Oct. 8: Hezbollah threatens to regularly target Haifa if Israel keeps striking Lebanon

IDF says it intercepted drone ‘from the east’ as Iraqi militia claims attack on southern Israel

The IDF says that it intercepted a drone “launched from the east,” a term used to refer to Iraq.

No air raid sirens were activated before the interception, which an IDF statement says was “in accordance with protocol.”

The statement from the military comes shortly after the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iran-backed militia network, claimed an attack on southern Israel.

Harris: There’s been progress in Gaza talks but it’s ‘meaningless’ unless deal reached

US Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris walks to board Air Force Two as she departs for New York at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on October 7, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/AFP)

NEW YORK — There has been some progress on a Gaza ceasefire deal but it is “meaningless” unless a deal is actually reached, US Vice President Kamala Harris says during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The full interview with Harris, who faces Donald Trump in next month’s presidential election, will air during Tuesday night’s edition of the program.

“We must have a ceasefire and a hostage deal as immediately as possible,” she says.

Report: US in talks with Iran, Arab states for ceasefire on all war fronts

The United States and Arab states have launched covert talks with Iran for a comprehensive ceasefire aimed at calming all war fronts at once, Channel 12 reports.

The report says Israel isn’t currently involved in the initiative, but adds that senior Israeli officials have been informed about it.

The network notes that it isn’t clear how the efforts would affect Gaza, which is more complex than the rest of the fronts due to Israel’s desire to continue fighting even after a potential hostage deal and Hamas’s demand for an Israeli withdrawal in any deal.

One of the senior Israeli officials is quoted as saying: “We are currently in a position of power, a ceasefire will be on our terms, including a [Hezbollah] withdrawal beyond the Litani [River] and the dismantling of all military Hezbollah sites in areas near the border.”

IDF says Hezbollah fired 180 rockets at Israel today

Hezbollah launched some 180 rockets from Lebanon at northern Israel today, the IDF says.

Hezbollah threatens to regularly target Haifa if Israel keeps striking Lebanon

The Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group warns it will intensify attacks on Israel, including the northern port city of Haifa, if it continues to strike Lebanon.

“The Israeli enemy’s intensifying strikes” mean that “Haifa and other locations will be targeted by our rockets just as much as Kiryat Shmona, Metula, and other” locations, the group threatens.

Hezbollah earlier today fired over 100 projectiles from Lebanon at northern Israel, including Haifa, in the largest attack on the area since the start of the war.

Lebanese media reports Israeli strikes in southern Beirut

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut's southern neighborhoods on October 8, 2024. (Ibrahim Amro/AFP)

Lebanese media says Israel has been striking in Beirut’s southern neighborhoods.

The reports come hours after the IDF called on Lebanese civilians near two buildings in the southern suburb of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh, to evacuate immediately ahead of airstrikes.

US: Hezbollah’s sudden desire for a ceasefire shows it’s ‘getting battered’

Hezbollah’s call for a ceasefire today shows the terror group is on the back foot and “getting battered,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller tells a regular briefing.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said in a televised address the Iran-backed group’s capabilities are intact and its fighters are pushing back Israeli ground incursions, despite the “painful blows” inflicted by Israel in recent weeks.

Qassem said the group supports the efforts of Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, to secure a ceasefire, without providing further details on any conditions demanded by Hezbollah.

“For a year, you had the world calling for this ceasefire, you had Hezbollah refusing to agree to one, and now that Hezbollah is on the back foot and is getting battered, suddenly they’ve changed their tune and want a ceasefire,” Miller says.

“We continue to ultimately want a diplomatic solution to this conflict,” Miller says.

Iran threatens Gulf states with retaliation if they let Israel use their airspace for strike

Tehran has told Gulf states it would be “unacceptable” if they allow their airspace to be used against Iran and any such move will draw a response, a senior Iranian official says, as Tehran braces for Israeli retaliation for last week’s missile attack on the country.

“Iran made it clear that any action by a Persian Gulf country against Tehran, whether through the use of airspace or military bases, will be regarded by Tehran as an action taken by the entire group, and Tehran will respond accordingly,” the senior Iranian official tells Reuters.

“The message emphasized the need for regional unity against Israel and the importance of securing stability. It also made clear that any assistance to Israel, such as allowing the use of a regional country’s airspace for actions against Iran, is unacceptable,” he says.

Syrian state media claims alleged Israeli strike killed 7, injured 11

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency, citing a military source, claims that seven civilians were killed and 11 others were wounded in tonight’s alleged Israeli airstrike on Damascus.

SANA says Israeli warplanes launched three missiles from over the Golan Heights, targeting a residential and commercial building in the Mezzeh district of the capital.

In addition to the casualties, the strike caused “significant material damage,” it says.

It adds that rescue forces are still working to extract people from under the rubble.

The Saudi news outlet Al-Hadath reported earlier that the target was a top Hezbollah official in the terror group’s Unit 4400, which is tasked with delivering weapons from Iran and its proxies to Lebanon.

Pentagon says Gallant’s US trip postponed, after Netanyahu set last-minute demands

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (R) welcomes Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to the Pentagon in Washington, June 25, 2024. (Saul Loeb/AFP)

The Defense Ministry has informed the Pentagon that it is postponing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s trip to the US where he had been scheduled to meet tomorrow with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, a US Defense Department spokesperson announces.

Gallant was supposed to fly in the next few hours.

The confirmation follows reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been blocking Gallant’s visit because he wants to first speak with Biden about Israel’s planned retaliation against Iran, and wants the security cabinet to first approve the planned response. The two leaders haven’t spoken in nearly fifty days amid growing frustration in Washington with Netanyahu’s handling of the war and perceived lack of strategy for how to bring it to an end.

Syria strike said to target Hezbollah commander in charge of coordination with Iran

The target of the alleged Israeli airstrike in Damascus this evening was a top Hezbollah official in the terror group’s Unit 4400, the Saudi news outlet Al-Hadath reports.

Unit 4400 is tasked with delivering weapons from Iran and its proxies to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The strike was carried out against an apartment building in the Mezzeh district of the capital Damascus, a few hundred meters from the Iranian embassy.

Multiple reports have said the targeted building is linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

IDF urges Lebanese civilians to leave area of 2 Hezbollah sites in Beirut ahead of strikes

The IDF is calling on Lebanese civilians near two buildings in the southern suburb of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh, to evacuate immediately ahead of airstrikes.

Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, publishes maps alongside the announcement, which call on civilians to distance themselves at least 500 meters from the sites, which the military says belong to Hezbollah.

In recent days, the IDF has issued several evacuation orders for specific sites in Dahiyeh ahead of airstrikes on Hezbollah infrastructure.

#عاجل ‼️ انذار عاجل إلى سكان الضاحية الجنوبية في حارة حريك وحدث بيروت وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط وتلك المجاورة لها:
🔴أنتم متواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله وسيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع على مدى الزمني القريب
🔴من أجل سلامتكم وسلامة أبناء عائلتكم عليكم اخلاء… pic.twitter.com/W00ws3Q8bh

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 8, 2024

Contradicting Netanyahu, IDF spokesman says not sure Nasrallah’s successor has been killed

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari speaks to reporters on October 1, 2024. (Screenshot/IDF)

After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah’s projected successor has been killed, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the military is still looking into the results of the strike.

Asked at a press conference about the alleged assassination on Thursday of top Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, Hagari says: “We struck Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut… this is the headquarters of the head of the intelligence division, Abu Abdullah Mortada. We know that Hashem Safieddine was there with him. The results of this strike are still being looked into, Hezbollah is trying to hide the details. When we know, we will update the public.”

IDF airs footage of Hezbollah tunnel that crossed into Israel before its demolition

An image released by the IDF on October 8, 2024, showing the location of a Hezbollah tunnel that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon and has been demolished. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF releases footage showing the inside of a Hezbollah tunnel that crossed into Israel by several meters and was recently demolished.

According to the IDF, the 20-meter-long tunnel had no exit in Israeli territory, and its path crossed the UN-recognized Blue Line by about 10 meters, in the western sector of the border, near the Lebanese village of Marwahin, just across from the Israeli community of Zar’it.

The tunnel, which has been known to the army since its construction began some two years ago, was physically located by commandos during raids in southern Lebanon several months ago, with the military having full control over the area.

IDF says 50 Hezbollah members, including 6 top commanders, killed in strikes yesterday

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a Hezbollah site in Beirut's southern suburbs on October 8, 2024. (Mohammad Abou Al Ainain/AFP)

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says 50 operatives and at least six top commanders in Hezbollah’s so-called Southern Front were killed in a wide wave of airstrikes in southern Lebanon yesterday.

“We can confirm that in the strike, more than 50 terrorists, among them six senior commanders, were killed. This is a heavy blow to Hezbollah. We can see this now during the fighting in the south [of Lebanon],” he says in a press conference.

“The terrorists we killed yesterday are the commanders and terrorists who were set, on the day that the order would be given, to infiltrate Israel, into towns in the north, to murder, and kidnap Israeli civilians,” Hagari says.

The Southern Front, responsible for the terror group’s military activity in south Lebanon, was commanded by Ali Karaki, who was killed alongside Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah last month.

Yesterday, the IDF said that some 100 Israeli fighter jets carried out a large wave of airstrikes against more than 120 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

The strikes, which lasted an hour, hit Hezbollah sites belonging to the terror group’s Southern Front, elite Radwan Force, rocket and missile division, and intelligence division, according to the military.

Gantz accuses Netanyahu of harming national security by hindering Gallant’s US trip

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (center) and Minister Benny Gantz (right) embrace, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at left, at a joint press conference at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on November 11, 2023. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)

National Unity party chief Benny Gantz slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over reports that the latter is imposing last-minute conditions on Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s trip to the US ahead of Israel’s expected retaliation for Iran’s missile attack last week.

Gantz, a former war cabinet minister who left the wartime government months ago due to what he said is Netanyahu involving political and other considerations in the war management, tweets that “canceling the defense minister’s trip to the US damages national security at a crucial time to our security, for personal and political considerations.”

“A prime minister who had Israel’s security as his top priority would have sent the defense minister” and “coordinated the messages with him,” argues Gantz.

There have been repeated clashes between Gallant and Netanyahu, who has for months been flirting with the option of firing his defense minister.

3,000 rockets fired from Lebanon at Israel since start of new offensive, IDF says

Since Israel launched a new offensive against Hezbollah on September 23, the IDF says some 3,000 rockets have been fired at Israel from Lebanon.

Alleged Israeli strike on Damascus building said to cause casualties

The alleged Israeli airstrike on Damascus reportedly targeted a building in the Mezzeh district of the Syrian capital.

Syrian media outlets say there are casualties in the strike.

🚨

استهداف شقة في الدور السفلي بـ حي المزه بالقرب من السفارة الايرانية 🇮🇷 – دمشق المحتلة – سوريا و انباء عن عملية اغتيال شخصية كبيرة🔥 pic.twitter.com/vuT6Ioweqj

— فهد 🇰🇼 ( أخوان مريم ) 🇰🇼 (@fahadddd83) October 8, 2024

Explosions heard in Damascus during alleged Israeli attack

Syrian media report explosions heard in the capital Damascus, amid what some reports allege is an Israeli airstrike.

Photos shared on social media appear to show smoke rising from the Damascus area.

🚨 عاجل
دوي انفجارات عنيفة في دمشق قبل قليل pic.twitter.com/jYJaPrzqIu

— وسيم عيسى (@wassim_essa) October 8, 2024

Sinwar reportedly seeking guarantee Israel won’t try to kill him during negotiations on a deal

Hamas's Gaza Strip leader Yahya Sinwar in a tunnel in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, October 10, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has recently sent a message to the Qatari mediators of a potential hostage-ceasefire deal seeking a guarantee that Israel will not try to kill him in the course of the negotiations, Channel 12 says in an unsourced report.

Sinwar wants “immunity” from a potential targeted strike during the talks, the report says.

It further says that the Qataris responded by telling him that his personal wellbeing is not the issue, and that a deal must be done and the hostages returned. It also claims Qatar is threatening to freeze Hamas bank assets and warning that it will not help fund rebuilding in Gaza after the war unless there is progress in the currently deadlocked talks.

The TV station was one of several media outlets that reported yesterday that Sinwar has reestablished contact with the Qatari mediators after weeks of silence. These reports have not been confirmed and the Ynet news site quoted an Israeli source earlier today denying them.

Netanyahu said barring defense minister from heading to US until Biden calls him

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attend vote on the state budget at the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, March 13, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is conditioning Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s planned visit to the United States, saying it is not approved until Netanyahu speaks with US President Joe Biden, several Hebrew media outlets report. Gallant is supposed to fly in the next few hours, and is set to meet US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tomorrow.

Netanyahu spoke with Gallant this evening and has said he’s not yet okaying the one-day visit, in which Gallant plans to meet his counterpart and other US officials to discuss Israel’s planned reaction to Iran’s missile attack last week, the reports say, without citing sources.

Channel 12 says Netanyahu has been waiting for what he thinks was a promised call from Biden for the past 10 days.

Channel 12’s report says Netanyahu is also conditioning the trip on the security cabinet first approving Israel’s planned response to the Iranian attack. It says Gallant told Netanyahu on the eve of Rosh Hashanah last week — a day after the Iranian attack — about the invitation he had received from Austin.

The defense minister intends to take senior Defense Ministry officials with him, Channel 12 says, and to discuss coordination with the US regarding the Israeli response to Iran, US support for the defense of Israel in the event of an Iranian response, and issues relating to the deployment of US forces in the area.

It quotes unnamed officials in the Prime Minister’s Office saying there is no point in Gallant making the trip until the cabinet has approved the response to Iran, since that’s the key issue he is supposed to discuss with Austin.

There have been repeated clashes between Gallant and Netanyahu, who has for months been flirting with the option of firing his defense minister.

UN chief argues that Israel severing ties with UNRWA would be ‘catastrophe’

UN Secretary General António Guterres at a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East at the United Nations headquarters on October 2, 2024 in New York (Bryan R. Smith/AFP)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says he has written to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning him that draft Knesset legislation to prevent the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants (UNRWA) from working in the West Bank and Gaza would be a “catastrophe.”

“Such a measure would suffocate efforts to ease human suffering and tensions in Gaza, and indeed, the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory. It would be a catastrophe in what is already an unmitigated disaster,” he tells reporters.

In July, the Knesset gave preliminary approval to a bill that declares UNRWA a terrorist organization and proposes severing relations with the body. Israeli leaders have accused UNRWA of collaborating with Hamas terrorists in Gaza and of playing an active role in radicalizing Gazans over the years.

Iranian TV airs footage of Hezbollah members injured in pager attack visiting Iranian mosque

Iranian television broadcasts footage of Hezbollah members wounded in the detonating pager attack visiting the Imam Reza shrine in Iran’s Mashhad, the world’s largest mosque.

The wounds suffered by the operatives in the attack, widely attributed to Israel, are highlighted in the footage, with close-up shots of bandages covering what appear to be missing fingers and other injuries.

פעילים בשורות חיזבאללה שנפגעו במתקפת הביפרים ומכשירי הקשר שמיוחסת לישראל, יצאו לבקר בקבר האימאם עלי רזא במשהד שבאיראן. ככה זה נראה @OmerShahar123 pic.twitter.com/9taPwVVuJ1

— roi kais • روعي كايس • רועי קייס (@kaisos1987) October 8, 2024

Netanyahu confirms Hezbollah’s Safieddine killed, says terror group at its weakest point in many years

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in a video message from his office, October 8, 2024. (Screenshot/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirms that Israel assassinated the projected new Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine, who was targeted in an airstrike in Beirut last Thursday, and claims Israel has also killed Safieddine’s replacement, without saying who this would be.

In an English-language video message to the Lebanese public, Netanyahu says that Israel has “degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities; we took out thousands of terrorists, including [longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah himself, and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of his replacement.”

“Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it has been for many many years,” says the premier.

ראש הממשלה נתניהו בפנייה ישירה לאזרחי לבנון: "עומדת בפניכם הזדמנות להציל את לבנון – לפני שתיפול לתוך תהום של הרס וסבל בדומה לעזה" pic.twitter.com/2X8TC2Ep5F

— ישראל היום (@IsraelHayomHeb) October 8, 2024

He spends much of the message urging the public to take the country back from Hezbollah control.

“Now you, the Lebanese people, you stand at a significant crossroads. It is your choice,” he continues.

Lebanese citizens, Netanyahu says, “can now take back your country. You can return it to a path of peace and prosperity.”

If they don’t, he argues, “Hezbollah will continue to try to fight Israel from densely populated areas at your expense.”

He says that the Lebanese “deserve to restore Lebanon to its days of tranquility; you deserve a Lebanon that is different.”

“One Country — One Flag — One People,” he says, borrowing from the original US Pledge of Allegiance. “Don’t let these terrorists destroy your future any more than they’ve already done.”

He exhorts the Lebanese to “stand up and take your country back.”

“Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end,” he says.

“Free your country from Hezbollah so that your country can prosper again, so that future generations of Lebanese and Israeli children will know neither war nor bloodshed, but will finally live together in peace.”

IDF says it destroyed Hezbollah tunnel that crossed into Israel but had no exit point

An image released by the IDF on October 8, 2024, showing the location of a Hezbollah tunnel that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon and has been demolished. (Israel Defense Forces)

Israeli forces have demolished a small Hezbollah tunnel that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon by several meters, the military announces.

According to the IDF, the 20-meter-long tunnel had no exit in Israeli territory, and its path crossed the UN-recognized Blue Line by about 10 meters, in the western sector of the border, near the Lebanese village of Marwahin, just across from the Israeli community of Zar’it.

No towns were ever under any threat by the tunnel, the military says.

According to Israeli military assessments, Hezbollah began the construction of the tunnel about two years ago, and it was quickly identified by the IDF. The military says it wanted to keep tabs on the tunnel as it was being built, rather than reveal to Hezbollah that it had intelligence of the underground route.

The tunnel was then physically located by commandos during raids in southern Lebanon several months ago, though the military stresses that it was previously known to the IDF and it had full control over the area.

The military says troops searched the tunnel and found weapons inside, including explosives and anti-tank missiles.

Now that the IDF is operating in southern Lebanon with larger forces, it says it took the opportunity to demolish the tunnel.

According to the IDF, there are no other known tunnels that cross into Israel from Lebanon.

IDF says 2 rockets fired from Gaza at Sderot were intercepted

Two rockets launched from the Gaza Strip at Sderot were shot down by air defenses, the IDF says.

Sirens had sounded in Sderot and nearby towns amid the attack.

There are no reports of injuries or damage.

Rocket alerts sound in Gaza border towns, north

Rocket alerts are sounding in Sderot and surrounding towns near the Gaza border.

Alarms are also sounding in Kiryat Shmona in the north.

While the north has recently been going through dozens of rocket attacks every day, the sirens in Sderot come as rocket fire from Gaza has become increasingly rare.

Knesset panel readies bill to deport relatives of terrorists, as MK slams legal reservations

The Knesset House Committee is currently preparing a bill to allow the government to strip citizenship or residency and deport relatives of terrorists for the second and third readings necessary for it to become law.

According to the proposal, the interior minister will be granted the authority, following a hearing, to order the deportation of a relative of a terrorist who knew of the plans in advance and expressed sympathy and encouragement for such a course of action.

Addressing the committee, a representative of the Attorney General’s Office states that a pattern of behavior ought to be necessary to implement the law, which he says “should be established as a temporary order for the current war.”

“Stop looking at the rights of the terrorists and look at the Israeli cemeteries that are being filled by these attacks,” says committee chairman Ofir Katz (Likud).

“We are at war, they are slaughtering us and we have no deterrence against them. If the terrorist knew that as soon as he goes to McDonald’s in Beersheba and shoots a policewoman his parents would subsequently be deported, it might have made him think twice.”

On Sunday, Ahmad al-Uqbi, a Bedouin citizen of Israel, killed Border Police officer Shira Suslik and wounded 10 others in a shooting at Beersheba’s central bus station.

Following the attack, Transportation Minister Miri Regev and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir both called to deport the families of terrorists, even those who have Israeli citizenship.

Ben Gvir files complaint, saying someone sent fake letter telling police stations to hang his photo

Otzma Yehudit party chief Itamar Ben Gvir (L) speaks with his chief of staff Chanamel Dorfman during a Knesset special committee to discuss his proposed Police Ordinance changes, December 18, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s office announces that the far-right politician has filed a police complaint after an unidentified person allegedly sent a letter in the name of a top aide of his, demanding that Ben Gvir’s photograph be hung in police stations.

The directive, which was allegedly sent to several stations in the name of Chanamel Dorfman, Ben Gvir’s chief of staff, is “a fake letter and there is no such directive,” Ben Gvir’s office states.

Critics have long accused Ben Gvir of politicizing the Israel Police, with former chief Kobi Shabtai declaring during a farewell address in July that “we must not make the police political — that is how we lose public legitimacy and lose our right to exist.”

After barrage, Home Front Command orders schools shut in cities near Haifa

The IDF Home Front Command is issuing stricter guidelines in several cities near Haifa, which prevent schools from operating.

Schools will not be able to open in Kiryat Ata, Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Yam and Kiryat Motzkin, under the latest guidelines. Schools will stay open in Haifa itself, provided that a bomb shelter can be reached quickly enough.

The change comes after Hezbollah fired 105 rockets at the Haifa area this morning.

There are no other changes, the IDF adds.

Israeli officials reportedly deny that Sinwar renewed contact with Qatar

Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar gestures on stage after greeting supporters at a rally in Gaza City, May 24, 2021. (AP Photo/ John Minchillo)

After reports yesterday that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had made contact with mediators regarding a hostage deal after weeks of being incommunicado, the Ynet news site cites unnamed Israeli sources as asserting that is untrue.

“That’s incorrect. Sinwar didn’t make contact with the mediating countries,” a source reportedly says.

Multiple reports in Israeli and foreign media outlets said yesterday that Sinwar had reestablished contact with mediators in Qatar, after weeks of silence that had stirred speculation he might have been killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza.

IDF says 25 rockets fired at Kiryat Shmona an hour ago; no injuries or major damage

A barrage of some 25 rockets was fired from Lebanon at the northern city of Kiryat Shmona an hour ago, the IDF says.

According to the military, some of the rockets were intercepted, while others impacted in the area.

There are no reports of injuries or major damage.

Dublin city councilor slammed for claiming Jews, Israel control US economy

Dublin City Councilor Punam Rane said in a council meeting Monday evening that the US economy is run by the Jews and Israel, and that is why Washington doesn’t oppose Israel’s war on Hamas.

“USA or America should have taken a stance, but how many of you know the entire US economy today is ruled by the Jews, by Israel, they will never be able to take a stance,” says the Fine Gael party councilor, speaking about the war in Gaza, which has spread to multiple other fronts.

“It will cripple the whole US economy if they take a stance, and therefore they’re afraid of taking a stance, that’ll never happen unless and until the global powers that are emerging take a stance themselves and make the US take a stance, and that’s what’s happening,” she continues.

Another councilor, Conor Reddy, asks the mayor to request that Rane “clarify her remarks on Jews controlling the American economy.”

In his denunciation of Rane’s remarks, Reddy argues that Zionism is distinct from Judaism: “That’s tremendously unhelpful, we’re all here in solidarity with Palestine… To equate Judaism and Zionism is a complete fallacy, it’s wrong, and I think we all stand against antisemitism and it would be helpful if she could withdraw that particular use of words.”

Rane doubles down on her claim about Israel controlling the US economy in her clarification.

“I didn’t actually mean a particular community, ” she says, “but I’m just saying, today the US economy is ruled by the Israelis, it’s not wrong, they have worked hard for it.”

FG Dublin City Clr Punam Rane last night in a Council meeting discussing a boycott israel Bill asserted the US economy is “ controlled by the Jews & Israel”.Representing Kimmage/ Rathmines she canvassed Jewish voters during local elections. Today’s apology deserves no credibility pic.twitter.com/2XjSr4Leem

— Alan Shatter (@Alan__Shatter) October 8, 2024

Today, Rane apologizes on X, writing: “I completely withdraw my comments made at last night’s city council meeting in relation to a motion on the Occupied Territories Bill. It was wrong and I fully apologise for it.”

Ireland has long been a vocal critic of Israel in Europe. Ireland’s new chief rabbi said that the pro-Palestinian sentiment often “spills into overt antisemitism.”

‘Bibi, you’ve got no strategy’: Biden said to yell at Netanyahu, and call him ‘liar’ and ‘son of a bitch’

US President Joe Biden (right) meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, July 25, 2024. (AP/Susan Walsh)

US President Joe Biden called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “fucking liar” after IDF troops went into Rafah, and yelled at the premier after an Israeli Air Force strike took out a top Hezbollah commander, according to an upcoming book by US journalist Bob Woodward.

The relationship between the two leaders grew increasingly tense during the spring of 2024, according to CNN, which snagged an advance copy of the book, entitled “War.”

According to the excerpts, during an April phone call, Biden asked Netanyahu: “What’s your strategy, man?”

Netanyahu said Israel had to go into Rafah, the Gaza-Egypt border city that had become Hamas’s last stronghold in Gaza.

“Bibi, you’ve got no strategy,” responded Biden, according to Woodward.

In May, Israeli forces entered Rafah in a limited operation that went far more smoothly than the US had predicted.

Also in April, Israel allegedly assassinated two Revolutionary Guard generals in the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria. After the US and other allies helped Israel intercept most of the missiles Iran fired in response, Biden urged Netanyahu to not respond and to “take the win.”

According to the book, Biden considered Israel’s limited response to the Iranian attack a success. “I know he’s going to do something but the way I limit it is tell him to ‘Do nothing,'” Biden told advisers.

After Israel entered Rafah, Biden said of Netanyahu: “He’s a fucking liar.”

“That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy,” said Biden privately, according to Woodward. “He’s a bad fucking guy!”

Politico was the first to report that Biden had been using this phrase to talk about Netanyahu in February, but the White House quickly issued a denial.

In July, Israel took out Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s top military commander.

“Bibi, what the fuck?” yelled Biden in their next conversation. “You know the perception of Israel around the world increasingly is that you’re a rogue state, a rogue actor.”

Shukr played a key role in the bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in 1983 which left 241 US servicemembers dead. The US had a $5 million bounty on Shukr’s head when he was killed.

Woodward also writes about US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about normalizing ties with Israel. Blinken asked about whether the Saudis insisted on a Palestinian state as the price of normalization.

“Do I want it?” asked bin Salman. “It doesn’t matter that much. Do I need it? Absolutely.”

Sirens sound repeatedly in northern towns

Sirens have been sounding in the north over the past 30 minutes, with incoming rocket alerts blaring in Kiryat Shmona and its surroundings, then in Rosh Nanikra, and now in Metula.

There are no reports of impacts or injuries.

Norway hikes terror threat level to ‘high’ over threats against Jewish, Israeli targets

Norway’s PST intelligence agency raises its terror threat level to “high,” fearing repercussions in the Scandinavian country from escalating tensions in the Middle East.

“We are raising the threat level from moderate to high in Norway due to several factors, primarily the current escalation in the Middle East,” the PST says, adding that “Jewish and Israeli targets” are most under threat in Norway.

IDF division says it killed 200 Hezbollah members, demolished tunnels and weapons in week of ground op

Troops of the 98th Division operate in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo issued on October 8, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF’s 98th Division summarizes a week of operations in southern Lebanon, reporting that its troops have killed over 200 Hezbollah operatives in several villages adjacent to the Israeli border.

The elite formation of paratrooper and commando units, joined by the 7th Armored Brigade and elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, were the first Israeli forces to enter Lebanon when the official ground operations began on September 30.

The IDF says the division has demolished several tunnels and located hundreds of weapons in villages close to the border, which were intended to have been used by Hezbollah to attack northern Israel.

More than 100 tons of explosives have been used by the division to demolish Hezbollah sites above and below ground, according to military sources.

Troops of the 98th Division operate in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo issued on October 8, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The division, which previously battled Hamas in Gaza for months, says Hezbollah is a different enemy from Hamas, but not necessarily stronger.

The division has found Hezbollah to be a far more organized fighting force than Hamas, but largely operating above ground and not in tunnels like the terror group in Gaza. Hezbollah also has more advanced weapons and better fortifications, the division has identified.

Still, the division says it has the upper hand and has been successful with its operations.

Last week, six members of the Egoz Commando Unit were killed during a fierce battle with Hezbollah operatives, and another three paratroopers were killed in separate incidents that same day.

2 IDF officers promoted to major general, will enter new General Staff roles soon

Dan Goldfus (left) and Dado Bar Kalifa are promoted to the rank of major general during a ceremony today at the IDF HQ in Tel Aviv, October 8, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Senior officers Dan Goldfus and Dado Bar Kalifa are promoted to the rank of major general, ahead of entering new roles in the IDF General Staff.

Goldfus, the former commander of the 98th Division, has been appointed the next head of the Northern Corps and Maneuver Array, and Bar Kalifa, the former commander of the 36th Division, has been appointed the head of the Personnel Directorate.

The IDF says the pair will enter their new roles in the coming weeks.

Police slammed for arrest of Arab woman, ordered by Ben Gvir, said to be based on mistaken interpretation of TikTok post

Entisar Hijaze seen being arrested by police early on October 8, 2024, in Tamra, northern Israel. (Israel Police)

An Arab Israeli woman was arrested this morning on suspicion of “conduct likely to disturb public order,” after National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has authority over the police, sent a social media post in which she allegedly celebrated Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack to the police department dedicated to combating online incitement.

However, many observers have since noted that the arrest was likely based on a misinterpretation of the post, and the State Attorney’s Office has criticized the arrest.

The woman’s detention has been extended for three days by the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court.

In the post in question, the woman, named in media reports as Entisar Hijaze, who the police say is an educator and who reportedly teaches children about animals, is seen dancing to the song “Betty Boop” in a school in Nazareth where she works, with the lyrics “good times” added in to the song, and with the words “On This Day — 7/10/23” appearing at the bottom of the video, indicating it was published on the day of the Hamas onslaught.

שרשור סיפורו של חרטא: 2 שרים כבר רקדו על הריקוד של אינתיסאר חיג'אזי מטמרה מדריכה בקרן קרב, גם המשטרה. הכי עצוב זה שלל כלי התקשורת שפרסמו ואיש לא טרח להקדיש 5 דקות לבדיקה בסיסית. זה הסרטון שלה ולטענת המשטרה פורסם אתמול עם כיתוב בעברית כדי להסית לטרור ולהתסיס דווקא ביום הנורא הזה pic.twitter.com/WIAa1B9ANg

— יוסי מזרחי Yossi Mizrachi (@yosimiz1) October 8, 2024

The police say they raided her home in the northern town of Tamra overnight, and publish a photograph of her blindfolded in a police vehicle, saying the force will “continue to act, locate, and deal with inciters to violence and acts of terrorism.”

4. המעצר של מדריכת החיות, לפי בן גביר בהוראה שלו, בוצע כשעיניה מכוסות בפלנלית, בדיוק כמו מעצרי מחבלים בשטחים, למרות שהפרקליטות אסרה זאת בתחילת השנה אבל המשטרה מצפצפת.
5. מעצר בעבירת חופש ביטוי מחייב אישור פרקליטות אבל למי אכפת?
5. ברגישות היא תקבל כנראה ציון נכשל אבל הסתה?? pic.twitter.com/vYiFYidq6g

— יוסי מזרחי Yossi Mizrachi (@yosimiz1) October 8, 2024

Ben Gvir subsequently writes on X: “Zero tolerance for incitement and terrorism supporters.”

According to court documents from the woman’s arraignment, her lawyer argues that the video was uploaded in the early hours of October 7, 2023, before she had heard about the “horrific events in the south,” and that she had not intended to disturb the public order or incite to terrorism.

Further doubts are raised by social media users and journalists, with the Fake Reporter investigative organization finding that the woman’s social media accounts have no history of political or nationalistic activism, and that she had later posted about her sadness regarding a specific victim of the October 7 massacre.

It is also noted that the video she posted appears to be part of a dance trend that was popular at the time on the TikTok social media platform, and that the date is mentioned because the video was reposted yesterday — exactly a year after it was first published — using the “On this day” feature.

The police did not arrest her on suspicion of incitement to terrorism, incitement to violence, or related crimes, but rather on suspicion of “conduct disturbing public order.” State Attorney Amit Aisman recently accused the police of circumventing their obligation to obtain permission from his office for investigations into incitement by arresting people on this lesser charge.

The State Attorney’s Office says in response to the incident that given “the circumstances of the incident as they have been published, it is not clear why the police decided to handcuff the suspect and blindfold her.”

Projected new Hezbollah chief Safieddine likely killed, says Defense Minister Gallant

File: The head of Hezbollah's Executive Council Hashem Safieddine attends a ceremony of the Iran-backed terror group in Beirut's southern suburbs on May 24, 2024. (ANWAR AMRO / AFP)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, who was in line to replace the terror group’s assassinated leader Hassan Nasrallah, was likely killed in last week’s strike in Beirut.

“Hezbollah is an organization without a leader, Nasrallah was eliminated, his replacement was probably also eliminated. This has a dramatic effect on everything that happens. There is no one to make decisions, no one to act,” Gallant says during a visit to the IDF Northern Command, adding that Hezbollah’s firepower capabilities have also taken a heavy blow.

“The actions we are taking are being observed all over the Middle East. When the smoke in Lebanon clears, they will realize in Iran that they have lost their most valuable asset, which is Hezbollah,” he adds.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (right) speaks with IDF Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, at the command’s HQ in Safed, October 8, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

IDF says it hit some of the rocket launchers used in massive attack on Haifa

A man examines his damaged apartment that was hit by a Hezbollah rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Yam, October 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Some of the rocket launchers used by Hezbollah to fire 105 projectiles at Haifa earlier today were struck by an Israeli Air Force drone, the military says.

Meanwhile, in the past few hours, the IDF says it carried out several strikes against Hezbollah buildings and anti-tank missile launch posts in southern Lebanon.

Overnight, the IDF says it struck a weapons depot and another Hezbollah site in Beirut, and last night, the military says a drone strike was carried out against a school in southern Lebanon’s Tayr Harfa, where a group of Hezbollah operatives were spotted.

Haredi minister threatens to block budget unless draft exemption law passes – report

United Torah Judaism leader Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf in Tel Aviv on February 4, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/ Flash90)

Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, the head of the coalition’s United Torah Judaism party, reportedly threatens to block the passage of the 2025 budget unless a bill facilitating sweeping exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men from mandatory military service is passed in the next three weeks.

According to ultra-Orthodox news site Behadrei Haredim, after members of Netanyahu’s cabinet were informed that the government will meet on October 31 to approve the state budget, Goldknopf states that “the prime minister is aware that the budget law will not come up for discussion in the government until the enlistment law is passed.”

Goldknopf’s ultimatum comes just under a month after Netanyahu reportedly promised him that he would fast-track the legislation when the Knesset reconvenes at the end of this month, following a previous threat not to support the budget.

Failure to pass the budget would bring down the government.

This summer, the High Court of Justice ruled that there is no legal basis for exempting Haredi men from the military draft. A bill regulating the issue is currently stuck in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, whose chairman, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, has said that it will only pass if lawmakers can reach a “broad consensus” on the matter.

Addressing a conference earlier this week, Edelstein stated that whatever bill his committee passes will not fully satisfy either side but that it would be a “good law” that would help mobilize additional necessary manpower for the IDF.

In Jerusalem, US Senator Graham urges Israel-Saudi normalization before year’s end

Democratic US Senator Richard Blumenthal, left, listens as Senator Lindsey Graham, right, makes remarks to journalists during a visit to Israel, in Jerusalem, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Prominent US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham urges Saudi Arabia and Israel to establish diplomatic ties by the end of the year, warning that the next US administration is unlikely to be able to secure enough votes to support the deal.

The Biden administration is seeking to broker a normalization accord between the two countries that would include US security guarantees for Gulf state Saudi Arabia, among other bilateral deals between Washington and Riyadh.

“We can get you a treaty through the Senate between the United States and Saudi Arabia, a defense agreement like you have in Japan and Australia, if you do it on President Biden’s watch,” Graham, who is seen as close to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, tells reporters in Jerusalem.

In a September 18 speech, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the kingdom would not recognize Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state, suggesting a deal may be near impossible for the foreseeable future. That was a shift from February when three sources told Reuters that Saudi Arabia was willing to accept a simple political commitment from Israel to create a Palestinian state, even without anything more binding, in a bid to get a defense pact with Washington approved before the US presidential election.

To encourage Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel, the Biden administration has offered Riyadh security guarantees, assistance with a civilian nuclear program, and a renewed push for a Palestinian state, but the Gaza conflict has thrown the talks into uncertainty.

Report: Biden administration losing trust in what it’s hearing from Israel

This combination photo shows US President Joe Biden, left, on March 8, 2024, in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, October 28, 2023. (AP Photo)

US officials tell Axios that the Biden administration is increasingly distrustful of what Israel is saying about its military and diplomatic plans.

“Our trust of the Israelis is very low right now and for a good reason,” says one of the four US officials who spoke with the outlet.

Two of the officials tell the outlet that White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Friday that that the US expects “clarity and transparency” from Israel over its plans for a potential attack on Iran after Tehran fired some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel last week.

The officials note that any Israel strike would have an impact on US forces in the region.

An official says that Sullivan’s message was a signal that if the US is not given a heads-up as to Israel’s plans, it won’t necessarily join a coalition to defend Israel against a potential future attack from Iran. However, the officials admitted to Axios that it was likely that this was an empty warning and the US would in fact step up.

The report says the US is also concerned about the most recent operation launched by the IDF in north Gaza, despite the fact that Israel has told Washington that the evacuation orders for civilians there will not lead to a permanent displacement of the population.

“They tell us what we want to hear — the problem is lack of trust,” a US official says.

Anti-Israel activists vandalize UK offices of Germany’s Allianz with red paint for insuring Elbit

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activists targeted the British offices of German financial services firm Allianz, daubing the outside with red paint in protest over the company’s links to Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems.

Palestine Action claims responsibility for the protest on social media platform X, and says demonstrators attacked 10 Allianz offices in the UK and “occupied” the insurer’s UK headquarters in Guildford, south of London, overnight.

“Without insurance, Elbit couldn’t operate in Britain,” Palestine Action says in its post, describing Allianz as “investors and insurers of Israel’s biggest weapons firm.”

UK-based spokespeople for Allianz, one of Europe’s biggest financial services groups, did not respond to a request for comment.

Ten Allianz offices targeted today to make it clear that Palestine Action will cost more than you gain from enabling genocide.

Allianz, it’s time to stop insuring and investing in Israeli weapons firm, Elbit Systems. pic.twitter.com/Ac4lzoRObd

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) October 8, 2024

IDF says troops captured Hezbollah fighting position in south Lebanon home, olive grove

A mortar launcher is seen at Hezbollah fighting position in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo issued on October 8, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Troops of the Golani Brigade captured a Hezbollah fighting position in southern Lebanon, located in an olive grove and an adjacent home, the IDF says.

The military says the troops found a primed mortar launcher aimed at Israel, ammunition, tunnel infrastructure, and resting areas for the Hezbollah operatives.

Inside the home, the IDF says the soldiers found a cache of weapons, including firearms, anti-tank missiles, and other equipment.

The IDF says the equipment and site would have been used to ambush Israeli soldiers and attack towns in northern Israel.

IDF says 20 rockets fired at Haifa in 2nd barrage, taking morning’s total to over 100

The IDF says another 20 rockets were fired from Lebanon at the Haifa area, bringing the total number of projectiles launched by Hezbollah at the city within half an hour to over 100.

According to the military, some of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses, and some impacts were identified.

A woman in her 70s was wounded by shrapnel, and damage was caused to several homes.

Biden, Scholz, Macron, Starmer to meet in Berlin for talks on Mideast, Ukraine

US President Joe Biden plans to meet the leaders of Germany, France and Britain in Berlin on Saturday to discuss the Middle East and Ukraine conflicts, a German government source says.

Afterwards Biden, Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer are to travel to the US air base at Ramstein for talks on military support for Ukraine, to be attended by President Volodymyr Zelensky and other leaders, the source says.

Saturday’s meetings will come during a three-day state visit by Biden to Germany starting October 10, during which he is also expected to hold talks with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The Ramstein meeting is expected to bring together more than 50 of Ukraine’s allies and comes at a crucial moment for Ukraine ahead of November’s US presidential election.

Republican candidate Donald Trump has long been critical of the billions of dollars the United States has given to Ukraine and has echoed Russian talking points about the conflict.

At the last such meeting at Ramstein, Zelensky appealed for additional weapons to repel advancing Russian forces.

Herzog: Probe into Oct. 7 attack on Nahal Oz base should be published in ‘full, comprehensive fashion’

President Isaac Herzog and his wife Michal visit the Nahal Oz base on October 8, 2024 (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

On the second day of his tour of Gaza border communities to mark a year since the October 7 attacks, President Isaac Herzog calls for the release of the full investigation into the attack on the Nahal Oz base, where 15 surveillance soldiers were killed and six were taken hostage on October 7.

In total, 66 troops were killed in the assault on the base.

“In this place, where the nation of Israel went through one of its most dramatic and difficult days on the seventh of October, a year ago,” he tells soldiers at the base, “there was a terrible massacre during and after that. We lost many of our beloved sons and daughters in battles, whom we will remember forever.”

“I hope deeply that the investigation will be published in a full, comprehensive fashion,” Herzog continues, “in order to shed light on what happened. It will not change the reality, but it is good to know the truth so that we can learn lessons.”

Herzog visited kibbutzim Alumim, Kfar Aza, and Nahal Oz earlier in the morning.

Woman lightly-to-moderately injured in Hezbollah rocket attack on Haifa

A woman in her 70s is listed in light-to-moderate condition after being wounded in the Hezbollah rocket attack on Haifa, medics say.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service says the woman was hit in the arm by shrapnel.

IDF says most of the approximately 85 rockets in Haifa barrage were intercepted

The IDF says the majority of the approximately 85 rockets fired by Hezbollah at Haifa half an hour ago were successfully intercepted by air defenses.

But some rockets impacted the area, the IDF says, causing damage in the Haifa suburbs of Kiryat Yam and Kiryat Motzkin according to police.

The military adds that there is no change in guidelines for civilians at this stage.

Buildings damaged in Haifa area during rocket barrage from Lebanon; no injuries

Damage to a building after rocket barrage fired at Haifa and surrounding communities on October 8, 2024 (Magen David Adom)

Damage was caused to homes by a rocket impact in the Haifa area amid the largest Hezbollah attack on the city amid the war.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service says there are no reports of injuries at the scene in the suburb of Kiryat Yam.

Police say there are also reports of impacts in Kiryat Motzkin, with no injuries.

Hezbollah fired some 85 rockets at the city in the barrage. A second barrage was fired a short time later.

Footage from the site of a rocket impact in the Haifa area in the earlier Hezbollah barrage. pic.twitter.com/Le6PHqKs14

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 8, 2024

Sirens sound in Haifa as fresh rocket barrage fired at city

A fresh rocket barrage was launched toward the northern city of Haifa a short while ago.

Sirens are sounding in the city and nearby towns.

The new attack comes after some 85 rockets were already fired at the city today, in the largest barrage on Haifa amid the war, and after Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said in a televised address that the Iran-backed terror group’s capabilities are intact despite the “painful blows” inflicted by Israel in recent weeks.

85 rockets fired at Haifa in heaviest barrage on city since start of war

The Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, as seen from Haifa, northern Israel, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Some 85 rockets were launched from Lebanon at Haifa a short while ago, the IDF says.

It is the heaviest barrage fired at the coastal city since the start of the war.

The military says interception attempts were made, and further details are under investigation. It does not detail how many rockets were shot down.

There are no reports of injuries in the attack, but some rockets and shrapnel reportedly fell in the city, causing damage.

IDF says striking Hezbollah targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs

The IDF says it is carrying out strikes against Hezbollah targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

It does not immediately provide further details.

Smotrich, Ohana meet ahead of push to pass 2025 state budget

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich meets with Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana to prepare the 2025 state budget.

The meeting is a sign that the coalition is beginning to lay the groundwork to shepherd the budget through the legislative process in the Knesset after the fall recess finishes at the end of the month.

Earlier this month, Smotrich presented an initial state budget framework for 2025 based on a deficit target of up to 4 percent of gross domestic product, which will necessitate NIS 35 billion ($9.5 billion) in spending adjustments to finance the costs of the ongoing war.

According to Hebrew media reports, the coalition’s United Torah Judaism party has threatened not to support the budget — whose failure to pass would bring down the government — unless the government expedites a bill facilitating sweeping exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox community from mandatory military service.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader says its capabilities intact, but backs Lebanese Speaker’s ceasefire efforts

An image grab taken from Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV shows the terror group's deputy chief Naim Qassem delivering a speech from an undisclosed location on October 8, 2024 (Al-Manar / AFP)

Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem says in a televised address that the Iran-backed terror group’s capabilities are intact and its fighters are pushing back against the Israeli ground operation, despite the “painful blows” inflicted by Israel in recent weeks.

“You see that our daily accomplishments are great. Hundreds of rockets and dozens of [drones], a great number of [Israeli] settlements and cities have come under rocket fire,” he says. “I would like to reassure you that our capabilities are fine.”

He says Hezbollah’s top leadership is directing the war and that the commanders slain by Israel have been replaced, saying “we have no vacant posts.”

He says that Hezbollah will name a new leader to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in an underground base in Beirut last month, “but the circumstances are difficult because of the war.”

Qassem says the group supports the efforts of Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri — a Hezbollah ally — to secure a ceasefire, without providing further details on any conditions demanded by the terror group.

It is Qassem’s second public speech since Nasrallah was killed. Nasrallah’s presumed successor, Hashem Safieddine has not been heard from since he too was targeted in a Beirut strike last week.

Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Palestinians in Gaza amid the war there triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault.

Israel blasts ICC prosecutor for seeking warrants without giving time for allegations to be probed

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan at the Cour d'Honneur of the Palais Royal in Paris on February 7, 2024. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP)

In a submission to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Israel castigates the court’s prosecutor Karim Khan for failing to give Israel the opportunity to investigate his allegations before seeking arrest warrants against its leaders, a fundamental principle of the ICC’s founding charter.

The submission to the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I, which is reviewing Khan’s request for arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, also argues that the ICC has no jurisdiction over Israeli nationals.

In the filing, made public yesterday by Israel but submitted last month, Israel’s legal representative Gilad Noam insists that under Article 18 of the ICC’s Rome Statute which governs the courts actions, and in line with previous rulings by the court, the prosecutor must provide “sufficiently specific” information to the state under investigation about the crimes that he is investigating, in order to give that country the ability to inform the court that it is willing to carry out such investigations itself, and prosecute when necessary.

Despite this requirement, Khan relied on a notification sent to Israel about alleged crimes the ICC was investigating in March 2021, before Khan even took office, based on a referral dating back to 2018, Israel’s submission points out.

Noam also details Israel’s explicit request to the court on May 1 this year, before Khan requested the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant on May 20, for information regarding the alleged crimes he was investigating so that Israel’s legal authorities could investigate them itself, in line with the court’s charter that it may only investigate and prosecute crimes where a state is incapable or unwilling to do so.

This information was never forthcoming from the prosecutor, Noam says.

“Despite having been forced into a bloody conflict that it did not want, Israel remains a democracy endowed with an independent judiciary and deeply committed to the rule of law, including the principles of international humanitarian law,” he writes in the submission.

“The undeniable fact is that Israel, despite having made requests to the Prosecution, has never received notice of the scope of the Prosecution’s intended or actual investigation into events since 7 October 2023,” Noam adds.

He therefore requests that the Pre-Trial Chamber halt any proceedings against Israel until sufficient notification has been issued.

Rocket sirens in Haifa, Acre and surrounding communities

Sirens sound in Haifa, Acre and multiple surrounding towns and villages as a barrage of rockets is apparently fired from Lebanon.

IDF: Barrage of some 25 rockets fired from Lebanon at Tiberias earlier this morning; no injuries

A barrage of some 25 rockets was fired from Lebanon at Tiberias an hour ago, the IDF says.

Some of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses, and others impacted in the area, the military adds.

There are no reports of injuries or major damage in the attack.

2 Palestinians arrested, charged for throwing explosives at Israeli buses in West Bank

The Shin Bet security agency says two Palestinians have been arrested and charged with throwing explosives at Israeli buses in the West Bank.

Muhammad Takataka and Muhammad Abu Hossein, residents of a village near Bethlehem, were detained in recent weeks over two attacks on buses near the settlement of Tekoa on March 21 and August 25, the Shin Bet and IDF say in a joint statement.

“The Shin Bet’s investigation of the suspects revealed that the two carried out the bomb attacks with the intention of harming Israeli civilians and against the background of the war in the Gaza Strip,” the agency says.

There were no injuries in the attacks.

The pair were charged with a series of security offenses, the Shin Bet adds.

In apparent U-turn, several leading religious Zionist rabbis call for ‘responsible’ hostage deal

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu attends Lag Ba'omer celebrations in the northern city Safed, May 26, 2024 (David Cohen/Flash90)

Several leading rabbis of the right-wing religious Zionist community, including the father of Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, are calling on the government to take any action necessary to free Israeli hostages held in Gaza — including via “a responsible deal.”

The letter, whose signatories include Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi Yaakov Ariel and leading hardliners, such as settler leader Elyakim Levanon and Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, appears to represent an about-face for the rabbis, who had previously signed an appeal to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arguing that an agreement withdrawing troops from Gaza and swapping captives for Palestinian prisoners would endanger more Israelis.

“Rescuing the abductees is a great mitzvah, a Jewish, moral and national duty of the first order,” the rabbis, who are considered close to far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, write, calling on the government “to act against Hamas with all of the tools and means at its disposal to save the lives of our kidnapped brothers and sisters.”

“We back the Israeli government to intensify its actions with determination, courage and bravery without delay to return all the hostages, in any way necessary,” including via “a responsible agreement – which, according to the assessment of the political leadership and the security forces, will not harm and endanger the security of the state, and in a way that will not allow the return of the Hamas terrorist threat from Gaza,” they continue.

Smotrich has previously threatened to bolt the coalition if Israel agrees to a deal that includes “strategic concessions.” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel’s security chiefs have urged Netanyahu to compromise more on the issue.

Notably absent from the signatories of the appeal was ultranationalist settler leader Rabbi Dov Lior, who had signed this summer’s anti-deal letter. Lior is close to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, the head of the Otzma Yehudit party.

IDF says 20 Hamas operatives killed as military presses op in north Gaza’s Jabaliya

Troops operating in Gaza in an undated image released by the military on October 8, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)

Some 20 Hamas operatives were killed in the past day during a new IDF operation in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya, the military says.

The IDF says the gunmen were killed in airstrikes and close-quarters combat, as troops of the 162nd Division operated in Jabaliya.

Troops also located and destroyed a weapons depot and other weapons amid the fighting, according to the military.

Meanwhile, in the central Gaza Strip, the IDF says the 14th Reserve Armored Brigade launched a new raid in the Bureij area, where it says troops are currently demolishing Hamas infrastructure and killing gunmen.

The IDF is also continuing to operate southern Gaza’s Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor, the IDF says. The Gaza Division was given responsibility for the area recently.

Also in the past day, the IDF says 70 Hamas sites were struck across the Gaza Strip by fighter jets and other aircraft.

Emirates cancels all flights to and from Iran

An Emirates Airlines plane lands at Dubai International Airport in Dubai on October 17, 2023. (Karim Sahib/AFP)

Emirates says that its flights to and from Iran are canceled today.

The airline says that it continues to closely monitor the situation in the region and is in contact with the relevant authorities regarding developments.

IDF says unaware of alleged fatal beating of elderly Palestinian by troops in West Bank

After Palestinian media reported that an elderly man was beaten to death by Israeli troops early yesterday morning in the West Bank, the IDF says it is unaware of such an incident taking place.

Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, claims that Israeli troops stormed the home of Ziad Abu Halil in the West Bank town of Dura, near Hebron, and “severely beat him until he lost consciousness.”

Citing security sources, Wafa says Abu Halil was taken to a hospital where he died of his wounds.

In response to a query, the IDF says that it examined the claims and as of now is “unaware of friction [taking place] with a civilian in Hebron during the night.

“The IDF, through the Civil Administration, contacted Palestinian authorities to obtain additional details that would assist in the investigation of the incident,” the military continues.

“As of writing these lines, this request has not yet been answered and the event is unknown,” the IDF adds.

صاحب الجملة الشهيرة"بهمش"..

استشهاد المسن زياد أبو هليل من مدينة دورا جنوب الخليل بعد اعتداء جنود الاحتلال عليه بالضرب خلال اقتحام منزله pic.twitter.com/fuayv1qZfL

— أسرى الحرية 𓂆‏ (@ps_prisoners) October 7, 2024

Rocket sirens sound in Tiberias, surrounding communities

Sirens sound in Tiberias and other communities surrounding the Sea of Galilee, warning of incoming rocket fire.

3 Hamas terrorists who participated in Oct. 7 massacre killed in Gaza strikes, IDF says

Three Hamas terrorists who participated in the October 7 onslaught were killed in Israeli airstrikes in recent days, the IDF and Shin Bet say.

According to the military, a strike on a Hamas command room embedded within a school in Gaza City on September 30 killed several Hamas operatives, including Muhammad Rafai.

Rafai participated in the massacres at Kfar Aza and Nahal Oz on October 7, and was involved in other attacks on troops throughout the war, according to the military.

Another strike, on October 1, killed two more Hamas terrorists, named by the IDF as Muhammad Zanun and Bassel Akhars, who the military says participated in the onslaught.

Starmer shuts down call for ban on arms sales to Israel: ‘A wrong position. I will not take it’

A handout photograph released by the UK Parliament shows Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, making a statement on the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the situation in the Middle East, in the House of Commons in London on October 7, 2024 (JESSICA TAYLOR / UK PARLIAMENT / AFP)

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said yesterday he would not ban all arms sales to Israel, bluntly shutting down a call in the British parliament for him to do so.

In a question on the anniversary of the October 7 onslaught by Hamas, MP Zarah Sultana asked if Starmer would “finally do what’s legally and morally right and end the government’s complicity in Israeli war crimes by banning all arms sales to Israel, including F-35 fighter jets, not just 30 licenses.”

“No,” Starmer responded bluntly. “But it is a really serious point. Banning all sales would mean none for defensive purposes.”

“None for defensive purposes on the anniversary of October 7 and days after a huge attack by Iran into Israel would be a wrong position for this government and I will not take it,” Starmer said.

In September, Britain said it would immediately suspend dozens of arms export licenses with Israel because there was a risk the equipment might be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law, but said the decision did not amount to a blanket ban or an arms embargo.

🚨 NEW: Suspended Labour MP Zarah Sultana to Keir Starmer: "Will he do what is morally and legally right and end the government's complicity in war crimes by banning all arms sales to Israel… yes or no?"

Starmer: "No." pic.twitter.com/KAaAEbha9I

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) October 7, 2024

Bennett urges Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program: ‘A one-time window of opportunity’

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett in a video statement on Iran, October 8, 2024 (Screen grab)

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett calls for Israel to strike the Iranian nuclear program which, he says, “casts a dark shadow over our futures,” amid reports military or intelligence targets could be hit in response to Tehran’s ballistic missile attack last week.

“For the first time, we have the ability to act against Iran without fearing a terrible and intolerable reaction,” Bennett says in a video statement, referring to the weakness of Tehran’s proxies, the Hezbollah and Hamas terror groups.

“The Iranian regime of terrorism and murder is exposed and vulnerable for the first time,” he says.

“This is a one-time window of opportunity in which we have both the legitimacy and the ability to severely damage the Iranian regime and its nuclear program,” Bennett says.

Earlier today, The New York Times reported that Israel did not have a real plan to attack Iran’s nuclear program until Bennett became prime minister in 2021, having instead focused on Hezbollah.

Bennett quickly “order[ed] new exercises to simulate flying the long distances to Iran and pour[ed] new resources into the preparations,” the newspaper said.

On anniversary of start of Hezbollah attacks on Israel, UN officials call for diplomatic solution

The site where a missile fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon hit a house in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, September 22, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The UN special coordinator for Lebanon and the head of the peacekeeping force deployed along the border with Israel say that a negotiated solution is the only way to restore stability and the time to act is now.

The statement by Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro of the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL comes on the first anniversary of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group starting attacks on Israeli towns and military posts, in what it said was a show of support for its Hamas terror allies in the Gaza Strip.

Over the past weeks, the exchanges along the border have expanded into Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah missile attacks that are hitting deeper inside both countries.

Plasschaert and Lázaro says Hezbollah’s attacks starting on Oct. 8, 2023 were in violation of the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

The attacks mean that some 60,000 residents of Israel’s northern border towns were evacuated and have been unable to return home for a year.

“Too many lives have been lost, uprooted, and devastated, while civilians on both sides of the Blue Line are left wanting for security and stability,” the statement says referring to the border line.

“Today, one year later, the near-daily exchanges of fire have escalated into a relentless military campaign whose humanitarian impact is nothing short of catastrophic,” the statement says.

It warns that further that further violence and destruction will neither solve the underlying issues nor make anyone safer in the long run.

“A negotiated solution is the only pathway to restore the security and stability that civilians on both sides so desperately want and deserve,” the statement says. “The time to act accordingly is now.”

Israeli attack on Iran’s infrastructure will lead to retaliation, foreign minister says

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks during a news conference, September 25, 2024, at UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Any attack on Iran’s infrastructure will lead to retaliation, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says, warning Israel against any attacks on Iran.

“We advise the Zionist regime not to test Iran’s will,” he says.

IDF deploys a fourth division to south Lebanon for ground op against Hezbollah

Israeli reserve soldiers at a military base near the border with Lebanon, October 7, 2024 (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

The IDF deployed a fourth division to southern Lebanon last night for ground operations against the Hezbollah terror group.

The military announces that its 146th Reserve Division began ground operations last night in the western sector of southern Lebanon.

The reserve division joins three standing army divisions — the 98th, 36th, and 91st — already operating in the central and eastern sectors of southern Lebanon.

The move adds thousands of troops to Israel’s ground offensive, with the total number of soldiers deployed inside Lebanon now likely over 15,000.

The operations were launched by the division with its Carmeli Reserve Infantry Brigade and Iron Fist Reserve Armored Brigade, with support from its 213th Artillery Regiment, the military says.

Israel’s ground operations in southern Lebanon have been described by the IDF as “limited, localized, and targeted raids,” with the goal of demolishing Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the border area, especially in the villages adjacent to Israel, to enable residents of the north of Israel to return home.

Turkey sending Navy ships to evacuate 2,000 nationals from Lebanon

Turkey is sending ships to evacuate around 2,000 of its citizens from Lebanon tomorrow, the Turkish foreign ministry says.

Two Turkish navy ships will leave a port in southern Turkish province of Mersin for Beirut today, the ministry says in a statement.

The evacuation process will continue in the following days if necessary, the ministry says.

CIA chief: US assesses Israel, Iran don’t want full-blown war, but there could be ‘misjudgments’

CIA director William Burns speaks during a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington, March 11, 2024. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

CIA chief William Burns says that while the US intelligence community believes neither Israel nor Iran want “all-out conflict,” there is a large risk of miscalculation.

“[W]e face the very real danger of a further regional escalation of conflict,” Burns says during a conference in the US, according to CBS News.

He says that Israel is “weighing very carefully” how it will respond to Iran’s attack last week in which Tehran fired some 200 ballistic missiles, but warns there is potential for “misjudgments.”

“The Middle East is a place where complicated stuff happens all the time,” he says.

Burns says that while the Iranian attack exposed some limitations in Iran’s military capabilities, “that’s not to suggest that those capabilities are still not quite potent and something that not only Israel, but the United States, needs to take very seriously, too.”

With regards to Tehran’s nuclear program, Burns says it appeared it has been accelerated but that it did not seem that Iran had reversed the decision to suspend the weaponization aspect of it.

Turning to Gaza, Burns says that efforts to reach a hostage and ceasefire deal are “elusive,” although they have come close at times.

“[W]hat’s at stake in Gaza is shaped by political will,” Burns says. “In the end, it’s not just about brackets in texts or creative formulas when you’re trying to negotiate a hostage and ceasefire deal. It’s about leaders who ultimately have to recognize that enough is enough, that perfect is rarely on the menu, especially in the Middle East.”

“And then you’ve got to go make hard choices and some compromises in the interest of a longer-term strategic stability as well,” he reportedly says.

Police arrest two suspects in gang rape of woman in Tel Aviv

Police say they have arrested two suspects in the gang rape of a woman in Tel Aviv.

According to a police statement, the victim — a foreigner — knew one of the suspects prior to the assault and met with him at a club in Tel Aviv.

At the end of the night he offered to give her a ride home, but he and the second suspect drove the victim to another location where they seriously sexually assaulted her after drugging her.

Police say the suspects are a 25-year-old and a 26-year-old from East Jerusalem.

Arrests and prosecutions in sexual assaults are generally rare, as are statements by the police on cases.

According to the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, one in seven women is raped during her lifetime and 85 percent of sexual assaults are carried out by someone the victim knows. In 2019, the organization said nine out of 10 rape cases are closed by prosecutors without charge.

Report: Israel unlikely to hit Iran nuclear sites but may target bases, intel or leadership targets

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)

Israel is not expected to hit Iranian nuclear sites in response to Tehran’s ballistic missile attack last week, the New York Times reports.

Unnamed officials tell the newspaper that Israel is instead likely to focus on military bases, or intelligence or leadership targets, but could later go for the nuclear program if Iran responds.

According to the Times, former and current senior Israeli officials “acknowledged doubts” whether Israel could do serious damage to Iran’s nuclear program, however officials at the Pentagon were said to be considering whether Israel would decide in any case that this is the best time to target it.

The report questions whether a potential strike would be effective enough to sufficiently hamper the nuclear program, or could instead just send it underground or lead to Tehran accelerating it.

It says that Washington has instead urged sabotage, diplomacy and sanctions as the best way to deal with the program.

The report says that for many years, Israel did not have a real plan to attack Iran’s nuclear program, instead focusing on Hezbollah, until Naftali Bennett became prime minister in 2021. Bennett, who has increased his calls in recent days for Iran’s nuclear program to be hit, quickly “order[ed] new exercises to simulate flying the long distances to Iran and pour[ed] new resources into the preparations.”

Rocket sirens sound in towns in Galilee, close to northern border

Sirens sound in multiple communities close to the northern border and in the Galilee region, warning of incoming rocket fire.

IDF says head of Hezbollah’s logistical headquarters killed in Beirut airstrike

The head of Hezbollah’s logistical headquarters, Suhail Hussein Husseini, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut yesterday, the IDF announces.

The IDF says the headquarters that Husseini commanded oversees Hezbollah logistics and budgeting of its various units.

He was also a member of Hezbollah’s Jihad Council, the terror group’s top military body.

“Husseini played a crucial role in weapon transfers between Iran and Hezbollah and was responsible for distributing the advanced weaponry among Hezbollah’s units, overseeing both the transportation and allocation of these arms,” the IDF says.

The military says that he was “responsible for the budgeting and logistical management of Hezbollah’s most sensitive projects, including the organization’s war plans and other special operations, such as coordinating terrorist attacks against the State of Israel from Lebanon and Syria.”

The military says the headquarters also includes Hezbollah’s R&D, which is responsible for the manufacture of precision-guided missiles.

Australian opposition rejects government’s Oct. 7 resolution for including ceasefire call

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s main opposition party refused to endorse a government motion in Parliament marking the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Peter Dutton, leader of the conservative Liberal Party, objects to the motion’s call for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon and a reference a need for lasting peace and security for all people in the region.

The spat suggests political differences over the conflicts in the Middle East will figure prominently in Australian general elections due by May next year.

Dutton says the motion should have focused on the some 1,200 people that Hamas killed on October 7 last year.

Dutton says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should be condemned for failing to draft a motion worthy of bipartisan support.

“The prime minister is trying to speak out of both sides of his mouth and that is not something that we will support in relation to this debate,” Dutton says.

The motion was carried by the House of Representatives 85 votes to 54.

IDF soldier killed, another seriously wounded during fighting in northern Gaza

Staff Sgt. Noam Israel Abdu (Israel Defense Forces)

The military announces that a solider was killed fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, raising the toll in the ground offensive sparked by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught last year to 350.

He is named as Staff Sgt. Noam Israel Abdu, 20, of the Bislamach Brigade’s 17th Battalion, from Kadima-Zoran.

The Israel Defense Forces says another soldier was seriously wounded in the same incident in which Abdu was killed.

Separately, a reservist from the the Alexandroni Brigade’s 7012th Battalion was seriously hurt during fighting in southern Lebanon.

Rocket alerts sound in numerous northern towns near Lebanon border

Incoming rocket sirens are activated in numerous Upper Galilee towns and northern Israeli communities near the Lebanon border.

Trump says Americans ‘can never forget the nightmare’ of October 7

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a candle at a remembrance event to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, at Trump National Doral golf club in Miami, October 7, 2024. (Chandan Khanna/AFP)

Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump warns that Americans should “never forget” the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas terrorists as he pays tribute to the victims at a campaign event.

“We can never forget the nightmare of that day,” Trump tells a crowd of a few hundred at an event at his Trump National Doral Golf Club in southern Florida to commemorate the first anniversary of the attacks, claiming that “the October 7 attack would never have happened if I was president.”

French FM defends arms embargo call, argues move aimed at ‘guaranteeing’ Israel’s security

France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot holds a press conference in Jerusalem on October 7, 2024, after his meeting with his Israeli counterpart. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

During a press conference in Jerusalem, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot doubles down French President Emmanuel Macron’s call last week for an arms embargo on Israel.

“Today, to guarantee the security of Israel, to guarantee the security of the Israelis, the use of force must give way to the use of dialogue and diplomacy,” he says in French.

“And this is why France, like most countries in the world, is calling in Gaza as in Lebanon, for a ceasefire. And when we call for a ceasefire, we cannot at the same time provide offensive weapons to the belligerents. It is a question of consistency.”

French official says visiting FM had ‘constructive meetings’ with Israeli ministers

Foreign Minister Israel Katz (R) receives France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Jerusalem on October 7, 2024. (Ahmed Gharabli/AFP)

Visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot held “dense and constructive meetings” today with his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz and with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a French diplomatic official tells The Times of Israel.

Discussions focused on Iran, Lebanon and Gaza, says the diplomat, instead of on the French calls for a ban on arms exports to Israel, “on which disagreement was acknowledged.”

Barrot stressed the need to avoid an escalation against Iran which could lead to regional war. “Our Israeli interlocutors ensured such was not their wish,” says the diplomat.

They also discussed Lebanon, especially Israel’s demands for a ceasefire. According to the diplomat, there was a “shared desire to deepen the talks within the context of French efforts toward ending the war.”

The sides disagreed over the role of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip after the war.

In his meetings in Ramallah, says the diplomat, Barrot heard PA officials lay out the security, financial and political challenges facing the organizations. They also presented to Barrot the reforms the PA had undertaken recently, and urged France to recognize Palestine as a country.

Hezbollah claims to have targeted base housing Unit 8200 in rocket attack on Tel Aviv

Hezbollah takes responsibility for the rocket fire on central Israel this evening, claiming to have targeted the IDF’s Glilot base near Tel Aviv.

The base is home to the IDF’s signals intelligence Unit 8200, and is adjacent to the Mossad headquarters.

The IDF said five rockets were launched in the attack, some of which were intercepted and the rest struck open areas, causing no injuries or major damage.

Hezbollah launched some 190 rockets at Israel from Lebanon on Monday, mostly targeting the north of the country, according to the IDF.

5 rockets fired from Lebanon at central Israel; some intercepted, some hit open areas

The IDF says five long-range rockets were fired from Lebanon at central Israel in the attack a short while ago.

Some of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses, and the rest struck open land, according to the military.

There are no reports of injuries or major damage.

The IDF adds that there are no changes to guidelines for civilians following the attack.

Sirens sounded in central Israel three times today, following rocket fire from Gaza this morning, a ballistic missile from Yemen in the afternoon, and tonight’s rockets from Lebanon.