Nov. 28: Netanyahu says he’s ready for ceasefire in Gaza to free hostages, but won’t end war

Maccabi Tel Aviv plays soccer game without incident in Hungary after Amsterdam violence

Players line up prior to the kick-off of the Europa League opening phase soccer match between Besiktas and Maccabi Tel Aviv, at the Nagyerdei Stadium in Debrecen, Hungary, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Maccabi Tel Aviv’s soccer game against Turkey’s Besiktas in the Europa League was played without incident before empty stands in Hungary, with the stadium closed to fans over security concerns following attacks on Israeli supporters in Amsterdam this month.

Maccabi won the game 3-1 on a cold and rainy evening in Debrecen, Hungary’s second-largest city. Groups of police patrolled outside the stadium but security levels did not appear overwhelming in the city of around 200,000 residents.

After the match, Maccabi coach Zarko Lazetic says that playing in front of an empty stadium without fans is always a struggle for the team.

“We play football because of the fans, to give them some pleasure, some excite[ment] and to be together,” he says.

Israel’s soccer teams play domestic games at home despite the Israel-Hamas war. But European soccer body UEFA has ruled that the war in Gaza means Israel cannot host international games.

The match was Maccabi’s first in Europe since its fans were targeted and assaulted in the Netherlands on November 7 this year, in attacks that were condemned as antisemitic by authorities in Israel and across Europe.

Netanyahu decries harsh treatment of ex-aide charged with leaking secrets

People protest in support of Eli Feldstein and the Israeli soldier accused of leaking classified documents outside the Tel Aviv District COurt, November 27, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decries the treatment of his former aide Eli Feldstein and an IDF non-commissioned officer who have both been charged with leaking military documents.

“They come to their homes with 15 people with their guns drawn, faces covered, and take them into solitary confinement. I heard the testimony from Feldstein’s brothers, I was horrified,” Netanyahu says in his interview with Channel 14.

“They hold him in a room with the lights on for 24 hours, handcuffed, blindfolded, 18 to 20 hours of interrogation like he is an arch-terrorist,” the prime minister says about the testimony.

“Engineering all sorts of questions and asking him just one thing, they want to break him. To break him, and we’ve seen this before, to break him so he will give false testimony, and will say he has turned state witness against Netanyahu.”

“I’d like to hear all the warriors for human rights speaking on this,” he says. “The State of Israel cannot operate like this. We are a democratic state. We are a country with rights. We are a country with certain norms, and this thing is an absolute outrage.”

‘We’re going after him’: Netanyahu describes decision to target Nasrallah

View of a large sign with pictures of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at the entrance to Jerusalem, November 11, 2024. All three were killed in recent months with Israel claiming the deaths of Sinwar and Nasrallah. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

In an interview with the right-wing Channel 14, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also recounts the decision-making process leading up to the strike to eliminate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah two months ago.

Netanyahu pushes back against those who claim he opposed it.

Opponents of the move told the security cabinet that a full-blown war with Iran could erupt and that the US would have to be notified ahead of the strike, he says. He says he rejected that condition.

Netanyahu says he stopped the cabinet meeting at that stage: “I said that I wanted to think about the matter of the war, and I said that I would get back to them. Some people breathed a sigh of relief because they thought that by time I come back, Nasrallah would at least disappear and go to some other hiding place.”

During his flight to New York in September, ahead of his speech to the United Nations, Netanyahu says he decided to take out Nasrallah. “I got on the Wing of Zion, which has a secure communication system. I slept for two hours, then I picked up the phone to the Defense Minister and the Chief of Staff and said: ‘I’ve decided. We’re going after him. We are taking all the risk, and it’s worth the risk.”

After landing in New York, Netanyahu convened the security cabinet by phone to approve the decision. “I said that the Americans can be informed, but more or less when the planes are already in the air.”

Netanyahu denies the theory that his trip to the UN was meant to trick Nasrallah into letting his guard down.

Netanyahu says ready for ceasefire in Gaza to free hostages, but won’t end war

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during an interview on Channel 14 news, November 28, 2024. (Screenshot/Channel 14; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that he would accept a pause in the war in Gaza, speaking in his first interview since the ceasefire in Lebanon. “I am ready for a ceasefire in the south when we think we can achieve the release of the hostages,” he says to the rightwing Channel 14. “I am ready for a ceasefire at any time.”

At the same, he stresses that he will not accept an end to the war, a core Hamas demand. Without going into details, Netanyahu says Israel is doing “many many things” to try to reach a deal.

Now that there is a ceasefire in Lebanon and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead, the conditions have significantly improved for a hostage deal with Hamas, he argues.

“Hamas hoped that Iran would come to save it, it did not happen; it hoped that the Houthis would come to save it – it did not happen,” he says, “but above all it hoped that Hezbollah would come to save it, and indeed Nasrallah said on the second day when he attacked, ‘We will continue until Israel stops its attacks on Hamas.’ There is no Hezbollah [at Hamas’s side now]. That’s why I think the conditions have changed very much for the better, not only because of the separation of the theaters but also because of the… elimination of Sinwar.”

He says the conditions in Lebanon are different than in Gaza: Israel is trying to destroy Hamas, whereas in Lebanon at this stage it is working to prevent Hezbollah from rearming. While Israel can prevent arms smuggling in Lebanon by bombing border crossings and striking in Syria, that can’t happen in Gaza, because Israel won’t attack Egypt. Therefore, Israel has to remain on the Philadelphi corridor, the road on the Egypt-Gaza border, he insinuates.

Netanyahu says that he accepted a ceasefire in Lebanon because “we achieved exactly what we intended to achieve.”

Israel army displays aid to Gaza amid accusations of obstruction

A picture taken during a tour organized by the Israeli Army shows a Palestinian worker unloading humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip from a truck near the Kerem Shalom crossing on November 28, 2024 (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)

The Israeli army shows foreign media around aid arriving in Gaza via a key crossing amid accusations that Israel is preventing assistance from reaching the Palestinian territory.

International aid organizations have repeatedly warned of the deteriorating conditions in Gaza, saying civilians are starving and aid shipments are now lower than at any time since October 2023 when Hamas attacked southern Israel, triggering the war in Gaza.

Israel blames the inability of relief organizations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid.

During the first media visit including AFP to the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, the largest for humanitarian aid, journalists saw trucks carrying aid mainly from Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and Israel itself.

The aid also comes from UNICEF, Rahma Worldwide and the World Food Kitchen. Distribution is organized by international aid agencies that hire local truck drivers.

“Today we have more than 800 truckloads that are waiting for the international community to take them and deliver them to the people inside Gaza,” says Colonel Abdullah Halabi, who heads the Gaza division of COGAT, the Israeli military unit responsible for overseeing humanitarian needs in Gaza.

He says often the goods wait at the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom, the southernmost entry point from Israel, for “months.”

Halabi rejects claims Israel was not allowing trucks to enter, saying there was no restriction on the trucks or the amount of aid allowed to enter Gaza.

US denies deal with Smotrich over PA banking approval

Illustrative: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Finance Committee meeting at the Knesset, on September 16, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

After Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared that he had succeeded in preventing a US-backed UN Security Council Resolution recognizing a Palestinian state, a Biden administration official tells The Times of Israel that no such initiative was in the cards.

Smotrich made the declaration after the security cabinet voted to grant a one-year extension allowing Israeli banks to coordinate with Palestinian ones.

The far-right minister suggested that he managed to leverage Israel’s extension of the corresponding banking deal critical to the Palestinian Authority’s survival to ensure that the US would not allow the Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state.

The Biden aide says the US told Israel that this idea was never in the cards — apparently what had convinced Smotrich and other ministers to grant a one-year extension to the banking deal long sought by Washington.

The Biden administration has repeatedly come out against efforts to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, asserting that the outcome should be the culmination of negotiations between the parties.

But some in Jerusalem feared the step would be reconsidered before US President Joe Biden wraps up his term in office.

The US official tells The Times of Israel that the Biden administration is still considering other steps to boost prospects for a two-state solution before the end of the lame-duck period.

Israel agreed to extend banking deal with PA for US commitment to veto Palestinian state at UN — report

Palestinian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Majed Bamya speaks during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the situation in the Middle East on November 20, 2024, at UN headquarters in New York City. (Angela Weiss/AFP)

Israel agreed to extend a waiver allowing Israeli banks to correspond with Palestinian ones for another year in return for the US committing to veto any recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN, Channel 12 reports.

The report says the deal was negotiated by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer in the face of massive US pressure to extend the agreement amid fears that failure to do so would lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority.

Earlier, the security cabinet agreed to extend the deal by a year.

For the past two months, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has only agreed to extend the corresponding banking agreement for one month at a time, adding a great deal of uncertainty regarding whether the far-right minister will act on his repeated calls to collapse the PA.

Ahead of the security cabinet vote, ministers were presented with the National Security Council’s position in favor of a one-year extension due to concerns that failure to do so would have major security and diplomatic repercussions.

IAEA report says Iran plans uranium-enrichment expansion at Natanz, Fordow

Centrifuges line a hall at the Uranium Enrichment Facility in Natanz, Iran, in a still image from a video aired by the Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting company on April 17, 2021, six days after the hall had been damaged in a mysterious attack. (IRIB via AP)

Iran has informed the UN nuclear watchdog of plans to install more uranium-enriching centrifuges at its Fordow and Natanz plants as well as bring machines recently installed there online, a confidential report by the watchdog says.

The International Atomic Energy Agency report to member states seen by Reuters makes no mention, however, of Iran’s enrichment to up to 60% purity, close to nuclear weapons-grade. Eight new cascades, or clusters, of advanced IR-6 centrifuges at Fordow would enrich to up to 5% purity, Iran informs the IAEA.

On Thanksgiving, Biden is thankful for Lebanon ceasefire

US President Joe Biden talks to the media during a visit to Nantucket fire department on Thanksgiving day in Nantucket Mass., Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Asked by reporters what he’s thankful for this year on Thanksgiving, US President Joe Biden highlights the recent ceasefire Washington brokered earlier this week between Israel and Hezbollah.

“[I’m thankful for] my family, the peaceful transition of the presidency, and I’m thankful by the grace of God we were able to make more progress in the Middle East,” he says after distributing pies with the first lady to firefighters in Nantucket.

“I’m really thankful for being able to get the first peace done in Lebanon,” he adds.

Swiss decide against banning Hezbollah

A general view shows the Swiss National Council during its Winter Parliament Session in Bern, Switzerland, Thursday Dec. 8, 2011. (AP Photo/ /Pascal Lauener,Pool)

The Swiss government, which previously drafted a law explicitly banning Hamas activities and support for the Palestinian terror group, decided this week against doing the same for Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Parliamentary security policy committees had called for a ban on Hezbollah, but in its response, published today, the federal government says the conditions had not been met.

Switzerland’s Federal Council says the group could not be banned as a threat to security under the country’s intelligence act because the existing law required sanctions or a ban by the United Nations to be in place for such a move to be applied.

It said it banned Hamas over the “unprecedented terrorist attacks” of October 7, 2023, in line with the practice of proscribing organizations on a case-by-case basis only “for extremely serious reasons.”

“Bans on organizations must continue to follow this political line,” it says, judging that it was “not appropriate” to create a new law to ban Hezbollah.

The lower house of parliament’s security committee had said that “like Hamas, Hezbollah is a radical Islamic terrorist organization responsible for numerous acts of violence and human rights violations” which “represents a threat to the stability of the entire region.”

It demanded that the government “issue a comprehensive ban on Hezbollah.”

Parliament will consider the government’s position during its December 2-20 session, and will also vote on the law to ban Hamas, Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS reports.

Halevi say IDF will enforce Lebanon truce ‘with fire’ to ensure northern residents can return home

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks during an assessment, in a video released by the IDF on November 28, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says that the military will enforce the ceasefire with Hezbollah “with fire” to enable the return of the displaced residents of the north to their homes.

“This agreement is the result of months of fighting and in particular the last three months. A lot of achievements in Lebanon, intense work, very determined work, the killing of the entire senior echelon, the killing of all the commanders,” Halevi says during an assessment.

“It is now moving to another stage, with the same determination… and we know exactly that Hezbollah came to this agreement from a place of lack of choice and weakness,” he continues.

“Exactly with these strengths, we are also going to do the enforcement, no less than that. We will enforce it with fire, enforce it very, very strongly,” Halevi says.

He adds that “the residents in the north are looking now and want to see us very determined on enforcement so that they can return, and this is our duty to them, and our duty to ourselves.”

Netanyahu says he ordered IDF to prepare for ‘intensive war’ if Hezbollah breaks ceasefire

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during an interview on Channel 14 news, November 28, 2024. (Screenshot/Channel 14; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

In his first interview since the ceasefire in Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that if Hezbollah doesn’t adhere to the rules, there will be “intensive war.”

“I gave the IDF instructions,” says Netanyahu, speaking to the right-wing Channel 14, “if there is a massive violation of the agreement, not only will we operate surgically like we are doing now, and with force, every time. I said, if there is a massive violation of the agreement, I instructed the IDF to prepare for an intensive war.”

Netanyahu was gathering advisors tonight for a meeting on the continuation of the war on its various fronts, Channel 13 reports.

To Channel 14’s Yaakov Bardugo, Netanyahu says the ceasefire in Lebanon “can be short,” and that Israel “enforced it on its first day.”

Asked why Israel is not creating a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, Netanyahu notes that the “threat of a ground invasion has been removed.”

He says that the IDF destroyed the aboveground infrastructure on the border, and the underground bunkers and tunnels.

Residents of the north “will return in stages, when they feel that what I’m saying is correct.”

On Iran’s nuclear program, Netanyahu will not promise that Iran won’t attain a nuclear weapon, instead saying “I will do everything so that Iran won’t be nuclear.”

IDF says it carried out additional drone strike to target Hezbollah operatives entering rocket launch site

Illustrative: Smoke from an Israeli strike in Markaba in southern Lebanon, on July 23, 2024 (Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

The IDF says it carried out another airstrike earlier today against two Hezbollah operatives who entered a known rocket launching site in southern Lebanon.

The operatives were targeted in a drone strike “to thwart the threat,” the IDF says. The site had been used to fire dozens of rockets at Israel in the past month.

The incident, and several others today, violate the ceasefire agreement, according to the military.

The IDF says it fired warning shots in several areas of southern Lebanon throughout the day, to disperse Hezbollah operatives attempting to reach no-go zones near the border.

Earlier, fighter jets struck a Hezbollah medium-range rocket facility, after the military identified activity there.

The IDF is still deployed to southern Lebanon, and it has 60 days to withdraw under the deal. During that time, the Lebanese Army will gradually take responsibility for southern Lebanon and an American-led committee that will adjudicate complaints regarding potential ceasefire violations will be established.

Under US pressure, security cabinet extends deal allowing Israel-PA bank ties

A merchant arranges goods displayed outside a shop along a market alley in Hebron in the West Bank on October 9, 2024. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)

The security cabinet votes to extend a waiver allowing Israeli banks to correspond with Palestinian ones for another year — a move pushed by the Biden administration and its Western allies who feared that failure to do so ahead of a deadline at the end of the week would lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, an Israeli official confirms to The Times of Israel

For the past two months, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has only agreed to extend the corresponding banking agreement for one month at a time, adding a great deal of uncertainty regarding whether the far-right minister will act on his repeated calls to collapse the PA ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Ahead of the security cabinet vote, ministers were presented with the National Security Council’s position in favor of a one-year extension due to concerns that failure to do so would have major security and diplomatic repercussions, the Israeli official says, confirming reporting in the Axios news site.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir tweets that he had voted against the extending the banking cooperation deal, blasting fellow cabinet members who have talked about collapsing the PA only to back a measure that will allow Ramallah to limp on.

Anti-Israel protesters arrested at New York Thanksgiving parade

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters demonstrate on Sixth Avenue during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

New York police arrest a group of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters who briefly interrupted the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade by attempting to block the parade route just ahead of the Ronald McDonald float.

The 98th annual parade, televised nationwide, is part of the tradition of America’s Thanksgiving holiday, a spectacle of giant balloons of cartoon characters, marching bands and popular music acts performing live. Thousands line the streets of Manhattan to watch.

“The demonstrators were taken into custody without incident,” the New York Police Department says in a statement.

The number of detainees was unknown and charges were pending, the NYPD says.

A line of about 20 protesters sat in the street under a steady rain while others behind them held up a banner saying “Don’t celebrate genocide” and “Arms embargo now!” as the smiling Ronald McDonald floated overhead, Reuters pictures showed.

Police at the scene at first advised the demonstrators to leave without intervening, according to a Reuters witness. Then a team of bicycle-mounted officers arrived, clashing with the protesters and carting them away.

Ben Gvir urges Netanyahu to keep fighting in Lebanon, reoccupy Gaza

Itamar Ben Gvir speaks during a National Security Committee meeting at the Knesset on November 27, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Speaking at a cornerstone laying ceremony for a new police station in the southern city of Sderot, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue fighting in Lebanon despite the ceasefire that went into effect on Wednesday.

Stating that Hezbollah has violated the ceasefire “time and again,” Ben Gvir argues that “we must not stop, certainly here in the south as well.”

“We have a historic opportunity to bring peace for decades. We have a historic opportunity to collapse Hamas. We have a historic opportunity to restore deterrence, reoccupy the Gaza Strip and encourage voluntary immigration of Israel’s enemies. This is what will bring peace to the south,” he says.

Ben Gvir’s comments come only days after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told a conference organized by the Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing Israeli municipalities in the West Bank, that “it is possible to create a situation where Gaza’s population will be reduced to half its current size in two years” through encouraging emigration.

Lebanon army says Israel violated ceasefire ‘several times’

This picture taken from a position in northern Israel, on the border with Lebanon shows smoke billowing over the village of Meiss El-Jabal on November 28, 2024. - The IDF said it hit a Hezbollah facility where it detected a ceasefire violation. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

The Lebanese army accuses Israel of violating the ceasefire “several times” since it went into effect the previous day after more than 13 months of hostilities with Hezbollah.

“The Israeli enemy violated the deal several times,” the army says, citing air strikes and attacks on Lebanese territory with “various weapons.”

Israel said it acted on several occasions to enforce the ceasefire.

Home Front Command lifts restrictions on gatherings in much of Israel after ceasefire

Home Front Command guidelines issued on November 9, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

A day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect, the IDF Home Front Command has lifted gathering restrictions across central Israel, the Wadi Ara area, Carmel, and Jezreel Valley.

The restrictions, which limited the number of people allowed at indoor and outdoor gatherings, were put in place amid rocket fire from Hezbollah.

Restrictions still remain in various areas of northern Israel. Schools will remain closed in the northern frontier towns and Golan Heights.

Thousands crossing back from Syria to Lebanon amid ceasefire

Lebanese families sit in traffic as they return to Lebanon through the Jousieh border crossing, Syria, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Thousands of people make the crossing back into Lebanon from Syria on the second day of a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, after nearly 14 months of fighting.

At the Jousieh border crossing in the Qusair area of Syria’s Homs province, on Lebanon’s northeastern border, bumper-to-bumper cars line up waiting to be cleared for crossing. All four lanes are taken up by cars making their way into Lebanon, while those waiting to cross into Syria had to use an offroad.

Of the six border crossings between Lebanon and Syria, two remain functional after Israeli airstrikes forced the others shut. The two countries share a border 375 kilometers (233 miles) long.

Over 600,000 people fleeing Lebanon poured into Syria in the past year.

Moody’s says unclear whether Israel’s ceasefire with Hezbollah sustainably cuts risks

A sign for credit agency Moody's, on August 13, 2010, in New York. (AP/ Mark Lennihan/ File)

It is too early to say whether Israel’s ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon has “significantly and sustainably” reduced the risk that led Moody’s to downgrade Israel’s sovereign credit rating, the agency says.

“It is too early to say whether these risks will be significantly and sustainably reduced,” Moody’s says.

The agency downgraded Israel’s credit rating to Baa1, from A2, in September.

Netanyahu denies he asked Home Front Command for opinion on delaying trial testimony

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the Jerusalem District Court for a hearing on his corruption trial, June 26, 2023. (Alex Kolomoisky/Pool)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issues a statement denying that he had approached the IDF’s Home Front Command to issue an opinion on whether it was safe for him to testify in his corruption trial.

The Israel Hayom daily reports that Netanyahu is continuing to try to find ways to postpone his testimony after the court only granted him a delay of several days.

The report says Netanyahu has suggested that the court where his trial is being conducted is not safe for him as it lacks a proper bomb shelter.

“The prime minister did not ask the Shin Bet to delay his testimony, nor the Home Front Command. All his security is arranged by the Shin Bet,” the statement says.

UK, France, Germany say Israeli steps endangering West Bank economy as Israeli-PA bank deal set to expire

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, November 11, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The United Kingdom, France and Germany release a joint statement expressing concern that Israel has not committed to extending for a year indemnification of Israeli banks to allow them to carry on banking relationships with Palestinian banks in the West Bank.

Israel extended the indemnification for 30 days on October 31, which expires on Saturday.

“This disappointing decision prolongs uncertainty and endangers the Palestinian economy,” say the foreign ministers of the three countries. “Cutting off these banking ties, which Israel has a clear duty under the Paris Protocol to maintain, would create significant economic turmoil in the West Bank, jeopardising the security of Israel and the wider region.”

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has long spoken in favor of collapsing the Palestinian Authority, has repeatedly threatened to  end the indemnification, claiming that money was going to fund terror.

The Palestinian economy relies heavily on the banks’ relationships with their Israeli counterparts to process transactions made in shekels, as the PA does not have its own currency. Some NIS 53 billion ($14 billion) were exchanged at Palestinian banks in 2023, according to official data.

The statement from the UK, France and Germany argues that the Palestinian Authority has taken “significant steps” to ensure money is not going to terrorist groups.

“As the deadline of 30 November approaches, we therefore renew our call for Israel to immediately extend the indemnifications by at least one year, and for future extensions to be transparent, predictable and de-politicised,” they say.

Right-wing Channel 14 to air Netanyahu interview this evening

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset on November 13, 2024 (Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

An interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will air tonight at 7:50 p.m. on Channel 14, a right-wing station preferred by backers of the premier.

The pre-recorded interview was conducted by pundit Yaakov Bardugo, a longtime Netanyahu supporter and confidant.

Several Jewish BBC journalists said to quit union over call to wear Palestinian colors

Illustrative: Protesters holding placards and Israeli flags join a gathering outside the headquarters of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) in London on October 16, 2023, to appeal to the corporation to call Hamas 'terrorists.' (Daniel Leal/AFP)

Several Jewish journalists at the BBC have quit their union after it called on members to wear clothes in Palestinian colors or a keffiyeh as part of a Day of Action for Palestine, the UK’s Jewish News reports.

Several members of the National Union of Journalists felt that the call crossed the line in violating the BBC’s neutrality.

One BBC staffer tells the Times, “BBC journalists, who pride themselves on impartiality and who fought to keep their NUJ free of politics, are being encouraged to break the BBC’s editorial guidelines by supporting a political cause.”

The staffer says they are reconsidering their NUJ membership after the “hypocritical and antisemitic” action.

IDF estimates it killed some 3,500 Hezbollah operatives during conflict

Mourners carry the coffins of Hezbollah terrorists Mohammed Hussein Qassem and Abbas Ahmed Soror, who were killed by an Israeli strike, during their funeral procession in Aita al-Shaab village, south Lebanon, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

The IDF estimates that it has killed some 3,500 Hezbollah operatives in the past 14 months of fighting, the majority during the ground offensive in southern Lebanon that was launched in late September.

According to the military’s estimates, there are at least double that number of seriously and moderately wounded operatives — some 7,000 — who are unable to fight.

Hezbollah is seen by the IDF as significantly weakened but not destroyed, as it still maintains about half of its basic capabilities, according to the military.

The IDF now says it is working to “aggressively” enforce the ceasefire and prevent Hezbollah from rearming and establishing infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

Katz speaks to British counterpart, says Israel will act forcefully to prevent Iran smuggling arms into Lebanon

Minister Israel Katz at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on November 10, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Defense Minister Israel Katz speaks with his British counterpart John Healey, telling him that Israel will act with force to prevent Iran from smuggling weapons into Lebanon.

Katz tells Healy that Israel will respond with force to any violation of the ceasefire in Lebanon and says that Iran is continuing to try and establish new fronts against Israel, according to a readout from Katz’s office.

Katz thanks Healy for the UK’s efforts to help prevent Iran from destabilizing the region.

Katz tells Healy that Israel’s main priority is freeing the hostages in Gaza and that Israel expects the UK to oppose calls for a ceasefire that isn’t conditioned on the return of the captives.

Minister Goldknopf inspects Gaza with settler leader, urges settlement of Strip, poses with map of planned settlements

UTJ's Yitzhak Goldknopf, center, pictured with a map of prospective settlements in Gaza during a tour of the Gaza border area, November 28, 2024. Daniella Weiss is seen on the right. (Courtesy Yitzhak Goldknopf)

Housing and Construction Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf says he inspected sites in the Gaza Strip where he wants to reestablish settlements.

In a tweet, Goldknopf posts a photograph of himself alongside Daniella Weiss, the head of the Nachala Settlement Movement, looking at a map of potential settlement sites labeled, in English, “map of the [settlement nuclei] in Gaza.”

Goldknopf has repeatedly endorsed reestablishing Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip after the war against Hamas ends.

“Today I toured the Gaza Strip settlements. Jewish settlement here is the answer to the terrible massacre and the answer to the International Criminal Court in The Hague who, instead of caring for the 101 hostages, chose to issue arrest warrants against the prime minister and the minister of defense,” Goldknopf tweets.

Goldknopf did not actually enter the Gaza Strip but inspected the area from the border. Photos showed him viewing the area through binoculars.

In a separate post, Nachala thanks the ultra-Orthodox minister for accepting the organization’s invitation to “tour and observe the future settlement locations in Gaza.”

“Together we will build Jewish cities in Gaza, which will bring down the prices of apartments in the country with the understanding that without settlement there is no security. Our Gaza, forever,” the group states.

According to Hebrew media reports, earlier this month IDF soldiers went over their superiors’ heads to help Weiss enter the Strip to survey sites for potential Jewish settlements.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, Weiss, who is leading efforts to resettle northern Gaza, toured the Israeli side of the Gaza border fence with colleagues on November 13. The group eventually traversed the border, through unclear means, going a short way into the Strip.

During a speech on Monday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Israel should occupy Gaza and “encourage” half of the Strip’s 2.2 million Palestinians to emigrate within two years.

סיירתי היום בישובי חבל עזה. ההתיישבות היהודית כאן היא התשובה לטבח הנורא והתשובה לביה״ד הבינלאומי בהאג שבמקום לדאוג ל-101 החטופים בחר להוציא צווים נגד ראש הממשלה ושר הבטחון. pic.twitter.com/01GGVwcS1d

— השר יצחק גולדקנופף (@DOVRUTGoldknopf) November 28, 2024

Police officer shot and seriously wounded in Jerusalem, incident apparently not a terror attack

Police say that a female officer was shot and wounded in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood.

A suspect opened fire on a group of officers and was later caught and arrested.

The policewoman is being taken to hospital in serious condition.

Police say they are investigating why the suspect opened fire, and an initial probe indicates that the motive was criminal and not terror.

In 1st since truce, IDF says jets carried out airstrike against Hezbollah rocket depot after identifying violations of ceasefire

The IDF says it carried an airstrike against a Hezbollah facility in southern Lebanon, after identifying activity there.

The facility had been used to hold medium-range rockets, according to the IDF.

The military says fighter jets struck the site after the Hezbollah activity was identified, removing the threat.

“The IDF is deployed in southern Lebanon, acting and thwarting any violation of the ceasefire agreement,” the military adds.

This is the first strike by warplanes since the ceasefire went into effect.

Report: Some US officials believe Hamas could agree to deal that Israel would back

Demonstrators call for a deal to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Jerusalem, November 27, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Some US officials say Hamas could give up on core demands and accept a ceasefire deal that Israel could back, The New York Times reports.

According to the outlet, even before a ceasefire was reached between Hezbollah and Israel this week, both Palestinian and US officials said they thought Hamas was ready to give up on the strategy professed by slain leader Yahya Sinwar, and to move forward toward a deal.

Shortly before his death, Sinwar had told Hamas’s leadership that a long war against Israel is beneficial: “The longer it lasts, the closer we get to liberation,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan recounts Sinwar saying.

Citing two people familiar with the terror group’s thinking, the report says leaders of the terror group are discussing allowing Israel to maintain a temporary presence on the Philadelpi Corridor, the border area between Egypt and Gaza that Israel’s leadership has pledged not to withdraw from.

According to the report, “reality started to sink in” after Sinwar’s death in October, as it became clear that Iran was not looking to open a direct conflict with Israel, and Hezbollah was being hit hard by the IDF. Hamas had hoped its allies in the Iranian axis would join in the fight and force Israel to accept a ceasefire on Hamas’s terms.

Hamas leaders are split over the role it should have after the war and the compromises it should make to achieve a ceasefire, according to the Times.

Decision-making is hampered by the fact that Hamas has not chosen a leader to replace Sinwar.

“The solution to Hamas’s military losses is simpler — there’s a pyramid of command and each commander or soldier can be replaced,” Hamas member Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh, tells the newspaper. “But on the political level, things are far more complicated. There will ultimately need to be elections. There are different factions and balances of power. All this makes it hard to predict.”

Furthermore, US officials believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is waiting for Donald Trump to take office before making any decisions on his positions around a deal with Hamas, says the report.

Sa’ar says he believes US will take action against ICC over Israel arrest warrants

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar gives a press conference on November 28, 2024, in Prague, Czech Republic. (Michal Cizek / AFP)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says he believes the United States will punish the International Criminal Court for issuing arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

Israel has said it will appeal the ICC decision to move against Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.

But during a visit to the Czech Republic, Sa’ar says other countries were also dismayed by the decision, including the United States.

“I tend to believe that in Washington, legislation is going to take place very shortly against the ICC and whoever cooperates with it,” Sa’ar tells a joint press conference with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky.

Sa’ar adds that Israel will finish the 14-month-old war in Gaza, sparked by the October 7 onslaught, when it “achieves its objectives” of returning hostages held by Hamas and ensuring the Islamist terror group no longer controls the Palestinian enclave.

Sa’ar says Israel did not intend to control civilian life in Gaza, adding that peace is “inevitable” but couldn’t be based on “illusions.”

Senior Iranian IRGC adviser said killed in Syria

Iranian media reports a senior military adviser from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed in Syria.

According to the reports, Brig. Gen. Kioumars Pourhashemi was killed in western Aleppo.

באיראן מדווחים כי קצין במשמרות המהפכה נהרג בקרבות עם המורדים בפרבר המערבי של חלב. https://t.co/4zI27JO7ej pic.twitter.com/lL97iRLDrE

— roi kais • روعي كايس • רועי קייס (@kaisos1987) November 28, 2024

Syrian rebel groups launched a large-scale attack on areas controlled by government forces yesterday, setting off fierce clashes and seizing territory in western Aleppo.

The offensive was launched the same day that the ceasefire began between Syrian ally Hezbollah and Israel.

German police arrest teenage suspect over alleged pipe bomb plot

German authorities say they arrested a teenager suspected of planning an Islamist pipe bomb attack.

Police found two bayonets, four pieces of piping and items suspected to be used to make a detonator in his home in the western district of Mainz-Bingen, they say.

The suspect, who is not named, was “radicalized online” and had shared “propagandistic content” on social media, the Koblenz prosecutor’s office says.

The teenager “glorified the crimes” of the Islamic State group and shared its calls for “jihad,” it adds in a statement.

He had “obtained instructions online on how to make pipe bombs and explosives,” investigators say.

There was no indication that the suspect was on the verge of carrying out an attack, prosecutors say, with no explosives found during the searches.

Germany has been on high alert for Islamist attacks since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel sparked the devastating war in the Gaza Strip.

Another teenager was arrested this month on suspicion of preparing an attack, which reportedly would have targeted a Christmas market.

The alleged plot recalled the deadliest jihadist attack in Germany, when a truck plowed into a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016, killing 12 people.

Likud MK promotes bill to privatize Army Radio amid coalition push to shutter public broadcaster

A soldier-reporter for Israel's Army Radio, on November 11, 2019. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

Amidst a coalition push to shutter Israel’s public broadcaster, Likud MK Nissim Vaturi is now promoting a new bill to privatize Army Radio, arguing that “that there is no need for a so-called military radio station, which is financed by the public, operates as a military unit and is staffed by soldiers.”

Vaturi’s bill, which was placed on the Knesset table earlier this week, would require the Second Authority for Television and Radio to carry out a tender for the sale of the network — along with affiliated network Galgalatz — to a private buyer.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi last year indicated that he intends to shut down the Second Authority as well.

In 2023, then defense minister Yoav Gallant decided not to shut down or privatize Army Radio despite several years of announcements by successive governments and the military that they intended to do so.

Army Radio — one of the most listened-to news stations in the country — is staffed by a mix of young soldiers and seasoned journalists. The bill would require IDF troops to halt their service at the station within two years.

The military’s operating and funding of a radio station with journalists responsible for investigating the IDF itself as well as politicians has long been considered anachronistic, expensive, and an ethical minefield.

While Hebrew media reported that the new bill was expected to be voted on by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation as early as Sunday, it does not currently appear on the high-level body’s agenda for next week.

Vaturi’s bill echoes the language of a similar piece of legislation that passed a preliminary reading 49-46 in the Knesset yesterday.

That bill, sponsored by Likud MK Tally Gotliv, would require the government to issue a tender for the purchase of the television and radio networks controlled by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation within two years.

The proposed legislation, which has been condemned as a threat to press freedom by journalists and opposition lawmakers, stipulates that if a buyer cannot be found in two years, the broadcaster will be shuttered completely and its intellectual property will revert to the government.

On Sunday the coalition announced it would be boycotting the left-wing Haaretz daily.

IDF footage shows strike against Hamas operative preparing to fire rockets from north Gaza’s Jabalia

The IDF releases footage of an airstrike against a Hamas operative preparing to launch rockets from northern Gaza’s Jabalia.

The military says the rockets were being set up in a building next to a weapons depot, where several other operatives were holed up.

Strikes were carried out against the primed rockets and weapons depot, killing the Hamas operatives, the military says.

IDF footage of an airstrike against a Hamas operative preparing to launch rockets from northern Gaza’s Jabalia, released November 28, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)

Gaza authorities say at least 21 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes

Palestinians run to take cover during an Israeli airstrike in the Nuseirat camp, in the central Gaza Strip, on November 28, 2024 (Ali Hassan/Flash90)

Hamas-run Gaza authorities say Israeli military strikes killed at least 21 Palestinians across the Strip, as forces stepped up their strikes central areas and tanks pushed deeper into the north and south of the enclave.

The figures could not be independently verified. There was no comment from the Israel Defense Forces on the strikes.

The apparent escalation comes a day after Israel and Hezbollah began a ceasefire in Lebanon, a year after the Iran-backed group began firing missiles at northern Israel on October 8, 2023, in what it said was a show of support for Hamas after the Palestinian terror organization carried out its onslaught a day earlier.

The deal between Hezbollah and Israel has raised hopes for a potential hostage and ceasefire deal for Gaza.

An Egyptian delegation is reportedly meeting Israeli officials today to present a “comprehensive vision” for Gaza.

Former UK soldier convicted of handing sensitive information to Iranian government

This is an undated file photo provided by the Metropolitan Police of Daniel Abed Khalife. (Metropolitan Police via AP, File)

A former British soldier whose audacious escape from a London prison spurred a dayslong search is convicted of passing on sensitive information to the Iranian intelligence service.

Daniel Khalife, 23, is found guilty by a jury in Woolwich Crown Court on violations of Britain’s Official Secrets Act by collecting information useful to an enemy — Iran. He is cleared of a charge of planting fake bombs in his military barracks.

Prosecutors said Khalife played a “cynical game” by claiming he wanted to be a spy after he had delivered a large amount of restricted and classified material to Iran, including the names of special forces officers.

Khalife testified that he had been in touch with people in the Iranian government but that it was all part of a ploy to ultimately work as a double agent for Britain, a scheme he said he got from watching the TV show “Homeland.”

“I wanted to utilize my background to further our national security,” he told jurors.

Khalife joined the Army at 16 and was assigned to the Royal Corps of Signals, a communications unit that is deployed with battlefield troops, as well as special forces and intelligence squads.

He was told he could not join the intelligence service because his mother is from Iran.

At 17, he reached out to a man connected with Iranian intelligence and began passing along information, prosecutors said. He was given NATO secret security clearance when he took part in a joint exercise at Fort Cavazos in Texas in early 2021.

British security officials were not aware of Khalife’s contacts with the Iranians until he contacted MI6, the UK’s foreign intelligence service, to offer to work as a double agent.

He reached out to MI6 anonymously, saying he had earned the trust of his Iranian handlers and that they had rewarded him by leaving a bag in a north London park that contained $2,000 cash ($1,578 pounds).

Khalife said most of the material he provided to his Iranian handlers was information he made up or documents that were available online and didn’t expose military secrets.

Fitch indicates durable Hezbollah ceasefire could limit pressure for further Israel downgrades

This photo shows signage for Fitch Ratings, in New York, October 9, 2011. (Henny Ray Abrams/AP)

Ratings agency Fitch indicates that the ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, if durable, would relieve some pressure for further credit downgrades and ease the burden on the country’s finances.

“The ceasefire, if sustained, will remove a key potential driver for increased conflict between Israel and Iran, a close ally of Hezbollah,” Fitch says. “A durable de-escalation of armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah… could help to limit pressure on Israel’s public finance metrics.”

However, Fitch cautions that “developments in Gaza and with Iran will still play an important role in determining Israel’s fiscal and economic trajectory.”

The credit ratings agency says it expects the war in Gaza to continue into 2025.

“This implies continued elevated spending on immediate military needs, and disruption to production in the border areas, as well as to tourism and construction,” Fitch comments.

In August Fitch downgraded Israel’s credit rating from A+ to A, and kept the rating outlook negative, warning that a further downgrade was possible in case of a “lengthening and/or widening of the conflict that would have a material and prolonged impact on the economy and public finances.”

IDF: Interceptor missile fired in Western Galilee was result of false identification

The Israel Defense Forces says in a statement that the interceptor missile fired a short time ago in the Western Galilee was the result of a false identification.

IDF says interceptor missile launched at ‘suspicious aerial target,’ incident over

The IDF says an interceptor missile was launched over the Western Galilee a short while ago due to a suspected “suspicious aerial target” spotted over Lebanon.

The incident is over, the military adds.

Interceptor missile reportedly launched over Western Galilee; no comment from IDF

An interceptor missile was reportedly launched a short while ago over the Western Galilee.

The IDF has not yet commented on the incident, which comes amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

An interceptor missile was reportedly launched a short while ago over the Western Galilee.

The IDF has not yet commented on the incident. pic.twitter.com/cAmaDWRtvf

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 28, 2024

Iran to hold nuclear talks with UK, France and Germany

Centrifuges line a hall at the Uranium Enrichment Facility in Natanz, Iran, in a still image from a video aired by the Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting company on April 17, 2021, six days after the hall had been damaged in a mysterious attack. (IRIB via AP)

Iran is set to meet with Britain, France and Germany for talks tomorrow on its nuclear program after the three governments joined with the United States to have Tehran censured by the UN atomic watchdog.

Last week’s chiding prompted a defiant response from Tehran, but its officials have since signaled willingness to engage with others ahead of the return of US president-elect Donald Trump, whose last administration pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” against the Islamic Republic.

Iranian diplomat Majid Takht-Ravanchi, who serves as the political deputy to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, is scheduled to represent Iran in the talks.

He will meet beforehand with Enrique Mora, deputy secretary general of the European Union’s foreign affairs arm, according to the IRNA state news agency.

After France statement on Netanyahu warrant, EU’s Borrell says ICC decisions must be respected

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell speaks to the press as he arrives for a meeting of EU Defence Ministers in Brussels on November 19, 2024. (NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP)

Outgoing European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell calls on all EU member states to respect decisions by the International Criminal Court, including the arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We cannot undermine the International Criminal Court. It is the only way of having global justice,” Borrell, whose term as the EU’s top diplomat ends this month, tells reporters in Brussels.

“They’re not political. It’s a legal body formed by respected people who are the best among the profession of judges.”

The ICC issued arrest warrants last week for Netanyahu, his former defense chief Yoav Gallant and a Hamas leader whom Israel says it killed this summer, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.

Though all EU member states are signatories to the ICC’s founding treaty, France said yesterday it believed Netanyahu had immunity to actions by the ICC, given Israel has not signed up to the court statutes.

Italy has said it is not feasible to arrest Netanyahu as long as he remains head of Israel’s government.

Suspect arrested over killing of 2 women in Ramle car blast

Police and rescue forces at the scene of a car explosion in Ramle, November 27, 2024. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

A suspect has reportedly been arrested over the killing of a mother and daughter yesterday in a car explosion on the outskirts of the central city of Ramle.

Reports indicated that the two women, Wafa’a Musratti, 49, and her daughter Cindy, 20, were likely relatives of people involved in a conflict between two crime families.

The suspect is due to appear at the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court today for a hearing on his detention.

Footage from another car showed the moment of the large blast on Route 200, which occurred while many vehicles were driving nearby.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said the two women were trapped in the burning car and that by the time fire and rescue officials reached them, little could be done besides pronouncing their deaths.

On Sunday, the Israel Observatory on Femicide lamented in its annual report number the number of killings of women linked to criminal gangs, with “a probability that the female victims were targeted since they were an ‘asset’ or the ‘property’ of men from underworld gangs in the Arab sector.”

החיסול הכפול ליד רמלה: באמצע כביש סואן – הרכב התפוצץ | תיעוד ממצלמת רכב@hadasgrinberg https://t.co/F8ygHmb6MC pic.twitter.com/SEA14BnIIV

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) November 27, 2024

IDF says south Lebanon drone strike was warning shot at suspects violating ceasefire

The IDF confirms carrying out a strike in southern Lebanon this morning, which it says was a warning shot.

It is the first reported drone strike since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect early yesterday.

“In the last hour, the arrival of suspects, some with vehicles, to several areas in southern Lebanon was identified, which constitutes a violation [of the ceasefire],” the IDF says.

The military says it opened fire at the suspects in the Markaba area with a warning shot near a vehicle that was not intended to kill those inside it.

“The IDF is deployed in southern Lebanon and enforces any violation of the ceasefire agreement,” the military adds.

Lebanese media reported at least two people were injured in the strike.

Israel has vowed to act forcefully against any violations of the ceasefire.

Smotrich says labor minister must amend daycare subsidy criteria so as not to disadvantage reservists

Reservists of the 252nd Division operate in the Netzarim Corridor area of the central Gaza Strip, in a handout photo published November 6, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demands that Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur amend the criteria for receiving child daycare subsidies to resolve an issue over the eligibility for IDF reservists.

Reservists were finding themselves “financially disadvantaged due to the reduction in their eligibility level as a result of the benefits and grants they received during the war,” Smotrich writes to Ben-Tzur.

He calls for adding a “designated eligibility level for reservists.”

Such a move would not require any additional budgetary outlays because it would simply return the reservists to the status they would have had before being mobilized, Smotrich insists.

Ben-Tzur, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, only recently published criteria for receiving the subsidy, following months of refusing to do so as part of a fierce struggle between the attorney general and the government surrounding child daycare subsidies for the Haredi population.

The fight erupted after the High Court ruled in June that ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students were obligated to perform military service after the law for blanket exemptions expired. In the same ruling, the court determined that the state could not fund such students. Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara said this meant that ultra-Orthodox families could not receive child daycare subsidies if the father had dodged the draft.

Following the attorney general’s determination, Ben-Tzur refused to publish the criteria for all 75,000 qualifying families, holding up the disbursement of some NIS 200 million ($53.5 million) and creating severe financial headaches for daycare centers.

However, last week, Ben-Tzur accepted a compromise offered by the High Court of Justice in which ultra-Orthodox families in which the father is obligated to perform military service but has failed to enlist will receive the subsidy for the first six months of this academic year.

A bill attempting to circumvent the High Court ruling and reinstate Haredi families’ eligibility for the subsidies was pulled from the Knesset agenda earlier this month due to intense pushback by members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

Lebanon’s parliament speaker said to set January 9 date to elect president

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads the first session of the newly elected parliament, in Beirut, Lebanon, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanon’s parliament will hold a session in January to elect a new president, official Lebanese media reports, a day after an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire began and following more than two years of presidential vacuum.

“Speaker Nabih Berri called a parliament session to elect a president of the republic on January 9,” the official National News Agency reports, referring to the Hezbollah-aligned lawmaker.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Military prosecutors indict soldier over killing of hero civilian Yuval Castleman at terror attack scene

Aviad Frija (left) at a military courtroom, December 26, 2023 (Flash90); Yuval Castleman. (Courtesy)

Military prosecutors have filed an indictment against Staff Sgt. (res.) Aviad Frija for the killing of Yuval Castleman at the scene of a deadly terror attack in Jerusalem last year.

Frija is being charged with manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

According to the incitement, on November 30, 2023, during a terror shooting attack at a bus stop at the entrance to Jerusalem, Castleman, an armed civilian, stopped his car across the street, got out and ran and killed the terrorists, ending the deadly attack.

Frija, who was off-duty at the time, was also at the scene and attempted to neutralize the two Hamas gunmen.

Moments after the two terrorists were shot by Castleman, Frija opened fire at the armed civilian, despite another off-duty soldier calling on him to cease fire, the indictment says.

The indictment says that Frija continued shooting at Castleman even after he raised his hands in the air, took off his jacket, threw down his gun, and posed no danger. The continued shooting caused Castleman’s death.

Video footage from the incident showed Castleman shouting “Don’t shoot” before the fatal shots by Frija.

The IDF says that the indictment was filed following an extensive Military Police investigation, and following a hearing.

Prosecutors set to announce charges for 4 accused of firing flares at Netanyahu home

Flares are fired at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in Caesarea, November 16, 2024. (Video screenshot; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Prosecutors are set to announce that they will charge four suspects accused of involvement in the firing of flares at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea earlier this month.

According to Channel 12 news, prosecutors say there is evidence to file an indictment against the four suspects and to request their detention until the end of the legal proceedings.

The suspects include Rear Adm. (res.) Ofer Doron and two other longtime anti-government activists.

Three flares were fired near the Netanyahus’ home. Nobody was harmed in the incident, no damage was caused, and neither the premier nor his wife Sara Netanyahu were at home at the time.

However, the prime minister’s wife has asked to be recognized as the victim of an attempted terror attack. Victims of a crime are entitled by law to be asked by prosecutors for their position on any plea bargain that might be proposed to those indicted over the incident, and on the punishment that might be meted out by the court.

Energean lowers 2024 production outlook, says Israel operations unaffected by geopolitical situation

Energean's floating production system (FPSO) at the Karish gas field in the Mediterranean Sea. (Energean)

Gas producer Energean lowers its full-year 2024 production forecast due to lower sales in Israel owing to bad weather conditions.

The company expects 2024 production to be between 150,000 and 155,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), compared with its prior forecast of 155,000-165,000 boepd.

Third-quarter production averaged 135,000 boepd, it adds, above brokerage Peel Hunt Research’s estimate of 120,000 boepd for the quarter.

“This reduction [in forecast] is due to Israel, which reflects lower than expected sales in November owing to weather conditions and market dynamics and, for the lower end, an assumption of flat month-on-month sales for December,” Energean says in a statement.

However, the company adds that day-to-day production in Israel remains unaffected by the ongoing geopolitical developments.

“Our operations continue to deliver energy security to Israel and the broader region through the optimisation of production from our FPSO (floating production storage and offloading), which has been operating at 99% uptime,” says Mathios Rigas, CEO of Energean.

Energean is producing increasing volumes of gas and oil from its flagship Karish field, offshore Israel, say analysts at Peel Hunt, adding that they expect 2025 to be another year of “robust delivery.”

Lebanese media reports at least 2 wounded in Israeli drone strike in Markaba

Lebanese media outlets report at least two wounded in an Israeli drone strike in the southern Lebanese village of Markaba.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF on the incident.

The reported drone strike comes the day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect.

Minister reiterates no ceasefire with Iranian proxies in Yemen, Iraq

Minister Ze'ev Elkin attends a Subcommittee for Rehabilitation of Tkuma Region, in the Knesset in Jerusalem on November 25, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Minister in the Finance Ministry Ze’ev Elkin reiterates that the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah does not include Iran’s proxies in Yemen and Iraq.

“There is no such commitment. They are not acting to help Hezbollah, but to help Hamas. They are Iran’s proxies and there is no ceasefire with them,” Elkin tells Army Radio.

The Yemeni Houthis have attacked Israel and global shipping for over a year, saying they were doing so in support of Palestinian terror group Hamas. Hamas led an invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, sparking the war in Gaza.

Israel has also been repeatedly attacked by Iraq’s Islamic Resistance in Iraq.

Report: Egyptian officials set to arrive in Israel to present ‘comprehensive vision’ for Gaza deal

Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. November 27, 2024 (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

An Egyptian security delegation is reportedly expected to arrive in Tel Aviv in the coming hours in an effort to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.

According to the Hezbollah-linked al-Akhbar news outlet, the Cairo officials are expected to present a “comprehensive vision” for an agreement, amid optimism that a deal can be reached in the wake of the Hezbollah ceasefire.

The report says the plan calls for a truce that will initially last a month or two and will see the gradual release of hostages, with first priority given to older captives or those who are sick.

Concurrently, “broader and longer discussions will take place, without military pressure on the ground,” the report says.

Egyptian officials will request that Hamas be given a period of several days after the truce begins in order to provide a list of the living hostages.

The plan would also see the Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and Gaza quickly returned to operation, under the supervision of the Palestinian Authority, with Egyptian oversight.

Israel would be given the right to veto those crossing to Egypt, with Cairo guaranteeing it will secure a Palestinian commitment that Hamas will not be allowed to control either the crossing or the Strip “during the coming period.”

The deal would also see an increase in humanitarian aid for Gaza, and medications would enter the Strip for the hostages that need.

The report also says that Israel will initially be permitted to maintain its military positions within Gaza, but without carrying out operations.

While not mentioned in the report, the potential deal is also assumed to include the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Report: Levin plans to delay proceedings for Supreme Court president appointment

Justice Minister Yariv Levin speaks during a Knesset plenum session on November 13, 2024. (Chaim Goldbergl/Flash90)

Justice Minister Yariv Levin plans to delay the already postponed proceedings to select a permanent president of the Supreme Court at the meeting of the Judicial Selection Committee, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

According to the outlet, Levin plans to bring a camera to this afternoon’s discussions and will demand they are broadcast live to “demonstrate to the public that the committee is unbalanced.”

The move is expected to be opposed by most members of the committee.

Levin reportedly intends to then initiate discussions on the method for picking a Supreme Court president, and on the ways in which reservations about various candidates will be discussed, in a manner that will lead to further High Court petitions on the matter.

Levin had refused to hold a vote in the Judicial Selection Committee to replace former Supreme Court president Esther Hayut for almost a year after she retired in October 2023, until the court, sitting in its capacity as the High Court of Justice, ordered him in September to hold a vote.

The justice minister refused to call a vote on the appointment of a permanent president since he wished to have a conservative installed as head of the court to take the judiciary in a more conservative direction.

Levin did not, however, have the votes in the committee to appoint the only candidate who put himself up for the job other than Justice Isaac Amit. Amit is now the acting president, and is set to become permanent president in accordance with the seniority system in place since the court was founded whereby the justice with most years on the court becomes the next president.

Lacking a majority for his position, the justice minister refused to call a vote, leading a government watchdog group to file a petition to the High Court accusing him of abusing his authority and exerting a de facto veto over the appointment.

Candace Owens barred from New Zealand after Australia ban for denying WWII Nazi experiments on Jews

Conservative commentator Candace Owens speaks at the Convention of the Right, in Paris on Sept. 28, 2019(AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The US conservative political commentor Candace Owens was refused a visa to enter New Zealand for a speaking engagement because she had been banned from another country, immigration officials say.

News of the ruling came weeks after neighboring Australia also rejected her visa request, citing remarks in which she denied Nazi medical experimentation on Jews in concentration camps during World War II.

Owens is scheduled to speak at a series of events in several Australian cities and in Auckland, New Zealand, in February and March next year. Tickets remain on sale and there is no acknowledgement on the promoter’s website that she has been refused entry to both countries.

The commentator, who has more than 3 million followers on YouTube, is accused by her detractors of promoting conspiracy theories and antisemitism and has ignited firestorms with her remarks opposing Black Lives Matter, feminism, vaccines and immigration.

In March, Owens said she had parted ways with the Daily Wire, on which she had hosted an online talk show since 2021, after clashes with its founders over her remarks about Jews and her opposition to US military support for Israel. She was widely criticized for comments in a YouTube video in July that minimized the Holocaust.

Owens had promised Australian and New Zealand audiences a discussion of free speech and her Christian faith when she announced the speaking tour in August.

But Australian officials banned her from the country in October, with Immigration Minister Tony Burke telling reporters Owens “has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction,” citing her remarks about the Holocaust and about Muslims.

“Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else,” Burke said. Australian Jewish groups had urged officials to bar her from the country.

New Zealand officials did not refer to Owens’ political views in a statement on Thursday.

Schools remain shut in northern border towns, Golan Heights despite Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire

Children in northern border towns are staying home today after Defense Minister Israel Katz decided to not allow schools to reopen, despite the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

According to Army Radio, the chiefs of the IDF Northern Command and Home Front Command both recommended to Katz to lift the restrictions in northern Israel.

Katz ruled against it, and the Home Front Command did not change the current guidelines, under which schools are closed in the Golan Heights and northern frontier communities.

Ukraine says national power infrastructure ‘under massive enemy attack’

Ukraine’s power infrastructure is “under massive enemy attack,” the country’s energy minister says, after a countrywide air raid alert was declared due to incoming missiles.

“Once again, the energy sector is under massive enemy attack. Attacks on energy facilities are taking place across Ukraine,” German Galushchenko says in a Facebook post, adding that the national power grid’s operator has “urgently introduced emergency power cuts.”

Countrywide air alert in Ukraine due to missile threat, its military says

Ukraine’s military says an air raid alert had been declared across the country due to a missile threat, reporting inbound missiles targeting several regions.

“Air raid alert has been declared all over the territory of Ukraine due to a missile threat,” Ukraine’s air force says in a message on Telegram, adding in other messages that missiles were detected headed for the regions of Mykolaiv, Kirovograd and Odesa.

Mexico president says border to remain open after Trump claimed she agreed to close it

US President-elect Donald Trump says Mexico’s leader had agreed to “stop” migration during a conversation between the pair, “effectively closing” the border between their countries.

Claudia Sheinbaum “has agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border,” Trump posts on his Truth Social platform.

Sheinbaum, who posted earlier on X about the call, said the pair had discussed Mexico’s migration “strategy” but made no reference to closing the border.

She worked quickly to respond to Trump’s claim, saying the country did not plan to close its border.

“Mexico’s position is not to close borders, but to build bridges between governments and communities,” the Mexican president writes on X.

IDF: Sirens triggered in northern border town were false alarms

The IDF says that the sirens triggered moments ago in the northern border town of Arab al-Aramshe were false alarms.

Sirens triggered in northern border town, day into ceasefire; no confirmation on what set it off

Rocket sirens have been triggered in the northern border town of Arab al-Aramshe.

There is no immediate confirmation of what set off the alert nearly 24 hours into the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Biden urged PM to help secure hostage deal in call ahead of Lebanon ceasefire announcement

US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their call yesterday ahead of the public announcement of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire that now was the time to focus on securing a hostage deal, Axios reports.

Biden said as much in his speech announcing the Lebanon deal shortly after the call.

“We have an opportunity now. Let’s get the hostages,” Biden told Netanyahu, according to US officials who spoke to Axios and who said the prime minister responded positively and said he wanted to try.

“What the president refuses to say is ‘The hostages should stay in tunnels or in some other horrible condition that they’re in for three more months because the United States has a transition period,” US special envoy Amos Hochstein told Jewish American community leaders during a briefing earlier today.

Syrian rebels launch attack against army in Aleppo province

Syrian rebels in the last opposition enclave in northern Syria have launched a wide-scale military operation against the Syrian army and seized territory in the first such advance in years, army and rebel sources say.

The rebel offensive has overrun at least 10 areas under the control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in northwestern Aleppo province, says a source in the operations room run by a coalition of insurgent groups led by the militant Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

The land incursion is the first such territorial advance since March 2020 when Russia, which backs Assad, and Turkey, which supports the rebels, agreed to a ceasefire that led to military action halting in Syria’s last major rebel stronghold in the country’s northwest.

Rebels advanced almost 10 km (6 miles) from the outskirts of Aleppo city and a few kilometres away from Nubl and Zahra, two Shi’ite towns where Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah has a strong militia presence, an army source says.

They have attacked Al-Nayrab airport east of Aleppo, where pro-Iranian militias have outposts.

Rebels say the campaign was in response to stepped-up strikes in recent weeks against civilians by the Russian and Syrian air force on areas in southern Idlib, and to preempt any attacks by the Syrian army, which was building up troops near front lines with rebels.

The army pounded areas near rebel-held Idlib city and the cities of Ariha and Sarmada along with other areas in southern Idlib province, according to an army source.

Source familiar with Hezbollah ops says up to 4,000 fighters may have been killed over past year

A woman holds a portrait of her grandson, a Hezbollah fighter who was killed in the fighting with Israeli troops, as she waits for rescuers to recover his body from under the rubble of a destroyed house, background, in Ainata village, southern Lebanon, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah on November 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

BEIRUT — With the bodies of its fighters still strewn on the battlefield, Hezbollah must bury its dead and provide succor to its supporters who bore the brunt of Israel’s offensive, as the first steps on a long and costly road to recovery, four senior officials say.

Hezbollah believes the number of its fighters killed during 14 months of hostilities could reach several thousand, with the vast majority killed since Israel went on the offensive in September, three sources familiar with its operations say, citing previously unreported internal estimates.

One source says the Iran-backed terror group may have lost up to 4,000 people — well over 10 times the number killed in its month-long 2006 war with Israel. So far, Lebanese authorities have said some 3,800 people were killed in the current hostilities, without distinguishing fighters from civilians.

The IDF has estimated that Israeli forces killed some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives.

Defense minister defends continued closure of northern schools amid truce: ‘A cautionary step’

Israel Katz during a Knesset plenum session on his appointment as defense minister, in Jerusalem, November 8, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Defense Minister Israel Katz defends his move to not allow schools to reopen in northern border towns tomorrow, despite the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

“The decision of the defense establishment to not remove the restrictions and not return the Galilee and northern communities to normalcy tomorrow is a step of necessary caution and a clear message regarding Israel’s determination to enforce the agreement,” Katz says in a statement issued by his office.

“If Hezbollah’s attempts to violate the agreement continue and the Lebanese government does not fulfill its obligations, Israel is prepared to respond strongly. We will not give up and we will not compromise on the safety of the residents of the north,” Katz adds.

According to Army Radio, the chiefs of the IDF Northern Command and Home Front Command, both recommended to Katz to lift the restrictions in northern Israel.

Katz ruled against it, and the Home Front Command did not change the current guidelines, under which schools are closed in the Golan Heights and northern frontier communities.