The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they unfolded.
Center-right senator Rodrigo Paz has won a runoff presidential election in Bolivia, official provisional results show, ending two decades of socialist rule blamed by many for the South American country’s myriad economic problems.
With 97 percent of ballots counted, Paz had 54.5 percent of the vote compared to 45.4 percent for his rival, right-wing former interim president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal says.
Paz, the 58-year-old son of a former president, has vowed a “capitalism for all” approach to economic reform, with decentralization, lower taxes and fiscal discipline mixed with continued social spending.
US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner tells CBS’ 60 Minutes that he believes Hamas is actually looking for the bodies of deceased hostages, and is not intentionally dragging out the process of returning them to Israel.
As of early Monday, Hamas has yet to return 16 of the 28 deceased hostages that were still in Gaza when the ceasefire deal came into effect on October 10.
The terror group has said it is unable to immediately locate the remaining bodies due to the level of destruction in the Gaza Strip, but Israel has accused the terror group of lying, claiming that it has access to most of them and could hand them over at any time.
Asked about the conflicting accounts and the US’s role in navigating the differences, Kushner says there has been “a very intense effort on behalf of our joint center with Israel and with the mediators in order to convey whatever information Israel has on the whereabouts of the bodies to the mediators and to Hamas– in order to retrieve them.
The US is trying to “push both sides to be proactive in terms of finding a solution instead of blaming each other for breakdowns,” Kushner says.
Pressed on whether he believes Hamas is “acting in good faith — seriously looking for the bodies,” Kushner answers in the affirmative.
“As far as we’ve seen from what’s being conveyed to us from the mediators, they are so far,” he says. “That could break down at any minute, but right now– we have seen them looking to honor their agreement.”
US President Donald Trump confirms that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is still in effect, after a day of violence sparked by an attack on IDF troops in Rafah.
Two IDF soldiers were killed in the attack and three others were injured, leading Israel to respond with a wave of intense strikes against what it said were 20 Hamas targets across the Palestinian enclave.
The Hamas-run civil defense said 45 people were killed in the strikes, but did not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
US Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff describes sharing a moment of connection with Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya over their shared experience of losing a son, in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes Program.
The US envoy met with al-Hayya in Egypt earlier this month during negotiations to end the war in Gaza, in a highly unusual face-to-face meeting between a US official and a member of the Palestinian terror group.
He says that when he entered the room for the meeting with the Hamas delegation, he found himself sitting directly next to al-Hayya.
“We expressed our condolences to him for the loss of his son,” says Witkoff. “He mentioned it. And I told him that I had lost a son, and that we were both members of a really bad club, parents who have buried children.”
Witkoff’s late son, Andrew, died at the age of 22 of an opioid overdose. Al-Hayya’s son, Himam al-Hayya, was killed in the Israeli airstrike on Hamas headquarters in Doha on September 9, which failed to kill any of the senior Hamas leaders it had targeted.
Kushner, for his part, describes watching the conversation between Witkoff and al-Hayya, whom he describes as a “hardened” person who has “been through two years of war.”
“They green-lit an assault that raped and murdered and did some of the most barbaric things,” he says of Hamas and the October 7, 2023, massacre that sparked the two-year war in Gaza. “They’ve been holding hostages while Gaza’s been bombed. And they’ve withstood all the suffering.”
“But when Steve and him spoke about their sons, it turned from a negotiation with a terrorist group to seeing two human beings kind of showing a vulnerability with each other.”
US Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff says US President Donald Trump was “very, very comfortable” with the idea of him and fellow adviser Jared Kushner meeting directly with Hamas in order to secure a deal to end the war in the Gaza Strip.
It was reported last week that the two men met directly with senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya and other Hamas leaders at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to avoid a logjam in negotiations and seal the hostage release and ceasefire deal.
Speaking to CBS’ 60 Minutes program about the process of arranging the meeting with the terror leaders, Witkoff says he approached Trump, along with Kushner, to ask if the president would be “comfortable with allowing us to go and meet with Hamas” if it would lead to a deal.
“That was the question we asked him and the entire foreign policy staff,” Witkoff says.
“And the answer came back: ‘If you feel that you can get to a deal, of course. Why wouldn’t I encourage you to get into that room and get it finished?'”
He says that, in his opinion, Trump had been “very, very comfortable” with the possibility of the two advisers meeting directly with Hamas, calling the president’s decision to allow the meeting to go ahead “courageous.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apology to his Qatari counterpart for the Israeli strike in Doha on September 9 was a crucial step in the process toward a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, US special envoy Steve Witkoff says on CBS’s 60 Minutes” program.
Netanyahu phoned Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani while visiting Trump at the White House on September 29, to apologize for targeting a meeting of the Hamas terror group’s political leadership in Doha.
The strike failed to kill any of the key Hamas leaders it had been targeting and led to Qatar refusing to continue serving as a mediator between Israel and Hamas during negotiations over the Gaza war.
Shortly after Netanyahu apologized to al-Thani under Trump’s watchful gaze, the White House released its plan for ending the war in Gaza, and said both Israel and the Arab world had accepted it.
Netanyahu’s apology to al-Thani was “pivotal,” Witkoff tells 60 Minutes, in an interview alongside fellow Trump adviser, and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
“It was the linchpin that got us to the next place. It was really, really important that it happened.”
Asked whether Trump had to push Netanyahu to apologize, Kushner says that the Israeli premier “wasn’t [going to] do anything, or say anything, or agree to anything he didn’t feel comfortable with,” and that he knew that the apology was “what needed to be done at that moment to make peace.”
“The apology needed to happen. It just did,” chimes in Witkoff. “We were not moving forward without that apology. And the president said to him, ‘People apologize.'”
Kushner adds that the phone call between Netanyahu and al-Thani led to the formation of a “trilateral mechanism between the countries which didn’t happen before.”
“I believe over time Israel and Qatar could actually turn out to be incredible allies in the region to advance things forward,” he suggests.
The Hamas-run Gaza civil defense agency and hospitals say a series of Israeli airstrikes across the territory killed at least 45 people today, updating an earlier toll.
The Israeli military said it struck dozens of Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip, after gunmen launched an attack on troops in southern Gaza that killed two soldiers and wounded three others.
“At least 45 people were killed as a result of Israeli air strikes on various areas of the Gaza Strip,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defense agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas authority, tells AFP.
Four hospitals in Gaza confirmed the death toll to AFP, saying they had received the dead and wounded.
UNICEF’s representative in Yemen, Peter Hawkins, is among the 20 United Nations’s employees held by Houthi rebels in the capital Sanaa, a UN official says.
“Peter Hawkins is among the 15 international employees detained in the complex” the Houthis raided on Saturday, the official says on condition of anonymity.
NICOSIA, Cyprus — A moderate candidate won Turkish Cypriot presidential elections today, defeating a hardliner in a pivotal vote that could help revive stalled UN talks on reunifying Cyprus.
Center-left politician Tufan Erhurman sailed to victory with 62.8% of the vote from just over 218,000 registered voters, defeating incumbent Ersin Tatar on a platform of reinvigorating talks with estranged Greek Cypriots on the future of Cyprus.
Erhurman, a lawyer, has pledged to explore a federal solution — long supported by the United Nations — to end the island’s nearly 50-year division.
Tatar and Turkey, the only country which recognizes breakaway North Cyprus, had backed a two-state policy, which has been ruled out by Greek Cypriots. Tatar, who came to power in 2020, received 35.8% of the vote.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan congratulated Erhurman on his victory, praising the vote as a reflection of the democratic maturity of Turkish Cypriots.
“We will continue to defend the sovereign rights and interests of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus together with our Turkish Cypriot brothers and sisters on every platform,” Erdogan said in a post on X.
Cypriot President and Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides also congratulated Erhurman, saying he was committed to resuming peace talks.
Cyprus was split in 1974 in a Turkish invasion triggered by a brief Greek-backed coup, which followed sporadic fighting after the breakdown of a power-sharing administration in 1963. North Cyprus was proclaimed in 1983 and peace talks have been stalled since 2017.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sends his “deepest condolences” to the families of the two IDF soldiers killed in the “tragic” attack by Palestinian gunmen on troops in southern Gaza today, according to a statement from his office.
The slain soldiers were Maj. Yaniv Kula, 26, a company commander in the Nahal Brigade’s 932nd Battalion, and Staff Sgt. Itay Yavetz, 21, who served in the brigade’s Erez program. Both were residents of the central city of Modiin.
“Yaniv and Itay fought bravely against the Hamas murderers to protect Israel’s security. Their courage and heroism will remain forever engraved in our hearts,” the premier says.
He also wishes a “swift recovery” to the three soldiers wounded in the same incident.
Police announce they have canceled a much-anticipated derby match between Tel Aviv’s rival soccer teams after riots broke out in and around the stadium.
The match between Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Tel Aviv was set to take place tonight in the city’s Bloomfield Stadium, when fans began to riot.
Police say fans threw objects at officers, lightly injuring them, and hurled flares and smoke bombs onto the field ahead of the game.
Police arrested five on suspicion of disturbing public order and detained 13 masked fans after they allegedly lit flares and threw them onto the soccer field.
A total of 51 flares and smoke bombs were thrown onto the turf, Ynet reports.
המשטרה מפזרת בכוח מופרז אוהדי הפועל תל אביב pic.twitter.com/zBepgx6ID9
— Yotam Koren (@yotam_koren) October 19, 2025
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and fellow adviser to US President Donald Trump Jared Kushner will arrive in Israel tomorrow, while US Vice President JD Vance will land in the country on Tuesday, a US official tells The Times of Israel.
The three officials will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top Israeli officials throughout their visit, in order to further advance Washington’s Gaza ceasefire framework, the official adds.
Earlier today, the Jerusalem District Court canceled hearings for Netanyahu’s testimony in his criminal trial that had been scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, citing “urgent diplomatic meetings” the premier said he needed to attend. Netanyahu’s lawyers added that he would not be able to testify on Wednesday or Thursday either, because of Vance’s upcoming visit and a swearing-in ceremony for new Shin Bet chief David Zini.
The IDF announces the resumption of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, following today’s deadly attack on troops and the military’s retaliatory strikes.
“In accordance with the directive of the political echelon, and after a series of significant strikes, the IDF has begun renewed enforcement of the ceasefire following its violation by the Hamas terror organization,” the military says.
The IDF adds that it will “continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond forcefully to any violation.”
The IDF responds to a Times of Israel query regarding Palestinian reports that settlers injured three people this morning in the Turmusayya area and set several cars on fire, saying troops dispersed rioters.
Some of the reports claimed that IDF soldiers present allowed the incident to happen.
The IDF says: “Earlier today, a report was received about riots that included the torching of vehicles and physical violence by Israeli civilians near the settlement of Shiloh in the Samaria Brigade. Upon receiving the report, IDF forces and Israel Police rushed to the scene to disperse the riots. Upon the arrival of the forces, the clashes were dispersed. Further handling of the incident was transferred to the Israel Police.”
It adds that it is acting “to ensure that the olive harvest season takes place in an orderly and safe manner for all residents.” It said it “views this incident gravely and strongly condemns all forms of violence.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says the deadly attack on troops in Rafah this morning is a “blatant violation of the agreement by Hamas.”
“IDF troops are required to remain on high alert. We are prepared and preparing for any scenario,” he says at a handover ceremony for the president’s military secretary.
“We will continue to act with determination to safeguard the security interests of the State of Israel,” Zamir adds.
At the ceremony, Brig. Gen. Gil Elia takes over from Brig. Gen. Naama Rosen Grimberg as military secretary to President Isaac Herzog.
In consultations with Defense Minister Israel Katz and senior security officials this evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided that Israel will respond “fiercely” to Hamas’s deadly attack on IDF troops in southern Gaza today, while maintaining the necessary momentum to secure the return of the remaining slain hostages from Gaza under the first phase of Washington’s ceasefire framework, Channel 12 reports.
A security official tells the network that “Israel does not want to bring about the collapse of the ceasefire… There is simply a straightforward equation of a violation and a response — and this will continue as long as Hamas keeps violating the agreement.”
The same official also warns that the area between the yellow line — to which the military withdrew under the terms of the current ceasefire — and the Egyptian border is “a hotspot for potential escalation.”
“It is ostensibly under Israeli control, but [in underground tunnels that remain operative] Hamas terrorists are hiding — trying to harass Israeli forces under cover of the ceasefire, even without explicit orders from their commanders,” according to the official.
An Israeli security official says the transfer of aid into the Gaza Strip is halted “until further notice” after the deadly attack on Israel soldiers this morning led Israel to launch a wave of strikes.
The official speaks on condition of anonymity, pending a formal announcement on the halt in aid, which is occurring a little over a week since the start of the US-proposed ceasefire aimed at ending two years of war.
At the same time, Axios cites a US official as saying Israel told Washington it will reopen aid crossings tomorrow morning, after Jerusalem did not notify the White House in advance of the decision to close them.
An Israeli official cited by several outlets says, “Due to the intensive bombings and dozens of casualties on the Hamas side, Israel halted truck movement today, which will resume once the bombings end.”
An official tells Kan news that “due to American pressure,” the political leadership has instructed that humanitarian aid enter Gaza tomorrow, saying that “official directives on the matter have not yet been updated, but this is the emerging direction.”
Yaala David, sister of released hostage Evyatar David, gives a statement at Rabin Medical Center “one last time.”
She first offers a message from her brother, who sends his love and thanks and says he cannot wait to get back “to everything.”
David says that when her brother was taken captive, their family became a different family and Israel became a different nation.
“It became our life. We dealt with it 24/7,” says David, who along with her other brother, Ilay David, became the public face of the family.
David says a Hamas propaganda video of her brother, looking skeletal and digging his own grave, intensified their anxiety.
“We counted every minute and ran in circles,” says David. “We didn’t believe we’d come out of it.”
Now, says David, she cannot believe he is home, and that they can say they are happy. She finds herself watching him with his friends, at Friday night dinner with friends and has to remind myself that he is actually here, he actually made it home.
“The happiness swallows everything but I know the euphoria will disappear and we’ll fight about who gets Mom’s car and whose turn it is to empty the dishwasher,” says David.
She thanks soldiers and reservists and their families for the sacrifices they made, and those who paid the highest price, losing their loved ones.
She thanks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and world leaders and ends with a vow to fight for every last hostage, “for their souls, for their families, for the future of this country.”
Ilay David, the eldest brother in the family, speaks in English, noting that their family feels different after 738 days of waiting for Evyatar.
“None of this would have been possible without leadership,” he says, offering the family’s deepest gratitude to US President Donald Trump and his envoy Steve Witkoff and their teams, as well as the government of Israel and the hostage negotiating team.
“Strength, resistance and heart made miracles possible,” says Ilay David. “Your determination and faith brought my brother home.”
Hamas announces that a delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya, the Hamas leader who resides outside the Strip, has arrived in Cairo “to follow up on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement — with the mediators and with the Palestinian factions.”
Al-Hayya was in Egypt in the days leading up to the signing of the ceasefire agreement, but apparently left the country afterward and returned to Qatar, where he spends most of his time.
The IDF says it struck dozens of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, including a major tunnel system, in response to this morning’s attack on troops in the Rafah area.
Among the targets hit by fighter jets, drones, and artillery shelling were weapon depots, cells of operatives who were identified in “real-time,” and other infrastructure used by the terror group, according to the military.
The IDF says it also targeted Hamas operatives and field commanders in central Gaza. Palestinian and Arab media reported that a strike in central Gaza killed Yahya al-Mabhouh, a commander in Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force.
One airstrike carried out by fighter jets a short while ago, which involved over 120 munitions, hit a major Hamas tunnel, spanning some six kilometers )some 3.7 miles), in the southern Gaza Strip, the military says.
According to the IDF, the tunnel was used by Hamas for advancing attacks on Israel, and it was previously used by the terror group to hold hostages.
Hours after announcing an attack on soldiers in southern Gaza that led to intense airstrikes in the Strip, the IDF says that two soldiers were killed and three were wounded in the attack by Palestinian terror operatives in Rafah this morning.
The slain soldiers are named as Maj. Yaniv Kula, 26, and Staff Sgt. Itay Yavetz, 21.
Both served in the Nahal Brigade’s 932nd Battalion and are from the central city of Modiin.
The incident took place at around 10:30 a.m. in southeastern Rafah, close to the Salah a-Din Road. The area, east of the so-called Yellow Line, is under IDF control as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas.
According to an initial IDF probe, a cell of terror operatives emerged from a tunnel in the area and fired RPGs at an excavator, killing the two troops. At the same time, another excavator was hit by sniper fire, wounding two more troops, including one seriously.
A short while after that, another soldier was wounded by sniper fire, according to the army’s preliminary investigation.
The terror operatives made no attempt to abduct soldiers in the incident, the probe found.
The troops had been operating in the area — under Israeli control as part of the ceasefire — to clear it of Hamas infrastructure, with the assumption that gunmen could still be holed up in the terror group’s tunnels.
In response to the attack, the Israeli Air Force and ground troops immediately carried out strikes in the area. Later, the IDF carried out a wave of airstrikes in southern Gaza, including against a tunnel system previously used by Hamas to hold hostages.
Released hostage Elkana Bohbot returns home to Mevasseret Zion outside Jerusalem, to streets filled with neighbors carrying Israeli flags and music blasting.
The crowd screams and cheers for Bohbot, to the sounds of drums and singing as young men in yarmulkes dance, their arms around one another.
Police officers clear the path for the van carrying the Bohbot family, as people press in on the vehicle in their excitement.
אלקנה בוחבוט חזר הביתה ומברך שהחיינו. pic.twitter.com/kSKoRonrHf
— זירת החדשות (@ZiratNews) October 19, 2025
After Bohbot goes to his apartment, he appears on the balcony and a rabbi speaks, asking Bohbot to recite the Jewish prayer for survival.
Bohbot repeats the blessing after the rabbi, tearing up, his mother and wife next to him, as a friend holds him up. The crowd cheers in response and cars beep, as Bohbot wipes his eyes dry.
In another clip, he is seen entering his home to raucous celebrations.
The Jerusalem District Court cancels hearings for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony in his criminal trial that had been scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, due to the “urgent diplomatic meetings” Netanyahu said he needed to attend on those days.
In a letter to the court, Netanyahu’s lawyers said the meetings could not be postponed, and provided further details in a confidential note to the court.
The prime minister’s lawyers added that Netanyahu would not be able to testify on Wednesday or Thursday either, because of the upcoming visit of US Vice President JD Vance, and because of the formal swearing-in ceremony for new Shin Bet chief David Zini.
The IDF says it killed several armed Palestinian terror operatives who approached troops in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today.
The cell of gunmen crossed the so-called Yellow Line — to which the military withdrew under the terms of the current ceasefire — in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, and “posed an imminent threat to the forces,” the military says.
“In accordance with the agreement,” a drone strike was carried out against the gunmen “to remove the threat,” the IDF says.
The army publishes a video of the strike.
תיעוד: חוסלו מהאוויר מחבלים חמושים שנעו לעבר כוח צה״ל בצפון רצועת עזה
מוקדם יותר היום, זוהו מספר מחבלים חמושים אשר התקרבו לכוחות צה"ל הפועלים במרחב בית לאהיא מעבר לקו הצהוב, והיוו איום מיידי לכוחות.
בהתאם להסכם, צה״ל תקף באמצעות כלי טיס של חיל האוויר, את המחבלים שחצו את הקו… pic.twitter.com/0nuvTtuGAs
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 19, 2025
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appoints a former aide who is under investigation for corruption as acting Likud party executive director general.
David Sharan will replace incumbent Zuri Siso, who was tapped for the position of Israeli consul in Miami, Likud announces.
Sharan, a longtime Likud operative, previously served as Netanyahu’s chief of staff and bureau chief as well as the CEO of the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company. He was indicted on charges of bribery, money laundering, and breach of trust in 2021 in connection with a corruption scandal known as the submarine affair, involving the purchase of navy vessels worth hundreds of millions of dollars from a German shipbuilder.
Sharan later went on to testify in the so-called Case 4000, in which Netanyahu faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. Prosecutors in 2022 asked the Jerusalem District Court to declare Sharan a hostile witness after he retracted previous testimony and harshly criticized prosecutors and police interrogators in his remarks.
“We wish David Sharan success in fulfilling his new role,” Likud says in a statement.
Likud is expected to vote this week on holding leadership primaries on November 25. Members of the Likud Central Committee will meet on October 23 to approve the timetable and appoint an internal elections oversight committee. According to media reports, Netanyahu is expected to run uncontested.
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber visits former hostages at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan.
In a video shared by a Chief Rabbinate spokesperson, Ber is seen singing and dancing in a circle with Bar Kupershtein and Segev Kalfon, who were released from captivity on Monday.
According to the spokesperson, Kupershtein and Kalfon, who were both kidnapped at the Nova festival on October 7, 2023, shared some of their experiences in captivity with Ber.
הרה"ר הגאון רבי קלמן בר בביקור במחלקת השבים בתל השומר: "על כולנו מוטלת החובה המוסרית להביא את החללים שנותרו בעזה לקבורה בישראל pic.twitter.com/Rsd4WcJiXW
— (((IsraelMatzav))) (@IsraelMatzav) October 19, 2025
“We thank the Creator of the World for the return of all the living hostages to their homes, and we bow our heads to the pain of the families whose loved ones have not returned,” Ber says.
“We all have a national and moral duty to act until [all the slain hostages] are brought to Israel for the proper burial they deserve,” he adds.
Washington is making an effort to prevent today’s flare-up of violence in Gaza from collapsing the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Axios reports.
The outlet says envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have spoken to Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and that the US has asked Jerusalem to “respond proportionately but show restraint” following the attack on IDF troops in southern Gaza.
Shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange fell in response to a flareup of violence in Gaza, fueling investor uncertainty over a recently brokered ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hamas terror group.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark TA-125 index dropped 1.3 percent at the close of trading. The benchmark index has gained more than 34% so far this year, hitting numerous record highs over the past weeks, amid investor optimism for an end to the two-year war with Hamas in Gaza.
The TA-35 index of blue-chip companies was down 1.1% at the close. The TA-90 index, which tracks the shares with the highest capitalization not included in the TA-35 index, fell 1.8%. The TA-Construction dived 3.6% and TA-Insurance index dipped 2.1%.
“We are at a sensitive point in time, where every security news event raises the pressure bar of investors and creates high volatility,” says Yaniv Pagot, VP of Trading at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. “A return to fighting is a very bad scenario for investors, as this is a situation with economic implications, including the path of interest rates.”
“Any security escalation undermines the perception that an interest rate cut is around the corner as the Bank of Israel governor will prefer to continue to take a conservative approach,” Pagot adds.
New data recently published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) regarding health in the member states of the organization and other countries around the world indicates that Israel ranked fourth in life expectancy in the latest year measured, 2023, at 83.8 years — after Japan (84.1), Switzerland (84.3) and Spain (84.0), the Health Ministry says.
Israel ranks second after Switzerland in the lowest preventable mortality rate among OECD countries, with 134 deaths per 100,000 people. This places Israel among a small group of OECD countries that are characterized by both low health spending and a lower-than-average preventable mortality rate.
According to the data, Israel, which invests 7.6% of its GDP in health, is among the countries that invest a relatively small portion of its GDP in health spending. in contrast to European countries such as Germany (12.3%), Austria and Switzerland (11.8% each), and France (11.5%).
The infant mortality rate in Israel is lower than the OECD average and stands at only 2.7 per 100,000 births, though there are gaps between different groups in the population.
The vaccination rate in Israel, in general, and against measles in particular, is similar to the OECD average over the past decade, and stands at over 90%.
The ministry says that “Israel also has health challenges that require attention,” citing the high smoking rate in Israeli society, at 16.1%, which contributes to approximately 8,000 deaths per year.
“Israel manages to present one of the highest life expectancies in the world, and all this with public spending on health that is significantly lower than that of most European countries, despite resource limitations,” says the director of the International Relations Division at the Health Ministry, Dr. Asher Shalmon. “This is an extraordinary achievement.”
The IDF announces that it has begun a new wave of airstrikes against Hamas targets in the southern Gaza Strip in response to the attack on troops earlier today.
A military source says that one of the targets is a tunnel system that was previously used by Hamas to hold Israeli hostages.
Palestinian media publishes an image showing the strikes in the Khan Younis area.
Breaking | Israeli occupation aircraft launch a series of brutal airstrikes eastern Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/hiaywuWFFC
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 19, 2025
IDF and Israeli officials had vowed to respond to an attack by terror operatives against soldiers in the Rafah area of southern Gaza this morning, which the military said was a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire.
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approves a bill enabling the classification of organized crime outfits as terrorist organizations, the Prime Minister’s Office announces.
This would allow law enforcement to use additional security, economic, and intelligence tools against criminal organizations.
The bill will now head to a preliminary vote in the Knesset.
According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, he is pushing the measure along with Roi Kahlon, head of the task force on combating crime in Arab society.
“We will use every tool to stop the rampant spread of crime,” Netanyahu says in a statement.
US President Donald Trump reiterates that Hamas “promised” it would disarm but says there is no “hard” timeline for when that will happen.
“They promised they would,” Trump tells Fox News when pressed on the issue during an interview conducted on Friday, which is being aired in full today.
Trump is asked about Hamas’s executions of rival militia members in Gaza. “Hamas] said they were gang members… But these are very violent people. This is a very violent part of the world. Nobody’s seen violence like this,” he says.
As for the timeline he is giving Hamas to disarm, Trump says, “It’s not a hard timeline, but it’s a line in my own mind. At a certain point, if they don’t do what they’re supposed to do, then we’ll have to do it for [them].”
He again suggests that the US will be the one to go into Gaza to disarm Hamas but once more walks back the claim when pressed. “We won’t have boots on the ground,” Trump clarifies, adding that the disarming could be done by “a proxy” — Israel.
While Trump’s 20-point plan does envision Hamas disarming, the actual ceasefire agreement signed by Israel and Hamas in Egypt earlier this month only focused on the initial IDF withdrawal, the hostage-prisoner swap, and humanitarian aid provisions.
Apparently referring to his widely repudiated February proposal to take over Gaza and permanently relocate its Palestinian population, Trump says he initially wanted Egypt and Jordan, which “have a lot of land… right next door,” to host the refugee population.
But his 20-point plan abandons that idea and encourages Gazans to remain in the Strip.
“The whole thing is all rubble, so it’s not too hard to top that, and we’d build houses… paid for by the wealthiest countries” in the region, Trump says.
Trump hails Arab leaders who have backed his Gaza plan, but reserves particular accolades for Qatar, one of the four mediating countries.
He calls Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani a “fantastic man,” noting that “he’s in the middle of a very tough little area because he’s sort of surrounded by every little problem. He has to play it close to the vest a little bit.
“Qatar is the one that’s most vulnerable because it [is] right next to Iran. But they had great courage,” Trump says.
Asked whether he had to lean on Qatar to pressure Hamas to accept his ceasefire deal, Trump says, “I didn’t have to make too much of a case because they are very smart people.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene top aides this evening for an urgent meeting on Israel’s response to the Hamas attack on IDF troops earlier today and the terror group’s failure to return the majority of remaining slain hostages, the office of one of the attending ministers tells The Times of Israel.
The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels detained 20 UN employees today, a day after they raided another UN facility in the capital Sanaa, a UN official says.
Jean Alam, a spokesman for the UN resident coordinator for Yemen, tells The Associated Press that the UN staffers were detained inside the facility in Sanaa’s southwestern neighborhood of Hada.
He says those detained include five Yemenis and 15 international staff. He says the rebels released another 11 UN staffers after questioning.
He says the UN is contact with the Houthis and other parties to “to resolve this serious situation as swiftly as possible, end the detention of all personnel, and restore full control over its facilities in Sanaa.”
A second UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the raid, says the rebels confiscated all communications equipment from the facility, including phones, servers and computers.
Iran has executed a man convicted of spying for Israel’s intelligence agency, the judiciary says, the latest in a series of executions following the 12-day war in June between the two countries.
“The execution of this spy… was carried out after confirmation by the Supreme Court and the rejection of his pardon request at Qom Prison,” Kazem Mousavi, chief justice of Qom province, is quoted as saying by the judiciary’s Mizan Online website. The identity of the man — who was hanged on Saturday in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran — is not immediately revealed.
According to the Iranian authorities, the suspect began contacting Israeli intelligence in October 2023 and was arrested between January and February 2024.
Investigators say he confessed to cooperating with Mossad and transmitting confidential information online.
Earlier this month, six men were executed in Khuzestan province for alleged terrorism, less than a week after a man described as one of Israel’s top spies was hanged.
Israel does not comment on Iranian claims of espionage.
The Saudi Al-Hadath channel reports that the target of one Israeli strike in central Gaza earlier today was Yahya al-Mabhouh, a commander in the Nukhba forces — the elite unit of Hamas’s military wing — in northern Gaza.
Al-Mabhouh’s name appeared earlier in Palestinian reports as one of six people killed in a strike west of Deir al-Balah.
The government has approved Health Minister Haim Katz’s proposal to boost funding for mental health services by NIS 541 million ($164 million), as part of a Health Ministry initiative to upgrade Israel’s mental-health system, the Health Ministry says.
The increase will be split over two years: NIS 366 million ($110 million) in 2025 and NIS 175 million ($53 million) in 2026.
“Expanding the ‘basket’ of health services will allow psychiatric hospitals to provide a more comprehensive and high-quality professional response to the thousands of Israelis who need it,” says Health Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov. “The move will improve the quality of mental healthcare, which is gaining new strength at the end of two complex and challenging years during the war.”
Katz says today’s decision “is intended to ensure professional, respectful and accessible care for everyone who needs it.”
A masked settler armed with a long rod is filmed beating a woman who was trying to harvest her families olives in the central West Bank village of Turmusayya.
The woman was rushed to the hospital where she was transferred to the intensive care unit after suffering a brain hemorrhage, Palestinian media reports.
Two others were injured in the attack — a Palestinian and a foreign national, apparently an activist who had come to help protect Palestinians who frequently come under attack from violent settlers during the olive harvest season.
لحظة اعتداء مستوطن على سيدة فلسطينية بالضرب المبرح أثناء قطفها ثمار الزيتون في أرضها بقرية المغير شمال رام الله. pic.twitter.com/aB7p7EYIJE
— القسطل الإخباري (@AlQastalps) October 19, 2025
Earlier, settlers were reported to have set fire to several Palestinian vehicles in the area.
Israeli authorities have not yet issued a response, and no arrests have been made.
The IDF repeats an urgent warning to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to avoid entering areas under Israeli control and not to approach Israeli troops.
“In the wake of repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement and the criminal attack carried out by Hamas terror elements this morning, the IDF will respond with great force against terror infrastructure and Hamas elements,” the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee warns.
“The IDF reiterates its warning: For your safety and due to the ongoing airstrikes, remain only on the west side of the yellow line,” he says, attaching a map showing the areas in Gaza under IDF control.
#عاجل تحذير عاجل إلى سكان قطاع #غزة
⭕️في أعقاب الانتهاكات المتكرّرة لاتفاق وقف إطلاق النار، والهجوم الإجرامي الذي نفذته عناصر حماس الإرهابية صباح اليوم سيردّ جيش الدفاع بقوة كبيرة ضدّ البنى التحتية الارهابية وضدّ عناصر حماس
⭕️يُجدّد جيش الدفاع تحذيره: من أجل سلامتكم ونظرًا… pic.twitter.com/zNIden78D6
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 19, 2025
A video of the wedding of the daughter of a top Iranian official has elicited anger by Iranians on social media, according to press reports.
In the video, the woman is purported to be escorted down the aisle by her father in a revealing dress, leading to angry comments about the ostensible hypocrisy of holding a celebration with such attire while the regime of which her father is a member continues to police and enforce modest dress on the streets.
Some commentators also express anger at the supposed lavishness of the event, though others argue that it does not appear to be particularly opulent by local standards.
A video purportedly showing the wedding of the daughter of Ali Shamkhani, a top advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader, has sparked widespread reactions on social media.
Users are criticizing the Islamic Republic officials’ hypocrisy and double standards, pointing to the lavish nature… pic.twitter.com/Dk5y9Vvgqy— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) October 18, 2025
“The morality police, unemployment, and poverty belong to the people, while billion-rial ceremonies with the nation’s money belong to these people,” one person says.
Freed hostages Elkana Bohbot and Maxim Herkin have been discharged from Sheba Medical Center, the hospital says.
Bohbot and Herkin were released from two years of captivity in Gaza last Monday, after they were abducted by Hamas terrorists who attacked the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023.
In a statement, the hospital says the two will continue their outpatient treatment at the Returning to Life Clinic designed for hostages and their immediate families.
The military wing of Hamas says it has found the body of another hostage during ongoing search operations.
“We will transfer the body today if the conditions on the ground are suitable,” it says, adding that “any Zionist escalation will complicate the search and digging operations and the recovery of the bodies, which will lead to a delay in the occupation’s receipt of the bodies.”
Palestinian media reports new Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza’s Nuseirat a short while ago.
The strikes come as the IDF and Israeli officials vowed to respond to an attack by terror operatives against soldiers in the Rafah area of southern Gaza this morning.
The IDF largely avoided targeting Nuseirat and other areas of central Gaza during the war, due to Hamas holding living hostages there. Hamas last week released all 20 remaining living captives.
Police have arrested a man on suspicion of stabbing two of his brother’s horses to death, law enforcement officials say.
Officers are still trying to find out what drove the suspect, a Taybeh resident in his 40s, to allegedly kill the two steeds on his brother’s ranch in the city.
He was detained for questioning this afternoon, a few hours after fleeing the scene of the crime. Police will request an extension of his remand and that he undergo a medical evaluation.
Released hostages Ziv and Gal Berman come home to a large crowd of family, friends, neighbors and other well-wishers, as they are brought to Kibbutz Beit Guvrin, the community where the family has temporarily relocated and the home of their aunt, Maccabit Meyer, a familiar face in the struggle to bring them home.
People at the scene carry Israeli flags and yellow hostage flags, as well as banners of Maccabi Tel Aviv, the brothers’ favorite soccer team.
The twins lean out of the car as it slowly drives down the street, blowing kisses and waving at the crowd, clearly overwhelmed by the attention.
They sing with the crowd, call out their thanks, and hug and kiss the people they know.
תראו אותם, גלי וזיו ברמן.
שום ״ניצחון מוחלט״, סלוגן מרוקן מתוכן שמכרו להמונים, לא היה שווה את הקרבתם, לא היה שווה את העינויים שעברו החטופים בשבי ולא את נפילת מיטב בנינו על מזבח הישרדות הקואליציה.
היה אפשר להשיב אותם קודם ובמחיר חיי לוחמים נמוך יותר. רק על זה צריכה לקום ועדת… pic.twitter.com/Nz8qoE09LR— ????️????????חגית קלימן – Hagit Klaiman????????????️ (@klaiman14) October 19, 2025
“You guys are crazy people!” says Gal. “We have no words.”
They hold their own hostage poster when it is pushed into their hands, taking photos but deflecting most questions that are asked of them.
“We love you, we love you!” says Ziv.
They join in singing “Am Yisrael Chai,” the Maccabi Tel Aviv cheer and other Hebrew songs of belief and faith.
Newly appointed Shin Bet chief David Zini is expected to back proposed legislation to label certain criminal organizations as terror groups, in an effort to combat spiraling crime in Arab society, Hebrew outlets report.
The Shin Bet has not responded to a request for comment regarding the reports.
The move earns praise from National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who calls it the “important and correct step to take at this moment” and lauds Zini, who took the security agency’s reins last month.
“There is a Shin Bet chief in Israel!!! I’m proud that the head of the Shin Bet is bringing a new outlook and has adopted my position and the bill proposed by my party member, MK Zvika Fogel,” Ben Gvir says.
The far-right politician says Zini brings a “good and fresh perspective to the organization, unlike his predecessor” — taking a jab at ex-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who was forced out of his role by the government earlier this year.
The move to define criminal organizations as terror groups was initially endorsed in May by the Prime Minister’s Office, but the idea remained vague and ill-defined.
Fogel’s bill lays out a clear course of action which would — in “severe and exceptional cases” — allow the national security minister to define certain criminal organizations as terrorist organizations, with the defense minister’s approval.
A criminal organization would be liable to be declared a terrorist organization if it meets just one of four criteria: making systematic use of firearms; operating in an organized manner to threaten government institutions, public authorities or elected officials; repeatedly using coercion and extortion against the public; or collaborating with a terrorist organization.
In practice, the bill would allow police and Shin Bet to use enforcement and investigative methods outlined in Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Law.
Defense Minister Israel Katz says that “Hamas will learn today the hard way that the IDF is determined to protect its soldiers and to prevent any harm to them,” after an attack on troops in southern Gaza’s Rafah.
Katz says he has instructed the IDF to “act forcefully against Hamas terror targets in Gaza.” According to a military source, more than 20 targets have been struck so far since the attack in Rafah this morning.
“Hamas will pay a heavy price for any shooting and violation of the ceasefire, and if the message is not understood, the intensity of the responses will increase,” Katz warns.
All options should be on the table as Israel responds to Hamas’s violations of the ceasefire in Gaza, declares Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz.
“Hamas violated the agreement today and put the State of Israel to the test — and, just like in Lebanon, we must not blink,” he tweets. “All options must be on the table — including a return to maneuvering. We must not go back to October 6.”
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett issues a call to destroy Hamas.
“Hamas has retaken control of Gaza and continues to harm us with the aim of destroying the State of Israel. Hamas must be destroyed,” he tweets.
The Hamas terror group denies violating the ceasefire after an attack in Rafah on IDF troops, claiming that the operatives there are not following orders.
The military wing of Hamas issues an statement saying that it has no connection to the incident in Rafah earlier today, in which the IDF said RPGs and sniper fire targeted Israeli troops.
“We are committed to the ceasefire in all areas of the Gaza Strip,” the statement reads. “We have no information about incidents or clashes that took place in the Rafah area, which is under occupation control.”
The Hamas statement claims that “our connection with the groups located there has been severed since last March. We have no link to any events occurring in that area and we have no way to communicate with our fighters there, if any of them are still alive.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the Israel Defense Force and the security services “to take firm action against terror targets in the Gaza Strip” after a Hamas attack on IDF troops today, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Netanyahu gave the instruction during a meeting with Defense Minister Israel Katz and the heads of the Shin Bet and Mossad, says the PMO.
The IDF says Palestinian terrorists fired RPGs and carried out sniper fire against Israeli forces operating in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip. Israel has responded with a number of airstrikes on terror targets.
Freed hostages Gali and Ziv Berman were discharged from Sheba Medical Center today, the hospital says.
The twin brothers were released from two years of Hamas captivity in Gaza last Monday, after they were abducted by Hamas terrorists who overran Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023.
In a statement, the hospital says they will continue their outpatient treatment at the Returning to Life Clinic designed for hostages and their immediate families.
Yesh Atid lawmaker Adi Ezuz writes to the attorney general urging her to open a criminal probe into National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir over potential breach of trust, accusing him of endangering hostages while they were held captive by Hamas.
The letter, addressed to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, references testimony from a recently released hostage who said his captors starved and beat him relentlessly in response to Ben Gvir’s bragging about worsening conditions for Palestinian security prisoners.
Ezuz writes that the testimony “creates a direct causal link between the minister’s wanton remarks and the torture of the hostages by the Hamas murderers.”
In the Channel 12 report aired Friday, the unnamed former hostage said Hamas locked him and others up in a cage and allowed them to eat only one date and drink salt water, after Ben Gvir boasted about limiting Palestinian prisoners’ food intake.
“Once after he spoke on television, some terrorists came in with horse whips and beat us until some of us lost consciousness,” the former hostage recalled.
Ezuz insists that the far-right leader was fully aware there was a link between his public statements and the hostages’ wellbeing. The anonymous hostage’s family reportedly warned Ben Gvir against provoking Hamas, and hostages freed in past deals also testified publicly to similar abuse spurred on by the minister’s statements.
“If it is indeed proven that the minister acted knowingly and with the awareness that his actions and remarks would bring harm to the hostages, we are talking about abuse of authority and severe breach of public trust which could constitute aggravated breach of trust,” Ezuz writes.
בן גביר צריך להחקר בחשד להפרת אמונים, ואף בנסיבות מחמירות.
חטופים הוכו בשוט של סוסים עד איבוד הכרה רק כי הוא היה חייב לייקים בטיקטוק.פניתי ליועצת המשפטית לממשלה בבקשה לפתוח בהליך בדיקה נגדו.
חקירה עכשיו.@michalpeylan pic.twitter.com/Eb1FoYy5OZ
— עדי עזוז – Adi Ezuz (@AdiEzuz) October 19, 2025
The IDF says Palestinian terror operatives fired RPGs and carried out sniper fire against Israeli forces operating in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip earlier today.
The troops were operating on the eastern side of the Yellow Line — an area under IDF control in line with the ceasefire deal with Hamas — to destroy terror infrastructure in the area “in accordance with the agreement,” the military says.
Immediately after the attacks, the IDF says it carried out airstrikes with fighter jets and artillery shelling in Rafah to “remove threats,” during which several tunnels and buildings where terror operatives were identified were destroyed.
“This is a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement; the IDF will respond forcefully,” the army adds.
Palestinian media report that the IDF has begun striking in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. No further details are available at this time.
Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza today, bringing the total number handed over to 150, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says.
Under a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli hostage returned to Israel by Hamas.
Hamas returned the remains of two hostages late last night — Ronen Engel, an Israeli national, and Thai farmworker Sonthaya Oakkharasri.
As released hostage David Cunio is driven from the hospital to his family’s temporary home, the streets of the central city of Yavne are filled with friends and neighbors holding Israeli and American flags.
Cunio, who was taken captive from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz with his family on October 7, 2023, leans out of the car window to shake people’s hands.
His wife Sharon Alony Cunio, a former hostage herself, has been living in Yavne with her parents since she and their twin daughters were released from Hamas captivity in November 2023.
Locals lean in to hug him and wish him well as celebratory music plays in the background and people clap and cheer, particularly when the Cunios get out of the car with big smiles on their faces.
Responding to Hamas’s violation of the ceasefire in Gaza, The Democrats’ party chairman Yair Golan calls for a “decisive” Israeli response.
“Hamas’s attack in Gaza requires a decisive response. Only in this way are the rules of the game set,” he tweets.
“A complete victory in the Gaza Strip requires building a moderate alternative to Hamas rule — an issue the government has neglected, choosing total failure,” he adds.
Freed hostage Yosef-Haim Ohana was discharged from Sheba Medical Center today, the hospital says.
Ohana was released from two years of Hamas captivity in Gaza last Monday, after he was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, and held hostage in Gaza.
In a statement, the hospital says Ohana will continue his outpatient treatment at the Returning to Life Clinic designed for hostages and their immediate families.
Racheli Baruch, the widow of slain hostage Uriel Baruch, whose body was returned to Israel last week, eulogizes her husband at his funeral in Jerusalem.
She says she began writing his eulogy on October 13, 2023, after hearing that his friend, Michel Yoav, was murdered while they fled the Nova music festival together. In March 2024 Israeli authorities determined that Baruch had been killed on October 7 and his body taken captive.
Racheli speaks of their love and their six years of their marriage, which included their young son, Ofek.
“You have no idea how much I’ll miss you,” says Baruch. “How much I’ll miss your silliness. I can’t understand how I’m supposed to go on from here. How is a 31-year-old woman supposed to carry the title widow? How were our lives cut short like this? We still had so many plans! It’s going to be so hard without you.”
She describes Baruch as a “playful soul who wanted to devour life,” thanks him for all he taught her, for the amazing people who surround them, for their son who resembles him so much, for choosing her.
Uriel’s brother, Roee Baruch, says he never gave up on the fight to bring his body home.
“People told me so many times, ‘Enough, rest, move on,'” says Baruch. “But Uriel, I want you to know — I never gave up on you, not for a single second. Even when it seemed hopeless, even when everything was total darkness, I kept going and didn’t stop — because you are my brother, and I will never, ever give up on my brother.”
He says his brother, whom he calls Badalu, has become a brother to all the people of Israel.
“People everywhere, across the country and around the world, prayed, hoped, embraced, supported, and cried with us,” he says. “Everyone feels like they knew you. You’ve become a symbol of peace, love, hope, and unity.”
His mother, Naomi Baruch, says she never imagined a moment like this, “not with you wrapped in a flag inside a coffin, not buried in the ground. I imagined the moment when I would run to embrace you, hold you close to my heart so it could finally heal.”
The government overwhelmingly approves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to rename the war in Gaza “The War of Revival” despite opposition from some hostages’ families and a few members of the cabinet.
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli (Likud) abstains while Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock (Religious Zionism) votes against it.
Chikli writes on X that the term “revival” in fact “belongs to the founding of the state and the founding generation.”
Strock says it is “too early” to determine the outcome of the war and give it an official name, asserting that it is necessary “to wait and see if we achieve all [of the war’s] goals.”
Today Netanyahu said the new name indicates how “we rose from the terrible disaster of October 7.”
Media outlets affiliated with Hamas in Gaza report that the operation carried out by Hamas in eastern Rafah earlier today was intended to target Yasser Abu Shabab, the leader of a militia operating with Israeli support in the area.
The militia is located in a zone under Israeli control, according to the ceasefire agreement.
No further details about the Hamas attack have been provided.
The IDF reportedly responded with airstrikes after terror operatives attacked Israeli soldiers. The Israeli military has not officially commented on the clash.
Freed hostages David Cunio and Ariel Cunio have been discharged from Sheba Medical Center, the hospital says.
The brothers were released from Hamas captivity last Monday.
In a statement, the hospital says they will continue their outpatient treatment at the Returning to Life Clinic, designed for hostages and their immediate families.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls for renewed war in the Gaza Strip after terror operatives reportedly violated the ceasefire by firing on IDF troops.
“War!” the far right politician writes in a one-word post on social platform X.
Smotrich voted against the ceasefire deal in the cabinet and has previously argued that after the return of the hostages, Israel should “continue to strive with all its might for the real eradication of Hamas and the real demilitarization of Gaza so that it no longer poses a threat to Israel.”
Avigdor Liberman, the chairman of the hawkish Yisrael Beytenu opposition party, also calls for a show of strength against Hamas.
“In the Middle East, there is only one language — power. A true Iron Wall policy. Zero cracks, zero tolerance. Hamas is testing the limits because someone allowed it to. It’s playing games and dragging out the return of the fallen hostages and just recently — it violated the ceasefire and fired at an IDF force in an attempt to harm our heroic soldiers,” he tweets.
Yoaz Hendel’s newly formed Reservists Party, which is not in the Knesset, issues a statement saying that Israel cannot return to outmoded concepts such the need for a small army or the belief that Hamas is deterred.
“Now that the living hostages have returned, the State of Israel must state in the clearest way possible: If they do not disarm — we will fight and dismantle them. If they do not return the fallen — we will enter and retrieve them ourselves. If they violate the ceasefire? We will resume fighting,” the center-right party declares.
Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting — and before the Hamas attack on IDF troops in Rafah — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicates that the war that started on October 7 is reaching its conclusion.
“Today I am bringing to the government for approval the proposal to give the war an official, permanent name: ‘The War of Revival,'” says Netanyahu in a video released by his office. “At the end of two consecutive years of fighting, we remember how we began. We rose from the terrible disaster of October 7.”
He adds that Israel is about to award decorations to soldiers who fought in the war, a practice done after wars end in Israel: “As in previous military campaigns, the decorations of the current campaign will bear the official name of the War of Revival.”
According to Hebrew media reports, Netanyahu leaves the cabinet meeting after terrorists in the Gaza Strip launch an attack on Israeli forces in southern Gaza’s Rafah.
Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Risheq issues a statement saying that Hamas remains committed to the ceasefire after reports emerged that terror operatives attacked Israeli troops in Rafah this morning and the IDF responded with airstrikes.
Risheq insists that “it is the occupation that continues to violate the ceasefire and provide excuses for its crimes.”
“Netanyahu’s attempt to evade his commitments is happening under pressure from his coalition of terror, as he seeks to escape responsibility from the mediators,” he charges.
In a joint statement, the leaders of the Knesset’s opposition parties announce that they have submitted a demand to hold a 40-signatures debate in the Knesset to discuss the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7.
A so-called 40-signatures debate is a Knesset discussion that the opposition can call once a month and that the prime minister is legally obliged to attend. It is usually called to discuss criticism of the government, its policies and legislative agenda.
“Two years after the national disaster of October 7, the government is still avoiding establishing a state commission of inquiry. With the end of the war, there are no more excuses — it is imperative to hold an independent and impartial inquiry that will examine the failures and restore public trust,” the opposition leadership writes to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana.
“This is our duty to the abductees, the fighters, the bereaved families, and all citizens of Israel,” they assert.
The government has long resisted establishing a state commission of inquiry, with cabinet ministers first arguing that such an investigation was inappropriate during wartime and then claiming it would not be impartial because its members would be appointed by the liberal Supreme Court President Isaac Amit.
Military representatives have notified the family of Thai national Sonthaya Oakkharasri that his body was returned to Israel by Hamas last night, following his identification by forensic experts, the IDF says.
Oakkharasri, 30, had been murdered in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023, and his body was abducted to Gaza, according to the IDF. His death was officially confirmed by the military in May 2024.
The IDF says it “shares in the family’s grief, continues to invest all efforts in bringing back the fallen hostages, and is preparing for the continued implementation of the agreement” with Hamas.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office says Israel “shares in the deep sorrow of the Oakkharasri family, of the Thai people, and of all the families of the fallen hostages.”
The PMO says that Israel is “determined, committed, and working tirelessly” to bring back all of the slain hostages for burial, adding that Hamas is “required to fulfill its commitments to the mediators and return them as part of the implementation of the agreement.”
Police have arrested eight suspects linked to a shooting that left a man critically injured last night in Or Akiva, law enforcement announces.
The wounded man, a resident of the city, had been involved in organized crime, reports Channel 12 News.
Police reportedly believe the victim met his two assailants, both members of a rival gang who had served long prison sentences, late at night with the aim of reconciliation. But that turned out to be a ruse when the pair opened fire on him.
“They just sprayed him. The man was very surprised and didn’t have time to react,” recalled an eyewitness near the scene of the incident to Channel 12. The man’s friends drove him to an MDA ambulance and handed him over to paramedics, who took him to the hospital.
Police detained eight people for questioning and seized several vehicles that were used in the ambush, law enforcement says. The suspects will be brought to the Hadera Magistrate’s Court to have their detention extended.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir publicly appeals to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume military operations in the Gaza Strip after terror operatives launched an attack on Israeli forces in Rafah in an apparent violation of the ceasefire by Hamas.
“I call on the prime minister to order the IDF to renew full-scale fighting in the Strip at full strength,” the far right politician says in a statement.
“The false belief that Hamas will change its ways, or will even abide by the agreement it signed, are proving, unsurprisingly, to be dangerous to our security. This Nazi terrorist organization must be destroyed completely and the sooner the better.”
Ben Gvir’s statement comes only a day after he told Channel 12’s “Meet The Press” that he had given Netanyahu an unspecified deadline to dismantle Hamas and enact the death penalty for terrorists. He threatened that if his conditions were not met, his far-right Otzma Yehudit party would quit the government.
Ben Gvir recently threatened to bolt if Hamas “continues to exist” after the hostages are freed, stating that his party would not be a part of “a national defeat” and “eternal disgrace.”
Freed hostages David and Ariel Cunio post a message on social media as they prepare to be sent home from Sheba Medical Center today, six days after they were released from Gaza.
“Hello to all our wonderful nation, we were released from the darkness to the light,” say the brothers, who hail from Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza border. “We know how much you worked for our release, and we want to thank each of you. You went out in all kinds of weather. In the hardest moments there, we felt you were fighting for us.”
They speak about how their new lives “start now,” as they go home today.
David Cunio promises his two daughters, Emma and Yulia, that he will read them stories before bedtime and hug his wife, Sharon Alony Cunio.
שורדי השבי דוד ואריאל קוניו במסר ראשון: ״המאבק לא נגמר, אסור לעצור עד שהחטוף האחרון חוזר״https://t.co/2TQ5Rx0dW2@shamambo pic.twitter.com/3ZlYCRF4CR
— חדשות 13 (@newsisrael13) October 19, 2025
The brothers thank their parents and family, and then Ariel Cunio thanks his “beloved” Arbel Yehoud, a former hostage who was freed in January.
But the most important thing, they add, is to thank the IDF and Israeli security forces, and the families who “paid the biggest price” in the war: “You are our heroes.”
They also speak about the remaining hostages whose bodies haven’t yet been released to Israel and say they will not stop fighting “until the last hostage returns to us.”
A revised conscription bill being crafted by Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth will increase ultra-Orthodox enlistment in the military while ensuring that young men studying Torah full-time will be allowed to continue to do so, claims Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi.
“An understanding has formed, both among the ultra-Orthodox and the general public, that those who study will continue to study, and those who do not will enlist,” Karhi tells Radio Kol Barama.
“Within a few years, we’ll reach enlistment rates similar to those of the general public. This is a law that benefits the defense establishment while also regulating and respecting Torah scholars. It will put an end to the harassment of Torah students’ families by the former attorney general and her emissaries — they don’t actually want to draft the ultra-Orthodox.”
On Thursday, Bismuth announced that he had submitted an outline of the principles of a potential ultra-Orthodox draft bill to committee legal adviser Miri Frenkel Shor.
According to Hebrew-language news reports, the document stipulates that within five years, 50 percent of the annual Haredi draft cohort will be conscripted, and the age of exemption will remain at 26. Yeshiva budgets will only be cut for failing to meet enlistment quotas after a year, and personal sanctions will only go into effect after two years if the overall enlistment goal is not met.
Moreover, those sanctioned will not lose their driver’s licenses, although restrictions on issuing licenses to draft evaders will apply.
Terror operatives in the Gaza Strip launched an attack on Israeli forces in southern Gaza’s Rafah, The Times of Israel has learned, prompting the IDF to launch airstrikes in the area.
The incident apparently marks the latest violation of the ceasefire by Hamas.
The IDF has not yet officially commented.
On Friday, several terror operatives emerged from a tunnel in the Rafah area and opened fire on Israeli troops, according to the IDF, with no injuries caused in that incident.
The Foreign Ministry holds a farewell ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport for slain Nepalese hostage Bipin Joshi, whose body will be repatriated to Nepal today after it was returned from Hamas captivity on Tuesday.
Joshi, a 23-year-old agricultural student, came to Israel as part of an international agricultural training program under Mashav, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, which operates under the Foreign Ministry.
He was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists from Kibbutz Alumim on October 7, 2023, and killed in captivity in Gaza.
Eynat Shlein, deputy director-general of the Foreign Ministry and the head of Mashav, is in attendance at the ceremony, according to the ministry.
His family, some of whom visited Israel in recent months to advocate for his release, awaits his coffin’s arrival in Nepal, according to the ministry.
Palestinian media outlets report that a group of settlers set fire this morning to several Palestinian vehicles in the village of Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah in the West Bank.
No injuries were reported as a result of the fires.
According to the reports, the attack took place during an attempt by Turmus Ayya residents to harvest olives in the area.
There was no immediate comment from the IDF.
احتراق مركبة بعد هجوم المستوطنين على المزارعين في ترمسعيا برام الله. pic.twitter.com/0nTELBphIP
— قناة عودة الفضائية (@AwdehTV) October 19, 2025
The IDF has begun to demarcate the so-called Yellow Line — to which the military withdrew under the terms of the current ceasefire — in the Gaza Strip with physical markers.
An image from Gaza that was posted to social media this morning shows concrete blocks painted yellow and yellow metal signs that are to be attached to them.
On Friday, Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the physical markers so that the boundaries of the military’s control in the Strip are clearly visible.
He said the markers will serve as a warning to “Hamas terrorists and Gaza residents that any violation or attempt to cross the line will be met with fire.”
The IDF has killed several Palestinians in recent days, saying that they crossed the Yellow Line and posed a threat to Israeli troops.
The Yellow Line, as drawn out by mediators, encompasses over half of the Strip’s territory, or 53% — most of which is outside of urban areas. In reality, the IDF is not holding all of that territory with ground troops, with many of its posts positioned closer to the Israeli border.
Hamas rejects allegations made in a warning issued by the US State Department last night that accused the terror group of intending to harm Gaza residents and that this would constitute a violation of the ceasefire agreement.
In its statement, Hamas asserts that “the police forces in Gaza, with extensive assistance from residents, are fulfilling their national duty by pursuing militias and holding them accountable according to clear laws, in order to protect residents and property.”
The statement further says that the facts on the ground are the opposite of the US claims: “It is the occupation authorities [Israel] that established, armed and financed criminal militias that carried out acts of murder and kidnapping and stole aid trucks.”
Netanyahu in June admitted that Israel was working with and arming local militias in Gaza as a counterpoint to Hamas.
Hamas adds that the accusations from the US “are consistent with Israeli propaganda that provides cover for the continuation of occupation crimes.”
Over the past week, Hamas members have reportedly executed dozens of members of rival clans along with other Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel.
Tzvika Mor, the father of freed captive Eitan Mor, tells the Kan public broadcaster that his son was held in around 40 different places in Gaza City during his two years in captivity — both above and below ground.
During his first three days in captivity, Mor tells Kan’s Reshet Bet radio, Eitan was held with his hands behind his back, and for the first year he was held completely alone.
Mor says that Eitan had periods with very little food, including times when he would only receive a few spoons of rice a day. In one location, Eitan managed to steal a pita, “and then the terrorist who was holding him beat him. The one who saved him was the wife of the terrorist, who yelled at her husband to stop,” recounts Mor.
The IDF says it is launching a pre-planned, five-day, large-scale military drill along the border with Lebanon and in Israeli communities in the area.
The exercise, which begins this evening and will end on Thursday, will simulate “various scenarios, including defending the area and response to immediate threats,” the IDF says.
The army warns that explosions may be heard, there will be troops acting as an opposing force, and there will be an increased movement of drones, aircraft, Navy vessels and troops in the Galilee.
Mika Engel, the daughter of Ronen Engel, whose body was returned to Israel by Hamas overnight, writes online that her father is “finally home.”
Mika, who was kidnapped on October 7 from Kibbutz Nir Oz with her mother, Karina, and sister, Yuval, and freed in November 2023, writes on Instagram: “After 744 days, my father finally returned home.”
“It’s not what we hoped, it’s not what we wished for him, but it’s finally here,” she says. “Our hearts are with the families of the hostages and we won’t stop until the final slain hostage” is returned home, she adds.
Afghanistan and Pakistan agree to an immediate ceasefire during talks in Doha after a week of fierce border clashes that were the worst violence between the two countries since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021.
The ceasefire between the South Asian neighbors “has been finalized,” Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif posts on X, saying both sides will meet again on October 25 in Istanbul to discuss “detailed matters.”
Qatar’s foreign ministry, which mediated yesterday’s talks along with Turkey, says the follow-up meetings are meant “to ensure the sustainability of the ceasefire and verify its implementation in a reliable and sustainable manner.”
One of the bodies returned last night by Hamas is slain hostage Ronen Engel, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum and Kibbutz Nir Oz announce.
The Families Forum says it “embraces the Engel family,” calling the return “a form of relief for a family living in agonizing uncertainty and doubt for over two years.”
The Prime Minister’s Office and the IDF confirm the identification of Engel, and say that the process of identifying the other body returned overnight is still ongoing.
On October 7, 2023, Engel was killed by Hamas in Nir Oz while his wife Karina and their daughters Mika and Yuval were kidnapped.
The following month, Karina, Mika and Yuval were freed from Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal. In December of that year, the IDF confirmed that Ronen had been killed and his body was held hostage. It later emerged that Ronen had been slain in the kibbutz on October 7 and his remains taken captive.
In addition to his wife and two daughters, Ronen is survived by his son, Tom, who was not home that weekend, and his brother, Dani.
Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Engel moved with his family to Nir Oz in 2010, according to a statement shared this morning by the Families Forum.
He was a photographer, a volunteer medic at the Magen David Adom ambulance service, a motorcyclist who enjoyed exploring Israel’s nature, and an artist who used discarded scrap iron as his raw material.
Huge crowds take to the streets in all 50 US states to vent their anger over President Donald Trump’s hardline policies at “No Kings” protests that Republicans ridicule as “Hate America” rallies.
Organizers expect millions at the rallies that stretch from New York to Los Angeles, dot small cities across the US heartland and pop up near Trump’s second home in Florida.
“This is what democracy looks like!” chant thousands in Washington near the US Capitol, where the federal government is shut down for a third week amid a legislative deadlock.
“Hey hey ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” say protesters, many of them carrying American flags — at least one of them flying upside down, a signal of distress.
Demonstrators slam what they call the Republican billionaire’s strong-arm tactics, including attacks on the media, political opponents and undocumented immigrants.
“I never thought I would live to see the death of my country as a democracy,” 69-year-old retiree Colleen Hoffman tells AFP as she marches down Broadway in New York.
“We are in a crisis — the cruelty of this regime, the authoritarianism. I just feel like I cannot sit home and do nothing.”
Trump’s response is muted. His political communications team, however, posts an AI-generated video on X, showing the president dressed in royal garb and a crown, waving from a balcony.
“They’re saying they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” he tells Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures.”
But his surrogates are in fighting form, with House Speaker Mike Johnson deriding the “Hate America rally.”
“You’re going to bring together the Marxists, the Socialists, the Antifa advocates, the anarchists and the pro-Hamas wing of the far-left Democrat Party,” he tells reporters.
The caskets containing the purported remains of two dead hostages have arrived at the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv, the Health Ministry says.
Officials have said the identification process may take up to two days.
Hamas did not provide the identities of the hostages it handed over.
If the bodies are confirmed to belong to hostages, it would mean that the number of bodies of dead captives still held in Gaza goes down from 18 to 16.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
The US has informed fellow mediating countries Qatar, Turkey and Egypt of “credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza,” according to a rare weekend statement from the State Department.
“This planned attack against Palestinian civilians would constitute a direct and grave violation of the ceasefire agreement and undermine the significant progress achieved through mediation efforts,” the State Department says.
It doesn’t elaborate on the nature of the Hamas attack, but it comes after over a week of Hamas members reportedly executing dozens of members of rival clans along with other Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel.
“The guarantors demand Hamas uphold its obligations under the ceasefire terms,” the State Department statement reads.
It’s unclear how Hamas attacks on fellow Palestinians would violate the ceasefire, given that the agreement is widely understood to be aimed at preventing attacks between Israel and Hamas. The portions of the agreement that have been leaked to the press do not explicitly touch on a potential Hamas crackdown on Gazan civilians.
Nonetheless, the State Department statement warns that “should Hamas proceed with this attack, measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire.”
On Wednesday, a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump told reporters that the US and Israel were working to set up safe zones inside IDF-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip to which Palestinians seeking to flee Hamas retribution could flee. Israel has yet to publicly confirm the initiative.
“The United States and the other guarantors remain resolute in our commitment to ensuring the safety of civilians, maintaining calm on the ground, and advancing peace and prosperity for the people of Gaza and the region as a whole,” tonight’s State Department statement adds.
The caskets containing the apparent remains of two dead hostages have been brought out of the Gaza Strip by troops, the military says.
The bodies are now escorted by the police to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification, a process which officials have said may take up to two days.
Hamas did not provide the identities of the hostages it handed over.
If the bodies are confirmed to belong to hostages, it would mean that 16 bodies of dead captives still remain held in Gaza.
IDF troops in the Gaza Strip have received two caskets, with the apparent bodies of two dead hostages, from the Red Cross a short while ago, the Prime Minister’s Office announces.
The caskets had been collected by the Red Cross from Hamas in southern Gaza.
The IDF is set to inspect the caskets before draping them in Israeli flags and holding a short ceremony led by a military rabbi.
The remains will then be taken to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification to confirm they belong to slain hostages.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that he will run for office in the next elections, currently scheduled for November 2026, and that he expects to win.
Appearing on Channel 14’s “The Patriots” program, Netanyahu is asked whether he intended to seek another term. “Yes,” he replies.
When pressed on whether he expects to win, he responds: “Yes.”
