegedly stabbing a 70-year-old minibus driver in Netanya, leaving him with serious injuries. The victim is still sedated and intubated in the hospital as a result of the assault.

Syria’s Sharaa says Alawite protesters have ‘legitimate demands’

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Thursday that protesters had “legitimate demands,” state media reported, days after thousands took to the streets to denounce violence against the country’s Alawite minority.

Speaking during a phone call with the governor of the coastal province of Latakia, Sharaa said, “We have observed that there are many legitimate popular demands, although some are politically motivated, to put it politely,” the official SANA news agency reported.

Sharaa — a former jihadist whose Islamist fighters led the overthrow of Assad — said his government was “fully prepared to listen to all the demands and to seriously consider them.”

The demonstrations earlier this week in several cities along Syria’s coast — the heartland of the country’s Alawites — were the largest by the community since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad last year.

Assad himself is an Alawite, and some of the religious minority prospered under his rule.

In the months since his fall, there have been several incidents involving anti-Alawite violence — the worst of which involved the killing of more than 1,700 people in coastal Syria in March.

The protests followed the fresh outbreak of unrest in the religiously diverse city of Homs in central Syria, which was triggered by the murder of a Sunni Bedouin couple that was blamed on Alawites, after sectarian graffiti was found at the scene.

Palestinian-American teenager released from Israeli prison, checks into hospital

Mohammed Ibrahim, an American teenager held in Israeli custody for nine months, was released this evening and immediately checked into a hospital, his uncle Zeyad Kadur tells the AP.

Visibly thin, head shaven and still in a gray jumpsuit, Ibrahim, who turned 16 in prison, wipes tears away as he is embraced by family members shortly after his release in videos taken by the family. His father, Zaher Ibrahim, kisses his son and begins to cry.

Further footage shows him, again in the gray jumpsuit, smiling and shaking well-wishers’ hands.

“He’s skinny and pale, his eyes are sunken in and he still has signs of scabies,” Kadur, the boy’s uncle, tells AP.

لحظة وصول الامريكي الفلسطيني محمد ابراهيم ١٦ سنة الى اهله بعد ان امضى عدة اشهر في سجون الاحتلال. pic.twitter.com/2QThSS0dqn

— Samar D Jarrah (@SamarDJarrah) November 27, 2025

Ibrahim was arrested while visiting family in the West Bank with his parents. The Hamas-affiliated Prisoners’ Affairs Office describes the Florida teen as hailing from the Ramallah-area village of al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya, where settlers allegedly beat to death fellow Palestinian-American Sayfollah Musallet in July.

Ibrahim was arrested at his family’s home at night for allegedly throwing rocks at Israeli settlers in the West Bank, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations and several members of the US Congress. In an affidavit, Mohammed said he only confessed to stone-throwing after he was threatened by interrogators with a beating.

His family and lawyers say he was held in poor conditions, suffered a scabies infection and lost weight in jail.

Noam Lehmann contributed to this report.

UK doctor is suspended for pro-Hamas posts, blames ‘Jewish lobby’

The UK’s General Medical Council suspends the registration of Dr. Rahmeh Aladwan, based in London, over posts online that included expressions of support for Hamas.

The 31-year-old, described by The Guardian as a “British Palestinian trainee in trauma and orthopaedics” had taken to X to say Israelis were “worse than Nazis,” and that Hamas operatives were “oppressed resistance fighters, not terrorists.”

She also publicly vowed she “would never” condemn the group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and posted a photo of jewelry reading “O 7,” calling it “celebratory.”

In response to the suspension, Aladwan posts a verse from the Quran: “But they plan, and Allah plans. And Allah is the best of planners.”

The MPTS has ruled: an interim suspension order of 15 months.

Thank God for everything.

Let this decision stand as the definitive proof that there is no independent British medical regulation. The 'israeli' and jewish lobby decide who can and cannot practise medicine in… pic.twitter.com/TI0NGoGzp8

— Dr Rahmeh Aladwan (@doctor_rahmeh) November 26, 2025

Along with the quotation, she writes: “Let this decision stand as the definitive proof that there is no independent British medical regulation. The ‘israeli’ and jewish lobby decide who can and cannot practise (sic) medicine in Britain.”

She says her “gratitude to every single person who has supported our just cause is boundless,” adding: “What an honour it is to sacrifice for our people.”

“Free Palestine and Britain from jewish supremacy,” her post concludes, with emojis of the Palestinian and UK flags.

In addition to her public X posts, tribunal members also heard that Aladwan described London’s Royal Free Hospital as a “Jewish supremacy cesspit” and the Holocaust as a “fabricated victim narrative,” and made a throat-slitting gesture at protesters, according to The Telegraph.

PA accuses Israel of ‘war crime’ over ‘brutal field execution’ of ‘youths’ in Jenin

The Palestinian Authority accuses Israeli forces of deliberately committing a “war crime” following what it called the “brutal” summary executions of two men in Jenin in the West Bank on Thursday.

The foreign ministry in Ramallah said it “strongly condemns the brutal field execution carried out by the Israeli occupation army against two Palestinian youths,” calling the incident a “deliberate Israeli war crime.”

The IDF and police are investigating an incident today in which Border Police officers shot two Palestinians, who were wanted on suspicion of involvement in bombing and shooting attacks against troops, after the suspects had earlier surrendered themselves.

The officers involved in the incident have reportedly said that the suspects exited a building, surrendering, but then tried to go back into the building, violating the troops’ instructions, and that only then were they shot.

Haredi parties return to voting with coalition after draft-exemption bill published

The ultra-Orthodox parties United Torah Judaism and Shas announce they will resume voting with the coalition, after boycotting government votes over the issue of drafting Haredim to the IDF.

The announcement comes after the text of MK Boaz Bismuth’s proposed bill to resolve the issue was published. The bill would preserve exemptions for full-time yeshiva students and loosen sanctions on draft dodgers. It has been panned by the opposition as “anti-Zionist.”

Police major crime unit head will return to post Sunday, despite criminal probe

The head of police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit, currently under criminal probe, will return to his post this Sunday, police announce.

The decision was made by police chief Danny Levy after a meeting on the matter.

Investigators detained Deputy Commissioner Manny Binyamin for questioning this month on suspicion of interfering in a probe based on a conflict of interest.

He was forbidden from entering police facilities for nine days.

A day before the ban was set to end, he was interrogated a second time on suspicion of nepotism, after he allegedly tried to promote a relative under his command.

Binyamin, who oversees some of the police’s most high-profile investigations as Lahav’s chief, received backing from senior officers and coalition lawmakers soon after the probe broke.

He is one of the most senior officers in the country, after being twice promoted during National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s time in office.

He assumed his most recent position, helming Lahav 433, in September 2024.

Off-duty IDF soldier shot, wounded Palestinian trying to infiltrate Israel from West Bank

An off-duty IDF soldier shot and wounded a Palestinian who tried to infiltrate Israel from the West Bank near Jerusalem this evening, law enforcement officials say.

According to the police, Border Police officers were operating on the Route 60 highway near the so-called tunnels checkpoint south of Jerusalem this evening in an attempt to detain several Palestinians who were trying to enter Israel illegally.

“During the operation, an off-duty IDF soldier who was riding a public bus near the scene noticed what was happening and apparently believed that it was a security incident,” police say.

The soldier got off the bus and opened fire at Palestinian suspects, wounding one of them, police added.

No other injuries were reported.

Border Police officers probed for Jenin incident say suspects violated instructions

The Border Police officers involved in the deadly shooting of two Palestinian terror suspects who had surrendered in the West Bank city of Jenin earlier today claim that the pair did not follow their instructions.

“When the terrorists came out [of the building], we began carrying out security procedures on them. We didn’t know whether they had weapons or any kind of explosive device. We started instructing them on what to do, and the terrorists acted against the orders they were given,” the troops are cited by Army Radio as saying.

“At a certain point, one of the terrorists decided to go back inside the building against the instructions, and the second terrorist followed him, and therefore both were shot,” they add.

The military and police said that an investigation into the incident was launched by the troops’ commanders.

It is unclear yet if a criminal investigation, either by the Military Police or by the Department of Internal Police Investigations, will be launched.

Defense officials slam new Haredi draft bill as ‘bluff’ that deepens IDF manpower crisis – report

Channel 12 reports that senior defense officials are sharply criticizing the government’s new ultra-Orthodox conscription bill, warning that it will worsen the IDF’s manpower crisis rather than ease it.

According to the report, the legislation does not meet the army’s needs and will continue to exacerbate the shortage of fighters and support personnel, estimated at 12,000 soldiers.

One official is quoted as saying the bill leaves “the exemption mechanism in the hands of the rabbis and not the IDF,” and will not bring the missing recruits into the military.

“This law is essentially a bluff,” the official adds.

Channel 12 further notes that the IDF’s existing manpower is already too small for its operational demands across multiple fronts, and that the pressure on active-duty soldiers and reservists – and their families – will intensify in the coming years.

The criticism comes as a new draft of the government’s controversial Haredi conscription bill, authored by Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, was released today to members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Palestinians seen shot by Border Police named as Mahmoud Qassem Abdallah, 26; Youssef Asasa, 37

Citing the Palestinian Authority’s General Authority for Civil Affairs, Palestinian media identifies the two wanted seen in footage from Jenin being shot at short range by Border Police officers as 26-year-old Mahmoud Qassem Abdallah and 37-year-old Youssef Asasa.

The authority says their bodies were detained by Israeli security forces.

The footage showed the two men exiting a building, surrendering to troops, and then being shot at short range. The IDF and police have opened an investigation into the incident.

الشهيدان المنتصر بالله عبد الله، ويوسف علي عصاعصة، اللذين أعدمهما الاحتلال في جبل أبو ظهير بمدينة جنين، واحتجز جثمانيهما. pic.twitter.com/ZQ5J5msWaE

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) November 27, 2025

Ben Gvir lends ‘full backing’ to troops for shooting suspects after they’d surrendered

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posts on X: “Lending full backing to the Border Police and IDF troops who shot at wanted terrorists who were coming out of a building in Jenin. The troops acted precisely as is expected of them — terrorists have to die!”

The post comes after IDF and Border Police said they are investigating an incident in which troops appeared to execute two Palestinians, wanted on suspicion of involvement in bombing and shooting attacks against troops, after the suspects had already surrendered themselves.

The footage appeared to show the two men exiting a building, surrendering to troops, and then being shot at short range.

As national security minister, far-right Ben Gvir has authority over the police, however it does not apply to Border Police officers operating in the West Bank, which fall under the purview of the military

جيش الاحتلال يعدم شابين بعد اعتقالهما في محيط مخيم جنين#قناة_الغد pic.twitter.com/4EhXlZXi2b

— قناة الغد (@AlGhadTV) November 27, 2025

Hamas, mediators said discussing issue of Hamas fighters trapped in Gaza tunnels

Hamas and mediating countries are discussing ensuring safe passage for dozens of Hamas fighters holed up in tunnels in IDF-controlled southern Gaza, multiple sources close to the talks tell AFP.

“Discussions and communications with the mediators (Egypt, Turkey and Qatar) and the Americans are ongoing in an effort to resolve the crisis,” a Hamas leader says on condition of anonymity, due to the sensitivity of the subject.

Yesterday, Hamas called on mediating countries to pressure Israel to allow safe passage for its fighters  — the first time the terror group had publicly acknowledged the situation.

A source from one of the mediating countries confirms to AFP that the US, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey have been speaking “with the aim of reaching a compromise that would allow Hamas fighters to leave the tunnels behind the Yellow Line near Rafah,” referring to the ceasefire line dividing Gaza between areas under IDF control and areas de facto controlled by Hamas.

“This issue has been discussed… with Egyptian officials… this week,” a Palestinian source familiar with the talks says.

However, Israel does not publicly appear to be open to compromise on their safe release from the tunnels.

IDF, police investigating troops for shooting two terror suspects after they surrendered

The IDF and the Israel Police say an investigation has been launched after footage showed Border Police officers shooting dead two wanted Palestinians in the West Bank city of Jenin earlier today.

The footage shows the two Palestinians exiting a building with their hands raised and surrendering to the forces, before the troops open fire.

The military and police in a joint statement say that during an ongoing counter-terrorism operation in Jenin, Border Police officers and troops worked to detain several Palestinians suspected of bombing and shooting attacks against Israeli forces.

“The forces entered the area, encircled a structure in which the suspects were located, and initiated a surrender procedure that lasted several hours,” the military and police say, adding that after using heavy machinery on the structure, the two suspects exited.

“After they exited the building, shots were fired at the wanted persons,” the statement says.

The IDF and police say that the “incident is under review by the commanders on the ground, and will be transferred to the relevant authorities for examination.”

جيش الاحتلال يعدم شابين بعد اعتقالهما في محيط مخيم جنين#قناة_الغد pic.twitter.com/4EhXlZXi2b

— قناة الغد (@AlGhadTV) November 27, 2025

Lebanese PM: Hezbollah says its arms are for deterrence, they don’t stop Israeli attacks

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam says Hezbollah’s arms have failed to deter Israeli airstrikes, protect the Lebanese people, or even safeguard the lives of its own leaders.

“Hezbollah says its weapons are deterring aggression. Deterrence means preventing the enemy from carrying out an aggression, but it (Israel) is attacking and the weapons are not deterring it,” Salam says in comments run by state-run National News Agency.

Salam’s rare criticism of the group comes as the United States and Israel have increasingly pressured Lebanon’s government to disarm the terror group. Hezbollah has refused to give up its weapons.

Smotrich: Party examining draft bill, will only vote for ‘real and rapid’ Haredi conscription

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party announces that it is currently examining Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth’s new draft of a bill regulating Haredi conscription before deciding on its position.

“Our principle has been and remains: We will only vote for a law that will lead to real and rapid recruitment of Haredim into the IDF to meet security needs and ease the burden on fighters, reservists, and their families,” the party says in a statement.

UTJ chair Goldknopf says Haredi party’s rabbis will examine draft-exemption bill

Yitzhak Goldknopf, the chairman of the United Torah Judaism party and its Hasidic Augudat Yisrael faction, says that his party’s rabbinic leadership will examine Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth’s new draft of a bill regulating Haredi conscription before deciding on whether or not to support it.

“The position of the Council of Torah Sages, as conveyed to us, is that we must advance a framework that will preserve the world of Torah, without any sanctions against Torah students,” he says.

“The draft proposal presented this evening will be brought before our revered Torah sages, may they live long, for their decision, and we will act solely according to their guidance.”

UTJ’s Degel HaTorah faction has previously expressed support for the proposal.

Ex-Mossad head says agency ‘works inside Iran itself,’ Riyadh still open to peace

Former Mossad head Yossi Cohen says the spy agency “works inside Iran itself,” and says Saudi Arabia is open to a peace deal with Israel, in remarks to a private conference, recordings of which were obtained by the Haaretz newspaper.

Iran is “not a place where we operate by proxy,” Cohen can be heard saying in the clip, “we go in to recruit and to bring intelligence.”

Alluding to the Israeli and American attacks on Iranian nuclear sites during the 12-day war in June, the former spy chief says, “Trump said ‘total obliteration.’ I say, if not total obliteration — then at least, and this is a lot — a very significant stop.”

Cohen says he estimates Iran still has a stockpile of enriched uranium, though, and that “the Iranian regime has not given up on its nuclear ambitions.”

The spy chief also expresses a belief that for Saudi Arabia, “a peace deal with Israel is possible, including some way of skipping over the Palestinian issue.”

Itai Ofir officially enters role of military advocate general, after rank promotion

Itai Ofir has officially entered the role of military advocate general after being promoted to the rank of major general today, the IDF announces.

A small ceremony was held today at the military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, attended by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Defense Minister Israel Katz, other top officers, and Ofir’s family.

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

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

As such, he was promoted by five ranks, from captain to major general.

Ofir replaces Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi as the IDF’s top lawyer. Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned last month over the Sde Teiman abuse video leak scandal.

Germany, Italy, France, UK condemn ‘massive increase of settler violence’ in West Bank

Germany, Italy, France and Britain call to abide by international law and protect Palestinians in the West Bank, in a joint statement.

“We – France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom – strongly condemn the massive increase of settler violence against Palestinian civilians and call for stability in the West Bank,” said the foreign ministers of those countries in the statement.

The countries “welcome President Trump’s clear opposition to annexation, and reiterate our opposition to any form of annexation,” and call on Israel to reverse its decision to build new housing units within the so-called E1 settlement bloc.

They also urge Israel to restore tax revenues it has withheld from the Palestinian Authority, calling the policy “unjustifiable.”

“Weakening the PA undermines its ability to deliver its reform agenda and to take on responsibility in Gaza, as envisioned in UN Security Council Resolution 2803. A financial collapse of the PA would only harm regional stability and the security of Israel itself,” the countries say.

They reiterate their support for a two-state solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians.

Israel has rejected any role for the PA in governing post-war Gaza, though it has also indicated support for the Trump plan, included in the UNSC resolution, which suggests a role for the body after reforms are made.

Bismuth: Haredi draft-exemption bill is ‘balanced,’ aims ‘to stabilize the state’

In a video message posted on social platform X, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth pushes back against his critics, arguing that his revised bill regulating ultra-Orthodox conscription is good for both the Haredim and the IDF.

“We’re on our way, we’ve submitted the conscription bill, and with God’s help we will do and succeed. A balanced law, a good law, a law that is good for the army. A good law for yeshiva students, a law that is good for the people of Israel, that is good for the state itself,” he tweets. “And I have to tell you one thing: and let’s be precise: it’s not here to stabilize a coalition, it’s here to stabilize the state.”

Bismuth also retweets a post by another user arguing that submitting the controversial legislation was an achievement that his predecessor Yuli Edelstein had not managed to accomplish.

“Anyone who doesn’t understand that integrating the Haredim will only happen through agreement did not really want to change the decades-old DNA of the Haredi public, but was just looking for a fight. Bismuth succeeded where many failed,” the post reads.

At least one said killed by IDF in Jenin; Red Crescent: Two minors shot

Arabic media reports at least one person killed by the IDF in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin in the northern West Bank, where the IDF and Shin Bet commenced a large-scale operation on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reports that two minors in Jenin were taken to a hospital after being hit by IDF fire.

Benny Gantz: Haredi draft-exemptions bill ‘spits in the faces of those who serve’

Blue and White chairman and former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz joins the chorus of voices slamming Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense’s revised version of the government’s bill regulating the conscription of yeshiva students, likening it to an “autoimmune disease” in which the state is “attacking its own security.”

The bill “spits in the faces of those who serve, while improving the situation of those who evade service. The absurdity in which there is an overwhelming majority in the public and in the Knesset for a service framework, and yet, for a few more months in power, Likud is selling out Israel’s security — must end. Israel needs a broad, Zionist government that will fix this injustice and many others that extremists are imposing on the state,” Gantz tweets.

Yoaz Hendel, chairman of the new Reservists Party, declares that Bismuth’s bill “is very flexible regarding the time of conscription and the objectives, except that the State of Israel has no time. The wording is further proof that governments that rely on non-Zionist parties are being blackmailed into making non-Zionist decisions.”

In a statement, the Movement for Quality Government calls the bill “absolute hypocrisy” whose purpose “is not to recruit Haredim, but to legalize evasion and bypass the Supreme Court’s ruling.”

“It is important to emphasize: the High Court of Justice explicitly ruled that there is no authority for a blanket exemption, and that equality of burden must be maintained. A plan that eliminates the need to recruit combat soldiers and allows for non-military service as a solution to the shortage of soldiers is illegal, immoral, and harms the security of the state. We are preparing to stop this planned unconstitutional law with all existing legal tools. Equality of burden is not a slogan – it is the order of the day.”

IDF brings back settler activists who crossed into Syria, says some ‘clashed’ with troops

The IDF says it has returned to Israel all of the settler activists who breached the border and entered Syria at two locations.

In all, some 13 activists crossed the border — five in the Mount Hermon area and eight near the Syrian village of Bir Ajam in the Golan Heights.

“IDF troops rushed to the two locations, and shortly afterward the civilians were found,” the military says, adding that some “clashed” with the troops.

The military says they were all “safely returned to Israeli territory under IDF escort,” and handed over to the police.

“The IDF strongly condemns the incident and emphasizes that it is a grave incident constituting a criminal offense that endangers both civilians and IDF soldiers,” the army adds.

Settler activists cross into Syria, trying to establish outpost; IDF pursuing them

A group of Israeli settler activists crossed the border from Israel into Syria a short while ago, near the Syrian village of Bir Ajam, in an attempt to establish a new settlement.

The IDF has launched a pursuit after the suspects.

In August, members of the same group of activists, calling themselves the “Bashan Pioneers” — after the biblical name for the Golan Heights and southern Syria region — briefly crossed into Syria before being evacuated back to Israel by the IDF.

A group of Israeli settler activists crossed the border from Israel into Syria a short while ago, near the Syrian village of Bir Ajam, in an attempt to establish a new settlement.

The IDF has launched a pursuit after the suspects.

In August, members of the same group of… pic.twitter.com/KQzALj9oM8

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 27, 2025

MK Bismuth’s draft bill keeps yeshiva students exempt from IDF, lets draft-dodgers age out of sanctions

A new draft of the government’s controversial ultra-Orthodox conscription bill states that its goal is to “regulate the status of full-time yeshiva students while recognizing the importance of Torah study.”

The bill, drafted by Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, was released to members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this afternoon.

While stating that it aims to “reduce inequality in conscription for regular military service, including through the integration of members of the Haredi public into civil-security service,” the bill also says that full-time yeshiva students who do not engage in any other vocation may be granted yearly deferments from enlistment.

Provisions included in a previous version of the bill for providing oversight of yeshiva attendance, such as the implementation of fingerprint scanners in yeshivas, were removed from the updated version of the bill.

Students who receive deferment orders may be allowed, upon reaching the age of 20, to request civilian security service.

Striking out part of a clause from a previous version that stated that the government would recruit conscripts from among yeshiva students, the updated bill stipulates that the government will recruit them from among graduates of Haredi educational institutions, and says the recruits will perform military service or civilian security service, in accordance with annual minimal thresholds.

The bill lists these thresholds as 8,160 conscripts in the first year; 6,840 in the second; 7,920 in the third; 8,500 in the fourth; and “no less than 50 percent of the annual enlistment cohort from graduates of Haredi educational institutions” in the fifth year.

After the fifth year, the defense minister will be empowered, with the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s approval, to set an annual minimal threshold no lower than that of the fifth year.

This minimum threshold will also include those performing non-military service, although this group will be capped at 10% of the total.

For the purposes of the law, Haredim will be defined as those who studied at a Haredi educational institution for at least two years between the ages of 14 and 18.

Failure to meet recruitment targets will mean the withdrawal of funding for yeshiva students enjoying deferrals.

Any yeshiva students who have not received an exemption and did not report for service will not be allowed to get a driver’s license until the age of 23, unless allowed by an exceptions committee, and will be ineligible for academic scholarships. They will also be banned from traveling abroad until the age of 23, unless otherwise allowed by an exceptions committee, and “shall not be eligible to participate in the subsidized public-housing program” or receive tax credits, national insurance discounts, daycare subsidies or transit discounts.

The sanctions will not apply after a yeshiva student reaches the age of exemption, which is set at 26.

Should the law fail to lead to the conscription of 95% its target for three consecutive years, the defense minister will establish a committee to examine the issue in order to issue recommendations for the implementation of the law and proposals for legislative amendments.

The bill further stipulates that the IDF will work to “enable the preservation” of Haredi recruits’ lifestyle while simultaneously working “to establish service tracks that are tailored to the lifestyles of graduates of Haredi educational institutions, and to expand such tracks, taking into account the minimum threshold for enlistment in each enlistment year.”

The IDF chief of staff will be required to report four times a year on the implementation of these efforts and create an advisory committee, some of whose members must have a yeshiva background, to deal with the issue. The Defense Ministry will work to establish Haredi pre-military preparatory academies.

A year into Lebanon truce, IDF says it’s killed over 370 terror operatives who broke it

Marking a year since the ceasefire in Lebanon that ended Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel, the IDF says it has killed in airstrikes over 370 terror operatives who were violating the terms of the truce.

Most of the slain terror operatives were members of Hezbollah, while others were from allied groups, including Hamas.

Since the ceasefire took effect on November 27, 2024, the IDF says it has been operating in Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah from restoring its capabilities.

In addition to the hundreds of airstrikes, the military says ground troops have conducted over 1,200 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon, mostly in the areas surrounding the IDF’s five “strategic” posts just over the border.

The operations included demolishing terror infrastructure, thwarting Hezbollah intelligence collection efforts, and other activities to damage the terror group’s capabilities, the army says.

The IDF says troops located numerous weapons, rocket-launching sites, and other buildings used by Hezbollah during the raids.

‘National disgrace’: Hawkish politicians blast Haredi draft-exemption bill as capitulation

Opposition parties decry Likud MK Boaz Bismuth’s proposed bill to regulate ultra-Orthodox conscription as a capitulation to draft-dodgers.

The hawkish Yisrael Beytenu party, led by Avigdor Liberman, says: “The real right doesn’t support the evasion law.”

Former IDF chief of staff and MK Gadi Eisenkot, who now leads his own party, begins with a verse from the Bible: “Your brothers will go to war and you will stay here?” then continues: “The proposed evasion law by Bismuth-Attias is a national disgrace.”

“Instead of strengthening the IDF in a difficult time, the law proposes to distance Haredim from military service and to distinguish between blood and blood. This is a government that has lost its connection to the nation of Israel and legitimacy in the eyes of its voters. A government that supports a law unworthy of Israel’s citizens, our fighters, and our fallen.”

Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, who lost his post as chair of the Knesset defense panel over his refusal to back a text enshrining Haredi men’s exemptions from army service, joins the chorus.

He says: “Unlike the text I put forward, this proposed law does not answer the IDF’s needs, in any way. It’s another political Band-Aid instead of a historic law. We won’t give up. We will fight until the end for a real draft law.”

Naftali Bennett calls proposed bill on ultra-Orthodox draft issue ‘anti-Zionist’

Responding to the publication of MK Boaz Bismuth’s proposal for a bill to regulate ultra-Orthodox conscription, former prime minister Naftali Bennett states that “this is the most anti-Zionist law enacted in the history of the state” and says cannot be allowed to pass.

“This is final, this is the moment of truth. The government has made a final decision to pass the draft evasion law on a second and third reading. This is a declaration of war by the government on every reservist, every IDF soldier, and the entire serving public,” Bennett says.

“We will not let this thing pass. We will all unite together, religious, secular, right, left, and say no to the draft evasion law.”

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid uses the same epithet to describe the bill: “This anti-Zionist disgrace must not be allowed to pass. They can’t be allowed to humiliate the fighters like this, the wounded and the killed. This isn’t a law, this is lousy politics by crooks and draft-dodgers, at the expense of our children.”

Likud MK Bismuth releases copy of proposed bill to regulate ultra-Orthodox draft

Likud lawmaker Boaz Bismuth releases a copy of his proposed bill to regulate ultra-Orthodox conscription and schedules three discussions of the controversial legislation in his Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for next week.

For the past year, the Haredi leadership has pushed to pass a law largely keeping its constituency out of the Israel Defense Forces, after the High Court ruled that decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were illegal.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.

Last week the United Torah Judaism party’s Degel HaTorah faction voiced its support for the proposal and on Tuesday national broadcaster Kan reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given Bismuth a green light to advance it in committee in preparation for the final two votes needed for it to become law.

Police arrest resident of Tel Sheva for calling to ‘arm Gaza and the West Bank’

Police say they have arrested a resident of Tel Sheva on suspicion of calling to “arm Gaza and the West Bank” on social media.

The suspect, a man in his 30s, allegedly made “inciting statements in support of Gaza.” He was arrested as large police forces operate in the Negev, as part of a far-reaching operation announced by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir last week.

Police became aware of the suspect through a video circulated on social media, law enforcement adds.

US giving Ankara cold shoulder on Gaza troop deployment as Israel vetoes Turkish forces — source

Turkey has begun preparing troops for potential deployment to the temporary International Stabilization Force to be established in Gaza under Washington’s 20-point peace plan, but US officials are giving Ankara the cold shoulder on the issue in light of Israel’s veto of any Turkish presence in the Strip, an Arab diplomat tells The Times of Israel.

According to the official, the US is not currently exerting meaningful pressure on Israel to accept Turkish participation, but Ankara hopes that Washington will eventually do so, given the slow progress in recruiting other countries willing to contribute troops.

“The Turks are eager. They are already preparing forces for this purpose. But there’s the Israeli veto, so they are hopeful that the United States might eventually resort to [pushing for the deployment of Turkish troops] if they are not successful with other parties.”

Asked if the US is already applying pressure on Israel to accept Turkish troops, the official says no, adding, “The Americans are still giving the Turks the cold shoulder so far. But could this change? It might change. I think it’s a very slight possibility.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week that Turkey was still evaluating how to potentially deploy its security forces to the ISF. Israel has repeatedly said it will not allow Turkish troops on the ground in Gaza, amid a near-total breakdown of ties between the countries during the two-year war against Hamas in Gaza.

Turning to Egypt, another key player involved in the ISF framework, the official says, “There are already discussions [on the ISF] between the Americans and Egypt in Cairo on the level of the defense ministry,” noting they could not discuss details on the talks.

At least 13 Palestinians said detained by Israel across West Bank since dawn

Israeli forces have since dawn detained at least 13 Palestinians and one non-Palestinian left-wing activist across the West Bank outside of its northeastern Tubas governorate, where the Shin Bet and IDF commenced a large-scale operation on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA and left-wing Israeli activists.

WAFA reports five people arrested in the area of Hebron, in the south of the West Bank; four people from the area of Tulkarem in the north; two from the area of Nablus, in the center; and another two, including a 13-year-old boy, from the area of Qalqilya.

Meanwhile, Israeli activists in Masafer Yatta, a cluster of Palestinian hamlets in the South Hebron Hills, say a Palestinian man and a “solidarity activist,” whose nationality is unspecified, were detained in the village of Susya after the IDF declared a closed military zone there.

According to the activists, the IDF and police arrived to seize the car of the Palestinian man, whom the activists identify as the brother of Oscar award-winning filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, co-director of Israeli-Palestinian documentary “No Other Land” about the eviction of Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills.

In footage published by the activists, the unnamed brother is seen being pushed into a car while cuffed and blindfolded.

1/4 עכשיו בסוסיא: מעצר של תושב ופעיל סולידריות.
מתנחלים לובשי מדים ושוטרים פלשו הבוקר לאדמות הכפר סוסיא כדי להחרים את הרכב של אחיו של חברינו חמדאן בלאל, הם הכריזו על צו שטח צבאי סגור ועצרו את אחיו של חמדאן.
אמו של העצור התעלפה ופעיל סולידריות שהיה במקום רץ לעזרתה ונעצר> pic.twitter.com/vEfNLvKHAx

— מחוץ לעדר (@masafering) November 27, 2025

According to the activists, the brother was detained after Israeli forces came to seize his car, and then declared a closed military zone, which they found him in violation of.

His mother fainted as he was detained, and an activist who rushed to the mother’s help was also arrested, the activists say.

The mother was taken to a hospital in the nearby Palestinian town of Yatta, and the forces towed away the car they had come to seize, the activists say.

The military does not respond to a request for comment on the footage.

Iran condemns Australia’s listing of IRGC as state sponsor of terrorism over antisemitic attacks

Australia’s listing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a state sponsor of terrorism is “an unjustified and insulting action,” Iran’s foreign ministry says in a statement, shared on its Telegram channel.

“This irresponsible action is in line with the gross error that the Australian government committed based on completely false and fabricated accusations by the security institutions of the Zionist regime,” the statement reads.

Australia in August accused Iran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne and expelled Iran’s ambassador.

Erdogan says he admires pope’s ‘astute stance’ on Palestinian issue

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan praises Pope Leo’s “astute stance” on the Palestinian issue after meeting him in Ankara on Thursday.

“We commend (Pope Leo’s) astute stance on the Palestinian issue,” Erdogan says in an event at the presidential library.

“Our debt to the Palestinian people is justice, and the foundation of this is to immediately implement the vision of a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. Similarly, preserving the historic status of Jerusalem is crucial,” Erdogan says.

The Turkish leader has been an outspoken supporter of Hamas, and has frequently accused Israel of genocide, comparing the war in Gaza to the Holocaust and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Hitler. Israel’s relations with Turkey, a major trading partner before the war, have chilled since its outbreak.

Pope Leo, meanwhile, encourages Turkey be “a source of stability and rapprochement between peoples, in service of a just and lasting peace.”

The pontiff also urges Ankara to embrace its internal diversity, and notes that “Christians desire to contribute positively to the unity of your country. They are — and they feel — part of Turkish identity.”

He calls it “essential” in a society like Turkey where religion plays a visible role, “to honor the dignity and freedom” of everyone.

“We are all children of God, and this has personal, social and political implications. Today, this is a great challenge, which must reshape local policies and international relations,” Leo says.

Wizz Air says it’s ‘committed’ to setting up base at Ben Gurion Airport by spring 2026

Wizz Air says the Hungarian low-cost carrier is “committed” to setting up a base at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport as early as March or April in a move that could boost competition and bring down sky-high fares for travelers.

“We are fully committed to put the idea of a Wizz base into effect here in Israel,” says Wizz Air CEO József Váradi during a visit to Israel. “We want to be seen as a good corporate citizen embedded in Israeli society.”

Váradi made the statement after meeting with Transportation Minister Miri Regev and ministry officials.

“Today, we had great discussions to understand the opportunities there are in Israel and some of the issues being technical, business, or regulatory type of issues, and the next steps we have to make,” says Váradi.

In a joint statement following the meeting, Regev and Váradi said the two agreed to work on outstanding issues over the next two months to try to conclude the discussions by the end of January.

“We are fully committed to make further progress with the objective of starting to put that idea [of a hub in Israel] into actual reality as soon as we can and hopefully that will be in March or April time,” says Váradi.

Commenting on the plan, Regev says more competition will help lower airfares, increase seat availability, and improve services.

IDF confirms launching wave of strikes in Lebanon, says it targeted Hezbollah military sites

The IDF confirms launching a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in several areas of southern Lebanon, saying it hit rocket-launching sites, weapon depots, and military posts belonging to the terror group.

“The presence of the infrastructure and the activity of the Hezbollah terror organization in these areas constitute a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the military adds.

אתרי שיגור ומחסן אמצעי לחימה לצד תשתיות טרור נוספות: צה"ל תקף מטרות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בדרום לבנון

צה"ל תקף לפני זמן קצר, בהכוונה מודיעינית של אמ"ן ובאמצעות חיל האוויר, תשתיות טרור של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במספר מרחבים שונים בדרום לבנון.

במסגרת התקיפות, צה"ל תקף מספר אתרי… pic.twitter.com/SAKgQRUeSb

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 27, 2025

IDF says helicopters struck targets in West Bank to support ground troops

Amid the IDF’s ongoing large operation in the northern West Bank, Israeli Air Force helicopters struck several targets to support ground forces, according to the military.

There are no immediate reports of casualties in the strikes.

Meanwhile, in addition to raids in several Palestinian towns and villages in the northeast of the West Bank, including Tubas, Tammun, and al-Aqaba, the IDF says troops are now also operating in the city of Jenin.

Over 100 said detained by Israel in northern West Bank op, including 2 journalists

Over 100 Palestinians have been detained in the West Bank’s northeastern Tubas governorate since the IDF and Shin Bet commenced a large-scale operation there Tuesday night, according to Kamal Bani ‘Awda, the regional director of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, up from 60 reported last night.

Twenty-seven were released overnight, some of whom remained handcuffed until they reached home, Bani ‘Awda tells WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency.

Among those detained today are two journalists, according to Palestinian media: Yazan Hamayel, a correspondent for independent Tukarem-based outlet al-Fajer TV, and Shadi Jararaa, a cameraman for Egyptian news outlet al-Ghad TV.

Al-Ghad confirmed its cameraman was detained and then released. Hamayel’s status is unclear.

أفاد مراسلنا بأن جيش الاحتلال الإسرائيلي اعتقل مصور قناة الغد شادي جرارعة خلال تغطيته العملية العسكرية الجارية في مدينة #طوباس بالضفة الغربية، اليوم الخميس، قبل أن يفرج عنه.
للمزيد: https://t.co/mmL9bsigWp#قناة_الغد #فلسطين #الضفة_الغربية pic.twitter.com/HpJdYtW6Y9

— قناة الغد (@AlGhadTV) November 27, 2025

Footage published by online Palestinian outlet Sahat shows troops pressing Jararaa, who is carrying a mounted video camera but does not appear to be wearing a press jacket, to step back as they are followed by other journalists including Jararaa’s colleague Khaled Badir, who is wearing a press jacket. Jararaa is then taken by troops to a military vehicle.

بعد عرقلة حركة الهلال الأحمر داخل بلدات طوباس، بدأ الاحتلال بالتضييق على الصحفيين واحتجز عددًا منهم وفق مصادر محلية وهم:
– خالد بدير
– شادي جرارعة
– يزن حمايل

لم يكتفِ الاحتلال بعرقلة الخدمات الصحية والإغاثية في طوباس، بل شرع الآن بالتضييق على الإعلام لإخفاء جرائمه المتواصلة عن… pic.twitter.com/J49HsxwrJG

— ساحات 🇵🇸 (@Sa7atPl) November 27, 2025

The IDF does not respond to a request for comment.

IDF strikes reported in southern Lebanon; no comment from military

Lebanese media reports Israeli airstrikes near the southern villages of Jarmaq and Mahmoudiyeh.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

The strikes apparently mark the first by Israel since the assassination of Hezbollah’s military chief in Beirut on Sunday.

غارات إسرائيلية عنيفة تستهدف #الجرمق و #المحمودية في #إقليم_التفاح pic.twitter.com/FhA5t8g7xU

— هنا لبنان (@thisislebnews) November 27, 2025

Police said to interrogate ex-Ra’am MK for suspected incitement over interview denying Hamas Oct. 7 war crimes

Police reportedly interrogate former Ra’am MK Abdulmalik Dehamshe on suspicion of incitement, over an interview in which he denied Hamas committed war crimes during its October 7, 2023, massacre.

Dehamshe served as a Ra’am lawmaker nearly two decades ago, from 1996 to 2006. He is released following his questioning, subject to restrictions, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

In the interview, given over a year ago to Makan, Israel’s Arabic-language public broadcaster, Dehamshe was met with pushback from interviewers after saying that Hamas played no role in murdering or raping civilians on October 7.

“Show me one photo of Hamas’s people in which they burned, raped or murdered women and babies as they claim. Those who did these things are the Gazan civilians, not Hamas,” he claimed.

He doubled down, claiming that the terror group “fought against the army and police, took prisoners of war that were members of the army and police alone. Those who kidnapped civilians are not Hamas.”

The broadcasting corporation announced that he would no longer be invited to appear on air following the interview.

“There will be no place in our broadcasts for anyone who denies the October 7 massacre,” Kan stated at the time. “Abdulmalik Dehamshe’s remarks were disproved during the broadcast by the program’s hosts, and he was confronted with facts that are clear to everyone.”

Two police officers injured in Negev car chase amid operation against crime in Bedouin communities

Two police officers have been injured in a car chase near the Bedouin town of Hura, as law enforcement continues its sweeping crimefighting operation in the Negev.

Detectives came upon a suspicious vehicle whose driver fled once forces identified themselves, police say.

After the detectives began chasing the suspicious car, the driver drove against the flow of traffic and rammed into a separate police patrol car, coming to a quick halt that allowed officers to arrest him on the spot.

The officers in the car are in good condition and are receiving on-site treatment. The detained driver lacked a driver’s license, police say.

The chase occurred as large police forces patrol Bedouin towns in the Negev, after National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir declared the launch of a new operation to crack down on crime in the area.

‘Intimidation’: Opposition slams Likud MK, others for disrupting High Court hearing on Sde Teiman leak probe

Members of the anti-Netanyahu bloc slam Likud MK Tally Gotliv and others who disrupted this morning’s High Court hearing over the Sde Teiman leak investigation, arguing that their behavior is an effort to undermine the rule of law driven by senior coalition officials’ incitement.

“The outburst by MK Gotliv” and other attendees is “unbearable and unforgivable” and would not have happened in the United States or “any democratic country that respects itself,” says Opposition Leader Yair Lapid. “Under normal circumstances, the justice minister and the Knesset speaker would have been the first to take steps to uphold the dignity of the court, but both are leading the toxic incitement against the court that has brought us to this low point.”

The court paused this morning’s hearing amid incessant shouting. As the room was emptied, a reservist soldier charged with severely abusing a Gazan detainee in the military facility shouted at the judges: “You trash, you kapo.”

This outburst was “a deliberate and planned move aimed at intimidating the judges and the prosecution, while simultaneously further eroding public trust in the judicial process” on the part of Justice Minister Yariv Levin, tweets The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv.

“The last thing they care about is uncovering the truth. Removing the attorney general and destroying the independence of the judicial system is the only thing that matters to them,” he adds, calling on the justices to close the court to the public and instead only broadcast the remainder of the hearings related to the Sde Teiman affair.

Those who disrupted the court were “not expressing protest” but rather “trying to intimidate the rule of law,” declares Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz. “They need to be arrested and sit behind bars. Turning the court into a stage for political debate is extremely dangerous for Israeli democracy.”

In response, Likud MK Osher Shekalim accuses Gantz of hypocrisy, stating that he didn’t call for the arrest of a demonstrator at an anti-government protest earlier this year who called him a traitor.

“It’s easy for you to go against ‘ordinary people,’ but you’re afraid of those who protested against you,” writes Shekalim.

Other members of the coalition criticize the court, with Likud MK Galit Distel Atbaryan tweeting that opposition to the court is not driven by “the incitement of ‘Bibi supporters'” but rather by “millions of citizens in Israel” outraged “at vile corruption wrapped in the robes of justice.”

Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman, the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, tweets a clip of Court President Justice Isaac Amit reprimanding those present in the courtroom for applauding a government representative.

“The public applauded the representative of the justice minister. In response, just a few minutes later, Yitzhak Amit removed the public from the room. There is nothing more symbolic than this. The court, isolated in its ivory tower, is incapable of dealing with the public but demands unlimited authority to decide on every issue concerning the public,” he writes.

Shin Bet says it foiled Hamas plot to use Israeli citizens to smuggle arms into West Bank

The Shin Bet security agency says it has foiled a Hamas plot to smuggle weapons and money into the West Bank using Israeli citizens.

In a statement, the Shin Bet says that in recent weeks, several Israelis from Kafr Qasim and Rahat were arrested by police on suspicion of involvement in “covert” transfers of weapons and funds to the West Bank, on behalf of Ahmad Zarzur, an Israeli citizen living in Turkey who is operating on behalf of the Hamas terror group.

The agency says its investigation revealed a network that operated to smuggle weapons and hundreds of thousands of shekels in funds into the West Bank, “with concerns that these would ultimately reach terror operatives to advance attacks.”

Zarzur, originally from Kafr Qasim, “exploited his family and social ties” in the northern Arab city to establish the smuggling network, the Shin Bet says.

The Shin Bet says that the network would operate by transferring cryptocurrency from Turkey to Israel, which would then be converted to cash using Israeli money changers. The cash would then be used to purchase weapons from arms dealers in the Negev area, which were then smuggled into the West Bank.

Indictments are set to be filed against several suspects in the case, the agency says.

“This is a grave case that exposes how elements in Turkey, including Arab Israelis and citizens through family reunification, exploit their connections in Israel and their access to Judea and Samaria (West Bank) to transfer funds and weapons that may eventually reach terror operatives,” the Shin Bet says.

Settler filmed beating Palestinian woman unconscious with club indicted on terror charges

Prosecutors indict a 24-year-old Israeli settler on terror charges after he was filmed beating a Palestinian woman unconscious with a club as she tried to harvest olives near the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya last month.

The defendant, Ariel Dahari, resides on the Oz Yair illegal outpost northeast of Ramallah. He is accused of joining other Jewish masked extremists in rampaging through the area, assaulting several olive harvesters and damaging a vehicle at the scene.

Dahari allegedly assaulted a resident who had tried to escape him by car, forcing open the vehicle’s door, pulling him out and chasing him down the hill while pelting him with stones.

The defendant is known to Israeli authorities in the West Bank, according to police, who arrested him on November 9, weeks after the attack in October.

The assault sparked outrage in Israel and abroad after Dahari was filmed beating 52-year-old Afaf Abu ‘Olia with a club, knocking her out with a severe head injury. She was hospitalized for a week as a result of the beating.

He is charged today with committing two terror-related assault charges and damaging a vehicle in a group with a racist motive. Prosecutors are requesting that the Jerusalem District Court order him remanded until the end of legal proceedings against him.

IDF says it presented families of troops killed in September Gaza blast with findings of ‘corrected’ probe

The IDF says it has presented the families of four soldiers who were killed in a roadside bomb attack in the southern Gaza Strip in September with a corrected and updated probe of the deadly incident.

On September 18, 2025, during operations in Rafah’s Jenina neighborhood, an IDF Humvee was struck by an explosive device, killing Maj. Omri Chai Ben Moshe, 26, Cpt. Eran Shelem, 23, Lt. Eitan Avner Ben Itzhak, 22, and Lt. Ron Arieli, 20, as well as wounding three other soldiers.

The IDF’s initial probe claimed that a D9 armored bulldozer was clearing a route while two Humvees drove behind it. One of the Humvees then moved to the side of the road, where it was hit by an explosive device, according to the preliminary investigation.

The military’s corrected investigation found that the Humvee that was ultimately hit by the explosive device was leading the convoy, and behind it were two additional Humvees, infantrymen, a D9 bulldozer, and six excavators.

The Humvee leading the convoy was hit by a bomb planted on the road, killing the four soldiers and wounding three others, according to the corrected probe.

“The investigation into the incident was concluded and presented to the bereaved families in a transparent manner,” the military says, adding that it “shares in families’ grief and will continue to accompany them.”

High Court hearing on Sde Teiman probe resumes, court president condemns ‘severity’ of disruptions

As the High Court reconvenes for a hearing on the oversight over the Sde Teiman leak investigation, top justice Yitzhak Amit condemns attendees’ repeated disruptions in the courtroom.

“The severity of these events cannot be overstated. Here we have an infringement on the separation of powers as well as on Israeli democracy,” he says to the court, according to Hebrew outlets.

The courtroom has now been emptied of most attendees by security guards due to yelling and insults hurled at judges from right-wing dissenters.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, Amit adds that he is “not aware of any democratic country where such disruptions occur in its Supreme Court.”

The court is hearing petitions against Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s appointment of retired district court judge Yosef Ben-Hamo to oversee an investigation into the leaking of surveillance footage purporting to show abuse of a Gazan prisoner by IDF troops at the Sde Teiman detention facility.

Levin, who has accused Gali Baharav-Miara of having a conflict of interest in the case, sidestepped her to appoint his own official to oversee the probe. The court granted him the authority to do so, as long as his candidate is a senior public official with a job closely connected to criminal investigations or prosecutions.

Judges are unconvinced that Ben-Hamo is sufficiently senior to fill the position of overseeing the investigation, and also cast doubt on his experience with criminal proceedings.

In one of the petitions being heard today, filed by The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, the organization claims that Ben-Hamo has not dealt with criminal investigations “in recent years.”

“It is clear that this is another attempt by Levin to find someone who will serve his agenda,” the group alleges, pledging to work “with all available legal tools to thwart this appointment.”

High Court hearing on Sde Teiman leak probe halted as accused facility guard calls court president ‘trash, kapo’

The High Court abruptly halts a hearing on determining who is to oversee investigation into the Sde Teiman leak affair, asking court security guards to eject audience members from the courtroom amid incessant shouting.

As the court adjourns, one of the attendees, a reservist soldier charged with severely abusing a Gazan detainee in the military facility, shouts at the judges: “You trash, you kapo.”

Sitting alongside another accused reservist and his lawyer, the man charges judges with bias in favor of former military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who leaked the footage of the alleged assault.

The High Court is deliberating on petitions against Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s appointment of retired district court judge Yosef Ben-Hamo to oversee the case into Tomer-Yerushalmi’s leaking of the footage.

The court previously ruled that Levin is permitted to name a “senior public official” to head the investigation, replacing Attorney General Gali-Baharav Miara. However, his current candidate Ben-Hamo is considered legally questionable, since he is not “senior.”

Likud firebrand MK Tally Gotliv also arrives in the courtroom and interrupts the proceedings several times. Tweeting during the hearing, she lambasts Justice Yael Willner for casting doubt on the seniority of Ben-Hamo.

“Good to know that a retired district judge is not considered senior in her eyes,” she writes, adding that the High Court judges are “doing everything, absolutely everything, to prevent oversight of the investigation.”

Argentina nominates IAEA chief Grossi for UN secretary-general

Argentina announces that it nominated Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to become the next UN secretary-general.

Grossi, who hails from Argentina and represented Buenos Aires as the country’s ambassador to Austria from 2013 to 2019, has led the UN’s atomic watchdog agency since late 2019.

In his post announcing Grossi’s nomination, Argentinian Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno says the IAEA chief is “internationally recognized for the extraordinary work he has been carrying out” for the nuclear agency, “which demonstrates his great leadership capacity in the face of serious situations that affect international peace and security.”

The current secretary-general is António Guterres, whose term ends on December 31, 2026.

The election to choose the next UN chief is expected to be held sometime in 2026.

To be selected, a nominee must receive the backing of nine members of the UN Security Council, with no vetoes from the council’s permanent members. After that, a vote is held in the UN General Assembly, where only a simple majority is required to elect the international body’s next leader.

Netanya to hold special election in January after longtime mayor died last week

The coastal city of Netanya will hold a special election on January 20, 2026, to select a successor to longtime mayor Miriam Feirberg-Ikar, who passed away last Friday at the age of 74 after a years-long battle with a serious illness, the Interior Ministry announces.

A social worker by training, Feirberg-Ikar worked in various capacities in Netanya’s municipality starting in the 1970s before being elected mayor in 1998 on the municipal Likud ticket.

She was reelected five times, most recently in 2024.

At the time of her death, Feirberg-Ikar was tied with Tel Aviv’s Ron Huldai as the longest-serving mayor in Israel.

High Court hearing on Sde Teiman leak probe underway; man removed after calling court president ‘criminal’

A disgruntled audience member shouts at top justice Yitzhak Amit, calling him a “criminal” during a High Court hearing on Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s appointment of retired district court judge Yosef Ben-Hamo to head a probe into the Sde Teiman leak scandal.

The man shouts: “Yitzhak Amit, you are a criminal,” and is removed from the courtroom, Hebrew outlets report.

Responding to the outburst, Amit says that he is “glad the public and the cameras can see how they try to intimidate the court.”

The court proceedings are being streamed live online.

Soon after the scandal erupted, Levin accused Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of having a conflict of interest in the case and attempted to sideline her by appointing his own official to head the investigation, even though she would normally lead such a probe.

Although Baharav-Miara is not a suspect in the affair, the court granted Levin the authority to appoint a “senior public servant” to oversee the case, while a conflict of interest on her part was not entirely ruled out.

Ben-Hamo is Levin’s second choice after the court rejected his initial candidate, State Ombudsman for Judges Asher Kula. The court issued an interim order delaying the appointment of Ben-Hamo, since he is not a senior public official — one of the criteria set by the court.

Justice Yael Willner says that although Ben-Hamo is an “ad hoc civil servant,” he is not “senior.”

“In the ruling, we wrote ‘senior,’ and that word was not written for nothing,” she says in the courtroom, as quoted by Ynet.

Makeshift synagogue destroyed in fire in Netivot; no injuries reported

A fire broke out in Netivot this morning, the Fire and Rescue Service says, consuming a haphazard building that served as a synagogue in the southern city.

Firefighting crews extinguished the fire and prevented its spread to adjacent buildings, but the structure, appearing to be constructed from tarpaulin, was destroyed entirely.

No injuries are reported in the incident. The circumstances of the fire remain unclear.

Father of last slain Israeli hostage held in Gaza says nobody, including Hamas, knows where his body is

The father of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last slain Israeli hostage still held in the Gaza Strip, says that neither Israel nor the terror groups in Gaza knows where his body is, and that he fears his son will never be returned to Israel.

Itzik Gvili tells the Kan broadcaster that he is praying that his son won’t end up like Lt. Hadar Goldin, an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014 and whose body was held in Gaza until it was returned this month, or like Ron Arad, an Israeli Air Force navigator who has been classified as missing since 1988.

Gvili says he is praying that “we won’t carry this around for many, many years.”

“We’re moving forward because we have to,” he says.

“Hamas says they’re looking for his body, but we don’t see any progress,” Gvili tells Kan. “They are playing games and deceiving us.”

Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili was killed battling Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Alumim on October 7, 2023, and his body was abducted to Gaza.

He is one of the last two deceased hostages still held in Gaza, along with Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak, who was killed by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Be’eri, where he was employed as an agricultural worker.

Report: Katz says militias within Syria, including Houthis, are considering attack on Golan Heights

There are currently armed groups within Syria that are considering invading the Golan Heights, Defense Minister Israel Katz said at yesterday’s Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting, Kan reports.

According to the report, Katz said that Israel is “not on track” for a security deal or normalization with Damascus, and is preparing for scenarios in which Syrian forces, or various militias within the country, attempt to attack Israeli communities or again threaten Syrian Druze communities.

Katz told the committee that Houthis are among the forces operating in Syria, with the Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group weighing a ground invasion of the Golan Heights, the report adds.

The IDF has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries. Two of the posts are on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.

Troops have been operating in areas up to around 15 kilometers (nine miles) deep into Syria, aiming to protect Israeli communities and capture weapons that Israel says could pose a threat to the country if they fall into the hands of “hostile forces,” including Lebanon’s Hezbollah or other Iran-backed militias.

National Guard shooting suspect worked with US military in Afghanistan — reports

The man suspected of shooting two National Guard soldiers near the White House yesterday was an Afghan national who served alongside US troops in Afghanistan, US media reports.

NBC News, citing a relative of the suspect and several law enforcement officials, identifies the man as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal.

NBC says Lakanwal came to the United States in September 2021 after having served in the Afghan army for 10 years supporting US Special Forces troops.

Fox News, citing CIA Director John Ratcliffe, says Lakanwal worked with various US government entities, including the intelligence service.

Yesterday’s shooting left two US National Guard soldiers critically wounded.

US President Donald Trump said yesterday that an Afghan man who fled the Taliban was the suspect and had been taken into custody after the daylight shooting two blocks from the White House.

The suspect had arrived in the United States in 2021 “on those infamous flights,” Trump said after the attack, referring to the evacuations of Afghans fleeing as the Taliban took over the country in the wake of the US retreat after 20 years of war.

The attack, carried out next to a metro station at a time when the streets and offices of downtown Washington were bustling, puts a new focus on Trump’s controversial deployment of military forces to fight crime in Democrat-run cities around the country.

Russia says it shot down 118 Ukrainian drones overnight

Russian air defenses shot down 118 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russian news agencies report, citing the Defense Ministry.

According to the reports, 52 drones were shot down over the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.

Train crash in China kills 11 railway workers, authorities say

A train hit railway workers in southwest China this morning, killing 11, local railway authorities say after the crash in Yunnan province.

The train “used for seismic equipment testing” collided with construction workers at Kunming’s Luoyang Town station in the early morning, killing 11 and injuring two, the Kunming Railway Bureau say in a statement.

The train was “passing normally through a curve inside Kunming Luoyang Town Station when a collision happened with construction workers who had entered the track area,” it says.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, authorities say, adding that transportation had returned to normal by midday, and those injured are receiving treatment.

Industrial accidents are fairly common in China due to vague regulations and lax safety standards.

US stops processing Afghan immigration requests after attack near White House

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services says it has stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely, after two US National Guard soldiers were shot and critically wounded in Washington.

US President Donald Trump said that the shooting near the White House was “an act of terror,” saying the suspect came from Afghanistan in 2021.

The move follows Trump’s call for his government to re-examine Afghan immigrants who entered the United States when Joe Biden was president, from 2021 to the beginning of this year.

“The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission,” the US Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a post on X.

Australia lists Iran’s IRGC as state sponsor of terrorism after 2024 antisemitic attacks

Australia has listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a state sponsor of terrorism, Foreign Minister Penny Wong says, following an intelligence assessment that it had orchestrated attacks against Australia’s Jewish community.

Australia in August accused Iran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne last year, and gave Tehran’s ambassador seven days to leave the country on Tuesday, its first such expulsion since World War II.

Pope Leo heading to Turkey, Lebanon for closely watched first overseas trip

Pope Leo XIV begins his first trip outside Italy as Catholic leader today with a visit to Turkey, where he is expected to make appeals for peace in the Middle East and urge unity among long-divided Christian churches.

The first American-born pope chose mainly Muslim Turkey as his first overseas destination to mark the 1,700th anniversary of a landmark early Church council there that produced the Nicene Creed, a statement of belief still used by most of the world’s Christians today.

Leo has a crowded three-day itinerary in Turkey before heading on to Lebanon.

Israel’s yearlong ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon has appeared increasingly fragile after the IDF killed the terror group’s military chief this week. Israel’s relations with Turkey, meanwhile, collapsed during the war in Gaza.

Leo will be closely watched as he makes his first speeches overseas and visits sensitive cultural sites.

“It’s a very important trip because we do not know much yet about Leo’s geopolitical views, and this is the first big chance for him to make them clear,” Massimo Faggioli, an Italian academic who follows the Vatican, tells Reuters.

Peace is expected to be a key theme of the pope’s visit to Lebanon, which starts on Sunday. Lebanon has the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said on Monday that necessary security precautions were being taken to ensure the pope’s safety in Lebanon, but he would not comment on specifics.

Suspect in DC shooting is Afghan national, act being investigated as terrorism – reports

NBC News and CBS News, citing unnamed law enforcement sources, report that authorities believe the suspect in the shooting of two US National Guard troops in Washington, DC, is an Afghan national.

A Justice Department official tells Reuters the shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism. NBC News also reports that authorities are treating the attack as potential terrorism, citing law enforcement sources.

Drone strike hits Iraq gas complex, cuts supply, no immediate claim of responsibility

A drone strike on Wednesday targeted an Emirati-owned gas complex in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, disrupting the gas supply to the region’s power plants, local authorities say.

“At 11:30 pm [10:30 p.m. Israel time], a drone attacked the Khor Mor gas field facility, cutting off all gas supplies to power plants,” the regional natural resources and electricity authorities say in a statement.

AFP correspondents in Kurdistan report power cuts across the region, including in the city of Sulaimaniyah.

The Khor Mor gas field lies between the cities of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah and supplies most of the Kurdistan region’s power.

Omed Ahmed, the regional electricity authority spokesperson, says the attack resulted in the loss of 2,600 megawatts of electricity, disrupting 80 percent of the region’s power grid.

Authorities say they are coordinating with the United Arab Emirates company Dana Gas to investigate the attack and restore operations.

A local security source tells AFP that the attack “targeted gas storage tanks, causing a major explosion and large fire”.

Iraq’s Joint Operations Command, which coordinates between security forces and the military, says the attack, which set fire to a major storage tank, did not cause casualties.

It adds that the attack aims at “hindering security and economic stability” in a country that has just recently regained a sense of stability.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

US official walks back statement that National Guard members died

The official who announced that two National Guard members shot near the White House had died of their injuries issues a new statement that he is no longer sure.

“We are now receiving conflicting reports about the condition of our two Guard members and will provide additional updates,” the governor of West Virginia, Patrick Morrisey, says on X.

Minutes earlier, Morrisey said the troops — deployed to Washington from his state — had both died.

President Donald Trump, whose policy of sending armed troops to support crime fighting in cities run by Democrats is deeply controversial, said in a statement that the two soldiers had been “critically wounded.”

Sa’ar: ‘We stand in solidarity with the United States’ after deadly DC shooting

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says he is “shocked and deeply saddened” by the fatal shooting of two National Guardsmen in Washington, DC, in a post on X.

https://twitter.com/gidonsaar/status/1993793365025149434?t=NZ2_VT42R60WejytiZ3hiQ&s=19

“My thoughts are with the families of the two brave National Guardsmen that were killed. We stand in solidarity with the United States, the American people and [US President Donald Trump].”